Entropy's Dark Gleam (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) [Part 5]

(Continued from Part 4)

Part 5: Rose's Resolve


Here we are at last, then. A section on our main character. The twists and turns we've encountered so far, all the shocking revelations... they've happened around her. She's lost her mentor, she's lost her best friend, and it's all entirely too much to bear. Before we get to the final reveal, the reason why this world of magical girls works the way it does, there's one oft-repeated motif we need to examine. You could call it Madoka's own ideology, if you like. Several times over the series, Homura or Kyubey or some other person will explain some inescapable grim fact about the life of a magical girl. Fighting endlessly for the sake of your wishes, being a walking corpse cradling your soul in an elaborate jewel... or even just the reality that you can't win by doing what's right all the time. Madoka will, without doubt, respond honestly; she thinks that's just too cruel. It's unfair to those who fought and love and died that the system is so uncaring towards what they wanted. The system is far crueler and far more unsympathetic to magical girls' wants and needs than Madoka could ever know, and once the jig is up regarding Sayaka it's time for Kyubey to explain.



Magical girls falling into despair and becoming the very things they set out to destroy? Honey, that's not a bug. It's a feature. It's the entire point of the goddamned process for Kyubey. Homura has a dramatic line in episode 8, just before Sayaka dies, wherein she confronts Kyubey and calls him by his true name: Incubator. What is Kyubey incubating? Energy. The simple and unimaginable truth of the matter is that Kyubey is from an alien species which both lacks any emotion and is currently working to prevent entropy from one day destroying the universe. Expended energy is lost, and the universe has a finite amount of it, but the Incubators searched for a way to fight back entropy and found... humanity. Not just humanity, but girls. Not just girls, but teenage girls. Teenage girls have the greatest emotional fluctuation between hope and despair, and it's that emotional power which the Incubators incubate into energy.


Before I go on with this, I'd just like to call back to my old Sailor Moon post from 2018 again. In there, I made a little point about the villain Nephrite specifically gathering feminine energy in order to awaken their dark queen, Metalia. Feminine energy was a powerful force in that universe, and though that angle got dropped fairly quick as the show went on... someone else must have picked up on that. The specific emotional turmoil of a teenage girl is what Kyubey and the Incubators desire, and so the cycle goes on. The girls make their wish, get what they desire, fight witches in exchange... and then they either die or fall to despair. If they fall to despair, the groundswell of negative emotion and the death of hope itself in the poor girl's very soul creates an incredible pulse of energy. That is what Kyubey and the Incubators incubate. They're keeping the embers of the universe burning, and magical girls are the fuel for the fire. What does Madoka have to say to this?

It's not, but Kyubey is a creature without emotion and cannot understand this. He can't even understand why humans care when other humans die. What he's doing is for the sake of the entire universe. There are untold galaxies and civilizations out there that need to be preserved. The Incubators don't have emotions and can't sacrifice themselves in this system to create energy, so it's got to be humanity. So what if a couple of hormonal teenage girls wish for love and hope, don't get it, and kill themselves with grief to become inhuman monsters? More fuel for the fire. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. The emotionless little fuck doesn't seem to understand consent, either. The magical girls' anger over learning the truth isn't misunderstanding the parameters of the contract. You withheld that information in the first place because you know humans kick up a fuss over it. Even if Kyubey can't empathize with the emotional reason for the girls reacting negatively to the truth of the system, he knows that it is an undesirable reaction for the sake of the system and thus keeps it from them. Then and there, Madoka calls Kyubey their enemy, but he'll be back to explain things after Sayaka and Kyoko are dead. Episode 11 snaps us back into the timeline we've been following, with Sayaka's death being reported and scenes of her funeral. I want to highlight this shot in particular.

Madoka is the only one not shrouded in shadow here, yes, but the other students are standing in stoic mourning... all but one girl near the middle of the frame, clearly weeping in grief. It almost looks like she's burying her face in the shoulder of the man next to her, and his clenched fist could be holding her hand. I'm pretty sure these are Kyosuke and Hitomi. We never see Kyosuke and Hitomi again (sort of; it's complicated), but I want to carve this space to show the despair this system has caused. We mourn the loss of our noble heroine who wanted to protect the world, but imagine the pain Kyosuke and Hitomi must be feeling. Hitomi did her best to not hurt her friend's feelings with her declaration of love, and the only story she and Kyosuke will ever know is that Sayaka went mad with grief, ran away from home, and probably killed herself. Think of Sayaka's family, too, who we never see. They likely never knew anything was wrong, until it happened. Untold grief and suffering, feelings that were unsaid and will remain unsaid forever now that she's dead. Let's call it what it is. Kyubey tricked and murdered an innocent and ordinary teenage girl, so the goddamned universe could burn a bit brighter for a few more moments.


It gets worse than that, though, as Madoka comes home after Sayaka's funeral to find another Kyubey exposition machine. Kyubey once again tries to explain his ideology to her, and why this system is the one that will save the universe. In doing so, he reveals the sheer horrific scope of it all. The Incubators have been doing this for all of human history. Our triumphs, our inventions, our material social progress... it's all come at the cost of these girls. These girls, who hoped and wished and had those hopes and wishes betrayed in the end so a goddamned sociopathic cat thing could gather some more energy to keep the universe alive. There's a specific comparison Kyubey makes during all of this which lays bare what we are to him.

Throughout these words, I've been talking about Grief Seeds as a commodity. There have been magical girls like Kyoko who hoard that commodity according to their own ideology, and ones like Sayaka who reject that selfishness in accordance to their ideology. It's as I said before. The magical girls are themselves the commodity. Humanity is nothing more than cattle to the Incubators, permitted to enjoy the advances of society so long as enough hopeful teenage girls unwittingly hurl themselves onto the fire. Kyubey has no care for humanity, beyond what the sacrifices of teenage girls can give him. There's something I left out last time. See, in the very last Homura timeline before this one, the dream from the opening of the series where Madoka contracted and killed Walpurgisnacht before becoming a witch? She'll destroy planet Earth in 10 days, and Kyubey doesn't give a shit. Her sacrifice, her infinite potential, is enough to keep the universe burning for ages. He got the energy he wanted. The violent and tragic death of every living soul on planet Earth is our problem now.


This seems actually hopeless to break through. An entire uncaring system that's a fundamental part of the universe, designed to make teenage girls suffer for its own sake. Wait a minute, though. There's a key fact to all of this that Kyubey would want you to forget, so that you despair upon it. So that you become a witch. So that you line his furry little pockets with energy. Kyubey would have you think that this system is a fundamental concept of the universe, like gravity or death. Something that is inevitable. It's not. It's an economic system that a bunch of sociopathic cat aliens fucking made up. It's a fancy form of capitalism, and capitalism is not a fundamental concept of the universe. It's made-up bullshit. That's our way out. Madoka Kaname, let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair.


Charming a thought as that is, we have another immediate problem before us. If the magical girls' own wishes betray them... what of Homura's wish? What of her hopeful determination to save Madoka, no matter how many times it takes? As Kyubey will tell Madoka later in episode 11, Homura has not given up hope. It's the one thing she has left, the thought of saving Madoka. That is the one thing keeping her from becoming a witch, so she can't give up... but as long as she continues to hope, Homura has no chance of salvation. Almost as bad, if not worse, is what this has done to Madoka. Homura's repeated resetting of the timeline has been entirely focused on Madoka. As such, every last one of those aborted timelines has tied itself into the Madoka of this timeline, adding to Madoka's own karmic destiny. This is the reason why Madoka has such infinite potential as a magical girl. Recall the older timelines where Madoka did contract. She was a talented ranged fighter, but by no means was she the ultimate magical girl (until the last failed timeline). Homura's determination to save Madoka has handed Kyubey and the Incubators the mother lode of energy they need to save the universe, and to hell with the rest of humanity. This seems like a fact that should drive Homura into despair, but it doesn't. She soldiers on.

It wouldn't be a Frezno Raving Rant without MIRRORS

Before the end, Homura at least tries to explain herself to Madoka. The hardened facade has truly fallen, as we hear a sadder and more poignant version of her theme play. Homura doesn't know how to tell Madoka how she feels, but she tries her best anyway. Homura's staunch determination is what makes her my favorite character in the show; she will walk backwards into hell, if it's for Madoka Kaname. On one terrible day, she actually will do that. Today, though, a storm has come to town. An entire black parade of witches and familiars, of conquerors and queens, of wind and rain. Walpurgisnacht is here, and Homura unloads all hell upon it. Mortars, missiles, fuel trucks, everything she can muster. This time, surely. This time she can save Madoka. Madoka, stuck in a shelter with her family as everyone hunkers down for what appears to them as a mega-hurricane, has to go out and save Homura. Her mom tries to stop her, but Madoka appeals to her mother's sensibilities. Madoka Kaname isn't skilled at much, but she's a very good girl who gets good grades and doesn't lie. When she says her friend's in trouble and that she is the only one who can save her, it is the truth. Her mother lets her go, and Madoka arrives just in time to see Homura beaten and broken. The despair builds in Homura. Is it really hopeless? Can she not save Madoka?


This is it. The end of all things. Madoka is ready to make a wish in this timeline, to become a magical girl. The despair of this failure will surely drive Homura to the brink as well. Madoka will rise, she and Homura will fall, Kyubey will save the universe... and the human race will die at the hands of teenage angst and despair made manifest in the form of true despair. Episode 11 ends on this, Magia blaring its cursed melody for all to hear. This is it! The Dirge Of Despair has won! This cruel, unloving universe will kill us all, and endure for eternity!! The Incubators, in their emotionless ivory towers, will continue on living and burning the plentiful commodity that is Madoka Kaname's sacrifice... until it's all used up. Then they'll go on, as capitalism does, to find new growth. New expansions. New commodity. New sentient emotional beings to harvest despair from. Now, then, Madoka! Make your trivial little wish, so we can end this!

You fools. You emotionless, capitalist fools. You should have seen this coming. So many timelines, so many other Madokas, so much hurt and hardship, it all led to this. You gave her all the tools she needed, Kyubey. In your restless pursuit for an energy source that would keep you all going for ages, you told her she had unlimited potential. That she could become God, rewrite reality on a whim. You thought she would use it to consolidate power, or wealth. No. God, no. You let her know everything. You let her know the scope of human history, the untold suffering that led us here, the magical girls lost to time and memory. You let her lose her mentor, her best friend, and a selfish girl turned good by hope. You let her know that, if she contracted, she could make any wish come true thanks to that limitless potential. You didn't care, and who could blame you? You're incapable of caring. It's in your nature. You built a system of exploitation, of sadness and tears and despair and murder, and treated it as a fundamental concept of the universe. Madoka Kaname, her arms wide, is going to cut it all down.


Oh, please. Sacrificing teenage girls to save this cruel universe? Fuck that. Madoka Kaname wants magical girls to smile... and she has the power to do it. You want to play games where you pretend your energy gathering system is a fundamental concept of the universe? Fuck your universe. Madoka Kaname sees the atoms that make up your entire scheme, and she divides them. No rule, no law, no made-up bullshit will come in the way of this. You want the universe to be a cruel, uncaring place? You want to keep such a universe going in perpituity, no matter how many teenage girls will suffer? Madoka Kaname will end it. Madoka Kaname, the radicalized girl who hasn't fallen into despair, is becoming a fundamental concept of a new universe. Opposing her karmic destiny, opposing the laws of causality and entropy itself, Madoka Kaname will soon cease to be. Madoka Kaname will become... something more.

Every magical girl that ever was, at the end of their rope, will not fall to the curse of despair. Madoka, whatever she is now, will be there to ease their pain and take their despair. That was her wish, and she has the power to grant it. Even she isn't exempt from this. As Homura, who also has threads of fate around her and thus can perceive the death and rebirth of the universe, watches... we see the accumulated despair Madoka has gathered from all times at once. Remember what Kyoko said, about balancing to zero. All that power has to equal out into a mass of despair, an ultimate witch for Madoka to become. That's the universal rule. Oh? What was that? You mentioned the rules to Madoka? She's a goddess now. To hell with your rules. Even her own witch form will be erased. Before Madoka fades away, though, we must say goodbye to those who came before. No. That's wrong. No goodbyes. Just good memories.


Madoka gets to have her cake with Mami, and Kyoko is there as well. Becoming a concept sounds like an awful fate, all alone with nobody there for her. Madoka won't be alone, though. She'll have the infinity of magical girls she'll save. In a starry void, Homura and Madoka make their farewells as Madoka sees just how hard Homura worked to save her. Homura doesn't want to lose Madoka, not like this... but she'll remember. Madoka even gives Homura her ribbons, a relic from the old world. In a normal concert hall, a boy plays the violin well as two girls watch. Madoka could have saved Sayaka... but that would mean undoing her wish to heal Kyosuke. Madoka respected her friend's sacrifice, and the pair sit back to watch one last song as Sayaka leaves her beloved in the hands of Hitomi. With the bitterness in her heart healed, she knows Hitomi's a lucky girl. They'll treat each other well, and so the noble heroine serenely fades into the twilight, redeemed at last.

And the Harmony played on.

You know what Madoka has become, right? Yes, a fundamental concept of a new universe... but what is that concept? What is it that lights the Soul Gem of a magical girl? If the Dirge of Despair darkens it, there must be a counterpart. Yes. That's right. Madoka Kaname has become the Harmony of Hope, a melody that will lighten the hearts of every magical girl from now on. As we snap into our new world, we mourn the loss of Sayaka Miki. A noble heroine, she fell to the inevitable truth of this world; she followed the Way Of The Cycle, passing on before her hope could balance out to zero. Homura, still remembering the old world, weeps for Madoka. Madoka? Who's that? Yes, that's the one thing this world lacks; a corporeal Madoka Kaname. Her little brother remembers her, albeit as an imaginary friend. Homura meets what was Madoka's family in a park, sharing pleasant conversation. Talking with this world's Kyubey about it all, Kyubey remarks that a system built on harvesting the despair of magical girls would have worked really well for preventing entropy. Since Homura is the only one who can remember, it's just an interesting theory. Lucky we're in a world where wraiths lurk instead of witches, and the rewards for defeating them are plentiful. Magical girls can work together, understand each other!


This world isn't perfect by any means... but it is the world Madoka wanted. A world she wanted to protect, a world she does protect by saving magical girls before they fall. It's a world Homura will fight to protect now, too, for her sake. So it is, then, that the Harmony of Hope resonates across space and time. It lives in the heart of Homura Akemi, who fights to protect the world her very best friend gave her existence to create. It lives in the heart of a klutzy crybaby, fighting evil by moonlight. It lives in the heart of a hopeful lucky student, facing the end of the world and Ultimate Despair. Yes, it even lives in the heart of a girl who fights with her hands so she can hold the hands of others. There will be other excursions into the world of Madoka Magica, and lord knows how the Dirge Of Despair will fight back there. Here and now, though... the Harmony of Hope can play at last.


That, then, was Madoka Magica. What a fascinating goddamned show. Rewatching it for this helped me really appreciate its nuances. It isn't quite the misery porn I remembered from 2011, and its ending does shine brightly. The secret power of hope was destroying broken systems this entire time. That makes me feel good, and I hope it makes you feel good too. Madoka Magica is a show I got to share with a lot of friends, and now I've used my writerly talents (whatever they may be) to share it with all of you. I'm glad you joined me on this journey, and perhaps we'll explore the darker sides of Madoka Magica yet. Remember Kyubey's dark prophecy, after all; as long as Homura Akemi hopes, she can't be saved. I fear a day will come when we have to deal with the ramifications of that, but before that corruption comes, let's hold steadfast to a message from the Harmony of Hope: