[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":2770},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Fmusings\u002Fultimate":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"description":2759,"extension":2763,"meta":2764,"navigation":2765,"path":2766,"seo":2767,"stem":2768,"__hash__":2769},"content\u002Fmusings\u002Fultimate.md","Ultimate",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":2758},"minimark",[9,26],[10,11,13,18,23],"range-css",{"end":12,"start":12},"light",[14,15,17],"h1",{"id":16},"madoka-magica-mein-leben","Madoka Magica; Mein Leben.",[19,20,22],"h2",{"id":21},"contents","Contents",[24,25],"argument-contents",{},[27,28,29,93,834,1640,2360],"argument",{},[10,30,31,35,39,52,55,58,61,64,67,73,80,88],{"end":12,"start":12},[19,32,34],{"id":33},"preface","Preface",[36,37,38],"p",{},"The difficulty of writing this piece was exceptional: This right here before you is the forth attempt.",[36,40,41,42,45,46,48,49,51],{},"First I tried explaining it straight, but it was too theoretical.",[43,44],"br",{},"\nSecondly I tried poethically declaring it, but it was too theatrical. ",[43,47],{},"\nThen I tried a cyclical approach, but it lost itself in it. ",[43,50],{},"\nThis structure now became possible only after I had gone through it all.",[36,53,54],{},"It is both objective and personal, and I feel like it is the only one that manages at all to transmit and capture the subject matter without losing itself along the way.",[36,56,57],{},"As such, please follow me to the bottom of this issue, this is the culmination of basically a decade of my own research and thought.",[36,59,60],{},"Some may say that it is madness to invest such effort into analyzing a magical girl anime.\nTo them I will say that what truly is madness is that the world overlooks it; That people can see something like that and remain cold. That they can just walk past. I couldn't – I stayed for a while and looked, and listened with an open heart.",[36,62,63],{},"This is where this path has lead me, and undoubtedly it saved me. So I do not mind being a fool for Madoka Magica – just as I am a fool for Christ.",[36,65,66],{},"Tow Quotes to set the tone, so you may know what to expect; perhaps you will already know where I am going with it:",[68,69,70],"blockquote",{},[36,71,72],{},"The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.",[36,74,75,76],{},"– ",[77,78,79],"strong",{},"1. Corinthians 2:14",[68,81,82],{},[36,83,84,87],{},[77,85,86],{},"Homura:"," It's only natural that you don't understand. Yes... No one in the world could possibly understand.",[36,89,75,90],{},[77,91,92],{},"Madoka Magica: Rebellion, AiYo",[10,94,96,100,103,129,134,137,148,158,163,166,169,183,188,191,203,206,224,229,245,258,280,307,311,327,330,362,371,376,381,384,389,394,397,401,423,439,442,448,451,463,466,475,480,485,489,495,502,507,513,516,519,524,529,532,542,548,555,559,568,571,576,581,590,597,606,612,619,623,629,635,638,641,648,652,659,664,667,673,676,697,769,772,785,788,791,804,807,810,813,816,819,822,825,828],{"end":95,"start":95},"dark",[19,97,99],{"id":98},"this-world-is-not-worth-saving","This world is not worth saving",[36,101,102],{},"We begin with the conclusion that Paul gives in the New Testament as to the nature of man.",[68,104,105],{},[36,106,107,108,110,111,113,114,116,117,119,120,122,123,125,126,128],{},"As it is written:",[43,109],{},"\n“There is no one righteous, not even one;",[43,112],{},"\nthere is no one who understands;",[43,115],{},"\nthere is no one who seeks God.",[43,118],{},"\nAll have turned away,",[43,121],{},"\nthey have together become worthless;",[43,124],{},"\nthere is no one who does good,",[43,127],{},"\nnot even one.”",[36,130,75,131],{},[77,132,133],{},"Romans 3:10-12",[36,135,136],{},"The original series of Madoka Magica does may things, but one among them is most central, most important: It establishes a baseline.\nAt the very end homura draws a sobbering conclusion:",[68,138,139],{},[36,140,141,143,144,147],{},[77,142,86],{}," This world is ",[77,145,146],{},"NOT"," worth saving.",[36,149,150,151,153,154,157],{},"This is not a statement of a disapointed defeatist - far from it; the opposite in fact.\nThis is a conclusion which is drawn, the conclusion which the audience is supposed to draw: A nessecary conclusion.\nThose who do not understand it have absolutely and utterly failed to grasp the conflict and setting of Rebellion. Which is why I find it so important to make this point absolutely clear which shall be the purpose of this chapter. This right here is the central point of the main series of Madoka Magica. ",[43,152],{},"\nAnd yet right here there is a challange: Many regard the ending of the series to be a happy one, instead of the absolute tragedy that it is. They do not understand – after all, they themselves are living precisely the lie that it imposes. At the end of the series, the lie that is inherent to the modern world ",[77,155,156],{},"IS"," what is created: The lie of the last man – a false idol of death, cheap grace, the enemy of life itself.",[159,160,162],"h3",{"id":161},"you-would-probably-still-be-living-in-caves","You would probably still be living in caves",[36,164,165],{},"The world seems ordinary, but under the surface it is governed by different laws then the one that people understand.\nThe true motor of human society and of progress are magical girls.",[36,167,168],{},"It is firmly established by Kyubey:",[68,170,171],{},[36,172,173,176,177,179,182],{},[77,174,175],{},"Madokia:"," What if you never came to our planet at all?",[43,178],{},[77,180,181],{},"Kyubey:"," You would probably still be living in caves",[36,184,75,185],{},[77,186,187],{},"Episode 11",[36,189,190],{},"Think about what he is saying right there, the absolutely terrifying implications.\nEverything you do, everything you think you are, is made possible to exist only in a soceity that runs on the wishes of magical girls.\nThe wishes of magical girls which come at the cost of their souls mind you.",[192,193,197],"with-image",{":left":194,"src":195,"text":196},"true","madoka\u002Fdread2.png","the shadow is obviously a metaphor",[36,198,199,200,202],{},"Kyubey says that human society is progressing only because of this intervention. Meaning that humanity is incapable of truly advancing on its own. As a result, any action you or anyone takes to advance humanity is meaningless in the large sense of it. Essentially from an existencial point of view, there is a shadow looming over all of reality. ",[43,201],{},"\nThis is not merely a fascet, but at the very core of our conception of ourselves and our relation to society.",[36,204,205],{},"The reason why Kyubey is doing something like this is explained in this dialogue:",[68,207,208],{},[36,209,210,212,213,215,218,219,221,223],{},[77,211,181],{}," At the moment when your Soul Gems flare out and turn into Grief Seeds, a tremendous amount of energy is produced. As Incubators, it is our job to collect that energy. ",[43,214],{},[77,216,217],{},"Madoka:"," ... Are we just disposable energy sources to you, then? Are you saying we should just die for you? ",[43,220],{},[77,222,181],{}," Do you have any idea how many civilizations coexist across the universe, and how much energy they consume in a single second? Eventually, even you humans will able to leave this planet and join us. When that day comes, you wouldn't want to venture out into an empty, desolated universe, right? In the long run, this arrangement benefits mankind as well.",[36,225,75,226],{},[77,227,228],{},"Episode 9",[192,230,234],{":left":231,"src":232,"text":233},"false","madoka\u002Fmonkey1.png","Since the beginning of time...",[36,235,236,237,240,241,244],{},"The earth in Madoka Magica has been in the energy generating business since humans used to live in caves.\nThe statement that \"humans would be living in caves\", without the Inqubators is absolutely terrifying, because this claims ",[77,238,239],{},"ALL of human progress"," and ",[77,242,243],{},"ALL of history"," on Witches and Magical girls. Without their intervention human society would not have advanced at all.",[192,246,249,252,255],{":left":194,"src":247,"text":248},"madoka\u002Fmonkey2.png","Prometheus, the bringer of fire was Kyubey - or rather a magical girl",[36,250,251],{},"Fire has been given to humans because of Magical girls.",[36,253,254],{},"It is reasonable thus to assume that all or most inventions have been basically made because of magical girls.\nThis implies that human understanding and potential is vastly miscalculated, and overestimated.",[36,256,257],{},"In the world of Madoka Magica humans are incapable of progress. And all of our supposed capabilities and all the things we are \"human beings\" are proud of are lies. We have never archived anyting. Every single thing is a lie.",[192,259,262,265,277],{":left":231,"src":260,"text":261},"madoka\u002Fjanne.png","Jeanne d’Arc was a magical girl",[36,263,264],{},"History has been going from one bloodbatch to the next, from one disaster to the next.\nAnd here is what is fact in the world of Madoka Magica:",[36,266,267,270,271,273,274,276],{},[77,268,269],{},"ALL"," the disasters and ",[77,272,269],{}," mistakes of history have been caused by witches.\n",[77,275,269],{}," advancements of history have been caused by magical girls.",[36,278,279],{},"No one else changed the course of history.\nNo one else did anything of importance.",[192,281,284,290,293,304],{":left":194,"src":282,"text":283},"madoka\u002Fcattle.png","do they look happy to you?",[36,285,286,289],{},[77,287,288],{},"The earth is a cattle farm.","\nAll of that has been done in order to provide the Inqubators with energy. And they never ever cared about any of them. About humans or humanity, nor about magical girls.",[36,291,292],{},"You are just cattle.",[36,294,295,296,299,300,303],{},"This is also not my interpretation or dramatization of it. The four runes written in the image attached say ",[77,297,298],{},"\"Vieh\""," which is the german literal translation of ",[77,301,302],{},"\"cattle\"",".",[36,305,306],{},"Think about what this means.",[159,308,310],{"id":309},"magical-girls-are-human-sacrifices","Magical Girls are human sacrifices",[192,312,315,318,321,324],{":left":194,"src":313,"text":314},"madoka\u002Fsacrifice.jpg","Remember, in the real world people actually did this.",[36,316,317],{},"Now imagine living in this world of Madoka Magica: You are living your life, thinking you are contributing, but you are just living in an illusion. More to the point, this illusion is ran on human sacrifices.",[36,319,320],{},"After all – all the comfort of modern life has been bought with the sacrifices of Magical Girls.",[36,322,323],{},"It is comparable to a mayan society which offered their children up to the rain gods to ask for a plentiful harvest.\nBut there is no offering, there is no harvest. It is happening unknowingly.\nWhat is valuable to you? Your family? Your daughter may just end up as a human sacrifice.\nIs it stability? All human affairs and wars and peace are dictated by the whims of witches and magical girls, all means of controlling disasters are just lies made to make you feel comfortable and sleep quietly without noticing anything wrong.",[36,325,326],{},"And the people arent aware, they are blinded to the truth. Their children are sacrificed to an alien god - or rather to a demon, who never cared about them, and they do not notice - what good could any comfort or illusion be in light of this? What reason could there be to allow such a world to persist?",[36,328,329],{},"I would argue that the meaninglessness in the absence of god is the same one as the one in Madoka Magica, as – and here is the thing – if you look beyond all the fantastic concepts, you will soon notice that all of them are just metaphors for real things: For the real horror of absolute reality.",[192,331,334,340,343,357],{":left":231,"src":332,"text":333},"madoka\u002Fmephisto.jpg","Not quite as cute as a white harmless looking cat, don't you think?",[36,335,336,337,339],{},"The character of Kyubey is partially modeled after Mephisto from Faust. Mephisto is the demon who offers Faust his bargin. This is explicit as Faust is quotes many times in the runes and the character names. Among the many parallels are that Homura's power is to stop time, just as it was Fausts wish to stop time if he ever expeirenced a moment that he would hope that it would last forver. This is of course a twist on that bargin. ",[43,338],{},"\nIf you are familiar with the story of Faust then you will know that Mephisto appears not as a dangerous lookig demon, but as a nice and helpful servant who\nseems like he is giving Faust a fair offer. This is absolutely similar to the way that Kuybey appeart to the magical girls. Offering them a wish and magical powers in return for becoming witches and burning up their soul for energy – only that he conventiently leaves out that last part.",[36,341,342],{},"However, going back even further, even Mephisto in Faust is actually already modeled after Satan. And the whole situation with Mephisto tempting Faust is\nactually a reinterpretation of the temptation of Hiob in the Old Testament.\nWhat is especially striking are the parallels drawn during the \"Prolog im Himmel\" in Faust where Mephisto goes before God and asks to tempt Faust.\nThe situation that this references and reimagines is:",[68,344,345,354],{},[36,346,347,348,350,351,353],{},"“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. ",[43,349],{},"\n“Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” ",[43,352],{},"\nThe Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”",[36,355,356],{},"Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.",[36,358,75,359],{},[77,360,361],{},"Job 1:9-12",[36,363,364,365,367,368,370],{},"Therefore Kyubey in this story is the Devil. ",[43,366],{},"\nBut why is he so powerful then, and behind everything? Just as God allowed him to do as he pleases to Hiob, so the Devil has free reign over the world. ",[43,369],{},"\nIn fact the Bible often calls him the God of this world:",[68,372,373],{},[36,374,375],{},"The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.",[36,377,75,378],{},[77,379,380],{},"2. Corinthians 4:4",[36,382,383],{},"and",[68,385,386],{},[36,387,388],{},"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.",[36,390,75,391],{},[77,392,393],{},"Ephesians 6:12",[36,395,396],{},"In that we can see that this is precisely the way to understand the character of Kyubey correctly: He is the devil, the God of this world.",[159,398,400],{"id":399},"this-world-is-a-desert","This world is a desert",[36,402,403,404,407,408,412,413,415,416,419,420,422],{},"Have you seen a certain movie called ",[77,405,406],{},"\"The Matrix\"","? Well in \"the Matrix\" the ",[409,410,411],"em",{},"real"," world is a blasted ruin, devestated from the war against the machines. Most humans however aren't living in that ",[409,414,411],{}," world, instead they live inside a simulated world; a fantasy world called the ",[409,417,418],{},"Matrix",". It is a virtual world depicting humanity at the peak of their power as a species. Therein people live a life which is just like our well known mundane reality, some are happy some are sad. But all are none the wiser.\nA few humans however have escaped this simulation, they are living in the actual ",[409,421,411],{}," world where nothing grows and the sun never shines.\nAt some point it is said that the Matrix exists to generate energy for the machines by using humans as living batteries; but of course this is not really efficient. We never learn what the true purpose of the matrix is, it might indeed just exist as a way to allow humanity to continue existing inspite of the situation they brought uppon themselves. Perhaps the machines through some whim took pitty on their foolish creators, and decided to preserve them as an end in itself.",[192,424,427],{":left":231,"src":425,"text":426},"madoka\u002Fdesert_of_the_real.jpg","If morpheus shows you the 'real' by showing you a simulation of it - then isn't it fitting that the 'real' world can hide a false one all the same?",[36,428,429,430,432,433,435,436,438],{},"What the Matrix has in common with the world of Madoka Magica is that your actions as a regular citicen of the simulation in the matrix, and your actions as any person in the world of Madoka Magica are equally meaningless.\nIn the Matrix the best you can possbily archive is getting freed or your children being freed.\nIn the world of Madoka magica the equivalent would be becomming a magical girl. But we all know how that is no \"best\" or \"good\" thing either. ",[43,431],{},"\nWelcome to the ",[77,434,194],{}," desert of the ",[409,437,411],{},"!\nThere is no escape, and no real world anymore. The real world itself has become the simulation; Or rather it has always been that.",[36,440,441],{},"In truth in the later films we learn that in the Matrix that is also the case: The physical world beyond the matrix is just another mechanism by which the machines retain control.\nThe world is a desert, and it always has been.\nThe point in the Matrix is that this is applicable to the real world, just as in the matrix. And it has been universally praised for this.\nIn Madoka Magica this is also the case in the way that it is depicted.",[36,443,444,445,447],{},"However if we bring that point that we have just brought up to its logical conclusion we notice an apparent contradiction:\nIf the world of the Matrix movie is merely a description of the real world – wouldn't its metaphysical implications necessarily apply to the real world as well – and therefore to ",[77,446,269],{}," fiction; as all fiction is merely a representation of reality?",[36,449,450],{},"To that I have to say that while this is true, not all ficiton embraces and handles that aspect.\nNot every fiction depicts the world as a desert, most play along, most only serve to thinken the veil that is before your eyes.",[192,452,454,457,460],{":left":194,"src":453,"text":400},"madoka\u002Fdesert.png",[36,455,456],{},"Madoka Magica does not – it's most fundamental subject is existencial conflict; It does not establish a fictional metaphysics in order to create something alien or extreme, it establishes it in order to actually become capable of genuinely depicting the real world.",[36,458,459],{},"Just as Neo in the Matrix entered the desert of the real once he awoke from the Matrix, so is Homura sitting in the desert.\nThis scene is from the opening of Rebellion, which is called \"colorful\". Once Madoka is gone who made the world to Homura colorful, the world becomes a desert.\nThis is a reference to many things at once. 1. It describes that Homura has no attachment to the world beyond Madoka 2. It describes that the world really IS a desert once you strip away the \"meaning\" which is always something transcendent.",[36,461,462],{},"Aditionally, the world beeing a desert is again something that is used frequently by Nietzsche, as he described the loneliest desert as the place in which the burdened spirit goes to fight the hardest battles. And it is also a reference to the Biblical notion that this world is a desert.",[36,464,465],{},"In Nietzsches sense, the loneliest desert is the place where all values go to die, as the spirit fights against all the \"though shall\" of this world.",[36,467,468,469,471,472,474],{},"In the Bible the desert is referring to the 40 Year long journey through the desert where the israelites wandered through the desert. ",[43,470],{},"\nIncidentally the desert is also where Jesus was templted by the devil 3 times - but he resisted all of them. ",[43,473],{},"\nThe desert is an image for this world: To wander through this desert is the life of a Christian, looking at that which is beyond this world.",[68,476,477],{},[36,478,479],{},"They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.",[36,481,75,482],{},[77,483,484],{},"Hebrews 11:13",[159,486,488],{"id":487},"the-futility-of-madokas-sacrifice","The futility of Madoka's Sacrifice",[36,490,491,492,494],{},"Now we have established the setting and premise of Madoka Magica. ",[43,493],{},"\nGoing from here, let us look at the ending of the original series, as this is probably the pivotal event in the entire story.\nThe thing that many overlook, but that is so crucial to understand, it is the conclusion that Homura herself gives to what has just happened:",[68,496,497],{},[36,498,499,501],{},[77,500,86],{}," Just because Witches are no longer born into this world, doesn't mean the curses harbored by mankind have ceased to exist. The distortions of the world have merely changed form, and now prey on people from the shadows.",[36,503,75,504],{},[77,505,506],{},"Madoka Magica Episode 12",[36,508,509,510,512],{},"Notice how Homura puts it: ",[43,511],{},"\nHomura says that curses are harbored by mankind and did not change.",[36,514,515],{},"What many people implicitly assume to be the case in the universe of Madoka Magica is that Kyubey is the origin of all curses. And yes, he does tempt people into it - but in general the true origin of curses is man.",[36,517,518],{},"This is absolutely in line with the biblical doctrine of total depravity:",[68,520,521],{},[36,522,523],{},"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:",[36,525,75,526],{},[77,527,528],{},"Romas 5:12",[36,530,531],{},"She calls the world iredeemable, other translations say: „this world is not worth saving, but just a cycle of sadness and hatered.“ In short a twofold conclusion is reached:",[533,534,535,539],"ol",{},[536,537,538],"li",{},"This world is iredeemable",[536,540,541],{},"The cause of this is man",[36,543,544,545,547],{},"A common theme that people ascribe to the ending of the original series and seem stubbornly convinced about, is that Madoka saved the world. It is astonishing that this notion is so commonly and so deeply held among many viewers. It is a symptom of easily being swayed by the form and appearance of something, instead of looking at the deeper subjectmatter at hand. ",[43,546],{},"\nThis stands in stark contrast to the judgment that the show itself gives about it through Homura:",[68,549,550],{},[36,551,552,554],{},[77,553,86],{}," This irredeemable world may be nothing but a cycle of sadness and hatred—— but even so, this was a place she once tried to protect.",[36,556,75,557],{},[77,558,506],{},[36,560,561,562,567],{},"Homura recognizes that the tragedy of the world and the state it is in - ",[77,563,564],{},[409,565,566],{},"despite"," what Madoka has done, is so great that it would be better if it did not exist.",[36,569,570],{},"This mirrors the conclusion that God reached about the world when he sent the great flood:",[68,572,573],{},[36,574,575],{},"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.",[36,577,75,578],{},[77,579,580],{},"Genesis 6:5",[36,582,583,584,589],{},"Secondly, Homura says: this is a place she ",[77,585,586],{},[409,587,588],{},"tried"," to protect.",[36,591,592,593,303],{},"With this Homura says that the way she judges the effort of Madoka by is the intention. She does not say: this is the world she now protects or protected. She says that she merely ",[77,594,595],{},[409,596,588],{},[36,598,599,600,602,603,605],{},"Homura says: ",[43,601],{},"\nThe reason why it is precious is because Madoka tried to protect the world. ",[43,604],{},"\nAdmittedly, she does not say that Madoka failed, because she did not quite.",[36,607,608,609,611],{},"But it is surely not the salvation that many viewers – and as we will later see many of the magical girls themselves – ascribe to it. ",[43,610],{},"\nHomura, however instead, values the world now because Madoka fought for it.",[68,613,614],{},[36,615,616,618],{},[77,617,86],{}," „I remember that. And I will never forget it. That is why—— I'll keep fighting.“",[36,620,75,621],{},[77,622,506],{},[36,624,625,626,628],{},"The reason why Homura keeps fighting is because she remembers Madoka - it is in her honor. It is not for herself. ",[43,627],{},"\nTherein, the ending of the original series is a complete and utter tragedy.",[36,630,631,632,634],{},"The irony is that many people of the audience find this ending to be wonderful: ",[43,633],{},"\nMadoka died for others - therefore it is wonderful!",[36,636,637],{},"Yes, Madoka did sacrifice herself. But Madoka is not Christ - she could not save the world. And she did not rise from the dead. She is now a concept that errases Witches.",[36,639,640],{},"What Madoka gained for her wish, i.E. into the exact mechanics of what that entails are another common confusion. This is one particular moment where people are despreately clinging to the appearance:",[68,642,643],{},[36,644,645,647],{},[77,646,217],{}," „I want to erase all Witches before they are even born. I will erase every single Witch in every universe, past and future with my own hands.“",[36,649,75,650],{},[77,651,506],{},[36,653,654,655,658],{},"What that means in practice, is that Madoka ",[77,656,657],{},"KILLS"," the Magical girls before they become witches.\nSomehow the notion stuck that Madoka takes them away to heaven. But that is what people always like to think.",[68,660,661],{},[36,662,663],{},"„Everyone who dies goes to heaven.“",[36,665,666],{},"– many people when someone died.",[36,668,669,670,672],{},"In Madoka Magica it is just death, no different from the death of any other person. ",[43,671],{},"\nMadoka is a concept now that erases witches.",[36,674,675],{},"And not even the evil that they cause goes away with them as we have learned.\nEssentially, Madoka just replaced one evil with another by removing the effect without the cause - which caused the niche of \"spreading curses\" that was occupied by the witches before to immediately be filled by wreights.",[192,677,680,683,686,689],{":left":194,"src":678,"text":679},"madoka\u002Fdeath.png","Shown for 3 frames in Homura's transformation sequence in Rebellion",[36,681,682],{},"In Rebellion we see how Madoka is now worshiped as a Goddess by the magical girls. She is called „the hope of magical girls.“ But there is no hope here; there is only death.",[36,684,685],{},"This is why in rebellion we see the writing: \"SIE VERHERRLICHEN DEN TODV\" - They are worshipping death.",[36,687,688],{},"This is a double meaning:",[533,690,691,694],{},[536,692,693],{},"This of course summarizes the perspective Homura has on Madoka's sacrifice.",[536,695,696],{},"But at the same time, it also refers to the fact that Madoka does not bring salvation but just death.",[192,698,701,704,723,738,752,766],{":left":231,"src":699,"text":700},"madoka\u002Feating_tomatoes.png","There are many runes in the background",[36,702,703],{},"Maybe someone will say now: It's not clear enough, maybe it's just the former?\nThere is actually another one which is even more clear on the Wallpaper Witch Runes, all in Japanese:",[36,705,706,707,709,712,713,715,718,719,722],{},"Closed window right: ",[43,708],{},[409,710,711],{},"SYOU METU KYU USAI"," – ",[43,714],{},[77,716,717],{},"Annihilation"," (消滅 Shōmetsu) ",[77,720,721],{},"Salvation"," (救済 Kyūsai)",[36,724,725,726,728,731,732,734,737],{},"Surrounding winged feet:  ",[43,727],{},[409,729,730],{},"SORE GA MA HOU SYOUJO","  – ",[43,733],{},[77,735,736],{},"This is a magical girl"," (それが魔法少女 Sore ga mahō shōjo)",[36,739,740,741,743,712,746,748,751],{},"Open window left: ",[43,742],{},[409,744,745],{},"ENKAN NO KOTO WARI",[43,747],{},[77,749,750],{},"Law of Cycles"," (円環の理 Enkan no kotowari)",[36,753,754,755,757,712,760,762,765],{},"Surrounding out-stretched arm: ",[43,756],{},[409,758,759],{},"KI SE KI",[43,761],{},[77,763,764],{},"Miracle"," (奇跡 Kiseki)",[36,767,768],{},"It's basically making clear: There is an implied equality between anihilation and salvation. But Anihiliatoin is not Salvation, it is just death.",[36,770,771],{},"The imagery in this scene is perfect. With Homura kneeing at Madoka’s feet and crawling at her.\nBut the familiars are throwing tomatoes at her, saying: Gott ist tot! Gott ist tot!\nAnd the burning ship with people drowning and falling into the water with everything sinking.\nThis together perfectly describes what has happened and how to understand it:",[192,773,776,779,782],{":left":231,"src":774,"text":775},"madoka\u002Fburning_ship.png","A burning ship is a fitting symbolism, as there is escape except to drown by your own hand.",[36,777,778],{},"The burning ship is the world and its state. It is a tragedy without helpers, and everyone is mercilessly drowning in the water. They jump over board what all that awaits them is a cold grave, there is no salvation.",[36,780,781],{},"„They are glorifying death“ is a reference to Nietzsches Antichrist where he describes Christianity as a religion that glorifies death, a nihilism.",[36,783,784],{},"This was Nietzsches critique of Christianity as anti-life, because it is so focused on the after life that is denies all life affirming things and therefore is destruction. According to Nietzsche the Primordial noble thing is the noble man, and Christianity extinguishes that nobility through their worship of death. Therefore arriving at slave morality and finally the last man.",[36,786,787],{},"This critique however was mainly adressing the Christianity of his day, which was the Lutheranism of early 20th century Germany.\nWhich combined many horrible aspects togheter. First and foremost it was basically a state religion that swore on the emperor before Christ.\nSecondly it offered salvatio for all through easy believism. Which incidentally is exactly the thing that the magical girls in Madoka Magica are practicing:\nThey are embracing an easy salvation without recognizing that its actually anihiliation. And that there is no hope there. Instead they cling to a false image.",[36,789,790],{},"This is what Nietzsche was criticising. And in this corrupted form Christianity is truly the slave morality that he despised so much. As it offered salvation to all indicriminately, therein it is a religion of death. Of course this has nothing to do with the teachings of the Bible which teach that God will redeem ALL things, and not just offer a cheap escape from this world. Instead he calls his followers to sell everything and follow him.\nWhich is a kind of existencialism, which – ironically enought – is very close to the things that Nietsche admired.",[192,792,795,801],{":left":231,"src":793,"text":794},"madoka\u002Fat_madokas_feet.png","You shall not make yourself an image, Homura",[36,796,797,798,800],{},"As such we now get this scene: ",[43,799],{},"\nHomura - that is Ai(Love) Homura’s familiar - is standing at Madoka’s feet and is trying to grasp them.\nThis is again biblical motive, John the Baptist says that he is unworthy to even wash Jesus the feet; and yet Jesus washes the feet of his disciples.\nHowever Homura can’t grasp Madoka’s feet instead there are scratch marks on the image. Showing that she clawed and failed.",[36,802,803],{},"However the other familiars are mocking „good for nothing“ - who is Ai - and who are throwing tomatoes at the image of Madoka declaring „Gott ist tot“ (God is dead).",[36,805,806],{},"This, in this context now takes on multiple meanings:",[36,808,809],{},"First. They are glorifying death, but God is dead. Meaning that Homura recognizes that to the salvation in death that they are aspiring to is a dead God that she does not believe in. This is the true sense in which Nietzsches statement \"God is dead\" is absolutely true, even within the very concept of Christianity.\nFor example the God of Cheap Grace IS dead. It is dead God that never existed, and who has nothing to do with the God of the bible, and worshiping him leads to eternal damnation. The second death.",[36,811,812],{},"Second. The immediate context is that in that situation the world they are living in without wreights where they do not fight is a mockery that dishonors Madoka’s sacrifice. Therefore the tomatoes and God is dead. Here \"God\" is the God that Homura was living for until now: The God who is Madoka, to honor her.\nHomura is realizing, after having just talked to sayaka about it – though she does not yet admit it – that to live with Madoka and the others like this, is more important then to honor her sacrifice or anything like that.",[36,814,815],{},"Third. The madoka that Homura - or Ai - is crawling towards is now merely a dead concept. Therefore God is dead; or rather Madoka is dead - but Madokami is dead as well; just in a different sense.",[36,817,818],{},"This basically is a multifaceted perspective:",[36,820,821],{},"The law of cycles salvation as „God“ is dead because it is merely to glorify death.\nThe legacy of Madoka as a „God“ - which is what Homura said at the end of episode 12: „this is a place she once tried to protect“, as a God is dead because Homura herself is now living a mockery of that concept.\nAnd finally Madoka herself as a „God“ that is as Homura’s purpose is dead because she became a dead concept.",[36,823,824],{},"Nietzsche said in twilight of the idols that he philosophizes with a hammer, he rings all the idols and hears them sing - by shattering. And so nothing again remains. And as all those \"Idols\" or \"Gods\" die, the illusion will soon begin to crumble.",[36,826,827],{},"Homura remembers what the world she lives in is like, and what the existence of this illusion means. While contemplating all those realizations of this chapter, as they are coming back to her one by one Homura now rides down the boat into the depth of the abyss. Mirroring the journey on the river styxx while being ferried into the underworld.",[36,829,830,831,833],{},"As such we have seen, the full state of this world. ",[43,832],{},"\nIt is so important to keep this in mind when we look at the things that happen next.",[10,835,836,840,843,846,849,852,855,860,865,868,875,878,883,888,891,895,898,901,918,921,930,933,973,976,979,986,994,997,1000,1003,1017,1020,1023,1026,1035,1038,1043,1046,1049,1052,1055,1058,1061,1064,1067,1070,1073,1076,1079,1085,1088,1094,1097,1100,1103,1109,1112,1115,1128,1132,1135,1138,1144,1151,1154,1157,1164,1167,1170,1173,1176,1179,1182,1185,1212,1215,1218,1221,1246,1249,1252,1262,1264,1267,1284,1286,1289,1299,1301,1304,1307,1310,1316,1319,1322,1325,1328,1331,1334,1339,1342,1345,1351,1356,1359,1365,1368,1371,1374,1379,1382,1385,1388,1392,1395,1403,1412,1415,1418,1421,1424,1427,1444,1449,1452,1455,1458,1461,1464,1470,1473,1476,1487,1493,1496,1499,1502,1516,1521,1527,1530,1533,1550,1557,1576,1579,1585,1598,1605,1624,1637],{"end":12,"start":12},[19,837,839],{"id":838},"the-country-of-sweets","The country of sweets",[36,841,842],{},"Skipping ahead - as for the „in between“ the time has not yet come - we arrive at the climax of the entire series:\nThe moment that changed my life forever when I saw it.",[36,844,845],{},"Madokami comes down from heaven to pick up Homura.",[36,847,848],{},"Homura is laying there and when Madokami comes on her is written „Das ewig Weibliche“ - which means „the eternal feminine“.\nThis is a reference to Faust 2, the final scene is the burial of Faust, where Mephisto thinks that he will now claim his soul.",[36,850,851],{},"A sumber conclusion that is repeated again and again, in fiction and out culture. A carthatic ending. But not this time. This time alone, among all the stories, something different came to be.\nThis something in this Form is that amazing thing that mades Madoka Magica special. That in contrast to the previous chapter makes it amazing.",[36,853,854],{},"The ending of the original series of Madoka Magica is \"Magia\", and in the full version of that song there is a line that says:",[68,856,857],{},[36,858,859],{},"Back when I loved books about strange lands,\nilluminated by their captive suns,\nI believed\nall the stories that told me\nthat wishes came true.\n(Amidst light and darkness)",[36,861,75,862],{},[77,863,864],{},"Madoka Magica, Magia",[36,866,867],{},"The final line here is \"Amidst light and darkness\", the original japanese says: \"hikari to kage no naka\", which literally means \"in between light and darkness\". Ironically, there is a certain cover of that song on YouTube. It replaces that line with \"Was I a fool to believe those lies?\"",[36,869,870,871,874],{},"Oh my sweet child, those were not lies – Miracles and Magic ",[77,872,873],{},"DO"," exist.",[36,876,877],{},"However that quote, that line is one of subline beauty because it is actually reminscent of one of the most beautiful verses of the new testament:",[68,879,880],{},[36,881,882],{},"And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.",[36,884,75,885],{},[77,886,887],{},"John 1:5",[36,889,890],{},"This chapter is the light to the previous chapters darkness. And the Word of God however remains forever true: The darkness comprehended it not.",[159,892,894],{"id":893},"the-true-tragedy-of-faust","The true tragedy of Faust",[36,896,897],{},"As we have biefly mentioned in the previous chapter, Homura has always been an allusion to Faust. In Madoka Magica, her power is to stop time - as was Fausts Bargin with the devil: if he experienced a moment of pure happiness, where he would wish that time would stop forever, Mephisto would claim his soul. In order to understand what that means we need to briefly go over Faust and the beginning and end of his bargin.",[36,899,900],{},"The deal was:",[68,902,903],{},[36,904,905,908,909,911,912,914,915,917],{},[77,906,907],{},"Faust:"," Werd ich zum Augenblicke sagen: ",[43,910],{},"\nVerweile doch! Du bist so schön! ",[43,913],{},"\nDann magst du mich in Fesseln schlagen, ",[43,916],{},"\nDann will ich gern zugrunde gehn!",[36,919,920],{},"– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust I (V 1699–1702)",[36,922,923,924,926,927,929],{},"It says: \"Should I say to a moment: Stay! For you are so beautiful! Then you may put me in chains, then I will gladly go under!\" ",[43,925],{},"\nThis is the term of the contract in Faust. That Faust may see a moment of pure happiness, something that is truly worthwhile and then for that alone the devil may claim his soul. ",[43,928],{},"\nThe context here is that Faust is a tortured intellectual who has studied everything, philosophy, science, law, theology, and finally magic – yet nothing seemed worthwhile to him, so having become restless, incapbale of crossing over into a \"true world\", this is now his terminal soltion.",[36,931,932],{},"The very ending of Faust 2 is that Faust says a very similar worded sentence, and dies after:",[68,934,935],{},[36,936,937,939,940,942,943,945,946,948,949,951,952,954,955,957,960,961,963,964,966,967,969,970,972],{},[77,938,907],{}," Nur der verdient sich Freiheit wie das Leben, ",[43,941],{},"\nDer täglich sie erobern muss. ",[43,944],{},"\nUnd so verbringt, umrungen von Gefahr, ",[43,947],{},"\nHier Kindheit, Mann und Greis sein tüchtig Jahr. ",[43,950],{},"\nSolch ein Gewimmel möcht’ ich sehn, ",[43,953],{},"\nAuf freiem Grund mit freiem Volke stehn. ",[43,956],{},[409,958,959],{},"Zum Augenblicke dürft’ ich sagen: Verweile doch, du bist so schön!"," ",[43,962],{},"\nEs kann die Spur von meinen Erdetagen ",[43,965],{},"\nNicht in Äonen untergehn. ",[43,968],{},"\n– Im Vorgefühl von solchem hohen Glück ",[43,971],{},"\nGenieß’ ich jetzt den höchsten Augenblick.",[36,974,975],{},"– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust II (V 11575 - 11586)",[36,977,978],{},"It says: \"Only thus is freedom earned and life, by him who conquers it daily. And so is spent among danger: childhood, adult and old age; Such struggle is what I want to see, of a free people on free ground! Then to the moment may I say: Stay! For you are so beautiful! The trail of my days on earth may not perish even in aeons! Therefore in anticipation of such highest happiness I am now experiencing the highest Happiness!\"",[36,980,981,982,985],{},"Mephisto though he won. Because in these last words contain within them the expression from the very beginning: That he was shown a moment of pure happiness. But there is a twist here, faust says that his happiness is found in anticipation. Not in being given something by mephisto, but in the struggle and in striving for the highest things has Faust found his happiness – and yet even in that he only says: \"",[409,983,984],{},"THEN"," to that moment may I say\", meaning that he is looking towards the highest things from afar; It is not in his life that he has found the thing that he was looking for, but in the struggle itself – though it may still forever remain unattainable.\nTherefore what follows after this is the burrial of Faust:",[68,987,988],{},[36,989,990,991,993],{},"Gerettet ist das edle Glied der Geisterwelt vom Bösen: ",[43,992],{},"\n»Wer immer strebend sich bemüht, Den können wir erlösen.«",[36,995,996],{},"– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust II (V 11934 - 11937)",[36,998,999],{},"It says: \"Saved is the noble member of the spiritworld from evil: Whoever strives for the highest things, him we can save!\"",[36,1001,1002],{},"Therefore, in striving for the highest things which are beyond this world Faust is saved and goes to heaven. The whole things ends with:",[68,1004,1005],{},[36,1006,1007,1008,1010,1011,1013,1014,1016],{},"Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis; ",[43,1009],{},"\nDas Unzulängliche, hier wird’s Ereignis; ",[43,1012],{},"\nDas Unbeschreibliche, hier ist’s getan; ",[43,1015],{},"\nDas Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan.",[36,1018,1019],{},"– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust II (V 12104 - 12111)",[36,1021,1022],{},"It says: \"The temporary things are merely a parable; The unfit becomes event here; the indescirbable happens here; The Eternal Feminine draws us in.\"",[36,1024,1025],{},"And with that Faust is saved and goes to heaven. God therefore wins his wager with Mephistopheles from the prologue in heaven from the very beginning.",[36,1027,1028,1029,1031,1032,1034],{},"In Faust, the story itself does something which is not Christian. Faust is saved by \"the eternal Feminine\" which is explicitly not Christian salvation through Christ alone. It is a humanistic, neo-platonic concept that grants salvation to all who strive towards a wague concept of the good. ",[43,1030],{},"\nIronically, this is precisely the thing which Madokami represents: ",[43,1033],{},"\nA cheap grace for all magical girls, a redemption that takes them all away - Salvation \u002F Annihilation, by apperance it is indistinguishable. In truth we do not know where she would have taken Homura – and I will give it the benefit of the doubt and say that Homura wouldn't have just perished like all the other magical girls, since she is special. But what exactly would have become of her is something which we do not really know – and it is certainly not heaven; Nor is it the resurrection of the dead.",[36,1036,1037],{},"Christ says:",[68,1039,1040],{},[36,1041,1042],{},"Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.",[36,1044,1045],{},"– John 14:6",[36,1047,1048],{},"No one comes to the Father except through me, there is no salvation and no other heaven except in Jesus Christ.\nThis is and has always been the orthodox teaching of the church, and Goethe deliberately averts that in Faust, chosing Humanism over orthodox Christianity.",[36,1050,1051],{},"On the surface we have a very similar scene with Homura laying there, but under the surface the lives of Homura and Faust are very different. In fact the lessons that Faust learned at the end of his life - that struggle for the highest things, is that wherein true happiness may be found, have been the guiding light that Homura was running towards from the very moment she met Madoka.",[36,1053,1054],{},"And now, Homura is laying there when the eternal feminie appears, the law of cycles to take her away.\nBy itself this is the same humanistic conclusion that Faust presented.\nHomura has found meaning in fighting for Madoka, so having experienced that now, she could be happy – she even met Madoka again after all this time (As Kyubey says), so she can not die happily.\nA Humanist and Faustian conclusion.\nRemember that this not heaven, and not eternity, not salvation; it is death - annihiliation. At best it would be the same kind of eternal death that Madoka herself is condemned to: to exist as an abstract concept perpetually.",[36,1056,1057],{},"When I was watching this the first time I thought the show itself did not understand this and was going to just play it straight; that Madoka would take away Homura to \"heaven\". To a peaceful resolution, and death would be declared paradise. This is what is to be expected.\nThere are many films and many shows that end this way. And the audience appreciates, loves it: oh there he goes!",[36,1059,1060],{},"But what was truly won? The best example of that is the movie Gladiator - the gladiator dies, taking his revenge and remaining victorious. But what really is his victory?",[36,1062,1063],{},"He is dead. And there was no salvation for him. No heaven. He is just dead.\nAnd if we look at it from a Christian perspective then not only is he dead but he also went to eternal damnation in hell.",[36,1065,1066],{},"And yet Christians cheer for endings like this. I find it unbearable.",[36,1068,1069],{},"But this is the way of this world, it was one of the many reasons why I hated Christianity for the longest time with a passion. Because it is all so hypocritical, so ignorant and foolishly grasping at a hope that falls apart at the easiest contemplation.",[36,1071,1072],{},"It is „cheap grace“ - or Madokami; Death.",[36,1074,1075],{},"It is to be expected so I solemnly accepted this conclusion. I genuinely believed that this is what was going to happen. After all: Humanism is the law of this world. It is so deeply ingrained that no other solution, nor possibility can really be imagined.\nThis is how it always ends, I thought in my heart, this is okay – it has been a great flight, we have gone close to the sun. But now Madoka Magica as a work will fail to reach the absolute. It will perish like all the others, and perhaps another some day, will come after it; to attempt it again.",[36,1077,1078],{},"So I thought in my heart of hearts at that moment.",[36,1080,1081,1082,1084],{},"However it did not come to pass. ",[43,1083],{},"\nInstead Homura rejects the eternal feminine, and pulls Madoka from heaven therein breaking the very fabric of reality.",[36,1086,1087],{},"When I saw it, I stood up in awe and started cheering.",[36,1089,1090,1091,1093],{},"It was beyond amazing that someone actually did it for once. ",[43,1092],{},"\nSomeone rejected this humanism, this trap and the nihilism that is so apparent but gets ignored by all and everyone. Back then I could not understand what exactly it was that I was seeing. But in that very moment I knew that this is what I always wanted to see, why I started watching anime in the first place.",[36,1095,1096],{},"Amazingly, what is portrayed next is a resurrection of the dead, not some abstract apotheosis or implied afterlife.\nThis is a stark rejection of the religion of death that seeks the salvation in escaping the world, but instead embraces and redeems it, here and now.",[36,1098,1099],{},"A genuine miracle happened. Not according to the laws of this world, not what was „proper“, but what is scandalous.\nBack then I knew immediately that this, that I was seeing, was the truth. For this was what I always wanted to see depicted. I wanted someone to do this, because I knew that it is what is necessary but at the same time impossible becaust it is a transgression against the laws that bind this world.",[36,1101,1102],{},"The great irony is that this is precisely as controversial in its own universe as it is in the real world. The depiction IS the real thing: a genuine Rebellion.",[36,1104,1105,1106,1108],{},"Homura rejects the eternal feminine - but what did she chose instead? ",[43,1107],{},"\nThat I could not understand, but I wanted to know. I wanted to understand. I spent years chasing after it; and this very article is the answer I have finally reached after all of it.",[36,1110,1111],{},"The cryptic answer that the show itself gives is: AiYo, it's love. No one could possibly understand this feeling.\nIronically then Homura says that she suffered endlessly in the maze that she was trapped in. But now even that suffering has becomes precious to her, because it was for Madoka.",[36,1113,1114],{},"Back then it was something foreign to me, because it does not resemble „love“ as I know it or as fiction usually depicts it. It is something else, completely and utterly.",[36,1116,1117,1118,1121,1122,1124,1125,1127],{},"Note also how different it is to the struggle of Faust: for Faust the \"salvation\" of cheap humanistic grace is found in striving for higher things and imagining them from afar. For Homura all struggle is valuable only because it is for Madoka, therefore it is precious. For Faust the motivation for the highest things comes from within him: It is ",[409,1119,1120],{},"HIS"," desire, ",[409,1123,1120],{}," nihilism, ",[409,1126,1120],{}," meaninglessness. For Homura it is the struggle for the other that allows her to cross over, to pull Madoka from heaven.\nTherefore Faust's path leads to the eternal feminine - salvation; annihilation.\nMadoka however rejects this false God.",[159,1129,1131],{"id":1130},"do-you-consider-stability-and-order-more-important-than-desire","Do you consider stability and order more important than desire?",[36,1133,1134],{},"And thus, it is a new creation.",[36,1136,1137],{},"Homura sits at a table and has a cup of tea. On the pole is written:\n„Die ewige Wiederkehr des Gleichen“, which is „the eternal return“. The eternal return stands for the hardest thing man can bear:",[36,1139,1140,1141,1143],{},"To imagine that he eternally recurs, the same thing forever and ever. And an Übermensch is he who will affirm life even if he is cursed to eternally repeat his own mistakes; who creates new values despite of that and will go on to the future. ",[43,1142],{},"\nImplicitly this refers to a sentence Homura said just before:",[68,1145,1146],{},[36,1147,1148,1150],{},[77,1149,86],{}," I remembered all the time that I repeated time, all the time that I suffered, it was all for Madoka; therefore even pain is dear to me now.",[36,1152,1153],{},"– Rebellion",[36,1155,1156],{},"There is also the finishing Quote from episode 10, Homura’s Monologue ends with:",[68,1158,1159],{},[36,1160,1161,1163],{},[77,1162,86],{}," If it’s for her, I do not mind being stuck in this eternal maze",[36,1165,1166],{},"– Madoka Magica Episode 10",[36,1168,1169],{},"Incidentally the Episode 10 ends with the opening of the original anime „Connect“, which is essentially Homura singing about her eternal loop and never giving up because of the promise she made with Madoka. It says: \"The beautiful blue sky will always wait for me, therefore I am not afraid. By now, no matter what happens, I won't get disheartened.\"",[36,1171,1172],{},"I recomend you read connect as a whole now. It starkly contrasts itself with the purpose of Fausts life.\nRemember that Madoka Magica as a whole begins with connect as the opening in medias res; This already is beyond the conclusion to Fausts life: To struggle for the highest things.\nHowever, Homura has struggled for them for the longest time, and lost herself, fallen and gotten back up. But this final time something else, something greater has happened.",[36,1174,1175],{},"In essence the naive view of humanism that Faust reaches as its conclusion, is the very thing that Homura started with before even her journey truly began. This was loop 1 Homura. We are now however in the post AiYo new world.",[36,1177,1178],{},"In order to understand the extent of Homura's Rebellion and it's true nautre we skip ahead to the \"hallway scene\".",[36,1180,1181],{},"In the new world that Homura has rewritten, Madoka transfers in to school. It is a new scenario, in this world Madoka's mom was transferred to the U.S. for three years and they just moved back. Madoka is now the transfer student.",[36,1183,1184],{},"This also is another bookends, as the movie now ends again the same way as the entire series began, except now it is reversed: Homura is now showing Madoka arround. And now we return to the same hallway where we had the following dialogue in the first episode of the original series:",[68,1186,1187],{},[36,1188,1189,1191,1192,1194,1196,1197,1199,1201,1202,1204,1206,1207,1209,1211],{},[77,1190,86],{}," Kaname Madoka, do you value your own life? Do you consider your family and friends precious?",[43,1193],{},[77,1195,217],{}," I... I do. I love my family and friends. They mean the world to me.",[43,1198],{},[77,1200,86],{}," Is that true?",[43,1203],{},[77,1205,217],{}," Of course! Why wouldn't it be?",[43,1208],{},[77,1210,86],{}," I see... If that's true, then you must never think about becoming someone else. If you do, you'll lose them all. You just need to remain Kaname Madoka, as you always have been.",[36,1213,1214],{},"– Madoka Magica Episode 1",[36,1216,1217],{},"In that Dialogue Homura tried to warn Madoka, tried to tell her that she shouldn't make a contract with Kyubey to sell her soul. But of course it was cryptic and Madoka did not understand her.",[36,1219,1220],{},"Now, they are again walking through it as they have this dialogue:",[68,1222,1223],{},[36,1224,1225,1227,1228,1230,1232,1233,1235,1237,1238,1240,1242,1243,1245],{},[77,1226,86],{}," How does it feel to be back again? ",[43,1229],{},[77,1231,217],{}," I guess... everything feels familiar. And, at the same time, it's different. It feels strange.",[43,1234],{},[77,1236,86],{}," I'm not surprised. It's been three years. ",[43,1239],{},[77,1241,217],{}," No... It feels like nothing's changed at all... In fact, if anything's changed around here... it's me... ",[43,1244],{},"\nYeah... It is me...\nI should have a different form...\na different purpose here...\nSo, why...?",[36,1247,1248],{},"— Rebellion",[36,1250,1251],{},"After this, Madoka's eyes start lighting up, and she starts returning to become Madokami again. In that Moment Homura grabs her.",[68,1253,1254],{},[36,1255,1256,1258,1259,1261],{},[77,1257,217],{}," ...! Homura!? Hey! Let go!\n",[77,1260,86],{}," It's OK. You're exactly what you should be... what you've always been.",[36,1263,1248],{},[36,1265,1266],{},"Madoka thereafter turns back to the ordinary girl, however the background behind them still shows the universe and all the stars and nebula.",[68,1268,1269],{},[36,1270,1271,1273,1274,1276,1278,1279,1281,1283],{},[77,1272,86],{}," Madoka Kaname, do you treasure the world you live in?\nOr, would you break its laws to follow your heart? ",[43,1275],{},[77,1277,217],{}," Well, I... I, er... I don't... I, I mean, yes.\nI do treasure this world.\nBut, I don't think a person should go and break the rules, just because they feel like it... ",[43,1280],{},[77,1282,86],{}," Ah, I see...\nWell, then, I suppose one day... you'll also be my enemy.\nIt's fine. I don't care.\nBecause even then, I'll keep wishing for a world where you can be happy.",[36,1285,1248],{},[36,1287,1288],{},"And after this, Homura returns the Red Ribbon she got from Madoka back to her and ties it into her hair. She looks at her smiling with crying eyes:",[68,1290,1291],{},[36,1292,1293,1295,1296,1298],{},[77,1294,86],{}," I knew it. ",[43,1297],{},"\nThey always did look better on you.",[36,1300,1248],{},[36,1302,1303],{},"We don't exactly get a lot of explicit statements on Homura's new world. However this scene is very clear in what it shows and says if we look at it in the context of Madoka Magica as a whole and the metatextual elements that it references. This is why we must start with it to understand what really happend in full.",[36,1305,1306],{},"The nature of Homura's new world is apparently one of more direct interferance than the previous world. When the previous world and the previous changes were the results of changes on the metaphysical level, the changes here are less subtle direct interventions:\nHomura has inserted Madoka into the timeline instead of rewriting the entire past to make her having been there.",[36,1308,1309],{},"Yet Madoka's judgment about this world, if it seemed strange to her, which Homura asked worried if she did a bad job with the world, is that only she herself has changed.\nMadoka accepts the world that Homura made as genuine, but she herself is now out of place, her own insertion is the most radical once. She was ripped out of the law of cycles and became a living human once again.",[36,1311,1312,1313,1315],{},"However Homura holds her and tells her: \"You're exactly what you should be.\" ",[43,1314],{},"\nMany people say that Homura did injustice to Madoka by pulling her out of there — it was Madoka's will to become the law of cycles, therefore it is not right to undermine her agency in this way.\nHowever against that we have Madoka's own words in the first hallways scene from episode 1: \"I do. I love my family and friends. They mean the world to me.\", of course Madoka said that without knowing about the possibilities of going somewhere else and about the reality of the world. However the same sentiment is repeated again in the \"flowerscene\" in Rebellion, and much less ambiguously (we will return to that in Chapter 4). There Madoka says that she would never want to go away from her friends and family and she could not bare it. And this is what Homura acted on — on a direct request and statement made by Madoka, that her sacrifice to become Madokami was made out of desparation, NOT plan or design.",[36,1317,1318],{},"But now comes the most important part: Homura asks her, \"do you consider, stability and order more important than desire?\" Another translation says: \"do you treasure the world you live in? Or, would you break its laws to follow your heart?\"\nMadoka says that she values it and that you should not break the rules just because you feel like it.\nHowever, this interaction represents a tragic missunderstanding.",[36,1320,1321],{},"Homura is asking Madoka if it is okay that she broke the rules of the world which bind it, and the idol which she herself became in order to save her. But Madoka understands it, as if Homura is talking about casually breaking rules and laws in order to gain something simple or some benefit in this world. Madoka does not understand the extent of what Homura is saying — just as she missunderstood her in Episode 1.",[36,1323,1324],{},"Homura phrases it this way, because she feels like she broke the law of this world. She did what people say she ought not to, but what she knew was necessary and right and good. As we will later see in this chapter, Homura didn't really wrong or hurt anyone in any way with what she did here. However in the eyes of the world what she did is evil.",[36,1326,1327],{},"This is why Homura says: \"I do not care what I become! I pulled her from heaven, therefore I must be a demon.\"\nHomura does not say that she is doing something evil or that she is trying to hurt someone here. Instead what she says is that in the eyes of the world, an action like this is too radical, too devicive. Therefore it is evil.",[36,1329,1330],{},"When Gideon destroyed the statues of Baal in the book of judges, the people wanted to kill him. But he didn't do evil. What he did was good. Yet in the eyes of the world it was evil what he did. It is the same as when Jesus healed on a sabbath, and the jews wanted to kill him for it — because he has broken the laws of man; But not the laws of God.",[36,1332,1333],{},"This is a similar case. Homura did not break the law of God. It is written:",[68,1335,1336],{},[36,1337,1338],{},"For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”",[36,1340,1341],{},"— Galatians 5:14",[36,1343,1344],{},"This is what she has kept. She says that what she is driven by is \"love\".",[36,1346,1347,1348,1350],{},"However, now you may say: What she is driven by is not love, it is desire. ",[43,1349],{},"\nDesire? For that we can trail her according to the biblical standard of what love is:",[68,1352,1353],{},[36,1354,1355],{},"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.",[36,1357,1358],{},"— 1 Corinthians 13:4-8",[36,1360,1361,1362,1364],{},"Homura to Madoka is kind and patient beyond all else, she never stopped loving her even when Madoka stupidly fell for Kyubey again and again. It fits all of these criteria. But beyond all else, it is not self seeking. ",[43,1363],{},"\nAnd that is proven — along with many other things – in how she reacts to Madoka rejecting her.",[36,1366,1367],{},"Madoka does not understand that she is rejecting Homura, who has given everything for her: Her own life, her soul and even her justice.\nBut Homura takes it as such: \"I see, then, I suppose one day... you'll also be my enemy. It's fine. I don't care. Because even then, I'll keep wishing for a world where you can be happy.\" This is selfless love. It is the opposite of keeping Madoka for herself, or to lock her away. Homura saved her at the cost of her everything. And now, despite Madoka meaning everything to her, and she herself wanting nothing more then to be close to her — she lets her go. Because Madoka's happiness is the most important thing to her.",[36,1369,1370],{},"With crying eyes she ties her ribbon on her: \"I knew, it always looked better on you!\". This mirrors the words that Madoka's mother gave her when she sent her to school.\nJust like how her Mother sent her daugher to school without trying to keep her for herself (As sometimes happens with a devouring mother archetype), Homura lets Madoka go to her family. Leaving Homura herself all alone.",[36,1372,1373],{},"This is the same spirit as in that Paul writes:",[68,1375,1376],{},[36,1377,1378],{},"For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel.",[36,1380,1381],{},"— Romans 9:3-4",[36,1383,1384],{},"Paul says that for others he is ready to be even cut off from Christ. And now imagine that. Chist is his treasure, his everything. Without him, he is nothing. But even that he is ready to give away for love.",[36,1386,1387],{},"Essentially, this is the ultimate display of love: To sacrifice \"to be loved\" for love.",[159,1389,1391],{"id":1390},"under-a-strange-sky","Under a strange sky",[36,1393,1394],{},"Returning now once again to the scene where Homura sits at the table:\nBefore Homura now stands Sayaka, and she attacks Homura for breaking the law.",[68,1396,1397],{},[36,1398,1399,1402],{},[77,1400,1401],{},"Sayaka:"," Do you know what you have done?",[36,1404,1405,1406,1408,1409,1411],{},"What law has Homura broken? ",[43,1407],{},"\nAnd Homura even says: the law of cycle still exists; I merely broke off a small part of it! ",[43,1410],{},"\nSo what law did she break?",[36,1413,1414],{},"\"You broke apart the hope of magical girls“, says Sayaka - by pulling Madoka from heaven, Homura destroyed an idol, she broke the illusion. Essentially she destroyed the lie that Sayaka was living by. That is why she hates her. To destroy the lie and to tell the truth is always a revolutionary act.",[36,1416,1417],{},"Sayaka is furious at Homura, Homura however accepts this, she says that she is now the „evil“ in this world. She herself will bear the curses and their effects and will act as agitator and upset the laws of the world. The curses that were haunting humanity because of all of their sins are still there. Homura is not creating something evil, she is managing it.",[36,1419,1420],{},"A central concept that is so key to understanding Homura's Rebellion is to look very precisely at the way the word \"law\" is used, and its inner meaning.\nJust as we had a missunderstanding between Homura and Madoka when Homura asked Madoka if it is okay to break the law to follow your heart.\nThe way Homura meant \"law\" is as the values and consensus of society. The way however Madoka understands \"law\" is as the genuine law of what is good and right.\nMeaning, Homura is referring to the \"law\" as a postrelativistic concept. However Madoka is conceptualizing it prerelativistically.",[36,1422,1423],{},"The thing about Sayaka however is that she does not understand the \"law\" as a prerelativistic pure abstract; As a form of the good as Madoka, but as the law as it is written by the letter: As values as such.",[36,1425,1426],{},"Nietzsche about this in his three metamorphoses of the spirit:",[68,1428,1429],{},[36,1430,1431,1432,1434,1435,1437,1438,1440,1441,1443],{},"All these heaviest things the load-bearing spirit taketh upon itself: and like the camel, which, when laden, hasteneth into the wilderness, so hasteneth the spirit into its wilderness. ",[43,1433],{},"\nBut in the loneliest wilderness happeneth the second metamorphosis: here the spirit becometh a lion; freedom will it capture, and lordship in its own wilderness. ",[43,1436],{},"\nIts last Lord it here seeketh: hostile will it be to him, and to its last God; for victory will it struggle with the great dragon. ",[43,1439],{},"\nWhat is the great dragon which the spirit is no longer inclined to call Lord and God? “Thou shalt,” is the great dragon called. But the spirit of the lion saith, “I will.” ",[43,1442],{},"\n“Thou shalt,” lieth in its path, sparkling with gold—a scale-covered beast; and on every scale glittereth golden, “Thou shalt!”",[36,1445,75,1446],{},[77,1447,1448],{},"ZARATHUSTRA’S DISCOURSES. I. THE THREE METAMORPHOSES.",[36,1450,1451],{},"This is a very fitting description of how Homura views the law that she broke, and the laws that she is acting as agitator against. The laws that Homura is breaking are the old values, the \"Thou shalt!\", the man made laws of this world.",[36,1453,1454],{},"If we look in detail what is going on in Homura's world we see the following scenes:",[36,1456,1457],{},"First, we see Mami react to Homura breaking a cup. Mami is standing there and reaching for something in the air, while a familiar runs past her. When she suddenly turns arround to see the cup broken. Notice that this brings us Back to Madoka Magica Episode 3, where Mami died and her broken cup was all that was left of her. In Mami's hand is found a black feather and she is suprised.",[36,1459,1460],{},"This does two things: First the cup represents Mamis identity, it is broken just as when she died. Expect this time she does not die, and a black feather appears in her hand instead. Now - were it a white feather, it would symbolize protection. But it is black instead.",[36,1462,1463],{},"What happened here is that Homura upset the order of this world and intervenes. Mami however, this time arround is alive.",[36,1465,1466,1467,1469],{},"Second, we see Kyouko sitting in a tree eating apples and sharing them.\nKyouko notices Homura's familiars asking her for an apple. She throws it to them.\nHowever Homura denies her: She shakes her head and the apple instead falls into the Water. ",[43,1468],{},"\nKyouko is visibly upset.",[36,1471,1472],{},"What happened here is that Homura denied Kyouko's values: Kyouko is a Master Moralist, according to the Nietzschean conception of morality. Kyouko's value is: \"You shall not waste food.\", This however is not a true univeral. It is a man made law that Kyouko imposes onto the world.\nHomura denies it, and shatters the idol. But is that really evil?",[36,1474,1475],{},"There is a passage in the new Testament when Jesus heals a crippled man on the Sabbath:",[68,1477,1478],{},[36,1479,1480,1481,1483,1484,1486],{},"Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” ",[43,1482],{},"\nThen Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. ",[43,1485],{},"\nHe looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.",[36,1488,1489,1490],{},"— ",[77,1491,1492],{},"Mark 3:1-6",[36,1494,1495],{},"Healing on the Sabbath, is a good thing. It was never forbidden. However the Pharisees turned the law, which was good into legalism.\nIn short, they turned the God given divine law which is good, into a man made law, which does not exist for the people but as a mechanism of control.\nIt becomes an end in itself.",[36,1497,1498],{},"Ironically, Christ when he is healing on the sabbath, while breaking the man made laws of this world, while keeping the absolute divine law of God is acting in accordance to Nietzsches description of the Übermensch: He IS the law, therefore he can simply impose the law. Nietzsche would argue that Christs absolute laws are not from God but from man, namely himself — but he would entirely agree with the critique of christ against the pharisees and would call them hypocrites all the same.",[36,1500,1501],{},"In Kimi no Gin no niwa there is a verse that says:",[68,1503,1504],{},[36,1505,1506,1507,1509,1510,1512,1513,1515],{},"The girl who lost her way today too ",[43,1508],{},"\ncame home the earliest ",[43,1511],{},"\nShe should run while finding ",[43,1514],{},"\na place brighter than righteousness, right?",[36,1517,1489,1518],{},[77,1519,1520],{},"Kimi no Gin no Niwa",[36,1522,1523,1524,1526],{},"A place hat is brighter then righteousness, is not necessary an evil place. It depends on what you really mean by \"righteousness\". Righteousness often implicitly means self-righteousness, to be right and good in your own eyes. ",[43,1525],{},"\nThis is reminiscent of that which Madoka’s mom said way back in the original series:\nIn order for her to be right, someone else must be wrong. And so Homura gladly is wrong, so that Madoka can be right. And Sayaka is now cursing her for it. Sayaka is a firm servant of the \"law\".",[36,1528,1529],{},"But if you look around the state the world is actually in you see that Homura didn’t really hurt anyone.\nAnd yet, even the audience is accusing Homura of being evil, they are agreeing with Sayaka.\nAnd indeed, the apperance is all that matters for most.",[36,1531,1532],{},"Indeed, if we just soberly list all the things that Homura did it becomes evident that the accusations against her are baseless:",[533,1534,1535,1538,1541,1544,1547],{},[536,1536,1537],{},"Homura took control over a world that was going to ruin and is managing the curses that plague mankind",[536,1539,1540],{},"Homura extracted Madoka, Sayaka and Bebe from the abstract concept known as the \"law of cycles\" and put them back into the world where they can have a normal life.",[536,1542,1543],{},"Homura upset the values of the world by breaking a cup, wasting food, and making the world strange and appear omnious to sayakas eyes.",[536,1545,1546],{},"Homura accepted Sayakas enimosity and let her go, despite Sayaka being clearly antagonistic towards her.",[536,1548,1549],{},"Homura even accepted that Madoka would be seperate from her if that is what it took to protect her.",[36,1551,1552,1553,1556],{},"That's not how someone who is powerhungry or someone who is trying to keep Madoka for herself would act. The one thing that all of those things have in common that creates the accusation is that all of them demand ",[77,1554,1555],{},"responsibility",". No one was responsible, and therefore there was chaos. Now Homura took it all uppon herself. That is her cross to bear.",[192,1558,1561,1564,1567,1570,1573],{":left":194,"src":1559,"text":1560},"madoka\u002Fwhite_feathers_reflected.png","In Homura's eyes the feathers were white all along.",[36,1562,1563],{},"As she talks a tomatoe hits Homuras head thrown by her familiar, the same as those that her familiar's were throwing at the idol of Madoka, when Homura is gasping at her feet.",[36,1565,1566],{},"The black feathers are white in Homura's eyes. The black color is merely appearance, just as Christ was despised in the eyes of the people, so is Homura despised in the eyes of the world. However in Homura's eyes they are white. White feathers symbolize resurrection and protection.",[36,1568,1569],{},"Homura now stands Guard over this world, and acts as its protector. In order to do that she has to upset the laws of this world, because the laws and values of the old world lead to ruin.\nTherefore Homura is evil.",[36,1571,1572],{},"Black feather or white feather — it is in the eye of the beholder.",[36,1574,1575],{},"Beyond that remains only the absolute, beyond good and evil: And in that, the law is fullfilled in one commandment: Love; And the things that happen out of love are always beyond good and evi.\nAnd that is precisely why Homura does not mind this judment, as it can no longer touch her.",[36,1577,1578],{},"Homura rewrites Sayakas Memories so she can have a normal life without obsessing over her. Sayaka however says that even then she will always remember that Homura is a demon. To that Homura replies that she should try to act politely and not cause a fuss, because otherwise it may even upset Madoka.",[36,1580,1581,1582,1584],{},"And with those words Homura lets Sayaka go. You have to be very clear here, this is how Homura acted towards her enemy who hates her: ",[43,1583],{},"\nShe brought her back to life, and gave her a new chance to be happy with her friends and family.",[192,1586,1589,1592,1595],{":left":231,"src":1587,"text":1588},"madoka\u002Fdancing_in_the_rain.png","Bebe does not mind the black feathers or ominous sky — what may they look like in her eyes?",[36,1590,1591],{},"Meanwhile Bebe is running through the rain of black feathers, and is dancing in the liquid from Homura's overflowing cup — which symbolizes Homura's power and control over the world.",[36,1593,1594],{},"Bebe is Happy beyond comprehension, a child is often more sensible then adults. Bebe does not Mind the appearance, she is looking beyond apperances and at that which she has been given here: A new chance at life, a world that Homura will protect.",[36,1596,1597],{},"Instead of complaining, Bebe goes off to school with her friends.",[36,1599,1600,1601,1604],{},"While Sayaka does not love homura, she still likes what she gave her. She happily goes to school, even crying tears of joy seeing Hitomi and Kyosuke again after having been ",[409,1602,1603],{},"dead"," for so long, and with that she looks past the encounter she just had.",[192,1606,1609,1612,1618,1621],{":left":194,"src":1607,"text":1608},"madoka\u002Fhouse_in_the_desert.png","A place to belong, in the desert of the real.",[36,1610,1611],{},"Skipping forward to the end, we now see the world going in slow motion.",[36,1613,1614,1615,1617],{},"Among the final images is one of a brick house. with the floor being covered in sand and footsteps in it. And dead trees growing menacingly in the middle.\nThis floor is the same desert that Homura was laying in when Madoka was commig to get her. ",[43,1616],{},"\nIt represents the world as it is: A desert that is not worth saving.",[36,1619,1620],{},"However Homura built brick walls around it, and painted them with pretty pictures so that whoever is inside may have some comfort.\nThis again represents the nature of this world.",[36,1622,1623],{},"Homura is not God. She can not fix everything. But what she could do, she did. She saved Madoka from a fate worse than dead. And aknowledging that the world IS a desert, she did the best she could.",[192,1625,1628,1631,1634],{":left":231,"src":1626,"text":1627},"madoka\u002Fcountry_of_sweets.png","The night has ended, now it is morning.",[36,1629,1630],{},"After that we see multiple scenes that show how the characters are doing.\nMami is with Bebe, Sayaka is with Kyouko, Madoka is with her Family.\nEveryone seems happy.",[36,1632,1633],{},"It concludes with the sign, saying: The country of sweets; Good morning.",[36,1635,1636],{},"Good Morning refers to Mada Dame yo. But also to Thus Spoke Zarathustra and the great sunrise.",[36,1638,1639],{},"Finally, at the absolute end, after the credits we see Homura again: Sitting on her chair alone.\nBefore half a moon, and on half a hill — for her other half, the one who sat next to her; Madoka's closeness, that was what she paid for in order to save her.\nAnd yet the theme that plays in the back ground is still, and again, Mada dame yo: Already, but not yet.",[10,1641,1642,1646,1649,1652,1655,1659,1662,1665,1668,1671,1674,1677,1680,1683,1687,1690,1693,1696,1699,1702,1705,1708,1711,1714,1717,1720,1740,1745,1752,1755,1780,1783,1789,1792,1827,1830,1833,1850,1855,1864,1868,1871,1874,1877,1880,1883,1888,1893,1896,1899,1902,1905,1910,1913,1916,1920,1923,1926,1929,1932,1935,1938,1941,1944,1952,1955,1958,1961,1964,1967,1970,1975,1980,1983,1986,1989,1992,1995,1998,2001,2004,2007,2010,2013,2016,2019,2022,2025,2028,2031,2034,2037,2041,2044,2050,2053,2056,2068,2077,2080,2083,2086,2089,2097,2100,2103,2106,2147,2159,2166,2169,2172,2177,2182,2185,2190,2195,2198,2202,2223,2235,2238,2241,2244,2247,2250,2253,2270,2275,2278,2281,2285,2297,2324,2336,2339,2342,2345,2348,2356],{"end":95,"start":95},[19,1643,1645],{"id":1644},"a-girl-with-a-heart-condition","A girl with a heart condition",[36,1647,1648],{},"When we first meet Homura, she is socially inept and physically weak.\nHomura transfers to the new school, after being released from the hospital, and she is immediately an outcast.\nThe social order of this world is cruel to her, because of her heart condition she never really had a chance at life.\nShe is physically weak because she was hospitalized for a long time and probably has issues exercising because of her heart.\nAnd she is socially awkward because she was again hospitalized for so long that she failed to learn social skills.\nFor the same reason her academic skills are bad. And on top of that she has no family. She also has bad eyesight and needs to wear glasses and is shy and has no confidence in herself.",[36,1650,1651],{},"In short, Homura is a good for nothing.",[36,1653,1654],{},"And yet, this Homura is our protagonist, the ultimate magical girl; overcoming all things and the world. This chapter is to show you the journey. To make you understand how it worked and what it took.",[159,1656,1658],{"id":1657},"under-the-arc-of-triumph","Under the arc of triumph",[36,1660,1661],{},"Homura, who transferred to class was good for nothing in her own eyes and couldn't keep up with the others.\nAnd she despaired, and in such became become possessed by a witch.",[36,1663,1664],{},"As she wandered into the witches labyrinth she found herself under the ark of triumph.\nIn the real world the arc of triumph represents everything that she lacks at this point: power, and victory.\nShe is entirely without power, and has drawn a horrible hand according to the standards of this world. To have both no family and no health, even in our modern world it leads to a life of suffering.",[36,1666,1667],{},"And yet, it is precisely here where the greatest victory of her life happens: she meets Madoka. Though she does not know it yet and it leads to horrible suffering, this right before it, was her lowest point.",[36,1669,1670],{},"Never again would Homura want to die.\nEven when she lost her again, she lived on to honor her.\nAnd even when she sacrificed everything in order to save her, even then she smiled because it was for out of love.",[36,1672,1673],{},"The opening of rebellion starts with this line:\nYou touched my heart, and it shined; turning a brilliant color.",[36,1675,1676],{},"This is what happened in this moment.\nHomura was a girl with a heart condition in more ways then one.\nBeyond the literal reading, she also had nothing that she valued in this world. It was all before her „monochrome“ and „empty“ as the lyrics of colorful say.",[36,1678,1679],{},"Nietzsche once said that a man who has a „why“ can bear any „how“ - this is where her „why“ would have its origin. Though right here Madoka is still a brilliantly shining stranger to her, she still started looking at her, started seeing her kindness. Therefore she is not yet her „why“, but this is the place from which she started to follow after her.",[36,1681,1682],{},"Therefore the arc of triumph symbolizes this greatest victory - that Homura was saved from the depth of despair and meaninglessness. Here and now, the entire future with everything that is set in motion was already been decided; the rest is now merely fate.",[159,1684,1686],{"id":1685},"i-will-never-forget-the-promise-we-made","I will never forget the promise we made",[36,1688,1689],{},"As Homura followed Madoka in the first loop she grew to admire her, leading up the the conclusion where Madoka sacrificed herself to save the town form Walpurgisnacht.\nHaving seen this, Homura - naively - wished for her own hearts desire:\n„I want to relive this month with Madoka, and become someone who can protect her!“",[36,1691,1692],{},"She did not wish for Madoka to come back to life, but to be close to her and to stand shiningly next to her and be a magical girl.\nEssentially what she actually meant when she wished that, is what the fake dreamworld in the rebellion movie would later depict: to be Madoka’s - and everyone’s - friend and to fight with them and to be close to them. To be someone who is valued in this world.",[36,1694,1695],{},"She said: I want to protect Madoka with my own hand. But what she wished in her heart was selfish. To be the one who is there for her.",[36,1697,1698],{},"This being there for her, being close to her, is the wish that Homura always, even till the end, harbors in her heart as something she is unworthy of. Homura wished to be someone who protects Madoka, because she thought that all she can provide to Madoka is utility; but secretly hoping for an extra she may get along the way.",[36,1700,1701],{},"The first loop ended with Homura having fulfilled her wish - having protected Madoka from death.\nHowever Madoka now instead turns into a witch.",[36,1703,1704],{},"And that is where the endless loop truly begins.\nHomura wished to be the one who protects Madoka from dying and Kyubey granted that exactly as written. And now immediately after, she turns into a witch.\nThe wish never extended to save Madoka from being a witch.",[36,1706,1707],{},"Therefore Homura now struggles to squeeze out something, an impossible ending by her own hand.\nAnd yet in the process she learns more and more that it is impossible.\nIn truth - the reason why it was always impossible to save Madoka was not really Walpurgnisacht, but it was the nature of the irredeemable world that they live in.\nWhat would saving Madoka even mean if witches are running amok? It would mean to protect her till the end of her days?\nHomura is cursed to die young as a magical girl, even if she saves Madoka and she escapes this fate. Eventually she will no longer be able to protect her.\nThe inevetibility of it is what makes it so unavoidable. In the end all just inevetibly die. In truth the condition of witches and magical girls only increase the horror of death that our society has so desperately tried to extinguish, but it does not fundamentally change its nature.",[36,1709,1710],{},"A catalyst however that orders this for Homura, that she clings to in her own darkness, is the promise she made with Madoka.",[36,1712,1713],{},"In loop 2 when Madoka is about to witch out she gives Homura her last griefseed and asks her to kill her and to go back in time to prevent her from ever becoming a magical girl.\nHomura promises, she puts Madoka out of her misery and then goes back in time.",[36,1715,1716],{},"This promise becomes Homura’s guiding light in the darkness. And yet having to kill Madoka with her own hands permanently traumatized Homura. This disparity is something which inherently distorts a humans perception.\nIn that Madoka has to her already, even now, become an abstract concept.\nThat is how they grew apart and how Homura lost Madoka in truth.\nA few more loops and all that is left is merely a Madoka whom she grew apart from, and a promise that is the only thing that at all makes sense or gives direction to her.",[36,1718,1719],{},"The song „Connect“ from the original anime reflects Homura’s perception on this. The full lyrics are:",[68,1721,1722],{},[36,1723,1724,1725,1727,1728,1730,1731,1733,1734,1736,1737,1739],{},"I won't forget the promise we made, I'll close my eyes and ascertain it shaking off the darkness that closed in on me, I advance on. ",[43,1726],{},"\nWhen can I see again here the future that I lost? ",[43,1729],{},"\nAgain and again, I'll tear apart the shadow of distress that spilled out and walk on in this world. ",[43,1732],{},"\nThe time that ticked away ceaselessly now announces the beginning, putting my unchanging feelings into it I'll open the closed door. ",[43,1735],{},"\nMy awoken heart has started to run, in order to draw the future. ",[43,1738],{},"\nEven if I come to a standstill on a difficult road, the sky is always waiting for me in a beautiful blue. So I'm not scared by now, no matter what happens, I won't get disheartened.",[36,1741,1489,1742],{},[77,1743,1744],{},"Connect, Madoka Magica",[36,1746,1747,1748,1751],{},"It's actually amazing how overwhelmingly desperate and convicted the lyrics are. And it is obvious that they are from Homura's perspective, especially when the song plays in Episode 10 after Homuras flashback. It basically describes Homura's dedication to the promise she made with Madoka.\nHowever, note that one thing that Homura is commonly accused of it almost entirely lacking from it: It is obsession with Madoka.\nIt is very somber and also very much focused on ",[409,1749,1750],{},"herself"," in a way that seems unusual if you look at it from the apparent consensus that is often reached about Homura.",[36,1753,1754],{},"It says:",[533,1756,1757,1763,1770],{},[536,1758,1759,1760,303],{},"the darkness that closed in on ",[77,1761,1762],{},"me",[536,1764,1765,1766,1769],{},"the future that ",[77,1767,1768],{},"I"," lost.",[536,1771,1772,1773,1775,1776,1779],{},"the sky is always waiting for ",[77,1774,1762],{}," in a beautiful blue. ",[409,1777,1778],{},"THEREFORE"," I'm not scared.",[36,1781,1782],{},"It does have indeed: \"the promise we made\", \"awoken hear\" and \"putting my unchanging feelings into it\". So it also speaks clearly of dedication to Madoka, however the central motive is not yet Madoka herself as herself, but as someone in relationship to Homura.",[36,1784,1785,1786,1788],{},"So now, this raises one important question: ",[43,1787],{},"\n\"Why would Homura go out of her way to such an extent for Madoka? — she only knew her for a month.\"",[36,1790,1791],{},"The common explaination for this that many assume as a given is that Homura loves Madoka in an obsessive way.",[36,1793,1794,1795,1798,1799,1802,1803,1808,1809,1811,1812,1815,1816,1818,1819,1822,1823,1826],{},"However, if that were the case we would expect to see such motives in her songs. However we ",[77,1796,1797],{},"DON'T",". Instead what we see is ",[409,1800,1801],{},"existencial"," weight.\nAnd that is the key to understanding Homura, it is one major reason why we went into such details in ",[1804,1805,1807],"a",{"href":1806},"#this-world-is-not-worth-saving","chapter 1",":",[43,1810],{},"\nThe reality of the world that Homura is confronted with if looked at from a purely rational perspective is ",[409,1813,1814],{},"Nihilism",". ",[43,1817],{},"\nWhat else should Homura do? The answer that Kyouko found for herself was ",[409,1820,1821],{},"hedonism",", for Sayaka it was ",[409,1824,1825],{},"self-richeousness"," and for Mami it was simply ignorance and looking to survive another day.",[36,1828,1829],{},"For Homura this purpose was keeping the promise she made.",[36,1831,1832],{},"This is also what Kyubey spells out:",[68,1834,1835],{},[36,1836,1837,1839,1840,1842,1844,1845,1847,1849],{},[77,1838,217],{}," Do you know why she is being so stubborn about it? ",[43,1841],{},[77,1843,181],{}," Because she hasn’t given up hope. That’s why. If things don’t work out, she’ll just negate this timeline and start it all over again. She’ll go on and on, and keep right on fighting, and continue this meaningless chain of events. At this point, it’s not possible for her to stop or give up. That’s not an option any more. You see. The moment she acknowledges that everything she’s done is pointless and your fate’s impossible to change, Homura Akemi will fall into despair and turn into a Grief Seed. She knows it to be true. And that’s why she has no choice. She has to keep fighting, regardless of whether she can win or not. ",[43,1846],{},[77,1848,217],{}," So you’re saying as long as she thinks there’s hope, she’s doomed.",[36,1851,1489,1852],{},[77,1853,1854],{},"Episode 11, Madoka Magica",[36,1856,1857,1858,1860,1861,1863],{},"They key sentence here is: \"The moment she acknowledges that everything she’s done is pointless and your fate’s impossible to change, Homura Akemi will fall into despair and turn into a Grief Seed. She knows it to be true.\" ",[43,1859],{},"\nFor Homura this is an existencial situation, she trapped herself in this situation because anything else would mean falling into nihilism. ",[43,1862],{},"\nAnd nihilism immediately leads to death in her situation.",[159,1865,1867],{"id":1866},"my-greatest-failure","My greatest failure",[36,1869,1870],{},"Indeed Homura considers it her greatest failure that she alowed Madoka to wish to become Madokami.\nHowever in truth this is just a conclusion to the following observation: Homura was not able to save Madoka in over 100 loops.\nNo matter how often she looped, she never saved her until eventually Madoka wished for something that became impossible to undo and Homura stopped looping.\nThis was just the inevetible final loop.",[36,1872,1873],{},"As written in chapter 1.4. Homura understands that Madoka’s sacrifice is futile but she decides to honor her and to continue to live to preserve her memory.\nAs Madoka has by then already become an abstract concept to her, this is the natural next consequence.\nJust how a person first becomes a symbol and then as a martyr finally a canonized saint, so Madoka became to Homura a martyr to whom she lived in her honor.",[36,1875,1876],{},"In this however hope faded away, and all that was left was simply an „ideal“.",[36,1878,1879],{},"Homura has no hope in Madoka carrying her away to the law of cycles.\nThis is perhaps the single greatest peace of evidence that Madoka’s sacrifice failed.\nIf Madoka did indeed create a magical girl heaven where all magical girl could be forever happy with her - then surely Homura would seek nothing more than to go to her side in paradise as soon as possible.",[36,1881,1882],{},"We can see how Paul the apostle saw his service:",[68,1884,1885],{},[36,1886,1887],{},"„I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.“",[36,1889,1489,1890],{},[77,1891,1892],{},"Philippians 1:23-24 NI",[36,1894,1895],{},"Because of this, death and the prospect of going to heaven didn’t scare him at all. On the contrary he saw suffering for Christ as an honor and death as salvation.",[36,1897,1898],{},"However For Homura death is not salvation, the world is irredeemable and not already saved.\nAnd this is a key distinction.",[36,1900,1901],{},"With this conviction in her heart Homura is appalled when she realizes that the world that is created in rebellion is a fake.\nShe calls it a „mockery“.\nBecause it mocks the sacrifice that Madoka made, it is unforgivable to her to escape and live happily when the world is irredeemable and Madoka is a concept.\nShe does not allow herself this kind of happiness. All because she failed to protect Madoka.",[36,1903,1904],{},"One line that is entirely incomprehensible if you look at it from the naive perspective is this one:",[68,1906,1907],{},[36,1908,1909],{},"„Don't forget. Always, somewhere, someone is fighting for you. As long as you remember her, you are not alone.“ (picture)",[36,1911,1912],{},"If you read it from Homura’s perspective it is a mockery: How is Madoka really fighting for Homura? Homura is the saddest and loneliest magical girl on the planet. And all because she failed to protect Madoka and lot her best friend.\nIn that - how exactly is Madoka fighting for her?\nEven if Madoka is a law that may also cull Homura one day. That does not really amount to fighting for her.\nIt may seem like this is the case for other magical girls who never had a personal relationship with Madoka - but absolutely not for Homura.\nAnd if you look at Homura’s own quote from\nRebellion you will see that „as long as you remember her, you are not alone.“ is an even greater mockery.\nAs long as Homura remembers Madoka she is damned to be alone and to live all her life in her honor. Homura explains just how unbearably lonely she was, how she doubted her own memory.\nIf anything this is a cruel and hollow cosmic joke.",[36,1914,1915],{},"And yet, ironically enough it is exactly right if you look at it from Madoka’s perspective:\nHomura still - even now - fights for Madoka.\nAnd Madoka herself said that she won’t be lonely, since she will see all timelines; in other words: as long as she remembers Homura she won’t be alone.",[159,1917,1919],{"id":1918},"i-dreamt-that-i-met-again-a-familiar-smile","I dreamt that I met again a familiar smile.",[36,1921,1922],{},"Now, after going into the longeliest desert Homura goes the way of the world; Her energy is exhausted and eventually she starts turning into a witch.\nHowever as an experiment to see what may happen, Kyubey catpures homuras soul gem into a barrier in order ot observe the law of cycles.",[36,1924,1925],{},"The world in rebellion is therefore technically this:\nA dreamworld inside Homura’s soul gem which is held in stasis by Kyubeys barrier preventing Homura from becoming a witch, next to Homura who is laying in a desert. Inside a universe which exists on a timeline in the multiverse which came to pass by Madoka becaming the law of cycles.",[36,1927,1928],{},"Many say that the protagonist of Rebellion is a familiar called Ai. However, that is merely an interpretation.\nHomura yet exists within the dreamworld herself as her own active consciousness.",[36,1930,1931],{},"In order to understand the dream world we first need to establish the mechanics of it:",[36,1933,1934],{},"The dream world is apparently a peaceful world where the magical girls are battling nightmares instead of wreights.",[36,1936,1937],{},"These nightmares are however displayed as puppets that are controlled by hands.\nIt is written on the background:\nMade in Kabinet; Homulili",[36,1939,1940],{},"Kyubey says about Homura that she is like a chick unable to hatch from its egg.\nShe is a witch; yet she is not yet.\nAnd at the same time Homura also exists as a protagonist within her own dream world.",[36,1942,1943],{},"The dream world itself has very similar mechanics to a witches barrier as we know it from the original series, as commented on by many characters.\nThis means that the world is fundamentally constructed consistent of two things:",[533,1945,1946,1949],{},[536,1947,1948],{},"the manifestations of the witches unconscious.",[536,1950,1951],{},"The victims it lured inside.",[36,1953,1954],{},"However in this case two other entities manifest within: Homura herself and the law of cycles.",[36,1956,1957],{},"Because Homura is not yet a witch and this is within her own soul, somehow the creation is more benevolent then witches usually are.\nThe soul gem has not yet flared out, and her ego and soul still remain.",[36,1959,1960],{},"The laws of the world are governed by the familiars of Homura who affect the world.\nIf you read through the additional material you will see many of them listed with explicit functions that make the world in Rebellion work.\nOne example being the Zeplins „Lise“ who change the memories of people inside.",[36,1962,1963],{},"Among the familiars one thing that stands out more then anything are the children of the city, they are listed as:",[36,1965,1966],{},"This is amazing because this is Homura listing the conditions of her heart plainly.",[36,1968,1969],{},"If we see this list, then we can be reminded of this passage:",[68,1971,1972],{},[36,1973,1974],{},"They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.",[36,1976,1489,1977],{},[77,1978,1979],{},"Romans 1:29-31",[36,1981,1982],{},"Especially fitting is that it lists as the second to last: „no love“.\nAnd the last child of the city is „Ai“ who is love — but no one has seen that devil yet.",[36,1984,1985],{},"One thing we immediately stumble upon if we read these things side by side is that Homura was surely seen as virtuous even before Rebellion. Madoka called her „my best friend.“ So why does Homura see herself this way?",[36,1987,1988],{},"The dreamworld is the world of Homura’s Heart desire; what she wishes for more than anything in her heart of hearts.\nIt is the manifestation of what she sincerely wished in her heart - not what she spoke, when she wished to be the one who protects Madoka.\nTo stand by her side.\nFor this purpose all the other characters were lured inside the barrier, in order to live out this dream.",[36,1990,1991],{},"The first part of Rebellion is Homura remembering the truth of the world and realizing the nature of this dreamworld.\nIt is striking what kind of evaluation Homura reaches once she understands that this is an idealized world that SOMEONE dreamt of:\nShe considers it a mockery of Madokas sacrifice.",[36,1993,1994],{},"It is absolutely heartbreaking to understand that Homura gives this answer to seeing her own hearts desire portrayed before her: What she wants more then anything is a mockery. And she decries it.\nThis world is a product of the things she wished for in her heart that even back then she could not speak loudly.\nHomura does not dare to claim this: It is the essence of self denial.\nMadoka sacrificed herself and went to a place worse then death; while Homura gets to live out her dreams?\nThe horrible, irredeemable world that Madoka once tried to protect is out there. But she, instead of fighting wreights; as would be her duty. Is instead here - in this dream - having a pleasant every day life.\nTo her this is a mockery.",[36,1996,1997],{},"It is only after Sayaka - of all people - tells her that this fantasy is not that bad, that she reconsiders it.",[36,1999,2000],{},"Does it really have to be destroyed?\nWhy exactly is this a mockery?\nbecause it does not honor the sacrifice Madoka made?\nBut what use is honor to an abstract concept?",[36,2002,2003],{},"In truth the dream world is not merely a world of Homura’s desire, but it is a world of recursive instrospection:\nThe world adjusts itself to the realizations that Ai makes; and yet Homura also controls the world, leading to new confrontation, new realizations.\nHomura looks into her own soul again and again, and thereby stripping away everything layer by layer, going in deeper and deeper into her own soul. Until she finally reaches the bottom of her own abyss.",[36,2005,2006],{},"And this is when Madoka Jumps on her all of a sudden.",[36,2008,2009],{},"The familiars light a firework in celebration:\nHomura is tipped over by Madoka who jumps on her.",[36,2011,2012],{},"What follows after this is the flower scene:\nHomura tells Madoka about the world, veiling it in metaphor. And yet it is the truth:\nMadoka went away to a far away place, and Homura could no longer reach her.",[36,2014,2015],{},"Madoka however answers:\nI would never want that.",[36,2017,2018],{},"This is the key realization that makes Homura understand everything.",[36,2020,2021],{},"Madoka did not want to become an idol.\nMadoka does not need Homura to honor her as a God, or as a memory or as some kind of ideal that she has always been chasing behind.\nMadoka is merely a girl who needs to be saved.",[36,2023,2024],{},"the flowers wilt and die.\nThe violet flowers were Homura’s admiration, her idolatry, her pretty image of Madoka.\nBut the image has to die for the truth to be set free.",[36,2026,2027],{},"The ponpon seeds flying away, represent a new beginning.\nHomura says: You have blessed me more then you could ever know.\nA why, once again. An idol shattered.",[36,2029,2030],{},"Homura now calls Kyouko; the familiars in the background are dancing to a familiar tune:\nI will never forget the promise we made….",[36,2032,2033],{},"What promise?\nTo save me from myself, from my own foolish mistakes.",[36,2035,2036],{},"Now; finally, Homura can save Madoka.\nNot as an ideal, not as a purpose.\nBut as a human being.",[159,2038,2040],{"id":2039},"death-and-rebirth","Death and Rebirth",[36,2042,2043],{},"Homura now makes sure she got it right. Despite just having reached conviction a mere moment ago does not know what she is to do with this conclusion yet. She feels like she can no longer particulate in the everyday happiness because she can not lie to the others. But at the same time - where should she go? What should she do?",[36,2045,2046,2047,2049],{},"When she was riding the boat, the image of Sayaka saying that the world is not so bad that is should end, appeared; and Homura agrees with that:",[43,2048],{},"\nThe beautiful dreamworld is not evil. Since there is no idol left to mock, and meaninglessness surrounds it, there is nothing to find fault with. That is because the metric by which „fault“ could even be defined has vanished along with the idol.\nThis right here is the void of existential nihilism that fall onto Homura.",[36,2051,2052],{},"Without direction, she seperates herself from the world and locks herself away. She knows now that she is the witch. That she is the one who trapped everyone here. And yet the world where they live happily, it is beautiful to her, and she does not have to end it either.",[36,2054,2055],{},"Kyubey then appears and breaks this stalemate: He tells Homura that it was he who trapped her, and that he did it in order to observe the law of cycles — in order to control it, and in order to reach Madoka once again.",[36,2057,2058,2059,2061,2062,2064,2065,2067],{},"This changes the evaluation of the situation. Homura now gains one last thing which she can still do for Madoka: to die for her.",[43,2060],{},"\nWhile Homura recognized that Madoka does not need honor, she still needs protection. And if that is what „good for nothing“ is good for, then that is just a fitting end for her.\nHomura summons a curse in order to drown herself and the dreamworld.",[43,2063],{},"\nIn that she now manifests her witch form.",[43,2066],{},"\nIt is interesting to note the symbolism we have here:",[36,2069,2070,2071,2073,2074,2076],{},"Homura’s witch Homulili is the nutcracker witch. Her nature is self sufficiency.",[43,2072],{},"\nShe is a nutcracker because fighting again and again and enduring hardship after hardship is cracking nut after nut.",[43,2075],{},"\nHer character sheet says:\n\"Her galant form has now become useless, after having cracked many Nuts\".",[36,2078,2079],{},"Indeed Homura's sin is self sufficency, she has always relied only on heself.\nHowever, this is now the absolute limit where she can not go further alone by herself.\nShe is just one girl, and all she can do is give her life, and then that is it.",[36,2081,2082],{},"Homura experiences the world now as a witch:\nAll her memories have come back to haunt her.\nAll her failure.\nBut here another transformation takes place, her instrospection reaches its zenith.",[36,2084,2085],{},"At the same time seeing the funeral procession unfold are the magical girls and most importantly Madoka and her servants Sayaka and Bebe who kept Madoka’s memories for her in order to decieve Kyubey so he wouldn’t notice.",[36,2087,2088],{},"The following scene is a confrontation of these two:",[533,2090,2091,2094],{},[536,2092,2093],{},"It is Homuras internal self reflection.",[536,2095,2096],{},"The outward confrontation between her witchform and the Magical Girls trying to reach her.",[36,2098,2099],{},"The exact Nature of Homura witch form is that she stubornly Goes to her execution, but at the same time giant arms appear from her back that are desperately clawing back to life.\nThe soldiers march.\nHomura's Nutcracker witch fits her character perfectly: With self discipline, she even manages to supress her desire to live because she believes it to be necessary. But that, too is a manifestation of her self sufficency. Her teeth have fallen out, because she has burned out. She has given everything, and this is the last thing left to give.",[36,2101,2102],{},"Madoka on the other hand is running towards Homura in order to reach her.",[36,2104,2105],{},"The song that plays in the background is Mysterioso.",[68,2107,2108],{},[36,2109,2110,2111,2113,2114,2116,2117,2119,2120,2122,2123,2125,2126,2128,2129,2131,2132,2134,2135,2137,2138,2140,2141,2143,2144,2146],{},"Taking your hand,",[43,2112],{},"\nI reach for the distance,",[43,2115],{},"\nheading for the place",[43,2118],{},"\nthat only our hearts know. ",[43,2121],{},"\n(...)",[43,2124],{},"\nThe sky is blue and high; ",[43,2127],{},"\nthe young wind shines. ",[43,2130],{},"\nA song of wonder ",[43,2133],{},"\nis yet unseen like a small bell. ",[43,2136],{},"\nAt the end of the far-too-long night, ",[43,2139],{},"\nthere’s a chorus that awakens the dawn. ",[43,2142],{},"\nNo matter how fickle it may be, ",[43,2145],{},"\nit foretells the beginning.",[36,2148,1489,2149,2152,2153,2158],{},[77,2150,2151],{},"Misterioso","   (English translation ",[1804,2154,2155],{"href":2155,"rel":2156},"https:\u002F\u002Fcanta-per-me.net\u002Flyrics\u002Fmisterioso\u002F",[2157],"nofollow",")",[36,2160,2161,2162,2165],{},"And so in a mysterious way now, something absolutely and utterly impossible happens: ",[77,2163,2164],{},"Ai","(Love) is born.",[36,2167,2168],{},"Love in its essence is not merely a feeling, though it is. But it is an absolute.\nHomura metaphorically sees Madoka’s hand reach towards her in all of her despair, and all of her darkness.\nJust as it happened in the flower scene:\nA small kindness, a small warmth.\nHomura loves Madoka just for that alone.\nShe already knew, and she already loved.\nBut here this love reaches a critical mass.",[36,2170,2171],{},"Madoka did not reach Homura with magic or with some extreme deed of compassion. Nor by saving her or giving her something of immeasurable value; but with kindness alone.",[68,2173,2174],{},[36,2175,2176],{},"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.",[36,2178,1489,2179],{},[77,2180,2181],{},"1 John 4:7-8",[36,2183,2184],{},"The origin of this love is insurmountable, it is not given because Madoka gave something first. It should not logically be possible for love to be born from this.\nMadoka just reached out her hand to Homura, on paper nothing special happened.\nMadoka may be seen as a savior by many, but to Homura she is just her friend who made a terrible mistake.\nIt is Homura who loved, her heart was touched and it shined; turning to colorful.",[68,2186,2187],{},[36,2188,2189],{},"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.",[36,2191,1489,2192],{},[77,2193,2194],{},"John 3:8",[36,2196,2197],{},"And this is what happens here: in a mysterious way.\nThe wind blows and awakens Homura now completely, the seeds that once were sown now bloom.\nStanding next to madoka for a moment Homura and Madoka break the illusion.\nMadoka asks her if she is afraid.\nHomura says: No. I will not hesitate anymore.\nThe flower has grown, love has finally awoken; now is the time to act.",[159,2199,2201],{"id":2200},"aiyo","AiYo",[36,2203,2204,2205,2207,2208,2210,2211,2213,2214,2216,2217,2219,2220,2222],{},"Now, Homura is laying in the loneliest desert.",[43,2206],{},"\nAnd Madokami, this idol of death; this false God that came into being by the sacrifice of Madoka.",[43,2209],{},"\nThis law, this world; none of them matter anymore in the face of love.",[43,2212],{},"\nHomura grabs Madoka and pulls her from heaven.",[43,2215],{},"\nHomura’s soulgem turns into a new color:",[43,2218],{},"\nHomura‘s heart and soul were touched; they now shine turning into a brilliant color.",[43,2221],{},"\nTherefore now she takes flight riding on Hope.",[36,2224,2225,2226,2228,2229,2231,2232,2234],{},"Homura grows wings:",[43,2227],{},"\nThe soulgem is shattered, Homura merges her soul with the spool which is the karma that ties Madoka and her together.",[43,2230],{},"\nShe accepts the responsibility for all of it.",[43,2233],{},"\nA new world is created, with a new principle: love.",[36,2236,2237],{},"Finally, this results in the creation of the new world as we had seen in chapter 2.",[36,2239,2240],{},"The most important thing is that Homura, loving Madoka genuinely — not as an ideal, not as some kind of idol but as a person does that which love — true love — always does: it lets her go. Not into her own death, by her foolishness, because Love always protects.\nBut into her own life, where she can be with her family.",[36,2242,2243],{},"Homura — whoes wish was to stand next to Madoka and to fight as someone who can protect her; now truly has become someone who protects her.\nBut not by standing next to her. Instead she stays far away, suffering all alone for her.",[36,2245,2246],{},"Remember: somewhere someone is always fighting for you. If you remember her, you are not alone.",[36,2248,2249],{},"But Madoka does not remember.\nAnd yet her life is happiness.\nPaid for by Homura.",[36,2251,2252],{},"If we look closely at the lyrics of Colorful we see what it truly means:",[68,2254,2255],{},[36,2256,2257,2258,2260,2261,2263,2264,2266,2267,2269],{},"You touched my heart and it shined, turning so colorful ",[43,2259],{},"\nSo I'll take flight, riding on hope ",[43,2262],{},"\nYour wishes are gathered beneath the sky that stretches infinitely ",[43,2265],{},"\nI'll protect them and move forward ",[43,2268],{},"\nTo the tomorrow that no one knows about",[36,2271,1489,2272],{},[77,2273,2274],{},"Colorful",[36,2276,2277],{},"The heart that was touched is Homura's heart.\nHer soulgem literally turned into a new color, one that was not seen before.\nLove is something which is not of this world, therefore no one in this world could possibly understand it.",[36,2279,2280],{},"Homura takes flight riding on hope with her new wings, and now she goes on protecting everyones wishes and moves forward to a tomorrow no one knows.",[159,2282,2284],{"id":2283},"your-silver-garden","Your silver Garden",[36,2286,2287,2288,2290,2291,2293,2294,2296],{},"Homura is sitting on her chair, on her throne overseeing the world.",[43,2289],{},"\nThe moon is torn in half; because this is what it cost her:",[43,2292],{},"\nHomura sacrificed the one thing that she wanted more then anything.",[43,2295],{},"\nTo be close with Madoka, to be warm, to be held.",[36,2298,2299,2300,2302,2303,2305,2306,2308,2309,2311,2312,2314,2315,2317,2318,2320,2321,2323],{},"Instead now she is leaning down the cliff.",[43,2301],{},"\nThere is no one to hold her.",[43,2304],{},"\nBut Kyubey still appears again.",[43,2307],{},"\nHomura crushes him, kicking him into the dirt.",[43,2310],{},"\nThe silver garden is this new world.",[43,2313],{},"\nIt is a Garden, and Homura now became the guardian of everyone’s slumber.",[43,2316],{},"\nThe child who was lost, is Homura; she arrived earliest today:",[43,2319],{},"\nTo a place that is brighter then correctness.",[43,2322],{},"\nBecause Homura gave up her own justice and correctness to save.",[36,2325,2326,2327,2329,2330,2332,2333,2335],{},"In that Homura gave everything:",[43,2328],{},"\nHer reputation, her justice and her happiness — for love.",[43,2331],{},"\nNot to be liked, seen, held close or even loved; but for love even while being hated.",[43,2334],{},"\nAnd yet in the end Homura is the only one dancing. Because for love it was worth it.",[36,2337,2338],{},"The background music once again plays the main theme of Rebellion: Mada dame yo; not yet.",[36,2340,2341],{},"Because love is not the end but the beginning; as it never fails.\nSo therefore even Homura will not remain alone forever.",[36,2343,2344],{},"This sacrifice and this archivement.\nThe new movie will surely have some happiness for Homura as well.",[36,2346,2347],{},"As Kimi no Gin no Niwa ends:",[68,2349,2350],{},[36,2351,2352,2353,2355],{},"Toward the endless beginning,",[43,2354],{},"\nand towards the true ending",[36,2357,1489,2358],{},[77,2359,1520],{},[10,2361,2362,2366,2369,2378,2386,2391,2394,2397,2409,2413,2416,2438,2441,2448,2451,2460,2463,2466,2469,2472,2475,2478,2481,2499,2508,2513,2518,2521,2525,2527,2532,2537,2540,2545,2550,2553,2558,2563,2569,2575,2580,2585,2588,2636,2640,2643,2651,2654,2675,2687,2696,2699,2702,2706,2718,2725,2732,2739,2746],{"end":12,"start":12},[19,2363,2365],{"id":2364},"who-is-madoka","Who is Madoka?",[36,2367,2368],{},"Now, finally. After having gone all the way: We have seen the premise, the end and the journey; We have understood what happened.",[36,2370,2371,2372,2377],{},"But a single question now remains — It is the conclusion that a certain ",[1804,2373,2376],{"href":2374,"rel":2375},"https:\u002F\u002Fimagakblog.wordpress.com\u002F2018\u002F07\u002F18\u002Fsuspended-in-dreams-on-the-mitakihara-loopline-a-nietzschean-reading-of-madoka-magica-rebellion-story",[2157],"article"," reaches:",[68,2379,2380],{},[36,2381,2382,2383,2385],{},"The Nietzschean project, understood broadly as an attempt to “redeem” sickness of all types by construing it as a necessary genealogical stage in the development of something greater (rather than by healing it), is probably not at all relevant to the real world. We do not want or need redemption from our illnesses in the form of some kind of insight they exclusively can provide us, no insight into the epistemological structure of the human psyche will heal a physical ailment or ameliorate an oppressive social dynamic, and philosophical insights, spiritual depth, personal autonomy, and moral development are probably not purchased with a proportional amount of suffering, psychic or otherwise. The highly granular degree of epistemic autonomy Nietzsche describes as the prize of the post-nihilism “ubermensch” is probably not a possible or conceptually coherent phenomenon, and describing your past as something you willed into being wholecloth is probably neither an effective coping mechanism nor some secret key to “greatness”. ",[43,2384],{},"\nBut in a world where beliefs are made magically real and an alien is trying to turn you into a rock, it is, at least, a pleasant dream.",[36,2387,1489,2388],{},[77,2389,2390],{},"Imagak, Suspended in Dreams on the Mitakihara Loop Line – A Nietzschean Reading of Madoka Magica: Rebellion Story",[36,2392,2393],{},"Is this a conclusion you are willing to accept? Is that it?",[36,2395,2396],{},"To tell you plainly: I was not.",[36,2398,2399,2400,2402,2403,2405,2406,2408],{},"I, alone, struggled against reality to go beyond that place where he ended, concluding it an \"impossible dream\". ",[43,2401],{},"\nThe things that were written before are in truth trivial, and still I hope you can see them now — as they are amazingly beautiful. ",[43,2404],{},"\nBut is that beauty enough? ",[43,2407],{},"\nHere and now, comes the most important part: I will tell you the conclusion I reached at the end of world. If the last chapter was Homura's journey, then this is mine.",[159,2410,2412],{"id":2411},"gen-urobuchis-holy-grail","Gen Urobuchi's Holy Grail",[36,2414,2415],{},"Now that we understand the purpose and nature of this new world, let us go back and see it's form and it's character.\nBecause one accusation is still in the air: \"Homura hurt other people to save Madoka! Madoka wouldn't want that!\". Indeed, this would be problematic, and it would vastly deminish that which we have here.",[192,2417,2420,2423,2429,2432],{":left":231,"src":2418,"text":2419},"madoka\u002Ftrolley_problem.png","The trolley problem presents a dilemma: is it preferable to pull the lever to divert the runaway trolley onto the side track with just one person? — Wikipedia",[36,2421,2422],{},"Indeed in 1. Corinthians 13:6 it is written: \"Love does not delight in evil\", meaning that love does not sin for love. It is true that sometimes there is no good solution, and you have to chose between two horrible alternatives. One example of such a situation is the famous trolley problem (See picture).",[36,2424,2425,2426,2428],{},"One interesting conversation I had with a friend who is a Christian, when I was not yet, went thus: I asked, \"What would Jesus do when confronted with the trolley problem?\" My friend thought for a moment and answered: Jesus would not have to chose, he would not have to! ",[43,2427],{},"\nOf course that is, on the surface, a very naive statement — and I couldn't understand it at the time. Instead it made me think even less of Christianity as that may cause people to respond in such a foolish way, denying possibilites in an apparent reality. When confronted with a dillema, how can you solve it by not answering?",[36,2430,2431],{},"The true question behind it, and a larger topic of Gen Urobuchis work, is the question of Utilitarianism.",[36,2433,2434,2435,303],{},"Is it right to sacrifice the few for the many? Is it right to sacrifice anyone for my own percieved moral values, how can such a thing be permissible? In the end my friend was exactly right: Utilitarianism must be rejected ",[409,2436,2437],{},"as a premise",[36,2439,2440],{},"Of course the one who represets Utilitarianism in Madoka Magica primordially is Kyubey. In essence he is the ultimate Utilitarian.\nHowever, that is not the end of it.\nBeyond Kyubey we need to go even deeper. In fact we can not really understand the magnitude of the triumph set before us without going into it in detail: The previous work of Gen Urobuchi.",[36,2442,2443,2444,2447],{},"One work which is especially central here is ",[77,2445,2446],{},"Fate\u002FZero"," (Full spoilers ahead).",[36,2449,2450],{},"The protagonist of Fate\u002FZero is Emiya Kiritsugu. He is a very troubled man, and many things are worth saying that we will refrain from at this moment. However one thing that is very clear is that he is an Utilitarian who despises Utilitarianism, but sees it as without alternative.",[36,2452,2453,2454,2456,2457,2459],{},"The plot of Fate\u002FZero is that there is a Holy Grail, which can alegedly grant any wish. And therefore there is a Holy Grail war to attain the Grail, with different characters having different purposes for attaining the grail. ",[43,2455],{},"\nAmong them is Emiya Kiritsugu, who wants to save the world. ",[43,2458],{},"\nHowever for that he is willing to go to any length.",[36,2461,2462],{},"Before finding the holy grail war, Kiritsugu was trying to save the wold in the only way he could: pulling the lever on the trolley problem. Sacrificing the few for the many.",[36,2464,2465],{},"And yet when he finally stood before the holy grail — having sacrificed everything he had in order to attain it — the grail declared to him: I am merely power, without a means to attain that which you wish; I can not grant it. As such the grail wanted to impose utilitarianism onto the world.",[36,2467,2468],{},"Realizing the horror of what that would mean, Kiritsugu destroyed the holy grail. As such the holy grail expolded in a sea of flames and almost the entire city he was in perished.",[36,2470,2471],{},"Amongst the things that Emiya Kiritsugu sacrificed to save the world most primarily, beyond his justice and hunamity, there was \"Love\".",[36,2473,2474],{},"Therefore from that, arose a wish: What is he had only gone with love — is it not said that love will save the world? Thought it would have been foolish. Maybe, someway, somehow, it could have worked. He sought something which is impossible by his own means, and that ended only in a (the) lake of fire.",[36,2476,2477],{},"And in many ways, this alternative Kiritsugu — who rejected Utilitarianism and the world for love, is Homura. And Kyubey and the world of Madoka Magica, is in many ways the World that the holy grail offered Kiritsugu.",[36,2479,2480],{},"But would that not result in foolishness and selfish obsession? Would Homura not damn the entire world for love? In that case, she must truly be evil.",[36,2482,2483,2484,2486,2487,2489,2490,2492,2493,2495,2496,2498],{},"And yet, that is simply not the case. ",[43,2485],{},"\nWhy? ",[43,2488],{},"\nBy grace. ",[43,2491],{},"\nBecause God himself fights on the side of love. ",[43,2494],{},"\nThe reaons why love never fails is not the laws of this world, nor the logic. But in its foolishness, it is perfected. ",[43,2497],{},"\nLove; true love is not lead into temptation, but instead it is delieverd from evil.",[36,2500,2501,2502,2504,2505,2507],{},"How can I say something so outragous, something so unrealistic and foolish? ",[43,2503],{},"\nThis denies the entire premise of utilitariansm by faith. ",[43,2506],{},"\nAnd this is also why my friend is right.",[68,2509,2510],{},[36,2511,2512],{},"The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.",[36,2514,1489,2515],{},[77,2516,2517],{},"Psalm 23:1",[36,2519,2520],{},"As such, the reality is simply that Homura didn't really hurt or sacrifice anyone for love — only herself.",[159,2522,2524],{"id":2523},"homura-as-cruciform-saint","Homura as Cruciform Saint",[36,2526,107],{},[68,2528,2529],{},[36,2530,2531],{},"„And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.“",[36,2533,75,2534],{},[77,2535,2536],{},"John 3:19",[36,2538,2539],{},"About Christ it is written:",[68,2541,2542],{},[36,2543,2544],{},"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us",[36,2546,1489,2547],{},[77,2548,2549],{},"Galatians 3:13",[36,2551,2552],{},"Amazingly this reminds me of what the prophet Isaiah prophecised about the comming messiah:",[68,2554,2555],{},[36,2556,2557],{},"He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.",[36,2559,75,2560],{},[77,2561,2562],{},"Isaiah 53:3-5",[36,2564,2565,2566,2568],{},"Many people in our culture conceive of Jesus as some glorious hero who goes before the people and everyone cheers for him. ",[43,2567],{},"\nBut this is a twisted perspective. The people crucified him, the hated him for telling the truth. He was the one who upset their man made laws.",[36,2570,2571,2572,303],{},"This is the image that Homura bears now: The image of Jesus Christ.\nWhat does that make her? A God? A false messiah? No. Merely ",[409,2573,2574],{},"Christian",[68,2576,2577],{},[36,2578,2579],{},"But we all, with uncovered face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.",[36,2581,1489,2582],{},[77,2583,2584],{},"2 Corinthians 3:18",[36,2586,2587],{},"As such, bearing the image of Christ in the eyes of Sayaka and the world she is evil. Someone who needs to be persecuted.",[192,2589,2592,2606,2611,2614,2626,2631],{":left":231,"src":2590,"text":2591},"madoka\u002Fcup.png","Her cup overflows.",[68,2593,2594],{},[36,2595,2596,2597,2599,2600,2602,2603,2605],{},"You prepare a table before me ",[43,2598],{},"\nin the presence of my enemies. ",[43,2601],{},"\nYou anoint my head with oil; ",[43,2604],{},"\nmy cup overflows.",[36,2607,1489,2608],{},[77,2609,2610],{},"Psalm 23:5",[36,2612,2613],{},"Homura is there sitting at a table, before Sayaka.",[36,2615,2616,2617,2619,2620,2622,2623,2625],{},"While she is talking the liquid from her cup overflows and engulfs the world. Symbolizing her power over it. ",[43,2618],{},"\nIn that moment Bebe cheerfully runs through the overflowing purple water: ",[43,2621],{},"\nShe is celebrating, she is a child; She sees this world as it truly is: A fresh chance, a world where she can live her life once more. ",[43,2624],{},"\nShe is dancing in a rain of black feathers: But who cares if they are black? To her it is just appearance.",[68,2627,2628],{},[36,2629,2630],{},"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.",[36,2632,1489,2633],{},[77,2634,2635],{},"Mark 10:14",[159,2637,2639],{"id":2638},"fazit","Fazit",[36,2641,2642],{},"Finally two possible conclusions:",[533,2644,2645,2648],{},[536,2646,2647],{},"The undeniable trivial conclusion: Many of the works that are memetically inherited into Madoka Magica originate explicitly in the Christian Context. The archetypes themselves are not arbitrary, a logical meta structure exists in a way that always leads to a self consistent result. Now because the framework of systematic reformed theology is the logically necessary conclusion to the methodology of sola scriptura, all the derived archetypes necessarily will be perceivable sensibly through the same lense. Therefore Madoka Magica manifests a structure that is necessarily coherent under such metaphysics - as all of its parts are such. Therefore what we have here is a isomorphic mapping of the Christian weave of western civilization onto a Japanese anime which is structurally created from exactly that same weave.",[536,2649,2650],{},"Simply Madoka Magica does not lie and does not cheat itself but manifests that which logically follows, and additionally strives for the high and transcendent without looking away, while also mounting an enormous amount of structural sophistication. This by necessity manifests „truth“ — and by that I mean structural truth. However all truth is Christian truth. Christ IS the truth. Therefore wherever „truth“ is manifested, Christ is shadowed. This my be a fundamental law of this reality.",[36,2652,2653],{},"As a Christian the second conclusion is unavoidable and beyond doubt because the Bible explicitly teaches it to be true - not exclusively to Madoka Magica but to ALL things. Therefore it is true not because of my argument but because of the Bible.",[36,2655,2656,2657,2659,2660,2662,2663,2665,2666,2668,2669,2671,2672,2674],{},"However as a non Christian, you may struggle with the second conclusion. In that case the first one is provided as a Jungian interpretation.",[43,2658],{},"\nBut that would be yet so sad.",[43,2661],{},"\nThat conclusion keeps you from opening the closed door; it keeps you in the world of Imagek: it is still merely a pleasant dream.",[43,2664],{},"\nHowever if it is the second, if it is not cultural or psychological but that it manifests truth that is bleeding into reality from the transcendent; that is manifesting itself eternally from beyond the veil - then that would mean that it is ALL true.",[43,2667],{},"\nIf the structure of reality is truly such that „truth“ has the shape of Christ, then Christ IS the truth. And if he is the truth then he is God, and then: he has risen from the dead and it is sitting to the right side of God in heaven.",[43,2670],{},"\nBut then he also died on the cross for sinners, and the world is already saved.",[43,2673],{},"\nHallelujah!",[36,2676,2677,2678,2680,2681,2683,2684,2686],{},"Or we refuse to go there, we look away and the world is doomed.",[43,2679],{},"\nIs it truly right that Madoka Magica is a product of western and Christian influence?",[43,2682],{},"\nHas it not merely used the language to say that which it wanted to say?",[43,2685],{},"\nIf you look at the history of SekaiKei, then you will see that it is not only Madoka Magica. It is all of it, all of it is grasping at words trying to say, trying to cross over, trying to grasp for this shape: for Christ.",[36,2688,2689,2690,2692,2693,2695],{},"After having seen all that, having witnessed and understood. To me, this conclusion is undeniable.",[43,2691],{},"\nI bear witness that I have seen, and there is no doubt.",[43,2694],{},"\nEverything, everywhere proclaims the glory of Christ. Now that I see it, it is so radiant and beautiful.",[36,2697,2698],{},"I hope that you have seen beauty here. Perhaps you are struggling to go the next step, to believe. If you are at least feeling a pull, a longing that says: „maybe there is something!“ even if you bask away from it, I am greatful beyond words if that is what you got from all of this.",[36,2700,2701],{},"And therein is now my foundation laid; in this my blog I will show you other works. I will show you the weave, how it relates to each other. And how all of them — weakly, cowardly, longingly, naively, desperately, but nevertheless so beautifully are climbing upwards towards the ultimate truth.",[19,2703,2705],{"id":2704},"sources","Sources",[36,2707,2708,2709,2713,2714,2158],{},"Madoka Magica Episode 11: (",[1804,2710,2711],{"href":2711,"rel":2712},"https:\u002F\u002Fwiki.puella-magi.net\u002FMadoka_Magica_Episode_11:_The_Only_Thing_I_Have_Left_to_Guide_Me",[2157],")\nMadoka Magica Episde 12: (",[1804,2715,2716],{"href":2716,"rel":2717},"https:\u002F\u002Fwiki.puella-magi.net\u002FThe_Beginning_Story:_Episode_12",[2157],[36,2719,2720,2721,2158],{},"Faust (",[1804,2722,2723],{"href":2723,"rel":2724},"https:\u002F\u002Fherrlarbig.de\u002F2008\u002F10\u002F01\u002Ffaust-1-verweile-doch-du-bist-so-schoen-v-1700",[2157],[36,2726,2727,2728,2158],{},"Rebellion Transcript: (",[1804,2729,2730],{"href":2730,"rel":2731},"https:\u002F\u002Fpastebin.com\u002FsckF0rsz",[2157],[36,2733,2734,2735,2158],{},"Rebellion Runes: (",[1804,2736,2737],{"href":2737,"rel":2738},"https:\u002F\u002Fwiki.puella-magi.net\u002FWitch_Runes\u002FRebellion",[2157],[36,2740,2741,2742,2158],{},"Madoka Magica connect : (",[1804,2743,2744],{"href":2744,"rel":2745},"https:\u002F\u002Fwiki.puella-magi.net\u002FConnect",[2157],[36,2747,2748,2749,2751,2755,2757],{},"If you want to read more about the details of the familiars and the funeral procession you should read up the very detailed work here:",[43,2750],{},[1804,2752,2753],{"href":2753,"rel":2754},"https:\u002F\u002Farchiveofourown.org\u002Fworks\u002F51109111",[2157],[43,2756],{},"\nFrom a literally analysis perspective this work is brilliant. My part is not literally analysis to understand what it may represent but to break down the existential dimension of what we have here.",{"title":2759,"searchDepth":2760,"depth":2760,"links":2761},"",2,[2762],{"id":21,"depth":2760,"text":22},"md",{},true,"\u002Fmusings\u002Fultimate",{"description":2759},"musings\u002Fultimate","qfYbNbEDa1y7W5v6E9VzhTbnDurSJrU50Lff0O12jlA",1779145928692]