i actually think kyubey isn't inherently a bad guy. he doesn't have feelings, he was made for one purpose only: to save the universe. its not really his fault, that he doesn't know any better. and in the end, its for a nobel cause. just my two cents tho. i still think the "real" antagonist is homura, because of her selfish actions. don't get me wrong, i love the relation between homura and madoka, and wanna rip that little cat-looking-shit apart with my own two hands. but i just wanted to share a different spin on how to view the anime.
Ohohohoho Madoka opinions I see, don’t mind if I give my own take here. >:3c
I say this with a respect, because we’re all allowed to form our own opinions on media and such, but as someone who’s recently been gettin pretty damn into analyzing the series + rebellion, I can’t help but wholly disagree.
Starting off with Kyubey you gotta ask,
What makes someone a bad person? Their intent? Or their actions?
You’re right that Kyubey doesn’t possess emotions and their ultimate goal is to generate enough energy to sustain a universe being eaten by entropy. And I’ve seen several times before people feeling sympathy for Kyubey or thinking really he isn’t all that evil because the magical girls agreed to his contract.
But I think this falls exactly for the trap of his character.
He’s introduced in a way that is supposed to invoke sympathy, he’s hurt and running from Homura. He takes up the role of magical animal companion who reaches out to the series protagonists of magical girl shows to pull them into the fantastical world and plot. He is an allusion or stand in precisely for those characters. Of whom are entirely friendly and on the side of the protagonists. His appearance is disarming and cute, although a bit uncanny and unsettling the longer you stick around.
Kyubey doesn’t see himself or his kind as the bad guys, because why would he? He’s helping save the universe! And well, the girls agreed to this destiny, right?
But that’s an obfuscation of the truth.
Kyubey is manipulative and untrustworthy. He specifically targets the girls when they are at their most vulnerable. We’re introduced in a lighthearted tone enough, following Mami around as the girls consider making a contract. Mami tells her story and it indicates it was making a contract or literally death for her. She is without a family and lives alone, she entirely lacks a support network, because of this, despite only being a year older than the other girls, she puts on a more mature and put together persona.
She knows this life is dangerous but desires companionship and allies. She’s a victim of this system as much as the others, and once she dies a reality of magical girlhood is faced head on. There’s no denying or sugar coating it, and the whimsical cover of the nature of magical girls gets stripped away.
I’ve heard people say Madoka is indecisive in the series but I strongly disagree. Because it’s clear in her behavior that she abandons the idea of becoming a magical girl after the death of Mami. She has people she loves and can’t leave behind, she places her notebook in Mami’s empty apartment and asks for her forgiveness.
However, Kyubey hasn’t left. He is still stalking the girls. And each time they are presented with an option to make a contract there is a clear pattern. They are vulnerable, they are powerless, and they are desperate.
For the rest of the series Madoka is approached when she is stuck and her heart is breaking for others, true to her giving nature. She wouldn’t even be involved in the world of magical girls again if not for her best friend becoming one.
Kyubey tries repeatedly to take advantage of Madoka’s desperation and heart break for her friends, promising her power to stop all these bad things- if she just agrees. But it isn’t a bad handful of events- these are the specific consequences of a malicious system that Kyubey and his kind have intentionally constructed to trap innocent young girls and drive them into despair.
Sayaka makes a deal after seeing Kyosuke in extreme distress, she decides this is a noble sacrifice. She is unaware of Mami’s appearance being a front to the vulnerable girl that she is, because Mami only showed her vulnerability to Madoka. Because of that she holds herself up to this impossible standard of a courageous and pure hearted magical girl who fights for justice. And every time she fails to live up to that she severely beats herself up, until she’s caught into a spiral the system of being a magical girl is supposed to invoke. Helplessness.
Magical Girlhood is helplessness that lures young girls in with a promise of agency, when that couldn’t be farther from the truth. If you become a MG you are promised power and freedom and a wish, whatever your heart desires. It’s dangerous but don’t worry, it’s a noble cause, right?
But its purpose is to drive these girls into becoming witches. Kyubey purposefully isolates them, approaches them at their most vulnerable. He pits magical girls against one another, he lets them fight because the more they suffer the better it is for him- and if Madoka feels so helpless watching them, well, he has the cure. He speaks with a subtle manipulation, making the girls feel special, placing guilt or doubt in their minds to drive them to conclusions her wants them to arrive to, makes himself seem without accountability for what transpires.
Not to mention he very intentionally hides imperative information from ALL magical girls. About the truth of their soul contract. Absolutely none of these girls can give proper consent to the contract because he is shielding them from the full truth of it. That this is a death sentence, that all magical girls share a destiny of death. Or, in his real intent, a fate much worse than death. Becoming a witch, a physical manifestation of all of your emotional anguish, trapped in a prison of your own worst, torturous feelings. To be executed by the hands of another naive girl.
And even if he was entirely honest these girls still could not consent. Not when he targets them while under emotional duress to twist their arms into making a deal, and most of all not when these are children. Tweens and teens. Is Kyubey a bad person while he sacrifices girl after girl to the altar, while they don’t even know they’ve signed a pact to their woefully premature deaths?
There’s several allusions in the series directly to Faust, a tale specifically about making a deal with the devil. And even if Kyubey may lack empathy inherently, that apparently doesn’t stop him from being arrogant. He looks down at the girls for being creatures of emotion. He compares them to livestock. He believes he is 100% justified in lying and coercing these girls. But in what world would that make anything he did any less cruel and underhanded?
Is he absolved of being a bad person because he believes he’s doing the right thing? Is that not what most all people in the world who commit heinous acts believe? That somehow, someway, they are in the right?
I believe fully that lacking empathy does not make anyone or thing incapable of expressing compassion. Kyubey and his kind have been observing humanity for centuries, they’ve had direct access to the same kinds of knowledge as humanity, witness to the same experiences. If that isn’t enough for Kyubey to know better I don’t know what is.
But Kyubey only sees these girls as disposable fodder, and any suffering they have on the way down is a positive for his ends.
Homura, by all means, is the protagonist of PMMM. Not initially, and not the only one, but definitely a primary one. The entire story is wrapped around the consequences of her quest to save Madoka’s life, and ultimately in Rebellion we are brought to the fulfillment of her arc from her POV.
It’s interesting you bring up selfish actions, because I feel like the balance between selfless and selfishness is a theme in PMMM. And like the series shows in its other nuanced portrayals, this isn’t a black or white game.
Sayaka, for example. We get to see her full experience as a magical girl, she is the quintessential magical girl experience- hopeful start to despairing end. She makes her wish to help the boy she cares for heal, something selfless of her to do. But she also has her own wishes that this will make him favor her in some way. Kyubey deliberately guilt trips her about this, and as her opinion of herself lowers and lowers she casts herself into a view of cowardice and selfishness.
To her, especially operating under the noble ideal she has constructed out her own desires for doing good, for purpose, and Mami’s incomplete legacy, to be selfless is to be utter devoted to her cause. It is a bar she feels she has been failing to meet because she’s imperfect, she’s flawed and she grows tired and bitter and sad.
She is confronted with someone who directly contradicts her ideology, Kyoko, and initially this drives her to a rage. This was another reality of magical girlhood she was faced with, the cutthroat nature of survival, but she instead only saw a disrespect to the remaining echo of magical girlhood as justice and mystique that her time with Mami had painted. But then Kyoko opens up to her and she realizes she isn’t some evil person, it isn’t black and white.
Kyoko is selfish. She puts herself first always, or at least she’s resolved to. This is a direct influence of her experience with her father, with her own experience of selflessness- and how bitterly it ended. But like how complete selflessness is an unachievable ideal, her own selfishness is a coping mechanism- a survival technique. She admires and empathizes with Sayaka and reaches out to her, attempting to halt her rapid downward spiral. But Sayaka rejects this, because to her she’s determined complete selflessness is the only honest and good path. She continues to see in black and white anyway, her literally lowest point is portrayed in black and white.
With her inability to prioritize herself or spare herself kindness it kills her. But in turn her heartfelt desire for good and justice inspires Kyoko, and her final act is an entirely selfless one meant for Sayaka, the girl who dedicated on giving to everyone but herself. She sacrifices herself to give Sayaka peace and reach out to her, to comfort her tormented soul. In her final moments she prays, because deep down she started fighting for the same reasons Sayaka did.
All of the magical girls fight for good, all of them fight to be selfless. But it is inherently a losing battle because they are trapped within a predatory system. Kyoko adapted to survive, and to a different extent, so did Homura.
Homura is firstly, and foremostly, extremely traumatized.
And I don’t mean this to excuse her actions but her past with the prior timelines and the trauma it instilled onto her is integral to understanding her character.
She started off very similar to Madoka. Shy, unsure, without much autonomy. She meets Madoka, who is already a magical girl, and makes her first real friend in who knows how long.
In the initial timeline things go as they probably would have if not for Mami’s death. Without the presence of the full truth of magical girlhood, Madoka, instead of being coerced, is now willing and makes a contract for herself, though her wish is still to help another (saving the life of a cat). This speaks to her loving and sacrificial nature being with her through and through, even here.
We see it in the beginning of the series, Madoka is pulled in by the allure of becoming a MG because she craves purpose and agency. Kyubey promises both, you get power, a wish, and a just cause. Madoka comes from a loving home and good friends, she becomes a magical girl selfishly for her own fulfillment. But as we saw with Sayaka, acting for yourself is not inherently a bad thing at all. Or it would be a good thing here, if not for the underlying reality she is unaware she agreed to.
But despite Homura not becoming a magical girl in the first timeline until the end, they become friends. They care for one another, and witnessing Madoka sacrifice herself Homura is overcome with grief and sorrow.
And who else would that kind of vulnerability and desperation summon but Kyubey himself- with his offer.
So Homura gives up her soul to save Madoka’s life. She wakes up and starts the cycle over, confident she can now help her friend. They rebefriend one another, and she trains her powers. She’s still meek and unsure, but is determined and keeps pushing to improve, much to the love and support of her best friend.
That is until she dies once more. And then again. And again. And again.
Over and over Homura has relieved this month trying so hard to save the person she cares for. Initially she immediately informs everyone when she learns of the dark truth of the nature of witches and magical girls. This ends in disaster. She sees the girls around her die again and again, and always in the end, so does Madoka.
When we see Homura in the beginning of the series she is cold and distant. And we see in her recollection how much pain this causes her. But she has devoted herself entirely to saving Madoka’s life, no matter the cost.
Homura is not cold because she is villainous or uncaring, it is because it is necessity. She has done everything she can to strip herself of weakness to survive, like Mami, like Kyoko, like Sayaka. Shoving down her inner vulnerability to keep pushing forward to save Madoka.
You could say her actions are selfish because she will do whatever it takes to achieve her goal, but her goal is literally entirely selfless. She has seen Madoka cry and suffer and die over and over. The one person who has been unquestionably kind to her and everyone she loves.
Homura isn’t just letting the fates of the others become numb to her because she wants to, we see her try to stop Mami from engaging with Charlotte to the point Mami ties her up to stop her from intervening. She’s seen Sayaka fall into despair before and she knows there’s no use in stopping her progression. She extends her allyship and tries to cooperate with Kyoko to take Walpurgisnacht down. But her main priority will always be to save the person she loves.
And what she sacrifices the most to do this is herself. Trial after trial she has pushed herself forward because failure, because despair, meant letting Madoka die. Not just die, but be sealed to this horrible fate where you are doomed to suffer. Homura knows what becomes of magical girls, she has literally seen Madoka become a witch.
She’s also nearly given up, asked Madoka to become a witch with her, stay by each other’s sides. But Madoka wouldn’t let her give up, she saved her and asked her to go back in time. Madoka asks her to stop her from becoming a magical girl. So she won’t be doomed to suffer like this. And after promising, Homura has to end her life before she can become a witch in the absolute most heart wrenching scene I have ever witnessed- her scream of agony gives me chills.
But arguably, just as selfishness and selflessness cannot be cast in a black and white for the other characters you cannot do so with Homura. She is not just operating on her own desires or wishes but Madoka’s as well. She is endlessly putting herself in harm’s way to do so. And there are plenty of reflections in Madoka’s and Homura’s characters, but here lies an important difference.
Background, something you wouldn’t even think much about on Homura’s part.
Homura does not value herself, she is given literally no indication of family, was in the hospital facing a feeling of isolation and helplessness for who knows how long, and previously went to a Catholic school- assumably being raised Catholic.
Whereas Madoka doesn’t value herself much for not feeling that she is doing enough for others, she is still coming from a loving home and a proper support system. She wants agency, confidence, passion, and purpose. Things all exemplary in her mother that she looks up to. She wants to find something she can dedicate herself to and find meaning and identity in that.
Homura is alone. She does not value herself because she does not see herself as capable. She is given value through Madoka’s kindness and when that is torn away and she wishes to save her friend, that’s when she becomes a magical girl. Not even for herself, as Madoka initially had.
When Homura becomes more capable it isn’t through a process of learning to be more confident in herself or trusting her capabilities. Perhaps for a short moment as she gets her footing. But as the cycle repeats her strength is drawn from necessity, from a necessary adaptation for survival. She clearly thinks very little of herself. She even distances herself entirely from Madoka despite the pain this causes her because she needs to dedicate herself to finishing this cycle once and for all. She is not operating on making herself happy, and every time she fails she spares herself no kindness.
But Madoka wouldn’t want that for her, because she sees her heart. That she’s a gentle girl who cares a lot for the people she loves, for Madoka. She’s been transformed over the series from her trauma, tenfold to the other girls because of the sheer amount of cycles she has lived.
Homura knows more than anyone else that the only way to survive this cruel system is to work as coldly and efficiently as possible. Because kindness gets you killed, and Madoka is kind, and it killed her in every single timeline before. Every single one.
I think people often forget about the scene in Rebellion in the field. Homura has broken down into tears faced with the reality she was left with without Madoka. When Madoka ascended she was left entirely alone in her grief. Not only did no one know her traumas, but no one knew Madoka, the entire reason she dedicated herself to her mission. A mission she failed. She knew Madoka’s sacrifice was noble, but she was left entirely alone in a world where her best friend was worse than dead and no one remembered her.
Homura brings up how at some point she doubted herself and wondered if she made it all up. The absolute pain of doubting your reality in such a way, the isolation of her experience, the grief and loss. No wonder she ultimately fell to despair.
But Madoka comforts her, she holds her close and braids her hair, as though she’s trying to rebuild Homura back into the girl she was before all of this strife transformed her. She tells Homura that she would never leave her loved ones, and to be away from everyone would make her incredibly sad.
And Homura’s eyes go wide and hair comes undone as she realizes this. A wash of emotion, of relief to hear her affirm this and a feeling of… something else.
If you think about the circumstances of Madoka’s sacrifice, she does it when Homura is facing death. Her family is in danger from the witch appearing as a storm, her friends are all dead. Madoka uses her karmic destiny to make the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate act of selflessness.
But there is no pure selflessness. What she did was unequivocally good, good for all magical girls. Even Homura spent her time after her ascension trying to honor Madoka’s wish. But in it’s selflessness it erased the happiness and future of Madoka. Her kindness spread so much good but at the sacrifice of herself. Not just dying, but a fate far worse than death.
And Homura has done this over and over again, she’s had Madoka make her promise to stop her from becoming a magical girl before. She has only ever been fighting for a world where Madoka can be safe and happy. And hearing this admission, notably within the labyrinth- with Madoka’s memories gone and the constructed circumstances of all the girls peacefully being magical girls- the Madoka telling her this is the Madoka most resembling the girl she knew in the first timeline.
And she is telling her that doing something as drastic as she did would make her unhappy.
I think there is of course something to be said about Homura pulling her down from Heaven. That she acted without Madoka’s consent, forcefully tearing her apart and erasing her memory to give her a peaceful life. She’s trapped between dishonoring Madoka’s wishes and sacrifice, while simultaneously acting on Madoka’s wishes and well being. But she has been operating on these cycles for so long- why would this time be any different. Another failure of a timeline, Madoka is still suffering, so she has to start over anew.
And I think her self perception is important in her portrayal as demonic. She thinks extremely little of herself, and not only that, but again, was raised Catholic. In the film we see the rooftop of the middle school and among the many small changes within the labyrinth we see it now resembles a cathedral. There are many religious themes, the teacher opens speaking on the second coming, about the end of the world. Madoka is literally a god, Homura kneels down and hangs off the feet of her statue.
Homura has been raised in a religion that teaches of sin and guilt and she is, for one, in love with another girl. She has been strung along by fate again and again, trapped within it. She has been taught to supplicate herself before god but now seeks to rebel against such.
Her self actualization is once again a product of her trauma. She acts in a twist of selfishness and selflessness. She labels herself as demonic, she fails to recognize her own sacrifices or value. She imparts vindictive wrath onto Kyubey and Kyubey alone, she allows all the other girls to live happily. She even separates herself yet again from Madoka, in a world she can control she does not force them to be close. She would not do that, and thinks too little of herself now, and determines rather that they shall end up enemies.
Homura is not happy at the end of rebellion. She’s alone. She has got her way but it is distorted, not because of her inherent character but a reflection of her experiences, of her self perception. We are left in a delicate state of a universe, waiting for Madoka to awaken once again. But in the meantime, she’s given opportunity to live a normal life.
I’d say by the end of Rebellion Homura is antagonistic by her own choice and action. But seeing the scene in the field, knowing the full context of her experiences. Despite regarding herself as evil I don’t think that she is, and in the upcoming movie I don’t think Madoka will think she is either. She even tried to kill herself in her witch form before Madoka and their friends eventually free them from Kyubey’s trap.
The self empowerment she does seem to project comes from her rebellion against fate, her feeling of satisfaction to no longer be trapped within it, to force Kyubey to take the burden of all the curses in the world. She finally has agency after being trapped in helplessness for so long. She was helpless before being a magical girl, and even more afterwards, trapped to the whims of fate. But now she has ripped herself free of it. But she doesn’t at all seem actually happy, we’ve seen her actually happy, and this isn’t it. And if this is her fate, it is, among the many tale of many other magical girls, a tragedy.
At least that’s my perspective/analysis. There’s more I could get into but this is long enough. Like I said, we’re all allowed to have our own opinions, I’m just trying to inform mine from what I interpret from my reading of the text. If anyone has actually read this all, thank you, and I’d love to hear your own opinions or takes!
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