Japes and Nerdery

The rise of overly dark Magical Girl shows, which contain suffering for no other purpose than to display said suffering, largely stems from a complete misunderstanding of what Madoka was, and what made it great.

Madoka spends two and a half episodes setting up a happy, cheerful, Magical Girl show, and then spends eight and a half episodes rejecting that premise, showing that hope only leads to despair, that a wish will lead to a curse, that things cannot fundamentally improve, and that trying to make things better will only bring suffering upon yourself and others. This is what derivative "tragical girl" shows were about; the suffering of young women for its own sake, as if that was the point of Madoka, as if the suffering was the entire point.

The last episode, however, has Madoka herself rejecting the show's entire premise. She's told hope leads to despair, and exclaims "If someone says it's wrong to have hope, I will tell them they're wrong every single time.". She's told that the very foundation of the universe leads to suffering being inherent, constant, and that the only thing one can do is to endure said suffering as long as one can bear, before falling to despair and inflicting the suffering one has experienced unto others; she's told that any wish will become a curse, yet ends the show saying "All those Magical Girls who held onto their hopes and fought against witches, I don't want to see them cry—I want them to stay smiling until the end. If any rule or law stands in my way, I will destroy it. I will rewrite it. That is my wish, that is my prayer.""

Walpurgisnacht had been set up as the most terrible witch to ever exist up until that point, and the viewer had been led to believe they'd fight to the death against it, and inevitably lose—as a Magical Girl seemingly always does in the Madoka universe. Madoka does not fight her, Madoka shows compassion, simply stating "It's okay. It's okay now, you don't have to hate anyone anymore, you don't have to curse anyone anymore. I'll go back, before you took that form, and shoulder that burden for you". There was no fight, and Madoka simply took on her despair, as she took on everyone else's, allowing them to once again have hope.

I said it to my friends when they joined me for my second watch of it.

Madoka Magica is misunderstood as a deconstruction, intended to break apart the concept of Magical Girls.

Its anything but that to me, it's using that darkness to illustrate that at the end of the day the idea of the Magical Girl is a beautiful, joyful, loving thing that can withstand and overcome the deepest despair and suffering.

Oh, that’s an interesting question, thank you!!!

If I can head off the question with my own personal opinions, I’ll always be a KyouMamiSaya girlie above most other OT3s (KyouMadoSaya notwithstanding, apparently). That being said, it’s mostly just because I’ve always placed Homura in the MadoHomu box, and because (if I’m being totally honest) Homura is probably my least favourite of the Holy Quintet.

Not to say I don’t like her!! I love her more than most other fictional characters still, it’s just she’s got really stiff competition in fandom and KyouSaya are my fave all-time characters lol

That being said!! My recent fics (Say Yes to the Mess and Two Left Skates) do prominently feature Homura and I’ve really come to love her as a character to write lol

Without further ado, let’s compare some ships!!

For me, MadoHomuMami is a very interesting relationship. Truth be told this is the first time I’ve seriously considered it, so my analysis might be less deep than others.

I think the biggest stumbling point for me is Homura and Mami. Both of them are extremely loving towards Madoka (in their own specific ways), but there’s always been a lot of friction between them.

In the earliest timelines (1-3), Homura and Mami do get on well, with Mami mentoring both Homura and Madoka (and to a lesser extent Sayaka). So Mami and ”Moemura” do have a pretty good relationship, but the Homura we know has a disastrous relationship with Mami. Mami misunderstands Homura sure, but they all but come to blows every time they interact with each other! Honestly I love those moments where they threaten each other (partly cos I love Mami, and partly cos I love how bitchy she gets), but it lacks the passionate hate of an enemies-to-lovers ship like KyouSaya (for me!!)

Things only get worse in Rebellion, where again Mami and Moemura are very close, but once she gets her memories back Homura kinda holds Mami in contempt for her ”weak heart” or whatever she says. Then of course they fight and it’s the coolest scene in the whole franchise and Mami absolutely dominates her lol

So in creating a scenario for MadoHomuMami, I’d need 1 of 2 situations:

We have a gentle Moemura type, lacking the contempt and bad blood that late-stage Homura has with Mami

The ship centers a Madoka that gets them to set aside their differences for her sake

Of the two, I’m more into the second one, as Moemura doesn’t do it so much for me - plus, with Moemura, the ship gets a bit saccharine for me, with 3 gentle and kind femmes who are polite and sweet with each other - Late-Loop-Homu adds a certain edge and flair to the relationship that’s really necessary for me to get into it.

Way I see it, MadoHomuMami as a ship is a really fun one with Princess Madoka (who deserves the world and as many girlfriends as her heart desires) with two slightly older, caring figures who butt heads at time but hold deep respect for each other. I would imagine Madoka would instigate the relationship, and Homura would have the hardest time accepting it, but I think all of the Quintet harbour a pretty hefty crush on Mami! They probably spend a lot of their time at Mami’s (as they would with KyouMamiSaya too), but also spending a lot of time with Madoka’s family. It feels very cosy still, which is really nice, but with Homura injecting some unintentional humour to the relationship.

Any ship that involves Madoka has to include her family (I didn’t find space for this in the KyouMadoSaya vs KyouMamiSaya post) but obviously her parents are really important to her and their opinions do matter!

I can imagine Mami and Tomohisa hitting it off very well, and Junko no doubt likes her too, because Mami’s basically an ideal young lady for her daughter to take home. Homura is certainly an acquired taste, and her penchant for looming outside Madoka’s window is probably off-putting, but Junko trusts Madoka very highly and would probably come around to them in time. I think Mami might honestly chafe at receiving any parental affection from the Kanames, she’s spent so long by herself and filling that role for herself, I’m not sure if she needs/wants that kind of presence in her life. (For what it’s worth, I am in love with the idea of Kyouko getting close to the Kanames. Even in a pure KyouSaya universe, I think Sayaka’s proximity to Madoka’s family will bring Junko into Kyouko’s orbit, and I think she could be a motherly figure that Kyouko really needs, and I think as they get older Junko could end up something like an unofficial adoptive mother for Kyouko - after they get around her delinquent attitude!)

Meanwhile for me KyouMamiSaya is of course a more chaotic ship which to me centres Mami, with Kyouko and Sayaka relying on her as a stabilising presence, and Mami satisfying her need to take care of people/be around people who won’t abandon her.

I think those are pretty much the thoughts I have on MadoHomuMami! It just doesn’t inspire the same fire for me that most Kyouko ships do, though it’s a little hard for me to articulate why!!

Despite Homura being my ultimate favourite describing her as an acquired taste is quite apt, her actions read completely different between readers, and that's one of my fav aspects of her.

Just to give an example of that effect the line you refer to in Rebellion that you saw as a type of contempt instead struck me as a type of sympathy/pity that hurt Homura when she needed to ignore or exploit it for the sake of her mission. As i said, that aspect of Homura (both in verse and out) where her actions are seen very differently depending on who you ask is a very special trait of hers.

Anti Materials does a lot of legwork for me in terms of how a coolmura/mami dynamic works without Madoka needing to enforce harmony between them. Anti Materials is very much a slice of life ""romantic"" comedy that is much more focused on fluffy shenanigans above all but its a nice quick read, especially helpful in getting an image of a softer coolmura.

She's got an animation degree, I know the art in Undertale gets underappreciated sometimes because it's trying to evoke an older simpler style, but the art in Undertale is legit amazing and without Temmie, none of Toby's ideas would have been able to be realized (without finding some other artist and animator)

GIRL OLIVER