The Rebellion Story Sequel: What Should it Be Like?
I got inspired to make this post through a topic on MyAnimeList.
Topic of discussion. I've constantly been around Madoka forums and 4chan boards, and I see people wondering what will arise as the sequel to Rebellion. Almost always, it's "oh Sayaka's gonna beat the sh*********t outta her and save Madoka and the end lol". Something along those lines, anyway.
Let me tell you why I think it's ridiculous.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica's narrative conflict has always been Man vs. Self; occasionally there were elements of Man vs. Society (like when the girls were adapting to being magical girls), but almost never Man vs. Man. Unless you count witches, but if you asked yourself what the central conflict of the TV series was, would you say it was really the witches that were the problem? Witches are the evolved form of magical girls, after all. It's their other side. Their despairing side. It needs to be destroyed so that they can live in hope. It was a Man vs. Self conflict.
You can argue that Walpurgis Night is the main antagonist, but I don't think of it that way. It was always Kyubey; Kyubey who caused the terrible cycle of the Puella Magi; Kyubey who Homura constantly tried to kill; Kyubey who eventually had his own system altered by Madoka's sacrifice. And yet... can we really say that the story is Everyone vs. Kyubey? As the Incubator itself said, humans make their own mistakes, and I believe some of the shit that happened was also partly the girls' fault.
Rebellion, too, was a story about Homura and her own self-conflict. It was Man vs. Self in how she eventually realized something about herself. It was Man vs. Society in how Homura refuses to work with even her fellow magical girls, and how she's just about against everybody. Even at the end, when she turned into a demon, the movie wasn't about Sayaka vs. Homura, or even Madoka vs. Homura. It's about her own personal situation with Madoka. Something like that can't just be solved by having Sayaka slice off Akuma Homura's head with her cutlass. It's solved by giving her another internal struggle; she'd then reach another conclusion, and we'd see how it goes from there.
The main purpose of Man vs. Self and Man vs. Society is to develop the personality. The main purpose of Man vs. Man, on the other hand, is usually for entertainment, "LOL EPICNESS", and to develop the physical or magical abilities of the character. We're not here to see how epic Sayaka can use Oktavia nor what kind of yandere evil insane magic Homura can use now. (At least, I'm not.) We should be here to see how Homura can resolve her problem with Madoka, perhaps finally learning to let go. It was never about a DBZ fight involving KAMEHAMEHAs or KI WAVEs.
Many of this is partly why I loved Homura so much more after Rebellion. While 99.99% of the PMMM fandom seem to believe that Homura is going to be the main antagonist that will take years of gathering the Seven Magical Balls to defeat, I think that Homura should be... a character. A character who's still not finished development. She's not the typical villain who goes around killing people and trying to take over the world for the sole sake of having power. Akemi Homura is a complex and fascinating character who has not finished her journey yet. It is not impossible for her to be even the main protagonist again. Just because she turned villainous does not guarantee her a spot in the main antagonist category. Artemis Fowl, anyone?
Besides everything I said about narrative conflicts and character development, I also can't figure out a way that Sayaka and Madoka could potentially defeat Homura. Sayaka was memory-wiped in five minutes and Madoka was confined in two seconds. Akuma Homura's pretty powerful; this is also another reason why I don't believe Man vs. Man could work at all. If you have to kill her, break her emotionally. It's the only way you can actually defeat an enemy that strong.
But I hope it doesn't have to come to that.
