#sambling

a biggg point of contention in any "is homura evil?" or "does homura hate her friends?" type argument is the last scene in rebellion where homura threatens sayaka, is rude to her friends, and kind of implies she could destroy the universe if she wanted to. we're not going to touch on those, really, but id like to introduce a point ive actually never seen mentioned:

the whole time homura is puffing herself up, issuing vague ominous threats to sayaka, being kind of rude, etc, her witch's familiars are throwing tomatoes at her.

(no, it isn't blood or anything in the second gif — you can confirm it via video link here).

throwing tomatoes at people, usually actors or performers, is usually a sign that the person in question is giving a bad performance or, in other words, not performing their role well or convincingly. it's also not just a cartoon trope, but was an actual thing (yes, i know that source is reddit, but it has the actual info and cited info there).

the whole time homura is trying to act like she hates her friends, or heckling sayaka, or implying she doesn't care about the world, her familiars are busy throwing tomatoes at her to show she is lying or performing/pretending, and isn't even all that convincing.

it's like checking the health of a horse

it's testing if that homura is the "real" one (by way of if she exists under the surface)

nutcracker reference from her witch form only having the lower jaw