'Homura Did Nothing Wrong' - Madoka Magica

No YouTube, this one definitely isn't for kids either.

As requested by you guys, we enter our third installment of the "Did Nothing Wrong" saga, Homura Akemi. A great choice too, one of my favorite characters and they're getting a new movie. If there's anything we enjoy talking about here on the channel, it's the suffering of fictional children, and where else would we find such ample supply of despair than in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, as well as its sequel film, Rebellion? But really now, what's the worst thing a time travelling teenager could do?

"Homura Did Nothing Wrong" - Madoka Magica

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Music Used:
[Mobius Mix] HAWX Lore VS Ace Combat Lore Music EXTENDED

Conturbatio - Puella Magi Madoka Magica OST

Incertus - Puella Magi Madoka Magica OST

Sis Puella Magica! - Puella Magi Madoka Magica OST

Puella In Somnio - Puella Magi Madoka Magica OST

Marshmellow (Prod. by Lukrembo)

[TheDoomerDen]

Thanks for watching! Any suggestions for future videos? Let me know!

[GalaxiaStars]

Canonically another reason Homura ended up not as attached to Mami is because as she kept repeating timelines Mami became her biggest obstacle in saving Madoka from her fate/ So for Homura she began to see Mami as one of the unsafest people for Madoka to be around. Because due to her loneliness Mami always ended up dragging Madoka and by extension Sayaka into this cruel fate that was causing Homura to be stuck in a timeline loop. So with that context it honestly makes sense why Homura grew so resentful and distant towards Mami as she began repeating the same timeline a hundred times.

[MrTigracho]

Akemi Homura. Poor girl, god.
From the beginning to the end her journey was a coastroller of tragedy and suffering. From a naive and skittish girl to a deranged and broken woman, all in the name of love.

[angelr]

Meanwhile Homura from Magia Record (game version) is having time of her life! She made new friends, she went to the beach with her friends, slumber party with her friends, but most importantly
(Spoiler from the game and maybe anime too)











She save

[yukeying]

This is quite literally 'The hero will sacrifice you to save the universe, but the villain will sacrifice the world to save you', where the you in this case is the hero herself Madoka

[BakuHaku]

She was a pawn on a game that was bigger than her. You can't blame pawns for dancing to a rhythm that they never knew was possible, or for breaking the song altogether.

[IRrebel]

When I first watched this movie I was cheering for Humura to win and for her friends to fail in saving her, later on when she broke the law I was ecstatic.

When I first watched the original anime I was happy with the ending because Madoka was able to rise up as the savior the world needed, but rebellion clearly showed that nothing of important had truly changed. Magical girls still needs to fight and die when they are overwhelmed by despair and worse still the incubators would eventually gain control of Madoka. Because think about it, there is nothing stopping them from simply trying again and again until they eventually succeeds.

In the original series we are told that the incubators do everything that they do because they need to do it for the sake of the universe but at the same time they are not shown to always be trustworthy or reliable. For example if all of existence really needed their actions then why is any of them still alive at this point? After all Madoka prevented witches not only in the present and the future but also in the PAST.

When I first watched the movie I saw her actions as something that she needed to do not just for the sake of Madoka but also in order to stop the ever increasing number of deaths the incubators had caused since the very beginning of human history. I sympathize with her character and while she did indeed go against Madokas wishes, it can also be said that when Madoka first made her wish she still was very much immature and did not fully understand the implications her wish would cost.

I saw Homuras action as the natural conclusion as to what needed to be done for the sake of her friend and for all of humanity regardless of her or Madokas mental state and desires. After all if the incubators were to succeed it would effectively cancel out Madokas wish and then she would not be able to help anyone, not even herself.

Later as I have watched others opinion regarding these turns of events I have given more thought regarding the characters own opinions, desires and state of mind. And while my core beliefs is still the same I would at most call Homuras actions as "neutral" or as an "necessary evil". I do not believe that Homura is a bad person: she is simply human, with all the flaws that comes with all of us.

Hopefully there will be a good conclusion for all the characters in this story in the 4'th movie and that they find a better and more permanent solution to the issue shown so far, because Homura did not look all that great in the end of the 3'rd one.

[takusaka]

Thank you!! Well I didn't really get why people didn't like Homura in Rebellion I actually liked her, the movie and thought it was good.

[serenajackson]

Author said the amount of times Homura time looped was nearing 100

[HelplessFangirl]

Honestly rewatching the series, Homura’s actions felt completely in character when I saw them play out. She was never completely selfless, but a lot of her selflessness came from the fact Madoka was selfless, and would be hurting if she saw others hurting.

[cosmicwolfo]

"Its an anime with 14-15 year olds, how comple-" "*goddamit*"

[erynflynn]

To be fair to the terms of contract thing, Kyuubey does specifically omit that part because it knows that information would cause the girls to not want to become magical girls. Not specifically lying, just not telling the whole truth.

Also I really enjoyed your take on how Homura isn't a bad character, bad as in evil and bad as in poorly written. I actually really enjoyed Rebellion, but maybe I saw the more tragic angle earlier on. Always happy to see people really dig into Madoka Magica!

[JohnSacapano]

This was a great explanation honestly, I didn't even realize what had said in Rebellion truly stabbed Homura in the heart, explains her expression at the time, but now it makes perfect sense.

[Phos]

Great video, although I know Homura did nothing wrong is a meme at this point, but I still want to give my two cents on what I think her main mistakes were mistakes.

1. Telling Kyubei about Madoka, just like you said in the video. Pretty self explanatory. There was no need for that and if that didn't happen then there would be no Rebellion and no inevitability of Incubators getting their hands on Madoka and bringing back the witch system.

2. Her hypocricy. As we saw, the stronger and more confident Homura became, the meeker and less confident Madoka became. She basically made Madoka to be like Homura's past self whom she hated. Both hated being the protected and wanted to protect those they love. I feel like Homura questioned Madoka's actions of self sacrifice without realizing she would've done the exact same thing for Madoka.

3. Her actions. I made up a plan on how I think Homura could've handled things better in the main series. So here it is.

Firstly, tell Madoka the whole truth. Like you said in the video, Madoka has been the only person who actually listened to her and trusted her, so I don't get why she has been so vague or secretive to her on later timelines. And tell the others too. The two reasons that we've been shown that this didn't work is Mami's overeaction and Sayaka not believing her. To that I say, just don't tell Mami at all, disclose it only to Sayaka and Madoka (and Kyoko if she's around). Regarding Sayaka, just tell her to ask Kyubey himself, since in the anime the little shit was so smug with his "I would've told you if you had asked." Then boom, Madoka and Sayaka knowing the truth won't become magical girls and Homura teams up with Mami or Kyoko (or both) and has at least a much higher chance to beat Walpurgisnacht. The end.

Now as it's been confirmed that the number of times Homura went back in time was close to a hundred we could assume that she tried it and it didn't work out. I'm just frustrated and it wasn't shown. As the anime showed us, it seemed like Homura tried telling them the truth once, it backfired and she never did it again.

[jacob]

Homura may not have started as obsessed with Madoka, it may just be a symptom of being stuck in a infinite time loop. With the goal of the time loop being to protect Madoka, I can see how that could warp into obsession that reads as love to the obsesser, with a sort of "Only Madoka matters" mindset.

[Elegantwoes]

Aside from the valid points you make, there's another extremely important piece of information most people who critique Homura for her actions in Rebellion conveniently forget.

Madoka's wish and agency would have been violated anyway if Homura hadn't intervened. After all the incubators had the insidious plan to lock God!Madoka in a special prison so that they could bring back their old order. Shit was going to go down either way if Homura did nothing - only the outcome would be much much more worse.

In light of that is what Homura did in Rebellion really that bad? She quite literally is the severely less evil than what the incubators wanted to do. She largely kept the original plan that Madoka wanted intact, brought back people so they could experience happiness too, and, as far as we know so far, permanently defeated the Kyubey. That's a pretty good world Homura created.

So when people critique Homura for what she did in Rebellion they are essentially siding with Kyubey and I would hesitate ever being on the same side of that creature.

[Aranneas]

Ultimately I think to love someone means to love their agency. If you want to take away their choice to sacrifice themselves, that's a part of them you're trying to change. I call that ultimately selfish - but that's still not necessarily the same thing as "wrong."

[hrb]

I've leaned more towards the "Homura did nothing wrong" side of the spectrum mostly because of that conversation with Kyubey about his plans to try to control Madoka, and also the one with Modoka about how she wouldn't want to be away from her friends and family. I mean if you have a way to save your friend from a real threat, AND let her be with her friends and family (like she said she wanted) why the heck wouldn't you?

And also because the whole "you gotta die the minute you have a breakdown" thing didn't necessarily seem like the best solution to me.

[Asehpe]

I think your analysis (which is quite well-reasoned, by the way) misses an important point. The question is not simply if Homura's wish shows internal complexity (of course it does), or whether her single goal is to protect Madoka (of course it is) -- but whether or not her actions were wrong, i.e. whether they produced happiness for Madoka. (I'm even leaving aside the question of whether or not Homura's choice was 'better' for the universe as a whole, not because it is not an interesting question, but because it is independent from this central question. If what Homura wanted was Madoka's happiness... did she succeed?)

I think the answer is: No. Homura did NOT succeed, Madoka is NOT happy, and Homura is dimly aware of what she did wrong -- which creates her inner turmoil.

Let me elaborate.

After so many loops (from 50 to 100, says word of God) trying to protect Madoka and failing, it is clear that Homura's love for Madoka would solidify into an obsession, and a common feature of obsessions is oversimplification. Since Madoka ended up choosing to become a Magical Girl to alleviate the burden of all other Magical Girls with her redemptive powers, Homura's obsession went unfulfilled. This must have been hard for Homura to accept -- and it took Godoka that entire scene to make Homura turn towards a non-Madoka-centered life, which she started to do at the end of the TV series. She was still fighting because of Madoka -- but she was no longe fighting to save Madoka. Homura had began to heal from her obsession, and to move on to a life that included herself and her own agency as a goal, and not just as a means to save Madoka. In other words, Homura had started to heal from the trauma of so many loops. It was just a beginning -- baby steps -- but it was going in the right direction.

And then came the incubators, acting upon Homura's claims about the 'previous timelines' and how things had been different. They build an isolation field to create conditions under which Homura could still turn into a witch; and they set up a trap for Madoka, so as to be able to study her and perhaps use her to accumulate more anti-entropic energy. But Madoka fools their plans, destroys the isolation field, and is about to rescue Homura... thus providing everybody with a happy ending.

But Homura... had devolved. Her trauma had come back. Her obsession had taken hold of her. So much so, that she actually listened to a lesser version of Madoka -- without memories of Godoka, and of all the things that led her to her choice in the TV series -- rather than talk to this Godoka who was coming to save her, this Godoka whose opinion she did not ask. (Homura had time-stopping powers, which she could use to stop time and talk to Godoka; and anyway, Godoka was so powerful, she could certainly have allowed Homura to have a free conversation with her about what was or wasn't best for her.)

And this is so believable! This is EXACTLY how obsessed people act. The parent who is obsessed with their children's happiness, to the point of wanting to direct their lives rather than give them input and the right to choose (a theme in Dead Poets' Society) -- isn't that a well-known trope? Homura had the same moment of arrogance: she decided that she, Homura, was going to be the final arbiter of what happiness was for Madoka, even if this meant denying Madoka the right to define it by herself -- just like overprotective parents. By doing this, she denied Madoka's agency, and basically made of her (or what she took from Godoka) a doll in a gilded cage.

Which is why, to me, the question is not whether or not Homura's motives were pure -- they obviously were. The question is whether or not they led her to do the right thing -- which they did not. Yes, it is possible to do the wrong thing for the right reasons (again, think about overprotective parents). Yes, it is possible to hurt your beloved because you love them. Love is such an emotion that, in the pursuit of happiness for the beloved, it can, if untempered by reason, lead to a denial of the beloved's rights to make decisions that the lover does not approve.

THAT is what Homura did wrong. Not corrupting herself into a devil, which she obviously is not; but confusing Madoka's happiness with her, Homura's, view of Madoka's happiness, by allowing herself to listen to a lesser version of Madoka because said version agreed with Homura's obsession.

To stress this point a little more, consider an alternate timeline, in which Madoka did to Homura what Homura did to Madoka in Rebellion -- i.e., a timeline in which Madoka created a pocket universe for Homura, complete with a lesser version of herself for Homura to protect and be happy with, and then kept Homura's consciousness imprisoned in this pocket universe (the way the Incubators did with her in the isolation field). As long as Homura didn't know that Godoka continued to exist as before outside that pocket universe, Homura would be 'happy', right? So Godoka did nothing wrong?

I think you will agree that Godoka would be wrong if she did that -- because she would have frustrated the meaning of Homura's wish even more by giving her a lesser version of herself to protect. Homura wanted to protect HER -- Madoka, now Godoka -- not a lesser version! She, Homura, would never agree with that if Godoka asked her before creating this pocket universe for her! The resulting 'happiness' for Homura would be false -- and if Homura ever became aware of what Godoka had done, she'd fight against it and try to escape that pocket universe.

Likewise with the gilded cage Homura built for Madoka.

Homura is not wrong 'because she decided to go against a God.' Homura is wrong because, in denying her very best friend the right to define her own happiness in her own terms, terms of her own choosing, she actually did NOT protect Madoka but subjected her to a deeper (let's call it philosophical, existential) kind of suffering that is worse than what she saved her from. Which is why we see that, when Madoka almost becomes aware of things -- her Godoka nature comes back to her -- Homura has to fight that. 'No Madoka, you can never grow; you have to remain a little child, in this world, because nobody is happier than a child, and since I want happiness for you, I'll keep you here as a child. Forever!'

So in the end, Homura betrayed her own wish. She settled for something less than happiness for Madoka. She hurt her friend, to prevent her from being hurt. Precisely the kind of self-contradiction that obsession, overprotectiveness, and... love (especially when combined with trauma) are so capable of causing.

And that is what Homura did wrong: the betrayal of her own wish. The damage to the very friend she had sworn to protect. And she is dimly aware of that. Oh God, if some day she becomes fully aware of what she did... she might actually go crazy. Homura is one of the best tragically flawed characters I've ever encountered in fiction, and I have a lot of respect for her arc in this show -- even though this means that what she did was, indeed... all wrong.

[jennifermunro]

Honestly I love the content of devil's advocate. It helps us deep dive into what truly makes (formerly) good people do horrible things, and develop empathy for the villain. I believe it is really encouraged us to have empathy and put ourselves in the other person's shoes.