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| Part 11: Episode Ten - "I Won't Depend on Anyone Anymore" |
Link to Intro
Links to Episode: One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Eleven Twelve
Ok, this one may be longer:
This episode centers around Homura. Most of the mystery behind her origin and behavior in previous episodes is explained.
Image summary of the timelines.
Timeline 1
In the original timeline for Homura, she was a normal human girl suffering from a heart disease. She is shown just released from the hospital and transferring to the Mitakihara Middle School, similar to the first episode. She differs in appearance to the Homura we know, though - she wears glasses and wears her long hair tied in two braids. Her personality also feels different - she is a lot more shy and clumsy.
Madoka, Sayaka and other new classmates try to befriend Homura, which makes her feel uneasy. During a talk with Madoka, she admits finding herself worthless, not unlike Madoka does in the timeline of other episodes. Homura's problems during math and sports classes (probably related to being out of school for a long time) contribute to her depression, which makes her get suicidal thoughts on the way from school.
Presumably because of these thoughts, she wanders into the barrier of witch Izabel. She is quickly saved by Puella Magi Madoka and Mami, with Madoka asking her to keep their jobs a secret from schoolmates. Later, during a visit at Mami's apartment, Madoka reveals that she's been contracted only for a very short time. Homura feels fascinated about her magical friends, similar to how Madoka acts in initial episodes.
Some time later, Madoka and Mami fight Walpurgis Night together, with Homura following them as a human. Mami is defeated quickly, then Madoka apparently manages to defeat the witch, but at the expense of her own life. Homura cries over Madoka's dead body, and accepts Kyubey's proposal to become a Puella Magi, her wish being "I want to redo my meeting with Kaname-san. Instead of being protected by her, I want to protect her!" The contract is formed, with Kyubey commenting that the wish has "surpassed entropy".
Timeline 2
Homura wakes up in a hospital, on the date she was released in the previous iteration, having a Soul Gem in her hand. After transferring to school, she instantly tells Madoka about becoming a Puella Magi, hoping for good cooperation.
Madoka and Mami train Homura the Puella Magi, who turns out to be extremely clumsy, despite having the very powerful ability of stopping time. Meanwhile, Homura reads online guides about making explosives, contributing to improving her skills. While still clumsy, she plays the most important role when the trio - now good friends - fights with the witch Patricia.
The next scene shown is after the Walpurgis Night - after defeating the witch, Madoka's Soul Gem turns into a Grief Seed and she becomes a witch.
Timeline 3
The time goes back again, and Homura wakes up at the exact same place and time as previously. Scared and angered by the discovery of the true nature of the contract with Kyubey, she decides to tell the other girls immediately. Sayaka, who in this timeline became a Puella Magi, too, doesn't believe her and accuses her of collaborating with Kyoko, whom apparently only Homura has met yet.
Sayaka also tells that she feels afraid of Homura's explosives, which makes Homura go to a meeting of some armed formation and steal some firearms, all in frozen time. Since Sayaka turns into a witch, presumably for similar reasons as in Episode 8, Homura uses the firearms during the fight with her to protect Madoka, and also defeats her, even though Madoka and Kyoko try to make Sayaka human again in a fashion similar to Episode 9.
Upon seeing the true nature of Puella Magi herself, Mami breaks down and attempts to kill all the magical girls, including herself, in order to prevent their eventual transformation into witches. She kills Kyoko first by shooting her Soul Gem and attempts to kill Homura by binding her, but before she can do so, Madoka uses her beam arrows to kill her. The remaining two fight on the Walpurgis Night together, and defeat the witch, having their Soul Gems fatally tainted, though. Madoka heals Homura with a Grief Seed she was hiding, and asks Homura to prevent her from becoming a Puella Magi next time she'll go back in time. Homura agrees, and grants Madoka one more wish of hers -- killing her to prevent her from becoming a witch.
Timeline 4
Upon waking up in the familiar hospital, Homura changes her presence by magically healing her eyes, wearing the hair down and taming her emotions -- just how she looked in all the previous episodes. She warns Madoka at night (with Madoka recognizing her to some extent as she says "Homu...") and goes hunting all the witches.
On Walpurgis Night, the dream sequence from Episode 1 is shown again. Homura watches Kyubey persuading Madoka and screams to prevent her from forming the contract, but Madoka doesn't seem to hear it.
Off-camera, Madoka forms the contract and defeats the witch with just one shot, but becomes a witch (Kriemhild Gretchen) herself shortly after. Kyubey comments that she may destroy the whole Earth in near future. He has collected an enormous amount of energy from her already, though, so he doesn't care about it anymore.
Homura refuses to fight Madoka the witch, saying that "This is not my battlefield," which makes Kyubey realize that she's from a different timeline.
The episode concludes with Homura in the current timeline, saying that she will continue repeating timelines if it's all for Madoka's sake.
Questions I will answer:
q: When we see Madoka in the first few timelines, she is already contracted. What was her wish?
a: In the Drama CD "Memories of You" (included in the Coool Stuff! below), her wish was to save a cat named Amy who was ran over by a car.
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| This cat! |
Save Homura from Walpurgisnacht in the fourth timeline.
Save Sayaka in the new timeline from The Different Story.
q: When we see Madoka in the first few timelines, she is already contracted. Why in the last couple timelines she is not?
a: Because either Homura somehow stops Madoka from contracting on the first day she lands in the timeline or her wish works really well and she gains the ability to go back before that and protect Madoka from Kyubey.
q: Why doesn't Homura just wish Madoka back to life?
a: First of all, we already established that bringing someone back from the dead is nearly impossible and only Madoka has that such power. But, there's other possibilities.
Homura could have wanted to save Madoka and the city, she did not want Madoka's sacrifice to be in vain. After all, if the magical girls did not care for the city, they could have evacuated like everyone else or just run away from Walpurgis Night.
Perhaps Homura wanted more than just being protected by her friend; perhaps deep down she wanted to return the favor by protecting Madoka.
q: If Kyubey and his species have the technology to travel back in time, why couldn't they just fix the entropy problem by reversing it?
a: We learn that Kyubey can only grant the ability to travel back in time. He is only part of the process to create it, so they do not possess the ability itself. The power of time travel rests only within Homura because of her wish.
q: From where did Homura steal from to get her weapons?
a: She steals from Yakuza hideouts and the GSDF.
q: Why does Oktavia Von Seckendorff look different in Timeline 3?
a: There are some bizarre elements that haven't been properly addressed in the anime series. In timeline 3, Kyousuke as a guitaris. One possible explanation for this is that Homura is not only going back in time but also going to parallel universes (different universes) contained within the multiverse.
Gen Urobuchi stated that he didn't really think too much about the mechanics of Homura's time loops, so the nature of Homura's power is not only a mystery, but it is not fully understood not even by the creative source.
There are ways to explain the change in instrument using only time travel. Perhaps someone made a wish that changed Kyousuke's past, and the effects persisted in future timelines because the wish changed events that happened before the point where the timelines diverged, when Homura woke up in the hospital. Kyousuke might be proficient with both instruments, and some event during the time loop period might inspire him to prefer one over the other. However, these speculations are based on guesswork, since the show's creators have not yet provided details.
q: Why did Mami have a breakdown and try to mercy kill everyone?
a:
But even when having a mental breakdown, she's still pretty tactical. She ties up Homura so she can't use her timestop power and proceeds to take out the girls in order of power.
q: How many timelines did Homura go through?
a: This is extremely debatable. Only 4 timelines were shown in this episode before the current timeline of the anime. The Different Story manga and the Oriko Magica manga depict 2 more presumably canon timelines.
The PSP game presents several more. At a Nitro+ Q&A Panel it was revealed that Homura went through at least 100 timelines.
"Q: How many timelines did Homura go through? A: Approaching 100."
But I am skeptical, because this theory has not been proven fully and I don't know if Homura ages as she repeats so many months over.
q: Sooo... where are Homura's parents...?
a:
Coool Stuff! :
Drama CD: Memories of You:
A longer story of the first timeline.
SF Debris' Analysis - love this guy.
Matt High's Review
Ume Aoki's 4koma
Meduka Meguca - Rabu.
Changes made in the Blu-Ray versions.
Ume Aoki's 4koma
Meduka Meguca - Rabu.
Changes made in the Blu-Ray versions.
Who protects who?
A fanmade music video of another alternate timeline
Witches that appeared in this episode:
Izabel
Patricia
Roberta
Kriemheld Grethchen (Madoka's witch)
Walpurgis Night
Tiffany talks about some things:
Now that we know Homura is a time traveler, I strongly advise you to go back and watch the series up until this point over again, if not at least the first episode. All those mysteries surrounding Homura suddenly will start to make sense after the rewatch. It's really cool how they wrote this show.
Also many have pointed out that Madoka's power is getting stronger and her fate is getting worse with each timeline:
Timeline 1: Madoka triumphs on Walpurgis Night, possibly only after Mami has already weakened the witch. Madoka somehow dies from her wounds from the battle. This seems to be the weakest of all the Madokas
.
Timeline 2: Madoka is victorious on Walpurgis night and does not die from her battle injuries. However, she immediately transforms into a witch afterwards. We do not know if Madoka as a witch is especially strong or not.
Timeline 3: Madoka wins with only the assistance of Homura. They would be capable of surviving if it were not for the blackening of their Soul Gems. Madoka clings to her humanity longer compared to her last incarnation.
Timeline 4: Madoka is able to stop Walpurgis night in just one hit. Obviously stronger compared to the timeline 1 version. Kyubbey mentions how strong Madoka had become, surpassing his expectations. Her witch form has the power to destroy the whole planet.
Questions to think about:
-How is Homura going to face Walpurgis Night this time?
-Will Madoka's fate be changed? Is it possible?
-How will it all end?
Stay tuned.
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