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Sep. 15th, 2015 07:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dmxratedMadoka's fic had just gotten its first signed review the other day, pointing some things out regarding Homura in particular. Showed Chelle for her opinion on things.
While it is true that the other Cibi are already dead and Madoka and Homura might simply have had some unfortunate luck to wind up against a whole horde of Esurientes (assuming Madoka hadn't been to the spot in question in previous timelines), Chelle has asked why Homura didn't get everyone to cooperate from the start.
For starters, whether there even was any Esuriens-equivalent to Walpurgisnacht was never specified by the person I had commissioned. From the very beginning, she had planned for the story to culminate in a number of Esurientes too great for Madoka and Homura to handle, and given how far away that takes place from Mitakihara, it remains ambiguous whether or not Homura ever had encountered that many of them at a time before.
As to why she didn't seek help protecting Madoka even before the fourth chapter... I actually don't understand why she would've needed to anyway, considering how good a job she had been already doing until then to do just that (Madoka's contract notwithstanding). In the anime, she does enlist Kyoko's help, but mainly for the upcoming battle against Walpurgisnacht. That's exactly what Kyubey undermines by leading Kyoko to her death against Oktavia von Seckendorff, so that only Madoka remains to help Homura and has no choice but to make a contract.
-----
More importantly, though, is Homura's cold and distant personality, which is the result of a chain of events through the many different timelines she had traveled and particularly the events of the first few, as well as some of the events themselves. For the lengths I went to analyze how similar or different everyone in the other installments would be in the Cibusverse, that is a crucial thing I had overlooked while asking that the main characters' personalities be as similar to canon as possible.
Timeline I: Madoka dies after defeating Walpurgisnacht to protect Homura. Homura makes a wish to turn the clock back and be the one to protect her instead.
Timeline II: Homura keeps Madoka alive during the same battle, but this only leads to Madoka's transformation into Kreimhild Gretchen.
Timeline III: Homura warns her fellow Puellae Magi about how Witches originate, and none of them buy it until they witness Sayaka's mutation into Oktavia, leading Mami to break down and kill Kyoko and threaten to kill Homura, only for Madoka to kill Mami first. Homura eventually shoots Madoka's dying Soul Gem out to prevent Kreimhild from arising once the two of them defeat Walpurgisnacht.
Timeline IV: Having seen what went on after Oktavia's defeat previously, Homura takes everything into her own hands and warns Madoka anonymously not to ever wish for anything if given such an offer. Without the others around, only Madoka remains to make a contract and save Homura. (Obviously, this is where she finds out how important any backup she can enlist really is.)
So, while it's still ambiguous whether or not anything particularly powerful arises in Mitakihara (though it might be underwhelming should Madoka get eaten by something average in Homura's first timeline), the end of the second timeline is where things would take a different turn. Since Cibi don't become Witches (due to the difference in how Kyubey exploits them), each Esuriens that Homura saves Madoka from would only result in Madoka living to fight another day, which might rule out an actual need to prevent her from becoming a Cibus in the first place (which she does in the present timeline, though doing so would still help).
Well, Chelle told me that a timeline montage wouldn't actually be necessary to explain why Homura doesn't ask for help or cooperate with the other Cibi to protect Madoka. In any case, I'll be sure to acknowledge this whole error when I upload the epilogue, but said epilogue will have to wait until Chelle and I reach some kind of closure on this whole thing.
While it is true that the other Cibi are already dead and Madoka and Homura might simply have had some unfortunate luck to wind up against a whole horde of Esurientes (assuming Madoka hadn't been to the spot in question in previous timelines), Chelle has asked why Homura didn't get everyone to cooperate from the start.
For starters, whether there even was any Esuriens-equivalent to Walpurgisnacht was never specified by the person I had commissioned. From the very beginning, she had planned for the story to culminate in a number of Esurientes too great for Madoka and Homura to handle, and given how far away that takes place from Mitakihara, it remains ambiguous whether or not Homura ever had encountered that many of them at a time before.
As to why she didn't seek help protecting Madoka even before the fourth chapter... I actually don't understand why she would've needed to anyway, considering how good a job she had been already doing until then to do just that (Madoka's contract notwithstanding). In the anime, she does enlist Kyoko's help, but mainly for the upcoming battle against Walpurgisnacht. That's exactly what Kyubey undermines by leading Kyoko to her death against Oktavia von Seckendorff, so that only Madoka remains to help Homura and has no choice but to make a contract.
-----
More importantly, though, is Homura's cold and distant personality, which is the result of a chain of events through the many different timelines she had traveled and particularly the events of the first few, as well as some of the events themselves. For the lengths I went to analyze how similar or different everyone in the other installments would be in the Cibusverse, that is a crucial thing I had overlooked while asking that the main characters' personalities be as similar to canon as possible.
Timeline I: Madoka dies after defeating Walpurgisnacht to protect Homura. Homura makes a wish to turn the clock back and be the one to protect her instead.
Timeline II: Homura keeps Madoka alive during the same battle, but this only leads to Madoka's transformation into Kreimhild Gretchen.
Timeline III: Homura warns her fellow Puellae Magi about how Witches originate, and none of them buy it until they witness Sayaka's mutation into Oktavia, leading Mami to break down and kill Kyoko and threaten to kill Homura, only for Madoka to kill Mami first. Homura eventually shoots Madoka's dying Soul Gem out to prevent Kreimhild from arising once the two of them defeat Walpurgisnacht.
Timeline IV: Having seen what went on after Oktavia's defeat previously, Homura takes everything into her own hands and warns Madoka anonymously not to ever wish for anything if given such an offer. Without the others around, only Madoka remains to make a contract and save Homura. (Obviously, this is where she finds out how important any backup she can enlist really is.)
So, while it's still ambiguous whether or not anything particularly powerful arises in Mitakihara (though it might be underwhelming should Madoka get eaten by something average in Homura's first timeline), the end of the second timeline is where things would take a different turn. Since Cibi don't become Witches (due to the difference in how Kyubey exploits them), each Esuriens that Homura saves Madoka from would only result in Madoka living to fight another day, which might rule out an actual need to prevent her from becoming a Cibus in the first place (which she does in the present timeline, though doing so would still help).
Well, Chelle told me that a timeline montage wouldn't actually be necessary to explain why Homura doesn't ask for help or cooperate with the other Cibi to protect Madoka. In any case, I'll be sure to acknowledge this whole error when I upload the epilogue, but said epilogue will have to wait until Chelle and I reach some kind of closure on this whole thing.