Finished watching Magia Record yesterday morning, and went on to ask on Reddit and Discord how its events could possibly fit amongst those of the original Madoka Magica, without any real explanation how Homura's time travel either sets them off in one timeline or prevents them in further timelines. (I did acknowledge
Ultimate Madoka's sidestory in the game, but that seemed like a handwave just to make her playable, before anyone got back to me.)
My main concern was how to properly tie the Cibusverse back into the Puellaverse, as per certain ideas Adebiyi came up with for the story's endgame I commissioned him for, from before we both took a break from it. At the time, I thought that it should end with the Cibus/Esuriens system still in place as the few girls given a choice reject the Puella/Witch system that would have culminated in the Wraith system. Reconsidering since, though, I have decided that the Cibusverse should in fact be its own parallel universe to the Puellaverse, created from the wish of the son* of a Puella Magi, to prevent Soul Gems from ever being extracted even in the past, but does allow his own soul to be extracted. Even though he did not have enough
karmic destiny in that universe to rewrite the one reality at the time like Madoka, the anime does more or less establish that a wish is a wish and must be granted one way or another, and so the different Puellae Magi from past, present, and future all became the guideposts for how the new reality would take form, although he doesn't despite still reincarnating there and weilding a type of magic without even making a contract there, since he didn't target himself.
(*Even though Urobuchi firmly states that there will not be any Magical Boys in the franchise, I prefer unrelatedly that anything involving a baby firmly establish said baby as male and his caretaker(s) as female.
As I mentioned before, I thought this up for what I originally planned as a game, as someone for the plot to center around, that all involved would be more inclined to protect than an inanimate object, while they themselves (including the "lead" character) are free to die off permanently, just like in Lisa: The Painful. Game over would be when everyone in whichever party currently handling him dies, leaving him to die as well.)
That all led me to overthink how all Puellae Magi, including those who never contracted in some or even most timelines, would be slated to become Cibi in what would start as one reality.
As per everyone's feedback:
-An interview with one of the franchise's creators considers it a failed timeline whose events never were replicated.
-Some argue that, as per the game, even the anime does in fact take place between Madoka's sacrifice and the events of The Rebellion Story.
-For the sake of having all official (if not even canon in some cases) Puellae Magi turned Cibi in one reality, it is already implied that Sayaka never does make a contract in the very timeline when Homura makes hers. (Then again, Madoka
had just found out about Homura's time loops right before making her wish, and went on to target everyone when their Soul Gems hit their limits. Oriko Magica: Sadness Prayer has her visit Oriko even though she was slain outright as herself, implying that such girls also counted (although that still contradicts Madoka's scene as herself with Mami and Kyoko, and how only Sayaka and Nagisa accompany her near the end of Rebellion), but that is still not the same thing as Goro Yuzuki targeting everyone at the points of their original contracts.)
-Spinoff stories, despite being official, are not necessarily canon. It's pretty obvious how impractical it would be for Oriko, Kazumi, Suzune, and Tart Magica, Homura's Revenge, and The Different Story, to all try to line up with whichever stories came before each. While Homura Tamura cannot be canon at all, and something like the
first mobile RPG, other games' crossover events, or the
fourth audio drama are more pseudo-canon (cannot mesh with canon, but still abiding to some extent by its rules), those other stories would be more like one-way canon, bound by the facts established only in the original anime, free otherwise to elaborate further on things simply as their own plots demand.
Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MadokaMagica/comments/10borsa/where_exactly_does_the_magia_record_anime_fit/Discord:
Part 1:
https://discord.com/channels/364704870177046531/366003449688752129/1063835428580491354Part 2:
https://discord.com/channels/364704870177046531/366003449688752129/1063897578049118248![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
