THESE PRECIOUS THINGS
A Feminist Critique of the Magical Girl Archetype as Seen in
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
I don't want your money
I don't want your crown
See I've got to burn
Your kingdom down
~Florence and the Machine "Seven Devils"
I've spent a lot of time talking about the pain and betrayal found in Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I've talked about the harsh truths of it and how this parallels the lives of many young women. However, I don't think this series, even with all of this, would have the impact and resonance it does if it stopped with just these elements. Do they alter the common understanding of what one can expect from Magical Girl? Yes. But they do not address the most important aspect of Magical Girl. Her pure and transcendent power. I speak of her ability to adapt to the situation, to understand the rules and find a way around them, and through this, her ability to make the system work for her.
To my mind, the most astounding episode of the series is ten. Episode 10: I Won't Depend on Anyone Anymore is exclusively from Homura's POV. As with the first episode, we see her as a transfer student to the school. But unlike the first episode, Homura is timid. She wears glasses and shakes. We find out she's been in the hospital for a long time with a heart condition. Clearly this is not the Homura we meet to begin with.
As the episode continues, we discover this is an alternative, and, indeed, first timeline in which Homura meets Madoka and the others. Madoka is already a magical girl and works with Mami. Homura hero worships her because Madoka is sweet and encouraging to her. She follows her as she fights witches and watches in horror as Mami and Madoka are killed. Kyubey appears to the weeping Homura and offers her the usual deal: a wish in exchange for becoming a magical girl.
Homura accepts, but unlike the others, makes a wish that begins to change the rules. Her wish is that she is allowed to repeat her meeting with Madoka and change her fate to where it ends well, that she be allowed to do this as many times as necessary. Kyubey must grant the wish, and gives Homura the ability to alter and stop time. She begins to repeat her meeting with Madoka, each time failing to save her, but also each time growing stronger and more capable. By the time the current timeline is reached, she has become the powerful, poised, and determined magical girl we first meet.
Kyubey reveals to Homura that her wish and her continual focus on saving Madoka has a side effect. It is making Madoka's magical potential stronger and stronger. The better the magical girl, the more wicked the witch. Kyubey mockingly tells Homura that she is creating the best harvest he'll ever have, perhaps the last one he needs to fill his quota.
He arrogantly tells Madoka all of this as well, but only after he has manipulated things to where she is in the position to where she has no choice but to make a wish and become a magical girl. Homura can't save her and each time she tries, she just makes her more powerful. Kyubey believes there is no way he can't win.
As I have stated many times, the most potent aspect of being human is our ability to creatively adapt to situations. It is the core aspect of how we survive. Those of us who cannot adapt will not survive. It is the basic challenge of nature. Adapt or die. At the end of the series, when Madoka faces this challenge, she knows she has been painted into a corner. Nothing will ever be the same again, no matter what she does. She will not survive as the girl she is, no matter what she does. In many ways, in almost all ways, she can't win. She is doomed, as Homura is doomed, as all magical girls have been doomed.
All she has is her wish. It's her only weapon against Kyubey. But she knows that Homura has drawn so much magic to her that any wish she makes, no matter what it is, will happen. She can completely and utterly alter reality.
Madoka wishes that no magical girl, in any timeline, at any point in the past, has or will ever become a witch.
Kyubey has no choice but to grant the wish, even though this profoundly alters everything he was trying to achieve, human history, and all of reality with it. The effect is so powerful that it transforms Madoka into a goddess. Magical girls still exist, but when they die or despair, they no longer become witches. Instead, the go into the loving arms of their goddess Madoka.
Homura's goal to keep Madoka from becoming a magical girl was never going to happen. Madoka knew this, and she also knew that Homura would destroy herself, body and soul, in the process of trying to fix everything. Madoka accepts that becoming a magical girl isn't something she can change . . . so she changes what parts of it she can.
Is it a perfect solution? No. Madoka loses a lot. No one remembers her except for her little brother (who is so young he may forget in time) and Homura, who could never forget someone to whom she had given so much. Madoka's fate is lonely and isolating . . . but by accepting it,she saves all other magical girls.
To me, this aspect of the series is perhaps the most interesting when viewed as an analogy to the lives of young women. Probably every day, I read things by people who are angry when young women take the rules (spoken or unspoken, legal or just tradition) and find ways around them. People get so angry when women find ways to manipulate the systems designed to oppress them. They feel so threatened when women use the biases and objectification others place on them to find ways to improve their lives. So many people see this as wrong, but is it?
Our primary obligation in life is to survive. If surviving means exploiting those who would exploit you, then do it. If surviving means playing the best you can with the hand you have, then do it. If surviving means taking everything they could use against you and making it work for you, then do it. You are here to survive, not score points for smiling sweetly as people walk over you.
In our lives, most of us will never meet some alien creature who offers us a Dr. Faustian deal. Most of us will never have the chance to grant a wish in exchange for a lot of magical power that will probably screw us up. However, in a more mundane way, all of us are being made those offers every day. "Compromise and it will be easier." "Conform and people will be nicer." "Be young and beautiful if you want to be loved." What do we choose? What do we accept? What are we willing to sacrifice?
I think the problem for a lot of people, as it was with many of the girls in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, is that all too often, we are put into the position to make the big decisions without having all the facts. We're kept in the dark about certain parts or we are emotionally manipulated into choosing something before considering it rationally. Quite often, it is our own ignorance that gets us painted into those corners. Once we feel trapped though, once we feel the pain, our need to survive kicks in. We adapt to the situation or we die from it. We keep on fighting or our Soul Gem becomes a Grief Seed.
I like to think that even at that point. the strength of human nature can still find a way out of the situation. But if not, at least become the most spectacular and crazy ass witch you can be.
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