Course Catalog
MSS 598 – Seminar
Special Topic: "The Apocrypha of Fiona Graham - Twisting reality into a pretzel for the Love of one girl"
Description: Visiting professor Dr. Mami Tomoe, mahou shoujo studies researcher and scholar noted for her role as a pioneer in the Terran Diaspora and a central participant in the birth of the current age of humanity, discusses current perspectives on the mostly apocryphal events surrounding the development of the magical goddess duality.
Special Note: This seminar will be a secular examination of the meta-historical documentation left from a highly contentious period of human development. Religious passions on either side of the debate should be cast aside and an open, academic mind brought to bear on the existing evidence of events that, by definition, defy evidence. In full disclosure, Dr Tomoe is a Grand Mage of the Order of the Circle, but she has consistently demonstrated her objectiveness in her role as an academic. An alternative view will be present during the seminar, represented by Grand Mage Kyouko Sakura, Prophet of the Order of Rational Egoism. Ms Sakura has declined to co-moderate the seminar in a panel format with her peer, but experience suggests she will freely speak her mind regardless of her formal role.
Disclaimer: The University takes no responsibility for the actions of Ms Sakura during this event. Participation in this seminar is strictly limited to enrolled graduate students and faculty in the field of mahou shoujo studies, ensuring attendees are prepared by prior education in the field to behave appropriately. Remote holographic students from other institutions shall be required to acknowledge this warning when logging into each session regardless of distance from the venue.
Department of Mahou Shoujo Studies (MSS)
University of Alexandria
Alexandria, Initium Novum, Perseus Arm, Milky Way Galaxy
327 Terran Years after the Duality Compact
Summary of the Five Known Realities as established by the Apocrypha of Fiona Graham and validated by statements, writings, or other objective indications in the case of transcendent beings, of Madoka Kamisama, Homura Akumasama, Dr Mami Tomoe, and Kyouko Sakura.
Reality Alpha (Cosmos ante Madoka Kamisama) – The reality of witches. Subcategorized into 782 discrete universes as Homura Akemi traveled the iterations with Fiona Graham as witness.
Reality Beta (Cosmos secundum ad Madoka Kamisama) – The Sacrifice. Also known as the reality of wraiths. Akemi-sama's unique soul labyrinth is commonly referred to as 'Reality sub Beta'
Reality Gamma (Cosmos secundum ad Homura Akumasama) – The Rebellion. Also known by various authors as the reality without magic or the reality without free will. Theorized to be a universe-spanning witch labyrinth by Akemi Akuma-sama overlaying Reality Beta, but such a distinction has no practical significance. Limitations placed on Dr Graham in this universe lacking puella magi, and the effects of Homura Akumasama's efforts to maintain an unstable reality through memory manipulation of all other participants of this reality, render this reality a significant unknown. While Dr Graham has acknowledged she maintained her direct connection to Homura Akumasama's mind, and by extension possesses all pertinent knowledge and events of this timeline, she has steadfastly refused to speak of or document anything that she did not herself witness or experience personally. Attempts to force Dr Graham to document this reality have resulted in some of the clearest demonstrations to date of the direct participation of the Goddesses in Reality Epsilon.
Reality Delta (Cosmos secund autem reditum Madoka Kamisama) – The Return. Like with Reality Gamma, little has been documented of this universe despite the assertion of Drs Graham and Tomoe as well as Kyouko Sakura that they have clear memories of it. All involved cite a promise they made which prevents them from speaking in detail of the events of this reality. All that is known is that it existed, that it involved the re-establishment of the Law of Cycles perhaps due to this having been a re-establishment of Reality Beta, and that by its end the existences known as Sayaka Miki, Nagisa Momoe, and Yuma Chitose returned to the dimension of the Goddess each of them serves.
Reality Epsilon (Cosmos secundum ad Dualitas) – The Compromise. The current universal reality, although many scholars posit others may have existed that have not yet been described by Dr Graham and the two remaining mahou shoujo who have knowledge crossing realities. Part of the uncertainty stems from the claim by Dr Tomoe that the détente between the Goddesses must never be considered stable, meaning the reformation of the universe according to a new understanding within the Duality could happen at any time. This claim cannot, of course, be objectively substantiated. That said, the established natures of the existences known as the Goddesses make this claim appear highly plausible.
"Thank you, Dean Monem, for yet another kind introduction." The buxom blonde teenager took the podium as an aged and balding man descended the steps from the stage and took his seat in the audience. "I'd also like to especially thank the mages and technicians who are making it possible for scholars throughout human space to participate holographically in this lecture series. Having begun my schooling in the early 21st century on Terra, I still must marvel at such a vast room full of people most of whom aren't really here." The woman scanned the auditorium from one side to the other with a wry smirk, shaking her head as she added, "I know it sounds strange coming from me, but it makes me feel old." Chuckles and scattered giggles rose from the audience at the admission.
"So class," the lecturer began again when the noise died down, "thus far we've covered the original universe of Homura Akemi and the hundreds of witch-based realities she inadvertently created in an unsuccessful quest to save her best friend. We are fortunate to have extensive documentation of those events from Dr. Graham as well as Akemi-sama's annotated review of Dr. Graham's manuscripts which allows us to identify areas of potential bias. We've examined in detail both Homura Akemi's and Madoka Kaname's wishes as documented by Dr. Graham and Akemi-sama, and explored Sagitta Luminis to the extent that any of the three witnesses to that event have shared. Admittedly Sagitta Luminis, like all of the universe revisions, is almost entirely a mystery since Fiona and the Goddesses have refused to discuss it except between themselves."
"Stupid heroics," a voice groused from the front row of the audience. All eyes that could see the red headed girl sitting nearest the podium watched as the burgundy clad form shook itself. Her fingers picked awkwardly at a seed of the pomegranete in her lap she had previously been shredding with relish. "Um, sorry Mami…" the voice added moments later, sounding contrite.
"Oh, it's alright, Sakura-san," Tomoe Mami assured with a grin. "I'm flattered Akemi-sama decided my little series was worth attending. I just ask her indulgence as I keep covering the material. If she really wants to speak, she need only ask for the podium and I'll gladly step aside for my Lady's beloved opponent."
"No way am I gettin' up there, goldilocks. I just told her where she can stick her editorializing. She can find another mouthpiece if she wants a PR person. I'm not that girl."
"Have I mentioned lately how sexy you are when you tell off a Goddess, Kyouko?" The audience was left to wonder why the redhead's face suddenly flushed the color of her hair.
Mami winked to her former student and life-long friend before returning her attention to the audience. "Last session we began exploring the world which was born of Sagitta Luminis; Madoka Kaname's universe of wraiths. Sadly for the academic discussion, Akemi-sama has been very quiet regarding the circumstances leading to her own Transcendence. Dr. Graham has been downright prolific about Homura's mind during that period, but the fact Fiona herself freely admits she had an agenda during those events calls into serious question possible bias."
"But there are two sources of history from that timeline in addition to Dr. Graham and Homura Akuma-sama, aren't there?" Mami's gaze turned to a brown-haired girl, looking barely pubescent, sitting in the section reserved for magical girls actually in physical attendance. Not coincidentally, this section was at the front and surrounded on three sides the seat assigned to Kyouko Sakura.
"Yes and no, Tammie. Sakura-san and I possess memories of that period, true. But as I've written extensively about, because of Akemi-sama's memory manipulation during the initial stage of the Rebellion, none of us who remember back to and before that universe can confidently rely on the validity of those memories. I have no reason to believe my memories as they exist now have been altered from the original, but they were for a time and I cannot exclude that they might not reflect missing or inaccurate information. As a believer, I have faith in my knowledge and the assurances of my Goddess. As a scientist, I acknowledge the limitations of it."
"Then what about Dr. Graham?" the apparent child pursued. "Why do you accept her remembrance as being unaltered?"
Mami shrugged, canting her head to the side. "A very good question. Dr Graham is a special and unique case. She's elemental in her role as Chronicler of all of us who have contracted, and unlike the other elementals we've discussed such as the Goddesses and the spirits which befriended the group in Seattle in Madoka's unilateral world, Fiona was never a magical girl. Instead, she is bound to the existence...the very concept...of all magical girls. This is true even of the transcendent Akemi-sama, much to their shared vexation. Fiona can be cowed or even turned when she lacks a protector, and has been repeatedly by her own admission prior to Reality Epsilon, but she cannot be destroyed and her knowledge cannot be corrupted or inhibited. As long as human mages exist, so does Fiona and so does her knowledge of every human girl who ever possessed a soul gem."
"Sensei, I have a question about Dr. Graham." This time the inquiry came from a man looking to be in his late 20's or 30's further up in the audience. Mami couldn't tell for sure if he was real or a hologram, so she looked him up on the podium's display.
"Yes, James?"
"Reading the official histories and the material we're taught growing up, I expected Fiona to be more…heroic maybe? As we read her own writings, though, she comes across more like a villain. Her arrogance borders on shocking. I am struggling to find her the sympathetic figure you ascribe to."
The words were barely out of the man's mouth when hearty laughter rose from the front row. "You don't know the half of it, kid."
Mami smiled again at her friend's outburst. "So, Sakura-san, would you like to address the question? I'm sure we can direct the sound to your seat so you don't have to stand in front of everyone, love."
"Oh Hell no, Mami! Like I said, you're the respectable one. I'm just visualizing Oriko being here to answer that one."
Mami puts a hand over her mouth to stifle her own giggle. "Yeah, Oriko would appreciate your observation, James. Then again Oriko, and certainly Akemi-sama, were no better than Fiona. Arrogance bordering on Messianic…well not even bordering in Homura's case…"
"Mami…" Kyouko warned, suddenly serious.
"I stand by my statement, Sakura-san," Mami persisted, her levity now gone and her expression equally serious. "If there was ever someone in all of history, any history, that had a god complex, it was Homura Akemi. History gives her a pass on it because she actually managed to pull it off."
Before Kyouko could protest more, Mami continued persistently. "But in all fairness, all three of them had reasons for acting as they did."
Mami turned from Kyouko back to James. "You describe Fiona as a villain. Okay, but if you label Fiona a villain, then what of Homura Akuma-sama? Dr. Graham sacrificed plenty of humans and magical girls alike either out of self preservation or to further her goals, but Homura Akuma-sama caged a God and redefined reality out of a belief that She was the real interpreter of Her Friend's truth. Madoka-Kamisama could not be trusted to decide Her own actions for Herself.
"I'd suggest all three of them, Fiona, Oriko, and Homura, aren't described best as either villains or heroes. Rather they're all 'antiheroes'. Flawed humans thrust into great events with the power and implied mandate to direct them. Oriko wanted to save the world from the threat of the witch Gretchen when she first wished. The second time she lived to wish rather than be assassinated by Homura, in the world created initially by Madoka's wish, she wanted to save the world from Homura's madness. Both times she arrogantly believed she was right and that Homura was wrong. A lot of people died in the process of her defying Homura, but in both cases her world continued on when it probably wouldn't have but for her interference…and yes, I realize the second time that continuation lasted only a few days, but the reasons for the world ending that time were due to Kyubey's harebrained experiment and not due to Homura per se. My point is, Oriko was arrogant and seemingly villainous in her actions, but was she necessarily wrong given her intentions and the very real threat she faced each time? If the answer is no, then Fiona, who was driven by the same factors and committed essentially the same sins, also deserves a lenient judgment."
"Mami, I'd like the mic for a minute."
Mami looked up to the technicians at the back of the room and nodded. When she saw a nod back, she looked down at her friend. "It's all yours, Sakura-san."
Kyouko didn't stand, but even seated her presence was unmistakable…seeming to fill the room. Her words were uncharacteristically formal and crisp. "I just want to remind everyone again that Homura acted to stop the oppression of the Incubators and address Madoka's recklessly insufficient wish. Hers was a universe entirely without magical girl sacrifice. Homura didn't just give us a happy ending, she gave us our whole lives back. If she had a 'god complex' as you say, Mami, it was in response to the Incubators playing god themselves. It is commonly accepted that Fiona is what the Incubators made her. The same goes for Homura. They both had the same motivation. The living happiness of a girl today should never be sacrificed for a universe 15 billion years from now. The Universe is a big boy and can take care of itself. Homura knows that better than anybody. Madoka's wish, while well intended, simply didn't go far enough. Homura only sought…and still seeks…to correct that error."
"Sakura-sama, I have a question for you," a voice entered the silence which hung after Kyouko's words. Eyes turned to note the same young man who had enquired of Fiona with Mami. Kyouko again shook herself and the presence dissipated. She turned in her chair to look up in the direction of the voice.
"A question? For me?" Kyouko's mouth spread into a wide grin that displayed her unusually prominent canines. "My ya are a brave one. Just remember unlike goody two-shoes Glinda over there with her wishy washy Goddess, my rules say I can bitchslap ya across the room if I don't like what ya say. There's a reason why I'm not standin' up there with Mami and am sittin' surrounded by a bunch of Goddess followers." The apparently teenaged girl raised an elbow to the back of her chair and leaned her head against her hand in a seemingly casual manner. "So, shoot. What's on yer mind?"
The man gulped but continued bravely. "Why do you ally with the Devil? You keep saying 'because She asked', but you fought against Homura Akumasama in Gamma before changing sides in Delta. It makes no sense to me. Why the switch?"
Kyouko swiveled her head back to gaze up at Mami and they shared a look suggesting conversation. Astute observers noted that Kyouko's eyes flashed from red to indigo to ebony and Mami's from yellow to pink to gold. As quickly as it started, it was over and Kyouko looked back over to James with a tempestuous expression. "I signed up with Homura for the same reason she fights…because like her I love someone who ignores her own happiness out of duty…and it grates me. And before you try following up, if you say another word you'll wish you'd never been born."
"Technicians, squelch all sound except at the podium. No more audience participation for now." Mami's telepathic command was broadcast to all mages in the room, including those facilitating the holography with the techs. Sound dampening was immediately applied to the auditorium and holographic participants were muted. The only communication for the moment would be either telepathic - and magical girls knew better than to say anything right now - or by Kyouko's dearest friend and peer in power.
"So, when we finished last time," Mami began again with her trademark serene smile, "we were covering Fiona's preparations to meet Oriko in Beta. Let's get back to that topic, why don't we?"
A note on terminology.
"Akuma" in Japanese is translatable into English as either devil or demon. Aniplex chose the term demon, but I am choosing to use devil instead for reasons that hopefully become clear. In any case, in this chapter the term is solely used as an honorific for someone who uses it as a self description in Rebellion. She calls herself "Akuma", and I'm certainly not inclined to argue with a transcendent being...
***Author's Note***
This, for better or for worse, is what my muse gave me after watching PMMM: Rebellion a week ago Friday night in the Hollywood Theater in Portland. I made this a separate story both because it doesn't fit in the events of Journey and also to maintain all Rebellion spoilers somewhere outside Mother's Journey until the endgame. Readers should expect Mother's Journey to remain spoiler free until the Rebellion blu-ray is available in the States (buy it when it comes out - it's awesome!).
Moreso than the movie, this story could be seen as spoiling Journey. Perhaps, although I made it clear this is a possible future. Given Rebellion's plot and the fact I am writing in the initial Madoka-verse, there really now is only one possible endpoint if I choose to maintain canon, which I am. The adventure will be in seeing how our girls get there. I am grateful to Gen Urobuchi-sensei for making it so blessed easy to maintain Journey in canon. I was very pleasantly surprised.
This chapter/story also answers a reader's very insightful comment regarding Fiona's arrogance. Oh heck yes she is arrogant. I almost had Kyouko just say, "Duh!", but I decided I had to say a little more than that or the reader might take unintended offense. I hope Mami's explanation about 'antiheroes' makes sense. If not, feel free to wiki the term. It's a well established literary vehicle.
As far as my impression of the movie, I absolutely LOVED it. We managed to snag three of the four lovely prints, sadly missing Homura since we had only three people in our party and, of the four, Homura's was the least inspiring. I was certain I would be unsatisfied by the turn of events in the story, but I must admit Gen Urobuchi managed to make yandere-esque Homura a complete slam dunk. The plot made perfect sense. So much so that I walked out of the theater determined to maintain the new canon with Journey. In the end, it took the change of only one sentence of the material I had already written.
Now it should be noted I wasn't completely unscathed. My plans for the story going forward will see some changes, but not nearly as much as I thought might have been necessary. I always planned for Homura to achieve goddesshood as the dark side of the coin to Madoka's light. I've alluded to it already several times, most particularly at the end of the chapter 'Interregnum'. Note how Homura 'wrapped herself in her own darkness' to fend off Madoka's light as she entered Sagitta Luminis. She did that under her own power. Now I never planned to upend the Law of Cycles, but hey, who am I to argue with Writing Master Urobuchi-sensei? When standing alone facing cannons, don't argue… :p
This chapter is an oddity, something my muse felt the need to write and which I choose to share. That's why I am publishing it by itself. It will have no impact on Mother's Journey since Journey will now be the story leading up to Homura being entrapped by Kyubey. My originally planned plot will explain how that happened surprisingly well with only a little adaptation. Just how did Homura get caught with her figurative britches down in "Reality Beta"? Let's find out, shall we? :-)