Application ☆ 3rd Timeline

[fatedmagica]

Player Information
Name: Berri
Personal Journal: frogberri
Contact Info: AIM & Plurk; TaiyakinoNaku
Other Characters: None

Character Information
Name:
Source Canon: Puella Magi Madoka ☆ Magica
Age: 14
Role In Canon: Lead
History: Madoka Article @ Puella Magi Wiki

Personality:

When describing Madoka Kaname the word one should probably start with is "average". She is a normal girl who grew up in a normal house with a normal family. She has a good relationship with her family, two best friends, and casual interests in things like looking cute and getting love letters. Her personality can seem just as simple and plain and Madoka can come off as a weak willed average girl, but the multiple timelines in her story show that Madoka is a stronger person than she thinks she is; she just needs to realize it.

In all timelines, Madoka is a happy person. She is surrounded by a loving family and happy friends. She may be a bit quiet, but she always does her best to be friendly and caring. In the first timeline, Madoka does not hesitate to befriend the shy transfer student Homura right away. Mami and her quickly become friends, to the point that Madoka is promising to not leave Mami alone. Madoka never once labels Kyoko as an enemy, and is quick to befriend her when the chance arises. Even in the case of Homura in the most recent timeline, Madoka tries to be friendly towards her.

This may be largely because Madoka is kind and naive. Because of this naivety, Madoka did not truly recognize any of the dangers of Puella Magi until she was slapped in the face with them. She was told it was dangerous, but did not take it seriously until Mami died, for example. Madoka wants to believe in the good in everyone and everything and will rarely reach a pessimistic conclusion without some hard evidence.
In a world where Mami does not die, Madoka contracts and pursues a happy magical girl journey where Puella Magi fight for justice, never noticing any signs that things may not be as happy-go-lucky as they seem... until everything comes crashing down. When things get bad, Madoka is able to finally recognize that she was a child and come to terms with the harsh reality. This is because, while she is a naive person who does not actively seek to find things wrong with life, she is not so stupid that she cannot learn from experience.

Madoka also has a strong, naive belief in everyone getting along and working together. This belief inspires her to want to make a Puella Magi duo with Mami, to ask Homura to look after Sayaka, and to never hate Kyoko, even after she engages in a life or death battle with Sayaka. She does not take sides in a conflict either; even when Sayaka was being attacked by Kyoko, Madoka could not bring herself to side with her best friend or Kyoko. In one timeline, when Homura reveals the truth of Soul Gems, Madoka never directly aligns herself with Sayaka's belief that it is a lie, even though her actions suggest she doesn't believe Homura. Again and again, Madoka is very sensitive to all sides of a situation, and supports peace and dissolving conflict without violence. Even when Madoka does form an opinion of her own, she is not always confident in it. She tries to get Sayaka to consider befriending Kyoko, but when Sayaka shoots that down Madoka just shuts up and starts rethinking things all over again. Madoka constantly looks for compromise and does not want to have a conflict with anyone, and is weak-willed enough to sometimes bend her opinion to avoid trouble.

When she's trying to decide something, Madoka will not hesitate to talk to people about it. She is generally in control of her thoughts and emotions, or at least trying to be. When Mami dies, Madoka avoids a major emotional break down until she is about to talk it through with Sayaka. Until she has a chance to deal with them properly, she makes an effort to put a lid on her feelings and act normally. When Sayaka contracts with Kyuubey, Madoka takes some time to think it through before she decides to accompany Sayaka on a Witch-Hunt, when she could have immediately asked. She also has many instances of discussing things with her parents and of chilling on the rooftop and talking deep talks with Homura and Sayaka.

The decisions Madoka makes without talking to people are driven by strong emotions, generally fear. She stops the group suicide impulsively because she doesn't want to die, she throws away Sayaka's Soul Gem on impulse to stop Sayaka from fighting, and she shoots Mami because she's scared of seeing someone else die. It's only after Madoka commits these acts that she realizes what she's done and she usually crumbles under the pressure and confusion following her decisions, while seeming confident until they are completed. This is seen in her scrambling to run after stopping the suicide, her confusion and self-doubt after throwing Sayaka's Soul Gem, and her mental breakdown after it sinks in that she murdered Mami. It might also be noted that her impulsive decisions were all made in an effort to protect someone; Madoka will think for eons about herself, but will act quickly to prevent someone else from getting hurt.

Madoka's confusion and breakdowns are caused by the simple fact that she is running low on self confidence. Because she doesn't excel particularly well at anything, Madoka often feels useless. Though she tries to cope with her feeling of being burden in small ways, such as supporting friends and becoming the class nurse, she cannot easily shake her lack of self-worth. This causes Madoka to become confused easily, makes it harder for her to settle on decisions, and to cry a lot... Generally in private, because Madoka does not want to burden people with concern for her (she shakes off her family's concern when she cries at the table and doesn't have a real emotional cry over Mami until she's all alone).

Her lack of self-worth is only made worse by the fact that Madoka really truly wants to help people. Before the death of Mami, Madoka has almost settled on the idea that her wish is to help people and protect those she loves. In all of the timelines Homura experiences, Madoka has died because she wanted to protect people as a Puella Magi. In one timeline, she even asks Homura to destroy her Soul Gem, essentially destroying Madoka's soul, rather than allow her to become a witch and hurt people. Even when Madoka is laying there dying, she is thinking about the fact that she wants to protect people. When Madoka makes her miraculous wish, it makes it impossible for her to exist and sets her in line to absorb suffering for the rest of eternity, but Madoka is completely content as long as she is helping people. Kindness and loving everyone is a huge part of her character.

Human Madoka has little to no confidence. But Puella Magi Madoka does. When she's a Puella Magi, Madoka feels that she is worth something. And when Madoka feels like she's worth the life she's been given, she confidently works to protect it. There is a dramatic difference between the Madoka who prevents the suicide, scared out of her wits and lacking confidence in her ability to save those people, and the Madoka Magica who protects Homura in the first timeline. There's a huge difference in the Madoka who falls to her knees and breaks down when Mami dies in the line of duty, and is consumed by the terror of the witch Charlotte, and the Madoka Magica who looks down at Mami's corpse and Homura before she confidently heads off to fight the killer witch, all in the name of saving those precious to her. Even something as simple as her day-to-day interactions with people can be changed by a boost in confidence; when she is a Puella Magi, Madoka approaches Homura and leads the way to the nurse's office, while talking confidently and cheerfully with her. In another timeline, when she is not a Puella Magi, Madoka follows Homura and performs the same conversation, except this time she is stuttering and unsure. Her shy and timid nature will give way to a more happy ad upbeat girl when she feels good about herself.

The Madoka that I am applying for is this confident girl. She has made a wish and become a Puella Magi, and has gained all of the self-confidence that comes with it. Because of this, Madoka is not the same shy girl as in the majority of the series--- though I believe it's very important to understand shygirl Madoka in order to understand confident Madoka.
This Madoka is also coming from a very specific canon point, one that has very specific character development to go with it. She is coming from the very end of the third timeline, which means that Madoka has seen and experienced a ton of suffering. Unlike the fifth timeline Madoka, however, she has been more than just a spectator.

This Madoka has also died, or at least asked to be killed.

She's a mature girl who understands what it means to suffer. She now understands what it means to be sad and what is means to lose friends. However, as opposed to the Madoka Kaname who locked herself in her room in response to suffering (5th timeline), this Madoka pulled herself together and powered through the end of her timeline. She may be absurdly sad, but Madoka Magica has the strength to keep moving forward to protect those that she loves.

The fact she's died is also very important. We see with Madokami that Madoka's confidence brings her a certain amount of peace, and I will be portraying Madoka with this peace. She knows she has died, but she died while putting her faith in Homura. And there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can shake Madoka's faith when she is a magical girl. The only shadow of a doubt clouding this Madoka is that she regrets setting herself and her friends up for suffering, but as she lives passed those last moments she will undoubtably regain her confidence in that decision as she sees her friends from the verying canon points.



Abilities:
Madoka is a Puella Magi-- a girl with magical powers that contracted with an alien mascot named Kyuubey. As such, she's more than just a normal human girl.

☆ Soul Gem: When she contracted with Kyuubey, Madoka's soul was ripped out of her body and put in a little gem. Her body is pretty much being remote controlled by her soul gem. Madoka doesn't know this.

☆ Magical Arrows: Her magical girl weapon is a rose-themed bow that shoots powerful magical arrows. With the new PSP game, Madoka's attacks have formal names. I will be using the names for her attacks, but I will not be using her PSP game healing abilities since I'm not familiar enough with how they work yet.

☆ Magical Power: Homura has turned time back two times (that we know of), making this the third timeline Madoka. She is more powerful than your average magical girl as a result. In comparison, the original Madoka was able to defeat Walpurgis Night at the cost of her own life. This Madoka is able to defeat Walpurgis Night and live afterwards, but ultimately falls victim to her grief. In ths very next timelime, Madoka will defeat Walpurgis Night all on her own and create a witch of equal-but-opposite power that destroys the world in 7 days.

☆ Transformation: Madoka's transformation gives her a cute outfit... Yay~!

Sample:
[ The vine shows a girl in what seems to be a kitchen, measuring with cups and counting out ingredients. She puts a finger to her cheek, examining the supplies set out before her. ]
I've never made pancakes before... They're not really something that Papa makes much of either... [ She sorts out the flour and sugar, then looks to the basket of berries and fruit that she's picked. ] Well, it's worth a try. Let's see if I can remember the recipe!

[ As she looks around the kitchen she notices the vine. Her smile becomes a bit shy and embarrassed as she waves in its direction. ]

O-oh! Whoops, I didn't realize this was... um, good morning, everyone! I hope I'm not waking anyone up too soon... [ She looks between her pancake ingredients and the vine... Then presses her fingers together and grins. ] I'm making pancakes this morning! I found a lot of fresh fruit... and pancakes are something I've always wanted to make. If you're awake and hungry, why don't you come by and share some? This is my first time making them, but don't worry! [ She smiles confidently-- an expression her human self would never have worn. ] I'm going to do my best to make them delicious.

~~~~
This sample is for a 3rd timeline Madoka-- however, I have samples for main series Madoka in my Mayifield rp journal.