[Kaijo]

Originally Posted by Mentar

Not sure if I understand you here. What are "her stated goals" which she contradicts by her actions?

She obviously doesn't want Madoka to become an MG. The "why" is still up in the air. If I were Homura, I'd analyze what may make Madoka make the decision. Right now, Madoka is obviously worried about Sayaka and is flat out asking Homura to help her and not fight with her. If I were Homura, I'd go, "Alright, I'll help her, if you promise not to become an MG. There isn't room for more than two MG's around here, anyway."

Unless Homura is deliberately out for herself and thus doesn't want Sayaka in on the grief seed action, I can't see why she wouldn't make some sort of deal. As we see later in the episode, Homura shows up anyway to save Sayaka, right before Madoka could make the choice.

I believe that Homura's reasoning is that Madoka becoming a MG is a prime disaster to avoid. She owes Sayaka absolutely nothing - in fact, Sayaka has been unreasonably hostile towards Homura from day one. She also became a MG for her own reasons despite all warnings.

Perhaps Sayaka has, but with good reason, because Homura seemed rather hostile. And also because Homura seemed hostile and demanding with Madoka. Nothing sets a friend off, like seeing their friend being bullied.

Homura's point of view is that being a MG is a death sentence, for good reason. And that every MG is condemned to lose everyone they love and care for (see ep1). This is entirely consistent with her advice to "give up on Sayaka".

While I'd agree Homura likely thinks that way, I'd have to state again that being an MG isn't a death sentence more so than anything else. Life itself is a death sentence, so it all depends on the person and how they choose to live their life. If Sayaka wants to live her life fighting for "justice" and to help others, then it really doesn't matter. Plenty of people do dangerous things day in and day out; look at what happened to Steve Irwin.

Now, if there is some cynical force at play that deliberately kills off everyone and everything that an MG loves, then you'll have a point. But at this stage, there is no reason to suspect that.

We'll have to agree to disagree here. First of all, there seems to be a mechanic that runs contrary to MGs cooperating which we don't know about yet (since the idea to cooperate isn't THAT outlandish - other MGs should have thought about that before, too). And even so - if Sayaka and Homura would cooperate as MGs, wouldn't that rather encourage Madoka to become the same? I think it would.

If there is some mechanic, then Mami obviously wasn't aware of it. She seemed quite happy with the idea. And as I said, all Homura has to do is make a deal with Madoka, "I'll protect Sayaka and help her as best I can, and in return, you don't become an MG." Protecting her from Kyoko would be a good start.

Edit: I'm going to a little farther here. Homura says it is impossible to raise the dead.... but she's clearly not impartial in this. Madoka finally got around to thinking this (which proves she wasn't thinking it in ep4), so what's the obvious conclusion? If Homura told her it was, it is likely Madoka might have made that wish. It still might be impossible, but we'd need Kyube to say for sure.