The Fifteen Clara of the False City

Gen Urobuchi said that Rebellion is a happy ending for Homura, and a lot of people take issue with that. They say, “well look at all of the imagery! All I see is Homura suffering and hating herself throughout the movie!”

I think Urobuchi is completely right.

Everyone is missing the forest for the trees here. We all know the Clara Dolls as they are described by the booklets that Japanese theatergoers got and that came with the Blu-rays. “Wow, what a depressing bunch of brats they are,” you say.

But put that aside, and let’s talk about how, as familiars, and therefore as projections of Homura’s heart, the Clara Dolls are essentially just a bunch of little girls who don’t have a care in the world.

(Disclaimer: The contents of this post are biased and make no effort to do anything but defend Homerun-chan. Enjoy.)

The troupe of dolls just hang around Mitakihara and frolic all day and night. Does this not seem iconic of Homura’s own desires? After all, what do the five main characters do in the dream world besides go to school? That’s right, bullshit for hours on end, just smiling and laughing. Even their enemies, the Nightmares, are a total joke. No one ever beat witches or wraiths by throwing a dinner party or singing a song about cake–not to mention there is zero competition between girls as magic replenishment is distributed evenly among everyone.

The dolls’ habits of grinning ear-to-ear like mad hatters and messing with people all the time is paralleled by Akuma Homura, who for the better part of the ending acts like she doesn’t have a care in the world. “Destroy the world,” she replies to the Justice Meguca, “yeah, sounds like fun!” Is she not completely fucking with poor Miki Sayaka at this point?

But Homura isn’t just a parallel to the dolls, no. She’s more than that, it seems.

“I’d like to thank our customers.”

The Clara Dolls in the pamphlet booklet are described in regards to the funeral procession. The 15th and final Clara, Love, has yet to arrive. We also see a Madoka doll in the above image–both dolls are still in their packaging, suggesting Madoka and ‘Love’ are both dormant, waiting to be awakened to their true potential. Also note that Love comes with a nutcracker’s hand crank (Curious that Love has the missing piece to the broken nutcracker that is Homulilly, isn’t it? What could it mean~), and on her label reads, in runes, 一人ぼっちにお似合い, which means that Love goes hand-in-hand with solitude.

Okay, so Love isn’t present for the funeral procession, and Homulilly is a broken nutcracker. But afterward, there is a very major scene where 'Love’ plays a major role. While Love hadn’t arrived to the funeral procession, perhaps she has arrived afterward. We know that once the isolation field is broken, Madoka awakens to her full potential as Madokami. In keeping with the analogy presented by the above image, one could say her 'packaging’ is opened. Perhaps the isolation field is what’s represented by the packaging? Then, does that mean that Love, too, is opened up? Let’s see what happens next… oh, look, Homura awakened the power of Love and what was once a broken Nutcracker is now completed.

Crack, crunch, AI YO.

Let’s look at the Blu-ray Booklet’s description of Clara #15. “The fifteenth and last one to come is Love. Nobody has seen this Devil yet. The night is not yet over.” I mentioned this earlier, but the booklets refer to the Clara and their roles as they play out during Homulilly’s funeral procession. Therefore, it can be said that the booklets do not account for what the Clara are up to afterward. Love didn’t arrive for the funeral procession, but afterward there is substantial evidence for Love’s arrival, as described above.

Okay, I promise I’m getting to the point.

If we believe everything that has been theorized up to this point, the 15th Clara represents Love just like Homura, wears Homura’s clothes, and is referred to as a Devil just like Homura. Yeah, I’m just going to go ahead and present my theory: Homura is the 15th Clara, Love.

Recall the writing on Love’s packaging: 一人ぼっちにお似合い, “Goes well with solitude.” The ending has a fair bit of scenes where Homerun-chan is essentially basking in her solitude, enough so that everyone is left wondering if she’s okay in the head.

Who’s your imaginary friend, Homu?

You know what? Hell yeah she’s okay—better than okay! Remember that the Clara, the little girls who do nothing but play and enjoy life, are fragments of Homura’s desires. Inside, Homura just wants to enjoy life.

Why wouldn’t she? We’re talking about an girl who was in and out of hospitalization due to heart disease, who went to a boarding school because she didn’t have parents, who came to Mitakihara seeking a new start and found that she was behind everyone in the academic, athletic, and social sense. She was teased and bullied, and almost killed herself. Homura finally found a reason to smile by the name of Kaname Madoka but even that flame was snuffed out within weeks. But Homura wasn’t going to give up, because she had hope. So she fought for her wish, she fought for years. Was it ten years, eleven years, maybe twelve? We aren’t sure, and it’s possible that neither is she anymore.

Yeah, she sure looks ready to die and go to heaven with no regrets.

The sad fact is that Akemi Homura never got to have a childhood. That’s the form her regrets took within her barrier. The Nutcracker-esque setting looks like a giant toy box. The giant hands we see throughout the movie are reminiscent of a girl playing with her stuffed animals, the Nightmares, and arranging her dollhouse. There are two pivotal points in the movie where we hear children chanting, “Fort! Da!” This is unmistakeably a reference to Freud’s 'denial of pleasure’ as detailed here, wherein he details the account of a child who played with a reel of string (By the way, those two pivotal points I mentioned are both scenes where we see the Clara playing with the pink reel of string). The child would throw the reel, proclaiming, “Fort!” and it would disappear over the edge of his bed. Then he would tug on the string, saying, “Da!” and the reel would fly back to him.



'Coincidentally’, Homura soon appears on a bed looking like a child.

Freud believed that by playing this game, the child was able to assert himself as his own master by denying himself pleasure. (This point is extremely relevant to Nietzsche, who is also referenced and alluded to within Rebellion, but I really don’t want to double the size of this post so I’ll save the nihilist talk.)

What I’m saying is that Homura is a big baby, but she is also her own master. She tossed the figurative spool of thread over the edge of her bed and became Homulilly. The spool represents Madoka, and by throwing the girl she loves out of her sight she exposed herself to her own despair and suffering. It was horrible and painful, but more importantly, it made Homura face and accept her own desires, and become truly honest with herself.



By rebelling against God and stealing Madoka, Homura has figuratively pulled the spool of thread back to herself. She has learned how to love both pain and pleasure, and in doing that she has become her own master: Akuma Homura, the Nutcracker, the Ubermensch, the—am I laying this on a little too thick? Sorry.



To conclude, put yourself in Homura’s shoes for a moment.

That was a poor choice of words.

After fourteen years of sickness and depression, and twelve years of constant struggle, you’re finally free from everything that has ever oppressed you. What do you want to do now?



Yes, that’s right—Dance.



“One must have chaos within oneself to give birth to a dancing star.”

- Friedrich Nietzsche