Adding onto this question, right after Madoka recreated the entire universe to accommodate with the Law of Cycles, why was everybody placed back in time right after the event where Sayaka gets killed in battle? Why were they placed specifically there in time? Also, do all magical girls join the Law of Cycles after they die? If they do, then what is the point? Madoka's wish was to erase all witches with her own hands, so anybody else in the Law of Cycles wouldn't have a job to carry out since Madoka would be doing it all herself.
3 Answers
Right after Madoka recreated the entire universe to accommodate with the Law of Cycles, why was everybody placed back in time right after the event where Sayaka gets killed in battle? Why were they placed specifically there in time?
I don't think it's quite accurate to view everybody as having been placed back where Sayaka gets killed in battle. In this rewritten universe where the Law of Cycles exists, the entirety of history plays out differently, probably diverging whenever the very first magical girl's Soul Gem turns dark. Every scene involving witches or Madoka personally probably plays out differently; it just so happens that we only get to see one particular scene from this new history of the world - the scene where Sayaka dies. Why? Well, it's an important scene, particularly given how that same scene was something of a bloodbath in episode 10's timeline 3. And plus, it helps us understand how the new universe works.
I find it more likely that everybody was "placed" back at the same instant that Madoka made her wish in the main timeline. (I don't have any strong evidence for this; it just seems to be the most parsimonious option.)
Also, do all magical girls join the Law of Cycles after they die?
I'm guessing you haven't seen Rebellion.
Rebellion strongly suggests that the answer is yes, based on Sayaka's comments at the beginning of the final segment (shortly after Homura turns witch). Magical girls do indeed become part of the Law of Cycles when they're touched by Madoka when their Soul Gems go dark.
If they do, then what is the point? Madoka's wish was to erase all witches with her own hands, so anybody else in the Law of Cycles wouldn't have a job to carry out since Madoka would be doing it all herself.
Again, I'm guessing you haven't seen Rebellion, since in Rebellion, we learn that:
At minimum, Sayaka and Charlotte/Nagisa both sort of exist in the same metaphysical space as Madoka. Sayaka herself notes that the two of them are sort of like "secretaries" to Madoka. They both play a key role in Madoka's scheme to extract Homura from the Incubators' barrier; it seems unlikely that Madoka would have been able to effect her scheme without their (or at least somebody's) assistance.
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Thanks for all the answers. I actually have seen Rebellion, but it's just been a while, haha. I've also seen in another answered question the statement that all the events within Rebellion should be rendered impossible due to the nature of Madoka's wish stating how she said that she would erase all witches before they were born. There shouldn't have been any problems with reaching Homura, and no sort of "barrier" should have been able to keep out, or keep in, Madoka. What are your thoughts on this?– user17797Sep 8, 2015 at 0:48
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Also, you said that the entire history of all magical girl interactions and such would have been changed due to the nature of there no longer being witches, but then what would the odds be that Sayaka, Kyoko, etc. would have still met each other and been friends? Also, at Sayaka's death scene (after the Law of Cycles took place), Homura realizes that she's holding Madoka's ribbon. If they weren't specifically placed at the moment after Sayaka's death, and it is like you said about how that's the only glimpse we got of this "new history" and that other events played out before this scene, ...– user17797Sep 8, 2015 at 0:52
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(cont.) ...then how did Madoka's ribbon magically appear in her hand at that moment in time?– user17797Sep 8, 2015 at 0:53
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1@Christian Sure, I guess that one might expect minor changes thousands of years in the past to make the present unrecognizable (Sayaka/Kyouko/etc not having met), but that would be narratively inconvenient. I don't know how to explain this away, but we're clearly shown in episode 12 that Madoka does, in fact, go to all points in history and prevent magical girls from turning into witches. I also have no idea how, mechanically, Homura came to have the ribbon, but she probably didn't get the ribbon in that instant; she's presumably had it for some time by then.– senshinSep 8, 2015 at 1:02
First, note that at the end of the last episode, magical girls are said to fight wraiths (instead of witches), and Kyubey is still around (albeit with no confirmed knowledge of the alternative universe Homura is aware of). So the main things that have changed are:
What the magical girls fight. (Homura even states that humanity still faces certain "monsters", which just happen to not be witches.)
What happens after their soul gems become too "polluted". (In the new universe, Kyouko laments that Sayaka used up a little too much energy in their fight against some wraiths, and thus was absorbed into the Law of Cycles, just as they were getting closer.)
So magical girls are around, and it's simply that they don't become witches. There are thus no witches in this continuity.
After Madoka's actions, we see history rewritten entirely: in the beginning of the episode, we thus see her interact with the various magical girls who have come up through-out history, showing up to take them (which contrasts with the earlier scenario, where they were shown as girls who would later become witches). This also strongly suggests that yes, all magical girls join the Law of Cycles in this continuity.
As senshin notes, showing Homura in the "new" universe at the specific point where Sayaka dies serves as a good contrast with Sayaka's original fate. From Homura's possession of Madoka's ribbons at that point, it seems possible that Homura is placed back at that specific point in time in the new universe, but this is only in the sense that it's possible her consciousness was transferred to that point (unless, like with the numerous other universes Homura has experienced, she "arrived" when she was still in the hospital or at some other point, and it's just that she keeps the ribbons on her person). However, no one else knows who Madoka is, so we must conclude that Mami and Kyouko are merely part of the rewritten universe -- they aren't really "placed" into it.
Here's an answer to my own question that I thought up.
Since Madoka recreated the entire universe, it was probably her own decision to place them back in that moment of time. She wanted them all to still be together as friends and to help each other fight the wraiths, so she recreated the new world in that way to let their friendships still last and not have absolutely EVERYTHING be rewritten. It was placed right after Sayaka's death since Sayaka wanted to join Madoka in the Law of Cycles, so she joined Madoka after her death.