Law of Cycles
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“She’s gone. The Law of Cycles says it has to be this way.”
“It’s the fate of all Magical Girls though. I’m sure you understood that fact when you first got your powers. We’re supposed to bring hope. But once it turns into despair, we have no choice but to disappear… forever.” - Mami Tomoe, Episode 12.
The Law of Cycles (円環の理 Enkan no Kotowari), or the Law of the Cycle, is a concept brought into existence by Madoka Kaname after she'd gained enough Karmic Potential to rewrite the laws of the universe. By making a wish to Kyubey to erase Witches before they're born across all time and space, Madoka transformed herself into a transcendent existence that absorbs the despair of Magical Girls before they can become Witches. The Law of Cycles functions as a universal system that observes Magical Girls throughout every timeline, appearing at the moment their Soul Gem would fully corrupt and guiding them away peacefully instead of allowing them to curse the world.
Together, Madoka and the Law of Cycles form the existence known as Ultimate Madoka.
Overview
The Law of Cycles replaced the original Witch System created by the Incubators at the end of Episode 12. Under the old system, Magical Girls inevitably transformed into Witches once their Soul Gems became fully corrupted by impurities. Madoka’s wish rewrote this fate entirely, causing the corruption to be absorbed before the transformation could occur.
As a result, Witches ceased to exist in the rewritten universe. However, despair itself was not erased, and curses instead began manifesting as creatures known as Wraiths. Magical Girls continue fighting these beings in order to gather the curse energy left behind and purify their Soul Gems.
The Law of Cycles exists outside conventional space and time, allowing Madoka to observe and interact with Magical Girls across all eras and timelines simultaneously. Girls taken in by the Law of Cycles continue to persist within it in some form, with certain Magical Girls later acting as agents or emissaries of the system. It is hinted that the versions of the different Magical Girls collected by the Ultimate Madoka are unified into a single version of the girl within the Law of Cycles.
Within the Law of Cycles, and similar spaces existing outside conventional space and time, “Records” are the preserved existences, memories and histories of Magical Girls, as well a entire assimilated histories stored as conceptual information even after their disappearance from the physical world.
The ongoing timelines are seen as spinning musical Records, which Ultimate Madoka can listen on and view the events of. On the other hand, existences which have had a definitive end are depicted as static, archived book Records.
History
Madoka Magica
At the climax of the series, Homura Akemi finally reveals the truth about Magical Girls and Witches to Madoka. Due to Homura repeatedly traveling through time in an attempt to save her, Madoka accumulated an immense amount of Karmic Destiny, giving her enough power to make a wish capable of rewriting reality itself.
Armed with knowledge of the entire system, Madoka wishes to erase all Witches before they are born, across all past, present and future timelines. She then travels across time and space personally saving Magical Girls moments before their transformations into Witches. Initially, the universe Madoka created also had her Soul Gem be of such massive proportions it resembled a comet.
When that version of Madoka reached a burden too heavy to carry, her Soul Gem became the ultimate form of Kriemhild Gretchen, which Homura was able to witness.
After erasing her own Witch, Madoka disappears from reality itself, with almost all traces and memories of her existence erased from the world. The process culminated in Madoka transcending humanity and becoming a conceptual existence connected to the entire universe. In the new universes created by her wish, Witches no longer exist and Magical Girls instead fight Wraiths. When a Magical Girl reaches her limit, the Law of Cycles appears to guide her away peacefully.
Homura becomes the only person who remembers Madoka's sacrifice, continuing to fight while carrying Madoka’s ribbons and memory with her. Kyubey however claimed that even if the events Homura claimed happen, verifying them wouldn't be possible.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Rebellion-
In Rebellion, it is revealed that Kyubey isolated Homura's Soul Gem inside a sealed Isolation Field in order to observe the Law of Cycles when it comes to retrieve her. This caused it to develop a Labyrinth internally as opposed to externally, which she shaped and designed to be a copy of the real Mitakihara City.
To bypass this isolation, Madoka sends herself, Sayaka Miki and Nagisa Momoe, who took a form reminiscent of her Witch form, into the Barrier as agents of the Law of Cycles while concealing its presence from the Incubators. She entrusts her memories to Sayaka and Nagisa, fully becoming human to fulfill their mission and avoid raising Kyubey's suspicion.
After regaining her own memories, Homura insists on being killed as a Witch inside her Soul Gem, unaware that Sayaka and Nagisa were aware of the truth and capable of saving both her and Madoka. Working together, Mami, Kyoko, Sayaka, Nagisa and Madoka reach Homura and break her free.
As Ultimate Madoka physically approaches to collect Homura into the Law of Cycles, Homura refuses and instead tears Madoka away from the Law of Cycles and expands her own Labyrinth to encompass the entire universe. This rewrites the universe once more, with Homura becoming Devil Homura and rewriting the memories of everyone who remembers.
Despite Madoka returning to human form with no memory of her divinity, the Law of Cycles continues to exist independently in a diminished state. The human Madoka herself also exhibits a connection to her divine self, which Homura actively suppresses.
Oriko Magica: sadness prayer
TBD
Tart Magica
Ultimate Madoka appears briefly in the final chapter of Tart Magica. As Melissa and Elisa are traveling to Tart's hometown after Tart's death, Melissa prays that Tart's soul will one day find peace. Ultimate Madoka appears as a transparent figure in the sky, seemingly observing these events in the past, before rewriting them.
Wraith Arc
TBD
Magia Record Game
In Magia Record, the timeline centered around Kamihama City develops separately from the Law of Cycles due to the creation of the Automatic Purification System and the Doppel phenomenon. This anomalous timeline was crated due to the survival of Iroha Tamaki, and the subsequential creation of the Purification System. Because Magical Girls within the system release Doppels instead of becoming Witches, the Law of Cycles is unable to intervene with the world without risking its entire destruction.
As a result, the Magia Record timeline is described as existing outside the Law of Cycles’ normal reach. Even so, Madoka occasionally attempts to influence the timeline indirectly. The Mirror Witch's Labyrinth and other phenomena connected to alternate universes often help partially bypass the separation between systems.
The Automatic Purification System functions similarly to the Law of Cycles in that both systems prevent Magical Girls from becoming Witches. However, while the Law of Cycles removes Magical Girls from the world entirely, the Doppel System allows them to continue living through controlled manifestations of their Witch forms.
By the end of Arc 2 and Puella Historia, the fully developed Magia Record itself begins resembling a counterpart to the Law of Cycles, also preserving records and concepts of Magical Girls across time and space within its reach.
Throughout the different events in Magia Record, the Law of Cycles' influence appears in many forms.
Magia Record Anime
In the end of the anime, after the Doppel System fails to establish itself, Ultimate Madoka, with the aid of the Iroha of that universe, assimilates it into the Law of Cycles. It becomes an archived book record with the name 'Magia Record.'
Scene 0
TBD
Magia Exedra
TBD
Observations
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- When Madoka is split from the Law of Cycles, what remains appears as Ultimate Madoka, but with her eyes faded out. It might not be wrong then to infer that the Law of Cycles is the physical body of Ultimate Madoka, while Madoka Kaname herself is more akin to the one piloting it.
- It appears that girls who were taken in by the Law of Cycles were allowed to overcome their grief, and can now harness it as their Witch Forms.
- This idea is likely part of the inspiration for the Doppel System in Magia Record.
- "Law of Cycles" is probably a mistranslation, since it's connected to the Buddhist concept of a "life circle".
- On the other hand, it can be seen as a pun, as 'Madoka' can be rendered with the word 'cycle.'