ooc; application

[happyends]

Mun

Name: Jelle
Livejournal Username: ofmarionette (reserved / claimed under my old username nagareboshihe)
E-mail: queeningsquare@gmail.com
AIM/MSN: Lunixhime (AIM)
Current Characters at Luceti: N/A. (Ange Ushiromiya app in queue)


Character

Name: Madoka Kaname
Fandom: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Gender: Female
Age: 14
Time Period: End of episode 9
Wing Color: Pink
History: Wikipedia. - Episode summaries.

Personality:

note: this application contains spoilers for the whole series, including the finale!

Madoka Kaname is a very normal girl above all, and this is what people can notice immediately from the first impression the show gives off from her. She is a very cheerful and happy young girl who does very normal things: she just joins in with her family's tomfoolery in the morning and fantasizes about things every teenage girl dreams of like getting a love letter. Even around her friends it's noticable: they all just fool around together and Madoka just goes along with Sayaka and Hitomi's antics, even if it might as times be with a slightly awkward giggle or a call of 'meanie!' along the road.

Another really apparent thing about Madoka is that she really cares about the people around her, about her friends and family, and wouldn't think of abandoning them under any circumstances. When Sayaka becomes a magical girl and Madoka begs Homura to help her, Homura just tells her that Madoka should give up on Sayaka since it's already too late. But even after that Madoka just keeps being around Sayaka and talking to her and trying to help her; she refuses to give up on her good friend even when she's told it's for the best. She also just generally tries to act friendly to people, even if she doesn't know them. When Homura first transfers into their school and acts a little bit strange to say the least, Madoka still attempts to strike up a conversation with her. (Even if her attempts are slightly awkward since Homura seems to know a lot of things she normally shouldn't know already and it slightly creeps Madoka out.) In fact, even after Homura is shown as antagonistic towards Kyuubey and Mami, Madoka continues to more or less friendly talk with her. She even mentions that she wishes they could all just get along with Homura. She prefers for people to just be friends rather than fight. Madoka herself doesn't like fighting or offending people (for example when she asks Mami what she wishes for when she became a magical girl and Mami is slightly hesitant in answering, Madoka immediately tells her that she doesn't have to tell if she doesn't want to), she tries to avoid conflict and wishes for other people to not fight amongst themselves as well. She doesn't want to see Sayaka and Kyouko fight and even suggests that maybe they should just talk it out so they don't have to get into another argument. Of course this sort of view is rather idealistic and naive, but it could be said that Madoka is very idealistic and naive in general.

Her idealism clearly shows in her original view of magical girls. When she first hears about it and even hears that she has the option of becoming a magical girl too, she happily starts making designs for magical girl outfits in her notebooks. (Here her naivety is also highlighted again: rather than bringing a weapon like Sayaka did to their witch hunt, she brings her notebook with magical girl designs and states that she thought it was a good idea to just start off with a design.) Madoka is mainly so enthusiastic about the idea of becoming a magical girl because it would be a way for her to fight for other people. Madoka likes helping people and really wants to help out whenever - she really looks up to Mami because she's such a hard-working person and remarks at one point that it sounds wonderful to be able to become such a helpful person like her. Rather than wanting to become a magical girl to have the possibility of having a wish fulfilled like most girls would, Madoka wants to become a magical girl just for the sake of being a magical girl; she just wants to help others, showing her selflessness.

But as much of a good person Madoka might seem with her idealism and selflessness, she actually doesn't have a very positive image of herself at all. When Kyuubey tells her she has great potential as a magical girl she's not even willing to believe that and instead tells him that he must be pulling her leg. She keeps saying that she's not really special: she has never been good at anything or had anything to be proud of. In fact, she thinks she's more of a bother rather than ever being able to help out people. When she asks Sayaka if she can go along with her on her witch hunt, she immediately adds that she understands if it's not okay since she'd probably just get in the way or be a distraction either way. Because of these insecurities about herself Madoka tends to rely on other people's advice or opinions a lot rather than just making up her mind on her own. During the series she asks her mother a lot for her opinion on things and also talks to Homura a few times to ask her and the other magical girls.

In some aspects Madoka might be seen as the weak girl she makes herself out to be, mainly the fact that she cries a whole lot during the series and can even be seen as a crybaby. But most of the time her amount of crying is justified considering she's usually stuck in some pretty crappy circumstances. Madoka doesn't just cry for herself but for other people as well: when Madoka realises that nobody else will be able to remember Mami or even know that she gave her life to save everyone Madoka immediately starts crying because it makes her feel so sad. After Mami dies she also bursts out crying during the time she eats breakfast with her family, stating that she's just so grateful to be alive to be able to eat the food her father made. Mami's death had quite some influence on Madoka. It clearly has influence on her view of being a magical girl: while she was really eager at first she clearly gets more hesitant after seeing what happened to Mami who she practically viewed as the ideal magical girl. She becomes scared. In a way Madoka blames herself for Mami's death as well. When she goes to Mami's apartment on her own after the other girl died, she bursts out crying again and says that she's 'sorry for being so weak'.

But even with all this, there are moments where Madoka can become strong. When Homura talks about Mami's death pretty casually (stating that it was because Mami wasn't suited as a magical girl) Madoka does snap back for a moment in emotion, telling her to not talk about Mami that way. Madoka can become strong and brave exactly when it's for someone else's sake. When Kyuubey calls out to her when she's hurt Madoka becomes determined to protect him and even stands up to Homura (who is fairly intimidating at that moment) to protect him. Another example is when a group of people wants to commit suicide under the influence of a witch and Madoka goes in against the group by throwing away their means for the suicide. You could even say that sometimes it even goes past the border of becoming brave straight over into being reckless. As long as someone needs her help she carelessly passes signs that say 'no entry' or does things without thinking of the possible consequences, like quickly throwing away the suicide chemicals. To prevent Sayaka from fighting any more Madoka also throws her Soul Gem off a bridge, which (unknowing to her) actually means she practically kills Sayaka.

But Madoka's brave, selfless and strong nature mostly shows whenever she does become a magical girl - during the flashback of previous timeliness in episode 10 and during the finale we're shown glimpses of this. When she becomes a magical girl and is able to help other people through that Madoka immediately seems more confident, less scared and more determined. And it's also here that her selflessness is shown the best: it's revealed in supplementary materials that her wish in exchange for becoming a magical girl in the original timelines was to save the life of a cat who was about to be run over by a car. And during the finale she even gives up her own existance without second thought in order to be able to save magical girls everywhere.

Strengths: Physically Madoka is a very normal and healthy girl. Although she isn't shown to be particularly strong or fast she isn't really weak or slow either - she just has average strength and speed for a girl her age. She isn't shown using any weapons or anything in the show regularly, but since she uses a bow while she's in her magical girl form she might have some sort of talent for using that.

Mentally she's a very friendly girl who cares a lot about the people close to her. It's when she's fighting or doing something for their sake that she can get past her usual slightly insecure attitude and become stronger and braver: she can decide on becoming a magical girl even though she finds it slightly scary later on because that way she can save magical girls everywhere. She's friendly and attempts to strike up conversation and make new friends. Madoka's attitude in general is very selfless. She doesn't care about herself or what happens to her as long as she can help other people. She doesn't even bother thinking up a wish for herself, she just wants to become a magical girl because she can help other people that way rather than become a magical girl to have one of her wishes fulfilled.

Emotionally she's mostly very honest about her emotions. Madoka won't even bother to try to hide the way she feels, you could say she wears her heart on her sleeve. If she's feeling awkward while talking to someone it shows, when she finds something really sad she won't hesitate to cry over it to a point where she actually cries a lot in the series. She's the kind of person who will just immediately tell you how she feels, but it's already noticable before she does that. Madoka is also a very empathic person: usually when she's crying it's over or for someone else rather than just crying for herself. She cries because it's sad that nobody will remember Mami and all the good things she did, she cries because she blames herself for what happened to Mami, she cries because Sayaka and Kyouko fighting each other is too cruel. But not just for herself.

Weaknesses: Physically Madoka is just not very strong compared to most people in Luceti in general, considering she is just a fourteen year old girl, after all. She might have average strength and speed for her age, but that's nothing compared to people older than her. If Madoka would get into a fight it wouldn't be difficult to beat her at all: I doubt she could really win from anyone in a hand-to-hand fight.

Mentally she has a very negative image of herself and somewhat keeps putting herself down because of that throughout the series. She thinks she doesn't have any special talents and isn't particularly good at anything, to a point where she considers herself a bother and thinks she only gets in other people's ways. Because of this negative self image she doesn't have much confidence in herself and tends to heavily rely on other people's opinion and advice rather than decide things on herself; like the many talks she has with other people (including her mother) in the series where she asks them for their opinion. It might be not too difficult to manipulate her opinions or decisions because of this at times.

Emotionally her biggest strength is also her biggest weakness. Madoka really wears her heart on her sleeve when it comes down to her emotions, so the way she feels is always really noticable. She also frequently gets emotional because she can't hide the way she feels and because she feels so strongly for other people: she's a bit of a crybaby and cries a lot and she can't hide it when she's feeling awkward, turning the conversation a little awkward often as well.

Samples (ALL samples must be set in Luceti-verse.)

First Person: Um... If it's okay, I'd like to ask everyone here something.

[ The girl on the screen looks slightly awkward to be asking this out of the blue to such a large group to people, but she seems to swallow and then summons up her courage to go on, slightly less awkward now. ]

I was wondering if anyone would be willing to help me out. You see, I'm not really strong and I don't really have any special abilities.. But I'd still like to become a little more useful and be able to defend myself in any case happens. It'd be nice if I wouldn't have to rely on other people so much so I won't be in their way, so..

Would anyone want to give me some training? I really don't mind what sort of training it would be.. like.. just hand to hand fighting or with a weapon, either would be fine. [ A slightly nervous giggle. ] I don't know if I'd be really good at any of it, so I'm willing to go along with whatever is most convenient for people. Um, I would be really grateful if someone would help.. I promise I'll do my very best and pay attention really well to what they'll tell me. A-and if I'll be a bother, you're free to say so..

[ It goes from awkward to a small smile. ]

I think it would just be really, really nice to be able to help people and fight for their sake as well. That's all of it.

Third Person: Waking up actually felt sort of pleasant for the pink-haired girl. Because even though she was supposed to wake up in her own bed rather than a strange forest she didn't even recognize, the smell in the air was nice and she could faintly hear calming forest sounds around her. Altogether it felt rather nice, as if she was still in some sort of dream. Perhaps Madoka really thought she was still in a dream, since even when she woke up she didn't move from the spot she was lying for a few moments.

But as the moments passed on and nothing in the 'dream' changed, the girl slowly tried to sit up and glanced around her curiously. It was then that the doubt started slipping into her mind: what if this wasn't a dream, but real? If she was honest to herself she had to admit that thought really scared her, because the first thought that arose when she noticed the completely strange surroundings was that she had somehow gotten caught up in a witch's barrier.

Madoka quickly - and somewhat clumsily because of the sudden fear - scrambled up until she was standing, looking around her nervously for any signs of the witch to pop up.

... But nothing happened.

Even as she stood there and more moments passed by, there wasn't any witch. The same forest scene with the same noise just continued, causing the girl to let out a slight sigh of relief. Maybe this just really was a dream after all. Madoka softly giggled to herself. Yes, that's right, how silly to think it would really be the doing of some witch.. This was just a really nice dream of being in a forest with a pair of pink wings on her back - they were especially cute and probably the thing Madoka liked the most about this dream. Maybe she would even be able to fly with them, just imagining that was already fun for her. Nothing else. Just a pleasant dream.

So when she reached out to pinch her arm to confirm that she wouldn't feel anything and this was in fact a dream, she was surprised (and not in a good way) to actually feel the pain.

It wasn't alright. This wasn't a dream. Somehow she was really in a forest for one reason or anything with real wings on her back rather than waking up in her bed like every morning. Slowly but surely Madoka started shaking slightly on her legs, her head moving from left to right nervously as if something could pop up anytime now. Yes, she was scared. Terrified. After seeing everything happen to Mami, to Sayaka, to Kyouko.. was she going to be the next, even though she hadn't become a magical girl like the others? Or perhaps it was exactly because she didn't become a magical girl, because she had just remained useless while everyone else fought. Maybe this was what she deserved.

"Homura-chan..?" The soft call came out of her mouth almost instinctively. After all, if anyone could still save her from this situation it was the last magical girl standing she still knew, the girl who she had talked to before quite some times and who had helped her and the others out. Even if it didn't quite feel right to rely on others so much and to continue being a bother, it was all she could do for now, right?

But she had to do at least something on her own, at least try something. Or she wouldn't be able to forgive herself for being a bother on everyone else again. She had to become brave and strong like everyone else too, especially now most of them were gone.

It was slightly nervous and hesitant, but Madoka took a step forward and walked on into the forest.