#sketchertalkspmmm

[seventeendeer]

just watched madoka magica again for the 100th time and I still hold that hitomi is vastly underrated. kyubey saw that bitch from a mile away and was like "don't care how involved she is with my other 2 projects, I'm not messing with that one." and he was right not to

[seventeendeer]

So I know you like Madoka Magika and steven universe, so I gotta ask. What gem would each of the holy quintet be? Or, if you’ve already answered that one, what would each gem’s wish be to become a magical girl?

ooOOHH THIS ASK IS SO EXCITING TO ME, THANK YOU

exciting enough that I ended up uhhh writing a whole little AU in my head about it, where the Madoka-characters took part in the war between Homeworld and the Crystal Gems way back in the day, whoops, here it is:

Madoka - a rose quartz. she defected from Homeworld sometime between the beginning of the Crystal Gem rebellion and the rose quartzes being bubbled, so she was never imprisoned along with the others.

Sayaka - a lapis lazuli. her gem’s cut is imperfect, so her abilities are weaker than most lazulis’. while allied with Homeworld, she had to work twice as hard as others of her kind in order to hide her disability. she defected at the same time Madoka did and the two became close friends. while she fought for the rebellion, she learned to use swords in place of her hydrokinesis.

Mami - a citrine. her cut is perfect and she used to be a valued member of Yellow Diamond’s court. she was one of the first high-ranking Homeworld gems to join the Crystal Gems, but said rank made other Crystal Gems distrustful of her and she had a difficult time fitting in with the others. she met Madoka and Sayaka while on a mission for the rebellion, and when she realized that Madoka didn’t want to fight and Sayaka was barely able to, she convinced both of them to come with her and join the Crystal Gems, where they formed a permanent team.

Kyoko - a carnelian. created on Earth and initially a part of a carnelian squad, before a high-stakes mission went horribly wrong and the Diamonds had her friends shattered for their mistake. Kyoko escaped and hijacked a spaceship, then went on to terrorize Homeworld and the Crystal Gems equally to the best of her ability. after clashing with Sayaka many times, the two formed an almost friendly rivalry, and mere days before the Diamonds unleashed the corruption, Sayaka finally convinced Kyoko to become a Crystal Gem. the two were fused when they were corrupted and their monster form stayed together.

Homura - a black pearl. she was created for a powerful general, but she came out off color and had to be replaced. one of the general’s underlings took pity on her and made her her own pearl, but never treated her as more than a burden that couldn’t get even simple orders right. through a series of misfortunes, Homura ended up lost on Earth, and no one bothered to look for her. Madoka found her and brought her back to the Crystal Gems, where she teamed up with her, Sayaka and Mami. inspired by her new friends’ kindness and courage, Homura trained hard to become a good fighter and learned to use all kinds of artillery in her quest to protect the only people who had ever given her the love she deserved. when the Diamonds’ corruption hit, Madoka managed to save Homura from the blast, but not herself or their other friends, and Homura was left alone again. after the Diamonds left, she tracked down her friends’ monster forms, poofed them, and bubbled their gems. she then spent the next several thousand years wandering the Earth alone, searching the ruins of gem civilization for a cure for their corruption. she was aware of the existence of other gems who survived the corruption, but she couldn’t bear to be with other people after she failed to save her old friends, and actively hid from the others in order to focus on her mission in peace.

Kyubey - a white pearl. he was gifted to Mami when she was still in Yellow Diamond’s service. he defected at the same time that she did, though out of curiosity about life on Earth rather than a wish to save it. he never fought for the rebellion, preferring to study the planet in peace (he also changed his pronouns after learning more about humans). him and Mami remained good friends, and he would frequently follow her and her other friends around the planet just to see what they were doing. when he was corrupted, he remained oddly non-hostile, and while Homura never got along with him when he could talk, she kept him around un-poofed and un-bubbled while she searched for a cure.

-

also, bonus: your second question! also very exciting! so here’s all the main gems’ wishes if they were magical girls in the Madoka-verse:

Pink Diamond - to become someone else. she was reborn as Steven as a result.

Pearl - to have the power to protect Pink and their home city from witches (she contracted before Pink did). she almost became a witch when Pink disappeared, but upon meeting Steven, she decided to protect him the same way she protected his former incarnation and regained hope.

Ruby and Sapphire - to be allowed to stay together forever. when they transform, they fuse into one doubly powerful magical girl, Garnet.

Amethyst - to find her purpose. in a cruel twist, her purpose became to fight witches. when she met Pearl and Garnet, she decided that her real purpose was to fight to protect her friends.

Bismuth - to find a job that made her happy.

Peridot - to never have to work again.

Lapis Lazuli - to protect the city from Jasper’s destructive powers.

Jasper - to gain incredible power through magic.

White Diamond - to have the power to fix her broken family.

Yellow and Blue Diamond - to be allowed to have their own branches of the family company and prove their worth to White.

Spinel - to have the power to get revenge on Pink Diamond and her friends.

[seventeendeer]

Homura!

favorite thing about them

her character development from an insecure wallflower to a total badass, all for the sake of protecting someone who helped her learn her own worth! the role reversal from Madoka guiding her to her protecting Madoka is just so sweet and inspiring c’:

least favorite thing about them

like with Madoka, I think the sequel movie and the supplementary material has been really mean to her and not done her character justice. also?? she was finally happy at the end of the series??? LET HER HAVE THAT

favorite line

even though I didn’t like the sequel movie, I did love the sequence where she turns into a witch. her monologue about losing her memories and regretting never being able to say goodbye to Madoka while it happens is heartbreaking.

brOTP

her and Kyoko! I always thought they made a fun secondary and kind of opposite duo to Madoka and Sayaka.

OTP

naturally, her and Madoka! as secondary ships, I also really like her with Kyoko or Sayaka.

nOTP

again, not into how the sequel movie treats her relationship with Madoka, at all

random headcanon

I can’t help but feel like she spent at least some of all her time resets just truly, truly dicking around

making friends with the other characters and just chilling out with them and having a good time. finding Walpurgisnacht way before she’s supposed to fight it, just to see what happens. making a game out of seeing how many Kyubeys she can kill before the end of the month. girl’s got infinite time to do whatever she wants, she must have been half-assing it sometimes

unpopular opinion

her arc in the second movie was completely unnecessary. it was already clear enough in the original series that her obsession with saving Madoka was unhealthy for her - which is why it’s a good thing when Madoka frees her from that destiny and once again takes on the role of being the one protecting her.

the series rightfully treats Homura as a hero for doing everything she can to save an innocent person. the sequel movie treats her as broken because she cares too much. it pulls melodrama out of a problem that was already resolved in a much gentler way that stayed sympathetic to the characters and had a clearly relatable message. I could analyze why this is bad for hours and hours lol but point is I think it’s bad

song i associate with them

Within Temptation’s cover of Running Up That Hill is perfect for her and her feelings towards Madoka. my whole heart ...

favorite picture of them

cries softly

[seventeendeer]

Hi :) May I ask about Madoka Kaname for your ask game?

favorite thing about them

idk if it’s my favorite thing, but aside from my usual response of “SHE’S JUST A GOOD PERSON WHO WANTS GOOD THINGS TO HAPPEN IN THE WORLD”, I’ll say her voice? in both Japanese and English, her voice is just really unique and pleasant to me, those VA’s are neat people who do good work

oh also I lovelovelove her character design when she’s in her magical girl uniform, the combination of shapes and colors is just really beautiful to me and I often look to this show in general for inspiration when coming up with costuming ideas for my own characters!

least favorite thing about them

I do Not like how any of the canon treats her outside of the original series. she was the heart and soul of the original canon, the movie sequel and supplementary material keep shoving her aside and it is absolutely a detriment to the general mood of the franchise. while I do enjoy some bits of the bonus content, I generally got some form of beef with anything that isn’t the original canon. fight time is all the time

favorite line

from the English dub, the bit where she’s talking to Mami in episode 3 about how she feels like she’s never been good for much and wants to be a magical girl so she can help people. it’s a small moment, but the mood of the scene + the voice acting + the relatable emotions have stuck with me anyway.

brOTP

I care a lot about her friendship with Sayaka, but a less obvious one is her brief friendship with Mami. the way they each happen to have exactly what the other one needs - Madoka needing someone who can help her gain confidence and Mami needing someone who genuinely cares about her feelings - is an incredibly sweet character dynamic that I would love to see play out in a longer, less dramatic series.

OTP

Madoka/Homura of course! though as secondary ships, I’m also fond of her with Sayaka or Mami.

nOTP

very much not fond of the sequel movie version of her relationship with Homura. way to drop the ball on that one 3:

random headcanon

the magical girl heaven she creates at the end of the show is completely otherworldly and if a normal human saw it, they wouldn’t be able to understand it. however, any magical girl that ends up there inevitably ends up happy again.

unpopular opinion

I know many people say she’s not the show’s ‘real’ protagonist bc she stays out of the action for most of the show and only functions as a viewpoint character, but I disagree! to me, the show is really about her learning from all the different people she meets and everything she finds out about the world and how it works, and how it drives her to want to change it. the entire show is primarily a learning process for her that mirrors many people’s (especially girls’) experience of growing up, and ends with her taking destiny into her own hands in order to make the world a better place, and it’s awesome

song i associate with them

this one goes for the whole series and all the magical girls, really, but especially for Madoka and her relationship with Homura - Young and Beautiful, DH Orchestral Version. this is another character association song that makes me teary just thinking about it tbh

favorite picture of them

this one is just. the picture of serenity for me tbh

I want my soul to look like this

[seventeendeer]

top 5 pmmm's witches owo

1. Charlotte

Charlotte’s entire segment, from the moment her labyrinth appears to the moment she’s defeated, is so fantastically played out, which I think is partially owed to her own distinct aesthetics, theme and powers. whenever I rewatch the series, I also always feel so bad for her and empathize with her a lot. as someone who had to interact with hospitals since I was a kid myself, her theme surrounding hospitals and candy just perfectly encapsulates that deeply uncomfortable dissonance between still caring about childish stuff, but at the same time feeling like there’s no space for those things anymore because of your current situation. it’s such a specific bleakness that was communicated purely through visuals and I think that’s really impressive and evocative. also both her doll form and her worm form are just mad cute, I love her so much

2. Walpurgisnacht

Walpurgisnacht is so scary and such an interesting concept! and even though we don’t get to learn much about her, I can’t help but feel bad for her too. she seems so helpless in her own home-made nightmare. I also always really liked the idea that she was actually Homura’s witch from another timeline/alternate universe that crossed realities in order to go back to a time and place where Madoka was still alive, creating a time paradox. so many things about her has parallels to Homura and her situation, it works perfectly.

3. Oktavia von Seckendorff

Oktavia and her labyrinth are just super beautiful, and I adore her theme music. the knight + mermaid visuals are so perfect for her and her story. it also feels cathartic that such a weak magical girl became such an incredibly powerful witch, it’s almost bittersweet that she at least got to be powerful for just a little while, even if it was in the worst possible way. I once heard someone say that tragedy as a genre is important (when done right) because it shows someone sympathetic go through something they didn’t deserve, and readers/viewers need to see this in order to understand that bad things don’t always happen to them for a reason. they’re not failures, they’re not evil, sometimes awful things just happen and it’s not your fault. Sayaka’s story is such a good example of that gentle, sympathetic kind of tragedy that feels healing to watch even though it hurts, and Oktavia is such a good finale to that story.

4. Kirsten

another witch with a great aesthetic, where you can kind of guess what sort of life she had based on what she looks like and what’s in her labyrinth. I really wish we could learn more about these minor witches and who they were before, some of the text in her labyrinth alludes to secrets and I wanna find out more ...

5. Elsa Maria

really loved the visual style used in her labyrinth. the diverse visuals for each witch and labyrinth is so creative, and Elsa Maria’s were something special and different. also I’m just a sucker for Evil Catholic Symbolism, it’s got all the epic drama from christianity with none of the obligation to portray a nuanced perspective of religion and that’s the sorta simplicity I’m into. she also gets bonus points for half her name being my name :3

[seventeendeer]

Homura Pearl is so cute

thank you!!! I really like designing pearl-characters! their lore and the variation in their designs is suuuuch an interesting basis for all kinds of characters. had great fun thinking about how Homura’s pearl-form would look vs Kyubey’s, and so on

Homura Pearl is very covered up, wears layers, and forgoes sheer fabric to show that she’s distancing herself from how pearls are ‘supposed’ to look per Homeworld tradition. Kyubey Pearl doesn’t care one way or another, so he dresses more similarly to Homeworld pearls, albeit more practically and in a less revealing way. I imagine Homura changed her form drastically when she became free, while Kyubey only changed a few details.

visual characterization like that is so interesting!

[seventeendeer]

I want to know everything about this new AU, everything about it is just perfect! Id love to hear more of your headcannons!

thank you so much, I really love it too!! and I would love to share some headcanons, thank you for asking!

more Madoka headcanons:

- she’s about a head shorter than a standard rose quartz soldier. her colors are also in the very pale end of the color spectrum for her kind. she doesn’t quite deviate enough from the others to be considered off-color and her powers work just fine, but her differences did make her insecure while she was in Homeworld’s ranks. joining the Crystal Gems and learning that there’s nothing wrong with being different changed her life.- she looked up to Rose Quartz a great deal and saw her as a role model, hence her similar dress. Homeworld had expected her to be a tough, no-nonsense soldier, which never felt right, so seeing someone who was seemingly just like her be soft and kind and caring inspired her to want to be the same way.- like in canon, she also looked up to Mami and admired her for her determination to help others.- in battle, she would often fuse with Sayaka or Mami. it helped her feel more confident.- she spent a lot of time collecting gem shards after battles, determined to bring the dead home where they could rest.- when she was corrupted, she turned into a similar monster to the other quartzes, and in her healed form she has the same horns that they do, as well as having her eyes no longer be visible.

more Sayaka headcanons:

- she wanted to learn how to make her own swords, but never got around to it, so she settled for taking really good care of the swords she was gifted instead.- because of her weak hydrokinesis, she mostly uses her water wings to assist in long jumps instead of taking proper flight.- during the war, she spent a lot of time hanging out with humans and at one point fell in love with one of them. however, she never told him, and before she found the courage to, he settled down with another human. she mostly kept away from humanity after that, afraid that it would happen again.- at one point late in the war, she was close to giving up and would frequently wonder if it would be best if the Earth was destroyed so everyone would stop fighting over it. what brought her back from this mentality was Kyoko finally joining the Crystal Gems - Sayaka realized that if even someone as bitter and violent as Kyoko could change for the better because of what she’d been through on Earth, then maybe all the misery was worth it in the end.- when she and Kyoko were corrupted, their fusion turned into an absolutely massive armor fish with a giant mane. after getting uncorrupted, Sayaka retains its armored face and a few of its fins.

more Mami headcanons:

- she keeps a large amount of loaded guns stored in her gem that she crafted herself. she tends to use these instead of her summon weapon.- while teamed up with Madoka, Sayaka and Homura, she was the leader and the others followed her without question. this made her a little uncomfortable at first, since it echoed her experiences in Yellow Diamond’s court, but she soon realized that the others followed her because they genuinely trusted her to be the wisest and most competent person in the group, not because of her strength or previous rank. from then on, she worked hard to live up to their image of her and drew strength from knowing that her friends believed in her.- she’s under the impression that Kyubey doesn’t really care about her and never did, and it’s difficult for her to cope with this feeling. the two of them remain on friendly terms and spend a good amount of time together even after she set him free, but Kyubey is very open about the fact that he mostly spends time with her and the others because he finds the rebellion and the newly formed branch of gem society fascinating, and they’re the gems most willing to talk to him and tell him about their deeper reasons for doing what they do. Mami cares about him a great deal and she genuinely wants to be friends with him, but after having effectively ‘owned’ him during the time they spent on Homeworld, she feels like she has no right to ask anything of him now.- like Madoka, her corrupted form was the same beastly type as the other quartzes, and she retains the same side effects.

more Kyoko headcanons:

- her summon weapon is a giant spear.- while her physical form looks just fine for a carnelian, being made in the beta kindergarten still left a mark on her abilities; she’s unable to successfully shapeshift for more than a few seconds at a time.- she was the one who came up with the plan that ended with her and her squad committing the mistake that got the others shattered. deep down, she blames herself for their fate.- she was especially close to one of the other carnelians in her squad, whose poor creation process left her with severely limited strength. the entire squad treated her like the baby of the group, but Kyoko especially had taken it upon herself to protect her, both from their enemies and from their superiors. Kyoko took this carnelian’s shattering the hardest.- before she joined the Crystal Gems during the last days of the rebellion, she made a cruel habit of stealing gemshards from the battlefields around the world. she used them as power sources for various weaponry, and while she didn’t accumulate many in the grand scheme of things, they did give her a significant advantage when terrorizing other gems one-on-one.- after being healed, she retains the mane from hers and Sayaka’s corrupted fusion.

more Homura headcanons:

- the design she’s drawn with in the art I posted is actually her post-war form; during the war, her hair was braided and she had a visor covering the upper half of her face. while she was allied with Homeworld, she had diamond-patterns on her pants, like she does in canon.- like other pearls, her summon weapon is a spear, but she also carries a massive bow in her gem that she uses to fire her spears like arrows. she also has an artillery of human-made weaponry stored away in her gem that she’s stolen from humans over the centuries. she prefers ranged fighting.- because of her off-color gem, she lacks some of the usual abilities that pearls are programmed with. she can’t sing or dance well, and she used to be somewhat clumsy. training for battle helped her overcome her lack of coordination so she’d stand a better chance while fighting, but she still refuses to dance in front of others, so she has never fused with anyone before. she secretly wants to try it.

more Kyubey headcanons:

- back when she was his superior, Mami never really knew how to act around him or what to do with a pearl of her own, and so he was generally given more freedom than the average pearl. other gems in Yellow Diamond’s court tended to avoid him, as his independence and frank way of speaking made them uncomfortable.- he’s extremely adept at shapeshifting and uses it to sneak around unnoticed, often in the form of a butterfly, cat, or other unremarkable creature. he’s infamous among Crystal Gems for eavesdropping on other gems’ private conversations.- he’s extremely inventive and uses his long lifespan to learn about all sorts of scientific fields. he occasionally references owning a laboratory somewhere, but he never specifies where it is or what he uses it for.- his corrupted form looked somewhat similar to his canon alien design, though he of course couldn’t talk in that state. his passive nature in his original form probably contributed to his lack of aggression in his corrupted form. when he was healed, he kept his tail and his solid-red bug eyes.

[seventeendeer]

Honestly? Mami from PMM

OH ... THIS IS ALSO EXTREMELY GOOD ... ngl I’ve always wanted to be like Mami, she’s one of my favorite characters in the world. so brave and so caring, even though her life is so hard

and also. peak aesthetic at all times. I want this

thank you <33