character info
Thursday, November 15th, 2012 07:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
storylikeName: Audrey
Contact Info: ignipotent @ plurk
Other Characters Played: None.
Preferred Apartment: I'd prefer for her to live with Mami! Otherwise, I'm game for anything.
Character Name: Kyouko Sakura
Canon: Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story
Background/History: Canon Background Kyouko's Background: [1] [2] (Kyouko's character in The Different Story is based off the 3rd drama CD. There are no summaries for the manga yet, so that would give a better rundown of her character from this timepoint.)
The Different Story is the manga that expounds on Kyouko and Mami's backstory. It eventually leads into a different timeline / version of the anime, but most events stay the same in each timeline.
MADOKA MAGICA.
A creature named Kyuubey approaches a young girl and tells her that it can grant any wish, if she agrees to make a contract and become a "magical girl." She can wish for anything, whether it be for her crush to fall in love with her or to become a billionaire. But if she agrees to become a magical girl, in return, she must dedicate her life to fighting Witches, monster-like embodiments of despair that prey on human weakness. Routinely, they lead people to commit suicide; the powerful ones cause outright destruction, visible only as natural disasters to the normal eye.
Not only does she get a miracle, but that young girl gets to be a hero and don a costume and wield a magical weapon. A real "magical girl," just like the ones in manga and anime.
But it's all a lie.
The word magical girl is trick, as are the costumes they wear and the monsters they fight.The lives these young girls lead are not parables for friendship, nor idealized vacuums where everything will be all right and evil is defeated with a magic wand. These are desperate girls, manipulated into selling their souls for desperate wishes; given the chance to be heroes, unaware that they're destined to become the monsters they fight.
Their wishes inevitably end in misery: one cannot distort the fabric of reality and expect it not to backfire. But this misery is crucial; it's the catalyst that turns these young girls into Witches-- into the very epitome of their despair.
The law of entropy states that whenever energy is converted from one form or another, energy is lost in the process. Eventually, when there is no free energy left, the universe will no longer be able to sustain life. For us, heat death is only a theory, but in Madoka Magica, it's a dangerous reality. The universe is running out of energy. To combat entropy, an alien race found a source of energy not bound by the law of conservation-- the energy given off by emotion.
Of all the beings in the universe, they found humans to be the perfect candidates; or more precisely, female teenagers, so often tugged to and fro by chaotic vicissitudes of adolescence. And they harvest that release of energy emitted when a girl reaches that zenith of despair and transforms into a monster.
And thus, Kyuubey makes contracts for the purpose of creating witches. It's not out of cruelty nor malice, since emotions are foreign to his kind. Instead he sees it as a utilitarian would: a necessary sacrifice of a few for the survival of many.
KYOUKO SAKURA.
Kyouko Sakura is a girl who loves stories where valiant heroes save the world, and love and courage conquer all. Nurtured by this fairytale idealism, she knew that heroes were not restricted to the page. How could they be when her own father was a hero? Fighting for the world, not with swords and might, but with kindness and passion through the sermons he preached and the lessons he taught. It was her father that taught her to be the humble, kindhearted and unselfish girl that she is. Kyouko adored her father utterly; he was her role model and she would do anything to make him proud and ensure his happiness. Though this was the case with her whole family: her younger sister Momo, her mother and her father. They were her whole world, and she would do anything for them.
However, Kyouko's generous, if not selfless nature, is as much a positive attribute as it is a danger. Selflessness mixed with naivete makes for an innocent ignorance that leaves her vulnerable to trickery. It would eventually lead her down a perilous path.
How else did she end up trading her soul for a wish?
Kyouko's father is a priest who is far too kindhearted for his own good; the type of person to cry when he reads terrible stories in the newspaper. He taught Kyouko to love God, impressing upon her the value of simple virtues like benevolence and charity. However, his teaching was less about doctrine, and more about doing right by your fellow man. Until one day, he decided to abandon the church's doctrine altogether, and to preach instead a new creed of "common sense" that emphasized "all the good things," minus the dogma of the church. Of course, this got him excommunicated, and with his cassock went the entire congregation and the little income they had. Her family would go hungry and her father would continue preach to closed ears, taking to the streets in the hopes that someone would listen.
This period in Kyouko's life proved her determination and willingness to fight for the people she loved. The honest girl was forced to steal to feed her sister, or to lie to her that the soup she drank wasn't really just water. But that was not the worst of all. Nothing hurt Kyouko more than watching her father in despair, and she would have done anything-- anything to make him happy and to save her family. So when Kyuubey came to Kyouko with a contract— her soul and commitment to a lifetime of battle in exchange for a miracle— it only took so much persuasion for her to agree. To make things better for her family, she'd put her soul at stake.
Kyouko is compassionate and unselfish, but she can be stupid, so very stupid. She wished for Kyuubey to make people "try and listen to her father," not knowing that magically inducing someone listen is actually mind control. Despite good intentions, she often lacks the wisdom and age to fully understand the consequences of her decisions-- like any other 13 year old kid--and this is definitely going to play into her time in Haven.
"Let me protect everyone's happiness. That's my wish."
However, becoming a Puella Magi wasn't a complete act of self-sacrifice. Not only did she grant a miracle for her father, but Kyouko also gained the power to become a protector. As she says to Madoka in the anime, "I became a magical girl because I loved the stories where love and courage won out in the end." Becoming a Puella Magi and gaining magic, she's become a hero in her own right, striving hard to fit that mantle. Whereas most other girls fight for the sake of collecting grief seeds and increasing their power, Kyouko believes that her responsibility as a Puella Magi is to protect people. Even if Witches' familiars don't yield grief seeds, she will put herself in danger to kill them, before they kill humans and get strong enough to become Witches themselves. You see, Kyouko takes inspiration from her father and wishes to dedicate her life to helping people, as he has done with his. In Haven, I expect she will try her best to protect everyone even if there aren't witches about.
It's important to note that because Kyouko has centered her life on protecting everyone, failure to do so can be devastating. When she fails to protect her family later in canon, it's enough to turn her into a cruel girl with no self-respect or genuine self-worth.
This storybook romanticism of heroes and saving the world is a problematic mindset, when you really think about it. It's another case of being too naive to fully understand the consequences of a situation. Being a Puella Magi is not a fairytale or a game, where teenage girls wave wands or use magic cards. It's a bloody, brutal business where girls get their heads snapped off or sliced into by monsters many times their size. Death is a strong possibility, if not a likelihood.
In Kyouko's case, it's concerning because her enthusiasm doesn't match her skill. She's got the power and the strength, but she doesn't put thought into strategy. She's reckless, using brute force and illusions to win her battles. Or she simply doesn't think, for example, turning her back on an enemy before checking if it was dead. Nevertheless, Kyouko is aware and somewhat embarrassed by her lack of skill. It's a part of her self-doubt, which we see manifest when she first meets Mami Tomoe.
As much of a spitfire she can be in battle, Kyouko is shy and polite in normal conversation. Not a girl to lie, nor take more credit than what is due. ("But I didn't do anything today to deserve [the grief seed'), she's refreshingly humble, often to the point of being slightly self-deprecating. When Mami saves her from a Witch, Kyouko says that she's caused "trouble" for her and admits that she'd be "done for" if Mami hadn't rescued. her. "I'm really shameless aren't, I?" Kyouko later adds, embarrassed that Mami not only saved her life, but that she's also inconvenienced Mami by coming over to her apartment for cake. These instances reflect a overhanging feeling of self-doubt that persists even when she becomes the boastful, selfish Kyouko we see in the anime. (She just tries harder to cover it up then.)
When Kyouko asks Mami to take her under her wing, that's when she really starts to grow as a Puella Magi. As her kouhai, Mami has spent months showing her the ropes, helping her develop her magic, but most importantly, becoming her most cherished friend. No one understands a Puella Magi except another Puella Magi, and as friends, fighting together and supporting each other, they've both become stronger (and happier). Kyouko's confidence has improved since teaming up with Mami. It seems contradictory, but nowadays she can sometimes get a little too confident. In the manga, Kyouko even boasts that Mami and her could easily take out a Walpurgisnacht-- a Witch whose power rivals a natural disaster. Obviously, it's an overestimation of their abilities, but it's just an example of where Kyouko can get a little too cocky. It a superficial confidence that leads to her being reckless, ignoring the true danger of a situation. I'm sure it's bound to get her into trouble while at Haven.
Overall, Kyouko is a brave, kindhearted girl who loves stories and sweets, and who just happens to have a secret life, fighting creatures of despair that plague humanity. A far cry from the girl she becomes after her wish destroys her family, but that's in the future— for now, Haven gets Kyouko Sakura, Puella Magi and Protector.
ABILITIES.
Spear → A magically summoned spear with the ability to extend to great lengths. When normally sized, it's taller than herself and as a magical weapon, seems to be unbreakable.
Enhanced Strength → She has the strength to blast crater-sized holes in asphalt with her spear and slice high-powered blows against Witches.
Accelerated Healing → In order to become a Puella Magi, her soul had to be removed and reformed as a "soul gem" because, as Kyuubey puts it, there's no way a human body can withstand fighting witches. They can take a barrage of damage, apparently even lose all their blood in their body, but as long as their soul gem is intact, they can use magic to heal themselves. They can even heal others. However, this depends on how much magic they have, and running out is a big issue. It's not that they're immortal, definitely not. They might not have enough magic to their wounds. And their wounds might not heal fast enough to save their life. They're just harder to kill than typical humans.
Their soul's detachment from their body also muffles their ability to feel pain.
Enhanced Speed & Jumping Ability → When Kyouko's at the top of her game, she can run fast enough to dodge bullets. As for jumping, she can leap several stories high, or conversely, fall from several stories and survive. The way these girls jump, you'd think they could fly, and it often looks like they're able to slow down their fall, even float at times (though a Witches' barrier may enhance this ability). Kyouko's still learning when it comes to this skill; she can be clumsy and definitely doesn't have the prowess of Mami, Homura, or her future self.
Rosso Fantasma → Kyouko's signature move! She can summon illusory duplicates of herself to confuse the enemy.
Diamond-Chain Barrier → Thought up by Mami, Kyouko is still learning how to master this trick! It's just as the title says-- a magical barrier.
Food Transformation → ... She's been shown to transform objects into snacks. Only snacks. Only Japanese snacks.
Telepathy → This is how magical girls sometimes communicate because talking about Witches in public makes you look like a crazy. When they open a telepathic line with someone in reasonable distance, they can also sense their location.
Fortifying Objects → Kyouko has the potential to learn how to temporarily alter objects with her magic, such as turning a regular pair of binoculars into one that allows her to see miles in the distance. They can also fortify weapons. She hasn't learned this yet, but with Mami around, it's a possibility!
100 KM → ... is the maximum distance their soul gems can be separated from their bodies. Any further and their body will simply be a meat puppet. Oh, and if you don't return the soul gem back in a timely fashion? The magical girl will wake up in a rotting body.
Boom! Witches! → If they run out of magic or they fall into despair, their soul gems become too tainted and they turn into Witches. There's no changing back. Once they transform, they're gone.
Transformation Necessary → When she's in civilian form, Kyouko has limited use of her powers. She can still throw a man across a room, but she can't pull off her typical witch-fight feats. For example, to summon her spear while untransformed, she has to manifest it directly from her soul gem.
Inexperienced Fighter → Super strength and speed won't help you if you're reckless. Kyouko fights like a person keysmashing on a game controller, relying on brute strength and power, while completely ignoring strategy and foresight. She's been at this for less than two years. Her skill is understandably limited, especially since she always relies on her illusions to gain the upper-hand.
Contact Info: ignipotent @ plurk
Other Characters Played: None.
Preferred Apartment: I'd prefer for her to live with Mami! Otherwise, I'm game for anything.
Character Name: Kyouko Sakura
Canon: Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story
Background/History: Canon Background Kyouko's Background: [1] [2] (Kyouko's character in The Different Story is based off the 3rd drama CD. There are no summaries for the manga yet, so that would give a better rundown of her character from this timepoint.)
The Different Story is the manga that expounds on Kyouko and Mami's backstory. It eventually leads into a different timeline / version of the anime, but most events stay the same in each timeline.
MADOKA MAGICA.
A creature named Kyuubey approaches a young girl and tells her that it can grant any wish, if she agrees to make a contract and become a "magical girl." She can wish for anything, whether it be for her crush to fall in love with her or to become a billionaire. But if she agrees to become a magical girl, in return, she must dedicate her life to fighting Witches, monster-like embodiments of despair that prey on human weakness. Routinely, they lead people to commit suicide; the powerful ones cause outright destruction, visible only as natural disasters to the normal eye.
Not only does she get a miracle, but that young girl gets to be a hero and don a costume and wield a magical weapon. A real "magical girl," just like the ones in manga and anime.
But it's all a lie.
The word magical girl is trick, as are the costumes they wear and the monsters they fight.The lives these young girls lead are not parables for friendship, nor idealized vacuums where everything will be all right and evil is defeated with a magic wand. These are desperate girls, manipulated into selling their souls for desperate wishes; given the chance to be heroes, unaware that they're destined to become the monsters they fight.
Their wishes inevitably end in misery: one cannot distort the fabric of reality and expect it not to backfire. But this misery is crucial; it's the catalyst that turns these young girls into Witches-- into the very epitome of their despair.
The law of entropy states that whenever energy is converted from one form or another, energy is lost in the process. Eventually, when there is no free energy left, the universe will no longer be able to sustain life. For us, heat death is only a theory, but in Madoka Magica, it's a dangerous reality. The universe is running out of energy. To combat entropy, an alien race found a source of energy not bound by the law of conservation-- the energy given off by emotion.
Of all the beings in the universe, they found humans to be the perfect candidates; or more precisely, female teenagers, so often tugged to and fro by chaotic vicissitudes of adolescence. And they harvest that release of energy emitted when a girl reaches that zenith of despair and transforms into a monster.
And thus, Kyuubey makes contracts for the purpose of creating witches. It's not out of cruelty nor malice, since emotions are foreign to his kind. Instead he sees it as a utilitarian would: a necessary sacrifice of a few for the survival of many.
KYOUKO SAKURA.
Kyouko Sakura is a girl who loves stories where valiant heroes save the world, and love and courage conquer all. Nurtured by this fairytale idealism, she knew that heroes were not restricted to the page. How could they be when her own father was a hero? Fighting for the world, not with swords and might, but with kindness and passion through the sermons he preached and the lessons he taught. It was her father that taught her to be the humble, kindhearted and unselfish girl that she is. Kyouko adored her father utterly; he was her role model and she would do anything to make him proud and ensure his happiness. Though this was the case with her whole family: her younger sister Momo, her mother and her father. They were her whole world, and she would do anything for them.
However, Kyouko's generous, if not selfless nature, is as much a positive attribute as it is a danger. Selflessness mixed with naivete makes for an innocent ignorance that leaves her vulnerable to trickery. It would eventually lead her down a perilous path.
How else did she end up trading her soul for a wish?
Kyouko's father is a priest who is far too kindhearted for his own good; the type of person to cry when he reads terrible stories in the newspaper. He taught Kyouko to love God, impressing upon her the value of simple virtues like benevolence and charity. However, his teaching was less about doctrine, and more about doing right by your fellow man. Until one day, he decided to abandon the church's doctrine altogether, and to preach instead a new creed of "common sense" that emphasized "all the good things," minus the dogma of the church. Of course, this got him excommunicated, and with his cassock went the entire congregation and the little income they had. Her family would go hungry and her father would continue preach to closed ears, taking to the streets in the hopes that someone would listen.
This period in Kyouko's life proved her determination and willingness to fight for the people she loved. The honest girl was forced to steal to feed her sister, or to lie to her that the soup she drank wasn't really just water. But that was not the worst of all. Nothing hurt Kyouko more than watching her father in despair, and she would have done anything-- anything to make him happy and to save her family. So when Kyuubey came to Kyouko with a contract— her soul and commitment to a lifetime of battle in exchange for a miracle— it only took so much persuasion for her to agree. To make things better for her family, she'd put her soul at stake.
Kyouko is compassionate and unselfish, but she can be stupid, so very stupid. She wished for Kyuubey to make people "try and listen to her father," not knowing that magically inducing someone listen is actually mind control. Despite good intentions, she often lacks the wisdom and age to fully understand the consequences of her decisions-- like any other 13 year old kid--and this is definitely going to play into her time in Haven.
"Let me protect everyone's happiness. That's my wish."
However, becoming a Puella Magi wasn't a complete act of self-sacrifice. Not only did she grant a miracle for her father, but Kyouko also gained the power to become a protector. As she says to Madoka in the anime, "I became a magical girl because I loved the stories where love and courage won out in the end." Becoming a Puella Magi and gaining magic, she's become a hero in her own right, striving hard to fit that mantle. Whereas most other girls fight for the sake of collecting grief seeds and increasing their power, Kyouko believes that her responsibility as a Puella Magi is to protect people. Even if Witches' familiars don't yield grief seeds, she will put herself in danger to kill them, before they kill humans and get strong enough to become Witches themselves. You see, Kyouko takes inspiration from her father and wishes to dedicate her life to helping people, as he has done with his. In Haven, I expect she will try her best to protect everyone even if there aren't witches about.
It's important to note that because Kyouko has centered her life on protecting everyone, failure to do so can be devastating. When she fails to protect her family later in canon, it's enough to turn her into a cruel girl with no self-respect or genuine self-worth.
This storybook romanticism of heroes and saving the world is a problematic mindset, when you really think about it. It's another case of being too naive to fully understand the consequences of a situation. Being a Puella Magi is not a fairytale or a game, where teenage girls wave wands or use magic cards. It's a bloody, brutal business where girls get their heads snapped off or sliced into by monsters many times their size. Death is a strong possibility, if not a likelihood.
In Kyouko's case, it's concerning because her enthusiasm doesn't match her skill. She's got the power and the strength, but she doesn't put thought into strategy. She's reckless, using brute force and illusions to win her battles. Or she simply doesn't think, for example, turning her back on an enemy before checking if it was dead. Nevertheless, Kyouko is aware and somewhat embarrassed by her lack of skill. It's a part of her self-doubt, which we see manifest when she first meets Mami Tomoe.
"See, I'm still inexperienced as a magical girl... I'd been fighting recklessly without any forethought, but you...."
As much of a spitfire she can be in battle, Kyouko is shy and polite in normal conversation. Not a girl to lie, nor take more credit than what is due. ("But I didn't do anything today to deserve [the grief seed'), she's refreshingly humble, often to the point of being slightly self-deprecating. When Mami saves her from a Witch, Kyouko says that she's caused "trouble" for her and admits that she'd be "done for" if Mami hadn't rescued. her. "I'm really shameless aren't, I?" Kyouko later adds, embarrassed that Mami not only saved her life, but that she's also inconvenienced Mami by coming over to her apartment for cake. These instances reflect a overhanging feeling of self-doubt that persists even when she becomes the boastful, selfish Kyouko we see in the anime. (She just tries harder to cover it up then.)
When Kyouko asks Mami to take her under her wing, that's when she really starts to grow as a Puella Magi. As her kouhai, Mami has spent months showing her the ropes, helping her develop her magic, but most importantly, becoming her most cherished friend. No one understands a Puella Magi except another Puella Magi, and as friends, fighting together and supporting each other, they've both become stronger (and happier). Kyouko's confidence has improved since teaming up with Mami. It seems contradictory, but nowadays she can sometimes get a little too confident. In the manga, Kyouko even boasts that Mami and her could easily take out a Walpurgisnacht-- a Witch whose power rivals a natural disaster. Obviously, it's an overestimation of their abilities, but it's just an example of where Kyouko can get a little too cocky. It a superficial confidence that leads to her being reckless, ignoring the true danger of a situation. I'm sure it's bound to get her into trouble while at Haven.
Overall, Kyouko is a brave, kindhearted girl who loves stories and sweets, and who just happens to have a secret life, fighting creatures of despair that plague humanity. A far cry from the girl she becomes after her wish destroys her family, but that's in the future— for now, Haven gets Kyouko Sakura, Puella Magi and Protector.
ABILITIES.
Spear → A magically summoned spear with the ability to extend to great lengths. When normally sized, it's taller than herself and as a magical weapon, seems to be unbreakable.
Enhanced Strength → She has the strength to blast crater-sized holes in asphalt with her spear and slice high-powered blows against Witches.
Accelerated Healing → In order to become a Puella Magi, her soul had to be removed and reformed as a "soul gem" because, as Kyuubey puts it, there's no way a human body can withstand fighting witches. They can take a barrage of damage, apparently even lose all their blood in their body, but as long as their soul gem is intact, they can use magic to heal themselves. They can even heal others. However, this depends on how much magic they have, and running out is a big issue. It's not that they're immortal, definitely not. They might not have enough magic to their wounds. And their wounds might not heal fast enough to save their life. They're just harder to kill than typical humans.
Their soul's detachment from their body also muffles their ability to feel pain.
Enhanced Speed & Jumping Ability → When Kyouko's at the top of her game, she can run fast enough to dodge bullets. As for jumping, she can leap several stories high, or conversely, fall from several stories and survive. The way these girls jump, you'd think they could fly, and it often looks like they're able to slow down their fall, even float at times (though a Witches' barrier may enhance this ability). Kyouko's still learning when it comes to this skill; she can be clumsy and definitely doesn't have the prowess of Mami, Homura, or her future self.
Rosso Fantasma → Kyouko's signature move! She can summon illusory duplicates of herself to confuse the enemy.
Diamond-Chain Barrier → Thought up by Mami, Kyouko is still learning how to master this trick! It's just as the title says-- a magical barrier.
Food Transformation → ... She's been shown to transform objects into snacks. Only snacks. Only Japanese snacks.
Telepathy → This is how magical girls sometimes communicate because talking about Witches in public makes you look like a crazy. When they open a telepathic line with someone in reasonable distance, they can also sense their location.
Fortifying Objects → Kyouko has the potential to learn how to temporarily alter objects with her magic, such as turning a regular pair of binoculars into one that allows her to see miles in the distance. They can also fortify weapons. She hasn't learned this yet, but with Mami around, it's a possibility!
WEAKNESSES.
One Hit K-O → If you shatter her soul gem, she's dead. A single arrow could do it. In other words, it's her Achilles' Heel. At this point in canon, Kyouko doesn't know her soul is her soul gem, so.... uh, danger danger.100 KM → ... is the maximum distance their soul gems can be separated from their bodies. Any further and their body will simply be a meat puppet. Oh, and if you don't return the soul gem back in a timely fashion? The magical girl will wake up in a rotting body.
Boom! Witches! → If they run out of magic or they fall into despair, their soul gems become too tainted and they turn into Witches. There's no changing back. Once they transform, they're gone.
Transformation Necessary → When she's in civilian form, Kyouko has limited use of her powers. She can still throw a man across a room, but she can't pull off her typical witch-fight feats. For example, to summon her spear while untransformed, she has to manifest it directly from her soul gem.
Inexperienced Fighter → Super strength and speed won't help you if you're reckless. Kyouko fights like a person keysmashing on a game controller, relying on brute strength and power, while completely ignoring strategy and foresight. She's been at this for less than two years. Her skill is understandably limited, especially since she always relies on her illusions to gain the upper-hand.
