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A third of the way through the Rebellion film. Homura appears to shoot herself in the head after being unable to persuade Mami about what's going on. After the event, it seems that we see the exiting bullet, and we also see blood around the left side of Homura's face.

If this is the case, why is Homura still alive afterwards? Or did she not actually manage to shoot herself, or did she (or Mami) perhaps manage to heal herself afterwards?

Maroon
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    maybe it's just a scratch? She didn't shot her head not to kill herself but to distract Mami, and Mami grab her leg so Homura shot missed (deliberately) and leave a scratch. – Darjeeling Aug 16 '14 at 07:02
  • @ShinobuOshino: hmmm maybe. Feel free to write up an answer if you want; somehow I didn't catch the fact that she was only doing it to distract Mami. (Come to think of it Sayaka's actions also make more sense that way.) – Maroon Aug 16 '14 at 07:22
  • related perhaps http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/12811/what-exactly-is-mamis-power – Darjeeling Aug 16 '14 at 11:09

3 Answers3

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I can only think that the bullet didn't actually hit her head, but only scratch her. She point the gun on her head not to kill her self, but to distract Mami. Mami, who is Homura's friend, didn't want Homura to die, tried to save her. She pull the ribbon when Homura shot her gun and this makes her miss the shot. I believe she did it on purpose, because after this, Homura able to cut Mami's ribbon and able to stop time again. Which is of course, that's what she want to do from the beginning.

enter image description here

Before the battle begin, we can see that Homura tried to shoot Mami's ribbon, but failed to do so, but after she tries to shoot herself in the head. Mami get distracted and Homura finally able to free herself

enter image description here

Darjeeling
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    Of course, given some of the other effects becoming a magical girl has in this universe, it might not have been fatal anyways... – Clockwork-Muse Aug 17 '14 at 11:39
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    @Clockwork-Muse looking how Mami want to save Homura, it looks like if the bullet actually hit her head, Homura will die, or at least badly injured. – Darjeeling Aug 17 '14 at 12:06
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Magical girls in MadoMagi universe are like zombies. It doesn't matter if her brain gets destroyed as long as her Soul Gem is intact. Homura knows this fact, but Mami does not and that's why she panics.

As Mami at this point is already a ghost, although she should have known that things like this would not hurt magical girl, she was brainwashed like the rest of people inside the barrier and forgot. As for why Mami was killed by Bebe in earlier scene, it was not because her brain was destroyed, but because she wore her Soul Gem on her hat and it was eaten along with her head.

So yes, Homura was safe all along.

nhahtdh
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anon
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    I think the wording of this has made people think this was a joke post at first glance, but it's correct if you read it properly – Toshinou Kyouko Feb 19 '15 at 13:56
  • What are you talking about. Homura was not shooting herself in the soul gem = zero danger. Kyubey does say that magical girl's body can bear inhuman damage with ease. That is why soul gem system was implimented in the first place. – anon Feb 19 '15 at 14:02
  • yes, I was referring to the downvote – Toshinou Kyouko Feb 19 '15 at 14:06
  • sorry lol, it does not whow who voted and i got confused :D – anon Feb 19 '15 at 14:11
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It suddenly occurred to me that I probably just wasn't paying enough attention to the film and that it had been too long since I'd seen the anime. There are two slightly similar possibilities.

  1. From the anime, we know that as long as the Soul Gem is intact, the magical girl won't die. It's thus possible that Homura only shot herself in the head (without touching her Soul Gem) when she did so, which would have led to her not dying. (Such an interpretation makes sense given that as Shinobu pointed out, Homura was doing this to distract Mami.)

  2. The second possibility is as follows: a bit later than halfway through the film, Homura decides to test whether or not the 100 metre restriction for her Soul Gem still works, after she becomes suspicious of herself. She leaves her Soul Gem at a location and boards a bus that later bursts into flames, but emerges unscathed despite to fact that this was some distance from where the bus was. Given this detail and the fact that she has become a witch at some point, it's possible that this has also affected the destructability of her body.

I'm not sure if I interpreted the events of the second bit correctly, so please comment if I have gotten something wrong.

Maroon
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