[X] Homura:
-[X] Playfully chide her for treating Sayaka like a tool.
-[X] Explain that Sayaka is a mostly ordinary teenage girl, with mostly ordinary teenage reactions - exactly the sort of thing that QB preys on.
-[X] We just put Sayaka in a fairer situation, and pushed her to overcome her initial biases. The rest was always just Sayaka being Sayaka.
This isn't an answer. It gives Homura no new information or useful tools. It also misses the point. Here's what Homura asked:
"I don't..." Homura's brows knit. "I... still don't understand Sayaka. I... should." She gives you a questioning gaze.
Homura didn't ask how we succeeded with Sayaka when she'd failed so much. She isn't even asking what she needs to do to succeed with Sayaka, or why she failed. She's asking for help
understanding Sayaka, which is an entirely different and deeper thing.
[x] Answer Homura's implicit request: Do your best to help her understand Miki Sayaka.
-[x] Provide some basic background on how people work. They are
complicated. This will be less of a hard explanation and more of your guesses and impressions.
This has a few purposes. First, we have a good introduction and hook. We want to warn Homura that what we have are guesses and tell her that we may not be able to help her as simply as she's asked. Remember: Everyone that Homura has connected with is,
as far as she knows, a
simple person. Homura introspects as "Save Madoka" and not much else. Homura's perception of Madoka is "Save everyone" and not much else. Homura's perception of Sabrina is "Save everyone", and while we've shown some
hints of other characterization, Homura probably still characterizes us simply. Homura also grew up in an abusive orphanage and, for all her time loops, is tragically short on human interaction. She simply doesn't have the tools she needs to understand people.
-[x] Key points of the blueberry's character: Self-esteem problems, strong moral views, stubborn, makes snap judgements, young.
-[x] Explain particular behaviors in terms of these keys points. Support with examples when appropriate.
--[x] Unshakable loyalty: Decides that you look friendly therefore you are a friend and will always be a friend. Misbehavior is justified or ignored.
--[x] Judgemental: Decides that you look like you're doing something bad so you're bad and you'll always be bad. Good behavior is dismissed as temporary or circumstantial.
--[x] Low survival rate: Low self-worth fails to oppose strong moral view and stubbornness so she follows through on radical moral decisions stemming from an image of Magical Girls as Doing Good.
--[x] Her first impressions inform the majority of her opinion of a person and her first impressions aren't very deep or complex.
--[x] Hero of Justice: Low self-esteem makes her apply her stubbornness and moral compass to the task of being more like Mami and Madoka.
-[x] Explain Sayaka's relationships with other people.
--[x] Madoka: BFF. Sayaka treasures Madoka and holds her opinion in high regard.
--[x] Mami: Greatly Respected Hero of Justice. Usually forms Sayaka's image of magical girls as being heroes of justice; feeds her self-worth issues by being
so much better at everything.
--[x] Kyubey: Makes a good first impression by pandering to magical girl anime memes then mooches off Mami's hero of justice image.
Homura needs to not information about Sayaka but information about how people
work, which means we can't just list off character traits or behaviors and expect Homura to assemble them into a working model of Sayaka's psyche. We need to explain the core features of Sayaka's psychology
as well as the dynamics that lead her to particular decisions and behaviors. In order to do this we show Homura not just the key points but also work through a number of examples that illustrate how key features of Sayaka's characterization work their way through human behavior to become patterns of behavior.
-[x] Note specific things that helped this time around, framing them in the context of the model you presented above.
--[x] MAJOR POINT: Kyubey very visibly and definitely hurt Mami. This, along with the lichbomb, was enough to break Sayaka's original judgement of him as "Mami's Best Friend and Magical Girl Mascot".
--[x] You presented an image that caused her to Judge you as Good. Once she does that it is
very hard to change her mind. She does not have complex views:
--[x] You engage with her using strong moral arguments. Leaving Oriko and Kirika alive, for example, was because
you do not kill people. Sayaka respects these kinds of Hero of Justice arguments.
--[x] You attempted to specifically help her with her self-esteem issues. You botched it, obviously, but not as badly as you could have.
Dig into specifics, partially to help Homura understand what happened inside Sayaka's head this time around in particular and partially to illustrate and contextualize the dynamics we laid out earlier.
