When I try to be charitable to the Epilogues, the silver lining I can draw is that there is some excellent concepts being ideated.

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READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.

I try to view Dirk's arc as one akin to Homura's turn to villainy; she has convinced herself that Madoka is secretly miserable for having sacrificed her existence to preserve everyone's soul in the Magical Girl Afterlife, and the key moment occurs in the 3rd movie, where after Homura has lived this cycle of grief and loss over and over again, she finally has a chance to be with the one she longs for. Only that Madoka has none of her memories and acts in a way that is a projection of Homura's beliefs, confirming her worst suspicions.

Thus, Homura at the end rips Madoka from heaven and rewrites reality. And she must rewrite reality and maintain that reality if Madoka is to live a mortal existence. She fails to understand that Madoka is truly that selfless and would rather in her eyes take on the role of villain to appease her own loss, upsetting the cosmic order Madoka established. (Deep down she now KNOWS Madoka is that selfless now, so inevitably waits for the day Madoka will confront her over what she did. Though given Madoka's former actions in the story, I have no doubts Madoka will still forgive her because Madoka represents an unrelenting force of hope and positivity).

So, when I see the idea of Dirk placing himself in the position of villain because he believes conflict is necessary to keep the story "relevant" and thus preserve his friends existence in the long term, I don't *hate* the idea. It's one where he ultimately thinks he's doing something good by taking on the burden. But my other answer to that will always be: Dirk has the power to write his will into reality, he can literally invent any manner of villain or puppet Caliborn to the end of time if that's the issue, he himself doesn't need to BE the villain. I have yet to think about how the story will confront that fact or explain it away. Like, Dirk orchestrated the defeat of Lord English IN the Epilogues, which seems weird if the idea is continuing the story.

Ultimately, the Epilogues feels concept first and characters second, with some chopped and squeezed to fit the mold of the idea they wanted to put to paper. The Epilogues could have easily been all the characters having settled down and we get a glimpse of their ever after, with open ended ideas of how it finishes. (Much like the Snapchats seemed to.)