This week’s Madoka unleashed hot furry on /a/ like none other, culminating in over a dozen full threads on what happened and what is going to happen heading into the final 4-5 episodes. At this point, we know a few things that had been speculated early on:
- Kyubey is either immortal or has the ability to discard his body for a new one. It could also be speculated to be similar to the girls themselves, that his “soul” is not attached to his body and therefore can regenerate using magic.
- Homura (or Homu-Homu) is a time-traveler, or at the very least, possesses powers to manipulate time. Aside from Kyubey making direct reference to this, we know she uses it in her attacks as well as to rescue Sayaka’s soul gem.
- Fallen magical girls become witches. See Sayaka.
These three things greatly affected the course of the series, as we now know who we are dealing with and what to expect from the coming episodes, not that more surprises are still possible, but this episode certainly confirmed a lot of speculation that was out there for this series.
With Kyubey, it was pretty evident from the beginning that he was no Yuuno, while he appeared innocent and caring, after Mami’s “death” and the questions came in, we found that his Lawful Neutral came out in full force when it was discovered just how the girls obtained their powers. Some have been quick to label him as evil, but really, his actions reflect someone who has an objective and is simply tapping into natural profiles of little girls to achieve his goals. Most speculation at this point puts him in the center of this game, getting girls to form contracts in order to defeat witches who were born from fallen magical girls or other souls who lost their way. This generates the power Kyubey requires and “stores” for a purpose we do not know yet.
Homura seems to be the miscalculated threat in Kyubey’s plan, and if she is indeed from the future, then he does not know what she intends to do. It’s clear that she has not really attempted to seriously meddle with events, rather she seems to be letting some events play out in order to achieve a certain end result. This is similar to the “Cause and Effect” theory I presented to the Madoka Wiki and /a/ a few weeks back. She could very well have been replaying the same span of time over and over, trying to save at the very least, Madoka, whom she seems to be the only person Homura is genuinely interested in saving. This presents many theories, including an interesting one where someone thought she was connected to Madoka’s mother in some way.
Finally we have confirmed that fallen magical girls become witches, as Sayaka is seen at the end completely losing it and her soul gem turning into a grief seed. We find that the grief seeds are used to cleanse the soul gems, so in not doing so you essentially speed up the process in which you lose control faster, allowing your emotions to put the final nail in the transformation. What happens from here on out will likely spell the end for Sayaka, and possibly even Kyouko. If we use Madoka’s dream from the first episode, we might assume that the upcoming Walpurgis Night, or “Night of the Witches” which was referenced in the last and this episode, mostly by Homura who has data on it in her room. Many anons pointed out Madoka’s connection with images on the wall that showed her various costumes from the OP as silhouettes on the sheet. This could be where, in Homura’s previous timeline, Madoka because a magical girl or perhaps a witch and looked like those.
At this point, I expect Sayaka to fall either to Kyouko or Homura, and in Kyouko’s case, I can even see the two of them going out at the same time, leaving only Madoka and Homura to face Walpurgis Night, which may come back around to the first episode scene. How Madoka will play into this is anyone’s guess still, at this point the story revolves more around her than about her, and only until everything around her is eliminated or taken out of the picture are we going to see just how she will influence the series.
Any way you slice it, this series is full of mindfuck goodness.
