History Fridge / PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion

*** Also, take note that when Homura sings her verse, it passes by the other three girls. But look at what Sayaka is doing. In contrast to Kyoko and Sayaka, she's the only one ''singing along with Homura'' (specifically she's singing "Sweeter than Sweet") and moving her fingers like a conductor with his baton. This can be seen either as her also getting along with the lyrics or a subtle hint that she's trying to subtly ''guide'' Homura towards the truth. And also another foreshadowing of how Homura rewriting the world and making Kyubey eat karma will be cathartic. After all, revenge is ''sweet''.

*** Also, take note that when Homura sings her song, it passes by the other three girls. But look at what Sayaka is doing. She's ''singing along'' and moving her fingers like a conductor with his baton. This can be seen either as her also getting along with the lyrics or a subtle hint that she's trying to subtly guide Homura towards the truth.

*** It matters a ''lot''. Homura's running the show, but we don't know what's going on in his head now, except that he's probably traumatized. The whole point of seeking a race of creatures where each has its own emotions was to harvest them for grief because, although the Incubators don't fully understand emotions themselves, they ''do'' know that emotional energy is a potentially limitless power that isn't bound by the laws of thermodynamics. If that means Kyubey, being forced to endure whatever Homura is doing to him in a way that ''teaches'' him what it means to feel (and since emotions are a mental illness for Incubators, that would mean Homura is torturing him ''into insanity''), he's still the only character who knows how Incubator technology actually works. Madoka and Homura use it to ends he can't fully grasp in the moment, but only he can make the contract. And if he has emotions, if he's willing to sign himself away for the sake of the universe, what's stopping him from doing exactly that? Considering that no less than ''four entire universes and a hundred timeliness'' have been created and destroyed ''solely'' because Kyubey came to earth, his karmic destiny is greater than the karmic destiny of literally ''all'' other magical girls '''combined'''. There is nothing in the universe that could be more frightening than a Kyubey who is capable of making a wish.

* When Homura introduces herself to the class and subtly reveals her soul gem Kyouko and Madoka are both surprised while Sayaka seems utterly shocked. Knowing that Sayaka actually knew everything all along, this over-the-top reaction comes across as BadBadActing; Sayaka knew that Homura is a magical girl but had to pretend to be surprised, overreacting because she's a poor actress.
* Homura telling Kyubey about Madoka's presence may come off as a [[IdiotBall completely idiotic move on her part]] (and it honestly was) but one must remember who we're talking about. On one hand we have a girl starved for friendship and desperately trying to keep Madoka's memory alive in her heart and on the other we have a creature who's proven a genius at burrowing into people's minds and twisting them, especially if they're already unstable. Homura may not have trusted Kyubey but as far as she was concerned he had no way to overturn Madoka's wish and she needed someone, ''anyone'' to talk to. Surely there'd be no harm; [[SchmuckBait what's the worst he could do?]]

** This also creates what could be the biggest irony of the series. Homura spends about eight years fighting to save Madoka only to wind up becoming her greatest enemy.
** This actually fits in with her character. Throughout the series the sole reason for her existance is her desire to protect Madoka, the only problem is that a Goddess doesn't need protecting. So her very existence is invalidated. She took away Madoka's divinity and made her helpless to fullfil her desire. It also fits in with her being the Devil to Madoka's God. Madoka is the embodiment of selflessness while Homura is selfish to the core.
** As the troper above said, it fits the character perfectly. Homura actually hurts Madoka more than she protects her during the actual series. Homura is so absorbed in her selfish concern for Madoka that in no moment she actually cares about what Madoka thinks, wants and values. She doesn't hurt Madoka physically, but she sure as hell hurt her morally over and over again.
*** The series also mirrors the fully amoral hard truth about Homura's actions: yes, they were selfishly motivated, but if she hadn't taken the actions she did, Kyubey would've won the long game. Without Homura's time-looping, Madoka never would have been able to wish away the Witch system. Without Homura stealing Madoka out of the Law of Cycles, there's nothing to protect her from the harm Kyubey can do to her now that he's proven she's an ultrapowerful magical girl and not just a law of physics. It's a necessary evil in a Gospel of Judas Iscariot kind of way.
** Another piece of fridge that makes Homura's ascention to devilhood sensible? Her thoughts upon first witching out in Timeline 3 were her wanting to destroy everything that had ever made her cry or hate, contrasting Madoka who wanted to preserve everything.
** In addition, remember that Homura's prime motivation is to protect Madoka, even if Madoka neither needs, nor wants it. She'd just had a long conversation with Kyubey about how the incubators were going to try to pervert Madoka's wish, or possibly even capture and use her for their own ends. Homura fell into despair because her wish was no longer valid. But Kyubey just provided her with the knowledge that Madoka was once again in danger and Homura could do something to protect her. The catch was that Madoka was already caught in the trap. The only thing Homura could do to save Madoka was prevent Madoka from fulfilling her purpose so that the incubators couldn't see how Madoka operated. Homura has always prioritized her definition of Madoka's safety over everything else, but even if she did have a few last shreds of sanity that might have caused her to step away from that edge and trust Madoka, becoming Homulilly probably destroyed those.
* In the beginning scenes, when the Nightmare goes through several windows before ''Mada Dame Yo'' gets played, each window has its own wall around it and it uses several that refer to previous witches fought in the series. One more early foreshadowing that Homura is the witch of the labyrinth, as she'd be the only one to remember witches and had fought them previously.
* During Madoka's transformation, a few things are worth noting:
** When she holds her soul gem, the only parts of her body that are "normal" colored are her hands. Fitting, considering Homura steals her powers by grabbing her hands.

** While she transforms, a film tape that passes horizontally appears, where there are many Madokas holding hands, probably meaning that she exists in parallel and everywhere. Also aided by the fact that she gets 9 screens showing her.

** Also, she hides most of her face, with only her eye showing. It looks a lot like the "all seeing eye", as if she watches everything, like an omniscient god.
** The "dance" phase of her transformation is modeled after that of an idol singer, which works on a number of levels: she's the focus of Homura's admiration and love (Homura is basically a Madoka fangirl), she brings joy and hope to all magical girls (who serve as her audience) and, tragically, she disappeared completely after a very short period of time after someone else drove her to a height of influence and power.
** There's a lot of key and keyhole symbols in the background of her transformation - she's basically the 'key' to Magical Girl Heaven, the Incubators view her as the 'key' to the Law of Cycles, and she's trying to 'unlock' the seal on Homura's soul gem.
* Madoka's [[RetCon flip-flop]] on whether or not she would sacrifice herself as she did at the end of the original series seems a bit strange. Then you realize that this is Madoka without the psychological torment she sustained during the anime that drove her into a corner, and it makes a bit more sense.

* Homura is commonly associated with lizards or salamanders during the entire movie. The salamander is also used to symbolize the flames, which it passes through, and so is a symbol of fire, temptation, and burning desire. It was considered the "king of fire" and as such was representative of Christ who would baptize with the flames of the Holy Spirit. Cloquet considers Christ the salamander king of fire because he passed through the fires of hell after his crucifixion without harm. It should be noted Homura's name can be translated as "flame", as is 'Lucifer', witches were commonly burned on the stake, and there were a lot of things on fire in Rebellion.
** It can also refer to a basilisk. When a serpent's egg is warmed by a chicken, the resulting creature gains some of its bird traits, but only as a deadly monster that exudes poison. Homura's corrupted Soul Gem was watched over by a goddess only to birth something horribly wrong. The basilisk is known as the king of serpents and the lizard wearing a crown in the second movie resembles its classic depiction. Once Homura completes her transformation, the lizard is shown again adorned with feathery wings but no crown... until you realize it is on the bottom of her new, crown-shaped Dark Orb.
** This may be unintentional, but reptilians in conspiracies and several mythologies (Zulu myth) are sometimes associated with the moon. In the intro, she is seen falling towards said celestial object.
* When Homura introduces herself to the class and subtly reveals her soulgem, Kyouko and Madoka are both surprised, while Sayaka seems utterly shocked. Knowing that Sayaka actually knew everything all along, this over-the-top reaction comes across as BadBadActing; Sayaka knew that Homura is a magical girl, but she had to pretend to be surprised, and overacted because she's a poor actress.
* Homura telling Kyubey about Madoka's presence may come off as a completely idiotic move on her part (and honestly, it was), but one must remember who we're talking to. On one hand, we have a girl starved for friendship and desperately trying to keep Madoka's memory alive in her heart, and on the other we have a creature who's a proven genius at burrowing into people's minds and twisting, especially if they're already desperate and unstable. Homura may not have trusted Kyubey, but as far as she was concerned, he had no way to overturn Madoka's wish, and she needed someone, ''anyone'' to talk to. Surely there'd be no harm: what's the worst he could do?
* Homura dragging Ultimate Madoka down from divinity despite Madoka begging her to stop was insanely out of character, there's no way that Homura would harm Madoka like that in a million years. But then it hit me, I was right. It was extremely out of character because Homura WOULDN'T do it. But Homura had already turned into a witch, and we only need to look at Sayaka in the classic series to see that turning into a witch messes with your moral compass. Homura would never hurt Madoka, but Homulilly would. After all, just five minutes since she was trying to kill Madoka and company with a familiar army. And because Madoka only saved Homura after the transformation rather than before the transformation like the other girls, Homura as we know her had pretty much already died and been replaced with a witch-like persona. Nice job breaking it, Kyubey.
** This also creates what could be the biggest irony of the series. Homura spends about eight years fighting to save Madoka, only to get turned into a witch and wind up becoming Madoka's greatest enemy.
** Actually this fits in with her character. Throughout the series the sole reason for her existance is her desire to protect Madoka, only problem is that a Goddess doesn't need protecting. So her very existence is invalidated. She took away Madoka's divinity and make her helpless to fullfil her desire. It also fits in with her being the Devil to Madoka's God. Madoka is the embodiment of selflessness while Homura is selfish to the core.

* Take a good look at Demon Homura's dress. There's a [[RuleOfSymbolism heart]], [[LoveHurts broken down the middle.]] [[IncrediblyLamePun And she did have a heart condition...]]