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[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Kyubey]]
[[quoteright:314:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/coobie_1309.png]]
->Voiced by: EmiriKatou (JP), CassandraLee (EN)
A small, cute creature that communicates through telepathy. His duty is to form contracts with girls where they will become magical girls and fight witches in exchange for any one wish. He is intent on contracting Madoka due to her immense potential.
[[spoiler:He is an "Incubator" and a member of an alien race that seeks to use the thermodynamics-violating energy produced by the magical girl/witch cycle to counteract entropy and stave off the heat death of the universe. The greater the wish and the more important the contractee, the better the payoff, and several powerful historical women were, in reality, magical girls. He is also a HiveMind of sorts and can easily regenerate upon death.]]
Not to be confused with ''the'' [[{{Daria}} QB]].
----
* ArtEvolution: [[http://images.puella-magi.net/e/e4/Kyubey_Original_Design.jpg?20110120154733 Kyubey's original design]] gave him large pupils instead of small red eyes.
* [[spoiler:AdorableAbomination]]
* [[spoiler:AliensAreBastards: Holy shit they are. Even though they don't mean any malice, they'll still leave us to die if they meet their quota. So much for the relationship being mutually beneficial.]]
* [[spoiler:AntiHero: He's Type II at the end of the series, following Madoka's wish. Until then he was something of an AntiVillain instead.]]
* [[spoiler:BigBad: Ohhhhhh yes. Subverted (kinda) when Madoka rewrites reality and he doesn't ''have'' to be evil anymore, but that's at the very end of the series.]]
** [[spoiler:NonActionBigBad]]
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: It literally can not comprehend why [[spoiler:humans would care if their souls have been ripped out of their bodies or not.]] In Episode 7, Homura states that "human values don't mean anything to it". And then in Episode 9 [[spoiler:it reveals that "they", the heavily implied HiveMind, are actually aliens, and simply ''don't have'' emotions, bizarre alien ones included. Indeed, emotion is only considered to be a mental illness among his race]].
* CatchPhrase: "Make a contract with me!"
* CatsAreMean: His form is highly ambiguous, but his body and the way he moves seem to invoke a cat-like imagery (possibly a ferret instead - see WeaselMascot below), and the things he says and does... ''he'' may not think he's being cruel, but pretty much everyone else disagrees.
* CatSmile: It's creepy as hell -- mainly due to its face apparently being stuck semi-permanently in this expression. Whether this is its intention is a matter of much debate.
* CrossdressingVoices: Kyubey is considered to be male, but voiced by a woman since he has a high cheery voice. Granted, he's so inhuman he isn't really obviously either gender.
** In Drama CD 2, he claims to not see himself a male by human standards [[spoiler: after walking in on Madoka taking a bath]].
** In [[WordOfGod audio commentary]] to Episode 4, GenUrobuchi said that Kyubey is in fact genderless.
* [[spoiler:CuteIsEvil: Or rather, amoral and without empathy, more than evil.]]
* [[spoiler:DeadpanSnarker: In the alternate universe created by Madoka. At one point, he remarks that it'd be cool if magical girls could become witches, but even he has to admit that in that universe, [[NoBodyLeftBehind that's]] [[AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence not]] [[DiedHappilyEverAfter possible]].]]
* [[spoiler:DeathIsCheap: He has "many bodies" and can reincarnate himself almost instantly. The drama of him getting beaten up (and killed, then beaten up again) by Homura in the first episode was, presumably, just an act to get Madoka to empathize with him.]]
* DissonantSerenity: He always wears that creepy smile (although in all likelihood that's just his face being cat-like) in the anime. He almost always talks cheerfully in both versions (probably his face is more expressive in the manga to show this), regardless of context, only demonstrating any degree of distress a few times.
** Even better - being almost always cheerful is his functional equivalent of CreepyMonotone, almost certainly adopted to make him less suspicious. [[LampshadeHanging He recognizes]] that his voice should show distress in situations of obvious danger, like when he's running from Homura, and, as later revealed, can also sound surprised ([[MagnificentBastard although it's very rare for something to be truly unexpected for him]]), but more nuanced emotions apparently are too alien to him to mimic them convincingly.
* {{Emoticon}}: (/人◕‿‿◕人\)
** Combined with his CatchPhrase [[MemeticMutation ALL OVER THE INTERNET]].
* [[spoiler:EvenEvilHasStandards: Kyubey disapproves of Madoka killing Sayaka, be it ever so inadvertently, in her attempt to stop in-fighting amongst magical girls, and he even rebukes her for doing something "that's crazy."]]
** [[spoiler:Then again, at that point none of them even knew the true nature of the soul gems, so even if he was shocked by the action, Madoka had no idea in the first place that what she did could actually be fatal to Sayaka.]]
** [[spoiler:Besides, Kyubey probably only objected to Madoka killing Sayaka because it was a waste of a perfectly good Soul Gem. He has standards in the same way that a person who objects to throwing away a half-eaten sandwich has standards.]]
* [[spoiler:FauxAffablyEvil: Holy crap...]]
* FrozenFace: Kyubey's face ''does. Not. Move.''
** Averted in Episode 2 when Kyubey takes a bite of an omelette. It also closes its eyes at times, probably when it's supposed to be a smile.
** Also averted in the manga, where it has quite a bit more facial expression. And doesn't even try to hide his intentions.
*** [[NightmareFace You mean]] [[http://i55.tinypic.com/106kap5.jpg LIKE THIS?]]
** The DVD version sometimes even re-animates scenes with Kyubey, going great lengths to make his face even LESS expressive.
** It stays the same even [[spoiler:when he realizes what Madoka is up to, which he believes "violates the law of cause and effect".]]
* GlowingEyesOfDoom
* [[spoiler:HiveMind:]] Confirmed by WordOfGod. [[PuellaMagiMadokaMagica See the main page.]]
** [[spoiler:Does it count as HiveMind, if there is no "hive" part, just one mind driving a lot of replaceable bodies?]]
** [[spoiler: There ''are'' other incubators out there.]]
* InvisibleToNormals
* IronicEcho: When trying to persuade Madoka to become a Magical Girl, he often states [[spoiler:that her potential is so great that ''any'' wish could be granted, and that she could even become a god if she wanted.]] He even repeats this moments before [[spoiler:Madoka finally does make a wish, and is suitably horrified when she uses it to do just that]].
* [[spoiler:JackassGenie: "Want to become a magical girl and have your own miracle? Great! Make a contract with me. Oh, and, uh, it'll only cost you your soul and end with you [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie you becoming the very thing you fight]] [[DespairEventHorizon through sheer, eventual despair]]. Toodles!"]]
* JapanesePronouns: Kyuubey speaks in a rather tortured syntax, using only diminutive pronouns and entirely stripping out honorifics when talking to people. Its not so much disrespectful as it is just stilted, and gives the impression that he views people about the same way as he would furniture.
** [[spoiler:Or cattle. He even makes that comparison later on.]]
* [[spoiler:JustDesserts: [[BodySurf Does this]] [[{{Squick}} to himself]] in Episode 8 after Homura executes him by emptying a whole clip into him, even though it was not necessary, resulting in Swiss Cheese. She really hates the thing. And for a good reason.]]
* [[spoiler:KarmaHoudini: Along with the rest of the Incubators.]] At least, though, [[spoiler:he ends up giving Madoka an absurd amount of power to stop him with, and all of his mustache-twirlingly-evil actions were basically undone by the CosmicRetcon.]]
** [[spoiler: Interestingly, in the new timeline he's implied to be a much better terms with the magical girls, or at least his behavior is much more benign.]]
* [[spoiler:KickTheDog: Although it was pretty obvious that there is something fishy about Kyubey, the scene where he makes Sayaka "experience real pain" just to prove a point makes it clear that he is evil, or at ''very'' least completely lacking in empathy.]] Additionally, that action wasn't entirely necessary or relevant to his plans.
** From another point of view, it was entirely relevant to his plans. His entire goal is to [[spoiler:have the girls fall into despair so they can become witches. His KTD moment was his way of reinforcing leading Sayaka to thinking "I done screwed up!" and witchifying her.]]
* LackOfEmpathy
-->"You people are all the same. Every time I tell someone, it's the same response. I don't get it. [[spoiler:Why do humans care so much where their souls are?]]"
* {{Leitmotif}}: ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTNQNkQCoXA "Sis puella magica!"]]'' is generally considered one for him and the series as a whole.
* MakeAWish: Kyubey does not seem to have anything to do with how the wishes he grants carry out. He does not look for the worse interpretation. His explanation for bad things happening to wishers is that the power of the Wish creates equal parts despair and hope. (Like a magical version of two particles coming into being in vacuum fluctuation; both negative and positive) thus equaling zero. He cannot stop someone from making a wish that he wouldn't want them to make, and he can't force anyone to make a wish either.
** Rather than exploit JerkassGenie, he simply gives them exactly what they asked for because [[spoiler: what they ask for is never what they actually want. The girls are never honest with themselves about their desires, every selfless wish has a selfish motive behind it, and the despair sets in when they realize that their selfless wish being granted did not guarantee their selfish desire being granted as well.]]
* ManipulativeBastard: ''Seriously.'' [[BlueAndOrangeMorality He may have trouble understanding human values and emotions,]] but he's very good at asking the girls to make a contract with him at the ''exact'' moment when they'd have the most difficulty refusing. And [[RegularCaller he will abusively call you,]] [[RefusalOfTheCall even if you do refuse his offer.]]
* [[spoiler:MeanCharacterNiceActor:]] [[spoiler: According to [[WordOfGod Gen Urobuchi]], EmiriKatou is a nice lady who loves the MagicalGirl genre and nearly had a HeroicBSOD when she learned just what sort of character she'd be voicing.]]
* MeaningfulName/[[spoiler:NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Incubator.]]
* MetaphoricallyTrue: More or less everything that comes out of his mouth. While never technically ''lying'', Kyubey makes it a point [[spoiler:to only speak in half-truths]]. When pressed, he responds with either confusion or incredulity; after all, [[spoiler:it's ''their'' fault for not asking him the right questions in the first place]].
** He eventually [[spoiler:tortures Madoka with the whole truth after Sayaka's funeral. Though it was probably not supposed to be torture but an explanation and a way to prove a point, from his point of view- being someone who wouldn't see why she would feel tortured by it.]]
* MentorMascot: [[spoiler:Subverted.]] At first he looks like your standard MagicalGirl cute critter mentor, [[spoiler:until we find out that he views the girls as [[LackOfEmpathy expendable power sources]] and it's in his best interests to make them as [[BreakTheCutie miserable as possible.]]... because it will mean gaining energy to save the universe.]]
** In other words, Kyubey looks like a Magical Girl familiar [[spoiler: but is actually a Magical Girl ''villain'', right down to turning humans into monsters to harvest their energy.]]
* MysteriousBacker: Just ''look'' at him and say that you trust him. Go on.
* [[spoiler:NiceJobFixingItVillain: Arguably, his InfoDump toward Madoka about magical girl's role in history of humanity and his own confirmation that any of Madoka's wish can be granted is the one who inspires Madoka to make her CosmicRetcon wishes.]]
* [[spoiler:NighInvulnerability: Of the ''Can Only Kill Part Of Him'' kind. An exact replica of it comes to [[JustDesserts eat its corpse]] after Homura riddles it with bullets in Episode 8. It claims it has unlimited number of substitutions. WordOfGod says he instantly creates a body from surrounding {{Mana}}.]]
* NoBiologicalSex: Most fans default to referring to Kyubey as "he", but the character actually doesn't have any physical sex.
** In the Japanese dub he [[JapanesePronouns refers to himself with "boku"]] so its safe to say that if he isn't male he is at least pretending to be for the sake of brevity.
* [[spoiler:ObliviouslyEvil: There's evidence to the idea that he has no idea that people would consider his actions wrong. See BlueAndOrangeMorality above.]]
** [[spoiler:He has the idea. He's far from stupid, after all. He knows exactly what parts of his deal he should conceal as long as possible. He just can't really comprehend ''why'' humans are so upset about them.]]
* OhCrap: [[spoiler:"That violates the laws of cause and effect! Do you really ''want'' to become a god!?"]]
* OmniscientMoralityLicense: [[spoiler:The Incubators and the race that created them use the powerful emotions given off by Magical Girls and witches to counter entropy and prevent the heat death of the universe. And note that they ultimately consider humanity expendable.]]
* {{Omniglot}}: Besides Japanese, Kyubey also speaks fluent French, English, Egyptian, Hebrew, Norwegian, Swahili and you-name-it-he-speaks it. [[spoiler: After all, known victims include Jeanne d'Arc, Cleopatra, Anne Frank, Viking and African children, not to mention countless others from presumably from every nation across our world.]] If ever he's forced to change careers, Kyubey would make quite a lucrative career as a Professor of Linguistics.
* PerpetualSmiler: And it's ''VERY'' creepy.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: [[http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y67/AthenAltena/kyuubeyaaah.png Eeep...]]
* RegularCaller: [[{{Metaphorgotten}} The call is on reversed charges, though.]] ''[[DealWithTheDevil With]] [[BreakTheCutie international]] [[GiftOfTheMagiPlot call]] [[DespairEventHorizon prices]]''.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: He looks like one, at least. [[spoiler:His cutesy appearance and placid temperament are only a façade to hide [[EldritchAbomination his true nature.]]]]
* SomebodyElsesProblem: And how. Something that doesn't involve magical girls hunting Grief Seeds? Then Kyubey doesn't have an opinion on it.
** [[spoiler:A massive Witch has been born and will destroy the whole earth in a matter of days?]] Good luck fighting it, [[spoiler:he just harvested enough energy to meet his planetary quota.]]
** [[spoiler: Making him a bit of hypocrite since he says to Madoka that his species treats humans with more respect than livestock and their relationship is mutually beneficial, but they abandon humans to their fate if they don't feel they need them anymore.]]
* StepfordSmiler
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Kyuubey, Kyuubee, Kyubei, and QB are also floating around out there.
** "Cubey" was also a short-lived proposal since [[WordOfGod producers said]] that the "kyu" is as in "cute".
** "Kyubey" seems to be the most official, though, since it has been used in official promo materials and moreover, most fansubbers and scanlators actually doing the show are spelling it like this.
** Its name is also [[MyNaymeIs spelled quite bizarrely in original Japanese]]. It's half in katakana, half in hiragana, with an additional bonus for an unconventional use of small-sized katakana.
** And it turns out that "Kyubey" is short for "[[spoiler:Incubator]]".
** The runes in Episode 11 spell it as "Qbey".
*** Which turns out to be completely accurate [[ManipulativeBastard due to his strange intentions.]]
* [[spoiler:StarfishAlien: It explains why his moral compass is [[BlueAndOrangeMorality completely out of whack]], his [[DissonantSerenity creepy cheerful expression]] and his [[MagiTek powers]].]]
* TheStoic: Of the "say something horrific without any emotions" variety. For example, his serene speeches in Episode 12. He calmly explains what's going on to Homura and seems to be more concerned about [[spoiler:Madoka's fate, even when the Universe ends around him and he's already figured out that very soon he will cease to exist, to be recreated as a quite different version of self.]]
* SuperEmpowering: This is its job. [[DealWithTheDevil It's quite pushy about that]].
** EnigmaticEmpoweringEntity: And it doesn't give you a run-down of your powers, either.
* [[spoiler:TheyKilledKenny: Homura has probably "killed" him dozens of times by now, but it never sticks.]]
* [[spoiler:TotalitarianUtilitarian: Kyubey's goal is to stave off the heat death of the universe, which he does by dooming teenage girls to lives of suffering (and eventual transformation into EldritchAbominations that kill plenty of innocent people -- and potentially entire planets -- in the process).]]
* {{Troll}}: Mainly due to the fact that he [[spoiler: knowingly withholds vital info about the contract involving soul sucking and corruption,]] and then acting all innocent about it.
* [[spoiler: VillainousBSOD]]: Occurs when [[spoiler: Madoka wishes to erase witches from existence. All the more poignant because Kyubey's race views emotions as a mental illness, so Madoka's game changing wish ''literally made Kyubey lose his mind''.]]
* WeaselMascot: And we do mean ''weasel'', in the figurative sense.
** [[spoiler:WickedWeasel]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:How [[BuffySpeak he... it... they... whatever]] view themselves,]] since the stated goal is to stop the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy entropy]] of the universe. How? Create magical girls [[spoiler:and witches]] to unleash energy, of course!
** Oh, and once he gets his quota, [[spoiler:Planet Earth and everyone on it becomes expendable.]]
** The irony is that MagicalGirlWarrior ''villains'' most often plot to ''consume'' magical energy/lifeforce with the end goal of [[OmnicidalManiac destroying the world]], [[ForTheEvulz often for no rational reason]]. Of course, [[GenreDeconstruction this is not a typical Magical Girl show.]] [[spoiler:It's also said that the more power a witch consumes, the more energy is released when it's destroyed by a Magical Girl and it's grief seed consumed by an Incubator. Also, in the case of Madoka, it empowers itself every time some DespairEventHorizon converges to it.]]
* WillNotTellALie: Kyubey never lies about anything and will happily cough up the truth if asked directly. It even seems offended at the mere idea that someone would accuse it of lying. [[spoiler:It ''does'' however leave out a lot of vital information that would be to its disadvantage to reveal, invoking YouNeverAsked to a ridiculous degree.]] It's not above speaking in half-truths either: when Kyoko asks [[spoiler:if there is any way to return Sayaka to normal]], Kyubey states that there's no precedent for it. It's an answer that is technically correct [[spoiler:but baits Kyoko into believing that there ''could'' be a way.]]
** Happens again in Episodes 9 and 10. [[spoiler:In 9 he states that his actions would preserve humanity's future among the stars. However, he phrases it in such a way that it doesn't reveal whether he actually cares if humanity goes to the stars or not. We find in Episode 10 that he does not care one bit about humanity or Earth, as long as his energy quota is reached.]]
* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: Gives a NiceJobBreakingItHero WhamLine on one occasion:
-->[[spoiler:"You've done great, Homura. You've raised Madoka to become the most powerful witch ever."]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Witches]]
Mysterious magical beings who feed on the despair of humans. They employ minions known as familiars, who, if left unchecked, can grow into duplicates of the original witch. It is a magical girl's duty to slay witches and collect the Grief Seeds they drop. All witches reside in private pocket dimensions known as barriers which reflect their broken psyches. The only known exception to this rule is the colossal Walpurgisnacht, who is powerful enough to simply impose barrier-like properties onto reality instead of retreating into an alternate space.
[[spoiler:All witches are either actually magical girls who exhausted their magical energies and succumbed to despair, or another witch's familiar that has evolved. According to WordOfGod, even Walpurgisnacht was once a single magical girl, but has combined with other witches over time to become more powerful.]]
* AllThereInTheManual: There is a lot of information about each witch that is only found on the official website. It also provides information for witches that haven't been seen in the show. The ''You Are Not Alone'' guidebook also alludes to or outright states several of the witches' [[spoiler:wishes]].
** Well sort of; it's clear several entries are for prototype witches which were changed significantly in the actual anime. As such, don't take it for granted.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil
* [[spoiler:[[AndThenJohnWasAZombie And Then The Magical Girls Were Witches]]: The fate of every magical girl not killed in battle is to be consumed by despair and turn into a witch. The blackening of the soul gems show how much time there's left before this happens. The only way to stop this is to spend the rest of your life battling witches to have a steady supply of grief seeds to siphon off despair into, or be killed by external sources like Cleopatra, Anne Frank and Jeanne d'Arc were.]]
* ArtShift: as per their [[EldritchAbomination lovecraftian vibes]], both the witches and their barriers are usually animated in a style that is completely different from the main style of the anime, to every witch her own style.
* [[spoiler: AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: This is presumably what happens to them all at the end of the anime, thanks to Madoka [[CosmicRetcon rewriting the universe.]] In fact, all magical girls (including ones in the past) never become witches in the first place...they just vanish instead, [[GoOutwithASmile smiling peacefully]], and possibly joining Madoka Out There.]]
* AsLongAsThereIsEvil: AllThereInTheManual example with [[spoiler: Kriemhild Gretchen. The witch desires to [[DarkMessiah create heaven on Earth]]. "The only way to defeat this witch is to make the world free of misfortune. If there's no grief in this world, she'll think this world is already a heaven."]]
* AssimilationPlot: Elsa Maria views [[ImAHumanitarian absorbing people]] as "saving" them. [[spoiler: Kriemhild Gretchen takes it to a global scale by absorbing all life into her barrier, which is described as her "heaven"]]
* AsteroidsMonster: The familiars are effectively part of the witch. If a familiar is separated from a witch, it can grow its own Grief Seed by causing suffering to other humans and become a copy of the original witch. [[spoiler:As magical girls need Grief Seeds to maintain their powers, some unscrupulous ones leave familiars alone to get more Grief Seeds.]]
* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: [[spoiler: Kriemhild Gretchen is a ''giant'' shadow. She may be based off the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brocken_spectre Brocken Spectre]]]]
** Walpurgisnacht is [[spoiler:a gigantic [[MonsterClown harlequin]] clockwork doll floating upside-down in the sky.]]
** Charlotte's true form may be partially based on caterpillars (specifically The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar), with a MonsterClown motive added to boot.
** Oktavia van Seckendorff, [[spoiler:Sayaka's witch,]] is a gigantic mermaid knight.
* BigBad: Walpurgisnacht. Her immense power is what causes [[spoiler:the GroundhogDayLoop, when she kills off everyone but Homura in the first timeline. In every timeline, the fight with her is the pivotal moment, that always ends with Homura having to reset time again. Either because Madoka is killed trying to fight her, or because the fight with her causes her to become a witch herself]]. Arguable, of course, because as a witch, Walpurgisnacht is less like a schemer, and more like a force of nature. [[spoiler:Kyuubey]] is the schemer, though not in league with Walpurgisnacht.
* ButterflyOfDeathAndRebirth: Gertrud and her familiars have butterfly wings. The "death and rebirth" part makes sense when you consider that [[spoiler: she was once human, and was reborn as a Magical Girl (a lich in this setting), then as a witch.]]
* ChurchMilitant: Elsa Maria from Episode 7 acts like one, praying to an object that looks a lot like [[http://wiki.puella-magi.net/File:Monstrace.png Catholic monstrance]].
* ClippedWingAngel: [[spoiler:Witches are usually less powerful than the magical girls they spawn from, judging by the fact that even a relatively weak magical girl like Sayaka can destroy a witch like Elly with ease. Usually, that is. Some witches, however, can pack an impressive punch - like Charlotte (who utterly destroys Mami, albeit that might have been due to the shock factor of her own OneWingedAngel), Elsa Maria (who almost kills Sayaka), Oktavia von Seckendorff, or ultimate witches the likes of Walpurgisnacht and Gretchen.]]
* CloningBlues: Familiars can become a copy of the original witch.
* CloudCuckooLander: Anja
* CombatTentacles: Gertrud
* TheCorruption: Inverted. Magical girls purify their Soul Gems by placing the darkness that grows inside of it into Grief Seeds. However, doing it too many times can allow the witch to regenerate. [[spoiler:The trope is then played straight when it's revealed that Grief Seeds are fully corrupted Soul Gems.]]
* CreepyDoll: The Klarissas, [[spoiler: Oktavia]]'s familiars in Episode 10. They're just there to cheerfully dance around the witch that commands them, with creepy smiles on their faces and possessing limbs that look like they can be snapped with a single touch...
** Also, Charlotte's original form.
** Not to mention Daniyyel and Jennifer, Kirsten's familiars.
*** Kirsten herself looks something like one, as we see when Sayaka sends her flying out of a computer monitor.
** Albertine, as revealed in the official PSP game, somewhat resembles a giant female [[MonsterClown clown]] doll.
* CurbStompBattle: Generally on the receiving end, but a few, such as [[spoiler:Charlotte to Mami and Walpurgisnacht to ''everyone except Madoka'']] give them.
* CypherLanguage: The odd runes appear to be messages from the witch or the familiars. Often they seem like a MadnessMantra. [[spoiler: Oh wait, they are]].
* DarkIsNotEvil[=/=]LightIsNotGood: Elsa Maria invokes both tropes to varying degrees; she is apparently a practicing Catholic and constantly prays for the salvation of everyone around her. She's also a LivingShadow and accomplishes said salvation by consuming and assimilating anyone who gets too close.
* DarkMessiah: [[spoiler:Kriemhild Gretchen, who wants to save everyone by absorbing them into her barrier.]]
** Elsa Maria seems to view herself as such, as she constantly prays for the world while sending out her shadows and familiars to kill whoever gets in her barrier.
* DoesNotLikeMen: Roberta, if something about her [[http://wiki.puella-magi.net/Gotz#Gotz Gotz]] familiars' [[UnfortunateImplications appearance]], [[AllMenArePerverts description]] and [[DoesNotLikeMen her own opinion]] about them is anything to go by.
* [[spoiler:DespairEventHorizon]]:[[spoiler: The key to becoming a witch.]]
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Kirsten.
* EldritchAbomination: All the witches. All of them.
* EmotionEater: Witches feed off human suffering.
* {{Expy}}: In the manga adaptation, Walpurgisnacht [[spoiler: summons shadow dopplegangers of Mami, Sayaka, and Kyouko.]] Combined with her [[LaughingMad general demeanor]] and the fact that AllThereInTheManual calls her the witch of stage construction, she may very well be a reference to [[{{Nasuverse}} Type-Moon]]'s similarly named [[MeltyBlood Night of Wallachia]].
* [[spoiler:EvilMakesYouMonstrous:]] And how!
* TheFairFolk: Some of them are described as acting in this fashion. [[spoiler:Ultimately averted.]]
* [[spoiler:{{Fallen Hero}}ine: Every witch who isn't a familiar-turned-copy was a magical girl who allowed her Soul Gem to fill up with TheCorruption, causing it to break and become a Grief Seed.]]
* [[spoiler:FromNobodyToNightmare: They're fallen Magical Girls who used up their Soul Gems or fell into despair.]]
* [[spoiler:FusionDance: [[AllThereInTheManual The website]] [[EpilepticTrees speculates]] Walpurgisnacht is this, but says nobody knows. WordOfGod confirms it, although adds that she started as a perfectly normal witch]].
* GirlishPigtails: Kirsten.
* GreenThumb: Gertrud's theme.
* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Roberta likes alcohol.
* TheHeartless: Said to be born of curses. [[spoiler:The curses of magical girls.]]
* [[spoiler:HeroKiller: Charlotte and Walpurgisnacht. The former kills Mami, and the latter is apparently strong enough that no Magical Girl except Madoka can defeat her alone.]]
* {{Hikikomori}}: Kirsten
* TheHyena: Walpurgisnacht. She doesn't even stop laughing [[spoiler: as Madoka is shooting her out of the sky.]]
* ImmuneToBullets: {{Averted}}. As [[CombatPragmatist Homura demonstrates]], military-grade firearms are enough to destroy them.
** [[spoiler:Played semi-straight with Walpurgisnacht, as Homura throws what basically amounts to enough firepower to destroy the city (in fact, her salvo is responsible for most of the initial property damage in Episode 11) and it doesn't even have a scratch afterwards.]]
* ImprovisedWeapon: Walpurgisnacht uses pretty much every object, even entire skyscrapers, in battle.
* InvisibleToNormals: Witches and their familiars apparently cannot be seen by people who haven't been "chosen" by Kyubey to become Magical Girls.
* IronicHell: A witch's personality, powers, and barrier often combine to form a sick subversion of her [[spoiler:magical girl counterpart's wish.]] For example, Charlotte loves sweets and can create any sweet she likes save for her favorite (cheese), and lives in a cross between a candy shop and a hospital. [[spoiler:Her wish is implied to have been for cheesecake, when she could've wished for her mother's disease to be cured]].
* KillerRabbit: Charlotte
* [[spoiler:KnightOfCerebus: Charlotte. Unusually for this trope, she's killed off at the end of the episode she appears in.]]
* LevelAte: Charlotte, being the witch of desserts, has a barrier mostly made of sweets.
* LivingShadow: Elsa Maria and her familiar, Sebastian.
* LonelyDollGirl: Kirsten is a {{Hikikomori}} witch with two doll familiars.
* [[spoiler: LosingYourHead]]: [[spoiler:In Sayaka vs. Elsamaria's fight, Sayaka actually chops Elsa's head off. It's still not enough to kill her, so she goes AttackAttackAttack on her until she dies. It's even creepier in the Blue-Ray version, since Elsa actually bleeds in that one.]]
* LotusEaterMachine: [[spoiler:Kriemheld Gretchen is said to absorb all of the planet's life into her personal "heaven", her barrier. What this implies is unknown, but it's likely to be something like this.]]
* MagicSkirt[=/=]TrouserSpace: Patricia
* MeaningfulName: Several of the witches have names that relate to themselves. Charlotte is a type of dessert. Elsa Maria brings to mind a biblical prayer. Kirsten resembles a computer monitor, and so she has an "online handle": H.N. Elly. And Walpurgisnacht is the name of a real-world European festival during which legends state that witches gather together.
** The biggest one though? In written Japanese, [[spoiler:the characters for "witch" (魔女, phonetically pronounced "majo") are found in the characters for "magical girl". (魔法少女, phonetically pronounced "'''ma'''hou shou'''jo'''"). Put another way, "magical girl" can be read as "young witch".]]
* [[spoiler:MeaningfulRename: The witches have different names than the magical girls they came from.]]
* MentalWorld: A Witch's Labyrinth very much reflects the persona and psyche of the witch who makes it her home.
* [[spoiler:MercyKill: To kill a witch is to let a poor and broken girl die in peace. Madoka does this on a cosmic scale by making them AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence; witches are still created when a Magical girl loses her will to live and is consumed by darkness, but nobody understands where they go or what happens]].
* {{Mook}}: Their familiars.
* MindControl: Shown by the "witch's kiss", a mark that appears on a human who is being controlled by a witch.
** BrainwashedAndCrazy: The effects of the kiss.
** PsychicAssistedSuicide: The intended result, from the two times that the effects of a kiss have been seen.
* MindScrew: all of the witches and their barriers and minions take this to an absurd level.
* MonsterOfTheWeek: A much DarkerAndEdgier version. [[spoiler:Until Madoka rewrites the system to make sure this won't happen anymore.]]
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: Patricia, though the extra arms are for creepyness rather than combat.
* NonstandardCharacterDesign: While every Witch and everything associated with them is drawn in a different art style from the rest of the show, Charlotte does double duty by having the Witch herself drawn in ThickLineAnimation, while everything else in her barrier is constructed out of paper cutouts.
* OneWingedAngel: Charlotte does this. [[spoiler:Arguably you could consider witches as this to magical girls.]]
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Amazingly enough, even [[AllThereInTheManual the website]] doesn't reveal [[spoiler: Walpurgisnacht's]] name, just listing it, and her familiars, as "?????".
* PlayingWithFire: Walpurgis Night breathes fire. Excluding [[StoryBreakerPower her power]], it suddenly [[FridgeBrilliance makes a lot more sense]] for [[spoiler:Homura's artillery attacks]] to have [[NoSell no effect on her.]]
* PocketDimension: Witches can create these; they're bizarre areas, to say the least, and it keeps the more elaborate fights out of view of normal people.
** EldritchLocation
* PornStache: The Anthony and Adelbert familiars have these. In the case of the Anthonies, Gertrud puts these 'staches on them.
* [[spoiler:RetGone: Madoka's wish in the finale makes it so that the witches are deleted from existence and replaced with a different kind of monster altogether, so that the Incubators can still gather energy for their mission while not bringing misfortune to the girls.]]
* SirensAreMermaids: Oktavia von Seckendorff is the mermaid witch and her familiar, Holger performs music which steals the souls of the audience.
** [[spoiler:Oktavia is the mermaid witch because the story of her Magical Girl (Sayaka)'s downfall has parallels with the original Little Mermaid.]]
* SlidingScaleOfVillainEffectiveness: As mentioned under ClippedWingAngel, witches can appear anywhere on the scale. [[spoiler:Most fall under the Inadvertent category, but the stronger witches - such as Walpurgis Night or Kriemhild Gretchen - can fall under the High or even Infinite levels.]]
* SongsOfSolace: [[spoiler:Oktavia has an orchestra of Holger familiars (who look like Kyousuke and play the violin). She won't allow anyone to disturb their playing.]]
* SoulJar: The witch's Grief Seed, left behind after their death. A Grief Seed is capable of regenerating the witch, [[spoiler:which is why Kyubey devours them before they reach that point.]]
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Walpurgisnacht or Walpurgis Night; both are equally valid in referring to the stage-constructing witch. The Hulu subs go with Walpurgisnacht, as does the English dub.
** As an aside, one of the songs relating to this witch is named "Nox Walpurgis", which of course is simply Latin for the same.
* StellarName: All the witches and familiars appear to be named after celestial objects found in the solar system. [[http://wiki.puella-magi.net/Madoka_Magica_and_Science Take a look]].
* [[spoiler:TomatoInTheMirror: Witches ultimately originate from fallen magical girls, though as familiars can become a copy of the witch there might be some degrees of separation.]]
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Charlotte loves cheese, but is sadly unable to create it.
* [[spoiler:TragicMonster: All of them, really.]]
* TheUnreveal: [[spoiler:AllThereInTheManual example. Three of the witches described on the website are never seen in the series, and it doesn't show Walpurgisnacht's name.]]
* TheVonTropeFamily: Oktavia von Seckendorff.
* [[spoiler:[[WasOnceAMan Was Once A Girl]]: Well not ''all'' of them, but...]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Elsa Maria, who absorbs people in order to "save" them, and [[spoiler:Kriemhild Gretchen, who wants to create heaven on earth by absorbing all life into her barrier. Oktavia von Seckendorff ''could'' count, seeing that in-series, she only goes after the morally bankrupt, also including on her headcount all those who would interfere in any way (i.e. the magical girls)]].
** [[spoiler:Well, that depends on whether or not you believe Sayaka killed those guys on the train (and whether you want to count it towards Oktavia's death's). Also, just because we don't see the death doesn't mean Oktavia didn't lure people into her barrier before Kyoko and Madoka came back.]]
* WitchSpecies: [[spoiler:Ultimately averted.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Kyubey]]
[[quoteright:314:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/coobie_1309.png]]
->Voiced by: EmiriKatou (JP), CassandraLee (EN)
A small, cute creature that communicates through telepathy. His duty is to form contracts with girls where they will become magical girls and fight witches in exchange for any one wish. He is intent on contracting Madoka due to her immense potential.
[[spoiler:He is an "Incubator" and a member of an alien race that seeks to use the thermodynamics-violating energy produced by the magical girl/witch cycle to counteract entropy and stave off the heat death of the universe. The greater the wish and the more important the contractee, the better the payoff, and several powerful historical women were, in reality, magical girls. He is also a HiveMind of sorts and can easily regenerate upon death.]]
Not to be confused with ''the'' [[{{Daria}} QB]].
----
* ArtEvolution: [[http://images.puella-magi.net/e/e4/Kyubey_Original_Design.jpg?20110120154733 Kyubey's original design]] gave him large pupils instead of small red eyes.
* [[spoiler:AdorableAbomination]]
* [[spoiler:AliensAreBastards: Holy shit they are. Even though they don't mean any malice, they'll still leave us to die if they meet their quota. So much for the relationship being mutually beneficial.]]
* [[spoiler:AntiHero: He's Type II at the end of the series, following Madoka's wish. Until then he was something of an AntiVillain instead.]]
* [[spoiler:BigBad: Ohhhhhh yes. Subverted (kinda) when Madoka rewrites reality and he doesn't ''have'' to be evil anymore, but that's at the very end of the series.]]
** [[spoiler:NonActionBigBad]]
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: It literally can not comprehend why [[spoiler:humans would care if their souls have been ripped out of their bodies or not.]] In Episode 7, Homura states that "human values don't mean anything to it". And then in Episode 9 [[spoiler:it reveals that "they", the heavily implied HiveMind, are actually aliens, and simply ''don't have'' emotions, bizarre alien ones included. Indeed, emotion is only considered to be a mental illness among his race]].
* CatchPhrase: "Make a contract with me!"
* CatsAreMean: His form is highly ambiguous, but his body and the way he moves seem to invoke a cat-like imagery (possibly a ferret instead - see WeaselMascot below), and the things he says and does... ''he'' may not think he's being cruel, but pretty much everyone else disagrees.
* CatSmile: It's creepy as hell -- mainly due to its face apparently being stuck semi-permanently in this expression. Whether this is its intention is a matter of much debate.
* CrossdressingVoices: Kyubey is considered to be male, but voiced by a woman since he has a high cheery voice. Granted, he's so inhuman he isn't really obviously either gender.
** In Drama CD 2, he claims to not see himself a male by human standards [[spoiler: after walking in on Madoka taking a bath]].
** In [[WordOfGod audio commentary]] to Episode 4, GenUrobuchi said that Kyubey is in fact genderless.
* [[spoiler:CuteIsEvil: Or rather, amoral and without empathy, more than evil.]]
* [[spoiler:DeadpanSnarker: In the alternate universe created by Madoka. At one point, he remarks that it'd be cool if magical girls could become witches, but even he has to admit that in that universe, [[NoBodyLeftBehind that's]] [[AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence not]] [[DiedHappilyEverAfter possible]].]]
* [[spoiler:DeathIsCheap: He has "many bodies" and can reincarnate himself almost instantly. The drama of him getting beaten up (and killed, then beaten up again) by Homura in the first episode was, presumably, just an act to get Madoka to empathize with him.]]
* DissonantSerenity: He always wears that creepy smile (although in all likelihood that's just his face being cat-like) in the anime. He almost always talks cheerfully in both versions (probably his face is more expressive in the manga to show this), regardless of context, only demonstrating any degree of distress a few times.
** Even better - being almost always cheerful is his functional equivalent of CreepyMonotone, almost certainly adopted to make him less suspicious. [[LampshadeHanging He recognizes]] that his voice should show distress in situations of obvious danger, like when he's running from Homura, and, as later revealed, can also sound surprised ([[MagnificentBastard although it's very rare for something to be truly unexpected for him]]), but more nuanced emotions apparently are too alien to him to mimic them convincingly.
* {{Emoticon}}: (/人◕‿‿◕人\)
** Combined with his CatchPhrase [[MemeticMutation ALL OVER THE INTERNET]].
* [[spoiler:EvenEvilHasStandards: Kyubey disapproves of Madoka killing Sayaka, be it ever so inadvertently, in her attempt to stop in-fighting amongst magical girls, and he even rebukes her for doing something "that's crazy."]]
** [[spoiler:Then again, at that point none of them even knew the true nature of the soul gems, so even if he was shocked by the action, Madoka had no idea in the first place that what she did could actually be fatal to Sayaka.]]
** [[spoiler:Besides, Kyubey probably only objected to Madoka killing Sayaka because it was a waste of a perfectly good Soul Gem. He has standards in the same way that a person who objects to throwing away a half-eaten sandwich has standards.]]
* [[spoiler:FauxAffablyEvil: Holy crap...]]
* FrozenFace: Kyubey's face ''does. Not. Move.''
** Averted in Episode 2 when Kyubey takes a bite of an omelette. It also closes its eyes at times, probably when it's supposed to be a smile.
** Also averted in the manga, where it has quite a bit more facial expression. And doesn't even try to hide his intentions.
*** [[NightmareFace You mean]] [[http://i55.tinypic.com/106kap5.jpg LIKE THIS?]]
** The DVD version sometimes even re-animates scenes with Kyubey, going great lengths to make his face even LESS expressive.
** It stays the same even [[spoiler:when he realizes what Madoka is up to, which he believes "violates the law of cause and effect".]]
* GlowingEyesOfDoom
* [[spoiler:HiveMind:]] Confirmed by WordOfGod. [[PuellaMagiMadokaMagica See the main page.]]
** [[spoiler:Does it count as HiveMind, if there is no "hive" part, just one mind driving a lot of replaceable bodies?]]
** [[spoiler: There ''are'' other incubators out there.]]
* InvisibleToNormals
* IronicEcho: When trying to persuade Madoka to become a Magical Girl, he often states [[spoiler:that her potential is so great that ''any'' wish could be granted, and that she could even become a god if she wanted.]] He even repeats this moments before [[spoiler:Madoka finally does make a wish, and is suitably horrified when she uses it to do just that]].
* [[spoiler:JackassGenie: "Want to become a magical girl and have your own miracle? Great! Make a contract with me. Oh, and, uh, it'll only cost you your soul and end with you [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie you becoming the very thing you fight]] [[DespairEventHorizon through sheer, eventual despair]]. Toodles!"]]
* JapanesePronouns: Kyuubey speaks in a rather tortured syntax, using only diminutive pronouns and entirely stripping out honorifics when talking to people. Its not so much disrespectful as it is just stilted, and gives the impression that he views people about the same way as he would furniture.
** [[spoiler:Or cattle. He even makes that comparison later on.]]
* [[spoiler:JustDesserts: [[BodySurf Does this]] [[{{Squick}} to himself]] in Episode 8 after Homura executes him by emptying a whole clip into him, even though it was not necessary, resulting in Swiss Cheese. She really hates the thing. And for a good reason.]]
* [[spoiler:KarmaHoudini: Along with the rest of the Incubators.]] At least, though, [[spoiler:he ends up giving Madoka an absurd amount of power to stop him with, and all of his mustache-twirlingly-evil actions were basically undone by the CosmicRetcon.]]
** [[spoiler: Interestingly, in the new timeline he's implied to be a much better terms with the magical girls, or at least his behavior is much more benign.]]
* [[spoiler:KickTheDog: Although it was pretty obvious that there is something fishy about Kyubey, the scene where he makes Sayaka "experience real pain" just to prove a point makes it clear that he is evil, or at ''very'' least completely lacking in empathy.]] Additionally, that action wasn't entirely necessary or relevant to his plans.
** From another point of view, it was entirely relevant to his plans. His entire goal is to [[spoiler:have the girls fall into despair so they can become witches. His KTD moment was his way of reinforcing leading Sayaka to thinking "I done screwed up!" and witchifying her.]]
* LackOfEmpathy
-->"You people are all the same. Every time I tell someone, it's the same response. I don't get it. [[spoiler:Why do humans care so much where their souls are?]]"
* {{Leitmotif}}: ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTNQNkQCoXA "Sis puella magica!"]]'' is generally considered one for him and the series as a whole.
* MakeAWish: Kyubey does not seem to have anything to do with how the wishes he grants carry out. He does not look for the worse interpretation. His explanation for bad things happening to wishers is that the power of the Wish creates equal parts despair and hope. (Like a magical version of two particles coming into being in vacuum fluctuation; both negative and positive) thus equaling zero. He cannot stop someone from making a wish that he wouldn't want them to make, and he can't force anyone to make a wish either.
** Rather than exploit JerkassGenie, he simply gives them exactly what they asked for because [[spoiler: what they ask for is never what they actually want. The girls are never honest with themselves about their desires, every selfless wish has a selfish motive behind it, and the despair sets in when they realize that their selfless wish being granted did not guarantee their selfish desire being granted as well.]]
* ManipulativeBastard: ''Seriously.'' [[BlueAndOrangeMorality He may have trouble understanding human values and emotions,]] but he's very good at asking the girls to make a contract with him at the ''exact'' moment when they'd have the most difficulty refusing. And [[RegularCaller he will abusively call you,]] [[RefusalOfTheCall even if you do refuse his offer.]]
* [[spoiler:MeanCharacterNiceActor:]] [[spoiler: According to [[WordOfGod Gen Urobuchi]], EmiriKatou is a nice lady who loves the MagicalGirl genre and nearly had a HeroicBSOD when she learned just what sort of character she'd be voicing.]]
* MeaningfulName/[[spoiler:NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Incubator.]]
* MetaphoricallyTrue: More or less everything that comes out of his mouth. While never technically ''lying'', Kyubey makes it a point [[spoiler:to only speak in half-truths]]. When pressed, he responds with either confusion or incredulity; after all, [[spoiler:it's ''their'' fault for not asking him the right questions in the first place]].
** He eventually [[spoiler:tortures Madoka with the whole truth after Sayaka's funeral. Though it was probably not supposed to be torture but an explanation and a way to prove a point, from his point of view- being someone who wouldn't see why she would feel tortured by it.]]
* MentorMascot: [[spoiler:Subverted.]] At first he looks like your standard MagicalGirl cute critter mentor, [[spoiler:until we find out that he views the girls as [[LackOfEmpathy expendable power sources]] and it's in his best interests to make them as [[BreakTheCutie miserable as possible.]]... because it will mean gaining energy to save the universe.]]
** In other words, Kyubey looks like a Magical Girl familiar [[spoiler: but is actually a Magical Girl ''villain'', right down to turning humans into monsters to harvest their energy.]]
* MysteriousBacker: Just ''look'' at him and say that you trust him. Go on.
* [[spoiler:NiceJobFixingItVillain: Arguably, his InfoDump toward Madoka about magical girl's role in history of humanity and his own confirmation that any of Madoka's wish can be granted is the one who inspires Madoka to make her CosmicRetcon wishes.]]
* [[spoiler:NighInvulnerability: Of the ''Can Only Kill Part Of Him'' kind. An exact replica of it comes to [[JustDesserts eat its corpse]] after Homura riddles it with bullets in Episode 8. It claims it has unlimited number of substitutions. WordOfGod says he instantly creates a body from surrounding {{Mana}}.]]
* NoBiologicalSex: Most fans default to referring to Kyubey as "he", but the character actually doesn't have any physical sex.
** In the Japanese dub he [[JapanesePronouns refers to himself with "boku"]] so its safe to say that if he isn't male he is at least pretending to be for the sake of brevity.
* [[spoiler:ObliviouslyEvil: There's evidence to the idea that he has no idea that people would consider his actions wrong. See BlueAndOrangeMorality above.]]
** [[spoiler:He has the idea. He's far from stupid, after all. He knows exactly what parts of his deal he should conceal as long as possible. He just can't really comprehend ''why'' humans are so upset about them.]]
* OhCrap: [[spoiler:"That violates the laws of cause and effect! Do you really ''want'' to become a god!?"]]
* OmniscientMoralityLicense: [[spoiler:The Incubators and the race that created them use the powerful emotions given off by Magical Girls and witches to counter entropy and prevent the heat death of the universe. And note that they ultimately consider humanity expendable.]]
* {{Omniglot}}: Besides Japanese, Kyubey also speaks fluent French, English, Egyptian, Hebrew, Norwegian, Swahili and you-name-it-he-speaks it. [[spoiler: After all, known victims include Jeanne d'Arc, Cleopatra, Anne Frank, Viking and African children, not to mention countless others from presumably from every nation across our world.]] If ever he's forced to change careers, Kyubey would make quite a lucrative career as a Professor of Linguistics.
* PerpetualSmiler: And it's ''VERY'' creepy.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: [[http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y67/AthenAltena/kyuubeyaaah.png Eeep...]]
* RegularCaller: [[{{Metaphorgotten}} The call is on reversed charges, though.]] ''[[DealWithTheDevil With]] [[BreakTheCutie international]] [[GiftOfTheMagiPlot call]] [[DespairEventHorizon prices]]''.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: He looks like one, at least. [[spoiler:His cutesy appearance and placid temperament are only a façade to hide [[EldritchAbomination his true nature.]]]]
* SomebodyElsesProblem: And how. Something that doesn't involve magical girls hunting Grief Seeds? Then Kyubey doesn't have an opinion on it.
** [[spoiler:A massive Witch has been born and will destroy the whole earth in a matter of days?]] Good luck fighting it, [[spoiler:he just harvested enough energy to meet his planetary quota.]]
** [[spoiler: Making him a bit of hypocrite since he says to Madoka that his species treats humans with more respect than livestock and their relationship is mutually beneficial, but they abandon humans to their fate if they don't feel they need them anymore.]]
* StepfordSmiler
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Kyuubey, Kyuubee, Kyubei, and QB are also floating around out there.
** "Cubey" was also a short-lived proposal since [[WordOfGod producers said]] that the "kyu" is as in "cute".
** "Kyubey" seems to be the most official, though, since it has been used in official promo materials and moreover, most fansubbers and scanlators actually doing the show are spelling it like this.
** Its name is also [[MyNaymeIs spelled quite bizarrely in original Japanese]]. It's half in katakana, half in hiragana, with an additional bonus for an unconventional use of small-sized katakana.
** And it turns out that "Kyubey" is short for "[[spoiler:Incubator]]".
** The runes in Episode 11 spell it as "Qbey".
*** Which turns out to be completely accurate [[ManipulativeBastard due to his strange intentions.]]
* [[spoiler:StarfishAlien: It explains why his moral compass is [[BlueAndOrangeMorality completely out of whack]], his [[DissonantSerenity creepy cheerful expression]] and his [[MagiTek powers]].]]
* TheStoic: Of the "say something horrific without any emotions" variety. For example, his serene speeches in Episode 12. He calmly explains what's going on to Homura and seems to be more concerned about [[spoiler:Madoka's fate, even when the Universe ends around him and he's already figured out that very soon he will cease to exist, to be recreated as a quite different version of self.]]
* SuperEmpowering: This is its job. [[DealWithTheDevil It's quite pushy about that]].
** EnigmaticEmpoweringEntity: And it doesn't give you a run-down of your powers, either.
* [[spoiler:TheyKilledKenny: Homura has probably "killed" him dozens of times by now, but it never sticks.]]
* [[spoiler:TotalitarianUtilitarian: Kyubey's goal is to stave off the heat death of the universe, which he does by dooming teenage girls to lives of suffering (and eventual transformation into EldritchAbominations that kill plenty of innocent people -- and potentially entire planets -- in the process).]]
* {{Troll}}: Mainly due to the fact that he [[spoiler: knowingly withholds vital info about the contract involving soul sucking and corruption,]] and then acting all innocent about it.
* [[spoiler: VillainousBSOD]]: Occurs when [[spoiler: Madoka wishes to erase witches from existence. All the more poignant because Kyubey's race views emotions as a mental illness, so Madoka's game changing wish ''literally made Kyubey lose his mind''.]]
* WeaselMascot: And we do mean ''weasel'', in the figurative sense.
** [[spoiler:WickedWeasel]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:How [[BuffySpeak he... it... they... whatever]] view themselves,]] since the stated goal is to stop the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy entropy]] of the universe. How? Create magical girls [[spoiler:and witches]] to unleash energy, of course!
** Oh, and once he gets his quota, [[spoiler:Planet Earth and everyone on it becomes expendable.]]
** The irony is that MagicalGirlWarrior ''villains'' most often plot to ''consume'' magical energy/lifeforce with the end goal of [[OmnicidalManiac destroying the world]], [[ForTheEvulz often for no rational reason]]. Of course, [[GenreDeconstruction this is not a typical Magical Girl show.]] [[spoiler:It's also said that the more power a witch consumes, the more energy is released when it's destroyed by a Magical Girl and it's grief seed consumed by an Incubator. Also, in the case of Madoka, it empowers itself every time some DespairEventHorizon converges to it.]]
* WillNotTellALie: Kyubey never lies about anything and will happily cough up the truth if asked directly. It even seems offended at the mere idea that someone would accuse it of lying. [[spoiler:It ''does'' however leave out a lot of vital information that would be to its disadvantage to reveal, invoking YouNeverAsked to a ridiculous degree.]] It's not above speaking in half-truths either: when Kyoko asks [[spoiler:if there is any way to return Sayaka to normal]], Kyubey states that there's no precedent for it. It's an answer that is technically correct [[spoiler:but baits Kyoko into believing that there ''could'' be a way.]]
** Happens again in Episodes 9 and 10. [[spoiler:In 9 he states that his actions would preserve humanity's future among the stars. However, he phrases it in such a way that it doesn't reveal whether he actually cares if humanity goes to the stars or not. We find in Episode 10 that he does not care one bit about humanity or Earth, as long as his energy quota is reached.]]
* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: Gives a NiceJobBreakingItHero WhamLine on one occasion:
-->[[spoiler:"You've done great, Homura. You've raised Madoka to become the most powerful witch ever."]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Witches]]
Mysterious magical beings who feed on the despair of humans. They employ minions known as familiars, who, if left unchecked, can grow into duplicates of the original witch. It is a magical girl's duty to slay witches and collect the Grief Seeds they drop. All witches reside in private pocket dimensions known as barriers which reflect their broken psyches. The only known exception to this rule is the colossal Walpurgisnacht, who is powerful enough to simply impose barrier-like properties onto reality instead of retreating into an alternate space.
[[spoiler:All witches are either actually magical girls who exhausted their magical energies and succumbed to despair, or another witch's familiar that has evolved. According to WordOfGod, even Walpurgisnacht was once a single magical girl, but has combined with other witches over time to become more powerful.]]
* AllThereInTheManual: There is a lot of information about each witch that is only found on the official website. It also provides information for witches that haven't been seen in the show. The ''You Are Not Alone'' guidebook also alludes to or outright states several of the witches' [[spoiler:wishes]].
** Well sort of; it's clear several entries are for prototype witches which were changed significantly in the actual anime. As such, don't take it for granted.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil
* [[spoiler:[[AndThenJohnWasAZombie And Then The Magical Girls Were Witches]]: The fate of every magical girl not killed in battle is to be consumed by despair and turn into a witch. The blackening of the soul gems show how much time there's left before this happens. The only way to stop this is to spend the rest of your life battling witches to have a steady supply of grief seeds to siphon off despair into, or be killed by external sources like Cleopatra, Anne Frank and Jeanne d'Arc were.]]
* ArtShift: as per their [[EldritchAbomination lovecraftian vibes]], both the witches and their barriers are usually animated in a style that is completely different from the main style of the anime, to every witch her own style.
* [[spoiler: AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: This is presumably what happens to them all at the end of the anime, thanks to Madoka [[CosmicRetcon rewriting the universe.]] In fact, all magical girls (including ones in the past) never become witches in the first place...they just vanish instead, [[GoOutwithASmile smiling peacefully]], and possibly joining Madoka Out There.]]
* AsLongAsThereIsEvil: AllThereInTheManual example with [[spoiler: Kriemhild Gretchen. The witch desires to [[DarkMessiah create heaven on Earth]]. "The only way to defeat this witch is to make the world free of misfortune. If there's no grief in this world, she'll think this world is already a heaven."]]
* AssimilationPlot: Elsa Maria views [[ImAHumanitarian absorbing people]] as "saving" them. [[spoiler: Kriemhild Gretchen takes it to a global scale by absorbing all life into her barrier, which is described as her "heaven"]]
* AsteroidsMonster: The familiars are effectively part of the witch. If a familiar is separated from a witch, it can grow its own Grief Seed by causing suffering to other humans and become a copy of the original witch. [[spoiler:As magical girls need Grief Seeds to maintain their powers, some unscrupulous ones leave familiars alone to get more Grief Seeds.]]
* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: [[spoiler: Kriemhild Gretchen is a ''giant'' shadow. She may be based off the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brocken_spectre Brocken Spectre]]]]
** Walpurgisnacht is [[spoiler:a gigantic [[MonsterClown harlequin]] clockwork doll floating upside-down in the sky.]]
** Charlotte's true form may be partially based on caterpillars (specifically The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar), with a MonsterClown motive added to boot.
** Oktavia van Seckendorff, [[spoiler:Sayaka's witch,]] is a gigantic mermaid knight.
* BigBad: Walpurgisnacht. Her immense power is what causes [[spoiler:the GroundhogDayLoop, when she kills off everyone but Homura in the first timeline. In every timeline, the fight with her is the pivotal moment, that always ends with Homura having to reset time again. Either because Madoka is killed trying to fight her, or because the fight with her causes her to become a witch herself]]. Arguable, of course, because as a witch, Walpurgisnacht is less like a schemer, and more like a force of nature. [[spoiler:Kyuubey]] is the schemer, though not in league with Walpurgisnacht.
* ButterflyOfDeathAndRebirth: Gertrud and her familiars have butterfly wings. The "death and rebirth" part makes sense when you consider that [[spoiler: she was once human, and was reborn as a Magical Girl (a lich in this setting), then as a witch.]]
* ChurchMilitant: Elsa Maria from Episode 7 acts like one, praying to an object that looks a lot like [[http://wiki.puella-magi.net/File:Monstrace.png Catholic monstrance]].
* ClippedWingAngel: [[spoiler:Witches are usually less powerful than the magical girls they spawn from, judging by the fact that even a relatively weak magical girl like Sayaka can destroy a witch like Elly with ease. Usually, that is. Some witches, however, can pack an impressive punch - like Charlotte (who utterly destroys Mami, albeit that might have been due to the shock factor of her own OneWingedAngel), Elsa Maria (who almost kills Sayaka), Oktavia von Seckendorff, or ultimate witches the likes of Walpurgisnacht and Gretchen.]]
* CloningBlues: Familiars can become a copy of the original witch.
* CloudCuckooLander: Anja
* CombatTentacles: Gertrud
* TheCorruption: Inverted. Magical girls purify their Soul Gems by placing the darkness that grows inside of it into Grief Seeds. However, doing it too many times can allow the witch to regenerate. [[spoiler:The trope is then played straight when it's revealed that Grief Seeds are fully corrupted Soul Gems.]]
* CreepyDoll: The Klarissas, [[spoiler: Oktavia]]'s familiars in Episode 10. They're just there to cheerfully dance around the witch that commands them, with creepy smiles on their faces and possessing limbs that look like they can be snapped with a single touch...
** Also, Charlotte's original form.
** Not to mention Daniyyel and Jennifer, Kirsten's familiars.
*** Kirsten herself looks something like one, as we see when Sayaka sends her flying out of a computer monitor.
** Albertine, as revealed in the official PSP game, somewhat resembles a giant female [[MonsterClown clown]] doll.
* CurbStompBattle: Generally on the receiving end, but a few, such as [[spoiler:Charlotte to Mami and Walpurgisnacht to ''everyone except Madoka'']] give them.
* CypherLanguage: The odd runes appear to be messages from the witch or the familiars. Often they seem like a MadnessMantra. [[spoiler: Oh wait, they are]].
* DarkIsNotEvil[=/=]LightIsNotGood: Elsa Maria invokes both tropes to varying degrees; she is apparently a practicing Catholic and constantly prays for the salvation of everyone around her. She's also a LivingShadow and accomplishes said salvation by consuming and assimilating anyone who gets too close.
* DarkMessiah: [[spoiler:Kriemhild Gretchen, who wants to save everyone by absorbing them into her barrier.]]
** Elsa Maria seems to view herself as such, as she constantly prays for the world while sending out her shadows and familiars to kill whoever gets in her barrier.
* DoesNotLikeMen: Roberta, if something about her [[http://wiki.puella-magi.net/Gotz#Gotz Gotz]] familiars' [[UnfortunateImplications appearance]], [[AllMenArePerverts description]] and [[DoesNotLikeMen her own opinion]] about them is anything to go by.
* [[spoiler:DespairEventHorizon]]:[[spoiler: The key to becoming a witch.]]
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Kirsten.
* EldritchAbomination: All the witches. All of them.
* EmotionEater: Witches feed off human suffering.
* {{Expy}}: In the manga adaptation, Walpurgisnacht [[spoiler: summons shadow dopplegangers of Mami, Sayaka, and Kyouko.]] Combined with her [[LaughingMad general demeanor]] and the fact that AllThereInTheManual calls her the witch of stage construction, she may very well be a reference to [[{{Nasuverse}} Type-Moon]]'s similarly named [[MeltyBlood Night of Wallachia]].
* [[spoiler:EvilMakesYouMonstrous:]] And how!
* TheFairFolk: Some of them are described as acting in this fashion. [[spoiler:Ultimately averted.]]
* [[spoiler:{{Fallen Hero}}ine: Every witch who isn't a familiar-turned-copy was a magical girl who allowed her Soul Gem to fill up with TheCorruption, causing it to break and become a Grief Seed.]]
* [[spoiler:FromNobodyToNightmare: They're fallen Magical Girls who used up their Soul Gems or fell into despair.]]
* [[spoiler:FusionDance: [[AllThereInTheManual The website]] [[EpilepticTrees speculates]] Walpurgisnacht is this, but says nobody knows. WordOfGod confirms it, although adds that she started as a perfectly normal witch]].
* GirlishPigtails: Kirsten.
* GreenThumb: Gertrud's theme.
* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Roberta likes alcohol.
* TheHeartless: Said to be born of curses. [[spoiler:The curses of magical girls.]]
* [[spoiler:HeroKiller: Charlotte and Walpurgisnacht. The former kills Mami, and the latter is apparently strong enough that no Magical Girl except Madoka can defeat her alone.]]
* {{Hikikomori}}: Kirsten
* TheHyena: Walpurgisnacht. She doesn't even stop laughing [[spoiler: as Madoka is shooting her out of the sky.]]
* ImmuneToBullets: {{Averted}}. As [[CombatPragmatist Homura demonstrates]], military-grade firearms are enough to destroy them.
** [[spoiler:Played semi-straight with Walpurgisnacht, as Homura throws what basically amounts to enough firepower to destroy the city (in fact, her salvo is responsible for most of the initial property damage in Episode 11) and it doesn't even have a scratch afterwards.]]
* ImprovisedWeapon: Walpurgisnacht uses pretty much every object, even entire skyscrapers, in battle.
* InvisibleToNormals: Witches and their familiars apparently cannot be seen by people who haven't been "chosen" by Kyubey to become Magical Girls.
* IronicHell: A witch's personality, powers, and barrier often combine to form a sick subversion of her [[spoiler:magical girl counterpart's wish.]] For example, Charlotte loves sweets and can create any sweet she likes save for her favorite (cheese), and lives in a cross between a candy shop and a hospital. [[spoiler:Her wish is implied to have been for cheesecake, when she could've wished for her mother's disease to be cured]].
* KillerRabbit: Charlotte
* [[spoiler:KnightOfCerebus: Charlotte. Unusually for this trope, she's killed off at the end of the episode she appears in.]]
* LevelAte: Charlotte, being the witch of desserts, has a barrier mostly made of sweets.
* LivingShadow: Elsa Maria and her familiar, Sebastian.
* LonelyDollGirl: Kirsten is a {{Hikikomori}} witch with two doll familiars.
* [[spoiler: LosingYourHead]]: [[spoiler:In Sayaka vs. Elsamaria's fight, Sayaka actually chops Elsa's head off. It's still not enough to kill her, so she goes AttackAttackAttack on her until she dies. It's even creepier in the Blue-Ray version, since Elsa actually bleeds in that one.]]
* LotusEaterMachine: [[spoiler:Kriemheld Gretchen is said to absorb all of the planet's life into her personal "heaven", her barrier. What this implies is unknown, but it's likely to be something like this.]]
* MagicSkirt[=/=]TrouserSpace: Patricia
* MeaningfulName: Several of the witches have names that relate to themselves. Charlotte is a type of dessert. Elsa Maria brings to mind a biblical prayer. Kirsten resembles a computer monitor, and so she has an "online handle": H.N. Elly. And Walpurgisnacht is the name of a real-world European festival during which legends state that witches gather together.
** The biggest one though? In written Japanese, [[spoiler:the characters for "witch" (魔女, phonetically pronounced "majo") are found in the characters for "magical girl". (魔法少女, phonetically pronounced "'''ma'''hou shou'''jo'''"). Put another way, "magical girl" can be read as "young witch".]]
* [[spoiler:MeaningfulRename: The witches have different names than the magical girls they came from.]]
* MentalWorld: A Witch's Labyrinth very much reflects the persona and psyche of the witch who makes it her home.
* [[spoiler:MercyKill: To kill a witch is to let a poor and broken girl die in peace. Madoka does this on a cosmic scale by making them AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence; witches are still created when a Magical girl loses her will to live and is consumed by darkness, but nobody understands where they go or what happens]].
* {{Mook}}: Their familiars.
* MindControl: Shown by the "witch's kiss", a mark that appears on a human who is being controlled by a witch.
** BrainwashedAndCrazy: The effects of the kiss.
** PsychicAssistedSuicide: The intended result, from the two times that the effects of a kiss have been seen.
* MindScrew: all of the witches and their barriers and minions take this to an absurd level.
* MonsterOfTheWeek: A much DarkerAndEdgier version. [[spoiler:Until Madoka rewrites the system to make sure this won't happen anymore.]]
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: Patricia, though the extra arms are for creepyness rather than combat.
* NonstandardCharacterDesign: While every Witch and everything associated with them is drawn in a different art style from the rest of the show, Charlotte does double duty by having the Witch herself drawn in ThickLineAnimation, while everything else in her barrier is constructed out of paper cutouts.
* OneWingedAngel: Charlotte does this. [[spoiler:Arguably you could consider witches as this to magical girls.]]
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Amazingly enough, even [[AllThereInTheManual the website]] doesn't reveal [[spoiler: Walpurgisnacht's]] name, just listing it, and her familiars, as "?????".
* PlayingWithFire: Walpurgis Night breathes fire. Excluding [[StoryBreakerPower her power]], it suddenly [[FridgeBrilliance makes a lot more sense]] for [[spoiler:Homura's artillery attacks]] to have [[NoSell no effect on her.]]
* PocketDimension: Witches can create these; they're bizarre areas, to say the least, and it keeps the more elaborate fights out of view of normal people.
** EldritchLocation
* PornStache: The Anthony and Adelbert familiars have these. In the case of the Anthonies, Gertrud puts these 'staches on them.
* [[spoiler:RetGone: Madoka's wish in the finale makes it so that the witches are deleted from existence and replaced with a different kind of monster altogether, so that the Incubators can still gather energy for their mission while not bringing misfortune to the girls.]]
* SirensAreMermaids: Oktavia von Seckendorff is the mermaid witch and her familiar, Holger performs music which steals the souls of the audience.
** [[spoiler:Oktavia is the mermaid witch because the story of her Magical Girl (Sayaka)'s downfall has parallels with the original Little Mermaid.]]
* SlidingScaleOfVillainEffectiveness: As mentioned under ClippedWingAngel, witches can appear anywhere on the scale. [[spoiler:Most fall under the Inadvertent category, but the stronger witches - such as Walpurgis Night or Kriemhild Gretchen - can fall under the High or even Infinite levels.]]
* SongsOfSolace: [[spoiler:Oktavia has an orchestra of Holger familiars (who look like Kyousuke and play the violin). She won't allow anyone to disturb their playing.]]
* SoulJar: The witch's Grief Seed, left behind after their death. A Grief Seed is capable of regenerating the witch, [[spoiler:which is why Kyubey devours them before they reach that point.]]
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Walpurgisnacht or Walpurgis Night; both are equally valid in referring to the stage-constructing witch. The Hulu subs go with Walpurgisnacht, as does the English dub.
** As an aside, one of the songs relating to this witch is named "Nox Walpurgis", which of course is simply Latin for the same.
* StellarName: All the witches and familiars appear to be named after celestial objects found in the solar system. [[http://wiki.puella-magi.net/Madoka_Magica_and_Science Take a look]].
* [[spoiler:TomatoInTheMirror: Witches ultimately originate from fallen magical girls, though as familiars can become a copy of the witch there might be some degrees of separation.]]
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Charlotte loves cheese, but is sadly unable to create it.
* [[spoiler:TragicMonster: All of them, really.]]
* TheUnreveal: [[spoiler:AllThereInTheManual example. Three of the witches described on the website are never seen in the series, and it doesn't show Walpurgisnacht's name.]]
* TheVonTropeFamily: Oktavia von Seckendorff.
* [[spoiler:[[WasOnceAMan Was Once A Girl]]: Well not ''all'' of them, but...]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Elsa Maria, who absorbs people in order to "save" them, and [[spoiler:Kriemhild Gretchen, who wants to create heaven on earth by absorbing all life into her barrier. Oktavia von Seckendorff ''could'' count, seeing that in-series, she only goes after the morally bankrupt, also including on her headcount all those who would interfere in any way (i.e. the magical girls)]].
** [[spoiler:Well, that depends on whether or not you believe Sayaka killed those guys on the train (and whether you want to count it towards Oktavia's death's). Also, just because we don't see the death doesn't mean Oktavia didn't lure people into her barrier before Kyoko and Madoka came back.]]
* WitchSpecies: [[spoiler:Ultimately averted.]]
[[/folder]]
to:
[[folder:Kyubey]]
[[quoteright:314:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/coobie_1309.png]]
->Voiced by: EmiriKatou (JP), CassandraLee (EN)
A small, cute creature that communicates through telepathy. His duty is to form contracts with girls where they will become magical girls and fight witches in exchange for any one wish. He is intent on contracting Madoka due to her immense potential.
[[spoiler:He is an "Incubator" and a member of an alien race that seeks to use the thermodynamics-violating energy produced by the magical girl/witch cycle to counteract entropy and stave off the heat death of the universe. The greater the wish and the more important the contractee, the better the payoff, and several powerful historical women were, in reality, magical girls. He is also a HiveMind of sorts and can easily regenerate upon death.]]
Not to be confused with ''the'' [[{{Daria}} QB]].
----
* ArtEvolution: [[http://images.puella-magi.net/e/e4/Kyubey_Original_Design.jpg?20110120154733 Kyubey's original design]] gave him large pupils instead of small red eyes.
* [[spoiler:AdorableAbomination]]
* [[spoiler:AliensAreBastards: Holy shit they are. Even though they don't mean any malice, they'll still leave us to die if they meet their quota. So much for the relationship being mutually beneficial.]]
* [[spoiler:AntiHero: He's Type II at the end of the series, following Madoka's wish. Until then he was something of an AntiVillain instead.]]
* [[spoiler:BigBad: Ohhhhhh yes. Subverted (kinda) when Madoka rewrites reality and he doesn't ''have'' to be evil anymore, but that's at the very end of the series.]]
** [[spoiler:NonActionBigBad]]
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: It literally can not comprehend why [[spoiler:humans would care if their souls have been ripped out of their bodies or not.]] In Episode 7, Homura states that "human values don't mean anything to it". And then in Episode 9 [[spoiler:it reveals that "they", the heavily implied HiveMind, are actually aliens, and simply ''don't have'' emotions, bizarre alien ones included. Indeed, emotion is only considered to be a mental illness among his race]].
* CatchPhrase: "Make a contract with me!"
* CatsAreMean: His form is highly ambiguous, but his body and the way he moves seem to invoke a cat-like imagery (possibly a ferret instead - see WeaselMascot below), and the things he says and does... ''he'' may not think he's being cruel, but pretty much everyone else disagrees.
* CatSmile: It's creepy as hell -- mainly due to its face apparently being stuck semi-permanently in this expression. Whether this is its intention is a matter of much debate.
* CrossdressingVoices: Kyubey is considered to be male, but voiced by a woman since he has a high cheery voice. Granted, he's so inhuman he isn't really obviously either gender.
** In Drama CD 2, he claims to not see himself a male by human standards [[spoiler: after walking in on Madoka taking a bath]].
** In [[WordOfGod audio commentary]] to Episode 4, GenUrobuchi said that Kyubey is in fact genderless.
* [[spoiler:CuteIsEvil: Or rather, amoral and without empathy, more than evil.]]
* [[spoiler:DeadpanSnarker: In the alternate universe created by Madoka. At one point, he remarks that it'd be cool if magical girls could become witches, but even he has to admit that in that universe, [[NoBodyLeftBehind that's]] [[AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence not]] [[DiedHappilyEverAfter possible]].]]
* [[spoiler:DeathIsCheap: He has "many bodies" and can reincarnate himself almost instantly. The drama of him getting beaten up (and killed, then beaten up again) by Homura in the first episode was, presumably, just an act to get Madoka to empathize with him.]]
* DissonantSerenity: He always wears that creepy smile (although in all likelihood that's just his face being cat-like) in the anime. He almost always talks cheerfully in both versions (probably his face is more expressive in the manga to show this), regardless of context, only demonstrating any degree of distress a few times.
** Even better - being almost always cheerful is his functional equivalent of CreepyMonotone, almost certainly adopted to make him less suspicious. [[LampshadeHanging He recognizes]] that his voice should show distress in situations of obvious danger, like when he's running from Homura, and, as later revealed, can also sound surprised ([[MagnificentBastard although it's very rare for something to be truly unexpected for him]]), but more nuanced emotions apparently are too alien to him to mimic them convincingly.
* {{Emoticon}}: (/人◕‿‿◕人\)
** Combined with his CatchPhrase [[MemeticMutation ALL OVER THE INTERNET]].
* [[spoiler:EvenEvilHasStandards: Kyubey disapproves of Madoka killing Sayaka, be it ever so inadvertently, in her attempt to stop in-fighting amongst magical girls, and he even rebukes her for doing something "that's crazy."]]
** [[spoiler:Then again, at that point none of them even knew the true nature of the soul gems, so even if he was shocked by the action, Madoka had no idea in the first place that what she did could actually be fatal to Sayaka.]]
** [[spoiler:Besides, Kyubey probably only objected to Madoka killing Sayaka because it was a waste of a perfectly good Soul Gem. He has standards in the same way that a person who objects to throwing away a half-eaten sandwich has standards.]]
* [[spoiler:FauxAffablyEvil: Holy crap...]]
* FrozenFace: Kyubey's face ''does. Not. Move.''
** Averted in Episode 2 when Kyubey takes a bite of an omelette. It also closes its eyes at times, probably when it's supposed to be a smile.
** Also averted in the manga, where it has quite a bit more facial expression. And doesn't even try to hide his intentions.
*** [[NightmareFace You mean]] [[http://i55.tinypic.com/106kap5.jpg LIKE THIS?]]
** The DVD version sometimes even re-animates scenes with Kyubey, going great lengths to make his face even LESS expressive.
** It stays the same even [[spoiler:when he realizes what Madoka is up to, which he believes "violates the law of cause and effect".]]
* GlowingEyesOfDoom
* [[spoiler:HiveMind:]] Confirmed by WordOfGod. [[PuellaMagiMadokaMagica See the main page.]]
** [[spoiler:Does it count as HiveMind, if there is no "hive" part, just one mind driving a lot of replaceable bodies?]]
** [[spoiler: There ''are'' other incubators out there.]]
* InvisibleToNormals
* IronicEcho: When trying to persuade Madoka to become a Magical Girl, he often states [[spoiler:that her potential is so great that ''any'' wish could be granted, and that she could even become a god if she wanted.]] He even repeats this moments before [[spoiler:Madoka finally does make a wish, and is suitably horrified when she uses it to do just that]].
* [[spoiler:JackassGenie: "Want to become a magical girl and have your own miracle? Great! Make a contract with me. Oh, and, uh, it'll only cost you your soul and end with you [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie you becoming the very thing you fight]] [[DespairEventHorizon through sheer, eventual despair]]. Toodles!"]]
* JapanesePronouns: Kyuubey speaks in a rather tortured syntax, using only diminutive pronouns and entirely stripping out honorifics when talking to people. Its not so much disrespectful as it is just stilted, and gives the impression that he views people about the same way as he would furniture.
** [[spoiler:Or cattle. He even makes that comparison later on.]]
* [[spoiler:JustDesserts: [[BodySurf Does this]] [[{{Squick}} to himself]] in Episode 8 after Homura executes him by emptying a whole clip into him, even though it was not necessary, resulting in Swiss Cheese. She really hates the thing. And for a good reason.]]
* [[spoiler:KarmaHoudini: Along with the rest of the Incubators.]] At least, though, [[spoiler:he ends up giving Madoka an absurd amount of power to stop him with, and all of his mustache-twirlingly-evil actions were basically undone by the CosmicRetcon.]]
** [[spoiler: Interestingly, in the new timeline he's implied to be a much better terms with the magical girls, or at least his behavior is much more benign.]]
* [[spoiler:KickTheDog: Although it was pretty obvious that there is something fishy about Kyubey, the scene where he makes Sayaka "experience real pain" just to prove a point makes it clear that he is evil, or at ''very'' least completely lacking in empathy.]] Additionally, that action wasn't entirely necessary or relevant to his plans.
** From another point of view, it was entirely relevant to his plans. His entire goal is to [[spoiler:have the girls fall into despair so they can become witches. His KTD moment was his way of reinforcing leading Sayaka to thinking "I done screwed up!" and witchifying her.]]
* LackOfEmpathy
-->"You people are all the same. Every time I tell someone, it's the same response. I don't get it. [[spoiler:Why do humans care so much where their souls are?]]"
* {{Leitmotif}}: ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTNQNkQCoXA "Sis puella magica!"]]'' is generally considered one for him and the series as a whole.
* MakeAWish: Kyubey does not seem to have anything to do with how the wishes he grants carry out. He does not look for the worse interpretation. His explanation for bad things happening to wishers is that the power of the Wish creates equal parts despair and hope. (Like a magical version of two particles coming into being in vacuum fluctuation; both negative and positive) thus equaling zero. He cannot stop someone from making a wish that he wouldn't want them to make, and he can't force anyone to make a wish either.
** Rather than exploit JerkassGenie, he simply gives them exactly what they asked for because [[spoiler: what they ask for is never what they actually want. The girls are never honest with themselves about their desires, every selfless wish has a selfish motive behind it, and the despair sets in when they realize that their selfless wish being granted did not guarantee their selfish desire being granted as well.]]
* ManipulativeBastard: ''Seriously.'' [[BlueAndOrangeMorality He may have trouble understanding human values and emotions,]] but he's very good at asking the girls to make a contract with him at the ''exact'' moment when they'd have the most difficulty refusing. And [[RegularCaller he will abusively call you,]] [[RefusalOfTheCall even if you do refuse his offer.]]
* [[spoiler:MeanCharacterNiceActor:]] [[spoiler: According to [[WordOfGod Gen Urobuchi]], EmiriKatou is a nice lady who loves the MagicalGirl genre and nearly had a HeroicBSOD when she learned just what sort of character she'd be voicing.]]
* MeaningfulName/[[spoiler:NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Incubator.]]
* MetaphoricallyTrue: More or less everything that comes out of his mouth. While never technically ''lying'', Kyubey makes it a point [[spoiler:to only speak in half-truths]]. When pressed, he responds with either confusion or incredulity; after all, [[spoiler:it's ''their'' fault for not asking him the right questions in the first place]].
** He eventually [[spoiler:tortures Madoka with the whole truth after Sayaka's funeral. Though it was probably not supposed to be torture but an explanation and a way to prove a point, from his point of view- being someone who wouldn't see why she would feel tortured by it.]]
* MentorMascot: [[spoiler:Subverted.]] At first he looks like your standard MagicalGirl cute critter mentor, [[spoiler:until we find out that he views the girls as [[LackOfEmpathy expendable power sources]] and it's in his best interests to make them as [[BreakTheCutie miserable as possible.]]... because it will mean gaining energy to save the universe.]]
** In other words, Kyubey looks like a Magical Girl familiar [[spoiler: but is actually a Magical Girl ''villain'', right down to turning humans into monsters to harvest their energy.]]
* MysteriousBacker: Just ''look'' at him and say that you trust him. Go on.
* [[spoiler:NiceJobFixingItVillain: Arguably, his InfoDump toward Madoka about magical girl's role in history of humanity and his own confirmation that any of Madoka's wish can be granted is the one who inspires Madoka to make her CosmicRetcon wishes.]]
* [[spoiler:NighInvulnerability: Of the ''Can Only Kill Part Of Him'' kind. An exact replica of it comes to [[JustDesserts eat its corpse]] after Homura riddles it with bullets in Episode 8. It claims it has unlimited number of substitutions. WordOfGod says he instantly creates a body from surrounding {{Mana}}.]]
* NoBiologicalSex: Most fans default to referring to Kyubey as "he", but the character actually doesn't have any physical sex.
** In the Japanese dub he [[JapanesePronouns refers to himself with "boku"]] so its safe to say that if he isn't male he is at least pretending to be for the sake of brevity.
* [[spoiler:ObliviouslyEvil: There's evidence to the idea that he has no idea that people would consider his actions wrong. See BlueAndOrangeMorality above.]]
** [[spoiler:He has the idea. He's far from stupid, after all. He knows exactly what parts of his deal he should conceal as long as possible. He just can't really comprehend ''why'' humans are so upset about them.]]
* OhCrap: [[spoiler:"That violates the laws of cause and effect! Do you really ''want'' to become a god!?"]]
* OmniscientMoralityLicense: [[spoiler:The Incubators and the race that created them use the powerful emotions given off by Magical Girls and witches to counter entropy and prevent the heat death of the universe. And note that they ultimately consider humanity expendable.]]
* {{Omniglot}}: Besides Japanese, Kyubey also speaks fluent French, English, Egyptian, Hebrew, Norwegian, Swahili and you-name-it-he-speaks it. [[spoiler: After all, known victims include Jeanne d'Arc, Cleopatra, Anne Frank, Viking and African children, not to mention countless others from presumably from every nation across our world.]] If ever he's forced to change careers, Kyubey would make quite a lucrative career as a Professor of Linguistics.
* PerpetualSmiler: And it's ''VERY'' creepy.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: [[http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y67/AthenAltena/kyuubeyaaah.png Eeep...]]
* RegularCaller: [[{{Metaphorgotten}} The call is on reversed charges, though.]] ''[[DealWithTheDevil With]] [[BreakTheCutie international]] [[GiftOfTheMagiPlot call]] [[DespairEventHorizon prices]]''.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: He looks like one, at least. [[spoiler:His cutesy appearance and placid temperament are only a façade to hide [[EldritchAbomination his true nature.]]]]
* SomebodyElsesProblem: And how. Something that doesn't involve magical girls hunting Grief Seeds? Then Kyubey doesn't have an opinion on it.
** [[spoiler:A massive Witch has been born and will destroy the whole earth in a matter of days?]] Good luck fighting it, [[spoiler:he just harvested enough energy to meet his planetary quota.]]
** [[spoiler: Making him a bit of hypocrite since he says to Madoka that his species treats humans with more respect than livestock and their relationship is mutually beneficial, but they abandon humans to their fate if they don't feel they need them anymore.]]
* StepfordSmiler
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Kyuubey, Kyuubee, Kyubei, and QB are also floating around out there.
** "Cubey" was also a short-lived proposal since [[WordOfGod producers said]] that the "kyu" is as in "cute".
** "Kyubey" seems to be the most official, though, since it has been used in official promo materials and moreover, most fansubbers and scanlators actually doing the show are spelling it like this.
** Its name is also [[MyNaymeIs spelled quite bizarrely in original Japanese]]. It's half in katakana, half in hiragana, with an additional bonus for an unconventional use of small-sized katakana.
** And it turns out that "Kyubey" is short for "[[spoiler:Incubator]]".
** The runes in Episode 11 spell it as "Qbey".
*** Which turns out to be completely accurate [[ManipulativeBastard due to his strange intentions.]]
* [[spoiler:StarfishAlien: It explains why his moral compass is [[BlueAndOrangeMorality completely out of whack]], his [[DissonantSerenity creepy cheerful expression]] and his [[MagiTek powers]].]]
* TheStoic: Of the "say something horrific without any emotions" variety. For example, his serene speeches in Episode 12. He calmly explains what's going on to Homura and seems to be more concerned about [[spoiler:Madoka's fate, even when the Universe ends around him and he's already figured out that very soon he will cease to exist, to be recreated as a quite different version of self.]]
* SuperEmpowering: This is its job. [[DealWithTheDevil It's quite pushy about that]].
** EnigmaticEmpoweringEntity: And it doesn't give you a run-down of your powers, either.
* [[spoiler:TheyKilledKenny: Homura has probably "killed" him dozens of times by now, but it never sticks.]]
* [[spoiler:TotalitarianUtilitarian: Kyubey's goal is to stave off the heat death of the universe, which he does by dooming teenage girls to lives of suffering (and eventual transformation into EldritchAbominations that kill plenty of innocent people -- and potentially entire planets -- in the process).]]
* {{Troll}}: Mainly due to the fact that he [[spoiler: knowingly withholds vital info about the contract involving soul sucking and corruption,]] and then acting all innocent about it.
* [[spoiler: VillainousBSOD]]: Occurs when [[spoiler: Madoka wishes to erase witches from existence. All the more poignant because Kyubey's race views emotions as a mental illness, so Madoka's game changing wish ''literally made Kyubey lose his mind''.]]
* WeaselMascot: And we do mean ''weasel'', in the figurative sense.
** [[spoiler:WickedWeasel]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:How [[BuffySpeak he... it... they... whatever]] view themselves,]] since the stated goal is to stop the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy entropy]] of the universe. How? Create magical girls [[spoiler:and witches]] to unleash energy, of course!
** Oh, and once he gets his quota, [[spoiler:Planet Earth and everyone on it becomes expendable.]]
** The irony is that MagicalGirlWarrior ''villains'' most often plot to ''consume'' magical energy/lifeforce with the end goal of [[OmnicidalManiac destroying the world]], [[ForTheEvulz often for no rational reason]]. Of course, [[GenreDeconstruction this is not a typical Magical Girl show.]] [[spoiler:It's also said that the more power a witch consumes, the more energy is released when it's destroyed by a Magical Girl and it's grief seed consumed by an Incubator. Also, in the case of Madoka, it empowers itself every time some DespairEventHorizon converges to it.]]
* WillNotTellALie: Kyubey never lies about anything and will happily cough up the truth if asked directly. It even seems offended at the mere idea that someone would accuse it of lying. [[spoiler:It ''does'' however leave out a lot of vital information that would be to its disadvantage to reveal, invoking YouNeverAsked to a ridiculous degree.]] It's not above speaking in half-truths either: when Kyoko asks [[spoiler:if there is any way to return Sayaka to normal]], Kyubey states that there's no precedent for it. It's an answer that is technically correct [[spoiler:but baits Kyoko into believing that there ''could'' be a way.]]
** Happens again in Episodes 9 and 10. [[spoiler:In 9 he states that his actions would preserve humanity's future among the stars. However, he phrases it in such a way that it doesn't reveal whether he actually cares if humanity goes to the stars or not. We find in Episode 10 that he does not care one bit about humanity or Earth, as long as his energy quota is reached.]]
* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: Gives a NiceJobBreakingItHero WhamLine on one occasion:
-->[[spoiler:"You've done great, Homura. You've raised Madoka to become the most powerful witch ever."]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Witches]]
Mysterious magical beings who feed on the despair of humans. They employ minions known as familiars, who, if left unchecked, can grow into duplicates of the original witch. It is a magical girl's duty to slay witches and collect the Grief Seeds they drop. All witches reside in private pocket dimensions known as barriers which reflect their broken psyches. The only known exception to this rule is the colossal Walpurgisnacht, who is powerful enough to simply impose barrier-like properties onto reality instead of retreating into an alternate space.
[[spoiler:All witches are either actually magical girls who exhausted their magical energies and succumbed to despair, or another witch's familiar that has evolved. According to WordOfGod, even Walpurgisnacht was once a single magical girl, but has combined with other witches over time to become more powerful.]]
* AllThereInTheManual: There is a lot of information about each witch that is only found on the official website. It also provides information for witches that haven't been seen in the show. The ''You Are Not Alone'' guidebook also alludes to or outright states several of the witches' [[spoiler:wishes]].
** Well sort of; it's clear several entries are for prototype witches which were changed significantly in the actual anime. As such, don't take it for granted.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil
* [[spoiler:[[AndThenJohnWasAZombie And Then The Magical Girls Were Witches]]: The fate of every magical girl not killed in battle is to be consumed by despair and turn into a witch. The blackening of the soul gems show how much time there's left before this happens. The only way to stop this is to spend the rest of your life battling witches to have a steady supply of grief seeds to siphon off despair into, or be killed by external sources like Cleopatra, Anne Frank and Jeanne d'Arc were.]]
* ArtShift: as per their [[EldritchAbomination lovecraftian vibes]], both the witches and their barriers are usually animated in a style that is completely different from the main style of the anime, to every witch her own style.
* [[spoiler: AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: This is presumably what happens to them all at the end of the anime, thanks to Madoka [[CosmicRetcon rewriting the universe.]] In fact, all magical girls (including ones in the past) never become witches in the first place...they just vanish instead, [[GoOutwithASmile smiling peacefully]], and possibly joining Madoka Out There.]]
* AsLongAsThereIsEvil: AllThereInTheManual example with [[spoiler: Kriemhild Gretchen. The witch desires to [[DarkMessiah create heaven on Earth]]. "The only way to defeat this witch is to make the world free of misfortune. If there's no grief in this world, she'll think this world is already a heaven."]]
* AssimilationPlot: Elsa Maria views [[ImAHumanitarian absorbing people]] as "saving" them. [[spoiler: Kriemhild Gretchen takes it to a global scale by absorbing all life into her barrier, which is described as her "heaven"]]
* AsteroidsMonster: The familiars are effectively part of the witch. If a familiar is separated from a witch, it can grow its own Grief Seed by causing suffering to other humans and become a copy of the original witch. [[spoiler:As magical girls need Grief Seeds to maintain their powers, some unscrupulous ones leave familiars alone to get more Grief Seeds.]]
* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: [[spoiler: Kriemhild Gretchen is a ''giant'' shadow. She may be based off the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brocken_spectre Brocken Spectre]]]]
** Walpurgisnacht is [[spoiler:a gigantic [[MonsterClown harlequin]] clockwork doll floating upside-down in the sky.]]
** Charlotte's true form may be partially based on caterpillars (specifically The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar), with a MonsterClown motive added to boot.
** Oktavia van Seckendorff, [[spoiler:Sayaka's witch,]] is a gigantic mermaid knight.
* BigBad: Walpurgisnacht. Her immense power is what causes [[spoiler:the GroundhogDayLoop, when she kills off everyone but Homura in the first timeline. In every timeline, the fight with her is the pivotal moment, that always ends with Homura having to reset time again. Either because Madoka is killed trying to fight her, or because the fight with her causes her to become a witch herself]]. Arguable, of course, because as a witch, Walpurgisnacht is less like a schemer, and more like a force of nature. [[spoiler:Kyuubey]] is the schemer, though not in league with Walpurgisnacht.
* ButterflyOfDeathAndRebirth: Gertrud and her familiars have butterfly wings. The "death and rebirth" part makes sense when you consider that [[spoiler: she was once human, and was reborn as a Magical Girl (a lich in this setting), then as a witch.]]
* ChurchMilitant: Elsa Maria from Episode 7 acts like one, praying to an object that looks a lot like [[http://wiki.puella-magi.net/File:Monstrace.png Catholic monstrance]].
* ClippedWingAngel: [[spoiler:Witches are usually less powerful than the magical girls they spawn from, judging by the fact that even a relatively weak magical girl like Sayaka can destroy a witch like Elly with ease. Usually, that is. Some witches, however, can pack an impressive punch - like Charlotte (who utterly destroys Mami, albeit that might have been due to the shock factor of her own OneWingedAngel), Elsa Maria (who almost kills Sayaka), Oktavia von Seckendorff, or ultimate witches the likes of Walpurgisnacht and Gretchen.]]
* CloningBlues: Familiars can become a copy of the original witch.
* CloudCuckooLander: Anja
* CombatTentacles: Gertrud
* TheCorruption: Inverted. Magical girls purify their Soul Gems by placing the darkness that grows inside of it into Grief Seeds. However, doing it too many times can allow the witch to regenerate. [[spoiler:The trope is then played straight when it's revealed that Grief Seeds are fully corrupted Soul Gems.]]
* CreepyDoll: The Klarissas, [[spoiler: Oktavia]]'s familiars in Episode 10. They're just there to cheerfully dance around the witch that commands them, with creepy smiles on their faces and possessing limbs that look like they can be snapped with a single touch...
** Also, Charlotte's original form.
** Not to mention Daniyyel and Jennifer, Kirsten's familiars.
*** Kirsten herself looks something like one, as we see when Sayaka sends her flying out of a computer monitor.
** Albertine, as revealed in the official PSP game, somewhat resembles a giant female [[MonsterClown clown]] doll.
* CurbStompBattle: Generally on the receiving end, but a few, such as [[spoiler:Charlotte to Mami and Walpurgisnacht to ''everyone except Madoka'']] give them.
* CypherLanguage: The odd runes appear to be messages from the witch or the familiars. Often they seem like a MadnessMantra. [[spoiler: Oh wait, they are]].
* DarkIsNotEvil[=/=]LightIsNotGood: Elsa Maria invokes both tropes to varying degrees; she is apparently a practicing Catholic and constantly prays for the salvation of everyone around her. She's also a LivingShadow and accomplishes said salvation by consuming and assimilating anyone who gets too close.
* DarkMessiah: [[spoiler:Kriemhild Gretchen, who wants to save everyone by absorbing them into her barrier.]]
** Elsa Maria seems to view herself as such, as she constantly prays for the world while sending out her shadows and familiars to kill whoever gets in her barrier.
* DoesNotLikeMen: Roberta, if something about her [[http://wiki.puella-magi.net/Gotz#Gotz Gotz]] familiars' [[UnfortunateImplications appearance]], [[AllMenArePerverts description]] and [[DoesNotLikeMen her own opinion]] about them is anything to go by.
* [[spoiler:DespairEventHorizon]]:[[spoiler: The key to becoming a witch.]]
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Kirsten.
* EldritchAbomination: All the witches. All of them.
* EmotionEater: Witches feed off human suffering.
* {{Expy}}: In the manga adaptation, Walpurgisnacht [[spoiler: summons shadow dopplegangers of Mami, Sayaka, and Kyouko.]] Combined with her [[LaughingMad general demeanor]] and the fact that AllThereInTheManual calls her the witch of stage construction, she may very well be a reference to [[{{Nasuverse}} Type-Moon]]'s similarly named [[MeltyBlood Night of Wallachia]].
* [[spoiler:EvilMakesYouMonstrous:]] And how!
* TheFairFolk: Some of them are described as acting in this fashion. [[spoiler:Ultimately averted.]]
* [[spoiler:{{Fallen Hero}}ine: Every witch who isn't a familiar-turned-copy was a magical girl who allowed her Soul Gem to fill up with TheCorruption, causing it to break and become a Grief Seed.]]
* [[spoiler:FromNobodyToNightmare: They're fallen Magical Girls who used up their Soul Gems or fell into despair.]]
* [[spoiler:FusionDance: [[AllThereInTheManual The website]] [[EpilepticTrees speculates]] Walpurgisnacht is this, but says nobody knows. WordOfGod confirms it, although adds that she started as a perfectly normal witch]].
* GirlishPigtails: Kirsten.
* GreenThumb: Gertrud's theme.
* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Roberta likes alcohol.
* TheHeartless: Said to be born of curses. [[spoiler:The curses of magical girls.]]
* [[spoiler:HeroKiller: Charlotte and Walpurgisnacht. The former kills Mami, and the latter is apparently strong enough that no Magical Girl except Madoka can defeat her alone.]]
* {{Hikikomori}}: Kirsten
* TheHyena: Walpurgisnacht. She doesn't even stop laughing [[spoiler: as Madoka is shooting her out of the sky.]]
* ImmuneToBullets: {{Averted}}. As [[CombatPragmatist Homura demonstrates]], military-grade firearms are enough to destroy them.
** [[spoiler:Played semi-straight with Walpurgisnacht, as Homura throws what basically amounts to enough firepower to destroy the city (in fact, her salvo is responsible for most of the initial property damage in Episode 11) and it doesn't even have a scratch afterwards.]]
* ImprovisedWeapon: Walpurgisnacht uses pretty much every object, even entire skyscrapers, in battle.
* InvisibleToNormals: Witches and their familiars apparently cannot be seen by people who haven't been "chosen" by Kyubey to become Magical Girls.
* IronicHell: A witch's personality, powers, and barrier often combine to form a sick subversion of her [[spoiler:magical girl counterpart's wish.]] For example, Charlotte loves sweets and can create any sweet she likes save for her favorite (cheese), and lives in a cross between a candy shop and a hospital. [[spoiler:Her wish is implied to have been for cheesecake, when she could've wished for her mother's disease to be cured]].
* KillerRabbit: Charlotte
* [[spoiler:KnightOfCerebus: Charlotte. Unusually for this trope, she's killed off at the end of the episode she appears in.]]
* LevelAte: Charlotte, being the witch of desserts, has a barrier mostly made of sweets.
* LivingShadow: Elsa Maria and her familiar, Sebastian.
* LonelyDollGirl: Kirsten is a {{Hikikomori}} witch with two doll familiars.
* [[spoiler: LosingYourHead]]: [[spoiler:In Sayaka vs. Elsamaria's fight, Sayaka actually chops Elsa's head off. It's still not enough to kill her, so she goes AttackAttackAttack on her until she dies. It's even creepier in the Blue-Ray version, since Elsa actually bleeds in that one.]]
* LotusEaterMachine: [[spoiler:Kriemheld Gretchen is said to absorb all of the planet's life into her personal "heaven", her barrier. What this implies is unknown, but it's likely to be something like this.]]
* MagicSkirt[=/=]TrouserSpace: Patricia
* MeaningfulName: Several of the witches have names that relate to themselves. Charlotte is a type of dessert. Elsa Maria brings to mind a biblical prayer. Kirsten resembles a computer monitor, and so she has an "online handle": H.N. Elly. And Walpurgisnacht is the name of a real-world European festival during which legends state that witches gather together.
** The biggest one though? In written Japanese, [[spoiler:the characters for "witch" (魔女, phonetically pronounced "majo") are found in the characters for "magical girl". (魔法少女, phonetically pronounced "'''ma'''hou shou'''jo'''"). Put another way, "magical girl" can be read as "young witch".]]
* [[spoiler:MeaningfulRename: The witches have different names than the magical girls they came from.]]
* MentalWorld: A Witch's Labyrinth very much reflects the persona and psyche of the witch who makes it her home.
* [[spoiler:MercyKill: To kill a witch is to let a poor and broken girl die in peace. Madoka does this on a cosmic scale by making them AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence; witches are still created when a Magical girl loses her will to live and is consumed by darkness, but nobody understands where they go or what happens]].
* {{Mook}}: Their familiars.
* MindControl: Shown by the "witch's kiss", a mark that appears on a human who is being controlled by a witch.
** BrainwashedAndCrazy: The effects of the kiss.
** PsychicAssistedSuicide: The intended result, from the two times that the effects of a kiss have been seen.
* MindScrew: all of the witches and their barriers and minions take this to an absurd level.
* MonsterOfTheWeek: A much DarkerAndEdgier version. [[spoiler:Until Madoka rewrites the system to make sure this won't happen anymore.]]
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: Patricia, though the extra arms are for creepyness rather than combat.
* NonstandardCharacterDesign: While every Witch and everything associated with them is drawn in a different art style from the rest of the show, Charlotte does double duty by having the Witch herself drawn in ThickLineAnimation, while everything else in her barrier is constructed out of paper cutouts.
* OneWingedAngel: Charlotte does this. [[spoiler:Arguably you could consider witches as this to magical girls.]]
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Amazingly enough, even [[AllThereInTheManual the website]] doesn't reveal [[spoiler: Walpurgisnacht's]] name, just listing it, and her familiars, as "?????".
* PlayingWithFire: Walpurgis Night breathes fire. Excluding [[StoryBreakerPower her power]], it suddenly [[FridgeBrilliance makes a lot more sense]] for [[spoiler:Homura's artillery attacks]] to have [[NoSell no effect on her.]]
* PocketDimension: Witches can create these; they're bizarre areas, to say the least, and it keeps the more elaborate fights out of view of normal people.
** EldritchLocation
* PornStache: The Anthony and Adelbert familiars have these. In the case of the Anthonies, Gertrud puts these 'staches on them.
* [[spoiler:RetGone: Madoka's wish in the finale makes it so that the witches are deleted from existence and replaced with a different kind of monster altogether, so that the Incubators can still gather energy for their mission while not bringing misfortune to the girls.]]
* SirensAreMermaids: Oktavia von Seckendorff is the mermaid witch and her familiar, Holger performs music which steals the souls of the audience.
** [[spoiler:Oktavia is the mermaid witch because the story of her Magical Girl (Sayaka)'s downfall has parallels with the original Little Mermaid.]]
* SlidingScaleOfVillainEffectiveness: As mentioned under ClippedWingAngel, witches can appear anywhere on the scale. [[spoiler:Most fall under the Inadvertent category, but the stronger witches - such as Walpurgis Night or Kriemhild Gretchen - can fall under the High or even Infinite levels.]]
* SongsOfSolace: [[spoiler:Oktavia has an orchestra of Holger familiars (who look like Kyousuke and play the violin). She won't allow anyone to disturb their playing.]]
* SoulJar: The witch's Grief Seed, left behind after their death. A Grief Seed is capable of regenerating the witch, [[spoiler:which is why Kyubey devours them before they reach that point.]]
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Walpurgisnacht or Walpurgis Night; both are equally valid in referring to the stage-constructing witch. The Hulu subs go with Walpurgisnacht, as does the English dub.
** As an aside, one of the songs relating to this witch is named "Nox Walpurgis", which of course is simply Latin for the same.
* StellarName: All the witches and familiars appear to be named after celestial objects found in the solar system. [[http://wiki.puella-magi.net/Madoka_Magica_and_Science Take a look]].
* [[spoiler:TomatoInTheMirror: Witches ultimately originate from fallen magical girls, though as familiars can become a copy of the witch there might be some degrees of separation.]]
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Charlotte loves cheese, but is sadly unable to create it.
* [[spoiler:TragicMonster: All of them, really.]]
* TheUnreveal: [[spoiler:AllThereInTheManual example. Three of the witches described on the website are never seen in the series, and it doesn't show Walpurgisnacht's name.]]
* TheVonTropeFamily: Oktavia von Seckendorff.
* [[spoiler:[[WasOnceAMan Was Once A Girl]]: Well not ''all'' of them, but...]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Elsa Maria, who absorbs people in order to "save" them, and [[spoiler:Kriemhild Gretchen, who wants to create heaven on earth by absorbing all life into her barrier. Oktavia von Seckendorff ''could'' count, seeing that in-series, she only goes after the morally bankrupt, also including on her headcount all those who would interfere in any way (i.e. the magical girls)]].
** [[spoiler:Well, that depends on whether or not you believe Sayaka killed those guys on the train (and whether you want to count it towards Oktavia's death's). Also, just because we don't see the death doesn't mean Oktavia didn't lure people into her barrier before Kyoko and Madoka came back.]]
* WitchSpecies: [[spoiler:Ultimately averted.]]
[[/folder]]
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* {{Emoticon}}: (◕‿‿◕)
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* {{Emoticon}}: (◕‿‿◕)(/人◕‿‿◕人\)
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** Combined with CatchPhrase and MemeticMutation ALL OVER THE INTERNET.
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** Combined with his CatchPhrase and MemeticMutation [[MemeticMutation ALL OVER THE INTERNET.INTERNET]].
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* FromACertainPointOfView: More or less everything that comes out of his mouth. While never technically ''lying'', Kyubey makes it a point [[spoiler:to only speak in half-truths]]. When pressed, he responds with either confusion or incredulity; after all, [[spoiler:it's ''their'' fault for not asking him the right questions in the first place]].
** He eventually [[spoiler:tortures Madoka with the whole truth after Sayaka's funeral. Though it was probably not supposed to be torture but an explanation and a way to prove a point, from his point of view- being someone who wouldn't see why she would feel tortured by it.]]
** He eventually [[spoiler:tortures Madoka with the whole truth after Sayaka's funeral. Though it was probably not supposed to be torture but an explanation and a way to prove a point, from his point of view- being someone who wouldn't see why she would feel tortured by it.]]
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* JackassGenie: "Want to become a magical girl and have your own miracle? Great! Make a contract with me. Oh, and, uh, it'll only [[spoiler:cost you your soul and end with you [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie you becoming the very thing you fight]] [[DespairEventHorizon through sheer, eventual despair]].]] Toodles!"
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* JackassGenie: [[spoiler:JackassGenie: "Want to become a magical girl and have your own miracle? Great! Make a contract with me. Oh, and, uh, it'll only [[spoiler:cost cost you your soul and end with you [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie you becoming the very thing you fight]] [[DespairEventHorizon through sheer, eventual despair]].]] Toodles!"despair]]. Toodles!"]]
* MetaphoricallyTrue: More or less everything that comes out of his mouth. While never technically ''lying'', Kyubey makes it a point [[spoiler:to only speak in half-truths]]. When pressed, he responds with either confusion or incredulity; after all, [[spoiler:it's ''their'' fault for not asking him the right questions in the first place]].
** He eventually [[spoiler:tortures Madoka with the whole truth after Sayaka's funeral. Though it was probably not supposed to be torture but an explanation and a way to prove a point, from his point of view- being someone who wouldn't see why she would feel tortured by it.]]
** He eventually [[spoiler:tortures Madoka with the whole truth after Sayaka's funeral. Though it was probably not supposed to be torture but an explanation and a way to prove a point, from his point of view- being someone who wouldn't see why she would feel tortured by it.]]
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* {{Omniglot}}: Besides Japanese, Kyubey also speaks fluent French, Egyptian, Hebrew, Norwegian, Swahili and you-name-it-he-speaks it. [[spoiler: After all, known victims include Jeanne d'Arc, Cleopatra, Anne Frank, Viking and African children, not to mention countless others from presumably from every nation across our world.]] If ever he's forced to change careers, Kyubey would make quite a lucrative career as a Professor of Linguistics.
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* {{Omniglot}}: Besides Japanese, Kyubey also speaks fluent French, English, Egyptian, Hebrew, Norwegian, Swahili and you-name-it-he-speaks it. [[spoiler: After all, known victims include Jeanne d'Arc, Cleopatra, Anne Frank, Viking and African children, not to mention countless others from presumably from every nation across our world.]] If ever he's forced to change careers, Kyubey would make quite a lucrative career as a Professor of Linguistics.
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* [[spoiler:PunchClockVillain]]: A sublime example of just how far someone can be willing to go, simply to meet a quota for their job.
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* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: [[spoiler:A brutal subversion.]] His cutesy appearance and placid temperament [[spoiler:are only a façade to hide [[EldritchAbomination his true nature.]]]]
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* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: [[spoiler:A brutal subversion.]] His He looks like one, at least. [[spoiler:His cutesy appearance and placid temperament [[spoiler:are are only a façade to hide [[EldritchAbomination his true nature.]]]]
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* StepfordSmiler
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** In other words, Kyubey looks like a Magical Girl familiar [[spoiler: but is actually a Magical Girl ''villain'', right down to turning humans into monsters to harvest their energy.]]
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** Well sort of; it's clear several entries are for prototype witches which were changed significantly in the actual anime.
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** Well sort of; it's clear several entries are for prototype witches which were changed significantly in the actual anime. As such, don't take it for granted.
