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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.

General

All There in the Manual: 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' wishes.
Almighty Idiot: "Witch" and "sane" may as well be antonyms - when a magical girl turns into a witch, only a few remnants of her mind will remain, distorted into a thing that only follows barely comprehensible motivations and impulses. Implanting a witch's kiss seems to be the most strategic thing they're capable of, and even then, it's unknown if they choose to plant them or if they just happen as a side-effect of the witch existing.
Always Chaotic Evil: All witches try to kill people. They do have bizarre motivations at times, but that doesn't really affect their actions either way, just their internal thoughts... if they even have any. It's implied that they do, although as mentioned above, these thoughts are warped at best and barely coherent at worst.
And I Must Scream: Implied in the TV series. When agitated, Oktavia has a red silhouette strikingly similar to Sayaka's form overlapping on her visage, which does nothing but literally cry its eyes out.
- A lot of the witches seem to be in very unpleasant situations. Roberta is surrounded by male caricatures who annoy her, and Charlotte can summon any food except for her favorite.
And Then John Was a Zombie: The eventual 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.
Art Shift: As per their Lovecraftian vibes, most of 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.
Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: This is presumably what happens to them all at the end of the anime, thanks to Madoka rewriting the universe. In fact, all magical girls (including ones in the past) never become witches in the first place...they just vanish instead, smiling peacefully, and possibly joining Madoka Out There.
Asteroids Monster: 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. As magical girls need Grief Seeds to maintain their powers, some unscrupulous ones leave familiars alone to get more Grief Seeds.
Always Female: Witches are always female. Because they are all former magical girls.
Barred from the Afterlife: A magical girl transformed into a witch is implied to be unable to properly pass on to whatever afterlife exists in this world. During the conversation in the Afterlife Antechamber in episode 12, Mami and Kyoko (who died when their Soul Gems were shattered) appear so they can talk to Madoka, while Sayaka (who became a witch) does not, even though she was killed by Kyoko after she witched out. Part of Madoka's wish involves creating a heaven that she can take magical girls' spirits to just before they witch out, preventing this from happening.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: While they all feed off misery and suffering, their actual motivations for doing so range from malicious to just bizarre. Some of them even have good intentions, like Elsa Maria and Gretchen.
Cast of Snowflakes: No two witches lookalike; in the rare cases where it seems like two witches look exactly the same, it's more than likely to be a familiar who managed to evolve into a copy of the witch due to being allowed to exist for long enough.
Conservation of Ninjutsu:
- Witches that fight alongside their familiars (Gertrud, Elly, Elsa Maria) fare far worse in combat than witches who mainly fight solo (Charlotte, Oktavia). Meanwhile, Demons in the new world hunt in packs, and seem to be far weaker and more uniform in appearance than witches.
- Completely averted by Walpurgis Night. Both the Witch and the familiars seem to pack a pretty impressive punch. Also, it's unknown whether Kriemhild Gretchen plays it straight or not, as her familiars are never seen.
The Corruptible: All witches are former magical girls who, upon crossing the depths of despair, had their soul gems corrupted into grief seeds and transformed into their current, monstrous forms.
The Corruption: 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. The trope is then played straight when it's revealed that Grief Seeds are fully corrupted Soul Gems.
Creepy Doll: Some of them look like this.
- The Klarissas, 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.
- 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 clown doll.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Generally on the receiving end, but a few, such as Charlotte to Mami and Walpurgisnacht to everyone until Madoka wishes her out of existence give them.
Cypher Language: The odd runes appear to be messages from the witch or the familiars. Often they seem like a Madness Mantra. Oh wait, they are.
Dark and Troubled Past: While not stated outright, something must have screwed them up. It's eventually revealed that all witches are former magical girls who fell into despair, transforming their soul gems into grief seeds and causing them to assume their monstrous forms.
Deranged Animation: All of the witches' barriers/labyrinths are animated this way, in sharp contrast to the rest of the anime. It is more pronounced with some witches more than others (notably, the very first one, Gertrud), but all witches (and their familiars) are animated this way.
Despair Event Horizon: Crossing this is what turns Magical girls into Witches.
Eldritch Abomination: All the witches are horrific mind bending monsters that twist local reality into an abstraction of their own bizarre mind. In fact, they visibly have a completely different artstyle when compared to everything else, just to emphasize how otherworldly they are.
Emotion Eater: Witches feed off human suffering.
Evil Makes You Monstrous: Cute girls becoming terrible monsters.
The Fair Folk: Some of them are described as acting in the fashion of inscrutable fairies. They're actually former magical girls who have become corrupted; the corruption not only warps their bodies, but also their minds, to the point that they no longer operate on human morality.
Fallen Heroine: Every witch who isn't a familiar-turned-copy was a magical girl who allowed her Soul Gem to fill up with The Corruption, causing it to break and become a Grief Seed.
Family-Unfriendly Death: They can be on the giving or receiving end, and often give as good as they get.
The Final Temptation: The Different Story and Magia Record show that when a Magical Girl's Soul Gem is about to reach its limit, the girl's Witch form can appear to the Magical Girl and try to tempt her into falling into despair. Shown with Candeloro, who appears to Mami and tries to convince her to become a Witch.
From Nobody to Nightmare: They're fallen Magical Girls who used up their Soul Gems or fell into despair.
The Heartless: Said to be born of curses. The curses of magical girls.
High-Pressure Blood: The Witches seem to bleed gallons, though the color of the bleeding is different from one another, when cut by sharp implements; Kirsten's monitor (but not Kirsten herself) bleeds dark green when Sayaka smashes her out of it, Elsa Maria's blood is bright red when Sayaka beheads her, while Oktavia's hand spews bluish black blood when Kyoko cuts it off to save Madoka.
Humanoid Abomination: A few of them retain a vaguely human shape from their original identities as magical girls, but are still warped enough that it'd be impossible to mistake them for a human being. Kirsten and Elsa Maria are both humanoid silhouettes surrounded by more abstract imagery, Roberta has a rather normal looking torso and legs (and nothing else), while Walpurgisnacht looks like an enormous female harlequin from the waist up (down?).
Immune to Bullets:
- Averted. As Homura demonstrates, military-grade firearms are enough to destroy them. Magia Record would imply that these bullets do need to be enhanced with magic first in order to be effective, as other characters trying to use a bomb on a Witch without this step did nothing.
- 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. Since an army's worth of arsenal is insufficient while a team of magical girls stands a chance, it stands to reason to assume that Walpurgisnacht heavily resists non-magical attacks.
- Most likely played straight with Kriemhild Gretchen. Homura didn't even try to attack the world-destroying witch. This may also be Justified, as Gretchen used to be Madoka.
Improbable Weapon User: Fitting with their surreal theme, quite a few Witches use very strange weaponry. Literally the first thing Gertrud (the first Witch seen in the anime) does against Mami is to throw the sofa she's sitting on at her. The crown, however, goes to Oktavia van Seckendorff, who fights primarily by throwing wheels at her enemies. This is far more effective than it has any right to be.
Invisible to Normals: Witches and their familiars cannot be seen by people who haven't been "chosen" by Kyubey to become Magical Girls.
Ironic Hell: A witch's personality, powers, and barrier often combine to form a sick subversion of her magical girl counterpart's wish. For example, Charlotte loves sweets and can create any sweet she likes save for her favorite (cheese and cheesecake), and lives in a cross between a candy shop and a hospital. Side materials strongly imply that her wish was for cheesecake, when she could've wished for her mother's disease to be cured.
Lone Wolf Boss: Very much all of them are this, and while all of them share the same pain of being Magical Girls driven to despair one way or another, none of them are shown to work "together" in order to attack any magical girls that enter their domains, nor that they fight agaisnt each other for control. Even Walpurgisnatch, despite being shown as the strongest witch, isn't The Leader of any of the Witches around Mitakihara (or the sorrunding cities as well), plus she can easily be dethroned in terms of powers by other Witches like Kriemhild Gretchen.
Meaningful Name: Several of the witches have names that relate to themselves.
- Charlotte is a type of dessert. Elsa Maria brings to mind a biblical prayer. Oktavia is based off of a musical term. Gertrud is the patron saint of gardeners. 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? In written Japanese, the characters for "witch" (魔女, phonetically pronounced "majo") are found in the characters for "magical girl". (魔法少女, phonetically pronounced "mahou shoujo"). Put another way, "magical girl" can be read as "young witch".
  - That translation isn't even necessary, as witches are females that use magic. In other words: Magical Girls.
  - Also, "majo" involves removing the middle part of "mahou shoujo" as a word — like how becoming a magical girl (the first step to becoming a witch) literally rips a girl's soul from her body and that soul is what is destroyed (blackened and turned into a grief seed) in the witch transformation, or the way that becoming a witch means the magical girl loses her drive, her will to live, and her morality, what is considered a "soul" in a more metaphorical sense. The kanji characters in mahou shoujo that are missing in majo are ones for rule/law/method — so perhaps the morality that is ripped out during the witch transformation — and the part of "shoujo" that represents youth — because witches are "mature" magical girls.
Meaningful Rename: The witches have different names than the magical girls they came from.
Mental World: A Witch's Labyrinth very much reflects the persona and psyche of the witch who makes it her home.
Mercy Kill: 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 Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence; 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.
Mind Control: Witches and their familiars are capable of this by imprinting the "witch's kiss" on them. A human who is being controlled by a witch will have a magic mark somewhere on them.
Mind Screw: All of the witches and their barriers and minions are meant to be confusing because of their own tortured mindscape.
Mook: Their familiars.
Nonstandard Character Design: Every Witch and everything associated with them is drawn in a different art style from the rest of the show - sometimes, they aren't even hand-drawn at all. Charlotte does double duty by having the Witch herself drawn in Thick-Line Animation, while everything else in her barrier is constructed out of paper cutouts.
No Ontological Inertia: A witch's defeat marks the end of not only her familiars, but her entire barrier, turning the corrupted environment they once lived in back to their original form.
One-Winged Angel: Witches are the true expressions of a magical girl's soul and powers, and therefore, stronger than the magical girls they spawn from. As Kyubey puts it, Magical Girls are called such because they are young Witches. Sayaka, who was shown to be the weakest among the five main characters, became a legitimate threat upon becoming Oktavia, and Madoka, who was an above average magical girl, turns into a world-destroying abomination upon witching into Gretchen.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: Ironically however, it appears that an average Magical Girl - even a newcomer such as Sayaka - can utterly body a Witch like H.N. Elly. There may be something to be said for having a human mind and resolve over a cluster of pure pain and rage that knows only misery and likely wants to be put out of said misery.
Only Known by Their Nickname: We only know them by their witch names. Eventually, we find out what Charlotte's original name was.
Our Monsters Are Weird: Witch designs vary from fairly standard (Elsa Maria) to eccentric (Oktavia) to nightmarish (Patricia) to cutesy (Charlotte). Walpurgisnacht in particular takes a few glances to figure out what she's supposed to be.
Our Witches Are Different: In this series, all witches are different; some of them don't even look remotely human. The only things they have in common with traditional depictions of witches are their bizarre magical abilities, use of familiars (which are really just Mooks) and the fact that they're all female. It turns out that witches are former magical girls who were corrupted, warping their bodies and their morals.
Pocket Dimension: 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.
Power-Upgrading Deformation: Played With. All witches are magical girls who fell into despair and transformed into horrific abominations. This, however, doesn't automatically translate as them being stronger than before; while many witches require multiple magical girls to be taken down, there's just as many witches that can be solo'd with relative ease.
Psychic-Assisted Suicide: The apparent result of a witch's kiss, judging from the two times that the effects of a kiss have been seen.
Put Them All Out of My Misery: While it isn't known whether witches have this mindset or if they're just mindless magical meatbags of grief and suffering, they seem to do a good job of bringing innocent people to their deaths. Basically, each witch is a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, albeit on a usually miniaturized scale of destruction. Unfortunately, a few witches are powerful enough to influence the environment outside of their own barriers, thus shaping a few of the main obstacles in the story.
Ret-Gone: 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.
Sanity Has Advantages: Any intelligence or sense of self they had as former magical girls is completely gone, causing them to operate primarily by instinct alone. This is the primary advantage the magical girls have over them, as even a very powerful and deadly witch like Charlotte can be destroyed with clever tactics, as Homura demonstrates with her Feed It a Bomb strategy.
Self-Duplication: Familiars can become a copy of the original witch, provided they're allowed to exist long enough to gather enough despair to do so.
Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness: Since they came from magical girls, whose powers vary based on their talents and wishes, witches can appear anywhere on the scale. Most fall under the Inadvertent category, but the stronger witches - such as Walpurgisnacht and Kriemhild Gretchen - can fall under High or even Infinite levels.
Soul Jar: The witch's Grief Seed, left behind after their death. A Grief Seed is capable of regenerating the witch, which is why Kyubey devours them before they reach that point.
Stellar Name: All the witches and familiars appear to be named after celestial objects found in the solar system. Take a look.
There Is No Cure: Once a magical girl becomes a witch, there is no going back. Any attempt to call out to their former selves is completely pointless, and the magical girl is effectively dead, replaced by the monstrous witch instead.
To Serve Man: Quite a few of the witches eat people, specifically Charlotte and Elsa Maria. For the former, she turns into a giant worm and eats Mami alive, starting with her head while the latter believes eating those who get to close to her barrier is "saving" them.
Tragic Monster: All of them, since despair is what made them into witches in the first place.
Transhuman Abomination: Twisted abominations of Alien Geometries in their own chaotic dimension hidden and isolated from the rest of reality, crafting a realm and servants to carry out some nebulous and hopeless task, and former magical girls.
The Unreveal: All There in the Manual example. Three of the witches described on the website are never seen in the series, and it doesn't show Walpurgisnacht's name.
Unwitting Pawn: Every single one of them is a girl whom Kyubey deceived into becoming a magical girl so that he could one day harvest the energy from them becoming a witch and getting killed by other magical girls.
Tomato in the Mirror: By default, happens to any magical girl who discovers the truth about witches—that they are former magical girls.
Voice of the Legion: Demonstrated to be a common trait among the few witches capable of proper vocalization, such as Walpurgisnacht or Oktavia von Seckendorff.
Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about some witches such as Oktavia without revealing that they are corrupted magical girls.
Was Once a Man: All witches are either corrupted magical girls or the mutated familiars of those witches.

Gertrud

The rose garden witch with a distrustful nature. She holds roses dearer than anything else. She expends all of her power for the sake of beautiful roses. Despite stealing the life-force of humans who wander into her barrier to give to her roses, she loathes the thought of them trampling the inside of her barrier.

Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: She and her familiars have butterfly wings. The "death and rebirth" part makes sense when you consider that she was once human, and was reborn as a Magical Girl (a lich in this setting), then as a witch.
Caring Gardener: In a twisted sense; she adores her roses so much that she'll absorb the life force of unlucky humans who wander into her barrier to give to them.
Combat Tentacles: She uses vines, but same idea.
A Father to His Men: It's subtle, but it seems the reason why she dislikes people entering her barrier is because they tend to step on her familiars. Gertrud was pretty mellow until Mami deliberately squished her smaller Adelberts under her feet. Also, when Mami starts unraveling her traps on her Anthonies, she panics, drops all of her roses, and starts running toward Mami to save her familiars, despite knowing it to be a trap.
Green Thumb: Her "head" looks like a deformed rosebush and she uses vines to slap intruders around.
Mascot Mook: Although Kyubey's the mascot of sorts for the series proper, Gertrud's Anthony familiars are sort of mascots for the witches. For example, in the last episode, when Madoka saves all the magical girls and their witches, she is shown petting an Anthony to represent what she's saved.
Starter Villain: The first witch to appear in a proper showdown with a magical girl, excluding Madoka's dream at the beginning of Episode 1.
Porn Stache: Her Anthony and Adelbert familiars have these. In the case of the Anthonies, Gertrud puts these 'staches on them.

Suleika

The dark witch, with a delusional nature. Her power grows as the darkness deepens. In total darkness she can scarcely be matched. She's almost unrivaled inside an absolute black; however, with lights as numerous as they are nowadays, she is not a witch to be feared.

Abandoned Playground: Her barrier prominently features a jungle gym.
Casting a Shadow: Her main powers are darkness-based, and the more darker a place is, the stronger her powers grow too.
Cloudcuckoolander: Her delusional nature. This has led to speculation that she was mentally ill or disabled as a Magical Girl.
The Ghost: We only briefly see her Familiar Ulla defeated by Mami in Episode 3.
Weaksauce Weakness: Light. Somewhat ironically, her barrier is ringed by streetlights.

Charlotte

The dessert witch, with a tenacious nature. She desires everything. She will never give up. Though she is capable of creating infinite amounts of any dessert she desires, she is unable to make the cheese that she loves most. One could easily catch her off-guard with a piece of cheese.

Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Her first form has Girlish Pigtail-like hair that makes her head look like a piece of candy.
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Charlotte's true form may be partially based on caterpillars (specifically The Very Hungry Caterpillar), with a Monster Clown motive added to boot.
Big Eater: Appropriately enough, the dessert witch loves her cuisine.
Breakout Character: Owing to her popularity, she gets as much merchandise as Kyubey, and is a major character in Rebellion.
Cursed with Awesome: She can generate infinite amounts of sweets. Of course, what she really wants is some cheese, but that's the one thing she can't make.
Cute Oversized Sleeves: She wears long sleeves to symbolize her cuteness and supposed harmlessness.
Cute Witch: More in plush toy sense than a cute girl sense.
Determinator: Charlotte's nature is listed in her witch card as tenacious, with an inability to give up.
Feed It a Bomb: How she is killed by Homura. While not clear on a first viewing, it can be surmised in hindsight that Homura tricks Charlotte into eating a number of timed or remote explosives using her time manipulation before detonating all of them at once.
Fluffy the Terrible: By itself, you would not expect a witch named after a type of bread pudding dessert to also double as the show's Knight of Cerebus, but then she goes full One-Winged Angel form and transforms into a giant monster caterpillar that devours Mami's head alive.
Delicate and Sickly: Charlotte's labyrinth suggests she was of a frail constitution in life, with her Polina familiars resembling nurses and Word of Dante claims she was one, though it's contradicted by some of the official material for her prototype where it states that it was her mother who was ill rather than Charlotte herself.
Fighting Clown: On the outside, Charlotte may not look like one to be taken seriously, but in reality, as Mami infamously found out the hard way, she's not one to be trifled with. Also doubles as a literal example as her true form is a Monster Clown caterpillar creature.
Killer Rabbit: She's the cutest thing in the show and outside of her witch card lacks the usual shading of witches, but then she turns into a giant Monster Clown caterpillar and eats Mami alive. Even then, her super flat artistic style wouldn't leave her out of place in a Sanrio franchise or one of Takashi Murakami's artworks.
Knight of Cerebus: Her killing Mami is the first major sign that Madoka isn't a regular magical girl show. Unusually for this trope, she's killed off at the end of the episode she appears in.
Level Ate: Being the witch of desserts, she has a barrier mostly made of sweets.
Man of Kryptonite: Charlotte is a Witch who naturally counters Mami's abilities as she is impossible to restrain. Mami found that out the hard way.
Off with His Head!: She inflicts this onto Mami by biting her head off.
One-Winged Angel: One of the few witches shown to be capable of this. When she's seriously threatened, she becomes a giant, monstrous worm.
Retcon: Preliminary material released in several guides and The Stinger of the final episode showed that in her magical girl form, in a rarity amongst her kind Charlotte had a dress and pigtails that highly resembled that of her witch form's, and wielded a staff with a top shaped like candy or her familiar Pyotr. It is suggested that she immediately witched out shortly after her wish was granted when she realized she could have saved her terminally ill mother instead of wishing to eat one last cheesecake with her. The only trace of her lore and design of her human life in canon is Nagisa's love of cheese.
Small Role, Big Impact: Like most witches, Charlotte is just the Monster of the Week for episode 3, and yet her debut not only paints her as a Knight of Cerebus, but also reveals a harsh reality of the situation: If the girls do even one slip up, they're goners, as Mami found out.
Trademark Favorite Food: Cheese. She loves it, but it's the one delicacy that she can't create. Her familiars Pyotr and Polina are tasked with locating cheese and nursing it respectively.
Turns Red: She seems to be down for the count and Mami confidently walks up to finish her off, but when the bullet hits her she suddenly becomes an enormous worm with a giant, toothy maw and kills Mami with a single bite.

Kirsten

Kirsten / H.N. Elly

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elly-pmmm_5262.png

The box witch with a covetous nature. She is a staunchly reclusive witch. Anything she covets she locks away within glass. The thoughts of her prisoners are laid bare, but one without thought can strike her without problems.

Girlish Pigtails: Very long ones, actually reaching the ground in front of her.
I Have Many Names: H.N. Elly is her "computer handle" while Kirsten is her real name.
Hikikomori: Her description says she's reclusive, and the presence of a "computer handle" evokes the feeling of somebody who socially interacts on a computer indoors.
Mass Hypnosis: She was capable of spreading her witch's kiss to a rather big number of persons, and is the only witch so far to have done such feat.
Near-Villain Victory: H.N. Elly is just a random witch that Madoka encounters by accident, and yet she's also the only witch who's come the closest to actually killing (or at least imprisoning) Madoka, the only candidate capable of defeating Walpurgisnacht.
Let Us Never Speak of This Again: According to the guidebook, her labyrinth contains the mysterious words, "I have only one wish. Box up that memory."
Lonely Doll Girl: A Hikikomori witch with two doll familiars.
Our Angels Are Different: Her familiars take the form of oddly doll-like angels with perpetual smiles.
Punny Name: One possible meaning of her online moniker is Handle Name Elly.
Subliminal Seduction: In a rarity for her kind, Kirsten speaks two full sentences via backmasking, apparently regarding one of her own memories before becoming a witch.
Telepathy: She's capable of seeing into people's memories, and displays them in order to torture her victims.
TV Head Robot: She hides her true form inside of a floating TV monitor with her twintails affixed to the sides, almost like wings.

Albertine

The scribbling witch, with an ignorant nature. She loves Hide and Seek. However, because none of her minions are very intelligent, none of them seek her out.

Creepy Doll: Resembles one, from what we see of her in Madoka Portable.
Enfante Terrible: Based on the childish motifs in her Barrier, she may have been very young, even compared to other Magical Girls. Like, single-digit age young.
The Ghost: Only her Familiar Anja is seen in the original series; we first see her in the Portable video game.
Laughing Mad: Her Familiar Anja.
Living Drawing: Her Familiar Anja resembles one.

Elsa Maria

The witch of shadow with a self-righteous nature. She continually prays for all of creation and drags all life equally into her shadow without breaking her posture. One hoping to defeat her must know the blackest anguish.

All-Loving Hero: Side materials show that Elsa Maria wants to "help" people "equally, all impartially."
Assimilation Plot: She views absorbing people as "saving" them.
Casting a Shadow: She has a mastery of sending shadowy minions in order to attack anyone that stumbles into her barrier.
Church Militant: Elsa Maria from Episode 7 acts like one, praying to an object that looks a lot like Catholic monstrance◊.
Dark Is Evil: She's a Living Shadow and accomplishes said salvation by consuming and assimilating anyone who gets too close.
Dark Messiah: Views herself as such, as she constantly prays for the world while sending out her shadows and familiars to kill whoever gets in her barrier.
Knight Templar: Being self-righteous, Elsa Maria thinks that her actions are the only way of saving the world, as she believes that magical girls aren't doing enough.
Light Is Not Good: Despite being a practicing Catholic, she's also a witch who assimilates people to "save" them.
Living Shadow: She and her familiar, Sebastian, are both shadows.
Losing Your Head: In Sayaka vs. Elsa Maria's fight, Sayaka chops Elsa's head off. It's still not enough to kill her, so she goes Attack! Attack! Attack! on her until she dies. It's even creepier in the Blue-Ray version since Elsa bleeds in that one.
Mirror Character: To Kriemhild Gretchen, another witch who views assimilating other people as a form of salvation.
Nature Hero: Her shadow powers manifest as vines and huge trees sprouting from her back, and Sebastian seems to be comprised of various animal shadows. Seeing on how religious her barrier is, it makes sense, as she's trying to emulate the Garden of Eden.
One Degree of Separation: Maybe. She's often thought to be the witch form of Kyoko's younger sister, based on the religious imagery within her barrier.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: She's a Living Shadow seen praying to a bright red monstrance.
Shadow Archetype: Elsa Maria's self-righteousness mirrors Sayaka's, as both strive to be a force of good and justice for the world.
Stationary Boss: Almost never moves away from her praying position, save for attacking through her back. This is even more eminent when Sayaka beats the pulp out of her, as even while being decapited, she doesn't even move from her praying position at all, leaving her familiar Sebastian to attack Sayaka on her own.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Absorbs people in order to "save" them.

Gisela

The silver witch, with a free nature. She dwells in a barrier where everything moves at high speed, but the witch herself is dull. She unfortunately can not use any sort of scientific power. Her body was once dazzling with silver, but she has tarnished gazing upon the coastal sunset.

Badass Biker: Her motorcycle motifs suggest that she may have been one in life.
Cool Bike: Her "head" resembles a motorcycle's handlebars and headlight.
Mechanical Abomination
One-Shot Character: Only briefly seen fighting Kyoko in Episode 7. We see more of her in the various video games.
Transforming Mecha: In the Portable video game she transforms into a motorcycle-like body with legs.
Weaksauce Weakness: She can't use any scientific powers.
Yakuza: Background information states that her Familiar Dora (who resembles a motorcycle exhaust pipe) routinely play The Godfather theme. This may imply that she or her family or friends had Yakuza connections.

Uhrmann

The canine witch, with a craving nature. She has taken on the form of a dog in the vain hope of being loved by all and more so than anyone else. Humans who enter her barrier can't help but embrace her in concern. One hoping to defeat her can do so by feigning love.

Dogs Are Dumb: She was the Magical Girl Inui Itsumi who was dating and incredibly loyal to one of the jerks Sayaka encountered on the train in Episode 8, which may imply that she eventually saw herself as this and took on the form of a slavishly loyal dog.
I Just Want to Be Loved: Rather tragic in that she was the Magical Girl Inui Itsumi who was dating one of the jerks Sayaka encountered in Episode 8.
Living Prop: Her Familiars, the Bartels, supposedly have no free will and just mindlessly spin around. As Inui Itsumi, she may have seen herself as this when it was too late.
Weaksauce Weakness: People faking love.

Oktavia von Seckendorff

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/oktavia-closeup_7227.jpg

The mermaid witch; it is in her nature to fall in love. Looking for the feeling that moved her so long ago, she moves with the entire concert hall. Her fortune only turns under the weight of memories and no longer moves toward the future. Nothing will reach her any longer. She will come to know nothing more. She simply allows no one to disturb her minions' playing.

Alien Blood: Blue, as seen when Kyoko cuts her hand off.
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: A gigantic mermaid knight.
Attention Whore: Several of the lines in her barrier are some variant of 'LOOK AT ME'. Considering the fact she's the Witch form of Sayaka, who had spent Kyubey-knows-how-long trying to get Kyousuke to love/look at her with no success, it's clear where this is coming from.
Background Music Override: Her theme, titled "Symposium Magarum," is played in-universe by her Holger familiars.
Bad Boss: She seems perfectly content letting the wheels she summons plow over the Klarissa familiars. Perhaps it's because they were made in the likeness of Hitomi.
BFS: Oktavia's weapon is an enormous sword. It looks like a massive version of Sayaka's sword, for good reason.
Blob Monster: She is occasionally accompanied by a red silhouette made of some goopy material, which seems to be her true form underneath her bulky armor. Her Klarissa familiars appear to be made of the same stuff.
Climax Boss: The fight against her reveals several Awful Truths about the Magical Girl system, mainly that Magical Girls turn into Witches and there's no way for the protagonists to undo it. Kyoko's Mutual Kill against the Witch leads the story to its Darkest Hour before the next episode reveals Homura's origins as a Magical Girl.
Fairytale Motifs: Parallels "The Little Mermaid". As Sayaka, she sacrificed her soul to win the love of Kyosuke, only to fall into despair when he fell in love with Hitomi.
Hanging Judge: Innocent or guilty, you walk into her labyrinth, you're dead. Her only onscreen victims, however, are criminals (which she likely killed as Sayaka) and magical girls, who are capable of defending themselves somewhat.
"I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: On the receiving end from Madoka. Sadly, it doesn't work.
Improbable Weapon User: If she's not swinging her screw-you sized sword at you, she's summoning and throwing wheels instead.
Knight in Shining Armor: Symbolically. Sayaka believed herself a "hero of justice", and when she becomes Oktavia she dons knight's armor and a three-eyed helmet.
Locomotive Level: Aside from the large concert hall, her barrier is initially depicted as a distorted train station, with rails streaming across it.
Love Hurts: She was born as a result of Sayaka seeing Hitomi confess to Kyosuke, alongside the sheer pain of failing to gain the love she longed for so long.
Madness Mantra: "LOOK AT ME" is repeated many times in Oktavia's barrier.
Meaningful Name:
- "Oktavia" alludes to "Octave," a musical scale, and a sad reminder of how she used to love music as Sayaka and how her unrequited love for a musician led to her fall.
- Her last name most likely alludes to composer Karl Sigmund von Seckendorff.
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Okay, the third one is kinda redundant, considering the true nature of Witches, but the trope's still at play since Oktavia's essentially a giant, three-eyed knight mermaid orchestra conductor.
Our Mermaids Are Different: Closely resembles a giant, armored mermaid, with her giant sword also bringing into mind the image of Melusines.
Sirens Are Mermaids:
- She and her familiar both. Oktavia is the mermaid witch because the story of her Magical Girl (Sayaka)'s downfall has parallels with the original Little Mermaid.
- Holger performs music which steals the souls of the audience.
Small Role, Big Impact: While she's strong enough to force a magical girl - Kyoko - to perform a Mutual Kill with her and she used to be Sayaka Miki, one of the main characters, Oktavia's still another Monster of the Week like all the other witches. However, her short presence reveals three fundamental truths to the cast:
- That witches are actually magical girls whose soul gems have been corrupted into grief seeds.
- That once a magical girl turns into a Witch, the magical girl is gone for good. Madoka's "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight failing to do anything further drives this point.
- And as an add-on, that even the main characters are not immune to being turned into a witch.
Songs of Solace: Oktavia has an orchestra of Holger familiars (who look like Kyosuke and play the violin), who play a melancholic, if grandiose waltz. She won't allow anyone to disturb their playing.
Symbol Motif Clothing: She wears a heart-shaped high collar and the end of her mermaid tail is shaped like a broken heart. The former represents the feelings she held for Kyosuke as Sayaka, while the latter obviously represents her feelings once he gets together with Hitomi instead.
Third Eye: On her knight's helmet. Appropriately enough for a Witch based on an oceanic creature, it makes the helmet look more like a deep-sea diving helm than a typical armor helmet.
Took a Level in Badass: In a very dark way. Sayaka is shown to be the weakest magical girl out of the five main characters, so her becoming a witch makes her stronger and more dangerous. She even forced Kyoko to perform a Mutual Kill.
Tragic Monster: Even moreso than most witches, since we actually see the events that led up to her becoming what she is. As Sayaka, her heart was broken when Kyousuke fell in love with Hitomi, and her spirit was equally broken by the revelation that becoming a magical girl had led her to put her soul inside a Soul Gem, in effect becoming a zombie.
Vocal Dissonance: Within seconds of appearing, she lets out a bestial scream in Sayaka's voice. The effect is horrific.
Vocal Evolution: Oktavia's first few screams are in the voice of her old self, but the next time she's encountered, her voice has shifted to a more traditionally monstrous sound, suggesting that a Witch only retains their original voice in the early moments of their existence.
Walking Spoiler: It's very difficult to discuss Oktavia without spoiling the origins of every witch, namely fallen magical girls, as well as Sayaka Miki's descent into madness.
Water Is Womanly: The mermaid witch who fell in love, with minions who conduct a melancholic waltz.
Wicked Heart Symbol: Her collar and tail are both shaped like hearts, but she's no less malevolent or destructive than any other witch. It also emphasizes her lovelorn nature.

Izabel

The artist witch. Her nature is vanity. Without a slightest doubt, she believes her existence is blessed. Wanting someone to see her work, she often interferes with the human world. However, within her barrier only exists works that you have probably seen somewhere before. To defeat this witch, just bring a well-known critic with you.

Art Attacker: Fights with her deranged creations.
Body Horror: Anyone killed in her barrier will have their body parts placed into her familiars.
Can't Take Criticism: Her only weakness, apparently.
Creative Sterility: The fact that her barrier seems designed after more popular pieces of art implies that she used to be a prideful but ultimately uncreative girl.
Creepy Doll: The top of the Arc de Triomphe is supposedly the real her.
Pride: Said to be her Fatal Flaw.
Weaksauce Weakness: Criticism, as stated above.

Patricia

The class representative witch. Her nature is to remain an onlooker. Using the spiderlike threads which she vomits forth, she created a school for herself alone within the sky of her barrier and endlessly acts out an ordinary daily student life there. If you ring the going-home bell, this witch will likely return to her house somewhere.

Animal Motifs: Her many arms, black clothing, the extra eyes on her Grief Seed (seen in the PSP game), and the many clotheslines surrounding her like a web are all evocative of a spider.
Class Rep: Her witch type, and seems to fit the bossy type.
Eldritch Abomination: Played with. Patricia's form is just as weird as the other witches with her many arms, being headless and having hands where it's supposed to be feet, but if you remove the hands and add a head, she will look just as normal as a human. Her barrier is also just an endless beautiful blue sky with school uniform tops hanging on ropes rather than the more messed up barriers of the other witches. These fit with her I Just Want to Be Normal attitude.
Groin Attack: Homura defeats her with a bomb up her skirt. Considering that Patricia is analyzed to be someone having suffered from sexual abuse, this becomes much, much Harsher in Hindsight.
Half the Man He Used to Be: Her familiars simply consist of school uniform skirts, legs, and feet, with no upper bodies. This is why there are plenty of school uniform tops hanging in the barrier: the familliars don't need them for they have no upper bodies to put them on.
Handy Feet: Exaggerated to a literal extent. Full-body views of her show that while she has two legs, her feet have been replaced with two additional hands.
I Just Want to Be Normal: She acts out ordinary school days in her labyrinth and has her familiars play the roles of her classmates.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Though the extra arms are for creepiness (and symbolism) rather than combat.
Non-Standard Character Design: Strangely inverted, since she's this in comparison to the other witches. Most of the other witches are drawn in entirely different art styles from the rest of the series, but Patricia is by far the closest to that standard style, with the "only" thing really separating her from how the ordinary humans are designed being the bizarre and alien way her body parts are arranged. This fits considering her I Just Want to Be Normal nature.
Off with Her Head!: It's not easy to notice since her screentime consists of about 20 seconds, but full-body views of her (such as this one◊) show that she has no head.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: Her school uniform is mostly black in color and topped off with a red bow.
School Uniforms are the New Black: The above-mentioned Sailor Fuku ensemble, as well as the clotheslines in her labyrinth, which are strung with white sailor suits. She is the class representative witch, after all.
Starter Villain: In Magia Record, Patricia is the boss of the tutorial chapter and is fought by all five members of the Holy Quintet.
Trouser Space: She shoots her familiars and school desks out like bullets through her giant skirt.
Weaksauce Weakness: Ringing the school bell makes her go away.

Roberta

The birdcage witch. Her nature is rage. She continuously stamps her feet inside her cage, directing her rage at those who do not respond to her. This witch is extremely fond of alcohol, and her minions are also easy to burn.

Attention Whore: Implied by her raging at "those who don't respond to her."
Birdcaged: She's the birdcage witch.
Does Not Like Men: If something about her Gotz familiars' appearance, description and her own opinion about them is anything to go by.
The birdcage witch's minion. His duty is to act with frivolous indiscretion. These birds that swarm together are idiotic men. Even though they are total good-for-nothings, they try to attract her attention by swarming around her feet and attempting to woo her. They are nothing more than objects of disgust to the witch.
Fan Disservice: Appears as a headless, armless, torso and legs wearing lingerie, with the ceiling of the very cage she’s imprisoned in topping off her neck.
Feathered Fiend: Her Gotz familiars are brightly-colored birds that try to hit on her, but she pushes them away.
Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Roberta likes alcohol. Her name could be a reference to the Aunt Roberta, a drink so potent, it is perfectly capable of killing people who drink it. This has led to speculation that she was the cast's teacher Kazuko Saotome during an earlier timeline (she's only seen in a flashback montage), who also drinks a lot and has continual bad luck in love.
Tantrum Throwing: Roberta stomps and rages inside her metal cage, furious at those who do not pay attention to her.
Weaksauce Weakness: Her minions are said to be easy to burn.

Walpurgisnacht

?????

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/walpurgis-e11_1271.jpg

The stage-constructing witch (alias: Walpurgisnacht / real name: unknown); her nature is helplessness. She symbolizes the fool who continuously spins in circles. The witch's mysteries have been handed down through the course of history; her appellation is "Walpurgisnacht." She will continue to rotate aimlessly throughout the world until she completely changes the whole of this age into a drama. When the doll's usual upside-down position reaches the top part of the witch, she completely roils the civilization on the ground in a flash through her gale-like flight.

All Your Powers Combined: In the manga, it's shown that Walpurgisnacht's "shadowy Puella Magi" familiars really are deceased Puella Magi - Sayaka, Mami and Kyouko are displayed among them, complete with their weapons... which might provide an explanation of how it accumulated so many witches and how it became so god-awfully strong.
Ambiguous Situation: Her constant laughter, which can often be heard as crying instead. Is Walpurgisnacht taking joy in creating her stage or is she mourning her own helplessness to stop the deaths and destruction?
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: A gigantic harlequin clockwork doll floating upside-down in the sky.
Beast of the Apocalypse: Any timeline where she and Madoka are both present is considered a doomed one, unless there is a way to prevent the two from fighting, mainly because Kriemhild Gretchen poses a far worse threat. Homura has constantly tried to find a way to prevent such a horrible fate, but has failed every single time. It's not until Madoka wishes to get rid of Witches entirely that this threat is vanquished, and even then, it takes extra measures to ensure that the Incubators see that as well.
Big Bad: In a "the main threat that has to be stopped" sense. She's neither a plotter nor a schemer due to her mindless nature as a Witch, however her immense power is the basis of the "Groundhog Day" Loop, when she kills off everyone but Homura in the first timeline and she goes back in time to Set Right What Once Went Wrong. In every timeline, the fight with her is the pivotal moment, always ending with Homura resetting either because Madoka contracts in order to kill her, resulting in Kriemhild Gretchen becoming inevitable, or Madoka is simply killed during the battle before she gets a chance to contract, and Homura will only accept an outcome where Walpurgisnacht is defeated and Madoka survives without contracting.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: The reason it rampages? Is because it's trying to turn the entire world into a performance stage, and sees nothing wrong with obliterating everything in the way.
Boss Warning Siren: Walpurgisnacht has a special countdown when she finally appears in the final episode of the anime, styled after an old film countdown to match her theatrical theme.
Circus of Fear: Rather than stay contained within a barrier, she and her familiars wander around the world akin to a travelling circus troupe. Various trained animals pull Walpurgisnacht using strings of circus flags, and a personal army of clowns usually dance around the stage-setting Witch herself, who doubles as both the fire-breather and the apparent ringleader.
Colony Drop: One of her favored methods of attack is to hurl entire buildings at people using the wind. She can also light them on fire first.
Cry Laughing: Part of what makes Walpurgis Night's insane laughter so terrifying is that it sounds like she's also sobbing, if not outright screaming in rage and agony. Which is entirely appropriate - if a Witch's power is proportionate to her despair, the most powerful witch in existence must be a truly miserable.
Defeating the Undefeatable: She's the strongest witch in existence who has crushed every Magical Girl that stood in her way. The only one who has successfully dealt the killing blow to her is Madoka Kaname, the strongest Magical Girl in existence. And even then, it's at the cost of Madoka either dying or turning into an even more fearsome witch.
The Dreaded: She is apparently well known among the magical girls and is appropriately feared for her reputation as being utterly unstoppable.
Die Laughing: After Madoka makes a wish that retroactively removes all witches from existence, Walpurgisnacht continues to laugh as she falls apart and disintegrates.
Expy: In the manga adaptation, she summons shadow doppelgangers of Mami, Sayaka, and Kyoko. Combined with her general demeanor and the fact that All There in the Manual calls her the witch of stage construction, she may very well be a reference to Type-Moon's similarly named Night of Wallachia.
Final Boss: Walpurgisnacht is a Magical Girl killing machine that is feared and wanted gone by all, and is always the final obstacle between Homura and the safety of Madoka.
Fisher Queen: Her mere presence causes humongous storms capable of ruining entire cities.
Fusion Dance: The website speculates Walpurgisnacht is this, but says nobody knows. Word of God confirms it, although adds that she started as a perfectly normal witch before "accumulating" others.
Generic Doomsday Villain: It is defined by the threat it poses, and its motivations for destruction are very alien. Tropes Are Not Bad, however, because the threat it poses is a major catalyst for Homura's character arc.
Genius Loci: Those gigantic gears that make up her top(?) portion can unfold into a performance stage.
Happy Harlequin Hat: Walpurgisnacht wears a two-pointed hat evocative of this trope.
Hero Killer: She killed Mami in the first timeline, Homura makes a contract and has to reset time in order to not become one of her victims, and Madoka either dies fighting her or turns into a witch after the battle. She continually kills the main characters in every timeline, with the sole exception of Homura.
Hopeless Boss Fight: As the strongest witch in existence, any magical girl unlucky enough to fight her is ultimately killed because she is tough enough to shrug off missiles, strong enough to create tornadoes, shoot devastating fire spells, and hurl skyscrapers at her enemies on a whim. It then makes sense that her nature is stated as helplessness since there is literally nothing one can do against it, unless of course, your name happens to be Madoka Kaname.
The Hyena: She never. Stops. Laughing. Not even as Madoka is shooting her out of the sky.
Immune to Bullets: She can apparently be defeated by a team of 5 or so magical girls (with tremendous casualties), but when Homura takes her on with an entire army's worth of arsenal, it does not seem to do any damage to her, implying that she may be immune or resistant to non-magical weapons. Although perhaps it may have to do with her symbolism of helplessness - a single person can never defeat her, because they have no one to rely on.
Improvised Weapon: Walpurgisnacht uses every object, even entire skyscrapers, in battle.
Inconsistent Spelling: Her name can be written as Walpurgisnacht or Walpurgis Night; in fact, the background paintings of her in Homura's apartment have both. 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.
Invisible to Normals: Downplayed. Lesser witches need to hide within a barrier in order to prey on humans. Walpurgisnacht doesn't have to do that. The effects she causes, however, are seen by humans as a calamity of some sort such as a violent typhoon or a very strong earthquake.
The Juggernaut: A nigh-indestructible witch that throws skyscrapers and triggers gigantic thunderstorms. Homura has tried dozens of times to kill her and has failed every single time.
Laughing Mad: Her laughter is scary. A nice touch since her nature is "helplessness", laughing at everyone's feeble attempts to stop her. Although, at the time of her defeat, she still laughs - this time at her own helplessness.
Meaningful Appearance: The reason she and her aggregate familiars are modeled after circus performers is because Kyubey made fools out of each and every one of them by getting them to contract.
Meaningful Name: In Germanic folklore, "Walpurgisnacht" is a night where witches gather together and dance atop a mountain, fitting since Walpurgisnacht is a being created by the gathering of many different witches. The former is itself named after St. Walpurga, a Catholic saint who is invoked against storms. Which fits since regular humans perceive Walpurgisnacht as a gigantic storm.
Monster Clown:
- Her design is partially modeled after a medieval jester or fool, which is most apparent from her two-horned cap, painted face, and constant laughter.
- The shadowy familiars that represent the souls of magical girls that Walpurgisnacht has absorbed are stated in supplementary material to carry the duty of acting as clowns.
My Name Is ???: The Witch's true name is completely unknown, despite many magical girls calling her "Walpurgisnacht". Official sources confirm this with things like her card◊ and Magia Record's own bestiary labeling her as "?????".
Nigh-Invulnerability: Homura basically threw Japan's entire military arsenal at her, and she just let out a mocking laugh as she emerged unscathed, with not even her dress having suffered so much as a scratch.
Nothing Is Scarier: For most witches we're at least given their name as well as their origins, or at least some hints to it. This is not the case with Walpurgisnacht. All that's known about it is that it's a fusion of many witches. How did the fusions begin, and how do they happen? Who was the base witch that started it all? How long has she existed? Nobody knows - Walpurgisnacht simply is.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Walpurgisnacht is the moniker given to it by magical girls. As noted above, nobody knows what its true name is.
Pimped-Out Dress: As far as city-destroying Eldritch Abominations go; half of her is the dress, with the dress sporting a Showgirl Skirt to show off... nothing, because she traded her legs for the axle binding her to her clockwork underside.
Playing with Fire: Walpurgisnacht breathes fire, and is demonstrated to be able to light things on fire remotely. Excluding her power, it suddenly makes a lot more sense for Homura's artillery attacks to have no effect on her.
Reality Warper: Unlike other witches, she doesn't have a contained barrier. Instead, her presence seems to warp the real world into resembling a barrier.
Story-Breaker Power: Her nature is listed as "Helplessness", which basically translates to her entire purpose being to utterly crush the hopes and dreams of everything in her path. This seems to explain why Homura could never defeat her, no matter how hard she tried. Conversely, Madoka is able to defeat Walpurgisnacht with ease because she either represents Hope (Puella Magi) or Mercy (Witch), and is thus her complete antithesis.
Technicolor Fire: Her fire is alternating shades of red, green and purple.
Villainous Harlequin: Her design. Her familiars also count due to their job description, being explicitly called clowns for performing on her stages.
Walking Spoiler: Amazingly enough, even the website doesn't reveal Walpurgisnacht's name, just listing it, and her familiars, as "?????".
Weather-Control Machine: "Living" variation. She has very deft control of her storm, capable of creating whirlwinds at will and lifting and hurling massive objects at her enemies with terrifying precision.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: She's ultimately trying to turn the world into a performance stage so that no one will be unhappy anymore... which means killing everyone in the process.
Excerpt from Episode 10's Production Note: "If everything is a play, no unhappy things will exist. It may be a tragedy, but it'll all be part of the script."
White Mask of Doom: It actually is her Eyeless Face rather than a mask, but it invokes the image.
The Wild Hunt: She invokes this. Walpurgisnacht rides in on a devastating storm, like how the traditional Hunt was associated with storms. Additionally, her familiars are shown to be spectral Magical Girls, relating to how the Hunt was made up of damned souls. While popularly associated with figures like Odin, the Wild Hunt was also believed in some stories to be led by female figures like Diana, or Herodias (the latter is especially noticeable, because some folklore suggests that Herodias is eternally forced to dance in the air, just like how Walpurgisnacht is condemned to dance and twirl in the air).
Wolverine Publicity: She appears in merchandise and promotion long after her death.
World-Wrecking Wave: Her description states that this would be the result if she ever turned upright, wiping everything around her from existence in a flash of light, somewhat like a time bomb.

Kriemhild Gretchen (MASSIVE UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Kriemhild Gretchen

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gretchen_7370.jpg

Witch of salvation. Her nature is mercy. She absorbs any life on the planet into her newly created heaven—her barrier. The only way to defeat this witch is to make the world free of misfortune. If there's no grief in this world, she will believe this world is already a heaven.

All There in the Manual: The final witch that appeared at the end of anime after absorbing a whole universe's worth of despair is not confirmed to be Kriemhild Gretchen, only referred as "Witch of Despair" in databooks. Although Word of God states that it is not incorrect to consider her another form of Gretchen, as she was also born from Madoka.
The Witch of Despair. Her nature is direct petition. The mouthpiece for all the unfulfilled hopes of all spent magical girls. If a hope is born that can rewrite the universe, then at the same time, it is born from the mud of despair. Everlasting wailing fills her body, a continuously swelling, empty doll. At the end of a magical girl’s karma, this witch continues to swell to absurd sizes. And in the end, her body could even destroy the galaxy.
Antagonist Abilities: A rare cause, in that the ability isn't something she has herself but a side-effect of Homura's wish: Since her wish was about returning time to prevent Madoka from contracting and/or dying, every time the timeline resets and Madoka gets stronger, so does Gretchen. For more information, see Equivalent Exchange below.
As Long as There Is Evil: The only way to stop Gretchen without destroying her is to remove misfortune from the world, as she desires to create heaven on Earth. And in a more literal sense, as long as Madoka forms a magical girl contract, Kriemhild Gretchen will always be a potential dead-end for her other than death.
Apocalypse How: Kriemhild Gretchen brings anywhere from Planetary Species to Total Extinction, while according to Kyubey the Witch of Despair can cause Universal Physical Annihilation.
Assimilation Plot: Gretchen takes it to a global scale by gradually absorbing all life into her barrier.
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Even at her smallest, she's a gargantuan shadow even bigger than Walpurgisnacht that may be based off the Brocken Spectre.
Beast of the Apocalypse: Where Walpurgisnacht seems to be only capable of leveling cities, Gretchen is capable of destroying entire planets, if not the whole universe, with her mere presence. Even without Homura's desire to protect Madoka, any timeline where Kriemhild Gretchen is born is considered a doomed one.
Celestial Body: Witch of Despair first appears as a comet-sized Grief Seed formed of the despair born out of Madoka's wish. When the comet hatches, the witch◊ is so massive that Earth is only the size of her eyeball. We can't even see where her shadowy body ends.
Creepy Doll: What the Witch of Despair appears to be, if her description is any indication.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Ultimate Madoka destroys the Witch of Despair with a single attack at the end of anime, before triggering the Retcon.
Dark Messiah: Kriemhild Gretchen is the Witch of Salvation. She intends to perform her idea of salvation by absorbing all life into her barrier, which are theorized to be a Lotus-Eater Machine or a Mercy Kill machine.
Diabolus ex Machina: As Madoka's own witch, and one even more horrible than Walpurgisnacht, she's the reason why there's never been a happy ending in this series. Madoka is doomed to become Kriemhild Gretchen after accepting the magical girl contract if she isn't given a Mercy Kill, but Madoka refusing the contract means there's no one strong enough to stop Walpurgisnacht. Homura trying to find a solution to this is the entire reason for the "Groundhog Day" Loop, which inadvertently makes things worse because Gretchen grows stronger with each loop. Madoka has to counter the Diabolus with the Deus to finally break the doomed cycle.
Dramatic Irony: Kriemhild Gretchen, the Witch of Salvation said to bring the end of everything with her presence, is the witch form of Madoka, the magical candidate who was the last hope against Walpurgisnacht.
Enemy Without: The Witch of Despair is one to Ultimate Madoka, who is the only magical girl who is still around to face her own witch form.
Equivalent Exchange: Just as Madoka becomes more powerful whenever Homura resets the time loop, so does her Witch, growing in strength and size each time. It reaches its peak when Madoka takes on all of the world's grief and becomes Ultimate Madoka: quickly after that Gretchen/Witch of Despair emerged from her Soul Gem being several times the size of the planet. Fortunately Madoka can oneshot her by that point.
Foil:
- Designed as a deliberate one to Walpurgisnacht. While Walpurgis represents "helplessness", Kriemhild represents "mercy". Walpurgis wants to eliminate unhappiness through killing everyone, while Gretchen is theorized to do it with either that or Lotus-Eater Machine. Even their visuals are done to contrast each other with Walpurgis being upside-down and Gretchen being right-side-up, described by Word of God as being reminiscent of a hourglass if you put them together.
- Also to Ultimate Madoka. Their end goal is the same, as they want the people around them not to suffer, but Ultimate Madoka appears to dying magical girls and absorbs the darkness from their Grief Seeds, allowing them to naturally die in peace, while Gretchen ends life on earth by drawing it into her idea of a "heaven".
Gem Heart: A photo from the Portable game shows what is most likely Gretchen’s core: A more ornate version of Madoka’s corrupted Soul Gem, with wings and a crown.
Hopeless Boss Fight: Even more so than Walpurgisnacht, as Homura never even tried fighting it. In fact, her emergence basically spells "Game Over" for her.
In the Hood: Production notes show that Gretchen’s human body resembles a hooded witch, with Madoka’s hair ribbons on top of her hood.
Invincible Villain: Her simply existing causes the entire Earth to be put in danger, and since she usually comes right after the sheer mess that is Walpurgisnacht, there's very little left that can help the remaining magical girls fight against her. At least Walpurgisnacht could be handled by multiple magical girls, and in certain timelines be one-shotted by Madoka. Kriemhild Gretchen? She's Madoka's own witch, so the one person who'd stand a chance is taken off the board by proxy. It's telling that finally destroying Kriemhild Gretchen/the Witch of Despair involved Madoka literally altering reality so they could actually be in the same place at the same time, and Madoka still had to give up her existence to do it.
Living Shadow: A truly massive example, especially as Witch of Despair.
Lotus-Eater Machine: 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.
Meaningful Name: In the original tragedy of Faust, Gretchen is originally called 'Margerete' (i.e 'pearl'), only for it to change to the dimunitive 'Gretchen' after her intercourse. Students speculate that this is to denote her spoiled purity; and thus, the witch being named 'Gretchen' instead of 'Margerete' would denote the corruption of Madoka's soul. "Kriemhild," meanwhile, is derived from the Nibelungenlied (i.e., one of the sources for Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung). In that tale, Kriemhild, alternatively known as "Gudrun," was a princess who lived a peaceful and innocent life, until she was plagued by terrible dreams. This is echoed in how Madoka herself lived a happy life until she had that dream of Homura fighting Walpurgisnacht.
Mercy Kill: A possible motivation. If her barrier does not actually put people into Lotus-Eater Machine and just straight-up kills them.
Mirror Match: Her "fight" with Ultimate Madoka is technically this, as they're both versions of the same girl.
Nothing Is Scarier: Despite the detailed info we get for her in databooks, no one knows what is inside her barrier. Even her familiars, dubbed "minions of the Witch of Salvation", are never seen. We get to see a bit of its insides in the Portable game adaptation of the anime, but nothing about its nature, or what is happening there.
Post-Final Boss: The Witch of Despair is this. Just as it was born, it quickly meets its end when Madoka executes her final wish in the present timeline, blowing it away with her arrow and erasing it from existence.
Rule of Symbolism: According to Word of God, Kriemhild Gretchen's shape resembles the lower half of an hourglass while Walpurgisnacht's resembles the upper half. Even when Walpurgisnacht is defeated by Madoka, she turns into the even stronger Kriemhild and restarts the cycle all over again, like an hourglass turning over.
- The only way to stop the sand in an hourglass is by tipping the hourglass on its side. What does Walpurgisnacht do after being shot by Ultimate Madoka? She tips on her side and falls over.
Small Role, Big Impact: Kriemhild Gretchen doesn't appear for more than a few seconds' worth of screentime due to Homura immediately resetting whenever the time traveler saw her, and yet she is the Witch that made Homura aware of the origins of Witches, and also plays a vital role in driving Homura's actions in the third timeline (as she desperately tries to inform the others about it).
True Final Boss: Due to Magical Girl Madoka being the only one who can defeat Walpurgisnacht, her Witch Kriemhild Gretchen inevitably emerges shortly afterwards, being just as if not more unbeatable as Walpurgis was.
Walking Spoiler: It's difficult to talk about her without exposing the origins of witches, as well as the fact that Homura is a time traveler. Also, the fact that she's the witch form of Madoka.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Wants to create heaven on earth by absorbing all life into her barrier.
Wicked Witch: According to production notes, the human part of Gretchen’s body actually resembles a hooded witch, with Madoka’s ribbons being on her hood.

Characters / Puella Magi Madoka Magica - Witches

Witches

Gertrud

Suleika

Charlotte

Kirsten / H.N. Elly

Elsa Maria

Gisela

Oktavia von Seckendorff

Izabel

Patricia

Roberta

?????

Kriemhild Gretchen

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Characters / Puella Magi Madoka Magica - Witches

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Witches

Gertrud

Suleika

Charlotte

Kirsten / H.N. Elly

Elsa Maria

Gisela

Oktavia von Seckendorff

Izabel

Patricia

Roberta

?????

Kriemhild Gretchen

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