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Fanon / Puella Magi Madoka Magica

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  • Fans were quick to latch onto Poorfag-chan, a nameless and dialogueless classmate of Madoka whose only distinguishing feature is that she can be seen taking notes with a pen and paper while the rest of the class uses laptops. The Internet quickly decided that she was an orphan who lives in a cardboard box and has to scavenge though dumpsters to find school supplies; despite this, she is always cheerful and never gives in to despair (which explains why Kyubey hasn't approached her about becoming a magical girl). She also writes letters to her dead mother that always begin "Dear Mother in Heaven." A couple of fans have decided that she makes an appearance near the end of the Rebellion movie, walking to school with a boy. Given that everything has turned into a Lotus-Eater Machine at that point...
  • Homura's verbal tic "Homu homu", which she never ever said in the series.
  • As a lesser example, there's also Clip-girl, another nameless background classmate who is seen looking at Homura while sitting at her desk. Fans have proceeded to take this as evidence of a romantic crush.
  • End of series spoilers: The entire concept of a magical girl Valhalla, is likely but unconfirmed. Word of God refers to Madoka taking magical girls to a "different universe" which could mean anything. There's also the manga ending, but that's just a scene of Madoka and Homura in white, which could also be anything. Oh, and the monsters that appear at the end of the series are called majuu in the original Japanese, which means "magical beast". "Demon" was a Woolseyism made-up by fansubs. The English dub uses "Wraith". Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion suggests that it's less magical girl Valhalla and more becoming one with the Goddess.
  • The words mahou shojou being translated as "Puella Magi" - even the American version is going with "magical girl". In fact, the words "Puella Magi" are never spoken in the series. They only appear once at the very end... as part of the series's title written in Cypher Language. The funny thing is that Puella Magi does get used as translation for mahou shojou in some dubs, like the Spanish one (which got some controversy due to it). "Puella Magi" actually pops up in Rebellion, but as part of the name of a magical girl team. The team's full name is "Puella Magi Holy Quintet", which is possibly a reference to Magica Quartet, the team name of the series's creators.
  • The Stinger. Oh boy, The Stinger. Here's what Word of God has said about it: It wasn't intended to be a Sequel Hook, it's supposedly set outside Japan, and it's a Homage to Blade. Anything else - such as being set in the far future, Homura dying afterwards or even Homura transforming into something else is pure speculation. Note that the writer has invoked Death of the Author and stated all of these interpretations can be considered correct. Additionally even he has no idea where the wings came from; they were added by the animation staff.
  • Homura's family situation, or lack thereof. There is no indication in the series that Homura has any sort of family - even her residence only has her name on the nameplate (much like Mami's apartment). In episode 10 she's implied to be filling out school transfer forms while still in the hospital, all by herself. The vast majority of fans have decided that she's Conveniently an Orphan. On the other hand, in the first Drama CD she offhandedly mentions that her family won't mind if she stays out late... Others speculate that while she might not have parents, she could have distant relatives that for whatever reason, chose instead of adopting her to grant her the basic resources to live on her own.
    • In Japan, due to Catholic schools being typically phrases associated with orphans, Homura is typically depicted as just that in official media and Japanese fanon. An orphan, usually spending more time in the hospital than in any Catholic education. While this has its own shared set of negatives attached to it, it is closer to that of a bog-standard orphan tragedy. In western fanon, where Catholic School, along other religious institutions, have different connotations, the backstory tends to be used as part of Homura's traumatic past in ways beyond 'orphan', including a source of gayngst that would otherwise be absent in Japanese media, and can often even be tied into the loathing that led to her becoming the Magical Girl Devil.
  • Anything about the witches' Backstories. Anything. The one universally accepted by the fandom used to be Charlotte being a cancer patient who wished to cure her illness so she could eat the food she liked though the Official Guidebook had a line implying that her mother was in fact the sick one, and Charlotte's regret — making a wish to share with her mother's favorite food with her, instead of curing her disease — is the what caused her to become a witch. On the other hand, that entry was for a prototype witch, and not Charlotte herself. A canon backstory was finally settled upon in Magia Record: she wished for a cheesecake, the kind her abusive mother liked, so she could eat it in front of her as she died; however before her mother's natural death, she was killed by the assassin Yuu (who was previously mentioned in Homura's summer event "The Ribbon By The Beach" as a believed Posthumous Character), pushing Nagisa over the edge to becoming a witch.
  • Kyoko's wish-derived powers. Fans pegged it as some kind of Mind Control (based on her wish causing everyone to listen to her father) until Word of God said that it was never seen in the series and revolved around light and illusions. The third Drama CD revealed it was actually a Doppleganger Attack.
  • There were also some assumptions about Kyoko's family, particularly her sister's name. The third Drama CD gave it as Momo.
  • For the longest time, fans thought Mami's wish was "I don't want to die alone" mostly for the sake of irony. Word of God later said it was "to connect to life" (i.e. "I want to stay alive"). This then became God Never Said That when some people (on this wiki, even) read it as "to connect to lives", which has a different meaning altogether.
  • Kyouko is sometimes portrayed as wearing a Mitakihara middle school girl's uniform in fanart, like the other four magical girls do. However, not only is Kyouko from another city, but it's indicated that she doesn't even attend school. There is a reason for this: The On the Next segement of each Madoka Magica episode included an image drawn by a guest artist. The one for the last episode was drawn by Madoka Magica's character designer Ume Aoki and contained an image of all the magical girls in the same school uniform. In short, while it's not exactly canon, it is based on official art. And then the trailer for the third movie shows Kyoko in the school uniform, making it canon.
  • Homura's timeline count. In the series, it's shown to be five at the least. Though it's a point of debate among the more technically-minded fans, most fanfic writers take a more dramatic approach, suggesting anywhere from several dozen to several hundred, with some heading into the thousands. Stories that don't provide a count still often show her acting as if resetting the timeline is almost meaningless to her. No matter which way, they all seem to agree that the ones seen in the series were only a very small fraction of what she went through. Word of God confirmed this to a degree, claiming that it was "approaching 100." The lowest number that tends to appear is around 14, based on how many strings are seen around Madoka at one point, though this is the minimalist count.
  • The final fates of Oriko, Kirika, and Yuma in other timelines. Though Yuma's fate seems variable, just about everyone who thinks Oriko and Kirika exist in other timelines suggests that Homura assassinates them early on to ensure they cannot kill Madoka again.
    • On a less extreme note, the idea that Homura specifically saves the cat from the opening to ensure it can't be run over and save it so Madoka doesn't make a wish to revive it is a common concept.
  • Are magical girls immortal? The series is pretty ambiguous on the issue; Mami and Kyoko both age, but Homura doesn't (though her powers could be a factor). A great number of fans, though, have suggested that magical girls have some form of eternal youth, either being able to freeze their age or being ageless as a consequence of having a body that's already dead. Not helping is the canon itself being vague on this point: in Magia Record 19-year-old Mifuyu is pushed into joining the Magius because she believes she's getting weaker as a result of aging, meanwhile in Tart Magica the character of Perenelle Flamel does not have an explicitly stated age but can be calculated from her date of birth in real life to be 108 years old despite appearing no older than 30 and it's implied she's even older than that, with Magia Record implying she, alongside Elisa and Melissa, are still alive in the present day, while Mifuyu's concerns are countered by similar Magical Girls in Magia Record who lack this issue despite a similar age and tenure and implications magic loss is more a result of mindset (like Kyoko's loss of illusion powers) than anything inherent to age, and members of the Tokime Clan are descendants of at least one Magical Girl, meaning that Magical Girls are still able to have children.
  • A fairly minor one, but many fanartists draw Homura with surgical scar(s) along her chest as a sign of her alluded heart problem. Though there are (with varied level of canonicity) arts from the animation staffs of the minimally dressed Homura and none of them sporting that scar, many like that one detail for giving a sign of realism to her Delicate and Sickly past.
    • A variant on this minor fanon is the idea of Homura carrying marks from her timeloops, leaving her Covered with Scars, on top of the above mentioned surgical scars.
  • They're all lesbian. No exception. The fanon especially leans towards Homura (for crossing the "Ambiguous Relationship" line with Madoka too many times to count) and Kyoko (the tough tomboy who changed her whole attitude and eventually gave up her life for Sayaka. When it comes to those who are attracted to guys (but also pretty much always also attracted to girls), that list tends to include Sayaka (who canonically is interested in Kyosuke, though writing her as being oblivious to the fact she actually has no romantic interest in boys is not unheard of in fanfics) and Mami. Madoka tends to fluctuate, though it is rare to have her not be in a relationship with Homura or another girl in most works that aren't deconstructive.
  • Hitomi being a magical girl in past timeline(s) is pretty much accepted by all of the fandom or taken as granted as a possibility.
    • Similarly, many assume that Momo, Kyoko’s sister was also a Magical Girl, and if so her witch form is Elsa Maria, though the latter has become less common of a theory over time.
  • If there are other Incubators involved in a story, they will usually follow the Theme Naming set by Kyubey and Jubey of being named based the Japanese pronunciation of a number and then the suffix "-bey". This was jossed later when it is established that the species are naturally a hive mind without individuality, with Jubey being a failed artificial clone.
  • While there is some hints in canon that the timelines that Homura jumps to are not completely identical to each other without the butterfly effect, as for example one has some hints that Kyosuke played guitar in one timeline instead of violin, often fanworks will increase the differences between them to put Homura in various strange, whacky hijinks to either establish sufficient changes to bring on a different ending, or just to put Homura in unusual situations for a bit of fun.
  • Due to several fanfics that explore the idea in great detail, such as Persephone's Waltz, may fans assume that at some point Homura tried to prevent Madoka from being a magical girl by kidnapping her and locking her away to keep her away from Kyubey. This is typically depicted as taking place in a earlier timeloop, and if not the focus on the story it is usually treated as something Homura doesn't particularly feel proud of trying. It also never works and if not the main point of the story it is typically an aside.
  • Little about Sayaka's family is said one way or another, though it is pretty clearly implied that her family is around, we see them in a flashback briefly, and several lines put them in the middle class. Fans as a result like to write Sayaka has having some sort of family problem, like her family being too busy to be around a lot, as a way to accomplish a variety of things like add more misery to the series, have Madoka's canonical and fleshed out family more or less adopt her (often alongside Homura), and make it easier to have her be left alone for magical girl hijinks of the action and the romantic kind.
  • Madoka's mother, Junko, is frequently depicted as Bisexual. Along with setting up Hereditary Homosexuality and ensuring there is no angst on Madoka's end should she start to date another girl (pretty much always Homura), this will typically include a reference to a past relationship with Madoka's teacher Kazuko Saotome. The two are pretty much always Amicable Exes at worst who were together in college, though stories where they still occasionally hook up do occur. In such scenarios Madoka's father is either completely okay with it, or is involved. Sometimes the latter is part of a past Kazuko and Junko romantic escapade. Regardless of the details, Madoka does not enjoy hearing about her mother and teacher's past flings, especially if her father is also involved.
    • Similarly Kyoko's father is often written to have no issues with sexuality despite being a preacher. Along with being an interpretation of his church reforming goals, it also serves the means of having Kyoko be completely at ease with herself and to have one area where she does not have angst or issues as a result of her family's tragic past.
  • Homura using her powers to steal Madoka's underwear to wear on her head and otherwise perv on her is a very common joke, especially in Japanese fan-art circles.
  • While there is some debate between canons and some obscure statements making it unclear if Walpurgisnacht was killed by Madoka in the first three timelines or not, fan works generally lean towards having Madoka having done so.
  • Mami is commonly written as being terrified of being inside cars as a result of her parents dying in a car crash, refusing to go in one as much as possible.
  • With Mami's hints at having foreign ancestry and fondness for using Italian attack names, many fans assume one of her parents was at least partially, if not fully, Italian.
  • Mami and Kyoko's exact timeline, especially before the release of Different Story, was generally up for debate, but a common number for the two being anywhere from two to three years of being Magical Girls before the events of the series. Typically if Mami was depicted as being a Magical Girl for three years, Kyoko would be given a tenure of about two or one and a half, with their fallen partnership having happened about a year ago. Post Different Story the numbers have shifted downwards, but you will still find stories with the higher-end numbers.
  • The existence of Magical Girl gangs in other cities, often with squabbles with Kyoko she mentions being on the run from when she comes into the story. While eventually shown in Magia Record via Promised Blood, the idea predates them and was loosely based off groups like the Pleiades Saints, who did in fact have a history with Kyoko.
  • The Incubators being perfectly able to grant wishes to trans girls and other non-gender conforming individuals has not been seen in canon, but is common in fan stories under the general note that A: it has not been disproven, and B: if the Incubators could do it, they would have no reason not to.
    • Those born and identifying as male contracting is also something fans believe to be possible, just rare due to being less energy efficient than females and that the Incubators would contract 'Magical Boys' if they were to find a male with high enough potential.
  • Oriko being seen as Homura's Arch-Enemy. While many assume they have clashed a lot, there is no indication that Homura in particular hates Oriko that much, or that she'd compare to the likes of Kyubey, Walpurgisnacht or herself when it comes to who is Homura's greatest enemy.
  • Grief Spirals being a term given to Magical Girls who start falling into despair that feeds into itself, with the darkening Soul Gem making the Magical Girl more depressed and experience more negative emotions in a spiral all the way to turning into a Witch without intervention, usually in the cleaning of the Soul Gem. Based on what happened to Sayaka in canon, the term has never been used in canon, though there have been scenes in other material such as Magia Record where it is shown that a Magical Girl's emotional state can be affected by the state of their Soul Gem, meaning that a connection is plausible, just not ever outright stated.
  • The reason that Magical Girl costumes look the way they do isn't explained in series, only hinted at via Madoka's doodles of her own possible Magical Girl outfit she makes in the second episode that look very similar to her eventual outfit. However fans generally assume, much like in other Magical Girl series like Nanoha and Miraculous Ladybug that the costumes are, to various degrees of intent, conscious creations of the Magical Girl in question.

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