Rewatching early episodes is kind of uncomfortable in light of certain events.
Kazuko's wacky ramblings about her failed relationships. In the first episode she warns the girls about men who judge women by the eggs they can prepare; Kyubey/Incubator turns out to be exactly that kind of guy. In episode 4 she goes off on a tangent about biological eligibility having nothing to do with finding or pursuing love; unfortunately, Sayaka is in no state to listen, and only gets worse. It's also possible that, in light of what happens to Sayaka, her frustration, instead of something to be taken lightly, might be a symptom of deep depression.
In episode 2, the line "Don't worry, I won't lose my head in front of my future juniors" is said. Just guess who said that and why it was a very wrong thing to say.
Hitomi's memorable "forbidden love" line takes a much darker turn in Rebellion.
Remember Urobuchi's line on Page 120 of the "You Are Not Alone" Guidebook note "I just do not feel that even if she hooked up with him (Kyosuke), that girl would really be happy ever after." ? Aoi Yuuki later reveals that she plans to stay single. (Though not because of never actually wanting to marry; it's mostly due to rabid fans feeling betrayed and angry to the point of almost every voice actress ending up with another man.)
It's unfortunate that Mami just so happened to wear her soul gem on a hair clip, since she loses it along with her head.
Mami accusing Homura of "thinking like a bullied child" in regard to not wanting Madoka to contract. Come episode 10 and drama CD 1, which reveal that while not quite "bullied," Homura didn't have any friends besides Madoka in the first timeline, owing to her falling behind in school and doing poorly in gym class.
Mami tying up Homura in episode 3, to keep her from interfering with the fight with Charlotte. Not only does this result in Mami's death, but in the third timeline, after finding out that magical girls become witches from Sayaka turning into Oktavia, Mami attempted to Mercy Kill the rest of the group to prevent the same fate from happening to them, by shooting Kyoko and tying Homura up, leaving her powerless to do anything and only being saved by Madoka killing Mami.
Madoka talking to Homura, episode 4: "I get the feeling you're a veteran at this too... and I guess you've seen lots of people die horribly, haven't you?" Yes, Madoka, she has. Including you. This entire conversation is awful. It ends with Madoka promising to never forget Homura. Not only has she repeatedly "forgotten" her in multiple timelines, but everyone (except Homura) will also forget Madoka once she becomes God.
In episode 2, Madoka asks Homura what she wished for when she became a magical girl. It's a perfectly innocent question that becomes horrible if you've seen the show to the end. In fact, if you watch the show twice, the first few episodes just seem like an exercise in how much Homura can be utterly tormented by otherwise innocuous comments.
Look at these◊ adorable pictures from Madoka's childhood after finishing the show.
In episode 10, the Sayaka in a previous timeline complains about Homura's reliance on bombs because she thinks she might get caught up in one of the explosions. Later in that timeline, guess how Oktavia is defeated?
In a more meta example, episode 10 featured the image of a destroyed and flooded Japanese city. Shortly after it aired, Japan got hit with a massive earthquake and tsunami.
Over late October and early November 2012, history repeats itself, as the international release of the Madoka compilation movies sees the US hit by Hurricane Sandy. Ouch.
Rebellion comes out, and a few weeks later the Philippines gets hit by a typhoon.
Episode 11 has Madoka's mom allowing her to leave the shelter by herself to go out into a dangerous storm. Considering the dangerous weather real life Japan had to deal with mentioned above, along with the fact that it was in the middle of a supposed supercell, it makes one wonder how Junko could have possibly allowed this.
Madoka's Image Song, "See You Tomorrow" is a surprisingly depressing song about Madoka's Stepford Smiler tendencies, but it falls squarely into this trope after the end of the anime, when people interpret it as her saying goodbye to her friends and loved ones before Ascending to a Higher Plane of Existence. Come Rebellion, Homura ends up coming to the conclusion that Madoka regrets the sacrifice she made.
Mami breaking down in tears and asking, desperately "Will you stay with me?" when Madoka decides she'll become her student Magical Girl was already sad, but is made worse once you read The Different Story manga, where it is revealed that Mami has had several students (including Kyoko) who have all abandoned her ideology and left her behind.
Almost every conversation involving Homura in the first nine episodes take heartbreaking new overtones when it is revealed that she is in a self-inflicted "Groundhog Day" Loop trying to save Madoka from all the (horrific) fates that becoming a Magical Girl entail.
As the animated Walpurgisnacht witch attack, a massively destructive event in a big Japanese city, was about to air, the 2011 TÅhoku earthquake and tsunami happened. The episodes were delayed for more than a month, because the harsh similarities were obvious. However, they were most likely animated before the event (and most certainly scripted before the event). The Internet, of course, exploded with the comparison.
One inversion involves Homura's final confrontation with Sayaka. Telling Sayaka, essentially, that "If you do not pull yourself together I will put you down like a dog because your self-destructive misery is making Madoka sad." seems a sign that Homura has lost more than a little perspective. However given the revelations at the end of the episode, the threat is more "If you do not pull yourself together I will put you down like a dog before you become an Eldritch Abomination and if we are lucky only a few innocents will die horribly before we destroy what is left of you anyway... and that would make Madoka sad."
Bebe/ Nagisa's obsession with cheese is funny and adorable. Not so much after reading her backstory in Magia Record where it's revealed that she actually doesn't like cheese and her obsession with it is a representation of her seeking but never obtaining her mother's approval. Of course, Magia Record is non-canon to the main series: it remains to be seen whether Nagisa of the canon continuity is the same.
It seems that Madoka and natural disasters involving water have something in common. The last two episodes of the anime had to be delayed because of the 2011 tsunami. The first two movies had the East United States being hit by Hurricane Sandy. Rebellion comes out, and history repeats, with the Philippines being hit with a typhoon.
Urobuchi has said that the story of Rebellion coincidentally matches the lyrics from "Magia". What he didn't say is that makes their implications even more frightening than before, considering the ending.
Spin-offs
Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story: After Kyoko's father rejects her wish for him to have more followers, Kyoko questions Mami on the futility of saving witch kiss victims, noting that they would've had suicidal thoughts to be susceptible to a witch's kiss and if it was better to let such people die than waste magic trying to save someone who didnt want to live anyway. Mami counters back stating that as magical girls their purpose is to save lives regardless of the coast and what happens afterward is up to the victim. The conversation is sad enough in that Kyoko has already started to doubt her ideals but hits home harder if you play the Mami route in Madoka Magica Portable in which the catalyst for Mami becoming Candeloro is saving a woman who turns out to be suicidal even without the witch's kiss. The woman had lost her child to a witch with Mami unable to do anything about it and the woman wants to die to be reunited with her son. The resultant guilt drives Mami into sinking until she becomes a witch. In addition there's Mami finding about the truth about the puella magi system in The Different Story and attempting suicide just like in canon and Kyoko attempting to stop her only for Mami to succeed anyway.
In a flashback, after a young Oriko pledges her efforts to help her father, he offers her a reward, and she says, "Daddy, you can't give out bribes!", to which he laughs and says she "got (him) there". Taking money that doesn't belong to him, on the other hand...
Quite a few things from Oriko are reminiscent of things from Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion, even though it's accidental. The things include *WARNING REBELLION SPOILERS* one of the mains taking someone under her wing, a witch barrier being created before the magical girl becomes a witch, and almost everything about Kirika Kure.
It is human emotion that created the gods and created the demons.
Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Ashley Taylor being created as an original character for the NA server almost became this after the announcement of the end of service, with people fearing that she would end up as Permanently Missable Content unobtainable in both the JP and TW servers, but would ultimately end up being averted when she was announced for the JP server in February 2021.
◊ adorable pictures from Madoka's childhood after finishing the show.
