[Hooves]

Homura

Originally Posted by Triple_R

1) Homura has seen a lot of magical girls die. This means that either she's been a magical girl for a considerable length of time (likely at least several years) or that magical girls get killed with a great deal of frequency (at least one or two a week), or both. If she's been a magical girl for a considerable length of time, that could mean that either she wished for eternal youth, or that magical girls don't age naturally in Madoka's universe.

Well if she wished for eternal youth, we don't exactly know when Mami herself made her wish. So it could be that their aging is neglected for a long time, or forever. But if Mami made her wish before 2-3 years have passed, then there would prove that. But Homura wanted to go about stopping girls from becoming magical girls, so she probably did wish for eternal youth to stop as many as she can.

3) There was a window of opportunity here for Homura to try to kill Kyubey if she still wanted to. With Mami dead, with Kyubey temporarily leaving Madoka and Sayaka, and with the latest magical girl not having arrived yet, there was a period of time in which Kyubey would have been more or less defenseless against another attempt on his life by Homura. The fact that she didn't try to kill him again strongly suggests that her earlier attempt on his life was based solely on a desire to prevent him from making contact with Madoka. So, Homura does not believe or know that Kyubey is evil. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that he isn't, but it means that if he is, then Homura (and likely Mami as well, before she died) did not know about that. More on this in a bit.

I think Homura is not going after Kyubey now is because the fact that Madoka is indecisive about her decision to become one or not. So she is letting her guard down for now.

4) Homura is clearly very desperate to prevent Madoka from becoming a magical girl. This suggests that Homura has a particular affection for Madoka, or that Homura knows what will happen if Madoka becomes a magical girl, or both. This strongly hints at time travel or time reset being part of the in-canon background for this anime. One possible alternative, though, could be that Homura wished to have the ability to see into the future, and has hence already seen what will happen if Madoka becomes a magical girl.

Mami and Homura both new there was something special about Madoka that Kyubey wanted. As long as Madoka is indecisive on becoming a magical girl, then there would be nothing pressing her into killing Kyubey before the contract is made. But being able to see into the future is a possibility, because if she merely just wanted to help all the girls not become a Magical Girl. Then she would have just killed off Kyubey like you said, she would have tried to keep Sayaka from making her decision as well.

Kyubey

Kyubey is either an amoral agent concerned solely with recruiting magical girls to fight witches, or he's running a Xanatos Gambit or something close to it. He does come across as manipulative and machiavellian. If he does have a grand scheme in mind, he's carefully running it behind the scenes, as I strongly doubt that Homura or Mami had much inkling of it. Whether this latest magical girl is in on such a scheme remains to be scene.

There are many things to say about what Kyubey is plotting in his mind. He is merely just trying to get as much Magical Girls fighting witches as he can so he can keep the world safe from everyone committing suicide because of the witches' kiss that appear on their neck. After seeing so much magical girls die before him, just like with Homura he does not show that much reaction or emotion towards their death (well Homura does have some emotions about it) but he knows these things are going to happen, all he wants is just to get girls to fight the witches' to keep the place safe. Of course that's the basic view of it.

Madoka

1. It's highly unlikely that the female lead of a magical girl show will never become a magical girl.

This is true there would have been no point in making a costume for Madoka if she was never going to be one in the first place

2. Whether or not Madoka becomes a magical girl is very important to both Kyubey (very much wants it) and Homura (very much doesn't want it).

I believe when Madoka eventually becomes a magical girl, Mami's interpretation on why Homura is trying to prevent Madoka from becoming a magical girl will eventually turn into a fight between the two maybe? After all the time she spent trying to prevent Madoka from becoming one, she goes and decides to become one regardless and it might actually interfere with something Homura is trying to do.

Sayaka

2. Homura being very displeased at how Sayaka has chosen to be a magical girl. The sense you get from Homura is that Sayaka's choice to become one raises the likelihood of Madoka choosing to be one.

I go by the opinion of a girl dying each 3 episodes if Mami died this quickly. If Sayaka does die eventually, then that will only make Madoka go into deeper thought and no one can stop her when she chooses to become a magical girl after seeing two of her best friends die with her being powerless because Homura tells her to.

There's an outside chance that an earlier speculation of mine could be wrong, and that this could occur even next episode (since the latest magical girl has stated a desire to kill Sayaka). But I think that Sayaka will win out in that struggle, but will not come out of it unscathed. This will horrify Madoka, and start her to second guess whether or not to become a magical girl, in order for her to better help out and support Sayaka.

Or it could merely turn into a fight between the two that just leads to Sayaka getting beat up really badly. But things might occur like a witch appearing all of a sudden and with Sayaka still weak it might lead to bad events. It's merely a fight for territory for the new girl so if it actually is a fight to the death, of course she will take it quite seriously. But if it's merely a fight for dominance and superiority then I'm sure she would just go about beating Sayaka up, but not killing her.