[AuraTwilight]

(the idea of him constantly hounding her for years with her repeatedly saying "no" honestly seems a bit silly to me - Madoka has high magical girl potential, but eventually Kyubey is being really wasteful in trying in vain to complete a very hard sell when he could be spending that time contracting with countless other much more willing girls).

Uh, Kyubey is effectively omnipresent, since he possesses multiple bodies all ovet the planet. He has no reason not to constantly harasss Madoka.

That being said, while I did give EXTREME examples, the point I'm making remains valid. Just because Walpurgisnacht is defeated doesn't really mean jack. Bad shit can still happen, and it doesn't even need to happen to HER; Madoka is a self-sacrificing person by nature. What if World War III is going to break out, for instance, and she has the knowledge that she can prevent it with a simple wish?

And Kybuey specifically (and seemingly exclusively) targets teenage girls. If and when Madoka reaches adulthood, she's no longer a teenage girl.

That's really not conclusive. Just because he only targets teenage girls on screen doesn't mean that's all he ever targets in the fictional universe of Puella Magi. He only really does so in order to help construct and subvert the "Magical Girl" premise; the justifications come after that fact and it's sort of a plot hole. I like to think that any person of any age or gender can be contracted as long as they meet certain qualifications.

I strongly disagree with the idea that the anime ending is the only viable outcome. Why would somebody even play this game unless they were willing to accept different outcomes? Isn't that the whole point of a game like this?

I wasn't really saying it was the only viable outcome, I'm just disagreeing with the assumption that the Tea Party Ending means everything is gonna be totally dandy for the rest of their lives. That being said, one could argue that it's the only morally viable conclusion we're presented with, since Madoka is forsaking countless despairing, tortured souls for her own transient, mortal, ultimately short and fragile happiness as a human being.

Also, What-Ifs are fun, even if they're canonically impossible.

Triple_R already said most of what I was thinking. Ultimately, both anime and manga makes a point that Walpurgis is THE turning point. After Walpurgis, the rest is, life, so to speak, and at that point Madoka would be prepared to face life without using magic, like most people would do.

It's obvious Urobuchi thought things that way from the very beginning. The fact that in the anime Homura tells Kyoko that she was planing to leave town if she defeated Walpurgis makes that very clear!!!!

Walpurgisnacht is only significant because she's the obstacle Homura can't overturn no matter how much she tries. The anime and manga never give serious consideration to what will happen if she's dealt with without Madoka contracting, and what would happen afterwards. The focus was on the struggle to actually GET there first.

It's obvious Urobuchi thought things that way from the very beginning. The fact that in the anime Homura tells Kyoko that she was planing to leave town if she defeated Walpurgis makes that very clear!!!!

Bull. For starters, Homura is saying this in order to get Kyoko's cooperation. She wants this territory, and Homura is promising it to her in order to recruit her as an ally. Even if we assume she's being honest, this doesn't mean anything. Homura isn't omniscient, and doesn't know what will actually happen after Walpurgis is defeated. She's just built so much importance, hope, and desperation on this one obstacle that she's really, really hoping, to the point of confirmation bias, that everything will be fine if she can pull this off.

Given episode 11's conclusion, i'm not sure she's psychologically able to cope with pondering the prospect that defeating Walpurgis after all this time won't change anything and that she'll have to guard Madoka her entire life and deny her any sort of free agency, or else have to start ALL OVER AGAIN...

Also, what happens if Walpurgis is defeated, and then a week later, a construction beam falls on Madoka's face? OOPS RESET LOL hope you can defeat Walpurgis again. You only did it once after 598 attempts but maybe you can do it twice in a row, right?