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Since witches are actually magical girls who, when their soul gems are fully tainted, become witches, that means that Walpurgisnacht was a magical girl. Since Madoka in two realities became a witch that could destroy the world/universe, that would mean there was a magical girl who was, at the time, much stronger than Madoka (before Homura's trips to the past compiling Madoka's fate and power).

Which magical girl became Walpurgisnacht? Were they like Madoka, and had their fate compiled from overlapping timelines?

Cattua
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Memor-X
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  • what if the shadow magical girls are part of her? maybye walpurgisnacht is multiple witches, just a theory but those shadow magical girls are pretty suspicious.... – whakamole Dec 19 '13 at 16:12
  • @whakamole Could you explain What are shadow magical girls, for those that might not be familiar with the plot of series? – кяαzєя Dec 19 '13 at 16:21
  • Worth noting that there can be more witches than magical girls, because familiars can be promoted to witches if they kill enough. – Mindwin Remember Monica Feb 20 '17 at 20:20

7 Answers7

8

There is no information about who it was that became Walpurgisnacht. All we really know is that Walpurgisnacht is, in some sense, a fusion of multiple witches (or magical girls, I guess).

Official description from July 2011 Megami interview with Urobuchi:

In the last episode we saw the "Walpurgisnacht", but what kind of witch is it specifically?

It has the destructive power to bring about natural disasters powerful enough to blow away an entire town, but originally it was a single witch. It's a witch that has grown from the combination of countless other witches. Walpurgisnacht combines with other witches in the same way two powerful tornadoes are able to combine and become larger. It's essentially a "conglomeration"-type witch. Because it's so powerful, it rarely shows itself.

See the Madoka wiki for more details.

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senshin
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  • It may be possible that the last Madoka movie sheds some light on it – Jon Lin Aug 28 '13 at 23:17
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    It turns out that the third Madoka movie does not, in fact, shed any light on this issue, so this is answer is still the best we have, as far as I know. – senshin Dec 19 '13 at 23:09
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An interesting question... a late answer...

I strongly disagree with the interpretation of Homura Akemi herself being the Walpurgisnacht witch. The circumstances during her wish themselves prove that Homura's not the witch.

Homura wished to re-live the time period when she met Madoka for the first time and protect her, instead of it being the other way around. She wished for this, only after Madoka (in the original timeline) died fighting the Walpurgisnacht witch. So, it is evident that Homura was not even a magical girl at that point, so forget the possibility of her being the Walpurgisnacht witch.

Also note that the Walpurgisnacht witch cannot be Homura from the "future" either, because each of the altered timeline universes created by virtue of Homura's wish are independent of each other.

In actuality, the Walpurgisnacht witch is an amalgamation/(coalesced form) of multiple witches/familiars. This can be supported by the scene where the witch disintegrates after Madoka's wish. It seems to suggest that it had resulted from 32 individual magical girls/witches...

Multiple witches of the Walpurgisnacht witch

varun
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I did a bit of research, and found that Walpurgisnacht is the conglomeration of many witches into one. Akemi Homura may be a key element in Walpurgisnacht since Walpurgisnacht appears out of nowhere. This could possibly be time travel, and the witch that Homura turns into could have eaten/absorbed other witches until she became Walpurgisnacht.

senshin
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whakamole
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  • Just so you know, your "research" is already explained in [this answer](http://anime.stackexchange.com/a/5014/24). Interesting theory though. – Logan M Dec 19 '13 at 17:45
  • Oh, sorry about that, seems I looked it up for nothing :-P – whakamole Dec 21 '13 at 00:21
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All of the imagery associated with Walpurgisnacht is the same imagery associated with Homura specifically.

  • When Homura turns into a witch and fights Kyubey, the images of her upside-down smiling is exactly the same as Walpurgisnacht's entrance.
  • Walpurgis is a fusion of two gears with two magical concentric circles surrounding her. Homura is always surrounded by gears, clocks, etc. because she is a machinist and a time traveler.
  • Walpurgisnacht appears in every timeline at the exact moment that Homura gives up on her quest to save Madoka. Bearing in mind that Sayaka's imagery was the same as a magical girl and witch (trains, music, swords, capes, mermaid transformation sequence, etc.), it would be logical that Walpurgis is either Homura or that Homura contributes the vast majority of Walpurgis' power with the inverse of her wish to change fate.
nhahtdh
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JYH
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    we know from the rebellion movie that Walpurgisnacht is not Homura and that Homura's witch form is Homu-Lily, the same witch she becomes in the game, the part about Homura contributing to Walpurgisnacht's power is about the only thing that could be plausible but it would be good if you provide some sort of evidence to back this up (observations in the anime/movie, site references) – Memor-X Sep 15 '14 at 13:02
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Witch form of Homura (Homulilly) was presented in the PSP game and it looks nothing like her witch form from Rebellion. One can say that this means that depending on the circumstances witch form can change. Plus, Madoka's witch form (Kriemhild Gretchen) also looks slightly different in different timelines.

Nutcracker Homulilly lacks top of the head and on the concept art for Walpurgis Night you can see that Walpurgis also does not have a top of the head. Nutcracker Homulilly also has oldee-european style dress similar to dress that Walpurgis has. Gears/clock theme that Walpurgis and Homura share, similar conical silhouette, two streak hair (braid on PSP Homililly, just streaks on Nutcracker and two-hat thing on Walpurgis), plus production notes that say that "Walpurgisnacht's and Kriemhild Gretchen's silhouettes are supposed to make a pair and they are meant to look like an hourglass". All this pretty much cements Homura as Walpurgis. Regular designs of Homura and Madoka are also make pair, with Homura being black and purple and Madoka white and pink (purple being basically pink with a lot black and gray added to it).

Also, facts aside, thematically there is no reason for Walpurgis to be anyone else beside Homura. If Walpurgis is Homura it creates dramatic irony of Homura fighting with herself and more she grows stronger the stronger her enemy becomes. And trying to save Madoka from her dark side Homura more and more corners Madoka into basically suicide. From the literary stance Homura being Walpurgis makes perfect sense, especially after "Akumura" is created. "Trying to fix everything you only make it worse and probably things would be better if you leave them alone" seems to be a theme with the series in general and especially Homura.

anon
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Basically, Walpurgisnacht is a Witch that is to be blunt like a Cluster of Witches and it came to be from a single witch that was just either left to its own devices until no solitary Magical Girl could handle it.

That is to say she appears and at that point she also attracts Magical Girls to kill her as she is a reference to the gathering of witches. She is never really explained but we know she isn't Homura nor has she been seen as a Magical Girl. We do know that she could be like Madoka and have made a wish so selfless it made a wish with a curse equally as big as her wish. For example, a queen wishing for her countries prosperity and then she is hung or beheaded by the very people she made a wish for.

絢瀬絵里
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Tatsumi
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I'd assume it was someone who had a lot of ties of fate, maybe one of the queens of England, since her outfit would fit their attire. I'd also assume it could have been the same situation that Madoka and Homura had, or she could have wished to be the most powerful magical girl of all time, and turned to Walpurgisnacht.

nhahtdh
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Flameman
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