Speculah:Prior Lives of Witches

File:Charlotte and Gertrud.png

Artist rendition of Charlotte as normal girl

With witches are fallen magical girls theory proven true, the fan base has moved to speculate the prior lives of the girls and the nature of their wishes prior to their witchification. This page is dedicated to such speculations:

Charlotte

Based on her lair that splices hospital and dessert imagery, the fanbase speculated that Charlotte was a young terminal cancer patient whom contracted with Kyuubey in order to recover. Her desire for cheese can be explained by the fact that many cancer patients cannot ingest dairy.

Although there is zero evidence for such a claim, a number of fans suspect that the title character of the unreleased prequel manga Oriko Magica will become Charlotte. Oriko herself is clearly a young girl, as many speculate Charlotte was, and it seems that she will be associating with Kyoko and Mami. Since Kyoko loves food, and Mami gets killed by Charlotte, Oriko becoming Charlotte would then be ironic. Furthermore, Homura is stated to appear in Oriko. Oriko is a prequel, so it's possible it will occur while Homura is in the hospital. If that is true, it's then possible we will see Homura in the hospital because Oriko is at the same hospital, matching the speculation of Charlotte being a cancer patient.

Elly

Judging from the imagery within her barrier (in particular the silhouette of a girl with twintails within the TV-body of Elly; it must be noted that the witch herself also has twintails) and the statement that the witch is a shut-in, she may have been a recluse who wished for popularity as an idol and eventually broke down under the pressure (of being an idol, a magical girl, or both.) H.N. may thus refer to not just her nickname on the internet, but her handle name as an idol.

Elsa Maria

Possibly a similar story to Kyouko, or possibly Kyouko's younger sister.

As she seems of a religious bent and her shadow takes humans and animals alike without discrimination, her wish could have been a vaguely-worded one to help others (which the Incubators' plan already does) or to bring salvation to all, and she might have devoted her life as a magical girl to the destruction of "demonic beings" witches appear to be (many Christian demons have unusual forms, so thinking witches as agents of Hell is presumably an easy mistake to make.) Her own transformation into a witch might have been initiated by the reveal that witches are former magical girls, leading Elsa Maria to realize that the witches she had been slaying without question until now were other magical girls instead of servants of the Devil and consequently fall into despair. If that is the case, her intentions are ironically fulfilled after she is transformed into a witch, as her shadow now liberates any and all. Her praying posture may be as a result of her regret for inadvertently slaying witches, she thus seeks redemption by constantly praying for their souls as well as the rest of humanity. Her thematic links to the Tree of Knowledge might come from her belief that she made the same mistake as Eve when accepting to become a magical girl, with Kyuubey taking the role of the Serpent.

Oktavia von Seckendorff

See Sayaka.

Roberta

As the witch was shown in an alternate timeline, it is speculated that this witch was Mami. The reasons for this speculation are as follows: a flower pattern is seen on the floor of Roberta's barrier (although the pattern also resembles a gear), she seems to explode into muskets (Mami's weapon) when killed, and of course, the witch has no head. The cage she appears in would then symbolize Mami's isolation.

The main strike against this theory is that if Mami transformed into a witch in that timeline, she wouldn't have lost her head against Charlotte.

Kriemhild Gretchen

See Madoka.

Walpurgis Night

Some fans speculate that this is the witch form of Homura. Evidence supporting this theory are mechanical gears on the witch's body, also seen in Homura's shield. This would imply that Homura becoming a witch is a meta-timeline event, thanks to her time travel-related wish.

Others speculate that Walpurgis is the witch-form of a magical girl who defeated a previous Walpurgis. Some go as far to suggest that Walpurgis is of extraterrestrial origin.

Another line of speculation is that Walpurgis is actually a composite being formed from a number of witches fusing into one super-witch. This comes from the fact that Walpurgis Night is, in German folklore and Goethe's Faust, a gathering of witches. According to this theory, the witches are "gathering" into one. If true, Walpurgis technically has no prior existence as a magical girl. It also offers an explanation for the subtle differences between the Walpurgis seen in episode 1 and the other two seen in episode 10; they're formed from different combinations of witches.