Wish theories
This section may contain major spoilers!
Please refrain from reading if you are not yet familiar with all the latest media released.Kyubey's proposition includes granting a wish in exchange for the person to become a mahou shoujo. This page lists those who have encountered Kyubey and guesses about wishes. Note that these are speculations and not the character's actual wishes.
Madoka's Wish
✖ Deus Ex Machina or "I wish Mami were alive"
Madoka wishes Mami back to life. This one is so easily corrupted, especially if the "Witches are fallen magical girls" theory proves true. You wished her alive Madoka, you never said as a magical girl!
This theory has been proven wrong in Episode 10, where Madoka is a magical girl, even when Mami's still alive. However, being that Madoka's wish is never actually seen, this may be a wish in an alternate timeline somewhere in the series.
✖ Procrastinating Until the End of the World
Madoka resists making a wish until the very end of the series, when the apocalyptic scenario from her dream comes into play, and she uses her wish to solve everything at once or cause a global reset. "I wish everything would go back to the way it was before I met Kyubey!"
This, however, does not come to pass in Episode 12, the only timeline in which she could logically make this wish.
✖ The Human Instrumentality Project
Madoka wishes to end all suffering. Everyone gets hugged and turns into Morning Rescue.
This wish is never made by the end of the series, and presumably did not happen in the previous timelines as otherwise the whole suffering scenario wouldn't exist.
✔ Timeline 1 - Save that cat!
The first Drama CD of Puella Magi Madoka Magica reveals that the reason that Madoka became a Puella Magi was to save a cat from being run over by a car. She admits that she is a text book example of someone who became a magical girl on a whim without thinking about it. Her wish was born from the kindness toward a cat. Truth be told, no fan (as I know) saw this one coming, yet at the same time it is not surprising considering this is Madoka we are talking about.
Note that it is also very likely that she made the same wish in Timelines 2 and 3, though this is not confirmed.
✔ Story timeline - I want to change everything!
Madoka's wishes for a way to save all her friends and change the magical girl system permanently.
This comes to pass in Episode 12 where Madoka wishes to purge the world of witches, though at the cost of her existence.
Timeline 4 - I want the power to protect Homura-chan
In Timeline 4, seeing Homura getting beaten up by the WN, she wishes that she could have the power to protect Homura, no matter where she goes, so that she will never have to suffer because of her anymore. That can explain why in Timeline 4, she suddenly had awesome powers, and in Timeline 5, she still had those powers according to Kyubey.
Fight to save people
Madoka wishes to help everyone in need, from suffering people, to the fallen such as Mami, to the witches lost in grief. She becomes a magical girl with the potential to solve any problem, but neither she, nor Kyubey, nor other magical girls have any idea how her powers work, so saving the world is still easier said than done.
Unlikely given that she probably made the same wish that she did in Timeline 1, though this is not confirmed.
Power to Defeat the Most Powerful Witch
Witnessing Homura fight against an impossible foe, Madoka simply wishes for power -- enough to instantly defeat even the most powerful witch.
This could be her wish in the timeline where Madoka defeats the Walpurgis Night easily but turns into an even more destructive witch afterward. However, this obviously does not apply to Madoka of timelines where she was already a magical girl when meeting Homura.
Timelines 1-3 - Cake
Madoka wishes for cake.
Unlikely given that she probably made the same wish that she did in Timeline 1, though this is not confirmed.
Timelines 1-3 - I want to become a magical girl
Very obvious. Just like in Episode 1, but because Homura intervening her making this wish in the current time.
Unlikely given that she probably made the same wish that she did in Timeline 1, though this is not confirmed.
Homura's Wish
✖ Do you really want her dream to come true?
Homura might have used her wish to help someone else (Madoka?) and is the person Mami was referring to when asking Sayaka whether she wanted to make someone's dream come true, or be thanked for making it come true.
✖ If you do, you'll lose everything
Homura might have wished to become the perfect girl and undo her previously unhappy life. She was a classmate and friend of Madoka, which is why she knows her way around the school. However, everyone's memories of Homura vanished because she wanted her old flawed, bullied, unpopular self to be forgotten.
✖ Anywhere but here!
Because Sayaka wished to heal Kamijou, she received healing powers in addition to the powers all other Magi have. Homura has a unique power as well - She can either teleport or move faster than the human eye can follow. This suggests that her wish had something to do with movement. One likely conclusion to draw from this line of reasoning is that she used her wish to run away from something, possibly an abusive family.
✖ I wish my Oneesan was an unstoppable magical girl!
Rather than choosing to be a magical girl herself, she was wished into being a magical girl -- perhaps from someone who loved her, such as a little sister. The little sister, or someone similar (another member of the family? A friend?) specifically wishes that Homura would be unstoppable, and ends up becoming a magical girl alongside her, but then dies in battle later. Homura, however, has become "immortal". If this was so, this would make her the one Mami is talking about when she warns against making wishes for other people. It also explains why she doesn't die/become injured when Charlotte chomps on her, why Kyubey seems to flipflop on his involvement in her wish, why Homura seems so mature (and claims to have seen many magical girls die in her lifetime), and why she doesn't appear to have any family (all of her family members have died from old age). (Original poster: The "immortality" bit of this might not apply since episode 6; every Puella Magi is effectively immortal if her soul gem is not destroyed. Not to mention this theory doesn't explain Homura's superspeed.)
✔ I want to redo what I did wrong.
Homura wishes to avoid a fatal outcome and go back in time to redo everything.
Revealed in episode 10. Homura from timeline 1 wished to go back in time and save Madoka from her fate. The exact wording of her wish was "I want to redo my meeting with Kaname-san. Instead of being protected by her, I want to protect her!"
Mami's Wish
I don't want to die, period
The most likely wish, as it is confirmed in general theory. Mami wished to be saved/not to die, with no further qualification.
I don't want to die alone!
Before she met Madoka and friends, Mami was all alone-- her apartment was empty except for her presence, and had no contact with her family. When Kyubey made his offer, Mami wished to not die alone. As in many "deal with the devil" stories, the contract is upheld, yet in a twisted manner: Mami made new friends and immediately died before their eyes. This seems to be proven wrong in Episode 10, however, during one of the occurrences in which she dies.
Please help...
In manga canon, her wish is shown to be simply "please help" after being questioned by Kyubey about her wish in a car accident.
Sayaka's Wish
✔ Kamijou
Sayaka has wished for Kamijou's arm to be healed. As a side-effect, the wish granted her the ability of fast recovering. Whether there are any downsides to this wish (such as the healing being temporary, Kamijou being killed shortly after his recovery, etc.) remains to be seen.
Kyoko's Wish
✖ I want to eat
According to abandoned child theory, she once almost ended up starving to death and wished for food when Kyubey appeared with his proposal. Since that time she does not have problems with hunger as long as she gets Grief seeds.
✔ Someone believe my father
Kyoko wished people to believe in her father's unorthodox teachings.