The Fourth Wish

This page is under construction, this is a rush job put out in time for the scene on 05/20/19.

• Everyone remembers everything from the prime timeline, except for their goodbye scene with Madoka, and also the specifics of Madoka herself. Although you can recall even the finest details of interactions with her, it's as though she's been retconned out of memory, replaced with a blank-faced, nondescript sort of idea of a normal girl, whose name nobody can quite recall.

• This is not as distressing as it may sound like. Try too hard to remember specifics about that girl, the one who made the wish that changed the world, and your mind is soothed by gentle pink light, a sort of Recognition Inhibition-like effect. But you don't even remember forgetting her face; it feels normal, natural, and unproblematic to not really know who she was anymore, as though you never did in the first place.
• Characters do not have to have personally been at Walpurgisnacht to retain their memories of the prime timeline, though magical girls are generally assumed to have been.
• Even "that girl" doesn't exist, never existed, in the shared reality of everyone else who doesn't remember. For example, Junko and Tomohisa Kaname have one child, their toddler son, Tatsuya Kaname, who sometimes babbles about his invisible friend.
• Proximity to Homura's red ribbons, the single, impossible proof of Madoka's former existence, can trigger immense feelings of nostalgia in those who once knew her.

• No one "remembers" anything from the new world; in the span of an eyeblink, magical girls 'wake up' in their own bodies, in their own lives, with all the memories of the prime timeline.

• This is a little disconcerting at first, but the new world is essentially identical to the old world, very seamlessly so in every way possible, except with a few very specific, causality-driven differences.

• As magical girls can discover easily by asking others of their kind who don't know any better, or mascots, or Kyuubey, "witches" in the Puella Magi sense do not exist and never existed in this world. There is a different enemy, called Wraiths, which exude a strange supernatural miasma instead of forming labyrinths, and who are hunted by Puella Magi in exchange for their wish. When they are destroyed they leave "Grief Cubes" behind, a smaller but more plentiful analogue to the Grief Seeds of the old world; so instead of eating one another, Puella Magi now regain their strength by consuming the curses of humanity, which is said to be that which Wraiths spring from and represent as a sort of placeholder, a universal constant. Their bounty has destroyed any real need for competition among Puella Magi; there is enough to go around, and teamwork has become the community norm, instead of the impossibly difficult exception. There are no territories anymore.

• There is also a mysterious phenomenon, which Incubators do not understand but magical girls have themselves named the Law of Cycles, that causes Puella Magi to disappear when they run out of magic. This hardly ever happens because of Grief Cube shortage now, but rather when a girl has gone too far down the path of despair, past where Grief Cubes can save her Soul Gem. Puella Magi are told that their fate -- disappearing before the misfortune their hope attracts can curse the world -- is the price they will pay for their wish, before the Contract is made, so the relationship between Incubators and humanity is modestly healthier than it was before.
• Sayaka Miki's life still ended in this way, just as the new world began.

• Since the witches, the war, and Walpurgisnacht are part of the prime timeline, all memories of them remain intact. However, presumably because witches, familiars and Grief Seeds never existed, the war never happened in the new world, and no one ever died because of it, nor were there any casualties at Walpurgisnacht, which also never happened. Exactly what happened instead is a mystery that will never be solved, and whose mysteriousness is relatively untroubling, in light of the miracle of resurrection and second chances at hand.

• Mami Tomoe, Kimiko Akane, Kyouko Sakura and Eri Shimanouchi never died in the war. Although they only explicitly remember the warm pink light of their afterlife, it's as though they got to watch a sort of highlights reel while they were there. Therefore, they have a good intuitive understanding of the events of Walpurgisnacht, the Fourth Wish, and the transformation of the universe, allowing them to know with their gut about Wraiths, the Law of Cycles, and why things are the way they are, without having to have it explained to them by Kyuubey or other Puella Magi. They know that someone, somewhere, is fighting for them.
• Endo Naoki, Nagisa Misumi and Honoka Yukishiro never died at Walpurgisnacht.
• Kozue Kaoru is also alive again, but her Child is still gone.