#also reread the last line now im imaginging the wings of magius platforming against witch immigrants using a barrier (wall)

[deltaruiner]

AGHGFCCV LISTEN.

I have a theory-----

So it always bothered ne how despite there being so many witches in Mitakihara, there only seem to be Mami (and kinda Homura) as magical girls in the city at the start of the show, like surely these witches come from an equivalent amount of magical girls right???

Welll what if- magical girls and witches cone in some sort of "waves" of despair- basically, kind of like highs and lows in stuff like market economics

Heres how i think it might work- Kyubey reveals himself to a girl, and there are 2 options-

1- She is a lonely person and has therefore a higher likelyhood of witching out or dying without a support network, or-

2- She has, to some kind of degree, close friends she can talk to about stuff like being a magical girl.

If option 2 happens, then even if the girl herself is the only one out of her friend group (or out of whoever is eligible in it anyway) who becomes a magical girl, then eventually when she inevitably enters into a dangerous situation, Kyubey will manipulate any eligible friends she has into making a wish for her (which constantly happens in the show)

Then, if a wish wasn't made, a new witch or at least dead magical girl wouldve been created without any friends joining as magical girls

The more likely situation i suspect though, is that a wish DOES get made, and then, when one of the friends gets into a dangerous situation again and none is there to make a wish to save them (which will inevitably happen because being meguca is suffering)-

One of them will die or witch out, starting a chain reaction because well, your friend just died in front of you, probably brutally, or instead went the non gorey (if nothing else) way of becoming a witch- both highlighting the futility of your cause AND making you use energy to defeat a new witch in an already bad for you situation.

Both cases are highly likely to make the entire friend group witch out this way, because of the collective downward spiral.

And again, lonely girls are known to be preyed on because they do not last long.

In short i suspect the show takes place right after these kind of "chain witchification" happened to many magical girls in Mitakihara, which Mami was not affected by because she is a lone veteran (despite her efforts)

Basically, I think Gertrude, H.N. Elly, Elsa Maria, and maybe one of the other less significant witches (not Charlotte tho we know what happened There...) were part of a magical girl squad that fell to despair

Heck, this chain reaction is even shown to happen in alternate tinelines the Quintet was together, Sayaka witches out, Mami breaks down bc of it and kills Kyouko and then dies (to Madoka), and then Madoka becomes a witch, and so too would have Homura if she could not time travel most likely, resulting in net 0 magical girls and only witches for a short amount of time.

Mitakihara could also just actually be really small and all the witches immigrate from Kazumino or something. idk. that would be boring though