Madoka Kaname is a gentle 14-year-old living in Mitakihara City with her parents Tomohisa and Junko, and younger brother Tatsuya. She has pink hair styled in pigtails with red ribbons, pink-red eyes, and wears a customized school uniform with white thigh-high socks. Deeply kind with a strong desire to help others, she initially struggles with low self-confidence. Her ordinary existence shifts when she dreams of a mysterious girl battling surreal creatures. The next day, that girl, transfer student Homura Akemi, arrives at Madoka's school. Soon after, Madoka and childhood friend Sayaka Miki encounter Kyubey, a cat-like entity offering a wish in exchange for becoming a magical girl tasked with fighting witches. Homura repeatedly tries to stop Madoka from accepting this contract, warning of terrible consequences. Initially inspired by senior magical girl Mami Tomoe, Madoka considers contracting despite indecision about a wish. Witnessing Mami's death during a witch battle shatters her idealized view, making her hesitate. Kyubey reveals Madoka possesses unprecedented magical potential across timelines, stemming from karmic destiny accumulated through Homura's repeated time loops aimed at saving her. In various documented timelines, Madoka's wishes consistently stem from compassion: saving a fatally injured cat named Amy, freeing Nagisa Momoe from despair, preventing Sayaka Miki's witch transformation, and healing Kyosuke Kamijo's hand. Each contract grants her a rose branch bow, though she often dies or transforms into the apocalyptic witch Kriemhild Gretchen. In the final timeline, after learning the truth about soul gems, witches, and Homura's sacrifices, Madoka makes a universe-altering wish: to erase all witches before their birth across all timelines, past, present, and future. This transforms her into Ultimate Madoka, an abstract entity known as the Law of Cycles. She transcends physical existence, becoming a conceptual force that purifies magical girls' despair before their soul gems corrupt, preventing witchification. Her pre-contract existence vanishes from reality, with only Homura and Tatsuya retaining fragmented memories. As Ultimate Madoka, she manifests with long pink hair, golden eyes, a white cosmic dress, and angelic wings. Operating across time and space, she is assisted by magical girls like Sayaka and Nagisa Momoe absorbed into the Law of Cycles. Her powers include purifying despair, manipulating reality, and accessing abilities from all magical girls across history, though her omniscience has limits, shown when Kyubey's isolation field traps her within Homura's soul gem. During the events of *Rebellion*, Ultimate Madoka enters Homura's barrier to save her but has her memories suppressed and powers fragmented. Homura, realizing the truth, uses her witch powers to separate Ultimate Madoka from her human self. She places the human Madoka into a new universe where Madoka lives a normal life with family and friends, unaware of her past. This creates unresolved tension as Madoka nearly regains her memories, implying future conflict. In spin-off media, *Oriko Magica* depicts clairvoyant magical girl Oriko Mikuni identifying Madoka as the future source of world-ending witch Kriemhild Gretchen. Oriko infiltrates Mitakihara Middle School to kill Madoka, succeeding by impaling her with a witch fragment. *The Different Story* shows Madoka contracting later to heal Sayaka after a battle injury, leading Homura to abandon that timeline. *Magia Record* features Ultimate Madoka observing an anomalous Kamihama City universe where disruptions in fate caused by Touka Satomi and Nemu Hiiragi prevent her powers from intervening.