Nomad Land

The left side represents the original Homura, the right side represents the evil mirror version

The Law of Cycles is up (or reaching up); Walpurgisnacht is down (or reaching down)... at least until their positions are reversed.

Red is the color of the devil (which starts out as purely the original Homura's color before gradually being co-opted by the double until it belongs solely to her); sky blue is the color of the Law of Cycles

The same is also true for black and white

Feathers represent memories (and goddess/devil powers in general)

Cogs and gears represent fate

How much a character knows/is aware of is indicated by how much they are illuminated at any given moment.

In certain cases, it can also indicate how much of themselves they're revealing to other characters/the audience

The lizard represents the original Homura; the spiral, especially the red ascending one, represents the evil mirror version

Childish things/spaces represent magical girls; adult things/spaces represent witches

Many small things becoming one larger thing or a multiplicity of the same thing represents Walpurgisnacht's whole deal

Two mostly identical halves but with subtle differences between them usually represent the two Homuras.

Two halves but one half is divided into two parts represents the situation between the three of them.

Construction equipment represents changes in Homura's world caused by the double (Walpurgisnacht is the Stage-Constructing Witch)

Hands represent contact/embodied connection - unlike the phones, which also represent contact/connection but in a disembodied way

Inversions mean things are upside down from the way they should be or that characters are wrong or mistaken in some way

Diamonds represent Homura (her soul gem is shaped like one)

Eyes represent a character's power, ability to "see" clearly, and/or who they truly are; covering them represents ignorance or inability to use one's full powers, while eyes changing color or shape indicate use of supernatural powers

Fake versions of the real thing are often stand-ins for the real thing

Open glasses and the glass dome in the cafe represent Homura's world (except for shot glasses, which represent adulthood)

The school roof top represents Homura's world as well

Things that are hidden are often literally covered (Sayaka's bandages, blanket over the birdcage with the phone, etc, etc)

Lens flares and other optical effects indicate some kind of unreliable narrator, illusion, or performance.

Missed this earlier - a historic European magical girl with her soul gem hidden? My guess is that this is from a flashback/montage of Madokami's work saving magical girls across space and time, but I suppose it could also be character backstory.

I like how it's juxtaposed with the shots of clasped hands in prayer - praying for salvation - which is contrasted with Homura's prayer.

In this movie, red is the color associated with the devil, which suggests an association with Homura in some fashion. There's also a lock on Madoka's magical girl costume, and my first thought as soon as I saw it was, "Where's the key?" I looked for it on Homura's magical girl costume, but if it's there, it's hidden well enough I couldn't find it.

...so I wonder if this is it.

Although I don't think she would necessarily unlock the chain on her outfit - but there is a birdcage with a direct line to the Law of Cycles inside and that birdcage may well be locked.

- you are not The Character

- how you feel about a situation does not correlate to how the character feels or should feel.

- your sense of morality and ethics is not the character’s.

- they will have views and perspectives and do things you disagree with. that does not mean they’re ’badly written’

Huh. The cake in the covered cake stand (which has always been a symbol of Homura's world since Rebellion) has a similar purple diamond that appears on Kyouko's cake slice in the other cafe, which implies they came from the same source.

Those blue bears with forks in their heads are super-ominous, too. Are they supposed to represent Sayaka because they're blue or is this more foreshadowing about a certain bear-themed magical girl's ultimate fate along with Mami literally chomping down on one so hard it sends "blood" spattering everywhere? Does everyone in this movie have bearsonas?

You can also see that this is just one level of a much larger multi-tiered afternoon tea stand - this shot of Mami provides some idea of the scale. Admittedly, it's exaggerated by the angle, but these stands are nonetheless unsettlingly oversized.

No wonder Mami and Nagisa are so excited, this place is catering specifically to their mutual interests of tea and desserts (and by extension, all the good things about being a magical girl). Too bad it's probably a trap.

It's a little hard to see in this image, but the overall shape of the tea stand is dome-shaped, i.e., roughly the same shape as the birdcage motif that keeps popping up. It's the same idea as the cake stand dome, except it's bigger and has more levels, and reminds me of how we've moved from circles (single loops) to ascending spirals.

(Speaking of bearsonas, the bear on Mami's phone has a red bow and purple glasses, and is that supposed to be Homura or some other reference I'm not getting?)