By now, it’s no spoiler to say that Kyubey isn’t just the true antagonist of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, but one of the most nefarious and surprising villains in recent anime memory. Even franchise newcomers know he’s the bad guy, but this doesn’t prepare them for how low he goes.

RELATED: 10 Anime Villains Who Are Portrayed As Sympathetic (But Aren't)

Kyubey’s true intentions were hinted at for the audience to see as far back as Episode 1. Of course, these clues were hidden in plain sight and only make sense when a fan revisits Madoka to see how being a magical girl became synonymous with suffering.

10 Kyubey Is Not Of This Earth

Kyubey Returns

One of the most obvious hints to Kyubey’s true nature was also the most deceptive and easiest to miss. At first glance, Kyubey was Madoka’s answer to Sailor Moon’s Luna, the Sailor Scouts’ adorable pet cat and franchise mascot. Because of the magical girl genre cliché of having a cute mascot character, Kyubey initially didn’t look out of place.

Kyubey really belongs to a race of cosmic beings known as Incubators, beings who have utilitarian motives for Earth and humanity. Kyubey took on an unassumingly cute appearance not just to disarm would-be magical girls, but because his true form is both incomprehensible and terrifying. In hindsight, Kyubey’s otherworldly appearance was actually the first red flag.

9 Kyubey’s Name Spells Out His True Goal & Purpose

The Incubators In Rebellion

When first heard, Kyubey’s name is nothing too special: it sounds like the expected cute name for a fluffy white cat-thing. However, it’s actually an approximation of the middle syllables of “incubator (in-kyuh-bei-tr).” Regardless of localization and spelling (ex. Cubey, Kyuubee, Qbey, etc...), the hint to the alien race's name is always the same.

Additionally, the Incubators’ name isn’t purely coincidental. Just as the actual medical device is used to help a newly born baby to grow and mature in a healthy isolated space, the Incubators make magical girls mature into Witches. Of course, the girls aren't given a choice and the Incubators don’t intend on actually being nice pseudo-parents.

8 Kyubey Can’t Understand Emotions

Kyubey And Emotions

Since he’s an alien creature, Kyubey is bewildered by human emotions and their importance in everyday life. This isn’t a cute quirk as is common with friendly visitors from another reality as seen in most anime. Rather, it’s a defining characteristic of the Incubators and a hint to Kyubey’s darker nature.

RELATED: 10 Evil Light Users In Anime, Ranked

The Incubators are made of logic and rationality, and feeling any kind of emotion is their equivalent of a mental illness. Because of this, they see nothing wrong with inflicting suffering on a few hundred vulnerable girls if it means saving the entire universe. This sociopathy informs all of Kyubey’s actions or the lack thereof, and it’s more obvious in a rewatch.

7 Kyubey Never Lies For A Reason

Kyubey Explains The Contract

Whenever he states the terms of his contracts or answers a question, Kyubey always reminds the magical girl he’s talking to that he doesn’t lie. This doesn’t mean he’s a paragon of honesty or capable of basic decency, but rather him stating a cold fact. Because he can’t comprehend emotions and their nuances, he doesn’t need to lie or sugarcoat things.

However, this means he also doesn’t see the need to tell the complete truth – even if it could spell the difference between life and death. For example, he off-handedly tells Madoka that a magical girl’s soul was placed in a Soul Gem after she threw Sayaka’s into a passing garbage truck. This points not at the grandness of Kyubey’s evil, but at its banality.

6 Kyubey Is Too Persistent About Offering Contracts

Kyubey Gets Ready For A New Mark

Before and during the anime’s events, Kyubey constantly tempts different girls to become magical girls. Kyubey doggedly offers a contract as the solution to literally every problem, whether it’s something as grave as saving the world or something as comparatively small as romantic longing. This would be hilarious if it weren’t so insidious.

To fulfill their energy quotas needed to stave off the universe’s heat death, Kyubey and the Incubators need as many magical girls and Witches as possible. This is because they’re the best sources of said energy. Kyubey going around Mitakihara isn’t a mission to rally brave heroes together, but his way of filling up a quota.

5 Kyubey’s Timing With Contractual Offers Is Too Convenient

Kyubey Saves Mami

When a girl finds herself in a moment of great distress (ex. death, mourning, etc...), Kyubey is there to offer a contract. In exchange for becoming a magical girl charged with fighting Witches, said girl has one wish granted by Kyubey. That said, Kyubey and the Incubators don’t save just any girl from peril, nor do they bestow amazing magic to the noblest of girls.

Instead, they target girls who were scientifically determined to unleash the most energy as a magical girl or Witch. Specifically, they approach young girls (aged 13 to 18) because their teen years are the most emotionally active and volatile. Worst of all, they wait for the said candidate to be at rock bottom, where they’d be most susceptible to emotional manipulation.

4 Kyubey Isn’t Interested In The Magical Girls’ Safety

Kyubey tortures Sayaka in Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

Despite being the magical girls’ guide and mentor, Kyubey is oddly insensitive to their suffering. For example, Kyubey got annoyed when an understandably freaked out Sayaka demands answers about the Soul Gem’s truth. Kyubey then casually inflicts the pain of a spear stab on Sayaka to emphasize his point, not to satisfy a sadistic urge.

This was one of the more overt times Kyubey revealed his callousness towards the magical girls, and it wasn’t his last. Because of the bigger picture and the fact that he literally can’t feel emotions, Kyubey can’t be bothered with petty things like a girl’s feelings and desires. In the grand scheme of things, magical girls are just Kyubey’s expendable resource.

3 Kyubey Is Adamant About Saving The Universe

Kyubey In A Doomed World

Whenever Kyubey offers a contract to a would-be magical girl, he proclaims that it’s for the good of the universe. This may sound normal for a magical girl story where the heroines protect more than just their loved ones, but this is a half-truth. Kyubey doesn’t care for the little lives that these girls want to fight for because reality itself is at stake.

RELATED: 5 Anime Where the Universe Is COMPLETELY Destroyed

In truth, Kyubey and the Incubators are trying to slow down Entropy, or the inevitable heat death of the universe. To do so, they harness the energy that magical girls and Witches exude whenever they clash. While this seems noble, it comes at the expense of countless girls' lives being destroyed or worse.

2 Kyubey Really, Really Wants Madoka To Become A Magical Girl

Kyubey Hangs With Madoka

Of all the magical girl candidates seen in the anime, Madoka seemed to be Kyubey’s priority. Even in the beginning where the biggest twists had yet to be revealed or even hinted at, Kyubey constantly tempting Madoka with a contract seemed weirdly specific and suspicious. Turns out, turning Madoka into a magical girl and/or Witch was his endgame all along.

If she becomes a magical girl, Madoka dooms herself to becoming Kriemhild Gretchen, the most powerful Witch to ever exist. By simply existing, Kriemhild Gretchen will end the world and unleash an insane amount of energy that will satisfy Kyubey’s anti-Entropy quota. Kyubey incessantly trying to make Madoka become a magical girl isn’t a call to heroism, but a means to an end.

1 Homura Can Barely Tolerate Kyubey For A Reason

Homura Confronts Kyubey

Minus Homura, everyone was friendly with Kyubey. At first, this looked like normal behavior for the friendly and optimistic Madoka’s designated foil. However, there was a lot more going on to Homura and Kyubey’s animosity. In fact, their tension was an early hint that Kyubey was up to no good and that there was a lot more going on than what he was letting on.

After striking a contract to save Madoka from dying as a magical girl or Witch, Homura relieved the same torturous month endlessly as she fails to save Madoka every time. The grief and trauma led to her murderous hatred of Kyubey, and she killed him in multiple timelines before he even met Madoka. This seething contempt was best seen in their sarcastic exchanges, and Homura unloading an entire gun's magazine in Kyubey's face on two separate occasions.

NEXT: 10 Times The Power Of Love Failed In Anime