Better antonyms of selfish might be considerate or helpful. A thing that seperates Mado from the helpful girls is that she also is like fairly likely to destroy the planet in the process which is why I dont view her as either.
How so? Part of the reason Madoka wished to erase witches by her own hands was to ensure she had full control over her wish and erase the despair/witch that her wish would unleash upon the world, which is exactly what she did. She prevented her witch form from destroying the earth. Kyouko said that for how much hope you release from a wish, that exact same amount of despair is released as well. Madoka kept her promise and made sure her despair didn’t destroy the universe.
Even things like throwing away Sayaka's soul gem are selfish even if you consider she just thought that was the catalyst of her magic power and not her soul gem which is why she threw it in a manner where it could've broken like an asshole cause she just doesn't think to hard about the consequences of stripping Sayaka of her magic powers after she you know made multiple enemies and pledged to fight witches.
I do agree that Madoka throwing Sayaka’s soul gem was very idiotic on her part. However, I do not view this as selfish. Madoka was trying to take her moms advice about making a mistake on someone’s behalf, as she didn’t want Sayaka to fight Kyouko and get killed or injured. Was this stupid? Yes. Selfish? I don’t think so.
Look at Madoka's failed wishes. Her focusing on just helping a cat prevents her from using her wish where it would actually be most helpful for literally anyone that actually mattered. If she treated herself or her wish as more important for accomplishing something of more personal value rather focusing on helping the literal first thing that would want help the series probably never would've kicked off because they kept that wish for something actually important like preventing the city from being destroyed setting Homura's arc in motion. Hell there was a cd that revealed Mami in timeline 0 was the person who knew about Wals because it was supposed to be common knowledge amoungst veteran magical girls near the city. This means when she was planning on wishing there was plenty of opportunity to use it for like any purpose that mattered if her primary concern was others. Instead she just ignores her own concerns.
Madoka didn’t know about walpy when contracting. She most likely learned about walpy after contracting. Nevertheless, I still don’t think her saving a cat is selfish. She sees a cat get run over and then kyubey asks her to make a wish; it’s not surprising she wished to save the cat. Madoka says mami would probably scold her for saving a cat but Homura thinks it’s wonderful and I do too. I mean, come on...Nagisa wished for a cheesecake. I don’t think saving a cats life is selfish.
The easiest seeming way to have gotten past the plot of the story would've been to have asked Homura to restructure her wish for an escape route of the time jumpings where the wish accomplishes all the main goals of Homura and Madoka. Instead Madoka asks her to make it harder on herself.
Restrucure? Homura already made her wish so she can’t restructure it. I’m not sure what you mean by this. Madoka have Homura a tough mission, but Madoka just didn’t want to die or be a witch. I don’t think that’s selfish. Plus, Homura was already time looping to save her. Had Madoka used the grief seed and didn’t ask her to save her, Homura would’ve gone back in time regardless.
The city saving wish was also motivated with her not considering broader context of others interests like why Homura's failed just unlike Homu, Madoka has been told why that is a really bad idea. She fucking destroys the planet because she just decides to trust Kyubey forgetting she'd become a more powerful witch than Wals if she could beat Wals because she ignores that she actually is that important in the magic system. The only thing that wasn't Madoka's fault was the immediacy of the transformation assuming she was willing to kill herself rather than turn into a witch was likely.
Madoka didn’t know she would turn into a witch and destroy the planet. Homura was screaming for Madoka to not listen to kyubey but I’m not sure if she was able to hear her. I mean, you see a giant monster about to kill this girl and destroy the entire city...and this creature appears saying you can stop it. I probably would do the same thing. And I’m pretty sure Madoka didn’t know she was going to turn into a powerful witch afterwards either and destroy the planet.
The god wish was completely her trying to make herself useful despite knowing she could destroy shit at an unimaginable scale if something goes slightly wrong. She knows things are supposed to go wrong like they always do and like all the other wishes things go wrong. The worst part is when presented with a simple problem "what about the people that want you to not be dead" she decides to lie to justify her actions by saying that the wish doesn't bother her and tells Homura to just deal with it. Homura forcing Madoka to not be god at least is heavily based on her well supported conclusions that her being god sucks for Madoka.
Like I said, madoka wished to erase witches herself so the wish wouldn’t go against her own desires. She made sure her witch and accumulated despair/curses didn’t destroy the universes. It wasn’t just about her trying to feel useful. After witnessing the suffering of all magical girls, Madoka genuinely wanted to save each and every one of them. What do you suppose Madoka should have done instead? Let Homura become a witch? Let walpy destory the city? Continue letting magical girls become witches? Yes, Madoka was putting on a brave face and hide her pain to reassure Homura (and probably herself) that everything would be ok. She was trying to console Homura so she wouldn’t worry. I don’t think this was selfish; Madoka was erased and didn’t have a choice to stay. She’s not gonna say to Homura “yeah I’m gonna suffer and be lonely and you’re a failure thanks for nothing”. She’s just trying to comfort her.
Madoka is not a flawless person. She sacrificed her own life to save magical girls. How the hell is that selfish? Madoka is literally the most selfless out of all of them.