Scampir

the depressing thing about the whole discussion around Madoka is the way that it being a dark story is framed in discussion. Actually, both people talking about madoka and the big wave of "dark takes on ___ genre" that came out shortly afterwards. They by and large missed the massive fundamental truth about madoka - that its darkness was for something. It wasn't there to be edgy, it was there to convey its point - that darkness exists to tear down ideas of idealized heroism, so that the show can assert that heroism is still worth it in the end, anyway. Because the morally gray hero who holds no ideals outside of "success" ends up becoming a demon, tearing down everyone's happiness in the pursuit of a perfect life that was never real to begin with.