Poll: Is Kyubey from Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica evil?

[Moderated]

I don't think he is. Because he doesn't have emotions, and appears to be in a hive mind, death really has no meaning. If he dies, another of him appears, and even if it didn't, he wouldn't feel sad. Think about it, people dying makes us mad, or sad, but as someone who can't feel emotions, death is an event just like anything else that happens.

 

[Queen Michael]

First of all, spoiler warning.

Second of all, SPOILER WARNING.

I cannot stress that enough. Even the title is too much of a spoiler.

 

[sextus the crazy]

First of all, spoiler warning.

Second of all, SPOILER WARNING.

I cannot stress that enough. Even the title is too much of a spoiler.

Third of all, [HEADING=2]SPOILER WARNING.[/HEADING]

Forth of all, [HEADING=1]SPOILER WARNING.[/HEADING]

OT: He's misleading and trickster-ish, but on the other hand, I can't argue against his cause.

 

[Yuno Gasai]

Spoiler: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica spoilers

Kyubey isn't human, he's an Incubator. Incubators are completely different to humans. What they consider to be "moral" isn't parallel to what humans would consider to be "moral", so in this case, it's all a matter of perspective.

Kyubey isn't doing these things to be inherently wicked or hurtful, he's just doing his job. In fact, from some of the things he says when he's explaining the contract, I'd almost wager that he thinks he's being helpful.

Either way, I still don't consider him to be evil. His intention was never to harm the Magical Girls. He was just doing his job. A job which, to an Incubator, is a perfectly natural and logical thing.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Spoiler

Not necessarily. He's neutral. He's carries no emotion whatsoever, which mean he never feels scorn or distaste for the other characters or humanity in general, nor does he even look down on them. He neither feels any sort of emotional attachment towards them. To a normal human his actions may look cruel, but to him he's just doing his job, and you can't really argue against him because he acts solely on logic.

Also, he doesn't really tell the girls very much, but he doesn't exactly try to hide information either. He mentions that the reason he doesn't tell them the truth about the soul gems is because they never asked him about it. It's a bit sleazy, as how were they suppose to know that, but it does show that he is willing to tell them. Now to a typical villain this would be a dumb move, except Kyubey has nothing to lose. He was willing to tell Madoka everything about the Incubator's history with humanity, because he knows that she has to make a wish in order to save everyone, and no matter what she wishes for it would still benefit him.

However, he mentions at one point that he does not know the concept of "scheming" nor "deceiving", but later he tells his plan to make it so that Homura is the only magical girl left to face Walpurgisnacht, forcing Madoka to make her wish, which I believe is clearly scheming. And while he never lies, there are moments where it seems like he purposely stretches the truth in order for things to proceed as planned, like when he hints to Kyouko that there is a small possibility to save Sayaka, but later admits that it's impossible. Then there's the fact that he could've told the girls everything when they first meet, but only chooses to tell them the basics. By the time they find out the truth it's already too late, because while he can tell them, he knows that he doesn't have to. So to me it seems like he has ways to work around his methods in order to achieve his goals, or that he may not be as he seems.

 

[FalloutJack]

Well, if you want to know-

*Gets hit by spoiler warnings*

OW! Okay, okay! Geez... I thought this was common knowledge by now.

Spoiler

He's amoral and unable to understand human values. By our context, this makes him a sociopathic asshole and kind of an idiot because his means for solving problems are not ideal and he can't come up with anything better.

 

[Denamic]

He's psychopathic, not evil. His perspective is that of the greater good from a completely amoral standpoint.

 

[Rowan93]

Spoiler

Since the Incubators don't feel emotions, from a moral standpoint they're best treated as inanimate objects. They cannot be "evil", but they can be "an evil". Whether their existence is a bad thing depends, of course, on whether their actions produce more net happiness than unhappiness, and since the entire point of their actions in the series is that they're solving an energy crisis by turning teenage girls' souls into powerplants that burn hope as fuel and produce despair as the exhaust, my moral judgement of them leans towards the "literally Hitler" end of the spectrum.

 

[Gomi500]

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!Yes and no. As stated above he is sleazy and kinda lies throughout the seires. His end goal would have destroyed the earth though....So its like....um, destroying the world is super fucking bad.

 

[Toy Yota]

Spoiler

He seems to be a neutral evil. Kyubey does have good intentions. He wants to provide lost energy for his people, but his methods are what makes him appear evil. Kyubey's methods were proved disastrous to certain targets, but they were only in the short-term. In the short-term, you can say the incubators targetted and killed these magical girls to harness energy. However in the long-term, the incubators helped the humans in general survive and thrive. Kyubey proved that the incubators provided technology because it was some of the magical girl's wish. I believe the Incubators were more beneficial than dangerous to humans in general despite the misery they caused to the Magical girls

 

[Gigano]

Well, as far as villainous Urobuchi characters go, it's arguably the least evil one construed (...when applying human standards, potentially inapplicable as they might be). In that it actually seeks to further a purpose that would be almost universally recognized as a true "greater good" (the survival of the universe), through means that would almost universally be considered evil (tormenting innocent little girls). Hey, it's that whole utalitarianism vs. deontology thing Death Note never really did anything with. Only drawn up more sharply yet, and with a looming question of what the applicable perspective for making such an evaluation even is (there might even be more, ultimately reducing morality to a battle of interests...).

Thus, it comes down to perspective. From a human/earthly perspective the thing is obviously a harmful evil, in that it torments humans and is prepared to annihilate the planet to achieve it quota. However, from a sapient beings/universal perspective, it might be doing more good than bad by doing so... and it does not even have the logical (in)capability of understanding why/how humans might view its intent and actions as evil to begin with, making it hard to pass judgement on it.

It's a net negative from one perspective, a net gain from another, impossible to blame by conventional standards, and a very well executed conceptual character overall.