Having finished episode 9 I have to say that redeyesarucard(great name btw) brings up a good point in regards to Kyubey. We judge him as being evil by human standards when he clearly is not human and more importantly he doesn't identify as something with a "human" moral compass. To me this suggests that while he may act evil, his intentions may or may not be evil. This reminds me of another concept that I struggle with from time to time.
In the Halo video game franchise, players take the role of the Master Chief, one of several genetically enhanced super soldiers that are essentially tasked with the safe keeping of all of humanity from an alien threat. Players that continued to explore the lore of halo outside of the game and in the novels and such will eventually learn a ugly truth regarding the main character. Master Chief was abducted by the military as a child and enhanced by a procedure that killed a large number of the other children that were experimented on. The parents would never know about what happened to their abducted children because clones that would die in a matter of weeks or so were left in their place. To top it all off, while these super soldiers were instrumental in humanity's survival of the alien onslaught, they were created before the alien invasion even started. The original function of the super soldiers was to fight human dissenters and rebels.
Now the reason for my long winded tangent about halo is due to what I find to be an interesting moral question that I believe Madoka shares. I think it's fair to say that the actions of the military in halo are cruel and despicable. But on the other hand if they didn't do what they did humanity would have been long dead in the halo series.
In episode 9 of Madoka, Kyubey explains that that energy that is released by what is essentially the suffering of magical girls is used to maintain balance in the universe, or something to that effect. So, assuming that Kyubey was being honest, his actions, while incontrovertibly awful, are arguably for the greater good. Now what I'm seeing is an entity that does not share our sense of morality and is focused on the big picture, regardless of who or what must be sacrificed.
In a previous post I said that Kyubey was up to something and it wasn't good. I stand by my previous sentiment, he exists to sacrifice innocent girls, an action that is undeniably evil by our standards. But the question that I can't help but struggle with is whether or not this is a necessary evil. Is Kyubey doing what is necessary for us to exist? Do the needs of the many outweigh the lives of a handful of people?
I want to say no and that this is wrong and it shouldn't be done, but if the alternative is the death of everyone, in my opinion the evil of Kyubey's actions seem a hell of a lot less black and white. So what do you guys think?