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More and more people are forgetting that strong female characters doesn't mean "women who can kick ass", but that they 1. have their own agenda. 2. can handle the bad with grace and/or dignity. And a couple of other qualities that I cannot remember right now. To be with a boy doesn't demean the girl and her strenghts. To get married is NOT the end of the girl's... career, as an anime character. I can think of Frederica and Hildegard from Legend of Galactic Heroes as example of STRONG female characters. You will never see them in boarding parties or leading battles. But they carries that kind of gravitas that many of the Action Girls can only envy.
About Madoka, her strength lies in the fact that while she was scared, cowering and crying and getting her view of the world and what it meant to be a magical girl challenged by Kyuubey and the grief endured by her friends, she, in the end, have NEVER given up on what it meant to be a magical girl. Her wish is a triumphant affirmation of her own definition of a mahou shoujo.
I'll add that I believe in a STRONG female character more when she is getting challenged in the core of her morale and values, and come out stronger out of it, and also when I have seen her flaws and weaknesses.
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