there is something with stories w young protagonists...

...that somehow amplifies the scale of the underlying tragedy of it all

this is the case with almost any kind of media genre

but i'm mostly speaking about the genres i consume most often: fantasy, dystopias, and as i've recently only been consuming anime and manga (lol) - shonen 

seeing kids face the dangers and horrors the likes of which not even adults can handle is heartbreaking

having to watch as the naive and hopeful kids encounter greater and greater threats, the trauma that comes with it and how it affects their especially vulnerable psyches... to see them come out of it in the end forever altered, knowing that they could never truly return to being simple younglings...

man...

a part of me always mourns the childlike spirit that gets snuffed out of the protag(s) way too soon