Candide: "The Good Old Cause" and the Good Old Effect (3&4)

I was well aware that because the book is satirical, it might have some dark humor in it, but I didn't expect the post-war scene in chapter three to be so gruesome. It described inch by inch the butchered bodies of the innocent victims of the battle with the king of Abars: "Whichever way he looked , the ground was strewn with the legs, arms, and brains of dead villagers."(Voltaire 26) I'm just glad he didn't make a joke out of that scene, it would've been sick.

I'm starting to think that the target of the book are the epic stereotypes: the damsel in distress, the hero and even the wise old man. When Candide escapes the battlefield and heads for the nearest town, he think himself lucky because he has reached a christian town, which is supposedly going to make it easier for him to find some help.
When he reaches the first house and the man behind the door askes Candide if he believes in "the Good Old Cause" Candide replies by quoting one of Panglos' reflections: "There is no effect without a cause [...] All thing are necessarily connected and arranged for the best."(Voltaire 26-27) He sounds so sure of himself we might actually think it makes sense... but it doesn't.

Candide is an idiot who has no idea what is going on in his life at the moment but he is our hero in the story and we must love him very much for that.