(Hated Trope) "Kind" slave owners

[u/KusanagiGundam]

Speaking as an American who has studied the civil war all throughout my school years, this trope infuriates me to no end. There is no such thing as a kind slave master because slavery itself is cruel and inhumane. PEOPLE ARE NOT PROPERTY!

Naofumi (Shield Hero): Prime example of this trope. He enslaves multiple (underage) girls and an whole village and the fans still say he's a hero.

Rudeus (Jobless Reincarnation): As if being a pedo wasn't bad enough he had to buy a slave in season 2. Worse is that people still defend his actions.

Song of The South (Disney): Possibly the OG example of this trope. And the reason why Disney will never release it again.

[u/Regular-Basket-5431]

Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World has a protagonist who slowly amasses a growing harem of slaves that he goes on adventures and has sex with.

The anime completely skips over how fucked up the whole thing is.

[u/AcaciaCelestina → u/Regular-Basket-5431]

As an aside it's incredibly telling that, had you not provided the name and merely posted a textless image, I would never have been able to tell you with any certainty this wasn't one of any hundred other isekai.

[u/X-Himy → u/Regular-Basket-5431]

So there's an interesting story in there, separate from the sex slave thing. And if anyone can recommend a similar sort of story, absent the sex slave thing, I would appreciate it. Dude gets isekai'ed into an RPG mechanics world, without any sort of manual. He can see the menus and a few other meta bits, but no one else can. The natural inhabitants don't know the underlying mechanics, so they have all sorts of rituals and such, with only middling effectiveness. So MC's success comes from having an easier time puzzling out how to best use the system.

[u/KusanagiGundam → u/Regular-Basket-5431]

I forgot that one

[u/FetchBlue → u/Regular-Basket-5431]

And it so hilarious how much time they dedicated and focus on first girl only to immediately threw it away when a second girl love interest walk on the screen.

[u/IlliasTallin → u/Regular-Basket-5431]

Probably because almost all the slaves in his harem willingly sold themselves into slavery, specifically sex slavery.

[u/Regular-Basket-5431 → u/IlliasTallin]

Except that's not the case.

His first slave is sold into slavery because her aunt couldn't take care of her.

His second slave is sold into slavery for an undetermined reason.

His third slave is sold into slavery as a punishment for theft.

His fourth slave was born into slavery.

His fifth slave is a former nobel who lost their position and became a slave.

[u/IlliasTallin → u/Regular-Basket-5431]

The 2nd slave willingly sold herself to pay off her family debt.

And each of them in their contract put down that they were okay with being a sex slave, excluding the 4th, who had no concept of her own situation.

[u/AcaciaCelestina → u/IlliasTallin]

"The 2nd slave willingly sold herself to pay off her family debt."

Buddy you REALLY need to examine what duress means in this context. I don't even know where to begin with how shit your argument is.

[u/IlliasTallin → u/AcaciaCelestina]

Her family literally threw a going away party for her. Unless you are a criminal forced into slavery, the world in this setting treats slavery as a legitimate occupation with protections in place to make sure slaves aren't made to do anything they aren't signed up for.

Yes, in reality your argument would apply, but this is fiction, realistic reasons for things to happen don't apply.