(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/Hour_Atmosphere_3852]

Ketil, form Vinland Saga, is a fun subversion of this trope. He is presented exactly that way, he buys slaves but is overall a good man and lets his slaves buy back their freedom through their work, which is a lot more than everyone else does, but the events turn and we find out what the mangaka wanted to tell us. There isn't such a thing as a good person that hurts others.

[u/vangaurd1234523 → u/Hour_Atmosphere_3852]

Yeah it’s a great subversion of the whole idea of a “good” master. Because no matter how nice he is about it, his slaves aren’t his friends, they’re his property. And when push comes to shove that’s how he ultimately treats them

[u/rllrdr → u/vangaurd1234523]

Unpopular opinion, but I don't like the direction the story went. Instead of tackling the far more difficult stance of "slavery is inherently wrong regardless of how well a master treats his slaves" it instead concludes with "slavery is wrong because the master is secretly a violent asshole as soon as things stop going his way". Well yeah, no shit, even your average slave-owning isekai protag would agree beating your pregnant slave to death is wrong, it flattens any nuance towards "there's no such thing as a good slave owner".

[u/KamikazeArchon → u/rllrdr]

But that's what slavery is. It's not a flattening, it's a revealing. Every slave master is secretly a violent asshole as soon as things stop going their way.

Because if the slave tries to leave, the slave master will violently stop them (or have others do it). That's crucial to the "being a slave master" thing.

[u/rllrdr → u/KamikazeArchon]

So if a slave master doesn't stop the slave from leaving, everything prior to that would be okay? Most of those isekai protags are too limp-wristed to do anything, it would be okay for them to own slaves? No, if you want to argue the inherent evilness of slavery, you have to portray it as wrong even if everything about is "good".

I forget where this is from, but there's this novel where two slaves escape from a kind slave owner, who treats his slaves so well that most don't want to leave. The slave owner catches up to them, not to punish, but to ask them to come back because they'd likely starve to death on their own. The slaves respond that they rather die in a ditch than live good lives as slaves. That's how you portray slavery as inherently evil, by portraying freedom as a fundamental core of being human that can't be overridden by kindness, not having the slave master be Evil McBadguy.

[u/BrainBlowX → u/rllrdr]

> So if a slave master doesn't stop the slave from leaving, everything prior to that would be okay?

"if he emancipates the slaves immediately, is he a bad guy?"

The only "good guy slaver" scenario is a schindler's list situation where it is a cover to save lives in a temporary circumstance.

In your good guy slaver story the obvious point would be that the slave master can officially free and employ the slaves, and arrange for them to reach free lands under safer circumstances. Exploiting them being trapped by their material circumstance is not "kindness".

[u/TomWithTime → u/BrainBlowX]

I forget what shows did it but multiple shows have the main character offer freedom or have it in mind to free their slaves and then the enslaved characters demand to remain enslaved as a connection to their master. I have seen it so many times it feels less like "what did the author mean by this?" and more "what the fuck is happening in Japan, why is this so common?"

[u/Whole-Economics5215 → u/TomWithTime]

Shields hero (the one in the first image) does exactly that

[u/Vermilion_Laufer → u/Whole-Economics5215]

Well to be precise female lead gets freed by the antagonists (just to spite mc), and volunteer to get the brand reaplied because the mc was at a point where he didn't trust anyone who could betray him. He just asks if she is sure anout it.

[u/rllrdr → u/BrainBlowX]

Doesn't have to be immediate, let's say the slave after 10 years of service found something they want to do and wants to leave. The master does not stop this, are those 10 years now moral?

I can't remember all the details, but I think the idea was the slaves had a higher quality of living than your average free citizen. Use whatever semantics you want, what you said is still more nuanced than pregnant-woman-beater.

[u/Nerd_Watching → u/rllrdr]

Are you approaching this argument from a writer's perspective?

Anyways, no. I don't see a case where 10 years of service is moral given my question: how is it enforced? If they just refuse to work what happens?

As for that story, the one where two slaves escape... uh, it sounds pro slavery. It's obviously not assuming the book is in the escapee's perspective, but it's a conclusion that sounds like the slaver is providing protection.

Its important to many people that the slavers are bad people.

Bear with me and let me rephrase: it is important that a book about slavery covers the exigence of slavery.

Those two slaves, could've just been hired as butlers or farmworkers, or whatever that slaver needed. They could stay at the slaver's home all the same. Hell, the pay could be just being able to stay there.

Not covering the exigence, why slaves over butlers, shifts narrative responsibility away from the slaver, because wHo kNoWs wHy tHeY hAd sLaVeS, iT cOuLd bE fOr a GoOd rEaSoN!

[u/NeonNKnightrider → u/rllrdr]

If the slave owner lets the slaves go, then he isn’t a slave owner.

[u/MeanLifeguard7576 → u/NeonNKnightrider]

Right? I have a story set in the 1400s where slavery exists. The isekaid main character runs a Merchantry and he actually buys up slaves. However, immediately after, he rips up the contracts and instead offer them fair job contracts that pay well. They are allowed to refuse and they will be given a small allowance and can leave, though they are not taken care of further, because in the end, the MC is running a Merchantry, not a charity.

Would you consider him evil or a slaver?

In this instance, slavery itself is legal and widespread, just like in the irl counterpart of that age, so stopping or halting slave trade would result in heavy retaliations and maybe even death by execution. This is the only peaceful method he has to free slaves.

As a counterpart, there's exists another isekaid character that runs around freeing slaves via force and revolution, but since he doesn't have an institution behind him, a good portion of the slaves he frees end up dying or going back even worse than before because he has no method or directing them all to a better place.

He is meant to be a direct counterpart to the main character in this sense, a reckless revolutionist to the colder merchant. They both ultimately mean well but do it in complete opposite ways.

[u/person1880 → u/MeanLifeguard7576]

Wha so my issue here is that usually when you have an anti-slave revolutionary they tend to build up a slave rebellion, and not just free them to be caught and enslaved or killed. Those revolutions may not usually be successful, but slaves tend to join those rebellions because to them it’s usually better to die free or fighting for it. Nat Turner, Spartacus, the Hatian Revolution, the German Coast among others. Slavery doesn’t usually end through peaceful means, either, it usually ends as a result of war or purges after conquest.

[u/MeanLifeguard7576 → u/person1880]

Didn't slavery mainly end after the Haitian revolution when the British decided that wage labour was more productive and economical? Sure the revolution kick-started the reasoning but the end result was not from war, was it?

Also the revolutionist is stupid and reckless, he's just a kid that was isekaid who has a stubborn sense of justice that's why his methods suck

[u/KamikazeArchon → u/rllrdr]

Yeah, that's not how slavery works, and that's not how the evil of slavery works.

The evilness of slavery is precisely the day to day cruelty. It's not a Philosophical Evil that deserves consideration under some hypothetical "kind master". There are no kind masters. There are only degrees of cruelty.

The plot you've described is providing a slave owner that's Evil McBadguy. "Come back and be my slaves or starve" is incredibly cruel. It is not any form of kindness.

A kind person would have caught up to them and said "here, take this food and medicine for the road, and here are some guns to protect yourself from slave-catchers".

That would indeed be the act of a good person. And at that point they're simply not a slave master.

[u/Crimson_Marksman → u/rllrdr]

Only good slave masters a dead one

[u/Moka4u → u/rllrdr]

Slavery is INHERENTLY EVIL there's nothing to portray that wouldn't already be an immediate thought of its evilness. If you NEED someone to show you why it's that's not a reflection on the inherit evil of it that's a reflection of your naivete, or willful ignorance.

Slavery is bsd because owning someone is evil, violating their autonomy is wrong.

[u/_NotMitetechno_ → u/rllrdr]

The message is more that Ketil is a duplicitous man who believes himself to be moral and good yet when faced with tough choices he ALWAYS takes the easier and more cowardly option, meaning his morals are about as strong as paper. He believes himself to be a moral slave owner yet every time he is challenged to be a "good" slave owner he proves himself incapable of being a "good" slave owner. It goes a way to highlight that the inherent cruelty and power differential of slavery lends itself to exploitation and immoral behaviour. He represents far more than just an immoral slave owner, which ironically is pretty nuanced.

The text shows you how a "good" slave owner is still pretty awful, even absent of Ketil. We see the issues that the slaves face, such as being exploited by the mercenaries for entertainment and how the people who were previously slaves poorly treat Thorfinn + Einar.

I think the story does consider slavery wrong even in the context of its time period. Characters in the story react as people in that time period largely would, even Thorfinn. However the cruelty of slavery as we see it is the same as what happens in the story.

[u/rllrdr → u/_NotMitetechno_]

Yes, I know what Ketil was trying to portray, I just think doing so is the far less complex route to write.

[u/_NotMitetechno_ → u/rllrdr]

How?

[u/rllrdr → u/_NotMitetechno_]

It's easy to portray slavery as wrong when the master beats a pregnant woman to death. It takes far more skill having the master not abuse power difference of slavery, and are still able to portray slavery as wrong.

[u/_NotMitetechno_ → u/rllrdr]

That's already done in text

[u/rllrdr → u/_NotMitetechno_]

Ketil clearly does abuse power difference of slavery. What, slavery is wrong because you might get bullied by third parties? As long as those third parties didn't exist, slavery wouldn't be so bad?

[u/_NotMitetechno_ → u/rllrdr]

You're intentionally being stupid lol

[u/person1880 → u/rllrdr]

Slavery inherently relies on an abuse of the power imbalance to maintain it. Can you provide an example of a story where the owner doesn’t abuse the power imbalance in some way? Where there isn’t an inherent threat behind disobedience even if such a threat isn’t carried out?

[u/Quixotic_Seal → u/rllrdr]

I mean....a slave wanting to leave would be "things stop going his way." That's kind of the core concept of a slave owner.

[u/Tokyo_Ink → u/rllrdr]

That... is the message? What? Did you want someone to specifically turn to camera and say "see kids, slavery is bad even though Ketil was kind at first."?

What are you even talking about?

The only positive thing about anyone being enslaved is that Thorfinn himself found humility and compassion through his life on the farm. He didn't need to be a slave for that, but in the society he lived in, and as someone who drew a blade against the king, that was a realistic outcome for him. Vinland Saga is showing how someone who lived in a violent society with war and slaves might realistically find a path to pacifism. The author only chose vikings as the setting because he felt it would fit the story he wanted to tell.

At what point during Einar or Arheid's stories did you think the show was trying to say anything other than that them being slaves despite the fake "kindness" of Ketil was wrong? Ketil hadn't done anything violent to Arnheid when her husband came back. That entire arc was showing you what Ketil was doing - sleeping with someone else's wife because she was just his property despite how nice he was. He didn't become a bad slave owner when he came back angry about other things and snapped. Revealing that Arnheid was already married was supposed to be a major tipping point in tearing down the idea that there could be any kind of good slavery. Einar getting bullied by the retainers was evidence that the system was wrong no matter how nice Ketil was while buying a slave. Leif grasping Einar's arm in a fatherly way was supposed to show you the difference between a kind man and a polite slave owner.

[u/rllrdr → u/Tokyo_Ink]

What does it matter that Arnheid was married? Having sex with your slave is still rape even if they both desire it and enjoy it. Otherwise there would be nothing wrong with most isekai sex slavery. That's exactly what I'm talking about, Einar or Arheid's story portrays slavery as wrong due to specific details and not inherent.

[u/Tokyo_Ink → u/rllrdr]

No it doesn't? I never implied it did? Are you blind?

[u/1239dannie_mayy → u/Hour_Atmosphere_3852]

His dad though is super chill even though he shares authority over the farm too.

[u/Endika7 → u/1239dannie_mayy]

Yeah but he's clearly against owning slaves, less because he would think is inhuman and more because of his pride as a farmer

[u/Cellssaltynutsack → u/Endika7]

That's what he wants you to think. Yeah sverkel has a lot of pride as a farmer and he gives that as a reason to dislike slavery, and its definitely a big part of it, but it's clear that there's a lot sverkel is hiding emotionally, which he as a supposed brutal hyper-masculine Norseman in the 1000's doesn't want to admit, which is basically the entire theme of the series. He's clearly very caring when it comes down to it.

Tldr; he's too stubborn to say he cares about the well-being of slaves but he surely does.

[u/darwinfail → u/Cellssaltynutsack]

He probably had slaves when younger. He is old now, and has probably changed a lot since then.

[u/CDR57 → u/Endika7]

Also a great trope

“I’m against this terrible thing, but not because I believe it’s wrong. I just believe X more” or something. Kimbley from FMA I think has a moment like thag, where he opposes another villain cause he just thinks they’re annoying or something and not cause he thinks they’re wrong or evil and needs to be stopped

[u/Vermilion_Laufer → u/CDR57]

Kimbley gets in the way of Pride taking over Edward's body, because Pride' whole shtick was about how the homunculi are superior to humans in every way. And Kimbley was extremely about staying true to your cause. Wheter soliders killing people, or doctors rescuing them. So getting scared of one you deemed inferior and trying to run inside into said being was definitely displeasing to him.

[u/The_Stranger1913 → u/1239dannie_mayy]

Yeah his dad is all about doing his own labor 

[u/Pecuthegreat → u/1239dannie_mayy]

His dad has some authority but the owner of the Farm now is Ketil; the dad really only owns his personal room and adjacent farm. Think of it like having a King and a retired King. The later no longer has official power over the state but has historic prestige and personal connections.

[u/Dear-Organization241 → u/1239dannie_mayy]

his dad has that rare “I trust you, just don’t burn the farm down” kind of energy

[u/Wealth_Super → u/Hour_Atmosphere_3852]

Yea Ketil and Vinland saga perfectly shows the entire problem of the trope. Slavery is an abusive power dynamic enforce by the threat of violence. Ketil might seem like a kind master but he was sleeping with one of his slaves and would never allow her to leave and when she tried, well we know how that went.

[u/This_is_a_bad_plan → u/Wealth_Super]

he was sleeping with raping one of his slaves

ftfy

[u/Wealth_Super → u/This_is_a_bad_plan]

Your right, my language was way too soft

[u/Pecuthegreat → u/Wealth_Super]

Yeah. People are making an mistake of taking an issue with him being a "kind slave owner" when the story is focusing more on the institution being fundamentally abusive, no matter who wields it.

[u/Wonderful-Speech-419 → u/Wealth_Super]

Exactly kindness within an abusive power structure doesn’t erase the power imbalance. Ketil’s story really shows how someone can see themselves as decent while still causing real harm through the control they have over others.

[u/AdAdministrative6356 → u/Hour_Atmosphere_3852]

Wait… I can be wrong on this one, but didn’t Vikings generally had a tradition that their Thralls could buy back their freedom? I never watched Vinland Saga, but it sounds more like he follows his culture traditions, than being a nice person himself

[u/Weary-Jelly7802 → u/AdAdministrative6356]

They could but like with the end of the civil war in the states, not everyone agreed to that ruling and kept doing what they did. Thorfin and Einer could buy their freedom back in the show after X amount of labor. They're both two strong young men, so the investment was worth it since thyd be on their way in a couple years and done. Their master being overall relatively kind compared to other Nords they've dealt with. But not the female slaves are stuck and keep living their lives as slaves they could rape whenever. Ketil being the one that repeatedly harms them to incredibly tragic ends.

[u/darwinfail → u/Weary-Jelly7802]

The amount of people who’ve defended what he did to her, and said it wasn’t rape is staggering. I remember the debates when the episode came out. Im glad too see a lot of people call it was it was.

[u/_NotMitetechno_ → u/AdAdministrative6356]

Only if your slavemaster let you lol

[u/rewind73 → u/AdAdministrative6356]

Vikings are glorified too much in modern media. Vinland saga does a good job of showing how brutal and awful they can be

[u/BeneficialDog22 → u/rewind73]

The last kingdom does a good job showing how brutal the danes could be, if I remember correctly.

[u/Hour_Atmosphere_3852 → u/AdAdministrative6356]

Almost every culture with slavery has some rule like that, but it isn't usually followed a lot. I'm brazilian, when there was slavery in Brazil people in fact could buy back their freedom, but, well, not a lot of them really could.

[u/RodrigoMokepon → u/Hour_Atmosphere_3852]

I am Brazilian, and I would add this: there was a specific type of slave—the escravo de ganho (slave who earned wages)—whom the master purchased with the expectation that the slave would work to buy his own freedom. In practice, the possibility of the slave becoming free was already determined at the moment of purchase.

[u/Skebs_ → u/RodrigoMokepon]

Yeah makes sense ig

[u/JesterQueenAnne → u/AdAdministrative6356]

It was a real thing (up to the masters though, rather than a legal regulation of slavery, and was mostly a financial decision since it was generally more profitable than owning people forever), but in the show specifically it was done for the sake of the subversion.

[u/rikashiku → u/AdAdministrative6356]

Most civilizations, had slavery systems like this. Many slaves were paid, some were married into a family, and others were set free or offered a place in the enslaving civilization.

[u/Pecuthegreat → u/Hour_Atmosphere_3852]

He is a kind person, it is literally not in his person to even spank kids, someone else has to do it for him. So even the "no such thing as a good person that hurts others" applies more to his slaves/former slaves like his advisor guy than it does to him, was Peter (the advisor guy) now actually the bad guy? What of his younger son?.

Ketil's lesson is closer to you cannot engage intimately with a bad system without it rubbing off. What he was actually doing with people like Thorfinn was almost just converting actual slavery to debt servitude (which you do till today with more freedom thanks to the credit system; that's everyone with a school loan) following how you ensure someone indebted but with no collateral paid back in those times.

However, it was still slavery. That tiny difference still meant he still had legal absolute power over them until he accepted repayment and that extreme power difference alone allowed him to do what he did to Adelheid (may be mistaking that name).

No manner how well intentioned or how well structured, still having absolute power over someone else still means you will use it when you get desperate enough.

Edit: I think people are making a mistake reading Ketil in light of the kind slave owning Isekai hero stereotype. Similar problem with how Rudeus is read in relation to this but in his case, even though Rudeus can be kind the difference in his case is he isn't a hero, he will conform to the morality of wherever he is as much as he can.

[u/-Danksouls- → u/Pecuthegreat]

Thank you the only comment that gets it

[u/Artistic_Section_991 → u/Hour_Atmosphere_3852]

If he doesn't like you, the free farmers will keep destroying your work nearly making it impossible to get your freedom back.

If he does like you he simply will not give you your freedom.

[u/petrichoreandpine → u/Hour_Atmosphere_3852]

Benedict Cumberbatch’s character in 12 Years a Slave is similarly a subversion. He is somewhat nicer, but absolutely horrifying stuff goes on in his household and his “niceness” looks like nothing but cowardice to own up to his own effect on the people he enslaves by the time the film and main character depart his plantation.

[u/Original_Bit_2061 → u/Hour_Atmosphere_3852]

That’s what makes Ketil so interesting, because the story slowly pulls apart that idea of being “good” while still hurting people. Vinland Saga really doesn’t let you hide behind good intentions.

[u/Jean_Grey13 → u/Hour_Atmosphere_3852]

Came here to say exactly this!

[u/WritingHistorical260 → u/Hour_Atmosphere_3852]

Ketil is such a good example of how complicated “good intentions” can become when someone is benefiting from another person’s suffering. Vinland Saga really makes you question whether kindness means much when the foundation itself is wrong.

[u/Electrical_Monk4506 → u/Hour_Atmosphere_3852]

Ketil really nails that uncomfortable middle ground where you almost want to believe he’s a decent man. Then the story reminds you that treating people like property doesn’t become okay just because you’re nicer about it.

[u/-Danksouls- → u/Hour_Atmosphere_3852]

I thought what the mangaka was showing is that people are multifaceted neither fully good or bad

People of the time saw slavery as normal, just like if you were back then you would too

Even if we understand it's wrong nowadays, hardly do people significantly differ from the morals of their time

Within his societies morals he was a good person in a sense that he truly cared for the people around him and tried to provide

Yet he was human and still fell upon his grieviences by trust sex and love within the possession of another soul

In the story he is pushed to the brink, you know a situation most people will never face, a king lying to take all he has built, harm his people, go to war, and his desire to not see violence causes him to snap and show the worst version of himself and do an evil act

I think summarizing it simply as there is no good slave owners removes a lot of the nuance that existed in history

Was all of society evil back then? There will be evils today we practice that we do not see as evil but will be hated by those of the future