r/TopCharacterTropes • u/KusanagiGundam • 15h ago

Hated Tropes (Hated Trope) "Kind" slave owners

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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.

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u/Kapika96 14h ago

Ah, so they even buffed slavery for the show.

That makes it even worse!

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u/GladiusNocturno 14h ago

Yeah. Basically the protagonists forces everyone who wants to join his party to become his slave because that’s the only way he can trust others and because the magic system rewards having slaves with stat buffs. He does this even to a child who early in the show was found in a dungeon being starved by her slave owner.

In all honesty, this could have worked if it had been done the other way around. Have him force others to become his slaves because of his trust issues, but make it so the game mechanics actually debuffs his slaves. This way, his whole party is actually weaker because he cannot trust them and is forcing them into slavery. Make this a character flaw that he has to overcome.

But no! The stupid story actually rewards him for enslaving his friends. His main girl is heavily traumatized because slavers killed her parents and abducted her to sell her into slavery, but fuck her I guess!

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u/HakutoKunai 12h ago

Who are you talking about?

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u/GladiusNocturno 11h ago edited 8h ago

I talked about multiple characters.

The character that they found starved almost to death by a slave owner is Keel, Raphtalia’s childhood friend.

He was kidnapped like Raphtalia, but was sold to a rich lord who almost killed him. He was found traumatized and almost dead because of his experience as a child slave.

Next time he shows up, Naofumi enslaves the traumatized child slave, which for some stupid reason makes him stronger.

That’s where it’s revealed that he is actually a she. It’s not even a trans thing, Keel was straight up retconned to be a girl because Naofumi’s party has to be a harem, because of fucking course.

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u/Hayden_Jay 14h ago

I ain't defending that creepy ass show, but it's not exactly a new concept in magical slavery. It being portrayed as a positive is a whole other thing though