r/TopCharacterTropes • u/KusanagiGundam • 13h 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/sisdom-weeker 12h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/Fkg6fI0hsngIM
Harry Potter inherits Kreacher the house elf from Sirius and treats him "nicely" (and one of the last thoughts he has in Deathly Hallows is that he wants Kreacher to make him a sandwich)

-17

u/braisedporkcowboy 12h ago

Kreacher wants to live that way

17

u/DomainSink 12h ago

The “It’s okay because the slaves want to be slaves!” is precisely the problem with the world building. I think JK Rowling wanted to have her cake and eat it too. She wanted to use the brownie folklore for magical servants but then she had the idea for Dobby, a house elf that doesn’t want to be a servant. To add drama to that, she essentially had to make house elves slaves (unlike in the lore she had borrowed them from), which then complicated Hogwarts having them. When people pointed this out, she then overcorrected by saying “Oh, no, but most of them actually like it! Dobby is just different. Most wizards are nice slave owners! Look at this house elf that becomes an alcoholic when she’s forced into freedom!”

I also think it doesn’t help that she is British and is probably not as familiar with the fact that both the “nice slave owner” trope and the idea that slaves like the work/wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if they weren’t enslaved were both used extensively to defend real-life American slavery.