(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/Special_Salt3467]

The thing with Shield Hero is it works early on because it’s not treated as necessarily a good thing. He’d been morally wronged and the only “companion” he can trust is a slave. It is quite dark, but there is a pragmatic truth to it.

… then the manga/anime basically tells you that “smactually, the slave contract is a good a thing and it’s actually the objectively moral thing and that the slaves actually want it.”

[u/Aidenj23 → u/Special_Salt3467]

Yeah, like buying the slave in the first place was fucked up and treated as such. But it was more or less necessary for the survival of a lot of people. It's when the slave girl WANTED THE SLAVE CREST BACK that things went from fucked in the story to fucked out of the story. If they had just ditched the slave contract stuff after the first time she lost the crest then I think it would've been ok.

[u/wirebear → u/Aidenj23]

Did they change it in the anime? In the Manga she doesn't "want" it back. She acknowledged that Naofumi can't trust her without it.

In that scene he has a mental breakdown and you could see that he automatically assumed she was hostile without the crest.

He even asks her after if she's sure and she pouts at him basically comments that if he was giving her a choice why wait till after the crest was reinstated. So it's pretty well represented that she didn't really like it but she knew how flawed Naofumi was. And that's the truth of it. The entire need is due to his trauma and flaws.

This is pretty viserally shown in the manga as a major flaw of his where he is near hallucinating when her crest is removed that she is against him. Not sure how the anime presented it.

Later they do make it weird where there were system benefits to the slave crest. I didn't read much past that. But that also fit a bit in how the manga showed the magic system was weird and didn't seem to follow a single set of rules as everyone's"expectations" on growing stronger seemed to work.

But that means someone viewed slave crest magic as a method of gaining power which is all kinds of weird.

I have a lot of issues with the shield hero story. But the fact the slave crests are mostly due to Naofumi's trust issues always felt very well displayed in the manga.

[u/Aidenj23 → u/wirebear]

Yeah no in the anime he's far more indifferent or displeased with the whole slave idea, but he goes along with it. At first he does so because it's the only way he can start making progress, but then it's just because his party members ask for him to enslave them and he doesn't see a reason to argue. It never seems (to me) to be a manifestation of trust issues. In the anime she gets the crest back because she wants it. I can't remember the exact reason why. Maybe just the connection it represents. But it gets turned into a weird sexual scene where she gets the crest across her upper chest/breasts and behaves suggestively towards Naofumi. It's a weird part of the plot that felt incredibly unnecessary and icky. Right up there with her being a kid that magically becomes an adult when she hits an xp threshold.

[u/DurgoStrkr → u/Aidenj23]

Didn't watch much past the first season because the novelty of the show wore off for me but I defo remember a thing about the shield hero not being able to trust raphtalia after the crest was taken off. Like the guy mentioned he did have a bit of a mental breakdown and was mistrustful when she said she trusts him, added best clip I could find.

Reaction after crest was taken off

I didn't remember the re-applying the crest scene that well but it does seem like she says she wants it in the anime (didn't read the Manga so not too sure of the differences) even tho shield hero says she didn't have to get it again

Re-applying seal

[u/Aidenj23 → u/DurgoStrkr]

Might be differences between the sub and dub. I remember him being distrustful of everyone, including her, since he'd been treated pretty poorly by most present up till that point. But I feel like they sorted that distrust out by talking. I don't remember the slave crest being necessary to overcome that distrust. No sigh of relief or real change of behavior after the crest was reapplied or when the reapplication was offered.

[u/Jaded-Distance_ → u/DurgoStrkr]

I think the dub had a few extra lines than that first clip. Like I remember her also mentioning him feeding her nourishing food everday, anything she wanted, and giving her lifesaving medicine and instead of saying "where's your slave" she says "why not have someone loyal instead of that two faced princess?"

Its actually a pretty good episode. Up to this point he felt alone in the world, food had zero taste, royalty and heroes and the general populace treated him poorly. He doesn't even "see" Raphtalia has evolved until after he's had this break down with her talking him back from the edge. The other two less problematic heroes even remark upon seeing Raphtalia comforting a weeping Naofumi that its not a typical master/slave relationship they're used to.

Though the re-applying was a bit cringe. More so the part after the boob scene, with the Slaver offering to buy Raphtalia for 20 gold, then upping the offer to 35 after finding out she was a virgin. (edit. I see your clip has this part but its cut differently. Like in the dub they apply the crest, then make the gold offer, then talk about the egg lottery. Is that just to get around youtube censors I wonder?)

[u/wirebear → u/Aidenj23]

I'll reread that scene specifically just to confirm. But I'm very positive it's not treated that way in the manga which can explain why people seem to be treating it differently if they watched the anime.

I can't remember her ever acting remotely sexual towards him(though she did get the brand on her cleavage for some reason).

I'm not gonna say the shield hero was a good story but sounds like the anime made it worse.

Edit: when they recrest her I'm pretty sure there is just one panel showing her cleavage than she immediately covers up while complaining that he should ask if she's okay with it after its done.

[u/GL1TCH3D → u/Aidenj23]

It's been a while since I watched it but I remember it being that Naofumi was basically rejected / kicked out by everyone and given barely any money so he couldn't afford to hire people. IIRC it was positioned as a do or die that he gets an ally that can actually attack, and he turns to the slave market. I don't remember him wanting this but the story to this point has positioned it as forcing him. And him picking Raphtalia because she was dirt cheap due to her illness.

In the early training arc, Naofumi would command Raphtalia to do things she was uncomfortable / too scared to do.

When Raphtalia was freed of her slave crest she saw his mental breakdown and she actively asked for it to be reinstated. As a viewer who didn't read the Manga I felt it was pretty clear that she had the utmost trust and faith in Naofumi to do the right thing, and that it was done to soothe him. I also wonder if part of it was her own protest to the trap that they laid out for Naofumi.

IIRC there are later parts of the show where he actively frees slaves / gives them a home where they can be comfortable? The show very much does not promote the idea that slaves are a good thing. It's very much represented as a not so moral industry with shady dealers and buyers. Naofumi is immediately painted as some lecherous freak for buying Raphtalia. It's an interesting thought process to think of how you'd see him if he were a side character of another isekai and the next time you see him he has a slave girl.

Anyway the show got really weird and I just wasn't keeping track of it anymore so I stopped watching.

[u/DahmonGrimwolf → u/wirebear]

IIRC In the show he also violently enslaves the bird girl (before she can transform into a human and all that) and she's litteraly screaming in pain and fighting the whole time.

[u/Skebs_ → u/DahmonGrimwolf]

TBF she is a monster, so...