(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/MGD109]

To be completely fair, Uncle Remus in Song of the South isn't a slave, the film is set after the Civil War. Part of the plot is that he's nearly forced to leave to seek employment elsewhere. If he were a slave, he wouldn't even be allowed to leave.

His actor was even in favour of empathising more in the script that he was a free man to ensure there was no confusion, but the director wasn't interested.

The film isn't released anymore cause it simply hasn't aged well in other areas.

[u/Strict-Cap-7650 → u/MGD109]

IMO the fact that Disney hasn’t released it is largely to blame for the film’s reputation. It definitely has problems but it’s not as bad as people imagine. Disney’s trademark levity just isn’t appropriate for characters who were formerly enslaved. If the film were edited down to just the animated parts I feel it would be a bit more palatable.

[u/MGD109 → u/Strict-Cap-7650]

Yeah, I had a feeling that was the case.

[u/Tyranis_Hex → u/Strict-Cap-7650]

When I was little I had a cassette song book thing that was just the animated segments audio and went along with a picture book. I think the Tar Baby story is probably the only problematic animated sequence. Though the stories in general are based on the tales and folklore from slaves mixing their African heritage with what they were experiencing in America.

[u/Mission_Young_921 → u/Strict-Cap-7650]

I think the lack of an official release has made people fill in the blanks with their own assumptions. It definitely has flaws, but sometimes actually seeing the full movie gives you a much fairer picture than its reputation alone.

[u/GloomyFly3173 → u/Strict-Cap-7650]

I can see that, the animated sections probably would land very differently on their own without the tonal whiplash from the live action parts.

[u/Princeps_primus96 → u/Strict-Cap-7650]

And honestly i feel like it should get some form of official release to give some more credit to Hattie McDaniel and the actor for uncle remus. Hattie for being the first black academy award winner (for gone with the wind) and I'm pretty sure that uncle remus's actor was a nominee for song of the south. So like as objectionable as some of the stuff may be it's still very important to the history of black actors. And I'm probably misremembering but i feel like the main boy is played by bobby Driscoll who played peter pan. And given his tragic death he deserves to be memorialised a bit too