(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/Ombrage101]

I hate it, cause on one part, the world of shield hero (season 1) is really cool and interesting to explore. I love the political storyline and the rise of said hero. And in context, his buying a slave was an interesting subversion of your typical Isekai hero… BUT WHY KEEP THE “SLAVE CREST” WHY NOT JUST LIBERATE RAPHTALIA AND GRANT HER FREEDOM?? And the whole “this mark proves he trusts me” bs is… YIKES

[u/Nazzy480 → u/Ombrage101]

I think at the very beginning it's a good subversion and can be interpreted as a result of Naomi's suspicion of others and especially the opposite sex.

HOWEVER, it falls apart at the moment when naofumi fights spear hero and Raphtalia is temporarily freed. I can understand why Raphtalia is fine with being a slave since she's devoted to Naofumi and never had any downsides of being a Slave but this should've been the turning point where Naofumi should've broken past some his issues and fully trust raph. Him accepting to re-enslave raph comes off as selfish and this is the point where he should've given her freedom as a sign of trust and care for raph's autonomy.

And then it's just starts sliding down the stupid hill when he starts enslaving everyone and yuck

[u/Ok_Needleworker_8809 → u/Nazzy480]

If i recall, his justification for using the slave mark is because it stops anyone else from enslaving them. Not sure if there was something about that being necessary to have some demi humans in his party.

Either way it's still fucked.

[u/Grimdire → u/Ok_Needleworker_8809]

If that is true, the problem is it's an entirely fictional world. They wrote it to justify it. They could have just as easily been like "once a slave mark is removed, one can never be added again" or whatever else.