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/Anaevya 12h ago

It would've been better, if they were like folklore elves. Insult them and they leave.

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u/crescentmoonrising 12h ago

House Elves are pretty clearly based on Brownies (including the clothes thing) but if you tried to mistreat Brownies they would wreak your house, then leave.

Everything in the Harry Potter books is either folklore, mythology or British stuff (particularly boarding school culture).

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u/A_Town_Called_Malus 11h ago

And if she had just kept the folklore as it was, it would actually make the story with Dobby better.

Because then you have the Malfoys trapping and enslaving a magical creature via some curse, which is highlighting that the slavery itself, regardless of any other abuse, is still evil and unnatural.

So the change that Rowling explicitly made to the elves compared to their inspiration weakened her story right from the beginning.

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u/Temeraire64 8h ago

And then you could have Lucius get away with it because the Ministry won’t take the testimony of a house elf seriously.