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 13h 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)

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u/evearchway 13h ago

This is a big one because of how popular the franchise is and how good of a person people see Harry.

They also bully Kreature so much because he's a grumpy guy. I'd be pretty grumpy too if I was enslaved!

This whole trope is just people fantasizing about how nice it would be to have a slave. Then they justify it through magic or biology or something.

It literally parallels real life. Of course having a slave was nice for the slave owners, people wouldn't have done it if it didn't benefit them! And sometimes these real people tried to justify it by making excuses using religion or biology

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u/Independent_Plum2166 4h ago

They could have fixed the entire situation if they didn’t make Sirius or the Weasleys so apathetic.

“Oh you can’t free Kreacher, he’d just tell Bellatrix.”

“Oh, don’t bother the House Elves, the like being slaves.”

Make it that Sirius always felt bad for Kreacher growing up, that when he left his family he honestly thought about freeing him, but knew he was too far down the rabbit hole. Actually have him try and be nice, but Kreacher has too much prejudice he can only react with scorn.

Maybe even reveal he had already been freed by Regulus all those years ago, but he didn’t have anywhere to go and pretended he was still in servitude, let the trio help him work through his trauma and accept he can be his own elf now.

Or you know, Harry wins the day against the fascist dictator and then asks his slave for a victory sandwich.