r/TopCharacterTropes • u/KusanagiGundam • 12d 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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545

u/Special_Salt3467 12d ago

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.”

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u/Kapika96 12d ago

Is there some kind of magic involved that forces the slave to be blindly loyal or something?

If not, that logic just completely falls apart. You really can't trust somebody that you're forcing to do things against their will and them killing you would be the easiest way for them to get freedom.

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u/LadySandry88 12d ago

There is magic that prevents slaves from harming their masters, not necessarily being 'blindly loyal'. This is why Naofumi only trusts his slaves to not betray him--he truly and genuinely believes that no one can be trusted not to betray him without magical compulsions. It's framed as a fucked-up mindset that he gained after being deeply betrayed by his first partner and the people who summoned him to that world in the first place. As has been commented elsewhere, there is a scene where the slave crest is removed from his first slave, and it's used specifically to show other characters that she is NOT simply serving him due to duress, but that she remains loyal without the slave crest and has come to care for him personally.

Which COULD have been a really great way to put him on the path to healing as a person, with her remaining free and loyally at his side, and him slowly finding more and more people who would stand by him because he's actually got good points that they like and respect. But no, the author decided that having anyone who works for him become his slave was better and found excuses to keep doing that, meaning that not ONLY is he perpetuating the institution of slavery, but he can't possibly heal mentally or emotionally from his severe trust issues.

It's just absolute garbage writing.

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u/Special_Salt3467 12d ago

Yeah; pretty much this. When it’s first introduced (at least in the manga), it comes across as a bad thing a desperate person is doing because they can’t trust anyone. And that’s interesting. It’s a moral dilemma. Maybe they grow from it and overcome it. Except, it becomes objectively the “right” answer because of buffs and “trust” and all that junk.

Now, it’s not a moral dilemma nor is it a desperate person doing fucked up things to survive. It’s just the most correct answer because of course you’re gonna take the buffs or whatever.

Protagonists doing bad things isn’t inherently bad. It makes them two dimensional characters and gives them ability to grow. But by removing the negative connotations to their negative actions, it makes it way worse. Because we know what they’re doing is bad. You can’t just say “actually, this is good!”

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u/LadySandry88 11d ago

I think it would have been SO much cooler if the whole 'slave crests can grant buffs' thing was still brought up way later on and rejected as an option anyway.

Or, heck, due to Naofumi having healed from his trauma, he realizes that requiring a slave crest for the buffs is stupid and asks one of his allies such as Melty to research a way to make something similar but without the slavery aspect.

Like a 'Hero's Contract' that allows the Hero to share their buffs with their followers but without any compulsion or loyalty clauses. Either side can end it when they choose to. It still has the implications of vassalage, such that he's the one in charge and they follow him, but with a much less fucked up power imbalance and no actual, y'know, owning of people.

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u/BlinkyDesu 12d ago

His friends, such as the shop he frequented, trusted him regardless of the slave aspect because they found out he was a good guy. His enemies, the spear hero, still distrusted him, thinking he was mind controlling Raphtalia even without the slave crest. The slave crest did nothing to sway people in either direction.

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u/LadySandry88 11d ago

The slave crest's removal and Raphtalia's loyalty convinced the other isekai'd heroes besides Motoyasu. The sword hero even called Motoyasu out on being so fanatically stupid about it.

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u/BlinkyDesu 10d ago

It only convinced them that Raphtalia genuinely liked him.

Motoyasu didn't change his mind despite both other heroes pointing out the woman interfered in his duel and he genuinely lost. He was still convinced Naofumi was evil.

That said, both of the other heroes still disliked Naofumi. They still believed he raped Myne. And all this particular incident did was put him back where he was. Everyone was convinced he was evil because he had a slave, despite it being legal in the kingdom. Even the king was trash talking him for simply doing something the king allows in his kingdom. So all the whole incident did was make the two other heroes let go of the fact that he had a slave. Thus, the crest and it's removal did nothing to sway them.

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u/LadySandry88 10d ago

I don't see your point?

As has been commented elsewhere, there is a scene where the slave crest is removed from his first slave, and it's used specifically to show other characters that she is NOT simply serving him due to duress, but that she remains loyal without the slave crest and has come to care for him personally.

This is what I claimed, which you yourself have agreed is true. I never said that removing the slave crest convinced them that he was a good person, or improved his relationships with the kingdom. (Motoyasu is actively delusional about his opinions and beliefs, something that is made excessively clear throughout the story. The king is a massive bigoted hypocrite with a hate-on for Naofumi and never cared what was 'true' in the first place, and Myne was blatantly trying to undermine everything he did and wasn't going to change her tune [even when she was later put under spells that forced her to feel pain when she lied, she STILL LIED to her OWN DETRIMENT]).

The point isn't that it would magically fix everything, the point was that removing the slave crest and showing that Raphtalia was personally loyal to him was a perfect opportunity for him to start healing enough to trust other people again--starting with her, and moving on to the shopkeep whom he'd already built a rapport with. The story could have moved in a much better direction without massively changing the plot simply by not having him use slave crests beyond that point, when they're proven to be unnecessary.

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u/BlinkyDesu 10d ago

I mean, not everyone heals. No matter what goes right for some people, sometimes they just stay damaged. Considering like the entire country was out to get him after the rumors, I can absolutely see why he'd want the guarantee that the people he had to rely on weren't lying to him. Considering he was accused of rape on his first night, it's not like the anime is meant to be lighthearted. It's realistic.

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u/BlinkyDesu 10d ago

I thought about my other comment further. My guess would it wasn't his turnaround point because he likely only gave in in that moment from the physical/emotional exhaustion of the day. That's why he caved to Raphtalia, trusting her in that moment. But once he rests and starts thinking again, everything in his head would be "What if?"

Because prior to that moment with the crest coming off, he was betrayed at the party, where they threatened to take Raphtalia away unless he played along, and the entire party/royal family/other heroes stood against him. Then he had the duel, where he let Motoyasu go because everyone was bad mouthing him, and then he was shot in the back. Despite literally EVERY single person in the arena seeing what happened, and BOTH heroes pointing it out, they still took Raphtalia away as if he lost, and removed the crest.

Her coming back was something he caved to at the moment. And her wanting the crest back was literally to keep those dark thoughts away, at least when it came to her. But he couldn't just suddenly start trusting when literally everyone at the party and duel was betraying him except for Raphtalia, and he didn't start imagining her betraying him until the crest came off.

But if he was just suddenly going to start mentally healing, they'd have to also get rid of him seeing her as her younger self even after she grew up. That was also a mental process for him, to show that he was damaged.

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u/HakutoKunai 12d ago

Magical slave crests yeah even random people later on becomes Naofumi's slave just because it gives stat boost because he's the shield hero

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u/Kapika96 12d ago

Ah, so they even buffed slavery for the show.

That makes it even worse!

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u/GladiusNocturno 12d ago

Yeah. Basically the protagonists forces everyone who wants to join his party to become his slave because that’s the only way he can trust others and because the magic system rewards having slaves with stat buffs. He does this even to a child who early in the show was found in a dungeon being starved by her slave owner.

In all honesty, this could have worked if it had been done the other way around. Have him force others to become his slaves because of his trust issues, but make it so the game mechanics actually debuffs his slaves. This way, his whole party is actually weaker because he cannot trust them and is forcing them into slavery. Make this a character flaw that he has to overcome.

But no! The stupid story actually rewards him for enslaving his friends. His main girl is heavily traumatized because slavers killed her parents and abducted her to sell her into slavery, but fuck her I guess!

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u/HakutoKunai 12d ago

Who are you talking about?

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u/GladiusNocturno 12d ago edited 12d ago

I talked about multiple characters.

The character that they found starved almost to death by a slave owner is Keel, Raphtalia’s childhood friend.

He was kidnapped like Raphtalia, but was sold to a rich lord who almost killed him. He was found traumatized and almost dead because of his experience as a child slave.

Next time he shows up, Naofumi enslaves the traumatized child slave, which for some stupid reason makes him stronger.

That’s where it’s revealed that he is actually a she. It’s not even a trans thing, Keel was straight up retconned to be a girl because Naofumi’s party has to be a harem, because of fucking course.

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u/Hayden_Jay 12d ago

I ain't defending that creepy ass show, but it's not exactly a new concept in magical slavery. It being portrayed as a positive is a whole other thing though

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u/firegamer2432 12d ago

I feel like I need to mention how the slave crests aren't like magical mind control to enforce loyalty or anything, they're effectively just magic shock collars that activate when disobeyed (:

I don't know which would be worse

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u/DryadKnotwood 12d ago

A magic shock collar is an apt comparison for sure. Considering that Sadeena just straight up tanks the pain and proceeds to beat up her "master"

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u/AlternativePride5100 12d ago

The Crest doesnt make you Like or mindlesly obey the máster, instead It gives an electric shock when the slave disobeys the master, But Only of the máster gives a direct order, one of the exámples of this Is that when filo(a chocobo-like creature that can transforma into a child) Is hidden in a mansión because a friend of Herstold her to "play" hide and seek AND that she couldnt come out no matter what, later Naofumi Is searching her and calls her múltiple times AND the Crest doesnt do anything until Naofumi Orders her to come out, Only then the Slave Crest Electrocute her, also Naofumi has an abilitie that allows His "slaves" to grow rather fast and in some cases in ways they normally wouldnt (Like Filo who became a Queen Filolial thanks to It if im not wrong) kinda Like a skill a Beast Tamer would have to boost the XP gained by His Beasts being this the reason Naofumi marked a whole Village as His (and if im not wrong to give them political protection to the Village AND avoid a tragedy that once happend in the past that made Raptalia an Slave)