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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u/Hour_Atmosphere_3852 12d ago

Ketil, form Vinland Saga, is a fun subversion of this trope. He is presented exactly that way, he buys slaves but is overall a good man and lets his slaves buy back their freedom through their work, which is a lot more than everyone else does, but the events turn and we find out what the mangaka wanted to tell us. There isn't such a thing as a good person that hurts others.

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u/AdAdministrative6356 12d ago

Wait… I can be wrong on this one, but didn’t Vikings generally had a tradition that their Thralls could buy back their freedom? I never watched Vinland Saga, but it sounds more like he follows his culture traditions, than being a nice person himself

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u/Weary-Jelly7802 12d ago

They could but like with the end of the civil war in the states, not everyone agreed to that ruling and kept doing what they did. Thorfin and Einer could buy their freedom back in the show after X amount of labor. They're both two strong young men, so the investment was worth it since thyd be on their way in a couple years and done. Their master being overall relatively kind compared to other Nords they've dealt with. But not the female slaves are stuck and keep living their lives as slaves they could rape whenever. Ketil being the one that repeatedly harms them to incredibly tragic ends.

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u/darwinfail 11d ago

The amount of people who’ve defended what he did to her, and said it wasn’t rape is staggering. I remember the debates when the episode came out. Im glad too see a lot of people call it was it was.

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u/rewind73 12d ago

Vikings are glorified too much in modern media. Vinland saga does a good job of showing how brutal and awful they can be

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u/BeneficialDog22 12d ago

The last kingdom does a good job showing how brutal the danes could be, if I remember correctly.

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u/Mannekin-Skywalker 11d ago

But it’s ultimately still just a Viking power fantasy story. I mean, ffs, the show attributes all of Alfred the Great’s achievements as really being Uhtred’s (who’s more of a Viking than an Anglo-Saxon in every conceivable way)

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u/-kinapuffar- 11d ago

Vikings aren't glorified enough. Everyone back then was brutal, there's nothing unique about the brutality of the northmen. That was just life in the 10th century. The only difference is the hypocrisy of christian propaganda.

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u/_NotMitetechno_ 12d ago

Only if your slavemaster let you lol

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u/Hour_Atmosphere_3852 12d ago

Almost every culture with slavery has some rule like that, but it isn't usually followed a lot. I'm brazilian, when there was slavery in Brazil people in fact could buy back their freedom, but, well, not a lot of them really could.

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u/RodrigoMokepon 12d ago

I am Brazilian, and I would add this: there was a specific type of slave—the escravo de ganho (slave who earned wages)—whom the master purchased with the expectation that the slave would work to buy his own freedom. In practice, the possibility of the slave becoming free was already determined at the moment of purchase.

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u/Skebs_ 12d ago

Yeah makes sense ig

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u/JesterQueenAnne 12d ago

It was a real thing (up to the masters though, rather than a legal regulation of slavery, and was mostly a financial decision since it was generally more profitable than owning people forever), but in the show specifically it was done for the sake of the subversion.

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u/thebrobarino 11d ago

It's definitely presented that on the surface, he has "respect" and "goodwill" for his slaves and definitely wants to believe that he is a good owner giving them a chance whereas other slaveowners wouldn't. It's only once his control is threatened he shows his true colours

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u/extraextraextr 8d ago

It's a major narrative undercurrent in the second season, the protagonist is sold into slavery after his home is pillaged but the aforementioned owner allows him to work his way to freedom after a few years. Makes him seem like a "nice" owner until...well, yeah, the original comment hits the nail on the head.

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u/rikashiku 12d ago

Most civilizations, had slavery systems like this. Many slaves were paid, some were married into a family, and others were set free or offered a place in the enslaving civilization.