r/TopCharacterTropes • u/KusanagiGundam • 12d ago

Hated Tropes (Hated Trope) "Kind" slave owners

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

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.

9.2k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.8k

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.

93

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

110

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

4

u/BeneficialDog22 11d ago

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

2

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)

2

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.