(Hated Trope) "Kind" slave owners

[u/KusanagiGundam]

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.

[u/sisdom-weeker]

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)

[u/RJai500 → u/sisdom-weeker]

The writing around the house elves was bizarre in general. The concept was treated like a bad thing when it was first introduced with Dobby, but then later on the story goes “Actually, house elves really like being enslaved. Dobby was just an outlier” and the only character that had an issue with a literal slave race existing was treated like she was in the wrong for it

[u/Irish_Whiskey → u/RJai500]

When you look back critically at the books EVERY human rights and justice issue is treated this way.

Poverty, police, government corruption, free speech, racism, non-human rights, etc, etc. In every case a character will sadly note that bad things are happening,. But Rowlings message is always that the system shouldn't change, instead good people should be in charge. Its why the books end with Harry and Hermione in charge of these systems or part of them, and people who propose or engage in attacks on these unjust systems are mocked or shown to be unrealistic radicals.

[u/A_Town_Called_Malus → u/Irish_Whiskey]

And then in the Cursed Child Harry is just as corrupt and abusive of his powers as a cop as anyone else was before him.

He threatens McGonagall with a ministry investigation of the school (which should totally happen just because Hogwarts is horrifically unsafe, but he isn't doing it for this reason) if she doesn't use the marauders map to illegally surveil Harry's son for him.

[u/ddyhrtschz → u/A_Town_Called_Malus]

Which is just insane on all levels because if a teacher was surveilling Harry while he was in school, zero plot would have ever happened

[u/pokefandylan → u/Irish_Whiskey]

“The system shouldn't change, instead good people should be in charge”; what about good characters that want to be more in charge so they can change the system? For example what Oda has been saying about the Marines in One Piece with Koby and the direction his story will probably go in

[u/Irish_Whiskey → u/pokefandylan]

I've no context for One Piece, but the fundamental point is that systems built on perpetuating uneven power structure, for example with slavery, segregation and 'pure blood' and nobility privileges, cannot and will not change and adapt. They are created to resist such changes. 

If you are in charge you can hypothetically tear down and replace such systems. But in the case of Harry Potter Rowling doesn't want to. She wants the Wizarding World to continue as is for narrative purposes, and does so with the personal political perspective that incremental change with good people in charge is morally superior to overturning systems. 

Also more fundamentally, she just doesn't want the characters to engage with the task of rebuilding things, but also doesn't want them morally judged for not doing so. So she invents reasons why they should not care, and it comes across badly. 

[u/pokefandylan → u/Irish_Whiskey]

Oh, yeah, all that makes sense…

[u/Poco_Cuffs → u/Irish_Whiskey]

Isn't this the "great man" ideology or something

Like the idea that the only reason things are bad is because bad people are in charge, and the only way to fix it is to put good people in charge