What are your thoughts on protagonists buying/owning slaves?
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coming back to this thread after seeing it pop up in the feed
I think my thoughts from three years ago are still pretty much spot on to how I feel now about the subject - with a couple of exceptions:
- I find it annoying when an isekai'd MC doesn't have issues (or thoughts even) about the difference between where they came from and where they are now. like: "I can own people here? that's normal? cool" - lazy wish fulfillment story telling. VS. "Slavery is the norm here, how do I deal with that? I have to adapt to this culture I find myself in and still adhere to my personal ethics to some degree" or (if the MC is a villain) Slavery exists here? wonderful! how do I exploit it?
- I touched on it - but I'll elaborate -the whole concept of buying people, coercing them as 'wish fulfillment' / fantasy is all kinds of icky to me
- slavery/indentured servitude/etc. is real and not necessarily a disqualifying aspect of a story. Taisho Otome Fairy Tale has as a setting plot point that a young girl was sold by her family to be the caretaker (and when she comes of age, bride. edited to add context - the 'man' is 15 or 16, the girl is several years his junior - stated to be 14) to a man who lost the use of his right arm in an accident (his wealthy family- exiled him to the boonies (Chiba) ) ---the Anime (and Manga it is based on) are set in 1921, not a alternate timeline or anything, just a matter of fact that in 1921/ Japan a family in debt might sell off a child to be a servant or a wife - it wasn't a storytelling crutch, it wasn't fetish fuel. it wasn't 'for the LOLs' it was an examination of the setting- and character development etc.
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Wading into this contentious topic...
I agree with most of what @Jon-Mitchell said. Particularly that the whole coersion-fantasy would be pretty icky - excepting that I don't read any series where that is true.
That said, I tend to moralize most human behavior relative to Maslow's Hierarchy. People will put up with horrendous conditions if it means a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs. It's hard for me to condemn any action that moves them up hierarchy, even if done through means that would be taboo in a modern first-world country. So, for example, in the case that a character - particularly a young child - is being abused, slavery might provide a legal and relatively straightforward way to remove them from a bad situation. How could I condemn that?
I'm reminded of the Bloody Baron quest in Witcher 3. There's a child whose parents abandoned her in the forest because they couldn't afford to feed her. The Baron gave her a corner in the kitchen to sleep (i.e. somewhere warm) and a job. By modern standards that would be tantamount to child neglect and abuse... but in the context of the story, that actually came off as a charitable act of considerable magnanimity. It's hard for me to condemn the Baron's actions here - even knowing that she'll likely be subject to sexual abuse at the hands of his soldiers once she starts to blossom - because every other outcome for that poor child would have been worse.
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Thing is, slavery as we all recognize it, gives us no rights, but the slave gets housed, fed, and hopefully some medical care. I mean minor. Enough to offset the cost of just buying a new slave.
That is very easily translated to todays common worker. Granted, some 40-70% (or higher) have caused themselves to be in that essentially same situation.
When you work all day, and can barely afford housing, barely afford food on the table for your family, and barely if ever afford some extra’s for “life enjoyment”, it’s not really ‘freedom from slavery’ is it?
Sure, owning a $1m home when a $250,000 home would do is that persons own fault, being in dept and paying high interest is usually that same persons own fault, at least for the percentage of people who SHOULD be able to have financial freedom…
I’m just trying to make my point, “there will always be slavery” of one sort or another.
We won’t even touch on 3rd world countries and child labour in the Americas (how much exactly does your paperKID get paid? 50 -100 papers a week, net them maybe $30 a month if they are lucky. Maybe slightly more if it’s an adult doing it and doing massive routes. This is often AFTER adding the advertisements. Granted, this is a dieing job for the most part. Recently at least 10 of the 15 regional newspapers in my greater region went to online only).
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Let’s keep it to books and their usage of slavery as much as possible.
We are all going to play this very close to the chest. No deviations.
