r/TopCharacterTropes • u/KusanagiGundam • 15d 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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386

u/yellowvincent 15d ago

The oompa loompas are a tribe of African pygmis

https://giphy.com/gifs/3o7aDbJJV5n7Y6KgkU

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u/KusanagiGundam 15d ago

They're employees not slaves

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u/C0Ha 14d ago edited 14d ago

The grunka lunkas are “basically slaves.” They think they have a good union but they don’t

Edit: I can’t believe I remembered the quote so well except for the grunkla lunkas names. Shame on me for 1000 years

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u/1amlost 14d ago

Grunka Lunka dunkity doo

We have a friendly warning for you

Grunka Lunka dunkity dasis

The secret of Slurm's on a need-to-know basis

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u/randotreesinthefen 14d ago

Grunka lunka dunkedy darmedguards

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u/CJCroen1393 14d ago

Bender: SHUT THE HELL UP!

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u/C0Ha 14d ago

They once found a dead guy face down in the slurm. It could easily happen to one of you folk

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u/Triforce-Kun 11d ago

This. This is the line that I always remember for whatever reason. God, I love Futurama.

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u/VinChaJon 14d ago

So are the sharecroppers from Song of the South

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u/yellowvincent 15d ago

🤌🤌🤌

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u/KusanagiGundam 15d ago

They get paid in cocoa beans

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u/yellowvincent 15d ago

When Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was published in 1964, it included three thousand Oompa-Loompas as African Pygmies forced to stay at Willy Wonka's factory, compensated only with chocolate. These characters may have mirrored the situation of cocoa workers at the time.

You can't pay someone in products it is like if you worked at a toy store and got paid with barbies

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u/KusanagiGundam 15d ago

That's not the movie I remember.

Edit: Cocoa beans are considered a rare delicacy in Oompa Loompa society. And Wonka recruited them into working in his factory by offering a mutual exchange. It's closer to the feudal bartering system than slavery

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u/Holiday_Tap_4358 14d ago

They’re referring to the book, I think you’re talking about the Tim Burton movie

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u/Smaptastic 14d ago

No. That’s how it is in the book, too. He found the tribe starving, eating horrible slop, and being hunted by predators. He offered to take them in and pay them with cocoa beans (which are, as stated, a delicacy to them) and they jumped at the offer willingly. He even “sweetens” the deal by giving them finished chocolate, which they prefer even over cocoa beans, despite that not being the original agreement.

I literally just read it with my kid.

Also, they’re only like a foot tall. Much smaller than the movies.

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u/nowTHATSakatana1999 11d ago

That’s actually the revised version from the 70s onwards. In the original text they were depicted as African Pygmies.

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u/Smaptastic 11d ago

Ah. Didn’t know there was a revision.

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u/KusanagiGundam 14d ago

There's a book? I thought the original was a 1970's movie

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u/Holiday_Tap_4358 14d ago

No, it’s a book by Roald Dahl. There is a sequel too, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. He was my favorite author as a child but I have since learned he was very racist. He also wrote James and the Giant Peach, the BFG, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, and Matilda if you have seen any of those movies too.

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u/yellowvincent 14d ago

Mara wilion says that ahe finds comfort on the fact that the author would had hated Matilda being played by a bisexual Jewish girl

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u/_whatever_wherever 14d ago

And antisemitic

Oh boy was he antisemitic

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u/kulupu_kasi_seli 14d ago

How was he racist? I vaguely remember reading something about it but I can’t remember. He was also one of my favorite authors as a child iirc, but I can’t remember the books well enough to know if there’s racism.

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u/nowTHATSakatana1999 11d ago

I don’t know about racist, but he WAS antisemitic. It never really showed in his work though.

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u/yellowvincent 14d ago

There are 2 books the second is the glass elevator wich the author forbid from being adapted because he hated the 71 film

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u/WikipediaBurntSienna 14d ago

This is one of the few times where the movie is considered the superior medium.

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u/M0thM0uth 14d ago

Oh have fun with that rabbit hole, seriously! 😁 It's a Roald Dahl and has a super trippy sequel where they go to space

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u/Steampunk43 14d ago

Eh, payment is generally negotiated by the payer and payee and can technically be in whatever form the two agree to. We use money as a legal standard, but historically people would barter goods and services in exchange for goods and services. Oompa Loompas have no use for money and a desire for chocolate, why is it wrong for them to be paid in chocolate if that's what they want to be paid in?

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u/yellowvincent 14d ago

I think most countries would want a legal currency for a lot of reasons probably mostly tax reasons but also because then the employer can't abuse their employees with payment. Let's say an oompa loompa has a medical emergency and needs a Stent and meds, he can't pay the pharmacy with chocolate, he could ask wonka to exchange his monthly supply of chocolate for cash but wonka could underpay him a lot because he has no need to buy chocolate from an ooompa loompa chocolate for wonka may as well be worthless

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u/Steampunk43 14d ago

Except, as I said, Oompa Loompas have no use or need for money. Do you really think Wonka doesn't have in-house medical staff who could take care of the Oompa Loompas, especially given that the Oompa Loompas most likely have their own medics since Oompa Loompas have all kinds of roles in Wonka's factory including as scientists.

This argument is also ignoring the fact that an Oompa Loompa wouldn't really be able to go out to the hospital or anywhere they'd spend money anyway because they're an Oompa Loompa and, depending on the version, would either be alienated or considered strange/scary due to being a little orange man with green hair.

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u/Sayakalood 14d ago

The kids are fine at the end of the movie despite being injured, so I would assume that there’s a good quality medical facility on the premises. Wonka doesn’t even charge the families for its use, so it is presumably free.

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u/LadyKarizake 14d ago

The government will fine you if you pay your employees in beans instead of money.

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u/Crunchy_Biscuit 14d ago

Who get paid in chocolate lol