Quote:
Originally Posted by magnuskn
I disagree, but again, plot convenience to make Naofumi use slavery, because the writer clearly has a fetish for it.
The anime is not about slavery, but about saving the world from the invasions. That the writer is again and again hammering on the slavery button is for no good reason but to make Naofumi use it, is in my eyes bad writing. And the writing would be no more good or bad if Naofumi would use his immense leverage (he's the only one around who is actually doing something so that not everybody gets killed) to actually enforce the abolishment of slavery, instead of re-enforcing it. Which, again, is plot convenience by the writer to push his slavery fetish onto the viewers.
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Okay, seriously, don't go accusing authors of having "fetishes" for things, especially something like this. Not to mention it's hard to call it a "fetish" when there's absolutely no point where slavery is presented in any way remotely approaching that. Heck, the few positive slave relationships never have anything remotely resembling a master-slave dynamic. Calling that a fetish is like saying a person has a furry fetish when he wrote a story where many characters are identified as being "beast-people" but never drew any transformations or any figures remotely different from human, not even animal ears. And then when he finally does show a character with some animalistic features and behaviors, she's treated as annoying and pathetic.
And of course slavery comes up again and again. In a world with major conflicts, those conflicts won't automatically stop because a big threat is looming, especially if it's not a "whole world all together all at once" type of threat. But again, that doesn't mean that the heroes themselves are going to drop their preparations for the next threat every time they see something unpleasant. Pretending the slavery just suddenly disappeared in itself would be seriously bad writing, and entirely unbelievable, and I'm quite certain plenty of people would complain about serious issues being brought up for convenience then brushed under the rug when no longer useful. It's a difficult subject that can't be discarded believably, can't be eradicated believably because again Naofumi has power, but not near as much as you like to insist, and can't continue to be present because obviously some people will be convinced that the author just "likes" it.
I'm not saying Naofumi's a saint or anything. This is a situation where there is no definitively good or bad answer or right or wrong. That's why I hate people making absolute statements to declare this "supportive" of slavery or some nonsense like that.
I've been following this from the start, and I will say I have not seen one single point where slavery is "fetishized" to even the slightest degree. On the contrary, the very presence of any level of a subservient attitude is treated as a serious and downright
annoying flaw that needs to be corrected. This isn't the best presentation possible, obviously, but it's not the sort of bad writing or fetishization/support of slavery people like yourself keep claiming. People just interpret it that way and have from the moment Raphtalia decided that getting the crest replaced would be the best way to prove to a still-broken Naofumi that he could trust her as much as she trusted him. It was a way to convey a moving act of trust in a story where that, again, is one of the major themes, but it was easy for people to just declare as an "obvious" demonstration of some sort of deviant tastes.
Look, if you want to insist that the author has some sort of slavery fetish then go ahead; don't get why you'd watch it if you think it's that bad (and don't say you don't when you just went on about it being badly written) but go ahead. Personally, I get the feeling that if he is catering to any fetish it's that of punishment/vengeance. Which is quite popular these days, and frequently does involve slavery as there's a certain satisfaction in seeing an oppressor so thoroughly oppressed. Thus the scene when he's told what'll happen to him and he breaks down in horror: the point isn't some fantasy about having the power to control others, but rather having the power to turn the tables on those that'd abused such power and make them personally experience the other side. Naofumi isn't ever portrayed controlling others, and those associated with him are never portrayed like simpering slaves, but he most certainly is portrayed as willing to hurt those that hurt him and thoroughly enjoy it. Again, not moral, but not "perpetuating" or "fetishizing" slavery.
PS, sorry for being so long-winded and probably wandering aimlessly. I'm not always very good at organizing and summarizing my thoughts.