Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki Part 2 Episode 9 Discussion

argilium said:
You know what's worse than slavery? The death toll and economic downfall that arises should a civil war break out in Friedonia. And given the threat of nearby countries recently, the vulnerability of the kingdom can lead them to get invaded and would result into more slaves after that. Heck, even if slavery abolition doesn't lead to civil war, that declaration is easy picking for other countries to crusade against Friedonia because they're defying the continent's values or customs, especially because they're not even a part of Humankind Declaration.

So Souma being spineless about it makes more sense in context. Human rights or human lives, Souma will pick the latter choice and try to work around on the other.

But indeed, the true flaw of the episode is a reliance on an unlikely character like Ginger because writing a character background like that is just too convenient for the plot and the timing.

Phat-Hamburger said:


Just woke up, so my thoughts might be all over the place.

I understand where you're coming from. The author has written Souma out to be the ultimate pragmatist. To paraphrase you, he may not be able to abolish slavery altogether, and given his situation and the fragility of the state (Friedonia) internally and externally, he doesn't want to risk making any sort of big changes that would risk civil war or an external invasion. That much I understand, but it's the lack of any sort of depth of morality concerning the topic of slavery that I find an issue with. Souma has no issue binding that dragon girl (forgot her name) to a lifetime of slavery/servitude, so he obviously has no issues with slavery from a pragmatist point of view. Case in point, his act of nationalising slavery to regulate the slave trade sets a bad precedent as someone from a more socio-culturally advanced timeline/parallel world, however, I also realise that realistically, emancipation of slaves doesn't just happen overnight, and that his way of nationalising slavery is a form of "humanising" slaves by way of better treatment through regulations and whatnot. What I have an issue with is how fine and dandy everyone is when it concerns slavery. We literally see in this episode the enslaved dragon girl in a maid outfit airing her grievances to Souma of how often she's whipped by the head maid which Souma seems to be okay with, seeing as he enslaved her and all.

I also see where you're coming from with the "defying the continent's values or customs", and that cultural relativism most likely has solidified that slavery is ethically fine in their everyday cultural and social norms. However, in this instance, specifically, Friedonia, Souma is incredibly popular with the majority of the population that aren't nobles and they welcome his liberal values. As we've seen time and again, especially this episode, Souma basically has the ability to purge whoever he likes, whenever he likes (the scheming nobles in his courtroom). So in this instance, it would very much be possible for Souma to outright denounce slavery from a moral perspective. He basically has the perfect tool for state propaganda, the daily gemstone broadcasts to straight-up convince the populace, and I don't think the common man would be against the abolition of slavery at all, seeing as they do not directly benefit from it.

I doubt that other countries would willingly crusade against Friedonia for this, maybe it might rouse the noble and ruling class because they see it as an affront to their already existing class and power structures, but outright war is shaky at best. The Gran Chaos Empire already sees Souma as a valuable ally, so I think in this case, they would likely reign in and silence the discontents.

The main problem is basically how this episode/show tries to put a heartwarming feel to the slave-trade. It starts off by saying slaves are abused in all sorts of manner, then cuts to Ginger, a slave-owner, who for plot convenience is "isn't like other slave-owners" lmao. For an episode that denounces slavery, I would've expected some slave collars being thrown off, but instead we're shown that "not all slave-traders are bad". How convenient that instead of directly addressing the systemic issue of slavery, the author instead just portrays Ginger, a "good" slave-owner as being able to change it from within. Rather than denounce the system that perpetuates the normalisation of slavery, the author just makes it seem like there are "good" and "bad" slave-owners that need to be differentiated.

MugenNoShirayuki said:


You're asking for a level of writing that's above what this author is capable of.

Seabury said:
Honestly one of the most interesting takes on slavery that I've seen. I don't recall seeing "how can I end this without starting a civil war?" as a plot point before, but more interesting is the solution of socializing the practice. It wouldn't have worked in the US, because any degree of socialism was not an option back then, but under a population more amenable to absolute rule by kings, etc., this is a plausible method! Have the government take over, start imposing regulations on the treatment of slaves, and perhaps this is too modern of an idea, but impose so much red-tape and bureaucracy that hardly anybody wants to deal with the headache of owning slaves. Imagine filing tax returns for every single one of your slaves, for example. And having to deal with inspectors, filling out quarterly paperwork, etc.

Dukino said:
I'm sure some people seeing this episode would hate on Ginger simply for being a slave trader, which is a fair point, but a topic like this requires nuance to navigate not black and white views of how things should be. In an ideal world slavery would've be a thing but it exist on that continent and even in Souma own kingdom so Ginger is just a cog in that machine really. He honestly did treat them very well. Giving them clothes, good food, an education, keeping the families together when they were sold, it's commendable how much Ginger helped these people.

Mrboringday said:
Very different from manga and this anime can't make it interesting that's why I dropped this anime

0451 said:
Slavery isn't something that could be abolished by a single command with no consequences. I'm glad the show addresses that instead of making Souma out to be some sort of hero who destroys it and everyone lives happily ever after. I think out of all the isekai anime I watched this one portrayed it the best. Though it's kinda worrying why so many Japanese authors try to incorporate it into their stories. What's so interesting about it?