Isekai Walking - Vol. 8 Ch. 70 - Slave Contract

[tekkenshu7]

FRIEREN mentioned pog moment

And Sora, Ciel and Himmel are all words that mean 'sky' or heaven

 

[sirmidor]

People can accept complete fantasy elements like magic or dragons, but not that a system of slavery in a fictional world isn't as bad as real-life slavery; it's so tiring. I don't want to hear anyone complain about a lack of creativity in isekai stories while simultaneously not being able to fathom things being different from our own world.

 

[T-sama]

People can accept complete fantasy elements like magic or dragons, but not that a system of slavery in a fictional world isn't as bad as real-life slavery; it's so tiring. I don't want to hear anyone complain about a lack of creativity in isekai stories while simultaneously not being able to fathom things being different from our own world.

Western readers can't help but moralizing about things they shouldn't think too deep, at least slavery is understandable, could be worse, like Twittards who whine about any age gap romance being "pedophilia".

 

[tekkenshu7]

Thanks for the new chapter!

I still think that he should've put Hikari in the orphange then adopt her immediately.

Anyway, it looks like a slave contract spell is probably the same as the spirit contract Sora made with Ciel, thus with Hikari now being Sora's 'subordinate' it also bring her at the same level of 'instance' as with Ciel thus somehow enabling her to see Ciel as well.

 

[dexdoujinmanga]

This kind of philosophy from the author? Not surprising at all. I've seen it coming ever since he bullshitted Sora's encounter with that demon. It's half-cooked.

 

[Proxpleb]

Ah yes my favourite romance trope: Slavery

 

[Vanness]

Yeah that explanation was half-assed. debt and criminal slaves are being describe like a more restricted/enforced employment (which could be realistic depending on the culture, rules/laws, and methods; otherwise it's still pretty crappy.) but, war slaves is straight up BS. most people do not want to be in a war, in the first place; so saying they are not victims of the situation is ridiculous.

 

[CraniumAmbiguity]

Yeah I don't buy it. The author is making a real effort to say that re-enslaving the loli is the only practical option and using whatever plot device/situation to steer towards that result. The only reason they decided to go to the town was to "get more spices". (Assumably they are also resupplying provisions too.) But when they saw the gate, he immediately decided that they had to go through the front normally, despite knowing he would get stopped.

The checkpoint is only for the town so they can just avoid it by going around and skipping the town. The smaller rural villages didn't have such security checkpoints, so they can still resupply elsewhere.
And there are other methods to enter.

Most other series would have the MC save someone that would vouch for them as gratitude. Then for identification they would sign up at a guild and use the guild card as identification. (Even re-issuing is usually possible for a fee).

Slavery is usually used in these series as a plot device for drama, and a lazy way to justify characters traveling in the MC's company. But this feels VERY forced and unnecicary to justify re-enslaving the freed loli that already has reason to acumpany the MC.

 

[Xerlith]

I have a budding crackpot theory that the Japanese employment system is so similar to salvery they kind of conflate the two, hence the dumbass takes on "mutually beneficial slavery" in manga.

 

[T-sama]

but, war slaves is straight up BS. most people do not want to be in a war, in the first place; so saying they are not victims of the situation is ridiculous.

War in the past was not like war since a few hundreds of years ago, if you couldn't escape you must likely would just get murdered, being made a slave was possibly the "lucky" alternative depending on the place and culture, and both sides probably did it too, so it was accepted as normal by everyone involved in whatever war that happened.

I have a budding crackpot theory that the Japanese employment system is so similar to salvery they kind of conflate the two, hence the dumbass takes on "mutually beneficial slavery" in manga.

That... would explain a lot actually.

 

[Fidelas]

This is what happens when authors come from a culture that doesn't have the same association as the west (i.e. American-dominated) with slavery. Slavery was banned in Japan long before America got around to it (aside from some dirty 20th century things that are usually ignored), so it lives on in fiction as this quaint little historical practice, rather than a relatively recent and brutal part of American consciousness. Serfdom -> slavery is a "natural" part of the faux-medieval RPG settings with kings and counts and little cities with perfectly circular walls. Add in a dash of Japanese respect of hierarchy and you get slavery apologetics.

And lets be honest, most isekai writers are shamelessly going down a list of tropes to include without really analyzing or considering why those tropes exist, and "slave loli waifu" is just another one of them.

 

[Mangamoz]

Poor fantasy manga authors, they just can't control their hands when they write in all these contrived excuses to justify slavery in their stories.

It's not their fault guys, the slavery devil made them do it.

 

[Guyincognitus]

People can accept complete fantasy elements like magic or dragons, but not that a system of slavery in a fictional world isn't as bad as real-life slavery; it's so tiring. I don't want to hear anyone complain about a lack of creativity in isekai stories while simultaneously not being able to fathom things being different from our own world.

Western readers can't help but moralizing about things they shouldn't think too deep, at least slavery is understandable, could be worse, like Twittards who whine about any age gap romance being "pedophilia".

There's little difference between crafting a fantasy world where slavery is ok and just straight-up slavery apologetics.

 

[sat129]

A system to get ID? NO
A way more complicated and unnecessary slavery system? Yes

Always the dumbest reason for slave shit.

 

[FANNYMAN231]

If the author just straight up goes "Yeah, we need her to be a slave because of trope" I would've just accepted it with a bitter taste in my mouth, but justifying it with flimsy reasons just makes it much worse. You're bending over backwards just so you can use the trope of slavery, and it's not even required.

Why not just have a simple contract? It's not good, but it's better than slavery.

 

[T-sama]

There's little difference between crafting a fantasy world where slavery is ok and just straight-up slavery apologetics.

Saying it's slavery apologetics is quite a stretch when most isekai with good slavery literally involves fucking magic.

Plus it can't be apologetics because it's never modern earth, slavery in medieval setting is basically just a cliche, you're thinking way too deep about what the author means with it.

 

[T-sama]

Poor fantasy manga authors, they just can't control their hands when they write in all these contrived excused to justify slavery in the story.

It's not their fault guys, the slavery devil made them do it.

Counter argument, this is fiction, and in fiction anything goes, don't like don't read it, Japanese writers are infamous for using almost all cliches possible in their stories, if you can't take that you might as well stop reading anything from Japan.

 

[MikeysteinNR]

People forget how recent and prevalent slavery has been in Japan. Japan wants to say slavery was abolished centuries ago, but my family has a notarized receipt-of-sale of my great-grandmother and her brother and that was less than a century ago, she kept that receipt with her her whole life until she passed away a couple of years ago, as proof she was a free person.

 

[Guyincognitus]

Americans did not invent the darker sides of slavery, but they did make it infinitely worse, turned it 100% racial, and used bible to justify it.

The magic isn't how it's justified. It's justified by saying slaves are being freed from debt, provided homes, promised they won't be tortured into compliance, etc.
i.e. the literal exact same justifications as real-life slave apologia.

 

[T-sama]

The magic isn't how it's justified. It's justified by saying slaves are being freed from debt, provided homes, promised they won't be tortured into compliance, etc.
i.e. the literal exact same justifications as real-life slave apologia.

Yes, in a medieval setting where slavery is already the norm, also you know, magic, demons, dragons, nothing more than another staple of isekai.

You're putting waaaay too much thought into something japanese authors put literally no thought at all.

Sometimes the blue curtains are just blue, without any meaning behind it.