History Main / HappinessInSlavery

* It could be argued that the ''{{Pikmin}}'' have this kind of relationship with Captain Olimar and Louie. While it was more of a case of mutual co-operation for survival in the first game, the two Hocotatians are using the little plant people solely for capitalistic recovery (and, later, gain) in the second. In spite of that, there's never any sort of dissension within the Pikmin ranks, and, if [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esYm9q-bi4w 'Ai no Uta']] is anything to go by, they're perfectly willing give their lives for their master(s). Of course, being on [[EverythingTryingToKillYou the bottom of the food chain of their planet's ecosystem]] gives reason to believe that they're likely happy for any help they can get...

[[caption-width-right:200:Slave labor looks quite [[SafeSaneAndConsensual SSC]] when explained by ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'s PointyHairedBoss]]

*** To be fair, the Tardis was considered by the Time Lords as vehicles. What would you do if you discover your car suddenly was alive the whole time and everytime the engine broke is because it was tired? Besides, the Doctor treats it more like a horse. Also, in Parting of the Ways, the reason he was sending it away was because if he didn't the Daleks would get their nasty plungers on it.

-->-- '''[[{{Music/NineInchNails}} nine inch nails]]'''

* In ''VideoGame/Loved'', you play as a small, catlike creature that is given commands by your 'master' that is akin to type B. Disobeying the commands makes the environment more colorful, but makes the landscape and enemies harder to understand and have less detail, making a metaphor that doing what you want provides happiness, but sacrifices the well-defined borders of your cage. Your master also becomes upset, asking why you disobeyed them, when they loved you. On the other hand, obeying their commands gives better detail and understanding to your environment, but your environment has absolutely no color, and your master still treats you like a pet, but treats you well, veering more to type A.

* In [[http://www.kongregate.com/games/AlexanderOcias/loved Loved]], you play as a small, catlike creature that is given commands by your 'master' that is akin to type B. Disobeying the commands makes the environment more colorful, but makes the landscape and enemies harder to understand and have less detail, making a metaphor that doing what you want provides happiness, but sacrifices the well-defined borders of your cage. Your master also becomes upset, asking why you disobeyed them, when they loved you. On the other hand, obeying their commands gives better detail and understanding to your environment, but your environment has absolutely no color, and your master still treats you like a pet, but treats you well, veering more to type A.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' actually has one straight type A example among the brutal aversions: the Chapter Serfs of the Space Marine chapters. Chapter Serfs are an integral part of a Chapter, filling all roles that aren't impossible for anyone other than a Space Marine to fill, and they do so far better than their counterparts outside the Space Marines. They are treated accordingly by their masters, considered full members of the Chapter Cult, and their lifestyle is superior to that of all but the richest people in the Imperium.

* In PoulAnderson's "Time Lag", Elva convinces Bors that she's this -- he's willing to take her back to her native planet, where her husband died in an attack he ordered.

* Creator/JulesVerne's ''TheMysteriousIsland'' has Neb, a former southern slave who is totally devoted to the man who freed him, although Verne explicitly states that he is more like a loyal butler than a slave.

* OlderThanFeudalism: Literature/TheBible contains instructions for freeing some slaves after seven years. Naturally, there is the case where the slave wants to remain, and the procedure for this is also described -- if the slave wishes, just pierce the ear, and he remains with you for life. (Given the ambiguous nature of ancient slavery, this may occasionally have happened, though the Bible doesn't record any specific examples. See RealLife below.)

** Hermione does not take well at finding out Hogwarts employs unpaid house elves, and so starts a small organization, Society from the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, but it fails to get anywhere because the elves don't want to be involved. Her opinion is that they like slavery because they're uneducated and brainwashed, when the real answer appears to be because of their BlueAndOrangeMorality (i.e., they like ''working'', it's ''being mistreated'' that they hate). She later has a talk with Dumbledore offscreen that establishes the straight facts, but she still advocates for house elves to be treated well in slavery, which is proven right when [[spoiler:Kreacher betrays his master Sirius because he mistreated him.]]

** Hermione does not take well at finding out Hogwarts employs unpaid house elves, starts a small organization, Society from the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, but it fails to get anywhere because the elves don't want to be involved. Her opinion is that they like slavery because they're uneducated and brainwashed, when the real answer appears to be because of their BlueAndOrangeMorality (i.e., they like ''working'', it's ''being mistreated'' that they hate). She later has a talk with Dumbledore offscreen that establishes the straight facts, but she still advocates for house elves to be treated well in slavery, which is proven right when [[spoiler:Kreacher betrays his master Sirius because he mistreated him.]]

* In ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', Itsuki's MadLove for Sensui is a rare combination of both kinds of this trope. (In other words: Sensui is so insane we don't know if he loves him back or not.)
** More specifically, some of Sensui's (''seven''!) personalities probably do love Itsuki back, but others likely don't care at all, and the jury's still out on the main 'Shinobu' personality.
*** One of personalities is '''female'''. And Itsuki himself tells us she writes 'the most beautiful poetry I've ever heard'. If you add this to the fact that all of his personalities have a purpose, then you can figure out what hers is.
*** Her primary purpose appears to have been doing all the freaking out and regretting over the horrible evil the rest of him has been getting up to since he [[FaceHeelTurn snapped]].
** Of course, Itsuki's not so much enslaved as an enthusiastic minion--and in the manga, at least, he predicted something like this way back when they first met and he realized how badly beautiful little Shinobu's KnightTemplar mind was going to [[HeroicBSOD break]] when reality hit him--and that was why he convinced him to let him stick around, because he [[CorruptTheCutie fuckin' loves 'that sort of thing']].
*** His comparison to illustrate 'that kind of thing' is to ''a little girl who believes babies come from storks growing up to be in pornos''. It's kind of unclear who's actually holding the leash here, even if Sensui is technically making all the decisions and Itsuki is helping him.
** YoshihiroTogashi puts some really sick material into his {{shonen}} manga. When he realized he could get away with this as long as he kept the official genre conventional, he wrote HunterXHunter.

* Saito in ''LightNovel/ZeroNoTsukaima''. Despite all the treatment he gets, he still loves Louise, and she loves him too. [[{{Tsundere}} Not that she'll admit it]]. There are also moments where Saito does have some control over her in the later seasons.
** Helps that his familiar runes subtly MindRape him, making him [[LaserGuidedAmnesia forget the bonds he has with his family and old world]] and, over time, replace them with a desire to serve and protect his master.
* Haji from ''[[BloodPlus Blood+ ]]'' does weird things with this trope. For at least the first 2/3 of the show, he embodies this perfectly: a servant that is completely and utterly loyal to his master, arguably because as a [[OurVampiresAreDifferent chevalier]] he's biologically hardwired that way. Then it turns out that chevaliers can betray their masters and abandon them without remorse; Haji is simply ''[[ExtremeDoormat that]]'' [[BodyguardCrush devoted]] to Saya.

Character A is in servitude to character B, but [[UnwantedRescue doesn't want freedom]], and is NotBrainwashed. There are three types of this:

# A belongs to a species whose [[PlanetOfHats Hat]] is HappinessInSlavery, or they both belong to a culture with a FantasticCasteSystem or it's inherent in their psyche, ''needing'' to have a Master, one way or another no matter what.

Compare SubordinateExcuse, which is similar, but without the slavery. If the masters are vampires, the willing subordinates are often {{Vampire Vannabe}}s. Also note that this can technically be applied to any {{Mon}} series where the mons are intelligent (leading to the occasional brutal {{Deconstruction}}).

* Holker in BelisariusSeries is this to Belisarius. Justified in that Belisarius was from a civilization where slaves had at least some rights and Holker expected to be sold in a place where slaves had none. Also justified in that Belisarius wanted him as an honored scribe instead of the beast-of-burden he had been intended as, gave him a cause to serve, and promised him freedom.

* This is a central concept to ''Franchise/{{Pokémon}}'' -- though the anime often has abusive trainers that the Pokémon serve because they've been caught and have no choice, for the most part in the games Trainer and Pokémon always get along well. Even among the villainous teams some of them get along fine with their Pokémon, either because they treat them well or because the Pokémon adapts to enjoy the villainy they're used to commit. ''Black and White'' explores this indepth, some members of Team Plasma who are WellIntentionedExtremists unaware their leader is evil release their Pokémon as ordered near the end of the game, and are confused when the Pokémon don't want to leave them because they've grown attached to their trainer. This can also be subverted, however -- in many games traded Pokémon will not obey your commands without proper Gym Badges, implying you have to earn their loyalty and respect.

* This is a central concept to ''VideoGame/{{Pokémon}}'' -- though the anime often has abusive trainers that the Pokémon serve because they've been caught and have no choice, for the most part in the games Trainer and Pokémon always get alone. Even among the villainous teams some of them get along fine with their Pokémon, either because they treat them well or because the Pokémon adapts to enjoy the villainy they're used to commit. ''Black and White'' explores this indepth, some members of Team Plasma who are WellIntentionedExtremists unaware their leader is evil release their Pokémon as ordered near the end of the game, and are confused when the Pokémon don't want to leave them because they've grown attached to their trainer.

** Hermione does not take well at finding out Hogwarts employs unpaid house elves, starts a small organization, Society from the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, but it fails to get anywhere because the elves don't want to be involved. Her opinion is that they like slavery because they're uneducated and brainwashed, when the real answer appears to be because of their BlueAndOrangeMorality. She later has a talk with Dumbledore offscreen that establishes the straight facts, but she still advocates for house elves to be treated well in slavery, which is proven right when [[spoiler:Kreacher betrays his master Sirius because he mistreated him.]]

** This appears to be the default attutide of anyone who isn't a ruler, caster, or warlord in Erfworld. In the text updates, [[FishOutOfWater Parson]] gets {{Squick}}ed by the flirting of the cute [[CharliesAngels Archons]] when he realizes they don't even understand the concept of a 'volunteer'. Every unit under his command would do anything he asks, including have sex with him (which a female caster seems to consider SOP for male warlords with archons). Justified since the world is governed by the rules of a TableTopGame, where units always obey your orders. [[NightmareFuel But here Parson walks among those 'units', who have feelings and personality, but still blindly follow orders and like it...]]

* Adam Susan of ''VForVendetta'' proudly declares himself a slave to the Fate computer.

* "Number Seven" in series 3 of ''Series/BeingHuman'' left his job and family to become a live-in blood donor for vampires, complete with leather bondage suit.

** This is also the case with voluntary human hosts and, more mildly, the Yeerk Peace Movement, which advocates for cooperation with one's host. Some of the characters distrust the Peace Movement, viewing it as just a milder invasion, but Cassie is sympathetic to it and at one point even volunteers to host the friendly Yeerk Aftran.

* Taxxons in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}''. They allowed the Yeerks to enslave them, basically made a deal with them, in the hope that the Yeerks could suppress their HorrorHunger. It didn't work.

* House Elves in the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series, who appear to be a whole SlaveRace that are like this. They are magically obligated to obey their masters in all things, even to the point of harming themselves. Some are well treated by their masters, others are horribly abused. Still it appears that the vast majority of elves find the idea of being freed distasteful (they compare it to being fired). Even Dobby, who wants his freedom, still wants to work and will only accept enough pay to prove that he's free.
** Their apparent inability to leave a master even if they want to as in Dobby's case is the only indication of them being magically obligated to serve their masters. BUT house elves seem INCAPABLE of existing without a master because of how much most house elves prefer their master. Species don't just exist like that. There are symbiotes and parasites but not slaves who will simply take the abuse from their masters without leaving not to mention the weird rules they follow. I mean they require a possession of their master given to them? Combined with the fact that only richer families seem to possess them and regular humans certainly don't have them it comes across as if some rich and influential wizards enslaved them in the past for their own personal use.
** Nonetheless, even being magically bound to their master, they can still feel resentment towards their master. Because Sirius constantly insulted Kreacher, he creatively interpreted his "OUT!" command to get out of the house and [[TheDogBitesBack eventually betray him.]]

*** His comparison to illustrate 'that kind of thing' is to ''a little girl who believes babies come from storks growing up to be in pornos''. It's kind of unclear who's actually holding the leash here, even if Sensui is technically making all the decisions and Isuki is helping him.