Basic Trope: An artificial mark on a slave's body that identifies one as such.
- Straight: Sally the Slave has a branded 'S' on her left shoulder. This is the adknowledged mark of a slave in her country, Tropestan.
- Exaggerated: Sally has the word "SLAVE" on big letters tattooed on six different parts of her body.
- Downplayed: Sally wears a Slave Collar.
- Justified:
- The brand identifies Sally's owner and makes it more difficult that she escapes (or gets "stolen" by other slaver).
- The brand is part of a Tropestani slave's ritual "breaking" and makes them more likely to accept their status.
- Tropestan's slave and free population share ethnicity and there isn't a conventional slave dress or ornamentation in Tropestani culture. Branding is the only way to tell apart a slave from a citizen.
- Inverted: Misty the Mistress has a mark tattooed on her arm for each slave she owns.
- Subverted: Sally's burn was an accident and it resembles a letter by random chance.
- Double Subverted: Enough to be mistaken for a real slave brand, leading to Sally being captured by slave catchers and sold in the market (now with an R for runaway on the other shoulder).
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Sally the Slave is not branded.
- There are no slaves.
- Enforced: In order to eliminate the constant requests of the producers to have Sally's status mentioned everytime she is on screen, so new viewers don't miss that she is a slave, the writers resolve to have Sally be branded "SLAVE" in big, visible letters by her new owner.
- Lampshaded: "Nice letter. Is that your slave mark?"
- Invoked: Misty brands Sally to make known to everyone that she is her slave.
- Exploited:
- Misty brands Sally because this way she knows Sally will be recognized as a fugitive if she tries to escape.
- Alice, who is a free woman, brands herself in order to pose as a slave in Misty's house and murder her.
- Defied:
- Since branding is not mandatory, Misty decides to not do it because she finds it too cruel, or a risk to the good performance (and maybe life) of her expensive new slaves.
- Sally fights off when she is going to be branded and escapes.
- Sally talks her way out of the branding.
- Sally burns the brand spot further, making the burn not distinctive.
- Sally takes surgery to erase the brand after she escapes.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: There is a branding iron at Misty's house, and she doesn't have livestock. All the slaves shudder and rub their covered shoulders when they see it.
- Played For Drama: The brand is Sally's eternal Mark of Shame, makes her life dangerous as a fugitive, and brings her memories of her traumatic branding experience every time something brings the scar to her attention.
- Deconstructed: The number of slaves proliferated out of greed and they soon become aware of how much they outnumbered not only their masters but the free overseers. A bloody but very justified rebellion ensues.
Back to Slave Brand. We can't allow you to pass for a free person.
