u/Femto-Griffith

How do you write the “indomitable human spirit”, if you have it? 

My take. Some of the aliens or fantasy species in my worlds don’t have the same “never giving up” that humanity does. The aliens have a tendency to give up more easily. On the one hand, this means that they get unified faster; a conqueror can likely unify most alien species quickly, but cannot do the same for humanity, which will resist tooth and nail. This means that humanity can guerilla war against any alien conqueror. On the other hand, planetary unification amongst most alien species has allowed them to take to the stars more easily, not being burdened by internecine rivalry. Sometimes you have empires of multiple alien species, all ruled by a single government. 

So basically Humanity in my hypothesized Science Fiction project, "Worlds of Beyond" is basically Space Afghanistan. Seen as a backwater with warring groups of people, but anyone who tries to deploy a military to it inevitably runs out of political will (compared to humanity) and fails. (And no, you can’t win only by bombing. The Vietnam War proved that. Orbital bombardment is the bombing equivalent.)

This happens way too often, especially in isekai anime and manga (and it especially occurs with Fantasy genre based on Roman or Medieval era). The willing slave girl tends to be played for either comedy or sexual content. I would say this archetype has caused problems for the isekai genre, especially when we see modern characters partake in slavery as a result. I understand that it might be impossible to level the entire system and free every slave (that takes a lot of societal effort and may be beyond the scope of a single adventuring party) but modern characters partaking in slavery is awful unless that character is already a villain. 

The willing slave girl archetype tends to happen in one of two ways. 
One: Life debt. The MC saved her life, so she pledges herself to him to satisfy all of his needs. The best way to fix this is to absolutely never call it slavery. Pay and wages also fixes this; when the party gets money, this girl also gets a share to spend on what she wants. 

Two: Manhood awe. The girl pledges herself to the MC because of… well that. This tends to occur with R18+ works, but there is room for character backstory here. Maybe an attractive girl born in poverty and wanting a way out… with a good man who can take care of her. It’s better than the other alternatives. 

Three: Learned Helplessness. Someone who wants to be taken care of that badly. Could overlap with part two (except this one is taken more seriously and not for R18+ humor). 

This is one of the archetypes that’s really hard to write properly. My take is because willing slave girl tends to become fetish fuel, especially in the isekai genre. A fast fix is to remove the modern character. There are many ways to make a “chosen one” without resorting to “literally from another world”. Morality may be a social construct, so characters of that time period who do not know other ideologies partaking in this kind of behavior are more excusable than someone who knows different/better. Alternatively, pay. That’s it. A share of the pay. That helps a lot. And never call this slavery at all.

What do you think?

Thoughts on Ultraboy in Superman: Unlimited? Do you think he will ever amount to anything? The son of Ultraman... is he doomed to evil because of his origin from the morality flipped universe, or do you think he would eventually rise above said nature? I think there's potential to be had here. From what little we see of him, he does seem capable of heroism, but he needs a lot of guidance and tends to go all-out when he doesn't have to. Adult Jon Kent practically needs to supervise Ultraboy otherwise casualties will start happening. What do you think?