A while ago I had this talk about how my problem with Shuro isn't his treatment of Laios, but the whole slavery situation behind his character.
Shuro is a prince from a Japanese-esque country sent to distant western lands in other to prove his worth, being constantly othered by multiple characters - who, in fact, didn't even care to learn his actual name. He suffers, also, with the more direct aproach this western people use when communicating. Thus, his biggest problem is with Laios, as he's the most socially akward character of all, and the one who exotizes him the most. So yeah, I don't have any issues with the way the relationship between them goes, mainly because Laios' actions, although well meant, are unexcusable.
I don't mind Toshiro never going against his father bad either, after all, what he would earn going against him? A life of shame and exile? His course of action is, unfortunately, the most realistic one. For him, the twisted ways of his society are the norm, to the point that slavery - shockingly - might not even be such a terrible thing in his concept. After all, he was raised by Maizuru, an enslaved woman. It's not crazy to assume he might normalize it. The real issue lays in the fact that slavery IS, despite what he might think, undeniably bad, and the way Dunmeshi treats the issue lacks the necessary care to do so.
Everything because of the dicotomy between Tade and Izutsumi.
Basically, Izutsumi loathes her condition as an enslaved person, and actively runs away from Toshiro. Tade, on the other hand, enjoys it quite a lot, to the point of lecturing Izutsumi about how she should be more grateful for what she had. Tade prefering the place where she, at least, had food and shelter to the one where she had neither could be an interesting take - but the plot has no time nor space to deal with the topic properly; Tade's enjoyment being portrayed as happiness, when contempt (that, a way more complex emotion) should've been it.
After all, despite having her bare necessities fullfilled, Tade is - still - enslaved. She's still bound to deeply hierarchy, and all the abuse that comes from master x owner relationships. Her being simply happy diminishes that fact. Let alone that, in Toshiro's society, ogres like Tade aren't even considered demi-humans, even less humans per se. They're considered to be monsters, and that's exactly why they're persecuted, and, why not, also the reason for them being victims of slavery; which makes the way Dunmeshi deals with the topic even worse, as it actually aproximates Tade's situation with enslavement by race motives specifically.
I don't think Kui ever meant to portray any characters as less human, and her work definetly works as critic for dehumanizing ideals as well. But it lacks depth while dealing with such delicate topic, leaving us with some very weird, although accidental implications. If this topic was completely cut from the narrative, or, at least, if those more intricate implications were left out, it would have been way better!
*It's worth noticing that Japan has a long history with slavery, so any of this assumptions follow a strict western perspective, completely detached from the cultural context behind the manga's creation. Since a long time ago, the Japanese had their own systems of both slavery and servitude, both before and after they were victims of the European slave trade. Slavery in Japan, by the way, was distinctively bad regarding woman, for centuries sexually exploited, even after other kinds of slavery were banned within the territory. That wicked business didn't save foreign people as well, enslaved during wars, but also, to a minor degrew, due to racial motivations - Japan having never asked for forgiveness, and never having said sorry for such cruelty neither.
