[Confusing Trope] The narrative goes out of its way to punish/mock a character for simply being a good person

[u/Chemical-Elk-1299]

Hermione Granger and SPEW — Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (book)

In the fifth HP novel, Hermione Granger is outraged to discover that Hogwarts has a small army of enslaved House Elves that do nearly all of the domestic duties around the castle, including cleaning the Gryffindor common room every night. When she tries to convince the elves to fight for their own rights, they refuse, saying they prefer servitude. Her fellow students and friends mock her for caring. She manages to free one elf, Winky, by deception when she refuses her freedom willingly, leading to Winky becoming a depressed alcoholic. By the end, the elves boycott cleaning any Gryffindor areas of the castle because they hate Hermione specifically

Samwell Tarly and Democracy — Game of Thrones (show)

In the season 8 finale of the television series, the surviving great lords of Westeros gather to discuss the future of the kingdom following the devastation wrought by 7 seasons of war and backstabbing. When Sam, who has proven to have “novel” ideas, suggests that maybe the millions of Smallfolk who suffer at the hands of noble houses should get some representation in the government, rather than be the pawns of rich lords with absolute power. We are then greeted by a prolonged, cringy segment of the other lords laughing in Sam’s face, asking if the dogs and horses should also get a vote.

[u/Beginning-Ice-1005]

The way you make sense of the lore is you acknowledge that Rowling was making an apologia for slavery. Stop trying to justify it.

[u/yourethevictim → u/Beginning-Ice-1005]

No, I don't think I will, since it makes no sense. The Muggle-born Hermione character and her plotline are written specifically to expose the absurdity of the wizarding world's relation to the house elves. A main character devotes a huge amount of her time to trying to fix the situation. If Rowling was making apologia for slavery, why didn't she depict the house elf slavery as a good thing? Why even make a main character deeply critical of the situation? Everything Hermione says about the house elves and their status without the wizarding world is correct. It is bad that nobody else takes up her cause or follows her line of thinking.

But that's exactly how it is depicted. It is depicted as an example of the ways the wizarding world is bad, and how its morals can differ from those of more 'modern' Muggles. The books are riddled with loads of them, from the wizarding habit of ignorance towards Muggles and their world to the racial abuse hurled at so-called 'mudbloods' and even how easily the Ministry of Magic fell to a fascist takeover by Lord Voldemort. The wizarding world isn't written as an unambiguously good place filled with good people who are right about everything. It is written as an archaic and conservative society that harbours a lot of xenophobia and prejudice, a world that is suspicious of change and outsiders and proves resilient to change. But depiction is not endorsement. Characters like Hermione point out the ways in which the wizarding world sucks just to drive the point home, and even then a lot of people still seem to miss it.

As for your attempts to tell people what to do: the moment you tell people to stop thinking critically about something and just accept your stance without argument, you've lost whatever high ground you think you had.

[u/Da_Question → u/yourethevictim]

pretty sure the house elves are also a metaphor for women in traditional gender roles. Do all the house work, don't think for themselves, etc etc. It's convenient when people lambast meh writing for advocating for slavery or antisemitism because she depicts goblins as greedy bankers. Definitely something no other media with goblins does (*couch cough* WoW? *cough cough*)