I also agree. I do not hate the author, nor mean this as an attack, but art should not be dictated by reality, or reality's morals in my personal opinion. Creativity dies upon the altar of restriction, and once we give society the power to tell artists what they can and cannot create we open a can of slippery slope that has the power to destroy art entirely. And power, once given, is very hard to take back. Furthermore, it simply isn't a realistic way of looking at fiction. Yes; slavery and racism is vile. But consider; what would happen to story telling if we rid fictional worlds of all the terrible things that can, and sometimes do, happen in real life? Slavery is bad, so we shouldn't include it in stories... Ok, well, murder is also bad, so I guess murderers shouldn't exist in fiction either. Rape is bad, lying is bad, cheating is bad, etc. However, when used in fiction they can be very powerful tools and motivators. Both for the hero, who must overcome them, and the villain who is specifically supposed to be evil. Bottom line is that I do not think fictional stories, especially ones set in a fantasy world that doesn't even mirror reality, should not be associated with reality and reality's problems. Why can't we seperate the two? Personally, it is even sadder to me because I felt that Ran's story was a very powerful story about a strong female lead who not only breaks the chains of her own ignorance and compliance in a terrible system that she did not want to be a part of in the first place, but who also encourages Ran to break his own chains, both literally and emotionally. I didn't find this to be a story of oppression so much as it was a beautiful and heart wrenching story of the breaking of said oppression. And I simply don't understand how that can be construed negatively.