Grrl Power #934 - Space butler! (Patreon)

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I'm sure a few of you are like "Uh, didn't she get arrested?" It comes up on the next page.

The whole "You spared and/or saved my life, therefore you own my life and/or I must serve you" seems like one of those things that has only ever existed in fiction. I don't know, maybe it happened in Japan back in the day, but it probably almost always involves someone of lower status giving up slightly more of their autonomy to someone who already above them in the hierarchy.

“Honor” may start off as a legitimate code of conduct, but it’s incredibly easy to twist. It’s simple to say any given action is or is not honorable to justify any other action. The system breaks down the instant it becomes dishonorable or against the rules to question superiors, because people abuse power, and as soon as your superior decides its honorable for you to give him half of your Hostess Snowball (as some sort of "tribute" I guess) then your Honorgarchy is basically doomed.

Klingons are supposedly big into honor, but it's been established that they'll shoot up a ship, then cloak and lay in wait for someone to come along to try and rescue any crew, because "There is nothing more honorable than victory." Well, as soon as something like that is established, then you may as well not even pretend to have honor. Irradiating a population to sterilize them means you'll eventually achieve victory over them, as would poisoning their food supply, or stealing their atmosphere or inventing a King's Man style "rabies beam" so they all just kill each other.

I'm not suggesting there's no value in the concept of honor. I just can't think of an example in any fiction I've consumed, from James Clavell's Shogun to Klingons to the Nordar in Star Justice where it wasn't a very fluid target and wildly abused or flat out ignored by those with power.