I'm Not a Villainess!! Just Because I Can Control Darkness, Doesn't Mean I'm a Villain - Vol. 2 Ch. 12.1 - Publisher 2nd Edition

[dancur]

i don't understand why everyone was so hung up about her skin color, if the king of shadows blesses someone it changes their appearance so the same thing should happen for the spirit king especially in this fantasy world

 

[HotGirlShi]

@Scrabbleman you are completely wrong. Your comment absolutely did not make any sense. The problem is that her skin color was changed from the color she was born with to a more favorable color as if she has been "healed". It was basically implying that the skin color was the problem, even said it herself that it was a "blessing". If you do not understand this, then all I can say is that ignorance is bliss *smh. Of course, we would feel uncomfortable about it? Judging from this comment, you must not have ever experienced something like this but as a black person, this was obviously incredibly offensive. There was absolutely no need to change her skin color to only show that the mc did not change how she felt and that the others changed their attitude. In fact, they were already changing their attitude when she helped them win the war so this was not needed. There were alternative ways to show that. But either way, the point is, the author should not have decided to change her skin color. That was not the problem and that was who she was. The skin color should not have mattered. That was completely wrong. Incredibly wrong, no matter the intention. Again, that was horrible. No ifs, and, or buts.

 

[Nisverah]

I get why people would ree at the skin color changing, but it's just part of the story. I like the original where it changes better, because like HaruPARTY said in the first page of this chapter, it made sense. Stuff like this is only racist if you see it as racist. Her skin color wasn't naturally darker, so by that logic, making her skin color darker is racist. People forget that black and white/dark and light is often used in stories and has nothing to do with race.

what @dancur said, there's no reason to get upset at this, it was a story about light and dark, it's not racist.

 

[HotGirlShi]

@Nisverah Just because that theme has been used in many stories doesn't make it right. It may not affect you because you aren't a poc, but to the poc (which is including me), that is a direct attack. Bc of the color of our skin? Really? That was messed up. To be able to do this in a story and to defend this means you are lacking the sympathy to sympathize with others who are being the accused side simply bc of our skin color. I certainly don't wanna read about my skin color being judged as evil bc that's just the theme. White skin= good, Black skin = evil. What if it was the other way around? White skin = evil, Black skin = good? The point is, our character should not be judged by our appearance. That's hella shallow and narrowminded. This is obviously completely wrong. This theme should end, and in fact, should never have existed. So yes, this is another form of racism. The whole point of being racist is to judge others by the color of their skin. The people who disagree with this comment are downright sad. We are better than this y'all.

 

[megagen]

@Nisverah
The issue I have with it is it does not address the problem of discrimination. All it does is simply wave it away as now you are fine because you are no longer darker and then it's brushed aside. Then what was the point of it in terms of world building. Maybe I was actually expecting that she would be granted a blessing and retain her darker tone, which would cause a ripple in society that being darker should not really be a stigma. But that was just waved off.

 

[gaylard]

Haha fuck, I thought her skin-tone changing was too on the nose, but I guess it's warranted given how many people still don't understand the central theme of this manga.

 

[Debrandir]

@megagen oh if it actually went like that. Quite the wasted potential, really.

 

[Mogima]

@Leo80221 not for human. But for the ecosystem, mosquitoes play a role.

For example, to spread the pollen of plants(only the females of certain type of mosquitoes need blood as food. Most thrive on nectar).
The larvae play an important role as food for aquatic life.
Etc2

 

[kpanda]

how nice

 

[ScarletRubyRose]

I have mixed feelings about this. While it’s great she is gonna still look the same, her changing skin tone is actually part of the story and it would be weird to see the characters talk about how she changed (I’ve read the novel)

 

[DrPounder]

Bring out the Nesquick boys, chocolate milk is back on the menu

 

[MasterPannya]

FYI, the next arcs are about Claudia adjusting to nearly everything and getting disgusted to everyone suddenly being nice to her. Don't get me wrong, I too hated what happened here in the original source material but continuing this change will be just more confusing, I'll not be surprised if there's another scanlation team with a more "correct" (i.e turning her back again) version so no one would be confused if she suddenly get popular from the people while at the earliest chapters, everyone was judging her solely on her looks.

Or the most better answer was to completely rewrite the whole story from here onward, which I was kinda expecting from the beginning after learning this got a manga adaptation.

 

[Ashana]

I was about to start reeeing but I agree with the statement at the beginning about maybe her hair changing to blonde to show that she has both dark and light blessings cause it does mess with the plot

 

[Wyrm]

@CardiBSlays
I completely disagree with your interpretation, but "interpretation" is the word here. I don't know the author's intent, and neither do you, but what you're interpreting is that the author depiction is "white = good; black = evil". You're not reading the same story as I do.

1. "Turning white" didn't turn her good. It turned the feeling people have about her when they don't know her. This is what happens in real-life by the way: people tend to have a prejudice on others based on the first things they can see about them. Physical appearance and clothing, mainly, are the primary factors that build first impressions. And when someone is racist or bigoted, skin color is going to play a huge part. The author is not saying "black is evil", but "people there have a prejudice that black is evil", for a very clear reason. As in real life, these reasons (founded or not) often blind people to the reality of the specific individual in front of them, and that's what the author criticizes here. Which would mean he agrees with you that society is wrong when judging people for reasons that only go skin-deep. (yes, pun intended, bad as it is.) You're not going to make many friends in your social wars if you reject those who agree with you.

2. You're making a bad reading of the word "blessing" in this chapter. In our world, a "blessing" is generally synonymous with "good luck". In this manga, a "blessing" is literally a gift from a magical being, regardless of the intention behind the gift. And the blessing here is not "white skin", it's the healing magic. Case in point, this is still a "blessing" in the version where she keeps her dark skin and that doesn't change the story. Case in point again, she was "blessed" by the Dark Spirit King from birth, but very few saw that as a good thing.

3. Points 1 and 2 above have also mean that "skin color" was never the point. It's about how people in that world take arguments of authority and/or guilt by association to an absurd level.
She was originally "guilty" of nothing more than being chosen by the Dark Spirit King (historically a mass-murderer).
And she's "innocent" now by being chosen by the Light Spirit King (historically the one who stopped mass-murderer above).
Only the people who were directly impacted by her actions have judged her for who she is and what she does. Nobody else changed opinion about her until she gets her new "blessing", and you can bet most of them now judge her positively because of the Light Spirit blessing than because of her actions. This would be made more obvious with a physical change, which is the whole premise of this story.

My conclusion is that you're projecting too much of your own prejudice and/or social trauma on the author to read through the story without outrage on an aesthetic choice.
(nb: I also think the choice is poor, but not for "social justice" reasons.)

 

[Wolvenworks]

lolwut

 

[Javra17]

@Sweet_Seats you seem to have a poor reading comprehension. I never said black, I said darker. You can be white and still have a darker complexion than the norm. And that is exactly what happens all over Asia, especially Korea and India.

And no, it's stupid to ask people to not read into this. Whenever you want it or not, this was not written in the middle earth or a medieval setting, it was written recently, with all our politics and history behind. And even if an author realizes it or not, they tend to show their bias and world view in their work.

And I'm not even saying that the author is racist, because I don't think this is the case. But that you can't except people to not relate their experiences to the media they consume and, to not have critical thinking.

 

[APinkFox]

DAMN IT PUBLISHER! I just wrote a lengthy message on the last chapter what the heck! x,D
Oh well, normal Claudia is back (?) and she’s beautiful as ever ;w;

 

[Nisverah]

@CardiBSlays You're taking the skin color too literal, its a form of representation of her having a blessing that people feared. The discrimination she had was not a result of skin color but of the power that it represented her having. Also kinda lowkey racist of you to assume that just because I don't find this story and its themes racist, then I must not be a poc. Flip this story around and have everyone be a darker skin color and the mc be the only one that has a light skin tone. It's still not racist because the story is about how she feels alone and wants to fit in with those around her. The hate she gets isn't because of her skin color but because they fear her and what it represents. It's still wrong to fear that, but it's not entirely about skin color.

 

[alchemisthuntress]

can we also talk about the mom acting like a victim here? she doesn't even deserved to be called a "mother"

 

[Okamiana]

Welp.
EEEeeeeeeeeeeeer