I'm Not a Villainess!! Just Because I Can Control Darkness, Doesn't Mean I'm a Villain - Vol. 2 Ch. 12

[myntchyps]

I don't think the skin change is anything close to whitewashing. If anything it should be praised as a good move.

Her skin color was tan as a result of her blessing from the Dark Spirit King. People used that skin color to judge her just by seeing her, paralleling the real-life version of racial stereotypes. This is the first aspect of social commentary.
After turning light-skinned after the Light Spirit King's blessing, and seeing people's(her parents) reactions change based on her skin color(namely treating her better after the previous stereotype was overwritten), she doesn't live happily ever after. This is where I think people's opinions diverge.

Some people think that after turning white her life instantly got better(or something to that degree). On the contrary, it shows her breaking down and retaliating against her parents for treating her poorly when she still had dark skin. As such, the skin change isn't so much a magical fix-all, but rather further commentary that just changing skin color should not change how you treat a person, and doing so is hypocritical and crass.
tl;dr: this is a good manga and stop saying it's being "whitewashed" you're just not paying attention

 

[Manga-Titan]

Uhh...why the skin color change. She was fine as she was and was much better looking to boot.

 

[ravidya]

@joel7686 It didn't though? Dark Spirit King is still actively with her. Her hair is still black in a family of fairer toned hair colors. If we ignore the fact that in the raws, her skin was a light tanned instead of pale now, anyway.

I still think everyone's jumping at racist ideals on the author's part instead of taking it frankly as "Dark Spirit King" being the thing they're scared of rather than her skin color.

 

[MoeMoeKyun]

God her parents are so awful. They deserve much worse than her just rejecting them.

I hope the author will address how people are treating her differently now that her skin colour has changed/she’s received the blessing of the light spirit and how this affects her in the coming chapters.

 

[redseelie]

I was wondering why she was so pasty in the cover art, but here it is.

Do you think she can still say the N-word?

 

[Miranox]

 

[sirflimflam]

I still don't understand why they'd change her complexion, story reasons or not. She is sold on the tin as a darker skinned girl. She's cute that way. Whitening her up just doesn't make any sense from a marketing standpoint. It's like making your main heroine change her hair color for no reason, or go from being a tomboy to a shy delicate flower after we've fallen in love with the tomboy. It's part of her character.

I know the author didn't intend to come off as racist with this development, as much as people really would like to push that narrative I'm sure. It's just...weird, at the end of the day.

The only thing I could really say is that perhaps the skin color issue is a lot harsher than as seen with the manga-style drawings we see. Like note how many "plain girls" look freaking beautiful in manga, yet are somehow described as average or even slightly ugly. Perhaps the skin color wasn't so much just darker, but kinda grotesque and we just can't see it the way it's supposed to be because at the end of the day we have to like her character. But even if that were the case, it still seems weird seeing as characters were coming around to her.

 

[PI0]

This is fantasy genre..So what did u expect lol..Not need to get mad because of one change...It's author decision..if u can't accept it just leave..

 

[kawaiidogkittyq]

I mean, i get what they were trying to do, like people finally see that she’s not evil and amelia’s a b, but holy hell this feels real uncomfortable

Especially because of the immediate preferential treatment from everyone (even her asshole parents who literally werent there for her ever until now and just up and said ‘oh u need to attend parties ur a noble lady my daughter’) and shit. It pisses me off so much and i don’t want her to forgive any of those prejudiced bastards until they actually show real growth and not just ‘wah wah im sorry uwu’

Andddd because her gift of healing magic shows with her skin tone change out of all things. Because it’s not meant to be a commentary on colorism and race, it feels like unhealthy stereotypes and asian beauty standards are being pushed onto claudia and the viewer, and that she was ‘never meant’ to be evil since her skin plus her hair is associated with evil in the story or whatever by others (like oh she’s a wonderful person be blessed with healing magic which is associated with pale skin ig?)

Honestly just seems like a marketing fail tbh
Like others said, we already got attached to the original design

Anyways rant over, chocolate milk is better

 

[Miistis]

The audacity she had to get hurt when Claudia rejected get

Her own parents rejected her, let alone the rest of the kingdom, and they expect that just because she's done good things and received another blessing that she's NOT evil??

It's a miracle she grew up so well given her garbage parents and how terrible everyone was to get minus her brother and the princes.

They really think that she'll feel happy now as they try to brush over the years of abuse she's faced

 

[Jaid_Diah]

I'm glad she called them out.

 

[ismaelh]

Oh fuck off, why did they whitewashed her? I hate this

 

[Eberose]

Did she just- turn white

 

[albertcookie302]

can yall like stfu? how is it white washing? it was explained that due to the dark spirit her skin was black so if anything she was blackwashed going by ur fucking logic u retards. this isn't twitter so gtfo with your bs and virtue signalling bet most of yall ain't black but just a typical 16yo white girl.

 

[yoshiii]

Aside from the white skin.

I AM SO GLAD SHE DIDN'T FORGIVE HER SHITTY PARENTS. Mostly the mom. FUCK THAT SHIT.

 

[xxsad]

NOOOO OUR CHOCOLATE MILK...

 

[Ace435]

As much as I like Choco Claudia, I don't see the problem with vanilla Claudia

 

[hayatekanzaki]

Yeah this is the chapter where the “outrage” is coming from, but this in itself is a plot point for Claudia.

Spoiler

Dealing with her parents changes in attitude.
Dealing with other her who shunned her who suddenly want to be friendly.
Dealing with guys who are now trying to marry her.
Dealing with her emotions and her “role”
Quite a bit of internal things going for her

 

[SaitoHimea]

Wait... something is wrong... the raw didn’t have her change completely to vanilla like that, did you guys change it or did I somehow see the raws wrong???

 

[Tyne]

Why vanilla? I prefer the term white chocolate