No you make total sense, thank you for pointing this out because the reaction has been annoying me for ages. The skin thing isn’t a 'racism haha dark skinned people are all evil' thing, it’s a simple "light signifies good, dark signifies bad" thing seen in almost all literature to some degree. It’s a very basic form of literary symbolism, used in the pharaoh portrayal (like you said, the first thing that came to my mind was fairytale white knights but pharaoh works better actually). The author is playing with the light/good vs dark/evil trope and though I don’t like the change of skin color, its weird on my eyeballs and she lowkey cuter w the darker coloration, I'm not massively triggered by it and I understand the symbolism of it. Idk if this is where u were going with ur comment at all sorry to barf my opinions at you lol
Actually yes it was! I'm glad you could understand I thought I was gonna get severe hate from it tbh. But yes in all of literature and even drawings from centuries ago, good has always represented as light and evil of course is dark. Also in some drawings there's an aura that radiates from the person of light or dark.
Exactly! Literally look up pictures of angels and you won’t see one without an aura of light. I actually appreciate it sometimes, lowkey tips me off to antagonists in disguise. Lol I was like mmm I can smell the hate coming and I saw you already had dislikes so catch me spamming that thumbs up and reply. We'll get shat on together it’s okk
Thank you for pointing that out. I'm just thinking people were overreacting about Claudia turned white. I mean they didn't say Claudia become beautiful overnight right? Even though I like darker Claudia, because that made her cute and unique, I don't think it's a sin she turned white. And by overreacting, they are the one who put racism in the mix.
For me, I had a dark skin colour and during my childhood, people keep throwing insults. But I grow up thinking, "obviously duh, we are Asians, some of us will have darker skin tones. We are not Caucasian in the first place. It's not like you're that white
Well I dont mind getting shat on by my thoughts but it irks me when I see people saying its racists cause of a troupe that has literally been used for ages to represent good and evil and them not realizing it. I am a huge lover for symbolism and mythology and even old dead cultures? (I dont think that was the term I wanted to use but I cant think of the one I did want to use lol)
I do concur she was gorgeous in her dark skin tone. But I myself if I was the one who made the book would of left her skin tone and just put an aura around her showing she is a good person but I'm not. The author decided to go with skin tone. Again in most history it is usually the skin of the person who was drawn that the color changes because you could say the skin is the aura and it shines within looking light. I have no problem with the way the author went about it but I do wish people would stop freaking out about it
But you must also realize this is the 2000s right and that just because they did it in the past doesn't make it okay rn because I'm sure by now people know that what they did in the 2020 or 2019 whenever this manga was created its considered racist and for good reasons I understand your point but that was back then and this is now
Your literally making a trope that isn't racist into racist because your mind has been so warped by modern day politics.
The trope is used modernly as well. Heroines have light magic, right? I'm not saying it was a smart move to apply it to skin color considering the tension in the modern day, but i can respect that the author tried a bold application of this notion of light=good dark=bad and wasn’t being intrinsically racist with it. If you’re not comfy with it, whatever, but at least try to understand what the author was going for
Also if anything I think this book was very forward in pushing the agenda dont judge book by its cover. Since everyone around her did just that and just because someone is associated to the dark god doesnt necessarily mean their evil. She was also shown the true colors of everyone else once her skin tone changed. Which means even as the heroine she knows not everyone is to be trusted and dont blindly follow them just cause her skintone matches theirs. (Again terrible at putting thoughts into words sorry)
Yeah I get that but the way he used that trope was not it you dont see people changing skinn colour to get something like that across you see them using things their clothes, hair or eyes not their hole ethnicity
Her skin tone is that color because of the dark god it is to show his power runs through her. And if he wasn't attached to her she would of came out look like everyone else in the story or even pale or glowing type of lady if she was bestowed from the light god. ( cant exactly remember how the chick is described to look like with the light god).
Then they could've just kept her the same colour or made her mixed race but instead they completely changed her to white plus its not like the dark god is no longer with her so wha they did wasnt needed
I'm confused by this words and meanings change I hope you do realized this makes me feel like u would vote for trump cause you clearly dont like change the world is always moving how can u compare something from thousands of years ago to today in the modern age you and your mindset can stay in the hundreds and be in denial that what they did was wrong and shouldn't be justified by something like that
I never said it was a smart decision storywise, I said it was an understandable method of symbolism. Yes, when you crack it apart changing her skin color doesn’t make that much sense based on plot, bc she still has the blessings of the dark god. But using the lens of "she was blessed by the 'good' spirit so now she’s become 'good' which is symbolized by lightening of the skin" makes it make more sense - at least that's the perception of the other characters in the story, WE know that it’s not black and white (HAHA I make funnies) like that but they don’t. And we've all seen the aura/eye color/hair color as the mark of character in countless other works, so I respect the author trying to do something bold and controversial like changing the character’s skin color. I don’t agree with the decision, but I respect the reasoning I perceive being behind it
Also don’t reach on this shit my guy, never in this thread have we condoned racism of any kind. We're here to acknowledge the symbolism of her change in skin color and commiserate on people making it into a racism thing when to us, it clearly isn’t. History repeats itself, love, that's a given, and it influences the world whether you like it or not. If you’ve never read anything with shakespearean references in it then you clearly don’t get out much. Don’t disregard history and don’t bring your personal politics into this discussion, please!
Wow... so were now assuming my political stand point in a post about good vs evil and the depictions of it. If you must know I could give to shits who wins the election why cause i could care less about this shitty world with shitty people in it. 2 humans since the dawn time have always been terrified of the dark or any dark. It has taken humans thousands of years to produce light at night so we feel safe. 3 Even colors of deep red, purples or dark blues are associated with evil because foods of that color scheme are often poisonous or ruined and could often lead to being or dying.
Yes and? It doesn't change what it is, you can try somewhat justify the meaning behind them making her skinn tone white I'm sorry but I dont think when people make manga like these that they would think of going back such a long time period but it is what it shows and what do you see? That's ure opinion and I used the political thing as an example of people not wanting change, meaning changes just accept that and the meaning that is depicted in this means something completely different
Ok if you have such a problem with this story and how they show light and dark evil vs good. Why are you reading it? Actually why are you reading any form of manga? Cause I dont know if you know this but in most Asian countries they're very racist. Even to the native people that live there that have dark skin. Also most asians try to bleach their skin as much as possible to be as pure white as they can be. They also avoid any time of sun so it does not tarnish their white skin. It has only been recently that they started adding main characters of darker skin tone as the main character. So if you truly hate how they white washed her then why do you continue to read any form of manga at all. Also in previous stories most black people in manga are drawn over the top to the point their lips take up majority of their face. The only recent black person that actually was drawn good was the one from sword art online.
If you want to make it political I can if you want it to be about racism I can do that. But all i was doing was defending the symbolism of a story. Because i love literature and all the different meanings behind it
You do realize for centuries people who are good are always drawn as light and people who are evil are drawn dark. Even in Egyptian pictures the good kings (pharaohs) were of light colors it wasn't a way to say their skin was white but to show that they were a good ruler. But somehow it was warped through history that good is white skin tone but its indeed not. Evil people will always have dark colors because the hatred in their hearts that has consumed them. Again if you look back at the Egyptians why did people ever think that they were white if you look at the location it's in of course they wouldn't be white. So the colors that you do see on their skin has nothing to do what their actual skin tone was but by the person they were. (Sorry if it doesnt make sense I'm terrible at putting my thoughts to words)