Ouu I Love Her

This post implores you to give some grace to Mel Medarda by considering what it's like to grow up in a household where achievement and success are valued above all else, and where virtues like kindness and generosity are trivialized at best and outright discouraged at worst. If you grow up in that kind of environment, even when you're grown and you've done work to unlearn the worst of it—even when you've gone low or no contact—there is still something viscerally frightening about slipping below that parent or caregiver's expectations.

For example, when Elora points out that Mel is the richest person in Piltover and she immediately responds with "but I'm the poorest Medarda," that's not coming from a place of greed or arrogance, but one of fear that she'll never measure up. I'm not saying she's perfect, or that other characters didn't have it way harder, but it's important to remember that every time she chooses kindness or diplomacy or compromise over force, she's going against a lifetime of conditioning—exposing herself to the threat of failure, which couldn't have been be easy.

You don't have to love her, but please give that woman a break. I am begging you.

My favorite Mel's concept design (she looks like a goddess)

what if mage mel had a cunty bodysuit and thigh highs??? what then??

It should be a way bigger deal some other party figured out how to construct their own version of shimmer, and by some other party, I mean Noxus.

The only person who had access to new shimmer was Lest, and Lest's people belong to a branch of the vastaya that live within Noxus' territory.

The most worrying aspect of this version of shimmer is that it's been modified to create tattoos on its users.

We've already seen Viktor's own experiments with runes and shimmer in the first season.

And now we know from the Ambessa book that not only are rune tattoos a real thing that mages use to modify their magic in Mel and Rudo's case, but the Black Rose is also actively trying to create their own rune warriors out of mages AND non-mages. In fact Jinx’s shimmer altered body shares a lot of similar abilities as the rune warriors in the book, right down to the super speed, enhanced strength, and improved endurance, with side effects more reminiscent of the chemtank soldiers.

This kind of development is such neat twist to the finale, because it all comes back to what Ambessa said, "weapons cannot be unmade and they are always used". Piltover may have forcefully dearmed Zaun from its shimmer and even put it's own hextech on the back burner, but that isn't the end. The arms race is still going on, Piltover's just put itself and Zaun out of commission.

Mel and Caitlyn but in that EXTRAL cover photo

Save a horse, ride a cowboy as they said

have Mel in her twenties! very roughly inspired by a rococo painting I saw a while back

Ambessa: "no! We must distance ourselves, she is safer as our enemy"

Meanwhile Mel Medarda:

"What the fuck"