People saying melvika is an out of nowhere pairing because they never met in canon like yeah, sure. however
Both of Mel and Sevika’s season 2 arcs involve them making very nuanced and impassioned appeals to morality. Sevika especially spends act 1 & 2 in this really interesting position of physical weakness; having to rely on verbal argument to bring the undercity together and failing because of it. We see her pleas for unity repeatedly fall on deaf ears despite the obvious experience and thought behind what she’s saying.
Enter: Mel. You know who also spends most of season 2 getting her appeals to morality shut down? That’s right! <3
Mel is interesting in the sense that she remains the only noncombatant character in the main cast right up until the last two episodes (even as a mage she’s not. a fighter at all - girl keeps passing out). Deescalation is always her first instinct and Sevika is repeatedly shown to be a single warning before a fight type-character.
This means, at minimum, any confrontation they have would be an argument & not a battle. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but in arcane?? It’s a fucking miracle.
Mel can be convinced through verbal debate which is something Sevika just does not encounter during the show; both characters kinda fulfil a specific need the other has narratively. I think a lot about the line in Mel’s flashback “Kino says war is a failure of statecraft.” -> it’s a defining line for Mel’s character in general, but it’s interesting for melvika in the sense that I think Sevika agrees. Sevika uses physical violence as a form of resistance against state violence, but she’s not a soldier. She views citizen violence as a method of showing the state’s failures to itself.
There’s SO much to be explored thematically about melvika & the nature of physical violence, it makes me a little insane. Mel has only ever encountered it as a hunt; invading armies and conquest. Sevika views it as a form of communication and beyond that - resistance, as the only avenue left to stand against oppression. Mel needs to learn that war isn’t the only thing that hurts people, her upbringing as a Noxian has skewed her perception of violence in general.
hits them with my yuri beam
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.
oh mother… i was just starting to dream the silliest and softest of dreams
Renegade renegade renegade renegade
Sharing arcane headcanon/analysis tweets that spark joy to me :> (part 17)
i need this daily routine prescribed to me more than anything else
gta caitvi
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camille, 28 Literally made this account to deal with my Melvika obsessionsideblog: heartbuffys
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