pearlbubbles

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allura of altea and mel medarda you will ALWAYS be famous

cr. @dr.shoko on tiktok

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No bc people are so ignorant when it comes to them

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MEL and JAYCE in

ARCANE ( 2021 - 2024 )

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Something about Mel that I want to say for people being hyper critical of her and going "too little too late" when she was actively trying to bridge peace between piltover and zaun and do better, is that she was legitimately raised into the mindset she had during arcane and had to deconstruct largely on her own.

People have mentioned that in the lore, Noxus is a Meritocracy. Ambessa reinforces this idea that to have anything you must earn it and prove you deserve it. Part of the reason she fixed on Jayce was because she believed him to be worthy of it, because that's what she'd been taught was correct. But along the way she actively grew to care about him and Viktor beyond just that and you can see this in her willingness to side with Jayce and not let the council continue to use Hextech because Jayce didn't want it.

She's not heartless. She's not endlessly cruel. Honestly, the fact she turned out the way she did in spite of her Noxus origins even at the beginning of Arcane speaks volumes of her inate morality to me.

Mel is such a fascinating character, even in season 1. She's subtle and I feel like people often write off characters who aren't as physically active when it comes to stories, that coupled with her relationship with jayce makes people much harsher when criticizing her and less willing to engage with her narrative and how she changes over the story.

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Artists pls plsols

I’ve seen like 2 fanarts of her new design please guys Please we need more

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this is a post about zhou zishu's natural sideburns and how they make him one of the least-silly looking men in all of guzhuang dramas (to me)

thanks 天 for zhang zhehan being allergic to wig glue

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Some Arcane Thoughts...

After some thought, and while rewatching s1, Mel and Ekko were around the least in s2, but ended up being a huge part of the reason the world was saved, and we barely see them off. Some people were upset that Mel was just heading back to Noxus with her mother's army. After rewatching most of s1, I'm not surprised she did that. I think her time on the council, etc, is over. She's onto bigger things, but also she's always had the invisible burden of the Medarda legacy on her back, so I can imagine she's probably going off to resolve that. Cool.

But Ekko's story bugged me the most. I didn't want to get into it yesterday because I wanted to focus on the show in its totality, but I was very bored by so much of Ekko's story being absorbed in propping up Powder. I'm bored of these swirl relationships altogether, but I think Ekko deserved a more robust story than making Powder feel better in this new AU. It was nice to get glimpses of how Ekko felt about everyone who died. In season 1 we never get to see how he dealt with that grief. But we don't linger on it because for whatever reason Powder still had to be the focus on Ekko's story. We could've leaned into the fact that Ekko was brilliant (but ofc couldn't be smarter than Powder/Jinx!), and him and Haimidinger having a real relationship. Especially after that lil man waited for him for over 3 years lol.

I'm not surprised by the antiblackness of sidelining two main Black characters, and then forcing them to bear the heaviest burdens, only to discard them again when everything is over. It's just annoying that even in a GORGEOUS show like this, that obviously put some effort, and had some Black people around for the character designs/look devs of these characters, couldn't be bothered to follow up on that in story. Antiblackness is insidious and requires constant interrogation, and it sucks even in works of art, I can't escape it.

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Mel being an empath

(Okay i just got say arcane has sparked passion in me i haven’t felt for a show and fandom in yeeeears i haven’t written a meta in forever so bare with me.)

Anyway at first watching act 3 the reveal of Mel being empath felt crazy like that’s such a huge bomb that we didn’t get build up on or much follow through but i do think it explains so much about her character. Traditionally empaths are written to be overly emotional or sensitive sort of like telepaths and being smart but Mel wasn’t written like that she’s quite calm and collected her most emotional outbursts are with her mother and jayce and even with jayce it’s only because he’s hurling accusations at her and she still remains relatively calm in her responses. I think her knowing people’s emotions wether she was aware of this or not plays into this she knows Jayce is coming from a place of hurt and confusion where as her mother back in season one she knows she’s being disingenuous with the reasons of being in piltover.

First watch this just seems like a disgruntled daughter and her mother trying to get on her good side but knowing that Mel can read people’s emotions adds another layer she see right through her mother which not only from just being raised by her but through her her empath skills.

also wanted to bring this up someone pointed this out tiktok and someone else pointed out that this maybe because we’re seeing this scene through Mel’s POV and since she is empath she see that Maddie is secretly enjoying executing Caitlyn. This got me thinking about her career as council member/politician I’ve wondered how she got so high up while seemingly not only being the youngest member but being young period if she’s assumed to be Jayce’s and Victor’s age this makes her about 24-27 in s1 which is extremely young for council member which essentially this region’s governing body. Being able to sense people’s true intentions allowed her to know who to align herself who not to, knowing when people agreed and disagreed with her, or when people sympathize with your views, causes, or concerns on certain issues which all helped her advance quickly her career. I’m sure being from a high born house helped but we see other high born houses in council positions but they’re all older.

She also seems to be somewhat bored with politics and somewhat disillusioned when we meet her i mean giving a fellow council member a child’s toy almost like a practical joke doesn’t seem like someone who views politics and her colleagues with utmost seriousness it isn’t until she meets Jayce that we see the passion for change. I think being empath she saw that Jayce and Vicktor’s vision for hextech and Piltover and Zaun were pure and genuine which is why she supported them. I also hate the rhetoric that Mel never loved jayce and just manipulated for her own gain she does everything in her power to stay true to him and Vicktor’s vision she doesn’t push him to do anything that goes against their morals and goals. When Jayce is worried about Vicktor and his absence at the council may lead to she reassures she won’t let them corrupt their dream. Like i said early she isn’t written like a typical empath she also isn’t written like a typical manipulator(if you can call her that) she is genuine in what she’s says to Jayce she just also knows how people work and his feelings on the matter so she’s able to play on that.

Ambessa describes her to be too soft and she tells Jayce she didn’t Medarda standards i think the way she operates as empath is the cause of that I don’t think Mel is welling to corrupt herself or others when getting what she wants unlike her Mother and the rest of her family i think they operate much more cut through in their goals.

Whew anyway mind any typos i didn’t mean for this be as long as turned out just wanted to share revelation i had!:)

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USERNAME LORE GIVE IT TO ME NOW YOU ALL

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Can it be erisol?

IF THATS ABSOLUTELY OK AND IF YOUR COMFORTABLE IF NOT

Could you uh do johnkat

<:,3

i'll absolutely draw erisol, anon!

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Laptops are always so much more Fucked than phones in my experience. A laptop is like a beautiful horse that wants nothing more than to break all of its legs. A decently solid android phone will act normal

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my sister asked me to draw the rumours cover for her to get as a tattoo

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kinda love this little family of fucked up ladies we’ve got going on

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He is approximately three apples tall