#[ mel desires ] — we will paint the walls in gold .

[valiantthearts]

[ mel visage ] — any worthwhile venture involves risk . [ mel attire ] — dressed in duality of kindred . [ mel interactions ] — to what do i owe the pleasure . [ mel answers ] — war is a failure of statecraft . [ mel aesthetics ] — investing in the future . [ mel headcanons ] — we can show the people we are merciful . [ mel character study ] — something to put Piltover on the map . [ mel attractions ] — we do not have to face it alone . [ mel desires ] — we will paint the walls in gold . [ mel skillsets ] — there is a lot about me you do not know . [ mel playlist ] — i want to protect my city from people like you . [ mel games ] — time to prove them all wrong . [ mel body study ] — perhaps the time has come to explore a more radical solution .

[hexhomos]

Kiss on the check accepted! :3c

And your response reminded me of a detail I always pick up on rewatches but hadn't fully untangled yet—in the flashback of her childhood, Mel steps into that broken throne room with blood still drying on it. At Ambessa's prompting, Mel goes right into talking about how to renovate the place. "Paint the walls gold"...like gilding over the horrors of conquest that got that power in the first place.

And when she describes the regent they should have, she finishes with, "she should be pliant, so we can mold her." That IS what she was doing with Jayce, slowly, over a decade, and then quickly through Acts 2 and 3.

And then in the scene, after Mel finishes describing a "pliant" regent who can be molded, her mother suggests MEL could be that regent. Young Mel is excited at the idea, entirely missing the implication that she too would be an asset of her mother's reign.

That's why she takes off her Medarda ring right before casting her vote for Zaun's independence. She's finally realized she's just as subject to her mother's games as anyone else and Chooses to stop working in the interests of her family's power.

And augh, I wish her s2 plotline hadn't taken her out of Piltover so we could have seen more of the spycraft against Ambessa she was up to in Arc 1. I can't help but think of how much stronger her confrontation with Ambessa would have been if we had a full season of "daughter works against mother" instead of just a few scenes and a lot of getting kidnapped. More ambiguity with Leblanc would've been great too instead of her killing Elora to say hello.

[continued from here]

EXACTLY the way they shafted the politics in s2 (specifically so they wouldn't need to have hard conversations) genuinely had a negative impact in the ENTIRE story. The systematic horrors were downplayed and plotlines were dropped with very short acknowledgements - this is why we get people complaining about the jayce/mel breakup scene "coming out of nowhere" despite the fact that it made perfect sense for these characters!!!!!! It was just too short and they changed the subject too quickly, so we don't have TIME to think about the economic issues again.

It's so clear to me that jayce, viktor, ekko, mel (each representing a diff political facet. curious!) etc were carefully removed from the actual real world so we never have to analyze or push back against the notion that cait/ambessa are doing a hostile military coup and HAVE gotten people killed, imprisoned, and tortured en masse. So they can neatly resolve all of the plot with an avengers-style montage and never talk about the stuff with real world implications. There is no war in piltover and zaun. Just a cartoony last second villain. We just need to unite to protect... piltover...? And now viktor is randomly forgetting his proud zaunite commie stance and teaming up with the imperial invaders that were plaguing the earth moments ago........? We never talk about the class inequality ever again? Forget everything. Nothing ever matters.

The end result was that we spent far less time with these characters and they ended up being pretty underdeveloped. I know this happened for marketing reasons, its so incredibly clear aspects of the story were dumbed down so they could sell more ingame skins or pitch new champions, and that was seen as more valuable and desirable for the company than politicking - because at heart riot don't care about the political stuff anyway. But it still makes me throw my hands up in the air. such an asspull

In a reality where we had enough time and investment to touch on this, Mel could have actually gotten to push back against ambessa/cait and directly deal with the consequences of her actions. SEVIKA could have gotten a proper payoff for her underground character arc, instead of vanishing halfway through and then randomly accepting a diversity hire seat on the council (insanity. that was insanity) Ekko and the firelights would have obviously played a key role in rallying people against ambessa and helping Jinx recover from her displacement crisis (sorry isha, but even you could have been better used as part of the firelights dilemma) Jayce's mounting disillusionment with piltover and his loyalty to Viktor would be much better explored if they were still in conversation about the cities, the world they wanted to help, and the chaotic blurry lines of personhood/citizenship that decide who is an 'acceptable' target under the fist of the state. Vi could have built a self-reliant identity for herself, something better to fight for that isnt 'being a cop'. This show could've been awesome. I wish it existed

[agentrouka-blog]

When Jon think about wanting winterfell and it's Lord he felt hunger which he later connect with ghost's hunger. Do you think that passage is implying something?

Hi anon!

I think the passage has many layers when it comes to symbolism and foreshadowing.

ASOS, Jon XII is a fun chapter. Jon’s been through a lot. His trip North of the wall left him traumatized and disillusioned in a way that’s hard to sum up. Anything he had hoped to be proud of in life was obliterated, he suffered serious injury, has been separated from ghost, learned that all his family are dead or missing, fought a viciously cruel battle, feels responsible for the death of his stockholm-syndromy abuser, was stripped of all respect and honor by his superiors, and he got to see a woman die in childbirth. Now Stannis and Mel are squatting at Castle Black, and the threat to the North keeps looming.

Life sucks. 

We’d been introduced to some options that were denied to him in life:

His lord father had once talked about raising new lords and settling them in the abandoned holdfasts as a shield against wildlings. The plan would have required the Watch to yield back a large part of the Gift, but his uncle Benjen believed the Lord Commander could be won around, so long as the new lordlings paid taxes to Castle Black rather than Winterfell. "It is a dream for spring, though," Lord Eddard had said. "Even the promise of land will not lure men north with a winter coming on."

If winter had come and gone more quickly and spring had followed in its turn, I might have been chosen to hold one of these towers in my father's name. Lord Eddard was dead, however, his brother Benjen lost; the shield they dreamt together would never be forged. (ASOS, Jon V)

or

“If the boy shows any skill with sword or lance, he should have a place with your father’s household guard at the least,” Jon said. “It’s not unknown for bastards to be trained as squires and raised to knighthood. But you’d best be sure Gilly can play this game convincingly. From what you’ve told me of Lord Randyll, I doubt he would take kindly to being deceived.” (ASOS, Samwell IV)

One fails because of the seasons, the other was prevented by Catelyn. The Watch has been a soul-destroying nightmare, Ygritte’s offer of taking over a Tower “after” is not even worth a moment’s consideration to him. Every hope he ever had about his life has been disappointed. 

Jon’s just about sixteen and is completely done. Sam notes how much time Jon spends in the training yard, even though he’s injured and off-duty for the title of turncloak. He does not bother voting in the Lord Commander election. A maligned outcast again. Forever. 

The warg, I’ve heard them call me. How can I be a warg without a wolf, I ask you?” His mouth twisted. “I don’t even dream of Ghost anymore. All my dreams are of the crypts, of the stone kings on their thrones. Sometimes I hear Robb’s voice, and my father’s, as if they were at a feast. But there’s a wall between us, and I know that no place has been set for me.” (ASOS, Samwell IV

He is lonely. Even Ghost is gone, his one proof that he belongs to something.

Stannis alienates Jon by talking ill of Robb, but he offers Jon recognition for the things he did right, a rare thing, and then he offers him legitimization. Basically, “You proved your worth and you have the Right blood. All you ever wanted can be yours. For the small price of breaking your oaths for real and of your own volition and forsaking your gods.” Downright mephistophelian.

Jon is torn, can’t sleep, fights. For the first time he has a real choice. He remembers the traumatic incident where his bastardy became a true concept to him.

That morning he called it first. “I’m Lord of Winterfell!” he cried, as he had a hundred times before. Only this time, this time, Robb had answered, “You can’t be Lord of Winterfell, you’re bastard-born. My lady mother says you can’t ever be the Lord of Winterfell.”

I thought I had forgotten that. Jon could taste blood in his mouth, from the blow he’d taken. (ASOS, Jon XII)

And Jon’s response is a near black-out rage against his sparring partner. All his suppressed feelings of grief and anger and longing and loneliness are just broiling inside him.

Why am I so angry? he asked himself, but it was a stupid question. Lord of Winterfell. I could be the Lord of Winterfell. My father’s heir.

Jon soaks in the hot tub and thinks of Winterfell, mulls restoring it versus not belonging and destroying its soul in the process

When Jon closed his eyes he saw the heart tree, with its pale limbs, red leaves, and solemn face. The weirwood was the heart of Winterfell, Lord Eddard always said … but to save the castle Jon would have to tear that heart up by its ancient roots, and feed it to the red woman’s hungry fire god. I have no right, he thought. Winterfell belongs to the old gods

The tree is almost described like a person. A person with Tully coloring, like all his siblings save Arya. Like Sansa. The hot springs in Winterfell have a potential link to his decision to join the Watch, or at the very least to his siblings in general. The castle of Winterfell is juxtaposed with the heart, with the purpose and point of it all. Save a structure by destroying what made it a meaningful place? Betray his family in his heart, the person whose castle is truly is, betray all his values and his gods?

He takes a walk past sites of all his recent experiences and North the Wall over the recent battle field and just sits to think. 

Ygritte wanted me to be a wildling. Stannis wants me to be the Lord of Winterfell. But what do I want? The sun crept down the sky to dip behind the Wall where it curved through the western hills. Jon watched as that towering expanse of ice took on the reds and pinks of sunset. 

There’s an essay I could write about walls, Tyrion, Jon and Sansa (the sun to Arya’s moon) and how they all interact in the books, but let’s say just like this word play, the fact that Jon answers his own question is not an accident:

"Close your beak, crow. Spin yourself around, might be you'd find who you're looking for."

Jon turned.

The singer rose to his feet. (ASOS, Jon I)

The singer rose. Lyanna, his mother, the riddle. But also Sansa, who unwittingly took up her mantle. One unlocks his path to the other and everything that follows in his imagination:

I would need to steal her if I wanted her love, but she might give me children. I might someday hold a son of my own blood in my arms. A son was something Jon Snow had never dared dream of, since he decided to live his life on the Wall. I could name him Robb. Val would want to keep her sister’s son, but we could foster him at Winterfell, and Gilly’s boy as well. Sam would never need to tell his lie. We’d find a place for Gilly too, and Sam could come visit her once a year or so. Mance’s son and Craster’s would grow up brothers, as I once did with Robb.

He wanted it, Jon knew then. He wanted it as much as he had ever wanted anything. I have always wanted it, he thought, guiltily. May the gods forgive me. It was a hunger inside him, sharp as a dragonglass blade. A hunger … he could feel it. It was food he needed, prey, a red deer that stank of fear or a great elk proud and defiant. He needed to kill and fill his belly with fresh meat and hot dark blood. His mouth began to water with the thought.

Jon paints a picture of recreating his own childhood with his wolf pack at Winterfell, only this time there are no outcasts, and he is the Father. He gets to be Ned. The Lord of Winterfell with a lady’s love. And a son, something he had, apparently, dreamed of until he stoppped. 

He has always wanted this thing that he has no right to and it filled him with a guilt strong enough to concern the gods. But he admits it to himself, lets himself truly feel it. The feeling flows through him the same way the rage did earlier. powerful and all encompassing. 

Like a dragonglass blade. There we have some lovely foreshadowing for a) potentiall the origin of the Others, b) Jon’s paternity, and c) his own death when his desire to abandon his vows and head to Winterfell is met with, you know, some blades. Not to mention d) his desire to have these things.

Each of these is answered by his primal hunger response. Which is of course, his connection to Ghost. The wolf he has so woefully said goodbye to, that he missed deeply and bitterly, chooses this moment to reappear. This moment where Jon returns to his own feelings, his true self.

a) the answer to the Others are the direwolves, the Starks, their magical connection to Winterfell and what happened way back when.

b) the answer to Jon’s paternity is a violent embrace of his mother’s side.

c) the answer to his own stabbing will be warging into Ghost and biding his time in there, becoming more wolf than he ever anticipated.

d) the answer to his heart’s desire...

It was a long moment before he understood what was happening. When he did, he bolted to his feet. “Ghost?” He turned toward the wood, and there he came, padding silently out of the green dusk, the breath coming warm and white from his open jaws. “Ghost!” he shouted, and the direwolf broke into a run. He was leaner than he had been, but bigger as well, and the only sound he made was the soft crunch of dead leaves beneath his paws. When he reached Jon he leapt, and they wrestled amidst brown grass and long shadows as the stars came out above them. “Gods, wolf, where have you been?” Jon said when Ghost stopped worrying at his forearm. “I thought you’d died on me, like Robb and Ygritte and all the rest. I’ve had no sense of you, not since I climbed the Wall, not even in dreams.” The direwolf had no answer, but he licked Jon’s face with a tongue like a wet rasp, and his eyes caught the last light and shone like two great red suns.

Red suns. Arya’s wolf has golden coins (haggling for death, faceless men coins, spinning fates), Grey Wind has molten gold (like a crown that kills you). 

Jon’s wolf has red suns. Like the colors that the sun painted on the Wall. The direwolf in heart tree colors, inverted bastard colors of house Stark, Tully colors, Sansa colors. 

Red eyes, Jon realized, but not like Melisandre’s. He had a weirwood’s eyes. Red eyes, red mouth, white fur. Blood and bone, like a heart tree. He belongs to the old gods, this one. And he alone of all the direwolves was white. Six pups they’d found in the late summer snows, him and Robb; five that were grey and black and brown, for the five Starks, and one white, as white as Snow.

He had his answer then.

Not the red gods, not fire. The old gods. the heart tree, the wolves. He may be a Snow, but the old gods gave him Ghost. His own wolf. His white wolf. His place was made by their will. 

There is honor in that choice. No matter what anyone else says, Jon knows who he is and he has that power: to reject betraying his heart. 

How does this choice led by Ghost fit the layers?

a) The answer to the Others: don’t steal, don’t trick. Be honest. Accept what was painful. Not the Wall matters, the answer is in the heart tree.

b) The Dragon father does not Need to guide his decisions. He can let that go. He is a Snow.

c) Being in Ghost will lead him back to himself. Not fire, not Melisandre. The old gods.

d) Well... What does Jon want? What IS his answer?

Jon is filled with sudden energy. He strides back, rejects Val in his mind, stalks dramatically into the dining hall and is suddenly voted Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. We close on this:

So Jon Snow took the wineskin from his hand and had a swallow. But only one. The Wall was his, the night was dark, and he had a king to face.

Jon’s answer? We never hear it in this chapter. 

We hear it in ADWD, Jon I:

"By right Winterfell should go to my sister Sansa." 

And ADWD, Jon IV:

Jon said, "Winterfell belongs to my sister Sansa." 

The chapter is followed by? Sansa. Rebuilding Winterfell out of snow. 

When Jon lets go of pretense, honestly asks himself what he wants, shame or not, his wolf takes over and helps him find the answer and the path. The answer is not in taking the Castle and creating a mimicry of what it was, it is in honoring what it truly was and truly means. The heart over the structure. 

And in giving supremacy to the heart, to the red-white heart, he unknowingly paves the way for his own place: Winterfell built of Snow. He doesn’t have to steal the castle, he will be invited to belong.

That’s my own humble interpretation, anyway.

[crimsonrevolt]

Congratulations Mel you’ve been accepted to Crimson Revolt as Pandora Lightwood!

↳ please refer to our character checklist

Oh my goodness Mel, I absolutely adored your application from start to finish! You took a character who’s canon daughter is so well known and loved and crafted something utterly unique out of her mother. I think it’s such a lovely thought that she uses her presumed innocence to her advantage, and that she’s got a harsher side to her that is often unnoticed at first glance -- and I can’t wait to see how you explore that further in the roleplay and build off it! Her little traits and hobbies are utterly endearing too, and I just thought you captured who your Pandora is so beautifully! I know we’re all looking forward to seeing her on the dash! *your faceclaim change to Lily James has been accepted!

application beneath the cut

OUT OF CHARACTER

INTRODUCTION

Mel, 23, GMT, she/her.

ACTIVITY

I am usually online every day, some days for longer than others depending on how many hours my boss puts me in for that day. I would say, for safety sake, 6 out of 10.

TRIGGERS

*removed for privacy

HOW DID YOU FIND US?

Your blog popped up as a ‘blog you might like’? I don’t know how.

WHAT HARRY POTTER CHARACTER DO YOU IDENTIFY WITH MOST?

I feel like I most connected with Remus Lupin, but perhaps it’s just because I liked his character and the background J.K.Rowling created for him. He’s genuinely a good guy, always worried about the thoughts and feelings of those around him, hesitant to let people close to him and he has an inner demon (his wolf) that pushes him away from the people around him, whereas I feel like my inner demons (mental health) push me away from people - both for other people’s protection. I also wish I could wear jumpers all the time as well.

IN CHARACTER

DESIRED CHARACTER

Pandora; / panˈdôrə / In Greek the meaning of the name Pandora is: All-gift. In Greek mythology, Pandora’s curiosity led her to open a mysterious box, thereby releasing misery and hope into the world.

Josephine; / jōzəfēn / A feminine form of Joseph. Famous Bearer: French empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. Also the name of her mother.

Lightwood; / lītwo͝od / Family name. She loves her last name and feels that it is as unique as her first name.

FACE CLAIM

For Pandora, could I please change her FC to Lily James?

REASON FOR CHOSEN CHARACTER

Pandora is one of those characters that in canon, has no real detail or background other than that she is Luna’s mother, therefore she provides a lot of opportunity for development. I like to take on characters in the Marauder Era that have very little about them so I can use more of my imagination and creativity in their backstory and their interactions.

I don’t see Pandora too much like Luna, though of course she is Luna’s mother so there are similarities. She may be a day dreamer and a believer in the weird and wonderful of the world around her, but she is also incredibly observant, underestimated and a fighter. I think when people meet her and spend time with her, they have an image in their mind of a flower girl who smiles a lot and gives chances too willingly.

Underneath her bright outlook on life, despite the war she hopes only for the best from the future and tries to help those around her believe it too, she is feisty and not so easily manipulated. She knows when she is being taken advantage of but often uses her innocence and projection of naivety to her advantage. That’s why she is such an asset to Aversio, because she is overlooked and people become careless with their words around her.

PREFERRED SHIPS // CHARACTER SEXUALITY // GENDER & PRONOUNS

Gender: Female, she and her pronouns.

Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual.

Preferred ships: Pandora/Xeno, Pandora/Chemistry

CREATE ONE (OR MORE!) OF THE FOLLOWING FOR YOUR CHARACTER:

I have made a mock blog and filled it with a few of these things: [x]

IN CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE

♔ If you were able to invent one spell, potion, or charm, what would it do, what would you use it for or how would you use it? Feel free to name it:

“Everlasting paint… no, no, I would make all the flowers in my garden bloom throughout the winter, so that I always have something colourful to look at… or, no, I’ve got it! Flowers that can provide paint for me whenever I need it. I run out a lot” she grinned, “I wouldn’t say I was a good artist, maybe just an enthusiastic one, but I tend to run out of my paints so often and they’ve become quite expensive to purchase from Diagon Alley”.

♔ You have to venture deep into the Forbidden Forest one night. Pick one other character and one object (muggle or magical), besides your wand, that you’d want with you:

“Amos Diggory, he seems strong and good with defence and I would definitely need someone to watch my back, the forbidden forest is no place to fool around. If I couldn’t take my wand I would probably take a dagger. To cut things and… stab things”.

♔ What kinds of decisions are the most difficult for you to make?

“Decisions that will affect the lives of those I love. Having control over the lives of others is a huge responsibility and making decisions that could affect those lives, without consultation, would probably be one of the hardest things I would ever have to do” she murmured, biting her lip, “I hope never to have to do that”.

♔ What is one thing you would never want said about you?

“You’re weak”.

WRITING SAMPLE

“Darcy, do we have any rose gold dahlia’s with the lily white edges left in the back?” she called out to the shop at large, as she arranged a stunning vase of flowers in the middle of the store.

“I’ll check now” she heard her assistant call back and smiled to herself, as she placed several roses in amongst the flowers she had already sorted into the display.

She loved to have a variety of colours in her floral displays because, as in relation to her painting also, she felt that the more colourful the display the happier people were in general. Light blue polished nails tapped the crystal vase as she took a step backwards and pursed her lips, tilting her head to one side. “Needs dahlia’s…” she murmured, just as she felt her assistant slip back into the shop and stop beside her, holding a bunch of the flowers she required. Smiling gratefully, she took them from her and sent her back to the counter to check on the order’s that needed to be finished before the end of the day.

Wand between her teeth ready for the finishing touches, she placed several dahlia’s carefully in amongst the already arranged flowers, before standing back, gripping her wand and pointing it at a large piece of lilac ribbon that she had cut and left on the sideboard. With a flick of her wrist, she sent the ribbon to wrap around the vase and tie at the front in a neat bow. “Perfect” she grinned, clapping her hands together as she stood back and admire her work. She only stood for a moment before Darcy called for her and she turned on her heels and headed to the back of the store to help the young girl with whatever was causing her trouble.

*

“Who would have done such a thing?” Darcy gasped, as she stepped into the shop beside her.

Pandora’s eyes flitted around the store, taking in the smashed vase, the beheaded flowers and the scorch marks that painted the walls. She glanced at her assistant who was standing mere centimetres away from her, shaking with her hand pressed over her mouth, looking as though she was about to burst into tears. Pandora felt anger coarse through her, felt pain stab her in the heart as she looked around her mother’s shop and knew why it had been destroyed.

“There will always be those out there who will try to snuff out everything beautiful in the world” she said, moving forward into the store and bending down to pick up a vase that only had a small chip in it. It was the only one she could see that have survived. Careful not to cut herself on shattered glass, she took the vase in one hand and used her other hand to pull the large daisy she had in her hair, out of the tangles. She placed the daisy in the vase and smiled, holding it up to her assistant to see.

“They will never succeed”.