#mel centric

[oinkoink04]

To preface this: I firmly believe Mel didn’t manipulate Jayce and I go on a yapping session anytime her manipulation of Jayce is mentioned. Every example of her manipulation either stems from misunderstanding her character, misremembering the scenes, misogynoir, or redefining what manipulation is.

So there’s a lot of ppl that see Mel as just a manipulative villain politician. That her entire arc is her manipulating Jayce left and right aka “being a noxian” (tf??) and then stopping manipulating him.

And for the people that actually care about Mel and watched her scenes, they know she’s all about her pragmatic pacifism, her struggles against her home origin, her mom, her last name, and her identity.

Yet when we defend Mel and say she never did what they accuse her of doing, then bc they don’t actually know her character, and dilute her to be just a manipulative politician, they see it as you just cleaning her of all her flaws.

Ever notice how fans of female (especially Black female) characters are expected to be fine with and even participate in the degradation of those characters otherwise they get called "agologists" and told they are ignoring/erasing the flaws of those characters?

[oinkoink04]

Pleaseeeeee pleaseeee pleaseeee don’t bring me to tears when I just did my makeup… jk jk jk

But fr tho PLEASEEEEEE WATCH THIS VIDEO BY VELA ON YOUTUBE!!

It’s amazing!! For all the Mel-lovers out there and for the people who care about learning more about Mel and seeing her character beyond what the fandom reduces her to, this video is just amazing.

I can’t even describe how well this is! I’m 10 minutes in and taking notes bc the details and explanation are so beautiful.

I feel ashamed for calling myself a Mel-Fan when I didn’t even realize half the things she’s pointing out in the vid.

[ak800]

[arcainworms]

MJV but it's their relationship flaws

(I love living in happy fluff world as my fic output would indicate but let's be realistic here)

Jayce is a chronic fixer. He hates seeing people he cares about upset at him, and thinks that if he can somehow logic them out whatever's making them feel that way it'll be better. It doesn't fix it, especially when he's in a relationship with the two most stubborn people in the world.

In my MJV headcanons Mel and Viktor were together first, and that's given Mel a tendency to speak for him when Jayce asks him a question i.e. trying to figure out his preferences about something. This is a triple-edged sword, because Jayce has a tendency to treat Viktor like he's made of glass, and Viktor appreciates Mel's attempt to deflect that for what it is.

When he's actually mad about something, Viktor is just. The biggest bitch. He says shit that he doesn't mean and then immediately apologizes. Mel forgives him, never forgets a slight and will bring it up years later if they're being hypocritical. Jayce, on the other hand, will be sad about it for days.

Jayce almost always has to be the bigger person out of the three of them and play mediator whether he was involved in the argument or not, because neither Mel or Viktor will ever admit to being wrong under any circumstances. Mel does this for his arguments with Viktor. When it's his turn to mediate, Viktor tells Jayce and Mel that they're both being stupid 90% of the time.

Similarly, Jayce is in a near constant state of being exasperated by the fact they never talk about their own feelings, despite being happy to hear whatever he has to say. This is worse with Mel, who's rarely even willing to admit she's upset about something. When Jayce is feeling particularly self-pitying, he'll get mad at them about opening up to each other more than him.

Viktor gets super defensive about anything he takes as passive aggression, and will escalate minor irritation into a fight. Jayce, maybe surprisingly, gets the worst of it on long nights. He has a tendency to convince himself things don't bother him, and let them build over time until he explodes.

But they all love each other and they all know they love each other and they fix these things over time by talking to each other.

[cl-0v3r]

I got so many major spoilers in the last 10 days and I feel like crying every time I come back to try and finish this sketch because I can't stop thinking about what I saw, shit is detrimental istg.

But WOO meljay !!! MEL !!! <33

[quercus-queer]

And another thing, none of these endings are ENDINGS you know what I mean? All of these characters are going to show up in future projects and probably have information updated in line with the series in the game. Genuinely none of these characters’ storylines have ended, this series is just over.

[mercutio-the-velaryon]

Contributing to Meljayvik nation with this. I wrote it when I was very sleep deprived so whatever your expections are lower then accordingly. 

[nightiingaled]

indie multifandom multimuse ft. original characters from various fandoms

carrd | credit

[thinkingisadangerouspastime]

if anyone has any recs for mel medarda fics pls hit a girl up 🙏

[bluecalibrifont]

If Mel Medarda is really dead I will in fact fall into a state of catatonic denial where I live vicariously through fanfiction

[grey-wardens]

Have you finished season 1 of Arcane? What did you think?

yes, i have! i really enjoyed it, the writing is excellent but most of all, i cannot get over how beautiful the animation is... you can see how much effort the animators put into each frame/shot and it's breathtaking.

in particular i keep thinking about that mel flashback scene (the one where ambessa has that princess killed)... the visuals and the emotions of it are so striking.

i'm enjoying season 2 a lot but i've seen people talking about the pacing issues with this season and i do feel that. i've also heard people saying that a contributor to the issue is that netflix only let them have two seasons, which makes sense though i haven't really looked into it myself. either way i wish that each story beat had just a bit more time to breathe because i like these characters and i want to see more of them!

i think i'm going to try and finish the show this weekend because i have seen spoilers from the later episodes and i am just 👀‼️

[narumi-gens]

just thinking about how cute my parents are and how my dad always cuts up fruit for my mom and how he does the laundry and cooks breakfast for her every day but she does the bills and wakes him up every morning instead of an alarm and how my mom said that he’s her best friend and they spend all their time together

[musical-chick-13]

Okay ALSO. The amount of comments of "But why are we losing to RANDOS, who even ARE they, how can we lose to them???!!!"

If you have not at any point ever even heard of TLT on this website, then you do not follow enough sapphics.

[not-yet-the-wolf]

any mel-centric fic recs for someone fairly new to the fandom? i've seen the whole show so not peeved about spoilers, and i don’t have any particular shipping preferences (partial to mel/elora but i think i've exhausted the ao3 tag for that already; may not read mel/silco depending on the fic.) especially love angst/stuff about her family.

[oinkoink04]

Amazing analysis yet again!

with arcane’s focus on visual elements, something that’s been nagging on me lately is mel medarda’s final design and why it compounds the tragedy of her story:

firstly, when we see mel in her flashback, she’s already wearing her significant white/gold, but tempered with blue—noticeably missing her mother’s greys and reds, even then, showing her idealogical differences

then in piltover, we see mel as her own self-actualization—all white and gold and black, colors connected to power, and with an elegant cut that still places her slightly apart from piltover fashion. it shows her place as a non-combatant (long skirt) and someone privileged (the pure white) and wealthy (the gold. so much gold.). this is mel medarda at the pinnacle she’s worked so hard to achieve—it’s elegant because she is elegant

which of course becomes subverted when we do see the gold accessories taken away and the white dirtied when she’s kidnapped by the black rose—this is the first and only time we see mel in actual disarray, and it shows how vulnerable she is when she’s outside the political sphere

and after her transformation, we have this costume change, where aside from the increased gold (now representing magical ability instead of just wealth), we have mel in a a skin-tight catsuit style getup, allowing for greater movement, and her hair done in micro-braids in a style that won’t affect her center of gravity. at first, when i was watching, i was confused (especially about the hair), but then i realized—

this isn’t mel dressing herself to reflect a change, this is leblanc’s vision of mel, where power is swiftness and she is markedly different than others in a way that is now impossible to ignore

and she tries to return to her previous sense of self with the white hood, going back to a trademark of her style, but notably this is an outfit worn to conceal, not reveal and show off like her previous iconic dress, and her change is visibly with even just the hood off

and when mel accepts black rose’s help and betrays them and her mother dies, the white hood disappears—try as she might, she cannot go back to who she was, and she stands before noxians as a mage and mother-killer and a wolf, something dangerous

and then, when we see mel leaving piltover, she’s wearing nothing of her original self, but a combination of black rose’s getup and her mother’s colors. there is almost nothing of “mel” in this outfit, as if she’s been subsumed by these two identities—noxian and mage

even her makeup has shifted, with the red line under her eyes and the gold in her lower lip directly copying her mother

this isn’t a mel who’s realized herself in a new identity. this is a mel who, when faced with the enormous loss of her brother, mother, lover and former identity, has fallen into the definitions and roles that were presented to her, and who is now primed to continue the cycles started by her predecessors

and moving on from arcane, i think it would be fascinating to see mel in one of the newer shows to see how she grapples with this and if she either falls back into tradition and dooms herself, or if she’s able to break free and reforge her identity on her own terms

[darkstaria]

Yandere Batfam - Soulmate Soul Animal AU.

Chapter 4:

Chapter 1. Chapter 2. Chapter 3. Chapter 5.

This chapter is brought to you by myyyyyyy🎉birthday🎉 woohoo 🥳 I hath aged

It's a little bit shorter, but I mean come on it's a unique chapter soooo it's cool guys I swear

Lots more Batfam content this time, albeit Tim centric. I'll balance it out in the future I swear! Also it's still platonic, but you could probably get a romantic reading from this a lil bit if you try

Taglist: @moonchild-artemisdaughter @jjsmeowthie @madine11-blog @xxrougefangxx @hadesnewpersephone @neerathebrightstar @mel-star636 @jaythes1mp @rosecentury @lov3vivian @gaozorous-rex-blog @victoria1676 @vrsin @silverklaus @ryukyuin @kurai-hono-blog @thisisafish123 @isawyourbrowserhistory @ain-t-no-way-bsfr @realifezompire @lunaluz432 @nickey-diano @sukiiluvs @sara0055 @alleakimlala @kdidgg @paperhermits @lavender-moony @alishii @emmbny @sirenetheblogger @fantasy-angelo @andrasia @vinnvinnvintage @nyra-42 @armystaysatnct @beyond-your-stars @starsdotalk @adeptusxia0

----

A few days have passed since your encounter with Red Robin. He hasn't shown up since, but another thing has.

Your work had sent you an email. An invitation to Wayne Enterprises, to represent them. According to them, your location was the closest to Wayne Enterprises, and so you were selected. You lived 50 minutes away from Wayne Enterprises. Their home office was 30 minutes away. You weren't sure who was doing the math here, but they needed some more practice.

That being said, you could notice a pattern when there was one. This was Tim Drake's attempt to get you out of your home. And unfortunately, it was going to work. You needed your job. It was perfect, remote, didn't bother you as long as you got the work done. Jobs like that were rare, especially in Gotham.

Not for the first time, you kinda felt like crying.

If Red Robin, your soulmate, was indeed Tim Drake, then what was this? Did he have you figured out? Or was he continuing the investigation?

You didn't know...

Refusing to show up would get you fired. There was no way around that. But, what if you couldn't go?

What if you were too injured to go? There's no way you could fake something, the bats are quite literally master detectives. That and your soul animal form would likely reveal the uninjured truth.

Maybe if you injured yourself?

No, no no no. That was a bad route to go down. If this meeting is to check whether you are soulmates with him, a matching injury on your soul animal form would be like a criminal and a suspect having the same tattoo.

There wasn't really any option here. Which, really, is just typical for the vigilantes of Gotham.

"Ughhh." You groaned to yourself, cradling your hands with your head. You glared over at Red, who had been showing up much more frequently these past few days (which was saying something, since all your soul animals were already by you 23/7). Red gave a small chirp in reply, some sort of smugness in its tone.

Maybe it was time to invest in wind chimes or something. You heard they can scare off robins.

You felt like you were going to need it.

~ ~ ~ ~

Tim's developed something of a guilty habit.

It wasn't a bad thing, per se. Nothing B would particularly frown at. Dick might even agree.

He imagined you wouldn't quite feel the same, though.

You looked especially fragile, as you slept. During the day your face was haunted by false bravado, a paranoid edge to every smile. Sleep smoothed out the lines of your face, giving a softer touch to your slumbering form.

You frown when he reaches out to poke your cheek. It's cute. His hand twitches for his camera. You're always cute, whether it's a small little frown on your face or beaming joy.

He's developed a new favorite activity. Alongside solving cases, he's now watching you. He wants to observe it all. From little habits to obvious passions, he wants to know everything. Hobbies, skills, loves, DNA. He'd only just found you, the answer to the mystery that he's been in since birth. He's had a lot of time to build up this obsession.

He wants and wants and needs. He can wait to take.

You are a light sleeper, but he's a quiet stalker. You don't always drink milk before bed, but when you do, you'll get a little more tired than usual. Your groggy face is cute, too.

He reached out, stroking your hair with the slightest of a smile beginning on his face. It was soft. It reminded him of you, your soul animal form. It had flinched away from him earlier, as it always does whenever they were in uniform. Finding that you do the same as a human wasn't so surprising.

They had adapted to your soul form’s skittishness. They could do the same again. His mind briefly flashed through some ideas, an ankle bracelet, a watch, a collar? If it was on the ankle, you'd match.

He broke out of his musings at the shift of movement. A flutter of wings. B’s soul animal flew down perching on a piece of furniture nearby as a vantage point. He smirked. Looked like he wasn't the only one feeling a little possessive tonight.

He must've been thinking of you. Not surprising, given that your soul form was scheduled time with him today. They had to work out a schedule, else there would have been a lot more stabbings. Not that it didn't prevent sudden abductions occasionally, thanks Jason.

That was fine though. B could have you tonight, Damian could have you tomorrow, Dick the next. Because Tim had the real you, right here.

And he wasn't planning on letting go.

There's a room he's preparing inside Drake manor. He’d put your name on it, but that would be too obvious if anyone came around. Instead, it would be his little secret with you. He's only just met you, but he has plenty of ideas for it already.

He didn't feel guilty for this. Not at all.

You were his as much as he was yours after all. If there was a problem with these feelings, then why would fate itself tie you to him?

If anything, the only guilt he’d feel is not telling anyone else. He couldn't help it, he just wanted you to himself for a while. He caught you, so he was allowed to have you.

But was that really guilt? Or just annoyance at the idea of getting caught?

An alert on his communicator made him frown, taking him out of the trance he had felt into. There was more he had to do.

A shame, but it was fine. He got to spend some quality time with you, taken a few things for the future. He’d make more time. And you'll have all the time in the world for him. But first…

Tim withdrew a specialty camera from his utility belt, raising it to his face. He adjusted a few settings, then…

Snap!

~ ~ ~ ~

You fought the urge to yawn. You have been so sleepy lately. You had to wake up especially early for today. Lovely.

At least today was the moment of truth. You'd show Red Robin for once and for all that you were perfectly normal, and not at all his soulmate. He’d lose interest, and your life would return to its domesticity.

The one good thing going for today was that you're somehow accompanied by none of your soul animals. A truly rare occasion that is ruined by the fact that you're instead visiting a soulmate in the flesh. If any of your soul animals do show up, you have your old reliable bag to shove them into. So, you should be alright.

Wayne Enterprises was a terrifying image, but you steadied yourself with the fact that your whole life’s freedom was at stake here, which was much more terrifying. After that you could get through the door. Security just letting you through after giving your name almost had you running out the door though, you'd admit.

The elevator ride was long and solemn, giving you time to think about everything. Maybe you should think about moving, staying in Gotham was perhaps a ridiculous sentiment to begin with. It was a shame though, you were a Gothamite through and through, you didn't want to leave the country your parents lived and raised you in.

Still, perhaps it was time to leave. Things were getting too risky. Thinking about it, Wayne Enterprises? Honesty what even was your life.

The ding of the elevator door interrupts your musings, an assistant directing you to Tim Drake’s office.

As you walk over, you can't help but listen in to some shouting coming from the room.

A younger voice is yelling. “Give me them! You do not deser-” The voice gets cut off, as an older voice yells back. “It is my turn, you do not get to just steal them!”

The younger voice starts up again, but so does the older voice, alongside what you can only presume to be fighting noises.

You just kinda stare at the door. You are a working professional, representing your company to the prestigious Wayne Enterprises. You came here with lofty expectations and responsibilities to fulfill. And the CEO… is fighting someone in his office.

You have no idea what to do.

A minute passes.

You started to think about signaling an assistant to come help, but before you could do so the fighting seemed to end with a shouted “Fine! But B will hear about-” you can't hear the rest, as the shouting returns to a normal volume.

A door is opened and slammed, footsteps retreating away from the office. You take a moment to appreciate the fact that Tim Drake’s office has two doors that lead in different places, because it means you didn't have to meet whoever he was fighting.

A second or two later, the door in front of you swings open. Tim Drake is facing you, his hair a little askew, and his cheeks a little red. He smiles, an easy thing. It's as if the sight of you brought it to his face.

“Welcome!” He waves you in, somehow not acknowledging what you just heard in any form. The objects in his office are perfectly aligned. Nothing looks disturbed at all. How?

He waves you over to a chair, settling into one himself.

“Well.” He begins. “It's nice to see you again, Y/n."

You hope this goes by quickly.