#mel says stuff

[karmelarts]

so much of the horror genre is informed by the metaphor of queer/transness as monstrousness. especially emphasizing the amount of horror that depends on the audience's repulsion at seeing a human body changing into a new, other body. I Saw the TV Glow is about the horror of NOT transitioning. the horror of static. the horror of looking into yourself and being terrified of what you see. the horror of seeing who you are and choosing to do nothing about it. the horror of looking away. and by god is it terrifying.

[brownfrogs]

Hey y'all, my work hours have been getting cut lately so I'm plugging my ko-fi. I'm saving up for a new desk chair and donations would be ever so helpful. As always, thanks for y'alls love and support! Reblogs would be highly appreciated.

Buy me a Ko-fi here!

[sillysnakebites]

sorry

[fazedlight]

The subtext is supertext.

[codenamethebird]

Honestly, I'm kind of hoping we see Melinoe's relationships fall apart a bit. The Warsong update has given us some new dialouge that's quite interesting in this regard.

We actually have Melinoe questioning things a little bit, mostly in regards to Prometheus having a point. But the moment she admits this to Hecate, she gets swiftly shut down. Hecate tells herself to not even consider it and stay true to her beliefs. Which under different circumstances would be a pep talk, but considering the context of, 'are the gods wrong in their treatment of humanity', has kind of sinister implications.

Like don't get me wrong I don't think Hecate is some secret supervillian, but she's a Titan who is part of the order of the gods. When Mel asks her why she helped Athena punish Arachne, she doesn't really apologize and basically says Arachne deserved it. For all Hecate loves Melinoe, she raised her as living weapon (which oof when Ares calls Mel that, ahhhh). She can't have her weapon against Chronos having doubts about their mission. She can't risk the weapon turning against herself.

In a similar but different path, Odysseus has some new dialogue where he's acting funny and seeming to question things. And when Mel asks him about the whole the whole god mortal thing, he blatantly avoids the question like an extreme sport. It actually made me crack up how blatant he was. And when Mel presses him, he says a very non committal 'both gods and mortals are complicated", which says nothing and everything lol. The conversation ends with him promising that he would tell her if he thought she and Hecate were doing the wrong thing.

Which if we take him at his word, still is sooooo vague. He could very much be in my opinion that Chronos is bad and needs to be defeated, but also the gods suck and he's not lying to Mel.

There's also the other option that he's just lying lol. He is Odysseus. But even beyond that, his boss and literal titan is like 20 feet away. Said Titan, who I mentioned above, shuts down any bit of doubt in Mel. He's just a shade, he has very valid reasons to keep his mouth shut.

But yes, back to my first point of this post, Melinoe's relationships possibly falling apart. In a reversal of Zag's quest bringing him closer to his companions, Mels feels doomed to tear them apart.

The mortal (ish in some cases) characters in this story as possibly being dragged towards Prometheus and his ideology. Arachne and Heracles already have issues with the gods, [Pan]Dora was screwed over by them too + her connection to Prometheus, Odysseus seems to have his doubts, and even Icarus has some dialouge of him expressing confusion at Prometheus being their enemy.

On the other end, it looks like Mel is headed in a direction of also doubting her belief in the gods, which will put her in conflict with them and their allies. I don't know what Hecate will do if Melinoe tries to work with Prometheus.

But yeah, I think it would be very fun to have Melinoe's relationships start falling apart as she grows and changes throughout the story. Lots of angst potential, of course, but interesting story developments as well.

Also in a way to make this sort of plot work within the context of how Hades 2 is played, and a different fun reversal of Hades 1, Melinoe can start keeping secrets from the people in the crossroads. Like how Zag lied to the Olympians about why he was doing his runs (especially in the epilouge), Melinoe might have to start lying to Hecate/Moros/Nemesis/etc about the exact purpose of her runs.

But yeah that might me getting a little too crazy with plot ideas haha.

[possible-eldritch-catboy]

rewatching s1 arcane and this is basically how this went right

[royce-bracket]

mel [to viktor]: you're the professor's assistant jayce: NO, he's my partner

marcus: kiramman girl had a prisoner released on your order jayce: NO, we've got it covered viktor: you promised to destroy the hexcore jayce: NO,

[sukibenders]

#those jayviks are never beating the misogynoir allegations because why are they drawing and writing Viktor wearing Mel's dress, having him or Jayce steal it (which is a whole other issue), and then having Jayce, implicitly, cheat on Mel? Like, again, I ask Jayviks, why does Mel have to be included in your ship, let alone as a cuck? It's weird. If you wanted Viktor in a dress, why did it specifically have to be hers? Why act dense when people call you out for this behavior with the lame ass "This isn't a Mel diss!" excuse? You aren't slick. Leave Mel out of it!

[delinquentkru]

“even in the episode where he was gone, even though she’s still searching for him, it did feel like she’s got more confidence now, and it’s because of that relationship” what if i was suicidal taylor 😭

[mercymaker]

growing increasingly worried at the shift in the fandom spaces in regards to the way people approach others' art. this whole wave moving towards 'what can this do for me?' as if art's something that should be tailored to specific numbers in the audience. which then breeds a sort of entitlement in the very same audience where the artist is pushed to a place where they feel like they either owe something to the audience or they are forced to mold themselves into a 'desirable' content machine that's there to please the masses.

and i feel like it just ends up with the general result of the overall quality of art decreasing because the people that DO go with the flow and (willingly or not) embrace this approach end up producing rather generic, often uninspired art OR those who stick to more complex, nuanced, original ideas get discouraged and pushed out by yet another low-effort but 'relatable' piece of fan art that's meant to appeal to as broad of an audience as possible.

and don't get me wrong, i know it's a tale as old as time in art in general. AND there's nothing inherently wrong with creating self-indulgent art with themes that are familiar and comforting. after all, for the most part that's been the basis of a lot of fan art and fan fiction. but i feel like before there was more balance, a certain distinction. room for everyone in their niches, big or small.

nowadays, with all the algorithms tailoring the online experience for you specifically and the growing use of AI character chat bots and the (genuinely heartbreaking) popularity of fics written using AI, it's affecting fandom spaces more and more. people expect the same sort of treatment from the artists that make fan art and i don't think that's a healthy approach.

[karmelarts]

this isn’t normal. this isn’t how life is supposed to feel. if you don’t think about it it can’t hurt you. I found our hearts and they were still beating. there is still time.

[brownfrogs]

all those years of sexual repression hitting Hanzo like a semi truck and now he can’t hold hands with Cole without gettin a obvious boner

[melissa-titanium]

REFERENCING THIS POST

[francislangdon]

frank being like, hey do you want me to take off my wedding ring when we're fucking? and mel just goes, nah leave it, it's hot 😏

i think he would forget about it at first (hello he’s fucking mel, clearly that takes all his brainpower) but then langdon catches her just staring at it when his hand is on her stomach. and he thinks he’s making her uncomfortable and offers to take it off and mel stops him and says “no i want you to wear it” because she likes the reminder that he wants her enough to betray his vows

[sarcasticbeanie]

Paces around in a circle. Something something erasure of women (and very apparent w women of color) within fandom spaces, relegating them to support roles, villainous roles, or even making them tools of the narrative or just forgetting about them. And then when people point that out fans start calling them homophobic for not shipping the gay guys. Please that’s not what this conversation is about I’m head in hands. Man I hate it here. Sometimes even canon does this! I’m going to explode.

[starry-kittens]

GLISTEN OPEN THE DOOR HES FREEZING TO DEATH!!!1!!1!!!!!!!!!!