Considering how Mel was introduced - a high ranking council woman, covered in gold, eager to snatch up the hot new talent - you'd be forgiven for initially thinking she slept with him to for ambitious puposes. BUT when we see her waking up alone to notice Jayce is gone, and the later scene of her painting with her aggressive brush stroke underlining her response "duty calls" to Jayce having left right after they had sex, you realize 'Oh wait, this wasn't just a scheme of hers'. It actually meant something to her, and she felt legitimately hurt that he dipped out. I loved Mel in Season 1 precisely because she's such a great balance of maniplulative and empathetic. It's actually amazing how well Season 1 gets this across in the short amount of time we got with her. I don't know if I wanted her and Jayce to stay together, but I definitely wanted more of her as she was in Season 1. Unfortunately Season 2 just threw her to the wayside. One of Season 2's many mistakes.
Well, I think that's because they had to developed the Black Rose and her connection to Noxus - which she will play a huge part in. If you don't play the game you maybe wouldn't know she will be the next 2025 champion released. Which is a HUGE deal. Ambessa just got released (also wild considering she is an older woman) who also just got a book released about the Medardas too. Sooo - safe to say it's not the end for Mel just yet. She might be the only connection linking to Noxus.
I prefer Mel's plotline in S2 because I love the mage stuff and her being connected to Black rose. She got more explored relationship with her mother and her family, more actions scenes, more lore and even a setup for the next Noxus show.
@CasualShinji I don't think S2 had any mistakes. I think they made choices due to time and budget, and we, as viewers, won't agree with them all. They still told a remarkable story in a magnificent and fascinating way. It was the story they decided to tell. I would have preferred longer episodes and at least 1 most season to flush out some of the characters and maybe even add a character or two....like actually seeing Orianna adjusting to her new reality or Janna actually showing up as a wind goddess. I could even see the creation of Zac or Blitzcrank. Was the rat that Singed used to test shimmer on Twitch?
You're right Viktor should just let Jayce die. By the way circumstances matter. Viktor's motivation has always been to help people even the glorious evolution was supposed to do exactly there help and heal. The second he saw he won't achieve that he stopped. Mel was an a council for many years and was ok with opreseing Zaun or building hextech weapons (do did Jayce). Mel was doing it and using both Jayce and Viktor (mostly Jayce) to further her own political agenda. Only later she coughed some feeling towards jayce. She is the fox she is smart but she is not a sinless angel. Also I find it ironic that under a video criticizing people for hating her for "getting in the way" you people are hating on Viktor for getting in the way because it's ok if you do it. Very hypocritical way of thinking.
@@s1b3r11 He stopped because of a time travel AU plot that conveniently brought back his emotions. Jayce could have told him the truth at the commune. Mage Viktor is a master manipulator, yes, and his story is not romantic in any way.
@@blacktigerpaw1 Lol have you even watched any episode at all? Jayce didn't tell him anything at the commune. The very same moment he learned about the future he stopped but of course you don't care about the real plot. Mage Viktor is not a master manipulator. He literally only wanted to save the world and save Jayce. On the other hand Mel was a a manipulator who admitted to wanting to use the hextech for her goal. I don't even think you've watched a single episode. You're just a hater.
@@s1b3r11 I watched the show, yes. I am criticizing the bad plot. Mage Viktor *doomed entire timelines over and over again all because he wanted to 'save' Jayce.* That's not saving anyone. if he's omniscient, he could have *spoken to Viktor when he had his vision at the Hexgates in S1.* He could have done ANYTHING differently. But no, he kept repeating the cycle and by 'saving' the world because in order to reach good Viktor you have to create bad Viktor and bad Viktor has to see the error of his ways to become good Viktor...too hard for you? I bet it is. Mel is a SAINT compared to Mage Viktor. She didn't end the world over and over again because of MUH STAR CROSSED ROMANCE - he did. I'm beginning to think you're a shill who can't understand that this is a shiny POS.
If I had 1 nickel for every time a female character gets hated because of getting in the way of an overrated/popular gay ship I would have soooo many nickels, which is concerning that it happens so many times
Even Yachi from Haikyuu!! somehow... honestly, they don't even need a ship to hate a character. Sydney from The Bear gets so much shit just because she's a black female character that's close to the main male character.
Ive never in my decades of consuming media seen this in a situation where its NOT a black woman/black man character, but hey you cant watch everything so i cant deny the possibility But yeh this sounds alot like those "its not about race its about class" diatribes white folks do whenever black folks talk about racism thinking yall are beibg helpful... Who knows 🤷🏾♂️
The writers fulmbled both maljay AND caitvi. Having smex in the JAIL where your unstable sister was doing self harm? When you also have trauma from being in jail...
@@Nayawritess If I defend one controversial scene about the show, it is this one. People shipping Jayvik and making fun about "caring more about the non-canon doomed yaoi over canon yuri" because apparantly Caitvi is badly written also just seems like another mysoginistic excuse to center men. Cait just gave her biggest evidence of trusting Vi that she could have possibly given. Not only that, it also shows how she understands what Vi told her, that she agrees with her and she risked not seeing Vi again. She knows she has done wrong, that she had forsaken her morality for the one person she failed to see as a human instead of a monster, but now she recognised her humanity and decided to share her love for Vi with Jinx (just how Jinx accepts to share her love for Vi with Cait). There is so much growth going on there with this single action of releasing Jinx. I think people underestimate how much that meant to Vi and how much development and reflection it reveals about Cait. It resolves the biggest conflict within their relationship. Cait accepts that Vi just loves her sister, Jinx accepts that Vi loves loves Cait, what stands in the way of the relationship now?
@@justarandomgirlvx3578THNK U SO MUCH GIRL, I'm defending the sesbian lex caitvi scene till death as a big sis myself. Vi is finally (not conscious “breaking the cycle” meant “fcking killing myself” cause' her reaction made it obvious) putting herself first, AND with her baby's approval. Fans got more offended by they boombayaing in Jinx's cell than Jinx herself (who didn't even complained abt it - not going immediately after her cause there is no way she figured the other part-, she accepts Vi as much as Vi accepted her lil sis shenanigans). Also going to a room? They were in the mood already, they made the moment special and worth for them. It was realistic, they're young adults about to go to war, not 15 yo virgins having their first time, life is one, they were in and that's all. “Why not getting a room” well, there was space enough in the cell, not everything has to be premeditated.
@@justarandomgirlvx3578 Its also a huge development for Vi!! For most of the show her actions were always to sacrifice herself (phisically, emotionally, her freedom, her hapiness) for the sake of the people she loves. The writers themselves say she's a protector, and thats all that she sees for years. Since s01e03 she had to deal with an immense amount of trauma, and guilt towards Powder/Jinx and everything surrounding it. Time and time again she leaves Caitlyn (wich also represents the possibility of happiness, love and a better life) without hesitation to go find Jinx, sacrificing everything for her. Then, after they split and reunite, she decides to trust Jinx one more time, again willing to leave everything behind for her, only for Jinx to leave her. Now what people don't get: this is Jinx's choice!! Jinx realizes that as long as she's around, Vi will never be trully happy bc she would keep on sacrificing herself for her, so by leaving she's being selfless and letting her sister be happy, she even gives her blessing to Vi and Caitlyn's relationship. Its an act of love too. But as always they dont communicate well, and from Vi's perspective, she's being left behind by the one person she always sacrificed everything in her life for, she just feels betrayed and abandoned. She doesnt even know Jinx will try to ☠ herself, she just knows that she left her despite all of her efforts. But she also finally recognizes that this was Jinx's choice - tho Vi doesnt realize it, in that moment, Jinx intentionally relieved her of the responsability, took that weight off her shoulders, freed her in a metaforical sense. Denying the meaning of this act is denying Jinx's own agency. Finally, relieved of her guilt, Vi realizes she gets to choose too! For the first time in all of the series, she makes one decision FOR herself: she puts herself first, she chooses to love and be loved, to finally live for herself. And going from a character who always put others firts in detriment of herself, to a character who acknowledges her own feelings and desires, realizes she's allowed to be happy and love and chooses to live what she wants is HUGE character development, in the most personal level!
The manipulator part is what gets me. Everybody is a manipulator in Arcane: Jinx, Silco, Heimerdinger, Caitlyn, Singed, Ambessa, Viktor, and the whole council. Yet the only one who gets labeled manipulator constantly is Mel?🤨
The fact that I saw 100s of ppl making and liking comments insinuating that he only pursued Mel bc being w her represented "the traditional type of love he saw in society" and didn't realize he could love a man, ie Viktor?? LIKE HELLO??? This is literally Arcane??? A fantasy society w no homophobia or racism?? Why's it so hard to understand that he loved both of them? He was drawn to Mel cuz she was more dazzling and he only saw Vik as a friend for years. (I'm not anti jayvik but I'm still not fully convinced of them being a romantic ship)
Diverging from your MelVik point but LOL storywritters tend to say that there's no homophobia in LOL but they have actually never shown even a kiss between their canon mlm couples, only wlw. Maybe they are not allowed but either way it's not that simple and Riot does have a history of problems with mlm rep
@@karlaalexa211correct me if i'm wrong but i'm pretty sure out of arcane there has never been a mlm ot wlw kiss in league. Riot has been bad with mlm true, but wlw has been bad aswell.
Mel supports and helps Jayce AND Viktor succeed and she's a "manipulator." Viktor literally controls Jayce's ENTIRE life - and it means they're soulmates. SMDH.
I’ve never really thought about this perspective cuz I feel like everyone LOVES Viktor and either hates Jayce or views him as purely as a counterpart to Viktor which I think is sad. I’ve always loved Jayce because he’s selfless and he is very emotional, the way he would hug and lay his head down on Mel or hug his mom, etc. Idk I’m okay with the Jayce’s life revolving around Viktor since it’s the reason he’s alive since Viktor saved his life twice and Jayce loves him (platonically or romantically it doesn’t matter tbh). But you bring up a good point, if Jayce was ever to step out of line and do something for himself and not Viktor the fandom would go crazy. I feel like Piltover/Topside characters aren’t allowed to make mistakes or be selfish otherwise they’re minimized down to being privileged or the enemy. Idk but I personally loved Ambessa and Mel and their family’s dynamic and I’m excited for the next series. MEL IS NOT THE ENEMYYY
@@nam812 You just preached so many bars that the local church is demanding that you be their pastor. Simply YES! The Piltovan characters receive so much unfair judgment, meanwhile if Jayce were from Zaun people would have so much more sympathy or even agree with everything he does.
Say! This! Again! I don't know how anyone can see that finale as romantic. It was creepy and weird, and I felt so sad for Jayce because he's been a passenger all his life and now he 'died' to go be a passenger for Viktor. It was twisted and gross, and the fandom is unhinged for refusing to see this.
I love this. Jayvik is my favorite, but I agree there's too much Mel bashing :( Any 'manipulation' from Mel was misinterpreted due to Jayce being naive about politics and her knowing how to play and win the game. They were a political power couple because it benefited BOTH their goals in the council room. It was mutually beneficial AND affectionate (her subconsciously shielding him during the attack). I didn’t know the animators said that; that’s disgusting. I do think they 'broke up' in s2 ep8, but only because their priorities had shifted. Jayce even repeats what toxic fans say about Mel, but it’s clear he’s projecting and being unfair. They clearly still care about each other. Fandom culture is so gross and toxic and unfortunately rooted in misogyny and misogynoir. We can ship and be media literate y’all
I saw Mel and Jayce develop a friendly relationship with each other; they care for each other but the romantic relationship did not work out because at the end: their priorities really were different and dragging them in many directions. I initially thought she was manipulating him but rewatching S1 made me realise otherwise. She does care for Jayce and him for her as well. Also like......Jayce has 2 hands yall 😂
As someone who is neither a Meljay or Jayvik shipper (but is absolutely tired of how disruptive and brainrotten Jayvik stans have become at large) I appreciate you for being here and... normal. What floors me is that these people are not stopping with Mel either. Poor Skye has gotten the short end of the stick from the writers and fandom both. Since S1, it’s rubbed me the wrong way how Skye basically just existed to fawn over Viktor, then disintegrate just to facilitate his character development. Then in S2 they bring her back just to continue have her be all about Viktor and his development, up until she disintegrates because of him AGAIN. Skye had “such dreams” but we never even learn what they were, because as long as Viktor knows what they were and they motivate him that’s all that matters. I searched her tag hoping to find think pieces about this, only for it to be overrun by Jayvik stans using Skye’s bitter last words to prop their ship. I distinctly remember a post along the lines of “see, they straight-baited us with Skye in Act II and now they have her literally say with her own mouth Viktor won’t miss her”. Like wtfgftfshb this scene is not the slay for Viktor/Jayvik you think it is. Just how insecure in your crackship do you have to be to feel threatened by a twice-dead girl the writers treat like an afterthought? And can you please engage with the story through a lens that isn't Jayvik for once when there's a more important conversation to be had here?? And don’t even get me started on them trying to start a competition with Caitvi shippers on which ship is “gayer” (whatever that means). Post finale it was impossible to be on the main tag without some version of “how did this *insert image of Caitlyn and Vi making out* feel less gay than this *insert image of Jayce and Viktor forehead-touching before they vanish* “ being nearly every other post. It got old real fast- especially as certain shippers started treating it as more than a joke. The sapphics got the most expensive love scene between lesbians in animation and a canonical happy ending and they just HAD to make it about their mlm crackship. Whenever a female character of color gets in a canonical romantic relationship with a prominent male character (usually white) it’s often only a matter of time before a mlm crackship becomes popular- and almost always, between him and the closest white male character. It’s like they think that if the ship isn’t straight, that sanctions it- the uncharitable and vitriolic takes about the female character, the belittling of her role in her love interest’s life, the endless Pepe Silvia-ing of why he’s secretly in love with the other male character the whole time he’s with her and doesn’t actually care about her. Fandoms did this with Arthur, Guinevere and Merlin, they did this with Geralt, Yennefer and Jaskier, and since S1 they’ve been doing it with Jayce, Mel and Viktor (and these are only examples off the top of my head rn). Again, I’ve no issues with Jayvik on principle, but toxic shipper culture has really soured it for me- especially when it plays into this observable misogynistic/racist pattern.
@@DeadInside-ct6dl LMAO I used to joke they deserve an award for “situationship of the year”. The conditions being: politics allies and her letting him be sad in her lap every once in a while. I agree their romance probably would’ve developed better if they didn’t both get kidnapped and thrown into holes in the ground lol. Right person, wrong time maybe
i love Mel Medarda. I love that she hates violence and uses her brilliant guile to maintain peace (as she understands it). She's an inversion of the Corrupt Politician trope, someone who you would expect to be evil because of how she schemes but in reality is playing 4D chess and is twisting the corruption to her own benefit in surprising ways. She's compassionate as well as calculating. She's golden yet cold, privileged yet empathic, pragmatic yet romantic. She's so fascinating, nuanced, and I found her romance with Jayce compelling as well, since those two were lovers with deep care for one another yet i always felt the tension of them walking this razors edge of a relationship that was both loving and transactional. I don't understand other Jayvik shippers losing their damned minds over Mel because A) she's amazing and B)...she literally never got in the way of the ship. If anything, from a narrative perspective, her character was used to draw subtext between Jayce and Viktor to help push their Cosmically Transcendent Homiesexuals plot forward lmao but she was NEVER mere ship fodder and always stood out as her own person with agency, and frankly Jayce and Viktor would have fell into academic obscurity without her explicit support. Her outstanding uniqueness as a character is emphasized further in season 2 (even if it could have been done better but whatever). She goes through so much and overcomes it all with her whip-sharp intellect, intuition, and strategic aptitude. She tears herself out of a traumatic situation, learns more about her own power and resilience in the process, and as a result is reasserted within the narrative as a character with significance that will continue to be relevant long after Arcane ends. She represents the other side of the Arcane itself; its chaotic presence within nature and the strength of spirit necessary to harness it vs. Viktor's unnatural fusion with magic that seeks to instill perfect order through the dissolution of free will (these two have their own significance to each other as mirrors in the narrative but like i will literally be here all night lmao). Her relationship with her mother and her traumatic childhood was SO good too. Mel is the Doe who burned away her skin to become the Wolf after a lifetime of fleeing its fangs; she reflects her mother who was not only herself a lamb once but turned one of her own children into a sacrificial lamb to save Mel, who in turn sacrificed Ambessa for a better world because that's what Mel has ALWAYS wanted. I'm not gonna lie, i could go on about Mel forever because she's just. SO interesting and cool. She's a politician, an artist, a lover, a mage, a survivor, a LEADER. I. I love Mel Medarda. But it's almost 3 am now and i can hear color (gold. the color is gold.) Also. I don't know if this is a hot take, and frankly i don't care: Mel Medarda deserves better than a dude who is wholly obsessed with his best friend/bisexual awakening. Please. PLEASE. She deserves someone who will appreciate her absolutely incredible Machiavellian mind and match her freak. I wanna see her with someone ON HER LEVEL, who is as devoted to her as Jayce is to Viktor. She deserves that and MORE. Not that i hate Meljay or Meljayvik (although I am very biased towards Melvika, woof), but i just think outside of fanon stuff i really, really, REALLY NEED to see her in a fulfilling, loving relationship with someone that's naturally her equal and who appreciates her in her shining totality. I hope the next series we get is about her specifically, i just want more Mel lore and to watch her be amazing Thanks for this video and sorry that i rambled or whatever that was. I hate how prevalent misogynoir is in this fandom, but also literally everywhere else. Like it's rampant, STILL. I am glad we have means to come together in opposition through videos such as this. I just wish more people decried it within the fandom so we didn't NEED videos like this. Stay golden 💛
But there are already enough relationships in the show. Why ship Jayce and Viktor? It ruins the beauty of friendship and dishonors it. They never touched each other romantically, never flirted but still get shipped. If what they have is romance then what is left for friendship?
@@Dcba_1234 people ship characters for multiple reasons, sometimes the ship isn’t romantic sometimes it is. i can definitely see where jayvik stans are coming from because their relationship really does give soulmates. i don’t personally care for the ship all that much but i can see the beauty in their relationship nonetheless.
I don't think JayVik is romantic at all. I think their bond is a transcendent platonic, brotherly bond. It's not about romance or sexual attraction, it's just two souls who share a deep affection like Viktor said: "It was affection that kept us together". But that's just my take.
the fact that it hasn’t even been 24 hours since this video came out and there’s already been more anti black/misogynistic (misogynoir) viral posts on twitter. a quote on a post sharing a screenshot from tiktok where a person said they “can’t express how glad they are that jayce is finally seeing her for who she truly was” where the person (who has been micro aggressive towards people calling out racist jayvik fans for days now) completely dismissed the issue brought up, and another where a person shared that they came across a jayvik fic where viktor throws mel out of a window which some people laughed at. I refuse to continue to be told that myself and others are overreacting about what has taken place since the arcane finale. while this does often happen to women of all races in popular non canon mlm ships it’s very clear that the extreme hatefulness displayed recently is exacerbated by the fact that mel is a black woman and viktor is a white man.
The idea of Viktor throwing Mel out a window is INSANE and my brain hurts just THINKING about it. How disconnected from reality do you have to BE to write that 😭
I saw that. That post had 90k likes. TikTok has no room for thoughtful discussion. I also read a fic where Viktor, who was made trans (lots of those) had Jayce eat him out and then compared his vaginal juices to Mel's, saying 'it tasted better.' Remember, this are the same people reblogging Gaza posts and saying they aren't racist while being more racist than the Klan.
A lot of JayVik fanfic is unfortunately unreadable to me for this reason. I liked the ship before, but I quickly grew to be indifferent and outright just not like it because some of the stuff I encountered in fic. Which is why the last act of the show does feel like the worst kind of JayVik fanfic was inserted into the show, and it's not a good thing for any of the characters involved.
This is why I roll my eyes whenever someone insists that fandoms are super progressive and utopian for minorities to thrive, because that only applies when the fans are white lgbt people or the characters are masculine white men; any other person and character is excluded, ignored, and made the targets of discrimination like racism, sexism or, as you said, misogynoir. I'm glad I found this video and see I'm not the only one who noticed how Mel, who became one of my fav characters due to this season, was done all these things I mentioned.
I also noticed that many people take issue with the idea of Jinx and Ekko being romantically involved. The argument is often, that not every male-female friendship needs to turn into a romance....sure I can see that, but this overlooks the fact that fans aren’t shipping them out of thin air. It’s based on how the show itself portrays their dynamic. Meanwhile, it’s far more accepted for fans to create romantic pairings out of male friendships, even when it feels forced. And we all know, that Jinx and Ekko, as well as Jayce and Mel, have far more romantic interactions in the story, then Viktor and Jayce ever had... I wanted to ship Viktor with Sky, but even then it was to one-sided, so I stopped shipping Viktor with anyone. With his condition, he wasn't really focusing on love anyway
@@Lunar_Fox14I've luckily only seen people loving Jinx x Ekko and wanting more of the two in any capacity. And I was so glad to see it because people were actually looking at the fundamental reasons why they work as a ship and not the color of their skin.
You can be sure that the ones that ask for most "tolerance" or "acceptance" are the ones less willing to give it... Best showcase of that is when there are ships of gay characters into straight ones see how "tolerant" they get
As much as I hate the way "media illiteracy" gets thrown around in fandom these days, Mel Medarda haters definitely deserve the title. There is no way other than willful ignorance, to come away thinking Mel is a cold, calculating manipulator.
It’s even crazier because majority of Jayvik Shippers don’t even like Jayce for real or at all if we are being 100% honest. They just want to bang Viktor
I wish that the show had them mutually breakup at the end. It would have maturely showed that some relationships aren't built to last, while still addressing Mel's journey of trauma and character growth. While she is a great character, the writing used her dynamic with Jayce as an afterthought. They get one scene in Act 3 that isn't plot-related, and the emotional changes both have been through aren't addressed beyond Jayce's apology.
One of the things that hurts sm about the treatment of Mel in Arcane is how to a certain extent, she parallels Silco. Since they both used manipulation to be able to get what they want. But for more selfless reasons. Mel wants to improve Piltover, whereas Silco wants to improve the Undercity. They both have love for the people in their lives, i.e Jayce and Jinx, yet still manipulated them for their goals for the nation. But where they contrast is Mel isn't willing to go as far as Silco is. Silco literally did just as much damage to the undercity as help due to being corrupt and also cracking under the pressure. Whereas when Mel started to realize the extent of the damage she can cause, she retracted. When she realized that what she has done could harm Jayce, she stopped and tried to build something genuine with him. She went from manipulating him to protecting him and saving him. But when the fandom is talking about silco they sweep all his wrong doings under the rug. Like you bring up the fact that Silco groomed Jinx into a weapon and made her mentle health worse. You immediately get met with: "Yeah, but he still loved her tho. That's all that matters." But when you do the opposite and try to say anything good about Mel like how she protected Jayce thru out the entire series and literally saved his life twice. You get met with: "But she still used him tho, so none of that matter." Like...HUH??? I find it weird how these 2 characters have similar flaws yet the one who tries to do better and change gets more scrutiny then the one who refused to.
Great take, I feel like certain characters always get a pass to do things but others get dragged through the mud for something that a beloved character has done too
NO YOU’RE SO RIGHT!!! Like tell me how a guy basically groomed a teenage girl (we really don’t know how old jinxs is and i think that’s done on purpose) into a very unhealthy mindset, caused her to develop unhealthy coping mechanisms and never once put his foot down when she crossed the line, but you get hit with “B-but-t he-he did it-t b-because he loved her!!!!”, but the minute you say that Mel really did care about jayace and his safety you are bombarded with “erm she was manipulating him so she doesn’t love him, she was useless and i wished she was replaced with blitzcrank” (quoting some things my older brother said about her)
I feel like perspective changes relative to the affected character. People love Jinx to pieces, so by extension, Silco's actions present more positively. Jayce, on the other hand, is not seen as favorably as Jinx, and so his dynamic with Mel is not observed as closely.
I feel like Jayce got more out of Mel’s support that Mel got from Jayce if I’m being honest. Most of Jayce’s plans while part of the council probably won’t have been passed if Mel didn’t put her political power behind him by supporting his decision.
What hurts the most about the misognoir in arcane is that it's everyhere. Sevika(while not black still a POC woman) got the short end of stick too. And like can we talk about Skye??? Her entire character wasn't even a real character on her own. Her entire purpose on the show was to be in service to viktor's arc. Once she was no longer needed for his development she was disposed of. TWICE‼️ I like Jayvik but I honestly can't appreciate it as much as I want to because of how they use the disposable black girl trope TWICE. It just makes me too upset to enjoy it. Hearing how the animators talked about Mel just hurt so bad. They just dismissed her as a Jazebel and made it seem like her and Jayce had nothing when their relationship was important to both their character developments. Viktor is incredibly important to Jayce but he's not the only character to make an impact on Jayce's life. Mel meant something aswell.
Agreed! That buged me so much? Like Sky was Already barely a character but at least in s1 she felt like a person. It felt like... very tone deaf to bring her back to be the consience/emotional support of a guy who.. Efectively had her killed?? Only to kill her off Again?? Very tone deaf tbh
@@RuviGaPoI always read Sevika as South Asian coded and felt like it was confirmed bc her fight scene music was sung by a South Asian artist but idrk. But for Sky I feel like they did that with Isha as well who is essentially just a plot device to Jinx? So I feel that’s just a thing they do with side characters. Idk I thought Mel was extremely important to the plot this act and her storyline got a decent amount of screen time in addition to her mom (who I think was a more interesting character) but I think it’s just the fandoms fault for just hating on any characters that aren’t their favorites.
I like… I want to agree with you on Sky but the thing is that that felt intentional? Like it wasn’t just fridging. The reason we as an audience know so little about Sky is because Viktor himself doesn’t actually know much about her, and that guilt eats him up inside. We see that with how Sky manifests in Viktor’s mind. He feels terrible that his actions caused her death, and wishes he knew her more, but by the time he realizes he’s never slowed down to appreciate her she’s already gone. So I don’t think it would’ve been as effective if we, the audience, knew the things about her that Viktor didn’t. But. So this is something that I didn’t mind in season 1, because god are the women written so damn well in season 1. But we’re not in season 1 anymore. And season 2, as much as I _love_ it wholeheartedly, has some flaws, and I think those flaws make Sky’s treatment go from acceptable under the circumstances the narrative creates to… significantly more questionable.
I agree. Many people hate Mel for “getting” in the way, and they see viktor and Jayce as canon, when it’s not. I wish Mel got a better storyline, I didn’t see how her being a mage did anything to the overall plot, but set her up to have a role in the next story in noxas. Her and jayce barely had anytime together either. I love Jayce and Mel together and I feel we got robbed of their romance continuing. I wish she had better writing, but I’m glad we got good writing for Ekko. It’s nice to see a character like his.
I knew it was coming when I saw how people reacted with Maddie. They hated her because she was in the way of their ship, nothing else lmao. People are so stupid I swear
Tbf Mel’s romance with Jayce was weaker than some of the others but I think they did a really good job with Ambessa and Ekko. I think Mel being an empath made her too perfect ig? I still really like her and I feel like I disagree with her not being important, like she killed her mom and saved Caitlyn/the entire army. Her powers are important I just wish we had enough time to see her learn to use them.
Mel being set up for the next season is the best thing that could happen for her character development independent of JayVik, let them dance together in their time loop while Mel the Goddess Mage stands in her Power, Politically AND Magically I CANNOT WAIT...and she inspired my very first Cosplay!!! Video of season 1 on my page. I love the Medardas, Mel and Ambessa!!!
Thank you for making this video. I’ve been a Reddit Warrior commenting on this very thing. This fandom is purposely mischaracterizing her and disregarding her for no reason besides bias. I don’t even think people even realize it.
Sadly, this is definitely a trend. People ship 2 male characters, and the female love interest becomes a hindrance. She becomes neglected to actively demonized.
Who says they weren't together in the finale? They never broke up. They had one argument that was interrupted by Viktor. Before that, they both got jacked and disappeared for a time. Mel by the Black Rose, and Jayce by a wild rune and sent into a possible future. Even their final discussion was an expression of care, where they tell each other of their equally harrowing trials and how they've changed, but at no time did they say that what was once between them is over! Jayce actually tried to reassure and empower her by telling her that she could never be just a passenger. This shows care! They may have had some issues, but I truly believe that had Jayce survived, they would have worked on their relationship, and they would STILL be together.
See that’s the problem with jayvik fans. They keep trying to make manipulation Mel’s sole defining trait when it’s not. She’s more complex than that, but they *must* keep harping on about it because it’s the only aspect that can be interpreted as negative. (And unlike Viktor, she doesn’t become a psycho cult leader or humanity ending threat. But don’t worry, he’s their little white boy so he gets nuanced character analysis) I think to them, if they don’t hyper focus on supposed “manipulation” then what the fuck else do they have to hate on her relationship with Jayce for? Mel’s arc goes from trying to be a good Medarda to trying to be a good person/leader *because* she saw Jayce fight for those ideals and realizes that she can, too. Being persuasive in politics is a *tool she uses* to achieve her goals, that’s not *who she is* Their attempts to flatten her character to one negative descriptor is typical misogynoir. As someone who usually likes the popular yaoi ship in fandom, I’ve felt so fucking unwelcome in jayvik spaces because they can’t stop themselves from being racist/sexist and I, as a black woman, do not want to see that shit. Like how am I supposed to root for jayvik as “toxic yaoi” or “cosmic yaoi” when Mel is apparently the devil for doing 1% of the evil they don’t hate Viktor for??
Remember: you can doom entire timelines and kill billions and he a eugenicist and you'll be loved if you're a white man. But if you're a woman or a black woman? Judged for every tiny thing.
I was truly so disappointed with how Mel was written this season (isolated in her own storyline, away from most other characters, and the resolution to her "arc" this season having seemingly nothing to do with her pre-established strengths), especially because I loved so much her writing in the first season. And that disappointment has not been helped by the fandom response, which has largely been hating on her for no reason besides misogynoir (as you described on this video) or ignoring her. There is so much beautiful depth to her character, which felt as if was sapped in order to prioritize Jayce and Viktor's story this season. Her kind heart and cunning mind, with a calculated exterior and deeply felt interior world, the firm convictions that are put to the test and conflict with her mother, it all feels like it was sidelined. It shocks me someone could look at such a beautifully constructed character and simplify her so poorly, show itself and fandom alike. She is so much more than a "manipulator"
I thought Mel was awesome in the first season - a strong woman who plays to her intelligence, beauty. charisma and powerful will to influence others and change the world. Then they show us her sensitive and loving side, a sharp contrast to her monster of a mother. You see she's willing to compromise, and she's exactly the kind of Piltovian who Zaun needs, one who is prepared to unite the two cities and help heal their terrible divide. Then season 2, all her most powerful traits are forgotten, and she turns into one of the X-Men just so she can fight in the big Avengers: Endgame battle. Then decides she wants to be her mother after all and goes to Noxus, abandoning the city she's always seen as her own. The new character is 'cool', sure, but where's the Mel we fell in love with?
At the end of S1, I thought that Mel could have either died or survived . In the case of her surviving , I thought her arc would be realizing that sometimes compromises cannot be made and that war is neccessary not as a last recourse but as a first recourse . For a war to happen only one side need to be willing to do it . And be willing to fix problems at first hands if possible , Ambessa said her herself : "You let the problems of your undercity foster too long" .
@@Fionalah Her fox/cunning traits that she is known for were definately shown this season and her becoming a wolf/fighter/defender was heavily hinted at since the first season. I mean, how she took down her mother and that black rose lady was definately by using the old traits that we are used to, cunningness. The world hardened our soft queen and she had to either crack or become stronger. Mel no longer sees the value in money, power and all that. All that she cares about now is family and doing what it takes to protect them, and now she's the last remaining Medarda (assuming her Dad is dead) and so now she's going back to Noxus to potentially fully take the black rose down.
@@amahlgrant not really for me , she begged her mother again and again to stop thé War and used a third party to kill her . And even all of that IS weird because WE do not even understand the Black Rose /Mel/Ambessa plot . Did Ambessa fell in love with a mage or no, she hates Magic but she wanted a living Magic weapon , Mel was sent away because she refused to be a Wolf in S1 but the black Rose Said it was because she had magic but as a child she did not have these golden tatoos /Armor or whatever it is etc... Moreover I was more thinking about S2 ACT 1 when she IS completely delusional by thinking they just have to Ask Undercity people to arrest Jinx for her and she refused an intervention . Finally she has to side with the other 2 cousellors but said WE draw a Line to hextech which IS ridiculous because Undercity have Shimmer.
I try to avoid mainstream fan spaces as much as possible but the Mel's bashing reminds of the visceral hatred Reylo shippers had/have for John Boyega's character.
Controversial take, but I feel like a lot of fans who make up queer ships and absolutely INSIST on them are kind of toxic. It’s toxic when they take away from and try to disparage CANON heterosexual relationships, and deride the notion that two men could genuinely be deep friends but not lovers. That’s just a shallow and kind of toxic view of friendship. Mel was a brilliant character, and one of my favorites, and her relationship with Jayce is beautiful. Jayce‘s friendship with Viktor is beautiful too! There’s just absolutely no indication that it’s s3xual OR romantic, and the toxic insistent queer shippers just really can’t stand for that. Also, I hadn’t heard that clip of the writers talking about how Mel and Jayce was just a “hook up“ and that Jace had a “preference“ for Viktor. Disgusting. Clearly just trying to pander to the queer crowd so they don’t get “canceled“.
I 100% agree with everything you've said. Imagine if someone tried to ship Vi or Cait with a man. Or if people hated on a gay ship because it was "interfering" with a straight one? They'd riot. People trying to misconstrue Jayce and Victor's relationship as romantic are further perpetuating the belief that two guys can't just be close friends-which is already a significant problem in today's society. And the hate for Mel is absolutely undeserved. They stripped her of all her complexities and reduced her to a manipulator and then go ahead and hate on her because she's "getting in the way" of a relationship that doesn't even exist in that context despite the fact that she's canonically with Jayce? And they don't see a problem with this? At all? Really? And it's kinda obvious that the writers must've picked up on this as well because Jayce and Mel barely had any screentime together this season. Now I remember why I tend to be put off by pieces of media with large fanbases
@@HighLordoftheBathroom - 100% agree! A very eloquent and intelligent explanation. And I agree especially about avoiding the fanbases of popular media -- they tend to be rather rabid and fanatical. I'm not on social media or fandom spaces that much anyway, for that reason. I just felt that I had to comment on this particular issue, because it's SO prevalent.
@@HighLordoftheBathroom tbh it's not the same thing nor will it ever be. Like yall have strong points and I agree with some, but knowing and seeing why people ship queer relationships makes it to where I can't agree. The convo is more nuanced and you have multiple different prespectives in these situations. I mentioned it in another comment, but societies problem with not allowing men to be close to each other does not come from fandom. Fandom barely does anything compared to other factors.
Seeing this video title baffled me, I had no idea Mel haters could even exist, but it being because of jayvik doesn't surprise me at all, even so I believe Mel is still one of the most beloved characters in this series as she should be. Like every character in this show Mel is flawed, yes, she did manipulate jayce, she did see him as an asset and potential investment at the beginning (and I'm glad they brought it up in the show), but she did truly fall for him like he did for her and that combined with the return of her mother changed her views on things, they both had truly such an big impact on each other. After Jayce's hell of an experience on that alternate dimension and Mel's revelation about her family and about being a mage it would be pretty difficult for them to still be together, they both changed so much and their priorities were elsewhere, but it was clear they still cared about each other deeply, even if they couldn't be together anymore. Honestly, every day I just get happier about uninstalling twitter... I don't have the patience to deal with this kind of thing anymore.
As someone who ships Jayce with both Mel and Viktor, I'm disappointed that there's way more Jayvik content than Jaymel content out there. I don't think Jayce and Mel ever actually broke up though - they had a fight (driven by the fact that they both had just come out of very traumatizing situations) and tensions were high. They never had the chance to fully unpack what they each went through before a whole war broke out that Jayce ended up dying in.
The reason for that is that fanfic is largely written by white women (and enbies, but they're still AFAB). They won't go any darker than a Cuban. The only ships that had black characters dominate for a time was Poe/Finn and Sam Wilson/Bucky Barnes, and those two are dead in the water. Even for East Asian based mediums, they're all very pale-skinned Asians. It sounds racist to say, but it is absolutely true: these shippers do not want black people in their slash. Full stop. They hate them. They say they're progressive and wear the BLM slogan but they will turn into worst racists than Stormfront.
I adored Mel and Jayces relationship and was excited to see it develop more. But it just kinda ended, no kisses good bye, no show of affection. They were my favorite pairing and their ending felt so lacking. It felt like arcane writers took the backlash of jaycevik shippers and decided to break them up. It felt so random. Im in no way convinced they should have ended that way.
The people in comments defending a 200 million show and billion dollar video game company is crazy lmaooo. This show is not above criticism and opinions. You may not agree with her criticism that’s fine, but the way y’all are calling her a bunch of names and saying she make black people look bad because she has a opinion on a 200 million show is very weird and gross.
I'm so fucking tired of that whole jayvik drama, l thought that people grew out of doing ship wars, but no, adults are still acting like bunch of preschoolers. They will never make me hate you, Mel...
Mel will be the main character in their Noxus series, and I pray to god the writers redeem themselves with this piss poor writing of Mel and Jayce’s relationship. Here’s how they can make it up: Build their relationship and give it context through flashbacks. There is a time jump between S1 Act 1 and Act 2. I hope we get flashbacks on how Mel and Jayce got to know each other. Seeing her help him get to where he was in Act 2 would provide us so much needed context about how they went from business partners, to friends, and to lovers. There’s gotta be more context, she even said he was the only one worth her time, so I know through those years they spent so much time together.
Reminds me of when people ship Steddie (Steve and Eddie from Stranger Things) and somehow HATE on Nancy Wheeler, even though she’s Steve’s ex. I respect ships as a gay man myself, but the minute a fandom starts attacking the female characters for no reason beside them “getting in the way”, I’m out the door.
Misogynoir in fandoms is so normalized it's disheartening. I'm watching another show on Hulu called Rivals with a Black supporting character who is powerful and complex yet is hated for her romance with the male lead who has a predatory relationship with another (white) female character twice his age, that the fandom prefers despite the toxicity.
Thanks for this video. The JV fandom has been among one of the worst I've ever experienced when it comes to misogynoir. It's not even possible to visit the Mel tag without seeing their posts everywhere because they insist on tagging her in everything and they'll make posts that are ostensibly about Mel but are really about either excising her from the story or making toxic commentary about her arc through the frame of propping Jayvik. Same thing with fan fiction - they'll tag Mel/MelJay in fic that is outright not about the latter and is often really denigrating i.e. Mel dies in the first sentence or is already dead or is demonised in the most absurd ways all to prop Jayvik. I'm a multi shipper at heart too (hell, I shipped Mel with Silco as much as I did Jayce) BUT this fandom really made me anti-Jayvik in a really big way to the point where I'm frankly gleeful both are 'dead' - which is unfortunate because I loved both characters at one time lol.
Yeah, I've read quite a few fanfics where the author will openly denigrate her body, how Jayce has sex with her, and how she's inferior to Viktor. They also act really catty on Twitter and will shut right up when black users call them out, which is typical as the majority of JayVik shippers are white females.
I love Mel, I want to see more of her in future shows! I'm so glad they didn’t punish her for being a smart, ambitious woman. I love how she wants peace, but proves she isn't weak just because she's kind. She does master both her "hard" and "soft" powers. And soooo beautiful. I love her in all the golden ribbons and glowing eyes. What a total package! Wish I was more like her - she's aspirational! When she was introduced I assumed they'd demonize or punish her for being "manipulative" while a male character would have been aplauded as "charismatic." So I was pleasantly surprised that she was shown to be important even to the end, and rewarded for her many strengths and her good heart. I too wanted more romance for her at the ending, it would have been nice if Jayce was even more loving towards her before he vanished with his bro to remove the threat from the world they were both responsible for. But there seemed to be quite a few missing scenes in Season 2, I don't think Mel was the only one who missed out. I wish they'd showed us the second after her mom had been taken, what her reaction was to "seeing the rose's true face" -whatever that meant. Too many things happening in music video or entirely off screen for my liking. It’s still a masterpiece, but not as jawdropping storywise as season 1. I think Season 1 was a once-in-a-decade miracle, and season 2 was actually great, but not quite a second miracle. Episode 7 sure had some of that flavor, though. The magic was still happening there and a few other moments when given enough room to breathe. Like when Vi dropped the gauntlets and hugged Vander. "What have they done to us"? Was such a gut-punch. I think, like so many others havr said, that this season needed at minimum one more episode, but up to 3 more could have fleshed out Loris and why he was such a good friend to Vi, let Sevika speak her mind, mentioned Isha's name/sacrifice at least once, and showed how Echo convinced Jinx to fight for a better version of herself. I think more time between Mel and Jayce would help, but honestly I thought she could do better ;) He meant well, but was nieve and kinda blind to obvious issues/solutions where Mel saw herself and their world much more clearly. He broke his promises to destoy the hexvore and never make weapons with it. While Mel was her word and stood strong in her values. I think she would have eventually lost respect/interest in Jayce for those reasons -she's just got a stronger core than he. Please ignore the shipping animators, they don't actually get a say on the writing and it's intention. They acted out and filmed every scene and the writers/directors made the call on what to include... and Christian said a lot was cut for budget. I respect that, I don't have $250m I could have spent on this show, but I wish they'd asked the fans for funding instead of just leaving some essential moments out of the final.
@brendajameson5093 No, those tragedies weren't a result of her actions. Punishment in stories happens more directly - they're generally cause/effect to communicate a social value to the audience. Because Maddie pulls the trigger, she takes the shot herself - see? If she hadn't betrayed Caitlin, she'd be alive. She was punished for her choice in the narrative. Just like in 70's-80's horror movies, it's pretty obvious what behavior they "punish": rudeness, theft, sexiness or promiscuity if you're a woman, and arrogance and stupidity - generally. Tragedy happening to characters is not the same thing as narrative punishment.
@@melindawolfUS I understand what you're saying, but I respectfully disagree. I don't see where she was rewarded for anything. She's probably lost more than any other character in the show, and most of her losses were related to Hextech, which she was directly involved in bringing to fruition.
@brendajameson5093 ok, I can see your angle there... but she didn't seem too broken up about losing Jayce in the short glimpse we got of her leaving Piltover. She is holding her mother's mask. And that battle wasn't brought about because of her manipulations or striving for power - it was her perceived softness and desire for peace that put her head to head with Ambessa. I would say that the narrative rewards her values. She ends up the leader of her homeland and the most powerful magic user aside from Victor. Though she certainly had losses, I still don't think she was being singled out for punishment in the narrative. She wanted wealth and power and she got them both in spades... so far she doesn't seem to regret her involvement in hextech. Maybe that will change if we get to catch up with her later in her story, but for now there isn't one action or quote from her expressing regret.
@@melindawolfUS I didn't get that she REALLY wanted wealth or power, but that she was outwardly just trying to live up to the Medarda standards. Inwardly, all she ever wanted was peace and security. Now she's the leader of an army, in a warring nation, which is the exact opposite of that. Remember, her goal was always to AVOID war, and now she's a warlord? Again, I see no rewards. I see her lack of emotion at her losses as a flaw in the writing. There were many writing flaws this season and most of them involved her character. It seems like they lost interest in her character (maybe her S1 writers quit), and just used her as a plot device to set up the next story and introduce her as a champion. There's no guarantee she will be in any future installments. I doubt it.
I used to be indifferent to Jayvik, but the amount of racism stemming from that fandom and that way Mel gets demonized by them in the pursuit of their "otp" has actively made me hate the ship and the shippers. I have no sympathy for them or for how the writers are pulling the "theyre actually brothers" card on them, like good suffer.
I love when JayVik fans use the Andres Derekshani interview as proof their ship is canon when he admits she was a beard. So many JayVik fans won't admit they just hate seeing a black woman get in the way of their slash and that's a problem in slash pairings in general. It certainly did not take long for this fandom to get toxic.
Also gotta add that saying that the animators opinion matters more than the show runners is a joke. The show runners were also the head writers. As someone who works in animation i know there are hundreds of people who work on a project. Those two animators were two of two hundred plus artists who worked on the show. While their work very obviously matters at the end of the day their input didnt change the script (especially since they arent even storyboard artists who do make visual storytelling changes to the script)
They usually only mention three animators - one woman, Andres, and another black animator whose name I cannot recall. There are hundreds of them and all have different opinions. As for storyboard artists, they don't talk about those.
You are so much more nice talking about jayvikkk than me because I would’ve been cussing them out the whole video lmao. People need to decide whether manipulation is good or bad because Mel “manipulates” Jayce for 15 minutes? Boo bad evil black woman or Viktor who over multiple timelines seemingly chooses to fuck up and then puts pressure on a literal child to save his own soul? Yay yaoi is excellent true love. I need them to pick a side.
I have some really deep friendships, so to me, jayvik was never romantic - Jayce calls him ‘my best friend’ to his face in season 2. Meljay on the other hand. I have never been so invested in a ship. The way he’s allowed to be weak with her when toxic masculinity is so rife atm the way she’s allowed to need him when the racist world keeps saying that black women don’t need a man. I don’t like this fandom because sometimes fans of jayvik are racist misogynists and so often subconsciously ableist. Viktor is my favourite character in the whole show. I’m disabled and he is such good rep (in season 1) but I’m a die hard meljay any day, because men are so lonely in todays culture, healthy male friendship is so necessary to portray, and portrayed so beautifully. Idk I’m rambling, but I’ve had depression, I’ve made an attempt and hurt myself like Viktor, and having friends like Jayce to talk you off that ledge to just sit with you and love you is so powerful and so beautifully portrayed in their FRIENDSHIP. I love Mel so dang much she does deserve better. A lot of love she gets is because she’s hot, she is so so so much more than that she’s got one of the best character designs I’ve ever seen sure but she’s also intelligent interesting kind daring curious masterfully written woman and I love her for that (season 2 did her dirty I can only hope they write her better in a noxus show)
@@blacktigerpaw1I’m not certain as to what you mean by not acting straight enough - I think that it’s an odd thing to say that some behaviours are straight specific and some are gay specific when everyone is so diverse in their expressions of love and affection. The writers have said that Viktor was supposed to be asexual rep and that he and Jayce were platonic so that’s how I interpret it, particularly because it reflects friendships that I have had that have never been and never will be sexual or romantic. I personally think that it’s such a powerful thing to display friendship as having as much meaning to a story as romance or family because so often friendships get neglected in media. That’s just my two cents on it, and all these things are open to interpretation :)
@@Human_on_youtube59 I ask because people think the almost forehead touch at the end is something straight men don't do, let alone Jayce touching Viktor.
Man I'm so happy you made this video. The eraser of Mel and Jayce's relationship everywhere online is so disheartening. So you said that in the end the showrunners were in a hard place because they sort of had to pick an ending that would please everyone but I actually liked that ending for Mel and Jayce. How I saw it was both characters had gone through so much trauma in such short amount of time both of them just not being in that headspace to date. (Their meeting in the council room where Jayce freaks out as her is an example of this - old Jayce would have never). And at the end It's not like Vi and Caitlin where they more or less can now live a life together. Mel has to go figure out what other magical things she can do and fix her mother's messes while Jayce feels responsible for the damage that he caused and felt as though he should suffer for it with Viktor. So anyone negating their relationship just screams hate to me.
The way i love the meljayvik polycule idea but i can’t help but end up defending mel and her relationship with jayce and vice versa bec toxic jayvik fans are treating her as if she’s the devil’s incarnate which is wild considering every other main arcane character has done way worse than her 😭 they’re in the comments of every tiktok edit/twitter post about them trying to deny meljay loved each other like damn calm down yall are so desperate for this ship! Mel literally told her own mom to stay away from Jayce and Ambessa clocked Mel’s affection for Jayce fast. Also I just saw Jayce concept art of him holding on to Mel’s picture while he was in that deep pit. Like if that doesn’t show that he loves her.
ok but Viktor and Mel did NOT like each other lmao specifically Viktor - look at any scene the three of them were together and Viktor's glaring ass lol. i think Viktor thought she was using Jayce to get close to hextech and Mel didn't really paid him attention unless it was related to Jayce's state. I like both Viktor and Mel a lot but I don't think they got any proper interactions or would actually mesh well. it would be like tolerating each other because they both love Jayce but wouldn't want to spend any more time together unless necessary
@@valeriyav2149 Since when do two people not liking each other stop anyone from shipping them? I agree that there wasn't much there but I think there could have been for a lot of reasons.
I loved Mel’s relationship with Jayce. Seeing how it progressed over the seasons was so wholesome the way he’s so affectionate towards her (considering the way her mother treats her and the way she acted surprised when he first started being affectionate with her it seems to me that she’s never experienced that kind of tenderness before) and the way she listens to him when he needs to talk makes them one of the healthiest relationships in the show. Not to mention one of the most attractive couples as well
This reminds me of Iris from the Flash. Every member in the Flash team has messed up big time but Iris says "we're the flash" as in telling Barry he's not alone, it riles up an uproar. She jumps off a building to save him, crickets, she supports him the most but noo, cause she's black they just have to villainies her because they ship Barry and Caitlin. Who are absolutely boring together 🙄
I knew that the Yt side of this fandom was cooked the minute I saw people defending Caitlyns police brutality on twitter 😭😭😭 I knew that if Caitlyn was black they would not have defended her as hard as they did
I don't know if the animators' statements about Mel and Jayce were derogatory, but they were objectively wrong! Jayce always knew he loved Viktor, but as a BFF or brother. He literally says this, and at no time before the finale was he ever truly in a situation where he had to choose between the two. Even in the finale, he has to choose Viktor, any other choice would have ended with the nightmare version of the future that he had already visited, which would have been the end of Mel & everyone else!
Exactly! I didn't get the idea that Jayce CHOSE Viktor in the end. Even though Viktor told him to go, how much sense would it have made for Jayce to say "cool, see u later." He had to stay to make sure it ended for good.
Yeah you know I find it funny that all these characteristics are acceptable when it's her mom because she's strong cougar that loves twinks 😂 I unabashedly love Ambessa,, but some people just can't unpack the fact that black women CAN be soft, they should be allowed to be soft without suspicion...., I thought the writers did well to call out the audience when Jayce argued she "manipulated" him. But, I think I see where they're going with Mel in the foreseeable future, I am a little disappointed but this was Ambessas show 😅 Mel is going to deal with the fallout her mother (Noxus)created but she will do it HER way if the last episodes were any indicators
This toxic behavior from Arcane "ship" fans comes to no surprise to me. I find the concept of shipping to be a weird (can eventually turn into a sick) obsession that people do towards finctional and non fictional chracters. I also find alot of people in the Arcane/League game community need to work out their deep rooted issues in therapy. Dispite the League community being known for their toxic fan base, its getting ridiculous seeing the same high school shipping mindset in these "adult" that are now turning into toxic, lust obseessed, creeps toward fictional characters.
Yes! I'd also like to add how Maddie "got in the way of CaitxVi" yet people are defending her for that, and even after the finale still like her even though she actually tricked and manipulated Cait, but Mel doesn't get the same energy when she is VERY MUCH INNOCENT compared to Maddie. Like you explained in this video, Mel deserves so much better. Not to mention how her story seemed a lot less cared for in S2 than in S1, not focusing in on her mentality, love, and care. It's cool that she's a mage, but I feel like they kinda threw out how she created peace amongst people just by using her words, so beautifully, which is really different from a lot of the characters who focus on using brute strength (i.e. Vi, Cait, Jinx, Silco, as well as everyone else.)
If Mel were a man and jayce a woman, not a soul would hate on her. They'd call him a genius and smartest in the show and so awesome for "*winning*" such a beautiful woman with his 'charm'...but nah, the WOMAN is the powerful one and people call it manipulation? evil? Nah thats just sexist at its core. After watching s1 I was shocked to hear people disliked her.
i was thinking about how different things would be if mel was a man, too! people would definitely be like "idc hes hot," just as they do with actual murderers!
I agree with this take, I feel like with a certain sect of the fandom a character can do one wrong and be banished forever, this happened with Mel and my goat Vi. I do believe Mel is going to get more character time once the other projects come out but certain people definitely watch the show and refuse to change their opinions on characters as they grow. Granted I’m guilty of doing just that with Jinx.
@@DianaDonineaux sorry I just seen this but yes you’re right jinx does have a lot of mishaps. But I meant more so that I don’t really like jinx despite the fact she is show to have grown as a character in season 2. That’s why I meant I was guilty because Mel and Vi also mess up but I liked them because of their character growth but that same thing didn’t apply to jinx.
Coming back to this video to remind everyone that M/M ships have a misogyny and racism problem and JayVik shippers are willing to forgive a white man for dooming entire timelines because he's a pretty white man (I say this as a Viktor fan). JayVik shippers have only gotten more racist and still promote that Derakhshani interview as proof when that man got his @ss fired. Anytime a JayVik shipper calls Mel disgusting I will just compare them to Stormfront from the Boys because that's exactly how they act. If Jayce was any darker, the ship would not be as popular.
Girl, when i tell you i don't even go here, yet saw my mutuals on Tumblr writing whole essays about it only to come across this video because i had to know what the hell was going on. As an outsider, watching this shit happen in real time is upsetting, but not surprising. I've been a part of many fandoms and unfortunately, Mel isn't the first Black female character to get thrown under the bus and she won't be the last. Until we get more Black creatives/women in these writer's rooms it'll be the same thing every time. Anyway, thank you for making this video and don't let the idiots in the comments gaslight you because everything you said is right.
Mel and Jayce were my favorite characters, loved their relationship (like whenever he would put his head in her lap 😍) and then after 2x7, Ekko joined that group. Only until after the show finished did I find out people were shipping Jayce and Viktor. I don't engage in shipping culture other than the obvious "oh these characters would be cute" because I find it all so stupid. Fandoms do weird things, so I just watch the shows and movies and rarely go online lol Either way, Jayce and Viktor's ending was still incredible. The entire show is so impactful, love it
Mel is everything! There is no arguing that Jinx, Vi, Jayce & Viktor are the main characters! But if you pay any attention and have any comprehensive skills, you would KNOW that Mel, Ekko, and Caitlyn are the actual heroes of the story! Evwry character in Arcane is deep. There are NO one-dimensional caricatures in this show. They are all flawed in some way or another, and Mel is no different! Her methods are devious and manipulative, but she told only 1lie the whole show. It was to the older council member about a toy gift being for great mind, and her intent was lain bare thoughout both seasons. She wanted to protect people and improve their lives. If she could turn a healthy profit at the same time, so be it. But all she ever did was encouraged and impower Jayce & Viktor! She derailed her mother Ambessa's plan whenever she could. She quite literally safe both Jayce's and Caitlyn's lives. She was ultimately the one of the two who took down Ambessa. She everything she could to keep Piltover safe! Anyone who felt that Jayce & Viktor could or should have been a thing, that is what YOU wanted! That is NOT how the story went! Go write your own fanfic if that makes you happy, but hating on someone else, especially using race or sex/gender as an avenue for your hate, is absolutely trash, and you are a trash person for even going there.
@witchplease9695 You must not have watched the same show? 1)Jayce, Viktor, Caitlyn, Ekko, and Singed were the only other characters that were introduced in the 1st act, were around until the series finale, and had screen time in EVERY SINGLE ACT. 2)Jayce & Viktor showed up in just as many total episodes as Vi and Jinx, and were necessary for plot progression at every venture. They even similar levels of actual screen time as Vi & Jinx in the series. 3)Viktor was ultimately the main antagonist of the show, and Jayce was intrinsic to his whole story. They may have been the B plot, but they were definitely the main characters of that plot, which makes them main characters!
Completely fucking agree here, some people just can't fucking stop projecting their stereotypical headcanons onto the source material. I've been a jayvik shipper since day 1 but making Mel out to be a villain??? Like seriously so ridiculous Like truly, if Viktor's glorious revolution hadn't made Jayce fear magic and get paranoid about Mel having deceived him we could have had canonically star-crossed meljayvik and I'll never recover (I hope you know we had everything etc) (semi-joking because I genuinely believe they're setting her up to be a main character in the sister series and omg I kinda need a mel-centric season, I'm so willing to sacrifice the boys for that sry not sry)
omg people saying jayce didnt love mel watched the show with their eyes closed and their ears pluggled, its the only way someone would be able to misinterpret such an obvious explicitly romantic relationship ????? ALSO jayce possibly loving viktor romantically doesnt exclude the fact that he did love mel romantically too!! besides misogyny and racism, it also stinks of biphobia... just saying
Refreshing to see a take on the jayvik vs meljay situation that isn't homophobic. Really kinda baffling about what the animators said about that scene, cause it just does not make any sense, *and* left a bad taste in my mouth. Also sad to see both misogynoir *and* homophobia attacking either side, though it's really not that surprising. (that said, meljayvik ftw they'd be an unstoppable power throuple /lh)
Love this video ad 100% agree with you. I am purely a meljay shipper and enjoy Jayvik as a strong friendship. My top 3 is Meljayvik. Though I don't mind the jayvik romance ship at all. Do what you wan't, ain't nobody finna stop yall. But don't speak on my girl THEEE Mel Medarda. Episode 8 wasn't a breakup scene to me lol. I see it as a break but not a breakup. Especially a break up to be with viktor. I didn't know about that video with the animators...Ew. I hope Mel becomes a main character for the next show, getting everything she wants, including ROMANCE and be together forever, her happy ending.
@@Poohbear634 It is, his quote can be found on UA-cam. He is constantly cited as the 'animator that says JayVik is canon' - and no other animators are name dropped barring him.
Mel being set up for the next season is the best thing that could happen for her character development independent of JayVik, let them dance together in their time loop while Mel the Goddess Mage stands in her Power, Politically AND Magically I CANNOT WAIT...and she inspired my very first Cosplay!!! Video of season 1 on my page. I said back then, 2+ years ago that I hope the writers dont reduce her character to a girlfriend Jayce avenges because that would be weak. I got so sick of seeing comments in the time between seasons 1-2 of people essentially hoping she was dead in the blast! That reeked of just evil energy to me personally SMH, they wont admit it fully but they couldnt stand all that Power, Intelligence, Non Violence Supporter, Wealth, Beauty and Glow...and they had the Nerve to get her MORE GLOWUP!!! I love the Medardas, Mel and Ambessa!!!
I like what you said really and I totally understand where you’re coming from but Maddy is getting tons of hate from shippers everywhere for getting in the way of Caitlyn and Vi so…. I think shippers would bash any character that getting in the way of their ship you know. Honestly if Mel was a white woman she still be getting the hate for getting in the way of Jayvik. But anyhow glad Mel is a beautiful graceful black gal and also I realize black women look great in gold.
I learned something today. Had no idea "JayVik vs Mel" fans conflict was actually a thing. That's what so good about this show, there's always something to talk about, agree on or disagree on
I’m glad someone said this. I noticed at after S2 and was like “Yall want two men to be together so bad, when y’all literally have Vi and Cait.” Ty for your thoughts. God bless you
Sister, sarcasticaly, but also, respectfuly: it was a show based on League of Legends, the tocixity was bound to follow. That said, I agree. Mel deserved so much more.
Mel is MY GIRL. intelligent, principled, compassionate, and creative, she is by far my favorite character. I’m only meh about her and Jayce because I think she deserves better. Like a god-tier man. I wish I could be half as awesome as Mel. She absolutely rules.
Always hated how ppl hated on Mel the first season. Who cares if she called them investments? Everything is an investment. She clearly saw them as more than that.
She spells this out explicitly in her conversation with Lest. "Nobody is disposable. That's what this is all about. Everything with my mother is a calculated risk."
I'm jayvik shipper but the Mel bashing actually doesn't make sense to me. I didn't even realise how bad it was until I watched this video. I love how the show portrayed Mel and Jayce's relationship. And I love Mel so much (she's literally one of my top five). Will I still ship Jayce and Viktor? Yes. But will I villainize Mel for 'getting in the way of the relationship'? Hell the f*** no. I hate whenever media actually portrays a strong well written female character and the fandom just turns it to shit. this thing keeps happening especially with black women and I love that you called it out. Even if she wasn't with Jayce, I know people would still be talking. Whenever people of colour are well represented in media, people always try to find a way to drag the character's name through the mud or bash the work of fiction just because the cast is coloured. It's especially common with women of colour. There is a part of me that knows that if the main cast was made up of poc characters, they show would never have become as popular as it is. I've even already seen people complaining about Ekko.
Thank you for this video! As much as I am a passionate jayvik shipper, I also love Mel (high femme + complicated bond with her mom?? hello, my fav type of character), and I'm glad I've never seen people actually bashing on her. I saw that tiktok with animators and giggled at it a bit and it didn't even strike me as objectifying so thank you for pointing that out bc it was a little bit downgrading indeed, I realize it now. And this attack on Linke frustrates me. Like, he did express himself poorly and making a couple of meme about this can't hurt but I see people being furious and picking apart his writing like hello??? The show is still AMAZINGLY written it is one thing to critisize something and another is bashing writers and their skills in disguise of silly cackles. In general, characters in Arcane are insanely complicated and it blows my mind just to think about all these nuances not to say trying to express them in my social media or fics. This show really is something and visually just ugh stunning
I have always said she's the most underrated character. I think she does manipulate but it's calculated and never done to harm. She is almost always going for a win win. I think in the beginning we were supposed to see the manipulation and mistrust her. But so many people are just blinded by first impressions.
Baby look you are the truth. As a bi black man I will apologize for the failure of lgbtq black men to protect and prepare black women for how deeply rooted mysogynoir is within a lot of white gay men. What you are seeing is multi layered but definitely has roots within the culture of white gay men and how they view black women in particular. I’m actually not a Jayvik fan because the ship is rooted in so much delusion it’s taken away from anything positive about it.
Jayce and Viktor aren’t in a romantic relationship & anyone pushing that is just stupid. Mel did initially want to use Jayce (aka the fox) for her own reasons but she genuinely fell in love with him and he fell in love with her… they are the true couple.
I personally never hated Mel. I think she's an amazingly well written character, and I feel like she's way more interesting than Ambessa(which is saying a lot because Ambessa is an interesting character, too). I love that Mel is a very beautiful and feminine yet powerful woman, so I feel like people need to chill out and just leave her alone.
I agree. Mel is a complex character. Some people judged her from one episode and ignored her character development and storylines, because it was the only way they could justify despising Mel and Jayce's relationship. Arcane shares a lot of manga and anime fans. These fans are often visceral about their slash ships. Mangakas received death threats for not canonizing yaoi relationships between male characters. Sadly, misogynoir and misogyny are as normal as breathing to them. Good news: it wasn't Fortiche, the animation studio, that preferred Jayvik. The guy in the video was an animator for them but he was one of several character animators, not a lead animator. He also doesn't work for Fortiche anymore.
I didn't even know arcane before two days ago. And I was glad to see Mel character as a black woman. I liked the fact she had layers and emotion. My problem was more about her mother who is a cliche of the angry black woman. Im do shook about the comment of the animator. In my experience, Men who speak like that about black women are racists.
Mel is definitely mischaractorized, but I'm definitely NOT a JayVik shipper! They aren't canon and were never intended to be! If they is ANY plausible complaint about Jayce and Mel's ship, I only see 2! 1)They never said the words to make it official. Not a "I'm committed to us," "I love you," "It's you & me against the world," nothing! This is the only leg that Jay/Vik shippers have to stand on, and it's pretty weak. 2)Why couldn't this beautiful, smart, talented, rich, and powerful BLACK woman be with a BLACK man? Very seldom do we see positive representation of a straight black male! And even when we do, he almost always has a love interest of a different ethnicity, and or he isn't human. They will make him a vampire, werewolf, alien, but never just a good human being. Same for black women. Even when they make them as good as Mel, they'll never give them a good black man for a love interest. Ekko is the true MVP of the story and his ship is Jinx!....No complaints, Arcane is a masterpiece....IJS!
_"Even when they make them as good as Mel, they'll never give them a good black man for a love interest. Ekko is the true MVP of the story and his ship is Jinx!"_ because they have the same age, both of them are ~18 in season 2 while Mel is ~35, there is no black male character close to her age in Arcane
@fixpontt I'm aware, but my comment wasn't specific to Arcane. It was about American Media in general! Well, more non-african media, actually. Please do me the favor of not removing my statements from the obvious context it was delivered in! Read the whole damn post! Thanx.
Even though I do ship both of them, that doesn’t excuse on hating on Mel, plus in my opinion, while I do love her in general, I feel like she was getting sidelined in s2, we could’ve get more of her tbh, and if my senses are correct, maybe we’ll get more of her in the Noxus series! Either way, praise Mel Medarda
Yeah, that’s something I’ve noticed happens a lot in gay ships, where the female love interest is villanized, esp if they’re a person of color. Like I can really only name one fandom that doesn’t do it off the top of my head, the Merthur fandom, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s some pro Merthur, anti Gwen misogynoir out there
In my interpretation Jayce in Arcane is strongly written as a bisexual character. There is this common theme with him about "picking sides". Mel wasn't a cover for his homosexuality or "just a hookup", neither the romantic reading of his relationship with Viktor is a delusional one, in fact it is heavily comunicated through cinematographic lenguage. Jayce was clearly in love with both.
Tbh, even if Jayce viewed sex with Mel as a hookup, it makes Jayce look bad… not Mel. I think that’s something that gets overlooked. When a black woman is mistreated, the fault lies with the person mistreating her. Sure Mel loved Jayce but I never saw their relationship on equal footing because he clearly had feelings for Viktor. Maybe I’m biased because I love Mel, but I also never viewed her as some crazy manipulator. I viewed her as smart and politically savvy. Hating Mel is definitely laced with misogynoir because she’s objectively pretty unproblematic compared to other characters. However I don’t think Jayce being caught between Mel and Viktor and then realizing his soulmate is actually Viktor is misogynoir. I hope she finds her king 🙏🏾
@yes -using people is bad. IF that’s what Jayce did, then it’s a character flaw for Jayce. The characters in arcane are complex. 99% of the characters treated another character poorly. Maybe you’re right and Jayce is problematic. that has nothing to do with Mel and says nothing about HER character. On another hand, I don’t think it has to be this black and white. I’m saying this as a black woman. Viktor wasn’t just a random white man. He was Jayce’s long time lab partner and friend. Jayce and Mel made sense because of proximity, but if he slept with any other member of the council and then realized he actually had a soulmate connection with his long time best friend…that’s just life. It’s messy but relationships are messy. That’s one of the main themes of the show. If Ekko had a short lived romance with a hypothetical character (black or white) only to realize that he’ll never love someone as much as Powder because she’s his childhood love…that sucks for the new girl but it has nothing to do with race.
As much as I love the series, I realised the problematic representation of certain ethnic groups of people. - Black men and women not being given any proper roles as parents, siblings and lovers. While Mel's family could be a very beautiful example of Black love and family, it was never explored. On the other hand, you see a lot of sob story about Vi and Jinx and their masculine white dads. Ekko isn't given any Black family members either. All of his father figures are white Anglo men (Vander, Benzo). - Even though Jayce is supposed to be a Latino, he looks ambiguous enough that most of the fandom wants to persistently see him as a white man, and indeed, while his mother looks very Latino, Jayce looks like a tanned Northern European man (not even a Mediterranean man). - Sky, also a Black woman, simps Viktor, then dies. She gets cucked again when she reveals that Viktor won't miss her company. - Caitlin looks nothing like her father, apart from having inherited hooded eyes, she is the exact copy of her mother. At least I wished they gave her a flatter face, which wouldn't have erased her father's side at all. - Every Asian man in the series is either a jerk who gets killed later (Finn and Mercus) - I don't like how the series weaponised feminism to put Asian men (again, Caitlin's father) to the background and emasculated them, once again. Caitlin's parents relationship feels like a gender-swapped version of a stereotypical white man Asian woman couple. As if they said "let's make Caitlin's dad Asian, but we can't represent a healthy masculine Asian man in a paternal role, so we make the family matriarchal."
I'm so glad mel didn't die from the explosion, I was literally just on reddit earlier and someone said this about her last month when people were speculating whether or not she'd survive the ending of season 1. Someone was claiming in confidence that Mel would be dead, and that her purpose was to advance jayce 'from naive boy to leader', and now she could die now that her arc was complete. Which prompted this response which I'm just gonna quote verbatim bc they said it well: - "...It’s also a bit strange that you’re trying to reduce Mel to a mere plot device to advance her male counterpart. It seems clear that you see little to no value in Mel's character, and I have to wonder why. Her arc is far from over-whether you like it or not, she is a main character. The creators said that in this season, the characters will be the opposite of their season 1 selves. If that's true then Mel being a fox until the finale of season 1 will eventually lead her to being a wolf (a fighter and defender). What’s intriguing about Mel is that she was crafted to be perceived negatively by those with a biased, one-dimensional toddler brain, only for her true, pure intentions to be revealed later in the series. Then, you guys think, "Oh, she's good now, so she should die," which is a weird perspective. The writers of Arcane are better than falling into tropes, clichés, and stereotypes. Yet, for a character you seemingly dislike and want to see gone to elevate her white male counterpart, it seems you’re willing to lower your standards for the writers to fit that wish." by gyu657jj on reddit
I mean Preach tbh I was honestly disappointed mel and jayce weren't given More time? (and i don't even ship them beyond my appriciation for the canon itself if im honest, but i still like a well executed relationship, ya feel? Like im not Blind, they are Hella cute and interesting.) It felt like an odd direction to focus So Much on j&v even tho i Looove Them. I feel like their plot overshadowed most other dynamics this season? Heck it even overshadowed Their Own s1 dynamic somehow, idk how they managed tbh..
I love Mel. At first I was iffy about her the first 3 or 4 episodes of season 1 due to her being a power figure. But she grew on me over time once we learned about her as a person and her own emotional arcs. Mel dosen't want violence, but will carry out violence as a last resort. Jace was the one who was trying to coach her onto it impulsively. She isn't dependent on Jace and she also had the final say about not mass producing hestech weapons. However i think a lot of people tended to miss characterized her when her and Jace slept together after his success and when we were seeing her giving Jace attention after he made it big for himself. I think she just naturally fell in love with his nature of technical progress and the potential it has to improve the upper and possibly lower cities. Not for own personal gain like alot of people saw. Though i would admit that Jace and Viktor have more screentime that develops their relationship while we don't get that interaction as much with Mel and Jace outside of political discussion. But that is more of the fault of Arcane's fast pace nature.
Hiii I'm a Jayvik shipper and i literally don't understand why people are hating on Mel , she isn't my favorite character (Viktor's my fav ) but i still didn't hate on her , personally i like the idea of jayce Loving Mel and Viktor, i like the hole "He has a type ( literally gods)" or "Hes fighting his bisexual demons" , and to be honest i forgot that Mel and Jayce were in a relationship when I was watching season 2 bc they almost didn't have any Scenes together , i know that she was kidnapped by the black rose and jayce was in another timeline but i still miss seeing them together❤. (Sorry if my english isn't really good, is not my first language)
. like why cant two guys be good friends anymore? if they were to become a "thing" it would ruin the entire dynamic for me. I really like jayce and mel together as she was an amazing character for him.
i havent watched the full vid but i gotta say i LOVE mel so much like shes gorgeous she has an interesting story and just UGHHHH the designnn the art i love it
most of the arcane fandom are lgtbq, which is not a problem or surprising. But my point is, they’re going to focus on ships or relationships that contains that topic. Maybe it’s because the lack of mlm relationships or they are just bored.
@@Strawberiizzi Well, on AO3, M/M ships outnumber F/F ships 6:1, and M/F 2:1. Yaoi has always been more popular than yuri because yuri ships have so much purity culture involved while yaoi it's 'anything goes'.
Mel and Jayce are a cute ship and I think they definetly work well together. I do think the writers didn't emphasize their romantic dynamic at the end of the show because their lives were beginning to separate (both literally and metaphorically). The final act of S2 shows Mel fully stepping into her power as a mage while Jayce is preparing to sacrifice his life to fix the impending apocalypse he and Viktor have kickstarted. Mel is preparing for the next phase of her life, while Jayce is preparing for his life to be over. In spite of all that you can tell they clearly still care for each other. The love they had for each other is real and I feel like Jayvik shippers who dismiss that clearly don't understand the show as well as they claim. Jayce can love both Mel and Viktor, and I genuinely believe the reason why Mel is seen as a less legitimate love interest is because she's a black woman. I haven't seen a lot of anti-Mel discourse personally but I also only interact with the arcane fandom on very curated Tumblr and Insta feeds, most of which are multishippers/MelJayVik truthers.
Considering how Mel was introduced - a high ranking council woman, covered in gold, eager to snatch up the hot new talent - you'd be forgiven for initially thinking she slept with him to for ambitious puposes. BUT when we see her waking up alone to notice Jayce is gone, and the later scene of her painting with her aggressive brush stroke underlining her response "duty calls" to Jayce having left right after they had sex, you realize 'Oh wait, this wasn't just a scheme of hers'. It actually meant something to her, and she felt legitimately hurt that he dipped out.
I loved Mel in Season 1 precisely because she's such a great balance of maniplulative and empathetic. It's actually amazing how well Season 1 gets this across in the short amount of time we got with her. I don't know if I wanted her and Jayce to stay together, but I definitely wanted more of her as she was in Season 1. Unfortunately Season 2 just threw her to the wayside. One of Season 2's many mistakes.
@@prophecybydefault4708but there's no season 3. A different show by a different studio, but no season 3
Ah, you mean like Jinx from season 1 being thrown aside for Powder 2.
Well, I think that's because they had to developed the Black Rose and her connection to Noxus - which she will play a huge part in. If you don't play the game you maybe wouldn't know she will be the next 2025 champion released. Which is a HUGE deal. Ambessa just got released (also wild considering she is an older woman) who also just got a book released about the Medardas too. Sooo - safe to say it's not the end for Mel just yet. She might be the only connection linking to Noxus.
I prefer Mel's plotline in S2 because I love the mage stuff and her being connected to Black rose. She got more explored relationship with her mother and her family, more actions scenes, more lore and even a setup for the next Noxus show.
@CasualShinji I don't think S2 had any mistakes. I think they made choices due to time and budget, and we, as viewers, won't agree with them all. They still told a remarkable story in a magnificent and fascinating way. It was the story they decided to tell. I would have preferred longer episodes and at least 1 most season to flush out some of the characters and maybe even add a character or two....like actually seeing Orianna adjusting to her new reality or Janna actually showing up as a wind goddess. I could even see the creation of Zac or Blitzcrank. Was the rat that Singed used to test shimmer on Twitch?
They really said mal was a bad person when Viktor was about the destroy the world
And kept bringing Jayce back just for that purpose.
You're right Viktor should just let Jayce die.
By the way circumstances matter. Viktor's motivation has always been to help people even the glorious evolution was supposed to do exactly there help and heal. The second he saw he won't achieve that he stopped. Mel was an a council for many years and was ok with opreseing Zaun or building hextech weapons (do did Jayce). Mel was doing it and using both Jayce and Viktor (mostly Jayce) to further her own political agenda. Only later she coughed some feeling towards jayce. She is the fox she is smart but she is not a sinless angel.
Also I find it ironic that under a video criticizing people for hating her for "getting in the way" you people are hating on Viktor for getting in the way because it's ok if you do it. Very hypocritical way of thinking.
@@s1b3r11 He stopped because of a time travel AU plot that conveniently brought back his emotions. Jayce could have told him the truth at the commune.
Mage Viktor is a master manipulator, yes, and his story is not romantic in any way.
@@blacktigerpaw1 Lol have you even watched any episode at all? Jayce didn't tell him anything at the commune. The very same moment he learned about the future he stopped but of course you don't care about the real plot.
Mage Viktor is not a master manipulator. He literally only wanted to save the world and save Jayce. On the other hand Mel was a a manipulator who admitted to wanting to use the hextech for her goal.
I don't even think you've watched a single episode. You're just a hater.
@@s1b3r11 I watched the show, yes. I am criticizing the bad plot.
Mage Viktor *doomed entire timelines over and over again all because he wanted to 'save' Jayce.* That's not saving anyone. if he's omniscient, he could have *spoken to Viktor when he had his vision at the Hexgates in S1.* He could have done ANYTHING differently. But no, he kept repeating the cycle and by 'saving' the world because in order to reach good Viktor you have to create bad Viktor and bad Viktor has to see the error of his ways to become good Viktor...too hard for you? I bet it is.
Mel is a SAINT compared to Mage Viktor. She didn't end the world over and over again because of MUH STAR CROSSED ROMANCE - he did. I'm beginning to think you're a shill who can't understand that this is a shiny POS.
If I had 1 nickel for every time a female character gets hated because of getting in the way of an overrated/popular gay ship I would have soooo many nickels, which is concerning that it happens so many times
💯💯💯
The ochaco uraraka treatment, test did my girl DIRTY
Even Yachi from Haikyuu!! somehow... honestly, they don't even need a ship to hate a character. Sydney from The Bear gets so much shit just because she's a black female character that's close to the main male character.
@@joyc.e.7511 in this show You, the actress that plays Joe’s black love interest got the same treatment. It’s absolutely insane.
Ive never in my decades of consuming media seen this in a situation where its NOT a black woman/black man character, but hey you cant watch everything so i cant deny the possibility
But yeh this sounds alot like those "its not about race its about class" diatribes white folks do whenever black folks talk about racism thinking yall are beibg helpful... Who knows 🤷🏾♂️
The writers fulmbled both maljay AND caitvi. Having smex in the JAIL where your unstable sister was doing self harm? When you also have trauma from being in jail...
That one there was weird ngl, like the same cell jinx was depressed in😭
@@Nayawritess If I defend one controversial scene about the show, it is this one. People shipping Jayvik and making fun about "caring more about the non-canon doomed yaoi over canon yuri" because apparantly Caitvi is badly written also just seems like another mysoginistic excuse to center men.
Cait just gave her biggest evidence of trusting Vi that she could have possibly given. Not only that, it also shows how she understands what Vi told her, that she agrees with her and she risked not seeing Vi again. She knows she has done wrong, that she had forsaken her morality for the one person she failed to see as a human instead of a monster, but now she recognised her humanity and decided to share her love for Vi with Jinx (just how Jinx accepts to share her love for Vi with Cait). There is so much growth going on there with this single action of releasing Jinx. I think people underestimate how much that meant to Vi and how much development and reflection it reveals about Cait. It resolves the biggest conflict within their relationship. Cait accepts that Vi just loves her sister, Jinx accepts that Vi loves loves Cait, what stands in the way of the relationship now?
@@justarandomgirlvx3578THNK U SO MUCH GIRL, I'm defending the sesbian lex caitvi scene till death as a big sis myself. Vi is finally (not conscious “breaking the cycle” meant “fcking killing myself” cause' her reaction made it obvious) putting herself first, AND with her baby's approval. Fans got more offended by they boombayaing in Jinx's cell than Jinx herself (who didn't even complained abt it - not going immediately after her cause there is no way she figured the other part-, she accepts Vi as much as Vi accepted her lil sis shenanigans). Also going to a room? They were in the mood already, they made the moment special and worth for them. It was realistic, they're young adults about to go to war, not 15 yo virgins having their first time, life is one, they were in and that's all. “Why not getting a room” well, there was space enough in the cell, not everything has to be premeditated.
@@justarandomgirlvx3578 ily for this.
@@justarandomgirlvx3578 Its also a huge development for Vi!! For most of the show her actions were always to sacrifice herself (phisically, emotionally, her freedom, her hapiness) for the sake of the people she loves. The writers themselves say she's a protector, and thats all that she sees for years.
Since s01e03 she had to deal with an immense amount of trauma, and guilt towards Powder/Jinx and everything surrounding it. Time and time again she leaves Caitlyn (wich also represents the possibility of happiness, love and a better life) without hesitation to go find Jinx, sacrificing everything for her. Then, after they split and reunite, she decides to trust Jinx one more time, again willing to leave everything behind for her, only for Jinx to leave her.
Now what people don't get: this is Jinx's choice!! Jinx realizes that as long as she's around, Vi will never be trully happy bc she would keep on sacrificing herself for her, so by leaving she's being selfless and letting her sister be happy, she even gives her blessing to Vi and Caitlyn's relationship. Its an act of love too. But as always they dont communicate well, and from Vi's perspective, she's being left behind by the one person she always sacrificed everything in her life for, she just feels betrayed and abandoned. She doesnt even know Jinx will try to ☠ herself, she just knows that she left her despite all of her efforts. But she also finally recognizes that this was Jinx's choice - tho Vi doesnt realize it, in that moment, Jinx intentionally relieved her of the responsability, took that weight off her shoulders, freed her in a metaforical sense. Denying the meaning of this act is denying Jinx's own agency.
Finally, relieved of her guilt, Vi realizes she gets to choose too! For the first time in all of the series, she makes one decision FOR herself: she puts herself first, she chooses to love and be loved, to finally live for herself. And going from a character who always put others firts in detriment of herself, to a character who acknowledges her own feelings and desires, realizes she's allowed to be happy and love and chooses to live what she wants is HUGE character development, in the most personal level!
The manipulator part is what gets me. Everybody is a manipulator in Arcane: Jinx, Silco, Heimerdinger, Caitlyn, Singed, Ambessa, Viktor, and the whole council. Yet the only one who gets labeled manipulator constantly is Mel?🤨
@@Moretropes11 and for it to be labeled as her whole character like come on, that was a hobby of hers at best
The fact that I saw 100s of ppl making and liking comments insinuating that he only pursued Mel bc being w her represented "the traditional type of love he saw in society" and didn't realize he could love a man, ie Viktor?? LIKE HELLO??? This is literally Arcane??? A fantasy society w no homophobia or racism?? Why's it so hard to understand that he loved both of them? He was drawn to Mel cuz she was more dazzling and he only saw Vik as a friend for years. (I'm not anti jayvik but I'm still not fully convinced of them being a romantic ship)
Diverging from your MelVik point but LOL storywritters tend to say that there's no homophobia in LOL but they have actually never shown even a kiss between their canon mlm couples, only wlw. Maybe they are not allowed but either way it's not that simple and Riot does have a history of problems with mlm rep
@@karlaalexa211sure but using a black woman as a beard and the fact it's mostly white women loving JayVik speaks volumes
@@karlaalexa211correct me if i'm wrong but i'm pretty sure out of arcane there has never been a mlm ot wlw kiss in league. Riot has been bad with mlm true, but wlw has been bad aswell.
Mel supports and helps Jayce AND Viktor succeed and she's a "manipulator." Viktor literally controls Jayce's ENTIRE life - and it means they're soulmates. SMDH.
Broddahhh she can’t catch a break
I’ve never really thought about this perspective cuz I feel like everyone LOVES Viktor and either hates Jayce or views him as purely as a counterpart to Viktor which I think is sad. I’ve always loved Jayce because he’s selfless and he is very emotional, the way he would hug and lay his head down on Mel or hug his mom, etc. Idk I’m okay with the Jayce’s life revolving around Viktor since it’s the reason he’s alive since Viktor saved his life twice and Jayce loves him (platonically or romantically it doesn’t matter tbh). But you bring up a good point, if Jayce was ever to step out of line and do something for himself and not Viktor the fandom would go crazy. I feel like Piltover/Topside characters aren’t allowed to make mistakes or be selfish otherwise they’re minimized down to being privileged or the enemy. Idk but I personally loved Ambessa and Mel and their family’s dynamic and I’m excited for the next series. MEL IS NOT THE ENEMYYY
@@nam812Neither Jayce nor Viktor have agency in S2. Their entire soulmate plot was due to the whims of a future Viktor who refused to let things go.
@@nam812 You just preached so many bars that the local church is demanding that you be their pastor. Simply YES! The Piltovan characters receive so much unfair judgment, meanwhile if Jayce were from Zaun people would have so much more sympathy or even agree with everything he does.
Say! This! Again! I don't know how anyone can see that finale as romantic. It was creepy and weird, and I felt so sad for Jayce because he's been a passenger all his life and now he 'died' to go be a passenger for Viktor. It was twisted and gross, and the fandom is unhinged for refusing to see this.
I love this. Jayvik is my favorite, but I agree there's too much Mel bashing :( Any 'manipulation' from Mel was misinterpreted due to Jayce being naive about politics and her knowing how to play and win the game. They were a political power couple because it benefited BOTH their goals in the council room. It was mutually beneficial AND affectionate (her subconsciously shielding him during the attack). I didn’t know the animators said that; that’s disgusting. I do think they 'broke up' in s2 ep8, but only because their priorities had shifted. Jayce even repeats what toxic fans say about Mel, but it’s clear he’s projecting and being unfair. They clearly still care about each other. Fandom culture is so gross and toxic and unfortunately rooted in misogyny and misogynoir. We can ship and be media literate y’all
You’re so smart literally
@@Nayawritess MEL DESERVES A KING. Jayce is a broke boy. Stop tricking black women into dating poor white men
I saw Mel and Jayce develop a friendly relationship with each other; they care for each other but the romantic relationship did not work out because at the end: their priorities really were different and dragging them in many directions. I initially thought she was manipulating him but rewatching S1 made me realise otherwise. She does care for Jayce and him for her as well. Also like......Jayce has 2 hands yall 😂
As someone who is neither a Meljay or Jayvik shipper (but is absolutely tired of how disruptive and brainrotten Jayvik stans have become at large) I appreciate you for being here and... normal. What floors me is that these people are not stopping with Mel either. Poor Skye has gotten the short end of the stick from the writers and fandom both. Since S1, it’s rubbed me the wrong way how Skye basically just existed to fawn over Viktor, then disintegrate just to facilitate his character development. Then in S2 they bring her back just to continue have her be all about Viktor and his development, up until she disintegrates because of him AGAIN. Skye had “such dreams” but we never even learn what they were, because as long as Viktor knows what they were and they motivate him that’s all that matters. I searched her tag hoping to find think pieces about this, only for it to be overrun by Jayvik stans using Skye’s bitter last words to prop their ship. I distinctly remember a post along the lines of “see, they straight-baited us with Skye in Act II and now they have her literally say with her own mouth Viktor won’t miss her”. Like wtfgftfshb this scene is not the slay for Viktor/Jayvik you think it is. Just how insecure in your crackship do you have to be to feel threatened by a twice-dead girl the writers treat like an afterthought? And can you please engage with the story through a lens that isn't Jayvik for once when there's a more important conversation to be had here??
And don’t even get me started on them trying to start a competition with Caitvi shippers on which ship is “gayer” (whatever that means). Post finale it was impossible to be on the main tag without some version of “how did this *insert image of Caitlyn and Vi making out* feel less gay than this *insert image of Jayce and Viktor forehead-touching before they vanish* “ being nearly every other post. It got old real fast- especially as certain shippers started treating it as more than a joke. The sapphics got the most expensive love scene between lesbians in animation and a canonical happy ending and they just HAD to make it about their mlm crackship.
Whenever a female character of color gets in a canonical romantic relationship with a prominent male character (usually white) it’s often only a matter of time before a mlm crackship becomes popular- and almost always, between him and the closest white male character. It’s like they think that if the ship isn’t straight, that sanctions it- the uncharitable and vitriolic takes about the female character, the belittling of her role in her love interest’s life, the endless Pepe Silvia-ing of why he’s secretly in love with the other male character the whole time he’s with her and doesn’t actually care about her. Fandoms did this with Arthur, Guinevere and Merlin, they did this with Geralt, Yennefer and Jaskier, and since S1 they’ve been doing it with Jayce, Mel and Viktor (and these are only examples off the top of my head rn). Again, I’ve no issues with Jayvik on principle, but toxic shipper culture has really soured it for me- especially when it plays into this observable misogynistic/racist pattern.
@@DeadInside-ct6dl LMAO I used to joke they deserve an award for “situationship of the year”. The conditions being: politics allies and her letting him be sad in her lap every once in a while. I agree their romance probably would’ve developed better if they didn’t both get kidnapped and thrown into holes in the ground lol. Right person, wrong time maybe
i love Mel Medarda. I love that she hates violence and uses her brilliant guile to maintain peace (as she understands it). She's an inversion of the Corrupt Politician trope, someone who you would expect to be evil because of how she schemes but in reality is playing 4D chess and is twisting the corruption to her own benefit in surprising ways. She's compassionate as well as calculating. She's golden yet cold, privileged yet empathic, pragmatic yet romantic. She's so fascinating, nuanced, and I found her romance with Jayce compelling as well, since those two were lovers with deep care for one another yet i always felt the tension of them walking this razors edge of a relationship that was both loving and transactional. I don't understand other Jayvik shippers losing their damned minds over Mel because A) she's amazing and B)...she literally never got in the way of the ship. If anything, from a narrative perspective, her character was used to draw subtext between Jayce and Viktor to help push their Cosmically Transcendent Homiesexuals plot forward lmao but she was NEVER mere ship fodder and always stood out as her own person with agency, and frankly Jayce and Viktor would have fell into academic obscurity without her explicit support. Her outstanding uniqueness as a character is emphasized further in season 2 (even if it could have been done better but whatever). She goes through so much and overcomes it all with her whip-sharp intellect, intuition, and strategic aptitude. She tears herself out of a traumatic situation, learns more about her own power and resilience in the process, and as a result is reasserted within the narrative as a character with significance that will continue to be relevant long after Arcane ends. She represents the other side of the Arcane itself; its chaotic presence within nature and the strength of spirit necessary to harness it vs. Viktor's unnatural fusion with magic that seeks to instill perfect order through the dissolution of free will (these two have their own significance to each other as mirrors in the narrative but like i will literally be here all night lmao). Her relationship with her mother and her traumatic childhood was SO good too. Mel is the Doe who burned away her skin to become the Wolf after a lifetime of fleeing its fangs; she reflects her mother who was not only herself a lamb once but turned one of her own children into a sacrificial lamb to save Mel, who in turn sacrificed Ambessa for a better world because that's what Mel has ALWAYS wanted. I'm not gonna lie, i could go on about Mel forever because she's just. SO interesting and cool. She's a politician, an artist, a lover, a mage, a survivor, a LEADER. I. I love Mel Medarda. But it's almost 3 am now and i can hear color (gold. the color is gold.)
Also. I don't know if this is a hot take, and frankly i don't care: Mel Medarda deserves better than a dude who is wholly obsessed with his best friend/bisexual awakening. Please. PLEASE. She deserves someone who will appreciate her absolutely incredible Machiavellian mind and match her freak. I wanna see her with someone ON HER LEVEL, who is as devoted to her as Jayce is to Viktor. She deserves that and MORE. Not that i hate Meljay or Meljayvik (although I am very biased towards Melvika, woof), but i just think outside of fanon stuff i really, really, REALLY NEED to see her in a fulfilling, loving relationship with someone that's naturally her equal and who appreciates her in her shining totality. I hope the next series we get is about her specifically, i just want more Mel lore and to watch her be amazing
Thanks for this video and sorry that i rambled or whatever that was. I hate how prevalent misogynoir is in this fandom, but also literally everywhere else. Like it's rampant, STILL. I am glad we have means to come together in opposition through videos such as this. I just wish more people decried it within the fandom so we didn't NEED videos like this.
Stay golden 💛
I love this essay lol
I'm a Jaymel and Jayvik shipper. I think a lot of people forget that someone can have romantic feelings for multiple different people at the same time
THIS!
But there are already enough relationships in the show. Why ship Jayce and Viktor? It ruins the beauty of friendship and dishonors it. They never touched each other romantically, never flirted but still get shipped. If what they have is romance then what is left for friendship?
@@Dcba_1234 people ship characters for multiple reasons, sometimes the ship isn’t romantic sometimes it is. i can definitely see where jayvik stans are coming from because their relationship really does give soulmates. i don’t personally care for the ship all that much but i can see the beauty in their relationship nonetheless.
@@Dcba_1234 "it dishonors it" makes you sound really homophobic tbh
I don't think JayVik is romantic at all. I think their bond is a transcendent platonic, brotherly bond. It's not about romance or sexual attraction, it's just two souls who share a deep affection like Viktor said: "It was affection that kept us together". But that's just my take.
the fact that it hasn’t even been 24 hours since this video came out and there’s already been more anti black/misogynistic (misogynoir) viral posts on twitter. a quote on a post sharing a screenshot from tiktok where a person said they “can’t express how glad they are that jayce is finally seeing her for who she truly was” where the person (who has been micro aggressive towards people calling out racist jayvik fans for days now) completely dismissed the issue brought up, and another where a person shared that they came across a jayvik fic where viktor throws mel out of a window which some people laughed at. I refuse to continue to be told that myself and others are overreacting about what has taken place since the arcane finale. while this does often happen to women of all races in popular non canon mlm ships it’s very clear that the extreme hatefulness displayed recently is exacerbated by the fact that mel is a black woman and viktor is a white man.
The idea of Viktor throwing Mel out a window is INSANE and my brain hurts just THINKING about it. How disconnected from reality do you have to BE to write that 😭
I literally saw it yesterday. That’s why it’s so funny that pple are calling this reaching when the evidence is there
I saw that. That post had 90k likes. TikTok has no room for thoughtful discussion.
I also read a fic where Viktor, who was made trans (lots of those) had Jayce eat him out and then compared his vaginal juices to Mel's, saying 'it tasted better.' Remember, this are the same people reblogging Gaza posts and saying they aren't racist while being more racist than the Klan.
A lot of JayVik fanfic is unfortunately unreadable to me for this reason. I liked the ship before, but I quickly grew to be indifferent and outright just not like it because some of the stuff I encountered in fic. Which is why the last act of the show does feel like the worst kind of JayVik fanfic was inserted into the show, and it's not a good thing for any of the characters involved.
@@MoonsCamelot It's only going to get worse from here on, because the fandom itself doesn't even view them as characters but 'fruits' and f*ggts.
This is why I roll my eyes whenever someone insists that fandoms are super progressive and utopian for minorities to thrive, because that only applies when the fans are white lgbt people or the characters are masculine white men; any other person and character is excluded, ignored, and made the targets of discrimination like racism, sexism or, as you said, misogynoir. I'm glad I found this video and see I'm not the only one who noticed how Mel, who became one of my fav characters due to this season, was done all these things I mentioned.
I also noticed that many people take issue with the idea of Jinx and Ekko being romantically involved. The argument is often, that not every male-female friendship needs to turn into a romance....sure I can see that, but this overlooks the fact that fans aren’t shipping them out of thin air. It’s based on how the show itself portrays their dynamic. Meanwhile, it’s far more accepted for fans to create romantic pairings out of male friendships, even when it feels forced. And we all know, that Jinx and Ekko, as well as Jayce and Mel, have far more romantic interactions in the story, then Viktor and Jayce ever had... I wanted to ship Viktor with Sky, but even then it was to one-sided, so I stopped shipping Viktor with anyone. With his condition, he wasn't really focusing on love anyway
@@Lunar_Fox14I've luckily only seen people loving Jinx x Ekko and wanting more of the two in any capacity. And I was so glad to see it because people were actually looking at the fundamental reasons why they work as a ship and not the color of their skin.
You can be sure that the ones that ask for most "tolerance" or "acceptance" are the ones less willing to give it...
Best showcase of that is when there are ships of gay characters into straight ones see how "tolerant" they get
As much as I hate the way "media illiteracy" gets thrown around in fandom these days, Mel Medarda haters definitely deserve the title. There is no way other than willful ignorance, to come away thinking Mel is a cold, calculating manipulator.
It’s even crazier because majority of Jayvik Shippers don’t even like Jayce for real or at all if we are being 100% honest. They just want to bang Viktor
REAL
Katelyn punched her girlfriend in the gut and no one blinked. These people are ridiculous
I wish that the show had them mutually breakup at the end. It would have maturely showed that some relationships aren't built to last, while still addressing Mel's journey of trauma and character growth. While she is a great character, the writing used her dynamic with Jayce as an afterthought. They get one scene in Act 3 that isn't plot-related, and the emotional changes both have been through aren't addressed beyond Jayce's apology.
One of the things that hurts sm about the treatment of Mel in Arcane is how to a certain extent, she parallels Silco. Since they both used manipulation to be able to get what they want. But for more selfless reasons. Mel wants to improve Piltover, whereas Silco wants to improve the Undercity. They both have love for the people in their lives, i.e Jayce and Jinx, yet still manipulated them for their goals for the nation. But where they contrast is Mel isn't willing to go as far as Silco is. Silco literally did just as much damage to the undercity as help due to being corrupt and also cracking under the pressure. Whereas when Mel started to realize the extent of the damage she can cause, she retracted. When she realized that what she has done could harm Jayce, she stopped and tried to build something genuine with him. She went from manipulating him to protecting him and saving him.
But when the fandom is talking about silco they sweep all his wrong doings under the rug. Like you bring up the fact that Silco groomed Jinx into a weapon and made her mentle health worse. You immediately get met with: "Yeah, but he still loved her tho. That's all that matters."
But when you do the opposite and try to say anything good about Mel like how she protected Jayce thru out the entire series and literally saved his life twice. You get met with: "But she still used him tho, so none of that matter." Like...HUH??? I find it weird how these 2 characters have similar flaws yet the one who tries to do better and change gets more scrutiny then the one who refused to.
Great take, I feel like certain characters always get a pass to do things but others get dragged through the mud for something that a beloved character has done too
NO YOU’RE SO RIGHT!!! Like tell me how a guy basically groomed a teenage girl (we really don’t know how old jinxs is and i think that’s done on purpose) into a very unhealthy mindset, caused her to develop unhealthy coping mechanisms and never once put his foot down when she crossed the line, but you get hit with “B-but-t he-he did it-t b-because he loved her!!!!”, but the minute you say that Mel really did care about jayace and his safety you are bombarded with “erm she was manipulating him so she doesn’t love him, she was useless and i wished she was replaced with blitzcrank” (quoting some things my older brother said about her)
I feel like perspective changes relative to the affected character. People love Jinx to pieces, so by extension, Silco's actions present more positively. Jayce, on the other hand, is not seen as favorably as Jinx, and so his dynamic with Mel is not observed as closely.
I feel like Jayce got more out of Mel’s support that Mel got from Jayce if I’m being honest. Most of Jayce’s plans while part of the council probably won’t have been passed if Mel didn’t put her political power behind him by supporting his decision.
So like if anything Jayce manipulated Mel? Okay maybe not but Mel sure as hell helped out Jayce’s choices and wild ass schemes throughout the show
Coming back to this video everytime a jayvik fujo says something wild about her
Crying
Link them to it and compare them to Stormfront from The Boys.
What hurts the most about the misognoir in arcane is that it's everyhere. Sevika(while not black still a POC woman) got the short end of stick too. And like can we talk about Skye??? Her entire character wasn't even a real character on her own. Her entire purpose on the show was to be in service to viktor's arc. Once she was no longer needed for his development she was disposed of. TWICE‼️ I like Jayvik but I honestly can't appreciate it as much as I want to because of how they use the disposable black girl trope TWICE. It just makes me too upset to enjoy it. Hearing how the animators talked about Mel just hurt so bad. They just dismissed her as a Jazebel and made it seem like her and Jayce had nothing when their relationship was important to both their character developments. Viktor is incredibly important to Jayce but he's not the only character to make an impact on Jayce's life. Mel meant something aswell.
Agreed! That buged me so much? Like Sky was Already barely a character but at least in s1 she felt like a person. It felt like... very tone deaf to bring her back to be the consience/emotional support of a guy who.. Efectively had her killed?? Only to kill her off Again??
Very tone deaf tbh
I thought Sevika was south Asian/ Indian?
@@RuviGaPoI always read Sevika as South Asian coded and felt like it was confirmed bc her fight scene music was sung by a South Asian artist but idrk. But for Sky I feel like they did that with Isha as well who is essentially just a plot device to Jinx? So I feel that’s just a thing they do with side characters. Idk I thought Mel was extremely important to the plot this act and her storyline got a decent amount of screen time in addition to her mom (who I think was a more interesting character) but I think it’s just the fandoms fault for just hating on any characters that aren’t their favorites.
I like… I want to agree with you on Sky but the thing is that that felt intentional? Like it wasn’t just fridging. The reason we as an audience know so little about Sky is because Viktor himself doesn’t actually know much about her, and that guilt eats him up inside. We see that with how Sky manifests in Viktor’s mind. He feels terrible that his actions caused her death, and wishes he knew her more, but by the time he realizes he’s never slowed down to appreciate her she’s already gone. So I don’t think it would’ve been as effective if we, the audience, knew the things about her that Viktor didn’t.
But. So this is something that I didn’t mind in season 1, because god are the women written so damn well in season 1. But we’re not in season 1 anymore. And season 2, as much as I _love_ it wholeheartedly, has some flaws, and I think those flaws make Sky’s treatment go from acceptable under the circumstances the narrative creates to… significantly more questionable.
After giving us a promo poster of her as well? Sev deserved more screen time
I agree. Many people hate Mel for “getting” in the way, and they see viktor and Jayce as canon, when it’s not. I wish Mel got a better storyline, I didn’t see how her being a mage did anything to the overall plot, but set her up to have a role in the next story in noxas. Her and jayce barely had anytime together either.
I love Jayce and Mel together and I feel we got robbed of their romance continuing.
I wish she had better writing, but I’m glad we got good writing for Ekko. It’s nice to see a character like his.
I knew it was coming when I saw how people reacted with Maddie. They hated her because she was in the way of their ship, nothing else lmao. People are so stupid I swear
Tbf Mel’s romance with Jayce was weaker than some of the others but I think they did a really good job with Ambessa and Ekko. I think Mel being an empath made her too perfect ig? I still really like her and I feel like I disagree with her not being important, like she killed her mom and saved Caitlyn/the entire army. Her powers are important I just wish we had enough time to see her learn to use them.
@@nam812 I wouldn't say Mel and Jayce's romance was weaker. It was not as toxic or dramatic. Just two people loving and supporting one another.
They made Mel into a mage because she is going to be added to the game next month...
Mel being set up for the next season is the best thing that could happen for her character development independent of JayVik, let them dance together in their time loop while Mel the Goddess Mage stands in her Power, Politically AND Magically I CANNOT WAIT...and she inspired my very first Cosplay!!! Video of season 1 on my page. I love the Medardas, Mel and Ambessa!!!
Thank you for making this video. I’ve been a Reddit Warrior commenting on this very thing. This fandom is purposely mischaracterizing her and disregarding her for no reason besides bias. I don’t even think people even realize it.
The moment you speak out against something they will automatically deem you a warrior lol
Sadly, this is definitely a trend. People ship 2 male characters, and the female love interest becomes a hindrance. She becomes neglected to actively demonized.
Who says they weren't together in the finale? They never broke up. They had one argument that was interrupted by Viktor. Before that, they both got jacked and disappeared for a time. Mel by the Black Rose, and Jayce by a wild rune and sent into a possible future. Even their final discussion was an expression of care, where they tell each other of their equally harrowing trials and how they've changed, but at no time did they say that what was once between them is over! Jayce actually tried to reassure and empower her by telling her that she could never be just a passenger. This shows care! They may have had some issues, but I truly believe that had Jayce survived, they would have worked on their relationship, and they would STILL be together.
See that’s the problem with jayvik fans. They keep trying to make manipulation Mel’s sole defining trait when it’s not. She’s more complex than that, but they *must* keep harping on about it because it’s the only aspect that can be interpreted as negative. (And unlike Viktor, she doesn’t become a psycho cult leader or humanity ending threat. But don’t worry, he’s their little white boy so he gets nuanced character analysis)
I think to them, if they don’t hyper focus on supposed “manipulation” then what the fuck else do they have to hate on her relationship with Jayce for?
Mel’s arc goes from trying to be a good Medarda to trying to be a good person/leader *because* she saw Jayce fight for those ideals and realizes that she can, too.
Being persuasive in politics is a *tool she uses* to achieve her goals, that’s not *who she is*
Their attempts to flatten her character to one negative descriptor is typical misogynoir.
As someone who usually likes the popular yaoi ship in fandom, I’ve felt so fucking unwelcome in jayvik spaces because they can’t stop themselves from being racist/sexist and I, as a black woman, do not want to see that shit. Like how am I supposed to root for jayvik as “toxic yaoi” or “cosmic yaoi” when Mel is apparently the devil for doing 1% of the evil they don’t hate Viktor for??
Remember: you can doom entire timelines and kill billions and he a eugenicist and you'll be loved if you're a white man.
But if you're a woman or a black woman? Judged for every tiny thing.
I was truly so disappointed with how Mel was written this season (isolated in her own storyline, away from most other characters, and the resolution to her "arc" this season having seemingly nothing to do with her pre-established strengths), especially because I loved so much her writing in the first season. And that disappointment has not been helped by the fandom response, which has largely been hating on her for no reason besides misogynoir (as you described on this video) or ignoring her.
There is so much beautiful depth to her character, which felt as if was sapped in order to prioritize Jayce and Viktor's story this season. Her kind heart and cunning mind, with a calculated exterior and deeply felt interior world, the firm convictions that are put to the test and conflict with her mother, it all feels like it was sidelined.
It shocks me someone could look at such a beautifully constructed character and simplify her so poorly, show itself and fandom alike. She is so much more than a "manipulator"
I thought Mel was awesome in the first season - a strong woman who plays to her intelligence, beauty. charisma and powerful will to influence others and change the world. Then they show us her sensitive and loving side, a sharp contrast to her monster of a mother. You see she's willing to compromise, and she's exactly the kind of Piltovian who Zaun needs, one who is prepared to unite the two cities and help heal their terrible divide.
Then season 2, all her most powerful traits are forgotten, and she turns into one of the X-Men just so she can fight in the big Avengers: Endgame battle. Then decides she wants to be her mother after all and goes to Noxus, abandoning the city she's always seen as her own.
The new character is 'cool', sure, but where's the Mel we fell in love with?
At the end of S1, I thought that Mel could have either died or survived . In the case of her surviving , I thought her arc would be realizing that sometimes compromises cannot be made and that war is neccessary not as a last recourse but as a first recourse . For a war to happen only one side need to be willing to do it . And be willing to fix problems at first hands if possible , Ambessa said her herself : "You let the problems of your undercity foster too long" .
@@Fionalah Her fox/cunning traits that she is known for were definately shown this season and her becoming a wolf/fighter/defender was heavily hinted at since the first season.
I mean, how she took down her mother and that black rose lady was definately by using the old traits that we are used to, cunningness. The world hardened our soft queen and she had to either crack or become stronger.
Mel no longer sees the value in money, power and all that. All that she cares about now is family and doing what it takes to protect them, and now she's the last remaining Medarda (assuming her Dad is dead) and so now she's going back to Noxus to potentially fully take the black rose down.
@@DianaDonineaux Which is exactly what happened to her, she is now the fox AND the wolf.
@@amahlgrant not really for me , she begged her mother again and again to stop thé War and used a third party to kill her . And even all of that IS weird because WE do not even understand the Black Rose /Mel/Ambessa plot . Did Ambessa fell in love with a mage or no, she hates Magic but she wanted a living Magic weapon , Mel was sent away because she refused to be a Wolf in S1 but the black Rose Said it was because she had magic but as a child she did not have these golden tatoos /Armor or whatever it is etc... Moreover I was more thinking about S2 ACT 1 when she IS completely delusional by thinking they just have to Ask Undercity people to arrest Jinx for her and she refused an intervention . Finally she has to side with the other 2 cousellors but said WE draw a Line to hextech which IS ridiculous because Undercity have Shimmer.
I try to avoid mainstream fan spaces as much as possible but the Mel's bashing reminds of the visceral hatred Reylo shippers had/have for John Boyega's character.
Controversial take, but I feel like a lot of fans who make up queer ships and absolutely INSIST on them are kind of toxic. It’s toxic when they take away from and try to disparage CANON heterosexual relationships, and deride the notion that two men could genuinely be deep friends but not lovers. That’s just a shallow and kind of toxic view of friendship.
Mel was a brilliant character, and one of my favorites, and her relationship with Jayce is beautiful. Jayce‘s friendship with Viktor is beautiful too! There’s just absolutely no indication that it’s s3xual OR romantic, and the toxic insistent queer shippers just really can’t stand for that.
Also, I hadn’t heard that clip of the writers talking about how Mel and Jayce was just a “hook up“ and that Jace had a “preference“ for Viktor. Disgusting. Clearly just trying to pander to the queer crowd so they don’t get “canceled“.
They're not kind of, they're extraordinarily toxic
I 100% agree with everything you've said. Imagine if someone tried to ship Vi or Cait with a man. Or if people hated on a gay ship because it was "interfering" with a straight one? They'd riot.
People trying to misconstrue Jayce and Victor's relationship as romantic are further perpetuating the belief that two guys can't just be close friends-which is already a significant problem in today's society.
And the hate for Mel is absolutely undeserved. They stripped her of all her complexities and reduced her to a manipulator and then go ahead and hate on her because she's "getting in the way" of a relationship that doesn't even exist in that context despite the fact that she's canonically with Jayce? And they don't see a problem with this? At all? Really?
And it's kinda obvious that the writers must've picked up on this as well because Jayce and Mel barely had any screentime together this season.
Now I remember why I tend to be put off by pieces of media with large fanbases
@@HighLordoftheBathroom - 100% agree! A very eloquent and intelligent explanation.
And I agree especially about avoiding the fanbases of popular media -- they tend to be rather rabid and fanatical. I'm not on social media or fandom spaces that much anyway, for that reason. I just felt that I had to comment on this particular issue, because it's SO prevalent.
@@HighLordoftheBathroom tbh it's not the same thing nor will it ever be. Like yall have strong points and I agree with some, but knowing and seeing why people ship queer relationships makes it to where I can't agree. The convo is more nuanced and you have multiple different prespectives in these situations. I mentioned it in another comment, but societies problem with not allowing men to be close to each other does not come from fandom. Fandom barely does anything compared to other factors.
Seeing this video title baffled me, I had no idea Mel haters could even exist, but it being because of jayvik doesn't surprise me at all, even so I believe Mel is still one of the most beloved characters in this series as she should be. Like every character in this show Mel is flawed, yes, she did manipulate jayce, she did see him as an asset and potential investment at the beginning (and I'm glad they brought it up in the show), but she did truly fall for him like he did for her and that combined with the return of her mother changed her views on things, they both had truly such an big impact on each other. After Jayce's hell of an experience on that alternate dimension and Mel's revelation about her family and about being a mage it would be pretty difficult for them to still be together, they both changed so much and their priorities were elsewhere, but it was clear they still cared about each other deeply, even if they couldn't be together anymore.
Honestly, every day I just get happier about uninstalling twitter... I don't have the patience to deal with this kind of thing anymore.
These people hate the wife in breaking bad more then Walter white don’t waste your time on them, I’m just glad everyone loves echo
As someone who ships Jayce with both Mel and Viktor, I'm disappointed that there's way more Jayvik content than Jaymel content out there. I don't think Jayce and Mel ever actually broke up though - they had a fight (driven by the fact that they both had just come out of very traumatizing situations) and tensions were high. They never had the chance to fully unpack what they each went through before a whole war broke out that Jayce ended up dying in.
The reason for that is that fanfic is largely written by white women (and enbies, but they're still AFAB). They won't go any darker than a Cuban. The only ships that had black characters dominate for a time was Poe/Finn and Sam Wilson/Bucky Barnes, and those two are dead in the water. Even for East Asian based mediums, they're all very pale-skinned Asians.
It sounds racist to say, but it is absolutely true: these shippers do not want black people in their slash. Full stop. They hate them. They say they're progressive and wear the BLM slogan but they will turn into worst racists than Stormfront.
I adored Mel and Jayces relationship and was excited to see it develop more. But it just kinda ended, no kisses good bye, no show of affection. They were my favorite pairing and their ending felt so lacking. It felt like arcane writers took the backlash of jaycevik shippers and decided to break them up. It felt so random. Im in no way convinced they should have ended that way.
In a world where we have jinx and silco, calling mel evil or manipulative has no value to me
The people in comments defending a 200 million show and billion dollar video game company is crazy lmaooo. This show is not above criticism and opinions. You may not agree with her criticism that’s fine, but the way y’all are calling her a bunch of names and saying she make black people look bad because she has a opinion on a 200 million show is very weird and gross.
I'm so fucking tired of that whole jayvik drama, l thought that people grew out of doing ship wars, but no, adults are still acting like bunch of preschoolers.
They will never make me hate you, Mel...
Mel will be the main character in their Noxus series, and I pray to god the writers redeem themselves with this piss poor writing of Mel and Jayce’s relationship. Here’s how they can make it up:
Build their relationship and give it context through flashbacks. There is a time jump between S1 Act 1 and Act 2. I hope we get flashbacks on how Mel and Jayce got to know each other. Seeing her help him get to where he was in Act 2 would provide us so much needed context about how they went from business partners, to friends, and to lovers. There’s gotta be more context, she even said he was the only one worth her time, so I know through those years they spent so much time together.
Reminds me of when people ship Steddie (Steve and Eddie from Stranger Things) and somehow HATE on Nancy Wheeler, even though she’s Steve’s ex. I respect ships as a gay man myself, but the minute a fandom starts attacking the female characters for no reason beside them “getting in the way”, I’m out the door.
Misogynoir in fandoms is so normalized it's disheartening. I'm watching another show on Hulu called Rivals with a Black supporting character who is powerful and complex yet is hated for her romance with the male lead who has a predatory relationship with another (white) female character twice his age, that the fandom prefers despite the toxicity.
Thanks for this video. The JV fandom has been among one of the worst I've ever experienced when it comes to misogynoir. It's not even possible to visit the Mel tag without seeing their posts everywhere because they insist on tagging her in everything and they'll make posts that are ostensibly about Mel but are really about either excising her from the story or making toxic commentary about her arc through the frame of propping Jayvik. Same thing with fan fiction - they'll tag Mel/MelJay in fic that is outright not about the latter and is often really denigrating i.e. Mel dies in the first sentence or is already dead or is demonised in the most absurd ways all to prop Jayvik. I'm a multi shipper at heart too (hell, I shipped Mel with Silco as much as I did Jayce) BUT this fandom really made me anti-Jayvik in a really big way to the point where I'm frankly gleeful both are 'dead' - which is unfortunate because I loved both characters at one time lol.
Yeah, I've read quite a few fanfics where the author will openly denigrate her body, how Jayce has sex with her, and how she's inferior to Viktor. They also act really catty on Twitter and will shut right up when black users call them out, which is typical as the majority of JayVik shippers are white females.
I loathe how Jayvick shippers will either turn Mel into a cuck or a fujoshi for their ship
I love Mel, I want to see more of her in future shows! I'm so glad they didn’t punish her for being a smart, ambitious woman. I love how she wants peace, but proves she isn't weak just because she's kind. She does master both her "hard" and "soft" powers. And soooo beautiful. I love her in all the golden ribbons and glowing eyes. What a total package! Wish I was more like her - she's aspirational!
When she was introduced I assumed they'd demonize or punish her for being "manipulative" while a male character would have been aplauded as "charismatic." So I was pleasantly surprised that she was shown to be important even to the end, and rewarded for her many strengths and her good heart.
I too wanted more romance for her at the ending, it would have been nice if Jayce was even more loving towards her before he vanished with his bro to remove the threat from the world they were both responsible for.
But there seemed to be quite a few missing scenes in Season 2, I don't think Mel was the only one who missed out. I wish they'd showed us the second after her mom had been taken, what her reaction was to "seeing the rose's true face" -whatever that meant.
Too many things happening in music video or entirely off screen for my liking. It’s still a masterpiece, but not as jawdropping storywise as season 1.
I think Season 1 was a once-in-a-decade miracle, and season 2 was actually great, but not quite a second miracle.
Episode 7 sure had some of that flavor, though. The magic was still happening there and a few other moments when given enough room to breathe. Like when Vi dropped the gauntlets and hugged Vander. "What have they done to us"? Was such a gut-punch.
I think, like so many others havr said, that this season needed at minimum one more episode, but up to 3 more could have fleshed out Loris and why he was such a good friend to Vi, let Sevika speak her mind, mentioned Isha's name/sacrifice at least once, and showed how Echo convinced Jinx to fight for a better version of herself.
I think more time between Mel and Jayce would help, but honestly I thought she could do better ;) He meant well, but was nieve and kinda blind to obvious issues/solutions where Mel saw herself and their world much more clearly. He broke his promises to destoy the hexvore and never make weapons with it. While Mel was her word and stood strong in her values. I think she would have eventually lost respect/interest in Jayce for those reasons -she's just got a stronger core than he.
Please ignore the shipping animators, they don't actually get a say on the writing and it's intention. They acted out and filmed every scene and the writers/directors made the call on what to include... and Christian said a lot was cut for budget. I respect that, I don't have $250m I could have spent on this show, but I wish they'd asked the fans for funding instead of just leaving some essential moments out of the final.
They killed her brother, best friend, mother, and boyfriend, and had her leave the life she built in Piltover. I would call that a punishment.
@brendajameson5093 No, those tragedies weren't a result of her actions. Punishment in stories happens more directly - they're generally cause/effect to communicate a social value to the audience. Because Maddie pulls the trigger, she takes the shot herself - see? If she hadn't betrayed Caitlin, she'd be alive. She was punished for her choice in the narrative.
Just like in 70's-80's horror movies, it's pretty obvious what behavior they "punish": rudeness, theft, sexiness or promiscuity if you're a woman, and arrogance and stupidity - generally.
Tragedy happening to characters is not the same thing as narrative punishment.
@@melindawolfUS I understand what you're saying, but I respectfully disagree. I don't see where she was rewarded for anything. She's probably lost more than any other character in the show, and most of her losses were related to Hextech, which she was directly involved in bringing to fruition.
@brendajameson5093 ok, I can see your angle there... but she didn't seem too broken up about losing Jayce in the short glimpse we got of her leaving Piltover. She is holding her mother's mask. And that battle wasn't brought about because of her manipulations or striving for power - it was her perceived softness and desire for peace that put her head to head with Ambessa.
I would say that the narrative rewards her values. She ends up the leader of her homeland and the most powerful magic user aside from Victor. Though she certainly had losses, I still don't think she was being singled out for punishment in the narrative. She wanted wealth and power and she got them both in spades... so far she doesn't seem to regret her involvement in hextech. Maybe that will change if we get to catch up with her later in her story, but for now there isn't one action or quote from her expressing regret.
@@melindawolfUS I didn't get that she REALLY wanted wealth or power, but that she was outwardly just trying to live up to the Medarda standards. Inwardly, all she ever wanted was peace and security. Now she's the leader of an army, in a warring nation, which is the exact opposite of that. Remember, her goal was always to AVOID war, and now she's a warlord? Again, I see no rewards. I see her lack of emotion at her losses as a flaw in the writing. There were many writing flaws this season and most of them involved her character. It seems like they lost interest in her character (maybe her S1 writers quit), and just used her as a plot device to set up the next story and introduce her as a champion. There's no guarantee she will be in any future installments. I doubt it.
I used to be indifferent to Jayvik, but the amount of racism stemming from that fandom and that way Mel gets demonized by them in the pursuit of their "otp" has actively made me hate the ship and the shippers. I have no sympathy for them or for how the writers are pulling the "theyre actually brothers" card on them, like good suffer.
I love when JayVik fans use the Andres Derekshani interview as proof their ship is canon when he admits she was a beard. So many JayVik fans won't admit they just hate seeing a black woman get in the way of their slash and that's a problem in slash pairings in general. It certainly did not take long for this fandom to get toxic.
Also gotta add that saying that the animators opinion matters more than the show runners is a joke. The show runners were also the head writers. As someone who works in animation i know there are hundreds of people who work on a project. Those two animators were two of two hundred plus artists who worked on the show. While their work very obviously matters at the end of the day their input didnt change the script (especially since they arent even storyboard artists who do make visual storytelling changes to the script)
They usually only mention three animators - one woman, Andres, and another black animator whose name I cannot recall. There are hundreds of them and all have different opinions. As for storyboard artists, they don't talk about those.
You are so much more nice talking about jayvikkk than me because I would’ve been cussing them out the whole video lmao.
People need to decide whether manipulation is good or bad because Mel “manipulates” Jayce for 15 minutes? Boo bad evil black woman or Viktor who over multiple timelines seemingly chooses to fuck up and then puts pressure on a literal child to save his own soul? Yay yaoi is excellent true love. I need them to pick a side.
😭 glad I sound nice because I was trying to find the nice in me as I went on
I have some really deep friendships, so to me, jayvik was never romantic - Jayce calls him ‘my best friend’ to his face in season 2. Meljay on the other hand. I have never been so invested in a ship. The way he’s allowed to be weak with her when toxic masculinity is so rife atm the way she’s allowed to need him when the racist world keeps saying that black women don’t need a man. I don’t like this fandom because sometimes fans of jayvik are racist misogynists and so often subconsciously ableist. Viktor is my favourite character in the whole show. I’m disabled and he is such good rep (in season 1) but I’m a die hard meljay any day, because men are so lonely in todays culture, healthy male friendship is so necessary to portray, and portrayed so beautifully. Idk I’m rambling, but I’ve had depression, I’ve made an attempt and hurt myself like Viktor, and having friends like Jayce to talk you off that ledge to just sit with you and love you is so powerful and so beautifully portrayed in their FRIENDSHIP. I love Mel so dang much she does deserve better. A lot of love she gets is because she’s hot, she is so so so much more than that she’s got one of the best character designs I’ve ever seen sure but she’s also intelligent interesting kind daring curious masterfully written woman and I love her for that (season 2 did her dirty I can only hope they write her better in a noxus show)
I HEAR YA
Interesting. How do you feel about them "not acting straight enough"?
@@blacktigerpaw1I’m not certain as to what you mean by not acting straight enough - I think that it’s an odd thing to say that some behaviours are straight specific and some are gay specific when everyone is so diverse in their expressions of love and affection. The writers have said that Viktor was supposed to be asexual rep and that he and Jayce were platonic so that’s how I interpret it, particularly because it reflects friendships that I have had that have never been and never will be sexual or romantic. I personally think that it’s such a powerful thing to display friendship as having as much meaning to a story as romance or family because so often friendships get neglected in media. That’s just my two cents on it, and all these things are open to interpretation :)
@@Human_on_youtube59 I ask because people think the almost forehead touch at the end is something straight men don't do, let alone Jayce touching Viktor.
Man I'm so happy you made this video.
The eraser of Mel and Jayce's relationship everywhere online is so disheartening.
So you said that in the end the showrunners were in a hard place because they sort of had to pick an ending that would please everyone but I actually liked that ending for Mel and Jayce. How I saw it was both characters had gone through so much trauma in such short amount of time both of them just not being in that headspace to date. (Their meeting in the council room where Jayce freaks out as her is an example of this - old Jayce would have never). And at the end It's not like Vi and Caitlin where they more or less can now live a life together. Mel has to go figure out what other magical things she can do and fix her mother's messes while Jayce feels responsible for the damage that he caused and felt as though he should suffer for it with Viktor. So anyone negating their relationship just screams hate to me.
thank you, cause the mlm shippers dont think past just seeing a man.
Arcane Twitter just sees Viktor as a British cigarette. They don't even see him as a person.
@@blacktigerpaw1😭
@@Poohbear634 it's funny to read but it's sad AF to see
@@blacktigerpaw1true.
The way i love the meljayvik polycule idea but i can’t help but end up defending mel and her relationship with jayce and vice versa bec toxic jayvik fans are treating her as if she’s the devil’s incarnate which is wild considering every other main arcane character has done way worse than her 😭 they’re in the comments of every tiktok edit/twitter post about them trying to deny meljay loved each other like damn calm down yall are so desperate for this ship!
Mel literally told her own mom to stay away from Jayce and Ambessa clocked Mel’s affection for Jayce fast. Also I just saw Jayce concept art of him holding on to Mel’s picture while he was in that deep pit. Like if that doesn’t show that he loves her.
@@lindaisobel8829 Trevor alucard and sypha
@@Nayawritess exactlyyyyy
In a better world where misogynoir and all sorts of bullshit didn't exist we could have had a polycule between Mel Jayce and Viktor. That's the dream
What...the...
SERIOUSLY like I don’t UNDERSTAND why Jayvik shippers are like this JAYCE HAS TWO HANDS!!!!!!! WHY DONT YOU EVEN HAVE TWO BRAINCELLS!!!!!!!
ok but Viktor and Mel did NOT like each other lmao specifically Viktor - look at any scene the three of them were together and Viktor's glaring ass lol. i think Viktor thought she was using Jayce to get close to hextech and Mel didn't really paid him attention unless it was related to Jayce's state. I like both Viktor and Mel a lot but I don't think they got any proper interactions or would actually mesh well. it would be like tolerating each other because they both love Jayce but wouldn't want to spend any more time together unless necessary
Jayce called Viktor his Brother. Let's not make it polyshit
@@valeriyav2149 Since when do two people not liking each other stop anyone from shipping them? I agree that there wasn't much there but I think there could have been for a lot of reasons.
I loved Mel’s relationship with Jayce. Seeing how it progressed over the seasons was so wholesome the way he’s so affectionate towards her (considering the way her mother treats her and the way she acted surprised when he first started being affectionate with her it seems to me that she’s never experienced that kind of tenderness before) and the way she listens to him when he needs to talk makes them one of the healthiest relationships in the show. Not to mention one of the most attractive couples as well
This reminds me of Iris from the Flash. Every member in the Flash team has messed up big time but Iris says "we're the flash" as in telling Barry he's not alone, it riles up an uproar. She jumps off a building to save him, crickets, she supports him the most but noo, cause she's black they just have to villainies her because they ship Barry and Caitlin. Who are absolutely boring together 🙄
I knew that the Yt side of this fandom was cooked the minute I saw people defending Caitlyns police brutality on twitter 😭😭😭 I knew that if Caitlyn was black they would not have defended her as hard as they did
Arcane Twitter is insane. Filled with a bunch of rabid, unwashed white girls - and I say that as a WW. Unhinged.
Good point on Mage Viktor's entire existence based on manipulating Jayce for his paradox. It's okay for shippers because it's True Love or something.
I don't know if the animators' statements about Mel and Jayce were derogatory, but they were objectively wrong! Jayce always knew he loved Viktor, but as a BFF or brother. He literally says this, and at no time before the finale was he ever truly in a situation where he had to choose between the two. Even in the finale, he has to choose Viktor, any other choice would have ended with the nightmare version of the future that he had already visited, which would have been the end of Mel & everyone else!
Andres Derakhshani was the one who said those derogatory comments about Mel. The interview can be found on UA-cam, but went viral on Tiktok.
Exactly! I didn't get the idea that Jayce CHOSE Viktor in the end. Even though Viktor told him to go, how much sense would it have made for Jayce to say "cool, see u later." He had to stay to make sure it ended for good.
Yeah you know I find it funny that all these characteristics are acceptable when it's her mom because she's strong cougar that loves twinks 😂 I unabashedly love Ambessa,, but some people just can't unpack the fact that black women CAN be soft, they should be allowed to be soft without suspicion...., I thought the writers did well to call out the audience when Jayce argued she "manipulated" him.
But, I think I see where they're going with Mel in the foreseeable future, I am a little disappointed but this was Ambessas show 😅 Mel is going to deal with the fallout her mother (Noxus)created but she will do it HER way if the last episodes were any indicators
Why did you eat ?😭
This toxic behavior from Arcane "ship" fans comes to no surprise to me. I find the concept of shipping to be a weird (can eventually turn into a sick) obsession that people do towards finctional and non fictional chracters. I also find alot of people in the Arcane/League game community need to work out their deep rooted issues in therapy. Dispite the League community being known for their toxic fan base, its getting ridiculous seeing the same high school shipping mindset in these "adult" that are now turning into toxic, lust obseessed, creeps toward fictional characters.
Yes! I'd also like to add how Maddie "got in the way of CaitxVi" yet people are defending her for that, and even after the finale still like her even though she actually tricked and manipulated Cait, but Mel doesn't get the same energy when she is VERY MUCH INNOCENT compared to Maddie.
Like you explained in this video, Mel deserves so much better.
Not to mention how her story seemed a lot less cared for in S2 than in S1, not focusing in on her mentality, love, and care. It's cool that she's a mage, but I feel like they kinda threw out how she created peace amongst people just by using her words, so beautifully, which is really different from a lot of the characters who focus on using brute strength (i.e. Vi, Cait, Jinx, Silco, as well as everyone else.)
If Mel were a man and jayce a woman, not a soul would hate on her. They'd call him a genius and smartest in the show and so awesome for "*winning*" such a beautiful woman with his 'charm'...but nah, the WOMAN is the powerful one and people call it manipulation? evil? Nah thats just sexist at its core. After watching s1 I was shocked to hear people disliked her.
i was thinking about how different things would be if mel was a man, too! people would definitely be like "idc hes hot," just as they do with actual murderers!
I agree with this take, I feel like with a certain sect of the fandom a character can do one wrong and be banished forever, this happened with Mel and my goat Vi. I do believe Mel is going to get more character time once the other projects come out but certain people definitely watch the show and refuse to change their opinions on characters as they grow. Granted I’m guilty of doing just that with Jinx.
But Jinx screwed up many , many times compared to Mel and Vi , no ?
@@DianaDonineaux sorry I just seen this but yes you’re right jinx does have a lot of mishaps. But I meant more so that I don’t really like jinx despite the fact she is show to have grown as a character in season 2. That’s why I meant I was guilty because Mel and Vi also mess up but I liked them because of their character growth but that same thing didn’t apply to jinx.
@@jaidenfrost709 no need to be sorry . ok , thanks for the reply .
Coming back to this video to remind everyone that M/M ships have a misogyny and racism problem and JayVik shippers are willing to forgive a white man for dooming entire timelines because he's a pretty white man (I say this as a Viktor fan).
JayVik shippers have only gotten more racist and still promote that Derakhshani interview as proof when that man got his @ss fired. Anytime a JayVik shipper calls Mel disgusting I will just compare them to Stormfront from the Boys because that's exactly how they act. If Jayce was any darker, the ship would not be as popular.
LOUD THIS
Girl, when i tell you i don't even go here, yet saw my mutuals on Tumblr writing whole essays about it only to come across this video because i had to know what the hell was going on. As an outsider, watching this shit happen in real time is upsetting, but not surprising. I've been a part of many fandoms and unfortunately, Mel isn't the first Black female character to get thrown under the bus and she won't be the last. Until we get more Black creatives/women in these writer's rooms it'll be the same thing every time. Anyway, thank you for making this video and don't let the idiots in the comments gaslight you because everything you said is right.
Mel and Jayce were my favorite characters, loved their relationship (like whenever he would put his head in her lap 😍) and then after 2x7, Ekko joined that group. Only until after the show finished did I find out people were shipping Jayce and Viktor. I don't engage in shipping culture other than the obvious "oh these characters would be cute" because I find it all so stupid. Fandoms do weird things, so I just watch the shows and movies and rarely go online lol
Either way, Jayce and Viktor's ending was still incredible. The entire show is so impactful, love it
Mel is everything! There is no arguing that Jinx, Vi, Jayce & Viktor are the main characters! But if you pay any attention and have any comprehensive skills, you would KNOW that Mel, Ekko, and Caitlyn are the actual heroes of the story! Evwry character in Arcane is deep. There are NO one-dimensional caricatures in this show. They are all flawed in some way or another, and Mel is no different! Her methods are devious and manipulative, but she told only 1lie the whole show. It was to the older council member about a toy gift being for great mind, and her intent was lain bare thoughout both seasons. She wanted to protect people and improve their lives. If she could turn a healthy profit at the same time, so be it. But all she ever did was encouraged and impower Jayce & Viktor! She derailed her mother Ambessa's plan whenever she could. She quite literally safe both Jayce's and Caitlyn's lives. She was ultimately the one of the two who took down Ambessa. She everything she could to keep Piltover safe! Anyone who felt that Jayce & Viktor could or should have been a thing, that is what YOU wanted! That is NOT how the story went! Go write your own fanfic if that makes you happy, but hating on someone else, especially using race or sex/gender as an avenue for your hate, is absolutely trash, and you are a trash person for even going there.
Jayce and Viktor aren’t main characters, Vi and Jinx are.
@witchplease9695 You must not have watched the same show? 1)Jayce, Viktor, Caitlyn, Ekko, and Singed were the only other characters that were introduced in the 1st act, were around until the series finale, and had screen time in EVERY SINGLE ACT. 2)Jayce & Viktor showed up in just as many total episodes as Vi and Jinx, and were necessary for plot progression at every venture. They even similar levels of actual screen time as Vi & Jinx in the series. 3)Viktor was ultimately the main antagonist of the show, and Jayce was intrinsic to his whole story. They may have been the B plot, but they were definitely the main characters of that plot, which makes them main characters!
Completely fucking agree here, some people just can't fucking stop projecting their stereotypical headcanons onto the source material. I've been a jayvik shipper since day 1 but making Mel out to be a villain??? Like seriously so ridiculous
Like truly, if Viktor's glorious revolution hadn't made Jayce fear magic and get paranoid about Mel having deceived him we could have had canonically star-crossed meljayvik and I'll never recover (I hope you know we had everything etc)
(semi-joking because I genuinely believe they're setting her up to be a main character in the sister series and omg I kinda need a mel-centric season, I'm so willing to sacrifice the boys for that sry not sry)
Oh that last shot of Mel going to noxus is all I can think about
People will forgive cosmic genocide if done by a white man but not a black woman who played politics as a councilor. Something to note.
omg people saying jayce didnt love mel watched the show with their eyes closed and their ears pluggled, its the only way someone would be able to misinterpret such an obvious explicitly romantic relationship ?????
ALSO jayce possibly loving viktor romantically doesnt exclude the fact that he did love mel romantically too!! besides misogyny and racism, it also stinks of biphobia... just saying
Refreshing to see a take on the jayvik vs meljay situation that isn't homophobic. Really kinda baffling about what the animators said about that scene, cause it just does not make any sense, *and* left a bad taste in my mouth. Also sad to see both misogynoir *and* homophobia attacking either side, though it's really not that surprising. (that said, meljayvik ftw they'd be an unstoppable power throuple /lh)
THANK YOU 🙏🏾
Love this video ad 100% agree with you. I am purely a meljay shipper and enjoy Jayvik as a strong friendship. My top 3 is Meljayvik. Though I don't mind the jayvik romance ship at all. Do what you wan't, ain't nobody finna stop yall. But don't speak on my girl THEEE Mel Medarda. Episode 8 wasn't a breakup scene to me lol. I see it as a break but not a breakup. Especially a break up to be with viktor. I didn't know about that video with the animators...Ew. I hope Mel becomes a main character for the next show, getting everything she wants, including ROMANCE and be together forever, her happy ending.
BTW, any time someone brings up that video - Andres shipped Jilco and got a call from the higher ups to stop that s.hit. He was later let go.
@@blacktigerpaw1 so Andres is just a weirdo if that is true
@@Poohbear634 It is, his quote can be found on UA-cam. He is constantly cited as the 'animator that says JayVik is canon' - and no other animators are name dropped barring him.
@@Poohbear634 Yep, he had a tweet of it. Someone ended up keeping the receipts.
Mel being set up for the next season is the best thing that could happen for her character development independent of JayVik, let them dance together in their time loop while Mel the Goddess Mage stands in her Power, Politically AND Magically I CANNOT WAIT...and she inspired my very first Cosplay!!! Video of season 1 on my page. I said back then, 2+ years ago that I hope the writers dont reduce her character to a girlfriend Jayce avenges because that would be weak. I got so sick of seeing comments in the time between seasons 1-2 of people essentially hoping she was dead in the blast! That reeked of just evil energy to me personally SMH, they wont admit it fully but they couldnt stand all that Power, Intelligence, Non Violence Supporter, Wealth, Beauty and Glow...and they had the Nerve to get her MORE GLOWUP!!! I love the Medardas, Mel and Ambessa!!!
I like what you said really and I totally understand where you’re coming from but Maddy is getting tons of hate from shippers everywhere for getting in the way of Caitlyn and Vi so…. I think shippers would bash any character that getting in the way of their ship you know. Honestly if Mel was a white woman she still be getting the hate for getting in the way of Jayvik. But anyhow glad Mel is a beautiful graceful black gal and also I realize black women look great in gold.
Meljay is complex and underrated.
I agree
I learned something today.
Had no idea "JayVik vs Mel" fans conflict was actually a thing.
That's what so good about this show, there's always something to talk about, agree on or disagree on
It's like the writers forgot about Mel and Ekko this season.
I’m glad someone said this. I noticed at after S2 and was like “Yall want two men to be together so bad, when y’all literally have Vi and Cait.” Ty for your thoughts. God bless you
Sister, sarcasticaly, but also, respectfuly: it was a show based on League of Legends, the tocixity was bound to follow.
That said, I agree. Mel deserved so much more.
Mel is MY GIRL. intelligent, principled, compassionate, and creative, she is by far my favorite character. I’m only meh about her and Jayce because I think she deserves better. Like a god-tier man.
I wish I could be half as awesome as
Mel. She absolutely rules.
Always hated how ppl hated on Mel the first season. Who cares if she called them investments? Everything is an investment. She clearly saw them as more than that.
She spells this out explicitly in her conversation with Lest.
"Nobody is disposable. That's what this is all about. Everything with my mother is a calculated risk."
I'm jayvik shipper but the Mel bashing actually doesn't make sense to me. I didn't even realise how bad it was until I watched this video.
I love how the show portrayed Mel and Jayce's relationship. And I love Mel so much (she's literally one of my top five).
Will I still ship Jayce and Viktor? Yes. But will I villainize Mel for 'getting in the way of the relationship'? Hell the f*** no.
I hate whenever media actually portrays a strong well written female character and the fandom just turns it to shit. this thing keeps happening especially with black women and I love that you called it out. Even if she wasn't with Jayce, I know people would still be talking. Whenever people of colour are well represented in media, people always try to find a way to drag the character's name through the mud or bash the work of fiction just because the cast is coloured. It's especially common with women of colour.
There is a part of me that knows that if the main cast was made up of poc characters, they show would never have become as popular as it is.
I've even already seen people complaining about Ekko.
Jayce and Viktor didn't have a romantic relationship. It's kinda sad that people can't have strong bond with the same gender without being shipped.
I agree
Thank you for this video! As much as I am a passionate jayvik shipper, I also love Mel (high femme + complicated bond with her mom?? hello, my fav type of character), and I'm glad I've never seen people actually bashing on her. I saw that tiktok with animators and giggled at it a bit and it didn't even strike me as objectifying so thank you for pointing that out bc it was a little bit downgrading indeed, I realize it now. And this attack on Linke frustrates me. Like, he did express himself poorly and making a couple of meme about this can't hurt but I see people being furious and picking apart his writing like hello??? The show is still AMAZINGLY written it is one thing to critisize something and another is bashing writers and their skills in disguise of silly cackles.
In general, characters in Arcane are insanely complicated and it blows my mind just to think about all these nuances not to say trying to express them in my social media or fics. This show really is something and visually just ugh stunning
I have always said she's the most underrated character. I think she does manipulate but it's calculated and never done to harm. She is almost always going for a win win. I think in the beginning we were supposed to see the manipulation and mistrust her. But so many people are just blinded by first impressions.
Baby look you are the truth. As a bi black man I will apologize for the failure of lgbtq black men to protect and prepare black women for how deeply rooted mysogynoir is within a lot of white gay men. What you are seeing is multi layered but definitely has roots within the culture of white gay men and how they view black women in particular. I’m actually not a Jayvik fan because the ship is rooted in so much delusion it’s taken away from anything positive about it.
Definitely yt Jayvik fans for sureeee, lol not delusional 😭 but I totally hear you. Thank you so much for your 2cents❤️
Jayce and Viktor aren’t in a romantic relationship & anyone pushing that is just stupid. Mel did initially want to use Jayce (aka the fox) for her own reasons but she genuinely fell in love with him and he fell in love with her… they are the true couple.
I personally never hated Mel. I think she's an amazingly well written character, and I feel like she's way more interesting than Ambessa(which is saying a lot because Ambessa is an interesting character, too). I love that Mel is a very beautiful and feminine yet powerful woman, so I feel like people need to chill out and just leave her alone.
I literally noticed this and pointed it out to my friends. I'm so glad you made this video
I agree. Mel is a complex character. Some people judged her from one episode and ignored her character development and storylines, because it was the only way they could justify despising Mel and Jayce's relationship. Arcane shares a lot of manga and anime fans. These fans are often visceral about their slash ships. Mangakas received death threats for not canonizing yaoi relationships between male characters. Sadly, misogynoir and misogyny are as normal as breathing to them.
Good news: it wasn't Fortiche, the animation studio, that preferred Jayvik. The guy in the video was an animator for them but he was one of several character animators, not a lead animator. He also doesn't work for Fortiche anymore.
I didn't even know arcane before two days ago. And I was glad to see Mel character as a black woman. I liked the fact she had layers and emotion. My problem was more about her mother who is a cliche of the angry black woman.
Im do shook about the comment of the animator. In my experience, Men who speak like that about black women are racists.
Mel is definitely mischaractorized, but I'm definitely NOT a JayVik shipper! They aren't canon and were never intended to be! If they is ANY plausible complaint about Jayce and Mel's ship, I only see 2! 1)They never said the words to make it official. Not a "I'm committed to us," "I love you," "It's you & me against the world," nothing! This is the only leg that Jay/Vik shippers have to stand on, and it's pretty weak. 2)Why couldn't this beautiful, smart, talented, rich, and powerful BLACK woman be with a BLACK man? Very seldom do we see positive representation of a straight black male! And even when we do, he almost always has a love interest of a different ethnicity, and or he isn't human. They will make him a vampire, werewolf, alien, but never just a good human being. Same for black women. Even when they make them as good as Mel, they'll never give them a good black man for a love interest. Ekko is the true MVP of the story and his ship is Jinx!....No complaints, Arcane is a masterpiece....IJS!
_"Even when they make them as good as Mel, they'll never give them a good black man for a love interest. Ekko is the true MVP of the story and his ship is Jinx!"_
because they have the same age, both of them are ~18 in season 2 while Mel is ~35, there is no black male character close to her age in Arcane
@fixpontt I'm aware, but my comment wasn't specific to Arcane. It was about American Media in general! Well, more non-african media, actually. Please do me the favor of not removing my statements from the obvious context it was delivered in! Read the whole damn post! Thanx.
Even though I do ship both of them, that doesn’t excuse on hating on Mel, plus in my opinion, while I do love her in general, I feel like she was getting sidelined in s2, we could’ve get more of her tbh, and if my senses are correct, maybe we’ll get more of her in the Noxus series!
Either way, praise Mel Medarda
Yeah, that’s something I’ve noticed happens a lot in gay ships, where the female love interest is villanized, esp if they’re a person of color. Like I can really only name one fandom that doesn’t do it off the top of my head, the Merthur fandom, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s some pro Merthur, anti Gwen misogynoir out there
In my interpretation Jayce in Arcane is strongly written as a bisexual character. There is this common theme with him about "picking sides". Mel wasn't a cover for his homosexuality or "just a hookup", neither the romantic reading of his relationship with Viktor is a delusional one, in fact it is heavily comunicated through cinematographic lenguage. Jayce was clearly in love with both.
Tbh, even if Jayce viewed sex with Mel as a hookup, it makes Jayce look bad… not Mel. I think that’s something that gets overlooked. When a black woman is mistreated, the fault lies with the person mistreating her. Sure Mel loved Jayce but I never saw their relationship on equal footing because he clearly had feelings for Viktor. Maybe I’m biased because I love Mel, but I also never viewed her as some crazy manipulator. I viewed her as smart and politically savvy. Hating Mel is definitely laced with misogynoir because she’s objectively pretty unproblematic compared to other characters. However I don’t think Jayce being caught between Mel and Viktor and then realizing his soulmate is actually Viktor is misogynoir. I hope she finds her king 🙏🏾
Jayce using a black woman to 'discover' he actually likes white men is problematic no matter which way you cut it.
@yes -using people is bad. IF that’s what Jayce did, then it’s a character flaw for Jayce. The characters in arcane are complex. 99% of the characters treated another character poorly. Maybe you’re right and Jayce is problematic. that has nothing to do with Mel and says nothing about HER character.
On another hand, I don’t think it has to be this black and white. I’m saying this as a black woman. Viktor wasn’t just a random white man. He was Jayce’s long time lab partner and friend. Jayce and Mel made sense because of proximity, but if he slept with any other member of the council and then realized he actually had a soulmate connection with his long time best friend…that’s just life. It’s messy but relationships are messy. That’s one of the main themes of the show. If Ekko had a short lived romance with a hypothetical character (black or white) only to realize that he’ll never love someone as much as Powder because she’s his childhood love…that sucks for the new girl but it has nothing to do with race.
SPEAK FACTSSSSS
As much as I love the series, I realised the problematic representation of certain ethnic groups of people.
- Black men and women not being given any proper roles as parents, siblings and lovers. While Mel's family could be a very beautiful example of Black love and family, it was never explored. On the other hand, you see a lot of sob story about Vi and Jinx and their masculine white dads. Ekko isn't given any Black family members either. All of his father figures are white Anglo men (Vander, Benzo).
- Even though Jayce is supposed to be a Latino, he looks ambiguous enough that most of the fandom wants to persistently see him as a white man, and indeed, while his mother looks very Latino, Jayce looks like a tanned Northern European man (not even a Mediterranean man).
- Sky, also a Black woman, simps Viktor, then dies. She gets cucked again when she reveals that Viktor won't miss her company.
- Caitlin looks nothing like her father, apart from having inherited hooded eyes, she is the exact copy of her mother. At least I wished they gave her a flatter face, which wouldn't have erased her father's side at all.
- Every Asian man in the series is either a jerk who gets killed later (Finn and Mercus)
- I don't like how the series weaponised feminism to put Asian men (again, Caitlin's father) to the background and emasculated them, once again. Caitlin's parents relationship feels like a gender-swapped version of a stereotypical white man Asian woman couple. As if they said "let's make Caitlin's dad Asian, but we can't represent a healthy masculine Asian man in a paternal role, so we make the family matriarchal."
Interesting
…🤦🏾♀️
I'm so glad mel didn't die from the explosion, I was literally just on reddit earlier and someone said this about her last month when people were speculating whether or not she'd survive the ending of season 1. Someone was claiming in confidence that Mel would be dead, and that her purpose was to advance jayce 'from naive boy to leader', and now she could die now that her arc was complete. Which prompted this response which I'm just gonna quote verbatim bc they said it well:
-
"...It’s also a bit strange that you’re trying to reduce Mel to a mere plot device to advance her male counterpart.
It seems clear that you see little to no value in Mel's character, and I have to wonder why. Her arc is far from over-whether you like it or not, she is a main character. The creators said that in this season, the characters will be the opposite of their season 1 selves. If that's true then Mel being a fox until the finale of season 1 will eventually lead her to being a wolf (a fighter and defender).
What’s intriguing about Mel is that she was crafted to be perceived negatively by those with a biased, one-dimensional toddler brain, only for her true, pure intentions to be revealed later in the series. Then, you guys think, "Oh, she's good now, so she should die," which is a weird perspective. The writers of Arcane are better than falling into tropes, clichés, and stereotypes. Yet, for a character you seemingly dislike and want to see gone to elevate her white male counterpart, it seems you’re willing to lower your standards for the writers to fit that wish."
by gyu657jj on reddit
A vast amount of arcane watchers are league players which somewhat explains the lack of media literacy
I mean Preach tbh
I was honestly disappointed mel and jayce weren't given More time? (and i don't even ship them beyond my appriciation for the canon itself if im honest, but i still like a well executed relationship, ya feel? Like im not Blind, they are Hella cute and interesting.)
It felt like an odd direction to focus So Much on j&v even tho i Looove Them. I feel like their plot overshadowed most other dynamics this season? Heck it even overshadowed Their Own s1 dynamic somehow, idk how they managed tbh..
I love Mel. At first I was iffy about her the first 3 or 4 episodes of season 1 due to her being a power figure. But she grew on me over time once we learned about her as a person and her own emotional arcs. Mel dosen't want violence, but will carry out violence as a last resort. Jace was the one who was trying to coach her onto it impulsively. She isn't dependent on Jace and she also had the final say about not mass producing hestech weapons.
However i think a lot of people tended to miss characterized her when her and Jace slept together after his success and when we were seeing her giving Jace attention after he made it big for himself. I think she just naturally fell in love with his nature of technical progress and the potential it has to improve the upper and possibly lower cities. Not for own personal gain like alot of people saw. Though i would admit that Jace and Viktor have more screentime that develops their relationship while we don't get that interaction as much with Mel and Jace outside of political discussion. But that is more of the fault of Arcane's fast pace nature.
Hiii I'm a Jayvik shipper and i literally don't understand why people are hating on Mel , she isn't my favorite character (Viktor's my fav ) but i still didn't hate on her , personally i like the idea of jayce Loving Mel and Viktor, i like the hole "He has a type ( literally gods)" or "Hes fighting his bisexual demons" , and to be honest i forgot that Mel and Jayce were in a relationship when I was watching season 2 bc they almost didn't have any Scenes together , i know that she was kidnapped by the black rose and jayce was in another timeline but i still miss seeing them together❤. (Sorry if my english isn't really good, is not my first language)
. like why cant two guys be good friends anymore? if they were to become a "thing" it would ruin the entire dynamic for me. I really like jayce and mel together as she was an amazing character for him.
i havent watched the full vid but i gotta say i LOVE mel so much like shes gorgeous she has an interesting story and just UGHHHH the designnn the art i love it
most of the arcane fandom are lgtbq, which is not a problem or surprising. But my point is, they’re going to focus on ships or relationships that contains that topic. Maybe it’s because the lack of mlm relationships or they are just bored.
Which is not a act of defense just a reason probably why
Funny, then, that they write about the pale or whiter skinned ships vs the darker skinned one.
@@Strawberiizzi Well, on AO3, M/M ships outnumber F/F ships 6:1, and M/F 2:1. Yaoi has always been more popular than yuri because yuri ships have so much purity culture involved while yaoi it's 'anything goes'.
Mel and Jayce are a cute ship and I think they definetly work well together.
I do think the writers didn't emphasize their romantic dynamic at the end of the show because their lives were beginning to separate (both literally and metaphorically).
The final act of S2 shows Mel fully stepping into her power as a mage while Jayce is preparing to sacrifice his life to fix the impending apocalypse he and Viktor have kickstarted. Mel is preparing for the next phase of her life, while Jayce is preparing for his life to be over. In spite of all that you can tell they clearly still care for each other. The love they had for each other is real and I feel like Jayvik shippers who dismiss that clearly don't understand the show as well as they claim. Jayce can love both Mel and Viktor, and I genuinely believe the reason why Mel is seen as a less legitimate love interest is because she's a black woman.
I haven't seen a lot of anti-Mel discourse personally but I also only interact with the arcane fandom on very curated Tumblr and Insta feeds, most of which are multishippers/MelJayVik truthers.