It Should Be A Way Bigger Deal Some Other Party Figured Out How To Construct Their Own Version Of Shimmer,

That on tt trend

Mel Merdarda my beloved

some pre canon mel sketches (and not an excuse to play dress up!!!)

I think the Arcane fanbase as a whole is very quick to clock Mel's manipulative tactics & condemn them without ever asking themselves why it is she acts that way. They either go 'problematic girlboss go queen' or 'what a horrible conniving bitch!' and move on, and it's been bugging me for a while.

Mel is the daughter of a Noxian Warmonger, raised in a 'might makes right' sort of environment that encourages violence as the means to settle conflict. The strong are always the winners, the losers must die. What made Mel such an outcast is primarily her resistance to such violence. Mel, at her very core, doesn't want to hurt people. We see this when she insists to her mother in that flashback to her childhood that they should spare that girl to "show the people that we are merciful," as she puts it.

To Mel, manipulation is the only way to avoid violence. Being too directly honest, not appealing to people, can be dangerous. It can lead to bloodshed. And if you look at things through her perspective in that sense, it's kind of obvious why she's constantly utilizing her cunning to get her way- because the only other way would actively put lives in danger. Mel's conniving nature is quite literally a coping mechanism that's followed her to Piltover, fortunately for her that makes her a very formidable politician.

like, i love stories where good people are flawed and at odds with each other, and can be unfair to each other or themselves. i don't need all the characters to be friends or never have conflict.

but it is very different from the fandom concept of 'portraying flaws' where an already routinely demonized character of color is constantly getting chewed out by other characters who are basically props, who are only there to voice the fandoms anger, and all for the sake of the fandom's chosen white woobie's catharsis.

and of course, when you want to focus more on the underappreciated characters and point out fandoms racism and misogyny, it's "why don't you create for your blorbos yourself instead of complaining!" but when it's a 100th post in the character tag demanding more 'flawed' portrayals for the character (while all popular artists and writers in fandom are already hyper-critical of the character at best or bash them at worst) it's considered fine.

(and when you see what fics are getting recommended under those posts... it becomes even more clear that it's not about nuanced portrayals)

babe i hear the ice cream truck

medieval au because i'm so normal about them

(prints!)

Huntin!

Happy Valentines !!!!

Saw this and immediately thought of melvika 😈

Melvika - Mel Medarda and Sevika (Arcane)

You can't tell me they didn't f*cked at least 10 times