Maybe Arcane Was The Friends We Made Along The Way

Ao3 -> boudica_real

[iwillmissourtalks]

I've been thinking about this post you linked me https://www.tumblr.com/iwillmissourtalks/777078336524566528/she-absolutely-has-also-just-in-general-i-dont which raises the possibility of memory fuckery being a thing, which somehow I had never associated to Mel's stay at the Occulorum yet but now I can totally see. It reminded me of one thing, cuz I finished Arcane a little ago so I was not active during live discussion of the eps, but recently I checked on some old reddit/forum threads and was a little baffled my interpretation had been so different, re: the last episode. Somehow to me it was a given that Ambessa had not been aware (or fully aware) that it was Leblanc who delivered the final blow, as I see it, due to shock + magic reasons. However most interpretations paint it as "Mel teaming up with the BR to kill Ambessa". There's too much to unpack in both halves of that sentence which isnt even related to your post lol but I wonder, do you connect that last ep scene to the kind of memory erasure LB might've used before? (asking here to not pile onto the conversation, sorry I can't change accs)

Ooo interesting.

Yeah, LeBlanc is definitely pulling something out of Ambessa’s head but I don’t think it’s memories. It’s a bit late for that, but it does reinforce the idea she has some magical dominion over the mind.

I personally think this is just a particularly painful/intimate way to kill her. Ambessa has done enough to earn LeBlanc’s attention and thus her death will acknowledge that etc etc

As for “Mel teaming up with the black rose to kill Ambessa”…..I think Mel called upon the Black Rose as a last resort to defeat Ambessa certainly. She was losing the fight and calling LeBlanc with the necklace objectively saved Caitlyn’s life.

That said, I don’t think Mel ever intended to kill her mother. She calls LeBlanc, then immediately chases her into whatever pocket dimension was conjured in an attempt to take Ambessa back. And she succeeds! She just doesn’t do it fast enough for her mom to make it out alive.

[iwillmissourtalks]

@babybunnyloaf

Yeah! :)

I think Ambessa knew the Black Rose was involved in her death. Her saying “you are the wolf” in reference to Mel is because A) she had about 4 words left in her & she was visibly hanging on to life/struggling to speak, and B) from her perspective Mel essentially used her as bait to draw out LeBlanc and kill her + Ambessa in a single move. Which she approves of.

I have a lot of thoughts about this which I thought I had already made a post about, but apparently not?? anyway you can have a long string of discord messages instead

(under the cut)

[greseadraws]

Is there something so undoing as a daughter

[iwillmissourtalks]

I've been thinking about this post you linked me https://www.tumblr.com/iwillmissourtalks/777078336524566528/she-absolutely-has-also-just-in-general-i-dont which raises the possibility of memory fuckery being a thing, which somehow I had never associated to Mel's stay at the Occulorum yet but now I can totally see. It reminded me of one thing, cuz I finished Arcane a little ago so I was not active during live discussion of the eps, but recently I checked on some old reddit/forum threads and was a little baffled my interpretation had been so different, re: the last episode. Somehow to me it was a given that Ambessa had not been aware (or fully aware) that it was Leblanc who delivered the final blow, as I see it, due to shock + magic reasons. However most interpretations paint it as "Mel teaming up with the BR to kill Ambessa". There's too much to unpack in both halves of that sentence which isnt even related to your post lol but I wonder, do you connect that last ep scene to the kind of memory erasure LB might've used before? (asking here to not pile onto the conversation, sorry I can't change accs)

Ooo interesting.

Yeah, LeBlanc is definitely pulling something out of Ambessa’s head but I don’t think it’s memories. It’s a bit late for that, but it does reinforce the idea she has some magical dominion over the mind.

I personally think this is just a particularly painful/intimate way to kill her. Ambessa has done enough to earn LeBlanc’s attention and thus her death will acknowledge that etc etc

As for “Mel teaming up with the black rose to kill Ambessa”…..I think Mel called upon the Black Rose as a last resort to defeat Ambessa certainly. She was losing the fight and calling LeBlanc with the necklace objectively saved Caitlyn’s life.

That said, I don’t think Mel ever intended to kill her mother. She calls LeBlanc, then immediately chases her into whatever pocket dimension was conjured in an attempt to take Ambessa back. And she succeeds! She just doesn’t do it fast enough for her mom to make it out alive.

[iwillmissourtalks]

[loafbunnybaby]

one of the things i love about mel is the fact she does vent art

[loafbunnybaby]

fuck yes they should kiss!!!!! but like i was wondering whether leblanc was actually secretly present during the beheading moment, or do we think she inferred it via mel's conduit/mirror empath thing which gave it away somehow bc for some reason the distinction matters to me

[iwillmissourtalks]

It’s all good!! I love talking about the oculorum. I think it’s more likely (and thematic) that she was present during the beheading.

Idk if you’ve read Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf but very early on, the enemy half of the Medarda war of succession was already being sponsored by the black rose. LeBlanc had deemed Ambessa too headstrong to make for a good puppet, and thus would’ve had to be watching her already to make that decision.

I do think there’s a secret third option which is that LeBlanc was present for the beheading but also knew it would affect Mel because that information was tortured/manipulated out of her via timeloop-style memory fuckary. but that’s mostly based on speculation

[iwillmissourtalks]

Also found my edit

[loafbunnybaby]

one of the things i love about mel is the fact she does vent art

[loafbunnybaby]

fuck yes they should kiss!!!!! but like i was wondering whether leblanc was actually secretly present during the beheading moment, or do we think she inferred it via mel's conduit/mirror empath thing which gave it away somehow bc for some reason the distinction matters to me

[iwillmissourtalks]

It’s all good!! I love talking about the oculorum. I think it’s more likely (and thematic) that she was present during the beheading.

Idk if you’ve read Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf but very early on, the enemy half of the Medarda war of succession was already being sponsored by the black rose. LeBlanc had deemed Ambessa too headstrong to make for a good puppet, and thus would’ve had to be watching her already to make that decision.

I do think there’s a secret third option which is that LeBlanc was present for the beheading but also knew it would affect Mel because that information was tortured/manipulated out of her via timeloop-style memory fuckary. but that’s mostly based on speculation

[iwillmissourtalks]

Mel Medarda is so fucking funny. nicest woman alive stunned and delighted to find there are even kinder things to do than Not Kill People

[exoticoyster]

Gideon the Ninth: uuu murder mystery, surprisingly tragic

Harrow the Ninth:

My reading experience so far

[melmedardaapologist]

Mel Medarda: Empath

MEL: I'm one of you? A mage? LEBLANC: We each have our own expressions. Yours is quite rare. An empath. Attuned to the ethereal. Able to sense others' inner selves and bend their magic. A conduit and a mirror. [...] [Ambessa] hid you because you are that which she covets most: a weapon.

Above, we have the snippet of dialogue from the intro of s2e8 “Killing Is a Cycle” that’s been haunting my thoughts, because while I do think Mel’s mage arc could have been executed better and not crammed into a handful of scenes across *checks notes* two episodes, there’s a lot of interesting information packed into here

So empath is a loaded word, especially since the way it's used within the general "narcissist" discourse on tiktok (i believe, i don't have nor plan to get on there anytime soon), but it's originally from the ancient greek ἐμπάθ which more closely correlates to passion, and then there's the self-proclaimed clairvoyant Judith Orloff, who identifies "empaths" as people able to both sense emotion and use it to the benefit of those around them—the classic definition found in scifi and fantasy literature, but in Mel's case, I'll argue that the more important words are the ones Leblanc says (aligning with the first part of Orloff's definition): "A conduit and a mirror"

So obviously this has the technical application where Mel's powers work as a mirror, from deflecting Maddie's bullet to being able to hijack Leblanc's black rose shadow dimension with light, but then there's the emotional aspect: apart from simply having high emotional intelligence, throughout season one, Mel is Piltover's clearest "mirror" and enactor of its principles, despite being an outsider: she rewards scientific brilliance coinciding with economic gain and dreams of pushing the city to the future and brings enterprise directly into the decision-making room with Jayce, and also takes on its faults, making deals in shadowed balconies of opera houses and not fully acknowledging Piltover's responsibility in having laid the grounds of the conflict, as Ambessa points out

Thus: in regards to Mel's political modus operandi and magical powers, I'd argue that the primary key to both is reflection rather than the healing/nurturing associations that the word "empath" has, and we can see this immediately when Leblanc adds "[Ambessa] hid you because you are that which she covets most: a weapon", which of course could be Leblanc attempting to turn Mel against her mother by playing on Mel's aversion to violence, but in context of the previous quote I think there's a chance Leblanc genuinely believes that this "reflecting" power is what makes Ambessa love Mel by seeing herself in her

And maybe that's why she reveals her true nature and her plans to Mel so soon after she destroys the Oculorum, hoping that, destabilized, she'll mirror Leblanc's cloak-and-dagger mannerisms as she once mirrored Piltover's elite, but then the finale Mel manages to outsmart her by "reflecting" both of her mentor figures—Leblanc by turning on her ("sly girl") and Ambessa by defeating her ("you are the wolf")

All this to say I think it could be a very interesting set-up having Mel's empath powers get in the way of her sense of justice, especially she's going back to Noxus where the ideologies that she attempted to push back on are going to be present in full force—if your power is being a mirror, who is going to cast their reflection onto you?

[funstyle]

[recommending something i sincerely love] ok so the thing about it is it kinda sucks

[tabloidsores]

Two dudes in my group chat have been playing league & slowly but surely have shifted from saying "wanna play league of legends" to "wanna play some geego legends". At this point their average post is just @ing the other and going "geegogagand?" and I feel insane

[iwillmissourtalks]

Tried editing for the first time!! I’m too busy to work on my fics atm but it turns out these are really fast to make which is cool :)

I have truly so many thoughts about how Le’blanc was just stalking Mel her entire life. I was rewatching S1 and Amara is just There, all the time, whenever Mel is on screen. It’s crazy.

Also that necklace. Giving Mel a symbol of innocent life being taken before her eyes and putting that symbol on her brother, first? Life ruining.

[iwillmissourtalks]

I have more to say about this actually.

That fucking necklace dude. Mel was ALREADY weird about it, she paints it abstract and bloodstained on the ground; on a canvas big enough that it takes up the majority of her entire wall. Then she hangs it above her bed. Crazy.

No one knows what that means but her; no one else even sees it but her. The rest of the room is empty. It’s just the bed and the source of her nightmares. Mel is a freak.

Then Le’blanc comes along and is just unimaginably cruel. She prys into Mel’s mind and finds this thing that affects her more than anything else and she puts it on Kino. She takes the face of the dead girl and wears that, too. She could have conjured any object to give to Mel and she chose that specific necklace. What’s worse is it feeds into Mel’s already pre-ingrained awful response to grief.

“Wear this thing around your neck, carry it with you always. No one can see it. It will kill your mother; just as it killed your brother and your friend and that girl in your dreams.”

The level of simultaneous possessiveness and cruelty is insane. Every aspect of Mel’s mage design feels like physiological torture and I’m never going to be over it.

[mollysunder]

Those people who said Mel was secretly LeBlanc all along are so boring. Canon is genuinely far more interesting and insane.

LeBlanc's redesign has her make up and jewelry resemble Mel's s1 introductory look.

And when LeBlanc finally gets to Mel she molds Mel's new look not just to her own taste, but who she was in the past. Mel's new face tattoos were made similar to LeBlanc's own when she was younger. It's probably a cultural relic of their Targonian roots.

Mel and LeBlanc aren't the same person, but LeBlanc almost treats Mel like they are. I wish the Black Rose arc was good.

[loveandlegacy]

leblanc makes me crazy bc she is such a compelling character in her own right but kind of by virtue of one of her PRIMARY TRAITS being that she has fractured and atomized herself so profoundly that she's become partially inscrutable, any time you try to look up anything about her, people end up talking about her as an attachment to someone else (swain, mordekaiser, ambessa, vlad, the du couteaus, etc) and it's like just let me have my woman. please. i love her

[loafbunnybaby]

one of the things i love about mel is the fact she does vent art

[iwillmissourtalks]

SHES THE FUCKING NEXUS NIGHT CHASE‼️ ohhh thank you riot. we could not even dream of times like these

[melencholiaenthroned]

rewatching again god viktors s1 accent is so bad and all over the place. my nothing boy from nowhere

[melencholiaenthroned]

"viktor is czech because harry loid did a czech accent" harry loid definitely did an accent. we've yet to uncover what it is though.