is there anything so undoing as a daughter?

✨🌞✨

[melmedardaapologist]

✨ yes i discuss mel as a morally nunanced character (despite the username) AND am her #1 lawyer, it's called duality

✨ this is a side blog where i occasionally write meta analysis of mel-related content (under #mel rambles) or aesthetics like architecture etc., reblog art/gifs/other meta, multishipper but partial to melvika

✨ adult, discussion on posts is welcome but please don't be mean to others

✨ i want to be a source of positivity here and i generally avoid fandom discourse, but i do not tolerate racism, sexism, homophobia or any form of hate

✨ other interests: linguistics, worldbuilding, media analysis

✨ follow me on @daemonologywrites for star trek fanfiction and rambling about what i'm reading at the moment

My favorite posts:

Mel costume analysis/character agency

Ambessa costume analysis/war and family

Art deco and art nouveau/Piltover and Zaun

Mel and Silco as foils

Mel’s father: pre and post Ambessa novel notes

Brutalist architecture and Noxus

Mel analysis/summary (short)

Ambessa and Mel poem

Piltover’s geopolitical implications

[evanezco]

Handsome Caitlyn

[loafbunnybaby]

this poster but medardas c:

[dionysus2210]

I tried to capture an internal emotional state when she cooperated with her deadly enemy against her family(or something like this, I watched the Arcane season like 2 years ago). And here she looks up at the sky with silent question "what's next?/ or /Am I doing right?" Inner conflict.

Of course, nowadays I would add more emotion to better convey that feeling, but it is what it is.

13.05.2025

Another old art of mine, this art has some issues but I love it SO MUCH. Technically for me personally it's a masterpiece, from time to time I'm re-watching the art make the image bigger and looking at details.

I like it's classical portraits style/vibe

[projectmedarda]

Amber light fractures like cathedral glass around Piltover's shrewdest power broker. Braided crown, folded hands, a gaze forged from calculated resolve - flanked by echoes of the girl she once was and the legacy she's building. Blood-red roses bloom against gold and stained glass, framing Mel Medarda in full regal command. This officially licensed Arcane premium metal poster captures her mosaic-style portrait in rich amber and crimson detail - powerful, poised, unmistakably her. 

Mel: Stained Glass Counselor Displate Poster. Buy it HERE.

[designtheendless]

Another timeline; another possibility.

[stealingpotatoes]

Who’s your favorite character to draw?

(Btw I love your art so much!!! <3)

it’s probably mel medarda (my beloved) here's some unposted mel (my beloved)s <3

[melmedardaapologist]

i’ve mentioned somewhere before (i think) how mel’s romantic overture in s1e5 is also heavily tied to her expression of self-worth—i will first prove myself as a wily and resourceful ally in this den of snakes who will bring you closer to your wildest dreams and only then will you love me will i make my move—so i also wonder if in her early years in piltover, she’d had a similar experience with romance with someone who “guided” her through piltover’s elite circles and then had a messy falling out when mel quickly outgrew the need for mentorship like she would soon outgrow her ties to house ferros through hextech, and with her becoming the richest woman in piltover (pre-hextech even) by the start of season 1 there is definitely room for some fascinating short-lived doomed romance before she meets and falls in love with jayce

[g-vlssz]

The kiss 💋

[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)

[saga-ordsmed]

Writing Vi and Mel working together and slowly bonding over how they both struggle with loving individuals who cause harm, pain and fear really reminds me of what a waste it was to whisk away Mel from the Piltover/Zaun conflict in S2. These two have so much potential for heartbreaking character moments: No matter how much Jinx terrorizes the cities and no matter how much Ambessa’s military campaigns Vi can’t stop loving her sister and Mel can’t stop loving her mother.

[fruchtfleisch-art]

"I'm not allowed to devote myself to anything like this," Mel murmured, more to herself than to the stranger. She traced over the mountain rays without touching the painting itself. "Not allowed? Do you need permission to devote yourself to beauty?" "I don't think my mother knows what beauty is." She wasn't sure why she even let the bitter words slip from her mouth, but there was a comfort in their anonymity.

Sketchy practice with young Mel that I've been sitting on way too long. I want to draw more Chosen of the Wolf fanart at some point...

[melmedardaapologist]

this was a reply under one of my au ideas, and while i appreciate the enthusiasm, there’s something that rubs me the wrong way, and i’ll try to articulate why:

i write fic. but i don’t write it a lot. nothing i’ve posted so far is over 10k words and i average roughly 2k per work. in my original pinned post for my fanfiction-specific tumblr i specified periodic stress and burnout before i decided i don’t have to justify when/how i update, but those reasons still remain true

so when i post ideas on tumblr, the vast majority of the time i am not presenting jumping off points that will be written up and posted on ao3 in the near future. i am not a machine that produces fic on demand. while well-meant, the idea of producing work to feed this type of passive audience reception makes me feel uneasy, not just only in my inability to do so, but also on principle

[daemonologywrites]

piltover/zaun literary tradition: some headcanons

so basically Piltover is associated with the Victorian era, so going off of that, i was thinking about what sorts of literature they'd read, so going off on the similarities between the two (industrial revolution and urban life), i think they'd be at the tail end of their own victorian literature, whose traits are mainly that the novel is a transmission of social value (Progress being the elephant in the room here) with formal structure with a focus on realism and "objectivity," which matches up philosophically with their faith in science and technological advance. book clubs are totally a thing. after the end of season 2, however, with hextech having gone so very wrong, some of that idealism would be lost, and so i think there would be a swing towards modernism, with more experimentation and nihilism and subjectivity included as the former shining ideal of Progress had led to disaster

in Zaun, i think theatre would be a bigger phenomenon? ofc it would also exist in Piltover, but i think Zaun is where it really blooms, starting up as small acts in bars after the miners' shifts are over, and then gradually gaining popularity until acting troupes form, probably with strong jazz and burlesque influences. entertainment is their biggest goal, but as tensions with Piltover rise, more and more playwrights emerge making satirical depictions of the upper city, probably with some crackdowns over the more "inspired" takes, leading them to form a "code" based on innuendo and symbolism within the subculture, so while not as "polished" as piltover literature, there is still an incredibly rich literary tradition, especially when it comes to insults and ridiculing someone. after the day of ash, elegies and folk songs commemorating the event surge.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Well!

Do you know the history of Juneteenth?

Kinda? I know it's for Black Americans but not why

No

Yes

I plead 'Not American'

Voting ended onJun 20, 2025

So first, let's clear a common misconception: no, President Abraham Lincoln did not love Black people nor see them as human equals. At best he was centrist about it (though, even his implication that 'exceptional' Black men ought to vote got him assassinated).

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do, it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union...I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free."

The "freeing of slaves" after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 was meant to kneecap the economic and military powers of the seceded South. Lettuce stop making a white savior figure out of Lincoln, or thinking that my people's shackles were unchained via anything other than desperate war strategy and extreme violence. Think on that, for a moment.

That being said!

Juneteenth

Juneteenth is a time to gather as a family, reflect on the past and look to the future. Discover ways to celebrate this African American cul

But not everyone in Confederate territory would immediately be free. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later. Freedom finally came on June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas. The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state, were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as "Juneteenth," by the newly freed people in Texas.

Consider going through the Smithsonian website to learn about Juneteenth! Recognize why it's an actual day of freedom, versus July 4th and the independence of a select few.

[samirasystole]

ahhh so you're shown to be capable of recognising that people's trauma can make them act irrationally and unpleasantly! you recognised it in the white man! can you also recognise it in the brown woman? no? she's mean and bitchy and uncaring? i see

[ajokewemade-finrodsfriend]

All credit goes to the creator @reigningskies