Everything Here BUT I Would Like To Add That I Think Meljay Was Written To Fail. Like The Way They Got

Everything here BUT i would like to add that i think meljay was written to fail. Like the way they got together in a fwb not even knowing much about each other way and the obvious implication that they were both using one another - even if they got a side bonus of pleasure out of it - disincentivized the shipping.

Now, relationships started for the wrong reasons is by far from an uncommon trope in fandom discourse (hello, fake dating), but doing said trope successfully involves having both couples GROW as people and change how they percieve their partner. We see that sorta on Mel’s end. She gets a nice little arc about not wanting to be the manipulative person her mother honed her into anymore, but from Jayce’s? No, it doesnt come close. Meljay started with them both allying mainly for personal gain, albeit with the added bonus of fun on the side, but Jayce is never really depicted viewing Mel as something like “a silver tongued, untrustworthy liar” where its clear she views him as a bit of a “good intentioned fool.” Like the misconceptions feel unequal, i guess.

And im not saying this to fault Mel, because i really enjoy her. All the characters in arcane are morally grey. Thats not an issue i have for her character in general but just for her relationship with jayce being anything but temporary.

Now, Melvik, on the otherhand? Well, suffice to say, i love it. It started as a crackship but i slowly grew to love their dynamic. Viktor absolutely would see through Mel’s charismatic persona and call her out for it. He’d get on her nerves and speak out, refusing to fall in line and which would rile her feathers. They would challenge each other in a way Meljay just dont. Thats why i think theyd be neat. It comes from less of a place of spite bc i do enjoy jayvik as well than a consideration of what constitutes an equal/satisfying dynamic.

That being saidddd fuck misogynoir and stan mel medarda!

long-winded ramble about melvik and the arcane fandom

I really do believe the boom in the melvik ship has nothing to do with the show (obviously since they barely interacted) and more with black fans and fans of mel ( a black female character that they, by proxy, would have to be exposed to misogynoir when trying to engage with her content) separating themselves from the anti-black fandom into more niche places where outsiders are less likely to scrutinize. especially when you consider that the ship really started gaining more traction months after the show’s end (as opposed to right after or during, which is usually the case) and I think that correlates to the online harassment of mel (and meljay) fans ramping up. if someone is looking for non-art fan content of a character, most of it is revolved around shipping since solo, non-romantic fan fiction is unpopular and un-incentivized.

anybody who’s been a fan of mel since s1 (or has scrolled more than 3 times in her tags on social media) knows that meljay, despite being one of the few actually canon ships on the show, was disparaged, minimized and scrutinized basically since its inception, with most of the onus being on Mel. as her most popular ship arguably until now, that meant if you were somebody that enjoyed mel (or meljay) you were basically getting flashbanged by vitriol to the point a lot of her content was a) people trashing her character or ship b) people fighting back against that undue backlash and coming in dead last c) actual content for the ship in question. This got significantly worse after the arcane writers took 3 percs each during the s2 writing period and validated fanon malice against her character within the show, further emboldening them. if you were a fan of mel or her most popular ship (and once again, canon relationship), you were signing up to be bombarded by bad takes (im being generous) every time you wanted to engage.

sometimes what happens in huge fandoms amongst marginalized fans, I’ve seen people exhausted of dealing with the vitriol branch off into an unlikely, unpopular ship and make that the new “safe space” and I definitely think that’s what happened here.

with that being said, there’s something very funny (/positive) about melvik now compared to its earliest iterations. a lot of early fan-content had a mean-spirited slant to their interactions that you can tell was adopted from the larger, jayvik fanon that they despised each other. there were also a fair amount of consolation prize polycule fan fiction that felt like the writers weren’t confident in mel and viktor’s relationship on its own and the only thing that glued the love triangle together was wanting to appease jayce which is…lol. now it has its own fanon (e.i. pre-canon bitter exes) and better recognizes the merit of these characters outside of a polyamorous relationship. I’ve also noticed that there seems to be an uptick in fan content (art and fan fiction) that centers mel, or just outright de-centers jayce even if there is polyamorous relationship which wasn’t as common before. i wonder how much that has to do with mel fans using the ship as an escape from the hatred in her other tags.

i think now, despite the parallels the writers either unintentionally created or failed to capitalize on, one of the biggest appeals to the ship (and fandom) is that it just embraces absurdism as a crack-ship that could’ve actually had some merit in the show if arcane wasn’t written like that™️. meljay is always diminished and those two character’s love for each other gets debated every day ending in y, but with melvik there’s no real need to prove itself. it’s a “why the hell not” ship and now that the arcane fandom at large is starting to catch onto the fact it exists, it’s very funny seeing people argue about how a relationship like that could never happen in canon, as if fandom has ever upheld the original content as something non-transformative and above individual interpretation LMAO….

anyway. all of this to say that im a #nooticer and i #nootice things