I wish people could understand that Mel CAN be a manipulator and an empathetic person, one does not cancel out the other, and the fact you guys keep trying to say for others to, "understand the complexity of the character" but KEEP IGNORING IMPORTANT CHARACTER FACTS its frustrating.
Mel is a good manipulator bc she understand others, her empathy is used to work towards others feelings, and THAT'S why she can manipulate Jayce so well, because he is ALWAYS open with his feelings, he always feels the need of aproval, and Mel is always there to say what he wants to hear, and I swear if I see someone else saying "Jayce wanted to be manipulated" I will jump (Wth is WANTING to be manipulated??? manipulated is doing something for others want, not yours).
This is not only throwing away ALL of Jayce's arc and character through the window, but is ALSO throwing away all Mel's character, she IS A FCKIN GOOD MANIPULATOR THATS WHY SHE IS THE FOX AND NOT THE WOLF AND HER ARC IS ABOUT TURNING INTO BOTH NOT JUST BEING ONE
And that's why they couldn't work out, they were meant to help eachother grow in character, yes, but not to grow together (Not criticizing people who ship them). But thats why all their scenes together just doesn't feel right, Mel is always surprised when Jayce comes to her seeking confort, yes, she can care about him, she can love him, her manipulating him doesn't mean she can't love him (after all she is the daugher of Ambessa, she only knows this about love, she doesn't think its something so big), and at some point she could have loved him romantically, but deeply? I don't think she knew Jayce deeply enough to really love him that way. The same with him.
Mel used Jayce, Jayce used Mel (In ways he probably didn’t even know, he used her for confort, for being a safe haven for him, also, maybe thats why HE apologized in the end to her, I will probably analyze this scene better later), Mel used Jayce for all her purposes and thought it was doing good for him too, after all, who wouldn't want a chair at the council sit? With all the investments and privilegies. Mel did have good intentions all the time, but she doesn't come front with people to ask what they want, she assumes, she do, she never asks, she tries to never show weakness but she always will show compassion, in many ways she is like her mother.
Mel is a interesing character because she commits bad things with good intentions, not noticing she is also hurting others, she does to others what she would want for herself, but never actually asks herself if others would REALLY want that. In top of that, she IS classicist towards Viktor, the same way all characters of piltover are in one way or another, this is embedded in their heads internally and sometimes they don't even know, the way she ignores him and is just going towards Jayce's aproval to get aproved the hextech weapons, the way she looks at him with arrogance, she looks down on him.
The thing with Arcane characters, is that most of them have more than one facet, they wont fit perfectly into the "good" or "bad" person, and I really wish Mel's character to not be boiled down into just "did nothing wrong ever" or "Girl character that stayed bettwen my ship"