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(also, demisexual here. Had a very active sexual life with my exes, because I genuinely wanted to. I'm so pissed about people who keep telling me that "nooooh Viktor is ace so he doesn't love Jayce that wayyyy" I got called aphobic for drawing jayvik fanart lmao. Worst part is when these people say they're ace. I don't think I can believe it, or they are very ignorant about how asexuality works/think the world revolves around them and specifically how THEY feel)

(just a final note me: "ahhh yes yes I love this analysis, very logical and accurate" me in the end: "NOOOOOOOO AMBESSA AND VIKTOR, NOOOOO IT'S A NIGHTMARE,WHY DO WE HAVE TO SUFFER" my brain is rightfully rejecting this theory lmao)

P1 even implies that Viktor brings men back to his rooms in the middle of the night so it kinda feels like the ~asexual vibes~ only exist in the context that he's too sick for most of the story to think about pursuing anyone which can definitely be true for some people but something feels very wrong about using sick Viktor as proof of his asexuality. Similar to the robots, asexual people are often dismissed as sick or broken or traumatized and not truly asexual. Before the time skip, Viktor had a rather flirtatious vibe that disappeared for a bit but returned when he was settled into the glorious evolution, at least as far as interacting with Jayce was concerned. Getting called aphobic for drawing JayVik is absolutely wild especially as someone on the asexual spectrum. This is why vague and uninformed statements like the one given by Christian Linke are so harmful. It spreads ignorance that ultimately ends up harming the community. I don't believe this was his intention but that just highlights how uninformed people outside the community really are when even allies who set out to do good can end up just spreading more ignorance and misinformation.

I can definitely see queerness or queer-platonicness in a MJV love triangle! I think this is a really interesting read with a lot of potential. There were some animators who've come out as a MJV proponents so at some point in production, it was a route!

You're absolutely right that there's a certain subset of people who are being openly racist towards Mel - I've even seen monkey jokes on Twitter. I block those people so I don't see it often, though. I opted not to talk about race in my video for a few reasons. 1) I'm not black and not intimately involved in the black community so I can't give a fully informed opinion unlike when I talk about LGBT/Asexual topics 2) Race did not impact the story, plays no role in Runeterra lore (except Vastaya), and isn't discussed much by the devs (to my knowledge) 3) Race doesn't impact the way I personally interpret stories and I'm very confident that had Mel been a white person (or any race) my read on her would have been the same As for JayVik shippers disliking Mel, this is a very normal fandom behavior from shippers. For most people who are not multi-shippers, if there is a rival ship, regardless of if it it is a canon one, there will be open hostility between the two sides. In my experience, this has nothing to do with race and is just a product of differing opinions on ships. It doesn't help that the narrative sets up Mel and Viktor to be parallels and rivals for Jayce's attention which is then compounded by the shippers who see the ships as rival ships. I've seen so many of these ship wars that this sort of thing doesn't even bother me anymore, let me list some of the most infamous ones I've been in: Naruto/Sasuke vs Naruto/Sakura vs Sakura/Sasuke, Klance vs Sheith, Touken vs Hidekane, Ichiruki vs Ichihime, etc. To be honest with you, I've seen a lot of MelJay shippers attacking Viktor also (but the ship is unpopular so there's less obnoxious shippers) and when the discussion devolves into race wars I can't help but wonder what the ship scene would look like if Viktor was a black woman and Mel a white man (or even both black women or both white men). How much of the discussion is about the quality of the ships and how much is about race? I'd love to see a parallel universe with that to sate my curiosity. Either way, I'm very confident I'd be on Viktor's side no matter what form the characters took. As for Mel being a protagonist, anyone who can't accept this is not paying attention to Runeterra lore. Our last major story event was the Ruination and our main protagonists were Senna and Lucian who are both black. In saying that, League of Legends doesn't really have protagonists and all of the characters are expected to get relatively equal love and appreciation by the devs across many small stories so I can understand fans of neglected Noxus characters getting upset if their favs are sidelined to highlight Mel again after she already had quite a bit of spotlight in the Piltover/Zaun story. I love Mel and I think she will be the Guile so this doesn't bother me at all but I can understand why someone whose fav has been Katarina for the last ten+ years getting upset about Mel replacing her as the face of Noxus. Come to think of it, that's probably why Guile Mel is so important to me because it justifies making the story all about her if she was always there just under a hidden identity. As for Mel being overpowered in League of Legends - every champion is overpowered when they are released. They're always trying something new and innovating with their new characters and it rarely works out without a lot of nerfs and sometimes reworks that remove that cool new idea (R.I.P. Aurora's ult). Mel was definitely overdone but it's not because of her race but rather because she's a fan favourite character who is highly anticipated and highlighted in the lore right now. She turned out to be so overtuned that the part of her kit I feared the most (reflect) is, in practice, the least problematic part of her kit. They really gave her everything and made her potentially the easiest mage to play in the game. It's ridiculous but again not unexpected and because Riot loves her. Edit: Oh yeah I forgot to say that Riot makes a point out of keeping all of the characters as morally grey as they can especially in the new lore. Characters who were stereotypically good leaders are usually part of corrupt regimes (look at Lux, this is a similar kind of corruption that Mel faces) that they enforce by being in positions of power yet their own perspectives cause them to inadvertently oppress the lower class. Characters who actually do have pretty good moral compasses and are actively driven to do all they can to save people (like Viktor and Xolaani) will have those intentions challenged to a point where they literally destroy the world. Black and white morals are very boring for stories and personally I have to roll my eyes whenever people try to whitewash Mel and Viktor (or any character) because trying to depict any character as the Ultimate Good Guy is grossly missing the point of the story being told.

⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠@@LalodysLoreHere, again, you’ve done it. Undermined legitimate concerns about how Mel is received as a black woman by white fans while playing right into them. Do you seriously not get how you’ve missed the point? Race may not exist in arcane but it exists in YOUR interpretation and again. If you can’t see that i really don’t know what else to tell you.

How can you come away with the impression that Viktor has an overall ‘good moral compass’ when the whole point of his arc is that he’s in ethical dillemas about science. “In trying to do great we failed to do good?” Viktor who started a eugenicist cult? Viktor’s character is rich because he’s flawed. So is Mel’s. So is Jayce’s. But you sanitise the men and act like they’re being led by a woman. It’s misogyny 101.

@@happinesshither Good moral compass indicated by resisting Singed until he was literally on death's door then choosing to destroy the Hexcore instead of saving himself the moment he realised it was a danger to other people. His story wasn't about ethical dilemmas of science - that was Singed who Viktor was continuously at odds with until he had no other options. Viktor was not being led by a woman but he was being manipulated by the Hexcore who took the form of Sky as confirmed by writers. All of the characters make choices and are morally grey but Viktor in particular is supposed to be the most good at his core (of the major characters) which is why the villain arc works so well for him and also why he's also the one who stops himself in the end. Also, the commune does not fall into the category of eugenicist cult. Be serious. To call it that undermines the seriousness of real eugenics. The eugenics argument is one of the lowest IQ takes in this fandom.

@@LalodysLore So not only have you ignored the first part of what I’ve said because you know you can’t refute it but you don’t understand what entry level eugenics is. Viktor wasn’t just curing people of illness he was beautifying them under his definition of ‘evolution’. He included them within what he considered ‘imperfections’. That is entry level eugenics. Everyone in the commune is a ‘perfected’ version of their former self. Not a physically cured one. I’m disabled. I think I’d know. It’s a bit worrying that you don’t. Again if you listened to anyone who knew about disability justice you would know that too. That is part of his arc. He’s a very compelling character because of his complexity. It’s odd to deny him that storyline of internalised ableism when it reflects realities. It’s not undermining the seriousness of real eugenics. That’s how real eugenics begins. That’s why there are legitimate concerns about designer babies etc. That’s how it starts. It’s very dangerous to dismiss that is eugenicist rhetoric. “Low IQ take” just confirms you’re immature. You know nothing about these issues. Evident considering even the ‘joke’ you just made is ableist. Do you even know where the concept of ‘IQ’ comes from? Maybe listen to the people telling you‘re perpetuating the same harmful stereotypes rather than acting like you’re more intelligent than we are and like people of colour or disabled people don’t know more about misogynoir and eugenics. You could’ve just admitted that you didn’t realise what you were doing or that you made a mistake. But you’re defending it instead.

Yeah I know a lot of Arcane fans have no clue about Runeterra lore so that was a very important part of making this video. I hear a lot of people discussing things that are outdated or just straight up incorrect so I really felt the worldbuilding was important and it also gives me a good reason to talk about the mages.

Like there relationship seems so broken already in season 1 , because their are so many factors in their actions towards each other, they don't want to reveal, they keep hidden.

You're right, to be honest. We talk a lot about the ways Mel was bad for Jayce, but IMO Jayce was also quite bad for Mel. One of the first reasons I was never particularly fond of Mel and Jayce's relationship was that it fell into the trope of mature women providing the majority of the emotional labor for her lover. Most of their scenes together involved Jayce seeking comfort from her, usually related to distress about Viktor, but he was never tapped into her emotional state enough to reciprocate nor did he ever show active interest in doing so. It felt very much like all of the emotional labor was on Mel to both offer comfort/reassurance and to mention if she ever had some kind of issue she wanted to talk about. Jayce doesn't ask her, "How are you today" or anything like that, he's always too focused on his own emotions and taking comfort from her to soothe himself. You can see how heartbreaking this is in S2 with her line "Something happened to me, too" which Jayce never asks about because he simply doesn't care. It's super poignant in that scene but tbh their actual relationship was never much better. The best he ever did was listen to her talk about her family that one time. Idk with the way their relationship was mostly "Jayce feels bad about something so Mel comforts him" I just got pretty icky vibes because this emotional labor thing is a real burden often placed on women. I felt like the writers may have been projecting this on Mel as ideal loving girlfriend behaviour and certain (usually male) audience members seem to absolutely eat this dynamic up online (and that's not even considering the manipulation aspects of their relationship giving me extra icks). The Heimerdinger scene was really Jayce taking all of his lessons in political manipulation and utilising it back on Mel and the council for his own goals (healing Viktor). Heimerdinger caught onto what he was doing but it didn't matter. It was extra questionable because he knows very well how dangerous magic can be and then he also went and used the Hexcore (in a panic) to resurrect Viktor despite his promise to Viktor himself that they would destroy the Hexcore. Given, at the time, Jayce didn't know the Hexcore had killed someone but Viktor was right to be upset about Jayce going back on his promise to let Viktor die. I think these are some of Jayce's biggest character flaws. He usually prioritises his own feelings often outright disregarding the feelings of those around him. Emotionally, he's quite selfish.

@@blacktigerpaw1 Yeah so Jayce seeking her out for emotional support is actually the exact point I was making about the Emotional Labor but you've already demonstrated your inability to comprehend the human language so it doesn't surprise me that you're struggling here. I did not spend the last few weeks brain rotting over Mel x Swain to be accused to hating straight ships or hating Mel. You've made this assumption based on literally nothing but your own delusions. I feel like you could be projecting your own hatred onto others. I recommend taking some time to self reflect and maybe return when you're feeling a bit more mentally stable.

@@blacktigerpaw1 I like Jayvik BECAUSE it's toxic, making me superior.

​@@LalodysLoreCame back to comment to see another great breakdown (specifically regarding Jayce). He's very emotionally selfish and self centered, even toward Victor, but it seems Mel gotten the butt end of it simply based on the outcome of their relationship cause Jayce's heart lies with Victor instead of her.

It's the way everyone forgets demisexuals exist 😂 That's my personal Viktor headcanon.

@@LalodysLore Yeah and even then, not every asexual is sex adverse, but yeah, demisexual Viktor makes sense

​@LalodysLore I feel heard! Ty ❤

Wait you're so right HAHA Demacia is DOOMED

The only argument I have against this idea is that supposedly the Void only gained awareness of it's own existence after it noticed Runeterra which suggests that the construction of Runeterra likely came before Celestials started to fight the Void... but it's also possible they knew that the void would wake up regardless? I think, at a bare minimum, the ascension stuff is definitely to prepare an anti-void army. There's also the issue of the ~multiverse~ so maybe... because reality is a possibility at all, that implies life was guaranteed to be created as some point in one of the realities, awakening the void in the process (assuming the void operates across the multiverse as a single entity?) thus creating an army is mandatory for the Celestials? I don't know...

@LalodysLore If I'm remembering correctly it's never specified at which point specifically the void gained awareness, but I was always under the impression based of the wording it was at the first light of existence, basically when ASol was born and started making Stars. This is un substantiated but I'd like to imagine the first scream of existence that was mentioned in Fiddlesticks lore was the scream of the Void becoming aware. The void encrouches on RuneTera because that's where people are. But ultimately, they want to destroy all of existence. I've got nothing for the multiverse lol, those are weird.

Viktor good Mel bad??? Since when

@@LalodysLore Well, since never. But I think this is an overly harsh reading of her character.