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The cozy & The yearner

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Some frames from my animatic, I put all the yearing I could in it 🤧

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listens autistically

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SUPER long post!!! I just wanted to illustrate this part of the second chapter of The line is covered in jellyfish by @yunuen !! I am fond of the funny parts, as you all might have figured.

A special thanks to @simplysamiblog that translated the fic in italian!! Reading both in english and in italian was something else!

Click for better quality!

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Someone is having a bad day ❄️🤲🏻🧣

Just a teeny bit sed but they're still cuties <3

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Jayvik Coby Whitmore redraw; two colorways bc I cannot decide, as usual (the original - in the artbook I have it's flipped horizontally)

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Love and long hair

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The thing with meljayvik is. Jayce really does love both Mel and Viktor.

Like the way he admires Mel and believes in her, the way he trusts her and turns to her for comfort (the way he apologizes immediately after their one fight). Mel has a very solid claim on his heart.

And obviously Viktor. They save each other's lives, their love saves the world, etc. Big cosmic love story.

The show repeatedly draws visual parallels between Mel and Viktor, but that's the thing, they're parallels -- they occupy a similar space in Jayce's mind and heart.

And they're not *really* in competition with each other either. Of course science and politics compete for Jayce's attention, principle and pragmatism, and Viktor and Mel represent those things on a grand narrative scale. But when Viktor is dying Jayce doesn't abandon Mel for him, he goes to her for companionship and comfort. And she doesn't keep Jayce to herself, she tells Jayce that the best thing he can do is spend time with Viktor. When Jayce *does* choose science over politics at the start of season 2, that doesn't change the relationship he has with Mel, they still have this very close and sweet partnership. And in the end, Jayce "dies"(?) alongside Viktor, but he never stopped loving Mel.

I don't have a source for this so take it with a grain of salt, but I saw someone say that in early drafts of the show the Mel-Jayce-Viktor relationship was a very kind of typical angel-and-devil-on-Jayce's-shoulders, which-one-is-he-going-to-choose type of thing. And there’s definite elements of that in the story. But you can also see how much the show ended up subverting that trope and giving the characters so much more depth. It's not Mel who ends up changing Jayce, he ends up bringing out a softer side in her, and rather than forcing him to reject his idealism she ends up trying to defend it ("I won't let them corrupt your dream"). It's not just that Jayce starts spending less time with Viktor (while using his political position to keep Heimerdinger from destroying the thing that might save Viktor), it's that Viktor also starts shutting himself off from Jayce as well.

What sparked this post is that I like a lot of jayvik fanart, but whenever I see fanart that builds out a broader story and world around them, I'm always like, okay but where's Mel? Or when I see a jayvik post that talks about Viktor as Jayce's one true love, it's like... nah that doesn't ring true.

Like Jayce's characterization genuinely falls apart if he's not also in love with Mel, imo. Him looking at Mel with heart-eyes, and telling her "you were always right" and "you will never be a passenger", and finally being able to relax when he rests his head in her lap, are all really important things about him. He gets into this thing with this sexy femme fatale, that's full of political intrigue, and then he’s like, I'm going to fall in love with her. And not only that, I'm going to assume that she's in this for love as well, that under her sharp exterior she's as soft and caring as I am. And then she is! And that's SUCH an important part of who Jayce is.

Because that's his approach to Viktor too. In the end, that's what it comes down to. Viktor had all this shit going on, and Jayce is like, okay, I'm just going to love you. And it works!

Jayce isn't someone who picks and chooses who he loves. For both Mel and Viktor, he loves and trusts them, and when he shows them that, it brings out the best side of them. For all of Jayce's weaknesses, that's his great redeeming quality, that he loves so genuinely, and making him choose between Mel and Viktor ruins that.

So yeah. While it's possible to just focus in on jayvik or meljay for particular purposes, I think if you zoom out and think big picture, meljayvik is the only way to go.

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A lot of people point out the visual parallels between Mel and Viktor but not enough people talk about the thematic parallels between them (also excuse the shitty screenshots).

they both grew up with mentors who ended up doing something they couldn't understand (Viktor believing death is better than sacrificing humanity, Mel believing war is bad)

and they remain haunted by that memory as an adult

they later left that mentor, Viktor on his own decision, Mel got cast out. Then they reconnected with that mentor when they are struggling with the same dilemma but their position has shifted. Again Viktor does this on his own accord and Ambessa comes to Mel

After this encounter though they realise their error and shift back to their original position

They stick to the same morals after Jinx's bomb hits but the decision was taken from them, Jayce already sacrificed Viktor's humanity, the council already decided on war

Then for the rest of season two we see them attempt to keep up their original stance but their hand is forced. (It is also interesting that Viktor is already taking away their humanity he just doesn't realize it yet, probably because he is so far from his own humanity he has forgotten what that even means)

They also both have parallels to the one they once defended as a kid

But I'm still having trouble finding what the purpose of all these parallels are. Viktor and Mel aren't very close in the narrative and they're both close to Jayce but I don't feel we see these parallels used in their relationship to him. I think the end point is that it's not Viktor's fault he became a villian in the end. Both him and Mel fought for what they thought was right and they both lost, it was only because of how others used Viktor that he was the reason so many people almost died.

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when you do anything to bring your love to life

but it all goes horribly wrong..

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fem jayce forging post s2

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hadestown au?!

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new animation, this time for arcane! took about a month, so im extra proud with how it came out!! ^^ hope you enjoy!

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based on my other meow meow who killed his husband

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have you hugged your eldritch horror husband today?

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francesca by hozier

jayce + viktor + music [2 / ?]