#AND JUST... DIDNT APPRECIATE HER

[simgerale]

their first date didn't go as well as gwen planned...

[srslylini]

you know what I want to add a little bit more to that post. Mostly about the "Mel got removed from Jayce and finally became her own character" bit.

I fear my first reblog hasn't really captured the spirit of that yet. We get to know Mel in the second episode of season 1 and her first scene shows us how calculating and smart she is. She is also very aloof in this scene, not even acknowledging the person handing her the puzzles. Her conversation with Elora, while still showing some sort of relationship, is also distanced. She talks about her riches and how she is "still the poorest medarda" despite being the richest person in Piltover.

So what this tells us is this:

She is alone. In her family she seems to be the odd one out. She thinks herself to be standing in the shadow of her family (=mother though we only find that out in episode 8 of season 1). In short this basically tells us a contradiction. While everything they already gave us at this point in the show tells us she is incredible, smart, knowledgeable etc, she sells herself short.

When Mel talks to her mother about her banishment it isn't just a conversation, it explains to us who Mel is and why she is that way. It tells us that in a way she is self conscious and hides herself away. This is the starting point of her character, keep that in mind.

Ok, that brings us to my next point. How she used that childrens toy to her advantage. Again, smart as fuck. Had she not done this, then Jayce would have been banished. There were 4 votes against 3 meaning gaining that one vote changed the fate of Jayce, literally. She didn't find Jayce interesting as a person but as an investment during this time though. Nothing about him influenced any of her decisions, especially not here. She chose to give away that toy and she chose to vote against Jayce's banishment.

The look Mel and Jayce give each other after Jayce and Viktor found their way to Hextech also already spoke volumes. They obviously had the hots for each other and like good for them, lmao. After the timejump their relationship has shifted as well. While she still obviously sees the investment, she now also sees him as a person, too. They are extremely comfortable with each other.

Now after Jayce didn't show their newest Hextech project? She did walk away but that also gave us something:

She very obviously isn't resentful. That is also seen in how, while rightfully being annoyed, she immediately gets why Jayce left after their night together. Her giving Jayce the position in the council ALSO wasn't cause she loved him but for political reasons. That, again, tells us another thing about her:

She can clearly separate work and home life.

All of this, while maybe including Jayce, are of her own character and not because of someone else. We see her acting in the council too, and that's also interesting. Because while some others like Salo seem to be ready to jump around and scream, she never does. She waits, calculates, listens and then offers her voice. She is never holding back but she also doesn't just react crazy. Not once. Not after the explosion happens in act 1 of season 1, not when Jayce talks about Magic, not when Vi is in the council with Caitlyn, not even in the end of season 1 when Jayce proposes the peace treaty with Zaun. None of this is linked to Jayce or because of Jayce. She just is her own character.

And then season 1 did something incredibly fascinating. Now they actually introduced a character Mel seems to have some dependency to. Her mother; Ambessa Medarda. It's reluctant and it's awkward and it strengthens her character very much.

At this point in the story the love between Jayce and her is already blossoming, it's after their sex scene. Their relationship doesn't influence any of her other decisions, she doesn't suddenly act differently to before or becomes dependent on Jayce. If anything it, again, strengthens her.

When in the beginning we saw her as thinking she is standing in her mothers shadow, she now steps into the light when she steps up and calls out Ambessa. When she lets go of the weight of family holding her down to vote for peace, it also shows how she's grown. She isn't distanced anymore, nor is she someone who stills sees herself in her mothers shadow. Her character went from incredible with an arc before her to that arc being masterfully concluded. And that happened WITH Jayce and not BECAUSE of Jayce. When in the beginning she was aloof, distanced and calculating, in the end she was ready to show herself to Jayce, be herself and be caring. She wasn't distanced and gave Jayce a look into her life (telling him about her family after he told her about his troubles).

She was still very smart but also let herself be emotional about a decision, she gave away the weight of her family and left the shadow it cast over her completely.

Anyways yeah just wanted to talk more about Mel. Because she was nothing but very interesting in season 1 and saying she just now got interesting after not being with Jayce rubbed me the wrong way whoops

[thegreatyin]

bat appreciation day is today (4/17). make sure to leave out milk and cantigaster-laced cookies for mr cards

[afterthelambs]

Elizabeth silently watching Makoto destroy all the shadows resulting in him having to sacrifice his life to stop the Fall: 🧍‍♀️

Lavenza any time Joker has to make a decision:

[wolfwarrior142]

To whoever decided to have Rayla say, "Never a Moonshadow of a doubt. Eh, eh?" while sounding so proud of herself in the game. You funny little shit.

[california-112]

- Answer the question, Miss Scully! - What is the question?

The X-Files | S04E09 'Terma'

[quinn-pop]

guys pretend it’s still Valentine’s okay

[iizuumi]

girl can be carried in so many ways ,,,,

[xxplastic-cubexx]

waiting for marvel to take you up as their comic artist so that we can have amazing art with cherik official storyline

marvel hire me to draw professor x and magneto making out sloppy style for forty issues straight you will get a BAJILLION dollars i promise

[espionn]

enjoy my slay the princess pumpkin! (in the dark bc it looks like a mess in the light)

in honor of the pristine cut, i decided to try my hand at my favorite little guys

it definitely isn't the most magnificent piece of stp art that's been made but considering pumpkins from past years, i'm really proud of this one.

[sillyvills]

Do you think Kinger blames himself for his wife abstracting? Like he said, the worst thing you could do is make someone feel like they're not loved or wanted

[akascow]

Corazón Marikit :3

okay no need to worry about another sad soul on your dash sucking the fun from every new doll they release (self roast bc ive definitely done this in other posts but this is different i swear) for the most part this is all positive with like a few small notes of "eh idk abt this but its no biggie" BUT overall i think its a super cool doll i really like it :3

i totally started writing this BEFORE seeing ANY other opinion post about her btw bc my tl hadnt caught up yet so sorry if it seems similair to another's

this started as a simple opinion post bc i do it for all the new MH characters but here i am THREE HOURS later finally finishing writing this and its basically just an entire deep dive into every single piece of her outfit and how it was inspired by Filipino fashion and culture bc i kinda autism'd too close to the sun for a while there HAHA

okay thanks anyway enjoy my silly words

**also to preface, im not Filipino so i cant speak on if its good/bad rep obviously SO this is j from an outside perspective and with the small facts i already knew about the manananggal aswell as my somewhat brief research deepdive into Filipino culture and fashion in relation to the doll, which i did try my best to make sure i got these right (part of the reason this post took me 3.5 hours to make LMAO) BUT pls correct me if im wrong for any of these names bc i dont want to spread misinformation or seem like im treading on someone else's culture... oh and dont take my word for shit HAHA **

EDIT here is a great post from someone who IS Filipino, bijoubetrayal if you want to know their insight from personal ties and firsthand knowledge into her design, i recommend reading through it :33

before we start for the maybe one person that was wondering yes i totally bought the doll already HAHA im a massive sucker for extremely unique monster high body features (isi's hooves, marisols huge feet, iris' single eye, wydowna's 6 arms, etc) so when they announced her as a manananggal and that she can separate at the torso i immediately ran to snatch her lmao i am not a strong soldier okay. also u can get her [here] if u want

FACE + HEAD

her screening is super cute, and she's got bat ears ! bc well ig shes basically a vampire HAHA but i think thats neat PLUS im always a fan of beauty marks and darker/thicker eyebrows theyre really nice

AND !! the nose is so pretty we dont get to see a lot of MH dolls with the flatter nose bridge :3

idk where else to put this so i'll do it here but her name Corazón Marikit means Beautiful Heart (im fairly certain) and i find that really sweet for some reason but also its like humorously ironic given that manananggals eat the hearts from their victims AHAHA

okay idk if ive been staring at her too long but they somehow managed to make her color palette coherent ? like red pink purple cream and lime yellow generally dont work well together and it worried me when i first saw her but it actually looks pretty good the longer i look? i could be losing it tho so

DRESS + SHOES

the dress pattern is starting to grow on me, still not sure on if i totally like the foil but that might just be bc im not a fan of red-heart designs in general, although thats just for the pattern, i still like the look and style of the dress overall its cutie

i think the puffy sleeves plus the cut of the neckline and shape of the dress are all akin to the Filipiniana style mestiza dress and terno sleeves (from what i could tell)

also dude ? the red tassels imitate how the intestines hang out when manananggals detach themself brooo thats so neat LMAO like iykyk but if u dont it just adds some fun motion HAHA

cannot make out the specific design of her heels i think its like a palmtree over a house ? but anyway i always love when MH make heels look like tiny objects or a person or smth its so fun HEEHEE

and the sculpting for the shoes are suuuper detailed looking like woodgrain and woven palms, maybe a shoe design from PH which im fairly certain are Bakyâ (?) so uh hell yeah HAHA

ACCESSORIES

those wings thooooo like the wingers (wing fingers) being so thick and prominent, though they couldve been bigger kinda like batsy claro's given theyre such a big part of the story but alas

ALSO WOAH the skin(?) between them being actual embroidered fabric instead of just plastic ooh that is SO INTERESTING to me its so tiny and intricate omgggg

neon lime green jewelry is an uhhh interesting choice to pair with her color palette but i dont really care enough about colors to get into that lmfaoo

the necklace is super hard to make out from the stock photos but it looks like pooka shells ? which i doubt is correct, however the closest thing that it looks like i THINK are the bailog style of necklace from what i can find, but theres a a bunch of styles of those it seems so i cant be completelyyy sure

her head piece are sampaguita/jasmine flowers which are the natl flower of PH its pretty lmao

PLUS !!! the stand is SO COOL !!! it bends at the top so u can position her to look like shes separated and flying THATS SO THOUGHTFUL ?? idk it made me smile at least lmao

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS

OKAY SO i think she looks reallyyyyy cool definitely one of the better skullector dolls from the past few years imo

ofc i really like the idea of introducing other cultures’ monster-mythology to mainstream, especially bc there are some really cool ones out there that are seldom heard or seen unless theyre completely butchered or changed in western media

and its a nice way for people to learn about them,, plus for people who grew up with these folktales to see their stories and culture actually represented

it is amusing to me that they somehow turned this horrific mythological monster lady-- that usually has intestines hanging out of her torso, flying around at night, eating fetuses straight out of the wombs of pregnant people and seducing men before eating them alive-- into a cute pink and purple girlie HAHA /lh but i mean yeah clearly thats kinda always been the point of monster high lol, this one just feels especially drastic if you compare a manananggal to like an original sea monster or a were-animal LMAO

and like everyone else already said, that price tag is a lot as usual🙄 like mattel seems really inconsistent with their pricing on creations dolls that are seemingly super close in detail and quality lmao idk... i wasnt expecting mattel to be humble tho, and i wont go into another fang club pricing rant here again, its just always a tad disappointing to see but oh well i guess, doesnt play that big a role in this post's topic so im not elaborating lol

it seems like a lot of care and effort went into her design, however, in order to represent PH as far as i can tell, so that makes me happy bc MH Does Not have the greatest track record in that category lookin at you jinafire lmfao

okay thats all im officially out of words to conjure up in my brain :3 if u sat through all this, im sorry for allat but thanks for staying HAHA

[fizzytoo]

hey, sims team, i think $370 is a bit too low for these icons....

[sha-brytols]

it is kind of like. strange to me. that the narrative seems to agree at least partially with the idea that alistair was at fault for driving eamon away at the monastery.?

[xxplastic-cubexx]

Presenting this panel without context (UXM 103). Wrestling AU when?? Hope you feel better soon, bestie! 💚

lookit my professor dude he aint EVER grading my midterm 😭

[wackywatchdotcom]

Have you seen the animatic that was made between Pomni's voice actor and Striker's voice actor when they were doing character prompts together? Pomni essentially is given a gun and goes mad with power.

ohhh im not sure!!! ive scoured around for many of the va things before but im not sure i know that one.... i looked it up and there seems to be a few so im not sure which one youre specifically referring to, but i watched one. im truthfully not particularly interested in stuff with the other character or that show (sorry!) but i do appreciate lizzie freemans performance... i like when pomni is Like That in the least pleasant or cute way possible, its very good :]