On Classism, Generational Trauma, and Mel Medarda in Season 1
Note: the composition on this is kind of rambley and redundant . Not checked for grammar or typos I just did this for fun
Sometimes, thoughts about Mel characterization haunts me. I don’t know if it’s just the fandom circles I frequent in, but I just wanted to talk a little about an aspect about her character I don’t see a lot of people discussing. Mel is such a compelling and layered character when you let her be exactly what she is—traumatized, conniving, selfish—and under that, someone who desperately wanted to be kinder than her mother was.
After Mel is Mel Medarda, she is counselor Medarda—an influential and rich overseer of not just Piltover, but also Zaun. For nearly a decade, Mel sits at the top as one of the seven most powerful people in all of Piltover. Make no mistake, that was not an easy feat. Not only is she an exile from her country, she is a foreign delegate—while she has status coming from one of the from the family of one of the most warlords in Noxus—she’s still a stranger in this place. But she’s smart; Mel likely shook the right hands, whispered in the right ears, and invested the right things at the right times.
Unlike Jayce, when he becomes a council member years later, she’s quickly grows savvy with the ways of politics in Piltover. Her natural tendency towards diplomacy as an innocent child quickly evolves with her—whereas Noxus emphasizes violence and black-white morals (even to the extent of capital punishment), Piltover invites Mel’s talent with words and penchance for nonviolence and allows her to flourish.
And what’s popular with the elite of Piltover, Mel quickly learns? More, more, more, more.
During her years working her way up to being a council member and subsequently becoming one, she has to have known about Piltover’s pollution, Zaun’s deep poverty, the Enforcer’s brutality, and the blatant classism that exists between the two cities. However, she can’t afford to take the chance to do the right thing. Advocating for Zaun will neither further her status or please her Piltovan peers in power—Mel’s influential, but not enough that she wouldn’t get shut down for making any real changes to Zaun. She knows that. Mel, like all politicians, didn’t get to the top by being good.
But it goes even deeper than that—Mel comes from a merciless and oppressive country that will execute you for even attempting to have even the slightest disagreement, let alone mistake. The one good thing about Noxus is that it is a meritocratic society—you can work your way up, but that means that those societally considered weak like Mel will always be looked down upon.
Ambessa: “You weakened me! I couldn’t stand the look in your eyes every time I made the decisions—the necessary decisions…”
Noxus never had a place for her—lithe and non-authoritarian. A queen of compromises rather than a fist of violence. Piltover has offered her the “American dream” of working her way up to the top through words.
But here’s where you might think: just because someone wasn’t as bad as they could’ve been doesn’t mean they were good.
In this case—just because a rich and influential piltovan didn’t kill people directly doesn’t mean they were not a passive addition to the suffering of Zaunites.
This is where Mel becomes a deeply understandable character, especially in terms of being a second generation immigrant. She came from a brutally violent and war torn background, where innocents are blatantly killed for being on the opposite side of the war. From a young age, “the weak die and the strong thrive” was burned into her the moment ambessa beheaded a girl in front of her.
She is a result of generational trauma—yes, Piltover’s classism is bad, but in her mind, Noxus was worse. Yes, Mel likely knew her inaction towards Zaun was bad, but in her mind, Ambessa treated those who were “weak” worse.
(And even Ambessa is understandable, to an extent. Her father told her to dislodge any many blades as she could from a corpse filled battle field when she was just 10. she was conditioned that way, and she tried to do the same to Mel. )
This is a mindset that is extremely familiar to immigrant parents who had parents who were ‘worse’ than them. Not saying that it should be this way at all, but like the immigrants who come from violent and war torn countries and come to places like the U.S. and see what opportunity they have and keep their heads down—Mel came to Piltover and decided to focus on herself above everything. While it may not be right in the big picture of things, I understand why she did what she did. Why endanger your position for a situation that was objectively better than your old one?
To her, there is a horrible class divide, but at least people aren’t being (blatantly) executed in front of her where she can see it.
Does that mean that she’s excused from all responsibility? No, but like every character in Arcane, it makes Mel a morally complex and worthwhile character.
If the rest of the council were greedy, stupid, pigs—then she was a self-motivated, brilliant, fox.
People who do nothing but call Mel beautiful and people who don’t appreciate Mel’s character because she’s classist both. Piss me off so much.
Like how Caitlyn is a better character for both being an unrelenting dictator and a bleeding heart, like how Vi is a better character for both lashing out at powder as a child and forgiving Jinx as an adult, like how Jinx is a better character for killing Silco but also desperately missing his guidance, Mel is great character because of both her strengths and flaws. Her classism and manipulation is so much more infinitely interesting existing than not because it tells us about her trauma and vulnerability.
Of course, you don’t have to personally like a characters actions, but this has always been the wrong conversation to have. Characters are not real people that you have to “cancel” or protect from all criticism—they are what they are—characters to appreciate or not for their good or bad writing.
Mel would be boring if she didn’t manipulate the council and Jayce. Mel would be boring if she hadn’t been a contributer to Piltover’s classism. But, she would’ve also been boring and a caricature if she had not also despised violence. She would have been boring if she did not desperately wanted to not become the worst of her mother.
Women, especially minority women, are people. They neither deserve to be euthanized of their flaws, or caricatured for their perceived ones.
