This is a quick fanart I did of the character Mel Medarda from Netflix’s animated series Arcane, which is set in the universe of the game League of Legends. Mel was easily my favorite character in the whole show, although I did feel a lot of sympathy for Vi as well. Mel’s costume, however, was a challenge to draw given its elaborate designs, so I ended up simplifying it a bit.
Some of you might already be familiar with my “legendary” analysis originally posted on reddit, well, today I am bringing it home at last!
There have been ongoing discussions about the setting of the that love scene. Was it Mel’s place? Was it Jayce’s? Don’t worry, your resident sextech expert is here with the receipts! I’m here to end all sextech disputes!
Many thanks to my fellow madlads, madpals and madgals from the Arcane and MelJay Discord servers who have indulged my investigation so that now I can graciously impart that knowledge onto you. You’re welcome!
Now let us examine the sextech crime scene!
Mel’s apartment appears to have two balconies:
1) a larger balcony she entertains the fundraiser guests on in ep. 4, and where she also later talks to Elora in ep. 7 upon receiving the letter from her family.
2) a private balcony she paints on and also where her mother hangs out with her escort later on:
Now these two are separate balconies. Why? Because not only does the ep. 6 and 9 balcony appear smaller, but the roof over it also seems to cover the entirety of it, whereas the panorama of the balcony in ep. 4 and 7 looks like this and here the roof clearly does not extend the whole way. Also the view of the city, as well as the foliage thereon, from each balcony is different, implying that they overlook a different part of the city.
Also - and this is more of a technical note - as Arcane, for the most part, makes use of matte paintings as backgrounds instead of designing entire 3D environments, these slight differences and consistent lighting conditions in the aforementioned scenes suggest that we’re looking at a case of asset reuse here.
There are also a few minor details in the design of the cornices over the windows (there seems to be extra shape around the circle that isn’t visible on the other balcony). Keep the window pane design and the spiky turret structures surrounding the floor of the balcony in mind because…
This is the balcony from ep. 5, this is where the mouth-to-mouth action happens. You can see that the turrets are much steeper - so much so that Jayce can lean his leg on them. They also extend from the floor rather than from the walls of the building itself as is the case with Mel’s balcony. The pattern on the floor is also different from either of Mel’s balconies. This is Jayce’s balcony.
Here you can see the windows of this balcony and while admittedly, the design is very similar (the window pane designs are very uniform in Piltover; notably, the main hall of the Kiramman mansion as seen in ep. 2 and 8 have a very similar design as well, as do the windows in Heimerdinger’s office), there are just enough details that are off in order to show this isn’t the same location. Most obviously, the turrets, but also the design of the windows proper.
Here you can see that the design of the grates in the window panes aren’t an exact match (the cornices above the window are also a different design but there’s no shot in the show where they would be in focus enough for me to grab a good screenshot thereof). There are also lanterns hanging in front of the windows that aren’t on Mel’s private balcony. The foliage is also different. Now I see what you’re thinking… maybe it’s just the public balcony, there are some lanterns hung in front of the windows there and they’re open so you can’t see the pattern of the grates, and I could be like: haha, you got me there… except you didn’t! Why would the turrets of Mel’s balcony become steeper overnight? Huh? Huh?
Furthermore, there is a question of the hexgate view. From earlier screenshots, you can discern that Mel’s private balcony has no view of the hexgate, but her public one does.
See that big structure further away veiled in mist visible from Mel’s balcony? That’s the base of the hexgate. For comparison, I provided a screenshot of the base of the hexgate from the opening of ep. 4 so that you can better see the silhouettes. On the right you can see that the balcony in ep. 5 has a different view of it - and no, it’s not just an establishing shot, that’s why I left Jayce’s hand in the shot for reference - it seems to have a clear view of the top the hexgate, implying that the structure itself is way closer and the building it’s being observed from taller.
And now it’s time for the pillow talk!
From ep. 8 we know very clearly what Mel’s bedroom looks like because of this shot. We can clearly see her painting on the wall, we see the light coming from her roof window (which you can clearly see above her head in the second screenshot). We can see the shape of the bed and the design of the pillows, which seem light-coloured. The bed’s frame is set very low and also has no visible headboard - this is important. The mattress sits on top of the bed’s frame rather than inside it.
Now let’s compare compare to the bed in ep. 5. On the right, you can see that there’s a rug on the floor. You can see that the bed’s frame is wooden and the mattress is set inside the frame rather than on top of it. This bed clearly has a headboard. What’s more, in one of the shots on Jayce’s you can clearly see that the wall above the bed is blank - there is no painting.
Now onto the bedding. The mattress and the blanket looks to be either a deep shade of blue or green, whereas Mel’s bedding is much lighter in colouring. But the real giveaway are the pillows here. Firstly, you can see that there’s two sets of pillows, but in the shot from Mel’s bedroom, Mel is using two pillows (one of which is light-coloured) and Jayce has his head directly on the mattress.
Now, take a look at the shot of Talis and Kiramman banners below. Seems familiar, huh? Because that’s the pattern on the pillows! The smaller set of pillows looks to be green with a golden embroidery pattern intended to resemble the angular design of the Kiramman sigil, but the larger set is the Talis maroon red, with golden rhombus embroidery invoking the House Talis sigil. This guy has straight up branded pillows!
So there you have it. The results are in! Their first night is at Jayce’s place.
It’s not a theory, I saw with my own eyes what magic sextech could do, the lives orgasms it could save give, you’ve no idea how beautiful it is. - Jayce Talis, probably
Short of it making more logical sense that a messenger would come to Jayce’s house to notify him of Viktor’s condition rather than searching for him in Mel’s place (in which case Mel would most likely be woken up as well or notified by her staff later and thus no misunderstanding would occur), there is irrefutable evidence that these are two separate locations. Poor Mel woke up in Jayce’s bed alone and had to do a whole ass walk of shame from his place back to hers. No wonder she was pissed. Sleeping at someone else’s home is an incredible show of vulnerability (especially from someone as emotionally guarded as she is) and she probably felt used. And it’s so like Jayce to let her sleep and forget to leave a note while he was in a hurry to get to the hospital. He most likely thought he’d be able to come back before she woke up, but we can see that she woke up while it was still dark outside and likely left - royally pissed off - right after and he returned to an empty bed.
But also, him sleeping in her bedroom in ep. 8 (under the painting of a very traumatic event she went through) signifies that they’ve reached a new milestone in their relationship - she now allows him into her personal space, both literally and figuratively.
My mind is getting fixated on the idea of a bunch of late night/early morning Jayce and Mel content.
Both hankering for food? Jayce takes her to some obscure part of the city with the most amazing street food.
Can’t sleep? Mel takes him to the highest point of the city just in time to watch the sun rise.
Both drunk? Cheesy pickup lines and moves, both of them getting into laughing fits as they tumble into bed.
Jayce being an absolute lightweight when it comes to alcohol, and delivering some of the worst sexual puns for pick-up lines that still manage to charm Mel, who is far less susceptible to the effects of wine (all Noxians, even exiled ones, are good at two things precisely: war and quaffing wine seductively). But there truly is a reason she had to make the first move because if he’d said some of this nonsense to her before they got together… they might not have gotten together. Like at all. No matter how good of a kisser he is.
Also, Jayce taking Mel to Jericho’s, because he’s been there a few times on some of his past expeditions in search of Brackern crystals. And him being surprised that a woman he assumed was super ~fancy~ can chow down with the best of them and has a special taste for the pickled blue worms slathered in mustard and some other unidentifiable relish. Bonus for a clichéd but ever effective instance of him brushing at a little smear of sauce at the corner of her mouth and licking it off his thumb. Needless to say, she tosses Jericho their payment (with a liberal tip) and the dash back to his apartment so he can put his tongue to better use is nothing short of undignified. And we see Mel was right, “people [do] talk” about maybe the two most recognisable faces of Piltover’s council besides old Heimer but neither of them quite care right then.
Mel, who has a particular affinity for Piltovan architecture, because it’s everything that Noxus Prime isn’t (there’s room for prettiness and delicacy, here, for statuaries and buildings that don’t loom heavily, that don’t need harsh metal grafting and other brutal features to ensure they’re primed for war like the homes she grew up in) so she’s got a few secret places she likes to go to watch the sunset, the sunrise, the people, or simple just the clouds. Sometimes she even takes her sketchbook with her. Lonely always but at least away from Elora’s silent judgment because of the two of them, Elora wants to go back to Noxus and Mel, even if she’s never said it out loud, does not. It’s a big deal when she starts taking Jayce to some of these places. Lonely, no longer.
