#melblanc

melblanc only works if leblanc is her usual piece of shit self instead of the woobfied fanon ver. she can admire mel to an extent, but i think being denied causes her to shift her posture the same way a niceguy will freak out if you say you’re not interested. mel being much much younger than leblanc is definitely a factor. emilia is in a long game of emulating sahn-uzal and mel not being devoted to her as she was once to mordekaiser breaks the fantasy. she wants mel to come crawling back and what makes their dynamic so interesting is that mel resists despite this. she wants someone more interesting than vladimir. she wants someone who she actually has power over unlike swain. she craves to make someone who matters obey.

while i get how isolating mel factors into leblanc's plan to awaken mel's powers, i wonder how the plot might've gone if the black rose had focused on another way mel could've been useful to them: her wealth. even when not knowing the exact extent of the black rose's financial resources, having the richest woman in piltover as a member certainly wouldn't hurt—they recruited amara for that reason and her connections presumably—and i wonder, if leblanc could have let go of her obsessive need to "correct" rudo's betrayal through his daughter and allowed mel to stay in piltover, the rising tensions between piltover and zaun and ambessa's interference could have easily made grounds for her to propose an alliance where leblanc would make the moves in the dark that mel is unable to ennact as a councillor and draw her in that way...