meljay + love & romance arc tropes (part two)

https://www.reddit.com/r/arcane/comments/tdyff5/spoilers_ep5_the_truth_behind_the_sextech_crime/

meljay + love & romance arc tropes (part one)

oh, mother, where art thou

I have a lot feelings about these two and their relationships with their mothers, and what those, in turn say about them, so I thought I'd bang on about it.

flashbacks

We see Jayce and Ximena caught in this perilous situation and they're holding on to each other, doing everything possible to protect and care for each other even in the face of certain death. Jayce is just a kid, near buckling under his mom's weight, and it's the prospect of losing her that drives him to beg and plead for the stranger’s help. And he succeeds, by some miracle of magic, he succeeds, and this experience sets him on his Life's path. Also note, Ximena is doing her best to protect her son, even as she's succumbing to frostbite and worse. By contrast, we first find Mel alone. Walking through a newly conquered keep, horrified, a little shell-shocked, alone. In every moment of that scene, she's wary, and it only heightens once Ambessa shows up. Mel tries to say the right things in hope to gain her mother's approval even as she’s wrestling with what she believes is right and wrong. Ambessa tests her. And she fails. She falls short, and that “lesson” haunts her for the rest of her life. Rather than being a source of safety, love and care, Ambessa remains in the shadows, a threat, Death personified, a larger-than-life nightmare-figure.

betrayal

We see both Mel and Jayce grapple with feelings of ~betrayal by their mothers. In parallel, Ximena and Ambessa’s actions or the impact of them in the moment could be read as kind of similar. But they’re not, as we know. Ximena makes that case before the council to save Jayce from certain banishment but in so doing invalidates his life’s work, and even though her rationale makes sense and it’s the best way she knows how to manoeuvre the system to save her son, Jayce is deeply hurt by it. The one person he expected to believe in him and back him, in this moment, doesn't, and it hurts. It's why Viktor and Mel's support end up meaning so much to him. Ambessa banished her child to essentially save herself, like cutting off a gangrenous limb. In the scene, like the Narcissist™ she is, she manipulates Mel and makes it entirely her fault. Note how much she dominates the frame just as she's aiming to dominate her child and force her to give herself up with the hollow promise of reconciliation, acceptance, love.

Mel has been taught from childhood that she has to earn love, that nothing is freely given without expectation of something in return, and that to show love is a weakness that should be cut off. How she initially approaches Jayce, and how he effectively disarms her with his vulnerability, tender and open affection, makes a lot of sense. She’s not used to this (we can see it plainly on her face in ep. 5 when they fall asleep together). She’s not had this for a long time, maybe ever. But she’s clearly yearned for it (in the space of a few episodes, we already see her opening up to it like a flower that’s been deprived of rain and sunshine for too long) and Jayce is the first person with whom she allows herself to maybe reach out for it.

ALSO these two also have this thing where they really believe in each other. Like, Mel has no reason to support Jayce the way she does and to go out on several limbs to back him and protect him the way she does, but she does. There's a reason Jayce tells her, baldly, in ep. 6 that she makes him feel like nothing's impossible. Like, that's some deep feeling right there. This guy has harnessed literal magic but something about her makes him feel that way and it's a LOT. And we can see in that scene and in ep. 9 that for Mel, who hasn't really had anyone say things like that about her, or believe in her for real (maybe only Kino), it is A LOT, A LOT.

hugs

These two scenes, though. Jayce is at a major crossroads, and he's scared and uncertain, and the person he turns to immediately, whom he trusts with this, is his mother. In contrast, Mel is meeting Ambessa for the first time since her banishment - it's a moment that's pregnant with tension, hurt, anger and bitterness. Neither side willing to show weakness. Ambessa has to walk back to hug her and even then, it's awkward and unnatural, I doubt there was much affectionate hugging happening even before the banishment and it shows. Also notable, however, is that Ambessa is also constantly watching Mel in this scene, and there’s flickers of vulnerability and emotion that she’s far too constipated to properly express. Not yet. There’s love there, it’s messed up, but it is there.