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“ | A wolf has no mercy. | „ |
~ Ambessa's motto. |
“ | You are the wolf... | „ |
~ Ambessa's last words to Mel. |
Ambessa Medarda is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Silco) of the 2021 Netflix animated series Arcane, based on the video game League of Legends. She is a warlady from Noxus, and the mother of Mel, who is set on finding weapons strong enough in Piltover to face against the Black Rose, wanting revenge on them for killing her son Kino.
She was voiced by Ellen Thomas.
What Makes Her Magnificent?[]
- She is an extremely good fighter who is able to fight several enemies at once, and is not afraid to lead her army from the front line. In addition, she is able to think strategically during a fight, making moves to get her enemies to lower their guards so she can win against them.
- She has an extremely cool presence, with her physique and Ellen Thomas' acting adding to the menace of her character.
- She is overall shown to be capable of understanding situations in limited time, and overall makes correct points about the things around her, namely the conflict between Piltover and Noxus.
- She has a tragic past as shown in the song "Blood, Sweat and Tears" of being molded into a warrior and facing several battles at a young age, which affects her in the present as she laments the young, innocent woman she used to be.
- She is shown to genuinely care for several people, such as her children, with her being heartbroken over causing Kino's death and genuinely loving Mel despite being on opposite sides and Mel disagreeing with Ambessa's believes, and having a true friendship with her right-hand Rictus, being saddened by his death and giving him an honorable burial.
- She won multiple battles against her enemies at a young age, even successfully taking down an enemy regime and ruling over what remained.
- She taught Mel her diplomatic skills and how to manipulate and use the people around her, which she used throught the series and lead to her becoming one of the most valued members of Piltover's Council.
- In a single conversation with him, she convinced Jayce into thinking on building weapons against Zaun, and had it not been for Mel objecting it, Jayce would have likely gone through with it.
- She manipulated Salo, who was crippled by the bombing on the Council by Jinx, by fueling his desire for revenge against Zaun.
- She used the chem-baron Renni's grief over her son's death so she would attack the memorial for the council members killed by Jinx, so she would appear with her soldiers and be seen as a hero in Piltover's eyes, and thus provoke more conflict between Piltover and Zaun and get to be trusted by the people of the former.
- She was able to see through Amara's words that what she wanted out of Piltover existed and takes Amara's distraction on Ritcus to kill her. After this, she lied about Amara's death being caused by Zaunite assassins, which, along with Sevika's launching of painted gas on Piltover, allowed her to manipulate the topside into declaring martial law over Zaun.
- She manipulated Salo into thinking she was going to give him a position of power so he would gather all the houses of Piltover and convince them into declaring martial law.
- She manipulated and used Caitlyn's grief over her mother's death and her breakup with Vi to turn her into a puppet leader and allow her to get power over the conflict between Piltover and Zaun. She even had her spy Maddie seduce Caitlyn to have her think she could remove Ambessa from power at any point so Caitlyn would convince herself that Ambessa's help was the best for Piltover.
- She lead her army at Piltover and had her soldiers carry a false cocoon of Viktor so the actual Viktor would infiltrate into the Hexcore, which succeeded and tricked everyone of her enemies.
- Through Maddie, Ambessa was able to overpower Caitlyn and her forces and prevent them from finguring out her trick with Viktor's cocoon for long enough for Viktor to get to the Hexcore.
- In spite of manipulating her, Ambessa genuinely respected and cared for Caitlyn, being saddened over having to kill her, and when preparing to do so during their fight, Ambessa complimented her skills.
- She accepts her death gracefully and finally accepts Mel as a wolf in her last words, which is played for sympathy with Mel mourning the loss of her mother.
- While she does get outwitted once by Vi and in the end by Cailtyn and Mel, the former she recovers from and the latter was only possible through Cailtyn sacrificing her eye, losing her ability to use her rifle to do so.
What Makes Her a Baddie?[]
- She is a known warlord who has killed countless soldiers and civilians, being introduced in a flashback having won a war against a previous regime and taking it over.
- She is a merciless woman who will kill anyone whom she thinks a threat without hesitation, as best shown in a flashback where she killed a young woman to prevent a potential uprising against her.
- She manipulated Renni into attacking a memorial made for the members of the Piltover council killed by Jinx by using her grief over the loss of her son so she could appear with her soldiers and be seen as heroes in Piltover's eyes. This lead to the deaths of several of Piltover's guards.
- She framed Amara's deaths as an act done by Zaun assassins to manipulate Piltover into fully agreeing into declaring martial law. Said martial law is shown to have people arrested for minor offenses and has people tortured to obtain information on Jinx.
- She has scientists try to experiment on Hextech despite knowing the dangers they would be in, leading to the deaths of several of them.
- She allows Singed to experiment on Warwick, erasing him of his previous memories as Vander, and taking away his humanity.
- She waged war on Piltover and Zaun, causing the deaths of at least dozens of people, including Loris.
- She aided Viktor in his plan to "evolve" humanity so she could obtain an army that wouldn't fear death, not caring about the many who would lose their free will.
Trivia[]
- While she is currently a Magnificent Baddie, this may change once her prequel novel Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf gets released.
External Links[]
- Ambessa Medarda at the League of Legends wiki.
- Ambessa Medarda at the Villains wiki.
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League of Legends Arcane |