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This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
Orchestrated a civil war, manipulated high ranking officials, got everyone from another nation to believe in her, and made them beat their chest as a salute that they didn't even know, and put the person most blinded by anger in charge so she would follow whatever she told her. All while dressing like a beast. Probably one of the scenes that will be talked about from this season even years later.
| “ | Noxus prizes strength above all else, defining it by three core principals. Vision. The top of the triangle. Charting a course, and having the wisdom to navigate it. This form is your base, child. Your eyes see what others don't. Might. Bending your enviroment to your will. Your speed is improving. But eventually you need force (...) The last is guile. Phantoms. Tricksters. Mages. Absent honor. Absent accountability. Remembered this, Caitlyn. Tunnels in your eyes. Lava in your veins. Shadows in your heart. This is the truth of combat. I've discovered a fourth principle. One that heightens all others. Sacrifice. The temper born of suffering. We understand it as others cannot. We are kin. | „ |
| ~ Ambessa is a warrior, and has all the ideals of one. She is not just strong, she is ambicious and smart. |
Since the end of Arcane, I decided that I wanted to take some part in discussing its characters. I will not doubt that there are a plethora of complex individuals in this show, but I find this one to be the biggest badass among them, and I personally respect some of her personal beliefs. That said, I will not deny that this will be one of my greatest honours in the years I have and will spend on these sites, and doubt I will get stuff much more impactful than this.
I will also note that I was not expecting this to happen halfway through the season, but even if it did, I am definetely not disappointed. I love this character and I have come to listen to her song over the past few weeks. Funnily, one of the characters I plan to propose, alongside this one, also has a "wolves equals strength over everyone else" mentality. December will be a big time for me, and this is just one I'm getting started.
I will note that I am aware this character is getting a prequel novel in Febuary, but I felt she was fine to do now and I'll update or rediscuss her character when that happens. So far she more than solidified herself here. Also, I will note that since we have used Death of the Author with Singed, I will be using the same with Ambessa in the attempts League of Legends has made in the attempts to tie Ambessa into the game. Here, I'll only be focusing on Arcane and things related to it.
With all things cleared up, I would like to begin on discussing one of the coolest warmongers I've seen in a while.
What's the work?[]
Arcane is an animated series made by Netflix based on the well-known game, League of Legends. It follows the events that take before what happens in League, exclusively in the places of Piltover and Zaun, while also showing some characters from Noxus, as well as the Black Rose. It mainly shows Vi and Jinx in their stories as they grow up in Zaun while facing prejudice, oppression and poverty from the people at Piltover that molds them into fighters for their own beliefs, Vi being to initially find her sister and later changing to trying to end the conflict between Piltover and Zaun, and Jinx being the adoptive daughter of a crime lord named Silco and later making herself a face of hope for Zaunites.
While it follows the conflict between the people of Piltover and Zaun, we will today be talking about someone who is from none of the two, rather the empire of Noxus, whom goes to the city to gain an upper hand on the Black Rose, which she was under conflict with and killed her son Kino. The upper hand being to find her biggest weapon against them, who was also her daughter Mel. Here is the context.
Who is she/What has she done?[]
Ambessa Medarda is a warlady from Noxus. Born from a family who thaught her to be strong and ruthless from a young age, such as when she was 10 where her grandfather had her grab the swords of fallen soldiers in the battle of Hildenard, under the pretence of them needing steel, when in truth he wanted Ambessa to not fear death. As she grew up, she faced many battles and many deaths, and was trained to fight against enemies twice her size.
Ambessa came to believe that the only way to survive in the world was to use others for her own advantage and be merciless towards her enemies, saying that those made her a "fox and a wolf". One of the most notable battles in her life came when she was pregnant of Kino, as she was stabbed with a spear the stomach, and her army had been wiped out. Then, a wolf appeared, and as it was looking and going to her, it then left.
Ambessa took the spear out of her stomach, and lived to see another day. A few years later, Ambessa went to Basilich, and fell in love with a man, with the affair causing her to give birth to a daughter, Mel. Mel was born possessing magic, and the Black Rose, a cult-like cabal that ruled Noxus from the shadows, were interested in her. Ambessa was able to escape from the Black Rose for around two decades, thus allowing her to raise Mel so she could make her daughter into a weapon against the Black Rose while trying to make her understand her believes of stregth and keeping the truth about her having magic within her a secret.
One day when Mel was a teenager, Ambessa had her go to the throne room of a regime Ambessa's army had defeated. There, Mel told Ambessa that Kino throught that war was a failure of statecraft, with Ambessa replying that she believes Mel's brother was naive in his belief that he could end every conflict through talking, and told Mel that she needed to be both "a fox and a wolf" if she wanted to survive long in the world.
While Mel gave suggestions to implement in the throne room, Ambessa told her that she could give Mel a chance to rule on the throne, as long as Mel was able to handle it. Then, a young girl appears, presumably the daughter of a high rank of the regime, held by two of Ambessa's soldiers. Ambessa then asked Mel what they should do with her, with Mel suggesting sparing her, strip away her possessions, and send her to one of the colonies far from the city, saying that she would be of no trouble for them.
Ambessa then explains that the girl was a symbol of the previous regime, and killing her would stop having to kill a thousand who could retaliate against Noxus. Mel explains that sparing the girl would show that Noxus is merciful, only for Ambessa to kill her, telling Mel that a wolf had no mercy. A while later, the Black Rose was able to track down Mel, and gave Ambessa a choice. Either Ambessa gave them Mel, or they would kill Kino.
For as much love as Ambessa had for Kino, she couldn't let go of her greatest weapon against the Black Rose, so she decided that causing Kino's death was the least awful decision before sending Mel away to Piltover. Over a decade later, Ambessa went to Piltover to meet Mel, who had become of the concilers of the city, after hearing that Piltover was at the edge of a civil war against the underground part of Piltover named Zaun. The reason being due to Noxus' fight against the Black Rose failing and Ambessa losing a significant part of her resourses in the conflict.
Arriving, Ambessa is met by Mel and her assitant Elora. Ambessa tells Mel that Kino was dead, before informing Mel that Ambessa knew about Jayce's decision to weaponize Hextech. At that moment, Mel realized her mother was planning to use Hextech for her own use, and refused to allow Ambessa to have them. Ambessa then explains that the weapons would be needed to end the conflict between Piltover and Zaun, and during her talk with Mel, Ambessa's lover appeared, leading her to go with him on an airship.
While bathing in hot water and getting a massage, Ambessa met with Jayce, and after telling him a story about a general who met his enemies while wearing a blindfold, Ambessa told Jayce that the threat of Zaun was real and that their situation was impotent. She then explains that the problem they had with dealing with Zaun was Piltover's council, and that the problem they were having only could be dealt with with expertize the council lacked.
While Jayce tried to leave the conversation after telling Ambessa that there were no strangers to failure and that he needed to get back to working in mantaining Piltover's security, Ambessa gets out of the water, and tells Jayce that if he wants to share Hextech to the world, he needs someone with experience, otherwise he will get himself killed. Jayce's talk with Ambessa leads him to try to weaponize Hextech, and when the Council disagreed due to Mel wanting to avoid a war, Jayce decided to go with Vi and a group of enforcers and break into one of Silco's Shimmer factories so they could stop its productions.
However, Jayce stopped when he accidentaly killed a child and understood that continuing to fight against Silco would only get more innocent people in danger. While this was happening, Mel confronted Ambessa, and told her to not talk to Jayce again and leave Piltover, the latter of which Ambessa imediately made clear she wouldn't do. Ambessa then explains to Mel that the person who killed Mel's brother was still going after Ambessa, and that she needed weaponized Hextech to fight them as their resourses exceeded that of her armie's. Mel then explains that Piltover is not Ambessa's testing ground, and is shocked that she would start a war for her own sake.
Ambessa then tells Mel that she would put the world in flames if it meant protecting her family, with Mel saying that she stopped being part of Ambessa's family when the latter casted her out, and asks why Ambessa did that. Ambessa explains that the reason why she exiled Mel was because she was making Ambessa's decisions harder and were making her too emotional to act on what she believed were the necessary decisions to keep her family safe.
Ambessa then tells Mel that the latter should allow Hextech to be weaponized and for the war between Piltover and Zaun to continue, and after that Ambessa would bring her back home where she would be at Ambessa's side. However, Jayce tried to make a deal with Silco to end the conflict between the two cities, with the deal being that Silco would become a member of Piltiver's council and have free trade and unrestricted acess to the Hexgates in exchange for him to stop the production of Shimmer and give Jinx to Jayce so she would face justice for her crimes.
While the first he was okay with, Silco refused to give in Jinx due to now seeing her as a daughter. Jayce went to the council and explained his deal with Silco, and while several of them were against it and lashed out at Jayce for his decision, they ended up agreeing to make Zaun and independent nation from Piltover.
As it was becoming official, though, Jinx, angered by the death of Silco accidentally caused by her hand, decided to launch a missile to the council's room. This lead to the deaths of three members of the council, including Cassandra Kirraman, as well as causing one of the other council members, Salo, to be crippled. Ambessa decided to use Salo and manipulate him so he would play as a pawn to her goals. She guided Salo to suggest invading Zaun to the other surviving members of the council.
While Mel tried to stop this, Shoola, the only remaining active council member due to Jayce leaving to help Viktor who was severely injured by Jinx's missile, agreed with Salo, leaving Mel to agree with the invasion, but forbidding the use of Hextech as weapons against Zaunites. Seeing as how Mel getting what she wanted would stop Ambessa from getting any closer to Hextech weapons for herself, she decided to cause an attack at the memorial for the deceased councilors by manipulating the chem-baron Renni into doing so, only to appear and save them by killing Renni and her Shimmer soldiers.
During a meeting with the council which took place underground due to the attack, Caitlyn, Cassandra Kirraman's daughter, revealed that she had made a plan for her and her elite squad to go into Zaun, find Jinx, dismantle Shimmer and neutralize all of Silco's remaining agents, using Hextech weaponry, and taking advantage of a poisonous smoke called the Grey.
While Caitlyn's group was in Zaun, Ambessa met with Amara, a member of Piltover's Merchant Guild, after she requested for Ambessa's audience multiple times. There, Amara revealed she was working for the Black Rose, and told Ambessa that she would not allow her to get what she wanted on Piltover. With this, Ambessa discovered that what she was looking for existed, and wity the help of her right-hand Rictus, killed Amara. Ambessa then told Rictus that they should keep Mel as their enemy as she was safer that way, before tracking down Salo and meeting him.
There, Ambessa calls Salo out for allowing Caitlyn to overpower him and the rest of the council, with Salo explaining that it was because of Caitlyn being a Kiraman rather than Caitlyn herself, before bringing up Mel's name in a mocking way, causing Ambessa to threaten him. After this, she tells Salo to set a meeting with all the houses with even minimum influence in Piltover, with Salo agreeing, before Ambessa tells him about Amara's death. After an explosion of paint filled with the Grey all over Piltover's ventilations caused by Sevika, the former right-hand of Silco who was now working for Jinx, the houses all reunited for a meeting like Ambessa had told Salo.
There, Ambessa claimed that Amara was killed by two zaunite assassins to blame them for her death as well. She then suggests that Piltover must declare martial law as Zaun had seemingly proven time and time again that they would stop at nothing to end Piltover, and gives Caitlyn the title of general so Ambessa could manipulate her while saying she would fight to take down the Zaunite threat.
At the end of the meeting, Ambessa promised to Caitlyn that they would give justice for her mother. After that, she began training Caitlyn and teaching her the believes of Noxians to mold her into being loyal. During that, Ambessa also had a spy of hers who hid under the name of Maddie Nolen as an enforcer, into also manipulating Caitlyn by tricking her into falling in love with Maddie so she would give Caitlyn the illusion of her having the choice of not following Ambessa so Caitlyn would end up not doing that.
While doing that, Piltover's martial law ended up causing the people of Zaun to begining to idolize Jinx as a savior and hero who would free them from Piltover's oppression. She also had scientists try to control hextech so she could use as weapons, but due to the scientists she found not knowing how to use them and Jayce and Heimerdinger having gone missing due to being sent to the future and an alternate timeline respectively, the attempts to use hextech would end up failing and her scientistists would end up dying trying to do so.
While talking to Rictus after another failed attempt to control hextech, Ambessa tells Rictus that her daughter was taken by the Black Rose, with Rictus assuring her that their moment of victory would come and she must be prepared for that. While on one of checkpoints, Rictus found one of Jinx's supporters and beat him up for interrogation, with the supporter revealing that the people of Zaun were planning to meet in the statue of Vander, the former leader of Zaun before Silco.
While this was happening, Ambessa tried to convince Caitlyn to help in the interrogation, but she refused as she believed that what Ambessa was doing was unecessary violence, with Ambessa saying that maybe her learning to forgive Jinx made her better a better person that Ambessa herself. At the Zaunite's meeting where Sevika and Isha, the former right-hand of Silco and a child taken care of by Jinx, respectively, were able to convince the people of Zaun to try to stand up against Piltover, Ambessa's troops attacked and captured many of the people there, as well as Isha and the scientist and maker of the drug Shimmer, Singed.
However, Singed cut himself to have Warwick go after him and break out of prison, with Ambessa, seeing how strong and savage Warwick was, decided to make a deal with Singed, in that she would finance his experiments in exchange for him aiding her in her plans, which Singed accepted. While training Caitlyn and telling her how she found a new principle for Noxians, sacrifice, in that she would suffer to accomplish her goals, Singed informed them about how he tracked Warwick to Zaun in a cult village made by Viktor, with Ambessa going with her army and Caitlyn to the gates of said village.
There, Ambessa and her army were told to not enter with weapons, an order given by Viktor, and while Ambessa was willing to break in by force, Singed ended up convincing her to allow him to meet with Viktor and try to convince him to give Warwicked to Singed. However, Viktor refused to do so, as he knew Singed would take the former Vander's humanity for his goal to end death. As Singed was returning to Ambessa, Vi followed him and met with Caitlyn, who having gone to understand Ambessa was willing to do anything for her goals, betrayed her and made a plan to stop her from attacking the village.
To do so, Caitlyn brought Vi to Ambessa and while Ambessa was talking with Vi, the latter would set a trap for Ambessa, and during this, Caitlyn would go to the village and stop Rictus from taking Vander. This ends up working, but due to Jayce, who had returned from a future where the world was destroyed by Viktor and his army, ended up killing Viktor and knocking out all his followers alongside him, as well as turning Warwick back to his insane state.
Warwick ends up killing Rictus, and Ambessa, seeing this, orders her army to attack Vi, her friends, and Warwick. However, Vi, Caitlyn and Jinx ended up escaping due to Isha giving her life to stop Vander and allow them to escape. After the battle, Ambessa honored the death of Rictus and with the help of Singed was able to bring back Viktor, who then created an army of machines from his followers, as well as Warwick.
Viktor reveals his goal to get to the Hexgates, with Ambessa aiding him since Viktor accomplishing his goals would presumably make her army stronger. After Mel ended leaving from the Black Rose aftsr talking to them and finding out her mother's motivation, as well as ending up attacked by one of Viktor's machines and finding out about what Ambessa intended to do, Mel went to see her mother while Jayce was preparing defenses on the Hexgates to stop Ambessa and Viktor's forces from conecting to the Arcane.
There, Mel told her mother she knew about her conflict with the Black Rose, and asked how she had given Kino's life for Mel and didn't tell her about it. Ambessa tells Mel that she did it because Mel would make the decision she had to do impossible. Mel then tells her mother to not attack Piltover and instead leave to Noxus, claiming that the people there had nothing to do with her need for vengeance against those who took Kino from her, only for Ambessa to reject that idea since she believes the existence of Piltover violated Noxian traditions, while also telling Mel that she was still too weak since she was trying to convince Ambessa to stop to protect others.
Ambessa then reveals to Mel Viktor's army, and her goal to create one for herself that wouldn't fear death, which horrified Ambessa's daughter. The next morning, the war began, and Noxian soldiers began invading Piltover through boats, with the soldiers from Piltover and Zaunites defending the city so Jayce could take down the Hexgates and stop Viktor from getting to them. Ambessa herself took part in the front of the attack, breaking the first defenses of Piltover and killing several soldiers on her own. There, Cailtyn tried to shoot Ambessa, but ended up failing due to Ambessa using the anti-magic runes that belonged to Rictus to protect herself from the shot.
After this, Ambessa had a giant creature drag the cocoon where Viktor's body was being held so he would get to the Hexgates, with the Noxian army protecting it. Seeing this, Caitlyn had a group get to the cocoon so they would stop Viktor from getting anywhere closer using bombs containing the Grey to get there, only for them to not be able to stop it due to the bomb they planted failing to ignite.
The group was then captured, with Ambessa going to Caitlyn, and Maddie revealing she was working for Ambessa and was a Noxian spy. Caitlyn then tries to shoot Ambessa, but fails and ends up getting stabbed in the chest, before ordering Maddie to kill Caitlyn. However, she ends up being stopped by Mel, who kills Maddie and gives her mother one final offer to stop and spare the lives of the people of Piltover and Zaun, only for Ambessa to mock her again for being weak and ordering her soldiers to prepare to attack Mel.
At that moment, though, Jinx, as well as Ekko, the Firelights and many of the people from Zaun such as Sevika, appear and defeat the Noxian soldiers while Ekko knocks out the giant creature carrying Viktor's cocoon. After opening the cocoon, they see that Viktor was not there and Ambessa had tricked them so Viktor would get to the Hexgates while everyone was distracted.
Viktor then appears with his army and knock most of Piltover and Zaun's army. Mel then calls out her mother for sacrificing everything for her ambitions, with Ambessa saying that because Mel was going against her, she was not fighting for their family. Caitlyn then punches Ambessa and gets into a fight with her and Mel, with Ambessa ending up cutting Caitlyn's eye during it. The eye didn't get loss for nothing, though, as Caitlyn took of her anti-magic runes and allowed Mel to finish Ambessa off. After this, Ambessa is confronted by a Black Rose member (who is all but stated to be LeBlanc). The sorceress began to torture Ambessa, but Mel ended up stopping her.
Freed from her chains, Ambessa is dying, and spends her last moments complimenting Mel as she had finally become a wolf in her eyes. Later, after Viktor was defeated and stopped with the help of the united efforts of the people of Piltover and Noxus, mainly Jayce and Ekko, Mel went back to Noxus as with her mother's death she now had to rule her family back at her home.
Is She Magnificent?[]
| “ | I can use who I want. And I taste what I please. |
„ |
| ~ She is fighting for her world, and she knows what to do and who to use to do it. |
Without a doubt, intelligence, coolness, and sheer badassery is nothing Ambessa doesn't have. She is by far one of the smartest people in the series, manipulating people like Salo and Caitlyn, the latter of whom is a pretty smart and mentally strategic person herself, with no issue, orchestrating an attack that lead to all of Piltover gaining complete trust in her and giving her enough power to declare martial law, and transporting a fake cocoon of Viktor so he would be able to sneak in the Hexgates while everyone was distracted.
Ambessa is also a master fighter and uses strength and guile to defeat her opponents, with Ambessa herself admitting this. Even though she briefly begins to break her cool when talking to Mel when she tells Ambessa that she caused Kino's death to the point of her slapping her daughter and even shedding a tear during their talk, she imediately recovers and remains a badass through and through.
Her anger at Rictus' death only barely stays long before she could continue thinking on her feet rather than emotions, and although she ends up getting outsmarted by Vi and Caitlyn, the latter during her end, Ambessa still faces her defeat with dignity, and fades away as she compliments her daughter as a wolf, finally having come to respect Mel's own strength.
Is She a Baddie?[]
| “ | A wolf has no mercy. | „ |
| ~ That's all you need to know. |
Zero questions, absolutely she is. Ambessa is one of the most heinous characters in the show. She is introduced having just ended a war against an enemy regime and killing countless people, before mercilessly cutting the head of a young woman to teach her daughter that Noxians don't show mercy towards their foes.
From then on, she orchestrates an attack on a memorial by manipulating the chem-baron Renni to do so by using her grief from her son's death, leading to dozens of death, before Ambessa appeared to paint herself and her people as heroes and benefactors to Piltover, starts martial law where people are tortured for information as seen by one Jinx's supporters and unjustly sent to prison, and has scientists try to find a way to control Hextech for her own use which leads to several of them dying in the process.
In the end, she starts a war against Piltover and Zaun where many are killed, including Loris, and aided Viktor in his plan that could endanger the world so she could have an army of immortal soldiers. In addition, she also allows Singed to experiment on the former Vander, taking away his humanity, so she could use the now monstrous Warwick for her plans.
Despite this, she is not too awful since her actions have a purpose and she in addition to this has several positive qualities such as her care for her family and soldiers such as Rictus, as well as showing some occasional respect towards others such as Cailtyn and Mel, even dying with dignity and honor complementing the latter. So this, in addition to her being a complete badasss with countless cool traits, makes her overall not too baddie.
Final Verdict?[]
Ambessa, to me and many, is a strong yes. One of the greats from season 2 was her character, and she definetely is an interesting individual to talk about. I thank you for reading this, as I enjoyed making this so I could discuss this fantastic character from this amazing show.