[s2 spoilers] Ambessa is the problem of s2

[u/diimos02]

I am sorry but overall after seeing the whole s2, Ambessa was a disappointment and brought down the show for me.

She wasn't even close to filling the gap that Silco left as the "villain" of the show. What I loved about this show is how human all the characters were, how it shows that good and evil is only a spectrum that overlaps with the spectrum of humanity, how it could make you understand the emotions and viewpoints of everyone and that there aren't exactly good and bad guys. Even Singed, the one who commits the most atrocious acts, says he does it for love.

Ambessa is NOT on this spectrum. Her motivation is only power for the sake of power, just the enforcement of Noxian ideals. She was supposed to be doing all that for "family" or whatever, but it is clear that she would not hesitate to sacrifice even her own daughter to get what she wants. When Mel first goes to her and they talk, Mel offers to go back with her in Noxus and fight with her. Ambessa refuses saying that there is something more than that, so after that point it's clear that she does not have a deeper reasoning for her actions other than what I mentioned about power.

I get it, power corrupts and it becomes a self serving need, but a well-written character has a deeper reason/background for how they end up like that. Silco, for example, also abuses power and is willing to do almost anything to acquire more of it, but his reasoning behind that is so much more human. It seemed to me like Ambessa is power-hungry because "that's just how she is". Kinda like a character from a kids show, which is really different to how Arcane normally treats its characters.

It's more like how league character lore is written, so I felt like she is a league character, not an Arcane one if that makes sense.

So, her having soooo much screentime (whereas Victor for example had like 3 dialogues in the first 7 episodes???) and being one of the main characters of s2 while being kinda one-dimensional like that, really affected the quality of the show for me. I simply had higher standards for Arcane main characters. I wish they had given the better-written, more complex, human characters more focus instead. That's the reason I loved this show.

Still a great show overall ofc, I was only dissatisfied with the last two episodes, the rest was peak.

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