#ambessa was a dumbass in the end

[lae-zels]

now that it has marinated in my head long enough i want to say that i hated what they did to the girls in arcane s2 and the season was shit overall. no amount of jayvik or alternative timeline timebomb can save this shitshow

[jaijeijayjei]

I headcanon Ambessa tried to set up an arranged marriage for Mel with a tough Noxian warrior. When she meets Jayce she’s like, “Really? You rejected all those suitors just to end up with this guy??”

Ambessa being “the disappointed mother in law” will always be funny to me.

Jayce: My city isn’t your playground >:(

Ambessa: When did you get so raggedy?

Can’t even let a man die in peace

“So you invented Hextech? And?”

And let’s not forget she was totally fine with Jayce getting chainsawed to death. “I get to cause civil unrest AND get rid of my annoying future son in law?”

Jayce: You’re Mel’s mom.

Ambessa internally: Yeah dumbass what gave it away

Poor guy can’t catch a break.

“Your leadership is impotent”

“Navigating your current crisis requires expertise you lack”

“I fear you’ll end up slaughtered with your eyes closed”

[ravenkinnie]

what r ur thoughts about mel in general

mel is so mother, not in a bland girlboss way that people assign female characters they don't actually care about but don't want to be sexist but in a way that I imagine she could inflict emotional violence on me I would think about for decades and also in a gay way because she serves ultimate cunt. I don't like the two ends of the spectrum she gets though, it's either people thinking she is only an evil capitalist manipulator (she is a capitalist but let's not talk about arcanes class worldbuilding issues again lmao) or that she only ever had pure intentions - she did manipulate jayce, she absolutely did work her charm and found cracks in him she could dig her fingers in to make him work the way she wanted and THEN realised she genuinely cares for him. and I love that, I love that she likes a man who is stupider than her and then gets charmed by how earnest he is in his dumbassery

mels issue is fandom is that she's a black woman and people are racist djdjdjkdk and she's attached to a storyline and a man that is largely taken over in fandom landscape by a slash ship so she's always gonna lose, the fact that meljay is a rareship slays me dhsjjs and also her storyline starts kind of late in the season, like it doesn't really kick off until ambessa shows up and by then you have viktor committing unethical experiments and dying and the whole zaun storyline unfolding and everything surrounding jinx-silco-vi triangle is just so enrapturing in its insanity mel stood no chance

but ngl her storyline with ambessa has me gagged, I like gasped when ambessa went BECAUSE YOU WEAKENED ME like the way mel this whole time thought she just didn't live up to ambessas standard and then the realisation that ambessa felt like mel was putting her up to a standard she couldn't live up to and didn't want to accept and that the values she thought she couldn't embody that ambessa did are the reason she was exiled aaaaaaaaa. I hope they get more spotlight next season and noxus becomes more relevant because you see a set number of ways mother daughter relationships are portrayed in media and its rare that there's this sort of violence and strong mindedness present in them the way it often is in father son relationships. I love that mels arc is her rejecting her motherland and their values and building something for herself (like her taking off her family ring and voting for jayces peace treaty even tho the treaty was fucking stupid... jayce is real for that dumb idea just so we could get mels cunt moment and silcos mother coded sophies choice arc)

also there's mels brother who we don't know much about, we know that he was important to mel because duh he's her brother but also she looked up to him in some way. but because arcane moves so fast with its plot she doesn't even get a moment to grieve him

I don't write mel fics a lot tho, just because mel is somewhat smarter than me and that becomes an issue when she has to be written by me, a dumbass. and i cant combat that unlike with another character like with silco who is somewhat smarter than me but he is also extremely delusional and I can balance these out to make it work. acc maybe I need to figure out how to make her more delusional

anyways while I'm here here are mel fic recs: family study this mel/silco fic is one of my favorite arcane fics ever caitmel from linka my fellow Caitlyn Fucks warrior elora/mel that eats character study through being gagged over mels hair insane

[xielianlikesbugstoo]

Aand Arcane season 2 episode 6. Really wanna finish act II. Let's go! (spoilers ahead)

01:09 this is literal, actual Arcane Viktor, lol

03:57 ok. But Cait in red really does look... So cool

04:42 Ambessa six-pack goes hard (literally, I suppose)

07:38 kinda hippie village though (i wanna live there)

11:25 "Remember me" Obviously, Vander. But also, Sky. She's constantly with Viktor now and he can hold her in his arcane memory and remember her

15:08 Viktor? A former pupil of Singed?! Why did I not know this lore before?! Lol. I'm all ears

19:22 babe is angy

20:55 huh? What's going on? What did I miss? I hate arcane. Give me more!!

21:05 everyone going rogue.... Please just all leave my hippie village alone 😭

23:17 "Here comes the punchline" Isn't that one of Jinx's actual quotes? 😭😂

24:42 I KNEW IT

29:09 ok, that was not only a super cool fight but also super cute ("Don't. Touch. My daughter.")

30:20 Sorry. I have to say it. HOW EXTREMELY STUPID ARE YOU, JAYCE. PLEASE STOP YOU FRIGGING DUMBASS. Now I won't get my happy family reunion in hippie town because of you

33:38 that whole scene with Viktor monologue. Holy

Noooo, that whole fucking last scene, what the heck am I watchinggggg

This episode was a bit... Slow? in the beginning. But the ending, holy moly. And I loved all the wholesome scenes. But I hate Arcane for all this heartbreaking

[1296-very-good-year]

Thank you! I've been waiting for dissent on this. And I won't even call you stupid :)

My opinion here was not kneejerk. This season has gotten more rotten the more I think about it (which has been A LOT)

No I think Season 2 did a lot of needless backflipping to avoid discussing class conflict - that was the heart of Season 1 - in exchange for magic is bad, and forgiveness... or whatever.

That Piltover's request for help was lopsided is not the problem. The problem was the onus to do the right thing was put on Zaun. NOT Piltover. There were zero apologies or repercussions for the martial law and oppression.

Viktor used the Hexcore to cure his terminal disease that was killing him. Not some nebulous "weakness" in himself or humanity.

Jayce's actions were either all part of a master plan he concocted offscreen with future Viktor, or a series of dumbass decisions that led directly to everything he was trying to prevent, and only Ekko coming in last second saved the day. There is no inbetween here. Whatever you want to think is right, is right, because the show works overtime to hide his thoughts from the audience for that nonsense mageViktor twist at the end.

I think you need to reread my point about Viktor saving baby Jayce. It is an UN ambiguous RETCON.

You can read a million other posts about Vi's lack of character arc. Who does she choose, between Cait and Jinx, by the way? Because the show takes that choice away from her by removing Jinx.

Vander's first death had infinitely more meaning than him coming back to life over and over.

Isha was not a character foil to Jinx. She had no character at all, aside from wanting Jinx to be a rebel. Why did she want Jinx to rebel? Who was she? Did she have a deep hatred for Piltover's oppression? Who knows.

Love you assuming that because I wanted Jinx to have an interesting, morally dubious character arc, that I hate mentally ill people recovering.

Caitlyn literally became leader under martial law. She was a dictator. That is not an interpretation. She lost an eye in a fight with Ambessa, not as a consequence for oppressing Zaun.

Viktor didn't need to tell Ambessa his plan. It was OBVIOUS. He was speaking through the voice boxes of all of his collapsed robot followers, saying they were "all one". Would YOU give someone like that everything they wanted? Hypocrisy is fine in a character, but did anyone call her out on it? Make her defend herself? Nah. If we don't bring it up, maybe the audience won't think about it.

Turning Silco and Vander's decisions to adopt Vi and Powder from previously clear, ideological CHARACTER DEFINING choices into them just fulfilling a promise to their dead mom, is lame as hell and not needed. Full stop disagree with you that Silco knew Vi in Season 1. He literally says he regrets that they "never had a chance to speak".

Explaining Mel's motivation does not address the criticism that it was rushed as hell, or that her magic is - for some reason - the only example of good, safe magic. Meanwhile Viktor and Jayce have to kill themselves to make up for inventing and using Hextech. Because they weren't BORN with it, so it's naturally bad.

Ekko didn't actually make up with Jinx in episode 7. He met Powder from an alternate universe. If the showrunners thought that would be a redundant, then maybe they shouldn't have wasted so much of Ekko's time in an alternate universe with a brand new character.

For ppl who liked Arcane season 2, is the honeymoon over yet?

Can we agree that S1 and S2 are completely different shows?

That none of the themes carried over between them?

That Piltover did nothing to earn Zaun coming to their rescue in the final battle?

That Viktor's "cure all weakness" shit came out of nowhere?

That understanding any of Jayce's actions post-talking to mageViktor requires a PhD in eyebrow twitches and nonsense?

That Viktor saving baby Jayce was an unambiguous retcon?

That Vi was just a cardboard cutout that Jinx and Caitlyn wrestled over?

That Vander lived and died at least 2 times too many?

That Isha was just a cute pet for Jinx to monologue at?

That Jinx turned from unhinged terrorist to a defanged, quirky jokester?

That Caitlyn's blink and you'll miss it dictator arc changed nothing and there were zero repercussions for it?

That Ambessa became a hypocritical moron whose anti-mage sentiment ate shit and died when she teamed up with robot mage Viktor, who didn't even PRETEND he wasnt going to hivemind her along with everyone else?

That Silco being close to Powder and Vi's mom, knowing them since they were born, only serves to weaken his relationship with Jinx?

That Mel went from a morally complex, savvy politician into a heroic battle mage, (in like 5 mins of screentime) while all other kinds of magic + Hextech were evil and corrupting and had to be destroyed?

That Ekko convinces Jinx that he went to an alternate reality and fell in love with her and she shouldnt kill herself and to become a revolutionary hero(?) OFF SCREEN?

IS THE HONEYMOON OVER YET?

[ravenkinnie]

your post about straights fearing lesbian kat is so funny and actually made me so much better ab the whole dumbass discourse. i genuinely hope even if she ends up with garen she gets to kiss a girl or two or even get into a random hookup like cait with maddie.

it's so funny because they are literally fighting no one. like arcane twitter does not care about garen and katarina, they barely give a fuck about mel and jayce, some wlw made jokes and that's it. I would even go as far as to say, league gays don't even care about katarina that much, like she's not like an evelynn or seraphine where she's been claimed by the fags and the hags, it's just imaginary adversaries in their head that they use to feel superior to someone

league players are just the bottom of the barrel insecure snowflakes who will cry and throw up over anything and if you're unlucky enough to play league you know how annoying everybody else who plays league is. they hate when lore changes, even though the lore is a mess dot com, and they feel entitled to the entire game so they use the feeling of their toys being taken away to straight up let their homophobia and sexism out (bc feeling this entitled to female characters for no reason just because a lesbian said something is giving sexism too). the tea is that riot shouldn't even give a fuck because playing to a fanbase that will always whine about everything you do will never be profitable and I think they know where they are chasing the real bag after k/da and arcane, that's why darius and vlad are like. the only men in that cinematic sjksjsjsk

also here is the kicker. garen and katarina are technically a joke ship that became subtextually canon, kinda like timebomb before arcane. like it's not so canon that you should be fighting in the trenches like idk, ashe and tryndamere. that doesn't mean they won't be canon in new IPs since riot is clearly cashing out on those subtext ships now like they did with tb and caitvi but I need to inform people how heavy heterosexual delusions are. they are so stupid they have me turning into the biggest bisexual ally and fighting for katarinas right to be a hoe cause she ain't even attached to that man, she owes him nothing!!

this stupidity is also another reason why these mfs make me giggle when they turn into the oracles of lol information and they are like just so arcane fans know there aren't lesbian champions in noxus <333 hoe there weren't lesbian champions before arcane in piltover either - I cannot overstate how subtextual caitvi was, pre-arcane caitvis witnessed a miracle in their ship becoming this canon and easily the biggest league ship just based on how many people who don't know lol would recognise them. hell, even ambessa is bisexual in the game now, the pink dollar goes a long way for riot clearly

anyway, I hope elise and kat scissor and the spider legs are somewhat involved. ykw I hope they tease the ionia show in the noxus show like they did with arcane and her and irelia hate fuck on screen. I hope she fucks lux before meeting garen too idgaf!!