This Arcane Season 2 scene proves why Ambessa won’t win the Piltover war

Ambessa might be a fearsome warlord with muscles that’d put a bodybuilder to shame, but when it comes to the Piltover vs Zaun war, she’s destined to fall short – and this Arcane Season 2 scene proves it. 

Up until this point, it seemed that the League of Legends warlord was driven by a thirst for power. However, as is revealed in Act 1, the reality is she’s looking for a way to fight her feud with the Noxian secret society Black Rose. 

If Ambessa can lead the Piltover army to battle against Zaun, she can wield Hextech weaponry and stand a fighting chance against her enemies. But there’s a key issue here: Ambessa isn’t as smart as she thinks she is. 

This is proven by a scene in Arcane Season 2 Episode 4, which unfolds after she orchestrates tensions, declares martial law, and names Caitlyn the military dictator of Piltover. 

Behind-the-scenes, she’s got her guard Rictus and a team of henchmen rounding up inventors and scientists from topside to experiment and create their own Hextech technology. 

Ambessa observes from the sidelines as it looks like their latest expert is about to crack the code, but at the last minute it blows up and eliminates him. 

This leaves Ambessa frustrated, telling Rictus, “How, in a city teaming with brilliant inventors, have we managed to unearth such unrelenting incompetence.”

As one viewer pointed out about Ambessa’s failed Hextech experiments, “Jinx was able to weaponize Hextech in a cave! With a box of scraps!”

“Who knows, he could’ve succeeded if he had more time or more attempts,” said another. “Too bad, Ambessa was too impatient and that got him killed.”

No matter how much power she may have, Ambessa will never be able to figure this out on her own. She needs people to do the work for her, and she’s not as influential as she may think. 

A good example is her decision to put Caitlyn in charge. Despite Ambessa’s best efforts to train her up as her own personal warrior, Vi swoops in and gets Caitlyn back on the good side by the end of Arcane Season 2 Act 2. 

As another Redditor said, “The idea to put a puppet ruler in charge of Piltover is a good idea in practice, but Cait was probably the worst person she could have chosen for the role. 

“The idea with puppet rulers is that they usually have no power base of their own and are thus reliant on their puppet master to stay in power. 

“The problem here is that Cait actually does have her own power base, that being the entire police force of Piltover who appeared to be uneasy with this whole ‘dictator thing’ in general and only supported it once Cait was chosen to lead.”

“The fact that Ambessa is doing this now may suggest that she’s not as smart or as powerful as we initially believed,” they added, to which another replied, “Yup. This is going to backfire terribly.”

Although Ambessa does manage to spark a battle at the commune using force in a bid to get her hands on Warwick – who she sees as another useful “tool” – “Baby Jinx” Isha stops everything in its tracks. 

How? By shooting a Hextech-powered gun, the one thing Ambessa can’t seem to get her hands on – no matter how hard she tries.

Arcane Season 2 Part 3 lands on Netflix on November 23. Until then, read about Dr Corin Reveck, the show’s most traumatizing scene, other great animated series to watch, and our ranking of the most powerful Arcane characters.