That's what they are going for, but the argument he's making is questioning whether that is the best way to show that metaphor or if it's just a convenient way to sell the skin line as well.
30:05 I LOVE that they made Ambessa's scars gold, like Kintsugi (the Japanese art of repairing and reinforcing broken ceramic with gold). That's the perfect metaphor for Ambessa.
I was thinking the same thing! It's also great as gold ties in with Shurima and with Mel. You can interpret like Shurima has left "scars" and like Mel has helped "repair" her and they're both valid and not mutually exclusive reads on the symbolism.
@@Kellan__they-them Late but it also can mean Mel is Ambessa's family, the only thing keeping her going and keeping her together, she's a glue that keeps Ambessa going and doing the necessary things to survive and thrive.
"Idk why embessa is here when she is pregnant" We are talking about the same Noxus here, right? No handouts for anyone. Take the position you deserve with your own hands. No excuse.
Also, I am impressed with how well they get melanated skin to look. The beautiful brown hues, offset with the golds, reds, and other colors look amazing! Let’s get some Senna in here!
She's also knows she's sacrificing a peaceful death from the Lamb, and accepts the "fighting tooth and nail" death from the Wolf when she does meet her end.
She is shown pregnant at the beginning of the video. I think the baby lamb she is carrying is a metaphor for her unborn child. I think that the warrior in her is fighting the wolf to survive. The mother in her is trying to get to the lamb for a peaceful death for her unborn child.
cuz she loose her son and dont want to loose Mel in arcane and the wolf see this and give her the opportunity to live and protect who she love the most
I think the storytelling of the video is pretty straight forward. Ambessa is wounded on the battlefield, The Wolf comes for her. Ambessa chooses to struggle, to fight on, sacrificing the lamb, a peaceful death, to gain power, authority. But its a trade she feels conflicted about be because she sacrifices The Lamb of her children too, they too will only know struggle because of the life she choosed to birth them into. Little details are that the sacrifice is presented as both a ritual Ambessa seems to be lost in the currents of, and also a Faustinan bargain with Wolf she is actively pursuing. Simbolising I think her being caught up in Noxian culture, and a fully authentic ambition. Fighting on means continuing to fight war, so she is dueling Pantheon and he gets her scars from it. The same scars that get burned into her when she takes the gem from Kindred. If you want to read into the skin promo, her dawning the angular gold of War symbolizes he becoming this titan at the top of the foodchain that others are going to be struggling against. So all 3 lines essentially depic the same act of refusing to die peacefully, but from different perspectives. As a fight, as a bargain with death, and as a ritual you get swept in.
8:00 she might've not known she was pregnant in the beginning of the possible campaign, and then sending her back would've been more trouble than allowing her to still be in the camp, helping with tactics or even during the fight.
I believe this is canon. How I interpret the music video: In a near death state, it seems Ambessa's consciousness went to a type of "Valhalla" (realm of honorably fallen warriors, from the past, present, and possible future), was tested, and was proven worthy of joining the pantheon of "Wolf's Chosen" in the afterlife. But then her unborn child, which appears to have arcane powers, was able to subconsciously use its magic to heal / resuscitate Ambessa and brought her back from her near death state / "Valhalla".
Not at all bro, that's not Ambessa running through Shurima is everyone forgetting how Rich the Medardas are? They've likely been in Noxus since forever but this is how they got there. These are the visions of the Ancestors of the Medardas, The lyrics of the song tell as much. Ambessa was raised by her father to War and she tried to teach her children, likely her father was taught by his, and on and on and on. This music video is memories but they aren't her memories, those scars in the mind-scape aren't her scars their her FAMILY'S, those scars don't appear on her face when she wakes up, her child takes on the Legacy of the Medardas, they have a pact with Wolf. They sacrificed their clans connection to Lamb for Wolf's strength to protect them from the Shuriman empires persecution. The fact that we've never seen blue body paint in Shurima B4 tells you that these people are outsiders / are not apart of the empire. Shurima doesnt play nice with outsiders, Icathia, that one other Place where Xerath is in LoR. Shurima was an empire built of the backs of slaves, and once they found the strength to fightback / protect themselves (Wolf's curse) they cannot abandon it because they severed their ties to Lamb, so seemingly there's nothing else there for them. They MUST double triple and quadruple down the path they were forced* onto. But Mel abandoned her family's crest what that means for her fate, the implications are CRAZY
@@azrieldalusong5042 It's a visualization of a flash second fight for survival, she didn't get teleported to an ACTUAL Valhalla you can reach in some way. The whole joke of Mordekaiser is that their idea of the death realm is simply wrong but mordekaiser is so angry about it that he will the afterlife he lived for into existence.
all the chosen of the wolf characters are champions who defied death, as in "rejected death" as in "chosing the wolf" and having succeeded, they are so to speek "the wolfs chosen"
What does "succeeding" means in that context tho? You're not suppose to succeed against Death. Chosing Wolf just means refusing to go gentle into that good night, it doesn't mean you won't get in. Or does fighting Wolf really gives you a mean to stall death, waiting for a miracle to happen? And if the miracle does happen and you survive, you're then a chosen of Wolf?
@bdletoast09 I mean I womt pretend I have any facts here, its all bery abstract and Im giving my best guess. Soure right, choosing the wolf just means not accepting death and fighting against it. So what I meant by succeeding was really just that: surviving a situation where it was way more likely for you to die. Silco actually has a speech about something similar in season 1. He talks about how he was drowing in the river, and there was a big temptation to just die. He says he heard the question "Have you had enough" in his head and I guess in situations like this most people would have had enough. So its not its a simple choice to fight against almost certain death. He even talks about how a part of him DID die that day. Hopefully makes sense
I don't know if gold is supposed to be Mel's color exclusively. The trailers/teasers for Arcane s2 do show Ambessa wearing that gold mask, so it definately is something in Arcane, not just for the skinline
I respectfully have to disagree i think this variation of pantheon being in her mind worked. it worked for me becuase as we stated this isnt actually physically happenening. This is some sort of dreamscape, or perhaps her soul was being pulled towards mount Targon. Pantheon is the aspect of war. In war you have to be able to endure, to push forward if you wish to win. the same goes for death. in that moment Ambessa was literally at war with herself to stay alive for herself and her son. I thought it was imapctful to see this god esentially come down and berate and remind her she needs to go above her limitations if she desires to live, wich is why i beleive she held onto the lamb for as long as she did becuase she had every intention of keeping the mentality of not fighting death until pantheon basically told her to "stop whining and fight back." I also got the impression that Ambessa had to have gained her mentality from something other than noxian propaganda. Noxus feels like a secondary allegiance she may have because every time Shes on screen in arcane she rarely ever even mentions Noxus, she only mentions their house. At least thats how I view it. I however can't deny that showing swain and katarina at the end was DEFINETLY for the skin line.
Not done with the video yet but i do find it cool that all the chosen of the wolf champions are characters who had essentially faced life or death and come out on top. They were chosen by wolf basically
Yeah the crook on Lamb's mask curves at the top, the one on Wolf's mask curves at the bottom. And really, Kindred is a spirit/aspect/god depending on who you ask. There's no reason either half would need to have a set gender, and it's not particularly surprising that the people of Noxus would perceive Death as masculine.
@@Taliesin_What? I don't think anyone was talking about gender. I'm pretty sure the lamb and the wolf don't have genders. The situation was skyen said "this is wolf" when it was lamb wearing wolfs mask like in every skin I don't know why he mistook it.
It always fucks me up a little when I watch an analysis video and the person reviewing is lookng at the exact same thing than I do and just... makes an objectively wrong remark. Like, I'm not talking about interpretation or whatever here, it's just direct observation. At 29:40, he drags the Kindred splash art where you can see both masks and he insists it's Wolf's when... No? The style are different obviously, but the important part is the crook here. It is the mask of the Wolf, thus, the one worn by Lamb.
I have to say, i feel like Skyen harped on this being 'skin bull' too much without realizing that lore skins are a thing The name of the skinline is the chosen of the wolf, Ambessa's story is about her rising to be come a wolf, and that scene was very likely her fighting to survive and gaining the wolf's favour. As for the gold, its because Ambessa is likely shuriman but as time passed and she solely focused on being a warrior, she became red associated.
He does this a lot Ngl it’s why I don’t watch as much as I used to… it’s like sometimes he can only see the face value and it’s like bro pls look deeper than that and not just harp on a designers hard work bc it’s not to your liking
@@MickeyJPerez3 That's the thing, he can look deeper than that and at times, he does but he keeps defaulting back to this idea that it has to be 'skin nonsense'
Can we talk about the choice to make the song a soul-like lament? Ambessa doesn't smile once in the video. Even though this is a story about her facing a trial with Death and coming out triumphant, it's framed as though her decision is a tragedy. Very interesting imo. Also at the end the pulsing beat and visuals are reminiscent of a heartbeat, as she thinks of her child and comes back to life from the brink of death.
IMO The fight with Pantheon AKA the aspect of WAR is symbolic for Ambessa at fist fighting off WAR itself as if rejecting war until she gives up and embraces WAR by taking the wolves heart and standing side by side with Pantheon or on the other hand, because of the scars, she fighting Pantheon is as if she was fighting in multiple wars and so
It honestly feels more like a trial to prove herself rather than an allegory for rejecting war. Once she proves herself, she's able to ascend as chosen child of war.
49:42 I believe the lamp is Kino, her son. Blue seems to be Kino Medarda's symbolic color in this music video. Lamb having the blue braid around its leg. Ambessa sacrificed her son to gain power from the wolf. Everything bath in blue would only be possible by his sacrifice.
1:03:25 This moment seems to be later in the timeline. Ambessa acknowledges the form of the wolf, holding her belly and conceding to the deal they made, thinking she's about to lose her unborn child. But the wolf is not there for Mel, payment has already been made. It's there to make sure Ambessa survives and rises to the warlord she is today. Symbolized by the color red, Ambessa's ruthless drive to be stronger then the "Pantheon" she's fighting, seemingly being the warriors of defeated cultures Noxus has fought.
This is what I got from it too. I also interpreted some of these blues as purples. The purple and blues gave me the debt paid feelimg while red is Ambess's mastery of her power.
It would take me like an hour to explain the connection between slavery in south america during the 1800, demonization of native african religions, childbirth and motherhood and contra cultural "pagan" movements AND provide proper historical context present in the videoclip, so I wont do it. But I´m thinking about it.
Do it cause that's easily exactly what's happening here, the Shuriman empire is mostly likely persecuting them and so they needed some way to defend themselves and because their beliefs of the Kindred shape the Kindred, what it seems to me is that they severed and Sacrificed their connection to Lamb for the Strength of Wolf. Meaning they are cursed to carry this curse, Necrit said some Rioter said that Ambessa cares most for the legacy of her family. If the foundation of their family's legacy is held up by the curse and strength of Wolf what does it imply about Mel's fate when she abandons her family crest right before she votes for peace with Zaun? The theme of the cycle of violence in Arcane is incredible because it's so human!!! Really makes me think about our reality and the understanding of how delicate everything all is. Make the video, people need to know about each other, without the understanding humanity will continue down this path of harm. Little by little, we move forward, until we're all free.
While the company itself can be questionable sometimes has some of the best industry artists from all sorts of background. This kind of nuanced historical inspiration is something they can definitely do well.
Honestly, that's what I was seeing too! I also think the audio is super important on story telling. Honestly, the skin line is tertiary to all th sub context jammed into this video
If that figure is meant to be wolf, the symbol is wrong. The mask has Lamb's half of the symbol, not wolf's, which is flipped. The mask is also angular like Lamb's, so I'm pretty sure that's Lamb.
That's what I though. Or a combination of both. My Runeterra lore is slipping since I haven't been paying attention these last couple of years, but I seem to remember in some cultures Lamb+Wolf was still seen as a single entity.
@teoentrelibros Lamb and Wolf are separate entities, but how they are depicted or viewed changes depending on the different cultures. In Noxus, Wolf hunts, but Lamb is still there. Two halves of The Gray Man. Wolf and Lamb are the same being always, just split into two forms. That's likely Lamb as perceived by Noxians. She's more abstract and different because she's not as concrete a figure to them as Wolf is, whereas here in Noxus, Wolf isn't masked or ethereal, as we saw him standing over Ambessa. In Noxus, Wolf is a big fucking Wolf. But because they don't see the Lamb and have a specific perception of her, she looks the way we saw to them. A kind of version of her through the Noxian filter.
It's clearly lamb it has the body of the lamb the mask of the wolf (which is the one lamb always wears) and lamb's symbol I don't know how skyen got that wrong
Ambessa has a brush with essentially the Grim Reaper of this universe, who is both a lamb and a wolf. When faced with death, you can choose the wolf and fight before you go or the lamb and just accept it. All the esoteric imagery is basically her in that in-between spirit world (which is different for everyone based on their beliefs), and her fighting the armored warriors is her choosing to fight death. The visuals in the sand represent the demons and dangers that surround her and the lamb(her child), and as you see as it progresses, the lamb eventually gets destroyed as she begins to cry out, a metaphor for her tribulations. And in that scene and the scene with kindred, we see the 3 wolf head structure appear. That is the path of the wolf. Even when she walks up to kindred. It offers her the wolfs head, because kindred knows ambessa chose to fight. In the end, when she dawns gold armor like them, it's like a display of honor, like you faced death and chose to fight so you can stand with us in the afterlife (other fallen Noxian soldiers who decided to fight). But right near the end, before she succumbs to death, she snaps back to reality because she remembers her child, and decides to push through and live for her, so the wolf leaves her alone.
My interpretation is that there are 2 different versions of Ambessa fighting against death. The "warrior" is battling the wolf of Kindred to survive. The "mother" is trying to get to the lamb for respite for her unborn child. Looks like in the end, lamb offers her a choice to sacrifice her child so she can survive to become the warrior she is today.
I think the blue is her caring, loving and kind aspects that back her ambition and drive for power. (Red) In the desert, blue is on her face; up front and on display. In the mindscape it's largely behind her, supporting her power
Personally, I think the colour symbology in the video (while a little muddy from the various external forces such as Arcane, LoL, the skinline) works. The key to making these colours work I think, is to look at them not as connected to Ambessa herself, but as connected to the Kindred. In the beginning the scenery is dark and fairly monochrome, it is only with the entrance of Wolf that we see colour (their features flash red before we are transported into the 'mind space'). To me, the red here is the Wolf and the blue which we see later is the Lamb, with purple being the combination of their presences. In the cave of the mind space--which Skyen didn't pick up on but I think it's actually a person's (Ambessa's?) silhouette from behind--there is an overwhelming amount of red. Until Ambessa teleports in. She's coloured in a mix of blues and purples, potentially symbolising the peace she would have found in death, but here, in this mind space, she decides to fight. Then we're transported into the dream within a dream? Memory? The place where the ritual is happening. I'm not familiar enough with LoR to make judgements that I'm confident in, but we'll touch on that space later. Following the ritual sequence we see Ambessa fight Pantheon in a scene which is admittedly mostly gold, but where more red begins creeping onto her figure. The red is both in the environment and when she switches to her scarred version, showing that as she fights she relinquishes her peaceful death little by little. Interspersed between and following this sequence, we get our first lot of blues. Surrounded by blue statues, she glimpses potential futures and parts of her past, before she begins to cry. This seems to me like an acknowledgement of what she has lost. She is too close to death, she has lost her life of peace and is now losing her right to death in the same way. Through fighting she makes a deal with the Wolf, to live for the fight, and so Ambessa begins to cry as she sees all of what could have been. The reason I think this, is because between one of the flashes of blue and a shot of her fight with Pantheon, we return to the ritual, and Ambessa gives up her Lamb. Once the fight is finished, the ritual coming to its conclusion, and the statues rightfully mourned, we reach the climax. As Ambesssa stands before the Chosen of the Wolf with scars mended in gold, her Lamb surrendered and her statues mourned, we finally meet the Kindred. This is, as Skyen mentioned, an interesting version of the Kindred we know, where Lamb is wearing Wolf's mask and I can only imagine vice versa. What matters is that here, they are both red. Ambessa has given up her innocence, her chance at peace, and the Kindred have responded in turn. Lamb takes Wolf's colours, Wolf's mask, and offers Ambessa a chance at redemption. As she accepts, the ritual shatters the Lamb, Ambessa climbs a blue throne, and her skin burns the same red as the other Chosen. What is interesting is that the wolf-head pendant is the same blues as the throne. What does this mean? I personally think that as Lamb has taken on aspects of Wolf through Ambessa's fight, so too has Wolf taken aspects of Lamb. But the peace Wolf has taken isn't one to be enjoyed; it is to be sat upon, a reminder always of why Ambessa must fight. She cannot stop fighting, cannot relinquish the sword or the throne, for she is the master of her peace only as long as she can fight for it. Then, finally, we return to reality where a new light is dawning and Ambessa is returned to life still carrying her child (who is wrapped in blue). My guess is that the blue around the child shaws that they are now her peace, that thing which she must fight for in order to earn more life. If Ambessa is the Wolf, then her child in blue--who I think actually is Kino, Mel's brother--is the Lamb. The reason I think the child is Kino is because, from what little we know of him, he looks down upon war and prefers to solve problems using his words. This is naturally a polar opposite of the philosophies we see in Ambessa, a peace to her war. That brings us to the end of the video, though there is still one more thing I would like to mention. Skyen questioned the use of the gold, and while I agree it is most likely just fancy set dressing for the video and standard design to sell skins, I think there could be a more interesting explanation. If this music video does show what I think--that Kino is the Lamb to Ambessa's Wolf--then where is Mel? Well, my answer is that Skyen was right, and the gold does represent her. At 1:23 through the music video, a gold spotlight appears on Pantheon. Before the light he was covered in red and balck, the colours of the Chosen, of Ambessa in Arcane. But once the light hits this effect is concealed, buried under the gold itself. It's something small, but it tracks (to an extent) during the rest of the video: where gold shines, there is no Lamb or Wolf, and things are restored to neutrality. I think this has potential to reflect on Mel during Arcane Season 2. She has the fight of Wolf instilled in her from Ambessa, but also the diplomacy of Lamb from Kino. Mel's colour is gold, and she can be this gold light, the thing that blends Lamb and Wolf, war and peace, and can mend the things that are broken (like kintsugi, which is nodded to by the golden scars on Ambessa at 2:30 in the music video). Anyway, those are my thoughts, and I'd be super interested to hear what anybody else makes of them!
I wonder if the Shurima bits are supposed to be some kind of funeral rite? Like, the movements of the people in the feather cloaks is bird-like and either predatory or scavenger-like, and the blue people are all writhing and wailing, and Ambessa herself seems to go from frightened to grieving. I can see a "carry your grief through the valley, then pour it into this empty vessel and let it go" kind of symbolism happening. So then, maybe the duel with, I think "The Warrior" more than Pantheon, is meant to represent the opposite end of a spectrum, and the throne represents some kind equilibrium between the two...?
I will say, I think that there is supposed to be a sort of contrast with Mel and Ambessa through the Red vs Blue colors. I think that since Ambessa is one of the “Chosen of the Wolf” (Possibly represented by Panth, Kat and Swain as people who chase down their opponents and are unrelenting) while Mel is a “Chosen of the Lamb” persay. She is meant to be decisive and particular. This is why the blue from the lamb is stripped from Ambessa and is instead shown in the womb with (assumedly) Mel. I don’t know why it shows as blue on the throne after Ambessa becomes one of the Wolf’s chosen, but maybe it’s because that’s an image of what COULD have been. We’re shown that version of Ambessa represented as a strong matriarch with the headdress, but what if that *wasn’t* born from ruthless war and violence? I mean, that’s not exactly what Ambessa looks like in-game OR in Arcane. That Ambessa was born of the Lamb’s essence, while the one we see in the skinline is the chosen of the Wolf. Perhaps in Arcane we’ll get to see whom she ends up turning towards by the end? This is just my interpretation, but I wanted to share!
see i think it's interesting that the 'lamb' of innocence she supposedly sacrifices isn't actually alive. it's a useless, hollow golden statue filled with holes, fit only to decorate a mantle in a fancy palace. she also doesn't SACRIFICE it - there's no knife driven into its belly or throat cut and it wouldn't bleed out in either circumstance if she did. personally i think that she's actually giving up on the idea of innocence as something to preserve and protect, that innocence is something even WORTH protecting, because it is a luxury of plentiful times and wealth and power and will inevitably be destroyed. she lets go of innocence and mourns it, but there is simply no place for such an item in a true warrior's life.
Omg thank you so much for making another video TBSkyen ❤️ honestly waiting for Arcane season 2 is so hard sometimes and these videos r such a good way to wait for it’s release XD
The feeling i get from this is that the champions chosen probably had some direct confrontation with lamb and wolf (mainly wolf) think tryndameres cinematic. And the ritual seems like its symbolic for the person giving up the idea/chance/belief that they would have a quick and painless death. Represented by lambs idol being destroyed and absorbed into wolfs. Wolfs chosen seem to be people who resisted until the end, refusing to die in one situation or another, eventually being recognized and possibly even marked by wolf.
I thought that as well but the one I don’t understand is Katarina standing there, swain perhaps when he lost his arm and saw the crows in Ionia where he understood the demon of secrets, pantheon pushed on even when the Aspect of war died impaled on aatroxs blade, but what happened to Katarina what was her fight with wolf?
The pantheon guy could be here grand father : same color skin and current hair color /texture as ambessa of arcane and the fact that in here voice line she say here grand father is the reasons she know death since really early in here life
I think the different colors represent the two paths she can take to gain power. In the blue version she doesn't have scars, so we can assume it represents power through diplomacy, she's a leader removed from violence. The scarred red version of her is the one that ultimately accepts sacrificing her innocence, so we see her not as a ruler but as a warrior (her new skin form). Ultimately this is all a vision but I do think it's a nice detail how she has blue decorations, meaning she has some of her innocence left. She will lose it gradually as in her design in arcane season 1, there is no blue in her design
Although Ambessa looks young , i believe the child is Mel and not Kino (Mel's older ,i believe, brother) bc of the golden "lighting" passing first through the child's back before it's eyes light up gold , just like Mel's protective armor 16:07 i love the way she is trying to protect the lamb with her body even from being touched by those creatures She talks about wrath a lot in the trailer, but i think her main motivation is going to be revenge She came to piltover to find weapons to avenge her son and from the conversation she had with Mel i do believe she blames herself for Kino's death And after the s1 finale she failed to protect her daughter too , it would make sense for her to have revenge as her main motivation
Gold IS Mel's colour, and the 3-point star is on the ring Mel takes off at the end of s1 e9 - which indicates that this could be related to their family, and/or its a sigil that Ambessa took up after this life/death encounter with Wolf. Riot's need to print money while laying off yet more members of their development team absolutely has a hand here in the overuse of gold, but I do think that this is more meant to hint at something sun/shuriman related to Ambessa's heritage, as well as being part of a ruling class of death dealers (Noxus especially). (now here's hoping Arcane season 2 doesn't prove this comment completely wrong. XD)
i think the blue and red thing is about how ambessa gives up her innocence for noxus and war to gain the power that she wanted/needed to protect her family but mel inside her being blue to symbolize that the innocence isnt something you can just get rid of and she's creating it anew with her child, but its something that she clearly struggles with as shown by the flashes of red and blue on her mask at the end. she puts on the front of the red (especially the beheading scene in arcane season 1 showing that shes instilling that noxian value onto mel as her thinking shes protecting her even though shes actually a shitty mother) but that you cant truly get rid of the lamb edit: i think ambessas story in season 2 will be about that struggle of the external need for war and violence(red) and her internal desire to protect her kids(blue). the shot of her on the throne being blue imo represents where her desires truly lie, being in power to protect those she loves (which she internally views as blue and innocent) as opposed to the golden glory pits being her external world (represented by swain and katarina as her joining the ranks of powerful noxians. and pantheon as the manifestation of her 'besting war') as the ambessa everyone else sees.
I wonder if blue is supposed to be Kino's colour, Ambessa did mention him trying to be "a fox among the wolves" not exactly the same as a lamb but similar in how he wants to avoid brutality like Mel does
To me it makes more sense that the figure who Ambessa takes the wolf trinket from is Lamb who wears the wolf mask. Lamb is who Ambessa goes to once she sacrifices either her innocence or the innocent person she carries in her womb (Mel), and now embraces the power of the Wolf whom the Noxians hold highly. But I agree with you in saying that it is a transfer of power from Lamb to Ambessa, the power of the wolf to make decisions of death by taking another person’s life. Originally I thought that based on the title of the music video, she was fighting tooth and nail to become better and fight tooth and nail, no matter how much blood, sweat, and tears it takes to achieve or preserve the one thing she cares about. Her children.
The weird people fighting in the desert could be representing the lunari and solari. I specifically noticed the moon textures and darker colors of the warriors protecting her, while the warriors attacking have golden helmets with spikes, resembling rhe sun
I think Pantheon, Swain and Katarina are there because all fought against kindred and somehow survived. So they are some kind of chosen by the Wolf. And in this video we see Ambessa doing the same. There are voicelines from them or Kindred which emply it.
Right, but the problem is... that has f* all to do with Ambessa or Arcane. All it's doing is distracting from the actual story the music video is supposed to tell, in order to sell skins that have nothing to do with either Arcane or the narrative of Ambessa as a character.
@@3BSkyen Yeah, but i wanted to point out that the champs Riot selected weren't just random. What these skins do for Arcane or the story i'm not sure either. We will see :)
@@3BSkyen I'd argue that there is a correlation to at least Ambessa's narrative: each character chosen is not only someone who has had a brush with death, but also has their character innately tied to the very concept of war itself. Ambessa has gone on and on in Arcane about how "death and war" molds people, and as a Noxian, she is naturally accustomed to the concept of war. Of course, this is a skin line meant for sales, but if we are to consider how this fits from a narrative standpoint, perhaps it is akin to what Spirit Blossom is in the world of Runeterra? Sidenote: I interpreted this music video more so as depicting the different beliefs of limbo in Runeterra: the desert scenes are definitely Shuriman; the duel with Pantheon is most likely Targonian; and the brief scenes with an iron throne are most certainly Noxian. Given that Ambessa is multi-cultural, I wouldn't be surprised if she has a blend of cultural beliefs based on her heritage. Of course, this is all conjecture until we get her champion bio; has it come out yet?
I don't think lamb is representing innocence here even if it's usually a typical symbol for it. Kindred is represented by 2 entities - Lamb collects your soul when you accept your death peacefully and the Wolf collects it when you fight it. Ambessa is initially carrying a lamb, symbolizing how she has accepted she is going to die. It gets reforged into a wolf heart, symbolizing how she will, from this point forward, fight her fate.
Champs in this skinline is maybe those who survived after meet the Kindred Wolf, so they are wolf's children. And lamb is all what Ambessa denied. A peaceful death.
Honestly when I first saw the trailer I was SO F***ING HYPED to for these "Chosen of the Wolf" and what role they could have in Ambessa's oringin and the story of Arcane! The way my smile faded away when I saw that they were just a skin-line... bruh I may be too innocent/delusional but I trust the creators of the show to *somehow* have found a way to justify it's presence there, and it'll hopefully make more sense once we watch season 2
Regarding the color language, I think the red/blue dichotomy is about aggression/violence/force versus peace/innocence. She embraces violence (the red) and as she lets the essence of that infuse her being she's able to take the seat of power and project "peace" in the form of the blue light. The deconstruction of the lamb figurine - shown to be hollow and fragile - I think adds to that. Through her life experience, she's found the innocence we hold close at youth to be something that breaks easily when subjected to the harshness of the world. But if you *sacrifice* that innocence to the Wolf you have the power to create your own peace. I'm not going to pretend I've got an iron-clad defense for that philosophy, but Ambessa tried to teach Mel the lesson that Mercy is Weakness, that trying to preserve innocence will result in greater loss, and that's a philosophical viewpoint I've seen before, and I think that's the significance of the blue. Especially because it's a very saturated blue. Unlike a soft or pastel blue, it's full of energy and *tension*, a false calm that could snap at any moment.
Why is Ambessa associated with the wolf? Because they introduced this in Arcane S1 ep 8 in her flashback. She is all about "being the wolf and the fox" and then later beheads the child with the words "a wolf has no mercy". Imo she was always portayed as the merciless wolf (=kindred reference) and never as a fox - she is too straight forward to be a fox. That's why she said to Mel that she should be both (being an upgraded version of herself). But Mel did disappoint her by being too merciful and fell out of her grace. Probably mainly because she didn't want to see Mel get hurt, knwing how soft she is - which she imo confirms in ep 8 when she says that Mel weakened her. She protected her style of ruling and her daughter at the same time with exiling Mel. Well, since Christian Linke did direct this video I have high hopes that this is canon related to Arcane. I think that the situation at the very beginning and ending of her being at the battlefield is a canon event but the targon stuff imo is probably an metaphorical imagery of her way to archieve her power and leave her weak self(innocence) and therefore the hopes of a peaceful death (=lamb) behind in excange for the power. The targon imagery probably symbolized the overwhelming powerful enemies she will encounter and her "ascending" in the end with the skinline. In reality she never wore the armor but it is a part of her canonically having that vision/dream. About the shuriman stuff I think you are probably spot on that this is some past stuff with a ritual that is mixed up in her whole vision. So in the end the fact that she has a vision /dream at the verge of death at this battlefield is justified as canon stuff and therefore the skinline is technically bend over three corners a canon as well. And since this is a vision you can have some wild shit in there like fighting against Pantheon(probably just symbolizing her many fights at battlefields as she is facing the aspect of war). Swain is the only pick I would see as a canon foe of hers bc I strongly suspect that he killed Mel's brother. And since thsi si a vision of her future Swain is her future foe in that.
12:42 That's the satyr-like spirit of the wolf we see stand up later. Ambessa's wounds from fighting the Pantheon on one 'plane of existence' appear on this painterly version of her as she approaches the Wolf spirit, as if the Pantheon and past disciples of the wolf are testing whether Ambessa is worthy to reach it.
I know we aren't talking about lyrics, but I think one lyric change is when "a hand at my throat and sword at my feet" changes to "a hand at my throat a child at my feet," especially with Ambessa's motherhood being a big theme of the music video.
It is obviously Lamb. You know they wear each other's masks, with Wolf wearing a Lamb mask and vice versa. It also plays into Ambessa's story of a Lamb, innocent to war, once faced with death, evolves and dons the face of a wolf. In terms of reality, she was about to be devoured by the Wolf (succumbed to her injuries) but obviously it was not her destiny to die in those shores so Lamb granted her respite and she saw that as her evolution to becoming merciless. The symbolisms are pretty easy to grasp as long as you know how Kindred works and listened to Ambessa's dialogue in season 1. Lastly, bruh of course this is cannon with Arcane getting released around the corner. Well this is Riot so there is going to be a skinline with it but on this one the story definitely comes first.
You could consider the “chosen of the wolf” as those the wolf considers worthy to deal death on Kindred’s behalf, in which case you could see Pantheon not as the God of War, but the Wolf in the shape of the God of War, a dealer of death in Kindred’s name
yess, i was waiting for this i didnt know they were releasing this, I woke up and my roommate showed it to me AND KINDRED'S THERE YESSS, we won, I won, idc, this video was for me specifically, kindred my beloved also YOUR NEW AVATAR IS SO CUTE, I LOVE IT
The whole thing seems to indicate to me that she WAS every inch the Noxian warlord, sacrificing her innocence for power and only respecting strength and demanding that the world must bend to HER will, and this is the story of how she eventually family as her primary goal over power. The whole Chosen of the Wolf thing is who she would have been had she continued on that path, but she chose to fight for her unborn child instead, and Wolf walks away. I think the blue is for the ritual since most magic in Arcane is blue. She still has little bits of blue on her Noxian outfit here, but none in her present day outfit, because her Wolf philosophy is no longer what binds her.
I would just interpret the entire chosen of the wolf fights to be pretty cannon in whatever realm of the kindred they are fighting on, that sort of limbo. And, if you fight until the end, you get to revive. So no thats not literal pantheon but that may be his representation in that realm. Like, the Kindred are basically gods so they might as well do whatever and it doesnt need to be a stretch, or "made to sell a skinline".
The ritualistc part is referencing how african tribes do their rituals, being very chaotic in some tribes, the use of white in clothing's. I was very pleased with how they've done it. Also, obviously, they didn't put the imagery of phanteon just for skins, specially because it was launched in the netflix channel, so people who don't play league would be confused.
For what it is worth, this song is can be listened to on streaming. It looks like it is near the end of the season soundtrack, about 3rd from the end. Song 19 out of 22 total. Based on the season 1 soundtrack arranging the songs in the order they appeared in the show, I wonder if the order of this song near the end of the season hints Ambessa’s story in season 2 hints her story is likely not done in the first or even the second arc. It’ll stretch the entire season. How much more room will Jayce and Victor’s story arcs have?
I really enjoy these redesigns of the characters for Arcane. Did not expect them to expand so much on Ambessa given everything happening in season 2. Can’t wait!
The big part of the whole story centers around Kindred being a God pair of death. Lamb centers around a peaceful death after a long life; but Wolf: focuses on Death met in a fight or in predation. How the different cultures of Shumira and Noxus interpret the dedication of Kindred. golden sacrificial lamb; being transported through Gods and chaos crows all around for Shumira. And the battle to hold your place amongst the champions of death and the pure corrupted form hidden in a cave directing you to to turn back to the pure Death only offered to Vikings diving into Valhalla
I think it's really interesting that she refuses the hero's call in her dream because of her son. Later, after he dies, she accepts the call and becomes a ruthless leader.
I imagined the lamb idol being sacrificed as her giving up any hope for a peaceful death from kindred and in turn always fighting to the bitter end to one day meet wolf.
I think its more symbolic in a sense and just some sort of afterlife scenario of what Ambessa could've gone through if she were to pursue that power where she becomes some sort of Solari God Warrior but the lingering thought of her unborn child may have something to do to bring her back to life and to her senses.
I know Skyen doesn't react to anime much recently, but I really hope he checks out DANDADAN. it's a lot more then just the average popular Shonen for the season. And I'm sure he'd love picking apart every unique animation/directing technique Science Saru uses.
40:00 I guess that transparent light blue is connected to Ambessa’s initial hopes and aspirations. Like the sword is pointed down, standing peacefully next to her, it might symbolise a strong, powerful, but just and peaceful ruler. It’s some sort of crystal castles of her ideas about her future. She hadn’t wanted war initially, she just wanted to take care of her people, like children. And yet she had to accept the gift of the Wolf, and turn to martial law with all the red and black colours.
With all Zerath-looking stuff... What if hextech crystals are related to him? (in a new lore) They does look like they belong with him For example he turns people into solid energy crystals to do "his stuff" and all the crystals we have are what's left after he's done. Like bread crums after a meal.
If you look at this "Wolf" figure, they appear as a mix of both the wolf and the lamb from the kindred character. The body is very lamblike, the mask they wear has both the ears of the wolf and the lambs mask, yet it very clearly is neither of them, or maybe both. This makes me wonder if it is.... The grey man from lamb's story.
32:32 Why are you saying that it looks like the wolf's mask on that creature? It looks exactly like lamb's, just with big saber-shaped teeth (which the wolf's mask doesn't have either) It has upwards pointing ears (wolf's mask has them pointed down) It has lamb's symbol in the center It's black with light patterns (wolf's mask is greyish with dark patterns) Am I tripping? Are you tripping?
8:00 We shouldn't underestimate the possibility that Ambessa wasn't "sent" anywhere, but rather that she volunteered and went because she wanted to, which to me seems more in line with the type of person Ambessa is. Still a logistical problem mind you, but still.
17:27 the lamb is her innocence, hence he being clothed in all white. Riot is big about colors and symbolism. They put her in all white and not attacking but evading with lamb in hand. She was not a wolf yet, she was still innocent. As she fights she becomes more and more like the wolf.
She fighting Pantheon is a signifier of she participating in wars and gaining her scars, she constantly defying death, always coming back to fight Pantheon and the Wolf. Ambessa is having visions of what she could be: powerfull and in the "hall of the heroes". But, to survive and see that future she has to sacrifice something. A life for a life. Ambessa sacrifies her daughter. She gave her to the gods/espirits, to the Kindred (Also, the tall figure is Lamb, she is gaving Ambessa mercy). Mel is the litte golden lamb. Mel will have some type of role in the gods plans. She is now a choosen one and her life is own by the Arcane. In the end, the baby, Mel, has golden eyes and when they open it makes Ambessa hesitates. It is really worth it? Power in exchange of your family? Your daughter? Now, she probaly is looking for a way to free Mel from her destiny, to break the contract, to save the only children that she still has. Even if she has to gave up of all her power and burn the world for it. Other notes that I have is: Ambessa is shuriman-targonian. All in this vid gaves Targon and Shurima vibes. She is returning to her antecessors to be judged. She is a traitor that joined the enemy empire. Remember that the two regions have really strong cultural connection. (Together with Ixtal and even the Buhru from the Serpent Isles). The magic that made the ascendents is celestial magic from Targon. The ritual people are some type of spirits, maybe the ones who failed the test of the Wolf and now are conddemed to look and guide new souls, but they are angry, they push and pull Ambessa because they dont want her to win, but they let her go anyway because the punishment would be worse. About the skinline: fuck it. The important part is the imagery of the hall of the heroes and Ambessa fighting in wars, figuratively fighting the Aspect of War, gaining her scars and becoming the relentless warrior that she is and at the same time seeing the possible future for her and being tempted by it. Thats it, thank u if u read it all. 😅❤
What I got from the music video was that like not matter how much Ambessa tries to or thinks her innocents is destroyed it lives on, sorta like how kindred is 1 being the lamb & the wold are intrinsically intertwined as the entity of death, they are 1 being but wear different masks, innocents & brutality are 2 sides of the same coin y’know.
Did you notice the small Heimerdinger video for Rifts, that looked like it might have done by Fortiche as well? As for gold, isn't it the color of Targon more so than Mels? The whole discussion of her having a Solari shield? As for the blue throne, blue is as well the color of royalty. Vi did meet Mel when making her case before the council.
7:35 I think they're going to do a markus approach with ambessa cus league loves being centrists, the battlefield is probably canon in a way that ties back into the "you weakened me! ... the necessary decisions to keep us safe!" so my wild guess is that they were fighting mages capable of using the arcane which would explain the ruthless murder of that girl in season 1 I think they'll try to humanize her violence as like a an animal fighting for survival off of pure instinct without empathy
Throwing my theoriing hat even further here, I wouldn't be surprised if this whole esotheric experience ambessa had on this battlefield is the reason mel ended up attuned with the arcane
Ambessa sent Mel away so that she wouldn’t become hardened like she had become. Ambessa saw her purity (lamb) and didn’t want her to become changed as she did (wolf). Mel saying her brother was like a fox would be in the middle of that, and Ambessa knows that the world will force her to chose one or the other, or be lost like her brother.
The most apparent implication of the blue is the reminder that the arcane isn't unique to Jayce he merely adopted it. Be it through vision or ascension, Ambessa knows the arcane but even chosen by the wolf, her face subtly but visibly wavers in the wake of her child, which now too pulsates with that revamped Merdada gold. If this truly is an acension ritual it explains the golden eyed child and the flash of gold from Mel Merdada's back at the end of season 1. I think the skin holds more significance than one would typically expect of League, allow a little more faith, because there's in fact coherent storytelling here.
If we treat pantheon in the video as a representation of war, you could say those are her war scars frok the different battles she fought
Thats what I thought
^ this
That's what they are going for, but the argument he's making is questioning whether that is the best way to show that metaphor or if it's just a convenient way to sell the skin line as well.
Exactly how I saw it. Maybe it sells the skin, but I think they made an educated choice by using the aspect of war.
@@chrissymomo Why not both? If not Pantheon, than who can be?
30:05 I LOVE that they made Ambessa's scars gold, like Kintsugi (the Japanese art of repairing and reinforcing broken ceramic with gold). That's the perfect metaphor for Ambessa.
I was thinking the same thing! It's also great as gold ties in with Shurima and with Mel. You can interpret like Shurima has left "scars" and like Mel has helped "repair" her and they're both valid and not mutually exclusive reads on the symbolism.
@@Kellan__they-them Ooh, that's a great addition!
@@Kellan__they-them Late but it also can mean Mel is Ambessa's family, the only thing keeping her going and keeping her together, she's a glue that keeps Ambessa going and doing the necessary things to survive and thrive.
"Idk why embessa is here when she is pregnant"
We are talking about the same Noxus here, right? No handouts for anyone. Take the position you deserve with your own hands. No excuse.
Also, I am impressed with how well they get melanated skin to look. The beautiful brown hues, offset with the golds, reds, and other colors look amazing! Let’s get some Senna in here!
And some Ekko too, god it's gorgeous
@@hadrianhexe9603 we have Ekko in the series but there are more characters that aren’t show in LoL
@@ArchCupid Oh i know he is, i thought were speaking on the music video specfically since it seems even more rendered
Oh no, the bald man is evolving. Now he can move his hands D:
He looks like a YIIK character
HAHAAHAHAH!!! HELP!! 😭
HIS POWER IS RISING
She’s crying because she’s sacrificing her own innocence
Yes
She's also knows she's sacrificing a peaceful death from the Lamb, and accepts the "fighting tooth and nail" death from the Wolf when she does meet her end.
She is shown pregnant at the beginning of the video. I think the baby lamb she is carrying is a metaphor for her unborn child. I think that the warrior in her is fighting the wolf to survive. The mother in her is trying to get to the lamb for a peaceful death for her unborn child.
cuz she loose her son and dont want to loose Mel in arcane and the wolf see this and give her the opportunity to live and protect who she love the most
And I think it's when her village was destroyed by Xerath followers, just like Samira
I think the storytelling of the video is pretty straight forward.
Ambessa is wounded on the battlefield, The Wolf comes for her. Ambessa chooses to struggle, to fight on, sacrificing the lamb, a peaceful death, to gain power, authority. But its a trade she feels conflicted about be because she sacrifices The Lamb of her children too, they too will only know struggle because of the life she choosed to birth them into.
Little details are that the sacrifice is presented as both a ritual Ambessa seems to be lost in the currents of, and also a Faustinan bargain with Wolf she is actively pursuing. Simbolising I think her being caught up in Noxian culture, and a fully authentic ambition.
Fighting on means continuing to fight war, so she is dueling Pantheon and he gets her scars from it. The same scars that get burned into her when she takes the gem from Kindred.
If you want to read into the skin promo, her dawning the angular gold of War symbolizes he becoming this titan at the top of the foodchain that others are going to be struggling against.
So all 3 lines essentially depic the same act of refusing to die peacefully, but from different perspectives. As a fight, as a bargain with death, and as a ritual you get swept in.
Ohh omg this little analysis is very cool! Thank you 😊❤️
8:00 she might've not known she was pregnant in the beginning of the possible campaign, and then sending her back would've been more trouble than allowing her to still be in the camp, helping with tactics or even during the fight.
I believe this is canon. How I interpret the music video:
In a near death state, it seems Ambessa's consciousness went to a type of "Valhalla" (realm of honorably fallen warriors, from the past, present, and possible future), was tested, and was proven worthy of joining the pantheon of "Wolf's Chosen" in the afterlife. But then her unborn child, which appears to have arcane powers, was able to subconsciously use its magic to heal / resuscitate Ambessa and brought her back from her near death state / "Valhalla".
Not at all bro, that's not Ambessa running through Shurima is everyone forgetting how Rich the Medardas are? They've likely been in Noxus since forever but this is how they got there. These are the visions of the Ancestors of the Medardas, The lyrics of the song tell as much. Ambessa was raised by her father to War and she tried to teach her children, likely her father was taught by his, and on and on and on. This music video is memories but they aren't her memories, those scars in the mind-scape aren't her scars their her FAMILY'S, those scars don't appear on her face when she wakes up, her child takes on the Legacy of the Medardas, they have a pact with Wolf. They sacrificed their clans connection to Lamb for Wolf's strength to protect them from the Shuriman empires persecution. The fact that we've never seen blue body paint in Shurima B4 tells you that these people are outsiders / are not apart of the empire. Shurima doesnt play nice with outsiders, Icathia, that one other Place where Xerath is in LoR. Shurima was an empire built of the backs of slaves, and once they found the strength to fightback / protect themselves (Wolf's curse) they cannot abandon it because they severed their ties to Lamb, so seemingly there's nothing else there for them. They MUST double triple and quadruple down the path they were forced* onto. But Mel abandoned her family's crest what that means for her fate, the implications are CRAZY
Wow I can see it tbh
Everything is canon now, they have stated so during their change going forward for all types of content relating to league
Wait since they have lol's version of Valhalla? Sahn Uzal (pre Mordekaiser) died and didnt go this so called "type of Valhalla".
@@azrieldalusong5042 It's a visualization of a flash second fight for survival, she didn't get teleported to an ACTUAL Valhalla you can reach in some way.
The whole joke of Mordekaiser is that their idea of the death realm is simply wrong but mordekaiser is so angry about it that he will the afterlife he lived for into existence.
all the chosen of the wolf characters are champions who defied death, as in "rejected death" as in "chosing the wolf" and having succeeded, they are so to speek "the wolfs chosen"
What does "succeeding" means in that context tho? You're not suppose to succeed against Death. Chosing Wolf just means refusing to go gentle into that good night, it doesn't mean you won't get in. Or does fighting Wolf really gives you a mean to stall death, waiting for a miracle to happen? And if the miracle does happen and you survive, you're then a chosen of Wolf?
@bdletoast09 I mean I womt pretend I have any facts here, its all bery abstract and Im giving my best guess. Soure right, choosing the wolf just means not accepting death and fighting against it. So what I meant by succeeding was really just that: surviving a situation where it was way more likely for you to die.
Silco actually has a speech about something similar in season 1. He talks about how he was drowing in the river, and there was a big temptation to just die. He says he heard the question "Have you had enough" in his head and I guess in situations like this most people would have had enough. So its not its a simple choice to fight against almost certain death. He even talks about how a part of him DID die that day.
Hopefully makes sense
I don't know if gold is supposed to be Mel's color exclusively. The trailers/teasers for Arcane s2 do show Ambessa wearing that gold mask, so it definately is something in Arcane, not just for the skinline
i think is because ambessa is probably from shurima
maybe some shuriman village that noxus conquered, idk
I respectfully have to disagree i think this variation of pantheon being in her mind worked. it worked for me becuase as we stated this isnt actually physically happenening. This is some sort of dreamscape, or perhaps her soul was being pulled towards mount Targon. Pantheon is the aspect of war. In war you have to be able to endure, to push forward if you wish to win. the same goes for death. in that moment Ambessa was literally at war with herself to stay alive for herself and her son. I thought it was imapctful to see this god esentially come down and berate and remind her she needs to go above her limitations if she desires to live, wich is why i beleive she held onto the lamb for as long as she did becuase she had every intention of keeping the mentality of not fighting death until pantheon basically told her to "stop whining and fight back." I also got the impression that Ambessa had to have gained her mentality from something other than noxian propaganda. Noxus feels like a secondary allegiance she may have because every time Shes on screen in arcane she rarely ever even mentions Noxus, she only mentions their house. At least thats how I view it. I however can't deny that showing swain and katarina at the end was DEFINETLY for the skin line.
Ooooohhhh this is good
Riot just dropping bangers back to back to back (into Arcane) I think that they are worried that you got not enough to do.
Not done with the video yet but i do find it cool that all the chosen of the wolf champions are characters who had essentially faced life or death and come out on top. They were chosen by wolf basically
I don't think the part with the lamb is past memories, it's the symbol of the shred of her innocence
29:37 But it is Lamb with Lamb’s Mask (look at the symbol)
Lamb have Wolf’s mask, and Wolf have mask of the Lamb at the original splash art
Yeah the crook on Lamb's mask curves at the top, the one on Wolf's mask curves at the bottom. And really, Kindred is a spirit/aspect/god depending on who you ask. There's no reason either half would need to have a set gender, and it's not particularly surprising that the people of Noxus would perceive Death as masculine.
@@Taliesin_What? I don't think anyone was talking about gender. I'm pretty sure the lamb and the wolf don't have genders. The situation was skyen said "this is wolf" when it was lamb wearing wolfs mask like in every skin I don't know why he mistook it.
@@LoL-sp3wu Yeah, I was ruminating that lamb's masculine presentation may have been a contributing factor to Skyen saying "this is wolf."
It always fucks me up a little when I watch an analysis video and the person reviewing is lookng at the exact same thing than I do and just... makes an objectively wrong remark. Like, I'm not talking about interpretation or whatever here, it's just direct observation. At 29:40, he drags the Kindred splash art where you can see both masks and he insists it's Wolf's when... No? The style are different obviously, but the important part is the crook here. It is the mask of the Wolf, thus, the one worn by Lamb.
I have to say, i feel like Skyen harped on this being 'skin bull' too much without realizing that lore skins are a thing
The name of the skinline is the chosen of the wolf, Ambessa's story is about her rising to be come a wolf, and that scene was very likely her fighting to survive and gaining the wolf's favour. As for the gold, its because Ambessa is likely shuriman but as time passed and she solely focused on being a warrior, she became red associated.
Right. I'm like dude just appreciate the story being told. It doesn't matter if its connected to Arcane or not.
He does this a lot Ngl it’s why I don’t watch as much as I used to… it’s like sometimes he can only see the face value and it’s like bro pls look deeper than that and not just harp on a designers hard work bc it’s not to your liking
@@MickeyJPerez3 That's the thing, he can look deeper than that and at times, he does but he keeps defaulting back to this idea that it has to be 'skin nonsense'
Can we talk about the choice to make the song a soul-like lament? Ambessa doesn't smile once in the video. Even though this is a story about her facing a trial with Death and coming out triumphant, it's framed as though her decision is a tragedy. Very interesting imo. Also at the end the pulsing beat and visuals are reminiscent of a heartbeat, as she thinks of her child and comes back to life from the brink of death.
IMO The fight with Pantheon AKA the aspect of WAR is symbolic for Ambessa at fist fighting off WAR itself as if rejecting war until she gives up and embraces WAR by taking the wolves heart and standing side by side with Pantheon or on the other hand, because of the scars, she fighting Pantheon is as if she was fighting in multiple wars and so
It honestly feels more like a trial to prove herself rather than an allegory for rejecting war. Once she proves herself, she's able to ascend as chosen child of war.
This too!
49:42 I believe the lamp is Kino, her son. Blue seems to be Kino Medarda's symbolic color in this music video. Lamb having the blue braid around its leg. Ambessa sacrificed her son to gain power from the wolf. Everything bath in blue would only be possible by his sacrifice.
1:03:25 This moment seems to be later in the timeline. Ambessa acknowledges the form of the wolf, holding her belly and conceding to the deal they made, thinking she's about to lose her unborn child. But the wolf is not there for Mel, payment has already been made. It's there to make sure Ambessa survives and rises to the warlord she is today. Symbolized by the color red, Ambessa's ruthless drive to be stronger then the "Pantheon" she's fighting, seemingly being the warriors of defeated cultures Noxus has fought.
@@AlienToppedPancakesthe wolf I believe was the personification of her fighting spirit, not giving up, and eventually becoming the wolf
This is what I got from it too.
I also interpreted some of these blues as purples. The purple and blues gave me the debt paid feelimg while red is Ambess's mastery of her power.
It would take me like an hour to explain the connection between slavery in south america during the 1800, demonization of native african religions, childbirth and motherhood and contra cultural "pagan" movements AND provide proper historical context present in the videoclip, so I wont do it. But I´m thinking about it.
That would be hella interesting
Do it cause that's easily exactly what's happening here, the Shuriman empire is mostly likely persecuting them and so they needed some way to defend themselves and because their beliefs of the Kindred shape the Kindred, what it seems to me is that they severed and Sacrificed their connection to Lamb for the Strength of Wolf. Meaning they are cursed to carry this curse, Necrit said some Rioter said that Ambessa cares most for the legacy of her family. If the foundation of their family's legacy is held up by the curse and strength of Wolf what does it imply about Mel's fate when she abandons her family crest right before she votes for peace with Zaun? The theme of the cycle of violence in Arcane is incredible because it's so human!!! Really makes me think about our reality and the understanding of how delicate everything all is. Make the video, people need to know about each other, without the understanding humanity will continue down this path of harm. Little by little, we move forward, until we're all free.
While the company itself can be questionable sometimes has some of the best industry artists from all sorts of background. This kind of nuanced historical inspiration is something they can definitely do well.
Do it! Do it! Please do it! Think, if you don't do it, who will?
Honestly, that's what I was seeing too! I also think the audio is super important on story telling. Honestly, the skin line is tertiary to all th sub context jammed into this video
If that figure is meant to be wolf, the symbol is wrong. The mask has Lamb's half of the symbol, not wolf's, which is flipped. The mask is also angular like Lamb's, so I'm pretty sure that's Lamb.
That's what I though. Or a combination of both. My Runeterra lore is slipping since I haven't been paying attention these last couple of years, but I seem to remember in some cultures Lamb+Wolf was still seen as a single entity.
@teoentrelibros Lamb and Wolf are separate entities, but how they are depicted or viewed changes depending on the different cultures. In Noxus, Wolf hunts, but Lamb is still there. Two halves of The Gray Man. Wolf and Lamb are the same being always, just split into two forms. That's likely Lamb as perceived by Noxians. She's more abstract and different because she's not as concrete a figure to them as Wolf is, whereas here in Noxus, Wolf isn't masked or ethereal, as we saw him standing over Ambessa. In Noxus, Wolf is a big fucking Wolf. But because they don't see the Lamb and have a specific perception of her, she looks the way we saw to them. A kind of version of her through the Noxian filter.
It's clearly lamb it has the body of the lamb the mask of the wolf (which is the one lamb always wears) and lamb's symbol I don't know how skyen got that wrong
@@LoL-sp3wu I don't know how he got it wrong either
Ambessa has a brush with essentially the Grim Reaper of this universe, who is both a lamb and a wolf.
When faced with death, you can choose the wolf and fight before you go or the lamb and just accept it.
All the esoteric imagery is basically her in that in-between spirit world (which is different for everyone based on their beliefs), and her fighting the armored warriors is her choosing to fight death.
The visuals in the sand represent the demons and dangers that surround her and the lamb(her child), and as you see as it progresses, the lamb eventually gets destroyed as she begins to cry out, a metaphor for her tribulations. And in that scene and the scene with kindred, we see the 3 wolf head structure appear. That is the path of the wolf. Even when she walks up to kindred. It offers her the wolfs head, because kindred knows ambessa chose to fight.
In the end, when she dawns gold armor like them, it's like a display of honor, like you faced death and chose to fight so you can stand with us in the afterlife (other fallen Noxian soldiers who decided to fight).
But right near the end, before she succumbs to death, she snaps back to reality because she remembers her child, and decides to push through and live for her, so the wolf leaves her alone.
My interpretation is that there are 2 different versions of Ambessa fighting against death. The "warrior" is battling the wolf of Kindred to survive. The "mother" is trying to get to the lamb for respite for her unborn child. Looks like in the end, lamb offers her a choice to sacrifice her child so she can survive to become the warrior she is today.
that was the FIRST thing I thought when I saw her pulling out the arrow! "babe. babe no you will bleed to death faster"
I think the blue is her caring, loving and kind aspects that back her ambition and drive for power. (Red)
In the desert, blue is on her face; up front and on display. In the mindscape it's largely behind her, supporting her power
Personally, I think the colour symbology in the video (while a little muddy from the various external forces such as Arcane, LoL, the skinline) works. The key to making these colours work I think, is to look at them not as connected to Ambessa herself, but as connected to the Kindred.
In the beginning the scenery is dark and fairly monochrome, it is only with the entrance of Wolf that we see colour (their features flash red before we are transported into the 'mind space'). To me, the red here is the Wolf and the blue which we see later is the Lamb, with purple being the combination of their presences. In the cave of the mind space--which Skyen didn't pick up on but I think it's actually a person's (Ambessa's?) silhouette from behind--there is an overwhelming amount of red. Until Ambessa teleports in. She's coloured in a mix of blues and purples, potentially symbolising the peace she would have found in death, but here, in this mind space, she decides to fight. Then we're transported into the dream within a dream? Memory? The place where the ritual is happening. I'm not familiar enough with LoR to make judgements that I'm confident in, but we'll touch on that space later. Following the ritual sequence we see Ambessa fight Pantheon in a scene which is admittedly mostly gold, but where more red begins creeping onto her figure. The red is both in the environment and when she switches to her scarred version, showing that as she fights she relinquishes her peaceful death little by little.
Interspersed between and following this sequence, we get our first lot of blues. Surrounded by blue statues, she glimpses potential futures and parts of her past, before she begins to cry. This seems to me like an acknowledgement of what she has lost. She is too close to death, she has lost her life of peace and is now losing her right to death in the same way. Through fighting she makes a deal with the Wolf, to live for the fight, and so Ambessa begins to cry as she sees all of what could have been. The reason I think this, is because between one of the flashes of blue and a shot of her fight with Pantheon, we return to the ritual, and Ambessa gives up her Lamb.
Once the fight is finished, the ritual coming to its conclusion, and the statues rightfully mourned, we reach the climax. As Ambesssa stands before the Chosen of the Wolf with scars mended in gold, her Lamb surrendered and her statues mourned, we finally meet the Kindred. This is, as Skyen mentioned, an interesting version of the Kindred we know, where Lamb is wearing Wolf's mask and I can only imagine vice versa. What matters is that here, they are both red. Ambessa has given up her innocence, her chance at peace, and the Kindred have responded in turn. Lamb takes Wolf's colours, Wolf's mask, and offers Ambessa a chance at redemption. As she accepts, the ritual shatters the Lamb, Ambessa climbs a blue throne, and her skin burns the same red as the other Chosen. What is interesting is that the wolf-head pendant is the same blues as the throne. What does this mean? I personally think that as Lamb has taken on aspects of Wolf through Ambessa's fight, so too has Wolf taken aspects of Lamb. But the peace Wolf has taken isn't one to be enjoyed; it is to be sat upon, a reminder always of why Ambessa must fight. She cannot stop fighting, cannot relinquish the sword or the throne, for she is the master of her peace only as long as she can fight for it.
Then, finally, we return to reality where a new light is dawning and Ambessa is returned to life still carrying her child (who is wrapped in blue). My guess is that the blue around the child shaws that they are now her peace, that thing which she must fight for in order to earn more life. If Ambessa is the Wolf, then her child in blue--who I think actually is Kino, Mel's brother--is the Lamb. The reason I think the child is Kino is because, from what little we know of him, he looks down upon war and prefers to solve problems using his words. This is naturally a polar opposite of the philosophies we see in Ambessa, a peace to her war.
That brings us to the end of the video, though there is still one more thing I would like to mention. Skyen questioned the use of the gold, and while I agree it is most likely just fancy set dressing for the video and standard design to sell skins, I think there could be a more interesting explanation. If this music video does show what I think--that Kino is the Lamb to Ambessa's Wolf--then where is Mel? Well, my answer is that Skyen was right, and the gold does represent her. At 1:23 through the music video, a gold spotlight appears on Pantheon. Before the light he was covered in red and balck, the colours of the Chosen, of Ambessa in Arcane. But once the light hits this effect is concealed, buried under the gold itself. It's something small, but it tracks (to an extent) during the rest of the video: where gold shines, there is no Lamb or Wolf, and things are restored to neutrality. I think this has potential to reflect on Mel during Arcane Season 2. She has the fight of Wolf instilled in her from Ambessa, but also the diplomacy of Lamb from Kino. Mel's colour is gold, and she can be this gold light, the thing that blends Lamb and Wolf, war and peace, and can mend the things that are broken (like kintsugi, which is nodded to by the golden scars on Ambessa at 2:30 in the music video).
Anyway, those are my thoughts, and I'd be super interested to hear what anybody else makes of them!
I wonder if the Shurima bits are supposed to be some kind of funeral rite? Like, the movements of the people in the feather cloaks is bird-like and either predatory or scavenger-like, and the blue people are all writhing and wailing, and Ambessa herself seems to go from frightened to grieving. I can see a "carry your grief through the valley, then pour it into this empty vessel and let it go" kind of symbolism happening. So then, maybe the duel with, I think "The Warrior" more than Pantheon, is meant to represent the opposite end of a spectrum, and the throne represents some kind equilibrium between the two...?
I thought something similar as well. This definitely feels like someone experiencing limbo: between life and death, coming to some sort of "clarity."
The transe state looks like a baby delivry too, like she physically suffers from letting go of the Lamb/Child
I will say, I think that there is supposed to be a sort of contrast with Mel and Ambessa through the Red vs Blue colors. I think that since Ambessa is one of the “Chosen of the Wolf” (Possibly represented by Panth, Kat and Swain as people who chase down their opponents and are unrelenting) while Mel is a “Chosen of the Lamb” persay. She is meant to be decisive and particular. This is why the blue from the lamb is stripped from Ambessa and is instead shown in the womb with (assumedly) Mel.
I don’t know why it shows as blue on the throne after Ambessa becomes one of the Wolf’s chosen, but maybe it’s because that’s an image of what COULD have been. We’re shown that version of Ambessa represented as a strong matriarch with the headdress, but what if that *wasn’t* born from ruthless war and violence? I mean, that’s not exactly what Ambessa looks like in-game OR in Arcane. That Ambessa was born of the Lamb’s essence, while the one we see in the skinline is the chosen of the Wolf. Perhaps in Arcane we’ll get to see whom she ends up turning towards by the end?
This is just my interpretation, but I wanted to share!
see i think it's interesting that the 'lamb' of innocence she supposedly sacrifices isn't actually alive. it's a useless, hollow golden statue filled with holes, fit only to decorate a mantle in a fancy palace. she also doesn't SACRIFICE it - there's no knife driven into its belly or throat cut and it wouldn't bleed out in either circumstance if she did.
personally i think that she's actually giving up on the idea of innocence as something to preserve and protect, that innocence is something even WORTH protecting, because it is a luxury of plentiful times and wealth and power and will inevitably be destroyed. she lets go of innocence and mourns it, but there is simply no place for such an item in a true warrior's life.
Omg thank you so much for making another video TBSkyen ❤️ honestly waiting for Arcane season 2 is so hard sometimes and these videos r such a good way to wait for it’s release XD
42:22 yess thank you I was thinking this the whole time
The feeling i get from this is that the champions chosen probably had some direct confrontation with lamb and wolf (mainly wolf) think tryndameres cinematic.
And the ritual seems like its symbolic for the person giving up the idea/chance/belief that they would have a quick and painless death.
Represented by lambs idol being destroyed and absorbed into wolfs.
Wolfs chosen seem to be people who resisted until the end, refusing to die in one situation or another, eventually being recognized and possibly even marked by wolf.
I thought that as well but the one I don’t understand is Katarina standing there, swain perhaps when he lost his arm and saw the crows in Ionia where he understood the demon of secrets, pantheon pushed on even when the Aspect of war died impaled on aatroxs blade, but what happened to Katarina what was her fight with wolf?
The pantheon guy could be here grand father : same color skin and current hair color /texture as ambessa of arcane and the fact that in here voice line she say here grand father is the reasons she know death since really early in here life
I think the different colors represent the two paths she can take to gain power. In the blue version she doesn't have scars, so we can assume it represents power through diplomacy, she's a leader removed from violence. The scarred red version of her is the one that ultimately accepts sacrificing her innocence, so we see her not as a ruler but as a warrior (her new skin form). Ultimately this is all a vision but I do think it's a nice detail how she has blue decorations, meaning she has some of her innocence left. She will lose it gradually as in her design in arcane season 1, there is no blue in her design
Although Ambessa looks young , i believe the child is Mel and not Kino (Mel's older ,i believe, brother) bc of the golden "lighting" passing first through the child's back before it's eyes light up gold , just like Mel's protective armor
16:07 i love the way she is trying to protect the lamb with her body even from being touched by those creatures
She talks about wrath a lot in the trailer, but i think her main motivation is going to be revenge
She came to piltover to find weapons to avenge her son and from the conversation she had with Mel i do believe she blames herself for Kino's death
And after the s1 finale she failed to protect her daughter too , it would make sense for her to have revenge as her main motivation
Gold IS Mel's colour, and the 3-point star is on the ring Mel takes off at the end of s1 e9 - which indicates that this could be related to their family, and/or its a sigil that Ambessa took up after this life/death encounter with Wolf.
Riot's need to print money while laying off yet more members of their development team absolutely has a hand here in the overuse of gold, but I do think that this is more meant to hint at something sun/shuriman related to Ambessa's heritage, as well as being part of a ruling class of death dealers (Noxus especially).
(now here's hoping Arcane season 2 doesn't prove this comment completely wrong. XD)
Wolf standing on one leg: "La la la, pew twang pew!"
Lamb: "Are you imitating me?"
"go to hell, i love you, bye" lol skyen you're awesome (I'm so pumped for arcane 2 and I love your analyses)
i think the blue and red thing is about how ambessa gives up her innocence for noxus and war to gain the power that she wanted/needed to protect her family but mel inside her being blue to symbolize that the innocence isnt something you can just get rid of and she's creating it anew with her child, but its something that she clearly struggles with as shown by the flashes of red and blue on her mask at the end. she puts on the front of the red (especially the beheading scene in arcane season 1 showing that shes instilling that noxian value onto mel as her thinking shes protecting her even though shes actually a shitty mother) but that you cant truly get rid of the lamb
edit: i think ambessas story in season 2 will be about that struggle of the external need for war and violence(red) and her internal desire to protect her kids(blue). the shot of her on the throne being blue imo represents where her desires truly lie, being in power to protect those she loves (which she internally views as blue and innocent) as opposed to the golden glory pits being her external world (represented by swain and katarina as her joining the ranks of powerful noxians. and pantheon as the manifestation of her 'besting war') as the ambessa everyone else sees.
Crazy this is sang by Barbara from Abbott Elementary
I wonder if blue is supposed to be Kino's colour, Ambessa did mention him trying to be "a fox among the wolves" not exactly the same as a lamb but similar in how he wants to avoid brutality like Mel does
12:27 also that is absolutely the same kind of lines that appear with Netflix's logo hahah I love that detail
To me it makes more sense that the figure who Ambessa takes the wolf trinket from is Lamb who wears the wolf mask. Lamb is who Ambessa goes to once she sacrifices either her innocence or the innocent person she carries in her womb (Mel), and now embraces the power of the Wolf whom the Noxians hold highly. But I agree with you in saying that it is a transfer of power from Lamb to Ambessa, the power of the wolf to make decisions of death by taking another person’s life.
Originally I thought that based on the title of the music video, she was fighting tooth and nail to become better and fight tooth and nail, no matter how much blood, sweat, and tears it takes to achieve or preserve the one thing she cares about. Her children.
Hopefully this makes sense, I am not great at explaining but I tried. XD
Oh man,your new avatar is really cute! And impressive that you can gesture now
The weird people fighting in the desert could be representing the lunari and solari. I specifically noticed the moon textures and darker colors of the warriors protecting her, while the warriors attacking have golden helmets with spikes, resembling rhe sun
One thing to point out is when she gives the lamb to kindred, shes young and has no scars but when she gets the wolf ting, She has the scars now
31:50 - I feel you there brother. 😂
I think Pantheon, Swain and Katarina are there because all fought against kindred and somehow survived. So they are some kind of chosen by the Wolf. And in this video we see Ambessa doing the same. There are voicelines from them or Kindred which emply it.
Right, but the problem is... that has f* all to do with Ambessa or Arcane. All it's doing is distracting from the actual story the music video is supposed to tell, in order to sell skins that have nothing to do with either Arcane or the narrative of Ambessa as a character.
@@3BSkyen Yeah, but i wanted to point out that the champs Riot selected weren't just random. What these skins do for Arcane or the story i'm not sure either. We will see :)
@@3BSkyen I'd argue that there is a correlation to at least Ambessa's narrative: each character chosen is not only someone who has had a brush with death, but also has their character innately tied to the very concept of war itself.
Ambessa has gone on and on in Arcane about how "death and war" molds people, and as a Noxian, she is naturally accustomed to the concept of war. Of course, this is a skin line meant for sales, but if we are to consider how this fits from a narrative standpoint, perhaps it is akin to what Spirit Blossom is in the world of Runeterra?
Sidenote: I interpreted this music video more so as depicting the different beliefs of limbo in Runeterra: the desert scenes are definitely Shuriman; the duel with Pantheon is most likely Targonian; and the brief scenes with an iron throne are most certainly Noxian. Given that Ambessa is multi-cultural, I wouldn't be surprised if she has a blend of cultural beliefs based on her heritage.
Of course, this is all conjecture until we get her champion bio; has it come out yet?
@@3BSkyen fair enough
Don't forget there are other silhouettes than them in the background~
Love the New Avatar! its super cute and unique!
I don't think lamb is representing innocence here even if it's usually a typical symbol for it.
Kindred is represented by 2 entities - Lamb collects your soul when you accept your death peacefully and the Wolf collects it when you fight it. Ambessa is initially carrying a lamb, symbolizing how she has accepted she is going to die. It gets reforged into a wolf heart, symbolizing how she will, from this point forward, fight her fate.
Champs in this skinline is maybe those who survived after meet the Kindred Wolf, so they are wolf's children. And lamb is all what Ambessa denied. A peaceful death.
Honestly when I first saw the trailer I was SO F***ING HYPED to for these "Chosen of the Wolf" and what role they could have in Ambessa's oringin and the story of Arcane!
The way my smile faded away when I saw that they were just a skin-line... bruh
I may be too innocent/delusional but I trust the creators of the show to *somehow* have found a way to justify it's presence there, and it'll hopefully make more sense once we watch season 2
Regarding the color language, I think the red/blue dichotomy is about aggression/violence/force versus peace/innocence. She embraces violence (the red) and as she lets the essence of that infuse her being she's able to take the seat of power and project "peace" in the form of the blue light. The deconstruction of the lamb figurine - shown to be hollow and fragile - I think adds to that. Through her life experience, she's found the innocence we hold close at youth to be something that breaks easily when subjected to the harshness of the world. But if you *sacrifice* that innocence to the Wolf you have the power to create your own peace.
I'm not going to pretend I've got an iron-clad defense for that philosophy, but Ambessa tried to teach Mel the lesson that Mercy is Weakness, that trying to preserve innocence will result in greater loss, and that's a philosophical viewpoint I've seen before, and I think that's the significance of the blue. Especially because it's a very saturated blue. Unlike a soft or pastel blue, it's full of energy and *tension*, a false calm that could snap at any moment.
Why is Ambessa associated with the wolf? Because they introduced this in Arcane S1 ep 8 in her flashback. She is all about "being the wolf and the fox" and then later beheads the child with the words "a wolf has no mercy". Imo she was always portayed as the merciless wolf (=kindred reference) and never as a fox - she is too straight forward to be a fox. That's why she said to Mel that she should be both (being an upgraded version of herself). But Mel did disappoint her by being too merciful and fell out of her grace. Probably mainly because she didn't want to see Mel get hurt, knwing how soft she is - which she imo confirms in ep 8 when she says that Mel weakened her. She protected her style of ruling and her daughter at the same time with exiling Mel.
Well, since Christian Linke did direct this video I have high hopes that this is canon related to Arcane. I think that the situation at the very beginning and ending of her being at the battlefield is a canon event but the targon stuff imo is probably an metaphorical imagery of her way to archieve her power and leave her weak self(innocence) and therefore the hopes of a peaceful death (=lamb) behind in excange for the power. The targon imagery probably symbolized the overwhelming powerful enemies she will encounter and her "ascending" in the end with the skinline. In reality she never wore the armor but it is a part of her canonically having that vision/dream. About the shuriman stuff I think you are probably spot on that this is some past stuff with a ritual that is mixed up in her whole vision. So in the end the fact that she has a vision /dream at the verge of death at this battlefield is justified as canon stuff and therefore the skinline is technically bend over three corners a canon as well. And since this is a vision you can have some wild shit in there like fighting against Pantheon(probably just symbolizing her many fights at battlefields as she is facing the aspect of war). Swain is the only pick I would see as a canon foe of hers bc I strongly suspect that he killed Mel's brother. And since thsi si a vision of her future Swain is her future foe in that.
12:42 That's the satyr-like spirit of the wolf we see stand up later. Ambessa's wounds from fighting the Pantheon on one 'plane of existence' appear on this painterly version of her as she approaches the Wolf spirit, as if the Pantheon and past disciples of the wolf are testing whether Ambessa is worthy to reach it.
I know we aren't talking about lyrics, but I think one lyric change is when "a hand at my throat and sword at my feet" changes to "a hand at my throat a child at my feet," especially with Ambessa's motherhood being a big theme of the music video.
I can't wait for the next time one of your cats jumps you while watching something, because this new avatar is gonna be really fun for that!
I love how a short casual analysis from him is still over an hour long.
It is obviously Lamb. You know they wear each other's masks, with Wolf wearing a Lamb mask and vice versa. It also plays into Ambessa's story of a Lamb, innocent to war, once faced with death, evolves and dons the face of a wolf. In terms of reality, she was about to be devoured by the Wolf (succumbed to her injuries) but obviously it was not her destiny to die in those shores so Lamb granted her respite and she saw that as her evolution to becoming merciless. The symbolisms are pretty easy to grasp as long as you know how Kindred works and listened to Ambessa's dialogue in season 1. Lastly, bruh of course this is cannon with Arcane getting released around the corner. Well this is Riot so there is going to be a skinline with it but on this one the story definitely comes first.
You could consider the “chosen of the wolf” as those the wolf considers worthy to deal death on Kindred’s behalf, in which case you could see Pantheon not as the God of War, but the Wolf in the shape of the God of War, a dealer of death in Kindred’s name
46:20 I wonder if rather than giving up her own innocence, what she’s doing is offering up her legacy and progeny to a fate of war rather than peace.
I was looking forward to this quite a lot. Thanks, Mr. Skyen.
Oh, that avatar is new! I love the low poly look took it. And that you still kept the line shading for the hair and beard is nice.
yess, i was waiting for this
i didnt know they were releasing this, I woke up and my roommate showed it to me AND KINDRED'S THERE YESSS, we won, I won, idc, this video was for me specifically, kindred my beloved
also YOUR NEW AVATAR IS SO CUTE, I LOVE IT
32:24 hope not, i dont want to give riotgames any more money but I collect kindred merch, autism is autisming
The whole thing seems to indicate to me that she WAS every inch the Noxian warlord, sacrificing her innocence for power and only respecting strength and demanding that the world must bend to HER will, and this is the story of how she eventually family as her primary goal over power. The whole Chosen of the Wolf thing is who she would have been had she continued on that path, but she chose to fight for her unborn child instead, and Wolf walks away.
I think the blue is for the ritual since most magic in Arcane is blue. She still has little bits of blue on her Noxian outfit here, but none in her present day outfit, because her Wolf philosophy is no longer what binds her.
Netflix has thrown the music video up on its channel specifically as an Arcane preview, so that's a thing.
Ambessa 🤝The Boss: giving birth on the battlefield
I would just interpret the entire chosen of the wolf fights to be pretty cannon in whatever realm of the kindred they are fighting on, that sort of limbo. And, if you fight until the end, you get to revive. So no thats not literal pantheon but that may be his representation in that realm. Like, the Kindred are basically gods so they might as well do whatever and it doesnt need to be a stretch, or "made to sell a skinline".
The ritualistc part is referencing how african tribes do their rituals, being very chaotic in some tribes, the use of white in clothing's. I was very pleased with how they've done it. Also, obviously, they didn't put the imagery of phanteon just for skins, specially because it was launched in the netflix channel, so people who don't play league would be confused.
For what it is worth, this song is can be listened to on streaming. It looks like it is near the end of the season soundtrack, about 3rd from the end. Song 19 out of 22 total. Based on the season 1 soundtrack arranging the songs in the order they appeared in the show, I wonder if the order of this song near the end of the season hints Ambessa’s story in season 2 hints her story is likely not done in the first or even the second arc. It’ll stretch the entire season.
How much more room will Jayce and Victor’s story arcs have?
I really enjoy these redesigns of the characters for Arcane. Did not expect them to expand so much on Ambessa given everything happening in season 2. Can’t wait!
Her literay pulling out the arrow to symbolize she rejects lambs swift death
The model can now show you what they're animating on.
The big part of the whole story centers around Kindred being a God pair of death. Lamb centers around a peaceful death after a long life; but Wolf: focuses on Death met in a fight or in predation.
How the different cultures of Shumira and Noxus interpret the dedication of Kindred. golden sacrificial lamb; being transported through Gods and chaos crows all around for Shumira. And the battle to hold your place amongst the champions of death and the pure corrupted form hidden in a cave directing you to to turn back to the pure Death only offered to Vikings diving into Valhalla
I think it's really interesting that she refuses the hero's call in her dream because of her son. Later, after he dies, she accepts the call and becomes a ruthless leader.
I imagined the lamb idol being sacrificed as her giving up any hope for a peaceful death from kindred and in turn always fighting to the bitter end to one day meet wolf.
I think its more symbolic in a sense and just some sort of afterlife scenario of what Ambessa could've gone through if she were to pursue that power where she becomes some sort of Solari God Warrior but the lingering thought of her unborn child may have something to do to bring her back to life and to her senses.
Love the new 3D model, can't wait to see you start pointing towards things in your animation breakdowns :p
Gold is targon, solari, isn't mel associated with them in some way?
I know Skyen doesn't react to anime much recently, but I really hope he checks out DANDADAN. it's a lot more then just the average popular Shonen for the season. And I'm sure he'd love picking apart every unique animation/directing technique Science Saru uses.
omg i love the new avatar but damn i was not prepared to give your voice that new level of expression
40:00 I guess that transparent light blue is connected to Ambessa’s initial hopes and aspirations. Like the sword is pointed down, standing peacefully next to her, it might symbolise a strong, powerful, but just and peaceful ruler. It’s some sort of crystal castles of her ideas about her future. She hadn’t wanted war initially, she just wanted to take care of her people, like children. And yet she had to accept the gift of the Wolf, and turn to martial law with all the red and black colours.
With all Zerath-looking stuff...
What if hextech crystals are related to him? (in a new lore) They does look like they belong with him
For example he turns people into solid energy crystals to do "his stuff" and all the crystals we have are what's left after he's done. Like bread crums after a meal.
50:23 There's Smite skinline with spirit aesthetic that focuses on this specific effect. Like Ah Puch Shadow Spirit, Bakasura Shadow Eater.
i was waiting for this to drop😋💖
If you look at this "Wolf" figure, they appear as a mix of both the wolf and the lamb from the kindred character. The body is very lamblike, the mask they wear has both the ears of the wolf and the lambs mask, yet it very clearly is neither of them, or maybe both. This makes me wonder if it is.... The grey man from lamb's story.
32:32
Why are you saying that it looks like the wolf's mask on that creature?
It looks exactly like lamb's, just with big saber-shaped teeth (which the wolf's mask doesn't have either)
It has upwards pointing ears (wolf's mask has them pointed down)
It has lamb's symbol in the center
It's black with light patterns (wolf's mask is greyish with dark patterns)
Am I tripping? Are you tripping?
34:21 The gold flowing through the baby means it HAS to be Mel, right? Explaining her powers and potential survival?
Bro, Skyen's 3d avatar is Hella cute, i wanna pet it
8:00 We shouldn't underestimate the possibility that Ambessa wasn't "sent" anywhere, but rather that she volunteered and went because she wanted to, which to me seems more in line with the type of person Ambessa is. Still a logistical problem mind you, but still.
17:27 the lamb is her innocence, hence he being clothed in all white. Riot is big about colors and symbolism. They put her in all white and not attacking but evading with lamb in hand. She was not a wolf yet, she was still innocent. As she fights she becomes more and more like the wolf.
She fighting Pantheon is a signifier of she participating in wars and gaining her scars, she constantly defying death, always coming back to fight Pantheon and the Wolf.
Ambessa is having visions of what she could be: powerfull and in the "hall of the heroes".
But, to survive and see that future she has to sacrifice something. A life for a life.
Ambessa sacrifies her daughter. She gave her to the gods/espirits, to the Kindred (Also, the tall figure is Lamb, she is gaving Ambessa mercy). Mel is the litte golden lamb.
Mel will have some type of role in the gods plans. She is now a choosen one and her life is own by the Arcane.
In the end, the baby, Mel, has golden eyes and when they open it makes Ambessa hesitates. It is really worth it? Power in exchange of your family? Your daughter?
Now, she probaly is looking for a way to free Mel from her destiny, to break the contract, to save the only children that she still has. Even if she has to gave up of all her power and burn the world for it.
Other notes that I have is:
Ambessa is shuriman-targonian. All in this vid gaves Targon and Shurima vibes. She is returning to her antecessors to be judged. She is a traitor that joined the enemy empire. Remember that the two regions have really strong cultural connection. (Together with Ixtal and even the Buhru from the Serpent Isles). The magic that made the ascendents is celestial magic from Targon.
The ritual people are some type of spirits, maybe the ones who failed the test of the Wolf and now are conddemed to look and guide new souls, but they are angry, they push and pull Ambessa because they dont want her to win, but they let her go anyway because the punishment would be worse.
About the skinline: fuck it. The important part is the imagery of the hall of the heroes and Ambessa fighting in wars, figuratively fighting the Aspect of War, gaining her scars and becoming the relentless warrior that she is and at the same time seeing the possible future for her and being tempted by it.
Thats it, thank u if u read it all. 😅❤
What I got from the music video was that like not matter how much Ambessa tries to or thinks her innocents is destroyed it lives on, sorta like how kindred is 1 being the lamb & the wold are intrinsically intertwined as the entity of death, they are 1 being but wear different masks, innocents & brutality are 2 sides of the same coin y’know.
Did you notice the small Heimerdinger video for Rifts, that looked like it might have done by Fortiche as well?
As for gold, isn't it the color of Targon more so than Mels? The whole discussion of her having a Solari shield?
As for the blue throne, blue is as well the color of royalty.
Vi did meet Mel when making her case before the council.
7:35 I think they're going to do a markus approach with ambessa cus league loves being centrists, the battlefield is probably canon in a way that ties back into the "you weakened me! ... the necessary decisions to keep us safe!" so my wild guess is that they were fighting mages capable of using the arcane which would explain the ruthless murder of that girl in season 1
I think they'll try to humanize her violence as like a an animal fighting for survival off of pure instinct without empathy
Throwing my theoriing hat even further here, I wouldn't be surprised if this whole esotheric experience ambessa had on this battlefield is the reason mel ended up attuned with the arcane
Ambessa sent Mel away so that she wouldn’t become hardened like she had become. Ambessa saw her purity (lamb) and didn’t want her to become changed as she did (wolf). Mel saying her brother was like a fox would be in the middle of that, and Ambessa knows that the world will force her to chose one or the other, or be lost like her brother.
The most apparent implication of the blue is the reminder that the arcane isn't unique to Jayce he merely adopted it.
Be it through vision or ascension, Ambessa knows the arcane but even chosen by the wolf, her face subtly but visibly wavers in the wake of her child, which now too pulsates with that revamped Merdada gold.
If this truly is an acension ritual it explains the golden eyed child and the flash of gold from Mel Merdada's back at the end of season 1.
I think the skin holds more significance than one would typically expect of League, allow a little more faith, because there's in fact coherent storytelling here.
There is gold on ambessa armor in s2 trailer. Her ring is gold and red,specifically the crest, so gold is also her color
Skyen is slowly, but surely on his way to becoming a VTuber