#Farangies

[iubworks]

It's done. It's finally done ;_________;

that's one more commission scratched off my list.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan can be found on P@treon only as an exclusive!

[tired-reader-writer]

Ashaya backstory revamp

Ever since classes started again I have been consistently unable to either draw or write, and it's frustrating me a lot, so I'll just have to settle for making AU posts.

Andragoras and Tahamenay's child, that has not changed.

Given to some family in the Tabaristan region (formerly known as Mazandaran in ancient times), who were given hush money in exchange of raising them.

Ever since she was young, Sherine has noticed that she is... different.

Her parents leave her out. Her siblings pick up on that and leave her out too. Her parents don't treat her the same way they treat their other children.

Besides which, Sherine is not dumb. She realizes pretty quickly that she looks different from the rest of her family. Face too pointy. Hair too light.

People say she's a beautiful child.

Her parents seem determined to prove them otherwise.

Sherine is given more chores to do. Given plainer clothes. Made to stand behind her siblings at any given event.

She cries. She screams and struggles and stomps and yells in hopes that they'd listen, they'd know, this is unfair, she's their daughter too, isn't she? Sherine is—

Sherine is not dumb.

Sherine knows that whatever she is, she doesn't belong here.

People say she's a beautiful child.

Her family says she's nothing but trouble.

She wanders her hometown, sneaking off from doing chores at home. Spends her days scanning the faces of the townspeople— the merchants, the neighbors, the strangers, even the slaves. She looks and looks and looks, for any hint of similarity, any bit of resemblance, anything that might echo back to what she sees in the mirror, in the waters, every day.

Sneaks out of her house, flits from street to street, in a desperate bid to find someone, anyone, with some iteration of her features hiding amongst the crowds.

Stalks the family of that jolly grape seller from a couple blocks over, because they were light-haired like her even if the shades don't even come close to matching.

Hers is always different.

Hers is too peculiar.

Ivory-blond with rosy tips, hair of an outsider.

Mama beats her and sends her to bed without dinner.

Curling up in bed, hungry in a way that no amount of food would satisfy, Sherine thinks.

She doesn't belong here.

She isn't a child of this family.

She doesn't think she's even related to them.

Where are her parents?

Did they die? Is that why papa and mama take her in? Because they knew her parents?

Except, really, they mustn't have loved her parents, whoever they were, because if they did then surely they would treasure Sherine too. Right?

Right?

If they died and nobody here loved them, then why is she here? Wouldn't she have been put on the doorsteps of a temple or taken from the streets by... by...

She'll never get the image out of her head, a slaver, flogging a young boy barely older than her.

She's seen them, on her escapades, prowling the streets sniffing around for any abandoned baby by a roadside or in an alleyway.

She shudders thinking about it. Mama always says one of these days she's going to sell Sherine, too.

She's scared.

She doesn't know.

Whatever the case was, she was unwanted in some way. Is unwanted, right now in this present she lives in, unwanted by this family, unwanted by whoever decided to leave their daughter on this doorstep.

She clutches her aching stomach.

She doesn't sleep.

Day by day, night by night, she prays what little words she manages to remember.

Prays to be loved.

Prays to be found.

Prays to be...

To be...

There's a tale in this town.

If you wander deep into the woods, you'll find a dilapidated place.

They call it a temple. That's stupid. The building looks nothing like a temple.

Those who wander in, they say, come back wrong.

Come back days, months, years later.

No matter how long they take, they don't look a day older.

They were playing, her siblings and the other kids, they play, but she never gets included. They get mean when she tries. They always give her whatever's the worst.

She runs.

She runs and runs and runs until her legs burn and there's no air in her lungs.

She doesn't notice the butterflies frozen in air.

She doesn't notice the sudden stillness of the trees after a certain point.

Not until she trips.

There, on the ground, stained in mud and dirt and snot and tears, she curls up like she always does at night.

She's so hungry.

She hears their voices, a couple bushes over, arguing about the prey they were supposed to hunt.

They don't find her.

She bolts upright, startled, nerves tingling with something she doesn't know what to name.

She looks around.

Silence and stillness.

She should be afraid, she thinks. She should try to leave. To go home, to go find those dummies who didn't even see her when they were nearby.

But she thinks of their meanness, of mama's anger and papa's weird stares, of the prowling slavers wandering the streets.

Just a little bit, she thinks. Just a little longer. Just a little bit of peace. She'll take the beatings later, she'll deal with that when they catch her.

That's right.

She just has to not get caught for a little while longer.

[brain juices running out so this will be reverting back from story mode to summary mode, augh]

Anyways, she spends a long time (to her) in the woods and doesn't really notice that the sun isn't moving in the sky bc she's a little kid and she's too busy rolling around and having fun until she falls asleep out of exhaustion (both physical and emotional, since all the shit she went through finally caught up to her in a safe moment)

(you'll notice that in the story/narration part “Sherine” refers to themselves by she/her bc at the time they hadn't had the chance to realize y'know, the gender stuff)

Sherine wakes up, finds that it's night, and she can't find her way back.

(the haunted area actually booted her out so she's in a different spot of the forest)

Kid has an epiphany of sorts.

“She can't stay here.

Not anymore.

If she's so unwanted anyways, what harm would it do for her to disappear?

For her to leave?”

So she does.

Anyways, it's night, Farangis (with some clan adults) is wandering the area for a reason I have yet to fully decide on.

They meet.

Sherine is absolutely taken by this gorgeous lady.

One long conversation later while Farangis does her best to clean the kid up, it's abundantly clear that Sherine is Not Okay.

So they get taken!

And Sherine gets to chop off their hair and choose a new name.

But until she settles on a proper name she chose for herself, their temporary name is Ranna.

Sherine has a complicated relationship with girlhood because of the toxic standards that were forced on her by their “parents”.

Anyways that's how Ashaya comes to join the clan!

What I imagine a young ex-Sherine to look like as she leaves with Farangis.

Fun fact, Areyan is usually a sweet and gentle kid but for some unknown reason he and Ashaya regularly gets into fisticuffs.

They're 7 when they join the clan. Farangis is 15, she'd just come of age.

At some point I kinda wanted Ashaya and Alfarīd to have met in their younger years but I don't see that working out w this trajectory sooooo... oops.

Anyways, a look into Ashaya's trauma! Where their lack of hope and faith in the world stems from. I somehow couldn't get into it in the narration but her family house could own slaves, maybe, (still she gets made to do chores bc Double Standards), and on her escapades to find her parents or relatives in the town she gets to see a whoooole lot of violence thrown at slaves and poor commoners and it always stuck w them.

She tries questioning it once, they got punished.

Kinda echoes Alfarīd's hopelessness in the nation too, she did say in the manga “there's no point to restoring the nation, it'll just make new nobles and new slaves” and it's an attitude Ashaya holds, too.

It'll be up to them to find that hope again. Alfarīd would be the one to eventually give back hope to Ashaya, but for that she herself will have to believe.

Unlike in canon I don't really see Alfarīd coming to believe in someone changing the system, rather that there's something worth living for even in a broken world. I think she'd have an attitude like that. It just fits her.

(I'm reminded of the song Kamado Tanjirou no Uta from the AU playlist, and that one video from Hello Future Me about the Ghibli movie The Boy and the Heron.)

(“We did not choose this world. But we must live in it.”)

To elaborate on why Ashaya lost faith in the world, it's smth like, if something so terrible and hurtful like the slavery system is allowed to exist, if nobody batted an eye at the abuse she went through, if nobody thinks to hold abusers accountable, if people are rewarded with brutality for their kindness, then... there's nothing worth saving here.

In addition to their own abuse they also saw others being abused, remember that the clan is made up of runaways and hurt people and abandoned people and victims and survivors— almost nobody who comes to the clan... came from happiness.

Is it any wonder that their faith was broken?

In contrast, let's look at Alfarīd. Protective instincts, strong sense of justice, responsible if a bit chaotic, remember how in the manga Alfarīd urges Estelle to remember the women and children and injured they'd saved? That they must think of, that they must protect, instead of thinking about the King?

Alfarīd, I think, abhors the system, but still sees people and things worth protecting anyways.

(and not to jump all over like a kangaroo but let's talk about Farangis this time)

She's an orphan. She entered the temple of Mithra after her loss. She was too talented. Too diligent. Too beautiful. People shunned her because of it.

And I'm willing to bet there's aggression and subtle bullying, too.

Look, it's a closed community. That sort of place gets rancid real fast.

(I would know. I myself was trapped in a prison of a boarding school where my suicidal ideation got wayyyyyyy bad.)

So, y'know, Ashaya-as-Sherine is a reflection of her days in the temple. That's why she has a soft spot for her.

Farangis is one of the few people Ashaya will listen to.

Anyways that concludes thus the post about Ashaya!

[daryun]

One thing about Arslan Senki is that we have a few characters who aren't Parsian.

So I am curious about Jaswant's reaction to this foreign county's mythology actually being bleeding true. (What kind of implications does this have for Shindhuran mythology?)

n'awwww Jimsa seems to have left the picture after chapter 123, I think this is the last we see of him and he had a horse packed and ready to go.

I would love to have seen Jimsa also swearing at the gigantic Parsian Snake Monster. We'd be learning so much colourful Turanian.

In terms of our heroes in chapter 126

I really need to see Daryun's reaction. I need to know for legal reasons if he is the "If it's real I can kill it, obvs" or if he needs to overcome a "holy shit" moment.

I will patiently be waiting for chapter 127, it's bound to be a good one.

(The downside to this version of the story is there will be no Daryun catching Alfreed on Mt Damavand during an earthquake moment, unless that comes later? I just love him looking out for her)

[innerchorus]

Quick and dirty final predictions for Chapter 132:

Kubard intervenes somehow to protect/help Isfan

If that is an undead Shapur and not a sorcerer impersonating him, then a sorcerer is nearby controlling him

TEAM ARSLAN TO CAPTURE THAT SORCERER (we know Farangis is out on the streets, this would be the perfect opportunity for her to assist)

Hilmes to get kidnapped simultaneously??

[dresdencodak]

MFW someone’s talking about The Heroic Legend of Arslan but it’s not the 90s OVA:

[svxlua]

farangis

[choujinx]

ARSLAN SENKI (2013-?) by arakawa hiromu

[ladies-of-fiction]

Farangis

[makerofmadness]

I'm still back

with a vengeance (uh link to the post where I actually came back)

(Linking 'Cus I'm not putting a block of text here explaining everything I'm doing differently from my translation posts before a second time dnndndndnd)

Less than the other post because I'm hoping that I can do more in a week when I see my parents again in person. (I texted these to my maman [except for the two without dialogue] and she fixed Olive, Icicle Yeti and Herb's but I got the others right by myself she said :3)

I'm not gonna put the romanization under the cut this time 'Cus it's not long enough to warrant it I think? If anyone asks me to I will:

*Wizard Cookie: بیسکویت جادوگر (biskwit jaadoogar)

*Strawberry Cookie: بیسکویت توت فرنگی (biskwit toot farangi)

*Olive Cookie: بیسکویت زیتون (biskwit zeytoon)

«!در انتظار آثار باستانی» ("dar entezaar asaar baastaani!")

*Silverbell Cookie: بیسکویت زنگ نقره (biskwit zang noghreh)

«!...یک روزی ما همه خوشحال خواهیم شد» ("yek roozi maa hameh khoshhal khaahim shod...!")

*Pomegranate Cookie: بیسکویت انار (biskwit anaar)

«!برای اربابم» ("baraa-ye arbaabam!")

*Icicle Yeti Cookie: بیسکویت یتی قندیل یخ (biskwit yeti ghandil yakh)

«خواستی با دوستم باش؟» ("khaasti baa doostam baash?")

*Herb Cookie: بیسکویت سبزی (biskwit sabzi)

«.سلام! به باغ من خوش آمدین» ("salaam! beh baagh man khoosh amadin.")

*Alchemist Cookie: بیسکویت کیمیاگر (biskwit kimiyaagar)

«!راهنمایی من را پیروی بکن» ("raahnamaayi man raa peyravi bekon!")

[importantdestinydefendor]

So, uh...

Fellt a little silly today and thought I share some of my "Funny Dialoug Prompts with my Characters" with yall. (Will contain new ocs.)

Credits to the rightfull owners, who came up with most of these!

Azar: “I’m surrounded by idiots.” Gieve: “But at least we’re hot!” Arslan: *skeptical* “Are we?”

----

Farangis: “You hurt?” *leaning forward* Azar: *sitting on the ground* “No. I normally spurt blood from my rib cage.” Farangis: “You seem to be just fine.” *walks away* Azar: “Help me up at least!”

----

Azar: “Do you think-” Narsus: “All the time! I’m a good thinker, you know!” Azar: “Sometimes I think you don’t. Anyway-” *queue Narsus offended face and Daryun die laughing in the corner*

----

Farah: ���You’re … alive…” Azar: “Great observation, genius.” Farah: “But, you were dead!” Azar: *spitting out blood* “Well luckily you really are a failure.”

----

Gieve: *to Azar* Ten years of friendship and this is the treatment I get!” Azar: “I met you yesterday!”

----

Chabik: “You know, I really feel like we aren’t seeing eye to eye.” Mehrin: “It’s because you’re taller than me, asshole.”

----

Aleksi: “You know, I may be an idiot…” Arslan: “...but?” Aleksi: “No ‘but’, that was it.”

----

Mehrin: “... Just to be sure we’re on the same page.” Vahriz: “Page? We’re not even in the same library!”

----

(this was made by me) Gieve: “You wished you’d be like me~” Azar: “No, I don’t.” Gieve: *with a cocky smile* “Why not? I’m lovely~” Azar: *deadpan*  “If I’d ever be like you, I’d be six feet underground by now.”

----

Daryun: *gently taps table* Narsus: *taps back* Jaswant: “What are they doing?” Azar: “Morse code.” Daryun: *aggressively taps table* Narsus: *slams hands down* “YOU TAKE THAT BACK-!”

BONUS:

From a discord conversation with my friends (translated) Friend A: *talking to their roommate* "Close the door, that will be better. Me: *thinking he was talking to me* "But… my door is already closed." Friend B: "Close it further. " Double Bonus: Friend A: "I was not talking to you, you Idiots!"

Tell me if you want more! (and @tired-reader-writer, you wrote that you are not feeling well. Hope this brightens your day a little!)

[mademoiselle-crabaletta]

Listen I know everyone on this site loves and adores Hiromu Arakawa for making fma, but I personally can NEVER forgive her for giving Arslan 0 drip and making Daryun ugly. And also making everyone super pale for some reason.

[jdnemesis2]

Arslan senki characters

[tired-reader-writer]

Hey how about I sob

[daryun]

Has anyone ever read the script of OVAs? I have just found something interesting on the internet: 'spoiler In the Japanese version, they actually reveal that Farangis is supposed to marry Arislan and that Arislan isn't really royalty end spoilerOh! And then there's the screw up at the end of the first movie. In the English version, Andragoras dies and magically comes back to life (kind of like Stephano from Days of Our Lives. Is he still alive or did they finally just kill him?)'

Arslan Senki Spoilers regarding character backgrounds under the cut.

Hello!

(I found your blog post, too)

I have never read the 90's OVA as scripts, but I do watch the OVA every now again because I'm rather fond of it - both the sub and dub.

Is the English OVA dub cheesy? Most certainly.

Will I defend the stage actor delivery of every line? You bet on Daryun's shiny cloak clasp I will.

As far as I know, Farangis was sent to protect Arslan, which is expressed in the OVA, part I, around the 42 minute mark:

The English dub mentions a holy warrior and how Farangis was chosen to be that warrior. So I wouldn't know where the whole marriage thing would come from just watching the OVA alone.

(Farangis' backstory is covered in this post)

~~~

That Arslan is adopted and is not royalty by blood is worth looking at. Let's have a look what the OVA reveals to us without the context of any other Arslan Senki media.

(I already knew Arslan was adopted, but I'm not sure where I picked that up anymore. It was probably from the family tree in the Sachiko Kamimura artbook I bought, NOT from the OVA itself)

Admittedly, I first thought of part II when Bahman is killed, but the resulting conflict here is not that Arslan isn't of royal descent, but that Hilmes has a claim to the throne. The viewer is led to believe this is the narrative twist for a long time.

The English dub also just says "You musn't kill him, he is of royal blood."

So I thought about part III, 11 minutes in. But even here, the conflict is still Hilmes being Arslan's older cousin, having a claim to the throne.

The reason Gieve is sent to Mt. Damavand by Narsus is to find Rukhnabad not for Arslan's lineage, but just to strengthen his claim. Hilmes seeks out the sword for the same reason.

So where would a viewer in the 90's with not as much access to the world wide web as today get the info that Arslan is adopted?

There are hints that Arslan grew up outside of the palace with a nanny in his nightmare (part II, ca. 7 mins in), though I wouldn't call it conclusive.

But up until the end of part VI, when Arslan gets banished to Gilan everyone is still acting within the parameters that Arslan is of royal blood.

I could not find evidence of Tahamineh asking for her child in the OVA, which is another clue given to readers of the manga or novel.

EDIT: FOUND IT, part I, minute 47.

Sub:

Dub: “Wait, Daryun, Daryun don’t do this, let me speak. If you know what’s good for you you’ll join us. Pulsa will soon have a new ruler, stong and clever, he’s already in Ectabahana. Once he has killed Andragoras he’ll marry the queen and be crowned king!“

~(Pulsa forevaaaaaaa)~

In conclusion: if the dub OVA is all you have, you will not automatically work out that Arslan is adopted.

EDIT: Similar to how Andragoras’ death was declared at the end of part I (see below), I think this change was made because they didn’t want to introduce this plot line in the dub and then never be able to deliver on it.

~~~

"Andragoras III died of an illness, much to the disappointment of Hermes who could not carry out his vengeful threats" (end of part I, English dub)

Regarding Andragoras being declared dead in the English OVA dub, I do not think this was a mistake. We have to look back at the time:

The first four parts were dubbed by a UK studio. Parts 5 and 6 were dubbed in the US.

I think it is reasonable to assume that only the frst four episodes were sold dubbing rights first and as a person in the 90's there was a high chance that if you caught this on a VHS tape, per chance on TV(?), or at anime conventions as a cinema experience, these four episodes were all you were ever going to see of the anime.

So I can only assume they wanted to wrap up the story as much as they could to give the overseas viewer with no other context of Arslan Senki's whole novel story a bit of closure.

That parts 5 and 6 were later dubbed must have been unknown at the time.

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with Stephano, I cannot help you with that one.

~~~

Completely unrelated to everything: Guts, is that you? (from part VI)

[innerchorus]

Hello! I understand that you may not know Japanese well, but I know that you know the Legend of Arslan well. What do you think Tanaka said here about Farangis and Giwa? Did he also talk there about “16 wings” and about the fact that “Each of them knows his own body completely”? What? Unclear. I would like to know what you think, as well as perhaps those who know Japanese. Here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XJxgAD7R-s

(For reference, the video link is the final Wright Staff interview with Tanaka where he discussed the relationship between Gieve and Farangis.)

I'm gonna go right ahead and say I really don't know Japanese at all, I've never studied it and without OCR/machine translation etc I can only really pick out the odd word! The automatic closed caption translation on this video wasn't clear at all, though I had slightly better luck extracting the Japanese captions and looking at those. Just be aware that I may make some errors!

Regarding what Tanaka had to say about Gieve and Farangis, after teasing us with the title of the video he didn't really say anything new about their relationship. Essentially, he said that he left the nature of their relationship ambiguous, and left it for readers to decide for themselves. Some people may think that the two of them were never together right up to the end, while others may think there was actually something between them.

As far as I can tell, the line about the 16 generals refers to the fact that other than Farangis and Gieve, the rest of them are well known (in terms of their origins, history etc, whereas for Gieve and Farangis there's a bit of mystery about their lives before meeting Arslan, though we do learn a little bit about Farangis's backstory later).

The most interesting (and kinda sad) tidbit of information that came out of this video was the fact that Tanaka said Arslan longed for love (アルスラーンなんかのはもう子供の恋愛時代に憧れてるようなそういう for anyone who wants to translate that bit, looks like Tanaka said that someone like Arslan already seemed to long for love/romance in childhood).

[hazard100]

Day Two - Oger Omelette

Gojeggre is a creation of the Iron Bowl Clan, a group that immigrated from Iran with ties to Persian culture, which they share through their food. This dish of scrambled eggs cooked within a layer of tomato sauce is known to stare down opposing Mealsters to weaken their stance. They are a stern Mealster to face off against, especially if it’s a battle of willpower. Unfortunately, the Ivory Dish Company has been making moves to take the recipe from the Iron Bowl Clan, which has led them to isolate themselves to protect their culture from these scavengers.