#Farangis

[dresdencodak]

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

[tired-reader-writer]

Thinking about Isfan and Arslan's childhood in Wolfsong. Them being permitted to accompany the clan on its trips— some clan members travelling to pick up information, trade their crafted goods, pick up “strays” etc and some staying behind at their home in the woods near Shapur's castle (in this AU it would be located atop a hill, surrounded by a dense gathering of trees— formerly had nobody using that land because it'd have been a pain to reform the land for agriculture but of course it's not so much an issue for the Mardi), they even take turns probably, the boys also taking turns? Gieve is often on these trips, he likes travelling, Farangis occasionally— she likes being rooted at home but she also will travel to offer her healing services if need be (also as a mediator, when she grows older). Maybe weeks, maybe a month, maybe more. Imagining Isfan in particular integrating himself into that culture. Herding livestock, learning about surviving in the wild, travel routes, getting to listen in on tribes and villages negotiating for grazing land, water supplies, etc. Getting to know, hands-on, what kind of issues tend to be common among the people. I think Arslan would do quite well where it concerns interacting with loads of people, listening to people, etc, while maybe Isfan might like some other parts more— defending, guerrilla tactics, being in tune with the environment to the point he can weaponize it against anyone he may be fighting against. Also maybe there's some big gathering among the villages/tribes on Shapur's land for some event, I don't know what, and the Mardi kids (Isfan and Farangis primarily, Gieve is more of a helper and drifter lol, Arslan might still be too young but he might like to step up when he's old enough) are tasked with helping set up the thing, the logistics, making sure the event goes smoothly, but also getting time to have fun, mingle w kids their age, fool around (OMG IMAGINE ALL THE CHAOS ASHAYA WOULD CAUSE, Saman is SO done). Them getting to listen in on the adult talk!! Oh god, imagine there being an open market at an event like this, or games! Archery competitions, wrestling matches… maybe even an army of plov making, LOL, since I kinda sorta drew from Uzbekistan for the whole Gorgan culture thing. Ehhhh hopefully it makes sense. Just. Them ❤️

[daryun]

Heroic Legend of Arslan poster

OVA, character designs by Sachiko Kamimura

(From this Ebay listing)

[xbuster]

The HEROIC LEGEND of ARSLAN (1991) — Farangis and Gieve

[innerchorus]

@tired-reader-writer turns out I had some Arslan Senki: Senshi no Shikaku Isfans on my laptop! Google Translated images because I'm lazy and it looks good enough, lol.

Before the fight with Gieve.

Different scene; pretty sure this is from the anime scenario where Gieve playing his oud lead to Team Arslan coming to his aid when he, Zaravant and Tus rushed ahead.

(I have a headcanon that both Shapur and Isfan intensely dislike feeling indebted to others.)

This was new.

(Honestly, I don't think Isfan or his brother take well to mockery. He's obviously feeling the sting of his poor decision here and assumes Farangis is about to rub salt in the wound. Sadly I don't have any more screencaps to see what was said next!)

Also, I did finally go and check Book 9 to see whether Tanaka truly did retcon/add that Isfan was suckled by a wolf, and yes, it appears that he did! The specific phrase used is 狼の乳, 'wolf's milk'. After being abandoned he was kept alive with wolf's milk until Shapur turned up to rescue him. Makes me wonder how much time passed between him and his mother being abandoned and Shapur finding him? I assume not long (like, not multiple days) because he was still out in the open. Even being wrapped in almost all of his mother's clothing wouldn't protect him from the temperature for long, though if the wolves curled up with him that would have helped.

[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!

[svxlua]

farangis

[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!)

[choujinx]

ARSLAN SENKI (2013-?) by arakawa hiromu

[ladies-of-fiction]

Farangis

[daryun]

It was the sketch from volume 5 I was looking for!

groups of people of varying heights really dont poke their heads around doorframes like they used to

[tired-reader-writer]

To actually elaborate on the autistic Farangis headcanon thing now that I finally have a couple hours' sleep and a nice refreshing shower under my belt, while I definitely do not think she was supposed to be seen that way by either Tanaka or Arakawa— I'm sure she was only meant to be… *gestures* what she is in canon, I'm yeeting that far, far away from me. 

My City Now. 

So we know Farangis was very likely ostracized by fellow priestesses before the start of the story. After all, she says:

“...At any rate, it was likely just a way to get rid of a nuisance. My fellow priestesses are jealous of me for being so beautiful, talented, and skilled in both academics and in battle. I'm certain that they have used the last wish of the deceased as a pretense for throwing me out of the temple.” —manga, chapter 12

×

“A woman of talent, who like me is graced with beauty and proficient in arts both scholarly and martial, shall be begrudged by her peers. Using the fulfillment of the deceased’s will as an excuse, they chased me away from the temple. I wonder if you understand, Sir Minstrel.” —novel, chapter 4 part 5

(Interestingly, novel!Farangis also says, “Those who leave such wills never consider what trouble they may cause for the people they leave behind.” and is that a hint of resentment/exasperation she expresses here? It's completely absent from the manga version but ANYWAYS—)

So there's very definite evidence of her not fitting in with her peers, but it's the reasoning I take a little issue with. Nothing wrong with a confident woman who knows she's Hot Shit, but the framing does bother me juuuust a teeny little bit. Her temple peers feel less like shitty but ultimately realistic people, and more like caricatures? It felt like an “all the other jealous bitches HATED her for being too awesome and pretty” thing, which… I mean, Farangis being shunned for her autistic behavior wouldn't make those peers better people or god forbid justify their treatment of her, but I thought it would be interesting to reframe the situation a bit and also project my own experiences on her. (After all, what are blorbos for if not projecting your trauma and issues upon them?)

We've seen how blunt she is, and how little of a shit she gives towards societal and formal conventions. She certainly doesn't seem like it at first glance, especially not next to Gieve, because in comparison to him she just feels like the epitome of rule-following formality. Buuuut. There's nuance to that. 

We see her bluntness in the way she gives Bahman a dressing down before the expedition to Sindhura— judging from Bahman's reaction (“why should I, a marzbān, be scolded by a kahina from the countryside?!”), it suggests a status discrepancy that societal norms should dictate that she not have the right to speak to a marzbān that way. But she does. Because she doesn't give a shit. 

It is a common perception of autistic people that they're either extremely rule-following or that they “don't understand” rules and instructions, and… okay, this is gonna be a lot of spitballing since for a number of reasons (mainly how I was constantly compared to my officially diagnosed and very detectably autistic brother as the “normal” one by my family, mainly where it concerns me being disallowed from autistic behavior where my brother was allowed since I was the “normal” sibling and it's been stuck with me my whole life and I'm… still in the process of unpacking everything and I still feel very disconnected from autistic communities and I feel like an imposter anyways that was one heck of a ramble) I am still dealing with much uncertainty in wading through my very own autism, it's very anecdotal, so. Yeah. Anyways— from what I've experienced and what I've seen of other people's anecdotes, while it is true that rules and routine can help us interact with and make sense of the world around us, autistic people will straight up reject some rules they feel are hypocritical or inconsistent. I've seen autistic people say that they do see the rules, they just go “well that's stupid I'm not doing that” and refuse to follow. Of course, I don't mean to say that there's no difficulty in understanding because gods know I'm terrible at catching social cues. And end up being extremely rude on accident. It's a complicated thing.

So how I see a younger Farangis is that, as a child, she finds it difficult to care about some things, her bluntness pisses people off even if she well and truly didn't mean anything bad by it, just pointing out something she thought was obvious, or calling out unfair things. Her difficulty in parsing social cues and such creates a rift between her and her peers in the temple. (I swear, growing up a neurodivergent child, it's like everyone could somehow tell I was some sort of Different Freak™, and I constantly felt like I was playing a game whose rules everybody except me knew. It was as though I was constantly emitting a Neurodivergent Miasma™ or I had a neon sign blaring from me that I was “Not Normal™” that alerted people and allowed them to exclude me at every turn, it was such an experience.)

I want to emphasize that this would not put Farangis in the wrong, and under no circumstances would she have been deserving of such bullying, in case anyone takes this the wrong way. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just trying to project and relate to a character I like because I thought this made sense.

There is also the factor of grief. She was at the very least eight years old when she was sent to the Temple of Mithra after her parents' death, so it's very likely that she was a tiny little child who was actively grieving her parents and the life she used to have. And children don't have the experience and emotional maturity to process their feelings, so they can lash out or act in “undesirable” ways since they have Very Big Feelings and very little way to express them maturely. I don't think her time in the Temple was a particularly good experience, even setting aside the whole Aghriras debacle (which isn't making it into the manga, I'm pretty sure, and never has the chance to happen in my AU, so I'm not gonna be discussing that). 

So imagine a young child who has just lost her parents being put into this unfamiliar place, where perhaps rules that are not explicitly stated but which everyone is nevertheless expected to follow. Hierarchies that are entirely unfair. I recall novel part 2 spoilers that detail how Alfarīd and Farangis infiltrated a temple for some investigative work? And I recall how it detailed that priestesses get harassed and apprentice priests/priestesses get heaped with chores and stuff just because of their junior status. I might be remembering wrong though, so do tell me if that's the case! But anyways, for a young child, an apprentice priestess, to be exposed to that kind of nonsense, I believe Farangis would've pushed back against it one way or another, and generally being not a fan of what she sees as nonsensical, arbitrary, and unfair rules. Neurodivergent people tend to have a stronger sense of justice and fairness, after all. And her “rebellious misbehavior” as a child could've given people an excuse to pick on her or shun her. I think she dedicated herself to her training and studies as a sense of routine, to cope with… everything, basically.

Here is another quote from Farangis that stood out to me:

“Let us say that Mithra's will and my own thoughts are in agreement.” — from that same conversation with Bahman

I think they showcase her relationship to rigid norms quite well. She is devoted to Mithra, genuinely and wholeheartedly (I do have to wonder if Mithra being a yazata of covenants, light, oaths, justice, contracts, and friendship played a role in her connection to the deity aside from the fact that she was raised in a temple of Mithra, maybe she felt more of a connection because she had a higher justice sensitivity and wanted something she could actually make sense out of), but she isn't devoted to her patron deity for the sake of it, the way she framed and phrased that is so interesting to me. I've seen someone say, “Rules are good if they are fair, reasonable, sensible, and easy to follow, and enforced uniformly by someone who is capable of being a fair and discerning judge.” and I think that's at least in part what's happening here, at least how I interpret it in a way that I can connect with. Your interpretation might differ! 

Anyways, this post is such an incoherent mess, maybe I didn't get enough sleep as I thought I did, but let me know what you guys think! Farangis is a character I've kinda seen myself in (and admire, because she's awesome) but I hadn't put my headcanons and interpretation of her character into words before, especially not in a lengthy post like this. This is a headcanon that is very dear to my heart! I wish we got more insight on what her life was like before the start of the story, I felt like it just got mentioned and then dropped— never to be seen or mentioned again— but I guess it means it's Free Real Estate for me to draw whatever kind of picture that I want. 

[daryun]

Got my hands on the German version of volume 19:

Arakawa's bonus sketches are

[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).

[choujinx]

ARSLAN SENKI (2013-?) by arakawa hiromu

[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!")