#arslan senki

[teresa59sblog]

Bessatsu Shonen Magazine April 2025 issue cover

[innerchorus]

Thanks to @srtacaballero for alerting me to the fact that preview images for the calendar that comes with the special edition of manga vol. 22 are available on Amazon! These are the first 10; I'll share the remainder in a separate post (on a trip at the moment so stuck with the app image limit).

This does look nice even if it skews very Team Arslan heavy, lmao. They also didn't use the official English spellings for some of the names so we have Ester and Alfreed here.

[yant2k]

The Four Arakawa Good Boys

[tired-reader-writer]

Bumped into this while I was aimlessly scrolling on Pinterest!

Rough translation:

“The smell of burning flesh... Do Lusitanians have a hobby of roasting and eating people?”

This must've been shortly after that fire pit incident?

[lanonima]

BEHOLD

HE IS COMPLETE!! And, ahead of schedule even! (I did say that once I was done with the armor the rest would go really fast)

I will probably take the next few days off and start the second piece on Monday just so that I can have a full week's worth of work before I post the Friday update.

@importantdestinydefendor @tired-reader-writer @colleyuriko @innerchorus

Think I got everyone who frequently interacted with them :)

Also, obligatory picture of the back under the cut because you gotta. It's difficult to have a super neat back in a project that has this many colors but as always I did my best.

[daryun]

Oh no guys. Is he going to be sexy?

I dare not scroll down further lol

[wiz-kaleb]

HEROIC LEGEND OF ARSLAN

[importantdestinydefendor]

What kind of love do you embody?

love as being known

[ love is knowing all of someone and loving them anyway ] when tim kreider said "if we want the rewards of being loved we have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known" and when joe wright said "The idea that these two people know each other, knew each other when they first saw each other. That they recognized each other from their future" and when micah nemerever said "it was a relief and a horror to be known so perfectly"

I took this quiz as Azar to see what kind of love she would be since she is completely different from me in many ways. And this fits her so well. Azars biggest fear is revealing too much of herself and thus having the wrong people hold too much power over her. As the saying goes, knowledge is power, and Azar hates nothing more then loosing that power over herself. Because even though outside she shows herself as this in control, collected and cold general deep deep deep down she is a mess. In shambles like a pottery that was smashed into tiny pieces and no glue to put it back together in sight. She also has severe survivers guilt about the incident that killed not only her mother but three other people (or at least two directly and one indirectly but shhh- that will be revealed later) by the hands of her mother's sister Farah out of jelousy. As she later learned (from the pos herself) it only happend because Farah wanted to erease everything that could be her sisters legacy to swoop in to take her place by Azar's fathers side. But as it didn't work out as Farah had hoped for, she continued with tormenting and torturing her niece for the past 25 years, not caring if innocent bystanders would be caught in the crossfire. Azar feels guilty and shame for this and believes that nothing would have happend if she was never born.

So, to keep her control over herself thus making knowing her a wall impossible to overcome, she fabricated herself a new identity - the violent White General/White Death. Spreading missinformation by simply never correcting the people around her and keeping her distance as well as wearing not only her metaphorical but also her physical mask to hide her face. But there isn't much that is keeping this fraud facade together and only a little bit of gental prodding would cause the entier wall to crumble and reveal the shards of missery underneath. But there is only one who has every managed to have come this far and that is only because he is the son of the man who saved Azars life.

So yeah... this was something. Made my dissect Azar like she was in a lab. So very very fun!

Tagging @tired-reader-writer @innerchorus and @marchdancer and anybody who wants to join :)

[mysticalcycleblaze]

I accidentally deleted it, so I uploaded it again.

[thaliangeldraws]

finally doodled this little idea for some silly shirts on arakawa protags

[hatsumishinogu]

The Heroic Legend of Arslan Vol.22

[ask-gieve]

My dear audience, I am ashamed to have kept you waiting for so long. I'm sure you have been inconsolable without my endless charm and infinite wit. I fear that our beloved Pars may have wasted away during my absence...

But, fear not, dear audience! For I, Gieve, the greatest mistral to ever grace Pars, have returned!

Hear me, o' people of Pars! Join me in this most wonderful of celebrations! Let us band together once more!

[innerchorus]

are there differences between shapul and esfan? theyre the same character to me.

It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to respond to this mainly because it sounds like something my partner would say to antagonise me but let me give it my best shot.

I do think there are some differences between them (and I will of course mention those in this post) but I think it's more interesting to answer this question by looking at why these two characters are so alike, and specifically why the fact that they are so alike doesn't mean they are merely cardboard cutouts of each other and is vital to understanding them as characters.

First, while Shapur created a strong impression and is an important character to myself and many others, it's worth noting that he appears in relatively few scenes in the manga. That's enough to glean some info about what he's like as a character, but we don't get to spend as much time with him as we do with the main cast. Maybe that's part of why you feel this way.

We do, however, get to see a bit more of his younger brother, Isfan.

When you say that Shapur and Isfan are so alike they seem the same to you, my first response is pretty much "well, what did you expect, given the circumstances?". It's clear from the outset that Isfan wishes to follow in his brother's footsteps.

Here he is in Chapter 59, freshly arrived in Peshawar.

Straight away we learn he wants to avenge his brother's death and offer his service to Prince Arslan in his brother's stead.

From Chapter 64, right before his fight with Gieve.

Here we learn that not only did Shapur save Isfan, he actually taught him. The novels even mention that 'while his brother served as a military general in the royal capital, Isfan became an agent of the royal capital and stayed in his hometown to guard it,' so even before we meet him in the manga, Isfan was stepping into a role that had previously been occupied by his brother, a role that Shapur had trained him for.

It's very clear that Isfan looks up to his brother, idealises him and aspires to be the kind of person he was, not just in a military sense but also sharing his morals, viewing loyalty to one's country and protecting the weak as far more important than riches (as stated in Book 12 of the novels, this is something Shapur said that Isfan adheres to as well). Is it such a surprise that after being so closely taught by Shapur and clearly modelling himself on him, Isfan seems so like his older brother?

That's really why I think saying they're 'the same character' feels reductive, because the reasons why they are so similar tell you so much about them.

And despite Shapur appearing in only a few scenes before his death, the same thing works in reverse. When we meet Isfan, we also learn more about Shapur. I don't think there's any need to list it all as that's not really what your question was aimed at, but I hope you understand my point.

The two brothers do seem to share character traits (they can be hotheaded/rash, as seen with Isfan's fight against Gieve, him rushing hastily to attack Chassum Fortress, and in Shapur throwing down his helmet at Atropatene after learning the king had fled, and particularly in his rescue of Isfan where he rushed alone into the snowy mountains to save him) but again, they're related, sharing the same father. So it's not really a surprise. This does, however, also highlight a difference between them, one that comes down to age and experience.

When we meet Shapur, he's in his mid 30s, and a Marzban, one of the highest military positions possible in Pars.

When we meet Isfan, he's around 20, and although he's clearly got some combat experience he's not at his brother's level just yet. And while they share some traits like I outlined above, while Shapur likely had the age and experience to moderate his reactions a little bit (see how he backtracks after his initial outburst at Atropatene, and defers his conflict with Kubard for another day which never comes), Isfan doesn't, and on certain occasions (like rushing ahead at Chassum) his inexperience shows.

I also want to cover character design, because I think it's a deliberate choice by Arakawa to have there be some resemblance between the two but not have them appear totally identical. One, it highlights that Isfan has a different mother (the manga appears to give him her lighter hair colour), and two, I think it indicates that Isfan isn't just Shapur v2, he's not meant to be just a carbon copy of his brother. Maybe that's also why we haven't seen Isfan wield a spear, Shapur's weapon of choice.

That those visual differences highlight the difference in their birth circumstances feels important. Shapur was born into high status as his family's heir. Isfan was born to a enslaved mother and if not for Shapur's actions his father would have allowed him to die simply to pacify his wife. While Isfan now occupies the same privileged position that his brother grew up in, it could easily have been different.

Those circumstances (Isfan and his mother's abandonment in the mountains) also lead to a distinct difference between the two, which is fighting style. Okay, we don't see much of Shapur in combat but he's clearly a classically trained Parsian warrior. This is likely the nature of the training he gave Isfan, too. But Isfan has an element that is unique to him, something that wasn't influenced by his brother but relates to wolves.

In his fight with Gieve, Tanaka describes Isfan's movements as 'wolf-like' and in both the novel scene and Arakawa's manga adaptation, Gieve is surprised by Isfan's movements (specifically the kick seen below) which depart from orthodox swordsmanship with the unpredictability of the wild.

I don't think we would've seen Shapur pull a move like that!

Yes, I know it makes no sense for Isfan to have these wolf-like traits when the actual contact he had with them was very limited, but I'll forgive Tanaka this conceit because it's fucking cool okay?

Anyway I hope this satisfactorily answers the question. I'm aware I am very (very) into these two characters and not everyone will be as interested in them as I am, but I hope some of the the points in this post were of interest. Hopefully I didn't forget anything, I didn't get a chance to proofread!

[doyouknowthisanime]

Do You Know This Anime?

[tired-reader-writer]

Thinking about Wolfsong. I initially had Narsus only find out about the whole Gorgan fiasco after canon events start but recently, I've been kinda reconsidering it. Here is a dump of my thought process in no particular order:

So Narsus likely got the court position pretty soon after the whole Three Kingdoms Alliance thing

Shapur is likely involved in repelling said invasion because 1) Andragoras summoned pretty much almost anyone, and 2) it's coming from the east and his lands are in the northeast, Andragoras might want to mobilize the troops to... Peshawar, perhaps? Before the invading troops can penetrate too deep into the country. Many lords were called, yes, but someone like Shapur, whose domain borders Turk, could possibly be doubly expected to respond since this concerns his region. Just food for thought.

I'm not sure about Narsus' timeline in several parts. How long before the TKA was it that Teos died and Narsus became the new lord of Daylam? Was it then that he freed his slaves? Or was it after the TKA ordeal?

He pretty much self-exiled in Pars era 317, so at MOST he would've had two years. Did he live full-time in the capital? Did he ever return to Daylam, even if just briefly? The Daylami seemed pretty familiar with him.

Now that I think about it, Narsus and his mother (I need to name the lady) were kicked out by Teos' main wife and then were accepted back when the wife passed away some time before Teos' death, so maybe he got more time in Daylam than I thought. The problem is that I forgot when he and his mother were accepted back?

Anyways, this opportunity for an encounter between the two kinda offers me the opportunity to have them meet each other early. I am still contemplating what to do with it. Especially since a couple of the enslaved folk Narsus freed could end up in Gorgan's orbit.

There's no way the Gorgan folk could know about Narsus' abolitionist ideals until Narsus pulls that stunt of freeing all his slaves (I assume it happened in Daylam rather than the capital), I mean there's a small possibility that they might know vaguely but it's more likely that they straight up won't know until Narsus does the societal equivalent of kicking down the door and blasting a horn far and wide. There's also very little possibility of Narsus knowing unless Gorgan reaches out to him first— what with their operation being so hush-hush and crucially under wraps because of the Mardi's caution— and they wouldn't reach out before knowing that Narsus is trustworthy.

But after? Could Shapur possibly reach out? Maybe he would want his children to have an ally he knows can be trusted so they won't be so alone against the world. Would it even be Shapur who reaches out? Would it be Sadiq who advises Shapur to do so? Would it make sense for them to see a potential friend and ally and not take the opportunity, especially when Shapur has already cut ties with his relatives over the Isfan debacle and the region can't exactly trust other nobles willy-nilly. I don't know.

In the scenario that he does reach out and they do end up connecting with each other, what can I do with it? Narsus probably got the court position in 315, in my timeline I put down that Shapur becomes a marzban in 316 (age 32), after some ambiguous campaign that he was called to be part of, so he would have to go to the capital again. I did not find anything significant in the novel timeline in the year 316, so I wouldn't know what the occasion is. But in the hypothetical scenario that they're acquainted with each other by this point, what interesting thing can I do with how they view the capital? Does Narsus ever get to return to Daylam during his time as a court advisor of sorts? What could he do with this?

I have something vague pinned down for after when canon starts, where the Mardi folk (esp Khazān and Arslan? not sure yet) help Daylam defend against Lusitanians and encountering Irina and her crew + Kubard and Merlaine and things rolling from there— could that aid be rooted in a friendship established before that point?

Coordinating trade and stuff between the two regions could be pretty difficult if Narsus isn't there to manage the process, though. So I'm still not sure how it all works out.

In the scenario that there is a connection between Gorgan and Daylam, could Narsus possibly go back to Daylam after his exile instead of going to live on Mt. Bashur in isolation? Because even if somebody else warns him to be careful, I don't think it's possible for Narsus to stay quiet about the corruption and injustices in the capital and eventually he'd snap and get fed up and leave when his concerns go ignored.

I'm... still not sure what would happen after he goes back to Daylam (if he does) or why I'm contemplating this whole situation in the first place BUT here I am, pondering and contemplating anyways.

[lanonima]

It has started!

I'll go a little bit slower, at least in the near future because my back has been bugging me. Like the first one, I won't start consistently fandom tagging it until it's recognizable! I'll just post an untagged update every Friday.

But here's the full image, just so people know what to look forward to~