#khaluk

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Satisfying my craving for more Turan content by sharing a better version of this bonus sketch from Volume 14. The damage was from a rental sticker, apparently. But it’s still much clearer than the previous image I found.

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Arslan Senki Chapter 86

At last, plenty of Ilterish for me~

Arakawa’s Jimsa is...really cute? I don’t remember him looking quite like that in the anime, even though they used the same character design. He’s not really my type, though. But given that you can’t help but find yourself willing him to get away, it’s unpleasant to see those two arrows sink deeply into his back. He didn’t deserve that.

Who could hurt a face like that?

The other general who Kahluk was fighting is Dizaboulos (I think I misidentified him as Basmyl before, because he looks similar to that character in the anime).

I swear most of my enjoyment in seeing Ilterish look so happy was simply because I already knew things were going to go horribly wrong for him... :D

I like him best when he looks like this.

Literally everyone in a position of command in the Turanian army fell for Narsus’s trap and is just as culpable as Jimsa, and you can see from their faces that they all know it. Tokytomysh just wants someone to blame, even going so far as to claim that Jimsa must be in league with Narsus.

...and while some of the generals might believe that to be true, at the very least I don’t think Khaluk does... He knows exactly what Narsus is capable of, but it’s not like he’s going to speak up in Jimsa’s favour, especially given that he clearly thought he was the one about to be blamed (after all, he’s in charge of their tactics). I’m sure that’s why he is so quick to order the archers to shoot; if Jimsa gets away, he might be next in line for punishment.

(I ship Ilterish/Khaluk, because obviously what I need is another small fandom rarepair with no content, lmao)

I liked the added extra flashiness to Jimsa’s second escape (having him run over the backs of the oxen pulling Tokytomysh’s royal tent before leaping onto a horse was pretty neat). 

I love this.

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Arslan Senki Chapter 76

This one was fun!

I never really thought about how tall the outer wall of Peshawar is but finally got a sense of scale here and it’s HUGE. Turan are reputedly not at their strongest when laying siege to castles but they’re giving it a good go regardless. Lots of nice details in the artwork here.

Kubard was in fine form this chapter! It’s a real treat seeing him get so much pagetime at the moment and his appearances always make me smile. I guess he boosts my morale the same way he does the soldiers?

Ilterish, just because.

Despite the Turanian army’s strengths meaning they’re best suited to open ground, Peshawar is actually under threat because of both the tenacity of the attacking Turanians and the sheer numbers they are willing to throw at it. They get full marks for effort. And it’s no surprise that they’re approaching the siege in this way when they need to prioritise a quick victory here.

I found it quite amusing how Khaluk usually keeps his cool in terms of observing and responding to the changing situations of the battlefield until the end of the chapter where he’s up on top of his siege tower witnessing the havoc wreaked on their army’s formation by Kubard and Daryun and he’s finally like ‘o shit’. I don’t think he had a contingency plan for that.

(To be fair to Khaluk, he doesn’t look like he’s going to panic, it’s just that in that moment he knows the tide of battle has irrevocably turned. )

The finial on the top of the Turanian standards reminds me of a horse-head fiddle.

Kishward is absolutely scathing on the battlefield, it’s as if he’s trying to use his words like a third sword. Harsh. I really loved Boila struggling with his comeback because he doesn’t know the Parsian word for ‘foe’ before just attacking him because it’s easier than completing his sentence. Thumbs up for the double border on the speech bubbles where they’re speaking in Turanian too, that’s a nice visual distinction.

Poor old Iterish isn’t having much luck with his Parsian opponents, is he? First Kubard ignored his challenge than ran away, then Daryun cut their match short when Ilterish’s horse was hit by an arrow and the fact that he’s being shown mercy just makes him angry. (Daryun’s special kind of humour probably didn’t help, either.)

Look how delighted Daryun is to see Kubard again, it’s so cute!

And of course he immediately tries to recruit him for Team Arslan. The fact that they can have such a casual conversation while sending their enemies flying in pieces without even giving the combat their full attention really shows how they’re top tier warriors. No wonder Khaluk is so horrified by what he’s seeing.

I don’t think there were any typos or blatant translation errors in this chapter? That’s a relief, because the quality of the simulpub seemed to have decreased recently.

I don’t think they ever meet, but Ilterish and Zandeh should found a ‘Daryun killed my father’ support group. (Actually, they’d probably just fight over who should be the one to kill him, but still.)