Looking at some Team Zahhak blades today! First up is Arzhang's. Images from Chapters 24 and 30. Maybe the handle is made of bone?
Closeup of the snake detailing on the blade.
Now for Pulad.
Images from Chapters 55 and 64.
Again, this weapon features two snake heads with their fangs bared (obviously evoking Zahhak's two shoulder snakes). If I were to design a crest for Team Zahhak, this would definitely be included! Team Zahhak are... not subtle.
And that brings to mind a question; why hasn't anyone picked up on this? And by 'anyone' I mainly mean Narsus, because he encountered both Arzhang and Pulad, and would have had a chance to inspect their weapons if he chose to. Wouldn't he have looked at anything that might have given a clue to the identity of these sorcerers and their aims? Pulad's face was rendered unrecognisable from his fall in Chapter 64, but Isfan had been trying to capture him and Narsus lamented the fact that there was no way to identify him.
Which is why it would be very convenient if Guiscard handed Team Arslan a captured Gurgin in the next chapter.
But the weapons are a clue, quite a big one, I think. Because in Pars there must be a very strong association of snakes with Zahhak. And especially with there being two snakes featured on the blade, it could be enough to raise some suspicions.
Also, Narsus isn't the only one who may have noticed some snaky hints:
Here's Montferrat in Chapter 81, looking at the blade wielded by Innocentis. Innocentis picked it out of a lineup of weapons, but he was clearly under the influence of Team Zahhak, and they left their mark on this poisoned sword.
Now, that alone isn't enough for Montferrat to have drawn any sort of conclusion, but we know he's heard rumours of magic users and is suspicious about the unnatural mist at Atropatene and the incidents of 'hands sprouting from the ground and killing people,' and he also distrusts Hilmes and suspects his involvement.
As a Lusitanian, Montferrat was probably unaware of Zahhak, so at this point couldn't have made a guess at the existence of the Team Zahhak faction or their aims. But if, after Guiscard's encounter with Gurgin in Chapter 109, he had talked to Montferrat about what happened and about what Gurgin said, perhaps he could have put a bit more of it together. Or else perhaps he voiced his suspicions to Guiscard earlier, and now Guiscard is the one starting to understand. I'm very curious to see whether we get a flashback or whether the conversation in the next chapter brings up some of these points.
And of course I am still enjoying the idea of a captured mage Gurgin featuring in the proceedings and later being used as a guide to Team Zahhak's lair.
I just realised I forgot to share Guiscard’s mage kill from Chisato Nakamura’s manga! I can do it now Arakawa’s version has passed this point.
(No, it didn’t happen like this in the novels... Maybe Nakamura just felt like Guiscard deserved to kill a mage. She did cut Isfan’s night raid completely though, so to have it happen like this was the logical choice.)
Okay, so this post is going to contain spoilers for Chapter 108 and a few novel spoilers, too (those will be under a Read More). I wanted to take a closer look at why Gurgin is featured in the latest chapter, and what might happen next. As I mentioned in my last post about how closely this chapter follows novel canon, in the novel, the sorceror in this scene is named Pulad.
Here’s Arakawa’s character designs for the Team Zahhak disciples, with handy translated names added by me:
The reason I’m sharing that?
I don’t think he’s actually mentioned by name in the manga, but in Arakawa’s version, Pulad is in fact ALREADY DEAD. He was the one who was attempting to steal Bahman’s secret letter, and was killed in Chapter 64.
Yep, definitely him.
So that’s why someone else had to be substituted in.
Here’s Gurgin. Did I just want another excuse to post a picture of him? Yes.
So, why did Arakawa make this change? In the novel, the sorceror who steals the fake letter isn’t referred to by name, but why assign Pulad to those scenes in the knowledge that he’s supposed to play a part later? It would have been easy enough to work out which members of Team Zahhak could be killed off here without issue, but everything Arakawa does is intentional so there must be a good reason. That’s what I want to look at here!
(SPOILER WARNING for discussion of novel scenes from here onwards!)
To try and make sense of this decision, first you’ll need to know what happens to Pulad in Tanaka’s version. So far, Gurgin’s actions and dialogue match up directly with Pulad in this scene in the novel. After being interrupted by the Parsian forces attacking the camp at night, Pulad retreats, but when Isfan correctly identifies Guiscard as the leader of the Lusitanian army and begins to fight him, Pulad interferes again, the end result of which is that he gets killed by Isfan. It’s a really exciting scene and one that I was looking forward to seeing in the manga...
...BUT NOT IF IT’S GURGIN WHO DIES 😭😭😭😭
Do I really think Arakawa is going to kill him off like that? I definitely think it’s possible, but it’s not a certainty by any means.
(I’m holding on to some hope because in the novel, Gurgin was watching all this as it happened, since he’d been sent there along with Pulad to convince Guiscard to serve Zahhak. So perhaps in the next chapter, we’ll see that the same is true here, Gurgin is working with someone else, and it’s that other sorceror who is going to attack Isfan and get killed.)
What is interesting to consider, is why Arakawa changed things around in the first place? Personally, I think it’s more likely that Gurgin is the reason rather than Pulad (that still doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll get to live, though). I think she knew she wanted to give this scene to Gurgin, and that necessitated moving Pulad’s death to an earlier scene (which she could do without issue, because as I said the sorceror in that scene isn’t named).
So, Arakawa wanted to show us Gurgin here. I think there are a few possible reasons why.
1. He’s the most important of Zahhak’s disciples, so she wanted to use this opportunity to introduce him to readers so that we have some familiarity with him in the future. This one is more likely to be true if the series is going to continue to adapt the novels in full, as most of Gurgin’s scenes are in the second half (or, I suppose, if Arakawa is down to leave things open-ended by having some of Team Zahhak remain.) In this case, I think he’ll survive.
2. If the series is going to end before the timeskip, perhaps she just wanted to give Gurgin a bigger role in this scene, as otherwise we won’t see much of him. If that’s the case, the likelihood that he will die increases (and I think that would indicate the manga taking a route that will feature an early defeat of Team Zahhak as a whole). I’m not convinced by this, though.
3. Or, there’s another reason why she wanted Gurgin in this scene — everything Arakawa does is for a reason, and here she wants this scene to tell us something about Gurgin’s character. This is what really interests me!
I only have access to the raw at the moment, but Gurgin’s dialogue in this scene matches up with Pulad’s in the novel. However, it does make a lot of sense to give these lines to Gurgin instead — specifically because of how he uses Guiscard’s lack of faith in the Lusitanian god. (As an aside, I really like that panel earlier in the chapter where Guiscard learns of Baudouin’s death, and his hand goes to his chest to touch on the cross of Yaldabaoth that hangs around his neck.)
Things aren’t going well for Guiscard. He overhears some of his soldiers praying fervently for Yaldabaoth to save them, and mutters to himself “What has god done so far?”. In the novel, this is part of Guiscard’s internal thought process and not something he voices aloud. Arakawa often moves thoughts or details from the narrative to dialogue, and in this case it not only conveys to the reader that Guiscard does not believe Yaldabaoth will intervene on their behalf, but also makes it clear that Gurgin knows this is something that can be exploited.
He says (rough translation): “The god Yaldabaoth does not exist. If it did, it would have come down to save you. Aren’t you the ones who left your homeland and travelled across the world on an expedition for the glory of god? Surely you are faithful, worthy believers! So why does god not save you from this crisis?”
Yes, these are Pulad’s words from the novel, but hearing them from Gurgin’s mouth called something to mind for me — Gurgin’s backstory. If you haven’t already done so, I recommend reading the spoilers about it here!
So Gurgin, who was training to become a priest alongside his brother and Farangis, is so angry and inconsolable after his brother’s untimely death that it prompts a crisis of faith that ultimately leads to him fleeing the temple to join Team Zahhak. His dialogue with Guiscard immediately brought to mind the fact that Gurgin himself has been in a similar position, where he asked himself why Mithra did not save his older brother, despite his innocence.
(Would Gurgin have drifted towards Team Zahhak anyway? Yes, very possibly, he was interested in Zahhak’s power... but it’s also possible that without the injustice of his brother’s death, he would not have taken that path.)
Anyway, the answers that Gurgin arrived at are clear — as he tells Guiscard, the god of Yaldabaoth does not exist, but the Snake King Zahhak is real, and that’s why Gurgin is acting as his messenger.
I think the context of how Gurgin came to be part of Team Zahhak is the reason why Arakawa chose to give him this scene. I hope that means he’ll survive, and we’ll one day get to see his past covered by the manga too, but at the very least, the choice to place these words in his mouth rather than Pulad’s is a nod to what drove him to abandon his own faith and serve Zahhak.
Look at his face, surely that’s the face of a character we’re going to see more of in the future? I LOVE HIM ARAKAWA PLEASE DON’T KILL HIM!
