#vahriz

[daryun]

Bonus Sketches by Hiromu Arakawa in the manga 'The Heroic Legend of Arslan' volumes 21 and 22

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Vol. 22 had these before and afters of the undead warriors, perhaps to remind more casual readers exactly who they were? I'm so embedded in ArSen fandom that I couldn't forget most of these if I tried, but I did see someone asking who tf Shapur was when he first showed up so maybe a reminder with visuals is a good idea.

And a couple of pages generating hype for the next volume! It's not out for a while (September) so we'll have to wait a long time to see who gets the next cover spot, but with all of this sorcerous shit going on it feels like it might be the right spot for the Holy Master. I am also still nurturing hopes of an Isfan cover but I don't know whether that'll work out before the series ends now.

[importantdestinydefender]

Silly little drawing~

[tired-reader-writer]

So this post was actually scheduled from last night just before I went to bed. I opened up the tab to give the ArSen anime a rewatch, actually kinda more like a first watch because it's been so long since I last watched it that this might as well be all new to me, but I got too tired like one minute in (I'm recovering but I probably caught covid AGAIN 😭) so I only watched like. The very tip of the iceberg before needing to conk out. ANYWAYS.

Starts with the same battle montage as the manga, BUT drawn out longer, and the anime actually???? Specifies when and where the battle is taking place? Hello???? It's Pars era 317, Pars aiding Maryam when Lusitania tried to invade it the first time. Very interesting choice.

I think it's Azrael that flies over the screen and gives us the sweet sweet transitions! Which would suggest that Kishward was there? Unless it's another bird. I forget Azrael's color palette in the anime.

Backgrounds!! I can't comment on how accurate the architecture is but it certainly looks pretty!

On second thought that bird probably isn't Azrael. I think I remember Azrael being... more blue.

Also—

Vahriz uses a wooden sword! I wasn't expecting this, I thought he used a real sword in the manga, so I went to check to compare, and...

That's a wooden sword, I'm pretty sure!!! You can see the grain of the wood on it!!! Especially compared to Arslan's definitely metal sword! Wah! Discovering something new about ArSen every time I revisit it!

Aaaaaaand that's pretty much all I could watch before I felt the need to go hibernate, LOL. Just wanted to jot my thoughts down before I forget.

[trevlan]

death of Vahriz

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Arslan Senki Chapter 143

SOOOOOO if you had 'Mount Damavand erupts' or 'Tahamenay dies' on your bingo cards, you can now cross them off.

Just a quick post from me this month as I'm super tired and short on time, but I probably won't be analysing this one quite as closely as other recent chapters anyway.

Zahhak's powers of regeneration appear to be undoing the damage to Andragoras's body

Gotta say I was amused to see his outfit given a makeover like this to signify Zahhak is now the owner of this form, thank you very much (see snaky black tendrils going down his arm in a previous panel). Did Team Zahhak's love of black come about because it's the Snake King's colour?

No more do we have actual giant scaly freaky-headed snakes but these wispy black ones. Huh. Wonder whether we'll see them take the other form again? When they get hungry?

All the soldiers responding as if Andragoras as come back. Like, okay, maybe they have no other way to understand what they're seeing, just as many soldiers thought the undead warriors had somehow miraculously survived, but... Did they not see how very dead he was before? Did they not witness his lifeblood literally slurp back up into his body? Haven't they seen that he has black eyes now? HAVEN'T THEY SEEN THE FUCKING SNAKES.

Maybe they haven't seen the snakes. Maybe the snakes are like, I don't know, an incorporeal aura that can be sensed as some kind of wrongness or presence but not seen. Because otherwise I can't believe not one person went 'hey, what are those things on his shoulders?'

But their willingness to instantly believe Zahhak is Andragoras speaks of two things: both Andragoras and Zahhak's domineering presence that makes it hard for anyone to defy his word, and the desperation of the soldiers to cling to the figure of their Shah despite the evidence that he, uh, came back wrong.

They also stand in contrast to Tahamenay, who knows that this is not Andragoras.

Zahhak revealing Arslan's lack of royal blood and using these words makes his aim clear. By posing as Andragoras, he seeks to use the remnants of his army to eliminate Arslan. I did get a kick out of 'was that how it goes?' though. Is Zahhak genuinely unfamiliar, or is this a dismissive dig at Kaykhusraw's legacy? No doubt it feels like a fitting revenge to use this deep-seated Parsian belief in the royal line and the right to rule to destroy it once and for all. Plus, this query (whether sarcastic or genuine) highlights even more clearly that this isn't Andragoras. He'd never express uncertainty there.

Anyway, Zahhak wants to use Tahamenay to the same end, to give his Andragoras role-play more legitimacy and aid him in turning people against Arslan. But she's done being manipulated. She's let go of what used to control her (the notion that she might see her daughter again) and so she stands in defiance against the figure who claims to be her husband yet is truly even more frightening.

That was surprising, honestly. But it feels like her eyes can see things clearly now — the reality of her child's fate, the fact that it's not Andragoras stood before her, how she wronged Arslan through no fault of his own. So perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that in the wake of that clarity and her recent meeting with Arslan, she also sees that it is him who should be Shah of Pars.

While she may not have been my personal favourite character, I did hope for a better end for Tahamenay, but if she had to die I don't hate this. Finally, she can exert her own will. You can tell she was afraid from the sweat beading on her face, yet her posture remained upright and composed.

And so we see the brutality of Zahhak, claiming to be Andragoras, doing something that Andragoras would never have done — murdering his wife. Andragoras's control of her kept her alive with the hope she might see her child again, ensuring she didn't commit suicide. After she has abandoned that hope, the entity that has taken Andragoras's body kills her. And so her role in the story comes to an end.

Having said that, I do think there's scope for Arakawa to still do something with the matter of Tahamenay's child. Don't forget, the Holy Master did say that only he knew where the child was. That line of dialogue is still kind of hanging there as a potential plot point. Though it would really fucking suck if Tahamenay's child was still alve but she died before she could meet them.

Happy snakes.

So here we have the Holy Master and two disciples; Ghundi and Sanjeh (I assume, though it's hard to see the details of the one on the right it must be him). These are the last two disciples left alive so Team Zahhak are all together now ready to welcome their king.

Vahriz wanting Daryun to see his orders through, to follow his oath to the end. (For some reason, I thought he'd been given the final blow last chapter but nope, thanks to Zahhak's lightning he gets a bit longer.)

Oof. Is that where Vahriz thinks his soul is going after this? Awful as it is, this dialogue also shows his pride in Daryun, I think.

The inevitable flashbacks (to Daryun swearing his oath at Vahriz's behest, and 'let's meet again in Ecbatana) only deepen the wound. Arakawa can be so savage, but I love it, the way these things come back to haunt us. That Daryun killed Vahriz here was also inevitable, but that didn't lessen the impact at all.

And we're done. Until next month.

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Arslan Senki Chapter 142

This is the first moment I've had to sit down and write this post, though I did jot down some thoughts in a notepad the day after it came out! I'm referring to those now for what I wanted to discuss because my brain is mush.

I like that the chapter opens with Isfan waking up; he didn't see how Jaswant and Farangis etc reached his side and so neither do we. Thumbs up for Arakawa's pacing as usual (and also glad we don't immediately leave Isfan in the wake of him defeating Shapur; just because he won that battle doesn't mean his struggle isn't continuing, and it's important on a broader level than Isfan alone so I'm glad Arakawa brought it into focus where Tanaka didn't).

Heartbreaking.

(Also, for those concerned about Isfan's eye — looking at this panel, the outline of his eye is visible beneath all the blood. Obviously can't say for certain that there's no permanent damage but I'm leaning towards no because I think it would have been signposted like with Kishward's arm. So I think he'll recover fully but for now he's limited to one functional eye.)

(ALSO also this isn't in my notes but I'm. Obsessed with the bandage? The act of bandaging? The bloody wound as metaphor? I don't have time to write an essay and this could be sleep deprivation talking but I mean, I'm thinking about Isfan's grief and self-blame/survivor's guilt because how easily 'I should have died in his place before the castle gates that day' translates to 'I should have died that day in the mountains because that way this would never have happened, and after all I'm only a gholam's son' and how that bloody wound represents it. I'm thinking about how that blood clouds his vision. How after Jaswant shows him a different angle of looking at things, he ties the bandage over that wound. How early panels show him from his wounded side then we switch to seeing the other side of his face as he listens to the clarity of Jaswant's words.

I enjoyed how forthright Jaswant was! Look at his body language, his self confidence in his position (reinforced visually with him initially standing tall over a kneeling Isfan before empathetically crouching beside him — the conversation manages to feel both private and public, mirroring how this is both a personal matter and one that reflects on the country as a whole). You can tell this is a matter he feels strongly about, and one with personal significance.

Isfan's grief is also part realisation that with Shapur's death, there is no more family who cares for him in this world. 'He cared about me, as a brother should...' contrasted with his father, who turned a blind eye to his wife's attempt to murder Isfan and his mother. And not just that; if he returned home they would feel no joy knowing he survived when Shapur didn't. Just like Jaswant once did, Isfan is questioning his place in the world.

Thankfully, having found his place at Arslan's side, Jaswant is in a great position to lift Isfan up. The fact that he opens with a reference to his country's king being the son of a gholam paves the way for this conversation to reveal itself to be about more than Isfan's individual struggles, but about the future of Pars and what someone like Isfan can represent (the watching survivors who are hearing these words are presumably gholams or azat at most?). I very much appreciate Arakawa wrapping this into Arslan's plans for the future of Pars. She's working well with the materials she's got.

Again, I'm going quietly feral over this.

Feels like his glance at his brother's head here (his own face in profile with the bloody side visible) is an acknowledgement that the shared dream of riding through battlefields together is now an impossibility. He cannot change the fact that his brother is dead. Nor can he alter things so that his father and Shapur's mother will somehow accept him. But he can choose to ride towards a better future for Pars with pride in who he is.

If, in the last chapter, we saw Isfan catch up with his brother when he defeated him, now we are seeing him go further, beyond where Shapur had the opportunity to go. He still grieves, his wound is still there, but his path is resolved and he's moving forward.

Predictably, I loved this moment.

Kubard watching out for Isfan from afar but not inserting himself into the situation is very on brand. From his vantage point up there I think we can assume that he saw Farangis and Jaswant's party approaching Isfan's unconscious form, and knew they'd arrive in time to take care of things (as we see in the beginning of the chapter, they must have killed some flying apes that they feared had attacked Isfan).

I'm curious to see where Kubard goes now. To Arslan as well, I assume. Will he bump into anyone else along the way? Would love to see him meet Sam again!

And now for Vahriz! I expected we'd get two chapters for this fight but I gotta say I am not at all disappointed with how it was handled. What I was most curious about is what Vahriz's angle would be, what will lie beneath his harsh, tainted words. When we get into the conversation, it becomes clear — he wants to know that Pars is in good hands.

Okay, so this reveals two things. One is that what Vahriz really wants is for Arslan to prove him wrong. This is a test; he wants Arslan to prove to him that he has the makings of a great king, that he can indeed entrust Pars to him and the retainers he's gathered, that Arslan can in fact save Pars from the Snake King.

The other thing that is revealed is that these traits — decisiveness, ruthlessness, and physical/military might — are the traits that Vahriz valued in Andragoras. Vahriz has served Andragoras loyally since before he became Shah. He must have thought Andragoras was the right choice for Pars; better than Osroes.

'Thus did the relationship between the brothers drastically sour, and discord spread throughout the court. If one were to compare, the sympathies of the courtiers lay in large part with the valorous warrior Andragoras, rather than the weak and ailing Osroes. Naturally, those who sided with the younger brother incurred Osroes’s displeasure, and were expelled from court, exiled to provincial cities and border regions. Vahriz, too, was relegated to a fortress at the western border with Misr.' (Book 1, Chapter 2, part iii)

That said, Vahriz must also have been aware of Andragoras's weaknesses. His obsession with Tahamenay, the secrets of the royal line that Vahriz knew and wrote of in that letter to Bahman, and (after their defeat at the Battle of Atropatene) overconfidence in military might and refusal to listen to concerns of his retainers. Vahriz must have seen all the ways Arslan is different to Andragoras. He must have seen potential in him even back then, and that's why he asked Daryun to swear loyalty to him and him alone.

However, Vahriz died before he saw Arslan grow into the person he is today. It's no surprise he wants to see proof that Arslan is capable of being Shah.

So Arslan proves himself by giving a direct order. An order from a ruler to a vassal. An order that someone like Andragoras would not have hesitated to give; an order issued with the expectation that it will be followed. But, as with so many things in this series, it's more than that.

It's underpinned by Arslan's understanding of his own responsibility to judge and decide, which he learned from listening to Narsus. It's cemented by his knowledge of Daryun's loyalty, given to him freely regardless of his lack of royal blood. That Daryun knows who he really is and stands firmly by his side anyway is what gives him the right to issue that order.

And we can all see it, right? That even if Arslan hadn't given that order, Daryun would have killed his uncle for Arslan's sake. Arslan gives the order not to force Daryun into doing it, but to share the burden of what must be done, to shoulder the responsibility even though it's not his hand that wields the sword.

So while decisiveness was also a trait Vahriz saw as a positive of Andragoras, in this case it stems from Arslan being everything Andragoras is not.

Vahriz's praise feels as though it's for both Arslan and Daryun. After all, Daryun promptly following Arslan's order is the culmination of the oath Vahriz had him swear before Atropatene. We'll see if he has any more last words next time.

Aaaand as soon as we cut to Tahamenay I went 'oh FUCK'. I'd been waiting for this, it felt like it was set up for this, and here we are; Andragoras is the new host body for Zahhak (not pictured: Kaykhusraw's crumbling remains discarded... somewhere? Not gonna lie, it would be kind of amusing if Hilmes stumbled upon them and recognised them, Zandeh would be so horrified though).

ZAHHAK SPEAKS (I think that was on the bingo cards? I guess we'll soon be crossing off 'Tahamenay is kidnapped by Team Zahhak' too)

So the Snake King is well and truly back now, fully cognizant where before it seemed like the snakes were in the driving seat. It's not surprising that Zahhak praises Andragora's body. I imagine he, too, must favour physical might and was likely even more uncompromising. So Andragoras-Zahhak is the final boss, just like in the novels. But who will defeat him? Will Arslan be able to wield Rukhnabad in the end, or will it fall to someone with royal blood like Hilmes?

(I have a bit more stuff I want to ramble about but this is everything directly related to the chapter I think? Apologies if I don't reply very promptly to reblogs/comments, I am super busy still so just dumping this here and running away.)

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Quality scanned versions of the Vol. 22 bonus sketches; thanks @teresa59sblog for pointing me in the right direction!