Arslan Senki 07-08

We’ve seen the kettles, now it’s time to meet the pots.

At one point I thought we would be getting more grey tones in this story, but the Lusitanians have decided to take the easy way out and are making themselves as black as they can possibly get to make things simpler for us. I don’t mind a black-and-white tale, I grew up on fairy tales and “good conquers all” stories, and despite having become an adult, I still love them from time to time. And it’s a good thing too, since that seems to be what’s going on here. Despite its king and its employment of the institution of slavery, Pars has been painted as the underdog here, with very little to push Lusitania into a good light.

Yes, Lusitania has pretty much taken over the place after having conquered the royal capital last week. It’s not just soldiers who find themselves dying at the business ends of their swords, but also noncombatants as well. But then again, this is no surprise since the country has been killing indiscriminately for quite some time now. Parsians have been calling the Lusitanians “savages” for a while, and one would think that it was naught but a racial slur. Yet, I have to say that the people in question have done nothing but prove their enemies right. Even after they have taken over, the Lusitanians prove to be no more than vicious bullies. They pillage, ravage, and rape the populace, and show themselves to be no better than what they themselves accused the Parsians of being.

Open wide and say “Ah”.

We are introduced to a few new faces, and are reintroduced to a couple others. We see Lusitania’s ruler for the first time, King Innocentis VII, as well as his younger brother, Prince Guiscard. It’s instantly obvious as to who is doing the real work of actually ruling the nation the moment you see them. I’m sorry Lusitania, but with a king like that, you do not get the right to judge Andragoras. The Parsian king might be a warhawk and a braggart who doesn’t listen to good advice, but his people at least thrived under his rule, he knew how make decisions, was able to fulfill the governmental parts of his position, and also he was proud to lead his armies into battle and fight alongside his men. I highly doubt that your king can even walk without assistance!

I swear, if he says “Let them eat cake.”, I’ll murder him myself.

I have never seen such a night and day difference between two people as Andragoras and Innocentis, and it almost makes me want to take back every bad thing I said about the Parsian king. The foreign monarch is an overly obese man-child who has no control over his own people, no care for anything or anyone other than his own ridiculous, selfish desires, and it’s practically cartoonish in how absurd of a character he is. If it wasn’t for his younger brother doing all the real work (no thanks to his brother), I honestly think Lusitania would have fallen apart years ago.

And Guiscard seems to agree with me as he’s tired of doing everything, only for his brother to get the glory and title, as well as constantly undermining his hard work. His thoughts aren’t particularly treasonous per say, but they are there, and it is these dormant seedling thoughts that the enigmatic General Silvermask nurtures within the prince’s mind. Especially after the king once again gets on his brother’s last nerve by stating that he desires to marry the captured Queen Tahamenay, and on top of that, gives the riches of the conquered Pars to the sadistic archpriest Bodin.

Silvermask himself is quite an enigma. It is obvious here if it wasn’t before, that he has no love for Lusitania, any more than he does Pars. His driving objective seems to be surrounding the royal family of Pars and them alone, and somehow he’s roped the traitorous Kharlan in on his plans as well. He’s clearly using the Lusitanians and is fanning the flames of discontent within the prince in order to create an ever enlarging rift between the Lusitanian royal house. It’s obvious that this will eventually lead to instability and possibly even civil war in Lusitania depending on how far it goes. However, you have to wonder why is Silvermask doing this? He was a driving force in the conquering of the Pars armies and taking over their seat of power, and yet, he’s now trying to throw a pretty heavy wrench into Lusitania’s power seat as well.

The man is obviously very angry, and considering the people he seems to hang around with in the shadows and the rumors of sorcery that seem to be following him, you have to wonder if he has indeed sold his soul for the vengeance he seeks? We’ve been getting hints here and there as to his true motivations and past history, and by the end of episode 8, we get a clearer picture of what’s going on here (more on that later). But I’ll tell you that perhaps the largest clue was given in episode 7, and it wasn’t even in reference to him at all.

Queen Tahamenay decided to stay in the capital, leading to her capture. And it is through exposition from some Lusitanian soldiers as to the woman’s tragic backstory. Tahamenay gives the term “femme fatale” a new meaning, as she is both a doom magnet and has been hit by the “Cartwright Curse”. Every man that has loved and/or become betrothed and/or married her, has been hit by quite a tragic end. And from what I’ve seen thus far, through no fault of her own. Despite being queen, this woman has been treated more like a prize that has been fought over by many men, including her current husband Andragoras, and her now dead brother-in-law, the previous king, Osroes, who was Andragoras’ elder brother that purportedly died of an illness.

Honestly, I can understand a little why Tahamenay can act so cold much of the time, considering what she’s had to go through and what being fought over like a piece of flesh with little regard for what she wants, can do to a person. She’s been passed around so much, she’s barely even allowed herself to form much in terms of bonds, as seen with both her husband and her son. And she continues to act just as cool as a clam, even after her ethereal beauty is once again enrapturing yet another man of power in regards to the king of Lusitania.

The face that caused a thousand deaths…

Outside of the palace, we meet again our catalyst from episode one, as Étoile returns, now three years older and a squire as well. He hasn’t changed much since we last saw him, though he never did figure out Arslan’s true identity. I like this kid, and he’s single-handedly the only one of the Lusitanians that I actually like and care about out of the bunch. He and Arslan will probably meet again at some point, and I’ll be interested in seeing what that reunion will be like now that they are older. Anyway, right now, while on a futile search for his missing comrades from three years ago (who we know are dead), Étoile goes to protect a Parsian girl from being raped by a Lusitanian soldier, only to find that this “girl” doesn’t need as much help as he thought.

I have say that Elam is a pretty convincing “woman” both in acting and in voice, and it seems that he’s been taught some amazing fighting skills to defend himself with. He and Étoile’s fight is cut short however, thanks to slave intervention. Note, I did say slave intervention.

As I suspected considering what we’ve seen of the Lusitanians, they weren’t going to keep their word in regards to what they promised the slaves in return for their assistance. No, they seem to be complete hypocrites all around, not even keeping to their own supposed religion. And so the slaves, now left to fend for themselves with no one to help or provide for them, are understandably angry as things have actually gotten worse for them now that they are under Lusitania, rather than better.

I don’t know about you, but I think they might just be angry. 

While this is all going on, we run into that rascally rascal Gieve, who has been doing his best to keep his head down and avoid all unnecessary contact with the Lusitanians. Gieve has basically shown that he is loyal to only one person, and that person has been, and always shall be himself…or at least that is, until he meets a certain young woman along a solitary mountain road.

Yes, I said that out resident “Han Solo” would meet up with his “Princess Leia” sooner rather than later. Our “Princess” and the last of our growing group, is actually a warrior priestess from a foreign principality named Farangis. This is no naive beauty and Gieve quickly finds that this woman needs neither his help nor his charms. She is on a mission to find and aid Prince Arslan in his hour of need, and she has no time for his unoriginal sweet talking. I find myself liking Farangis so far, she is now the only female in the show with a main supporting role and so I’m interested in how she will affect the plot. We already have an idea of her character, considering her words in regards to her past at the temple of her goddess and her dealings with Gieve. This is a woman who knows who and what she is and has such high self-esteem and assurance in herself and her abilities, that the petty jealousies of her peers don’t phase her, and Gieve’s words in regards to her, have little effect. I look forward to seeing more of her despite her ridiculous, implausible, and counter-productive get up (yeah, I’m not a fan of Farangis’ obviously-only-created-for-fanservice outfit). However, she’s a little busy as she has found a clue to the prince’s whereabouts in the form of Kharlan’s men who are in hot pursuit of the royal.

That brings us back to what exactly the cross-dressing Elam was doing in Ecbatana in the first place. Looking out for intel, he finds that the treasonous Kharlan, is being sent out to hunt down Arslan, but not just for the Lusitanians, but also for General Silvermask, in a play to get rid of any future complications. Arslan and his small band quickly figure out that Kharlan will try to drive the prince out by targeting the innocent. And can we talk about Kharlan?

“It just shows, when you’re wicked, you’re left only on your own…”

Turncoats and traitors, depending largely on the circumstances, tend to find themselves in a very particular and uncomfortable position. Kharlan has found himself in that position of a complete outsider, having turned his back on his people and yet still not one of the Lusitanians, he finds himself scorned by both sides. You have to wonder if he ever thought whether everything he’s gone through was going to be worth it in the end? What about his men? Was their loyalty that firm that they were willing to go along with him as he destroyed their country and murdered their fellow countrymen? I had once said that Daryun was “loyal to a fault”, but in retrospect, maybe that character trait would be better applied to the treasonous captain. And now, at the point of his death, and after we finally find out his reasons for what he’s doing, I have to think that perhaps his biggest attribute, ended up being his biggest fault. Instead of taking time to really consider what he was doing and what it was costing, he stayed true to his loyalty to Silverrmask without question. After a certain point, knowing that he’s traded his honor and has forever become despised by his own people, he must have realized that there was no turning back, and that this would most likely lead to his death. I just wonder if at some point he wondered if his diehard loyalty was truly worth it? Was the end result truly going to be worth the bloody price that has been paid?

Narsus, proving his strategic mettle once again, pulls an age-old trick of how a small fighting force can take down an army of thousands by doing a mix of “king-of-the-hill” and disabling the armies by tricking them into thinking they are facing bigger and fiercer odds than they actually are. Arslan, Elam, and the newly joined Farangis and Gieve, do an excellent job of psyching out Kharlan’s forces, who didn’t have a strong morale to begin with. In the end it’s Daryun vs. Kharlan, and the man still refuses to say anything, that is until Daryun causes what would have been a cowardly strike to the back, as an opportunity to dehorse his opponent, and through a chain of following events, Kharlan ends up mortally wounded, having fallen on the sharp end of his own spear-like partisan.

Bleeding out, he decides to only tell the prince’s group a cryptic clue in that King Andragoras is indeed alive, but that the throne is no longer within his reach. He say that the “rightful king” will ascend to that throne. At this point, Arslan is too far away to hear this, but it’s interesting that neither Daryun nor Narus tell him about this second part regarding a “rightful king”. They themselves don’t know yet what to make out of his words, and they don’t want to burden the already overwhelmed boy. They are right in that Arslan is weak and soft and still a child (even by their own culture’s standards), with not a hateful bone in his body, as even after Kharlan’s treachery and the fact that the man has tried to murder him several times, he still demands that he live and not die, and even after that proves to be an impossible request, asks Farangis to say an elegy for Kharlan and his fallen men.

Kharlan is surprised by this and also how such a boy can end up gathering so many people from all different paths of life to come to his aid. I think that maybe in that moment, just a little, Kharlan learned what true loyalty is, and that it means nothing if the person you are loyal to and following, isn’t worthy of it. The scene of him reaching out and touching Arslan’s knee in comfort was a nice ending moment for a man that might have learned too late, but accepted that and took it in stride.

At the same time, while everyone else is also surprised at Arslan’s forgiveness and compassion, most of them most likely realize it as the show of personal strength that it was meant to be. It is only the more worldly and jaded Gieve, that thinks of it as a weakness and a failing within the prince, dismissing the entire royal family of Pars at this point. He’s only in this because Farangis has caught his eye as that “unreachable woman”, and he is fascinated by her. Also, he doesn’t care for the Lusitanians and he’s not doing anything right now, so he has no problem hanging around with the prince and his band of merry men, at least until things get hairy and then he can always ditch them. Right?

Gieve’s character is a pretty standard archetype, and we can all probably guess exactly how he’s going to grow as the story continues. The same can probably be said of other characters like Arslan and Étoile, who also have pretty standard archetypes as well, but then there are some characters like Daryun, Narsus, and Faragis that pretty much have their act together, that you’re wondering where they will be by the end of this journey? But then again, it’s really more about the journey isn’t it? And quite a journey it’s going to be with the new reveals that are coming out of the woodwork at this point.

You shall be the Fellowship of the Ring boy who will be king.

If you haven’t figured it out by this point, these last couple of episodes decided to reveal a few of its cards by telling the audience exactly what Kharlan’s reasons were, and also the reason for the huge amount of hated that Silvermask has for Andragoras and why he’s doing what he’s doing. I wasn’t lying when I said there were going to be Game-of-Thrones-esque vibes in this story.

Remember back when I was talking about Tahamenay being passed around like piece of meat between men of power? Well, if you go to about Man #3, I mentioned that this was one called Osroes, who was not only the previous king of Pars but Andragoras’ older brother. Osroes supposedly died of an illness about 16 years prior to present day, leaving Andragoras conveniently with not only the throne, but Tahamenay as well, who Osroes has taken from another principality that he had conquered, but whom Andragoras also desired. Silvermask was burned in an incident that occurred 16 years ago in which he fully blames Andragoras, and Kharlan’s dying words were of a “rightful king that would ascend to the throne”. And considering Silvermask’s perspective age and countenance….

Have you figured it out yet?

“You wanna know how I got these scars?”

Yes, Silvermask (né Hermes) is of the royal house of Pars, being the son of Osroes, the previous king of Pars, making him both Andragoras’ nephew and Arslan’s cousin. It is extremely likely that his father and his family were assassinated on Andragoras’ orders (or even by his own hand) and he seems to be the only one that somehow survived to tell the tale and take revenge. And by all accounts, as the only living son of Osroes, he is legally the rightful heir to the throne that his uncle stole from him.

Yes, it is quite a pickle, especially for someone like Arslan who is only going to end up the victim of the actions of the past. He didn’t ask for any of this, and now it’s all being laid in his lap for him to clean up. And if he’s willing to care and pray for those nameless soldiers who betrayed him and his people, how the heck is he going to handle the fact that he has a cousin out there who he never knew existed and now wants his throne back?

Well, it’ll probably be a bit before Arslan finds out everything that happened, since I don’t think Silvermask is going to be very forthcoming and Andragoras is currently locked up in his own dungeons in the royal capital. But whenever the situation does reveal itself to our heroes, it’s still going to be quite a mess to figure out. And I highly doubt that this will be the end of the surprises that are in store for us going forward.

We can figure that Kharlan recognized Silvermask/Hermes as the considered-dead previous crown prince and thus pledged his loyalty to him and helped him in his plot to get vengeance and dethrone Andragoras. Hermes is using the Lusitanians to take Andragoras and his ruling house out of power and then will work to topple Lusitania itself once he’s done with them, which will leave him as ruler of Pars. It’s a plan that does make sense logistically, and I would actually be all behind Silvermask trying to get his throne back…if I thought he deserved it.

If anyone has embraced and let his anger “flow through him”, it’s Hermes. This man has been living on hatred and vengeance for the past sixteen years, to the point that I honestly think his blood has turned acrid and he doesn’t think of anything else. It has destroyed most, if not all of the good man that might have been there. He has become cruel, callous, cold, and mentally unbalanced. His desire to destroy his uncle and everything that he stands for, has caused him to destroy Pars in the process, and despite his blood claim to the throne, I can’t agree that he is in any way worthy to rule. He crossed a line somewhere long ago, and I don’t know if he can or wants to find his way back.

About IreneSharda

A Chicagoan biochemist, teacher, and an aspiring virologist, with a love for science only rivaled by my love for movies, animation, and anime. Both a lover of action/adventure and romance, I'm a girl who walks the entire spectrum. Mecha, Sci-Fi, Psychological Thriller, Romantic Period Piece, if it's has a good story, I'm there.