So, there’s a lot this episode shows, and it goes to various places, and I just love all of it. I admit, I got quite a few surprises, and some more things that begin o add together. We get a lot of characters introduced and questions raised, so lets dive in.
We begin picking up the brutal takeover of the capitol by Lusitania, and their ruthless search for the queen.
This is then undercut when we actually see the king of Lusitania. To be honest, I was unsure if they had a king or worked on some sort of theocracy. However, they do indeed have a king, who looks like this.
That is both ridiculous and hilarious. Its clear by his name he’s supposed to bring to mind popes, and his name befits him very well. He’s a fat, foolish king who doesn’t seem to even grasp what his people do and do little work, but is well-meaning to say the least. He’s at least devout, as we find out later, but its really funny seeing the head of our dangerous ruthless country as so charmingly infantile. If only all monarchs were so sincere, as we’ll see later.
Turns out silver mask did indeed capture the queen, and we learn a bit about her, or at least the rumors. She was going to be married to the grand vizier of another kingdom, until his king took her from him, and he took his own life in grief. That same king then took his own life as he was invaded by the king of Pars…the elder brother of the current king. After his brother died of “illness”, Arslan’s father took he throne and her hand.
Which means over time, no less than 4 powerful men either were going to marry her or did, and all befell tragic fates. Naturally in an ancient society, this led to a belief the queen is the reason, manipulating these men with guile or sorcery. I’m highly doubtful of this, since we’ve been given little insight of her character but nothing showing her as the manipulative type. If anything, its more likely she’s been a player cursed by beauty, taken and made a pawn to he ambition, lust, and greed of powerful men. It also sheds some light on Arslan’s father…he didn’t start as the king, he was the younger brother, who may or may not have killed his elder brother to become king. It adds more dark complexity to the man, as we wonder if he really did, and what the bigger implications of this means.
What’s our Lusitanian king’s reaction?
Its almost so refreshing with how childish he is. Even with this reputation as a femme fatale, the king is smitten instantly, and wants to marry her. This leads more to my idea she doesn’t arrange for this…she barely looks at the king and he wants her. His younger brother, grand vizier, and general actual ruler of Lusitana…doesn’t take the news of his brother’s possible engagement well.
He’s absolutely livid that his brother would just marry a heathen woman, especially one with such a bad reputation. You can’t help but feel for him, since he’s been doing most of his brother’s dirty work and actually running the kingdom, while this fatass sits around in luxury. Granted, that dirty work was conquering Pars and other countries, but in some ways that makes it worse. It also doesn’t help that, when they find the best spoil the Parsian palace has to offer, the king decides to give it all to their god…meaning to the church.
This is another touch that really ties in the inspiration of where the Lusitanians come from. After the 40 year Exodus, the Biblical Hebrew people waged war on the kingdoms of Canaan, the land God had promised them. As the other tribes were heathen, it was believed the Hebrew armies were a force of divine justice upon them, and all the spoils were meant to belong to God. Its really interesting seeing this sort of action, but with so many changes that have a big impact. For one, the crusading group of warriors are our antagonists, but also they have a deeper reason for their actions. At least in their rhetoric, the Lusitanians are attacking these slave-holding nations in order o free them, and not just because of their holy vigil.
Anyways, knowing the treasure is going to the priests rather than, you know, the guys who killed to get it, pisses off Guiscard, but even moreso his elder brother marrying the Parsian queen. However, Silver Mask has some comforting words.
He suggests to Guiscard he would be the true king, but also says its best to hold off until the right time. He’s planning the seeds, but its also clear he actually looks down on his “allies”. Whatever his goal is, they are just part of it, and when the time comes they will be disposed of. However, we don’t know what his overall goal is, along with much else. One question brought up by Guiscad (and which I brought up as well) was the nature of that fog on which the Lusitanian forces hinged their victory on.
That smile is totally trustworthy, right? Right? We actually don’t know what Silver Mask’s game is, but he’s playing it expertly. All of this has been caused by him, and he’s clearly got more to do before he is done.
Anyways, we move on from the palace to the streets of Ectbana, which we learn have their own issues. The Lusitanian soldiers, naturally, do as they will, take what they want, and act like jackasses with impunity. After all, if any common folk go against them, they can just kill them they’re the conquerors. Its a situation that likely is only going to get worse; there’s only so much shit common people can take. We’re also reintroduced to Eloie, the kid Arslan met in episode 1.
He’s busy trying to find the old friends of his who didn’t escape, but to no avail. They could be anywhere, or dead. He also ponders about Arslan, but naturally thinks he’s dead (and giving his first impression of Arslan, who can blame him?” He’s part of the crowd who sees Kharlan’s forces as they march to find Arslan.
Yeah…there’s the issue with being a traitor. Even if you win, your allies hate your guts and don’ trust you because..well, you’re a traitor. And his failure at killing Arslan puts him in a very bad position. If he doesn’t kill him soon, Arslan can form an army, one that could drive the Lusitanians out of Pars. Whatever Kharlan’s motivation, he won’t sop at anything to obtain it, and his ass is on the line if he fails again. Remember this kids, don’t betray your liege lord (unless he’s a crazy dictator…which Andragoras is..iffy…). Its just not cool.
Anyways, our boy Etoile sees a local girl harassed by a young soldier, who takes her into a back alley. Etoile knows how that will end, and he goes to confront the soldier only to find….
Our “girl” is actually Elam, who shows some extreme skills getting away from Etoile. However, its not his skills which get him out, but a band of wayward slaves who want what the Lusitanians promised, and this is another interesting point. These slaves betrayed their masters, led them in, but haven’ achieved the wealth their freedom entailed. With no masters and the entire city in chaos, the slaves have no place, no wealth, no reliable means of income or food. And apparently, either due to lying or not getting to it, Lusitania has not given them their needs. Its something hat brings up that, while any slave would prefer freedom over servitude, most wouldn’t want freedom if it comes with starving to death.
We actually cut back to Elam with Narsus, who details what Kharlan likely will do next. To try and force Arslan to show himself, Kharlan will burn village after village, putting everyone to death. Arslan is aghast at this, knowing its a trap for him, but hating the idea of his people suffering. Its here we get more of the inner strength Arslan has deep down. After hearing this, he asks Narsus if he knows which village will be attacked, and has them go there to defend them. Its unknown how well they’ll do with so few men, but its a sign of Arslan taking declarative action. Narsus approves; in part this was a test of Arslan’s character. He approves of the prince’s actions, and so they head out. Its very good to see this side of Arslan.
The episode cuts to Gieve, who is traveling away from the capitol with stolen money. He spots some guards and moves to avoid them, but then notices a beautiful maiden likely to be attacked. His idea then is, he’ll swoop in at the last minute o save her, and then get rewarded as she’ll feel indebted to him. A romantic, or a man who confuses heroics with getting laid? You decide! However this woman needs no saving.
This is Farangis, a priestess who is extremely deadly with a bow. By the time Gieve gets to the action, she’s killed plenty of the soldiers, and while he does help, he hardly saves her. He then tries to woo her with his poetry, which fails. Farangis is very matter of fact, but also very proud in her beauty. She knows she’s amazing and totally runs with it. His charms failing him, Gieve asks her what she’s doing. SHe says she left her temple and country on a mission, but due to he capitol’s fall its been made difficult. What is that mission? To find Prince Arslan of course. So, we have our wandering lady..and Gieve now has a reason to run into our heroes since he’s tailing Farangis. It was a great introduction to our main female lead, who’s strong, interesting..and very very hot.
However, our episode actually ends on a very dark note.
Kharlan has already begun his urging of villages, and it is a twisted sight seeing Parsian soldiers butcher their own citizens in this way. Unlike other fantasy stories, she our heroes move and save the day..here its clear they will be very too late to help save these people. This show has remained mostly realistic, but occasionally going into the tropes of having heroes who can easily kill a dozen men. Its also not afraid to show innocent people dying and the full, brutal consequences of war. This episode has done quite a bit, set up a big future conflict, introduced quite a few characters and established many plot points. I wan to see how Arslan will take on Kharlan, what Silver Mask will do in his plotting, and how Etoile, the lone soldier, will fit into all this. THis series continued to add things that mke me more interested and engaged and I want to continue so much.
Fun fact: King Innocentius is NOT an obese man-child in the source novels. Instead, he is described as “tall and well-built…(with a) bad complexion, and his skin lacked the sheen of vitality…(He)looked like no mighty conqueror or fiendish invader”. He was also very religious, praying 3 times a day, and didn’t take meat or alcohol. His religious fervour came after falling ill at age 10; he swore he would never marry until “he had destroyed every last heathen nation in the land and erected temples to Ialdabaoth in all their capitals.”
Arakawa DID say she was going to make some changes for the manga, this seems to have been one of them.
In the first Arslan OVA from the 90s, Farangis looked more like this :https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CEGhhl9UEAA1V01.jpg
The current sexy design comes from the later novel volumes, which were illustrated by Tanno Shinobu(replacing Yoshitaka Amano). Arakawa probably chose the sexy design to attract the shounen readers.
Possibly, but Arakawa has gone on record saying she just likes drawing sexy women. I believe she once said “men should be buff, women should be vavoom”. You can see some of that in FMA as well. I must say that change to the king is very interesting and I’m curious to see how that may change the story.