#garshasph | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tired-reader-writer · 1 month

Text

Considering who to put in charge of safeguarding the northeastern border of Pars against Turan and Turk before Shapur becomes a marzban and... There aren't... that many, are there? Those younger than Shapur are automatically out of the picture (Kubard, Daryun, Kishward), Bahman has been stationed at Peshawar for a long time by canon era so ?????, Kharlan, is he even a marzban ten years before canon? Even if he was, I associate him much more with the western half of Pars, if only because it would make it easier for him to coordinate with Hilmes in Lusitania (assuming no switcheroos happened like it did with Kishward, he was originally stationed at the southwestern border of Pars against Misr, but was plunked into Peshawar some time before canon).

That leaves us with... Manuchurh, Garshasph, Saam, Khurup, Khayr, and Khshaēta.

We all know what Saam looks like, estimated to be in his 40s, but here's what the other 5 look like (well we also know what Garshasph looks like too but just as a reminder):

Manuchurh:

Garshasph:

Khurup:

Khayr:

Khshaēta:

I... don't feel like Saam is a good fit for the kind of emotional beat I want to portray for one of the two pre-canon Turanian invasions (foreshadowed in chapter 2). So that leaves me with the other three. Three complete and total strangers of whom we know absolutely fucking nothing about.

Which narrows the six options down to five.

I think Khshaēta looks a tad young to have been marzban for too long, so I'm booting him out of the candidate list to make my life easier.

This leaves me with four.

I got nothing for Khurup and Khayr, we know nothing of them, but as for the other two... We know what Garshasph is like, which is, uh, kinda unpleasant, he might be a good candidate for what I'd planned, but also... Manuchurh, Nasrīn's father, Kishward's father-in-law. He purportedly had a beautiful voice and Andragoras made him do the court announcements and stuff bc of his pretty voice.

So basically, among the four candidates left, we only really know two of them.

...which one shall I pick, now?

Oh, I forgot what the emotional beat I wanted to incorporate was, it was Shapur maybe realizing the marzban in charge of the northeastern border may have been responsible for the deaths of his friends and the destruction of their village after the marzban lets slip about some “bandits or potential rebels who kidnapped people and caused unrest” which Shapur knows from talking to the clan before that the abusers or tormentors who felt entitled to their victims might have painted them that way to justify trying to hunt them down or avoid having to confront the harm they themselves have caused to their victims, and Shapur feeling... quite nauseated. Remember how Isfan immediately jumped into trying to avenge his brother in the manga. Remember how rash Shapur was even by the Battle of Atropatene. He won't do anything here, he can't, because Eihon (debuting in chapter 3! I still don't know whether the invasion would be chapter 3 or 4) has made sure to hammer the point home that doing so will only bring them doom, there's no way he can demand justice for a commoner village in the middle of nowhere who were branded as criminals.

He has to swallow his bile and work to repel the invasion. Feeling like he's failed his friends for not being able to protect them, give them a funeral, or even avenge them.

I know with this context it'd be easy for some of you to immediately pick Garshasph considering how much of an asshole he was during the siege but. What if. The emotional whiplash of it being Manuchurh. But also I could just pick Khurup or Khayr to avoid the headache altogether—

#arslan senki #the heroic legend of arslan #heroic legend of arslan #wolfpack au #winds of wolfsong #shapur #Manuchurh #sam #saam #do I tag the other guys?#ah shucks here we go:#khayr #khurup #Khshaēta #garshasph

30 notes · View notes

pastellig · 3 years

Note

Do you think Arakawa will include Jaswants encounter in the brothel and Jimsas escape from Peshawar?

General novel spoilers for you folks! If you’re unsure what anon is asking about, you can read a summary of A Frenzy of Dust here.

I feel confident that Arakawa will show Jimsa’s escape from Peshawar! It’s the kind of scene she seems to enjoy, and she’s already planted the seed: in Chapter 90, we see Jimsa sawing through the bars of his cell (and run back to bed to pretend he’s not quite so healed up when he hears the commotion of Andragoras’s return!).

I’m not as sure about Jaswant’s encounter in the brothel, but I lean toward yes. It’s interesting you asked about it, because I have been wondering how she will handle this for today’s audience since a couple chapters ago. (In other words, buckle up for a long post!)

A few things make me think she will feature this scene:

1. It was featured in the shojo manga by Chisato Nakamura. Her manga ran from from ‘91-‘96, which is a few waves of feminism ago. That being said, it wasn’t enthusiastically distributed to a Western audience, which can be more conservative.

2. Arakawa’s been pretty open about sexual behavior in Pars. Two points of evidence:

Narsus is casual about Shaghad’s multiple mistresses. While he also says Shaghad lives a life of debauchery, Narsus himself is the product of his father, Lord Teos, and one of Teos’ twenty to thirty mistresses — and he still gets to be an heir and earn a position at court. I don't think it was included in the manga so explicitly, but it is implied (when Alfarid first learns he is indeed “Lord Narsus,” Narsus quickly tells Alfarid his mother was but a free woman like herself). He doesn’t seem stigmatized for this situation at all, implying it’s common enough — lots of people hate Narsus, so I’m sure they’d mention it!

Hilmes and another Parsian (I think Garshasph?) note with displeasure that the Lusitanians are executing prostitutes and mustarid in Chapter 33. Though this word actually means “homosexual man,” the official translation indicated they are male prostitutes. The man who I think is Garshasph even says, “Do Lusitanians know nothing of life’s pleasures?”

3. Arakawa’s Daryun didn’t think of Shinryan/Shin-Liang by the light of Peshawar’s silvery moon. I’ll explain:

Readers might not understand why a man with a distant ~one true love~ would have sex with someone else, especially someone as notably loyal as Daryun. Since Arakawa didn’t feature him thinking of her, he’s “free” to get down with the lovely professionals of Gilan.

4. Most importantly: She’s stuck to Tanaka’s storyline pretty closely thus far, and Tanaka’s storyline includes visits to the brothels of Gilan.

I see only one hurdle: people have Mixed Feelings© about sex workers and those who utilize their services — feelings that wouldn’t apply to the same sexual situations sans financial transaction. While Arakawa isn't making a family-friendly manga, this could still pose problems.

Jaswant isn’t the only man who visits a brothel in Gilan: Gieve, Narsus, and Daryun do as well. Daryun, Narsus, and Jaswant are among the most noble-hearted, principled, honorable men in Pars — and those characteristics are key to this story. If I were an artist or a publisher, I might worry that a modern audience with modern scruples may think less of them for being “men with men’s needs,” which is essentially how it is presented in A Frenzy of Dust. (Seeing as Gieve has pretty clearly always been a man with a man’s need, this doesn’t quite apply to his character, but more on that in a bit.)

Respectable men may seek out sex workers as a matter of course in ancient Pars, but today’s readers won’t have the same perceptions of sex workers and their clients. Even ostensibly “sex positive” people often draw a line at prostitution, and others view paying for sex as evidence that you aren't desirable.

Modern readers don’t expect adult men to remain abstinent, but we do romanticize characters we like. Depending on our own perspective and the character, we see them as the sort of fellows who’d engage in some sort of exclusive relationship (Jaswant, Daryun), have such a focus on the mission that they become impervious to the call of Ye Olde WAP (Narsus, Daryun), or be a Lothario who doesn’t need to buy sex because he can charm women the old fashioned way (Gieve). In short, even pretty liberal people often prefer their fictional heroes be "above" going to a brothel.

Personally, I hope the publisher and Arakawa will trust readers to understand the context of the setting. It's a fun scene, it illustrates that Pars’s sexual habits are just another thing about their society at odds with the invading Lusitanians, and it adds dimension to characters who are otherwise rigidly focused on their goal of crowning Shah Arslan.

Other bits from my brain:

How will Arakawa’s Alfarid react to Narsus going to a brothel — or Arakawa’s Farangis, for that matter, considering she’s been a strong advocate for Narsus taking Alfarid’s feelings seriously? Especially since Arakawa seems to be building toward the canonical relationship between Narsus and Alfarid.

Now that I think about it, Shinryan’s/Shin-Liang’s absence may give Arakawa an opportunity to have Daryun decline to join the gang on a visit to the brothel. Then he can moodily think about Shinryan/Shin-Liang by the light of Gilan’s moon, which is presumably still silvery. For fuck’s sake, just show us the badass princess.

She could also modify it — visiting a brothel is pretty within Gieve’s personality for even a modern audience, and could always be played for laughs, so maybe he drags an innocent Jaswant along. Alternatively, the gang could meet some pretty ladies in a tavern.

#anonymous #ask #arslan senki #jaswant #jimsa

26 notes · View notes