#vol.16

dead/killed:

Jaswant

Isfan (by the sorcerer)

Kubard (dies in a duel against Ilterish)

Merlaine (beheaded by Zahhak)

Kishward (by Zahhak)

Parafuda (by Zahhak)

Daryun (by Zahhak)

Arslan (dies in a duel against Zahhak)

Lucian

Hilmes (killed by Daryun in a duel)

Bruhan (executed by Merlaine)

Guiscard (by Merlaine & Farangis)

Fitna (by Gieve)

Leyla (by Zahhac)

Tahamine (by Zahhac)

basically all the villains (Zahhak, Ilterish, Grugan, Master)

survivors:

Elam (marries Aisha, dies at the age of 68)

Gieve (dies from disease 10 years after Arslan’s death)

Farangis (dies from disease 25 years after Arslan’s death)

Rajendra (the only winner)

Salima

Nasrin, Aiyar

Ofrur (dies from a fucking cold before she turns 20 wtf) 

Parizad

Plot:

All countries (Pars, Misr, Maryam, Turk and Turan) perish because all royals died (Arslan, Hilmes, Guiscard, Tahamine, Ilterish, etc). The only king who survived is Rajendra and thus Sindhura is the only country that continues to exist.

The kingdom of Pars becomes “Parstan” lmao

Zahhak suddenly turns out to be a Homunculus that was created through alchemy wtf (seems like Tanaka was inspired by Arakawa’s FMA lol)

Master’s identity was disappointing - he’s just one of the sorcerers/alchemists who created Zahhak (okay what were all these ominous scenes with him in the previous book about??)

The mystery of Andragoras & Tahamine’s daughter → there was no daughter in the first place lmao

Arslan’s last wish was to be buried together with Daryun wtf

When Daryun died, Arslan said “Daryun was like a big brother to me... no, he was more than that.”

no mention of what happened to Azrael, Shabrang and Kaivan (Isfan’s wolf baby) after their masters’ death

Out of the three survivors, it seems Gieve was the one who suffered the most from Arslan’s death (he could never really get over his death and died in his 30s)

Aiyar’s son (Kishward’s grandson) ROSTAM becomes the successor of Rukhnabad omg (”Rostam” is a legendary hero in Iranian mythology)

sort of a happy end in that when Elam dies a natural death at the age of 60-something, Arslan and all the others who died in the battle come to pick him up and the 16 Generals and their beloved master ride through the ‘endless heavenly shores’ (subtitle of this book)

in short, it’s a “and they all lived happily ever after - in Heaven” ending

in other words, Elam is Rose and Arslan is Jack

Bonus: The last words of the chracters

Hirmes:  “I'm coming to see you now, Irina”

Kishward: “Your Majesty... Nasrin... Aiyar...”

Daryun (to Arslan): “I, Daryun, was happy to be able to serve you”

Jaswant

first victim (vol.16 actually starts with his death)

Arslan gave him the order to protect the women (Nasrin, Aiyar, Tus’ wives, Parizad, etc) and escort them to Sindhura

on their way to Sindhura he gets badly injured in a battle against Paripada (a Sindhuran general who was caught as a war prisoner by the Parsian army)

Jaswant arrives in Sindhura and asks King Rajendra to accept the refugees from Pars

Rajendra wants to refuse but gets convinced by his wife Salima (yes they married in vol.15)

Rajendra reluctantly agrees to accept the refugees

Jaswant dies from the injuries (p26)

Rajendra suddenly says “I always wanted him (Jaswant) [as my servant]...” and it suddenly turns out that Jaswant, Salima, Rajendra and Gadevi were all childhood friends (which is such an obvious ass-pull because in vol.3 it was clearly stated that neither Rajendra nor Gadevi knew Jaswant)

Jaswant’s last words (to Rajendra): “I am very grateful [that you accepted the refugees]. I will return to Pars as soon as possible and tell His Majesty Arslan how kind Your Majesty King Rajendra and Your Highness Queen Salima w-... (*dies before completing his sentence*)”

what I don’t like about this: 1) Jaswant’s death was totally pointless, 2) Jaswant wanted to stay by Arslan’s side but had to leave Pars because Arslan gave him the fucking order to escort the women to Sindhura, 3) the only person who was at Jaswant’s side when he died was Rajendra (and Salima in the background) wtf Jaswant didn’t deserve this, if anything, he deserved to die in Arslan’s arms, 4) When Jofanes reports about Jaswant’s death to Arslan, he (*Jofanes) adds a little joke wtf (it pissed me off because I wasn’t in the mood for any kind of humour in that moment :/).

Bruhan

dies in a duel against Merlaine (p47)

Arslan “I don’t want to see someone who is tied up to be killed. So if you wish, you can choose someone and challenge them to a duel.” (wtf????) → Merlaine volunteers and he kills Bruhan in a ‘fair’ duel 

last words: “How did my brother [Jimsa] die?” [Kishward answers: “He died as a general of Pars.”]

Lucian

killed by Grugan (p74)

his death was absolutely meaningless and redundant

last words (to his nephew): “My nephew, please take care of His Majesty Arslan... He is too gentle... I am very worried about that...” 

Grugan

Elam kills him with only one fucking arrow (p75)

Guiscard

Merlaine and Farangis’ arrows hit his chest (p92)

last words: “I won’t die... I won’t die... I won’t die...!!”

most pathetic death scene

inconsistency: In one of the earlier volumes it was mentioned in the narrative part that Guiscard later becomes the founder of the “Kerfanis dynasty” in Maryam but in this volume it turned out that he had no children lmao

also the whole battle against Maryam concludes within 8 fucking pages

Tahamine & Leyla

Zahhak (who possessed Andragoras’ body) orders her to come with him to put pressure on Arslan

Tahimine refuses saying “I did something bad to Arslan. Now that I think, I used to hate on him even though he didn’t anything wrong.” (wow she realised it just now???)

Zahhak is like “Okay, then die” and kills her (p.126)

last words (to Leyla): “Leyla... Leyla... please call me your mother...“

Leyla

she’s beheaded by Zahhak right after Tahamine was killed (p.126)

Parafuda

dies in a battle against Zahhak and his troops (p136)

manages to beat one of the snakes on Zahhak’s shoulders but dies from the poison of the snakes

last words (to Farangis): “Please tell *Parizad [*his wife] that she was a great woman...”

Fitna

Gieve’s arrow hits her on her forehead and she dies (p144)

no last words

the most ridiculous thing about this is that Gieve beat the whole troop of Misr all by himself (within 1 page lmao)

I mean was Fitna, or rather the whole story about Misr, really necessary for the plot in the first place??

Kubard

dies in a duel against Ilterish (they kill each other at the same time)

he’s actually the only character whose death was depicted in a somewhat detailed and dramatic way (p162)

last words: “That’s about it, I guess.”

Isfan

the most ridiculous death in this volume (p163)

no last words

he’s attacked by the sorcerer and dies from the toxic gas/liquid (what the hell???) the sorcerer splashed on him (literally, that’s all what was written in the novel)

WTF????????

???????????????????

Sorcerer

Arslan gets outraged when he heard about Isfan’s death and challenges him to a duel (wtf)

Arslan “I will avenge Isfan!! I can’t leave it like this! I need to kill him [the sorcerer] with my own hands!”

And now I present you the most ridiculous conversation in this volume which goes as follows:

Sorcerer: You are a coward! If it wasn’t for the holy sword Rukhnabad, you wouldn’t even try to fight me!

Arslan: Okay, if you wish, I won’t use Rukhnabad to fight you. But you have to promise that you don’t use any magical power, either, okay?

WTF (it sounds like a children’s quarrel)  

Arslan kills the sorcerer with Rukhnabad (p167)

again: WTF

Merlaine

manages to beat one of the snakes on Zahhak’s shoulders with his arrow

he’s surrounded by Zahhak’s troops and is badly injured, but still continues to fight bravely

but then he gets beheaded by Zahhak (p170)

no last words

Zahhak (to Merlaine): “Out of you all humans, you were the bravest brat”

Merlaine gets praised by the Snake King! What a honour wooooow

yes I’m super salty

Kishward

manages to beat both snakes on Zahhak’s shoulders with his two swords

but is killed by Zahhak (p173)

last words: “Your Majesty... Nasrin... Aiyar”

he was one of the major characters and appeared since vol.1 (1986)

number of pages Tanaka dedicated to the depiction of his death: 1 page

Tanaka are you fucking serious

Hilmes

dies in a duel against Daryun (p177)

last words: “I’m now coming to see you, Irina...”

Hilmes was one of the main characters

he was the antagonist of this series

number of pages Tanaka dedicated to the depiction of his battle against Daryun: 3 pages

Tanaka are you really fucking serious

also ridiculous conversation part2

Hilmes: You are the only one who might be able to kill me, Daryun.

Daryun: I won’t kill you. I will capture you alive and drag you before His Majesty Arslan. And you will kneel down before him and apologise for all you’ve done.” → then kills Hilmes

Arslan: You killed Lord Hilmes. How brave of you.

Daryun: He wanted to die. I just helped him out with that.

??????????

??????????????????

Daryun

fights Zahhak

manages to kill the two snakes on Zahhak’s shoulders but gets stabbed in his chest and dies

Zahhak (to Arslan): “He was the strongest out of all humans I’ve ever met.”

woooow Zahhak praised him yesss!! (*pure saltiness*)

at least he died in Arslan’s arms

last words (to Arslan): “I was truly happy to be able to served you”

number of pages Tanaka dedicated to depict the battle and death of one of the most popular characters of the series: 2.5 pages (*note: it’s 2 and a half pages, and not 25 pages)

Arslan

is outraged by Daryun’s death and challenges Zahhak to a duel WTF (who is this hod-headed guy??? is he really Arslan???)

Arslan and Zahhak kill each other in a duel (p200)

pages dedicated to this most important “protagonist vs main villain” battle: 2 pages

at this point everything seems so ridiculous that I don’t have the motivation to translate his last words

wtf 

@ Tanaka Yoshiki this gif is for you

About Zahhak:

The most ridiculous thing about this book and the deaths of so many characters is... you know if the remaining generals had all attacked Zahhak TOGETHER at the same time (e.g. Gieve, Farangis, Elam and Merlaine focusing on beating the two snakes and Daryun, Kishward, Kubard and Arslan with his Rukhnabad focusing on beating Zahhak himself), they could have beat Zahhak and his two fucking snakes so easily. (*Also, it’s worth noting that Arslan is able to seal part of Zahhak’s supernatural power with his holy sword Rukhnabad lmao)

But no, they all attack Zahhak in a 1-on-1 battle for no reason, so even if they manage to beat the snakes or wound Zahhak, they give them enough time to heal/regenerate until the next general comes to challenge Zahhak to another duel. It’s like

day 1: Merlaine’s turn. He beats one of the snakes and dies.

day 2:  (the snakes had enough time to regenerate) Parafuda’s turn. He beats one of the snakes and dies.

day 3: (again: the snakes had enough time to completely regenerate) Kishward’s turn. He beats both snakes and even manages to wound Zahhak, then he dies.

day 4: (again: the snakes had enough time to completely regenerate and Zahhak’s wounds are already healed) Daryun kills both snakes and dies.

day 4: FINALLY, Arslan doesn’t wait until the snakes have regenerated. But too bad, he dies, too.

Do you see how ridiculous this is??????

Status Summary (as of vol.15)

Arslan: alive 

Daryun: alive 

Narsus: dead (killed by Hilmes, vol.15)

Elam: alive 

Gieve: alive 

Farangis: alive 

Alfreed: dead (killed by Bruhan, vol.15)

Jaswant: alive

Kishward: alive

Isfan: alive

Tus: dead (protected Arslan from falling rocks and died, vol.14)

Zaravant: dead (killed by his own cousin, vol.12)

Jimsa: dead (killed by demons, vol.14)

Merlaine: alive

Kubard: alive

Grahze: dead (killed by demons, vol.14)

Parafuda: alive

Hilmes: injured

Bruhan: injured

Guiscard: alive

Rajendra: alive

Tahamine: alive

Fitna, Leyla, Parizahd: alive

Etoile: dead (died from injuries, vol.13)

Zahhak (Snake King): alive

Survival probability (my prediction)

high: Rajendra, Elam, Gieve, Kubard, Parafuda, Guiscard

50%: Farangis, Isfan, Snake King, Fitna, Leyla, Parizahd

low: Arslan, Daryun, Jaswant, Kishward, Hirmes, Bruhan

Arslan: 5% (too many death flags, he’ll probably sacrifice himself in order to seal/beat the Snake King)

Daryun: 10% (he said he’d follow Arslan if he dies, so...)

Elam: 50% (has the highest survival chance out of Arslan’s comrades imo, but we can never be sure since it’s Tanaka)

Gieve: 50% (he’ll probably survive because he’s said to be the author of the “Elegy for King Arslan”)

Farangis: 30% (I think she’ll survive but I also have the feeling she might protect Arslan from the Snake King and die)

Jaswant: 20% (same reason as above)

Kishward: 20% (same reason as above)

Isfan: 20% (same reason as above)

Merlane: 30% (might survive but I think he’ll die in a 1-to-1 fight against Hirmes)

Kubard: 40% 

Parafuda: 50% (no one cares about him and Tanaka probably forgot his existence so he’ll probably survive)

Hilmes: 10% (he’ll probably be killed by either Daryun or Merlaine)

Bruhan: 10%

Guiscard: 50%

Rajendra: 99% (I’m sure he’ll survive)

Fitna, Leyla, Parizahd: 50% (honestly I don’t care about them)

Zahhak: 30% (if it’s a happy end then Arslan will manage to beat him once and for all, but if Tanaka prefers a tragic end, then he’ll probably survive somehow)