Heroic Legend of Arslan Vol II
By Yoshiki Tanaka
So our first review of Heroic Legend of Arslan was just last month. So let me do an incredibly brief recap here. Warning there are spoilers for Volume I ahead!
Our story focuses on Arslan who is the royal prince of a nation called Pars (Death to all monarchists! {I’d like to note again that the views of my editor are not the views of this review}). Pars is an ancient nation steeped in wealth and culture, defended by its large army of renowned cavalrymen. Much of its wealth comes from its position on the continental highway, a vast trade route linking the east and west. This position and its wealth makes it a target, in this case for the religiously fanatical armies of Lusitania. A built-in weakness of the nation is that the people of Pars own slaves. A lot of slaves. The Lusitanian religion forbids slavery but their version of the religion calls for the slaughter of non-believers so I feel it's not as big of a virtue as it could be (I mean, no… but at the same time, I revere John Brown and Nat Turner so…{John Brown didn’t call for the execution of all non-Christians}). This is a pressing concern for our hero Arslan as his first battle ends up being a brutal defeat for the men of Pars. With his father the King missing (From what I remember of that King… good.), and the main field army scattered, Arslan is trying to escape capture and rally resistance.
Arslan is aided in this by the quick-witted and frankly scarily capable knight Daryun. In volume I, we watched Daryun kill pretty much an entire platoon of Lusitanian troops single-handedly to get young Arslan out of danger (That is… a disturbing level of competence.). Even with his terrifying killing skills, Daryun can't beat an entire army by himself. I mean if nothing else his arms will get tired by the sheer amount of killing that would take (Yeah, he’d get thirsty if nothing else.). So he takes his prince and flees to the smartest guy he knows, the disgraced noble Narsus. Now, Narsus is a genius in a lot of ways but he fell into disgrace when he pushed for universal emancipation of the slave class (Very good reason to fall into disgrace.). While this does make him the smartest and most moral man in Pars, it also made him a target of every wealthy man in Pars.
So our story takes us to Narsus’ mountain cabin, where he lives simply with a single free servant Elam. Here Narsus lives in nature and paints, pursuing the idea of leaving behind fine art for future generations to appreciate. The problem here is that while he's a genius, he's also a terrible artist (I feel seen.). So it's more likely some terrified art critic will burn the works after his death to protect future generations. Elam is an interesting character as well, the son of liberated slaves (Narsus freed the men and women of his estate as soon as he legally could), he is fiercely devoted to Narsus' well-being and comfort. This doesn't stop him from lecturing Narsus or berating him if he feels Narsus is acting foolishly, which makes for a fun dynamic (I’m getting bickering gay couple vibes.).
We're also introduced to the character Gieve, a freewheeling minstrel who is skilled in music and fighting. He's also a fairly mercenary sort and while he's willing to do a good deed, he's very much focused on finding a way to get out of the warzone. Preferably with as much loot as he can carry. To be fair to him, it's not like he's a soldier or this is his war to start with. On the other hand, he's also the kind of guy who thinks nothing of lying to women to get into bed with them and I find that rather contemptible at best (Definitely contemptible.). I've also found that if you'll lie to score some fun time in bed, you'll lie about other things so claims that such a person can still be a trustworthy and dependable sort seem rather dubious at best to me. A lie we all tell ourselves to avoid facing the fact that yes, such behavior is bad at worst. As you can guess, I'm not terribly fond of him so far but maybe I'll warm up to him later.
On the other side, we see more of a mysterious character only known as Silvermask. This is due to the fact that he wears a silver mask over the top part of his face and a long black cloak. He seems very familiar with Pars and has a hell of a grudge against the royal family (I can’t blame someone for having a grudge against royals…). This is paired with at least one member of the upper nobility openly betraying the royal family. This brings me to my biggest gripe with the graphic novel. Several times our traitor is asked by a former comrade in arms and his response?
“You wouldn't understand!”
Which is such a damn cop-out. I mean, I've never heard anyone with a good reason wail that, especially to people they've fought with, ate with, and socialized with for decades (Yeah, normally they have some kind of manifesto, or will recite their soliloquy.). Dear writers, please don't use this excuse, come up with something! I realize that our writer is trying to maintain suspense but he could have his traitor say he's been sworn to secrecy. He could have his traitor declare the men he's fighting damn well know why. He could point to the King being a dick or just flat-out lie. It is okay to have your characters flat-out lie to each other in the story by the way, in some cases that can improve the story! Hell, have the story cut away every time he does explain! Don't pull this lame you wouldn't understand crap though, because it basically screams that there's no good in-story reason for the character not to explain, but I don't want you the reader to know yet. Which yanks me right out of the story!
I wouldn't complain about it so much except every other part of this story is so well done. Narsus is convincingly written as smart and canny for example. On top of that other characters don't magically turn into idiots around him, which helps make him look smarter since he's surrounded by smart people being smart! Arslan continues to be a good and decent kid trying his best to do his royal duty to resist the invasion of his home. The Lusitanians are written in a very human manner, with the foot soldiers being true believers but still resentful of churchmen who didn't fight getting the first pick of the loot (And that’s your angle on how to turn them against the invasion…), as well as loathing churchmen who do nothing but torture and kill captives. Instead of an army of orcs, we get an army of human beings. Human beings who are behaving brutally, but current events are showing us that if anyone is capable of inhuman behavior, it's a person utterly convinced of their righteousness.
It's a single glaring flaw in a well-written story that is rather effortlessly pulling me in but it is a flaw. Otherwise, the tactics, the dialogue, and actions of the characters are all very well done and the characters themselves are increasingly complex and motivated by a variety of drives that make what could have been a very simple and boring fantasy war into an increasingly complicated and intricate 20 car pile-up of agendas and conflicting desires. I'm enjoying it and I do recommend it. However, Volume II is getting an A- from me.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s review which was requested by one of our ever-wise patrons. You can join us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads where right now there is a vote as to whether or not to change our patron ranking and rewards. So for a dollar a month you can not only decide what books get reviewed but what the patron structure will look like in the future! Next week we’ll be covering our most requested review of the month GI Joe volume X. Until then, stay safe and keep reading!
@Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen
@Black text your reviewer Garvin Anders
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