The Heroic Legend of Arslan vol. 21

After twenty volumes the truth behind Arslan’s parentage comes out.  It likely won’t surprise anyone who’s been reading the series up to this point, but it does prompt a change in the title character.  Now he’s more determined than ever to become the Shah of Pars.  Before he can do that, he’ll need to recover the sacred sword Rukhnabad and retake Ecbatana from Hilmes.  One of these is going to be easier than the other as one will involve dealing with the resurrected form of the evil snake king that has escaped the prison it has been sealed away in for millenia and is looking to wreak as much havoc as it can in taking back what it once ruled over and the other… has him dealing with a very mortal usurper.  Particularly one who, after realizing his desire to seize the capitol and the throne, is now seeing it all slip through his fingers with Andragoras being more than willing to twist the knife.

I expressed skepticism last time that, even though the volume was making an effort to do so, Arslan would finally start turning into an interesting protagonist here.  Much to my surprise, that’s actually what happened!  He finally starts displaying real initiative of his own as well as some actual cleverness (and even a bit of trolling) in how he deals with Hilmes.  Hell, it even starts to feel like he’s in charge of the army and Narsus is actually supporting him with his plans rather than propping up a nondescript puppet.  It would’ve been great if this had happened sooner, but at least it’s happening as the series moves into its endgame.

While I don’t think the end is imminent, the appearance of the real big bad of the series certainly makes it feel like it’s in sight.  The volume even ends with the potential deaths of two key supporting characters – one of whom I will be glad to see gone, and the other I will deeply miss if this turns out to be the case.  It feels like everything is coming into place for this deeply uneven series and now  I (finally!) feel committed, and even excited, to see how it’s all going to play out from here.