Isfan - Tumblr Posts - Page 2
Oh…the fact with Isfan is interesting. I did not notice this fact……mmmh maybe it is relevant maybe not. Maybe it is just a coincidence…maybe we get a flashback with Shapur? Maybe he and Guiscard meet after Atropathene and before the Ecbatana incidences??
Maybe….only maybe
And I am stunned how mich Guiscard knows👀
No wonder he is the brain behind his brother.
Things Guiscard knows and what he does not know
As currently known by chapter 121, for the fandom records.
He knows Husrab is supposed to be dead (this is the point I'm absolutely hoping is true). He did not see him, but he must have heard Tahamineh call out and mention him by name in chapter 81. C'mon, Guiscard, I hope you were conscious enough for this!
He knows that magic is real and has heard of Zahhak. Chapter 108
He knows what Isfan looks like (Idk why this is relevant but he does). Chapter 108,109.
He does not know what Hilmes was doing on Mt. Damavand. Chapter 106
He does not know he was supposed to be kidnapped by the sorcerers on the night of Isfan's attack on the Lusitanian camp. Chapter 109
In summary: Guiscard holds some information to what's going on supernaturally, but not all of it. So I still hope to see him in for a nasty surprise. (Did they want to also put his head in a jar?)
Ok so actually I am on vacation and today I did a wonderful hikingtrip through a forest and up to a little mountain village.
And after a while I was thinking that Isfan would totally like such trips and I was imagen whole nice it would be to go on a hiking trip with Isfan and his little wolf puppies. Because I think that Isfan would totally be a good partner for such a trip and I would absolutely like his company. He would totally know a lot about flowers, trees, animals etc. and could tell a lot about it.
And because I am from the small size and I picture Isfan as a tall guy ( so taller as his brother and I think Shapur is about 5,90 feet when I rember the character charta right) he would totally make bit fun of me when I struggle to climb about something and my arm lr lwg would be to short to reach the other side/rock/tree etc (like my sister and cousins) and he would be like „come on little dwarf you can do it“ with a wide grin on his face and in the end he would lend me a helping hand, when he sees I struggle too much.
So yes I would absolutely like to hike with Isfan on a big sister/little brother or good friend base. And I would love it.
Isfan Screencaps (Part 1/2)
The Turanian arc well and truly fed my little Isfan-loving heart :D
I like this appetizer 👀
Can I please get more from this? I mean big brother Isfan and Gieve with little brother Areyan (Arslan) family time…..yes I like that. Thank you!!!
“Little bolbol,” Gieve whines, though his lips are quirked into a smile. He throws his arms around the little bird, pulling him into an embrace.
“Hm?”
“Isfan's being mean.”
“You are just too thin-skinned for the truth, fool,” Isfan interjects with a sneer.
“Like I said!” Gieve pouts like a yazata forbidden child, while the actual child in his arms is the picture of composure save for an amused shine in his eyes. “Mean.”
“What can I do for you, Gieve?” Areyan asks mildly. Yazata above, he's indulging the manchild.
“Tell him he's wrong, of course! Tell him I'm the handsomest man in the whole of Pars— no, make that the entire continent. More accurate.”
“The little dove will be doing no such thing, cease your deranged chattering!”
“There, there. You're the handsomest man in the world, Gieve. Positively the most gorgeous. Blindingly dazzling—”
“Ah, ah, ah. You mustn't recite it so flatly! What have I been teaching you, let's try it again, from the top, this time with feeling—”
“Anyone would be when they're forced to play along with your nonsense, Gieve. Release my brother at once.”
“He's my brother too!”
“Oooh, can I be your older brother?” Areyan looks up from the piece of cloth he's been diligently stitching into... something. Isfan doesn't quite know what he's doing with it.
The blink he gives his brothers is the picture of innocence.
Gieve makes a strangled noise, offended. “Must you gang up on me too? Mean, mean I say, the both of you! Being around Isfan had corrupted my beloved little brother—”
"Will you please shut up?”
“Make me, wolf. Oh but you can't, because—”
“Because he can't catch you?”
“Exactly!”
It was then Isfan's turn to make an offended noise. “Areyan...”
The boy only giggles in response.
Antidote for the beheaded Gieve in @innerchorus ' upcoming fic!
@tired-reader-writer Isfan's good night vision is actually confirmed in Book 12 so it's canon! Thought you'd like to know.
This is so freaking awesome. I am crying. I really love the brotherly bond between Shapur and Isfan and I am so sad that the story didn’t focused more on them and their relationship and Isfans grieve to loses his older brother.
Also I am a big Gieve and Isfan shipper!!!!
And I didn’t find many fanart or fanfics about them or Shapur and Isfan so I am really happy that you share your art with us.
I just clean my room and find my old sketches. When the hype of arslan senki (hiromu arakawa's version) i love the brother relationship between shapur and isfan. I read somewhere that isfan is the son of mistress/slave of some noble knight, the wife is jealous so she banished the mother and child to mountain. When the legitimate son come home, shapur, he immediately search his lil bro, and find him among the wolves. Apparantly his lil bro survived and raised by those wolves. Shapur then became father-brother-mentor figure to his lil bro, who in turn idolized him greatly. ... well i kinda weak for brothers stories like this (and to hiromu's elric brother too).
The anime nor manga didnt focused on isfan grieve too much. But i imagine he would felt his brother dying, since maybe raised by wolves would strengthened his instinct... but maybe it's only me being dramatic, haha
Isfan and gieve! They really tease me to just ship them together! (Now i think, it like madaraxtobirama kind of thing) they interaction began with gieve provoke isfan (later known that it was a part of narsus' plan to deceived enemy). But then isfan realized that gieve save them from ambush secretly. Some source told me that isfan then has major development in the novel (?) That he would tolerate gieve, because gieve killed shapur as an act of benevolence to avoid shapur being hummilated by the enemy. I kinda sab because despite quite hype (arslan senki), unfortunately, at that time there's not many fic about them...
Sometimes I find myself wondering why Shapur's mother waited two years before she attempted murder on Isfan and his mother. Or perhaps she tried/wanted to try earlier but was unsuccessful due to Shapur's presence and interference? I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.
Okay, I have a confession to make. This ask unlocked a memory in me and I went to look in my drafts and sitting there was an unfinished post about this very matter, in which I tagged you because I think we had been talking about this in comments somewhere, and I checked the date and it said July 2022 🫠
Anyway, this is going to involve a lot of theorising and definitely veers into headcanon/possible fic backstory stuff, but it's a question I've thought about a lot and there are a handful of possibilities, in my opinion.
My first thought was that to begin with, she didn't know for certain who Isfan's father was. I'm sure there were also male slaves employed by their household, or it could have been any number of soldiers of other visitors that was the culprit. But perhaps in time the resemblance between Isfan and his father became impossible to ignore, or perhaps gossip reached her ears and her suspicions grew to the point at which she could not put them aside.
Perhaps she suspected right from the start, though. Maybe her husband's behaviour gave her cause to; maybe it wasn't an isolated incident. In that case, for someone willing to do what she did it feels like suspicion alone would have been enough, so why wait? One thing that comes to mind is infant mortality rates. Maybe she was hoping that the babe wouldn't survive past the first year or so, in which case there would be no need to dirty her hands.
Or perhaps at first it didn't seem to matter — her own son, both legitimate and older, would be heir.
I don't think Shapur's father would have involved himself with Isfan at all (after all, in not wanting to cause trouble with his wife he was content to ignore her actions in consigning a mother and baby to freeze to death) but I know we've both speculated before that Shapur might well have taken an interest in his baby brother even before he rode out to save him.
So was Shapur's behaviour a factor somehow? Was it his acknowledgement of his younger half-brother that changed things? Did his mother, for some reason, start to fret that one day, Isfan might be the one to inherit everything from Shapur rather than a son of his own, a grandchild that would carry her blood? How would she have felt at seeing Isfan accepted by the one other person she had assumed would also see him as a threat?
(Going down this line of reasoning definitely veers into some potential headcanon territory that I can't recall whether I've talked about before, but essentially something I toyed with was that his mother's fears not only stemmed from Shapur's clear affection and bond with the child but also the fact that she had begun to have her suspicions about her son's preference for men, and worried that given his closeness with Isfan he would be content to pass things to him rather than marry and have children of his own.
At this point, Shapur is 16, a year over the age of majority. I wouldn't be surprised if discussions of marriage had come up at this point in terms of potential matches, especially if he is the only legitimate son. Certainly I headcanon that later on, the main reason Shapur doesn't marry is to protect Isfan's status as his named heir and ensure it can't be contested, but before his rescue of Isfan I doubt he was thinking that far ahead; he was simply fond of his younger brother and did his best to look out for him and his mother. He could have easily brushed off talk of marriage without realising why his mother pushed for it.
Still, overall I think the biggest factor was simply that Shapur's mother hoped that if she ignored what she thought of as a problem for long enough, it would go away. And when it didn't, she opted to take matters into her own hands. The cold simplicity of Isfan's mere existence being enough for her to want him and his mother dead speaks to both her own callousness and the problems with Parsian society in the importance it places on bloodlines, so I've always been a bit wary of diluting that.)
Okay so, ask game incoming.
Character(s) (you can choose one, if you want): Our son Arslan, Give, Isfan or our queen Farangis! (You can also do one of your OCs, if you want ☺️)
Questions: 2, 5, 14 and finally 23 for a wonderful end!
Hope you have a wonderful day!
(I have HARD Azar/Maar/Daryun/ArSen brain rott today... ugh my brain is OVERFLOWING with ideas and scenes!)
(I'm so sorry for the many options I can't decide on characters)
What an ask! Here's the original ask game post for others who might want to participate.
2. Favorite canon thing about this character?
Arslan
There's a lot of things I like about him, so much that I struggle to pick a favorite. I think I'll settle on the fact that he remains kind despite everything, where other stories might've made him “disillusioned” and become more ruthless in the name of character development, I am incredibly thankful that it didn't happen to Arslan. He gets to be kind. All the strengths he gains and the growth he goes through happens to support his kindness. Parts of him aren't being taken off, he's becoming stronger so that he could be allowed to continue being kind. And I find that revolutionary especially in a historical fantasy type story like this.
Gieve
The fact that deep down he does want to believe in something good, want there to be something worth believing him. He's grown cynical due to reality but the fact that he does hope even if unbeknownst to himself does something to me. Also, the fact that he's like an onion I guess. He's got them Layers™ and unraveling those layers might or might not make you cry.
Isfan
His absolute earnestness I suppose! He's so eager, he puts 100% into things he does (like, apologizing for not being able to capture that sorcerer despite having reduced that one onto one leg, despite having fought so valiantly? boy's a perfectionist and overachiever). I find it admirable even if I can't relate in matters except art, lol.
Farangis
Her refusal to entertain Gieve's bullshi— okay, that aside, her ability to step back and see the bigger picture instead of being caught up in emotions, and thereby having the ability to gently nudge other people (especially Arslan) back on track. Also her courage because damn is she daring as fuck.
5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?
Arslan
• Kamado Tanjirou no Uta by Nakagawa Nami (more canon leaning)
• Untitled world by ReoNa (more Wolfpack AU leaning)
• Yakudou by Sakamoto Maaya (applies to both but also leans a taaad more towards AU if only because all those bells in the song)
(all three songs included in the playlist!)
(also I know this is technically three songs instead of one but have you considered he is my darling son?)
Gieve
There hasn't really been a song I hard-associate with Gieve just yet, I don't know why but nothing quite hits the sweet spot for me so far. If anyone's got recommendations I'd verily appreciate it!
Alternate joke answer is Yakety Sax.
Isfan
Wolf Blood by Adrian von Ziegler! It's an instrumental with no lyrics but I immediately think of him whenever I listen to it.
Farangis
I think I've said it before but Trøllabundin by Eivør always makes me think of Farangis! To add one more to that, Dance of the Spirit by Kokia.
14. Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.
Rather than assign one if the modern aesthetics bc frankly I know nothing about them, I'm just gonna take this opportunity to infodump about my character design choices. Also, my answers will be for Wolfpack AND my character design sheet stuff because why the fuck not.
Arslan
His clothes reflect the most the people around him. He's surrounded by two cultures and he combines them to express himself. In terms of silhouette I tried to make him look Solid. A solid block of friendship LOL.
Gieve
Loose, free, flowy stuff. There's always something flappy hanging from his clothes. Wind is an element I associate with him so yeah! You'll see when my design sheet of him is done.
Isfan
Clothes that fit him very well in terms of tailoring. Rather than the clothes creating a specific silhouette they adhere to the body instead if that makes sense. On the more traditional side of things. Due to geographical proximity, the regional fashion of the Gorgan region is influenced by Turanian (Mongolian) ideas.
Farangis
Flowy, but in a different way from Gieve in that it's much more well put together and tidy. I don't really know how to explain it, but I chose the clothes that I did for Farangis for a reason!
23. Favorite picture of this character?
HOO BOI HERE WE GO.
Arslan
Gieve
Isfan
Farangis
The children echoing Kashi in their design, even if just faintly
Winds of Wolfsong chapter 2 is now up on AO3!
The pinned post is now edited to reflect the chapter count.
I know that we probably won't get this scene because it looks like the puppets created by the wizards can't talk.
However, one scene has been stuck in my head for the last two chapters. It almost seems as if we're going to get a fight between Shapur and Kubard and Isfan (my poor heart! I'm not sure how I'll cope with this. Daryun and his uncle as well as Zandeh and Hilmes and Kahrlan have already torn me apart inside).
But of course I would be even less able to cope if something were to happen to Kubard or Isfan (after all, they are still alive and I would find it even more terrible if they died at Shapur's hand). So of course I hope that this won't happen and since I hope that it will be Kubard who defeats this Shapur puppet, the following thought occurred to me. Some time ago I read, and I think it was on @innerchorus , that in the novella Isfan asks Kubard/Kishward what his brother was like as Marzban and Kubard replies that they always competed against each other and he won more often than Shapur (which Isfan doesn't really want to believe).
So how would it be if Kubard won this final fight between them and Shapur then (with a smile on his lips) said something like "that was our last competition, it almost seems like you're the better of the two of us" or "It's a shame, I thought I could at least get a draw between us. It almost seems like you've finally won our competition, Kubard" and to Isfan "I'm proud of you, little brother" Urgh... that would be a scene that would break my heart and at the same time I need exactly that kind of scene.
Not to mention the panel where Kubard will comfort Isfan with a bittersweet smile on his face, knowing that his rival will be now gone forever.
I don’t now if we will get such a scene but yeah….this is something that is spinning in my head for a few days now.
I am ver curious, excited and anxious for the next chapter. (Impossible that a Manga can cause all those mixed up feelings. It is like a rollercoaster.)
I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and a great start to the to new year, @moccino!
General Jimsa performs a traditional Turanian piece at King Arslan’s banquet.
I drew this on A3 paper, so I had to take a photo of it, but I can try and take it to work and scan it in there if you would like a higher resolution image. I wanted to work in as much Turan imagery in as I could, plus everybody’s respective family crests. Isfan’s outfit is a shoutout to Nakamura’s manga version, while fem!Jimsa’s outfit was inspired by Otoyomegatari. For Zaravant I tried to pick out Persian clothes.
Akakkoko bringing back some older art in preparation for the latest chapters.
There are a few more pics if you want to have a look. I really love their work.