天幕のジャードゥーガル

Man we knew this was coming, but everything went to hell so quickly. Great decision going with the double episode premiere for maximum trauma; first episode lures you in with these characters living in this beautiful idyllic setting only to immediately destroy everything. The way they slowly made Sitara lose everyone she cared for one by one until she was all alone, absolutely brutal. And of course Naoko Yamada's directing is superb; the brutality of war has never been depicted so artistically. I also liked how they went the extra mile and had the horde speak actual Mongolian. Overall a very strong start and contender for AOTS.

I cried in first episode a little because of happiness. I'm not exactly from this region I'm Turkish and I'm not a religious person. My ancestors were more like the Mongolian people actually, most likely many similar stories happened on the many places they conquered. But I still accept the way of the living and the culture of west Asia as part of my own regional history and culture. Seeing the way of life pictured and mentions of Ibn-sina and Al-biruni that we learn one of the first parts of our history brought tears to my eyes. At the time that the whole region represented as backwards and barbaric widely in the west, seeing how it was respectfully shown in this anime made me seen, happy and emotional. Then came the second episode, knowing how brutal it was for regular people like us back in the day, I was already expecting heavy things. Still bawled my eyes out two times; when I realized how Fatima was loving Sitara as if she was her own daughter and how Zumurrud was still longing for her home and lost all her will to live when all her connections to her home was taken from her. Now I'm rooting for you Sitara, on your way of manipulating the continent.

I got a bit confused with your comment because I never heard of Sultanate of Rum before, because I never read history in English (or any non-turkish sources tbh) In Turkish history this nation named as Anatolian Seljuk Empire, never thought about what others were calling that civilization. Rum is referred to the people from the east rome for us that caused the confusion for me. It should be obvious however, since there were already people living there before Turks came and our cultures intertwined naturally.

Really? The Siege of Nishapur resulted in the entire city being wiped out save for less than 400. Over a million dead. Merv surrendered but still had a large amount of civilian deaths anyway from the Mongols. Urgench and Baghdad also had similar outcomes. Are you really claiming the crusaders were that brutal? The mongols literally killed tens of millions. The crusaders were less competent and less organized, at most killing less than a million. The Mongolians were far more brutal and systemic wiping out nearly entire populations in the damn city that resisted them. They completely destroyed and wiped out Bamiyan. The crusaders and Arab armies could not touch the amount of death and misery the mongols caused.

Generally it was not common. Outside a few cities in China, India and Baghdad you would struggle to find a single city above the million. In Europe you would have to go back centuries when Rome had around 2 million people at its peak. But in the case of Nishapur it's population was likely greatly inflated due to temporary circumstances. When the Mongols first attacked the Khwarazmian Empire they besieged Bukhara, Samarkand and Gurganj ( which siege lasted for 7 months as it was heavily defended), while this lasted I imagine mongol raids became common in Khorasan (the neighbouring region) Given such conflict, it would not be strange for those who could afford it to seek refuge in regional centers like Merv or Nishapur. Khorasan was a rich and populated region and until 1221 its cities remained relatively safe, as that was when Genghis had his son Tolui scourge the region, which he did. Also, the numbers I mentioned were compiled decades after the events, so like most historical records from the time they're likely exaggerated, albeit I don't think that it is by much given the context above.

Nitpicks for those who care It didn't result in the black death. The black death was already ravaging asia and this was only one of the many many vectors that brought it into Europe, though the Genoan one was ultimately one of the first places it entered Europe. Also that account from Mussis, while contemporary and mostly not inaccurate, is considered to be inaccurate in that specific regard. The Y. Pestis bacteria responsible for the black death does not actually transmit efficiently from corpses. Its technically possible that it did spread from an infected corpse, but it happens so infrequently its just not an effective combat tactic, as confirmed by the fact there is literally no other recorded instances of the Mongols doing this, that its generally considered unlikely. Especially since this did align with how the Europeans believed the bacteria would spread (via miasma or bad air), but not with how the Mongols believed disease functioned. And like the Mongols had to enter the city to plunder it, so its unlikely that they wanted it to be ridden with disease. And Mussis wasn't there when he wrote it, he was trying to stich together various accounts of differing credibility and the catapaulting corpses happened to line up with what they knew about how disease spread and Mongol brutality, so it kinda checked out ig. Logistically, siege warfare is just difficult, and the geography made it so its actually just really hard to fire a soft and fragile corpse over the walls reliably bc corpses are not very stable at high speeds and not very aero, so it might not even have been possible. And if it broke apart early, it would have just damaged the siege weapons or gotten in the Mongol's way. And the Mongol army there was at the time disorganized and in a leadership crisis since they were themselves being ravaged by plague, and siege weapons are a logistical nightmare even with functioning leadership. And Mussi's documentation was heavily dramatized. So not necessarily impossible, but modern historians are very skeptical, bc the odds of Mongols even deciding to do this, then finding a corpse that's for sure killed by the plague, but by a short enough window that it's still warm (otherwise its not a vector), and that body has to be one they're willing to desecrate so it can't be their own, and then having the logistical capacity to do this as they're also dying of the plague, and then the body and any attached carriers like fleas actually making it over (since bodies are too light for most trebuchets, and again human body fragile and not very heavy/aero and geography required them to place it kinda far), its all fairly unlikely It did however likely come to Europe with the Mongols. Either directly through the Mongol armies or through the new trade routes created by the mongol armies, or likely both

Which is the only reason why corpses are at all a vector of the black death, which I do acknowledge as possible, but it's still ultimately a poor vector. Even if the bodies of the deceased actually crossed the walls, it's generally considered unlikely to actually spread it. Not impossible, just unlikely. Fleas are sensitive to changes in body temperature and will leave the body within a few hours of the body's death, especially when being handled by another person which provides a perfect place for fleas to escape to. Technically none of the factors I gave guarantee with 100% certainty that the mongols didn't catapult corpses over as a form of bio warfare, just that there's so many things working against the theory that it's ultimately deemed unlikely.

From my experience, it doesn't make sense that she wouldn't reunite with him when that's the main plot point of the story. Additionally, never believe in character off screens deaths, especially when you could argue the main 2 characters are Sitara and Muhammad. Sitara has to reunite with Muhammad to be by his side. "This is the last time they ever saw each other face-to-face" brings intrigue to whoever is watching, leaving you thinking why or how that is. My belief is that Muhammad is still alive within the story, whether that's luck or the predictions he mentioned in episode 1.

Bloody hell! Who’d thought a shoujo anime would have such a high body count. My eyes went wide when Fatima lunged in front of Sitara. While Sitara was technically Fatima’s slave, she’s treated well and Fatima’s dying words were a warning to the nomads to not touch her daughter . Heartwarming and tragic at the same time. Then it got from bad to worse. Pretty brutal to juxtapose Tun before and after it was razed. That’s before the nomads executed people left and right. Sitara lost her closest friends one by one. Little wonder she’s suicidal by the end of the episode.

Bloody hell! Who’d thought a shoujo anime would have such a high body count. Haha, dude! Who told you that? Because you are being fooled! Shoujo is not averse to violence at all. Series like X , Banana Fish or Alice in Murderland are trasgressive and bloody. You only see them less because they get fewer adaptations and they are more likely to be censored. After all, women love horror, murder mysteries and gothic stories, why wouldn't works aimed at them have high body counts? Regardless, Jaadugar is Josei. And given what Josei is and used to be like, a bit of blood is the last thing it would be scared of