Miscellaneous Myths: Zahak The Serpent King

Sometimes you read a myth or folktale and it surprises you how different it is from the narrative conventions you're used to, and sometimes literally the exact opposite thing happens and it's incredible. So anyway here's an evil snake emperor overthrown by a charismatic rebel leader and a lost true heir chosen one prophecy hero written ONE THOUSAND YEARS AGO

PARTIAL TRACKLIST: Starfall, Black Blade, Winged Dragon of Ra theme, He Who Brings The Night, To Victory, A Hero's Return, False King, Star Sky

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[scoman]

I so especially love how Zahak doesn't just up and fall to evil over nothing and Ahriman has to go through utterly ridiculous lengths to corrupt him, and even then it doesn't fully make Zahak an uncaring bastard, just someone whose sunk too deep with very bad advice from someone actively trying to make him the bad guy.

[johnjohnsonesteemeddoerofj]

I love how Zahak went from “gee wilikers” to “I hope they still think I’m a good king even though I’ve killed 16 of their kids :(“

[jrodriguez]

Gf tries to kiss my shoulders:
" Thou shalt not have me foul temptress!"

[moonchild]

I love how the lineup of kings goes directly from stuff like "clad his people in tiger skins" and "discovered firestarting" to "ENSLAVED DEMONS WITH MAGIC" with nothing in between lol

[ashecrimson]

What the hell, that Blacksmith deserves to be king, I’ve never heard of a bigger power move

[acecat]

"You guys would tell me if I was a bad person, right?"
Now I'm just imagining Zahak and his snake shoulders having heart to hearts, movie nights, a spa day (the snakes have little cucumbers over their eyes)...

[baronnolanvonstraya]

“Sorry I killed sixteen of your sons, and to make it up to you I won’t kill your seventeenth.”
Zahak officially wins the “Not as big of a jerk as you could’ve been” award

[rexbaumeister]

I think the part that gets to me the most about this story (besides the name "Johnny Snake-shoulders") is that Zahak doesn't just want to believe that he's a good king, he's so insecure about it that he wants people to *sign paperwork* notarizing that he's a good king. That is hilariously desperate.

[esperderek]

Another thing that Red didn't mention that makes Kaveh even more baller: Zahak had summoned the great men and elders of every country and all of them had cowed and signed the document when Kaveh busts in. He proceeds to tell them all off while ripping up that document.

[jasminedragon]

That blacksmith really said “Screw this I’ll find the prophecy child myself”

[Bitterblue]

Honestly the part I was most surprised about was the mom actually coming back to pick up the kid from the magical cow. Usually the parents either die or peace out from the story after dropping off the kid

[Liadelou]

Keyumars: **Invents clothes**
Hushang: **Invents technology**
Tahmuras: **Straight up slaps a bunch of demons with magic and makes them tell him their secrets, oh and also weaving**

[masterpuggo]

Imagine being so badass that you rip a contract in front of a king with snakes on his shoulders

[GnarledStaff]

I jut trealized "clothed his people in tiger skins" is more than just hunting for clothing - its a statement that the kings people were no longer bound by fear of the man eating tigers that prowled the region

[legateelizabeth]

Zahak constantly interacting with the serpents on his shoulders really makes me want to see Red do art of Medusa, she'd be constantly interacting with her hair and it'd be adorable.

[tonedeafbirdsong]

Funnily enough, I was watching this with a snake draped over my shoulders.

I didn’t go on a murder spree, but the resemblance did make me uncomfortable enough that I moved him to my arm 😁

[harlekingnapmaster]

No, no, she has a point

We need this movie

[tbotalpha]

"Have you looked at our king lately?"
"Hmm? What? No. Maybe, a little."
"He's got snakes growing out of his shoulders."
"What?"
"Have you noticed, that our king, has little human-brain-eating snakes growing out of his shoulders?"
"I... don't see..."
"Cyrus... are we the baddies?"

[Kunori]

Imagine being those demons forced to teach that guy how to write. Like "[sigh] Ok, do you want a more symbolic system, one based more on representing syllables, or - hey you know you might want to get a seat, I figure this'll take like a few weeks at least, and, wait do you even know what you need to write WITH? Ugh, ok, get some wood..."

[OktoberHero]

Love how Ahriman had to do a whole bunch of stuff to make Zahak evil despite being empowered and Ahura Mazda had to do ONE THING and let the domino effect take care of the rest