The struggle for power in Palse continues as Arislan takes refuge in the city of Peshawa, and assembles his confidants and allies to devise a plan against his impetuous cousin, the silver-masked Hermes.

Unrest abounds in Arislan's camp, as Lord Narsus, the coy dilettante, has second thoughts about Arislan's capabilities as a leader. Arislan's other allies begin to doubt him as well. Gieve, the thief-turned-acolyte, considers turning Arislan over to the enemy for a cash reward. It becomes more difficult to determine which of Arislan's allies will remain loyal until the final battle.

With the addition of the Shindah army and their pachyderm cavalry, Arislan's troops now number over one hundred thousand. However, Hermes vanquishes General Giscal's nearby garrison in less than a day and embattles his militia within Giscal's subjugated castle. Hermes utilizes this time to formulate a scheme to extirpate the steadfast Arislan and his stalwart supporters.

While both sides contemplate their next move, new warriors emerge in the land of Eco Bahtan. The mighty One-Eyed Lion and Heltash join forces and set off with Marian's blind princess, Ileana, to confront Hermes. But will they prove to be friends or foes?

As both armies prepare for their final confrontation, a dark priest reveals that fate may have already determined the outcome. The shadowy figure recounts the legend of the Sacred Sword of Sovereignty which states that whoever shall draw this weapon will be the true king, a dawning that would seem to invalidate the war for the Palsean throne entirely.

The Arislan saga ends in Part 3 and 4, however "ends" does not mean a conclusion for the Palsean dilemmas.

In standard action movie rubric, a lot of the narrative involves setting up the final confrontation or battle. Clint Eastwood doesn't just ride up and shoot the bad guys in the first act, the Death Star doesn't explode before it demonstrates its awesome power to the alliance, and ET doesn't shoot the moon until he almost dies in the bubble wrapped house. The convention of set-up provides a sense of satisfaction at the end of an unfolding narrative. "The Heroic Legend of Arislan's" plot ignores this crucial aspect of storytelling, as well as any other progressive alternative, and ends without so much as a firecracker.

After investing two hours in the first two parts, logically the last two parts should provide some closure in this saga. They don't. Instead of resolving problems and sewing up gaping holes in "Arislan's" voluminous narrative, the final "Arislan" installment (combining episodes 3 and 4 on a single one-hour tape) raises more questions in an already tangled plot, and introduces more characters to an already over-populated cast.

These new cast members are even more unnecessary than their predecessors. Arislan, Daryoon, Narsus and Gieve already provide a more than adequate good-guy presence in the series just as Silvermask, Zante, and their cronies fulfill their roles as the minions of evil to the point of overkill. Now, in the final chapters of the story, the One-Eyed Lion and Heltash lumber into the plot, clumsily complicating matters further. Are they good guys? Are they bad guys? No one knows. Silvermask makes new acquaintances, too. Fifteen minutes before the movie ends, he begins talking with a new dark wizard, despite the three or four others on his payroll from previous episodes.

The wizard speaks about the Sword of Sovereignty and how it possesses the power to determine the true ruler of Palse. If this thing really exists, why hasn't anyone mentioned using it before? It would save a lot of time wasted on riding around on horses, sword fighting and sitting around brooding about how much everyone hates their enemies. Anyway, no one finds this occurrence strange and the story continues unfettered.

Actually, the story plods right through the end of the movie, or rather, the erroneously termed "end." After all this time preparing to slaughter each other, the two armies finally face down - soldiers stand ready with swords, cavalrymen sit upon their steeds. Then one of the characters starts spouting off a bunch of psycho-babble about the nature of men and how deep and meaningful everything should be. Jump cut to a shot of Arislan musing on his horse, and then ... the movie stops.

This is arguably a stroke of genius on the filmmakers' part, leaving the ending so open-ended, virtually impregnated with existential wonder. Yeah right. The abrupt ending annoys, frustrates and enrages because after spending so much time and energy trying to figure out the entangled plotlines, it would be nice to see a conclusion to this cinematic fiasco. This movie is all setup and no payoff with a pseudo-philosophical climax worthy of end notes on "Fantasy Island."

The conclusion of "The Heroic Legend of Arislan" is much like the rest of the series - an astonishing disappointment.