The first thing that caught my interest was the story “Karna the Kshatriya,” in which Karna’s new master took a nap and rested his head on Karna’s thigh, and a scorpion came along and bit Karna while his master was sleeping. Not wanting to wreck his master’s nap, Karna ignores the pain, waiting till the older man wakes up. But when he does wake up, instead of being grateful for Karna’s sacrifice, he kicks him out—only a warrior could withstand that kind of pain, he says, and Karna knows he doesn’t train warriors. I love the fact that Karna tried to hard to be good, but that was the very thing that gave him away—that got him punished and kicked out for what he was. I’d probably take this down a monster route, because that’s just who I am, but we’ll see.
Also, in “Karna Becomes King,” there’s the fact that “surprisingly, it was Duryodha who came forward and gave Karna a chance.” Yes, he was giving him a chance against his own cousins, so it benefitted D—but throughout the rest of the story, he and Karna are actually good friends to each other, and treat each other with care and loyalty. More loyalty than the “good guys” ever show each other, in a way. Thick as thieves, I guess, but I like that aspect of the villains being more loyal and tightly-knit than the heroes. Anyways, I’m always down for a story involving antiheroes or criminals or petty crime.
Also, there’s not much about “Wax Palace Conspiracy” that I actually find interesting, but dang, that title. That title deserves to be spun off into its own story. I’m feeling horror, maybe with a little bit of supernatural/fantasy, but we’ll see.
In “Bhim Kills Bakasur,” the Pandavas come to a town where villagers rotate in being chosen to deliver food to a local monster—whereupon the monster, you know, eats the deliverer too. The nice old scholar they meet is slated to play delivery boy and also for death, but Bhima takes his place, then uses that in to kill the monster. I like the idea of the MC agreeing to turn himself over to a local terror figure or crime boss in order to infiltrate the organization, take it down from the inside—you know his plan and the risks, and you learn over time why he’s doing it, what his personal stake is. But the story itself just ends with him meeting the monster or crime boss or whoever and playing nice, starting the process—so you don’t know how it turns out. A taste of what’s to come, only it never actually does come.
In “The Birth of Draupadi,” a little after Draupadi was born to her father from fire and sacrifice, it was predicted that she would be “the cause of the destruction” of many warriors. Of course, that ended up being because people fought and died to be her husband, which is a little bit anticlimactic, not to mention stupid of the suitors. But I love the idea of this daughter being born of vengeance and flames and then becoming Daddy’s Little Enforcer, the dark, crackling shadow of a girl who goes around taking out enemies of the kingdom or anyone else her dad sends her after.
Bibliography: Epified: The Mahabharata, by Epified TV. Source: YouTube.
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