Story Planning: Week 7

This week, I know what story I want to do, but it hasn’t quite congealed in my mind just yet. So since it’s still all abstract and amorphous, I’m doing a story planning post for now, but I may go back tonight or tomorrow and add the planned story itself. Not for a grade, because I’ll already have that from the planning post. Just so I’ve got it done, got it hammered out into something mostly concrete, and so there’s something more interesting for people to comment on than a planning post.

One thing that struck me about both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata was the casual coexistence and exchanges between mortals and other people who were widely suspected to be/were even officially confirmed as avatars of their own gods. I always find that juxtaposition interesting—the shoulder-brushing of the everyday and the otherworldly, the fantastic—and I think I’d like to play up that dynamic in an ultra-YA setting, where that kind of thing is heightened already.

My first thought was a god of war in teenage form; I had another story option earlier in the year about a character who just wanted to keep fighting forever, never mind fighting for a cause, but I never could find the right story structure for that one till now.

Right after, though, I realized the distinction of the war god in teenage form was kind of pointless. Better to just make him a teenage war god, full stop. After all, what’s better for that than a hotheaded teen? More of a war godling, maybe; his dad is still the war god in charge at this point, and it’s not yet this guy’s time—not his fight, not his war. Anyways, I think he joins up with the local kids’ fight club scene and ends up wrecking it in the process; it was a good thing, and at first it seemed like having the war god along would just make it a better fighting ring, but he trashes it instead. It’ll never be the same now.

And if somebody calls him out on breaking everything he touches, I don’t even think he’d be mad. Just kind of tired. Because if we’re remembered for what we create or destroy, what chance did he ever have of doing anything but destroying? He’s destruction himself, bottled up and waiting.

Bibliography: Epified: The Mahabharata, by Epified TV. Source: YouTube.

Image Credit: Black and White Sport Boxer. Source: Pexels.

Reading Notes: Epified Mahabharata, Part B

KARNA. His origin story, and abandonment by his mother because he’s kind of an illegitimate son, is told here. It kind of makes me want to do a story inspired by Karna himself: the dark-edged, bitter-smiled fighter who seemingly came from nowhere but plays at the level of princes, and is eventually revealed to be a bastard prince himself. Realistically, it would probably be better suited for a longer work, but I love Karna to death, and I had to at least option it.

“The curse that had haunted Constantinople for generations had come to visit Pandu at last.”

Out of the five Pandus, I found Bhima the most interesting, so I found the description of Kunti meeting his godly father really interesting: Bhima is born out of Vayu’s “stormy embrace.” It’s pretty fitting that this stormy son is born from his father the wind god’s equally turbulent hug, and that he’s born with the wind’s strength and speed. Who knows—a story about a stormy son could be pretty fun to write, too.

The story of the blind king’s sons is really interesting here, too, delved into with more depth than the other reading I’d done. Here, the queen gives birth to a lifeless lump of flesh instead of an actual human; she’s disgusted and upset, because she had been promised a blessing of a hundred sons. V returned to keep his promise, though, and had the flesh divided into a hundred parts, each of those parts cast into a pot of oil; when the queen took them out of the pots, they were human babies. This detail has a sort of clone army/fantasy Dr. Frankenstein feel to it that I love, and it could be pretty interesting to look at what it’s like to either be or be surrounded by that miraculous, terrible army of sons.

Not to mention the fact that all sorts of terrible omens went down while the flesh lumps were cooking into babies in their pots, which the royal couple couldn’t see, being blind and all. (There’s an interesting idea: the royal family of a kingdom becoming blind once they ascend to the throne, trading physical sight for something a little more otherworldly; knowing you’ll have to be next in line to sacrifice your vision someday.)

Or the fact that the delighted mother held up her firstborn son from his pot—but because she was blind, she couldn’t see what everyone else saw: that there was something terrible about him, even demonic. “They were sons who could only be loved by a blind father, and a mother who had forsaken sight.” Yes, please. Sign me the heck up.

It also makes sense that the Pandavas and their cousins would be automatically, naturally opposed, if the Pandavas are golden demigods, more than human and loved by everyone, while the cousins are feared and slightly demonic and less-than-human to everyone.

I also appreciate that D’s anger and life quest against his cousins is more motivated here, and he’s depicted as more of a person than just a black-and-white villain. He hated his cousins because they swept in and everyone treated them like heroes where they’d treated D and his brothers with fear and suspicion, and his own uncle came to him as a mentor and warned that he’d need to wipe out the Pandavas or they would take everything from him. It goes back to that old saying—“Every villain is a hero in his own mind”—and I love getting to see his POV here.

Bibliography: Epified: The Mahabharata, by Epified TV. Source: YouTube.

Image Credit: Blindfolded by Hair, by Anemone123. Source: Pixabay.

Reading Notes: Epified Mahabharata, Part A

Maybe it’s not surprising, but this time around with the Mahabharata, a lot of the same elements struck me as before. Sometimes they stood out to me more, since this version is a bit simplified and the different drawings make it easier to keep the large cast from getting mixed up—but sometimes, I saw the stories with the exact same measures of potential as last time. That’s fine, I guess, since there were a lot of stories that went untold from my notes.

First off, I’m still intrigued about doing something with Devarat’s “terrible oath” (which gives him the new name, Bhishma, “he of the terrible oath”). Especially because this retelling frames it in such ominous consequences: it will lead to a terrible war, horrible bloodshed and consequences. Really, I see two main ways to spin this terrible oath of his: either some promise that comes back to bite him royally, or some kind of oath of revenge, which ends up setting the stage for the story.

Also, I didn’t realize the first time around that Bhishma’s dad was so upset by his son’s sacrifice in his name, or that he was the one who granted Bhishma’s ability to choose the time of his own death (seen at the end of the Mahabharata). Apparently, he granted it as a boon in return for his sacrifice of the potential of a wife and family. Interesting stuff.

Then there was also this quote, which I found really interesting: “Bhishma kept his promise. Under him, the kingdom became strong; he watched over it like a silent guardian.” A silent, watcher guardian like that—maybe watching from the shadows—is really interesting as well.

I also find it interesting that these mortals casually coexisted with other people who were widely suspected but not officially confirmed to be avatars of their gods. I always find that juxtaposition interesting—the shoulder-brushing of the everyday and the otherworldly, the fantastic—and I’m not sure how I’d use this one yet, but it’s probably the option that interests me the most so far. At this point, I'm thinking maybe a god of war in teenage form—actually, scratch that, just a teenage god of war (it makes plenty of sense that the god of war would be a hotheaded teenager, really)—joins up with the local kids' fight club scene and pretty much ruins it in the process; it'll never be the same. What's that old quote? We'll be remembered more for what we destroy than what we create? Sounds like his style.

Bibliography: Epified: The Mahabharata, by Epified TV. Source: YouTube.

Image Credit:  Dark Face by Pexels. Source: Pixabay.