Yudhishthira is said to be the most judicial of the brothers, but then, according to this account, he seems to make the poorest decisions. I understand him agreeing to the gambling match in order to avoid the prophecy, but he doesn't need to keep going like he did. He definitely didn't need to go back after that close call either.
The gambling match might be a good point to through this bit of mythos off the rails in my storybook.
Arjuna actually seems to be the best example of a kshatriya so far in the epic. He goes through trials and tribulations after walking in on Yudhishthira and Draupadi. Then, he goes through a period of hard training after being exiled with his brothers, and it sounds like he might be the key to the coming war. He seems to be the hero of the story.
It's interesting that Krishna couldn't interfere in the gambling matches. He's demonstrated the ability to know the future, present, and past at once. So, he must have known that the events would lead to the destruction of an entire race. To me, that seems like something worth preventing, so what was he doing that was so important?
The twins haven't been very important to the story at all up to this point. They've been mentioned on the side every once in a while, and that's the only reason I remember they even exist. I'm wondering if Narayan has skipped anything in the story about them or if they'll become more important later.
Ok, so the story of Arjuna praying to the gods for weapons and boons reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from the Matrix. When Neo and Trinity are about to take on the agents, Neo ask for guns, "lots of guns".
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| "lots of guns" from the Matrix Source |
Bill, just to say that I laughed out loud when I saw the image here. Arjuna as Neo. Brilliant. Now I am imagining a mashup of Mahabharata and Matrix... which could be really really REALLY cool. If I had a billion dollars to spare, I might hire the Wachowskis to make it! :-)
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