Reading Notes: Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata, Part C
The Beginning of the War
Plot Structure
Exposition: The opposing armies are facing each other when Yudhishthira removes his armor and weapons. He goes to pay respect to the Kauravas, continuing his pointless sense of royal duty. The war then formally commences, and lots of innocent Indians begin dying for no reason because their leaders hate each other for nothing more than offenses.
Rising Action: Krishna encourages Arjuna to kill Bhishma, and Arjuna tries but cannot seem to harm him. Krishna very nearly kills Bhishma himself in violation of his oath, but Arjuna stops him. Meanwhile, Bhima kills a bunch of Duryodhana's elephants and his Kaurava brothers. Then, randomly, one of Bhima's sons decides to join the war, but instead of fighting for his father, he wants to switch sides to the losing side back and forth (why????). Instead of Bhima just trying to talk some sense into him, Krishna makes him decapitate himself to avoid dealing with his ridiculous tactic.
Climax: Shikhandin teams up with Arjuna to fulfill her birth prophecy: she kills Bhishma because Bhishma will not fight back. Bhishma gets impaled with so many arrows that they all support him as he falls, like a bed of nails. Bhishma then decides now is the time to tell the Kauravas to have peace (maybe they should have taken some action like this before the war, rather than let thousands of innocent soldiers die). However, they refuse, and Karna assumes control of the Kaurava forces.
Falling Action: Karna promises his Pandava mother Kunti that he will only kill Arjuna and leave the rest of the sons to live. Indra visits Karna and asks him to give up his earrings and armor, which Karna does, so Indra gives him a single-use spear that cannot miss its target. Bhima is still going around killing all the Kaurava brothers, and he decides to kill the one good one who has been helping them all along. Krishna encourages him that all is okay because dharma is most important. Meanwhile, Duroydhana's solution is to try to make Yudhishthira accept another gambling invitation IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR, which fails. Arjuna protects him, and his son Abhimanyu dies trying to defeat some special army formation that Drona uses. Arjuna avenges his son's death by killing Jayadratha with Krishna's help
Resolution: There is no resolution yet, as the war will continue into Part D of the reading. Bhima kills some more Kauravas, and Karna could have killed him, but he promised he would only attack Arjuna, so he does not.
Bibliography: Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata by Laura Gibbs, Part C, stories 136-150
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