(Image: Pandavas Exile Source: Quora)
Reading through the stories this week, I still enjoy the benefit of the narrative perspective. The story is so much more digestible when written in a novelesque format. These stories seemed to have more consistent POV characters than the last couple of chapters– the perspective of the chapter didn't swap between several different characters in the span of a few paragraphs. The focus of the story, especially the first few chapters, seemed to dwell on Dhrtarastra, which was a strange choice to me. As far as the Kuarava go, it seems as though Duryodhana is the top dog, and it's his extreme dislike of the Pandavas that drives them into exile. I understand Duryodhana's fear of the Pandavas, but I never really empathized with his character. In a book full of noble heroes, Duryodhana sticks out like a sore thumb. He is a powerful warrior, but he is greedy, arrogant, and stubborn. His treatment of the Pandavas removes any sort of likeability that his positive traits lend him. I know that this is probably the point, I just expected the conflict between the two families to be a bit more even-keeled, but the Pandavas are just more likable and heroic than the Kuavaras (with the exception of Bhishma).
The action scenes are also much more fun to read in this format than the summary format. Bhima is a real stud, wouldn't want anyone at back in a Raksasa fight. Overall, the narrative format has helped me understand character motivations better as well as clarifying for me the timeline of the story,
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