Week 7 Story Planning: The Mahabharata Epified Plans

Space:  Pixabay

Source:  Epified Mahabharata Link to Video

For my next story I want to focus on the rivalry between the five brothers and the one hundred brothers.  I think I want rewrite their backstories with a twist.  It is interesting to me that the 100 brothers were described as demonic and they have a father who is blind and a mother who gave up her sight.  I want to explore why they are presented in an evil way- was it because they were not watched very well as children?  Is it because their father was greedy in wanting to inherit the throne? 

Additionally I would like to explore the backstory of the five brothers.  Are they presented as good just because their fathers were all gods?  What kind of special powers do they have because they were born from gods. It would be fun to develop each character and find out what each one can specialize in. 

This story could be interesting from sci-fi perspective.  The two sets of brothers could be from different planets.  The five brothers could easily be human or they could be descendants of gods from five other planets.  The 100 brothers could all be from the same planet and it could be a dark moon or it could be a planet with an evil god ruling it. 

The family tree in this version of the Mahabharata is much easier to understand, and now that I am following the storyline a little bit better I would like to incorporate this into my story.  I could also incorporate the mothers in the story and they could be from different planets or they could be from some of the same ones.  It would be easy to line up the different heirs to the throne and their families as rulers of different planets in an intergalactic space battle.  I mostly want to focus on the 100 brothers but I think this could be a cool twist. 

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Epified part B

The Mahabharata Family Chaos:  Wikimedia

Pandu- cursed by a hermit
Kunti- summons gods to have children
Madri- Pandu's second wife

1st son: Udishtil- stays calm always even in battle
2nd son:  Bheen- is strong and fast like the wind- was tied and pushed into the lake and attacked my snakes
3rd son:  Arjun- will become a great archer

Madri has 4th and 5th sons.  Nahkul and Zeedhev

100 sons born to the blind brother and his wife- they came from a lump of flesh put into vats of oil and they are demonic.  There are bad omens. 

This section of the story helped me to understand the family tree of the Mahabharata much better.  I have made some notes here- although the names are probably spelled badly.  I think it could be interesting to talk about the 100 sons.  That was part of the story that I did not understand when I read the book but it is intriguing.  The birth story of these sons could be twisted in many different ways.  One idea I had while watching the video is that they could be similar to aliens.  This would  make the battle interesting between all of the cousins at the end of the book. 

I think there could be a good moral in the story as well because the parents are blind.  The story could say something about how you act when nobody is watching or it could represent that the love of a mother and father is blind in many cases.  The 100 sons could have easily gotten away with anything they wanted to if they were quiet about it because their father was blind and their mother gave up her sight.  Would it have been better if she had not tried to be honorable and given up her sight?  Would her sons be more honorable if she had kept her sight and held them accountable for their actions?  Is the pride and greed of their blind father  to blame for their demonic actions? 

Source:  The Mahabharata Epified:  Link to Videos

Reading notes: The Mahabharata Epic Video Part A

The King in the River:  Wikimedia

This week, I chose to watch the Epified version of the Mahabharata.  So far I have found it much easier to understand the story because the animations help me to remember names a little bit better.  The family tree in this book is really long and complicated, nonetheless. 

I noticed more specific details about the family in the beginning.  There are a lot of similarities between Rama and Devavrata because they both just want to honor their fathers and make sure that they are happy.  Devavrata is an interesting character because he holds his vow of celibacy even after the fisherman's daughter's sons have a chance to inherit the throne.  It would make sense to me that he would go back on his vow after they all had a chance to be heirs, but he is an honorable character. 

I like the switch that they did with Devavrata and his half brother so that there could be a new heir to the throne.  It is interesting that everyone- the queens and mothers and all the people in the castle- went along with this idea. 

It could be interesting to do a story around Devavrata and his father Shantanu and his mother Ganga.  I find her story intriguing that she is a river goddess who came to earth just to have eight children.  Why did she let the last one (Devavrata) live?  I could open up this idea to make a unique story as well. 

Source:  Epified Mahabharata Videos:  Link to Videos