Week 6 Storytelling: A War at Hand

Advisor: Sir.... Sir...
General Duryodhana: Leave me alone.
Advisor: ...but sir, we need to know what you plan to do
General Duryodhana: I have no choice. We need to keep fighting.
Advisor: You do realize that people are dying out there, right?
General Duryodhana: How could I not? HE KILLED MY BABY BROTHER.
Advisor: Sir, he did much more than just kill him.
General Duryodhana: This man is not human. Bhima cannot be controlled until he is dead. This will not end until I get my revenge. HIs brother killed our supreme commander, Bhishma. They all have killed so many in heartless ways. They shall all meet the same fate.
Advisor: How do you plan to do this?
General Duryodhana: I need to go back out there and fight them myself, in honor of those who have fallen.
Advisor: Duryodhana, do you think that is wise? They just killed Drona, Karna, Shalya, and your uncle Shukani.
General Duryodhana: I have nothing left, so why not die fighting for those I love.

LATER THAT DAY....

General Duryodhana emerges to confront his cousin, Bhima. However, Bhima saw this as an opportunity to continue his rampage and he attacked Duryodhana before he could even pull out a weapon and declare a dual. Bhima had smashed in Duryodhana's knee, as he had promised to do so long ago. Bhima explained to Duryodhana that his family had deserved it because all they put him through as a child. Duryodhana could not utter a word, for the pain was too much to bear. All he could reply with was a single tear, a tear which symbolized his sorrow that all this war could have been avoided if both sides of the family would have gave each other a chance. Bhima, still high on his adrenaline, ignored Duryodhana's last plea, and walked off leaving his cousin to die alone.

(Image Information: Duryodhana dies. Source: Slide Share)

And so the war has ended. Decades worth of resentment built up and passed on through the family has finally ended in a bloody massacre of the royal families. Yudhishthira had gained his rightful place on the throne and goes to the dying Bhisma to tell him it has all ended, and to give him the proper burial. Yudhishthira gives Bhisma's dead body back to his mother by laying him in the Ganges. As the years go on, each of the Pandavas would die, until only Yudhishthira is left, whom ascends to heaven, free from the sins of war.

Bibliography: "Duryodhana in the Lake" Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).
"The Pandavas and Bhishma" The Mahabharata, A Summary by John Mandeville Macfie (1921).
"The Pandavas Depart" Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).

Author's Note: I decided to write my story assignment about the end of the war, and chose to do it from the view of Duryodhana. Everyone probably thought that he was the bad guy in the stories, but as the epic went on, Bhima started to become disturbing to me. He was captured in battle and war and carried out terrible acts on those he murdered. He killed all of his enemies. He thrived on it, it seemed like. I wrote this piece to portray that feeling.