#in the pandavas

[queenofapeacefuldawn]

Brynne, who has the strength of a thousand elephants, regularly picks up Aiden in public in a fireman's carry just to see the passersby's reactions

Aiden, exasperated: Bee why are you doing this

Brynne: What are sisters for, if not irritating their siblings

Aiden, his voice cracking: Oh.

[writergracethepanda]

Using the word 'wifey' is cringe and mysogenistic unless you are three teenaged girls who just found out your male best friend was your collective wife in a gender swapped past life.

[zeherili-ankhein]

I think Arjun was the only middle child ever to be more popular than his brothers.... Because other than that all middle childs are forgotten

[sleep-can-wait]

The only fictional relationships I'm interested in and obsess over have the character's s/o's nickname as either:

Love

My darling god/My sweet nemisis

Darling

My dear

My dark benevolent queen

OR something like:

Snob/Troll/Wifey/[Last name]

Seaweed brain/Wise girl

Sarge

OTHERWISE I DONT WANT IT

[krsnaradhika]

can I ask about what the drama around "palace of illusions" is about and why it's bad?

Hey! Sure thing. Lemme list my problems with the book :-

1) The author presents Karna as some tragic hero compelled to be in the company of Duryodhana who clearly committed multiple murder attempts, went on to sexually harrass his sister-in-law and troubled another woman during the Ghosha yatra. Karna was NOT an outcaste. He was a Suta— meaning one with a Brahmin mother and a Kshatriya father. Adhiratha, Karna's adoptive father, was a wealthy man as he was Bhishma's charioteer. Keep in mind that charioteers used to play important roles in warriors' lives - as advisers, close friends and well-wishers. Krishna was the charioteer of Arjuna. Karna had all the opportunities the Pandavas didnt. He had parents who loved him, while the Pandavas were left halfly orphaned with the death of Pandu and Madri. Veda Vyasa describes Karna as "the trunk of the tree of adharma".

2) The Karna Draupadi ship is bullshit because Karna called the latter a whore during the disrobing sequence as well as presented the idea of "there should be no clothes on servants." Yes, Karna was the one who suggested her public sexual assault. She had blood stains on her garment and was dragged into the court of nefarious men by her hair. People who blame her for the assault inflicted on her are sick and need serious psychological help. You cannot defend attempted rape as one with working braincells.

3) So, shipping a victim with her abuser is not fun y'all. This is not some mentally unstable wattpad dark romance. It's itihāsa. The true history of Bhāratavarsha. Let's draw the line. She was an ekavastraa (meaning a woman in a single cloth, as she was menstruating) during the attempt at disrobing, and the man who called for it shouldn't be hailed. Karna also lied to Parashurama of his caste due to which he got cursed, had an unhealthy obsession with Arjuna and because he wanted to kill him for competition, Drona did not provide him with the knowledge of celestial weapons.

4) It is an ignominy against Lady Draupadi to ship her with anyone apart from her husbands because clearly, the Mahabharata says that she's Indra's wife Shachi while the Pandavas are the cursed five Indras of different kalpas. It is . . . not nice to ship one's wife with another man. It is creepy. Draupadi is one of the panchakanya, one of the five pious women whose names if chanted with sincerity wash off one's sins. She expresses her pride over her husbands multiple times in the text because all of them cherish her to no end. Yudhishthira does not hesitate on the fact that Draupadi is the five brothers' fortune, calls her ‘Kalyani’. Bhima kills Keechaka for her, threatening the revealing of their identities. Arjuna becomes Brihannala and spends most of the time near her during the incognito. In the book, however, the Pandavas do not give a damn about her. Yikes.

5) The book says that Draupadi faced prejudice because of her dark skin. I call bullshit again because Madreya Nakula, Partha Arjuna, Krishnatmika Devi Rukmini according to the Harivamsha, Devi Shri Jambavati (who is said to have a blue lotus like complexion), and lastly Shri Rama and Shri Krishna themselves are dark according to our scriptures. And, none of them faced discrimination because of it. Kanha is in fact called "Bhuvansundar" - the most beautiful one on the earth while Draupadi herself is hailed as one of the most beautiful women canonically.

6) Draupadi was never attracted to Karna. Neither did she pine for him, as the author portrays. Sheesh. Please please, we do whatever with human characters. But with divine ones, you have to be careful with the message you get across. This book is saying that ancient india was casteist and colorist, literally the times when the son of a fisherwoman, Veda Vyasa became a Brahmin and the said fisherwoman went on to become a queen mother of one of the most influential dynasties back then. Krishna was raised a cowherd, though a prince. He went on to become the most erudite diplomat and established Dvaraka, which was en engineering marvel as it was constructed on reclaimed land.

7) According to the author . . . Draupadi felt something more than just friendship for Krishna too. Heavens, I can't do this. Let's normalise a man and a woman being just friends now, shall we? Krishna is Mahavishnu, he's not supposed to invoke romantic feelings in Draupadi who is Shachi, Indra's wife. Indra and Upendra (Vishnu) are brothers, since Vāmanadeva was born of Mata Aditi's womb, who is Indra's mother and of all the Adityas' too.

[ssj2hindudude]

[meghavahana]

In trouble with Karna and 99 others.

[stxrrynxghts]

Thinking about how Bhishma loved the children of his father, then the children of his brother, and then the children of his nephews, cherishing them like his very own. Perhaps he loved them more than he would have loved his own children. He must have let them climb on top of his shoulders. He must have let them play with his hair and beard. He must have kissed their tiny bellies as they burst into giggles. He must have held their fingers as they tried to walk for the first time. He must have let them sleep in his lap, all day long. He must have taught them how to ride a horse, how to hold a bow, how to swing a sword.

He must have cried as he turned his weapons against them.

He must have cried as he saw them die, one by one.

He must have cried as his blood and tears mixed into one.

[hazellevessque]

“I can explain…”

“No, you can’t”

“Wait, I know you”

“No, you don’t.”

“You’re were in the infirmary that night,”

“Yes, I’m Annabeth,”

“Are you stalking me, Annabeth?”

“Yes.”

This girl has no chill and I am here for it.

This scene was so Aruden

[seohyun0306]

I’m by no means an expert on the Mahabharata or Hinduism in general (I’d say my knowledge on Hinduism especially is rather limited) but am I wrong in thinking that the game was rigged against Duryodhana from the start?

There’s no denying that he’s far from a saint and some of the things he did were awful but I feel like he’s portrayed as such a completely morally black and bankrupt character when it’s sort of far from that.

Like as far as major characters are concerned, he’s the only one who has absolutely no interest or regard in the caste system whatsoever. There’s like three speeches of his that very very clearly show that. His intervention with Karna at their first meeting, although perhaps partly due to opportunism depending on your interpretation, is one of the most honourable scenes in the entire epic to me.

Not once has he ever even implied that Karna’s caste is of any importance and throughout their entire relationship, there was no one who he treated with more love and respect than Karna. Even in general, it’s well established that his judgements of people are based on their individual qualities and not caste.

Again, not saying that he was a good guy at all but he was also known for being generous and a good ruler. He’s almost always interpreted as a power hungry yet incompetent person but that’s also far from the truth. He was Balarama’s favourite student which means that there was a lot of good about him or why would someone like Balarama even bother with him?

Also, being told that on the day of his birth his uncle told his father to kill him and then his mother saying she should have killed him, is not something that anyone should hear lmfao so I think, in certain aspects, his anger is justified.

It’s also very clear that from the start, Krishna was against him. Every act of his towards Duryodhana was deliberately meant to sabotage him in some way. Even Balarama acknowledged this so it’s basically a matter of fact.

So yeah, I’m not saying he was a good guy or that he’s just some misunderstood pookie but I think that not acknowledging some of his very good traits and the fact that everything was rigged against him since day 1 is a disservice to the whole point of the epic.

I hope I didn’t offend anyone with this. I know for over a billion people the Mahabharata is a religious text and the last thing I want to do is disrespect that regardless of whether I believe in it or not. I’d really like to hear some of your opinions on this take and I’m also really keen on engaging with people about the epic in general <3

[book-girl4evaaa]

Brynne Rao needs more love. Reblog if you love Brynne Rao

[aru-loves-krishnaxarjuna]

Yudhishthir: when i die, i want to be remembered as the best Chakravarti Samrat

Bheem: when i die, i want to be remembered as the strongest man alive

Nakul: when i die i want to be remembered as the most handsome man to exist

Sahadev:...it is ominous to speak of death so i cease to be out of this conversation

Draupadi: when i die, i know i will be remembered as the wife of one talented, manasvi, woman and four idiot, stupid, men

Krishna and Arjuni: *snorts*

The Pandava brothers:...

Arjuni: when i die—

Krishna: bold of you to assume i am going to let that happen!

[thx-sunsxts-addrxss]

FREE PALESTINE. REBLOG THE SUFFERING. SHOW PEOPLE WHAT’S TRULY HAPPENING.

TO EVERYONE SCROLLING PAST ALL THE POSTS ON ‘FREE PALESTINE’ I HATE YOU. TO EVERYONE LIKING AND NOT REBLOGGING, I HATE YOU. I HATE YOUR VERY EXISTENCE.

DOES IT KILL YOU TO REBLOG? NO. BUT IT KILLS THEM IF YOU DONT. SO FUCKING REBLOG. IF YOU SCROLL PAST THIS, ALL IT DOES IS ADD SOMETHING TO YOUR CRIMINAL RECORD. BECAUSE OF YOU, SOMEONE MIGHT NOT EVEN BAT AN EYE TO THIS GENOCIDE. BECAUSE OF YOU, PALESTINE COULD BE LOSING NUMBERS EVERY MINUTE. BECAUSE OF YOU, CHILDREN ARE GETTING WIPED OUT.

HOW HEARTLESS MOST OF THE WORLD IS.

I AM NOT PALESTINIAN. I AM NOT MUSLIM. I AM NOT JEWISH, NOR AM I ISRAELI. I AM SOMEONE WITH OPEN EYES AND COMMON SENSE, AND A HEART. AND IT IS TOO BAD THAT MOST PEOPLE, PARTICULARLY PRO-ISRAEL OR ZIONISTS, DO NOT HAVE THIS.

YOU. YES, YOU. CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. OPEN YOUR EYES. LOOK AT THE SCARED FACES OF EVER PALESTINIAN AND I DARE YOU TO THINK THEY ARE THE CRIMINALS. I DARE YOU TO THINK ISRAEL IS THE VICTIM. I DARE YOU. DARE YOU THINK THIS, YOU ARE SUPPORTING GENOCIDE.

THEY WANT YOU TO THINK WHAT THEY SAY. THEY WANT YOU TO BELIEVE THEM. IF YOU HAVE SO MUCH BELIEF THAT YOU CAN BELIEVE THESE BLATANT LIES, YOU HAVE ENOUGH TO BELIEVE IN THE REAL VICTIMS HERE.

[sleep-can-wait]

wait are all rosh's books connected??? like in the star-touched queen there's the otherworld and in the gilded wolves enrique's last name is mercado-lopez wow am i the only one who realised this just now????

[lucyshypemaster]

what is up with authors always putting their middle-grade fantasy protagonists through the most traumatic events that can even break a full-grown adult

[ssj2hindudude]

Me in the library in middle school:

Me in the library now: