Indian Epics

Source:  Epified TV After watching this section of the Epified Mahabharata, I couldn't help but feel disappointed by the fact that they glossed over details of the combat between Bakasura and Bhima. I think this could serve as a great story to write.   The Battle of Bhima and Bakasura (Source:  wikimedia ) A battle to the death between the mace wielding Pandava and the evil Rakshasa would be an earth shaking melee. It would be cool to implement various fantasy elements to spice up the battle, such as having Bakasura wield some evil magic and throwing fire and lightning at Bhima. I don't want to change a lot about the characters or anything, I'd like this to serve mostly as a supplement to the Epified TV telling of the story. I just want to go into details of the fight where the video did not. I think this story could be really fun and would fill a gap in the story that the Epified folks glossed over for time or other reasons.

The time came that Drona, the master in charge of training the Pandavas, decided to test the brothers he oversaw. He took them on a journey to a far away land, a concrete jungle full of strange sounds and alien looking people. They passed under the ground, into tunnels that ran underneath the hustle and bustle of the land above them. Deep inside these tunnels, they came to a large clearing of stone. At the center stood a rat the size of a man! "Welcome, Drona. I see you have brought your disciples. I too, have my disciples prepared to fight," announced the rat. He snapped his fingers as a signal, and four shapes sprung out of hiding around the room. They danced about the floor, swinging their weapons about with pizzazz. At last, they each came into a dramatic stance in front of their master. The Pandavas could now see that these four were not humans, they were turtles! The Turtles Assemble (Source:  joshfryguy.deviantart.com ) "That was totally bodacious!...

Source:  Epified TV After watching the video on Drona training the Pandavas, I couldn't help but be reminded of the rat Splinter training the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This really made me want to write a story that mashed the two. I feel also partially inspired by Zach Terry, who has been using the formula of combining popular movies with tales from Indian epics for his portfolio. The Totally Rad Ninja Turtles (Source:  pngimg.com ) I think it could be cool to have Drona take the Pandavas out on a training exercise, and when they arrive they find Splinter and the Turtles. The story would involve a short training-fight montage between the two groups of brothers. During this time, Drone and Splinter would be subdued and taken by bad-guys. When the brothers realized their masters were gone, they would band together to get them back. All of the brothers would get to demonstrate their bodacious battle skills and their love for their masters. When their masters were ...

Source:  Epified TV Similar to the epified Krishna, I thought the epified Mahabharata was a lot easier to digest than the original versions we read. It made absorbing the story a lot easier. Cool Cover of the Mahabharata (Source:  wikipedia ) I think I could do a similar story to last week, parodying strange aspects throughout the Mahabharata like I did with Krishna. There aren't as many moments in the Mahabharata as there were in the Krishna stories, however, so I'll have to go a little more in depth on the ones that are strange. I like this style of writing that plays on the fact that some of these stories come off weird for those who were not familiar with the stories before or who did not grow up with them. It's not really making fun of the sources, but rather using them in a humorous way.

Sometimes I feel like I'm going insane.  Let me explain, I am a simple villager, I'm just a cowherd, and I live in a relatively quaint village. The new son of one of the other families here is a bit odd, but no one else seems to acknowledge this at all. Apparently the mother swears that she gave birth to a girl overnight, but found a boy in her arms the next day. Regardless, she has raised him as her own, and he has grown quite strong, quite fast.  A runaway cart rolled down the street, slamming into this little boy, who is named Krishna. Rather than harming Krishna, the cart simply exploded into tiny pieces. While everyone was relieved that he was okay, no one seemed to be asking the important questions, like how the hell did Krishna escape without ANY injuries? He's a baby for goodness sake! Oh, and did I mention that he's blue? I don't mean sad or melancholy, he's literally blue. Like his skin is a shade of deep blue. People seemed genuinely surpri...

Epified Krishna Source: Epified TV (India) After watching the rest of the Epified Krishna videos, I think making a short parody story about Krishna's stories would be really fun. The thing I was constantly noticing was how many cliche things were happening throughout each tale. At the time of the story's creation, the cliches didn't exist, but they do now.  There are also just weird things that happen, for example, everyone is surprised when he calms the snakes and they're like, "whoa, he must be an Avatar!". Why didn't they notice something was up when he has blue skin? Or the fact that Krishna's dad takes him, breaks into a woman's house, leaves Krishna there and steals the woman's daughter, returns to prison and lets Kamsa kill the girl. And no one acts like that's weird.  There's Something Strange About That Krishna... (Source:  wikimedia.org ) I would just like to poke some playful fun at some of the narrative st...

Source:  Epified TV (India) I think the story of Krishna growing up could be turned into a pretty interesting story. Specifically, I think focusing on a little child repeatedly defeating powerful beings and other accidents would be pretty amusing. I'd like to put a focus on people not realizing he's an Avatar, but rather continuing to come up with excuses for why he keeps avoiding these problems. The original story for Krishna is a little weird at times, so I think I want to just lean straight into the weirdness rather than fight it to make it more normal. Make him defeat 100 ft demons with a song on the flute and other ridiculous things. Krishna Plays the Blues (Source:  flickr.com ) I actually really liked the Epified videos. They were just the right length that it didn't feel like watching each took very long. Had they all been together it would've felt like more of a time-sink, but having them all split up made the story much more digestible.

RAVANA'S WRATH Source: Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists: Ramayana by Sister Nivedita I really liked this retelling of why Ravana wanted to kidnap Sita over the version I previously read. It was much easier to read through, feeling more like a storybook than the strange nature the older version has.  I think this could be much more easily expanded and adapted into a story of my own. Portraying Ravana as calm and collected, knowing that he shouldn't dare face Rama until his sister comes to him after being injured by Rama and Lakshmana.  Ravana Comes to Sita (Source:  wikimedia.com ) I think it would be interesting to make it so that Ravana doesn't even want Sita, but he's stealing her just because that's what he is expected to do in this situation. He would risk losing his kingship of the rakshasas if he appeared weak and afraid to strike back at Rama for his actions.

THE CROW THAT THOUGHT IT KNEW Source: Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie L. Shedlock In this tale, a crow takes to the woods during a famine and learns to catch fish to eat so that he can survive. Eventually, two more birds join him, and he shares the fish he catches with them. He eats as much as he needs to survive, and gives the rest to the other birds. Eventually, the male decides that he doesn't need to rely on the crow to catch the fish, he'll do it himself. The crow warns him not to, that he isn't capable of going under the water to snag the fish. The bird does not listen, and ends up getting caught in the weeds and drowning. The bird's wife is overcome with sorrow and returns from whence she came to an unknown future.  The King Crow (Source  pxhere ) I want to change this up a little bit, and make it so that the crow actually eats less in order to evenly split the food with the other two birds. Then, the male bird will become suspicious of t...

THE FAITHFUL FRIEND Source: Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie L. Shedlock I liked this story, and I think I could make a pretty good story of my own based on this one. I love dogs a lot, so anything with a dog in it is sure to catch my interest, just as this one did. In the original story, the elephant is simply sad and the King's helpers had to figure out why and told the people of the land that the dog should be released. Low and behold, the dog suddenly returns. The Doggo Returns Home (Source:  wikimedia ) In my story, I'd like to go through the dog's journey to return to his friend the elephant. His must have been a harrowing one, and I would tell his tale justly. A "Homeward Bound" style of story where the dog faces many trials and tribulations to return to his friend, showing he will go to any lengths to be reunited. I think this will be a fun way to put a different light on this old story, and to expand upon it rather than re-writing or...