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!
"That was totally bodacious!" one turtle called out to the others.
"Yeah, radical dude!" the others responded in unison, offering each other high fives.
The rat coughed, and the turtles straightened out, assuming their battle stances once more. "You have brought the mighty Pandavas brothers here, and they will face another set of brothers, the Ninja Turtles."
Without another word, all nine brothers rushed forward at each other, weapons clashing loudly in the cramped tunnels. The masters stood back, admiring their students and sharing insight with each other. Although all the brothers fought fiercely, they were keenly aware that this was not a battle to the death, simply a friendly sparring match. Regardless, Bhima swung his mace with all his might, and Arjuna released arrow after arrow with no hesitation.
One turtle wielded two blades at once, and was dueling Nakula and Sahadeva to a standstill. Another used his quarterstaff to block and redirect every one of Bhima's strikes, and each of Arjuna's arrows were dodged or sliced by the sais of a third turtle. The last turtle swung his nunchuks wildly, somehow keeping the mighty Yudhishthira at bay.
All the turtles and the Pandavas were enjoying their battle, sending quips back and forth at and between each other. After the battle had raged for awhile, they all suddenly seemed to notice that something was not quite right. They stopped their fighting in unison, and each scanned the room. There was nothing of note besides themselves in the room, and that was the problem...
"Wait, where has Drona gone?" asked Bhima as he continued to search the room with his mace raised above his head, prepared to strike.
The turtle wielding the sais emulated Bhima's actions, calling out for his own master. "Master Splinter? No, not again..."
As the brothers scattered about, frantically searching for where their masters had gone, two of them met in the center of the room. The turtle who wielded twin blades met Yudhishthira, saying, "You seem to be the one 'in charge' around here, think you can round your brothers up?" As Yudhishthira did, the turtle did the same. "Our masters are both gone. They can't have just wandered off on their own, we have to find them. Together."
All of the brothers, human and turtle nodded their heads in agreement. Yudhishthira spoke for all of the brothers, "Where do we start..."
Author's Note:
When I watched the Epified Mahabharata video on Drona training the Pandavas, I instantly drew a connection to Splinter training the Ninja Turtles. Even down to parallels between Yudhishthira and Leonardo and between Bhima and Raphael. As soon as I finished the video, I knew that I wanted to make my story a combination of the two in some way. I played around with combining elements from both and fusing them, much like Zach Terry's portfolio stories. I decided to go a different route, however, choosing instead to have the turtles and the Pandavas meet and spar with each other. Initially, I planned to have the battle, the loss of their masters, and the retrieval all in one story. Instead, I ended this story after the brothers decided to join forces and I will finish the story for my storytelling next week. This will allow me to create a longer, more detailed story by spreading things out over two full weeks. I am pretty happy with how this story turned out, and it was a blast to write. I feel like I could have used more of the classic TMNT slang, but I didn't want to take too much away from the details of the Pandavas. I was afraid of making the story seem too much about the turtles and not enough about the Indian epics story.
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!" one turtle called out to the others.
"Yeah, radical dude!" the others responded in unison, offering each other high fives.
The rat coughed, and the turtles straightened out, assuming their battle stances once more. "You have brought the mighty Pandavas brothers here, and they will face another set of brothers, the Ninja Turtles."
Without another word, all nine brothers rushed forward at each other, weapons clashing loudly in the cramped tunnels. The masters stood back, admiring their students and sharing insight with each other. Although all the brothers fought fiercely, they were keenly aware that this was not a battle to the death, simply a friendly sparring match. Regardless, Bhima swung his mace with all his might, and Arjuna released arrow after arrow with no hesitation.
One turtle wielded two blades at once, and was dueling Nakula and Sahadeva to a standstill. Another used his quarterstaff to block and redirect every one of Bhima's strikes, and each of Arjuna's arrows were dodged or sliced by the sais of a third turtle. The last turtle swung his nunchuks wildly, somehow keeping the mighty Yudhishthira at bay.
All the turtles and the Pandavas were enjoying their battle, sending quips back and forth at and between each other. After the battle had raged for awhile, they all suddenly seemed to notice that something was not quite right. They stopped their fighting in unison, and each scanned the room. There was nothing of note besides themselves in the room, and that was the problem...
"Wait, where has Drona gone?" asked Bhima as he continued to search the room with his mace raised above his head, prepared to strike.
The turtle wielding the sais emulated Bhima's actions, calling out for his own master. "Master Splinter? No, not again..."
As the brothers scattered about, frantically searching for where their masters had gone, two of them met in the center of the room. The turtle who wielded twin blades met Yudhishthira, saying, "You seem to be the one 'in charge' around here, think you can round your brothers up?" As Yudhishthira did, the turtle did the same. "Our masters are both gone. They can't have just wandered off on their own, we have to find them. Together."
All of the brothers, human and turtle nodded their heads in agreement. Yudhishthira spoke for all of the brothers, "Where do we start..."
Author's Note:
When I watched the Epified Mahabharata video on Drona training the Pandavas, I instantly drew a connection to Splinter training the Ninja Turtles. Even down to parallels between Yudhishthira and Leonardo and between Bhima and Raphael. As soon as I finished the video, I knew that I wanted to make my story a combination of the two in some way. I played around with combining elements from both and fusing them, much like Zach Terry's portfolio stories. I decided to go a different route, however, choosing instead to have the turtles and the Pandavas meet and spar with each other. Initially, I planned to have the battle, the loss of their masters, and the retrieval all in one story. Instead, I ended this story after the brothers decided to join forces and I will finish the story for my storytelling next week. This will allow me to create a longer, more detailed story by spreading things out over two full weeks. I am pretty happy with how this story turned out, and it was a blast to write. I feel like I could have used more of the classic TMNT slang, but I didn't want to take too much away from the details of the Pandavas. I was afraid of making the story seem too much about the turtles and not enough about the Indian epics story.
Ahoy Cal! The Ninja Turtles are among the greatest things to ever come from humanity. You’re dialogue was on point. Those phrases are definitely things the turtles would have said. Maybe not in that context, but they have said those things at some point in the comics and shows I am sure of it. One thing I think would have helped the story is if you would have added the Trademark symbol every time you said Ninja Turtles. For example: the Ninja TurtlesTM.
ReplyDeleteIt didn't do the TM sign in the exponent :(
DeleteHey Callum!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your story “The Many Brothers.” Further, I thought your story flowed very well. Also, I think you did a good job at incorporating dialogue between your characters I think it made your story just that much better. Also, the image you used complemented your story really well! Overall, I think you did a great job on your story and I can’t wait to see what you come up with next!
Hello, nice to meet you Callum!
ReplyDeleteI just finished up reading your story from the week 14 story post "The Many Brothers". The way you made connections between the tennage mutant ninja turtle and Drona training the Pandavas was really cool. I did not see that connection initially , but it is definetely there. Also thank for mentioning me in your note:)
Hi Callum! I really enjoyed reading your story! I like the way you subtly worked in the quintessential comic book trope of trading pithy sayings back and forth during a fight. You also did a really great job of describing the fight scene. You included a lot of details without bogging the story down or stunting the flow of the scene. Good job.
ReplyDeleteHey there, Callum! I just looked over you latest story on your blog, “Week 14 Story: The Many Brothers”. I really like that you used a video that you watched rather than a story that you read. I did not have the opportunity to do that this semester, but now that I have read your story I wish I would have!
ReplyDeleteHi, again, Callum! First of all, this is tiny, but I love that the first line of your posts are in a different color! I grew up watching the Ninja Turtles so I think that it is so cool that you incorporated that in to your story! Relating them to an Indian epic is so creative. Thanks for sharing your story!
ReplyDelete