Week 10 - Storytelling

The two great armies had finally approached each other. This star system hadn't seen this much traffic in hundreds of years. Ship after ship landed on the planet in order to drop off its load of soldiers and battle-droids. Some fighting between ships occurred in space but the numerous attack wings kept each other at bay in order for the troop transports to land without trouble. This planet was central to the system as it was a crucial re-fueling point in the sector and most traffic had to funnel through regardless, in order to bypass the numerous black holes.

Krishna had provided guidance and war-plan preparation leading up to this meeting. He knew that the Republic and the banking clans would come to war. It had been a matter of time. No amount of diplomacy, even with the Jedi council involved, could keep the banking clans from turning away from the potential profits that holding this system would bring. The Republic couldn't let this happen though. It would choke the system and some planets would suffer. Millions of lives could be affected.

Commander Yudhishthira of the Grand Republic Army walked out between the two great armies and crosses no-mans-land in order to parlay with the banking clan generals. He knew many of them and had fought alongside them in the past. He had even thought of some of them as brothers.

“What has been set into motion can  no longer be stopped. It is a shame that it has come to this but too many lives are in the balance.” Yudhishthira paused for a moment, looking around.

“I know you’re bound by eternal oath to your positions so I do not wish any ill upon you all. May you all fight and die well!”

Bhishma stood from his battle-speeder and spoke aloud for all to hear. “Yudi, I have known you for a long time. We’ve fought together more than enough for this lifetime. I wish you the best! Be strong!”

Krishna looked on at the blessings that Yudhishthira had been given before battle. He knew this would prove to be a boon for this oncoming battle. Many lives would change and end here. It was time to begin, however. Krishna drew his lightsaber and the shooting began.

The battleground was lit up by blasters and bombs for days. Soldiers from many different worlds and droids from many different manufacturers littered the battlefield. Great warriors fought with fierce dedication. Jedi and Sith met in lightsaber combat. Mandalorians were even spotted on the battlefield. Bhishma had been seen in battle numerous times, wielding his ancient vibro-staff with deadly ferocity. He was seemingly invincible. Yudhishthira knew he had to be stopped.

Bhishma's Vibro-staff
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He decided to consult with Krishna in the hopes of gaining some knowledge that would give him an edge against Bhisma. Krishna was not unaware of Bhishma’s used of the vibro-staff. It was a weapon as old as the lightsaber, designed in a more civilized time. Bhishma had to be attacked while he didn’t have his weapon for it was what gave him is incredible ability to survive.

The next day, when battle commenced, Yudhishthira set out with intentions to find Bhishma and kill him. It did not take long. Bhishma was fighting with great skill and was defeating many Republic troopers. Krishna felt that this was about to change. Yudhishthira fired his heavy blaster many times in the direction of Bhishma. He either dodged the shots or deflected them with his vibro-staff. Krishna could sense the tension in Yudhishthira’s mind. He was feeling out in the force for a weakness but his senses immediately changed.

A Republic shock-trooper had fired his kinetic rifle at Bhishma and destroyed his vibro-staff. Krishna knew that the time was now.

“Attack now, Yudi!” Krishna shouted. “His defense is down!”

Yudhishthira hesitated. “I can’t, I just can’t.”

He couldn’t bring himself to actually kill his old friend. Krishna could sense his hesitation before it even happened and decided to make a move. He drew his lightsaber and struck down Bhishma with a single heavy blow. Yudhishthira was torn. He knew that Bhishma had to be defeated but couldn’t bring himself to see his old friend struck down. It was necessary however, and Yudhishthira continued to fight with a heavy heart.

Author's Note
I decided to revisit the realm of Star Wars again with this weeks storytelling. This is a retelling of the story of Bhishma's fall from the Krishna, Defender of Dharma graphic novel that I have chosen to read for the last two weeks. I had to make a couple plot changes for the sake of brevity. The primary change is that I have Krishna killing Bhishma instead of Arjuna. This was fun to write and again came to me easily.

Author: Shweta Tanjea
Artist: Rajesh Nagulakonda

Title: Krishna: Defender of Dharma
Year: 2013

Week 10 - Reading Diary B

This reading diary covers the fourth and final section of the graphic novel Krishna, Defender of Dharma. It covers pages 102 - 151.

Krishna, Defender of Dharma

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The first story in the fourth section of this book is about the great battle of Kurukshetra. In this battle, the feud between the  Pandavas and Kauravas comes to a violent conclusion. Krishna gives aid to Yudhishthira by providing him guidance and wisdom about the coming battle. Krishna also gives guidance to Arjuna and other Pandavas in order to be successful in battle. After all of the fighting was done, the vast majority of both families had been slain in battle. One of the big things that stuck out to me about all of this was how Krishna spoke about the ideas of Dharma and Adharma. Dharma is essentially the idea that justice and righteousness will always prevail but only when people do what is necessary, even if it means doing something that doesn’t normally seem right. It makes me think of the phrase, “little evil for greater good.”

The second story in this section is about the finality of the Yadu dynasty. After the war of the Pandavas and the Kauravas was over, peace had spread all over the land. Dwarka had been affected by this as well but not in a good way. The warriors of this new peaceful era had grown lazy and arrogant and became complacent. A curse placed on Krishna set off a series of events that led to Krishna himself killing everyone while on their way to a ritual Krishna knew that the time had come for him to return to heaven and for the city of Dwarka to be reclaimed by the sea. To me, this story is about the finality of all things, even things that are good. One of the things that stuck out to me was how in peace, everyone had become arrogant and complacent. To me it shows that justice and righteousness often have to be fought for and earned.

I very much enjoyed reading this graphic novel. It provided colorful and interesting illustrations to add to everything that I was reading about the life of Krishna.

Week 10 - Reading Diary A

This reading diary covers the third of four sections from the graphic novel Krishna, Defender of Dharma. It covers pages 69 - 101.

Krishna, Defender of Dharma
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The third section covers two different stories. The first story is about how Krishna saved all of the people of Mathura from the armies of Jarasandha and Kalayavana. These two kings had decided to attack in surprise in order to overpower Krishna and take over Mathura. Krishna uses his divine powers to instantly transport all of the people from Mathura to the safe and hidden city of Dwarka. Through all of this, Krishna encounters Rukmini. She is the daughter of King Bishmaka. Rukmin, her brother, wishes for her to marry someone else. Krishna saves Rukmini from this arranged marriage and incites the rage of Rukmin and who he later defeats in combat. One of the things I really enjoyed about this story was how he was able to use his abilities to transport all of the people of Mathura to safety. It is a good illustration of his divine powers that he uses for good.

The other story covered in this section involves the Kingdom of Indraprastha. Yudhishthira was the king of Indraprastha and had requested the help of Krishna in order to properly carry out a ritual. Yudhisthira needed to be able to gain the acceptance of all of the other kingdoms before he could appropriately carry out the ritual. This would require him or someone from his kingdom of Indraprastha to defeat Jarasandha in single combat. Bheema, Arjuna, and Krishna set out to challenge Jarasandha and Bheema eventually defeats him after fighting for almost a whole month. This story helped show how wise Krishna is as well as how everyone, even the Pandavas, would seek out his guidance in their affairs.

Overall, I’m thoroughly enjoying this graphic novel. I’m looking forward to reading the last of the four sections of this book.

Week 9 - Storytelling - Reap What You Sow

This town wasn’t big enough for everyone but mayor Johnny Kansas at least thought it was. He wanted everyone to come see his famous city. Mathuson, he said, was the crown jewel of the frontier. To prove it he invited all the famous bronc riders, cow pushers, ropers, and gunslingers to help spread the word. Mr. Kansas, who was not all sunshine and rainbows, had his own past. It wasn’t clean. It wasn’t even cloudy. It was dirtier than mud. He had left a trail of blood during his younger years while gaining power and political clout. He was mayor now and that made him think that he was bulletproof.

Among the many talented men and women that had decided to take part in the various planned competitions were two brothers named Kristopher and Baldrik. They were there to make a name for themselves. Along side them both were their horses. These were good men with strong minds and clean hearts. They had experienced quite a rough upbringing but had typically lived in peace. They knew of the real Johnny Kansas and his real desires. Having just arrived in town, they decided to take a look around town.

After a couple hours looking around town, they happened upon one of the many stables strewn about the city. This was no ordinary stable though; stabled there was a world famous bronco named Tundra. No rider had ever conquered this bronc and all the talent in town wasn’t enough to beat it. Kristopher knew what was up though. He’d wrangled, wrestled, and tossed about with the best of them. He was going to make a name for himself, right now.

Baldrik watched Kristopher walk right over to Tundra.

“What are you doing?” asked Baldrik. “Nobody has ever ridden that horse.”

“Time for a change then, eh?” Kristopher responded.

A crowd already present took notice and the talk and chatter picked up. Kristopher walked right up to Tundra and began to look him over. A few voices rang out from the crowd.

“Yeah right!”

“This guy is plumb crazy.”

“He’s going to get himself killed.”

Kristopher silenced them all when he jumped on and broke that horse in a matter of minutes. The crowd erupted in cheers and chants. This drew the attention of Mayor Kansas. He arrived and saw Kristopher riding Tundra like he was a long broken and well-mannered workhorse. He couldn’t believe it. He was furious!

Kristopher conquering Tundra
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Later that day he invited Kristopher and his brother to attend a competition. It was a roping competition. Various teams were selected to see how fast they could chase down and rope a young calf. Mayor Kansas, however, meant for this to be a trap. The three other teams that Kristopher and Baldrick had to compete against began to chase them down in an attempt to rope them and kill them. The brothers were too swift! Every rope missed. Kansas’ men grew frustrated and drew their weapons. Each flipped out their twin Colt revolvers, moving with nearly identical speed and motions.This was an unfair fight though. The two brothers had put two bullets into each of the assassins before they could even get off shots of their own. Mayor Kansas couldn’t believe his eyes. His veins bulged and he spit as he yelled out.

“Whoever kills these two vermin get a thousand dollars!”

Kristopher whistled to his trusty horse and up they went into the grandstands. Baldrick fought off other hired men and outlaws.

Kristopher drew down on Johnny Kansas and said, “Your bloody trail ends here.”

Kansas drew his rifle but was far too slow for Kristopher. He was dead in a split second. This event was Kristopher's first step in becoming a legend in the Western frontier. His renown spread like wildfire and he gained the admiration of many downtrodden people for defeating Johnny Kansas.

Author’s Note

This is a retelling of a story from Krishna, Defender of Dharma. In this story, Krishna goes to the city of Mathura where Kansa is holding a competition. The brothers enter into the competition and defeat a number of men before killing Kansa and fulfilling a prophesy. I decided to retell this story in a Western style again because I’ve had a lot of fun with this style and it comes naturally to me. The plot is pretty much the same form the original story apart from name changes to fit into the Western theme. The plot follows the original story from the two brothers going to the town for a competition, the outlaws being hired by mayor Kansas to kill the brothers, and then the brothers killing the mayor. The background for this story pretty much only came from the need to change it into a Western. The image I chose was difficult to find but it works. Of the few that would have been acceptable, this one was really the only image that actually looks like it could have been from the era. My overall goal was to experiment with retelling these stories in a Western setting. So far, my Western stories work well as “Americanized” versions of the stories.

Author: Shweta Tanjea
Artist: Rajesh Nagulakonda

Title: Krishna: Defender of Dharma
Year: 2013

Week 9 - Reading Diary B

This reading diary is covering the second section of Krishna, Defender of Dharma. It covers pages 37 - 68.



Krishna, Defender of Dharma
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Immediately, one of the things that stood out to me was right on the first page of the second section. Young Krishna's mother saw that he was chewing on something. When she looked into his mouth she saw the universe. This stuck out to me because it helps to illustrate that Krishna is no ordinary boy. Most of this second section is about Krishna's exploits during his adolescence while living in Vrinadavan. He and his brother Balarama are constantly attacked by Kansa's assassins but they come out victorious every single time. Eventually, the two brothers go to a wrestling competition in Mathura and because very famous. In doing so they gain the attention of Kansa who calls them out and challenges them. Krishna uses this moment to strike out at Kansa and kill him, fulfilling a prophesy about his death. Krishna and Balarama end up being deified because of this.

I enjoyed this section as it details Krishna's exploits and victories of evil. I look forward to reading the second half of this graphic novel.

Week 9 - Reading Diary A

I will be reading Krishna, Defender of Dharma for the next two weeks. This is a graphic novel written by Shweta Taneja and illustrated by Rajesh Nagulakonda.

Krishna, Defender of Dharma
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Section 1 - Pages 1-36

This is a very neat and interesting graphic novel. I like how the illustrations show more detail to add to what I'm reading on the page. This first section shows how Indra called on the help of Vishnu in order to bring peace back to the land. It also shows the origin of Vishnu's avatar Krishna. Kansa however was aware of his own demise and set out to have Krishna killed before he could grow up. He does this by sending out demons to kill all of the newborns in the village of Gokul. The end of this section shows where the villagers of Gokul decide to move to a more peaceful area in order to escape the obvious threat to Krishna and everyone else around.

Overall i'm enjoying this graphic novel so far. The writing is easy to follow and the illustrations are very colorful and detailed.

Reading Plan

I have to decided to branch out and cover a range of topics for the next six weeks. I am first going to start out with the graphic novel Taneja. Krishna. This looks like it will be interesting. I have yet to read any of the Indian literature in graphic novel form  and I look forward to learning more about Krishna's exploits. This first topic will cover 2 weeks.

The following two weeks I will read Chopra. Ramayan 3392 AD Vol. 1. This is also a graphic novel. This is a retelling of the Ramayana in a future dystopian setting. I've always enjoyed reading and even video games that take place in a dystopian setting so this should be interesting.

At this point I'm left with two more weeks worth of reading. I'm not quite sure what I will do but I may end up doing a couple more of the one week graphic novels or perhaps some of the free online reading.

There are so many options!!!
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