Reading Notes: PDE Mahabharata Part D

This whole initial couple-chapter sequence is a heck of a whirlwind of shots befitting an epic war film. The stage is set with no small amount of foreboding in the beginning. This was very effective because the description was so sensorial. The paragraph detailing the loss of Abhimanyu just about made me cry it was so emotional. Focusing on the impact his death had on his parents and on the tragedy of his being so young shows the reader the high stakes and motivations of the main protagonists going into the rest of the climactic battle.
It's also much gorier than the Ramayana, which was at first disconcerting. It's unapologetically dark and violent, and sets a far-different tone. I've heard that there is nothing more painful for a parent than the loss of their child, and these first few chapters are filled with these losses on both sides. The stakes are so very high. And then there's a scene like the one where Ashwatthaman mumbles to destroy Drona's morale, which comes off as comparatively light, while reinforcing his honorable reputation. (Though I question how he morally justified this trickery- seems like a good ol' fashioned loophole to me). And THEN blood is drunk a chapter after. The mood switch from sentence to sentence is abrupt and therefore exceptionally effective in jarring the reader, unsettling them slightly for the final sequence.
"The pale stars looked down on the dead and the dying."  The funeral sequence is devastating, and I can imagine it with a background of music like Brian Tyler's Into Eternity or the Williams music from Vader's funeral pyre at the conclusion of the original Star Wars trilogy. Ganga emerging from the river to deliver a eulogy was likewise touching and heartbreakingly sad, and adds to the significance of their deaths, as a literal goddess appeared in sorrow for the loss of comparatively insignificant human life. Truly epic in every sense of the word.

Image Info: Arjun Invokes War-Goddess, from Grant Morison's Reimagined Visual Mahabharata Anthology, 18 Days.
Source: Scoop Whoop.com. Link.

Bibliography: PDE Mahabarata. Source: Link.
Arnold
Besant
Devee
Dutt
Ganguli
Kincaid
Macfie
Mackenzie
Nivedita
Seeger
Tagore