#both of them connecting with the hungry one with karna choosing to give everything for it

[rainedroptalks]

Karna “In the end we are all rot” Solara vs Liam “The Bulb does not regard you. The Hungry One does not regard you” Wilhelmina in battle of “fucked up teens who are way too connected to this world’s version of satan”

[as-the-stars-foretold]

रे दानवीर​—

कस्य धर्मम् अनुसरति?

भवान् कार्यं कस्य कृते करोति?

भवत: कर्तव्यं किम्? कर्तव्यं कस्य कृते?

O, generous one Whose path of life do you follow? For whom do you do your work? What is your duty? Who is your duty for?

(Alternate shots and thought process/explanation under the cut!)

(Click for better quality – Tumblr kills it </3) Free to use/save with credit and/or a reblog!

OKAY. YAP TIME. This is a Hindu mythology/Mahabharata AU, and this art specifically is of Wolfwood as Karna. I'll explain who Karna is first + give context about his role in the Mahabharata, and then explain the symbolism and everything.

Who is Karna and what is his role in the story?

Karna was the illegitimate son of Kunti and Surya, the sun god. Due to being unmarried and young at the time, Kunti put Karna in a basket of sorts and allowed the river to carry him away where he was later found by his adoptive mother and father.

Thanks to his divine heritage, Karna was born with a kavach and kundal— a chest plate and earrings. These were immensely strong, even to the point of being unaffected by celestial weapons, and, most importantly, they were inherent to his being. I mean that very literally: the chest plate and earrings were literally parts of him. Taking them off would leave him bloodied and vulnerable (cough cough).

Eventually, through his prowess with archery, he made his way to the Kaurava palace–the Kauravas being the corrupted, power-hungry side of the conflict (oversimplification, but the Mahabharata is way too long for me to summarize here)–and became fast friends with Duryodhana, the leader of the 101 Kaurava cousins. Now, the issue with that is that his half-brothers, the Pandavas, were technically the rightful heirs to the kingdom, Hastinapura. This is where Karna's conflict begins: who does he have a responsibility towards? The family that housed and loved and fed him, despite the wrongdoings they were committing, or the family that was his birthright?

In the Mahabharata, Karna chooses the family who raised him, hurt by the fact that his mother gave him up. While this seems like a perfectly logical decision, the fact is that the Kauravas were cruel and deceitful— adharmi, or straying from the path of righteousness. In enabling and aiding them, when he had a responsibility to his blood family AND to keep the Kauravas from committing evils, Karna damned himself.

That isn't to say that he was a horrible person, however— he was notoriously humble and generous (which is the epithet that I used in the title!), incredibly dedicated to his cause and his family, and burdened with the knowledge that his birth mother gave him up. Karna is a morally grey character: put into his shoes, we, too, would struggle with choosing a side.

Leading up to Karna's death, during the war, Lord Indra, disguised as a brahmin, asked for his kavach and kundal. Karna gave them away without hesitation, leaving himself bloodied and vulnerable. This tremendous, selfless display of generosity is the main sticking point for so many people; how can a person so devoted and so generous be wholly evil?

I'm sure that idea rings true for many of you, since it's a point of contrition in Trigun, too. This leads me to the next part:

Why is Wolfwood Karna? What does this imply?

If you're familiar with Karna or you read my explanation up there, I'm sure you can see the connections now. Both Wolfwood and Karna struggle with choice— who do they have a duty towards? Karna has to choose between the two sides of his family and, symbolically, between right and wrong. Wolfwood has to choose between his obligation to Hopeland Orphanage (and, by extension, Knives as his contractor) and the obligation he brought upon himself in regards to Vash's ideals/quest. The conflict is near analogous: he's stuck between the people who raised and loved him, and the people who are working for a better future.

Another important thing to consider is Karna's generosity and how he, quite literally, gave someone the skin off his back. Wolfwood, too, is unerringly generous— he posits himself as selfish and mean, but he gave up everything for the people he cared about: his adolescence, his morals, his basic nature, his life. They are both so, so generous, and it leads to their downfalls.

Finally, the most important thing to remember is that neither Karna not Wolfwood are inherently good or bad. They're humans making very human choices. They're both selfish, yes, but they're also generous and kind and caring. In the end, Karna recognizes his mistakes and regrets what he's done, and Wolfwood, similarly, is forced to make peace with what he did and how his life has come to an end.

Artistic choices!

Wolfwood's arm bands and bracelets are gold and mimic both the Eye of Michael's insignia as well as the sun(s), which is a nod to Karna.

He's shown holding his kavach instead of wearing it to symbolize both his dedication and generosity (again, a nod to the original story), as well as to serve as his cause of death. He's forsaken his protection for what he believes in and wants to protect. In my original planning, the kavach and kundal were actually way more analogous to the EoM juice lol.

I replaced the Punisher with a crossbow because a giant cross-shaped gun would, unfortunately, be even more idiosyncratic than a crossbow (apparently ancient mainland India didn't have crossbows! Assam did; however, the Kurukshetra War happened in Haryana so boo hoo). Despite that, I tried to keep the coloring similar to the Punisher from Trigun (1998) as well as including a skull motif under the bow.

The pose is referenced from Wolfwood shooting up at the rubble during Badlands Rumble! I just modified it for the drama lol.

Wolfwood is pointing the crossbow at the sun for a purely Wolfwood reason (meaning it is NOT a reference to the Mahabharata). Despite his best efforts, he ended up backstabbing both of the twins in one way or another; you can imagine the sun as either brother, but I'd probably imagine it as Knives, since he "remade" Wolfwood, so he'd step into the role of Surya (Karna's father).