History YMMV / Mahabharata

* {{Padding}}: The show is plagued with this. People repeat conversations over and over, people fret about the same things time and time again, and people replay past events way too many times. Not to mention, the display of excessive formality of greetings, supplication and blessing eat up more clock.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Karna, an HonorBeforeReason [[PunchClockVillain servant]] to the wicked Duryodhana, was cursed by his guru Parashurama to have the mantras that he learned fail him. The reason? Karna outed himself as a Kshatriya (which even he did not know) while Parashurama was resting on his lap and an insect bit Karna, drawing blood. Later on, in the Mahabharata, Parashurama comes to Karna in a vision and explains that his death by said curse is fated, and that if Duryodhana wins then evil will fall on the land. This allows Karna to FaceDeathWithDignity, so it could be a form of LetThemDieHappy.

** In normal cases of liking the Mahabharata in Indonesia, this is also why it's not that rare to see someone in Indonesia literally having the name Arjuna, being considered an AwesomeMcCoolname

* NeverLiveItDown: Puneet Isaar, the actor playing Duryodhan caused an accident on the set of the UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} film Coolie, which almost killed leading man Creator/AmitabhBachchan. He was blacklisted by the industry and hated by fans for a long time.
* {{Padding}}: The show is plagued with this. People repeat conversations over and over, people fret about the same things time and time again, and people replay past events way too many times. Not to mention, the display of excessive formality of greetings, supplication and blessing eat up more clock.
* UnintentionallySympathetic: The Kaurava side did have quite a few PunchClockVillain kings and princes who only fought alongside Duryodhana because of long-standing treaties.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Since the Javanese version contained several changes, some characters get a gigantic boost of popularity in Indonesia:

** Shikhandi had his GenderFlip [[ShesAManInJapan removed]] and became known as Srikandi, most Indonesians revere her as their UrExample of mythical ActionGirl, to the point that her name became the epithet of 'really remarkable and honorable woman' in Indonesia/Java.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Karna, an HonorBeforeReason [[PunchClockVillain servant]] to the wicked Duryodhana, was cursed by his guru Parashurama to have the mantras that he learned fail him. The reason? Karna outed himself as a kshatriya (which even he did not know) while Parashurama was resting on his lap and an insect bit Karna, drawing blood. Later on, in the Mahabharata, Parashurama comes to Karna in a vision and explains that his death by said curse is fated, and that if Duryodhana wins then evil will fall on the land. This allows Karna to FaceDeathWithDignity, so it could be a form of LetThemDieHappy.
* CharacterTiers: It's not all that clear, but general trends are set. Pandavas are more heroic than most heroes, with Arjuna being the greatest of them all, but are outmatched by Bhishma. And of course even they cannot hope to be on equal footing with [[GodInHumanForm Krishna]]. ''And'' somehow, [[AntiVillain Karna]] is [[BeyondTheImpossible stronger than Krishna,]] and in fact [[InvincibleVillain stronger than pretty much everything in existence.]]
* DesignatedHero: Yuddhistira. Not only does he gamble away his kingdom, his brothers and their common wife, he also gambles AGAIN, loses *a second time* and is exiled for twelve years. Yet, he is called "Dharmaraj" or the upholder of dharma. This is justified; see IGaveMyWord.

** In normal cases of liking Mahabharata in Indonesia, this is also why that sometimes, it's not that rare you see someone in Indonesia literally having the name Arjuna in his name, being considered AwesomeMcCoolname

** Karna. Abandoned by his mother, fights on the wrong side for the most honorable possible reasons and gets screwed out of his life for "lying" about his caste. ShootTheShaggyDog is OlderThanTheyThink, though he gets honored AFTER dying.

** Ekalavya. Despite being low-caste, trains himself as a warrior to rival Arjuna by eavesdropping on Drona's lessons. Then willingly and dutifully obliges when Drona asks him for his thumbs in payment.
* MagnificentBastard: [[EvilGenius Shakuni]], prince of the Gandhara Kingdom, sought revenge for the misdeeds done against the Ghandara dynasty, especially his sister Gandhari, by Bhisma of the Kuru Kingdom. The SoleSurvivor of the conquest, Shakuni blossomed into a clever, shrewd, and patient villain who hatched a variety of schemes to pit the Kauravas and Pandavas against one another. He began by [[EvilUncle grooming his own nephew]] Duryodhana from childhood into an obedient pawn, starting with innocuous acts that escalated into convincing him to poison Bheema. When faced with failure, Shakuni simply opts to move onto another plan--one such included inviting enemies into the House of Wax, hiring help to melt the palace without implicating himself. His most ingenious maneuver came in the legendary dice game against Yuddhisthira where the silver-tongued Shakuni [[BatmanGambit preyed upon Yuddhisthira's gambling addiction]] and manipulated him into losing his wealth and kingdom. Ultimately instigating the Kurukshetra War as desired, Shakuni continued to use his intellectual talents by putting Shalya under a hospitality debt to grant Duryodhana an excellent commander-in-chief. The epic poem's craftiest and most devious mastermind, Shakuni fulfilled his vengeance even after death.

** Guru Drona asking for tribal boy Ekalavya's thumb as a guru dakshina, so that Ekalavya is no longer the best archer and Arjuna could pass the former. It's hard to sympathize with Drona after that, especially when he refuses to teach lower caste boys like Karna for fear of history repeating itself.
** At Duryodhana's command, an innocent woman is stripped naked and sexually assaulted in public. Only a handful of his allies object to it, and everyone else just watches and jeers. When Yuddhistira hesitates to fight AntiVillain[=s=] like Karna and Bhishma, it is the memory of that which inspires him to do so.

* {{Padding}}: This show is plagued with this. People repeat conversations over and over, people fret about the same things time and time again, and people replay past events way too many times. Not to mention, the display of excessive formality of greetings, supplication and blessing eat up more clock.

** Karna was abandoned by his mother, raised as a low caste charioteer’s son, was taught the arts of battle craft by Parshurama who intentionally wanted to only teach non-Kshatriyas, and had completed his training. And yet, he was cursed to forget all he learned at the most inopportune time [[InsaneTrollLogic because he displayed a great deal of bravery and pain resistance that his teacher assumed only Kshatriyas were capable of]]. He is then openly insulted as a “charioteer’s son not worthy of fighting” by the Pandavas, rejected by Draupadi for that same reason even after he’s been bequeathed a kingdom, but he still has a reputation as a [[UndyingLoyalty steadfastly loyal friend]] of Duryodhana, who was the only one to look past his low status, as well as a reputation for unconditional generosity. Indra and Krishna take advantage of his generosity by asking him to give up his ArmorOfInvincibility. That said, he did [[HonorRelatedAbuse encourage the sexual assault on Draupadi]], even calling her a “prostitute”, he took part in the ganging up on Abhimanyu (to save the Kauravas from annihilation from single combat) and he did fire an arrow into the open air in frustration, causing it to strike and kill a helpless sacred cow.

** Bhima is quite a bully to the Kaurava that they attempted to poison and drown him when they were young. He insulted Karna the hardest for being a charioteer's son, laughed the hardest when Duryodhana falls in a pond and Draupadi insulted both Duryodhana ''and'' his father, his murder of Durshasana [[AnArmAndALeg is]] [[GuttedLikeAFish so]] brutal his own allies got horrified, and he [[KickThemWhileTheyreDown stomps on Duryodhana's head even after he's already defeated by Bhima]] [[GroinAttack breaking the duel's rule]]. After all of those, he then proceeds to insult Dristharastra to the point of him and the rest of the Kuru elders exiling themselves, even after he and Ghandari had forgiven him (after a small bout of anger) for killing all 100 Kauravas and Yuddhistira has made it a point not to. That said Bhima's romance with Hidimba and being GoodParents to Ghatotkacha does redeem him in the eyes of some readers.
** Yudhisthira is supposed to be TheHero and TheGoodKing but this is seen by many readers as InformedAbility on account of him being within the story TheGamblingAddict milquetoast, his HonorBeforeReason approach to Dharma, and generally being less than chivalrous to Draupadi as compared to Bhima and Arjuna. He's generally regarded as TheLoad of the Pandava brothers compared to Bhima, Arjuna, Kunti, Krishna and Draupadi, though scholars generally see him as a tragic figure.

* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop: The whole thing can be interpreted as ‘''dharma'' is a stupid, erratic concept that will screw you over and favour the evil’. Perhaps more charitably, Krishna's entire message to the Pandavas is to be good, but not StupidGood.

** Karna was abandoned by his mother, raised as a low caste charioteer’s son, was taught the arts of battle craft by Parshurama who intentionally wanted to only teach non-Kshatriyas, and had completed his training. And yet, he was cursed to forget all he learned at the most inopportune time [[InsaneTrollLogic because he displayed a great deal of bravery and pain resistance that his teacher assumed only Kshatriyas were capable of]]. He is then openly insulted as a “charioteer’s son not worthy of fighting” by the Pandavas, rejected by Draupadi for that same reason even after he’s been bequeathed a kingdom, but he still has a reputation as a [[UndyingLoyalty steadfastly loyal friend]] of Duryodhana, who was the only one to look past hislow status, as well as a reputation for unconditional generosity. Indra and Krishna take advantage of his generosity by asking him to give up his ArmorOfInvincibility. That said, he did [[HonorRelatedAbuse encourage the sexual assault on Draupadi]], even calling her a “prostitute”, he took part in the hanging up on Abhimanyu (to save the Kauravas from annihilation from single combat) and he did fire an arrow into the open air in frustration, causing it to strike and kill a helpless sacred cow.

* LargeHam: The [[Series/{{Mahabharata}} 1988 TV adaptation]] was infamous for all characters really hamming it up.

** Karna was abandoned by his mother, raised as a low caste charioteer’s son, was taught the arts of battle craft by Parshurama who intentionally wanted to only teach non-Kshatriyas, and had completed his training. And yet, he was cursed to forget all he learned at the most inopportune time [[InsaneTrollLogic because he displayed a great deal of bravery and pain resistance that his teacher assumed only Kshatriyas were capable of]]. He is then openly insulted as a “charioteer’s son not worthy of fighting” by the Pandavas, rejected by Draupadi for that same reason even after he’s been bequeathed a kingdom, but he still has a reputation as a [[UndyingLoyalty steadfastly loyal friend]] of Duryodhana, who was the only one to look past hislow status, as well as a reputation for unconditional generosity. Indra and Krishna take advantage of his generosity by asking him to give up his ArmorOfInvincibility. That said, he did [[Honor%elatedAbuse encourage the sexual assault on Draupadi]], even calling her a “prostitute”, he took part in the hanging up on Abhimanyu (to save the Kauravas from annihilation from single combat) and he did fire an arrow into the open air in frustration, causing it to strike and kill a helpless sacred cow.

** Karna was abandoned by his mother, raised as a low caste charioteer’s son, was taught the arts of battle craft by Parshurama who intentionally wanted to only teach non-Kshatriyas, and had completed his training. And yet, he was cursed to forget all he learned at the most inopportune time [[InsaneTrollLogic because he displayed a great deal of bravery and pain resistance that his teacher assumed only Kshatriyas were capable of]]. He is then openly insulted as a “charioteer’s son not worthy of fighting” by the Pandavas, rejected by Draupadi for that same reason even after he’s been bequeathed a kingdom, but he still has a reputation as a [[UndyingLoyalty steadfastly loyal friend]] of Duryodhana, who was the only one to look past hislow status, as well as a reputation for unconditional generosity. Indra and Krishna take advantage of his generosity by asking him to give up his ArmorOfInvincibility. That said, he did [[RapeAsRevenge encourage the sexual assault on Draupadi]], even calling her a “prostitute”, he took part in the hanging up on Abhimanyu (to save the Kauravas from annihilation from single combat) and he did fire an arrow into the open air in frustration, causing it to strike and kill a helpless sacred cow.