Characterization meme- Amarendra, Bhallaladeva, Bijjaladeva, Kumaravarma
(Canon! Bhalla, not Crack! Bhalla, who can be narrowed down to being fussy about his clothes, Hating the Great Outdoors, and snarking constantly about his idiot brother, sister-in-law, and nephew).
1. The rope-cutting scene aside, I actually don’t think Bhalla started off wanting Amarendra dead–I think he’d have been quite content to be King, and have Amarendra safely given some dull responsibility, were it not for the fact that the people (and what’s worse, Sivagami) never could quite help being drawn to Amarendra insted. It’s what leads him to try next to get Amarendra exiled; and it takes Amarendra proving that he will “always live as a King” for Bhalla to finally push for his death.
2. I’ve said this before, I’m quite sure, but Bhalla being made Commander-in-Chief is not a punishment, but rather playing to his strengths. He is more goal-oriented than Amarendra, who tends to look at the big picture instead, and thrives, I think, off the satisfaction of reaching an accomplishment. Giving him a clear endpoint like “defeat that army” is far kinder than solving the thousands of tiny problems of an empire would have been.
(Bhalla strikes me as a very disinterested King who allowed his father and his advisors to do whatever they wanted in most departments except the army. This, I suspect, is why Mahishmati’s economy is in such dire straits by the time we see it twenty-five years later.)
3. There is no way Shivu would have defeated Bhalla in his prime.
4. Probably another repeat, but Bhalla and Devasena hate each other so because, in many ways, they’re so similar: they’re both highly intuitive and far more suspicious of others than say, Amarendra, but even aside from their morality, they clash in terms of their general approach to the world: Devasena is outspoken and forthright, while Bhalla is silent and snarky, and both think the other is dreadful.
5. He loves his brother and mother, and always will; even if it would be a thousand times easier not to. The best part of him with regards to will and wisdom dies with them, and by the end, he is a tired husk of a man.
1. He’s angry at the world–always angry. From his perspective, he’s entirely justified in his actions, and often that’s the most difficult part of writing him: because he just has a very unpleasant headspace to explore.
2. RoS says differently, FWIW, but I see Bijjaladeva as having been born with his shriveled arm–expecting to be made heir nonetheless and brutally disappointed when he wasn’t. To have it be the result of an accident makes it seem all the more like he’s correct in that his parents did just demote him because of his disability–whereas if he always had it and might possibly still have been made King despite it, it adds more weight to Kattappa’s argument that it was because of his overall terribleness.
3. Bijjaladeva would have hated him anyway, but Amarendra looking exactly like Vikramadeva absolutely does not help.
4. Bijju both hates Sivagami and relies on her to protect him from the hatred of the court: he knows this makes him a hypocrite, and it manifests itself as even more vitriol against her, even as in court, he competes with Kattappa for her approval and admiration by way of their (quasi-adopted, in Kattappa’s case) sons.
5. Bhallaladeva is the one person Bijju loves absolutely in the world, and the one person who he destroys absolutely. That is his tragedy.
1. He adores Devasena, but not necessarily romantically: instead getting her to marry him is more a badge of her approval that he thinks might make him think better of himself.
(It’s not, of course, and Devasena knows this: the only person who can improve Kumar Varma’s self-esteem is Kumar Varma himself.)
2. He’s always been ashamed of his inability to protect and provide for his older sister, as Devasena does her brother, which is largely the reason behind his obnoxious overcompensation–and why it resolves once he defends his sister from invaders, rather than anyone else.
3. He’s drawn to both sexes, always has been, and no one in Kuntala really cares. Regardless, even in continuities where he survives, he never does marry (with an exception for him entering a marriage of convenience with Bala in the Ambika Baahubali ‘verse.)
4. He admires Amarendra, but let’s be honest: Kattappa is his BFF. (He called Kumar Varma an entire jungle full of animals! What’s not to love?)
5. He loved Mahendra enough to die for him, even before Mahendra was born.
