I've seen people bashing the Kalki movie because Karna was shown as a better warrior than Arjuna. The point of this post is not to debunk either warrior, but rather to guide your attention to this - Ashwatthama is the one who makes that claim.
Arjuna was his father's favoured student who was involved in the shameful and unlawful murder of Dronacharya.
It doesn't matter if Arjuna was better skilled or not. Ashwatthama would not openly praise those involved in his father's murder. He would debunk their might, would see the fact that they used weapons that his father taught them to wield to end his life as an insult to his revered father.
Remember, on the last night when he slaughtered the Pandava forces, he was Rudra given form. Mahadev himself took form in Ashwatthama to end the Pandava Army, to balance the scales. That is why Krishna never tried to save the rest. His goal was to wipe out all those who knew the celestial weapons and used them as and when they pleased.
Ashwatthama 's sin was when he gave into his wrath and murdered Uttara's unborn child. It shouldn't have happened and that was why Krishna stepped in.
All these years meant that Ashwatthama would genuinely have regretted and repented Parikshit's murder at his hands. The rest? Absolutely not. In his mind they were well deserved, meant to happen. Just a shame that the Pandavas themselves were spared that day. But it wasn't meant to happen so it didn't.
The truth about Karna and Arjuna is something only the gods themselves know. But the movie, I believed remained true to character by making that claim through Ashwatthama, because he would not consider Arjuna worthy of praise.
Maybe we'll eventually find out the truth in the next installment, from the mouth of someone else. Kalki, perhaps?
