You know, I have always thought what Arjuna must have felt when Drona was told the half lie about Ashwatthama. I know he was heartbroken at the way Drona was killed, incensed at Yudhishthira for uttering a half lie. All those parts are mentioned pretty clearly.

But had he, even for a split second, felt a spark of vengeful satisfaction? Just a small hint for a tiny fraction of a moment?

The 'Now you know how it feels', kinda thing.

Or had he instead, being Arjuna, shared a moment of relatable grief with him.

Like, 'I'm sorry, I know exactly how that feels', kinda thing.

My headcannons humanize the characters of Mahabharata, a little.

So I can't help but think that even if Arjuna's innate nature must have made compassion win over the vindictiveness as usual, in my mind space, he probably had felt the latter.

Which might have only made him feel even worse immediately. A repulsion for himself and guilt at having thought of such a cruel thing, even for the man who had engineered his son's horrific death in that accursed chakravyuha. That kind of exploded into that emotional moment where he berates everyone.

The dichotomy of the human dynamics and emotions in the Mahabharata excites me too much, I'm afraid.

Totally random, but I remember how they showed this in the BR Chopra retelling. Arjuna was literally so mad that he had charged at Drishtadyumna with his sword. It took both Krishna and Sahadeva to hold him back. Even later, he had wanted to kill him, but Draupadi had stopped him, reminding him how Drona had been quiet during her disrobing and been party to Abhimanyu's slaughter.

All these little additions to the BR Chopra version make it so much more entertaining to watch. The starplus mahabharata war sequences were a total washout.