Talk:Arjuna (Alter)/@comment-40128475-20190713075058/@comment-30155239-20190714042216

Well said.

Arjuna is a really interesting example of a guy who spent his whole life being told he's destined to be THE hero of heroes, and constantly gets treated as some sort of flawless guy who can do no wrong and thus is constantly expected to be right, when in fact Arjuna is ultimately a noble intentioned but reasonably flawed person. Being forced to pretend that rather than just being really good, he's the best, the pressure eats him alive when he realizes that the "villain" of his story, Karna, is just a bit more stronger and kinder than he is. Thus he killed Karna when his back was open, and the guilt caused him to deny culpability at the idea his own jealousy caused him to do an evil act. And thus he sealed his own inward idea that he was somehow less than Karna, and was from there on obsessed with facing Karna again and again until he could find that "something" that he felt would make him the better man. Thus, when he first appears in FGO, ultimately Arjuna finds himself on the side of the bad guys in America solely because his desire to face Karna and atone for his shame demands that he oppose him. Then, he suffers a total shock when he realizes that he's not the hero anymore after seeing Cu Alter interfere in his duel the same way Arjuna defeated Karna.

From there on, he's consistently been trying to find a way to express how he wants to live up to the pedestal everyone puts him on, and that he doesn't want to compare himself as just Karna's enemy anymore, but as his own person. And lately, he's finally seemed to have made peace with his human traits as being a part of himself, and can show his real self to those he trusts without fear. Even Arjuna Alter himself has shown that even though he almost lost his entire humanity for the sake of his ideals, in the end there was more good than bad in him, and as the summoned version he was able to once again reaffirm that he doesn't want to be anyone else than Arjuna.