Intro - this post is of another rare type, as it will be using a tv serial as it's source for claims made. My objective is to prove arjun as a better fighter than karna based on this tv serial only.
I may have to make more than one post for this topic (SPK BEING BETTER THAN Star Plus or just being a bad thing for Karna fans yet a good thing for Arjuna fans).
The reason tv series in my opinion is good is because it show's the main character (karna) losing battle's and conflicts repeatedly. It also makes Karna do things that show him indirectly supporting the caste system & pandavas (who are portrayed as evil beings here).
=
I will make a follow-up post about this topic (why SPK isn't as bad as they think). Because their are many point's here i am just going to mention the obvious ones that matter.
In this particular post i will first mention Jarasandha but most of it is about Arjuna so read till the very ending of it.
=
1st reason;
In episode 87 their were at least 6 occasion's where my man Jarasandha overpowered Karna.
{I}
{II}
{III}
{V}
{VI}
Also if you do take the liberty of using common sense to compare Jarasandh's fight with Bheem in the same serial then you can see that Jarasandh had a much tougher and harder time wrestling/boxing him than he did against Karna.
=
2nd reason:
Regarding the show's portrayal of Karna vs Arjuna fight's they actually are in Arjuna's favor.
The 1st major duel.
(It's background)
It happened right after Arjuna exerted his power against Kourava prince's, building a throne of arrows for Yudisther and countering Ashwathama's MAYA, even immobilizing Duryodhan. Since arjuna did those four thing's he is bound to not be at his full power, while Karna on the other hand came at him fresh with a kavach kundal (in the TV SHOW it's a unbreakable armor). So it was a unfair fight for Arjuna yet he still equaled Karna in all aspects of the fight.
The fight itself.
In episode 77 it start's, and karna scores one blow in the first minute of it. In the next minute Arjuna's weapon failed to injure karna due to his kavacha-kundal only not karna's own ability as a fighter. Then during the fifth minute of the fight Arjun fired bhaye astra to fill karna's mind with emotional fear, he was successful until karna had a flashback of parshuram's teaching.
At minute 8 Karna next fired andhakh astra which Bhishma considered to be too destructive, but Arjuna easily negated it. Ironically the name of Arjuna's weapon was MRITYUNJAY Astra (get-the-pun). Their fight continued in episode 78. Both warriors were deprived of their bow's.
{gif's as evidence}
In episode 78 during the two minute mark Arjuna/Karna just hurl two random objects at eachother which destroy themselves. Both warrior's somehow call their bows back into their handles through magic or a different nameless tactic. Then Arjun prepared to invoke Brahmastra while Karna prepares to call the Bhargavastra.
Seeing that Bhishma/Drona both decide they need to put an end to this battle as it's too dangerous to have both weapons collide or even be invoked in such an area. But they can't stop either of the warriors as the Sun isn't even close to setting so Kunti prayed to the sun god who set on his own & Drona announced the duel's ending too.
RESULT: the 1st major battle between Karna/Arjuna was inconclusive, but Arjuna was evenly matched with karna despite suffering from stamina-drain (as he went through multiple battle's right before getting to Karna). So Arjuna deserves to have one point over Karna here.
Score-board; Arjuna 1 Karna 0.
=
Their next major fight is the 2nd one, it happens in Droupadi's Swayamvar, here too Karna is armed with kavacha kundala. Episode number is 115 so u can find it yourself too. Arjuna having a fake beard would also mean that he is required to ensure it never falls off his cheeks otherwise his disguise will fail.
On 1 hand you have Arjuna that is handicapped on the other hand you have Karna who is plot armored with kavacha kundala.
The total duration of their fight was 3 minute's so not very long compared to their former battle. Still in the first minute Arjuna cut karna's weapons 3 times (i refer to them as weapon's not ordinary arrows due to the lack of quivers in this TV serial).
Karna is impressed by the brahmins power but Arjuna was not impressed with karna indicating that it's easier to impress karna than it is to impress Arjuna this proves that Arjuna had higher standard's than Karna did according to this TV serial. Karna praises the brahmin out in the open but Arjuna does not do anything similar for Karna.
Then Karna in the next minute get's shocked seeing the similarities this brahmin warrior had with Arjuna. For a moment he let his guard down against Arjuna's weapon, this is where the kavacha-kundala came to work & saved karna otherwise he would have died or atleast been defeated their.
[Proof/Gif]
Judging by the look on his face he (Gautam Rode/Karna) was clearly scared.
Barely 2 & a half minute's into the duel and Karna said "excluding myself their is only one warrior in the world who is this CHAPAL" then near it's ending karna holds one arrow of arjuna in the air after it was fired.
Yet he then decided to make up an excuse that he does not want to continue this duel in the marriage ceremony of a arrogant woman like Droupadi so he chooses to walk away. But the point still stand's that if the kavach kundal wasn't on him Karna would have lost.
So SCORE BOARD is Arjuna 2 Karna 0.
=
Their next fight does not happen until the 11th day, but it was a boring duel. They had another minor duel against one another at day 12. But karna fled to fight abhimanyu instead, similarly he choose to fight Bhima in the midst of his fight against Arjuna during day 11. Both duel's did not reach a conclusion they came to no result.
So it can be ignored too, fast forward to the 14th day where a angry arjuna fought Karna. Before i analyze this duel its important for me to give the back ground & story/context of what happened to both individuals involved in this fight.
Karna began the battle in a fresh, healthy condition, he was calm & patient, he had not exerted any of his energy against any warrior before this duel when it comes to this day in particular. But Arjuna had to fight with Ashwathama, Drona, Shalya & Duryodhan too before he faced Karna. Thus he would not be at his very best or at full power.
The FIGHT ITSELF.
Arjuna was on the offensive while Karna was on a defensive position in this fight, Arjuna was not on his chariot but Karna was not either, so Sri Krishna did not interfere at all.
[gif part 1]
Detail's: Jayadratha was right behind Karna (who is in-front of him) while Arjuna is able to harm/attack Jayadratha despite Karna being present in the field. YES after this moment Karna was able to destroy the snake he summoned.
But only due to bad writing as when karna does do that Arjuna chooses to just look at him instead of seizing the opportunity to injure karna or harm Jayadratha even more.
[gif part 2]
Details - Arjuna was able to injure Karna twice.
[G i F]
All haters and fans of both character's appear to ignore the achievement's of Arjuna over Karna in this TV series.
Karna's inability to stop a tiger (Arjuna) from killing his prey (Jayadratha).
{GIF}
[This's karna's reaction]
[Final gif concerning the 14th day]
Note; It look's like Mr Bhangu (actor who played arjun's role) destroyed the symbol for SONY TV.
It would be unfair to not credit this as Arjuna's win. He not only wounded Karna but also decapitated Jayadrath with his dad ("Vriddakshatra") and before that he engulfed him in a Naag Paash. But since Karna did injure him once i should give him a point to be fair.
SCORE BOARD: Arjuna has 4 points, Karna has 1 point.
=
BONUS - Virat Yudh.
It happens in episode's 179 and 180.
{gif}
In this battle Karna broke his own bow & admitted that he lost vs Vrihinallah (arjun in disguise). So logically it should be the W of Arjun but the reason it does not count is because the plot/screen-play is implying that Karna lost on purpose to his enemy.
Conclusion - though it's definitely worth mentioning i will not count any points against karna or in favor of Arjuna's score here. Because of the way it was portrayed in this TV serial. Instead i will focus on the final two battle's of both characters/actor's in the show.
=
16th day.
Explanation:
What happened in these episodes (274, 275, 276) is that Karna goes to fight Arjuna, but Yudisthir distracted him, then Duryodhan fight's yudhisthir while karna is busy just screwing around doing nothing in the war.
After that Bheem killing kouravas & duhsasan being endangered takes place. But Karna is stuck fighting arjuna, he did this to protect Aswathama (who was disrespected by the script-writing team of this series).
Then as Duhsasan is being beaten by Bheem it's upto Karna so he can save his friend's brother, but arjun doesn't let him leave their duel so Karna fired the snake weapon which Aswashen (the naga) was seated on. After that Karna leaves to fight Bheem, though Bheem kills the driver of Karna he is unable to defeat karna.
So Karna binded Bheem in a circular arrow astra then went to protect Duryodhan from Arjuna. But what happened is that Duryodhan being stuck in this icy dome/prison could not be saved by even Karna either (who had no chariot, horses or driver despite being a chief of an army).
Arjuna cut's all arrows of Karna, no attempt made by him is successful. Then in the beginning of the 276th episode it was arjuna who saved Duryodhan not karna if you don't believe me you can see the GIF below.
{Proof}
Anyway's after that Karna with Duryodhan just went to witness the murder of Duhsasan. But only cause arjuna let both of them leave.
Logic - since their duel was constantly interrupted with karna either needing to go to save duhsasan or someone else it seems fair to exclude this duel since this's a fight which lacked a result. I only wish that i didn't forget to put my name in the GIF this time.
Their is one more no result encounter between them (KarnArjuna) on the 15th morning (after Ghatotkaca's death) but it is irrelevant as their was no result, neither warrior was winning that duel. So i ignored it like i ignored the 11th day & 12th day.
=
FINAL BATTLE.
This fight happens in Episode 280.
Background; This's their last fight, but its important for people and viewer's & readers to understand the important context behind this duel. Normally Vijaya Dhanush (other word for "Bow") is not a relevant factor if you read Mahabharat but since this TV SERIES has overrated the significance, qualities and power of Vijay Bow it does matter here.
So Karna had a unfair advantage while Arjuna did not, because though arjun call's his bow the Gandiva, at the end of the day u can see it's design is entirely the same, it never changed ever since Rang Bhoomi. Just look carefully to see the details.
Image - is of Arjun from Rang Bhoomi, then Swayamvara, next Virat Yudh after that it's day 14.Therefore it's been proven that Arjun did not change his bow, he was not using "Gandiva" instead he was utilizing a ordinary bow even on day 17.
=
The fight in itself.
Brief synposis - in the duel's early portion all Karna did was cut arrows fired by Arjuna nothing else was done. After that segment was over Krishna drove the chariot away leaving the fight uninterrupted but Sahadev/Nakul then challenged Karna (who one-shot's both of them). Arjuna is made to bleed cause his head hits the pole of his chariot.
It happened cause one rock was beneath a wheel of the chariot he was on as either Krishna was driving the horses too quick or the chariot was not really divine as it tripped over a rock. Anyways arjuna was wounded due to that rock not cause of an attack made by Karna.
When something even remotely similar occurred involving karna's chariot what happened?
[gif]
He did not lose blood but he did fall from a greater distance compared to Arjuna, so its an embarassment.
=
Part's where Arjuna overpowered or wounded Karna can be seen below.
{Gif}
{Even karna's naag astra was use-less here}
Here Arjun is able to outperform Karna even when karna has vijay dhanush in his handle.
Point - Karna (Gautam-Rode) praises Arjun during the 22nd minute (of this episode). He said "today its the 1st time i am seeing a archer fight from the opposite direction where the chariot is moving." But arjun did not ever praise Karna during a single moment of this battle yet.
[the 3rd time Arjuna overpowered him]
Despite having the vijaya bow a plot armored main character like Karna isn't even able to stop this arrow of a weakened, injured Arjun.
Then once he is bereft of that very same vijaya bow this happened.
(giF)
Why this count's as a Anti-Feat for Gautam's Karna (name of actor) is because he was not able to stop the arrow. Compare it to how on day 12 Abhimanyu caught one arrow of Karna in the air itself.
{Gif}
So if a depowered, inexperienced 13 year old (in this show he is not a sixteen year old male or a 33 year old adult) kid could do it their is no reason for a plot armored, main character (gautam rode as 'Karna') to fail in this right?
Regardless Karna does wound arjuna at least twice, but since he had vijaya bow this battle can be discounted, or another excuse can be made that Krishna never let the fight happen for longer than a few seconds (he kept steering Arjuna's chariot away). So the only battles that should count are the 14th day, Swayamvara Parva and Rang Bhoomi (though karna had his kavach kundal their).
=
ENDING;
Karna's worse moments in the TV serial (besides when he was a teenager/Shona's death) would be a group of malnourished poor citizens of Anga Desh defeating him when he had the kavacha kundala.
[gif 1A]
[gif 1B]
Arjuna's worst moment would be losing to Malini (the female yakshini) during van parva (episode 155 or 156) still overall Arjuna is handled better as a warrior in this tv series than karna is.
I think it's obvious whats more embarassing. I'd rather lose to a female wizard (Malini) or fail to protect women from robber's (even though Duryodhan's daughter was saved by Arjun & the dacoit's/robbers failed to injure/touch Arjuna) than lose to what Karna lost against.