An opinion, read completely. Please.

I may get hate for this, -I hate how the story always potrays the protagonist, Arjun as the "man, everything". Mr. Perfect . Etc.. like, all of the Pandavas are epitome equivalent of lord Ram or something. Like I get it.. he's the protagonist. But what about his rival karna.? In my opinion, (many ppl say this) That karna was not that powerful etc.. Hell, He's the main antagonist, rival (not villian), personally for arjuna. And a guy, who has been trained by parashuram, has difficulties with abhimanyu.? (I get he's talented etc.. but that's too much) And bhima defeats karna and says- it's my brother, who should defeat you... Not me.. like wtf. Arjuna is a man of focus, and I get how at the end of the story he's the ultimate warrior and the best archer of his generation. (But karna has to be close, to him.) What I mean is, if one has to appreciate a protagonist's journey, he should have ups and downs, not just in his circumstances, but his losses too. He has to lose. One can admire arjuna, only if he gets back up and improves after a loss. But most people, say... Every single time arjuna was the victor blah blah blah. Imagine, if Naruto always won against sasuke, would that make it good.? See my point.? That doesn't make it believable and engaging. That's my thoughts.

Let's say, change the chronology up a bit. And how it could play out to make a better narrative. Here karna and Arjuna are almost equal. Read further. - karna, goes to swayamvar of draupadi, he lifts the bow, but before he could (blah blah blah... Draupadi tells her opinion, he gets angry and leaves. Draupadi should not be mistaken here, but she could've just told "I'm not into you, period". -Karna stays there, sees a bramhana lift the bow, and hit the target looking at the water precisely. (He just watches and leaves) Let's keep a scene, where it's sunset and he's walking alone... He sits down and punches floor. The scene shifts back to him observing how that bramhana hit the target looking at the water's reflection, which ones arrow might not hit by a bare inch or centimetre, cuz of how unreliable the water's reflection is.. and he thinks to himself. "Damn, he's really good". And saying, arjuna really is better than me in archery. Now here..he's finally made a decision to take leave from his guru drona, with his blessings he goes to parashuram to learn. He's travelling climbing mountain.. (the journey should be like 3 months etc.) Montages should be running in his mind, (Drona - I can't teach you because, I believe you are not the right person to weird bramhastra. I have nothing against you, but your personal beliefs and tendency to be jealous to arjuna, is holding you back. Karna understands and asks him what he should do. Drona says - let go. Be better.) So.. the swayamvar should be the final straw where he realises arjuna did work more on archery than him. And even if he did release his arrow, the success rate would have been lesser than arjuna. See.? And now arjuna's character arc, should be- A childish kid becoming a warrior. He should have his own flaws too. Even in archery, he should stumble, at some point - probably after karna's training with lord parashuram. He should realize, karna at that point is better, and then get better.. see? This way the narrative would feel more realistic, and Arjuna would feel like a protagonist. Not a male version mary sue.