Storytelling for Week 10: Krishna's Support

Krishna was known to be a good leader, though he was also known for doing what was needed to get his way or to provide aid for others.  One example of such was his manipulation of events so that his sister Subhadra would wed Arjuna, rather than being used as a prize by their father.  This greatly upset their father, but it allowed for Subhadra to choose who she was going to marry.  This manipulation of events meant that Krishna became the brother in law to Arjuna, one of the pandavas.  As such, he became friends with them and did his best to help them in their times of need.  After the pandavas were discovered in the court of King Virata, he went with his older brother Balarama to the wedding of the king's daughter, Uttarâ and Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna and Subhadra.  It is after the wedding that Krishna states that Duryodhana should be given the message to give half of the kingdom to the pandavas, letting the groups live in peace and not go against one another. At the same time, they are making preparations for the expected upcoming war.  It was well known that Duryodhana had driven himself almost mad in his obsession with destroying the pandavas and everything that they held dear to them.  What had been a childhood rivalry had corrupted itself and become a consuming lust for humiliation and destruction.
At the court of Krishna, Arjuna came to represent all of the pandavas.  Duryodhana also appeared to ask for his aid. Neither expected for the other to appear before Krishna, requesting the same thing; his help in their battle against one another.  This is were things became interesting.  Krishna seemed to realize that something along these lines was going to occur, and thus proposed that one side of the battle would be given his aid, while the other fighter would have the aid of his million soldiers.  Now, this seems like the side that had his soldiers would be given a much larger advantage.  Arjuna, however, sought to have Krishna's aid. This delighted Duryodhana, who believed his victory over the pandavas was basically insured by that move.  He never thought to question why Arjuna, known as a brilliant fighter, would choose to handicap himself in such a manner.  If he had, he would have realized that Arjuna never handicapped himself; the real winning choice was to have Krishna aid in battle.  After all, who said that his soldiers would go against him? And the Pandavas were already fighting at a disadvantage of numbers.  Krishna knew what would be useful and allowed the men to choose between themselves what they wanted.