On Karna and his eternal tryst

Whenever I read of Karna, I'm overwhelmed - a whirlpool of emotions crop up. I get angered at his choice of sides, I'm filled with sympathy for his birth, I'm awed at his extraordinary valour and charity but I'm also puzzled at the fact that the dharma which so famously protects those who protect it is also at crossroads when it came to Karna. Why should a man of his calibre suffer such indignation and loss? Why should someone like Krishna play a role in his perishing? Why should a man who is capable of so much good face such dilemma? I doubt if the why has an answer. It is difficult to come to terms with history/epic when someone who is worth such admiration, someone who is brutally honest about his choices is put through such a treatment for just being him. I'm confident that even if Karna had known the truth about his birth earlier than he did, he would have still chosen to embrace Duryodhana's friendship, also was Duryodhana just being an opportunist in having embraced him at the right moment knowing he alone could offer hope against the mighty Arjuna? Wouldn’t you and I gladly trade our brawn and brain to a person who stands up for us in a crowd that humiliates and belittles? He was just being human, yet he suffers through out his life… is it fair?

 

Is there a retelling of Karna's story that answers these questions? I don’t know, even if there is a retelling can oral renditions, history, myth or divine law deliver him from the fate he suffered? Somehow a clichéd 'its his Karma' logic does not suffice and his eternal tryst remains a bag of unanswered questions to me.