One of the Sun Wukongs: Shoot him, Pigsy! I'm the real Monkey King! Pigsy: (aiming at him) The real Brother Sun would never pass up an opportunity to prove how immortal he is!
@@moonwatcher4047 He's just going to yeet his rake at him. It's not gonna do much because the Six-Eared Macaque is just as powerful as Sun Wukong and Monkey survived the rake easily, but that's not going to stop Pigsy because Pigsy is a moron.
@@moonwatcher4047 the book would have been a lot different if Pigsy had the technical knowledge to pull that off. Maybe then he would actually be an asset to the group.
"Quan-Yin takes a quick peak into Tripitaka's future and tells Monkey that Tripitaka will be in great danger soon." She didn't even need to do that to come to that conclusion, he gets into great danger on a practically daily basis.
@@floricel_112 imagine if the others in the gang was at the Buddha and heard that their funni monkey pal has the power to move the planets and alter fate
It's a shame that the other two completely fucking no-show, this is the only appearance of the Six Eared Macaque (on account of him being dead throughout the rest of the story) but the other two are just never present at all.
@@TheShinyFeraligatr Does death matter though? Son Wukong is Quintuple immortal and has technically died once, only to fight his way back out of the underworld. The Six-Ear Macaque would be fully within his rights to show up again considering he's fully equal to a being who treats death like a mild inconvenience.
Nah I feel like she's his adopted mom considering his actual mom is a rock and she's been a part of his life since his tantrum in heaven. Also very nosey just like a mom.
@@nathantudor5696true, or she could just be the under paid babysitter but won’t give up for a higher paying job because she just really likes the kids who she babysits.
Kwan Yin swore an oath when She became enlightened that She won't retire into complete Nirvana until every sentient being has achieved enlightenment. She is literally everyone's patient mom friend
One thing that should be taken note here, the stronger you are the harder it is to hold back. It was likely very hard for sun to hold back enough to not kill them with physical attacks... he could have found another way but....
Yeah Wukong weirdly has a lot of respect for her and never causes her problems. She's like the only person he hasn't actively pissed off (only accidentally or indirectly)
I love how Buddha has to alter his lecture after this episode. Like, “There are four beings that don’t fit into any of those categories” *bonk* “There are three beings that don’t fit into any of those categories”
Not necessarily as they were stated to be immortal, it could be the type of immortality that you come back from the dead after a certain amount of time.
@@zachbahamutson5477 you would think an all seeing monkey with future sight would have seen that coming and had some kind of plan to not be unalived so completely
The real life adventure happened in 7th century Tang dynasty I think, but the 16th century one is the oldest remaining version. So the tropes could be older.
I love the chaotic feverish ADHD fighting of the two monkeys as they continuously try to one up the other My personal favorite line is: "Alright buddy I'll see you in HELL!" "Not if I get there first!"
On a meta level, it was also awesome on Red's part. she didn't differentiate which Monkey was which. She just gave one the most Monkey thing to say she could think of, and then the most Monkey response she could think of for the other.
I love how they dont reconcile through a bonding moment or character development, quan yin just straight up tells tripitaka he's gonna take sun wu kong back and he's gonna like it
@@Random_Gamer-sh6pf I think it’s actually heavenly because the west is often referred to as the western heaven whereas divine is often associated with the jade emperor and celestial with the more primal gods
We don't give enough credit to the underworld dog. He knew the Six-Eared Macaque was there, but he could not reveal it because Macaque would destroy everything in the Underworld.
Either Macaque himself or both of them while fighting. Also, since Macaque died, I believe he's gonna go full havoc in the underworld now. 😂 SWK = cossing havoc in heaven SEM = cossing havoc in the underworld Pretty fitting if you call him Monkeys "dark reflection".
I know it’s a small point in the beginning, but I think it’s worth pointing out that Sun is the boss of all horses and also apparently all beings inhabiting a horse shaped body.
i love that fake Wukong copied the one weakness, dude's committed to the bit. Also hilarious that the only solution was what started the whole conflict to begin with
I like to think that his mimicry of Wukong was so good that he couldn't help but copy that weakness, considering Monkey kills him so easily after all that mirror match fighting, it also probably boosted him up to Wukong's level. Murder also wasn't the only solution, but the real lesson here is that people should be trying to TEACH Wukong that rather than just blame him for using violence to solve every problem when the only reason you have him arround is to solve your problems with violence. Monkey is supposed to learn things on the Journey but so is Trippitaka, it doesn't matter that he is just so good and perfect, if he doesn't DO anything, in this case, teach his disciples.
@@timothycarney9652 bearing in mind that Monkey is meant to be human nature and impulse in the Buddhist metaphor, it's pretty key that Tripitaka teaches him rather than abandoning him too 😁
It actually makes sense, though. Yes, the migraine spell could give him an advantage, but only if he was able to kill Sun while he was down. Which he couldn't on account of the famed quintuple immortality. And once they figured out which one was the true one they would have lifted the spell, leaving him to face an already enraged Sun plus the gallery of other fighters and deities involved. So he had to at least pretend to share the weakness until he could figure out a solution (or maybe manage to take Sun down).
Something similar actually screwed over an imposter in a previous chapter that Red didn’t go over. A demon disguised as Tripitaka pulled a similar trick. But Pigsy got the idea to have each recite the migraine spell; something only the real deal knew. When the demon couldn’t do it, he fled. The fake wukong was smart enough to get ALL the details if he was gonna try something like this.
You guys are right I love her storytelling style only she can take boring old books and turn it into fun exciting works of for a lack of a better term art
I love how with the growing popularity of the lego monkie kid show this series is being visited and shared as reference material for understanding Journey to the west
not to be philosophical or anything, but this is what good fiction should do: it captures your interest so you start digging further and eventually read the source material.
See, THIS is why forcing your monster of the week antagonists to reform is superior to killing them: you can have fun absolutely freaking them out whenever you show up on a casual non-fighting related visit. Seriously the doodle of Wukong messing with the goldfish really cracked me up.
@@inigo-montoya I don't think you understood what he said, he was talking about all the other gods in this chapter. Most likely especially King Yama. And as Wukong as the "protagonist" he exhibits extreme power. And it wasn't clarified if the Macque had done all the immortality layers Wukong has
@@inigo-montoya Not "week" as in a misspelling of "weak", but "Monster of the Week". As in, they fight monsters, weekly, and Red Boy and the goldfish are two of them.
I appreciate that Red Boy is shown actually serving as Kuanyin's servant like he's supposed to, shaved head and all, after she so thoroughly kicked his ass before
I love how quan yin divines that trippataka and monkey will reconcile and the reconciliation is just her going to trippataka and saying "yeah, you have to let monkey back. Bhudda said so." That could been done at the beginning. Quan yin is the real mvp in this.
12:20 I choose to believe that “recognizes the seasons” and “discerns the advantages of Earth” is why Monkey was so pumped a few episodes ago when it snowed, why he built a snowman, and loved the peaceful tranquility of the fresh snowfall.
A common interpretation of the 6 ears macaque is that he is the physical manifestations of the savage nature or evil within wukong. They are the same, figuratively 2 side of the same coin, that’s why the macaque have all the same abilities, strength and why most gods can’t tell the difference. Which also explains why the macaque have no backstory and seemly came out of nowhere. This incident is an allegory of wukong beating his inner demon, literally. Afterward wukong is a bit more peaceful, a bit
You don’t see that kind of redemption very often in media these days. Tripitaka can’t forgive Wukong, but Wukong won’t learn to improve his ways and learn some restraint without Tripitaka, who also is nowhere near perfect. It’s kind of cool to see someone say, “hey, you two better learn to help each other become better people if you both want make it through this.” It’s more logical than it is emotion based and actually shows that character growth goes both ways.
True. We need to see such things more in modern media, which often takes the approach, "Oh, you did bad thing, now you cannot/must not be forgiven." As if forgiveness can only ever be born out of weakness or naivite...
5:18 "Merciful Buddha, do me a solid here: give the strength to not smack a monk upside the head." I love how Kuanyin is slowly transitioning from a zen queen to a supportive but increasingly aggravated aunt who's 85% done with her chaotic nephews’ sh*t. Honestly, mood.
I’ve heard that the Six-Eared Macaque’s name may be a reference to his powers. Apparently, there is an old idiom that talks about not letting your words be heard by the ‘Sixth Ear’. This idiom basically cautions the listener against being eavesdropped, if two people are having a conversation then there are Four ears between them BUT, if a third person is listening in on them, then there are Six ears. Apparently this idiom is even used earlier in JTTW when then the monk teaches Monkey how to become immortal. So essentially, since Macaque has the ability to hear anything in a massive radius around him, this would make him the “Sixth Ear” in every conversation, thus he is called the Six-Eared Macaque. I haven’t read this chapter yet, so I’m curious if Macaque is actually described as having Six ears or if he’s only ever called Six-Eared Macaque as a title. Also I presume this ability to hear anything is how Macaque went about his way to become as powerful as Wukong, just stalking him the entire journey and listening for the right moment to rob Tripitaka.
Given how literal names often are in this story, there is a chance it is both. With his six ears, he is always an eavesdropper. As such, he also serves as yet another allegory in the story, cautioning against jealous eavesdropping and insincerity.
I really love how gripping of a story this is. As soon as I saw that the fake Wu Kong has a headpiece on I said “oh, they’ll cast the migraine spell to figure out who’s the real one!” But nope, that didn’t work. I love it when stories do that.
Another lovely bit of visual design is that the fake Wu Kong doesn’t sport a coloured staff. It was obvious it’s a case of „two is worse than one“ right then and there.
I just realized the Macaque was foreshadowed when Monkey told the dead bandits to pray to any gods they want to take revenge on him, but he said he was stronger then all of them. I guess they found the one god who he wasn't stronger than.
I love how Quan Yin is just "oh this dumbass, Buddha help me" for like the 1009th time in a row, she's truly probably one of the most patient monks ever-
Quan Yin really did a lot this episode just by being there for Monkey. Of course the Buddha was super cool with his understanding of life, the universe and everything.
@@starmaker75 that groaning while asking the Buddha for strength makes her pretty much his exasperated mother. She's the closest he has to one anyway, so maybe Monkey does have a Grandmother, huh...
@@omnicupid6694 that would mean he has to kill two more monkeys with even more powerful sounding titles that are probably gonna wreck the world multiple itmes over if he tries
@@StabbyTheSkaven luckily the other 2 just mind thier business and are never mentioned in Sun's story outside of this lol This one just sat under a mountain or something and listened into all of Sun Wukong's taoist training to get his powers as well as watching the whole journey to this point and decided fuck it i wanna do that
I love Sandy so much. He's like the reliable dad of the crew who also has his limits (i.e the imposter Sandy murder) He even made some dad jokes last episode
It also helps that He really wasn’t ever that evil in the first place. The thing that got his exiled in the first place was braking a glass at a party. It’s kinda messed up, he was demoted, turned into a monster, whipped 800 times, banished to the desolate Flowing Sands River and every 7 days the jade emperor sends a sword to stab him 100 times in the chest and sides. The place is so desolate nothing can grow there and the only food available was traveller’s he expresses he never wanted to harm but needed to eat to live. He even starves himself for days at a time. In the book he is truly miserable and will do anything to make this loop stop. Basically Sandy was tortured and forced to kill hundreds because the Jade Emperor couldn’t even have mercy on a dude who broke a nice cup. Sandy is a good guy who did nothing wrong.
Crazy how long this story is when characters can travel from heaven to the underworld to flower fruit mountain, back to Buddha's crib and then back to their current location seemingly at will
I find it interesting that the 'migraine spell'/power limiter was the best option initially for disciplining Monkey when he was super powerful and still essentially Chaos Incarnate, but at this point in the journey, he's actually gained party-members, friends, a purpose, and now using that method & exile instead has an entirely different result and reaction from Monkey and the text. Initially, the first banishment/reprimands were just met with anger and rebellious petulance but now the response is feeling lonely and isolated, and unjustly persecuted - with an active interest in both forgiveness and learning to do better/opportunity for growth, rather than just "oops, sorry" for evasion of consequences.
Absolutely!! I grew up with the 1999 animated adaptation, and it always stuck with me how much Sun Wukong came to care about his shifu. Even though that cartoon was just one of many interpretations, they always framed him as devastated when kicked out or when he assumes Tripitaka is dead, and he tries really hard to help his shifu and it’s evident he cares about him. It was always such a fascinating story of character growth that I really enjoyed witnessing again and again as a kid!
Originally, the migraine spell had to be used in order to make monkey join them. Now, it has to be used to drive him away. Now that's character development.
East Asian(Korean) here, and I just want to bring some context as to why Tripitaka kicking out Sun Wukong comes across as such a big deal. In East Asian cultures the relationship between teacher and student is considered much deeper than a Western audience might think. There is a common saying 'Your monarch, Your teacher, and Your parent are the same'. Students had to treat teachers with the same degree of reverence as a monarch, and the same degree of fondness as a parent. Of course, this works both ways, teachers having to do vice versa. According to these ethics, Tripitaka and Sun Wukong are both showing exemplary BAD behavior here. A disciple going against the teacher's wish and commiting revenge is equal to treason. Yet kicking said disciple out and more importantly, rejecting his desire to reform is equal to abandoning your child. Both unacceptable actions in the social norms at the time. This is why the Buddha himself acts as a moral compass for these misguided souls.
Thanks for the insight. While I had picked up on the importance of the master-student relationship by being a classy anime connoisseur, you worded it in a very elegant way that really brought it into sharper focus.
Okay, that makes sense. On the face of it, it was a bit more understandable because this was far from the first offense, and you can imagine interpreting it as evidence that after all this time Wukong hadn't made any progress. This puts it in perspective, though.
sadly nowadays, bosses/teachers/seniors love preaching the "student must respect teacher" thing and conveniently ignore the part where they must reciprocate. Known in animeland/Japan as the "Sempai clause". If you dare bring it up to them, they will either say you don't deserve it or made it up.
@@pigifi True, and it's a big problem in Korea as well. As well as the students no longer respecting the teachers as much, also. When it goes wrong, it also goes wrong both ways.
Honestly, the more I hear about Ol' Six Ears, the more I think his motivation was a mixture of jealousy and loneliness. Like, the first thing he did was offer Tripataka (I can't spell that name) an act of kindness and goodwill, even if for self-serving motivations to insert himself into the group, and only freaked out afterwards. Like, no doubt, he's a bad dude, but... I feel just slightly bad for him. Just a smidge.
Yeah, but also I can't help but think of all the times demons tried to give tripataka poisoned stuff while in disguise, and then got pissed that it didn't work out. Like, I don't know much about that guy, but his behavior hits close to home
That’s honestly fair, if he’s been isolated for a while than the first thing he’d notice is how hard a relationship is to obtain and keep up, so when seeing actually communicating with others is uncomfortable than he figures “I’ll just make soulless dolls that’ll be easier” even if it takes away all of the actually redemption AND relationships that are supposed to be the actual point of the entire pilgrimage
@@averongodoffire8098 him forcing his way into a relationship, getting annoyed when it's hard to sustain, and then deciding to befriend some NPCs instead, sounds exactly like what a character like him would be thinking! That's actually pretty cool It's a shame he's such wasted potential, it sounds like he didn't do much other than copy Monkey. A character like that could've been so cool!
@@lunarskys2645Fun facts, there has always been serious debates on whether the monkey who got killed was the six ear, or Sun Wukong in China . Many people think the Buddha arranged the six ear to appear at this special point to replace the troublesome Wukong. As Buddha knows everything and especially Wukong. There is no way he couldn’t anticipate that Wukong would kill the imposter. Hence he deliberately allowing Wukong doing so would violate his Buddhism core ideology: No killings. On the other hand, the six ear is another monkey out of ten categories that Buddha might have no insights in, who decides to kill the real Wukong once and for all, and replace him.
@@lunarskys2645I’d like to see an alternate store where the macaque joins them on the quest and now Tripitaka has to deal with TWO supremely powerful primates with rival sibling energy, constantly trying to one-up each other, followed by heartfelt bonding moments.
Having a Chinese historian as an uncle and hearing him quote lines as analogies from Journey to the West really has me wondering if episode 10 is near the end or not even 10% done with the whole thing
So, in one pdf of The Journey to the West the talk about 5 kinds of immortality is page 808 and chapter 58... out of 1406 pages and 100 chapters. Past the halfway point, yet still around 6 years to go statistically...
I love it how Kuanyin NEVER gets mad at Sun Wukong Himself, instead asking strength from Budda so she doesn't smack tripataka across the head LOL. Also, THATS How Wukong and Macqaue met each other, sheesh No Wonder Why They hate each other in Monkie Kid, and actually the first thing that Sun Wukong says to Macqaue in the show makes a lot more sense now.
the monkie kid version is a little different actually! its mentioned in shadow play that they were friends before wukong went on the journey. the rest of its probably the same though
She was asking for strength not to smack monkey, as he's the one who's at fault. He is also a monk at this point since he's apprenticed to Tripitaka and is often referred to in novels as an ugly/monstrous monk.
I’m monkie kid they were firends in the beginning so it would be a worse betrayal, also I think we should get red to watch monkie kid, she would probably like it.
Does the horse actually do anything other than be a glorified taxi? Its like a character the writers made thinking it would be awesome and then completely forgot what kind of powers it has.
They are supposed to fulfill their roles, in the Dragon’s case, it is supposed to be a horse, a steed for Tripitaka. So that’s probably why it just stays as a horse half the time.
I've heard someone point out that in the original text the horse *was never actually made a disciple*. Like, he didn't get any of the ceremonies and bowing and declaration the others did. He was hired to be a steed and only that. I like that interpretation. Its just incredibly funny to me that Horse (whose also the youngest, excluding human Tripitaka himself) was being a sulky teen pulling the "technically you only asked me to do _" card the whole trip.
You know that one player who only attends like every tenth D&D session, so their character is just hanging around in the background almost all the time, technically there but not participating? They say life imitates art, but sometimes it really is the other way around.
Fun fact: among Chinese readers of the Journey to the West, there is a VERY VERY popular theory (that’s also kind of an inside joke) that Wukong LOST to the Six Eared Macaque, and that he got fully replaced after the event. This is due to how wildly different Wukong’s characterization becomes after this specific challenge. So we still sometimes joke about it.
That joke/theory fits well with Black Myth Wukong. In the first trailer people speculated that the Wukong you play is actually the Six Eared Macaque because the player was stopped by another Wukong that has golden armor.
That would also explain why wu kong killed the six eared macaque, in the presence of a god, even though that was the very thing he was JUST exiled for. He couldn’t have the real sun wukong running free and trying again.
Bit of a conspiracy theory. But it makes sense. Since DiTing knows the difference and can’t say. DiTing realized it’s Buddha’s plot and too terrified to tell the truth. It’s said that Buddha did this since Wukong went out of control. Also, there is some bureaucracy going on here. Tripitaka being the most useless one but leading the who group to the west. Because Tripitaka is technically a “government official ”. He is the recarnation of Jin chan zi， who is the second apprentice of Buddha.
ok, but the book states that the six-eared macaque was transformed back into his true form before he got killed. so if this theory were true, why would Sun Wukong change his appearance to that of the macaque? And plus, why would the Buddha not realize this, given that he literally knows everything?
@@atlassolid5946 well he didn’t transform on purpose, the six eared macaque was forcefully transformed back to its original state in the text against its will. If that was actually sun wukong then he wouldn’t have a choice of what form to take anyway
Buddha's professor goals. Improvises a lecture on spot to refer to the two fighting madmen in the hallway like "Don't be them, kids" and even solves solves fistfight peacefully before educating Monkey about the damages of murdering endangered species in an ecosystem.
Every time I watch this episode, I start cackling the moment they lay eyes on each other, only stopping when Buddha explains the situation, complete with Red's "Eldritch Horror" visuals of the four monkeys.
I'd like to think this can be summarized as: Sandy/Everyone: Oh thank Buddha there's two of them... Also Sandy/Everyone: oh buddha there's two of them...
... oh my god, this is the origin of "trust me, not him!" "no trust me! He's the fake!" and that blows my mind... also I really like that Monkey's character AND character development was so good that when he started talking about how he just was gonna keep their stuff for himself I was like "... wait... but I thought you grew- where's this coming from?!" God this story's so good! See y'all next year! :D
YEAH THIS IS SO TRUE like i honestly knew something was up the second he actually HIT tripitaka - even in the beginning when he was at his worst, he never hurt tripitaka, or anyone he knew meant no harm!
NEVER have I thought about it like that!!! So cool how all those shows and videos I’ve seen have really all been because of this(or some other story but I like this theory better).
Can we please get "The Third Most Hearty meal of the day, after breakfast and revenge" on a shirt please? Like, that feels like the perfect quote to sum up like half the fights that Monkey gets into.
Framing a separation between characters as a breakup when the characters are NOT romantically involved is my absolute favorite thing and never fails to crack me up. Edit: Guys, I KNOW that a friend breakup is just as, if not worse than a romantic breakup. I meant when the breakup is framed as a romantic breakup. I can't believe I have to explain a joke like that.
Hey, just 'cause it's not romantic doesn't mean it's not a breakup. I had a friend breakup that emotionally devastated me FAR worse than any romantic breakup I've ever had.
The glorious asexual shade! "Tripitaka composes a whole poem about how thirsty he is, which I'm told is a common problem after a bad breakup." Magnificent.
@@patrickstar5136 Except episode 1, pre-quintuple immortal Sun Wukong was able to Fight his way out of the underworld after the gods there mistakenly killed him. If the six-Eared Macaque is equal to Sun, then death is a mild inconvenience at best.
I don't know why, but when Sun Wukong (I'm pretty sure it's the real Wukong) said "Oh boy, here it comes" when people test the migraine spell for the first time kinda makes me feel bad for him. He knows what's coming, and he can't do shit about it, so all he can do is brace for it. And even then, it still hurts like hell.
Honestly I think the panicking one is the real one, since that's the one who has actual *experience* with the migraine spell. Though, uh, there's really no way to tell, which is kinda the point.
@@akiranara6404for me the one panicking isn’t the real one. The six-eared macaque has never felt the pain, but has seen its effects and is terrified… but then again theres no telling who’s the real one.
@@Kpracn0vaactually I think there’s a difference in the color of the text. The one with more orange-ish speech bubbles is Wukong while the one with the more blood red looking ones is the Six-eared Macaque (I think. The color difference might be arbitrary tho lol)
I love how the design is barebones (I think that’s the right word) yet poster worthy. Sun Wukong being disguised as a buhhdist monk while still having a tail does great with alluding to Dragon Ball.
Funny how the previous episode Monkey was all caring about not killing anyone that is not a demon, but in this one he not only killing two random bandits but also kill and beheaded one bandit who parents gave them hospitality and said that they didn't want their son dead because then they will feel sad. In the last episode, Monkey was actually showing maturity, but in this episode, it goes down the drain and gets him kicked for the fourth time. Also love how this episode Tripitaka managed to avoid getting kidnapped on his own for the first (and most likely last) time.
He doesn't kill innocents but enjoys killing anyone who's even a tiny bit criminal. Also, it's my own head cannon but Sun can see through reality so maybe he just knew that the Empress was Tripitaka's soulmate and taught it would be fun to see him try to resist. He was cracking jokes left and right about them anyway. Red, didn't touch upon them but the Empress and Tripitaka was in love in a past life however couldn't unite for dramatic reasons I forgot and promised to be together in another life. It would be this life as Tripitaka is punished going through ten lives before enlightenment and this is his 10th. However, he still can't despite being in love with the Empress because of his bows and this being the life he will be enlightened so despite enjoying their time together he leaves. As he leaves the Empress asks him if they'll meet in another life and Tripitaka lies technically nodding his head and the Empress starts crying as she realizes it won't be the case, this is her soulmates last life whom she could never be together with and they'll never meet again. This is also really hard for Tripitaka being the thing that put him in the verge of giving up enlightenment. Book is pretty amazing and if you like the story you should definitely give it a go, it gets little too slow at times but has incredible character arcs.
@@kaanmuhammedgunes1879 Well, that plot sounds just cruel. Like, unnecessarily cruel to the point of approaching angst. I guess it's some great literature but cruelty like that is the reason I don't like grimdark and it'll likely be a reason I won't like JttW either.
@@pRahvi0 it's about a Buddhist monk so of course it's hard. One of the hardest challenges a monk faces is against love in general, because it's the best thing in the world and a monk needs to get rid of every earthly tether. Pretty cruel, yeah.
One of the things you gotta remember is that JTTW wasn't written in the way we expect modern books to be written, by a single author with a single vision. Monkey was a well established culture hero across a vast majority of China by the time Wu Chengen decided to compile the disparate stories into a single canon, and even after the initial drafts there were further edits made to make the story flow. It's likely that, in doing this, local canon got mixed with general canon, leading to a few characterization mishaps and backslides, or plot points that don't seem to go anywhere.
Yeah and like nobody is talking about how he just cold blooded kill it. My first thought was like "oh no is he ok?" Because death is kind ambiguous here?? Especially with monkeys??? But red said sun totally killed it????????????
Well he’s not Technically dead. Cause you know immortality, they treat death in this story like a mild inconvenience. The spirit monkey is just kind of Removed from the story. 😅
@@dreamiinotdream730 given that he was in the presence of budda himself at the time, the being that stuck sun under a mountain for being too rambunctious that one time, I did think sun might have a modicum of restraint. don't worry, I won't have that lapse in judgment again.
This is the best episode of the series. The imposter monkey is called Six Ears monkey, one of the four holy legendary monkeys in Chinese myth. Six ears monkey can listen, learn and imitate everything he hears the whole earth. The whole time while Sun Wukong was born, trained, become immortal and accompanies Tripataka on the trip, the Six Ears monkey was able to gained and achieved all the power and awesome feats that identical to Wukong by just listening and observing from afar. There are 4 heavenly monkeys, 1 was born near Buddha holy place, 1 was born near the underworld, 1 is Six Ears, and the last one is Wukong - which made him the youngest, since Wukong's stone was the only one that placed on Earth
@@DirgeOfCerberus111 So these are their names: Intelligent Stone Monkey (靈明石猴) This is Wukong. He is the youngest of the four. Six Eared Macaque (六耳獼猴) This is the one Wukong fought and killed during the journey Red-Bottomed Horse Monkey (赤尻馬猴) This is the one born near Buddha holy place and reached Buddhahood first. He was the elder and rarely mentioned in the novel Journey to the West origin. Long-Armed Ape Monkey (通臂猿猴) This is the 2nd one who was born in the underworld. He was the nastiest of the four and also the most powerful. But he was dead way before Wukong was born. The origin of these monkeys come from a goddess Nüwa 女媧, the mother goddess of Chinese mythology. She is credited with creating humanity and repairing the Pillar of Heaven. As creator of mankind, she molded humans individually by hand with yellow clay
@@DirgeOfCerberus111 They originally appear in the "Investiture of the Gods". When Nuwa using the 5-color-stone to mend the heaven there was 4 piece was left which fall back down to the world. -The eldest Monkey is The Red Butt Horse Monkey(I can't translate the name into English so I just use the one above), fall into the Buddist Pure Land, get to hear Buddist prayer before born so he turn into Buddha first among the 4. He is the second strongest with great control of the water. He is also the one making the Water Curtain Cave behind the waterfall Sun Wukong is living in. -The second Monkey is the Pass Arm Ape Monkey, fall into the underworld, become evil and was killed. This monkey is the strongest one among the 4, who learn the 36 transformation instead of 72 like our Sun Wukong, and he can absorb the power of those he defeated. But he isn't immortal so he was killed before he can reach his peak. Both of those monkey was mention in the "Investiture of the Gods". And people worship monkey in the folk lore long before that so the true origin is way too far back to say. As a side note, Sun Wukong have 2 advisor wise monkey in his pack. The monkey that tell Wukong to seek immortality is a Macaque, the other advisor is a Horse Monkey and there is the old dead monkey that start it all so I say that they did foreshadow all 3 monkey kind way back at chapter 1.
You know I've just realized: The chekov's magical leaves haven't been used yet. None of them. They were given 3 get out of danger free leaves and NONE of them have been used. I think... We have a ways to go.
This chapter is honestly what I been waiting for the most. The meaning and story of Sun Wukong and the six eared macaque always intrigue me. I can’t wait to see more chapters to be summarized in this channel! Edit:also I like to think that Wukong killed Macaque because he becomes more self aware, like he knows how powerful and dangerous he can be and doesn’t want to take that risk of someone as powerful as him and with evil intentions being around.
In some non-English translations when monkey kill the sixth eared macaque he felt pain hinting that the other celestial primates were actually aspects of monkey and he just destroyed an aspect of himself. When you think about it the descriptions of the other monkeys that Buddha gave overlapped a lot and unlike the other three primates the monkey king is the only one without a specific species assigned to him unlike the baboon Gibbon and macaque🐒🐒🐒🐒🤔🧐
Isn't Sun Wukong himself specifically a Macaque as well? I've heard stories and sources that say that he's consistently a Macaque much like his counterpart, which added to the confusion.
There has been theories of the macaque representing what Wukong would’ve ended up as if he hadn’t embraced enlightenment and continued to be his destructive self. The idea of macaque being killed could’ve been a way to show this purging of evil from Wukong (or in a broader aspect of the allegory: the mind). As for the other monkeys they probably also represent different parts of Wukong/the mind. They could be seen as aspects of enlightenment to be carried with you or achieved through the journey (knowledge of yin and Yang, understanding of affairs, and lengthening of one’s life) . I’m sure there’s a lot more to it than that but that’s how I would interpret it.
Sun Wukong is my all time favorite fictional and mythological figure. I grew up with the Chinese classic Journey to The West 1986 show. Everything about him and his story is amazing! I’m glad you guys have made a whole series to summarize his story! I love looking into Sun Wukong lore and how he’s made such a big impact on the general media. He inspired Shounen anime/manga troupes and abilities, such as Dragon Ball’s Son Goku with his power pole and nimbus, Luffy’s silly yet headstrong personality, and Naruto’s shadow clone jutsu. The most well known being Son Goku, who was heavily inspired by him. From Goku’s saiyan/ape side, to his urge to fight strong opponents, he still has some aspects/influence from Sun Wukong that remains. His name, Son Goku, is literally just the Japanese translation of Sun Wukong, and the general story, or more specifically characters, was meant to somewhat resemble or reflect The Journey To The West, just like how Oolong closely resembles Pigsy and how Tien has a third eye like Erleng. Dragon Ball went to inspire a lot of future animes and is seen to be one of the most influential animes of all time due to that. I’m glad to see how Sun Wukong technically made a pretty decent mark on today’s anime culture and community, but most people don’t even know that or don’t even know who he is in general. Recently it seems that he’s become more popular, even in the West. I think your channel: Overly Sarcastic Productions, and your video series retelling/summarizing Journey To The West and Sun Wukong really got people talking about him. In general he’s become way more relevant than before. ================================= I would like to list all the recent things that he’s been included in!: • There’s the new game coming out called Black Myth: Wukong • The Lego animated series called Lego Monkie Kid, and there is more seasons to come. (As pointed out to me by @n0t stxrrzz !!, the 4th Season recently came out but only in China for now) Now the 4th Season Special is out! • God of Highschool’s Jin Mori is a version of Sun Wukong. The Webtoon series ended sadly, but it was a great story! • Death Battle’s recent video with Sun Wukong vs. Hercules • DC releasing a new superhero based on Sun Wukong/the monkey king called The Monkey Prince • There is a Netflix original series based on the Journey to The West called “The New Legends of Monkey” that was released in 2018. It only has 2 seasons • Smash Legends released Wukong as a new legend • A game called Black Desert has a new upcoming character/class called Wukong with his abilities. Sadly I think it’s exclusive to China only. • The short fan animation film called Legend: A Dragon Ball Tale has Goku transforming into a super saiyan that reflects Sun Wukong and is referred to as “the savior of heaven.” • Soul Knight has a New Years Spring Festival Seasonal Event that features new character skins based on Journey to The West characters. The Sun Wukong skin is actually the Six Eared Macaque and has a cool detail to distinguish it. The cloning ability for the character is changed to where a monkey pops out and transforms into a clone of one of the other main characters. • Marvel/Disney followed DC in their footsteps and made a show called “American Born Asian” that has Sun Wukong in the show. I haven’t watched it yet, but I think the main character gets Sun Wukong’s staff, and maybe even his power. Kind of like MK in Lego Monkie Kid. • The year of the monkey is coming in 2028. I’m hoping Brawl Stars creates a character or at least a skin or pin that’s related to Sun Wukong! He’s just everywhere now, and I think your channel had a big part in all of that. ================================= I love seeing people being introduced and more interested in Sun Wukong. It’s good to see that he truly lives up to the tales of him gaining multiple immortalities, as it seems his tale and legend never truly dies and sometimes spikes in popularity. I learned a lot from your Journey to The West series. Your story telling style is so unique and entertaining, and your drawings/animatics are so cool! The quality of these videos are like gold! It must take a lot to make these videos, so you deserve to take breaks and take as much time as you need. I’m willing to wait for however long it takes because it’s completely worth it! Thank you for giving me more insight on him! I appreciate everything you guys do! _____________________________________ [Edit]: I’m just going to keep updating the list of Sun Wukong being featured or referenced in things or just being more relevant in general. It will be listed inside the box that has equal signs boxing it in. I’m glad to see that his popularity is still growing even past the initial point of when I made this comment! I just want to put it into perspective of how much your videos have impacted Sun Wukong’s popularity and how awesome that is. I am truly thankful for all that you do and have done! ------------------------ [Edit]: I’ve changed the list into a bulleted list so it’s easier to see each individual thing. I also added new things to the list and taken some input from the replies of this comment. -------------------- [Edit]: I’ve made a separate comment to list all of the recent Sun Wukong related things. This comment is getting too long, and I don’t expect everyone to be able to read all of this 😅 I will still continue to add to this one in case people are just more used to this list, but just know that there is a shorter one out there.
"That I could phrase differently, but chose not to" truthfully is funnier than the different phrase itself 1:00 I really hope this is foreshadowing semi annual updates It would have been really funny though if the Macaque had actually done the quest just for Buddha to recognise the imposter as soon as he gets there Also it's nice to see Redboy again, hopefully that he's doing well will help smooth things over when we see his parents in the next episode (it probably won't), we're now fully past the halfway point though
Meanwhile in the LEGOverse version of the story, Wukong knew Macaque prior and their spat not only had an added element of former freindship but supposedly Wukong mourned in secret at the betrayal and out come of events.
@@chaussette9875this was somewhat confirmed in Shadow Play that they were at least fighting along side eachother. Macaque tells it as Wukong betraying him for the scriptures but we dont know for sure if thats the truth
@@princeofvos yeah, Wukong didn’t admit that he killed him and seems to act like Macaque is intimidating him just for kicks. Perhaps someone manipulated them into thinking one betrayed the other?
For those that don't know, the 3 other celestial monkeys are the inspiration for Vegeta, Nappa and Raditz from dragon ball. Just like Goku is based on the original Sun Wukong. Akira Toriyama really did his research.
Absolutely losing it over the callback to Monkey being heaven’s official horse master. And the dragon is now technically a horse so it has to listen to him. This moment is officially my favorite
I’ve watched this whole series several times over now since we got part 10 and I just can’t help but say I love the way Quan Yin shared her Ben & Jerry’s with the depressed Monkey King and how much the lovable muscle of our coterie of heroes has grown. May we all aspire for such fulfilling friendships in our lives.
Reds storytelling is do genius that the audience gets the inkling that this monkey isn't the actual monkey while still being in the dark about what is actually going on until it's revealed
If anything, Journey To The West had a ripple effect on anime/manga, with Dragon Ball starting as a parody of it and then other anime being inspired by Dragon Ball...
4:43 I’m making it my own head canon that the migraine spell is just Tripitaka letting out a stern, long and droning “Nooooo” because if there’s anything Sun wouldn’t be able to handle, it’s being handed a no that he can’t do anything about.
So if Son Goku is based off of Sun Wukong, that would make Raditz based off of Six-Ears. They serve a similar narrative role: providing an explanation for the protagonist’s mysterious origin, a challenging fight, and they get killed off relatively quickly.
Toriyama definitely was not still thinking about the story in JttW terms by the time the sayians were introduced lol Still, death of the author. Fun to theory craft upon such things.
@@randomfox12245 it's funny how even the space ships ressemble the "stone egg" that the original sun wu kong came from, so i might give him a bit more credit
I cannot get over Sun's vibing face in the first frame, it's so perfect. Also the Sonic Adventure 2 reference at 9:34 killed me, I had to stop watching I was laughing so much. This is by far one of my absolute favorite series on the internet. Thank you for giving us these gems!
@@CalebBerman Hey pal we are talking about taoist bhuddist mythology here ,not christian mythology ,if you want to talk about christian mythology go to some christian preaching video ok
Love when Quan’yin activates the migraine spell and the two servants are like, “it seems to be affecting them both.” And Red Boy is gleefully watching Sun writhe in pain and says, “Let’s not be hasty.”
Ah, the migrane spell is “Gives You Hell”! It’s the first time I’ve been able to clearly read and recognize it, that’s cool! Also I found it way too amusing that “Fake Sun reading the party’s log” was just reading Red’s exact words on an earlier Journey to the west video lol
I suspect it was different every time. If Red has a font and doesn't hand-write every letter, it'd be easy to copy-paste whatever song is in her head this week.
I don’t know why, but I didn’t expect a highly symbolic story to actually have this much character development, so when it was revealed that Sun Wukong wasn’t actually the bad monkey I was like “The old monkey would’ve totally done all that.” Wukong gradually maturing over the course of the story is actually so well written and feels so natural despite how old the story is.
It's a bit weird to think about, but not at all uncommon. Heck the oldest written story we know of is basically entirely about Gilgamesh's character development
@@ruben4257 Yeah that’s a pretty good point, I just tend to think of old works in a “Beowulf” sense where it’s just “Hero does stuff” but there can be a surprising amount of narrative.
11:33 The art is absolutely chilling. In fact, all the four spiritual primates drawn in that style makes them all look terrifying. Red's art is gorgeous.
Ah YESSSS, we got to this part! This was so great! Wonderful work! Also I love the detail of Sun and Macaque completely being the same, until the Buddha pointed out how and then the colour shift happened and Macaque's eyes became purple
@@cewla3348 well, as the Buddha said, he’s a Stone Monkey. He was born from a rock so that’s self explanatory but other than that there’s some particularly strong evidence that supports the idea that he is ALSO a macaque :)
@@cewla3348 In chapter one, Subhuti tells Wukong that, “Though your features are not the most attractive, you do resemble a pignolia-eating macaque” doesn’t prove anything 100% but it’s definitely something!
@@cewla3348 Monkey is also a Macaque, but he is much less of a normal monkey at this point than the other 4 primates. He's effectively his own species. Iirc he himself admits that he's basically no longer recognizable as a monkey by other monkeys anymore--thought that doesn't take away his title as Monkey King. Still a primate though.
@@cewla3348 Actually on an additional note Wukong is called the "stone" monkey because he was literally born as a rock. Technically he's a rock who took on the shape of a monkey, because apparently weirdly powerful immortal beings have a sort of carcinization that tends towards monkey form, I guess.
I'd genuinely love to see an in-depth video on Guanyin in the Dionysus/Aphrodite/Loki format you've done in the past. She's seriously one of my favorite players in JttW
I think Red did keep track. If you screenshot the two monkeys shouting at 10:29 and zoom in, it becomes easier to notice that their text have different colors
The fact that Sun Wukong learns that he basically has 3 other siblings only to kill one immediately after learning that information is just hilarious Edit: Also can we just take a moment to appreciate what a raw line was given to us at 11:28?
One would think that tripitaca had learned from the last time he exiled monkey. You know, with the deamon whta turned him into a tiger, beat pigsis's butt and the dragon horse and then sandy had to beg for monkey return
@@beandam8739 When I saw him kill, I was like "Hey, don't you remember this the first time you killed with Tripitaka? It didn't go well. I thought you learned your lesson," same with Triptiaka.
Really sometimes watching these videos I wish to read these stories in detail myself, but then I remember how long this story is, and how many pages there are. So i come back here because this is still very fun to listen to and watch, and big congrats to Red and the effort she puts into this.
It only took me two weeks of intense reading, I do recommend you try it out. Once you get used to the prose and storytelling style it's just as good as everyone says it is.
@@cyrilhendrix7614 Oh I definitely plan to try and read it I'm just not able to right now, because I have to make a new schedule to include such a giant of a story. It's definitely a plan as one of my many challenges.
Sun as a antagonist was actually terrifying even though it was short lived. The speech and the way he was drawn during it made me physically gasp when he was explaining it, like I actually believed he had lost it for a mo. 7:24
agreed, I've been watching this for years and now I know how Dragon Ball fans reacted when a new episode arrived... I mean in this case it's once every 11 months but hey man, builds anticipation :D
One of the Sun Wukongs: Shoot him, Pigsy! I'm the real Monkey King!
Pigsy: (aiming at him) The real Brother Sun would never pass up an opportunity to prove how immortal he is!
They should have tried that. It would've worked.
Lol what is Pigsy planning to shoot him with? A railgun that he transformed his rake into?
@@moonwatcher4047 He's just going to yeet his rake at him. It's not gonna do much because the Six-Eared Macaque is just as powerful as Sun Wukong and Monkey survived the rake easily, but that's not going to stop Pigsy because Pigsy is a moron.
🤣 JAJAJA 😂
@@moonwatcher4047 the book would have been a lot different if Pigsy had the technical knowledge to pull that off. Maybe then he would actually be an asset to the group.
"Quan-Yin takes a quick peak into Tripitaka's future and tells Monkey that Tripitaka will be in great danger soon."
She didn't even need to do that to come to that conclusion, he gets into great danger on a practically daily basis.
I was expecting Sun to go "Tripitaka in danger soon, must be a day that ends in Y."
"He'll need your help soon."
"Did you predict that with your bodhisattva powers?"
"No just pattern recognition."
@@erichfiedler1481 He said something similar "i thought the sun rose this morning", as if Tripitaka in danger is just as frequent as sunrise
(Well, actually, this whole journey took many years, so they get into trouble only like each month🤓)
YEAH BASICALLY
The fact that their is an entire group of all-powerful cosmic immortal mystical monkeys that lie outside general categories is just hilarious
Hilarious for the reader, downright terrifying for the characters living in the story
@@floricel_112 imagine if the others in the gang was at the Buddha and heard that their funni monkey pal has the power to move the planets and alter fate
It's a shame that the other two completely fucking no-show, this is the only appearance of the Six Eared Macaque (on account of him being dead throughout the rest of the story) but the other two are just never present at all.
@@TheShinyFeraligatr They are probably way too smart to come within 2,000 li of Sun Wu Kong. XD
@@TheShinyFeraligatr Does death matter though?
Son Wukong is Quintuple immortal and has technically died once, only to fight his way back out of the underworld. The Six-Ear Macaque would be fully within his rights to show up again considering he's fully equal to a being who treats death like a mild inconvenience.
Love how guanyin is basically Wu Kong’s calm older sister. She’s so done with him, but also cares about him and gives him good advice
Nah I feel like she's his adopted mom considering his actual mom is a rock and she's been a part of his life since his tantrum in heaven. Also very nosey just like a mom.
@@nathantudor5696true, or she could just be the under paid babysitter but won’t give up for a higher paying job because she just really likes the kids who she babysits.
Kwan Yin swore an oath when She became enlightened that She won't retire into complete Nirvana until every sentient being has achieved enlightenment. She is literally everyone's patient mom friend
One thing that should be taken note here, the stronger you are the harder it is to hold back. It was likely very hard for sun to hold back enough to not kill them with physical attacks... he could have found another way but....
Yeah Wukong weirdly has a lot of respect for her and never causes her problems. She's like the only person he hasn't actively pissed off (only accidentally or indirectly)
I love how Buddha has to alter his lecture after this episode. Like,
“There are four beings that don’t fit into any of those categories”
*bonk*
“There are three beings that don’t fit into any of those categories”
He just pulled the old wiki editor move and changed "there are four" to "there were four"
Not necessarily as they were stated to be immortal, it could be the type of immortality that you come back from the dead after a certain amount of time.
@@zachbahamutson5477 you would think an all seeing monkey with future sight would have seen that coming and had some kind of plan to not be unalived so completely
Yeah I was exposed to ol' 6 ear through several mediums mainly Lego Monkie kid and I am choosing to assume he survived
Monkey has proved that death is meaningless for his kind, of the other monkey can match him in power, I’m sure they’ll be fine.
Sometimes I'm like "God, this is so tropey!" and then I remember how old this is and that it INVENTED these tropes and I'm once again fascinated
isn't it, like, 16th century? that's pretty damn modern for china.
The real life adventure happened in 7th century Tang dynasty I think, but the 16th century one is the oldest remaining version. So the tropes could be older.
Do not cite the tropes to me fool. I was there when they were writen
@@drakootherat1735 badass
@@drakootherat1735 this is what i imagine the final boss of story telling sounds like
“Which I *could* have rephrased but chose not to” I love red so much 😂
Sarcasm is one hell of a drug
lol
red casually being a master of chaotic narrating, as usual
Too many innuendos in one opening is apparently a thing
Gigachad move
I love the chaotic feverish ADHD fighting of the two monkeys as they continuously try to one up the other
My personal favorite line is:
"Alright buddy I'll see you in HELL!"
"Not if I get there first!"
On a meta level, it was also awesome on Red's part. she didn't differentiate which Monkey was which. She just gave one the most Monkey thing to say she could think of, and then the most Monkey response she could think of for the other.
My favorite line was deffinately:
"I'm gonna kick your ass!!"
"IT'S YOUR ASS TOO!!"
I love how they dont reconcile through a bonding moment or character development, quan yin just straight up tells tripitaka he's gonna take sun wu kong back and he's gonna like it
YES
Kuanyin continues to be best girl.
YOU WILL GET ALONG OR YOU WILL FACE THE THREE CHANCALA BEATING
Monkey had some character development.
I mean Tripitaka ain't going to argue with the Buddha.
"DO YOU THINK YOU'RE A BETTER JUDGE OF CHARACTER THAN THE BUDDAH!?"
very effective threat, props to the chef
"There are 5 kinds of immortals" and monkey collected them like fucking pokemon cards
Collecting* he gets another when they finish the journey lmao
@@ellajohnny9885 is it divine?
@@Random_Gamer-sh6pf I think it’s actually heavenly because the west is often referred to as the western heaven whereas divine is often associated with the jade emperor and celestial with the more primal gods
But I don’t know for sure I only finished and abridged version and this chapter was cut
Pretty sure the only form of immortality Monkey HASN'T acquired is the kind you get from eating Tripitaka
We don't give enough credit to the underworld dog. He knew the Six-Eared Macaque was there, but he could not reveal it because Macaque would destroy everything in the Underworld.
Either Macaque himself or both of them while fighting. Also, since Macaque died, I believe he's gonna go full havoc in the underworld now. 😂
SWK = cossing havoc in heaven
SEM = cossing havoc in the underworld
Pretty fitting if you call him Monkeys "dark reflection".
I know it’s a small point in the beginning, but I think it’s worth pointing out that Sun is the boss of all horses and also apparently all beings inhabiting a horse shaped body.
Oh yeah. Pi mah wen or smthn
They literally just mention it in the first minute
*Some guy:* Wears a horse costume for Halloween
*Sun Wu Kong: I’m about to do what is called a pro gamer move*
Poseidon in shambles rn
i mean, just about everyone beneath the buddha are at his mercy, so its probably not a question to do him a favour when he asks for one
i love that fake Wukong copied the one weakness, dude's committed to the bit. Also hilarious that the only solution was what started the whole conflict to begin with
I like to think that his mimicry of Wukong was so good that he couldn't help but copy that weakness, considering Monkey kills him so easily after all that mirror match fighting, it also probably boosted him up to Wukong's level.
Murder also wasn't the only solution, but the real lesson here is that people should be trying to TEACH Wukong that rather than just blame him for using violence to solve every problem when the only reason you have him arround is to solve your problems with violence. Monkey is supposed to learn things on the Journey but so is Trippitaka, it doesn't matter that he is just so good and perfect, if he doesn't DO anything, in this case, teach his disciples.
@@timothycarney9652 bearing in mind that Monkey is meant to be human nature and impulse in the Buddhist metaphor, it's pretty key that Tripitaka teaches him rather than abandoning him too 😁
It actually makes sense, though.
Yes, the migraine spell could give him an advantage, but only if he was able to kill Sun while he was down. Which he couldn't on account of the famed quintuple immortality.
And once they figured out which one was the true one they would have lifted the spell, leaving him to face an already enraged Sun plus the gallery of other fighters and deities involved. So he had to at least pretend to share the weakness until he could figure out a solution (or maybe manage to take Sun down).
Something similar actually screwed over an imposter in a previous chapter that Red didn’t go over. A demon disguised as Tripitaka pulled a similar trick. But Pigsy got the idea to have each recite the migraine spell; something only the real deal knew. When the demon couldn’t do it, he fled.
The fake wukong was smart enough to get ALL the details if he was gonna try something like this.
I guess that explains why macaque is depicted as a theater nerd in LMK
i just love red's absolutely chaotic narrating, it's amazing
I swear she should write books at this point
She wrote a comic forgot what is called tho I think she mentioned it in a previous trope talk video
The webcomic is called Aurora
You guys are right I love her storytelling style only she can take boring old books and turn it into fun exciting works of for a lack of a better term art
@@Photobookbee thanks man
I love how with the growing popularity of the lego monkie kid show this series is being visited and shared as reference material for understanding Journey to the west
dude i knew nothing about jttw until i watched lmk so watching this was making me be like “PIGSY”
Thank you monkie kid 🙏
I'm pretty sure they got quite a bit wrong, but hey, as long as the characters are correct, I'm fine
not to be philosophical or anything, but this is what good fiction should do: it captures your interest so you start digging further and eventually read the source material.
Lmk made me watch the jttw series in this channel, and there was a time i always wondered why there's always a monkey called wukong in some games
See, THIS is why forcing your monster of the week antagonists to reform is superior to killing them: you can have fun absolutely freaking them out whenever you show up on a casual non-fighting related visit.
Seriously the doodle of Wukong messing with the goldfish really cracked me up.
Wym "week antagonist"?
Wukong is a kratos tier antagonist
Macaque is as inmortal as wukong, he's not dead
@@inigo-montoya I don't think you understood what he said, he was talking about all the other gods in this chapter. Most likely especially King Yama. And as Wukong as the "protagonist" he exhibits extreme power. And it wasn't clarified if the Macque had done all the immortality layers Wukong has
@@inigo-montoya They're talking about the goldfish and Red Boy.
@@inigo-montoya Not "week" as in a misspelling of "weak", but "Monster of the Week". As in, they fight monsters, weekly, and Red Boy and the goldfish are two of them.
imagine having two uber powerful nearly omniciant monkies in your party instead of just 1.
I appreciate that Red Boy is shown actually serving as Kuanyin's servant like he's supposed to, shaved head and all, after she so thoroughly kicked his ass before
He's enjoying this.
i have the books and I can assure you Wukong and Red boy say hi to each other in other chapters besides this one :).
I love how quan yin divines that trippataka and monkey will reconcile and the reconciliation is just her going to trippataka and saying "yeah, you have to let monkey back. Bhudda said so." That could been done at the beginning.
Quan yin is the real mvp in this.
It's usually Kuanyin or Guanyin btw. The q letter sounds like "ch" in pinyin, so Quanyin isn't a typical spelling
I swear every problem they can solve is solved by just asking her
She always is
Honestly why can't monkey just bring them? He's casually gone to the western heaven like 6 times already...
@@Ragnaracc it isn't the destination, it's the friends you make on the way .
12:20 I choose to believe that “recognizes the seasons” and “discerns the advantages of Earth” is why Monkey was so pumped a few episodes ago when it snowed, why he built a snowman, and loved the peaceful tranquility of the fresh snowfall.
He can appreciate the small things of earth
It's probably also why his first action was acknowledging cardinal directions, before the laser eye incident.
A common interpretation of the 6 ears macaque is that he is the physical manifestations of the savage nature or evil within wukong. They are the same, figuratively 2 side of the same coin, that’s why the macaque have all the same abilities, strength and why most gods can’t tell the difference. Which also explains why the macaque have no backstory and seemly came out of nowhere. This incident is an allegory of wukong beating his inner demon, literally. Afterward wukong is a bit more peaceful, a bit
Like Krampus-Santa
The difference between chaotic neutral and chaotic evil.
It seemingly went for four monkeys with the same insane strength as Sun Wu Kong.
Like Sun Wu Kong isn't the only monkey God game in town.
@@AMoniqueOcampo THIS!! WELL SAID
@@joseloayza502 krampus is a separate identity independent from santa claus. They were even concieved separately
You don’t see that kind of redemption very often in media these days. Tripitaka can’t forgive Wukong, but Wukong won’t learn to improve his ways and learn some restraint without Tripitaka, who also is nowhere near perfect. It’s kind of cool to see someone say, “hey, you two better learn to help each other become better people if you both want make it through this.” It’s more logical than it is emotion based and actually shows that character growth goes both ways.
True. We need to see such things more in modern media, which often takes the approach, "Oh, you did bad thing, now you cannot/must not be forgiven." As if forgiveness can only ever be born out of weakness or naivite...
If you wanna see somewhere else where this type of redemption happens: The Good Place. It's very good.
sorry but rn I hate Tripitaka and agree with sun Wukong stealing their luggage and stuff 😭
The Six Eared Macaque is a metaphor of the darker side of Wukong，which is so interesting to think about～
When I watch these type of videos I want to punch Tripitaka in the face so many times
5:18 "Merciful Buddha, do me a solid here: give the strength to not smack a monk upside the head."
I love how Kuanyin is slowly transitioning from a zen queen to a supportive but increasingly aggravated aunt who's 85% done with her chaotic nephews’ sh*t.
Honestly, mood.
Is Wukong the nephew, or is Tripitaka one with a dumbass roomie?
@@michaeliv284 I was thinking nephews, plural, but your proposition makes things even more interesting.
I'm getting exasperated big sister vibes, but yeah haha
Wukong: I JUST WANTED TO HELP AND NOW THEY HATE MEEE-
I’ve heard that the Six-Eared Macaque’s name may be a reference to his powers. Apparently, there is an old idiom that talks about not letting your words be heard by the ‘Sixth Ear’. This idiom basically cautions the listener against being eavesdropped, if two people are having a conversation then there are Four ears between them BUT, if a third person is listening in on them, then there are Six ears. Apparently this idiom is even used earlier in JTTW when then the monk teaches Monkey how to become immortal.
So essentially, since Macaque has the ability to hear anything in a massive radius around him, this would make him the “Sixth Ear” in every conversation, thus he is called the Six-Eared Macaque.
I haven’t read this chapter yet, so I’m curious if Macaque is actually described as having Six ears or if he’s only ever called Six-Eared Macaque as a title. Also I presume this ability to hear anything is how Macaque went about his way to become as powerful as Wukong, just stalking him the entire journey and listening for the right moment to rob Tripitaka.
AMAZING
So his name is actually supposed to be the Eavesdropping Macaque then?
@@AztecCroc More like the All-Hearing Macaque.
Given how literal names often are in this story, there is a chance it is both. With his six ears, he is always an eavesdropper. As such, he also serves as yet another allegory in the story, cautioning against jealous eavesdropping and insincerity.
but wouldn't that mean there are 10 ears listening? since 4 ears + 6 eavesdropping ears
I really love how gripping of a story this is. As soon as I saw that the fake Wu Kong has a headpiece on I said “oh, they’ll cast the migraine spell to figure out who’s the real one!” But nope, that didn’t work. I love it when stories do that.
Another lovely bit of visual design is that the fake Wu Kong doesn’t sport a coloured staff. It was obvious it’s a case of „two is worse than one“ right then and there.
I thought the same
why did it affect the macaque as well, I wonder
@@floricel_112 Because he could see the future and knew in advance how and when Wukong would reaction to the spell, so he could imitate it.
@@TheLordTash then how didn't it see being found out by the Buddha?
I just realized the Macaque was foreshadowed when Monkey told the dead bandits to pray to any gods they want to take revenge on him, but he said he was stronger then all of them. I guess they found the one god who he wasn't stronger than.
Three minutes in: Ah, this episode
Nine minutes in: Well thats a great 10 episode arc right there
I love how Quan Yin is just "oh this dumbass, Buddha help me" for like the 1009th time in a row, she's truly probably one of the most patient monks ever-
Technically, she’s a boddhisapha (definitely not spelling that right)
She is wukong mom at this point
@@painvillegaming4119 Mom Wukong?
@@shadowldrago 😂
@@charliefarmer4365 *Bodhisattva
Quan Yin really did a lot this episode just by being there for Monkey. Of course the Buddha was super cool with his understanding of life, the universe and everything.
given how munch they need her help alot and how handful monkey can be. Also this show how chill and in control buddha can be
@@starmaker75 that groaning while asking the Buddha for strength makes her pretty much his exasperated mother. She's the closest he has to one anyway, so maybe Monkey does have a Grandmother, huh...
And she told off Tripitaka for being immature.
the answer to life is 42
Sorta like Terry Pratchett in his depictions of Witchcraft. "Ninety percent of magic is simply knowing one additional fact."
I love that the real Sun's reaction to the truth about the fake is "IM NOT ALONE!!!"
and then murder.
@@0katsuki0 There can only be one.
@@0katsuki0 “there are four great monkeys beyond known powers!”
*whap*
“There are now THREE great monkeys!”
@@omnicupid6694 that would mean he has to kill two more monkeys with even more powerful sounding titles that are probably gonna wreck the world multiple itmes over if he tries
@@StabbyTheSkaven luckily the other 2 just mind thier business and are never mentioned in Sun's story outside of this lol This one just sat under a mountain or something and listened into all of Sun Wukong's taoist training to get his powers as well as watching the whole journey to this point and decided fuck it i wanna do that
I can’t tell if journey to the west is one of the greatest stories ever told, or if Red is just that good of a narrator/animator
These statements are not mutually exclusive!
both, both is good
six of one, half dozen of the other :)
Yes
Both
I love Sandy so much. He's like the reliable dad of the crew who also has his limits (i.e the imposter Sandy murder) He even made some dad jokes last episode
It also helps that He really wasn’t ever that evil in the first place. The thing that got his exiled in the first place was braking a glass at a party.
It’s kinda messed up, he was demoted, turned into a monster, whipped 800 times, banished to the desolate Flowing Sands River and every 7 days the jade emperor sends a sword to stab him 100 times in the chest and sides. The place is so desolate nothing can grow there and the only food available was traveller’s he expresses he never wanted to harm but needed to eat to live. He even starves himself for days at a time. In the book he is truly miserable and will do anything to make this loop stop.
Basically Sandy was tortured and forced to kill hundreds because the Jade Emperor couldn’t even have mercy on a dude who broke a nice cup.
Sandy is a good guy who did nothing wrong.
@@infiniteoctopawOH my for a Cup A CUP
@@infiniteoctopawdamn that’s messed up 💀
I'd say he's "Underrated" but i think the white dragon horse might win the medal for being Underrated
Sandy is my second favorite :3
@@infiniteoctopaw And don't forget all the people he ate is the incarnation of tripitaka 😢
Crazy how long this story is when characters can travel from heaven to the underworld to flower fruit mountain, back to Buddha's crib and then back to their current location seemingly at will
👏🏾
Gotta synch with the viewpoint before you unlock fast travel.
Perhaps the journey itself matters more than the destination.
Full battle combat Dragonball Z Style!
i think it’s because they have to get tripitaka there and he got like prophesied to survive 82 dangers (i think i don’t know for sure)
I find it interesting that the 'migraine spell'/power limiter was the best option initially for disciplining Monkey when he was super powerful and still essentially Chaos Incarnate, but at this point in the journey, he's actually gained party-members, friends, a purpose, and now using that method & exile instead has an entirely different result and reaction from Monkey and the text. Initially, the first banishment/reprimands were just met with anger and rebellious petulance but now the response is feeling lonely and isolated, and unjustly persecuted - with an active interest in both forgiveness and learning to do better/opportunity for growth, rather than just "oops, sorry" for evasion of consequences.
Yes
Absolutely!! I grew up with the 1999 animated adaptation, and it always stuck with me how much Sun Wukong came to care about his shifu. Even though that cartoon was just one of many interpretations, they always framed him as devastated when kicked out or when he assumes Tripitaka is dead, and he tries really hard to help his shifu and it’s evident he cares about him. It was always such a fascinating story of character growth that I really enjoyed witnessing again and again as a kid!
Originally, the migraine spell had to be used in order to make monkey join them.
Now, it has to be used to drive him away.
Now that's character development.
@@ALookIntoTheEulenspiegel neat
East Asian(Korean) here, and I just want to bring some context as to why Tripitaka kicking out Sun Wukong comes across as such a big deal.
In East Asian cultures the relationship between teacher and student is considered much deeper than a Western audience might think. There is a common saying 'Your monarch, Your teacher, and Your parent are the same'. Students had to treat teachers with the same degree of reverence as a monarch, and the same degree of fondness as a parent. Of course, this works both ways, teachers having to do vice versa.
According to these ethics, Tripitaka and Sun Wukong are both showing exemplary BAD behavior here. A disciple going against the teacher's wish and commiting revenge is equal to treason. Yet kicking said disciple out and more importantly, rejecting his desire to reform is equal to abandoning your child. Both unacceptable actions in the social norms at the time. This is why the Buddha himself acts as a moral compass for these misguided souls.
Thanks for the insight. While I had picked up on the importance of the master-student relationship by being a classy anime connoisseur, you worded it in a very elegant way that really brought it into sharper focus.
Okay, that makes sense. On the face of it, it was a bit more understandable because this was far from the first offense, and you can imagine interpreting it as evidence that after all this time Wukong hadn't made any progress. This puts it in perspective, though.
Wow, that adds such a depth and weight to this episode...thanks for the cultural context
sadly nowadays, bosses/teachers/seniors love preaching the "student must respect teacher" thing and conveniently ignore the part where they must reciprocate. Known in animeland/Japan as the "Sempai clause". If you dare bring it up to them, they will either say you don't deserve it or made it up.
@@pigifi True, and it's a big problem in Korea as well. As well as the students no longer respecting the teachers as much, also. When it goes wrong, it also goes wrong both ways.
To summarize the latter half of this episode,
“This is getting out of hand. Now there are two of them!”
Alternatively:
Sun Wukong: "What the hell am I sensing? Is that me?! Is that me stronger than me?!! I'll f*cking kill me!!!"
@@legomaniac213
Where did I hear that line before?
@@Gekkouga2310 It's from Dragonball Z Abridged
@@legomaniac213 I knew it!
Thanks for reminding me
It's not the Christmas and New Year's without Journey to the West, bless you Red for this new episode
And Buddhist buns
8:49 I love these little callbacks. Wukong saying "been staying out of trouble" to quanyins goldfish that became a demon in an earlier chapter.
Honestly, the more I hear about Ol' Six Ears, the more I think his motivation was a mixture of jealousy and loneliness. Like, the first thing he did was offer Tripataka (I can't spell that name) an act of kindness and goodwill, even if for self-serving motivations to insert himself into the group, and only freaked out afterwards. Like, no doubt, he's a bad dude, but... I feel just slightly bad for him. Just a smidge.
Yeah, but also I can't help but think of all the times demons tried to give tripataka poisoned stuff while in disguise, and then got pissed that it didn't work out.
Like, I don't know much about that guy, but his behavior hits close to home
That’s honestly fair, if he’s been isolated for a while than the first thing he’d notice is how hard a relationship is to obtain and keep up, so when seeing actually communicating with others is uncomfortable than he figures “I’ll just make soulless dolls that’ll be easier” even if it takes away all of the actually redemption AND relationships that are supposed to be the actual point of the entire pilgrimage
@@averongodoffire8098 him forcing his way into a relationship, getting annoyed when it's hard to sustain, and then deciding to befriend some NPCs instead, sounds exactly like what a character like him would be thinking! That's actually pretty cool
It's a shame he's such wasted potential, it sounds like he didn't do much other than copy Monkey. A character like that could've been so cool!
@@lunarskys2645Fun facts, there has always been serious debates on whether the monkey who got killed was the six ear, or Sun Wukong in China . Many people think the Buddha arranged the six ear to appear at this special point to replace the troublesome Wukong. As Buddha knows everything and especially Wukong. There is no way he couldn’t anticipate that Wukong would kill the imposter. Hence he deliberately allowing Wukong doing so would violate his Buddhism core ideology: No killings. On the other hand, the six ear is another monkey out of ten categories that Buddha might have no insights in, who decides to kill the real Wukong once and for all, and replace him.
@@lunarskys2645I’d like to see an alternate store where the macaque joins them on the quest and now Tripitaka has to deal with TWO supremely powerful primates with rival sibling energy, constantly trying to one-up each other, followed by heartfelt bonding moments.
Having a Chinese historian as an uncle and hearing him quote lines as analogies from Journey to the West really has me wondering if episode 10 is near the end or not even 10% done with the whole thing
We’re about 60% through I think? The next video should be when they finally reach the West, though that’s hardly the end of the story.
it's the middle
This is chapter 56-58 of 100.
@@ghostexorcist _OH GOOD GRIEF_
So, in one pdf of The Journey to the West the talk about 5 kinds of immortality is page 808 and chapter 58... out of 1406 pages and 100 chapters. Past the halfway point, yet still around 6 years to go statistically...
I love it how Kuanyin NEVER gets mad at Sun Wukong Himself, instead asking strength from Budda so she doesn't smack tripataka across the head LOL. Also, THATS How Wukong and Macqaue met each other, sheesh No Wonder Why They hate each other in Monkie Kid, and actually the first thing that Sun Wukong says to Macqaue in the show makes a lot more sense now.
Yes
the monkie kid version is a little different actually! its mentioned in shadow play that they were friends before wukong went on the journey. the rest of its probably the same though
@@liasroom Dw I remembered the show version, I just thought it was a neet little note was all ^^
She was asking for strength not to smack monkey, as he's the one who's at fault. He is also a monk at this point since he's apprenticed to Tripitaka and is often referred to in novels as an ugly/monstrous monk.
I’m monkie kid they were firends in the beginning so it would be a worse betrayal, also I think we should get red to watch monkie kid, she would probably like it.
Does the horse actually do anything other than be a glorified taxi? Its like a character the writers made thinking it would be awesome and then completely forgot what kind of powers it has.
They are supposed to fulfill their roles, in the Dragon’s case, it is supposed to be a horse, a steed for Tripitaka. So that’s probably why it just stays as a horse half the time.
the "horse" also fights several enemies, for example it helped the protagonists to fight against the yellow robe monster
I've heard someone point out that in the original text the horse *was never actually made a disciple*. Like, he didn't get any of the ceremonies and bowing and declaration the others did. He was hired to be a steed and only that.
I like that interpretation. Its just incredibly funny to me that Horse (whose also the youngest, excluding human Tripitaka himself) was being a sulky teen pulling the "technically you only asked me to do _" card the whole trip.
He was useful a couple of times. Red covered once story in previous episode
You know that one player who only attends like every tenth D&D session, so their character is just hanging around in the background almost all the time, technically there but not participating? They say life imitates art, but sometimes it really is the other way around.
Fun fact: among Chinese readers of the Journey to the West, there is a VERY VERY popular theory (that’s also kind of an inside joke) that Wukong LOST to the Six Eared Macaque, and that he got fully replaced after the event. This is due to how wildly different Wukong’s characterization becomes after this specific challenge. So we still sometimes joke about it.
That joke/theory fits well with Black Myth Wukong. In the first trailer people speculated that the Wukong you play is actually the Six Eared Macaque because the player was stopped by another Wukong that has golden armor.
That would also explain why wu kong killed the six eared macaque, in the presence of a god, even though that was the very thing he was JUST exiled for. He couldn’t have the real sun wukong running free and trying again.
Bit of a conspiracy theory. But it makes sense. Since DiTing knows the difference and can’t say. DiTing realized it’s Buddha’s plot and too terrified to tell the truth. It’s said that Buddha did this since Wukong went out of control. Also, there is some bureaucracy going on here. Tripitaka being the most useless one but leading the who group to the west. Because Tripitaka is technically a “government official ”. He is the recarnation of Jin chan zi， who is the second apprentice of Buddha.
ok, but the book states that the six-eared macaque was transformed back into his true form before he got killed. so if this theory were true, why would Sun Wukong change his appearance to that of the macaque? And plus, why would the Buddha not realize this, given that he literally knows everything?
@@atlassolid5946 well he didn’t transform on purpose, the six eared macaque was forcefully transformed back to its original state in the text against its will. If that was actually sun wukong then he wouldn’t have a choice of what form to take anyway
Buddha's professor goals. Improvises a lecture on spot to refer to the two fighting madmen in the hallway like "Don't be them, kids" and even solves solves fistfight peacefully before educating Monkey about the damages of murdering endangered species in an ecosystem.
I love how Red took such obvious delight in writing the dual Monkeys' dialogue
Every time I watch this episode, I start cackling the moment they lay eyes on each other, only stopping when Buddha explains the situation, complete with Red's "Eldritch Horror" visuals of the four monkeys.
I'd like to think this can be summarized as:
Sandy/Everyone: Oh thank Buddha there's two of them...
Also Sandy/Everyone: oh buddha there's two of them...
So True
Buddha: Um actually there are 4 of them
Monkey: Correction, 3 of us
Budda, disappointed/warning: “monkey”
@@xeenproof2024 Monkey: No, four doesn't work, there's three of us.
@@xeenproof2024 Quanyin: I'm seeing double! FOUR Monkeys!
... oh my god, this is the origin of "trust me, not him!" "no trust me! He's the fake!" and that blows my mind... also I really like that Monkey's character AND character development was so good that when he started talking about how he just was gonna keep their stuff for himself I was like "... wait... but I thought you grew- where's this coming from?!" God this story's so good!
See y'all next year! :D
YEAH THIS IS SO TRUE like i honestly knew something was up the second he actually HIT tripitaka - even in the beginning when he was at his worst, he never hurt tripitaka, or anyone he knew meant no harm!
NEVER have I thought about it like that!!! So cool how all those shows and videos I’ve seen have really all been because of this(or some other story but I like this theory better).
@@Farrie13the journey to the west directly or indirectly influenced many literature novel manga and games nowadays.
I can't be the only one compelled to rewatch all the JttW videos every time a new one comes out, right?
Next time on Dragon Ball Z...uh, Journey to the West.
You’re not alone
ABSOLUTELY not alone.....
Yeah, you aren’t alone
No your not
Can we please get "The Third Most Hearty meal of the day, after breakfast and revenge" on a shirt please? Like, that feels like the perfect quote to sum up like half the fights that Monkey gets into.
Framing a separation between characters as a breakup when the characters are NOT romantically involved is my absolute favorite thing and never fails to crack me up.
Edit: Guys, I KNOW that a friend breakup is just as, if not worse than a romantic breakup. I meant when the breakup is framed as a romantic breakup. I can't believe I have to explain a joke like that.
Peter the Panda?
Same
Hey. Friend breakups suck and can even be worse then romantic breakups
Hey, just 'cause it's not romantic doesn't mean it's not a breakup. I had a friend breakup that emotionally devastated me FAR worse than any romantic breakup I've ever had.
Tell me, that you know nothing about friendships without telling me, that you nothing about friendships 🤨
Tripitaka: "I promise, they're harmless."
Sun Wu Kong: "I promise, I am not."
The glorious asexual shade!
"Tripitaka composes a whole poem about how thirsty he is, which I'm told is a common problem after a bad breakup."
Magnificent.
Quite amazing
💀💀💀
Yeah it was a phenomenal line. XD As an Ace myself, I fully cracked up.
Oh my gods I’m so ace I didn’t even notice it
I'm not even ace and I still didn't get it until now. I thought it was a joke about crying so much you get dehydrated.
The scariest revelation of this chapter is that there's not one, not two, but THREE other monkeys AS STRONG as Sun Wukong
well since Sun killed this one now there's only two.
@@patrickstar5136 Except episode 1, pre-quintuple immortal Sun Wukong was able to Fight his way out of the underworld after the gods there mistakenly killed him. If the six-Eared Macaque is equal to Sun, then death is a mild inconvenience at best.
@@patrickstar5136 I want Sun Wukong to meet one of the others but it be on peaceful terms
@@blackjoker2345 But I think he was already one time immortal through that monk guy at this point so maybe that's why.
Hopefully the remaining 2 aren't as chaotic as Sun or Macaque.
Petition for Blue to voice every Tripitaka lines
Edit:I never got this many likes and comments. Thanks everyone.
he uh, he does, whenever tripitaka directly talks in this series. that doesnt happen often, but i mean, episode 2 exists!
Signed
@@squibble08 no they mean every tripitaka line EVER
Blue should replace every actor in every movie amd video to play tripitaka
Signed
I second
I don't know why, but when Sun Wukong (I'm pretty sure it's the real Wukong) said "Oh boy, here it comes" when people test the migraine spell for the first time kinda makes me feel bad for him. He knows what's coming, and he can't do shit about it, so all he can do is brace for it. And even then, it still hurts like hell.
Honestly I think the panicking one is the real one, since that's the one who has actual *experience* with the migraine spell. Though, uh, there's really no way to tell, which is kinda the point.
@@akiranara6404for me the one panicking isn’t the real one. The six-eared macaque has never felt the pain, but has seen its effects and is terrified… but then again theres no telling who’s the real one.
@@Kpracn0vaactually I think there’s a difference in the color of the text. The one with more orange-ish speech bubbles is Wukong while the one with the more blood red looking ones is the Six-eared Macaque (I think. The color difference might be arbitrary tho lol)
I love how the design is barebones (I think that’s the right word) yet poster worthy. Sun Wukong being disguised as a buhhdist monk while still having a tail does great with alluding to Dragon Ball.
It's also just canon that Sun Wukong always has a tail when he transforms into other creatures
@@noahkarpinski1824 I didn’t know that, thank you for correcting me.
Funny how the previous episode Monkey was all caring about not killing anyone that is not a demon, but in this one he not only killing two random bandits but also kill and beheaded one bandit who parents gave them hospitality and said that they didn't want their son dead because then they will feel sad. In the last episode, Monkey was actually showing maturity, but in this episode, it goes down the drain and gets him kicked for the fourth time.
Also love how this episode Tripitaka managed to avoid getting kidnapped on his own for the first (and most likely last) time.
He doesn't kill innocents but enjoys killing anyone who's even a tiny bit criminal. Also, it's my own head cannon but Sun can see through reality so maybe he just knew that the Empress was Tripitaka's soulmate and taught it would be fun to see him try to resist. He was cracking jokes left and right about them anyway. Red, didn't touch upon them but the Empress and Tripitaka was in love in a past life however couldn't unite for dramatic reasons I forgot and promised to be together in another life. It would be this life as Tripitaka is punished going through ten lives before enlightenment and this is his 10th. However, he still can't despite being in love with the Empress because of his bows and this being the life he will be enlightened so despite enjoying their time together he leaves. As he leaves the Empress asks him if they'll meet in another life and Tripitaka lies technically nodding his head and the Empress starts crying as she realizes it won't be the case, this is her soulmates last life whom she could never be together with and they'll never meet again. This is also really hard for Tripitaka being the thing that put him in the verge of giving up enlightenment. Book is pretty amazing and if you like the story you should definitely give it a go, it gets little too slow at times but has incredible character arcs.
This book truly is the origin of anime
@@kaanmuhammedgunes1879 Well, that plot sounds just cruel. Like, unnecessarily cruel to the point of approaching angst. I guess it's some great literature but cruelty like that is the reason I don't like grimdark and it'll likely be a reason I won't like JttW either.
@@pRahvi0 it's about a Buddhist monk so of course it's hard. One of the hardest challenges a monk faces is against love in general, because it's the best thing in the world and a monk needs to get rid of every earthly tether. Pretty cruel, yeah.
One of the things you gotta remember is that JTTW wasn't written in the way we expect modern books to be written, by a single author with a single vision. Monkey was a well established culture hero across a vast majority of China by the time Wu Chengen decided to compile the disparate stories into a single canon, and even after the initial drafts there were further edits made to make the story flow. It's likely that, in doing this, local canon got mixed with general canon, leading to a few characterization mishaps and backslides, or plot points that don't seem to go anywhere.
was not expecting random spirit monkey lore to be dropped... or that sun wookong would immediately kill one.
Yeah and like nobody is talking about how he just cold blooded kill it.
My first thought was like "oh no is he ok?" Because death is kind ambiguous here?? Especially with monkeys??? But red said sun totally killed it????????????
You didn’t expect murder happy Sun to kill someone impersonating him at the first opportunity?
Well he’s not Technically dead. Cause you know immortality, they treat death in this story like a mild inconvenience. The spirit monkey is just kind of Removed from the story. 😅
@@dreamiinotdream730 given that he was in the presence of budda himself at the time, the being that stuck sun under a mountain for being too rambunctious that one time, I did think sun might have a modicum of restraint.
don't worry, I won't have that lapse in judgment again.
He's probably still stuck under the bowl in one of the hells, to the relief of the overworked and underpaid gods that run those places.
This is the best episode of the series. The imposter monkey is called Six Ears monkey, one of the four holy legendary monkeys in Chinese myth. Six ears monkey can listen, learn and imitate everything he hears the whole earth. The whole time while Sun Wukong was born, trained, become immortal and accompanies Tripataka on the trip, the Six Ears monkey was able to gained and achieved all the power and awesome feats that identical to Wukong by just listening and observing from afar.
There are 4 heavenly monkeys, 1 was born near Buddha holy place, 1 was born near the underworld, 1 is Six Ears, and the last one is Wukong - which made him the youngest, since Wukong's stone was the only one that placed on Earth
Interesting, do you have a source for where the heavenly monkeys were born? Never heard those before.
@@DirgeOfCerberus111
So these are their names:
Intelligent Stone Monkey (靈明石猴) This is Wukong. He is the youngest of the four.
Six Eared Macaque (六耳獼猴) This is the one Wukong fought and killed during the journey
Red-Bottomed Horse Monkey (赤尻馬猴) This is the one born near Buddha holy place and reached Buddhahood first. He was the elder and rarely mentioned in the novel Journey to the West origin.
Long-Armed Ape Monkey (通臂猿猴) This is the 2nd one who was born in the underworld. He was the nastiest of the four and also the most powerful. But he was dead way before Wukong was born.
The origin of these monkeys come from a goddess Nüwa 女媧, the mother goddess of Chinese mythology. She is credited with creating humanity and repairing the Pillar of Heaven. As creator of mankind, she molded humans individually by hand with yellow clay
@@DirgeOfCerberus111 They originally appear in the "Investiture of the Gods". When Nuwa using the 5-color-stone to mend the heaven there was 4 piece was left which fall back down to the world.
-The eldest Monkey is The Red Butt Horse Monkey(I can't translate the name into English so I just use the one above), fall into the Buddist Pure Land, get to hear Buddist prayer before born so he turn into Buddha first among the 4. He is the second strongest with great control of the water. He is also the one making the Water Curtain Cave behind the waterfall Sun Wukong is living in.
-The second Monkey is the Pass Arm Ape Monkey, fall into the underworld, become evil and was killed. This monkey is the strongest one among the 4, who learn the 36 transformation instead of 72 like our Sun Wukong, and he can absorb the power of those he defeated. But he isn't immortal so he was killed before he can reach his peak.
Both of those monkey was mention in the "Investiture of the Gods".
And people worship monkey in the folk lore long before that so the true origin is way too far back to say.
As a side note, Sun Wukong have 2 advisor wise monkey in his pack. The monkey that tell Wukong to seek immortality is a Macaque, the other advisor is a Horse Monkey and there is the old dead monkey that start it all so I say that they did foreshadow all 3 monkey kind way back at chapter 1.
@@DirgeOfCerberus111 赤尻马猴没有任何信息，，通臂猿猴出自《平妖传》，这是和《西游记》同一时期的小说
You know I've just realized: The chekov's magical leaves haven't been used yet. None of them. They were given 3 get out of danger free leaves and NONE of them have been used. I think... We have a ways to go.
Or maybe they've been used on previous chapters that Red isn't covering
This episode covers up to chapter 58 of 100; we're over halfway there!
Monkey king is going to use them later in the book
I hate getting super important consumables early on, it just means I’m not going to use them until the end of the game.
spoiler:
He would only use them once, around chapter 75.
This chapter is honestly what I been waiting for the most. The meaning and story of Sun Wukong and the six eared macaque always intrigue me. I can’t wait to see more chapters to be summarized in this channel!
Edit:also I like to think that Wukong killed Macaque because he becomes more self aware, like he knows how powerful and dangerous he can be and doesn’t want to take that risk of someone as powerful as him and with evil intentions being around.
I’m just fascinated as to how Sun can just casually murder the six eared macaque AFTER the macaque has been exposed, but not before.
@@Tustin2121 He lost plot armor after being exposed.
@@Tustin2121he probably was caught off guard or buddha had him restrained if it makes sense.
@@Tustin2121 The 3 macaques works like Peter Pan's shadow more or less in narrative.
They are like the Krampus to Santa Claus.
@@monkeyking7972 He had knowledge of the past and future but he never saw that coming.
In some non-English translations when monkey kill the sixth eared macaque he felt pain hinting that the other celestial primates were actually aspects of monkey and he just destroyed an aspect of himself. When you think about it the descriptions of the other monkeys that Buddha gave overlapped a lot and unlike the other three primates the monkey king is the only one without a specific species assigned to him unlike the baboon Gibbon and macaque🐒🐒🐒🐒🤔🧐
He’s a stone monkey
Isn't Sun Wukong himself specifically a Macaque as well? I've heard stories and sources that say that he's consistently a Macaque much like his counterpart, which added to the confusion.
Mmm. Monké
There has been theories of the macaque representing what Wukong would’ve ended up as if he hadn’t embraced enlightenment and continued to be his destructive self. The idea of macaque being killed could’ve been a way to show this purging of evil from Wukong (or in a broader aspect of the allegory: the mind). As for the other monkeys they probably also represent different parts of Wukong/the mind. They could be seen as aspects of enlightenment to be carried with you or achieved through the journey (knowledge of yin and Yang, understanding of affairs, and lengthening of one’s life) . I’m sure there’s a lot more to it than that but that’s how I would interpret it.
in the anthony yu translation of the book, they describe him as looking like a pignolia eating monkey
Sun Wukong is my all time favorite fictional and mythological figure. I grew up with the Chinese classic Journey to The West 1986 show. Everything about him and his story is amazing! I’m glad you guys have made a whole series to summarize his story!
I love looking into Sun Wukong lore and how he’s made such a big impact on the general media. He inspired Shounen anime/manga troupes and abilities, such as Dragon Ball’s Son Goku with his power pole and nimbus, Luffy’s silly yet headstrong personality, and Naruto’s shadow clone jutsu. The most well known being Son Goku, who was heavily inspired by him. From Goku’s saiyan/ape side, to his urge to fight strong opponents, he still has some aspects/influence from Sun Wukong that remains. His name, Son Goku, is literally just the Japanese translation of Sun Wukong, and the general story, or more specifically characters, was meant to somewhat resemble or reflect The Journey To The West, just like how Oolong closely resembles Pigsy and how Tien has a third eye like Erleng. Dragon Ball went to inspire a lot of future animes and is seen to be one of the most influential animes of all time due to that. I’m glad to see how Sun Wukong technically made a pretty decent mark on today’s anime culture and community, but most people don’t even know that or don’t even know who he is in general.
Recently it seems that he’s become more popular, even in the West. I think your channel: Overly Sarcastic Productions, and your video series retelling/summarizing Journey To The West and Sun Wukong really got people talking about him. In general he’s become way more relevant than before.
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I would like to list all the recent things that he’s been included in!:
• There’s the new game coming out called Black Myth: Wukong
• The Lego animated series called Lego Monkie Kid, and there is more seasons to come. (As pointed out to me by @n0t stxrrzz !!, the 4th Season recently came out but only in China for now) Now the 4th Season Special is out!
• God of Highschool’s Jin Mori is a version of Sun Wukong. The Webtoon series ended sadly, but it was a great story!
• Death Battle’s recent video with Sun Wukong vs. Hercules
• DC releasing a new superhero based on Sun Wukong/the monkey king called The Monkey Prince
• There is a Netflix original series based on the Journey to The West called “The New Legends of Monkey” that was released in 2018. It only has 2 seasons
• Smash Legends released Wukong as a new legend
• A game called Black Desert has a new upcoming character/class called Wukong with his abilities. Sadly I think it’s exclusive to China only.
• The short fan animation film called Legend: A Dragon Ball Tale has Goku transforming into a super saiyan that reflects Sun Wukong and is referred to as “the savior of heaven.”
• Soul Knight has a New Years Spring Festival Seasonal Event that features new character skins based on Journey to The West characters. The Sun Wukong skin is actually the Six Eared Macaque and has a cool detail to distinguish it. The cloning ability for the character is changed to where a monkey pops out and transforms into a clone of one of the other main characters.
• Marvel/Disney followed DC in their footsteps and made a show called “American Born Asian” that has Sun Wukong in the show. I haven’t watched it yet, but I think the main character gets Sun Wukong’s staff, and maybe even his power. Kind of like MK in Lego Monkie Kid.
• The year of the monkey is coming in 2028. I’m hoping Brawl Stars creates a character or at least a skin or pin that’s related to Sun Wukong!
He’s just everywhere now, and I think your channel had a big part in all of that.
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I love seeing people being introduced and more interested in Sun Wukong. It’s good to see that he truly lives up to the tales of him gaining multiple immortalities, as it seems his tale and legend never truly dies and sometimes spikes in popularity.
I learned a lot from your Journey to The West series. Your story telling style is so unique and entertaining, and your drawings/animatics are so cool! The quality of these videos are like gold! It must take a lot to make these videos, so you deserve to take breaks and take as much time as you need. I’m willing to wait for however long it takes because it’s completely worth it! Thank you for giving me more insight on him! I appreciate everything you guys do!
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[Edit]: I’m just going to keep updating the list of Sun Wukong being featured or referenced in things or just being more relevant in general. It will be listed inside the box that has equal signs boxing it in. I’m glad to see that his popularity is still growing even past the initial point of when I made this comment! I just want to put it into perspective of how much your videos have impacted Sun Wukong’s popularity and how awesome that is. I am truly thankful for all that you do and have done!
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[Edit]: I’ve changed the list into a bulleted list so it’s easier to see each individual thing. I also added new things to the list and taken some input from the replies of this comment.
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[Edit]: I’ve made a separate comment to list all of the recent Sun Wukong related things. This comment is getting too long, and I don’t expect everyone to be able to read all of this 😅 I will still continue to add to this one in case people are just more used to this list, but just know that there is a shorter one out there.
Okok
This is currently my favorite comment
Would you look at that, the Brawl Stars thing happened five years early
Ahh, just like the first Sun and Tripitaka met.
"Sun, we STILL don't kill people"
"You mean, YOU still don't kill people"
Mortal Kombat
"No no we're buddhist now. Buddhists don't kill"
"Yeah well I just got the go ahead by the Buddha himself. Suck it."
Sun Wukong: slams staff on ground "Identity theft isn't a joke, Sus Wukong! Millions of families suffer every year!"
Sus Wukong? Fuck now I can’t stop thinking about what if Journey to the West was among us
I was reading that aloud and cracked at Sus Wukong-
That's really heckin' funny!
Tripitaka: Yeah? Well, so is *murder.*
SUS WUKONG
This is where saying "he vented" takes on a whole other meaning.
The drawing banter is really just spectacular in this episode
Right?! Had to watch it twice 😄
"Which I am told is a common problem after a breakup"
Absolute savagery. And ase self reference.
"That I could phrase differently, but chose not to" truthfully is funnier than the different phrase itself
1:00 I really hope this is foreshadowing semi annual updates
It would have been really funny though if the Macaque had actually done the quest just for Buddha to recognise the imposter as soon as he gets there
Also it's nice to see Redboy again, hopefully that he's doing well will help smooth things over when we see his parents in the next episode (it probably won't), we're now fully past the halfway point though
Meanwhile in the LEGOverse version of the story, Wukong knew Macaque prior and their spat not only had an added element of former freindship but supposedly Wukong mourned in secret at the betrayal and out come of events.
Yep and now lego needs to bring in the baboon and gibon
Strange they didn't bring up the fact that macaque ate monkey babies not joking
I pretty sure that this is fanon
@@chaussette9875this was somewhat confirmed in Shadow Play that they were at least fighting along side eachother. Macaque tells it as Wukong betraying him for the scriptures but we dont know for sure if thats the truth
@@princeofvos yeah, Wukong didn’t admit that he killed him and seems to act like Macaque is intimidating him just for kicks. Perhaps someone manipulated them into thinking one betrayed the other?
I love the clever censorship with Sun and quan-yin. Putting her dialogue over the f-word.🤣
Wait can you give a time stamp
@@monkiking778 8:42
The little jokes in the drawings are always absolute GOLD
is nobody gonna talk about how fucking badass the long armed gibbon looks at 12:34
I would imagine; he's basically Sun Wukong's brother. Or cousin. Or something.
通臂猿猴出自《平妖传》，这是和《西游记》同一时期的小说。
通臂猿猴几乎是孙悟空的翻版，偷去天书，被关在云梦山，然后降服了三只狐妖官复原职
For those that don't know, the 3 other celestial monkeys are the inspiration for Vegeta, Nappa and Raditz from dragon ball. Just like Goku is based on the original Sun Wukong.
Akira Toriyama really did his research.
so, in this episode, we finally meet the "Vegeta" of this story
I really wish macaque reappeared at least once.
So, what Monkey represents Bardock, Gine, Broly, Gohan, Goten, Trunks, and the Universe 6 Saiyans
@@violetwitch9948 I’d say Raditz, Macaque died just as quick
The simians are a true warrior race!
Absolutely losing it over the callback to Monkey being heaven’s official horse master. And the dragon is now technically a horse so it has to listen to him. This moment is officially my favorite
We've made to ep 10, ppl. Congrats on making it this far 😋👍
I’ve been watching the last few episodes way too much, so I’m glad another one just came out lol
Here’s to more episodes! 🍺
This has been a long journey for the characters and us
Been waiting months for this episode.
Now it’ll take another year for episode 11
I’ve watched this whole series several times over now since we got part 10 and I just can’t help but say I love the way Quan Yin shared her Ben & Jerry’s with the depressed Monkey King and how much the lovable muscle of our coterie of heroes has grown.
May we all aspire for such fulfilling friendships in our lives.
A new Journey to the West video is literally the best new year’s gift we could’ve ever gotten, thank you Red!!!
Reds storytelling is do genius that the audience gets the inkling that this monkey isn't the actual monkey while still being in the dark about what is actually going on until it's revealed
I love how this entire series has turned into a legit lowkey anime
I mean Journey to the West has been turned into multiple anime so it's basically how you tell the story in the modern day
If anything, Journey To The West had a ripple effect on anime/manga, with Dragon Ball starting as a parody of it and then other anime being inspired by Dragon Ball...
@@johnnygyro2295 And then you realize Son Goku is the toned down and reasonable version.
Is Journey to the West lowkey anime, or is anime lowkey Journey to the West? After all, Journey to the West came first.
Not lowkey, monkey.
4:43 I’m making it my own head canon that the migraine spell is just Tripitaka letting out a stern, long and droning “Nooooo” because if there’s anything Sun wouldn’t be able to handle, it’s being handed a no that he can’t do anything about.
So if Son Goku is based off of Sun Wukong, that would make Raditz based off of Six-Ears. They serve a similar narrative role: providing an explanation for the protagonist’s mysterious origin, a challenging fight, and they get killed off relatively quickly.
Which makes Nappa the Red Buttocks Baboon and Vegeta the Long Arm Gibbon, or vice versa
Toriyama definitely was not still thinking about the story in JttW terms by the time the sayians were introduced lol
Still, death of the author. Fun to theory craft upon such things.
And they barely come up in the story and also Try hurt babies
@@randomfox12245 it's funny how even the space ships ressemble the "stone egg" that the original sun wu kong came from, so i might give him a bit more credit
I thought it was goku black
I cannot get over Sun's vibing face in the first frame, it's so perfect. Also the Sonic Adventure 2 reference at 9:34 killed me, I had to stop watching I was laughing so much. This is by far one of my absolute favorite series on the internet. Thank you for giving us these gems!
The fact that she put in the interruption from the botched audio mixing in most versions just puts the icing on the cake.
@@CalebBerman Which God? There are hundreds of them
@@CalebBerman Why would I worship a God who is quite an asshole?
@@CalebBerman Hey pal we are talking about taoist bhuddist mythology here ,not christian mythology ,if you want to talk about christian mythology go to some christian preaching video ok
@@iamablacksabbathsong9765I was just about to say that
Love when Quan’yin activates the migraine spell and the two servants are like, “it seems to be affecting them both.” And Red Boy is gleefully watching Sun writhe in pain and says, “Let’s not be hasty.”
Ah, the migrane spell is “Gives You Hell”! It’s the first time I’ve been able to clearly read and recognize it, that’s cool!
Also I found it way too amusing that “Fake Sun reading the party’s log” was just reading Red’s exact words on an earlier Journey to the west video lol
i think it was bohemian rhapsody in some earlier entries !
I suspect it was different every time. If Red has a font and doesn't hand-write every letter, it'd be easy to copy-paste whatever song is in her head this week.
I don’t know why, but I didn’t expect a highly symbolic story to actually have this much character development, so when it was revealed that Sun Wukong wasn’t actually the bad monkey I was like “The old monkey would’ve totally done all that.” Wukong gradually maturing over the course of the story is actually so well written and feels so natural despite how old the story is.
It's a bit weird to think about, but not at all uncommon. Heck the oldest written story we know of is basically entirely about Gilgamesh's character development
@@ruben4257 Yeah that’s a pretty good point, I just tend to think of old works in a “Beowulf” sense where it’s just “Hero does stuff” but there can be a surprising amount of narrative.
11:33 The art is absolutely chilling. In fact, all the four spiritual primates drawn in that style makes them all look terrifying. Red's art is gorgeous.
Ah YESSSS, we got to this part! This was so great! Wonderful work! Also I love the detail of Sun and Macaque completely being the same, until the Buddha pointed out how and then the colour shift happened and Macaque's eyes became purple
@@cewla3348 well, as the Buddha said, he’s a Stone Monkey. He was born from a rock so that’s self explanatory but other than that there’s some particularly strong evidence that supports the idea that he is ALSO a macaque :)
@@cewla3348 In chapter one, Subhuti tells Wukong that, “Though your features are not the most attractive, you do resemble a pignolia-eating macaque” doesn’t prove anything 100% but it’s definitely something!
@@cewla3348 Monkey is also a Macaque, but he is much less of a normal monkey at this point than the other 4 primates. He's effectively his own species. Iirc he himself admits that he's basically no longer recognizable as a monkey by other monkeys anymore--thought that doesn't take away his title as Monkey King. Still a primate though.
@@cewla3348 Actually on an additional note Wukong is called the "stone" monkey because he was literally born as a rock. Technically he's a rock who took on the shape of a monkey, because apparently weirdly powerful immortal beings have a sort of carcinization that tends towards monkey form, I guess.
Red maybe draw all goffy Macaque compare to LEGO version but at least she got the color almost the same...
I'd genuinely love to see an in-depth video on Guanyin in the Dionysus/Aphrodite/Loki format you've done in the past. She's seriously one of my favorite players in JttW
The idea that monkey said "complain to your gods they all fear me " is the hardest line I have ever heard
The part where Sun "Murder for Breakfast" Wukong executes 6-eared Macaque for assault and theft got me.
Don't forget about identity theft too
The fact that MONKEY of all people punished someone for assault and theft is hilarious to me
Red, just out of curiosity, did you keep track of which Wukong was the real one as you were drawing just for fun?
I think Red did keep track. If you screenshot the two monkeys shouting at 10:29 and zoom in, it becomes easier to notice that their text have different colors
@@dibzybd9741 I think that’s more so that the overlapping text can be read more clearly
9:34 The recital of Sonic Adventure 2 makes this even better than it already was, and man this is great
Dude i KNEW someone in the comments was gonna have it xD it took a bit to find you.
who knew the lover's quarrel between an overpowered monkey and a buddhist monk would be so compelling
I know right
The fact that Sun Wukong learns that he basically has 3 other siblings only to kill one immediately after learning that information is just hilarious
Edit: Also can we just take a moment to appreciate what a raw line was given to us at 11:28?
They are not brothers, they are of the same kind of mystical apes
One would think that tripitaca had learned from the last time he exiled monkey. You know, with the deamon whta turned him into a tiger, beat pigsis's butt and the dragon horse and then sandy had to beg for monkey return
Look, Tripitaka has very limited power on this journey. He used one of the options available to him 😭
@beandam873 to be fair the last 5 murders that got him banished were the same deamon not dieing and changing forms
@@beandam8739 When I saw him kill, I was like "Hey, don't you remember this the first time you killed with Tripitaka? It didn't go well. I thought you learned your lesson," same with Triptiaka.
04:36
Wukong has the hyper-activeness of a dog and the morality of a cat.
True 😂
Really sometimes watching these videos I wish to read these stories in detail myself, but then I remember how long this story is, and how many pages there are. So i come back here because this is still very fun to listen to and watch, and big congrats to Red and the effort she puts into this.
It only took me two weeks of intense reading, I do recommend you try it out. Once you get used to the prose and storytelling style it's just as good as everyone says it is.
@@cyrilhendrix7614 Oh I definitely plan to try and read it I'm just not able to right now, because I have to make a new schedule to include such a giant of a story. It's definitely a plan as one of my many challenges.
13:02 you would think the Macaque with the ability to see the future would have seen that coming.
You would think a special creature who is as strong as wukong could tank a real hit from him XD
Sun as a antagonist was actually terrifying even though it was short lived. The speech and the way he was drawn during it made me physically gasp when he was explaining it, like I actually believed he had lost it for a mo. 7:24
I love how Monkey is so loyal. Also thanks Red for doing the JTTW series I really enjoy it.
Yeah
ARE WE FINALLY GONNA MEET THE BULL DEMON KING IN THE NEXT ONE?!
I literally cannot express how excited this series gets me, keep up the great work!
agreed, I've been watching this for years and now I know how Dragon Ball fans reacted when a new episode arrived... I mean in this case it's once every 11 months but hey man, builds anticipation :D
Care to explain?