So for a while now I've been interested in the old Chinese Journey to the West story. Enough to actually read books (gasp!)
For those not in the know, it's the story of the "Great Sage Equal of Heaven" Monkey (also known as Sun Wukong or Son Goku), who's really a bit of a jerk! He is petty, rude, and violent everywhere he goes, and went so far as to rebel against Heaven itself. It got so outrageous that Buddha trapped him within a mountain as punishment. Monkey stayed there for five long centuries, until he was convinced to accompany a Buddhist monk to India as his disciple/bodyguard to finally atone for his misdeeds.
So then he goes off to India, basically kicking ass and taking names! You see, this monk he's guarding, Tripitaka, well, he's a bit of a wuss. Not only does he prefer meditating to fighting, every demon between China and India wants to feed on his flesh because, he's so dang pious and pure, that doing so will make them immortal!
Along the way they pick up two other blokes, a pig and a river spirit. They're basically there to gape at how incredible Monkey is as audience surrogates, and sometimes lose fights for dramatic tension! That way when Monkey later easily beats the guys who defeated them, he can look even cooler. u_u
Anyway, Journey to the West has been adapted about twenty billion times into every form of media imaginable. It's really popular! Among them . . .
Dragon Ball,
Saiyuki,
Enslaved,
. . . erotic Takeshi Matsu manga,
and many, many others! Like, for serious. It'd be impossible to list them all.
Some common elements to most versions include his weapon, an extendable staff that which can freely change size in width, girth, and length. It leaves itself open to lots of dirty jokes.
And also a circlet which he's forced to wear. When the magic words are spoken, he receives a blinding headache from it. Only Tripitaka knows the words, and he uses them whenever he needs to convince Monkey to do something he doesn't want to do. Because nothing says 'faithful bodyguard' like pained coercion.
Anyway, let's have more interpretations of the character.
I find it interesting how varied his appearance can get, yet still be definitely 'Monkey'. u_u
Don't worry, we have some naughty pictures too. u_u
Monkey.
