Correction, In the first anime, actually Wukong already knew their scheme even before fire being set, he went to the Celestial Court and borrowed the fire-proof cape and only covered his master's room. Not only that, Wukong went onto a cliff as the anime showed, he blew wind to make the fire even bigger until the whole temple been burnt down.
The key issue in this story isn’t about the notion of good and evil being a matter of a single thought; the real distinction lies between a human and a demon. If both were human, would such a change of heart happen so easily? Precisely because the other party is a demon, the shift between good and evil carries almost no psychological burden. The idea of good and evil being decided by a single thought is nothing more than a flashy, nonsensical claim. In reality, both good and evil people are shaped over time by their upbringing and societal influence. Habits are hard to change, and once a person matures, it’s unlikely that their morality would radically change in an instant. Anyone who claims that it would is just making excuses for their own wrongdoing. A good person wouldn’t harm others preemptively just because they fear the possibility of being harmed themselves-not even after a hundred thoughts. But they might casually swat a passing insect simply because it’s not a human. An evil person, on the other hand, is deeply selfish and helping others would feel like cutting off a piece of their own flesh. Yet, they might still spend time and money feeding pets or stray animals, again, because these beings aren’t human. So the fundamental contradiction faced by Wukong in Black Myth is that the Buddhist teaching of all beings being equal is nothing but empty talk. The gods and Buddhas don’t truly see all beings as equal. Just like in the story, even if a human and a fox were to experience a lifetime of love and hate together, they still wouldn’t be equal. Whether saving or killing the fox, the human is always the one in control.
