Legends Summarized: Journey To The West (Part X) 

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!

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

"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.

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

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.

The fact that their is an entire group of all-powerful cosmic immortal mystical monkeys that lie outside general categories is just hilarious

"There are 5 kinds of immortals" and monkey collected them like fucking pokemon cards

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.

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

“Which I *could* have rephrased but chose not to” I love red so much 😂

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

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.

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.

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”

i just love red's absolutely chaotic narrating, it's amazing

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

"DO YOU THINK YOU'RE A BETTER JUDGE OF CHARACTER THAN THE BUDDAH!?" very effective threat, props to the chef

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 can't be the only one compelled to rewatch all the JttW videos every time a new one comes out, right?*

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's not the Christmas and New Year's without Journey to the West, bless you Red for this new episode

Three minutes in: Ah, this episode Nine minutes in: Well thats a great 10 episode arc right there

We've made to ep 10, ppl. Congrats on making it this far 😋👍

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!"

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.

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🐒🐒🐒🐒🤔🧐

Petition for Blue to voice every Tripitaka lines Edit:I never got this many likes and comments. Thanks everyone.

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-

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

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.

To summarize the latter half of this episode, “This is getting out of hand. Now there are two of them!”

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...

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

... 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

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.

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

I love that the real Sun's reaction to the truth about the fake is "IM NOT ALONE!!!"

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.

I can't be the only one compelled to rewatch all the JttW videos every time a new one comes out, right?

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 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 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.

was not expecting random spirit monkey lore to be dropped... or that sun wookong would immediately kill one.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A new Journey to the West video is literally the best new year’s gift we could’ve ever gotten, thank you Red!!!

Tripitaka: "I promise, they're harmless." Sun Wu Kong: "I promise, I am not."

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.

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.

I love how Red took such obvious delight in writing the dual Monkeys' dialogue

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

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 scariest revelation of this chapter is that there's not one, not two, but THREE other monkeys AS STRONG as Sun Wukong

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.

is nobody gonna talk about how fucking badass the long armed gibbon looks at 12:34

The drawing banter is really just spectacular in this episode

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

It’s shocking to see how little Six-Ear Macaque appears here compared to the Lego Monkie Kid adaptation. LMK brings so many layers to this monkey!

I love how this entire series has turned into a legit lowkey anime

Red, just out of curiosity, did you keep track of which Wukong was the real one as you were drawing just for fun?

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

Am I the only one who wish we got to see more of Macaque in this story??

I love the clever censorship with Sun and quan-yin. Putting her dialogue over the f-word.🤣

"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

Ahh, just like the first Sun and Tripitaka met. "Sun, we STILL don't kill people" "You mean, YOU still don't kill people"

"Which I am told is a common problem after a breakup" Absolute savagery. And ase self reference.

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.

WOW RED!! You seriously knocked it outa the park with this one! Every frame was shear brilliance! Funny, adorable, entertaining, man! What a great video to kick off the new year! Happy new year's guys! Love ya and hope we all see more from ya 2023!

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!

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

Sun Wukong: slams staff on ground "Identity theft isn't a joke, Sus Wukong! Millions of families suffer every year!"

holy crap there are 3!?! other super-powerful monkeys/apes other than sun wukong! and they sound crazy strong and interesting; i'd liked to know more and that buddha explaining the universe/beings/etc. was also very interesting

That fight could have lasted AT LEAST five more episodes

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

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

Not only did you use the SA2 dialogue, you had one Monkey cut the other off in the same spot. One of many, many, *many* reasons I love this channel.

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!

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.

Hell yes!!! I was waiting with anticipation for this next part in the series!!!

I didn't realize that the "I don't know which copy to shoot" trope was so old.

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

Pigsy's violent feelings towards Monkey can be interpreted two of many differeny ways, both of which are equally sad. Either he really, really doesnt like Monkey and sees this as a way to vent out his frustration... ...Or he feels so genuniely hurt and betrayed by Monkey doing The Murder™ that his first instinct is to run fades. Just my two cents but hey, as long as it gets my man Pigsy more attention.

The part where Sun "Murder for Breakfast" Wukong executes 6-eared Macaque for assault and theft got me.

who knew the lover's quarrel between an overpowered monkey and a buddhist monk would be so compelling

It's finally back! I miss hearing the "Last time on, Journey To the West!" And I'm so happy to see another episode of this awesome series!! Always love these :) 💖 Edit: If you watch Monkie Kid then props to you but I thought Macaque wasn't a real character in the original Journey To The West and made up to give a proper anti-hero vibe. I'm so glad he at least had a moment to shine in the story and sad he died in the same chapter- 💀

9:52 my guess is that Sun Wu on the left is the real one as he looks more prepared and annoyed while the other one looks panicked. Clearly the doppelganger hasn't had the spell recited on him and Wu is all to aware of it.😂