Maybe someone's mentioned it before, but I was thinking about how Sasuke is wearing Kayura's brainwashing necklace and also how he's designed generally with some intentional parallels to popular depictions of Sun Wukong, likely due to his inspiration, Sarutobi Sasuke being connected to monkeys (Sarutobi means "monkey jump", and well... Sun Wukong, the legendary monkey king, had his very famous jump) (I know this isn't the only Sasuke media depiction to do the connection, but it's fun to explore in YSST's depiction of him):
Notably, YSST!Sasuke's blonde hair, headband, the repeated emphasis on his having sharp, potentially fang teeth, his warm skintone, and some of his clothes and posing.
Also the fur around his collar/sleeves. And that he seems to have slightly more of a sense of justice than some of the other Braves kind of fits (while still supporting the "let's murder humans" agenda, because Sun Wukong would try to be good but also had a long journey of learning to do). I don't think this is specifically referencing ORV's manhwa, but you see some of this in different interpretations of Sun Wukong. The white claws resemble Son Goku's pauldrons in Saiyuki:
Likely because, in Journey to the West, after Tripitaka frees Sun Wukong from the mountain, Sun Wukong is extremely naked, and kills a tiger to make some clothes for himself. Tigers and black panthers are part of the same genus (panthera), so maybe that's part of where the black panther armor came from in YSST.
Specifically in terms of Sasuke wearing the maybe brainwashing necklace Kayura has: the fillet that Sun Wukong wears is what Tripitaka uses to keep Sun Wukong in line. I don't know if that's what Ramaga or someone else uses for Sasuke, but it would be interesting if it's more of a hint, given the other design elements, that the maybe Kayura necklace thing is actually something meant to brainwash/control him. Maybe it's not enough and that's why he's got the headband, too (though clearly he can take it off sometimes, unlike Sun Wukong).
Certainly Sasuke bristles when being told he's just following someone else's orders like a dog:
And Sasuke immediately vanishes due to moving so fast and reappears directly in front of Gai. Sun Wukong was also known for having magic related to movement and speed (and being particularly fast was a notable thing for his main namesake, Sarutobi Sasuke). Obviously, most if not all of the Braves are very fast, this doesn't seem to be a unique thing for Sasuke. But again, with all the other elements of him, and this episode in general, it's quite interesting.
The Sun Wukong thing also makes Sasuke's comment in Episode 11 ("Your supreme art requires the spirit of Righteousness. That entails compassion for your parents and comrades. I bet that means squat to you. After all, you've never felt... a parent's love!") very interesting. Because Sun Wukong doesn't have parents, exactly. He was born from a stone. He adopted a family by being involved with a group of monkeys and becoming their leader, and caring for them, and later joined Tripitaka's party and found companionship there. I don't know if having Sasuke fight Gai in the fake world is random or specifically about this aspect of Sun Wukong, if that's a reference in Sasuke's design. But it could be!
Another interesting comment is when, during the bath scene in Episode 9, he's the one who says, "We've got to help [Mochizuki and Kakei] without Emperor Ramaga finding ou--". Sun Wukong often does things without Tripitaka knowing, sometimes intentionally so (which usually leads to bad things). I don't think, in this context, Ramaga is Tripitaka (though his being a former resident of the Divine World tracks, especially given he "initiated" Sasuke, as Sun Wukong is one of Tripitaka's disciples), but Ramaga is potentially the one holding Sasuke's strings. So again, just lots of little things.
Regardless of what's going on, I like even some of the likely Sun Wukong references in Sasuke's design, and how that generally ties into his background being inspired by Sarutobi Sasuke (which is touched on elsewhere, like his relationship with [Kirigakure] Saizo).
