Okay so I am reading the bit where Wukong disguises himself as the Bull Demon King to deceive Red Boy, and uh... I mean I don't know if this is intentional but there are some ANGSTY implications here.
So, after a while, Red Boy gets suspicious that his father is actually an imposter, and says in an aside to one of his underlings: "The features and the gestures seem genuine... but he doesn't talk like him."
So, I immediately began thinking about everything Wukong has said to Red Boy while pretending to be his Dad, and here's a general list:
He tells Red Boy that there is no need to bow when he greets him, as "my child is exempted from such ceremonies". Please note that Red Boy continues to bow four times, and once again after Wukong asks why he invited him here. After this little team huddle with his minions, Red Boy returns and bows to him again, to which Wukong once again insists that he's his kid and he doesn't need to do that and should just talk to him.
Wukong refers to Red Boy as either "My child" or "My worthy boy" throughout the conversation. Red Boy also speaks in self-deprecating terms while around his father, though that is common for most children in the book and is most likely just a bit of the Chinese not always gelling with English.
Wukong asks Red Boy lots of questions, and also gives him advice.
Said advice involves him praising himself and his abilities quite a bit, because Sun Wukong, but it does strike me as interesting that a) Red Boy may have identified this as something out of character to say, along with b) the fact that Red Boy had no idea who Wukong was and completely denied knowing him in any capacity. Very very interesting that Mr Bull Demon King over here never once mentioned his beloved sworn brother and best friend to his son, let alone said anything positive about him.
When he explains that he is going vegetarian, he explains "your mother often tells me to do some good deeds" as the source of his inspiration. As we know from later chapters, the Bull Demon King has not a milligram of respect for Princess Iron Fan. This is also the scene where Red Boy really gets suspicious. I feel like there's the implication here that the Bull Demon King has never once listened to anything his wife has had to say before. Edit: After Red Boy returns from the team huddle to continue questioning Wukong, in the very line that reveals him as an imposter, Wukong says he ought to return home and ask Red Boy's mother the answer to his question. So, there's that.
I might just be grasping at straws here but this combined with the Bull Demon King's characterisation later in the book paints a pretty damning picture of him. Something tells me he's not the good, loyal family man Wukong remembers being friends with...
All these years of war and I still find weakness within myself. It is frustrating. I don’t need to be coddled, and certainly don’t need to be protected from some foolish aversion to hot-
Uh-
Hot… hot things.
It feels hot in here, actually. Very much so.
Mihou certainly hasn’t changed in the- uh… appeal of- the body…. That sounded dumb. Why did I think of it like that?
Focus. Just focus!!!
……
……
He is calling for you, answer you fool!!
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Did I spend this entire part working on anatomy? Yes I did. Was nothing of value learned? No, it was not.
love how in the pilot Red Son is like "only those *deemed worthy* can wield it (Monkey King's staff)" when in the novel it's just Really Fucking Heavy like so heavy *dragons* couldn't lift it and Monkey King just happened to have the correct level of inhuman strength to lift it
These attempt to be canon-compliant (characterisation wise), but let's be for real, a lot of this is self-indulgent! I'll update it if I realise discrepancies while reading the book, but this is to tide over the stress of my busy schedule.
In contrast to Wukong, Tripitaka has terrible balance and is the biggest klutz. This isn’t entirely coincidental—as a baby his left toe was bitten off, so I figure that’s directly impaired his balance in the long term. I also think he’s literally designed by fate itself to be so incompatible with long term outdoors—hence he’s impractically pale, burdened with allergies, and predisposed to depression (genetically speaking)
I think he wears a bamboo hat most of the time, and it ends up covering his expressions a lot. He has to wear it to fend off the intense heat during the summers. He’s quite sensitive to weather and temperature changes as well.
Longma’s a high-effort bare minimum worker. He knows how to get by barely meeting a standard without reaching the tipping point of triggering a punishment… most of the time. He’s particularly sore about his father sending him for execution because his dad had (in his mind) successfully duped him into a false sense of security in his status as a third prince
Longma was the kind of wilfully oblivious brat that tested the limits of one’s patience, and got smacked with the “disobedience” crime after pushing his dad over the limit to finally involve the Jade Emperor
Longma ends up spiritually severing his ties to his dragon family. Of course, he doesn’t say this but rather nurses this wound haphazardly—which deeply impacts his willingness to engage with the pilgrims throughout the journey.
Tripitaka doesn’t have a lick of a clue about Longma’s character, Wukong and Bajie are more aligned with knowing him (since they individually had canonically interacted with him one on one). Wukong kind of avoids pressing on a wound he thinks is very obvious—he knows about Longma burning his father’s pearls, and suspects that it was NOT wholly accidental. Bajie got frightened into awareness of Longma’s status as a “not horse” but reluctantly finds solidarity in their proclivity to mischief.
Longma relieves himself in human form (and is terribly pedantic about it). Wujing covers for him by taking the shifts to look after the horse—though Longma’s particular about being seen as not a horse by his fellow pilgrims, so Wujing’s never seen Longma outside of his horse form. The piss has magical properties, so Longma's method of disposing of it is a mystery no one will ever know.
Bajie likes to do the cooking—as in, he feels obliged to since he’s the one with any standards in knowing what good food tastes like at all. Wukong is fruit-brained, Tripitaka ate monk food (too humble for seasoning), Wujing was starved to the point of eating humans (so no cooking nor seasoning either), and the horse doesn’t contribute anything other than being good enough to sell.
Bajie only started learning how to cook in the midst of the pilgrimage. He was absolutely a bastard about it. He technically shares this responsibility with Wujing though (Wujing's consistent, Bajie's the cook when they manage to bag some good ingredients)
He also regularly jokes about how unfortunate it is that he can’t eat himself—considering how delicious pork is under the many seasonings he’s learned to use. Wukong’s TIRED of it, and Tripitaka yearns to be unfazed by the horrific imagery the remarks invoke in him.
Wujing gets pains from the memory of swords piercing his body routinely. He can’t rest during those days, so he opts to take night shifts to watch over the rest of the pilgrims. Sometimes he shares his nights with Wukong (who’s often awake and swinging about out of restlessness). They don’t really chat, but they know the other is up, and that seems to be content company enough.
Wujing’s senses are terribly distorted; like his sense of scale, strength, taste, sight. Even his own voice startles him at times. So he tries not to take up space as much as possible… he can’t even transform himself subtly to downplay the vast changes to his appearance.
He’s not verbal about his discomfort with his body, but he’s quite empathetic towards his fellow pilgrims when they express a shred of inadequacy within themselves. He doesn’t afford himself the same level of compassion.
Wukong has a lot of randomly acquired insights about the other pilgrims (even Guanyin) simply due to the sheer amount of involvement he has in solving (and yes, inciting) conflicts—but he doesn’t really know what to do with the knowledge. He’s partially confided in Guanyin’s disciples (Moksa, the dragon girl, the redeemed Black Bear spirit, and maybe Red Boy). But really Wukong can only confide in Tripitaka or Guanyin most organically. He doesn’t reveal the private stuff though
Wukong’s more comfortable revealing himself than these random trivia about his brothers—but the sheer amount of knowledge blends together that he ends up revealing his knowledge at unexpected moments anyhow
He accidentally revealed details of Longma’s human form, Wujing’s seeming fear of women and children, Bajie’s father-in-law issues, and the locations of Tripitaka’s moles on his body
Oh yeah, Wukong knows that Tripitaka has a missing toe.
Wukong's seen him naked during one of the many times Tripitaka was abducted by demons (I can't remember which event it was in the book rn), and Wukong has unnaturally good memory when it comes to people's appearances.
Wukong’s got a slouching posture, and idly picks at his own hair for rubble, bugs, and burs to questionable success. He doesn’t perform manners until it's for ceremonies. Even then, he'd have to feel personally inclined to.
He doesn't like wearing clothes for long periods if he doesn't have to. He's very ambivalent about nudity, and his little ones are no different. The material value and status they represent is what he likes about clothing. Otherwise, he's rather minimalistic.
Wukong's past title as heaven's stable keeper makes him sometimes care for Longma as a horse. He sneaks sugar cube-adjacent snacks from stalls to bring back to Longma. It's only after several years into the journey though, since he doesn't want to normalise being the default horse carer.
Longma (who isn’t really into being a horse for the most part) notices when Wukong spoils him as a horse and tries to find ways of subtly taking advantage of it.
Bajie regularly has to shave off his tusks to avoid the risk of them growing to stab him; on the bright side, they're actually pretty good to sell.
Wukong regularly shaves Wujing’s hair bald; great times for chatting. Wujing and Tripitaka are the only ones maintaining their baldness.
Bajie routinely jokes about selling Longma when Longma’s in hearing range.
Wukong’s perception that Tripitaka favors Bajie is not unfounded; early years!Tripitaka is frightened of Wukong, and intimidated by Wujing (he smells like metal and death). So by process of elimination, Bajie is the least threatening to him. Also, Tripitaka clocks Bajie’s stupidity, but is blind to the concept of weaponised incompetence.
Tripitaka took the lesson of "looks can be deceiving" in his first year with the small, unassuming height of Wukong, and went the whole nine yards with Bajie
Wukong is the type to spoil his grandkids. What constitutes ‘grandkids’ usually is limited to his little ones, but he also redevelops a fondness for horses—so he likes to perform a doting persona on Longma (to additionally annoy him). Tripitaka usually doesn’t condone Wukong’s attempts at annoyance, but finds the underlying affection too sweet to reprimand
Of the three disciples, Wukong is the most resistant to horse caretaking, Wujing is considerate but not uniquely attached, and Bajie really likes horse caretaking (or at least fantasising ways of generating revenue with the horse)
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