SOME VALUABLE CONTEXT ON THE LADY BONE DEMON ARC AND WUKONG’S BANISHMENT
One of the most common arguments I see for Why Tripitaka Is The Worst is, “how could he banish Wukong when Wukong was just trying to save him, Wukong has done nothing but save him over and over, the monk is so ungrateful.”
Which sounds like a pretty accurate take, right up until you back away from all the exciting flashy fight sequences and do some cold hard math from the POV of a guy who, very reasonably, does not want any fight sequences on his trip, please, camping and begging for food and crossing mountains are already exhausting enough.
By the time they run into the Lady Bone Demon, it’s been 2-4 years of traveling together. In that time, Wukong has gotten into 8 fights.
3 of those could have been brief polite introductions instead (meeting the other party members).
2 more could very easily have been solved by Wukong growing ten feet taller and saying oogity boogity (tiger, human bandits) but instead ended in violent deaths.
2 were straight-up Wukong’s fault (stolen cassock, ginseng fruit debacle).
That leaves ONE (1) time Wukong was genuinely heroically necessary and helpful to his Master (Yellow Wind Demon), and he did it with Bajie's help.
Wukong has also tried to kill Tripitaka one (1) time at this point.
So, uh, no, Tripitaka wasn’t actually being an unreasonable ungrateful Meanie when, upon personally seeing Wukong commit three unprovoked murders in a row, and being assured by his (apparently) much more trustworthy disciple Bajie that all three were innocent normal humans, he freaks out. It is entirely reasonable for him to come to the conclusion he does, which is that Wukong has no interest in learning morals/ that he, Tripitaka, is incapable of teaching him. At that point you’d all but have to banish your disciple—he is only just barely not a danger to you, and he is very much a danger to others.
Do I hate that for both Tripitaka and Wukong? Do I still yell no you idiot at the page and seethe over the injustice when Wukong gets whammied with the migraine spell? Absolutely. And that’s clearly what the author/ compiler wanted.
What the author probably didn’t want is for us all to forget the freaking context and decide that Tripitaka is The Worst Forever because he was Mean To My Favorite Blorbo Who Did Nothing Wrong. Wukong did very nearly everything wrong up to this point, gleefully and without remorse. He just didn’t do this one thing wrong, and got punished for it anyway.
And I actually think that’s a crucial turning point in his personal growth arc.
(The second banishment is also a vital turning point, but that’s an essay for another day.)
