#and this is not 1000% accurate cos I don't like........study this or anything

[earl-of-221b]

On the pilgrims as demons in Journey to the West, and the pilgrims as gods in The New Legends of Monkey 2018 adaption. (aka, my extremely jumbled thoughts on why the pilgrims being demons is cool and relevant and new legends kind of fundamentally misses the point of jttw. But it’s ok. It’s an alright reimagining, it’s fine to like new legends. But this is why I think new legends is such a different jttw adaption from everything that has ever come out of china or asia. Again. Just my speculation on why this is.) 

Also it’s thanks to @dorkshadows post on the same subject that made me overthink this a lot.

In the Journey to the West, one might think it curious that the protagonists/heros of the story are the pilgrims - especially the disciples, who are all demons. (Minus the horse who is really a dragon lol.) The disciples’ jobs are to protect the holy human Tang Monk/ Tripitaka from demons who want to eat his flesh and become immortal, so the whole time they are fighting mainly against their own kind. But the reason the disciples are on this journey is to get redemption from their past crimes and maybe even get enlightenment - Sun Wukong/Monkey needs to be redeemed for the havoc in heaven and being mean and arrogant, Zhu Bajie/Pigsy needs to be redeemed for being horny on main all the damned time, and Sha Wujing/ Sandy for....breaking an important heavenly vase. 

It’s important to note that the three aren’t evil or Bad by default because they were demons. Sun Wukong lived at Mount Huaguo for a couple hundred years (?I think?) with thousands of other demon monkeys in peace before the havoc in heaven. As a demon he was accepted as a disciple by venerable Taoist master, Puti.  Bull Demon and Ironfan are not straight up evil, they were only antagonists to the pilgirms because they were under the impression their demon son was killed by them (he wasn’t.) Their (young and bratty evil) Demon Son, Red Boy, in fact got a chance to redeem himself for attempting to eat Tang Monk and being annoying and bratty by becoming Bodhisattva Guanyin’s disciple! Demons only deserve to get murdered by the pilgrims if they Make The Bad Decision To Eat Tang Monk. To attempt to get immortality by Cheating The System. (Demons can get immortality if they just Cultivate Themselves. Sure it takes hundreds of years but it’s free and no one has to get eaten.)

It’s also important to note that out of the three, only Sun Wukong/Monkey was born, by nature, a demon. Bajie/Pigsy and Wujing/ Sandy were originally gods. Bajie used to be Marshal Tianpeng, in charge of a significant heavenly army. One day in heaven, he got extremely drunk. In his drunken state, he made sexual advances on goddess Chang’e of the moon, who did not appreciate it. So Bajie/ Pigsy was apprehended, stripped of his title, and chucked down to hell to be reincarnated as a pig demon. Are you a lecherous bastard? U deserve to be tossed from heaven to be a pig demon. Wujing/ Sandy used to be the Curtain Lifting General. One day he dropped an important heavenly artefact, causing the Queen Mother to be so enraged she stripped him of his title and had him chucked to earth to be a horrible, ugly sand demon. Every day 7 swords would drop from heaven and impale him 7 times, causing him excruciating pain, so depending on the version, Wujing/ Sandy hides in the sand or the lake from these attacks. (This really was a disproportionate punishment though, it really sucks. I guess to cope with this shitty unjust punishment, Wujing/Sandy really became Evil and started eating humans as a demon.) Their punishment was to be forced from being a god to being a demon. 

Many of the demons that the pilgrims fight on the journey west used to be animals of the heavenly court - like Change’s jade rabbit, and somebody’s celestial cow, or celestial lion, or literally Taishang Laojun/Laozi’s celestial child disciples. Celestial beings who became demon or moonlighted as demons. 

The thing I’m trying to say with all of this is that it is possible to change from a demon to a god, or a god to a demon or etc etc etc. There is no inherent evil. (So I guess there’s no inherent good either lol. Ying Yang and all that). 

Sun Wukong, while he is a demon, is also regarded as a god at the same time. He was employed by heaven as a demon and has the title of a god - Great Sage Equal to Heaven. He is often respected as a god by other gods, and respected/ feared as a demon by other demons. 

After the journey, he is a demon and a god and a buddha. 

He’s all of that. 

Journey to the West is an extrapolation of chinese culture, where there is no black and white dichotomy between good and evil. There is always movement between natures and states and forms. Buddhas can wear the faces of demons (Bodhisattva Guanyin once disguised herself as a demon). Demons can change to become gods - demons can achieve enlightenment. (Sun Wukong/ Monkey). Humans can become gods (Chang’e, Nezha, Pagoda God Li Jing, the Eight Immortals, and demigods like Erlang Shen and Sanseng Mu). Humans can become Buddha (Tathagata Budda, Bodhisattva Guanyin, Tang Monk and every person who reached Budhahood). Gods can become demons (Bajie/ Pigsy, Wujing/ Sandy). When people die, they get reincarnated. It’s fluid. 

In The New Legends of Monkey adaption of jttw, the pilgrims are all gods. They start off as gods and they remain as gods. They are good because they are gods. The demons are evil because they are demons. They do bad things because they are demons. The god pilgrims had done nothing wrong - they’re not trying to get redemption. In new legends, by nature, there is good and there is evil. A dichotomy. Black and white. This, tbh, looks much much more influenced by Christianity. Like angels v demons. Jesus v the devil. When people die, they go to hell, or go to heaven. It’s set.