#black myth wukong journal entries

[szynkaaa]

BMW Journal Entries: The Three Tigers

Let's talk about the lore surrounding the three tigers from chapter 2! Bit of a sad story

Part 1 is about the monkeys from Mount HuaguoPart 2 is about Sun Wukong's armor pieces (and insight on his personality)

In chapter 2 of Black Myth Wukong, you can fight in total of three tigers, and what dya know their lore is connected too!

"Tiger Vanguard"

Unlocked by finding the Secret Location in chapter 2. He is the father of both Mad Tiger and Tiger Vanguard

He shows up in the original JTTW novel, and is the Yellow Wind Sage's vanguard.

His two sons are not mentioned in the original novel, but mentioned in the BMW journal entries

The guard rushed in to report. Out came two tiger cubs who hailed the vanguard as their father and made their courtesies. The older cub asked, "Where did you find this pale-faced monk?" The vanguard laughed. "A stroke of luck! I was patrolling the mountain and chanced upon him." The younger cub, overjoyed, said: "Well done, Father! Teach me how you did it someday." [...] The two young tigers followed their father out. The elder muttered, "Master has always devoured mortals without a second thought. There should be something he left unsaid." The younger added: "He seems almost… afraid of that mortal." Their father snapped: "You know nothing of the powers of our master! Long seasons have I served him. How could he shrink before any other?" The brothers exchanged glances but said no more. Scarcely half a day had passed when the master sent for them again. It was Sun Wukong challenging upon their gate. The Tiger Vanguard requested to face him, but the master demurred, "I fear you cannot prevail against him. You may well be wounded, and you must not then impute blame unto me." The vanguard's sons urged him to reconsider, but he paid them no heed. "Rest assured, you! Wait only until I return!"

Spoiler alert, he never returned cause Zhu Bajie killed him

In the secret location, we do not "kill" him after the battle, he accepts your strength and then allows you to go see the his master, the Yellow Wind Sage

Tiger Vanguard

the elder of the two tiger cubs. His father was the "Tiger Vanguard"

had to fend for themselves after their father died

Were in charge of other lesser yaoguai and looked out for them, their father taught them how to survive

managed to govern the yaoguai, things looked good. The mortals were happy about it and built a temple worshipping the tigers, the Crouching Tiger Temple

Younger brother - Mad Tiger - jealous as the mortal only worshipped the elder tiger

Yellow Wind Sage returns with a bunch of yao guais in tow, Mad Tiger blames the Sage for their father's death.

Both brother try to fight the Yellow Wind Sage and his minions, the elder going after the rat guais and the younger going after the Yellow Wind Sage himself

Yellow Wind Sage uses the severed head he carries (that has SWK artifact inside) to beat Mad Tiger. He is wounded badly.

Tiger Vanguard kneels down and begs for mercy to spare his brother's life

Yellow Wind Sage is like "ayo I know you two and I don't hold grudges. Have the title your father previously had and serve me". Eldest tiger became the new Tiger Vanguard for Yellow Wind Sage

Mad Tiger woke up, is not happy that his brother is the Tiger Vanguard and serving the yaoguai he deemed responsible for their father's death. Leaves and cuts off any family ties they had. sad.

In the Tiger Vanguard's eyes, that yellow-furred rat had twice destroyed his family and left them broken and scattered. He hated him for that, but he was no fool. As long as the rat had protection from the higher ones, what more could a tiger do beyond venting his rage by devouring a few lesser rats each day?

btw, the rat yaoguai were former humans. there's a lot to unpack there too so let's just throw the entire luggage away

Tiger's Acolyte

Not a tiger, but plays an important role to the Mad Tiger's story

Wandering swordsmand, who fell in love, settled down and they have a child

Wife and child both became ill, wife died, child is gravely ill. Sickness is caused by the wind from the Yellow Wind Sage

Hears about a Bodhisattva that can cure the illness, sets out with his sick son to find them

hears a tiger roar coming down from a well in a village, and like every horror movie protagonist ever, climbs down the well to check it out

finds a wounded tiger, our Mad Tiger

Mad Tiger pretends to be his brother, says he is revered by the village, he has a temple, but he was ambushed by lesser yaoguai and is now hiding and recovering

Swordsmand has his doubts, asks around, they say it's true, he goes back and begs for help

Mad Tiger has a magical gourd, gives the child a sip and child gets better

Mad Tiger says if he brings him human sacrifices to eat, he can recover and beat the Yellow Wind Sage and then heal the child completely

Swordsman wasn't sure at first, but saw his kid getting better each day, playing with the village child, so he agrees and starts leading villager down the well, thinking this will help the tiger recover and thus also helping his son fully recover

Villager found out what he did, and beat his son to death

The man was consumed by regret and drew the sword he had sealed away for years. He fell upon the villagers, and one by one, he cut them down, until the streets ran red with blood. Then, alone, he set out into the shifting sandstorm, lost in the ever-howling wind.

Mad Tiger

Mad Tiger got the magical gourd from his brother

Human child he saved is very polite and earnestly thanked the Mad Tiger for his help. Mad Tiger realizes it feels nice to be thanked and praised

Tells them to come back every day to take a sip otherwise the kid would get sick again

Kid calls Mad Tiger "Tiger God and shares his food, toys and stories from his life

Gave the gourd to the father and son duo, and kids health improved more and more each day

Stopped getting visits, thought they might have run off with his gourd so he left his well to go look for them

Walks into a horror scene, there is blood everywhere. Find the boy's body in a little coffin, the gourd still hanging around his neck

Tiger Brother carried the coffin back to the bottom of the well. He decided to wait until he was strong enough. One day, he would stop that cursed wind and sand…

Here is the cutscene of the ghost of the little boy leading SWK down the well and the intro the Mad Tiger boss battle

When you beath him, he says "I have yet to avenge my father..."

After you beat him, there is a single coffin in the cave. It plays a special cutscene, where you see the Destined One hesitating, before opening it - most likely because he knew what was inside. I can't find a video of the DO opening the coffing, but here is a video of what is inside the coffin: a human skeleton.

EDIT: here is a video of DO opening the coffing, massive thanks to @cosmic-fantasizer for providing the link

My thoughts/interpretation/word vomit:

From the tiger's story, it is clear that the Yellow Wind Sage ruined both families.

I didn't feel very strongly for the Tiger Vanguard (the elder tiger brother) because it took me fucking forever to beat his ass and at that point it was just personal and I really thought he was a dick eating humans all day long at his temple lol. But man now I just feel so sorry for all of them (even though they are all doing horrible things)

The Tiger Vanguard only surrendered to save his brother's life, and in turn also lost the only family he had left. But he was also eating on the rat yaoguai that used to be humans.

The Mad Tiger, who also lost his brother, and "found" a new one in the little kid, that praised and adored him, and played with him and shared his every day life stories with him. I think it's easy to say that he only did it so the child's father would bring humans to feast on (and I think the Tiger's Acolyte saw this all as transactional too), buuuut I think he truly came to care for the kid. He gave the kid the gourd, knowing there is risk they could just book it, and then carried the entire coffin back to his well after he found out he was beaten to death. I think that at first, his goal was to get stronger and beat the Yellow Wind Sage to avenge his father (which is what he says when he dies), but based on the journal entry, I think that it was also to avenge the little kid that became his friend.

Sure, the Mad Tiger was trying to get stronger to avenge his father, maybe the kid, BUT he was still eating the villagers to get stronger everyday.

Same goes for the Acolytes, yes he was doing it all for his kid, BUT he was still leading innocent people down to their death. And in turn, the villagers beat up his son to death, and then he also massacred the whole village.

I think as a player, it's easy for us to just go in and boink some enemies several times because they are in our way, and well we need the EXP to level up asap to get through the game. After deep diving into each character and reading their entires, I do appreciat that none of the characters are sorted into the good and bad archetype - rather there are different shades of greys. Overall the tiger's story are on of my favorite side stories in the game

To close up this post, here is a photo of the tigers after I am through with them:

[sanflawoah]

Black Myth: Wukong

More brainrot commentary because I'M NOWHERE NEAR DONE WITH GOING INSANE OVER THIS MONKE GAME.

Cursed texts and massive spoilers bellow. Lots of random bits and wee woo wee woo.

First of all, YEEESSS to everything well written big budget media with heavy cultural elements that isn't western centric. Love it 👏, a thousand more like this please.

HONESTLY can't get enough of the character designs. Watching the old tv show in my childhood got me imagining the JTTW characters as these cute human with animal ears. But since the game took a more serious and darker tone they took the character design to 1000. So many memorable characters with distinct style, drip, and combat.

Ok so whose idea was it to make some of the plants sentient and will beat your ass for daring to pick them up. I now have trust issues with ginseng and mushrooms

The toad bosses reminds me of Gamabunta. For a moment they also gave me a war flashback of Jedi Survivor's Oggdo-Bogdo, I want those things vaporised from earth 🔫🔫

Kang-Jin darkening the environment during her second stage, I legit thought it was a problem with my screen, until I found out other players had it too lmao. Also looove her design, silver loong with holographic glow, prettiest loong in the game

Boss musics are so LIT, I've been looping them for weeks

The Scorpionlord. First I saw him I was like HANZO HASASHI :DD??? But instead of hellfire, this time he uses venom. And the fact that the environments have autumn palette, connects me to MK 11 Shirai Ryu fire garden arena lol

an NPC called Starved Abomination. The name really sends me because ngl it's a relatable concept, I too became an abomination whenever I'm starving.

To punish Wukong for his lifetime worth of trash-talking, the game now choose The Destined One as shy and doesn't talk much except for when he screams during fights. All my grievances of expecting him to be chatty and noisy actually works out the more I understand the story. And turns out it was all part of his journey, you are meant to complete him by collecting Wukong's scattered senses. Lil introverted fur-ball of scream I love you so much. Since the NG+++ Wukong stance actually gave him voicelines, I'm guessing the Destined One is going to complete his development in actually becoming Wukong in the DLC.

Everyone and I mean EVERYONE had a beef with Wukong and now we gotta pick up after his mess. My poor Destined One walked into an area completely clueless and suddenly everyone is jumping on him because "REMEMBER THE THING YOU DID TO ME A FEW HUNDRED YEARS AGO??? WELL FUK YOU, NOW DIE."

~

🐱Yin Tiger🐱. First time I met him I was like ohhh who are you, you look so cool and kinda cute tho, look at those big boba eyes, pspspsps.

He's all busy with his hammer and zabuza sword, thinks you're so annoying for bothering his work. Then there's this "challenge" option and suddenly he rose and casually tossed his hammer to the ground, I was like wait I was just joking aYO I WAS JUST JOKING-, then proceeds to delete my HP in 30 seconds. Anyway I love how he appears big and heavy and yet moves so swiftly. Of ALL the tiger bosses in this game, imo he's the coolest and THE SANEST. I still can''t get over the Tiger Vanguard and Mad Tiger trauma, those orange cats are on a whole new level of insanity.

🕷️Fourth Spider Sister🕷️. I'm actually so INVESTED in her mystery, like why are you helping me? Why do you look so sad? Are those tear stains on your cheeks?? Why did the Immortal Crane said that I'm giving you "false hopes"? What were we in the previous life?

"Think about her, won't you? Should you feel like stirring trouble in your next life." WHAT DOES THIS MEAN, TELL ME. SHE SEEMS SO NICE THO, she's just a sad goth girl what did she do?? What did WE do?? And her journal entry is so interesting.

🐉Yellow Loong🐉. LISTEN.... I literally had to pause for a moment when I saw him. Cutscene plays and I was like Oohh it's going to be that type of charismatic character reciting monologue, and then I saw his name and it's THE YELLOW LOONG??? This suave horned man is The Yellow Loong??

Well damn I have to say that's one handsome loong. He's one of those elegant style fighters, my favourite genre, up there with Whiteclad Noble and Erlang Shen.

👁️Erlang Shen⚡. The way I turned up the volume when I heard Andrew Koji's Erlang voice.....It's just so.......pleasant to hear. Something about the way he did his voice, the smug taunts, the gentle almost-whispers, and the gROWLS???

I can't even with the entirety of Erlang's character design in this game, because dAMN BOI what a BEAUTY. I thought the game was going to make his appearance more mature looking, or even scarier, because that's just how it is with game character design formula, especially in games like this. But NOOOOO..... they made him ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. His face, his voice, HIS MOVESS, the way they designed his martial arts so elegantly. When you perfect dodge everything with him, it really feels like a dance. I have to note that when sometimes you tried heavy attack on him aND HE SIMPLY JUST-.... took one step to the side.... THE ABSOLUTE SLAYYY DISRESPECT💅💅. Welcome back Isshin from Sekiro.

Also I just found out that depending on what transformation you're using, he's going to react differently on each. Particularly interesting one was when you use Azure Dust. Most of the time, when you transform, he's going to transform too and chances are he's going to one-shot you out of the transformation. He doesn't do that with Azure Dust for some reason, instead he got amused because Lmao returning back to your origin?. And this line, "Walking his path is no easy feat, it will test you relentlessly". SOMETHING SOMETHING ABOUT ERLANG HAVING THIS HIDDEN BURDEN THROUGHOUT THE PLOT IS DRIVING ME INSANE, I NEED THE DLC TO EXPLORE HIS CHARACTER MORE I'M BEGGING YOU GAME SCIENCE. You can't leave me hanging with his journal entry please I want him to have some peace and closure.

Powerful quiet character with hidden struggle, the bane of my existence, my beloved.

☂️🐉The Four Heavenly Kings🎸🗡️. MAN I love these guys, their fight feels so rewarding somehow, because after all those struggles with Erlang, they feel more like a reward battle for visual entertainment.

Aside from being relatively easy, they're just so fun to watch. I keep wanting to stall the fight just to see what move sets they could perform because their coordinated attacks are just SO COOL.

South king throwing the sword at us, joined by the West king throwing punches, and then the West king passing the sword back to South king. That brief moment of them passing weapons, they need to do more of that, so sick.

The North king combo with every other kings. The West jumping up using the North's umbrella, summoned the dragon, the South yeeting the sword, and the East buffing up the umbrella thrust attack with his Pipa magic. I'd hate to be a normal human citizen under them during that scene GODDAMN. I'd say the West is the game's favourite king because he's the one with the most screentime. He's the one with distinct glowing eyes and he was the most visible behind Erlang during the opening. The North being the coolest because WTF WAS THAT TYPHOON UMBRELLA WITH THE WEST'S DRAGON ROLLING WITH IT, AND THE MUSIC QUE, ABSOLUT CINEMA. The East probably being the chillest of them all because my man was just serenading the fight yo, I like how his fingers actually moves accurately playing the BGM. I know they're on the heaven's side, but for some reason I want them to be on our side if it's possible in the DLC. If we could get Erlang, then surely we can get them? They're too epic not to have.

🐒THE GREAT SAGE'S BROKEN SHELL🐒

THE MONKEY, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND. SUN. WU. KONG. THE SCREAM I SCRUMPT WHEN THIS MF SHOWED UP ON SCREEN. TEARFUL CHEER AND AND UNIMAGINABLE TERROR. AND WITH THAT BITS OF THE OG TV SHOW THEME MOTIF PLAYING WHEN HE SUMMONED JINGU BANG.

Who would've thought that we're going to fight our former self as a literal your greatest enemy is yourself concept. Like yO IT'S THE G HIMSELF WUKONG but now FUK I HAVE TO FIGHT HIM?? Look, sir, Mr. Great Sage, I know I've been playing around as you and I don't even know what I'm doing, I'M SORRY.

So now we're fighting zombie Wukong. He's literally soulless inside and his voice sounds demonic. YET STILL he radiates that lively asshole energy. You try pillar stance to get away from him, he does the same but his pillar is TALLER than yours. You try to walk off calmly, he does the same but then taunts you for it, eats a peach and then flicks the seed to your head. Kicks you to the sky and transforms his jingu bang into a pillar and plants it to the ground with you under it. He cheats by summoning kintoun and body slammed you. He summoned his clones to kick you in all directions only for the original Wukong to wait on the side yawning, then he kicks your jingu bang back at you like "pick it up bitch", and taunts you with his hand gesture to come at him. Ok now you're raging and you tried to pillar stance heavy attack at him, he's like "shut yo bitch-" and GRABBED YOUR JINGU BANG WITH YOU STILL HOLDING ON TO IT AND STARTS USING YOU AS A FLY SWATTER. Just as you think that these suffering couldn't get any worse, you tried to heal and he IMMOBILISED YOU, SNATCHED YOUR GOURD AND TOOK A SIP, decided that it tastes like shit and threw it back at you. Now THIS is the little shit that I know and love.

The whole time you tried to do a move against him, he returned the favour but better. You think your staff extension is long? Ok he'll extend his staff to a kilometer, and that's STILL him holding back. You can do ring of fire? His is bigger in diameter and burns brighter. The game had to nerf out his lore accurate skills because it's just so atrociously OP.

Ok so you finally defeated him? Just as he got dusted away he still managed to croak a last laugh.

Que good ending animated cutscene with the JTTW plot in reverse serenaded with Celestial Symphony. Happy onions, happy onions tearing up the eyes. Crank the volume up, it's all coming together. That's Ba Jie, that's Sanzang, that's Wujing, that's horse.

MMMMMMM MONKE.

[professionalranter31]

So there I am playing Black Myth Wukong

I’m at chapter five and I’m excited to get to hunting down the other bosses to get their journal entries

And what do I do?

I walk right into the final chapter fight and my dumbass didn’t think to just let myself be killed!

So I finished the chapter but lost access to the boss fights

So what does my insane ass do once I fully realize that?

Why I decide to start the entire fucking story over!

From Chapter Five right back to Chapter motherfucking One!

And I don’t regret doing that!

I want the stories of those bosses, I want the true ending

And I want to fucking fight Erlang Shen so fucking help me!

I have lost my fucking mind, I’ll need to beat all of the bosses again to get their entries, everything, and I’ll fucking do it without hesitation

I will complete the journal, I will face all of those bosses, even that fuck Scorpionlord

The lore will be mine!

[localcryptidsteg]

Black Myth Wukong and the Kiang-Jin Long Dilemma

Is it just me or does the lockon system shit itself and die during the Kiang-jin Long fight?

In all seriousness though, pivoting focus for a minute, I've been hearing some complaints that the dev team is sexist and has said they don't want women playing the game, and I'd like to clear that up a bit.

The actual translation of the comment was that they didn't want to use women to sell the game. There's a chinese streamer who goes more in-depth on it (no clue where the link went so bear with me) but essentially, tldr, China has been pivoting towards American-style advertising using sex to sell lately and the dev team didnt want to do that.

And as for the "lack" of female characters... a) this is meant to be a sequel to Journey to the West, not everyone from the first run is going to be involved and b) Kiang-Jin Long/Star, one of the only female characters Ive seen to far, is READILY capable of handing you your ass several times over and shes just a miniboss, and, in a game that doesnt give you much context anyway until youve beaten a boss, of course shes not gonna have a ton of focus in the gameplay itself?? BUT SHE GETS TWO WHOLE JOURNAL ENTRIES WHERE MOST MAINLINE BOSSES ONLY GET ONE. That's kind of a whole LOT of attention, actually!!

More importantly though, the ONLY people I've seen complaining are Americans, which brings me to the main point: it's a Chinese game, based on Chinese mythology and characters, made for a Chinese audience. It's more than fine to enjoy the game if youre not Chinese, God knows its going to be one of my favorite games of the year and thats DAMN impressive considering Hades 2 is in early access currently and Monster Hunter Wilds is creeping closer to release date, but it's just not for us.

The culture there just isn't as focused on minority or womens representation as it is here because that's just not a relevant thing there at the moment.

The only reason I have even a fraction of the understanding I need to get the references in this game is because for the last 22 years of my life I've been obsessively reading every myth, fable, legend, and ghost story I could get my hands on (slight tangent, if anyone can recommend any good Scottish ones, Ive got a significant gap in my knowledge in that area).

Even I will readily admit I have only the loosest understanding of just how far into the mythos of Journey to the West this game goes because I only have a loose understanding of Journey to the West. Ive read the unabridged version and several abridged versions (cannot reccomend the unabridged version as recreational reading its very long and very repetitive) and I can tell you right now: its a satirical take on the religion and politics of the time it was written, so I have little to no historical context outside of mythology to understand the nuances of that.

Im sure there are a million little significant details about Buddhism and Taoism and bureaucracy buried in this game that I will never ever catch and Im ok with that but God Damn some people need to learn theres more to some media than what their frame of reference allows them to see.

This game is a piece of someone elses culture that was important enough to a large team of people that they decided to retell it in a way that was accessible to the rest of us on even a surface level, and some of yall are bitching about how it doesnt align with your own culture. Like, no shit? It's NOT your culture!

[szynkaaa]

His travel companion asked him if it really was necessary to kill every single enemy they encounter, so he decided to push the yaoguai back into the ground

based on the One Piece scene with Luffy and a zombie

[szynkaaa]

Illustration done for my personal Black Myth: Wukong journal entry bind I'm working on. This is a screenshot I took from and then traced over it

[szynkaaa]

Black Myth Wukong: Journal Entries

Personal use only, not for sale! I don't do commissions either.

I loved this game so but I wished there was a way to read the journal entries while listening to the Music Library, so I've decided to make my own physical book with all the journal entries. Also because because staring at the TV screen reading the tiny fonts was too much on my eyes.

✦ Everything is made by myself, from the book formatting to the text block and case and slipcase. ✦Yaoguai portraits are screenshots I took from my game, the entries text are copied from the fandom wiki page. ✦ Endpapers are foild with red foil and the slipcase pattern are the achievement pictures, which I printed on textile for the slipcase. ✦ I decided to format the book to be read from right-to-left, as this is how text in ancient china were read. ✦ Front page illustration is a screenshot I traced from the game

WIPs: https://szynkaaa.tumblr.com/post/761687159583473664/some-progress-textblock-has-been-sewn-together-i https://szynkaaa.tumblr.com/post/761966032402432000/endpapers-have-been-foiled https://szynkaaa.tumblr.com/post/762358966045016064/some-more-wips-both-copies-are-cased-in-so-the https://szynkaaa.tumblr.com/post/762969024938295296/got-the-achievement-icons-printed-on-textile-to

Link to the PDF of journal entries for those who wants to read it on your device.

Some journal entries are incorrect, typos have not been fixed either, I might go back and fix the mistakes another time! It is read right-to-left, so please scroll to the last page of the PDF to start reading :)

I'm kindly asking you to not use professional book printing services to print your own book, thank you!

[szynkaaa]

Black Myth: Wukong Journal Entries Part 1

Summarizing some of the journal entries that I found interesting because why not fanfic research?? who knows not me

All the journal entires can also be read on the fandom wiki page

Starting with the Mount Huaguo monkeys because I too, am wondering how they were faring after SWK died.

Circus Monkey (chapter 3 New West)

After Mt. Huaguo was destroyed, the Macaque Chief (flying monkey we fight three times in Chapter 3) led a bunch of monkeys away

arrived at Flaming Mountain (chapter 5) but a plague broke out and Macaque Chief asked for the sick monkes to be tossed into a called

This did not like that, so they decided to stop following the Macaque Chief and they wandered around

lived among humans, pretended to be monkey performers, did not make good money, so they decided to rob the audience while performing.

they killed them, stole their things and moved to the next city

The moved tot he New West, heard Macaque Chief is there too but avoiding them because he feels guilty

circus monkey became circus monks

Tenner (chapter 5 Flaming Mountain)

Centuries ago, Court razed Mt Huago once more

lots of monkey left the home after they heard of SWK death, and because SWK was buddy buddy with the Bull King they decided to go to Mt. Huago

Bull King hated monkeys because of SWK betrayal LOL, but he still gave them shelter and the monkeys were often bullied by other yaoguais

The Flaming Mountain Keeper (dude who had the hots for Princess Iron Fan) treated them with kindness and gave them food and support

Plague struck, monkeys fur fell out and they had sores and boils all over their skin spreading across their back

Macaque Chief casted the infected into the Furnace Valley. Dude said not my circus not my monkeys lol

Keeper came and saved them and cured them. Wings spread from the boils off their back

Keeper taught them how to fly and enlisted them as his minions

first thing they did was purge the Macaque Chief's camp, killed all the other monkeys, only leaving the Chief alive, who then fled to the New West

Macaque Chief (Chapter 3 New West)

Yellobrow helped Macacque Chief retracting his black wings

Macaque was a Chief under SWK

Yellowbrow offers the Macaque Chief to stay and help him rebuild the Thunderclap Temple

"If you had the abilities of that monkey who wreaked such havod in the Celestial Palace, it would have been others who would have suffered." - Yellowbrow

My personal thoughts and musings:

based on the entries from Tenner, I guess it's been more than 100 years since SWK died, I recall reading somewhere it was 270 years but I don't remember where I got that number, so if anyone knows let me know. I like that they added information on what happened to the monkeys at Mt. Huaguo. Chapter 6 felt very Unfinished (fitting title) in terms of also environment - there weren't much enemies around beside the court soldiers and bosses to fight. And when I first walked into the waterfalls cave, my first thought was how empty and abandoned it look like. There are stone tables and chairs and peaches scattered around, but it looks very much like no one has been there for a very long time.

Also the Macaque Chief is NOT the six-eared Macaque, he died in JTTW killed by SWK.

So we know that

SWK left the court and buddhahood behind to just chill with his homies

in retalition the Court started killing his monkey kind

SWK killed himself in order to be completely free

the court very likely continued to massacre and raze through Mt. Huaguo

which then led to Macaque Chief leading some other monkeys away to find a new home

When the Old Monkey is telling the stories of SWK and sending out monkeys to retrieve artifacts, we see a bunch of other monkeys holding staffs too (spot the anime protagonist lmfao)

we do not see or find any other monkeys when we arrive at Mt. Huaguo

My theories and headcanons:

Without Sun Wukong's protection, Yaoguai's run rampagne and the monkeys are not able to fully defend themselves

also when we arrive and on our way to the Stone, we get attacked by court soldiers

My theory is that because they know SWK will be reincarnated, and they want to prevent that, they have soldiers stationed there to attack whenever someone triest to obtain all armor parts and reach the Stone with SWK remains

hence also why the monkeys had to leave, because they would get attacked by court soldiers on sight

I don't think ALL of them left, we do still see monkeys at the beginning of the game

Overall when I played through Ch.6 there was a also a strong feeling of excitement of reaching the end of the journey soon, but also sad because it Mt Huaguo just felt so empty. it's supposed to be SWK's home and he wanted to leave buddhahood behind to be with his kin. To me, that already paints an image of mt Huaguo, being a lively and happy place.

I do wonder what is gonna happen next now that SWK is back. I suppose words will go out that the Monkey King is back, and that some of the monkeys will try to return again? I also wonder what the DO was thinking when traveling and having to fight his own kin. Does he know the history of his mountain? Hopefully the DLC will answer some more questions for us

And that's it about the monkeys! I'm still reading the Journal Entries, and will tackle the Tigers from Chapter 2 next!

[szynkaaa]

Few people have asked me if I'm willing to share the PDF I made compiling all the journal entries of Black Myth: Wukong, so here is the link

Few things to note:

I made it to to be read from right to left, so that means you need to scroll down to the bottom to the last page to read it. This is because in ancient China people read from right-to-left, and I made the PDF to be printed into a physical book

If you want the imposed typeset to bind your own book, please fill out the google form to request access to my typesets

Portraits are screnshots I've taken from the game, they're set to screentones because I only have a black-white printer at home and screentones saves on ink

this is personal use only. Please do not use Lulu or Barnes and Noble or whatever printing service is out there to print it into a book.

[szynkaaa]

The Tragedy of Bull King, Red Boy and Princess Iron-Fan

me: does a poll for people to vote on between the Daoist Mi Lore or Kingdom of the Flowing Sand rats Also me: alright imma write about something else entirely

I will be tackling the Bull King's Family lore according to Black Myth Wukong, since the devs did change some things from the original JTTW books + my own interpretation and thoughts. You can find my other posts under the Black Myth Rambling tag

TW: Rape, forced childbirth, suicide

Will be abbreviating some names or calling them by a different name: Bull King = BK Princess Rakshasi = Princess Iron Fan Sun Wukong =SWK Red Boy = RB Mount Lingshan = Western Heaven Celestial Court = Eastern Heaven Taishang Laojun (the furnace guy) = TSLJ Keeper of the Flaming Mountain = furnace boy

I will try my best to tell all of this in chronological order to make sense of the timeline. Some events it is not very clear if it happened before or after this and that, so I listed them up in the order that I think it happened.

Some Backstory:

Both the Yaksha Kingdom and Kingdom of Rakshasa were destroyed by Mt. Lingshan

In the past, the Yaksha King was betrayed by the celestial beings, leading to the massacre of the royal family and the downfall of the Yaksha Kingdom. After the kingdom's collapse, the yakshas were forced into exile.

Yaksha Archer journal entry

When a formidable enemy attacked, the Yaksha King appointed Mi Yan as the vanguard general. [...] Despite their valor, the Kingdom of Yaksha was ultimately destroyed, but not a single soldier from Mi Yan's army deserted.

Red-haired Yaksha journal entry

Along with the fall of the Yaksha Kingdom, the Rakshasa Kingdom, due to their kinship with the yakshas, also met its end.

Thunder Rhino Master journal entry

From the Sea Rakshasa Journal entry:

from the entry, we gather that Princess Iron Fan was a princess of the kingdom of Rakshasa beyond the Western sea

Kingdom fell, they escorted the princess eastwards, and made a new home in the Flaming Mountains. Strongly assuming this all happened before fire rained down to the mountain from the furnace being kicked over by SWK

Princess Iron Fan is described to have a kind heart

After her eastward migration, Rakshasi had a new Daoist master in the Celestial Court. Practicing Daoism in Buddhism's stead, Rakshasi marked a departure from her past.

also from the Thunder Rhino Journal entry

From the Keeper of the Flaming Mountain Entry

he's a bitch and doesn't give a shit about human lives lol

also hazed Princess Iron Fan

calling him furnace boy because that was literally his job in heaven lol, fanning the furnace. the same furnace SWK was cooking in for 40 days

His master is TSLJ, introduces him to Princess Iron Fan. She is his new disciple, but also furnace boy's senior. He calls her 师姐 shī jiě, with jiě meaning 'older sister'.

which, he is not happy about. and then says well since she is the senior she should be fanning the furnace.

and Princess Iron Fan being the queen she is, goes alright bet and does her job.

does NOT tattle on furnace boy. instead asks for a bigger fan because the one the boy gave her is too small.

and old man gives her hher signature Iron Fan.

Enter SWK, who springs outta the furnace, and flames fell down to Earth creating the Flaming Mountain.

Furnace boy is demoted to Keeper of Flaming Mountains

Iron Fan volunteered to go to mortal realm to help him. what a queen he did not deserve her

he learns then that the princess already has a cave where she chills and loyal followers (the Sea rakshasa)

TSLJ arranged the marriage between her and BK

realizes no matter how many dirty works he does for TSLJ, his master will never think furnace boy is worthy to be with her LOL. even his master knows what a trash he is

So we know that Princess Iron Fan and BK got married after SWK jumped out of the furnace

Here is a pic of Princess Iron Fan. Ain't putting one of Furnace Boy because he doesn't deserve it

The Yaksha King Lore

2nd phase of the Red Boy final boss battle in chapter 5.

Journal entry does not talk about the RB though, rather talks about the Red Boy's bio father. yes folk that's right, BK is not his bio dad in BMW

Mt. Lingshan wages war against the Yaksha Kingdom. Mount Lingshan is where Buddha resides and the final destination of the pilgrims in JTTW to retrieve the scriptures.

Yaksha King's son, a baby, recently died. Father is still carrying the infant in his arms. The King himself is gravely wounded

creepy ass dude shows up and is like "yeah I can help you to carry on your royal line and save your son, trust me bro"

"Whether the Yaksha royal lineage continues or ends depends entirely on your decision today." [...]

they extract the dead baby's soul into a red lotus flower before it could enter the cycle of reincarnation

They also need the life and the water of child-bearing river in

The figure clapped, and a white-clad Daoist emerged from behind. The Daoist approached the Yaksha King, bowed, then sat cross-legged on the ground. He extended his hands above the boy's head and began to chant softly. Before long, a small, blood-red lotus flower emerged slowly from the boy's forehead, crystal clear and vibrant. The Daoist carefully plucked the lotus and placed it into a bowl he carried. The Yaksha King fixed his unblinking gaze intently at the lotus. The figure said, "This red lotus is the essence of your son's soul. To ensure it does not dissipate before successful reincarnation, we will need your life and the water from the River of Childbearing."

White figure is Furnace Boy and his master is TSLJ. probably also what furnace boy refers to doing his master's dirty work

This is the same way Red Boy kills himself at the end of chapter 5, thus ending the royal Yaksha lineage

Here is an image of Red Boy

Princess Iron Fan was forced to drink the child-bearing water and give birth to the Red Boy

BK and SWK are sworn brothers, and he aids him fighting against the court, before SWK rebellion in heaven and was buried under a mountain for 500 years

We learn in the chapter 5 ending animation, that she was forced to drink from the water and give birth to Red Boy. BTW Highly recommend watching the ending animation

The way I understood this scene is that if it wasn't SWK, none of this would have happened, hence I believe they forced her to do it as a punishment for BK and probably to also keep his family in check

Princess Iron Fan says herself that carrying and giving birth to this child gave her a lot of pain, toppled with the fact that her husband doesn't really look at her anymore and pretends he doesn't know about Red Boy's origin and just overall keeps his distance. They still had a good relationship though as father and son

She still loved Red Boy very much and raised her like a son

"I ordered you to raise a child, but I did not ask you to be a true mother. Let the boy stir his trouble; as long as you and your husband stay out of it, you will be safe."

From Princess Rakshasi journal entry

Princess Iron Fan mentions that if the truth about Red Boy's origin gets exposed, the whole family is doomed. so yeah imo that's another thing pointing towards the court trying to control BK

This is also where Furnace Boy says that when Red Boy grows up, he is the living proof of the genocide that the Mount Lingshan committed ("He will be living proof... of the dark deeds of Mount Lingshan..")

TL;DR Western heaven destroyed the Yaksha and Rakshasa Kingdom, Eastern Heaven swooped in to claim the soul of the last Yaksha royal as blackmail material

BK has a fox lover, with him he conceives a child too: Pingping. We love Pingping, she has never done anything wrong in her life. We never meet the "real" Pingping in the game rip

Gang arrives, SWK wants to borrow the Iron Fan to get rid of the fire (his fault they rained down there btw LOL)

Princess Iron Fan was ready to hand out cause she knows if she doesn't there will be problem

Bull King cannot decide whose side to pick, which I guess demonstrate his indecision here, and also no choice is still a choice, which in turn turns into a bad one in this case here

Red Boy says no fuck that you can't have it. gets his ass beaten by monkey, and is then sent to be a disciple under Guanyin along with Black bear guai

Princess Iron Fan seeing her sweet sweet boy beaten refuses to hand out the fan now, gets attacked by the King.

The fox mistress is killed by Zhu Bajie

SWK tells him he should find a master to serve

BK pissed at how his wife and mistress were treated, lashes out.

Heavenly Court gets involved in the battle, Nezha subdues BK and beheads BK but don't worry he is not dead

BK is taken to heaven, converts to buddhism, serves heaven and then returns home

Pingping lives with Princess Iron Fan

enter the happy family era

From that day on, the Bull King's temperament changed drastically. His former wild and unrestrained nature was no longer seen. He declined all invitations, ceased his travels, and instead stayed in Flaming Mountains, helping Rakshasi with household affairs and training the bull soldiers, living a very peaceful life.

Bull King journal entry

red boy then also returns from Guanyin and they live happily together as a family of four for some time being

The he get summoned by the court to fight against SWK. by that tiem SWK has already attained buddahood, realized it's not for him and went back to Mt Huaguo. The heaven was not happy about that

SWK warns BK to not absorb the artifact, because that will fuck him up.

BK swallows the artifact, becomes depressed

At some point Red Boy also learns the truth about his origin, and demands the BK give him the artifact so he can take revenge on Heaven and avenge his bloodline

BK refuses

Red Boy wages war against BK

he also knocks out Pingping so he can take her form to mess with SWK and get the artifact from BK

and then pretty much everything from Chapter 5 happens, Red Boy's army fighting against BK's Army. BK himself is sitting depressed on the mouintain, injured and looking very skinny. We defeat Red Boy, BK spits out the artifact, Red Boy was not defeated and gets the artifact and aborbs it, turning into the Yaksha King

MEANWHILE our QUEEN Rakshasi tries to get help from her master and Buddha to stop the fight between father and son

she went to her master TSLJ, who is a dick and said. just let them do whatever, didn't ask you to raise the kid as your own son anyway. You just needed to give birth

she knows her son well and knows that the only way the siege would end is if he would die

Then goes to Mt Lingshan, to get revenge, carrying her fan, but she was not able to get revenge and is laughed at by everyone

A booming laughter echoed, deafening. Within that laughter, she heard the cries of an infant, the innocent giggles of a child, the roars of an adolescent, and the cycle of blooming and withering flowers, the growth of grass and the flight of orioles over millennia. She heard the embers extinguishing in the Flaming Mountains.

From her journal entry

so she senses that her son lost the battle or is close to death, so she rushes back home, like the fantastic mom she is

You can watch the cutscene here starting at 28:30 - highly recommend watching it to the end

She is begging DO to spare her son's life, and in return, she and her whole family will go into secluded meditation (exile?) and he can have her fan

Red Boy, refusing to be shackled and chained again, kills himself the same way the Yaksha King killed himself

we still get to keep the iron fan LOL

My thoughts and rambling: This whole family story is one fucking tragedy after another. Princess Raskshasi / Iron Fan, who lost her kingdom, moved east and then was used as a pawn by her master. Firstly wed to the Bull King and then forced to give birth to Red Boy - and suffered much pain carrying giving birth to Red Boy. It's never explained why her master set her up to marry the Bull King, but given how everyone in the famils is used as chest pieces, I strongly assume it is also a way to control BK.

Unconfirmed but this is the timeline I pieces together in TL;DR

SWK jumps out of the furnace

Princess Iron Fan follows Furnace Boy to the mortal realm. Is set up to marry Bull King

Bull King aids SWK in fight against the Court

SWK loses against Buddha of the West, is buried under the mountain

Princess Iron Fan has to drink the pregnancy water and gives birth to Red Boy

They used his wife as punishment for his action

While it doesn't sounds like it is a marriage out of love (which, to be fair not a lot of marriages back then were), I do think that both Bull King and Princess Iron greatly cared for each other. I'd say even boldly that Princess Iron Fan cared more LOL because Bull king had a mistress with whom he had a child. It can be argues that because he knows Red Boy is not his, he seek solace in the arms of another woman (and then has another child with her.

Princess Iron Fan has like every reason to turn into an evil stepmother or bitter woman, but she didn't.

Bull king has never made a right choice in his life, according to SWK

SWK and BK vs the Court

SWK and the court vs BK

the court and BK vs SWK

And the Red Boy... last of his lineage and used as a pawn by the court. Also interesting to note that in his design, he looks half "human" half bull, with his lower half being the bull part.

Overall another tragic love story in BMW.

And that's it from me, thank you for reading!

[szynkaaa]

✦ szynkaaa's masterlist ✦

Last updated: 28/10/2024

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Black Myth Wukong

Black Myth Wukong tag ✦ Original Character

Black Myth Rambling ✦ lore, musing, rambling and screenshots about the game

✦ BMW Journal Entries: What happened to the FFM monkeys after SWK died ✦ BMW Journal Entries: Sun Wukong's Golden Armor Pieces ✦ The Three Tigers from Chapter 3 ✦ Bull King, Princess Rakshasi and Red Boy: A Tragedy ✦ Who is the Old Monkey ✦ BMW Journal Entries: The Three Tigers from ch. 2 ✦ The (tragic) Love Stories in BMW ✦ How tall is the Destined One / Sun Wukong in BMW? ✦ Height difference PingPing vs the Destined One ✦ Not BMW but SWK is great with kids in this comic ✦ Headcanon that DO/SWK drew all the achievement icon ✦ The one armor that shows a bit of his chest fur (we have been robbed) ✦ DO/SWK has a chipped left tooth (and so does the Stone Monkey transformation) ✦ DO/SWK has one non-circular pupil and also two moles on his neck ✦ Normal Ending credit song + what happens to the DO in the normal ending ✦ 4th Spider very likely married to the previous Destined One (reddit comment) ✦ Also this reddit comment about the 4th spider sister ✦ Monkey wearing shoes ✦ Destined One looking terrified and running away (the only time he is emoting in the game) ✦ Black Myth Wukong Official Mooncake

Black Myth: Wukong Screenshot Collection

Shen Monkey

Not My Circus, But Unfortunately That Is My Monkey ✦ the Destined One/Sun Wukong x Original Character fanfic

AO3 link ✦ ch. 01 ✦ ch. 02 ✦ ch. 03

Monkey See, Monkey Do ✦ Destined One x Original Character Modern!AU

Miscallenous

Animal Crossing ✦ Assassin's Creed ✦ Bucky Barnes ✦ Caravel/OUABH ✦ Chainsaw Man ✦ Demon Slayer ✦ Dishonored ✦ Dungeon Meshi ✦ Final Fantasy 7 ✦ Final Fantasy 14 ✦ Final Fantasy 15 ✦ Genshin Impact ✦ MARVEL ✦ Mass Effect ✦ MDZS ✦ One Piece ✦ Pokemon ✦ Star Wars ✦ Taylor Swift ✦ The Boy (Brahms Heelshire) ✦ TGCF ✦ Twisted Wonderland ✦ SVSSS

[szynkaaa]

Black Myth: Wukong Journal Entries Part 2

Part 1 talks about what happened to the monkeys from Mount Huaguo after SWK died

Part 2 will be about the bosses you fight in chapter 6 to get the Golden Suozi armor parts, I will be linking back to the fandom wiki for the full journal entries and some videos. I highly recommend reading the articles in full because it also talks about what kind of person Sun Wukong is/was.

Sun Wukong's armor were scattered around Mt. Huaguo and turned into creatures after he died.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert in JTTW, a lot of things are drawn up from my own conclusion.

Long text so everything is under cut!

Gold Armored Rhino

SWK has a heart of gold, lungs of silver, head of copper and iron body from being in the Furnace for 40 days

Can still feep pain when injured though

was fed iron pellet and moletn copper by mountain deities and keepers when he was buried under Five-Element Mountain for 500 years

his monkeys didn't visit him :(

also headband curse so tight his head would resmeble a gourd ouch

Golden Armored Rhino mirrors the Great Sage's indomitable spirit, never yielding to defeat

"[...] Even if its horn was shattered, it never lost the resolve to charge into battle, standing resolute and read to fight anew.

In the game, you have to shatter his horn with heavy attacks in order to be able to do a lot of damage, but the horn grows back after few seconds, so it's rise and repeat. Also the location of the armor is littered with dead soldier bodies. After the fight ZBJ says that the bosses were killing the soldiers because the soldiers were trying to get the armor pieces. Dialogue starts at 4:22

Cloudtreading Deer

Sommersault Cloud made Wukong's body invulnerable and movement agile, but his lack of patience would lead to trouble

this whole paragraph: "Immortals often say that Sun Wukong was at his most mischievous and ruthless when he was the Monkey King. Yet, during that time, aside from his battles with the Celestial Court, he rarely harmed other beings. It was only after he became a disciple, following his master and gaining direction, that he developed many thunderous methods. Stealing, robbing, kidnapping, killing, arson, and destroying mountains and caves—all became second nature to him."

Cloudtreading Deer is transformed from his Lotus Silk Cloudtreaders (the things protecting his legs)

represents both sides of his nature: free-spirited and agile nature and his inherent ferocity

Cloudtreading Deer battle has two phases, the first one where it casts stupid tornados and also moves around very fast and through the sky. I fucking hated that phase LMFAO. Second phase was easier, but also spooky the boss turns into some blood deer and it's giving me massive bloodborne vibes. Transformation starts at 8:10 in the video. Basically, phase 1 is the free spirited and agile nature of wukong, and phase 2 is his ruthleness and ferocity

Feng-Tail General

Learned human manners and speech during his travels and when he studied Dao at Mt. Lingtai

"When he left in a huff at Yingchou Stream, the Old Loong King reasoned with him, and he returned to admit his mistakes. He abandoned arbitrary actions and always heeded sound advice." -> Before they met the White Dragon horse at the Yingchou stream, Tripitaka and SWK were ambushed by bandits, and SWK killed them all, to which Tripitaka was not happy about. They fought, SWK left. He then chats with the Old Loong King of the stream, who also told SWK that there was a White Dragon and his master might be in danger, so SWK goes back to Tripitaka. Also in his absence that's when Guanyin gave Tripitaka the headband to be put onto SWK

"He forged brotherly bonds with yaoguais, engaged in jest with immortals, and exchanged banter with Bodhisattvas. His amiable nature endeared him to all, who were ever willing to offer their assistance. He had a sense of decorum and propriety." -> not much for me to add there, he becomes sworn brothers with few yaoguai, like the Bull King or Erlang Shen

"He had the ability to summon wind and rain and could seek out loongs. He could transform into guais for scouting or borrow vessels when needed. In times of trouble, he sought the aid of higher beings, seldom relying on brute force."

-> truth lol, like the amount of times he had to get help from other deities to beat up an enemy and save his master

"This Feng-Tail General, with multiple eyes on his head, had a keen understanding of both himself and his enemies. He was adept at leaping and dodging, avoiding powerful foes whenever possible, and displayed a touch of the monkey's cleverness. It's no wonder that the crown on the monkey's head grasped his nimble thoughts so well."

This is the only boss you didn't have to fight, I saw it more as a stamina / health test to test your built lol. Basically what you have to do in the game is jump onto it's head and hold onto the antenna while the grasshopper is jumping three times, and then pull the antennas out while not getting burned. And yeah in the map he is just leaping and jumping around. Honestly not even sure if you can try to fight it, I didn't bother to find out.

Emeral-Armed Mantis

"Tang Monk often advocated for kindness, while Sun Wukong was known for his punishment of evil."

"At Kui-Mu Wolf's abode, upon learning of the princess's suffering and her reluctance to leave due to her feelings for the yaoguai and children bore for him, Sun Wukong ordered Bajie to throw the yaoguai's children from the height, reducing them to two lumps of flesh." -> Referencing the arc in ch. 38-31 in JTTW, the Yellow Robe Demon, also known as Kuimulang (will abbreviate as KML). KML is one of the 28 constellations, and he had a lover. in JTTW she was reincarnated as a princess, gets kidnapped by KML, married for 13 years and they have two kids. It's those two kids where SWK orders ZBJ to throw them off.

"At Old Yang's house, after learning of the unfilial deeds of the old couple's son and seeing how they indulged him for the sake of incense offerings, he proceeded to behead the son despite Old Yang's pleas." -> Ch. 52 in JTTW, screenshot taken from here

"Sun Wukong's nature was to show no mercy to villains and evildoers; he delighted in eradicating evils and yaoguais. The numerous blood debts on the journey to the West, though each had its reasons, were mostly attributed to the monkey.

The world knew of the other three pieces of armor, but they were unaware that the mantis was actually transformed from the Great Sage's gauntlet. It seems the gauntlet inherited the Great Sage's ruthlessness, for it played tricks on Zhu Bajie with the same cunning."

The last bit refers to when ZBJ was trying to catch the mantis but it jumped into his mouth down his throat into his stomach instead and the DO had to go inside his mouth to fight the mantis.

The first half of the battle is super easy imo but then after you cut down certain % of his HP, the mantis gets a lot more aggressive. While the mantis was inside ZBJ stomach, it is cutting on its wall, hence ZBJ is doubling over in pain. So I guess this refers to how ruthless SWK can be

[szynkaaa]

ok I've finally start reading the Black Myth Wukong journal entries and bookmarked the entries that I find interesting, or Mount Huaguo or the Destined One is mentioned

I will sum up some of the entries in a separate post the next coming days!