#but Zhu Bajie was supposed to be a human but was born from a Pig’s Womb

[i-am-a-fan]

Are we saying that pig demons eat pork but bull demons do not eat beef? (Looking forward to the next part of that comic).

Yeah!

I’m basing them more off of what their animal counterparts do naturally.

Pigs/Boars have cannibalistic tendencies and are omnivores. So, I feel like it’s more common for Pig demons to eat pork.

And while the Bull family are different from normal cows in that they eat meat, I like to think that they feel like it’s barbaric to eat members of their group.

[quitealotofsodapop]

Next area is 5.5/7: Qingzhuo Palace & the Hanging Temple.

Guanyin teleports the gang to Qingzhuo Palace, a floating island where Hundun once had some major beef with dragons. Quanyin explains that they def have an idea of how to kick Hundun's butt. "Qingzhuo" is also a reference to Lake Qinghai - the "Western Sea" of which the Western Dragon governs. Making the actual kingdom in the sky makes a lot of sense seeing how the saltwater lake itself is only 108 feet deep - compared to big bros Ao Shun/Ming's Northern Sea; Lake Baikal being 5,387 feet deep. Also irl the Western Sea has been a super-popular horse tourism area since before JTTW was written.

HUNDUN LORE. He ain't the only Great Peril bumping around. "The Four" are clearly meant to be The Four Perils of Chinese mythos. Hundun (Chaos), Qiongqi (Deviousness), Taowu (Ignorance), and Taotie (Gluttony). Clearly the dragons fought back and won.

Apparently the dragons deliberately built the floating islands so that the dragons could fight the floating jerk on even ground. I first thought "Shunwang" referred to Ao Shun - but apparently he's a human guy.

More Lore:

Huyangdi? Like the Yellow Emperor? Did the dragons seek out immortality as a means of lasting out the threat of the Perils? The inclusion of the Talisman Soldiers suggest that all this havoc started after Dasheng was sealed away.

Both the lads start breathing heavily after a certain elevation due to the air thinning. Just a cool detail.

More lore! Looks like Shunwang teamed up with another guy called Ganglong (translator says it means "Darkgreen Dragon" one of the psuedes for the Azure Dragon - major dragon god) for the job;

Zhu Bajie swears more openly now that the kids aren't around. He also takes one look at the dragons' palace and thinks "loot" >:3.

The vessel where the dragons' "secret weapon" is kept resembles a; Ding, a sacrificial bronze vessel. Interestingly one of the Perils, Taotie, is said to have one of these vessels for a head.

The secret weapon is a Dragon Pearl - it nullifies Hundun's power-sapping. Also the instructions make me think of the Memory Scroll from LMK. Literally just three lines that say "take it before battle. gl lol".

Dasheng does Not Like the Pearl - it apparently stinks to high Heaven. Zhu Bajie thinks it smells good though. Maybe it's ambergris?

More Lore + some boss fight forshadowing. Apparently "Canglong" is a Monster Huner boss.

Oh damn thats actually the Azure Dragon. I though we were meeting Ao Lie this chapter, but nah we seeing The Big Dragon. No wonder the perils got their asses beat.

The dragon refers to the lads as "A cursed monkey, and a fallen General" - accurate but a little rude. Dasheng also calls Zhu Bajie by his actual name before the boss battle and gears up like they're taking the dragon on as a team - and the pig immediately disapates into a fly for the rest of the battle. Typical.

Yup, the big blue guy is our Falcor. Narrative doesn't make it clear of he's supposed to be "Shunwang" or "Canglong".

Next area is the "Hanging Temple" and its a lot of Boss Fights.

Wait... since Dasheng got released early; is Ao Lie even born yet!?

Currently watching the "Monkey King: Hero is Back" PS4 game in a longplay.

Not sure how I feel about the british voice acting, but Pigsy being brummie just feels right.

The intro fairytale of the game makes no reference to the Bimawen stuff, nor if Dasheng faced the Furnace - so it is likely that these are details not known by humanity. After all, why would they know?

His prison is also described as being "a cold crystal", giving me LMK Bone Demon vibes.

Will comment more as I continue watching.