#og classic scariest grandpa on earth swk ily

[sketching-shark]

I've run across a number of posts saying that there's currently an annoying trend in the JTTW and JTTW-adjacent fandom of writers & artists framing Sun Wukong as the Worst Person Ever for killing people as part of his acts of defending himself and/or his loved ones. And while I do think that is indeed annoying if true, I do also know that there is a precedent for that (see Tang Sanzang yelling at Sun Wukong & headband torturing him for killing bandits when he could have scared them away instead).

That said, one key feature which I'm guessing isn't present in a lot of fandom works that is in the og classic is the Monkey King both A) starting off a lot of the conflicts by trying to work out something more peaceful and then when that doesn't work B) showing off how immortal and indestructible he is before he gets to the killing.

In Xiyouji he's constantly making deals with everyone from powerful yaoguai like the Iron Fan Princess to just run-of-the-mill human bandits that they can try to murder him as much as they please, but if he survives then they have to give in to his demands. That, or he gets to fight and/or try to murder them in turn.

And they do! They try their damnedest to murder him! And all the while he just stands there taking and being unbothered by every blow and sometimes even joking about the situation.

Honestly kind of reminds me of the fight between Ushio and Hakumen no Mono in Ushio to Tora, in which even this kid's best shot wasn't even half as powerful as it needed to be to so much as scratch the monster.

Anyway, point of this post being that if one has one's heart set on making a piece of JTTW-inspired art that wants to stick with framing SWK as the ultimate a-hole for killing people who tried to kill him and/or his loved ones, I think you could make a really, really terrifying Monkey King by going back to the basics of a guy who is pretty much guaranteed to shrug off someone's best shot to murder him and then whether they survive or not is on his whim.