#asdfaaew SO OBVIOUSLY this is a very rich text with a LOT going on

[sketching-shark]

Starting Journey to the West assuming its the story about a silly goofy monkey going on monster-of-the-week adventures with his friends:

Reading about Sun "was-definitely-a-warlord" Wukong smashing the upteenth person's head into a meat patty but a few chapters in:

#come for the silliness stay for the gore lol #journey to the west #jttw #xiyouji #sun wukong #monkey king #asdfaaew SO OBVIOUSLY this is a very rich text with a LOT going on #hence why any footnotes provided are critical for understanding a lot of the cultural historical and even environmental context #but coming at it from a western perspective #it IS kind of wild just how much the silly goofy side of swk's character has come to dominate understandings about this monkey #whereas you really don't see many western representations that emphasize the cunning & ruthless & ultraviolent aspects #anyway I'm not surprised that there's numerous people who've been left shocked at just how violent og classic JTTW is #looking at the story from popular retellings gives you a VERY different impression of what the og is like