Another really interesting mythological figure is Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, from Journey To The West. He’s kind of on the border between mythology and fiction. Like Superman. Sun Wukong is a leader and he is a tyrant, but he’s a very unusual case of both.
The monkeys of Flower Fruit Mountain decided to make Sun Wukong their kong because he was the bravest monkey. They all collectively decided on a challenge that whoever did it would be king, and Sun Wukong did it. Being the Monkey King is a ceremonial title for the most part. Sun Wukong does try to teach the monkeys warfare a few times, and it never goes well, because the monkeys are inherently chaotic and therefore bad at following orders. They’re not actually a society in the way that humans are, they’re just pretending to be a kingdom for fun.
When Sun Wukong gets bored of being the Monkey King, he decides to go to heaven and demand a fancy royal title from the Jade Emperor. This does not go well, and Monkey ends up beating up all the gods until the Buddha finally puts him in his place. Monkey is explicitly doing violence on people with the goal of dominating them into granting him a royal title. But the thing is, Monkey is shallow and he only cares about getting a fancy name. He doesn’t want any responsibility and the only power he wants is to be immortal and good at martial arts. (This is where most of Goku’s personality comes from).
Sun Wukong is tyrannical and he is technically a leader, but calling him an authoritarian tyrant is completely misleading. He’s chaotic neutral. He only really wants to be the Monkey King so he can call himself the Monkey King. He doesn’t want to oppress anybody. He’s very different to characters like Zeus or Odin. He has a lot more in common with Loki or Dionysus, though with a focus on physical power as opposed to trickery or magic.
Another really interesting mythological figure is Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, from Journey To The West. He’s kind of on the border between mythology and fiction. Like Superman. Sun Wukong is a leader and he is a tyrant, but he’s a very unusual case of both.
The monkeys of Flower Fruit Mountain decided to make Sun Wukong their kong because he was the bravest monkey. They all collectively decided on a challenge that whoever did it would be king, and Sun Wukong did it. Being the Monkey King is a ceremonial title for the most part. Sun Wukong does try to teach the monkeys warfare a few times, and it never goes well, because the monkeys are inherently chaotic and therefore bad at following orders. They’re not actually a society in the way that humans are, they’re just pretending to be a kingdom for fun.
When Sun Wukong gets bored of being the Monkey King, he decides to go to heaven and demand a fancy royal title from the Jade Emperor. This does not go well, and Monkey ends up beating up all the gods until the Buddha finally puts him in his place. Monkey is explicitly doing violence on people with the goal of dominating them into granting him a royal title. But the thing is, Monkey is shallow and he only cares about getting a fancy name. He doesn’t want any responsibility and the only power he wants is to be immortal and good at martial arts. (This is where most of Goku’s personality comes from).
Sun Wukong is tyrannical and he is technically a leader, but calling him an authoritarian tyrant is completely misleading. He’s chaotic neutral. He only really wants to be the Monkey King so he can call himself the Monkey King. He doesn’t want to oppress anybody. He’s very different to characters like Zeus or Odin. He has a lot more in common with Loki or Dionysus, though with a focus on physical power as opposed to trickery or magic.