The Hidden Lore In Black Myth Wukong

[@ExeC-td1ms]

You know I'm lowkey proud you've gotten this far in the 100 day challenge. Keep going big guy.

[@arowe7]

Big literally and figuratively!

[@gektoast4968]

@@arowe7you don’t gotta do him like that 😢

[@bagmanbeartv]

I bet your bigger ​@@arowe7

[@ozziey52]

@@arowe7dumb comment

[@k2geekd]

@@arowe7corny

[@puertea2537]

Hey, Chinese here. Let me share some of my thoughts on how Buddhism/Taoism is portrayed in Journey to the West. Just a reminder, this is strictly about the setting of Journey to the West and Black Myth: Wukong, not the actual religions. I received some messages before about how Buddhism was wrongly represented, so I just wanted to clarify that. In Journey to the West, being powerful doesn’t directly translate to being a god in the Celestial Court or a Buddha in the West. In fact, many Guais are more powerful than many of the gods in the Celestial Court. So think of it as a title. Guais with powers want to become part of the Celestial Court or the West (Buddhism side) mainly because they can get the heavenly peaches from the Celestial Court, which extends their lives by hundreds to thousands of years. In Black Myth: Wukong, the elixir of life or anything with similar effects (life extension) is made from essence harvested from living creatures (except the heavenly peaches which we don't have access to anyway), which was showcased in chapter 4. In short, the higher powers control the distribution of essence (life) and do not allow ordinary Guais to develop/harvest on their own. This is where I think the devs truly captured the core theme of the original Journey to the West, really fantastic job. For Guais that wish to obtain that title, they have to create some chaos to showcase their power so that they get some God's or Budhdha's attention from the Celestial Court or the West. Then they need to showcase that they are willing to comply with the higher power. It is the reason why Wukong said "Find a master and serve the right" in the ending animation in Chapter 5 to his brother who doesn't want to comply. That didn't work out so his bro got decapitated many times and was forced to comply eventually - similar things happened MANY times in other places in Journey to the West. And being a God or Buddha doesn't necessarily mean you are a very nice person/guai and want to do good, it's just a gateway ticket to becoming "immortal". Suppose you don't have any backing (powerful masters or relatives), you'll have to act well to your upper-level gods, comply with every order with no personal feelings, read the room, and be smart about any situation. If you are lucky, someone who's higher level than you made a mistake and got dismissed from the celestial court, you might be selected to replace him. Chen loong, Yin Tiger, Xu Dog didn't do exactly that so they got banished. The Heavenly King with a Pagoda in Hand(Li Jing) and his son Ne Zha did what the boss wanted and they got promoted. So in some ways, the world in the Journal to the West and Blackmyth: Wukong is much closer to the world that we live in. And for people who are like, "Nah, you’re overthinking it", just know that it’s one of the TOP 4 novels in thousands of years of China’s history - so probably 4 out of hundreds of thousands or more. So it’s not going to be something like a family-friendly action anime that’s just about friendship, love, and fighting monsters. It’s about political structures, revealing class oppression, and showing how little an ordinary person or even powerful guais can do against the system.

[@lijewy]

Journey to the West is a novel. a critic of its contemporary time. It's not a revelation book. I think it's closer to ancient mythology in Western Eurasia. Just want to know your readers are aware of this.

[@imarock.7662]

​@@lijewy💯

[@Subarashi917]

W bro

[@masua01]

He doesn't read comments.

[@masua01]

@@Toxicbrr I must be no one

[@-TheRealAnimeFan-]

Lore drop videos are like book club I love it

[@TheBlackBuddha]

Power to you for taking a break after finishing a big game and doing nore tame sutff till sparking zero

[@h365h]

A few minor mistakes - Yin Tiger basically means Tiger . Yin here means the third earthly branch but the two words used jointly to mean the year of Tiger. - Non Void is the same character in the chapter 2 ending anime but he was not a young monk but a young scholar. He later turned to Buddhism.

[@TiceverndNoclentis]

yep, it's 寅("yin" with second tone)虎，not 阴("yin" with first tone, as opposed to "yang")虎

[@UmbraKloud]

Hell yeah, language lesson

[@Jascosaurus]

Also the white fox guai was yes a Yao Gui the point of her story was the idea not all guais are bad and judging like that is bad

[@kexinzhu1104]

One more: Chief Macaque is not one of the Seven Sages. In the novel, he was once a general under Sun Wukong. The Bull King in Chapter 5 is one of the Seven Sages. He is almost as powerful as Wukong. During the journey, he was almost the only one who allowed Wukong to use with all one's strength

[@hisousihou]

32:00 It's definitely a shame. From the Chinese perspective, if you know the names of Tang Monk's four disciples, the character connections in the game become very clear. But for English speakers, not only might they be unfamiliar with the story’s background, but the puns and wordplay in the names are also completely lost in translation. They may have to rely on commentary videos to catch that detail.

[@齐智鹏-g4z]

12地支：子(Zi)、丑(Chou)、寅(Yin)、卯(Mao)、辰(Chen)、巳(Si)、午(Wu)、未(Wei)、申(Shen)、酉(You)、戌(Xu)、亥(Hai)，对应24时辰的23:00-1:00，1:00-3:00以此类推。 12地支具象化代表的12种动物：鼠、牛、虎、兔、龙、蛇、马、羊、猴、鸡、狗、猪，如果你是00年出生，你的属性就是龙，01年就是蛇以此类推。

[@tytar1037]

I can tell you love your dog. My little guy is 12 years old and completely deaf. I’ve had him my entire adult life. He’s my best friend and my first baby. I don’t care if it’s cringe.

[@etwon1408]

Bro that’s not cringe at all, sounds like you really love that dog and it loves you.

[@MinhLe-xc5ld]

I just realized why when you transform into the Yin Tiger in Erlang's fight, he said "Kneel before Sacred Divinity"

[@BudokaiTH]

I'm glad that this guy, Bandit is doing an explanation for these chapters. Can't wait till he does Ch.4 and the rest.

[@ellenkuang8853]

Hey! Just saw this video. FYI, there IS actually something with the relic. The chinese name of the relic's mythological animal is called "屁", which literally translates to "fart" but is also slang for "bullshit". So it's kinda funny because the relic that Yellow Brow has had all time this essentially calls bullshit on all of his actions.

[@BruceWayne-nx3pr]

There is a mistake in the video. The Yin (寅) in Yin Tiger (寅虎) does not refer to Yin (阴) as in Yin and Yang (阴阳). In Chinese mythology the 12 zodiac animals are paired with 12 divisions of a day-night cycle. Yin (寅) in Yin Tiger refers to the 3rd division, which is 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. The same applies to other deities in the zodiac village as well. Chen (辰) in Chen Loong (辰龙) refers to the 5th division, which is 8 a.m. to 10 a m., Xu(戌) in Xu Dog refers to the 11th division, 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Shen (申) in Shen Monkey refers to the 9th division, 4 p.m to 6 p.m. The characters proceeding the animals are also used to designate years. If you're familiar with the year of Chinese zodiac animals, for example 2024 is the year of Dragon, in Chinese tradition it is designated as the year of 甲辰 (Jia Chen), the 2nd character 辰 (Chen), the same Chen in Chen Loong, represents Dragon, or Loong, whereas the first character 甲 (Jia) is of another decimal system with the similar function as A in the alphabet, supposing the alphabet has only 10 letters, and the letters are used for counting or ranking only, not spelling.

[@vuthai4785]

In Vietnam, our Tiger hour is from 3 - 5 am, Dragon hour from 7 to 9 am, the Horse hour is from 11 - 1 pm,

[@ozziey52]

Ok yap

[@VC4HSIA]

@@vuthai4785 in China too，He made a little mistake

[@duskyer]

Yesssss. I been wanting to watch these. I hope he does them all.

[@Ironhide16]

Being multiple year long fans of bandit and Afro, this crossover is the one I didn’t know I needed

[@leykhins]

Being a Buddha in reality has no powers. It is that you have reached enlightenment, which means you understand the world, youve freed yourself from strife (which is technically why wukong is reliving his life as a choosen one, because humans will continue to reincarnate until you reach enlightenment). Thats my understanding of it anyway.

[@lijewy]

I think the main point of Buddhism is the understanding of the five aggregates or the illusionary self. The five are form, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. (The five relics in Black Myth are related to form - rupa: sight, touch, sound, taste, and smell). Through the eightfold noble path you can achieve Buddhahood. They are right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. I assume right refer to be in accordance with the realization that life is an illusion of the five aggregates. So if you live in knowledge and in deeds with the reality that the five aggregates are at the core of your self then you're enlightened or a buddha. IMHO.

[@sws212]

Within JOTW, Chinese Buddhism has connections with the Dao from Taoist which strives to understand the universe and deepen that connection even if you've freed yourself from the universe and its worldly bond. You cannot die because you're no longer attached to the rules of universe but you also have a deeper understanding of the world because you are no longer bond by any of it's rules as if you're no longer a patient but rather the surgeon with knowledge of how the universe works. There's nothing you can't do as a Buddha because you're a being outside its chains of the universe and free to shape it from outside vs within. Imagine Neo from Matrix 1 near the end when he saw the code of the matrix and just focuses on manipulating the fabric of the matrix vs whatever the nonsense happen in Matrix 2/3.

[@wymmyw8744]

i kinda think that wukong in the intro is actually the six-eared macaque.. there's a video explaining the relationship between the two. "Are Sun Wukong and the Six Eared Macaque brothers? It's complicated." RV Sketch channel. that six-eared macaque is actually the manifestation of wukong's six senses.. not a monkey with six ears.. when six eared macaque appeared in the original JTTW, the truth revealing mirror can't differentiate the two.. and tatagatha Buddha said that six eared macaque and wukong are like two sides of a coin.. so, i think the real wukong ascended to nirvana, leaving behind his last worldly attachment which is his immortality, and divine empty shell and senses manifested into being once again (reviving six-eared macaque or wukong's evil self).. if this is true, then i can speculate that the next 2 DLC, the destined one would be fighting nezha and lijing (people said nezha would rebel, but nezha is the patron deity of filial piety), and then wreck the heavenly court, and the final boss would be the "ever-victorious fighting Buddha" or the real sun wukong..

[@xlyoutube]

Regarding Buddhism vs the Game/Myth: the source material JTTW is on some level a political satire back in the 1500s. It uses Buddhist concepts but not necessarily staying true to the actual religion. In the book as well as the game, The Celestial Court and Lingshan (Buddha's HQ) each has their own self-serving motives and each used minor deities, yaoguais, mortals etc as pawns for their own gain, with little regard to the suffering of the "lower realms". So Wukong's journey is one that rebels against the cruelty and suppression and one that values freedom and humanity above "immortality" and merits.

[@broccolijensen1273]

Yes Brodie, collab should be in the works

[@ShinigamiKenReacts]

Afro is about to pull up on bandit for the collab like "my brother (todo voice)"

[@ahkilleuskosmos6836]

Another really cool part the Black Myth Wukong devs did for the Non-White, Void, Able, and Pure disciples is that they made them all basically complete opposites of their normal counterparts. Non-White was ugly and envious, meanwhile White Dragon Horse was an actual prince of the seas who was exceptionally handsome and was the envy of many. Non-Void was very physically weak and eternally plagued by mortal emotions like fear, meanwhile Sun Wukong was physically incredibly powerful and since he is a stone monkey is pretty much born untethered to things like fear. Non-Able was extremely hard-working, and exceptionally intelligent, meanwhile Zhu Bajie was generally rather lazy, and is constantly referred to by Wukong as "idiot". Non-Pure was incredibly lazy, and decadent, meanwhile Sha Wujing was incredibly hardworking, being the one to always carry all the group's luggage, and almost never really express want for anything the entire story.

[@nicolashenriquez3967]

you made me love this game more than I thought I could, thnx afrooo

[@luism007]

Wukong doesn't need the GOTY after breaking so many records and 95% good feedback from millions of players. The GOTY needs to be Wukong's to maintain its credibility.

[@tekken425]

During my run, i had a feeling Yellowbrow wanted me to kill a bunch once i got the transformation so i just decided to run past them lol XD

[@justinloja3987]

A collab idea would be having bandit explain the afrosenju lore and afro adding any tid bits of info throughout the video or something like that

[@CzyCat]

Hidden lore will never be surprising. I did NOT know that Sun Wukong wasn't the protagonist of Journey to The West

[@claudius3359]

Mans basically stealing the spotlight from the Tang monk. I mean,idk about other people,but I think it's kinda hilarious that the Tang monk basically goes on this typical family drama and then it all just goes downhill to the point he gotta babysit a crazy superpowered monkey. I mean there's some dragons involved when he wasn't born yet,but still-

[@StephenYoung1379]

He is. It's all about him from start to end

[@tzuki99]

I means from a story telling stand point, Wukong is the protagonist of the story. The story start with him, he's the one with the most screen time (I think), he's the one who solve most of the problem, he's the one who do most of the action and he is the one who get the most character development out of everybody from the group. Like compare chapter 1 Wukong to the end Wukong and you can see how much he grow. While the supposedly protagonist, his master Tang monk, only appear 7 chapter in after we had 7 dedicated chapter to Wukong's back story, doesn't actually do much in term of solving problem or actions, is mostly being the damsel in distress most of the time, and honestly doesn't really grow or develop much through out the story, he was monkly from start to finish with occasionally temptation here and there. I get that the author might have intended for Tang monk to be the protagonist but if you read the story or watch the show, from a purely technical view, Wukong is the protagonist.

[@Far2Sega4U]

Yeah thats Tripitaka, the character that Bulma (and Krillin and Cell) was based. What Toriyama basically did was swap the roles so he made Sun Wukong the main character and made Tripitaka the side character.

[@vuthai4785]

@@tzuki99 Like the hunter x hunter series, the character lines are fully exploited and anyone can be the main character, unlike naruto where the cover name is the main character.

[@JoeyZDX]

Just wanted to say, finished the game myself and was finally able to binge the anime. Great vids and what a great game

[@ash9424]

you should replay the game in a while! you continue to progress your character and unlock lots of new abilities and ways to play the game with different weapons and playstyles. currently on NG+3 and i've thoroughly enjoyed getting more and more OP while learning more of the lore

[@reteakxmi]

Don't get too worn out uncle we still sparking left

[@Neonfhfd]

U gotta be 11

[@whoisfresh_cpt]

Goku showing up in the Black Myth video is destiny lol

[@artificialol700]

Bro afro lowkey I want a podcast after hearing the discussion on twitter 😂❤

[@misterdinkleberg]

I was there a bit ago and I agree. So many gems in that discussion

[@lemillion182]

Ive said this everytime...I love this bro. Im enjoying this, n we gonna eat with the sparking zero. But...Ill still look out for a vid on space marine 2....

[@whoiskingnick4596]

He’s done one pal

[@uzumakinaruto07]

Really hope you do more of these kind of videos! I love learning the lore of games with Afro ❤

[@aubreyreed2474]

I have been watching Bandit for years!! If yall collab I'm watching EVERY EPISODE!

[@Laoruperteen18]

The ten tailed fish IS the Hubris Nose Relic that holds are part of Wukong, pay attention bruv! :D

[@ramollossthug3347]

I love these lore vids keep going Afro we’re behind your back

[@JirouMon9]

Since being persistent works.. Day 1 of asking Afro to make another “cooking with afro” filler episode. (That chicken video has me crying till today.. please.. redeem yourself afro. We’re not black failures😞)

[@morfealesteban8333]

for Non able, non white and the other fellows in Chinese, its pronounced as the same. So Non Void is also called 无空 Wukong，and the Monkey king is called 悟空 which is also Wukong. 悟 (Wu) is actually to be enlightened , and 无 (Wu) is non. So they are all basically the same name just different Chinese writing characters

[@unknownwifi6459]

Yo afro, how many days left of the daily upload?

[@eror5361]

Afro x Bandit collab is most definitely on my 2024-2025 bingo card MAKE IT HAPPEN

[@Dimensional_Peanut]

Collab idea between you two, afrosenju will start a new play and fight bosses and when he is fighting the boss the other youtuber(explainer) will explain the boss senju is fighting as fast as possible and senju will have to defeat the boss first before the explainer can explain the bosses lore and whoever does there job first gets 1 point. First to 10 points wins or you could put a timer and see how long it will take for senju to kill bosses and get to 10 points

[@dawsypoo123]

I watched the overly sarcastic productions “journey to the west” series, so chapter 5 was the only chapter I could make sense of.

[@whitegoat1089]

A little fun fact about the word "Void": it has 2 meanings depending on who you ask. Wukong got his name Learn Void from a Taoist immortal with Void as knowledge of nature easily ignored by mortals and can be learnt by harnessing the six senses. Tang Sanzang named the monkey Wukong with Void as knowledge not shown by the six senses. Wukong in the prologue of JTTW rebels against the Heavens because he believes himself who has honed his senses higher than any gods should be equal to Heaven. So his journey is to learn the deeper meanings behind everything observable, the Void in Buddhism. That said, Non-Void is non of the above. His senses are dull, he takes everything at face value and is just lost among his thoughts (represent be the pages scattered around his room).

[@JordanVaughn-g6z]

You should do a ng+ play through after you finish all the lore videos. The game will feel 100x better to you.

[@markoknezevic7792]

Afro please for the love of everything, finish the Bloodborne playthrough while you have time 😭😭

[@ATARAXIS_D_ROC]

Your dog Goku stole the show!!! So adorable!

[@jowaynenicholson4056]

Afro ngl you gotta finish this series after that.

[@joseabarca479]

Thank you king please continue it

[@arukana7761]

Well, if you want to collab with him, you could have it where when you are doing Soulsborne games or something, he can be the one to read the lore and so on to educate not just you but the audience as well. Granted, that's a tall ask but I think ya'll could make it work.

[@RabidJohn]

It's so long since I read Journey to the West that I no longer trust my memory, but I'm fairly certain Yellow Brow being the Boddisahtva's pet goldfish all along was the big reveal at the end of the chapter. It's a recurring theme, along with demons either trying to devour Tang Sang Zang to become immortal or have sex with him to corrupt his vow of celibacy.

[@collateralbeau]

Love the animal crossing background music in the intro😁 I literally forgot how calming it can be ❤️. Also love your content Afro you the 🐐 💪🏾❤️

[@amirloreilhe3833]

AFROSENJU YOU SHOULD WATCH A VIDEO SUMMARIZING THE JOURNEY TO THE WEST PS I AM A BIG FAN AN HV BEEN WATCHING UR VIDS FOR AROUND A YEAR

[@Yrome369xx]

Got goosebumps seeing Afro get a shoutout bro has came so long since that spaghetti video

[@chrisjulien7698]

Christ bless you, I can't wait for the rest of the chapters

[@meeddozz6069]

may i suggest on his next video you do the yellow loong part

[@BlacKKSmith1]

I want the collaboration no credit mic’s up matches straight content

[@i_am_dusky113]

I’m glad he followed the folded rule, when macaque is brought up you make macaque jokes 😂

[@ShadowNinjaDestiny]

There is so much lore. Really enjoyed this.

[@weizhang5826]

Oh i understand Kangjin long story differently. She respect Sun Wukong very much( might even has a crush on Wukong). She saved Wukong one time already in Journey to the west. Now she is searching for Wukong again and try to save wukong. But she was hypnotized in the bag, so she became the team of Huangmei😭😭👍

[@saleenasalam]

I thought Wukong was a legendary warrior, but it turns out he’s just a pro at parkour.

[@Yearman8]

A Bandit and Afro collab would be dope

[@naomikirisaki]

This is unnecessarily so wholesome. 😂🤌🏻

[@sippenx]

Coloab with the man.

[@meeshticcondria]

day 1 asking afro to bring back "PLAY MY SH*T!" as his intro

[@Nocommentlando]

Much respect from bandit we need a collaboration

[@mtmousehp]

Being a Buddah is when you reach enlightment (self understanding of everything is the universe) and you kinda let go of every miseries, free yourself of greed, anger, delusion. Basically you have no power eventhough you're very powerful (especially in East Asia, South East Asia mythology)

[@hi00118]

Even if the new dragonball game makes it so you can’t react to some of the new chapter videos on time I’d still want to see those reactions whenever you do have time to do them

[@Nazzimz]

im on the last chapter so is nice to see this before i finish wukong

[@albertcadgame8314]

wow .. is that an arcade machine in your room, very cool, bro !!!

[@sevendude-xk3qh]

Sup afro, love your vids I just got the game myself. Taking notes from your play through

[@frankfeng7408]

At its core, games are about immersion and positive feedback, fun enough. Wukong gave all these to me. GOTY for me.

[@stigma9284]

Congrats on 2mil Afro here sense 500k

[@yeetacusfish8421]

Day 4 of asking for cooking with afro

[@nickblack1030]

PLEASE KEEP THIS SERIES

[@Shini1171]

Honestly i'd watch a laid back bing chillin 100 days of Afro doing nothing but talk about random shit videos.

[@Luisthegrease]

Let’s gooooooo please finish this series

[@Ifrit_Alucard]

Afro the giant fish is the relic of son wukong

[@RayManSS]

Senju, please. If you don't remember some of the bosses, then that means we just have to do it all over again 😂😂 hell yeah

[@RayManSS]

Wukong series ×2

[@tarakii__4535]

Hey Afro, Celsius drinks are bad for your stomach lining. Be safe homie

[@jaqblaq776]

Collab a Afro lore dive lmao

[@cameronwill7026]

You have to let him do the intro for sparking zero arc

[@vagabondgamur1279]

I noticed a connection between Black Myth WoKung Lore and Naruto Shippuden Lore. I never knew that was what the Ten Tails was supposed to be. A Chinese Heluo Fish. It is the only one who can change forms into a humanoid form.

[@ashtonparker257]

A blossoming friendship!❤

[@Far2Sega4U]

Yeeesssss, I was waiting for you to watch it specifically lets gooo

[@espada9000]

Stellar Blade playthrough when though?

[@AdrenalStorm]

According to actual Buddhism, one obtains Buddhahood through enlightenment by seeing through the illusory and transient nature of reality. You achieve Buddhahood through cultivating merit through good deeds, following the eightfold path and the four noble truths, meditation and reflection about the nature of things, adhering to precepts to free yourself from obssession and attachment, making vows to liberate all sentient beings, and reach nirvana, being free from the endless cycle of reincarnaton. Buddhism isn't about obtaining power, but rather the goal is liberation from pain and suffering from endless cycles of reincarnation and karmic retribution. However, this is just my own base knowledge about Buddhism, being a Mahayana Buddhist. Feel free to add to or correct any of what I said if you are more knowledgeable. Journey to the West and Black Myth Wukong portrays buddhahood as more political (it is sattire after all), with Buddha as a title associated with power that can be handed to one who has "merit" and even "revoked", which is reflective of politics in real life China back then (unlike actual Buddhism where once you achieve buddhahood, you achieve permanent liberation and enlightenment and will no longer lose buddhahood). So just some key difference between the buddhist religion in real life versus the lore version of buddhism.

[@JackBrilla]

A bible based old testament game like this would be awesome.

[@Far2Sega4U]

Yeah the thing about the writer of this game, Toriyama and Eastern writers in general is that they tell their stories thru subtext instead so we always have to pay attention to whats going in the background rather than the be told thru an overload of context like Western media always do. But yeah I agree we do need more Journey to the West adaptations that directly tell us more story and other Chinese folktales as well tbh

[@Jerome16_]

The Yin Tigers voice actor is goated I swear

[@rejiIncognito]

The official colab inbound hmm peak!

[@GldnBoyK]

Afro tomorrow im going to ask if you could preorder the sparking zero ultimate edition for me

[@Juunsuke]

Day 7 of asking Afro to finish Stellar Blade

[@Kaiosen]

Gotta play it 3x and get the true ending each time to unlock his final stance.

[@TheBandoBandito]

Maybe you guys could collaborate on an anime related lore video.

[@SingularMeatball]

Day 2 in my quest to become afro's best friend. What's good y'all afro partially inspired my way of creating games and writing characters in short stories

[@vizzzyy190]

old chihuahuas are the cutest lil things. pure baby mode

[@MrJoker134411]

Anyone else notice the search bar when he was saying thanks to Afro?

[@theetherealretep]

Ok i knew ppl put clothes on their dogs, which i think is wierd, but to each theory own. But a diaper is wild man, thats got to be crazy and nasty to change !

[@kashimax3427]

love the animal crossing bgm at the start

[@Demonboydes]

Finishing this arc before sparking zero is impossible

[@MKnez44]

AFRO PLAY BLOODBORNE ALREADY PLEASE

[@victorampo1137]

4:55 Every secret boss ends up giving you an item to make the final boss light work lol