Monkey King (The Monkey King)

The Monkey King is the titular main protagonist of the 2023 animated Netflix film, The Monkey King, a loose adaptation of the Sun Wukong prologue from Journey to the West.
Like the original version of Sun Wukong he is a monkey born from a rock imbued with the essence of chaos, in order to try and find his place in life he attempts to fit in with other monkeys but is rejected. After he becomes the Monkey King officially he sets his sights on becoming an Immortal One, allying with the human Lin to find the path to immortality and impress the Gods. He is also the archenemy of the Dragon King
He was voiced by .
==Personality==
Monkey King is heroic but also very arrogant and overconfident. As a youngster and even well into his adult years he enjoyed causing mischief. He is very careless in his acts and tends to not think things through. He also has a tendency to refuse to listen to others due to his own confidence in his abilities
Despite this all, he does have a softer side, mainly when dealing with his self-esteem issues and his budding friendship with Lin, who he initially sees as just an assistant to his goals but grows to care for. Even when she helps the Buddha seal him away in a mountain as punishment for his crimes, he is able to forgive her and part on good terms.
After 500 years he's not lost his edge but it's heavily implied that the centuries of being sealed have given him the chance to reflect on his misdeeds and work towards atoning.
==Biography==
===Birth and Early Years===
The Monkey King was born from an egg rock that was imbued with the power of the Earth and the Heavens, forming a being of chaos. Upon being born, Monkey caused mayhem in heaven by using his laser eyes which caused the Jade Emperor's cat to fall off the skies, the Jade Emperor tried to order the newborn monkey disposed of but the Buddha prevented him from doing it, telling the Emperor that Monkey had a great destiny awaiting him. The infant Monkey then found a tribe of mountain-dwelling monkeys but was shunned for his appearance and being an outsider. For years he worked towards trying to fit in but nearly made himself a pariah when he accidentally got a baby monkey killed and eaten by the Demon King of Confusion, causing the elder monkey to berate him. 
Wishing to redeem himself, Monkey trained for years to defeat the Demon, but after realizing his strength would not be enough, he looked for a weapon that could help him defeat his foe. He especially set out to find this weapon when another baby monkey was taken by the Demon King and he wouldn't let history repeat. After he found the underwater temple of the Dragon King, he managed to take his size-changing, magical "Stick" after it resonated with him and escaped with it to rescue the baby monkey. After an arduous struggle and some initial difficulty, the Monkey King managed to beat his foe and sent him flying towards the Heavenly Realm, avenging the many monkeys the demon killed.
Now beloved by his fellow monkeys besides the Elder, the Monkey King took his place as their King but the elder still rejected him and berated him for stealing a weapon of the Gods and that he should give it back to the Immortal Ones (the Jade Emperor, Yama and Wangmu) since only one of them is worthy of wielding the weapon, but these words just motivated the Monkey King to become worthy of joining the Immortals by defeating 100 demons across China. 
===The 100 Demons Hunt===
The Monkey King left his home to seek out and clean up all the demons roaming China. Among the many foes he defeated were the Bull Demon King, Scorpion Demoness, Azure Lion Demon, Nine Headed Bug, Black Wind Demon, Rat Demon, Crocodile Demon, one of the Spider Demons and many other unseen fiends. All these deeds earned him praise and respect from humans who came to worship him as the Monkey King as well. He also gained a suit of armor and clothing befitting of his status.
For his final demon he arrived at a village under attack by the Red Girl (a gender-flipped version of Red Boy). Upon arriving he met the human girl, Lin, and after she insisted on following him as his fan he accepted her becoming his assistant. Despite Lin believing a large muscular boy to be the demon in disguise, Monkey easily figured a seemingly innocent girl was the real threat and whacked her away with Stick. After the confusion was cleared and the boy reunited with his father, the little girl came back and attacked Monkey, matching him in battle and gaining in the process an interest in Stick, the Monkey King gave her a challenge to hold on to his Stick for 10 seconds to gain it, only for the Stick to throw her deep underground before she could finish, giving Monkey his 100th demon defeat albeit still not earning the attention, let alone the respect of the Immortal Ones.
When the Dragon King tried to steal back Stick while Monkey celebrated his victory at the village, he failed and was forced to retreat with Monkey and Lin setting out a way to get the Immortal Ones' attention though didn't realize Lin was secretly plotting to steal the Stick from him and give it to the Dragon King.
===Quest for Immortality===
Looking for immortality and if he has or had parents, the Monkey King raided the Underworld to find his scroll there (and Lin's too to find her family as well) but was opposed by the King of the realm, Yama, after a lengthy fight utilizing his clones to fight Yama's own clones, the King of the Underworld was beaten and his brush was stolen by the Monkey King to scribble his own name off the scroll making himself immortal. Despite endangering Lin and almost leaving her to die, Monkey had a moment of conscience and saved her at the last second.
Then he and Lin went looking for peaches that granted immortality, oblivious to Lin's true intentions of making him drop his guard so the Dragon King could steal back Stick. The plan failed once more and Monkey King remained unknowing of his fan's true intentions.
After Monkey and Lin were able to enter and escape from Wangmu's temple, and Monkey discovered in the process that the Immortal Ones will never respect him or make him one of them; the two friends had a fallout that ended in Lin taking the Stick and giving it to the Dragon King.
The Dragon King then used it to try and flood the world with his machine. Despite the fallout between them, Monkey came back to save Lin and her village from destruction and fought the Dragon King's empowered form but was outmatched until he gained back Stick and grew giant himself to defeat the Dragon King and bring him back to his weaker form where he succeeded in vanquishing for good by stomping him into a small lizard. However, criven mad by his power the Monkey King remained giant and challenged the Immortal Ones, outright attacking the Heavens and trying to kill the Jade Emperor. The Emperor and his allies then came down to get revenge on the Monkey King but were defeated, chewed up by the Monkey King and spat back out into the Heavens, putting them out of the fight and leaving the world at the mercy of the newest Demon King.
===The Demon King===
Fully corrupted by his newfound power and recent victories over the Gods, the Monkey King began to prepare for a rampage of his own. A distressed Lin tried to reach out to him to no avail as the Monkey King was too far gone in his own pent-up rage and ambition to listen. Just then, the Buddha arrived to save the humans from the Monkey King's wrath, merging with Lin when she pleaded to him to not kill or harm her friend as she knew there was good in him left; the Buddha took Lin and worked with her so they could snap the Monkey King out of his rampage and save his soul.
Lin and Buddha got the attention of and challenged the Monkey King to jump out of the Buddha's giant hand, and if he were to succeed he would become the King of the Heavens. The ever-arrogant Monkey King accepted and leapt out of the hand and flew straight to the edge of the Universe, where he both made his mark with stick in a celestial cloud, but the Buddha revealed that the Monkey had never left his hand (as Buddha is infinite and encompasses all of existence) and revealed the truth to him, who panicked when he realized he'd been beat and also found out Lin was working with the Buddha to stop him. After the Buddha shrunk Monkey King back to size and then sealed him inside a mountain he created, Lin arrived to meet up with her friend for the last time and give him back his Stick (which had previously fallen out of his hands when he got sealed), before she departed forever she told the Monkey King that she still was his fan and for once the Monkey King was truly thankful to her and accepted his fate as he got sealed with a talisman inside the mountain, never to see his human friend again.
===Journey to the West===
After 500 years had passed, China became plagued with demons that terrorized humanity and the monk Tang Sazang was tasked with helping save the land, to do this the monk redeemed 2 demons, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing then came to look for the Monkey King under Buddha's orders. After removing the seal on the mountain prison, Tang invited the Monkey King to join him on his quest and the latter accepted instantly albeit surprising Tang with his eagerness. Now freed, Monkey prepared to embark on a quest for redemption and save the world once more.
==Trivia==
*This incarnation of the Monkey King is one of the few not indicated to have formed an alliace with other demons (such as the Bull Demon King) against the Heavens.
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