The Journey To The West (Part III)

***Legends Summarized: The Journey To The West (Part III)*** is the fifth episode of the *Legends Summarized* and third episode in the Journey To The West series by Red. It tells of how Tripitaka met Pigsy and Sandy as well as how he was kidnapped again.

## Introduction

*Last time on* The Journey to the West*...*

*The virtuous monk Tripitaka set out on his journey to the Thunderclap Monastery, where he was soon joined by the powerful but foolhardy Sun Wukong. Though the Monkey King was originally too stubborn and reckless to be controlled, Kuanyin saved Tripitaka from an early end to his story by inflicting a cursed restraining bolt on the uncontrollable Monkey King, forcing Wukong to finally put someone else's needs before his own. After defeating a monstrous river dragon, who then joined their team, the trio soon found themselves faced with new perils,for the mountains are full of greedy and murderous demons, and our heroes have a very long way left to go.*

## Summary

### Meeting Pigsy

Tripitaka, Monkey, and the Horse make their way to the outskirts of a nearby village. Monkey sees an unusual-looking young man, grabs him, and interrogates him about the village. After some resistance, the man, named Kao Cai, explains through pictures that a handsome man married a young woman from his extended family. Unfortunately, the man was actually an ugly pig demon, and the patriarch of the family now wants him gone. He sent Kao Cai to find an exorcist to no avail. Monkey then tells him that he can help.

The group talks to the patriarch, named Kao, who explains that the young woman is his youngest daughter and that the demon, although a good worker, is quite possessive, and now the just wants to see his daughter again. Monkey agrees to help and easily frees the patriarch's daughter. He then shapeshifts into the daughter and waits for the pig demon to return. When he does, Monkey explains that the family found an exorcist named Sun Wukong. The pig demon remains fine until he hears the name and says he's going to leave for a while. Monkey then reverts to his true form and the two fight.

While fighting, the two get to the pig demon's secret lair at Cloudy Path's Cave and the demon explains his life story. He was banished from the court of heaven and transformed into a pig for getting drunk and hitting on a lady too many times. He would have been executed, but the Gold Star of Venus convinced the Jade Emperor not to. Here, Red notes how this seems to be the only thing the Gold Star of Venus does.

Eventually, the pig demon runs away and Monkey returns to the village. He explains the stuff to Tripitaka and sasses the patriarch for not appreciating the pig demon's good work ethic. Monkey then returns to the pig demon to fight some more. He asks him why he fights with a rake, to which the pig demon explains that the rake can destroy souls. He smacks Monkey with it but does nothing to the immortal-six-times-over Monkey, and he immediately surrenders. Monkey then learns that the pig demon was told by Quan Yin to assist Tripitaka on his quest and is named Pigsy.

Tripitaka becomes very buoyant at having another disciple, and the patriarch throws a banquet for the now expanded troupe of heroes who then continue their journey. They encounter the Crow's Nest Zen Master, and he tells them they will encounter many demons and monsters on their journey, but tells Tripitaka that he will hypothetically fine if he recites the Heart Sutra, which he teaches him. He then makes fun of Monkey and Pigsy and leaves to his nest.

### Kidnapping #2

The group continues on the journey when they encounter a Tiger Demon who rips off his skin. Pigsy and Monkey fight him for a while, but he throws his skin as a decoy, runs away, and kidnaps Tripitaka. He presents Tripitaka to his boss, a cave demon, and they debate how to eat him. Monkey and Pigsy realize that Tripitaka has been kidnapped and go off to find him. The two make their way to Yellow Wind Cave, and the Cave Demon sends out the Tiger Demon to fight. Monkey, unsurprisingly, beats him easily, but the Tiger Demon runs away. Pigsy then comes out and whacks the demon with his rake, kill-stealing like a boss, exemplifying what he does for the rest of the story.

Monkey goes to the cave with the corpse and goads the cave demon out to fight. The two fight, but when Monkey pulls out his Duplication special, the Cave Demon responds with his own special and summons gale force winds that temporarily blind Monkey. The two then escape and eventually come to a cottage with an old man and some young farmers who let them stay the night. The old man gives Monkey some healing balm for his eyes, and he wakes up the next morning with his sight restored and no cottage in sight. As it turns out, the old man and farmers were heavenly spirits sent to help Tripitaka, which makes Red think about how arbitrary their rules are.

Monkey and Pigsy make their way to the cave, but this time, Monkey sneaks in as a mosquito while Pigsy stays behind. He makes his way to Tripitaka, who is annoyed by his lengthy stay in the cave, when a demon comes in telling the cave demon that he ran into Pigsy, but not Monkey. The Cave Demon posits that he either killed Monkey or he ran to get help, making note that help is meaningless unless it were the Bodhisattva Lingqi, who can defeat him. With this lead and some help from the perennially-just-helping disguised Gold Star of Venus, Monkey and Pigsy go to Lingqi, who explains that he defeated the demon but let him remain in the mountain so long as he didn't hurt anyone. Seeing that he has, he goes with the duo to defeat the cave demon. Monkey busts in and fights the Cave Demon again, and when he begins charging his wind attack, Lingqi throws his Flying Dragon Staff at him, which then turns into a real dragon that punches the demon into a mountain and reverts him to his true form, which is a mink. Monkey and Pigsy then rescue Tripitaka and continue on their way.

### Meeting Sandy

Eventually, they come upon a turbulent river with a huge river demon that comes to attack them. Monkey gets Tripitaka to safety while Pigsy fights the spirit. He stands guard for a moment, but his desire to be cool overtakes him, and he attacks the spirit. He smacks him really hard with his stick, which causes the spirit to retreat back into the river.

The three deliberate on the situation and decide that they need the river spirit's help to cross the river. Unfortunately, Monkey can't fight underwater since he's made of stone, so Pigsy has to fight him. He and the river spirit duke it out while Monkey lays in wait for him to lead the spirit to shore. Unfortunately, his impulsivity causes him to jump the gun a bit and attack early, and the spirit dives back into the water the moment he sees Monkey coming. They try the same plan the next day, but the spirit doesn't take the bait.

With no other good options, Monkey goes to find Quan Yin for help. She tells him that the river spirit is like the horse and Pigsy; he was told by Quan Yin to help Tripitaka. She sends Moksa back with Monkey, and he calls the spirit up by his name given by Quan Yin. He comes out at the call, and Moksa tells him that the scripture pilgrim he is to help is the same one that is currently on the riverbank. He then joins the group after a fight that was completely avoidable had there been any good communication.

## Conclusion

With the full crew assembled, Red rattles off the members: Tripitaka, the mortal monk at the heart of the story, Monkey, the impulsive muscle, Pigsy, a gluttonous celestial warrior seeking redemption, Sandy, another celestial warrior seeking redemption who can also swim, and the horse. Red then gets on the horse for doing nothing despite being a literal dragon, ignoring him being an allegorical representation of the will.

Red then explains that the rest of the story is very episodic, and she will summarize the more interesting stories while skipping the power-up sequences in *Journey To The West: Kai!*

## Characters Appearing

* Tripitaka
* Sun Wukong
* The Horse
* Pigsy
* Sandy
* Kao
* Kao Cai
* Jade Emperor
* Gold Star of Venus
* Quan Yin
* Moksa

## Links

* Legends Summarized: The Journey To The West (Part III)