History Characters / JourneyToTheWestPilgrims

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Making a monkey the guardian of hoses seems absurd to modern thinking but in ancient China, before the influx of large, trained guard dogs from the West, many ranchers actually did employ monkeys as guard animals to deter predators from preying on horses.

* CompleteImmortality: He used ''five different methods of obtaining immortality''. As a result, not only is he TheAgeless, but his body has been toughened to be nearly indestructible, and even if his body were to somehow be damaged, he feels little to no pain, can live without a head, and can grow a new one on the spot. Even if his soul is ripped from his body, it can still fight by itself and find a way to reunite with his body. His immortality is so perfect, that not even the special furnace made by the gods that was created for the purpose of being able to kill even gods and immortals could destroy him (though certain versions of the story claim that he had to constantly move around inside the furnace to the cooler sections created by the servants who were fanning the flames to survive that).

* CompleteImmortality: He used ''five different methods of obtaining immortality''. As a result, not only is he TheAgeless, but his body has been toughened to be nearly indestructible, and even if his body were to somehow be damaged, he feels little to no pain, can live without a head, and can grow a new one on the spot. Even if his soul is ripped from his body, it can still fight by itself and find a way to reunite with his body. His immortality is so perfect, that not even the special furnace made by the gods that was created for the purpose of being able to kill even gods and immortals could destroy him.

* CharacterDevelopment: ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'' is as much about Sun Wukong learning the value of kindness, humility and compassion as it is about him kicking demon-ass. Perhaps best exemplified by how much his and Triptaka's relationship changes as the series goes on. [[KidWithTheLeash At first he regards the monk has his unjust jailer.]] [[MyBelovedSmother Then as an overbearing parent.]] As he grows he finally starts to see him [[ParentalSubstitute as a father figure.]] After his morality catches up with Triptaka's worldview he goes through a period of seeing the Monk as TheLoad who is TooDumbToLive and finally they end the journey in a sort of [[BloodBrothers adoptive brotherhood]].

* TheBigGuy: Though often mistakenly portrayed as a {{Kappa}}, the original source material depicts Sandy as a kind of river-dwelling demon. In either case, he's the tallest of the disciples, though he's much more the thoughtful type than the bruiser type.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Compared to the antics of Sun Wukong (causing havoc anywhere he goes, with trashing Heaven a la [[Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin Stone Cold Steve Austin]] being the final straw for Buddha) and Zhu Bajie (making inappropriate sexual advances towards the Moon Goddess) which landed them their punishment, Sha Wujing was banished from heaven and transfigured into a demon simply because ''he accidentally broke a precious crystal goblet belonging to the Queen Mother of the West.''

[[folder:Sun Wukong]]

* AdaptationSpeciesChange: At least one hypothesis roots Sun Wukong in Chinese gibbon-chasing stories (reccorded at least 700 BCE). Suffice to say, you'll be hardly pressed to find any media that depicts him as a gibbon rather than as a monkey.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Making a monkey the guardian of hoses seems absurd to modern thinking but in ancient China, before the influx of large, trained guard dogs from the west many ranchers actually did employ monkeys as guard animals to deter predators from preying on horses.

* DependingOnTheWriter: He ranges from a fully fledged NominalHero without a decent bone in his body to a bad-tempered JerkWithAHeartOfGold who only needed love and patience to truly grow up.

* ExactWords: He doesn't like following Sanzang's orders so he gets around them with this trope. For example, Sanzang said [[ThouShallNotKill "Never kill anyone."]] So when a group of greedy monks tried to kill them both to steal Sanzang's cossack, Monkey didn't kill them. Instead he fanned the flames of the fire they started to ensure their monastery burned down.

* HeroicComedicSociopath: His (often mean-spirited) pranks are played for laughs, like convincing some bad guys that his, Pigsy, and Sandy's pee are elixirs of immortality.
* HotBlooded: He has little patience and loves to dive head long in action.

* MagicKnight: He's probably the second best fighter in Heaven after Erlang Shen, and has a plethora of magical powers that most immortals can't hope to even obtain, like the 72 Transformations.

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Monkey has a tendency to suddenly reveal often one-off powers or abilities without previous mention that conveniently solve the current problem. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded a couple of times]] when his companions will express surprise and mention how in all the years they have been traveling together he never mentioned said power or skill. All of Monkey's power of the 72 Transformation is public knowledge in Chinese culture so it was not written into the story, but all of his power is limited in the 72 spell he know. The spell set Sun's master wanted to teach him is the 36 Celestial Rectifiers and 72 Terrestrial Killers, with the 36 set is high grade spell and 72 set is the low grade spell. All of this is from the 108 Daoist ritual of transformation, which was a common trope during the Ming dynasty, the time Journey to the West is written.

* NotInThisForYourRevolution: Monkey is only interested in joining the pilgrimage in the first place because it was join, or stay under the mountain for the rest of eternity. Afterwards, he comes along only in hopes of getting the [[RestrainingBolt Circlet of Headaches]] off his head. Eventually he comes to ''genuinely'' care about Tang Sanzang as a father figure that he loves and respects.

* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Due to wounded ego and bruised pride more than anything; life on earth was pretty sweet for him, he just got so arrogant he thought he should be a god as well.

* SmallNameBigEgo: At first when he was a mere monkey king that called himself "Great Sage Equalling Heaven". Skip 500 years and his reputation has ''caught up with his ego'' and lesser gods voluntarily call him "Great Sage".
* SmugSuper: Monkey is incredibly powerful, and unbelievably full of himself as a result.

* VoluntaryShapeshifting: He can turn into almost anything he wants due to his EnlightenmentSuperPower, the 72 Earthly Transformations. Despite the name, it's not limited to only 72 forms -- the 72 actually refers to two-thirds of a set of Mystical108 stars the power is based off.

** Despite being almost almighty on earth or air, he sucks at underwater battles, and is forced to rely on Pigsy and Sandy to fight against water-bound enemies.

* WhaleEgg: What do you suppose would happen to a boulder, as old as creation, that had absorbed "the truth of heaven," "the beauty of Earth," "the power of the sun," "the mystery of the moon," [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and then magic mushrooms and orchids started growing on it]]? Well apparently it gestates a stone egg that hatches into a special type of monkey. Who'd have guessed?

[[folder:Tang Sanzang]]

* AdaptationalWimp: There are stories of the historical event that pre-dates ''Journey to the West'' and in these stories he is much more competent. His weakness here is to better show off Wukong.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: His father was murdered by a bandit and his mother taken away while pregnant with him. After giving birth to Xuanzang, she put him in a basket and floated it down a river so the bandit can't find him. Luckily, a monk rescue him and he was raised in his temple. He did get revenge later and reunited with his mother. Then his mother hanged herself out of shame.

* GentlemanAndAScholar: He is the most knowledgeable Buddhist scholar in all of China, accomplished poet and well-versed in court-etiquette.

* TheLeader: He's ''supposed'' to be this (Charismatic type to be exact) but he spends too much time kidnapped to do any real leading. They rarely listen to him anyways.

* TooDumbToLive: Various adaptations will sometimes make him/her out to be this, and even in the original work there's a few times he crosses this line. The Rhinocerous Yaoguai arc begins with Son Wukong leaving to go find him food before giving him very clear instructions to ''absolutely'' not move since he's so danger prone, and to emphasize this he draws a circle on the ground and (possibly lying) tells him it's a circle of protection and that he should not leave without Wukong for ''absolutely any reason''. Wukong flies away and it's [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny only about 10 minutes later]] that Zhu Bajie is able to easily convince the monk to step out of the circle after which they're captured by the Rhinocerous Yaoguai leaving Wukong in StunnedSilence when he returns and realizes they wouldn't even follow the simplest instructions.

[[folder:Zhu Bajie]]

* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: At one point, the group's path is blocked by a huge mountain of rotten fruit. His solution? Turning into a colossal pig and eating the way through the thing. In the same chapter he also explains that he excels at transforming into "large" forms, but his appetite grows with his size.

* CasanovaWannabe: Pigsy really likes the ladies -- in fact, he was thrown out of heaven for trying to make off with a celestial maiden -- but his efforts at wooing them are poor to say the least. Some adaptations of him seem to also give him a more romantic approach on things.
* CarpetOfVirility: His name as a wild monster is Zhu Ganglie (Strong-Maned Pig), suggesting a boar-like appearence. Averted in most depictions where he's more pig-like and thus hairless.

* ElementalPowers: He claims that his rake can summon [[PlayingWithFire flames]] when hold upward and [[BlowYouAway gusts of wind]] when swung down. At one point he also turns himself in cold light-beams to run away from Sun Wukong.

* ImprobableWeaponUser: {{Justified}}, his weapon is a muckrack one would normally use for working the fields, but was created from special metal and numerous gods for the purpose of being a weapon.

* NotInThisForYourRevolution: Pigsy just wants to go back to Heaven, he doesn't care about the scriptures at all. Being turned into something more attractive than his current humanoid pig-monster shape would also be nice. Like Wukong, he comes to genuinely care about Tripitaka as a surrogate father, maybe even moreso due to his immature nature.

* PigMan: This is part of his punishment; he was better looking back in Heaven.

* WarriorPoet: In some adaptations of his portrayal, especially due to his life in the human realm, as a pig or not he's said to be VERY poetic (the 1996 and 1998 Hong Kong adaptations show this off too well). Must be due to him despite being a bit of a casanova he also has quite a few romantic thoughts, possibly tying into his tragic time in heaven.

[[folder:Sha Wujing]]

* EarlyBirdCameo: In the novel both he and Zhu Bajie are met by Guanyin earlier and informed of Tripitaka.

* NotInThisForYourRevolution: Sandy just wants to be let back into heaven but just like his two elder "brothers", he comes to care for Tang Sanzang too, though more as a friend rather than a father-figure.
* OnlySaneMan: Compared to the compassionate-to-fault Tang Sanzang, mischievous trickster Monkey and the obtuse glutton Pigsy, Sandy comes off as more reasonable. To the point that when Sun Wukong is sent away after the Lady White Bones accident, he specifically asks Sandy to watch over Xuanzang while he's away.

* PublicDomainArtifact: His weapon of choice is the famous monk spade/moon fang spade, sometimes depicted as a simple crescent-blade on a stick, but this is truer for later adaptations. In the original text it's a [[CarryABigStick jewel-adorned staff]] known as the [[NamedWeapons Zhangyaobaozhang]] (Monster-subduing Precious Rod). A possible explanation is that the Monk Spade is also known as "Zen Rod" (chanzhang).

* SkeletonsInTheCoatCloset: Wears a macabre rosary made from the skulls of some holymen he killed and ate during his retinue as a monster. Since these skulls floated on the water, he decided to make them into a rosary to entertain himself.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Has this, but rarely uses it. Justified, as he states that he only knows 18 transformations compared to Monkey and Pigsy.

[[folder:White Dragon Horse]]

* DistractedByTheSexy: Invokes this on the half-drunk Yellow Robed Monster by turning into a woman to distract him with servings of wine and a sexy dance before stealing his sword and using it against him. Unfortunately, the Monster is more than a match for him and the Horse is injured as a result.
* OutOfFocus: Even the original author seems to forget he exists more often than not. Yu Long's big character moment is when he first appears and eats Tripitaka's horse, then has to turn into a replacement horse. After that, he's in the background until they reach the end of the Journey and he can turn back into a dragon and fly off home. This turned out very badly for him. Website/TheOtherWiki calls him "the horse" or "the dragon prince", insists there are four main characters, and didn't have a page on him until quite recently (and even then, he's only referred over there as the "White Dragon Horse"). ''Series/NinjaSentaiKakuranger'' claims that there are ''only'' four main characters, and that their fifth is a totally original creation. Most local theatre productions of the story leave him out entirely.
* SolidGoldPoop: As he states, his urine alone is so special that if a single drop falls in a river all the fishes inside will turn into dragons, and could turn even the most common grass into a miracolous mushroom.
* TeamPet: The role he's often relegated to; the horse. He does, however, takes matters in his own hands (or at least tries to) when Tripitaka's in danger and all the disciples are out of commission.

* CharacterDevelopment: ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'' is as much about Sun Wukong learning the value of kindness, humility and compassion as it is about him kicking demon-ass.

* {{Bishonen}}: His beauty is frequently commented on, and he's generally portrayed by women in stage productions.

* ChasteHero: He was never interested in that type of things, even when he was a demon. Though he does flirt with the Iron Fan Princess (while disguised as her husband) and later pretends to be a harmless boy to lure a blood-sucking demoness, he always stops before going all the way through. He is a SingleSpecimenSpecies, after all, so it may simply be a matter of there not being another Stone Monkey for him to mate with.

* BladeOnAStick: His weapon of choice is the famous monk spade/moon fang spade, sometimes depicted as a simple crescent-blade on a stick, but this is truer for later adaptations. In the original text it's a [[CarryABigStick jewel-adorned staff]] known as the [[NamedWeapons Zhangyaobaozhang]] (Monster-subduing Precious Rod). A possible explanation is that the Monk Spade is also known as "Zen Rod" (chanzhang).

* ChasteHero: He was never interested in that type of things, even when he was a demon. Though he does flirt with the Iron Fan Princess (while disguised as her husband) and later pretends to be a harmless boy to lure a blood-sucking demoness, he always stops before going all the way through.
** To be fair, he is a SingleSpecimenSpecies, so it may simply be a matter of there not being another Stone Monkey for him to mate with.

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Monkey has a tendency to suddenly reveal often one-off powers or abilities without previous mention that conveniently solve the current problem. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded a couple of times]] when his companions will express surprise and mention how in all the years they have been traveling together he never mentioned said power or skill.
** To be fair, all of Monkey's power of the 72 Transformation is public knowledge in Chinese culture so it was not written into the story, but all of his power is limited in the 72 spell he know. The spell set Sun's master wanted to teach him is the 36 Celestial Rectifiers and 72 Terrestrial Killers, with the 36 set is high grade spell and 72 set is the low grade spell. All of this is from the 108 Daoist ritual of transformation, which was a common trope during the Ming dynasty, the time Journey to the West is written.

* TheWorfEffect: The prologue has him fighting off the entire celestial host ''[[OneManArmy by himself]]'', and even a combination of some of the most powerful deities couldn't hold him for long. He was only permanently subdued by the direct intervention of the Buddha himself, considered in-story to be the most powerful being in the cosmos, but 500 years later and being released from his imprisonment, Wukong can never seem to instantly defeat the most random MonsterOfTheWeek.

* {{Hypocrite}}: At one point, he revives a dead king, who has long since lost his kingdom to an evil spirit. Said king doesn't believe he's worthy of ruling anymore, and offers the throne to Wukong. Wukong proceeds to state that he would never want to be a king...this in spite of the fact that the first thing he ever does whenever he leaves the journey is to go back to his mountain and rule as king.

* TelescopingStaff: His Compliant Staff is both the [[TropeMakers original]], the [[TropeCodifier most famous]], and one of the most extreme examples. He likes to shrink it to the size of a needle and store it in his ear when he's not bashing people's brains in with it.

* BreakoutCharacter: Despite Triptaka technically being the protagonist, it's Son Wukong who everyone remembers. It helps that the first 7 chapters are basically all about how Son Wukong became so awesome, with Triptaka only being introduced in the 8th.

* CharacterDevelopment: ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'' is as much about Son Wukong learning the value of kindness, humility and compassion as it is about him kicking demon-ass.

* AntiHero: Wukong was strong and smart enough to obtain immortality, a task most humans tend to fail. He was also very naive, to the point he didn't realize he was being discriminated against by the Celestial Kingdom because he was a monkey. His resulting wrath and destruction of Heaven led to his imprisonment, and the rest of the Journey is him learning humility and compassion. (though he did still indiscriminately murder his enemies when given the chance)

* AntiHero: Wukong was strong and smart enough to obtain immortality, a task most humans tend to fail. He was also very naive, to the point he didn't realize he was being discriminated against by the Celestial Kingdom because he was a monkey. His resulting wrath and destruction of Heaven led to his imprisonment, and the rest of the Journey is him learning humility and compassion.

* NighInvulnerable: The reason the Buddha dropped a mountain on him is because the gods failed in outright destroying him. Even demonic weapons wield by powerful monsters bend and crack on his head after hitting him.

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Monkey has a tendency to suddenly reveal often one-off powers or abilities without previous mention that conveniently solve the current problem. [[LampshadeHanging Lampeshaded a couple of times]] when his companions will express surprise and mention how in all the years they have been traveling together he never mentioned said power or skill.

** To be fair, all of Monkey's power of the 72 Transformation is public knowledge in Chinese culture so it was not writen into the story, but all of his power is limited in the 72 spell he know. The spell set Sun's master wanted to teach him is the 36 Celestial Rectifiers and 72 Terrestrial Killers, with the 36 set is high grade spell and 72 set is the low grade spell. All of this is from the 108 Daoist ritual of transformation, which is common during the Ming dynasty, the time Journey to the West is writen.

** To be fair, all of Monkey's power of the 72 Transformation is public knowledge in Chinese culture so it was not writen into the story, but all of his power is limited in the 72 spell he know. The spell set Sun's master wanted to teach him is the 36 Celestial Rectifiers and 72 Terrestrial Killers, with the 36 set is high grade spell and 72 set is the low rate spell. All of this is from the 108 Daoist ritual of transformation, which is common during the Ming dynasty, the time Journey to the West is writen.

* PungeonMaster: He tends to indulge in silly and childish humor now and then. Best

* DependingOnTheWriter: He ranges from a fully fledged ByronicHero without a decent bone in his body to a bad-tempered JerkWithAHeartOfGold who only needed love and patience to truly grow up.

* WeaponOfChoice: [[GardeningVarietyWeapon A steel nine-toothed rake (Jiuchidingpa)]], which is a precious, deadly weapon, [[BerserkButton and don't try to suggest otherwise]]. The first time he uses it against Sun Wukong, he gets an entire poem describing how the rake was forged and how powerful it is.

* OutOfFocus: Even the original author seems to forget he exists more often than not. Yu Long's big character moment is when he first appears and eats Tripitaka's horse, then has to turn into a replacement horse. After that, he's in the background until they reach the end of the Journey and he can turn back into a dragon and fly off home. This turned out very badly for him. Wiki/TheOtherWiki calls him "the horse" or "the dragon prince", insists there are four main characters, and didn't have a page on him until quite recently (and even then, he's only referred over there as the "White Dragon Horse"). ''Series/NinjaSentaiKakuranger'' claims that there are ''only'' four main characters, and that their fifth is a totally original creation. Most local theatre productions of the story leave him out entirely.