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Season One
- Tripitaka loses her father figure and her home, all in the space of five minutes. Added to that, she now has to bear the burden of the quest that wasn't even meant for her.
- When she's climbing a mountain to escape, a lightning strike hits the rock and reveals the sleeping Monkey King inside. The poor girl is reduced to tears as she screams for the Monkey King to wake up and help her.
- Monkey's backstory. His best friend Davari, who he thought was a human, was actually a demon manipulating him the whole time. This manipulation leads to Monkey attempting to steal the crown from the Master, and during the confrontation, Davari sneaks in and kills the Master. Monkey is ordered by the dying Master to take the sacred scrolls and hide them so the demons don't get their hands on them. But as he escapes, he's discovered by a guard, leading to the other Gods believing that Monkey was the one who killed the Master in order to take the crown and scrolls for himself. When he's finally caught, the Gods imprison him in a mountain for his crime, and immediately afterwards the demons attack Jade Mountain. Without Monkey to protect them, the Gods don't stand a chance, and the demons take over the world.Monkey: A demon...made a fool...of ME!
- Tripitaka returns to her home village in order to find her mother. She finds said mother, and discovers that she has two younger sisters, too. It all comes crashing down when the woman tells her she isn't really her mother; a demon forced her to pretend under the threat of taking away her two daughters. The saddest part is, Tripitaka barely reacts; it's like she knew all along that this woman wasn't really her mother, but didn't want to believe it.
- When Tripitaka leaves the quest, Monkey is legitimately upset, though he tries to hide it.
- Sandy's backstory. She grew up in a fishing village, and when she was a child, she fell overboard into the water which began her transformation into a God. But as her powers developed, she began to hear the cries and screams of the fish her family caught, day in and day out. One day she couldn't take it any longer, and cut them all loose. She told her family about the voices, and her father responded by taking her away in the middle of the night, setting her down by the side of the road, telling her she's a demon, and that she should never return to the village for the sake of her family. She used to think that her family truly believed she was a demon, but she eventually realized that they knew full well what she really was, but didn't want to deal with it so forced themselves to believe she was a demon to make it easier for them to abandon her.
Season Two
- When only three of them can go ahead for the final challenge in the Infinite Archive, Tripitaka votes Monkey out, since she and the others agree he’s the weakest member intellectually. It’s clear that Monkey is hurt by this – even though he was trying to bump out any one of the others without regret. The Librarian promptly punishes them for this choice. "I said the three of you would face a difficult task. And what can be more difficult than leaving your fate in the hands of your weakest link?"
- It’s sad seeing the Librarian rapidly aging and turning to dust in front of the heroes, when she finally hands over the final scroll.
- The children going missing is heart-breaking enough, but Sandy is the one who keeps getting blamed for it. And she just doesn’t know how to deal with it.
- The ending of episode four of season two. Pigsy is injured, Tripitaka was forced to stab Kaedo with a poisoned dagger while brainwashed, Monkey and Sandy are defeated by Gorm, and the demons make off with not just the scrolls, but Monkey’s staff, too. It’s no wonder Tripitaka bursts into tears.
- Series two is filled with moments between Monkey and Tripitaka that shows they might not believe in one another, with as stated above Tripitaka considering Monkey a "weak link" (intellectually), and Monkey uncertain whether or not she’s even the "real" Tripitaka. And while ultimately they do get over it, it’s not fun to watch.
- Mycelia’s determination not to give up the Scroll of Creation, even going so far as to create a shadow scroll decoy. It’s implied that it’s a combination of having no other purpose than that thus not wanting to lose said purpose, and paranoid about handing the scroll to the wrong Tripitaka.
- Gaxin's illusion that he was chosen by the Gods (thus making him untouchable) comes crashing down around him in the worst way, and it's clear the experience shakes him to his core.
- Monkey sacrificing himself by flying the shadow scroll into the sun in order to destroy Shadow Monkey. Everyone’s in tears, especially Tripitaka. She’s so grief-stricken that she goes against what the Scholar taught her and tries to use the scrolls to resurrect him. Gaxin stops her, before doing it himself.
