I also didn't realise as a western kid that Dragon Ball is set in a Taoist / Buddhist universe. The way the gods, afterlife, etc work in Dragon Ball, the way you can get super powers through training is extremely related to buddhist / taoist mythology.

How?? The Monkey King is a trickster and quite frankly, mean to a lot of people. Goku is the exact opposite. The only thing they have in common is the extending rod that Goku would fight with as a child.

Watch the original episodes, he is very much like a trickster monkey. Then he matured into what people remember him as and became very different, but he didn't start that way.

He is inspired by Wukong for episode 1 and then pretty much stopped being that...

Literally never seen Goku tricking anyone, there are a few instances in which he plays with the enemies but they were the baddies.

> then pretty much stopped being that

not true

The original Wukong [1] flies on a "golden cloud" (does that rings a bell?) and uses as a weapon a growing stick (Ruyi Jingu Bang, transliterated in Japanese as Nyoi Bo, the name used in the Dragon ball anime and manga) that obeys to voice commands

In Dragon ball the golden headband (that can shrink as a form of punishment) is missing, replaced by a regular red headband that sometimes Goku wears

EDIT: of course I forgot the most important one: Goku can become a monkey. Wukong is a monkey, the monkey king.

[1] https://external-preview.redd.it/CZeTiWE13k8lyrdzQ5pGZqY6wI6...

I get that but I was talking about the behavior.

In Journey to the west Sun Wukong learns to behave and start following a path of spiritual growth and wisdom that, at the end of his journey, leads him to become enlightened and a Buddha himself.

Much like Goku in Dragon ball, where trough the training and by following his master's teachings, he becomes a warrior with a noble heart that values friendship over everything else.

After that, I agree, it's simply about becoming stronger and stronger.

It was crazy reading Journey to the West and being like, "WTF, THAT part of Dragonball comes from this?"

I didn't watch the episodes, I read the 16th century book Monkey, translated into English by Arthur Waley. Supposed to be a pretty faithful translation, which is why I was surprised by your comparison of Sun Wukong and Son Goku.

China pumps out a Monkey King movie every year. They are all totally different interpretations other than he is a monkey and has a stick.

> and quite frankly, mean to a lot of people > Goku is the exact opposite.

How? How abandons his family to train or fight enemies. He puts everything at risk just for a good duel. He helps the enemy recover or throws his son out there just to see a good fight. Just because he's the MC and portrayed in a positive light...

He might be a popular character but definitely not nice.

Especially when you get into DragonBall super when he goes against what everyone is telling him to do and challenges super God to a fight, starting something that could have led to the death of multiple universes. And when he allows frieza to do whatever as long as it doesn't effect earth. He's very selfish in a lot of ways.

That was his original inspiration but he has matured far beyond that.