Fan Super Dragon Ball certainly know that the series was originally inspired by the Chinese classic, Journey to the West, with goku direct parallel to that story’s Sun Wukong. However, very few people realize that the drawing trend from Journey to the West even applies to Dragon Ball Super characters, especially Goku Black.
Many of the original Dragon Ball characters, such as Oolong, Puar, and even Bulma are counterpoints to similar role-playing Journey to the West characters. As Dragon Ball slowly becomes its own, these similarities diminish, but characters drawn from the classic story remain part of the world. By the time of Dragon Ball Z, the story had completely diverged and it seemed like no other element of Journey to the West could make it into the series. As it turns out, however, Dragon Ball Super’s villain Goku Black actually shares some similarities with the epic villain: The Six-Eared Macaque.
Goku Black is Dragon Ball’s villain in Journey to the West
“Goku Black” was originally a training Kai named Zamasu, who became obsessed with Goku and with the help of time travel and the Super Dragon Balls, managed to steal his body. him to create a vision of heaven. Of course, Zamasu’s vision of heaven means killing all mortals, and he begins in the future Trunks timeline, killing as many Earthlings as possible. Through further time travel, the present-day Goku is able to face this impostor, and while Goku Black proves to be a very dangerous foe, Goku ultimately triumphs by calling Zeno, the god. Supreme of the Dragon Ball multiverse.
In Journey to the West, the Six-Eared Monkey is a monkey who, like Sun Wukong, possesses some divine powers thanks to his six ears. Macaque spends almost the entire story disguised as Sun Wukong, posing as a monkey so perfectly that only Buddha could tell the two apart. Macaque craves power and is jealous of what Sun Wukong has, and the two end up having a climactic battle in front of Buddha, before Buddha captures the Macaque and forces it back into its true form.
Goku Black’s original inspiration makes him a more interesting villain
The six-eared monkey in the story represents the dark side of Sun Wukong, just as Goku Black is a much darker version of Goku. Goku Black mirrors the role of the six-eared Macaque almost perfectly: he has supernatural powers, he steals the hero’s identity, and ultimate victory can only be achieved by invoking a stronger being. much. While black gokuthe presence of Super Dragon Ball a bit late compared to most of the characters inspired by Journey to the West, there’s no denying the similarities this installment has with its classic origins, and in a way represents Dragon Ball spin. back to its roots, if only for a moment.
