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note: this article containsblack myth: wukong》some spoilers for "the last airbender".

it has been some time since the release of "black myth: wukong". as of today, the game's completion rate on the steam platform has reached 19.3%. combined with the sales data of 10 million copies in 4 days, there should be one million players who have successfully completed this work so far.

along with the comments and analysis from the first batch of players who completed the game, the overall reputation of black myth: wukong has begun to stabilize. compared with the combat system and level design, more controversies now focus on the game's plot presentation.

simply put, the main storyline of "black myth: wukong" is that the player who plays the role of the destined person retrace the journey to the west to retrieve the six roots of the dead monkey king that were scattered all over the place.

however, the image of the monkey king, as portrayed through various profiles in the game, deviates somewhat from everyone's expectations - the monkey king here emphasizes the "black myth" part, he can't let go of his love for his wife, and his temperament is a bit capricious. it really lacks the kind of transcendental feeling that everyone expects of the "fighting buddha".

however, it is one thing for the character creation to not meet expectations, and it is another thing whether it is complete and self-consistent in the plot. if we put aside the monkey king who is "a thousand people have a thousand different minds" and look at the other characters in the game, it is not difficult to find that most of them are well-created and have many characteristics.

erlang shen is the most typical example. as the first supporting character to appear in the game (and have lines), he is the one that many players can't forget until they finish the game, and has become a popular and high-quality secondary creation material nowadays - although in most secondary creations related to erlang shen, his relationship with sun wukong is somewhat "ambiguous".

"i miss you every day when you're not around" (he really said that)

players who have not yet completed the true ending may not understand why everyone is so keen on making fun of the relationship between erlang shen and wukong. but when you come to meijian peak, defeat erlang shen who is drinking alone outside the five dragon temple, and carefully savor his lines, i believe you will also sigh: netizens' secondary creations may still be too conservative.

erlang shen actually doesn’t have that many scenes in “black myth: wukong”.

in the prologue of the game, the monkey king, who had just returned to the flower-fruit mountain to spend a few days of leisurely life, faced an encirclement by the heavenly army. after exchanging some trash talk with erlang shen, the two fought for three hundred rounds without a clear winner. wukong transformed into a double-headed bird and prepared to change the battlefield, but the golden hoop on his head suddenly began to exert force, and erlang shen took the opportunity to shoot the monkey king and ended his life.

a meaningful close-up

after that, if the player wants to see erlang shen again, he must complete the side quests in the first five chapters, come to the pagoda in xiaoxitian, and enter the mural world under the witness of maitreya buddha and yuan shoucheng, and then he can find erlang shen at the top of meijian peak - if you don’t know it in advance, this section can be easily missed during normal gameplay.

when erlang shen saw the man of destiny who looked exactly like wukong, his first line was:

"you've come here after so much trouble, so you must not be here to keep me company. you must have things that you can't get over, or someone you can't let go of, and i'm the same."

as the saying goes, "every sentence is about the monkey king", in the next two battles, erlang shen proved with practical actions how deep his obsession with the monkey king is. if you take out all his lines, you will find that almost every sentence is closely related to the monkey. here are a few simple sentences:

"today, i will teach future generations on his behalf."

"you monkey please me so much"

"little monkey, you really look a bit like him."

"let me try and see what the difference is between you and him!"

"i don't know why, but when i see you, i think of many things."

"there are many mediocre people in the world who are not as good as me, but few who are worse than me. when he was here, he was the only one worth fighting against."

if you accidentally lose the battle with erlang shen, he will not taunt you before your death like other demon kings do, but will sigh with a hint of regret: "you are not him after all."

after defeating erlang shen, the player will enter a battle with the four heavenly kings. at this time, erlang shen will also reveal his "green face, fangs, and scarlet hair" appearance, and stab you while saying to you: "i miss you every day when you are not around."

regardless of whether this confession-like dialogue will cause misunderstanding, careful players should have also noticed the difference in the text of the battle of heaven and earth. after the mandate of heaven transformed into qingqiong, erlang shen completely abandoned the personal pronoun "he", and the words between the lines were full of his obsession with "you" and his mutual appreciation:

"since i'm helping you, i'll help you to the end"

"it's too blunt. fighting with you...it's still so laborious and damaging."

"this one suits you very well!"

"now it looks a lot like you!"

this is probably all erlang shen's role in the game. although his role is not big, these two battles really interpret a large-scale meal replacement literature vividly. the man of destiny played by the player is no longer in the eyes of zhenjun. all he can see is the scene of him and the great sage getting to know each other in the heavenly palace.

at this time, if you open the picture of erlang shen, the bunch of plum blossoms used to commemorate the great sage seems to have a more desolate feeling.

to better understand erlang shen's character motivations and psychology, perhaps we need to first figure out what exactly happened to wukong.

an obvious fact is that wukong was not killed by erlang shen. he was seeking death just to be freed from the shackles of the golden hoop that could never be removed. the prologue of the game was just a play he deliberately performed. as to whether erlang shen conspired with wukong to perform this play, there is no definite answer yet.

there is probably no collusion.

wukong's idea is actually very simple. he hopes that his monkeys and grandchildren can retrace their journey to the west, retrieve the six senses that belong to sun wukong, inherit the title of the great sage equaling heaven, and live freely without being bound by the golden hoop. perhaps one day, these young people will be able to complete their unfinished business, overthrow the rule of heaven, and bring peace to the world.

it doesn't necessarily mean to overthrow the heaven, but at least make the world a better place.

for this reason, erlang shen meditated in the five dragon temple for 500 years and finally waited for the man of destiny played by the player. he sent his brothers to test and train you on the path you must take, all for the purpose of personally training a little monkey that looks exactly like him into his appearance.

erlang shen dared not admit that wukong was dead

such a twisted and complicated, yet somewhat ambiguous relationship makes it hard for players not to let their imaginations run wild. so these days you can see a lot of secondary creations related to erlang shen, all of which have an image of "too heavy emotions", as if he is willing to do anything as long as he can resurrect the monkey king. but the fact is, he cannot accompany wukong to obtain scriptures for a lifetime, nor can he shoulder the responsibility of other people's lives.

in foreign player communities, there are also some players who call erlang shen "gay god", which scared some netizens who knew erlang shen so much that they quickly jumped out to explain that he is really not gay, he is just handsome.

very handsome indeed

some netizens who have been online for a while may have read a chinese comic called "three-eyed roaring sky record", which said that roaring sky dog ate the elixir of taishang laojun, and yang jian was spoofed and reincarnated as a girl because taishang laojun took revenge on him...

it is also in line with the current netizens' feminine re-creation of erlang shen.

so it is better to say that making erlang shen "produce extra emotions" is a not-too-unpopular sub-track in the secondary creation field of journey to the west (as well as investiture of the gods and the lotus lantern), but the recent craze for "black myth" has greatly increased its output and made it felt by more people.

as the most widely circulated literary work in china, the history of "journey to the west" is a history that has been deconstructed over and over again by later generations. this is also the case with "the monkey king 3: the lost tomb", "the three-eyed sky-robbing record", and "black myth: wukong".

in the plot discussion section of "black myth: wukong", in addition to "criticizing the bad plot" and "supporting cp", a new section has recently emerged: five black frames.

it may be a bit troublesome to explain to passers-by who don’t know what the five black frames mean. to put it simply, no black frames refers to the love-hate relationship between the online writer jiang nan and jin hezai. when the two had a good relationship, they were close friends who wore the same pants. however, after they turned against each other, they ended up loving and hating each other and entangled with each other.

strictly speaking, jiang nan and jin hezai, who were very popular in the past, have no direct connection with the current "black myth: wukong", but if you bring their story into the relationship between erlang shen and wukong, the feeling of close friends and old enemies immediately jumps out of the paper, and understanding erlang shen's lines as what jiang nan said to jin hezai, it seems to fit the mood directly.

or let's take a step back and say that jin hezai does have some unclear relationship with "black myth: wukong". everyone knows that game science previously made an online game called "douluo dalu". at that time, they specially invited jin hezai to build the basic world view setting for the game.

today's "black myth: wukong" has clearly inherited some of the settings from "god of war". everyone says that the plot is like the spiritual sequel to "the legend of wukong". perhaps the creative team just wants to continue the story that they didn't finish or didn't write well when they were young in the form of "black myth".

for a blockbuster like "black myth: wukong" with sales of tens of millions, the safest script is definitely to write the plot in the most unconventional way that everyone wants to see. but if you put yourself in their shoes, if you really do this, you will inevitably be looked down upon by the young man who liked "wukong" back then.

although the game's plot has received mixed reviews so far, game science has chosen the path that is most closely related to them. as for whether their interpretation and secondary creation of "journey to the west" can be accepted by the public, that is another topic.

however, we can also see that "black myth: wukong" uses only a few strokes to portray erlang shen's feelings for wukong vividly. the game copywriter's understanding of bai yueguang, his grasp of "stand-in literature", and his mobilization of the need to create memes in the internet era are all quite skillful.

if we let our imagination run wild, in the game, when erlang xiansheng zhenjun was fighting against tianmingren, he turned into a lion with a green face and fangs. if you look closely at his modeling, you will find that this green-faced lion is wrapped with a lot of skulls:

if this is not a scrapped project left over from game science's halfway-finished work on lion camel ridge, then another speculation comes to mind - perhaps the true identity of erlang shen is the familiar white bone demon. when wukong is in love with the white bone demon, he is naturally in love with erlang shen. no wonder erlang shen has been waiting alone at meijian peak for 500 years. wukong couldn't let him go, and he couldn't let wukong go even more.

you can just treat the above arrangement as a joke, but the cp of sun wukong and yang erlang is not a game science or something that netizens made up. this matter is also recorded in many ancient dramas and traditional folk art. for example, in the classic folk art piece "the monkey king makes trouble in heaven", erlang shen transformed into a beautiful young widow to conduct a sting operation. wukong not only saw through his trick, but also took the opportunity to touch her feet and take advantage of her. the two had a lot of fun.

by the way, all the people below this video are players who came here after playing black myth: wukong.

the ma school's xihe drum is only one of the versions of "the monkey king". the cp feeling between erlang shen and wukong is reflected in the singing of more singing schools. this pair of happy enemies is also a popular classic. since it is the amazing wisdom of our ancestors, we don't need to have the psychological burden of "destroying traditional culture", and our traditional culture is not that fragile.

to put it another way, the popularity of "black myth: wukong" has made players begin to consciously pay attention to intangible cultural heritage, which is obviously a good thing - although the original intention of most players may just be to see how their ancestors found various ways to pair up couples.

it is said that "adaptation is not random writing, and parody is not nonsense". at least judging from the adaptation of erlang shen, the game science is not really nonsense.

instead of arguing over the plot of black myth: wukong, let's enjoy the romantic past of sun wukong. it's no joke that everyone loves sun wukong. there's nothing we can do about it. who can blame this monkey for being so charming and graceful?