Who is Tripitaka?

I swear I was joking about a second post on The New Legends of Monkey.

I already did a long (long, long) review of this new version of the Chinese legend. (To cut it short, it was nothing like the 1978 series, but if you were a fan of Xena: Warrior Princess or Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, you'll like it). I thought I was finished. I thought I was done.

But there's a question in my head that just won't die. Despite the ten episodes dedicated to answering this very question, I am still not convinced that we really know who Tripitaka is. Or rather, we're not told the whole story.

As always, consider this a general *SPOILER WARNING*. I am going into major detail on various plot points, so if you'd rather remain unspoiled, bail out now.

Theory 1: She's No One

This is what the show gives us, and so far nothing disproves it. Tripitaka is introduced as an orphan left on the Scholar's doorstep and raised by him. It's a big plot point that she never knew her parents and we never even learn her name prior to assuming the identity of Tripitaka. The idea being, of course, is that who she was before is irrelevant. It's who she chooses to become that matters.

Honestly, I'd be fine with this. It fits in with the show's modern sense of values, where all-powerful kings are a concept of ages past and gods can be born into the humblest of places. (Note to self; do another post about the difference between the gods of Hercules and the gods of Monkey...damn it, I'm going to be here all night.) So I'm entirely okay with the chosen one being an ordinary girl who stepped up because the job needed doing and she was available.  

However, there's one niggling little oddity that doesn't quite add up about Tripitaka.

She knows the language of the gods.

This is explicitly supposed to be known only to gods. It's entire reason that Davari was keeping them alive; so that they could translate the sacred scrolls for him. So it's very unusual (possibly forbidden) that Tripitaka was taught it by the Scholar, another character whose origins are shrouded in mystery.

Even if we assume the Scholar himself was a god (not implausible), that still begs the question why he would teach that language to an ordinary human girl who randomly got left on his doorstep. Or, if we assume he learned it from a god, you'd also assume they'd make him double pinky-swear not to pass the knowledge onto anyone who wasn't a god.

Which leads into my next theory...

Theory 2: She's a God

We already know from Sandy's backstory that gods are not lineage-based like Greek gods.  They can be born to ordinary people and don't automatically understand their own nature. If Tripitaka is a very young god who doesn't know what she is, it would explain why a Resistance leader raised her and gave her that specific education.

Of course, Tripitaka hasn't demonstrated any special abilities on the quest; nothing like Sandy's control over water or Monkey's cloud or Pigsy's trident-thing.

Or has she?

I already covered in my review her truly astounding ability to think on her feet and pull a victory out of her ass. Father-figure murdered and home destroyed? No sweat, she has the Monkey-King free within a week. Captured by demons? All good, she's got the captain of the guard helping her. Friends kidnapped by a powerful sorcerer? Better hope that secret lair is insured.

What if her power is a much more subtle than her friends'? Something so subtle and powerful you might not notice until you looked at the bigger picture and realised how many times those one in a million odds fell in their favour.

What if Tripitaka has the power of hope.

Sure it sounds about as lame as heart, but to quote the third-best Star Wars movie of all time, "Rebellions are built on hope." And that word comes up a lot in relation to Tripitaka. Gwen warns her that the name Tripitaka is a beacon of hope for gods. The Scholar tells her that she only needs to live, that (and I quote) "hope must never die". Cynical characters like Monica and Pigsy seem to assume a fresh optimism after being in her vicinity and Resistance-allied Sandy seems half in love with her already (speaking of, if the thing with Monkey falls through I am all for a Sandy/Tripitaka ship).

Of course, this is kicked apart by Episode Five, due to the simple fact that she's not affected by the god-paralysing mist that traps Monkey, Sandy and Pigsy. So unless gods have a dormant or adolescent stage where they're more or less human, we can probably safely assume that Tripitaka is not a god.

At least not yet. Seeing as how much this show shares with Hercules: The Legendary Journey, and how many people got to become gods on that show (and in the original Chinese folklore) chances are good she'll get there eventually on her own.

Unless...

Theory 3: She's a Demon

Now this might be me going wild with too much Easter chocolate and sprouting my own Epileptic Tree, but the more I think about it, the more interesting it is.

We don't have much information on demons, other than the implication that they're always chaotic evil. It's suggested one can be born a demon the same way one can be born a god (Sandy's father certainly thought so), and it's not always possible to identify them on sight. Even Monkey, who had "done this a million times" mistook Sandy for a demon and Davari for a human. Technically, we have no proof that Tripitaka isn't a demon acting under the belief that she is human.

It would explain why her mother abandoned her; perhaps she had reason to suspect her child was demonic. And the Scholar was exactly the kind of maverick to attempt raising a "good" demon using all the same educational tools one would with a god. I mean this is the guy who planned to bring back the god painted as a monster by history; even if he was reasonably confident that history was wrong, he had no way of being certain it wouldn't make things ten times worse. He certainly wasn't shy about taking risks.

The biggest argument against all of this, of course, is that Tripitaka is about as demonic as a fuzzy duckling snuggling with a Labrador puppy. But again, what do we know about demons apart from their long-standing feud with the gods? Most of what we learn about them is what the gods tell us, and even before the war, the gods were content to murder demons on sight.

Based on what we've witnessed, not all demons are uniformly evil. Locke seems to have genuine feelings for Pigsy, Davari is desperate to live, and the Shaman... okay, the Shaman is a bad example. My point is, they're capable of a broad range of emotional reactions. Even the Font Demon, an otherwise inhuman monolith, takes human form so he could have a quiet meal at the tavern. And he doesn't even need to eat! For all we know, a demon raised in the right conditions would exhibit entirely human behaviour.

If I'm right, it would put Team!Monkey through a very interesting wringer. You'd have Tripitaka going through a second, much more horrific crisis while Monkey and Sandy (the two people most devoted to her) would be struggling between their hatred for demons and their love for her. At the very least it would take "It's okay if it's you!" to a ridiculous new level. About the only person I can see taking it in their stride is Pigsy, since he's already been in one intense long-term relationship with a scary demon lady, so would be a bit more blasé about the whole thing.

And call me crazy, but it would be a great inversion of the source material, where the purest and most innocent character is now a demon ignorant of her own nature.