Monkey Challenge: Truth and the Grey Gloves Devil

So I'm about a third of the way through the Monkey Challenge - 17 out of 52 - and I've reached the point where the episodes begin to blend into one another, and the repetitive aspects of the stories begin to grow somewhat wearisome.

Watching them at the pace of one-a-week it's still easy enough to watch them, but when it comes to these write-ups I'm running out of things to say. As I am determined not to do anything that is a chore - I am doing this Challenge for fun, after all - I'm going to keep this one brief, with just an overview of the plot and then saying it's an average episode; not very memorable.

This is the one where an old woman thinks Tripitaka is her long-lost son, who went off to become a priest. In fact her son is the villain of the piece - the titular Grey Gloves Devil - who fell in with demons and became an evil magician. The two are reunited at the end and he reforms.

It's an average episode; not very memorable.

Little Bit of Politics There Ladies and Gentlemen Oh Yes Indeed

I can't vote because I am only a cat.

And I'm only two (and a half) years old.

And I'm made from socks.

But if I could vote then I would vote for Audio Visual.

My name's Big Gay Longcat, goodnight!

The Space Adventures of Little Gay Longcat

Part 16: On Course

Monkey Challenge: The Most Monstrous Monster

(It's Man, isn't it?)

This doesn't have the most auspicious of beginnings - within the first 10 minutes of the episode Monkey has been sent away by Tripitaka (see my review of Monkey Meets the Demon Digger for my thoughts on this trope, and that was only last episode!) for killing a Unicorn-demon disguised as a human.

Fortunately this episode shows a definite improvement as the story goes on. Monkey meets his match in the form of King Unicorn, who is the equal of Monkey in a fight and who has a magic ring that he uses to counter Monkey's magic and steal the Wishing-Staff.

"We unicorns could take over the whole Earth. It's only because we're mythical and nice that we haven't." A great line of dialogue from King Unicorn there. Also "My ring could swallow the world, heh heh... and a sun or two."

King Unicorn is in love with a human woman, and he spoils both her and her son (from a previous marriage) by giving them anything they ask for - the boy has demanded, and got, every toy in the world, and when he screamed for one more the king promised to get Monkey's Wishing-Staff for the "brat."

There are a number of transformations in this episode. King Unicorn switches between his normal appearance and a more human-seeming one to be with his prospective family. To change between them he spins round while wiggling his hands and sticking out his tongue:

The woman makes King Unicorn the condition that they must be married by a human priest, so the king tries to persuade Tripitaka to do it, and when he refuses the king bribes Pigsy with a dukedom if he will persuade his master.

Pigsy has other things on his mind - having taken a more human-seeming form himself, he is flirting with the bride-to-be.

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts at getting the Wishing-Staff back, Monkey hits on the idea of disguising himself and Sandy as the boy and his mother. Sandy, however, is no expert at the 72 magical transformations, and the first attempt at making him look like the woman does not go entirely according to plan:

But once successfully disguised, the plan succeeds - King Unicorn gives into the boy's (i.e. Monkey's) demand to be given the magic ring as a toy, and once he has that Monkey quickly gets his Staff back as well.

Monkey decides that it is the greed of the woman that is the cause of everything here, and so he resolves to kill her to free King Unicorn from her influence. But the king admits it is his fault for giving in and spoiling her and offers to die in her place. This self-sacrifice convinces Tripitaka their love is good and genuine underneath it all so he agrees to marry them.

Despite the unpromising start to the episode (the sending away of Monkey by Tripitaka is all but forgotten by the time Monkey loses his Staff), this is a good story and shows well-developed supporting characters, an opponent who is a match for Monkey while not being capital-E-evil, and Monkey using ingenious tricks - not all of which work.

And the scene with Sandy transforming into a woman is hilarious.

Travis

"Brother Travis" in The Space Adventures of Little Gay Longcat isn't meant to be Travis from Blakes 7, he's a canon* character from the early days of Warhammer 40,000. Here is the original Brother Travis from the Spacewar set of Citadel Combat Cards (c.1988):

Ooh, he is a strong manny with a Strength of 10. And with his metal eye he does look a bit like Travis from Blakes 7.

Oh wait, it's the wrong eye.

*LOL. As if 'canon' in Warhammer 40,000 ever counts for anything.

The Space Adventures of Little Gay Longcat

Part 15: Brother Travis

Monkey Challenge: Monkey Meets The Demon Digger

This is the second episode in which Tripitaka sends Monkey away. This trope is so ubiquitous in fiction (even making its way into the film version of The Return of the King, an utterly stupid addition which that story did not need) that in this series - so full of mad, inventive plots - it is doubly unwelcome repetition.

The story in a nutshell: The pilgrims meet an old man mining his way through a mountain to, he says, make a tunnel to the other side. Taking pity on the man Tripitaka resolves that he and his disciples will help the man, no matter how long it takes. Monkey, quickly bored and wanting to continue the journey to India, uses magic to complete the tunnel quickly.

Tripitaka is angry at Monkey's laziness and banishes him. The old man turns out to be a demon, who was really mining the mountain to try and find a magic egg at its heart. He thinks the pilgrims have stolen the egg while he wasn't looking, so he captures them and is about to kill them when Monkey returns. He defeats the demon and makes it up with Tripitaka.

Zzzzz.