According to “Xiaoting Xulu,” Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty ordered Zhang Wenmin to produce a performance, “The Peaceful Raft of Ascension,” depicting the Journey to the West. The script, written by Zhang, was crafted to uphold the idea of “domestic peace,” using the play to reinforce the Qing dynasty’s rule. After Wukong’s defeat by Buddha, the creators added a celebratory scene titled “Taming the Greedy Tiger and Bringing Peace to Heaven.” Wukong, referred to as “the Greedy Tiger,” was portrayed as the disruptive force and enemy of the Qing’s order. The theme of “suppressing the rebellious” ran throughout.
Sounds familiar to Western media tropes regarding revolutionary villains.
theres a fan theory out there that the game is a plot by wukong and erlang shen to overthrow heaven
spoiler
main point is that there is mutual knowledge between the two that wukong can’t die if he doesn’t want to (since he’s like six or seven different kinds of immortal), so the first scene where wukong ‘dies’ is just creating plausible deniability for part one of their plan to get rid of the jingu curse
as for why erlang shen needs wukong to overthrow heaven when he can probably do it by himself… idk, unresolved mommy issues probably