#sanzo analysis

Due to the years he traveled alone while searching for the stolen sutra, Sanzo (who always was observant and paid close attention to people’s verbal and nonverbal cues) developed a sense of hyper awareness. So if he is to any degree conscious, he is hyper aware. That’s why if he’s waking up, or not quite asleep and someone goes to touch him, he wakes instantly. This is also why he has short patience when there’s a lot of noise and activity going on, his senses become overstimulated.

This is not just fanciful super power shit.

I have a lot of experience in chronic pain, specifically migraines. Now in someone who has chronic migraines, the brain actually physically changes. I’m not good at the scientific jargon, so let’s just say that essentially, the brain is always “on” and won’t turn fully “off.”

(Also, the case study is me. I have migraines and have been working with a migraine specialist and pain psychologist for…going on six years. And I have sleeping disorders. My first sleep study turned out this lovely sleeping pattern that showed me that I never reached the actual “you are fully asleep and your brain is not conscious” except for one extremely shortened cycle.)

Now, why would our bodies develop something like this?

One theory is that if one needed to protect their village, or if one was hurt and was not somewhere safe, they needed hyper vigilance that didn’t turn off. This is why you might see heightened vigilance in, say, a soldier.

Now chronic migraine engages this due to basically a “glitch” in the brain, which keeps signaling that the brain and body are in pain. And that is as much as I’ll say. There are still two different main schools of thought on migraines, and we still understand very little and are certain about even less. The brain is still largely a mystery to us, so migraines are also still largely evading our understanding. Also, everyone’s brain is different, which is why it’s so damn difficult to get migraines treated. Oh, plus your brain is trying to help you by sending you pain and sleep signals, but it’s a glitch, and you’re trying to convince your own damn brain that it’s a glitch so it can stfu.

Trust me, this is the “super short” version.

(Without sources, cause when I do sources, I do sources, and you do not want me to triple or quadruple this. Well, maybe you do. But I’m lazy as hell. I mean, if you REALLY want sources, I can redo this, but this is just meant to be a headcanon of mine on a character. So unless you really, really care about/ are interested in this, I am not writing all that out. I’ll let people answer so you can let me know if you really want to… .)

Thus, someone who traveled alone, and who has never had many people he could trust completely until late in his life, Sanzo’s brain may have begun and then entrenched this.

Also, Sanzo is 25. Also, the age when the brain stops developing and is fully complete is 25 (well, roughly. As with anything scientific, there is some controversy). So since the time his mentor died, till meeting Goku, Sanzo only depended on himself. You can see how after so many years the body would teach itself skills in order to stay alive.

First off, I just want to say there’s a ton of amazing Saiyuki fanfiction out there. A ton. It makes me so happy. So thank you to anyone who sees this who writes any fanfiction for Saiyuki.

There are some fantastic fanfictions though that I’ve read where Sanzo seemed just a bit too. . .angry. Don’t get me wrong. He is an irritable, grouchy asshole with limited patience. However, he’s not this way all the time. He’s very silent and withdrawn a lot of times. And I don’t mean the times when he physically separates himself from everyone around him. He can still be in the same room, listening to conversation and yet be having his own moment of introspective thought, musings that we often see him keep to himself. 

The times when one or more of his three companions take center stage, and he’s noted as a bystander or observer. When he just lets the others do whatever, and just watches. He lets them be angry too. He insists on a lot, focusing on the mission, but he also respects the others’ judgments and will sometimes put aside his plans and let them decide how they will proceed. 

Sanzo is a difficult character. He’s a main character and arguably the center protagonist, but he often fades into the background at times. He then re-enters through active irritability, or when Kazuya Minekura takes a panel or more to delve into his thoughts. 

I think this shows how masterful and unusual Kazuya Minekura is, and demonstrates how complex her characters and stories are. It is rare to see such passiveness from a lead protagonist. Sometimes, you can almost forget Sanzo is there. An example is when they first meet Kougaiji. Goku takes over at this point, and matches up with the leader of this alternative main party, effectively taking over as the main protagonist. Sanzo really becomes more of a comedic aside as he deals with Lirin. 

It seems to me as though this quiet, introverted Sanzo is what seems to be the most overlooked aspect of him. It’s not always an aloof, cold separation that he self imposes, but a quiet, meditative, observant presence. Sanzo spent years traveling by himself, and I feel this shows the most in these moments when he is introverted. These moments I feel also reflect how Sanzo does actively apply buddhism. He watches the world and moves with it while maintaining a sense of meditative, observant existence. These are practices of mental cultivation, specifically mindfulness. And that is one of the most influential aspects of Buddhism, as we see in today’s pyschotherapy practices.