I know in my heart of hearts that Wukong sees so much of himself in Bala, he sees how excited she is in her own journey to being a monk and how he is proud of her for striving for her own path.
I also wanted to reference the one conversation Wukong and Sazang had where Sanzang asked Wukong what his answer was and Wukong said nothing. Bajie and Wujing were mocking him for having no answer but Sanzang scolded them for not seeing Wukong was right. Sometimes nothing is the answer.
Bala doesn't get it yet, now the conversation is more of an inside joke between Sanzang and Wukong but she will one day...











