 ✓
| ||
|
This Villain was proposed and approved by Villains Wiki's Pure Evil Proposals Thread. Any act of removing this villain from the category without a Removal Proposal shall be considered vandalism (or a futile "heroic" attempt of redemption) and the user will have high chances of being | ||
The Butler of the Kou Family (in Chinese: 寇府大管家), also known as The Housekeeper of the Kou Family, is an antagonist in the 1986 TV adaptation series of the 16th-century Chinese classic novel Journey to the West by the late Wu Cheng'en. He is an exclusive character for the series, to give the arc a villain. Even though he appeared to be a trustworthy butler of the Kou family, he is actually a member of a gang of bandits who rob people of their stuffs.
He was portrayed by Chen Jian.
Biography[]
The Butler of the Kou family is, like his name suggests, an unnamed trusted butler of the Kou family, an aristocratic family near India, where Tang Sanzang's party arrive to. In secret, the Butler is a member of a gang of bandits who attack, kill and kidnap people, as well as robbing their stuff. He also secretly commits adultery alongside Mrs. Kou, Mr. Kou's second and current wife.
When he and his gang rob of Mr. Kou's money and attempt to kidnap the latter's daughter, Julia, Mr. Kou goes out and tries to stop them, only for the traitorous Butler to kill him after the old man discovers his real face. To avoid punishment, he frames Sanzang's group of the murder and convinces the Kou family that the monks are the bandits. This leads to Sanzang, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing getting wrongfully imprisoned, tortured and beaten. However, Sun Wukong manages to clear their name.
Later on, when Wukong revives Mr. Kou, the Butler quickly flees to avoid punishment once again. When Mr. Kou's son tells him to be back, unaware that he's a bandit and the murderer, the Butler even tries to kill him in secret, though Wukong manages to stop him using his magic. When Mr. Kou exposes him to be the murderer in front of everyone, he begs for forgiving only to be punished and imprisoned anyway. It is implied that he will be imprisoned, and possibly receive the same punishment that was originally falsely given to Sanzang's party, perhaps even worse as he is the one who frames them in the first place.
Personality[]
Though at first seems to be polite and friendly, the Butler is actually a murderous psychopath under his charismatic facade. While most of the Journey to the West villains are demons, whose culture requires kidnapping and eating humans (not to mention many demons were later redeemed, mostly if they're steeds or servants of the deities), the Butler himself is just a normal human, fully capable of human moral agency, yet he committed heinous acts out of sadism and greed, even betrayed Mr. Kou, who had never abuse him (and even treated him very well for years), incriminated the good monks (who he apparently knew that they're carrying a great mission to receive the sutras) that never did anything to him, and manipulate the entire Kou family into believing him, just so he wouldn't have to suffer any punishment. In addition to this, the Butler also committed adultery alongside Mrs. Kou, and the fact that he fleed alone without even thinking about her showing that he doesn't care about her either. In the last minutes, he begs Mr. Kou to forgive him, but that's clearly a fake apology to save his own skin rather than any actual remorse.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The butler's character is entirely exclusive for the 1986 series. In the original novel, there is no mention that the Kou family even have a butler. It is obvious that this is meant to give the arc a defined villain that will receive the punishment that Sanzang's party originally wrongfully receive.