Sun Wukong is a Faunus from the Kingdom of Vacuo, who later moved to Mistral and made his first appearance in "The Stray". His weapon is a collapsible staff that separates into two pairs of nunchuks made of guns called Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang.
Appearance
Sun is a tan-skinned boy with short spiky light-blonde hair and dark-gray eyes in Volume 1-3, but in Volume 4, his eyes are blue. He wears two red wrist bracers and an open loose collared white jacket with no shirt underneath, displaying his muscular physique. He also wears blue cargo pants tied up with a white belt. He wears white bandages on his legs and has a chain hanging from the belt loop on the right side of his pants.
He sports black and yellow sneakers and wears a twisted golden necklace around his neck, with a round pendant bearing his monkey emblem. As a result of his Faunus lineage, he has a long prehensile monkey tail the same color as his hair. Sun also hides his weapon under his shirt on his back.
Personality
In his first appearance, Sun is shown to be fun-loving and mischievous, with little regard for the law - stowing away on a ship, thanking the crew for the ride during his escape, throwing a banana peel in a detective's face, and stealing apples. He has a lot of self-confidence, referring to himself as a "great stowaway". He also has a strong crush on Blake Belladonna.
In conversation, Sun is very laid-back and casual. He is also kind and patient, willing to listen to Blake Belladonna's story and waiting for her to do so for nearly two days, bearing with her "small talk and weird looks". He is not afraid to give his opinion and has a dislike for those who regard themselves as "holier than thou", or who "use force to get whatever they want", such as the White Fang.
Sun also seems to be willing to help others, regardless of whether he is asked or not, even if he barely knows them. In his second appearance, he goes out of his way to help Blake, whom he had just met and barely knew. This quality is further demonstrated when he readily volunteers to help Team RWBY with their investigation, despite both Blake and Ruby Rose stating their opposition to his involvement.
Sun is seen not to be fond of formal clothing and heavily dislikes it. He pointed out that in Vacuo they aren't seen wearing such clothing. However, Blake said later on to Sun that he looked good in a tie.
He also doesn't like it when people dear to him have to risk their lives, as he showed great opposition to Ruby and Weiss Schnee endangering themselves to search for Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos during the Grimm attack on Beacon Academy. However, Sun himself is willing to put himself in harm's way for those he cares for.
Abilities and Powers
Athleticism
Sun has been shown to be quite athletic, relying on parkour for mobility. He is capable of jumping large distances and can utilize his tail as an extra appendage. It is likely that much of this comes from his Simian-Faunus nature. He was able to leap off a building, land on Roman Torchwick, and then perform a front handspring and a front-flip before coming to a stop.
Sun is capable of jumping large distances between cars and still being able to move without losing his balance. Sun may also possess night vision, which is a common trait amongst Faunus. In "Painting the Town..." he manages to find and escape out a window with Blake after she cut the power at a White Fang meeting.
Sun is also a very skilled climber, claiming to climb trees all the time and having done so to reach Team RWBY's dorm room, which is implied to be several stories above the ground.
Combat
Sun fighting several White Fang members with his staff
Sun seems to be highly adept in martial arts, able to fend off many members of the White Fang single-handedly without taking a hit and using his tail as an extra appendage during combat. He also seems to be exceptionally skilled with his weapon, which has two forms. In its staff form, every hit triggers a small explosion and it is able to deflect projectiles and blasts while spun quickly in a defensive stance. Sun is also able to emit a shockwave by slamming his staff to the ground. Sun's use of his staff is similar to the Japanese martial art Bōjutsu, which is a form of martial arts that uses a bō staff.
While his staff is in its secondary "gun-chucks" form, he is able to fire shots at his enemies from both weapons simultaneously, with bullets similar to those found in Ember Celica. This lets him keep a steady barrage on his opponent with at least one weapon at any given time without losing the ability to defend himself. He appears to have above-average strength, being able to send multiple White Fang members flying with a sweep of his staff. This may be attributed to his Faunus heritage. He also has above average speed and endurance, such as being able to run constantly without showing signs of fatigue, as was the same in is fight with Roman. Sun's use of his "gun-chucks" is similar to the martial arts Eskrima.
Semblance
Sun's Semblance
Sun's Semblance, known as Via Sun[3], is first seen in "Painting the Town...", where he emits two spectral clones of himself. One of the clones is armed with his staff, while the other has no weapon. The spectral clones explode on contact with an opponent. While his Semblance is activated, his hair and tail glow yellow. He needs to remain still and concentrate while using his Semblance.[4] In "Of Runaways and Stowaways", his clones have proven to be solid or tangible enough for Blake to use as stepping stones or swings. While manifesting, they also help provide extra force to pull the sea dragon's head away from facing the ship when it lets out an electric fire breath. It is shown that he can comfortably manifest three clones for a short amount of time. In "Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back", he creates four clones, which hold down Ilia Amitola. This proves to be very taxing on his Aura, and he is injured by her after overusing it.
Trivia
- Sun Wukong alludes to the classical character of the same name from the Chinese novel Journey to the West. The classical character was a monkey who fought with a staff called Ruyi Jingu Bang, near identical to the name of his weapon in RWBY, Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang. Whereas the RWBY character can create clones of himself through his Semblance, the classical character had the ability to create clones of himself from strands of his hair.
- The character Sun Wukong is most commonly associated with the color gold. Incidentally, "Sun" is also the English word of the star of our solar system, which is associated with the color yellow.
- Sūn Wùkōng (Simplified: 孙悟空; Traditional: 孫悟空) is normally pronounced as "Suen Woo-cone", though as with many foreign names, this is not the case in RWBY.
- Monty Oum once tweeted that his computer began lagging when he put three Suns in a scene, as well as the fact that most of Sun's polygons are in his hair.[5]
- As his neck-chain is part of his design template and not an add-on (e.g. the chain on his pants), the accessory is not affected by gravity as it should be, as emphasized when he is shown hanging upside-down. However, this is fixed on his new model for Volume 2.
- In the credits of "Black and White", Wukong's name is misspelled "Wukon".
- According to a tweet by Monty and the DVD Commentary for Volume 1, he described Sun to his concept artist in one word: "ABS".[6]
- Michael Jones and Kerry Shawcross, the voice actors of Sun and Neptune Vasilias respectively, have made it official that the ship name for their characters is "Sea Monkeys".[7]
- In the teaser trailer for Camp Camp, another animated series produced by Rooster Teeth, a figurine of Sun was briefly seen in the cubicle belonging to "Yssa".[8]
