White Dragon Horse (from Western Road Trip)

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White Dragon Horse (55)

Project: Comedy film (Western Road Trip)

Known as: White Dragon Horse

Real name: Unrevealed

Group affiliation: Trip’s transport.

Physical description: White Dragon Horse is a white van with a creature painted on the side (unsurprisingly, it looks like a cross between a dragon and a horse). It’s a newish van – a 2016 Ram ProMaster Cargo van. It has been modified extensively inside.

Personality: White Dragon Horse has a ton of personality – for a van (after all, it has a cool painting on the side). But it is not a supernatural van – no talking or anything. It is very reliable transportation.

History: Early in the film Trip and Sun hit the road in Trip’s graduation gift: a new Audi sedan. The two set off on their trip but Sun says they need to make a quick stop for “road supplies.”

Sun takes them to a rather shady-looking place: Yingchou Salvage. It turns out the proprietor owes Sun money from a “business deal” completed before Sun went to prison. At least, in Sun’s opinion Sun is owed – the proprietor sees things differently. While they are debating, the proprietor’s son decided to “accidentally” ram the Audi with their tow truck (believing it to be Sun’s). The proprietor immediately sees they have gone too far, as a murderous look appears on Sun’s face. They reassure Sun that they can repair the Audi – but Sun says that they must replace Trip’s car immediately as they have to drive cross-country for an appointment. They try to give Sun a POS but then Sun spies the White Dragon Horse van.

With reassurances from Sun that the Audi will be fixed, the two set off in White Dragon Horse.

Role in the narrative: White Dragon Horse (Dub-Dee-Aitch) is the group’s transport (and at times mobile hotel room).

Abilities: WDH is reliable and surprisingly fast. A few times in the journey the group finds exactly what they need stashed somewhere in WDH.

Inspirations: In Journey to the West, Sun Wukong forces a dragon to serve as Tripitaka’s steed after the dragon eats his first horse. I really wanted to somehow represent this in the movie and when I got an image of a white van with a dragon horse painted on the side, I thought I’d have my solution. A classic road trip element is car trouble/car swapping (remember the Family Truckster?). That being said, I feel like this entry is a bit of a dud (I bounced around several ideas in my head). It’s causing me to rethink the project a little. I had planned to have it be a reality-based work with only hints of supernatural elements. Given that Sun Wukong solves so many problems by martial skill in the novel, I may have to revisit that (maybe demons need to rise because Trip’s journey fulfills a prophesy – we’ll see).