#CG5: OPI—

[inkyminx]

So here are my personal thoughts on LMK Season 5. We all have opinions, and this is mine so please don’t come after me.

Last night I just watched S5 of LMK and while it was incredible, I still have some questions and gripes with the plot and how things were handled.

First, I know a lot of people were concerned about the animation since Flying Bark stepped away and Wild Brain said “Howdy! I’m here now!” .

When I heard about this, I didn’t really care despite being sad about FB leaving but I was still hopeful as I’m familiar with WB’s other projects.

At the news, for some reason, my first thoughts were more “Oh God did something happened? Did Flying Bark go out of business? Were there creative differences?” BUT NOPE, everything was fine. Thank God.

I was excited to see how Wild Brain would animate the series, understanding they were obviously under a lot of pressure cause of SOME fans. I was just excited to see what they’d be able to do.

Obviously I was more joking in my concerns, like if they didn’t do anything JoJo reference or didn’t give MK a tiny face, I’ll be disappointed, but it was all fun and lighthearted, I really didn’t care.

And BOI did they throw it out of the park. While there was some stiffness here and there, it reminded me more of a comic book animation style and that’s always a good thing in my books.

I was hooked right away when I began watching episode one.

Second: Nine was a really interesting character and I like that I began to question if he was really an antagonist given how gentle, calm and understanding he was towards MK. I’m a simp for Matthew Mercer as well so YE.

But this is when my concerns come out as I felt like Nine was introduced late into the series where he didn’t feel like that much of a threat compared to the other antagonists in the series.

While he became a “good guy” after S1, DBK was a threat and strong presence in his season and we knew about him since episode 1.

So when he was gaining power and being possessed by LBD, his actions were unpredictable and I enjoyed a lot of his fights with the gang and his acts to gain power.

LBD on the other hand, she is a horror game character in a children’s show. She was threatening, creepy, a looming danger, mentally manipulative and she had that build up, RIGHT from when The Mayor was introduced.

She had her story, destroying the world to remake it into something she thinks will be better. She’s been around for God knows how long, so her goal was practically embedded in her mind.

Her interactions with MK, Macaque and Sun Wukong only made her appear more horrifying and it was clear to the audience through the reactions of the other characters.

She made Wukong hesitant when she began speaking about her host and knew how to threaten him, showed genuine fear in Macaque multiple times and showing he’d never be able to leave her,

Played with MK’s thoughts and mental state, used Mei’s possession of the Samadhi Fire despite probably knowing it was out of hand, etc.

Then we have Azure, he’s more of a tragic “antagonist” because much like LBD, he wanted to make the world a better place but he obviously made some mistakes along the way.

His finale was tearjerking and you wanted him to realize what he was doing was wrong sooner before he became corrupted by the Jade Emperor’s power.

You wanted to see him be forgiving with SWK or at least come to a middle ground with him along with the rest of the Brotherhood and embrace the power to make amends.

But he will never get that now and this fact makes him more tragic than he started.

But then…there’s Nine. Again, Nine is a very interesting character and we obviously want to know more about him. But I feel like he’s a combination of LBD and Azure.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing- hell there’s probably characters that I like who are similar, but the problem comes from when he appears. Personally, he was introduced late so I didn’t really see him as a threat.

He wanted the chaos to corrupt but he was gentle in his tone as he understood that to MK, it was a hard decision and knew it relates to the “destiny” the kid was born with.

But what lacks is his build up. When I saw screenshots floating around, I started to piece together that he was the antagonist and he would be either stopping the gang from getting what they needed or pushing them into it but in a more “if you do this, how will others see you again?”

Kind of like if Macaque was doing something and Nine was like “after all thats happened, do you think MK would forgive you?” . That kind of stuff idk.

So when he appeared right at the end of the season, I was confused and grew worried for the climax.

Next thing I want to talk about and I know I’m probably gonna get crucified— the plot of the season itself.

Personally and I know it’s probably more of the “raising the stakes” , but I feel like there’s WAY too much “destroy the world” series out there, so when s5 introduced this, I had trouble understanding why.

Don’t get me wrong, in the series, there were moments when I thought “oh fvck OK” but when you introduce the theme twice but the second time it doesn’t execute well, there will be problems, minor or major

For s5- given the events of the season prior, I was hoping it would be a somewhat “cool down” arc with some events from the prior arc sprinkled in.

The celestial realm discussing who the next Jade Emperor will be, what’s gonna happen to Yellow Tusk, MK slowly growing and becoming comfortable with his monkey form and where he came from,

More of Macaque and Wukong’s past and their fight, and many more.

Speaking of monkey MK, I feel horrible but the execution of his “acceptance” of this form felt odd and not explored properly given what we saw in s4.

Don’t get me wrong, the meditation scene was creepy and well performed, but it personally felt a little rushed.

I predicted that INKY was gonna be a mental, psychological threat to MK after their fight in s4, and while I’m happy that I was sort of right, it felt too quick.

MK is one to push away and push down his anxieties and fears, and it doubles for his monkey form.

Because of this, I was expecting the majority of the season to be MK dealing with his birth, who he was meant to be, and while cheesy, have Mei and the others give him an intervention and end it with a hug or something sweet.

It may be a personal thing, but MK being a sacrifice kind of made me sigh and when it began to show, it made me question Nuwa more than I already did.

I was expecting MK to be like his idol.

Born from the stone, literally the new Monkey King (more like Monkey Prince) and wasn’t that different from Wukong.

Something easy to understand and swallow but for MK himself, difficult to get by as he didn’t grow up that way.

The sacrifice thing felt odd and out of place, and it personally didn’t make sense to me. Even the pillar came out of nowhere since I don’t remember anything about that happening before (unless it did, shout at me if that happened and I just can’t remember) .

And I think that’s the whole problem with the season. It felt rushed, there are more questions than answers and after episode two, it felt like I was watching a different show.

Yes, LMK is an action packed, energetic show that knows it’s comedy, knows when to be serious and they execute those perfectly. They have that balance.

But s5 gave me the same feeling that Ronin Warriors gave me when I rewatched it again. It had no cool down and I barely understood wtf what going on.

The concepts were interesting and I am excited to see what they’ll do in the future (ex: Macaque’s power and maybe diving into who he is, SIX EARED) , MORE MECHS and everyone getting their own abilities at the end,

But the entire season just felt rushed and it worries me if the crew didn’t have enough time to plan everything out. It felt like packed and loaded that nothing had time to breathe.

The finale even felt like nothing was accomplished and while the talk between MK and Wukong was sweet, it didn’t feel right.

It a CHAOTIC season and maybe the creators wanted the audience to feel something similar but I hate that it felt like I wasn’t watching LMK anymore.

The only time I felt fear and anxiety was the scene with Wukong trying to stop MK from sacrificing himself. The voice performance, the animation, IT WAS GUT WRENCHING.

But aside from that, everything felt rushed, dull (I hate myself) and it didn’t seem like there was anything to make the season stand out from the rest.

Don’t even get me started on the cycle. That sh!t was weird and out of left field. While I do think the rebirth is cool and definitely something I’m usually into,

The cycle Nuwa explained made me angry with her.

MK sacrificed himself in order to piece the world back together so his friends, while heartbroken from his actions, would be able to live without another harm.

So Nuwa revealing the cycle will reborn and start over again, it felt like MK’s sacrifice and meaning for it was YEETED out of the window and didn’t have a purpose.

LET THE BOY BE FVCKING HAPPY DAMMIT.

If they did have time to plan the season and it’s execution, what was going on?

If not, God I hope they aren’t disheartened, and they obviously have my support for the next seasons to improve.

S5 just wasn’t my favorite of the series as it has it’s problems (as every season but this felt more…present) and I feel it needed more time in the oven.

But if you like it? More power to you!