#Kai keda analysis

[kai-keda]

LMK Season 4 Spoilers

Analysis of the Seasons Main Theme and Wukong’s Character based what I can gather from only having a translation of the first episode of the season and from watching the rest in Mandarin despite myself.

::readmore::

I LOVE how the major theme of the season seems to be regret and coming to terms with it. A phrase I quote all the time (that I accidentally frankensteined from different places so it’s probably unrecognizable to its source at this point) is “What’s done is done. There is nothing you can do in the future to change the past. You can only live in the present.”

And I feel like that’s a pretty accurate summary of what Wukong was trying to get across to MK in that first episode.

And I can’t help but feel like the sworn-brothers fatal flaw is NOT accepting that and wanting to ‘change the past’ - not in a literal sense but in the sense of wanting revenge to make the pain of it go away - as if it never happened.

Wukong has been doing a great job mentoring and taking care of MK and whatever happened in the past with MK, Wukong probably didn’t think it would be of any worth to bring it up.

It would not change anything because HE could not change anything.

And honestly? I love him for that.

I don’t AGREE with that (tho I do think it’s highly likely Wukong was not actively hiding the truth) but I do LOVE him FOR that. As a CHARACTER

I love how complicated LMK Wukong’s motivations always are. He’s so HUMAN and RAW because he represents a REAL human condition.

The human condition to always want to be better than you were before, yet always being dragged down by your past.

Whether through major mistakes where those you hurt won’t let it go or through something more benign like not being able to move away from home despite doing all the ‘right’ things to prepare yourself for said move because one thing from seven years ago got in the way.

Drowning in our past and yet still able to breathe.

What a human story.

[kai-keda]

This is so gatekeepy holy shit

First of all, that last quote? Not at all what the OP said.

OP is straight up saying that people would have an OBJECTIVELY BETTER experience with media if they took a step back from shipping which is absolutely coming from a bitter “You’re not engaging in media the way I most enjoy doing it! Therefore you’re doing it wrong!”

Which is honestly another example of the “There is only one right way to engage with/interpret media.” philosophy which is SUPER BAD AND TOXIC BTW

What is OP basing that assessment on? Because some people they found on social media only post about shipping? You don’t know that that’s all they do, for one, and even if it was, so what?

This is coming from someone who has an entire YouTube channel literally called “Kai Keda ANALYSIS”

I am a hopeless romantic. I am also a character analyst and an aspiring storyteller.

I MOSTLY post about shipping and talking about shipping is my primary source of fun. If that was all I ever did, then how in the EVER LOVING FUCK would that be your business?

What if - stay with me here - human beings are DIFFERENT from each other and thus some people GENUINELY WILL NOT get more out of their entertainment.

If they’re not actively engaging in literary criticism, then they’re not actively engaging in literary criticism.

Honestly the addition of “You might need to take a step back from shipping and maybe fandom in general.” is the part that REALLY SELLS THIS POST as bitter gatekeeping of fandom and - more specifically - how other people CHOOSE to interact with media.

You are not smarter or better or engaging with media “more correctly” or whatever for this. You just get enjoyment out of the deeper critical analysis while others do not.

Go find peers that engage with media the way you do and stop expecting the greater community to adhere to your personal tastes.

How do I tell people that sometimes if you turn your shipping brain off you can interact with media better

[kai-keda]

Hello I barely found your YouTube channel that you did dragon ball analysis which I thought was fun. I would like to ask what happened for you to stop liking dragon Ball?

Yo! I'm glad people are still checking that channel out. I want to get back to it asap but I currently have no internet so no way to send recordings to Manny lol

I would never say I stopped liking DB. I still love it a lot! I still argue that for its genre, it's a masterpiece of the craft of serialized manga making.

The fandom, however, was taking a massive toll on my mental health because of the type of toxicity within it. Especially in the DBTuber circles and especially especially with being a fem-presenting afab.

So for my own sake, I had to distsnce myself. Which was helped by the fact that I'm neruodivergent and tend to hop around from hyperfixation to hyperfixation.

There's good reason why I stuck with DB being my main focus for so long, but it was totally natural for me to move on.

I still love my oc and can still discuss analysis of the series. I'll often compare and contrast it to One Piece (my current fixation) and it's still brought up fairly often in other videos I make as a reference point.

But I would not hold my breath on there being anymore DB specific videos.

One day I may bring back and redo the entirerty of the Goku Dissection amd on thst day I may even bring back my patreon.

But the fandom, as it is, has too many bad people as BNFs, some of whom permanently scarred me with their disgusting treatment of me. I'm greatful for the fans I made, but I'm not quite ready to go back to that fandom as a whole.

[kai-keda]

I feel like it’s totally fair at this point to say that a majority of the problems in LMK’s writing come back to the crew being too heavily involved and close to fan content.

Note to self for the future:

Getting involved in a fandom of your own property may seem like fun, but it’s best you wait until after your part in the story is done.

Heck, iirc, a lot of issues with the Dragon Ball Super dub stemmed back to “Christopher Sabat wanted to make a joke that fans on twitter would giggle at” so this isn’t even the first time I’ve seen this sort of thing.

This is just the most obvious example of it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still really into LMK and I still do think it’s awesome. I still like the writing of the show and I still have faith that they can salvage this and pull back from “implying fanon they like”. It’s just that with every new bit of the show that comes out, my fan content is feeling less like “What if I expand on this concept?” and more like fix-it fics

[kai-keda]

how do you feel about s4 of lmk having a different showrunner and headwriter? it makes me concerned 😬😬

I’m not surprised because the Embrace Your Destiny specials had such a book-ending to them. Everything from the first season onward was tied up nicely at the end. To be perfectly honest, and friends from Discord can confirm this, I was Lowkey upset that the show was even CONTINUING after I saw that ending.

The series started with Tang having a narration about how “the story is never truly over” and it ends with Tang having a narration about how “the story is never truly over”. It’s beautiful. So it makes sense that the head writer and show runner have stepped down from the project. It’s a perfect point for it to either end or transition to something new.

Honestly, even if it was the same exact crew, my brain would be separating the first three seasons from whatever comes next because no matter what they do, it’s gonna feel disconnected from the previous stories due to that solid opening and ending.

Because that disconnect is already there for me, I’m not too worried about how future content will make me feel. That being said, there are some concerns I have based on previous experiences with fandoms and based on how I’ve seen this fandom act about “being right”.

Worst case scenario is we get another Dragon Ball Super situation. I don’t mean this in regards to the actual quality dropping, but more in how the atmosphere of the greater fandom will shift MASSIVELY.

Example Hypothetical:

DBK and PIF are shown in Season 4 to having not gotten their act together and continue treating Red Son like garbage which leads to a character arc of Red Son disconnecting himself from them entirely and fully joining the Monkie Kid Team.

Remember, whether this scenario sounds appealing or is well executed or not isn’t the point of this example.

Imagine this happens and you are left with half the fandom being excited because this is exactly what they wanted and have had all of their feelings on the subject validated by this. Meanwhile, the other half feels betrayed. There’s evidence of DBK and PIF doing better so why would they suddenly be so awful, right?

Now the part I’m concerned about is how these two halves would interact going forward.

The Dragon Ball fandom is a god dang WAR ZONE between people who don’t want to acknowledge DBS as a part of their personal canon of the series (cough cough - me) and the people who argue you HAVE to accept it (elitist dumbass assholes).

Now, don’t get me wrong, the Dragon Ball fandom is worse than the Monkie Kid fandom when it comes to forcing personal interpretations, analysis, headcanons and beliefs on other fans. But that doesn’t mean the LMK fandom doesn’t have those problems at all.

The LMK fandom ABSOLUTELY struggles with this.

See also “Wukong is canonically a father figure to MK” and “Red Son is canonically genderfluid” as only two examples. Both statements being objectively false because neither thing has EVER been stated in the canon of the show.

With the understanding that there’s a new show runner and head writer, there are - without a doubt - going to be fans who choose to say “I only go by the first part of the show”. Whether it has to do with relationship dynamics or characterization, there are going to be fans who have their current interpretations challenged by the new material and they’re going to blame the show runner/head writer rather than it just being something that filled in gaps they originally filled on their own.

Here’s my concern of how this is gonna turn out:

Rather than everyone coexisting, there’s going to be a shit show of a war between fans who don’t acknowledge anything post new crew and fans who think everyone HAS to accept everything from the show.

There’s going to be an overwhelming sense of who is “right” and “wrong” and the great LMK Civil Fandom Wank of 2023 - [whatever-year] is gonna pit brother against brother.

With the hypothetical I gave, we would see fans of the newer seasons putting the people who WANTED the Demon Bull Family to heal on blast with a sense of moral superiority via calls out stating “This user thinks you should never run away from abusive households!” (Which would not ACTUALLY be true of said user)

NOW

This isn’t GUARANTEED to happen, but I think it’s worth pointing out the possibility ahead of time. After all, being aware going in that there IS MOST DEFINITELY going to be people who don’t like what the new show runner and head writer have planned will be able to prevent us from going down a nasty path of proving why one side is “morally disgusting.”

If you or someone you know has been a victim of a Civil Fandom Wank of this type, you may be entitled to financial compensation

If you know the term “Fandom Wank” without having to look it up, you may be entitled to financial compensation

[kai-keda]

Goku a better father than Piccolo? Yet Piccolo exposed this sorry excuse for a dad!

Nah man, new translation of the manga just recently dropped. You should check it out!

[kai-keda]

Do you have any YouTube videos planned for this year? I love your analysis and how you combat bad ooc fandom arguments

Thank you so much for showing genuine interest in my content!

With a big move planned to happen this year, I'm currently letting myself settle into a routine post-holidays with a better balance of all my artistic endeavors including animation and analysis.

Once I get more settled, I'm pretty set on trying Patreon again since it was such a huge success before (I had to close it because I made the mistake of setting it to charge patrons monthly regardless of posted content and the stress tanked my mental health despite all my patrons at the time being super support and patient).

I have TONS of unfinished analysis videos and other ideas that I haven't even started on. I'm hoping getting into a routine and setting up a Patreon that only charges if content was posted (as well as planning on utilizing the freeze function this time) will get my butt in gear and motivate me to actually finish them.

(Especially considering Manny is willing to edit a majority of the video ideas I've got started/planned once they get to that point)

Since the Tumblr Anon's have been so kind lately, here's some working-titles of some analysis projects ^^ "Actually - You DON'T Know Death of the Author!"

"Man of La Mancha and Modern Fandom Culture"/"Man of La Mancha and Escapism"/"Man of La Mancha; The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Escapism"

"Embrace Your Destiny Was Kinda... Weak"/"I LOVE 'Embrace Your Destiny' But..."/"Good Fanservice, Bad Fanservice and How To Tell The Difference" "Stop Confusing Fanon for Canon"(possible supplement to Death of the Author)

"Sensitivity Readers and Why They're Important"/"Get Sensitivity Readers"/"Sensitivity Readers Are Crucial"

"Why I'm Salty Towards 'What If?' Style Videos"

"Fan Content is NOT for You"/"Fan Content is FREE"/"Respect Fandom Creators"

"Dragon Ball is NOT Journey to the West!"

"The Promised MK Character Analysis"

"Let Me Ignore Dragon Ball Super, I'll Let You Adore Dragon Ball Super"

[kai-keda]

what do you think of the demon bull familys "redemption"?

I like how it’s been handled thus far.

They’re still not perfect but there is clear effort from both Princess Iron Fan and Demon Bull King. The whole situation at the Season 1 finale was a real wake up call and Revenge of the Spider Queen added to said wake up call by A LOT for DBK.

I really love how they’re not being completely written off with Red Son disconnecting from them (even though I really thought it might go there and my first fic series “Redemption Takes Time” ran on that assumption and Red would have been valid for it cause the promise of them doing better does not make staying with toxic people a requirement)

The reason I love this subversion of my expectation is because there’s something really nice about having a show acknowledge that parents FUCK UP sometimes - and not just “Oh I accidentally scared them when I got frustrated” I’m talking permanently-affecting-their-kids-psyche fuck ups - and what matters at the end of the day is:

1) Intention

2) Admittance to the mistake

3) Shown effort in correcting the mistake

This concept is THE ENTIRE REASON for my Spicynoodle twins. ALL of the stories with them have that as a major theme if not the main focus. Yes, even the Nezha one. That’s what his whole conversation with MK was about.

Do I think PIF and DBK have shown a completed redemption arc? No. But I like the direction it’s going and I would love to see it completed if the writers can make room for them in the future.

I’m not holding my breath on them getting focus and us seeing every step of the redemption since they are not the main characters, but I’m hoping Red Son’s popularity will influence in a positive sense and give us more.

[kai-keda]

any new lmk hot takes 🔥🔥🔥

The LBD host - known in the active fandom as Bai He - does not need to become a major character and especially does not need to be a new member of the main cast.

Is there a lot of potential for her? Yes.

Could a lot of awesome storylines and character arcs come from her? Yes.

Does that automatically mean it’s best for the show to include those? No.

The “Embrace Your Destiny” specials really solidified a problem I’ve noticed from the beginning with the show’s writing by bringing all of the issues to a peak.

They’re trying to do too much in too little time.

In my initial analysis video of the show from when all that was out at the time was up to the Spider Queen Special, I brought up how I felt like the writers were forgetting to ‘Let your audience BREATHE’ because of how fast everything went. “Embrace Your Destiny” is the biggest example of this issue because there’s so much information being thrown at the audience that we hardly got any chance to process before the next big story-beat happened.

I could go on about that issue for forever and I’m considering making a video on it but after talking about it more than once in a server I’m in, I don’t feel it’s as big of a hot take as the Bai He thing.

The reason I bring it up, though, is because I feel a big reason FOR so many major story elements feeling rushed through is that there are too many characters that the writers are trying to develop.

Think about poor Sandy. We have three seasons - THREE SEASONS - of episodes and only ONE that touches on his character. This is made worse because the inner-conflicts we’re clued in on with him in “To Catch a Leaf” do not go ANYWHERE. I’m not saying they can’t or aren’t planning to in the future, and I’m not saying they’re required to give him a character arc for a good story (tho I could argue that it’s expected since he’s in the opening alongside everyone else and is presented as equally important), but it currently feels weird that he was so quickly regulated to “We don’t know what to do with him because we don’t have time to flesh him out at all so let’s just give him funny lines and faces while every other main character has a part in either developing their own arcs or the overarching plot.” AFTER they opened up an arc for him.

I honestly feel like if they didn’t have the time to explore his character and the conflicts he has further, then they would have been better off using that time for something else and saving the tease of his past for later.

The writers made a good call not including Red Son in Season 2.

You read that right.

Me, the person referring to Red Son as “My Dulcinea” because “Comfort Character” doesn’t do the subconscious emotions I discovered I have with him through hindsight justice and so the only terminology I can think of to do those feelings justice is referencing my favorite musical of all time that no one else has listened to in five ever and a day.

Me, the person who feels there’s so much to explore with his character and could easily find ways to fit him into the story of Season 2 narratively speaking.

I feel it was the best call to not include him.

Why? Because they didn’t have time to write the story they wanted while including justifiable reasoning for him to be there.

(Note that by ‘Time’ I’m referring to how long the episodes are and how many episodes they have. Not the deadlines to finish scripts)

If the show writers are already rushing through major plot elements in order to make sure they have plenty of time to close off Macaque’s arc (like when Red Son TOLD us that DBK and PIF ‘succumbed’ to the Lady Bone Demon and we saw NONE OF IT until they were released from her magic at the VERY END of the special which showed that Red Son and Mei had both ALREADY KNOWN THAT by the time we rejoined them as Mei wasn’t shocked to hear it) AND completely dropped/paused exploring/elaborating on Sandy’s inner-conflict that was already introduced to us in favor of having an entire episode introducing and solving a new one for Tang that we didn’t have any sign of him having before (that’s a whole ‘nother hot take)

Then what has everyone so convinced that they have time to explore possible major character arcs with the girl that was possessed by Lady Bone Demon?

We can justify it narratively and I could go on all day every day about concepts for the Fake Mayor being a past host that has been influenced by LBD for so long that he is a shell of his former self and that he and Bai He could have a beautiful bond over the understanding that no one else could possibly know what they went through better than they both do.

But does it fit in the shows genre/target audience AND do they have time?

I argue no to the latter and maybe to the former.

The girl the Lady Bone Demon had possessed will be best served as a character that occasionally comes in for some noodles (heck, I’d argue that she could work as a supporting character that is involved in some conversations about stuff going on because she’s around but still doesn’t have any full character-arcs of her own being explored in depth)

The show is adding too many characters and doesn’t have enough time to properly explore all of them.

Stop hiring more cooks.

Sandy doesn’t have room to make tea in the kitchen.

[kai-keda]

since we've got the discussion ball rolling, what did you think of macaques arc through season 3 and embrace your destiny?

i personally really enjoyed it! i think the writers did a good job not using him too much during s3 and loved the way his demeanor completely changes in ep9. i liked his "redemption" in EYD because it wasnt even really a redemption. hes not a good guy now hes just not a villain any more.

i think its also a plus that unlike some villain-hero team ups *cough* she-ra *cough* none of the cast (except maybe mk but thats up for debate) immediately (or at all) even like macaque, swk doesnt like him, pigsy doesnt like him, it feels more natural i guess?

im asking cause i remember you posting about want a sacrifice-redemption for him.

(sorry for all the long asks also)

Don’t apologize for these asks! I love them! They fuel me!

I don’t have much to add to this one, though, cause I agree with everything you said lol

I think they gave him the amount of time he needed and no more. I didn’t feel like anything with Macaque was unnecessary, especially considering how complicated his relationship with the heroes is. (Like how he started out purely wanting to mess with Wukong via using MK as a tool for that (cough-cough MK was Macaque’s weapon against Wukong) and then was dragged into fighting them because of LBD.

The moment where MK tells Macaque “Then be a warrior.” was SOOOOO satisfying and awesome and I’m pretty confident in saying THAT was the moment his arc came to a satisfying conclusion.

I wouldn’t say even MK immediately liked Macaque, though. I think he’s just more open to him by the end due to a character trait of being more emphatic to others. I mean, he was kinda yelling and fussing and acting frustrated with Macaque when they had him tied up. MK literally told him to shut up cause he was in time-out.

As for my posts about there not being a god-dang point if we didn’t get an ending that would match with “Leave Out All the Rest” from Linkin Park… those were mostly a joke.

Yes I really wanted that and was heavily advocating for it but I was also, much more quietly, bringing up the “Goes off to live isolated from everyone else and occasionally helps the gang in ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ style with bonus points if he causes minor mischief from time to time” possibility. (Heck, that possibility is what I was already going with for my stories with my spicynoodles fankids and having Xiaobo sneak off to bug Macaque into training him. The cast basically has a “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” relationship with Macaque in that universe)

The only thing I knew I 100% did NOT want from Macaque was for him to completely join the good guys and be considered a member of the team. Worse yet if Wukong’s mistakes with how he treated Macaque were treated as worse than how Macaque has responded to and treated others because of it. ESPECIALLY if Wukong never gets a chance to tell his side of what happened. (I am still holding strong to the theory that Macaque is an unreliable narrator)

It feels like making him a hero on the team similar to A:TLA’s Zuko would have cheapened Red Son’s arc since he is so clearly on that path and much further along it.

I’m glad we got what we did, even if I would have LOVED a redemption sacrifice.

Note that I never actually watched She-Ra and know so little about it that I thought the main character’s name was Catadora until I learned about a year ago that that was actually the ship name between the characters Catra and Adora

[kai-keda]

I just wanted to say that your recent analyses on Lego Monkie Kid have been excellent and well-constructed arguments.

Screenwriters are human, so they'll have narrative holes in their writing, likely by mistake. Thank you for helping to expose the plot holes in Lego Monkie Kid, for this will help other writers to avoid similar plot holes in the future.

I doubt I'm the only one who appreciates the firm way of how you backed up your arguments in your takes, and I have to say, I agree with the recent three you've posted. (The ones concerning Macaque, Red Son, Sandy, and Bai He.)

Awww this is really sweet!

I love this show so much, but it does have some flaws in the writing and I think it’s fair to point those flaws out without being accused of hating the show or the staff. Heck, the last post about Macaque was actually focused on how I LOVE how they wrote him and closed out his character-arc and WHY I loved it. The initial hot take that started this conversation was mostly a hot take about what I DON’T want to see happen and was against a very popular fandom expectation for the show as opposed to what the show actually did. Granted that post included pointing out flaws I’ve noticed in the writing (mostly about Sandy’s character) but the main point was more a cautionary “oh I hope they don’t do this…” thing.

Double granted I do have other issues with the writing but rushing through things and adding unnecessary stuff in there when they’re already working with not-enough time is the main problem.

(Seriously - what they did with Tang in “Benched” was weak and annoying and I’m actually bothered by how that episode started with a character feeling useless and ended with saying “You’re not useless cause here’s some magic powers” instead of “You don’t NEED to be useful to be a beloved family member and friend.” Or at least say he’s not useless by having him use the skills we have already seen him have. Like wtf actually did they do to our boy)

The only thing in the show I believe was an actual mistake that genuinely makes me UPSET to think about is Porty being in “Embrace Your Destiny.” (Even ignoring why I’m kinda meh on the specialty clones appearing after Duplictnation in the first place)There was no justification for that. At all. Not even any character reasoning. Like, him being there did. NOTHING. I feel bad saying that cause I’m mutuals with someone on Twitter who loves the clones - Porty especially - a heck of a lot and I love that for them, I really genuinely honestly do. I love their content that includes Porty and Mixtapeshipping and their original stuff for Porty is great! And they loved seeing Porty in EYD, and I don’t want to tell them that THEY have to hate that he was there all because I do.

But I just… I love Porty, too, he was really fun. His “Never forget… da music…” line before his ‘death’ was the moment I went “Oh shit this show is actually hilarious af” but the issue of time constraints being so glaringly obvious made Porty in EYD being better left on the cutting room floor and yet still in the episodes all the more frustrating.

And I always feel the need to say this just in case someone thinks I’m being unreasonable:

I do recognize that there was a possibility something he was doing with the car was making it go faster but that is SUCH a stretch because they did NOTHING to express that directly. We’ve never even seen him do anything like that before! And the ONLY REASON I can say that that MIGHT have been the intent was because of his line about the car being at “Maximum Porty” but, again, I’m stretching to make that connection. Because what does “Maximum Porty” mean, anyways??? Genuinely I stand by my theory that there was a whole episode cut after the initial drafts and the crew had to scramble to cut and paste things together.

Good fanservice? We get to see Red Son with his hair down. It didn’t interrupt or negatively impacted the writing.

Bad fanservice? Porty in Embrace Your Destiny. Gonna be really hard to get me to change my mind on that.

Now, as much as I appreciate the compliment and the point of how pointing out flaws in writing is not some terrible evil thing fueled by hated, I still feel the need to point out that I wouldn’t call these criticisms “plot holes”.

Nothing in what I said contradicts or actually makes the main plot of the story fall apart, imho. My criticisms are mostly about characterizations and feeling like arcs were dropped or mishandled and wanting to see better. The story is still solid but the characters and their arcs could have had more weight and meant more if these flaws in the writing weren’t there.

Heck, even my whole Porty rant - His biggest crime for existing is taking up time when he had no reason to be there. He didn’t break anything, he just… wasted everyone’s time.

Like you said, though, the writing staff is human. I don’t think they’re any less a talented crew for these flaws - far from it! And I still love this show and get a lot out of the characters and the stories otherwise I wouldn’t care to talk about it.

And remember!

The Lego Monkie Kid interpretation of Sun Wukong has never done anything wrong ever in his entire life and pissing in Buddha’s hand does not count.

[kai-keda]

Lego Monkie Kid Season 3 Spoilers Under the Cut

When you hold a negative emotion for too long and allow that to define your meaning in life, you open yourself up for being taken advantage of by others.

Lady Bone Demon revived Macaque back then and he accepted the help. Not because he was genuinely grateful to her, not because he wanted to repay the favor (he clearly didn’t) but because he saw it as an opportunity for revenge.

Macaque this entire season - and most likely continuing further on the story - has been about finding an answer to one question.

We know he is too prideful to follow LBD’s orders on virtue of this deal of theirs alone, but what exactly IS the nature of his pride?

Is it a sort of pride that refuses to bow to others regardless of the circumstances or is it the sort of pride that refuses to give up on what he’s started? (I say both but the question of which is more dominant is what we’re really asking)

If the former, he will turn against LBD and help the heroes if for nothing else but to make the point that he is the puppeteer and never the puppet. (This could technically be achieved by him setting himself free and not participating in a final battle but that’s boring and lame)

If the latter, he will give his entire self to LBD in the name of getting revenge on Wukong.

We’ve seen equal amounts of elements for both of these this season.

Him trying to get the Samadhi Fire for himself against Tang and then the visual cues of LBD’s magic literally taking over his physical self as one example for each.

Macaque’s arc so far has been a story of when pride fuels bitterness that won’t be let go.

Wukong’s arc so far has been a story of when pride fuels shame and isolation.

[kai-keda]

I miss when the LMK fandom loved Macaque for being an antagonist that’s proud of his ability to manipulate others. I like finding him sympathetic, I certainly do, but sometimes I feel like y’all forget he is genuinely unapologetic for his actions.

I mean, that line “You really are a good kid, you just have a terrible teacher.” kinda highlights this a lot. Macaque knows he’s messing MK up psychologically, and he is totally fine with it. “Yeah, I made you think you were a terrible person for being an awful friend based on my own very limited knowledge of said friendships and had shadow based versions of your friends physically attack you but Wukong ran off and isn’t listening when you try to tell him something’s up cause he’s too busy to notice you’re being messed with so who’s the REAL bad guy here?”

I like to approach this as him being blinded rage and vengeance for so long that he can’t comprehend where he is in the wrong. “Wukong wronged me first so I can do whatever I want.”

I wonder what sort of wake up call could work to snap him out of said blindness?

[kai-keda]

tbh i feel like one of the reasons sandy hasnt had a big arc is because he as a character already kinda has it together y'know?

another reason i think is we haven't had a villain who specifically challenges his viewpoint (except huntsman i guess?), like lbd is cruel (in a psychological way) but not excessively violent.

i hope next season they introduce a villain who really opposes sandys viewpoints (in a similar vain to how lbd opposes mks viewpoints) and he gets more screentime.

(sorry if this doesnt make like any sense i have trouble articulating myself)

(sandy vash arc 2022)

You were already making sense to me and the “Sandy Vash Arc 2022” REALLY sold your point to me!

Yeah, I mostly agree with what you’re saying, especially all the stuff about how Sandy needs an antagonist to push him through some kind of arc.

The main part I disagree with is the idea of him already having everything together. I can tell you from recent experience that it can be very hard to grow out of trauma/neurodivergent-related reactions and even if you do somehow, it’s not that those feelings go away but rather you learn to work with them. (Cough-cough, me relying too heavily on my medication holding back my impulsivity and anger to the point of not actually working on developing the necessary skills to combat that so when my medicine situation needed a change, I suddenly went back to having those issues and had no way to cope. And I am 27.)

“To Catch a Leaf” showed us that Sandy STILL has those moments of almost going back to that mindset and to the kind of person he was BEFORE his big transformation. The kind of person he is ASHAMED of being. (Which, actually, holy damn I am suddenly resonating super hard with him ngl)

The issue I have is that we were introduced to that being a conflict for him and then it was completely dropped and left unresolved. And not only was it dropped and left unresolved, but nothing in that episode other than Huntsman getting a Thing™️ for LBD’s soup affected anything in the current story arc.

As a comparison: MK’s introduction to LBD affected the story arc by being a driving force in his frustrations, anxieties, imposter syndrome and other issues of self-worth which led to him jumping in and spamming his Monkey King Powers while not noticing/caring that they were only hurting him in the long run. (I think it’s comparable to when you’re playing a video game and you get stuck in this one spot so you get frustrated to the point of just mashing buttons for a bit even if that wastes your time and hurts you in the long run)

VS.

Sandy’s flashback and moment of weakness nearly causing him to break his pacifistic vow to himself has lead to… what exactly? Everything with him after that is just… cute, funny, silly, wholesome and general helpful friend stuff.

Because Sandy’s fight with Huntsman didn’t actually GO anywhere in the LBD plot-line, it should have been left for the next story arc. Or at the very least, that moment of weakness that we got to see should have been held onto for later.

I don’t care how awesome and cool and otherwise amazing it was (which, yes, the execution of the moment itself was all of those things and more) - it still should have waited.

Having an antagonist that specifically holds the “I’ve had to use violence to survive my whole life and that has made me strong” mindset I think would be a PERFECT foil to Sandy specifically (I think it would also work as a philosophy MK would have to work against which would be important as we can’t make a main series villain that doesn’t challenge the actual main character of the show and it would be more powerful if an antagonist that draws out Sandy’s flaws was a main villain).

For Sandy, I would really like to see him struggling with standing his ground with being a pacifist (like Vash). How even if he understands why and doesn’t condemn others who fight (unlike Vash), he knows himself well enough to not like the person he becomes when he gets any level of violent and wants to avoid it. And yet there will be times where he will be pushed by the nuances of the world to find violence necessary. If that happens, I want him to struggle with and yet learn to ignore those arguments by sticking to “Even if violence is the only solution for others, I can not let myself go down that path again and I never will!”

As a final note, as fun as it would be to make more comparison art between Sandy and Vash if this were to happen, I think having an antagonist like Knives whose philosophy is “People suck; Blow them up” would be too similar to LBD.

I like this ask a lot! Really got me thinking more about Sandy in ways I’ve never put much thought into before.

[kai-keda]

If you can’t critically talk about the positives of a story, then you can’t critically talk about the negatives of it

[kai-keda]

NEW VIDEO ESSAY ANALYZING LEGO MONKIE KID CHARACTERS AND THIS TIME WE BRING DRAGON BALL INTO THE MIX!