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itsabouttimex2 · 23 days ago

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(I think I’m gonna drop this and see how it does cause I’ve been thinking on it for a while, and since I’m not exactly satisfied with my wording I’ll probably delete it, but for a day or two I’m gonna let it settle cause my feelings are split on this perspective and I don’t know if I’m blowing these things out of proportion…)

In general I just don’t really think MK is as good of a hero as the series wants him to be, not in that he’s a “bad person” so much as in that the show is so desperate to gas him up as a “true hero” that it actually warps from reasonable praise that fits in line with his actions to a level of shilling that his actual behavior doesn’t match up with at all.

(In short, if you don’t want to read the whole thing: MK is genuinely a good person, and he’s a functional hero, but when the series outright deprecates Wukong to hype MK up and has his villains remark on what a good hero he is, it really feels shallow on account of MK’s actions rarely going above “we fight people who threaten us”)

And for as much as Lego Monkie Kid does hype up MK (and sometimes his friends but especially MK) as “true heroes”, it’s never really willing to engage with him as being a hero outside of a very shallow “we fight whatever guys are trying to kill us”, -which leads to a very strange situation where his “heroism” usually goes only as far as batting a monster out of the city without any insurance to prevent it from coming back and doing more harm later on, or hell, maybe even just ditching Megapolis and going to attack some other city without a hero to protect.

(It’s especially wild given that MK was ENTIRELY willing to smash (and thereby implicitly reseal) DBK beneath a mountain in his first fight against demon and then entirely gives up on ever being proactive with the preventation of harm ever again because what the fuck kid you were literally on track the very first fight you ever had in your life?? Why’d you go and lose the plot when it made you look so much better???)

MK isn’t the person whose home is getting laser-nuked to ashes by Demon Bull King (there were miles of those in his first attack), and he’s not someone whose been stolen by the Spider Queen to serve as a slave (like Syntax), and he doesn’t get a calamitous fire fused with him after Macaque forces a world-threatening ritual to be performed under threat of his death (Mei), so HE can throw “second chances” out like candy, but that’s only because the narrative is never willing to engage with victims of these villains outside of their impacts on either him or the landscape, the second of which is almost always instantly glossed over or outright played for laughs, even for FLOWER FRUIT MOUNTAIN itself, and if it does have an impact on someone else then it’s only to have them be upset for a few seconds/a minute or two before outright pretending they never had experienced negative interactions begin with.

And giving out “redemptions” to the villains without actually really engaging with their victims (even within the main cast!) really feels less like a hero magnanimously giving someone a second chance and more like watching the hero keep doing what he’s been doing from almost the very start- letting dangerous jerks off the hook, even though they keep coming back to hurt people, but this time, after their fourth mass assault charge, they wander off into the sunset and this time instead of leading another assault they decide to become good people.

(With introspection and actual growth occurring offscreen, of course, because it’s not like the actual ARC of redemption arcs is the fun part/s. On, and all those victims they built up, all the damage they caused, the fear they inspired and the trauma they very likely left innocent souls with?? Never addressed, of course! Only MK’s traumas are important to the story, and they’re so important that most of his key character development involves getting punched with more and more of that angst without ever stopping to address that other characters have been suffering right alongside him, at least never for more than a few seconds/a single minute to explore a brief moment of insecurity or anger before that “flaw” gets packed up to be repurposed, ex: Mei is insecure about her heritage? Solved in an episode! But now she’s at Ao Guang’s place and she’s insecure about her heritage again! Oh, wait- solved in one episode- again!)

It’s especially jarring that the story sets up Azure Lion as a false hero for, essentially, being too proactive in his desire to fight evil and protect the mortal realm that he adores, where MK and his crew are “true heroes” for… waiting for threats to personally inconvenience them before dealing with those threats.

The leonine demon wants to go to the root of what he sees as a tree long rotten and rip it out to supplant it with what he believes is a better core (whether himself or Sun Wukong), while MK and his friends are content to ignore threats and let them fester as long as they aren’t currently fighting or being endangered by said threats. There’s never an actual clash between these perspectives and actions- it’s just “Azure is bad now and can’t control himself, so it’s ethical to beat him around,” which especially is absolutely fucking bonkers when it’s revealed Azure, despite being a soldier of the Jade Emperor, didn’t even know about the whole “this guy is holding the world together with his own power” thing and probably wouldn’t have iced the guy if he had known what would happen.

And on the topic of heroes, I’m also going to come in and say that Azure’s “delusional hero” characterization would be FAR more poignant and fitting if he had learned all that business and still went through with his plan with a “fuck it, I can ball” attitude based on his absolute assurance of his abilities and status as a hero… only to utterly spiral out of control anyways, instead of being hazily warned about dubious consequences by the Jade Emperor and Nezha instead of just being outright told that the world is almost guaranteed to end if he goes forward with this.

Along with Azure’s general character, the ecocide scene centered around knocking himself off of the “hero” pedestal he’s on is really just there to reassure MK (and the audience) about the kid’s status as a hero. It’s a nasty, unforeshadowed cop-out so the series can say “MK, don’t feel bad about fighting him! He’s actually not that good of a guy at all! Don’t feel bad about fighting Azure cause he’s done bad stuff and isn’t really a good guy! MK you’re a perfectly justified moral little boy! Azure doesn’t hold a candle to you!” and dashes his supposed ideals as a shallow veneer instead of having the characters engage with them to support the in-universe viewpoint that MK and his friends are just the very most bestest heroes ever.

(Not to mention that this reveal is literally delivered to the audience by Macaque, who just ass-pulls the knowledge of where to take MK and what to tell him about the big guy to change the kid’s mind in spite of never previously sharing so much as a single word or interaction with Azure to connect the two. Every day I believe a little more in my Macaque Replacement Theory)

So basically, the writers ended up tanking that complexity to give MK an easy moral victory when it could’ve been so cool to do something other than that, like MK acknowledging that hey, Azure is trying to prevent tragedy from occurring in the first place and was outright willing to take part in a siege on the heavens to ostensibly use the Jade Emperor’s powers for good where MK happily sits around until the threatening forces present in the world come to him and his home, and how neither of those paths is inherently “correct”, but any potential complexity is torpedoed with “Actually he’s delusional and needs to go down. Also his plan was inherently flawed and realm-threatening. And he committed ecocide. Also he’s toxic and projects onto the people around him. And his actions personally kill him to keep MK’s hands mostly clean.”

So essentially the narrative says:

“Azure, you should’ve known better than to play god by interfering with cosmic forces of the universe to do what you thought was best for it. This is objectively bad of you given information that existed outside of your knowledge and was inherently flawed and led to tragedy! Why couldn’t you just let things be?!”

While also saying:

“Anyways Season 5!MK, you can play god! You interfering with the cosmic forces of the universe to do what you think is best for it will be portrayed as heroic, dramatic, and sympathetic while also turning out to be the objectively correct and morally right decision! It’s good that you didn’t just let things be!”

And the “consequences” of the difference here are that: while MK and Azure Lion both have the chance to either stand complacently by in the face of what they consider a fixable injustice in the world, and all it takes is denying the cosmic authority that stands above them, and for denying it Azure dies, while MK successfully breaks an unfair and harsh cycle, gives the world cool superpowers, and gets to live on with his friends in a now eternal world.

And this wouldn’t be such a big deal to me if the story was willing to explore what the writers consider “true” heroism outside of… ??? What do they consider “true” heroism? When the good you’ve performed far outweighs the bad? When you… succeed? Is Azure castigated by the narrative for not succeeding? Clearly not, because he’s portrayed negatively in terms of his actions even before the consequences of killing the Jade Emperor set in. Is he only a bad guy for using deceit and subterfuge to get what he wants, because that also happens before he murders the Jade Emperor. I mean, the heroes aren’t above scheming and fucking around themselves-

Like breaking into the Celestial Realm, running roughshod, stealing, and then leaving without returning anything or explaining to anyone about what’s going on afterwards!

Is he a bad guy for wanting to upset the status quo? At some point it feels less like the narrative considers MK a “true hero” because they have a definition for what actually counts as that and more because he’s the protagonist and, well, they want to hype him up.

Basically and for the TLDR, the narrative is custom-built to morally reward MK for essentially all of his heroic actions, even if they fall sharply in line with what the “bad guys” were doing just a season earlier or are outright as shallow as giving attempted mass murderers a dozen second chances to try and kill more innocent people, also without ever truly addressing or applying in-universe consequences for the run-off of his actions such as bringing the trigram furnace to earth and leaving it there, concealing his meeting with the Lady Bone Demon, releasing the Ink Curse by fucking around with the scroll for more than a few seconds or a quick remand before moving past it.

And, can we stop right here and think about a role swap for a moment?

If Sun Wukong had done ANY of that, we all fucking know that the story would’ve stopped sharp to rip him a new asshole and have at least one person would stop to shriek at him about what an irresponsible person he was, about how bad of a mentor he is, about how stupid it was for him not to clean up loose ends. But MK receives a bare minimum throwaway scolding from one of his friends + Ink Curse for releasing it, which doesn’t impact how they or the fandom view him at all.

This is especially egregious for the fact that Wukong is treated like a knuckle-dragging lobotomite by the story (and fandom) whose feats are far surpassed by MK when the Monkey King actually managed to crush his foes in varying ways (destroying their kingdoms, imprisoning them, killing them, etc) that ushered in an era of peace that allowed for rapid technological advancement… but now they’re back and he’s getting beaten over the head for everything, which unintentionally makes it clear that showing mercy in Monkie Kid is just a really, really stupid thing to do unless you’re the super special central protagonist and the writers want to hype you up as the very goodest little boy in the whole wide world over who has full moral authority to allow his city and friends and world to be threatened again and again and again… as long as he’s being “nice” about it.

#Lego Monkie Kid #LMK #LMK Critical #MK #Qi Xiaotian #Azure Lion #Sun Wukong #As the seasons go on and MK becomes more and more capable of fulfilling the ‘super special-est little boy in the world’ trope #he steadily becomes a less enjoyable character #Peak MK was our ambiguously-aged delivery driver doing his best and being generally relatable to the audience #And now he’s literally a divinely crafted being brought to existence with motherlodes of power inherently baked into the core of his being #When the ‘chosen’ aspect of your character is that a single being chooses to train you as their own student #it’s a lot more compelling than ‘the universe’s divine forces wanted you to be special by design’

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the-night-writer1 · 10 months ago

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The Drawings on The Walls

A lil nightmares au post escape angst ahead.

It was much warmer here , the little one thought as he carried some crayons to his place in the corner. He didn't quite know why things were smaller here or where the monsters had gone. He also didn't know who these big kids were but they were nice even if he didn't understand them well. Red boy did because it was the same thing his momma spoke before she became a monster.

They had given him what Red Boy said was a name. He'd never had a name before, big brother just called him tiny brother. Now he was Shanyao or Shanny or lil guy. The big kids even fixed his leg while he was sleeping and the scarf man was here! He wasn't sick anymore and big brother couldn't pull Shanny away! Shanny had missed him and the protection he gave though it was weird seeing him move talk and eat. His skin was warm now and he was somehow less boney. He also smelled nice now and was smaller.

Shan was just happy to have a familiar safety in all this. He was scared of the big kids who looked like big brother and Red brother. They were clearly imposters as they were too tall to be big brother or Red Brother but they seemed to understand that he didn't trust them. Who would after the originals left him and Red Boy to die in the fleshy eyeball hell. If shadow monkey hadn't shown up afterwards while they were falling, they'd still be trapped there forever. With all the eyeballs and gunky flesh.

Red Boy told him they were asking him about what happened but Red Boy didn't remember enough of his Mama's language to even come close to telling them anything. Shanny didn't even stand a chance at an attempt as he only knew two words which Red Boy taught him. Bathroom and Drink. So how had Shanny decided he'd share his story? He'd draw pictures!

He was a decent drawer from what Big brother said and he had a huge canvas using the wall! He could make it all connected so the big kids wouldn't be confused. However where to start? The scary plant man or maybe what use to be Red Boy's mama?

He sat there and pondered for a moment. It probably be best to start with plant man because he did something to Shanyao's eyes. Shanyao and Big brother had been exploring this pretty garden when he came out of nowhere. Then they were running and Shanny got stuck because he was too small to get to where big brother was.

Shanyao shivered remembering the way he was held by the plant man. Looking into those angry yet hollow eyes staring into his soul. Then the red flower petals that extended from his free hand. Then the pain that followed was Shan passed out.

He only drew the plant man holding him though. It be too hard to put all that in to pictures. He woke up to big brother repeatedly stabbing the plant man with a sharp rock. Big brother was so mad at him. Shanyao had to lead Big brother away which is what he drew next. They were even holding hands!

Shortly after that they met Red Boy and Red brother who were being treated like toys by what the noise turned her into. That was gone too wasn't it? Shanyao was able to block it out before now. He had to draw her just right, big with jagged teeth and ucky grey skin. Definitely easier to draw her holding them both . Red Boy was mad and Red brother just looked sad. Oh Shanny couldn't forget when he was brave and saved Red boy from drowning! That was super important.

Should he draw the mean school man or how he hurt his leg? Maybe draw the big mountain and the monkey man on the TV? Not shadow monkey, the other monkey, the evil monkey with the red eyes. Shanny never understood why Big brother liked that guy, he turned people into monsters. He crossed out the monkey and the mountain with a big red crown a few times. Bad monkey.

Wait he had to draw shadow monkey! They did bring him and Red Boy here after all. He was always there when Shanny touched a TV. Shanny just wished he knew that shadow monkey was just trying to help sooner.

He paused for a moment as he thought of what to draw after shadow monkey. Maybe trying to save Red brother and Big brother? No that wouldn't work maybe he should draw how they ended up here? Big brother got so cold.

Has he finished the last drawing someone called out to him. He turned his head confused.

---

The group stood huddled around the corner of the noodle shop. Pigsy been so busy making orders he hadn't noticed the little guy drawing on the wall until Mk pointed it out. Now that the shop was closed and everyone involved with the mysterious children who could fit in his shop were here. They were trying to decipher it.

"clearly these ain't random doodles they got story to them he even drew arrows" Pigsy said as he gestured to the first drawing at the very bottom," Shan's eyes are white in that one and I think that's Nezha"

" I wonder what the green is about. However, it seems my theory about his eyes was correct if he did draw Nezha. It's a spiritual and physical wound." Iron fan said as she studied the little boy's drawing," and you say he drew this out of the blue?"

"I wasn't paying attention to him and Tang was out. So yeah this was unprompted" Pigsy stated as he looked at the little guy just chilling in Tang's arms. Little fella had no idea what they were saying so how'd he think to draw all this? From what they'd learned Shanyao knew no mandarin and the Red kid only knew a few words.

"then my theory was correct mother. The children understand each other." Red son said with his arms crossed," we've been asking Red Boy about his world and Shanyao suddenly unprompted draws events from before their arrival."

" Yes dear you are clearly correct but what concerns me is what Shanyao as drawn for us" Iron fan spoke as she touched one of the drawings," why is Wukong crossed out?"

"look at that hand! He did such a good job" Mk said cheerfully before being hit upside the head by Mei,"what?"

"that's not the point Mk! Shanyao clearly drew all this to tell us something!" Mei huffed as she pointed to the bottom picture with Nezha," something clearly really bad happened if that Nezha attacked children!"

"and it looks like Red Boy nearly drowned in this one mother." Red son mentioned as he pointed it out to Iron fan," that might be why only father can bathe him. He's afraid of the water."

"what about this one? What's with the eyes everywhere while their falling?" Pigsy asked as he pointed to the other two kids," and why ain't they falling to?"

"easy guys we'll figure this out eventually let's not rush it" Wukong finally chimed in only to be glared at by Pigsy," what we just teach Shanny to talk and he'll explain it"

"that ain't easy Wukong. It took two years before Mk could speak and he at least understood me. We don't know how much Shanyao understands and Red Boy barely understands anything. If anything follows them we need to figure it out!" Pigsy stated coldly as he gestured to Tang who was distracting Shanyao with a cookie,"they fell out the sky remember?!"

"Pigsy calm down my friend we will figure this out." Sandy said as he patted Pigsy's back.

"the man is right though whatever happened there we need to stop from happening here. Red son my dear boy take pictures of these drawings so we can show them to Red Boy when we get home. Maybe he'll be able she'd some light here"

"Yes mother" Red son said as he took pictures of the wall with his phone. It was a hopefully thought as the only people that child didn't try to attack were Shanyao, father and for some reason the scholar.

"Guys your getting loud and it's scaring him" Tang stated as the little boy buried his face in Tang's neck. Pigsy sighed they'd figure this out eventually.

#little nightmares au #lego monkie kid #lego monkie kid au #monkie kid #lmk #lmk mk #lmk oc #lmk shanyao #lmk red son #lmk wukong #lmk pif #lmk pigsy #lmk tang #lmk mei #lmk sandy #lmk red boy #lmk macaque

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