#Mk legacy so good go watch.

[capyvan]

A very unnecessary and long post on why "Mortal Kombat: Legacy" has my favorite version of Sub-Zero Bi-Han.

(English isn't my first language so I'm sorry if i repeat myself a lot)

I've been planning on starting to make posts about this show since there is SO much to say, and I feel like it's not appreciated enough.

No. It is not perfect MK media, but it does embark on some very awesome concepts and ideas I've taken myself for AUs so I feel the need to spread the word.

That's why before you read this I recommend you check out the show itself! Is free on YouTube to watch, though I should warn y'all it ends on a cliffhanger that makes me wanna cry knowing it was canceled but i say it's still worth the watch.

For today’s post, i wanna talk about a character that while isn't one of my personal favorites, it surely has become one in this show.

Also i wouldn't call this a serious character analysis this is just me rambling about a dead man 😭.

. . .

For starters, Sub-Zero Bi-Han was never a character that caught my attention. My first introduction to him was MK1 and I'll be honest. 

It is my least favorite version of him atm, so I was relieved to see that he had been done better justice in the older sagas of the franchise… sort of.

I thought "MK: Mythologies Sub-Zero" was gonna be the only version of him I would be invested in, but then I decided to start watching "MK Legacy" and my perspective changed completely. 

I will be more so specifically talking about episodes 7-8 of season 2 since that's where we look at his lore more in depth, but season 1 is absolutely worth mentioning. 

Then after summarizing those, I'll give some closing thoughts.

. . .

In episodes 7-8 of season 1, we get introduced to Hanzo’s backstory and how he became Scorpion (my favorite version of it as a HUGE Hanzo fan.) 

I adored watching this interpretation of Harumi and Satoshi (called Jubei here) and how they interacted with Hanzo, and as always, the tragedy of it all. But this is still about Bi-Han.

Getting tricked into leaving his village earlier than expected, Hanzo encounters “Bi-Han” on his way to the Kumamoto Castle. You can already imagine what happened to his family and clan while he was away. 

After defeating “Bi-Han”, Hanzo runs back to his village only to find that everyone had been slaughtered (this scene actually almost made me start crying.) 

Before he even gets time to process the death of his wife and son, he is backstabbed (quite literally) by “Bi-Han”. 

It is revealed, like usual, that this entire time it was Quan Chi disguised as Bi-Han and was also helped by Shang Tsung to perform this attack on the Shirai Ryu. He quickly converts Hanzo into the vengeful specter he is so he will participate in the Mortal Kombat tournament and in exchange, he will be able to get his “revenge”. 

Now none of this is really news. Yes there are changes there and then but what if i told you this is a lot more tragic than you think?

Not only did Hanzo lose his family and clan, he died thinking he was betrayed by his childhood friend, who had sworn to agree to peace between their clans. 

That's what finally leads us to season 2 ^_^ 

. . .

In season 2, they take a very interesting spin on the Sub-Zero and Scorpion rivalry. Like I mentioned earlier, Hanzo and Bi-Han were actually childhood friends.

They would meet up at the hayfield outside their villages to play and train together, which I believe might be one of my favorite takes on their relationship. I think making them childhood friends makes their relationship a lot more deeper and interesting than it is presented in the games. 

While they sparred however, Kuai Liang appears and tries warning his brother of their father and his guys coming over to stop them but Bi-Han doesn't listen, which ends up with both him and Hanzo getting in trouble whenever the Shirai Ryu member's father shows up as well. 

As Hanzo is taken by his respective father, Bi-Han’s reminds him of the rivalry between the Lin Kuei and Shirai Ryu. 

“Why do you keep playing with that boy?”

“Because he is my friend.”

“He is not your friend.”

“But why?”

“His clan aren't to be trusted.”

“But why?”

“It's the way it's been since before your grandfather was born.”

Bi-Han still doesn't understand it, but his father dismisses him. 

They nailed the childlike curiosity and confusion in this. Maybe it's just because I love these types of tropes, but it was a delight to see just tiny Bi-Han and Hanzo be friends and play together despite their differences. 

20 years later, we get reintroduced to Hanzo, taking a walk with Harumi and Jubei.

Jubei separates from his parents as he runs deeper into the road, and ends up encountering Kuai Liang and two of his goons, who hold him captive as Hanzo has to intervene to help his son. 

Kuai Liang talks about how Hanzo and his family are intruding in Lin Kuei territory, so Hanzo argues that the road is neutral, decreed by the shogun.

Hanzo then threatens to tell Bi-Han about this intrusion which leads to a confrontation between the two. 

It ends up with something I found EXTREMELY unexpected, that being the death of Kuai Liang.

Now I can't say I like this version of him at all, but it is interesting seeing a version of Kuai that not only doesn't survive, but also seems egotistical and ambitious. As kind of lame as his death was imo I still thought he was.. something. They had to sacrifice him for the better Bi-Han. Fly high 🕊🕊🕊

Later on, Hanzo and Bi-Han reunite at the same place they played as children to settle things about Kuai’s death.

Bi-Han believes Hanzo when he tells him he wasn't the aggressor in the situation and grieves about how Kuai Liang had always felt underappreciated. He still apologizes on his behalf, and he and Hanzo agree to never have the clans clash with each other again as they shake hands like good friends do!

Tweaking trying not to mention Bihanzo this entire time tbh. But point is:

There is something extremely charming about this version of Bi-Han and Hanzo trying to settle the differences between their clans. It makes what comes next so much worse, but also a lot more fascinating like how the Hell did they not make this canon in any of the games. 

But yeah at this point you know this won't have a happy ending.

Next scene shows us Bi-Han being awakened from bed, being given the horrible news. 

Hanzo, his family and clan, were all gone. Brutally murdered by his men. 

He snaps, and I just have to share the dialogue in this because it drives me insane.

“Hanzo and I had a truce. This was to be a new era. An end to the senseless violence. Then why do I wake from my bed to find you, who I entrusted my men to-.. Hanzo? His whole family? His entire clan? Slaughtered. He who I had promised to end this violence.”

This alone says a LOT about Bi-Han's character. 

He never wanted this to keep going. He just wanted to have peace between the clans, to have an alliance with his friend who had trusted him. His friend who is now gone. He didn't wanna walk into his father’s footsteps and this makes Quan Chi even more of a fucking asshole than in the games and DAMN IM ALL HERE FOR IT.

As he is about to go off, he is interrupted by a mystic of the Lin Kuei, offering to show him the truth of what had happened. 

In between this they throw a flashback of Hanzo to remind us that he died thinking Bi-Han killed his family just to add salt on the wound i guessssss. 

We then cut back to the mystic and Bi-Han, who shows him what truly happened and the participation of Quan Chi and Shang Tsung. 

Having Bi-Han find out who Quan Chi is from the beginning is another interesting idea from this series (not counting mythologies here) and I like the fact Bi-Han mainly joined the tournament to make amends with his old friend. 

But I also sit down and think about how horrific it must have been for him, seeing Hanzo being stabbed and told lies by someone pretending to be him. Just seeing his dead friend and family must have sent shivers down his spine (no pun intended).

In the end, it cuts back to the present, the fight between Sub-Zero and Scorpion. 

The fight ends as you would expect, Hanzo wins and murders Bi-Han, finally getting “revenge”. But if everything that I've told you so far doesn't make his death tragic enough, then maybe his last words will. 

“No- Hanzo! I gave no such order! You’ve been deceived! Please Hanzo don't do this-”

Gets decapitated without a chance.

. . .

Now to explain why i dig this verison of Bi-Han so fucking much.

I believe that MK Legacy gave so much more to his relationship with Hanzo, as well as actually making me feel awful for his death.

A pretty recurring theme in the MK franchise is to have Bi-Han Sub-Zero be quickly killed off and replaced by Kuai Liang, just to later turn into Noob Saibot. So not only was it refreshing to see something different that actually made me upset he was unfairly killed, it was also nice to see a “what if”.

What if he and Hanzo were childhood friends? How much would that change their rivalry in the games?

What if Kuai Liang had just died or never turned into Sub-Zero so early? How different would events turn out if Bi-Han had only time to shine longer?

What if he did find out about Quan Chi impersonating him early? Would he also go on a quest to hunt him down scorpion style for slandering his honor? Or would he care at all?

While this series answers these questions (in a way) they have so much goddamn potential to be a plotline in an actual mortal kombat game LIKE IT'S INSANE. 

I personally have the belief that MK1 could have even improved by borrowing some of these concepts. 

Have Hanzo be their childhood friend instead of Harumi. I would have loved to see a rivalry like this between Lin Kuei and Shirai Ryu in the new era, but guess NRS just loves crushing everyone’s dreams (I refuse to blame Lulu for this.) 

Overall, all these new concepts and the way they were delivered is why this is my favorite version of Bi-Han ever created.

It makes Noob Saibot a lot more tragic than he already was, and it lets me explore who Bi-Han was as Sub-Zero before that transformation. 

PLEAAAAAASE someone has to see the vision (and the Bihanzo one too if interested wink wink) (i also like Kuaihanzo btw) 

[kyri45]

A final letter

Hello Everyone!

The queue is paused and everything is scheduled, which means we are ready for the finale!

I know that, in the end, this was just a silly side project for me, with everything else going on in my life. But for this occasion, I wanted to drop some words here and hope they make sense.

I started watching LMK only because a friend told me there was a "Sonadow-coded" ship. I ended up consuming the entire thing in one sitting on July 10th, 2024. At the time, I was still recovering from a bike accident that had left me with a broken right forearm—unable to draw for a little over a month. (I did try drawing with my left finger, but it wasn't exactly fun.)

Not only that, but it was summer, and I couldn’t enjoy the season or practice my main sport, windsurfing. To say I was feeling the blues is an understatement. I remember being in physical pain just from not being able to draw my sillies. But then, watching LMK did something to my brain chemistry that my little undiagnosed autistic self had never experienced before. It hit so hard that I’ve been physically unable to rewatch the show SINCE that very first day. (And y’all still call me the CEO of this fandom. Bro, I just work here.)

A lot of you have asked what inspired me to start this comic or to draw LMK fan art in the first place. While my usual answer is, "I saw Shadowpeach and thought MK could be their lovechild, given his appearance," the moment that actually started it all was THIS ONE—

(I HAD TO REWATCH THIS SCENE TO MAKE THE GIF AND IT HURT ME ON A MOLECOLAR LEVEL)

I have… a thing for characters who discover their entire identity was something else all along. It consumes my thoughts, my dreams, my every waking moment. I live for identity crises, for characters who thought they knew who they were, only to be forced to rediscover themselves, their existence, and their place in the world. If you give me a story where a character has to go through that, I will like it—regardless of how bad the rest of the story is.

Pair that with loads of trauma, daddy issues, the pressure of a legacy, and world-ending stakes, and congrats! Now I’m obsessed, and I will not stop thinking about it for the rest of my days!

At first, my brain just wanted to release some of that energy with a small, four-panel post about the monkeys discovering that MK was technically their kid.

That was supposed to be it.

But since I never seem to learn my lesson, it didn’t stay like that. Because once I started drawing, I just... continued.

And

I

never

stopped.

A lot of you have also asked how I found the motivation to draw so much, to never take a break. Well, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it one last time: I am my number one fan. No matter how much you laughed, cried, screamed, or went feral over this story, I did all of that and more. Because I got to think about the chapters months before they released. I got to daydream about them. I got to watch them come to life—first through sketches, then line art, then dialogue. And finally, I got to witness your reactions and see the incredible creations you made, inspired by my story.

So yeah, in a way, it was almost an addiction. A good addiction. Because, for the first time in my life, I actually understood what loving art means.

I’ve been drawing for ten years, working professionally for five, but I never loved art before. I just liked it because I happened to be good at it. But creating this comic made me understand why artists say, "Oh, I’ve loved drawing since I was a child!" This was the first time I allowed myself to create purely for my own enjoyment. Something I hadn’t had the privilege to do for a long time.

Other than making me feel even more single than I already was, this story somehow also helped me a little with my own family relationships. So yeah. Crazy how the gay monkeys changed my life.

Of course, I never could have predicted how much traction my AU would gain. Man, y’all were really starving to latch onto something this silly. /j

But yeah—thank you. Thank you for sticking around until the end, for having the patience and trust to follow the story even when I made you rage with angst and cliffhangers. (The statement in my bio still stands: I am not responsible for any physical or emotional damage my art has caused.)

I’m absolutely shit at thanking people, or at writing, or at talking in general, honestly. I’m the furthest thing from being good with words, so I hope the final chapter will be enough to show you my gratitude.

Through this story, I met so many wonderful, talented people. I watched as fans across different platforms found each other through memes and fanart of the AU. I saw artists start their own AUs inspired by mine, growing their own communities. I witnessed an explosion of creativity and collaboration through our takeovers. And I laughed along with you all.

And yeah—at its core, this story has always been about love. Whether it’s platonic, sibling, parental, romantic, or whatever the hell Mac and Wukong had going on for millennia.

At its heart, it’s a story about family.

And maybe, in the end… the real family wasn’t just the one in the comic, but the one we’ve found together along the way. 💛

See you all at the finale.

Love you all, freaks /affectionate

Jade

[mrstsung]

My rankings for shang tsungs.

These are just my opinions.

💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚🐍💚

1995 shang tsung: come on guys. How can you be a mk fam and not like him?! He's the og. The shang tsung. Everyone literally imitates his shang after this movie. Not even joking. But yeah top tier for a reason.

Mk11 shang tsung: the closest 2nd his cary reprisal of the character in mk11. Good lord we will never get that ever again! He wa sso damn good in that game. The story being mid as it was,he was worth it all. Unf i love him sm

Mortal kombat legends shang tsung: underrated as fuuuuuuck! Like if the script didn't suck and they gave him more time and didn't cheapen him out. He would've been the best shang tsung in animation. Honestly,im so damn mad man! Them jammies. I want them.

Mortal kombat conquest shang tsung: also underrated. This shang had everything against him and he still kicked ass and was boss as fuck! Pulled no punches. And yet all the punches.

Mortal kombat 9 shang tsung: classic. How can you not love him. He's lower on the list because he dies so damn stupidly. Ugh.

Mortal kombat 21 movie shang tsung: cool shang. But not nearly as good as he could be. But he's higher because he at least is intimidating like shang. And has the charisma and charm still.

Mk12/mk1 shang tsung: *sigh* low tier only because the story sucks and his narrative in the story sucks. He should've been given a better narrative. If he had some intimidation factor to him. If alan lee was given more than crumbs. Maybe maybe he would've been higher. Shang is smarmy yes but not "THAT" smarmy. Like he has grace still,it feels like a joke and not actually something interesting added to the table enough. Alan i love you but no. I feel like he needs to not copycat mk11 shang aka cary hiroyuki tagawa. And honestly try to be his own shang tsung HONESTLY. I dont feel his shang being genuine enough to believe it. But also he's still cute so he's lucky. But i still can't place him high because his shang hasn't earned it. And honestly it's hard to replace cary. He set the standards sooooo high for me. So any other shang is good just always missing something. But then again,the writers suck. So not his fault. Still there can be hope....maybe....if nrs and wb like quit being weenies.

Og comics shang tsung(aka the crappiest version imho and for good reason): the og comics were before anything established so it gets forgiven for that. But it's not very kosher so....yeah. bottom tier. Entertaining,yes. Good? No. However....it is mk history,and is important to know your roots. So still important to read.

Honorable mentions: mk legacy shang tsung. Honestly deserves a spot because it's refreshing and cary once again reprising his role. But i can't have a full analysis yet. I have to watch his version there in full,tho i heard it wasn't good till he showed up so....i dunno maybe I'll try to find the episodes with him in it and see for sure. But bald shang is interesting af to me. Another honorable mention is defenders of the realm shang tsung. Ah the cheesy cartoon. A guilty pleasure of mine. Mk shouldn't be a kiddie cartoon but it did. But ironically it had more love put into the character development than any of the games every did. Especially sonya. Weird af. But welcomed. Shang tsung was exactly what you'd expect,bad guy got beat up. And only in like 2 or 3 episodes. Lol. But eh,it is what it is. He was fun.

That was my tier list. Now i didn't go into detail too much as it's late here. But this was also for fun too.

[qingyingpocketlirary]

Written, never said; From A Daughter. To her Parents.

These letters were found in a desk drawer and relocated to a locked box beneath the mother’s lock and key where the father can not burn the last words of the daughter away. This was done after a worried mother sought to try and better understand the child she had failed to better protect from a stern and unwavering father’s dominance. 

One of these letters is unread, ignored and slightly crumpled from being tossed aside, the other is pristinely kept and cherished. The handwriting is cursive and neat, written with care and intent, and at the foot of the cherished letter, there are traces of tears that were shed during the writing process.

The Forgotten Letter reads;

‘Dad,

I know that you will never bother to read this, but at least by writing it down, I can get it all off my chest and not have it all bottled up inside me anymore, something mom taught me.

Let me start off with the usual answers.

No. I do not care about all the rules and regulations you have tried to drum into my head over the years, and despite what you think of my friendship with MK, he is one of if not the only good thing to happen to me. He actually listens when I talk to him, he lets me be who I want to be when we’re out at the arcade or when we go racing and no matter what you or anyone else thinks, no, we are not dating nor do I see him as a potential husband. He is my best friend, and that’s it.

Yes, I understand, even if you don’t think I do, that we have a legacy to uphold. But let me take this time to remind you both that it was once upon a time our ancestors, the same ones you so love to try and compare me to, rebelled against Heaven and it took Third Lotus Prince Nezha to bring them all to heel again.

Is that how you wish me to be? To become cruel and wicked just to impress you? To challenge Heaven as the Monkey King did to try and earn you some fame? Or would you rather I was some weak willed maiden who you could marry off to some distant cousin or uncle who could force me to submit?

Don’t be shocked. I have heard you talking on the phone at night when you think I am asleep. I know the only reason you haven’t sent me away to be married is because you know I have fans who will riot if I suddenly turn up missing from races and you don’t want the bad publicity like our Northern relatives did when their daughter spoke out about the abusive marriage they forced her into two years ago. You can’t stand my hobbies, but now I know that it's because of them and my popularity that you can’t ship me off.

Since you’ve made your stance on my life choices perfectly clear as of late, I’m going to do something I should have done when I finished college. But don’t worry, you’ll figure it out if you ever actually bother to watch my stream vods, or read the life updates on my racing profile page.

Pigsy and Mr. Tang helped me find a studio apartment with space for me to keep streaming and closer to the race course. By the end of the month, I’ll be officially living on my own and you won’t have to worry about me bringing trouble to your doorstep.

Consider this unsent letter, if you find it should you ever bother to come into my room and look through my stuff, as my goodbye to you. I know by doing this, you will cut me off from the family’s wealth. As if that would somehow scare me into returning. But I can assure you, I make enough from race winnings and my streams to survive on my own.

I don’t need you to survive in the world Dad, I have friends, fans and MK to help me should I ever need them. And that is worth far more than the praise you’ll never give me.

From your daughter,

Long Xiaojiao.’

The Cherished Letter reads;

‘Mom,

I am so sorry.

I know I am not the daughter you wanted, ladylike and proper, a true flower of the garden and all that. But I just can’t live that way Mom, I can’t be like my cousins and you, I can’t just ignore a whole other life I can live where I don’t need to rely on someone else to pay for me, to treat me like I’m some kind of decorative doll to be paraded around for show and tell.

I know my leaving is going to hurt you, and I wish, so badly I wish you would just stand up and tell Dad to come out of the ancient past and realise being a Long isn’t all it's cracked up to be anymore. But I know you won’t, for whatever reason, you love him more than you love yourself, and so I know even if I offered, you wouldn’t come with me.

Please don’t worry, Mom. Mr Tang has helped me install the very best security cameras for the apartment, and MK went with me to find deadbolts for the door and window locks. Pigsy even took me shopping to find a good stove and the best quality kitchen utensils, and he’s been teaching me how to cook more meals since I told him I was moving out. The apartment is right across from Mr Tang’s workplace, so if I need anything he can come by and help out. MK is going to help with grocery shopping once a week and when he's on deliveries he’s gonna make sure to double check everything is good around my place too.

I promise I will email you once every week, just like I do now, so you’ll know I’m ok. And I promise, if Dad doesn’t block my number, I'll call you once a month so we can talk, even if it’s not for a long time. 

Again, I’m sorry I’m not the daughter you wanted. 

But at least I can take pride in the fact you loved me, and raised me to be independent and free. 

Love, kisses and hugs,

Mei.’

The Mother reads her daughter’s letter often and weeps silent tears as she cradles it to her heart.

The Father ignores the letter and does not speak beyond brief pleasantries of the child in passing conversation with relatives.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This bit in to my brain and refused to let go until I wrote it out.

Enjoy!

[imminent-danger-came]

Hi there! So, I don't know if you’re in the mood to have your brain chemistry altered by the silly little lego show once more, or if you’ve just already done this, but I have a suggestion. Try watching the S4 special (specifically A Lifetime of Mistakes) for the millionth time, and then take that knowledge, along with the Wukong-Macaque/MK-Mei Hero and Warrior parallels we’ve been getting, and THEN go rewatch S1E6 AKA The Great Wall Race. Specifically through that particular lens.  

And just… enjoy watching the decisions they, especially MK, make during a situation where an immortality-granting object is on the line. Have no major thoughts about how this is the first real fight we see Mei and MK have. Experience absolutely zero strong emotions as you watch MK’s pursuit of that object lead to him destroying things that both of them love. Just… have a lovely, peaceful rewatch. 

But seriously, if you’re in the mood to let the silly little monkey show do its silly little monkey show thing, try rewatching that episode because it legitimately ruined my night. 

Like… it’s not a perfect, one-to-one comparison. There’s a lot of differences, both nuanced and obvious, that differentiate the two situations. 

But there’s something there and it’s been driving me insane, so feel free to come join me on the precipice of madness if you want.

*GRABS YOU*

I HAVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THIS FOR DAYS. ANON, YOU GET ME IN A WAY THAT NO ONE ELSE DOES, WE ARE TOGETHER IN ARMS.

But anyways *puts on sunglasses* I always have zero emotions when it comes to the lego show. Me? Completely calm and collected. I totally didn't have a breakdown while rewatching 1x06 to write this post.

But, just to meander on by the precipice of madness...

Mei: "*gasp* My bike! What is wrong with you! I thought you were my friend!" MK: "Okay! I did bad! I just- I really wanted that peach and I guess I got carried away! You know how much I love stone fruit. *sigh* I was never gonna win though—you're the racer, not me. I'm sorry." Mei: "Yeah I know—just, don't be dumb next time, okay?" MK: "All I can do is try!"

(1x06 The Great Wall Race)

-

Even without the added context of s4, it's easy to put together that the whole reason MK wants the peach to begin with is to become more like Monkey King. Case in point, 1x09:

MK: "I just wanted to be good enough..."

"...like you."

(1x09 Macaque)

-

MK in seasons 1-2 is pushed by his motivation to live up to Monkey King's legacy—to become stronger. He wants to have the power to protect and help his friends, but this often causes more trouble than it fixes (1x01, 1x02, 1x06, 1x09, 2x03, 2x06, 2x10).

And so, MK reaching for immortality and wanting to be "good enough", instead harming the relationships he's trying to help?

Macaque: "No that's YOU! You're the one always running off! Looking for more power, more sources of immortality—you're the one who wouldn't quit while were were ahead! Not the great sage, he's got to drag EVERYONE else into his mess!"

-

MK: "Why didn't he just stop, right here? He was already so much stronger than anyone ever needed to be!" Macaque: "Wukong didn't think so. He always felt he had to be stronger—more immortal."

-

Sun Wukong: "I just wanted to protect the people I cared about—to be strong enough. I lost sight of why I was doing any of it."

-

It's like history is repeating itself.

Which, this all obviously has a strong connection to 1x06, but it also is a strong connection to 2x06:

MK: "It means I need to be stronger! Be so powerful, that it'd be certain defeat to fight me!" Sandy: "Maybe you need a break little man, just kick back for a bit." MK: "Uh, did Monkey King ever take breaks?"

(2x06 Game On)

-

Which,

Sun Wukong: "Daw, don't be like that! Eat some fruit, soak up the sun—that's why I've been training so hard! Macaque: "What, so you can be the strongest?" Sun Wukong: "No! Well...maybe a little bit—but that's not the point! It's so that we don't have to worry about anything or anyone ever again! Just live a lazy life sittin' in the sun and eatin' fruit, and doing whatever we want!"

(4x11 A Lifetime of Mistakes)

-

Did Monkey King ever take breaks?—well, he did. It's here we start to see both the similarities and the differences between SWK and MK. AND IT DRIVES ME INSANE. They both reach after power in paranoia. They both try to protect the people they care about (and sometimes they do that through lying/leaving). They both want things to stay the same. Yet, SWK is arrogant where MK is self conscious. SWK goes off alone where MK tries to do it together. SWK can't plan for shit where MK is the designated plan man.

Sun Wukong VS MK and Monkey King VS Monkey Kid. How are they similar and how are they different?

And then if you throw Wukong-Macaque/MK-Mei Hero and Warrior parallels into all of it?

Peng: "The six-eared Macaque fighting side by side with his own replacements! Is there anything Wukong could do that would break his hold over you?" (4x13 Rip and Tear)

Is there anything MK could do that would turn Mei against him? I feel that it's SO telling that Mei wasn't included in this conversation:

Yellow Tusk: "I know full well what would happen should Azure fail. But- but he is my brother. I owe him my life." Sandy: "We get it! I'd do anything to help my friends. But at the cost of the world?" Pigsy: "I'm sorry pal, but NOTHING worth that price!"

(4x14 Better Than We Found It)

-

And here's why Mei is going to be the one to calm MK down like MK calmed her down during 3x10—

[i-am-a-fan]

macaque we know is loyal to the point of self destruction right? like we all agree on this? that he loves so deeply that it gets to the point where he cannot physically or mentally differentiate his needs or himself from the person he’s devoted himself to?

and wukong is the other way. That he cares so much and we wants to protect everyone, that he just pushes everyone away. He makes sure to keep everything separated so no one has to deal with his issues but he can deal with everyone else’s? that if he can work with everyone on himself, then. and only then, can he be strong enough to protect the people he loves.

and just like. people headcanon that they’d be good father figures. They would NOT be.

Sun wukong would leave mk out for days while wukonh pillages all the demon’s lairs in the 50 mile radius to make sure Mk is okay. Then leave him at a stranger’s door so Wukong doesn’t feel like his legacy is going to fall onto him.

And macaque would be such a helicopter parent. like watching what he eats, where he goes, who he’s hanging out with. He’d never feel safe until he knows that no matter where mk is that he’s safe and doing okay. (In an untraumatized macaque world where he’s not being passive aggressive every 20 seconds because Mk acts like wukonh from time to time.)

anyways. I think we as artists should draw Pigsy being a good dad more often

[imamageinanotherworld]

Things I would sell my soul for

A PC that could handle playing Black Myth Wukong on Max graphics and not due horribly any time I get into a fight or am in a relatively scenic place.

A fic with Ineffable Husbands (ie Aziraphale / Crowley from Good Omens) that are raising their magical surprise bio daughter who is the most hellish mix in the best way of their traits, who grew up with Adam and they didn't fucking find out about her till she is talking shit to Gabriel and Beelzebub on supposed to be doomsday. Like I want this little child to be the one that the average demon/angel thinks is the actual antichrist, that she starts up legends about Crowley being the king of hell, and her having taken down (insert appropriate very powerful very scary demon) by just existing and feeding bread to the ducks. And meanwhile she's just like "Hi dad. Hi mam. When you gonna get together again? Been wanting a baby sibling." (I'll leave you to decide which is the dad and which is the mom.) BUT THIS WOULD SPECIFICALLY BE A LONG FIC NOT A ONE SHOT!!

A fic where Izuku commits die, and some Eldritch abomination goes "I like you, your fun" and chucks him back into the living with spooky powers, and Izuku just goes, "alright fine if I'ma be a cryptid then I'ma do my shadow lurking right." And basically just creates an entire new "side" of the heros vs villains bit and pulls in people from both sides, not including all might, but including tomura and toga because league of villains redemption arcs are fun just All for One is a major creep, but also make him Izuku's dad. No mercy Izuku, if anyone fucks with his little gang he will murder. And if murder is too obvious he will raze them to the dirt and make them wish for death (exhibit a, Shoto and Dabi and their fucking FATHER KILL THIS MAN PLEASE LIKE THIS MAN SHOULD NOT BE REDEEMED!!)

Again long form fic (look I really want my damn cake to be more than a mouthful please)

An ac odyssey/ Percy Jackson crossover. Id take any applications of this but the one that stands out is a female Percy story with Percy being Kassandra reborn, and instead of the Isu bullshit it's "Kassandra is a legacy child, Leonidas is son of Zeus and Pythagoras is son of Neptune, so she is granddaughter of Poseidon and great grand daughter of Zeus" and Percy gets the fucking bird and Zeus and Poseidon and throwing shade and Poseidon is all, with a completely straight face "Why brother! I had no idea you cared so much for my daughter so as to bless her!" And Zeus is just like "yes of course I care for my.... /Is audibly pained at this point/ my darling niece." And Nico and Hades are in the background shuffling mythomagic cards and watching the show, knowing fully well (at least on Hades part) exactly what happened and having no intent to tell.

A stray gods the roleplaying musical fic in which Grace is magical/a witch from the get go, and is trying to not show that off until the trial is finished, but also is just... Blatantly weird, and is just acting So Definitely Normal™

Lego monkey kid fic with a waaaaaay smarter than he lets on MK that completely knows he is a celestial monkey or whatever the fuck and Mei is way more draconic and then and Red Son go on journey to the West v2.0 this time with heaven mad at them (so low-key season 5 with parts of season 3) and parents (tang, pigsey, Wukong, Macaque [this would be a shadowpeach fic], PIF, DBK, and Mei's parents who deserve to be borderline assassin/ninja levels of competency and coolness) don't find out until after they kids dip and they start chasing after them but "oh no somehow we can barely even find the trail this is taking so long" heavy sarcasm, it's being influenced by someone or other and also someone put Guanyin in a goddam fic.

Brand new animal fic in which instead of just a tanuki, a kitsune, and a magic giant wolf we have a tanuki, a kitsune, a magic giant wolf AND A BAKENEKO WHO IS PRETENDING TO BE GUMAN AND DOING VERY WELL WITH IT ACTUALLY, THANKS ITS THE TRAUMA!

Black Myth Wukong fic where Sun Wukong's Wife (OC obviously), dies a bit after the whole takedown of Sun Wukong and like... Halfway dies but also stays and is a yaoguai, but oh look she had a baby before she went batshit insane because her husband died and the remaining monkey people fuck waaaaaay away from flower fruit mountain and the baby (who is the destined one) kinda... Hybernates for a bit? He cocoons in stone and is kinda waiting around, frozen as a baby and not aging and eventually this other OC, totally and completely unrelated to the first /sarcasm/ is born and yes it is just a coincidence the stone monkey cocoon pops and the kid is growing again, and yes this is just a "their souls find each other again" fic. Or it's symmetry and baby destined one was waiting for his queen to be born idk. Just the parallels. Eventually DO goes and beats up the Broken Shell and while he's at that time is passing weird back on the mortal... Ish plane and the DO's queen is kinda left alone for a year ish and "oh what is this spooky cave with totally not strange noises, better go look, it'll be fine." And the DO get Wukong's memories and DO's queen fights the remnants/ broken shell of Wukong's queen and gets her memories and then...idk have fun person I'm selling my soul to, make the lovebirds go wage a heavenly war and win this time or some shit idk.

This is the SFW list. The NSFW list is basically just "alright here is my list of characters I would like to bang, please write an x reader fic" with the occasional actually detailed prompt.

I do not intend to put that particular list up.... Currently.... Probably not..... (Ye I know I'll do it eventually but probably not for several years)

[thefandomenchantress]

So I finally watched the new season (and four episodes of season two) of Total Drama, and I actually ended up liking it! Well, except for all the gross-out humor, but I’ve hated that aspect since the original series, so that’s not much of a surprise. Here, take some random thoughts:

I didn’t think I would like the character designs after seeing them floating around on my fyp a few times and my brain was like ‘old=good, new=bad’ and missed the old characters. But only an episode in I actually really started to like them and now I love basically every character design. Particularly Priya, Millie, Axel, and MK’s. They just make my brain happy for some reason.

Speaking of MK, I love her so much. She’s so cool and i hope either her or Axel wins season two, even though I don’t think that’s all too likely.

Speaking of MK again, I’m hard-core shipping her and Julia, please let them be girlfriends or at least have more awesome moments together I love them.

As previously mentioned, I hope Axel wins and therefore I like her a lot. She probably has my favorite character design, and she’s so badass. I wonder if the producers saw how Shawn was basically the only generally well-received character from Pahkitew besides Jasmine and so they brought back his zombie thing (and he’s an Easter egg during Axel’s intro). Since Shawn won Pahkitew, I doubt they’d let another Zombie-obsessed teen win the million, but hopefully I’m wrong.

The Axel and Ripper ship was…Unexpected, but I’m a huge multishipper who will ship basically anything as long as it’s not, like, incest or a ginormous age gap or something. So of course I think it’s pretty cute. It kinda came out of nowhere and I wish they would’ve shown Ripper realizing he likes Axel instead of him just suddenly stating that he does, but oh well.

Wayne constantly calling Raj ‘Raj-y’ all the time was such a cute dialog quirk to show how the two of them are close friends. Plus, Wayne being aggressively supportive of Raj coming out was my favorite thing ever.

Oh and Bowie and Raj’s relationship was adorable, obviously. That one moment where Raj says (talking about Bowie, paraphrased) ‘Yeah, he looks good…I MEAN he’s doing good! That’s what I said.’ Was so cute I loved it.

Julia secretly being evil wasn’t really too much of a twist for me, but it didn’t bother me that it was treated as one, since after an episode or two it’s just accepted that she’s pure evil, and she just gets worse and worse and honestly I can respect that.

I always thought All-Stars and especially Revenge of the Island felt rushed, or at least could’ve majorly benefited from having more episodes like the first three seasons, but strangely enough I think the pacing felt pretty good in this season’s 13 episodes. It felt like every character was actually explored properly but still had potential stored for the second season.

Speaking of potential, Caleb got voted out first in season one and so far I like what they’re doing with him in season two. He’s like Justin but less over-the-top and he actually seems pretty likable. I love how it’s not completely clear if Caleb knows if Priya has a crush on him or not, and while you’re inclined to assume he does and he’s just using her thanks to Alejandro and Justin’s legacy, he never says ‘oh, Priya’s into me and is easy to manipulate so I’m going to form an Alliance with her”. So I’m excited to see what happens with him.

Chase and Emma are a train wreck of a couple and I’m so glad season two started with them hating each other and ended with the two of them hating each other before they got voted off. I’m kinda sad to see Emma go so soon, though. Realistically, I think Priya would’ve gone home that challenge, since she made Emma pick the wrong answer during the challenge, but the writers need her around for the plot so Emma is voted off instead.

I think the writers didn’t know what to do with Chase and Emma now that they hate each other forever, so they just had them leave early and that’s kinda sad.

I was a little worried I wouldn’t like Bowie but after I made it through the first few episodes I quickly realized I actually really like him! He’s a ruthless player, but not over-the-top evil and I think that’s cool.

Scary Girl (Lauren) reminds me way too much of Veronika Grebenshikova oh my god. They have a similar fashion sense and personality. I really hope Scary Girl follows through on her threat to come back and make people pay or whatever, that would be very fun to watch. Also her efforts to become normal for a whole year only for people to vote her off for being creepy is weirdly very sad to me. She tried so hard to fit in and failed. But she did say she hid in their closets and stalked them, (was that true or was she kidding?), so I guess it makes sense everyone freaked out.

Chef is so…nice this season? I don’t know, but he seems a lot more caring for the campers. I’m not complaining, we kinda need someone to balance out Chris’s insanity.

I…Think that’s all? I might add more later, but for now that’s all I can think of.

[keep-it-krispy]

Hey, just discovered your account and was wondering if you could tell me something about your lmk au's :)

Or is there a hashtag or master post I could use ?

I read something about your au, where the lmk characters are musicians and I thought it looked great!

Howdy and hello there! I'm happy to tell you about my AU.

“Ride or Die” is an alternate universe that takes place in modern times. I'm still deciding on whether or not to make everybody human, buuuut (until a certain point, somewhere around the 2nd or 3rd season) magic isn't super prominent (it still exists, it's just not powerful or noticeable enough for anyone to do crazy stuff with it like in cannon yet)

[Look at this post for a synopsis of the general vibes]

As noted in the aforementioned post, It starts off pretty normally. MK is a college student that lives with his adoptive father, Paul (Pigsy is his nickname), and his husband Tang (Tang is more of an uncle to him, he came along when MK was a lot older). He works part-time at his noodle shop and attends college with his longtime best friend Mei.

Sun Wukong is a world class dancer actor and singer that's about to retire, but wants to keep his legacy going. He hosts a big contest inviting anyone and everyone under the age of 25 to compete against one another in a tournament style talent show using any kind of performance art you can bring to the table.

MK is jazzed about the event, he wants to compete but doesn't actually think he'd win. He invites Mei to compete with him and she, being his ride or die bestie (roll credits), is all for it. She insists on starting a band, as she's been wanting to do so FOREVER, and Mk agrees. They don't really know how to start a band though. Mk remembers that Pigsy used to be crazy into the performance scene, so they ask him about it.

Pigsy explains that a performance can be anything, as long as people can watch it, and you put your soul into it [”Music is life, Life is music. Living is everything you make of it, and music is the same. It can be a guitar solo; but it's also the laugh of a friend when you tell them a joke you wrote, the satisfied sigh after you finish a painting, or the smile on a customer's face after a good bowl of soup.”

“Like that!” Mk shouts, slamming his fists on the counter as the light of an epiphany glimmers in his eyes “Lyrics! We need lyrics like that!”

Mei gasps, sliding up beside her friend with stars in her eyes “Pigsy! Can you write us lyrics!?”

Pigsy sighs, their antics pulling a small smile onto face “No,” their instant disappointment makes him chuckle, he heads over to the landline and starts dialing “But I do know someone who can.”

An hour later, the four of them are down at the harbour. Pigsy leads them down the dock and to a boat house, where he knocks on the door. From it emerges Sandy, a poet beyond his years.]

From there, Tang offers to organize everything, leaving Mk Mei and Sandy to come up with some performances. I picture them going through a lot of ideas, they put together a song, a play, an art show, and even consider doing an improv thing; but none of it really feels right to MK.

Red makes a menace of himself around this time. He meets MK at a music bar (picture a hipster coffee shop/club place with a bunch of different instruments laying around that people could play if they wanted) and finds out he's participating in the contest too, then starts picking on him. MK isn't really paying attention to his jabs, strumming along a guitar left near their booth.

[Mk’s curious strumming continues to draw a litany of sour notes from the instrument, curling Red’s lips into a harsher sneer.

“I mean- how can you expect to win the contest if you can't even play that guitar!?” the redhead is out of his seat now, looking half ready to rip it out of Mk's hands.

Mk smiles, not even pretending to listen as his brow creases with determination. He continues to fiddle with the instrument “Wait…” a couple strums, hey- wait.. that one sounded.. good?? “I think…” a few more. Was he.. ”I got it!” and testament to his words, the notes emitting from the strings finally smooth into something palatable. A warbling riff slides from his fingers, transforming into a silky bass line as he continued.

Red looked at him, jaw dropping to the floor. Twisted from sour notes and amature finger work, a new song was spun into existence before his very eyes. And it was good.]

Red is instantly intimidated by Mk's apparent musical prowess, and challenges him to an Art Fight to “crush his peasant spirit”. Mk struggles at first, trying to emulate other art fights he's seen and sing/dance his way to victory, but he thinks back to pigsy's words:

[The laugh of a friend when you tell them a joke you wrote, the satisfied sigh after you finish a painting, or the smile on a customer's face after a good bowl of soup]

He catches sight of his art bag, rushes for it, and starts throwing paint around. It's a whirlwind of EDM, dancing, and flying neon paint, but Mk manages to win. His inner music(magic) leaving behind a newly (and tastefully) repainted music bar.

Mk leaves a so so butt hurt Red behind to deal with the aftermath, brimming with a new inspiration.

MK gets back to the gang. Tells them that he loves music, but illustration is his real passion. He wants to enter, but he also wants to “be true to his art form”, and he doesn't know how to incorporate it into a stage performance. Mei proposes they do something experimental. I'm thinking something using holograms, motion capture technology, sick ass music, and a TON of paint. like a bunch of AMVs that link up to one another, but happening in real life. MK gets to do his illustration thing, Sandy gets to crush millions with his heartbreaking sonatas, and Mei gets to obliterate the dance floor and sing her heart out.

They win, and Wukong takes them in as his apprentices.

After “A Hero is Born” everything pretty much lines up with Cannon for the main squad and the smaller antagonists; but instead of fighting and monkey magic shenanigans, it's concerts and dance battles and E-Tuber shenanigans.

Things get really different around The Bone Zone (I love writing).

This worlds Lady Bone Demon, Laura Demona, went missing without a trace 9 years ago. Her child, Laudia Demona, going by Malin Meister in the present day, has been investigating her disappearance ever since they were old enough to leave the house unsupervised.

With the help of their platonic life partner and basically minion, Milton, they build an E-Tuber empire big enough to fund their quest. Some strong leads they gained, some time before “A Hero is Born”, trace back to Sun Wukong; who was not only present on the set their mother disappeared from, but famously one of her Bitter Rivals.

The two competed for a lot of shows and positions in their early days, settling into badmouthing each other on screen later on, and only mellowing out a handful of years before The Incident.

Sun Wukong's competition was Malin's chance to get close to him, but “The Monkie Kidz” were simply too good to beat. Malin wouldn't let this deter them, descending into a mad spiral of plotting and scheming. Their progress would only be interrupted by an unusually familiar looking eldritch stranger (The Mayor) dropping in, chasing them and Milton around the city, bullying his way into their homes and lives, and changing the course of their destiny for years to come.

The groups don't really converge until “Revenge of the Spider Queen”, or the “lunar New Year music deathmatch tournament” as we call it here.

Over the course of the first season Malin hatches a plan around the tournament, setting up a series of Rube Goldberg like events that will result in them meeting with Sun Wukong.

In the post I linked above, I confirmed that this would have ended in the downfall of Malin. These events would have pushed them firmly into villainy, and villains are always fated to loose.

The Mayor did not know this. When he told Malin what happened in his world, compared it to the events that have been occuring in theirs, and left them to connect the downfall of his lady to their future, he expected them to turn to him for help.

He made sure to demonstrate his magical and strategic prowess to them at every opportunity, to establish his presence as a sturdy and dangerous weapon to lean on. He felt echos of his Lady's power grow within them each day, to awaken it would be his pleasure. Crushing these mortal versions of their enemies would make a good warmup for his Meister, they would need much training before he dragged them back to his world. A concrete goal would do them nicely.

What he didn't expect was for them to call everything off and lock themselves in their plan closet for a solid week.

Malin, high on a rush of panic and inspiration, decided to spit into the eyes of fate. If this was happening in other universes, if other versions of their mother and products of her legacy were fighting and dying to these same people, if this was a pattern? They would do everything in their power to break it.

A week later they step out of their closet, coming upon the faces of a worried Milton and a confused Mayor, and stating their new approach with a will of iron and a voice of steel:

“We're going to make some new friends.”

And this marks the start of the “How to become a protagonist in 10 easy steps.” Arc

I kind of want to focus on the “Malin tries their best to be normal around new people” aspect of the story right now, so most of the work you see on this blog will probably be from season 2 and onwards.

I've got big plans for the magic in the future. Everything's going to be pretty modern and magic free up to a point, then the meteor will hit and plunge the world into a new age of magic and demons and tasty tasty chaos. I kind of want to link Laura's “death” to the meteor too. line it up with some multiverse shenanigans I wrote out.

I'm thinking about it in four slices.

The first slice is the “Canon compliant Zone”, that's the bit I just described.

The second slice will be “how to become a protagonist in 10 easy steps”, which is what I'm working on right now.

The third slice will be “The meteor fucks everything up, nobody is happy about this.”, which will be easier to write once I establish the first two slices.

And the fourth is “Multiverse bullshit”, which is when the real fun will begin.

[wow-cool-robot]

Episode 21: A Sign of Zeta

i know the zeta gundam is a separate thing to the mk ii, i've been to the gunpla wall at my local hobby store. is this where it gets introduced?

the opening narration is now asking me to do a book report on last episode. i refuse

oh there's a von braun city? lol. lmao.

do the titans not already control von braun? what's the deal with federation control of things, because the only way this makes sense is if they're more like the eu than an actual country

oh, so the titans are trying to set up for a coup. makes more sense, i should have just kept watching

hello mr. hymen

or is von braun an attempt at an independent colony? i really like the little bits and pieces of worldbuilding this show drops, but it's really good at making me want to know more. i won't be checking out supplementary stuff unless shared though

the still unnamed purple man has a ship that can project his image out front. i can respect it

paptimus scirocco! it's been over 10 episodes and he finally gets a name

scirocco signs contracts in his own blood. what a character

going to ignore that his name is spelt hymann here, he's hymen in my heart

what a weird contract. hymen is his boss, and the leader of a fascist organization. it kind of goes without saying that he'll kill you if you betray him. this feels like suspiciously specific denial

lmao, kamille you gotta cut the mic before you start bitching!

bright: everybody stop fighting! emma: aww, come on. let them get it out of their system bright: no! this is the bridge!!!

normally i disapprove of bright slaps, but if it's to interrupt a fight in progress i'm fine with it

yay emma! normally when people are mean to kamille it doesn't feel earned, but emma is actually talking about something that's a problem with him

paptimus scirocco looks and acts like he's buddies with akio ohtori

i like these mobile armors, they look like cool bug robots

oh hey jerid, i forgot you weren't dead. and you have a friend, mouar

also the animation got a big boost here

lmao jerid has a cravat now

scirocco wants to put a women in charge? good, we need more girlbosses in gundam

i like that there's no hard feelings, and now they just want to bum the porn they assume kamille got on earth

i like how this show goes full anime with the hair colors, when they were pretty grounded in 0079 from what i remember

having a battleship cannon was what made the gundam such a threat early on. char fled their first battle when he realized that, and could have won if he hadn't. so it's interesting that battleship cannons have apparently progressed so much along with mobile suits over the years

i was already convinced the new mobile suits were cool, you didn't need to go this far for my sake

uh oh! being ejected from the gundam probably isn't good. neither is it losing its arm, but that's fixable

oh shit, fa's helping! hell yeah, glad to see her doing things

the zeta gundam!

scirocco sucks a lot, i respect that

this episode ruled. i liked the focus on the titans and scirocco, i liked the new mobile suits, i liked that it made me somewhat interested in fa, i liked that we finally got a sense of what the argama crew was like beyond legacy characters emma and kamille. good shit!

[thewinterraven]

do you think that meta knight was/is angry at galaxia because of the fact that that sword is what killed both garlude and jecra?

Oh everything about what happens to those two in the show is sad

My AU is pretty different to canon events regarding Galaxia

(I have a lot of thoughts about Galaxia in general actually - The fact that Kirby can wield Galaxia was one of the things that gave me the idea for the basics of Legacy to begin with)

[See the Edit for update!] In the show it's implied that Galaxia's power is probably what killed Garlude - (I think when I watched it when drawing Starliner, I must have decided that nah, it's better for Kirisakin to have killed her). I think MK may have been torn over how to feel about it. After all, in the show, I don't think it's actually stated that Garlude and MK are all that close.

I find it really strange how that episode ends - it hurts Sirica to move Galaxia sure, but not nearly as much as her mother? Who was meant to be one of the most skilled Sword wielders? While her daughter tends to rely equally on firearms?

In my AU Galaxia did some damage to be sure, but Kirisakin kills Garlude in the end just as she finishes throwing it to MK. So MK doesn't blame Galaxia for that, the sword didn't ask them to go in an get her. They both chose to walk in there knowing what it could cost. MK blames Kirisakin and himself. (If he had been the one to first attempt to grab Galaxia, none of what followed would have happened.)

Edit: Ah! I was wrong earlier! @macro-microcosm is correct!

In the show in Sirica's recount of the day Garlude dies, it's shown that it is Kirisakin that kills Garlude. In the recounting by Galaxia, that moment that Kirisakin kills her isn't shown - I guess that explains why past Me left it as Kirisakin, not Galaxia that kills her.

-

Ah Jecra.

MK and Jecra were good friends even in canon. They must have fought together all the time.

In the flashback to Jecra's death on the show, MK already has Galaxia - which is how I know that Garlude died first, (and also why I think Sirica is older than Joe).

Jecra's sword is broken in the show, and MK doesn't have a scratch on him. I like to think that in canon Jecra didn't fight back as much as he could have.

MK blames himself for Jecra's death as well, not Galaxia. He would have been the one to kill Jecra no matter what weapon he'd had in his hand.

I threw like 90% of Jecra's canon death out the window, that whole scene with Jecra and Nightmare just...idk vanished. But MK still would blame himself.

[kristoffs-lullaby]

I know that a lot of people want it to be true but if I'm honest? I really don't want Sun Wukong and Macaque's strained relationship to be a result of a miscommunication. Like I think it'd be a huge cop-out from what they're already building up with Sun Wukong. Do I think he actually killed Macaque? No. But I also don't think that their troubles started there. Macaque speaks as though he's harbored resentment for Wukong for a WHILE and for a variety of reasons that eventually all circle back to the kind of friend that Sun Wukong was. As we've seen in the show up to this point, it feels like they're showing us that-- while Sun Wukong is a good person-- he's also INCREDIBLY messy with the way he handles not only problems but his relationship with people too. Not to mention that they keep bringing up how Wukong managed things in the past (i.e. his legacy being built on him being reckless) and how he really hasn't.. changed. S3 had Mei straight up tell him that he doesn't see how he keeps hurting the people who care about him the most. So no it wouldn't surprise me if he really did end up doing certain things that led Macaque to feel like he was nothing more than this Hero's Shadow.

S1 when we first get introducted to Macaque, during the final fight, Macaque makes the statement: “The real Sun Wukong would’ve leveled this whole mountain to try and stop me! but you’re scared because you think you’ll hurt some kid!?” The emphasis on "some kid" makes more sense when you take in the context that they give us during S2 about their past with one another. Macaque and Sun Wukong were friends who fought alongside each other. And if this is the case, then Macaque wouldn't have made a statement like that unless he knew what lengths Sun Wukong would go to in battle even if sometimes that meant putting the people around him in harm's way (and people he cared about at that). Which is why it baffles him that Sun Wukong holds back during their fight because MK is a kid SWK only just met a few months ago. The SWK HE was friends with wouldn't have cared to put HIM in danger.

Then we get Shadow Play where Macaque's whole deal is that he's been watching as MK begins to leave his friends behind. And a lot of this lesson to MK felt PERSONAL. As if he knew what it felt like to be the friend on the sidelines as he watched the hero take on the burden all on his own, forgetting that he has people behind him. Which is what MK was doing. In the Spider Queen episode, as soon as MK saw that Pigsy didn't open shop he immediately freaked out because Pigsy never forgets to do that and thus he comes to the conclusion that he's missing (which he was correct about)! But during Shadow Play, when he comes across Pigsy's closed shop he doesn't bat an eye. He doesn't realize that hey. Maybe my friends didn't ditch me at the theater because why would they have done that in the first place? And I get that MK was going through a lot at the time and was trying to process it, but I get the feeling that it was kind of the point. Macaque was watching as MK followed in Wukong's footsteps and isolated himself to the point where he took it upon himself to be the hero on his own. He has all this power now and suddenly his friends can't help him with that anymore? He's purposefully keeping things from them and Macaque sees this. Because maybe it's the same thing Wukong would do.

And its clear through Macaque's little Shadow Play that Macaque had some insecurities in their friendship based around playing second fiddle to Wukong. He keeps mentioning how Wukong eventually forgot about him or cast him into his shadow. And yet.. Wukong throws this exact thing in his face on multiple occassions. "Aren't you ever going to get tired of living in my Shadow?" Not to mention the hints we get during S3 that further drive home the fact that he fully believes that Sun Wukong is the type of person to cast someone aside unless they were useful to him. And while that might not have been Sun Wukong's intention with whatever actions he took to get Macaque to ride that train of thought, it is still evident that perhaps he has in the past been careless with his friendships.. as he is with MK's group which led them to where they ended up during the S3 finale.

And the last thing I want to point out is the interaction between MK and Macaque as Mei is being consumed by the Samadhi fire. Macaque tells MK that they need to go and MK retaliates stating that he would never leave Mei when she needs him because she's his best friend. Or something along those lines. And Macaque looks on at him like he can't believe what he's hearing. It's almost like "This isn't something I'm used to because this isn't something I was given as a friend". And it's shocking to see this! Which!! further solidifies in his mind what he said to MK during S2 "You know.. you are just that BIT too much like him [Sun Wukong].. buuut its good to see there's SOME potential" because in his relationships, MK will always look to his friends first and foremost. Monkie kid 101 is doing things together and sticking together.

THIS KINDA DERAILED FROM MY MAIN POINT I THINK A LITTLE BIT BUT. BASICALLY. I hope Macaque's resentment does come from like. Actual conflicts with Sun Wukong and not just a misunderstanding. I think it would add to an arc with SWK where he realizes "You keep doing things the same way you always have and it doesn't work out for you. Something needs to change because you've hurt people in the past and you'll continue to hurt people in the present unless you start approaching things differently". You know? It'd be more impactful if we've got more instances from the past where he's clearly messed up but never knew how to grow from it.

[magician-under-the-moonlight]

Kaito Kuroba and Kenta Connery

Magic Kaito and the Dark Knight

Spoilers Ahead for one of the deepest and darkest moments in Magic Kaito, in case you’re watching the Anime or specials and / or reading the Manga and haven’t seen it yet. It’s the darkest episode if you’re watching MK standalone and is a major shift in tone compared to any of Kaito’s other adventures.

There will also be discussion about spoilers regarding Golden Eye and Red Tear.

I know Magic Kaito isn’t for everyone, but as someone who loves the series enough to dedicate a blog to interacting with and building Kaito’s character, I love Magic Kaito with all my heart.

Toward the end of the series is three big confrontations with characters that challenge Kaito’s most prominent ideals that have been built up as the story progresses: His legacy as a magician, following in his father’s footsteps and being a thief for a greater cause.

-

Ruby Jones challenged Kaito’s ideals that sometimes you have to do some bad to be the good guy. As Chat Noir (not from miraculous ladybug), she dedicated herself to retrieving the mementos of her father, which were falsely labeled as genuine artifacts from Marie Antoinette’s time. Ruby’s father was commissioned to create Cat’s Eyes accessories, and later committed suicide when his work was intentionally mislabeled.

Ruby tells Kaito that her mission is satisfied knowing the Cat’s Eyes won’t hit the market if they’re in his possession. Kaito returns the genuine article to Ruby, talking about how he empathizes with her motives to become Chat Noir. Both of them part ways knowing that their shared approach in doing what must be done for the greater good is reinforced rather than torn down for both of them, though he does challenge Ruby’s approach in being too reckless if Kaito hadn’t appeared as planned.

-

Jody Hopper challenged Kaito’s ideals toward upholding a family legacy, even if it had gotten the previous generation killed.

Jody and Kaito can relate deeply to loosing a loved one to their passion, as both Kaito’s father and Jody’s parents had died in stage fires. Although Toichi’s death was a murder, the death of Jody’s parents was an accident. Jody swore off performing magic after it killed her parents, while Kaito went in the other direction and continued to perform almost excessively in response to these events.

Jody continues to argue that she is fed up with magic, that it killed her parents, and the Red Tear gifted to her is cursed and good for nothing, ready to hand it over to the Pandora Syndicate without a fight. Kaito, who knows the Red Tear is not Pandora, intervenes and rescues Jody before she makes the mistake of handing it over.

Kaito in turn challenges Jody’s perception of magic and the Red Tear gemstone. He shows her the secret left to her by her late grandfather, the passion she held when she performed, and the smiles on the faces of her and those around her, things Magicians strive for when sharing their craft. Kaito convinces Jody to take another shot at performing, and to let the past go and be herself again.

-

Jack and Kenta Connery challenge the idea of following in the footsteps of someone less than morally sound, and as well as challenge the notion thought to be settled during the Cat’s Eye heist: doing bad things for the greater good.

As by far the darkest episode in the Magic Kaito universe, the thief known as Nightmare is manipulative, cunning and not opposed to killing to get what he wants. The impressions we get of Nightmare is that he’s evil and heartless, only using the people he teams up with and then throwing them away like trash. Legends circle around surviving the night with Nightmare leading to great fortune, and all who team up with him end up arrested or killed.

But the story goes so much deeper than that.

Jack Connery, who works with Interpol in universe and also doubles as Nightmare, has very noble motivations for what he’s doing. He loves his son to the point of wanting to do anything to save him, and with the cranial disease that’s slowly killing his son on the inside, he’s desperate for money and funding, leading him to twist his job and turn it on his head to get the most benefit possible in order to pay for his son’s surgery.

Teaming up with local thieves, taking half the loot and getting them arrested or killed so they no longer plague the streets.

Even if we don’t know that much about Kaito’s father, it’s becoming clear that Jack Connery is supposed to be a character foil for Toichi Kuroba and Nightmare to foil the original KID. A man with a son who steals and manipulates to protect their family and rid the streets of who they deem to be a darker evil through less than savory means.

Jack Connery is much more violent, much more desperate and much more irrational in his approach to his acting in darkness for the sake of the greater good. He uses underhanded tactics to keep himself from being incriminated for murder and his authority as an Interpol agent to turn the odds in his favor no matter who he teams up with.

It’s Kenta Connery who makes the bigger impact, though. The one that gets Kaito to question if he’s really doing the right thing on the deepest level. Kenta is the one who get’s Kaito to question if knowing about his father’s history is a good thing.

Nearing the end of the episode, Kaito is trying to reason with Jack. Trying to tell him that being Nightmare is pushing him too far, that he’s going to regret continuing on this path, to make it stop, for Kenta’s sake.

Kaito knows what it’s like to loose someone in this line of work. His father was killed for similar reasons. He wants to spare Kenta from this pain by trying to save Jack Connery in more ways than one, to get him to stop and think about what he’s doing. But Jack is irrationally desperate at this point, and nothing Kaito says is actually reaching him.

The only thing that gets him to stop is when Kenta calls out into the abandoned building for his Papa.

And in this desolate, destroyed, unstable meeting spot, Kaito finds himself relating to Kenta to the point where his own personal experiences begin to bubble under the surface of his poker face.

Jack Connery falls off the catwalk in the building at the sound of his son’s voice and falls, Kaito trying again to save him while holding him by the arm, demanding he let the jewels go so he can be pulled to safety, even after Jack tried to murder him, Kaito is dead set on trying to save him.

It turns out to be futile, as still irrational and out of control, Jack refuses to drop the jewels, and falls to his death as the last of his grip slips with Kaito’s glove, and he dies only moments before Kenta and the rest of the police.

Hearing Kenta coming, seeing Jack still wearing Nightmare’s mask, Kaito uses his card gun to unmask the man before Kenta arrives and sees the dark truth and his father’s criminal history. He then quickly leaves the building, not saying another word and clenching his fists, the sounds of Kenta crying for his father following him on his way out.

So why unmask Jack as Nightmare? Why not tell Kenta the truth?

Kaito was forced to put his mission and motivations into question during this confrontation more than any other heist he’s been on up to this point. Seeing how far gone and irrational Jack Connery had become stirred the seeds of doubt in Kaito. Jack was consumed by his mission and payed for it in the worst way.

Kaito himself may be too far gone himself at this point. Despite everything, he’s still KID, he’s still looking for a solution to the mess that made him KID, he’s still angry and upset and perhaps even just as irrational underneath his poker face. He’s too far gone in his own mission to give it up.

He wouldn’t want to wish that fate on anyone.

So he unmasks Jack before anyone can find out the truth about Nightmare. He doesn’t want Kenta to see the dark side of the father he looked up to with so much respect. He doesn’t want to stir Kenta into a rage that may end up making a second Nightmare. 

With how deeply Kaito relates to Kenta, wanting to be like his father, follow in his footsteps, love him dearly to the point of fighting through the worst pain just to see him again, he knows that Kenta would take his father being Nightmare just as poorly as he’d taken his own father being KID.

Kenta and Jack Connery challenged his ideals toward being KID, and Kaito’s ideals lost. But he’s too deep into this now to give it up, even if it makes his heart ache. He’s just content he could save at least one of them from following him down the same path.

[angstandhappiness]

NICE

@blood-king #how are you literally ALWAYS on my dash????#anyways this is so concise and awesome#love the dark streaks for age aND god just. aroace wukong is correct wukong#almost went into wayy too much depth in the tag oop#but!!! when you posted the first of the goku inspired wukong i had legit just watched legacy and thats exsctly what it reminded me of#so cool that you took inspo from it!!!#forgot abt the sun family for a brief peaceful moment until this post [sobs]#love how the scars remain gold like when repairing broken pottery (i think its called kintsugi in japan? anyways) just. yes#that or the scars are constantly bleeding? either way just 1000/10 as usual#this is dope. absolutely stunning. would in fact steal his coat#blood and ink

@purrbleish #well fUCK HDSAHDHAS FUCKING CRIES#RHYYY THIS IS SO FUCKING GOO O ODO YOUR DESIGN FOR HIM IS LITERALLY EVERYTHING#WAHTH EFUCKKCC#eats this and fuckign runs away with it#keeps this in my pocket for..later..#......runs

@alwaysdreamer-u #i love your wukong so much#precious monkey

@rueblues #god just#i am speechless#this design is so good#no fuck that it's amazing#the amount of detail here is astronomical#im gonna reread this so much#op you are doing gods work rn#ANYWAYS

@fl0ral-inkk #-AGGRESSIVE GREMLIN SOUNDS#JSHDHDVDVSGAVSBSHGWGVDCDVD#CHEFS KISS#I LOVE ‘EM#VERY SQUISHABLE FACE#HE’D PROBABLY PUNCH ME BUT I’D THANK HIM#IM SORRY TO EVERYONE WHO FOLLWS ME THIS IS HOW I DIE

@dangerdayyys #I LOVE YOUR DESIGNS SO MUCH#HES SO PRETTY IM GOING TO EXPLODE

@mel-the-indolent #YOOOOOOO

@stellawolfe30 #bruh um eating this shit up man#this#this is so good fuck#Im an Mk stan but in slowly becoming a wukong stan as well

Anonymous asked: will you ever make a LSWK design guide?

YES! ANYWAYS!

This is all for Lego Sun Wukong by the way! Yes I'm insane! Yes I do not care! take the food. take it. here's the guide

I gave my SWK some tattoos to make up the tiger design he's often tied to in games and transformations 🤔 it's always neat to see others include it outside of his tiger form

a little HC is that Sun Wukong (and Macaque) originally had light fur like actual macaques do and it gets darker when they age! So the light streaks of white fur and orange fur are all hints that he's still a little young but he's obviously aged.

All of SWK's scars are optional! I always assume when I don't draw them it's because they're glamoured away for the sake of keep up appearances 🤔

As I've stated before, his fur darkens or lightens depending on his mood! These are all angry/over emotional except for the second expression but the point stands!

The additional colors to his face markings don't have to be done! The only thing I'd keep consistent is the red markings over his eyes!

And then we have the burning God SWK form! This one's funky, I based it off the recently released Goku short but prior to that I had a volcanic God Form for SWK (still in the first few #godswk posts i have on my blog) and it's what his non-active mode is supposed to represent!

And speaking of God Forms! There's two versions: Celestial and Corrupt :D

The text inside the images show more of what you need to know but the additional fact is that the Corrupt God Form is still much larger than average SWK (around 8ft) and the speaking tone remains the same (because I care too much for LSWK's VA to even dream of giving him another VA ever)

Oh did you mention human disguises? No? Sucks!

If anyone's watched the 1996 show then you know what the outfit is from :D

Additionally: I do think SWK would look amazing in black hair for his human design but I don't want people mistaking him for Macaque so i compromised and gave him darkening hair like his actual design has! (Funny thing: humans think the lower part of his hair is dyed.. the fools)

Loki 🤝 SWK Genderfluid shapeshifters who don't give a fuck about how they appear so long as they're comfortable in how they look

Final thing!

I will ALWAYS hc Sun Wukong in any version as an aroace gay! Always! Idc! hates romance and isn't attracted by the concept of relationships and prefers men over anything if he had to pick one.

and lil bonus cheebs :D

and.. that's it! thank you for reading :D

Ko-Fi | Twitter

[princessfbi]

Ok I have got to know what happened with Oliver's character on that one show that makes you rage so hard every time you see him.

WELL NONNIE I'LL TELL YOU!

This is a warning for spoilers if anyone wants to watch this show because my rage cannot be contained.

OK SO...

This show is called Into the Badlands and Oliver's character is named Ryder. Basically the premise of this world is that it's kind of post apocalyptic/alternative universe where humanity got so caught up in trying to one up each other that it sort of imploded and now you have this society where either you're super wealthy (the Barrons), super poor (Cogs and Nomads), or somehow a ninja (The Clippers and whatever the hell MK was supposed to be). ANYWAYS....

Ryder is the son of Barron Quinn. Now the surviving land is either divided into like factions run by Barrons (who control a majority of major trade) or there's these lawless lands that are run dredges of society. You either become a Barron by killing another Barron (which is what Quinn did) or you are an heir apparent. Ryder is more an heir presumptive because Quinn won't outright name him his heir even though everyone just assumes it.

This is because Quinn is batshit crazy and thinks he can just live forever through sheer stubbornness and will alone. This is especially hard to do because he has a massive brain tumor that's dwindling down what little bit of sanity he has leading him to make questionable choices such as killing the only doctor they have in the lands who would've been useful pretty much for the rest of the series but go off Quinn. Ryder has a lot of resentment towards his father, which I will get into in a minute, and at the same time has gone out of his way to prove to Quinn that he's a worthy heir. Except Quinn keeps comparing Ryder to his second and regent, Sunny, and he's just all around a shitty person in general.

NOW HERE'S THE AMAZING BACKSTORY WITH RYDER:

So, when Ryder was a child, he was kidnapped by these nomads who were trying to blackmail Quinn. Ryder's mother begged Quinn to pay the ransom and save Ryder. Quinn... refused. So the nomads tortured Ryder and (Gross warning) like cut off part of his toes and disfigured his foot in the hopes of crippling him and scaring Quinn into giving to their demands.

Quinn, again, refused.

Eventually Quinn's regent at the time, Waldo, defies Quinn's orders and goes to rescue Ryder from these nomads. Waldo defying Quinn is a big deal because he's a clipper which is basically a soldier (often brought in from the slave faction called Cogs) and they take their oaths to their Barrons very seriously. Barrons trust no one but their regents because again you can become a Barron by killing them. But Waldo always had a soft spot for Ryder.

SO Ryder is saved and eventually nursed back to health but he always has a bit of a tragedy cloud hanging around him because from what we were told Ryder was a very sweet, bright child before he was kidnapped and was brought back as "a broken bird" and he's been doing everything he can to get rid of the broken bird image ever since.

Quinn resented Ryder for making him look weak and Ryder resented Quinn for... Well being a heartless dick.

But here's the crazy part... They both, in their own way, still kind of loved each other.

Now I won't bore you with my rant about how the best antagonists are often the tragic figures who have fallen from grace (Peter Hale, Draco Malfoy, Loki to name a few) BUT I will say Ryder had the PERFECT foundation of showing that fall. He was an asshole and hard and spoiled and super privilege but also soft and still a little broken. There's a whole other narrative involved too with his childhood love and how his dad planned on marrying her but we won't get into that.

ANYWAYS Ryder still had this desperate need to prove to his dad that he was a worthy heir but in his attempts to prove himself (and his dad's fall into madness) his dad started seeing him as competition. Competition and another objects (like Quinn saw with most other characters but especially Sunny). But Quinn has this weird kind of pride when it comes to things that he considers his and an attack on his property is an attack on him. There's a character named the Widow who lured Ryder out and tried to kill him slowly and personally as well as Sunny as an attack on Quinn and he went bananas (sorta).

Ryder was fine eventually but he realized that trying to prove himself to his dad was never going to work so he decides to try the other option: which is killing his dad. Partially because if he doesn't, Ryder is smart enough to know that Quinn's going to get him killed, but also because Quinn's descent into madness is spiraling faster and faster and Ryder wants to protect the legacy. Nothing to inherit if his dad burns the whole thing to the ground!

Long story short, Sunny turns on Quinn and stabs him and everyone thinks Quinn is dead and Ryder takes credit for it therefore succeeding his dad by becoming not only Barron of his father's lands but some other Barron that got murdered by another subplot that was pointless.

Now Ryder is determined to bring peace to the lands (not out of some noble obligation but because he just wants people to chill the fuck out). And for the most part... he's doing okay.

BUT THEN PLOT TWIST HIS DAD IS ALIVE AND CRAZIER THAN EVER.

Basically his dad storms Ryder's house, chases him down in the garden, and they fight. But Ryder's foot that was crippled when he was a child trips him up and the fight gets even messier. Ryder's sword breaks and Quinn points the sword to his own chest and tells Ryder to finish him.

Ryder hesitates and so Quinn takes the sword and stabs Ryder. You know like a rational father would do.

Quinn then asks Ryder why he hesitated and Ryder whispers "because you're my father" before he dies in Quinn's arms. Quinn is... horrified because he realizes that with the death of Ryder is the death of the last parts of his own humanity. He mourns Ryder but also like... takes no responsibility for killing him but neither did Ryder so he can't process it. Later on he's haunted by Ryder but again the man has a giant grapefruit sized tumor in his brain so it's all very reverse Hamlet if you will.

SO LOOK AT ALL THIS POTENTIAL!

THE REASON I RAGE:

Is because Ryder was set up to fail from the beginning. Which is great!....... If that had actually happened. The show worked so hard to tell us that Ryder was a failure and a coward but if you look at it from a story perspective... Ryder was the opposite of a failure. Every time someone told him he couldn't do something, he proved them wrong. Again and again and again. But that was never good enough for anyone. So that vicious cycle would've been amazing to see!

But instead of exploring any of that, we had to watch a storyline that was frankly ridiculous from the beginning that took up way more time than it should. There's a character named MK, who was supposed to be inspired by the myth The Monkey King, but if you don't know that story then you never would've figured that out. Hell, I knew the story and didn't figure it out until I had to google his name because I kept forgetting it. In comparison to everything else happening in the show, this magical mythical storyline just didn't fit and I'm not kidding when I say I watched a season and a half of this show and forgot about MK every time.

Now if you noticed my icon is Buck in a Box. That's an inside joke I have with a friend about this fucking show. The first scene starts off with Sunny stumbling onto a group of Nomads who go absolutely feral about this massive box they don't want him to look inside. Turns out MK was in this box for reasons that were too weak for me to even remember but again MK was entirely forgettable. My friend and I kept talking about how it would've been better if Ryder had been in the box because the Ryder and Sunny rivalry had so much unexplored potential that would've been incredible if we started from the very beginning instead of just being told over and over again that Ryder hates being compared to Sunny.

Sunny is the main character and Quinn, unlike with Ryder, was incredibly proud to have Sunny "in his possession" and Ryder hated him for it.

But did we get to explore that? NO! Did we get to explore the parallels of Sunny and Ryder chafing at being considered possessions by Quinn? NO! Did we get to explore the trauma Ryder was working so hard to shake off? NO!

Instead the show spent so much energy victim blaming Ryder essentially for being the son of a Villain and his Nonsensical Ambitious Mother who had the misfortune of being kidnapped by bandits as a child while telling the audience that Ryder was never going to succeed. That Ryder had no honor and was a coward and weak.

They spent way more time trying to tell us that we should hate Ryder and that he was a bad guy but didn't do ANY of the work to show the fall from grace to prove that. Ryder remained a tragic figure that didn't fall from grace but was rather pushed off by lazy writing because they wanted to focus again on this magical ninja boy with a penchant for getting in the way and ruining everything.

I rage because Antagonist and Villain are not the same thing. Ryder had the potential of becoming a villain and his death by the hands of his father would've cycled him back into the role of a tragic figure. But instead... it was just wasted.

THAT is why I rage. You had the material right there and yet you spent so long telling us that we, the audience, don't like Ryder instead of showing us anything that would make us not like him (besides the whiny white boy thing).

Instead I found myself rooting for Ryder. Like could you imagine if Ryder and Sunny went against Quinn together instead of having the weakest rivalry known to man? Could you imagine Ryder's fall from grace of wanting peace in the lands as it turned to greed? Could you imagine Sunny becoming actual competition for Ryder instead of being manipulated to do so?

WE GOT NONE OF IT.

THIS is why I rage.

[kitkat1003]

Betrayal Stings, but it isn’t Unexpected.  Not Really

Macaque betrays MK.  Plays him like a fiddle and then snaps his strings

The worst part is that MK let himself believe it was going to end differently.

(Or, author watches episode 9 too many times and writes this to cope)

There is a moment, MK remembers, where he felt like he’d done good.  Made someone proud of him, made someone believe in him.  He’d worked hard, done right, and succeeded at every turn.

And Macaque had given him the praise his craved, set up on silver platter, and MK devoured it all and was never full, always chasing more.  Wukong, Monkey King, he gave praise, sure, but most often their conversations consisted of annoyed groans and the repeated phrase of the same lesson, as if MK hadn’t heard it the first time.  Frustration, disappointment, that is what MK had inspired in Monkey King, and he knew it.  Failure is his legacy, and MK feels nothing but shame on Flower Fruit Mountain.

And that is what made it so easy, to listen to Macaque.  To follow those instructions, and forget the old ones.  These ones were easier.  More painful, but easier.  And he did them right, he didn’t mess up immediately, didn’t feel that frustration, that confusion.

And Macaque would ruffle his hair, pat him on the back, in a way Monkey King never did.  Oh, Monkey King would grab him from time to time, but those were always practical.  Never just for physical affection.  The occasional word of praise, but, typically, little of anything besides teaching.

He was starving, there, but Macaque made him feel loved, and happy, even as the creeping feeling that something was wrong grew.

And then Macaque betrayed him.  

It was more confusing than anything, at first.  When he felt the punch, and then the aching pit of nothingness where warmth and energy used to be, he’d only been able to stare, say nothing.  It left him hollow, and broken, and dazed.  He dropped and the only thing he could hear besides the ringing in his ears were Macaque’s honey sweet poison words.  

Ruffle his hair, call him a good kid.

Slam him into stone.  Trap him with his own staff.

“Guess there’s really nothing special about you,” He’d said, and MK knew it was true.  Because he was never special, never enough, but he always tried.  And it was pathetic to try, but he always did it anyway, chasing for those scraps.

When Monkey King shows up, and the battle begins, MK doesn’t see it.  He hears the impacts, sees the lightshow, but he doesn’t get the details.  He can’t focus on them, not with this aching feeling in his chest, that crawls up his throat and makes his eyes burn.

He thought he was good enough for someone.  If Macaque could tolerate him, praise him even, MK could work up to Monkey King, maybe.  He’d hoped.

But it was all a lie, wasn’t it?  The cruelest of tricks, played on the world’s dumbest fool.

He doesn’t even have time to register anything other than fear when Macaque goes to kill him.  Doesn’t understand why Macaque bothers, honestly.  Isn’t MK useless now?  Why kill what’s already broken?

He screams, and Monkey King saves him.  MK knows why-he’s Monkey King’s successor, whether Monkey King likes it or not (and Monkey King does not, MK knows, Monkey King must hate him now), and Monkey King doesn’t want to leave retirement.  That’s it.

And that pit of nothing sparks with something, something like electricity and sunlight, fire and warmth, as he drags the staff up with trembling arms-he is so tired, he is so empty, but Monkey King needs him and all he does is try-and swings it, tears blurring his vision.

The staff hits its mark.  Comes back and he catches it, and then the explosion knocks him off of his feet.

Monkey King’s body is warm and comfortable as he hugs MK close, protecting him, and MK leans into it because even if it’s only for practical reasons, even if it’s not because Monkey King actually wants to hug him, he feels safe and loved.

Facsimile is still close enough.

And the dust settles, and they are sitting atop the mountain.  He gets praise, but it feels like nothing, like a drop of white paint in the void, vanishing into the dark.

The apology drops out of his mouth, and he waits.  Waits for Monkey King to take the staff away, to find a new successor.  It’s what MK deserves.  He’s failed, in every sense of the word, ruined the one good thing he ever had, and he deserves to have it taken away.

Monkey King scolds, and MK’s shoulders hike up, and the excuse forces its way past his lips.

“I just wanted to be good enough.  Like you.”

He doesn’t see Monkey King’s face as he says it.  His mentor probably thinks him pathetic.

But then Monkey King sits down next to him, sighs.  Compliments him, even, and MK lets himself hope.

“So...you’ll keep training me?” he asks, shy, and there is nothing more sweet than the relief when Monkey King says yes.  Of course.  As if there was to be no worry.  But MK always worries.

He’s pulled into a sideways hug, Monkey King’s arm wrapped around his shoulders, and MK leans his head on his mentor’s shoulder.

A facsimile, he knows.  Monkey King is just giving MK what he needs, he knows MK is weak for this sort of thing, desperate for it.  He gives MK scraps to keep him alive, and that’s fine.

Because facsimile is close enough, and MK still feels just a little bit more warm, and he smiles.