#in canon wukong's the one who seems like he would like to never see mac again (at times) even tho he really regrets it and it hurts

[cubbyhole-for-flea-bee]

Apologies

[py-dreamer]

Rant about shadowpeach (WARNING! Mac slander)

I'm sure you've all heard this time and time again but you know what screw it I'm tossing my 2 cents into the ring

I think my bias for Wukong definitely has a part in this but I will try to be as neutral as possible which is impossible. My personal opinions will absolutely shine through but it is just that: a personal opinion

I love my trio of gay monkeys, I really do.

Is Macaque a good character? Yes

I do think he's a genuinely interesting character, with cool mystery ,interesting backstory, cool powers, he's fun to watch, has a kickass theme song and aesthetic and I can see why a lot of fans attach themselves to them.

Do I love seeing him with Wukong? Yes

Their banter is fun, past shadowpeach can be sweet as sugar (or spicy, I don't judge) and their angst is real yummy.

What I don't like is when the angst is all Wukong's fault. And everyone and their grandma will harp on the Monkey king and just ignore all of Mac's bullsh!t. Especially in fanfics.

Like don't get me wrong, keep writing that good stuff! But like...jeez

The amount of smack that the golden monkey goes through in this fandom is like...yikes.

Look, I know we're all hung up about the bloody murder thing.

(Personally I'm on the theory that Wukong didn't actually kill Mac, if they were really that close he wouldn't have acted so casual upon their battle after he murdered him, but I digress)

And Wukong should be called out on that BUT.

Mac also isn't blameless here.

(If you like toxic shadowpeach, fine. But this is for peeps who think that Wukong is the only toxic one and Mac was just a victim.)

Take it from this perspective:

The two were really close during the brotherhood era. Wukong kept doing stupid things to gain power and getting them in trouble and in the final battle did something astronomically stupid and they all lost.

Then they all ditch him...leading to his imprisonment (five phases mountain) and torture (furnace and also being fed iron pellets and hot mercury)

Fair, Mac probably shouldn't have been trapped too but he visited once out of 500 years, had a fight and never came back by the looks of it.

He assigns himself the role of the warrior who always stood by his king's side.

And then ditched him in his time of need.

Mans really failed at his own self proclaimed job.

Fine, he probably should've taken a break, none of them were in the right state of mind and Wukong was being very bratty.

BUT

IF HE TRULY VALUED THEIR RELATIONSHIP (from the looks of his lil gay play, he did) HE WOULD'VE Y'KNOW. COME BACK AND TALK?!?!

If he really valued their relationship, outside of calling him a coward and LEAVING, never to visit again. Would that not be a perfect opportunity to communicate?

Like, my dude. He's stuck in the rock. He can't run. Could you not find the roots of the problem and solved it?

But lets say "He was too busy taking care of flower fruit mountain"

(despite him literally EATING one of the monkeys in JTTW, but that was JTTW and I don't think its canon in Lmk. But still, interesting to note.)

I'm sure his subjects were worried about their king? Did he never answer them? If he really valued their bond, could he not have I dunno, shadow portaled some monkeys to see their king or like put time aside to communicate and update the monkeys?

But lets say "He was too traumatized from the burning of his home and was too angry"

500 gosh dang years seems like a long time to take a break.

I feel like at that point, he should've let go of Wukong

BUT NOOOO HE DOESN'T NOW DOES HE.

We establish that their relationship is kinda wrecked.

They don't communicate.

He ditched Wukong for 500 years.

But when he see's the pilgrims decides that Wukong ditched him and the brotherhood..?

So by his logic, Wukong has abandoned ffm the brotherhood and him, after they ditched him under a mountain for 500 years, never visited, never talked, never tried to rebuild their relationship.

Sees the circlet being used, sees the pilgrims not trusting him, sees him go on this journey unwillingly, not allowed to leave the monk unprotected, and comes to the conclusion that Wukong is a traitor...?

But plans to free him because he's being abused and forced to do it?

Pick a lane my dude. Did he abandon you or not?

BUT THEN.

He impersonates him, destroys what little trust the group had

WHILE TRIPITAKA STILL HAD EASY ACCESS TO THE FILLET MIND YOU

hurts Wukong multiple times, till he gets banished. And tries to kill Tripitaka as he still had the bloody circlet?!

This isn't sad lover getting revenge at being abandoned.

This is bitter jealous ex getting petty revenge and still expecting to get back together like this.

Also he says he watched as the pilgrims tortured him with the fillet. If he watched them, he'd know that Wukong is also obligated to fight and most of the time he does kill them, despite the pacifist monk.

He's required to PROTECT THE MONK AT ALL COST.

So tell me...

WHAT THE HELL WAS HIS PLAN?!

He does realize that like this was mandated by heaven right? And there'd be huge consequences to killing the monk right?

So basically:

Mac: yea so my plan is to impersonate you and commit crimes you didn't do, get you in trouble and inadvertently hurt you severely, traumatize you even more then kill the monk so we can go back to flower fruit mountain like we wanted to right?

Even though there will probably be astronomical consequences for you, me probably the rest of the monkeys for letting me kill this monk on the trip mandated by heaven. By failing to protect him, redeeming yourself and also losing a close friend heaven might probably put you under another mountain again probably forever this time, and I will probably use my powers to get out scotch free and we'd all blame you even though I killed him.

But you're still to blame for abandoning me, the brotherhood and your subjects even though I never visited you after our fight, calling you a coward, immediately leaving never to come back and update you on what happened. Its your fault the mountain is like this even though I never asked you for help or advice or even contacted you to let you know our home was destroyed.

Meanwhile I'm the victim and you never valued our friendship.

.

.

.

This idiot-

In summary, he abandons his king, accused him for ditching them all comes back claiming to help him by antagonizing him, hurting him and puts himself in a position where he kinda has to do something?

Because Mac was set on killing the monk.

Everyone acts like he just visited, said something mean and Wukong played the stab game bit too hard.

But he tried to kill him and wouldn't back off?

Seriously what did he expect Wukong to do?

The fandom acts like he was given a pass to not die when he's already broken off the relationship and put Wukong in an impossible situation where Mac wouldn't freaking leave or let go about killing the monk.

I'm not saying that Wukong should've killed Mac on the spot. But I just wish that everyone stops acting like he was being such an asshole and killing him out of nowhere.

(for someone with six ears and is meant to be all hearing he sure is bad at listening)

Then he gets revived by the lady bone demon and let me check:

steals all of Mk's powers

tries to kill the kid despite having no bad blood with him

antagonizes Tang, ridiculing him and calling Wukong a coward despite ditching him under a mountain

makes a copy of the TEA van to kidnap and traumatize Mk even more

Traumatizes Mk AGAIN in the shadow play and steals his friends souls

Hold Mei and Sandy hostage for the rings and tries to squeeze the life out of them

Shooting the airship down (OOOHHHH WUUUKOOOONG this ape is down bad.)

Chokes Mei and uses her as a hostage again for the samadhi fire ritual

Immediately leaves after Mei's firey outburst

Wants to leave possessed Wukong to the clutches of LBD

never gives Mk the full story in the ink scroll that he tried to kill Sanzang or how he never came back.

NEVER APOLOGIZES

I don't even think Macaque has apologized for any of his bullsh!t.

Some of his acts were necessary but he just makes it uneccessarily cruel and revels in their pain

And the fandom makes them all buddy buddy at the end, excuse all his actions and collectively hate Wukong?

Yes he does help Mk in fighting possessed Wukong but like LBD's reign would end the world as he knew it. What else could he do? DBK would probably do it in his position.

But he never apologizes to any of the cast.

I've seen fics where he does apologize which is good.

But he also never apologizes to monkey king?

But that will be in pt2. Yes there will be a goddamn pt2 cause I've not even scratched the surface when it comes to fanfics.

But I will take this chance to share a fic that does tackle this issue really well:

Fractured Pieces make a mosaic by @furornocturna

Cause this fic is genuinely so good I am vibrating at the seams, its one of my favs (also furornoctura's writing is good in general)

One of the only fics I've seen where the characters all call out Mac being a jackass and in an interesting way.

One day I will make some fanart for this but till then this will do

Their writing is so yummy go check it out

[teatime-at-4]

dear LMK fic authors or readers

I have a humble request/idea

ya know thos fic where Wukong and Macaque have a confrontation of some kind and Wukong doesn't believe the macaque in front of him is real? whether it be during the memory scroll thing and he thinks it's a trick, a hallucination, a dream or an illusion or something doesn't matter, but you know how it always ends very emotional because Wukong realizes it is him it turns into Macaque comforting him for the first time in a while.

I've noticed a pattern. Macaque is always to caught off guard by Wukong thinking he's not real to try and hurt him or be mean, he defaults to an attempt to comfort. but even if he touches Wukong, he still doesn't tend to realize that it's the real Macaque or that he's genuine in his care. at least he doesn't until Macaque starts getting frustrated with him. Wukong never seems to clue in until Macaque starts getting annoyed and upset. then they move on to Wukong getting emotional because this is real. and this isn't bad, I love reading these, but there is one thing I think could make this more impactful.

I would want Macaque to acknowledge that either through his direct actions (if this is post/during canon) or through Wukong's own declining mental state after Macaque's death (if the confrontation is directly after Mac's revival), or both at once, Wukong has become completely unable to even fathom that Macaque could ever want to show him genuine care, concern, or want to be kind to him. "this person who I once cherished more then life itself genuinely can't believe that I'm real because I'm trying to comfort him" feels like the kind of crushing realization that one wouldn't gloss over.

again no hate to anyone who doesn't have stuff like this, I think ya'll do great and you don't need to listen to this rando on the internet about what do with your fics. I just want to see more of Macaque realizing that Wukong is just as broken and hurting as him on a deeper level, or if the fic is during/post canon. I want him to understand that he too is capable of hurting Wukong and that he already has. if Wukong's gotten to a point where the only way Macaque is the real Macaque is if their at each others throats, a Macaque that cares about him is not capable of being anything but a fake or worse, a trick.

sorry if this is explained badly, love to all you authors out there you're all amazing keep it up, and if anyone writes this or if anyone knows of a fic that does this please tell me the name so I can find it <3 <3 <3 <3

[purble-turble]

How about combining season 3 with dark shadowpeach? Macaque meeting amnesiac Wukong is ecstatic!!XD

LMK S3 Spoilers!!!

...

Good point, Anon! A Macaque who wanted Sun Wukong back to how he used to be so they could actually be together again would be absolutely thrilled to see that he's somehow reverted back to his old self... it's not perfect, especially since he's in the state of mind of being mid-journey where he cares about his brothers and master more than him... BUT on the bright side, he doesn't seem to remember their falling out, so that hadn't happened yet in his mind at least. He's definitely reluctant to let the others "fix" the Monkey King so he'll go back to his old self... he probably takes him aside and has a word with him, much like Pigsy does in canon, he tells him things he probably wouldn't have the courage to his face if he was in his regular state. Since Wukong doesn't remember what Macaque is talking about, it's kind of like talking to him but also NOT talking to him.. which helps Mac get over himself long enough to say what he has to say.

Obviously, MK and Mei are eavesdropping on the whole thing and hear Macaque tell Sun Wukong how much he hurt him and that he was convinced by the kid to give him a second chance, so he had better not mess this up again! Wukong, of course, has no idea what he's talking about, but he's kind of pliable and overly friendly like this, so he just hugs Mac and says OF COURSE! He'd never do something to hurt one of his friends! And it's really tough for Macaque to not say something to that, but he keeps his mouth shut and just hugs him back, promising that he'll try not to hurt him this time too... It's really cute, up until Mei comes up behind and smacks Sun Wukong on the head to get him to go back to normal and it all evaporates from his mind lol