#inspired by jttw canon

[heatsu]

monkey man what will he do

[seaweedoverlord]

Anger Issues™ meets Identity theft

Inspired by that one なんかの thing

[rebeltigera]

You inspired me to draw my own macaque. I already have the colors blocked and when it’s done being rendered, I’ll share it on my own JTTW blog, But I wanted to thank you. A lot of my love both for LMK and Macaque came from you. (My Wukong is already done and posted, I’ve nicknamed him Gold. But since everyone is sharing their Macaque’s I wanted to share and introduce mine.)

Though, your V!Wukong would make my Macaque Hella nervous, he’d probably try to avoid him and wonder why he’s “Hearing” so many of this particular Wukong.

AAAAHHHH HE IS SO FLUFFY. I WOULD HUG HIM THE SKRUNKY -

Jesus Christ this armor, I would die if I'd need to draw it :'D respect

I can see he's more of a JTTW style, I love it so much . I'm glad I made you like this character, even if probably it was never even close to canon neither lmk or jttw

V!Wuk would be interested in him because of how different he is , him being more monkeyish than humanoid for example

Still he'd respect him like every other Mac

[lotusarchon]

been rereading svsss soooo combining my current hyperfixations here

everytime there's a reader isekai au it's always them loving the universe they've transmigrated into but what about a reader who's a borderline HATER (me) of black myth wukong or lego monkie kid

(tdlr: this does not represent how i feel about either video game and show, because i like them both, the fandoms are just...eh...but i do think it'll be funny lmfao)

i'm talking a full time hater. they've read jttw and fssy and of COURSE they love those books, they're a huge myth nerd.

then they take one fucking look at the adaptions inspired by them and immediately go "oh fuck no"

a reader who DESPISES lmk's portrayal of sun wukong because what the fuck do you mean he's not a buddhist after his journey? what do you mean he didn't kick the jade emperor's ass and fucking isn't badass and cool? what the fuck do you mean the six eared macaque is his 'best friend' and people SHIP them?? what do you mean no one likes tripitaka and apparently the three other pilgrims were reincarnated when that isn't factually correct??

a reader who positively despises the plot line in lmk because WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN NEZHA'S DEMOTED TO SOME CANON FODDER WHEN HE SHOULD BE BADASS?? or...or AZURE LION BEATING THE JADE EMPEROR?? WHO THE FUCK EVEN IS THE BROTHERHOOD EWWW!? what do you mean this dragon girl has the samadhi fire ew ew ewww what is this plot...

reader who fights with fans because of their (barf) mindset and also shut?? up?? about nezha being a 12 year old?? gross ass??

reader who watches the show religiously but only to find every flaw in it and when people argue about the show being a children's only audience they fight back with "idgaf if it's for kids they should teach it properly dumb fucking cunts gtfo my dms before i doxx you"

same thing with black myth wukong tbh. reader who hates black myth wukong because...no...no, sun wukong most certainly wouldn't do that. graphics are fine whatever but but this is?? inaccurate??

reader who's tearing into fanboys too because shut the fuck up about this character pingping bring sexy and also why the fuck does she exist?? why is red son not actually pif's son?? why is there some fucking random monkey tryna collect those whatchamacallit (relics) NO THIS IS WRONG

reader who's gagging cause...sun wukong wasn't in love with nobody and why is there a brief fucking romance plotline with the monkey 2.0 wasn't this a fighting game ewew get it AWAAAAY

reader who hates and then...uh oh. too much dumplings is making them choke....guys...guys i think they're dying??

reader who wakes up in bmw or lmk as some... rabbit spirit? (so weird) but absolutely SEETHING at being here because oh fuck this bitch ass god awful plot suck my cock we are NOT DOING THIS

reader deciding that avoiding the obnoxious characters would definitely be better for their sanity....only for some blasted loud ass obnoxious stupid cunt fucking google translated voice pings in their head... telling them if they don't participate in the plot they'll be executed

reader thinking they'd rather die but then the system goes "oh, you thought we were joking?" and gives them the worst experience ever that by the end of it they have to swallow their pride and participate in the plot....☹️ Unfortunately

reader who accidentally wifes up the characters and has to deal with everyone forgetting their roles...and the system threatening them about the plot too like bro how is this my fault these bitches are dumb? fuck you mean you're gonna kill me ag- no, no, you're right uh i'll fix it i'll fix it.

Anyways I'm gonna write a fanfic with an OC like this cause it's too funny to pass up and also I'm 100% gonna die with my wipes hahahaha fuck..

[sanijoys]

HC: Bunny Isekai 1

This Head canon is taken inspiration from another author. They have given me permission to take inspiration from their work with credits of the original :> @lotusarchon :D

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You and your friend love the story of Sun Wukong or JTTW but how you two got introduced to it were so different.

she first discover LMK in which she begged you to watch it with her. At first, you were fine with the story, however as it progressed you started to feel regret in agreeing to watching it.

The show wasn't bad per se, rather it was how the show portrays the OG characters from the source material that being JTTW.

Although you kept reminding yourself that this was just an adaptation and the target audience are children. BUT STILL.

You begged your friend to try reading or at least watch a summary (heck, you even recommended her to watch the live series) of the original story of JTTW. You made sure that she will only be watching/reading the original and not another adaptation.

You were to happy that you were able to convince her to watch a summary of it (bless your soul). And you gleefully took every reaction she made.

"Who tf is Erlang?"

"Red Son got his ass kicked by his own uncle? What?"

"WHO TF IS THI- HE CHEATED ON PIF????"

"You mean to tell me that LBD was a fucking weak demon??? HUH??"

"DBK wasn't trapped inside a mountain?!" "ye-"

The list of reaction goes on, and you took it all like drinking wine.

Of course she took two days break (both from watching LMK and the OG JTTW) because she REFUSED to believe that DBK cheated on his wife. WHOM SHE THOUGHT HE LOVED. (you told her that he did cheated and that at least PIF got her girl boss moment).

But despite after watching the summary she still choose the Lego show (much to your despair). She was still thankful of you for letting her watch the OG.

Although you tolerate the show, you can never have it in you to linking it.

And don't get yourself started with another one that your friend found. Black Myth Wukong.

You first discovered that game through a Youtube short but chose to ignore it. That is until your friend found it.

She watched it before you, and gave you the link to watch it. Her words being "It looks so cool and I love the story! You might love it too!"

She also mentioned to you that thee game was accurate to the original story. (you hade your doubts)

Although you were slightly hesitating in watching it. You kept getting video shorts of it for a whole week. You were at your end point so you watched the 20 hours gameplay.

To say that you had many, many points about the game.

You like the graphics of the game. The music? Oh damn it is majestic. The animations were so good that you often re watched it (especially in Ne zha's scene). And the voice acting? UGH, you can just sit there and rewind to listen to Erlang's voice. But these are just the good points.

The bad points.... What. The. Fuck.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT ZHU BAJIE WIFE IS THE SPIDER QUEEN???? (you had to look back both live series, book, and summary to check if you missed that part).

You were so confused with the black bear story too. Because didn't you (black bear) swore to Guanyin and become the mountain's guardian deity??? You were also confused with Elder Jinchi's dialogue because why did he mentioned the two best friends of the black bear???? Huh???

Also, who tf is Ping Ping? And what do you mean Red Son was born through the River of Child Bearing??? WHAT????

You were breaking down throughout the gameplay because you couldn't help but think how the devs literally altered almost most of the story points.

YES, you knew that the game plot was basically a what if situation if Wukong choose to rebel the heaven's (again) so he can get rid of the golden headband so that he can be finally be free from the clutches of the Heaven's.

But that's the thing... the golden headband was removed after the journey. His headband was finally removed because he found enlightenment. He was literally named as a Buddha.

Your brain at the end of the video was fried from all the recalling just to make those points. And yes, you did create a power point presentation to your friend showing those said bad points.

Did you have a small argument with your friend about it? Yes. Did she realized that she was actually wrong to assume that it was an accurate adaptation? Yes (it took you 2 hours to make her admit it). Were satisfied after that? Absolutely.

You lazily watched the series of LMK (the season 5) as you ate your spicy noodles. You can hear your friend from the other side of the vc squealing when MK was able to come back to his friends.

Although you showed your disinterest to continue watching the show to your friend. She bribed you with free spicy noodles and ramen for 2 weeks. So in the end, you agreed even though you didn't want to. But hey, at least you got free food for 2 weeks.

You sigh internally when it was the end of thee show, 'Finally, its done.'

"So, what did you think of the ending, bubble?"

Bubble, the nickname she gave you. Why did she nicknamed you that? You didn't want to know.

"It was good, although it would have been interesting to have an episode of Ne zha and his dad's interaction," You continued while swirling the soup of the noodles, "Cause' I wanted to see how their relation go."

"Or is it because you wanted to see more Ne zha scene?"

You can hear her smugness.

"Both."

She giggles from your honesty, "I still don't get how you don't like the show but you show favoritism to one of the characters."

You gulp down the soup and replied, "Not my fault that they made the character hot."

"Ah, fair."

You throw the cup in the trach can next to your desk, "Anyways, didn't you said that after this episode you'll be doing your research paper, Cheesy?"

A nickname that you gave her since she was basically is obsesses with cheese. It's also because she gave you a confusing nickname too.

You hear her groan from your headset as you exit the share screen in discord.

"Ugh, but don't wannaaaaaa......"

Rolling your eyes you told her that it's either she sacrifice the downfall of her grades or not. This made her groan again but she said she'll do it. Thus making her say her goodbyes, leaving you alone in the vc.

'Hm, I wanna eat ice cream,' You drool at the idea, 'Amma just check my wallet.'

You found that you had enough for four. Huzza!

You went and grab your cap. You went down from your room, informing your mother where you will gone to, and asked your brother if he also wanted ice cream.

after that you leisurely walked to your local convenient store across the street. As you went to cross the road, you heard someone shouting.

At first you didn't mind it. After all, this is a loud street that you lived in. But it seems that this was your biggest mistake.

Because you felt a hard impact hit the back of your head. Causing you to fall on the pavement, you felt your head ringing. Trying to get up from the ground but then you felt another impact...

Before you knew it....everything turned black.

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Wewo :3

[sporkfingers]

Some Tang Sanzang concept art that I don’t think I’ll finish anytime soon, but whateva

The scar on his head is from a spat with wukong gone wrong, spur of the moment which he regretted after he realized what he had done-

he waited for his sifu to use the fillet tightening sultra to punish him, he’s shaking, apologizing profusely in a small voice. To his surprise he doesn’t feel the painstaking ache of the band squeezing. Instead, when he looks up he finds Tripitaka, his sifu, looking at him with a horrified look on his face. But…. He’s not scared of wukong… he’s scared of himself, if he could cause such a reaction in this godly simian, a demon that the heavens feared, then…what he had been doing…it wasn’t right, it couldn’t be.

-Lololol that’s my head canon/ my own home brew story of Jttw that I’ve been making in my mind, I like to imagine that’s the point where they’re relationship starts to turn for the better and instead of reluctant companions they become friends who wish to protect each other in every way, no matter the cost. They are representative of the mind and the heart, like in most cases they clash and argue, resent and fear each other, but when finding balance and harmony throughout their journey the mind and heart grow closer and work as one. They’re relationship to me is something more than friendship, it’s love but not romantic love, but it’s also not familial love like a father and son, though some translations of the book describe their relationship as such I’d like to think of it as something deeper. Again not romantic kissy love. These babes are Buddhists lololol but it is more than friendship. I might post my version of the story on here and you can interpret as you please, father son, a couple, friends, enemies. But know that in the end what him and sun wukong have is complex, it can not be summed up in one word. At least that’s my take on them,

Also the other scars are from demons, getting captured and such, the scar between his eyebrows he got as a baby, and the read on his wrists are from rope burn, again from being tied up and captured.

I like to see the monk as having a fit build despite acting and appearing weak, though he does not know what to do with this rocking bod he has. (This drawing was inspired by gidget… I loved their reference for their tang and decided I would make my own concept sheet depicting his scars and body type as well.)

I want to start posting my dynamic stuff on here and actually drawing my Jttw ideas… I just get really perfectionist about them and end up only liking the art after a year goes by and it’s too late to post them….

If you made it here tell me what you think, I’ve spent like 5 minutes writing this and my cat is chirping angrily at me cause she wants me to pet her lolololol so pouty, my cute baby is throwing a fit

Sorry if you think these takes are trash it’s just my headcanons, they might change overtime though

[thrandilf]

I think everyone is pissed off about Li Jing due to the actually myth. They don't have the same relationship there. So people have a hard time reconciling that to what they have in the show. Nezha respecting Li Jing because he's his father kinda flies in the face of what his character was. Even in the show, it's weird that it took so long for him to speak against his father.

LMK respects jttw and obviously loves the source material but goes SO far away from its roots when it wants to that when talking about LMK there's kind of no point in going to the og myth, since it feels like people only selectively do that when they want to be mad about something

Fandom is also so weird/off about Nezha to begin with too like don't get me started on the age discourse

That and LMK is not even an adaption of jttw it's an inspired futuristic continuation that purposefully doesn't adhere to the og canon when it doesn't want to

Like hate myth Li Jing all you want

But as far as the text of the show goes I'm like. The dynamic and characters are different and being like "wow the show never fully addresses this emotionally abusive dynamic that destroyed these children's self confidence" is a big What take

The show isn't addressing it because it never happened

And it feels like people just wanted to have a parental figure they could justify hating unconditionally for catharsis but LMK has never cared to give them that and DBK doesn't fit that bill in either LMK or jttw either (yeah in jttw he cheated on Princess Iron Fan but Red Boy also spots that a disguised Wukong isn't DBK because Wukong couldn't remember the details of Red Boy's birth but his father talked about it all the time so like it wasn't Bad there either on a personal level between them)

[lumidotexe]

Who did you come up with Ru and An He powers/ability

Ru's power wasn't completely original since i derived a lot of her skills from the canonical JTTW Tiger Strength Immortal who summoned the wind, clouds, thunder, and rain. her rope dart however, was inspired by Xialing from the movie Shang-Chi

An He's power was a bit more nuanced. since she's based on my younger childhood self, so naturally I wanted to give her a musical hobby that would represent her crane-like birdsong

[samadhifired]

In JttW, changing ones name is quite common and usually accompanied by a big changes in their life (mostly for Buddhist reasons). And LMK seems to acknowledge this since they have used both the pre-Journey Zhu Ganglie as well as his later Zhu Bajie names when talking about the Pig Pilgrim.

And with this line of thought: there is no way that Iron Fan is is PIF's birth name.

Not only is it way too on the nose (unless PIF chose/was given her fan because of her name), she also has gone through a huge change in her life: abandoning her life as a Celestial Maiden and marrying DBK.

Which means... There is a huge opportunity for the show (or fanfic) writers to give her a double identity.

And part of me kinda hopes, if canon, that identity will be Yang Chan; the sister of Erlang Shen.

I mean think about it.

As Celestial, she was shown to have an equal standing with nephew and (kinda) grandson of the Jade Emperor. This makes it very likely that PIF is also related to the Jade Emperor in one way or another.

If she is Yang Chan, her mother would be Yunhua (Yaoji?); a goddess whose job by some sources was to "limit the gods' mortal urges such as love, greed, and ambition". Is it just me, or aren't those also major traits of Iron Fan as a character?

You could argue that DBK getting imprisoned under a mountain is loosely inspired by The Magic Lotus Lantern, the main story Erlang's sister is known for (forbidden marriage, parent getting imprisoned under a mountain by their brother, the son getting a weapon linked to Sun Wukong is a key item at freeing the said parent.)

IronBull family has been part of every single season so far. And when the time to choose the next Jade Emperor comes, it would be so easy for the writers to use PIF (who is still Celestial enough for Azure to refer her as such) as an excuse to get them involved in the progress. Double so if it actually turns out that PIF (and Red Son) has a claim for the throne.

The mere idea of Erlang and PIF as siblings is absolutely hilarios

[quitealotofsodapop]

Updating Masterlist of "The Monkey King and the Infant" au posts;

Official Fanfic (ao3): "The Monkey King and the Infant"

Outline/Concepts:

"#The Monkey King and the Infant" Au Tag Original Post (may be outdated) Spotify Playlist (may contain spoilers for story) + with a general outlin of pre and current story events Details: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 Assorted answered details

Shadowpeach being parents/mortal:

●"#shadowpeach being parents" - for all posts shadowpeach being parents. ●"#freenoodles being parents" - whether by themselves or co-parenting with shadowpeach. ●"#spicynoodles being parents" - ideas for future spicynoodles family stuff. ●"#sandy being the best uncle" - Sandy is just the Best Uncle. ●"#shadowpeach parental debuff" - posts relating to or explaining why these two are stuck on earth. ↳A (hopefully) clear outline of how the "Soul Energy Transfer" works. + Mortal Debuff ●"#dad bod sun wukong" + "#mom bod macaque" - posts about these two and their mortal bodies. Includes unrelated fanart I adore. ●"#pregnancy tw" - for all things preggers related cus I know some people ain't about that. ↳"childbirth tw" tag - you know why. Why Xiaotian? Macaque is the LMK world's version of Nicole Waterson + Fanart! "Qi Sun Wukong/Qi Wu" & "Qi Liu'er Mihou/Qi Mihou" + Now with Fanart! MORE FANART!!! Mortality/Aging Crisis + Now with really sweet edits that made me cry

Other Characters:

"#lmk character ideas" - more so for characters from chinese mythos/Journey to the West that have yet to appear in LMK. ●"#lmk bai he" - my version of Bai He/The Lady Bone Demon's Host ●"#lmk liu chenxiang" - for my version of Sun Wukong's student from The Lotus Lantern fairytale. ●"#lmk eclipse twins" - tag for Rumble & Savage, Macaque's little shadowclones in the au. ●"#lmk yuebei xing" & "#lmk lunar nodelets" tags - for my version of Yuebei Xing, and Jidu & Luohou from the non-canonical 1580-1590s "Journey the South" book. ●"#lmk sun luzhen" & "#sun luzhen" - for my versions of Sun Luzhen, Wukong's mini-me/biggest fan from the 17th century book "Later Journey to the West". ●"#lmk the four stalwarts" - for my version of the Monkey King's closest compatriots; Ma, Ba, Beng, and Liu. ●"#lmk guanyin" - for my version of Guanyin. ●"#lmk xiwangmu" - for my version of The Queen Mother of the West/Xiwangmu. ●"#lmk fan children" + "jttw inspo fan children" - for fan children of different pairings Princess Jade Face aka Auntie Jade Star Lord of Fire of the South aka SWK's Lawyer Spindrax aka the team's mean biker Mozhi the Ink Demon Babs and Gibs: The Other Celestial Primates

Events in Au/Story (may be unorganised):

●"#lmk tmkati au story events" - tag for straight forward story events in the au. Some older posts may be outdated. How does MK happen? (a little outdated but has the basic details) McCaque :3 aka "Why nobody tell me that food is amazing now!?" "A Hero is Born" changes, "A Hero is Born" changes Part 2 + Now with fanart!! What happens when you possess someone with a living debuff Diyu had two free babies The Wedding + the Proposal + Wedding Vows Azure Lion is trying to do the math here?

World Details/Non-Story Specific:

●"#lmk backstory hcs" - for backstory headcanons not particular to any aus. ●"#lmk character hcs" - character headcanons not particular to aus but may intersect. ●"#jttw inspo character ideas" - for ideas for Jttw characters who don't appear in certain other Jttw-inspired media (ex; a version of Six Eared Macaque in Smash Legends to contrast their Wukong). ●"#jttw inspo ocs" - for new characters made for my Jttw-inspired media ideas. Ie; Xiaoshi for my Netflix Monkey King idea, or the Fruit Babies in my Reborn idea. ●"#lmk gender hcs" - includes personal hcs. ●"#lmk theories" + "#jttw theories"- for theories. ●"#monkey facts" - monkey facts :)

Other Aus/Theories:

●"#Celestial NATO" - goofy idea where the LMK cast interact with other pantheon gods. ● "#wukongverse" - crossover ideas between different JttW inspired characters. ↳Different verses SWK and LEM Nicknames ↳Different verses SWK/LEM ship names/tags +Look at this amazing Smash Legends! Six Earred Macaque art ●"#born grown stone monkeys" - based on the idea that Sun Wukong and Macaque were both born "fully formed" as adults, but were mentally still kids pre-Journey. ●"#Reincarnated!lbd au" - a collection of mini-aus where after her defeat, the Lady Bone Demon's soul split off to reincarnate immediately. In the main version it splits four ways into different fan children (including a version of Yuebei Xing). ●"#lmk penumbra au" - Before Macaque got canonically ded'd, he left behind a pair of shadow clones to "watch the fort" at FFM. Wukong can't bring himself to destroy them, and donates his life energy/dao to the shadows to keep them around. The shadows decide to transform into Rumble & Savage after a few centuries of this, and now Wukong is a proud dad/mom to a pair of chirpy Macaque-looking babies. Macaque is confused when he gets back. ●"#stone egg talk" - ideas about Stone Monkeys being able to reproduce asexually under desperate means through a form of very-risky Parthenogenesis that creates a slow-cooking Stone Egg in their body. Sun Luzhen is created this way in some aus + in the main TMKATI au. ● ↳"#century stone egg au" aka "#SWK is MK's stone egg dad theory au" - exactly what it says on the tin. SWK inducing the process out of loneliness/desire to be a parent = MK's egg. The modern gang hangs out on the island with him once he gets unburied. Has vibes of a flipped TMKATI au. ●↳"#jttw stone egged au" - Turns out being trapped under Five Point Mountain is the perfect trigger conditions for SWK's body to create a Stone Egg. He spends the Journey pregnant and very pissed off. ●+↳"#slow boiled stone egg au" - an Au of an Au. In which Wukong's stone egg-pregnancy during the Journey is extended by many years from him deciding to isolate himself after the Samadhi Fire incident + the death of Macaque. By the time of the canon LMK series, SWK has been pregnant for many, many years, and still is. MK is very confused and horrified. ●+↳"#soft boiled stone egg au" - Au of Slow Boiled in which Yuebei XIng is born during the events of the Samadhi Fire Ritual. Wukong retreats from the public eye after the Journey to settle down and raise his daughter. Yuebei has spent most of her life recieving treatments and learning on Guanyin's island, and at the time of LMK has finally hit her rebelious teen phase. ●++↳"#marbled stone egg au" - au of an au of an au; Slow Boiled but Wukong keeps MK when he gets dumped on him. Gets a bunch of friends within the Noodle Gang early.

Memes & Misc Addons:

●"#memes" - main memes tag. ●Love Dodecahedron Chart (spoilers) ●POV: You just said you were hungry within 10 miles of Pigsy ●Nezha: Ultimate Babysitter

Be sure to send in asks about any details that may be unclear, I've only just gotten back into fic-writing, and it's my first time dedicating some blog time to one.

Update: May create a new pinned post for a general overview of my blog, rather than solely LMK works.

[xiyouyanyi]

Welcome!

@ryin-silverfish here, also known as "That person who talks a lot about FSYY and fox spirits".

This is my little LMK AU sideblog, which started off as a bunch of disjointed background notes for my fanfics, but developed into its own gigantic thing over time.

I've said elsewhere that, despite LMK (and many other JTTW adjacent works) lifting certain tidbits wholesale from FSYY——like Nezha's backstory or the Golden Dragon Shears, neither the show nor the fanworks really go into the implications of a FSYY/JTTW combined universe.

(For one, Zhao Gongming's three sisters, the Sanxiao, showing up to kick Jin and Yin's butts for stealing and breaking their treasure would be very satisfying, and also hella badass.)

Well, be the change you want, they said. 

So here it is: Journey of the Gods, aka "LMK, but FSYY is also canon and an extremely influential historical event".

Inspired by @digitaldoeslmk 's By the Book AU.

What even is FSYY?

"Ancient China's bloodiest bureaucracy recruitment program, kickstarted by a king who simped too hard for the creator goddess of humanity and the fox girl she sent to end his dynasty."

"I'll write my own God-Demon novel, with blackjacks and fox hookers and no Buddhist allegories!" ——Xu Zhonglin/Lu Xixing/Li Yunxiang

Okay, jokes aside: Investiture of the Gods(Fengshen Yanyi) is the other big "God-Demon Novel" of the Ming dynasty, written after JTTW. It's about the toppling of the Shang dynasty and its tyrannical King Zhou by King Wu of Zhou——but with more Daoism, immortals and demons helping out both sides, and ten billion magical formations and treasures. 

At the end of the story, almost everyone who died in battle were deified and became the 365 gods of the Celestial Bureaucracy, thus "Investiture of the Gods". 

Here is a link to the only full English translation of FSYY, by Gui Zhizhong.

Here is my overview of FSYY's grand overarching conflict, a.k.a. "Why are all the Daoist immortals fighting?" 

Compared to JTTW, it's a lot more formulaic and suffers from a massive character count inflation problem, but also extremely influential in Chinese folk religion, to the point of some modern temples, like Qingyang Palace, basically worshiping characters from the novel! Like, the western equivalent would be a church worshiping Dante and Beatrice from the Divine Comedy.

(Similarly, it is to orthodox Daoism what the Divine Comedy is to medieval Christian theology, and should not be treated as actual religious scriptures.)

Okay, FSYY happened in the LMK universe. So What?

Well, first, it will really do wonders to fill up that eerily empty Celestial Realm we see in the Spider Queen special, and the Celestial Bureaucracy will no longer consist of a grand total of five people.

Secondly, it can solve some major show-not-tell problems and actually give legitimacy to the grievances of the LMK Brotherhood + Havoc in Heaven, as well as fleshing out the Celestial Realm.

Third, so many cool magical treasures.

Fourth, LBD gets an origin story, with a twist.

Fifth, I delight in quality angst and horror, and FSYY had some seriously messed-up stuff and implications.

Sixth, Celestial Bureaucracy office politics.

Seventh, Nezha kicking asses and winning fights like he should.

Eighth, crazy Xianxia shit, as you’d expect from the great-granddaddy of modern Xianxia genre.

Ninth, infodumps about Chinese mythos and history trivias.

Tenth, Underworld lore.

...As you can probably tell, this is mostly just me nerding out and writing walls of texts. I'm not a very good artist and can't do Lego style, but will probably doodle some symbol/character designs for funsies.

I also derive most of my enjoyment from writing fix-its and worldbuilding, not shipping characters. Like, I love exploring individual characters through relationships, but just ain't a fan of romance.

There will be a lot of OCs, but unless otherwise specified, all of them will be based on actual characters from FSYY and JTTW, with a few folk gods sprinkled in for funsies.

With that taken care of: good luck and happy reading!

[ryin-silverfish]

On Erlang's mom, Lotus Lantern, and a neat little discovery

"Erlang's mom is Yaoji, JE's sister."

You can see that statement in literally every JTTW + adjacent fandom, both Chinese and English. Personally, it isn't as annoying as the "Nvwa is JE's daughter" thing, but does get a little tiring when everyone and their mother takes it as actual mythos.

So, in this post, I'll do a bit of digging, and trace the evolutionary trajectory of that claim.

Reading my Lotus Lantern Summaries first will be quite helpful, but if you haven't, I'll be linking to these posts when they become relevant.

The Start of It All

-As far as I know, JTTW novel is the first textual source that said "Erlang is JE's nephew". Specifically, in SWK's pre-battle taunts, he commented that "Hey, I heard JE's sister got chummy with Yang the mortal and gave birth to a son, is that you?" (JTTW Chapter 6)

-The same chapter also mentions that Erlang cleaved open the Peach Mountain to save his mom, implying she was imprisoned as a punishment for her forbidden relationship.

-The other roughly contemporary source, the Precious Scroll of Erlang, expanded on that story: here, Erlang's mom is Lady Yunhua (云花, literally "Cloud-Flower"), part of a trio of three sisters born of "Father Cloud" and "Mother Rain", who embodied the "Three Flowers", a Daoist internal alchemy jargon.

-She is also mentioned to be an immortal maiden of the Dipper-Ox Palace, where Queen Mother of the West resided. Erlang's dad, Yang Tianyou, is the incarnate of a "Golden Boy" acolyte, and they pretty much got insta-married after Yunhua revealed her true identity.

-In the Precious Scroll, Erlang's mom was also put under a mountain by SWK, and he went to QMoW to ask for his mother's whereabouts, pulling off the "carrying the mountains & chasing the suns" stunt on his way to rescue her.

-Pretty different from what you know, right? Here, Erlang was an only child, his mother was never explicitly said to be imprisoned under a mountain by JE's orders, and his father wasn't a run-of-the-mill mortal either.

-So what changed?

Erlang in the Premodern Lotus Lantern stories

-Well, the Lotus Lantern story cycle happened, and Erlang's own mom-saving story got copied over to his nephew Chenxiang.

-However, in all except one iteration of the Lotus Lantern tales, Erlang's parentage was never stated: this iteration is what I called Lotus Lantern 2.0, in which Erlang's own mom-saving story was canon too.

-It did leave out the "SWK put his mom under a mountain" part, though, despite lifting the name Yang Tianyou (and Lady Yunhua too, though her name in this story was Yuntai, "Cloud-Terrace") from the Precious Scroll.

-Similarly, the Lady of Mt. Hua/San Shengmu in all but one iteration of these stories wasn't punished by the Celestial Host, and Erlang putting her under a mountain was entirely his personal decision.

-In the one story that did, it was because she had whipped up a storm and ruined the mortals' crops while she was going after Liu the scholar.

-In fact, in all these pre-modern Lotus Lantern stories, San Shengmu and Liu's relationship was greenlit + Divinely Ordained by the Celestial Host.

The One TV Series to Change it All

-Yep, it's my childhood memory, the 2000s Lotus Lantern + Prequel shows that started the "Erlang's mom was Yaoji" thing!

-Here, she fell in love with the mortal Yang Tianyou after he sacrificed his own heart to save her, Erlang had an older brother named Yang Jiao who was killed together with his father on JE's orders, who also killed Yaoji via exposure to the Ten Suns after her release.

-That last part was probably inspired by the story of Nv Chou in the Books of Mountains and Seas, who was...this random sorceress/witch that got scorched to death by the Ten Suns.

-For a long time, I thought this was it: Erlang's mom being Yaoji was something the show-writers just pulled out of thin air, and entirely their original invention.

-Then I came across this little tidbit in Vol. 3 of the Tang dynasty text, 墉城集仙录...

-Translation: "Lady Yunhua was the 23th daughter of QMoW and the sister of Lady Wang of Taizhen, and her name is Yaoji."

-The last character, 华, is different from the 花 of Yunhua in the Precious Scroll story, but these two characters could often be used interchangeably.

-It must also be noted that the similar name/title is just a coincidence, and mythos-wise, Yaoji's legends never converged with Erlang's mom-saving story at all.

-But yeah, the Lotus Lantern + Prequel show writers probably saw the two names, went "Won't it be neat if we merge them into a single character?", and thus the most influential "urban legend" of Chinese mythos/folklore was born.

(Honestly, with the way myths and folklore evolve, maybe this version of the story would become canonized too after a hundred years or so!)

Edit: Check out the comments——@fate-magical-girls has informed me that the "Erlang's mom being Yaoji" thing had an earlier origin in the 1987 Teochew opera 三姐下凡!

Seems like Lotus Lantern Prequel has taken a lot more inspirations from said opera, aside from that bit: Erlang's three-pronged, double-bladed spear being a three-headed flood dragon he subdued, for example.

[sharaug]

𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒏 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔

❝ everything beautiful comes with pain. roses have thorns, don't they? ❞ ─ unknown

AUTHOR'S NOTE ❳ this entire one shot was inspired by @skittlescripts triad au! please go check them out for more content on it, if you'd like! :>

➔ ᴅɪsᴄʟᴀɪᴍᴇʀ(s) :: this is my first time writing for anything lmk/jttw related, so forgive me if a lot of the characters in this are ooc. also, this whole thing is a completely self indulgent "what if" blurb on my interpretation of skittles's mc, so all of this is (obviously) not at all canon to their au aha-

mc in this one-shot is a mystic/demon monkey like wukong n macaque cuz i'm different (/j) also, in case it wasn't obvious already, she's based off of yor briar/forger from spy x family

blood, violence, and cursing will all be featured in this. i tried not to make it all too graphic, but i'd suggest reading at your own risk just in case if you're not a big fan of that stuff

not beta read + edited we die like my motivation to finish school work 🫡

NOT MANY WERE━━━brave enough to sleight the Great Sage Equal to Heaven these days, but Sun Wukong supposed that demons wouldn't be, well ... demons if they didn't make any foolish decisions every now and then.

Still, though, that thought couldn't possibly be enough to calm him back down into a more rational train of thought—especially when one of the 'foolish demons' just mentioned currently had a gun held up against his son's temple.

"Take one more step, Great Sage," mocked the bastard with a sneer as he pressed the weapon further against Xiaotian's skin, which in turn drew out a small whimper from the boy that made Wukong's rage flare even more. "Go ahead. Do it and see what happens to your kid right here."

This was frustrating. So frustrating—especially when his treasured staff was currently laying right in front of his feet, right where he'd dropped it after the demon threatened to pull the trigger if he didn't. Under normal circumstances, he could bless the world by ridding it of this pest's existence in under ten seconds flat, yet ...

Wukong's gloved hands tightened into fists at his sides.

The Great Sage, the Monkey King was immortal. His son, however, was not.

And mortality had always been such a fragile thing.

"Remind me, demon," Wukong began after wetting his lips. "What is it that you'll get out of all of this, exactly?" he asked.

The demon threw his head back and laughed, the action alone being enough to jostle the hold he had on Xiaotian. For a moment, Wukong allowed a small ray of hope to shine through for his son: believing that maybe he could use this as an opportunity to slip out of the large demon's grasp and run over into the safety that the arms of his father provided.

Unfortunately, though, that hope was quickly snuffed out when the demon sobered up and tightened his hold around the mortal boy he held captive. Xiaotian looked like he could start crying any second now, and Wukong had to internally count to twenty before all of his impulse control flew out the nearest window and set him loose to show this sorry excuse of a 'crime lord' what had made Heaven fear the Monkey King in the first place.

"Now, what kind of a question is that, o' Great One Equal to Heaven?" The demon grinned, revealing rows of sharp teeth stained yellow. Wukong had to wrinkle his nose at the sight. "I figured it'd be obvious what I want, considering the fact that it's what every demon in this cursed city wants from you," he laughed again.

"Oh?" Wukong rose a brow, playing dumb to stall for time. "And what might that be?" He tilted his head.

The demon's brow twitched. "Don't play dumb!" he snapped. "I want your title! This city! Everything you have!" he raved.

He's getting worked up now. Wukong spared a glance to Xiaotian, who was somehow even more stiff than before. That would be a good thing if it weren't for the fact he was holding my kid hostage right now, he thought with a "Tsk."

"So that's it, huh?" Wukong pulled out one of his 'politician' smiles, as Macaque liked to call them. "Well, how 'bout we make a deal then, yeah? You let my kid go, unharmed, and I'll see about getting you all of that and more," he offered, using the kind of tone of voice you'd have when joking around with a friend.

Wukong felt one if his brows twitch when he caught the demon rolling his eyes with a smirk, looking smug. "Do you take me for a fool, Great Sage?" he questioned.

Yes, Wukong desperately wanted to answer. Anyone with half a mind would.

"I know of your tricks. Hell, after all the preparations I've gone through to get to where I am now, I'd say I even know you better than yourself!" he confessed, practically radiating with confidence with the way he puffed his chest out.

Wukong barely suppressed a snort. He saw Xiaotian bite his bottom lip and look away, eyes half lidded and expression practically the very definition of unimpressed.

Wukong suppresses a grin at the sight. That's my boy.

"Now ..." The demon lifted the arm he was using to hold Xiaotian in place up to the boy's neck and pulled him closer, the barrel of his gun once again returning to his temple. "Seeing as how I have you right where I want you at last, I say we discuss your inevitable defeat to—"

The demon was cut off by the abrupt sound of his men screaming out in agony from outside the room, followed by a persistent, almost pleading, knocking on the door.

"Sir! Sir, please! It's an emergency!" the voice of a younger demon spoke from outside, sounding panicked.

Wukong turned to the door, brows raised and interest piqued just as the demon released a frustrated groan.

"You may enter," he told, albeit reluctantly.

In an instant, the door was opened, revealing the younger demon's disheveled appearance and the blood coating his skin and attire in splatters.

Wukong perked up slightly. Had the backup he called for finally come? (Took them long enough.)

"What is it?" The demon took a step back, obviously stunned by his subordinate's troubling appearance. "What's going on out there?!" He growled.

"I-I'm not sure, sir!" the lower demon answered, visibly shaking. "S-some broad j-just—"

He was cut off before he could even finish his sentence by a silver dagger abruptly piercing through his throat, taking the life of his eyes away and leaving only his corpse to fall to the floor in a pool of its own blood.

Wukong blinked, pleasantly surprised. Not at the lower ranking demon's sudden death, but at the fact that he had never seen any of his own men wield a dagger in that style before.

"N-no ..." Ears flickering at the crime lord's voice, Wukong returned his attention to him and nearly did a double take when he saw that he was now trembling where he stood: eyes wide and face for some reason more horrified that it had been when the Great Sage entered the room.

What ...

The sound of heels clicking against the floor and then coming to a stop behind him made Wukong's ears flicker a second time, and the Monkey King turned around to see just what—who had inspired such fear into the demon who had been so proud earlier before him.

He found his breath hitching in his throat before he could stop himself.

Standing in the doorway in a sleek black dress and thigh high boots, there stood yet another mystical monkey much like him and Macaque, yet so different at the same time.

"Excuse me, Cheng Xue of this sector's crime syndicate ..." she spoke, voice eerily calm and eyes luminous. "I'm terribly sorry for interrupting this little meeting of yours, but ... tell me ..."

She smiled, sharpened thorns made of gold glimmering in her hands as she raised them into the light.

"May I have the honor of taking your life this evening?"

Against his will, Wukong let a shudder travel down his spine.

The demon, too caught up in his own fear, stumbled further away from the ethereal beauty standing at the door, her whisper of death enough to make his pulse race and send his arms into an unexpected spasm that sent Xiaotian falling to the side on the floor right next to the very gun his life had been threatened with.

"N-no, you ... YOU CAN'T!" he cried, back meeting the desk and putting a stop to his tracks. "I RAN AWAY CENTURIES AGO! I OWE THEM NOTHING, YOU HEAR ME?! NOTHING!!"

The monkey draped in ebony stepped closer, her smile never leaving and her eyes remaining pinned on her target as though he were a silly little mouse that had fallen into a cat's claws.

"I WILL NOT DIE THIS WAY!" the demon continued deliriously. "I WAS SO CLOSE! SO CLOSE, YOU HEAR?! YOU CAN NOT DO THIS TO ME!"

Another step forward.

The demon flinched back violently and opened his mouth yet again, a shriek on the tip of his tongue.

All that followed after, though, was the mere sound of his body falling backwards onto the desk: his mask of horror, forever engraved on his face, now painted with a crimson that ran down his forehead from the thorn-like blade that had been thrown directly into the center of it.

The room was silent after that, allowing the occupants to take a moment to process what had just transpired until two of them snapped out of their stunned daze and ran to eachother—one of them tackling the other in a bone-crushing hug.

"Holy shit, kid." Wukong felt as though a weight had just been lifted off his shoulders. "I'm never letting you out of my sight again," he decided.

Xiaotian only let out a watery laugh in reply and snuggled further into his father's chest, his hands shaky as he gripped the fabric of his suit.

Amidst their heartfelt reunion, Wukong lifted his gaze up to the lady of thorns, wanting to ask if she was single thank her for stepping in when she did—even if she most likely didn't originally come here to save them some trouble.

What he quickly discovered, however, was that she was no longer there.

Instead, what once sat in her place was that of a red rose with thorns.

[mksbigg3stfan]

꒰ྀྀི ୭·˚ ༘ mk hc ᝰ!! 🥢🥡 ྀི꒱

˚⋆°˖ ～ ࿔ ୧ ‧₊˚ 🍜 🍂 ⋅.ೃ࿐

His favorite movie is that one low-budget cop movie Wukong stars in lol (≧ヮ≦)

Him and Mei met at the arcade !! It just seems super in character idk what to say (^^;

Pigsy and MK make up after fighting by cooking together !! (Tang always conveniently hides when tensions are high, then reappears after they make up and claims he knew they could never stay mad at each other)

MK constantly needs new phones, despite clinging onto them for dear life. (He doesn't want to pay for a new one, even when his phone screen is cracked and it can barely function. Probably because he spends all his money on games and snacks.) In general, he's just not good with tech. (He doesn't even know what CPU means ... (¯ . ¯٥))

He's actually a very enthusiastic artist !! MK canonically has taken a creative writing class, so (although he's not very good at it), he tried to write a comic/biography of Sun Wukong. It's his longest lasting project, which he has added to and adjusted over the years.

Though he never spoke with Pigsy or Tang about it, MK planned on someday seeking out his bio parents. (Turns out his mom is a rock, I guess ʕ•͡-•ʔ (/hj)) I feel like this decision would be influenced by China's high value on family !! In short, they worship their ancestors, and if they don't have children, no one would worship them after they die. Not only that, but there would just be curiosity and weird feelings about it in general. Especially because of the way Pigsy found MK, and no one ever came looking for him.

MK definitely has impulsive spending habits, and usually ends up blowing his paycheck on snacks and games. (In S1, ep7, MK buys a bunch of tickets to use in the arcade.) It's most likely a coping mechanism he uses when stressed, heavily consuming media and materials so he can forget what was bothering him.

When he was a kid, he struggled to make friends because he was "too much." There wasn't much Pigsy and Tang could do about it, so they tried to help MK feel less lonely. Pigsy gifted MK his bandana so that he could "carry him with him." Tang, on the other hand, read MK excerpts from JTTW to try and inspire him to be himself.

I love hearing people's thoughts and hcs on characters, so if there's anything you want to add, feel free to !! ദ്ദി(｡•̀ ᗜ^)

[the-monkey-ruler]

Didn’t jttw’s publisher see the book’s success and wanted to replicate it with north, east, and south? I thought I read that somewhere but it’s been a while.

I can't say I know anything about that, or at least I haven't heard about it. If you find the link to where you read that I would love to see it! The story of Xiyouji was popular before Wu Cheng'en's version, hence why there were so many different versions around it, just that it was theorized that Wu Cheng'en was able to connect multiple of the one-off tales of them fighting demons and finally put it together in a coherent narrative. Wu Cheng'en's version started to become the 'canon' because of its popularity but that doesn't discredit the popularity or notoriety of previous Xiyouji media.

Xiyouji was based on The Story of How Tripitaka of the Great Tang Procures the Scriptures 大唐三藏取經詩話 which was released around the late-13th-century, giving a good few centuries for the story to rise in popularity before the Wu Chengen's 1592 cut. From there we do see other versions of the story, such as the early-Ming Journey to the West zaju play 西遊記雜劇 which was created between these productions.

If we want to see when the other novels were created it's just a matter of trying to put them in order.

Late-13th-century ~ The Story of How Tripitaka of the Great Tang Procures the Scriptures 大唐三藏取經詩話

Early-Ming ~ Journey to the West zaju play 西遊記雜劇

1522-1526 - Journey to the East 東遊記 by Wu Yuantai

1566 ~ Journey to the West: The Biography of Tang Sanzang 西游唐三藏出身传 by Yang Zhihe

1570s-1580s - Journey to the South 南遊記 by Yu Xiangdou

1592 - Journey to the West 西遊記 by Wu Cheng'en

1602 - Journey to the North 北遊記 by Yu Xiangdou

I think that considering how close the publication dates (even the estimates) that it would be fair that most of these pieces of media were either inspired by previous interpretations of Xiyouji and it took some time before Wu Cheng'en's version finally became popular enough to be considered the 'canon' as it is referred to as today. I can't say how fast the spread of literature was back in the 16th century but I assume it would be much slower by today's standards at least.

[jttw-monkeybusiness]

What is your opinion of shadowpeach or LMK?

Oh, man...I was thinking for a few days of should I answer this question or not but I decided to do it. Whatever happens, I at least tried to say this as nicely as I could. So, as some people who have followed me for some time know that I have watched a few episodes of LMK and I went far as actually checking the plot thanks to the complications on YouTube. So my general opinion of LMK is neutral sense I'm not hard to please in general. Love the music and animation! It's gorgeous and a bit of anime but it works! Story-wise it's okay. It's not the best or the worse and I know it's inspired by JTTW. The thing is that I had to watch it with a different eye, separating JTTW story from it bc if I don't then it raises too many questions that will haunt me from my dreams. That being said, I like it and especially the fanart and AU's that people like to make from it! It's amazing! And I personally like Wukong on LMK his personality is very entertaining. Now, about shadowpeach. I don't have anything to say about it because it's not canon as far as I understood. People ship things and it's completely okay! Personally, I see Wukong's and MC's relationship more as friends. It fits better for the story in my humble opinion but again if you ship them it's okay! As long as you don't try to gatekeep others and respect the fact that not everyone like the same things as you. ✨ In this Holy Monkey House, we respect others' interests in JTTW and LMK. Peacefully! ✨😤