#lego monkie kid zhu dachu

[thechildbesuffering]

Past Wukong: The fuck's an 'MK'? Mei: Basically, God. Past Wukong: But I'm still here! Pigsy: Do you honestly believe your own hype that much? Past Wukong: I AM THE HYPE!!

[princen-monkie]

HC TIME: MK sneaks into the noodle shop every time after he wakes up from a nightmare.

The smells and memories he connects with this place always comfort him.

One or two times, Pigsy found him sleeping with his head on the counter. The chef doesn't say anything. He just brings MK back to bed, fondly tugging him under the blanket.

[syrupbitee]

mfg furries

[pizzaapplecheese]

I found out that there was an arabic dub for Lego monkie Kid, and being an Arab (who has a pretty weak arabic), I thought it would be killing 2 birds in one stone. However, I noticed how I noticed they used the English names for the characters, not only that it missed so many opportunities with arabic names.

The reason I am upset with the English names being used is that the Chinese names are way easier to spell and sound in arabic, like جاوتان (xiaotian) looks way better than ام.كي (mk) imo and شاوجاو sounds way better than ماي. Though, this is just all opinion (except for pigsy, there is no P in arabic, so you just get 'big z', which is kinda funny). Also, for some reason, they use the English version for Monkey King, Redson, PIF, etc. Instead of just fully translating the name like ملك القردة (monkey king, malik al kurd), الابن الاحمر or الصبي الأحمر (red son, al ibn al ah-mar or sabi al ah-mar), and الأميرة مروحة الحديد (Princess iron fan, al amera marwa-ha al had-ed).

(Side note: i cannot find episode 9 in arabic, but i found out on the wiki for some reason, Macaque's name changed to 'مكاكو' (Makako) when it can be easily translated as 'ماكاك' (edit: apperantly he is called 'ماكاكو الغامض' (the mysterious macaque) which i found cool))

If I were writing the names, I would give them all the Chinese names since it suits way better, with the exception of the ones that are literally translated (i.e., Redson, princess iron fan, Monkey King, Azure, ect.) Who will just have their name literally translated to arabic.

Also I would play around with the nicknames because.

Like for example Tang would call Xiaotian 'ابن زو' (son of zhu) because Tang is definitely the type of character to tease Dachu Zhu over this, but also it makes the "pigsy's my dad" scene 10x funnier.

Speaking of Tang (and Dali) I would have Xiaotian and XiaoJiao straight up call them 'عم تانغ/دالي' (uncle Tang/Dali) since they are middle aged, also it can be seen as double meaning in Xiaotian's case since it shows he sees Dachu Zhu as a father figure, again makes the "Pigsy's my dad" even more funny , also considering how we use uncle a lot (sometimes old men who are strangers get called uncle) it makes the whole Uncle Lion scene make more sense in an arab context, though I feel like it would take away the impact and comedy of Xiaotian suddenly calling him uncle.

I would also would have Demon Bull king be called 'ابو الابن الاحمر' (father of Redson) by Wukong while Princess Iron Fan calls him 'حبيبي' (my love). Actually, I feel like both them would straight up call each other 'حبيبي'/'حبيبتي' (they both mean my love, but the other one is feminine).

I can go on an even bigger rant, but I feel like I would go all day.

[angstandhappiness]

LMAO SEEMS LEGIT

MONKIE KID DUMP!

This isn’t even all the drawings I’ve got I’m gonna be drawing Monkie Kid for a little while please enjoy.

[sketching-shark]

Would you say that the LMK writers don't understand Wukong as a character? Of course, there are different interpretations and adaptations of not only this character but many other beloved characters from different stories.

But I think if 10 different writers create a story about, say, Spider-Man. Even if they all do something different with the character, Spider-Man should still be recognizable as Spider-Man. Like there are inherent traits that simply make the character who they are.

Do you think LMK Wukong is missing those inherent traits, or I guess completely misses the point on who SWK is a character?

Monkie Kid spoilers below:

I guess I'd have to start off by saying that I'm very hesitant, especially as someone who is neither Chinese or of Chinese descent, to say whether there's a truly "wrong" way to understand or write the Monkey King. Hell I've often poked fun at the way Sun Wukong has frequently been written in Chinese retellings of Journey to the West, and it must be acknowledged that there is a MASSIVE numbers of very different ways that Sun Wukong has been depicted in Xiyouji retellings, from a silly little guy to a hardened war criminal. For example, here's a Sun Wukong who's definitely an evil little bloodthirsty scamp as presented by Stephen Chow in Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (2013):

And here's a panel of the Monkey King "Aku" from Marjorie Liu's (who's of Taiwanese descent) Monstress. Here he's feasting on fruit while watching the souls of a bunch of kids that he had slaughtered be tortured for information:

So yes, there's a pretty big difference between these version of the Monkey King and many others, including his multifaceted presentation in the og classic and the laid-back goof that Monkie Kid seems to be aiming for! THAT SAID, and even while acknowledging that the Monkey King as a character has gone through innumerable transformations (lol), I can't help but feel like the writers for Monkie Kid might be letting their Sun Wukong fall prey to the all-too-common push for "more epic!," "The antagonists were right all along," "Pile on the angst!" and the kind of standard taking out the "intelligent" in "intelligent stone monkey" that you see in other western versions of the Monkey King. For example, Netflix's The New Legend of Monkey stars a muscleheaded and illiterate Monkey King, and while it was more of a one-off jest that was quickly disproved in Monkie Kid it is a bit well bothersome how to this day you'll find "lol Sun Wukong can't read!" jokes being bandied about.

I also don't think that anyone can deny that lego show Sun Wukong has been presented as less and less of a competent or even heroic individual as the story's gone on, and personally I'm starting to suspect that this is partially because the writers A) didn't know how to make Qi Xiaotian shine as a hero otherwise and B) to make the Six-Eared Macaque change from obvious antagonist to a true member of team good guy. It's undeniable that Macaque is the firm fandom meow-meow and has been for awhile, and if memory serves correctly the "Sun Wukong sucks" rhetoric started to really take off after Macaque presented his shadow play back in season 2 in which the Monkey King is ultimately framed as nothing but a selfish jerk who betrays his friends on a whim. And while there's basically 0 reference in either recent canon or fanon to the stuff the shadow simian put Qi Xiaotian and his loved ones through up until the end of season 3, it's hammered in time after time after time again just how completely Sun Wukong hurt and still hurts everyone around him because of what he did or what he failed to do. As it is, now we've seen Zhu Dachu yell at SWK for failing to protect Qi Xiaotian, an entire play that framed him as a terrible person and Macaque flat-out saying he's a terrible teacher (and then the plot going out of its way to somewhat confirm this), many people yelling at SWK for his plan to use the Samadhi Fire being stupid and poorly thought out, Long Xiaojio screaming at him for failing everyone especially the people who care about him while she's on fire and in pain, the Azure Lion referring to SWK as someone who's corrupted Qi Xiaotian with his blindness, and the ink clone of Qi Xiaotian--you known, the manifestation of his scariest but truest fears--referring to SWK as a fraud and a force of destruction. So now SWK and the lego show story have been left is this weird place where it seems that in large part the "SWK completely sucks and hurts everyone" truthers were right--and you see this sentiment reflected CONSTANTLY in canon and in fanon--and yet when people just say that explicitly there's a certain amount of scrambling to argue otherwise. I know it's been discussed before, but I think it bears repeating that not that long ago the hatred being leveled at SWK for supposedly being Qi Xiaotian's deadbeat dad on top of everything else he ruined forever got to the point where a writer felt compelled to go on twitter to confirm that SWK is not the father. I think it was the same writer who said that SWK is trying his best, but as others have noted if THIS is his best (world seems like it's in danger of being destroyed every other week) well lol and also lmao. Idk, personally I think if they noted there were THAT many people ready to condemn SWK for something that wasn't even proven one way or another they should step back and think about why that is. And it definitely doesn't help that they keep saying that there's more to this story from SWK's perspective and/or what actually happened, but then they won't actually show it.

So in the end, I'm not sure if in Monkie Kid's case it's so much a instance of not understanding the Monkey King as much as it is about not wanting to stick with what makes the Monkey King so beloved in the first place, the writers themselves not having a firm idea about where they ultimately want his story to go, but also even if unconsciously using him as a punching bag/sacrificial lamb to further the stories/likeability of other characters. And who knows, maybe later episodes will give SWK a backstory that is so tragic and well written and that explains his failures in the present so well that I'll feel stupid for saying all of this. Honestly I would love it if that was the case. Because Monkie Kid seem to have become one of the main ways that a lot of people in the west are learning about the Monkey King and Journey to the West in the first place, and it would kind of suck if the main impression that they ended with was with SWK as nothing but an constant failure that basically everyone who's ever loved him or even spent time with him comes to distrust, resent, and flat-out hate for very legitimate reasons.

[luminouslumity]

YEAH, OMINOUS WHOOSH IS RIGHT!

[thechildbesuffering]

MK: We gotta go back! Turn the truck around! Pigsy: No way, the others don't want you going back! MK: I know they're just trying to protect me, but I have to protect them! I have Monkey King's staff, they need me! Pigsy: I need you too, kid! MK: Please, Pigsy, what if they get hurt? Pigsy, turn around! Pigsy!! MK: Turn the truck around, PLEASE!!

[angstandhappiness]

LMAO ADORABLE and cute art. Love your observations

HE LIKES MARSHMALLOWS EVERYBODY THIS IS IMPORTANT 

Bonus: 

sleepy after many many marshmallows

[princen-monkie]

Angry pig

[fansids]

OH MY FUCKIN GOD YOU GUYS

MO IS SHA WUJING????!!!

[angstandhappiness]

CANON

Tang: Sometimes noodles are like life. Too hot, too cold, too spicy or boring.

Pigsy: But most importantly... *clears his throat*

Pigsy: *shoves spoon into Tang's face* THEY ARE HARD WORK!

[lotus-duckies]

this one was hard

[nyxyn0x]

Traffic Light Trio Shenanigans

Ft. Dadsy and Dad

More at noon

[davids-cartoon-corkboard]

🤔 Does it mean anything that Qi Xiaotian’s clones each share a trait with Zhu Dachu?

With Porty Clone, that trait is “music”.

With Artist Clone, it’s “care for the craft”.

And with Delivery Clone, it’s “I don’t give a fuck that you’re an authority figure, I’m not putting up with your horseshit”.

The first one’s probably a coincidence since nobody knew about Zhu Dachu’s musical talents until Season 3, but the other two could very well be traits QXT learned from watching his dad boss. XD

[mystic-monkey-business]

Hugging your friends be like