#might be darkly humorous if at least one character was like 'okay! problem solved! :D'

[sketching-shark]

hmmmmmmMmMMMMM so lego show spoilers ahead & good chance this is just me misunderstanding things and/or being too harsh on a silly goofy lego show and/or hanging onto an increasingly dwindling hope that Monkie Kid will give a better explanation for the Monkey King’s behavior than they’ve so far done beyond “Sun Wukong’s a impulsive idiot 5 eva,” but does it seem to anyone else that in the process of making a number of the villains from Journey to the West more relatable that it’s resulted in Sun Wukong just coming off as worse and worse? (to say nothing of the “intelligent” part of “intelligent stone monkey” seems to be getting dissolved in favor of hyperfocusing on the ol’ chaotic/impulsive characterization but that’s a conversation for another day).

Like in the og classic one of the things that makes the Monkey King a fascinating character is that he IS very violent, BUT his violence always has a clear reason with clear thinking behind it & which he’s often shockingly honest about. So to give a few examples! Why did Sun Wukong wage his havoc against heaven? Because heaven sent an entire army against him after he ruined one(1) banquet. Why did he attack the yaoguai kings of the Lion-Camel ridge? Because they were planning to eat the Tang monk (and had already eaten tons upon tons of other humans like holy HELL the description of their actions & their cave is gnarly). Why did he murder the Six-Eared Macaque? Because the Six-Eared Macaque attacked his pilgrim family, aimed to murder-replace him, and was using SWK’s monkey family as his personal tools to do so. So this SWK is a murderer many times over as he himself freely admits, but he tends to have pretty clear & dare I say understandable reasons for being a murder monkey.

But in Monkie Kid? Well, turns out that Sun Wukong convinced his sworn brothers to attack heaven again AFTER his havoc in heaven, and presumably thus got them all in a heap of trouble/trapped in an evil scroll for something he instigated! Why did he attack the other yaoguai kings? I guess he’s just a power-hungry jerk who betrays everyone now! Why did he murder the Six-Eared Macaque? Ditto the previous quote.

Now there is some slight indication that this betrayal of his former sworn brothers was because he was literally tortured into submission by heaven, but this only comes in a brief hint, while again the focus seems to be on how thoroughly Sun Wukong hurt and failed literally everyone he’s ever cared for up into the show’s present. And this has been true for the past couple of seasons. IDK, maybe this will all end with him being the ultimate example of “even if you are struggling with crushing grief and guilt & feel like you need to solve everything by yourself you need to accept help & tell people things,” but for the time being it’s honestly just making the Monkey King seem like someone who’s incapable of doing the right thing or changing for the better and who no one would possibly want to interact with.

Kind of does make the sudden concern for SWK that characters who clearly hate his guts or have some beef with him show when he gets locked in the evil scroll weird. Like, why do you care?

[shsl-shipper-gamer-fangirl]

A/N: I feel like Kaede would have shared the SHSL Hope title if she was in dr1. Okay but if Kirigiri was in v3 she wouldn’t do a half-ass detective investigation. She’d test out traps and know a rigged game when she sees one. SPOILERS on the mastermind.

Other switch AUs: luckster | togami | naegi | troublemaker | detective | maid | liar | protagonist dr1/sdr2 | protagonist dr1/ndrv3 | protagonist sdr2/ndrv3 | heroine dr1/ndrv3 | heroine sdr2/ndrv3 | fem protag dr:ae/ndrv3 | mastermind

Heroine in the Wrong Game - Kaede and Kyouko

“We’re going to be alright. If we all just work together, I’m sure that we can get through this!”

She says this for the nth time already. She’ll say it as many times as she needs to. Sure it took them a few trials and more dead bodies than one would have liked, but she thinks that maybe she’s finally getting through them.

“Might I remind you that one of us is the killer? I don’t care if you peasants start holding hands but do not include me in your incompetent schemes.” Byakuya brushed her off just like he always did whenever she brought up cooperation.

“Geez, would it kill you to get off your high horse for once!” Kaede huffed at him.

“How dare you t-talk back to Master Byakuya, you… y-you bitch!” Touko yelled the insult with surprising volume especially on the last word.

“Bitch?!” Kaede was offended but she knew better than to engage in a pointless verbal warfare with the writer. She sighed. “I really shouldn’t be the one you’re shouting at. You could at least hear me out first.”

“Don’t worry, Kaede-chin! I’m placing my bets on you! My fortunes say that you’re on the right track. I’ll take the payment in cash later!” Hagakure gave her a thumbs up.

“Are you extorting money from me in exchange for your support?” Kaede asked disbelievingly. She tries not to think about the fact that his fortunes are only correct 30% of the time and how those aren’t exactly great odds.

“I don’t know… Our friends just keep on dying. Worse is that we just keep on finding out a friend who’s betrayed us every time. I don’t think what we do makes any difference.” Asahina admiited hopelessly.

“You’ve got that wrong!” Kaede shouted in protest. But despite her loud yell, her next sentence is soft and comforting. “I know. It’s frustrating and sad and heartbreaking finding corpses of our friends and… finding out that they were murdered by… our friends too. But we can’t just let it end here. If we did then that would mean that we lost. Haven’t we already lost enough? I don’t want us to lose any more.”

“I agree. It’s too early to give up. I know we’ve been fighting for so long now but just because we haven’t won yet doesn’t mean we already lost.” Makoto seconded her speech with one of his own.  "We can’t lose hope. As long as we hold onto the hope that we can still get out of this together, we’ll be fine. I just know it!“

"Wow, you’re really great at this motivational thing. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve said it was your talent.” Kaede stared at him in awe and respect.

“Well, optimism is my one redeeming quality.” Makoto sheepishly scratched his head at the sudden attention. “Your words honestly touched me too. That’s why I want to support you with all I’ve got. I’m sure that if you hold on to those words, to that hope, everyone else will eventually listen to you too!”

Kaede’s still working on getting her classmates together but she thinks she’s getting there. One person at a time.

“Alright, team! We can do this! We have the enemy outnumbered!”

Meanwhile, in another class…

“We’re not voting.”

She says it so suddenly and with so much authority that it has the whole class uncharacteristically quiet.

“Nyeh? What do you mean, we’re not voting?” Himiko although being the slowest among them, was surprisingly quick on the uptake. It must have been the shock.

“Exactly what it means.” Kyouko calmly confirmed.

“Gonta is confused. Don’t we need to vote?” Gonta asked, scratching his head in thought.

“We were TOLD that we need to vote,” Kyouko clarified. “There is however, no real reason for us to vote immediately other than a time limit ill-imposed on us.”

“So what? Are you telling us to just die all because you thought we could get away with not voting? Why the hell should we listen to Kyoucum here?” Miu loudly expressed her concerns with all the unnecessary insults.

“I’m telling you not to vote because this is a trap.” Kyouko narrowed her eyes. “Clearly, not all of the mysteries have been solved yet and we’re already asked to vote. Doesn’t that seem suspicious to you?”

“Does it matter? We already figured out that it was Shuichi who did it.” Maki countered, eager to just get this over with.

“No, we didn’t figure out anything concrete. He’s only the suspect not the culprit.” Kyouko corrected her. “We have yet to confirm if his trap did in fact work.”

“But there’s no other way that Rantaro could have been killed, right?” Kirumi asked in an effort to further the discussion.

“Not necessarily. I have a theory…” Kyouko paused, placing a hand on her chin in thought. “I would like to discuss it with all of you first before we finalized our votes.”

“Listen, I know you two are buddies because you’re both detectives but there’s a limit as to how much you should protect your friends…” Ryoma warned her darkly.

“It’s precisely because I’m a detective that I can’t let this slide so easily.” Kyouko counters vehemently. “Jumping to conclusions without irrefutable evidence is just sloppy work. Whether or not Shuichi is my friend is irrelevant. I am a detective first and foremost, and I am here to solve ALL mysteries.”

“That’s enough, Kyouko.” Shuichi who has been quiet all this time, finally spoke up. His hand was trembling as it clutched his hat. “I’ve… I’ve already accepted my crime. There’s no need to prolong the inevitable. Just vote for me… and all of you can survive.”

“…” Kyouko just stared at him. Disappointed. She let out an audible sigh. “And you call yourself a detective?”

“I… Does it matter anymore?” Shuichi sadly smiled. “You’re clearly a better detective than I am, Kyouko. If it’s you, I’m sure the whole class would be fine even with me gone.”

“…If you have nothing better to contribute then I suggest you just observe. You should know better than to just rely on confessions without any concrete proof.” Kyouko pointed out. “I don’t care which of us is the better detective. As long as you also hold the title, I suggest you stop acting like a victim and start acting like a detective.”

“As expected of Kyouko-san! Between her and the degenerate male, she is clearly the more superior detective!” Tenko squealed.

“While it does not wound me to hear your support, I would like to keep this strictly professional.” Kyouko brushed a few locks behind her ear, hiding her embarrassment. “Any opinions of either of our work ethics should be decided only after we’ve proven ourselves in this trial.”

“Kukuku… How beautiful! Spoken like a true detective! You have truly risen to your role! It fills me to the brim with excitement thinking of just what is the solution to this mystery you so desire to earnestly solve!” Korekiyo laughed.

“…Let’s move along.” Kyouko did not want to humor him.

“Nyahaha! Atua has a question! See, Angie has been thinking this whole time… Isn’t it strange? Isn’t it strange? Angie said it twice for effect haha! How come we get to have two detectives hmmmm?” Angie asked with a coy smile.

“That’s… actually a good question.” Kyouko doesn’t deny it even if it brings the heat to her. “There is no necessity to have a duplicate in terms of talent. This redundancy has been bothering me ever since I learned of what my true talent is.”

“Yeah, usually getting doubles in characters counts as lazy writing but apparently it doesn’t count if one of them is a fan favorite.” Tsumugi casually drops.

“Who cares if there are two detectives? They’re different people anyways so there shouldn’t be a problem.” Kaito innocently reasoned.

“No, that’s wrong.” Kyouko objected. “There’s nothing inherently wrong or suspicious with having two detectives gathered however… given our circumstances, it should have been obvious that we were all selected to have unique talents. And yet, we have two people with the same talent. For what reason?”

“Ah, but wasn’t your title originally SHSL ???, Kyouko? You couldn’t remember your talent like Rantaro but you eventually figured it out during his body’s investigation.” Kiibo brought up.

“That’s another mystery. Two people who can’t remember their talent. We may never know what Rantaro’s talent was but mine has been revealed to be exactly the same as Shuichi’s.” Kyouko bit the inside of her cheek in frustration. “There are so many redundancies to ignore.”

“You’re thinking too hard on this, Miss Detective! There’s obviously a simple solution to this!” Kokichi tutted and then smiled sweetly. “And that is… You’re lyiiiiing!”

“…Would you care to explain your theory?” Kyouko encouraged him, unfazed by the accusation.

“You keep pointing out all these weird character points but if you look at the source, they’re all about you! Who’s to say that you really can’t remember what your talent is? Maybe you just faked that story once you heard our beloved Rantaro introduce himself as not remembering his. Who’s to say that your real talent is at being a detective? Maybe you’re just that good at shadowing what our poor Shuichi does. See, you say it’s weird but really, it’s not. You’ve just been lying to us! And I hate liars!”

“Well that was… certainly less farfetched than most of your lies.” Kyouko admitted that much. “But that just now was a lie too, isn’t it? You don’t really believe I’m lying.”

“Awww, you seriously are better than Shuu-chan.” Kokichi pouted but she could see through his feigned disappointment. “Welp! Guess there’s no use in you pretending anymore either. Now that we’ve cleared up your suspicion, Kyou-chan, I think it’s safe to start pointing fingers at the mastermind!”

“M-Mastermind?” Shuichi looked on with horror. “But the trap failed! It didn’t kill the mastermind, it only killed Rantaro instead!”

“Again, do not let me repeat this more than necessary. While it is unfortunate that Rantaro has been killed, it has yet to be confirmed that it was your shot put ball that did it.” Kyouko stared at Shuichi with an unreadable expression. “You set up the trap to lure the mastermind, right? Your original goal was to kill them after. In a way, the trap had only been fifty percent effective.”

“Fifty percent?” Shuichi’s eyes widened in shock. “The mastermind is obviously not dead since we’re having a trial so… does that mean… you really did figure out who?”

“Yes, I’ve had my list of suspects but after enough evidence has been presented in this trial, I have narrowed it down to one.” Kyouko crossed her arms. “There’s still a possibility that my theory is wrong but that is why this trial exists. That’s all the more reason we should not vote and continue discussing instead.”

“Nishishi! Don’t keep us waiting in suspense, Kyou-chan!” Kokichi cheerfully interjects. “Tell us already who’s the sicko that had us trapped in this stupid killing game!”

“Very well. Given all the evidence at hand, there is a concerning possibility that the mastermind is none other than…” Kyouko scans the trial room until her eyes land on a particular someone. “Tsumugi Shirogane.”

…

“Eh?”

“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?”

“Tsumugi’s whereabouts during the murder had been the most suspicious. That alone shouldn’t have been sufficient but her actions during the whole trial had led me to believe that she has been steering this trial to serve a goal that’s more than just our survival.” Kyouko narrowed her eyes at the now quiet supposedly plain girl. “Isn’t that right, Tsumugi?”

…

“Oh, dear… It’s only the first trial and we already have a mastermind reveal…” Tsumugi sighed, resigned to this lazy writing. “This is what we get when we let the fans choose a comeback character.”

Kyouko casually flips her hair.

“It doesn’t matter what kind of mystery you throw. I’ll solve them all.”

The two heroines continued to struggle with trials of their own and unbeknownst to them that they were in the wrong class.

[angstandhappiness]

Interesting to consider

@sapphire-monkey The show is frustrating to watch as a Sun Wukong fan. Especially when I'm already familiar with the original story. All my brain can say is that's not how it happened. Why are they telling it that way?

Sun Wukong deserves better then this shit. That said, the Qi Xiaotian plot point is interesting at least.

@sketching-shark @sapphire-5505 LITERALLY like why are they doing the Monkey King dirty like this, + more fear that he's going to be revealed as Qi Xiaotian's deadbeat bio dad. Like I got into this thinking it would be silly fun adventures with a close relationship between Qi Xiaotian & Sun Wukong, not them constantly being separated from each other & SWK just looking more & more like a thoughtless jerk with Qi Xiaotian suffering as a direct result :(

@antidotefortheawkward-art oh my god im so glad i stopped watching this 😭 the more i hear about their swk character assassination the more insane i feel

@sapphire-monkey @sketching-shark Same, I wanted to see more Sun Wukong Qi Xiaotian bonding. Sun Wukong is barely in the show! T.T It hurts my Great Sage loving heart.

I think the run time worsens it, since its so short characters are getting shafted.

@sweetpeathecat There is a documentary video about the making of “lego monkie kid” both the lego sets/designs and the pilot episode. One of the points of contention/conflict between the two sides (American script written/Australian animation studio and Chinese devision of Lego ) is how SWK is going to be portrayed. The American/Australian side want to portray him in a more silly, hands off way. While the Chinese side wanted him to be more of a proper mentor.

@sapphire-monkey @sweetpeathecat Why does that not surprise me? God damn it America/Australia. How hard is it to be respectful of the culture you're trying to sell toys to? smh.

@sweetpeathecat @sapphire-5505 I think it’s more of a cultural difference on how to portray mentor figures in media. Western media tends to remove the mentor figure from the story in order for the protagonist to grow on their own. Eastern media tend to keep the mentor figure in the protagonist life in order to show how important it is to have a guide in their journey( to the west)

@sketching-shark @sweetpeathecat @sapphire-5505 AUGH i feel like there must be a way of maintaining a happy medium of 'good and attentive mentor who's also happy to watch the protagonist grown on their own' but gosh dern between all the trauma & SWK & Qi Xiaotian constantly getting separated & now SWK consistently making things worse even if inadvertently...(X_X) @antidotefortheawkward-art crying shaking throwing up begging western media to let their monkey kings be at least semi competent (yet the insistence on impulsive 'chaotic' monkey reigns supreme)

@nothingnessanduniverse I hope it’s more of a Azure King manipulating the circumstances or seeing from his point of view. Because as I remember, wasn’t the Jade Emperor and his army losing, and what’s the whole reason Buddha was called in the first place? It’s canon in LMK he went up against Buddha, because it was mentioned. And also, wasn’t the whole reason Wukong joined Tang, was kind of unwillingly? He was under a rock for 500 years, so of course he accepted any way of getting out of punishment.

@birbs-n-cats @nothingnessanduniverse the absolute divergence from jttw is breaking lmk apart like c’mon now. Not to mention they couldve use swk og sworn brothers and not those 3. Like if theyre gonna make completely new backstory for three of the worst villains (LEMH is stil there but hes another issues) why not ise the actual sworn brothers??? They got the right species, wrong ppl.

@nothingnessanduniverse@birbs-n-cats I do not even mind divergence from myths and legends in media, it can make things more exciting, fresh and interesting, seeing the authors own interpretation. But the core ideas in my opinion should stay the same. However, I think one of the main problems, we never see from Wukong's perspective, everyone is bashing him in the show, but he never retorts nor argues. Like, it is never explained why he killed Macaque (explained in the original jttw though)​

OP’s tags @sketching-shark :  #might be darkly humorous if at least one character was like 'okay! problem solved! :D'#but that might be a little too dark for a kid's show & not keeping with whatever message flying bark is aiming for efgerseawrf

@spadaaces  #it sure is a trend. esp after s3 when you can tell there was some Genuine growth on his part in terms of opening up as seen in the first ep#but also the way I saw it while watching the season is that it’s very focused on how Other’s percieve him/jugde him#in the sworn brothers scene it seemed like they all universally agreed they needed to do smt about the heavenly realm#/that it wasn’t purely swk’s idea to attack#then azure lion says he betrayed them by joining the journey but w the way the visuals of it was framed#it really did not seem like swk actually had much of a choice#so to me it seems like it’s a case of azure lion and the others THINKING swk betrayed them.#not saying he didn’t I mean he did still seal them in the scroll#but in ep 7 when confronted by the ink version of him there’s a lot of focus on it telling him he’s only meant to wreak havoc#that he can’t fight that violent destiny. simillar to the things xiaotian’s turmoil focuses on#agh I didn’t mean for this to get so rambly I just think it’s interesting because#thru the 3 other seasons we see a lot of characters all have their own opinion on who Swk is/what he should be#and while reading jttw I kept thinking about how through a lot of chapters. it seems to be about people wanting to Control swk#(mainly due to his violent tendencies even when they’re from well intentioned places)#idk it’s very interesting to me with how ep1 shows the manifestations of his regrets mainly being people he betrayed#I’m not gonna lie I lost my train of thoughts a bit sorry for rambling so much in your tags GSJSGSJDH#and sorry if it seems I’m trying to argue against you! I’m not this was just how I percieved this Whole Thing#swk being reduced to his violence but desperately wanting not to. idk. i just hope they let him actually recover a bit#I hope any of this made sense. I’m running on very few hours of sleep

@tesseractrave  There are sooo many reasons why I can't handle LEGO Monkie Kid, but this is one of the biggest ones. I got into Journey To The West via the original stories and legends, and I've absolutely loved to find and research most of the adaptations and different takes on the story and its characters, but this show in particular makes me irrationally angry. Sure, it's pretty, and I like LEGOs, but I'll be damned before I recommend it to anyone; its faith and respect to the source material are constantly lessening.

@sun-wukongs-peaches #it is Frustrating to say the least# ​

hmmmmmmMmMMMMM so lego show spoilers ahead & good chance this is just me misunderstanding things and/or being too harsh on a silly goofy lego show and/or hanging onto an increasingly dwindling hope that Monkie Kid will give a better explanation for the Monkey King’s behavior than they’ve so far done beyond “Sun Wukong’s a impulsive idiot 5 eva,” but does it seem to anyone else that in the process of making a number of the villains from Journey to the West more relatable that it’s resulted in Sun Wukong just coming off as worse and worse? (to say nothing of the “intelligent” part of “intelligent stone monkey” seems to be getting dissolved in favor of hyperfocusing on the ol’ chaotic/impulsive characterization but that’s a conversation for another day).

Like in the og classic one of the things that makes the Monkey King a fascinating character is that he IS very violent, BUT his violence always has a clear reason with clear thinking behind it & which he’s often shockingly honest about. So to give a few examples! Why did Sun Wukong wage his havoc against heaven? Because heaven sent an entire army against him after he ruined one(1) banquet. Why did he attack the yaoguai kings of the Lion-Camel ridge? Because they were planning to eat the Tang monk (and had already eaten tons upon tons of other humans like holy HELL the description of their actions & their cave is gnarly). Why did he murder the Six-Eared Macaque? Because the Six-Eared Macaque attacked his pilgrim family, aimed to murder-replace him, and was using SWK’s monkey family as his personal tools to do so. So this SWK is a murderer many times over as he himself freely admits, but he tends to have pretty clear & dare I say understandable reasons for being a murder monkey.

But in Monkie Kid? Well, turns out that Sun Wukong convinced his sworn brothers to attack heaven again AFTER his havoc in heaven, and presumably thus got them all in a heap of trouble/trapped in an evil scroll for something he instigated! Why did he attack the other yaoguai kings? I guess he’s just a power-hungry jerk who betrays everyone now! Why did he murder the Six-Eared Macaque? Ditto the previous quote.

Now there is some slight indication that this betrayal of his former sworn brothers was because he was literally tortured into submission by heaven, but this only comes in a brief hint, while again the focus seems to be on how thoroughly Sun Wukong hurt and failed literally everyone he’s ever cared for up into the show’s present. And this has been true for the past couple of seasons. IDK, maybe this will all end with him being the ultimate example of “even if you are struggling with crushing grief and guilt & feel like you need to solve everything by yourself you need to accept help & tell people things,” but for the time being it’s honestly just making the Monkey King seem like someone who’s incapable of doing the right thing or changing for the better and who no one would possibly want to interact with.

Kind of does make the sudden concern for SWK that characters who clearly hate his guts or have some beef with him show when he gets locked in the evil scroll weird. Like, why do you care?