#the marble demon trio..i'm constantly nervous that people just deadass don't care for them

[cloud-somersault]

it's 2AM and everyone's asleep - can i talk about how cool the whole "each time a celestial primate is born an anomaly happens" thing is??

because since it's so ambiguous in JTTW, it's fun to just play around with that, like other media has in the interpretations in the other 3 like.

i just think it's COOL because Wukong's eyes pierced the sky and alerted Heaven -- what other cool things could happen? and Macaque's was so.

Originally, it was going to be "And when you were born, the entire moon went dark." but that couldn't happen for a variety of reasons. The anomalies have to affect something, but it can't be lasting. It has to be something that gets the attention of the divine in a way that they immediately know "hey, something's going on."

and with MK's, it's sooo MUCH, that it drew the attention of everyone! Because, comparatively we have 1) a bright golden light, 2) a shadow falling over the moon, 3) all the stars flashing brighter for a few seconds, 4) an earthquake that shakes all the realms PLUS golden flowers blooming on the trees.

the fact that there's TWO parts is super important. I wanted that to be a showing of MK's power but also to show his nature as the celestial primate of balance. Because the trees bloomed gold in every realm to highlight his influence and duty, but the earthquake speaks to how powerful he is, how that power has to be carefully maintained or it could spiral out of control.

because I kind of just thought about the nature of the anomalies, too. Wukong's being that bright light and it piercing Heaven just makes me think of his title about being equal to Heaven, how he wanted to be recognized and respected and treated as a divine. that craving for attention.

Macaque's is subtle, a "blink and you miss it" type anomaly because it happened so fast, but it's noticeable in a way like "wait, what was that? the moonlight faded for a second" it's sneaky, it's not outright asking for attention...it's making itself known, but keeping to the night, stalking the shadows. and obvs. the moon itself being linked to the tides, Macaque being born from seafoam. It's neat!! just the symbolism that's associated with water -- wisdom, patience, restoration, guidance. it suits him so well.

Can't talk about the third one for Little Star too much, but the stars FLASHING brighter for a few seconds? all that burning gas just... getting HOTTER and more intense, lighting up the night sky??? attention grabbing for sure, but also intense. exciting, captivating, thinking, perhaps, that something wonderful is about to happen, but then it fades...

it's fun to think about it link them to their characters.