#to see how wukong reacts to someone hes never met before being so similar to him

[yamiiwaii]

One day someone’s going to write a story about Macaque reincarnating and being trained by Wukong. Completely seperate from Lego to be clear.

i mean, there are aus out there ive seen people make where macaque gets reincarnated as a human or just in general but i dont think they involve wukong training mac. its a cool concept i to play around with i guess considering macaque and wukong are equally matched in power

[justmenoworries]

Yo, okay, totally bonkers theory here, but! What if Macaque’s and MK’s first meeting was a pure coincidence?

What if Macaque genuinely didn’t expect MK to be there, but once he was, Mac just kinda... rolled with it, because he saw his chance to get back at Wukong?

Ramblings and theorizing under the read more!

So, what their first meeting initially looks like seems like a classic con-artist set-up: Macaque creates the giant shadow-creature from his own shadow “defeats” it, gains the admiration of MK and we know how it went from there.

But upon several re-watches, I kinda noticed that, if that was in fact the plan from the very beginning, then some of Macaque’s actions and expressions don’t really add up?

Like right here, when he beats his shadow-giant for the first time.

That’s a rather odd expression for someone who presumably just won the equivalent of a mock-fight.

It looks rather calculating and even a bit critical, for lack of a better word. Like he’s trying to gauge something.

So, I thought: What if he wasn’t actually trying to attract MK? What if he was training? That move he whipped out seconds before sure looked fancy and complicated. What if he was using the shadow-giant as a training-dummy, to test his own strength?

We know Macaque does train. He has his own dojo after all.

And let’s be real: Macaque would totally be selfish and reckless enough to practice a dangerous move on a just as dangerous target in the middle of a city.

Then there’s his reaction to meeting MK.

When MK first calls out to him, he seems genuinely surprised. He even assumes a fighting stance.

When MK falls, he tries to walk away, with a  facial expression that  says: “Huh. That was weird.”

Then when MK gets all up in his face the very next second, he startles and leans back.

If Macaque was already expecting MK to show up, why react like this?

In fact, MK losing his grip on the roof would have been the perfect opportunity for Macaque to win his trust. He could have caught him, made a good-natured joke about MK needing to be more careful, then pretended he just realized this is the famous Monkie Kid he’s talking to.

Instead, he seems like he honestly didn’t know who MK was at first and also didn’t expect him to show up.

By the time MK gets all close and personal, it definitely clicked for Macaque who he was talking to.

And I know what you’re thinking: “But if he wasn’t planning on luring in MK, how did he know exactly who MK was?”

Good question!

Mk asks it too, and Macaque gives a pretty convincing answer.

Macaque: “Monkie Kid, right?

MK: “*gasp* How did you-?”

Macaque: “Your staff kinda gives you away, dude. Not just anyone can wield that thing.”

Which, you know. Fair enough. By this point MK is kind of the unofficial super-hero of his hometown. It’s entirely plausible that stories about the boy who can lift and wield the Monkey King’s staff would have come around to Macaque.

And yeah, it’s entirely possible that the plan was to lure in MK from the beginning and I’m just overthinking things.

But again, if Macaque wanted to manipulate MK into swapping teachers, here’s another prime opportunity he seemingly just lets go to waste.

His target has arrived, he’s obviously impressed by what Macaque just did (even if he did think he was watching Monkey King at first) and he’s in a prime position to make a non-chalant offer of mentorship to.

What does Macaque do?

He says: “See you around, MK.” And, once again, tries to leave.

Now this is the point where I think Macaque truly began to see MK as an opportunity to get back at Wukong.

MK isn’t exactly being subtle with his dissatsifaction with Monkey King’s teachings and his desire to learn cool new stuff.

Macaque, being quick on his feet, immediately puts two and two together and here’s where the con starts.

Macaque intentionally plays on MK’s insecurity about Wukong as a teacher and his own talent as a fighter.

First by subtly implying that Wukong wants to hold him back by not teaching him stuff.

Macaque: “Buut, you can never have too many teachers! I’m sure Monkey King would agree. It’s not like he’d wanna hold you back.”

(Side note: That is an interesting thing to just bring up here. I wonder if Macaque was going through something similar in the past, where he felt like Wukong was intentionally holding him back, maybe so he himself could shine brighter as a hero. Whether or not he’s correct in that assumption is up in the air, since we still haven’t heard Wukong’s side of the story in “Shadow Play”. Long story short, I think there’s a bit of projection going on here. And by a bit, I mean a lot.)

Then by negging Mk about not quite living up to his own legend when he defeats him in a sparring match later on.

Macaque: ”Not bad. Don’t get me wrong, but I was kind of expecting a little more from someone with your power.”

MK: “H-hey, I’ve got more! I can give way more than that! I can do better.”

Macaque: “Kay. Maybe show me next time.”

And after this is where he teaches MK dangerously extreme techniques and slowly gets him into a position where he can steal Monkey King’s power from him.

I’d like to think that Macaque did develop at least some genuine fondness for Mk when they trained together. His advice about how Mk should “stop trying to be nice” sounds like something he might have wished someone said to him way back when, when he was still trying to be Wukong’s faithful partner and friend.

But in the end, that small bit of attachment just couldn’t measure up to the years of resentment and rage towards Wukong.

TL; DR: Macaque met MK by pure coincidence, recognized a situation he could easily exploit for his own benefit and then promptly did so. It wasn’t actually planned, at least not at first.

P.S

I feaking love how Macaque’s image on MK actually gets smug when MK chooses Macaque’s teachings over Wukong’s. Macaque must have felt so reluctantly proud and triumphant in that moment.

Also, Macaque’s wide smile when he talks about teaching MK. Happy evil dad.