#which is really funny because they probably need it more than Macaque

[askblueandviolet]

For both of ya'll-

What's your earliest memory? Are you fond of it? Are you both doing ok now at least?

Also! For Macaque, have some extra theater props and such! For Mayor, here's a business card for a therapist. Please- your mental state is worrying- q-q If not that, have some noodles dude. Not sure if you need to eat but surely some comfort food will make you feel marginally better?

That's all! :D Have a nice day!

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[nekohime19]

Macaque study # S4 SPECIALS

Let's go with Macaque in the special of season 4! There will be a lot to say here too. The specials offer us a very interesting insight on what happened between Wukong and Macaque while also taking the first step towards their reconciliation.

The first appearance of Macaque in the specials is immediately centered around Wukong (and his conflict with him).

MK : We have to try! He'd do the same for any of us.

Macaque averting his eyes while MK says this very sentence is not coincidental. Obviously Macaque doesn't think Wukong would really do this if it was for him. After all, Macaque still has this image of Wukong he's fueling. The one of a selfish person who doesn't care. Yet Macaque still wants to go with MK. This time MK didn't even ask him to help, Macaque stepped up on his own. I think it's important to notice this because Macaque could have just chosen to not care. Contrary to season 3, nobody asked him to save the world, nobody asked him to help. Perhaps because they're not sure of his position in the matter.

Yet Macaque still chose to help on his own. It really shows how much he really cares about this even if he acts like he doesn't by being grumpy.

Within the first few minutes of Macaque being inside the scroll of memory, he already showcases a lot of familiarity with Wukong past self and Wukong in general :

- He instantly recognizes that the Wukong they see is a memory (perhaps because he knew Wukong at this state in his life?)

- He said that he can “smell him a mile away” which while very funny also portrays a sense of familiarity. I did some research on that and while old world apes like rhesus macaques don't have a strong sense of smell, they do use smell to differentiate between members of their social group. Macaque being used to Wukong smell can portray how Macaque was a part of Wukong social group back in the days.

- And finally the lil monkey they find immediately attach itself to Macaque rather than MK. It does really show how Macaque lived on the island with Wukong, and how contrary to any other members of the brotherhood, Macaque lived with the monkeys. He was part of the troop. And the monkeys probably missed him a lot too.

Those are rather oblivious details, but it does set the record for the rest of the specials. Macaque was very familiar with Wukong, probably more familiar than any other members of the brotherhood. He was part of the troop, he lived with Wukong. Wukong was his king.

I think it's also really fun how Macaque tells MK to read JTTW. When they come across Wukong training under Subodhi, Macaque specifically tells how this scene is in chapter 1. That means Macaque himself have read the book. Maybe, after being resurrected, Macaque got curious about the journey and decided to read the book, or he just wanted to know what happened to Wukong after his death.

After this, they both stumble upon a very important scene : Macaque under the tree on the beach and Wukong coming to him.

There is a lot to say in this scene.

Wukong : Macaque, you're okay bud?

Macaque : Welcome back your majesty

Wukong : ah, don't be like that. Eat some fruits, suck up the sun. That's why I've been training so hard.

Macaque : What? So you can be the strongest?

Wukong : Nooo well maybe a lil bit. But that's not the point! It's so we don't have to worry about anything or anyone ever again. Just live a lazy life sitting in the sun, eating fruits. And doing whatever we want. Sounds pretty good? Huh? Huh?

So with nothing but the dialogue we already got the key points of Wukong's motivation, his fatal flaw that led to his downfall and the basics of his relationship with Macaque.

First, Wukong is mainly driven by the need to protect others. The first thing he tells Macaque when he sees him is “Are you okay?”. And while at first we can assume Wukong is simply overprotective, we also see Macaque bandaging himself before Wukong comes to him. That does show that whatever threat Wukong was desperate to protect Macaque from (poachers, demons) it does exist. Flower Fruit Mountain, while being a rather difficult place to reach and thus quite protected, is not completely safe. Macaque can still get hurt.

Second, Macaque is sarcastic when he says “your majesty”, that does showcase that while Wukong is a king, Macaque doesn't treat him as one. He treats Wukong as a friend. That's why he uses this title so lightly. Macaque's light jab “welcome back” is also most likely an allusion to Wukong's frequent escapades to become stronger. Clearly, Macaque is annoyed by Wukong's absence. Maybe he feels like a servant of some sort, waiting for Wukong to return.

What I find interesting is that we can see here how Macaque is much more comfortable with Wukong alone than with the brotherhood. Here, Macaque is not afraid to express his dissatisfaction with light sarcasm. Whereas, in the brotherhood, when Peng was mocking him, he didn't reply at all and kept quiet.

Third, Wukong's flaw shone through the interaction despite his main drive (which is to protect). Macaque is aware of Wukong's flaw when he replies “What so you can be the strongest?”, and even Wukong recognizes his thirst for power. This is really important because it's a key point to understanding their downfall. While Wukong's intentions were originally good, he let his desire for powers and glory blind him. At this point in time, his desire still doesn't take precedent over his dream. But the more he'll gather power, the more he'll lose sight of why he started this quest of strength for. The more he'll lose sight of Macaque. The more he'll keep feeding this desire with Azure's recognition.

And like the scene of the brotherhood banquet, Macaque is reassured when Wukong mentions their dream again, more likely comforted by the fact Wukong didn't forget their common dream. Truly, even at the earliest stage of their friendship, Macaque already had the fear of being forgotten .

[ Apparté : I think it's sweet how we sees Wukong idea of a paradise : he needs “sun”, “fruits”, “safety” (proof in his words : “we don't have to worry about anything or anyone ever again”) , “liberty” (“And doing whatever we want “) and “Macaque” (emphasis on the “we” He repeats constantly).]

Macaque: quit it, eat your dang peach

Wukong : you're a peach.

Lastly, this scene introduces us to the peach symbolism in Macaque and Wukong relationship.

We know how obsessed Wukong is with peaches, so for him to give one to Macaque is already a physical proof of his care. He even goes as far as to call him a “peach”. It might be subtle, but truly this is a great show of fondness and care coming from Wukong. Here we have two shows of affections coming from Wukong : gift-giving and endearments, all related to peaches because that's what he likes the most and thus is the ultimate show of his affection.

The peach represents their friendship. It also, in a metaphorical lense, represents longevity. As such, it can represent Wukong's desire for Macaque to be safe and to live a long life. Macaque accepting the peach is, of course, him accepting Wukong's show of care but also accepting his protection/ the longevity he gives him.

The act of gifting a peach is also metaphorically a wish for love, happiness and well-being. And I think this encompasses Wukong’s feelings perfectly. He wants Macaque to be well and happy. He wants to protect him and cares for him. And Macaque accepts this show of affection coming from Wukong.

After this particularly sweet scene, we get the scene of their downfall: the fight under the mountain.

Macaque : Hey bud, I got a lil something

Wukong : What for me? You're not serious, that whole peach is for me? Oh bud, you shouldn't have!

Macaque : Okay, you don't have to be so you about it.

Wukong : no, no honestly this is exactly what I need right now. I'm trapped under the mountain but the Six-eared Macaque brought me a peach. Hooray.

Macaque : You know I'd help if I could.

Wukong : Oh sure, cause normally you just rush to my rescue.

Macaque : yeah, okay.

So with this first section of the dialogue we learns a lot already.

First, Macaque coming to hand a peach to Wukong is, of course, made to comfort him in his rough situation (peaches are probably his comfort food) but it’s also an offer of friendship. Macaque is offering his company. His friendship. Because, truly, he cannot offer anything else.

But Wukong's response is a very cutting antiphrasis, sarcasm in short. Very much like Macaque in the previous scene, he uses sarcasm to convey his frustrations and feelings. But it hurts way more here. Because Wukong is not only refusing the peach, he's also refusing Macaque company and friendship. He uses Macaque full title to create distance between them.

We can translate Wukong's antiphrasis like this :

- What for me? You're not serious, that whole peach is for me? Oh bud, you shouldn't have!

- I don't care about the peach. It's not what you should do!

- no, no honestly this is exactly what I need right now. I'm trapped under the mountain but the Six-eared Macaque brought me a peach. Hooray.

- I don't need the peach right now. I want freedom. You're the Six-eared Macaque and the only thing you can offer me is a peach? Why can't you free me? (I translated it like this because of the use of Macaque's full title. Here, for me, Wukong is mocking Macaque inabilities by saying his full title, full title being generally a show of power.)

What Wukong wants is freedom, more than friendship, more than company, more than comfort.

Macaque tried to convey his helplessness by saying that it's not like he doesn't want to help, it's that he cannot, he doesn't have the capacities to. But Wukong doubts Macaque's willingness to help with sarcasm once again.

- Oh sure, cause normally you just rush to my rescue!

- You never rescue me. You never help me.

Like we previously see, Macaque prefers to avoid conflicts rather than face them. When he sees Wukong unwillingness to listen, he rises and walks away. I think Macaque's position was really telling in this scene. He sat beside Wukong. Not in front of him. He lowered himself on the ground, maybe to lower himself to Wukong's level and not look down on him in a show of companionship, and sat at his side in an act of silent support. But when Wukong rejects that companionship (rejects Macaque), Macaque rises and walks away. He doesn't crush the peach yet but simply takes it away. Thus, it shows that their friendship has not been crushed yet. Macaque takes Wukong's rejection in stride and decides to take back his offer of friendship at the moment.

Wukong : Well it was great seeing you bud, just run off like you always do.

Macaque : No, that's you! You're the one who's always running off, looking for more powers, for more sources of immortality. You're one who wouldn't quit while we were ahead. Not the great sage, he's gonna drag everyone else into his mess.

Wukong : you're not in this mess, you're still free ! Everything I did was for us!

Macaque : You did it for yourself. You've become like this… obsessive demon. I told you going against the Jade Emperor was a bad idea, but no, Wukong doesn't listen to anyone. He just does whatever he wants. You put yourself there, not me.

Wukong : Fine! Leave! I don't wanna see your face here again you big- hugh. I really wanted that peach.

And that's the words that makes Macaque explode.

Wukong is definitely salty about something here, he mentions how Macaque always run-off, perhaps that's because he felt like Macaque abandoned him after his defeat against the Jade Emperor. Macaque most likely escaped with the brotherhood via a portal, it would explain how they were be able to avoid the heavenly soldiers after Wukong’s defeat. Wukong most likely felt like he was left behind, tossed away the moment he lost, and resented Macaque for this.

Macaque on his part is furious because he felt like he was the one who had been abandoned. It's not Wukong who has been abandoned. It's him. He emphasizes this feeling by reminding Wukong of his numerous escapades and repeating the verb “running off” that Wukong used, trying to show Wukong that he's not the one being abandoned, it was Macaque all along. This is probably a boiling feeling who festered for a long time and exploded here. He also emphasizes Wukong's flaw by mentioning power and immortality. Essentially Macaque is calling out Wukong on his flaws, saying that he forsake their common dream for strength and longevity. He uses the title “Great sage” as an insult, probably to mock Wukong's desire for grandeur, and also put the blame entirely on Wukong, saying that he's the one who dragged “everyone else” (Macaque, monkeys and the brotherhood) into this situation. Which is largely untrue. This situation was the result of a lot of additional factors. But pushed by his emotions and his festered frustrations, Macaque is blind to this.

Wukong replies to this by saying that Macaque is not in this mess. Ignoring Macaque's own pain and wounds after the battle and only focusing on himself. Which we cannot truly fault him for. He's cut off from the rest of the world, being tortured daily, he probably thinks that the brotherhood and Macaque have great lives. But still, he's ignoring Macaque's pain. He also emphasizes how “everything he did was for us” ( in my opinion it’s a very romantic line, he doesn't say “everything I did was for everyone!” which would include the brotherhood and the monkeys, he uses “us”, which only includes Macaque and him.). I think at a certain point Wukong blinded himself, convincing himself that each of his choices were driven by his common dream with Macaque, when in truth, at the end, most were driven by his own selfish desires.

Macaque calls him out on this. It's interesting to see how Wukong is particularly angered by the moniker “obsessive demon”, probably because by calling him a demon (in JTTW, the representation of strides and enmity) Macaque put him on the same level as all the demons that came on FFM, the enemies Wukong was desperate to protect Macaque from. Macaque also emphasizes on Wukong's selfishness and how he never listened, again festering frustrations that comes in the surface here. In the end, he says Wukong puts himself in this situation, which is true. Wukong had the choice to stop this mad quest at any moment (as MK said in the previous scene, he was already strong enough) but he refused to. Ultimately, his demise and emprisonnement under the mountain is due to nothing but himself.

Yet Wukong wants someone to put the blame on, probably to vent his frustrations and anger, and in this moment he chose Macaque.

Macaque crushes the peach after this and throws it away. A metaphorical ending of his friendship with Wukong.

Yet, after Macaque leaves, Wukong does say he “wanted that peach”. While, yes, story wise Wukong must be quite starved at this moment. It could also be a show of post-fight clarity where he truly admits that he, in fact, wanted Macaque’s companionship.

I don't think one of them is more right than the other in this scene. They're both hurting, and they both had faults. Macaque never stepped up until it was too late and let his frustrations fester inside of him. And Wukong was blinded by his desires and is, now, venting everything on the only person he can, and paradoxically the only person who cared enough to come see him, Macaque.

Ultimately, they both felt abandoned by the other in one way or another.

MK : So Monkey King really was the bad guy?

Macaque : That's what I believed, what Azure would have you believe.

That's a really interesting bit, because Macaque uses past tense. He admits that the image of Wukong he has been fueling, of him being the bad guy, is not necessarily true, and puts himself, or his past self, on the same level as Azure which is the season’s villain.

Then Macaque mentions the pilgrims and how they changed Wukong, taking him to a different path, but when MK mentions that this path was the path of “good guys”, Macaque answer with this :

Macaque : every choice has consequences, for someone.

First, while admitting that Wukong is not necessarily a bad guy, Macaque also doesn't admit that he's a good guy.

Second, this is a hint to what happened between them. We know they had another fight after the one under the mountain. One when Wukong was on his pilgrimage. Macaque talks about consequences. We can speculate that the “someone” he mentions while talking about consequences is himself. Thus, maybe, he's saying that by choosing the path of the pilgrims, Wukong forsake Macaque in a way we don't know yet.

We have different hypotheses we can make as to what truly happened and the reason they fought. I personally have three different hypotheses :

First, like on JTTW, Macaque attacked the pilgrims (maybe to “save” Wukong from the circlet). Even if he's the one who ended their friendship by walking away from the mountain and crushing the peach, it's still difficult to sever all links with someone who has been such a great presence and source of happiness in your life. Macaque could have easily heard Wukong's suffering.

Second (very similarly to the first hypothesis) maybe Macaque attacked the pilgrims but this time in a bout of jealousy. He saw how the pilgrims were able to change Wukong while he couldn't and felt replaced.

Third, maybe Macaque didn't attack the pilgrims. Maybe after he severed his friendship with Wukong he felt lost and spiraled out of control. Going on in the path of destruction. And Wukong, as a pilgrim, was sent to stop him. Cue the fight and Macaque's inevitable death.

Before season 5, I was more tempted to believe that my first two hypotheses were more likely due to their likeness with JTTW. But after season 5, I'm actually leaning on the third. During the short extract we have of their fight, Macaque sounds particularly unhinged, further proving that maybe he was really out of control at the time. Furthermore, after the ending of season 5, Macaque is more or less linked to chaos.

In this scene Macaque says : “Wukong was on a path of self-destruction, we all were.”, what's important here is that Macaque puts himself (and the brotherhood) on this path of self-destruction. He also emphasizes how the pilgrims, in particular the monk, was the reason Wukong deviated from this path.

But contrary to Wukong, Macaque had no-one to help him deviate from this path. It's not far-fetched to think Macaque spiraled out of control after the loss of his friendship with Wukong, going further in the path of self-destruction, until chaos engulfed him. And then Wukong was sent to fight him, to stop him.

Anyway, let's leave the hypotheses aside and go back to the study.

I think it's kinda hilarious that Macaque truly does sniff Wukong out, 😂.

After this, they find Wukong before a cliff with fragments of memories. Wukong admits that he blinded himself with his desire, saying “I just wanted to protect the people I cared about.” with this particular shot, of him handing a peach to Macaque, does emphasize that Macaque is part of the people Wukong cares about. Again, here we have the peach gifting as a symbol of their friendship. And what is even more important is that Macaque steps forward and reaches for the peach before his past self comes along to take it and sit beside Wukong. It shows how Macaque still cares for this friendship with Wukong, he still wants it.

Then, as Macaque gazes at his past self with past Wukong, he reaches for them before letting his hand fall down.

Really, it does show Macaque still yearns for this friendship, but ultimately he gives up. Maybe because of all the bad-blood between them, or maybe because he doesn't feel ready for this yet. No matter, this shows that Macaque doesn't just have hatred towards Wukong. He already admitted that his image of Wukong wasn't entirely true, and then here he shows traces of yearning. In any bruised relationship, the first ever step towards healing is the wants to heal, the wants to even have a relationship, and here Macaque showcases it.

I think it's important that the moment MK begins to talk about “fixing”, Macaque comes and Wukong gazes at him. Maybe it's a sign that Wukong also wants to fix whatever is between them.

MK : I need you to be the Monkey King.

The first thing Wukong does after MK says this is to look at Macaque. And it's only after Macaque smiles at him that Wukong nods and rises. It's very lil, but it's a sign of acceptance on Macaque's side, and a show of care on Wukong's. If Wukong truly didn't care about Macaque anymore he wouldn't search for his acceptance like that. Moreover, Wukong is silently asking Macaque if it's okay to be the Monkey King, to be the hero, to be what essentially killed Macaque, and Macaque smiles and encourages him to be this hero. On Macaque's part, this is a huge step forward. He hates Wukong as a hero because, for him and for a long time, he believed it was what led to their downfall. But here, he encourages Wukong to be one.

The Macaque from season 2 who did a whole shadowplay on how awful heroes are would never do this.

This is really a huge character development for Macaque. It does show how his view of Wukong is changing and how, progressively, he's letting go of his assumptions and hatred, of the fake images he created of Wukong.

After this, we get another flashback of the brotherhood. And if we didn't understand how much Macaque didn't fit with this group before, it's even more obvious now.

In this scene, all the members of the brotherhood are preparing to fight, there are beautiful and dramatic shots of their clothes and weapons to emphasizes this. All shots are very dynamic. And then we have all the brotherhood standing together looking forward (except Azure who's instead looking at Wukong, probably to showcase how his admiration for Wukong blinded him and made him lose sight of his goal).

Except Macaque isn't in the shot. And the only one who bothers to go to Macaque is Wukong.

Moreover, Macaque clothing shot is static, he looks annoyed, and it's not as dramatic nor as powerful as the others, he's also standing in the back. Frankly he looks like he's dressing himself to go do the groceries. Really, it's a sign that Macaque isn't on the same wavelength, he's not willing to do this, his only link to the others is Wukong who comes to him to help him dress.

All the others are more or less after glory, they act like they're on a grand quest, except Macaque. And even if we don’t get a shot of Bull King clothing himself, he's still standing on the very epic shot of all the members of the brotherhood looking in the distance.

There is a clear dichotomy between Macaque and the others. The others are all depicted in a very epic light, while Macaque is more or less normal.

After this we get back to the present, with the entire team and Nezha in Wukong's shack, while Wukong is explaining their plan. Everyone is here except Macaque. Macaque appears in the shack with a shadow portal. It demonstrates that once again Macaque is helping out of his own volition. Nobody asked him or dragged him in the shack, he went there himself to participate. He could have left after rescuing Wukong, nobody expected him to stay and help considering they didn't drag him with them, but still he decided to stay and actively went into the shack to hear the plan and participate.

But because he's Macaque, he does throw a light insult at Wukong by calling him out on his smell.

After a light training, the fight against the brotherhood begins, and Macaque is put against Peng with Mei.

Peng : I don't know how you stomach it brother, the Six-eared Macaque fighting side by side with his own replacements. Is there anything Wukong could do that would break his hold over you?

First, Peng is tapping into Macaque's insecurities (of him being left behind by Wukong, of him being replaced) while also acknowledging how much obsessed Macaque is with Wukong. Until now, those facts were more or less known to us after observing Macaque, but here another character admits the same thing. That does mean that Macaque’s insecurities, fear and fondness/obsession towards Wukong are canonically noticeable by those who know him.

I love how Macaque answers Peng :

Macaque : You know what, Peng ? Straight up, I've never liked you.

Contrary to the past where Macaque avoided conflicts and prefered to keep silent and not answer Peng's quip, here, he answers, he bites back. Macaque is not the same anymore, he's not as docile, nor as afraid of conflicts. After being killed and resurrected, and fighting Wukong to death multiple times while arguing constantly, he's not afraid of fights anymore. He grew up. He changed from how he was. His experiences forged him.

After Azure's defeat, Peng tries to flee.

Macaque : Mei, let them go. After all, he always was the most cowardly of the bunch.

Oh, how do he turn tables on Peng!!! Macaque using ��coward”as an insult when it was what Peng always called Macaque in the past is obviously the greatest roast ever, but it's also a tailored quip made to anger Peng and make him act rash.

We can see Macaque turning around while throwing a fanged smile at Peng, something we haven't seen in a while since season 3.

Those shows that Macaque is laying a trap here

The smile is made to provoke Peng, as is the quip. Peng falls for it and rushes towards Macaque, he's then face to face with Macaque kaiju form and Mei's dragon and decides to flee.

Speaking of fanged smiles. The lack of it this season is truly a sign of Macaque comfortability with the group. He doesn't need to pretend anymore.

After that, Macaque participates in the spell used to contain Azure and we get a very confusing short scene of Wukong passing on his cloud next to Macaque, rushing towards Azure to stop him, and Macaque looking at him in slow motion.

For this, I have no other interpretations but a really romantic coded one. I don't know why there is an emphasis on Macaque looking at Wukong for a second, the scene being in slow motion, except if it's for showing how Macaque's attention is always grabbed by Wukong, even when the threat is ahead. Macaque should look at Azure going on a rampage and focusing on the spell, yet when Wukong passes by him he can't help but look at him. You can have different interpretations for this, of course.

After Azure's defeat, the whole team decided to do a beach party. And Macaque invites himself, of course.

Wukong : yo, kinda blocking out the sun there. Oh it's you.

Macaque : Cute. Thanks for the invite by the way.

Wukong : And thanks for showing up even though you were not invited.

So, first, even though Macaque proved he's definitely not in the bad guy team this season, and even though we saw traces of yearning in both of them, they're still throwing quips at each other. Bad habits break hard. They both are so used to fighting, they probably don't know how to act when they're not. Moreover, all the bad-blood is not entirely gone, they still have quite the troublesome past on their shoulders with untold feelings and festering frustrations.

Second, the tree they're under is the same we saw in the flashbacks, a symbol of their past friendship. Clearly meant here as a sigh of their slow healing process, and the healing of their friendship. Wukong also gives Macaque a peach popsicle, not a coincidence considering peaches are another symbol of their friendship. This could be considered as an olive branch in itself but also as a quiet offer of rekindling, an offer to move forward.

Macaque : You know this is the calm before the storm, right?

Wukong : I know. But that can be a tomorrow problem. Whatever they're scheming, we can handle it.

Wukong furthermore emphasizes this by insisting on the “we”, including Macaque in the good guys team.

Also, Macaque calling Wukong cute? 🤨

But even though in this season Macaque willingly went around to help and defeat the villain, he's still not fully on the good guy team. Once Azure is defeated we can see him stand aside, there is a physical distance between him and the rest that would be furthermore emphasized in season five. I think it's important to notice this because it makes Macaque’s redemption arc more genuine. All his past faults are not magically forgiven, nor does he become buddy-buddy with everyone the moment he turns out good. His redemption is slow. The relationships he forged with the others are tentative at best. Even his healing friendship with Wukong is at its earliest stages.

In this season, we got a clearer view of Macaque as a character and how much he changed compared to his past self, but also how much he's willing to help, how much he truly cares.

Alright, that's it for Macaque in the season 4 specials. I'll do a final post for season 5 and that would be the end of this study.

Like always, if you have any other interpretations it's fine and you can share them, I'm curious about them.

Study S1 / Previous / Next

[xjulixred45x]

OKAY! I HAVE SUCCUMBED TO THE VOICES OF MY LATEST HYPERFIXATION: LEGO MONKEY KID! UNTIL I SATISFY THEM I WON'T BE ABLE TO WORK ON ANY REQUEST! Get ready for the most absurd rants you've ever heard about Jttw, lmk AND EPIC THE MUSICAL! YOU ARE WARNED!

I find it somewhat funny how the vast majority of adaptations of Sun Wukong leave out that the Monkey King HAD A WIFE. a fucking wife that he KIDNAPPED AND FORCED TO BECOME HIS BRIDE.

She literally appears singing about this :'D before Nezha and his father rescue her.

and while I was learning about this, I couldn't help but think about the songs from Calypso, from Epic: the Musical (another recent hyperfixation) and in some way relate it to Monkey Kid.

after all, LMK's Wukong knows that the things he did when he was young were QUESTIONABLE to say the least (he literally said it) and that he regrets many things, and I wondered what his dynamic would have been like in that case with Jiaozi (his "wife ").

and that is precisely why I relate it to Love in Paradise in a certain way.

Like, we know that this Wukong definitely had good intentions, which were initially driven by good reasons, but which became more and more selfish, so here perhaps he could have brought Jiaozi to Flower Fruit Mountain as a direct response to 1- monkey logic + 2- after his trip to the west he needed a way to deal with loneliness and 3- demonic courtship is WILD.

Anyway, I can see this more (ONLY IN LMK) as a response to mourning and handling loss (the Brotherhood? Macaque? is up to your interpretation) and that he really doesn't know how to manage/communicate his emotions in a healthy way.

Imagine being Jiaozi, being taken from your comfortable princess life overnight, waking up in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE with a monkey man who is too... friendly to be a kidnapper?

Like, lmk's Wukong acts just like Calypso, with a lot of familiarity, his normal confident post-trip to the West self, explains the situation to Jiaozi (but in a much friendlier way than it really is) and she's like "uh HELL NO" but there really isn't much to do against the literal Monkey King, THE SAGE, THE EQUAL TO HEAVEN, and poor Jiaozi is having a full-blown crisis while Wukong doesn't understand why she's so distraught, don't she understand him? They have everything they want and need in the mountains!

Ironically other texts also described Wukong as a "spoiling husband who gave a lot of clothes/food/things to his wife" and that was probably the route he took after the beginning, Wukong has a lot of trash, but he was more than willing to share with Jiaozi as long as she was happy, that she wanted him back...love him Back.

He JUST doesn't understand the seriousness of the matter that KIDNAPPING YOUR SPOUSE REALLY IS...until Nezha and His Father come along.

Now, I don't think Wukong is stupid even before that happens, he would see Jiaozi's clear anguish, her sadness, the desire to return to her old life with her family, and although he consoles her and such, he is having a crisis, This is supposed to be normal, right? So why does he feel so bad when he sees her so distressed?

The glass fills slowly but surely.

I don't think he was a bad husband Per se, like I said, he was very pampering and such (maybe even Jiaozi sees him in a certain positive light, even if not as a husband, because of his good deeds of the past), but he had a big problem with taking things too lightly and not dealing adequately with his emotions.

so when he receives the ultimatum from Nezha and company, he has a very Im not Sorry for Loving You moment.

in which he does just that, he explains to Jiaozi that he let her go with Nezha, that he regrets having made her go through all this just out of selfish fear, and he very much regrets not regretting loving her even so (many years of being alone screwed him up a little head, so this type of interaction definitely marked his isolation even more in the future).

Even if in lmk Jiaozi doesn't keep track of him or anything like that, she makes it clear to him that she couldn't love him the way he wants her to love him. and it hurts, but it hurts good. because he learns from it.

(PS, it would be quite ironical if this Jiaozi marry Nezha of all people lol)

waaaaaaa I just love finding parallels between my hyperfixations, I will soon publish another one, but it will be much fluffier and from this same fandom.

(the songs that give the idea)

Shares, reblogs and comments are very welcome!

[cloud-somersault]

Your fic "The constellations within us" was so perfect, and exactly what I wanted and needed for since I joined the fandom. I wish I had eloquent words but english is not my native language, and I'm struggling with the translator now, but this fic is probably one of the most high quality ones I’ve ever read so i've finally worked up the energy to leave a solid comment.

I love your prose, the descriptions and internal monologues are so immersive and emotional that I need to reread over and over again. The worldbuilding scratches my brain real nice, all contribute to make a really cohesive image that canon still doesn't quite achieve in my opinion. And you did a good job capturing the mood and humor of the show with every little detail but at the same time you’ve added a whole new dimension to the plot and characters. Keep cooking, I beg you but also have mercy on me. I imagine you saying something like: I am going to create an situation that is so emotionally fucked up before writing any chapter.

I really love the way shadowpeach interact in this story. From trying to kill each other to sharing the food. It's kinda crazy that people genuinely thought shadowpeach was a one sided crush until s4.

To be honest, I'm not a fan how the fandom treats shadowpeach but you have successfully kept the characterization of mystical monkeys to perfection while setting up a realistic shadowpeach plotline. I read this quote in another fic but it applies very well to them: "They really embody the pain/comfort thing, except that comfort is understanding and trust."

Sun Wukong is canonically a latent danger that not even the most powerful entities in celestial realm or underworld could subdue him, but he has no self preservation skills whatsoever. He's a bleeding heart. He's the one who sacrifices everything possible to protect the few he loves because, god, he has lost so much. The immortality he achieved with peaches, wine, pills, among many other things, may have made him indestructible on the outside, but inside they made him emotionally vulnerable, lonely and afraid of attachment. This monkey can fit so much trauma and he's holding a lot close to his chest even from the audience. The fandom villainizes him unfairly, but sometimes they also put him on some kind of pedestal, which is also incorrect.

The same happens with Macaque. He's the walking mystery who may or may not realize how much of a prickly capricious hypocrite he is in some things. For example, he feels an apparent resentment at being relegated to being a mere shadow of someone much brighter, but at the same time he seems unwilling to step out of that role. In s1 and s3, he clings so much to the past that he pushes Wukong, the only constant of him in a modern world after his resurrection, to be the version he remembered. Where Wukong advanced, Macaque retreated.

Nonetheless, the motives behind every action of his are more nuanced than him just being evil. He did once he was free from LBD's control was immediately start helping everyone even until s4, as if it were a tacit way of apologizing because he was just trapped under incredibly shitty circumstances, let's remember the part where LBD said she'd kill him if he didn't do what she wanted. Although I don't think he didn’t have fun knocking everyone around a bit (to his ex-husband especially).

It's little funny because I consider that before the perigranation trip, Wukong is a self-proclaimed hero with destructive or villainous tendencies (depending on which side you look at, celestial Realm definitely sees it that way still) while in the current timeline, Macaque is a self-proclaimed villain with heroic tendencies.

I wont keep rambling, but thank you again for pouring your time and talent into this beautifully painful read. I can't wait to chew on the next chapter like a hungry dog ​​with a good steak and also I'll be keeping an eye out for your future works, in case you continue writing about queer monkeys with emotional constipation, but if not, it's such a treat to read what you've already gifted us. Have a good week! and sorry for any translation errors again.

AAAAAH i'm sorry i've taken so long to respond to this. this ask is SO SWEET and i loved just rereading it over and over to suck all the serotonin out of it. Filled me with gleee!!

Thank you so much for taking the time to translate and write out this message! There weren't any errors, it's okay! I'm so glad you liked my story sm and read it and ENJOYED IT YAAAAAY!!!

honestly, I only cackle evilly before posting chapters sometimes. Only sometimes, when I remember. I usually cackle while writing, but then, by the time I've posted it, I've read it so much, it doesn't have that emotional impact on me anymore LOL

I think that's a great way to sum up shadowpeach! It's about understanding and trust. No matter what, that trust has to be rebuilt, and that process is so painful and hard and time-consuming that...it takes such a great amount of effort on both their parts. It's the choice to persevere in spite of that amount of hardship that makes them beautiful, even if what they create together isn't inherently beautiful. What's beautiful is that, in spite of tragedy, these two monkeys want to be together in whatever way they can.

I think with any fandom, people are going to misinterpret characters. I've kind of gotten used to it, but there's definitely a lot of missed nuance and character depth that the fandom chooses to not see or doesn't except. Maybe they like to keep it surface level, but i think critically thinking about the plot and characters is where you can find depth or make depth of your own that's not present in the show.

Wukong is either a trickster villain or a precious soul who has done no wrong and needs to be protected. Macaque is usually a mustache-twirling villain or a sweet, bashful monkey who was just pretending all that time! and has never done anything bad.

A lot of the fandom sees things in a clear black and white way, which is dangerous for several reasons, but it means that their interpretations lack that depth or understanding that people crave. Because no one is black and white. The world doesn't work that way, so it's kind of worrying that they think that's...normal. It's not normal. I see it as a lack of life experience and maturity, but I also don't know these people. Maybe they like their fictional worlds to be black and white, I dunno.

Aaaanyway, you're not the first person to speak about this topic with shadowpeach and how, through constellations, they found some understanding or were pleased with how shadowpeach interacted. and to that I say, thanks! I just like some realism and three dimensional...ness to my characters, please and thanks. Don't even get me started on MK.

But wow! Yes! I'm so honored you'll keep reading whatever I write next. I have no fucking clue what I'm doing, and I'm just smashing my dolls together, but I'm happy to have you here in Constellations AU land! Welcome! Enjoy your stay 💕

[sketching-shark]

Ngl sometimes i feel bad abt disliking LMK so much because some of my friends like it alot and one of them hyperfixates on it. But then i remember just how badly it fucked up in depicting Sun Wukong's character that im pretty sure even villainous portrayals of him in media have given him more dignity, how Six ears basically got woobified and Karma Houdinied despite the show itself showing him as a pretty fucked up villain in S1, how much the Eng Dub butchered the hell out of the Bull Demon Family's dynamic and that this show basically removed one of the core aspects of the story (Buddhism) and then i suddenly dont feel that bad anymore.

Plus its not like they know my actual opinions abt it. As long as they dont ask i think im good lol

Monkie Kid spoilers & complaining & likely exaggerating things below so avert thine eyes if you don't want to see all that

gterewfs not to add even more to the apparently intolerable trend of bringing up Xiyouji when talking about Monkie Kid but it is kind of funny how I've now seen multiple people say a lot of their dislike of the lego show comes from knowing how Sun Wukong can be depicted when he's not being written as a cringefail hermit (X_X). And as is @seasonalsummers if pressed you can probably just tell your friends that Monkie Kid just isn't your thing & leave it at that. Because yeah I've spoken before how it's not fair to expect people to make their way through the ~1,400 pages of the best English translation of the og classic in developing their sense of the journey and Sun Wukong's whole deal, and the vast diversity of depictions of the Monkey King in retellings does seem to stand testament to how much this monkey can be changed to suit the needs of a story. And as is the existence of Zaju Xiyou Ji does demonstrate how even in China this monkey's had bouts of being depicted as little more than a selfish clown, so maybe this is just the west's version of that lol.

THAT SAID, aaaaaAAAAAAA yeah genuinely is baffling and frustrating watching many people cheer and clap for what feels like the constant traumatization of Qi Xiaotian and the constant use of Sun Wukong as Monkie Kid's punching bag. Like heavens to betsy Flying Bark has so relentlessly focused on how thoroughly SWK screws up everything in both the past and the present and apparently, on his own admission, spent the entirely of his immortality doing little except making one mistake after another (i.e. routinely fucking up his life and the lives of everyone around him) that one really is left wondering why any of the show's cast would want to be even within 50 miles distance of this monkey, which is definitely something made all the more awesome by the sense that maybe the main reason is because the obvious villains of every season are explicitly trying to take over/ blow up the entire world rather than blundering their way into that position :(. And that's a dynamic definitely made even MORE awesome by everyone's favorite poor little meow meow never did anything wrong ever the Six-Eared Macaque spending the majority of his screen time both beating the tar out of Qi Xiaotian and telling anyone who will listen what a dumb bitch Sun Wukong is before the show then bends over backwards to validate his claims all while making sure he's never even slightly called out for the shit he pulls, with the clear favoritism made all the more clearer by such facts as Sun Wukong got screamed at by Long Xiaojiao in an extensive and dramatic scene for putting basically the monkie gang and the entirety of reality in danger through his doofus decisions and yet even though she literally watched the shadow simian beat Qi Xiaotian into unconsciousness and literally had her life seriously threatened by this same monkey until Tang Shifu started oh yeah the Fire of Samadhi ritual she's apparently perfectly fine with working with Mr. Six not long after. Add on top of that the way it now feels like SWK's not even really allowed to be friends with anyone except Macaque or even to interact with any of his other former besties in any meaningful way, and well this is really making for a not fun situation that keeps steering the plot away from some of the most interesting fun and heartfelt things that Monkie Kid could have done. And then on top of that Flying Bark has now shown themselves to have this habit of spending the majority of each season focusing on what a screw-up SWK is before waiting until the last possible episode before characters who up to that point couldn't have made their hatred for the Monkey King and Qi Xiaotian by extension more clear start pulling out abrupt and honestly hand-wavey reasons for why they suddenly like him. IDK! I like a good redemption arc but that's not something you can speedrun and then pretend like it's even remotely satisfying! And definitely doesn't do SWK any favors with the way he just stands there maybe looking kind of sad while someone yells at him for sucking entire before he runs off to suck at everything again and is barely ever allowed to be explicitly and messily upset about that or about what a colossal failure his life is or idk mayhaps what happened to the og pilgrims that apparently resulted in their premature deaths!! For as much as people keep saying they want characters to redeem themselves through living and working to be better and be upset and fucked up about their pasts well it sure might be nice in this situation if we actually got to spend some time on that instead of just relentlessly piling one catastrophic blunder on top of the other! tsetawraer sorry for the rant but yeah still pretty shocked on how much a silly lego show that started off as having fun adventures with the Monkey King would turn into the grimdark adventures of Young Man Traumatized, Asshole Goku, and the Stalker Shadow (X_X)

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

WELCOME BACK TO KNOX RAMBLES ABOUT THAT MONKIE SHOW AND CALLS IT AN ANALYSIS, THIS TIME FEATURING 

MACAQUE AND HOW HIS PERCEPTION OF MK EFFECTS THEIR DYNAMIC (briefly)  AND HOW THE WAY IT CHANGES EFFECTS HIS CHARACTER GROWTH (in more detail) 

Alright, so, getting right into it: Macaque doesn’t really see Mk as a person at the start. 

It’s “…nothing personal!” because he has no personal connection to Mk at this point. Sure he might think he’s funny, might even enjoy training him in a weird way, he even says he’s a good kid, 

but he’s Sun Wukong’s student and a stepping stone to get to his Mentor and nothing more. 

If Mk was killed in the battle between him and SWK he couldn’t have cared less, just another mortal not a huge deal, there’s lots of good ones that die out there and he’d probably be doing him a favour anyways so that he doesn’t have to experience the stuff that comes with knowing the Monkey King personally. He shows no remorse for endangering Mk, mostly due to the fact, I think that his focus is entirely on Wukong. 

Mk beats him instead of Sun Wukong (the first account of Macaque underestimating Mk) and Macaque disappears for a while to regroup or figure out some other way to get Sun Wukong to fight him since Mk can clearly take care of himself and Wukong’s already proven he’s not going to fight Macaque all out even if he endangers his student so mainly stays out of the way for a while. (Honestly all speculation, I have no idea what this dude’s plan was BGSDL;KFJS) 

Then we get Shadowplay and the dynamic shifts again. 

Now Macaque seems to see Mk as less of Wukong’s student and more of just straight up another Sun Wukong. 

He pokes at him, monologues at him, and shoves him into the same box he has Wukong in with the whole “got too powerful and so you ditched your friends cause you’re selfish,” 

and keeps talking about how he’s “just a that bit too much like him.” 

He can’t get Wukong to fight him so he redirects most of his focus on Mk for a while and relishes any chance he gets to beat him down and show him how good he’s not 

because he thinks this is a Wukong he can manipulate and he still doesn’t see Mk as Mk yet. His attachment is there because this is a Wukong he can mess with, and whenever Mk proves that’s not true and beats him, which he always looks thrown by,

 he runs off and gives some theatric dramatic spiel about being his mentor and all that. 

During the ses 3 arch he’s got a weird sort of attachment to Mk and it’s starting to become it’s own separate thing from Wukong but it’s still because of Wukong. He’s familiar with him in a way that gets a reaction out of Mk because he likes messing with him, not really cause he feels close to him. 

“Hey, kiddo. You miss me?” 

“No.” 

He’s still treating him like someone who’s being gaslit by Wukong and needs his guidance. He talks down at him, takes every opportunity to mess with him, and is blindsided by how Mk responds because he still seems to only see him as far as his own connection with Wukong.

He does a bit of the same thing to Tang, making the assumption that he’s much closer to Monkey King than he actually is, and pins the blame of Tang being benched on Wukong when he actually kinda had nothing to do with it. 

He seems to think he needs to “save” people from being around Wukong cause the fallout isn’t worth it, and yet all he seems to want is to be around him and beat him. 

Just a theory here, but I think it would be fascinating if Wukong “abandoned him” when he went to fight Heaven for the last time before he ended up under the mountain and told Macaque he couldn’t come because he wasn’t strong enough, he wouldn’t survive. It would explain Macaque’s incessant need to gain more power and fight Wukong, because if he misinterpreted that as Wukong saying he wasn’t as powerful as him so he wasn’t worth taking along and he never came back, then a lot of what he does would kinda make sense because he might have been basing his worth as a person off of how powerful he is, and if he can finally beat Wukong to show he’s just as powerful, no more powerful, then he’ll finally have to accept he’s worth something and he was stupid for leaving. (Dude’s got issues whatever the case.)

Macaque’s whole thing seems to be about proving he’s stronger than them. He throws Mk around, 

goads him into fighting him, 

usually by threatening his friends 

 tries to get Wukong to go all out on him even going so far as to threatening to straight up kill Mk, and no matter how many times Mk beats him,

he still stands back up and pretends he has the upper hand. 

He walks away from battles before they end like a kid who knows they’re losing the board game so they tap out saying they got bored and they could win if they wanted to, they’re just not interested anymore. 

The exception to that being when he’s hyped up on LBD magic, but the moment that’s gone and he’s faced with an angry Sun Wukong he just tries to run without even bothering to pretend he has the upper hand because he knows he doesn’t. 

All throughout season 3, Mk is trying to reach out to Macaque,

 and Macaque keeps rejecting that.

 And still doesn’t seem to see Mk as his own person yet. He cares about himself more than he does anyone else, and despite every display of selfishness Macaque gives, 

Mk still reaches his hand out and gives him a chance to be something more. 

Wukong was ready to beat the crap out of him for what he did to Mei, which, fair, but Mk still offers him a spot with them, to fight for something more than himself, and it destroys Macaque’s perception of Mk in that moment, when he refuses to leave his friend, even though he knows he could die if he doesn’t, and even amidst something Macaque helped cause, he still reaches out for him, and every bit of Macaque’s warped perception of him being a mini-Wukong shatters. 

Mk extends his hand yet again, and he rejects it.

 His view has been flipped on its head. He steps back, runs without belittling, he rejects him without the violence he’d usually lash out with, he vanishes without deflecting, but doesn’t go far. We see him keeping an eye on Mk during The Corrupted King 

and even rescuing him when things go to heck.

 Because without all the bitterness he has for Wukong warping his perception of Mk, he’s finally seen, at least partially, who Mk is (thought not fully realizing it yet) and wants to accept that invitation to join them. But he doesn’t. 

He helps them without joining them, in a way that he doesn’t have any expectations on him. He brings them the mayor 

and tries to talk them through what he knows, 

but when they bring him into their plan all he has to say is: 

“I’m not up to being a hero, kid.” 

And Mk counters without missing a beat: “We don’t need you to beat him.” “We can do this. You can do this.” 

Macaque tries to deflect again, and Mk’s having none of that. He calls him out. Macaque is there for a reason, and he plays at being this selfish guy so hard he’s convinced everyone around him and almost himself too, and Mk can see him not for what he is, but who he has the potential to be. 

And then in the first bit of honest dialogue we get from him, without any cocky smirks or attempt at deflection, just quiet and a little self loathing. 

“I’m not a hero, bud.” 

“Then be a Warrior.” 

Which, essentially is Mk saying that he doesn’t need to be a hero. And he doesn’t expect that of him either. Macaque looks at heroes, he looks at Mk and Wukong and cannot see himself fitting into that mold, so why even try? Why even try to be more than what he is. Why join the heroes when he can never be one of them? And then Mk comes in saying he doesn’t need to be. He doesn’t need to be anything but himself. 

And that’s when it really clicks. That completes Macaque’s realization of the type of person Mk is. Macaque stops seeing Mk as a stepping stone, a way to get to Wukong, a mini-Wukong, or anything else, he stops being scared of accepting an offer for fear he can’t live up to it and in that moment he starts seeing him as Mk. Because somehow, despite everything, despite his many displays of selfishness, endangering his friends, making their lives so much more difficult, Mk still doesn’t hate him, he won’t hate him. And he isn’t asking him to be more than what he already is. He looks at this messed up shadow Monkey who believes he can never be a hero and tells him being a warrior is enough. 

And then Macaque drops back. He stops pretending. “Okay, kid. You win.” Stops hiding what he is

“What can I say? I’m dramatic.” 

He stops trying to prove something. 

He’s not the main point of focus anymore (kinda like Red Son’s arch now that I think about it,) he stops trying to get in their faces, he stops talking down to Mk, stops playing at trying to be his mentor like he has something to teach him, 

stops pushing him off balance, he waits for him without pushing him

 and when Mk is knocked over he actually goes so far as to pick him back up again, and leans on him in a hidden display of support to keep him steady and act casual. 

He’s willing to face Wukong, not to win, he knows he can’t

but just to buy time because he doesn’t need to prove he’s stronger or better after Mk just flat up tells him all he needs is to be what he is and what he chooses to be. He chose the Warrior moniker and Mk basically gives him permission he didn’t want to admit he needed to just be himself. Macaque isn’t a super terrible person when he’s not pretending to be something he’s not.

Even at the end in that little scene with the crew relaxing, he could have went back to goading Mk or talking down at him, looming above him, but instead he’s down at his level

“you were done with that, right?”

His little theatre drama is back a bit, but its the most playful and non-confrontational we’ve seen him, even when Wukong is right there, because Mk isn’t Wukong’s successor anymore he’s just Mk to Macaque, just like how Macaque isn’t anything but himself to Mk. He’s not really pretending to be his mentor anymore, or one of the big baddies he should be fighting either. He’s just Macaque. You see him close right up again when Wukong starts talking, stands up, crosses his arms across his chest, gets defensive, looking away

but his issues with Wukong are no longer directed at Mk because he finally sees that Mk’s his own person, and that bias he previously had is gone. He’s a lot calmer, chill, and is okay with being seen out in the light. He lingered aroudn the group for a bit rather than dipping right after like he might have before. Which honestly is a huge step for his character and WHAT AN AMAZING ARC THAT I DIDN’T APPRECIATE ENOUGH WHEN THE FANALE CAME OUT BECAUSE I WAS GETTING BODYCHECKED BY BURN OUT BUT M A N

I honestly don’t know how the next arc will handle his and Wukong’s dynamic there or if we’ll ever get closure or an unbiased account on the fall-out that happened between them or how the crew will write that, but honestly I don’t mind this dynamic they have right at the end there so much because, while the arguing/banter is easy to fall back into and just seems to feel like a safe spot for the both off them (i’m not sure they know how to react to one another without that bit of a challenge in the conversation anymore, but a lot of the bite is gone,) Macaque seems, for the most part, to be done trying to fight Wukong. He’s got acceptance from Mk and by extension the Monkie crew, and suddenly it seems like getting Wukong’s attention, doesn’t seem to matter to him as much anymore. At least at that moment. 

His good-bye is him trying to get under Wukong’s skin, with less aggression than before, just for the sake of messing with him rather than actually goading him into a fight,

and then he softens right up when he says goodbye to Mk, like, actually softens, not to get under his skin, not to talk down at him, but in a more genuine manner, because he finally sees them as separate people and there’s a respect there for Mk that he didn’t have before. He doesn’t need to act so much around him, so that mask he has on, that drama, that “Dunno, somewhere i can do a bit of scheming probably,” turns into a much more genuine, quiet “see you around Mk.”

Mk knows who and what he is, and is okay with that, so, Macaque doesn’t need to pretend to be anything less or anything more. And he’s always welcome back in their little group whenever he’s feeling up to it

The last we see of Macaque, he gives a genuine private smile at the doodle Mk sent with no one else around to see it and the camera pans up with him looking into the sky at the light of the sun, and if that ain’t a blatant metaphor for a brighter future for him with the word “redemption” narrated by Tang right over that, I dunno what is GSDLKJFSD

In any case, there’s a lot of assumption in this analysis/hc post so I could very well be wrong and there’s no guarantee the new director is gonna keep the direction that’s going right now, but this was fun and I’m glad Macaque’s character could get a little bit of a start of a redemption arc there at the end. He’s got a long way to go, but MAN if that ain’t some fire storytelling on the first bit of progress. This show does an amazing job writing it’s characters and I am so glad I’m around to be watching the show. 

(Also, I say this about like, 90% of the characters in this show but like MK IS BIG FAVE. He has an amazing ability to just grab the good in people and pull it out so they can see it themselves and just, when they’re ready to change he accepts them in an instant and I am SO curious as to why he choses to be the way he is and i WANT MORE OF HIM SO BADLY I LOVE HIM SO MUCH AND HE IS UNDERRATED EVEN AS THE MAIN CHARACTER OF THE SHOW, I ADORE HIM AND WHAT HE BRINGS OUT IN THE PEOPLE AROUND HIM THANKS) 

ANYWAY HOPE Y’ALL HAVE A SPECTACULAR DAY, SENDING YOU GOOD VIBES AND THANKS FOR READING o7

[winterpower98]

I had a good day (my godmother made zhajiang noodles!) and I'm finally done planning the outline for "Calabash" and "Macaque" (for the Double Training AU)

Macaque has to make a decision, and of course being the monkey that he is he's going to be dramatic about it. His main grievance with the twins being friends with Mei (and MK by association) is that it's actively putting his sons closer to danger. He has spent centuries trying to stay invisible/ having no name in demon circles and mainly relying on PIF's connections if he needed anything done. The whole "MK" situation has thrown a wrench into those plans. Cause while he tries to stay a no name, being Wukong's ex friend makes him recognizable, it's just no one questioned him til now assuming he was plotting revenge on the down low or something. But now, him not doing anything is actually drawing attention onto himself.

So he did the thing in canon and staged the whole defeating a big demon thing and becomes MK's mentor. (he just doesn't put a draining seal onto him) Than he let's the rumour mill do it's thing while he basically scout out what MK is actually like. It was mainly a "if my sons are going to hang around him, he better know how to keep them alive" thing, but MK is genuinely likable so at that point Macaque just accepted that his days of laying low is over. (at least your kids have friends now, it's ok Mac XD)

Before the training arc concludes though, I wanna say "Calabash happens near the end of MK's training with Macaque.

So the calabash was confiscated back in "Duplicatnation", Macaque is going to return it around now. The twins haven't been showing it but I expect the two to feel on edge? (only now typing it out that I realize I don't know how to describe it oop-) Basically, they on some level feel that Macaque knew they used the calabash (he doesn't) and took it because he doesn't trust the twins with it. While Macaque saw it as taking away their VR pod because he can't really ground them considering they would probably 1. drive him mad while cooped up and 2. Mac's guilty conscience wouldn't allow that with how much he already restricts how much they go out.

After training with MK, Macaque basically decided he should probably be less controlling in his sons' lives, so he returns the calabash and they have a talk over it.

And to show that he's serious about being a bit more "laissez faire", he let's the twins invite his friends over (which he never did before!) and even trusted them to be fine alone and left to run some errands. (so technically this was Mac's fault really)

They invited both Mei and MK over, Mei arrived first and MK was caught up with work for now. So the twins, totally caught up with having someone at their house and a bit lost on how to host may have left Mei alone in their room for a tad too long. Long enough for her to fumble her way into the calabash somehow (eh I'll figure out the details one day) and not knowing the exit commands, she's a bit stuck. The twins find out after panicking a bit before realizing what happened. MK shows up and questions where Mei was, the twins tell him and table the conversation of "why do you have such a thing" and go straight to "how do we get her out,"

Jin and Yin basically looked at each other, "Dad is going to kill us", and then proceeds to send MK into the calabash with Yin. So funny thing with the calabash that I added like a while ago but didn't mention. Since it's a glorified gaming system, the twins made the inside magic proof to avoid having to do maintenance so often (especially with Red playing with them sometimes), the side effect is that glamour is also useless inside, which never posed a problem. Until now that is :D

So MK stumbles into the calabash takes a look at Yin and questions if he bumped his head. He would have probably asked if not for being interrupted by the return of Porty!Clone.

I basically made it so, due to MK's initial clones being so unstable, he had to physically poof them. He never got to Porty so the clone just stuck around in the calabash. YIn and Jin didn't realize cause the gourd was confiscated and MK didn't know because he never saw the clone around so he thought it was dealt with. Mk was however getting slowing drained due to unconsciously maintaining a clone.

So basically, Mei is having major flashbacks and MK is super on edge. They bonk the clone, Yin teaches the exit command. (Which he had to clarify that Jin came up with it! Mei dignified that with a snort, I'd like to think MK would have appreciated the wizard to oz reference but he was too tired)

When they exit the calabash, they are greeted by Jin without glamour (for solidarity!) and MK has a mostly one-sided vent at them. To be fair, the kid has been dealing with a lot of demon attacks, training and work on top of having his energy drained unknowingly due to an issue that the twins technically created. The twins just kinda accepted that they might have blew it, but tries explaining themselves anyways. Mei being the voice of reason on that day just cut their hangout short and was like. "You two, keeping secrets and also almost putting me in danger? Not cool, but also I can see you didn't mean at least half of that so let's just sleep on it. MK? Just sleep in general. I get why you're snippy right now and that's totes valid but you are not 100% right now my dude."

So they basically made a group chat and smoothed things over, MK sent a fruit basket as an "Sorry I immediately assumed you might have endangered my friend on purpose because you're a demon and I was tired" gift, the twins liked it a lot, mostly because Mei is still their friend and MK seems to be open to hanging out more too.

This also happened at some point.

MK: So......is your dad a demon too?

Jin: Oh, we're adopted

(note how that didn't answer the question-)

This all happens towards the end of MK's training with Mac, in which Macaque after deciding he's seen enough challenges MK to a fight as a test. (He hasn't really been training MK that much tbh, but actual tips is better than vague words of wisdom so MK did pick up a few things, also some basic footwork cause Macaque is adamant that he has to be quick on his feet)

Before the fight got anywhere though, Wukong shows up due a mix of noticing MK's new "not taught by Monkey King" footwork and noticing MK's recent fatigue paired with some rumours along the grapevine. The king showing up is basically Macaque's cue to leave, except the fact that Wukong doesn't let him.

Wukong: What are you doing with my successor? Also while we're at it, how are you alive?! You've been alive??

Macaque: Ah yes, my king, how nice of you to visit. I was just interrogating your cub, after all I expect him to be responsible for the safety of my sons. You must know by now if he’s anything like you, he’s a magnet for trouble, and believe me from what I've seen? He's a lot like you.

Wukong: Your SONS??!!

MK: His cub?

Macaque: Well I said what I said, oh and MK?

MK: ......Yeah?

Macaque: If you ever need to apologise to my sons again, lay off the peaches, they like persimmons.

And he proceeds to put on his human glamour, not explain anything and dips like the dramatic theatre kid he is.

MK(probably 10 minutes later): Macaque is MR. LIU??????

Wukong is not fairing any better and MK is interogating the twins in the groupchat.

If you're wonder where Mac stands now, he is neutral unless his boys are threatened. (So more or less on MK's side tbh)

-💙

(Drawing was sent with another ask)

Mac needed to re-appear in the demon world and he decided that if he had to do that, he will do it in his style Which is as dramatic as possible

Good for him

Macaque really took one step forward and two behind, uh? My guy your sons are disasters, why did you leave them alone with Wukong's successor how does that not spell trouble for you (And I think "on edge" is the best way to describe what the twins were feeling)

And getting out by clicking your heels is a wonderful idea, don't smack talk your brother Yin.

Also, I can just imagine Jin's big brother instincts starting to tingle when MK starts to vent

But Wukong is having so many emotions during his encounter with Macaque! He didn't question him calling MK his son, but Macaque having sons!??! And being alive!?!?! My guy is not going to sleep tonight

[theshy1sout]

Six Eared Shadow

Do you remember the analysis about Mei and Red Son? That was me, and I'm doing this again, but now about Macaque and Sun Wukong

Because what the heck why do they hate each other so much

Ok, so this... This is such a messy chaotic really chaotic mix of a few headcanons and theories I made up and it SOMEHOW turned into a fanfic that I wrote so long that other people made many similar things in meanwhile and now this sounds not original at all, but I wrote it not to keep it in my deep hidden shelf so here we go

(It's based on what I know from the lmk series. I've started to read JTTW, but I'm still not so far to get to know anything about Macaque, but I won't change anything about this theory from now on)

Let's gather some basic information for the start.

-> Macaque is made with a shadow or even he is a shadow (kinda shadow demon, the demon of shadow). I mean, shadow is not only his power, he literally is made with shadow matter. We know that because he can not only manipulate shadows but also go through walls and turn yourself into a shadow.

-> I'm not sure if someone made him or he just "poof" out of nowhere just like Sun Wukong, but according to the story he told about how close he and Monkey King used to be, there's no doubt they had some master/student relationship which later turned into almost equal partnership. What is said, Macaque followed Sun Wukong for a long time, learning a lot from him, 'being his shadow'. They grew in power together, fought together, and (as it is said) Macaque started casting as Sun Wukong shadow, which (surprisingly) looks like he did willingly. Just look at the picture - the shadow is big and bright, it’s powerful and smiling, proud of his strength. He doesn’t look like someone forced to be Sun Wukong’s shadow. It shows how much Macaque admired Monkey King, that he wasn't just a friend for him, he was his idol.

-> We all know Macaque is a shadow demon, he can easily change his appearance, he does not have to look like an evil clone of Monkey King, especially if he hates him now or something, SO even if he used to look up at Sun as his ex-student or ex-partner, and now we know he is NOT, he would prefer to not look so similar any more.

He can choose any other look, but he doesn't. Why? Well, maybe he actually cannot. Maybe this isn't an appearance he has specifically chosen, maybe this is his 'basic' comfy form and any other form would just take too much energy to keep up. And looking at the really tiny probability of two very similar monkeys just "poofing" out of nowhere, I dare to say, Macaque wasn't born (I mean like Sun Wukong or any other demon), but he was specifically created. And here is a question: on someone's purpose or not? Maybe the power of great Monkey King was so strong so the part of it just jumped from him and formed into another similar creature, but let me say it's just weird and I prefer the theory of Sun Wukong being so bored and lonely after his master's (Tripitaka) death, and he created a brother for himself from his own shadow. Just to have someone, anyone.

So Wukong created Macaque and then what? He trained him, he taught him everything he knew, maybe even he shared his powers with him. Some great great bonding time. But as Macaque said, something drew them apart. It is visible that Macaque blamed Monkey King for this, for 'forgetting him'. Before speculation of what happened then between them, let's focus on what Macaque showed us what he wants now.

We have two episodes, both show different sides of him. In season 1, Macaque's main goal is to steal Monkey King's power from Mk, and then to very specifically revenge. He visibly does not want to defeat Sun Wukong, he wants to hurt him as much as possible. Look: when Monkey King showed up, Macaque totally forgot about Mk. And then, when he's so close to defeat him, instead of that he turned to Mk and tried to kill the teenager. Mk is just a tool to hurt Sun Wukong.

And we can't forget how Macaque constantly pointed out all the weak sides of Sun, he's basically just saying on and on "you're weak, you're weak, you're so weak, I'm so strong, I'm strong, you are so weak". Which really fits the feeling of being forgotten because he was weaker and Monkey King was stronger, better, glorious and famous. Macaque really feels like that, he really tried to make Sun Wukong feel his pain by dominating him.

On the other hand, we see that Sun constantly striked off him. He said almost nothing to him, just "Aren't you bored of keep being in my shadow? It's time to give back what you've stolen" and that was fricking all. For Monkey King, Macaque is a just shadow, always behind him, something you turn around and leave behind to not see it and to forget, like an unwanted past. An unnecessary problem, that irritatingly keeps returning to him. He does not want to interact to not make even a slight more bond between them, he wants to delete him from his life forever, and omg WHY. At this end of the ep, Sun Wukong did not even mention Macaque. He really doesn't care at all (or extremely tries to not care). His HATE is almost touchable, ouch.

In season 2, Sun Wukong LEFT US ALL ALONE. Macaque showed up again, he played with Mk a bit, and... Left? That's the thing, you see, he doesn't need to hurt or kill Mk. All we see is Macaque talking about his past and then letting Mk experience something the 'hero' in the story should have felt. The guilt. When Mk interpreted his story differently, seeing himself as the warrior, Macaque corrected him. Cause he doesn't care about Mk at all. He heard how Mk told him about what hurt him, and here is a funny point, because if Macaque needs to be understood, listening to Mk and talking with him (such a simple act of empathy, they both needed it then, guh) should have been enough. Mk really felt the 'warrior' character in the story, so he understood what Macaque felt. But surprisingly, that was not what the demon carved.

Macaque chose to make Mk feel like Monkey King at the moment something drew the demons apart. He wanted to force Mk to be sorry, to apologize, to regret his mistakes, cause he failed with forcing Monkey King to feel that. But! Maybe he is not as purely innocent and poorly forlorn. We see the flashback for a half of second before Mk hit him with Staff:

We see Sun Wukong attacking Macaque who's in his demon (true) form.

Let's repeat this: Macaque felt as if a friend left him in the past. He said a friend did this to have all the "hero's glory" for themselves. We know Sun Wukong could do such a thing, especially before he met Tripitaka, but 1. In my theory Macaque is created after Tripitaka's death and 2. If (as my theory said) Sun created Macaque to not feel so lonely, he would never leave him for such a thing. So Macaque hides something for sure, something he did, something so terrible that made Sun Wukong attack him and not want to know him anymore. How horrendous thing Macaque did that made Sun Wukong choose to be alone again and to forget his dear brother he created by himself?

Back to the great bonding time, repeating speculation of "oh maybe they even share the powers" and comparing it to Macaque wanting to steal Mk's power, my theory here is saying:

Sun Wukong taught Macaque the technique of the same powers as he knew, but Macaque overused it (probably wanting to see how powerful he is, probably showing off and killing so many harmless people) doing terrible terrible things. So Monkey King took all of the powers from him and left him alone, powerless, with the last painful words: "Dont you dare to show in front of my eyes ever again". Of course Macaque was hurt, of course he didn't see why he's the bad guy, because he did not care about people at all. And of course Sun Wukong was hurt too.

Maybe he came back to the village Macaque had destroyed and following a quiet crying he found a little baby with a heart so clear and he put into him all Macaque's powers, making them sleep until the time will be right... But back to the series!

Yes exactly. Why did he destroy the lantern and leave? Why did he suddenly lose interest in teasing Mk and stop forcing him to feel guilty?

First thing, he saw Mk is ready to fight for his friends seriously. He still cared so much about them, not like Monkey King about Macaque. That was hard to swallow, that was hard to watch for the demon. That was't the thing he wanted to see. And second, the flashback. Maybe the sudden realization that he actually did something bad. Cause Sun Wukong didn’t just leave him, he cast him out. It was hard to admit that he actually deserved this (or maybe much more), it’s much easier to blame others, not yourself. So Macaque felt “that’s enough” and left. Mk brought him to this uncomfortable point of admitting the truth. Which he didn’t want to. Maybe in the following eps, he will see it, but now Macaque just isn’t ready yet. But the last talk with Mk gives me a little hope. He stopped treating him like a tool or toy, he was actually talking with him like with a person, he even warned him about Lady Bone Demon.

Maybe (maybe) one day he'll see that humans aren't just useless creatures he can carelessly kill, maybe Mk will make him care and realize what he's done, but that's just speculation in speculation, he could die before he reaches that point, maybe he is already dead....

And that's it. That is all I wrote on ao3, but in the fanfic I put much more details and I build those characters up much more than here. This is only rough rough short-saying, I'm really sorry if you read it all

Oh and here is a link if you liked this above i'd love if you read the fanfic thank you

[purble-turble]

Been thinking about the Journey to the West, and how if Macaque had been less of an out and out villain and more of a nuisance they had to deal with, and how each of the members would view their occasional stalker.

Bajie is probably having the time of his life seeing Wukong have to deal with this evil little shit of an ex bestie, and rotates wildly between mocking Macaque for being second best and how he’s no longer part of Wukong’s life, and running in fear every time the other monkey snaps.

Tripitaka just sitting in concern that his student’s ex boyfriend won’t leave him be; and is worried his continued meddling in his adventure is stopping Sun Wukong from reaching his potential.

Bai Long Ma isn’t going to say anything, but the fact that this monkey is coming around so much in an elaborate game of pulling Sun Wukong’s pigtails is… kinda funny.

Sha Wujing considers Macaque a serious threat and just wants to stop running into him, and the fact he seems to get Wukong all excited in the worst ways isn’t lost on him.

And then there’s Sun Wukong, who keeps being dragged back in by Macaque- whether he even realizes that he’s being flirted with (albeit in a schoolyard, childlike way) is up to interpretation.

This is a fun idea for an AU of the original journey.. I can't imagine the Sun Wukong who's still in the middle of the journey would put up with Macaque showing up and embarrassing him if he wasn't actually into it, secretly or not. Also Macaque showing up several times and causing mischief and trying to get Wukong to come back with him or steal him away from his journey is a super fun concept. His flirting probably manages to lure Wukong into trouble a few times too, and he has to be chased off by the others. (a good opportunity for Sun Wukong to be rescued by the others, which isn't the typical formula for JTTW adventures lol)

I think the thing that would really bring this conflict to a head is Tripitaka deciding they have to do something about him and confronting Macaque by himself. He's trying very hard to get Sun Wukong to be a better person, and every time Macaque comes along he seems to get into trouble and drags Wukong back down with him. He tells Macaque that he should leave and let Sun Wukong grow into the person he's meant to be, and, hopefully, without Wukong to distract him, Macaque can reflect on himself and work on being a better person in his own way.

Obviously the Six Eared Macaque is not going to take orders from some stupid monk, especially not one who has imprisoned his friend and forces him to act as a body guard.. Tripitaka objects to this because that's not the situation at all! It's much more complicated than that! But of course Macaque doesn't care about nuance. And he definitely doesn't care about anyone who's trying to keep him from his Peaches. He attacks, easily overpowering the monk, and then has a bit of fun with it by handing him over to some powerful local demon to eat him... then he decides to have a little more fun. He waits for Wukong to leave the group for a bit, then shape-shifts into Sun Wukong and beckons his three brothers to follow because their master has been captured by a demon.. y'know. Again. There's nothing suspicious about this because it's happened a billion times already. So they follow easily, but when they arrive at the demon's stronghold to rescue their master, while their backs are turned to him, Macaque changes back and attacks all of them, allowing THEM to be captured by the demon as well.

With all of the others now out of the way, Macaque returns to their abandoned camp to find Sun Wukong there looking confused. He asks Macaque if he knows where the others went and he just lies saying he doesn't know... maybe they got sick of him and left without him. That's okay though, he doesn't need any of them. All he and Macaque have ever needed is each other! So they should just go home together, now and forget about the others.

Sun Wukong has kind of enjoyed Mac's flirtations up til now and it seemed mostly harmless (to everyone except him of course) so he's a little confused by what's happening now. The others clearly haven't moved on without him... they wouldn't have left all their stuff in their camp like this. Everything was left behind except their weapons... wait..... oh. And that's when he realizes that his master and brothers are in danger, so he turns on Macaque with a snarl and demands to know what he did.

[skellebonez]

How's about 45 and 54 where canon MK finds himself in the Inverted AU Universe? Because I think that'd be funny

Poor MK is having the second worst day of his entire life. This is not the situation he should be in AFTER THE FINALE. This would have been way different if I wrote this when you sent it in, but now you get a very sad Monkie Kid.

You may technically be an adult, but you’re still my child./ Yeah well dying generally puts a damper on things.

When MK was knocked out they were on the deck of the drone ship, fighting off some kind of demon that the White Bone Spirit had taken under her control.

When MK woke up they were on the sandy shores of Mount Huaguo surrounded by baby monkeys and one Six-Eared Macaque looking down at them with a face of great concern.

“Are you-” Macaque started to ask them, unable to finish his sentence when MK screamed and kicked out and just barely missed making contact that would have sent him flying backwards into the nearest tree. “Whoa, no, it’s alright! I’m not-”

“What did you do to me this time, Macaque!?” MK yelled, looking around for a weapon, any weapon, something they could use to defend themself. Their eyes fell on something familiar, something that shouldn’t exist anymore and they froze at the sight of red and gold.

“Little one, is your name MK?” Macaque asked softly, holding up his hands as he slowly walked forward back toward the started and confused young adult before him. “I found you washed up on the shore. You need to lay back down, you’re still-”

Macaque let out a yelp of surprise as MK dove, hand firmly grasping the familiar warm-cold center of the staff.

But it felt... wrong, somehow.

They didn’t let go.

"OK, WHAT IS HAPPENING!?" MK shouted, holding the stolen staff in front of them as they turned on the immortal monkey that was their one time mentor. "Is this Jin and Yin again? Is this the Calabash!? Did they change it so my stuff doesn’t work in it anymore!? I'm not falling for that again!"

"I'm sorry, the what?" A new voice rang from behind him. One a little... too familiar...

It was MK. It shouldn't be possible, not if the Calabash was working the same way it had worked before, but it was them. But not.

Like... the way the staff felt.

The Other MK standing in the too bright sun wore a stark sky blue and black instead of his signature orange and red, a large hefty backpack in that same blue slung over his back. And he was... tall. Not unusually tall, just taller than MK was. And also looked incredibly angry as he carried a box of medical supplies.

"The... Calabash..." MK repeated, holding the staff closer to their chest with a nervous gulp. Their hands twisted around the staff nervously, hoping the repetitive action would ground them against the repeating 'THERE IS ANOTHER YOU STARING AT YOU WHAT THE HELL' whizzing in their head. "This... this isn't Jin and Yin again after all, is it?"

MK gulped again, blinking as their vision swam suddenly and their head felt like it was filled with... something. Like liquid but if it was as light as air.

"I don't know which answer would be better for you," Macaque said softly, honesty palpable in his tone. Something so odd for the Monkie Kid to hear in their ears with that voice. "But no. We are very much real."

"Oh..." MK said plainly. "Oh that's bad. That's... Oh boy..."

Before their eyes rolled back in their head and they passed out they were pretty sure they saw a few more overly familiar faces rushing to them.

~

When MK woke a second time they were once again moved, but to somewhere else far less familiar than the shores of Mount Huaguo and the drone ship... but also too familiar. They also now realized that their head hurt... a lot. Like, a lot a lot.

“Finally, you’re back from the brink of death,” that same overly familiar voice rang our in their ear. They snapped their head to the side, regretting it instantly as it made their vision swim again and lights pop in front of their eyes. “Hey, no, don’t do that!"

The other MK jumped up, kneeling down in front of them and poked them in the forehead. His scowl didn’t seem to let up in the slightest, but it tilted in a way that felt more concerned than angry.

"... why am I looking at my own face?" MK asked, not sure whether they should continue to stare at their own face or to look anywhere else to keep their brain from short circuiting trying to process what the actual hell was happening.

“Considering you were able to pick up my staff,” the other MK said, removing his finger and gesturing to the rod that was still across MK’s chest (how had he not noticed the extra weight of it still in his hand?). “I’d say we have some kind of multi-dimensional bullshitery going on here. Unless you’re, somehow, a robot made of the same shit Red used to get the that thing in the first place, but I don’t think robots bleed from head injuries.”

Ah. That would explain why his head felt like someone had cracked it open and shoved cotton balls into it.

MK looked around, taking in the stark white walls and the overly clean smell and the clean white sheets they were laid on.

“... am I at the hospital?”

“Oh, absolutely!” Other MK yelled, raising his arms in frustration as he paced the room in a familiar excess of energy. “But unfortunately for us you don’t exactly exist here! So we’re figuring out a way to make them believe you’re me with some really fucked up memories my dude! Which is easier with, you know.”

The other MK knocked on his head twice, wincing a bit as the second knock seemed to be harder than intended.

“... but you’re..?”

“I snuck in.”

“OK, well, thanks for the help,” MK started, sitting himself up with more than a little struggle. “But I need to figure out what the heck happened and get back to-!”

“Oh no you don’t!” Other MK said, jumping on the bed and standing over him. That was... well, MK would definitely say that was a very weird but effective way of keeping someone from getting up. “Macaque already ran off without letting me stop him, I barely got him to take some backup, to figure out what in the hell is happening. You are me and I know myself and if you ever tell anyone this I will end you, but you are way too injured to be doing anything right now!”

“I have to do something, Other Me-”

“No, oh no I hate that, just call me Blue,” the other MK said, the scowl on his face softened ever so slightly once again. Just slightly. “It’s a lot better than ‘other me’. And there’s nothing we can do until Macaque gets us some answers.”

"So... what, Blue? Am I just supposed to sit around and wait for someone to come and rescue me if he finds nothing!?" MK snapped, grip on their staff tightening so much that their knuckles paled and creaked in stress. "Just do nothing while who knows what happens to my friends!?"

"No," Blue said, placing his hand on MK's shoulder and frowning when the other shrugged it off and curled in on themselves. "But hurting yourself isn't going to help you get back to them. And as long as you’re here you’re my responsibility.”

“I’m a grown ass adult, you should know that.”

“Yeah, well, dying generally puts a damper on things and you’re not so adult that you can’t escape death,” Blue said, letting himself fall back into a sitting position on the bed. “Unless you got to keep your invulnerability or something, but given the crack in your noggin that doesn’t seem... like...” Blue trailed off, looking at MK with an odd expression. “... are you ok? Like. Emotionally?”

“Huh?”

“You’re crying.”

MK wrestled with one of their hands to free it’s iron grip on the staff (not their staff, their staff was gone, they had to remind themselves that their staff was gone and... and so was so much else), raising to their cheek to discover that at some point in Blue’s retort they had indeed started crying.

“... what happened to you?”

“It’s a long story,” MK said, wiping their face on their arm (they now realized they were wearing hospital dressing). “I...” They grabbed the staff with their now free hand again, twisting the grip carefully and freeing the iron hold their other hand had. “Can I just... keep this for a bit longer?”

Blue looked at MK, looking between the other him and the staff that was rightfully his before sighing and rubbing the back of his neck.

“Not like I need it right this second,” he said, his scowl vanishing completely as he stood and yanked over his backpack and put it back on after he pulled a baseball cap out and squished his hair into it and pulled it down to cover his face. “There’s gonna be someone here with you at all times until you get out, just to keep you in the loop of what’s going on here. We’ll figure out where you’re staying if Mac doesn’t figure out a way to get you home by tonight.” He moved toward the entrance to the room, turning back before opening it. “I’ll be back, I gotta restock my bag. There’s a couple people who wanna talk to you already... don’t... freak out.”

Before MK could ask what Blue meant the young man opened the door and slipped out, talking to someone just out of his line of vision before running off down the hall.

And then they saw the overly familiar sight of Pigsy and Tang... except they weren’t.

Pigsy, their Pigsy, was always in a chef’s uniform unless he was sleeping. Rough edges softened when he smiled or looked at MK or Mei with that exasperated look that MK knew meant he cared. Tang, their Tang, was a scholar who looked the part in every way, old fashioned clothes and books in hand. Always smiling when he could manage it and carefree.

This Pigsy was.. soft. And fluffy. Literally soft and fluffy. And wore oversized sweaters and smiled in a way that fit more on someone else’s face but felt right at home on his. This Tang was...

Well, the only way MK could think to describe the man before them was “skinny biker with probably hidden muscles who would kick your ass”. He looked the same but his hair was more wild, sunglasses pushing his bangs up, decked out in a (probably fake) leather jacket... but he had the same scarf.

And he and Pigsy were holding hands.

“I suppose you already know who we are,” the biker version of Tang said, smile on his face very awkward and seeming somewhat forced in a “I don’t know if this is helping but I’m gonna try” kind of way. “And we know who... you are. Kinda.”

“Yeah,” MK responded, thinking for a moment back to when he was found on the beach. “Were you... were you the ones with Blue, the other me, on Mount Huaguo?”

“Yeah,” the soft Pigsy said and... wow, hearing that voice say something so gently so casually was throwing him through a loop. “M-Blue was convinced we needed to get out of the city for the day and brought us along for his training. We didn’t expect to find... well, another him...” Pigsy frowned, the first one MK saw on his face and it felt so much more openly worried than their own Pigsy’s scowls. “How are you feeling?”

MK looked down at the staff in their hands, then back up to the two men in front of them.

They weren’t the two people MK considered father figures. They weren’t. But they were. And as MK tried to process this they felt their breathing speed up faster and faster and faster until-

“Hey,” Tang said, gentle and soft voice breaking MK from their racing thoughts as he reached out to put a hand in MK’s hair but stopped himself short. Probably in remembering that they weren’t Blue. “You can stay with us if you want. Once you’re discharged and if you need somewhere to stay.”

Well... that didn’t help at all.

No.

Instead it opened the floodgates and MK started crying harder than they had since the final fight with the White Bone Spirit, curling in on themselves as the last few days and what had transpired really hit them.

“What the FUCK did you do!?” He heard his own voice shout from the doorway.

~

It looked like PIgsy’s apartment. But not.

MK’s hands clenched at air, wishing they still had the staff for comfort. But no, they insisted that Blue take it back when they were discharged.

Blue was still the Monkie Kid after all. He needed the staff to fight.

MK... was just MK here. And they couldn’t fight, not while recovering from their injuries anyway.

But oh how they wish they hadn’t given it back. It felt so right and yet so wrong to hold it. They didn’t realize how much they had grown attached to the object until it was...

“MK?” Once again Pigsy’s voice startled him, not for the first time since they arrived at the apartment and MK took up the extra bedroom that this world’s counterpart had once stayed in until the apartment above the shop opened up for them. “Do you need anything?”

“No,” they responded, hands gripping the edge of their jacket in an attempt to hold something solid. It wasn’t the same. “I can handle myself.”

“I know you can, but you don’t have to,” Pigsy said, coming into the room holding a cup of water and putting it on the nightstand. “And you don’t have to talk to us, if you don’t want to... but it’d probably help. Even if you just ramble about something.”

Had this been the other Pigsy he probably would have something something like “You may technically be an adult, but you’re still my child”. Something firm and gruff and filled with underlying affection for the younger adult. But this Pigsy... there was some of that there. A firmness to his words, though the gruffness was missing. But he could feel the affection he must have had for Blue transferring to themself, the knowledge that they weren’t the same person holding most of it back.

But it was still there.

And MK hadn’t really talked to anyone since the short lived argument with Blue.

“... You uh...” they started, chuckling quietly as they twisted their fingers together. “You said you own a flower shop? My Pigsy, uh... he, runs a noodle shop.”

It wasn’t going to help. MK was certain that talking about their family and friends and how different they were would probably make how he felt worse.

But sitting there and ignoring it would make it worse far quicker in their mind.

So MK talked. For hours. Eventually Tang joined the two, both listening as MK recalled all the differences and similarities and...

Well. They listened. Just like their own Pigsy and Tang would.

... they wondered if they would ever get to go back.

[afoxysunny]

Jives as High Duke

So Jives gets a second pick and oh my G did i struggle with choosing this one. In the end I'm pretty happy with the decision to give him the Monkey Miraculous

The whole story for how he ended up with having to pick a second time is already on the post about Stingy, who gets the Turtle from Jives, so I'll try not to repeat myself too much

So here are the references for this design

This design came out a lot simpler than it probably should be considering that it's based on the Chinese Monkey King but Jives isn't one for overly flashy and elaborate costumes in my opinion

Also, yes, again, his eyey should be blue but making colour changes to coloured pencil drawings is really hard, I'm sorry

Again, i just did what felt natural to me and in no time this was the outcome. Conclusion: drawing Jives comes very natural to me and i appreciate him for that

Design Notes:

Chest Pattern - i wanted to make the chest pattern here resemble the one he had as Grinder Turtle, this was also a big factor that sold me on giving him this Miraculous. I just think it looks really cool and it connects the two designs in a vague sense

Beanie - my boy Jives always wears some sort of hat, this is no exception. The Monkey Miraculous is a Crown and here it blends in so it now replaces the brim section of the beanie. On second thought it might be a little basic to choose a beanie but it just really suits him, i couldn't think of a better fit. Especially because it goes along really well with the headshape of the monkey i based him on

Toque Macaque - I'll be real with you, I'm not a huge fan of monkeys which makes them one of the few animal species i don't love and also makes the biggest reason i wasn't immediately happy to give my dear Jives this Miraculous xD I'm shallow i know. Anyways. I may not know a lot about monkeys but i knew enough to pick this macaque because the colours go well enough with the Monkey Kwami Xuppu and i liked the markings it has. [coicidentally this specific kind, the Toque Macaque, happens to share its natural habitat with the peacock ;)]

Tail - on his back you see how the rope detailing from his chest and pants combine into the belt and eventually the tail. I wanted the markings to kind of resemble a harness for climbing, i don't think it comes across too well though

Hair - the little bit you can still see of his actual hair coincidentally blends in almost seamlessly with the colour of his costume, that wasn't planned but i like it a lot

Reasoning:

At the point in time where i made the decision that Stingy would take the Turtle Miraculous from Jives i already had most Miraculous assigned to most other characters, in fact i was only really missing one for Ziggy. So spoiler alert i guess for him. I fudged around for a while between the Mouse and the Monkey, both would've worked well with either but in the end settled on the Monkey for Jives for multiple stupid timy reasons. For example the chest pattern i already mentioned, my ship-trash side going "a monkey and a peacock fit together way better aesthetically than a mouse and a peacock would", he and Xuppu would have a funny bro dynamic together etc.

Story:

I already explained why and how Jives loses the Turtle Miraculous to Stingy in my post about the latter so I'll just give a short summary here before moving on

As per usual Jives didn't eat much throughout the day and ends up fainting. This time it's a much bigger deal though. Usually he doesn't actually fully faint, just sway a little, maybe collapse but for the most parts he stays conscious just really weakened. That day the team of new heroes is fighting an important battle when he full on passes out in the middle of it. Luckily Stingy is able to step in to build their defense up again.

Obviously, instead of saying "i eat as little as possible because i have a problem" Jives just shrugs it off and goes "guess i didn't eat enough again, my bad guys, sorry" and thinks it'll be fine. He didn't expect Álfurildi, aka Sportacus, to take this very literal and announce that he planned on having them eat in his airship as a whole group anyway gor team moral and to make sure they're all healthy enough to actually handle a Miraculous. They deduce that must have been the reason Jives full on fainted this time, while going by his usual life he obviously didn't need as much energy as he now needs to be a superhero so the simple solution is to just eat more.

He makes excuses to not eat with the others as often as he can but one day he'd have to actively leave the others to do so as he already is in the airship with them when they start preparing to serve the next meal. That day he actually snaps at Sportacus that he just doesn't want to eat. Unfortunately, thanks to being such a gentle soul and also sensing Jives frustration and hunger Sportacus tries to comfort Jives with the worst thing he could've said. "heroes gotta eat well, so you can become big and strong" to which Jives absolutely loses it. He snaps at him "I'm already too big without eating anything, can't you just leave me alone!" and just jumps out of the airship. By now he already has Xuppu as his new partner so of cause he makes it down unharmed to run off into the forest. Sportacus wants to follow him but Robbie stops him. Robbie, who so far was pretty quiet and reclusive when the teens came to visit, says he will go find and talk to him taking Pixel with him as he is his best friend after all.

I'll spare you the unnecessarily details i cane up with and just say this is the moment Robbie gets to explain how the powers i gave him work and we get to see that he does really deeply care but just can't really express it. They find Jives and thanks to Robbie being able to relate to him about some of his insecurities and Pixel being a great friend he ends up confessing to them about his eating disorder. He never wanted to be the odd one out but never managed to fit in with the others. It's hard to hide you're different when you're towering over your peers so he figured if he just stopped eating he'd stop growing and though it had no positive effect on him he just couldn't stop doing it even after realizing how bad it had gotten.

Going back to the airship together once the situation calmed down a bit and with Jives' permission they let Sportacus in on this secret. As Robbie figured, the local health expert knows exactly what foods wouldn't upset such an empty stomach too badly and they start the process of finding a few good things for Jives to eat so he doesn't break down again.

Name:

Quick, something more lighthearted

When Jives gets his second pick for a Miraculous his eyes fall on the little Monkey, Xuppu. The two pretty quickly get along thanks to Xuppu being a jokester and Jives liking how bro-like they can talk and poke fun at each other. This turns out to be a great pick as this Kwami of Jubilation not only like shouting random noises around just like Jives but is also sassy and straightforward enough to remind him to eat every once in a while by poking fun at him using something Pixel once said to him "I'll not let you eat less than the Kwamis" (yes this part should've technically been in the reasoning section but you kinda need the context of the story for it so i put it here)

So Trixie explains that Xuppu's transformation and powers are based on the Chinese Monkey King (she knows that from the Guardians) but Jives really isn't one for flashy costumes and important titles so not only is his costume more basic than it probably should be but also he wamts to name himself "Duke". Stingy immediately objects "A duke is about as royal as a prince! You're completely underselling this concept. You have to trade with me! You get yoir turtle back. Let me be King!" Xuppu and Wayzz look at each other and roll their eyes, Xuppu then steps floats forward to say "well, he's not entirely wrong. Wouldn't you like to pick something higher?" so Jives chuckles and goes "High Duke". Again Stingy is outraged by this disrespect "that's ridiculous!" but Xuppu laughs and says "no, i like his style! Let's do this!" and so their new duo is established

Look, don't judge me, everyone headcanons Jives with growing not all legal things in his garden so now that he's actually a teen in my au I'm keeping it xD

Thank you so so much for reading so much of my rambling. You're so cool for taking the time to read this!

[skellebonez]

okay i know you probably have lots of prompts already but. listen; 28 and 41 with my Phantom Thief MK AU (well its more of a phantom thief everyone au but yeah)

So I maaaaay have been a smidgen inspired by one very specific post you made about this AU and Sun Wukong's first successful heist... I couldn't resist, it was just too funny.

You call this luck? No, this is all skill./Can you teach me how to do that?

"Can you teach me how to do that?"

The question wasn't an unusual one between the two of them. MK had asked this of Sun Wukong on more than one occasion as successor to the Monkey King as the Monkie Kid himself.

No, what was unusual was that the question came from the opposite person.

"Teach you... what, exactly?" MK asked, trying not to feel too smug about the swap in roles between mentor and apprentice. After all...

Someone had to teach Sun Wukong the finer points of Phantom Thievery.

"You know what," Wukong said with a half scowl, gesturing to way that his student (or, for the moment now that the question was asked, his teacher) was rolling an large pendant between his fingers. "Not the... you know, what you're doing now, but what you did with the pendant on your last heist where you threw it at a guard and it kind cracked in the middle with the smoke and light and stuff."

"OH," MK laughed out, tossing up and catching the coin in his opposite hand. "That's not really a trick or anything, just some incredibly strong flash paper, and other stuff, that's activated when you open it the right way."

In demonstration the young Phantom Thief did something in the way he held the pendant and one end slipped up with a soft cracking sound. Then he did something else and it open like a clam shell. He held it out to the elder, letting him see the inner workings and how it had latches and some kind of folding wall between the two sides.

"Opening it causes a chemical reaction between the two compartments. The real trick is getting everything inside without accidentally activating it on yourself, practicing the opening motion, knowing when to open it, and aiming it just so that it blinds your target at just the right moment. You know, this is probably just the right time to teach you how to use lines to keep this stuff in your sleeves and retract them too! So..."

As MK launched into a lengthy explanation on how this particular bit of his Phantom Thievery repertoire worked he failed to notice the slowly growing smirk on the Monkey King's face.

~

"What, uh... what ya got there?" MK asked, very obviously trying to keep an impassive and non-judgemental expression. And failing.

"... smoothies," Wukong answered, absolutely not hiding what he was holding in his tail behind his back as he offered one of the two drinks in his hands to the younger.

It was a poor attempt at lying, which was odd because MK knew that Sun Wukong was pretty good at lying. He had managed to convince the other that he had no idea his successor was a phantom thief for so long after all. But why in the world he seemed to be hiding a... pillow of some sort behind his back was anyone's guess.

"Why'd you bring smoothies?" He chanced asking instead, and he watched as the other's face lit up in pure victory and jubilation.

"They're victory smoothies, Bud!" Wukong exclaimed, shoving one at MK until he took it from the other. "I just completed my first successful heist! And I did pretty well, if I do say so myself." The Monkey King smirked, puffing out his chest in a show of confidence as he took a sip of what was obviously a peach smoothie. "Oh yeah, tastes like a job well done."

"Really!?" MK exclaimed, his own pride welling up knowing that he had a hand in this since he was the other's mentor in thievery. He'd told the other to start small, something that would be missed but not something that would gather immediate attention from the whole city just in case something went wrong. "That's great! What did you steal?"

"I'm not telling."

This made the younger pause, raising a brow as the elder not so subtly tossed the pillow into a nearby bush.

"... should I be concerned?" MK asked, knowing that with Wukong's reputation... he may have bitten off far more than he could chew. This was the immortal who went on a spree through Heaven that ended up with him eating a ton of immortality peaches, drinking immortality alcohol, and taking immortality pills. Among other things.

"No way!" Wukong assured, chugging more and more of his smoothie with seemingly no regard for the possibility of brain freeze. "Trust me, bud, this went off without a hitch. You have nothing to worry about."

~

Those words came back to to bite Sun Wukong in the ass.

Or, rather, they came back to throw Sun Wukong through MK's window at "way too early for this o'clock" in the morning right after he had finished sleepily getting ready for another day at work and accidentally nodded back off on his bed.

The weight of an immortal stone monkey slamming into you was much more effective than any alarm clock he'd ever used before.

"WHATWHOWHERE!?" MK wheezed out once the Monkey King climbed off him, looking around in confusion until his eyes finally fell on a third party in the room. "M-Macaque!?"

"Where's my couch you wanna be Phantom Thief!?" Macaque yelled, completely ignoring the person who's house he had just inadvertently broken into. He brushed bits and pieces of broken glass and window frame out of his fur with a scowl of anger. "I actually paid for that."

"You really think I would tell you where I stashed it?" Wukong snarked back, smirking wide as he crossed his arms. "A Phantom Thief never reveals the location of their treasure trove to their marks."

"Wait wait wait-" MK said, holding up his hands and finally grabbing the attention of the two fighting immortal monkeys. "You just crashed through my window... because... You were his first heist mark... and Monkey King's first successful heist was your couch?"

"Got it in one, Bud!" Wukong said with a laugh, not seeming to care that Macaque was slowly stewing in more and more anger and frustration. "I wouldn't have even been noticed if he hadn't come home part way through either, he's normally out later than that."

"You sent me a calling card you dumb ass!" Macaque yelled, falling into a fighting stance. "Just because you got lucky enough to get away last time-"

"You call this luck?" Wukong yelled back with a laugh, smirking as he pulled something out of his sleeve and tossed it at Macaque. "No, this is all skill!"

MK barely had time to register what happened before Wukong grabbed him and covered his eyes and a tiny explosion and a pained yelp sounded behind them as they jumped out his broken window.

"SUN WUKONG YOU GET BACK HERE BEFORE I CAN SEE AGAIN OR ELSE!" Macaque yelled, right before another pained yelp was heard. "Holy shit, Kid, why do you have so much stuff on your floor, who lives like this, I can't even WALK in here!"

MK never got to answer or be offended at the immortal before he was tossed over Wukong's shoulder as he made a break for it running through alleyways at breakneck speed before Pigsy's Noodles was no longer even in sight.

They stopped eventually, the immortal monkey putting MK down before looking around to make sure they hadn't been tailed by the other immortal. After a couple minutes it was clear that Macaque had either not followed him due to the blinding effects of the flash paper or had not been able to catch their trail. The two of them each breathed a sigh or relief, looked at each other...

And immediately burst into laughter.

They couldn't help it! It was just... so ridiculous! All that over a heisted couch. Pigsy was sure to be upset at the damage to MK's apartment but given Mystic Monkey Business and all he was certain that the fact it was only a broken window this time would be a decent balm on the damage.

"Macaque is going to get you back for this," MK managed to get out through laughs. "We lost him and now he's going to find another way to get you back, I know it."

"What's he gonna do, steal my couch?"

~

"HE STOLE. MY COUCH."

"How'd he even get to the mountain?"

"HE. STOLE. MY. COUCH!"

"I think you're missing the bigger issue he-"

"HESTOLEMYCOUCH!"

"I KNOW STOP YELLING!"

MK slapped a hand over Wukong's mouth, only barely cutting off and muffling the scream of disbelief and frustration that the Monkey King let out at the state of things.

"Why are you focused on the fact that Macaque stole your couch and not the fact that he somehow got into the part of Mount Huaguo that we have to let someone into, BROKE INTO YOUR HOUSE. and for some reason he ONLY stole your couch?"

"Oh, he's broken in before," Wukong answered once he pried MK's hand away from his face. "But I can't believe that asshole! I stole his couch as a joke, stealing mine back is just petty."

"What do you mean he's broken in before?" MK continued, voice tense and high and totally not at all feeling suddenly very anxious about this new knowledge. "Macaque's just been able to come and go as he pleases this whole time?"

"Yeah, kinda. Not exactly as he pleases but he can just come in I guess."

"These are the kinds of things you need to tell your student- I thought we talked about proper communication as one of our first lessons!"

"... oops?"

~

"When did you get a new couch?" Red Son asked with a raised brow, watching as the immortal monkey lounging on it swished his tail back and forth in contentment.

"Heisted it," Macaque answered with a smirk. "Totally worth it. But next time I'm stealing Peach's tv too, this is so comfy I could use some proper entertainment."

"YOU STOLE SUN WUKONG'S COUCH???"

[sketching-shark]

why the hell does "shadowpeach" exist lol. this is just another toxic shipping like "catradora" and I swear both are incestuous since they are siblings (not sure about wukong and lieur but its implied they are brothers), plus they both hate each other with a passion and tried to kill each other.

fdsaewaef okay anon because I have Opinions & know that people can get pretty upset over shipping I'm going to put my thoughts under the cut. Don't like don't read goes both ways <3

lmao fully aware that I'm probably the only one to think so but I really do find it funny that people keep comparing the dynamics of Sun Wukong & Macaque to Adora and Catra because from what I remember Adora was extremely hesitant to fight Catra no matter how awful she was whereas Sun Wukong was trying to kill Macaque from day 1 as soon as he found out he was going after Xiaotian. Monkie Kid does have its flaws, but I am glad that they kept the monkey king's og classic characterization of immediately going for the throat of anyone who tries to kill his friends and family.

Other heroes when some absolute ass of a villain makes an attempt on the lives of those they care about: "Sure, you've been terrorizing me for days & have tried your damnedest to murder & destroy everything I love & have repeatedly demonstrated that there is no depths you won't sink to in your vindictive quest to break me into what you want, but I'm not going to hurt you because you're still my friend & I will bend over backwards to help you 'redeem' yourself no matter how many times you brutalize me!"

Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, the second someone threatens his loved ones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6y6chb0Qq8

but anyway yeah it has been a pretty annoying trend over the past couple of years that the ships people keep hyping to frankly ridiculous degrees as the best out there are those where the characters involved loathe each other up until the last second when the plot suddenly decides that wuv conquers all actshually or where it's the same ol' story of "wah you were my friend but then you weren't & so now I'm going to be a violently miserable asshole to you & everyone you love all while the plot & fanbase refuse to hold me accountable for my shit & also where you get blamed for my atrocious behavior but we're still paired together anyway even though everyone's mad at you for me being a shitgoblin."

Now I do need to note that I haven't seen Season 3 myself at this stage, but I do know that in Monkie Kid Sun Wukong did apparently literally kill Macaque. So in that regard the shadow monkey does have a very understandable reason to be enraged at the monkey king. And honestly that just makes me dislike shadowpeach even more than I did beforehand. Besides that just being a terrible place to start from, Sun Wukong is now more than ever left holding the blame for Macaque's relentlessly shitty behavior (but stg one of the funniest things about this is seeing people in the Monkie Kid fandom pour over JTTW to figure out other character's motivations but when it comes to the Six Eared Macaque & his og background of trying to murder-replace Sun Wukong everyone's like "suddenly I could not read <3") & for as much romantic tension as people keep insisting they have it's more like Macaque is just violently obsessed with getting revenge on Sun Wukong to the detriment of literally everything else in his 2nd chance life while Sun Wukong couldn't care less about Macaque unless Mr. Six Ears is barging into his business to try to ruin it. So it's like...why am I supposed to find this romantic?

AND THAT'S NOT EVEN GOING INTO THE WEIRD WAYS IN WHICH THE ORIGINAL MEANING OF SUN WUKONG & THE SIX EARED MACAQUE'S STORY KEEPS GETTING PUSHED ASIDE FOR THE SAKE OF SHIPPING.

Look, I totally get that when you're taking on a myth for a fan continuation or a reinterpretation then things are going to change. And I'll be the first to acknowledge that there is a metric ton of exceedingly cursed JTTW reinterpretations out there that make even the worst flaws of Monkie Kid seem benign. But honestly it's really disappointing that the og interpretation of Sun Wukong and the Six Eared Macaque as two manifestations of the same mind (or mind monkey, if you will), that the Six Eared Macaque is in fact the embodiment of Sun Wukong's worst traits that he must overcome, that as such they have often been interpreted as brothers, keeps getting buried in western fandom. Honestly to me that dynamic is just so much more interesting & holds so many more possibilities than anything you could do with a shipping dynamic, not just because it presents a really fascinating way that you could explore the contradictory thoughts and desires that every person has, but also how personal ambitions can get warped into frightening things to the point where you don't even recognize yourself, and then how you might go from there. idk, kind of feels like another bit of monoculturalization :(

Plus it's like friends of all the figures on God's green Earth that you could have shipped everyone's favorite overpowered simian with you really insist on pairing him with the dude who is literally famous for having run around in a Sun Wukong fursuit declaring that he's the one and only monkey king (X_X)