Thinking about how, thanks to LBD and her possession of SWK, we now have confirmation that every single fight that we have see Sun Wukong in... he was holding back.
When he fought Macaque in the first season, Spider Queen during the ses 2 special, Nezha while he was trying to get the map, the Scorpion Demon too probably, (though he was a bit nerfed then,) he was not using even close to his real power. We have just now seen his real speed. He could have taken out Macaque in an instant when he first showed up, without endangering Mk. But he didn't.
Sun Wukong has incredible control over his strength and what's more, he doesn't truly want to hurt anyone.
The Samadhi fire is a weapon of mass destruction, but we see it burn away LBD's hold--the chains--from Macaque without killing him. If you're a powerful being, or even just someone with power and the one in control of the power doesn't want to hurt you and they have enough control over it, chances are it's not going to kill you.
SWK's Master, his mentor, his friend is gone, but his lessons in compassion remain. He wanted to defeat the Lady Bone Demon. Never once did he say kill until the end.
The old Monkey King's go-to was to kill. It was easy, he didn't really see what was wrong with it, it sure got rid of the problem faster. This Monkey King? After JTTW? ...Killing is his absolute last resort.
Monkey King left to find a way to defeat the Lady Bone Demon without killing her. And when that failed, only then did he confront her. He had the power to kill her all along, had the power to kill all of them, he may have been slightly nerfed at times, but like... at the end of it all, hurting people is the last thing he wants to do. And he did everything he could to prevent that being the action he had to take.
In the end he failed though. And thats when he fell to his last resort. And maybe he regretted it a little bit because if he'd just killed her in the first place none of this would have happened. But his time with Tang Sanzang taught him value life and value compassion. Even at his own expense. Kinda like Mk at times.
I'm so happy this series finally showcased what an absolute POWERHOUSE Sun Wukong is (I was genuinely getting concerned by how nerfed he seemed at times).
It's really funny how confident LBD was at the beginning. "Even now I sense you do not have what it takes to defeat me." Proceeds to absolutely destroy her ass.
"My power has far surpassed what it was when we last met in battle." Girl....how weak were you before now??? Cause if this is an improvement I can't see the previous battle being much of a struggle for him.
This really makes me wonder why in the world he felt intimidated enough to go look for a weapon to defeat LBD in the first place. He was throwing her around the entire time and only briefly struggled when not-mayor joined. And even then it took like thirty seconds for him to put him out of commission. And it's not like she planned to posses him either, it just happened due to her desperation.
Taking into account the room Tang, Chef Zhu, and Sha Dali found, I'm choosing to believe the original battle between SWK and LBD was a source of trauma for SWK (side-eyes a certain theory I've read) hence why he was so frightened of her.
also ik the pace is kinda fast but i dont know how to write a dialogue for them 💀
got the idea from this twt post. im not exactly sure where they found the info so idk if its real or not but come on,,, its nezha food so why not take it 🧍♂️
and honestly i do hope they talk about something like this in season 4, itd be really cool
This is a little more personal here but “You can’t judge things by their worst qualities,” is actually something I’ve been saying to so many people for so long. And it actually means a lot to me to watch a character who I genuinely identify with, not in the way of situation but in the way of trying so hard to be kind and accepting even when people show me their worst qualities again and again means so much to me. It’s hard to be kind sometimes and it really does mean a lot to me to watch a show choose to have a character who is kind like that without like, putting up with the crap that comes with it.
Mk goes through a lot, but through it all he still tells someone who has hurt him that they can be a hero, a warrior for something good despite all that. He still sits with someone who’s good intentions had ill effects and plays dumb to lighten the mood which ngl I do as well. He still opens a place for them with his friends and family and lets them come and go as they need.
As much as I talk about the story aspects of Monkie Kid, it’s the messages that the story writes that keeps me with it and keeps me watching the show. It’s an incredible show in every aspect, in animation, storytelling, characterization and character development, but that one means the most to me. Life’s rough. Everyone makes mistakes, sometimes do horrible horrible things, but there is always the potential to be good, y’know? And it’s nice to see a character ready to accept people the moment they're ready to try, no matter how many times it takes. Even when they might not deserve it, even when it’s hard. Mk brings out the best in the people around him. And I want to be like that.
Shoutout to Monkie Kid for giving morally dubious characters, kind characters, gruff characters, silly characters, complex characters and characters I wanna be like. I love this show a lot.
I'm really hoping to see something happen with what's been going on between LBD and mk
It's like there's still part of her inside him since minor scale and we've even seen some of the things that trigger him
We have the very concerning blue flashes that occur whenever he uses a new power which happened in Smartie Kid the same way they did in Shadow Play
The eyes flicker blue before they turn gold and then BOOM power boost which is on its own very worrisome
But then we have what's almost like her control over mk specifically
First with spider queen in 72 transformations
And then again with Nezha in The Corrupted King
In both instances mk appears to be in sudden intolerable pain that causes him to grab his head as if there's something inside hurting him while the person he's with remains unaffected
On its own that doesn't seem like much until you point out that SQ already knew about LBD at this point and LBD has spent enough time with her that if this was something she could do to anyone she probably could've by then, but she doesn't this only happens to mk specifically
it's almost like there's some part of her she's kept in mk some power over him that she holds that mk himself doesn't even seem to realize past the pain it causes him
Honestly I'm not even sure how that will play out if anything involving it comes to pass but I really hope it has something to do with this