#lego monkie kid analysis

[aroacenezhaanddainsleif]

so i was rewatching the end of lmk s4 with some friends today, and i noticed that in 4x10 peng says smth to nezha like "let the demon child come out and play!" and like. if i knew more about nezha lore thatd probably be quite concerning to me as a lorehead. and you seem knowledgeable. so. any thoughts?

oh boy. (cracks knuckles) it's late and i should be sleeping but I'm also sad so Nezha interest go BRRRRR

i will say for any accurate/culturally referenced info, go check out @ruibaozha - i am simply summing up as much as i can and some stuff is missing/not elaborated on

let me break down the basic elements of the Nezha myths.

Nezha is born his mom and his military dad, Li Jing, and his older brothers Muzha (second) and Jinzha (first). but Nezha is like fucking. superpower baby for some reason? Apparently the heavens decided to bless Li Jing with a powerful son for his military prowess, and Nezha's mom, Lady Yin(?), was pregnant for 3+ years. Then Nezha popped out as a goddamn ball of flesh. His dad attacked him because hey! Flesh ball! But then Nezha's ball split open and he jumped out as an already formed young child (ages often unclear- ppl say he's 7, or 12, and in some cases he died after only 3 days(?) alive.) either way, Taiyi Zhenren swoops in to be Nezha's master, and everything is fine for some time.

at least til Nezha kills Ao Bing. this part of the myth is really what defines Nezha as a "demon child" or not. in Fengsheng Yanyi/Investiture of the Gods, ONE of the older/more well-known written versions of his story, Nezha washes his sash in the East Sea and causes the dragon palace to quake. Ao Guang understandably gets pissed and sends up his general to ask him to stop, who Nezha kills. then Ao Guang's 3rd son, Ao Bing, who Nezha also kills (and rips out his tendon to wear as a belt)! sometimes Nezha also kills a demon, apprentice of Lady Earth Flow, miles away on accident because he randomly fired a bow. yet in another cases, Nezha is the hero- a demon came up to eat children at the shore, and Nezha obviously killed the dude, then Ao Bing, same thing. but in other other versions, Nezha was friends with Bing and accidentally killed him while playing due to being ultra powerful...

and then Ao Guang threatens Nezha's town, because the kid killed his son. (sometimes Nezha goes and strangles Guang before he can talk to the Jade Emperor, so...) Guang demands an apology and/or Nezha's life or he'll flood the whole mountain pass. and Nezha decides to slit his own goddamn throat to apologize to his parents and "return his body to them". Aka: he commits suicide at like, seven(?)

From here on, stuff differs: Li Jing is a shitty dad (like he REALLY really hates Nezha. calls him a curse and beats him), Nezha gets a temple and Jing burns it down, Nezha gets reborn in a lotus body by his master and/or Buddha, goes on a murder rampage against his dad and Muzha (beats up Muzha w/ a golden brick), is forced to submit to his dad through a Golden Pagoda, making Li Jing the Golden Pagoda Bearing Li Jing, sometimes Jinzha gets to flog his brother, and Nezha's basically a bitter fire god (child) put into the literal armies of heaven. he's also got his 6/8-armed and 3-headed war form in the myths...

now, this is a very long yet still EXTREMELY short explanation of the myth(s), and the "message" really boils down to what version you tell- the boy who started stuff by (unintentionally) murdering people, or the hero. but a lot of the main point of nezha's myth was originally about filial piety, and can be told as a story to remind kids that the parents are always superior, but in more modern myths and stories, Nezha has ended up shifting more into a symbol of rebellion. He's the protection deity of children: the outcasts and the demon children, the kids who question things and are loud and outspoken and aren't what people (especially their parents) want them to be. Nezha's story entirely depends on region, context and intent, which makes him a very versatile figure.

Now, put that into LMK?

I have a lot of hcs abt why LMK Nezha is the way he is, but my main one comes down to that "demon child" line. I like to think that Nezha was basically an uncontrolled force of war power and killed Ao Bing (regardless of the situation).

But then he got put into heaven and 1. realized how he acted and had to deal with crushing guilt and self-hatred and 2. got groomed into a (then) child soldier 👍

He was still a general, but learned to channel all that destructive power into being a protector and how to defend instead (ex: his shields, sealing power, etc). He takes his current job very seriously bc he sees it as his only reason to still be worth existing. he also dislikes Wukong bc he sees far too much of a younger him in Wukong; doomed for destructiveness and chaos. this is also why i put parallels to Nezha and MK because. yeah. (and imo, although i know Nezha paid it back w/ his suicide, I'm a bit surprised Mei wasn't taught to hate him, due to how much family matters to dragons...)

so aka, my hc of: "dude was literally always seen as a demon child/symbol of destruction, and therefore after being used as a literal war weapon and then being made to guard a map for ages (probably because he didn't want to harm anyone else), DUDE'S GOT ISSUES!"

#lmk nezha #lego monkie kid nezha #monkie kid nezha #nezha lmk #nezha #nezha lore #lmk #lego monkie kid #lego monkie kid analysis #lego monkie kid headcanon #lego monkie kid theory #lmk theory #lmk headcanon

[wolfcamellias]

Lego Sun Wukong Character Analysis No One Asked For (Season One - Three)

!!Warning!! This will be a LONG and lengthy post covering all three seasons along with the New Years Special and the Pilot of the show. I'll do my best to analyze Wukong's characteristics, mannerisms, personality and relationships! Bare with me, english isn't my first language and I'm sick so.

Word Count: 10790

[...]

Sun Wukong’s introduction to the show is seen through a biased narrator’s POV, the idolization of him by placing him in a positive attitude whilst fighting DBK who was, before his entrance, wrecking havoc among the mortal world. He’s surrounded by golden sunbeams and the skies parting for him, a fitting image for the “world’s greatest hero” the narrator wants to paint for him. He’s seen smiling confidently and moves to summon his staff without pause. 

(One of the most common tells about Sun Wukong is his false smiles: the strain lines that form around his eyes are the same used for characters throughout the series and this is no exception, this is a fake, idolized smile used throughout his entire fight with DBK)

While this is all fitting for his character (unquestioningly fighting the “evil” demon without prompting question as to why he’s attacking — he’s the bad guy and he has to take care of the bad guy per someone’s request), Sun Wukong is actively one of the most loving characters throughout the course of his story while also being the most complicated. 

The Demon Bull King was, presumably, the sworn brother to Sun Wukong and the two shared a history. To say Sun Wukong would fight him without pause is.. incorrect, to say the least. The pilot story goes on to show us the amount of confidence Sun Wukong has during this fight but it never stops to show how they talked or interacted during the fight. Sun Wukong has a habit of talking during his fights (light laughter to small comments) but they removed that and replaced it for a more “fitting” image of a hero: Silence and serious, only letting out small chuckles when it’s clear that he’s won the fight.

After their fight, he traps DBK under a mountain for presumably 500 years until the show’s timeline is caught up. The very same punishment he was given from Buddha after his own wrecking havoc amongst Heaven. In summary: the narrative wants us to see that Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, willingly trapped what had been his sworn brother under a mountain the very same punishment Heaven gave to him and traumatized him for over 500 years.

“The king sealed the mountain with the staff that no other being could wield, trapping the Demon Bull King forever.” 

“Forever” implies that Sun Wukong would never lift the staff himself to release his friend and the implications that Wukong willingly wanted to give up the one sole weapon that helped him shape himself into an idealistic hero for the sake of containing one demon is intense. The staff is more than a weapon to Wukong when you take into consideration how big of a part it was in his journey, into becoming the Monkey King that is idolized and loved in the narratives historians write when wanting to tell the tale of a hero. Sun Wukong doesn’t even appear to look satisfied in this story, he hesitates for a moment before letting go of the staff and even then he’s frowning at the result of the battle. 

“With the battle won, the Monkey King vanished, never to be seen again.”

Sun Wukong going into “hiding” after losing his only weapon is realistic: he’s had an intense journey and this was, presumably, his final fight before “retiring” and he had to give up his prized possession for the sake of keeping the Demon Bull King at bay. He’s isolating himself; easily, Wukong could have carried on with his duties as a “hero” and kept fighting demons but instead he chose to live off on Flower Fruit Mountain for hundreds of years and doesn’t make a public appearance throughout the course of the show’s history regardless of what movies or show or television announcements are made throughout canon — he isolated himself. 

“He has a movie based off of him!” as does every other superhero, fictional or otherwise, to say that he participated in creating this show or series is a stretch considering he’s been secluded on Flower Fruit Mountain with no company other than his monkeys.

“What about his lawyer?” that was a gag and a comedic moment but, again, the fact that he’s not actively responding to these messages has the same appeal as “I don’t want people to know where I am or if I’m still active”.  This could be brushed off as laziness or simply uncaring but he’s not a lazy character, even in certain moments he’s been simply unmotivated.

Wukong’s first appearance after sealing away DBK was in the form of a bird, first seen when Xiaotian’s delivering the order to the Demon Bull Family, actively paying attention to Red Son removing the staff. He doesn’t transform or react much to DBK’s release and actively nudges Xiaotian to enter the scene and acquire the staff. Although the scenario could be easily questioned with “why didn’t he step in to save Xiaotian? Why did he stand there to watch?” and the answer is simple: because the narrative didn’t want him to get involved. The show wants to highlight Xiaotian as the protagonist and having Sun Wukong step in would disrupt that. A deeper view into it would be that he didn’t want to step out of his hiding and be thrusted back into “hero work” after 500 years of being MIA. 

When Xiaotian enters the waterfall curtain cave, the first mural we see is of Monkey King wearing his circlet with the rest of the crew smudged out or blurry. What makes this important is the history of Wukong’s trauma involving the circlet. Although it was given to him by accident on Tripitaka’s extent (the monk did not know what the circlet was other than an additional accessory to Wukong’s outfit) it still played an important role into forcing Wukong to change into a perfect “disciple” for the monk throughout his journey. 

The rest of the scene is rather simple: snippets of Wukong’s life before becoming the Monkey King and what inevitably led to the war against Heaven. 

“When he got his staff from the Dragon of the East!”

(In the original text there’s several versions as to how Wukong acquired his staff: one is that he entered the Dragon of the East’s palace and asked if he could gain a weapon from him after killing the demon king of confusion and Ao Guang, out of fear that the monkey would try to kill him, offered to let Wukong try out several weapons until the dragon king’s wife suggested the pillar used to measure the ocean’s depths, claiming that it started to glow on Wukong’s arrival. Satisfied with how heavy the staff was and how easily it was to change its shape, Wukong thanked the dragon for the weapon and the clothes gifted to him and promptly left. Another version involves Wukong simply taking the pillar without asking and leaving the dragons confused on why he didn’t choose any of the weapons they laid out for him. Later on Xiaotian and Pigsy both proceed to ask Wukong if he stole the staff, which is assuming that the story of how he obtained his staff is not reliable in a sense of “there’s so many retellings of this moment that it’s best to leave it vague”).

Two moments that aren’t narrated are the ones where Wukong is facing the main antagonists of the show: DBK, Princess Iron Fan, Yin and Jin, Spider Queen and Macaque; and the second is when he’s bowing down to Tripitaka, his old master.

What separates these two moments is the vagueness of it all: Why Wukong chose to fight against the antagonists show and whether or not his relationship with Tripitaka was one-sided in terms of care and affection. To show Wukong bowing down to someone with a stressed expression and then refuse to show his face when going on against the demons in the show is meant to leave the situation up for interpretation but it hurts more to think about how the narrative portrays Wukong as heroic without wanting to reveal the “ugly” side of how he got to become a hero. It parallels well into how much of his past Wukong keeps hidden whether it be by avoiding questions about it or saying “not to worry about it”.

Upon meeting Xiaotian, Sun Wukong admits that he’s been watching Xiaotian and we get glimpses of scenarios where he does: during the delivery scene as a bird, during the boat as a butterfly and a semi-second frame of himself as a ladybug while Xiaotian was sleeping. This implies he’s been watching over Xiaotian since before he acquired the staff. Although this could very well be not related to canon at all, it was briefly mentioned in the lego monkie kid profile for Wukong that “he’s been searching for the right successor time and time again for the past 500 years” implying Wukong has tried to look for someone to train but none of them were able to keep up or Wukong was unable to train them properly. It’s also stated that Wukong did not choose his successor in Xiaotian, the staff did which parallels well into how the pillar glowed for Wukong to wield it when no other weapon could match his strength.

Wukong then goes on to tell Xiaotian that he’s going to become his successor and proceeds to stress eat while telling him he has to go fight DBK on his own while stress eating (something he does repeatedly throughout the show).

“Consider it a test trial.”

Wukong choosing to allow Xiaotian to handle DBK on his own is a perfect start to see if he's capable of using his own self confidence to fight without needing someone to hold his hand but while also knowing that he has support if he ever needs it.

“If you can lift the staff, you can use it. […] Believe in yourself. Even a smidge makes all the difference.”

The quote has become one that Wukong repeats throughout the lowest points of Xiaotian’s moments throughout the show. Sun Wukong could very easily go to take care of DBK and seal him away and never interact with Xiaotian again because “the danger is gone” which would have made for a poor narrative decision, not to mention forcing Wukong to relive the same moment of which he lost his main weapon and was forced to go into hiding. He encourages Xiaotian to fight DBK and openly believes in him (a non-lie, seeing as how he’s openly honest about his desire to not fight DBK for Xiaotian) and even follows him as a precaution in his bird form to watch over the human during the fight.

He doesn't tell Xiaotian to leave and then proceeds to stay in Flower Fruit Mountain stuffing his face with food uncaring — Sun Wukong chooses to follow Xiaotian presumably from the moment he left the waterfall cave and kept an eye on him through his fight with DBK. Xiaotian then tries to fight like Wukong did in the opening sequence and failed, instead having to do his own personal set of attacks to counter DBK and wins. Wukong acknowledges this and sees first hand how Xiaotian fighting style works: he needs self confidence and needs to know that he's capable of doing great things on his own.

But after the fight is done and he’s no longer needed: he leaves.

The first episode that highlights Wukong (the pilot) is him not wanting to be involved when he knows that, the moment that he is, he won't be allowed to go back. (See: Season 3’s involvement with him having to actively pursue the rings and make sure that Xiaotian and the rest don’t get involved with his actions more than they should for fear of losing them or hurting them on purpose). Sun Wukong is seen as an icon and a legend and that’s dangerous, his involvement with DBK meant that he was the first one to be sought out to solve the problem, no one turning to think that perhaps Xiaotian could give a helping hand to the situation, not even Xiaotian himself, and it isn’t until Wukong encourages him that he gains that moment of self-confidence and is able to control his powers and the staff. 

[SEASON 1 EP 1, 7 AND 9]

“And the only way to gain self confidence is [...] No! Practice! You think I took any shortcuts? [...] I had to fight so… many demons.”

The canon tie to Wukong in the books and to the show is the fact that he had to fight several tons of demons throughout his journey.. after acquiring his Monkey King title and becoming a pilgrim in Tripitaka’s journey to deliver the scriptures to the west. Meaning Wukong had trained approximately several hundred years before becoming the pilgrim to Tripitaka.

He canonically trained several years to get to his standing point and it's important to remember this as most people write his character off as lazy or uncaring when he's one of the most hard working ones in the show thus far, his dedication to becoming someone worth looking up to unmatched thus far by the cast of the show. He's no longer striving to be "the best" he just wants to be the one person who someone can trust to talk to when in need of assistance (which backfires as he is instead idolized to an unhealthy extent and put on a pedestal too high for him to climb down from).

(It's unsure if the show will tackle these years but if they do it's important to remember that Sun Wukong first master taught him the Daoist ways of learning immortality and proceeded to exile him when he started showing off his powers to the other students at the academy, forcing Wukong to go back to his kingdom and find it in disarray after the Demon King of Confusion threatened and hurt his monkey friends. It must also be remembered that Sun Wukong was, once again, exiled from Tripitaka's group and thrown into an emotionally stressful situation after Erlang burned down his mountain and poachers killed his beloved kingdom in his absence.

He was in an emotional unstable place when Pigsy, from the book, managed to talk Wukong into returning during his weakest point and he was back in the group of a family that easily blamed him when he was in the right for not trusting certain demons or encounters they had along the journey.

It was a rather toxic environment for Wukong and he endured all of it.)

Sun Wukong is not a perfect mentor by far but he is a good one. Throughout the course of the show he’s seen to truly care for Xiaotian and proceeds to do what it takes so the human is comfortable in terms of being able to control his skills and powers without hurting himself.  The one moment that some fans bring up is the one during the first episode when Wukong removes some of Xiaotian’s powers and his invincibility.

But they forget that the act was consented to by Xiaotian. 

“I know a way to limit your powers so you learn to control them [...] but you won’t be invincible anymore.” "Ok. Let's do it." "Alright! No turning back!"

Wukong warns him and even asks Xiaotian if he’s alright after removing both his invincibility (which is something that comes from Wukong’s own immortality times five) and Xiaotian doesn’t regret nor bring up this decision for the rest of the show. 

Sun Wukong is also blatantly aware of his decision of having become immortal and is, canonically, stressed out by this but never brings it up in a serious conversation.

"[...] And the residence of my soul that contemplates the fact that I am an immortal being, who will never be able to die."

The moment is used as a gag and where the main HC that Wukong has a lawyer prompted from but it's also a subtle tell that Wukong regrets his decision from over 3000 years ago that he chose to become immortal in many ways that make him unable to die. The extent of his decision means: watching his friends die, being unable to form bonds with mortals for they, too, will eventually die and leave him some day, he's been isolated for over 3000 years and unable to keep up with times due to the fact that when he turns around to take a closer look to the city everything's changed and he's unable to full keep up with it.

Aside from that: Impossible Delivery shows us how Wukong trains Xiaotian. To summarize it: he does a good job. Sun Wukong allows for Xiaotian to keep up without overexerting himself, he lets the human set the pace and puts obstacles for him to overcome without pushing Xiaotian beyond his breaking point. He doesn’t use his fists during their training exercise and instead settles for blocking and pushing Xiaotian back, only grabbing him to slam him down against the mountain when Xiaotian loses focus on the fight and allows himself to be grabbed.

He even verbally encourages Xiaotian (something his other mentor lacks to do throughout his short time in training him).

“Better. Way, way better. You're totally getting the hang of this, bud!”

Wukong allows for Xiaotian to be comfortable in his training and vocally encourages him when most others put him down or simply show their distaste for his lack of attention or when he goofs around, Wukong chooses positive reinforcement and pretends to be cocky about it (“You are getting trained by me!”) when he’s genuinely proud of how far Xiaotian has come since the beginning of his journey.

(My sibling Knox does a good job in showing the different aspects of how Wukong handles touching Xiaotian and making sure he’s not harmed.)

During Impossible Delivery, Xiaotian’s main goal is to learn how to focus. The episode is seen as ironic for even Xiaotian points out that Wukong is unable to focus according to his legends when, in truth, that’s not all that happens in the book but it’s what the narrative chooses for us to believe when addressing Sun Wukong. Wukong even dismisses these claims with non-serious remarks and is, again, shown to be eating peach chips when discussing his past actions and livelihood before becoming the idolized hero he is now.

He tells Xiaotian to take everything and choose what he wants to do and then do it as advice for focusing and although the verbal explanation of how to use it does little to effect Xiaotian’s view on him, the hands-on experience makes it easier for Xiaotian to overcome the challenge of being unfocused for the last few minutes of the episode. The fact that Wukong has trouble verbally communicating with others, be it his own successor or the brief instances where he talks to others, it’s due to the fact that.. He’s been isolated for over 500 years up until this point. As the Intelligent Stone Monkey, yes, he’s capable of quickly adapting to new environments and taking in new knowledge but he’s trying to do this slowly. He changes into a more “mentor-like” personality as opposed to the pilot and first episode, seeing as it was a rather slow introduction to his character, one would think he’s arrogant and confident and then here he lets Xiaotian point out his faults and flaws and refuses to address them in full. Masking is a process by which an individual changes or "masks" their natural personality to conform to social pressures. Thus far, we haven’t seen Wukong be genuine and takes on multiple masks throughout the show. 

Wukong doesn’t show disappointment nor does he care much that Xiaotian was late with his order, instead opts to go for a happier “you finally made it!” meaning he didn’t expect Xiaotian to deliver his meal in the expected time but wasn’t at all disproving of him and instead opted to hide it as a lesso (although it could be debatable whether he was intentionally using this to teach him a lesson or not, seeing as Wukong does canonically pretend to be stupid or dumb to lighten up the mood and Xiaotian was rather energetic when he approached him in this scenario). He continues to voice how proud he is of Xiaotian and only says “This isn’t my order” without hints of malice or disappointment in him — he doesn’t mind that Xiaotian got his order wrong and is rather patient with him throughout the course of the show. 

(Episode 9)

Sun Wukong’s trauma begins at a partial way through this episode. 

To summarize: Xiaotian is getting frustrated by Wukong’s teachings because he’s not going all out as he expected he was going to when training under Wukong’s guidance. After attempting to fight a Shadow Monster, Xiaotian meets Macaque and trains under him without Wukong knowing. Wukong confronts Xiaotian about using too much power that his body can’t handle which leads to Xiaotian going with Macaque to defeat the Shadow Monster only to get backstabbed by Macaque who then steals his powers and fights against Wukong. After Macaque is defeated by Xiaotian, Wukong and Xiaotian reconcile and the episode ends with Xiaotian “training” again under Wukong.

Wukong openly trusts Xiaotian by this point; Xiaotian is the one person Sun Wukong sees on a semi-daily basis due to training and allows for Xiaotian to get closer to him by establishing a bond of trust. He trusts Xiaotian to voice his concerns to him (such as being frustrated with how slow their training has been going and wanting to learn how to fight like Wukong) and is genuinely surprised when Xiaotian uses more force than Wukong has taught him to use after Macaque has trained him.

“[...] Using that much power, your body can’t handle it.”

Wukong’s concern for Xiaotian is also genuine, one of the few moments where he’s serious and he doesn’t think about chasing after Xiaotian until he sees Macaque’s symbol form on the back of his jacket. The realization that Xiaotian is in a toxic learning environment is what pushes Wukong to follow him from a far enough distance that he’s able to step in when Macaque ultimately betrays and hurts Xiaotian, badly enough that he cries when attempting to lift the staff again near the end of the episode. His anger towards Macaque resides in the fact that he’s hurt Xiaotian alongside the realization that it’s Macaque who hurt him — someone who he’s clearly had history with and thus the trust is further broken into pieces.

After this, Xiaotian and Wukong’s relationship seemingly goes back to normal — but the trauma that latches onto Wukong is the fact that Macaque was willing to kill or brutally harm Xiaotian during their fight. Shortly after pining Wukong down with his shadow clones, Macaque turns to attack Xiaotian (probably to further anger Wukong enough for him to go all out as he states he wants him to) and it’s clear in that instant that he’s not holding back.

When Macaque calls him out on being pathetic for not wanting to hurt Xiaotian, it indicates how much Wukong has grown to care for the human. Apart from the fact that Wukong’s been canonically isolated until the show’s present time, Wukong has also outlived most if not all of his friends and family. He’s lost dozens of people he’s cared for and those who hate him he’s shown to be familiar if only kept at a distance — when it comes to Xiaotian, Wukong treats him with extra care, he makes sure Xiaotian isn’t ever hurt in their training and actively makes sure not to push him past his breaking point. What brings forth Wukong to get angry at Xiaotian is not frustration over the fact he’s been mentored by someone else, it’s the fact that Xiaotian was hurt in the process and pushed past what his body could handle all at once.

Macaque continues to dangle Xiaotian’s safety over Wukong’s head like a treat to a dog throughout the show and doesn’t care for Xiaotian’s reaction for the possible the mentally of “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” and only backs away when a third party intervenes. 

Xiaotian’s safety is, among other things, one of Wukong’s top priorities and he puts him above his own safety at times, shielding and protecting him and attempting to do whatever he can to keep him safe at all costs. Regardless of whether he’ll get caught in the crossfire Wukong always reaches out to try and catch Xiaotian when he falls and protects him to the best he can from whatever danger is out to get him. 

The episode shows us that Wukong A) trusts Xiaotian to tell him everything only for the trust to be broken the moment Xiaotian begins training without telling Sun Wukong what he’s doing in his training and who he’s training with (along with Sun Wukong attempting to rekindle that trust in their bond), B) keeps Macaque at arm’s length even during their fight and doesn’t try to go all out on him even when preventing him from attacking Xiaotian, C) was not angry nor dismissive with Xiaotian after finding out he was training with someone else but was rather concerned and disappointed with the boy. 

“You remember what I’ve taught you.”

Wukong’s words of advice and concern go undermined throughout the show and even in the context of JTTW, the fact that Xiaotian remembered his words of “step into the strike” mean deeply to him because he listened to Wukong something that even his own supposed family never did.

“Your heart’s in the right place, kid. We can work on the rest.”

(NEW YEARS SPECIAL)

To summarize Wukong's appearance in the Special: He is first seen training Xiaotian before the New Years celebration (this implies that he's been training Xiaotian for approximately a year now) and teaches him how to use "misdirection" an actual tactic he commonly uses in the book and series later on. Wukong sets up a small picnic for him and Xiaotian to enjoy while watching the fireworks and doesn't seem surprised when Xiaotian comments he was meant to go join his friends and indirectly declines Wukong's invitation.

(A point that often comes up in the show is the fact that he's used to being isolated and alone, the fact that he doesn't react much to Xiaotian's decline to his invitation means he expected him not to stay in the first place)

However after Xiaotian agrees to stay Wukong is visibly more energetic than he's been in previous episodes: His voice is clearer and reaches a higher pitch when he yells out "fireworks!" (Sean does a good job in acting excited during this scene) and it's the only scene throughout the show where he's openly excited to be watching something (not counting S3 with the bunnies on Chang'e's moon for a specific reason). It’s heavily implied that Wukong has watched the celebrations by himself up until Xiaotian joins him and it’s the first time in (possible) centuries that he’s had company to engage with him during said celebration. The small animation of him jumping in visible excitement before perching himself next to Xiaotian is a small burst of unmasked happiness, which is quickly put away when he creates more food out of strands of his hair to eat (note: Wukong is one of the only characters throughout the show that doesn’t eat and only does so when Xiaotian and others are in the same scene with him or when he’s stressed  implying he doesn’t typically eat as a normal task).

After the fireworks are stopped and Xiaotian and Wukong realize it's due to Spider Queen (or Zhizhu in the mandarin dub) taking over the city. He jokingly points out the fireworks have stopped while Xiaotian worries over the city,

actively trying to lighten up the mood and shrugs it off before helping Xiaotian get to the other side of the mountain.

“[...] If you can’t handle a little spider, how are you meant to help me with that?”

Sun Wukong actively makes sure Xiaotian is comfortable; easily he could have forced or pushed Xiaotian to face Spider Queen and her spider-like mechs and possessed army to “get rid of that fear” but arachnophobia isn’t something that can be easily shaken off and can possibly lead to panic attacks and incredible amounts of stress for the person. Wukong instead tells Xiaotian to stay back and that he’ll handle it — this is the first time in the series where he does not want Xiaotian to get involved in fear of him getting hurt.

It’s interesting to see how this development happens post Episode 9 and how he seems to pay more attention to Xiaotian’s nervousness and stress than he did prior to Macaque's debut (Wukong’s character is known to respond to trauma by doing acts of service for the chance of making the victim (aside from himself) happy and comfortable). 

“I’ll handle this one.”

Wukong doesn’t interfere with Xiaotian’s battles unless he’s certain the boy has lost confidence in himself or cannot pick himself back up (see: the difference between DBK and Macaque’s battles is the fact Xiaotian had a support system for him at the ready for DBK, he had Xiaojiao, Zhu, Tang and Sandy ready to catch him and support him all throughout the fight and he was capable of fighting in his own style after gaining self confidence — as opposed to Macaque’s fight where he was angry and stressed and manipulated to a point where he felt useless due to Macaque’s words, losing confidence in himself and believing he wasn’t worthy of picking up the staff anymore); and for the entirety of this scene Wukong makes sure to play along with Spider Queen and draws it out a bit, attempting to have fun with the battle (“you’re too easy to read”) and then there’s a split second of animation where we see this:

Wukong’s initial reaction in recognizing LBD is to back away in disgust and anger, he wants to get away from her as quickly as possible (a small hint that he’s aware of her being able to possess others if one lets their guard down) and then after getting captured we get another visual gag of Wukong mocking Zhizhu for trapping him in webs, stating that they wouldn’t be enough to hold him down only for him to scream in agony moments later. Seconds after this we get the visual of Wukong’s power spreading rapidly:

(his power easily seems to spread like gold, the same type of practice used to fix broken stone by melting down gold and using it as “glue” to hold the pieces together, which is rather fitting considering Wukong is a stone monkey celestial-demon)

Although the focus is shifted to Xiaotian and his friends, we get glimpses of Wukong actively being serious in his captive situation if only for a split moment before purposefully angering DBK in order to free them and the other captured demons from the webs.

Sun Wukong’s response to seeing how the webs react to DBK isn’t to inform him of the situation and saying “hey you need to overpower the webs so we can get freed” and instead resorts to angering him by being annoying—or trying to lighten up the mood again as he usually does in situations similar to this. Wukong knows better than to try to explain his plans as per prior reason: no one takes him seriously. His go-to reaction to being held at gunpoint is to make a scene and try to be the court jester of the group. In doing so he angers DBK and the two are freed, with the bull demon understanding what Wukong was trying to do with a huff.

After this he encounters LBD again and we get the infamous quote of the Season:

“You should have stayed buried.”

What makes it interesting is that Wukong has shown no distaste towards any of the characters of the series thus far: he doesn’t see DBK as a threat (possibly due to their past relationship), wasn’t bothered by Spider Queen’s appearance (in fact, he gave off a “took her long enough” quip before Xiaotian interrupted) and with Macaque he was only angry due to the fact that he hurt Xiaotian emotionally and physically enough for him to be unable to lift his staff. However it’s never stated what Lady Bone Demon had done to Sun Wukong to have him angered enough to wish for her downfall almost immediately after meeting her.

Lady Bone Demon toys with him and causes Wukong’s trauma to resurface, the flashes of Xiaotian burning alongside the world with LBD towering over them in her mech — this is what spurs Wukong’s PTSD to act up: he wants to take care of it immediately on his own.

After reuniting with Xiaotian, the human asks Wukong if he’s alright to which Wukong says “it’s deal with” and doesn’t push any further, instead directing the topic to Xiaotian’s friends. Shortly after he departs and the credits roll.

“Oh and then he abandoned Xiaotian!” No, he did not. To abandon someone is to leave with the intention of hurting someone else. It’s a way of saying “I’m going to leave you to hurt you and so you understand how much you hurt me” in a negative light. It’s a manipulation tactic to make the other party feel insecure and small. Sun Wukong states that he will try to keep contact with Xiaotian (something that he does within the next couple of episodes both via astral projection and a letter). He does not abandon Xiaotian despite the narrative wanting to think he did; he left with the intention of handling Lady Bone Demon on his own and proceeds to be fully stressed throughout the brief moments we get of him appearing throughout the season.

“Why didn’t he tell Xiaotian?” Because Sun Wukong is used to handling big threats on his own. He’s the tank and heavy hitter, he’s the strategist and commander, he’s the king and army all at once. He has to handle it on his own because that’s what everyone expects from him.

For the entirety of Season 2 Sun Wukong has been racing against the clock to try and prevent Lady Bone Demon from getting her hands on Xiaotian and that is why he did not want him nor any of his friends to join him in searching for the map or a possible weapon to defeat her.

Sun Wukong has:

Threatened Heavenly Guards (the very same from Heaven who tortured and mistreated him) into giving him information on Lady Bone Demon and her return

Nearly gotten crushed under stone while attempting to keep a happy profile for Xiaotian when he astral projects

Gotten physically and mentally drained from running place to place in search of a solution

Drained to the point of feeling physical pain by the time he reunites with Xiaotian and the others

Suffered from PTSD and flashes of LBD showing him “the future” which has heavily influenced his better judgment

One of the key moments in Season 2 that’s often overlooked is this sequence:

It’s a rather big moment that’s not brought up again. 

Given how Wukong went to search for the Samadhi Fire map it could tie to the idea that Wukong witnessed what Lady Bone Demon was fully capable of in that moment; he entered a sacred ground and desecrated it in order to find information in how to defeat her — this was smart on his part, searching for her place of origin and taking everything in from the beginning and it’s only possible that whatever he saw was heavy enough for him to want to use the one weapon that’s capable of burning him alive. 

When Pigsy (Chef Zhu) snaps at Sun Wukong for not being there for Xiaotian, Wukong’s reaction is to be genuinely hurt. He’s stressed at that moment, having just barely managed to get the map after months of searching and realizing he was too late to save ruyi juyi bang from falling into the hands of Lady Bone Demon — he was focused on making sure Xiaotian would never have to encounter her on his own and neither him nor the human voiced their encounters with her to anyone, instead rushing to get stronger and find a solution that’s not within reach yet.

Although Pigsy’s anger and frustration makes sense and is justified with the crisis they all just went through, the sole fact Wukong doesn’t bother trying to defend himself implies that he’s been in this situation before, staying silent and accepting harsh commentary is a heavy sign of self-doubt, lack of self-confidence, anxiety, etc. During the flashbacks and glimpses of Wukong’s past life we see that no one takes him seriously and if he tries to defend himself or voice a plan, he’s ignored and downright belittled for not having “a serious plan”.

He openly states he does not want Xiaotian or any of the others to join him when he voices how big of a deal fighting Lady Bone Demon will be.

Had Xiaojiao not voiced that Wukong was not in the best fighting condition, it’s subtly implied Wukong would have left on his own. 

“So why didn’t he leave them?” The narrative wanted to continue with Xiaotian as he is the protagonist so why wouldn’t he go along with Sun Wukong? That’s his mentor and he, supposedly, has the solution to the problem and the audience wants to witness it in full, not just glimpses of it throughout the season like season 2 offered.

“He didn’t give Xiaotian his invincibility back!” Sun Wukong was under a lot of panic and stress, the option to give Qi Xiaotian his invincibility never comes up because he believes he can take care of it on his own. Neither him nor Xiaotian offer to put forth his invincibility and, once again, too much power could be too much for his mortal body to handle. This was already addressed in Season 1 Episode 1 and Episode 9. 

“And he didn’t tell them about how he was struggling to find the map because..?” Because why would they believe him? Why would he want to make them worry? Why would the “Court Jester'' and “verbal punching bag” of the show and cast want to further stress out the others who are already in such a distraught and stressful state due to the fact Xiaotian lost his weapon and powers in one fall swoop? Sun Wukong is selfless in the sense that he does not want others to hurt because of him, he’d rather they all blame him for every little mistake without learning the truth about his actions. 

He does not wish to be idolized nor put on such a high pedestal in the first place.

It’s why he can never be genuine with anyone.

(SEASON 3)

Sun Wukong’s trauma spiked throughout this season.

From the very first episode Sun Wukong has shown that he was more than willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of finding a solution to defeating Lady Bone Demon.

“Wukong, that barrier is designed to protect that map at all costs. If you force your way through it, you'll destroy us both!” “Yeah, I know. [...]”

(Again, Wukong uses a mask to show he’s, supposedly, that worried over the barrier destroying him and Nezha) 

We all know that post-reuniting with Xiaotian, Sun Wukong voices his concern over the fact that he does not want to include him or his friends on his search for the Samadhi Fire. He’s heavily weakened after destroying the barrier and can barely fend off Macaque when he ambushes them on the ship. Wukong is still seen as the one who's "meant to fix everything" and is the one constantly targeted throughout the season:

Pigsy and Xiaotian both sigh over the fact he "took" the staff when Wukong claims "this is where I obtained my staff"

Called out as weak by Ao Guang when he tries to state he's still "the Monkey King"

"All he does is meditate" by Pigsy when Wukong is focused on restoring his powers during Amnesia Rules

"He'll throw you aside when he doesn't find a use for you" by Macaque when he confronts Tang despite the latter not being as close to Wukong as the other expects

One of the biggest conflicts throughout the Season is the fact that Sun Wukong did not express what his plan or strategy for fighting Lady Bone Demon was — that is until the ritual started earlier than he wanted and Xiaojiao was nearly consumed by the fire. He didn’t say he knew about Xiaojiao having the fourth ring inside her; Wukong always believes he has enough time to take these things apart carefully. He believed he had enough time to train Xiaotian before a major threat came along but then Lady Bone Demon was freed and he wanted to rush to handle things quickly before they escalated (and unfortunately they did). He believed he had enough time to get back to the cast before the ritual starts but Macaque intervened and forced Tang to start the ritual which is what caused Xiaojiao to almost die alongside Xiaotian with the intensity of the fire. 

Everything Wukong has done thus far was overshadowed by the other cast having their major episodes (as expected as Wukong is not meant to be a part of the current cast, he’s the outcast as much as Macaque is, and the line that separates them is very clear) and we don’t know what Wukong had been doing with Xiaotian during the moments they were off screen together.

Throughout Amnesia Rules, it’s rather subtle that Sun Wukong pays attention to what Pigsy and Tang are discussing about “getting stuck with this one (Wukong)” and actively proceeds to try and “keep the peace” by engaging in light hearted arguments with Pigsy and attempting to protect Tang because this is the exact dynamic Sun Wukong had with the pilgrims and his master in the book. Wukong listens in to them when he’s picking up his “staff” and there’s a split second of his expression souring at the mention of his “state”. He then witnesses Tang get kidnapped because Wukong was busy arguing with Pigsy (something that might have resurfaced some old trauma); something that’s pointed out is the fact that Wukong worries he can’t be there when people are in trouble, when he isn’t paying attention, he’s the guardian and protector and the one who has everything on his shoulders. 

When he loses his staff Wukong proceeds to act solemnly and gets visibly angry, something he doesn’t do in the current timeline of the show aside from when he faces Lady Bone Demon. He charges in to fight the Scorpion Demoness and is only stopped by Tang due to the fact he believes this is his master and the blast of energy given to him.

“Can you imagine what I’d be like without friends? I’d probably turn into a manipulative jerk or something!”

Wukong is, once again, using a joke to try and liven up the mood (although this is a jab at Macaque and his actions, it could also be a jab at himself from past actions or something he himself has done that he believed his master and brother would have found funny). It’s also rather amusing how much he puts on a positive front in this episode when in front of the others. 

“Wukong seems genuinely happy in this episode!” He isn’t. To reiterate, the Journey was a rather traumatic experience for Wukong and although he did see the others as family and friends, they did not take Sun Wukong seriously. Sun Wukong is a court jester to say the least: he plays the character who’s silly and happy in an attempt to pacify and destress the others without addressing the severity of the situation. His vocal tone is somewhat forced when he says:

“Don’t worry master! Sun Wukong will handle this demon!”

a similar tone Sean uses when recording the lines for the video game version of Sun Wukong. It was false cheer and an active front. 

Wukong is visibly more relaxed, yes. He somewhat eats and touches Pigsy and Tang more easily and the demeanor drops the moment he’s back to normal (“Why are you touching me?”) but he is not happy. For Sun Wukong to show happiness his smiles and vocal tone would be similar to his vocal tone during the fireworks scene with Xiaotian during the New Years special and even then it’s only for a couple of seconds before the mask is thrown back on top of him. Xiaotian must be safe and content for Wukong to even attempt to relax and let go of his stress, considering he is the only one Sun Wukong actively worries for so far in the series. 

Even then it’s highly doubtful that Wukong will ever be able to climb down from the pedestal he’s been placed upon centuries ago. And considering the problems will keep piling on no matter how much Wukong tries to take care of them, it’s possible he’s not going to get a chance to breathe anytime soon. 

During the Chang’e episode, Sun Wukong explains to Xiaotian he can change the van into a rocket ship (similar to how Wukong is capable of changing his staff to anything in the books and how Xiaotian can create mechs and hoverbikes easily thanks to SWK’s powers) and to do so he has to “believe in himself”, the same quote Wukong uses in the earlier episodes of the show.

“Believe in yourself, the way I believe in you.”

Wukong repeats this line not because it’s the only line he knows but because it works; repeatedly when Xiaotian hears this line in the show he always finds that spark of self-confidence that pushes him to try harder. Sun Wukong does not have anyone up until that point that believes in him in a genuine sense. Every single episode points out someone doubting Wukong (Pigsy, Xiaojiao), badmouthing his actions (Macaque, LBD), and constantly puts him down for thinking he’s not taking all of this seriously (Nezha, Xiaojiao) — but Xiaotian believes in Wukong because Wukong believes in him. Even when Xiaotian fails to correctly use his powers and transform the van into a rocket or when he fails to acquired a certain power, Wukong is genuinely supportive of him and acts again as the safety net for when Xiaotian trips and falls:

“Bah! Don’t worry about it, bud. I still believe in you. […] Here, let me handle this one.”

The only other time Wukong has told Xiaotian to let him handle an enemy or opponent was when his arachnophobia acted up during the New Years special.  This time, Xiaotian is frustrated that he was unable to activate his other powers and Wukong again, instead of pushing or forcing Xiaotian to overexert himself, decides he can handle this and he does so easily. However he doesn’t mock Xiaotian or say “see? It’s easy!” instead, he continues to accompany Xiaotian and Pigsy to the moon. 

“Oh, he must have been happy then! He said the bunnies were cute!” It’s another front. Again, Wukong’s pitch and vocal tone along with the fact that both Xiaotian and Pigsy were visibly stressed in that moment tie in with the fact he’s once again attempting to lighten up the mood. This makes it the twentieth or so time he’s done this:

“You want me to leave it, I want me to take it! Eh, it's a toughie.”

“But you gotta crack a few eggs to make an omelet.”

Laughing about the story he told the story involving him and Nezha when he’s visibly hurt and in pain

“Mega sucked!”

“And here I thought it was something important!” 

It’s rather interesting to note that when Macaque says “Always the comedian”, he’s not wrong. Wukong is the one who actively jokes, teases and attempts to brighten up the rest of the cast’s mood throughout the entirety of the show. This implies he’s always done this considering how often Macaque brings up their past as a means when addressing Sun Wukong and his actions. He’s genuinely always been a comedian.

“You always had a side-kick kind of vibe.” 

“Oh, right. Mortality.”

“Wake me up in the next.. Hundred years or so. Okay? Bye!”

“[...] Keep up dragon-pony girl!”

And more.

It’s very important to notice that Sun Wukong was not at his best performance mentally or physically throughout the season. Before Nezha attacks them, Wukong is seen leaning against the wall, seemingly “uncaring” when in fact he’s internally stressing and struggling to keep his composure and Pigsy asking about the fourth ring further causes him discomfort — despite this he continues to save and protect them, gathering up everyone from the side of the train and taking them to safety on the other side when Nezha cuts the train into pieces. He’s always keeping an eye out because he falls apart when something happens without him knowing (see: Xiaotian losing his staff, the ritual starting, Xiaojiao getting overwhelmed by the fire) and it’s also due to the fact that whenever he shows weakness (visibly tired, stressed or unsure of himself) everyone believes he’s slacking off or is uncaring. So he has to put up a front all the time.

Then we receive the infamous quote by Macaque:

“[...] What? Make things worse for MK?”

Sun Wukong was never actively aware that he was indirectly stressing or hurting Xiaotian in any shape or form but Macaque is also very biased in this situation for not fully understanding that Wukong has been actively attempting to ease the stress off of Xiaotian for the entirety of the season.

Wukong has encouraged and cheered Xiaotian on since the beginning of the Season. He’s given him positive reinforcement and even told him to “not worry about it, bud” and lets himself take on whatever task Xiaotian can’t handle by himself. Even when the alarm went off in Chang’e’s moon base, he just tells Xiaotian to use his golden vision and doesn’t push him any further than that. He praises him for being able to change the bunny mech into a smaller version and doesn’t ridicule or mock Xiaotian when he realizes he was trying to do something different. Sun Wukong has been a good mentor to Xiaotian — yes, he’s failed to communicate with him and indirectly caused him stress, but it’s important to note how much their dynamic has grown. 

Xiaotian can easily sit on Wukong’s shoulders, he can act like himself around him, he drags Wukong on stage despite his stagefright (something I will cover in a moment), calls him by his name in the Mandarin dub, and even pokes fun at him during the talent show. He’s able to get along with him and doesn’t hold any fear for him. He reaches out to Sun Wukong and trusts and believes in him the same way Wukong does to him. When Xiaotian interacts with Macaque, he’s stressed and borderline anxious when the demon is close to him, even when he attempts to reach out and help him he always, always gets hurt physically and emotionally (Macaque threatening to kill his friends in the Winning Side, choking Xiaojiao and threatening Tang, slamming Xiaotian repeatedly against the floor with his mech hard enough for Xiaotian to stay down, etc.). 

He hasn’t made things worse for Xiaotian. Not until Macaque activated the rings and forced the fire to activate early which is what drove Xiaojiao and Wukong away. When Sun Wukong left a second time with the known idea that he was going to sacrifice himself — that is what drove Xiaotian to a breaking point of crying after having lost his best friend as well. 

And then Sun Wukong faces Lady Bone Demon on his own and he’s still holding back.

“He was going all out!” To restate something a certain monkey has said before: the old Sun Wukong would have leveled an entire mountain during a fight. Sun Wukong is more powerful than the audience realizes. He’s not going all out with Lady Bone Demon but he is attacking with the intent of hurting her enough that she’ll back down. It’s important to note this is one of the only fights where Wukong uses his hands and not his legs. When training Xiaotian he simply dodges and blocks with his legs and does not attempt to raise a fist against him; here he punches through LBD’s barriers, punches the Mayor hard enough to create a crater and holds LBD by the neck.

“Oh, right he was going to kill the child.” He was not. Wukong was well aware that Lady Bone Demon’s host would perish but he was also hesitating. Sun Wukong went through an entire journey that lasted years and suffered heavy punishments whenever he killed or slayed any demons or monsters that attempted to attack Tang Sanzang. Even if the monk was not there, the trauma is clearly present. Sun Wukong was not about to murder an innocent child just to safe the world. He was stalling for time.

“All this time and you haven’t changed a bit! [...] You should have stayed buried.”

Lady Bone Demon had enough time to then possess him.. If he was so adamant on murdering her there and then, why didn’t he just punch her? Wukong is not a violent person anymore, he tries not to be. He can’t be because it would ruin everyone’s expectations of him, it would cause him to get targeted again, it would destroy his relationship with Xiaotian and it would isolate him more than before. 

Something the fandom often forgets is that Lady Bone Demon was actively inside Wukong’s mind and body along with the host while Macaque was corrupted and that the latter was not a fault of Wukong’s.

Everything that happened to Macaque happened due to his own actions and his blame shifting towards Wukong every single time is not justified. His obsession with him is what causes Lady Bone Demon to put a seal on him, it’s what pushes him to traumatize and manipulate Xiaotian, it’s what drives him to choke out Xiaojiao and threaten Tang — he even tries to flee up until Wukong grabs him back out and makes him stay to witness the fall of his actions.

Sun Wukong, on the other hand, has done nothing to prompt Macaque’s pain throughout the season. He has been solely focused on defeating Lady Bone Demon, nothing more.

“What about the stagefright bit?” I’ll summarize it in one quote: 

“You crave the applause yet hate the attention Then miss it, your act is a ruse.”

Sun Wukong wants and needs positive feedback the same way he gives it to Xiaotian but he will never receive it; he hates being on stage because it makes him the sole focus of the show when he doesn’t want to be. Sun Wukong is the legend and the hero and the one who’s always supposed to win and the one who cannot fall no matter how much he’s in pain. He’s on a pedestal, time after time after time. Pigsy calls him out, Xiaojiao calls him out but it does nothing to remove him from that pedestal. He can’t even be himself around them because he has so many masks and fronts when dealing with each and everyone of them:

He’s playful with Xiaojiao

He’s distant with Tang

He’s casual with Sandy

He’s distrusting of Macaque

He’s closed off with Pigsy

He’s gentle with Xiaotian

He’s cocky with Nezha

All of these are masks and fronts.

He wants them to notice him but he does not want them to know that he’s broken and tired and stressed out and that he was one verbal fight away from snapping and possibly hurting himself and others in his distress (see: The Prince, the King and the Shadow)

Wukong’s possession was an additional traumatic event.

He was aware during every moment and fight he had. 

“You wouldn’t be using every bit of power you have to keep him controlled!”

Xiaotian knows that Sun Wukong is a powerful being — he does not know how powerful, however. Sun Wukong was actively attempting to break free from LBD’s control. He was constantly holding back even when he attacked Nezha (both, their fight in the previous episodes and when he got possessed), when he fought Macaque (his eyes dim then flicker back during their fight and he allows for Macaque to punch back instead of punching him in one blow, etc.) and when he approached Xiaotian when he was confronting LBD.

“But, wait, if he was holding back then how did Macaque fail?” Because even when Wukong is holding back he’s capable of destroying mountains. Sun Wukong is canonically omnipotent and death cannot claim him by any means due to being immortal from the peaches, wine, pills, removing his name from the book of life, consuming several other immortal fruit and the fact he gained immortality from practice of the old Patriarch (his former father figure). Macaque failed because he is not on Sun Wukong’s level. He is not meant to be and never will be. The only one with a mere chance of getting to Sun Wukong’s level is Xiaotian, as he is inheriting all of his abilities at a slow pace. (Another notable moment is, when he and Macaque are transferring Xiaotian’s mech power, Macaque struggles to force some of his magic out of his body (implying that he is running on empty at this point) while Wukong doesn’t bat an eye and releases a strong beam of magic towards Xiaotian). 

After  he is almost fully freed from possession he says this:

“Thanks for not giving up on me bud.”

His vocal cues give off that he’s stressed and shaken by the experience, it waves and falters and his smile is forced much like the others one.

Sun Wukong also continues to allow Xiaotian to take care of problems on his own devotion; when Xiaotian faces off Lady Bone Demon on his own (once Xiaojiao regains control of the fire), Wukong stops Pigsy, Tang and Sandy from interfering while also being ready to step in if necessary, but he does not have to since Xiaotian blocks her attack. He’s confident in Xiaotian’s ability to the very end. He actively believes in him and has stated so before.

After the fight, we get this quote:

“[...] Still the same Wukong, doing whatever he wants with no regard for others.”

Some of the fandom jumped at this and agreed with Macaque.

Sun Wukong does what he thinks is the right choice and tries his best not to get others involved no matter what the cost.

He attempts to discourage the others from joining him on his journey

He attempts to keep them destressed and calm despite the growing threat

He did not want Xiaojiao to get caught in the crossfire when activating the ritual and was going to try and remove the ring from inside her without killing her so he could possess the fire and sacrifice himself to save everyone

He does not let Xiaotian handle the bigger threats and attempts to keep him safe

He only ever gets angry with Macaque for hurting Xiaotian, disrupting his plans, siding with LBD, and for said quote about him (implied)

Sun Wukong again does not defend himself and instead chooses to create another front: a rival to Macaque. This was not a recurring thing: Wukong has always dismissed or ignored Macaque’s quotes when addressed to him and him alone, he only quipped back at him during the airship fight because it’s a trauma response and he was heavily injured already, he did not want to engage with Macaque nor was in the right state to do so. He only proceeds to say he “hates” him since it’s what fits the scene at the moment (see: court jester, heavy actor).

He then apologizes to Xiaotian.

“I know I can never make it up to you. I never thought I’d live as long as I have let alone be someone’s mentor. Turns out I’m not very good at it. Guess what I’m trying to say is: I’m sorry MK. For all of it.”

Sun Wukong is self aware of the fact he was not there for Xiaotian in his absence, he knows he was not the best mentor, he now knows that Xiotian strongly cares for him too. He was acutely aware of this and tried to rush to fix all of these problems until Macaque and Xiaojiao slapped the repeating statement in his face again and caused him to panic and become more and more self aware than he needed to be. It’s the same example as telling someone who’s failing a class that they’re still going to fail and will get kicked out of the class if they don’t improve and that everyone has been supporting them despite them not knowing. It causes more disarray and panic than it helps. 

And then we get this exchange:

“[...] Sometimes I just play dumb to lighten the mood.” “Ha! Me too, bud. Me too.”

Every single moment where Sun Wukong has made a poorly timed joke, comment, quip or statement it was with the intention to lighten up the mood.

To reiterate:

Sun Wukong is aware that he’s not the best mentor but he is trying to be

Sun Wukong’s father figures have both traumatized and hurt him by not giving him the positive reinforcement he needs and instead of repeating that to Xiaotian, he gives him positive feedback

He belies and trusts in Xiaotian’s abilities

He is placed on a high pedestal, idolized and turned to when forcing the blame onto someone for not finding the immediate solution to every problem

He is only happy once throughout the entire series and it was for a split second

He actively puts others above himself and does not care if he gets hurt along the way

He repeats to himself that he is the best and greatest and knows that that’s how the public will always see him and it stresses him out

He is unknowingly self-destructive 

He has PTSD and heavy amounts of trauma

He does not try to defend him and that is a trauma response

He is still not healing by the end of the show

He has multiple masks and fronts for every character

Sun Wukong is a highly complicated character who loves wholeheartedly, he is the pillar and one who keeps holding everything together despite him not wanting to, despite the fact he's yelled at for not having every solution. He's the one who comes up with a plan and then is criticized without anyone taking in the severity of his words. He's the one who'd sacrifice everything possible for the sake of protecting Xiaotian. He's the one who screamed out Xiaojiao's name and didn't want her to get hurt with the idea of protecting and helping her at all means possible.

It's heavily implied that Sun Wukong did not know the fourth ring was inside of Xiaojiao (he never touched her nor did he get a "vision" like Ao Guang and Red Son) meaning Ao Lie must have told him himself. He entrusted Wukong with this information and Wukong remembered this and it's quite possible he never wanted the others to join him in searching for the fire for this additional reason.

Sun Wukong cares.

He's a heavily layered and complicated character who's very morally grey and who has a lot of trauma. This is inevitable — even if you do not know the context of JTTW, you must see that Wukong suffers from heavy trauma of:

being ignored

being possessed

being forced through the Samadhi Fire

watching Xiaojiao get corrupted by the fire

watching Xiaotian run into said fire

being ridiculed

not being "worthy"

not being "perfect"

of accidentally hurting Xiaotian

of not being there when he was needed

In Conclusion: this monkey can fit so much trauma and has so many hidden layers and does a fantastic job of not allowing others to see it and does not know who he is without any of his masks or fronts.

some songs that fit Sun Wukong for your consideration:

X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X

#sun wukong #lego monkie kid #sun wukong analysis #lego monkie kid analysis #lego monkie kid sun wukong #long post #rhy analysis #character analysis #log long long post #what the heck #my macaque analysis didnt even reach 2k #and it probably will oNLY reach 2k if i rewrite it #my god #anyways #i spent.. so long writing this bc my fam told me to take breaks #HAHAA #again: anyways #lmk sun wukong

[legoflowerfruitmountain]

A Sun Wukong and Macaque analysis

A different interpretation of Macaque / Liu-er Mihou’s words regarding his and Sun Wukong’s history in Lego Monkie Kid. I base this on the theory that Macaque is a clone of Sun Wukong’s that became independent and reflects the worst parts of his mind.

*points to the Six-Eared Macaque in Journey To The West and the various analysis what he might represent as allegory in the story*

- As seen with Qi Xiaotian’s clones, the feelings they channel are distorted to the extreme. They channel only those feelings and traits, without the balance of the larger self.

Sun Wukong and Macaque used to be ‘friends’ in the sense that Macaque encompassed his self-interest. When that selfish part of him manifested as a clone, this one used to be extremely self-absorbed. That carried over when Macaque became an independent identity and has persisted into the show’s present time.

Having spent centuries as the part of another person’s mind, Macaque couldn’t quite separate his identity from Sun Wukong’s. He remembers that they used to be ‘friends’ and was upset that Sun Wukong didn’t agree with him anymore.

The actual reality - calling back to JTTW - was that Macaque aimed to kill Sun Wukong and and steal his identity and fame, killed part of his family on Flower Fruit Mountain because the monkie yaoguai were dispensable to him, and attacked the pilgrims because they were in the way of his goal.

LMK’s version of Macaque does a lot similar things. Sun Wukong understandably opposes him in both instances, both past and present.

- ‘The Hero abandoned the Warrior.’ Imagine working hard for years to become a better person. Sun Wukong faced difficulties, backlash, unfair consequences, setsbacks, and feelings of failure. He wasn’t the warlord, the warrior he used to be. Not anymore at least even though those parts of him persisted.

Of course, he still craved validation and power. They just were losing their spot among his priorities. (The biggest priority being his family on Flowerfruit Mountain, his friends, and other family.) He was working to become better than his more selfish, violent impulses. He was changing, while not confronting the darker feelings that built up from these changes. 

And part of him - the desire for validation and power and fame and easy success and doing what he wanted, the cunning warlord, the Warrior - detested the hardship.

Felt that the ‘hero’ was undoing everything they’d worked before Buddha dropped the mountain on Sun Wukong. Felt that he deserved more.

- ‘Sun Wukong killed Macaque.’ Which Sun Wukong also did in the original Journey To The West, with understandable reasons.

- There’s also to consider that he might have had an overwhelming identity crisis. He was faced with a person that was hurting his loved ones, a person that carried his face while he did so. Who could pretend to be Sun Wukong.

All of that because Macaque was literally him. A clone of him gone rogue, channelling all of Sun Wukong’s worst parts.

(Qi Xiaotian stops and undoing / killing Porty, by bonking him with the Staff, calls back to JTTW Sun Wukong doing the same with JTTW Macaque.)

#lego sun wukong #lego liu-er mihou #lego macaque #monkie kid #lego monkie kid #journey to the west #lego monkie kid headcanon #monkie kid headcanons #lego monkie kid analysis

[bonnisbon]

⚠️ I am not chinese, so if any chinese person in the fandom wants to add something or just point out any mistake, please do ⚠️

I've seen people in the fandom call Macaque's smoke monster 'kaiju', but this is not a correct denomination.

It is better to call it "法相" (fa3 xiang4), meaning "image of (commonly Buddha)"

"佛教术语，指诸法之相状，包含体相（本质）与义相（意义）二者"

Trans.

"A Buddhist term that refers to the appearance of all dharmas, including both physical appearance (essence) and righteousness (significance)"

Following this definition, a 法相 is your true self, your essence, both physical and spiritual... meaning that Smokey (little guy) is not a 'kaiju'. It is an essence, Macaque's.

Same goes to all manifestations of characters who have a version of their 法相, it's their true essence.

Yes, you got it right! This little (not so little) guy is also a 法相.

(Don't call them 'kaiju', please).

Just to add, they can also be called 'war forms', since they appear in the original jttw.

#lego monkie kid #lmk macaque #lmk mk #lego monkie kid mk #fa3 xiang4 #法相 #lmk analysis #kinda? #smokey #mk's faxiang #macaque lmk #six eared macaque #going to eep after this #zzzzz

[imminent-danger-came]

One detail I've noticed is that Wukong's outfit is different before and after Tripitaka places the circlet on him (and Wukong was notably unwilling to be chained):

Which is distinctly different than every other iteration of this scene we've been shown:

Other retellings of this moment have Wukong kneeling in servitude...when the reality is he was kneeling after being subdued—continuing lmk's tradition of biased/false narratives (like what was done with the multiple explanations of the samadhi fire). I think it's interesting to see the ways in which Wukong's past was made easier to swallow as time went on (or if you were Azure and didn't want to believe that Wukong had been changed by his journey lol)

#me pointing to MK's visions of Wukong's past in AHiB where Wukong is specifically wearing his jttw outfit: WAIT A MINUTE #WUKONG U FUCKING LIAR #U were not born out of the stone with clothes. Smh. What is this fake version of the story you're revealing to MK #I've decided amnesia rules makes me crazy #(<- could say this about literally ANY lmk episode) #lmk #lego monkie kid #lmk SWK #lmk analysis

[its-malarkey]

A couple of weeks ago I bothered to spend the time to write out Wukong and Macaque’s leitmotifs because I noticed that they were very similar, differing primarily in that they weren’t identical, but up to a certain point were almost major vs minor versions of each other’s themes (pictured below)

Again, you can tell they’re not identical on paper, but to the ear they sound very similar, and it’s obviously not a coincidence that they start off with the same rhythm. You apparently can’t add more than one video to a post, so I’ll put the Macaque bit that I clipped and just say that I got Wukong’s from the end credits.

The similarities are notable, again, featuring Wukong in a major key and Macaque in minor key. (The version I wrote out is not in the same key as the clip; it was easier to compare them on paper when I wrote them in the sameish key.)

I’m no music analyst, I just took a year of the required colleges courses for music and switched away from it and still have everything ingrained in my head, so there’s not anything in particular I’m trying to say here, I just go bananas for it every time I hear either theme :))

Edit: I drew this out on FireAlpaca and forgot to mention that earlier. It’s not particularly relevant but I do think it’s funny

#oh to be sun and moon #to have your motif be a dark/light reflection of your most important person #truly loving the life #(so very gay of them) #lmk macaque #lmk #lego monkie kid #lego macaque #lmk Wukong #lmk sun wukong #Lego sun Wukong #Shadowpeach #lmk monkey king #lmk Shadowpeach #music analysis #not really lmao

[noose-lion]

Lmk is funny to me, because it takes the ridiculously over-powered character, Sun Wukong, and then gives him every reason possible to not be that.

Most of all, his unspoken desire to not let his student see the "real him".

Because it's not that he isn't still just as endlessly powerful (except for a few narrative driven exceptions), but that he is actively holding back. He is a changed man so to speak, and he'd like everyone to stop bringing up his past, 'monstrous' self, please and thank you.

It's fascinating really, how well a 10 minute per episode children's series (made to sell legos) so nonchalantly explores the inescapable truth of one's past, and in extension: the haunting reality of outliving all your friends and very little of your enemies.

#lmk #lego monkie kid #lmk sun wukong #lmk monkey king #monkey king #sun wukong #lmk analysis #jester thinks

[acoraxia]

(i wrote this while sick before going to the movies and then finished it after watching a movie so forgive me if it's incoherent or whateer im laying down)

do you ever think about how Azure Lion groomed Sun Wukong from a young age into being this perfect people to act as the poster child for the Brotherhood, abandoned him at his worst, was confident he could manipulate him into working for him again and then tried to do the same with Xiaotian and Xiaojiao upon first meeting them? And that, by association, he almost groomed Macaque and you can see how his manipulation affected Macaque even into adulthood when he first met Xiaotian?

No?

Azure Lion groomed Sun Wukong, tried to groom Qi Xiaotian (and Long Xiaojiao) and heavily affected Macaque's world view on Sun Wukong.

EDITOR'S NOTE:: grooming in this case does not mean anything sexual between the characters, grooming is a common trope in media and it's commonly seen as a power imbalance and manipulation tactic (see: when a father grooms his son to take over the company by inflicting him with his own ideals)

Azure Lion has a tendency to display Sun Wukong on this high pedestal and sound very confident in how he describes him. The very first thing he says in his debut is this:

“I'm flattered, truly, but if it were not for Sun Wukong bringing us together, right? Without you, none of this would be possible. Your courage to stand up to the Celestial Host has inspired us to finally take a stand. To make a true difference in the world. And I could think of none other more suitable to lead us on our conquest than you, brother.”

notice how throughout this episode sequence Azure is spoken about like he's the leader and right in every word he says. The other adults at the table (Peng, DBK and Yellow Tusk) smile and turn to him as though he's in the right. They hang on to his every word. something interesting is the fact Macaque and Sun Wukong are talked down to like they're the younger pair of the brotherhood — Peng's insults to Macaque, the way DBK asks SWK to repeat what happened during Havoc in Heaven—

heck even the way they laugh at Sun Wukong when he's being silly is a clear indicator that they see him as... silly.

It isn't until Azure Lion speaks up that they turn to him and start seeing Sun Wukong into a new light.

Not only that but the way that Azure talks to Sun Wukong raises several red flags. He looks at all his brothers the same way (e.g when he's helping Peng during a flashback in Episode 8) but it raises so many red flags when he looks at Wukong like this.

And Wukong hangs on to his every word.

Because Sun Wukong believes in what Azure Lion is saying to him. Everyone believes him in that moment. he sounds so confident in the way he says none of this would be possible without sun wukong. It's a way to manipulate him especially considering Sun Wukong was not the one to form the Brotherhood - Azure was. Azure decided to form this trio after seeing Sun Wukong for the first time according his own flashback:

And guess what? It works. Sun Wukong was minding his own business up until that point, the only thing he'd done (if the timeline matches up correctly) was become immortal and return to Flower Fruit Mountain to train his monkey army. In JTTW at this point he would've turned into a giant version of himself, scaring the other spirit kings into joining alliances with him just from witnessing that—instead we get Azure Lion believing him to be the perfect idol for his plan to come into fruition.

Fun Fact: Macaque is the only one who looks at Sun Wukong like this during Azure Lion's little speech about him and being the rightful leader of the brotherhood.

He seems more confused and shocked than the rest of them are. Mind you, he's known Sun Wukong longer than the rest of them have.

He hears Azure Lion, a veteran celestial warrior, praise his best friend and put him up on a pedestal and it confuses him. because his best friend is not like that. at least, he thinks so—but Azure sounds confident, right? he's speaking so confidently about this, so he must be right... right?

It will, eventually, lead to Macaque changing his view on Sun Wukong entirely. this is why we have shadowplay.

"That's what I believed. What Azure would have you believe."

Azure Lion affected not only Sun Wukong but Macaque in his manipulation — the timeline does not show us where Macaque went after his fall out with Wukong but the theory that he ran into the Camel Ridge Trio before fighting Wukong again works considering that line.

(Not only that but Macaque also tries to do this with Xiaotian: he introduces himself in a easily approachable way and trains him, takes him under his wing, then stomps on him the moment he stops being useful to him. he uses him to get to Sun Wukong. Xiaotian reminds Macaque of Sun Wukong and he uses similar tactics that Azure Lion used to get to Xiaotian — and it isn't until the Samadhi Fire Ritual that he realizes what he's done by being reminded of his and Wukong's fallout. He, a bystander, was also affected and influenced by Azure's manipulation.)

Additionally, Sun Wukong defends Azure Lion. He justifies attacking Heaven during Havoc in Heaven, he justifies the brotherhood's plan to go to war against Heaven—none of these plans are Sun Wukong's ideas. They are Azure's influence. In the original book, the reason why Wukong attacks Heaven in the first place is because they refuse to grant him the respect he wishes and thus Heaven is angry at him for dubbing himself the Great Sage Equal to Heaven. They ask the Jade Emperor to take care of Sun Wukong and he does—which, y'know, ends up with Wukong imprisoned afterwards. But in Monkie Kid it's all because of Azure's influence on Wukong.

Because he groomed him into being a faithful right hand man. And he is so confident in that that he gives these grand speeches and pep talks and says every perfect little line to make Sun Wukong want to follow him to Hell and back.

"When we triumph in this rebellion, the people will never live in fear. We're about to change everything. It's all because of you, brother!"

And, of course, he tries this on Xiaotian and Xiaojiao, too, when he first meets them.

When he presents himself to Xiaotian and Xiaojiao, he comes to their rescue. He already introduces himself as a savior and protagonist because he saves them from the scroll—even seemingly displaying himself as non-threatening because, while he laughs at them, he does so in a manner that's sincere and genuine. It's a goofy laugh. He's being goofy. He's playing to their good side.

It's the way he talks to them and laughs, introduces himself with such flamboyance and loudness that he mirrors Sun Wukong himself. He is such a direct influence to Sun Wukong that it carries throughout the few scenes we see of him that resemble what Sun Wukong has done with Xiaotian: the astral projection, the goofy displays of excitement, the sarcastic tones when talking about Tang, the way he greats his brothers when they are freed as old friends and all cheery and genuine.

He allows himself to be called uncy lion and romanticizes the past of the brotherhood while not elaborating on the fact he lead Sun Wukong and his brothers to a war while still blaming the aftermath and defeat of their party on Sun Wukong.

"Ah, well. The Sun Wukong isn't exactly the easiest person to get along with. He has quite a habit of keeping people at arm's length. We were young, mistakes were made... and some mistakes can't be undone."

He speaks of him in a way to spark doubt between Xiaotian and Xiaojiao and it works in the way they react to what he says. They are disheartened and Xiaojiao even mentions, later, how Sun Wukong has had a habit of keeping things to himself. I wonder why that is.

" [...] If your friendship with Monkey King meant anything to you—" "It meant everything to me." [....] "We're brothers. Nothing could ever change that."

It's the way that Azure talks to them about Sun Wukong. It's the way he still thinks he is close enough to Sun Wukong to say that nothing will change their relationship. It's the way that he tries to plant these ideas into Xiaotian's head when they first meet, because he is the Monkie Kid.

That and the fact that later, when Sun Wukong is bursting through each and every memory, he reaches Xiaotian and goes to him and tries to comfort him and say they'll get to safety soon and they just have to deal with the scroll curse—it's the fact that the moment

that pigsy

mentions Azure Lion

all of that gets paused for a moment

"Oh he says his name like that because he put him in the scroll, he shouldn't be here—" there is also the fact he's not fully blown surprised by this. he's also wary. he's hesitant. sure you can say he's surprised to hear they've met Azure Lion,

but then you get this

this is hatred. this is anger. this is not what Sun Wukong feels towards Macaque during Season 3 — he lunged at Macaque for putting Xiaojiao in danger, for putting Xiaotian in danger, for ruining his plan, and he hesitates to attack him, to deliver that final blow, his fist is shaking and Tang's interuption easily causes him to lose focus and he drops Macaque. He lets go.

THIS? This is him protecting Xiaotian. this is him not wanting Xiaotian near Azure. Xiaotian looks at Azure with wide eyes and a gaping mouth because "oh Azure's here?" but Wukong knows better.

And you cannot tell me Sun Wukong was not heavily hurt by Azure Lion's actions without looking at the way that Sun Wukong puts himself between Azure and Xiaotian immediately, how Sun Wukong tries to be a better person by putting Xiaotian's safety first, always, even if it means he gets possessed or hurt or thrown around.

You cannot tell me Azure Lion wasn't a manipulator or abuser or a person who used Sun Wukong's admiration of him against him, to turn him into an obedient follower and devoted friend, when the very first thing he does when he sees Wukong step between him and Xiaotian is sigh.

Sighs like an older mentor looking at their pupil and going "didn't I teach you better than that?"

And then he imprisons Sun Wukong.

Because he is of no use to him at that moment.

And the fucking kicker: Xiaojiao modeled her new sword after Azure Lion, then is blatantly disgusted by this when she figures out how much of a bastard he is and openly says so. Xiaotian looks distraught and confused. Because Azure admits to being guilty of using them and manipulating them. He aims for sympathy with them.

He aims for sympathy with Xiaotian.

He twists the narrative again when he and Xiaotian are alone.

He's manipulating him. He's using him.

He keeps painting Sun Wukong in this negative light. he keeps putting himself up as the sympathetic victim of it all.

"My former brother was sent to destroy us and all we had built."

and yet he still talks about Wukong as though he has a grasp on their relationship. he calls him brother. he has not abandoned that title. he still thinks of Sun Wukong as his brother and will continue to use him and his name in whatever way possible to get ahead.

Maybe it is not on purpose and Azure thinks he is being true and genuine with Xiaotian but it does not erase the fact he twists the narrative to paint Sun Wukong in a negative light in front of his successor. Because Sun Wukong and Xiaotian have a strong relationship, a bond so strong that Qi Xiaotian bursts with power and strength when he realizes Azure will not give him back to him. It's precision and control and Qi Xiaotian could wreck havoc among everyone for keeping his mentor away from him but he is so controlled and careful with his movements that he manages to not attack Azure, but throw him off balance to get him to release Azure.

All because Sun Wukong is important to him.

Because Sun Wukong was not going to treat his successor as though he were a weapon or a pawn in some major scheme like he was.

Azure Lion showers people with praise that they do not deserve nor want and does so in a way that makes the party feel either delighted to have aided with his success or horrified at the revelation. He does so when Sun Wukong brings the brotherhood together (which wouldn't have happened if Azure Lion hadn't seen Sun Wukong with his subjects that one day) and he does so when Qi Xiaotian for returning his brothers to him (which he didn't know he was doing, because Azure Lion told him he needed to defeat the curse without mentioning his friends would be released too, at least from what I can remember).

"His betrayal, his brutality. He took the only friends I had from me. I would have done anything in my power to bring them back. But it wasn't in my power, it was in yours. You saved my friends. You returned them to me. And for that, I am eternally grateful."

This is similar to what he says to Sun Wukong when he was thanking him for bringing the brotherhood together.

And then, what happens when all this manipulating and tricking does not work? When Qi Xiaotian teams up with Sun Wukong instead of siding with Azure Lion?

"After all Sun Wukong has put you through, how much he's let you down, you would still meet your fate trying to protect him?! (...) He doesn't deserve such loyalty, yet you insist on learning the hard way, just as I did! I should've never trusted the Monkey King! The False Sage, Equal to Nothing!"

He fucking insults Sun Wukong. Sun Wukong who rushes in to protect Xiaotian, who shoves Azure Lion out of the way, and checks on Qi Xiaotian when he glitches out and starst to lose control of his powers.

And when he's losing against Xiaotian? When he struggles to keep up with him?

"Look what he's done to you! Reduced you to a mindless, savage animal."

Again, Macaque's obsession over Sun Wukong makes sense now. His obsession is a result of Azure Lion's doing. His obsession is what Qi Xiaotian could have been had he not known Sun Wukong for who he really is: his mentor and friend.

What gets to me is what Xiaotian says to him when he's losing:

"That's what you were pretending to be, right? To be my friend? To care about me? When really, you were just using me to get what you wanted! To turn me against my own mentor! Well, put your hand in the monkey cage and expect to get bit, son! Come on! Come on! Come on, Uncy Lion! You're the big hero, right?! Then prove it! Show me!"

It's a perfect way of snapping back at Azure for all his manipulation.

And then Azure dies.

He learns he's being manipulated for someone else. He cries and smiles and dies.

What for?

He doesn't save anybody.

He doesn't suffer consequences of manipulating people. He doesn't do anything heroic and he doesn't even save the world by sacrificing himself because Nezha is the one who seals away the Jade Emperor's powers in the end.

He's a natural manipulator.

He's not a hero.

he's a loser

#analysis #lego monkie kid #monkie kid #azure lion #lmk azure lion #lego monkie kid azure lion #ok idk how else to tag this lmao #its over 2k #i am so fucking tired #anyways #how are you guys? #me? im tried as FUCK

[a-tea-goblin]

do you ever think about how Wukong, someone who has been manipulated and backstabbed by Azure, and was targeted because his youthfulness/inexperience made him more impressionable, had the instinctual reaction to protect the youngest members of his current group the second he processed that Azure was involved/in front of him?

in this shot, featuring everyone standing back as they process Azure "coming to their rescue", Wukong is to the side and to the back of the group.

and in the very next shot, he's in front, standing directly in front of Mei and putting his arm protectively in front of MK.

because of how MK is at the head of the group you could say Wukong was protecting everyone. but due to the positioning of the shot and how close he looks to be standing next to MK, it instead comes across to me as him protecting MK & Mei specifically.

from Azure.

someone he knows to have targeted the youthful in the past because Wukong was that youth. adding insult to injury, because of how similar they are, MK would probably fall for the exact same tricks that Wukong did when he was younger. if you think about, because of Azure tricking him into helping him save the rest of the brotherhood, he may have already fallen for one or two of the same tricks already.

#lmk #Lego Monkie Kid #lego monkie king #lmk sun wukong #lmk mk #lmk mei #scene analysis #lmk azure lion #Tea's Ramblings #text post #lmk s4

[i-am-a-fan]

So remember in the episode “The first Ring” from season 3 where Mei and Redson bump into each other and share a vision of Mei getting the samadhi fire? Okay, well something's been bugging me. (Here's the full image btw. )

First off please appreciate how beautiful the artwork is because damn. Second, what does it mean? While the different color fires could be an homage to how the Samadhi Fire was first created, we would need to see the 5 elements, not the 3 fireballs we see in the photo. (pg. 575)

Therefore, I'm going to assume this is more foreshadowing, since the LMK team is amazing at planting seeds that will only grow within future seasons. (ex. Macaque's relationship with Wukong, the lady bone demon, Mk's nature, etc etc.)

So... I'm going to dissect the hell out of this frame.

The main focus is someone in the center taking in the power of the 3 fireballs. Their form isn't clearly defined, but we can tell it's most likely someone with the standard Lego build: Mk, Mei, Redson, PIF, Tang, etc. I always assumed this was Mei, but I feel like if it was they would have shown it. The next frame shows us Mei with the fire (and once again look at the artwork's beauty.) I have more thoughts on this, but I'll circle back.

Next up we have the balls of fire. I saw somewhere that these might represent the traffic light trio. Although Redson has mostly been sidelined, I like the sound of that theory, so I am going to piggy back off of it.

Mei would obviously be the green color, MK seems to be the yellow fireball, but then that leaves a blue flame. Yet, not one of the traffic light trio has their signature color as blue. The only character that comes to mind is Sandy/ Mo, but he doesn't have the standard Lego build.

Of course, this can be Redson, since the original samadhi fire was blue. However, at no point do I remember that Redson has had any teal/ blue markings. In her flashback, Redson is shown with dark red and black, the same as Mei when she eventually gains the fire.

Unless...

Maybe they character isn’t teal yet..

Ring a bell????

That's right, the blue/teal might actually end up being Mk. Thus, giving each character a flame. (Redson = Red/yellow, Mei = Green, and Mk = Teal)

Doing some color drops, you can see that these colors are very similar, but they aren't exactly the same. That being said, they’re close enough that it raises alarm bells in my mind.

Now, circling back to the main image and the person at its center. I think we might see Mk gain the Samadhi fire next. In the image, there is a red background, green under the person's feet, and blue fire emerging from the person's back.

Personally, I think it might be the framing of a timeline using background, middle ground, and foreground. The red background would be Redson, the person who (in this universe) was born with the fire and created it as a whole. Next up would be Mei, who gains the fire in season 3, but seems to lose it at the end of the fight with the lady bone demon. So, that only leaves the future...

A future that I am personally hoping for...

Edit: I fixed some grammatical errors. Sorry y’all, dyslexia never rests.

#lego monkie kid #lmk #my art #monkie kid #speck rambles #lmk mk #long post #lmk theory #lego monkie kid theory #lmk redson #lmk mei #Of course.. I honest doubt this is the case because redson is sidelined so often #Unless Redson becomes weirdly more in the season 5 plot.. this is simply just a theory #A GAME THE- #not me adding to Mk’s trauma. #also this would make Mk ridiculously op. but shhhh shhhh #lmk analysis

[monkiekidtwt]

“This was his breaking point, where after all his efforts, Wukong finally stopped running. Except he didn't do it for him, but because he was caught in another mess.”

#this is about wukong and macaque’s fight. anyway this analysis made me drop to my knees #lego monkie kid #monkie kid #lmk #sun wukong #six eared macaque #shadowpeach #🍭☁️

[cevtoons]

Let’s talk more about MK & Mei’s friendship/dynamic.

Taken from This thread I made on Twitter.

#LMK #LEGO Monkie Kid #LMK MK #LMK Mei #Mei and MK #MK and Mei #GoldenDragon #GoldenDragon /p #Dynamic analysis #Friendship analysis #Less analyzing more just appreciation #Mei LMK #MK LMK #LEGO #Monkie Kid

[wolfcamellias]

Please talk to me about SWK-- Litrially anything I just wanna read stuff about SWK from someone I can trust will understand him-- im begging you /nf

Sun Wukong's love language is acts of service and giving: he gave his life to his kingdom and acted as everyone's sword and shield for years, so many years that it lost its value over time. He was Tripitaka's protector and Heaven's would-be weapon. Regardless of the universe, be it Nezha Reborn or Monkey King Returns or LMK, he is always used as a weapon or tool of sorts to fix problems and he willingly goes with it because it's an act of service for people he cares about.

Back to LMK Sun Wukong—he's also a very sad character in the way that, despite his efforts to keep being the perfect symbol everyone wants him to be he will never be able to achieve it no matter how hard he tries. He's a complicated character with and it's a "blink and you'll miss it" sort of storytelling for him, you don't recognize it immediately and it takes multiple rewatches to see that.. hey.. he's not okay here.

He's desperately trying to keep everything together on his own despite claiming to be "retired", he wants to rest and he sure as hell never wanted to be a mentor because why on EARTH would he want someone to go through what he has? He protects and guards Xiaotian with his life and was willing to sacrifice himself because he cares so much for him, he loves his friends and family he loved wholeheartedly and they all died before he could do anything about it. He's not perfect but he's a fantastic mentor in terms of encouraging Xiaotian, building him up and making sure it's known that he'll be his safety net when and if he falls. Sun Wukong is not perfect by any means and doesn't know what to do sometimes but,

To quote him:

#ask #lmk sun wukong #sun wukong #doodles #rhy analysis #lego monkie kid analysis #sun wukong analysis #lego monkie kid sun wukong

[legoflowerfruitmountain]

I’ve had the thought before that Sun Wukong doesn’t use his whole strength when fighting because he’s holding a lot of anger and doesn’t want to lose control.

Thinking more about Sha Dali and the parallels between him and Sun Wukong strenghtened that headcanon. They both have scenes where their eyes are glowing, they’re about to punch somebody with so much power it’d kill their target, and they stop at the last possible moment because they don’t want to hurt them!

Mind you, these scenes are as much parallels as foils to each other because of very different circumstances.

(Huntsman triggered Sha Dali’s trauma, which caused his rage to spike in an uncontrollable surge and the almost-attack on Huntsman.

Sun Wukong was possessed White Bone Spirit, conscious but helpless during the attack, and if he felt any anger, it was certainly not aimed at Qi Xiaotian who is the last person he’d want to hurt).

But both of them avoid fighting when necessary. Both of them hold back. Both of them try to appear less threatening than their past reputations. Bloody reputations that were born because they injured / killed many as a warrior / a soldier.

And we know from Sha Dali that he changed his life because he didn’t want to be that person anymore. He wanted to become a better person. He doesn’t want to get violent not only because he’s changed, but also because he fears - with good reason! - that he could slip back into that mindset. It’s through no fault of his own but the risk exists either way.

To apply that to Sun Wukong:

I headcanon that he hides a massive well of rage. He’s afraid he’d slip back if he got involved too much in battles. That something could cause him to revert  to a much worse version of himself.

His rage comes from feelings of resentment, feelings of being cheated out of what he thinks he deserved.

From his suffering in his past. Being hurt by others, sometimes as retribution, sometimes just because they resented him

The anger that the promised change for him, for all of the pilgrims, apparently amounted to nothing. That all that he had done for the journey, all the hard work, all the consequences, ended with him being alone, all former friends and family lost or distant to him.

#lego sun wukong #lego sha dali #lego sandy #lego monkie kid analysis #monkie kid #lego monkie kid #lego monkie kid headcanon #monkie kid headcanons #lego monkie kid season 3 spoilers #monkie kid season 3 spoilers

[bonnisbon]

The way they look at each other when MK mentions friendship and not abandoning friends.

I am sure they both had the same flashback/memory... the 'arguing in the mountain' scene.

Macaque wanted to help Wukong, but Wukong became too obsessive with his goal, and that lent him to his demise. Future Macaque has the same pattern as past Wukong. They got reverse carted.

Wukong wanted to help his friends. He wanted to protect them, but that protection became harmful for him and others.

Macaque wanted to stop him in the past because he was becoming harmful, and now, in the future, he ends up being the one who harms for revenge.

Macaque is questioning himself and his actions in this scene after seeing all what happened, which is why he helps the team in the end (and because he wants to make amends)

---------------

I am sorry if this doesn't make sense at all 💀

#lego monkie kid #lmk sun wukong #lmk macaque #analysis #what the f #lmk season 3 #SEASON 3 WAS WILD #WUUUU SEASON 3 #I miss you macaque #i miss you wukong #they're so divorced coded #pain :3 devastation :3 #shadowpeach #kinda #i am sorry my brain is 🔥🔥 #probably won't make sense

[cherllyio]

Pigsy and MK, father/son scenarios, bc i am sucker for it.'

I have 4 scenarios in mind, so just scroll to whichever ones you find interesting

Also, if you wanna draw or use any of the scenarios in any way, im completly happy with that!

Just tag me, so i can reblog it and love it forever :)

Nuwa and Wukong suck at parenting, Pigsy is amazing at it.(listen i love Wukong being a dad to MK, but Pigsy is legit his dad)

Pigys' Parental Strengh

Flashbacks of Pigsy raising MK

Pigsy being scared Nuwa will take MK away form him

Scenario 1: "Nuwa and Wukong suck at parenting, Pigsy is amazing at it"

I really want a scene where Nuwa(for whatever reason) and Wukong are trying to be good parental figures towards MK. So they make him some food, bc nothing could possible go wrong with that, right?

Yea- they end up giving MK something he is deadly allergic to. So pigsy (who ofc knows this)has to save MK.

Example 2: "Parental strength".

So, lets say MK is battling this bad guy, right? But, he ends up pretty badly hurt, and it seems like he is about to loose. Yet, at the last second, Pigsys parental strength kicks into high gear, and he absolutly inalites the bad guy.

While yelling something along the line of: " DONT YOU DARE TRY TO HURT MY SON." (omg i would cry)

Scenario 3: "Flashback of Pigsy raising MK"

I just want a flashback of sort, where we see like Pigsy raising MK.

Taking MK to his first day of school

Making noddles together

Teaching MK how to drive

Pigsy putting MK to sleep

Signing the adoption papers

AAH! GOD IM CRYING AGAIN

Scenario 4: "Pigsy being scared Nuwa will take MK away from him"

This is the one i see as the most "plausible", and maybe something that could be devoted to an entire ep in season 5. Because:

Pigsy has just accepted MK as his son, and they are both so happy for it.

But now, Nuwa may come into the picture, and she is the closest MK has to a "biological parent", and that would terrify Pigsy.

So Pigsy would start to deny he is MK's dad again, accdently pushing him away. He just wants what is best for MK, and he thinks for MK to be happy he has to be with his "real parent".

"uuuh, kid you know im not your-"

Which would just confuse MK, because Pigsy is his REAL parent. He is the one who raised him, and has loved MK his whole life.

And how would Pigsy realise this? WITH THE HELP OF THE FLASHBACK SCENE I MENTIONED BEFORE, WOOOOOO.

(i just want a MK and Pigsy centered ep in season 5, please)

#lego monkie kid #lmk #lmk mk #lmk theory #lmk analysis #lmk nuwa #lmk pigsy #lmk dadsy #lmk wukong #lmk sun wukong #lmk monkey king #lmk swk #lego monkie kid sun wukong #lego monkey king #lmk season 5 #lmk season 4 #lmk season four #lmk meme #lmk fanfiction