I've often seen MK's speech when Mei was burning alive associated with whatever happened surrounding Macaque's death, and it makes sense.
Wukong looks over his shoulder with a dejected expression at what MK says. Then, instead of looking relieved when MK throwing his life to save Mei results with both of them safe and sound, he looks horrified. It makes perfect sense to associate all that with guilt, and I kind of do too.
The headscratcher is that it's more straightforwardly a parallel to the fight against the Jade Emperor, in which it was Macaque that "abandoned [Wukong] when he needed him," not the other way around. I wonder if the writers wrote themselves into a corner or if the exposition was meant to be closure to that setup, just pretty subtle about it.
I like thinking of LBD in terms of black-pill ideologies. She worked her whole life to build a better world, as she saw it, until she decided the dream that embodied her insurmountable, unaddressed misanthropy was actually a premonition, and veered to manifest it as "destiny".
It's kind of interesting MK's "retcon" of LBD's "that pursuit only leads to one thing: to pain." C'mon now, kid. She wasn't talking about how she was bound to cause pain to her friends and her world. She was talking about herself. Everything she did was for the good of everyone around her, as she saw it, but it made her a walking rotten wound. She thinks that if MK keeps hoping to make things better, like she did, he'll end up miserable like her.
Xiangliu is kind of insane as a villain. He had two goals: reunite with the chaos, and ensure the harbinger made the choice between continuing the cycle or not. Breaking the cycles was NOT one of the goals - it was outside the realm of possibility to him ("if I could, I would have").
The brotherhood as a polity is kind of interesting. They act like they are in agreement but they're kind of split into three different factions (Peng n DBK, Azure n Yellow Tusk, Wukong n Macaque) with one common goal (dethrone the Jade emperor).
Peng (done squabbling for scraps) n DBK (the realm is long overdue for new leadership) want more power. Azure n Tusk (they have lorded long enough with no regard for those they rule) want to break Heaven's monopoly. Wukong n Macaque want to maintain the mountain's status quo.
Macaque and Wukong obviously have an asterisk here. They agree on wanting to keep the mountain safe, but Macaque thinks they already have what they need to achieve that, while Wukong is worried about hypothetical threats. For a reason of your pick, though, Macaque acquiesces to Wukong's methods.
It's VERY interesting to me that MK didn't really sacrifice himself for "the world" or "humanity" - he sacrificed himself for his friends, specifically. When it was clear that his friends as he knew them wouldn't make it, he bailed the fuck out. This show really said fuck Samsara
"Mei was right; I need to stop dragging you into my fights." brother did not hear what Mei fucking said
Things Mei criticized him for: leading them without a plan; leaving MK to face threats he knew were impending without actual guidance; how his avoidance was hurting them.
And listen, I hate to take some of the focus away from goldenhorse when Mei is given almost nothing in this show, but it's not shipping goggles, it's just standard reading glasses:
What he heard 'her' say was "He's gotta drag everyone else into his mess!". Right? That's kind of word for word what he answered to. Which is funny because it was probably the least true thing that Macaque said in that speech.
Wukong's favorite pastime with Macaque canonically is "not-complimenting" him.
The last one can get a little sad if you do some extrapolation. Wkng said that after alluding to his defeat against the Jade Emperor and Mac ditching him ("Classic: I get all the punishment and you get to mope!"). Back then, Mac failed him in his eyes when he didn't want, like Wukong did, to risk being trapped in the mountain with him.
Not anywhere near enough fanfiction writers make use of Wukong having canonically called Macaque a peach.
Understandably Macaque is often portrayed as one-sidedly attached to Wukong 1 but the fact that the thing that Macaque did that snowballed into their fallout and that Wukong sees to this day as unforgivable and was leave him behind the one time kind of puts a question mark on that dynamic, right?
Considering 1) Macaque expresses wanting to fucking kill Wukong, 2) his only stated motivation for anything until S3 is "hates Wukong", 3) S2-7 has him mainly complain that he was "forgotten" by Wukong, that "the second [Wukong] got real power, he couldn't care less about his friends", 4) Wukong treats him as basically a persistent gnat until S3-9, 5) S4 shows Macaque in the past folding to Wukong's whims consistently
I wonder if Macaque's injury in S4S-1 was meant to be a subtle indication that him not accompanying Wukong was an exception.
Most things that are Macaque's is fanon. The 'dojo', six-ears (hilarious that this is headcanon), theater and shadowplay as interests and/or hobbies.
Macaque: "Not the Great Sage - he doesn't listen to anyone!"
then
Pigsy: "Don't bother. I've been telling him that for years, but he literally never listens."Monkey King: "Yep, that's how we roll."
(Macaque arrives.)I wonder if it's the text intentionally communicating something.
Past Wukong was a doom prepper.
The whole thing of how Wukong was holding back and such was making me mald. I don't like it because 1) it assumes the show has consistent power scaling when it doesn't (s3-1 sees Macaque defeated by throwing him off a flying ship. He can fly) and 2) reading Wukong as holding back in S1-9 but not in S3-10 is bewildering because a) why would he hold back beyond what Macaque claims [^2] he is since he wants to protect MK, b) why would he ask MK for a hand instead of sending him away and c) it makes Wukong's character one that will hold back on Macaque only because of, presumably, some remnant of nostalgia (since S1-9's fight was mostly far away from MK), but will NOT hold back when he wants some heat-of-the-moment revenge (punching Mcq for not being 'not-involved').
And I don't think it's a stretch to say that Macaque was at his lowest there, having half his brain just unfrozen. My best corroboration is in the kneeling and, less so, in the portal. When Wukong lets him go, he stays kneeling in the ground for a good while - through Mei's speech and Wukong's explanations. And this one is a stretch, but since it's plausible i'll insist on mentioning it: Macaque uses a portal to escape. This is only interesting because when they fought in S1, Macaque didn't use portals at any moment. Presumably, because he knows it's a bad idea using portals when facing Wkng.
"Wukong knew the risks. It's what he would do if he had to. That's the hard part of being a hero." I love her to bits, and because of that I don't believe for a fucking second that it was "hard" coming to the decision of burning Wukong to a crisp
Is it subtext when your bro tells you to eat your peach and you answer that he's a peach? Is it subtext when Wukong calls Macaque a peach then not 3 minutes later says he really wanted that peach as Macaque leaves? Come on
Nuwa and Xiangliu made similar mistakes.
It's actually pretty verisimilar that MK is a superfan of Wukong while having very dubious knowledge about him.
People b saying things so definitely. 'They're both equally wrong' 'It's a complicated situation' 'Wukong did nothing wrong' 'Macaque did nothing w' man I think it depends. On what actually happened. People understandably want to form an opinion on what happened because it's been 5 seasons of blueballing but you HAVE to resign yourself to the fact that it's currently IMPOSSIBLE to opinionate. It's inconclusive. Whatever happens in S6 will reframe everything before it. The horror is in the fact that not necessarily the reframing will be well done, and it will just retroactively make it 5 seasons of disappointing setup.
S1-S - {92} - S1 - {195} - S2 + S2-S - {288} - S3-t - {11} - S3 - {131} - S3-S - {234} - S4 - {133} - S4-S - {344} - S5-t - {49} - S5 7 junho 2025 beats previous no news record.
I got purplebones as Macaque and Bone Demon's ship name but another could be bananasplit!
I'm very taken with the idea that a dormant character flaw of Macaque's is that he will cross any line to save his life and that we can tap into that flaw to get him to recidivate into antagonist status in S6.
In S3 he was a little ball of misanthropy so he didn't care about putting the world at risk to save his life. I like to think that it was partly this he was talking about when he insisted he 'wasn't a hero': he wouldn't and didn't choose the world over his own life. But as soon as he got his life out of risk he aligned his goal with saving the world. He cared about the world and others, but not before his life was guaranteed. What's the point of caring about the world if he doesn't get to be in it?
I like to think that MK's appeal in S3S-3 worked because he worked AROUND this flaw; he made a very relenting bargain, which is what surprised Macaque. Let me put it in an overly blunt way:
MK: Stop. You keep playing at being this [person that would give nothing to save others]. But I know, deep, deep down, you're not that guy. Help us. Make it right.Macaque: I'm not a [person who would give anything to save others], bud.
MK: Then be a [person who would give some things to save others].And I'm drawing a pretty specific line around 'his life' here. Obviously he will and does put his safety and even his life at risk for what he cares about. I'm just drawing an important difference between 'risking your life' and 'giving away your life'.
By S5 of course he isn't anywhere as cynical. Since S4 he's proactive when it comes to doomsday prevention and by S5 it's obvious
I am #1 purplebones shipper because I am endlessly enamored by their Tom and Jerry shit. You cannot call Mcq a pussy, he WILL taunt death at every opportunity given the motivation. Concave sink X wet soap kinda dynamic
I've seen more than one opinion saying it's inconsistent portrayal to have Macaque diss MK for supposedly having dodgy knowledge of jttw when MK is a super-fan of Wukong's, but I think it's actually kinda brilliant.
It is, actually, pretty common to claim you're a superfan of something when you haven't engaged with the canon in its entirety or even at all, and your knowledge of it is mostly based on the account of a fan who HAS engaged with it but twists it around to fit it better into their taste
I remember that bit in S2-S where they're talking about Wkng stealing the peaches (one of his most iconic feats) and Sandy goes "Stealing??? That doesn't sound like the Mnkey King we know!". WHAT is Tang telling these guys LMAO? And Tang proceeds to 'correct' himself that Wukong just borrowed them