CelestiaWu @celestialwu - Tumblr Blog

singeamon-arts

A what now?

sunnysidedpeaches

Pride month doodles...?

digitalidentity103

I'm back with more Wip's!!!! This part took me longer than I expected.

singeamon-arts

Are you willing to seek scriptures?

timeturner-jay

You know what exhausts me the most about the typical LMK fanon characterisation of Sun Wukong that has unfortunately bled even into people's perception of regular JttW?

The fact that they characterise him as a clueless himbo with random cool superpowers.

If you've only watched LMK and don't know the source material, I guess I can't blame you for having that idea, because that show really does do him so dirty - they stole nearly all his positive traits and gave them to the Six-Eared Macaque instead, after all. And for MK, the abilities he inherited from Wukong really do work like superpowers, so I get why you'd think it's like that.

But Wukong worked for them. His spells (not powers!) are the result of intense study and spiritual cultivation. He's extremely clever and learned all this magic and philosophy in record time, but he did still have to sit down and spend years learning it all. He's a scholar. He became an immortal sage because he became such a masterful practicioner of Daoist magic. Not only that, he's also a master of ancient Chinese medicine and can cure pretty much any ailment. The guy is a certified doctor! He's a big fan of clever wordplay too, and by "wordplay", I mean Chinese poetry and philosophy. He has a lot of sage wisdom and advice for all his silly quirks, and he can weave very beautiful and poignant quotes on the spot.

Above all, from among the four Celestial Primates (to which the Six-Eared Macaque also belongs), Sun Wukong's designation is "the Intelligent Stone Monkey". Out of the four, he's specifically noted for his intelligence. He's smarter than any of them. It's what sets him apart. If he has a "superpower" at all, it's his astounding intellect. He's a genius. He's so much smarter than Macaque could ever be, because it's literally his defining trait.

So yes. That's why this himbo-characterisation that has been bleeding into every other JttW-fandom space feels so deeply exhausting. It misunderstands and misrepresents Sun Wukong on such a frustratingly fundamental level. Every time I see takes like "Sun Wukong is the physically strong one, while Macaque is the one who is smart and good at magic, which Wukong kinda sucks at teehee", I die a little inside. I'm not even going to touch much on the fact that LMK gave Six-Ear a much bigger role than he ever should've had (he's a very evil and obsessive two-bit villain in the books who only shows up for a single arc and was never a part of Wukong's life before or after that), because that's a whole other can of worms, but by putting him so front and center and giving him most of Wukong's good qualities (leaving Wukong himself with pretty much nothing in exchange), LMK really has done irreparable damage to the way a lot of people perceive the Handsome Monkey King. Which is a very backwards way to treat the mythological figure whose fame and popularity you're basing your whole franchise around, if you ask me.