Why would someone kill a friend who was once someone very special?
The good ol' speculations of the past between Wukong and the Six Eared Macaque.
See, I'm going to start this by saying, whether Wukong actually killed him or not is not even canon. Anything that people theorize about that is pretty much headcanons.
I know a big part of the fandom treats this as canon, because who doesn't love good angst but man I have never really seen it handled well. People say it is canon because in Journey to The West Wukong kills Macaque etcetera.
What bothers me is how people cherry pick whatever they want from JTTW and this mostly ends up with being whatever makes Macaque look even better and Wukong worse(on purpose or not).
For example while I have seen people who say Wukong killed Macaque is canon they never for some reason inclue Macaque's cannibalism in the book. Well, tbf the implications of ur ex bestie eating your family would be fucked up and let's be honest I think everyone at that point anyone would put him 6ft underground.
Most of this is due to the fact Macaque is absolutely the fan favorite. Like that is not even debatable lmao, and I don't blame people for wanting their fav to be in the worst situations while being completly right. Even I'm responsible for that haha. There's a reason Revenge stories are extremely popular. So many anime, web novels, comics feature characters that are wronged and then take their revenge and it goes crazy.
Idk how fanfictions and stuff are like these days for LMK I haven't read almost anything for a long time after a fanfic that was truly was my last straw.
But like 2-3 years ago while I was reading stuff, or seeing comics Wukong was like always done dirty so badly. I have observed that, to make Macaque seem even better people would dumb Wukong down, like making him illiterate, the dumb jock sterotype etc. You shouldn't have to dumb down the other characters to make one look good. Some of these headcanons I actually found funny in joke context but after I kept seeing it again and again i grew cold towards them alas.
I used to be fine with the fanon version of Macaque and most of these headcanons but like almost always they were accompined by Wukong's character being fucked over which eventually made me dislike these stuff.
Often people would say "I think they are both at fault." so I would have some hope that in their writing, that would show, i read and realize man. Wukong's like definietly at more fault.
I also often saw people take Wukong's characteristics and give it to Macaque. I read once in a fic, retalling of the first Macrack episode, where they made Wukong an extremely terrible mentor(He isn't perfect but c'mon Macaque is not better either, I argue he is worse. He is sometimes a good listener when he wants to be but that's also like playing Russian Roulette so yknow) Macaque teach MK about patience while there's quite literally a canon EPISODE of that in the show where Wukong is teaching MK about patience and Macaque is y'know using him??? Why rewrite the entire episode to make Macaque look better? They made it so Wukong didn't know how to be patient. Which is crazy to me since his journey to the west, yknow, helped him grow as a person. He is definietly secretive, bottles shit up but hey everyone has some issues.
Anyway, back to my main point. Wukong, in the past is not good. In LMK he is painted in a better light funnily enough. Though its not because he is a bad person, its mostly because he doesn't know to listen and since never really had parental guidance he just does whatever he wants in a reckless way.
We also have never seen Wukong's pov yet, and just how people see him. Be it from Macaque's POV or Azure's. So that in itself should make you think a bit. He is always put on a pedastal especially by Azure and the others. And this guy, who had to grow all by himself without ever really fitting in(at least in JTTW), immediatly latches onto any positive encouragement.
Yet when things didn't go his way, Azure and the rest immediatly left him, even Macaque. Though at that point there wasn't much they could have done against heaven's armies when Wukong couldn't. Its kind of the logical thing to do, albeit it still is a type of betrayal. Tho Azure almost seems to say Wukong willingly surrendered and is furious with him. I think bro has selective amnesia ngl.
So, Wukong, most likely thinking he got abandoned by his friends, forced to endure a punishment he was led into by Azure all alone(Although he should have listened to Macaque there.) is rightfully angry while still being at fault too. The mountain punishment is even worse in the book, so y'know if we wanna cherry pick we could just say he even was fed molten copper there haha. So when Macaque comes, of course he lashes out. Though lashing at your only friend who brought you a peace offering, after repeatedly telling you not to do impulsive stuff is definitely the wrong move.
That's where their fallout starts, and Macaque leaves. And I'm assuming that he never came back again. Which. I guess that could be considered Macaque's last straw but damn. Like, not coming once for 500 years? For 500 years? I guess Wukong might be pretty prideful to apologize at that point, MAYBE, but im saying maybe since he does deeply care about his loved ones and 500 years in isolation would probably kill any fire in him, monkeys are social creatures after all. Thats why his quests started in the first place y'know, because he loved so much and he was so scared of losing that. Losing it to death. He just got carried away.
Dunno tho wanting to spend an eternity with your friend... I think that is the highest form of love.
Maybe Wukong even begged for him to come back, apologized, crying(In JTTW Wukong is definitely a crier ahaha) and let's be real his name is Six Eared Macaque for a reason so he would have definitely heard it. But Macaque didn't come back. I dunno, no matter how mad I am, for someone I held so dear once, I think I would cave in.
Though one thing is clear, he never changed for Macaque and that is pretty sad. I guess he never properly listened to him either.
See, the thing with the Journey is, its a story of redemption, of learning to be a better person than who you were no matter what you might have done. Once again, in LMK this journey is used for angst(even im guilty of that sue me). Don't get me wrong, the start is absolutely terrible. But try to put yourself in that monk's place for a second. You're suddenly told youre going to be in charge of a murder monkey that has been sealed away for 500 years because it couldn't be killed, the monkey sure is very murdery and that goes against all of your beliefs. You definietly don't want the blood of the people on your hands whether good or bad and well you are naive since you were sheltered definietly for a long time.
The monk has his trigger happy moments yes, but man I kinda get it too. He is your disciple, so everything he does will also reflect you too. The only way to make him listen at first is the circlet. How you gonna stop a murder monkey from committing murder???
So. Wukong is not a good person at first, but neither is Macaque, or hell the entire brotherhood. I would bet all of them are preeetty murdery. I mean DBK got sealed for a reason. Macaque definietly isn't a good person either. It's kind of like a toxic friend group yknow? So when Wukong is actually put in a group that's not toxic, he starts to change. Like i said at first its terrible, and well let's not even talk about Bajie(I get as an allegory it makes sense but when you read it so literal his actions are NOPE).
An actually healthy friend group, that's actively pushing you to be better. Improving yourself. Teaching you to think about others and learning to listen and learning to change for the better.
Wukong, changed for them.
He didn't for Macaque though.
Now that's where I think things get tricky. While Wukong got better, I'm pretty sure Macaque got worse. In JTTW, Macaque is basicially what Wukong was and what he would be if he didn't learn to change. In LMK its not like that but I think the symbolism still applies. While Wukong learned to be better, Macaque now refused to change. Macaque picked up Wukong's worse traits. Ironically enough I also like to think Wukong picked up Macaque's best traits, that he used to have before everything went down.
The journey helped Wukong. I have seen Macaque's death as the reason sometimes he changed for the better but I think that's kind of killing the point of the Journey. Rather than enabling each others toxic traits among your friends, instead they pushed each other to be better people, all of them. That's what the journey was. That is the Journey To The West.
I think Macaque was jealous of them. Wukong, the one person he valued over everyone, never bothered to change for him, but the moment he left, he changed for these people?(tho its not as simple as that, im pretty sure Macaque also put him on a pedestal, and even if he didnt, Maybe Wukong thought he did. The good ol' miscommunication)
Macaque was probably very angry and he stewed in that anger, he embraced it for a very long time.
A lot of people also like to use the circlet for this too. Combined with his jealousy and Wukong being hurt(Though we now entered the headcanon territory by now lmao, i am also just speculating now) he wouldn't have stopped until every single one of them was dead.
He wouldn't let Wukong stop him.
What would you do, if your ex-best friend was trying to murder your new friend group? You have something special with him but also he was a part of your old toxic friend group, so he too, is very murdery. While he cares a lot about you, he doesn't care for the lives of others just like how you used to be. Its like looking into a cracked mirror. He doesn't want to change, or perhaps even changed for the worse because of you. It fills you with guilt. It's all your fault. You cannot let him kill your friends, your new family but he refuses to reason with you anymore. That's also probably your fault, because you never listened when he tried to reason with you back then. You have lots of regrets, but you want to change for the better but he is angry. He doesn't want you to change. Or more like, he doesn't want you to change for them when you never bothered to change for him.
What do you do?
Unstoppable force meets unmovable object.
In the show, Macaque seems always obssessed with Wukong. "The old you would have leveled mountains by now." He cannot accept that Wukong changed. He refuses to because that'll mean, Macaque was never good enough for Wukong to change for him. He doesn't want Wukong to change, because then he'll no longer have a reason to hate him, he spent wasting his years, planning revenge for no reason.
I think he also couldn't accept that while Wukong got better, he got worse.
It just wasn't fair.
Someone refusing to change, and someone accepting change.
I think later on seasons he actually starts to see, that yeah. Wukong did change for the better. Became less impulsive, more patient. Hell, even has a student he is mentoring. Perhaps, even he, too, could change for the better. Thoughts, thoughts.
Maybe stupid question but what’s the deal with the fat knot person? what did they do why are ppl mad at them ? /gen
Ah! They’re going around and sending asks to LMK blogs basically harassing the artists for using the Sun Wukong tag- they’ve said some pretty nasty things
Why do you get a kick out of spreading misinformation on the Internet?
It’s actually not misinformation! You see I have a degree in Asian Art History so I can confirm everything I’ve said is facts and I have the sources to prove it🫶🏻💖 hope this answers your question!
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