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Doodling some Liu’er Mihou designs! (Both prior to mimicking Wukong and after!)
I’m having a really tough time with this one, but I’m hoping it’ll all come together! I want to give him a more Tibetan vibe, so I hope that’s coming through!
Okay massive disclaimer: These are MY opinions on the show, if you like the show? That's fine, it's a good show, many people worked hard on it, it's very beautifully animated and the voice actors do phenomenal work. Lego tends to make some gorgeous stuff animation wise.
That out of the way, let's get on with the things I dislike about it.
1.) I hate how they write Wukong. This is a character I have known since I was young, I loved the book, I love how cheeky and intelligent he was whilst battling his own turmoil of morality whilst showing unwavering loyalty on this journey to enlightenment. He is a character that has spanned years, been interpreted so many different ways, gone through so many iterations and inspired so much in our pop culture.
And what do we get for this version? A possible new introduction for children to this complex and multifaceted character? A store-brand Goku. Not even original Dragon Ball, fucking diet store-brand Four Star DBZ Abridged Goku. They seem to make him aloof, uncaring, lazy, they give him a 'bad dad' vibe when this is the monkey who named himself 'communal grandfather' to 47,000 monkeys. They stripped him of most of his motivation to become immortal to begin with - barring his fear of death.
They also keep eluding that he's done something, something bad that nobody can forgive him for. But like most shows today they don't care to explain it, but drag it out like it's this big mystery. Like they're doing a fucking Rose Quartz or something and I have already been through that, it's no mystery the man did a murder, he did his time, let's get on with the monster of the week plot please.
OH- On that topic. They seem to have made him incredibly weak. This, the man who fought Heaven and nearly won. I get it's to up MK and such but like...really? There wasn't an easier way to do that? Was writing that he's holding back his strength so MK can learn and not 'oops Wukong's out of shape because he's an old man' too much? He's meant to be a fucking Buddha, one with the universe. That brings me onto another point.
2.) WHERE THE FUCK IS THE BUDDHISM!? How dare you strip a story whose whole thing was the path to Buddhism and enlightenment and completely tear out those things??? Do they think kids wouldn't get it? Were they worried they'd get calls from angry bible-thumping mid western parents saying Lego is trying to 'indoctrinate' their children into a monkey cult???
I keep imagining how much more profound and interesting it would be - like some spiritual successor to Lotus Lantern - if Wukong in LMK was in his Buddha status. How his lessons would be him holding back from violence and teaching MK how to wield a weapon to bring peace and not destruction. How awesome would it be to see Guan Yin in the series? Or Buddha himself!
I get the worry of showing religion in shows, I get it. I get the concern...that doesn't stop them showing fucking TAOIST FIGUREHEADS like the Jade Emperor! That's a religion! Why are figures like that okay but not Buddha or Guan Yin??? You can't have one without the other in this story, Journey to the West is so ENTRENCHED in Buddhism that you lose something by not having it IN THERE.
Even if it's about the future, these are the descendants of people who went on a journey for Buddhist scriptures and became part of the Buddhist pantheon themselves and without that being there it's like they went on this journey for fucking NOTHING.
THAT'S ANOTHER THING;
3.) THEY KILLED OFF THE REST OF THE ORIGINAL CREW????
I don't know if that's right but it's HEAVILY IMPLIED??? WHY?
These are four of Wukong's DEAREST friends, people he sweat and bled and strived to protect for years. YEARS. And they implicitly killed them off for...what? Angst? Why??? These people earned their rewards at the end of their journey! Tang Sanzang became a buddha, Sha Wujing became an Arhat, Zhu Bajie became a 'Cleanser of the Altars' and Bai Longma/Ao Lie becomes either a Bodhisattva or a Naga in some writings of the book.
I get a rewrite but this is what the lack of Buddhism does to this.
I get the focus on the descendants.
But this feels like such a HUGE slap in the face for all their efforts and it rubs me such the wrong way.
4.) Macaque. Macaque is weird in this. If he were any other character or just one of the disillusioned marshals or generals of Wukong that became bitter in his immortality that'd be one thing - but this is the Six Eared Macaque! The dark half of Wukong, the version of him that gave into every dark and terrible impulse, the creature that tried to steal the Monkey King's identity and the person who forced Wukong's monkeys to eat their dead friend like they were barbecue.
And this guy...certainly is a guy.
He's certainly a person who has two ears even though it's clear in the concept art that he's meant to have six when he's in close ups and in his IRL lego version. (Was the animation budget stretched on the other four ears?)
He seemed like a genuinely menacing figure when you first meet him, manipulative, crafty, saying he will LITERALLY KILL Sun Wukong to his face. And now he's just kind of like...every other redeemed villain in every other animated series. A character that just broods in the background and complains about something Wukong did that he can never get over which I thought was about him killing Macaque for trying to hurt Tripitaka and hurting his monkeys. But after season 4 just seems weird. His characterization is weird. His writing is weird if you look at it that way.
Mind you, if he wasn't the Six Eared Macaque he would hit every check box I have for 'typical villain boyfriend in an animated show that people will look back on in their late twenties and either fondly recollect or wince'.
5.) The monkeys.
Oooooo I'm pissed about the monkeys.
This is Sun Wukong's family.
The creatures he lived amongst for years, he grew up around them, he mourned them when members of his troop died, grew furious at those who caused them suffering, he scrawled their names out of the book of death purely so they could live happily and long beside him. He loved them so much he called himself their grandfather.
And in the show they're just these semi-non sentient animals? Like just regular monkeys?
Where's his marshals? Where's his generals? Where are all the children? Where are the soldiers and citizens? I get it's not going to be the original 47,000 but there was still 1000+ monkeys left and the mountain just feels so...barren and desolate. So lacking in life and attention.
MK when he arrived should have at least been greeted by several screeching children monkeys with spears demanding what he's doing there whilst he gushes over how little they are with such big weapons.
I will give them credit though, the monkeys are cute.
These next opinions are more nitpicky than anything so take them with a grain of salt.
6.) The fandom can be a little.....mmmmh.
Not a good 'Mmmmh', more a you see something uncomfortable happening because one person stated their opinion on something and then others jump on them 'Mmmmh'.
Like say; if a Chinese fan of the show doesn't like a particular ship and shares their opinion on why they don't like that ship, I don't think it's a sign of a good fandom that the immediate response is thinly veiled racism whilst calling said fan an 'Anti' and chasing them off the internet.
I don't really care for the shipping, I don't enter a fandom so I can play matchmaker with cartoon dolls - but seeing such feral responses to something that is 'so clearly canon' when it's just them seeing things they want to see because the translation from Chinese dub to English dub changes important context (ex. In the Chinese dub of one of the new episodes, Wukong calls Macaque 'Bro' - in the English dub, he calls Macaque 'Bud') - is a red flag.
Under the veil of internet anonymity people can be very cruel to people for fucking inane reasons, which is a shame because other than that I think the fandom is full of promising young authors and writers. That loud, feral section however needs to chill the fuck out. The world isn't going to come to an end because people don't like your ship.
And finally, for now...
7.) I find it a bit...weird how in a world where there are clearly flesh tones and different colors that they made the Lego people yellow. There's nothing wrong with the staple yellow of Lego but something about the fact that there are clearly other skin colors, look at Wukong, Macaque, Pigsy, hell even Sandy even though he's blue - that they made the people in a clearly China-themed country/city the standard Lego yellow. I dunno. It doesn't gel with my brain, I know it's for trademark purposes but it stiffens the wrinkles in my head a little. There's FLESH tones for gods sake, does every human in this world have jaundice!? Do they know they're toys? (Is this like the Lego Movies logic???)
What are the laws of this world? Are they just toys being played with? Is that what the payoff of the seasons are going to be? That all this time this was just Journey to the West fanfiction toy roleplay by a very eager kid who wanted to play out their fantasies?
Because if so...I think that would ACTUALLY redeem the show a little in my eyes.
Sorry for the dissertation and if I upset anyone but, yeah, that's why I don't particularly gel with LMK. But it's not an awful show, I just don't personally jive with it. It's still beautifully animated, the art is gorgeous, the character designs actually aren't bad (even if I'm weirded out how flesh tones live alongside yellow plastic) and the voice acting and action scenes are very nice. It's a very well made show.
I just feel the writing is a bit....meh, like they watered it down for the sake of 'it's for kids'.
Kids can understand a lot of nuance and subtlety. They can understand dark themes, they can understand quiet moments, hell putting those things into animation helps them BETTER understand those when they get older.
As it stands, it just feels like they had a story and wanted to make something Journey to the West adjacent because they grew up with a terse knowledge of it and were Dragon Ball Z fans, so took notable characters and themes and smashed them together with Lego whilst forgetting some of the crucial parts.
Also to make one cruel joke.
Just a little mean joke.
In the Season 4 finale when Macaque told MK that he 'really should have read the book'.
It took every bit of my will not to go 'Well the writers sure fucking didn't.'
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