#all-lmk-showerthoughts

[all-12-leaves]

LMK Showerthought #22

I'm a little enamored by this one parallel I think lmk traced of one monkey hearing “You’ll get to live, you just need to {doom the world}” and another monkey hearing “You’ll save the world, you just need to lay down your life” which is basically just the same thing twice and both times it just has the answer be "Risk dooming the world! You'll figure it out later, don't worry!" Which I think is kinda nice, in an "OCD coping mechanism" way.

Yeah maybe everything would be better if you were dead, but you like living don't you? Just make up for being alive by doing good and maybe you'll get to enjoy living, while the world keeps spinning as if regardless.

MK's crying at the end because he knows he kinda didn't guarantee anything. Whatever 'opening the cage' means is very very bad and wouldn't be a threat if he'd done his due and died. But what matters is that he'll try to fix it when it comes time to do it; his friends will watch fireworks with him meanwhile

Macaque just got away with it. He always gets away. Ominous black-and-orange aside

[all-12-leaves]

LMK Showerthought #29

The angst in Macaque’s deal with the Lady Bone Demon is something cool to dwell in and I do, but if I zoom out from all the feelings involved, these two turn into a comedy duo by which I am very entertained; they were on some Tom and Jerry shit

LBD came to Mcq with four layers of well substantiated assumptions about him: that he 1) has as much disdain for humanity as her, and if not that at least 2) he has more disdain for Wukong than affinity for humanity, and if not that at least 3) he values his guaranteed self-preservation more than he has affinity for humanity, and if not that at least 4) he appreciates when he has a gun to the head.

The moment Mcq steps foot among the living he tosses the key, already striking 1 & 2 out so she rubs his nose on his shit to try and put the fear of god into the guy and when he keeps being a weasel she says ‘alright’ and almost goes through with pulverizing his skull. That makes him go ‘NO NO NO PLEASE I’LL DO ANYTHING’ which convinces her to just plant a time bomb on him instead, which in turn has him immediately beelining into betraying her AGAIN, and IT WORKS this time

What Rube Goldberg goofiness. And he just flies in with his ex’s mentee too, both of which were pummeling him like three episodes ago. Now he's got them pummeling her with him. Concave sink X wet soap kinda dynamic. It all tickles me a bit hahaha.

[all-12-leaves]

LMK Showerthought #27

I talked about it in an anon ask to someone on tumblr (don’t remember who...) a goooood while ago that Wkng seems to have the habit of being duplicitous when jabbing at Mcq since it seems to happen a few times. I'll note it here too since it fits with the rest of the stuff I write down, so to be clear I’m talking about these lines:

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" >> "Hate that guy so much! Always acting like he's so cool."

"but the six eared macaque brought me a peach. hurray." >> "i really wanted that peach."

"...this is what it's all about. Kicking back in the sun, eating popsicles with my best friends in the whole world." >> "Thanks for coming even though you were not invited! (gives popsicle)"

"So you think this is my idea of a good time? Being trapped here with you? Hmph. (Bites lip)"

The last one is my favorite because it’s more layered; he says that after alluding to being locked up in the mountain due to being deserted by Macaque (“Classic: I get all the punishment and you get to mope!”).

Macaque failed Wukong in his eyes because Mcq deserting him when they fought the Jade Empror was Mcq not wanting, like Wukong had wanted, to risk being “trapped {there} with {him}”.

[all-12-leaves]

LMK Showerthought #26

I love how Xiangliu got everything he wanted as a villain and more. Have the harbinger choose whether to be a sacrifice, check. Scram into the chaos realm, check. Bonus: break the cycle. He's more successful than all the other villains, it rocks haha

[all-12-leaves]

LMK Showerthought #20

The "Macaque doesn't know how to tie knots" headcanon is somehow the only reading I've seen in the wild of that one scene and that makes me feel lonely and like I’m imagining things. Or maybe I'm just in a bubble haha.

Of the five flashbacks in the brotherhood era, three are before the defeat against the Jade Empr. The first two of that ‘before’ trio has Wukong reassuring Macaque that he isn’t being frivolous; his actions are motivated by the goal of securing their ideal future.

Defeat the Jade Emperor so we can bask in the sun forever. Be the strongest so we can eat fruit forever. But obviously they already could do that, so he doesn’t mean achieving those things, he means protecting those things.

He’s afraid, it’s his thing. His fear of death/loss is swollen to match “kill god” in size. So what he’s actually reassuring Macaque of, those two times, is that he’s NOT overly afraid, that these measures are appropriate for securing their desired future.

Then, in the last flashback before their defeat, Macaque is securing his armor, and Wukong interrupts Macaque to help him with that security. “You gotta have this tight, otherwise-” before Macaque snaps at him with “I’ve got it!” meaning either “you keep saying that” or “I don’t need that help.”

Like, it’s a metaphor right? Does Macaque get how to properly secure his own armor? Does Macaque get why I need to be the strongest, does he get why I – correction, WE’RE really going through with {fighting the Jade emperor}? It's so 'we' don't have to worry about anything or anyone ever again.

...So Macaque snapping at Wukong is to signal that at that point in time, he’s stopped pretending to be in consensus with Wukong’s fear, showing a change from the other two scenes, when he conceded to Wukong by agreement or acquiescence. It’s anticipating Mcq leaving Wkng in the fight vs. the Emperor.

Hopefully this makes sense, or isn’t like, redundant. It’s going to be very embarrassing if this is just community consensus and I’m just unaware LOL

[all-12-leaves]

LMK Showerthought #25

Reading Wukong's fear of death as OCD makes Macaque’s “obssessive demon” jeer to his face just comically offensive. Add “ableist slurring” to the List Of Macaque’s Crimes

[all-12-leaves]

LMK Showerthought #4

"All this time you spent locked away, you haven't changed a bit!" is hilarious coming from Wukong. Do pray tell of all the good your time locked away did for you

[all-12-leaves]

LMK Showerthought #16

When your bud tells you to eat your peach and you answer that he's a peach, to then not 3 minutes later say you really wanted that peach when your bud leaves, that's less queer subtext and more of a queer airhorn