#amnesia macaque

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I just had an idea for an Amnesia Macaque au.

So, first off in this au Macaque breaks free of LBD's control early. When Macaque took MK's powers, they were so powerful that he was able to use them to break free of LBD's control. However, Macaque then gets so badly injured in his fight against Wukong that after being found and brought him to the hospital, he has amnesia.

He gets out of the hospital after the Spider Queen invasion and tries to go on with his life at his Shadow theater. MK recognizes him while attending one of his Shadow plays and decides to confront him after. However, when he goes back to the theater that night to confront Macaque, he sees the "mayor" threatening him for his lantern. MK then steps in to stop the "mayor", who ends up escaping with the lantern.

MK, then talks with Macaque and seeing that Macaque is not a threat in his amnesiac state, they decide to team up to figure out how to stop LBD. Macaque even joins him and the others in trying to find the rings of Samadhi, though Wukong is wary of him at first.

After a while though, Macaque gets his memories back but doesn't let anyone know at first. At first he does it just to mess with Wukong, but then he realizes he likes spending time with Wukong like they used to.

That’s really cute! Yeah I could totally see Macaque regaining his memories and then just straight up not telling anyone about it 😂 That’s the most in character thing ever.. he’d definitely use it to pull some pranks on Wukong

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They didn't azure cure macaque after the coup failed and wukong was trapped? He never liked macaque throwing himself at him, and there's no point in even dealing with it when wukong isn't there to witness it

You’re coming at this from a logical point of view, but Azure Lion in the love potion scenario is waaaay past logic. By this point in time, Azure probably just feels like he’s in too deep to consider curing Macaque. Besides, from his perspective, dealing with an amnesiac shadow monkey who doesn’t remember or understand why Sun Wukong is missing would be just as annoying as dealing with him hanging off his arm all the time… at least this love potioned version of Macaque listens to him and does as he says. It’s like having a loyal servant who will do your bidding at the cost of being incredibly clingy and obnoxiously love sick.

It isn’t until Sun Wukong is freed and on his journey, and the brothers all learn of his “betrayal” of working for the heavenly monk that Azure starts to really get sick of Macaque in a way that he can’t seem to tolerate anymore. Seeing him act all lovey dovey is just a reminder of how he failed to win over Sun Wukong and now he’s lost to them. That’s when he snaps at Macaque that he never wanted him, he only wanted the Monkey King! And, well, a heartbroken, enchanted Macaque goes off and does what he does, getting himself killed in the process… Azure feels bad about that…. For a minute. Then decides it was probably for the best. Now he doesn’t have to worry about Macaque anymore. As far as he knows :U

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How does azure try to justify the love potion to yellowtusk?

He tells him the truth: it was an accident. He never meant for things to go this far, and he certainly never wanted Macaque to fall in love with him, magically or otherwise. This is all just a big misunderstanding, and, when you think about it, Azure is the one who has suffered the most from this whole charade! He’s had to put up with Macaque’s simpering over him for centuries, and the monkey even ruined their second chance at taking over Heaven! So.. he kinda got what he deserved, like Peng said, right???

Azure is so delusional and in denial about his own mistakes and shortcomings. He definitely DOES actually believe all the nonsense he’s spouting, and worse yet, he probably thinks it’s a good excuse.

If he had just straight up denied that he was responsible for the love potion, Yellowtusk probably would’ve believed him. He’s loyal like that, and would have bought into Peng misunderstanding something that Wukong said… but Azure straight up admitting that he’d been lying all this time and he basically ruined Macaque’s life by mistake and did nothing to try to fix it… I mean, he was only romantic with Sun Wukong, but Macaque was just as much in their brotherhood as any of them. It’s really gut wrenching to learn that Azure was capable of being so callous towards him.

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" the only way for him to go back to normal is to either reset his memories, or to kill Azure so that the love potion goes into stasis again and he can behave normally."

I feel like the latter version should follow canon with emperor azure dying. The former version should have azure surviving (maybe macaque chasing him for his love lend to a chain of events where he didn't kill the jade emperor), and living with the consequences of his actions (not jail cause he didn't actually kill the emperor, but wukong hating his guts and losing his brothers respect)

Yes, if things follow canon events and Azure is destroyed by the power of the Jade Emperor, then there’d be no reason to “cure” Macaque by resetting his memories. If things did have to go that route, it’s more likely that, as you said, something happened due to Macaque’s involvement that caused Azure to not be able to overthrow the emperor and take his power. In that instance, Azure and his brotherhood maybe have had to retreat back to Camel Ridge and are plotting their next move.

…actually, now that I think about it, Azure by this point has been fed up with Macaque and his lovesick attitude for a long time, and if something he did or his presence somehow caused them to not be able to defeat Heaven.. I could totally see Azure just sucking Macaque into the memory scroll to get him out of the way and stop annoying him. Or at least trying to. Maybe what happens is he fails to capture Macaque, but Mac sees that Azure is trying to get rid of him. It’s not the fact that he’d be stuck in the memory scroll that upsets him, but rather that, once he was put inside there, he’d have no way to get to Azure! That’s unacceptable! So instead of just letting it happen, he flees. He goes to MK and his gang and THAT is when he helps them free Sun Wukong from his own shattered memory tile.

This is also when the group learns that Macaque is under the effects of an enchantment. Since Azure isn’t on the brink of exploding (and taking the universe with him) the decision of how to cure Macaque and if it’s worth it probably has a lot more weight in this version of events.

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Feel it would be partly amnesia macaque, cause he remembers most of his life! It's like 10% he doesn't remember, it's not his fault that the 10% is such a busy fundamental part of his life

So true! 😂 It is just a partial amnesia, but the fact that it’s such an important chunk of his life that’s missing definitely makes it all the more devastating.

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Does macaque know about the love potion? Did anyone tell him?

When he was still under its effects, telling him would not accomplish anything. One of the effects of the magic is that they can’t tell that they’re under its influence. After he was cured, though, he would be able to retain that information, and the others could tell him about it. He’d kind of just have to take their word for it, of course, because the actual memories he still has access to don’t really include the part of his life where he was obsessed with Azure.

…Well, actually, I think it would make sense for him to remember the stuff that happened in season 4, though. That would also help him better believe the love potion story, because he would have memories of just going about his day normally, then all of a sudden he hears Azure Lion somewhere in the distance and every fiber of his being is desperate to go to him and be with him and love him. And once the love potion no longer is affecting him, it will make absolutely no fucking sense to him why he felt that way.

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I don't think he will have to be dragged kicking and screaming, just taking season 4 and season 5 where macaque keeps throwing himself to save/help wukong despite them still being at odds. Despite having all his memories. I do think he would have to be dragged kicking and screaming to speak about his emotions though

Very true! Macaque even with all his memories and bitterness intact will still dive headfirst into danger to save Sun Wukong. Whether he’d admit it or not is a whole different thing lol.. That’s where the kicking and screaming comes in. He’s definitely not going to want to talk about how he’s feeling or express any kind of vulnerability. It’s going to take him ages to even ADMIT that there’s anything funny going on with his memories, let alone telling anybody else how that makes him feel or the confusion it’s causing with his own personality.

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Partly amnesia macaque would probably end up a mix of past and his present self. There's no way he can be like his past self, he spend centuries outside ffm experiencing the worst parts of the world (lbd was the worst but not the only thing). But he can't quite be like his present self, when his present self is so driven by past experiences he doesn't remenber. I feel he could act well enough, but he would slowly transition to the new mix, and everyone else either didn't really know him, or (really mostly mk) think it's part of his character development/redemption arc.

Yes! I love the idea of Macaque oscillating back and forth between how he used to act during the brotherhood and how he is in modern day. At first he for sure would try to hide this, because Heaven forbid he actually show any vulnerability or let anyone know something is up with him.. eventually it becomes too obvious to ignore and pretty much everyone can tell that Macaque is Different™ from before. Everyone besides Sun Wukong can probably chalk this up to the love potion’s effect being nullified. Maybe it just made him happier or something? MK probably insists that Macaque is just showing his true colors and he’s always been like this, actually! Now he’s just showing it!

Sun Wukong knows better, though. Macaque definitely ISN’T just like this normally, and he recognizes those little mannerisms and expressions from back in the day… it’s probably been so SO long since he’s seen Macaque look at him like that, too. It’s probably a little bittersweet, seeing even glimpses of Macaque how he was before the potion ruined everything and tore them apart.

..anyway I’m also definitely using the tag “Amnesia Macaque” for these asks from now on. Gonna go update the other ones with it too~