Macaque's death and his final fight with Wukong has been around in the LMK fandom for a while. There is many speculations about what happened exactly, and this is my current theory after re-watching season 5.
I personally believe that Macaque was consumed by his own powers, forcing Wukong to intervene, thus meaning that his demise had nothing to do with the pilgrims.
Before season 5, I was inclined to believe that Macaque's death followed the orignal canon of JTTW, mainly because we didn't have much hints regarding what happened and we could only rely on the canon.
Much of our informations regarding Macaque's death at the time came from season 3 episode 4 "Winning side".
In this episode, LBD confronts Macaque about his insubordination by reminding him of what she did, thus giving us informations about Macaque's past.
She specifically said :
"I who returned you to the mortal plane."
Clearly alluding that Macaque died.
Later on in the episode, Macaque also tells MK : "I had a taste of dying and you know what? Not a big fan."
So there is no doubts that Macaque indeed died and LBD was the one to bring him back, in exchange he had to free her from the tomb with the skeleton key, but as soon as he was brought back, Macaque threw away the key and betrayed her.
During the little montage of pictures showing us how Macaque died, we sees him fighting Wukong.
So clearly Wukong had a hand in Macaque's death. As such, it was easy to draw parallels with JTTW and assume that Macaque somehow attacked the pilgrims (maybe out of jealousy/resentment/feeling neglect) and that's why Wukong fought against him.
But now I have a different opinion!
I) The timeline of Macaque's death.
Macaque's death obviously happened after the brotherhood's failed attempt at dethroning the Jade Emperor.
Considering we also see him argue with Wukong under the mountain in the season 4 specials, we can speculate that he died after Wukong was freed by Tripitaka.
But did he die during the pilgrimage?
I don't think so anymore.
If we take a closer look to the two images of Wukong fight against Macaque (s3 ep4) we can see that Wukong is wearing his Monkey King armor.
However during his pilgrimage Wukong wasn't dressed like this at all. As we can in the season 4 specials :
Moreover, during the fight Wukong is not wearing his circlet. This is for me the most damning evidence that the fight between the two monkeys happened after the pilgrimage.
Now did Macaque die way after the pilgrimage or a few years after its end, we don't really know.
Considering that LMK doens't necessarily always follow JTTW canon (cue the brotherhood members) it's not that crazy to think they changed how Macaque died.
The pilgrimage in itself lasted 14 years. That also means that from the moment he left Wukong under the mountain to the end of the pilgrimage, Macaque was alive and we have no idea what he was doing.
There is more than a decade at play here and we have no idea what this guy was doing.
II) Macaque lost decade of lore.
A) his stay with the brotherhood
In season 4 episode 5 "Court of the Yellow robed demon" we learn through Tang's travel in the scroll of memory that Macaque hung out with the brotherhood for a bit after Wukong joined the pilgrims.
Here Yellow-Tusk says : Now that Wukong has thrown his lot with the celestial host there is no telling where his allegiance lies.
For me here, the "celestial hosts" that Yellow-Tusk is talking about are the pilgrims. They are discussing Wukong being on his pilgrimage and what it means for them.
So this is happening after Macaque and Wukong argument under the mountain.
Peng notice Macaque's quietness and questions him.
Macaque : I just think we should consider all of our options-
Peng : what is there to consider? Wukong made his choice. I say we strike him down.
So clearly Macaque is not agreeing with the others. Even though his friendship with Wukong has already fallen through, he doesn't necessarily wants to attack him, prehaps because he knows that Wukong is a dangerous foe (or bc he's still attached).
For me this reinforce the fact that Macaque didn't search for Wukong to fight, but in fact that Wukong had to intervene and go see Macaque, and that somehow led to their fight.
Macaque has always been a cautious individual. Always warning about the consequences and the dangers of their actions. He wouldn't have seeked Wukong for a fight on a whim.
In season 4 episode 8 "the brotherhood", we learn Azure perspective of what happened.
It's interesting to see that Macaque is not involved in the creation of Camel Ridge City.
And that by the time Wukong is sent to strike down the remains of the brotherhood, Macaque is no where to be seen.
Now if we compare shots of S4ep5 and S4ep8 :
We can clearly see that those are the same places. Meaning, Macaque didn't necessarily helped create Camel Ridge, but he was still with the brotherhood after its creation.
My personal interpretation is that he left when the brotherhood ignored his advice and decided to stand against Wukong, thus explaining why he is not here when Wukong strike them down.
Prehaps influenced by DBK who presumably ditched the brotherhood after the fight against Heaven to stay with PIF, Macaque in turns also decided to abandon this ship.
Timeline :
Brotherhood against Heaven - > Wukong emprisonnement-> Monkeys fight under the mountain-> creation of Camel Ridge City/ Wukong liberation by Tripitaka - > Brotherhood discussing Wukong's stance - > Macaque ditching the brotherhood.
B) Loneliness : the push towards self-destruction.
We know for a fact that Macaque highly valued Wukong compared to the rest of the brotherhood. He made Wukong the center of his universe. As we learn in season 2 episode 7 "shadow play", Macaque had a very "us against the world" type of thinking when it cames to his relationship with Wukong.
Macaque also never truly belonged in the brotherhood. He didn't have the same ideals, was constantly insulted by Peng, and was generally more quiet around them.
So I personally think his "break up" with Wukong under the mountain impacted him way more than we think. It was his whole world crumbling. So much that he seeked company with people he didn't truly like (the brotherhood).
So when he ditched the brotherhood, he was completely alone, save for the wild monkeys on FFM, but despite being charming they don't necessarily brings the company he truly desires.
In the season 4 specials, when Macaque see Wukong's memories, he says "Wukong was on a path of self-destruction, we all were. But when he met the monk, it send him down a different path."
So Macaque admits that he was also on that path. But contrary to Wukong who had Tripitaka saving him from that path, Macaque had no one. This also imply that Macaque didn't have the opportunity to leave the path of self-destruction, and thus that his demise somehow had to do with himself more than anything.
C) Macaque controlled by his own powers.
In season 5 episode 7 "in the pagoda", both monkeys relive their memories of the fight.
Here Wukong says : Macaque stop! Don't make me do this.
While Macaque is laughing maniacally in the background.
For me this imply that Macaque was doing something (most likely destructive) and that Wukong was sent to stop him.
Macaque out-of-character laughter could be a sign of his loss of control.
I personally think that Macaque here was destroying himself, and everything around him. This gathered the attention of Heaven that sent Wukong to stop him. It is also entirely possible that Wukong stepped up himself to prevent Heaven from dealing with Macaque (Heaven's punishment most likely being torture/emprisonnement and Wukong wanting to prevent that from happening to his ex-friend).
But unfortunately, either Macaque was killed by Wukong during the fight or he destroyed himself, leading to his inevitable death.
In season 5 ep 9 "sacrifice", Xianglu asks Macaque "That power, who gave that to you? Who did you make a deal with?", implying that Macaque's powers is not his own.
Macaque response to this is confusion.
For me this imply two theories :
The beginning of the theories are the same : after ditching the brotherhood Macaque made his own journey as a twisted imitation of Wukong's. But instead of Wukong (who was surrounded by friends and seeked peace) Macaque closed himself off and seeked power
1 : there he met someone that gave him chaos powers, but Macaque was unable to truly control them and those powers took over, leading to the fight but also to Macaque's memory loss of this period.
2 : Macaque was born with those powers but because he was never interested in strength, he never seriously trained, and thus had no idea he had those kind of powers. On his lonely journey, Macaque was sinking in self-destructive tendencies, so much that those powers took over him.
In both theories, Macaque lose control of himself and let his powers go crazy. It was most likely a slow process that gradually weathered his mind, so much that he lost some of his memories of it (thus explaining his confusion towards Xianglu's questions).
And that's why I think Macaque's self-destructed, and that Wukong was the unfortunate executioner of this situation.
It's also possible that Macaque's death isn't necessarily that far away compared to the events of LMK. At no points do we see Macaque being confused by modern technology, he's able to perfectly imitate Sandy's van in season 3, get a dojo in season 1 or even get a job at the local theater in season 2.
The things is, Wukong also is not that phased with Macaque's reappearance. In fact when he talks about Macaque, he never mentions death.
Season 5 ep1 "Strings that bind" :
Wukong : what about you, you just came back.
It's interesting to see that Wukong refers to Macaque resurrection as "coming back". It's possible that Wukong is not aware of Macaque's death, and that during their fight, Macaque managed to get away and that afterward his powers killed him.
But somehow, it also seems as if Macaque believes Wukong killed him?
Prehaps, the person that gave Macaque his powers assumed Wukong's appearances and killed him off after the fight.
Or Heaven itself found Macaque and killed him off after the fight while assuming Wukong's appearances.
There might be a third party at play here.
Macaque at the time was in a highly unstable state, he wouldn't have seen through the disguise.
And that sums up my theory for the monkeys fight! As of now, I don't think the pilgrims were involved. And I think there is a lot we have yet to learn about Macaque's powers.
