#mtwgo

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im bored and cotl is getting a new dlc next year so it's time to plug in my hard-worked fic. hiiiiiii everypony did you know i have a brotherhood-era QPR shadowpeach fic which is inspired by Cult of the Lamb so instead of being freed by tripitaka, macaque goes for an organic approach and breaks wukong's seals by taking down their old sworn brothers? Tune in for the next chapter of the most doomed fratboy group ever here!

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MY COMMISSIONED ART FOR Meanwhile the World Goes On IS HERE! feast your eyeballs upon this 👆 masterpiece by the wonderful Westywuzhere on twitter. closeups and additional info (chapter 6 spoilers) under the cut 👇

Macaque's outfit is his past outfit (there's no bestie breakup so Mac doesn't have an opportunity for a wardrobe change lmao). This is another visit after the one in chapter 6 so Mac has aqquired his new scarf/cape!

Long hair shadowpeach debut! This is literally a new thing i added because i love long/wavy hair lmao. i love the way the artist draws hair so much oughhhh. In the closeups you can see mac's scar and a bit of wukong's pupil. Intentionally, they are almost the same shape! kinda giving the "bright emerging sun >< dull collapsed moon/white dwarf star" vibes innit

The first broken seal! DBK's seal is the one under them, cracked in half and no longer glowing. Just imagine there were some runes on the borders for me ok? ok 👍

"wait," you said, "why is the chain on top of wukong coming out of the rock pillar?" you asked. That's because the chain connected to the seal above is actually plunged into the pillar, going through wukong's chest, then coming out and continuing its path :) when i was figuring out the logistics of of those chains i realised having it straight up piercing wukong would be a much more terrible, horrible and utterly delicious thing of me to do <3 Does this mean wukong's gonna have one hell of a literal heart attack when that seal (and chain) explode? yeag 💖

around the end of this month (that's my birthday!) or the start of May im gonna brainstorm the summoning circle and Suixin Jingu Bang's official design. I just know it's gonna be a long process bc i'm indecisive as fuck lmao. Can't wait to show y'all!

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In honor of chapter 8 of my cotl shadowpeach fic updating, heres a screenshot of my cult's monkeys in love :)

Bonus:

[turtle-ly]

did you know that macaque's staff has a name in jttw too? It's called the "acquiescent staff of iron"/ “Acquiescent Iron Pole Arm” (随心铁杆兵, "Suíxīn tiěgǎn bīng"), or Tùy Tâm Thiết Can Binh in vnese. It clearly mirrors wukong's staff in name, the “As-You-Will Gold-Banded Staff” (Ruyi Jingu Bang), or Như Ý Kim Cô Bổng.

Now here's me being crazy based on the vnese translation alone, do NOT think of this as truth but there's at least a smidge of sense in my rambling because vietnamese is very close to chinese due to our history (the fancy names above and our old literature used a kind of phonetic translation of chinese called Hán Việt) and the meaning of chinese words more or less can be inferred by our Hán Việt version:

So the word "Như Ý" in wukong's staff name in almost only used in the phrase/blessing "Vạn sự như ý" in modern vnese, which means "may all things go your way/according to your wishes". Meanwhile, the phrase "Tùy Tâm" is used when asked about some sort of favor, for example a charity when asking for your donation will ask you to give an amount "according to your heart".

You see it right? "Như Ý" is more passive, you wish for it but not necessary go out of your way to achieve it, and "Tùy Tâm" being used in situations where your own conscience/empathy is judged, it demands you to actively question yourself to make an action. I've decided the names can play into mtwgo shadowpeach's mental states. Wukong wants freedom but afraid to pursue it at the cost of his sworn brotherhood, while macaque has always assessed the effort it takes to join in a fight, but ultimately he decided to go through all that hardship to right this wrong.

Furthermore, "Ý" means thoughts/ideas/will, which is one of the reasons the book has wukong store his staff in his ear/take the staff out of his "head", "Tâm" means heart in its literal sense and feelings in a slightly more abstract sense, so thats why i have macaque pull his shadow staff from the magic core in his chest. Fun detail isnt it? :3c

One more thing is that theres a chinese saying that goes like "mind-monkey, will-horse" (Tâm Viên Ý Mã) so Tâm -> Mind is also a very wukong/mac thing. That says, in mtwgo macaque's staff/ his strength to fight is summoned to serve wukong :)

The altered form of wukong's staff that macaque gonna use in mtwgo will be called Suixin Jingu Bang (As-You-Feel Gold-Banded Staff or Tùy Tâm Kim Cô Bổng), combining macaque's resolve/loyalty and wukong's strength. When he swings that staff with its body painted in his own color, his victims will also know wukong's might when the golden glint of its ends becomes the last thing they see.

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Fucked up in da crib posting parallel quotes for mtwgo

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Notes on Yellowtusk

In chapter 7 i got myself into some light worldbuilding which i'll explain a bit further here.

So in jttw yellowtusk was the steed of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, one of the Shakyamuni Triad in Mahayana Buddhism most associated with action, which is kinda funny bc in lmk his full name is actually Yellowtusk the Wise. I have a feeling that lmk writers, in their struggle to make the lore less complicated for children, have largely erased the buddhist pantheon from the show (for example, wukong was defeated by the jade emperor instead of the buddha). So the camel ridge trio were all former celestials serving JE now.

I decided that Heaven has The Three Departments and Six Ministries system as their administrative structure. It's not the first system in imperial china but its more comprehensive and so that's all i need. Here's a simple diagram:

Yellowtusk was an official in the Ministry of Works, one in charge of government (Heaven's) construction projects, hiring of artisans and laborers for temporary service, manufacturing government equipment, the maintenance of roads and canals, standardisation of weights and measures, and the gathering of resources from the countryside (the mortal realm). Of course one guy can't do all that so he was just an architect for parts of the mortal realm, making up whole new grounds for kingdoms to rise later and all that. It's inspired by how the three brothers created the camel ridge in the flashback in s4 :) you need a guy with the right expertise for that i think...

The lake where Yellowtusk is kept is inspired by lake baikal, often dubbed the North Sea in chinese myths. tbh i was just gonna breeze through the location but i made the mistake of looking a bit too hard at pics of it and hallucinating. The jiaolong origin lore for the lake was entirely made up by me btw! jiaolong is a kind of giant snake which has feet but not horns, tell me if that isn't basically a crocodile 🙄 jiaolong also translate to vnese as thuồng luồng, which is, you guess it, synonym with crocodile. I also mixed the jiaolong lore in this with heilong (black dragon) a kind of evil dragons residing in the depths of the ocean and are the cause of storms. The north is associated with the black colour in chinese beliefs so they just kinda come together naturally. Quick look at this pic of lake baikal and think of a dragon or a crocodile ↓

Another reason i went through all that trouble for a jiaolong connection is jttw. Y'know the Seven Great Sages, wukong's fratboy group in jttw? The LMK writers fused mac and the camel ridge trio with the Sages together, making the number drop down to six. There're approx equivalents for the members in both works though! DBK, wukong and mac we've all known well, what about the other three?

Azure is clearly the Lion Camel King (Great Sage Moving Moutains). Peng is the Peng Demon King (Great Sage Confusing Heaven). Very matching, very fitting. But! There is no elephant among the Great Sages. That leaves two options for Yellowtusk's stand in: the Long-Tailed Marmoset King (Great Sage Driving Away Gods) and the Jiao Demon King (Great Sage Overturning the Sea). Welp, there can't be too many monkes in this group so a jiao he shall be! Cue the insane lore corkboard.

This also cements Yellowtusk's place in the Brotherhood age order. Mirroring the Sages, here we have DBK (42) > Yellowtusk (38-40) > Peng (37) > Azure (36) > Mac&Wukong (22-24). Kinda funny how the lamb's battles in cotl go from youngest to oldest while mac's go from oldest to youngest in mtwgo lol.

Yellowtusk's palace once belonged to the god in charge of the lake, one under the Dragon of the North's rule. Heaven kinda just dropped him there after the banishment and he fought/chased the god away to take over? i haven't quite settled on whether the god is a minor one or a major one. tbh Yellowtusk doesn't do a bad job at controlling the water there so it's fine :) The palace looks like the grand palace of the Dragon of the East in lmk, except the floor and stuff are blue instead of green. I thought of the bubble thing before consulting the wiki, what a genius <3

Speaking of lmk designs, did you know that in jttw, Yellowtusk's weapon is not a mallet? It's actually a spear! Which kinda makes more sense, most celestial soldiers in lmk use spears or swords - easy, light and uniform for all users. I think every celestial born worker/ official is built in with the knowledge in those two weapons as basic self defense and ground for discipline training. The higher your rank is, the more special your weapon gets? Like you can get updates, embellishments, or granted a magical one-of-a-kind weapon from the armory and most just stick to the one they are familiar with. Azure's sword and Peng's ji clearly speak of their prowess in the army to be granted cooler versions of weapons.

So if the use of non-conventional weapons is almost non-existent, why does Yellowtusk in lmk have a giant mallet? The Doylist explanation could be that the lmk writers wanted to have some variety in the camel ridge trio designs, and a mallet seems fitting for Yellowtusk's stature (for fuck's sake DBK doesn't even have an axe guys, in jttw he used a staff).

My Watsonian explanation for why a paperwork guy is brandishing a hugeass mallet, however, is that it was a conscious change. Yellowtusk was one of the firsts that Azure approached, and before the trio met Wukong, they had to plan for the coup on their own. Yellowtusk likely adopted a heavier weapon to conpensate and add to their lacking manpower on the field.

And what an impressive act it was, wasn't it? To, as a strategist, trade finesse for force, precision for wide-range destruction. To make yourself bolder, harsher, fitting into a group fighting for a cause grander than anything you've ever known. It speaks of his capability and most of all, faith. Something Macaque perhaps can relate :) Feel free to interpret Macaque's win by using a conjured spear in anyway you like lol.

Yellowtusk is somewhat overlooked in s4 plot-wise and maybe underexplored fandom-wise. I've seen him portrayed as being on the same level of "twisted" as Azure and cheering on his evil plans. It's not an interpretation i look down on, but there are other ways to intepret his character depth in-show that is more interesting. Like wukong said, Yellowtusk could be, and was, reasoned with. He's capable of turning around, the thing which initially drove him forward was his faith - his trust in Azure and the vision of equality he painted. In a way, the faith Yellowtusk possesses has remained untainted, and thus is even purer than that of Azure. It has blinded him enough to ignore the signs of his brother's corruption until it's almost too late.

In LMK the monkie gang was the help he needed to break out from that crumbling dream and save himself. But in MTWGO? there's only a vengeful shadow, and their only path points to tragedy.

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The Eighteen Hells (MTWGO chapter 4 additional info)

In chapter 4 of mtwgo, Macaque thought of the punishments he might have to face after his death. These are the ones he mentioned:

When writing them I did some research on the Hells, which I'll go into below. This is part of a series where i'll post previous mtwgo chapters' lores so they don't clutter my brain anymore and i can focus on the next ones, per @anarchicrealist suggestion :)

So in LMK we see the Ten Kings of Hell right? In the early days, Buddhism after being absorbed into Chinese culture created the Ten Courts of Hell. The Jade Emperor put Yama in charge of hell. As legend has it, there are 12,800 hells located under the earth, but under Yama’s rule, this was reduced to a nice round number of 10, each overseen by a Yama king.

It was in the Tang dynasty when the more popular concept of the “18 levels of hell” came to be. These are also mentioned in Journey to the West. This kinda messes with the Ten Kings thing, but the Ten Courts actually contains multiple hells. So for the sake of simplicity, I have kept both the Ten Kings and the Eighteen Hells. One King can oversee 1-2 Hells and etc. Here is a list of their description:

Hell of Tongue-ripping, where those who gossip and spread trouble with their words will repeatedly have their tongues ripped out.

Hell of Scissors, where those who destroy someone else’s marriage will have their fingers repeatedly cut off.

Hell of Trees of Knives, where those who sow discord amongst family members will be repeatedly hung from trees made of sharp knives.

Hell of Mirrors of Retribution, where those who have managed to escape punishment for their crimes while alive will be repeatedly shown their true horrific selves.

Hell of Steamers, where hypocrites and troublemakers will repeatedly be steamed “alive.”

Hell of Copper Pillars, where arsonists will be repeatedly chained to red-hot pillars of copper.

Hell of the Mountain of Knives, where those who have killed for pleasure or without good reason, and those who disrepect gods will repeatedly be made to climb a mountain made of sharp blades sticking out of it.

Hell of the Mountain of Ice, where adulterers, deceivers of elders, and schemers will be repeatedly left out on a barren mountain of ice to freeze.

Hell of the Cauldrons of Oil, where rapists, thieves, abusers, and false accusers will be repeatedly fried in vats of boiling oil.

Hell of the Cattle Pit, where those who have abused animals will repeatedly be hurt by animals in turn.

Hell of the Crushing Boulder, where those who have abandoned or killed children will repeatedly be made to hold up heavy boulders, eventually being crushed by its weight.

Hell of Mortars and Pestles, where those who voluntarily waste food will repeatedly be force-fed hell fire by demons.

Hell of the Blood Pool, where those who disrespect others will be thrown in and submerged into a pool of blood.

Hell of the Wrongful Dead, where those who have commited suicide—considered deliberately going against the karmic course of the universe—will be force to repeatedly wander the realm without a way out, while being pelted constantly by the Winds of Sorrow and the Rains of Pain.

Hell of Dismemberment, where tomb raiders will have their bodies repeatedly be torn into pieces.

Hell of the Mountain of Fire, where thieves, robbers, and the corrupt will be repeatedly thrown into the fiery pits of an active volcano.

Hell of Mills, where those who have misused their power to oppress the weak will repeatedly be crushed in a stone mill.

Hell of Saws, where those who have engaged in unethical or unfair business practises, or exploited loopholes in the legal system, will be repeatedly sawn in half by demons with saws.

So you see, Macaque would qualify for these three Hells (and more) because of his actions and relations to Wukong in his life. The Hell of the Mirrors is sometimes the first in line to make sinners confront their crimes before being punished in the other hells.

Luckily, Macaque was able to avoid all that because he was revived by Wukong's power over his mortality :) That is not to say he didn't go to hell though, because he did :) does, and will willingly do that for a while. Because the Five Phases Mountain in jttw was a metaphor for hell with Wukong receiving his punishments in the form of molten copper-drinking and iron pellet-eating. In LMK and more importantly MTWGO, Wukong does not receive those 2 additional punishments. One who is in hell but does not receive punishments? That makes him basically the one in (symbolic) charge. Now you have it! Wukong is currently a King of Hell to Macaque, with his domain being the Five Phases Mountain's pocket dimension. A great king too, because Macaque's only punishment in the realm is to smooch Wukong as fast as possible it seems :)

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What is the difference between these two Azures?

Not just the clothes, i tell you. I saw someone wondering about the weird black/blue fur colors that Azure has. Let me point out this crazy thing: Azure's right hand when he was a celestial warrior, was BLUE.

His celestial clothes hid the rest of his body so we cannot be certain about his feet and chest, but the blue hand was not a coloring mistake because it was shown consistently in his whole memory retelling to MK. See these:

So what does this mean? It means that something might have happened between his time serving Heaven and when he left it for the mortal realm. Could it be an accident? a punishment? a curse? Could it relate to his desertion? We can only guess :)