It's a bit of an dumb question to ask, but is there any specific backstory for why yandere Wukong is the way he is? Aside from most of them being straight up psychopaths all yandere is the backstory, so I'm wondering if he has one or he's just like this?
It's not dumb at all! There is a reason why he is the way he is!
He always had a little bit of a more possessive personality, even right out of the egg, he would be more possessive and aggressive over things, such as food or time with his adoptive moms and get aggressive towards others who would take Ma's (adoptive sister) attention, but that seemed to tamp down with age so the troop assumed it was just basic instinct things and he grew out of it.
He kinda did but he also didn't. He got less possessive as he aged cause he was more clearly thinking (he popped out the egg with the mental age of a 5 years old) about others and not just himself.
But at his core he still was selfish and self centered, he just learned to work around it because that is not very helpful in the kind of society he lived in.
His possession turned to protectiveness over his loved ones, his moms and sister and close friends, like Macaque.
Wukong got really attached to Macaque as the first person he ever saw who was like him, and he was very protective of his new friend. Macaque was a very timid, soft spoken, and seemingly weak child, someone who needed Wukong's protection.
Their first meeting was someone hurting Macaque, and first impressions really count so it cemented the idea to Wukong that Macaque was weak and since he cared about him he should protect him and he should also protect all the others he cared about.
This is where the protection/possession line got really blurry, it's a slippery slope.
Bad things started happening to people Macaque would spend time around, because Wukong was a super powered preteen who didn't know his own strength. But they never knew it was him. He was a little freaked out by this himself at the time, tho in the present he's convinced himself they were intentional and not accidents.
And he cared about his troop, tho not as much as he cared about what was his, so he needed to protect them too, cue him becoming the monkey king and finding a safe place for them to live where other demons wouldn't attack them.
And then one of his moms (and others of his troop) died from sickness, and that kinda really fucked him up, because he protects those he cares about and if protecting how he was wasn't enough, maybe he needs to go further to protect them from more.
Cue the quest for immortality, coming back to his home overrun and his people enslaved, and that really set him off because another demon touched what was his to protect.
I'd say the final nail in his coffin of striding the line between possessive and protective was RinRin's death, then he focused all his attention on keeping Macaque "safe" and the best way for him to be "safe" was to constantly be near him and to keep him close.
And that's where the yandere part really comes in, though it was more low-key and tamped further down through the journey and Tripitaka working with these issues (man did not sign up to be a therapist he just wants to deliver scriptures).
Wukong was doing better with those feelings then all the pilgrims died off and he was like "fuck it I'm taking my mate back where he belongs whether he wants it or not" and that's how he ended up kidnapping Macaque.
So it's these negative things that were just apart of his personality from the get go being made worse by the circumstances around him and him indulging them too much instead of resisting the impulses cause he knows on some level this is considered wrong, but he doesn't really care, it keeps what's his safe, and that's what he wants.
No matter what he has to do to keep his family where they belong and where he believes they are safe.
Yes he hurts them, but he is merciful compared to what others could do. He views harming his family to keep them in line as a sort of breaking an egg to make an omelette. It has to be done to keep them "safe".
MK will be following a similar path in Caged By The Sun as he's much like Wukong in having more possession tendencies while being actively encouraged by Wukong to engage and grow those feelings further.
RIP CBTS MK's mental health, he's paranoid as fuck because of Wukong.
Wukong's current characterization comes from @winterpower98's swap au, @boonalina's successor au, @lopsushi's yandere au, and whatever else I found under the tag that kinda mushed together into this meld of s very toxic very mentally unstable monkey man.
His brain is very fun to pick apart.
Hope this answers your question! (And makes some level of sense, sorry it is so long)
Thanks for asking! And giving me the opportunity to yap!
King's Game AU Masterpost
