#i do think lego sho macaque could have an interesting redemption arc

[sketching-shark]

I like Macaque as a character because im a sucker for edgy bastards but sometimes i feel like the fandom does 90% of the lifting and forgets whats canon and whats fanon.

And the LMK crew feels like they wanted to do the classic sonic-shadow rivality without realizing what made the rivalty/shadow a good character

aaaaaaa yeah @hoshihime98 edgy basturds can be neat! And in all honesty I feel like Macaque's character could go in some really cool directions but as is I really wish there was more acknowledgment of Journey to the West in people's fandom stuff with the lego show version of the Six Eared Macaque because it makes his whole deal extremely funny in a pathetic & tragic way. Like dude it seems that you've spent centuries ruining your life & trying to ruin the lives of everyone even slightly connected to Sun Wukong because the monkey you tried to murder-replace doesn't want to be your friend.

Also I don't know that much about speedy hedgehog lore so I feel I can't comment too much on what defines the Sonic-Shadow Rivalry or say that much about what makes Shadow a good character...so correct me if I'm wrong, but Shadow's whole thing is that he starts off with a hatred of humanity and a massive sense of violent pride in himself as "The Ultimate Life Form," but then he starts interacting with the world he once only sneered at and recalling memories of a human who literally gave up everything to save his life, and from then on he's still standoffish & prideful but does become willing and even happy to live in the world of what he once considered "lesser" beings, yes?

But tbh if that's the case I feel like that's almost the exact opposite of Macaque's whole deal. As I've said before, the thing that makes Macaque potentially so interesting and tragic in a pretty scary way is that his entire existence--which in JTTW is about the monkey king having to confront the the worst aspects of himself and overcome them--isn't really about him, but only ever about Sun Wukong. Heck, even in the 90% of the lifting for this character that you mention that often gives him super angsty backstories to explain his atrocious behavior a lot of the ones I've encountered don't really seem to be interested in him a unique individual, but mainly about what his relationship to the monkey king was like & how it shaped him & what it could be in this au or the other. In other words, even now and even in fandom he's basically not an independent entity, but only ever a monkey who's very identity is fundamentally tied to the monkey king. And this is for me the potentially most frightening and fascinating thing about the Six Eared Macaque; that in so completely tying his identity to that of Sun Wukong's--especially with the JTTW background of him literally fighting to BE Sun Wukong--he was left with functionally no independent identity of his own. So tbh even if the monkie crew wanted to recreate a Sonic & Shadow rivalry I personally feel like what we have is the somewhat humorously tragic case of a violently obsessed Macaque & a Sun Wukong who doesn't really care unless the shadow simian is deliberately going after people the monkey king loves.

As such, I am once again asking the fandom & the crew to acknowledge & work with this more unique relationship rather than drive their dynamic more into ye olde cliche of "wah you were my friend but then you weren't & now I'm going to be horrifically awful to everyone you care about until a bigger bad comes along & beats me up so that the plot can decide we have an excuse to instantly reconcile & so I can immediately become part of team good guy & we can be fwiends :3"