#mystic monkeys

[gxthicupid]

𝗟𝗘𝗚𝗢 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗲 𝗞𝗶𝗱 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗦 + 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦

𝗡𝗘 𝗭𝗛𝗔 𝗔𝗚𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗢𝗥𝗬

I know this theory has been talked about a lot, but I would like to put my own thoughts and opinions about Ne Zha’s age. Of course, Ne Zha died at the age of 12, yet in the series; considered to be a somewhat spin-off/sequel to the Journey to the West novel, he appears to be physically an adult.

Understandably, some people wanted to defend the idea of Ne Zha physically and mentally grown since Journey to the West by using other country’s beliefs of Ne Zha depicted as an adult, however, other countries still depict Ne Zha as a child, and the crew for LEGO Monkie Kid revealed he was canonically a child during Season 4, Episode 5 “The Court of the Yellow-Robed Demon”. This leaves to the question of how he managed to appear older. 

I have been pondering on the idea for quite some time, and while going through several posts of people’s headcanons, references from other media depicting the other characters from Journey to the West, I have come to a conclusion. 

To support this theory, I will be using Macaque as an example to answer the mystery behind Ne Zha’s sudden ageing in LEGO Monkie Kid. It has become abundantly clear Macaque has a missing eye, and in the Season 3, Episode 8, “Benched”, while trying to retrieve the third Samadhi Ring from Tang, for a split second, the tip of his tail becomes slightly white. 

While going through fanart, people often depict Macaque, having glamorised his looks in order to hide his features (i.e., his scarred eye). Saying that, I believe Ne Zha has adapted to glamorise his child form into an adult form, possibly from wanting to fit his mental age physically and feel comfortable. Macaque so far, hasn’t shown his true form for a prologue time, I believe Nezha can hold his adult form without any difficulty. 

𝗠𝗞’𝗦 𝗠𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗢𝗥𝗬

Season 5 of LEGO Monkie Kid is bound to show Nuwa, or MK’s supposed mother, on the show. Most people are wanting Nuwa to be a loving and caring mother, however, I do not believe that will be the case considering the direction the show is taking on MK’s backstory.

In the Season 4 special “Emperor’s Wrath”, the Kings of Hell in the Underworld are shown to be devising a plan for the upcoming events for Season 5, and personally, I believe Nuwa will be some sort of secondary villain associated with the main plot in Season 5. 

I am predicting that Nuwa has some strong connections, or at the very least, is acquainted with the Kings of Hell. Perhaps in the past, the Kings of Hell held a grudge against Sun Wukong after erasing his name from the Book of the Dead.

They weren’t able to change the pages since the paper magically link to the people whose names are written, and possibly, recreating a new set of paper will negatively affect the other people’s mortality; which the Kings of Hell are not willing to risk. 

Leading to the Kings of Hell requesting the aid of the creator of humans, Nuwa, since the residents of the Celestial Realm are not going to approve such a dire plan without the approval of the Jade Emperor.

Maybe the Kings of Hell gained Nuwa’s interest throughout a promise with a type of reward at the end of deal, and making her create a lifeform with equal or stronger power than Sun Wukong.

From the flashback in Season 4 Episode 6, “Show Me The Monster'', there were several stone statues of various animals before the creation of MK (hinting there were several attempts to create the perfect lifeform). 

The idea of creating MK as a mystic monkey probably links to the Journey to the West novel, in the chapter where Macaque shapeshifted into the Monkey King and deceives the other pilgrims; and before the reveal of the Six-Eared Macaque, it was stated that the imposter was close to Sun Wukong’s power level, which, I’m assuming, Nuwa took note.  

Since Season 4 has hinted that Sun Wukong had some sort of connection with MK before he was created, I am predicting that he possibly knew Nuwa as a friend before she became an acquaintance with the Kings of Hell. Nuwa used that relationship as an advantage to analyse his skills and powers, while discussing using Sun Wukong as a pawn to help MK to be trained by the Monkey King, in order for MK to unlock his powers later in life. 

Reasoning why I believe Sun Wukong isn’t aware of Nuwa is supported in the Season 4 special, “Emperor’s Wrath”, when Azure Lion was defeated, Sun Wukong questioned him who set him free from the Scroll of Memory, and Azure Lion had no recollection.

Supporting this theory, judging the age of MK when he first met Pigsy in Season 4, Episode 6, “Show Me The Monster”, he seemed to be around the age of 5 years old, which when he should some remembered of Nuwa or Sun Wukong to some degree, but it’s possibly she must have erased MK’s memories. This might be an ability that she might use in Season 5.  

Nuwa must have deceived Sun Wukong somehow to convince him to protect MK when he proves himself to have potential to become Sun Wukong’s successor, not only to allow MK’s abilities to develop and become stronger, but she might also use MK to spy on the Monkey King from afar.  

To support this theory, I will use the 5th Anniversary LEGO set of Monkie Kid, as Nuwa is seen to be in disguise while running a jade shop in Megapolis. Perhaps she purposely dropped MK off at Pisgy’s Noodles and lived around the city to observe MK and waited until he was ready to wield the staff. Sun Wukong must have done the same, but without the knowledge of Nuwa’s plan with the Kings of Hell (To learn Sun Wukong’s weaknesses for the sake of devising a plan).  

In the pilot episode of LEGO Monkie Kid, “A Hero is Born”, MK needed to deliver some noodles to a customer, but ended up dealing with the Demon Bull Family. Perhaps Nuwa also purposely made MK make the trip so that he can find Monkey King’s staff and allow MK to meet Sun Wukong and start training because Nuwa might have a deadline to finish her end of the deal, before the Kings of Hell will take action in Season 5.

𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗠𝗬𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗖 𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗞𝗘𝗬𝗦 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡

Connecting to the last theory, I believe there will be a likely chance that Season 5 will introduce the other mystic monkeys from the Journey to the West novel. Judging from the direction of the LEGO Monkie Kid series, there will be new characters introduced other than Nuwa, considering that Season 5 will focus more on MK’s past, and him learning how to control his monkey powers.

For those who aren’t aware, in the Journey to the West novel, it is canon that there are a total of four mystic monkeys, which includes Sun Wukong (Spirit Intelligent Stone Monkey) and Macaque (Six-Eared Macaque Monkey). 

The other two are known as the Red Butt Horse Monkey and the Pass through Arm Ape Monkey (using the translated names from the Chinese characters).

Since the series does slightly alternate the Journey to the West lore, perhaps the Red Butt Horse Monkey and Pass through Arm Ape Monkey were created before Sun Wukong and Macaque, and the idea of MK being a new mystic monkey existing in the LEGO Monkie Kid show does bring their attention and they will contribute to the main conflict of Season 5 (Perhaps they know much more about the upcoming conflict with the Kings of Hell and MK’s monkey power awakening).

This prediction might be a bit of a stretch, but since MK’s monkey powers will most likely be one of the main focuses for the plot of Season 5, I believe these two monkeys are willing to become an influence; both negatively and positively.

Reasoning for this prediction is connected to the fact that the Red Butt Horse Monkey is known to have the ability to avoid death and lengthen its life, which I believe might lead the show to make an alliance with Nuwa and the Kings of Hell. 

Meanwhile, the Pass through Arm Ape Monkey might be helping MK through his glitching when it comes to his monkey form, and might have more knowledge about dealing with  MK’s problem than Monkey King.

To support this theory, in Season 4, Episode 7, “Pitiful Creatures”, when Wukong first sees MK’s glitching, he looks like he doesn’t look like he know how to deal this side-effect of unlocking the monkey powers, considering that Sun Wukong and Macaque were already created as monkeys and were able control their powers. 

The Pass through Arm Ape Monkey might have known of MK’s existence through the battle against Azure Lion in the Season 4 special, “Emperor’s Wrath”, as the sky and the whole world was breaking apart, and since the Pass through Arm Ape Monkey can manipulate the moon and stars.

It could be the reason why the Red Butt Horse Monkey told Nuwa and the Kings of Hell about MK’s powers.  

I don’t have anything else to say about this theory/prediction. However, if the series doesn’t show them, there HAS to be some influence, Easter eggs, etc. connecting to these mystic monkeys.

𝗠𝗜𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗗𝗘𝗠𝗢𝗡 𝗕𝗨𝗟𝗟 𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗕𝗔𝗖𝗞𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗬 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡

Aside from Sun Wukong and Macaque having their pasts explored, the series does have the Demon Bull King appearance in these flashbacks since he was once a member of the Brotherhood, first revealed in Season 4, Episode 2, “New Adventures”, as everyone is discussing who will be the next Jade Emperor after overthrowing the current one.

From this single flashback alone, DBK was shown to be a good guy, fighting alongside his sworn brothers for they thought was right, and it does beg the question: What made him change his morality from good to bad?

In the pilot, Season 1, “A Hero is Born”, he is first introduced as the main antagonist whose goal is to conquer the world, and suddenly Sun Wukong traps him under a mountain despite DBK being his sworn brother. This minor detail is very unusual considering that in Season 3, Episode 10 “The Samadhi Fire”, showcases Sun Wukong, Demon Bull King and Ne Zha helping to separate the Samadhi Fire from Redson as a child.

Judging from this scene, the event must have taken place post to the Journey to the West, as the Monkey King isn’t wearing the circlet, as most of the flashbacks which are taking place in the Journey to the West shows him wearing the circlet given from Tang Sanzang. The pilot does show Sun Wukong wearing the same suit of armour as in Season 3, Episode 10 “The Samadhi Fire”, and it's strange how the Monkey King went from helping the Demon Bull King to fighting him. 

Either something happened between the events of removing of the Samadhi Fire and the events occurred in the pilot, or off-screen there was some conflict between the two, but set a temporary truce to help Redson with the Samadhi Fire.

The most assumed event that could pinpoint the morality change of the Demon Bull King would be when he and Princess Iron Fan met during the battle against Heaven. However, I highly doubt that. Since this event took place before the birth of Redson, and if Demon Bull King and Sun Wukong didn’t have conflict during this time period, then this accusation would be inaccurate. 

This wasn’t a theory or a prediction, however, I REALLY do feel like talking about this since it’s been bugging me for quite some time. I hope that Season 5 will be able to resolve this plot hole and perhaps it might correlate with the main plot of the next.

While I do hope, I also doubt it since the Demon Bull Family has not had much screen time in recent seasons. But simultaneously, I bet there will be a chance since the new 5th Anniversary LEGO set does display Redson working at the BBQ restaurant in Megapolis, so maybe a slim chance. 

I was going to talk about Peng and Erlang working together in Season 5, considering the current conflict with the Monkie Gang and Peng, and due to the fact that Erlang is a cousin? Brother? Or a family member of the Jade Emperor according to the Journey to the West novel, and wanted to avenge his death.

(Probably ignore this one, this was a last minute theory)

But I didn’t know what else to talk about and it does seem like the two will be working on their own.  

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy the theories that I have come up with. I haven’t gotten the chance to re-watch all of the episodes of LEGO Monkie Kid, so I mostly relied on my memory. Leave some comments about your thoughts and theories of the series or what will happen in Season 5.    

[theghostshost]

Golden Cicada

[oh-gh0st]

hiii i come bearing more art ^_^

mostly shadowpeach and mk, then mk with an oc in the last one

[comparativetarot]

Two of Cups. Art by ​Wes Gama, from the Mystical Forest Tarot.

[sumjirel]

I don't know what has possessed me but it has given me too much power as I constantly put out new fanart

[lavenderskye29]

Commission for @demonichunny ! This is her beautiful character, Jade!

[kit4kat]

They Will Pay

One of my favorite tropes is the goofy, lazy, comedic relief character standing up to the plate! Roughly inspired by the graduation episode.

[deviliciousnavy]

CHAPTER 7: I'LL KEEP YOU SAFE

Wukong makes a rush decision and later talks with Nezha about the trial

NEXT

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SPOILER ART

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[steinwayandhissons]

lately ive been obsessed with the fact that when alex sings on stage, he can never keep his eyes open for more than a few seconds at a time, and even then they’re half-lidded

[familyofpaladins]

Guys. Monkey king doesn't know

If Monkey king truly doesn't know why he keeps going back to MK's rock when looking for Mk in the scroll, then he doesn't know it's MK'S rock.

If he doesn't know its MK's rock, then he doesn't know that MK came from the same rock he did.

Then he doesn't know the MK is also a stone monkey.

If he doesn't know MK is a stone monkey, then he has no idea why MK is turning into a monkey

He Doesn't Know

Monkey king: - but it's fine!. You look like you're doing f-fine.

Like like. I always thought this moment was like when you're watching over a kid and the kid hits their head and the kid is crying and you're trying to calm them down while trying not to freak out yourself because you don't Actually Know if they're okay yet. Like, that's how I think Monkey King feels in that moment because he doesn't know what's wrong with MK (he has No Clue Why MK is glitching into a monkey!!) and doesn't want to freak him out more.

He has no idea that MK is turning into a Monkey because he came from the same stone that Wukong did.

MK: I don't know what's happening to me Monkey King: we can figure it out after this! But we gotta deal with the now first!

"We can figure it out after this"

He. Doesn't. Know

And he doesn't get any time to figure it out!

Ink curse: Nice of you to join us, bud! Ya know none of this would have happened without you, right?

That's all he gets before the Monkie Crew shows up!

And then the next time the curse is talking about Mk's monkey form is how MK is "a demon destined to bring destruction, a harbinger of chaos", which honestly I'm not even 100% sure the others even heard any of that or if MK was the only one who could hear it considering we don't get to see any of the others react to what the ink curse says.

But nothing the ink says tells monkey king anything about where MK came from or what he really is!!!

I don't know if he'll even connect the fact that he ended up near the area where he kept going back to rock, because MK's fight with the curse kinda destroyed the area and I'm not even sure if they're on the same mountain top!

So Monkey king can't even put the pieces together that MK is connected to the stone!

All he knows is that he gave this wonderful good kid his powers and now the kid is being turned into a monkey and the ink curse is using tha to hurt MK

Ink MK: Ya know this never would have happened without you, right?!

Guys... he's gonna think Mk is turning into a monkey because he made Mk his successor and gave him his powers

[localcryptidsteg]

“But what does that even mean???”

To be perfectly fair Im not sure Macaque could return the braincell if he tried

[aleiiii]

so the monkeys are really hesitant about Nà's opinion on immortality and aren't directly asking her, so WHAT IS her opinion and wants on it? I'm curious to hear what she has to say 😋

OH MAN

another layer of drama heheh

in any case Nà might warm up to the idea. At first it’s definitely a jarring concept. Like what do you do for the rest of your life as an immortal? Surely life gets boring, right? Ofc, in attempt to make her more prone to wanting immortality, the boys might tell her all the stories they’ve collected for living this long. Eventually Nà might accept the idea, but there are things that she’s still super unsure of.

For instance, her family. It would just feel so unfair that she gets to continue living her life as an immortal, while her parents continue to get older and older. It’s a tough thing to try and get over. It feels selfish almost. I would think this would be her biggest block from wanting to become immortal.

It might be a constant back and forth for a while. She does care about the boys, it would be an honor to continue living the rest of her life around them, but she still has a special place in her heart for her parents. This thought would be sitting for a while before Nà makes a final decision.

Also I would think Wukong would be the type to say “we’ll just make a family of our own”

na only looking at him is pure disbelief

[hope-i-dont-choke]

One thing about Kim and Ron, is that he’s the chosen one, he has mystical monkey power and he knows how to use it, he is deceptively strong and skilled and a secret genius when he applies himself, and he could tear the world to the ground if he wanted, but Kim will always see him as her goofball who needs protection from bullies, and she will never be able to picture him without cheese on his face, and she will drag him around the world with her without ever asking a single thing of him besides his company, because she doesn’t even think about his capabilities, she just fucking adores the way he never knows what’s going on and wants him with her at all times, and that’s why they’re perfect, take notes

[mori-lazuli]

Here’s my concept sketches of the Red Horse Baboon, one of the four mystic monkeys mentioned in jttw (lmk design)

[quitealotofsodapop]

I've had a funny thought. What if the other two celestial monkeys, Gibbon and Baboon, were still alive, they were just off-planet? Like, moved to the Andromeda Galaxy far away, to get away from whatever bullshit and trouble they caused (because of course they did, they're celestial monkeys after all) and have been living there only with Buddha contacting them once in a while with messages on stuff going on (and since it is a different galaxy, it takes a while for the messages to go to them).

I am saying this, because I had the funny image of them finding out about MK (and later the twins) and they wanted to meet the others finally.

I dunno why they were moving like 1930s cartoon characters when meeting the fam in my minds eye, but they were.

And got knocked away by SWK for that. But it's all good later. So many stories shared.

Seeing how the Long-Armed/Connected Arms Gibbon is apparently able to quote "Seize the sun and the moon, Shorten a thousand mountains, Distinguish the auspicious from the inauspicious, And manipulate planets and stars." It would be easy assume they're probably an extremely powerful astral creature.

Meanwhile ol' Red-Buttocked Horse Monkey/Baboon is just; "Has knowledge of yin and yang, Understands human affairs, Is adept in its daily life And able to avoid death and lengthen its life." which is just being socially aware.

It would be hilarious if they were the OG troublemakers, like even to a degree that the Buddha had to step in. Probably drove the last few Celestial Emperors nuts with how much nonesense they got up to. Sun Wukong and Macaque may have even known them as when they were very young. Eventually they just went on vacation to a different galaxy and never came back (and all of the Realms sighed with relief). They likely chill amongst the stars along with banished/exiled Celestial Beings - Princess Zhinu and her family to name a few. This doesn't mean that they don't still cause trouble for Earth however.

Gibbon: "Hey Babs! Look at this little guy!" *holds out an angry-looking lump of cosmic energy* Baboon: "Hmm. Looks like a piece of Hundun left over from when the Heavens and Earth were one in the same, Gibs." Gibbon: "...wanna see how far I can chuck it?" :3 Baboon: "Aim for China, I wanna see if it'll causes a ruckus for the new divine Emperor." Gibbon: *winds up the energy lump like a baseball and chucks it*

*Many years later in the Celestial Realm* Lao Tzu, looking through a telescope: "...oh damn. I should tell the Emperor about that weird comet coming straight towards Earth."

I love the mental image of the Gibbon and Baboon moving like rubberhose cartoon characters - the long arms on Gibbon and the legs on Baboon just moving like they're Cuphead NPCs. Maybe so many eons in deep space does that to your movements. Meanwhile poor SWK and Mac are terrified.

[bllankett]

Recent sketches, aughghf +matching pfp for syntax and mayor(pls credit me if you use them) these are mainly requests I've done while streaming in my discord server.. teehee