#when ur dad doesnt tell you he loves you so you overdo everything

[acoraxia]

Me, trying to identify the common thread between Wukong’s relationships with Tripitaka, Macaque, and Erlang - is it the self righteousness in the face of all evidence to the contrary? Is it the unwillingness to see Wukong’s perspective or even see him as a person? Is it the hurting Wukong until they need something from him?

Oh I know! They need to either improve their behavior or be kept far far away from him!! (And that’s being generous)

Me sliding into my notes after taking my final exam for my psych course: well then

I find it interesting how Sun Wukong’s relationships can be separated into three categories involving these 3 specific characters: Fatherhood, Friendship and (at the very core) Brotherhood

Tripitaka was seen as a father-like figure to Sun Wukong and the use of master and student dynamic further proves this in the sense that Tripitaka was someone who Sun Wukong wanted to impress. He sees him as someone of higher status than him (“You’re the great monk!”) and the whole overarching moments in the book where Sun Wukong cries or tells Tripitaka that everything he does is for the sake of pleasing his master and wanting him to be proud of him. 

And while Tripitaka was not actively choosing to be awful to Sun Wukong he certainly did his damage in not taking Sun Wukong serious when he should have and listening to others (Zhu Bajie) when Sun Wukong warned him about dangers. Because remember that Tripitaka’s first experience with Sun Wukong was seeing him as a demon who was trapped and then freed and then he murdered right in front of him — and we know that Sun Wukong did not know that, hey, murder is bad so of course he was proud of that moment and didn’t understand why Tripitaka was so appalled by this.  

And this is a reoccurring thing with them: Sun Wukong getting punished and called out by Tripitaka but never told why his actions are bad and why he deserved his punishments. 

Their relationship wasn’t the best because of this, SWK wanting to protect Tripitaka and get praise from him but Tripitaka not ever seeing SWK as someone willing to learn and only as a cheeky, impish monkey. 

Macaque was supposedly Sun Wukong’s best friend and because we don’t know much of their dynamic it sucks that I can’t really fully go into depth with this dynamic but he does lose the sense of seeing Sun Wukong as just a friend when he starts putting him on this high pedestal and then having unrealistically high expectations from him since day one of his appearance. He wants Sun Wukong to go back to his old self, refuses to acknowledge that he’s changed and then proceeds to target everything around him to get him to bite back. 

He doesn’t care for how much his actions effect others and he’s not fully evil but he’s so blinded by the concept of getting his old friend back that it kind of makes him do the worst possible decisions in order to get there. 

There's some love there (platonic, romantic, whatever) because honestly if he didn't love Sun Wukong at some point then he wouldn't go this far to try and get a rouse out of him, try to get him to look at him or talk to him or even attempt to get in his line of vision as much as possible by holding up Xiaotian and everything else he holds dear to him to get his attention. But he doesn't know how to deal with these emotions properly so he instead chooses the most destructive patterns instead.

He’s the friend who says he’s the closest person in Sun Wukong’s life without realizing that Sun Wukong’s already moved on and wants to start a new life and he doesn’t try to move on as well so he can catch up to Sun Wukong.

Their relationship is equal to that of old friends who fell out and they both had a play in this but it takes time to mend it and while it is not broken forever they are still going to need more than one apology (both of them need to apologize btw) to make amends.

Erlang on the other hand is interesting.. because they didn’t start out as brothers. And their interactions are so minimal in the book (as far as i can tell they interact once before Sun Wukong meets him again to defeat a demon and then he’s never mentioned again) but if you add in the continuation of Erlang’s story with the Lotus Lantern, it’s much more interesting.

(I rechecked and Erlang is only written 80 times in my copy of the book: when he’s summoned by Guayin, when he fights Sun Wukong, when he imprisons him, when he burns down his mountain, when he fights alongside him and when his dragon wife is mentioned.)

From a perspective outside of the Heavenly realm, this quarrel between them can just be seen as two brothers fighting over who gets to be the one who’s right at that moment. It reads off as more of a dispute between who is “favored” more — because Sun Wukong was excited to meet Erlang, he praised him and said he heard of him from legends (similar to a little brother hearing all of his big brother’s accomplishments).

This is how Erlang learned of Sun Wukong:

‘The Great Sage Equaling Heaven, the monkey fiend of the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, has rebelled. Because he stole peaches, wine and pills while in Heaven and wrecked the Peach Banquet, we have despatched a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers and eighteen heaven−and−earth nets to surround the mountain and force him to submit, but we have not yet succeeded. We do now therefore especially appoint our worthy nephew and his sworn brothers to go to the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit and give their help in eliminating him. When you succeed, large rewards and high office shall be yours.’ Erlang was delighted. [...]

And then their following interaction:

"Now I remember who you are," replied the Great Sage. "Some years ago the Jade Emperor's younger sister wanted to be mortal and came down to the lower world, where she married a Mr. Yang and gave birth to a son, who split the Peach Mountain open with his axe. Is that who you are? I should really fling you a few curses, but I've got no quarrel with you; and it would be a pity to kill you by hitting you with my cudgel. So why don't you hurry back, young sir, and tell those four Heavenly Kings of yours to come out?"  When the True Lord Erlang heard this he burst out angrily, "Damned monkey! Where are your manners? Try this blade of mine!" The Great Sage dodged the blow and instantly raised his gold−banded club to hit back.

Note that Sun Wukong is being cheeky here — if he genuinely wanted to fight Erlang he would have done so instantly but due to knowing his origin he didn’t want to. That and he probably didn't know it was bad manners since he is, in fact, a monkey. Meanwhile Erlang is the one who struck first and it sits with me that Erlang continues to strike down on Sun Wukong despite SWK no longer wanting to fight.

Their fighting is less of Sun Wukong instigating Erlang and more of Erlang wanting to beat him down for not being the “right type of god” that Heaven wants — which could easily be said about him, too. The passage of brotherhood these two go down on is always so interesting due to the fact that Sun Wukong doesn’t want to fight him and that Erlang is the one who calls Sun Wukong a sworn brother. The book can be taken in many ways of course but Erlang keeps breaking all the things that Sun Wukong holds dear to him (his kingdom, his monkeys, his pride and his generals) and then doesn’t apologize for it whatsoever. 

These three characters refuse to see Sun Wukong as a changed man and that’s where their problems lie, actually, and it’s interesting how it’s portrayed in three different types of relationships that are often different from the typical type of relationship seen in media.

[elvencantation]

mpub ep12 liveblog

-WAIT WHERE IS KANG BAE??

-sad they’re not showing the last scene again like they usually do. but i guess they gotta fit a lot into this last episode. imma go rewatch it again real quick then come back 😂

-alright i’m back. i rly hope this is like kang bae inside his own head while the tree fucks shit up or something. cause i rly wanna see him fuck shit up!!!

-oh no honey please don’t cry!!! i cant stand it when you cry 😭

-YES ITS INTERDIMENSIONAL DAD POV I NEED HIM TO WALK IN ON BB BOY SAVING HIS MOM

-OMG BACK TO MY BADASS BOY OMGOGMOMGOMG

-made a video of my reaction to this next bit. gonna go rewatch real quick while it posts

-SECOND TIME WEOL JU GETS TO DOTE OVER HIM AS HE’S SICK IN BED. I SHOULDNT ENJOY THIS AS MUCH AS I DO

-OMG SHES REALIZED WHO HE IS HASNT SHE AAAAAAA

-OK NOW TELL DAD ALREADY PLS

-what in the world is going on is a good question

-*flashes back to lwj not telling wwx who sizhui is until the last episode*

-homeboy not only just found out he was actually a dad, then also found out the kid that they’d both been doting on and looking after is his actual kid (tho honestly, the found family trope wouldve worked just as well here)

-FUCK ME UPPP

-NO DONT CRY INTERDIMENSIONAL DAD ITS ALMOST WORSE THAN WHEN KANG BAE CRIES

-OH SHIT HE HAVING TREE FLASHBACKS OMGOMGOMG

-OH NO THEYRE TALKING TO HIM EVEN THO HES NOT TOUCHING THEM

-GO DIE IN A HOLE DICKWAD NOBODY WANTS U AROUND. STOP LURKING IN THAT ABANDONED BUILDING

-well i guess i do feel bad for his dad a little. and settling that grudge would really tie this whole thing up in a pretty bow. i mean, obviously its not gonna be that easy

-wait is kang bae asleep or did he somehow go find the tree? or wait is the tree even there anymore im not 100% sure what happened to the physical tree after what weol ju did

-oh ok hes asleep ofc that makes more sense

-NOPE THIS CANT BE GOODBYE IT CANNOT HE DOESNT EVEN KNOW WHO HE IS TO THEM OR ANYTHING HE SAID HE WANTED TO MEET HIS MOM JUST ONCE

-wait is this what his life would’ve been like if they’d been reborn and been his proper parents???

-his room is so cute

-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

-made another little video here

-FUCK!!!!!

-srsly dude ur still lurking dramatically in that abandoned warehouse?

-I KNEW AS SOON AS HE WENT FOR THE FRIDGE THAT SHE’D HAVE LEFT HIM FOOD IN THERE I CANNOT

-oooooo pretty knife!! can she stab him (non lethally) with the pretty knife please? also i know interdimensional dad is walking into a trap or whatever but i need him to be ok. esp since that trap doesnt directly involve wonhyung but only his weird minion

-he says he wants her to feel like she’s lost everything. dude what do u think happened to her in her last life? you literally ruined her whole life but i guess that wasn’t enough because u actually had to face the consequences of ur actions

-yeah yeah we knew that wasn’t actually weol ju. but then wheres the real weol ju... is yeorin gonna find her???

-get the dad to get the kid? i’m confused why didn’t he just shift into weol ju without that? or did she have to be unconscious for that? or wait he probably thought distracting dad would give him enough time eh whatever let’s watch

-TIME FOR THE BADASS GLAIVE FUCK THEM UP DAD

-video time again!

-WAIT KANG BAE WAS HAVING A PROPHETIC DREAM IN THE BEGINNING OF THE EPISODE WASNT HE

- FUCK ME UPPPPPPP

-oh my GOD I LOVE HOW YOU CAN SEE HOT AIR COMING OFF THE BLADE OF THE GLAIVE?!?!

-ahhhh the glaive looks so awesome all glowing!!!

-EVEN MORE BADASS FIGHT YES OMG

-oh we using the force now!

-HE LITERALLY GRABBED THE PIPE THAT WAS FLYING TOWARDS HIM LIKE CATCHING AN ARROW MID FLIGHT AND THREW IT BACK I CANNOT

-yeah u deserve to get stabbed idiot

-AND VIDEO TIME AGAIN BECAUSE I DONT LIKE WHERE THIS IS GOING

-WHAT ELSE DO U CALL SACRIFICING URSELF FOR SOMEONE? YOU LITERALLY PROTECTED HER FROM BEING IMPALED

-also if i was watching this at night, instead of 2pm with the sunlight streaming in through the window, i would be bawling like a baby

-WHY U JUST GOTTA KEEP MAKING MOM AND DAD CRY

-AND THEN HE DISAPPEARS LIKE BEN WHY U TRYING TO HURT ME LIKE THIS

-ok so mom is so badass with her snap of freezing time or whatever. ahhh i love it

-DONT LIKE THIS HE MOVED A FINGER!!!

-I DONT LIKE THIS WEI WUXIAN MOMENT JUST USE HIS HELP TO GET BACK UP GODDAMNIT OTHERWISE WHO WILL SETTLE THE SCORE AND HELP HIM CLOSE HIS SPIRITUAL VISION

-wait is she settling her own grudge? I DONT LIKE THIS

-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

-i fuckIN KNEW IT I KNEW SHE WASNT GONE

-OMG SHES STILL FUCKING PEOPLE UP YES THIS IS AMAZING

-awww samsin and death talking about weol ju i cant

-OH MY GOD WHY DID THEY DO THIS TO ME AGAIN THATS MEAN TO MAKE ME THINK THAT KANG BAE STILL HAD THE SPIRITUAL VISION PROBLEM WHEN ALL HE HAD WAS SOMETHING ON HIS EYE. no srsly they already did that once with weol ju i feel like this is overdoing it

-weol ju looks horrible oh honey im sorry. well, she did just lose the love of her life and thinks she failed her son as well

-I FUCKING KNEW IT DAD IS BACK TOO WHO ELSE WOULDVE RESCUED HER FROM THE DARKNESS YET AGAIN

-thank the gods. nobody has been as cruel to me as guardian. except perhaps rogue one

-AAAAAAAAAAAA I CANT WAIT TO SEE KANG BAE’S FACE

-AAAAAAAAA?!?!?!!?!?!