Here’s a fic set in a vague future, inspired by: the Pearl episode of the official Steven Universe podcast, ‘Your Mother and Mine’ and 'Pool Hopping’, wishful thinking, rewatching the final season of Star Trek: DS9. A bit of a “what would you want to be the next big step we see of Pearl’s character arc” sort of thing. All very much in the contemplative reflective Pearl vein of Love On A Wire. Blatant pandering for the occasion of @dr-jekyl’s recent birthday and hopefully well-tailored to her tastes and interests.
Summary: Garnet leads the Crystal Gems on Earth, but help for the fledgling new rebellion is needed out in space and on the ground in the heart of Homeworld. So Pearl takes off, adjusts, listens, counsels, bolsters, takes responsibility, and leads - or does her very best to, anyway. Pearl-centric, featuring Garnet and Bismuth, guest appearances by everyone under the sun. Some Mystery Pearl, some Bispearl, some Pearlnet, some (past) Pearlrose, though of course the true main ship is Pearl/Happiness and Agency and Self-actualisation and all that good stuff. No special warnings. ~6000 words.
—
If My Life Is Mine
They need her, they say.
Pearl argues immediately, of course. They need someone who knows Homeworld - but she hasn’t been to Homeworld proper in thousands of years. They need someone who knows pearls - but she hasn’t seen another pearl in just as long, and hasn’t acted in a way befitting a pearl in, well… not until those sad attempts in front of Holly Blue. They need someone who will be able to understand the technological aspects of it all - but everything she’s been working with is horribly outdated - often rather ingenious, if she does say so herself, but still terribly makeshift. They need someone who knows rebellion, who understands how to properly plan it, how to prioritise, how to-
She turns to Garnet (of course), even as she knows that Garnet won’t leave what she so fondly calls her planet, especially not with a fleet of white ships looming on the horizon. Garnet doesn’t respond in any noticeable way, calmly seated on the couch in the crowded living room-turned-makeshift-rebellion-headquarters and Pearl meets her own gaze reflected in that ever-daunting visor.
Of all people it’s the permanently sour-looking yellow pearl, for quite a while now (secretly) formerly of Yellow Diamond’s court, who cuts off that entire avenue of thought via scratchy transmission from deep space.
“Garnet is needed on Earth. We need you to come stay and help out here.” In her Diamond’s convenient absence, she’s seated on a chair - yellow, to match the rest of her surroundings, and quite throne-like - that dwarfs her in a way that would seem amusing were her bearing not so insistently imperious, even though for the moment she sounds unusually humble. “We need the experience. We need long-term strategy. We need a leader. Someone to make the calls and guide us in the field. We don’t know how to do this- this entire operation alone - not yet. And you did it once already.”
Pearl half-opens her mouth to say something in denial, but… she did. She did do it. Certainly she could tick off, on a list, many of the required skills and competences. And she can do it again, she can do it even better. Learning and growth, wasn’t it, after all? And experience. Along with a unique perspective, as well as a certain reputation-
“And, well, you’re the infamous Renegade Pearl, aren’t you?” Yellow Pearl pipes up from the tiny screen, and Pearl preens just a tiny bit at the idea of that old, old title still persisting.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
what you get when you mix pool hopping + the future + things you said prompts together. // post-su future pearlnet, 1492 words :]
;
12:17 am in the beach house is a little more lonely than Pearl is used to, if only because she is missing three people instead of one. Even with Greg still around, the house has been quiet lately. It was only after he left that Pearl realised it: Steven had always been the glue of their family, the reason why they had still gravitated to this place after their worlds had stretched and spilled beyond its wooden walls.
He's the sun, Pearl remembers thinking once, not too long after Rose's death. He's the sun and he pulls us in and he turned this house into a home.
His departure had essentially dissolved the ties that used to guide them back here every night.
(That, and the fact that the silence reminded them all a little too much of the spaces he used to fill for it not to hurt.)
None of them dropped in quite as often as they used to these days.
She supposes she should be celebrating all the worlds they've curated for themselves outside of this house - no, a home, she tells herself, because it is still a home to her - but she can't help feeling melancholy about it sometimes, just a bit.
Like tonight.
It's summer. The night air outside the window should be sickeningly warm, but it's cold inside in a way she's never felt before, in a way she shouldn't be able to feel. Greg is snoring upstairs, but that's about it. There's no one else around: Amethyst hardly sleeps here nowadays, and Pearl never knows where Garnet is anymore. She can't remember the last time she saw them, properly, outside of their weekly phone calls with Steven.
She misses them.
Her fingers pick absentmindedly at the couch. One step forward, two steps back, she muses. In retrospect, missing someone has been a perpetual state of being for Pearl for over a millenia. She's always been one easy to linger, after all, especially on the past. It had been disconcerting to realise once Steven had left that she was still not above clinging on to the past, after all the effort she'd put in to try - and succeed in - getting over Rose.
A different past, but still the past nonetheless.
(This beach house had been alive not too long ago. It feels strange to have to remember it that way.)
The door clicks open at 12:48; something she only knows because she's spent the last half hour staring blankly at the clock. Pearl looks up, knocked out of her stupor.
And... oh. Isn't that -
"Garnet?" Her voice pitches slightly, caught in mild surprise.
She doesn't mean to say it out loud. It's just - hi, hello, it's been a while, she can't help but think. Between Steven's absence and Sapphire and Ruby's increasingly frequent appearances, Pearl can't remember the last time they were alone together. It's not that she's not fond of them because she is (Pearl will always have a soft spot for Ruby's earnest adorations and the way Sapphire blushes at them) but Garnet is another matter altogether.
Garnet is Garnet.
"Hello, Pearl."
"Hello!" she squeaks out. Maybe a little too eagerly. She flushes, hands fluttering in the air, unsure what to do. A voice in her head winces - get yourself together, Pearl - but everything seems so awkward in a way she can't explain. Garnet doesn't seem to be heading to the temple, which could only mean...
"Do you need anything?" she asks, lost.
"Is something wrong?" she asks, next, when Garnet does little more than stare at her - she seems to be staring at least, Pearl can never be sure with that visor - and cock her head.
All of a sudden, she marches to her and plops down on the couch, patting the space next to her. In a daze, Pearl scoots closer. She still doesn't know what to do. It's an unsettling feeling - like she doesn't know Garnet anymore, which is stupid because she does, she should.
5800 years, Pearl, give or take. It shouldn't be this hard.
"You're thinking too loud again," Garnet says out of the blue.
Pearl squints at her. "Did you -"
"No."
"Oh."
An arm goes around behind her back. It pulls her in and suddenly she's warm again, huddled next to Garnet's chest in a pile of pointy limbs. Pearl buries her face there. She's not crying. She's not.
"I don't need to look into the future to know when you're overthinking," Garnet says above her head.
"Besides," she adds, almost as an afterthought, "I can't."
"Hhmph?"
"I can't - "
She lifts her head. The visor stares back at her.
Oh, she realises a second time.
(In any other universe, Pearl would be puzzled. Unsettled. Concerned. Asking what?! in a strangled voice, confusion bubbling into her frown. But this isn't the first time it's happened in this one; there's a sinking feeling in her chest and it reads something like dread and deja vu and resignation but most of all a horrifying familiarity. Her heart, if she had one, would be pulsing madly right now.)
"...you don't know me anymore." It's another thing that slips without her meaning to. Less of a question and more of an understanding, but it makes sense, really. The fact that she has to admit it makes it hurt more than it should.
She's cold again. She moves to pull back, but Garnet's arms tighten around her.
"It means my perception of you is not up to date. There's a difference."
"I know what it means, Garnet, it's not like I don't remember..."
"We've moved past that."
"But it happened then. It's happening now."
"Not for the same reason."
"Is this any better?"
Pearl's fingers are trembling and she isn't sure why.
Silence settles in the space between them. Garnet remains stiff and unwavering for a few minutes. She's looking, Pearl thinks. Or at least, she's trying to.
Garnet moves again after a few minutes, sinking into the couch and holding her impossibly closer. Pearl notices she is trembling too: this isn't normal Garnet behaviour, she finds herself worrying, even as her body melts into hers. But then again, who is she to say that?
They don't know each other anymore. She doubts this interaction is normal Pearl behaviour to Garnet, either.
"I didn't notice," Garnet says in a way of apology. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be."
"Pearl."
"Garnet."
"Steven's departure affected me more than I would've liked it to. I distanced myself from the beach house because it provoked emotions that I thought to be pointless at the time. I wanted to be strong enough for the rest of us. I hurt you in the process." The delivery is clinical, stoic. The sigh that follows is not. "I'm sorry, Pearl. I didn't mean to."
Pearl twitches uncomfortably. "He's why we were a family," she reasons. He's why you came back here every night. "We're fine! Excellent, really. It's alright, I understand."
She even punctuates it with a smile. Pearl wonders if it looks like a grimace: she hopes it doesn't.
"We are a family. You and I. I love you. You're reason enough, and I made you think that you weren't."
"I -"
The clock trills. It's 1:00 am. Something in her - the pretence, perhaps - drains out at that, and she ends up buried against Garnet's chest again. "I miss you," she confesses listlessly, "I miss you and Amethyst and yes, Steven, but also you because you're never home these days. And I know, I do, there are worlds outside of this home we've created. The birds are leaving the nest, or whatever the human saying is. And I'm proud of it - of the people I know now, the places we've built, the lives we've created outside of each other but lately it seems like us doesn't exist anymore and I miss back when I could come home and expect to find you somewhere."
"I know."
"I don't want to be strangers, Garnet."
"We aren't."
"Aren't we?"
"No. We aren't. We won't be."
"If you say so."
"You're still part of my world, Pearl."
Her fingers brush against her hair, skimming her gem. The warmth from earlier is back again, a grounding, anchoring weight on her skin. She hums. "I'd like to be," she tells her, half a smile tugging the corners of her lips. "I'd like to get to know you again."
Garnet smirks at that, seriousness fading, lifting her visor to peek at her beneath it. "Is that you asking for a date?" she teases.
She flushes again. And huffs. This is ridiculous. "So what if it is?" she fires back, all indignance and false bravado.
She doesn't expect Garnet to lean in so close, their foreheads almost touching. Her entire face turns blue, then. It's terrible.
"Well," Garnet says, "I suppose I will have to take you out, then."
pt.2 of the things you said saga // pearlnet through the years, 1195 words :]
:
"Don't," is the first word Pearl hisses out to Garnet after Steven's birth.
(Or, alternatively: Rose's death. It's the first time she speaks at all.)
They're on the beach. The wind lashes out against the waves, whipping spray straight into their faces. Pearl hardly blinks. Garnet stares at the curve of her spine - she's so small like this, curled up in a miserable ball - and wonders, not for the first time, what she is supposed to do.
They've all been a little lost since Rose died.
"Pearl - " she starts, her voice low.
Pearl cuts in. "Garnet, don't."
She says it through clenched teeth, voice low and distorted. It means don't come closer. It means don't talk to me. It means don't talk about her, I knew her better than you, I'm lost and hurt and I know you mean well but if you keep trying to help I'll get at you and-
"I don't want to get mad at you, Garnet."
It means you don't deserve that. Please.
Her head drops to her knees.
Garnet knows this isn't healthy - far from it. Healthy is the last word she'd use to describe this situation. But Pearl sounds so broken just then, such a stark contrast from the renegade that she knows that she can't help but take a step back.
"...you know where I am if you need me," she ends up saying before turning back.
(And she does, but several years slip by before Pearl knocks on her door.)
:
It's not that they get over it, or that they stop hurting. Garnet would know. The knowledge sits uncomfortably beneath her tongue, burning through her words like acid. Pearl doesn't seek her out after their conversation - if you could call it one - on the beach, but her voice doesn't stop trembling for a while, either. She stops speaking for a while. Amethyst stays confused and starts shifting a lot. Garnet tries to be a leader. She doesn't know if she suceeds.
So no, they don't get over it at all. They just get better at playing hide and seek.
The next few years are spent grinding down their teeth.
Garnet says everything through gritted teeth and it's called determination and a promise of sorts, something like we'll get through this, we'll survive. Pearl mutters platitudes through a strained smile, all teeth, and that's her bracing herself for the pain but also what comes after it all. Amethyst's ire leaks through her clamped jaw, staining all her words and it's mostly anger but also I want you to be okay.
Slowly as ever, the clock ticks by.
:
Grief is a strange thing. There's no proper way to grieve, but maybe there is a wrong way to do it; it hits Pearl on one rather drafty night, staring up at Rose's portrait.
'What have you done to us?' she asks to her figure, looming and kind. For the first time, the question has a narrow edge to it, more accusing than anything else. She doesn't say it outloud; the rest of the gems are inside. Just mouths it, lips twitching over closed teeth.
Pearl grieves.
(These days, it's the only thing she thinks she's good for.)
It isn't grieving in the sense of missing Rose, or, hell, missing them - Rose and Pearl, Pearl and Rose - together. It's staring up for too long until her neck aches when it isn't supposed to, and flitting her eyes back down to realise how empty the living room has become. It's grieving, but this time Pearl is grieving the present instead of the future. What they are now instead of what could have been.
Rose took something from them all when she died. In some sense, they all died a little.
She sighs.
For a second, Garnet's door seems impossibly close. She could just... knock, and Garnet would be on the other side. The idea seems incredibly tempting.
But the moment passes, and the idea flutters away like a wren, leaving nothing but a vague feeling of homesickness behind.
For what, exactly, Pearl is not sure.
:
It happens, though.
Pearl thought she knew pain, but this is something different - not the gem-deep shock of a fractured gem or the dull weight of a battlefield splayed out in her mind but an acute, stabbing kind in her gut that gems normally don't feel. A kind that gems aren't supposed to feel. A flash of panic rises in her; Rose isn't here is her first thought, before - Garnet. Garnet would know what to do.
(Garnet, who became their leader after Rose died. Garnet, who still looks at her like she'll fall apart sometimes. Garnet, who has been waiting all this time - maybe even since that conversation on the beach, so many years ago. Garnet. Garnet. She's been thinking of her a lot lately.)
She stands hunched over in front of Garnet's door and attempts to knock, attempt being the key word. The door slides open before her fist reaches the metal plate.
Garnet is in front of her.
"You're not okay," she says. It isn't a question.
"Maybe," she grimaces through clenched teeth. "I don't know why. Something's wrong."
"...it'll pass."
"Did you see that too?"
"It'll pass," she says again, in lieu of an answer. "Come in."
Garnet's room is, as expected, warm. She holds on to her with a stubborness that could rival mountains; in the end, Pearl stops squirming and falls back into her arms. It's been a while, she thinks.
(The ache inside her dissolved the moment she stepped into her room.)
:
Later, on a mission: "I can handle it," Garnet mutters through her teeth, arms faintly trembling. "Go."
(Pearl knows that tone of her voice. It's called stubborness.)
"You can't hold up an avalanche by yourself," Pearl says.
"I will."
To no one's - and everyone's - surprise, she does.
(Her self-assured smirk afterwards is infuriating, but Pearl's mostly just glad that she's okay.)
:
Sometime in between, Pearl asks Did you know?, dreading the answer but still itching to know.
Sometime in between, Garnet tells her no, I couldn't, I didn't think she'd leave you behind, wondering how many miscalculations she had made.
Sometime in between, the baby wakes up crying. Pearl rocks him back to sleep, whispering shhhh to Garnet through her teeth.
Things get better for a while, sometime in between.
:
Decades float by. A little more easily, this time.
:
"Don't," is also Garnet's first word to Pearl after their date, but she hardly means it.
Pearl's fingers close around Garnet's wrist. Her eyes take on a sly glint; the slant of her lips and the way the moonlight pools into her collarbones makes Garnet ache.
It's still longing, in a way, but it isn't grief this time.
"Why not?" she asks.
"We're outside. If anything, you should be more scandalized."
"Love changes gems," Pearl hums. She twists up and the stars hit her eyes just right; there's an ocean in them and more. Garnet wants, a primal thirst that licks her insides and could devour her whole.
And - in her defense, Pearl started it. It only makes sense that Garnet ends it, right?
ooh, this comment just made me loveee this scene nd the whole movie a lot more. i already know hiccup nd toothless' concept with BOUNDARIES. i've seen people talk about it, how toothless helped hiccup to set boundaries, uplifting his self-worth by making people apologize to him in the first movie. but this interpretation/analysis just explained more about the "Boundary" surrounding their relationship/friendship. i love this
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
can you believe hiccup and toothless soulbonded so hard, they complete each other. that they are two halves of the same whole. toothless is hiccup’s wings and hiccup is toothless’ tail, and they need each other to fly — but more than that, they need each other to be, to exist as fully as they were meant to. on their own, they’re capable, yes, but always incomplete — always missing something vital. it’s only when they’re together that everything clicks into place and matters and makes everything worth it.
Hiccup and Toothless having a full conversation in dragon language while completely ignoring Viggo, who feels like he's about to have an aneurysm trying to figure out if Hiccup is just messing with him or if the dragon master can genuinely speak to the beasts.
The dragon gang kind of grows on me as I'm watching the show. But if I was hiccup I wouldn't be as forgiving. Or at the least I wouldn't be as trusting and have an exit strategy. The kids I can forgive as a grown up now because they're dumb kids who can change, who were just repeatingthe behaviors of their parents. But I wouldn't forgive the whole village. They finally stop treating you like shit only after you risked your life and show dragons can be useful. Pretty bullshit to me. Is probably why hiccup was so desperate to do anything to show them he was useful but was also sarcastic and bitter at the same time. Gives so many queer and disabled vibes to me. Especially if they grow up in a small religious home/town/community. Yeah but I can see why Hiccup would not want to be Chief. There's always this vibe that Toothless is only one who fully gets Hiccup. Over all Hiccup is way kinder than I am.
(Don't like don't read. Post hate and I'll block you!)
Just had a revelation about httyd while working on a fanfic, this probably doesn't make much sense but I figured I'd share anyway.
So, Gobber tells Hiccup "a dragon always goes for the kill" and then Hiccup says "so why didn't you?" to Toothless, because Toothless didn't kill Hiccup, even when he had the chance. And obviously this line is all about Toothless and Hiccup coming to realize that dragons aren't like he's been taught by everyone.
But it's ALSO about Hiccup and Toothless realizing Hiccup isn't like the rest of the Vikings. Because the Vikings also always go for the kill - they always kill dragons. But Hiccup didn't kill Toothless.
So it's this lovely parallel between the two of them that gives those lines even MORE depth!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Wukong in the series really doesn't care for his own self,he actively get himself in danger and no regard for himself,in the series cannon,he has a suicidal tendencies an self hate behavior,in s3 his suicide attempts failed and couldn't fix his past mistake,he doesn't like bringing people into his problems,in the scene after Mei call him out.
He takes himself away from the group before they get to chance to speak their mind about the matter,outcasting himself from the group,before the group can banished him (refers to how in jttw,he was banished for mistakes and fuck ups)
Wukong has bad senses of self,he has so much self blame and guilt. He just attempts when someone yells at him,like Mei in s3 and Mac in s5 and pigsy in s3.
Wukong also has the feeling of unbelonging and feeling of not being needed in this world,that his time is up,even when mk yelled at him,that he needed him,desperately so...
It seems like wukong doesn't believe he needed at all,that Concerning in it own right,even when he surrounded people,he still had the feeling of unbelonging and unwanted.
Maybe I’m over analyzing just a bit but the moment when Peng called Wukong an “insolent little chimp” I couldn’t help but think that was a sign of his shallow respect for both Wukong and Macaque.
Even if it’s not technically a big deal, it’s sort of important to make the distinction that Wukong is the MONKEY king and Macaque is, well, a MACAQUE monkey. They are NOT apes and they’re NOT CHIMPS.
While you could argue “oh what’s the big deal? They’re really similar!” Yes valid. But also not really? Because monkeys and chimps r VERY different when you know what to look for.
Monkeys have TAILS and are generally smaller in size. And there are a TON of different species of monkeys.
Apes on the other hand have only four major ape species: gorillas, bonobos, orangutans, and CHIMPS.
(Gibbon is an honorable mention!)
So the fact that Peng would call him a CHIMP rather than a monkey sort of shows how disrespectful he was from the start and how little he really cared about Wukong in general.
Think about it. Would he ever call Azure Lion a Tiger or Panther? And would he call Yellow Tusk a Mammoth or DBK a COW because “hey, close enough right?”
And the fact that they are all supernatural creatures with animalistic features makes me think they of all creatures should be able to make distinctions.
Ok, maybe I read too much into this one simple word but I just don’t like Peng and I think Wukong was 100% in the right to punish all of them for being such horrible friends. If you read between the lines, you can see how all of them (maybe minus Macaque but oh I can talk all DAY about him) aren’t trustworthy AT ALL.
being afamilial in this fandom kinda SUCKS like. it feels like you arent allowed to interpret the characters relationships as 'just friends' they have to be More than that because 'friends' isnt special enough
and i mean yeah you can say this about any fandom really. but i feel like it's real prominent in the monkie kid fandom
i dont deny that the main gang has a found family type of dynamic, but when people start to get really adamant on forcing everyone into nuclear family type roles is when you start to lose me
i dont think anyone has to be a brother/sister/dad/mother/uncle/etc. im fine with everyone just being friends and i dont want that to be treated like being 'lesser' to a familial relationship
The way that The Monkey King can't just be a mentor he has to be MK's father, makes me insane!
Mentor: interesting relationship dynamic, unique tone, specific message, the way that the Monkey King goes back and forth between being everything mk hoped for, and not nearly responsible enough, bringing new meaning to and also questioning the phrase "never meet your heroes". While also asking MK if this guy is really who he wants to emulate? Not just emulate, but to become? "Careful who you become, and in what way" is a crazy theme for your show im serious
Father figure: refer to the thousands of movies about good fatherly bonds, bad fatherly bonds, complicated fatherly bonds... So many stories about this... Aren't you tired?
But also! PIGSY! IS! RIGHT! THERE!
How many stories involve adoptive relationships, and do a good job. I mean, really? They're usually treated as a set piece/excuse for the main character to find their real parents. But like, you could say so much cool stuff about that kind of bond!!!!
Maybe I’m beating a dead horse at this point but I really don’t understand why Sun Wukong is considered a “bad mentor”.
Like…
Is he a flawed person? Definitely.
A sometimes shaky friend? I see the argument to be made and can’t quite disagree.
But a bad mentor?
Anything MK wants to learn, Wukong teaches him. Whether by forcing him to build up muscle memories or outright muscle, he sets the kid on a solid foundation for more learning.
He’s not always hands on, but clearly MK doesn’t always need hands-on learning. If MK has a flaw like being unfocused and bad at listening? Wukong has a lesson to help. He’s clearly pretty good at training the kid, but definitely not perfect.
Is he just getting his asshole ripped open for not being perfect? That’s certainly what it seems like.
He can’t force MK to be mentally healthy, and the kid for his own part obscures his feelings and traumatic experiences intentionally- like hiding his encounter with the Lady Bone Demon from everyone who could help him. Wukong can’t force that information out of him, can’t force MK to open up and accept comfort or advice.
So why is he a “bad mentor” specifically? Because he can’t force the people around him to not be traumatized by the heroic duties they’ve chosen to take up? Because MK has feelings that he can’t force out?
He’s hurt people on accident by being secretive, and that deserves to be addressed, yeah. His flaws shouldn’t just the swept under the rug and he’s made mistakes, I agree. But it’s been addressed, and then addressed some more, and then addressed again.
But when he’s getting ripped apart worse than attempted murderers and genocidal maniacs and would-be dictators? When his secretive nature around the Samadhi Fire is treated as worse by the narrative than Macaque’s violent method of forcing Tang to unleash it? When the secrets he’s kept are treated as worse than the Demon Bull Family trying to take over the world and laser-nuking miles of crowded city blocks?
So... What I think happened is that the show (and the fans) started using the word mentor, as if it had the same meaning as role model?
Like, a teacher is someone who teaches you what you need to know, sometimes physical, sometimes emotional.
Where as a role model is someone who's behaviors and ideals is what you try to emulate.
A mentor is mostly a teacher, and a little bit a role model.
And MK immediately started seeing him has a huge role model, not just a teacher.
So Sun Wukong is a good teacher, and a bad role model. He acts recklessly (omelette story), withholds important information (the fourth ring), refuses to listen to his friends advice while emotional (runs off to fight the Lady Bone demon), and is probably where MK got all his self sacrificial tendencies.
These are things that MK starts emulating. The omelette story is the most obvious. But MK withholds important information (how he feels in season 4 & 5, and what nüwa designed him for in season 5), refuses to listen to his friends advice while emotional (season 4: "Until I know what I am, I can't risk hurting the people I care about." Before flying off. And season 5: "It has to be me."), and, again, self sacrificial tendencies.
But the part where I think the show really loses people, is the fact that being a role model is MUCH harder than just being a teacher. There's a reason people say "do as I say, not as I do". As a teacher, you can just pick the best lessons and pass that on, but as a role model, your every move and every decision is constantly being watched and copied and judged. And nobody can be exactly correct 100% of the time. This Role modeling is hard thing is why even the best parents, I'm talking top tier, have times where what they did upset their kid, or accidentally did a little bit of damage. There's just no perfect winning here, because you would have to be right, constantly.
It's okay that he's a bad role model, he's still a good teacher. And he can always improve. This doesn't mean he's a bad mentor, it just means he's not a perfect mentor. Which isn't even realistic, anyway. He is flawed, and he is good. Those two things can coexist.
But nOoOo, unreliable narrator Macaque says he sucks, so it must be true! Even though Macaque is clearly biased 99% of the time, and also is the same guy who full-on manipulated MK Mother Gothel style and then never apologized for it. (I have a lot of issues with Macaque's "redemption" but most of it isn't relevant.)
Literally most of the reason that the fandom is so unreasonably hard on Sun Wukong, is because Macaque constantly uses every flaw he sees as proof to himself that he was right to hate him. Again, unreliable narrator.
This fandom falls for a lot of unreliable narrators. I feel like people forget that Azure is literally a mass murderer.
But I'm getting off topic. Point is, the reason it feels like people want him Sun Wukong to be perfect is because that's exactly what happened. They taught themselves that "good mentor" means literally be perfect all the time, and obviously, if you hold anyone to that standard, they are going to fail. Welcome to life, people are fallible.
You know what exhausts me the most about the typical LMK fanon characterisation of Sun Wukong that has unfortunately bled even into people's perception of regular JttW?
The fact that they characterise him as a clueless himbo with random cool superpowers.
If you've only watched LMK and don't know the source material, I guess I can't blame you for having that idea, because that show really does do him so dirty - they stole nearly all his positive traits and gave them to the Six-Eared Macaque instead, after all. And for MK, the abilities he inherited from Wukong really do work like superpowers, so I get why you'd think it's like that.
But Wukong worked for them. His spells (not powers!) are the result of intense study and spiritual cultivation. He's extremely clever and learned all this magic and philosophy in record time, but he did still have to sit down and spend years learning it all. He's a scholar. He became an immortal sage because he became such a masterful practicioner of Daoist magic. Not only that, he's also a master of ancient Chinese medicine and can cure pretty much any ailment. The guy is a certified doctor! He's a big fan of clever wordplay too, and by "wordplay", I mean Chinese poetry and philosophy. He has a lot of sage wisdom and advice for all his silly quirks, and he can weave very beautiful and poignant quotes on the spot.
Above all, from among the four Celestial Primates (to which the Six-Eared Macaque also belongs), Sun Wukong's designation is "the Intelligent Stone Monkey". Out of the four, he's specifically noted for his intelligence. He's smarter than any of them. It's what sets him apart. If he has a "superpower" at all, it's his astounding intellect. He's a genius. He's so much smarter than Macaque could ever be, because it's literally his defining trait.
So yes. That's why this himbo-characterisation that has been bleeding into every other JttW-fandom space feels so deeply exhausting. It misunderstands and misrepresents Sun Wukong on such a frustratingly fundamental level. Every time I see takes like "Sun Wukong is the physically strong one, while Macaque is the one who is smart and good at magic, which Wukong kinda sucks at teehee", I die a little inside. I'm not even going to touch much on the fact that LMK gave Six-Ear a much bigger role than he ever should've had (he's a very evil and obsessive two-bit villain in the books who only shows up for a single arc and was never a part of Wukong's life before or after that), because that's a whole other can of worms, but by putting him so front and center and giving him most of Wukong's good qualities (leaving Wukong himself with pretty much nothing in exchange), LMK really has done irreparable damage to the way a lot of people perceive the Handsome Monkey King. Which is a very backwards way to treat the mythological figure whose fame and popularity you're basing your whole franchise around, if you ask me.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
I think it’s more meant to represent HIS fear of being abandoned by his friends. He’s so scared that the second he becomes “too much” in whatever way, or if he messes up even a little, they’ll drop him in a matter of seconds. He keeps his emotions (like insecurities and fears and stuff) to himself, to not bother his friends, especially when he needs them most, and bottles everything up until it boils over. He doesn’t expect others to help him through any of this.
So when he sees Mei so distraught, in so much pain and terrified- MK /knew/ what that’s like; he fully understood how Mei needed a friend more than ever in that moment.
I think it’s more of a “when I needed my friends the most, I had to deal with it alone, because I thought that’s what was best. It’s not, and I don’t want that pain for you. So no, I will not let you be by yourself right now. I will /not/ let you experience that same hurt.”
MK will do anything and everything for the people he cares about, and doesn’t expect it in return.
@spoofyleaf: #I could go on and on about this#but typing on my phone is exhausting#I’ll save jt fkr when I’m on the computer
@i-am-a-fan: #>:) fell right into my trap. i love it when i get to read analysis. I’m so happy rn#being silly with the mutuals
@i-am-a-fan: #and it showed macaque that he should have stayed#and it showed wukong what could have been his#but instead they both have to come to terms with the fact that mk and mei are just healthier in their friendship then they ever will be?
@hyperfixation-tangentopia: #jsjsjs I love analysis so much#I think it could be both because the LOOKS Wukong and Macaque gave each other when MK said that?#like the blue screen of 'what..?'#but also MK *wouldn't* abandon his friends and he *would* do anything for them#even if it means walking into the ultimate WILDFIRE for them#and yeah#he doesn't expect the same#djjsbebwhjshabsmdkqkka
