vaguely humanoid!!

THIS ONE DOES IT TOO!!

I found a bunch more!!

So I was talking to my sibs about the fact that in season 3, it oddly enough, seems like Mk is getting his powers back faster than Monkey King is, even with the meditation stuff this Monkey’s doing, which seems odd.

One of the first lessons Monkey King teaches Mk after the pilots in episode 1 Bad Weather is that “In order to have full control of your powers, you need self confidence.” And not just the flashy kind, not just the talking louder so you feel bigger, but like, true belief in yourself and your abilities. 

Along with the often repeated “Just believe in yourself and you can do anything” saying he’s so fond of, which literally was the first lesson he ever taught Mk in the pilots. But what if that’s literally it. 

What if the strength of Monkey King’s powers is based almost 100% on how much he believes in himself, (coupled with a lot of practice and mastery ofc because self-confidence comes from mastery) which could attest to what comes off as blind confidence sometimes and might seem frustrating to other people when he seems to refuse to admit he can’t do things. Because as long as he doesn’t admit that, he can do those things. 

In Journey to the West there’s a moment when someone drops a mountain on him again and although right after being freed from the initial Mountain he was imprisoned under, which he literally picked up and chucked the moment he was freed from it, but this time his self confidence drops like a stone monkey in water (severe PTSD WOO) and he cannot lift this mountain. They have to go get these other spirits to come help lift it off of him because Monkey King is trapped. 

The moment he gets trapped in his own head too much, it’s over. 

(Disclaimer: I’m not saying this is actually what happens in the book as far as the reason he wasn’t able to lift the mountain, do not take this as fact or reference I just thought it was a neat detail that seems to kinda tie into this theory, but it is just a neat thought thanks.)

The next bit here could just be a storytelling choice, but I find it very interesting that both times when Mk looses his powers, the first thing the other party does is beat down his self-confidence. 

MACAQUE AND HOW HIS PERCEPTION OF MK EFFECTS THEIR DYNAMIC (briefly)  AND HOW THE WAY IT CHANGES EFFECTS HIS CHARACTER GROWTH (in more detail) 

Alright, so, getting right into it: Macaque doesn’t really see Mk as a person at the start. 

It’s “…nothing personal!” because he has no personal connection to Mk at this point. Sure he might think he’s funny, might even enjoy training him in a weird way, he even says he’s a good kid, 

but he’s Sun Wukong’s student and a stepping stone to get to his Mentor and nothing more.