average lmk enjoyer

verse:

Stop and wait a sec And when you look at me like that, my darlin' What did you expect? I'd probably still adore you With your hands around my neck Or I did last time I checked Not shy of a spark The knife twists at the thought That I should fall short of the mark Frightened by the bite, though It's no harsher than the bark The middle of adventure Such a perfect place to start

a good chunk of people tend to downplay just how unhealthy of a dynamic they have when wukong and macaque aren't on civil speaking terms and it takes nothing for them to start arguing with each other. i like that the verse of this song covers that grey area of "what we have isn't healthy and even though we fight (physically or just verbally) i'm still attracted to you and still want to keep doing this" because, despite everything, wukong and macaque do continue to gravitate towards each other. luckily for them, i think they slowly but surely figure things out and find a healthy place between the codependency of their past and the hostile toxicity of their early canon present.

🌙 starting with moon

moon's chorus:

Veins of glass, paper skin, I'm torn Bones to ash, when I'm gone, please don't mourn This'll pass, I don't belong here anymore Poison love, our memories burn my mind What's it worth? Why'd you go and waste my time? Why'd you burn the bridge that I built for you?

definitely from macaque's perspective, especially after his "resurrection" (don't get me started on what i think actually happened. or do. please do.). there's this extreme amount of hurt and betrayal he's gotta be feeling after being killed by wukong, and wukong doesn't deserve to mourn macaque as far as macaque's concerned.

"i don't belong here anymore" brings flower fruit mountain to mind, and macaque saying it had been his home just as long as it was wukong's in season 5 stands out. it was his home, and at some point, it stopped being so.

"your buddy wukong values people based on how useful they are to him" comes to mind here. macaque feels taken advantage of, that he was only beneficial to wukong until he wasn't, and everything he did for wukong was discarded as soon as wukong found better people to use.

moon's verse 2:

Two stones, one bird, where'd the love go? Pain with every heartbeat, stop my blood flow Story of my life, what a dumb book I hate what's in the mirror so I don't look They say there's greener grass on the other side Gave water to my garden but the flowers died The moon looks huge in the night sky I must look so small from God's eyes

macaque's self esteem issues on full display. he's scarred, he feels stupid and used, he feels small and no longer has his purpose after wukong left him behind and killed him. oof.

bonus points to the moon (how macaque viewed himself at wukong's side) being viewed as something grand, and himself (now separate from wukong) now so, so small.

🔆 now onto sunlight

the entire song is about someone first meeting sunlight and falling so in love, they lose sense of their individual self and become entirely devoted to loving the sunlight.

sunlight's verse 1:

I would shun the light, share in evening's cool and quiet Who would trade that hum of night For sunlight, sunlight, sunlight? But whose heart would not take flight Betray the moon as acolyte On first and fierce affirming sight Of sunlight, sunlight, sunlight?

sunlight's chorus 2:

All that was shown to me, sunlight Was somethin' foreknown to me, sunlight Oh, sunlight Oh, your love is sunlight Oh, your love is sunlight Oh, but it is sunlight Oh, your love is sunlight Oh, your love is sunlight Oh, but it is sunlight, sunlight

once again fantastic sun and moon imagery here, and especially good food for anyone like me who loves the idea that prior to meeting wukong, there was nothing narratively remarkable about macaque, and we never get to know what he was like prior. his proper sense of living began when he met wukong and found a sense of purpose, that it was fate or destiny or who knows what leading him to wukong, but he finally found it.

this song just. embodies macaque's selfless dedication and blind following to wukong in their past. it's implied a lot through the series in macaque's dialogue that he valued himself based on what he could do for wukong, that he followed him blindly and learned too late what wukong's "true" nature was (which he later corrects himself on in season 4), and part of why he pays so much attention to mk is because of their similarities in how much they trust wukong.

special shout out to sunlight's verse 3:

Each day, you'd rise with me Know that I would gladly be The Icarus to your certainty Oh, my sunlight, sunlight, sunlight Strap the wing to me Death trap clad happily With wax melted, I’d meet the sea Under sunlight, sunlight, sunlight

so ready and willing to die for sunlight (wukong), happily dying as long as it was under sunlight. and yet, when he did die under sunlight, it wasn't quite in the dedicated way of a loyal warrior he'd envisioned.

verse 1:

You ought to know that I think we're one and the same I don't think we could help it, no, I don't think we could help it We don't talk much, guess 'cause nothing has changed And I'm not sure I like it, and I'm so tired of fighting

i feel like this is a pretty self explanatory verse in the context of shadowpeach. they are very similar and they dont talk much; that really hasn't changed. both of them, especially getting into season 5, are tired of this dynamic and the efforts to change this, to talk, lead to fighting.

chorus:

If I told you, you'd know how to go and break my heart in two 'Cause I would anyways, we'd end up like always You know me, you better show me that you could say it to my face 'Cause you know we're the same, there's worse things I can take

this is also pretty straight forward, and i think it could be argued to be from either wukong or macaque's perspectives too. they know each other so well, they know better than anybody else how to hurt each other, and there's this instinct to just fall back into the routine of fighting each other.

the "there's worse things i can take" really applies to both of them too. both of them have experienced much worse than fighting each other.

verse 2:

I know you hate it when there's nothing to say I'm not quite sure wе'd fix it, guess we're so usеd to it Wish I had known this from the beginning We'd find it hard to work out, why we have all this doubt

this verse is a bit interesting, in that it's saying "if i'd known this from the beginning, that we'd have all these issues i'm not sure we can work out, i wonder if i would still be trying now". and i think that's a really interesting sentiment to explore with them. like, is it worth it to try to work through all our issues? is it worth it to keep trying despite the list of problems growing longer? if we'd known where we'd end up, would we still have been part of each others lives? those are all things that people writing for shadowpeach have to keep in mind.

where's the line, when wukong and macaque decide to just accept their toxic, unhealthy dynamic, giving up on the relationship they could have (because it was always unhealthy, just in a different way in the past) vs the two of them still trying, despite how easy it would be to give up, because it's worth the fight? that a potential relationship, one where they're truly happy and understand each other, is worth the fight?

i think this song can go from the perspective of wukong or macaque, because both of them have a lot of things they never communicated and both of them have a lot of questions they never got answered as well.

pre-chorus and chorus:

You disappeared without a trace You never bothered to explain You just walked away All I wanted was an answer All I needed was to know Give me a reason I need a reason All those messages I left you All those nights I spent alone Give me a reason 'Cause all that I hear is A dial tone Dial tone

for any younger people unfamiliar since cellphones dont have this, a dial tone is the sound a landline phone makes when you can start dialing, not after you've entered a number. hearing that dial tone means they still havent actually called the person they want to speak to, and it means theyve just about given up trying to understand each other entirely despite still holding onto their past.

both wukong and macaque, as we saw them in the past, seemed to share similar feelings of never being listened to and feeling abandoned/left behind by the other, and that seems to shape their interactions through the future. i can imagine both of them through their past wondering a lot about why things changed between them.

verse 2:

When I close my eyes I can feel you breathe down my neck Now I'm only half-alive And I hate that I miss your smile But it's only half the time Now I'm up all night Got me checking my phone for the thousandth time Told me that you never wanted this to die

i also enjoy this verse for them because we can see through the later seasons how both of them linger around each other, while still avoiding bringing up their history and their issues directly. both of them want to ask, both of them want answers, but neither of them will cave.

the chorus:

No me mires con esos ojos (Que me) Me deslumbras (Que me) Me derrumbas No me mires con esos ojos (Porque) Te lo doy todo (Oh no) Ni modo No me mires con esos ojos (Que me) Me derrites (Que me) Me transmites La vergüenza de el sol Quien en su resplandor se ve opacado A tu lado (Oh, oh, oh)

translated into english (note it's not direct translation):

don't look at me with those eyes (with them) you dazzle me (with them) you destroy me don't look at me with those eyes (because) i give you everything (oh no) nothing can be changed don't look at me with those eyes (with them) you make me melt (with them) you give to me the sun's own shame, who, in its radiance, is overshadowed when beside you

so lol, definitely another macaque song for me. macaque in the past was so weak to wukong's will, and especially with the sun and moon imagery following them, i felt this song suited them. the majority of the song is taken up by the choruses and the verses are much shorter.

the chorus:

One day I will stop falling in love with you Some day Someone will like me like I like you Until then I'll drink my coffee Eat my pie Pretend that we are more than friends Then of course I'll let you break my heart again

i really enjoy this song in the context of past!shadowpeach and the perspective of macaque. i think with how attached he is to wukong, it's likely he would've recognized his feelings for what they were but never properly voiced them or tried to have more in their relationship.

even better is the second verse:

I'm just tryna understand What I am to you More than songs we've exchanged Midnight calls Sunset views Promise I don't mean to cry But I get overwhelmed and confused If only you knew What I felt like