macaque recognizing the fillet when a new one gets clasped on wukong is interesting because when would he have learned what that is and what it did? wukong only got the fillet After he became xuanzang’s disciple…
it’s unlikely that macaque would’ve run into the pilgrims before his final confrontation with wukong unless it was from afar and he witnessed firsthand the capabilities of the fillet. otherwise, the only assumption is that he Did disguise himself as wukong in LMK, right down to the fillet and experienced its punishment himself, just like in the book. then when either wukong put him down or macaque let go of the transformation, his fillet dissolved.
if not that, then macaque would’ve had to discover what it was on the fly while wukong was beating his ass—or he would’ve had to experience someone punishing wukong with it during their final fight. idk which scenario is worse honestly because the horror of it all…
anyway all this to say. macaque’s panic when they put a new fillet on wukong fulfills me :^)
