1

I've often seen MK's speech when Mei was burning alive associated with whatever happened surrounding Macaque's death, and it makes sense.

Wukong looks over his shoulder with a dejected expression at what MK says. Then, instead of looking relieved when MK throwing his life to save Mei results with both of them safe and sound, he looks horrified. It makes perfect sense to associate all that with guilt, and I kind of do too.

The headscratcher is that it's more straightfowardly a parallel to the fight against the Jade Emperor, in which it was Macaque that "abandoned [Wukong] when he needed him," not the other way around. I wonder if the writers wrote themselves into a corner.

2

I like thinking of LBD in terms of black-pill ideologies. She worked her whole life to build a better world, as she saw it, until she decided the dream that embodied her insurmountable, unaddressed misanthropy was actually a premonition, and veered to manifest it as "destiny".

3

It's kind of interesting MK's "retcon" of LBD's "that pursuit only leads to one thing: to pain." C'mon now, kid. She wasn't talking about how she was bound to cause pain to her friends and her world. She was talking about herself. Everything she did was for the good of everyone around her, as she saw it, but it made her a walking rotten wound. She thinks that if MK keeps hoping to make things better, like she did, he'll end up miserable like her.

4

Nine headed demon unintentional anarchy

5

The brotherhood as a polity is kind of interesting. They act like they are in agreement but they're kind of split into three different factions (Peng n DBK, Azure n Yellow Tusk, Wukong n Macaque) with one common goal (dethrone the Jade emperor).

Peng (done squabbling for scraps) n DBK (the realm is long overdue for new leadership) want more power. Azure n Tusk (they have lorded long enough with no regard for those they rule) want to break Heaven's monopoly. Wukong n Macaque want to maintain the mountain's status quo.

Macaque and Wukong obviously have an asterisk here. They agree on wanting to keep the mountain safe, but Macaque thinks they already have what they need to achieve that, while Wukong is worried about hypothetical threats. For a reason of your pick, though, Macaque acquiesces to Wukong's methods.

6

It's VERY interesting to me that MK didn't really sacrifice himself for "the world" or "humanity" - he sacrificed himself for his friends, specifically. When it was clear that his friends as he knew them wouldn't make it, he bailed the fuck out. This show really said fuck Samsara

7

"Mei was right; I need to stop dragging you into my fights." brother did not hear what Mei fucking said

Things Mei criticized him for: leading them without a real plan; putting MK in danger while leaving him to figure out everything on his own; how his avoidance was hurting them.

And listen, I hate to do this when Mei is given almost nothing in this show, but it's not shipping goggles, it's just standard reading glasses:

What he heard her say was "He's gotta drag everyone else into his mess!". Right? That's kind of word for word what he answered to.

8

Wukong's favorite pastime with Macaque canonically is "not-complimenting" him.

The last one can get a little sad if you do some extrapolation. Wkng said that after alluding to his defeat against the Jade Emperor and Mac ditching him ("Classic: I get all the punishment and you get to mope!"). Back then, Mac failed him in his eyes when he didn't want, like Wukong did, to risk being trapped in the mountain with him.

9

Not anywhere near enough fanfiction writers make use of Wukong having canonically called Macaque a peach.

10

Understandably Macaque is often portrayed as one-sidedly attached to Wukong ◉

◉ Considering 1) Macaque expresses wanting to fucking kill Wukong, 2) his only stated motivation for anything until S3 is "hates Wukong", 3) S2-7 has him mainly complain that he was "forgotten" by Wukong, that "the second [Wukong] got real power, he couldn't care less about his friends", 4) Wukong treats him as basically a persistent gnat until S3-9, 5) S4 shows Macaque in the past folding to Wukong's whims consistently

11

I was thinking of how fanfics often portray Macaque staying/being left behind when Wukong goes off in an adventure.

12

Most things that are Macaque's is fanon. 'Dojo', six-ears, theater.

13

[Macaque] "Not the Great Sage - he doesn't listen to anyone!"

then

[Pigsy] "Don't bother. I've been telling him that for years, but he literally never listens."
[Monkey King] "Yep, that's how we roll."
(Macaque arrives.)

I wonder if it's the text intentionally communicating something.