#don’t even get me started on Porty being in Embrace Your Destiny | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kai-keda · 2 years

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any new lmk hot takes 🔥🔥🔥

The LBD host - known in the active fandom as Bai He - does not need to become a major character and especially does not need to be a new member of the main cast.

Is there a lot of potential for her? Yes.

Could a lot of awesome storylines and character arcs come from her? Yes.

Does that automatically mean it’s best for the show to include those? No.

The “Embrace Your Destiny” specials really solidified a problem I’ve noticed from the beginning with the show’s writing by bringing all of the issues to a peak.

They’re trying to do too much in too little time.

In my initial analysis video of the show from when all that was out at the time was up to the Spider Queen Special, I brought up how I felt like the writers were forgetting to ‘Let your audience BREATHE’ because of how fast everything went. “Embrace Your Destiny” is the biggest example of this issue because there’s so much information being thrown at the audience that we hardly got any chance to process before the next big story-beat happened.

I could go on about that issue for forever and I’m considering making a video on it but after talking about it more than once in a server I’m in, I don’t feel it’s as big of a hot take as the Bai He thing.

The reason I bring it up, though, is because I feel a big reason FOR so many major story elements feeling rushed through is that there are too many characters that the writers are trying to develop.

Think about poor Sandy. We have three seasons - THREE SEASONS - of episodes and only ONE that touches on his character. This is made worse because the inner-conflicts we’re clued in on with him in “To Catch a Leaf” do not go ANYWHERE. I’m not saying they can’t or aren’t planning to in the future, and I’m not saying they’re required to give him a character arc for a good story (tho I could argue that it’s expected since he’s in the opening alongside everyone else and is presented as equally important), but it currently feels weird that he was so quickly regulated to “We don’t know what to do with him because we don’t have time to flesh him out at all so let’s just give him funny lines and faces while every other main character has a part in either developing their own arcs or the overarching plot.” AFTER they opened up an arc for him.

I honestly feel like if they didn’t have the time to explore his character and the conflicts he has further, then they would have been better off using that time for something else and saving the tease of his past for later.

The writers made a good call not including Red Son in Season 2.

You read that right.

Me, the person referring to Red Son as “My Dulcinea” because “Comfort Character” doesn’t do the subconscious emotions I discovered I have with him through hindsight justice and so the only terminology I can think of to do those feelings justice is referencing my favorite musical of all time that no one else has listened to in five ever and a day.

Me, the person who feels there’s so much to explore with his character and could easily find ways to fit him into the story of Season 2 narratively speaking.

I feel it was the best call to not include him.

Why? Because they didn’t have time to write the story they wanted while including justifiable reasoning for him to be there.

(Note that by ‘Time’ I’m referring to how long the episodes are and how many episodes they have. Not the deadlines to finish scripts)

If the show writers are already rushing through major plot elements in order to make sure they have plenty of time to close off Macaque’s arc (like when Red Son TOLD us that DBK and PIF ‘succumbed’ to the Lady Bone Demon and we saw NONE OF IT until they were released from her magic at the VERY END of the special which showed that Red Son and Mei had both ALREADY KNOWN THAT by the time we rejoined them as Mei wasn’t shocked to hear it) AND completely dropped/paused exploring/elaborating on Sandy’s inner-conflict that was already introduced to us in favor of having an entire episode introducing and solving a new one for Tang that we didn’t have any sign of him having before (that’s a whole ‘nother hot take)

Then what has everyone so convinced that they have time to explore possible major character arcs with the girl that was possessed by Lady Bone Demon?

We can justify it narratively and I could go on all day every day about concepts for the Fake Mayor being a past host that has been influenced by LBD for so long that he is a shell of his former self and that he and Bai He could have a beautiful bond over the understanding that no one else could possibly know what they went through better than they both do.

But does it fit in the shows genre/target audience AND do they have time?

I argue no to the latter and maybe to the former.

The girl the Lady Bone Demon had possessed will be best served as a character that occasionally comes in for some noodles (heck, I’d argue that she could work as a supporting character that is involved in some conversations about stuff going on because she’s around but still doesn’t have any full character-arcs of her own being explored in depth)

The show is adding too many characters and doesn’t have enough time to properly explore all of them.

Stop hiring more cooks.

Sandy doesn’t have room to make tea in the kitchen.

#lego monkie kid #monkie kid #lmk #Monkie kid analysis #lmk analysis #lmk hot take #anon ask #Kai Keda Analysis #don’t even get me started on Porty being in Embrace Your Destiny #I love him - I do - but HE WAS NOT NECESSARY #he didn’t DO anything #it could be argued that he was helping to speed the car up I guess but THAT IS ME BEING AS GENEROUS AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE #the minute or so of screen time with him could have EASILY been put to better use #like at least giving us a no-dialogue flashback of Red Son picking Mei up #taking her to his families fortress #and then seeing DBK and PIF get got #that would have been SO MUCH MORE EMOTIONALLY POWERFUL #than Red Son just SAYING #my parents got got #WTF WAS UP WITH THAT AHHHHH #keep in mind I do love the specials overall #I just feel - writing wise - they’re the weakest parts of the show

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kai-keda · 2 years

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I just wanted to say that your recent analyses on Lego Monkie Kid have been excellent and well-constructed arguments.

Screenwriters are human, so they'll have narrative holes in their writing, likely by mistake. Thank you for helping to expose the plot holes in Lego Monkie Kid, for this will help other writers to avoid similar plot holes in the future.

I doubt I'm the only one who appreciates the firm way of how you backed up your arguments in your takes, and I have to say, I agree with the recent three you've posted. (The ones concerning Macaque, Red Son, Sandy, and Bai He.)

Awww this is really sweet!

I love this show so much, but it does have some flaws in the writing and I think it’s fair to point those flaws out without being accused of hating the show or the staff. Heck, the last post about Macaque was actually focused on how I LOVE how they wrote him and closed out his character-arc and WHY I loved it. The initial hot take that started this conversation was mostly a hot take about what I DON’T want to see happen and was against a very popular fandom expectation for the show as opposed to what the show actually did. Granted that post included pointing out flaws I’ve noticed in the writing (mostly about Sandy’s character) but the main point was more a cautionary “oh I hope they don’t do this…” thing.

Double granted I do have other issues with the writing but rushing through things and adding unnecessary stuff in there when they’re already working with not-enough time is the main problem.

(Seriously - what they did with Tang in “Benched” was weak and annoying and I’m actually bothered by how that episode started with a character feeling useless and ended with saying “You’re not useless cause here’s some magic powers” instead of “You don’t NEED to be useful to be a beloved family member and friend.” Or at least say he’s not useless by having him use the skills we have already seen him have. Like wtf actually did they do to our boy)

The only thing in the show I believe was an actual mistake that genuinely makes me UPSET to think about is Porty being in “Embrace Your Destiny.” (Even ignoring why I’m kinda meh on the specialty clones appearing after Duplictnation in the first place)There was no justification for that. At all. Not even any character reasoning. Like, him being there did. NOTHING. I feel bad saying that cause I’m mutuals with someone on Twitter who loves the clones - Porty especially - a heck of a lot and I love that for them, I really genuinely honestly do. I love their content that includes Porty and Mixtapeshipping and their original stuff for Porty is great! And they loved seeing Porty in EYD, and I don’t want to tell them that THEY have to hate that he was there all because I do.

But I just… I love Porty, too, he was really fun. His “Never forget… da music…” line before his ‘death’ was the moment I went “Oh shit this show is actually hilarious af” but the issue of time constraints being so glaringly obvious made Porty in EYD being better left on the cutting room floor and yet still in the episodes all the more frustrating.

And I always feel the need to say this just in case someone thinks I’m being unreasonable:

I do recognize that there was a possibility something he was doing with the car was making it go faster but that is SUCH a stretch because they did NOTHING to express that directly. We’ve never even seen him do anything like that before! And the ONLY REASON I can say that that MIGHT have been the intent was because of his line about the car being at “Maximum Porty” but, again, I’m stretching to make that connection. Because what does “Maximum Porty” mean, anyways??? Genuinely I stand by my theory that there was a whole episode cut after the initial drafts and the crew had to scramble to cut and paste things together.

Good fanservice? We get to see Red Son with his hair down. It didn’t interrupt or negatively impacted the writing.

Bad fanservice? Porty in Embrace Your Destiny. Gonna be really hard to get me to change my mind on that.

Now, as much as I appreciate the compliment and the point of how pointing out flaws in writing is not some terrible evil thing fueled by hated, I still feel the need to point out that I wouldn’t call these criticisms “plot holes”.

Nothing in what I said contradicts or actually makes the main plot of the story fall apart, imho. My criticisms are mostly about characterizations and feeling like arcs were dropped or mishandled and wanting to see better. The story is still solid but the characters and their arcs could have had more weight and meant more if these flaws in the writing weren’t there.

Heck, even my whole Porty rant - His biggest crime for existing is taking up time when he had no reason to be there. He didn’t break anything, he just… wasted everyone’s time.

Like you said, though, the writing staff is human. I don’t think they’re any less a talented crew for these flaws - far from it! And I still love this show and get a lot out of the characters and the stories otherwise I wouldn’t care to talk about it.

And remember!

The Lego Monkie Kid interpretation of Sun Wukong has never done anything wrong ever in his entire life and pissing in Buddha’s hand does not count.

#lego monkie kid #monkie kid #lmk analysis #kai keda analysis

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