Let me tell you my problem with the Samadhi Fire.
So we're given a toddler who understandably throws tantrums and is emotional a lot.
Much like any other toddler.
But this really fucking strong fire is thrown into the mix.
Instead of trying to find ways to teach him how to be calm and control his fire better, they try to control him(as said by PIF, even their combined might could not control him) eventually they decide that they should take it away from him
Now remember what Red Son told Mei in the final battle? That she doesn't wield the fire, she IS the fire
Probably talking from experience.
So basically, they locked parts of this kid into rings.
Also the amazing parenting of DBK makes an appearance: he kept one of the rings.
Since he got a mountain on top of him he wasn't around that much, but he didn't know that would happen, so he fully intended to keep a part of his son on his person at all times, as a constant reminder to the kid that yeah that was ripped from him.
And he didn't even get it back???
I love Mei and i fully support her girbossing around, but it would have been such an amazing move towards Red Son's inevitable redemption arc if he was the one to use the Samadhi Fire in the final battle.
(His whole significance in JTTW was because of the Samadhi Fire, so it feels to me like this way of dealing with it was just an excuse to hint toward dragonfruit(which i feel is forced, but i explained that a bit more in another post))
(For some reason, I feel strongly for characters who got things taken from them, or got replaced, or any combination of the two)
(Dunno why)
At one point in their friendship, Red Son and/or Mei was like "is this some sort of peasant joke I'm too rich to understand?" toward Mk, and you can't convince me otherwise
Me: *just chilling in class*
My brain: hey what if you made a super long oneshot with an AU about the Samadhi Fire. The five parts of it(the four rings plus Red Son himself) could represent the five stages of grief AND the five elements(because in jttw the Samadhi Fire is made of all elements and that's why it's inextiguishable and super powerful) and the rings took not ring forms and for example the blue ring could be depression and water(despite the obvious choice of having the dragon ring be the water one) and it could take the form of a fish and just imagine it swimming around in nonexistent water in a crater on the moon as if it's a lake, but it's really just swimming around in the air.
And so on, and they arent exactly conscious, but they are constantly trying to go back together, but the one that ended up in Ao Lie DOES have a teensy weensy tiny bit of consciousness and it can experience everything the current person it's in experiences and it hates it because the wanting to go back together again is way more painful like this that it can experience things, and you know just the general feeling of not being able to do anything, being locked inside a foreign body and having to see everything they see.
And Red Son would sometimes randomly get insane, like, immobilizingly painful flashes of pain(aka the pain of the samadhi fire (aka him) being ripped apart) and even more rarely he would, in his dreams, see flashes of what the dragon part sees and like-
Wukong: All right, everyone who thought I was Red Son's dad raise your hand!
Everyone: *raises hands*
Wukong: Red put your hand down!
IM DO SORRY TO ANYONE I SPILED THINGS TO I ACCIDENTALY DIDNT PUT A SPIULER WARNING BUT HERE IT IS NOW
S4 special spoiler warning
Me in school:
Red Boy:*vibrating out of his skin because he got to meet Nezha*
Nezha:*mentally creating a list of things Wukong really needs to teach the kid(stranger danger is high on the list, because it was pure luck that he only met nice people)*
S4 special spoilers kinda
HELP NOT MK MAKING A RED SON
Wukong: Alright. Just have to keep my sworn-brother-who-i-just-sealed-under-a-mountain's kid from dying for an unspecified amount of time, no problem
Baby Red: *holds wukongs finger in that specific baby way*
Wukong: Oh no! I am attached
Wanted to make a meme with this about the Golden Flames AU, but it wasn't much of a choice
I'll make one anyway:
Wukong: I am a living legend, I don't need anyone (not anymore)
Red Boy: *exists*
Wukong: