I think I finally figured out why this scene was so... I wanna say off setting? to me. (This also kinda ties into the recent flood of Mk isn't human theories)
"I never thought I'd live this long, let alone be somebody's mentor"
Ignoring the first part what does he mean by he never thought he'd be someone's mentor? He says it as if he didn't choose to have a successor he says it as if teaching mk was something that he had to do on a whim
And "I've been kinda watching you" among the flashbacks that show him throughout the episode there is this one
And you can immediately tell that this wasn't in the episode and that this was something that happened before hand meaning Wukong was watching mk before he ever went after the staff and I'm also pretty sure he's the one that ordered the noodles that brought mk to the staff in the first place so Wukong knew ahead of time that he was gonna have to help the kid
But still he talks and acts like wasn't preparing to teach someone. ever. And you can't even say that "oh he needed someone to fight DBK" because he CLEARLY could've done that himself and much faster at that if he really wanted to but he doesn't, he has Mk do it.
So if Wukong wasn't watching Mk to make him his successor then... What was it about mk that drew Monkey King to him? What was it that gave Wukong the need to be watching this kid?
When the monkeys trapped in the scroll slowly come back together, Macaque asked how many were stuck in the scroll.
Macaque: “How many of these little guys are in here?”
MK: “I dunno, a barrel’s worth?”
Macaque looked so offended by how many monkeys were trapped that he whipped his head towards MK so quick with a face that says “The hell?” 💀
I feel like this small detail shows more about how Macaque cares about these guys then just letting them climb onto him during the entire scroll quest.
honestly Macaque’s reaction was just funny too LOL
I am sorry for I am about to bring fluff of lbd host being like Mk's younger siblings, why cuz Mk has great sibling energy and no one can tell me otherwise