He Has Strong Dragon Teeth🐲☆. And You Can't Change My Mind.

Wu’s character development is especially interesting (as far as Ninjago characters go) since the early seasons see him as a somewhat static character: the old, wise, morally righteous, serious mentor figure who occasionally helps deliver a punchline. In the early seasons, he sees some change to both his character and the way the audience perceives his character, but he doesn’t have outstanding, main character level development. In season 5, the audience gets introduced to a different side of Wu as the villain of Morro’s story, but the way it’s told still frames Wu as this wise mentor in order to show why Morro went down the path he did. It (explicitly) emphasises Morro’s pride and pursuit of glory rather than Wu’s recklessness, but I would guess that at this time, it’s because Wu was still meant to be a relatively static character and the writers wanted to maintain his authority.

Even though this revelation isn’t delivered to demonstrate that Wu isn’t as infallible as the audience might have assumed, it does present the idea that Wu has hurt people in the past and that Wu could be considered a villain in a certain point of view. The explanation of how Garmadon came to be infected by the Devourer’s venom is another example along the same lines: at that point in the show, I don’t believe the writers were trying to set up a complex web of perspectives without a true villain, so the venom flashback primarily explains Garmadon’s villainy rather than Wu’s questionable character. Wu does take some accountability for his mistake, but that’s how it’s framed: a mistake, not a sense of wickedness. Also, the idea of Wu’s personal imperfections isn’t immediately elaborated any further, so it isn’t made very important.

In “Never Trust a Human”, the audience is finally introduced to a much more irresponsible version of Wu: the episode, not just a flashback, is dedicated to Aspheera’s transformation into a villain and the fact that Wu was to blame for it. Aspheera’s desire for revenge, her primary motivation, frequently reminds the audience that she had been wronged, which means that somebody had wronged her.

In this way, Wu’s character development is witnessed in reverse, forcing the audience to challenge their assumptions about him (and often Garmadon, by the closeness of their character arcs). The Ninjago writing really leaves something to be desired, and tonight I wish that the Ninjago writers had been able to anticipate how long the show would run so that they could really weave an intricate reverse character arc for Wu (and Garmadon). For all the ninja talk about “full potential”, the show itself really misses out on a lot of good storytelling (but that’s another post. Perhaps 2.).

Since Wu’s development is witnessed in reverse, the statement that Wu is a bad person or a villain is not necessarily true: his wrongs and failings are established after his goodness and mentorship, but they happened first in the show’s timeline. Since his mistakes, he has grown and changed and matured to become a good guy and a good person. It’s easy to perceive Wu as evil and twist his actions into villainy and joke that Wu is the true Ninjago villain, but the fact is that he did make mistakes, but he grew and became a better person because of them:

He refused to take action and retrieve his katana, resulting in Garmadon being bitten by the Devourer. Afterwards, he began to take initiative and act in favor of what he believed was right. Most importantly, he formed the ninja team.

He was irresponsible when he taught Aspheera Spinjitzu, resulting in her turning into a villain. Afterwards, he began to be more careful and take his role more seriously. He led the Elemental Alliance and trained students (one can assume successfully).

He took his role too seriously and overlooked Morro as a person, instead pushing him to become the Green Ninja, where he unintentionally led Morro to believe that he was a liar. In his interactions with the ninja, he acknowledges their personal goals and motives, and most importantly, he conceals the scroll with the prophecy of the Green Ninja to prevent them from going down the same path as Morro.

And of course Wu seems to conceal his wrongdoings (‘ninja, there is something I have not yet told you…’), but one has to keep in mind that he is very old. His past actions are things that he has learned and grown from and the ones from his childhood happened a very long time ago at the time of Ninjago’s main canon. He doesn’t consider them important to mention, because they aren’t, and would only reduce his credibility with the ninja and threaten the team if he just told them all his past faults without good reason.

Tl;dr

Wu isn’t the villain that I see some of the fandom making him out to be.

Okay, so..

You have one day. Spread it around before it's too late

Garmadaddy in bodysuit ~ uwu🤌

Lloyd plush confirmed canon and now I thrust one into Garmadon's arms and watch him sob violently while trying to sheild the green thing from his firey tears.

'Get well soon, my son.' – 💜

Survivalshipping is funny and amazing and i love it but yknow what would make it even funnier? If, on top of Garmadon dating Vinny, Misako ends up dating, like, Gayle Gossip. Completely independently of him, like neither Misako nor Garmadon are aware of the other's new relationship. So then when they both get invited as the plus-one to like an NGTV News company dinner or something, theyre both just kinda staring at each other like -

Meanwhile Lloyd is just kinda dying in the background. He thought his family drama would end with his dads evil corpse disowning him and adopting a plant instead, but nope! Now hes gotta deal with whatever the hell this is

Slay~ Queen~

Hey, umm... Can you?

I feel like

Redrawing garmadon fanarts by my followers

Give me your garmadon art

//Squeezing him.

OG Yeppie squeezed⬇️