I've Been Seeing The Drama About How The Ninjago Fandom Thinks That Wu Is Abusive For Raising "child

I've been seeing the drama about how the ninjago fandom thinks that Wu is abusive for raising "child soldiers" and all. But to me, personally, I've always seen it as, like, the equivalent of my 9yo brother going to kickboxing class? Wu didn't shove elemental powers onto them immediatley, he just trained them in general martial arts and probably lots of mental training as well. It wasn't until they were in their teens, probably about 15-16, when he actually revealed about their elemental powers and their fate to fight Garmadon/the green ninja. Some people may look at this as child soldiers, but keep in mind that in Nazi Germany/The Netherlands kids THAT AGE were fighting and killing Nazi soldiers. In the end, it was their choice to stay and fight, just like with the ninja. Besides, Wu was--for the most part--there right beside them until they started to get older. This is talked about in Season 13!

He cares about them like a father would. He knew most of their parents really well and was probably a designated godfather for all of them! He would only do what he thought was best for them, and would not force them into anything. If they wanted to leave, they could leave.

I feel like what they were meant to do was something that they needed to be trained for since they were kids anyways. As many people talked about, elemental powers are apart of them, not just weapon. He probably had to train each ninja differently so that the adjustments to their powers would not hurt them. Without as much training, we don't know what the powers would have done to them, or if they would have been able to reach their true potential.

Is Wu a perfect person? No. But I think he loves his kids like a father and would do absolutely anything for them. They trust him. So I trust him. Thank you for listening to my TED Talk