Hot Take: Sensei Garmadon isn’t actually any better than Wu and this NEEDS to be said
A common sentiment in this fandom is that Sensei Garmadon far surpasses Wu as a teacher to the ninja. People say that he’s better because he doesn’t keep secrets from the ninja. He tells them everything up front and doesn’t use pointless riddles. And that he "actually teaches them to fight instead of just talking".
The frustrating thing is that this is not true. Like at all. Matter of fact, these points can be debunked by just watching the show and actually paying attention. I’m going to go through these points one by one and explain why they’re ridiculous.
But first I’d like to preface this whole post by saying that comparing Wu and Garmadon like this to begin with is stupid. Because while we’ve had Wu for 15+ seasons, we’ve only have Sensei Garmadon for two seasons.
We’ve had so much more time with Wu to get to know his strengths and weaknesses as a teacher. We didn’t have that time with Garmadon. We didn’t even see him actually teach anyone but Lloyd. Seriously, when did he ever actually train the ninja outside of his introduction episode? In ToE he was more of a guide/mentor than a trainer.
For people to claim that Garmadon is way better than Wu is already a dishonest argument because of the disproportionate screentime between them. How can you ever make an accurate assessment without equal amounts of data for both subjects?
Besides, from what we DID see, Garmadon really isn’t that much better than Wu.
Exhibit A: "He doesn’t keep secrets"
Yes he does. I genuinely don’t know where people got this from. This idea that Garmadon is completely and totally transparent with the ninja and doesn’t keep anything from them like Wu does.
This could NOT be more false.
First of all, let’s look at our villain of the season everyone points to when making this argument. Chen. Garmadon’s evil former sensei, who is also a war criminal, and somehow owns a restaurant chain on the mainland.
Now he’s coming out of the woodwork and causing trouble, and the ninja have to stop him.
Oh! Whats this? A villain from sensei’s past coming back to take over the world? Wow, this is very familiar! This is the part where everyone shits on Wu for not telling the ninja about this one specific villain from his large rouges gallery-
Oh but wait. Chen is Garmadon’s villain, not Wu’s.
So does the fandom then direct their ire at Garmadon? NOPE!
Matter of fact, they don’t even acknowledge it!
Garmadon doesn’t so much as peep about Chen until he started causing problems, which is EXACTLY what people criticize Wu for. But does anyone give him crap for it? NO. NOBODY DOES.
So already there’s this double standard where if a villain from Wu’s past returns, Wu is at fault for not mentioning them. But if it’s a villain from Garmadon’s past, it’s a-okay!
Then there’s the scene where Lloyd asks him “hey are there other people with powers like us?" If Garmadon was as transparent as people make him out to be then surely he’d answer Lloyd honestly right? Nah, instead he responds "why do you ask?" In a tone that says: you aren’t supposed to know that yet.
Hell, Kai literally asks him why he and Wu never told them and he responds "because there are some things we don’t want you to know." What else is that but an admission of keeping secrets?
ALSO THE CHARACTERS THEMSELVES CALL HIM OUT FOR KEEPING SECRETS MULTIPLE TIMES!!!
Lloyd: "When I asked my dad about, he got really suspicious. Like there’s something he’s keeping from me."
Kai: "Why haven’t you or Wu ever told us there are others with powers like us?"
Lloyd: "You never told me about this place. How do you know so much about this island?"
Lloyd: "You never told me you had a sensei."
Lloyd: "Even after all this time, you never told Wu about your past with Chen?"
Additionally, Garmadon knows almost everything Wu does. All those villains that Wu fought? Garmadon fought them too. If Wu deserves crap for it, so does Garmadon. Because if he’s so much better, why didn’t HE sit down the ninja and tell them about every single villain they fought during their thousands of years of life?
Why didn’t he tell LLOYD? You know, his son? The Green Ninja? The grandson of the FSM and the one who will inevitably carry on their legacy? Why didn’t he tell him about the elemental masters, or potential villains, or his DRAGONI HERITAGE???
And I can’t forget the most damning of his secrets: THE LETTER. The one that he stole from his brother and passed off as his own to trick Misako into marrying him basically. A lie that he was comfortable maintaining even after the venom was purged from him. A decision that he admitted was made out of fear of losing Misako, not because of the venom.
It wasn’t until Lloyd encouraged him that he was ready to tell the truth.
So yeah, that mf Garmadon keeps LOTS of secrets. Just as many as Wu. Arguably worse given The Letter. And he doesn’t say a word about any of it until his past comes back to haunt him.
And the fact that the fandom SOMEHOW believes that he’s the more honest brother is baffling.
Exhibit B: "When he does keep secrets, he does it for a good reason".
We are only given TWO reasons as to why he keeps secrets.
1. "Because there are some things we don’t want you to know."
2. He was ashamed of his past mistakes. The reason he never told Wu or Misako about his past with Chen was because he hated himself for the path he was taking. And he hated how he lied to both of them and was afraid of the fallout should the truth be revealed.
Are these really good reasons? Or a better question would be: are these reasons you would accept from Wu? If the answer is no then the hypocrisy is abundantly clear and nothing more needs to be said.
Exhibit C: "He actually teaches the ninja stuff"
What exactly does he teach them that Wu doesn’t? Again, we never see him actually training them outside of his introduction episode. Sure, he taught them the Art of the Silent Fist. But Lloyd’s the only one that ever actually applied it.
When do the other ninja ever think back to Garmadon’s teachings? When do they ever apply said teachings in a way that surpasses Wu’s?
Wu was the one that taught them to fight, the one that taught them the ways of the ninja, the one that taught them to be kind and understanding even to someone they consider an enemy. He’s the one that made them into the ninja force they are today.
Garmadon didn’t do much beyond making sure they didn’t stoop to Chen’s level during the tournament. That’s not to undermine the importance of that, but it’s not nearly enough to say that he’s a much better teacher than Wu.
People often say Garmadon is better because he’s more direct and doesn’t use riddles like Wu does. Again, this is not really something that makes Garmadon inherently better than Wu.
Riddles can be irritating sure, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a valid teaching method. It encourages students to think outside the box and use their wits. We see that in the early seasons the ninja were only really focused on the fighting aspect of being a ninja. Wu wanted them to use their heads instead of their fists, because that’s also important.
And it’s not like solving riddles isn’t an important skill for a ninja to have. It absolutely is!! I mean just look at when they were looking for the FSM’s tomb. When you’re a ninja going to ancient temples, caves, pyramids and stuff, learning how to solve riddles is pretty important!
The only reason people say otherwise is because they personally find riddles annoying. Which is understandable, but not a valid criticism of Wu’s teaching style. At least, not enough to say Garmadon is so much better.
Conclusion and some additional points:
When you actually look at evidence from the show, it becomes painfully obvious that Garmadon isn’t at all superior to his brother. If anything they have the same flaws, and slightly different teaching styles.
He keeps secrets just like Wu does, he agrees with the way Wu keeps certain information away from the ninja, he didn’t actually train anyone but Lloyd, in the beginning he had very little faith in them and considered them foolish, none of the ninja besides Lloyd actually internalized his teachings, etc.
This sentiment that Sensei Garmadon is the better teacher stems purely from personal bias. It’s no secret that people are way more fond of Garmadon as a character than Wu (and people have lower expectations for villains/reformed villains in general), so it’s only natural that they’d consider Garmadon the better teacher despite the OVERWHELMING evidence to the contrary.
It’s stupid, and as someone who loves Sensei Garmadon I’m SO SICK of people glazing him like this. It’s ridiculous and hypocritical to claim he’s a much better sensei while also holding him to lower standards than Wu.
The day the fandom at large starts to realize this more is the day I’ll be joining the FSM in the grasslands.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
