#keep in mind that im not a wu expert lol

[wilcze-kudly]

Okay you have me intrigued by Wu’s character and now that has me wondering about a bit about his upbringing and childhood. Mainly, what ever happened to his parents? Has it ever been said what happened to them? If there’s nothing much on them, I’m coming to the idea that whether one of his parents were a younger or older sibling to Hou-Ting, I can imagine her being the type to somehow perhaps have a hand in a subtle assassination of her sibling and their partner. Would be even more of a reason to commit that kind of backstabbing if they were the older sibling.

Also some part of me feels in some way, he’s like Kuei, but far more active/involved as well as fleshed out in a sense.

Well, we don't get many specifics on Wu's childhood or upbringing but we are actually told that he isn't a direct nephew to Hou-Ting.

Mike: He's uh, he's uh, he's like a n-not a-not a direct nephew, but... Bryan: Yeah, something through marriage.

So my personal headcanon is that Wu is descended from some royal family member who renounced the royal title. I can see Wu's parents as soft hearted, kind people, but also pretty much pushovers who couldn't stand up to Hou-Ting for the life of them. So Hou-Ting wouldn't really need to kill Wu's parents, though I wouldn't put it past her and its a very intriguing headcanon.

I personally think Hou-Ting knew she wasn't gonna get an heir of her own (or maybe she just didn't wanna put herself through that can't blame her tbh). So she just followed the line of succession and found the next in line, a young Wu and pulled rank over his parents, arranging to have a lot of control over his upbringing.

She just strikes me as the kind of woman who wouldn't want to leave her kingdom in the hands of someone who isn't carrying on her legacy in some manner, but also is too lazy to actually put the work in of raising a child herself.

I can see Wu having grown up in the palace at Hou-Ting's side, but mainly being raised by nannies and au pairs. He would have little contact with his parents, who never really fought that hard to get him back and whenever he spent time with Hou-Ting, she'd basically just tell him to be just like her, I assume.

I think that eventually Hou-Ting would kinda get bored/annoyed of him and would ship him off to boarding school, as Bryan Konietzko said.

Bryan: Uh, he wasn't-he wasn't exactly sheltered, he was, like, shipped off. He's like the kid that was sent to boarding school, boarding, yeah.

I can see Wu being extremely awkward and longing for social interaction after being locked away for so long.

And yeah, there are totally huge similarities between Wu and Kuei. Especially that Raiko (and imo Tenzin) would kinda want him to play a role of a puppet ruler too.

Josh: He's the perfect person for the president just, like, to put his claws in, say, "let's go this way." Bryan: Yeah, he can mou-he-yeah, Raiko's pretty excited about him. He's like, "man, I can mould this guy, and sorta control this old..." Tim: Total puppet.

I can't help but kinda feel bad for the guy. He's a fun character to speculate on lol