omi would definitely not be the one to “turn jack spicer to the side of good”
he is the absolute last monk who’d stand a chance in fact. omi’s whole deal is that he believes everyone is capable of greatness (just not as great as his greatness of course) and that is not the way to either turn jack or keep him on the side of good.
hell, we saw this in the apprentice. jack can’t handle the pressure of someone actually believing in him unless it fuels his own delusion. evil is easy to fake - how does one measure “evil”? jack’s had his own successes, so he can say he’s a good evil boy genius. good is so much harder. it would be so obvious if he failed, and having omi sit on his shoulder telling him how much he can achieve, how much omi believes in him, well
it’s no real surprise jack couldn’t handle the pressure.
really, clay would be the one to turn jack to the side of good.
rai sees too much of himself in jack, he wouldn’t even try to turn him. rai still needs the black/white nature of “jack is bad, i am good” because in a lot of ways, he’s still struggling with his own balance between good and evil. rai knows he has a lot in common with jack, but jack switching sides and staying switched? not only would it force him to accept his similarities with jack, but to rai it would prove that jack’s “better” than him. after all, rai strayed from the path whereas jack clawed his way back to the side of good, so obviously jack is better at this than him. and it’s such a stupid idea and rai knows it’s stupid but really, it’s just better for everyone if jack’s evil and rai’s good.
kimiko would never believe jack could do it. like, ever. jack could be good for twenty years and kimiko would still sleep with one eye open. she does not trust him at all and she is probably the smartest of the group about it. to her, trying to make jack good is a waste of time, but for completely different reasons then rai. to rai, he knows good and evil is more about grey areas, but refuses to accept it because it’s too close and personal. to kimiko, it’s just black and white, and she’s never had any reason to doubt this. to kimiko, you don’t just switch from one to the other. you’re either good or you’re evil, no inbetween.
but clay, clay would be perfect. it’s not that he trusts jack (the opposite really, he think’s jack is a snake in the grass waiting to strike, but even snake’s can be tamed) but jack can be more than a little helpful when he wants, and omi’s pretty set on him being a good person deep down. so maybe clay tries to see what omi sees. maybe clay takes a step back from how rai and kimiko perceive jack and thinks about what he has to offer. mechanical expertise, a cunning that tends to get overshadowed by his incompetence.
and clay isn’t a complicated man. he isn’t about the black and white like kimiko, but he also isn’t as tortured over the grey areas as rai. he won’t go out of his way to convince jack to switch sides, but he does mention it and the next time jack is betrayed (again) and desperate, he turns up at the temple expecting it to be much like last time: a lot of laundry and people laughing at him while omi gives unhelpful advice.
instead, clay just waves him in and puts him to work. not a whole lot more then anyone else either, no words of encouragement, no pressure. just some work to earn his keep.
no one expects jack to stay. kimiko watches the wu all night, rai has nightmares about wuya, and omi laments that clay didn’t give jack enough encouragement. but when they wake up, jack is still there, fast asleep. no wu are missing, and tho he complains about being woken up, he just goes to work after following clay.
this continues for a while, longer than anyone expected, to the point where clay starts working him a little harder, maybe preparing him for training one day. and omi keeps trying to encourage jack but clay just tells jack what to do, no expectations at all. and for some reason, jack responds so well to this.
because there’s no threat of letting someone down. he never has to think of how he can fail because clay doesn’t seem to believe in him at all. it shouldn’t work as a method but hey, why damage a good thing?
(and it’s not that jack doesn’t have relapses, but clay can somehow predict when jack’s planning a raid, and he just waits outside, not even looking at the wu, and jack tends to just go back to bed without saying anything. the first time, jack expected to wake up to having his ass kicked after clay told everyone, but nothing happened and it turns out that clay trusts him, even tho he just tried to steal the wu. clay wants to give him the benefit of the doubt, even tho jack just proved he was unreliable. and for some reason he doesn’t react like he does to omi, it’s more like his reaction to chase. a mixture of pride at being trusted and the desire to not let clay down.)
(in the end it’s a weird mesh of mentoring and tolerating but it really works for both of them. after all, only clay has the patience to really teach jack anything)
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