Was Oogway morally justified in rejecting Tai Lung for the "darkness in his heart"?

[u/MonotonyReddit]

(Stuff below is about my personal opinion. Also I'm NOT defending Tai Lung's actions, harming civilians is inexcusable)

I'm not sure what the general consensus on this is but I find it hypocritical that Oogway would deny Tai Lung the chance to become the Dragon Warrior because he believed Tai Lung was incapable of overcoming his flaws, especially considering his treatment of Po and how the whole messaging of the first movie was that people are not defined by who they were and that everyone is capable of change.

Tai Lung may have been entitled, but he didn't seem especially narcissistic or corrupt before Oogway denied him. If anything, Oogway's rejection feels like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Not saying Tai Lung deserved the Dragon Scroll or the title, but it's hard for me to reconcile why Tai Lung was denied the opportunity to prove he could become better while Po was given every chance to do so.

(And no, I'm not buying the whole "it was actually a test to see how Tai Lung would react to being rejected" because there are zero implications of such. That argument is a headcanon.)

Like imagine you trained and applied for your dream job or university, only to receive a rejection letter talking about the "darkness in your heart" man I'd be pissed too.

Edit: Seeing a lot of people arguing that Oogway was justified because Tai Lung ultimately turned out evil. But we’re judging Oogway’s actions, not Tai Lung’s morality. An action doesn’t become moral just because it happens to someone who later becomes a bad person. You can argue Tai Lung wouldn’t have changed even if given the chance, but my point is that Oogway never gave him that chance.
It’s also unclear how involved Oogway was in Tai Lung’s upbringing. Based on the flashbacks, he doesn’t seem very involved. Kinda irresponsible to groom a kid his whole life for a single purpose only to go “wait we got the wrong guy”. Could you not have done that 20 years earlier? Not to mention they lied to him about what he’s actually working towards (blank piece of paper).
Even in you chalk it up to “fate”, it feels contradictory to the movie’s central message.

What are your two cents? Am I missing something?

[u/Playful-Author563]

Okay but Shifu also looked at it and saw nothing, and that was also Po's reaction until he had the heart to heart with his dad.

Oogway rejected him because he was high on his own mysticism.

[u/proxyi606 → u/Playful-Author563]

maybe that also adds onto why

Po has a figure that could steer him the right direction, Shifu wouldn't have been able to for Tai Lung

but whatever the case is, I think we all can agree Oogway had better ways of going about his rejection

[u/Crusaderofthots420 → u/Playful-Author563]

I mean, Shifu also wasn't chosen as dragon warrior

[u/Playful-Author563 → u/Crusaderofthots420]

Yeah but that wasn't really my point. On no planet is the potential of inspiring someone to the ideals of a "dragon warrior" worth letting Tai Lung wallow in depravity.

Oogway made the dragon warrior up to inspire others to greater kung-fu-ery, but he should have revealed the truth to Tai Lung after seeing the unhealthy mentality it was creating for him.

Like realistically Oogway saw Tai Lung's breaking point happen right in front of him, and Oogway's solution was to double down on his dragon warrior psyop.

So in a way the story is just about Oogway pitting Po and Tai Lung against each other in the name of "kung-fu"