VOTE FOR DONNIE. ILL DO ANYTHING. ILL MAKE MORE DONNIE CONTENT PLEASEEEEEE

Semifinals

Wha…?

Holy… Holy mother of mutations, that is a lot. This… Is a lot.

I don’t even know where to start? I was just told a bunch of aggressive facts, but none of them are followed with proof or logic. They were just… said…

@thatturtlemenece is clearly very passionate though, so I’ll do my best to clear things up. 💚💚

“Splinter should not have kids be around kids”? I would like clarification on what this means before I touch on it.

I am so, so sorry to hear that you have gone through abuse, and that it’s hurt you in such a way that you see it in other places. But as someone who has a similar family dynamic to the turtles and can honestly say that I bear no ill will to either of my parents, and would choose my siblings over anyone else in a heartbeat…

Nothing about this is abuse.

See it from his POV. You grew up as a human. You know exactly what the government could do to creatures they don’t understand, and that if anyone were to see your baby boys, that would be the last time you ever saw them again. The government would take them, experiment on them, hurt them- these defenseless creatures that you have been caring for are now in the hands of scientists from the horror movies who couldn’t care less if they live or die.

Imagine having that in the back of your mind for years. Imagine looking at your baby boys for years, watching them laugh and mature and grow up, imagine having that weight of responsibility on your chest- that the very second any of them have been spotted, you will lose your babies to a cruel world that could never understand that they are just as much people as every human out there.

Wouldn’t you want to do anything in your power to protect them?

But he won’t be there forever. He could go out one night for food and something could happen to him. He could die. He could be captured. And his little boys would be scared and all alone and journey to the dangerous, chaotic, unforgiving and unpredictable surface world totally defenseless.

You can’t prevent your death, but you can try to prevent theirs.

You grew up as a ninja. You grew up with the honor of your clan. If you train them, if you help them prepare for the world ahead- they won’t have to be defenseless. They don’t have to be in danger, or at risk. They will be able to protect them selves and grow up and maybe even be happy despite being the freaks the world sees them as. They could survive another day, even without you there to help.

Are you really telling me that you would chose not to train them? That would leave their hands to fate and just hope that nothing ever happens to you? That these precious little mutants that you’ve fed and named and protected at the risk of your life- you’d neglect the training given to you by your father and hope for the best?

Choosing between their innocence and their lives could seem like a hard choice. But in his own words, “As a leader, you will learn there is no right or wrong. Only choices.”

So he trains them. Not because he’s abusive or hateful or wants to carry on some legacy, not because he is selfish above all else- but because he needs them to be safe and to live their lives without having to fear. His most selfish part in this is needing his boys to be safe at the cost of their childhood, and keeping them down in the sewers despite their yearning to see the rest of the world.

Unlike what RISE portrays, ninja skills can’t be learned in a day. Or two. Or five. They take a lifetime of training. And he needs his sons to be ready for when the cruelties of the world reach past the safe bubble he’s kept them in. He doesn’t know when that could be, so he started when they are old enough to learn.

He has to. It doesn’t matter what he wants. It matters what they need.

And they need a fighting chance to live.

Okay. Now that I’ve laid that all out…

I don’t understand what comparison is being made here. I think you’re saying 18, 12, and 03 should have Child Services called?

I am inclined to agrees on 18, but I’m sure not everyone would agree with me. I can’t completely vouch for 03, but I think(?) I disagree.

As for 2012- what the hacking shell? Why?

Because you think he doesn’t properly feed his kids? Because they are turtles and eat algae and worms?

Donnie, the genius of his brothers, grows it in his lab. His brothers help him to collect it, as it’s stated in Metalhead Rewired. I’m pretty sure that eating worms and alegra is like eating spinach for me. I hate the stuff. It’s disgusting and tastes like crisp paper. I can’t eat it without gagging half the time.

But it’s good for me, so I have to eat it sometimes. That’s possibly what alega is for the turtles. They eat alega for dinner because it’s a safe, nursing food that Donnie cares for and grows in his lab. They have an endless supply of it, and for all you know, on their mutation day, they had a low supply of human food.

They can’t go to a store. They can’t have it shipped to their home. The boys are not allowed out of the safety of their home, period. Which means Splinter is the only one that can collect food. Collecting food for four growing boys while avoiding stealing as much as he can must take hours. He’s also shown to be an old rat, as he gets taken down hard whenever he battles anyone, often needing to heal for weaks at a time.

Maybe they were being good sports about the alega and worms because they now how hard it is for him. My parents had weeks where we made the best with whatever we had simply because they hadn’t ran out to the store yet. Not because they were abusive and hated us. Simply because things came up or they felt unwell or they simply hadn’t yet.

Maybe Mikey was trying to make the best of things with that cake (which I will note was completely Mikey’s idea).

Maybe he’s not lazy. Maybe he’s just not as young as he used to be.

Now this is all purely hypothetical, of course. We never see them eating it again, but a lot happens off screen that we don’t see. Donnie still has his alega pools in the second season, so perhaps they are eating it off screen. We see them drinking milk, having soda, and eating Roman- Splinter even has cheesecycles- when they aren’t eating pizza, and it’s never once said that April or even the boys get the groceries.

My bet is that this is simply one of the things Splinter does when we don’t see him.

Nobody is being high and lazy. I have never considered my mother high and lazy for making me eat a salad when I wanted a burger. As a human, salads was good for me, so I’ve eaten it. As turtle mutants, this is perfectly natural and healthy for them, so they eat it. Like a salad, but possibly not as tasty with ranch.

Honestly, I find it beyond sweet that he’s willing to sit down and eat this with them. I doubt that’s necessary for his health, but he’s probably doing it for their sake. In this together. 💚🤎

“Have Raph deal with his mental health using CULT torture-“

HE DOES WHAT?!

Okay, I have no idea what that means but my level of concern here is absolutely through the roof- where on earth is this coming from?? Ep name please???

“He is never supervising his kids not because he suffering from mental health but because as he has stated he is not there father and not there parent he is there teacher and that is ALL the responsibility that he holds meaning.”

He said this?! Once again- ep name please??

I don’t understand. He says “my sons” in practically every sentence when he talks to them! I’ve heard plenty of people have this opinion and I just can’t understand it. I mean- yes, his sons call him sensei, because he is their sensei. When he was dying, they didn’t call him sensei, they called him “papa” and “father” because that’s who they all knew he was all along.

We already established how he could see the world, and why he would start training his little boys in the ways of the ninja up above, so I won’t get into that again. (This is already super long…)

He was their teacher, and as my parents have been my teachers in the ways of the world, I don’t see what’s so wrong with them calling him that. His biggest fears was that when his sons outgrew him, he wouldn’t be needed anymore.

A big part of his life was ninjitsu, as it is a big part of theirs, and losing that- losing them, terrified him to the point that he lost his control, and the Rat King was able to take over.

He is their sensei. And he is their father. Why is it horrible for him to be both?

(Thanks for staying with me this far! I really hope you’ve been keeping an open mind. Much appreciated. Now, just a little more to go!)

“There is not parental guidance when they see and hear something on the TV hence I’m not surprised Leo is into KARAI or Leo donnie and raph abuse mikey.”

No one abuses Mikey. There is no abuse here. At all. EVER.

I can totally get into this later if anyone cares about my opinion on this matter (I know it’s going to be unpopular, but I do have reasons), but now is about Splinter.

Teens watch inappropriate shows. That doesn’t necessarily mean the parents are to blame. Teens fall in love with bad people. That doesn’t necessarily mean the parents are to blame. (My parents raised us with high virtues and self-respect, and my older brother still chased after girls that were not good for him.)

You can fall in love with a bad person who seems cute/flirty/nice. It happens no matter what shows you watch.

Perhaps that could be considered a bad on Splinter. I’ll consent to that. But that doesn’t make him a horrible dad.

“Splinter literally gave karai’s weapon away to April even thigh he KNEW where she was and never BOTHERED to try and get her back! Instead he LEFT her there to be abused and manipulated! And when she comes home he never hugs her or acts like a normal father that has a missing daughter!”

The amount of times this man stared despondently at this photo, visibly hurting and sorrowful because of the family he’ll never truly get back… How does that say doesn’t act like a father mourning his wife and daughter? He looks at it at some points specifically when thinking about Karai.

Also.

Splinter ‘never bothered’ to get Karai because he feared losing his sons in the process. This horrible father who only wanted soldiers (as some people tend to gossip) actually just wanted to do everything in his power to keep his little boys safe. Karai was raised by Shredder. She hated Hamato Yoshi with every inch of her being because he killed her mother. Karai might even kill the sons he spent fifteen years raising and teaching without a second thought.

He doesn’t know her like the viewers do. To him, she’s dangerous and unpredictable. He’s not going to chase down a child, even one with his blood, if it means he will lose his current family.

Once again, a choice had to be made, and he made one. Maybe it wasn’t the right one, but no choice is inherently perfect. He chose to protect his family. He told them explicitly to stay away to keep them safe. He loves his boys, and won’t risk them for a girl who isn’t Miwa anymore.

To add onto that- Miwa is dead. Miwa died that night with his wife, the same way that Spike died the night he came in contact with mutagen. There is only Slash and Karai now, and they have paved their own paths. The child that he wanted to raise to use this tesson is gone no matter what he does. Karai fights with a wakizashi blade.

She is her own person, raised in a time that he will never get to be a part of.

But he can train April. He can help protect their new addition to their family. He can offer this honorary Hamato sister the weapon that was meant to go to his Miwa. He has two daughters now, and neither of them are one that he raised. But he chooses to accept them as they are now.

He lets her take the fan, and lets a new daughter into his heart.

As for never hugging her or acting as a father….

Just because he doesn’t act as you believe he should act, doesn’t mean he isn’t showing fatherly love and compassion- possibly the same way his father did. He loves her, and he is going to show it as only Hamato Yoshi can.

….With tea parties, apparently 🤣

Again, Mikey is not abused. You can disagree. I don’t mind. I know it’s not a fan-favorite opinion, and I’ll just have to live with that. I don’t mind the hate (okay, maybe it hurts a little 😔) because I truly believe I am correct.

If you’re willing to hear me out, let me know. I’d love to lay it out for anyone who’s willing to listen!