My Personal Opinion on Rise Splinter
(Comparing it to my own situation)
Hi everyone, Iām back with another analysis of Rise! This time, Iāll be talking about Splinter and his role as a father, since Iāve wanted to do this for a while.
Iām aware that this topic can be somewhat controversial, so I want to make it clear from the title that this is my point of view and that I donāt expect you to think the same way I do about the character. Here, Iāll do a brief analysis of what we see in the series and compare it to my own experience with my father.
Now, the central question of this topic, which I see a lot in fandom conversations, is the following:
Is Rise Splinter a bad father?
And my answer would be that heās a pretty average father. Heās not exactly the ideal, loving father portrayed in some fanfics, but heās also not that completely absent figure who doesnāt care about his children, as depicted in others.
Splinter is interesting, as he presents a bit more complexity than the rest of the characters in the series. He isnāt a good person, but he isnāt a bad one either. Much like Draxum, he seems to be a gray characterāsomeone with good intentions, but with controversial actions or attitudes.
Rather than being a physically absent father, I feel he is more of an emotionally absent father. Not because he doesnāt love his children, but because, in his own upbringing, he never really had a father figure to set an example of how to express love.
Sometimes, as children, we forget that our parents also have their own pastsātraumas, fears, and prejudicesāand, perhaps due to our naivety and lack of life experience, we believe those experiences can be easily changed, when the baggage they carry from their upbringing is more complex than it seems.
Here Iāll draw a comparison between Splinter and my father, since he, too, didnāt have a very present father figure. My grandfather wasnāt a bad man, but he was a rather absent father, which affected my father, especially when it came to understanding how to deal with my emotions or my sisterās. Sometimes he wanted to try to understand, but he ended up creating more problems by not knowing how to react to situations that no one had ever taught him how to handle.
I can see this in Splinter as well; in fact, some situations are so similar to those Iāve experienced that itās scary. When he has disagreements with his children, arguments, or misunderstandings, his reaction is to get angry and even rant excessively; from the perspective of old-school male upbringing, this is to be expected. Splinter only knows how to argue in the face of conflict because thatās how he was raisedāthatās how he learned to resolve conflicts: by fighting.
Even so, not all of his scoldings stem from feeling that his children arenāt obeying him to the letter or that things arenāt going the way he wants; some scoldings seem motivated by fearāand even sadnessāthat something bad might happen to his children. Splinter, as a good man raised according to old customs, will avoid showing these feelings in front of them, so as not to appear weak. You and I know that our parents showing us fear or sadness isnāt a sign of weakness, but we must remember that they were taught that way, in a time when mental health was a taboo subject (I should point out here that I was raised by parents from the boomer generation).
Another point is the depression and escapism from reality that the character exhibits.
As I explained in a previous post, Splinter seems to actively want to disown his past and his previous experiences; coming back to my father, he also used to avoid anything related to his childhood, and just as happened with Splinter, once he realized that my family and I wouldnāt judge him for the things heād experienced in his past, he was able to accept his reality, and now heās not so reluctant to talk about his weaknesses. The similarity between the two stems from growing up in environments where there was no support when you felt down, to the point of even foolishly thinking that even your own family would judge you. Looking at it from Splinterās perspective during his acting career, he technically spent a significant part of his life in an environment hostile to vulnerabilityāthe entertainment industryāand even more so as an action movie actor.
When I first started watching the series, I didnāt pay much attention to Splinterās depression, but when I watched it a second time, I noticed his symptoms right from the start. Splinter seems to live in a state of exhaustion; he doesnāt take care of his physical health and engages in repetitive activities that donāt exactly make him happy. Depression also affects him when he fails to pay attention to his children; because (if we look closely) he actually does enjoy spending time with them, but depression is like an addictionāitās hard to break out of that spiral of self-loathing which, though painful, generates a strange sense of comfort.
Itās only near the end of the series, when Raph realizes all the pain his father has been hiding, that Splinter is finally able to cry in front of his sons and feel that he has people who support him in his grief (the āYou are not aloneā moment). Yes, this doesnāt mean heās completely left his old ways behind, but it does mean he can now be more honest with his family.
And to wrap this up, many of Splinterās actions toward his sonsāeven the most questionable onesāclearly stem from love. Perhaps a clumsy, inexperienced, and misapplied love, but sincere nonetheless.
Not telling them about their origins: He didnāt want them to know they were created to be weapons, since he saw them as innocent creatures.
Not telling them about his Hamato past: He didnāt want them to experience the pain he had endured as a child, hoping they would forge their own destiny.
Training them in Lou Jitsu style: Believing that this is the best version of himself for them to learn from.
Training them in the Hamato style: The fear of losing them upon realizing they werenāt ready to face the dangers ahead.
Choosing them over the destruction of the world: His children are so important to him that he would choose them over everything else.
Training them more rigorously: He is afraid of the path his children have taken, and he wants to teach them so they donāt fail in the future.
Taking away their phones: He wants them to learn to focus, so theyāll be prepared for dangers.
His punishments: Wanting his children to mature so they can take on the responsibilities that will come later.
And, the scene that, I feel, best shows the infinite love Splinter feels for his sons is the one at the end of the first season where Splinter points out that his mistake with them was not realizing how special they were.
Here, one would expect Splinterās memories to show moments where his sons do something extraordinary. And yet, they are extremely mundane moments: Mikey drawing, Donnie asking him for a band-aid, Raph and Leo making lemonade. Because THAT is what being special means to Splinter.
He adores his children for their innocence, their spontaneity, and for being free spirits. As a broken man, full of layers that hide his true self, coming from a world of spectacle, falsehood, and tradition, his children are a treasure simply for being themselves.
Itās true that he can be strict at times, because he wants his children to go out into the world and be happy, to find the happiness he couldnāt have for himself.
With all that said, Iām not claiming that Splinter is the best father in fiction, but heās far from being the worst. He wouldnāt leave his children alone all the time to go out and have fun (like Timmyās parents in āThe Fairly OddParentsā), he would never be ashamed of them (like the father in āChicken Littleā), and, above all, he would never take advantage of their talents for his own benefit (like Alma Madrigal in āEncantoā). Mind you, I did mention parents who DO love their kids, but I can still say theyāre bad parents.
Splinter is more like parents such as Homer Simpson (from the early seasons) or perhaps the Mayor of Who-ville (from the movie āHortonā). Sometimes clumsy, sometimes insensitive, but never malicious, and who, when it comes down to it, will always put their family first.
Well, folks, thatās all from me for now. And just so you know, I have nothing against opinions that differ from mine, especially since Splinter brings out something in us thatās related to our parentsāwhich is quite personalāso itās understandable that there are different perspectives on him.
A big hug to everyone who made it to the end of this post š¤šš¢šā¤ļøšš§”
