#fakefather

Pro-Hero Izuku 'Deku' Midoriya x quirkless female student reader!

Hi, I would like to talk about Shredder and Karai. I say this all the time, that Shredder and Karai, were never father and daughter to each other. I do not know why some people think their relationship was so great, when it wasn’t. There were obvious signs that Karai showed of abuse and toxic relationship, she had with Shredder but that’s not what I want to start with, let’s start with both their backstories. 

I think Shredder and Karai both showed us in this show is that who you are raised by matters but who you come from also matters. They both make you into the person that you will grow to be, and I am going to explain, starting with Shredder. 

Oroku Saki was taken in by Hamato Yuuta, after he killed his father and destroyed the Foot Clan. Now, we do not know much of Shredder’s childhood, but we can guess he was raised the same way as Splinter. Shredder and Splinter both share some similarities, even though they are complete opposites and not really blood, they still share some quirks. Still, we can see In the Tale of the Yokai that Oroku Saki, was definitely not a Hamato, even before he knew what his heritage was. 

Unlike Hamato Yoshi, Saki showed us even before he became the Shredder that he was jealous, sneaky backstabbing, selfish, lying, and dishonorable creep! Now we all feel jealousy but how we act on it separates us. Despite Shen being married to his brother and having a baby with him, Saki still tries to steal her away from him! 

“Shen, take me back. I will help you take care of Miwa, we will go to New York together, the three of us. I am a different man than the one you once knew. Believe me.” 

In that scene with Shen, Saki shows even then that he is obsessive and manipulative! Any other man would have given up at this point when the woman they once loved has moved on and any other brother would never try to steal their brother’s happiness but not Saki, nope! He does not care that Shen is married to Yoshi or that she has a baby, and he definitely does not care about his relationship with his brother who once was his best friend. All he wanted was Shen and whatever Shredder wanted, he would get, he refused to be denied of anything. He did not care what he had to do to get to his goal, just as long as he got there. 

“I overheard your conversation with Yoshi. It is futile you know; he will never leave the Clan.” 

I thought Shredder was a complete asshole when he said that. I mean, he is all the time but that moment...UGH! He tried to use Shen’s fears of her family’s future and the care that she held for him, against her! And Saki, we all know you did not just, ‘overheard.’ You were spying on them and waiting for the perfect moment to attack. Don’t say stupid stuff. You are lucky Shen is so kindhearted and sees you as a ‘good man’, otherwise, she would have caught your BS.

Now, we do not know what Shredder’s parents were like, but we can guess that he got this behavior from them. I mean, they had to be just as evil, if not worse as Shredder is if it caused the Hamato Clan to end them. Despite never knowing or being raised by the Foot, he still grows to become like them. We do not know how Saki found out the truth about his heritage and I HATE Nickelodeon for that. That detail seems important. To me, it looked like it just came out of no where but whatever. When he found out the truth, that is when he really allowed his true colors to show. 

I do not know what Saki thought Shen would think when he vowed revenge on the Hamato Clan but I doubt that she would have liked it, even if she hadn’t picked Yoshi. 

“Shen, I ask you one last time. Make the right choice.”

I do not think the ultimatum when Saki said this was, ‘Choose me or I turn evil.’ I think he was still planning to seek revenge on the Hamato Clan either way. I think the ultimatum was, ‘Choose me or I kill Yoshi.’ 

I think Saki wanted to spare his brother, despite his hate for him. Part of him knows that Yoshi had nothing to do with the lies he has been raised to believe and maybe, a little part remembers his best friend. That scene showed a little part of his Hamato before he banished that part himself away completely. He tried to spare, tried to be his version of merciful but at the end of the day, he did not care about Yoshi, all he wanted was Shen. 

That is the main reason for their rivalry. It had nothing to do with a fight between two Clans that happened decades ago. It was all about Tang Shen; she was the center of it all which was not her fault at all. She did not ask for this. Saki is the one who caused it all, but he does not see it that way, he sees Yoshi as the backstabbing, manipulative one. 

When Saki killed Tang Shen, you could see the unbelievable horror written all over his face. I think his guilt, caused him to turn, not just evil, but cruel and dark as well. Then, what Hamato Yuuta did to him, he did to Karai. He killed her parents and stole her away, raising her to believe she was his daughter. 

TRAGIC! :(

Let’s get into Karai now! :)

Since the beginning, Karai has shown us that she is her true parents’ daughter. Despite being raised by Shredder, Karai has shown that she is honorable, loyal, compassionate, and free-spirited. 

At the beginning, Karai did not seem to care much for vengeance. She believed in it and did not care if her ‘father’ did it, sure but she was not obsessive and she did not let vengeance be her whole life. 

“It’s all he talks about. Revenge, revenge, vendetta, vendetta.” 

“Really? I take it you don’t approve?” 

“No, I’m fine with it. I’m just saying, he needs a hobby.” 

Karai did not mind or care about revenge back then, but she was lying when she said, she approved of it. You can tell, if you listen close behind her mockery (That she no doubt inherited from Splinter) that she was annoyed with Shredder’s vengeance. 

Let’s face it, Shredder’s whole identity is based on revenge, and he tried to make that Karai’s identity. She had a different lookout on life then Shredder, different opinions and...a different idea of family. Like her mother and father both, Karai would do anything to protect the people she cared about and back then, that was Shredder.

Even though he was not really a father, back then he was all Karai had and I personally think she was waiting and hoping that he would change and become more fatherly towards her. I mean, she only waited 15 years, what’s a few more? lol.

Karai has always been good at seeing past vengeance and looking at the bigger picture. 

“Distraction? Father, don’t you want to know what’s going on? Robots and creators? Splinter’s disciples are turtles, mutants! Your own men got turned into hideous freaks! Don’t you think we should be finding out what’s going on? I mean, there’s more to life than your vendetta.”

“There is nothing more!” 

We can see here that even though Karai is contently afraid of Shredder and is desperate to seek his approval, he does not have complete control over her. Unlike Shredder, Karai sees that there is a bigger fight happening than Shredder’s petty fight with Splinter but of course, Shredder does not care. 

He literally sacrifices the whole Earth, just to kill Splinter! Remember? When those dino aliens attacked. Karai would never do that though. She would have focused on the big fight, the more important fight first then the little petty ones after. She was willing to work with Leo who is supposed to be her enemy, in order to stop the Kraang from attacking the Earth. That shows her true father’s side of her. Honor before revenge. 

 When Shredder tries to make her feel guilty and manipulate her, Karai does not fall for it. He managed to make her feel bad, but he did not get control. Karai is rebellious like her father and bold like her mother. If she has to go against Shredder and fight alone, then she will in order to do what she thinks is right. 

Unfortunately, slowly falls into vengeance when Leo went behind her back and tried to kill Shredder. (Way to go Leo. Idiot.) Karai was hurt that the first friend she made since she moved to New York stabbed her in the back and tried to take away the only family she had.  Then when Splinter almost killed Shredder, that is really when her Foot Clan- self came out. Ruthless, vengeful, hateful, and cold-hearted. 

Seeing Splinter no doubt tigered it. After all, this was the man who she believed killed her mother and she just watched him almost kill her so-called father. But even though she was more determined to have revenge on Splinter than before, when Splinter was captured by her and Tigerclaw, she got to finally see him, hear him.  

‘At least, I do not wear a mask. Hiding what little humanity, I have left.’ 

“It is because of you that I wear this mask!” 

“All these years, you continue to deceive yourself and everyone around you.” 

That moment when Splinter made eye contact with Karai, you could see she felt something. That is why she gave Splinter a fighting chance. She felt something was not right and she could not go through with it. 

Then...she finds out the truth. Karai solution was the kill Shredder and seek revenge, but it always ended with terrible consequences.

‘After all this time I have learned that vengeance only leads to more pain.’ 

Karai did not listen to her father’s advice because she did not understand how ending Shredder could lead to more pain when it could free them of having to worry about him attacking. So, she went against her father’s words and went to fight Shredder. 

She got mutated, experimented on, mind controlled, and hurt because of the revenge rout but still, Karai did not care, she still did not understand the price of vengeance...not until her brother, Donatello, almost died because of her explosions. 

That is when Karai slowly begins to leave the vengeance path and start seeing the bigger picture again. When Karai’s face got burned, I think that is when she saw herself becoming Shredder and finally started to understand what her father has been telling her. Seeing Donnie ok and the brothers laughing, it meant much more to her than her petty fight with Shredder. If it was Shredder, he would have not cared about another life, just his revenge but Karai cares deeply about her father, brothers and Shinigami. 

Like Splinter and Raphael both, Karai does not care about risking her own life but when it comes to the people she cares about, that is where she draws a line. She would never risk anyone’s life for her goal. Karai starts to grow and mature, and we see her becoming a true Hamato instead of Foot. 

Karai and Shredder’s back story are so similar but so different as well. Yes, Hamato Yuuta killed Shredder’s parents and raised him into believing that he was his son, but he attacked the Foot Clan to protect his clan and he took Saki in because he could not just abandon him. With Shredder, he killed Karai’s parents out of jealousy, and he took Karai in because he wanted to continue to punish Splinter even in death but also because she was the last piece of her mother. It was not because he cared or wanted to save her. They do end in the same way though, despite who they were raised by Karai and Shredder both went into their true roots and became their true selves but with everything they were raised and taught with them. 

Shredder - Evil from Good

Karai - Good from Evil.