WRITING THIS AT LIKE 5:30AM BECAUSE I PHYSICALLY CANNOT GET THIS OUT OF MY BRAIN WHY HAVEN'T I SEEN PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT THIS

okay okay, im gonna try to talk about this as clearly and concisely as i can. 2012 splinter is projecting his relationship with shredder onto leo and raph. people have probably talked about this but i just wanna explain my point of view on this.

so. as the story goes, shredder (also known as oroku saki) was found by splinter's (also known as hamato yoshi) father after the foot clan was defeated. splinter's dad adopted shredder and raised him as his own, having splinter and shredder be brothers. we all know this (i assume).

we also know that splinter and shredder's relationship, while always competitive, doubled down on that (and even became bitter and spiteful, even on both sides at points), when tang shen is added into the mix. as the story goes, both splinter and shredder fall in love with tang shen, but she falls in love with splinter, and so shredder gets all pissy and violence occurs. since they couldn't come to an agreement, tang shen died and miwa (now known as karai) was literally kidnapped by shredder.

but what does this have to do with leo and raph? lemme tell you what

leo and raph, in the very beginning of the series (literally the pilot), are introduced to us to be butting heads, even after sparring is over. as the pilot continues, raph is bitter that leo was chosen as leader, even though raph was physically stronger than leo. even after it was proved that raph couldn't be leader (and leo got to stay leader), there was always some sort of tension between the two throughout the course of the series (or at least up to season four, i have yet to find a way to watch season five and watch their dynamic during then. but i figure, given the clips ive seen, that their tension seemed to mellow out in that final season.)

do you see any parallels there? because i do

so. two brothers, training to be ninjas in the hamato clan. growing up, they were always butting heads, but that's not to say there was any malicious intent in that. then, one day, something the both of them want is added. (tang shen for splinter and shredder, leadership for leo and raph.) this only causes more tension to grow between them, causing their previous unharmful headbutting to take a turn for something a bit more hurtful. next, this special something is chosen for the more responsible brother. (tang shen falling in love with splinter, and it being proven that leo is the only brother with the mental ability to lead the team.) this, of course, only deepens the hot headed brother's bitterness; which in turn makes this brother act out in aggression towards the responsible brother. (shredder attempting to murder splinter, and raph having less self control when training against leo. (if im not wrong, there's an episode where raph's anger gets the best of him, and he goes too far on training with leo. if anyone can confirm that, that would be great lmao).).

so why do i say splinter is projecting this relationship onto leo and raph? great question.

as seen throughout the series, it's not all that difficult to see how splinter has farm more of a relationship with leo than he does raph, donnie, and mikey. the blatant favoritism is, due to what i believe, is seeing his younger self in leo. he's hardworking, responsible, reliable, diligent, and would do anything for the hamato clan / family. this is how we saw splinter himself act when the turtles went back in time when they first met renet. and if it's true that splinter saw his younger self in leo, then he very easily could've been seeing shredder's younger self in raph.

raph, being impulsive, having a short fuse, being very physically powerful, butting heads with the responsible brother, those are all traits that shredder had when he was younger. even the way that leo and raph's relationship dynamic was, it was parallel to splinter and shredder's. and when splinter declared leo the leader, that parallel became even more apparent.

but, splinter had already seen first hand how that parallel ended the first time: death, loss, and overall tragedy. and so, i believe splinter decided to try and nip the problem in the bud.

with raph, we can see splinter time and time again trying to mellow raph's anger; to have him bottle it up instead of letting it be a part of him and learning to control it. the biggest example i can think of is the episode "turtle temper", one of, if not the first proper non pilot episode of the entire series. not only does splinter set raph up for failure with his training exercise, but he literally told raph a story of him and shredder, and how the shredder exploited splinter's anger. even though splinter was comparing shredder to someone else, the use of a story about splinter and shredder leads me to believe that splinter could be using those experiences, in more ways than the one shown in "turtle temper", to help splinter parent raph and leo. now, while not actively villainizing raph, splinter still does paint raph's anger issues in a darker light than what they are.

and on the flip side, how does this affect splinter's parenting of leo? well, splinter already saw what happened if that parallel went on, and it only led to death and suffering. and with tang shen literally sacrificing herself to save splinter, i feel as though splinter could believe he failed tang shen and miwa. so with splinter being splinter, he tried to teach leo to not fail in the ways splinter believes he did. the harshness and strictness, far more one on one time spent with leo on screen, hell, even telling leo he'll have to take splinter's job as both a mentor and father to his brothers when splinter passes? it's hard for me to not believe splinter is projecting onto leo. this is simply because splinter just doesn't want history repeating; he doesn't want another shredder created out of his son.

but, from what clips ive seen of season 5, it wasn't even necessary. leo and raph do get along while splinter isn't there to project, and that's even happened a bit in the space arc. (only major argument i remember between them in that arc is when they were on the corrupted planet.)

because leo and raph AREN'T splinter and shredder... they're LEO AND RAPH.

they're different people with different morals and motivations. but splinter didn't quite see that.

also, when the tang shen situation was happening, i feel like grandpa hamato was kinda pushed in between the conflict between splinter and shredder; unable to choose just one side to support, but getting pushed to the back either way. i think this parallels with donnie and mikey; they can't chose between leo and raph to support all the time, because they're their brothers. but they get pushed to the back and out of focus; and now also out of splinter's focus specially.

now i have seen those ending clips of season five, and i believe this can be seen as why splinter only hugged leo and karai.

-leo: he still saw himself in. but now, he could also see the success that he himself was unable to achieve.

-karai: his daughter, the one he thought he lost due to the conflict between him and shredder. she was one of the driving forces in the conflict, and came out still on splinter's side.

-raph: while splinter still loves raph dearly, just as i assume he still loves shredder dearly, the dark legacy of the shredder still taints his view of raph unintentionally.

-donnie and mikey: like his father, he loves them both dearly. but, like their grandfather, they ultimately got pushed to the side unintentionally. still loved greatly, just not the main priority.

now, do i think this is all canon? no, it's like 99% likely to not me. i was probably really reaching with this, and it could've just been completely unintentional by writers and just came about because of recycled conflicts. but it is now 6:34 am so i don't care.

        Often times you found yourself wondering what life would be like if you hadn’t ended up in this strange cartoon world. Would you be hanging out with your friends right now? Sneaking out and racing across the town? Or would you be in your home, safe and sound as you cozied up in your bed? This time was no exception, as you battled mutated silverfish over your, supposedly delicious, laundry.

        “Let go, you gross, dog-sized excuse of a clothes moth!” You huffed as you engaged in the world’s worst game of tug-of-war against the silverfish for the ultimate prize; your freshly cleaned laundry. The silverfish hissed in response, allowing you to kick it in the face. Unfortunately for you, you had forgotten that they multiply with each and every hit, so now you had two mutant silverfish. How great. You sighed, quickly packing the rest of your laundry in your basket before they had a chance to get a taste of the rest of your things. Rushing out of the laundromat with the silverfish nipping at your feet, you quickly made your way to Parker’s apartment.

        When you finally did make it to the apartment, you were already tired. A long day of doing laundry, fighting off the mutant silverfish, and literally nothing else was just too much to bear.

…okay so you were being lazy but honestly, who could blame you? Every single day here was like a free lazy day, and it's not like you weren't going to take advantage of that. The stress of life back home was completely gone, and you had many years of relaxation to catch up on. You were in lazy debt!

        But now that you were thinking about it… you did feel kinda bad that you were just lazing around the apartment doing nothing. It almost felt like you were mooching off of Parker and- nevermind guilt gone. You collapsed onto the couch, smiling to yourself as you relaxed into the fabric.

        “Back home already?” Dale’s voice pulled you out of your relaxation. You turned your head, seeing Dale’s bald head peering out of his bedroom. You sighed, but nodded as you sat up on the couch. It's not like you didn’t like him, he was nice! He’s just- very awkward. Very, very awkward. So much that it hurt whenever the two of you talked to someone together.

        “Yeah… not much to do, ya’know?” You said half heartedly as you shrugged your shoulders. You weren’t in the mood for talking. Dale perked up at this. Great, guess you’re socializing after all.

“Well… do you wanna, maybe, hang out..?” Dale asked, creeping out of his bedroom some more. “There’s this new ga-”

“Nope, sorry! Just remembered I… left something! In the Laundromat! Sorrygottagobye-!” You exclaimed, quickly rushing out the front door again to avoid doing something with Dale. Wow, that sounds a lot more mean now that you think about it. But it’s too late now, so you shrug as you make your way down the stairs, in case Dale was still somehow watching you leave.

Well… guess you’re doing this now. You stretched your arms as you made your way down the steps. Maybe you could take a walk through central park? The weather was nice enough, but to be fair it was always nice. But what if Dale was watching out the window…? But then again, he didn't seem like the kind of guy to do that.