I’m blaming this on a TikTok.
Imaging being 2012 Splinter. You loose your entire family in one night. One night your brother shows up at your house, and just attacks. Your wife, the woman you love, is in this house. Your infant daughter is in this house. And now it’s on fire. Next thing you know your wife is dead, the house is falling apart and you do not know where your child is. You assume she burned to death before ever even having the chance to grow up.
Years later and you’re a father again. This time to four instead of one.
Now the original point I started this for.
Splinter is the only “human” contact the turtles have for 15 years. The only thing to teach them apart from him is the TV and whatever books they can find. Splinter was human at some point. He’s aware what life as a human is like. He knows how the world works. And now he’s put in charge of four infants who are not human and he’s expected to keep them safe. His role is to literally to nurture and keep the only 4 people of an entire species alive. There’s nobody to tell him about specific dietary needs of a mutated turtle. What about age? Normal turtles are known for living long. Does that mean his sons will age slower? Faster? The same pace as a human? How cognizant are they? Can they speak or are they just smarter than an average animal?
You know the trope of Character A & Character B where B puts their body and spirit into keeping A safe no matter the cost? That Splinter’s role. He needs to hide his children from others in fear of harm. He goes to the extreme to the point that their food consists of algae & worms.
I can’t put this into words well enough!! Aghhhh!!,!
Splinter’s the video game protagonist protecting four npc’s from harm. He’s leading four children through the dark with only 1 torch that he’s carrying. He’s standing across four children in the ruins of a disaster with the wisdom to know that only he can keep them safe & that he cannot ask for help.
He’s a man who did not know sentient life outside of humans existed and now he’s charged with keeping 4 children of a basically-alien species alive.
The mutation! How is he to know whether or not they’re safe. Did the mutation stop or is it still ongoing constantly? Will one of his children come to him one day, complaining of a tooth ache, only to grow a second set of teeth instead of loosing one like “normal”? Are the achy joints a consequence of training or an omen of the future? What about “normal”? Can he even set a “normal” as a concept. They aren’t normal by humanity’s standards, but to these children this life is normal.
