[PApagreg]

Rise Splinter went on a very interesting character arc this season, going from my least favorite incarnation of the character and worst written person on the show to pretty much one of my favorite animated adaption of the character rivaling Hoon Lee's Splinter from 2k12 and the reason for it is not just his development as a character but how layered he is and how his worst aspects in the beginning of the series actually makes him even more well written in Hinsight.


For those who don't know this Splinter or Hamato Yoshi came from a ninja clan that was dedicated to making sure that remnants of the Foot Clan don't complete the Shredder armor that can basically revived a demonic Shredder that can unless untold destruction on humanity but instead of following his clan's traditions he decided to become a movie star under the name Lou Jitsus. As Lou Jitsu Splinter was pretty much an A-List celebrity complete with having his own videogame, cereal, christmas album, dating numerous of actresses and models(Like Krystal Yistal)and racing fast cars. All of this however stopped when he met a Teamster by the name of Big Mama who he fell madly in love with to the point of asking her to marry him(keep in mind Lou is a famous movie star but out of the models and actress he dated he chose a teamster for her hand in marriage) but unbeknownst to Splinter it turned out Big Mom was a yokai who led an underground death arena by the name of Battle Nexus where he was forced to compete against his will, it wasn't too bad at first Lou/Yoshi did enjoy the crowd chanting his name and even got a cute catgirl flustered but over the course of years Lou for some reason gave up fighting and wanted to spend his remaining years as pacifist. Years later he was later busted out by Draxum's gargoyles and was experimented on by Draxum himself to create Yokai that would take over the Earth. Lou/Yoshi would halt the experiment so this turtles wouldn't become instruments of war and instead of powerful Yokai we got the Turtles you know today and Lou/Yoshi getting turned into Splinter.

So yeah long retrospective but I wanted to dissect some things, remember how I said that Splinter's worst aspects in the beginning of the series makes him an even better written character in hindsight well lets look at some things. The reason why this Splinter isn't eager to train his sons to become strong ninjas compared to other installments because not only he was tired of fighting but he himself halted the process of them being turned into Draxum's pawns for conquest. Another thing is that out of the animated incarnation this Splinter lost the most when he transformed into a Rat, remember how much I told you how popular Splinter was as a movie star well imagine all that just crashing down when you were held captive by the woman you loved and imagine it getting worse when you got turned into a rat mutant/yokai and had to hide underground in the sewer. Say what you will about most has been movie stars but at least they can sign autographs and get free food but Splinter pretty much has none of that and most people think he is dead or missing. Looking back it kinda turns his quirks from earlier episodes into a tragic characteristic in that he is a man who lost everything and the only way to reclaim any sort of glory is watching his old movies sort of like a big time HS football player who peaked after and is just re watching plays of where he scored 4 touchdowns in a single game.


I keep mentioning the early episodes but one thing I notice during my re watch is that during the beginning of the series Splinter usually has his eyes closed and looks disinterested but during the episode "The Fast and the Furry" we seem him talking about a dumb restaurant concept but we truly see him emote when he said that his sons think it was dumb, we see something similar in Ms.Cuddles when he told the rabbit she made a powerful enemy after messing with his T.V time and harming his family. Funny enough he is also the most cultured as seen in "Al Be Back" he was singing Vesti La Giubba which can be seen as a one off gag but if you know the context of the aria it actually kinda foreshadows Splinter's backstory and relationship with Big Mom(also I kinda find it funny how the Splinter who would most likely name his sons after Renaissance painters only refer to the turtles as colors or shorted names.)

So yeah that's my Ted Talk on why I consider Rise Splinter to be the most layered and well written Splinter in all of the animated incarnations, he aint going to win "Most Compatible with the Source Material" award but for a Splinter that does his own thing, I say its executed pretty well.