TEENAGE Mutant Ninja SPLINTER!?!

[funatic]

Umm... am I missing something or isn't Splinter a teenager as well??? The life expectancy of a Rat is only about 3 years, which means he would have been 3 or 4 at most when he found the turtles (I'm going off the original comic storyline here btw). Even surmising that the turtles were just born, that only makes him 3 or 4 years older than them, and considering they're about 15 in the first issue(s), he is still a teenager as well!!!

I just found this rather odd due to his wizened nature. Maybe since the life-expectancy of a rat is so short, he was in the 'winter-years' of ratdom, and thus mutated into an older anthropomorphic state? Or maybe since his last human contact was with Hamato Yoshi - he mutated into the state of a grown man, whereas the turtles mutated into children like the boy who dropped their tank?

Others thoughts?

[Scandia]

Splinter corresponded to a 40 or so year old when he found the Turtles. And since the mutation he has been aging like humans do.

[oldmanwinters]

That is a pretty ironic observation. But I just assume that "rat years" translated into an equivalent human maturity upon his mutation.

[shuriken]

That is a pretty ironic observation. But I just assume that "rat years" translated into an equivalent human maturity upon his mutation.

Hmm that makes sense, also considering that the turtles were babies when they mutated in "turtle years" and splineter was middle aged in "Rat years".

[KROW]

When Stan Lee needs to come up with an explanation for things like this, he uses radiation. In the case of the TMNT-verse, just blame it on the ooze.

[BigApple3AM]

Umm... am I missing something or isn't Splinter a teenager as well??? The life expectancy of a Rat is only about 3 years, which means he would have been 3 or 4 at most when he found the turtles (I'm going off the original comic storyline here btw). Even surmising that the turtles were just born, that only makes him 3 or 4 years older than them, and considering they're about 15 in the first issue(s), he is still a teenager as well!!!

I just found this rather odd due to his wizened nature. Maybe since the life-expectancy of a rat is so short, he was in the 'winter-years' of ratdom, and thus mutated into an older anthropomorphic state? Or maybe since his last human contact was with Hamato Yoshi - he mutated into the state of a grown man, whereas the turtles mutated into children like the boy who dropped their tank?

Others thoughts?


You start off using the original comics as your basis, but the last part in bold you're referencing the old cartoon. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I remember in the comics mutagen just makes whatever it contacts a humanoid hybrid rather than using that whole last contact thing.

Anyway for the old comics Splinter would have already been old biologically in rat years and when he mutated to a humanoid he started living in human years. So he would transfer to like a 40 year old. Then add the 14 or so years that take place while the turtles grow up and it puts him in his 50's. (And to further the timeline, in the current volume while the turtles are in their 30's, splinter would be in his 70's which makes him pretty old and ripe for passing away in issue 13 or whatever.)

The turtles were obviously babies so they mutated into toddlers and then live their lives in human years.

Makes sense to me. No radiation necessary, just a little mutagen magic.

[funatic]

You start off using the original comics as your basis, but the last part in bold you're referencing the old cartoon.

While that is the theory adapted into the old cartoon (though Splinter began as a man in that realm...) it could still apply to the comic reality, assuming that Hamato Yoshi WAS the last person to come in contact with Splinter.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I remember in the comics mutagen just makes whatever it contacts a humanoid hybrid rather than using that whole last contact thing.

It's never directly stated (as far as I know) how the mutagen mutates a creature, and likely is left deliberately ambiguous, as this is 'comic book science.'

I am inclined to agree with most of these posts that it mutates animals to a human state of life relative to their animal-age, rather than the last-contact possibility.

Mostly I just found it deeply ironic that in human years, Splinter was actually a teenager as well.

[Sage Ninja]

except that Splinter would onl;y be preschooler rather than a teenager, since rats only live about three or four years. ;)

[BigApple3AM]

except that Splinter would only be preschooler rather than a teenager, since rats only live about three or four years. ;)

At first yes, but I think there's that 15 years or so that go by while the turtles grow up so in actual human years he would probably be a teenager like the OP said, but biologically he's 40 or 50 whereas the turtles would be actual teenagers biologically and in human years.

And regarding mutagen in the comics, I always felt it had nothing to do with human contact, and I use leatherhead as an example. In the turtles case you can say at one point they had contact with the boy or someone at the pet store, but I keep thinking of Leatherhead who from what I remember only had contact with utroms (or was he a pet that was flushed, I can't remember). And since it was utrom waste that mutated them I just figured they were experimenting using human dna or whatever and the waste was the mutagen that makes whatever it contacts humanoid. I guess it could be argued it uses the same logic as the cartoon just without the reverse mutation turning humans to mutants.

[Sage Ninja]

At first yes, but I think there's that 15 years or so that go by while the turtles grow up so in actual human years he would probably be a teenager like the OP said, but biologically he's 40 or 50 whereas the turtles would be actual teenagers biologically and in human years.

I don't get what all the debate is about, Splinter was not a teenager when he first became muatated. Even if in a time line he was only a couple of years older than the turtles when he mutated, buy Rat years he was already a fully grown adult. The mutagent just took what ever age the Splinter and the turtles where and translated it into human years.

So that 1 1/2 years to two= maybe 38 in human years when Splointer muated into a humanoid Rat. The few weeks= one years old in human years. get it

[BigApple3AM]

Yeah I think we all agree biologically he is rather old. But strictly from a timeline if he was say 3 years old in 1984 and then the turtles grow up over 15 years he'd technically be a teenager in 1999 along with the turtles, except he'd feel like he was 40 to 50. So yeah the OP makes a good point I never really thought about.

Then again he was doing kung fu in a rat cage, maybe he was a super rat and had lived 30 years already ;)

Edit: Now that I think about it, wouldn't he be older than 3? Because he's there when hamato kills oroku nagi, and then it says like 7 years or something pass and they're in new york and saki kills hamato. So really splinter could have already been 7-10 years old. However the first issue's time line is pretty confusing to begin with.

[Jelly Bean]

I'm suprised this disscission has last this long. o.O

[KROW]

I'm suprised this disscission has last this long. o.O

At least it's about Splinter's age this time and not the turtles themselves. Man, those debates were tiresome...

[Jo Dawn]

Oh NO! You said it!!

*hides*

[KROW]

Oh NO! You said it!!

*hides*

Agh! A can of worms! Run!

[NameGoesHere1066]

At least it's about Splinter's age this time and not the turtles themselves. Man, those debates were tiresome...

I know right, it's so annoying when people go on a message board about turtles, and debate about turtles to death!

[Cure]

I know right, it's so annoying when people go on a message board about turtles, and debate about turtles to death!

You have not been here long enough. Seriously.

[Jo Dawn]

I think the point was, that the ages were debated SO many times. Especially when, um, we know who's oldest to youngest and no one believed the canon facts. That was my point, at least.

...And now I've gone and done it.

[Jester]

But Raph's older than Donnie!!!

J/K.

I think Splinter was a middle aged rat, and thus when mutated became a middle aged rat man and ages more man than rat now....but that's been said.

What hasn't been said is he cuts of the heads of other mutants and gets their quickening. In the end there can be only one!

[Jo Dawn]

*twitches*


(And I agree with the Splinter theory.)

[Jester]

That he kills mutants for their quickening? :P

[Raph's Girl]

The problem with Splinter's mutation was this. He had to have been 10 - 12 years old human years when mutated. Yoshi killed Nagi and was kicked out of Japan. Saki was a child of about 12. Then 10 years later he comes to America and kills Teng Shen and Yoshi. Splinter was born in Japan and came with them to America. Plus the fact that he learned Ninja moves in his cage he wasn't a normal rat to begin with.

A rat is approximatly 13 years old in rat years when they are 8 - 9 weeks old (this is when they are sexually mature). At the age of 1 he was nearly 3 years old. So take into that account. At the age of 2 he was already 60 year old. At the age of 4 he would have been 120.

And as I said he was not a normal rat to begin with. And I found a rat age calculator. He would have been over 1000 years old when he died!

[turkishproverb]

The problem with Splinter's mutation was this. He had to have been 10 - 12 years old human years when mutated. Yoshi killed Nagi and was kicked out of Japan. Saki was a child of about 12. Then 10 years later he comes to America and kills Teng Shen and Yoshi. Splinter was born in Japan and came with them to America. Plus the fact that he learned Ninja moves in his cage he wasn't a normal rat to begin with.

A rat is approximatly 13 years old in rat years when they are 8 - 9 weeks old (this is when they are sexually mature). At the age of 1 he was nearly 3 years old. So take into that account. At the age of 2 he was already 60 year old. At the age of 4 he would have been 120.

And as I said he was not a normal rat to begin with. And I found a rat age calculator. He would have been over 1000 years old when he died!

I think TMNT and other Strangeness supported you on this.