|
I hate to double-post, but I did realize something.
What makes us think that a rat who barely knew the man who killed his master - who after years upon years of forcing four boys to train in martial arts in a sewer - and as their sole teacher with forbidden access to the outside world - is going to end up with masters of their craft? What makes Splinter think that he can have students able to leap around buildings in their first experience outside the sewers?
What if, because of all these factors: having a single teacher, having that single teacher be the only person the turtles knew, never setting a foot outside the sewers most of their lives, their sole master having never been formally taught, and being crazed for revenge, and being children...the turtles sucked at being ninjas?
I think about the Daughters of Aku in Samurai Jack - how after a lifetime of training trapped inside a mountain, that they all failed as soon as they were let loose into the world. I would imagine something similar with the turtles, except with even less preparation because Splinter never had formal training himself.
What if the story was about their self-improvement and self-discovery? Realizing that Splinter was nuts in many capacities, growing a circle of friendships, finding their own authority figures and teachers in addition to Splinter, becoming authority figures and teachers for someone themselves, realizing that they are in charge of their own destinies, one or two of them deciding to just be a Mutant Turtle at the end of everything.
The hitch in this, at least in regards to my storyline, is that Splinter is formally trained by Hamato Yoshi. But, he still wasn't able to teach the turtles to the fullest capacity because he insisted on living reclusively, mostly fearing what the outside world would think of them or do to them. And having no knowledge of the Utroms intentions for his mutation
|