Splinter has Nobody

[Rooish]

Ahhhhhh lots to reply to! Or rather, I think I pissed off a bunch of people when I called Splinter's stick use "abusive," so I'd better reply. But I actually do think it was abusive, since I perceived him as hitting Mikey hard with the thing. I think Splinter has some very great qualities, but I do find him morally inconsistent. I appreciate, however, the difficulty of his job... raising and training four boys without a break, since they were never allowed to go out anywhere (being mutants), and who are now blossoming into independent, quasi-rebellious adolescents. Even Leo rebels in "The Shredder Strikes."

I respect Splinter's laissez-faire attitude... letting his sons figure out for themselves what they did wrong. But when he does step in... say, to curb an ongoing difficult behaviour like Mikey's... I wish he'd seriously try to help his son through it, instead of punishing him on a case-by-case basis. But I do think he handled the "Grudge Match" situation pretty well... he did try to lecture Mikey, but then he decided to pointedly leave Mikey to learn his own lesson when the lecture didn't work. He didn't even hit him!

mik8la, I think that Raph's and Leo's rivalry is present more in the comics, although it did show up in "Tales of Leo." I agree that Mikey is the most typical teenager. I think he balances the team out well. I guess I just don't like it when he's actively annoying people, no matter how typical teenager that is, but I should get used to it because it adds to the show's realism. I agree with terran631 that he baits Raph, and Splinter to some extent. But I think it's really unfortunate that that's the only way he can get attention or appreciation. I think he was driven to brag so much about the Battle Nexus win (the first one) because he was insecure and needed to desperately defend his win. He knew he had won due to three separate occasions of getting off easy. Splinter let him win, Raph lost just because he got to frustrated and smashed into a wall, and Kluh lost because Mikey accidentally hit him in the head with a nunchaku when the fight wasn't even happening. He knew that he didn't deserve to win, so he overcompensated by boasting. This just shows what crappy self-esteem the poor guy has.

As for "The Shredder Strikes" episode, yes terran631, that is what happened after the Turtles left. But during the conversation with the Turtles before, triplexxx is right that the Turtles set off to confront the Shredder, and announced this in front of Splinter, and he didn't say a thing... although earlier in the conversation he had asked them, sadly, not to get involved. But he saw them leave, and didn't stop them. This is what I mean about him being inconsistent.

Finally, Sage Ninja, you're right; Mikey's acting out is not a product of being "abused." I didn't think before I wrote that. He acts out because, as you said, he has low confidence because the other three are in some way better or more noticeable. I don't think Splinter slapping him helps the situation, though. By just punishing, Splinter does not addressing Mikey's low self-esteem, or help Mikey to build it up before Mikey has to resort to boasting and teasing Raph.