I hate to bring this up again, but what exactly was the point of Volume 4?

[Leo656]

I kind of felt cheated that we got a major story point - Splinter's death - something that was a huge deal and ONLY ever happened in that specific TMNT series, and it was barely touched upon. That was one of the biggest things that bothered me. There should have been an immediate, meaningful follow-up to that, but it was essentially an after-thought.

[Davetello]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I kind of felt cheated that we got a major story point - Splinter's death - something that was a huge deal and ONLY ever happened in that specific TMNT series, and it was barely touched upon. That was one of the biggest things that bothered me. There should have been an immediate, meaningful follow-up to that, but it was essentially an after-thought.

Yep, agreed. That's what I meant in my post - his death should have been a vehicle into developing the turtles' (and April and Casey's) characters, but it never seemed to happen (perhaps briefly) and everything seemed to just go on as usual. As I say, I can't remember everything perfectly, but it seemed to have that dual negative consequence of both minimising Splinter's importance in the boys' lives (and as a character in his own right) and missing the opportunity to develop their personalities.

I actually wanted Splinter to die at some stage in 2k3 as well. The turtles are still teens for that whole series but I felt that his death was something which could have been a real opportunity for the writers. It probably wasn't ever going to happen for marketing reasons and the fact that it may have upset the kids too much (see the reaction of young kids who at first believed Leo had died in the season 1 finale of 2k12) but if he'd died perhaps at the end of season 3 in Exodus it would have made Leo even more conflicted and tormented and offered a new plot point where they could have brought back Ch'rell earlier than Turtles Forever and ran a 'revenge' angle. Things could have got really intense. The toying with him potentially 'dying' in BttS is really pretty weak and not what I had in mind.

I'm probably alone in thinking that but it might have been interesting.

[CyberCubed]

Splinter dying was the best part of the series. Splinter will probably never be killed off in any other incarnation, but in Mirage seeing Splinter finally "pass away," was quite fitting.

I especially liked it that Splinter died of natural causes, with what looked like a heart attack, rather than dying in some cliche epic battle to save the Turtles or anything. He just died because he was old....and that was the best part.