Splinter/Shredder backstory discrepancies

[neatoman]

So I just got the season 1 set and I just finished disk 1 and there seem to be some discrepancies with the past of these two characters.

In season 1 it seems that Shredder and Splinter were war buddies (in a realistic modern war), their friendship fell apart partially due some unknown insults, Shredder challenged Splinter and the fight lead to a fire that killed Tang Shen. In that order.

In season 2, there was some kind of fantasy ninja war, Shredder was adopted from the defeated rival clan and was raised as Splinter's brother, Shredder became a villain due to finding out who his parents were, Shredder tried to assasinate Splinter but killed Tang shen instead and then the fight that lead to the fire happened.

These backstories are not necessarily in outright contradiction but they don't align perfectly. I have suspected for quite a while that Splinter (we really only know his side of the story, it's a little unclear what Shredder's side of the story is other than that Splinter is to blame) is a somewhat unreliable narrator, that he's either hiding something or his point of view might be a bit warped somehow.

What do think? Is Splinter's narative reliable?

[Karai Samurai]

I doubt they intentionally made Splinter unreliable. The discrepancies are most likely caused by creating their backstory along the way. That war photo always confused the history nerd in me. I know the Japanese were involved in the British invasion of Vietnam slightly after WWII, but that's the most recent armed Japanese conflict I can think of.

[Creativemind]

My guess is two different episode writers are to blame here.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by Karai Samurai

I doubt they intentionally made Splinter unreliable. The discrepancies are most likely caused by creating their backstory along the way. That war photo always confused the history nerd in me. I know the Japanese were involved in the British invasion of Vietnam slightly after WWII, but that's the most recent armed Japanese conflict I can think of.

Mercenaries?

[Luckyday]

What I like to hear is how do modern ninjas fit in Japan and get away with shady mob activity from the police? Is the Hamato clan possible involved in illegal activity and if so then why join the military of all places?

Things might not be so black and white. I think Foot clan may not be evil but it was more like a monopoly of all ninja clans.

It would interesting if the Foot clan was the norm but Hamato clan was that one clan that became rouge and branch off.

[BubblyShell22]

I don't think his story is unreliable at all and truly believe this is what happened. If anyone's unreliable it's Shredder because he has a warped view of what happened, and he even lied to Karai about who her father was. Splinter's story seems way more believable to me.

[victory_angel]

With the Military photo there is a group called the Japanese Self-Defence Force. Perhaps that is what the photo is of.

What I'm getting from the two stories is...

The Hamato Clan and Foot Clan have been rival clans. One day the Hamato Clan attacks and decimates the Foot Clan, however Yoshi's father finds Oroku Saki and takes pity on him because he was an innocent child.

Both Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki were raised together and thought of each other as friends and brothers. Then they meet Tang Shen and both fall in love with her. When Tang Shen chooses Yoshi as her husbend, Oroku Saki lets his jealousy consume him. At some point he learns that the family that had raised him and cared for him as one own had killed his biological family. Due to the jealousy and anger flowing though his spirit coupled with his short sightedness at that time, he interperates it as the people he thought of and loved as his parents had murdered his real family and kidnapped him to make him think he was one of them.

He angerly lashes out at his friend with insults. Hamato Yoshi drives away his former friend.

With his anger poisoning his soul with hatred Oroku Saki finds the remnants of the Foot Clan and assumes himself as it's head. Intending to make the Hamato Clan pay for their trechery and taking back what should rightfully be his.

So he attacks intending to kill Hamato Yoshi and claiming Tang Shen as his. It is likely he kills his adoptive parents too as Splinter does say he's lost his family, home, and clan. During the fight one of Shredder's Tagaki slices through a candle which sets the house on fire. While trying to get his wife and child out of the building Yoshi is attacked by the Shredder, but Tang Shen shields her husbands body with her own and is struck down. Enraged by this Shredder accuses Hamato Yoshi as responcible for her death and leaves the house taking baby Miwa with him.

Yoshi doesn't hear Miwa's cries and assumes she was burnt to ashes in the fire. He then moves to New York so that he can get away from the memories that plague him.

Shredder in the mean time raises Miwa as his own, naming her Karai so she has no further ties to what she once had. He isn't a particularly loving father. He cares for her as much as he has to but more then likely has people he hires to look after her. He mostly only looked in on her as whenever he had the time when she had been a baby. When she was old enough to train as a Kunoichi he took it upon himself to train her. However he was likely a harsh teacher and during his training of her and fueled her anger and desire for vengance by reminding her that Hamato Yoshi took her mother from her.

[Karai Samurai]

Originally Posted by neatoman

Mercenaries?

Possibly. I know there were a few Japanese mercenaries in the Iraq/Afghanistan war.