Does Splinter seem a bit... incompetent?

[Gonstead]

I dunno, to me he comes off a little incompetent in his teaching methods.

An example that comes to mind is where he orders the turtles to switch weapons and expects them to adapt to their new weapon right on the spot. When the turtles fail, he proclaims that a successful ninja is able to use any weapon to their advantage.

The problem with this is... he's only ever trained the turtles to wield their own specific weapon and appears to haven't bothered even giving thought to training them to use other types of weapons or objects.

Does anyone else feel this way?

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

No. In short.

The thing with the weapons switching is he was trying to teach them that any object can be a weapon for a true ninja.

[Jester]

http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=42873

[JH24]

I feel the same way. But more because he send them out into danger. First with switching weapons, which I can understand to some extent. But later on he takes those weapons away. The latter could have had potentially deadly consequences.


Splinter probably felt that throwing his students "into the deep" was the best way to make them learn, but how would he feel if one of them actually got hurt or even worse? What would happen if they had encountered Shredder himself during that time?


However (and like you said in the opening post) I was surprised the turtles didn't know how to wield each other's weapons. That does seem like a flaw in his teaching. If anything, Splinter himself made the turtles over-reliant on their own weapons.

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

Originally Posted by Jester

http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=42873

I think you should be a moderator. You would keep everyone in line.

[Technogeek29]

His methods are questionable, but he hasn't really striked me as imcompent yet. I'm stuck on the fact the Turtles have to be taught the same lesson 3 times. Getting over confident in their abilities and it blowing up in their face.

The Gauntlet- Gets a past beaten just about everything thrown at them

The Pulverizer Returns- Get overconfident again and or very pathetic once they switch weapons. But instead of adapting to said situation like the Comic version of this. They switch back to their original weapons and brag that their all that. I can still justify this however but did we really need this lesson again?

The Mutation Situation- Sigh~ Have the Turtles actually gotten more imature? I get the charm of this version is that they act like actual teens but I wasn't so full of myself I had to learn the same lesson 3 times. And again it blew up in their face, despite his honesty here, I hated Mikey revealing how it was their fault April's dad got mutated. He said it in a way like "oh we just spilled some Mutagen lets us get a rag and clean it right up" ugh..

Hopefully this plot point doesn't happen a 4th time.

[Colonel Schrader]

out of all the Splinters he has done the least.. the only reason he went and battled Shredder was cause April trolled him and he had to show he did something, whole season he didn't do ****. I don't see him doing much this season either, other than maybe fighting Tiger Claw once.

[TurtleTitan97]

No, I have not seen this version of Splinter as incompetent

[Shark_Blade]

This Splinter is the most strict and harsh, like a military general.

He's not soft all the time like other Splinters, that's why I like him the best.

[Konchadunga]

A good general does not tell his troops to abstain from using the most effective weapons they have in the decisive battle of the war. Boot camp is boot camp for a reason: Learn lessons harshly in a way that doesn't kill you, and you might not die on the battleground, but when you're on the battleground, it's not in your interest to add any more complications to your troops' challenge. I'm sorry, but there is no excuse for some of Splinter's idiocy.

[victory_angel]

I get Splinters point about the switching weapons because he was trying to teach them to also adapt to things that aren't quite as familiar. And the only reason he took the weapons from them is because they had switched to their original weapons and were bragging about how they won the fight with those weapons. So the only way to get the lesson of adaptability across is to force them to adapt. Which they did by finding objects that were similar to the weapons they were used to.


As for expecting the turtles to fight using the weapons they were unfamiliar with. I believe he was expecting them to have some idea as to how the weapon was used from seeing their brothers use said weapon so many times. And in a way he also expected them to learn and teach each other about how to use the weapon which is a concept they had to figure out on their own. But of course being teenagers none of them consider they had the option...hey my brother knows more about this weapon then I do. Why don't I ask him for a few basics? Because none of them realized they had that option.

So the actual point of the lesson was for them to teach each other. And in turn learn from one another.

[Konchadunga]

But once again, a lesson should not be taught at a time when the world is at stake, if it can be helped. That's selfish and stupid.

[snake]

Originally Posted by whatswiththeheadbands?

I think you should be a moderator. You would keep everyone in line.

Was that supposed to be sarcastic? Becuase usually people don't complement others by telling them that they should become a mod. But yeah, Jester should be a mod.

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

Originally Posted by snakeweed101

Was that supposed to be sarcastic? Becuase usually people don't complement others by telling them that they should become a mod. But yeah, Jester should be a mod.

Yes, it was sarcasm. (Or was it?)

[blindturtle02]

Originally Posted by whatswiththeheadbands?

I think you should be a moderator. You would keep everyone in line.

He'd really make a good mod. As for Splinter, I think he's pretty competent. Although he's made a few mistakes as he has freely admitted. I'm thinking of Panic In The Sewers. Like all good teachers, he'd probably admit that he learns something every day and that a person really never stops learning. We'll have to see if he's doing the right thing about Karai though.

[PApagreg]

I like this Splinter but he screwed up BIG, not one of his proudest moments and hopefully hell learn from it

[Slime State Alumni]

Writing hiccups aside, this is the best Splinter I've seen. Hoon Lee's delivery of every line is a thing of beauty.

[BubblyShell22]

Splinter is not incompetent by far. He's a great fighter and drills into his sons that this is a war situation. The thing with the weapons was a mistake, but his lesson was true and he had good intentions on teaching it whether you agree with his methods or not. Parents do make mistakes, but in the end, they are mostly right about everything they do. I think Splinter is awesome and has done a good job with what he's done thus far.

[Bossa Nova]

I don't know if incompetent is the right word to use, but I do feel there is something about this Splinter that isn't quite doing it for me just yet. As others have argued with the whole switching weapons fiasco, another one of my huge issues with Splinter's lesson was the episode (Mousers?) with "A" and "B" team. It was honestly a directly result of Splinter's teaching that this whole rivalry even happened which could have very well killed the turtles. I understand Splinter wanted Leo and Raph to stop bickering, and it's good he stepped up to put a stop to it...but he did it be pinning them against their OTHER brothers who weren't even arguing in the first place.

Um. WHAT?

Yeah, that's a great idea. Build up two of your sons (who already show the most skill and strength in battle), by allowing them to completely belittle your other two children. I don't care who tries to explain this 'reasoning' to me, but it shows extreme favoritism to Leo and Raph on Splinter's part. There were so many other ways to demonstrate to them that they make a good team other than embarrassing and shaming the other members of the team.

[Konchadunga]

Originally Posted by BubblyShell22

Parents do make mistakes, but in the end, they are mostly right about everything they do.

That is a ridiculously naive statement. So parents are by default right to do what they'd do with their children; even in the case where if they had their druthers, the children wouldn't exist? Wrong. I bet you still believe Santa is real, too.

Also, it's easy for us adults to say yeah; Splinter's heart is in the right place even if his head isn't, we admire his ends, if not his means, and being more fallible makes him more fun--but what of the intended demographic? As I said before in my thread about this, they need to make sure they provide a positive model for children to follow, and that means when Splinter seriously goofs, even if they have to throw in some "and knowing is half the battle" segments, they need to point out to children that Splinter was wrong. Do that, and they'd go right from annoying me to getting my immense respect. "Authorities are not always right" is a great lesson to teach children, and there's plenty room to teach that here, and April sort of did, but I wish they did more. If Splinter continues to have stupid ideas, then the need for him to be shown up for that increases.