Stimboard for Master Splinter 🌸 🐀 🌸

“You... but I sent you plunging into darkness! How could you have survived?”

“You survived, did you not?”

“Then why are you still here? Why did you not escape?”

“There is no escape. We are both trapped like rats, but here... in the darkness...  you belong to me”

The Cupboard Game Pt. 4

AU in which Splinter evaded the contents of the mutagen canister and ended up raising the turtles as a human.

No real warnings apply. Mostly family fluff and adventure with a teeny hint of angst. (Also available on A03:  http://archiveofourown.org/works/10471893/chapters/23340834)

Don Visioso only peeked out from behind the toppled table when he was certain the coast was clear and silence finally pervaded past the sound of the raging storm outside. Splinter of course was now gone, tearing through the rain at top speed, leaving behind what looked like to be disaster scene in his wake. The remnants of the hefty meal painted every corner of the room, beaten men and weapons scattered as if a tornado had flown through a gangster-themed prop shop. The mob bosses’s rocket powered chair slowly circled the room, fat leg dangling out to give one of the unconscious men a firm kick in the side. “C’mon, get up! All’ve ya get up!” The room steadily filled with moans, scattered thugs gripping their skulls and joints as they worked to obey their boss and pull themselves from the floor, some more successfully than others. “I can’t believe all of you pansies can’t handle one weaponless nobody!”

The Cupboard Game Pt. 2

AU in which Splinter evaded the contents of the mutagen canister and ended up raising the turtles as a human. No real warnings apply. Mostly family fluff with a teeny hint of angst. (Also available on A03: http://archiveofourown.org/works/10471893/chapters/23136108)

[If sum won coms wat do we do?]

Splinter got the fist text message a mere few minutes after he clocked in, when he was gathering his cleaning supplies and heading off to mop up the coffee spill in the recreation room.

He allowed his sons to send him text messages so long as it was important, although to four year olds “important” easily ranged from ‘I’m feeling lonely’ to ‘the stove was left on’ and everything in between. Though the turtles always forgot to say who was speaking before sending a message, Splinter could usually tell who it was simply by their writing pattern.

This one was from Leonardo. He had an average vocabulary for someone his age, misspelling things and sometimes allowing autocorrect to fill in the wrong word, but that aside he used the phone properly, and was typically clear and concise about his messages.

SO... I have some thoughts about the upcoming season 5 episodes

That moment when you try to be intimidating™ but then your teething infant son appears out of nowhere and throws off your groove

Splinter and Dealing With Teen Angst

I’d like to take a moment to talk about how good Splinter is at letting his sons express emotions. I’ve noticed that even though they’re a bunch of histrionic bags of hormones, he never criticizes them for having strong feelings, and in turn they’re never afraid of expressing these emotions around him.

Even with Raph and his anger issues, Splinter’s message is less “you should learn how to stop being so angry all the time” and more “you should learn how to channel your anger so that you don’t hurt yourself and the people you care about.” In fact, Splinter uses himself as an example, expressing what happened when he let his anger be manifested into physical violence as well as it’s consequences.

Likewise, when Donatello shows romantic interest in a girl, Splinter doesn’t try to tell him he’s wrong for having feelings for a human. He does, however, step in when Donnie pushes his interests too far, fixated on earning April’s forgiveness even when she expressly stated that she wanted to be left alone. Leonardo and Donatello have both been confronted for their flaws in the realm of romantic attraction; Leonardo unwittingly putting his brothers at risk to impress someone, and Donatello getting unintentionally obsessive. And though Splinter willingly knocks them down when they’re being morons he acknowledges that there was a time when he himself did stupid stuff “in the name of love.”

Then, in “Fungus Humongous” when Leonardo is anxious and unfocussed, expressing a fear of letting down his team, Splinter doesn’t try to disregard Leonardo’s feelings as a distraction from the issues at hand. Rather he sympathizes with his son... lets him know that his feelings aren’t irrational or unusual... and talks about how he himself feels frightened every time Leo and his siblings leave for a mission. 

However, my favorite conversation happens at the end of the episode when Leo is speaking with his father about what happened after he defeated the mutant mushroom plaguing him with hallucinogenic toxins.

S: Impressive! and would you say you mastered your fear? L: ... No.... I just faced it Sensei. S: And that, Leonardo, is why you’re a great leader.

He makes it clear that being worried is normal, being worried is rational, and being worried is something he shouldn’t feel ashamed for, especially when they’re being confronted with legitimately dangerous situations.

Michelangelo, however, is a different can of worms entirely. He isn’t temperamental, he isn’t anxious, and beyond maybe the allure of pizza he isn’t at all obsessive. When he does feel negative emotions he bounces back, more often than not finding some sort of bright side or distraction or... as Raph puts it... “retreats into his little la la land.”

You’d expect this to be why Mikey goes right under Splinter’s radar, and in many ways he does since Splinter usually only confronts a problem when it’s painfully obvious that there is a problem.

However, there was one instance where Mikey did finally express a strong sense of insufficiency, going so far as to splash mutagen on himself in an attempt to become something “better” and earn the respect of his brothers. This plan of course backfires miserably, but when the panic passes and the threat of death is gone Splinter approaches the issue in a very warm, very uplifting manner that seemed to get through to Michelangelo perfectly.

It’s very likely that Splinter doesn’t altogether understand Michelangelo (much like the rest of his brothers), but he accepts his differences in stride. When teaching Mikey in particular he feeds into the comedic and sporadic nature, recognizing how his particular way of thinking... however odd... is valid. 

Splinter is by no means a perfect father, but if there’s one thing he’s done very well it’s give his sons room to express their feelings and grow to become their own person. Nothing he does is designed to guilt them or intimidate them into a particular way of thinking, rather he offers them tools on how to understand their own emotions and handle them in healthy constructive ways, admitting in the same breath that he himself has never been flawless.

So props to him for that!

Someone new to the fandom: “I really like the 2012 version of Splinter! I think I’d even go so far as to say he’s my favorite character in the show!”

Me:

Michelangelo looking out for his father

Seeing as I could probably fill up the entire song twice with all the times the turtles got their shells waxed during their usual fights, I had to dedicate this one to Splinter’s very hands-on approach to parenting. Gotta sharpen those ninja reflexes I suppose.

What I want from TMNT season 5:

That’s it. That’s all I want.

*squints at SDCC* but what happens to Splinter?

Leave it to Splinter to point to the inevitability of death as a reason not to be a dick to your sibling.

When the details of Splinter’s comic-style flashbacks don’t quite match up to the events of Tale Of The Yokai

When your ex-brother murders your wife, brainwashes your child, burns down your home, scatters your clan, chases you across the ocean, won’t stop trying to kill off your adopted kids, and nearly destroys the world because he can’t put his stupid blame game on hold for five minutes