I low-key love how 87 Splinter willingly went to live in the sewers before mutating. He's the only human Splinter to be in the sewer before being mutated. Imagine being a random citizen in New York and seeing what looks like a normal Japanese guy walking down the street with his groceries, but then he disappears into a manhole. Like. WHAT?
And then there's the legends of the sewer cryptid, they see less and less of the sewer man, until he disappears app together.
I get that he technically is there because he was exiled, but it's just really funny that after moving countries he just deadass goes "yeah I can live the sewer life".
No wonder the turtles are silly little goblins, they learned from the best.
87 Splinter is being hard to write because his thing is being Wise and Calm, but out of all Splinters he should be the least prepared for the stuff he winds up guiding the turtles through. He's just a guy who was teaching his clan's ancestral martial arts for cultural reasons. It doesn't seem like he was ever a soldier or a crime-fighter, definitely not an assassin (87 just straight up ignores what ninjas actually are a lot of the time). Despite his insistance on calling Shredder his "ancient enemy" Shredder was a surprise, there wasn't an evil guy who needed fighting until Splinter's student suddenly betrayed him and allied with an alien warlord.
Some of Splinter being Calm and Wise and always knowing the Right Thing To Do has to be a pose, right? He can't be feeling Calm and Wise all the time. He can't always be sure he's doing the right thing, although he certainly never apologises when he ends up hurting the turtles with his lessons.
Considering how gentle he is towards the turtles 90% of the time I feel like it must be intended for their sake. In an uncertain world he thinks they need an authority that can always tell them the right thing to do. His own uncertainty is something he can't show (and the few times we do see him uncertain it's on missions, especially ones where the turtles aren't present).
When I think about it the turtles are darling little guys, but they're also bigger than Splinter, capable of ripping through sheet metal, and went straight from animals to adolescents. Maybe that's another reason why he can be rigid about the moral code he imposes on them and about his own authority. We see mutants like Tokka and Rahzar and Slash who can cause a lot of damage without real ill-will just because they were suddenly thrown into a world they were unprepared for without guidance. Even though the turtles are never accepted into society properly, Splinter is very insistent on them seeing themselves as part of society, emphasising their usefulness to others as something they should be glad of. (Which actually strikes me as a very Japanese attitude, but since it's also an attitude seen in a lot of 80's cartoons that's probably a coincidence. It's certainly a contrast to the morals seen in Rise about "being yourself" and how it's a mistake to try to conform.)
I'm left with the feeling he'd be a very interesting character if the narrative didn't always go out of its way to agree with him. But I'm also at a loss for how he'd handle the kind of situations the narrative of his own show would never put him in.
I love this man. Have you seen 87 TMNT? He's simply so precious. A real sweet guy. A warm hearted softy.
There's an episode where a ray can demutate him and he personally destroys it to protect his turtles. There's an episode he showed up guns literally ablaze to save his boys. He calls the turtles "my turtles" or "my sons". There's also an episode where he cures the turtles by giving them moth balls and gaslighting them. He let's them call him 'Master Splinter' because that's their nickname for him because he's really good at splitting wood. There was an episode where Donatello made an anti mutagen and Splinter told them he'd rather stay with his boys. He's the ultimate found family dad.
I finished the 87 series as a whole (except the European vacay season like I can't find it anywhere) and want to cry!!! My boys!!! I can't believe it's done!!!
What an awesome show. I might have to rewatch it just to write down more notes and thoughts. ;)
Anyways here's some headcanons about my sweet 87 boys and some show observations:
Hopefully with this people might give the show a chance. It's so delightful and charming. You won't be disappointed.
🐢🧡🐢💜🐢♥️🐢💙
The turtles are all basically 3-4 years old. They make tons of comments about living half their lives in a fish bowl and when Yoshi comes across them they're still babies. When they're shown mutating, they go from baby turtles to the older bipedal forms we know them by.
They're all identical sans their voices. (In the 87 show not only does April have trouble telling them apart at the beginning but so do the animators in every episode)
They all seem to possess super strength and some levels of invulnerability. Donatello in particular had a multiple story brick building dropped on him, which he just walked off. They've all shown varying skills such as bending metal with their bare hands. Raphael as a practical joke in one episode picks up a couch and hurls it at Donatello just to be smartass. Leonardo cuts metal like tinfoil.
They still think of themselves as turtles first and foremost, so they don't refer to each other as brothers. (despite the fact they're totally brothers) and simply address each other as friends. (They're brothers tho we all know the truth 💕)
Something not explained in the opening of the 3rd season, the turtles as babies, before they mutate, are shown with different shell patterns. While it's not obvious which turtle is which it is neat the artists went out of their way to animate each turtle with a unique pattern.
When you watch the show the amount of people and mutants that dislike the turtles is shocking. For a fun kids show made in the late 80's to mid 90's, it's basically a huge allegory to the civil rights movements and you can even take relevance to human rights movements of today.
Despite being so lovable they have only a small circle of friends. Most of those friends at some point have betrayed them too.
The boys have seen two different futures of themselves. (not counting their shared apocalypse nightmares) The first future is where they get old together in a mansion and they're heralded as heroes and everyone likes them. The second future doesn't show them but in the second future it's stated being a mutant is a crime punishable by death and all mutants are criminals regardless of deeds. This is before the red skies studio era of writing. That's before it's supposed to get edgy.
They all are highly intelligent. They can each pilot every vehicle ever present in the show despite none of them having a formal education, license, or understanding of the rules of the road. Michelangelo in particular seems to have a knack for US fighter jets.
In season 7 episode 11, titled "Dirk Savage: Mutant Hunter!" We meet two new mutants named Rahzar and Tokka. They're a gay couple. You don't believe me? Go watch the episode. I'm not pulling your leg. I swear. I promise. It's a good episode go watch it.
Master Splinter calls them his sons. He also calls Carter, his newest student, son occasionally too. It's his term of endearment.
The turtles in this version are known to get sick pretty regularly. (probably because of their still developing immune systems). They always get sick as a group and they totally soak up the pampering.
They in the first season share a 4 stack bunk bed and then after the bunk is destroyed in the season 1 finale they each get their own alcoves which they treat as their own rooms.
I didn't remember which Punk Frog said it, but one of them called Leonard and Michelangelo his Bubba which is a term of endearment for brother. The punk frogs call each other bubba too. So unlike the turtles they were either all frog brothers who mutated together or after mutating they just decided they're brothers and they also adopted the turtles as their brothers too.
Mondo Gecko seems older in this series because of his appearance but he's the same age as the turtles and actually mutated from the same ooze as them on the same day at the same time so he in 87 is like a mix of their brother and cousin? He's related regardless. (We all know the truth in our hearts)
Shredder and Krang act like a married couple who've been married too long and are on the cusp of a divorce but they've been together too long so they just keep tolerating eachother.
They all love the unhinged gross unholy pizza combos. Michaelangelo's stated combos are actually tame compared to some of the things they've eaten. One episode the boys committed to the bit so hard they ate lit candles just to mess with Michelangelo. They get pregnant sardine fudge pizza cravings at midnight. They put cereal on regular pizza for breakfast. They hate vegetables though. They literally gag when Splinter eats sushi. They refuse to eat bugs despite their turtle origins (interesting enough the Punk Frogs don't even like pizza at all first unlike them) but like they will eat out of the garbage. But not fresh handmade sushi.
They're so casual about being in public. Like they have disguises but sometimes they just go out in public as themselves. They also have so many elaborate disguises. In the first episode their first instinct to blend in was to throw on bright neon shoes, various bomber jackets, and start publicly beatboxing and breakdancing.
The turtles get called slurs by Shredder, Bebop, and Rocksteady. The slur in question is "Shellback" . When Donatello makes an evil clone the first thing the clone does is call him that slur. It's so funny like that's yourself. Donatello basically called himself ugly. Why is that so funny.
Shredders go to threat in the show and many other villains go to insult is to straight up threaten to eat them. Like, do none of the villains care about getting salmonella? Why do all the villains want to eat them?
Something I've noticed, they refuse to use nicknames. They only use each other's full names. It makes me wonder why? I theorize it's probably to do with the fact Master Splinter gave them their names and that's the first thing they received? It's not like they're not playful enough to use nicknames.
Despite his fatherly role in their lives, the turtle boys don't call Splinter their father and this is more than likely to do with the fact they see themselves as turtles and know they have turtle parents. (Again we know the truth)
April in this show is an adrenaline junky. She's also a child endangerer. She's helped save the day a lot but she would much rather the world burn so she can film it as her next big scoop.
The boys treat April like their mom in this show. April herself doesn't really get that. In one episode she got poison flowers and thought it was from the boys and went to "let them down gently" because she thought they romantically liked her.
April on multiple occasions reads bed time stories to them. She in one episode read the same bedtime story 4 times just because they liked it that much. She was going to read it a 5th time just for Leonardo.
When Zack, the 5th turtle, was in danger instead of helping him April shouted "What a scoop!" and filmed a child in a death trap.
Splinter believes in wholesome gaslighting in this show. He once cured three of them of permanent balloon-itis with moth balls but made up a story about how it was an ancient mythical legendary cure. Then after they were better he said it was moth balls.
April actually got fired from her job because she wouldn't badmouth the turtles on live television (also for other reasons). She focused on freelance while helping the boys on the side.
April is really bamf. She's actually saved the turtles just as much as they save her.
I just want everyone to know I love these little guys. The turtles are pure little snookie pookie baby bookies. No one knows the amount of space these silly little fictional turtles take up in my heart.
I hope maybe with more word out people might give the 1987 tmnt show a chance. It's really cute and funny. A super enjoyable time. It doesn't deserve the ragging it gets from other shows and fanbases. They're just goobers.
Thanks for reading my ramble list. :)
Also! if there's any fanfic recs please let me know I'm making a list and checking it twice ;)
