I don’t believe in 12 Splinter slander.
Everyone be blaming the poor guy for his children’s trauma, calling him the worst dad ever because the turtles were seen as his students before his sons.
He was a single father with not very much experience.
When Yoshi moved to New York, he was still going through a lot. The love of his life and only child had just died along with his only home burning up in flames.
Eventually he had adopted the four turtles, perhaps to have some company because he was still such a lonely man. And literally seconds after adopting baby turtles, he gets mutated.
Now he has absolutely no where to go with the condition he’s in, and suddenly he’s expected to raise four helpless little turtles.
Yoshi could’ve easily left the turtles when he was first mutated, but he chose to save them and help them because he wasn’t about to lose another thing in his life. Obviously he felt bad for them.
Eventually Splinter gets his life somewhat settled in their new home and accepting the fact that he’s a giant rat raising four turtle sons. But still, raising four boys was new to him. There were going to be some mistakes made that he would learn from.
Miwa had to have been around a year old when she was “killed” so there were going to be so many milestones crossed by his sons that he never got to experience with his daughter. He was really trying to hold on while still attempting to give his sons the best childhood and life possible.
And when the boys came of age, Splinter only decided to train them because they clearly seemed interested, and for self defense. Even if their life seemed calm and safe, Splinter was a worried father and feared that life wouldn’t always be like this (clearly).
Now having four rowdy little ninjas running around, Splinter was probably stressed out. Still, he loved his sons more than anything and was in no way abusive to them. They’re just a handful, especially at such young ages (5?)
As they got older and more independent, they were expected to be responsible. All the times in the show where Splinter would get mad at them and ground them for weeks over a small thing was for their own protection.
Splinter never wanted them to go topside because he knew all about the awful things that happened up there. He never wanted the world to be placed on their young shoulders. But it was, and he pushed them to keep going because he believed they were capable of anything, and to show he cared and loved them the whole way.
When Leo feels overwhelmed with his role as leader he doesn’t hesitate to go to his father ever, because he knows Splinter cares. Splinter never had any intention of harming his sons with these burdens and was always there for them, we just never saw it.
They all look up to Splinter and just don’t want to disappoint him. They’ve all been well disciplined and loved their whole lives. Splinter went through the rockiest of roads to make sure he raised his kids right. He was given a second chance and didn’t want to screw it up.
He was just deeply misunderstood.
(sorry if half of what I said didn’t make much sense lmao)
