Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Master Splinter, or simply Splinter, is a fictional character from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and all related media.

Origin story
Splinter has two origin stories, and which one is used depends on the medium. In the original version of the tale, he was Hamato Yoshi's pet, and in the other he is Hamato Yoshi.

Mirage Comics, 2003 Cartoon, and Movies
In both the original comics and the live-action movies, Splinter was the pet rat of a ninja named Hamato Yoshi in Japan. Intelligent for his species, Splinter was able to learn his master's art by mimicking his movements while he practiced. Yoshi became embroiled in a dispute with a fellow ninja by the name of Oroku Nagi, and was eventually murdered by Nagi's brother Oroku Saki. Additionally in the 1990 film, Splinter escapes from his cage during the murder, and attacked Saki, clawing at his face, while Saki sliced his ear off. It is suggested this mutilation is the reason Saki took the Shredder disguise to hide the scars.

Without a home, Splinter was forced to run away and live in New York City's sewers. Due to a traffic accident, four baby turtles and a canister of radioactive ooze were sent down into the sewer, where they mutated both Splinter and the turtles. Splinter named the four turtles Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo (after a book on Renaissance artists that he found in a storm drain) and trained them in the arts of ninjutsu, while still raising them as his own sons. Splinter died of old age in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (vol. 4) #10.

In the 2003 TMNT cartoon, he possesses a significant reputation as a ninja master; in a multi-part episode, he was revealed to be a champion of the Battle Nexus, a multi-dimensional-spanning contest where the greatest combatants of various dimensions come together to fight each other for the title of Battle Nexus Champion. When the Turtles first learn of the Battle Nexus, they participate as well, resulting in Splinter forfeiting when called upon to fight Michelangelo, as he wishes to allow his sons the opportunity to fight where he succeeded in the past.

In the 2003 cartoon during the Battle Nexus, Splinter is referred to as 'Hamato Splinter' indicating either that he regards himself as a member of the Hamato family, or that he took the name in honor of his dead owner.

In Fast Forward, Splinter was sent to the future with the Turtles. But when the Turtles finally found a way back to their time, Viral, a villain they met in the future blasted him with a decompiler ray that scattered his bits all over the internet. While Splinter wasn't seen much, the Back to the Sewers season dealt heavily with the Turtles going all over cyberspace to find all of his data bits. Splinter is restored at last in the final episode of the series, just in time to assist April and Casey's wedding, and help defeat the Cyber Shredder.

1987 Series, 2012 Series and Archie TMNT Adventures comics
In the 1987 TMNT cartoon, Splinter is Yoshi. He was a martial art instructor for the Foot Clan, based in Japan, and also had a passion for Renaissance art. One day he was framed by his rival, Oroku Saki (who would eventually turn into his future arch-enemy, the Shredder), for trying to murder their common dojo master. Being unable to prove his innocence, he moved away to New York City, where he lived as a hermit in its sewers and befriended the rats. One day, he came across four baby turtles which were accidentally dropped by a boy through a grate of the sewers. He kept them as pets and treated them like his children. But later, he found the turtles venturing near broken barrels that were oozing glowing pink chemical liquid. As he tried to recover them from danger and attempted to clean them with his bare hands, they were all affected by the chemical which was a mutagen. This mutagen transformed any living being into a mutant whose body became mixed with the DNA of any other living being it was most in contact with. The turtles, being in a pet store with people touching them and all around them, turned into young anthropomorphic humanoid turtles. Hamato himself, having been in contact more with sewer rats, became a humanoid rat.

Since then, Yoshi raised the turtles by himself, and gave them the names of his favorite Renaissance artists: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michaelangelo, who were to be distinguished by personality and headband color. He also taught them the art of ninjutsu in order to protect themselves better, since people above ground would not accept them. And like many real life ninja masters He also has a strong sense of honor and follows very strict rules of honor. In which all four of his students take after and strongly follow.

Hamato was given the nickname "Splinter" by his students, due to his proficiency at breaking wooden boards. On one occasion Donatello was able to use the remnants of the ooze that transformed them to restore Yoshi's human self, but the process was only temporary and soon wore off; however, Splinter, having seen how humans could treat each other at times, concluded that he preferred his new state, particularly due to the relationship he had with his students. Master Splinter doesn't hold a father/son relationship with the turtles, as the Mirage Studios, Movie, and 2k3 stories suggested, but more of a teacher/student bond. This version of Splinter never calls the turtles "my sons" and the turtles never call him father. In fact in Turtles Forever the old toon turtles are surprised when the 4kids turtles call Splinter father. However, in an episode called The Old Switcheroo, Splinter showed a glimpse of fatherly concern for Leonardo when he's slightly injured by one of Donatello's contraptions. Splinter also mentions in the series (episode; Snakes Alive!) that Leonardo is his most gifted student. Master Splinter even gets the chance to be human once more in an episode Splinter No More, but realizes he much more prefers being with the turtles. Master Splinter is always there for the turtles to give a wise/ungrasping quote or speech to try to ease the turtles' troubles. He'll also show a little ninja action just in the knick of time when it seems the turtles are in for impending doom that is inescapable. In this series, Splinter is voiced by Peter Renaday.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures from Archie Comics published the 1987 TV series in comic form and maintained Splinter's original human background even when they started publishing original storylines.

During Turtles Forever, the 1987 Splinter meets the Turtles from the 2003 series, with '03 Leonardo commenting during their time with this alternate Splinter that it feels right to be there with Splinter regardless of the differences between the two worlds. Splinter's assurances that he feels the same, coupled with his comment that Leonardo and his brothers will always be welcome there, helps Leonardo see the common similarities between the teams, regardless of their different styles and methods.

In 2012 series, Splinter was originally a human named Hamato Yoshi and resided in Japan where he became an expert of ninjutsu. When his friend Oroku Saki sought the affections of Splinter's wife Tang Shen, Saki wished to discredit Yoshi in front of her. Yoshi lost his temper and the altercation ended their friendship culminating in a battle that burned down Yoshi's home killing Shen and their daughter Miwa. After moving to New York City, Yoshi had just purchased four pet turtles when he stumbled upon an exchange in an alley between two Kraang droids. Seeking to silence Yoshi before he could share what he had seen, a fight ensued and the canister the droids had been carrying smashed open splashing both Yoshi and his turtles with an alien chemical called mutagen. As the result, Yoshi changed into a humanoid rat after having had contact with a rat upon entering an alley. Realizing he could no longer live a normal life topside, he retreated to the New York sewers where he raised his pets as sons and taught them the ancient Japanese fighting art of ninjutsu.

IDW Comics
The IDW Comics series which began in 2011 presents a new origin for both Splinter and the Turtles. All five were originally test subjects at Baxter Stockman's Stockgen corporation, a bioengineering firm. When agents of the Foot Clan break into Stockgen and attempt to steal an alien mutagen, Splinter and the Turtles are also picked up, but manage to escape and are exposed to the mutagen in a sewer. While the element of Splinter being Hamato Yoshi is still present, Yoshi is now the Foot Clan's medieval leader, with himself and the Turtles being the reincarnations of Yoshi and his sons.

Appearance
Splinter's physical appearance remains fairly consistent in all incarnations of the character, with slight differences. He is portrayed as an elderly rat dressed in robes. In the original live-action movies, he also lacks at least part of his right ear, which was cut off by Saki. In the 2003 animated series, Splinter is depicted as having gray fur as opposed to brown fur in his other incarnations. In the series TMNT: Back to the Sewers, his look is slightly changed to resemble the 2007 movie. In the 2012 series, Splinter is physically taller and younger than he was before in past incarnations. He also has a more rat like design along with with distictive body marks on his fur.

Personality
Splinter is portrayed as wise, intelligent, and a skilled martial arts teacher. He is nearly always calm and, even when angry, refrains from raising his voice. He is the quintessential calm, all-knowing wise master of all martial arts.

He cares for his adopted sons with fierce devotion, rescuing them in very critical moments in the series, such as when Shredder attempted to execute the four on a building, or when Bishop tried to literally tear them apart for science. He went berserk with fury when the Foot attempted to slay the Turtles with a robot Splinter and going all the way to Japan after the four had been kidnapped by the Tribunal. Anyone who tries to harm them severely is nothing more than a threat in Splinter's eyes, proved when he pounced on and attacked Casey when he stumbled into their home, not knowing he was a friend, of course. Splinter apologized for having nearly killed him (but he also quickly and angrily told Jones be more careful in the future). In fact, a recurring gag in the 2003 series is that Casey often and unintentionally annoys Splinter with his immature and accident-prone behavior, to the point of him being more than willing to send the turtles to the surface if this means that he will be free of Jones. But despite this, Splinter and Casey are in good terms with each other. Splinter even served as a father figure for Jones on occasion, visible when he helped Casey express his feelings for April, despite knowing little about (romantic) human relationships himself.

Splinter's concern for his adopted family likely stems from the loss of his previous family, through the murders of his master Hamato Yoshi & Yoshi's lover, Tang Shen. The loss of Yoshi was especially hard on Splinter. It is likely this, along with the grief from having failed to protect his owner/father figure/teacher, that caused him to be very protective of his adopted sons.

However, regardless of his love, he can be fairly militant to his sons, especially when they were very young and inexperienced. Splinter's main fear is that he and his family will one day be exposed to the outside world for what they are, and is understandably protective. He is not above disciplining the turtles whenever they become disobedient or unruly, (such as making them do backflips repeatedly in the second live-action movie).

Splinter isn't without his soft side. He has a normally tender and self-sacrificing heart, insisting the Turtles not give up their weapons when Hun took him as a prisoner in Rouge in the House, Part Two-(this was ignored by his sons, choosing to drop their weapons anyway) and was most hesitant about letting his sons die alongside him in Exodus, Part Two. Another characteristic is his dry sense of humor, cracking jokes while maintaining his serious demeanor.

Also, he could be heard telling everyone in "Reflections" that he thought the turtles, as infants, "were all so cute."

In the Ninja Tribunal series, he was haunted again and again with nightmares of his sons being slaughtered. When it appeared to actually happen, Splinter was lost in despair, but quickly turned to relief when it was apparent they had just been knocked out. He is also reluctant to allow his sons to be trained by the Ninja Tribunal, as he hadn't forgiven them for not helping Hamato Yoshi & Utroms combat the Utrom Shredder, Ch'rell (believing their cold indifference lead to Hamato Yoshi becoming a victim of the Utrom Shredder and felt if they had heeded Yoshi's warning then he might not have died in the first place).

In the Back to the Sewers, he admitted that, even when he was in pieces in Cyberworld, he had an intense yearning to see his family again.

Splinter is not completely cut off from the pleasures of modern culture: he enjoys soap operas. This is more fully displayed in Fast Forward, when his hobby is mentioned several times.

Voice actors
In the 1987 series, he was voiced by Peter Renaday in the American version and by Hideyuki Umezu (TV), Yuzuru Fujimoto (NHK-BS2) and Kiyoshi Kobayashi (VHS) in the Japanese versions. The film Turtles Forever features this incarnation, voiced by David Wills.

In Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation Splinter is voiced by Stephen Mendel. In the 2003 Fast Forward, Back to the Sewer and Turtles Forever American version, Splinter is voiced by Darren Dunstan. In the Japanese version, he is voiced by Shōto Kashii.

In the first two movies, he is voiced by Kevin Clash, and in the third, he was voiced by James Murray. In the 2007 animated film, he was voiced by Mako, who passed away during production, leaving Greg Baldwin to provided a large share of the dialogue in the finished film. Splinter was Mako's final role before his death. In the Japanese versions he was voiced by Kiyoshi Kobayashi and Joji Yanami in the first film, Michio Hazama in the second, Hideyuki Umezu in the third and Shoto Kashii in the fourth.

In the 2007 TMNT game he is voiced by Terrence Scammell.

In the 2012 animated series, Splinter is voiced by Hoon Lee.

In the 2013 reboot, Splinter will be portray by actor Danny Woodburn.

Video games
Splinter appears in most video games based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. He is a playable character in the 2003 video game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus, TMNT: Mutant Melee and TMNT: Smash Up. On the game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from NES, he transforms into a human in the ending.