Something That I Think Is Kind Of Funny Is How Even When The Turtles Were In Full Traditional Hamato

Something that I think is kind of funny is how even when the Turtles were in full traditional Hamato Ninja mode, Donnie still drew eyebrows on his mask, Donnie was willing to give up most of his tech & stop wearing purple but the eyebrows were non-negotiable & stayed.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS ZACH!! :D Hope ur day was wonderful and full of memes uvu

✨🎁❄️HAPPY HOLIDAYS TRIONA!!!❄️🍪✨

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! COOKIE ME LOOKS BOTH BEAUTIFUL AND DELICIOUS.

.....does this count as cannibalism

Hehehehehehehehehehe

(Hello, zach. I'm making something for you >:3)

(i am full of both immense excitement and also fear)

a surprise twist !

Previously

AHHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT EXCUSE ME TUMBLR WHY AM I ONLY JUST NOW SEEING THIS

MIKEY OUT HERE WITH THE PEAK BABY BROTHER BEHAVIOR!!!!!!! RAPHIE CROCHETING!!!!! LEO NOT EVEN LOOKING UP FROM HIS MEDITATION AHHHHH ITS PERFECTION

THESE ARE AMAZING 💕🩷💕🩷🩷💕 THANK YOU FOR DRAWING MY SILLY RAT BOYS

so yall. i randomly remembered a minor background moment from the 03 series. and it has spawned Thoughts....thoughts with Strong brainrot potential......

Hello :D

You're so cool

Anyway have you thought that in your rat sons au Splinter might outlive the boys?

You're very cool :D love your stuff dude

(tw for some blood, light gore, implied overdose (kinda??))

hi copper!!! this is a fantastic question!

so obviously typical irl rats have far shorter lifespans than the average irl tortoise. according to google (yes, be awed by my spectacularly in-depth wealth of research) the average pet rat lives between 2-4 years ish, and the oldest on record lived to be about 7. meanwhile, an African spurred tortoise (Splinter's species) averages more around a 50ish year lifespan in captivity, tho is suspected to possibly exceed 75 or more in the wild.

Now, the mutation does give us a lot of wiggle room for playing with these numbers. For the rat sons boys, id say their natural lifespan probably clocks in at about 45-55 years old? definitely not old by human standards, but not young young either. (though, its also important to note that the boys were exposed to the mutagen just days after being born.)

For Splinter, meanwhile, aging is slightly more complicated. He lived the vast majority of his life as a regular normal African spurred tortoise (well, non-mutated at least. there were perhaps some shenanigans of a more mystical variety going on before he was mutated, but thats a separate matter) He was about 70ish i think? when the boys were born and they were all exposed to the mutagen. so he is already distinctly an old man turtle papa. id guess he'd probably still have another eh lets say 25-30 years after his mutation. he could probably push it a little farther even with some mystic nonsense, but when push comes to shove id say his 'natural' post-mutation lifespan would put his death like a solid decade or two before his sons.

of course, the tricky part of the matter is that theres no way for Splinter to know any of this. theres no way for him to know how the mutation affected them all, or if it even affected them all in the same way. especially since the boys dont show many physical signs of mutation for the first few years, and just kinda look like normal rats, (albeit with a more human sort of intelligence) — what sort of health standard do you hold them to? what if they simply dont show external signs of sickness or old age anymore? how do you actually know if something is wrong?

for a while there Splinter is very worried that one of his babies will just essentially reach the end of their normal rat lifespan, fall and not get up again.

so mostly, he just tries to live in the moment, enjoying whatever time he does have with his little ones, taking each day as a gift <3

still,

that fear

never

really

goes

away.....