* Nods Aggressively To Every Made Point* - Tumblr Posts

I love Splinter’s characterisation in ROTTMNT, and I really do sympathise with the rat man but DAMN as someone who grew up without emotional support I don’t view him as a good father.

Is he a good person who went through a lot of shit which is most likely the reason for his behaviour? Yes, absolutely.

But is he a good father? I don’t think so.

Personally I see it as a ‘good person ≠ good parent’, or a ‘sometimes people aren’t emotionally ready to care for another being, especially if they haven’t even learnt to care for themselves’.

At the end of the day, Splinter never made the choice to raise four people, and that has to be acknowledged, but God if Donnies speech in ‘Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad or Rat Man’ (ep.39) about how Splinter had used him and how desperate at the turtles were just to get a hug from their DAD in ‘Late Fee’ (ep.24) doesn’t just break me because DONNIE DOESNT EVEN LIKE HUGS BUT IS STILL RUNNING AROUND NEW YORK WITH HIS BROTHERS JUST TO GET ANY SIGN OF AFFECTION FROM HIS FATHER, THAT, AND how it’s a running joke that Donnie literally just wants approval from ‘a parent aged adult’

THAT IS WHAT BREAKS ME PEOPLE.

(And yes, I realise that this is almost exclusively using Donnie as an example but that’s just because that’s the most obvious stuff that comes to mind)

Soooo yeah, rat man is a cool person and all but god if I do not FEEL how how his absence has negatively impacted his children, because goddamit you know that’s where all their insecurities come from.