Splinter (TMNT 2012)

"For many years I have lived in the shadows, training my adopted sons in the ways of Ninjutsu. I have tried to prepare them for the worst that the world has to offer - hoping it would never come. But we are running out of time. Our family is strong. I only hope that we are strong enough."

- Splinter Master Splinter is the major character of the 2012 version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He is both the adoptive father and sensei of all four of the Turtles. He is wise, mature, and highly trained in the art of Ninjutsu.

Description
Master Splinter is the teacher and adoptive father of the Ninja Turtles. He has trained the Turtles in the art of Ninjitsu, but they are not ninja masters yet. Splinter is mature, serious, and protective. He fights with various ninja weapons and fights with many ninja skills. Any villain wishing to harm his sons will have to go through him first.

History
Born in 1962 in Osaka, Japan into a peacekeeping ninja clan called the Hamatos, Hamato Yoshi enrolled into a Martial Arts school before he could inherit his father's role as clan leader. His skills were only rivaled by fellow student Oroku Saki, who was Hamato's adoptive brother, originally from one of the wiped out rival clans, the Foot. Not only were they rivals in Martial Arts, but also for the love of a beautiful woman named Tang Shen, who eventually chose to marry Yoshi. Saki could not accept this and once brutally insulted Yoshi in front of her. Yoshi lost his temper and struck Saki to the ground. This attack solidified Saki's hatred for Yoshi and he vowed revenge. During this time Saki learned of his true heritage and rebuilt the Foot Clan, rechristening himself as "the Shredder". One night, he came to Yoshi's home and challenged him to duel to the death armed with razor sharp claw weapons. During the fight, a fire broke out and Yoshi's home was burned to the ground. His wife perished somewhere in the flames. He never knew the fate of his baby daughter Miwa, who Shredder secretly raised as his daughter, Karai.

Yoshi made his way to America and attempted to make a new life in New York City. One day, out of loneliness, he visited a pet store and purchased four baby turtles. Walking home, he bumped into a man and felt off about him, so he decided to follow. He came into an alley and overheard a conversation between two strange men, later shown to be members of the Kraang. His foot spooked a rat hiding in the alley, causing the villains to spot him and attempt to kill him. Yoshi fought back, but accidentally broke a canister of Mutagen they were holding in the process, spilling it all over himself and the turtles. Yoshi escaped down a sewer drain, now mutated into a humanoid rat. The turtles also mutated, gaining humanoid bodies and intelligence. Yoshi, knowing that they would be persecuted by humans, adopted these Turtles as his sons and students and has raised them in the sewers of New York ever since. He started training them in his Ninjutsu techniques because he knew that, one day, his sons would want to explore the surface, but he knew it would also be dangerous. He took on the name of Splinter and gave the turtles names of painters and sculptors from a book of Renaissance Art that he found in a storm drain.

Appearance
As Hamato Yoshi: Yoshi is tall, lean and muscular, with dark brown eyes and black hair. He wears a red kimoto with his clan's symbol when he lived in Japan. During the time that he resided in America, he wears a whitish blue polo shirt, along with brown pants.

As Splinter: Splinter has black, brown and white fur, with a droopy white beard, whiskers, a pink tail and a pink nose. He still wears the red kimoto that he wore in Japan. Unlike all of his past incarnations, Splinter is taller than each of the Turtles.

Personality
Splinter is many things to the Turtles - A wise sensei, protective parent, loving father, stern disciplinarian, quirky master and Zen philosopher. He is determined to train and protect his new family at all costs. The fact that he has gone through decades of ninja training does not only mean that he is always fierce when he fights, but that he's also remarkably in tune with the universe.

Splinter can be very strict when it comes to training and letting his sons venture up to the surface; as seen in many episodes. At certain times, he may use harsh methods in order for them to learn a lesson, as seen in "The Pulverizer Returns!", in which he took away his sons' weapons so they could learn to fight outside of their typical environment. Nonetheless, Splinter is a loving father who only wants what is best for his sons, and will do anything that he can to protect them from harm's way.

Splinter seems to dislike anyone that lays a hand on the Turtles. This is emphasized in "It Came From The Depths", as he battled Leatherhead due to this. His absolute worst fear is losing his family all over again to the Shredder, as seen in "Panic In The Sewers". His fear of losing the Turtles to the Shredder caused him to push their training to the point where they become exhausted, stressed, and antsy; though he does eventually apologize for it. It could be very possible that Splinter fears the fact that the Turtles will leave him someday, as this was one of the notions that the Rat King (in "I, Monster") used against him in an attempt to control his mind.

Abilities, Skills and Powers
As human, he was great powerful fighter of Ninjitsu as a master. He was training for his entire life when he was very young. He has mastered many skills and has great abilities such as great strength, acrobatics, speed, stamina, and endurance greater than any athlete.


 * Ninjutsu: As a master of Ninjutsu, Splinter is knowledgeable, speedy and has greater strength. He can take down larger opponents without a whole lot of effort, as demonstrated in "It Came from the Depths". His strength was shown that he was able to slap his hand against Dogpound and toss him into the air by a back hand and use his anger to take off the heavy pillars of his back for revenge for Leo and Leatherhead. In Return to New York, he easily defeated three Shredder mutants in a very short battle.
 * Jaw Strength: His jaws are powerful enough to break some forms of metal like Shredder's weapon, like a sword.
 * Fighting Skills: His skills of Ninjutsu are so remarkably high that even Rahzar (back when he was still Dogpound) referred to him as "one of the best" and claimed that "he's as skilled as Master Shredder, but he doesn't have the stomach to finish the fight". Though the Shredder's skills of Ninjutsu often seem to be to be higher due to his knowledge of forbidden techniques (even surprising Yoshi), he has been defeated by Splinter twice (once in Japan just before the fire that burned the Hamato home and again in Showdown).
 * Teaching: He is a great teacher to those who will like to train as he train his four sons for 15 years of their lives. He even trains April well enough to defend herself from enemies. He even told them that weapons usual chose their owner not the other way around.
 * Enemy Detection: He can easily detect when an enemy is coming. This is either do to excellent hearing that he got when he mutated or his "balanced mind" but this type of power or ability when he was human couldn't hear the noise that April was hearing. Similarly to April, he appears to possess a rare sensitivity gift.
 * Enhanced Strength: He has a very special skill that is powerful but could be even be much stronger for being a mutant to use his fingers to push away his enemies as shown on the Shredder to be able to injure his arm.
 * Enhanced Speed: He is shown to have a lot of abilities that ordinary rats possess - namely running on all fours. His speed is capable for him to get behind Dogpound.
 * Senses: He probably can see in the dark like regular rats do. He had shown in his feral state that he was able to smell cheese outside of his cage from Baxter Stockman glass.
 * Weaponry: Splinter is skilled with the usage of many weapons as well as showing he is able to adept to all weapons that he can find that is around even a magazine.
 * Stealth: His stealth is a combination of his speed to get pass his enemies like Dogpound.
 * Leap: He can even jump very well to Shredder's window.
 * Intelligence: He shows amazing wisdom to give to anyone as for his fighting intelligence he can ways for his sons to escape when being hold tight they can escape from their enemies by making then loose focus as shown that he was able to escape the strength of Raph by licking him.
 * Stamina and Endurance: Both are great for a mutant of his age (50) he seems to be very well to fight. This is shown that he is well enough to take attacks from Shredder as he was able to go toe-to-toe with him. He was able to defeat Foot Ninjas, Fishface, and Dogpound with absolute ease before he fought against the Shredder in a long brutal fight. Even when countless heavy pillars fell on him during another fight with Shredder, he was still more than capable of fighting competently against his opponent. He was able to endure the attack from the Mind Controlled Slash mace.

Trivia
Splinter's name is a spoof on the Marvel Comics character Daredevil. Matt Murdock, after being blinded by spilled radioactive waste, is trained in martial arts by a master call The Stick. "Splinter" is a spoof from this name.