Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) - Personality

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.