Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-11469381-20131204233104/@comment-995426-20150424054030

Nice scriptlets. :)

And yes, I considered how Splinter may have wished Tang Shen to be a mother in his sons' lives. But as I analyzed the cause and effect of it all, I realized that Shen's death and Miwa's disappearance were the catalyst for Hamato Yoshi traveling to Japan, and buying four pet turtles out of loneliness. Quite simply, if Yoshi hadn't lost his first family, he wouldn't have gotten a second one. So, unless Shen can be brought back 15 years after she died, it's unlikely she could have ever been a part of the turtles' lives. I'm sure Splinter has thought this over many times. He of all people must be familiar with the mantra "You can't always get what you want."

As for the idea that the turtles are "missing a mother," I don't really think this is the case. Splinter misses Shen personally, sure. But she was never directly in the turtles' lives to begin with, so she's not missing from their lives. The truth is, Splinter was a good father, and raised four good sons, and did it largely on his own, such that he is their only parent of functional significance. I think it would be nice if they could meet Shen, but it would be harder for her to suddenly become a functional mother to them when they're already all almost 16. They're past needing a mommy to kiss their boo boos or to hug them when they're sad&mdash;that was all Splinter's job. If Shen were introduced into their lives, they would be as much a stranger to her, as she is to them. She could become their friend, and that's still nice. The paradox is, even if Splinter himself tomorrow remarries a different woman who the turtles are more familiar with, she wouldn't necessarily become the mother of four sons who are already all but independent.

The closest thing the turtles were ever going to find to a mother figure, was a big sister figure&mdash;April. This version of April isn't much older than they are (only two years older), but then, if I recall correctly, Mirage April was only four years older than the turtles, and IDW April has a similar age difference. :) In most incarnations of TMNT, April is a good stabilizing influence in their family life. But, again, she's more their sister, not their mother.

Even Karai is not functionally missing Shen&mdash;she was raised to miss a woman in a photograph, but she never got to know Shen, and grew up without Shen's help, even though the one who actually raised Karai was the same person who killed her mother. Karai is not even functionally missing Splinter, either; she's glad to have found him and they had some hugs and happy moments, and Karai even betrayed her own "father" to be with him again, but I think that more demonstrates how evil and manipulative and treacherous Oroku Saki was to begin with. As Karai demonstrates, Splinter no longer had much power to shape her, and when push came to shove, she tried to take revenge against the Shredder according to morals the Shredder himself taught her&mdash;which was exactly why the Shredder anticipated her arrival. Again, Karai and Splinter are perfectly capable of becoming friends, and Asian filial piety will compel Karai to honor and respect him as her titular father, but but it's too late for him to be her dad. It's no fault of his, or of hers&mdash;it just cannot be helped, period. Can they all become a family again? Sure, it's possible. But they would be a family of people who mainly only know each other as adults. The Shredder made sure of that.