Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1255618-20131207105231

Has anyone else considered the possibility that Raph developed Slash's personality into what it is?

Think about it: Spike has for years been exposed to Raph's inner thoughts and feelings and heard primarily his perspective about things. It makes sense that he would adopt aspects of Raph's worldview. Slash says "our anger makes us strong!"; this remark resembles one Raph made in "Turtle Temper" where he's upset at his brothers for not accepting his temper and even credits his anger with making him "a better fighter". Raph seems to some degree to accept and like his anger and sees it as a positive trait, which he believes his brothers do not respect nor understand. Slash also seems to share this belief, and that influences his behavior. This ties into Raph's ideas about what a "true warrior" is. Raphael's personal philosophy is never spelled out for us, but we can glean from his conversations that generally he believes that the end justifies the means, that destroying ones enemies is preferable to showing mercy, and that a true warrior devotes him or herself to fighting evil completely without the distraction of theoretical spiritual development or interests not related to combat. Raph's values are profoundly evident in Slash.

Interestingly i think Raphael is as quick to judge Slash as he believes his own brothers are to judge him. When he tells Slash that he's "not Spike" and that he's "twisted", a "monster" and a "freak" Slash goes berserk, and does again when Raph claims that he's "pure evil". Slash isn't as good as he probably thinks he is, but he's not as evil as Raph thinks he is either. I think Raph has a fundamental misunderstanding of what motivates Slash, because what motivates Slash is also what motivates himself. The difference is that Slash is even more prone to view things in terms of black and white, whereas Raphael is mature enough despite his own tendencies to recognize that people who are disagreeable, or who are irresponsible, or who do clumsy things, can be still good, and that 'not good' is not the same as 'bad' let alone 'evil'.

Even if Raph is responsible for Spike's way of thinking, he had no way of knowing the consequences and should not be blamed for Slash's actions. That's just how things turned out.

Still, it's also possible that the process of mutation removed some of Spike's inhibitions. Even if Spike had had negative thoughts about the other Turtles before, he may not have been willing to attack them. Furthermore, this episode and "Invasion of the Squirrelanoids" indicate to me that the mutagen has been modified somewhat by the Kraang since its initial appearances, so it's more likely to imbue traits desirable to the Kraang such as lethal alien anatomies and increased aggression. Just look at all those random spikes Spike grew out! (Others like Falco have successfully modified it before and in "Mikey Gets Shellachne" the mutagen was being modified by Baxter.) Of course, Spike/Slash may not even himself be aware of what is happening to him. 