In the most recent edition of “Ask Chris”, Chris Sims is asked to evaluate the various origins in the multiverse for Splinter, the mentor/father of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Is he Hamato Yoshi’s pet? Hamato Yoshi mutated? Hamato Yoshi reincarnated? What’s your favorite origin?
Chris seems awfully enamoured of the idea of Hamato Yoshi being reincarnated as a rat, to the point of throwing around the term ‘high concepts’. I don’t find it much less goofy than the other two origins, and it comes with it’s own problems and baggage. (Partly in that, if a human mutated to a rat-man seems like some kind of punishment or kick in the bum, then what’s reincarnation as a rat – assuming we’re talking about basic buddhist concepts?)
And strewth, you’d think a rat was a thing the artist had only heard of. The thing crawling towards the turtles’ tank looks more like a buck-toothed cat.
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It varies from artist to artist. The ones that bug me are the ones who imitate the style of the current cartoon even though they have a separate title for the cartoon. Personally, I’m more into the mutated rat theory sans reincarnation. Might have something to do with my spiritual beliefs but it’s also curious why he’s a rat and they’re Turtles when they were humans in a past life and didn’t have any other past lives until the 2000s.
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