#Draxum and 18!Splinter are one and the same

[the-tmnt-ficfinder]

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Family Systems Analysis A college Essay by The-TMNT-Ficfinder

Word count: 5273 | Page Count: 18 pages (Not counting ref or cover)

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: A summary

The main family group of the show, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is made up of six different characters, with a seventh one introduced as the story progresses. Starting off, is the father figure, Hamato Yoshi (Also known as Lou Jitsu) or popularly known as Splinter. Originally human, he was mutated into a rat at the same time as when the turtles were mutated, then adopted them as his children.

Following that are the four turtles. Raphael, the biggest brother, muscle man, and leader of the group. He is an Alligator snapping turtle, wears red as his signature color, and has been decided as the oldest (as they don’t know their exact age). Second, is Donatello, the tech guy of the family. He is a softshell turtle and wears purple. Next is Leonardo, who classifies himself as the ‘face-man’ of the group (and later on in the series replaces Raph as leader). He is a red-eared slider, and is the best known, as the blue turtle, the most popular ninja turtle in the series. Leo and Donnie have been decided to be the same age by the fandom and are referred to as ‘twins’. Then Michealangelo, the youngest turtle of the group, and an ornate box shell turtle. Michelangelo wears orange as his color, and is known as the family chef, emotions guy, and boldest of them all. Their adopted human sister, April, is the oldest of the siblings and gets into many shenanigans with them. Lastly, is Baron Draxum, who is the villain who created the serum also known as mutagen that mutated Splinter and the turtles in the first place. Originally, he is a villain who is bent on destroying humanity, but later gets a redemption arc, and is welcomed into the family. The show features two seasons, and one movie. In this essay, I’m going to be focusing on the two seasons, and the direct aftermath of that.

The family, and how they function

The family, in season one, goes on a variety of wacky adventures, learns to use their new mystic weapons, and get the hang of their mystic powers. In season one, Baron Draxum is a villain and relentlessly attacks them. In season one, the turtles also are unaware that their father, Splinter, was actually their favorite movie star Lou Jitsu in the past before he was mutated into a rat. Following the events of The Shredders temporal revival (The main bad guy) the turtles beat him a first time, and the show slides into season two. In season two, Baron Draxum gets a redemption arc where instead of fighting the turtles, he reluctantly joins their family, and builds connections with them (and becomes a ‘secondary parent’ to the turtles, as he is the one who mutated them in the first place) The boys discover that their father was Lou Jitsu, and uncover important backstory and lore, leading to them having to fight The Shredder a second time, due to Big Mama, accidentally letting him loose from her Battle Nexus (the same battle nexus Lou Jitsu was kept prisoner in after his actor years, and before he got mutated). In order to defeat the Shredder a second time, they had to connect spiritually with all of the ancestors of the Hamato clan to master their mystic abilities. By the end of season two, despite being victorious in defeating The Shredder, they ended up losing their home in the process, and the life of their long lost many times great grandmother, Hamato Karai. From there, they build their life back up from shambles, which spans the time after season two, until the movie.

Raphael

Raphael, or Raph, is the biggest brother, “the brother who is the biggest,” (Rise of the TMNT, Nickelodeon 2018) the decided oldest, and the self-proclaimed leader of the group. Raph act’s part-time as the oldest brother, with the other half of the time, adopting a very parental role for the sake of his younger siblings. Raph is very harsh on himself, entirely believing that the family is his responsibility when it comes to leadership and keeping them safe. In season one, he is much more fun-loving, and playful with his family. However, as the seasons go on, and the turtles get themselves into dangerous situations, Raph gets stricter and begins to worry. Along with that, Raph has the natural tendency to try and parent his siblings, (due to being parentified by his father) meaning he doesn’t always have the best relationships with them.

Raph’s relationships with his family holds interesting dynamics, as he operates as part time sibling, part time leader, and a part time parent. When it comes to Donnie, Raph values and understands his physical and technological skills, yet hesitates when it comes to his emotional maturity, consistently choosing to skirt around a problem rather than say what’s on his mind to avoid hurting Donnie’s feelings. They work wonderfully together when it comes to combat yet struggle with communication and feedback.

Raph and Leo’s relationship is somewhat strained, as they don’t quite see eye to eye when it comes to making plans. Leo’s perspective is more on the strategic and morally grey side, which is hard for Raph to grasp, as he relies on a much more black-and-white viewpoint. Raph and Leo end up not interacting very frequently, as many of their interactions end with arguing. This is partially due to Raph’s parentification, and Leo’s rebellion against parental figures in general.

Raph and Mikey, despite have a very drastic size difference with Raph being the biggest of the family by quite a bit, and Mikey being smallest (aside from Splinter), have somewhat opposite temperaments when it comes to interacting with people. Raph constantly switches between relying heavily on Mikey to do the breaking of bad news for him, (because he doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings) and feeling overprotective of his youngest baby brother. Raph will specifically ask for Mikey’s help when it comes to breaking bad news, as he knows Mikey will do it regardless of people’s feelings, taking that burden off his shoulders. Meanwhile, he is very fearful of the idea of Mikey going and doing anything alone, as he is the smallest. He overly relies on him when it comes to vocal situations, while not giving him any room to breathe in physical settings. Almost opposite of how he interacts with Donnie.

With April, who is older than him, come’s a change of pace. As April is an adopted sister (she still has her own family and just comes over to visit) Raph often tries to pull the ‘parent card’ on her, since in his mind, she’s family.  April being older, and an only child, never lets that slide, refusing to let Raph parent her. Often when April is around, Raph relaxes, and tends to have more fun, as April fills some of the parenting shoes, and helps keep an eye on the other younger brothers.

Then there’s Splinter, their father. Raph looks up to him greatly and is always wanting to impress him, despite Splinter not playing a very active role in their lives until their later teen years. He also doesn’t want to worry him as he knows his father has been through a lot. As such he keeps all his struggles, and the family struggles to himself. His relationship with Splinter is fairly stable, sitting at a deemed comfortable level of lacking support, yet still being happy to interact at times. Their relationship stayed like this until the end events of season 2, where Splinter takes leadership away from Raph, and gives it to Leo. This is also where Leo’s and Raph’s rocky relationship goes from chilling and joking together, to constant fighting.

Lastly, Baron Draxum. As Raph has a very ‘forgive then forget’ mentality (meaning he intentionally chose to forget a lot of what they went through when the Baron used to attack them) he is rather impartial to Draxum. He neither cares for him, nor does he dislike him. He’s very neutral on the subject of Draxum and mainly interacts with him since Mikey insists on it. Raph doesn’t see Draxum as a parental figure at all, as Raph thinks himself the parental figure.

Donatello

Donatello, or Donnie, is the tech guy of the family, the middle child (shared with Leo) and is said by the show’s creators, to have autism. Donnie has a huge love for fixing and improving things, even his family, and an urge to control everything and anything he can. Donnie has deemed himself the ‘tech guy’ of the family and made that his ‘definitive quality/trait’ or reasoning to be useful to the family. As such, he helped build the lair they live in and all the tech inside. He has what he likes to call his ‘bad boy’ persona, where he pretends, he doesn’t care and acts ‘emotionless, and cool’. As his species is a spiny soft-shell turtle, his temperament leans much closer towards one of spitefulness, and agitation, with a very sensitive outlook on things. This has a pretty big influence on how he reacts to things.

Donnie’s relationship with Raph, is a fairly stable one. As Raph is the leader, and Donnie is the tech and maintenance guy, they understand each other. They know what it takes to keep things running. Donnie is quite willing to work with Raph at most times, as he likes being given instructions to follow. Along with that, Donnie has a very strong need for parental praise, and as Raph acts very similar to a parent at times, Donnie makes an effort to impress him, just as he would his own father.

Donnie’s relationship with Leo is a lot more strained, as he finds his ‘twin’ to be a frustrating individual. While Donnie loves to rely on a system and a support group, Leo doesn’t, which makes him harder for Donnie to understand. Donnie and Leo have a very ‘you can’t hurt my twin, only I can hurt my twin’ mentality. They will push, and fight, and argue with each other, yet the moment anything threatens one of them, they’ll both rise up to fight back. They love to fight, partially to vent frustration, and partially to bond. Similar to how animals in the wild ‘play fight’ with each other.

Out of the brothers, Donnie has the best relationship with Mikey. In Donnie’s eyes, Mikey is like a walking comfort item. Donnie and Mikey have a silent communication style, that relies a lot on body language. Mikey is also ‘on equal footing’ with Donnie, as they are both treated like younger/youngest siblings, and contribute to the family via ‘giving’ something. Donnie gives his tech services, and Mikey gives his emotional support and advice. Donnie can also trust Mikey to tell him the truth, even when it may hurt. Donnie and Mikey together have established a really good sense of trust.

Next is Donnie and April’s relationship. Out of the whole family, April has the best relationship with Donnie, as Donnie feels like he is able to give to her, and she is able to give to him. A symbiotic relationship. He helps her with homework, and she sneaks him into the school’s computer lab. Donnie is also the most honest with her, as there are no ‘standards’ he feels the need to uphold. He tells her his feelings and explains the reasoning behind them. Donnie can do this with April, and not the others, because both Leo and Raph aren’t as emotionally mature, and Mikey has studied psychology, and is always attempting to help Donnie ‘fix’ his emotional issues. April is the only one who listens for the sake of listening.

Splinter and Donnie’s relationship is pretty rough, as Splinter pays very little attention to him. Donnie likes to obsess over the attention he does get, just to purposefully be sour about it. Donnie keeps a calendar dedicated to keeping track of each time he and Splinter interact, and more than once uses it as a weapon against his father, using it as proof that they don’t spend enough time together. Along with that, Donnie highly craves parental praise, making him easily manipulated into doing almost anything. Hence the lair having the finest technology. He builds to be noticed and creates to earn praise.

Lastly is Baron Draxum, who Donnie secretly admires, not as a parent, but as a potential lab partner. As Donnie is a scientist, just as Draxum is, Donnie is immediately captivated by the Barons abundance of knowledge and is willing to ignore Draxum’s past wrongdoings to work with him. Draxum, recognizing Donnie’s parentlal issues, will toss him praise, which Donnie jumps at even against his own father’s wishes, as Splinter rarely offers the praise and learn what he has to offer. Draxum uses Donnie’s need for approval against him, and Donnie has had enough backlash in his life, that he’s fine going along with it.

Leonardo

Leonardo, or Leo, is the self-proclaimed face man of the group, the strategist, and ‘local comedy guy’. Leo tries to emotionally be everywhere and nowhere all at once, people pleasing to get his way. Leo very much idolizes his favorite movie actors, and rather than turn to his father or siblings for advice, he turns to the logic he learned from comics, and cartoons. Leo picks and chooses who to get along with in the moment, depending on who will get him the most out of a situation. Along with that, he has a savior complex and consistently cuts his way into any and all of his brother’s various plans to ‘bail’ them out and then feel smug about it. As Leo is a red-eared slider, a turtle originating from Mexico, Leo takes a great deal of interest in Mexican culture and consistently speaks Spanish throughout the series. This is good and bad, as it does get him involved in some scandals later on.

Leo’s relationship with Raph swings back and forth from being thick as thieves, to arguing nonstop. Rather than craving parental attention like the bulk of his brothers, Leo chooses to reject it, which connects to how he treats Raph. If Raph acts like his brother, Leo will easily play along and follow his ideas. Yet the moment Raph steps up, and goes into leader/parent role, Leo takes on an attitude of rebellion and follows his own plans. Raph and Leo throughout the series have their good and bad moments, till the end of season two when Leo is given the title of leader by Splinter. This causes both Leo and Raph to excessively butt heads. Especially, as before since Raph held the position of leader, Leo felt no need to compete with him, as he and Raph weren’t on equal footing. But the moment Leo became leader, Raph became his equal, leading to him fighting with him constantly, just as he used to fight with Donnie.

Leo and Donnie have a very competitive relationship. Leo constantly feels the need to be the superior one, or the ‘champion’ of the team, (which of course is his own way of coping with a lack of parental praise) and will try and one-up Donnie. Depending on the situation, Leo either encourages Donnie, or tears him down. Whatever gets him the most praise in the moment. For example, when out with his brothers having fun, he’s more likely to have a positive relationship with Donnie, as they are simply existing. Yet when Splinter is in the room, Leo tears down his ‘twin’, with the hope that he’ll appear better than him. This dynamic changes again, depending on whether said company is friend or foe. Leo will tear down Donnie while in the presence of family and friends, as its beneficial to him. Yet when around enemies, Leo practically sings Donnie’s praise, claiming to have the smartest brother. This is because he loses nothing by claiming that Donnie is a great guy, and gains everything instead. Leo knows that Donnie feeds off praise and will use this to his advantage to get himself bailed out of bad situations.

Leo and Mikey’s relationship is opposite compare to Leo and Donnie. Mikey is competitive towards Leo, like how Leo is competitive with Donnie. Except Leo doesn’t ever compete with Mikey, as in his eyes, there’s no reason. Mikey already wins by being the youngest, and the ‘favorite’ of the family. Leo tends to push Mikey away, annoyed by his younger brother who can’t ‘gain’ him anything in the family dynamics. Out of all of his brothers, Donnie is the biggest threat to being ‘cool’ and not ‘disliked’.  Raph is leader, which puts him atop everyone, and Mikey is youngest, which makes him ‘objectively cooler’. Leo’s main issue is that he’s very insecure, and deals with it by fighting, and telling poor jokes.

When it comes to April, as she doesn’t tolerate any of that, refusing to allow Leo to act like a ‘champion’ or ‘better’ than anyone. In fact, when he pulls these stunts, she usually kicks his butt. Around April, Leo will somewhat relax, that burden of being the family ‘champion’ lifted from his shoulders.

With Splinter, Leo’s relationship is strained. Leo idolizes his favorite movie characters, tending to act like them, which puts him at odds with Splinter. As one of Leo’s favorite actors is Lou Jitsu (Splinter before he was mutated, but Leo is unaware of this) he tends to act like him. Splinter, who doesn’t like himself as a person, sees his son acting like he used to when he was younger, and immediately becomes harsh and standoffish. Leo’s and Splinter’s relationship together only becomes even more strained once they figure out Splinter and Lou Jitsu are the same person. Leo becomes very confused as the image of a distant, uncaring father overlaps with the image of his idol.

Lastly, Leo and Draxum have a horrible relationship, as back in Draxum’s evil days, he threw Leo off a roof, and Leo refuses to ever let him forget. While the other brothers somewhat jump at the opportunity to have a ‘secondary’ or ‘new’ parental figure in their lives, Leo is already resentful of parental figures, which leads him to immediately disliking the Baron Draxum. The only parent he wants to be proud of him, is his own father. And even then, Leo is resentful of that too.

Michelangelo

Mikey is the youngest of the family, and along with that, the glue that keeps them together. Overly optimistic and pessimistic all at once, Mikey is a wildcard, and the brashest one of the group. Mikey’s role in the family is to help keep the peace and identify the emotions of his siblings. When it comes to interacting with the family, Mikey has curated ‘personalities’ dedicated to situations, to get the job done. Mikey is an ornate box-shell turtle, which is a turtle species that can fully pull into its shell, which Mikey does both mentally and physically. If things become to overwhelming, he retreats into his delusional ideals, essentially putting himself into a ‘box’.

Mikey and Raph’s relationship is very back and forth. Mikey ends up acting as Raph’s emotional support more than once, whether it be yelling at someone in Raph’s stead or giving delusional advice. Mikey also kisses up to Raph to get favors from him, such as rights to the last slice of pizza, or being allowed to ride on Raph’s shell, rather than walk. Mikey understands how to get what he wants when it comes to Raph and often plays into his ‘needs to be protected’ youngest sibling role for it. The downside is he gets babied because of this, and is restricted from going out alone, or on solo missions.

Mikey and Donnie have a very dependent relationship. In Mikey’s eyes, they’re actually on the most equal footing. Donnie is the guy who fixes the physical things in the house, and Mikey fixes the mental things in the house. They’re both ‘fixers’. Mikey doesn’t feel the need to impress him, quite like he does with his other brothers. In fact, he and Donnie have a somewhat symbiotic relationship. Mikey helps Donnie with his own emotional issues, and in return, Donnie acts as Mikey’s comfort person, the person he goes to get a hug from.

Mikey’s relationship with Leo is interesting, as Mikey views him as a cooler older brother, while Leo views him as an adorable nuisance. Mikey is constantly trying to compete with Leo, not to prove that he can be better, but to prove he can be just as good as Leo is. While Leo believes he isn’t good enough, Mikey looks up to Leo, and believes he is more than enough, taking inspiration from his confidence. Along with that, as Leo is the only one in the family that doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve. Mikey is drawn to that, as he feels like Leo is the only brother he doesn’t have to cater to emotionally. 

While Mikey and April have a good relationship together, it doesn’t really extend past goofing around, and having fun together. Mikey doesn’t feel the need to cater to her emotional needs, as she already does that on her own, and instead uses her as the one person he can unabashedly have fun with, without worrying about anything.

Mikey’s and Splinter’s relationship is better than the other brothers, yet worse at the same time. As Mikey is the ‘feelings’ guy of the family, he often justifies Splinter’s behavior, excusing him because he understands that his father had a rough past life before he was mutated (despite not actually knowing what happened), because having to care for four baby mutants would be mentally draining to anyone. As Mikey is the youngest and had the parental role of Raph in his life, he’s not quite as resentful as the others, nor does he chase praise like they do. Though he recognizes the emotional damage they have had in their life, due to upbringing, he chooses to ignore it.

Lastly, Mikey and Baron Draxum’s relationship which leans more on the toxic side. As Mikey had given up on the idea of having a parental figure in his life, immediately latched onto Draxum when he realized he might be his ‘second chance’. Once Draxum had his redemption arc and stopped fighting against the turtles, Mikey found him and began to ‘train’ him to be the parent he never had. If he couldn’t fix his original dad, maybe he could place his faith in a new person instead. One he could personally shape due to being older and having more knowledge.

Splinter

Splinter is known by many names, due to a complicated past. His original name was Hamato Yoshi (last name first, as according to Japanese custom), which he later changed to Lou Jitsu during his rebel actor years. Then finally Splinter, when he was mutated into a rat, to escape his past once more. Splinter, as he has an inherently tragic past, has quite a few mental issues. As a child, he lost both his father and mother and had to live with his grandfather. Following that, during his teen years and into young adult years, he ran away, became Lou Jitsu, and was an actor in action movies. Then, he fell in love with a woman who was helping on set, and planned to propose to her, only to discover she was a Yokai (a mystic species that lives beneath New York in a Hidden City) in disguise, named Big Mama (see image(s) in references). Big Mama kidnapped Lou Jitsu and forced him to fight in her Battle Nexus arena for seven years. Losing hope, he then fully gave up, expecting to die, and was kidnapped by Baron Draxum to be used in experiments. It was there that his DNA was used to mutate the four turtles into mutants, and he was accidentally mutated with a rat. He escaped the lab with the four baby mutants and was out on the streets with nowhere to go, and no shelter in sight. Splinter’s story is a sad one, a story of a man who never got a break, was continually depressed, and used his children as a distraction to keep himself alive.

Splinter’s relationships with his kids are not necessarily the best, due to his own traumatic background. In the earlier years of his kids’ lives, he was much more involved, as being involved in their lives was a great way to stay distracted. Then as they all got older, specifically Raph, the responsibility shifted to him, and Splinter fell into depression. Splinter and Raph originally had a very father-child relationship, and as time went on, their bond grew distant. Splinter began to see Raph as more of the leader, rather than a son. And Raph being Raph, didn’t do anything to change it.

Next, Splinter relationship with Donnie. Splinter used to be more involved in Donnie’s life, then as Donnie got older, and more independent, Splinter began to fall away, just as he did with his other kids. Along with that, Splinter was continuously depressed, and would use external stimuli to give him dopamine, which in this case was watching TV. Donnie, being the tech guy, and desperately wanting his father’s praise, built him a well-working projector to please him, which only fueled Splinter’s depression and addiction. Though Donnie meant well, in the long run, it was harmful.

Splinter ended up gaining a dislike for Leo as Leo got older, and began to idolize Lou Jitsu, a phase of Splinter’s life that he grew to hate. Though Splinter loves his son, he hates himself, which led to him acting somewhat hateful or dismissive towards Leo. Leo in turn made no effort to build their relationship, as he saw no point in trying. In fact, Leo referred to himself as the ‘least favorite’ child, multiple times.

Out of all his sons, Splinter favors Mikey the most, as Mikey is the one who leans on him the least yet is still highly affectionate. Mikey doesn’t expect him to be a parent like the other brothers do, which already takes away a lot of pressure. Though later on, as Mikey becomes closer friends with Draxum, Splinter becomes increasingly jealous, and angry that Draxum is pulling his attention.

Out of all of the kids, April is the one who received the best parenting from Splinter. As April isn’t Splinter’s actual kid, he feels less pressure to parent her, and as such, ends up parenting her more. Splinter has narcissistic tendencies, which in this instance, show up as the willingness to parent other children, but not your own. April and Splinter have a relationship very similar to an uncle and niece.

Lastly, is Splinter and Draxum’s relationship, which is anger fueled, spiteful, and very mean. Splinter, who never forgave Draxum for mutating him, and the overall lab experimenting process, hates him, and hates that he interacts with his sons. Splinter never told his sons exactly what happened in the lab in the past, so they just see him being hateful for what they deem to be ‘no reason’, which doesn’t help his case.

The Family Dynamics

The four turtles land in the four common family categories, as found in Chapter 2 of Family Systems Theory (Anonymous. (n.d.)). Raph, the eldest of the group, falls into the hero category. “This person may be a perfectionist who appears to have managed all of the demands placed on them easily because there are many rewards that come to the member who takes on this role” (Anonymous. (n.d.). Chapter 2: Family Systems Theory. FAML 360 Readings: Family Stress and Coping). Raph takes on a very parental role in the family, and makes himself leader, not because he wanted to originally, but because he felt he had to. The big protector of the family. Donnie falls into the delinquent and/or scapegoat role. “This child may be prone to acting out, doing poorly in school, or using other strategies that are seen as negative, but may play an important role in maintaining the family’s functioning” (Anonymous. (n.d.). Chapter 2: Family Systems Theory. FAML 360 Readings: Family Stress and Coping). Donnie has his ‘bad boy’ persona that he uses to get attention and is constantly aiming towards ‘evil’ or ‘violent’ tendencies. He also manages all the lair’s money, the tech, and everything else, forcing everyone to rely on him. Leo is in the invisible child category, the child “who seeks to remain on the periphery of the family function in order to reduce family tensions by not drawing any attention, positive or negative, to themselves” (Anonymous. (n.d.). Chapter 2: Family Systems Theory. FAML 360 Readings: Family Stress and Coping). Leo only interacts when it befits him, choosing to remain invisible unless he gains something from it. And when he does interact, he acts as a people pleaser, the ‘face-man’ to be on everyone’s good side, so once again, he isn’t picked out of the group. Lastly, Mikey who is the youngest, falls into the clown category “using humor as a strategy to deflect attention to family problems” (Anonymous. (n.d.). Chapter 2: Family Systems Theory. FAML 360 Readings: Family Stress and Coping). Mikey defaults to a very ‘whimsical’ outlook, where he either chooses to have a very delusional outlook on life and people, or a very angry, harsh outlook. Mikey’s coping method relies less on the ‘telling jokes’ part of humor, and more on the ‘having a very silly’ outlook on life method.

The Hamato family had a very negative feedback loop for almost the entirety of the two seasons, where neglect was common. As the turtles grew up, Splinter felt less needed, and as such, would distance himself. The turtles, noticing how their father was distant, pulled back, and stopped asking for help. This perpetuated in a negative feedback loop, where over time, they all stopped interacting all together. During the beginning of season two, and around the last few episodes of season two, the turtles began to reach out to Splinter more frequently, and as such, he began to reach back. Though they still weren’t interacting as frequently as they used to when younger, the feedback loop began to turn to a more positive one.

Lastly, on the Olson’s Circumplex Model (Anonymous. (n.d.). Chapter 2: Family Systems Theory. FAML 360 Readings: Family Stress and Coping). We find that their family dynamics are very chaotically enmeshed. They rely very heavily on one another, keeping Raph as the designated ‘leader’ but still running off to do their own thing. They don’t exist separately and instead refer to themselves as ‘we’ more often than ‘I’.

Conclusion

The Hamato’s, (the family featured in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), is a wonderful example of how parental trauma affects children, and how neglect can become a feedback loop if left unaddressed. Due to the trauma Splinter experienced in his younger years, and how restricted he felt during his childhood and into his adulthood, he gave his sons a lot of free reign. This had its pros and cons, as they had a very freeing childhood, where they were allowed to explore and run about as they pleased, yet as they got older, they got into more and more trouble. Along with that, they learned that they didn’t need to rely on their father, as they could provide for themselves.

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Thank you for reading <3

[turtleblogatlast]

4.) When did you become a fan of TMNT?

18.) Who is your favorite villain?

19.) Who is your favorite ally?

27.) What is something you love to see in TMNT art/fics?

28.) What is one thing you would like to see explored more in TMNT art/fics?

33.) What is your favorite thing you've made for TMNT?

35.) Which character relationships are your favorite to write/draw?

Sorry there's so many 😅 you don't have to answer them all if you don't want to.

Also, I always love it when I see your posts. Everything you write is so interesting to read and it is always so fun! (with a side of pain for the angst ofc)

Anywizzle, I hope you have a great rest of your day/night :]

Don’t be sorry, I love answering these haha! And thank you, I’m happy that you enjoy my rambles! <3

4.) When did you become a fan of TMNT?

When I was super young, I’m talking like three years old young. I really liked the ‘87 reruns and as a dinosaur kid I liked that the turtles were vaguely dino-like to baby me haha

18.) Who is your favorite villain?

Hmmm I’m not done with the show yet, but it may just be 2012 Shredder. There’s something really insidious but human about him that I enjoy.

19.) Who is your favorite ally?

If she counts as one then Rise April! If she’s in her own category then probably Draxum?

27.) What is something you love to see in TMNT art/fics?

Honestly I adore when people put in little details from the show that are ultimately fluff text but add a whole lot of depth and character in subtle ways. (Example being making Donnie affectionately pet Mikey’s head as he did in Bug Busters)

28.) What is one thing you would like to see explored more in TMNT art/fics?

Hmmm, I guess exploring the flaws of characters that aren’t just Leo and Splinter and occasionally Donnie? I love my boy Leo, and I really love how his flaws make him so interesting and fun to write about, but at the same time I feel like the others have their own flaws completely wiped away or not given a lot of focus. Mikey especially I feel could use some attention in this regard, so I love seeing whenever he’s allowed to make mistakes too because it adds so much more depth to him.

33.) What is your favorite thing you've made for TMNT?

Hard question!! Honestly it depends on the day, but right now it’s actually the super quick sketch I made for the 40th anniversary comic haha! I also miss my Prison!Leo AU and really need to get back to it…

35.) Which character relationships are your favorite to write/draw?

It depends I think! Obviously, I love Leo to the moon and back so they’re all Leo dynamics (though I need to do more Donnie and April stuff too because I adore their dynamic as well), but it depends on the tone I’m going for in regard to what’s my favorite.

But if I absolutely had to pick, maybe either Splinter and Leo or Raph and Leo.

[tmnt-obsessed-ace]

What if the events of Lost But Never Found (your au with the amnesiac 2012 Leo turned battle nexus champion) happened in the same universe as Ghost In The Shell (SAINW Donnie adopting the rise kids) how would Ghost react to that?

Oho :)

Imagine being Ghost for a second. You and your family just managed to send the Shredder back to its Prison Dimension (or at least you hope that Big Mama would keep her word on that, but knowing her its honestly a gamble) and as you're going home, Leo suddenly runs ahead yelling that they need to hurry, they need to go help Indigo. Who the hell is Indigo?

Well when you and your family get back Leo hurries to the medbay, and you naturally follow him.

Only to see another mutant turtle wearing strange armor and wraps, badly injured, covered in so many scars, barely conscious and most importantly, holding a knife to Donnie's throat.

Well he is until he passes out from bloodloss and exhaustion.

How are you even supposed to process that?

Once he's out of the of the armor (so many more scars were hidden underneath) and bandaged up, a blood test is drawn.

And it turns out that not only is this turtle actually a mutant, but a biological match to Hamato Yoshi.

Aka Splinter.

Even worse, this kid says he's been fighting in the Battle Nexus quote "For as long as I can remember" (which for Indigo/Leo is only 4 months. He's been in this dimension for 4 months and he cant remember anything before the 4 months so... :3)

Ghost is devastated. This...this is one of his kids. One of his children was forced to fight in the Battle Nexus for so long that he doesnt remember anything from before the Nexus. (not really but thats the only conclusion you could draw based on the many MANY scars it makes sense to come to that conclusion)

How did this happen? Did Draxum make another turtle using Splinter's DNA? Or was Indigo created at the same time as the others? If so why did he get left behind? How did he end up in the Nexus and in Big Mama's clutches?

Did...did Draxum sell Indigo to Big Mama? Or just give him up? Did Big Mama have Indigo trained purely to fight in the Nexus? She's clearly not above putting loved ones in the arena, she did it to Splinter already.

Still raising a child just to make him fight to the death? Thats so unbelievably evil and cruel. Ghost thought Big Mama wouldnt stoop that low.

But the scars covering Indigo's body (some of which are several YEARS old), the pure exhaustion in his strange eyes, the pure survival instincts so deeply ingrained into this kid is all the proof you need.

Can he even be called a kid? He looks older than the kids, even older than Raph. Indigo looks like he's 18-20 at the minimum...but if he's truly been fighting in the Battle Nexus for years it would make sense for him to look much older than he actually is.

Ghost understands, god he understands, in the Battle Nexus every fight is life or death, kill or be killed. Recovering from that ordeal is beyond difficult. And Indigo has presumably been in the Battle Nexus for much loger than Ghost has.

So I can imagine that Ghost would be the most patient while trying to help Indigo adjust now that not every moment is a fight to survive. (Especially when dealing with Indigo's very murdery tendencies. If Indigo feels like you are a threat to either himself or his brothers there is a very HIGH chance you will end up dead. He became one of the top FIVE battle nexus fighters for a reason.His current body count is 301 for a reason)

But Ghost is also the most protective over the new family member. (You thought Ghost was motherhening the Rise kids wait till he starts with Indigo. If Big Mama or Draxum even look at Indigo they better pick a god and pray. Indigo is still healing and Ghost will be damned if he lets his new child suffer anymore than he already had too.)

Indigo is basically Ghost's worst fear for the Rise kids come true. A kid who lost his entire childhood fighting battles that werent his and didnt have a choice in the matter. He didnt get to be a kid.

And now Indigo has dozens of scars, physical and mental, all because of Big Mama being a selfish asshole and force her own child to become a battle nexus champion

But...things will start to make Ghost question how true his current theory is. Like for example, Indigo is physically different from the Rise kids. (Short and stocky, round three toed feet) the strange nightmares that start becoming more and more frequent as time goes on (and oddly specific too, like sinking in the ocean, helmet exploding in outer space, getting attacked by a metal monster in the winter, getting thrown through a window, decapitating a metal and bone monster) the fact that he primarily uses twin katanas as weapons, little mannerisms that keeping showing up that remind Ghost too much of Leonardo.

And the gaps in the story dont help. How old was Indigo when he first started fighting in the Battle Nexus? Who trained him before that (because it is OBVIOUS that Indigo has gotten formal training that the Battle Nexus would provide) why doesnt Indigo recognize Draxum? Why doesnt Draxum know who Indigo even is? Why does Indigo act so much like Leonardo sometimes that its uncanny?

Too many things dont add up about that story

However unlike Donnie, Ghost can understand keeping secrets (he has so, so many secrets) so he doesnt try to pry too much. But he cant help but wonder what exactly happened to Indigo

Little does Ghost know, that Indigo already has a family thats looking for their big brother...

(@bluepeachstudios I borrowed ghost for a second, also love GITS its one of my favorite fics now)

[shaotie]

Seven Years - Cha 18: Green, Blue, and a Bright Red Light

Leo opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times. He was still laying on his side but he wasn’t in Raph’s lap anymore, instead he was on a med bay bed with crisp, clean sheets. But he wasn’t alone, because his little brother was sitting up on the same mattress behind his back, scrolling on his phone.

“Hey Leo, you’re awake!” came a cheerful voice when Mikey noticed his brother stirring.

“Yeah,” Leo replied, his voice a little hoarse from disuse. He blinked the sleepy blurriness away and rubbed at his eyes while rolling onto his back with a smile for his little brother - having no memory of his mystical vision, holding the mystic Hamato key, or of Splinter taking it from him.

“If you're wondering where Raph is, he really didn't want to go but Drax insisted he and Casey pick up some things he said he needs right away, so they're in the Hidden City shopping, but he wouldn't go until he made me promise three times to stay by your side until he comes back,” Mikey volunteered, figuring Leo would be wondering why he woke up in a bed instead of on his big brother's lap.

“Mm. Where’s everybody else?” Leo asked.

“Donnie had to go home to get stuff from his lab, Pop’s went with him but he didn’t say why, and April’s in the lab here helping Barry.”

“Mm, ok,” Leo hummed in reply, before asking the serious question: “I guess Drax told you?”

A part of him wished he hadn’t asked that important question with the way Mikey’s body language shifted from ‘happy my brother’s awake’ to ‘sad my brother’s dying’, but he had to know for sure.

Besides, avoiding the question wouldn’t change anything.

“Yeah, he . . . he told us. H…how are you feeling?”

Leo did a mental check of his body, used to doing this after all the times Draxum asked him the same question in various different ways, and he answered: “Tired.”

“Anything else?” Mikey asked.

Leo figured Draxum drilled them all with a lot more information than 'your brother's dying' while he was out of it, with the way Mikey said that so seriously, like he was a nurse recording a patient's symptoms.

The ill slider sat up because he was sick of laying in bed (even though he couldn't remember the past three coma-induced days, he could just sense in his body that that he was sick of it) and he did a second mental scan to make sure he didn’t miss something - knowing how important it was to communicate right away if anything in the slightest felt new or different.

But the only thing he noticed was that he had a sore throat, felt a little achy from laying in bed for three days, was tired but antsy, wanted to get up and move around, and now that he thought about it he also realized he was hungry.

But none of that was necessary information that needed to be communicated so Leo smiled at Mikey again and replied: “Nope, just that and hungry.” Then he gave his body a good stretched, noticing for the first time that something was stuck to the back of his head, near the base of his skull, so he began gently picking at it.

“What’s that?” Leo asked, rubbing his fingers across what felt like a large, smooth, square sticker and resisted the urge to pick it off with his fingernails, figuring it was put there for a reason. “Oh, Barry asked Donnie to make that for you,” Mikey replied, with his upbeat voice holding tension as he was clearly trying to hide his sorrow behind faked cheerfulness, for Leo’s sake.

Leo didn’t call him on it, and let Mikey continue.

“Dee said he didn’t have time to make much, but that’ll let us know if you’re… uh . . . if there's an emergency and you need help.”

Mikey tucked his head down a little into his shell and put his eyes down, back on his phone, seeming unsure of himself, until Leo gave his little brother a reassuring grin and said in a happy tone of voice: “That’s nice of them, how does it work?”

Mikey returned his smile, but with a sad one of his own, replying: “I don’t know, you know what Donnie gets like when he goes all ‘speech mode’.”

The sad box turtle perked up a little when Leo laughed and joked: “That’s when it’s time to run and hide!”

“Heh, yeah. I just know there’s a tracker in it, it does something with brainwaves? I think. But now you won’t need someone stuck to your side on your good days, like Raph insisted, so you can do stuff like showering on your own.”

Leo didn’t realize his smile fell and he absent-mindedly stared blankly ahead, repeating in a hushed voice: “On my good days.”

“Leo?”

“Hmm?”

The slider blinked his eyes a few times, forcing them to focus as he pulled himself out of his own troubled mind at the sound of Mikey’s soft voice.

By his side, his sad little bro hung his head down and nervously fidgeted with his fingers, looking completely deflated.

“Why didn’t you tell us before?” came a small, sad voice.

Leo let out a single, quiet nervous laugh - not because he thought this situation was in any way funny, but because that was his way of coping and releasing anxiety during tense moments - and he absently looked down at his hands in his lap when he replied:

“I was being selfish. I’m sorry Mikes. This wasn’t supposed to happen so fast, I thought we’d have more time together and I wanted…”

Leo’s bottom lip quivered as tears filled the corners of his eyes, and he raised his head to stare off into the dim space of the med bay they were in, noticing his vision was a little blurry because of how he felt like retreating inside his own mind as an escape from this uncomfortable conversation (just like he had done many, many times before during his time in the prison dimension).

Then Mikey’s voice brought Leo back to reality when he softly said: “You don’t have to say if it’s too hard for you.”

“No, I want to,” Leo replied in an equally soft, sad tone.

He took a deep wobbly breath, fought back the urge to let the tears fall down his face - feeling if he started crying he might never stop - and told Mikey:

“I wanted one last week of happiness. One week of not having to look at you, all of you, and see the sorrow and sadness in your eyes, so I could have some happy memories to look back on, to make me smile in the rough days ahead.”

He cast his eyes up to gaze into Mikey’s, furrowed his brows with worry, and asked: “Is that bad?” Really meaning: 'was I being a selfish jerk and do I deserve forgiveness?'

Once again, Mikey averted his gaze and looked down at his fidgety fingers.

“No, I don’t think that’s bad, but. . . . We have lots of happy memories. Why couldn't you think of those?”

“You mean from before the invasion,” Leo gently replied.

He brought his face closer to Mikey’s with a tiny smile, hoping the sad little box turtle would look up at him, but Mikey curled in on himself instead and said: “But that wasn’t too long ago. Couldn’t you have looked back on those memories and told us sooner, so we knew? So we could help?”

Michelangelo kept his head down but looked up at Leo with his eyes when his red-eared slider brother reminded him: “It wasn’t long ago for you, Mikey. My memories might’ve come back when you got me out of there, but it was still seven years for me.”

“Oh. Right. I keep forgetting about that.”

Mikey snapped his head up to look straight at Leo, a shot of panic flashing across his face, and he hastily added: “Not that I forgot it’s just that...” “I look the same, I didn't age a bit on the outside, and it was only a few minutes for you?” Leo kindly offered, instantly prompting Mikey's tense body to relax, before he agreed: “Yeah. It’s just really hard for me to wrap my mind around it.”

“It’s hard for me too some days, and I lived it,” Leo agreed with a gentle smile for his brother, and trying to sound a little upbeat to lift the mood.

Even though Mikey smiled back, Leo could tell from his body language and the look in his eyes that he was still feeling bad, so he decided to change the subject to try and cheer him up.

“I’m starvin’! Let’s get pizza!”

Leo's little brother gave him a skeptical look and said: “Are you really sure you should be eating pizza right now?”

In a chipper tone and with a big smile on his face, Leo reassured: “Sure I am! I just gotta check with Drax about taking this IV out and away we go!”

“How about soup, my son?”

Leo and Mikey looked up when Splinter came in the room, carrying some ancient Hamato scrolls in his hands, and Leo knew arguing with his dad would get him nowhere, so he grudgingly agreed before asking: “Where’s Donnie? Still in his lab?”

“No, we came back together. He said he'll come see you when he's done helping Draxum with the new, uh, thing he made. He told me all about it on the walk here, but your old rat dad doesn't understand most of what he says when he talks about his, uh, tech.”

Leo laughed out loud and happily replied: “No one understands Don when he goes off into his speech mode!” and he was glad that not only got Mikey laughing, but also put a smile on his dad’s face.

A small victory in his eyes.

Next, Mikey pointed at the scrolls and asked: “Hey, what’s that Pops?”

Splinter joined them both in looking at the plain, ancient scrolls in hand and replied: “Oh those are just some dusty old scrolls I used to read to you when you were little and scared of monsters in your room. I thought maybe Bl…uh, Leonardo would enjoy hearing me read them on some of his…uh . . .”

His voice drifted off and tears filled his eyes, like what had been happening to him frequently since finding out his son was dying.

“Bad days?” Leo offered with a gentle, crooked grin.

Splinter gave his son a little smile in return - one that didn’t reach his sad, sorrowful eyes - and sadly agreed: “Yes, my son.” Then he turned around while saying in a tone he hoped sounded more uplifting: “Now, I will get you that soup.”

Before Splinter finished leaving, Leo told him: “I’ll come eat it in the kitchen,” and although the mutant rat didn’t say anything to object, when he turned around to face his sons the conflicted look on his face told the slider his dad was deciding between encouraging him to stay in bed to get his rest, and letting his dying son do what he wanted during his final days on earth.

Splinter ended up replying with no more than a nod of his head before turning around and mumbling: “I’ll let you know when it’s ready,” on his way out of the room.

Leo and Mikey watched him leave, and when he was gone Mikey gazed at the Hamato scrolls he left behind and Leo sensed a shift in his mood, so he decided to try changing the subject by looking at him with a smile to cheerfully ask:

“Sooo, what color did Dee make that sensor thingy?”

“Green, to match your skin,” Mikey replied. Then he laughed when Leo screwed up his nose and let out a comical, over-exaggerated: “Green!? How dare he! He knows blue's my color!”

“That’s what I said!” Mikey agreed with a big, genuine smile that didn't reach his eyes. “But he said the color shouldn’t matter to you because it’s on the back of your head and you can’t see it!”

Leo could still see the sadness was evident in his brother's eyes, but he would take whatever happiness he could get as a win, so he gave him a mischievous grin while saying: “Do you wanna go give him heck for not making it blue?”

“Do you feel good enough for that?” Mikey asked with concern. But his worried look left when Leo flicked the blankets aside and replied with a smile and an upbeat tone: “Yeah, I need to go to the lab anyway to get Draxum to take out this IV.”

“Alright!” Mikey happily exclaimed.

He jumped out of bed first to be by his ill bro's side in case he needed help steadying himself on his feet, but Leo made sure to take things slowly since he was getting up for the first time in three days, and he didn’t let the mental pain show on his face when he thought: ‘Three days I missed with my family.’

Once he was on his feet and sure he wasn’t going to have a dizzy spell and that he had the strength to walk around, he let go of the bed, grasped his IV pole, and all on the way to Draxum's lab he and Mikey happily discussed ways they were going to bug their intelligent brother for having the audacity of making the high-tech sticker scanner green instead of blue.

~A Few Days Later~

The next few days were mostly uneventful as Leo spent loads and loads of quality time with his family, and now he was sitting in Draxum’s very plush, comfy couch in the living room, cuddled up snugly between the soft arm of the couch and Raph’s side, as he, his brothers, as well as Splinter, April, Casey, and Donnie were watching a Lou Jitsu movie (but not until after the techy softshell confirmed seven times with Draxum that their brother who was at risk of having seizures could watch something so flashy as an action movie)

Well, most of them were watching the movie. April ended up crawling over her honorary rat ‘dad’ at the beginning, ignoring his grumbles and complaints as she got comfortably squeezed in beside him in Draxum’s comfy, oversized chair, and now they were both sound asleep; and Donnie was busy clicking at his tablet, working on the schematics for some new tech Draxum asked him to create to aid Leo that would speed up the dehydrating process for some of his medications that were made into powders - in between continuing his ample research of his terminally ill brother's symptoms to try and find something - anything - the goat alchemist missed that he could use to 'fix' this whole situation.

Mikey and Casey were sitting on the floor in front of Leo, with Mikes paying about as much attention as Raph to the movie they had already watched dozens of times, raising their heads for the action scenes in between scrolling on their phones and listening to the dialogue they knew word-for-word.

Casey was the only one of them paying close attention without tearing his eyes away from the screen for a second, this being his very first time ever seeing the movie he only heard about from his future versions of the turtles. And Leo…

...for the past couple of minutes, Leo was looking down at his bare green arm, tapping on his skin where his wrist com would be if he was wearing it. But he was so quiet and cuddled up under Draxum’s throw with his feet up on the couch and his back against Raph that no one noticed what he was doing; until there was an intense action scene and Raph nudged him with his elbow and looked down to say: “You’re missing the best part, bro.”

But his brother didn’t respond, he just kept tapping on his arm.

Donnie sensed a shift when Raph tensed, and he looked up from his tablet as the worried snapper asked: “Uh, you ok there buddy?”

Mikey and Casey abruptly turned around to join the other two in looking at Leo, and the slider softly replied: “I’m trying to get the time to show,” seeing his com on his wrist that no one else saw, and not really noticing his vision was a little distorted, like his com was under water.

Donnie's first instict was to open the app connected to the tech scanner attached to the back of Leo's head, but nothing showed yet because it was a rush job since he had so many other things he needed to help Draxum with pertaining to Leonardo's help, so it only alerted him if there was a potentially life-threatening emergency. Then he craned his neck around Raph to try and see Leo’s arm, but when he couldn’t, he asked their big brother: “Is he wearing his com?”

“No,” came the immediate, tense reply. "Get…” *thump!*

Donnie dropped his tablet and was already out of the room before Raph could finish his two word ‘get Draxum’ sentence; and Mikey and Casey stood up to stare at Leo with Raph, whose nervous stink filled the air.

“What do you see, Leo?” Casey asked, the tension in his voice evident to everyone but the oblivious, ailing slider, as well the still-sleeping April and Splinter, who weren't going to be asleep for much longer.

Leo continued trying to click at his non-existent com and calmly replied: “My com's not working. I think the battery…” Leo’s head shot up, his eyes widened, and his pupils shrank into tiny dots at the frightening memory turned hallucination from the day the battery in his com died when he was in the prison dimension, with him suddenly realizing that was where he was (only he wasn’t).

Leo turned his head to stare at the tv, only he didn’t see the tv, he saw something else. Something that made Splinter and April jump up from fright when Leo screamed at the top of his lungs: “He’s coming! ISEEHIMHESRIGHTTHERE!!! AAAAAHHHH!”

The petrified turtle squished back against Raph to try and get away from the threat when, in his mind’s eye he saw Krang Prime reaching out for him, the bright red lights from his mech suit contrasting against the deep blackness of the prison dimension.

As he was screaming in terror, being squeezed in Krang’s grip when he was really being hugged tightly by his protective big bro, his panicking family didn't know what to do when Draxum stepped through a portal with Donnie behind him.

Leo's other dad sternly called out loud enough to be heard above the sound of his son's panicked screams: “SYMPTOMS!”

“He’s hallucinating!” Raph cried out, hugging his screaming brother, who was staring ahead with an immense fear in his eyes and on his face that no one one had ever seen the likes of before.

“VISUAL, AUDITORY, TACTILE? I NEED DETAILS!” Draxum firmly yelled.

The post-apocalyptic Casey has a clearer head in emergencies than most, and leaned in close to Draxum’s ear to yell: “Visual!” as Leo continued screaming at the top of his lungs, finishing by informing Draxum: “He heard us, he answered our questions!”

Draxum nodded his head, told Casey: “You’re with me,” looked at Donnie to say: “You too,” and the three of them rushed through his portal, leaving Raph, April, Mikey, and Splinter behind, not knowing what to do with their screaming, hallucinating loved one.

Casey wasn’t gone for long before he returned with an auto-injector needle, and he told Raph to hold Leo still so he could jab his thigh and administer a sedative.

But even after doing that, Leo kept screaming.

“Why isn’t it working!?” April yelled.

“I don’t know!” Casey yelled back.

“What do we do!?” Raph loudly asked, completely at a loss and doing the only thing he could think of to help, by hugging into his little bro.

“Try taking to him!” Casey suggested.

Raph took the lead, but Leo was so panicked he couldn’t hear his big brother yelling right in his ear over the sound of his own hoarse voice.

So Splinter decided to try something that used to calm his sons down when they were scared of monsters or thunder or whatever else it was little turtles were afraid of in the darkness of night.

That was when the sedative slowly began kicking in, so that Leo began calming, could feel a warm caress on his hand, and he heard the tune of a familiar song his dad was singing to him.

A song he heard many time before when he was a little turtle tot, (one Splinter’s mom sang to him when he was little)

His loud screams quieted to mostly whines and whimpers with occasional screams of terror in between that weren't nearly as loud as before.

“Come stop your crying, it’ll be alright.

Take my hand, hold it tight.”

Leo indicated he was listening when he squeezed Splinter’s hand, and his heart was calming a little from the sedative; but he was still staring at the horrible glowing red eye of the monster who had him pinned in place.

“I will protect you from all around you.

I will be here, don’t you cry.”

Tears fell down Leo’s cheeks, but he closed his mouth, trying to focus on the sound of his dad’s voice.

And he calmed down a little more when he heard Mikey and Raph join in on the chorus from somewhere really close.

“Cuz you’ll be in my heart. You’ll be in my heart. From this day on, now and forever. Always.”

Although Leo could still see Krang Prime reaching out and grabbing him, a combination of the singing and the slow acting sedative calmed his panicking mind enough to be able to force his tight, clenched jaw open to say: “Dad?”

Leo felt a gentle caress on the back of his hand again, but he couldn’t take his wide, terrified eyes off Krang Prime, as he heard his dad softly tell him: “Yes, my son, I am here, you are safe. You are hallucinating, Baby Blue.” “H...hallucinating?” Leo asked, unsure of what he was being told.

He swallowed to try and relieve some tension in his tight, sore throat, and listened to Raph’s strong yet tender voice telling him: “Yeah, Leo, you’re hallucinating. We’re all here with you, and Pop’s is right, you’re safe.”

Leo didn’t reply, he just kept staring at Krang Prime’s horrible red glowing eye, and Casey took over with his calm, clear head, to softly ask: “Leo, what do you see?”

Leo swallowed again and nervously replied: “Krang Prime.”

“What else?” Casey asked, trying to use the visuals as a stepping stone to help his turtle brother use his other senses as a grounding technique he learned from future Master Michelangelo.

“The prison dimension. I...I'm in...” "No you're not, now tell me what you feel," Casey kindly but firmly interrupted.

A scared whine escaped Leo’s throat, and Casey once again firmly but kindly told him: “Listen to my voice, Leo. Are you listening?”

Leo nervously swallowed again and briskly nodded his head, saying: “I’m listening,” all without taking his eyes off the Krang Prime hallucination.

“You’re not there, you’re home with us. You’re in the living room with me, April, Splinter, Mikey, and Raph. Now repeat what I told you. You’re in the living room.”

Leo swallowed once more but the tension remained, and his jaw clamped shut from fear, like it was wired closed or in a vice.

“I’m in the living room,” Casey repeated.

“I . . . I’m in the living room,” Leo finally said.

“And what do you feel, Leo?”

“I feel . . .”

Leo searched his body, he was used to doing that after all the times Draxum had asked him the very similar question: ‘how do you feel?’

“I feel a hand rubbing mine.”

“Good, good, that’s Splinter. Your dad has your hand in his and he’s rubbing the back of it. What else do you feel?”

“I feel . . . warmth,” Leo replied, the feeling of warmth being in stark contrast the the cold everything in the prison dimension.

“Where?” Casey softly asked.

“Mmmy arms and my back. It . . . it feels like one of Raph’s hugs.”

“Yeah, it is buddy, I’m hugging you tight, keeping you safe,” Raph’s reassuring voice told him.

“Safe,” Leo repeated, never taking his eyes off the hideous red eye of Krang's mech suit.

“Ok Leo,” came Casey’s calm, steady voice, keeping him grounded in reality, like a life-saving foghorn for a ship on a dark, stormy night.

“Close your eyes and focus on what you feel and hear. Do you think you can do that?”

“Uh-uh,” Leo hummed in reply, briskly shaking his head ‘no.’ Then he heard Splinter’s soft, tender voice say: “Close your eyes, Baby Blue, do it for Papá.”

There was a brief pause and then Leo abruptly slammed his eyes shut. The lack of visual stimulation telling him he was in there with him, combined with his other senses telling him he was home instantly calmed him down enough for Raph to feel his tense body relax a little in his arms.

“Good,” came Casey’s voice. Steady and strong and dependable, something for Leo to hold onto, to keep grounding him in reality.

“Now, tell me what you hear Leo.”

Casey put a finger over his mouth to tell everyone to stay quiet to help Leo stay grounded in the living room by focusing his mind on listening to the ambient noises definitely not present in the prison dimension.

Leo listened to the sound of the Lou Jitsu movie playing in the background, and the corners of his mouth curled up in a small grin when he heard the movie star say his favorite catchphrase.

“I hear hot soup,” Leo told his family.

The sound of relief in his voice coupled with the way he relaxed significantly in Raph’s arms prompted his big brother to relax a little and switch his strained, shallow breathing to slow, deep breaths.

“Good, good,” Casey calmly said. “Do you know where you are?”

“I’m home, in the living room.”

“And who’s here with you?”

Leo’s muscles tightened a little and another whine escaped his mouth, before he let out a tense: “Krang Prime.”

“No, no, he’s not here, but we are. Say our names, Leo. Who is really here? Say our names.”

Leo’s heart began pounding again from the fear of Krang getting him, but he obliged and said:

“Casey.”

“Mm hmm.”

“Dad.”

“That’s right.”

“And, and . . . uh, Raph.”

“You got it. Who else?”

“Uhh, uhh . . .”

Leo tensed more.

“I forget.”

“That’s ok, Leo, focus on your dad. Feel your hand in his and keep your eyes closed. Don’t open them no matter what, ok?”

“Ok.”

“Good. Now feel your dad stroking your hand and listen to his voice. He’s going to sing to you again, ok?”

“Ok.”

Leo listened to the soothing sound of his dad’s voice, but when he jumped at the sound of a loud *BANG* that only he heard, his dad paused his singing and Leo began panicking again, afraid his dad’s voice stopped because he wasn’t here anymore, he was there. But he fought against his fear and forced his eyes to remain shut, like Casey had told him.

Casey gestured for Splinter to continue his song, and he asked Leo:

“Why did you jump, Leo? Did you hear something, feel something?”

“I heard something.”

*BANG!*

Leo flinched again but kept his eyes slammed shut.

“What did you hear?”

Splinter resumed his singing.

“I heard Krang Prime, he’s coming for me!”

*BANG!*

“Where are you little pest?”

“Aahhhh-mft.”

Leo bit his bottom lip to stop himself from making any noise the monstrous Krang could hear, but he still kept his eyes squeezed closed and listened to the sound of his dad’s voice.

“...Take my hand, hold it tight...”

Leo squeezed Splinter’s hand.

Draxum walked through his portal with Donnie, and he was holding a syringe.

*BANG!*

“He’s hearing stuff now, too,” someone said, but the voice sounded far away to Leo.

“...I will protect you from all around you…”

*BANG!*

“...I’ll be here, don’t you…”

”You know you can’t hide for long, VERMIN!”

“...cuz you’ll be in…”

“This will help but it won’t completely remove the hallucination, I need more time for that, and I have to conduct more tests.”

*BANG!*

“Leo?”

“Nononono NOOO!”

“We’re losing him!”

“Keep singing.”

“FOUND YOU!”

Leo's eyes shot open from fear…

“AAAHHHH! AAAAAHHH!!!”

and he screamed at the sight of Krang Prime coming at him again, panicking so much he didn’t even feel the prick of the needle Draxum put in his arm.

But now the hallucination was overlaid with the living room, so it appeared to him like he was on the cusp between two different dimensions.

He screamed so loudly it hurt his already sore throat, and he tensed his entire body and stared at Krang Prime, who was wavering around in front of him, like looking at a reflection in a pond, while he heard other voices that seemed panicky as well, voices he couldn’t make out until someone practically screamed at him to be heard over his own terrified screeches:

“LEO! CLOSE YOUR EYES!”

Leo slammed his eyes shut.

He could still hear Krang but he could also hear his family’s voices, and even though they sounded tense and scared and a little panicked, hearing them meant he wasn’t really there and that was grounding for him. Something else to focus on other than his terror and the horrid voice of Krang Prime as well as the sounds of his moving mech parts.

To help stay grounded in reality, Leo said the names of his family in his mind after he heard their voices.

“Why didn’t the sedative work!?”

‘April.’

“His brain is too damaged to handle more than a slow-release, mild sedative, but he’s still panicking, we need to get him to the med bay.”

‘Draxum.’

“His nose is bleeding!”

‘Mikey.’

“Get some tissues!”

‘Raph.’

“There's no time, get him to the med bay, now!”

‘Donnie.’

A flash of bright, white light made Leo opened his eyes again from fright, and it was followed by sparkles of light across his now blurry vision.

And his body felt . . . weird. Different.

He needed to tell somebody, but it felt like his throat was closed off and his mouth didn't want to open from the panic of still seeing Krang Prime, searching around for him again in the prison dimension.

“The stress triggered another bleed in his brain.”

“Draxum!” Leo managed to cry out, at the sound of his dad’s voice.

“I’m here son, what is it?”

“Everything tingles. Nnnn….nnnn . . . numb,” Leo struggled to say, as though his lips and tongue didn’t want to form the words and his vocal cords were sluggish and didn’t want to work for him.

“What’s numb?”

“Ee…eeee…eeveryttting.”

He let out muffled screeches when the giant mech body of Krang Prime flooded his entire vision, not blurry like everything else, but more like he was under the surface of water that was settling after a rock was dropped into it.

“Focus, Leonardo, focus, what do you feel?” came Draxum's calm, steady voice.

Instead of replying, Leo’s head slumped to the side and his whole body unexpectedly fell limp in Raph’s arms.

And he didn’t respond to any of the questions asked of him because he couldn’t, with no one but him knowing if he was even conscious or not because his entire body was completely unresponsive, despite the fact he could still hear and see and feel what was happening around him.

But not for long...

Ch 19 Sophisticated Five-in-One Microwave

"Oh great, my own personal med bay microwave. Stick a few pizza burritos in that bad boy”

Notes:

Yes, I know Leo just woke up from a 3-day coma...

But in my defense, I was reading little kid with a big death wish by remrose when I wrote these chapters 💚🐢

And when editing I realized a bunch of the chapters were too short, so I joined some together and if anyone remembers, the ch 47 I mentioned at the beginning of this fic is now ch 28.

<<previous || next>>

🔹Seven Years masterpost

[thedawningofthehour]

I just came out with somwthing dumb and I think it's cursed enough to share. What if evangelion writters saw your fic, you retired and then they took off with the collar plotline.

1. Galois finishes collars

2. Galois is jumped on by people who want his head and he gets captured and put in a collar

3. He also gets put in some kind of facility where for most he roams free but still he has a bomb on him all the time and is forced to work on something to destroy Draxum

4. For some reason in that place there's a random cute boy his age who seems obsessed with Gale

5. They do gay shit like hold hands, declare love, play piano toghether in a love duet. Even fucking bath toghether (that happened in the og anime). Overall every gay shit imaginable beside kissing or call eachother boyfriends so someone can still point at them and say "They're really close friends"

6. That boy decides to get the collar of Galois and put in on himself

7. That boy fucking dies and explodes on Galois

8. Galois is depressed for the rest of book 3 and hardly does anything

9. While Galois is depressed one of the girl characters decides to wear that collar as a safety precusion (she also wears it while wearing minimal clothing beacuse [insert forced plot reason])

10. That shit is taken off her real soon and she does not die from it or really get much affected at all

11. It turns out Mikey is not Mikey but a clone of a guy named Michael Angel

12. World fucking ends

13. Gale talks to Draxum about Draxum's teen years

14. Draxum tells him the truth about Gale being Donnie

15. Something extremaly confusing happeneds that will make over over half of the fanbase hate book 4

16. New universe is formed and everyone seems happy?? But for some reason Galois is not with his brothers or even with Draxum but with Todd or something. Like it ends qirh Todd picking him up from a train station and saying "let's go home, Donnie"

17. In aditioanl material it's revealed Todd is a time traveler who's secretly been there for Donnie his whole life and also fucked Splinter at some point

18. I don't even fucking know what I just wrote

I know nothing about Evangelion and especially after this I am committed to keeping it that way.

he couldn't move the collar to someone else, (how would that make sense? it's off just throw it away?? why???) there's a mechanism that would automatically detonate the explosive charge if the collar is fiddled with too much. In Fallout 3 you actually get events where you can deactivate a slave's collar with sufficient explosives skill, but if you don't know what you're doing you'll set it off instead. Gale would know how to safely deactivate one...but I've said too much.

Gale does not have time for love declarations

Draxum's 'teen' years were filled with him herding sheep and babysitting the younger kids of his village so idk how interesting that would really be

I hope to god you guys like the ending

I mean, Lou Jitsu was bisexual af and was big in Hollywood in the eighties-this man had sex with men. (and did cocaine)(most likely at the same time) I would not rule out him and Todd hooking up in the slightest. (Leo voice: "gross, those are our dads!")

I am not touching the rest of that.

[dandylovesturtles]

Okay how abooouut... "18. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?" aaaand "55. Of the characters you write for, which is your favorite? Has that choice been swayed at all by your followers/readers’ reactions to certain ones?" and for fun: "74. You’ve posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you’d written it?"

18. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?

Usually after, or at least during. I hate coming up with titles and unless inspiration strikes me while I'm writing I will literally title the fic whatever I think of first. This is basically what happened with Corrupted Upgrade, Lab Accident, and Tapping Out.

IMBI is the longest I ever actually thought about a title because I literally turned over a bunch of different ones, including song lyrics or angsty titles referencing disappearance, before I was finally like "well Leo would make some kind of stupid joke about the situation, what's a pun I can make" and once I was going down that train of thought I came up with the title lol. But that happened after I had already written chapter 1 and was staring down the barrel of the empty fic title box on AO3

55. Of the characters you write for, which is your favorite? Has that choice been swayed at all by your followers/readers’ reactions to certain ones?

YOU KNOW as long as we're going with "favorite" and not "easiest", I think my favorite to write for is really Splinter. Maybe because I just jive with the dad-ness of it all. I want to parent these children so let me live vicariously through Splinter LMAO. He's also just a really fun character and there's a lot you can do with him.

I also really enjoy writing Draxum, basically for the same reasons. Plus he's just hilarious.

my old (wo)man vibes are too strong ig

74. You’ve posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you’d written it?

uses the word "just" too much /joke except not really LOL

Someone told me once my writing reads more like a movie script than a story and so if they are right then maybe it's that, I am giving you all the stage direction constantly.

[joyfuladorable]

for fanfic writer asks!!

5, 13, 15, and 18

✨Fanfic Writer Asks✨

HANNAH YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE GEM 🫂🫂🫂

*INHALE* Okay, these are going under a cut, cuz it’s time to RAMBLE

5. What’s a fic idea you’ve had that you will never write?

I’ll give y’all a two-fer! One new-ish and the other old as balls

-

So last year, I had the idea to do a Parent Trap AU with the Rise turtles: Estranged Baronjitsu separating right after the tots were mutated, with Splinter taking Raph and Leo and living on a fancy movie star estate on the West Coast and Draxum taking Don and Mikey and staying in the Hidden City. Yokai would be revealed at some point; so by the time all the kiddos are middle school aged, society is just getting used to the integration of these two different worlds. The setting would, of course, start at summer camp, a prestigious camp smack dab in the middle of the US for budding mystic users regardless of if they’re yokai, human, mutant, or otherwise.

Leo and Raph would go with their buddies Casey and Junior (two foster kids who may or may not actually be related). Don and Mikey would go with April and Sunita. Shenanigans would ensue, with Leo and Don being mistaken for each other multiple times (mostly by Camp Counselor Todd who has poor eyesight in this AU for funsies). Then one thing would lead to another, and the turtles would realize that they are In Fact related and Obviously this means they have to secretly get their dads back together by using makeshift cloaking brooches to switch Leo and Don (the only viable ones to switch since they’re the same height) and eventually force their parents to reunite to switch the two back.

But who cares about THAT??? The idea actually spawned cuz I redrew caprisun in that one scene where Hallie goes “now that’s My kinda Woman!” when the tie dye girl manages to pull her duffel out from under a big pile without breaking a sweat. I really wanted to write tween Casey, April, and Sunita forming a close knit bond during the summer while the boys are off doing shenanigans and then continuing that when the switch happens with long distance phone calls and stuff. But alas, the other more urgent wips are a-calling, so I’ll settle for doing scene redraws whenever I feel like it lol

-

Okay, now the Old One was for a visual novel/dating sim called Hustle Cat, the first game I ever played that gave me they/them as an option for the protagonist’s pronouns. The different routes all followed the same pattern: a down on their luck young adult decides to apply for a job at a cat cafe and then finds out that all the cats are actually the employees who have been cursed in one way or another so that they can only be human while Inside of the cafe, and each route/romance option has the protag bonding with the chosen person and helping them with their problems and stumbling on a cure for the curse by said person discovering their unique magic.

The fic idea I had was basically a Special Route, where the protagonist in each timeline/route is Cursed and Dying, and the only way to save them is to send them back to the Beginning. So the protag, Avery, wakes up at the beginning of the game with all the knowledge from all these other routes. So, out of love for all the cafe people they dated in each route, they decide to play matchmaker for their friends while also trying to help them figure out their magic. Two of the three matches go well (Hayes/Landry & Mason/Finley), but the last match isn’t working that well. Avery Knows one of them (Reese) has a crush on the other (Graves), but it doesn’t seem like it’ll be reciprocated. At the same time, Reese is suspicious of this new coworker who seems to know everyone wayyy more than they should.

In the end, the curse would be revealed to have followed Avery through time and is still killing them, albeit very slowly through the story. Reese would eventually pressure Avery into revealing the truth, and the entire cafe would band together and figure out how to save Avery. Didn’t have much else planned out other than Avery/Reese being endgame cuz I Personally didn’t really like Graves’ route (what with him being significantly older and also the protag’s boss for a majority of any route). Anyways, happy ending! Everyone Gay with Magic and now able to be cat whenever they want!!

13. How much planning do you do before writing?

Usually, I let an idea kinda roll around in my head for a while (which can be as little as a few hours and as long as a few weeks) before I write anything. And then, when I do, I tend to start writing the beginning until I run out of steam, followed by writing notes of where I want the story to go. A note can be as simple as [characters fight] or as complex as [emotions and gestures and staging during a specific moment with possible dialogue]. Honestly, I tend to plan a lot because I struggle with actually writing, lol. Grasping the motivation to write is like trying to hold water in my hands! I really envy folks who are able to just go for it and keep going without needing significant breaks in between.

15. How do you come up with titles for your fics/chapters?

Depends on the fic! If it’s a fic based on art, like I’ll Be Ok! or Keep Your Eyes Open, then I’m directly pulling the dialogue from said art. If the fic has a specific vibe or references a moment in canon, then I’ll pull from those, too. A Light that Never Goes Out is a Kingdom Hearts reference cuz the canon material/cast heavily reference the games. “That’s My Mom!” is word for word what Casey Jr says at the end of the Rise movie and is also the exact moment I started to write and build off of in the fic. And if I’m doing neither of these things, then I usually try to keep the titles short and relevant to what I’m writing (like Training or Struck Match), sometimes changing them several times during the process if I ever think of something better.

Oh! And for chapter titles, I tend to do the same. I like for them to be relevant to the chapter while also building off the previous chapters. So like how I’ll be Ok! has “Promises Made” and “Promises Kept” and A Light that Never Goes Out has “The Heart May be Weak” and “Without a Doubt” (more KH quotes). Naming Ramifications’ chapters is Easy cuz they’re just the title of the relevant episode/movie, lol

18. What’s one of your favorite lines you’ve written in a fic?

Oh man, I’ve really enjoyed writing banter, lately, like Mikey and Raph’s whole exchange at the beginning of Keep Your Eyes Open. But! I think a few lines I’m immensely proud of are what Professor Honeycutt says to Mikey in Scrambled after being asked about giving up his memories during Season 3:

“Well, Michelangelo, to be completely honest, I did not give myself much of a choice.  I saved what was absolutely essential at the time: understanding my mission and who I could trust to help me.  The rest of my memories, whether they carried over or not, were left up to chance.  I believed, at the time, that I could not spare a moment to weigh their worth.”

“If you’d had that time, what would you have kept?”

“Everything,” The Professor answers without hesitation. “I feel, even now, after having several associates - friends - recount to me what I had forgotten, that I am… fragmented.  There are pieces of me that I had to give up forever; and while I do not regret their sacrifice, I miss them.  I mourn them as I do for the life I had before my fugitive status.  If I had been allowed the means, I would have saved Everything.”

It’s dialogue I came up with while at work, sudden inspiration that rocked me with how perfectly it fits with and aids the narrative. It’s also insight into Honeycutt that I’d never really thought about before. Like, here’s a wholeheartedly good individual who sacrificed parts of himself over and over again, whether intentionally or not. How would that feel over time? How much has he mourned these losses? The loss of his real body, the loss of sensation of a real body, the loss of agency, and the loss of memories, the only parts of him that are solely and wholly his own. I finished writing Scrambled and came out the other side a MUCH bigger fan of Professor Honeycutt, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

[untitled-tmnt-blog]

My brain was just begging me to draw Leo's breakdown from Chapter 18 of The Aftermath (@starrcrossrose), so I did!

(I'm gonna ramble a bit about how much I love this fic, so putting that below the cut!)

The whole situation they've found themselves in these past couple chapters is rough and messy and heartbreaking, and I love how it also makes perfect sense! Mikey's anger finally boiling over at Leo's words, Leo's panic/PTSD episode at being attacked, everyone wanting to help, knowing they may be pushing too far, but also just being so frustrated and wanting to understand. It's like they're trying to rip the band-aid off and deal with the problem, not realizing that the wound underneath is so bad it basically starts hemorrhaging.

There's a bit of a tragic misunderstanding between what they all think is going on in Leo's head, and what he's actually thinking.

He just wants to know why. Doesn’t he know what they gave? Doesn’t he know what Mikey gave?! According to Draxum, opening that portal had taken some of Mikey’s vitality; his life. Draxum figured that Mikey had lost a couple years, at least, and that even if his hands healed… there would be other consequences down the road if he continued to push his mystic powers further than he should at this age and without proper training.

Mikey was lucky, which made Leo lucky. Why couldn’t he just understand that?

But Leo’s expression is broken and angry, a well of shadow that Donnie had never seen in him before as he spat, “You should’ve just let me die.”

Donnie (and the others as well, I'm sure) don't understand why Leo doesn't comprehend what they gave, and what they'd be willing to give, to get him back. They don't understand why he'd be willing to throw his life away so easily, and assume he must not appreciate that sacrifice... But, that's the problem: Leo does know what they're willing to give. And he believes he's not worth it.

It's been so interesting diving into everyone's mental state following the events of the movie, and I think The Aftermath does an incredible job of that! I love when the same events are repeated in multiple different POVs, since each character really is experiencing something so different at the exact same time. This was one of the first fics I found after getting into Rise, and it remains one of my favorites. Looking forward to seeing where things go from here!

Also, here's the color-coded version too, because why not?

I generally start out my drawings that way, since it helps me differentiate between the characters. I think it looks kind of neat, so might as well include it here too!

(This is either before April, Casey, and Splinter join in the hug, or after they left... because I'm not great at drawing those guys yet!)

[a-dumb-sarcastic-bisexual]

More ROTTMNT headcanons: cause I’m bored

For the longest time, everyone thought Donnie was the second oldest 

But Draxum tells them that it’s actually Leo

And Leo loses his shit because he fucking knew it 

And he holds that over everyone's head until the day he dies 

Anytime Splinter tried to scold him he says something along the lines of “bold words from the man who couldn't even get our birth order right”

Donnie is still salty because even though no one treats him differently he claims he “doesn't feel respected”

And Leo will materialize out of thin air and say “how do you think I felt for 18 years”

Donnie is farsighted and Leo is nearsighted 

Donnie wore glasses until he found out what contacts were and made his own

Leo didn’t have to wear his glasses every day but he would get a headache if he didn’t use them at least once a week

And because he’s a stubborn little shit who’s “too cool for glasses” he ends up fucking up his eyesight

Now he can't see 5 feet in front of his face and Donnie has to make him contacts 

Because he might be legally blind but he still has standards 

Splinter also has terrible eyesight

He never wore normal glasses and he refused to wear contacts

So all he owned was prescription sunglasses 

April is legally blind her lenses are as thick as a brick

Donnie offered to make her contacts but she says that glasses add character 

She doesn’t want to admit that the idea of touching her eyes freaks her out 

She also can't be in the bathroom when the twins are putting in or taking out their contacts

It freaks/grosses her out

Mikey and Leo both had asthma when they were younger 

Mikey doesn't have it anymore and he claims he has “miracle lungs” 

But Leo has a lot of breathing problems after the movie

He can’t breathe when he’s sleeping without being hooked up to a machine

Raph ended up stealing said machine because Donnie couldn’t make it fast enough

Splinter and the boys have cloaking brooches but they never use them 

Cause one of the times, they went topside someone yelled “Lou Jitsu is that you?!” and Splinter freaked out and ran

Paparazzi were still able to get “exclusive footage of Lou and his secret kids!!” but that was the last time they went topside with the brooches 

Leo is the only one who looks halfway decent in that photo so he has it framed on his wall 

A lot of people are arguing about whether Casey Jr is actually Cassandra’s or not 

Some people think he is and some people think he’s a dumpster baby 

But my headcanon is Casey senior was Casey Jr’s godmother

And when Casey Jr’s birth mom died Casey adopted him and immediately changed his name to Casey

And if anyone wanted to say he wasn’t her kid she would say “what do you mean he’s not my kid he has the exact same name as me”

[pillowdrawz]

Ive been dragged into your au (Hamato's Umarekawari) kicking and screaming. The art is phenomenal. The oneshots brilliant. I dont know why i resisted for so long. I am converted. I must know more.

I got a couple questions tho! I think i missed the posts where you explained these. How did 18!Raph end up as the dad? Did no one else want them or did he look at them and his huge canon paternal instinct went "my babies now"? Why the names Ryu and Ryo? Do they know they're mutants or did everyone assume they were yokai? What does Umarekawari mean? Does Splinter love being a grandpa? Is Draxum there? What was their childhood like? Is April their aunt? Is Casey Jr there? Can you tell this au has consumed my thoughts?

Thts so many Questions I am willing to answer.

First you see The 2012 and 2003 Turtles where Reincarnated as baby turtles on a pet store then two oozequitos Bite them yes at the same time. The shop keeper Freak out and abandoned the baby boys. Rise Raph found them!. Yes Rise raph would be like "My sons now"

2003 Is named Ryu meaning is Dragon

2012 Raph aka Ryo meaning is Excellent,Succeed.

Splinter named this boys btw.

Donnie ran a few test and thats what they learn they are mutants.

Umarekawari meaning in japanese is Rebirth or Reincarnation.

Rise Splinter LOVED being a grandpa the twins loved him too.

Draxum is also there but also Big mama they are Grandparents. Big mama would let the boys (at 15yrs old watch at the battle nexus these twins love fighting yes they fought in the battle nexus not by force they wanted to fight)

Their Childhood Good 👍 (think of it as bluey and Bingo but more smacking /j) their Childhood is very fun loved it they enjoy to have fun. problem is the boys have a nightmares when they where little that makes them be so scared at Rise raph (Cough cough Slash/Hun). So rise raph wears a Mascot to hide his whole appearance a teddy bear Mascot. The kids like teddy bear Rise raph made them all the time when they want a new one. When Nightmares went away as they realized The Monsters from their Nightmares aka Slash and Hun are nothing like Rise raph. So they weren't scared of him anymore.(yes this was a reference to a movie i forgot what its called )

April their aunt? YES SHE IS A FUN AUNT

CASSANDRA? CHAOTIC AUNT EVER.

Casey Jr < Big Cousin/bro.

Also yes and thank you.

[eternalglitch]

do you have any happy and/or angsty headcanons to do with the movie? :DD

HMM. After the apocalypse started, Raph died first. Not only did he die first, he died VERY early on. Like year one, when he was 17/18 years old. Leo lost his arm in that same moment. (Think the shell stabbing scene in the movie, but the Krang aimed a little bit lower and managed to hit him just a little bit harder.)

Splinter would have gone second, after mourning his eldest he was not willing to let anyone else sacrifice themselves while he is around. He got his wish.

Donnie would die a few months before the scene that intros the movie, and Draxum/Todd/Big Mama/April/Leo/Mikey all did not survive that final attack that sent Casey into the future.

After that... personally I'm not a fan of eyepatch Raph because an eyepatch on top of a bandana looks very silly lmao but I DO enjoy both Raph and Donnie having lingering effects of the Krang's "zombification" on them. Raph would sleepwalk and wake up in strange places; Donnie would sometimes dream he was looking out from whatever technology is nearby that his consciousness has tapped into. They don't want to talk about it to the others, but that's easier said than done since the other two aren't exactly sleeping through the night, either.

I also like to think that in the case of the Krang invasion, the Hidden City acts as Base One for the resistance. The yokai are willing to try and grab whatever humans they can to try and band together down there initially.

[katanadepapel]

ROTTMNT OC-Naomi Mendes (Redesign)

You read that right, it's a redesign by Naomi Mendes, I even decided to change where her prosthesis would be, but it's brand new not only in design but in story, but this is just her appearance in Rottmnt, I will make an appearance for her in all versions of TMNT, 1987, 2003, 2012, the movies the actresses who could play her if she was real from the serie (but the prosthesis will be in the same place)

❗❗❗❗❗❗❗❗❗❗❗❗

I HAVE NEWS! I will be writing stories and fanfictions on Wattpad, not only Rottmnt but also Tmnt 2012 and Sonic(related to my character Summer Samy, my old page in the DeviantArt will have your link in the comments)

•But that's all I have to say, here's the biography ⬇️

________________________________

~Her bio:~

•F̳u̳l̳l̳ ̳n̳a̳m̳e̳: Naomi Caroline Mendes

•N̳i̳c̳k̳n̳a̳m̳e̳s̳:̳

Nami - Donnie, Raph, Casey Jr

Mimi - Mikey and Tommy

Nay Nay - April, Sunita and Casandra

Sirena - Leo

Noemi- Splinter, Draxum, Big mama and etc...

•A̳g̳e̳: 16 y-o on the serie/ 18 y-o on

the ROTTMNT Movie.

•D̳a̳t̳e̳ ̳o̳f̳ ̳b̳i̳r̳t̳h̳:̳(21/01/2003)

•S̳i̳g̳n̳:̳ Aquarium

•S̳p̳e̳c̳i̳e̳s̳:̳ Human

•G̳e̳n̳d̳e̳r̳:̳ Female

•N̳a̳c̳i̳o̳n̳a̳l̳i̳t̳y̳:̳ Brazil 🇧🇷

•F̳a̳m̳i̳l̳y̳:̳

-Miguel Mendes (Father)

-Debore Caroline Lima (deceased mother)

-Aghata Marble (Stepmother)

-Tommy(Half little brother)

-Carol 'O Neil (Aunt)

-Kirby O 'Neil(Uncle)

-April O'Neil (Step cousin)

•P̳e̳r̳s̳o̳n̳a̳l̳i̳t̳y̳:̳

^Quality- Wise, intelligent, sincere, courageous, creative and eccentric.

^Defects- Stubborn, unpredictable, distracted, headstrong, sincere.

L̳o̳v̳e̳s̳ ̳i̳n̳t̳e̳r̳e̳s̳t̳:̳ Leo

•F̳r̳i̳e̳n̳d̳s̳ ̳: Mikey, Donnie, Raph, April, Sunita, Splinter, Draxum, Todd, Frank, Casey Jr, Cassandra, Senõr Hueso, Capitan Piel, BullHop, Piebald, Dale, DIGG, Hamato Karai, S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.

•E̳n̳e̳m̳i̳e̳s̳: Draxum(antes), Foot Clan, Kendra, Purple Dragons, Hypno, Repo Mantis, Warren Stone, Kraangs, Meat Sweat, Cassandra(antes), Destruidor, Foot Brute, Foot Lieutenant, Big Mama, Alberto, Ghostbear, Kristoffer Van Bradford, Gus.

•L̳i̳k̳e̳s̳: Football, Swimming, math, drawing comics, comics, superheroes, aliens, advice, listening to music, learning new things, video games, online games, practice sports and martial arts, authentic clothing.

•D̳i̳s̳l̳i̳k̳e̳s̳ ̳: Mosquitoes, too little milk in cereal, wash the dishes, xenophobia, the messy state of her hair when she wakes up, bad movies, pink, tight clothes, and lack of freedom.

•W̳e̳a̳p̳o̳n̳s̳/̳S̳k̳i̳l̳l̳s̳:

-Karate

-Ninjutsu

-Boomerang (weapon of choice)

-Hamato ninpō

-Parkour

-Flexibility

•F̳e̳a̳r̳s̳: Aichmophobia (fear of needles or injections), Hematophobia (fear of blood) and

•P̳r̳e̳f̳e̳r̳r̳e̳d̳ ̳m̳u̳s̳i̳c̳ ̳s̳t̳y̳l̳e̳:̳ Punk Rock e Reggaeton

•P̳r̳e̳f̳e̳r̳r̳e̳d̳ ̳m̳y̳s̳t̳i̳c̳a̳l̳ ̳s̳p̳e̳c̳i̳e̳s̳:̳ mermaid

•F̳a̳v̳o̳r̳i̳t̳e̳ ̳c̳o̳l̳o̳r̳: blue, purple, emerald green and black.

•F̳a̳v̳o̳r̳i̳t̳e̳ ̳f̳o̳o̳d̳: Spicy food, chocolate cake and Coca cola.

V̳o̳i̳c̳e̳ ̳a̳c̳t̳o̳r̳:̳

Rottmnt '

🇺🇲 Tara Strong

🇧🇷 Aline Guioli

F̳i̳r̳s̳t̳ ̳a̳p̳p̳e̳a̳r̳a̳n̳c̳e̳:̳ Mystic Mayhem

•C̳u̳r̳i̳o̳s̳i̳t̳i̳e̳s̳:

* Naomi when she's furious turns red and fluffy (at least that's what Leo and Mikey say)

*Naomi loves soccer, but has literally taken a lot of balls in the face.

*Nami runs pretty fast, even though she has one leg less and a prosthesis in place.

*Naomi draws a lot with Mikey, or models for him.

*She is from Rio de Janeiro, born and raised in Rio de Janeiro until she was 14 years old.

*Naomi is a very good swimmer.

*Mikey likes to touch Naomi's hair, Raph likes to train with Naomi, Donnie enjoys his science attention from Naomi and Leo is very jealous of this.

*Naomi sings karaoke with Sunita.

[autisticenbydonnie]

Dumping some headcanons cuz my brain go brrrrrrrrrrrr and I can't draw all of them

These are gonna be random so don't expect a theme

Btw, the ones that are about the turtles when they're older is based of these

- Leo and Donnie (late 16) got their eyebrow piercings together. In fact, they did them on each other.

- like duh Donnie is autistic and Mikey is ADHD but so is Leo and Raph (Raph autistic and Leo ADHD)

- after the shredder but before the kraang, Draxum went to each of the brothers rooms and apologized to them, individually, about his past actions and for the harm he caused. (Yes, he straight up says sorry to Leo about throwing him off a roof)

- the only ones who can actually sing is Splinter, April and Mikey. Leo technically has a good voice but hes a bit tone deaf and doesn't sing much. Donnie sings more then Leo but Leo is still better. Raph can't sing, not that he doesn't but his voice is more talk-y when he sings.

- donnie and Leo (13) came out as trans at the same time (accidentally), and Leo (14) came out as gay later. Donnie never came out as bi, just started wearing a pin. Mikey (late 15) did the same thing about her gender and sexuality. Raph never came out because he never thought about it until he was 18.

- Draxum was (either) in the hidden city at court or was at a Dinner-Lady conference during the kraang attack.

- when Casey first meets Draxum, he didn't know who he was, untill he realised he was also 'dad' that future!Leo used to talk about. He just assumed Leo was only talking about splinter.

- Leo calls both splinter and Draxum 'dad' cuz he thinks it's funny to confuse them and everyone else around him. Mikey calls splinter 'pops and papa' and Draxum 'dad'. Raph and Donnie calls splinter 'dad' (and all the other father nicknames) and only refer to Draxum by his name. (Tho, one time Raph called him 'pops' and it hit him to his core).

- Donnie was the one to suggest pronoun bracelets to Mikey when they figured out that Mikey was genderfluid. Mikey ended up making everyone pride bracelets.

- Raph has a few tattoos on his arms. he got his first one at 18 at a yokai tattoo shop and it was a dragon (cuz why not). one of them says 'あなたは一人じゃない' ('you are not alone') and another one is a sai.

- Leo also has a tattoo. It's a stick and poke he did himself on his ankle (like an idiot). He did it when he was 17, it took all night and it immediately got infected. It's literally just a shitty star.

- April is an intersex lesbian and is dating Sunita.

- Leo started collecting rings when he was like 12 and has slowly started wearing them around 16. He likes to stim by wiggling his fingers and hearing the clicks. Donnie hates it.

Idk if ya want more headcanon send me an ask!

Or if ya want me to draw any of these send me an ask!

Or just send me an ask if ya wanna say hi..

[kingbaguette]

Made a Rottmnt OC. His name is Quillix!

He has two big doe eye’s, and a smaller set just below them. All of his eye’s are gold with pale lemon spirals in them, a small slit in the middle being his pupil.

He was made by Baron Draxum, at the same time as the other turtle’s, but Splinter couldn’t save him in time.

He will be the same age as Raph- (18) on March 25th. He was a special request from Big mama, to have him serve for her in the arena (I forgot the name of it-) like a dog in a dog fight. He was practically raised by her, and manipulated by her all his life as a product.

Like how the Mad Dogz species of turtle differentiates, Mikey a box turtle, Leo a red eared slider, Donnie a spiney soft shell, and Raph a Alligator snapping turtle, Quillix is a Galápagos Tortoise. The worlds largest turtle on record. And because of this, when he was mutated he became an absolute beast physically. Standing at around 9’ tall. Spike’s decorating his strongly body as a side effect from being pared with Raph in the mutagen for a while in their youth. He had no marking on his body unlike the three youngest, and instead has old, deep, light coloured scar’s scattered on his skin from all his year’s fighting. Once when he was 8, he was fighting this warrior thrice his heigh, age and relative mass and lost his left arm as a result. But is still undefeated. One day in the middle of training, the turtle’s showed up in the training room because prior to this, Draxum had revealed to them that he had made another turtle when he made them. One that Splinter didn’t save and was handed over to Big mama. They immediate went to investigate and came across non other than the giant Galápagos tortoise standing in front of them.

In their first meeting, the team just sorta stood there in shock, not really expecting to actually see another turtle, Mikey then quickly got excited and attempt to hug him, so in self defence Quillix, who had been standing still cautiously, immediately grabs ahold of his arm and flips him over his shoulder onto the floor harshly. Mikey just sorta lays there for a bit in shock, as the disaster older three brother’s get ready to fight him, until Mikey quickly speaks up. Saying that he probably hasn’t seen anybody like himself before, and was probably just scared. They agree upon this, as Mikey slowly gets up and walks back to his brothers as Quill keeps all four of his golden eyes on them at all times.

They begin asking him questions such as “How long have you been here?” Well, more like just Raph and Donnie, Leo and Mikey we’re asking questions such as “How are you so big?!” And, “Why do you have so many eye’s?” And stuff along those lines.

Quillix, now feeling as if they were no longer threat’s, begins to loosen up, smiling widely, sitting like that of a frog, and answering their questions in almost broken English. Resembling that of a child, which would later be confirmed by Donnie as age regression, as a cause of extensive trauma, fear and is used as both a way of escapism and a defence mechanism. They eventually got to the question of “Why do you have a shock collar on your neck?” Asked by Leo. He then joyfully responded with a simple,

“When I miss behave, it goes zap! Big zap when mama is sad. I don’t like when mama is upset.” This down right mortified the turtles to see one of their own be treated like an animal- Like they had no sentience, like they had no intelligence or feeling’s, by a yokai at that!

After a while of talking, they promised to visit Quillix more if he promised not to tell anybody about them, not even Big mama, Quill agreed, oblivious to the fact that the turtles were planning to bust him out, and bring him to their lair.

Hopefully he likes pizza.

[technofantasia]

Rise of the TMNT Timeline

Alright, by piecing together some clues from the show and making some educated guesses, I’ve put together a tentative chronology for Rise!

(Note: not all episodes are included, just a couple that either have timeline evidence or are somehow plot notable. This is assuming the canonical episode order is also chronological order.)

[EDIT] Added some more information (namely Splinter’s birthday month).

1600s-ish: The Shredder was created and sealed away September 1960: Splinter was born 1966: Splinter’s mother left (Finale part 1 flashback) 1979: Splinter left for America (Finale part 1 flashback) 1980-1984: Splinter became an action film star, dated around 1984: Splinter started dating Big Mama 1987: Splinter’s “Hot Soup: the Game” was released 1989: Splinter proposed to Big Mama, was imprisoned in Battle Nexus November 2002: April was born April-August 2003: (Presumably) Raph was born April-August 2004: (Presumably) Leo and Donnie were born April-August 2005: (Presumably) Mikey was born October 2005: Splinter and the Turtles were mutated February 2014: The first Lair Games was held 2014-2016: Donnie made his first battleshell, goggles, and tech bracer Early 2018: Piebald was flushed August 2018: Mystic Mayhem (the series begins), Down with the Sickness September 2018: The Turtle Tank was created (The Fast and the Furriest), Bug Busters, Hypno part Deux October 2018: Bullhop,  Evil League of Mutants, Shelldon was first created (Smart Lair), Shadow of Evil November 2018: April’s 16th Birthday (Warren and Hypno), April meets Sunita (Operation: Normal) December 2018: Snow Day January 2019: S1 Finale February 2019: The sixth Lair Games was held (Lair Games), Repairin’ the Baron March 2019: Air Turtle April-May 2019: S2 Finale

(Reasoning below the cut!)

So. Assuming that the episodes occur in chronological order, we can reasonably assume that the course of the show proper takes around or slightly less than a year.

In Hypno Part Deux, April is going to a homecoming dance; homecoming dances happen usually around the beginning of the school year, in late September or early October. Since she is canonically 15 at the time (she says she’s 16 in Always Be Brownies, which happens after her birthday) and has a birthday that comes after homecoming, that would likely make her a high school junior! That’s not important, just a fun fact. Placing the beginning of the series around August makes sense, then, since it’d be before April started school and during flu season, giving Splinter a good reason for catching the rat flu in Down with the Sickness.

The other solid time marker we have is Snow Day, which obviously takes place during snow season in New York (which is usually December to March). It’d likely be closer to December, since I’d like to imagine that they would have gone out to have fun in the snow as soon as they could have, potentially even at first snow. Since Lair Games comes chronologically after Snow Day and confirms the year as being 2019, we can assume that most episodes that happen before Snow Day happened in 2018 while those after happened in 2019.

Another, slightly more tenuous time marker is Bullhop, where a calendar is shown that says the 21st of the month was on a Sunday; by our previous assumption, this is 2018, so a calendar shows this must have been during the month of October, which falls in line with the rest of our timeline here! Neat. The 2018-2019 NBA season went from October 6 to April 10, so, since Air Turtle presumably showed a late season game with potential for turnaround, early March seems like a fair bet. All of those episodes combined give a pretty good sense of time throughout the series, spanning from probably around August 2018 to Mid-2019. The finale could have happened any time after March and before June (when high school would end, meaning Sloppy Joe wouldn’t have had to be working Draxum’s kitchen). Because there were quite a few episodes that should have happened before the finale, though, I’ll split the difference and say the S2 finale happened in or around May.

Fun detail: by this timeline, April’s birthday is sometime between October and December/January, likely November (seeing as it comes after Bullhop but before Snow Day, and judging by the fall colors of the foliage in Operation Normal which comes directly after her birthday episode.)

As for the brothers, we can assume that they might have different birthdays judging by how in Lair Games, Mikey says that one of his favorite days is “my birthday”; if they all shared a birthday, he might have been more likely to say “our birthday”. They were mutated sometime close to October, but since they didn’t seem to see the date of their mutation as anything special in ELoM, we can assume they don’t celebrate it as their birthday. We know that at the beginning of the show, Mikey is 13, Leo and Donnie are 14, and Raph is 15; at no point during the show do any of them have a birthday, which leads me to assume that they are the same ages by the S2 finale. They COULD have had a birthday offscreen, but since birthdays are a pretty big thing for teenagers, I’d think that if one of them had a birthday it would be pretty noteworthy. I’ll just guess and say they didn’t have one. If that’s the case, then all of their birthdays would be some time between April-ish and August-ish. By the time the show starts, then, they would have already had their birthdays, confirming for us their (probably only guessed anyway but whatever) birth years as 2003, 2004, and 2005. Realistically, Splinter probably didn’t know how much older Raph was from any of the others or anything like that, but the years are still somewhat important for age calculation purposes. I could try to guess their birthday months by saying they might all have wanted a unique birthday month, but that would be complete conjecture on my part (as compared to the rest of this which is just mostly conjecture), and would honestly be more headcanon territory than an educated guess? So for the timeline I’ll just say that their birthdays are between April and August.

Now, reaching further backwards to figure out Splinter’s life timeline!

In Splinter’s memories in E-turtle Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, we see a clip of a teenage Splinter. Said “teenage splinter” looks to be on the older side of teenager, as he seems to have his own apartment and just looks older besides, so I’d place him at either 18 or 19 (leaning towards 19). Additionally, taking a look around his room, it looks like he might be using a Sony Walkman (first made in 1979), and has what looks to be a Star Wars poster on his wall (1977). Additionally, he has a TV in his room that looks to be a Toshiba Blackstripe model that was popular in the mid-to-late 70s. While I can’t tell if he does actually have a walkman or not, I’d probably place this scene as being 1978 or 1979 anyway, so let’s just say it’s 1979. If he was 19 in 1979, that would place Splinter’s birth year as 1960, which is nice and even so I’m keeping it. That would make Splinter 58-59 during the course of the show, which seems to track! He has a birthday in Mascot Melee (the turtles are buying him a new robe as a birthday present), which, according to my episode timeline, puts his birthday around early September.

The flashback of Splinter as a kid is a little bit tricky, since he looks to be about five or six judging by how he acts in the scene? But he’s also holding a Kamen Rider doll, and that show didn’t exist until 1971. I nonetheless place the scene in 1966, since this is a cartoon and hey, maybe the Kamen Rider equivalent came out a few years earlier in this world, who cares. The bottle flip challenge already apparently happened in 2014 here, why not move some other stuff around? This exercise has already had me comparing calendar days, I will not be deterred

In Many Unhappy Returns, the clapperboard for the film “Crouching Shrimp, Hidden Tiger Prawn” in Splinter’s flashback shows that it was 1984 when he first met Big Mama, meaning that he was not only Lou Jitsu by then (at just 24 years old!), but that he had been making movies for at least a few years. After all, he and Big Mama were supposedly inseparable after meeting, and in The Shadow of Evil, it’s shown that Splinter did date around a bit as a star. Assuming that rat dad isn’t the cheating type, that would have had to be before meeting Big Mama. In Fists of Furry, Splinter mentions that he hasn’t seen any of his dojos in thirty years; while he may not have meant literally thirty years on the dot, assuming he’s at least close, that would mean that he was first abducted around 1989 (age 29). At that point, he and Big Mama would have been dating for around 5 years, which seems like a reasonable amount of time for him to wait before proposing. He also would have had time to build up quite a bit of fame as a movie star; the game he had of him looks to be on a system similar to the Atari 2600 and in fact looks pretty similar to the real life game “Kung Fu Master” that came out on Atari in 1987, a year which would have been the prime of his career. Sure, that date works as well as any. After that point, we know he was imprisoned in the Battle Nexus until Baron Draxum kidnapped him in order to use his DNA to mutate the turtles 13 years before The Evil League of Mutants. That would have placed his kidnapping and their mutations at around October of 2005, judging by the monthly timeline of the show. So, Splinter would have been around 45 when he adopted the turtles, after having been imprisoned and forced to fight for ~16 straight years. Dang.

Finally, I figured that the whole deal with Shredder and Karai would have happened at some point in the 1600s as it was 18 generations ago, judging by the number of “greats” in Karai’s grandma title, and if you average out a generation to be about 20-25 years, that lands you in the range of the 15th century. That works especially because Ninja apparently first started becoming a thing in the 15th century, so the timing checks out well enough.

(and, just as an extra fun note for the timeline, the lair games was said to have been going on for 6 years as of early 2019, meaning it must have started in 2014. We see that, in 2014 (year 1 of the Lair Games), Donnie doesn’t have his goggles or battleshell and is instead wearing glasses. In 2016 (year 3), though, he looks about the same as he does in the present, meaning he must have created all his tech that he wears on him (battleshell, goggles, tech bracer) between 2014 and 2016.)

So, the above timeline is a guesstimated and shoved around compilation of all this totally meaningless investigation, typed in a form that makes some kind of chronological sense! I hope that someone finds it useful, or just fun to think about :D

[devotedlydeepeststrawberry]

Sooouu, I started this by wanting to explain why Rise!Leo wouldn't be a good leader right now and I kinda ended up explaining where I would take the story if I wrote it. Anyway I'm a bad writer and English is not my main language so if anybody gets inspired by any of this and decides to write a fan-fiction from it, be my guest (and please link it).

First of let's start with my initial why Leo wouldn't be a good leader. Even though he has a great gut feeling (I think he was wrong only one time in the first season), is relatively good at planing, is able to motivate his brothers with his speeches and his brothers do listen to him sometimes he lacks responsibility and confidence.

Different to Donnie, who is awesome at one specific thing and seeks recognition for it, Leo does not have a specific thing he is good at. Instead he seeks recognition in medals and competitions, he is boasting about his wins because they are the only thing he has going for him and nobody else is praising him for anything, even when he is right or saves somebody. This lead to Leo thinking he is not good enough on his own, even tough he proved otherwise in Bug Busters where he was alone in Big Mama's Hotel and was still able to save his brothers. The first thing he did in Portal Jacked when his brother were lost was to go to Señior Hueso for help(sorry for misspelling his name), in Flushed but Never Forgotten he went to his father for help. Unless he can't help it, he makes sure that he is never alone in a situation that might go south because he lacks the confidence to use the skills he has.

The second point is the fact that he isn't responsible enough to be a leader. He tries to avoid responsibility for his actions every chance he gets. That's why this Leo doesn't want to be leader because he knows that he would be responsible not only for himself but also for his brothers. And that ties in with his lack of confidence. However, in Flushed but Never Forgotten, when his family was in danger he threw away his reason, went after them without a plan and took on full responsibility for the plan while being ready to be the only one to take punishment, sacrificing himself. Meaning he is only ready to take responsibility in dire situations.

On the other hand Raph, being the oldest, is used to care and be responsible for his brothers, but he cares too much. He didn't want to let Mikey go on a mission alone, his plan for better teamwork only worked because his brothers pitied him and when Donnie put their family in danger with his gifts Raph didn't want to hurt Donnie's feelings. This are things a big brother would do, not a leader. As it is right now both Raph and Leo are bad leaders, the former for caring too much and the latter for not wanting to be one.

And this where I explain where I would take the story so Leo can become a leader.

First off, Leo needs to get confidence and more leadership skills. But where would he get that? Of course by being away from his family and meeting new people. But, where?

Currently, we know three places where he can go do that:

human world(with the thing that turns yokai's into human)

The Mystic City

Battle Nexus

The human world is more for Donnie. He already has a group he fights against (Purple Dragons), and is more interested in normal school than his brothers. Aside from that, Donnie has the brains to recreate the thing that could turn them human plus he would greatly benefit from being a human. Donnie's main issues are his constant need for praise and his lack of understanding other people's feelings. For him meeting teachers who praise him and people who have the same intellect as him would do wonders on his mood. Of course he would also need to handle bullies and realize that in the real world team work and communication is really important. Plus you won't be able to choose who you work with, you need to be able to compromise and understand the other persons strengths and weaknesses, that also means putting other people before himself. Donnie also needs to understand that, as much as hates being sociable, everybody can be useful so he needs to make a lot of connection, even with people dumber than him and he is not allowed to insult them. Leo would be there to tell him that, but Donnie wouldn't listen to him until he is in a great pinch. In the end he realizes that Leo was right, but never tells him that and his live improves greatly.

Leo is a sociable person. He would be quick to make new friends and maybe be relatively popular. He wouldn't benefit at all from going to a human school.

The Mystic City is not a challenge for Leo. Aside from Draxum, there aren't really dangers he would need to face there. The last time he was there, he survived without his sword in the bad part of the city. He did have Hueso with him but why would Leo go there alone in the first place? Leo also doesn't have good mystic powers, but do you know who does? Mikey. From what we have seen of Mikey, he is friendly and creative. Mikey would thrive in the Mystic City, find friends, be creative and maybe even learn a thing or two to impress his older brothers. For why he would go there, he would want to prove himself to Raph. He is not just a baby anymore, he can survive without him breathing down Mikey's neck. Leo would be supportive, give Mikey some advice on pirates and bad places, maybe ask Hueso to help Mikey discreetly. It would work out in the end. Leo would be right once again. Raph wouldn't like all of this one bit.

Now to the Battle Nexus. I really thought that this would be the perfect place for Leo. Being a champion is an easy bait for him, but Leo isn't dumb. He wouldn't trust Big Mama and would not easily fall into her trap. Besides the Battle Nexus is one against one, not for teams and why would Big Mama want Leo there in the first place. No. She would want somebody strong, feral, somebody like Raph. Give Raph some cutesy stuff and the trap is laid. So we have a Raph that is totally alone in the Battle Nexus for days while fighting big scary mutants and yokai. He would go crazy, and wouldn't find a way out. Cue, the other three trying to save him with Leo's plan. It fails, miserably. For the first time in Leo's life he was actually wrong at something and it could have cost his brothers lives, it was all his fault. And this time it wasn't a lesson by his father. He needed to plead Raph to calm down while protecting his other two brothers. Raph listens to Leo's pleading and calms down after a while, but in Leo's eyes Raph didn't calm down because of him but out of his own strength, since, after this, Raph learnt how to control his feral side and was able to save all four of them all on his own.

All of Leo's brothers overcame their weaknesses. They became better ninjas. Leaving Leo the only one who hasn't changed. He was still bad with his mystic powers, and the medals he earned were worth nothing.

So how would Leo grow? Simple, just like all the Leos before him. He gets to fight the same enemy as them but in a different way. There was a shot in the episode Shadow of Evil(around the 18 minute mark, can't screen shot it now) where Draxum creates a rift. On one side of it are three turtles and Splinter and on the other side, The Foot and Leo. All of them look surprised at where Draxum is. Now, this could be as to create a balance in the scene or for foreshadowing. I will choose the latter for my story.

As we know Draxum and the Foot soldiers are not on the best terms. There will be betrayal and fights in their future. However Draxum became too powerful for two soldiers to defeat, so they steal the finished armor but they don't wear it. Fast Forward to turtles plus April plus Splinter vs Draxum. Turtle family loses and the only one to escape is Leo. Leo has show to go to drastic measures for his family and is ready to accept help because he is too scared to fight alone. Enter The Foot Brute and Lieutenant with the finished armor. They tell him about how the armor grands wishes and could give Leo the power to save his family. His gut tells him that this is a bad idea but his gut was wrong before, and this was the only way to save his family. He accepts wearing the armor to save his family, together with the Foot clan.

Of course they succeed, but Draxum manages to escape. Now that Leo's wish was granted the armor or, better, Shredder takes over Leo's body. Like I said, Leo is skillful but he doesn't know how to use his skills and has no confidence but imagine Leo's skill and weapon in Shredder's hands. The turtles are lucky that the new villain isn't yet used to his new body, so he decides to escape, together with the Brute and Lieutenant.

And that's it for what we see of Leo for a while. The other episodes would be about a life style without Leo. His family will realize how much Leo has actually done for them and even start missing his jokes. They will live their lives, fail and succeed at stuff, while searching for Leo. Each turtle will get their individual episodes that seems fine, but kinda off in way. This way ROTTMNT can fulfill their promise to not be a Leo centric show because every turtle gets their own arc. They will have their own enemies and issues to fight and overcome, while Leo is just a supporting character and he importance only becomes clear once he is gone.

Now, while the other turtles had a few episodes of their story arc with some interludes for comic relief and episodes of the family members, I want Leo’s story to have one half hour episode episode, like Shadow of evil. So, what is happening with Leo?

While his his body is controlled by Shredder, his mind is trapped in the armor, together with the person who sealed Shredder all those years ago, Karai. You can imagine her anger when she realized a turtle let Shredder lose. They talk. He explains who he is, how he got here etc... Karai explains to him what ’here’ is and who Shredder is. Leo realizes he released armageddon upon the world, and, more importantly, his family. However not all hope is lost. Since Leo has Lou JItsu’s DNA, he, in a way, is related to Karai, meaning he has the power to fight against Shredder and take his body back. Leo tries calling Karai grandma, that did not end well. Anyway, Leo doesn’t know how to fight against Shredder so Karai offers to teach him and since they are in the armor Karai decides to use Leo’s memories to create a copy of Lou Jitsu to boost Leo’s moral.

Leo needed a pep talk, a bunch of stuff happens but Leo still wasn’t able to understand how she could fight against Shredder and Karai got more irritated by the minute. Meanwhile, Shredder realized what Karai was doing, knowing what and who Leo is and how dangerous the situation could get for him, he separates Karai and Leo by trapping Leo in a simulation of what happened in the war when he was sealed according to his and Kara’s memories. Bad move.

Leo was stuck in a never ending loop, where a bunch of good people died and Karai sacrificed herself to stop Shredder. Turns out Karai was quite similar to Lou JItsu since she didn’t care for her families destiny as well and that was the catalyst for her families death by the hands of Shredder. After a while Leo had enough and managed to use Karai’s training to stop the loop, turn back time and fall right into the story. He meets Karai and Usagi the young, soon to be leaders of their repective armies. Right then they were arguing about what they should do. In fact, one of the main reasons why Shredder couldn’t be defeated in the past was because Usagi and Karai would argue too much so they created two armies instead of one. Leo knew if they had put their differences aside or at least compromise lives could have been saved, so he decides to change this simulation

He acted as the middle man for the two and compromised a co-leadership. They didn’t trust him at first but with time they became close friends with Karai teaching Leo about swords and Usagi helping with the mystic powers They created an army and when the time came to choose a leader Leo was chosen with Karai and Usagi being his advisors. They managed to defeat Shredder. Leo got back to the Karai in the armor and they continued their training until Leo’s family came to save him.

The turtle plus April and Splinter used their training from their own arcs to save Leo. They were apologizing to Leo and all the typical stuff. Leo didn’t finish his training with Karai so he still wasn’t able to defeat Shredder for good but he couldn’t let Shredder use his body to kill his family, Karai understood and let him go with a last words being something along the lines of ‘Go my teenage mutant ninja turtles’, giving them their name while he just said ‘bye, grandma’.

He managed to get his body back but the armor and Shredder were still alive. Giving Leo an end goal. After this incident Leo had some PTSD to handle(he fought in war). Things happened and everybody gradually realized that Leo would be good leader and he was offered the position he accepted. I mean it couldn’t be worse than what happened in the simulation,