#I would love to see more of Donnie and Raph's dynamic if we get season 3!

[hyperfixatinator]

ROTTMNT Theory: Donatello's Hidden Role

After rewatching ROTTMNT (shorts and movie included), I realized something about Donnie's character that I've hardly seen anyone mention, and I'm going to talk about it in depth here.

I'll assume you've already watched the series and dive right in, but spoiler warning under the cut in case you care about that.

Let me start with something seemingly off topic. Raph is the oldest of the four brothers, which landed him the responsibility of keeping his younger siblings safe when their father was unavailable. (Not trying to bash Splinter. He's gradually grown to be a better parent later on, but you can't deny he was fairly neglectful in the beginning of the series)

The constant pressure Raph went through was brought up in the episode "Anatawa Hitorijanai", and then the movie showed he still struggles with it now.

He's constantly shouldering the burden of being their family's sole protector, but is this the truth? What if I told you there are actually two protectors in the family? And that the other one was Donnie all along?

When you look closely, Donnie is surprisingly protective of his loved ones. I did a tally of how often each brother exhibits what could be protective behavior, and Donnie was in second place (29) after Raph (35). Some of these choices are debatable, but here's a bunch of examples as pictures.

Would you believe me if I told you I still have a couple smaller examples I had to leave out due to the picture limit? And that's not even including the few moments where Donnie and Raph ever-so-subtly parallel each other.

All things considered, Donnie and Raph aren't so different. Raph is the primary protector who faces the threats head-on with his physical strength, while Donnie is the secondary protector who tends to use more distant methods with his tech and wit. However, when push comes to shove, Donnie will also step up to take direct action when he deems it necessary.

They may be the brains and the brawn, but they both use their respective skills to defend and support their family.

[tizeline]

Hello ooohs! I just wanted to say that I adore your AU and just can't get enough of the change in dynamics for Rise!!

Your designs are incredible (( especially Leo's!! He is so adorable <3 )) and I get so excited each time you post!

So I have a question I want to ask: I have a huge soft spot a mile wide for Leo/Splinter family bond dynamic. I just turn to mush every time their familial bond is portrayed in comics/fanart/ and fanfiction.

Anyway! My question is: do Leo and Splinter develop a close relationship with each other later in the AU after meeting for the first time? I mean it has been shown how much of a fan boy Leo is for Splinter XD. Can your provide more insight into it and what Splinter thinks of the other three kids?

I also wanted to bring up a small error in The Cell part 3 that I noticed

For Donnie: "that's " was it supposed to be "that" ?

If not then I'm sorry for nitpicking your work. I just figured I'd help but my apologies <3 I still want to stress that I adore this AU so much and in extension; platonically adore you!! Keep being the best that you can be and take care!

Love,

🌹

Thank you!

And skfskbdwlskdisj yessss I love Splinter's and Leo's dynamic you're so real for that. And yeah, out of the of the Drax Bros, Leo is the one who ends up growing the closest to Splinter, both because he's been a secret Lou Jitsu fanboy for years at this point, but also because Leo was the first to change his mind on the evil world domination plan. Leo freed Donnie from imprisonment and tried to help him stop The Foot and The Shredder in the season 1 finale, and I imagine Splinter would be quite appreciative of that.

Not to mention, after Leo technically betrayed his family (even if it was for good reasons) Leo's and Draxum's relationship is a bit tense to say the least. And we see in the show that Leo has a tendency to seek out extra father figures, so in the AU Leo would be quite enthusiastic to recieve any positive attention from Splinter.

Splinter I imagine would feel rather guilty about not being able to rescue any of the turtles aside from Donnie when he fled Draxum's lair. He'd wanted to prevent Draxum from raising them as soldiers, so in failing to do that Splinter would continue to worry about how they were doing even years after the incident. After encountering the Drax Trio again years later, he'd be relieved that they don't seem to be TOO traumatized or anything, but they ARE still child soldiers, so that's a yikes.

That being said, while Splinter would've liked to find a way to get the other turtles away from Draxum, his priorities very much lie with Donnie. Considering how powerful Draxum is, and how Big Mama would also be looking for him, Splinter couldn't risk going back to the Hidden City to try to get Donnie's brothers without risking both his own and Donnie's safety. So he decided to cut his losses and play it safe by laying low in NYC and putting as much effort as he could into only protecting Donnie. This stays the same even after Donnie runs into his brothers as a teen, Splinter feels no ill will towards the other three turtles, but they WERE raised by Draxum so he does not trust them. Leo gains his trust after helping Donnie in the season 1 finale, but it takes some more time for him to start fully trusting Raph and Mikey because he wants to be sure that they're not gonna switch back to being evil or something and try to kidnap Donnie again.

Splinter's relationship with Draxum is the same as in the show, Splinter hates Draxum, Draxum hates Splinter, and there is NO underlying homoerotic tension between the two of them WHATSOEVER!

... Anyway, with that concluded, that IS a typo goddamit. I do appreciate people pointing out spelling and grammar mistakes in the comics I make, so thanks for that. But also it's a small enough mistake that I'm probably just gonna leave it be, I'm to lazy to fix it XD

[sleepyheadd0]

tmnt 2012: splinter projecting himself and shredder onto leo and raph

a rant / analysis

1.4k words; unedited

under cut

WRITING THIS AT LIKE 5:30AM BECAUSE I PHYSICALLY CANNOT GET THIS OUT OF MY BRAIN WHY HAVEN'T I SEEN PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT THIS

okay okay, im gonna try to talk about this as clearly and concisely as i can. 2012 splinter is projecting his relationship with shredder onto leo and raph. people have probably talked about this but i just wanna explain my point of view on this.

so. as the story goes, shredder (also known as oroku saki) was found by splinter's (also known as hamato yoshi) father after the foot clan was defeated. splinter's dad adopted shredder and raised him as his own, having splinter and shredder be brothers. we all know this (i assume).

we also know that splinter and shredder's relationship, while always competitive, doubled down on that (and even became bitter and spiteful, even on both sides at points), when tang shen is added into the mix. as the story goes, both splinter and shredder fall in love with tang shen, but she falls in love with splinter, and so shredder gets all pissy and violence occurs. since they couldn't come to an agreement, tang shen died and miwa (now known as karai) was literally kidnapped by shredder.

but what does this have to do with leo and raph? lemme tell you what

leo and raph, in the very beginning of the series (literally the pilot), are introduced to us to be butting heads, even after sparring is over. as the pilot continues, raph is bitter that leo was chosen as leader, even though raph was physically stronger than leo. even after it was proved that raph couldn't be leader (and leo got to stay leader), there was always some sort of tension between the two throughout the course of the series (or at least up to season four, i have yet to find a way to watch season five and watch their dynamic during then. but i figure, given the clips ive seen, that their tension seemed to mellow out in that final season.)

do you see any parallels there? because i do

so. two brothers, training to be ninjas in the hamato clan. growing up, they were always butting heads, but that's not to say there was any malicious intent in that. then, one day, something the both of them want is added. (tang shen for splinter and shredder, leadership for leo and raph.) this only causes more tension to grow between them, causing their previous unharmful headbutting to take a turn for something a bit more hurtful. next, this special something is chosen for the more responsible brother. (tang shen falling in love with splinter, and it being proven that leo is the only brother with the mental ability to lead the team.) this, of course, only deepens the hot headed brother's bitterness; which in turn makes this brother act out in aggression towards the responsible brother. (shredder attempting to murder splinter, and raph having less self control when training against leo. (if im not wrong, there's an episode where raph's anger gets the best of him, and he goes too far on training with leo. if anyone can confirm that, that would be great lmao).).

so why do i say splinter is projecting this relationship onto leo and raph? great question.

as seen throughout the series, it's not all that difficult to see how splinter has farm more of a relationship with leo than he does raph, donnie, and mikey. the blatant favoritism is, due to what i believe, is seeing his younger self in leo. he's hardworking, responsible, reliable, diligent, and would do anything for the hamato clan / family. this is how we saw splinter himself act when the turtles went back in time when they first met renet. and if it's true that splinter saw his younger self in leo, then he very easily could've been seeing shredder's younger self in raph.

raph, being impulsive, having a short fuse, being very physically powerful, butting heads with the responsible brother, those are all traits that shredder had when he was younger. even the way that leo and raph's relationship dynamic was, it was parallel to splinter and shredder's. and when splinter declared leo the leader, that parallel became even more apparent.

but, splinter had already seen first hand how that parallel ended the first time: death, loss, and overall tragedy. and so, i believe splinter decided to try and nip the problem in the bud.

with raph, we can see splinter time and time again trying to mellow raph's anger; to have him bottle it up instead of letting it be a part of him and learning to control it. the biggest example i can think of is the episode "turtle temper", one of, if not the first proper non pilot episode of the entire series. not only does splinter set raph up for failure with his training exercise, but he literally told raph a story of him and shredder, and how the shredder exploited splinter's anger. even though splinter was comparing shredder to someone else, the use of a story about splinter and shredder leads me to believe that splinter could be using those experiences, in more ways than the one shown in "turtle temper", to help splinter parent raph and leo. now, while not actively villainizing raph, splinter still does paint raph's anger issues in a darker light than what they are.

and on the flip side, how does this affect splinter's parenting of leo? well, splinter already saw what happened if that parallel went on, and it only led to death and suffering. and with tang shen literally sacrificing herself to save splinter, i feel as though splinter could believe he failed tang shen and miwa. so with splinter being splinter, he tried to teach leo to not fail in the ways splinter believes he did. the harshness and strictness, far more one on one time spent with leo on screen, hell, even telling leo he'll have to take splinter's job as both a mentor and father to his brothers when splinter passes? it's hard for me to not believe splinter is projecting onto leo. this is simply because splinter just doesn't want history repeating; he doesn't want another shredder created out of his son.

but, from what clips ive seen of season 5, it wasn't even necessary. leo and raph do get along while splinter isn't there to project, and that's even happened a bit in the space arc. (only major argument i remember between them in that arc is when they were on the corrupted planet.)

because leo and raph AREN'T splinter and shredder... they're LEO AND RAPH.

they're different people with different morals and motivations. but splinter didn't quite see that.

also, when the tang shen situation was happening, i feel like grandpa hamato was kinda pushed in between the conflict between splinter and shredder; unable to choose just one side to support, but getting pushed to the back either way. i think this parallels with donnie and mikey; they can't chose between leo and raph to support all the time, because they're their brothers. but they get pushed to the back and out of focus; and now also out of splinter's focus specially.

now i have seen those ending clips of season five, and i believe this can be seen as why splinter only hugged leo and karai.

-leo: he still saw himself in. but now, he could also see the success that he himself was unable to achieve.

-karai: his daughter, the one he thought he lost due to the conflict between him and shredder. she was one of the driving forces in the conflict, and came out still on splinter's side.

-raph: while splinter still loves raph dearly, just as i assume he still loves shredder dearly, the dark legacy of the shredder still taints his view of raph unintentionally.

-donnie and mikey: like his father, he loves them both dearly. but, like their grandfather, they ultimately got pushed to the side unintentionally. still loved greatly, just not the main priority.

now, do i think this is all canon? no, it's like 99% likely to not me. i was probably really reaching with this, and it could've just been completely unintentional by writers and just came about because of recycled conflicts. but it is now 6:34 am so i don't care.

thanks for reading lolzies.

[boxturtle4eva]

A (salty) Defense of Rise!Leo’s Leadership Skills

Disclaimer: English isn’t my first language - this is my opinion - I love the turtles and their family dynamic, and think the movie is rad aka I’m not here to hate

Lately, I’ve noticed the majority of the fan base dunking on Leo’s leadership skills, and even the writers of the movie portray him as someone who is severely lacking in this regard. But is this really justified?

Is Leo a bad leader?

Short answer: No. Long answer: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

As early as season 1 Leo is shown to be - despite his flamboyant demeanor - a much more cautious turtle than his brothers when it comes to the safety of his family.

While Donnie suggests taking down the ‘Spine Breaking Bandit’ or the ‘Long Island Mangler’ for their first mission in ‘Origami Tsunami’ it's Leo who vetoes the idea and redirects his brother’s attention to something much more suited to their current level of expertise aka ‘Paper Thieves’. In ‘Bug Busters’ he almost immediately realizes that Big Mama is a threat. And in ‘Mutant Menace’ he voices his concerns about them leaving the lair during the anti-mutant panic.

Note that Leo only interferes in his brother's fun when he thinks that they are in real danger and gets annoyed when they won't listen to him directly - which I imagine is the reason he rather likes to manipulate or use figures with more authority to push his plans instead of direct communication. It seems more effective (he is great at it anyway), and less damaging to his ego when he gets shut down.

I believe he has been backseat-driving those bozos for years.

Furthermore, Leo is smart, adaptable, perceptive, and a brilliant strategist (and he knows it!).

He also has a very good idea of what his brothers are capable of and is unafraid to use their skills to his advantage. This is evident when he advocates for Mikey to go on his first solo mission to receive Hot Soup - The Game. But most noticeable in ‘Many Unhappy Returns’. There, he predicts not only the villain's (Big Mama, Shredder) actions but also his family's and their ability to handle the situation, while putting together a great scheme to stop feral!Shredder. Leo has the ability to look at the angles and easily sees the bigger picture.

When Leo said ‘You guys got this!’ he meant it 100%. He is shown to trust his family and is not afraid to rely on them. This might be due to his identity issues hinted at in 'Portal Jacked!'. He may feel insecure about his own self, but he knows his brothers in and out and how awesome each one of them is. Yet not in a starry-eyed unrealistic way. Leo is well aware of their weaknesses and limitations.

In ‘Many Unhappy Returns’ Raph questions if Leo is serious, and guess what, he was, cause they won thanks to Leo's plan. Here we also see glimpses of Leo as the Mad Dogz official leader with Raph affirming that he trusts him.

In the movie, Raph also asks Leo: ‘What’s it gonna take for you to be serious, Leo?’ And the answer is obvious - his family being in danger. Nothing more, nothing less. Leo gets serious as soon as Casey explains what happened in his timeline and why they need to retrieve the key and stop the end of the world (around minute 20).

I always found it particularly mean-spirited for Raph to assume Leo isn't serious given the knowledge that this is how Leo copes with high-stress situations (see 'Mystic Mayhem') and his otherwise competitive nature (see 'Air Turtle'). Leo would never lose on purpose. Raph copes by snapping and Leo by joking and that is a recipe for disaster. And while it's understandable in the Shredder situation I feel it isn't really justified in the movie.

Unlike Donnie or Raph who are over-preparers, Leo has also no issues to go with the flow, which leads to a seemingly more laid-back attitude and clashes with Raph's tendency to be a mother hen. But he kinda does not need that much time in the first place...

In the end, I think Leo has all it takes to be a great leader from the get-go. Of course, he is far from perfect. There is something deeply wrong with our poor boy's communication skills, and between his general laziness, his unfortunate coping mechanism, cocky cool-guy persona, competitiveness, and general deceptiveness it is hard for the team to tell what's going on and get a good read on him or his intentions. But hey, Leo is like what, 16 years old? And the good thing is, he has his bros who've known him for his entire life and know how to take him. They all got his back. (Or not?)

So what changed? What’s up with Leo’s leadership skills in the movie? Nothing! Leo’s character is exactly the same. He is as sharp as ever. It is Raph who changed.

Cause here comes the kicker, the thing the authors of the movie so eloquently sweep under the rug, the question nobody seems to ask:

Is Raph a good second-in-command?

Stay tuned for part 2!

Short answer: No. Long answer: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

But seriously just think about it. In my mind, Leo never truly stood a chance.

[greatlyblessed]

Sorry not if you were ever asked this. For 03 what is your opinion on each of the boys?

Hey! I don't think I've been asked this on tumblr so, time to go on a Rant™️

('03 is my favorite turtle show. It's just so goooood but okay specifically about the turtles--)

oh right i got really long I should add in a readmore--

Gonna start with Mikey. Ah Mikey. I think I called him a gremlin troll of a turtle in some tags earlier and I stand by that. This turtle wakes up every day going 'how can I make someone else (mostly Raph) chose violence'. He is good at reading people and he makes that everyone else's problem. Weaponized Incompetence King. I love him so much. He was my favorite on my first watch through but I don't think I have a favorite any more.

But also he's a good boy!! He wants to help people out. I was rewatching the series but I didn't really get past season 1 so I'm just thinking about the first Turtle Titan episode. He got an idea on how they could be COOL but nobody else was down for it, so fine he'll do it on his own--

10/10 turtle. Menace to society. Probably the smartest Mikey in the turtle multiverse.

Raph. Oh sweetie. Boy has so many feelings and struggles with dealing with them. 😭Relatable. He learns and grows over the course of the series and I'm happy for him. Big softie on the inside, prickly cactus on the outside. Feel like a lot of his anger is just other feelings turning into anger because y'know. Emotions Hard.

He has his struggles and his problems but he loves his brothers. I love his dynamics with everyone. Fighting with Mikey, the way he manages to actually be Soft with Donnie. The way he manages to even out into someone that helps Leo keep his balance over just. Challenging him in a way that sets Leo off. (Remembering the fight over the sword Shredder gave Leo early on now--)

10/10 turtle too. Goober. Not as funny as he thinks he is (and that only makes him more endearing.)

Leo. Oh no honey. Sweetheart. Baby boy. This boy goes THROUGH IT. I've seen a meta about his Trauma and how he's a lot more laughing and joking around pre-Window and then we don't see him lightening up again till Fast Forwards/BTTS. And yeah I can see it. This boy thinks DEEP. Maybe a bit too much so. Internalization King. Give him a nice cup of tea, a warm blanket and a hug please.

He's just so weighted down with the task of keeping his brothers alive. Mikey's the one who wanted to be a superhero but Leo's probably the one who actually has the most 'heroic' temperament. Very keen sense of 'bad things are happening and we can do something about it'. But also 'bad things may happen to us if we meddle too much'. (Which, they do. And then they all almost die because of calls Leo made so of course he handles that extremely well.)

10/10 turtle. Daddy's boy got his Autistic Swag. Ninjitsu is his special interest.

Don. Ah, Donny. (Which is apparently how it's spelled in 03.) Kind soul. Sweetheart. Precious. Absolute menace. Do not let his mild manners fool you. This boy is insane. LEAST common sense out of the four of them. Thinks that playing a flight simulator makes him qualified to fly an actual helicopter. (If Raph had hair Don would absolutely be making it go grey.) Mikey is a menace on purpose. Don? Don thinks he's the sensible, rational one. Which just makes him even more terrifying.

He's such a kind, sweet soul. Loves building his vehicles lol. He's got the combo of being fairly even-tempered and also more mild mannered so he's good at not making any Bickers worse among his family. I love how they all dropped everything and went to check on him in that one episode where he was stressed out and yelled at everyone. 😭

10/10 turtle. Let's not forget this boy had his own PTSD arc in the Back to the Sewers season. Of all places.

[hermit-searching]

TMNTposting, Michelangelo edition:

I still have favs, but I would love nothing more than to talk about the boy in orange. Michelangelo is such an interesting character, development-wise in the series. While Leos and Donnie's usually end up developing more negatively (like the emo breakdowns and all that) Michelangelo and Raph seem to always be the ones that make positive growth. And I love it. We love to see that here.

All Michelangelo's are pretty silly and goofy. They're the most laid back of all the turtles, mostly due to the "youngest brother" dynamic he has with the rest of the turtles, Rise being the most obvious one of all. With 87 Michelangelo, he's more of a chill party dude with an unyeilding optimism despite the circumstances in the later "Red Sky" seasons of TMNT 87. He's the only one of the turtles who genuinely still saw the good in things, and tried to revisit the old dynamic they had even though there was a massive hate campaign against them, and getting double mutated...among many other things. This dude, this little guy, was able to keep a steady girlfriend through all this which is insane (and adorable).

Some of the other cute things I remember about him is:

-he remembers their time being regular turtles.

-he normally sides with Leonardo whenever theres an argument (usually started by Donatello)

-the little alien star child in season 7 could have destroyed the planet but he still decided to be nice and comfort him anyways.

Also random fun factoid about the memory of being a regular turtle. Both he and Donatello or Raphael have mentioned before they spent half their life at the bottom of a glass bowl, in the pet shop. Which either implies they lived in a tiny fishbowl for a really long time, or they were really young when they mutated. The implication seems to lean more towards the latter, and the turtles mutated straight into being teenagers. It's entirely likely the 87 turtles are technically young kids stuck in the bodies of teenagers. Enjoy the nightmares thinking about that.

Now for 03 Mikey. I want to chefs kiss the writers because this series was when they started the "kinda annoying younger brother" trope for him, but somehow still managed to handle his development with absolute grace. The Battle Nexus arcs are some of my favorites in TMNT 03, personally. Both because I'm a sucker for 03 Leosagi, but also because they showed everyone just how smart Mikey can be, and that he is perfectly capable of handling a fight on his own. He's been named Battle Nexus champion, not once, but twice. The first time was more circumstance, but don't let that distract you from the fact he outsmarted Raph in a fight and still won the tournament.

And the second time? That time, he was cursed so any injury he sustained couldn't be healed and he still won! The second time was entirely on his skill and fighting alone and he won.

Despite rubbing it in his brothers faces, he genuinely didn't believe he was capable of winning the Battle Nexus tournament and I LOVE the writers for giving me that. 03 Mikey is a loveable menace.

fun things I love about 03 Mikey:

-he literally saves Klunk because he liked her vibes. on Christmas. good for him.

-despite how often they bicker, he's Raph's best friend.

-the whole thing about him (and his brothers) helping the homeless people in the Garbageman episode.

I don't really have much to say about 2012 Mikey tbh. He sure is a guy who exists. It is cool he survived in Dimension X for a few months on his own though. Good for him.

And finally, I'll leave the Rise ramblings to the other TMNT blogs out there. Because everything I say is something someone else definitely has before. And I mostly want to make these posts for the people out there who never watched the older TMNT series.

[freakadr0id]

Lol yeah Donnie is less (over) protective then Raph since he's more then fine and with Mikey's independence and even trusts him a lot to take care of himself. But another thing I like is how Donnie's love for Splinter shines through a lot. Ex, when Donnie made Shelldon initially bias for him but made sure Shelldon always catered to Splinter's needs. How excited he was to spend time with his dad and got upset over the lie but then wanted Dad to feel as awesome as Donnie saw him. It's wholesome.

Yeah, Donnie definitely has more faith that Mikey can handle himself than Raph does in the show. Donnie is clearly protective of Mikey - he physically shields Mikey twice and continually looks out for him in the movie and show - but he isn’t overbearing like Raph can be.

What I find really interesting about their dynamic is while Donnie isn’t overprotective of Mikey, Mikey (at least in the movie) seems to be a bit overprotective of Donnie, especially when it comes to his shell. It isn’t really present in the show, but the movie puts it front and center of Donnie and Mikey's role in the film. When Donnie loses his battleshell the first time, Mikey kind of panics and drags Donnie towards the turtle tank, and his concern for Donnie’s shell when he has to take off the battleshell in the technodrome seems to be misplaced considering the situation. Mikey’s first thought when Donnie protected him was not “Oh no, Donnie are you okay?” but “Oh crap, Donnie’s shell,” which indicates that it is always something he (and his brothers) worries about in the back of the mind. His instinct is to instantly protect Donnie when his shell is exposed over anything else going on, which can get in the way of the mission and what is needed to be done in that moment.

I think it would be fun to explore this idea of Mikey's overprotectiveness more in season three. Mikey knows what it's like to constantly have Raph hover over him, so they could develop some interesting parallels with that and the way Mikey hovers over Donnie when his shell is at risk. This is me just speculating about fun ideas though and not any firm analysis.

I’m so glad you pointed out how much Donnie cares about Splinter, Anon! Donnie and Splinter’s relationship is something I find so fascinating. Like you said, Donnie obviously loves his dad immensely and always wants to please him, but there’s an added layer of complexity to it as well. A major part of Donnie’s character is his overwhelming desire for validation and praise, especially from a parental figure. To me, this says that he never really got that from Splinter, leading him to do more and more to please others with his inventions, particularly his dad. The inventions he caters towards Splinter are evidently rooted in love, but with the secondary motivation of getting the approval from Splinter he so desperately craves. We see how much that lack of direct approval has affected Donnie and probably plays into Donnie's insecurities and his desire to continuously invent new things for his family so he can feel needed by them. Donnie still loves Splinter so much and evidently admires him (or else his praise wouldn't have any weight for Donnie), but they also have a particularly complex relationship that affects the way Donnie views himself and his father.

[cloverjester]

A list of things that I would love to see in season 3 if it happens (can be updated with your ideas):

- more Mikey centric episodes

- Splinter acknowladging that he wasn’t the best father and trying to make up for it

- April interacting with other turtles than just Donnie

- turtles meeting April’s parents

- Raph meeting a pet that doesn’t hate him / him and Mayhem becoming friends

- Draxum interacting woth other turtles than just Mikey

- Casey and Draxum becoming friends after their redemptions (they has such a fun dynamic)

- Draxum making up with his shoulder pad thingies

- all of the characters having at least one episode when they get emotional because emotions are good

- the gang dealing with the Kraang still stuck on earth or the people who mutated

- Yokai culture and lore

- Leo opening up to his brothers about his struggles

- more of Donnie’s soft side

- how turtles met April

- Casey Jr. adapting to the… past? Present?

- Donnie and Raph having an episode for themselves because we didn’t get to see that much of their dynamic

- Casey and Junior meeting

- more Sunita

- Sunita, April and Casey going on a ✨ girl’s night ✨

- Big Mama and Splinter, they obviously still care about each other

- Leatherhead. That’s it.

- the lost turtle sisters!!

[fabuloustrash05]

Why I Don’t Like 2012 Apritello

A TMNT 2012 Rant

Before I start and the 2012 Apritello fans/shippers come at me with their pitchforks and torches, I want to clarify that I DO think that the ship is cute and it has a lot of potential. S1 Apritello is adorable! But after that it goes downhill and becomes very problematic, which sucks because I see the potential for it to be a good ship, but the 2012 writers just did them so dirty which lead me to dislike this ship over time.

So with that said. Enjoy my rant!

As I said before, season 1 Apritello was perfectly fine. The only minor problems I had with them in the first season was the fact that Donnie has taken pictures of her obviously without her knowledge or consent and has them as his computer wallpaper. That doesn't sit right with me. This is coming from personal experience, a guy I knew in middle school had a crush on me and he used to do that, taking my picture without my knowledge or consent and using them as his phone background and it made me really uncomfortable. If the writers just switch it to him having his background be a selfie him and her took together them that would’ve been better. Other than that, their relationship and dynamic in season 1 was fine and even cute at times. 

Then season 2 comes around and the ship just gets worse from there...

I’m probably not the first to say that I don't like how creepy Donnie gets during S2 and onward. He becomes very possessive of April, looking at her like she’s an object or a trophy he has to win, instead of seeing her like she's her own person. Casey is also guilty of this, but this rant post isn’t about him. 

Side Note: 

April being Donnie’s love interest ruined her character. Most of her interactions with the turtles were mostly just with Donnie, because she was his love interest and she HAD to have “moments” with him. Whenever she did talk to or have genuine sweet moment with any turtle that wasn’t Donnie it felt fresh, rare, and new, but then shippers would ruin it cause they’d start calling April a wh0re for “cheating” on Donnie just from her hugging Leo or Raph, and say his brother’s are “stealing” Donnie’s girl. Like, guys, chill. Leave April alone. It’s a freaking hug. She’s allowed to be friends with Donnie’s brothers. 

I always appreciate the little short moments in the show of April interacting with Leo, Raph or Mikey. It’s one of the reasons I like the episode Eyes of the Chimera in season 3 so much becasue it focuses on Leo and April bonding! It made me wish April had more duo episodes with each of the turtles, but sadly most of her episodes were either about her and Donnie (in some way), her ninja training (which now that I think about it, we saw very little of) or her connection to the Kraang, and even that was dumped and no longer explored by like the 3rd season. 

Maybe that’s just me. Let me know what you all think.

Anyways, back to the rant!

The very first time Donnie sees April with Casey, he immediately jumps to conclusions and assumes she’s on a date and gets mad. Like, dude, you don’t own her! We, the audience, know she wasn’t on a date, she was just tutoring Casey, but imagine for a moment if she was. Donnie has no right to decide who she gets to be with and has no excuse to be mad if she decides not to date him but someone else, because, again, she is a human being not an object! Does he have a right to feel heartbroken? Yes, it's sad seeing your crush with someone else, I and I’m sure many of you can relate. But should he be mad? NO!

The whole love triangle between Donnie, April and Casey was its own dumpster fire and that’s a rant for another post. 

I also don't like how it is hinted during the S2 finale that April is aware of Donnie's feelings for her. Now, we could argue (and I agree) that April was not ready for Donnie to confess his feelings, most likely wanting to sort out her own feelings and I respect that, but I wish April was more honest with Donnie later on. I wish she told him to give her time and space instead of letting him think he has a chance, leading him on, and having him continue to obsess over her for 5 freaking seasons! She had many chances to have that conversation with him. Like in season 3...

Oh god, I hate Apritello in season 3, specfically I hate the Big Foot episode. That music box Donnie gave April in the beginning of the epsiode was extremely inappropriate given what those two have been through so far by that point in the show. Donnie, sweetie, you've literally lost the greatest battle of your life, you and your brothers were chased out of your own home and had to leave the city with Leo badly injured and in a coma, and you also witnessed your father's "death" by the hands of your greatest enemy, and you think NOW is the best time to make a move on your crush and give her a gift, who, may I remind you, went through the same exact sh!t you went through?! 

THE POOR GIRL DOESNT NEED TO BE HIT ON RIGHT NOW!!

And don't get me started on the farmhouse kiss later in the episode. What a load of bullsh!t! The writers really had me fooled. They really had me think they were going to give Donnie and April actual development in their relationship. They could've had Donnie finally understand and end his inappropriate behavior and obsession towards her and April could finally tell Donnie that she's aware of his feelings and tells him that she does care for him but needs time and space to think her feelings through. This conversation could have helped them grow together and they would eventually get together when both of them are comfortable and ready to start a relationship with one another. 

But NOOOO! Let's just have April take all of Donnie's development in that episode and throw it away by freaking kissing him!! Like, what?! Girl, weren't you literally uncomfortable earlier that episode when he was trying to make a move on you with the freaking music box???

It was at that moment I started to hate Apritello, and it makes it come off that April is just playing a game with Donnie, throwing him away and reeling him back in, repeating the action over and over again. Which sucks, because I really wanna like this ship and at times I can see the good qualities. I like April! She has some great moments (both badass and funny) that makes me appreciate her or be happy for her, but her being shipped with Donnie ruined her character for me. I blame the writers.

After the farmhouse kiss, you know what I realized? I realized that the 2012 writers didn't know what they were doing with this relationship and it pissed me off because, again, they had so much potential!

Also the many times April kisses Donnie on the cheek was so random almost ALL of the time. 

Her kissing him after she rekindles her friendship with the turtles, pointless but it’s fine. 

Her kissing him after he finished creating a retromutagen for her dad, understandable. Could just be a heat of the moment excitement that she probably forgot about later on, but...

The second time in the same episode, the writers were just forcing it at that point/April did that in front of Casey on purpose to make him jealous and you can’t change my mind. 

Her kissing him after Fugitoid fixed his bug sting, very random and very pointless. Like, why? What was the point of that happening??

I need to remind everyone who has come this far in reading my rant that I do think the concept of April x Donnie could work. Though I’m not a big fan of shipping April with ANY of the turtles, it can still work, but only if it’s done properly. 

Again, 2012 Apritello had great potential, it’s just the writers handle it so poorly. Honestly, Rise Apritello has more chemistry and potential to be the friends to lovers trope in a version where it is intended for them to only be best friends MORE than their 2012 counterpart where they are intended to be friends to lovers. 

You know what I wish the 2012 writers did? I wish the writers did a slow burn mixed with the friends to lovers trope. Basically, make them friends first, build from that, and have them slowly fall in love with each other over the course of the series. 

For me, I’d make it go like this:

S1 - Donnie and April are friends, but over the course of the season Donnie slowly begins to fall in love with April.

S2 - Donnie now has feelings for April, but he doens’t want to ruin his friendship with her. Also April is dating Casey.

S3 - Everyone knows Donnie likes April. Her and Casey eventually break up but stay friends. April finds out Donnie likes her and now it’s awkward between them.

S4 - Donnie and April both like each other now. They try hard to rekindle their friendship and try to go back to being just friends, but their hearts want something different. 

S5 - They finally confess and become a couple! Yay! Happy ending!

If you want to read the longer version of how I’d rewrite 2012 Apritello, you can check it out HERE

I want to thank everyone who has made it this far and has read my entire rant. Feel free to share your own thoughts on 2012 Apritello, but remember to be kind and respecful towards everyones opinion. 

[nosleep83]

ROTTMNT SEASON 3 IDEAS!!!!!

(These are really messy cause I mostly just copy and pasted from my notes haha)

First of all, the main antagonist.

I think that the main antagonist for season 3 should definitely be the sister Kraang (I’ll be referring to her as Kraang 3 or just Three). Remember, she’s still alive. She’s only being contained. And considering how it only took 3 Kraangs to nearly take over all of New York, I think Three would be able to escape from any earthly containment. She also just has amazing potential to be a main villain. She’s definitely the most psychotic out of the 3 Krangs (Hell, the first thing she wanted to do when she was freed from the prison dimension was kill something) and loves to see people suffer. I could bring up many other times she’s acted like a psychopath but I don’t have time for that lol.

As for her motive, she didn’t seem hellbent on conquering Earth like her brother, she mainly just liked to cause pain. And with her brothers gone I don’t think she’d make it a priority to conquer Earth, at least not quite yet. I think all she wants is revenge. She’d want to torment anyone and everyone who messed up their invasion. And we all know who ruined the invasion…

Another thing is just how horrifying it would be for everyone to know Three is out there and wants revenge. They’ve all already been VERY traumatized by the Kraang and the invasion, and to have to go up against one AGAIN when they thought everything was okay and that they’d gotten rid of the Kraang for good would be insanely traumatizing. Basically I just want more trauma lmao.

I think it would be interesting if Three started becoming more present gradually throughout the season. Sort of like in Thanks To Them, how the entire time there was a build up toward Belos possessing Hunter at the end of the episode. I think it would be interesting if, as the episodes progressed, there would be more hints that Three is back. Maybe an episode about half way through the season it would finally be revealed to the turtles somehow (maybe they find her or it’s on a news report or smth idk)

Anyways moving on from the antagonist I want to see how everyone is doing after the invasion and how they’re each individually dealing with it. I want to see how Casey Jr is doing adapting to a normal life with the younger versions of his family and grieving the ones he knew. I want to see how Raph is handling being possessed and the guilt he more than likely has from hurting his family and helping the Kraang. I want to see how Leo is dealing with the trauma of being in the prison dimension and nearly (accidentally) causing an apocalypse. Obviously, I want to see how Mikey and Donnie are doing after the invasion as well, it would feel wrong if their trauma from the event was ignored, but I just can’t think of anything for them right now. My brain is tired haha.

The turtles’ issues and trauma, even from before the movie, just need to be addressed more. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like the writers did a bad job with their struggles. They did great, I just think more time was needed to talk about their issues more in depth. Another thing is that some of the turtles’ issues are talked about more than others. For example, we needed more time to see how Mikey feels like his brothers need to protect him because he’s the youngest and such. This part can mainly be summed up to me thinking we needed more time with each turtle.

Also I just want more of the side characters, man. Characters like Sunita needed much more episodes. I already enjoy the side characters, I just think getting to know them more would make me enjoy them more yk.

WE NEED MORE CASSANDRA. PLEASE. We didn’t get to see much at all of Cass being a good guy, and I’d just really like to see it. I would also LOVE to see her and Casey Jr interact and see what kind of dynamic they’d have.

Splinter’s neglect needs to be addressed more and he really needs to work on it more. I already now that throughout the series he gets better, but he still has so much making up to do. I want to see the turtles be really upset with him. To be hurt by the lack of attention he gave them. Raph in particular was arguably affected the worst by Splinter’s neglect (since he’s the oldest) and I’d love to see Raph talk to him about that.

Now, the most important part. WE NEED USAGI. We need rottmnt Leosagi I’m dying on this hill. Now that might just be me hoping since when it comes to gay relationships Nickelodeon usually doesn’t go farther than gay parents but hey, if The Owl House could do it, I’m sure if Rottmnt really tried they could too.

Anyways that’s all lmao thanks for reading all of this :] feel free to tell me your thoughts about it!

[eternalglitch]

Whats your favorite duo in rottmnt? And what dynamic your hoping to see more of if or when we get a season 3?

I personally really love the disaster twins, their dynamic are so great and i love them very much (also that moment donnie literally cried in disbelief that he lost his twin *chefs kiss*)

Another thing I'm at odds with the majority of the fandom: I 100% view Donnie as 3-6 months older than Leo and will never call them twins lolol.

The main reason for this is it almost always feels like the fandom uses the twin trope to frame it like Leo and Donnie are somehow closer than the other brothers. Which. FALSE. If anything they are quadruplets because they all gained human consciousness at the same moment and have all spent equal amounts of time together ever since. Plus they're all turtles Draxum got from, I don't know, the black market in the Hidden City sold as food or something. There's no way they were born on the same day.

I could somewhat follow literally none of their ages being confirmed- how would they actually know?– so they could have just picked an age and stuck with it as kids. Leo and Donnie both wanting to be the same year and fighting over who feels older could even be hilarious as a concept, but I'm too attached to older Donnie personally.

Which also feeds into me having literally no preference over dynamics. I want more of all of them. Maybe more of Raph and Donnie in a potential s3 just because we didn't GET that in the show really, but literally all of them have different charms to me.

[miss-andromeda]

1, 2, 6, and 8 for All's Fair 🥰

Favorite scene or line?

I'll answer both!

Scene: Definitely the end of 'Gravity of It All,' where Andi and April are talking to the boys about saving Kirby on the fire escape. I think I aced the feeling I was going for, and I loved Andi taking April's hand and comforting her. I think I really aced her loyalty and her protectiveness over her best friend. 🩷

Line: Hmmm...I'm gonna cheat and say a few lines, from 'It's Nice To Have A Friend':

"Gah, if only she could love someone like me!" He exclaimed, then sighed to himself as he calmed down. "She'd make me the happiest turtle this side of the Atlantic...and I'd do everything to make her the happiest girl, no questions asked..." Out of instinct, he picked up the controller again, his gaze averting to it. "But, to be fair, Donatello, your feelings for her aren't gonna change the fact that she's always gonna be a friend to you. You know darn well that at the end of the day, even if she never loves you back, she's still gonna be your lab partner and especially your friend."

I really love this part, and this chapter, in particular. This is what separates canon Don from my Don; the latter, I feel like, is more emotionally mature and is more accepting of heartache - and clearly wants Andi regardless of the type of relationship - lovers, best friends, whatever. Canon Don can be a little too creepy with his feelings towards April (granted, the writers never really gave him a chance to experience heartbreak with April turning him down,) while I feel like my Don is more aware of the possibility that Andi wouldn't reciprocate his feelings, but as he said, he still sees her as a friend no matter what.

2. Did you have any ideas that didn't make the final cut?

I did! So without going into spoiler territory, let me explain:

Season 2's finale is gonna be a consecutive set of gut punches, we obviously know that. But along with Leo getting beaten half to death, Andi's also gonna have a fight with a recurring antagonist - who is gonna stab her and leave her to bleed out. This is still confirmed, but who finds her is different.

Originally, it was Donnie that was gonna find her. He was going to let his anxiety about her leaving April's apartment get the better of him and go searching for her, where he would find her bleeding out and seeing little snowflakes get on her body. He would frantically try and patch her up, before starting to sob and hit his fist against the rooftop asphalt in pain, all while freaking out who could've done this.

But I scrapped it for a different route - one that not only expands upon two other characters, but also makes Donnie patching her up have more sense to it, as he'll do it at April's apartment, where a first aid kit is readily available.

So in the final cut, Raph and Casey are the ones who find her right before they get to April's apartment. Raph is shocked and absolutely livid, immediately going to tie off Andi's wound to stop it from bleeding further with his bandana - all while fighting back tears at seeing his little sister like this (obviously they're not actually siblings, but their dynamic has already been established at this point.)

Casey is admittedly more shocked. He's never seen Andi be this vulnerable before, so to see it happen is crazy to him. He'll do his best to try and get her to talk to them and ask what happened to her (and even better, who did it,) but when Andi weakly tells them who (no spoilers as to who,) that's when she's goes unconscious. He'll look at Raph with confusion (like, 'who's she talking about?') and Raph will grimly tell him as he's picking up Andi - and admittedly, he's gonna feel guilty about assuming she's annoying because she just wants to be. Her life isn't all it's cracked up to be, and he's gonna gain a little bit of respect for her.

Granted, they're still not gonna be best friends, but there will be a mutual, almost grudging, kind of respect.

6. What character(s) do you find most difficult to write?

Hm...that's an interesting question. I think because she's the new addition to the cast and I have to imagine her part in each scene she's in, I'd have to say Andi, funny enough. It's only because I grew up with the canon story that I know it so well and I feel like I can read the minds of each character, but Andi's a different story, because all of her dialogue is my own and I have to consider her part in whatever scene she's in.

8. Which fic/headcanon do you feel most proud of?

By fic, I'm gonna interpret that as chapter 😅

So admittedly, I'm most proud of both 'The Very First Night' and 'It's Nice To Have A Friend'. I think both have really solid dialogue and action sequences, and have some of my favorite Andi moments. 'Very First Night' has Andi's concussion and her meeting Donnie for the first time, and 'It's Nice' has some really sweet Don/Andi moments, Andi being protective over April (I especially like her panicking over April leaving to storm the Kraang base,) and my favorite line in the series, 'The one who is called your mother wears the boots that are made for combat.'

And for headcanon? Probably the idea that Don and Andi are major fans of Stranger Things. Obviously the show wouldn't exist when the story takes place (All's Fair is in 2012, Stranger Things came out in 2016), but in my mind, they're both huge fans; constantly quoting their favorite scenes, commentating over each episode (giving theories, cheering or booing certain characters, etc.), and losing their minds when the new season comes out. And I'll finish it off with; every time a new season comes out, they claim the living room for themselves, get a ton of snacks, make a pillow fort for good measure, and binge the whole thing in one go.

----------

Lord, that was a lot 😅 But regardless, thank you for the ask! Love you ❤️

@android-cap-007 @happymoonangel @kikithedreamerwriter @jasminarts01 @thelaundrybitch @m1dnyt3-w0lf @raphsmuneca @margoteve

[misteria247]

https://at.tumblr.com/fabuloustrash05/696457589016363008/49a53bu4mp9z

I feel like I'm being called out here... Of course I was never one of those people that like to bash the show or make those accusations. But still, I feel like I'm being called out and I don't like it. 😤 (jk)

The 2012 TMNT was my favourite iteration of the franchise growing up and is still my favourite to this day~ ^_^

(Okay fine- It was actually the first series I ever watched that introduced me to the franchise as a whole before I discovered all of the others before it (and the fact that they're all based on a comic book series) when I finally first had access to the internet when I was young.)

That being said though, I will have to admit, it does make me feel sad and a bit uncomfortable when I think back on how mean (and a bit unfair) the other 3 often were to Mikey, more specifically in the early seasons (1 & maybe 2 I can't remember well). But.. Idk. 🤷🏿‍♀️ Maybe it is because I'm an only child like OP said, so maybe I'm just not used to the bickering/rough and tumble "tough love" relationships most siblings seem to have.

I just have no choice but to take people's word for it when they say "it's just what siblings do", 'cuz I don't think I would ever truly understand what it's like.

(It honestly makes me glad that I never have to deal with it myself, no offense. 😅)

I don't know why I decided to ramble on about that, I'm sorry. 🙇‍♀️

First off please don't apologize for the ramble I love hearing people's thoughts on things! Second off I will admit that seeing sibling dynamics such as the boys no matter the variation (which they all have moments like this in the other variants of the franchise) when you don't have siblings yourself or experienced it can be a bit jarring to witness. And I can agree that the older boys had their moments where they were rather mean towards Mikey but also there are moments where Mikey can be rather mean towards them as well. It's a dynamic that while it appears to be mean and full of nothing but hitting it's actually much more than that.

Whenever the boys do their jabs or rough house with one another if you watch you can see that the boys never really take it too far with one another. Raph rough housing with Mikey is a pretty normal thing between siblings (my own little sister who's the middle child like Raph used to rough house with my little brother who's the youngest out of the three of us constantly). It's pretty common amongst middle siblings and the youngest siblings of a family. And the only reason why Raph rough houses with Mikey so much is because he knows that Mikey can handle it. Plus a lot of the instances occur when Mikey in typical baby sibling behavior presses Raph's buttons till he snaps. And it's the same way with the other two boys when it comes to this type of thing. Donnie's more quick to snap at Mikey because he and his little brother are the closest age wise. And with such a close age gap between them they're guaranteed to get rough and snippy with one another.

It's the same with Leo and Raph who argue and bicker constantly with one another, because they're closer in the age range and are the two oldest children of the boys. It's also one of the reasons why it takes a lot more for Leo to get snippy with Donnie and Mikey and rough house with them because of that age gap.

But I can promise you my friend that even though they have their moments of being mean to one another they care very deeply for each other and if they do overstep a boundary and hurt one of their brothers they're very quick to try and make amends with one another and fix the issue. It's rather difficult to explain a siblings bond because it's just so complicated in a way.

Like me for example I'm the oldest of three children, and there was moments in my childhood where me and my siblings would bicker and rough house like it was nobody's business lol. But as we got older we grew out of it and got along better with one another. Plus the boys are teenagers and like many teenage boys they're gonna be rough and somewhat rude at times because that's just how boys are lol.

But I completely understand why it's a bit unsettling to see them argue and get rough with one another and why it'd somewhat sadden you and others to see. Also you should totally check out the other variations of the Tmnt franchise because they're also hella good and you'd have a fun time watching them!!!!!

[iwasborn4this]

tmnt idw comics (rant) (spoiler warning for this whole post)

for the record i am a new tmnt fan. rise was the first version i saw literally just last year. i started the 2012 show (i stopped on season 2 for no particular reason but plan on continuing it soon) and then recently picked up the idw comics after seeing a lot of people say it was the best iteration of the turtles. and what do you know i fucking loved it. i started the main series about a week ago and now i’m on issue 127. i should’ve been doing college work, but it was so good i couldn’t stop reading. i became obsessed.

however all good things must come to an end because it got kinda ?? bad ?? after issue 105. absolutely loved issues 1 through 105. the down time after issue 100 was definitely needed, and i totally appreciated the turtles getting time to grieve and break down and pick themselves back up during 101-105. but then the whole mutant town arc Really started and it felt like the tone of the whole comic shifted very drastically ??? i usually love when side characters get some attention for a bit but now it kinda feels like they’re getting too much attention. specially the kids, i don’t find the weasels very likable and i think lita should get just a bit less attention. specially did not like the decision to have big lita come from the future and Say Plot Points At Them (im also completely ignoring her comment about leo and koya of all people. what ??? who made this decision). and it’s been getting gradually worse from there. i’m currently on issue 127 like i said and it just feels like the comic has some downtime and then it never picked back up. commander zom literally died on issue 126 and i didn’t feel any type of way about it except “well that was underwhelming”. shredder astral projecting to whisper in people’s ears is kinda weird. what even happened !!! how did the quality of the story-telling change so drastically !!! i wish i was better at identifying what specifically i dislike, and better at articulating it and explaining myself but yeah.

about specific characters:

- what’s up with casey. he kinda sucks now. started sucking after the breakup i feel like. i don’t need april and casey to get back together or anything but i feel like his character started getting meh after that and now we never see him and when we do he’s…. uhhh

- leo and raph’s independent emotional arcs make sense, i just wish there was more going on like there used to be before. love mikey starting a radio show, more of that please (this ties back in with me wanting more of the conflict with the outside of mutant town as well). and is it just me or is donnie not doing much of anything rn ??

- jennika: i’ve seen a lot of people complain about her but i actually quite like her. i think it makes sense that she would get a lot of focus from the story right after her mutation, and that we get to see her struggling with being a mutant and splinter’s death as well. i also don’t dislike the idea of her having an older sister dynamic with the other turtles, i just hope the narrative doesn’t overstep her place in the story. like i hope the story doesn’t start treating her like she’s on the same level as the og 4, or that she’s actually their older sister or something. maybe later on but currently it doesn’t feel like she’s known them for that long or is close enough with them for the sister thing to really work. and as for the 5th turtle thing just in general i don’t think introducing more turtles in any iteration is inherently a bad idea, i just don’t think it can work if you try to put said 5th turtle on the same level as the other four. it just feels wrong. but anyway

well that was longer than i wanted it to be. if someone actually bothered to read this post let me know what you think!! also i’m not totally caught up yet, does the story pick up again during the armageddon game arc ??? looking forward to it if so. i've been reading only the main series so far (oops, i'll get around to the other stuff i promise) but once the armageddon game arc starts i'll definitely read all of the (armageddon game-related) material chronologically

[nerves-nebula]

OKAY HIII I'M BACK AND I BINGED A LOT MORE OF RISE TMNT AND YOOO??? I AM HERE TO GUSH ABOUT IT

SIDE NOTE BEFORE EVERYTHING I SAY THEY WENT SO FUCKIN HARD ON THE ANIMATION OMG IT IS STUNNING AMAZING SUPERB!!! HOW DOES IT LOOK SO GOOD AND AESTHETICS AND ?? I WANT TO CHEW DEVOUR BITE BITE ABSORB IT

(break down and thoughts and everything below.SORRY THAT ITS LONG I AMM. OBSESSED. THIS IS LIKE A WHOLE PAPER ON THEM SORRY BUT NOT FULLY SORRY BUT SORRY)

After the first half of the first season (? i am using a totally definitely legal sight that does each episode as 11 minutes and I'm on what it says is episode 38, if one actual episode is two of those 11 minute ones then I'm guessing I'm around episode 19?)

Maybe earlier than that BUT LIKE AFTER THEY SET UP THE WORLD THEY LIVE IN???? OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG HOW DID I NOT WATCH THIS EARLIER??

Raph is so cool Love him, like he's big and spiky and probably the softest in terms of open outwardly affection towards the group (he does the most group hugs I'm pretty sure? if not HEADCANNON that when they were little and any of them had a bad dream Raph got everyone into a little turtle pile and they could hug it out and feel safe)

Leo!!!!! I AM GETTING SOME OF THE GENDER VIBES!! So far his character feels the least dove into? Like Donnie has episodes where his character is a focus and so does Mikey and Raph to an extent but so far Leo feels more like part of a duo rather than fully solidifying his own persona (to me and I'm no where near done the show SO that most likely changes!) BUT ALSO that feels like it adds to his character in terms of I think he's the second oldest?

(I thought Donnie was the second oldest but hmmm if they're more like twins than the rest of the brothers then it kinda feels like they both tried to be the protective second oldest sibling and the second youngest at the same time and rapidly switch between each other, but like clash heads if both try to fill that role at the same time? MIGHT be head canon stuff at this point, but I need to watch more to find out. Leo DEF has something going on, like please Mx. can you reveal your hidden secret self that isn't based entirely on how we see you interact with others? like who do you think you are Leo...)

Mikey! What a fun guy, he's like. The same vibes as that "I'm just a little man, just a little man and it's my birthday. You wouldn't hurt a little birthday boy would you? on his very big special birthday day? I'm such a little guy why hurt me?". Head empty no thoughts, he's got the DVD screen saver (corner bouncer) playing on loop and probs the THX loud effect. I hope he gets more time to shine because he kinda feels like he swaps between being just for comedy and someone that wants to prove themself(which would then help them feel better about themself and improve their own self worth and stuff)

DONNIE!! MY GUY DONNIE!! HOW DID THEY MAKE A CHARACTER SO BITABLE. MY MAN IS AUTISM. HE IS MY AUTISM CREATURE. <- I thought his design was cool at first and then I saw him exist

Donnie is so character though like sorry to the rest of the turtles but Donnie is going to be my new blorbo, new little skrunkle that I'll probably project onto. He has all the issues and none of them. He has that "no one understands how my mind works and I must study other's and the world just to be partially accepted" vibes WHILE ALSO having "the world will adapt to me. If not through understanding, then my force" sorta vibes and ? the range! He's dynamic, he's wild, he probably orders the exact same thing at one specific restaurant if he's ordering for one.

APRIL!! YO SHE IS GREAT! I love how we learn more about her slowly like she's a character living her own life that happens to appear in this show, like I'd fully expect her to have a show on her own and her here is cross overs (compliment). So happy to see where they go next with her, I am like a cheer leader she can do no wrong. She could plan to kill me and I'd give her a thumbs up and say that she should believe in herself and her ability to cultivate her own life. SAD that the people at her school aren't nice, but I feel like that adds to the whole "oh the outsider must be lying about who they are if they act like someone else when not in school/[insert environment] vibes/story lines some things get into. Like we fully understand why she acts like that and get a more objective perspective of everything. She makes me feral in the sense that I want her to have the world (she also reminds me of my younger sister xD)

I also am so thrilled to see that NOT all or most of the main human cast is white. Like that's a huge think that sucks with western animation and honestly the first episode having the white guy be the first experiment and overall kinda dumb was so cathartic. Like yeah, ANYWAYS we don't need to get into my personal issues xD

All of the turtle brothers have obvious/noticeable behaviours impacted/caused/influenced by trauma and GROWLING SHAKING SCREAMING!!!1

Raph being alone omg. Splinter was probably an even worse father then and maybe not even a mutant yet??? And either Raph found the red thing and that's why splinter called him red or splinter grabbed the first thing and just colour coded him. The balll is probably his first friend and the fact that the football is vaguely turtle shell shape is giving me emotions.

Leo I feel like he always needs to prove himself because maybe he didn't have a lot of chances to be alone? He's the second oldest so idk how long there would've been between him and Donnie joining but I fully feel like when Raph realized he had a brother he tagged along with him everywhere and probably tried looking out for him more because he might've been (as a younger child) like "why is he smaller, is he okay? will he get hurt?". Leo my man are you okay you seem like you just compartmentalized everything :(

Mikey I think needed more attention and Splinter did very little so a lot of his earlier development would have been focused on getting all that important attention from his (not by that much) older brothers who ALSO were in that situation. He's got the vibes of someone that in years time (maybe few maybe a LOT of years) he'll be like "heyyy wait a minute do I use humor to cope with everything and heyyy are these things maybe not just fun little quirks?" <- neglected younger sibling vibes where he had to fight for attention where he never had time to ever figure out who he was outside of the four brother unit

DONNIE!! HE HAS SO MANY ISSUES!! Okay but the fact that he's low empathy is NOT one of them I will fight people on that. He is great and pretty relatable as someone who struggles with displaying emotions and voice inflections (I try, but when I first learned to speak I didn't realize you had to move your mouth into shapes a lot (I thought they were exaggerating just so I'd understand) so I'd be like 5 and doing ventriloquism instead of speaking properly.) <- this is one of the things I'm adding to my head canons for him. It's why he exaggerates a lot of his hand-when-speaking actions (and body movements) and apologizes for not having the right tone. Just quirky neurodivergent things :3 )

okay okay but seriously Donnie both somehow manages to be the clearest with how their childhood/life conditions negatively impacted him and also the least affected. I think it's compounded by even if he was human and not a mutant turtle, he still wouldn't be able to fit into the mould of a "normal" human, so as a mutant turtle he sticks out even more. Might've been something he struggled with until later because rn in the series it seems like he's embraced that a lot more, although still struggles. I could go on, but he fits my brain's vibes for "projection mode engaged" so yeah, babygirl

Donnie has autism and Mikey has adhd no questions asked. Raph is on the neurodivergent spectrum but in a less defined way (DEFINITELY HAS SEPARATION ANXIETY!!) and Leo is the token neurotypical that adopted neurodivergent behaviours and mindsets because that's what he grew up around. So he gets the same outsider feel of being different while coincidentally having his difference be that his brain is ""more normal"" <- heavy quotation marks.

uhhh final thoughts because I could ramble for days.. Splinter so far sucks I think that there's something really weird in the vibes of him purposefully raising all the turtle brothers in a way where the only times they got much validation/even just acknowledgement was through them obsessively watching all the films he was in. Like idk something about the vibes of him not telling them at ALL that that is him but heavily encouraging them to act out his movies in front of him gives off something weird.

SIDE RANT ABOUT THEIR COLOURS!! I AM SO INTRIGUED ABOUT THIS ELEMENT

Also like Splinter calls them by colours which he probably colour coded them all just to tell them apart (maybe why they always wear the masks? Because that's the only way they felt external validation of their lives and existence that wasn't just through the four of them??)

He might've did red first because we see him wear a lot of red, and blue is the stereotypical opposite of red so it makes sense to choose that second. Red vs Blue stereotype, etc etc. Maybe why Leo is competitive too? Because he felt his first experiences were being compared to Raph?

It's interesting that Donnie got purple because that's a mix of red and blue, so maybe Splinter wanted to give them some sort of cohesive theme at that point? Like a sliding scale of colours? Maybe it started because Raph and Leo both gave Donnie some purple, idk tho.

Purple is heavily used to either represent (evil) tech or just Donnie and Donnie has the most attachment to the colour so there's definitely something going on there.

Maybe Splinter didn't even realize there was a third turtle kid until Raph and Leo found a way to get Splinter to recognize there was a difference at all (maybe why Donnie in particular strives so much for acknowledgement by Splinter? Because his earliest life was defined by being mistaken for other people?

Mikey being Orange feels like Splinter gave up and didn't want to go with yellow (the more obvious choice as it's a primary colour, kinda surprised Donnie didn't get assigned yellow) and maybe did the same thing with Raph where he just took some spare material (he wears a lot of gold and orange in hems and whatnot) and just plopped that on Mikey.

Kinda shows how Mikey is separated by the rest by being born the youngest, they might've had some sort of living routine set up before he was there and he didn't have much say in how it adapted? Like Leo and Raph are opposites or could've been intended as opposites by Splinter, and with Donnie being so close to the same age as Leo (but his soft shell making him more prone to injury and therefore requiring both Raph's and Leo's protection) he fit into the middle but still closer to Leo (<- Donnie thought of himself as the middle child between them three for sure, but both Leo and Raph think of him as the youngest out of the three).

Mikey being orange shows that's he's kinda excluded from the twins thing that Leo and Donnie have, and might be closer to Raph because of that. After all Mikey and Raph are the only ones with masks on the warm side of the colour wheel (also adding that Mikey is a combination of red and yellow, with yellow not symbolizing anything so maybe that's adding to Mikey's vibes of being an outsider/different/unique?

He's loud in all the different ways that Donnie is (which was probably worse earlier than it is now currently in the show) and struggles with focusing his attention and thoughts where Donnie struggles with the opposite. Both Leo and Donnie saw themselves as middle siblings and treat may tried to treat Mikey similar to how they treated each other (in terms of "this is how I know how to interact with younger siblings and you are younger so this is right, right?" sorta way)

Raph would've had the experience of having two fairly different younger siblings, so he adapted more easily to the personal needs of Mikey as a younger brother? Like he unlocked his emotional intelligence earlier and could recognize (possibly comparing their behaviour to Leo?) that both Donnie and Mikey are different (more obviously neurodivergent, both probably would've been special needs kids).

Plus Donnie would be struggling more with his low empathy, perhaps not recognizing it at all and being constantly confused about others, further pushing him into the younger sibling role for both Raph and Leo because they might see that as him "struggling with something basic" (heavy quotation marks)?

Which would make Mikey (who is a fairly emotions driven person) and Donnie have difficulties communicating/Donnie having difficulties being a decent older brother. And Leo being worried and distracted by Donnie having a soft shell and maybe falling into the trap of "hey Mikey's shell is hard like Raph's and Mine so he's probably going to be okay, not like this bozo over here".

ANYWAYS I AM FERAL OVER THIS THE COLOUR SYMBOLISM AND HOW IT COULD REFLECT THEIR RELATIONSHIPS WITH EACH OTHER AND DYNAMICS BUT ALSO SHOWING HOW THEY WERE TREATED (as creatures to be colour coded rather than named and raised) IS OUGOUHGOUGUHGOU !!1 <- howling

FINAL NOTE: I keep thinking about how Donnie might have first gotten into science by testing which materials could help make him less "weak" (cover up the soft shell) and how his soft-shell-only years could have been defined as him being the "official most fragile" brother. And how finding a way to mimic a hard shell would be what he needed to officially be more equal to the rest of the brothers, and how he might've fallen in love with science then but it's intrinsically tied to his self worth and need to prove that he can pull his own weight/be helpful enough to stick around and be treated as an equal. And how his science experiments might have been what got him some of Splinter's earliest acknowledgements and AAAAA

Like maybe before he was "the purple one" he was "the soft shelled one" or "the weakest one" or (more extreme) the "defective turtle" (because turtles are known for having hard shells, so why didn't he?). And how he leans into the purple so much is because he's trying to erase that feeling of being defined as not a name or not even a colour, but by how "weak" he was, and his intelligence could be some level of survival mechanism to not be stuck in a loop of negativity towards himself and be an equal in an already extremely small world where his existence itself is "a crime against nature" so to speak.

He will be loud about being the purple one because he'd even give up being the smart one because he would much rather be defined as even a singular colour than just "the defective one". That's why he'll make bad(?) choices if it's got something to do with the colour purple, because unlike the rest he wasn't even dignified a colour when he was young and feels like he has to fight for it or earn it, to some level.

<- I am so normal about him I swear I swear I'm not biting him like a dog and rapidly shaking him like a chew toy. I am so normal about him your honour

A LOT of this is based on where I am in the show now and my educated guesses on what I know about the characters and what I've watched and YEAH I could be completely wrong about their early lives maybe they like, all fell out of a tube one by one and the "big time difference" between their ages is like, minutes vs seconds lol. Maybe it's entirely head canons maybe I've done analysis. BUT YEAH ANYWAYS THOSE ARE MY THOUGHTS THANSK FOR READING IF YOU DO GET THIS FAR, I AM SO FERAL ABOUT THIS SHOW AND I AM BLAMING YOU (compliment, positive, cheering in the distance)

IM Always happy to make someone feral about my favorite Media.

There’s wayyy to much here to really respond to but I basically agree with most of the stuff you’ve said. (and the only stuff you've got wrong you only got wrong cause you havent finished the show lol)

The thing about the colors is that Red, Blue, Orange, and Purple are already the TMNT colors and there’s no way you could get away with changing them in a new reboot without people getting mad, I think hhahfadsf. THAT BEING SAID I think your analysis of their colors is still very fitting and cool and interesting, even if the out-of-universe reason they are that way is cuz that’s how they’ve always been.

NO SPOILERS but later on Donnie has an ep that basically confirms his tech and self worth are connected and idk if you know this, but Donnie and Mikey canoncially have autism/adhd. 

I LOVEEED reading ur thoughts on the characters and their minds and im SO GLAD you like it ahsdfasdf

[blazichu]

I wasn’t sure if you were asked this. Since Donnie is your favorite turtle and this for 03 what’s your opinion on raph?

Okay, I'm sorry that it took me quite a while to get around to this, anon; things came up, and I hope you understand.

I think 2003 Raph is great! He has a lot of depth to him, and you can see his personality come out in really interesting ways when you might not expect it on the surface. While I'm no big fan of Leo-Raph conflicts, I do think there are times it's put to really good use in general, and that the writers do both of them justice. City at War is a really great example of this, where you can see both sides of the argument. Raph's stance on the gang war is a really fascinating contrast to some of his counterparts-- I'm thinking specifically about 2007 Raph/Nightwatcher-- and says a lot about him as an individual. The episodes dealing with Leo's PTSD in s4 may not be my favorites, but I also think having Raph empathize with Leo's behavior during that span of time was a really excellent decision, and it plays a really nice contrast to the fact that they were clashing earlier in that same character arc. (It also meshes with their dynamic in both Tales of Leo and the Green Man, which is nice to see seasons after the fact.)

Obviously I love seeing him interact with Don, but we don't get a ton of that on screen. I do think their personalities mesh in a really great way, and it would have been nice to see more, but at least we have H.A.T.E. Even though it's never spelled out, it really does come across that Raph's protective streak is in full swing where Donnie in particular is concerned; Bad Day might be the most interesting example of this, where Don feels like what's happened is his fault, and Raph is trying to tell him it's not. (I'm also the person who said that Don probably sided with Raph in City at War, since it looked like he was getting up to leave with him just before Karai entered the picture.)

In spite of theirs being a fairly early conflict, I don't really have a lot to say about Raph and Mikey. I'm glad that the series didn't belabor that side of things between them, but it was definitely an important character moment for Raph, allowing him to grow from there on out. Their interactions in The Big Brawl paint an interesting picture of their relationship after the fact-- that some of the frustration is still there, and can be exploited-- and given Mikey's behavior where the tournament is concerned, I can understand why the writers chose to play Grudge Match off the way they did. That episode wasn't my favorite characterization choice on anyone's parts, but the idea that Raph, Don and Splinter are just hanging out together off screen is really funny to me.

2k3 just did fantastic character work with all of the leads, and Raph is no exception.