#This isn't me saying that Donnie and Mikey never has the brain cell

[ilk-insolence]

Raph and Leo Analysis: Hot Potato BrainCell

Thinking about it, Bug Busters and Jupiter Jim Ahoy! were parallel situations for Leo and Raph. They were the only brother that voiced concerns about following a charming but suspicious stranger into their headquarters, were both ignored, and ultimately proven correct for their wariness and had to go rescue their family. What’s even more ironic was that their concerns were blown off specifically by each other in those episodes.

Obviously, this was a result of Raph and Leo being well-written complex characters with amazing contradictions (and the differing variables), but I wanted to understand the specific mechanics and rules behind their game of hot potato with the brain cell.

(long post!)

A pattern that I’ve come to see looking at different moments of “common sense” for Leo is that they’re all instances of him being worried for the safety of his loved ones. The most well known examples, found in this post that the majority of the fandom has seen (therefore I can avoid rehashing them all), are all Leo just trying to keep his family safe. Some additional moments are when Leo asks if sticking Splinter in a plastic ball is cruel or not in Down With the Sickness [15:51], him being the only one worried about the by Albeartos in Al Be Back [16:11], and when Leo remarked that it’s kind of messed up to use Donnie’s game addiction against him in The Purple Game [18:00]. Occasionally, Leo’s concerns even spread to people he didn’t know, like with Bullhop in Bug Busters, and when he asked April if she still had the orb holding the people of New York in Finale Part 3: Anatawa Hitorijinai [6:35]. Outside of that, Leo has the exact same batshit, reckless decision making skills as the rest of his brothers. (Should I even list examples--?) Air Turtle (bought the obviously demonic bridge), Clothes Don’t Make The Turtle (he pushed all his brothers into a pit without a plan because he was so excited), Bad Hair Day (agreed to grow hair to get into a discriminatory retreat instead of, I don’t know--getting a wig), The Evil League of Mutants (willingly went to New Jersey), Flushed But Never Forgotten (tried to replace his brothers with googly eyed rocks), and so forth. Leo being reasonable is Leo being worried, displaying a level of understanding and tact that the rest of his brothers kinda skip over. His common sense is from his protectiveness and care.

However, there are times where Leo’s common sense/worry gets pushed to the side when Leo pursues an agenda. Pizza Puffs, Minotaur Maze, and The Gumbus are some examples. It’s also what happened in Jupiter Jim Ahoy!, where Leo dismissed Raph’s desire to leave Moncrief’s house because he wanted to hang out with one of his favorite movie star heroes (and avoid Splinter). Even though Leo is shown to have a healthy sense of stranger danger, his worry was overridden by the allure of a real life Jupiter Jim.

Raph’s general good sense is similarly powered by his love and worry for his family. However it’s also powered by responsibility; not only as the oldest brother, but as a hero to New York City. Out of the rest of his brothers, it’s clear Raph is the most dedicated to the duty of protecting people. It’s why situations like Pizza Puffs (the mission chart), and The Longest Fight occur. It’s also why he’s the one that repeatedly gets his brothers to focus on the fight, like in the hypnosis in Clothes Don’t Make a Turtle [15:32]. However, being responsible and worried isn’t exactly the same thing as making reasonable decisions. Raph’s dedication to hero work can sometimes turn on him, make him too excitable to make sensible choices. It’s why he was chill with going after the spine-breaking/mangling bad guys for the Mad Dogs’ first mission, or create the whole FAB situation in Stuck On You, or immediately begin fighting the Foot Clan in Mystic Library [6:32], or why his solution to The Mutant Menace problem was to go outside and “‘smack people in the face with good deeds!’” [12:22]. Raph’s eagerness to being a hero can occasionally push him to behave rashly. (Kind of like his anger.) This is what happened in Bug Busters, where Raph got so swept up with the concept of catching the oozequitoes, of Big Mama’s help assisting him to do better hero work, that he completely dismissed Leo’s concerns surrounding Big Mama’s motives [7:45]. Admittedly, Leo’s suspicions is also due to him just being better at reading people, but Raph’s complete dismissal of his concerns shows that he was being stubborn around the subject too. Conversely, in Jupiter Jim Ahoy! Raph’s protectiveness over his brothers was greater than his love for Jupiter Jim, which fell in line with his responsible nature as the big brother, making him be the reasonable brother for that episode.

And that’s how A-team played hot potato with the brain cell.

oh god I didn't even touch on the movie at all wow.

[shantechni]

"2012 Mikey is Abused" and other constant complaints that, quite frankly, don't make sense

Since one Reddit user (who shall remain anonymous) inadvertently made me type out an essay I intended to write and post in a more coherent manner at a later date, I will be using their comment and my response.

Anyways, the comment itself starts off fairly normal and agreeable:

But then I see the next three points and my sleep-deprived mind just goes off the rails, so let's start with the second point:

Let me preface this by saying I absolutely do not condone the writing here because everyone under the sun will agree that we could've easily had the "Karai is our sister!?" plot twist without Leo and Karai briefly developing feelings for each other.

The problem is that this brief development of feelings is wildly blown out of proportion by the fandom, so much so that it makes it seem as though Leo and Karai actually had anything legitimate going on between them.

The "incest-eqsue garbage" between Leo and Karai is almost nonexistent outside of the writing room. They openly crush on each other for a whopping six episodes by way of verbally teasing each other and being at odds before Karai tells Leo that she's the Shredder's daughter. That's it. He is not pursuing her after that (hardly ever did, not even to the extent that Donnie pursues April) and Karai isn't remotely fond of him anymore after he broke their deal. Then, after we find out alongside Splinter that she's actually his daughter, he tells Leo towards the end of Follow the Leader. We don't get a reaction, actually nothing on Leo's side since the Foot Clan is mostly absent with April being the main point of conflict, even in Target: April O'Neil because April's forgiveness of the turtles is the main focus.

Leo eventually attempts to tell Karai the truth in Wormquake! and The Manhattan Project and she obviously doesn't believe the poor guy, she just wants to kill the turtles and Splinter at this point. Leo doesn't tell her because "he still likes her", but because, in his own words, it would change everything. She deserves to know the truth and Splinter shouldn't have his own daughter cursing him at every waking moment. When she tricks the gang into bringing her to the lair under the guise of her finally accepting the truth, Leo is ecstatic and his first thought is for her and Splinter to make amends. He's upset that Raph still can't fully trust her in the end when she fought alongside them (who can blame Raph though, he's cradling an unconscious brother after a plan gone awry), and that's the end of that.

They dedicate two episodes to the guys attempting to rescue her because Leo has enough brain cells to worry about what the Shredder could be doing with her, and Raph makes a jab at Leo on one instance when they find her (there is absolutely no romantic undertone, Raph just picks at his old crush on her and their tendency to tease each other at the worst times). Then, when she wants to get back at the Shredder for ripping her away from a life she never knew was her's, Leo attempts to aid her because he knows it isn't wise to face someone like that alone, especially with his henchmen there.

There's one last self-aware jab at their past feelings in S5, of which Karai awkwardly remembers and forgoes mentioning, and that's the last you see or hear of that.

As much as I dislike it, I'd take this narrative over the Donnie-April-Casey hurricane any day.

It seems that 2012 Mikey's mere existence is a sore spot for fans because Jesus Christ this gets brought up way too much.

Mikey is not written as a complete idiot, he's written as someone who doesn't see a reason to take everything so seriously, has odd habits, and doesn't always think things through, yet is shown to be highly capable and intelligent when the situation calls for it. Yes the writers left much to be desired at times, but to say they wrote him to be a "complete idiot" and left it at that is just offensive. I'll ignore all the miraculous things Mikey can do with Kraang stuff and Dimension X and focus on what other things he's shown to be capable of.

Mikey was a temporary learning model for Donnie in how to fight without thinking, or in better terms, how to fight instinctually without becoming bogged down by your own mind. Splinter's lesson is shown in a comedic manner, but that's ultimately what helped Donnie defeat Falco.

Another interesting thing is his ability to keep his composure when no one else around him can do so. I mentioned this briefly in another post, but it really stands out to me how he put Leo at the top of his priority list in Invasion Part 2. He's as worried for Splinter as Raph and Donnie are, but they have with them a crippled and unconcious Leo who needs medical attention asap, compared to martial arts master Splinter who's older and wiser than the three of them combined at times. Even when they eventually find Splinter and lose him, he keeps the gang in line by reminding them, as well as himself, that Splinter can take care of himself.

Along with that is when Splinter was kidnapped in The Manhattan Project. Mikey was quick to intervene when Raph was angry with Leo for allowing Tiger Claw to coax him into calling Splinter, and he reminded the two of the problem at hand: they have Splinter, let's go find him and take him back. There are so many other moments when he becomes the levelheaded one in response to the chaos or disorder surrounding him.

Mikey is a highly skilled fighter, he's emotionally intelligent, he remembers the weirdest things that eventually aid the team, he's street smart, he's a fast learner (ex: Bradford's secret kata, as well as the temporary use of the plasma katana in Target: April O'Neil), he's great at distracting enemies without needing to become bait, he gets insecure about things, he has photographic memory, he's the most outgoing of his brothers and therefore ends up with the most friends, he's quick to adapt to a situation and think of a plan, he can throw together seemingly random ingredients to create exactly what Donnie would struggle to create, he knew exactly what to do to find Casey after his run-in with Tiger Claw, the list goes on.

Heck, just to add to this, Mikey is the one who saves the day in three separate stories in S5. 1) His temporary electric powers save the world from Dregg and the Newtralizer, 2) he convinced Frankenstein's monster to join their side, retrieved the scepter from Savanti and Dracula (he accidentally broke the scepter while he was at it, but that helped) and cured Raph and Donnie of their vampirism, and 3) he was the one who repaired Kavaxas' seal and made him reopen the portal to the Netherworld so the dead could return.

The brothers don't always take him as seriously as they should or listen to him, and that's understandable at times, but when they do, they're reminded of the fact that Mikey, in his own way, is intelligent.

If I had a dime for every comment I've seen about this, I'd be rich enough to buy the TMNT series from Viacom and right every wrong they made with the 2012 series.

These abuse allegations are as bad as people putting Markiplier in the same tweet as problematic Youtubers and saying something wild like, "these content creators should've been cancelled a long time ago." I feel like people who say the brothers abuse Mikey are either an only child or genuinely have a warped sense for what actually counts as abuse, and I'm not even trying to be mean, those are just my thoughts. I shouldn't even have to comment on this, but the fact that people are still seriously believing that to this day is shocking.

Would you also like to say that Raph was abused in Turtle Temper when Splinter had the boys ceaselessly taunt him in that little exercise? Or that the boys abused Raph everytime they downplayed his anger? Or that Raph abused Donnie by threatening to hit him if he didn't find Snakeweed's hideout? Or that Leo abused Donnie everytime he stressed him out by rushing him for answers? Or that Donnie abused Mikey because Mikey flinched 2cm to the right when Donnie raised his hand to playfully knock at his noggin? Or that Leo was abused by the team because they took forever to view him as their leader? Or that Splinter abused the boys because he was "too rough" on them during training?? Or that April abused Donnie because she "constantly led him on"? Or that Xever and Bradford abused Baxter???

I'm losing my mind over here

Mikey is never physically or emotionally abused by his brothers, the show speaks for itself. But if you somehow aren't listening, go look up a textbook example of abuse, or better yet, look at Karai.

Abuse is the Shredder locking Karai in a dungeon when she tries to escape to her real family and going so far to become a peak manipulator by saying Karai was hurting him by making him lock her away. Worse than that, he starts brainwashing her with mind controlling worms so she has no choice but to obey him. Even before then, he's lowkey uncaring of her wellbeing: he treats her like any other soldier of his and doesn't listen to her when she tries to tell him something. He doesn't address her concerns about the Foot bots nearly finishing her off, instead telling her, "disobedience comes with a stiff penalty, especially for my daughter," when she objects to him telling her not to take action against the turtles while he's gone.

He only ever pays her any attention or gives her praise when it benefits him and his vendetta against Splinter.

Splinter and the turtles are the farthest thing from the image of a family filled with abusers. Raph openly apologizes to Mikey when Splinter tells him to stop picking at him in Shellacne, Raph comforts Donnie when the brainiac is somber after forcing Timothy into the equivalent of a cold sleep, Raph apologizes when his anger gets the better of him and he hits Leo harder than intended, Donnie apologizes when he realizes he shouldn't insult Raph when the guy is visibly upset, Leo regrets doubting Donnie about Metalhead, etc., etc.

Even beyond apologies, Raph is the quickest to entertain Mikey and vice versa during a mundane moment, Donnie never kicks Mikey out of the lab, Leo plays around with Mikey when the situation doesn't call for him to be their fearless leader, and Splinter is quick to advise Mikey during Karai's Vendetta and Shellacne. There are even times when the guys just go along with Mikey's antics because there's no harm in doing so, and often times Mikey needs a moment to be silly.

If you think play fighting, teasing, or getting a little physical with a sibling is the equivalent of abuse, particularly in the context of TMNT of all things, you need to do some re-evaluation.