#he's the same age as Mikey from season one.

[somerandomdudelmao]

how old is casey in these comics?

I'm not really sure.

How old is he at the time of the events of the movie? 16? 17? I don't know, he looks 17 to me.

And my comic takes place a few years before the movie, so I think he's about 14? Maybe 13? Something like that

[astermath]

nemesis; part two.

pairing: carmen berzatto x fem!reader

summary: with carmen reworking the restaurant, you’d think his mind would be far too occupied to even think about anything else. yet he can’t shake the guilt from what he’d put you through a month prior. after some talks in therapy, he decides to take a leap of faith and see if he can talk it out with you. he not only wants to convince you that he can be better, but he's got an offer for you too. one you truly can't refuse.

♡ landing page ♡

word count: 4.9K

tags: carmen being unsure about his feelings but trying to be better episode 3265742, letting reader in a little more, APOLOGIES!!!, cursing ig, carm goes to therapy yippee, syd being the absolute realest, regular font below!

notes: sorry this took literally forever omg, I lost my carmen muse for a bit but we are SO back baby. I missed him so much and so sorry if some things don't follow the canon completely (I've been watching season 2 on and off bc I've been so busy lol BUT my fics never follow the canon completely anyways),, hope u guys enjoy and let me know if you'd like a part three ;))

lmk if you'd like to be added to the tag list for further carmen berzatto related content! comments and reblogs are highly appreciated!

Carmen’s life hadn’t known a moment of mental rest in ages. If you asked him when he last sat down with his thoughts or acknowledged his mental anguish, he probably would have said he couldn’t remember the last time. If ever.

With plans to completely revamp The Beef and everything that came with it, now his feelings should be the last thing on his mind. Renovation plans, unforeseen costs and a completely new menu, sure, he could worry his ass off about those, but feelings? Absolutely not. Good thing he was usually so good at suppressing those anyways.

So why was it that he couldn’t shake the thought of what he did to you?

Why, every time he had a moment to himself, would he be overtaken by this intense feeling of guilt? He didn’t even have to be alone, just a second of quiet and the image of you crying in distress would intrude on his thoughts.

It was getting to a point where he’d told his sister, Natalie, about it. Well, not all of it, he wasn’t even sure if he knew all of it. Just that he knows he hurt you, and that coming to terms with what he projected onto you might be a good first step in understanding himself better.

Or maybe it was something more along the lines of “I gotta talk my shit to some people”. Probably that.

To his surprise, it was actually helping. Besides the group therapy sessions where he’d talk about Mikey, the business and his future, he was talking to other people in his life too. Even told Sydney about you, kind of on accident. The words just seemed to… Flow out. It was probably the exhaustion doing its thing.

“I guess I just felt like,” he kept his eyes on the floor he was sweeping, “she was doing it all to fuck with me. I don’t even know where I got the sick idea that she had some obsession over me, but it— it drove me at the same time. It’s like her being on my heels at every aspect of culinary school just made me want to try even harder.”

“Maybe you painted her in that light because you knew it was a good way to keep pushing yourself.” Sydney spoke almost absentmindedly, sweeping the other side of the room. She listened to everything he said in the meantime, and though what he was telling her was a bit worrying, she was glad they got to have talks like this. Carmen often doesn’t like to bring up his past like that.

“Huh,” he paused sweeping for a moment, “yeah… yeah, maybe. Or maybe it was something else.”

Sydney wasn’t even sure he knew what he was referring to. It sounded like something entirely different, like a crush, but what kind of person treats their crushes like that?

Probably an overworked, pressured, overachieving culinary student with a dangerous need for validation. But she wasn’t about to tell him that.

“So yeah, I visited her restaurant, and… It just felt the exact same as back in New York, you know? Like she was rubbing it in my face again, and— and I know that sounds insane, or conceited, but I just can’t let it go. It’s like the thought of her is stuck to my brain like a stubborn piece of gum.” He wanted to smack himself for that stupid analogy, but what was said was said.

“So how’d you handle it?” Sydney’s head perked up, some of her braids now draping over her shoulders.

“Handle what?” Carmen became more and more uneasy the more he talked about you. Like his chest was tight, it was uncomfortable, but not in the way he was when the health inspection came by, it was different. Weirder. Unfamiliar. He didn’t like it, because he didn’t understand it.

“The talk with her.” She emptied the last bit of dust into the trash bag.

“Oh,” his mind took him back to the parking lot a month ago. The way he could almost taste the tears of your skin from how close he stood, he could hear the shakiness of your breath and the profound desperation in your voice when you apologized to him, when you really had no reason to.

If it was still so clear in his mind, then what must it be like for you?

“Carmen?” Sydney snapped him out of his oncoming train of thought.

“Yeah? Sorry, I— Uh, I don’t know it was…” He runs a hand through his hair, suddenly finding it in his best interest to look anywhere else but her face. “Bad. It was— It was bad.” He looks a bit shameful when he meets her eyes. “I fucked up. I like, went all New York boss on her. And then I just… Left.”

His colleague just stares at him for a moment. She knew what he was like when he snapped like that, but that was with his staff, people he liked. So how badly did he snap on you, a person he’d been resenting for years?

“I’m gonna go take out this trash, and uh… Head home.” She lifts the grey plastic bag she was holding. “But uh, Carm?”

“Yeah?”

“You got issues, man.” She has a bit of an awkward smile on her face, but he knows she means it. He knows she’s right. She usually is.

He nods, silently, letting her words sink in. He did have issues, everyone knew that, but most people didn’t just say it. That’s why he liked Sydney, she was so real, so honest. She was so good for the business, for the kitchen. And maybe her saying that to him was all part of grounding him in the reality of it all. Of his issues, just that they existed.

“Heard.” he says. His voice comes out raspier than he expected, like he’s struggling to say it.

“Goodnight, chef.”

“Night.”

He’d thought about what Sydney said the entire night. He does have issues, he knows that, he’s just mad at himself for letting everything get this far before seeking help. It scares him. Because it reminds him too much of Mikey. Or what he heard about him when things got bad.

He doesn’t want to make the same mistakes his brother did. Lock people out of his life just because it seems easier, because it’s better to minimize the damage than to figure out why you’re doing damage at all. And yes it’s uncomfortable, yes it’s scary, terrifying even. But he keeps being reminded of how it must feel for you.

It’s something he’d never considered before. He always thought he had you all figured out, all fake smiles and backhanded compliments to distract him. It never occurred to him to just… Ask. It was always just easier to assume. It fit his view of you and it kept him going, even if it was at the expense of ever getting to know you at all.

He’s hoping he can change that with a few text messages and a long, probably uncomfortable, talk over coffee. Just hoping, trying, that’s really all he can do. He’s well aware of how bad he is at communicating, but he has to give it a shot. For you, at least.

He stares at his phone screen for far longer than is necessary, continuously rereading the messages he’d typed. His eyes keep flicking to your contact, making sure he sent it to the right person. The only thing you two had texted about before was a time and place for him to try your new restaurant. His heart aches at the exclamation points and emojis you’d sent; you were so excited, and he drove all that excitement straight into the ground.

He closes his eyes and shuts off the phone. His chest hurts, like he’s been holding his breath the entire time. Maybe he has. You could have that effect on him, making it harder to breathe. He always wondered why he had such nervous reactions around you specifically. He always figured it had to do with your one sided rivalry, but it feels… Different. More complex.

Your eyes are finally peeled off your computer screen when numerous phone notifications alarm you. Truth be told, you’ve been trying your best to keep yourself occupied as much as possible. That usually helps when you get waves of emotions like this, keeping busy, distracting your mind from overthinking.

Ever since your last encounter with Carmen, you’ve been so on edge. Always trying to do something, anything, so you wouldn’t have to think about what happened, why he acted like that to you. Because you know if you did, you’d just start blaming yourself again, and you’d be back to square one.

Your eyebrows raise at the name of the contact. You were sure he’d blocked you, or at least deleted your number after last time. He was avoidant like that, and frankly, you weren’t sure if you wanted him to talk to you again after that anyways. Maybe it was just to drive the point home, make you feel even more worthless.

Still, you were curious. Even if it was just to cuss you out even more, at least you knew what to expect, right?

[carmen]: hey, I really want to talk to you about what happened last time.

[carmen]: well

[carmen]: I want to apologise

[carmen]: but I can’t do that like this

[carmen]: I’d much rather do it in person

[carmen]: if you’d let me

[carmen]: meet me at odette’s tomorrow around 10? coffee’s on me, I just want to talk

[carmen]: please

The last message was sent minutes later than the rest, while you were reading them. He was desperate for an answer, and though you wanted to hear him out, to talk to him, something in you felt off about the whole thing. Like he was just doing this to clear off his own guilt, only to then ditch you just like he ditched you after culinary school. Because you’re rivals, apparently. That’s what you do.

But then there’s something else in you too. The part that’s still nostalgic about New York with him. About the glances back and forth when you were timed on preparing certain things, about the way he’d stare at you when you got feedback, the ignorant bliss you lived in. When you still believed he might have liked you just a little.

That part of you takes the upper hand when you reply and take his offer. Your heart is in your throat, nerves overtaking you already and you weren’t even with him yet. He had that effect on you sometimes, making it harder to breathe.

You wondered what that meant.

Carmen sits alone at a booth, all the way at the back of the café he’d chosen. It’s rather quiet, as most Mondays are, yet at the same time, it’s so loud. Loud in the way he hears the clinking of every spoon against porcelain cups, the crinkling of a napkin and the not so subtle ticking of the clock above the entrance. 10:06. You were late.

Suddenly he's filled with more regret than he's ever felt before. He's not ready to see you again, only to be reminded of how he made you cry, and of his own tumultuous emotions and shortcomings that lead to this moment. It's surprising how fast the emotions he associates with you changed; he's not angry anymore, he's scared, guilty, nervous. He wants to see you so bad and yet he feels like you'd be better off never talking to him again.

It's too late to make a run for it when you finally walk through the door. Hair a little damp from the rain, just a bit disheveled from what he could only assume to be rushing over to the café. And that same angelic smile you offer to the barista that greets you, the same one you'd offer him every morning, whether he looked at you or not.

He had no choice but to look now.

Your smile falters into something more nervous, a little melancholic, when your eyes meet his across the café. Though you knew he was going to be there, something in you feels surprised to see him again. Maybe it’s because he isn’t yelling at you or throwing insults at your head this time. Or maybe because he’s actually looking you in the eye. Since when did he get so good at that?

You sit down across him, taking off your coat and putting your bag besides you.

“Hey.” You smile again, much more awkward this time.

“Hey.” He returns the same thin lipped smile.

It’s quiet for a few seconds. Carmen swears the whole café has gone silent in that moment, leaving the two of you to listen to the sound of your own breathing and heartrate picking up. You’re not sure where to look, not being used to being in such an intimate setting with him.

“Do you want a coffee?”

“Sorry I was late.”

You both talk over each other, and the urge to chuckle about it overtakes you. Carmen can’t help but smile as well. You seem nervous, and somehow that puts him a little more at ease. Like he’s not the only one who’s in their head about it.

“Sorry, I, uhm, yeah— I would like a coffee.” You scramble over your words. “Please.”

“Sure,” he nods, “and no worries.”

“Hm?”

“That you were late. I haven’t been here that long either.” He lied. He’d been there half an hour early, cursing himself for letting him sit along with his thoughts for that long and psyching himself out into almost leaving.

You both order and another heavy silence sits between you two. You both know why you’re there, what needs to be talked about. Yet neither of you know how to bring it up.

You’ve lived most of your lives believing this version of each other you had in your minds. Because it kept you grounded. Because it was easier. He never let you in and for the longest time, you were at peace with that. You could have a slightly distant view of who he was, your classmate, your rival. And he could do the same. Keep you out, pretend you were there to keep him on his toes, to always try to outdo him.

Those facades of each other don’t work anymore. The real world has forced you to reconcile with each other, whether you liked it or not.

Your coffee gets brought to your table, and both of you feel this urgency to say something, anything, at least.

“The pastries here are good too, if you want to get one.” He finally broke the awkward silence. He can start with talking about food, something he knows. If all else fails, resort back to that.

“I haven’t tried a pastry besides my own in a long time. Maybe I could learn a thing or two here.” You admit. He knows that feeling. He’s not nearly as adventurous with his food choices as he wants to be, but as a busy chef on the brink of a new entrepreneurship, it’s usually beef sandwiches and frozen meals.

“I think yours were better though.” He takes a sip of his coffee.

“Huh?” You look up, realizing you were avoiding eye contact by staring into your cup.

“The danish I tried at your place. It was fire.”

“Oh. Right. Thank you, we make everything from scratch.”

“I could tell.” He takes another sip. “I guess I— I kinda forgot to tell you that. In the heat of it all.” He huffs to himself. “Food was so good it made me upset.”

“Upset?” His word use frustrates you. Upset is when they forget to give you your sauce with your order. What happened back there was not upset. That was rage. Wrath. You raise an eyebrow and he realizes he said something wrong.

“Well, more than upset. Listen, I— We need to talk about what happened.” His blue eyes peer into your own. They’re almost distracting enough to avoid you noticing his fidgeting hands.

“I’m listening.” You lean back slightly in your seat. You’d played nice with Carmen all your life, given him every chance to return it. Now it was his turn to try.

"Right." Of course he has to talk. It's his fault, isn't it? He's the one who snapped-- why did he even imply you'd have to explain yourself? He runs a hand through his hair, and there he goes again, eyes darting across the café to find something to focus on as he sought out the right words. You'd almost find it endearing, how bad he is at this, if it wasn't so important to you.

"You don't do this often, do you?"

"What, like-- meeting up for coffee?"

"Talking about stuff. Your feelings and shit." You hid your slightly amused smile behind your coffee cup before taking a small sip.

"Oh. Yeah, no, I-- I don't. Not until recently." He takes a deep breath. Just like they had told him to. “I’ve been going to this therapy thing my sister recommended. S’not much, but… It’s a start. Talked about the restaurant, my brother—“

“Your brother?” Your eyebrows raise slightly.

“Yeah, my— my brother. Mikey.” He looks a bit surprised. He’s come to the shattering realization that he’s never told you anything about his personal life, ever. You don’t even know about one of the most important people in his life, his main drive. You’ve known each other for so long yet you know so little. “I never told you about him?”

“You never told me anything.” You answer curtly. “We never really… Talked, you know?”

“Yeah— yeah, you’re right. I just thought… Wow.” He smiles, more out of shock than anything. He feels so stupid. How immature is it to be feuding this much with a person who doesn’t know anything about you?

“I guess I really don’t know much about you either.” His fingers rake through his messy curls again. “Makes me feel like even more of an idiot for going off on you like that. Like I had you all figured out.”

“Yeah, that was uh... That was something." The mood shifts a little. His smile fades as soon as he sees the melancholy in your eyes return. Of course it wouldn't be that easy for you to forgive him, to feel better about all this. "You know, I never knew you thought of me like that." A small smile graces your features. Somehow it's sadder than the expression you had before.

"I mean, I knew you didn't like me. I was pretty much at peace with the fact that you were never going to like me, either. But I never thought you hated me that much." You sniffle, trying your hardest to blink away any oncoming tears. "Like your life, your entire career, would have been easier without me there at all."

His heart aches at the sight of you, all teary eyed and trying to be brave. You're much braver than him. Sadness is a much harder thing to express than anger. He's starting to figure that out more and more.

"I don't hate you." He starts. He sees the confusion contort your features, and he knows he's not making any sense. "I mean I did-- I did hate you. Or, maybe not you, just... The fucked up idea I had of you. And-- and that was on me, that was my own fault." He feels an urge to touch you; to rub your back, hold your hand, anything to comfort you. It's tearing him apart to know that he's the cause of all this.

"But why?" A single tear rolls down your cheek, leaving a wet streak on your skin in its wake. "Why did you think that about me? I-- I get that we had a little rivalry going but jesus Carmen, did you really think I spent my whole culinary school career trying to outdo you?"

"To be honest... Yeah." He feels ashamed. So ashamed. He hopes the waitress doesn't walk by and listen to any of this, see you crying, and make you feel even worse. "Cooking was always just... My thing. If I was good for anything, it would be that. So seeing you do so well at something I'd started to base my whole existence around, it made me jealous, so fucking jealous." He meets your eyes, even if it's hard. You have to know he's being sincere.

"And it's-- it's unfair, it's so unfair to you, I know, and I'm really fuckin' sorry. I'm trying to work on myself, on everything, and I hope I can prove that to you." His face has that red tint you recognize whenever he's nervous or stressed. You can tell this is taking a lot from him.

"Is that really all? You were just jealous?" Your voice is quieter, fragile almost.

"I don't know. I wanna think it's that simple but I really don't know. There's a lot I don't understand about me, or you, or us. My mind doesn't know how to react when I see you anymore I think, now that things are different." He takes a deep breath, like saying that took a physical toll on him. "You have this-- this weird effect on me, and I don't know how to cope with it. I think it was just easier to be mad at you than to be anything else."

Anger is easier to express than sadness. The easiest out of all emotions, actually. Sometimes a little too easy.

You look to the side, wiping your cheek with the back of your hand. You huff out something close to a laugh, and though he’s caught off guard by it, he doesn’t mind it. Even if you’re laughing at him, at least that means you’re not crying.

“You’ve got issues Berzatto. You know that?”

“Yeah. I’ve been told.” He smiles, and it’s heartfelt this time. Not nervous, or sad, or awkward. He’s happy to see you a little more at ease.

“It’s just really crazy to me.” You trace your finger over the edge of your coffee cup as you talk. “I spent so much time in culinary school looking up to you. And then I find out you were always just trying to keep up with me.”

Carmen’s eyebrows raise a little at your words. “Looked up to me?”

“Yeah, like… Your drive, your passion, it’s so impressive. Always looking to improve, to do better, it just— it inspired me to do better too. As cheesy as that may sound.” You smiled. “S’why I opened up in Chicago, you know.”

“Really? Huh.” He leaned back in his seat.

“Because I wanted to work with you. Or for you. Either would have been fine with me.” You sigh. “I like owning my own place, but… I don’t know, for some reason I always imagined us working together.” You smiled. “Is that stupid?”

“No,” he replied quickly, “no not at all, I— I totally get that.” He’s quiet for a few seconds, and you can practically hear the gears turning in his head when he stares at you for a moment.

“I mean you’re a remarkable chef, really, like— insanely remarkable, and, well, we’re revamping the restaurant completely right now. We need people— more people, new people, and so, I was wondering— or I’ve been thinking—“ He stops himself from losing his breath from all his rambling, before he freaks you out even more than he already has.

“I want you to come work for us at the Bear.” He puts his hands together, as if he’s about to beg. “Please.”

You can almost hear yourself blinking out of confusion. There’s suddenly no more loud silences, no, the café seems dead quiet for once. All you can do is stare at him, wait for a laugh, because clearly this was a joke right? There’s no way Carmen Berzatto, chef supreme, arch nemesis of yours, would want you anywhere near him, let alone work in his own establishment.

“I’m sorry?”

He feels stupid already. You had every reason to say no. He’d been the biggest asshole in the world to you, he’d kept his distance all his life, and now he expects you to be his employee. Or, well, colleague, more so.

“I’m uh— we’re redoing the restaurant entirely. New equipment, new staff, new everything.” He swallows; the thought of everything that needed to be done arises for a moment. “We need people that work hard, who know what they’re doing and who are passionate about it. And I barely know anyone who’s better at what you do than yourself.” He pauses, waiting for you to stop him. But you don’t.

“So I’m asking if you’d work for me. With me. It won’t be anything like old days, if anything I— I need to learn from you.” He scoffs at himself. “Could take a thing or two about how to communicate with my staff.”

You smile, and he genuinely thinks you’re about to start laughing at him. You chuckle, but it’s not mean, it’s honest. Cute.

“You know, you have great timing.” You grin.

“I do?” the smile on his face reflects the hope he feels.

“One of my chefs wants to take over the place for me. Well, has been wanting to. I haven’t had an exact reason to say yes to her yet.” You shrugged. “Guess I do now.”

“…Is that you saying yes?”

“It’s definitely not me saying no.” Your eyes meet his, and there’s something between you both that’s different now. It’s not like there’s a switch that’s been flipped. It‘s more like this conversation was the turning page of a new chapter.

“I’ll think about it. I want to see it first. Maybe talk to some of your staff.” Carmen’s chest strains a little when he thinks about you interacting with Richie. Then he’s reassured when he thinks about you interacting with Sydney or Marcus. You’d fit in well, you have great feeling for people.

“Yeah— yeah, I get that. Totally. I can arrange that. Uhm, we’re renovating right now, actually, it’s all really kinda wild, but if you wanna stop by, chat with Syd, or Nat, or talk about the plans, let me know. I’m sure they’d love to talk to you.” He’s not lying, you seem like you’d get along well with them. Especially Sydney. Your thinking processes are very similar to each other. And to his.

Carmen gets the bill, even though you try to pay for it.

“It’s just a coffee, just let me get this one.”

You let him have this one, simply because you can’t argue with him after the conversation you just had. You’re in too good of a mood after his proposition too.

He walks you to your car, hands in his pockets when you reach it. It’s cold outside, and his breath comes out in visible puffs of air. His nose is a little red, but you think it looks cute.

“Thanks for coming, by the way,” he starts, “I know you didn’t have to. Like— after how I acted to you. But— But I really do appreciate that you’re givin' me a chance here.” He’d always been confused about how positive and faithful you were in people. He never thought he’d be grateful for those exact features too.

“No worries, I… I had a good time. I’m glad we talked.” The keys jingle as you fidget with them. Among them is a keychain in the shape of a cherry, he recognizes it. It reminds him of how little you’ve both changed. And how much.

“Yeah.” He sighs. Relieved, almost. “Me too. But I’ll let you leave, might wanna tell your chef the good news.”

“Good news?” You quirk an eyebrow.

“That you’re selling them the business.”

“I haven’t decided yet, Carm.” You scoff. But he can tell you have, you look too excited about it all to not have your mind made up yet. It excites him too. Scares him a bit as well, but what’s a new chapter without a bit of tension?

“Right. Sorry.” He huffs. “Just text me when you wanna head over to see the place. It’s uh… It’s a work in progress, but it’s getting somewhere.”

“I believe you. I’m looking forward to it.” You lean back against your car a little.

“Yeah. Me too.”

“See y’around?” You unlock it and walk up to the driver’s side.

“Course. Uh, don’t be a stranger.”

You grin, leaning down to get into the vehicle. “Never with you, Berzatto.”

He watches you drive off, standing in the cold for far longer than any sensible person has any business standing there. But he feels good. He feels warm.

He thinks about what you said to him before you left. You were right, you were never a stranger to him. You were always like a constant in his life; whether you were actually present or not. And even if he didn’t know that much about you, which he was insistent on changing, you were never a stranger.

Never with him.

tag list <3

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[tizeline]

Bro that angst potential ur separated au is keeping me up at night. You've said since Mikey would be a powerhouse due to training at such an early age, would it be safe to assume that Leo & raph are too? They've been mastering their ninpo 4 years? And if yes then dam they must be tanks. Must be a force to be reckoned with the bros and drax being all chaotic. Did they start to train so early bcuz drax only saw them as soldiers n stuff? Drax sure must've softened over the years huh guess he couldn't handle the cute lil menaces lol. Is Donnie aware of his own ninpo yet? I'm imagining him going up against the others with all his cool tech and then they whip out this anime magic ass superpower out of nowhere. Like meeting others like u after years of thinking u were the only one must be at least baffling right, now it turns out magic is real too. And he's gonna have it too(Not to mention the bro bomb waiting to drop on his head). Would his insecurities rise after witnessing all that?

Sorry I just absolutely LOVE ur au friend, i have a ton of questions but ill hold it 4 ltr. I'm really excited to see where you take it :)) -🌾

Oh man, Anon, glad to see you so excited haha!

Just a heads up, I'm still figuring out the story of the AU, so I don't know all the specifics yet, but here are some of my thoughts. And also, this became a bit of a ramble, that's what you get when you send long asks lol /lh

The way I'm thinking how Draxum is gonna be like in this AU is that he didn't view himself as the turtles' father initially, not really because he only viewed them as mere tools for him to use, he always saw them as people with induviduality. But rather, he hadn't really connected the dots that creating children + raising said children = parenthood, which led to Draxum like a year after mutating the turtles having the sudden realization one day of "OH SHIT AM I A DAD!?" and having a mini crisis because of that.

Anyway, while I don't think Draxum is the perfect dad in this AU by any means, he does genuinely care about his kids. (If Mikey managed to win Draxum over in canon after having spent a whole season fighting each other, there's no way he'd care about Mikey any less in a scenario where they've been on the same side since day one like they have in this AU.) He started training the turles from an early age and they are expected to help him with his Definitely Not Evil World Domination Plan, but they are still allowed free time and hobbies and such. And aside from some "ugh I don't wanna train right now I wanna play vidya gaemes" occasionally, the turtles never really opposed the idea of them becoming Draxums super soldiers. Kids are really easily influenced and if your parent keeps telling you that you are the heroes who are gonna save the world from evil, chances are you're gonna latch on to that narrative without question. But after meeting Donnie and April, who knows, it might be what finally starts making the other turtles question if their cause really is as just as they think :) That being said, I still have to figure out how Draxum would react exactly to his sons starting to oppose his world view.

Then their abilities! I also have to do more reasearch into exactly how the magic system works in RoTMNT cuz uhhh it's a bit unclear sometimes. Anyway, ninpo is specifically the magic used by the Hamato clan, and considering Raph, Leo and Mikey weren't raised as Hamato I don't think they would have access to that specific type of magic (though I still think they'd be be able to possibly unlock it later down the line) They would still have access to yokai magic, and of course the mystic weapons that they stole in the show would just have been given to them in AU by Draxum. And oh yeah, the brothers are powerful. To be fair, Donnie was able to keep up with Draxum pretty well in the pilot episode, so he wouldn't be COMPLETELY outmatched by his brothers. His tech is powerful enough that he'd be able to put up a decent fight even if he lacks mystic powers himself but..... three against one? Yeah, Donnie isn't winning any time soon. The biggest advantage he'd have would honestly be that his brothers wouldn't really WANT to fight him cuz they'd be all like "Long Lost Brother™??? 😭😭😭 Please come home Long Lost Brother™ we love you!!! 😭😭😭"

And I think Splinter would have kept both of their origins secret initially like he did in the show, so Donnie would't have any ninpo either, but I also think Donnie would still learn about the whole Lou Jitsu and Genetically Modified Super Soldier thing earlier than in canon. And god, yeah, learning about all of that would definietly be A Lot, which is why I still need time to figure out Donnie's exact reaction sorry Anon you're gonna have to be patient XD

[virgilisspidey]

Fuck it I'm gonna blab about another crossover fic i'm working on once i'm done with two souls

I dont care if it takes me years or if this fandom dies out (which it won't, tmnt is timeless)

But anyway.

It's called Pink Puppets, a crossover AU with a similar concept to Dagger From the Mirror (although i havent read it yet cuz i am scared)

It's going to ve reversed this time, with the Rise brothers being older because it's set after the movie and the 2012 boys remaining 15 years old (so kinda the same age as Mikey in the movie)

I was gonna use Draxum but i fell in love with the idiot so now I'm gonna use an antagonist that i had in plan for Two Souls season 3, that's why I was gonna write it after I finish Two Souls.

Basically that antagonist wants to replicate Draxum's warriors themselves, but don't want to go through the lengths to actually start doing it. They idolize Draxu and his beliefs and was angry that Draxum threw it all away to play family.

Kraang Subprime of 2012 gets involved and they discover there's countless of universes out there he can pull tirtles from.

He chose 2012.

It's season 3, a few days or a week from the fourfold trap (Karai escapes and is never seen again) episode and the bous are still about 15. This antagonist sees the brainworm in action and takes some for themselves, takong it home and modifying it before they snatch the brothers right in front of 12 April and 12 Casey.

They get dragged into Rise.

The brothers were imprisoned and one by one, a brainworm is forced into their brains. This is where the AU gets its name, the worms are pink and made the brothers' eyes pink.

The new modified brainworms aren't like Shredder's. It slowly influences the victim, making them the worse versions of themselves and think the antagonist is liek their parent or something, using their emotions against them.

12 Mikey is toxicly positive and brutal. He acts as if everything was just a game, he uses his kusagirama a lot, enjoying maling people bleed. He's dangerous and doesn't realize what he's doing is wrong. He's the new leader of the brainwashed gang, bossing his brothers around and they can't say no because of his little brother charm. He knows to emotionally manipulate people with his looks, which gives him a big advantage.

12 Donnie is a complete wreck. He's a ticking timebomb, he doesn't stop talking, doesn't mind his volume, doesn't care about his own wellbeing. He's destroying himself, he literally ignores his injuries if he gets one. 12 Mikey goes for a playful kill, toying with his victims while 12 Donnie always keeps them alive so he could experiment with them. He also uses his hidden blade a lot. He's twitchy and explodes very easily, making him a hard unpredictable opponent.

Then there's 12 Leo.

In this AU, you would expect his "bossiness" is gonna be the trait that gets amplified to be the worse, no, its his obedience. He's more like a puppet than his brothers. He's silent, completely silent, he never talks under the influence of the modified brainworm and follows every single order his brothers tell him to do. Unlike his brothers that would prolong death as much as possible, he strikes for the neck, immediately. He's basically the trump card, only used when things don't go as planned. He's hollow, emotionless, just a shell of his former self. Dead to the world and control by invisible strings.

What's funny is that despite the fact that their worse traits are amplified, they still love and care for each other. They're fiercely overprotective, they will stop the battle if one of them gets gravely injured, they'll take care of each others injuries.

That overprotectiveness is one of the reasons they still haven't got out of the worm's control, it was used against them.

And don't worry, i didn't forget about 12 Raph.

He escapes.

Remember that Raph centric AU i posted about? Yeah, this is it.

It was supposed to be 12 Mikey in thus position, but he's already got experience with dealing with his brothers turning evil, same goes for 12 Donnie, and maybe 12 Leo but he's the one that's evil, but not 12 Raph as far as I know.

12 Raph hasn't fought his brothers alone before.

Plus he already got a taste of the brainworm, why not fight back against his own fear of it?

So he runs away, stumbles upon the Rise turtles and pushes away his pride, beghing for them to help him save his brothers, and of course they do.

While the 2012 brothers cause chaos for the humans in New York with a subplot of trying to get 12 Raph to their side, the Rise brothers and their friends now have to deal with teens Mikey's age wanting murder and their brother who just wants them back.

This time, the Rise brothers have to be the responsibile older guys and the 12 boys the chaotic little shits.

(Don't worry, everyone is looking for them back in 2012)

Tell me ya'lls thoughts about it. Is it good??

[wulfgang-heart]

Syd x Carmy

Can we be honest Richie and Fak live viciously through Carmy when it comes to Clair. I think Carmy has been moved on from Clair. But like most men, he wants the approval of other men close to him(especially Mikey, even though he’s gone). I think Carmy is going through the “coming of age” theme with the Clair storyline. (As a boy he puts his male friends opinions before his own thoughts and needs, as a man he becomes the leader of his own life). This whole time he’s been chasing Mikey’s approval even after death through Richie and fak(Mikey’s best friends). Someone on here said Carmy doesn’t know who he is yet. Keyword, yet. Someone also commented on a different platform that Carmy plays up the tortured Artist troupe to get what he wants out of Claire and Sydney at the same time, cause he’s not ready to reveal his feelings for syd, but is capitalizing on the approval of Mikey’s friends through Claire. That way he doesn’t have to fully commit either one but still gets what he wants from both. Carmy is a Dirk but he’s not incompetent. I believe this.

I want Carmy to make it up to Sydney next season. Like really make it up to her. I read a fanfic where Nat gave up her portion of the Bear to Sydney. After everything the past two seasons I think it would be more fair and romantic for Carmy to give up his portion as a trust/apology thing. The way Sydney doesn’t let Carmy off the hook for anything and the way Carmy makes it a point to SHOW he’s sorry, I don’t think season is gonna be anything short of grand gestures. I just wonder what expensive-fuck-the-budget-gift he’s gonna give her next.

This last gif I just saw. Damn he fine 😈😂

[sincerely-vinyl]

Yandere Turtles Head cannons Pt 1

Content warning: contains platonic reader to turtles, excessive punishing, fear, obsession, referenced violent tendencies, invasion of personal space, kidnapping, yanderes, reader barely has any moments to themselves. (might add more if I'm missing any-)

Thank you, @alcides , for letting me write my headcannons/fanfiction about this lovely story!

☆Content under cut☆

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Before the invasion 

..

_[Name] was adopted into the Hamato clan when they were discovered by the brothers venturing the sewers one day and finding out that they live on their own with no other family. (early season 1) and is around the same age as the youngest turtle Mikey.

_ you lived with them for a while and accepted them as family. You never had one before, but it was something you could get used to. Being as impressionable as you were, you rarely went against their word before. Their affectionate behavior towards you was strange at first, but that's how families were, weren't they?

_Sometimes, you would voice your concerns about their choices to 'keep you safe'. Slight protests insisting you can take care of yourself just fine, then eventually get shut down by either Donnie or Raph. 

_You loved your brothers! And you know they loved you too! They were a little overprotective, sure, but they were just a little worried about you, right?

_Things would get pretty bad with them after the fight with shredder. Despite nothing happening to you, the turtles REALLY acted as if you were so fragile you could shatter right in front of them. which most certainly was preposterous. [Name] was perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. They wouldn't have survived their first few years of life if that wasn't the case.

_After finding a new lair, they had even set some new rules to "keep you away from the people that could hurt you." Examples would be: 

1. you wanted to go outside the lair? You have to have at least two of the turtles to go with you. What if something or someone popped up? You'll have double the protection. 

               And

2. You can't go on missions with them at all anymore, even if all they really let you do is watch from the side lines. 

Of course you fought this decision, how could they make this decision for you? It was really the first time you spoke your mind in front of all of them, and loudly at that, it definitely led to an argument that ended with you threatening to leave the lair and go solo again.

They very much didn't like that one bit.

They locked you in your room and didn't let you out for months, only giving you food and water when you needed it. 

_____________

Attempting to sneak out by yourself? Leo always caught you. He would be nice about it (at least on the surface) before trapping you in his portal dimension for long amounts of time, hours, and days? It happened often, and it was long enough for you to start hating the color blue.

Leo would talk himself and you out of bonding with family so he could spend more time with you, watching movies and cuddling with you, if that didn't work with his brothers getting upset with him, he would kidnap you until he was done with what you liked to call, throwing a tantrum. 

_____

Raph was what you would have described as a worry wart. Now, it's overbearing. when you weren't sleeping in your room, Raph would beg you to sleep in his room.

Yes. Even if you were fast asleep in the comfort of your own room, he would either 

A. Come in and watch you sleep for a minute before waking you up(if the staring didn't already do that) and asking you to come sleep with him because he was worried, according to him: you might get hurt or suffocate face down on a pillow or stuffed animal and never wake up.

B. Come in and watch you sleep for a minute, then plop down next to you with his cover and teddy bear. 

Or 

C. Gently pick you up so as to not disturb you and take you to his room. You had gotten used to waking up in Raph room when you were very sure you weren't there last night.

____

After getting out of that “prison” dimension with Leo it was very common not only for the twins to fight but also for Donnie to lock you in his lab to keep you away from Leo and the rest of his brothers. Your bonding time mainly consisted of him telling you about his many inventions, and you do something like drawing or playing with his personal bin of fidgets while listening to him and complimenting his work. He absolutely glowed with praise whenever you did that. 

This was the side of him you preferred. 

The alternative was the violent older brother you not only feared but disliked the most. He was colder when you would ask to leave. He decided when you got to leave. If you said you were hungry, then he would go slightly back to normal, having shelldon get the food or refreshments instead. If you insisted you wanted some space, he still, of course, wouldn't let you leave, telling you to sit by yourself in the far corner in his lab.

When he finally does let you out, it's the next afternoon. 

If Leo got alone time with you, then so should he. He would, instead of telling you what he was thinking, he'd say something like, "I'm just keeping you safe from my brother's brutish actions. You should be thanking me. Not acting like a brat. You're safer in here than anywhere out there." While trying to keep his composure. The energy reading off of him was enough to send you into a flight or fight response.

—

Mikey is… Well… Very devoted to being close to you. 

There are some pluses, he buys you gifts, cooks for you and spends time with you. 

However, some of the things he would say or do would confuse you to the highest degree, like giving him any sort of praise sends him into some kind of frenzy.

"Wow, Mikey! You really outdone yourself this time! This is so good!" As you finished your plate, he stumbled over his words to thank you, throwing in nicknames like divinity or angel. 

To him, you were just so perfect and sweet, Any sort of praise from you was heaven sent!

He took your words to heart more than he took the others. If you gave him a gift, he would go absolutely apeshit while at the same time trying to control himself in front of you. This physically manifested into him physically vibrating, which freaked you the hell out.

He would shower you with gifts tenfold not too long later. He loves spending time with you and would have you ‘help him cook’ just to spend time with him. You didn't mind it, though. Handing him ingredients or utensils was no issue, and he let you taste test his food, beaming at the praise you sent his way.

And this was BEFORE the invasion.

♤ ♤ ♤

Part two

[sabrondabrainrot]

I forget I can just ramble and rant my thoughts!

I try to focus on sharing just my art but I also do writing and try to have a bit of a critical mind when it comes to media I consume.

Now that it has been a few months since I watched all of TMNT 12 I do have some thoughts and opinions and kind of want to just ramble about it before I forget, in an informal manner.

I at first really liked it, it was the second TMNT show I watched after Rise, now that I've been watching the 87 and 03 shows my opinions on 12 did change just a bit but I still do like it!

Literally all the turtles are my son's now. Especially Leonardo (he's blue coded so-). I just think they're so cute and neat!!!

I'm going to put thoughts to spoiler stuff of 12 so if you plan to watch the show then don't click beyond this point!

🐢💙🐢♥️🐢🧡🐢💜

So in the last season of TMNT 12 it kind of feels like all the scrapped ideas or random plots that couldn't be fit into the prior seasons were put in this one? I really like the new op it gives of Cowboy Bebop vibes. The op song change is really nice to because I never really looked the tmnt 12 op song before.

However, the plots feel all over the place? There's a mini ark where they're jumping through time meeting Halloween monsters and then another ark where Mikey defeats Satan? Then we get another really tiring ark that's this implied alternate madmax fury road parody that is honestly so depressing? Donnie is just dead.

Which btw, the show likes killing ppl off for dramatic effect. They killed Master Splinter three times and had Mikey and Donnie get scattered to atoms on two separate occasions. I should also mention Leo was in a coma for 3 months with no IV or anything and he woke up relatively fine.

Anyways, going into the last season and stuff leading up to it... They kind of ended with the 87 turtles and the 12 boys finding new passion and inspiration from teaching the 87 boys. I didn't really vibe with it because it just made the 87s the butt of the joke and made them out to be incompetent silly little guys.

They ARE silly little guys but the thing is they're not incompetent. The 87 boys have done some insanely incredible things even when unarmed. Especially when unarmed. I actually think the angle of finding a new way to help people as a means to end the series on an inspired note is fine, the 87 boys even carried on the will and told Bebop and Rocksteady they can be more than Shredder's mutant henchmen. It is very cute and wholesome. I just think they could have maybe done it differently?

Why not set up for them to teach Chi arts? The turtles of 87 don't have any mystical abilities and it would have been interesting to do a set up like that? There are ways to write the finale without just dumping on the original source.

Focusing back on the ending of 12, we also leave on a seriously alarming note. It's just a big mixed bag. After Master Splinter went to run on the hamster wheel in the sky, Leonardo was handed the reigns of the family. He was told "You're the teacher now Leonardo. You're the father. Look after your brothers" and Splinter then willingly walked into his own death. I think the writers maybe thought this was amazing and inspirational or something but I found it incredibly messed up? We start tmnt 12 on all 4 boys birthday. Meaning Splinter himself considers them all to be the same age. And since the series was running they haven't on screen celebrated a birthday and from the implied weather changes most of the seasons 1-4 seem to take place over just a year??? We don't get a definitive timeline (or I'm a bad audience and didn't notice).

So one can only assume Master Splinter was telling his...15 year old son to be the father to his other 15 year old children.

Why do I bring this up at all? After Leonardo takes over the family and he KILLS shredder they go into this rushed cult demon resurrection arc that culminates in the classic dead walk the earth and Mikey defeats Satan. In this arc we meet a ghost splinter who does not even go to see his kids, he just helps Casey and April. But throughout and the lead up to this we have moments of Leo having conversations with what we can perceive as Sensei's ghost in the dojo.

But the climax of the arc cements splinters ghost has not once visited his son's.

So Leonardo is quite literally having full on conversations, in the dojo for his brothers to hear, with a hallucination of his dead dad. He's coping this way. His family does nothing about this.

Tmnt 2012 has the worst Splinter. He ignored his son's and chose favorites. He told Leonardo to die (season 1 finale). He calls Mikey dumb and insights the others to do it too. He told Raph his anger makes him exactly like Shredder and never elaborates or teaches him how to better work through his issues. And he straight up calls Donnie useless.

None of that is even an exaggeration. Adding context just makes it worse.

Here's a list:

Do you know the turtles are the equivalent of helicopter raised homeschool boys? They've never stepped foot outside of the lair except at the start of ep 1.

They learn ALL of their lessons from old shows and cartoons. The show writers even sometimes use the cartoons to set up the theme of the episodes!

When Leonardo rescues Mikey he pats him on the head to comfort him.

Literally almost all of their ninja weapons have hidden weapons. I love it I wish I saw more of them using them.

Michelangelo is the family chef because somehow none of the rest have any life skills. Not even Splinter (explains so much).

They all have such cute shape language. I love bean pole Donnie, blocky buff Raph, perfect pear Leo, and round freckled Mikey.

They also now have unique eye colors. I love their eyes. Donnie with his big beautiful brown eyes (sometimes they look red). Raph with his acid green stare into your soul eyes, they look like they would glow like mako eyes in ff7. Mikey with bright blue eyes all big and round. And then Leo with the cunning dark blue eyes!

I just want to pinch their cheeks and kiss their foreheads and give them hugs.

Also, Leo is so affectionate to kids and his brothers??? My heart??? Couldn't take it??? He just randomly hugs them?? He had a tea party??? He wore a pink feather boa? The way he just immediately held baby Miwa??? Too good. Too good. He's such a good big bro.

Raph is also such a soft guy. Like yes he's a Butthead that beats up his brothers and takes every single violent urge out on Leo when he's even minorly inconvenienced but he does learn to do better. He helps Leo a lot and he even is there for the others a lot too.

Raphael also does art and seems to like fine arts.

Raph, like Leo, is a resident baby man. He loved tiny helpless creatures. He had a pet turtle he loved with his entire being and then later on adopted a space alien baby turtle that he also loved with his entire being.

I love Donnie in this, his cute little tooth gap, his gentle demeanor, the fact he'd rather be in the lab than training. I feel bad for him tho cause he clearly wants Splinter and Leo's approval with his inventions and efforts but very rarely gets it (Leo is the only one to really praise him and get what he does). He's also a good team player but he has so much stress and no confidence.

Donnie needs a big ol hug.

Mikey is so cute. But he is so weird. Why did they write girly pop collecting underwear. Why did they have him cannibalize a mutant pizza man? They do the most random things with Mikey. I like that he avidly tries cheering ppl up. He tries so hard for his bros. He's just a sweet little guy. I wish they did more with the baby bro.

Mikey should have kept his lightning powers.

They fight a lot but all the brothers love each other. I think they're just stressed and cooped up too much.

I like drama tho it's juicy when they argue.

I read on the wiki that Donnie is supposed to be canon OCD and Mikey canon ADHD and it makes so much sense in the show.

I really like all their voices. I miss Leo's first voice he was so dorky and sweet. The new voice is all sad and serious. Raph sounds perfect. I like Donnie's voice but instead of him always yelling why not have him do the low angry science rant because that's a good time. I like Mikey's voice he sounds like a high pitched beast boy.

But despite the occasionally baffling writing choices of the show I still like it. It's entertaining in the same way as a telenovela or kdrama. They literally have a plot where one of the turtles falls in love with his secret half sister. Something I've seen in telenovelas and kdramas.

2012 tmnt makes a great dogblooded drama.

I think the CGI art can get pretty bad at times but other times it looks great. The music is pretty good and I really like the voice cast. I actually totally see why so many people like this show but I definitely don't think it's the best one. From what I've seen thus far, I think the 2003 TMNT show might actually be a masterpiece. Better than Avatar the Last Airbender levels of masterpiece (not a competition just giving an example of another show I find monumental).

That's it, that's the rant, thanks for reading!

Btw if any one has any good 12 fic recs pls hand them over. I need 12 hurt comfort, or fem Leo, or transfem Leo, or anything introspective, or just anything with a fun plot. Pls I'm dying here send fics.

Thank you :)

[theyhavetakenovermylife]

Hi again! I really enjoy reading the children series from Bayverse, and I was wondering if you could clarify the ages of all of the children (to see who’s the oldest cousin to the youngest one)!! 💙✨ please and thank you!

Love ti hear that you like it!💚 I can most certainly do that✨💚

Let’s go with their ages in the last one I posted.

Romeo is the oldest at 18 years old, and is seen as Mr. Responsible by the others (I know. He and his father could be twins).

Joan is 17. At times she like to challenge Romeo and his older cousin role, but she mainly does it for shits and giggles. She has her own group of siblings to look after.

Galileo is 16, and could easily be seen as the second most responsible. Even he can fall into the shits and giggles from time to time.

Next up is Sunny. At 15 years old, she is still seen as one of the older cousins, even though she has decided not to take part in the other’s “big siblings club”.

This is were it gets funny. Marcello is 15 years old too, but he is not seen as one of the oldest. He thinks it’s bull crap, being that he and Sunny is the same age, but that’s just how it is.

Minerva is 13 years old, and sees no problem with being the middle child. She sees it as a pass to be more chaotic than her siblings.

Now we come to the besties, with Luis being the slightly older one. At 12 years old, Luis is find with being one of the younger ones. Often gives the adults a reason to carry him around, even if he is a pre-teen.

The second part of the besties, Gerardo at 12 years as well. A bundle of joy that shines as bright as his uncle Mikey and his cousins.

Here comes the twins at 11 years old. Dorothy and Marie can be chaotic in their brother’s eyes (and sometimes their parents), but are still adored all the same.

Here comes another of Mikey’s followers. Ragnar at 10 years old, that often wished to be carried around alongside Luis and Gerardo. And they let him, with that matching energy.

And now for the baby. The princess herself. The sudden mating season outcome after Leo and his partner thought they were done 10 years before that. Little Valentina at 2 years old.

[kitsunefox1108]

Can I request yandere self aware 2012 turtle bro's reaction to the nb kid viewer who absolutely adores them suddenly disappearing for a few seasons and when they come back they're around the turtles age now, they still adore the turtles and may or may not have some crushes on the turtles 🧍(Romantic btw)

YANDERE! SELF AWARE! 2012 TMNT BROTHERS X GN! READER

the concept of your interaction will be the same as in the rise version, which I wrote earlier.

only the reader is a child. It seems very cute to the turtles, but often you could appear in the midst of a battle, because you liked the action moments.

Mikey spent most of his time with you, because his character and a certain charisma amused you and lifted your spirits.

Sometimes Donnie or Splinter stays with you.

The turtles took care of you as their sister/brother, and something like that. They liked that you loved them.

But later you stopped coming.

the brothers began to worry, because they became so attached to you and fell in love with you that it was somehow not the same without you.

However, later they had to get used to it, because there were more serious problems, that is, Karai, Shredder and other enemies.

skipping time until season 3....

The turtles were excessively tired, and were much more mature than before. For a long time, they almost did not remember your presence, but the fact that they are in the animated series still did not give them rest.

They were resting after another battle with the enemies.

Leonardo goes to rest for the first time in a long time, instead of training in the dojo.

but then he sees siluet. Pretty familiar.

You smile a little nervously, but look at the turtle in the blue bandage.

- "Y/N?.." - Leonardo asks in shock, staring in disbelief.

- yes... it's me. I am glad to see you again after such a long time....)

At first Leo smiled at you, but later his smile was replaced by a serious one... annoyance?

- "Why did you leave us for so long?"

You looked at the turtle in confusion.

- uh...um...Please forgive me, I didn't do it on purpose.... It's going to be too long a story, so I don't know if I need to tell you everything from beginning to end...?

Leo sighed, and taking you by the hand, led you into the living room.

when the others saw you, they were surprised and angry at the same time.

However, after long explanations and apologies, the turtles accepted you again, and began to get used to the fact that you are no longer the same child you were before. however, now the yandere turtles' behavior has increased towards you.

now you are more often kept out of trouble, or to be more precise, they do not let you out on the streets of new york. they would probably begin to manipulate and persuade not to leave their universe in order to spend more time with you. Depending on who you contact more with, relationships can develop with that. However, that doesn't mean the other turtles will stop fighting for your attention, as long as we remember that all four are possessed.

[doctor-badadvice]

Let's talk about Fast Forward for a bit.

Specifically I want to talk about the main theme of that season: why? Why did the art style deteriorate so much? Why did the writing get so bad? Why did this come out before season 5 but also supposedly happens after season 5 and at the same time only occasionally acknowledges its events? Why is there a kid now? Why am I watching this when I only really care about maybe three episodes at best?

Because I was bored. But let's go with order.

I'm going to say it now, I'm still going to claim there is no season 6 in Ba Sing Se. But at the same time, it isn't all that bad actually?

Here's the thing. FF was inevitable for many reasons. TMNT, with its aliens and magic, has the potential to go on forever. However, at some point "turtle fatigue" will set in. In the 80s, this happened around season 7 which yeah, it's about 150 episodes in. For the 2003 show it happens around season 5 but this doesn't mean the higher-ups will try stupid changes to bring back the old glory.

Moreover, the show brought it upon itself. The main culprits, so to speak, are the writing's insistence on portraying consequences as much as possible (see: Leo's scarred shell for instance), as well as season 4 with its funny gory shift (see: that one episode where Baxter watches his own body fall apart which wow).

So it isn't unexpected that the higher-ups and especially the toy maker went "Kids, could you lighten up a little?" and messed up everything that was good about the show.

So this is basically why I don’t like FF. Five seasons are a long commitment. You have to sit through the ninja tribunal arc which is boring as hell, then have to be really patient and accept that there are just dragons now for some reason. Then FF comes up and it has nothing of what you previously enjoyed. The style is different, too flat and kinda clunky and ugly in some spots, nothing that happened before matters and now Cody is there.

Remember networks, kids don't want to watch other kids go on adventures in their place and it doesn't get better with age. But you do you.

So I despised FF but after rewatching the season on its own, I have to make amends in some spots.

The general impression when you watch FF on its own, without the better stuff still fresh in mind and with something to do during the dull parts, is that of good background noise.

It takes many steps backwards. The turtles are suddenly less competent at fighting where it's convenient, their personalities are more one dimensional depending on the plot and they're kinda shitty to each other for no reason. They really suffer from that serial effect where the reset button is hit as soon as the credits roll. They used to go out to murder the Shredder knowing they might die and now it's "Today Mikey really wants a new video game and next episode we're going to a fancy party with the kid dressed in the dumbest suits ever and a silly happens :)"

Splinter also gets sidetracked a lot and he's more there to occasionally call the turtles whippersnappers but again, there isn't much of a reason for him to step in anymore.

And this brings me to the villains. I feel like the turtles only work as well as their villains. They work when they're getting into a fight with a local street gang, or trying to kick an alien empire out of the planet before everyone dies. They work when the Shredder actually does something meaningful and generally speaking are going against someone actually dangerous.

The first five seasons had Shredder, the Foot, Hun, the Triceratons and Bishop. FF has an annoying wrestler whose main priority is property damage, a gang of netrunners who I wish got up to more interesting things than scalping and quoting the Matrix, literal evil twins from the tv trope literal evil twins, and the idiots in charge.

The idiots in charge are of course beloved uncle Darius and Sh'Okanabo.

These two really are something. Darius is essentially that guy from the first Iron Man movie. He's the acting CEO because the owner is a literal child. He smiles and preaches big keeping up the facade of benevolent company of the shiny Earth utopia but he has a dark secret which is that he's making guns and a mecha suit for himself and Cody takes several episodes to realize this for some reason.

You'd think Darius would stop being a threat the moment his dark deeds are uncovered since his whole thing is "evil capitalist guy is evil". But no, he's gonna go higher, he's going to ally with Shittibobo because he needs new genetically modified minions he can badmouth while fucking around all day in his sewers loft and we don't even get the payoff of Darius realizing that he's being fucked over by an alien during the Day of Awakening.

Plus because of how afraid FF is to explore anything heavier than Mikey insisting they go out to achieve explosive diarrhea from questionable junk food, even the fact that Darius is an abusive father figure for Cody has no real importance because Cody is only allowed to look sad on screen for five seconds. Remove Darius and the overall season arc remains the same.

What about the other guy? Well, Sushibooboo is the supposed big bad of the season. He's an alien who wants to kill life on Earth to steal resources. He's something beloved President Bishop goes out of his way to personally murder. But the only thing he achieves is to confirm that he's just offensively stupid.

Sh'Okanabo is supposedly an alien boogeyman who's so evil he just can't be real, right? Unfortunately, he's the literal cause of his own demise.

Since the turtles are more than content with babysitting Cody and going around complaining about historical accuracies like that one Futurama episode, they don't know who Sh'Okanabo is and after talking to Bishop they don't care to find out. Great. This means he can operate in the dark, grow his eggs and prepare to kill everyone, right? No way. In pure Sasalele style, he goes out of his way to attack the turtles, tell them what he’s up to and scare them enough to start to actively prepare to fight him.

And on top of that he wastes time to build a time machine because somehow Shredder had to return for one episode which in turn almost fucks up his plan entirely since his ship almost explodes.

So I still don't like FF because of the way the writing plummeted. A lot of stuff happens because it's convenient and often falls back into exquisitely 90s/2000s tropes (see: the obviously evil guy gets away with evil deeds because the parents/cops/people with power are blind and children are stupid, that one car race episode which is a repeat of the previous car race episode from earlier in the show, a female character who's only there to be a love interest and is allowed to be smart and cute because Cody likes them smart and cute, just to name a few). The turtles get dumber depending on the episode and there are some attempts at comedy like Starlee's shitty family that give out levels of second hand embarrassment not seen since Star Trek TNG.

But I don't hate this season entirely either. FF is just very mid and it makes me think that it could have worked as a standalone show for a while because you can watch it more or less. I'm just this isn't what we got in place of the actual show because it wouldn’t have lasted.

Still I did enjoy some things:

Torbin Zixx is fun. He has some interesting tricks, even though 60% of them only work because the turtles are written especially stupid in his episodes. Plus he steals Bishop's space shuttle which is glorious

I ended up liking Sterling a little towards the end. I still feel like his humor is a sanitized version of Baxter's but I like that he collects clips of the turtles getting hurt to watch to calm down and that he's actually always ready to throw hands

President Bishop is so stupid, yet brilliant (and I'm going to talk about him in a separate post because the worldbuilding is really something and I have OPINIONS)

Raph commenting that power armors are so last season while fighting Darius made me chuckle even though I won't tolerate this supersuit slander

This moment:

[leiasfanaccount648]

Dear Santa [Manjiro “Mikey” Sano x Fem!Reader]

✧ Twelve Days of Toman ✧ Masterlist

Song to Listen to : Santa Tell Me by Ariana Grande

Genre: Fluff, a bit of crack

Summary: Even at his age, Mikey believes in Santa, as his brother never told him the fabled truth. Not wanting to break his heart, you try and come up with a way to gently break the news to him; however, instead, Mikey reminds you how maybe indulging in your inner child isn’t as bad as the others make it out to be.

Warnings/Contains: Manga spoilers (this takes place after the manga ends) Fluff, Mikey’s dramatic, Shinchiro annoyed with Mikey, the Sano family loves you

WC: 2.0k

December 2018

The holiday season means a multitude of things for families. There’s the buying of gifts so no one is left out, decorating the house; and most of all, keeping everyone happy and in the holiday spirit. For some that means cooking and baking tasty treats, others that means wrapping and bagging gifts to make them customized for the person they’re meant for. For the Sano family however, things are a bit different.

Ever since he first heard of him from his older brother, Mikey loved Santa Claus and looked forward to him visiting every holiday season. Each year without fail, there would be a gift for him wrapped all prettily and signed in what he called ‘santa writing’. There was only one downside. At the bright age of 28, he still believed that Santa Claus existed. All because his big brother never told him that Santa isn’t actually real. And that’s how you got stuck in this situation.

You were Mikey’s new girlfriend, and this was the first holiday season you would be spending together. You were very excited to see everyone again since it had been awhile since you last saw Emma and Shinchiro after meeting them around the 4 month mark, and you and Mikey had started officially dating in February when he asked you out.

You really liked Mikey, and were maybe thinking about dropping the ‘L’ word soon, but for now you were focusing on spending time with your boyfriend and his family. However, instead, you were focusing on keeping him happy so that everyone else could be the same.

“Hi Shin!” You grinned as you saw your boyfriend’s older brother, giving him a hug before holding out a plastic container toward him. “I made some oreo balls. I hope you guys like them.”

“Thank you so much, y/n. I’m sure we will.” Shinchiro smiled, setting the container down on the kitchen counter behind him. “Where’s Mikey?”

“He said he wanted to take a look at the tree to see how many gifts you got him.” You laughed. “The place looks great. I’m glad that you were able to finally find your own place.”

“Me too, thank you.” He nodded. “Maybe soon I can have a girl over.”

“I hope you will come next holiday season so that you won’t be the only single person.” You teased, having learned that Mikey and Shin’s friends both poked fun at the fact that Shinchiro couldn’t seem to get a girlfriend much less land a solid date with someone.

“Shin! You better hope Santa brings me more gifts to make up for your lack there-of!” Mikey called out from the living room. The elder Sano sighed, shaking his head at his brother’s antics.

“I’m sure he will, Mikey.”

Your eyebrows furrowed slightly from the brothers' bickering, not sure if they were joking around since Emma and Draken had a child and most likely gave them gifts from Santa. However, part of you was wondering if they were serious based on the frown that adorn Shinchiro’s face. “Don’t like the Santa tradition?”

“Not when Mikey still thinks he’s real.” Shinchiro sighed. “I know I should have told him, but I was told not to since he was younger than me. Eventually, I thought he would learn on his own how Santa isn’t real, like I did.”

Your mouth fell open, shocked that your boyfriend at the age of 28 still believed in Santa Claus. “No one ever told him?”

“If they didn’t then he didn’t believe them.”

“y/n,” Mikey whined, walking over and hugging you from behind. “Do you think Santa will know to bring your gift here instead of your place since you’re staying the night?’

That was when you knew that Mikey was being serious, and believed that Santa was visiting tonight; and thankfully, that was when Emma and Draken arrived so you didn’t have to answer, or worse, tell him the truth yourself.

“How old is she now?” You asked Emma as you watched Mikey play with her daughter.

“14 months,” Emma grinned. “She’ll turn 2 next October.”

“She’s really growing fast, hm?” You giggled, causing Emma to do the same and nod in agreement.

“She is. She takes after her father in that regard.” She reached for her mug of hot chocolate that rested on the coffee table. “It wouldn’t surprise me if she was 5 feet tall by the age of 6.” She laughed more, and you did the same.

“What’re you girls giggling about?” Shinchiro asked as he walked into the room.

“Your brother-in-law.” Emma said. “And how his daughter will maybe one day surpass him.”

“She better not soon, that’s all I’m saying.” Draken said as he followed Shinchiro into the room before walking over to Emma and handing her a plate of sweets she had asked him for only a few minutes ago.

“You never know, babe. She might be taller than you one day.” She giggled, taking a bite out of one of the oreo balls you made and hummed in delight. “y/n you made these right? They’re delicious!”

“Yes, I did.” You grinned. “Thank you, I’m glad you like them.”

“Don’t eat all of them, Emma.” Mikey said as he set his niece in his lap so that she faced everyone else in the room along with him. “We have to make sure we leave some of the baked goods for Santa.”

“I won’t eat all of them!” Emma pouted. “Besides, with everyone giving Santa sweets, I doubt he’ll eat everything that we give him.”

“You never know!”

You sighed. “Babe, you do know that-”

“y/n!” Shinchiro cut you off, walking over and taking you by the hand. “Can you help me bring the drinks out to everyone else?” He asked, already helping you stand and leading you to the kitchen.

“Shin,” you said quietly, already knowing where this was going. You shook your head as he finally let you go and began to fix everyone else their beverage of choice. “It’s either now or you give him santa presents until you die and he realizes it on his own in the worst way possible.”

“I know, I just..” Shinchiro trailed off, unsure. “I know that he gets upset easily over things he deeply cares about, and I hate to see him that way.”

“I do too, but he’s still a grown man. He’ll get over it eventually.”

Shinchiro sighed. “I just don’t know how to tell him the news.”

“Then why don’t I help you? We all can.” You suggested.

“What do you suggest?”

“I have an idea,” you smiled. “Just leave it to me.”

Once you and Shinchiro finished making drinks, you brought them out to everyone. You then took Mikey’s hand, gently tugging on it. “Babe, can you help me pick out some sweets for us to snack on throughout the night?”

“Sure, babe.” He said, handing the baby to Draken before standing and following you to the kitchen. “Why do you want my help, y/n? You know what I enjoy.”

“I know,” you said, grabbing a plate. “But I wanted to ask so that we could save the best cookies for Santa later tonight.”

“You’re so smart, babe!” Mikey grinned, hugging you. You laughed, swearing that you could see stars in his eyes.

“Yeah, I know I’m pretty great.” You giggled, pulling away from him so you could pick out some of the cookies. A moment later, you spoke up again. “Do you ever wonder why Santa never eats all the cookies we lay out for him? And how one always seems to be only partially eaten?”

There was a pause of silence from Mikey, making you hope that the gears were turning in his head. “Well, there’s only so much time he can spend at each house, right?”

“Yes, but it’s the same every year, is it not?”

“y/n,” Mikey said, taking the plate out of your hands and setting it down on the table. “Are you trying to convince me that Santa isn’t real?”

“...what if I was?” You asked, hesitantly for his reaction.

“I’d tell you that I already knew that.”

“Wait, what?!” You said. “Then what about-”

“How I was acting?” He finished for you, laughing. “I’ve been messing with them all these years so I could get more presents.”

You eyed him, unsure whether or not to laugh, be annoyed, or impressed. “Wait, so you’ve been gaslighting your family just for the sake of getting more presents every year?”

“Well, that’s how it started at first.” Mikey admitted. “But then I kept up the act, because embracing your inner child every now and then can be almost… therapeutic in a way.”

“Your inner child?” You repeated, thinking to yourself. “I never thought about it that way. But,” you added, “you should at least tell your family that you know Santa isn’t real. It isn’t nice to keep up the act that they genuinely believe that you believe. They care about you alot, you know?”

Mikey sighed. “I know, but this has been my way to celebrate the holidays. Sure Shin is single and may never get married, but Emma and Draken are happy with their family and I don’t have much to look forward to this time of year.”

You took hold of his hands, smiling. “Well, this year you have me. And that means that we can do fun, childish things together and still have fun, without lying to your family of course.” You laughed. “Can we not?”

Mikey smiled at your words, squeezing your hands. “Yeah, you’re right.” He gave you a quick kiss. “In that case, what should we do?”

The next morning, at the hour of 7am, you and Mikey woke up giggling like children as you snuck your way into Shinchiro’s room.

“Ready?” Mikey whispered, and you nodded before following him inside.

Shinchiro slept soundly, part of you feeling bad for making him wake up but another part of you felt giddy for getting to do something you haven’t done yourself in so long.

“Wake up, Shin! It’s time to open presents!” Mikey grinned, laughing as he shook his older brother awake. “C’mon, wake up Shin!”

Shinchiro groaned, turning to lay on his side so that his back was facing his younger brother. “Mikey, let me sleep in for another hour. Please.”

You giggled, moving to sit and bounce on the bed. “Nope! It’s time for breakfast and presents, Shin!”

“Wait, y/n?” Shinchiro groaned softly, sitting up with a confused yet sleepy gaze in his eyes. “What’re you doing?”

“Celebrating the holiday. What’s it look like?” You giggled. “Now come on! I’ll help you cook breakfast while Mikey sorts everyone’s gifts.”

With that, you and Mikey left the room, still laughing to yourselves. Shinchiro sighed, sitting up and getting out of bed to head to the kitchen.

“What’s going on?” Emma yawned as she walked out of the guest room and over to Shinchiro as he too left his room.

“Mikey and y/n just woke me up.” He said. “But it was different.”

“Because y/n joined in his antics?”

“No,” he shook his head. “Mikey didn’t bring up Santa.”

“Wait, did y/n get through to him?” Emma asked, relief washing through her.

“Seems like it.” Shinchiro said, just as relieved. He then headed to the kitchen, only to stop when he saw you and Mikey sitting by the tree and gifts that lay underneath. He couldn’t help but think back to when he was younger and sleepily walked out of his room to see Mikey cheering over how many presents he got. While Mikey had kept that act up in one way or another over the years, he had never seen him happier on this annual morning than he did when he saw you indulging in Mikey’s antics.

Maybe embracing that side wasn’t so bad after all; well, at least up until the point where you made Mikey tell his family how he knew the truth about Santa Claus.

Pls comment or send an ask if you would like to be tagged in any of the Twelve Days of Toman fics :)

© copyright leiasfanaccount648 2022

[jinxthejubilee]

Venus de Milo - We Need to Talk

Because I'm desperate to see Rise of Tmnt get a third season, I need to talk about it more. And for that, I must ask this question: What do you guys think of Venus de Milo?

Honestly, I think she could be a great addition to the series. Pretty much anything they do with her would be better than the disgrace that was The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation.

I feel really bad for her because the writers never gave her a chance to be her own character. They just fell back on a bunch of period-typical tropes for female characters and never even utilized those tropes in an interesting way.

So if Venus was in ROTTMNT, here are the questions/ideas I have for both the writers, and the audience:

Since the boys are all four different species of turtles, what kind of turtle would she be?

(Maybe a diamondback?)

What color should her mask be?

It shouldn't be just a lighter color of one of the boys, she needs to be distinct.

I would say yellow, but that's Jennika's color.

Maybe silver?

Should they change her name to an actual female Renaissance artist?

If so, what would it be? And if not, what is the backstory of how she was named "Venus de Milo?"

If they keep her as the long lost sister of our main 4, how did she get separated from them in the first place?

Did Draxum keep her separated on purpose before they all got mutated?

Was she thrown out because Draxum no longer thought she was a suitable candidate for his experiments?

What was the reason?

How would they all meet each other?

Probably fighting each other, if I'm being honest. That's basically how they've met everyone in this series.

What would her weapon be?

I would say a fan, but people might be bothered that they assigned a traditionally "feminine" weapon to the only other girl in the group.

Maybe the tetsubo?

The kyoketsu-shoge?

Either way, she needs her own weapon unless they want to keep her magical powers from the original show, which would actually work really well in this particular series.

How would the creators revamp her personality?

Raphael in this series is kinda like a den mother already, so if they keep that aspect of her character the same as she was in The Next Mutation, they may need to dial that back a notch.

Maybe she could be very shy, skittish, and awkward, but once she warms up to her family and friends' love and acceptance, she gets more excitable and fun.

Also, maybe replace "motherly" with just "very formal," as in she speaks very formally and has a hard time loosening up around people.

She can still have that somewhat oblivious nature when it comes to references and cultural idioms, like she did in The Next Mutation, but not too much to the point that it becomes annoying. She just doesn't know how to interact normally due to her upbringing.

I've seen art and a few stories like this before, but what if before Draxum became a good guy (or this could be Big Mama, whoever works), he created Venus by mutating her with a small sample of Splinter's DNA?

If not a baby, then a little girl? Around 10 years old or so? Just throwing some ideas out there.

Which goes into my next question: Should Venus be older or younger than Mikey?

We all know that Mikey is baby, and people might want him to stay that way.

Unless they want Mikey to be the older brother for once and be the best and awesomest big brother ever!

I'd say this is less likely to happen though.

The most likely option is Venus being older than Mikey, but younger than Leo and Donnie.

I can dig the awkward big sister and excitable little brother dynamic.

Another idea that I saw was making Venus the same age as Leo and Donnie so that the three of them could be "triplets," and personally, I love that idea.

Speaking of Big Mama, I saw some people speculating that this person:

Might be Venus, who works for Big Mama.

That could be an interesting take on her.

Maybe after Draxum threw her out, she was found by Big Mama or one of workers and now serves under her.

Building up relationships

This is definitely going to be a separate discussion for another day, but Venus' relationships with everybody could be an awesome topic to explore.

The personalities of every single character in this show are very distinct and they bounce off each other very well, so what would happen if you throw Venus into the mix?

First off, getting rid of the idea of Venus as a love interest is a must since she will be revamped as their sister.

The boys are used to having a older sister figure in their lives because of April, so how would having a younger sister work?

Raph would obviously be a bit overprotective as usual, making sure she's comfortable and feels safe around them, which depending on her personality, she could appreciate it immensely, or not, but for the sake of his feelings, she doesn't say anything.

Donnie would be happy to have another person to show off his inventions, and they could bond over her actually taking interest in what he has to say.

Leo would be the one she talks to/is the most comfortable around, since he's pretty chill and understands that he shouldn't overwhelm her like Raph or the others tend to do. That said, Leo would be siked to have another sibling, and would show her all that she needs to know about their family, their favorite pizza places, and how they work together as a team.

Mikey would be the top brother excited to have a sister. Younger or older, he'd drag Venus around like a ragdoll to show her anything and everything! Pizza, games, arts and crafts, the Jupiter Jim movies, everything! He might be a little annoying when he gets like this, but that adorable smile on his face breaks down any resistance Venus has.

Master Splinter is an interesting one. He might feel guilty for essentially abandoning Venus, leading her to work for Draxum, Big Mama, or whatever villain she serves, if she serves anyone at all. Maybe she'll be a bit resentful of him for that, and avoid interacting with him for a while, until he eventually apologizes and makes an attempt to kindle a father-daughter relationship with her. Once they get there though, it's very sweet, with Splinter promising to be there for her and make up for lost time.

GIRLS NIGHT WITH APRIL AND SUNITA!!! This needs to happen! All three girls banning together and having little adventures of their own. If Venus is the shy one of the group, April and Sunita can show her the ropes and help build up her confidence. Positivity is a must! 🌟

And, of course, like every character on this show, we need some trauma. Paranoia is her worst enemy.

A plausible reason of why Venus is so quiet is because she was order never to speak out of line or she would be punished. She was like a robot, who never gained her own identity as she was only seen as a tool.

She's so afraid of making others upset to the point that she overthinks everything and just stops talking altogether.

Sometimes her fears and ridiculous assumptions about what could happen can be played for laughs, but her anxious nature is just...not fun for her.

Which leads to everyone helping her break out of her comfort zone and become more comfortable with the family and the outside world overall.

They might be too pushy at times, but they only have good intentions. However, these things take time, and they must learn to be more patient.

All in all, I think that Venus could be a splendid character if the people in charge of TMNT actually TRY to play with her personality and backstory, and not just let her become a walking don't list for how not to create a female character in a male-centric franchise.

Soooo...that's it! If you made it this far, first of all, thank you so much! And second, let me know how you would interpret Venus' character. We NEED this show to come back, and I want to give this girl justice!

Once again, thank you all so much for reading! Stay safe out there! And I'll see you later! Byeee! 💗

[turtleboyz]

Character Analysis: 2012 Season 5: Leo

In season 5, half of the season was “what if” / AU series. The first and second half of the season, to me, is canon. During this season, Leo was more relaxed and at times happy. I don’t know how long it’s been since Splinter died, but it seems so far, Leo is doing ok or is trying to be ok.

For this series, Leo was one, if not the most, out of the characters that had the most focus on him. This version of Leo is the leader from the beginning, which plays a big part of his character. I think the reason why Leo had the most characterization is because of 3 things.

1 the boys just start going above ground, there inexperienced about the topside. Also immediately going uptop, they witness a kidnapping.

2 Splinter plays an active role as teacher here. While also being distant. While splinter isn’t the best father, he does try to give his sons lessons and how to fight.

3 since the boys are immediately shoved into the plot. They haven’t gotten to explore New York without any pressure. Without relaxing and acting like teenagers. Unlike their Rise counterparts

During the series Leo takes his role as leader very serious. But he also simultaneously hates it. During season 1, he try to quit being leader, he says that he didn’t feel respect or that his brothers don’t even thank him. When Splinter find out, he tells Leo that it’s his responsibility. A common issue in this series is that Splinter only talks to Leo the most out of the siblings. Sure thats because Leo goes to Splinter to deal with problems/ the writers making Splinter into a wise master. But this has negative effects.

Leo is only 15 when he becomes leader. At 17-ish, he killed Shredder and became leader of the Hamato clan. As well as having to raise himself and his brothers. Three years. That how long he’s been leader and in that short span Leo has multiple times, try to sacrifice himself for his family. I’ve even say that in season 4, Leo is actively depressed and even borderline suicidal. In episode 4 Leo keeps talking to a simulator of splinter, his brothers notice that’s his not himself, and during a mission he jumps in front of rocket to save one of his brothers. In episode 14 he goes on a solo mission, after hearing that Fugitoid made the black hole machine. In that same episode, Leo died.

Leo repeatedly love and hates his role as leader. During season 2 Leo activity starts teaching his brothers in different ninja training. His training methods are complete different from Splinter’s. While Splinter has the boys fight each other or meditating, Leo turn the training into games. Learning how to fight on the light wires, base off of king of the hill. Training in the shadows by pranking Mikey. His was of training seem more hands on and even fun, while Splinter’s is more traditional.

Leo’s role is two things; the Golden Child, and the Caregiver. Splinter’ teaches Leo, Leo teaches his brothers. As the Golden Child, Leo on purpose or. not, looks down on his brothers. When Leo is stress, he takes it out on Donnie. Most of the time it’s Raph and Leo that fights. But there are times, season 4 and 5, were Leo and Donnie get into “fights”. We’re they yell at one another. Or many times Leo treats Mikey, who is the same age as leo, as a younger child. Telling him to clean his mess or no video games, telling him to stay at the lair to not get hurt. With Raph, while they have a bit of equal ground. Leo still look down on Raph and try to not make him angry and violent.

The only sibling Leo doesn’t look down on is Karai. Taking the “romance” subplot and looking at it through the lens of Leo admiring or envies of Karai help show more of Leo character. In season 1 Karai and Leo are each other’s foil. Leo wants freedom and no responsibility, Karai wants a friend, and to not be so involved with her father’s revenge. By the end of the series, the two more or less achieved their goals. But Leo is the one that activity tries to make Karai going their side. To “save her”.

Leo’s negative traits, beside the self sacrificing, is his control issues and anger. Leo doesn’t like when others take control, even if his alternative self. The only time Leo doesn’t mind this is when he lets others take the control. His anger is also a issue, while not as bad as Raph’s or Donnie’s. It’s still there, it can be seen when he’s fighting or when his brothers aren’t respecting or listen to him. Another bad trait he has is that he believes that he has to do things by himself. He don’t let people know about Karai as first, he doesn’t tell his family we’re he’s going/keeping secrets.

At the end of the series, Leo activity kills shredder. In the beginning of the show, Leo was, is, a kid that love space and heroes. While his views of heroes is a bit screwed, he believes not to hurt people. When the purple dragons were first introduced, Leo didn’t hurt them, just scared them. As the series progresses, Leo moral’s change and he is seen getting more violent and willing to cause arson or hurt something in the name of his family and what is right.

As for Leo mental and physical status. This boy canonical both died, and is disabled. He was in a 3 month coma. He died in space and had to have his heart jumped, his knee is permanently or semi-permanent damage, and his voice/throat is permanently damage. In real life, all these things can have major issues.

His throat can give him breathing problems, his knee would make him have chronic pain, him having his heart jumped can cause heart problems. He also been electrocuted many times. As for mental, many times in the series the boys experience hallucinations. And in season 5, Leo starts to hallucinate, both auditory and visibly see Splinter. Leo still goes and looks for Splinter as a guide. He also seems to have slight anxiety and depression. And implied autism.

Leo isn’t a boring character. I love him and I think he’s very complicated and cool :)

[virgilisspidey]

Since I am bored, here is what i think the rise boys would be like if they were in the 2012 storyline

(All the other characters remain as their 2012 versions, only the turtle brothers are swapped)

✨Season 1 edition✨

(first few are from the episode "Rise of the Turtles" and the rest are just jumbled)

Since i dont think you can just go up and buy an alligator snapping turtle and a spiny softshell turtle as pets let's say Splinter worked at a zoo or something

Leo, Donnie and Raph were new arrivals while Mikey just hatched a few days ago amd Splinter was assigned to idk, take care of them

Splinter was about to let them join with the others in their enclosure but the Kraang arrived to try and get some animals for testing

Splinter fought them, accidentally getting the mutagen on himself and the turtle, mutating them and turning him into a rat (he was feeding the snakes with rats before he went to check on the turtles)

He ran off with the turtles, trying to get away from the kraang and taking care of the new turtle tots at rhe same time

They still have different ages, Mikey being 13, Donnie and Leo being 14 and Raph being 15

Only Mikey has an exact birthday since he was hatched when Splinter was there, Donnie and Leo arrived at the zoo at the same time so they considered them twins while Raph arrived in a different time.

They celebrate mutation day with the tradition of Splinter telling them their "super hero origin story"

Raph was the only one actually allowed to go up top since he's 15 but the brothers complained and he promised to watch out for his brothers when they do

They are a lot more stealthy than they were before, it's a necessity for Raph, since he's big

Raph was the one that suggested they save April (instead of 2012 Donnie)

Leo and Donnie were ready to run off and had to be dragged back to join them in saving the girl

They fail miserably because they're not used to working together yet

Raph volunteers to be the leader (instead of 2012 Leo)

Leo was the one that threatened Snake when they caught him

"Let's play a game I creatively call, Mutation roulette! You can turn out as handsome as moi! Or you can turn into Donnie." "Wow." "Shut up, Donnie, you're ruining my drama!"

Raph had a hard time coming up with a strategy until Leo butts himself in

Leo is still the turtle that taunts Snakeweed to the power source thing

Donnie is still the turtle that saves April from the helicopter

Because none of them has a crush on April, there's no excuse at writing her badly.

Instead of the classic Leo and Raph rivalry, it's Donnie and Leo that fights for Splinter's attention

The spiderbytes episode would not happen because Raph is still like his Rise self, nothing really changes

It also wont happen because Mikey steals the phone, Leo smashes it on the pavement and Donnie makes sure no one believes the man

Donnie has a traditional bo instead of his tech bo because i dont think he can get his advanced tech in the living conditions of 2012

Plus Splinter is a but more strict on the hacking of banks

Since Jupiter Jim does not exist, they only ever watch Space Heroes, Mikey absolutely loves it

Donnie names Metalhead "Shelldon"

Leo thinks the name is so boring for such a cool robot

Raph still has Spike

Mikey still tries to befriend Chris Bradford and is the first to kick him in the ass when he finds out what he reslly is

When Splinter asked Raph whybhe thinks he was chosen as the leader, he answers with:

"Because i'm the eldest, and as the eldest, its my job to protect my brothers"

His answer is another reason why he won't be staying as leader for long

He is very much into the idea of being heroes

Often times Leo is the one that ends up giving strategies and ideas to the team

This caused somewhat of a fight between Donnie and Leo because Donnie thinks Leo is trying to steal the leader spot from Raph to get Splinter's approval

(don't worry they may fight for Splinter's attention but they're still twins through and through)

"Trying to steal the— you don't even listen to Raph half the time!" "Yeah because the ideas come from you!" "Those ideas helped us win!" "If you would just let Raph think for himself then—" "Fine! I'm gone!"

Leo walks away after that argument

"See if you can work as a team without me then!"

Karai ambushes Leo as usual

Leo sees her as a challenger, a fresh of breath air

"Look at what you did, Donnie! Leo's crying!" "It's just blinding powder, Mikey, this ninja ambushed me and—" "Someone ambushed you?! Are you alright?!" "I'm fine, Raph, geez."

Splinter taught him a lesson that he already knew.

His brothers doesn't need him, he needs his brothers.

The incident with Snakeweed happens like before, Mikey still gets knocked out and Raph only ever tells Donnie to attack and Donnie, out of pride, has to follow orders.

Raph tells them to retreat even if Donnie doesn't want to

Donnie ends up finding Leo and Karai on the rooftop before they plan on stealing the sword. (instead of 2012 raph finding him)

Leo does the naming most of the time

Mikey still tames and names Leatherhead and instead of the weird pizza soup, he actually cooks hims something nice

Mikey loves cooking and when April gabe them groceries from time to time as a thanks, he took that as a sign to learn how to cook

He shudders everytime he remembers they were eating algae and worms for most of the 13 years of their lives

Also the first to discover pizza

Him and April bond over cooking

Donnie ends up being close to April like a sister, he's slowly turning her into ghe darkside

"Stop corrupting her, Donnie" "She already came in like this."

Donnie wants to go to April's school but he knows he can't

His motivation of saving Kirby is not because of April (maybe a little bit since he's a bit guilty that he at first, was about to ignore her when she needed help) but because he wants to prove himself

He named the Newtrilizer like usual and Leo is offended

The whole A team, B team still happens, but the B team ends up being menaces.

The purple dragons do not like Leo and Donnie, most importantly they don't like Mikey (Mikey yelled at them for choosing a life of crime instead of actually working for once)

Donnie and Leo had a little bit too much fun rolling Chris Bradford around in the trash can when they used him as hostage in exchange of Murakami

Mikey smiling down on him was the last one he saw before he was shoved in said trash can

Most of the ninjas are afraid of how big Raph is

The brothers bully Baxter Stockman as per usual

The parasitica episode is practically the same, but Raph and Donnie's bites hurt a lot more

Instead on just focusing on tech, Donnie is more rounded and has knowledge with chemistry and biology

Leo is team medic because Donnie does not want to touch the ew

It's practically the same when they first encountered the Shredder, but Donnie and Leo kept on attacking

Mikey went in his shell when the billboard fell on him

Leo went out of his way to impress Karai whenever she shows up because he wanted to look cool and a better rival

Donnie ends up telling them about Karai

Mikey thinks she can be good

Raph doesn't trust her like Donnie

Raph ends up being the one that has to drive the Shellraiser

Leo drives if Raph can't

Raph can't have his own go cart because he's too big

The whole mutant cockroach thing went differently because Raph isn't afraid of cockroaches

At the season finale, Leo overhears Splinter telling Raph that the mission must always be accomplished no matter what or who is the cost

He took that to heart

As the Technodrome began to fall from the sky, Leo saves Mikey from falling in the gaps and uses his brother's kusarigama chains to hold Kraang Prime back

"GO!" "Leo! I'll hold em back, give me the chains—" "Get them out, Raph! April can't barely stand, you're the only one that can carry her and our brothers to an escape pod in time!" "I am NOT leaving you—" "I SAID GO ALREADY!"

Raph understands that and grabs Mikey, and Donnie (and in extention April, since Donnie was struggle a bit when carrying her)

Donnie tries to run back out to Leo but Raoh closes the pod.

"'Nardo!" ("Leonardo!")

Donnie was, honest to god, ready to cry.

Mikey was ready to dive into the ocean despite not knowing how to swim

Raph thinks back to what Splinter said. He thought it was supposed to be him that's under water, not Leo. He's the big brother, he's supposed to be doing the sacrificial acts

"Missed me already?" "LEO!"

Cue in a turtle pile plus April

He got scolded real good by Raph

Splinter apologizes in the end about what he implied and was glad his sons are back and that the world is saved

Splinter suddenly says that Leo is the leader now (after Raph suggested it)

(damn this got unnecessarily long)

[builtlikeastickofcelery]

quick read

using shape language (?) to establish character dynamics (and sorta prove that donnie is the older twin) just for fun!!

rise has very shape-focused designs for the brothers, so it’s very easy to apply shape language to each of them. For example, mikey: He is a very round and circular character, from his markings to his weapon (in season one especially) to the literal shape of his head compared to his brother’s. When it comes to shape language, a circle is a symbol of community, friendship and unity, very similar to what mikey appears to value (at least with his family and separate from dr. delicate touch). Circles can also symbolize power, infinity, and balance, which I think hints at mikey’s future potential in the mystic arts (and also that he’s like freakishly strong for his size). and as a nice extra touch, the hamato clan crest is also very circular! (yes I know it’s supposed to look like a pizza leave me alone I’m having a Time) OH AND circles also serve as symbols of perfection :] This is in contrast to leo, who is very triangular, with his markings, weapon and head shape. Triangles symbolize adrenaline, speed, conflict, and sometimes danger, which is on par with leo’s more reckless tendencies, internal issues and spontaneity (it’s also the strongest shape!) However, all his markings are not perfect triangles and are instead curved, which symbolizes (if you unnecessarily over-read into character design choices) him still valuing community and family. (And yes I know there has to be curved elements in pretty much all art so gentle reminder that you’re the one reading this and I can over-analyze this if I want to). Another note is that all of leo’s markings point slightly down, which in relation to triangles is a sign of imbalance or instability.

And then you have a character like raph, who is very square-like, again with his head shape and (specifically season one) weapons. Raph is also meant to be the oldest and most responsible brother, which lines up perfectly with the shape language in his character design. Squares tend to be used to convey solidity, reliability, familiarity, and strength, which is very accurate to how raph’s character as the eldest child is presented. It’s important to know, however, that the square is not (structurally) the strongest shape, despite the way it looks, which often contrasts with the way raph presents himself as the rock or leader.

Similarly, donnie’s design is almost entirely rectangular, from his weapon, to his head shape, to his markings, to his armor. And because rectangles and squares are very similar shapes, they convey similar themes. Similar, not the same. The more abnormal shape of the rectangle adds a less solid feeling to it, as well as the fact that most of the rectangles in donnie’s design are upright and long, which can often be a sign of instability or (structural) insecurity.  This also applies to 2012 to an extent, since they’re also reasonably stylized, however it’s wayyyy less present, especially in Leo and donnie’s designs since all of them are more round (it’s STILL THERE THOUGH)

ANYWAY donnie is the older twin because he is made of older brother shapes and also we’d know if leo was older because he’d probably say something about it in the show. ANOTHER THING THOUGH because a lot of raph’s design isn’t really square-oriented; you have his head and sort of his silhouette, but if you look at the details, for example his plastron, you’ll find that he’s surprisingly triangular! I think this shows that a) he took on the mantle of responsibility at a young age which permanently shaped him as a person despite that not really being his whole identity, and b) that he is very structurally sound because triangles are the most structurally sound shape.

Sorry if this was incoherent I’m having a hard time drawing rn so take my awful analysis!

[thedawningofthehour]

While I love the Disaster Twins, I am also a big fan of the PB&J Duo (or Smarts N Crafts as some would call it). I also believe in the head/fan canon that between the time that season 2 ended and the movie took place, Mikey and Donnie leaned on each other as Leo fought with them and Raph, making things become tense in the new lair? What would happen if DOTH! Leo went into the canonverse around the time of the ROTTMNT movie? Would he be mad upon finding out how canon Leo acted/hurt his twin?

The more I think about it, the more I think making Leo the leader was a terrible move on Splinter's part, both as a sensei and as a father. Like yes, he needed to shape up and start taking things more seriously to take advantage of his talents-but that wasn't the way to do it. It's shown that Leo will rise to the occasion and take over if he feels like he needs to, and Raph was willing to listen to him and defer to his tactics. Thrusting Leo into that role with the assumption he'll learn on the job, that just endangered the whole team.

And it completely ruined the brothers' relationships with each other. Raph pulled away from everyone, terrified that Leo's lack of discipline would get one of his brothers killed and focusing on trying to get Leo to shape up and take his role seriously-and he couldn't, you can't force someone to change like that, Leo had to decide to clean up his act himself. Leo just started acting like a little shit in the hopes his dad would go back on his decision and formally reinstall Raph as leader. They were both at each other's throats, and neither would feel like they could be open and honest with their other brothers about how they were feeling, because they were supposed to be Better than that.

And I know I can't put that all on the characters themselves, it's totally the fault of Nick being absolutely fucking cowards and saying Leo had to end up as leader because Leo Is The Leader and we can't walk away from tradition, (also haven't forgiven them for saying Cass couldn't be Casey Jones, like, BRO) while at the same time cutting the show in half and giving the crew like five minutes to throw together a finale. But still. Yeah, Donnie and Mikey likely would have gotten closer as their brothers pushed themselves farther apart, both from each other and their other brothers. Especially with April (and potentially Cass, she's the same age) off at college and a lot busier than usual.

I mean, doth Leo would absolutely agree with canon Leo's decision to lock himself in the Prison Dimension. No price too high to keep his family safe, after all. I don't think he'd really be that different from canon Leo's feelings? Like, canon Leo does obviously feel guilty about what he's doing, and later on he realizes how stupid he's been. Doth Leo would still feel terrified at the thought of being the leader, being responsible for the lives of people he loves. At least at this point in doth.