#sewer mutants

[fryandleelasbigfling]

idk if i ever talked about this but leela’s behavior in “teenage mutant leela’s hurdles” vs her parents’ behavior fascinates me so much. like she immediately jumps to trying to be a Normal Teen Girl because she never had that life, while her parents don’t really understand why she needs that and barely give her any restrictions. 

and it’s funny, but it also kind of makes you realize that the way leela sees her parents and the way her parents see her are totally different. leela did not grow up knowing she was loved, and she came out feeling alone and desperate to prove herself as a normal, capable, independent person. but her parents kept an eye on her as much as they could, so they knew she was safe and loved. they also convinced themselves there was no way she would ever be happy with them in the sewers and that knowing the truth would embarrass her, so from their POV, she had the happier life. why would she ever want to come back and live with them? there’s no way anything she faced on the surface would be worse than their lives right? (”less than hero” also doubles down on this because they assume so easily that she’s ashamed of them and won’t be upset when they die. brutal!)

also, while morris offering her alcohol and not setting a strict curfew and such could just be because they still see her as an adult, i also headcanon the sewers have a different sense of what’s normal in raising children. we don’t see many children down there, nor even many families besides the turangas, and since it’s obviously a very insular community, i imagine most kids would be free-range, sort of raised by the community. everybody has adapted to the environment, so as long as you stay underground (and away from crocodiles), there’s probably not much from which you’d need to keep kids safe. and with the extremely low budget you can’t be picky with what kids eat and drink and watch and read. from what we know of mutant culture, vulgarity is pretty normalized cuz like... you can’t help it there, it’s what “polite” society sends underground.  

so i think this all adds new layers to later episodes where morris and munda don’t always understand why leela is upset about being forced into anger management, mutating uncontrollably, and infamously the munda/zapp thing. as much as they love her, they assume her life will always be better on the surface, because they gave her up specifically for that purpose. (given that munda is implied to have a lot of repressed disdain for her living situation, i think she might have even wanted to live a bit vicariously through her daughter, while morris seems more attached to mutant values -- even their reaction to lars supports this.) i don’t think leela is willing enough to be open about her trauma to address this, and i think it really upsets her to think that her family, after all this time, would be imperfect, which is probably one of many reasons she’s so upset in “zapp dingbat.” 

[charcoaldustonmyfingers]

Splinter mutation speculation! This one is actually pretty old, I drew it before I did all that research on turtles :)

Fun facts about rats: When they are happy, they do a thing called bruxing and boggling, wherein they will grind their teeth together sometimes to the point where the muscles of their jaw make their eyes wiggle in their sockets. They also don’t have paw pads the way dogs or cats do, but instead have little bumps of thicker skin. Look up happy pet rats, they’re absolutely adorable!

These are mostly just my head canons for Splinter as an old jokester with a messed up past trying to do better for the future. We don’t actually see much of him in the show despite dialogue refrencing his daily lessons and his great ‘embarrassing dad’ comedy, so I wanted to speculate of how he might be when the cameras not rolling, per se. It’s tough being the single father of four teenagers without the help of a community, but the brothers are pretty well adjusted (relatively speaking) and are loving towards each other and open to others.

In terms of his anatomy though, while rats may look chubby, it’s in part because of their curved spine and rodent posture. They can get pretty slim when they stretch out. It may be because of these changes to his skeleton that Splinter seemingly shank so much from his human form, while still having the strength to beat people up despite his age. He also made a vow to stop fighting in the Battle Nexus leading to his eventual mutation, which he does break when his kids are on the line, but could be a reason as to why he avoided many of their squabbles in the show? Who knows!

There’s a lot to work with from little characterizations, and it’s fun to see all the different interpretations of his character!

[General][Raph][Donnie][Leo][Mikey]

[sweeneydino]

Don’t fuck with the rat dad.

Template and og

[mipmoth]

If they lived in the subway tunnels they'd have these surfaces accseses and get in & out tmnt style through random manhole covers

[turtleblogatlast]

Every day I’m haunted by the fact the boys happily swim in sewer water

Even if it’s filtered somehow there’s no way it’s not still nasty 😭 Bet they can defeat any of their villains just by accidentally giving them diseases I swear

[holy-sweetsour-milk]

forgot to post this one here too 

[shantechni]

Watching April try to convince this guy that she's a cop will never not be funny to me

Girl looks more suspicious than him, c'mon💀

[teaposee]

Dumb doodle of a situation me and my partner came up with (rottmnt x bnha (bkdk) crossover)

[thankchaosforspellcheck]

I firmly believe that the 1987 & 2003 tmnt guys are solely focused on comics or cartoons, and thus would categorize the Rise crew as "cartoony but somehow slightly different from how 1987 is cartoony"

2012 HOWEVER canonically have a voltron knock-off that they watch on the reg, and DEFINITELY would take one look at these morons and go "oh no they're ANIME PROTAGONISTS"

[missmisnomer]

born to serve brat summer green 365 💚

[yki-dolls]

loser simp man

OH BABY I AM SO BACK

Commissions open

[classy-thief]

🌺 A couple of quick crossover sketches i did after seeing the mario movie!!

[indieyuugure]

(Turtle-tober 8: Sewers)

Lol, I don’t think the turtles are gonna be the only ones asking questions when April wakes up 🤣

[theyhavetakenovermylife]

Okay, but why do I love these outfits so much????

My boys being super color full here!

[sweeneydino]

Head of the Family.

You have no idea how much I hated drawing the other leg.

I nearly amputated it.

[circusinarun]

if you’re up to a request, may I suggest Turtle Tots?

Sure! I'm too sleepy to make good sketches that I absolutely adore, so... Take those (still pretty though)

I really like one small Leo hdc. I think, when he was younger, he could easily go surf the trash bin to find some treasures. Now he's too "clean" For this

Mikey! Even in his baby form, still stronk

It's not a "death" glare It's "i don't see anything" Glare

Brother video game bonding time! (Sorry, i just really like to draw lil Leo, he's so silly billy)

My baby's first sheding... We believe in you, Raphie <3333333

And lil Pril

Ma gurl!