#sry jennika

[coconut-oil-smells]

I just donated blood so here's my reasons why the ninja turtles would donate blood. Even if they shouldn't.

Leo: thinks it's good for team building

Mickey: likes giving back to the community

Doniphan: does it annually to decrease the levels of microplastics in his blood

Raph: doesn't do it cuz he doesn't want to be caught unawares low on blood

[nomaishuttle]

SHES IN A BAND??? GUYS

[snackugaki]

a return to square 1

now that we’ve all been thoroughly blasted by the Rise movie I can take another stab at being more thoughtful in designing Venus for Rise. 

first, a refresher:

prologue | part 1 | part 2 | part 2 ½ | part 3 | part 4a | part 4b (ish?)

supplementary doodles: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

just gonna go full AU divergence, let whoever Big Mama’s Assistant be whoever (after thinking it over, it does sorta seem to more likely it’s Jennika), still gonna keep her start as an initiate, acolyte-adjacent, monk-ish kid running around in the Hidden City, ward to the crow yokai who adopted her as a foundling. 

We never saw who Draxum’s bodyguard was, they were alluded to during a crew discussion only (unless I missed a design reveal somewhere). in the same vein that me and a bunch of others I’ve seen that think Assistant is Jennika based... pretty much on those claws at the end of her hands, then the bodyguard could be mostly likely be Venus. i’m basing that theory on the very very VERY scant information we have from the show, 1) Draxum is adept at the mystic arts from magical item manipulation to summoning to.... I dunno, what do you call it when he set up the memory dive into Splinter’s mind? he can draw magic circles and operate them as seen when he had to move the boys to another memory.

2) dude wears Venus’ signature cyan post-team switch, can’t scream foreshadowing louder than that

3) Draxum straight up opens a portal to another plane to let the Hamatos go in and snatch up sword!Karai, original Venus taught the boys how to dreamwalk and guided them through a dream plane, ehh? ehhhhhh? *eyebrow waggle*

4) to me, the most record scratch, eyebrow quirking part: he uses armored bees just as Venus did in the original Next Mutation show. Venus’ armored bees and Draxum’s both were used to ensnare and trap opponents. though to concede, Venus’ exploded into a sticky goo, Draxum’s apparently auto-dug into the ground and sprouted as vines

the trip up for me in designing is what exactly “Draxum’s bodyguard” means. the first time I thought about it I had imagined as Draxum taking a younger Venus under his wing, teaching her (give or take realizing she was one of his anti-humanity soldier experiments), becoming his protege of sorts, prrrobably committed to his cause, becoming adept enough in both her mystic and physical prowess and takes it upon herself to protect him.. just real wuxia tropey about it.

but like... Draxum’s cool with hiring muscle, re: Garm and Freki so why wouldn’t he also just hire a bodyguard. it would make more sense this way but it depends on some characterization I’m shaky on for Draxum. he believed in his cause enough to go to Optimus, Arcee and Megatron (I forgot what those giant head characters were called only that their VAs voiced those transformers sry kids) for support. after that, I thought that maybe he’d be a little more discerning about who he recruits to bolster his plans which would be a little more lenient to my original idea. 

...

fuck it we ball au divergence, wuxia tropey protege > disciple > adamant protector pipeline it is.