#turtle-dega nights: the ballad of rat man

[untitled-tmnt-blog]

TMayNT Day 16: Favorite Episode

Day 16 of @tmaynt -- just some quick pen sketches for today!

It's so difficult to choose a favorite episode... but this scene in "Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man" is one of my favorite moments, for sure! Everything from the expressions, to the voice acting, to the dialogue was just perfection. This was such a needed moment between Donnie and Splinter, and I love it so much!

(TMayNT 2024 Masterpost)

Sketches/redraws of these frames:

[randomrottmntscreenshots]

Important: The boys with the cutest smiles in your opinion

the answer is yes

[risequotes]

Daily Rise Quotes: DAY 224

Splinter: When was the last time we did something together?

Donnie: Hmm, let's see... 278 days ago. You said, "Hi Purple." To Raph.

Splinter: Exactly!

(Season 1, Episode 22A - Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man)

[rottmnt-reaction-images]

[ghostlypanda]

reasons to watch rise: this scene between splinter and donnie.

i debated cutting this clip down but i couldn't bring myself to not include the entire thing. donnie's reaction to being lied to by his dad is so raw and splinter actually fuckin apologizing to him without turning his feelings into a joke - this show is a downright masterpiece.

[alexcaninnit]

Man, watching the ballad of the rat man episode knowing what happens gives me PAIN this poor boy he just wants to be loved

[rottmntquotes]

Leo: *To Casey* I'm very proud of you, son.

Donnie:

Casey Jr.:

[riseepshowdown]

Insane in the Mama Train: With the Dark Armor nearly complete, the turtles realize that it's time for them to get serious and to fully embrace their ninja heritage. They then put their new training to the test when April is in trouble on Big Mama's shipping train.

Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad of the Rat Man: When Splinter offers to enter a car fair with the Turtle Tank, Donnie and Mikey enthusiastically agree to this chance to bond with their father. Little do the two know, Splinter entered them into a demolition derby to reclaim his glory.

[risestarkiss]

Rise Ramblings #323

...You know what scene lives rent free in my head?

The opening of "Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man."

Do you know why?

In Splinter's dream, roses are bouncing off of his face. Come to find out, his bad behind kids are throwing Fruit Loops at his snout in hopes of getting one into his mouth.

Do you think Leo was just scapegoating Donnie, or do you think that Donnie really made the winning shot?

...I think Donnie might have made that shot.

And here's why.

Naw, just kidding. That was Leo all day with his misbehaving self.

I love this family!

❤️🧡💙💜🤎

[our-happygirl500-fan]

Something that I think is kind of interesting is what Rise did with the traditional Leo & Splinter dynamic, throughout the different iterations of TMNT Leo is usually the one to take after Splinter the most & the same is true in Rise as well.

Leo: Relax. We’ll do what we always do. Ninja in, ninja their faces, ninja out.

Splinter: Once the hounds sniff out the boys, I ninja them out!

It’s been shown that Leo can often have a similar style of both talking & thinking as Splinter has as in the movie Leo was also shown to say similar phrases to things that Splinter had said in the show, Leo’s original plan to save Raph being to ‘ninja in, ninja out’ is also similar to Splinter’s plan to save the Turtles in the episode End Game.

Leo: Sorry, I missed that. Can you repeat everything from... well, everything?

Grandpa Sho: Yoshi! You never listen to me

Splinter: What was that? I wasn’t listening

It has also been shown that Leo has some of the same avoidance tactics as Splinter as in the movie Leo expresses a similar actions when he is trying to avoid talking to Raph about being the leader of the team that a young human Splinter expressed when he was trying to avoid his destiny as a Hamato to spend his life protecting the world from the Shredder.

It is also possible that Splinter also might have trained primarily with a sword when he was younger as we see a sword in a young Splinter’s bedroom similar to how we sometimes see swords whenever we are shown Leo’s bedroom.

There have also been a few people who have pointed out that Splinter had a similar pose in the episode Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man when throwing Donnie as the future version of Leo did when throwing Casey Junior through the time gateway.

Future Leo: Casey, when you’re done saving the world, do me a favour. Grab a slice!

Splinter: Bring home the win boys

Members of the Rise team have also said that putting Leo in a Lou Jitsu outfit in the episode Many Unhappy Returns was also partly meant to be symbolic on how Leo is the Turtle most like a younger Splinter

However though Splinter & Leo share a lot of similarities unlike most iterations of TMNT where those similarities make Leo arguably the Turtle closest with Splinter, in Rise those similarities actually cause Leo & Splinter to clash with one another.

Leo: What do you even know about training anyway? You’re just a rat

Leo: Trust me

Splinter: I do not!

Leo: No! I’m not going back to whats-his-rat

Splinter: Oh why did I ever trust you to handle this? My other sons would’ve taken this seriously!

There are a few times in Rise where Leo & Splinter clash where Splinter seems to not like Leo’s attitude or Leo seems resentful of Splinter however even though the two clash there is still a lot of love between them both.

Leo: Dad was right, and we were so mean to him

Leo: Locked in a cage, failed in our mission, held for ransom by the Foot, and none of us gave him grandchildren! Somehow I think he wanted more

Leo is shown to regret whenever he lashes out at Splinter & seems kind of visibly upset at the prospect of disappointing him

Splinter: Where is Leo? And, uh, Future Boy?

While Splinter has shown concern over Leo’s safety & has literally fallen to his knees in grief at the prospect of loosing Leo.

Splinter & Leo both love each other in Rise but I think it is kind of interesting where Rise has taken what previously made Splinter & Leo so close in other iterations & instead caused them to clash instead

[dandylovesturtles]

actually not that anyone asked, but here's my current ranking of Rise episodes, in descending order, also keep in mind these are just my feelings right now and I change my mind a lot lol

Turtle-Dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man

Evil League of Mutants

Insane in the Mama Train

The Clothes Don't Make The Turtle

Lair Games

Mystic Library

Snow Day

The Fast and Furriest

Late Fee

Hidden City Job

Pizza Puffs

Down with the Sickness

Portal Jacked!

Finale pt 4: Rise

Finale pt 2: Shreddy or Not

Many Unhappy Returns

Bug Busters

Shadow of Evil

Stuck on You

Finale pt 1: E-turtle Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Finale pt 3: Anatawa Hitorijanai

End Game

Man vs Sewer

The Purple Game

The Purple Jacket

The Mutant Menace

Hidden City's Most Wanted

The Longest Fight

Mascot Melee

Repo Mantis

Donnie vs Witch Town

Origami Tsunami

Mystic Mayhem

Bad Hair Day

Smart Lair

Ancient Art of Ninja Hide and Seek

One Man's Junk

Flushed, but Never Forgotten

Battle Nexus New York

Always be Brownies

Breaking Purple

Air Turtle

Todd Scouts

Minotaur Maze

Mrs. Cuddles

Repairin' the Baron

Goyles, Goyles, Goyles

Jupiter Jim Ahoy!

Operation: Normal

Sidekick Ahoy!

Fists of Furry

How to Make Enemies and Bend People to Your Will

Hot Soup: The Game

Shell in a Cell

Mind Meld

You Got Served

Warren and Hypno, Sittin in a Tree

Newsworthy

Raph's Ride-along

Sparring Partner

Hypno! Part Deux!

Donnie's Gifts

Pizza Pit

Mystery Meat

Cloak and Swaggart

War and Pizza

Al Be Back

Bullhop

Nothing but Truffle

I feel like you can see my bias against episodes that don't have the turtles as the main focus lol

[turtlevariabilis]

rottmnt season 1 episode 22a Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man (special Donnie and Mikey)

<- prev • next ->

season 1 • season 2

extra:

[risequotes]

Daily Rise Quotes: DAY 295

Splinter: Donatello-

Mikey: [gasps dramatically]

(Season 1, Episode 22A - Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man)

[chuchayucca]

I’m going to need a spin-off series or at least an AU where we see what the mutant villains did offscreen during the series because the stuff we seen can’t even be half of the weird adventures they go on.

Like in Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man, we see Hypno, Meat Sweats, Warren Stone, and Repo participate in Big Mama’s demolition derby. How did they get there, how did they learn about it?

Or in Pizza Puff, we see Meat Sweat trying to poison Guy Flambé with magical food, why did he get those ingredients? Has he tried to poison anyone before since his mutation

Or both in the show and shorts we see multiple times the mutant villains being so petty to fight the turtles despite them not doing anything to warrant a fight at the moment. Meat sweats in C.O.W.A.B.U.N.G.A and Hynpo wanting to hypnotize and make a school disappear because a middle schooler impressed the local press. If they’re so petty to fight literal children, I want to see them what other petty stuff they do offscreen.

I want to see how they navigate life now with their mutations, mutants like D.I.G.G and Bellhop wanting to fulfill their dreams but needing to hide their mutations. I would also like to see how they integrated into Yokai’s society, seeing the deleted storyboard of Wedder Smashers/Crashers where Ghostbear was marrying a Luchadora chupacabra yokai and invited some of the mutants to his wedding.

[ghostlypanda]

do you know if Donnie has any short speeches throughout the series that I could possibly use as an audition monologue? If not do you think Leo has any

truthfully, only two of donnie's came to mind, and so did one of leo's (the entire scene from turtle-dega nights has been uploaded in full on my blog)! if there are any i missed, i apologize, and will add them if requested.

but i included the three i thought might make good speeches for these two characters and hope they are useful. thank you for your ask! 💜