the fact that the vi vs jinx fight was foretold from the beginning. the fact that the opening credits ends with their fight immortalized in stone, so that every episode you watch is a reminder of the immutable truth of it. the fact that every moment is building to this, that the show will culminate in this. this was always going to happen, they told us this from the beginning, and nothing anyone could do will ever change that.
the way rottmnt portrays the cycle of sacrifice and generational trauma through the concept of the hamato tradition is so beyond phenomenal it’s really hard to articulate with just words how hard it really hits. there’s so many parallels btwn splinter & his history/family than can be seen within raph & leo that can also almost be translated to f!leo & casey in some ways, not to mention the parallels btwn karai and leo as well.
the way splinter tried SO hard to break from that cycle, the way he saw how it effected his family and himself and didn’t want to put his family through it again yet it seemed to be inevitable regardless. he never wanted to have to choose btwn his family and the world and yet even when he made that choice in S1, in the end he still ended up losing a family member (karai) in exchange for time to save the world.
and even though he tried to break the chain so hard, the cycle of sacrifice was still adopted into raph and leo in different ways which was later passed down to donnie and mikey.
not to mention the future timeline where they ended up losing EVERYBODY and in the end of the movie casey is met with the same choice of the world over family just as many family members before him have.
the sacrificial bone and need to protect is just so ingrained into the entire family, to the point where the same events just seem to happen over and over no matter what is done.
the cycle of love and loss, protection and sacrifice, family vs the world. over and over.
So, the headcanon that ghosts fight to socialize, and also to teach baby ghosts how to use their powers, right?
Johnny 13 is in Gotham. No particular reason, he's just hanging out. He manages to goad the day shift bat kid into a motorcycle race! Fuck yeah, what's better than harassing high school aged superheroes?! Anyway, he and this kid are tearing up the streets and the kid whips out some crazy fucking shadow powers. Um? What happened to Batman doesn't like metas??? (Obviously Batman isn't actually prejudiced against metas, he just logically doesn't want to deal with superpowers + fear toxin and shit, but... his PR could use some work on this front...) Well then, Johnny has crazy fucking shadow powers too, so OBVIOUSLY he needs to compare notes with the yellow kid. By escalating.
Duke Thomas is having a No Good Very Bad Week. This crazy blond dude on a bike is TESTING HIS PATIENCE. And is a total bad luck magnet, the ONLY reason nobody's gotten killed by their chases is that Duke can see when something terrible is about to happen just in time to prevent the crazy coincidence of the moment. Also he can drive through walls? Duke learned that he can take his bike through shadows, that's pretty cool, but this whole situation is still very frustrating. HE IS TOO YOUNG TO HAVE A NEMESIS!!! He asks Babs to run some facial recognition magic and the only match is some guy who died in a motorcycle wreck like twenty years ago??? Duke compiles a file to present to the Batfam, fully expecting them to call him crazy when he explains his theory that his nemesis is a ghost.
Batman: That tracks actually. I've dealt with a dead highwayman who calls himself Gentleman Ghost, and there's a ghost on call with the League. Here, have some nth metal gear, it's ghost proof, good investigating :)
Duke: *TheSignal.exe has stopped working*
Duke finally manages to catch his ghost guy! He goes to question him about why he feels a need to be such a nuisance.
Johnny 13, grinning, not answering shit: Hey, you guys are detectives or whatever right? Have you ever tried hiding in the shadows under someone's clothes to stalk them?