#like this is not even NEARLY a complete list of raph's shenanigans

[ironinkpen]

The interpretation of Rise Raph as a 'perfect responsible soft boy uwu' is so BORING I'm sorry, Raph is a rowdy adrenaline junkie with anxiety and I won't take this slander any longer

Raph secretly kept an enemy soldier in their actual literal house as a sparring partner. Raph glued his brothers together and dragged them out to fight crime. Raph once asked Leo to punch him in the face to prove he 'takes damage like a boss.' Raph tried to lift a school bus, twice. Raph offered to help his favorite wrestler beat his little brother up. When Leo suggests evacuating Bullhop, Raph says no bc the best defense is a good offense babey. Raph's idea of a 'friendly chat' with April's upstairs neighbor is to put on a black ski mask and go stand menacingly at their door. It takes Raph 10 episodes to conclude that they should MAYBE start training. Raph's plan to get a potentially priceless (and potentially FRAGILE) museum artifact is to punch a car in the middle of a busy street and also cut it in half with his brother still inside.

Raph's never met a problem he wouldn't try to punch in the face and does not know the meaning of the words 'excessive force.' He roughhouses with his bros and drags them out to fight villains and thinks any plan that doesn't involve an all-out brawl is boring and lame. He'll do anything to protect his family from harm and be a hero, but also he eats wet salami off the floor and once single-handedly destroyed a library.

I just adore how, at his core, Rise Raph is such a classic Raph—impulsive and stubborn and caring and passionate. He is a very sweet, strong, honorable guy who has a very powerful sense of personal responsibility... and he is also the exact kind of jock who throws you in the pool at a party without checking if you have your phone in your pocket first.

#rottmnt #rottmnt raph #raph #don't worry then he'll freak out and buy you a new one #anyway! raph rules!!!!! #and i think the movie has made some people interpret him as like the 'responsible mom' character which is a bummer #bc that's really not him at all #like this is not even NEARLY a complete list of raph's shenanigans #he's a hooligan a fool a dumbass (affectionate) #he loves big flashy exciting fights and does not spare a single thought to stealth 90% of the time #he gets distracted on missions taking selfies with pizza pigeons and wrestlers #and gets annoyed in eps like Bug Busters when leo suggests being more cautious #he would die for his brothers but also he's definitely the type to like. walk into their rooms and sit on them for fun #he values responsibility so much but also makes the most batshit decisions ever #and has probably caused the state of new york thousands of dollars in damages #and he's NOT the boys' dad jesus christ #he grows slightly more serious over the course of the series (out of stress :(() #but at his core he's just a kid who loves fighting and being a hero #and i love him so much ok!!!!!!

[thedawningofthehour]

You. Why. Why are you doing this to me? I fucking hate you.

I already have my brain filled with a bunch of other ideas and you throw this at me? I think by this point I should make a list.

God, I can already picture the dumb dumb trio acting like spoiled children, especially Leo who would be a little shit who loves his family and is good at heart, but would be a little shit anyway.

Donnie/Gale I don't know if he would be much different from his canon version, considering he would be raised by Draxum, but at the same time growing up on the surface and being friends with April. I feel like Draxum would be a little more lenient with his petty crimes.

April: *opened the door with a bang* Galois fucking Draxum!!!! Half the building just went dark, you're mining crypto again?!

Gale: Aprinella O'neil, you of all people should know that I have standards!

April: says the guy who hacked into every ATM in the entire north side of the city, stole parts from the government to build his rocket backpack and blew up half the school just because the computer teacher dared to give him an A-

Gale: Like I said, standards.

And please don't make me think of Splinter spending 13 years in a gilded cage hating a man who is unknowingly completely reformed, for nothing, this man has been through so much already.

Splinter is doing his damnedest to keep his kids at least a little grounded. Makes them put away their own toys, teaches them to say please and thank you to the hotel staff, will take away privileges if they get bad grades or are being little shits. (and god help Big Mama if she tries to overrule his discipline, that's one of the few things he'll legitimately fight with her about) And he makes sure they keep busy, between training and school and their hobbies, so they're not just lazing around all day being waited on. It helps that his kids are just genuinely good kids too.

Leo is definitely the most spoiled of the bunch, both because he can fool his dad and because he spends the most time with Big Mama. So a lot of his misbehavior never gets back to Lou, and Big Mama...I wouldn't say she doesn't discipline him, but she has a completely different set of standards than Lou does, and those standards seem to shift a lot based on her mood. She doesn't care if he's rude, she lets him do pretty much whatever he wants, and when she does find out about his shenanigans more often than not she'll say it's 'their secret' and never bother to do anything more than wag her finger at him, if she even does that. But she'll also get upset with him for showboating in front of cameras when she delighted in his theatrics the week before, and go between being incredibly proud of her son's cunning and enraged that it nearly rivals hers. Staying on her good side is a dance atop knife blades-which Leo is very good at, but it takes a toll on him. He feels the absence of his twin most of all, even though he knows so little about them.

Mikey is spoiled in the way all youngest children are spoiled, and he's so incredibly cute that no one can find it in them to say no to him. The kitchen staff don't sneak him cookies before dinner out of fear of Big Mama-they do it because he looks so sad when he's told no and it's just heartbreaking. Mikey knows this and is willing to exploit it. Splinter keeps him very close and fares slightly better against the puppy dog eyes, but he's only human(ish). Mikey at least has a number of hobbies Splinter can indulge him in and Big Mama can throw money at. He takes personal art lessons and trains with professional chefs, but he's learning proper skills and Splinter thinks it's good for character building.

Raph probably gets the shortest end of the stick. His strength and battle prowess is the main way he distinguishes himself from his brothers in the eyes of his mother, and she plants the idea of fighting in his mind very young. She would never let him get really hurt, of course, but he's still been trained to put himself in harm's way for his mother's attention. His father avoids him often, frustrated that he volunteered himself for something Splinter tried so hard to keep him out of, and unwilling to see the constant bruises and bandages that cycle through his body. And as the oldest he understands the most about their missing sibling, and probably has a bit of a complex about that. He's supposed to be the protector of his siblings. If the people his mom is hiring aren't getting the job done, then doesn't it fall to him?

(fuck I'm doing it again)

Donnie would never mine crypto! He's see through that shit like a ziploc bag. He was probably one of those guys on wallstreetbets fucking with Gamestop's stock.

But yeah, Draxum is extremely chill with minor law-breaking. As long as his golden rule of 'don't get caught' is followed. Gale can't end up in jail, they'd take his cloaking brooch and find out what he is. (do you always have to strip when you go to jail? Never been arrested here, I'm very boring) He also covers for April sometimes, which isn't necessary very often but when it does happen it's met with "you really shouldn't be shoplifting, but I'm not about to cry for Walmart." He lets them drink in the apartment.

Honestly, I don't even think of him as really reformed, he was absolutely planning on hopping back on his bullshit for a while there. His plan at first was to lay low until he wasn't being hunted so intensely, build up his resources and wait until Galois was a little older and more self-sufficient. But Lou just became more determined as time went on, and the flight to the surface and integration into human society happened before he could rebuild his lab. He isn't actively planning a genocide right now...but less because he's made the conscious decision that that's Wrong and more because he's a single father to one teenager and a weird uncle to another, (I've also decided that Cass starts crashing on his couch and he's just like "welp, I guess I have two kids now") and he's just too tired to really formulate plans for world domination.

#april kicking open uncle draxum's door at 7 am on saturday: GALE HOLY FUCK- #last night: yeah that's pretty much all my thoughts on this au i don't think i have much else to add #me today:

[idontevenremember5minutesago]

Why Leo being younger than Raph( and Donnie ) is a great thing for his character

I know a lot of people are upset because how dare rottmnt mess with the formula after all these years and Leo’s always been the oldest and the leader  and if aint broke don’t fix it.

Okay, I get it but hear me out.

Throughout nearly all his incarnation Leo has walked around like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. And in some way he has. He had to be the responsible one. He had to be the authority figure. He had to keep his brothers out of harm’s way. He had to work to be the most skilled. He couldn’t let Splinter down, He had to be strict, he had to be stern, he had to be the leader. But not here, not in this version because both Raph and Donnie are older than him. And that is such an amazing thing for his character. It not only opens up a new way to see his journey to becoming the Leader but it always creates a whole new way for him to interact with his brothers and that is immediately displayed  in his relationship with Raph.

Leo in almost all his incarnations is displayed as the quintessential stern, no nonsense leader and the responsible older sibling and that colored the relationships he had with his brothers but most especially Raph. His and Raph’s relationship has always been one marked by competition. Raph is usually portrayed as the second oldest and the complete opposite to Leo in every way. He’s the red to Leo’s blue. The angry rashness to Leo’s mild caution. They are always played as oil and vinegar with a relationship that matches. They, out of all the turtles are the ones that fight the most, the ones that butt heads, the ones that just don’t really get along. Because in Raph’s mind, Leo is just a little bit older than him so what right does he have to give him orders and tell him what to do and act like’s he’s so much better and their relationship is so strained in so many incarnations because of this. Raph rebels and Leo cracks down on him and Raph rebels harder and Leo cracks down harder and it’s such an endless cycle of Animosity,

But in rottmnt Leo doesn’t have to keep Raph ‘s anger in check. (because Raph in this version is not an angry ball or rage which is something I’ll touch on later). And that allows a whole new blessed dynamic between the two. It also helps that Raph’s stance on Leadership is more of a learn as you go approach and they are all starting out and feeling out their roles and what works. So we dont see that bitterness, and competition and anger between them that we’ve seen so many times before. Do you know how long I have waited for that?And it’s not just Raph and Leo’s relationship that gets an overhaul but all of Leo’s relationships with his siblings. In this version Donnie and Leo are the same age so that opens up a whole new closer bond for them as well. Also Leo doesn’t have to curb Mikey’s more childish tendencies because he has those exact same tendencies and he’s the younger sibling just like Mikey  but he’s still older, so he can be a role model to Mikey while also engaging in his shenanigans and  I am so eager and excited to see their particular interactions in the future!

Finally, we get a Leo who gets to be a teenager. Who gets to goof off and make quips and not have to be the responsible one all the time. This is the most relaxed version of Leo we’ve ever had, and I am living for it because it reveals an aspect of his character that for years has been buried under the guise of leadership and responsibility . He doesn’t have to be serious all the time. He doesn’t have to be Splinter lite. He doesn’t have to be detached. He doesn’t have to keep his brothers in check. He can just BE a teenager and have fun and not be the most skilled and he can make mistakes and not dwell on them and crack jokes and just be such a precious child.

But also it presents a whole new way to watch his development as a leader. We get to see it from a completely different angle. It’s not something that’s promised to him. It’s not a role that he and his brothers expect him to take because he’s not the oldest. Because Leo is not first in line to be leader.  Hell, he’s not even 2nd, that’s Donnie so not only do we get to see a unique journey for Leo to be the leader, we also get to see how Raph and Donnie transition into letting their younger brother take the reigns and call the shots. And that’s gonna be such an interesting arc just from what we can see of Raph and Donnie’s characters.

We’ll also get to see an entirely new take on Leo’s  leadership because already his qualities as a leader are being shown but in a completely different way than previous incarnations. We see this in the paper thieves episode when they get beaten rather soundly by them and Raph, Donnie and Mikey are feeling discouraged by it. The previous Leos would have taken the stern approach to get them back on their game as quickly as possible because that’s how he lead. He was the oldest, he had to lead by example and he would have been concerned with the getting them back on their game quickly to achieve the end goal for the mission rather than waste time letting them wallow. Not this Leo. This Leo is not concerned so much with completing the mission as he was making his brothers feel better about their loss. This Leo does not have the weight of being the oldest, so he takes a different approach and initially tries to encourage them by listing out their strengths and when that doesn’t work, he immediately comes up with a plan and rallies his brothers behind him to give it another go.  And in the end even though it was not the most graceful win Leo still highlights everything they did right instead of what they did wrong. Do you know how refreshing that is?

I get that some people don’t like change and after so many years it’s hard to see Leo not be the oldest when that’s how it’s been for so long but the new Dynamic of rottmnt opens up so many new and wonderful interactions for all of them and a brand-new way to explore Leo’s character and I am down for this ride.

#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #leo tmnt #tmnt leonardo #leo hamato #leonardo hamato #tmnt 2018 #tmnt 2012