The Clothes Don't Make the Turtle: The turtles are looking for the perfect outfits, and are making a montage out of it! But when Mikey questions what they need clothes for, they realize they can't remember how they got there in the first place…
Mascot Melee: While trying to get a birthday gift for Splinter, the Raph and his brothers get wrapped up in a fight/dance battle against a group of thuggish Times Square mascots.
In the episode Mascot Melee, Mikey states that he had an idea of using a coat to blend in with humans
Mikey: For the record, I still think my trench coat idea would have worked
This comment is a slight reference to how other iterations of TMNT have used trench coats as disguises or to walk around in daylight.
But something kind of interesting about Mikey's comment other than being a slight reference to other iterations of TMNT is that in later episodes Raph starts wearing a trench coat sometimes on missions.
Which means that Raph might have possibly started wearing the coat because his little brother suggested it.
idk if you've talked about this before but the little dancey dance the boys do in Mascot Melee is the Ninja Rap dance from the live action movie, Secret of the Ooze. I love all the references they added in Rise. It really showed how much the people on the show loved the older iterations of TMNT.
It totally does!
I grew up on "Secret of the Ooze" as it was my favorite live action TMNT movie. I used to watch the Ninja Rap over and over just to watch each turtle get down.
Shell, I still look it up on Youtube from time to time. 😂
Also, I love how the Rise writers are huge fans of the franchise. The episodes are chocked full of callbacks to past iterations which also helps expose the older turtles boys to a new audience. It's a win win!
[When I was struggling with writer's block, I attempted to start a project where I converted a bunch more monsters from Sword and Wizardy's Monstrosities book. The hawktoad was the only monster that was actually finished from that attempt. Like a lot of S&W monsters, it combines low HD with high lethality, being a 2 HD monster that can start strangling a PC to death with a single hit from its tongue. The throttling critical ability is my attempt to combine that in theory with the practice of game design where characters are a little less disposable.]
Hawktoad
CR ½ N Magical Beast
This creature resembles a fat toad from the waist up, with a tadpole-like tail instead of lower legs. Rather than hop or crawl, it flies, gliding through the air as if it were water. Its forelimbs end in clawed feet, and it has a sharp beak in place of a mouth.
Hawktoads are magical carnivores that combine features of amphibians and birds. Most sages assume that they are unnatural creations, either the product of meddling mages or a consequence of magical radiation. They use their prehensile tongues to hold prey down while tearing at it with their talons. Their beaks are relatively soft, and more useful for processing dead meat than causing damage to the living. Although a lone hawktoad will only attack prey of its size or smaller, they become daring in groups, and may attack prey the size of a horse.
Hawktoads live in mixed-sex flocks. Unlike either hawks or toads, they are gregarious hunters, with multiple individuals dive-bombing the same victim. They lay leathery eggs, which they bury in moist soil during the rainy season. The young are precocial, able to wiggle out of the soil on their own and fly to join the nearest flock, which may or may not be the flock of their parents. Hawktoads take relatively well to captivity, although they grow listless and sick if kept in a cage instead of being allowed to fly free. Because of this wanderlust, they are popular mascots among nomadic peoples. A hawktoad may be taken as a familiar by a neutral spellcaster with the Improved Familiar feat of at least 3rd caster level.
Hawktoad CR ½
XP 200
N Small magical beast
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception +5
Defense
AC 13, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+1 size, +1 Dex, +1 natural)
hp 9 (2d10-2)
Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +1
Statistics
Str 10, Dex 13, Con 9, Int 2, Wis13, Cha 6
Base Atk +2; CMB +1 (+5 grapple); CMD 12
Feats Multiattack
Skills Fly +7, Perception +5; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception
Ecology
Environment temperate hills and plains
Organization solitary, pair or flock (3-18)
Treasure incidental
Special Abilities
Flight (Su) The flight of a hawktoad is a supernatural ability
Throttling Critical (Ex) If a hawktoad successfully confirms a critical hit with its tongue attack, it wraps its tongue around its opponent’s neck. This prevents the creature from speaking or using verbal components, and the creature must hold its breath or begin to suffocate.
Mascot Melee: While trying to get a birthday gift for Splinter, the Raph and his brothers get wrapped up in a fight/dance battle against a group of thuggish Times Square mascots.
Sidekick Ahoy!: When Marcus Moncrief (Jupiter Jim) is in need of a new mascot, the turtles sans Raph do all they can to win the spot. But after Raph wins the spot, he learns that the Scorpion - Moncrief's nemesis, is real. Meanwhile, his brothers track down Red Fox to get her to return to being Moncrief's sidekick.
It’s clear that the Rise episodes aren’t in chronological order. Which you know, is fine, but isn’t exactly great for someone trying to write a fic that follows closely to the cannon show.
I couldn’t find any lists trying to fit it all together, so I just made my own! They’re below the cut, if anyone else needs it ^^
Here they are in order! Important plot episodes are in Red ^^