The horrifying implications of Meat Sweats powers.
Rupert (mainly known as meat sweats) is possibly one of my favourite side-villains within Rottmnt as of this moment. Down his writing and animation, the Gordon Ramsey parody is an absolute delight to watch.
Something about his mannerisms is beyond fascinating to me. He's a double threat, both cunning and robust. I could go on about for hours about this overgrown porky pig characteristic and how he is so much more than the very thing he is parodying.
But I'll spare you that mercy and focus on ONE aspect of his character.
His mutant powers. (read more down below)
In 'Nothing but Truffle' we get a lot of insight into how his abilities function.
Using the strange tendrils that make up his arm and hands, he can latch onto his prey and suck out their 'essences'.
Temporarily possessing his victim's powers while his victim is either immobilized or die after the process (implied). The key word here is "Temporarily"
During the episode, after Mikey is betrayed by the British Meatbag we get this little exchange between the two.
"B-but- i thought you were nice now?"
"Oh. that wore off hours ago...and by the way, you play lousy mandoline"
This shows us, that once he absorbs his victim's powers- throughout the course of an entire day- they only last for a short period.
This shows us, that his mutant form can quickly burn off "essences".
why is this horrifying? I'll get into it soon enough, sit tightly.
Let's us examine what exactly he IS absorbing.
We see that whenever Rupert is absorbing something- it is always GREEN and you what else is green? Empyrean. the source of yokai power, the ingredient used to create mutants.
His mutant form requires Empyrean.
What do I mean by "require"? well then. We established that Rupert can quickly burn off Empyrean after absorbing it.
now i'd like to point out something to you.
Notice how Rupert is often described as "cannibalistic" or "vampiric" by other characters, merch and even concept artwork.
Notice how often he hunts, he jumps at any opportunity to catch any prey. See how within the show, there are many instances of him having cages upon cages of mutant/yokai saved for special occasions.
Almost like, he NEEDS a constant onslaught of Empyrean not because he enjoys the power that comes with it but rather, out of necessity. It is VERY possible that his Mutant form needs it to survive. Normal food won't simply cut it, He hungers for yokai and mutants alike.
So is that it? seems pretty simple enough, right? AHAHAHAHAHA NO MY DEAR READER, WE ARE NOT DONE YET! you are stuck here with me. I had a shocking revelation, one that seemed rather far-fetch but please bear with me.
Rupert has minimal control of his powers.
When the metal gauntlets come off, Rupert cannot control what his tendrils can absorb.
An example of this is featured is once again, in "Nothing but Truffle".
The second Mikey pulled Rupert's arm to the weretree, the tendrils began draining it upon contact- against Rupert's will. He can't stop it.
This is just one of the many instances of it.
We know that Rupert can form "claws" with his tendrils based on this one Ep but this is the only time it happens.
Usually, they are untangled instead of interconnected
While this could just be an animation inconsistency- please just. indulge me for a moment.
Rupert is known as most dangerous mutant according to Tmnt and there's good reason for this.
Despite Ruperts disadvantages, he is capable of working AROUND them. He is dangerous not because of his mutant abilities but for his intelligence. we the viewer don't suspect it because He is capable of making split-second decisions within a fight.
Rupert is competent in many others ways that we overlook and mislead into thinking he's in full control of his powers.
(Idk if he's autistic but he'd be a master at masking lol)
So NOW why is this horrifying?
Keep in mind.
Rupert was a human- a shitty one but still human regardless.
His mutation wasn't by choice. His cannibalism wasn't a choice.
Imagine, you are at the height of your career and in the middle of your show- in front of an entire audience- you suddenly feel a pinch.
everything is painful. Your body contorts into a horrific pigish amalgamation in a matter of minutes. The world has its eyes on you. people are watching. All you see is RED.
You've become a monster.
Once the red is gone. All that is left is the hunger.
You are reduced to nothing more than a creature lurking within the shadows. A wall is put between you and the remaining semblance of your old life. Everything you work for, Gone. Left to rot away.
No matter how many scraps you pull out of NYC's trash piles.
You are still hungry. This disgusting form of yours demands more. The only thing you can do to survive. is give in. indulge.
you didn't just become a monster. you ARE the monster.
Whether or not Rupert was deserving of this faith is up in the air.
We know that he's always been an Asshole. (both Mikey and himself go on to confirm this)
This isn't meant to suddenly paint Rupert in a sympathetic light nor be an attempt to "redeem" his actions. Far from it.
This is meant to further insight into him as a villain and why he acts the way he does.
Rupert still values his humanity. Rupert resorts to extreme measures to ensure his own comfortability and his legacy (i.e his restaurant)
but thats a topic for another day.
To finally conclude this tangent.
While Rupert is scummy sod, the situation he's forced into is unsettling when you sit down and think about it.
If anything. he might have become a bigger asshole due to his mutation.
(now excuse me- im going step inside this man's food truck and kiss him)
Leo's just casually vibing with Don while Raph was stressing out.
when Raph asks Donnie (who's still vibing) after another transformation scene if he's got any ideas on what could be going on, you can see how confused Leo is too till Donnie says "less talky talk more groovie groove", and you see it hit him,
He swiftly turns to the speaker, the dots connecting,
Where they're all looking at the box confused, worried, or a mix of both, and then you have Leo there looking at it suspiciously before realization hits him,
This also told me a lot about his character the first time I watched it, because even though they were all catching on (and did at the end) Leo was the one who felt it first, and all because he noticed how the music kept distracting his genius of a brother, because that's all Donnie talked about the whole time they were under the musical spell, how the music was basically "taking control".
It just showed me then how, even though he does good a lot, smart Leon actually is, because he does the joking (his coping mechanism), and the one liners and such, anything to make his brothers laugh
How much attention he's actually paying to everything around them.
if i had to stop at only one headcanon about casey jr and future raph ever its that middle ground where casey did know him just when he was younger so the vibe is
someone asks about future raph at some point and with ALL the same reverence of talking about greatest ninjas greatest inventors mystic masters amazing commanders and their big heroic battles etc etc casey is just like “he called me little snapper bc when i first met him i was like 3 and i tried to bite him. when i was 7 he looped a rope around his arm and stood there with it held out for hours so i could play on a swing. he was my best friend.”
You know some peoples give cocholate or painted eggs.... Me? Nah, I brought a basket full with traumatised turtles! Therefore I updated all my fics. ( Pretending the Problem Away; Symbiosis; Mikey's way trought hell and back series ARC 3) So go ahead and please enjoy!🥰
I know i've already talked about this topic but i really need the fandom (mostly the ones who likes the crossover ideas) acknowledge the fact that 2012 Mikey cheated on Renet with another girl
Can you imagine how absolutely feral Rise Mikey would be if he finds out that?? He was friendly with him until he knew that, in that moment 2012 Mikey meet Dr. Delicate touch.
Alright fuvkers I'm gonna teach you how to divide by biographies.
Picture from @randomrottmntscreenshots blog bc I couldn't find a good pic
I work as a librarian and I am the local weird teen thing that just exists in the community, and I happen to love nonfiction books and I'm usually on put-juv-nonfic-books-away duty during my shifts because I love to do it and it keeps me occupied (thanks audhd brain)
The only thing you'll need to memorize for this activity is the Dewey Decimal number for Biographies: 92. It doesn't matter if it's a Hitler biography, an Obama biography, or the biography about Kate from Tates Bake Shop, it's always 92.
In libraries often there will be a call number on nonfiction books where you can find the dd number. They may look like 92 Kennedy, where the Dewey Decimal number is first, then the name. For the sake of I never got past algebra in hs, we are going to ignore the names.
Compared to other books, biographies are relatively easy to divide by.
Let's do an example class: What is "Aquatic Turtles" divided by "A Marvelous Life: the Amazing Story of Stan Lee"?
We know that "A Marvelous Life" must be a biography due to the fact that it is about Stan Lee's story. Therefore the divisor is 92.
"Aquatic Turtles" has a dd number of 639.392, making that the dividend.
Our equation comes out to 639.392÷92
(I'm going to round using scientific notation for the sake of keeping this equation clean)
The answer: A book on Turtles divided by a biography on Stan Lee is 6.9 Dewey Decimals.
Here's a smaller example for you to do on your own:
Donatello is reading up on rats in his local library when he stumbled across the book, "Rats, Love and History" by Hans Zinsser. He eventually gets burnt out on his research on rats and goes to find a book on famous chefs for Michaelangelo. He finds the book, "Call Me Chef, Dammit! : A Veterans Journey from the Rural South to the White House" by Chef Andre Rush in the biography section. While waiting in line to check out the books, Donatello decides to use his skills of Dewey Decimal Mathmaticals. The book on rats has a call number of 614.5262 Zinsser, while the book on Chef Andre Rush has a call number of 92 Rush.
If Donatello is dividing the book for Michaelangelo by the book for his personal research, what are the Dewey Decimal numbers?
Similarly to Raph, Draxum struggles quite a bit at first with adjusting to Mikey's nigh-on ridiculous learning speed. However, Mikey's main 'barrier', so to speak, is that scheduling specific times for lessons as Draxum prefers to do doesn't work well for him. Sometimes it works out, and Mikey progresses in leaps and bounds, but other times when his focus is exhausted? Sure, he can kind of force himself to pay attention during their lessons, but that only works so well and for so long. It is not, by any means, an effective way to learn.
The real issue isn't Mikey's ability or potential to learn, but that he's never really had to learn how to consistently engage with something even when he doesn't feel like it. He's never really had to force himself to keep working on something when he isn't really feeling it. Which isn't inherently a negative trait, but it makes it harder for Draxum to teach him, as Draxum has most definitely learned how to force himself to do things and doesn't immediately realize that that's not a universal thing.
The problem Draxum has here isn't so much about getting Mikey to focus, but rather not only figuring out how to create an environment that is continually engaging enough that Mikey can focus, but also knowing when to just call it quits. Some days are fantastic, others just don't work out for training, and there's nothing wrong with that. He might end up kinda just showing Mikey a wide range of the ways that mystic powers can be used and hoping that some of it sticks.
Draxum and Leo:
This might seem a be counter intuitive, but Leo is actually the one who Draxum can train most effectively (at least, given the specific context of Minor Interference). See, based on the point in time that this story diverges from canon, Leo is still struggling to figure out how his powers work and, although he doesn't want to admit it, deeply insecure about his place on the team because of that.
That, combined with his tendency to latch onto paternal figures (see: Jupiter Jim and Tim Dunkman) means that Leo actually really does want to learn from Draxum and sort of starts looking up to him. "Sort of" being the key phrase here, as Leo doesn't want to admit to himself that he craves the approval Draxum happens to be offering. So Leo wants to learn from Draxum, but at the same time, he doesn't want to get too close, if that makes sense.
On Draxum's end, Leo's training is the easiest (at least in terms of technique) because Draxum is teaching him a skill set that he himself actively uses: portals. Draxum knows from first hand experience how tricky portals can be to use and how hard they are to learn, so he actually has more reasonable expectations for Leo than Leo himself does.
However, what makes training Leo difficult is that Leo continually ignores the safety rules Draxum tries to teach him. This is partly because Leo's already broken most of those rules with little to no consequences and doesn't see why it's such a big deal, but also because he can tell it's extremely frustrating for Draxum when he breaks those rules.
What Leo doesn't really realize is that Draxum's frustration comes from a place of concern about his wellbeing, because portals can be very, very dangerous, especially when you're as reckless with them as Leo is. You can get lost somewhere, you can get portal-jacked, you could portal chop yourself, etc. Portals are not a form of magic to be taken lightly, and Leo's a bit too cavalier about how he uses them.
because I can’t write it linearly. and its baja blast due again because i have no mind.
no warnings that i know of, if i missed something let me know<3
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“Hey Mr. Skittles!” Leo coos to the cat in the corner of Mikey’s room. It hisses furiously at him, terrified, and climbs up the curtains to hide near the ceiling. “Oh.” Leo stares at the tears its claws leave in the curtains. Mikey had thought he would wince.
Mikey and Leo look at one another. Mikey is waiting for Leo to say something, a witty pun, an excuse to get out of trouble about the curtain, a flippant remark. He says nothing. Mikey blinks.
Mikey caves. “Hey, do you wanna go pester Donnie for a pizza oven with me?” His face curls into a mischievous grin and he leans in to poke Leo’s arm repeatedly, trying to get him to say yes. If something’s up with Leo today, he’s gonna fix it through sibling shenanigans, dangit!
Leo scoffs. “As if I would ask for a pizza oven over matching unicorn onesies. Have some taste,” he teases, crossing his arms and leaning his weight on one leg. Mikey giggles.
“First one there gets to decide on what to harass Don for!” Mikey darts out the door and into the hallway, beelining it straight for their purple-coded sibling’s tram car. He makes it two thirds of the way there before he realizes he doesn’t hear Leo behind him. By pure momentum, he crosses the rest of the distance to see Leo leaning against Donnie’s doorway, checking his nails.
Leo smiles broadly. “I win,” he cheers, “unicorn onesies it is, hermano!” He sticks his tongue out teasingly. Mikey chuffs and pouts.
“Aw,” he mopes, “I wanted a pizza oven.” He looks up at Leo with big eyes, his chin tucked and pupils dilated. Mike looks at the floor dejectedly, and then back up at Leo, and then back to the floor, and then back to Leo-
“Oh my God fine we can ask for a pizza oven! We’re probably not going to get anything out of him anyway.”
Something I’ve been thinking about lately is that small moment in “Air Turtle” where immediately after the Daves lose yet another game, Leo says how sorry he is and how he’s doing his best as the mascot. This moment is so short but it’s honestly jam-packed with a whole heap of characterization.
His need to apologize for things clearly not his fault - especially when it feels like he messes up the job he was given despite doing the best he can (the phrase “it’s not about you” takes a new meaning when this is one of the lessons to be learned from that - that he is not always solely responsible for things going wrong), his need to save face and make a connection with an older adult man in his life (something he consistently does throughout the series - he’s got a few daddy issues, always collecting potential father figures, it’s no wonder he jumps at the bit to keep rapport), and the way he sounds and looks and the words he chooses really pushes how he is just a kid (“Mr. the Dunk, I’m so sorry”).
Like I know it’s a one off moment that doesn’t truly mean much, but when put against the rest of the series it works really well with the rest of Leo’s established character and helps in solidifying later concepts as well.
Made this a while ago and just now decided to post it here as well because I'm a chaotic gal and don't know what I'm doing with my life. Presenting... a random rottmnt scenario I made up (featuring me lol)
Me and Don: *laughing on the floor*
Leo: *staring at us, annoyed*
Raph: *confused* What are they doing?
Leo: Keira told me joke, which was NOT FUNNY by the way, and now... *gestures to us*
~ earlier ~
Leo: Hey, Keira! Know any good jokes?
Me: Oh, sure sure. *can't stop laughing*
Leo: *slightly confused*
Me: Ok ok, sorry. I'd- *wheezing* I'd tell you a chemistry joke- *dies*
Donnie: *walks in the room*
Me: Sorry. *wheezes* I'd tell you a chemistry joke, but all the good ones argon *dies even more*
Donnie: *also dies*
Leo: *confused*
Donnie: Oh, I use chemistry puns too.. but only periodically
Me: *even more dead* Hey Dee, did you hear about the date between Oxygen and Potassium?
Donnie: *knows what's coming* No, I did not.
Me: It went OK.
Donnie: Ahh.. Now, do you know which chemical element is the best?
Me: I don't think so..?
Donnie: Gold, because it's Au-some
Me and Don: *laughing the entire time while exchanging chemistry puns*
~ present ~
Raph: Oh..
Mikey: Are they ever gonna stop? It's kinda freaking me out..
Leo: I'm not sure, Miguel. But I do know that K and Dee should never be in the same room. Ever. Again.
Mostly fic stuffff~ (again, cough, they be on the mind a lot lately)
And LFLS YAAAAAAAYYY!!! So funny that my favorite color is green amiright or amir yeah anyway