#2012 slash

[forgetful-nerd]

I need like a 50k fanfic to unpack everything from this episode I swear. But I especially need it for this line alone.

This whole scene still screws with me. Slash wanted to hurt Leo in particular. It was something he took joy out of because he hated Leo the most.

And the only reason I can think of as to why is because he likely remembers some of the things Raph said about Leo in secret when he was Spike.

I want so badly to know what Raph said to Slash to make him hate Leo more.

I want to know if the mutagen warped Slash’s mind just a bit to make him so hostile.

I want to know the exact emotions swirling around in Raph’s head.

I want to know if Leo noticed how much Slash despised him in particular and if he knows why.

and I also want to know how long it took for all the turtle brothers to recover from this physically and emotionally.

[shantechni]

Aight, so this is something I intended to make a post about eons ago before making a bunch of posts related to it, but some things happened. Anyways-

The night Leo meets Karai, or rather is ambushed by her, he's thrown for a loop by her unprecedented decision to leave before she could easily finish him off. He's almost instantly putting an unreasonable amount of trust in her after that single interaction, and you can't entirely blame the guy since she was making no attempt to kill him while exuding her mischievous nature and taunting him like they've been buddies for years. Her behavior loosened him up in a way he normally couldn't be because of his duties as a leader. Of course, the situation greatly escalates from there as one thing leads to another, and the turtles are faced with the moral dilemma of accepting Karai for their familial connection with her or shunning her like any other enemy they know as she takes almost any chance she could get to hold a tantō to their necks.

Although none were more expressive with their distrust of her than Raph, there is something interesting to take note of.

Raph is the first to find out about Karai's existence and the evidently one-sided "friendship" Leo has with her, but rather than immediately go on the offensive with Karai (extremely surprising considering she had Leo pinned to the roof right when he arrived) or accuse Leo of any wrongdoing, he simply demands an explanation from his brother. Raph observed the situation with a level head and didn't judge Leo for anything other than seeming too blasé about Karai being a Foot clan member, or for saying she wasn't intent on killing him when she threw a weapon at his head. Other than that, he kept the matter between him and Leo since it didn't seem to be a pressing issue at the moment. His trouble with Karai only really began in the next episode when he witnesses Leo needlessly showing off in front of her and even going out of his way to hide her from Splinter, Donnie, and Mikey.

Nothing's stopping Raph from telling everyone, and he certainly doesn't trust Karai enough to leave things as they are, but he puts his faith in Leo and nudges him to come clean about his new found friend twice to their brothers at least. Soon after being told that Karai was 'taken care of' (something he called total BS on), he reaches his boiling point once he discovers her following them, and his frustrations are worsened by Leo going out of his way to defend Karai when she's spelling trouble for them. As to be expected, Leo is forced to confess after she lands them in hot water and leaves them for dead while running off with a Kraang bot, but once Splinter gives him a much needed lecture, Raph forgives him and seemingly stays out of his face about the ordeal. At least until Karai approaches them with a proposition to combine their forces and fight the Kraang, something he surely would've put up more of a fight to shoot down had the others, namely Leo, not agreed to her offer after she helped them fight the Kraang stealth ship.

All of those instances, when combed through for the little things, are some of the first details the writers gave us to show a major distinction between Leo and Raph.

Raph's temper is so front and center throughout the series that the amount of patience he exercises in response to Leo's asinine decisions and trains of thought (especially early on) has a tendency of being overshadowed. He constantly, and openly, shunned the idea of Karai ever siding with them since he couldn't find it in himself to readily trust her like everyone else could, and even after learning who her real father is, he continued to question the possibility of Karai ever turning out to be good when considering her upbringing. But he still went along with Leo's wishes to help and go so far to befriend her because he knew his brother was simply trying to help someone out of the kindess of his heart at the end of the day, and Leo's only further spurred by her being their sister.

This isn't exclusive to their development with Karai, because we see later on that Raph exercised a far greater amount of that patience when Slash made his theatrical return to the team midway through S3.

One could make the argument that the writers should've had the midseason two parter focus the slightest bit more on Raph's POV since Slash used to be his pet and Leo was the only one unwilling to believe he'd changed since their last encounter, but I'd say with certainty that the minuscule amount of input we received from him is just the right amount of focus we needed. Raph doesn't blow up at Leo for his treatment of Slash because he knows his suspicions aren't baseless, and he doesn't go out of his way to prove Slash's innocence to Leo (Mikey kind of does that for him lol); he only decided to step in when the two couldn't decide on what plan to proceed with. He plainly moves aside and allows Slash to prove Leo wrong through his own efforts, all while undoubtedly believing since their last encounter that Slash isn't bad anymore and that Leo would eventually come around to make that same conclusion.

The complete opposite of Leo's stubborn behavior when it came to Karai.

Look at Leo's face, he's so silly, a goofy goober if you will

Even though she went on to turn her back on Shredder, and essentially prove that Leo was right, Raph wasn't wrong to take so much time to see Karai as a trustworthy ally. He recognized that it wasn't enough for her to just be borderline friendly and fight on the same side as them; legitimate effort needed to be put forth for them to warm up to someone like her, and her track record didn't exactly suggest that she'd readily put in that effort. Leo's fixation with turning the tables on Shredder and making things right with Splinter practically blinded him from that simple little truth though. Of course, he learned the error of his ways and clearly followed in Raph's footsteps when confronting Slash and anyone else they'd cross paths with that posed a potential threat, sometimes tending to go too deep into that mindset when he was upset with Fugitoid and Usagi.

They both learned a little bit of something from each other along the way, but the difference in how Leo and Raph grow to perceive the matter of trusting someone is so fascinating to me.

[supine-ly]

Day 8 of TMayNT

[weirdlookinturdles]

If the turtles were Yoshi's pets, mutated, and then became his sons...

Then is Slash in a way Raph's son as the exact same thing happened with them? I mean they call him papa Raph with Chompy

Are Chompy and Slash Raph's duo of chaotic sons just prepared to cause havoc to anything that comes across their path

[sonicasura]

Hello, how are you? I hope you are well. Can you imagine that Slash from TMNT 2012 lives in Japan, on Daughter Rock, and is now a master and knows the jutsus and secret techniques?

It's been years since I've seen TMNT 2012. I don't know anything about Daughter Rock but Slash becoming a ninjutsu master is a very interesting take. Some well missed character development for him as the show was quite chaotic without the handling of its cast.

[binfinsqudina]

Daily reminder that 2012 Slash has no (visible) teeth

[pixxelcatt]

I guess being an uncle isn’t so bad

[fabuloustrash05]

Rise Mikey, about Splinter & Draxum: I have two dads!

2012 Mikey: Me too!

2012 Leo: What? No we don’t.

2012 Mikey: No. *You* don’t have two dads, *I* have two dads. *shows a picture of Sal Commander* See?! MY second dad!

2012 Donnie: Technically, I also have two dads. *shows a pic of him and Fugitoid* I miss him…

2012 Raph, holding Chompy with Slash standing menacingly behind him: I’m a dad of two.

[incorrect-tmnt2012-quotes]

Casey, meeting Slash for the first time: He is much more impressive than the mutant turtle I fought previously.

Raph: Dude, I’m standing right here.

[awzominator]

Day 22: Mighty Mutanimals

I’m more than positive this is why Pete was MIA that one episode Bro got sampled a lil bit

[christeli4]

TMNTtember2024 day 2: favorite episode.

Because I probably like all the episodes with Raphael? Yay ;)

[shantechni]

The Redemption of Slash

Seriously, can I take up 33 seconds of your time to share how in love I am with this? Slash was influenced by Raph's constant frustrations with Leo back then, and his mutagen fueled mind was so satisfied when he sent the kid flying across the roof of the building. He wasn't just telling Raph to join him because he was his long time companion and confidant, but because he also used to believe a lot of the things Raph said about his brothers, one of which being that Leo did a terrible job of leading.

By the next season though, he amazingly pulls a complete 180.

I know he technically redeemed himself in Newtralized!, but it wasn't until Battle for New York that he finally tried to make things right with the entire team, and of course Leo isn't so willing to put any faith in him or his abilities (he's such a hypocrite btw, he tried to argue with Slash over Pete being used as bait like Mikey isn't right there lol, tbf Mikey's hardly sent in as bait by this point of the series anymore, but still). They expectedly go back and forth quite a bit for a majority of the first part, wherein Leo is repeatedly doubtful of Slash's leadership and causes the snapper to become frustrated with the treatment he receives. Raph even steps in on one occasion to defuse the situation.

Leo's mind eventually changed near the end of the episode though when he watched Slash defend Pete from a laser blast, and he realizes Slash doesn't truly view Pete as the meat shield of the team. He expresses how impressed he was by the result of Slash's leadership skills, and Slash brightens up over the compliment before proudly responding that he's changed from the turtle that bruised up him and his brothers nearly a year ago (this hits even harder when remembering that he starts to believe Leo's words of doubt for a minute after the Kraang captures them later on).

And the cherry on top of all of this? When both teams reunite after bringing all of the humans back to New York, Leo comes around to rightfully apologize for the way he's been treating Slash, even going so far to refute his earlier words by saying he deserved a second chance after all. And Slash tells him to his face that he was his role model, this is peak cinema fr-

[salllltie]

Day 2: Favorite episode - Slash and Destroy

i had some options for my favorite episode, or the criteria for it. Raph centered with good writing and cool fights. Slash and Destroy fill those up nicely, and Slash is so fun to draw. like, surprisingly much.

my runner ups were the Clash of the Mutanimals, but i drew the best part of it for day1 already so i let it go. I also rly liked the Power Within. Turtle Temper is weird, bc at one hand the lesson learned in it i desperately also need to learn, and it makes me hate the episode. on the other, its a great Raph episode and i like it when he is totally pissed off and he should have been allowed to break the dudes phone and face.

now, A Foot Too Big is a horrid episode with the worst aspect of the 2012 upfront, and the episode that made me quit watching the 1st time around. BUT Raph in this episode is golden, absolutely the best turtle to ever be. he is hilarious and he was overall stepping up in the farm arc. his part was so good that i could consider A Foot Too Big one of my fave episodes.

[pezhead]

Colored in this picture~

[sweeneydino]

I just realized what this au actually is-

[olibennyyy]

I can’t stand these two 💔