#I might make a serie of it with Donny's and Raph's version

[liya4kar]

Mind'O Wave doodle that I ended up coloring because. Yeah.

AU Masterpost

[theladyheroine]

Characters for the New TMNT 🐢

❥ Hello everyone! So this will be similar to my previous Kingdom Hearts posts where I’ll try to predict a few things for the future! It’s just for fun but I hope you guys enjoy! 💚

⚠️ Also quick warning, there are spoilers for the Mutant Mayhem movie & the Tales of the TMNT on Paramount! ⚠️

Casey Jones - Okay, so I understand there was a scrapped concept art for Casey Jones from the Mutant Mayhem movie. But whether Casey ends up being a boy or a girl, I really wanna see their friendship again! They always have good chemistry together, & I can imagine them meeting if Raph tries out for the hockey team at school! Jones is like the best player on the team so Raph has some beef. 😅 Not intentionally but I can see a rivalry happening (lol).

Karai - This was more of a what if moment but since the Shredder will likely appear in the sequel movie, Karai would be like one of those characters that turns good in the end. Likely because she never wanted to serve the Foot Clan in the first place. It would also be cool if she went to the same high school as the main cast, either before or at the end of the film.

Slash - This character was also what if moment, since Slash is usually a small villain. But I really like what the 2012 TMNT did, making him a hero during his arc! I feel if he did show up in MM universe, I can see him being a bit of an antihero at first? Or some kind of mutated crook before agreeing to help the turtles out.

Mona Lisa - Raph’s love interest I feel was pretty underrated until the 2012 version put their own spin on things! She’s one of my favorite characters & I’d love to see her again! For this version, I would like to see a human design since we haven’t seen that before! But then she gets mutated later on & perhaps that can be a new story in the future? With humans getting mutated too at some point.

The Rat King - So, I’m actually not so sure for this one? I know Splinter was the Rat King temporarily during the Tales of the TMNT show. But I did see a post, unfortunately I can’t remember where 😅🙏, but someone said that Bad Bernie might end up being mutated? I can see that, especially since he already looks like a rat or mouse. And he did come back after the East River 3 Arc.

Miyamoto Usagi - Okay this was a lot tougher than I thought. 😅 I understand Usagi is like from an alternate dimension usually? And for a funny spinoff series, that could still work? But maybe more on the science-style of things rather than the magic side? Like maybe TCRI makes a giant portal & the turtles get sucked into it. Landing in Usagi’s dimension by accident!

Venus de Milo - I have yet to see the 90s movies but I’m still a big fan of Venus de Milo! She is so cool & I feel she’s a good contrast to the boys. I’m not sure if she’d be related to them or not, but we can stick with the cousin thing for now. Anywho, for her backstory, I feel maybe she was another experiment from Baxter Stockman? Or maybe TCRI who wanted to recreate his project but she escapes! And meets the turtles!

Irma Langinstein - So I only know Irma from the 2012 version of TMNT, but if she were introduced into MM I feel there’s a lot of cool stuff she could do! Maybe she’s a human friend April makes or she’s some kind of ninja turtle fan girl (lol)! But so far I’ve seen people portray her as a super smart kid & becoming best friends with Donnie, which I like!

[puma-or-cougar]

Hello there fellow tmnt artisan! Tis I, an eldritch overlord here to claim your soul. In order to prevent said soul theft you must answer one specific question:

How do you think each of the turtles expresses their affection?

Omggg, noo my poor soul (I sold it a while ago for a Donnie 12 plushie, so...)

Well, we're talking about the 2012 version, right? Because it's the one I've seen the most. I think that:

1. Leo- Leo would probably like to share his hobbies with the people he loves, for example, watching space heroes, training or meditating. Apart from protecting them and offering them tea to cheer them up.

2. Raph- Raph... Well, you can't say that Raph is affectionate with those he loves, unless he sees them in a romantic way (He's always kissing Monalisa), but he has given one or another hug, advice or helped one or another character in the series to vent.

3. Donnie- He is affectionate, he doesn't dislike explicit displays of affection like Raph, although I've noticed that he tends to receive affection (Hugs or pushes from his brothers) instead of giving it (Unless he's in love). Except for that time when Leo almost died in space and Donnie hugs him so softly, it was fucking cute. On the other hand, he builds things to make life easier for the people he loves.

4. Mikey- No one can deny that Mikey wouldn't try to cook things for the people he loves, even if they might not be entirely edible (? Also, I think he would make jokes, give hugs and kisses, damn, he's the typical cockroach person (said in a good way) who can't keep his hands off you. I love him

I hope that was satisfactory and that my English was understood :^)

(old draw)

[fabuloustrash05]

Some of My TMNT Hot Takes (PART 2) 🔥

Warning: More Opinions

Part 1 Here

I don’t like that in Mutant Mayhem Donnie is not a “science guy” but instead is more of an anime and pop culture geek. I’m not against him being an anime fan (I love anime too) but I wish we saw more of his science and being a tech genius side instead of him just liking stereotypical “nerdy stuff”. If that makes sense.

I don’t like the Punk Frogs (any version).

The 87 crossover episodes in the 2012 series (as much as I did enjoy them & are great episodes) should not have happened. They leave no real impact or development to 2012’s overarching story and just waste time. These episodes could’ve covered more important things that 202 was desperately lacking like like character exploration and character dynamic development. It was just nostalgic fanservice. The arc in S5 specifically would’ve work better as a movie instead of a 3-4 episode arc in the (most likely non canon) final season.

Shinigami being Mikey’s second love interests ruins her character a bit (for me personally). That was a pointless decision that did NOT need to happen. She would’ve been our first recurring female character to not be a love interest, but nope!

People are allowed to like/ship Donnie x April in ROTTMNT (this is coming from someone who’s not crazy about April being shipped with the Turtles).

I ship Yuichi with 2012 Leo more than Rise Leo (still ship Rise Leoichi, but I just think 2012 Leoichi is way more interesting, plus 2012 Leo deserves a good love interest).

The humans in Mutant Mayhem look ugly af (I know that was probably an intentional design choice but still. It looks bad.)

I hate Raph x Casey (any ver). I’ve stated in part one that I don’t like Raph (any version) being in a romantic relationship with human characters and yes, that meant him with Casey. Not only that but Raph and Casey being a couple ruins their whole dynamic and iconic friendship I love so much. I’m all for friends to lovers but they are a line that should not be crossed. Not every friendship needs to turn romantic.

2012 Karai’s hair looks bad.

Fans often over exaggerate Rise Donnie’s character and badly mischaracterize him in fanfics and fan comics to the point it makes him feel like he’s an entirely different character.

Shinigami should have been revealed to be a villain.

Rise Donnie was just as mean to his brother as fans claim 2012 Raph was to his. Yes, they both do love their families and I’m NOT saying either of them are abus!ce (they’re not), but fans praising Rise Donnie for doing similar things fans criticize/hate 2012 Raph for doing just makes them hypocrites.

Venus does NOT need to be in every iteration of TMNT. It gets kind of annoying when fans keep on saying that she should be in all the other iterations when in truth her presence would not make sense based on the already established canon story. The only (recent) version of TMNT where I think her being included would’ve fit the best and deserved to make her comeback in is ROTTMNT.

The side plot of 2012 Karai being mutated and later getting brainwashed by Shredder was a waste of time and the most boring arc in the series.

2012 April, Donnie and Casey being in a poly relationship does not fix anything with their problematic dynamic and massive flaws with one another. I'm not saying you can't ship all three of them together, you do you! Idc But in reality their relationship would be a train wreck, that's why I personally don't ship 2012 Capriltello.

Renet is probably one of the most powerful allies the Turtles have in the 2012 series.

Rise Donnie would NOT hate 2012 April. He’d go crazy over her psychic powers and want to study them to help her explore them more.

From what I've seen so far, Leo x Usagi seems like the only GOOD ship in the 2003 series (this hot take might change tho).

Raph had the best character arc and development in the 2012 series and changed the most out of the four brothers. Next would be Leo. With Mikey and Donnie have little development (or none at all sadly).

[our-happygirl500-fan]

Something I’ve been thinking about is that when the Turtles come up with code names for their family they tend to combine Splinter’s nicknames for them with their special interests.

Meat Sweats: Turtles? Red? Blue? Orange? Purple?

Splinter: Oh, you know their names

Throughout Rise Splinter mostly refers to his son’s as their colours when talking to them, treating their designated colours as nicknames & whenever the Turtles make code names they combine their dad’s nicknames for them with their own special interests by making sure that their designated colours are part of their code names

Donnie: This is Purple Knight is everyone in position

Raph: Red King is set

Donnie: Orange Pawn please use your-

Mikey: What!? Why am I the pawn?

Donnie: Scooch over Hypno, chess is my domain 

In the episode Mind Meld, Donnie gives his family Chess Code names showing his interest in Chess but he didn’t simply give them Chess Piece names he combined Chess Pieces with their designated colours when making their code names.

Raph: Yellow Submarine are we clear?

April: Affirmative Red Rover

Raph: Purple Rain, do you see the target?

In the first episode & the episode Bull Hop we see Raph do something similar to Donnie where he combines the families designated colours with his own special interest in music.

Raph: Jumpin’ Jack Flash!

It seems as though Raph has an interest in music even yelling out ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash!’ sometimes in surprise & Jumpin’ Jack Flash is actually a song by the Rolling Stones so that combined with the fact that the codenames Raph came up with are all different song titles it shows that Raph chose code names for his family based off his interest in music.

However Raph didn’t simply choose the song titles of any random song when coming up with code names but instead Raph specifically chose songs with colours in the titles to stick with the nicknames that Splinter gave them.

Though April doesn’t have a designated colour from Splinter the same way the Turtles do, April is often associated with the colour yellow with her often being coloured in yellow in the Rise comics & in the movie her Donnie Pod is yellow as well, so it’s very likely that the Turtles might associate April with yellow the same way they associate themselves with their own colours, which is why Raph gave April the code name Yellow Submarine.

The reason why Raph gave April a code name with a colour might be because Splinter gave the Turtles colour based nicknames so the Turtles might view getting or giving a colour based nickname as a form of affection.

Leo: I’m changing my code name too, uh... Blue Bluey! No... Blue... uh-

Donnie: No! No! No one is changing their code names

Leo: I’m Captain Bluemask

Though we don’t really see Leo make code names for his family whenever Leo tries to come up with a code name for himself he includes the colour Blue, calling himself ‘Captain Bluemask’ in Portal Jacked when he’s trying to sneak onto a pirate ship & though he struggles to make a code name for himself in the episode Mind Meld the one thing he’s sure of is including the colour his dad gave him in his code name.

Though the fact that Leo was easily able to come up with a code name when he had a pirate theme to work off of but struggled to come up with a theme for his codename outside his colour in Mind Meld shows that Leo has a harder time coming up with code names based off his special interests than Donnie & Raph do.

Leo: It’s me, you’re favourite teen detective Leo Splinterson 

When Leo comes up with a name that doesn’t include the colour Blue his code name is still obviously influenced by his dad as Leo calls himself ‘Leo Splinterson’

The name ‘Splinterson’ might be a slight nod to the 2003 TMNT series as in the 2003 series the Turtles didn’t use Hamato as their last name since the 2003 version of Splinter wasn’t Hamto Yoshi but instead similar to the Mirage version of Splinter, Spinter in the 2003 series was Hamato Yoshi’s pet rat that learnt ninjutsu from watching him.

The 2003 Turtles used ‘Splinterson’ as their last names because they were Splinter’s sons. Whether or not Rise is referencing the 2003 series when Leo calls himself ‘Leo Splinterson’ in the episode Bad Hair Day doesn’t change the fact that whenever Leo is trying to come up with a code name he’s thinking of Splinter, either putting the colour Blue in his codename because that’s the colour Splinter gave him or simply calling himself ‘Splinterson’ because Splinter is his dad.

Mikey: This is a job for Doctor Delicate Touch

Mikey: Good Morning, I’m Doctor Feelings

Mikey: Doctor Positive! The one whose gonna turn you from bad guy to glad guy!

The only one of the Turtles who really seems to break the convention of basing codenames off of the colours that Splinter gave them seems to be Mikey who instead consistently comes up with Doctor personas for himself.

Though Doctor Delicate Touch & Doctor Feelings ect aren’t exactly codenames it does show a pattern for Mikey to the point where Mikey even calls himself Doctor Rude when he & Raph pretend to be villains in order to crash Ghost Bears wedding in the scrapped season 2 episode Wedding Smashers giving himself another Doctor persona.

The fact that Mikey doesn’t include his colour in the aliases that he comes up with for himself might show that Mikey is the least influenced by Splinter out of his brothers, in contrast Leo might be the most influenced by Splinter because he can’t come up with a name outside the colour that Splinter gave him & when he tries to he still focuses on the fact that he’s Splinter’s son.

Raph & Donnie might be in the middle in regards to Splinter’s influence on them because they still hold onto the colours that Splinter gave them & their family when coming up with codenames but they combine those colours with their own special interests.

[somerandomdudelmao]

Okay. This is it. Theory time.

I'm going to write an essay on "how I love elaborate lore in Mystic Hands by @characcoon " It may or may not be a complete circus, but at least you'll have fun watching me getting it wrong eh?

Okay, first of all, let me put on my clown suit for this performance. Because, I'll be honest, I can only understand 70% of a complex text if I don't use a translator. And the translator also tends to change the meaning of the text.

I'm also writing this essay through a translator and just hoping for the best, so...ahahaha...yeah.

Chapters nine and ten of Mystic Hands gave me something to think about. Mostly because, all of a sudden, Bishop and his lab-military squad turned out to be more than background characters. And let me tell you, I grew up on the 2003 series. I may not remember all the nuances of the plot there very well, but I remember the asshole named Bishop perfectly~ But I'm not sure how similar 2003 Bishop and MH Bishop are, so I'm just...anxious in advance and start looking for things that would ring a bell.

From what I learned in chapters 9 and 10:

Bishop is an asshole.

He has his precious organization.

He also has access to empyrium and a recipe for crafting an incredibly toxic herbicide.

He also has a mustache. ( funny how this part puzzles me the most)

Michelangelo talks about him as a cruel and despicable scumbag who should have been rolled in asphalt at the first opportunity. He also calls Bishop a liar, so I guess in the future Bishop and the turtles have a... "adventure" haha... And of course we all know how fun stories with a cruel scientist and mutants can be. Yep.

This is where I start trying to put the puzzle together.

When Michelangelo sees the glowing blue stuff in the vials he reacts rather emotionally and says it could be a version of a anti-mutagen. He also says that it might help bring Raph back to normal when he asks Donnie to analyze the thing.

Donnie does the analysis.

The so-called "anti-mutagen" turns out to be an herbicide. Yes, very toxic and suspect and containing empyrium, but only herbicide.

In this moment. ONLY at that moment does Michelangelo realize that his information about the substance and its capabilities was wrong. And for SOME reason, it makes him absolutely furious.

And this is where the shit hits the fan.

Everything written above leads me to believe that the Turtles have already dealt with Bishop and his "anti-mutagen" in a bad timeline of the future. Whatever happened, Michelangelo came out of that adventure with the certainty that the blue stuff was a anti-mutagen. Which in itself is not suspicious, because even with his constant sleepovers in Donnie's lab, Michelangelo is still not that advanced a science dude. If he was young enough, Bishop could pour Sprite into a test tube, call it a anti-mutagen, and Michelangelo would buy it.

What a good thing they had Donnie for situations like that, I thought. And then I thought again. A little more anxious.

Did they?

Obviously, if Donnie had participated in the "adventure" with Bishop, he would not have allowed the turtles to call the strange liquid a retromutagen without analyzing it at least ten different ways. Even if Bishop hadn't given him a free sample, Donnie would have found a way to extract as much information as possible. Michelangelo was his lab partner. There was no way he would have missed something that important.

So...I guess at that point in the future, Donny wasn't there. Which leaves me with two possibilities. Either he was dead, or...he was taken out of the game for some reason.

The death option looks pretty straightforward. Donnie wasn't there to take control of the situation, so Bishop could probably afford a lot of free lying.

But I tend to think more about the second option.

Because Michelangelo, after getting into the past, intends to keep Donnie away from Bishop. This cannot be dictated by logic. Donnie, of all turtles, would be best able to consider if Bishop tries to pull something sneaky. Donnie has his technique, his knowledge, and his ability to hack any computer with just a dessert fork and rage. And yet Michelangelo takes Donnie with him into the tunnels. Because I'm sure he's guided not by logic but by fear.

Which leads me to the second option.

Donnie was not there at the time of the "adventure". Maybe physically he was alive, but he wasn't there at that moment of the future. Because Bishop did something to him.

That's why Donnie couldn't discover the lie about the anti-mutagen. And that's why Michelangelo wants to keep his younger version away from Bishop.

Now. This is where my knowledge of the 2003 series comes into the chat. More specifically, about one of my favorite stories from there - season 4 episodes 24 and 25 - "Good Genes."

( These are the episodes in which Donnie mutates, turning into a monster because he was previously stung by one of Bishop's mutants. Donnie's brothers spend a very "fun" amount of time trying to figure out how to cure him, but none of them are smart enough. So they are forced to make a deal with Bishop to reverse Donnie's mutation. Bishop was nice enough to actually do it and at the end of the story Donnie is fine again)

What if. Listen. WHAT IF something like this happened in a bad timeline.

Maybe Donnie was infected by Krang. Maybe he mutated for some other reason. Something happened to him. Something that caused the rest of the turtles to go to Bishop for help, because Donnie was usually the one who solved problems like this and Donnie wasn't there at the time.

This is where I pull out the "squeeze apple juice out of oranges" pokemon, because I'm starting to use information that isn't in the fanfic. We have the art, and the post.

And Donnie is not having a good time there. There's also the idea that the anti-mutagen in Mystic Hands doesn't work as neatly and conveniently as it did in 2003 and 2012. It doesn't turn a hypothetical mutant turtle back into a regular turtle.

The art quite clearly complements this thought.

At first I thought - hey, anti-mutagen works differently. I guess it's because it's supposed to reverse a secondary mutation or Crang infection?

Then I thought again. You know, more thoroughly. Bishop was lying.

There was no anti-mutagen, at least not in the sense that the turtles needed it. They only THOUGHT the thing existed because Bishop convinced them it did.

So. What are the chances that Donnie was infected with something the turtles couldn't handle on their own? So they had to enlist the help of Bishop. But unlike the man in 2003 this Bishop didn't do his part honestly and used some version of the toxic herbicide on Donnie?

What are the chances that at first the herbicide actually worked as a cure for Krang, because in this universe Krangs are apparently very evil vegetables? How long did it take for this substance to start killing Donnie himself? Because there's no way I'm going to believe that this caustic stuff is harmless to living creatures of any kind. Was the herbicide slow enough for the turtles to think the "anti-mutagen" was working and happily celebrate Donnie's healing? Maybe it took hours, maybe days, but my guess is that at some point the herbicide destroyed Donatello, giving enough time before that, however, for Michelangelo to remember that "blue stuff = cure for krangification."

That's why Michelangelo was so furious when he found out the blue stuff wasn't a retromutagen. He realized that Bishop had lied to him by calling this toxic crap a healing possibility. He realized that Donnie, his Donnie from the future, was not healed. He realized that Bishop probably didn't even try to heal him, taking advantage of the incompetence of the turtles.

_________

Either that or Bishop in the future just stole Donnie and experimented on him for fun and science or something. And I just wasted a lot of your and my time for nothing~

Everything I've written here could be complete nonsense haha. And I'm not even sure I used half the terms correctly, because translating things from English into my native language and then translating back is tedious. But I hope that at least this post will be fun to reread when the fanfic plot moves on and mysteries are solved lmao

[my-name-is-bunnyfoxy]

I CAME BACK FROM THE MOVIE LIKE AN HOUR OR SO AGO- AND HOLLY CRAP- Here is some stuff I will say and I'll give my review at the end.

I love how to movie doesn't waste time and immediately jumps straight into action and also the backstory of it's soon to be main villain.

The designs are really nice I like them a lot. They are nice to look at. Maybe for some it might take a while to get used to but their decent at best.

I enjoy that right when we are introduced to the turtles they don't waste time showing their personalities.

This movie's angst inspiration definetelly came from the fandom lmao

like bro they just threw a bunch of angst in there.

Speaking of angst, I like how they immediately establish how much the turtles genuinely wanna be accepted into humanity and how they don't hold back on making sad scenes.

I don't mind Leo's crush. It's cute and I like how it's depicted. It's not that focused on which I don't really mind. I don't know where I sit with MM Aprilnardo, I'll wait until the series drops or we get a sequel and see what happens. If nothing happens between the two then I guess I won't be too hard into it. Unless maybe we see April and Leo both sharing feelings or something. Though if April politely rejects him I'll leave it at that. Again I still don't know where to sit with this ship.

Splinter is cool and funny. Also- we don't talk about that scene with him and scumbug-

The backstory for the characters is sad and I like how you can genuinely sympathize with them and it's not forced or anything.

I-I-I-I-I-I had to look away at the Puke scenes and the make out scene- Yeah I did get second hand embarrassment with this movie-

I enjoy how cringey it is- Like I get second hand embarrassment and yet it's funny to me-

MondoMikey shippers DNI. They are cousins in Mutant Mayhem.

I love how the movie's style is that of 87 and take more inspiration from the 87 version though to me the personalities for the characters were a mixture of rise and 2012 with some inclusion of 87 as well.

I actually watched this movie in my language not the english one. Sadly I didn't record any of the scenes so I can't show it to ya'll. :( Mainly cause I assumed it wasn't allowed to be recorded.

Shocked I didn't cry at certain scenes-

I enjoy that each character shines in his own way and all of them manage to do so.

Don't lay a finger on Leo... I will bite your legs off...

Sadly me and my papa didn't stay until the cliffhanger but I watched it on YouTube though.

The animation kind of seems messy but I do feel like it's something a little kid would design and considering this is a kids movie and all it's understandable. Though it gives us a lot of funny expressions xp

Story is unique, fight scenes really fun and amazing, the ending felt deserved and overall I enjoyed it.

Now, I know Superfly is a villain and all but if I'm gonna be honest- He didn't deserve death. I wish he got a redemption arc. He's just a broken villain who I ended up sympathizing and understanding. Yeah he wasn't doing the right thing but can you blame him?

Off topic but what gender is Leatherhead-? I kind of got confused ngl lmao

So in my opinion, it's either 8.5 or a 9/10. Mainly because there are some cringey scenes that I did cringe at and ngl I feel like certain scenes's pace was kind of a bit too fast. I don't know really-

BONUS: My papa's thoughts on the movie:

Found it cringe and stupid

He prefers the old TMNT

Prefers it when they stick to the shadows rather then go to high school

He thought Splinter was stupid and how he said the old one was a 'badass mothefucka'. His words not mine.

He prefers when Leo is really serious and calm, Raph a hot head and constantly wanting to smash things, Donnie being calm and smart and Mikey- Mikey he didn't mind since he said he is always stupid and a dumbass- (not really his words but close enough-)

He found the story not to be that really consistent and also the animation to him wasn't fluid. He didn't think it was the best or that good.

The story is interesting to him and unique and all though.

Don't hate my papa pretty please-

He pretty much grew on the 87 and OG comics. He kind of also probably had to deal with watching with me and my bro the TMNTs we grew up with. If anyone's curious, my bro grew up on the 2003 and kind of also 2012 since we both binged watched it a lot every time we came back home from school meanwhile I grew up on the 2012 but also in a way with 2003. Mainly since I have a few memories of seeing some episodes of it so I know some stuff.

Anyway- his score is a 6/10 for the movie and he says that is a VERY generous score.

Extra add in:

I realized my outfit looked similar to April's- Just- it had different colors and- I'm white as fu- Loved April a lot in this movie by the way.

I watched it with 3D glasses.

They were also selling masks of the TMNT. I only saw Raph, Mikey and Donnie but not Leo. I didn't buy one by the way-

I annoyed my dad with how much I was jumping and kicking my feet around.

And yeah that's all-

Loved the movie, I enjoyed it, I hope ya'll have enjoyed it as well and yeah!

[mxalmighty]

I will die on the "Rise Raph Stoner" hill; dude has a bear named Cheech and loves smooth blues, i don't condone it to underaged brains but we're not here for D.A.R.E. we're here for turtles; more below the cut but the quality varies from very rough sketches to pencil colors

Behold, a dump. I might describe some things so scroll through to see that. Directly below, blurple with insert OC Birdie and xLeo offspring. This was definitely a baby fever series of doodles, I stand by my cringe.

Krang!Hybrid Birdie and a sneaky glimpse at post-krang!birdie Donnie with a fresh scar from Birdie's new venom. Same universe as the above baby fever doodles, but a separate timeline.

Random birdie x donnie doodle, an uncooked donnie, happy 1.5cm boys (I measured, raph is technically 1.6cm while mikey is 1.1cm), some half-colored shell studies on some undercooked boys and...

Fully trained ninja!Birdie (indigo version lmao for that blurple setting)

Blurple birdie scenarios; 1) Birdie, Leo and Donnie (not tcest) the 'morning after' that outs their polyship to Mikey and Raph / 2) the scenes leading up to the resolution of the polyship drama, Leo and Birdie *(drawn human here post-topside date with a broach) being 'caught' cheating (B's with -just- D at this point) and the twins thusly apologizing to Birdie for their own reasons--- and a birdie timeline where B ends up with Raph; whether that's a haremship scenario or just solo with raph, well, it could honestly be either i've drawn this dog in both scenarios watchmegooooo

Most recent art featuring color designs in my own style, or, the way I'm likely to draw them now that I've seen others succeed in their own realistic turtle designs so it's not gonna be some sort of shameful display in this fandom i still feel fairly new in

holy heck did someone actually make it to the text at the end? thanks ;-; that's actually cool to think someone read more on this to see my paper scraps ty ty pls feel free to comment or like i'm not really posting these for reach but it's nice to know you've seen (and maybe liked) anyway~

[jadethest0ne]

What’s your favorite Donnie/ Raph dynamic out of all the iterations? Sorry if this question doesn’t make any sense lol

Makes perfect sense, and it has a very easy answer for me:

TMNT 1987 has my fave Donnie-Raph dynamic!

One might think it'd be Rise of the TMNT, but while I do enjoy Raph and Donnie's dynamic in that, and I did create a whole comic with the two of them, it's more of a love of what could be more than what we actually see in the show, because there are very few scenes and episodes in that series where the two of them team up.

In fact, there are very few interactions, scenes, or episodes with the two in most iterations, unfortunately. Despite that, the two remain my favorite duo in TMNT (more on why that is over here). But out of all the iterations, it is in 1987 that we get perhaps the most interactions and team ups between the two of them. And it's not just the amount of time we get to spend with the two of them together, it's also the quality of the interactions, too.

Throughout the series the two are often shown hanging out, tag-teaming in fights and sparring matches, and even teaming up to play pranks on Leonardo and Michelangelo.

There's many moments where they agree with each other or side with each other if there's a disagreement in the group. For instance in "Splinter Vanishes” the team is forced to go their separate ways. Raphael and Donatello disagree with splitting up and want to stick together, even though the others (and Splinter) insist that they do. Then you have Season 8′s “ H.A.V.O.C.” arc, where there's a team of other mutants that seem like allies, and the two of them want to side with the new mutants while Leonardo and Michelangelo are suspicious of them (the mutants end up being antagonists, but this is just another instance where the two have similar opinions and stick together).

They’re just portrayed as being a good team who work well together, despite having rather different personalities.

And that’s another thing that I find interesting about them in this version - how their personalities differ somewhat from other versions and how those personalities bounce off each other in this iteration. I've talked a bit about this, and what I like in regards to how their dynamic is portrayed in another post. But specifically what I find interesting is that in this version, Raphael is actually a lot more cautious and self-preserving, while Donatello is the one who is rash and runs into trouble.

Raphael's personality in the 1987 version is very much a sassy, wise-cracking jokester. He'll definitely egg on a fight that he's confident about and taunt the enemy a lot, but he knows when to back out of a tough situation. Meanwhile, Donatello is very smart and level-headed, but very prideful, and it's that pride that gets him to bite off more than he can chew. In numerous instances he's gotten himself and the others in trouble because he's so sure of his abilities that he doesn't see when things start to go wrong because "he can handle it".

What's cool about these seemingly clashing personalities, is that the two end up grounding each other. Raphael will be the one to point out when Donatello's schemes or inventions may have some downsides. Granted, he does so via sarcastic jabs at Donatello's expense, but nonetheless, he's also there to help out when things inevitably go wrong. And despite his reservations about Donatello's plans, he very often turns to him when things go south. He's very sure of his brother's ability to out-think a situation.

On the flip side, Donatello will often look to Raphael for comfort or assurance when he is worried or scared. There are lots of instances of him clinging to or hugging Raphael when he's nervous, and it's very sweet (more screenshots over here).

Overall, I wish there was as much focus on this duo in other iterations, and it's because there's so much content with them in '87 that it makes it one of my faves.

I’ll close out this ramble with a list of a few of my fave Don-Raph episodes from the 1987 series:

Back to the Egg - Michelangelo and Leonardo get shrunk to toddler age, and Donatello and Raphael have to be older brothers to the two younger ones. This is my favorite episode of the whole ‘87 series!

Raphael vs the Volcano - an invention by Donatello makes Raphael think he's dying, so he throws caution to the wind and goes on various heroic escapades. Donatello has to fix his mistake and save Raphael from his own brash actions.

Combat Land - The turtles are invited to test out a new battle-themed amusement park and to fight its robot creations. However, it might just be a scheme to destroy them.

Dirk Savage: Mutant Hunter - Leonardo and Michelangelo get kidnapped by a villain who is trying to control mutants, and Raphael and Donatello have to work together to save them.

Thank you so much for giving me an excuse reason to talk about my favorite duo :3

[daedelweiss]

hi! i hope you don't mind, but I have some questions about your POH!turtles:

does Raph ever go savage? if yes, who usually snaps him out of it? or do all of them work together?

do the boys and april ever meet sunita or the purple dragons? (my girl sunita was mentioned maybe once or twice the entire series, please god i need more googlyshmoots girl)

has splinter ever established a swear jar?

i have at least a dozen more, but i don't want to drag this out. thank you so much for making these boys, they're so cool!

raph is actually the chillest turtle in POH and he rarely gets mad. annoyed, maybe. but mad? no. only one of his siblings has seen him mad and that's mikey (not directed at them). POH!Raph keeps a lot of his anger to himself and rarely shows it to his family. he's tied the emotion to the night of the mutation and thinks it's bad to show it. he'll eventually learn to harness it for good but for now, he's unhealthily keeping it in.

sunita might have a cameo in POH but idk if she'll be an integral character, unfortunately. the purple dragons could also appear but i haven't established a lot of villains in POH yet save for the Shredder, the Foot, and the Rat King.

he hasn't. he knows his boys swear like sailors and can't stop them but he reprimands them when they do it around him, mostly donnie for not keeping his siblings in check. donnie doesn't really care if they swear tho so he just lets them and swears around them regardless.

feel free to ask more questions about POH! questions actually help me figure out the plot and what i want out of the story and i'm happy that people are interested in my version of the teetles 😄

[calliopechild]

I’ve been curious about your thoughts on Raph, since Leo is your favorite. I know you’re also a fan of Rise, 12, and 03, so I thought I’d ask what you think of Raph in those series as well.

Ha, yeah, I've never exactly been subtle about who my favorite is. 💙🐢 But I do love Raph as well. (I mean, I love all of the boys, really.)

For me, 03 Raph is The Raph of all time. The OG version (for me, at least, since I never saw the 87 version) and my favorite. I think the writers/producers really nailed it with his blend of anger issues and the way he struggled with them, the way he loved so fiercely, and his soft side (Lone Raph and Cub, Raph and his adopted blind grandma, etc). His headbutting with Leo is I think one of the healthiest too, very closely followed by Rise, because yeah he wanted to do things his way, but a lot of his clashing with Leo was about making Leo justify his choices rather than just 'no because no' kind of obstinancy. Like that "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another" quote? That's their relationship to me. I also love the complexity of Raph's constant desire to do and see more and have parts of his life that are his own, set against the way he can't imagine not being with his brothers or being there to watch their backs.

To be honest, 2k12 is probably my least favorite of the three series (writing choices, the way they seemed to keep repeating some of the same character arcs, the whole...Donnie + April +Casey thing), but there are still some things I like, including how Raph and Leo had the same rivalry but tempered with the 'A Team' camaraderie. 12 Raph is probably my least favorite--I feel like they leaned too much into some of the archetypal Raph characteristics (attitude, picking on his brothers) and not into the ones that made 03 so great and fleshed-out (softer side and his willingness to show it). That being said, I am aware that like with Rise, 12 leaned more into the "teenage" part of TMNT and the associated lower levels of emotional maturity for all of them. But I did like that 12 Raph got the taste of leadership he always asked for and was blunt about how much he didn't want it.

Which is a perfect segue into Rise! In the interest of honesty, I didn't check out Rise until the movie sucked me in because the sheer differences--Raph as the oldest and leader rather than Leo, how different the personalities were--had me in a kind of 'idk whose turtles those are but they aren't mine' mood. But I am adult enough to admit that Rise did some really neat choices in how they tweaked the characters in ways that did divert them from the 03 templates but still kept the base characteristics AND the differences were ones that were logically explained by the differences in 03/Rise's backstories. And I'm a huge sucker for character work and psychology nature vs. nurture stuff, so that on top of an absolutely kickass movie meant I was toast, lol. But yeah, Rise Raph is a precious disaster (affectionate). He's gotta be so big to fit all those caring instincts as well as all his anxiety. In some ways I think he's a lot of what 03 Raph might have wished he could be--someone who mastered his anger a lot earlier (because he had to, given his size, or else he risked hurting his brothers), someone who had an easy and supportive relationship with Leo with no fights over leadership (until the movie, at least), someone who never felt like he had to hide his softer side.

But universally, I love that Raph has his own little shit moments in every iteration, I love that he is the first to protect his brothers but also the first to dunk on them if/when they beef it (which is every sibling's right), and I love that there are parts of himself that he struggles with but never stops trying to work on because fuck you, there is nothing he can't punch until it cooperates.

I could probably go on forever but if I don't stop myself here I'll start looking for specific episodes to back up my points like I'm back in English class, so tl;dr is: Raph is also a good bean whomst I love.

[sewerpeaches]

The Answer to the Age Old Question:

Who is older, Donatello or Raphael?

The long answer that you didn't come here for is: it depends on the continuity. So you can find my breakdowns for each continuity here (eventually).

The short answer:

Donatello

Why?

#1. "Word of God" #2. IDW Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2011), volume 5 #3. Character/family/team dynamics #4. Aesthetics

~ 1 ~

For those unfamiliar with the term, the Word of God is "A statement regarding some ambiguous or undefined aspect of a work, the Word of God comes from someone considered to be the ultimate authority, such as the creator, director, writer or producer of a TV show / video game / film / etc."

With that in mind, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird co-created Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1984. Unlike a fair amount of co-created series, TMNT is actually an evenly split brain-child (ie neither Eastman nor Laird seems to be any more responsible for or involved in its creation/production/etc than the other).

On August 14, 2014, Kevin Eastman stated "I'm going to take a bold step and say Donatello is older" during a Reddit AMA .

I couldn't find so much as a whiff of Peter Laird's explicit opinion on the matter (for all my searching... and there was a lot), but that also means that I never found him contradicting Kevin Eastman's statement. (More subjectively, Laird seems to have essentially directed the 2k3 run and I'll post my take on why 2k3 has peak little-brother Raph energy here (eventually))

At any rate, if you're the type of person who accepts the "Word of God" at face value, then continue no further! I, however, don't do that—hence why this is only reason 1 of 3 (4).

~ 2 ~

If you're not familiar with IDW Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2011) then read it, because it's phenomenal, it's the franchise's longest running piece of media ever and up until volume 100, original co-creator Kevin Eastman co-wrote the series and collaborated on page layouts. The much acclaimed Last Ronin, the first thing written by both Eastman and Laird since the original Mirage run, is set in the IDW-verse as its own version of SAINW.

The premise of the IDW run is that Splinter's and the Turtles' souls are reincarnated from those of a human family that lived in feudal japan (yes it sounds stupid, but it's touched on very little and is executed surprisingly well). And that means that the Turtles' corresponding human-selves are all visibly different ages (because unlike turtles, it's not so common for humans to have quadruplets).

So when we see the Turtles' human selves in volume 5...

It's clear in both appearance and mannerisms that Don is older than Raph.

They're definitely the closest in age of the siblings, but still most assuredly different ages.

Besides Raph being smaller than Don with shorter and chubbier limbs, his hairstyle also strikes me as more baby-like (kinda like the ancient version of the ponytail parent's give their 1 year olds when they don't have enough hair yet to actually do anything with). His mannerisms also lend themselves to that of a younger child—more sleepy, much more oblivious to his surroundings, and more clingy. Don's also shown to be able to stand, while Raph seems like he might not be able to yet.

~ 3 ~

This reason is subjective, which is why I've listed it last and need more space to elaborate on it. You'll find the unabridged version on my blog at some point under this tag (eventually), because I simply have Too Many Thoughts™ to contain within a post not dedicated specifically to it.

The short of it is: Donatello's character has always seemed to be designed around being second-in-charge—both in team and family contexts.

I don't think anyone would argue against the fact that Don is the go-to turtle. Doesn't matter what continuity you look at, when Leo anyone runs into a problem, they turn to Don.

You could argue that Donnie's the smart one and "so it only makes sense to turn to him to fix a problem" (and that's a bit of a catch-22 that I'll talk about in more detail in the unabridged version!). However... he's not a real person and so him being the smart one that characters always turn to when Leo falters (including Leo!) is a deliberate choice by the creators. And in the context of the The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle's very traditional operating style—with heavy emphasis on hierarchy by age, blood, etc.—it's very telling.

Were they a real family, yes, they would have developed their personalities/aptitudes mostly independently of their birth order, but given that specifically assigning children roles/ideals based on birth order is a significant player in Japanese culture (especially ancient Japanese culture which pertains to ninjitsu on which TMNT is based)... well... (I mean just look at how Splinter treats Leo).

Anyway, looking at the TMNT franchise as a whole, the advancement of the plot, in 9/10 cases, hinges on Don coming up with a solution either (1) via Leo coming up with something, pointing him in a direction, and asking "Don can you make [insane thing] work?" or (2) when Leo stalls entirely and Don has to take over. And though it's a formula, it's a formula with a million different permutations so it stays interesting.

Raph's role is to go into a berserker rage and brute force a second-wind powerup when when fighting is the only option. He's as the one who makes the first option work when Leo & Don are stuck and he has to, not the one who comes up with the second option. And, narrative-wise, it would be boring and lazy for the Turtles to only ever brute force plan A. (Happy to say I wrote this before I saw Laird say the same thing about Raph (bottom of #55))

That very distinct chain-of-command is why we get things like this, which is much more interesting and satisfying than beat-the-thing-until-it-stops:

The same follows in terms of family dynamics. Leo & Raph are simply too similar for the family to feel "balanced" if they're the two eldest brothers. There's no functionality in a family where 1 & 2 are providing nothing different or, worse, butting heads. Don holds the emotional stability of the family in the palm of his hand, largely just by existing as the buffer between Leo & Raph (we all know what happens in SAINW).

And, just from a characterization perspective, it seems much more natural for Raph to turn to Don for comfort than vice versa.

(Again, I'm gonna just... aggressively point to IDW.)

I'll go into this much more in the unabridged version, but I wanted to touch upon it here: setting Don aside for a moment, I see so many people argue for Raph being the second son based entirely upon his attitude towards Leo and ignoring everything and everyone else. It sorta drives me insane, tbh. I think it's a wildly shallow interpretation of his character.

Raph's entire hang-up is not around being second best, it's around being denied authority/autonomy in general—you know, stemming from being a mutant and being banned from doing 9/10 things he'd like to? That's why we see him fighting with Leo; Leo is the only authority he can fight (putting aside crime syndicate-type authority which he also fights obv). But more importantly, we also see him exerting as much power as he can by playfully, not cruelly bullying Mikey //glares at 2k12 (and in more source-compliant adaptations, yes, it is only Mikey that he truly messes with //glares harder at 2k12) or going off solo.

As much as I love 2k7, specifically the Leo/Raph dynamic, it's not actually a good representation of their real relationship—more of a spin-off "what if" (which Laird has also said). And 2k12 is ok plot-wise, but as far as I'm concerned it mostly fails at creating any compelling character dynamics and it crashes and burns in terms of staying true to source material. C':

~ 4 ~

Finally, I will end this post with my strongest argument for Don being second-eldest...

Sunset Aesthetic

[darth-sonny]

💙 🎃

💙 – Top 3 Versions of Leo

oooooo let's go

Number One would have to be Rise Leo (love you boo, sorry for all the shit I pull on you), love how one change opened up a gateway into the speculation of what would be a Leo's personality if he wasn't the leader. old news, I know, but I was there when that change was made and that irreversibly rewired my braincells. so, yeah. Rise Leo is #1

Number Two would have to be 03 Leo. 03 is what introduced me to the TMNT universe, and 03 Leo has a special place in my heart

Number Three is 12 Leo. it's been a while since I've rewatched the 12 series, so I feel like this spot might change, but as of now, he's in #3

🎃 – Top 3 Favorite Headcanons

ooo this one

Trans Leo. transmasc, transfem, transneu, nonbinary. Trans Leo. full stop

The Sleep In the Day, Active During Night one. it's pretty tounge and cheek. It's pretty obvious, too, since every TMNT adventure happens at night, but I really like it. gives me a set time and doesn't make wonder about just how fucked up are their sleep schedules are

this one is something I made up, so I don't know if it counts, but. Weeb. Mutant Mayhem opened my eyes, so now I dully believe that in each iteration, there is one turtle who is just a full-on anime nerd. MM canonically has Donnie, Rise is most likely Raph (Mikey a close second), 12 is 100% Leo, and 03...... definitely Mikey. he has the vibes

🍰 – Favorite Dynamic Between 2 of the Turtles

Disaster Twins. hands down, the Disaster Twins. what makes this dynamic fun is that it isn't just reserved for Rise Donnie and Leo, but usually for any duo of turtles who are believed to be Twins and cause problems (either on purpose or by accident)

but yes, Disaster Twins all the way

[fyeah-tmnt]

9, 10, 13, 15 :))

(From, theblorboscalledtheturtles)

Hello friend!!

9. How much of the franchise have you seen/read?

Ok so it's a bit discombobulated, so i'll go one by one: Movies: Watched them all Series: 1987 is in progress, Did not watch next mutation (should i?) and i'm missing the last season (or last 2 seasons?) of 2003 In terms of games (because why not) I only played Shredder's revenge(PC), Wrath of the Mutants (switch) and turtle in time (Arcade). Though, i do have the Cowabunga Collection on switch which combine a lot of old games from TMNT and i should play them lol If i ever get my hands on the other ones i'll def play them too

10. Who's your favorite turtle? What's your favorite version of them?

This is such a tough choice. I honestly love them all so much for different reason. But i think my most favourite is Donnie. I hard to pick THE ultimate one, but i do really like him in Rise and in 2003 <3

But i wanna give a honorable mention to Raph 1987

13. What's your favorite part of the fandom community?

The first thing that struck to me when I joined the fandom, first, how much more active it was than what i imagine. Second, i'm not sure how to explain but i was pretty amused (in a good way) by the fact that people were making fanart of people's fanfic(and visual fanfic)/AU/iterations. Like, it's like a fanart of a fanart and i think it's fantastic!

15. If you got mutated, what animal would you be mutated into? Which one would you want to be mutated into?

Good question! I really love raccoons, it's my favourite animal so i might choose that. However if we go with a reptile/amphibian look, i really love salamanders, tho a mutant axolotl would be adorable Thank you for playing :D

Ask questions here

[our-happygirl500-fan]

I keep thinking about how the Robot Raph concept art implies that by the time of the movie Donnie has built robot version of all his brothers

According to Bryce Collin’s twitter (character designer at Nick) one of the ideas that got scrapped in the Rise Movie was that after Raph got captured by the Krang, Donnie was supposed to reveal that he had made robot duplicates of all his brothers “just in case something happened to them”

And one the reasons I keep thinking about the fact that Donnie has robot duplicates of all his brothers is that the existence of a Robot Raph, Leo & Mikey by the time of the movie means that Donnie might have made building them a priority.

Throughout the movie you can see cardboard boxes scattered throughout the new lair which is supposed to show that Splinter & the Turtles have only just moved into the new lair recently.

The movie takes place only a few months after the end of the series & Splinter & the Turtles are still unpacking, since those months must have been spent finding a new lair & making it liveable. Donnie must have been so busy building his new lab that he hasn’t even found the time to fix Shelldon before the movie but he still made time to build robot copies of his brothers.

Karai: Anatawa Hitorijanai

I kind of think that Donnie built the robot duplicates of his brothers as a direct response to what happened to Karai because I think that Karai is the first time any of the Turtles have lost a family member.

Karai’s fate might have been the first time Donnie was truly made aware of the mortality of his family & his response to that was to build robot copies of his brothers in case anything ever happened to them.

[nerves-nebula]

Idk if it was recent but I was scrollin for tmnt 2012 mikey stuff and I saw an ask you answered about the 2012 abusive to mikey fics lol- Obv you dont have to answer but Id like to pit my two cents in- Which is like,,,Lowkey as long as its done well I dont think the “omg rise verse treats each other much better and adopt 2012 mikey fics” are that bad- Theres plenty and I mean PLENTY of like abusive splinter abusive 2012 bros fics out there and like its honestly a hit or a miss on all of them???

Like legit as its written well I dont think those fics are exactly much of a problem- Bc its just like “omg they help each other heal” kinda thing- I do personally prefer the fics where rise is like “erm yall are really fuckin rude to each other” “well yall are all emotionall constipated” and just help each other heal n shit lol

-2012 TMNT Enthusiast <3

idk shit about shit TO BE HONEST. I have NO horse in this race except for the nebulous horse-concept of "I like to read fics about abuse and i want the abuse to be realistic or well thought out in one form or another"

i never got around to watching all of 2012 and i probably never will cuz sometimes it makes me UNCOMFORTABLE but not like, in the fun way that i seek out. it makes me uncomfortable in the "oh the people writing this thought this was a funny joke but it mirrors my home life too much to be funny and now im uncomfortable cuz i'm painfully aware that there are ppl out there that think this is just like. comedy. and probably don't even care ppl like me exist." <- person who was lowkey bullied by its sibling

like there are things to appreciate in 2012 for sure and i even like it like 60% to 70% of the time but it's also kind of triggering sometimes and i cant really tell when it will be either one of those.

ok but thats just me talking about my feeligns- BACK TO THE SUBJECT AT HAND:

I honestly don't see a lot of value in reading fics that are like, a meta "here's what i think is wrong with this series" or bashing other versions of tmnt. i mean i understand why someone would write them but they don't hold a lot of value for me personally as a reader.

to this day my favorite A-Team Is Abusive fic is These Days, it's been abandoned i think, but reading it was soooo good for me. I remember the genuine anxiety i felt while donnie was setting up his plan to run away. the authors got other fics too and it makes me CRAVE some good dysfunctional family reconciliation.

also it's clear, or at least it appears so to me, that the author really cares about these characters and is kind of taking the whole "ok but what if its not slapstick and we take the physical violence stuff and belittling stuff seriously" route which is like. yeah i really like that actually.

plus the like, leo dealing with the pressure of leading his family and kinda failing is !!! idk. and i really liked raph there cuz he was like a jerk but also totally understandable to me yknow, if you've been doing something forever it might not occur to you that it's REALLY BAD hhfasujgksadmagg.

GOD IM JUST TALKING ABOUT MY FEELINGS AGAIN AAA

as for rise/2012 crossovers. uh. shrug emoji. idk shit about shit but the few ive tried to read weren't realllyyyy my kind of thing, cuz they mostly seem to be meta fics about the authors opinon on fandom stuff instead of like. anything else, hefff. so. eh.