#idw leo WHO SAID THAT

[tothefiniteyou]

that male fictional character of yours is a lesbian's butch. remember that.

[our-happygirl500-fan]

Throughout the many iterations of TMNT the four Turtles of the Hamato Clan have always been iconic but Leo, Donnie, Raph & Mikey aren’t the only Turtles of the family & there have been other mutant Turtles throughout the different iterations of TMNT

Another mutant Turtle is one that has been seen a few times in different TMNT iterations either following a ‘separated at mutation’ plot line or have the mutation happen later in the story

Venus

One of the other mutant Turtles that is quite well known within the TMNT fandom would be Venus De Milo who was the 5th Turtle in the Next Mutation show.

Her background was that she was a 5th Turtle that was mutated with Leo, Donnie, Raph & Mikey but got swept away in the sewers until she ended up in China Town where she was found by a Shinobi master & taken to be raised in Shanghai, she would later make her way back to New York & join the Turtle’s team.

Venus also makes an appearance as a character in the IDW comics as a former Punk Frog who was made into a Turtle by Dr Barlow using Donnie’s old shell.

Leo: What are you doing!? That was Venus De Magic the Queen of Quick Change!

There’s a slight possible reference to Venus in Rise with one of Leo’s favourite magicians being called Venus De Magic with Leo cradling the bust of one of his favourite magicians feeling a bit similar to Venus holding the statue head that gave her, her nickname & many people believe that there were plans to include Venus in Rise due to the plot of season 3 being the Turtles finding out they had two missing siblings but due to Rise not getting the season 3 it had expected we never got to find out if Venus really was one of the missing siblings in Rise.

Kirby

Closely related to Venus is the mutant Turtle Kirby a 5th Turtle that had been planned to be introduced in the 1990′s film series before the fourth movie was cancelled, named after the comic book artist Jack Kirby, Kirby was meant to be a Turtle from another dimension that would join the Turtles. There was talk of Kirby being the 5th Turtle in the Next Mutation but Saban Entertainment refused to do the series unless the 5th Turtle was a girl leading to Venus being created.

A version of Kirby was designed for the IDW comics where he was meant to be shown as part of the Splinter Clan in Future Lita’s future however though a design was created for Kirby he was not included in the actual comic.

Funnily enough Kirby the Turtle is not the only TMNT character to be named after Jack Kirby as April’s father in the 2012 series also shares the name Kirby

Jennika

Jennika is the 5th Mutant Turtle on the team in the IDW comics, she is a former Foot Clan Ninja who Splinter took under his wing & was mutated into a Turtle when Leo gave her a blood transfusion to save her life.

Before her mutation Jennika had been a friend of the Turtles & the idea of Jennika becoming a mutant Turtle had been tossed around for three years before it was finally finalised.

Jennika’s mutant form was originally designed by Sophie Campbell & coincidentally bares some resemblance to a fan character that Sophie Campbell designed named Artemisia (most likely named after the Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi), the similarities between Jennika & Artemisia’s designs are said to be a coincidence as it was requested that Jennika’s bandana colour be yellow to match her hair from when she was human.

Sophie Campbell actually did get to include a canon version of Artemisia in the IDW comics by giving her a cameo in Future Lita’s future as a member of the Splinter Clan in the future.

Slash

Slash is arguably the 5th Turtle that has appeared in the most iterations of TMNT appearing in both the 1987 & 2012 series as well as appearing in both the Archie & IDW comics

In the 1987 series Slash was Bebop’s pet turtle who was mutated by Rocksteady & would later become the Turtle’s enemy, in the 2012 series Slash was Raph’s pet turtle who was mutated accidentally & would act as an enemy to the Turtles before becoming their ally & becoming the leader of the Mutanimals.

In the Archie comics Slash is an alien who was banished from his planet in the IDW comics Slash was mutated by StockGen who ended up following Hob & becoming an ally to the Turtles

Slash has even made a cameo in Rise appearing in the episode Bad Hair Day with a character meant to look like Mona Lisa.

Lita

Lita is a little girl who was mutated into a Turtle & taken in by Jennika & the other Turtles, she was named after Lita Ford (Jennika’s favourite singer), & she seems to view Jennika & the other Turtles as family as the Future version of Lita referred to Jennika as ‘mom’ & has called Raph, Donnie & Leo ‘Dad’.

It’s been shown that at some point in the future Lita becomes the apprentice & assistant to a grown up version of Renet

It appears that the future version of Lita is arguably especially close with Leo due to him being her Sensei

Uno, Yi, Moja & Odyn

Uno, Yi, Moja & Odyn are Turtles raised by Casey Marie Jones as the second generation of Ninja Turtles in the Last Ronin universe. The Turtles each seem to take after one of the original four Turtle’s with Uno taking after Leo, Yi taking after Donnie, Moja taking after Raph & Odyn taking after Mikey.

Each of the Turtles are named after the number one in different languages.

[gonetoforks]

Introducing; my version of Rise’s Venus de Milo! (OUTDATED; adding the canon design for BM’s assistant!)

(she/her/thon/thons) She’s about 9 ft tall since she’s equally based off of Frankenstein, IDW Venus and the OG Venus de Milo. more info about her and her life under the cut! (Like, a lot more info, she’s been living in my head since last April) (She’s a year old and I’m only now revealing her info!) (HBD Venus!!)

Her Family in the Hidden City

Big Mama had her made by a scientist/patron of hers during the first 2 seasons as a synthetic competitor for her Battle Nexus, but after her change of heart in the S2 finale, she took thon in as her heiress and daughter to try and do something right for a change. It’s very hard for her. Her parenting style is a good balance of gentle and stern but she thinks praise is a good replacement for emotional vulnerability and it’s turned Venus into quite a megalomaniac. Venus just calls her “Mama” and BM calls her “Veedee” (If she calls thon “Venus,” thon’s in deep shit)

Time wise, after the movie she’s physically at age 1.5, 2 years old, though mentally thon’s about where Leo and Donnie are, 16. (Still very young, please keep in mind she is a child and has big eyes like the teenagers in the show, she’s just tall. If you sexualize her I will send you to the shadow realm. BEHAVE.)

Venus also sees the doctor that made her, Dr Shelly, as her father, and they’re quite close. She spent the first few weeks of her life in his home, mostly in his library where she filled her head with everything most people know intuitively. She often can recite information she has no memory of learning, these first few weeks were less like learning and more like remembering information but from no memories.

Venus’s closest friend & surrogate older sister is Jennika, who works as Big Mama’s assistant (and a fine artist!) under the codename “Frida.” The 2 spend most of their days on diplomatic missions in the Hidden City mafia underworld and managing/restructuring the Battle Nexus to be more ethical. Venus is a naturally studious academic who loves philosophy, literature, and of course, renaissance art, so adults tend to think she’s mature, but only Jennika really knows how naive she can be. Jennika misses her human family, so they’ve really latched onto each other.

She picked her name out herself. When thon was first revived, Shelly rushed up to her and almost addressed her with a name starting with V but stopped himself before he could say it in full. Changed his mind and said that he supposed that name probably wouldn’t fit right now. So she had a preference for a V name.

Thon’s Physiology

It’s quite the mystery how he did it, but the secret to Venus’s sentience is a machine that manages to convert any matter she digests into energy in the form of empyrean. This is why she was mostly kept a rapunzel-like secret for the first few months of her life before she had Jennika as a bodyguard. Nobody knows about her heart except herself, Jennika, Shelly and Big Mama.

If she bleeds or cries, it glows bright green, so she hates both because thon feels like she’s drawing attention to herself. She’s insecure about most of her organic parts anyway and pushes herself to appear stoney, inorganic and perfect. (The consequences of idolizing and wanting to emulate a literal goddess statue, skill issue) It’s not like her fears are completely unfounded though, she has no idea where Shelly got her dead body parts.

If she’s too stressed, the seams on her upper arms bleed and they fall off like a gecko tail. She kinda looks like the og Venus do Milo statue when that happens, it’s a bit gruesome.

To represent her need to balance the organic/inorganic parts of herself, thon’s biggest dreams vs realistic expectations for herself, her right hand is organic (and based off the 2012 turtles) while her left is robotic. (& made to look like big mama’s claws in her spider form)

Goals & wants

She wants to overthrow the council of heads and rule the Hidden City as president. (Through a democracy of course!) She sees them as ineffective and useless, she went to them during the Kraang invasion to tell them something needed to be done about the alien invaders but they did nothing and said to let the turtles handle it. She’s grateful everything turned out well but she still has a grudge against them and the way they run things. Big Mama thinks she’s silly and Jennika thinks she’s a mentally unwell, workaholic, megalomaniac but pizza supreme as her witness, thon’s gonna do it.

Thon wants to be a good, ethical leader/politician (oxymoronic, I know lmao) and sees the increasing amount of Battle Nexus estate Big Mama entrusts her with as practice for managing yokai society. She would love “the Good Place.”

She also wants to know more about Jennika and for her to reconcile with her father.

Venus’s arc

“Your life is your own, ok?!” She struggles with dehumanizing (de-turtle-izing?) herself because she believes it makes her greater, more fit to achieve her goals. When the fact that she’s a mortal, breathing, living being, that can’t possibly be anywhere near divine like thon thinks she needs to be hits her, she spirals. Thon desperately needs to learn that being imperfect is a necessary gift, that she is “the protagonist of her own life” and that you don’t need to be a great person to do great things, you just need to be a person.

She’s very studious and seen as intelligent and mature for her age, but when she’s put in real life situations after meeting her cousins, the turtles, she has to learn to to manage imperfections and embrace them.

She’s quite based off of MP100 and Barbie haha.

For this internal conflict I was inspired by how the original character’s depiction back in the 80’s was really,, dehumanizing? if that’s the right word? Misogynistic very much too. I find the message that; “no matter what other people think of you or what you think of yourself, you will never be anything more or less than a regular being” both comforting in itself and a neat subversion of the original VdM since one of my favorite aspects of Rise’s writing is how subversive it is.

I can’t wait to show you more of her! Esp how she interacts with the Mad Dogs!

Bonus; Design Details!

All the turtles have shape motifs; square, rectangle, circle, triangle, her’s is a Raindrop shape! Combined with her electric motifs she’s a bit of a storm cloud lol

The Turtles’s shells are s-shaped and follow the curvature of a human spine, I draw Venus’s shell really distorted and disproportionate to this since she’s inorganic.

Similarly, while the other turtles shells and plastrons are like boxes that contain their whole torsos, thon’s kinda just sits on top of her torso, where her plastron ends and her legs begin don’t line up. It started out as an anatomical error but i liked how it made her look distorted and off somehow. (Kinda gruesome, but it kinda helps her look like a bloated corpse, which is what she is aksjks) To be clearer, the difference between how the mad dogs’ shells/plastrons/bridges(sides) are attached to their bodies vs Venus’s is like the difference between a bodysuit and a t-shirt.

[transmasculinizing]

hi gays heres who i think the batfams favorite tmnt are:

bruce- tmnt is a little after his time whoever he is a known cinephile so it wouldnt be farfetched to say he watched tmnt 1990(its a classic!). although he doesnt have any nostalgia for the property he enjoyed the movie and his favorite was raphael dick- 2003 leo (I SWEAR IM NOT JUST GONNA COLOR CODE THEM) he relates to his eldest daughter syndrome babs- ofc itd be a donnie bc theyre best friends in batman vs tmnt. 2003 donnie i think fits. jason- ok now hear me out. ik ur all expecting it to be a raph and why not theyre so similar! but no i actaully picked idw jennika. he vibes with her alt music taste and bisexuality. raph is his second fav. i think hes most similar to raph but his fav would be jenny tim- he looks like a donnie fan how about idw donnie steph- another annoying ass(affectionate) donnie fan. ik i said i wouldnt color code but cmon was there ever any doubt it wouldnt b the purple 1. her fav is rise donnie bc hes insane. cass- 2012 mikey! she relates to how nobody listens to him!! ( or they do but dont take him seriously :[ ) she also just likes him caus hes a lovable litle guy harper- can be another raph girlie. we ll go with 12 raph duke- rise mikey! he vibes with his chaotic younger sibling energy and also understands thats hes a deeply nuanced character being the heart of the family his compassion while a bit aggressive at times is whats keeping the family together and even bringing in new members like baron in this essay i will- damian- last ronin mikey. its just a phase he'll grow out of it. and thats it anyone i excluded i just havent watched/read much about and dont feel confident in saying but i love to see what u think. do u disagree feel free to yell at me in the notes

[tmnt-tychou]

Leonardo

Alright! Here we go! SO many good Leos out there. A reminder, this is just my opinion. If yours is different, we can still be friends and I absolutely do not mind hearing about your thoughts on why you would move any turtles to different tiers. A Tier: 2003: He is the most Leonardo Leonardo who has ever Leonardoed. Honor Boy has a great character arc. Always trying to be a good son/brother/team leader. 10/10

90's movie Leo: I mean, come on, that first movie. He fights for his family, he learns, he teaches, he leads. *chef kiss*

Bayverse Leo: Okay, I am so biased with this one. I love his dumb ass. But he's a good Leo. He tries his best to take care of his family. And when he makes a mistake, he learns and grows and becomes a better leader.

Rise Leo: A lot of Leo purists will say he is Not Leo. But I beg to differ. He's a fucking dork who thinks much too highly of himself. That's all Leo's. Only this one didn't get daddy's attention and discipline. Left to his own devices without Splinter putting responsibility on his shoulders, he's just a typical, goofy teenage boy. And he's hell of a lot of fun.

Mutant Mayhem Leo: I like this Leo. Stressed out, nervous, daddy's boy, trying to do his best while they eek into the world of adults. Just a Leo stepping into becoming a true Leo.

B Tier:

80's cartoon Leo: He has a very strong start at the beginning of the show. But in the later seasons, he gets stressed out and whiny, played for comedy. Just watch the first five episodes. He is choice.

IDW Leo: I haven't read all of IDW's run, but I really enjoyed the Foot Leo storyline. Solid Leo.

2012 Leo: I love him so much. He was my favorite turtle from this show. Even when the writing got weird, he was still a joy to watch. He gets B Tier purely for casting Seth Green and making me listen to his god-awful voice acting. Batman crossover movie Leo: Solid Leo. No character arc, but he was there being Leo. C Tier: 2007 Leo: Oooh, I'm going to get hate for this one. A lot of people like him. He could have made it up to a higher tier if he learned something by the end of the movie, but I don't think he did. Blatantly favorited to go travel the world, returns a hypocrite, getting after Raph for being a vigilante when HE had been a vigilante. As Raphael said, he is smug, he is the golden child. And he learns nothing by the end of the movie.

D Tier:

Next Mutation Leo: Half himbo, half asshole, all dumbass.

[randomcerealbrand]

What’s your favorite TMNT ship besides Timatello?

Also another question, how would you react when your online friend turned out to be a Roblox YouTuber?

Favorite TMNT ship? Uhhhh...

I don't have any other ships I like as much as Timatello. I know some of my friends' OCs that are shipped with the turtles (in a not weird way dw) but they don't technically count.

I like Leosagi, but mostly 2003 Leosagi and certainly not 2012.

Aprinardo in TOTTMNT is alright, I like them being a couple because they actually aren't weird towards eachother and it's wholesome, but I only see them as platonic.

Leochi (Leo and Yuichi Usagi) is pretty good, I love the concept of Yuichi working at the Run Of The Mill Pizza, or a crossover between dimensions.

Shellshocked is sweet, but it could never happen, unfortunately.

Donnie and Atomic Lass is just funny as hell.

Apritello is something I don't really enjoy, especially in 2012, because of the way they wrote it. If written correctly, I can see this ship happening from a platonic standpoint.

Mikey and Renet - Again, platonic.

Raph and Mona Lisa - 2012 did it and it was rather undercooked and he never actually called her by her actual name, which was odd. Overall it's very sweet but I wish they had more time to develop it. Again, I'd love to make them a thing in my Rise fanon, but my current storyline is incomplete.

Raph and Alopex - Yeesh, the age gap that some of the artists said they had was.. Odd, to say the least. But their relationship definitely did grow to be pretty good until they parted ways. I'd be down to make Alopex best friends with Raph, but the romantic aspects don't vibe with me.

Donnie and Bigfoot - Get the fuck out.

Any of the turtles in general x April - Depends on the way the canon version wrote it. (Aprinardo is currently the only good one.)

April x Irma - Sillies :]

Leorai - This is dogshit.

Baronjitsu - I mean... Sure, I guess. I like the concept.

Splinter x Tang Shen - Canon in 2012, I liked it, it was sweet. As for ROTTMNT, I like how she was one of his co-stars in the Lou Jitsu movies.

April x Casey - Depends on the iteration. 2003 is great, 2012 can go fall off a cliff. 2018 would be cute :]

Raph x Casey - Sure.

Donnie x Casey - 2012; fix the amount of toxic behavior and hostility they have towards eachother, and I'll talk to you about it.

Vernon x April - Bayverse; He's okay, I guess he just misread her signals, but she doesn't like him back and I suppose he respects that.

Donnie and Mona - IDW Comics - Very cute, I like it :)

Donnie and Irma - We don't get to see much of them throughout the franchise, but I like their dynamic in 1987 (platonically) and I enjoyed their dynamic in 2012 as well.

Leo and Koya - I like it. Not much else to say.

Frida x Casey - YES. YES.

Casey Jr. x Nobody - AROACE CJ FOR THE WIN‼️‼️‼️

Splinter and Big Mama - I mean there is some tension there, but I don't think they'd ever get back together.

Leo and Dale - I honestly really like it, they're just two guys in the apocalypse who really like eachother :]

April and Dale - I bet Dale realizes that he likes men and immediately starts apologizing to April. She forgives him and they become besties and they gossip with Sunita and Casey about shit 😭

I saw someone ship Sunita and Dale together once and cringed so 🤷

Sunita x April - I like it, it's cute, but I feel like it's pretty platonic. I'll think about it more as time goes on, but yeah.

Sunita x Raph - I once saw a friend of mine ship these two together and honestly, I liked it! Very good art, very good opinions on it.

Those are all the ships I can remember off the top of my head. But none of these compare to Timatello.

[thunderberryz]

So, some more random yelling about Splintered Fate: Holy hell, do I love this game. Yes, it is basically a Hades clone and can be a bit buggy at times, but I have become so ridiculously invested in this version of the turtles that it's not even funny.

Outside the fun gameplay that, nonetheless, makes my poor right thumb and wrist sore (I use an off-brand controller for my Switch that ain't exactly the most ergonomic), I've been aggressively invested in the lore of the universe. Naturally, as a one-off video game, this particular universe isn't as developed as, say, literally any comic book or cartoon iteration, but there is still a BOATLOAD of lore to dig into and with some things left open-ended, it leaves a lot of room for fanon interpretation.

Now, at first glance, the universe takes the most inspiration from the IDW comics; this is made apparent through details such as Stockman being the mayor of New York City, as well as Angel being the superhero Nobody. That said, you can very clearly see a lot of inspiration taken from other iterations as well; the turtles' characterizations strongly remind me of their 1990s movie counterparts, and there are a lot of fun nods to the 2003 series. (The Foot clan's crest is the same as the one in that particular iteration, and both the Sword of Tengu and Heart of Tengu appear as equippable Artifacts.) There are probably other fun easter eggs/references as well, but I mean... I'm a fake TMNT fan lmao <- Still hasn't watched 1987, 2012, or Rise.

Some fun details that I've noticed:

In their selection descriptions, Leonardo is referred to as the "soul" of the family, Raphael as the "strength," Donatello as the "brains," and Michelangelo as the "heart."

As typical of Leonardos, Splintered Fate Leo was ambushed on the rooftops by the Foot at the beginning of the game. He was not, however, tossed through a window. He got sucked into a portal instead.

Michelangelo references the Ninja Rap in a potential dialogue when selecting him, which is really cute.

A lot of Donatello's battle dialogue makes it clear he's fond of classical literature and poetry.

Mentioned in a previous post, but this version of Raphael has acrophobia rather than a hated/fear of bugs like 2003 and 2012.

The turtles confirmed to be AC/DC fans thanks to posters hanging in the lair. (Or as it's referred to in-universe for copyright reasons, AB/CD)

They also own a SNES from the looks of it

Despite the universe being heavily based on IDW, Metalhead does not have the same origin as his comic counterpart; he is stated to have been created by Donatello from scrap. (In the comics, he was a creation of Harold Lilja, Donatello's online frenemy.)

Casey's design in the game leans pretty heavily towards his depiction in the 1990s movies where he was played by Elias Koteas.

The Turtle Power elements in this game are weird. Flame and Water? Pretty standard. Astral Light and Astral Dark? Okay. Ninja, Utrom, and Ooze... interesting.

One of the Dreamer Coin upgrades is a nice nod to the Pantheon.

The Sword of Tengu's description made me lose it; it's basically one big nod to the fact that the Shredder was an Utrom in the 2003 series. (Now, I don't think SF!Shredder is an Utrom, but if he were, it'd be hilarious.)

Some details that are left ambiguous

It's unclear whether this version of Splinter is Hamato Yoshi's pet rat or Hamato Yoshi himself. (There's no mention of the reincarnation plotline from IDW, so I doubt he's "Hamato Yoshi reincarnated as a rat.") Edit: Just got a dialogue that confirms this version of Splinter is indeed Hamato Yoshi. It's just a question of whether he follows IDW's plot of him being Hamato Yoshi reincarnated as a rat that was later mutated, or if he's simply Hamato Yoshi who was mutated into a rat.

It's also unknown whether the turtles directly mutated into teenagers as seen in some iterations or actually grew up from babies/toddlers into teenagers.

While Utrom appears as an "element of technology," the actual Utroms are not mentioned; as such, it is unknown whether they are a benevolent, peaceful species or a more warlike one.

Ooze is depicted in two forms; a purple-pink variant that manifests as a Turtle Power and is also used by Rocksteady as well as the Punk Frogs, and a green version that's depicted in the Broken Ooze Canister artifact. I'm inclined to believe that the green ooze is the one that actually mutated the turtles and Splinter, although it begs the question of what the purple ooze is.

Due to the absence of Harold Lilja, it's not indicated where Angel got the suit she uses when in her "Nobody" persona. (Dialogue would imply that Donatello did not build it.)

[rainbowfoxes]

Yet Another IDW TMNT Theory: The Mystery of Donnie's Kids

Since the existence of Donnie's kids were first hinted at in #139, I have been foaming at the mouth about them. I adore turtle tots with my whole entire soul, so to say I was happy to have them confirmed in #146 is an understatement.

However, as we get closer and closer to #150 without seeing hide nor hair (or rather, shell nor mask) of these turtles, I become more and more insane about them and concerned that we will never see them at all, given the impending relaunch. I've got some Thoughts about these kids and since none of my friends read IDW TMNT, I'm going to inflict them upon you, the general public.

What are you even talking about, anyways?

For those of you who don't know, IDW! Donnie was recently confirmed to have kids in issue #146

[Image ID: Two panels from IDW TMNT #146. A young/current Donatello speaks with an elderly Leonardo. Their conversation is as follows: Leo: You created your children, and you left. Donnie: What? My Children?! Leo: Ah... I've said too much already. It's still hard for me to talk about. Donnie: I'm sorry, but... Is my future self still alive in this time period? Leo: Yes. He Lives in a Tower west of here, near Venus and Bludgeon's Aura Clan training grounds. :End Image ID]

These children were first hinted at in issue #139, during a vision Donnie had

[Image ID: A full page from IDW TMNT #139. Donatello holds a meditative hand sign with deep concentration as he sees four visions. The first is a vision of his past life as a human boy. The second is a vision of how he and Venus are connected through her having parts of his shell. The third is a vision of him looking into a tank containing four small turtles. The fourth is him in a cloak, holding a staff in one hand and small stick emitting some sort of energy in the other. In the air and on the ground around him are drawings of mutant turtles. behind him are three mutant turtles we've never seen before. There is a short monologue in text boxes scatter across the page. The text boxes read: "The lives you touch all have their own pasts and futures, and these are part of you, as well. And, in turn, your past and future are part of them. It is an eternal cycle. This is what the tenth cut represents. It is the whole." :End Image ID]

Now we don't know ANYTHING about these kids besides the fact that they exist. But there's enough hints available to us that I've come up with some Theories...

(Theories below the cut, to save you the long scroll)

Theory One: Donnie's Kids were Created Via Magi-Science

This one I'm pretty confident in. In #139 we see Donnie holding that weird looking stick. But this isn't the first time we've ever seen it! It actually first appeared in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Armageddon Game — Alliance #4. Donnie, having been messing around with time manipulation, ends up in the future.

[Image ID: Two panels from IDW Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Armageddon Game — Alliance #4. On the far left is a fully body image of a much older Donatello. He is wearing a ragged cloak and various mystical-looking accessories. In his right hand he carries a staff with some sort of skull strapped to the top. In his left hand he carries a small stick with a glowing crystal attached to the end. He is saying "... Before my memory is wiped of all of it." Behind him is a larger panel, set inside his workshop / wizard tower. It features a close up of old Donatello contemplating his stick, which now appears to resemble a pencil. Hiding in the background, young Donatello looks on, whispering "It's me." :End Image ID]

But more importantly, we see the stone on that stick even earlier! It's part of Donnie's Gofu, an amulet he made back in #132 with crystals from the thin place to help him channel mystic energy.

[Image ID: Two panels from IDW TMNT #132. In the top panel, Donatello contemplates a glowing green crystal. To the right, a textbox reads "Rin, the first cut, is 'strength' and 'confrontation.'" In the bottom panel, there is a multifaceted glowing green crystals wrapped neatly in what appears to be some sort of vine or twine. To the right, a textbox reads "It is courage and steeling oneself for what will be confronted." :End Image ID]

And in IDW TMNT #135 — which takes places before Alliance #4 — we see Donnie experimenting with some of the crystals. Most notably, we see it attach to a pencil on his desk.

[Image ID: A page from IDW TMNT #135. It depicts Donatello in his workshop, tinkering with his gauntlet and adding pieces of his mystic crystal into it. A small chunk attaches itself to the eraser of his pencil. Swirls of energy curl off the various chunks to twist around his outstretched hand. As he is working, he is speaking into a tape recorder. His monologue is as follows: Donatello: After cutting the thin place crystal into sections, the gauntlet installation is much smoother. The energy of the crystal fragments — I hesitate to say magic, maybe arcane energy is better? — is successfully powering Dr. Lilja's gauntlet, but it's inefficient. Until I can determine where the crystal's power actually comes from, I won't know what limits this energy has, both physical and temporal. In any case, it's a very promising start, and I hope whatever I can create with these materials... will be enough to protect my family, friends, and community. Seri, off page: Donatello? :End Image ID}

So you might be asking: What's so important about these dang crystals?

I'm glad you asked!

Way back during Mirage Vol. 1, the very first Micro-series came out. Donatello's book was a story called "Kirby and the Warp Crystal." In it, Don meets April's downstairs neighbor, an artist named Kirby (in honor of the late great Jack Kirby). Kirby has a magic crystal that, when strapped to his pencil, makes whatever he draws become real, but only for a short time before they disappear.

That in-of-itself gives credence to the theory that Donnie drew up his children, but wait, there's more!

Mirage Vol. 4 #22 it's revealed that April is a living drawing herself. After being unable to conceive a second child, her father found the crystal and discovered it's magical properties. First attaching it to a pencil, he drew up a bouncing baby girl, who disappeared after a short period of time. He tried several more times before giving up. But he had one last idea — he strapped the crystal to a pen and drew the baby one more time. And she remained real, growing into the April we know today.

So, not only is it possible to create life with the crystal, it's possible to create permanent life with it. And it's not just the Mirage crystal, either! in Alliance #4, we see old Donatello draw up his family so he can say goodbye to them.

[Image ID: Two panels from IDW Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Armageddon Game — Alliance #4. In the top panel, old Donatello draws ghostly green images of his family onto a blank white background using a pencil with a glowing green crystal attached. In the bottom panel, he addresses the drawings of his family morosely, "Hey, guys." :End Image ID]

So knowing what we do, we can conclude that magic was definitely involved in the creation of the Donnie-Spawn. However, I do not believe it's the only factor. For one, these drawings of his family are generally lifeless and disappear quickly. For two, We did see him looking at those baby turtles, and there were all those drawings in that vision, too...

I posit that Donnie did his preliminary designs on paper, then used magic to mutate his children from ordinary turtles. It has a nice circularity to it, I think, considering Donnie's own origin as an animal test subject.

Also of note is that Sophie Campbell once said that she wanted to make a turtle character that was a drawing come to life but for the life of me I cannot find the source on that.

Theory Two: One of Donnie's Kids is Artemisia

This one is really just me going

[Image ID: The "I've connected the two dots." "You didn't connect shit." "I've connected them!" Meme from Buzzfeed: Unsolved. :End Image ID]

But I like it and you can't prove me wrong (yet).

In IDW TMNT #117, we get a shot of what the future Splinter Clan will look like.

[Image ID: A page from IDW TMNT #117. Along the bottom, the six core members of the Splinter Clan observe a portal haloed in sparking blue energy that shows them a glimpse of the future. The image shown to them is a camp set up in a desert. There is a small waterfall and what appears to be a Japanese maple tree in the background, as well as the ruins of skyscrapers to the right. The clan and their various allies are there, along with new members we haven't met yet. Despite the rough conditions, everyone looks happy. :End Image ID]

At the top left, sitting on a balcony, there is a mutant turtle. She has a bow and pink face paint. Her name is Artemisia — her name is not mentioned in the comic, of course, but we know this thanks to Sophie Campbell's presence here on Tumblr and the website formerly known as Twitter.

Notable about Artemisia is that she's the ONLY turtle in that glimpse into the future we haven't met yet.

I'd also like to draw attention back to the panel from #139:

[Image ID: A panel from IDW TMNT #139. It is framed in wispy purple smoke, indicating it's part of a vision. in the center foreground, Donatello stands wearing a dark cloak. In his right hand he carries a staff with a bird's head on it, in his left a short stick with a crystal emitting a magic aura attached to it. Behind him stands 3 mutant turtles. In the air above them and on the ground below them are drawings of mutant turtles. :End Image ID]

That turtle in the middle reads female to me. They have a more feminine shape language — wide hips and a slim waist, softer facial features, and the impression of wearing a skirt and crop top.

Plus the naming scheme fits. Artemisia is named for Renaissance artist Artemisia Gentileschi — it would not be out of line for Donnie to name his kids in a similar manner to how he and his brothers were named.

And that's about it for this one, really. The only "extra" turtle we have is a girl, one of the Donnie-Spawn reads feminine, ergo Artemisia = Donnie-Spawn.

I will not be upset in the slightest if this is not the case; the more turtles the merrier if you ask me!

Other Interesting Information

There was once a TMNT TTRPG called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness. One of it's expansions, Road Hogs, included a small comic set in a post apocalyptic future that featured old man! Raph with three students he all calls Mike (I am SO NORMAL about that fact, I promise). This is likely the inspiration between the old man! Raph we've been seeing in the current arc, as well as potential inspiration for the Donnie-Spawn. Sophie Campbell is a fan of the TTRPG turtles, and even drew them herself. It would not be impossible for her to have drawn inspiration from there.

Sophie Campbell also created another turtle for the group shot in #117. His name is Kirby, but he didn't make the final cut. His name is clearly a reference to Jack Kirby (tin-foil hat time: which could be a link to the Mirage Donatello Micro-Series story). There's another scrapped turtle named Kirby (again, for Jack Kirby), who was going to be in the would-be fourth TMNT movie who could also be a source of inspiration. He was dimensional traveler. Make of that what you will.

Fero Pe's designs for the Donnie-Spawn remind me of the new turtles from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin — The Lost Years. Particularly, the one on the far left is rather large like Odyn, and the one on the right is tall and slim, a bit like Uno. Considering IDW TMNT #139 came out in April of 2023, and the first issue of The Lost Years came out in January of 2023, it's possible that this is a result of synergy at the office — artists taking inspiration from each other.

Donnie being spiritual/magical isn't entirely out of left field. In Rick McCollum's "Donatello: The Ring" and "Twilight of the Ring" stories, Donnie proves to be very spiritual. I believe it also makes sense specifically in this context, because the crystal has always been heavily associated with him, even after the reveal of April's true origins. It'd be Odd to give the Kirby Crystal to anyone else, and having him use it to create his children is a nice homage to the original. Which also — it didn't come up in the main post, but old Donatello leaves a note for himself that reads "Life at best is bittersweet." This itself is a callback to "Kirby and the Warp Crystal" as Kirby leaves Donnie a note reading the same thing just before his death.

Donnie's design as an old man could possibly be a reference to the character Tsou-T'an-Jin from the TMNT/ Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa crossovers, being an elderly, mystically inclined turtle. That would be a bit of a stretch, I think, but it's not off the table.

Unanswered Questions

How many kids does Donnie have? We see four turtles in the tank, but only three mutants. For there to be a "true" next-gen, there should be four (potentially five, if you include Jennika, or even six if we consider Venus) turtles. If Lita is included in the count, there could be three Donnie-Spawn, which would be in line with one of their potential sources of inspiration the TTRPG turtles. But there were four turtles in the tank Donnie looks at, and why wouldn't he make a "full set," so to speak? Were there four at one point, and something happened to the fourth?

Where are they? We only see Artemisia in the group shot from #117, and Leo is not specific about what happened to the kids after Donnie left, and that conversation takes place after that group shot. Where are the others? What happened to them?

Why did Donnie make them? We don't know why, exactly, Donnie made them. We just know they exist. Does he make them because he was told by future!Leo that they exist? Because he wants children? Because he's lonely? For some larger purpose?

PLEASE talk at me about IDW turtles. Do it in the reblogs, send me an ask, messenger pigeon, smoke signals — l do not care so long as it's about IDW turtles. Tell me your theories, argue with me about MY theories, I do not care. I am chewing on my own arms for lack of people to talk IDW TMNT with.

[vicky82gargoylesfan]

Thoughts and Speculation on TMNT Mutant Mayhem/Tales Series

I enjoyed the movie and looking forward to the sequel.

Even though the turtles are all 15 year olds they don't seem as mature as other versions (2012. 2003, Mirage, all Movies ect).

I do like all the turtles especially Mikey and Donnie.

I do have a feeling that Splinter hasn't told the whole story because in the flashback he looked like a pet rat because he seemed more cleaner and other rats were aggressive towards him. it's possible that they could be doing the Mirage/2003 route with him being Yoshi's pet rat or could they do something different this time and do the IDW reincarnation route and I have a feeling it's the 2nd one.

It was also mentioned that Cynthia said in the movie that she had been searching the turtles for a long time, so the Turtles and possibly Splinter could of been in lab at TCRI but then how did the turtles escape. A lot of questions need to be answered which hopefully will be revealed in the 2nd movie.

It's said that Shredder will be more scary than Superfly so does this mean that this version of Shredder is going to be more dangerous than other versions. Eek!!!! i'm scared for the turtles

With the Tales series, I thought at first this show is to keep us occupied until the 2nd movie comes out but now I don't think so. It's certainly making us get to know the Turtles a lot more so when the 2nd movie comes out we are going to be hit with lots of feels.

It was good show, had some good fight scenes and love that each individual turtle had to figure things out, without there brothers being with them.

I've also noticed that there has been a few teasers too.

It seems that the 2 main stories didn't actually happen as they were told by Leo (writing a comic book) and Raph (telling the story himself as Splinter) but it's possible some of it did happen like Bishop robots and joining the EDF, the Purple Dragons stuff ect. I assume in Season 2, Mikey and Donnie will do something similar.

I do like Leatherhead and Wingnut in this, they are great.

Even though Bebop and Rocksteady weren't in the series, they were mentioned a couple of times. it seems that they have gone off and could be becoming bad guys, so maybe they will be main villains in the 2nd movie along with Shredder.

The Rat King was also teased even though Raph sees Splinter as the Rat King.

There were also things like Leo being flung through the window and trying to damage Donnie's shell. Please don't hurt either of them in the 2nd movie!!!!!

Kitsune, who was a witch and part of Pantheon in IDW, is in this version as the leader of the Purple Dragons, but it's possible she could be working for Shredder.

Ok so I noticed 2 moments in series that could tie in with Reincarnation angle.

The first moment I thought was weird. In the episode Donnie Hangs Tough, in the train station there was a photo of boy with candles underneath so it looks like some sort of vigil. You don't normally have that in train stations do you.

But then I realised if they are doing the Reincarnation story, then is that Leo in his past life!!!! and it's Leo's Story. If they are doing the Reincarnation story then they doing the deaths from over 15 years ago and not in Ancient Japan like in IDW.

The 2nd time was from Donnie Goes Deep, when the Dad and Son are getting rid of 3 baby alligators.

This is Raph's story, so could this be Raph and Splinter in there past lives. Raph is speaking as Master Splinter in this and this could be from Raph's memory but he doesn't realise it.

I also want to point out that the Dad is voiced by Eric Bauza who previously voiced Splinter in Rise and Tiger Claw in 2012. So that's 3 shows he's in involved in now.

If there's going to 2 more moments in season 2 involving Mikey and Donnie, i'm going to go crazy.

But wow!!! this could be really dark, especially if there deaths happened over 15 years ago and not in Ancient Japan.

I'm so looking forward to season 2 and the 2nd movie but i'm hoping it will continue on.

[turrondeluxe]

Hey ik on that "equally distribute the horrors" post, a lot of people were talking about Mikey needing horrors (tbh he deserves some, they all need equal rights to the horrors.), but I've never seen anyone even talk about the horrors for Raph? Maybe that's just me and my web experience tho. (If you have any examples of Raph dealing with the horrors pls list them, my cousin ((who also says Mikey needs more horrors, at least)) and I are desperate)

ah that's probably because i specified mikey in the tags because im a mikey enjoyer who is followed principally by more mikey enjoyers teeheee

but huh

i guess i understand what you mean

in terms of Raph Horrors™ we have

mmmm i unfortunately won't include every single horror from every single tmnt iteration out there. there's too many for me to remember all the specific raph horrors from each of them rn so i'll just list some random ones off the top of my head 😺

Feel free to add more to the raph horrors list! lol

Mirage

- Raphael gets progressively demutated and basically reverts to a normal turtle for a while

(the panels of when this was happening were actually very emotive and made me cry) he does say this when he's back to normal which i find very funny tho

90's movies

- Raph gets beaten the fuck up and then gets thrown trough a skylight. He's then placed in a bath tub while he heals (Leo is the one who never leaves his side on this iteration)

2003

- Nearly injures Mikey greatly with a metal tube because of anger (He feels really bad about this and i def think this moment never truly left his brain ever)

- Getting kidnapped by footbots, getting interrogated by Hun

- All the fights with shredder or karai/all the injuries gotten in all the fights with shredder or karai

- Same As It Never Was Raph

- Watching his injured older brother get thrown to a window and watch said older brother heal from his wounds

- Seeing himself as the shredder/ thinking himself as the shredder

- Got his home raided countless times

- Getting separated from his younger brothers + dad in one of said times and waiting alone in the surface without knowing if his family even made it out alive

- Witnessed dad get disintegrated

- Brainwashed (actually getting infected with a digital virus but eh). Him and his brothers are foot ninjas for an unspecified amount of time (maybe days). During this, shredder sends the brothers to the most mortal/difficult missions in hopes that they die under his command.

- Getting thrown into the future (Raph is the one brother who hates this event the most lmao)

2007

- Witnesses older brother get kidnapped and blames himself for it

2011 IDW

- Raph gets separated from his family before mutating. Spends years homeless and by himself before his brothers find him again (this forever makes raph feel that even if he's with his family. he somehow doesn't belong)

- Right after getting mutated he spent some time being cared by Buck (blind homeless guy that is the first person ever/parent figure that's nice to Raph). Watches Buck get beaten to death. (Possibly. Buck did survive but i can't remember if he did die because of his injuries. still. traumatizing to raph that was still fairly new to the world)

- Forced to be family warrior/protector (he doesn't want this, he just wants to be a farmer man 😔👊)

- Witnessed shredder stab Casey (Raph's bestie/first ever friend that he relates to)

- Had to fight against brainwashed brother (Foot Leo)

- Witnessed Donnie's corpse (would def fuck u up if you feel like the protection of your family is your responsibility)

- Gets kidnapped and experimented with/tortured

- Dad dies, rip 🕊️

2012

- Losing Spike (he literally stayed 15 years underground with only his family for company. spike meant so much to him)

- Watching mikey get hurt because of his bad leadership literally made him freeze up and not know what to do at all

- The whole scene of splinter letting his brothers insult him. what the hell 💀

- Fighting his (brainwashed/hypnotized?) dad

- Cockroach mutant

- THE FUCKED UP SQUIRRELS

- Watching his older brother get thrown trough a window (the sequel). And watching said older brother be extremely injured.

- Leo 3 month coma

- GETTING TURNED INTO A PLANT?

- Brainwashed via worm that ate all the way through his skull and into his brain

- Dad dies, rip 🕊️ the sequel (this happens quite a bit in the series) and hil being in the front row of how splinter gets mortally wounded and then thrown off the roof

- Fighting his family while brainwashed

- kidnapped and being put into an oven to die (and would have died if leo didn't go ham and destroyed his enclosure)

- Witnessed someone kill himself while he was actively trying to prevent it

- Witnessing the death of both two little brothers

- Witnessing older brother nearly die. Again (Again. this happens quite a bit in the series)

- the whole mutant bomb apocalypse holy shit

theres def more that im forgetting mb

Bayverse

- Home gets raided, the sequel

- All brothers get kidnapped except for him

- BROKEN SHELL BECAUSE OF SHREDDER AND HE JUST KEEPS GOING???? please..............take one second to rest THATS YOUR SPINE

Rise

- Eldest sister syndrome

- The fucking bunny plushie that I've forgotten the name of (his siblings were so mean for no reason at all that ep 😭)

- Rise shredder

- Having to forcefully remove his family from deathly situation even if it meant leaving a beloved family member behind (he prob blames himself about karai ....augh)

- Kidnapped/taken hostage (?)

- Kraang Brainwashed

- Having to fight younger brother while brainwashed

- Apocalyptic Kraang Future

The last ronin

- Died for literally no reason at all . fly high king 🕊️

Mutant mayhem

- Getting kidnapped (quite violently too)

- Milking Machine

- Getting shell cracked from being squished too hard

[snackugaki]

... just make an iteration* for fun, I said

a universe where they've made it into their late 30s-early 40s and they chill and can be serene in the company of friends and family for once. maybe a flashback or two for the action moments

"fix" your childhood turtles so they can have a reprieve and some shenanigans, i reasoned with myself--

WELP.

my tmnt au iteration (where everyone made it past their 20s, splinter’s alive just old, venus is here, and they deserve some goddamn respite and shenanigans)

tmnt au iteration part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9

tmnt au iteration omake 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11

lny visit 1 | 2

is this actually new ramblings for the iteration or like one new lore bit and just a rerererererehashing of lore i sprinkled across the other posts.

first though, with my sorta-outsider-not-active-participant-in-fandom history I realized "au" isn't the proper term for what I've been doing, the more suitable term is "iteration".

and we're gonna sit with the fact that even someone at my old-ass age recognized my previous understanding of a term was, for all intents and purposes, not entirely correct and that I acknowledged it, rectified when I could, and that's it, it can be that easy.

...

okay back to the bullshit.

so my Mondo was introduced in the Archie run, a funky guy with a metal band called Merciless Slaughter, dressed like a punk Hulk, all around good peoples, hung out with the Mutanimals.

His design cobbling isn't too deep, I don't think. Just thought it'd be more rad if he looked more like a guy who fronts a band called Merciless Slaughter while remaining the same ol' Mondo inside, post mutation.

Kept some of his original color palette around in his hat, his pants, his NYHC logo (links) knockoff, and his little dyed leather cord bracelets.

the letters for the logo are for, Skate or Die (across), and Merciless Slaughter (down)

hmm still waffling on if I'm more tickled by him being taller than Mikey or the same height (5'4")

_________

and now for the rererererehash rambling because none of this design progression is coming out linear for me. so super quick, am an original 90s turtlemania survivor, Rise brought me back, gorged Rise then Bay then 2007 movie then rererererewatching of Next Mutation and the 90s trilogy for fun then hacking my way back through the Archie and Mirage runs then caught up with IDW and then just... slogging through 2003 and 2012 which honestly I feel like I got the gists of through gif sets alone.

one hand I can see why old fans (90s turtlemania) didn't seem to like the Rise designs, ours really were just the same li'l green dude but in different colors and hit sticks looks-wise. But here comes Rise with all the character design classics: different shapes! different sizes! exaggeration! and that's on top of all the nudges and twists made to the usual lore; Raphael is now the oldest, Leo and Donnie are now twins, they're different species of turtles, they're tools for war, brand new antagonists etc.

idk, to me when I was watching that shit, it was fun and refreshing so... ionno, built different cope maybe to the other oldheads pissing their pantaloons still ig whatevs

what tickles me most, personally, is the utter fuckton of Rise AUs, and a few Rise-driven iterations, and also some of the other non canon media iterations. so tickled that I got hit by the makeaniterationigitis itllbefunoccocal virus too. UnU (i'm kidding, i'm having so much fucking fun) just I'm addressing the flowers I wanna give to the kids who took Rise's take on tmnt and just RAN with the "different turtle species" from full out coloring their turtles the same as the species they picked to mimicking Rise's design language with different markings.

God, the markings thing just really nestled into my heart, it's such a simple thing and yet it took Rise to just try it, not even a lot, just a little for flavorrrrr. It's just enjoyable as fuck to me tbh and I'm sharpening my teeth when I revisit my coloring choices for the 8th time... fuck where was I?

right, mine are mistakes. wrongright place at the wrongright time, mutagen was there and now they can swing swords around and eat pizza.

someone(s) was high tailing it outta a TGRI lab with some mutagen barrels, driving recklessly while a bunch of eco-vigilantes had broken out of a pet shop that was the face of a black market pet trade/medicine/exotic food racket of endangered species. hence where their bit of human pre-mutagenic contact comes from (the strike team of people who freed them from their cages because all of them were endangered species & destined for a tank, a cutting board or a pill box); including a sea turtle Venus, Leatherhead, Tokka, Rahzar, Man-Ray some others etc etc. Jennika keeping her origin because it was dope as fuck. splinter was just there watching this symphony of human fuckery happen and decided to adopt some kids with no one asking (it was tang shen's onryo that is rooted in Splinter's mind that was asking, shh)

and ever since it clicked when I was gathering ref shots, ✨sea turtle Venus just makes sense✨ to me, it's taken my brain stem and rung it like a bell for new year's nonstop and i am not mad

... fuck, I am but also am not looking forward to when I start delving into ninjutsu, ninpo, Venus' whole schtick and how the supernatural fits into this world that I definitely don't need to be fleshing out this much just to draw them chilling on April's couch.

i've got like over 70 refs, holy shit

[tothefiniteyou]

looking at the time: oh yeah, it's dissection analysis o'clock.

i've talked about how i think leo's view on what it means to be a leader is very misconstrued, but i didn't really go into specifics like i wanted. so here i am, doing just that.

firstly, i'm going to make this generalized enough so that it's not about any particular iteration, though i might put in details that aren't a universal part to leo's character.

i once said that "leo believes the leader is always the one to make the right choices" and by that i mean, the leader has to. he tries to think over his words carefully (there was a post for 2003 pointing out that leo stumbles on his words quite a bit and i love this detail) because he's trying to mimic his idea of a hero. not only is he the one meant to make the decisive calls, but in an imprudent, childish way, i think his ego has also convinced him that the title of leader makes his opinion more valuable djsaklg. he's kind of a funny, bossy older sibling like that.

he's full to the brim with anxiety and worst-case scenarios because he knows real life is dangerous and he is the one in-charge. rise fics have done a lovely job of showcasing the fact that leo struggles to really seem them as a team unless it's convenient for him, but i'd argue all leos (save for a few) are like this. people need to listen to him, because of course the leader knows best! leaders and heroes are synonymous, always saving the day... (...it's why rise leo doesn't think he should be leader-)

i have a little headcanon about his perfectionism that isn't completely relevant to this conversation, but i want to include it regardless. i think some of his perfectionism comes from a place of guilt and just general worries. he doesn't mind training extra or things like that, but i'm not too sure he likes it either. overdoing it can make him feel more reassured, and training better means he can make sure missions go smoother. leaders are the captains, and a captain always goes down with his ship.

anyways, if leadership to him is like being in-charge and having to be a shield, who would he be his ideal image of that to mirror? barring his cartoon heroes, it would be his father. leo has always tried to be like the person he admires most. i don't fully know why, but that makes me Sad. most kids think of their fathers as their heroes, and for all of the turtles, well. he really is one.

being the older child (in most iterations), leo unconsciously places himself on a similar pedestal as his father, copying what he does because he wants to be just like him.

.... for 2003 and 2012, yes. mirage? idw? less so. i just wrote a whole fic on the city at war arc (love me, love my dog) for the original comics that helped inspire this post. constantly leo mentions "growing up" in that arc, following it up by thinking they shouldn't stick within everything their father has taught him. he's leaving his father's shadow - that's what it means to grow up to him.

his brothers will always come before his father, no matter how much he admires him. in 2012, i truly do think leo would try too hard to become a father to his brothers. not only for their sakes, but because he's always been there, copying his father. he's trying to make his father stay by becoming more like him. he won't have to search for him in the walls of their home if he feels like he's right beside him.

^ i love this train of thought for mirage as well because in city at war he's gradually realizing that he doesn't know what he would do without splinter to back up his choices. he's having to think for himself and it's making him think that maybe he isn't as much like his father as he had always tried to be.

no matter the iteration, leo growing up is always becoming his own version of a leader (staring so badly at idw leo). it's a bittersweet thing, but it was a thought that occurred to me after leo returned from training with the ancient one in 2003. splinter already taught him everything, so why wasn't it enough? when will he teach him how to properly protect everyone like he wants to.

splinter is a VERY flawed character in every single iteration, and i think one of the most innocently child-like characteristics of leo is the way he idolizes him.

THATS HIS PAPA (bawling)

there's definitely more i could add to this, but i like leaving some parts unexplored so that people are free to put in their own thoughts :)

[goodlucktai]

As always ur fics are top tier and i just wanted to stop by and say that In your most recent one the lines “It is not always possible to win without losing but we must fight tooth and nail anyway. Abandon honor and heroism. Do what it takes to bring yourself and your brothers home. I would much sooner tell the great Hamato clan where they can stick it then let you join them before your time.” is just a really great crystallization for me of the kinda underlying difference between rise!splinter and bunch of other adaptations of him! And i think you write that very well. There’s a sense of being failed by these ideas of honor and tradition that rise kinda explores but opens up a really nice layer of splinter characterization that we don’t necessarily see in other versions, but i hadnt been really able to put a finger on. You do all iterations of spliter very well in your fic writing, (honestly all of your character studies are great- you always preserve (+sometimes invent) the dimensionality and nuance of characters in your fics, i’m always in awe of that) and i love how well you tie your turts into the versions of splinter that raise them. There a very like, explicit in the text in one of your crossover fics- “Mikey thinks Splinter could usually tell, but sometimes he’d let Leo have the lie anyway, his dark eyes warm with laughter that his face never gave away. Leo at his most mischievous is a carbon-copy of their father. It’s the only ghost he keeps.” -but the underlying current of whenever a Splinter is in your fics, the values he holds and how he behaves are so clearly influences in the turtles themselves. It’s super cool. You do a great job with writing him.

^ screenshots of me reading this

thank you so much???? i love these characters an absurd amount and i’m genuinely so happy to hear it when my take or headcanon really resonated 💖

with rise splinter in particular i think there is so much to his character that makes it complex and rich and worth exploring. like you said, he was hurt by those same values that other iterations of splinter hold above everything else, so he turned his back on them and it gave him a completely different set of priorities. he surrendered the final piece of the dark armor because his sons meant more to him than any “greater good” and that’s the kind of love i understand

that said i do enjoy writing splinter across the board. he’s a very calming narrative voice lol. there are a few versions who made some Questionable Choices (stares idw and 2007 splinter directly in the eye) but the juxtaposition of ‘wise ninja master and his chaotic gremlins who have never met a fire they wouldn’t throw gasoline on’ never gets old to me

[qoldenskies]

aw, kitsune. you talk so much about justice for someone who's only ever been the judge. well, the hamatos are coming in hot with a guillotine, and they care about mercy even less than you do :)

also, i adore this chapter and i rlly do love ur characterization of kitsune!! the description of her as an amoral immortal is horrifying and so painful to leo who cant comprehend such detachment and having him finally breakdown is almost cathartic. thank you for this gift of a fic <3

thank you!! i love writing amoral immortals..... because their decision making is inscrutable, it is cold and hard and merciless. they're so detached from the fragility of life that they operate through a myopic lense; that's how kitsune operates here. she kicks leo while he's down, on purpose, for the simple crime of bothering her; like she didn't just essentially condemn his brother to death (like she hadn't brainwashed him for three months.) knowing the little i did about her role in the idw comics i just had to give her something a little special with him heehee :3

its kind of why i compared the choices of gods to that of wild animals. they've reached an abstract tipping point where they care about morality in the exact same way, and that's what's so fun about them. no matter what she preaches, her advice will never be kind, it will never be empathetic. any truth to her words is destroyed by the cruelty of her actions. she's not a person. she's both high above that, and deep below it.

one last mistake for the road for leo,,,, the anger and bargaining stage of grief is over for him (something something orpheus bargaining with hades), because some of what she said did get through to him, in a painful way. he just needs to find his way home first.

[neverheroes]

Vent vent vent vent vent post, being so unserious and annoyed for a pinch. Every time just Leo comes up as the subject of a damn Instagram post there are people screaming at each-other over whether Rise Leo is the worst or best version and I can fix it for all of them, neither, both, it doesn’t fucking matter. You’re welcome, people, here, here’s this

(∩｀-´)⊃━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ Let People Enjoy Things. Let People Dislike Things.

Literally he’s just a different take and depending on if he was your first Leonardo or not he’s going to hit really differently. He’s everyone’s first Leon. The amount Rise Leo talks alone is wildly off-brand (Leo has like 6 lines in the entire secret of the ooze movie) and the frolicking was certainly a choice. A good one that I loved. Haaa had you there for a sec. Writers are always a bit ‘wtf do we do with Leo’ and Laird (co-creator of TMNT) has said before that Leonardo speaks formally so we know Rise Leo is on that shit list. But I don’t think the point of Rise was a reiteration, but a reimagining.

Leo, by design, is the responsible kid who despite age always falls into the brother-dad role and ends up in charge of wrangling his brothers (and it being all his fault when they fail). Subsequently he gets a lot of gloomy emo plot lines, a bunch of trauma, and when he does have fun ends up punished for it somehow (the 24 comic line is slapping this guy too- a Leo who loses mercy is actually terrifying. I love the brutality but am also begging them to just let him be happy at some point)

Rise Leo had that older brother role taken which I found refreshing, and then noticed he’d had a core quality stripped and that was really hard to adapt to. He was taken from skilled ninja due to extreme dedication to his craft and let’s face it, obsession with martial arts *cough special interest cough* to being a guy who ditches practice and was just good at fighting anyway; shiny gifted kid aura and full Mary Sue. Rise Leo had his strategic nature was so well written in but he also had no right being any good in a fight, and I have a theory that’s pretty much what pissed off all the people you see so annoyed about Rise Leo and angry about it (that aren’t just raging homophobes who can’t deal with a little queer coding) Leo bi icon real. Immediately, sorry, I have to share this thought, 03 looking 12 straight in the eyes and locking in just to really deliberately say “Gross.” over the Karai thing. 12 staring back “Rabbit.” “That’s not even canon. …D” “Don’t you dare ask me if I think he likes you.” And rise Leo piping in like “Ew 12 is allergic to being interesting, ask anyway, so who’s this guy and be honest does he like 3 furthermore is he also absolutely jacked because that is a lot of turtle, like a lot a lot of one you know what I mean, What are you Saying 12 get out of here, that is so inappropriate.” 12 just staring at him horrified. LMAO hello I’m insufferable, Moving on.

It was nice to have him not parentified straight out of the gate, and I really liked the spin on his personality (that again was a writer choice because Leo is allegedly both really difficult and not much fun to write) but as someone who came into the 87’s as my sentience was forming, Rise really is like a ‘What If’ version of the turtles that had always been varying degrees of the same people for such a long time.

I completely get the obsessive group of Rise fans. If that was my first turtles I’d be just as in love with it (although I hope not the same breed as those Insta comment kids wtf is that behaviour) but I also get why people hate on it. To a lot of fans it’s like Rise are caricatures or a fan fiction. But the thing is- that’s so fine!? Why the fuck not. It’s good, well written, immensely entertaining and so well animated (Rise is the single best animated television version of TMNT, objectively). Basically the whole of the last IDW comic run read like a big fan fiction too and it was awesome…

So yeah, Wise man say just let people enjoy things and also if someone says they don’t like a thing you do, you can be like ‘that’s fine’ and totally leave them alone. You can just like stuff without everyone else also liking it, abandon the binary 👍

Rant rant rant vent rant vent

[jxstacey]

Fuck it, new AU time

Fargo Au

THIS IS A TRUE STORY

The events depicted in this AU took place in New York throughout many years

At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed.

Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred.

In this anthology fanfic based on TV series Fargo, each Part follows a different iteration of the TMNT cast who get involved with the murders investigations of important characters throughout New York City that drastically change the events of the shows or comics, with characters even having different roles. Along with seemingly unrelated crimes sometimes being connected in some way.

Basically each iteration has something different about them whether being a character from an iteration that wasn’t in said iteration appearing, a new criminal group(03) or a character’s role changing

Season 1(03)- In 2003, John Bishop passes through Manhattan and influences the community, including Scientist Baxter Stockman into a path of malice and violence to protect themselves at whatever the cost. Meanwhile, Deputy April O’Neil and vigilante Casey Jones team up to solve a series of murders they believe may be linked to Stockman and Bishop.

Season 2(IDW; City At War) - Season 2(IDW; City At War) - In 2019, Mutanimal members Sally Pride and Man Ray cover up Ray’s hit and run of the son of a crime family boss based out of Hell’s Kitchen. While brothers Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo become entangled with the Hell’s Kitchen Mob, The Mutanimals and Foot Clan when the brothers are forced to investigate a triple homicide connected to the Hell’s Kitchen Mob and Foot Clan at a diner in Lower Manhattan when a Newscaster threatens to expose them to the public. Along with that, New York state trooper Lou Solverson and Richmond County officer Chris Bradford also investigates the diner murders and also find themselves getting dragged into and investigating plot involving the Foot Clan, The Turtles, Mutanimals, EPF and Baxter Stockman as it all grow into a City Wide massacre.

Season 3(2012) - After recent shortcomings and realization, Tiger Claw finds himself hunted down by the Foot Clan after quitting. Causing two members of the Foot, Fishface and Rahzar to come up with a plan to try and kill Tiger Claw with the help of couple Ray Stussy, a parole officer/foot member who was forced to join after witnessing a fight with the turtles and the Foot, and his new girlfriend Nikki Swango(Both returning characters from Fargo), an ex convict. However the plan backfires causing the deaths of a police chief and gang member, triggering a chain recent of events between the Foot, NYPD and the SoHo Yakuza. Along with that, a low ranking police officer in the NYPD, Lindsay Barker, and crime scene photographer Warren Stone try to figure everything out to prevent further bloodshed.

Season 4(Mutant Mayhem)- Mutant crook Hypno-Potamus(Formerly known as Mezmer Ron) accidentally stumbles upon a talent show set and finds himself skyrocketing into the entertainment industry. However he soons finds himself entangled in a gang war when he witnesses gang leader Superfly kill a distributor of his. Now a member of the Mutanimals against his will and also for the Liberty Mafia after being blackmailing by their boss, Ethan DeLuca, Hypno goes back and forth between the groups as he tries to find a way out, then deciding to con both sides of the war. Surely deceiving a psychopath(Superfly) and a narcissist(Ethan) can’t be too hard right?

Season 5(Rise) - In 2018, Baron Draxum kidnaps Leonardo Hamato to hopefully get him to join him. However the turtle makes it impossible, to where brainwashing him won’t work either. Draxum then tries to drag out Leo’s father Splinter, formerly known as Lou Jitsu, which fails as well. While Leo’s brothers deal with idiotic villains going after them, April hires John Bishop, a mysterious Special Agent with ties to the TBI(Texas Bureau of Investigation) and CIA and a person who escaped from Draxum’s lab years prior without trouble and temporarily dated the Battle Nexus Host, Big Mama, before she could get the chance to use him as a Battle Nexus Fighter. However, Bishop isn’t exactly who he appears to be, maybe not human at all, and he plans to rescue Leo while at the same time plotting to take Draxum out of the picture, permanently.

More on each of the seasons and changes soon

Season 1 Current Overview

The Characters of Season 1

——

Season 1 Chapter List

Ch 1: The Scientist’s Dillema https://archiveofourown.org/works/53552530/chapters/135553690

Ch 2: The Mantis King https://archiveofourown.org/works/53552530/chapters/138648616

Ch 3: A Spikey Road https://archiveofourown.org/works/53552530/chapters/140873098#workskin