#next mutation turtles are the MOST jacked

[snackugaki]

In Loving Memory: the Gentle Roasting of Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, pt.6

pt.1 | pt.2 | pt.3 | pt.4 | pt.5

omake 1 | omake 2 | omake 3

[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.

[ofskellingtcns]

𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐭    —  favorite characters I play / played ; play

so i did the math and over the course of ten years here at walt I've played 26 characters. not including mickey, scar or next gen babies ( because if I had to count my kids from beyond the grave we'd be here forever ) THATS A LOT. now I have ten ( nine active ) and I'm like wow !! how do I pinpoint a favorite !! i love all my characters. asking me to pick my favorite character is like asking me to pick my favorite kid. I won't do it for the present gen but for next gen I say with my whole chest it's josh. this is my current favorite roster of characters I play. whether it's because of their story, connections or because they hold a special place in my heart these are my top four. it would have been top three but the PSD I used had 8 slots so top four for present and next gen let's goooo.

jasper skellington

jasper is the most complex character i have ever written and created. for that I'm very protective of him because, like jack skellington as a whole, he can easily be misunderstood. i can't continue talking about him without thanking bee for creating a character with such love and depth and bea for taking orion and pushing my creativity because her idea for what orion framed jasper for was the catalyst to a lot of jasper's development. listen, I love my bone man. he's one of the more stressful characters I play but writing him often pushes me out of my comfort zone and forces me to use my creative muscles. i noticed long ago that I had a habit of picking up characters who were human and didn't have powers or if they did, I didn't mention it often. jasper is the first non-human character I've played. and let me tell you I've ran with it. creating what a skeleton monster is has been great. I've had a lot of fun developing lore for hallow falls, the skellington lore, what being a skeleton monster means for jasper and what being a skellington means for him. you know, his story is the story of what happens to a good person when they're finally pushed too far. exploring the fine line between revenge and redemption has been interesting. if I had to pick one piece of media that perfectly encompasses him it would be taylor swift's album reputation. the entire album. like there's not a song from it that doesn't fit him in some way. on her rep tour, one quote was "and in the death of her reputation she truly felt alive" and that's jasper. he had to kill his old self to survive and the loss of what he was to the town has allowed him freedom. i mean not really with orion's shenanigans but eventually when it's all said and done jasper will get the peace he's sought after. again, I love the complex dynamics between him and other characters, the development that he will go through during the amulet plot and just jasper as a whole. I'm very thankful that one day I decided I wanted to play him. it'll be a year soon that I've had him and I haven't known peace since.

leonardo hamato

listen i don't remember what life was like before I had leo. suddenly one day I had him and now he's just part of me. realizing I was indeed the blue turtle was a wild discovery but one I am very happy for. leo is now what wally was once to me. he is the muse I pour most of myself into. where I begin and he ends is a very thin line. like jasper, I have enjoyed world-building with leo. Much love, care and time have been put into the hamato-verse. i am thankful every day to have tori, mike and bee with me as my red, orange and purple. we do indeed share one brain-cell. I've gone above and beyond with leo as a character. from his mutations and what would be left behind from it, researching red ear sliders, what traits he would take on from his turtle DNA ( the amount of research and analysis videos I've watched is silly. i didn't do this much research in school for fun ), and how that would affect him in the long run, the hamato ninpo and what that means for him and his powers and trying to mesh all these turtle media together to bring to life a character that is reminiscent of the past leo's we've seen but also making him my own. i enjoy the journey he goes on from an insecure leader thrust into a position he didn't ask for to the wise sensei we all know. ( and yes he is a snitch in the future. he doesn't care he's 44. he's too damn old for his brothers to be acting a fool. he's letting splinty know the buffoonery that happens. ). i definitely have put a lot of love and time into him in the short amount of time I've had him. like sometimes I just talk about him and I just cry because I love him so much. again, he's a character that has pushed me out of my comfort with writing. i have made myself cry many times with his replies because I just don't know when to shut up with all this inner dialogue. i love leo, I love the hamato brothers, i love the future hamatos, I love the extended hamato family and i just love turtles.

reagan cymbeline

my angel ! my baby ! my sunshine ! we know what tangled and rapunzel means to me. the fact it took me until 2019 to take her up. FOUL. CRIMINAL. i love reagan so much. to have the opportunity to play a character that means so much to me I can't put into words how that feels. I'm lucky to have such an amazing flynn rider ( literally when I tell you I could have not asked for a better eugene. like tiff is a god sent. an angel. the better half of new dream ) to bounce off of and bring blondie to life with. like leo, reagan is another facet of me. rapunzel is a character that I hold near and dear to me. she is the character I see myself most in. literally people see tangled things and tell me they thought of me. that's how intertwined we are. so to bring her to life has been so much fun and like LOWKEY cathartic. her story had taken twists and turns ( hi benny ) but I am very excited to delve more into tangled lore, play out big plot points and have her reach her life after happily ever after.

wally axiom

i played wally from when i was 15 to 25. that is many seasons of life. that's a long ass time to play one character consecutively. my brain fully developed while I played them. there is a frontal lobe now. for ten years they were the character that meant everything to me. they were the character that I pour so much of my soul into. they were the character everyone knew me by. wally and I we've been through it together. we've seen some things, we've experienced some things. some were great. others things... not so much. i am very proud of the journey they have gone on. an ending I wish to have myself one day of happiness, growth, and fulfilled dreams. i know they're happy somewhere in retirement with their lovely boyfriend and wonderful kids. AND YOU KNOW WHAT IT'S WHAT THEY DESERVE.

joshua axiom-hawkins

i already said josh was my favorite child and i stand by that. he was my first next-gen baby. the first baby to be born in the present gen. MY first baby to be born in present gen. he's gonna be nine in September. jim and wally have a whole nine-year-old. that's crazy. like the fact, I know when he's born is foolery. ( it's September 12, 2014 ). I've enjoyed exploring him through his adolescence and adulthood. i love that he now has fight club to be part of, I've love expanding on that and his life with dante. and also he has like a great dad. give it up for great dads. jim hawkins you will always be famous. i love josh so much. like that's my baby fr.

wesley skellington

my favorite child of next-gen that's not josh title bounces around with each next gen. for some time now wes has held that title. i get emotional every time I think about wes is the part of jasper that died that gets to live on. jasper gets to protect his younger self in a way that he wasn't and have his son grow up in love. he's gone through many changes in these last few months. he is not the wes you all saw last next gen. I'm very excited to reintroduce him to you when the time comes. i love his thirst for knowledge and to dismantle the skellignton patriarchy, his devotion to his family and though he is a genius, dare he say ( and emphasis on he ) the smartest in his family man does some headass shit and I love him. he is indeed my favorite menace to society. wes & harry u own my heart.

caspian mcqueen

my favorite scallywag. i love caspian. idk what else to say. like he held that second favorite title for so long before wes was born. he's the first character I had to really have powers when we decided to add a magical element to walt. I've enjoyed curating what it means to have these ghost abilities and how he fits into his giant family with them. caspian is the odd one out because of his powers and it's an interesting dynamic to explore, especially because he has a big family. so there are many moving parts. then you add on extended family and PHEW. that and having a famous race car driver for a dad and a pirate turned adventurer for a mother it's all fun to explore. he might live in a world with powers and magic but he was made to feel like a freak because his powers were paranormal and supernatural so having to deal with that truth has been fun for me. i love his silly band, I love his relationship with hallie ( they're happy somewhere on their ship hehe ), I love his bromance with davu and he's really grown up a lot in the four years I've had him. so like I'm proud of him fr.

fox jones

i don't play many villains or mean characters most of the time. in my roster, there are three and fox is one of them. i gave him a tragic ass backstory because I was left to my own devices. now I have this feral bastard. playing out his story of overcoming your circumstances and not letting them taint you forever has been one I've enjoyed. he's not a villain he's just a boy. a boy who needed love and he found it in his family and in stefan. when jean and I were talking about sereddy's future and their kids her saying that serena knew that their kids were meant for them really fucking got me. so to play with that idea and for fox to begin in a place with such hostility to now be raised in love, it makes me weepy because serena and freddy had it HARD growing up ( part of the my dad sucks club you know ) so their kids know nothing but love. it's a hard adjustment for him but you know it's called growth baby. he's getting there. he's pretty, he's feisty and I love coming up with dumb comebacks for him. he's had some iconic one-liners over the years.

[snackugaki-jestsjapesjokes]

Adding for clarifications here and there cuz I snooped around the notes.

Next Mutation, IDW spoilers... I guess also Archie spoilers if anyone is going through that run of TMNT comics for the first time.

Venus, introduced as a character in Next Mutation, was emphasized as a "shinobi", something considered different than "ninja" in the show. A lot of people, even the ones in my generation who were the target audience at the time the show originally aired forget they made that distinction in the show. On top of the fact that the actual Japanese words "ninja" and "shinobi" are functionally synonymous with each other. To be fair on that point, this is the franchise that has people running around named Spicy so whatevs.

She did fight using martial arts, no she did not use a fan on the show (her toy came with one hence the popular conception for those who sort of remember her. Others because the tessen is a distinctive enough weapon that differentiates her from the boys; a common default for those unfamiliar with Venus), yes she used magic but sparingly. Aside from roundhousing and spinning back fisting antagonists she, at most, threw giant BBs filled with an adhesive to trap opponents. She had a whole study montage of learning to throw one (1) fireball and it was caught and blown out like a candle, she tries and I love her for it.

She strikes me more as a cultivator like in xianxia; she was apprenticed to a master, she had a medicine box that she used in-show, she was knowledgeable about what was in that box (barring the dessicated heart of a 2,000 year old vampire), she was tapped into the universal flow, she was studied enough to know "how to read and write 14,000 characters in eight dialects of 3 languages spanning the last 10,000 years", she works hard to cultivate what she can do and she studies on what she doesn't yet know.

Now Venus' introduction in IDW is vastly different than the original Next Mutation's Venus. Started as a human who got turned into Punk Frog in the mutagen bomb and, they never said how, but she was beaten enough for Dr. Barlow to drag to his clinic to begin his experiments on using Donnie's a discarded carapace and a dragon scale shed from when Kitsune tried to summon the Pantheon's father.

It's implied she was meant to be a doppleganger for one of the actual ninja turtles in a ploy for something but she ended up not being implemented so Barlow used her as his guinea pig for his experiments with dragon scales and his brand of cosmetic 'reconstructive' surgery. So technically she is a frog with a turtle shell but as revealed in later issues, the dragon scale helps Venus change into who she's building/becoming as she no longer feels like who she started as. And she happened to settle on the form of a turtle, three fingers with two toes and a plastron. She hasn't been shown to know any particular martial arts fighting skills, much less ninjutsu. She confirms she's aware of kuji-kiri when Mikey inquires about her magic. She buddies up with Bludgeon who's the one who refers to starting a new clan to Koya, whether in the ninja sense or not is sort of ambiguous.

I heard Slash was in 2012 but... just tl;dr I don't know that iteration like that so I can't speak on it, my Slash was in the Archie run. Which he looked like a ninja turtle and that was it really. He had a bandana, a weapon and that's where the 'ninja turtle' stops. He was an alien turtle from Palmadise who teamed up with the wrong crowd and fought against the boys. Later in an issue of Mighty Mutanimals he's taken to an island full of palm trees like his home planet. Annnnd that's where his story stops in Archie.

Kirby is another 'fifth' turtle, named after Jack 'King' Kirby famed comic artist, one of two who create Captain America the other being Joe Simon. He was set to appear in the unmade fourth TMNT movie in the 90s and apparently he was going to also appear in Next Mutation but it only got one season. I think Sophie Campbell's drawn Kirby for fun but I don't think he's been included in IDW yet.

Lita, introduced in IDW, is also an actual 'ninja turtle' being one of the child students the boys take on when they start their Splinter dojo. She started human, however she got caught in the same mutagen bomb that mutated Venus. A fun fact is that she was initially going to be Venus but that route of her introduction got axed.

Jennika also introduced in IDW, is also another actual 'ninja turtle'. However she started human, she became a mutant turtle when Leo gave her a blood transfusion after Karai shanked her during a meeting. She began as a Foot ninja, she's now part of the Splinter ninja clan with the boys, still a turtle and also bonded to the boys on the metaphysical level.

The two missing siblings from Rise we were supposed to get, out of the two the one referred to Big Mama's Assistant was established as a ninja specifically so that's one 'ninja turtle'. The other sister was just stated to have been stuck in a different dimension, no connection to ninjutsu or being ninja except by having Hamato blood.

link to tweet

As for Last Ronin ninja turtles... guess y'all gotta go read Last Ronin, huh?

:3c

How many ninja turtles are there?

[raainy-daze]

Gotta Get Creative

halloween special !

rottmnt raph x gn!reader

summary: as it turns out, halloween costumes are a whole lot more difficult when you’re trying to match with a mutant turtle.

word count: 1,142

a/n: taking a break from requests to get some halloween oneshots out! i’m counting this as gender neutral, but reader does wear a dress for their halloween costume. happy halloween, everybody!

◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤

Ah, October, the month of spooks and scares. There’s a chill in the air, and celebrations have begun.

The moment you got out of school, you grabbed your things and practically ran the route to the nearest manhole. It was a path you knew well by now, having walked it so many times.

You arrived at the lair in roughly ten minutes (new record!). You went through your routine, greeting everyone - Splinter on his armchair, Mikey and Leo having some sort of competition, Donnie in his lab. Finally, Raph in his room.

“Hello, wonderful boyfriend of mine! It is October 1st, which means I am now about to become a menace to society. Got any costume ideas?”

You dropped yourself onto the bed next to Raph, who, prior to your entrance, had been knitting. He had set his needles down now though, and you pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before grabbing a notebook out of your bag along with a pen.

“Right to the point, huh?”

“This is business, Raph. Halloween costumes are no matter to be taken lightly.”

Several months ago already, you and Raph had agreed to go in matching costumes this year. Now that October had come, the challenge was to decide what costumes.

Of course, there were a few ground rules. Mainly, whatever it was had to something that would cover Raph’s mutation at least to the point where he could go unnoticed topside. Unless the Hidden City celebrated Halloween the way humans do, which you sorely doubted.

This couldn’t be too hard, right?

•°. *࿐

“My brain has failed me. The Internet has failed me. The world has failed me, Raph.”

As it turns out, your imagination wasn’t being very cooperative today, and neither was Google. In front of you sat your phone opened to a list of couples costume ideas (more than a few of which were more than a little unsettling), and all around you were scattered crumpled up pages of your poor notebook.

“Come on, (y/n), it’s only been thirty minutes.” Raph was patting your back in consolation.

“It’s been almost two hours.”

“What?” Raph blinked at you. “That can’t be right.”

You pointed at the corner of your screen, which indicated that roughly two hours had, in fact, passed.

“Oh. Well-” Raph picked up your notebook, reading through the most recent page. “Okay, so not much. That’s fine. It’s only day one.”

“Only day one! We waited until October to decide, and now we’re going to suffer for it! One of the most important parts of a good Halloween is a good costume - or at least an above mediocre one!” You threw your arms up in frustration (and maybe just a bit for the sake of drama), just narrowly missing Raph’s face.

Speaking of which, you couldn’t help noticing something strange in his expression. Like he was holding back a smile, and…

“Are you laughing?”

“No.” His voice cracked as he spoke, and he immediately burst into a fit of laughter.

“You think this is a laughing matter?” You couldn’t help smiling, despite your words.

“I’m sorry! I just- Wait, wait, no!” He grabbed the pillow you were reaching for before you could, and you both dissolved into giggling messes.

Your head was resting on Raph’s shoulder now, and for a moment, you just took a moment to smile.

There were a few minutes of silence, both of you lying back on the bed, before Raph chuckled. “Imagine if we just… ditched the disguise.”

“What do you mean?” You turned to look at him.

“Like, we just go up top wearing a generic couple’s costume, and when anyone asks we just go ‘oh yeah, we’re Jack and Rose from the Titanic, but if Jack was secretly a turtle monster’.”

It was a joke. It was just meant to be a joke. But… “Raph?”

“Yeah?”

“I think you’re a genius.”

•°. *࿐

Over the next month, you spent your time gathering the supplies for your costume. It wasn’t that difficult, really, the Titanic outfits weren’t that hard to recreate.

When the day rolled around, everyone met down in the lair to get into costume. April was in a circus ringmaster’s uniform, with Mayhem meant to be her circus animal. Donnie, to no one’s surprise, had dressed up as Frankenstein for the third year in a row, and had convinced Mikey to go as the monster.

“Leo, where’s your costume?” You raised an eyebrow, and he responded with a grin.

“What do you mean, where’s my costume? It’s right here. I’m a mutant turtle who lives in the sewers.”

“That’s cheating.”

“Says who?”

At this point, you decided to ignore him. You instead turned your attention to your boyfriend, who was sitting next to you on the couch. Raph’s previous joke had, in fact, become reality - here he was, Jack from the Titanic, but as a turtle creature.

“So, if Jack is a turtle now, does that mean he survives after all?” April asked.

“I don’t think snapping turtles live in the ocean,” was Donnie’s response.

“Shh - let it be happy. We need more happy endings in this world.”

“Glad you could find a happy ending in our cover up for a Halloween costume, April.”

“Hey, every costume deserves a little world building. Like magical circus animals…” April gestured towards Mayhem. Or rather, the spot where Mayhem had been moments ago. “Oh, for the love of- MAYHEM!”

You leaned back against the couch, smoothing out your dress. You’d bought a dress initially, but wound up altering it to your liking. You put a lot more effort into it than you’d really care to admit.

“Alright fellas, what’s our route? Got any intel on where the best candy’s at?” Leo took charge of the planning, or at least tried to before Donnie pulled out a rather extensive map of the best trick or treating spots in New York City.

“Well, I’d say these turned out pretty well. The costumes, that is.” Raph smiled at you.

“So would I!” You returned the grin, and put an arm around his shoulders. Well, you tried to. He was a bit too much bigger than you for it to work very well. “April’s right though. A costume like this needs a story behind it. How did Jack become a turtle creature, I wonder?”

“Maybe he’s a ninja, too. One that lives in the sewers.”

“Hey, guys!” You looked back at the others. Donnie was still holding that ridiculously large map - you had to bite your tongue to keep from laughing.

“I’ve got Mayhem, let’s go!” April called from the sewer entrance.

Everyone got up from their spots around the room; Donnie rolled up his map and Mikey rushed the last few finishing touches on his makeup. You grabbed Raph’s hand as you stood up.

“Let’s go get some free candy, people!”

[marvelous-writer]

Pain Meds, Broken Bones, & Fun Facts

Summary: In which Peter gets hurt on patrol and winds up in the medbay, jacked up on pain meds that make him a little loopy. Cue worried Irondad.  Whumptober Day 3: Altered States

Word Count: 700

Genre: Fluffy, whump, humor

Link to read on AO3

A/N: Thank you @whumphoarder for beta reading this and for always being so amazing and helpful and a big thank you to @awesomesockes for help with the fun turtle fact!!

Day three of @whumptober2020

“T’ny, did you know that turtles can breathe through their butts?” Peter slurs with a lopsided grin. 

“That’s fascinating, Pete,” Tony says without looking up from his tablet, reading over the final prototype for the upcoming line of SI smart phones they’re planning on rolling out in mid-November. 

It’s been a long night in the medbay after Peter miscalculated a jump on patrol that resulted in the kid taking a bad tumble, somehow managing to break his fibula in two places. Thankfully, it doesn’t need surgery, but he’s still laid out in bed with his leg encased in a bright blue cast, propped up on a mountain of pillows to keep it elevated. He’s doped up on his spider-kid pain meds (the ones that make him fuzzy and a bit out of it), contentedly slurping on a berry blast flavored ICEE drink Tony got for him. 

A wet sniffle has Tony looking up, only to find Peter resembling a sad puppy with tear-filled eyes.

Tony drops the tablet on the end table next to the bed, prototypes forgotten for now. “Hey, what’s wrong? Are you in any pain? Do you want me to get Bruce?”

Peter sniffs again, blinking as a few tears slide down his cheeks. “W-Why can’t I breathe through my butt?” he mumbles like it’s the most heartbreaking realization in his life. “‘S not fair.”

Tony blinks, at a loss for words. He’s not quite sure if he wants to laugh or wrap the poor kid in a hug. “Well, you got bit by a mutated spider. Not a Mutant Ninja Turtle.” 

“B-But I can’t even lay eggs like spiders can,” Peter whines, more tears flowing as he throws his arms out, sloshing the little remains of his slushie in the cup. “I’m so lame.” 

Tony takes the cup from him before he spills all over himself and puts it on the end table. “No you’re not, Pete,” he says gently, reaching over to run a hand through the teen’s curls. “You’ve had a long, rough night and you need sleep. You’re on some pretty strong meds right now to help your spidey-healing to kick in, which is totally cool. There’s nothing lame about you, kiddo.” 

“You’re jus’ saying that ‘cause you love me,” Peter says with a pout. 

If it were a few years ago, before the blip, Tony would have probably gotten red in the face from a comment like that, or felt like he had a bad case of heartburn coming on because emotions have never been his thing. But now… the comment warms his heart, making him feel all gooey and mushy. 

Tony smiles softly down at Peter, continuing to run his hand through the kid’s hair. “Yeah I do.”

Peter’s watery eyes meet his as a small smile finds its way to his face. “You do?” he whispers. 

“Of course I do.” 

“Even if I laid eggs?” 

Tony rolls his eyes half-heartedly, despite the horrifying mental image. “Even if you laid eggs and breathed out of your butt.” 

Peter weakly laughs at that as he drops his head back against the pillows, blinking sluggishly. The meds side effects seem to be kicking in now. 

“How about you try to get some more sleep, bud?” Tony suggests. 

“M’kay,” Peter agrees as he lets out a yawn, wiggling down into the mattress a bit. “Will you stay?” 

“Of course. I’ll be here when you wake up,” Tony says with a fond smile as he reaches over. His hand resting once more on the kid’s head and rubbing soothing circles on his scalp, just the way he likes it. It’s Tony and May’s secret weapon to get him to fall asleep. 

Peter hums contentedly as his eyes slip shut, a soft sigh escaping through his nose. It only takes a matter of seconds before the kid is out like a light. Tony smiles to himself as he grabs his tablet off the table and sits back, resuming his position. 

And if he takes a few pictures of the kid, looking impossibly adorable as he drools on himself, no one will ever know. 

(Except for May. And maybe the team if the cause for blackmail arises.)

[fanfic-inator795]

I have a theory... and if I’m right, it is going to be absolutely emotionally DEVASTATING when the truth comes out...

So, we’re all about 90% sure that Mama’s mysterious new assistant is a turtle. They were most likely created with whatever tiny bit of mutagen-DNA Draxum could scavenge up after the explosion, making them just as much Lou’s child as the other turtles are. I’m also about 75% sure Draxum’s gonna get a redemption arc - or at the very least have to work together with the Jitsu fam, now that he’s a powerless raisin. 

So imagine if you will: Draxum spends more and more time with the Turts and Splints, begins to stop seeing them as failures/enemies and starts seeing them as actual people. He maybe starts to subtly bond with them, start to care about them just a little, even learning what Splints went through in the Nexus and after the explosion. He sympathizes with Splints, and even if he still views humanity as an enemy to Yokai-kind, this alliance is becoming less and less reluctant.

When they finally realize Mama’s grand Shredder plan, they confront her. But Mama’s got a trump card. She thinks it’s adorable that they’re all working together, as well as surprising. “You know, considering...” “...Considering what?” Grabbing their curiosity, she starts to explain, much to Draxum’s horror.

She tells them the origin story of her new masked assistant, how Draxum mutated them using Lou’s DNA, kept them incubated to assure that this one would be the PERFECT soldier. Strong, ruthless, emotionless - everything he wanted the original four Turtles to be. He kept them a secret for as long as he could, and then - when he needed to trade something in order for Mama to do him a favor in Insane/Mama Train- he traded her the 5th turtle, further cementing their destiny as a soldier (just like Draxum wanted. Just like the Hamato Clan would have wanted) never getting to live the free life that their brothers were lucky enough to have. Never getting to have an actual family.

Splinter listens to all of this, with Draxum (after everything he’s learned about Lou and why he decided to raise his kids the way he did) being unable to defend himself. And when he does, Splinter just looks at him. And he. is. LIVID.

Needless to say, their alliance falls apart, and with Draxum once again without allies and the Jitsu fam pretty shocked and devastated (Splinter especially), Mama figures that they’ll be distracted long enough for her to launch the next phase of her big Shredder-related plan...

So yeah, this idea popped into my head yesterday, and while I was too tired to get it all out then, I really wanted to post about it now. Also, a bit of fun turtles lore: Venus and Jennika aren’t the only “5th Turtles” out there. There’s also Kirby, named after comic book artist Jack Kirby, who was supposed to be in the 4th TMNT 90s live action movie.

And considering Venus is copyright by Saban (can’t be used) and Jennika hasn’t been around long enough, this masked turtle could be Kirby

[sindumpster]

If you don't mind refreshing my idiot brain's memory hole, what's a pseudo-mammal again? I remembered the term but not the rest of what you said before reeeeeeee

It was in context with my dragons, and tbh I’m kinda realizing now it’s a pretty dated possibly wrong term so internet does not give you a lot of sources for it (or the sources aren’t what I’m referring to). But in biology and math, when “pseudo” is tied to a word, it usually means “partial” (or sometimes “incomplete”), and for a “pseudo-mammal” it’s referring to an animal that is “partially” a mammal. They have some traits of a mammal, but there are also things mixed in that don’t match what you’d see with mammals (like say they had feathers, or a beak, or were cold blooded despite having fur and live birth--basically muddled and mixed traits but some of it is very mammal-like).

Like I borrowed the term from old-ass sources where it was used to refer to the evolution process of mammals, cuz they didn’t just pop up fully evolved and ready to go. It took a long time for something recognizable as a “mammal” to appear, and before that you had animals that were kinda...mixed. Though very much also considered their own thing, calling them “in-between” forms of reptiles and mammals is a dated classification, but I digress.

[[And also this next part is just me going off on my fantasy science bullshit so feel free to skip to the next dashed line if it makes no sense. Partly writing it for myself just cuz I have an excuse to lmao]]

----------

So for reference, mammals essentially evolved from reptiles, specifically Synapsids (like this guy that might look familiar which gave rise to Therapsids (which gave you these guys: 1 and 2) around 250-200 million years ago which gave you Cynodonts (predecessor to the mammals that evolved along dinosaurs, they’re late Therapsids). Thing with evolution though is that all those traits you associate with a modern day animal don’t suddenly pop up at once, instead those traits evolve in a “mosaic”. So like slowly placing pieces for a mosaic, through evolution those ancestral animals slowly gained different parts of the picture at different times. So esp with the Therapsid examples, you can kinda see some parts look more like a mammal, and some that seem more like a reptile, and it was not a rapid change.

With my dragons, the idea was that, evolutionarily, they hit that morphing stage  between reptiles and mammals and decided that worked well enough for them, and shot off into a new branch from there. Maybe there was some unforeseen advantage with keeping it, maybe they needed to focus their energy on evolving/mutating another pair of limbs (wings)--regardless they only evolved traits that aided them in survival, and didn’t bother with the gimmicks that didn’t really help them. Or maybe they did go full mammal and sorta stepped back, like how life came from the ocean, and whales decided “hey ocean kinda worked out for us, so let’s readapt for that” altho imo less likely because doing so would’ve probably disadvantaged dragons, and nature doesn’t select for things that makes survival as a species harder.

And if you wanna get really technical, this would probs then place dragons in an class of their own, or as surviving non-mammalian Therapsids (but most likely a branch that evolved from Therapsids and became their own thing like mammals did). This would mean that dragons are not mammals, reptiles, birds, or anything else. They are their own thing. But with ancestors popping up from that reptile-mammalian split.

(and aside but Gorgonopsia/Gorgonopsids are considered to have been at least partially warm-blooded, so the fantasy bullshit dragon clade prolly would’ve had to arise sometime before or around them)

------------

ANYWAYS, main reason I opted to group dragons like that is because they never fully screamed “reptile” at me, at least in my canon where they would need certain mammalian traits, or possibly bird-like features. But with the whole bat-wings and the way I drew their legs positioned under them (most reptiles have their legs to the side, like alligators/crocodiles and lizards), and the hair, and certain social behaviors that were very mammalian, it implied to me that there had to be something else in the mix, and all those things pointed to mammals.

This also tied in with Jake and his whole deal with the sweatshirt. Dude wears the thing because his temperature regulation is poor, but if he were a full-on reptile, that sweatshirt would do jack shit keeping him warm. Sweatshirts are designed to trap air inside and let the wearer warm it up with their own body heat. But if Jake was an ectotherm (cold-blooded), he wouldn’t have body heat, so the sweater wouldn’t do anything for him. And I wanted him to have some cold resistance because throwing him in the snow is funny, but also it would be funny if extended cold made him feel gross and sluggish (and hey, defeating a dragon with some very easy thermostat tinkering is also very funny). So he needed to have some level of endothermy (warm-blooded-ness), and the idea was to make it partial. So there you go, legit biological nonsense canon I created just because I wanted to justify my character wearing a sweatshirt.

That said, “partial endotherms” do exist in nature, and they’re called heterotherms. Literally just creatures that are “mixed” warm and cold-blooded, or can temperature regulate only under specific conditions. Animals like certain sharks, tuna, some arctic birds (in their feet), leatherback sea turtles (fins), certain insects, etc...

So it made sense to push that route with dragons, especially with having them tied to those part-reptile part-mammal ancestors where they just, kept a lot of the intermixed traits. And made sense to have that be their source of heterothermy too. Hence, they’d have enough of their own body heat to function in colder places/more varied seasons without completely slowing down or needing to hibernate like a reptile, they can adapt to grow more fur if they need to insulate themselves, but even then extended and severe cold will slow down their metabolisms (make them slow, lethargic, and kinda grumpy), and they still take to warmer climates better, and they will bask to raise their body temps when they can get away with it. (Also hey, maybe fire has a use for self-heating now too).

...and yeah this is a lot more extra than it needed to be, but I enjoy the “merging fantasy with biology” stuff and I do what I want, and idk maybe someone would find it interesting too. But in the most basic sense, pseudomammal was just meant to mean “not quite mammal, but not quite reptile either”, but it’s not a common term, especially now.

[fart-gate]

SG1

Season 3 episode 7

"DEAD MAN SWITCH"

Notes by me

- forest adventure my favorite!

- Daniel in his hat

- sg1: holding a sign that says "90 days since Daniels last injury"

Daniel: *walks face first into an invisible shield*

Sg1: "0 days since daniels last injury"

- hello sir I like your fancy star trek helmet

- tealc no reaction when the tree next to him gets obliterated. Invented sexy

- " I'm Aris Boch top bounty hunter in the galaxy"

Sg1:

- is he a fanboy. He knows them all

- Daniel takes five years to figure out how to take off his side arm

- they look SO pissed lmao regular tuesday for them

- #daniels 90s choker

- how does he know how to disable a stargate

- this ship can travel twice the speed of light and it STILL wont reach earth for 10 yrs......our own hyperspace ship when

- tealc ready to pounce at all times

- me when he takes off his helmet:

- "dr Jackson if you dont mind treating my wound"

"I'm an archeologist"

"I know but your also a doctor"

"........of archeology"

- hes oozing that stuff that mutated the ninja turtles

- "and Oniell you're a pain in the mikta!"

"neck?"

"..........no"

- daniels sad face at not being on the Most Wanted list

-

- jack: "youre giving me a working zat gun?"

Aris: "I'm trusting you :) "

Jack: *proceeds to immediately shoot him*

- a ruse!!! A ploy!!!

- Jack and Daniel bickering at the tiniest things always gives me good feelings

- he said BEROKNA

- alexa play Time-Bomb by All Time Low

- did Jack tell Daniel to go outside so if it went off he would live....

- I'm sorry he literally walks right up to Daniel and just takes the gun away

- love how Jack keeps shooting him. Just to make sure

- daniel: I sowwy :( lets be friends again :))) <3

Like honey you tried

- woa woa woa hes immune to goaudkda????to goaualsds??????? NO WORMIES IN HIS HEAD???

- Jack wearing his helmet

- maybe Sam can figure out why hes immune while she stays

- "tacs"

"What?"

"Tacunitagaminituron"

".............."

"......tacs"

- plot twist!!! Tokra!!!

- I'm still on the fact that this guys immune I want to know why

- hes a drug addict!

- Roshna ! Its the new cocaine!

- Jack asking tealc if he can take him haha bitch please

- him wagging his finger made me want to punch him in the face

- jack slapping Sam awake. So gentle

- sorry tealc , Jack said no :\

- honey what is this whats goin on here. Is he really going with him

- "we'll find you" ❤💗❤💗❤💗❤💗❤💗❤💗❤💗❤💗❤💗❤💗❤💗

- THE LOVE AND CONCERN WHEN HE COMES BACK 😭😭 A FAM

- Aris: I lied the goauld want you dead so bad it makes them look stupid

Daniel: I preferred when I was worthless

- seriously tho the fact they want him dead bc he figured out the stargate is pretty cool. Not as cool as Jack being on the wanted list just bc hes annoying tho

- he gave her a necklace of some sort. I'm guessing it contains something to help her figure out why hes immune

~

Whump under the cut

Daniel jackson whump: walks face first into invisible shield, holding his nose, less than a minute

Tealc whump: taken as prisoner, self sacrifice, not physically whumpy, more emotional

Sam carter whump: shot by zat gun, passing out

Whole team whump: taken hostage, gun point, not physically whumpy

🎶listening to Time Bomb by All Time Low 🎶 because I made myself want to listen to it

[frozenmiwa]

Review: Rise of the Turtles part 1 (TMNT 2012)

I know, I know I promised to post this during summer but instead I ended up editing my TMNT 2012 fanfiction. I ended up having some technical difficulties with this post. I did watch the episode but somehow all the screen shots I took just vanished. My guess is some form of Windows update happened and poof, all screen shots were gone.

I actually just got the first season on DVD yesterday – I finally ordered it online three or so weeks ago, I’ve been looking for Finnish release of the show ever since 2014 when it started to air in Finland but we got nothing. Not that I minded, the dub was decent but definitely lot worser than the dub 2003 series got from the group called Dubberman. So I’m more than happy to have the UK release of the first season.

Firstly I’d like to address one thing: I was hesitant to watch this show because I don’t like CGI that much anymore since it’s everywhere these days, but I was interested in it after scrolling some Turtlepedia especially after I saw one of my absolute favorite character from the 2003 show, April. When I read about Donnie’s crush on her, I recalled their relationship in the 2003 series – seeing Donatello and April interact was one of my favorite things about the show so naturally I was interested to see how well 2012 series pulled that off. Then I had this boring weekend and I decided to give it a try. I did and absolutely loved the show, I loved the turtles, I loved what they did with Splinter, I even loved this one character I thought I wouldn’t, what I didn’t love however was April – instead Karai became my favorite character.

But we get to that when we get to that. Let’s start this thing!

Like with the previous post I’m not going to do full plot summary here, instead I’m doing this brief summary. If you are interested in full summary please go to sites like Turtlepedia for that!

Now this episode starts similarly to the 2003 series. We are introduced to our main characters as they are in training session. It turns out the turtles are celebrating their fifteenth birthday today and wish to go top side for the first time even though Splinter is hesitant to let them go. Eventually he does and the turtles get to see the what the world looks like outside sewers. It seems to be full of wonder… and dangers. Turtles witness a family of two, father and daughter getting kidnapped by a group of identical men, but are unable to rescue them due to their inability to work as a team. And Mikey finds out those men weren’t exactly human… but no one believes him. The group returns to the lair and they get scolded by Splinter for letting the kidnappers getting away because they couldn’t work as a team – then again, he does admit it’s partially his fault as he never trained them to fight as a team. While Splinter suggest they have another year to wait until their next visit to the top side, Donnie isn’t having it as he wants to save the poor kidnapped girl, he fell in love with at the first sight. After some convincing Splinter agrees to let them go and save her. Before they go however Splinter makes Leonardo their leader – the group does need a leader in order to function correctly after all, but as to why he chose Leo, isn’t clear. So, to the back side we go, after some time they manage to find one of the kidnappers and chase him until his car falls over. When Raph opens up the back door to the car a mysterious cannister filled with green ooze rolls over – looking a lot like the one broken cannister the turtles have in their lair, the one that had something to do with their current forms. And with that the first episode ends.

What I liked about the episode

+ Turtles actually acting like teenagers. I don’t think we have seen that in any other incarnation despite the show being called “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”.

+ What they did with Leo’s personality. I was so used to Leo being this perfect serious leader who’d win any training session against Raph, seeing Leo actually losing against Raph not to mention having this kind of geeky awkward side to his character was refreshing to see.

+ Master Splinter. I liked how he looked nothing like his former counterparts, I loved how they brought up his personality and most of all now he actually felt like a caring father to the turtles instead of being just their teacher. Not to mention how cool his design looks in this show!

+ The plot in general. For a pilot episode it did good job at presenting our four main characters, showing they, each have different personalities without spending too much on that. It had this sense of wonder when we see the turtles discovering the world for the first time. And there was action included as well but not in a way that our heroes just swoop in and save the day, I liked the fact they messed it up on their first try. I also liked how the episode didn’t end with turtles saving the day but rather with a cliff hanger because that would get viewers to want to catch the next episode – unlike 2003 series where it just ended, personally I wouldn’t have waited to see the next episode, unlike with this 2012 show.

+ Interaction and comedy between the turtles was well done, I definitely did have some laughs here and there.

+ The way flashbacks and ending stills are done in this version. What can I say? I just love the comic book style they went with!

What I didn’t like about this episode

- Well in general I liked this episode fine; it really didn’t have much to complain about, characters were solid, their backstory was solid, story was solid and the action was solid. Over all I’d say it’s a good episode. But if I had to pick one thing I did not like; it would be the way April was presented. Unlike the turtles she didn’t seem like a character, just a pretty girl shown to our faces who needed to be saved. I know that’s how it was intended but if I’d have to pick one thing I didn’t like about the episode, this would be it.

And now let’s say few words about the dub my country eventually got...

When this series finally started to air in Finland you better believe I got up every Sunday to watch this show, not because I hadn’t seen it, it was January 2014, I had already seen the episodes couple of times in English but I wanted to check out the dubbed version especially after seeing the voice cast. Just by looking at the voices seemed like this dub would go either way. It could be good or really bad. Like with seasons 3-4 and 6-7 of TMNT 2003 a group called Dubberman. And I wasn’t completely trusting for the fact they would do the show justice. I mean they did skip over the season 5 in 2003 series – and later season 3 in 2012 series so…

The dub was decent, not great, not the worst we could have gotten but decent. There were some errors like they called Raphael “Rafaello” or “Rafa” for short like in the dubbed VHS/DVD release of 1980 series – luckily, they stopped doing that after few episodes because it bothered me a lot. Another thing was how those Japanese phases were pronounced – in this episode by Leo. They didn’t sound right at least when you compare to the original version.

The voice cast was okay. It consisted of some familiar and great voice actors like Jon-Jon Geitel as Leo who has also voiced characters like Jack Frost from the Rise of the guardians or Jake Long from American Dragon: Jake Long – I think this is where I first heard his voice acting. More recently he voiced Aladdin in the live action version from 2019. Another familiar voices we had were Aksu Palmén as Donatello who had voiced characters like Hiccup in How to train your dragon, and Markus Bäckman as Master Splinter – It’s better I won’t go in too much details on his voicing career because he has done a lot of good voice acting in TV and Disney movies. These two were probably the most suited for their roles. Especially Markus Bäckman as Splinter. He sounded just right for the part. Then there was Henri Piispanen who I hadn’t heard much voice acting from before TMNT. I think he was solid pick for Raph – not as good as Sean Astin but they could have gone for worse. Then there were couple unknown actors Miro Loopperi who voiced Mikey and Ella Jaakkola who voiced April.

Miro Looperi did fine job as Mikey but he didn’t really sound like him. This reminds me of 2003 series as Mikey had a voice actor in the Finnish dub that I liked, but one that didn’t sound like him when compared his original voice. This has the same feeling to it. And now Ella Jaakkola, she had this high-pitched kind of bitchy voice I found annoying but at the same time I thought it kind of worked for April’s character because I knew what would become of her character in season 2. I remember thinking: “I can’t wait to hear this voice in Mutation Situation!” – Too bad they changed her voice for season 2.

Now, don’t expect me to do this thing for all the episodes where I talk a little bit about the Finnish dub as I’ve only seen the first season dubbed – I don’t even know when season 2 aired. And I don’t have many notes about the dub. Nor do I remember much of it. I have notes for I think five or so episodes and very good memory for Karai’s debut episode but that’s about it. As I said earlier so far now DVD releases have been made in Finland so I would only have access through streaming services to seasons 4 and 5 – which I haven’t even watched completely yet. I can only hope Netflix or Viaplay would upload the dubbed versions of TMNT to their servers but as we lack DVD releases or reruns of seasons 1 and 2 and season 3 in general that’s very unlikely.

And now some screenshots!

Would you look at that? Leo actually lost to Raph.

Is that supposed to be Splinter? He looks kind of cool - were my first thoughts when he appeared on the screen.

Happy Mutation day! I just love their expressions here.

And it’s flashback time! I really love the way they did and animated the flashbacks in this version.

Splinter holding the broken mutagen canister.

...And Mikey giving it a hug.

They are finally able to go to the top side. Look at how happy they are - I mean even Raph is smiling.

Well I just like this shot of Splinter.

Leo and Space Heroes. I love how proud he looks here.

“Hai, sensei!” - This is probably one of my favorite scenes in this episode. It shows that over protective side of Splinter which is one of the many things I love about the show.

Turtles entering the top side for the first time.

Donnie geeking out at computer stuff while Raph is not interested. Personally being a geek myself, I see lot of myself in Donatello during this moment.

Turtles are about to find out what pizza is.

Oh, look at that it’s a love interest... I mean it’s my least favorite character... I mean it’s April.

And Donnie is in love with her. Just like that.

I know April is supposed to be scared here but I find her expression hilarious. It cracks me every time.

Fighting is not going too well here.

Or here.

Saving April.

I really like this shot of Donnie smiling. He looks kind of adorable. I mean who would scream after seeing that adorable face?

April of course!

I find Donnie’s reaction and posture here priceless, it’s like: “Oh my god, what did I just touch?”

April is being cornered by creepy men.

And Donnie’s offering to help her.

But that doesn’t really work out. Mikey looks adorable though!

I guess The Kraang didn’t fancy April’s screaming either.

And here’s Mikey, facing a suspicious man all by himself.

...That is not a man at all.

Okay what the hell is that thing?

You know what Mikey, I totally agree with you.

Turtles are having a conversation about the leader stuff. And they all can’t believe what they just heard.

Here is Leo facepalming. One of my favorite scenes in the episode.

“I thinking of something green. Green.” “Is it Raphael again?”

Cornering Snake.

Ending still.

Anyway, this was my review for the first episode of TMNT 2012. Next time I think I’m doing review for the second episode of 2003 series, so stay tuned for that. Or something.

[heroesofcrash]

My (Mixed) Feelings on Rise of the TMNT

Some people are cautiously optimistic about the new show, some hate it already.  I fall into the former category, but I will admit some things put me ill-at-ease.  Here’s my thoughts:

TOTALLY COOL:

- Liking the voice cast.  They all seem like they can handle the roles quite well, especially when directed by Rob Paulsen (The voice of 1987 Raphael and 2012 Donatello).

- April’s redesign is easily my favorite.  In the comics, she was based off of (and, I’ve been told, depicted as) an African-American woman, and it’s come full-circle for her.  That and the fact that half the Turtles are voiced by African-Americans seem to show that this series values representation.

- I’m kind of intrigued by the fact that each Ninja Turtle is based off a different species of turtle.  Leo’s a red-eared slider (supposedly what the Turtles have always been canonically, according to MatPat’s Film Theory), Mikey’s a box turtle, Raph’s a snapping turtle (If anyone was gonna be a snapping turtle, it would be him), and Donnie’s a soft-shelled turtle (appropriate for the turtle who’s usually the most soft-spoken one of the bunch.  USUALLY, that is...)

- Donnie is supposed to be a bit more confident, perhaps even cocky, in this incarnation.  I kinda like exploring that side to his character.  A lot of people say that Donatello’s always the same character, but I think there’s always room for subtlety.  1987 Donatello always desired recognition for his inventions.  The Donatello from the original movie trilogy had a bit more snark, showing that he had wit to match his brains.  2012 Donatello showed a lot more emotion - as he dealt with feelings of love, jealousy, revenge, and inadequacy - which rounded him out as a person (He’s even butted heads with each of his brothers at one time or another, even Leo!  When do Donnie and Leo ever fight?).  I’m interested to see how Donnie’s brains and ego go hand in hand in this series.

- Mikey is going to be a spray paint artist.  I like this idea not just because I’m an artist, but because Mieky has always been the most outspoken and expressive Turtle.  Leo and Donnie tend to bury their emotions in their work (Leo’s training and Donnie’s inventions), while Raph sometimes has a little trouble getting past his own anger to get to his deeper feelings.  Mikey, however, never hides how he feels, whether he’s excited, sad, hurt, or hungry!  Seeing Mikey express himself through art could be fun.

- One of the producers worked on Samurai Jack.  I would LOVE to see these Turtles pulling off dramatic pauses and cinematic attacks like Jack.  Wouldn’t you?

- Eric Bauza says his Splinter will “Make a funny” from time to time. ;-)

UNCOOL:

- Replacing the weapons feels a little iffy to me.  To be fair, replacing the Turtles’ weapons has never been well-received.  Granted, Donnie and Mikey had their weapons modified in the last series and sometimes used blades, but they were used without blades as often (if not more so).  Here, Raph and Mikey have totally different weapons (I may be more forgiving of Mikey’s new yo-yo-like weapon if he makes the “walk the dog” and “around the world” jokes from The Secret of the Ooze), and Leo has one sword instead of two.  This seems to be messing with the formula a bit too much.

- Raph being the leader, and Leo being the “cool” one?  If this Leonardo adds “but rude” to his personality, I’m going to be very upset.  The Turtles do have range in their personalities, but if you push their personalities too far, you’ll get a different character.  This doesn’t sit well with me.

- Making the turtles different species suggests that they aren’t actually related.  I hope the new series still has them treat each other as brothers.

- The last time a Turtle had his weapon replaced with tonfa clubs, and Raph and Donnie had their bandanas cover their heads, and there was some suggestion that the Turtles weren’t related... was The Next Mutation.  Yikes.

That’s how I feel so far... I’m gonna reserve final judgement until I see some animation (especially on their designs, which I’m kinda on-the-fence about).  But this could go either way for me.