#so this Leo doesn’t care about being a leader - because who he’s emulating isn’t one

[whattraintracks]

#this is mostly a rottmnt post but it aligns with others as well#idk I just think it’s so interesting#because at his core rise leo is the SAME as the other Leos#they’re all goofy they’re all natural leaders they’re all quiet wanderers they’re all daddy’s boys#but these inherent traits take second to what they believe is valued more#specifically what their splinter values more#and sometimes what is valued allows them to more commonly broadcast themselves as who they actually are#but other times their core personalities directly go against what they think they NEED to be#so they stifle it#and soon enough their emulated selves become so tangled into their real selves that it’s a struggle to tell who they are without it#god I love Leo#and this is not to say that the other bros don’t do a similar thing#they just tend to be much more separate about it in terms of what they admire and who they are#whereas Leo blurs that line#don’t mind me just once again overanalyzing a fictional turtle boy#edit: AND ANOTHER THING#but Splinters value placed on Lou Jitsu ALSO helps push Leo into being someone who does things on his own#sure he loves his brothers and they’re everything to him#but he pre invasion he often does things himself or just expects to handle things on his own#y’know#like Lou Jitsu who notoriously does NOT have a team#so this Leo doesn’t care about being a leader - because who he’s emulating isn’t one#he’s like ‘okay we’re just a group of Lou Jitsus’#and there’s something so painfully childlike about this

Something I love to think about is every iteration of Leo’s relationship with Splinter and how Splinter’s interests always define how a Leo presents himself.

I used to abide by the idea that a Leo will simply emulate his Splinter directly, and to an extent I still believe that to be the case, but moreso I think Leos have a tendency to mold themselves into what they believe is their Splinter’s ideal son - someone who embodies all the traits Splinter has explicitly shown to admire or value in a person.

Most of the time, they try to be a dutiful and honorable boy abiding by the full extent of ninjitsu teachings. Then you have Rise Splinter, who very much still has undeniable prowess in the art of fighting and being a ninja, but when it comes to how he shows his interests to his boys…one thing reigns supreme.

Acting. Shows. One liners. Flamboyance in the name of gaining an audience’s attention.

He showcases Lou Jitsu movies on repeat for the boys, passing down the morals and words from those movies to them with no small amount of pride. All while fully expecting them to respect these teachings.

So, of course, Rise Leo picks up on this. He’s a Leo, after all, as much a daddy’s boy as any other variation of him, only he clocked his father’s interests to be different than most others. He picks up on the art of showmanship, of keeping things to himself so as to be a more exciting twist later, of treating the world as a set to act in.

He’s an actor, not just because Splinter himself was one, but because Splinter likes acting and showed one particular actor (unknowingly to the boys, it was himself) as the pinnacle of all his teachings. As someone to value and be admired. And even more than that - Splinter focuses on the character the actor is portraying rather than just the man himself.

And I think this is all even more interesting when taking the turtle tot short into consideration, because very, very briefly, just as with many times else throughout the series, we see how easily Rise Leo aligns with his other selves, seeming to pick up the sword easier than his brothers do their own weapons - after quoting Lou Jitsu of course. After emulating his idol - the person who his father seems to admire so much.

Point being, it’s so interesting to see how Leos tend to mold themselves in one particular way throughout every variation - that being, what their father is shown to value most in people.