#they have really cemented perspectives while mikey was so in the moment and spontaneous

[qoldenskies]

I was actually thinking about why Raph was the least affected for the longest. My thought was originally that whatever emotion the curse was twisting, he had less of it to twist, and thus his actions were the least extreme. Then i thought maybe hes used to not acting on his anger, so he just wrote off anger from the curse as regular anger that he should not act on. Its so interesting that actually, the curse did the least to him because he has the most natural desire for justice and vindication, so it was the least change from his personality.

there is some merit to your first assumption as well! raph's spent his whole LIFE restraining and holding back his anger to avoid hurting his brothers, especially donnie and mikey, so it really only dug its claws in when it was able to take hold of his really extreme, strict moral code and twist it to fit his hatred. leo could easily succumb to being cruel just for the sake of it and mikey would go along with whatever seemed the most fun (most of his independent choices were probably propelled along by leo, though, they acted as each other's hype-men) but raph with his innate sense of responsibility was a lot more able to breathe it away and repress it at first. it's why leo was somewhat vicious right out the gate, and mikey always toed the line in this nasty, coy way, but raph's earliest weird moment with the weight rack for example was him genuinely trying to be polite over a thing that bothered him; something that would not bother him at ALL regularly. if he hadn't been cursed he would have loved it.

it adds another layer to that final night of normalcy where raph leaves early, despite it being a movie that he never skips out on, and the fact that he SPECIFICALLY looks to donnie when he doesn't wish him goodnight, seemingly relaxing after he gives a vague sound of acknowledgment. could only wonder what was going on in his head, but it gives a pretty good reason for why he dipped. "i'm not feeling alright and i don't want to take it out on any of my little brothers" is something he's likely dealt with more than he lets on, and that influences his behavior here. there's just a certain point when so much righteous anger has been leveraged against donnie specifically that he begins to get the idea that there is a serious PROBLEM with him, especially when he thinks it puts the others on the line.