Rottmnt Mikey - Blog Posts
can’t spell “teenage mutant ninja turtle” without “turtle”
There are still people making articles about the rise movie!
If you want to read the article, link here
Inspired by this art
This post gave me some hope. The overwhelming amount of responses to this screaming “YES” to a season 3 just makes me T_T! Let’s make it happen!
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO THE BEST AND MOST UNDERRATED TMNT!
I can think of no other show (besides the Dark Crystal Age of Resistance) that deserves to come back more then this one!
Don’t stop fighting for Rise, ESPECIALLY before, during, and after Mutant Mayhem! Let’s be the like the Danny Phantom Fanbase and be a THORN in Nickelodeon’s side.
I’m starting to think that Andy Suriano wants Rise back as much as we do…
Hey you know how Netflix's ask box is open, why dont you just send a bunch of anon asks to them about making a season 3 of ROTTMNT
Do you mean this?
Because I totally have requested Rise (Seasons 3-7). This is on my “Save ROTTMNT” master post (link below).
But yeah! The more people get on there and make demands, the better! So ask! Abuse it! Tell people about Rise, make art, make videos, recommend the movie/show (I got two more people at my job to give it a shot, heh!). The more Rise fans, the better!
Here’s the link to demand shows from Netflix.
Save Rise of the TMNT
My world
Part 2
ROTTMNT graffiti nametags
I can't really draw(traditionally), but I wanted to contribute!
So there was this challenge on Amino and I have no idea if it's a thing here too. But please just enjoy these brothers being brothers
I tried redrawing that cute picture that Mikey did
Hate to say but it turned out kinda awful. However I just put in too much work to not post it
RISE RAPH BUT HE HAS DID AND THE ALTERS ARE PREVIOUS ITERATIONS OF RAPH
Leo pushes Raph too far and 2012 raph comes out and screams his ass off at Leo
Raph gets scared when alone so 1987 Raph comes in to comfort and get the body back safely to home
Raph gets nervous in a fight so 2003 Raph whispers fighting tips to assist
SOMEONE PLEASE UNDERSTAND THIS I PROMISE ITS A COOL IDEA
Donnie would 100% do that to poor Mikey 😭
Turtle pile, but this time with a good ending
Ok so. Disclaimer. This is my first fic ever and its about @somerandomdudelmao rottmnt AU. (this shows how much I am into this AU, it's seriously a masterpiece)
I was thinking about the arc just before all the turtles (past and future) reunited... and I had an idea of how the turtles would react to a sick Future!Donnie.
anyways, here it is!
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
After coming back to life in another time branch, bringing back his brothers from the apocalypse and concluding that death is fixable, Donnie forgot that he is not actually omnipotent, God or a perfectly oiled machine.
This grounding truth became obvious when one evening, while he was working on the time-machine, his movements became sloppier, and a pounding headache started to grow from the sides of his head. The irrational part of his brain (a very little part of his brain to be honest) brought him back to his time branch, in those days in which the symptoms of the krang infection started manifesting. But no, he shook his head as if to obliterate that stupid irrational thought. It’s not possible that the krang infection remained in his body, both Barry and Mikey confirmed it.
Now, he just had to hide it from the rest of his brothers, which could be quite a challenge given the fact that they now lived all together and there isn’t an active apocalypse that is trying to kill them at any moment to distract them. Nice.
Thankfully CJ was spending the night with their younger versions and April.
But really, it wasn’t that bad, after running a few quick tests on himself he found that the reason of his unwellness lied in the fact that his body became accustomed to the terraformed New York’s weather… aka as dry as the fucking Sahara Desert. Right now, in the normal New York it’s almost winter and let’s just say that the sewers’ humidity index is a tad bit higher than what he is used to…
Suppressing a few coughs, the softshell decided that it’s time to go to catch a few hours of sleep. He stood up from his chair, missing the heat and pressure it provided against his shell. Galileo… he hasn’t worn his battleshell in ages. I have to add it to the list of things to do; now it’s not the right time. He lethargically made his way to his bed and carelessly flopped down. It was in that moment that he realized just how tired he was, his eyes burned from looking at his computer’s screen too much, his head was now throbbing in a very piercing way and all his body felt heavy. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was utterly exhausted he would have noticed a big red figure looking at him from the doorway of the lab.
When Leo woke up after a long and (finally) continuous 8 hours of sleep, he wasn’t feeling as relaxed as he thought. The slider looked at the time twice to confirm the amount of hours he actually slept, but not even a truckload of confidence could erase the deep feeling of anxiety in his gut. The anxiety wasn’t unusual; it was a feeling that he had to come to terms with during the difficult times of the apocalypse. What bugged him was that he hadn’t felt this particular type of anxiety for almost two years. The twin sense. But Donnie was ok; he was the one that brought him, Mikey and Raph to safety, he wasn’t frail like the last time he saw him, he didn’t have eyebags that were darker than the night sky. He. Is. Ok.
Groaning, he decided that it was time to get up, at least to shake off his irrational thoughts and to see with his own eyes that his brother was indeed fine and healthy. When Leo arrived in the kitchen he was met with the mouthwatering smell of Mikey’s pancakes. God he didn’t even realize how much he missed them. Raph was already at the table eating the pancakes, he smiled at the view, he would have never thought this moment could ever be possible, but here we are.
“Hey, Mr sensei? You done staring? Do you want the pancakes or not?”. The box turtle was leaning on the stove, his air put up in a bun, on one hand he had a spatula, on the other a ladle with some pancake batter in it.
“Good mornig hermanos! Michael, my dearest brother, right now, to my eye, you are an angel that has just blessed my day. I would die for just one piece of your pancake”. His orange brother chuckled and poured the mix in the pan. “No more dying, please. I’ll make as many as you want; go sit down”.
The slider made his way to the table, sitting in front of his older brother. He looked around, trying to find some trace of his twin.
“Has Donald already eaten?”
He knew that the answer was going to be negative; Donnie has always been a night owl, never too eager to wake up early in the morning. What he didn’t expect was his red and big brother to freeze mid bite.
“You ok big guy?”
Sensing the mood shift, Mikey approached them, putting a comforting hand over the snapper’s left shoulder. “You know you can talk to us Raphie” he smiled.
Raph sighed putting down the fork and placing his right hand over Mikey’s.
“I know… I just…” He sighed again, this time looking directly at Leo. Were those worry lines on his brother forehead? “'Look, I’ll bite the bullet or whatever. I have been having trouble sleeping, you know, with all the ‘I haven’t slept in more than 5 years' situation, and it’s fine! It really is! I know that it’s difficult to adjust, but I kind of liked my old routine. Back in the apocalypse I used to patrol the base and make sure you all were ok… it was the least I could do”. The snapper lowered his gaze, frowning deeply. “The only person that Raph had some trouble looking after was Donnie… at the time I didn’t realize it, but at some point, he started to lock the lab the night… I guess that was when he started getting sick.”
That was a stab in the chest for all of them. No one had noticed their brother’s decaying health; it took Casey to physically make contact with Donatello’s ribs to get them to open their eyes at the situation. Leo didn’t particularly enjoy thinking about how irresponsible of a leader, of a brother, he had been... everything could have been avoided if he just thought about doing periodic checkups on his brother, it wasn’t that absurd, but he overestimated the softshell’s capabilities of taking care of himself. Right now, though, his twin sense was screaming at him, and he had a feeling that Raph wasn’t just expressing his feelings in a little breakky therapist session. “Raph… look at me.” He searched his big brother’s eyes. Black eyes met black eyes. Red bandana met red stripes.
“What’s wrong?”
“Tonight, I heard Donnie cough. Badly.”
In that moment, Leo’s heart shattered.
After a few freezing seconds that felt like ages the cold dread was broken by Mike, bless his heart, he really was an angel.
“let’s not worry too much about what we still don’t know. This place is quite dusty, it could have been that, right? We’ll let him sleep it off and in a few we are going to check on him.” The mystic warrior squeezed his brig brother’s finger (his hand was too big).
Leo looked at his little brother, one could have been fooled by his light smile, but that smile wasn’t reaching his eyes, and his hand was gripping too much Raph’s finger.
The slider took a deep breath, he had to say it, to voice it in some way or he was going to go crazy.
“Do you guys think it could b-“
A loud crash interrupted him mid-sentence. Raph stood up immediately “It came from the lab!”. Mikey started levitating, his eyes becoming that fluorescent hue of orange and began to sprint-fly towards the lab, followed closely by his brothers. They soon arrived at the lab which, thanks to Draxum’s interior design sense, didn’t have heavy metal doors that are extremely difficult to open.
“DONNIE?!”
Mikey’s scream was like an arrow to their chest, a waterfall of panic washed over Leo. Why didn’t he go to his twin sooner? Why didn’t he dare to check his brother? Why couldn’t he learn from his mistakes?
The lab was still dark, the only source of light were a few LED lights that Donnie started installing to the time machine and the original green/yellow lights. In the shadows only one thing cold be distinguished, their brother’s body on the floor, next to his lab chair.
“shit shit shi- Raph turn on the lights!”
The slider reached next to the softshell Mikey, he had a hand on his forehead, he was trembling slightly, his eyes had come back to their natural color. “L-Leo… He won’t wake up! I-I tried to call him, but he doesn’t respond “.
Raph returned and put his big hand on Mikey’s shell and began making circling movements to try and soothe him, but his eyes were glues to his other little brother unconscious body. In the meantime, Leo had already taken on his role of medic, assessing the pulse and the breathing, noticing also the deep dark eyebags. He sighed in frustration; Donnie wasn’t going to get out of this easily. “He definitely has a fever, but other than that I can’t say anything more…”
The first thing that Donnie noticed was that his shell was cold. On a more accurate analysis, he found out that all his body was cold. Cold and sore to be more specific. Mh… he would rate this nap a solid 1/10. Wait. Nap? He didn’t remember falling asleep and his bed surely wasn’t this cold. As he slowly regained consciousness he became aware of other sensations and stimuli, like the pounding headache in his temples, dry throat and someone who was touching him. Right now the feeling wasn’t particularly appreciated.
“ghh- cough- cough”
Where was he??
“ie? Yo- th us? Donnie??”
A rough hand was positioned on his forehead. Ew it’s sticky. Gross.
“Leo?”
He slowly opened his eyes, his retina adjusting to the blinding lights in his lab. His lab? Wait the last thing he remembered was getting up to go rest, he was starting to feel shitty and- Ohh fuck.
“yeah, ‘oh fuck’. Donnie, it’s quite important, look at me.” He directed his gaze towards the source of the voice, to his left. Leo was on his knees, worry lines dug into his forehead. Behind him there were his brothers, both of them had similar expressions on their faces.
“Donald?” oh right, focus.
“yeah?” God, his voice was raspy.
“Do you think you can get up on you own?”
He really really really (3 reallys) hoped so. “I- yeah I think so”. The softshell began to get on his elbows, ignoring the blinding pain on his back and how much his vision was swaying. He couldn’t ask for Leo’s help. Not right now, because now thing are different, he is fine, he isn’t weak, frail or uncapable of doing the most basic things, like getting up or walking aided by a stick, like an old men. He had it, he fixed it. He managed to sit upright, his vision went black just for a few seconds as his body was trying to adjust to the change of position. When his vision returned normal, his eyes were met with a comforting and warm light which definitely wasn’t coming from the lightbulbs of the lab, it was coming from Mikey’s ninpo. His mystic brother was so gentle that he didn’t even realize that he was floating mid air.
“wait Micheal, I can walk, I swear”
He heard a few scoffs, coming from different directions.
“yeah, keep telling yourself that. Dummy.”
The warming feeling of his brother’s ninpo was a bit too comforting and sleep felt like a good idea.
“Donnie please try not to fall asleep”. This was Raph, he used his ‘big and responsible brother voice’, oh how much he missed that.
“mh, just resting my eyes”
Suddenly he flopped on the big couch in the ‘livingroom’. Mikey was in front of him, a frown of worry on his face. “Leo, I’m going to use my ninpo a bit harder now, I think you should stand back a little.”
Leo actually listened to Mikey, his gaze though didn’t leave the softshell. Raph looked worryingly at Mikey “Are you sure you are going to be alright?”
Mikey raised his arms towards Donnie, “Don’t worry big guy! A little Krang research didn’t aver hurt no one!”
Wait, Krang? It was in that moment, that Donnie realized that his brother thought that he was still infected. That he was still sick and weak. His brother was going to risk overusing his ninpo on a little cold.
“No wait Mikey!” Cough cough. “It’s not the Krang, I’m sure of it!” another cough.
Leo walked closer to the couch, positioning in front of him, his eyer on fire. “Donnie don’t be stupid. You couldn’t see it coming the first time, so why would you predict it now? Why wouldn’t we check after finding you unconscious?! We can’t lose you AGAIN Donnie! You can’t fix everything! And even if you can, sometimes prevent is better than cure!” His brother’s eyes began to water. “I can’t keep losing you… please let us check”.
Raph reached the slider and put a big hand on Donnie’s shoulder, “Leo’s right Donnie… we can’t be so sure, things are already too complicated right now, let us be sure about at least one thing, let us do it. Let Mikey check.”
The box turtle turned to him with a bright smile, “It’s going to be quick, trust me”
Cold shivers run through the softshell’s body, and resulted in a shiver. “promise me that if you start feeling that something is off you are going to stop.”
All his brothers looked at him with an unreadable expression.
“Said the turtle who fainted, probably because of exhaustion.” Ok fair enough.
“touché”
The process was actually quite quick. As soon as Leo and Raph took a few steps back Mikey began to glow (he never got tired of seeing it), and when his little brother took his hands a hot sensation ran through his body, banishing the shivers from just a few seconds earlier.
After a few minutes the warm feeling was already gone, replaced by the sewer’s humidity.
Mikey smiled at his brothers “Donnie was right, there is no Krang.”
“told you so” cough cough.
A general sigh of relief could be heard from all of them.
“it’s this place’s fault, it’s too cold and humid compared to what we were used to.”
Leo flopped on the couch, right next to him and punched him on the shoulder. “Oh no! It’s totally your fault! You have again neglected your health like the workaholic you are! You can’t keep doing it!”
Mikey sat on the floor in front of them, “Leo… why don’t we argue later? Dr Delicate touch is going to pay a vist for sure,” he looked at Donnie, who was looking like he could fall asleep in any moment. “why don’t we make a turtle pile? It’s been ages”.
A turtle pile. Everyone remembered the last time they did it. That time Raph was a robot with a metallic and cold voice. Donnie was as frail as a stick, he was so weak that he couldn’t even sit.
But this time it was different.
Raph was real.
Donnie was just under the weather.
Death is fixable.
They are ok.
They are together.
------------------------------------------------
the End. Comments and suggestions are always welcome!!
I can't believe Nike from TMNT is actually Saness Undertale
Shiny Mikey
look at his adorable little face
I drew this yesterday to relieve stress. Shiny sparkle pen and gel pens on a scrap paper
"I'll settle for them" // shinichiro + mikey + chifuyu x g.n reader
request: Can I please ask for a comfort post? I have a group of really tight knit friends and I am frankly speaking the plainest out all of them. And I know that and its never bothered me tho. But I generally avoid boys because they almost always use me to get closer to my friends. And it doesn’t bother me but this one time a guy had the audacity to ask my friend out in front of me and when she turned him down he looked at me and gave me the “I’ll settle for her look” and asked me out. Of course I told him no even before he could complete his sentence and I just wanna idk cry so bad. Like what even??? Could you like please do comfort headcanons with the tokyo revengers characters? Something like they find out this happens to their crush or s/o and how they react. I don’t even know what im asking here but your headcanons are adorable so i thought what the hell.
genre: comfort
warnings: curse words, violence (nothing to explicit)
A.N: I am so sorry this happened to you, that guy is pure shit and karma will get him. you deserve the world and more, anon, don't let this get to you bubs <3, my asks are always open to you if you want to vent out something. Likes and reblogs are deeply appreciated, reposts are not allowed!
read my last work! The First Time / Angry x fem!bodied reader (mdni)
tags aren't working for me 😭☝🏼
Sano Shinichiro:
this guy was pissed to say the least, ready to throw some punches. who would dare to say those things to his s/o, insinuating in such a filthy way?
he didn't hesitate to step in front of you, looking straight into the guy, saying "you think she would even consider to be with you? fucking asshole".
taking you by the hand to a place where you were both alone, asking if you were okay, hugging you, holding you while you cried. he gave you a peck to your forehead assuring you that no one deserved you, praising you like the god/goddess you are.
he took you to his house just to cuddle and watch your favorite show because he loves to spoil you ♡
¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡!
Sano Manjiro "Mikey"
he was behind you and your friend, eating a dorayaki, until he heard this guy asking you out as the second option.
poor guy.
got his ass handed to him in seconds. not able to step back from a kick from Mikey, almost unconcious after the hit to his stomach.
Mikey yelled to the poor guy "you think you are so attractive, asking my s/o in front of me and their friend, and lets not forget you also asked her friend before" giving another kick, blacking him out. "that was for the other girl"
leaving the girl behind, he took you somewhere private, seeing you with glossy eyes broke his heart, you hugged him and he said "I promise you this will never happen to you again" hugging you back.
¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡! ¡!
Matsuno Chifuyu
similar to shinichiro
he stepped in front of you and your friend, pushing the guy back, "what do you think you are doing, idiot?", fighting with words and pushing each other, "I feel very sorry for you, not being able to even pull one girl out" punching the guy in the face.
took you and your friend to a safe place away from the creep, turning around to face you, seeing your puffy eyes, he hugged you so tightly, whispering sweet things and how that guy was so wrong, almost crying with you.
he kissed your tears away and told you to go get something to eat, just to distract you from such horrible moment.
Rottmnt Headcanons!!
Reminder these are all just personal headcannons and it's totally fine if you don't agree or have different thoughts!<33
PLS HOW 2 COLOR TUTORIAL WHEN 🛐
RUNN BITCH RUNNNN
Bloodbath AU FANART made by yours truely.
Au credit: @trubblegumm
I posted this in the bloodbath server but yk make something? Gotta post it here too. (I'm so sorry)
MANY MANY THANKS TO TRUBBLEGUMM FOR MAKING SUCH A AWESOME AU LOVE BEING HERE FOR THE HORRORS!
I never post on here anymore zamn
anyways have a little Mikey test animation
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Family Systems Analysis A college Essay by The-TMNT-Ficfinder
Word count: 5273 | Page Count: 18 pages (Not counting ref or cover)
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: A summary
The main family group of the show, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is made up of six different characters, with a seventh one introduced as the story progresses. Starting off, is the father figure, Hamato Yoshi (Also known as Lou Jitsu) or popularly known as Splinter. Originally human, he was mutated into a rat at the same time as when the turtles were mutated, then adopted them as his children.
Following that are the four turtles. Raphael, the biggest brother, muscle man, and leader of the group. He is an Alligator snapping turtle, wears red as his signature color, and has been decided as the oldest (as they don’t know their exact age). Second, is Donatello, the tech guy of the family. He is a softshell turtle and wears purple. Next is Leonardo, who classifies himself as the ‘face-man’ of the group (and later on in the series replaces Raph as leader). He is a red-eared slider, and is the best known, as the blue turtle, the most popular ninja turtle in the series. Leo and Donnie have been decided to be the same age by the fandom and are referred to as ‘twins’. Then Michealangelo, the youngest turtle of the group, and an ornate box shell turtle. Michelangelo wears orange as his color, and is known as the family chef, emotions guy, and boldest of them all. Their adopted human sister, April, is the oldest of the siblings and gets into many shenanigans with them. Lastly, is Baron Draxum, who is the villain who created the serum also known as mutagen that mutated Splinter and the turtles in the first place. Originally, he is a villain who is bent on destroying humanity, but later gets a redemption arc, and is welcomed into the family. The show features two seasons, and one movie. In this essay, I’m going to be focusing on the two seasons, and the direct aftermath of that.
The family, and how they function
The family, in season one, goes on a variety of wacky adventures, learns to use their new mystic weapons, and get the hang of their mystic powers. In season one, Baron Draxum is a villain and relentlessly attacks them. In season one, the turtles also are unaware that their father, Splinter, was actually their favorite movie star Lou Jitsu in the past before he was mutated into a rat. Following the events of The Shredders temporal revival (The main bad guy) the turtles beat him a first time, and the show slides into season two. In season two, Baron Draxum gets a redemption arc where instead of fighting the turtles, he reluctantly joins their family, and builds connections with them (and becomes a ‘secondary parent’ to the turtles, as he is the one who mutated them in the first place) The boys discover that their father was Lou Jitsu, and uncover important backstory and lore, leading to them having to fight The Shredder a second time, due to Big Mama, accidentally letting him loose from her Battle Nexus (the same battle nexus Lou Jitsu was kept prisoner in after his actor years, and before he got mutated). In order to defeat the Shredder a second time, they had to connect spiritually with all of the ancestors of the Hamato clan to master their mystic abilities. By the end of season two, despite being victorious in defeating The Shredder, they ended up losing their home in the process, and the life of their long lost many times great grandmother, Hamato Karai. From there, they build their life back up from shambles, which spans the time after season two, until the movie.
Raphael
Raphael, or Raph, is the biggest brother, “the brother who is the biggest,” (Rise of the TMNT, Nickelodeon 2018) the decided oldest, and the self-proclaimed leader of the group. Raph act’s part-time as the oldest brother, with the other half of the time, adopting a very parental role for the sake of his younger siblings. Raph is very harsh on himself, entirely believing that the family is his responsibility when it comes to leadership and keeping them safe. In season one, he is much more fun-loving, and playful with his family. However, as the seasons go on, and the turtles get themselves into dangerous situations, Raph gets stricter and begins to worry. Along with that, Raph has the natural tendency to try and parent his siblings, (due to being parentified by his father) meaning he doesn’t always have the best relationships with them.
Raph’s relationships with his family holds interesting dynamics, as he operates as part time sibling, part time leader, and a part time parent. When it comes to Donnie, Raph values and understands his physical and technological skills, yet hesitates when it comes to his emotional maturity, consistently choosing to skirt around a problem rather than say what’s on his mind to avoid hurting Donnie’s feelings. They work wonderfully together when it comes to combat yet struggle with communication and feedback.
Raph and Leo’s relationship is somewhat strained, as they don’t quite see eye to eye when it comes to making plans. Leo’s perspective is more on the strategic and morally grey side, which is hard for Raph to grasp, as he relies on a much more black-and-white viewpoint. Raph and Leo end up not interacting very frequently, as many of their interactions end with arguing. This is partially due to Raph’s parentification, and Leo’s rebellion against parental figures in general.
Raph and Mikey, despite have a very drastic size difference with Raph being the biggest of the family by quite a bit, and Mikey being smallest (aside from Splinter), have somewhat opposite temperaments when it comes to interacting with people. Raph constantly switches between relying heavily on Mikey to do the breaking of bad news for him, (because he doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings) and feeling overprotective of his youngest baby brother. Raph will specifically ask for Mikey’s help when it comes to breaking bad news, as he knows Mikey will do it regardless of people’s feelings, taking that burden off his shoulders. Meanwhile, he is very fearful of the idea of Mikey going and doing anything alone, as he is the smallest. He overly relies on him when it comes to vocal situations, while not giving him any room to breathe in physical settings. Almost opposite of how he interacts with Donnie.
With April, who is older than him, come’s a change of pace. As April is an adopted sister (she still has her own family and just comes over to visit) Raph often tries to pull the ‘parent card’ on her, since in his mind, she’s family. April being older, and an only child, never lets that slide, refusing to let Raph parent her. Often when April is around, Raph relaxes, and tends to have more fun, as April fills some of the parenting shoes, and helps keep an eye on the other younger brothers.
Then there’s Splinter, their father. Raph looks up to him greatly and is always wanting to impress him, despite Splinter not playing a very active role in their lives until their later teen years. He also doesn’t want to worry him as he knows his father has been through a lot. As such he keeps all his struggles, and the family struggles to himself. His relationship with Splinter is fairly stable, sitting at a deemed comfortable level of lacking support, yet still being happy to interact at times. Their relationship stayed like this until the end events of season 2, where Splinter takes leadership away from Raph, and gives it to Leo. This is also where Leo’s and Raph’s rocky relationship goes from chilling and joking together, to constant fighting.
Lastly, Baron Draxum. As Raph has a very ‘forgive then forget’ mentality (meaning he intentionally chose to forget a lot of what they went through when the Baron used to attack them) he is rather impartial to Draxum. He neither cares for him, nor does he dislike him. He’s very neutral on the subject of Draxum and mainly interacts with him since Mikey insists on it. Raph doesn’t see Draxum as a parental figure at all, as Raph thinks himself the parental figure.
Donatello
Donatello, or Donnie, is the tech guy of the family, the middle child (shared with Leo) and is said by the show’s creators, to have autism. Donnie has a huge love for fixing and improving things, even his family, and an urge to control everything and anything he can. Donnie has deemed himself the ‘tech guy’ of the family and made that his ‘definitive quality/trait’ or reasoning to be useful to the family. As such, he helped build the lair they live in and all the tech inside. He has what he likes to call his ‘bad boy’ persona, where he pretends, he doesn’t care and acts ‘emotionless, and cool’. As his species is a spiny soft-shell turtle, his temperament leans much closer towards one of spitefulness, and agitation, with a very sensitive outlook on things. This has a pretty big influence on how he reacts to things.
Donnie’s relationship with Raph, is a fairly stable one. As Raph is the leader, and Donnie is the tech and maintenance guy, they understand each other. They know what it takes to keep things running. Donnie is quite willing to work with Raph at most times, as he likes being given instructions to follow. Along with that, Donnie has a very strong need for parental praise, and as Raph acts very similar to a parent at times, Donnie makes an effort to impress him, just as he would his own father.
Donnie’s relationship with Leo is a lot more strained, as he finds his ‘twin’ to be a frustrating individual. While Donnie loves to rely on a system and a support group, Leo doesn’t, which makes him harder for Donnie to understand. Donnie and Leo have a very ‘you can’t hurt my twin, only I can hurt my twin’ mentality. They will push, and fight, and argue with each other, yet the moment anything threatens one of them, they’ll both rise up to fight back. They love to fight, partially to vent frustration, and partially to bond. Similar to how animals in the wild ‘play fight’ with each other.
Out of the brothers, Donnie has the best relationship with Mikey. In Donnie’s eyes, Mikey is like a walking comfort item. Donnie and Mikey have a silent communication style, that relies a lot on body language. Mikey is also ‘on equal footing’ with Donnie, as they are both treated like younger/youngest siblings, and contribute to the family via ‘giving’ something. Donnie gives his tech services, and Mikey gives his emotional support and advice. Donnie can also trust Mikey to tell him the truth, even when it may hurt. Donnie and Mikey together have established a really good sense of trust.
Next is Donnie and April’s relationship. Out of the whole family, April has the best relationship with Donnie, as Donnie feels like he is able to give to her, and she is able to give to him. A symbiotic relationship. He helps her with homework, and she sneaks him into the school’s computer lab. Donnie is also the most honest with her, as there are no ‘standards’ he feels the need to uphold. He tells her his feelings and explains the reasoning behind them. Donnie can do this with April, and not the others, because both Leo and Raph aren’t as emotionally mature, and Mikey has studied psychology, and is always attempting to help Donnie ‘fix’ his emotional issues. April is the only one who listens for the sake of listening.
Splinter and Donnie’s relationship is pretty rough, as Splinter pays very little attention to him. Donnie likes to obsess over the attention he does get, just to purposefully be sour about it. Donnie keeps a calendar dedicated to keeping track of each time he and Splinter interact, and more than once uses it as a weapon against his father, using it as proof that they don’t spend enough time together. Along with that, Donnie highly craves parental praise, making him easily manipulated into doing almost anything. Hence the lair having the finest technology. He builds to be noticed and creates to earn praise.
Lastly is Baron Draxum, who Donnie secretly admires, not as a parent, but as a potential lab partner. As Donnie is a scientist, just as Draxum is, Donnie is immediately captivated by the Barons abundance of knowledge and is willing to ignore Draxum’s past wrongdoings to work with him. Draxum, recognizing Donnie’s parentlal issues, will toss him praise, which Donnie jumps at even against his own father’s wishes, as Splinter rarely offers the praise and learn what he has to offer. Draxum uses Donnie’s need for approval against him, and Donnie has had enough backlash in his life, that he’s fine going along with it.
Leonardo
Leonardo, or Leo, is the self-proclaimed face man of the group, the strategist, and ‘local comedy guy’. Leo tries to emotionally be everywhere and nowhere all at once, people pleasing to get his way. Leo very much idolizes his favorite movie actors, and rather than turn to his father or siblings for advice, he turns to the logic he learned from comics, and cartoons. Leo picks and chooses who to get along with in the moment, depending on who will get him the most out of a situation. Along with that, he has a savior complex and consistently cuts his way into any and all of his brother’s various plans to ‘bail’ them out and then feel smug about it. As Leo is a red-eared slider, a turtle originating from Mexico, Leo takes a great deal of interest in Mexican culture and consistently speaks Spanish throughout the series. This is good and bad, as it does get him involved in some scandals later on.
Leo’s relationship with Raph swings back and forth from being thick as thieves, to arguing nonstop. Rather than craving parental attention like the bulk of his brothers, Leo chooses to reject it, which connects to how he treats Raph. If Raph acts like his brother, Leo will easily play along and follow his ideas. Yet the moment Raph steps up, and goes into leader/parent role, Leo takes on an attitude of rebellion and follows his own plans. Raph and Leo throughout the series have their good and bad moments, till the end of season two when Leo is given the title of leader by Splinter. This causes both Leo and Raph to excessively butt heads. Especially, as before since Raph held the position of leader, Leo felt no need to compete with him, as he and Raph weren’t on equal footing. But the moment Leo became leader, Raph became his equal, leading to him fighting with him constantly, just as he used to fight with Donnie.
Leo and Donnie have a very competitive relationship. Leo constantly feels the need to be the superior one, or the ‘champion’ of the team, (which of course is his own way of coping with a lack of parental praise) and will try and one-up Donnie. Depending on the situation, Leo either encourages Donnie, or tears him down. Whatever gets him the most praise in the moment. For example, when out with his brothers having fun, he’s more likely to have a positive relationship with Donnie, as they are simply existing. Yet when Splinter is in the room, Leo tears down his ‘twin’, with the hope that he’ll appear better than him. This dynamic changes again, depending on whether said company is friend or foe. Leo will tear down Donnie while in the presence of family and friends, as its beneficial to him. Yet when around enemies, Leo practically sings Donnie’s praise, claiming to have the smartest brother. This is because he loses nothing by claiming that Donnie is a great guy, and gains everything instead. Leo knows that Donnie feeds off praise and will use this to his advantage to get himself bailed out of bad situations.
Leo and Mikey’s relationship is opposite compare to Leo and Donnie. Mikey is competitive towards Leo, like how Leo is competitive with Donnie. Except Leo doesn’t ever compete with Mikey, as in his eyes, there’s no reason. Mikey already wins by being the youngest, and the ‘favorite’ of the family. Leo tends to push Mikey away, annoyed by his younger brother who can’t ‘gain’ him anything in the family dynamics. Out of all of his brothers, Donnie is the biggest threat to being ‘cool’ and not ‘disliked’. Raph is leader, which puts him atop everyone, and Mikey is youngest, which makes him ‘objectively cooler’. Leo’s main issue is that he’s very insecure, and deals with it by fighting, and telling poor jokes.
When it comes to April, as she doesn’t tolerate any of that, refusing to allow Leo to act like a ‘champion’ or ‘better’ than anyone. In fact, when he pulls these stunts, she usually kicks his butt. Around April, Leo will somewhat relax, that burden of being the family ‘champion’ lifted from his shoulders.
With Splinter, Leo’s relationship is strained. Leo idolizes his favorite movie characters, tending to act like them, which puts him at odds with Splinter. As one of Leo’s favorite actors is Lou Jitsu (Splinter before he was mutated, but Leo is unaware of this) he tends to act like him. Splinter, who doesn’t like himself as a person, sees his son acting like he used to when he was younger, and immediately becomes harsh and standoffish. Leo’s and Splinter’s relationship together only becomes even more strained once they figure out Splinter and Lou Jitsu are the same person. Leo becomes very confused as the image of a distant, uncaring father overlaps with the image of his idol.
Lastly, Leo and Draxum have a horrible relationship, as back in Draxum’s evil days, he threw Leo off a roof, and Leo refuses to ever let him forget. While the other brothers somewhat jump at the opportunity to have a ‘secondary’ or ‘new’ parental figure in their lives, Leo is already resentful of parental figures, which leads him to immediately disliking the Baron Draxum. The only parent he wants to be proud of him, is his own father. And even then, Leo is resentful of that too.
Michelangelo
Mikey is the youngest of the family, and along with that, the glue that keeps them together. Overly optimistic and pessimistic all at once, Mikey is a wildcard, and the brashest one of the group. Mikey’s role in the family is to help keep the peace and identify the emotions of his siblings. When it comes to interacting with the family, Mikey has curated ‘personalities’ dedicated to situations, to get the job done. Mikey is an ornate box-shell turtle, which is a turtle species that can fully pull into its shell, which Mikey does both mentally and physically. If things become to overwhelming, he retreats into his delusional ideals, essentially putting himself into a ‘box’.
Mikey and Raph’s relationship is very back and forth. Mikey ends up acting as Raph’s emotional support more than once, whether it be yelling at someone in Raph’s stead or giving delusional advice. Mikey also kisses up to Raph to get favors from him, such as rights to the last slice of pizza, or being allowed to ride on Raph’s shell, rather than walk. Mikey understands how to get what he wants when it comes to Raph and often plays into his ‘needs to be protected’ youngest sibling role for it. The downside is he gets babied because of this, and is restricted from going out alone, or on solo missions.
Mikey and Donnie have a very dependent relationship. In Mikey’s eyes, they’re actually on the most equal footing. Donnie is the guy who fixes the physical things in the house, and Mikey fixes the mental things in the house. They’re both ‘fixers’. Mikey doesn’t feel the need to impress him, quite like he does with his other brothers. In fact, he and Donnie have a somewhat symbiotic relationship. Mikey helps Donnie with his own emotional issues, and in return, Donnie acts as Mikey’s comfort person, the person he goes to get a hug from.
Mikey’s relationship with Leo is interesting, as Mikey views him as a cooler older brother, while Leo views him as an adorable nuisance. Mikey is constantly trying to compete with Leo, not to prove that he can be better, but to prove he can be just as good as Leo is. While Leo believes he isn’t good enough, Mikey looks up to Leo, and believes he is more than enough, taking inspiration from his confidence. Along with that, as Leo is the only one in the family that doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve. Mikey is drawn to that, as he feels like Leo is the only brother he doesn’t have to cater to emotionally.
While Mikey and April have a good relationship together, it doesn’t really extend past goofing around, and having fun together. Mikey doesn’t feel the need to cater to her emotional needs, as she already does that on her own, and instead uses her as the one person he can unabashedly have fun with, without worrying about anything.
Mikey’s and Splinter’s relationship is better than the other brothers, yet worse at the same time. As Mikey is the ‘feelings’ guy of the family, he often justifies Splinter’s behavior, excusing him because he understands that his father had a rough past life before he was mutated (despite not actually knowing what happened), because having to care for four baby mutants would be mentally draining to anyone. As Mikey is the youngest and had the parental role of Raph in his life, he’s not quite as resentful as the others, nor does he chase praise like they do. Though he recognizes the emotional damage they have had in their life, due to upbringing, he chooses to ignore it.
Lastly, Mikey and Baron Draxum’s relationship which leans more on the toxic side. As Mikey had given up on the idea of having a parental figure in his life, immediately latched onto Draxum when he realized he might be his ‘second chance’. Once Draxum had his redemption arc and stopped fighting against the turtles, Mikey found him and began to ‘train’ him to be the parent he never had. If he couldn’t fix his original dad, maybe he could place his faith in a new person instead. One he could personally shape due to being older and having more knowledge.
Splinter
Splinter is known by many names, due to a complicated past. His original name was Hamato Yoshi (last name first, as according to Japanese custom), which he later changed to Lou Jitsu during his rebel actor years. Then finally Splinter, when he was mutated into a rat, to escape his past once more. Splinter, as he has an inherently tragic past, has quite a few mental issues. As a child, he lost both his father and mother and had to live with his grandfather. Following that, during his teen years and into young adult years, he ran away, became Lou Jitsu, and was an actor in action movies. Then, he fell in love with a woman who was helping on set, and planned to propose to her, only to discover she was a Yokai (a mystic species that lives beneath New York in a Hidden City) in disguise, named Big Mama (see image(s) in references). Big Mama kidnapped Lou Jitsu and forced him to fight in her Battle Nexus arena for seven years. Losing hope, he then fully gave up, expecting to die, and was kidnapped by Baron Draxum to be used in experiments. It was there that his DNA was used to mutate the four turtles into mutants, and he was accidentally mutated with a rat. He escaped the lab with the four baby mutants and was out on the streets with nowhere to go, and no shelter in sight. Splinter’s story is a sad one, a story of a man who never got a break, was continually depressed, and used his children as a distraction to keep himself alive.
Splinter’s relationships with his kids are not necessarily the best, due to his own traumatic background. In the earlier years of his kids’ lives, he was much more involved, as being involved in their lives was a great way to stay distracted. Then as they all got older, specifically Raph, the responsibility shifted to him, and Splinter fell into depression. Splinter and Raph originally had a very father-child relationship, and as time went on, their bond grew distant. Splinter began to see Raph as more of the leader, rather than a son. And Raph being Raph, didn’t do anything to change it.
Next, Splinter relationship with Donnie. Splinter used to be more involved in Donnie’s life, then as Donnie got older, and more independent, Splinter began to fall away, just as he did with his other kids. Along with that, Splinter was continuously depressed, and would use external stimuli to give him dopamine, which in this case was watching TV. Donnie, being the tech guy, and desperately wanting his father’s praise, built him a well-working projector to please him, which only fueled Splinter’s depression and addiction. Though Donnie meant well, in the long run, it was harmful.
Splinter ended up gaining a dislike for Leo as Leo got older, and began to idolize Lou Jitsu, a phase of Splinter’s life that he grew to hate. Though Splinter loves his son, he hates himself, which led to him acting somewhat hateful or dismissive towards Leo. Leo in turn made no effort to build their relationship, as he saw no point in trying. In fact, Leo referred to himself as the ‘least favorite’ child, multiple times.
Out of all his sons, Splinter favors Mikey the most, as Mikey is the one who leans on him the least yet is still highly affectionate. Mikey doesn’t expect him to be a parent like the other brothers do, which already takes away a lot of pressure. Though later on, as Mikey becomes closer friends with Draxum, Splinter becomes increasingly jealous, and angry that Draxum is pulling his attention.
Out of all of the kids, April is the one who received the best parenting from Splinter. As April isn’t Splinter’s actual kid, he feels less pressure to parent her, and as such, ends up parenting her more. Splinter has narcissistic tendencies, which in this instance, show up as the willingness to parent other children, but not your own. April and Splinter have a relationship very similar to an uncle and niece.
Lastly, is Splinter and Draxum’s relationship, which is anger fueled, spiteful, and very mean. Splinter, who never forgave Draxum for mutating him, and the overall lab experimenting process, hates him, and hates that he interacts with his sons. Splinter never told his sons exactly what happened in the lab in the past, so they just see him being hateful for what they deem to be ‘no reason’, which doesn’t help his case.
The Family Dynamics
The four turtles land in the four common family categories, as found in Chapter 2 of Family Systems Theory (Anonymous. (n.d.)). Raph, the eldest of the group, falls into the hero category. “This person may be a perfectionist who appears to have managed all of the demands placed on them easily because there are many rewards that come to the member who takes on this role” (Anonymous. (n.d.). Chapter 2: Family Systems Theory. FAML 360 Readings: Family Stress and Coping). Raph takes on a very parental role in the family, and makes himself leader, not because he wanted to originally, but because he felt he had to. The big protector of the family. Donnie falls into the delinquent and/or scapegoat role. “This child may be prone to acting out, doing poorly in school, or using other strategies that are seen as negative, but may play an important role in maintaining the family’s functioning” (Anonymous. (n.d.). Chapter 2: Family Systems Theory. FAML 360 Readings: Family Stress and Coping). Donnie has his ‘bad boy’ persona that he uses to get attention and is constantly aiming towards ‘evil’ or ‘violent’ tendencies. He also manages all the lair’s money, the tech, and everything else, forcing everyone to rely on him. Leo is in the invisible child category, the child “who seeks to remain on the periphery of the family function in order to reduce family tensions by not drawing any attention, positive or negative, to themselves” (Anonymous. (n.d.). Chapter 2: Family Systems Theory. FAML 360 Readings: Family Stress and Coping). Leo only interacts when it befits him, choosing to remain invisible unless he gains something from it. And when he does interact, he acts as a people pleaser, the ‘face-man’ to be on everyone’s good side, so once again, he isn’t picked out of the group. Lastly, Mikey who is the youngest, falls into the clown category “using humor as a strategy to deflect attention to family problems” (Anonymous. (n.d.). Chapter 2: Family Systems Theory. FAML 360 Readings: Family Stress and Coping). Mikey defaults to a very ‘whimsical’ outlook, where he either chooses to have a very delusional outlook on life and people, or a very angry, harsh outlook. Mikey’s coping method relies less on the ‘telling jokes’ part of humor, and more on the ‘having a very silly’ outlook on life method.
The Hamato family had a very negative feedback loop for almost the entirety of the two seasons, where neglect was common. As the turtles grew up, Splinter felt less needed, and as such, would distance himself. The turtles, noticing how their father was distant, pulled back, and stopped asking for help. This perpetuated in a negative feedback loop, where over time, they all stopped interacting all together. During the beginning of season two, and around the last few episodes of season two, the turtles began to reach out to Splinter more frequently, and as such, he began to reach back. Though they still weren’t interacting as frequently as they used to when younger, the feedback loop began to turn to a more positive one.
Lastly, on the Olson’s Circumplex Model (Anonymous. (n.d.). Chapter 2: Family Systems Theory. FAML 360 Readings: Family Stress and Coping). We find that their family dynamics are very chaotically enmeshed. They rely very heavily on one another, keeping Raph as the designated ‘leader’ but still running off to do their own thing. They don’t exist separately and instead refer to themselves as ‘we’ more often than ‘I’.
Conclusion
The Hamato’s, (the family featured in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), is a wonderful example of how parental trauma affects children, and how neglect can become a feedback loop if left unaddressed. Due to the trauma Splinter experienced in his younger years, and how restricted he felt during his childhood and into his adulthood, he gave his sons a lot of free reign. This had its pros and cons, as they had a very freeing childhood, where they were allowed to explore and run about as they pleased, yet as they got older, they got into more and more trouble. Along with that, they learned that they didn’t need to rely on their father, as they could provide for themselves.
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Thank you for reading <3
The movie happened in a few months after the Shredder attack and I think this is interesting to see, how everyone deal with the loss of their home and Gram-Gram. Didn't think about it before, but movie gives some insight!
Raph is paranoid/tries to overprepare.
It's all about training-training-training because he can't let anything bad happen again and he NEEDS his brothers to be as prepared as possible to be able to defend themselves!
When the mysterios attack happened, Leo, Donnie and Mikey just stood their confused while Raph panickly jumped in front of the closest ones to try and shield them from whatever it is. When Splinter got hurt, he demanded everyone to retreat.(he was partly right but also partly wrong, it was a bad situation no matter what you choose)
(And Raph faced it by basically being the one who needs to be saved despite his trainings and how he most likely put himself as the responsible one for safety of their family)
Leo is in denial.
He refuses to acknowledge anything bad happening, or it happened but they were totally awesome with nothing negative happening as a result either way. But the only way to properly ignore it is to go out to have fun and eat pizza, their old routine.
When Raph was taken he refused to acknowledge the severity of the situation and rushed back. When they were surrounded by krang monsters, he once again refused to acknowledge how bad things are and was blindly pushing forward.
(And Leo faced it by being forced into situation where he can no longer pretend he Got this. He has to go in fight with fully understanding what this means for him and his family)
Donnie is avoidant.
I am pretty sure relocating into new lair and making it livable fell solely on Donnie's shoulders. And I am sure he gladly jumped into work to be useful to the family(even though it chipped away his time for his own needs like repairing Shelldon, whose head is just laying around on the floor).
His avoidance was mostly shown in him becoming more touch-aversed. In the show he was 90% of the time up for a hug and touch. In the movie he more often showed discomfort, the hugs with his family didn't bring relief like it used to.
(And Donnie faced it quite literally by turning his exposed back, his shell that despite his armor was easily reached and probably hurt by Shredder, to the enemy, not only allowing the contact, but submerging into it.
And after everything was over the hug from his family once again brought relief.)
Mikey is repressed.
We know the boy has NO problem letting everyone know when he is angry and mad! But in the movie with all the Leo-Raph fighting, with things always going wrong, he barely showed any strong negative emotion besides fear and uncertanty.
Mikey was always the openly sensitive one and he was trying his best by not adding more negativity to the fragility of their family.
He was forcing positivity and support.
Once he found out about his future mystic abilities, he latched onto them, hoping to be more of use to his family, to protect them.
(And Mikey faced it by allowing himself to be fully angry, by not giving up on Leo, channeling these emotions into finally unlocking his mystic hands!)
I also love the comparison of Leo as past and Raph as future in that one past. Leo is clinging to the post, to how things used to be, ignoring the present. And Raph was looking too much into possible future dangers, ignoring the present.
And Donnie and Mikey are the present. The ones who actually are trying to take care of their physical and emotional needs, while neglecting their own in the process.
They are the present, so they connect past and future. They tried to be there for both Raph and Leo. Training with Raph and playing games with Leo.
dtiys i did for @/ingunnsara on twt some time ago
sketches of the rottmnt turtles as ppl 🙌🙌
