You're Gonna Tell Me To My Face That This Isn't 2012 Leo? 🤨 /hj

You can't tell me this isn't their dynamic a majority of the show- Donnie / Raph are also 5 seconds away from losing their shit and Mikey / Casey are always the victims of their wrath (While Leo and April either just exist in the back or try to "mediate" the situation-). 💀 LMAO || To be honest, I originally made this video at Mikey and Casey's expense, since it was meant to demonstrate Donnie and Raph's similarites and why I love 2012 Brawn + Brain even though we barely got any real content for them in canon,, 😔 🫶 🧪🔭🔬 / 💪💥🤬

Wow, this video is super old,, I haven't drawn like this in ages- 😭 Lmao

(Old Content)

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for reading <3

Warnings: I will be talking a lot about how terrible Donnie's crush on April is, and since I'm not an Apriltello shipper this will make it sound like I am shitting on Apriltello 2012 as a concept, but I'm actually just shitting on "Apriltello" as it is presented in the show.

This rant is also not really well structured, read at your own risk.

Okay so ever since I got Paramount + — because I got tired of getting viruses from indian websites when trying to pirate this goddamn show— I have watched TMNT 2012 a total of 5+ times, which means not only do I have a lot to say in general about this show but there is something that bothers me deeply, ever since the first season aired.

April O'Neil.

I know a lot of people shit on April in the show for how she treated Donatello, me included— and I stand by it, Cannon April is horrible — but honestly? Had she been a tad bit better written, there was a lot of potential for her character! There were so many good ideas, and all of them were WASTED.

So this is my character analysis of April O'Neil or, as I'm like to call it;

April O'Neil — The self insert of the teenage girl the writers had a crush on back in high school.

When I was 10 years old, I absolutely despised April because, naturally, I hated the love interest of most protagonists from the shows I watched because usually I felt they were badly written and other times were because I had a fictional crush on the protagonist, so in my child logic that meant I had to hate their love interests.

April was a prime example of that.

But as I've gotten older, I've realized a couple of things about April;

Firstly. April is written by grown ass men whose interactions with teenage girls likely doesn't extend further than that one time they got rejected by their crush in high school or telling their teenage daughter to go to her room, basing it off the way ALL female characters in the show are written.

Secondly, she is written by grown men who likely grew up having a fictional crush in previous versions of April.

This is... a recipe for disaster.

Look— April O'Neil and the way she acts in the show is written exactly the way adult men who are trying to write a teenage girl write teenage girls.

These dudes? They don't actually like or understand teenage girls. They had crushes on teenage girls, they thought they were hot, they might still think of the "what could have been" aspect if they didn't get rejected on prom night, but they do not respect teenage girls, they don't respect their thoughts, their feelings or their interests, and this not only means that April is a poorly written teenage girl as a result, but it also bleeds into the writing of other characters, mainly Donatello and Casey.

If you don't respect your teenage female character as a person, you're not going to write the teenage male characters to respect them either.

The writers clearly love April O'Neil, the concept. They try to sell you the idea that April is so cool, so cute/hot, this kind and empathetic soul, even though she barely does anything extremely cool or kind in the show??

The show is always trying to tell you what to think of April O'Neil, but the writing never earns that. In fact, it often shows the opposite.

The first time she sees the turtles? She screams AND is incredibly scared of them, which, understandable, but doesn't scream open-minded, does it?

When April finds out that Karai might have a semblance of a heart inside of her when they're fighting, instead of trying to create a connection with her and see if she can possible turn Karai to their side, she throws Karai down the subway stairs.

When she meets Dr. Falco with Donnie, and they're unknowingly discussing Dr. Rockwell with him, April keeps referring to the possible mutant experiments as MONSTROSITIES.

DONNIE IS RIGHT THERE!! She literally only stops when DONNIE had to express not once, but TWICE how uncomfortable he is. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the giant mutant turtle is probably going to be uncomfortable hearing people call other mutants like him monsters.

Also— April is never really the one that tries to be kind of empathetic to mutants. She only stops the turtles from beating the shit out of Pidgeon Pete when he mentions her father. So much for someone with psychic powers. When Mutagen Man comes after her, she calls him DONNIE'S MONSTER.

Yes, I get she was pissed off with Donnie and the turtles still, but referring to a random kid who by no means deserved his fate as a monster is so fucked up, April?? How would she feel if Casey called her dad when he got mutated the first time a monster? She totally would've been angry at anybody who said that.

Also this raises so many questions. Did no one explain to April who Timothy was?? Did Donnie not tell her?!? Timothy just spent months stuck to Donnie's lab, watching everybody with his creepy ass eyes and organs and Donnie was making a voicebox for the poor guy and the information just never, reached April? That Timothy was this sorta weird sorta awkward teenage kid who got involved with things he shouldn't and got himself mutated?

I don't buy it. I get it not being mentioned in the show, but I feel like SOMEBODY would have mentioned it in passing to April at some point.

Moving on, a lot of people say the way April acts towards Donnie is annoying or shallow, which while totally 100% at certain points, I think a lot of people in the fandom, for one reason or another are incapable of fully empathizing with Cannon April, and while I genuinely think Cannon April is a BAD PERSON for several reasons, I feel that she doesn't deserve as much hate as she gets— especially not for the way she acts towards Donnie.

I mean, put yourself in her shoes for a nanosecond.

You've lost your mother in a mysterious accident or something 10 years ago. Your father likely doesn't talk a lot about it, and while that bothers you, you're just going through your normal teenage ages, worried about your grades. Worried about boys. Worried about high school popularity.

Then everything changed when the Kraang attacked. Suddenly, you find yourself being saved by four giant humanoid mutant turtles who do martial arts, and your dad is kidnapped by aliens in android bodies that wear suits, the mutants save you, but you have no idea if you'll ever see your father again. You might have just lost BOTH of your parents.

But before you are able to even start processing that you realize that one of those turtles has a massive, big, fat, and OBVIOUS crush on you. But does he confess? No, he just acts, really, really awkward and weird about it.

He lowkey treats you like his girlfriend even though he never asked you out, he calls you pet names like "my sweet chinchilla" and "my princess". He stalks you through buildings. He opens his arms expecting hugs when you're around. He pets your hair. He offers to let you feel his fucking bicep lmao.

And this isn't even half of the weird shit he does!!

Look, any teenage girl or actual woman would think this is fucking weird in real life, okay? Like, this guy is going to kill me and keep my teeth in a box levels of creepy. If we're treating April with actual respect, this would be lowkey terrifying from her POV, he saved her life and he likes her, what if she says she doesn't like him?

Donnie is taller, stronger, and much more skilled than April in every way possible— up until she gets superpowers— even though yes, he is a hero, and yes, his brothers would likely not let him do anything bad to her, how does she know?

If you're a regular teenage girl, how do you know this guy isn't going to lose his shit when you reject him? While I don’t think Cannon April is scared of Donnie hurting her for rejecting him, I still think she feels rejecting him would put her into such an awkward position that it could possible ruin the friendship they have.

Let's be honest, April is a cute/conventionally attractive girl, she definitely would have gone through the Nice Guy™ cannon event by the show's events at least once.

When you're able to look past the obvious bad writing or April hate what actually lies beneath is a girl who is in a horribly awkward situation. April's life has been turned upside down, her father keeps getting kidnapped or horribly mutated, she finds out she's not even FULLY human, aliens and ninjas are constantly trying to kidnap or murder her and on top of all of this?

One of the only people who can help her, help her father, save the entite world has a massive crush on her.

In her mind, it's much less risky to just pretend like she doesn't know he has a crush on her as long as he never confesses and she has to directly turn him down.

But then things get massively awkward when she meets this new kid and they have so much chemistry, she can actually share both aspects of her life with Casey. April gets to talk about how crazy her life is but also complain about normal stuff, and hey with this new kid coming around, this means that Donnie will naturally realize how they like each other and back off right???

Hahah...

No.

He gets JEALOUS. And is actively hostile to her friend!! And it is so blatantly obvious that it's because he is jealous of Casey, they're both generally so bad at hiding how they're both into April.

So now her predicament is that Donnie is actively hostile to Casey because he views him as a threat, and Casey who doesn't let that shit slide is responding in kin. They both act like she's their girlfriend or eventually going to end up with them, even though neither of them have asked her OUT.

This is majotarily an issue because of the bad writing. But if we ignore that for a second, what this looks like is a girl that's put into a situation where no matter what she does, she loses.

Now, I see some people suggesting that Donnie's crush on April is a two-sided problem, claiming that April is either very manipulative or that she lowkey enjoys that Donnie likes her which is odd to me— Like did we watch the same show?

While you can definitely see it like that since April's character is so badly written and so bland that you can fit almost any interpretation into her actions and her being outright manipulative would have been an interestingangle to explore, I completely disagree with this reading for the cannon because outside of a few very specific episodes, April never gives Donnie any indication that she likes him, outside of those situations she never "leads him on."

Like c'mon, the only episode I can think of where she does lead him on is foot too big, which I have a lot of problems with from a writing standpoint, but the episode itself feels so out of character and conflicting.

Ignoring how that episode affects Donatello for a second, it does something really gross to April's characterization. It has her very clearly reject Donnie's advances at the start of the episode, then she's not really present for a majority of the episode until Donnie essentially does some growing and tells her how he understands how she feels and he accepts her rejection, so she kisses him????

?????

Look, this feels like that point in any amateur writer's story where they need to continue the mutual pining, but the story came to a point where it has to directly address one of the character's interest in the other, so the writer pulls something convoluted out of their ass in order to keep the mutual pining going, without realizing that the way they're writing the character makes it feel like one of them HATES THE OTHER and by making them show interest out of a sudden, it destroys the previous characterization! It's not interesting, it's not even a character flaw, it's BAD WRITING!

This episode takes the cannon, if maybe unintentional characterization of April O'Neil as a girl who knows her friend is into her, but she feels uncomfortable directly addressing, and makes it seem like she's a manipulative bitch leading him on, which not only looks very stupid but is also very ~misogynistic~

It's also such a weird episode because nothing happens after this?

It's not Donnie's fault that he's a massive creep! It's not his Father's fault for not telling him he needs to cut it out because it's weirding April out— I also have a lot of problems with the way Splinter "addresses" this issue, which is to say, outside of a single episode, he doesn't—! It's not his brother's fault for never outright saying he needs to stop because of how much of a massive creep he is! It's not Casey's fault for not addressing it either and maybe trying to have a heart to heart with Donnie about both of their feelings toward April—

No, it's the girl's fault for leading him on. Even though everything she does screams "I am not interested, dude."

Also, this isn't me saying the other characters — with the exception of Splinter — should be heavily critized for their lack of emotional intelligence when approaching this situation. But if you are going to let the other teenager's poor actions slide because they're kids, you can't expect the only teenage girl to have the emotional intelligence to deal with that situation either without making it seem sexist, y'know.

The same issue is present with the way the writers start treating Casey btw, in season 2 when April was paired with Casey, she actually felt like a fully fledged character. It actually felt like she was going to start getting some actual character development and maybe develop a relationship with Casey, which made the most sense since at this point it felt like April had no intention of addressing the "I'm half human half kraang" situation. And she had chemistry with him!

And then out of nowhere she starts acting distant and cold towards Casey? Even CASEY points it out in the show lmao.

Honestly this feels like the writers trying to very poorly balance the love triangle, they needed to give Donnie a reason to believe he still had a chance with April, while knocking Casey down enough that he thought he shouldn't directly ask her out even after all of the pseudo dates they had in season 2.

And since I'm talking about April, I feel that maybe it's because my type of woman is women like Karai, which actually felt like an interesting person, even though she was also handled poorly, but April, outside of a few very specific episodes, just feels bland.

I mean, come on, can you tell me one concrete thing about her that comes from cannon that goes deeper than surface level?

What does she like? What doesn't she like? What her thoughts on the situations she finds herself in?

She never talks about her mother beyond missing her, even in the episode where the copy of her mom is present. It just happens, and then she never talks about it again??? At least not to any noticeable extent. She never processes what it means to be a half human half kraang mutant. It takes the show like 3 seasons to even start addressing her psychic powers?!

You're telling me you gave this version of April one of the coolest powers in the history of superpowers, and YOU WAIT TILL YOUR SHOW IS ALMOST OVER TO EVEN START ADDRESSING IT?

You cannot convince me Donnie and Casey wouldn't immediately want to talk about April's powers the moment they learned about it.

Donnie would immediately start running tests, not wait until the farmhouse to do it.

Casey would think, "It's totally dope. Yo" and would want to help April train her powers.

Cue a training montage with April learning how to levitate soda cans and how to use her psychic powers with both Donnie and Casey cheering her on.

Anyways, my conclusion to this post is just how all of the characters in this show were robbed, but especially April, she's not "April O'Neil" she is "Donnie's crush", she is "Casey's love interest", she’s "the center of the conspiracy".

She's never allowed to be a character. She's never allowed to feel like a real teenage girl. She's never even allowed to reject Donnie!! She is written as if she doesn't like him but every single time where he is getting over her suddenly something happens that makes him crawl back into that stupid obssession!! Even though she is clearly not interested. April O'neil is not a character, she is a weird plot device which the writers can use to move the plot forward and push their weird fucking ships onto the audience without actually developing anything to any extent.

I rest my case.

Leo's annoyed faces will never not be hilarious

He's so sassy

I draw too

He's so cute

with what you just said omfg. please. 🙏🙏🙏

HEAD CANONS FOR THE 12 BOYS DOING THE SPIDERMAN KISS WITH THEIR GIRL?! HEHEHEHE

Spiderman Kiss (Fluff)

2012!Turtles x reader

A/N: I’ve been binging too much TwoSet, so this took me four days to make. Why? Because violins, baby!😂 And YES, I just saw the title of their latest video, and NO I don’t have guts to watch it😭

Warning: None💚

Leonardo:

The peaceful quietness of your bedroom was disturbed, when you heard light tapping against  your window, making you look up from whatever you were doing. A soft smile spread across your face, already knowing who you would find outside your window.

With a happy skip in your step, you made your way to your window, opening it and letting the cold night air of New York City enter your room. And there you found him, hanging upside down from the fire escape over yours, smiling at you with that sweet boyish smile and pretty blue eyes.

“Leo”, you smiled, feeling giddy at the sight of your turtle boyfriend hanging outside your window. “What are you doing here?”, you asked, climbing out on the fire escape. “You haven’t told me you would come by”.

“I just thought I’ll come by to say hey before patrol”, he smiled, watching as you came closer to him. Even upside down, you made his heart skip a beat. “Can’t a guy just check in on his girlfriend?”

“Of course you can”, you smiled, standing right before him.

The two of you smiled at each other for a moment, before your hand came to rest on his cheek, your thumb stroking his jaw.

“Will you come over after patrol?”, you asked. “My parents won’t be home before tomorrow”.

“When you ask so nicely”, Leo chuckled. “Of course I will. Anything for my girl”.

You bite your lip, feeling butterflies fly through your stomach. Something that tended to happen when Leo decided to play up his charm. And so, you softly pressed your lips to his in a soft sweet kiss. When you pulled from the kiss, you found Leo smiling from ear to ear, looking at you with pure love in his eyes.

“I love you, Leo”, you smiled, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “See you after patrol”.

“I love you too, (Y/N)”, Leo hummed, savoring the feeling of your lips against his forehead. “See you later”.

Raphael:

You were talking down the street, returning home after a long night out. Even without your headphones, you probably wouldn’t have noticed the familiar figure coming down from above, hanging upside down in the streetlamp you were about to pass. So when you suddenly felt a tap on your shoulder, you turned with your fists up, ready to fight like your boyfriend had taught you. But when you then found your boyfriend, hanging upside down before you with a smirk plastered across his face, you let out a sigh of relief.

“God damn Raph, don’t do that”, you sighed. “You almost scared the shit out of me”.

“I was going for your pants, but I guess that was one way to do it”, Raph chuckled, his eyes lingering on your for a moment. “On your way home?”

“One were to think that you were the genius turtle with those detective skills”, you laughed, making Raph pull a playful grimes.

“Ha ha, very funny”, he said, reaching one hand out for you, perking his lips. “Now, come here. Gimme a kiss”.

“What if I don’t want to”, you asked, not putting any effort into hiding your smile, as you took a step backwards, getting just out of his reach. Raph gasped in an overly dramatic manner, making you giggle at his antics.

“It’s not nice to lie, (Y/N)”, Raph said, faking an angry expression. “Now, give me a kiss before I get mad”, he continued, pecking his lips once more.

You couldn’t help but giggle, giving in with a bright smile. Holding Raph’s head in your hands, you pressed your lips to his in a small peck that made him hum playfully when you pulled back.

“You look pleased”, you smiled, still holding his head in your hands.

“I am”, Raph smiled. “But I would be more pleased if you gave me another kiss”.

You let out a happy laugh, throwing your head back. Your, oh so charming teaseful boyfriend, always managed to sneak in comments like that.

“Okay, you whining baby”, you smiled, before pressing your lips to his again, feeling him pull you closer with his free hand. This kiss was longer and deeper than the first, yet still short and sweet, making both you and Raph feel tingles in your stomachs.

Raph pulled from the kiss with a very satisfied look on his face, giving you that smug smile once again. “See, that wasn’t so bad”.

“Dork”, you smiled, nudging him slightly on his shoulder.

“All me dork all you want, babe. But even I know you like it”, Raph smirked, before getting ready to climb back up the lamp pole. “And when I get back from patrol, you’ll get more”.

Donatello:

“Donnie?”, you called out, looking around Donnie’s garage lab. But with him being nowhere to see, you did a turn on the spot, taking in your surroundings once more. Where could he be? You had texted him several times, but he still hasn't answered you. And that was an hour ago! “Babe?”

“Up here!”

You looked up to the rafters of the garage, finding your turtle boyfriend on the beams above, fiddling with wirings and all sorts of strange things, that you still had no idea what their names were.

“What are you doing up there?”, you asked, crossing your arms as you smiled up at your boyfriend.

“What does it look like I’m doing?”, Donnie smiled. “I’m fixing the lights. And the electric wires… and the heat… pretty much everything”.

“Okay, but why?”

“Well…”, Donnie sighed, sitting back up on the beam, looking up as he thought. “First Leo came and asked me to fix the lights, because it wasn’t strong enough to let him read. Then Mikey came and told me he had problems with his outlets. And then Raph started yelling up about the heating in his room. And since the wires and all access points are up here, I just decided to get them all done”.

“I guess that makes sense”, you said, taking a seat in Donnie’s chair, watching as he continued to work. “Do you need any help up there?”

“No, no, I got it”, Donnie said, not taking his eyes from what he was working with.

“Okaaayyy….”, you said, not feeling fully sure about his answer. “But please be careful, babe”.

“I’m always careful, (Y/N)”, Donnie said with a smile and his eyes closed, making you uneasy straight away. “I know what I’m doing, so there’s no need to worRY!-”

And just like you had feared it would happen, Donnie fell off the beam and tumbled towards the ground beneath. But before you could even let out a sound, and before Donnie could reach the ground, he found himself tangled up the wires he had just been fiddling with, leaving him hanging upside down just before you, with a sheepish smile. "Whoops".

You stood from the chair, crossing your arms with a smug smile, as you walked towards your tangled up boyfriend. “Seems like you do”.

“This wasn’t part of the plan”, Donnie said, looking up as his lower half tangled up.

“It wasn’t?”, you asked in a teasing manner. “Well, at least I know where I can find you now”. And then, before Donnie could ask what you meant, you took his face in your hands, before pressing a kiss to his lips, making him hum in pleasant surprise. “Now, let’s get you out of all that”.

Michelangelo:

With a sigh you laid back on the bed, turning your head to watch your boyfriend on the floor, as he tinkered around with his latest action figures. That was what happened when he got his hands on a new collectible. That was just how it was. You knew better than to get in the way of Mikey’s hobbies, but damn, sometimes you would get bored just watching him, when you had hoped that day would have been all about a couple time.

“Mikey”, you said with another sigh, trying to catch the attention of your turtle boyfriend.

“Yes, babe?”, Mikey asked, still not taking his eyes off the figure in his hand as he moved its arms around.

“When will you come and cuddle?”

“Just a moment babe, I just got to look through the rest first”.

You let out another loud exacerbated sigh, spreading your arms out on Mikey’s bed like seastar. Mikey still had several boxes on all new figures to go through, and you were getting impatient. ADHD can’t spread to other people by touch, but by this point you fully believed that you had gotten it from Mikey. Ever since you had gotten together with the orange clad turtle, you had started taking on many of his mannerisms. Such as his tendency to sigh in annoyance when getting impatient. And funnily enough, Mikey never seemed to notice when you did so. Just like right now. No reaction. Not what you wanted. So you had to do something about it. And you knew just how.

You scooted yourself around the bed, until you laid with your head resting down the side of the bed, allowing you to look at Mikey with your head upside down. You pucked your lips, making loud and obscene kissing noises. But… still nothing.

Right! That’s it! And with that you grabbed a hold of Mikey’s head, pulling him towards you as he made a surprised sound. You pressed his lips to yours, kissing him while you were still laying upside down on his bed.

“What was that for?”, Mikey asked with a smile.

“Because I’m getting impatient!”, you whined, trying to hide your smile. “And you’re just sitting there looking like a snack! What do you expect me to do?”

“You know what?”, Mikey said, laying his figure down on the floor before coming to a stand, smiling at you. “You’re right. Cuddle time!”

You did not have time to move before Mikey decided to jump on to the bed, throwing himself on you, letting you scream out in laughter, when he started attacking your face with kisses. You regretted NOTHING.

If u follow me on Insta u already saw this ermrmm awkward!! But these are my 2012 human designs, I took a lot of creative liberties obviously.. So I thought Id explain their designs a bit here!

Mikey - I gave Mikey a lot of colors based off of his siblings because I think he takes a lot of inspo from them, or LIKE HE LOOKS UP TO THEM YOU KNOW?? I think Mikey knows who he is but the colors are kind of a homage to the ppl who r a huge part of his life, hes a very big people's person so it makes sense to me.. His mask tail is tied around his belt!! All the characters have their mask tails somewhere. also Mikey totally would wear socks and sandals lmaoao

Leo - transfem Leo as always!!!! So true! I gave her more Ninja-like clothes bcuz I don't think she wears casual clothes unless she's going to sleep. Her hair is tied up in a braid bcuz u thought it would be cute lolol oh and her mask tail is in her hair

Donnie - close toed boots is a requirement!! He works in a lab! But also he undermines safety ruled by not tucking his hair away properly lol I just know it catches on fire all the time. Also that's why his eyebrows are burnt off, if he ever had facial hair it's def scorched now LOLOL and the mask tail is tied around his belt!! Which is probably another safety hazard lol

Raph - I definitely wanted to give him a boxer feel even though he's a ninja. I think boxing would be more his style not that I don't think he doesnt enjoy being a ninja, but I think a lot of the times raph just wants to skip the stealth and jump to Combat lol. He's got the most scars for sure! Hence the bandages reaching higher up on his arms than the rest (I do this on my reg raph design too lol) and his mask tail is tied on his head!

Some biology textbook / vintage anatomical studies inspired 2012 donatello fanart 💀 I wanted to add labels to make it seem more authentic, but gave up after realizing procreate's text feature is so clunky, lol.

- Compy

Some doodles I made of @teks-emporium 's Adventure Time + 2012 crossover (Which specifically revolves around the Elemental Miniseries-) ! 😌✨

Mutant apocalypse Donnie 🧪💜sketch