Canon Trans Leo? More Likely Than You Think

Canon trans Leo? More likely than you think

I'm going to preface this by saying this is all for fun. I don't really care one way or another :P

A little turtle biology

The thing is, traits that are unique to telling apart sexes of red eared sliders just aren't in his design. The longer claws in males, something that only red eared sliders have differentiated in sex, isn't there. Other things, like bigger size in females and longer tails in males, just aren’t there. So that leaves us with plastron shape.

Male red eared sliders have a concave plastron. There is a slight indent around their lower abdomen. Females lack this and have a flat or convex plastron.

Leo’s design

There are scenes where it tends to be obvious what his plastron shape is. Following the lines, it’s concave to his body, matching the plastron shape of a female red eared slider. And boom, there you have it transmasc Leo is canon, everyone can go home now. This is very consistent throughout the show and there is nothing that ever could affect this argument.

Or is there?

There are also scenes where his plastron is shown parallel, which doesn’t disprove the previous statement. So, why mention this at all if my point still stands. Because it brings up the question, ‘How consistent is his plaster shape throughout the show?’

Stand up straight king, your crown is falling

It’s hard to tell whether the midline is indicative of his actual plastron shape, follows the line of action, or if it follows the taper line. While there is some consistency, due to his shell and dynamic posing, leo never really is standing straight up. And there is a lot of change in the plaster’s placement due to movement and how the show is animated. While this makes the show very fluid, it makes it difficult to accurately determine the plastron shape.

There are also plenty of scenes where his plastron appears convex, but this also means nothing because his shell doesn't tuck back in. With male turtles, their plastron is concave because of the dent, but, for increased movement, leo’s plastron isn't shown to tuck back in, therefore not causing a dent.

And that leaves one answer: You just cant tell. 

Getting rid of almost all sex determining factors of red eared sliders, in addition to having inconsistent plastron shape because animation is cool like that, you can’t determine Leo’s sex based off of his characteristics. That’s it. Everything has failed. My hours of research come to no avail.

Future!Leo

Why even mention him at all, theres nothing left to even prove. There are no mare sex based traits to apply. AND NEVER MIND BECAUSE THOSE ARE ONLY THE DIFFERENCES IN NON-ADULT TURTLES. This point relies on Future!Leo's design, sooo movie ref time :]

In his future design, he is significantly older and you can properly decern his sex by his basic design concepts. As male red eared sliders get older, their colours will start to fade and will grow darker in colour (melanin distribution). Females don't go through that colour change. In Future!Leo's design, while his colour is less saturated, he doesn't grow darker in colour and stays his original lighter green. Now could it be from a recognition standpoint? As long as his stripes are there, his design could grow darker and he would still be recognisable. While male red eared sliders can lose their stripes, it doesn't always happen. The markings could stay, and he would still be a male turtle. So recognition isn’t a viable factor. Trans Leo is back, baby.

Where does this actually get us?

Future!Leo isn't the same as Rise!Leo because he's from a different timeline. Well, Future!Leo is trans. Honestly, the rest you can take with a grain of salt lol. In all seriousness, in Future!Leo's timeline, they were very similar as teens. In addition to what I've said already about Rise!Leo, there is a chance that he could grow up the same as Future!Leo. Other than that, this is just a fun little essay about a hc that could be real.

TL,DR: Future!Leo is trans and Rise!Leo might be too