Rapid Fire TMNT Hot Takes
A series of hot takes that I have about the TMNT franchise but don’t have the time, energy, or material needed to fully build upon these, just something to think about.
- Raphael and Leadership
Raph always had the potential and capacity to be a leader, Rise was the first one to take that idea seriously. 03 Raph didn’t want to thou, while 12 Raph wanted to but was never taught how to be a leader and was unfairly looked over in favor of 12 Leo.
2. Queerness and TMNT
2012 could have been a great exploration of the turtles being queer/queer coded. Being isolated from society, they only learned that the only relationship one could have with women was in a romantic nature. The team could even use this to explain the whole thing that Leo had with Karai before they were revealed to be siblings. TMNT would be the perfect franchise to explore these feelings of queerness, of figuring out the nature of your feelings with your friends, especially if you didn’t have that chance growing up to do that.
3. ROTTMNT, Raph, and Mentorship.
Splinter not taking an ‘active’ role in guiding Raph being a leader contributed to Raph being a flawed leader like the creative team on Rise wanted him to be. Every Leo that was considered to be such a great and fantastic leader was guided by their splinter and here we have Rise Raph, who didn’t really have his dad give him tips and tricks on how to be an effective leader, and Raph having to struggle, fumble, and some of his plans not working out the way he wants them too makes him a much better. Rise Raph seems to operate under a type of leadership that functioned and based on group cohesion and harmony, making it more interesting than leading with absolute authority, which was something that most Leos lead by.
4. TMNT is Supernatural but with turtles and aliens.
Supernatural is basically just Dragon Ball Z, constantly allowing the Winchesters to win against the big bad of the season before revealing a new one that puts them as the underdogs again. TMNT is Supernatural within that aspect, of giving the boys many enemies that they defeat time and time again, overcoming it only to be made an underdog by a new more powerful enemy(or the same enemy but beefed up)
One could argue that April and Casey are Castiel-like figures, who come from a higher position of power than the boys (as they’re humans) and that higher power (humans) constantly works against, conspires, and hates the boys. They were only meant to be around for a little while, like Castiel was during season four of Supernatual, but April and Casey chose to stay and help the boys and chose to care for them, even though they didn’t have a reason to, even though it wouldn’t have given them an advantage within human eyes. The narrative constantly tells Castiel, Casey, and April that they aren’t “needed” within the narrative but they still persist because they love their friends/family, they love their planet and they’re willing to die for that love.
