Secret Elaborate Plan

You can see the seeds of those insecurities throughout the show, and I think these are natural to have at his age just. in general, and on top of being socially stunted. He’s not the strong one or leader (and he doesn’t want to be the later), he’s not the smart one (more on this later, and he isn’t the glue (I think Mikey’s close relationship with each of them helps tie the group together, especially in times of conflict) and beacon of light.

Now Leo is smart. He’s charismatic and cunning and knows how to negotiate. These are incredibly valuable skills but they’re often undermined, and not always necessary in all situations. I don’t think Leo realized how good he is at this, never mind how valuable his skill set is. And not to mention how he uses his portals on the battle field. Leo is incredibly battle-smart. His plans differ from Raph’s in strategy (Raph’s go-to is to hit and keep hitting, which isn’t always what needs to happen. You can’t brute strength through everything. Nothing against Raph just pointing out differences Raph ily). Leo is a strategist. His knowledge of his teams strengths and weaknesses is what makes him a good leader. He knows how to weaponize their skills and compensate for weaknesses.

But Leo doesn’t realize how valuable these skills are. And they only got a chance to really shine at the end of S1. Being made leader before he realized this only accentuated insecurities that were already there. Why would he be the leader? What does he even offer to the team? And he doesn’t want that responsibility, doesn’t trust himself with that responsibility. Raph is the strongest, of course he can protect them. What could he do?

On top of that, he’s being criticized every step of the way, which only exasperates how much he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Now in terms of the start of the movie, the whole key thing, there’s a lot of interpretations for what’s going on. Here’s my two cents:

Leo doesn’t want to be leader, so he just. doesn’t. Why should he listen to Splinter? They’ve been just fine the way they’ve been doing things, why does he get a say in how they operate after one mission? I just don’t think Leo took the role on, ignored it completely. Acted as he always did because that’s what worked for them. And, yeah, he goofed a mission, but they always goof missions. It just so happens that it had dire consequences this time.

When he steps into that role, I think he was trying. Leo was taking the Krang seriously, I could make a whole other post about this. But when Raph gets captured, he goes into his “leader mode” where he micromanages and calls the shots, handles it all himself.

Here’s the thing. Raph didn’t learn to work as a team, that he could rely on them, until the end of S2. For two years now, Raph led in a similar way. With a tight reign. I think Leo, on top of just being stubborn, was emulating a form of leadership he was used to. Raph had his character development, but that was all of what, six months ago?

“I was doing everything right, how could it all go so wrong.” He thinks this is how he’s supposed to lead. It’s what Raph did (albeit not nearly as intensely) and that always worked—until Shredder, until it didn’t, which Leo realizes later on—why isn’t it working for him? What is he doing wrong?

Post-movie, I think Leo’s character would have been in a weird place. He understands the importance of working together, admits how much the responsibilities scare him but take them on because that’s what he has to do, but the mess of the invasion I think would have worsened these insecurities (and especially if he had injuries hindering him afterwards, internalized ableism can be intense). He knows how to run the team, but he’s not so sure of his own place in it—he’s not Master Leonardo, he admits, he’s just Leo.

Leo has to learn the value of his own skills—I do think he values himself as a person, as a brother—and how they make him an amazing leader. He’s 16 years old learning his own skill set (I don’t think the comparison of 40 year old Master Leonardo helped). He’s finding his place in the team and how it was always fitting for him to take this role, that there was a lot more importance to the face-man role than he realized.

Having their ninpo won them the battle with Shredder, “fixed” Karai’s death, and it’s kind of like her last gift to them. Nothing could hurt them now.

Leo worked so hard to master his portals. There were multiple episodes about him being bad at it, how that rattled his confidence. He was finally confident in his portals, (his quick fight with Prime in this scene??? Hello???), so surely he could do anything now.

This scene could easily be Leo just. being Leo. But he's carrying himself with a confidence that he didn't have before, not this deeply. A façade of the narrative he's crafted to cope. He's convinced himself that because they've worked so hard, trained, have their powers, and defeated their biggest enemy, nothing could touch them. He's bargaining.

Their fight with Shredder deeply impacted all of them, even if we don't see it. Losing Karai, nearly losing their dad, etc. they're all a little rattled. Raph spent the entire first half of movie trying to teach Leo the lesson he learned that day: work together, rely on each other, you have your family.

Raph learning this lesson is what awoke their ninpo the first time. It’s why he’s being so strict about it. I’d be pissed too if I finally learned I could rely on my family just for one of them to act like this massive trauma didn’t hurt.

Raph is acutely aware that Leo doesn't understand what he learned that day. He makes as such obvious. Because, unintentionally, Leo throws it in his face. Raph thought he didn't have to carry it alone anymore, but Leo isn't listening. And that didn't matter before, when Raph thought the responsibility was all his, but not only is Leo the leader now, but he wasn't supposed to do it alone anymore.

And Leo throws that in his face. Because Leo thinks Raph doesn't trust him (more on this later), he doesn't realize Raph is hurting. It's not about him.

To finish off the scene, it's Leo's failure to listen and Leo's ninpo that ruins the mission. Their lack of teamwork. On a more symbolic level, their lack of trust. It's Leo literally cutting Raph off before he can reach him.

Another detail I wanna point out is it was Raph to pull Leo away from Karai. He knows Leo was affected by her death. He thought that if he spelled it out for him, he’d finally listen and take this serious; it’s not a game anymore, hasn’t been for a long time. Especially now that the Foot Clan is involved, possibly for the first time since Shedder. I think that’s why Raph is so calm in their argument (until he, rightfully, isn’t).

Leo mocks his stress, so Raph repeats his point. Raph has taken responsibility back. He's placed the weight of all of their lives back on himself, he was supposed to have his family to help him, he wasn't supposed to be alone anymore, (how much heavier does a weight feel when you were free for it for just a moment?) until Leo can get his act together.

But Leo doesn't get it. He think's Raph doesn't trust him. Leo's projecting insecurities he's developed onto him, isn't hearing what Raph is saying. And Raph is frustrated. After everything, you can't take the risk of one of us dying seriously? (He does, it terrifies him, so he makes up a world where that can never happen again.)

It's not that Leo doesn't take the Foot Clan seriously (Warren and Hypno, no. He doesn't think they're threats. Not in the same way.) I’m a firm believer Leo was being serious in this scene. He was doing his typical quip at the beginning, but once the fight starts he doesn't have another one.

He understands the threat here. He does something similar when fighting Krang Prime later on, "Suprise!", "If this isn't the poster shot...", etc. Don't get me wrong, Leo has been insensitive and more than a bit insufferable this entire time, but to his credit he’s listening to Casey here, it’s why he goes for the key in the first place.

But at this point it doesn't matter. Raph is fed up with him and hurt by Leo's actions thus far. You can see Leo considering his options because he doesn't trust Raph's call here (Raph is scared. Raph is responsible for all of them. Dad is hurt.)

Leo makes his decision. The narrative was shattered the second they lost their ninpo, that Splinter got hurt (which Leo doesn't have a very overt reaction to, like he's trying to ignore it). But Leo does understand this threat and goes after the key. He just didn't realize how seriously Raph takes protecting him, that he'd give up his own life to do so (he think's Raph's mad at him, doesn't trust him, that he got in the pod).

(Raph stays to protect him because that's his baby brother and even if he's being a bit of an ass, he'll die to protect him. He looks at him with nothing but love and concern as he places him in that pod.)

Even after this Leo immediately crafts a new narrative: it's CJ's fault. If he hadn't gone after the key, this wouldn't have happened (the whole reason he went after the key was because he trusted CJ's judgement, everything shifts when Raph gets captured).

They lost their safety net, Leo takes a couple tries to try and get around that, but he can't. So, he finds another. CJ said he's the greatest ninja of all time, so he can do this. Raph might not like how he does things, but he was good in the future, so he can do this.

Then that narrative is shattered too. Leo has to confront his fears and not only accept that he has to do it, but he alone can't fix it. He thought that if they just trusted him things would be okay, but he needs to listen to them, to be responsible for them, he can't lose them. The thought terrifies him. It's here that Leo earns the trust he was asking for.

Their ninpo is their connection to each other. Their trust in each other is at an all time low even before the Krang showed up. Donnie and Mikey are affected by Raph and Leo's arguing, and honestly I think Donnie is also a little fed up with Leo. Not as much, but I digress.

Donnie and Raph discussed the escape pods at some point. Either Donnie thought of them or, if they were Raph's/a mutual idea, agreed that they were necessary. He's also coping with some fake confidence, pretty typical for Donnie, see above with him going along with Leo's four shell joke, as well as trying to keep the peace between them and trying not to take sides.

Mikey has faith in his brothers, is willing to call out when they're being unreasonable ("we don't have a plan!"), but he's mostly waiting for everyone to start trusting each other again and is relatively passive in everything.

Donnie fights the most with Leo after Raph is taken, but Leo's being stubborn and he eventually caves. "The world is ending and yet the barbs continue," could have been banter with some truth to it. Donnie (and Mikey, who Donnie spent the entire scene worried about) did almost die in the tunnels he explicitly told Leo was a bad idea. He's frustrated, too, but Leo's able to win him back. I hit the image limit but he's pretty annoyed and cynical about their future for majority of the rooftop scene.

Donnie was the one who almost died when they first faced Shredder. At this point, he's the one who's come closest with death (I think). The only exception is Leo when thrown off the roof, but he was saved by Raph's ninpo.

But Leo's figured it out, and he's able to regain their trust. He's listening, and he wants to reunite them instead of pushing and lashing out. He doesn't want to fight anymore. He gets it, displays his own vulnerability. He might not be able to save them from this, protect them. He could have kept fighting, but he's willing to die for Raph to know that he understands.

I think this insecurity is coming from a genuine place, Splinter's distrust. But that wasn't about him either, it was about Splinter's trauma and fear of Big Mama. That he was placed in the Nexus, a place he spent years being forced to fight, when he swore to never harm another creature. Leo's felt, for a long time, that his team didn't trust him so he has to beg for it. And there was a time they didn't.

But he forgot that he earned Raph's trust, Splinter's too. He thought Raph was mad at him. So he kept acting stupid and lost the trust he had earned because he kept projecting this insecurity onto them, because he didn't listen and assumed Raph just. didn't trust him to be a good hero. It wasn't about him.

It was about what Raph was going through, what Raph needed from him. Leo finally understanding everything Raph was going through, from the pressure of being leader to learning to have faith in his team, is what awoke it the second time. It meant so much to Raph because of how much Leo’s attitude was hurting him. It was Raph’s ninpo that awoke first, not Leo’s, because he didn't have to carry everything alone again. They're able to rely on each other.