Unabashedly a geek

OOOF! 40 years! I just finished feeling like an ancient with the TF 40th last year. (Yes I watched that first run as a kid too.)

1. 1987 when my little brother went crazy over the first TV series. That was on the only family TV in the weekday afternoons. (Yes, back then it was very common people only had a single TV in the house, that you had to share the privileges of watching, till your parents took over in the evenings, and you were stuck watching stuff like Dallas, if you were allowed to stay up that late.) I would have been 9 yrs old at the time, and had zero intrest in those "silly Turtles", mainly for the fact that my kid brother was into them. He got many of the action figures and I was sooo jealous because years before I wanted the MOTU figures but my mom would only buy me She-Ra characters and not He-Man's crew. (Once I had the means as an adult, I've spent way too much money on all the "boy" fandoms merch I could get my hands on. Take that! ~Putting girls in boxes of 'girls only should like girly things' that was still the norm culturally in the 80's.~)

2. Not sure what the OG poster was going for with the [TMNT iteration] so going with my first version of movie I saw. I was in Jr. High (can't tell you what grade because I don't remember) and the teacher had a free day, might have been the last day of a semester or something. She showed us TMNT 2:The Secret of the Ooze. (The second of the OG live action movies.) I remember enjoying it. God it was cheezy in some parts, but it's charming. Plus Vanilla Ice was still popular back then, even if his music career was on a downward spiral by then.

3. I'm going to with something that I imagine will not be a popular take on Tumblr. HMO. [Rise of the TMNT] Dude, I tried to get through the first episode of that. Mind you I was on and off again with this fandom, and was in an off time at that point. But, everything about that first episode was WRONG to an old fan. *shudder* (See answer to #4 to get where I was coming from.)

BUT the wealth of fandom content around has put it in my "go watch the damn thing, Crimson!" category, so I'm going to give it another chance.

(And I finally watched it. Hoo boy, Rise is the reason I haven't been able to shake this IP all summer. I still stand by my initial reaction to the series. Splinter's presentation was just so utterly wrong to me with no other context via the first episode, and I'm not alone here in this, but how wrong I was about this series. I have an IRL friend who has a mutual enjoyment for TMNT that I have probably driven nuts expounding on this series. I can't get him to watch it, even though I have basically retold the main story beats, which he says are interesting. So, I'm left to fester like a rabbid dog wanting someone I can go full psychological analysis nerd dump on about this series, but alas all I have is you folks on the internet to mutual geek out about it with. And as is, I'm late to the party. 😭 Yes I admit I was so wrong, and yearn for more of this, and the hope is so thin that we'd ever get more episodes now.

Also Tales of the TMNT was adorable.)

4. 2003 TV series. I honestly do not know why I was thumbing through Saturday morning cartoons that day. I had to have had the day off from work, which was not common for me, and stumbled upon that. I was like, "Really? They still are making that old Turtles series my brother used to watch? They look a hella lot better than what I remember. The humor was more my speed, and they were SERIOUS ™️ compared to what I remember of them. This would have been somewhere around season 2, I ran across this. I must have been 25 ish around then and had begun my renissance back into animation, but I had not yet found anime.

(One Peice was airing right after that, and the Opening song was horrendous, and I had not yet grown to appreciate what anime was at that point. To think I could have gotten in on the ground floor with One Peice, and might have had a more maniagble ammount if backlog to get through if I had pursued it further, unlike current day where if a series is more than 24-26 episodes or being currently released in smaller cours and I don't have to devote two weeks of my like to catch up, it's just not happening at this point. The first Bleach series was the last long property I got into, and I still didn't make it to the end of the anime or the manga.)

I got hooked on the 2003 series, like hard core. (This was one of my earlier fandom obsessions, if not the first one I actually got to spend money on. Gargoyles beat this to the punch on being the thing I went nuts over first, both in its first run and when I found it on the internet a few years later, through *coughmeanscough*.) I bought the DVDs as they came out. I own some rarities like Mikey's Christmas special and the Turtles Forever DVDs. I have the first two seasons DVDs where the spines of the boxes made a picture of all 4 Turtles, and the one where they messed up and repeated Raph's portion twice, thus messing up the overall spine pic. I'm not sure those DVDs haven't degraded by now since they are so old, but I have taken care of them. I bought the figures and my aunt even gave me some variants that my boy cousins had when they were kids. They were weird but cool that they had survived all those years.

I was soo into that show, that it started me on buying the OG comics. I paid way too much for some of those comics. I found first runs of most of Vol 1, except I had to settle for the softcover collected edition of the first 12-ish issues. That's a collector now. My biggest foray into physical comic books was due to them.

All was going swimmingly until the 2003 series aired the Fast Forward sub series. It was like a 100 car train derailment. I tried to watch it, but I didn't make it more than a few episodes, and just quit. I think that was my first sabbatical from TV though I think the comics were still being published, (Vol 4) so i was still reading them at least, though they were winding down too. I think I found anime by then and was starting to have my attention pulled in other directions by then. (Folks imagine a time where anime was still pretty underground if you can. I did not grow up on Pokémon or the like as that was past my time and had no idea Voltron as a kid that that was two anime's mushed together and redubbed the hell out. So I didnt have knowing access till i got cable and Adult Swim cane into my life.) Sadly, I did not know till years later they redeemed themselves and returned to a more serious tone in the last season. (Still haven't watched that, would need to revisit the whole series again...see prior question for why that feels like a daunting task, even though I'd find my love for it again eventually.)

5. I'm familiar with all iterations to some degree, but the ones I could spit out lore for are:

OG comics

2003 TV

2012 TV

OG live action movies (though it's been while, and I watched the 3rd movie 1 time, and that was enough for me.)

2007 TMNT

2014/16 Live Action (which is currently living rent free in my head right now. Though you cannot convince me they are actually teenagers, more like young ADULTS, what with thier fitness level (I see all y'all thirstys on here.🤣🫠💖) and the way they act, like they haven't been able to interact with the rest of society but not as awkward as a real 15 year old would be. ) (I'm gonna figure there was a longer time skip between the first and second movie than 2 years, because they really upped the confidence level on Leo for example, and toned down Mikey. Overall, it feels like everyone settled into themselves alot more. I liked to think I was all that and a bag of chips as a newly minted 18 yr old back then, but I still had plenty of growing up to do for several more years to become confident in who I am. It takes a long time to learn to not give 2 shits about what others think of you, and just live being yourself. That's why I see those Turtles as being more like 23-25 ish.)

Mutant Mahem (really fun, and a good representation of the fun aspects of the OG comics had. They skew a little young, but probably a better representation of actual TEENAGERS and not the way Hollywood likes to present most of the time.)

6. Beyond mentioned previously, I have a couple of video games (that I can't play for shit, because I'm a terrible gamer, though Steam has been happy to take my money every time I've found something I want to try.) Also I have this lovely history of the TMNT that was published right as Paramount was buying the IP from Peter Laird. A friend bought it for my birthday and it is really interesting what nuggets of information they crammed into it. I mean it's no TF Wiki, nothing rivals that. But it's pretty nice.

7. Hmm that's a hard one. I think my nostalgia goggles would say 2003 TV, but it's going to be hard to say no to 2012 TV as well. Though the Bayformers Turtles are hanging around there too right now. Ugh, I think the answer lies in what iteration I'm leaning towards any given day.

(Rise needs a test of time and distance for me to be a bit more objective here because it's chokehold on me right now. It is hard not to put it at the top. It's just so different from the others that it's hard to compare it.)

8. Back in the 2003 days, it was hands down Mikey. But as time has gone on, I've come to appreciate the other 3 more for various aspects and probably have the most core personality traits in common with Raph. I'm such a mamma bear, and I will defend to my last breath those that have my loyalty. I love making people comfortable and happy. I'm sometimes socially awkward, more because I feel like I have to fill up dead silence when a conversation fizzles if it's a person I don't know very well. So then I channel all my outgoing family members and talk too much. (Mind you that's exhausting, even if it's old hat now, and effortless to be suddenly, "On", as an introvert that's done nothing but customer service/financial services jobs her whole working life.) I feel for Raph, "honey it gets better but you have to work at it." I don't have the quick temper that he does, I've got Splinter's long fuse and eternal patience.

I do like Donnie's sass, no matter which version, it's always there. (That is up to a 12 in Rise)

And can we all appreciate the competency that is Leo. (This ancient has a competency kink, yes mam.) (Oh my boy in blue Rise! Leo, you have been the hardest to understand upon first watch, but upon more analysis, you became the stand-out turtle of them all. He's like Shinji Ikari in NGE, where you want to shake the sense in him and comfort him in the same breath. It doesn't help the Rise movie gives you a glimpse of what he can become in that intro sequence (and that deleted segment that was so lovinly annimated by the folks from the Rise Reannimated group. Why are you still reading this? Go check it out.)

9-17. I'll keep this quick.

Mikey: 2003 TV

(Gonna change this to Rise! Mikey because he has such empathy and stealthy emotional maturity here. He can hold his own, and for one TV, iteration doesn't get dunked on by his siblings like in other versions. Plus, Dr. Delicate Touch.)

(Also, Rise, I feel, influenced MM/and even more so Tales version of Mikey. He more closely resembles Rise! Mikey than previous iterations, well at least TV/movie versions. The comics are a whole different bag. Plus, the concept of The Last Ronin just depresses me, and I'm holding off reading that.)

Donnie: toss up between 2012 TV and the OG comics

(No, of course, it ends up being Bootyshaker9000.)

(Props to the animators for sneaking in that reference to my favorite Disney movie of all time; The Emporor's New Groove.)

(That boy is tied with his twin for the dissertation level, expounding. I could go on about him, but if ya know, ya know and leave it at that. I freakin bought a fan made scarf of him, -that's in the mail as I speak -

and I don't normally do that kind of stuff. Also, there is the Redbubble fiasco (trying to get a TF laptop skin to protect my new aluminum frame laptop, it never arrived, customer service ordered it again, never arrived, so they gave me store credit, I finally order different one of Rise TMNT two days ago, had more store credit than that new one was going for, so bought a couple of art prints, that has resulted in 2 Donnie art pieces to hopefully grace my walls soon.

Oh, and guess what arrived in the mail today... those TF original laptop skins I ordered...both of them. I now have 3 laptop skins, 2 of the sane design, and only 1 computer.

I give up...

Raph: 2003 TV and Bayformers

(though MM/Tales has a certain charm. I'm sure some of y'all are shocked, Rise!Raph isn't here. He is very great as a character, but isn't my favorite Raph.)

Leo: Bayformers hands down.

(Till this flamboyant asshole showed up.)

(You think I have a lot to say about Donnie, you'd be here for hours if I said all about this one. I could not understand this guy at first, and then the movie helped clarify some stuff. But ultimately, it's been through the lens of some lovely fanfic authors and great deep dive analysis on YT that I finally understood this character, like not only the Rise! version, but all versions. There's a core person that I never realized was in all iterations of him that doubts himself and internalizes so much. I never realized how much that is him no matter what iteration. He has always been up there with Donnie as the meh characters that while I liked well enough, but they weren't as interesting to watch as Raph or Mikey in past iterations. However, those two did the biggest switch for me with the Rise series.

It doesn't hurt that we get to see an older Leo in the movie that has that confidence and competency that I love, and that whole 4 min clip is the source for so much angsty fanfic. Plus, he's in my decade age bracket for once, and folks in their late 30s/40s don't get too much love in the fanfic community.

Though I do have a gripe for the fandom. 😡Seriously, the term peepaw is for people older than 40s, like someone in their 60s+. Peepaw is another term for grandfather. I don't know of too many 40 year old grandfathers out there in this day and age. Since I resemble that 40s age group, I am definitely too young to be a grandma bracket. I'm firmly in the sandwitch generation between your minor kids and your senior citizen parents. Leo isn't THAT old here. He and all his family bites it younger than me. I've still got things to do in life. I'm not ready for the grave this early. I appreciate all the fanfic authors who have tried to fill in the gap of those lost years in the Bad! Timeline though.)

Splinter: 2003 (the best dad ever)

(Though Rise! Splinter has a compelling backstory and character growth that is very interesting, though it doesn't excuse the emotional abandonment he left on the boys growing up and the ramifications it has on them all, shaping who they are.)

April: toss up between 2003 and 2012

(Rise!April kicked 2012 out of its spot, though I still have to give it to 2003.)

Casey: OG movie 1. Something charming in that doofus that just hits in that movie, especially his rapport with Raph.

( Rise doesn't change this. Cassandra, we don't get to see enough of her with the guys, and she's pretty darn interesting. As for CJJ, you just want to wrap him up in a blanket and smother him in a hug. Too many fics/ art just want to make me bawl for everything he's lost even though he made it through. C.A.S.S. I'm looking at you. @somerandomdudelmao )

Shredder: 2003 even though he was an Utrom and not a human, he was a legit threat, and pretty damn evil. 2012 was a pretty close second.

18. I don't really have one. I love complex villians like David Xanatos from Gargolyles or IDW 1's Megatron that have time exploring their motivations for why they choose the path of outside the bounds of order to get what they want, but then in those two's cases they have a redemption arc, when they realize there is something more important they should fight in the defense of, and come to face and find remorse for what they have done. Maybe it's just my religious beliefs, but even the worst person is not beyond redemption if they truly repent. I love villains that get a chance to change things. Though I understand a story needs conflict, so of course you don't see that very often in IPs.

As I don't recall any villains that do a turn around like that in this IP though there probably are, but I can't remember any. Feel free to jog my memory.

19. (Im not considering April or Casey here, as i consider them as part of the Hammato family.)

Dr. Honeycutt/The Fugutoid. He's just an all-around great guy and had a rough go, but he manages to come in in a pinch whenever you need him. Plus, he just exudes cuteness.

(I have to give props for the long suffering Senior Hueso for putting up with Leo.)

20. I'm not real jazzed about any of the theme songs. If you have to twist my arm, probably 2012. Sorry, anime has Opening animation sequences firmly in their court. (Please note I do not include early US acquisitions of anime where they didn't want to pay for the music rights, and they made their own instead...see referenced above One Peice...uuughh.😖)

21. The OG comic and 2003 TV "Return to New York" arc. To be honest, it's come up enough times in many iterations, but they flee to the farm to recover from the beat down that Shredder dished out, but they dish it back harder in this arc. It's a little bit of the innocence lost, and they all grow up and become focused more.

22. Deep Dish (not Chicago style but the one that has the thick crust with crunchy bottom) with all the meats and *gasp* pineapple and spinach on an alfredo sauce base, because I do not like tomato sauce, though I'll tolerate it on a "normal" pizza. Also who the hell puts anchovies on pizza. Granted I like mackerel which it's as close as I'm gonna get to an anchovy, but ewww. Fish on pizza.🤮

The Fandom section I'll answer what I can, as it's been a while since I hung out here, so this may not be completely accurate.

23. Ok, so this is like asking me to recall ANY fanfic. I recall being frankly awesome. Sadly, I checked both Ao3 and FF.nets bookmarks, and I don't have anybody for the TMNT category. To be frank, I bookmark authors more than I do specific stories. It sure makes my email notifications interesting when I get stories from folks that wrote in some fandom I have been into, and I'm getting stories from fandoms I've never been interested in ever. I'm gonna have to pass on this one.

(Upon actually reading stuff enough to have an opinion, I'd probably have to give it to two on my bookmarks list.

Like I told the author (this was coming right out of first watching the series), they helped me start to understand this version of Leo. The plot of the story is centered around the growing relationship between Leo and Cass, but half of every chapter is a setup for the plot relating it to some part of Leo's past. The entire story is through his view.

The other one I'd give it to is:

You might be catching a theme here. Crack ships have a higher bar to convince the audience, and some of the most heartfelt and compelling stories can come out of that added pressure.

I cried the first time I read this. In this case, it's Kendra's POV and how much she has to grow to accept her own worth and that she's changed for the better. You have my favorite thing, a redemption arc, but also a person struggling with self-worth. The story doesn't even need the E-rated stuff in it, though that's just the cherry on top of the sundae, and a vehicle to express where Donnie and Kendra end up at the end. The part that stuck with me was the journey that came before that.

Though an honorable mention in that same vein is :

Shipped with Mikey and Kendra this time (because it's so out of left field as crack ships go), but honestly, it's a great character study of both of them. A reformed but still spicy Kendra and a possible growth path to who Mikey becomes as a young adult, being competent and even more emotionally intelligent and mature than his cannon portrayal. They support each other's growth. Plus, they are just so darn stinkin' cute together.)

24-26. See above.

(24. Continuing my vein of crack ships, I ran across this the other day, and the art is so clean and so closely resembles the art from the show that I had to mention it here. Plus, these two are absolutely adorable. It's "Falling in Trust With You." That title means so much to the story rather than the expected Love vs. Trust word substitution. It's a softer. "What if?" Than the way the cannon story plays out for Leo and Cass.)

27. It drives me nuts when an author puts in angst where the leads could have cleared everything up with an actual conversation instead of assuming something that ends up being a downward spiral. I actually read fiction in this fandom the other day, where Leo basically says the same thing, and I was like, "Here here!" Leo. The Turtles have enough to get past with their own neurosis being assumedly/and somewhat legitimately ostracized by the general public. To have the love interest go off on an assumption bender, which doesn't help the poor Turtle's self-esteem when they are fighting an already uphill battle of acceptance. (Poor Raph is the most likely to go off the rails when any relationship goes south for him, and is probably the most sensitive to self flaggelation. It's pretty frustrating reading that as the go-to for his story conflict all the time.) So, I love to read where the story conflict is anything but that. Either the leads actually talk quickly, and things don't fester, or the conflict is plot driven. So, that gives a broad range of things I do enjoy.

28. Splinter. Anything from his backstory, to raising the young boys.

29. I don't really headcannon anybody. I take the characters as they are presented. It kind of throws me off when an author inserts something really off about a chatacter from the verse it's supposed to be set in.

30. I'm gonna sound like an old person here, but this newer trend of making any of the Turtles nerodivergent. The closest you might get to that is Donnie, but even that's a stretch. My two nephews have different issues, one slight on the spectrum Autism/ADHD and the other OCD. I've watched thier daily struggles, trying to cope with school, socialization in this very closed off to making new friends current society (nobody plays outside anymore, unlike when I was a kid, and so you don't get opportunities to make friends as much now.) trying to get their meds correct.(The second one is still not there yet, and he's been on his 7th med now, to watch him fall apart, and struggle with his frustration with his perception of the world, and it lash out in physical conflict...it breaks my heart, considering a few years ago he was the most sweet darling.) I'm a damn good aunt, not speaking from hubris, because I make a point to protect them and really listen to them, even if they are struggling. I spoil them any chance I can. They are not their disease, but young people, with full personalities and motivations. They just have a different starting point in life than others, no more or less, as everyone has stuff that makes life hard on any given day.

It really frustrates me to read fanfic that tries to fit fictional characters into this mold of what people think neurodivergences are, rather than what people that deal with that really are. It's almost like we went from advocacy to now rewarding people for having a chronic disease. (I've got several of my own, that daily impact it, but I'm not defined by them, they are just the shit sandwitch I have to eat all the time.) Life is not the oppression/ supression olympics.

I don't look at the Turtles and see the need to put them in that box. They have mental struggles, but that's more from outside forces than physical means. They are all peak physical health. They didn't get that way with also trying to deal with neurochemical imbalances in their bodies. I don't expect my nephews to beef up like that when they hit their prime. (They are both in elementary school, so I'm struggling to adapt that they aren't still adorable toddlers even though they've been past for years now😭. So, envisioning them as young adults is a stretch too far for me, right now.) I just would prefer to keep the Turtles as a realm of fandom, and not cross over into too much reality. They are ultimately supposed to be fun, whether that's cannon offerings or fandom for enjoyment.

(And this statement is why I'm revisting this post. After seeing Rise!Donnie and finding out it is cannon, he is Autistic, it puts it in perspective why I was seeing that bleed over into other iterations. While I will contend he us not on the spectrum in other iterations, in Rise, he has all the tells (though they are subtle) here, but is a good character first, who just happens to have this extra challenge in life.

Funnily enough, you can thank this dang show for a recent interaction I had with my on the spectrum oldest nephew. (Mind you, he's 9.). We were having a family get-together with some additional guests. The house was loud and chaotic. My nephew loves cooking and helping prepare food since he was really young. So, he wanted to help me in preparing hommade lemonade (his favorite that I was making special for him.) I know it was two-fold to do something he enjoys, and to get a break from the overstimulation of the living room. I, at one point, made a joke about his dad, my brother, to him, that he wasn't sure if I was being serious. It was pretty obvious I was joking to a non-divergent person, but he was struggling to understand my facial expression and tone, that I wasn't being serious. I stopped what I was doing and faced him straight on. I did my best to explain what facial expression and what my voice should sound like to help clear it up when a person is being humorous vs.not. I told him [paraphrasing],

"It's always OK to ask if you're not sure about what a person is saying, even if it's not a trusted family member. Don't be afraid to ask for clarification. It will make your life easier. Even adults have a hard time with that, too."

This dang show (and the analysis from some neurodivergent fans about Donnie) helped me to think harder about how can I on the fly try to make this easier for my beloved nephew. It was a small interaction, but I hope it pays off, even in a little way. I can honestly say I've never had a source of entertainment affect an actual serious aspect of my personal life before. So, thank you, creators of the show, for taking the care of doing things the way you did with all of the characters.)💜

31. See #29. I pretty much take any verse as it's presented. Doesn't mean I'll vibe with them all, but they all have some aspect I can find enjoyable.

Well this turned out waaay longer than planned. But this was a good exercise in giving thought to a fandom I took a chill on and just recently walked back into. (Thanks random author I'm subscribed to on Ao3 that posted a random TMNT fiction that I thought the blurb sounded interesting enough to click on and read when it showed up in my email notifications.) 😆