Someone

I mean he:

Gets his home invaded by the Kraang

Has to abandon his Master Splinter to lead his brothers away from danger

Gets separated from his brothers during an alien invasion

Gets jumped by the footbots, Shredder’s henchmen men, and the Shredder himself while separated from his brothers.

Fights tooth and nail to get away, ends up slipping and taking a plunge into cold water, and then gets shredded by the shredder

Is finally flung through the window and is knocked out cold

Is in a coma for THREE MONTHS because of this incident

Wakes up with NYC effectively taken over by aliens, Master Splinter is MIA (possibly dead in his mind), has an absolutely shattered knee (F- the ‘it’s all in my head’ crap), and he can’t even recognize his own voice.

AND on top of ALL THAT. He has to go through all the creepy/weird stuff (which was basically just horror movie plot after horror movie plot) that happened during the farm arc while recovering from his injuries.

Did we even watch the same show? He’s not a caring, big brother? He’s a stick in the mud?

The only thing I’ll give you is that he’s full of himself… because he’s an idiot teenager with badass fighting skills and weapons. Of course he’s gonna be a cocky little shit. Most people with Leo’s skill would be.

I’m going to assume that you mean part of the time he’s full of himself. But if you mean all the time, then I’ll correct you there. More often than not, he is actually very insecure— a very common trait among the Leonardo’s.

“Maybe I shouldn’t be leading the team?”

“It’s all my fault. I let the guys down!”

“I don’t think I’ll ever be the same again”

“I’d just hold you back. You guys train, I’ll watch. It’s all I’m good for anyway…”

“I’m a liability to the whole team”

“I won’t be much help out there anyway”

Leo is a perfectionist and this shows in the way he leads— coming across as bossy or arrogant— and how he treats himself. The guy just got out of a three-month coma after he had the shit kicked out of him and what does he say when he’s by himself after everyone else went to look for Raph in the woods?

He holds himself to impossibly high standards— both placed by himself and some of the misguided lessons he was taught.

Alright, now for the stick in the mud part. Leo is a fucking dork (I mean this in the most affectionate sense). He loves Space Heroes to the point where he quotes it during missions. He likes puns, is fascinated by Japan culture, martial arts, meditation, etc. He trains very hard to excel at ninjutsu/martial arts— both so he can help his brothers in combat and because it’s a passion of his. That doesn’t make him boring in the slightest. He has some of the most ridiculous dialogue throughout the series:

“Alright guys. Let’s put Old Mother Hubbard back in her cupboard!”

“Hello!? Space Heroes!? Captain Ryan! Didn’t you see the episode where they fought the Cortexecons?!”

“Awesome! Oh, this is so rad! I feel like Van Helsing, but way cooler than him, actually. Way more rad than Van Helsing”

“Alright guys, prepare to dish out the mighty wrath of justice!”

“We don’t know he’s gonna do anything bad. He could be on his way… to… church!”

“I… don’t really have a pinky?”

He can’t lie for shit which leads to him saying silly things:

“Be cool. Be cool.” *answers phone* “uh.. hey man! What’s… what’s going down? *Raph says the better have not watched the Crognard finale without him and Leo laughs nervously* W-who, us?! Of course not! But I bet if we did watch it, we would have found it anti-climate… climactic!”

*gets asked by Chloe if there’s other turtles like him* “Nope! Uh-uh! Just me! Mr. Imaginary Talking Turtle!”

“He’s just kidding, Mrs. O’Neil. Kirby’s…uh.. on a.. safari! In Puerto Rico! And he won’t be back for a while.”

And he’s not the goody-two shoes and suck up people think of him as. He has gone behind Splinter’s back on several occasions, snuck out both willingly and unwillingly. The guy dressed and black and caused petty crime with his sister and her girlfriend Shinigami because he was pissed off at Shredder.

As for not being a caring brother. You mean this guy?! This Leo?! ⬇️

Couldn’t be this Leo, right? There’s no way he’s a mother hen— being both doting and getting after his brothers.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full!”

“Mikey, you never cease to amaze me”

“Leo never left your side” — April when Raph was reduced to a mere plant by The Creep

“I’m sorry about Spike, Raphael.”

“Donnie, don’t lose sight of who you are!”

“Nice job, D”

“Donnie, the go karts worked great. Nice job!”

“Mikey, come on! It’s not that bad! And Raph promises not to make fun of you anymore.”

(Absolute Flash #9)

previous part

Okay hear me out on this one, because my natural inclination towards alternate timelines is running full speed with this one and I just needed to share it somewhere.

Ignoring all prospects of Frodo "being the only one to who could have beared the Ring"-- What if Pippin was the Ringbearer? (Hence where the AU gets it's name)

It's akin to a swap AU where instead of Frodo & Sam taking the Ring, it's Pippin, whom, not wanting to go alone, took Merry. Assuming that Sam & Frodo still came-- Frodo wanting adventure, and wanting to accommodate his cousins, and Sam tagging along if not to see the elves and out of the same sort of loyalty for Frodo.

How Pippin would actually receive the Ring is a bit of a work around-- as Bilbo still would have adopted Frodo. So either Bilbo was more generous and sociable in this AU, gifting a number of things to other relatives other than Frodo, OR more fittingly, if Bilbo had lost the Ring by some riverbank, unable to find it again, and long after Bilbo's retirement to Rivendell, Pippin unknowingly finds it, takes a liking to it, though with no strong desire to use it's power, but is only told later by Gandalf that it needs to be destroyed. And much to Gandalf's chagrin-- it has to be Pippin.

Anyway, there's so much narrative potential! Especially when you think about the parallels between this and Sméagol's timeline-- where Sméagol killed his cousin for the Ring at the riverbank, and now a similar duo is working to destroy it together.

It's also narratively relevant for a Took to go on a journey such as this, seeing as Bilbo was also half-Took! I originally debated the possibility of Merry as a Ringbearer, and while that is another interesting thing to think about, I grew attached to this version because of this reason. (That and I feel as if Merry would be a better bodyguard than Pippin would be tbh, he'd try to keep Pippin out of trouble)

It would be heartbreaking to see Pippin's spirit slowly crushed by the end of the story, but that's sort of the point. The Ring could break the spirits of even ones most spirited. I imagine there would be a small arch in the beginning (probably the time of the Fellowship) where Merry has to remind Pippin constantly of the seriousness of his own mission, and that this is no time to be reckless. Scolding him sometimes in an almost big brotherly way. But by the time they are at Mount Doom, Merry's heart breaks. As he would have done anything if not to see Pippin smile again.

Merry and Pippin going on the journey together is a different path, for sure, but is powerful in a different way, considering how close they've been since they were boys.

If you also wanted to go a little deeper into it and discuss the possibilities of Frodo and Sam being the ones to meet Treebeard, and become Knights of Gondor and Esquires of Rohan respectively, be my guest. I personally have the awesome image in my mind of Sam riding in with Eowyn to kill the Witch King to be honest!

When Barry died in the Silver Age, Nora was alive and well. When Barry was in the speed force, Eobard went back in time and altered everything about his life, including killing Nora, and then dragged Barry out of the speed force (against Barry's own will), and placed him in a timeline where he suddenly (amongst other things) had to grieve his mother's death. She was alive and well before, and suddenly Barry is back and so much about his old life got ripped away, his mother was murdered and his father died in prison because of this.

He's back from having been gone for over 20 years and the world is entirely different, the people he loves have grown and changed, but most importantly, the Reverse Flash has a personal vendetta against him so strong he destroyed his childhood, his adolescence, his confidence and ruined his whole life in every way he could, and to achieve this he killed his mother.

The reason why Barry can't cope with this and goes back in time isn't because Nora was more important than Iris or Wally or whoever else, it's because of the circumstances of how she was killed. Barry needs to go back in time and save her because he's trying to fix his own life, and undo what Eobard did to fuck it over. If Nora wasn't killed, Henry wouldn't have been arrested and ultimately died in prison. Barry wouldn't have been in foster care and then got adopted by Daryl. He wouldn't have had to grow up so isolated and lonely, and in Road To Flashpoint he's shown having a hard time coping with all of this because it's A LOT. He wants his old life back, the one he had when he died, not just his mother. He's not just grieving Nora, he's grieving what his life used to be before he died.

Also they couldn't do this with Iris because it had happened already. Iris dies in the Silver Age and was brought back by her parents from the future, and they couldn't do it with Wally either because Nora's death needs to be a fixed point in time, something unchangeable which if tampered with creates a Flashpoint, and they can't do that with a recurring hero such as Wally. Also it needed to have happened in Barry's childhood for Eobard's plan to make sense, so neither Iris or Wally would have worked.

And besides, there is no indication that Barry has any idea that going back in time to save Nora will cause a Flashpoint. Speedsters traveling through time is something that happens all the time, and if Reverse Flash did it without causing any particular issue, Barry assumes it's going to be the same for him.

the flash 1959

#120 - barry reveals himself as the flash to wally

“when i think that i am now the only person in the world who knows the flash’s real identity – but i must be worthy of the trust – it’s a great responsibility!”

#135 - barry remakes wally's costume for him

“and so, this morning, before coming here, i began mentally designing a new uniform for you and when the lightning blast poured out of me toward you – it materialized the exact uniform i pictured in my mind! in other words, somehow my inner will was carried out in that split second!”

#344 - wally is subpoened to testify against barry allen in his trial

“i still can’t believe it. i’m sitting here watching kid flash being sworn in as a witness for the prosecution. after all we’ve been through together over the years…how…how could wally testify against me–his uncle…his mentor…his most trusted confidant?”

#345 - follow-up to wally getting subpoened

“flash giving me the thumbs-up sing. that means he knows i didn’t want to come here…knows i was only testifying because of the subpoena. but none of that changes how rotten i feel about what i said here today. that i’ll have to live with for a long time to come.”

the flash 1987

#9 - wally goes to therapy

“i mean, i got two dads i have to feel bad about…barry and rudy.” “come off it, wally. you don’t have to feel bad about either one, do you?” “i don’t know, doc. the truth is, i feel a lot worse about barry than about rudy. rudy tried to be a good dad—he really did. he really did. we had fun.”

#34 - wally hallucinates barry insulting him

“barry…why are…you doing this…to me? i respected you…i tried to be like you…i…really…tried…i did everything you said…” “you did nothing! you compromised with evil! you made friends with criminal scum…with my sworn enemies! defeat them if you want my love!”

#35 - contiunation of prev issues' hallucinations

“if i can’t live like barry, at least i can die like him…”

#62-65 - born to run arc; revamped origin for wally

"together, we were flash and kid flash—the fastest team alive. and to this day, i think of that summer—that partnership—as the happiest time of my life."

#74-79 - return of barry allen arc; "barry" comes back from the dead

“jealous? no! are you kidding? i owe everything to uncle barry! my powers…my identity…everything! the man is like a god to me, trust me—no one is happier to see him back!”

#215 - identity crisis tie-in where barry wrote a letter to wally

“you’re my nephew, wally, but i loved you like a son.”

annual #3 - discussion about barry 'making' wally + more of wally hallucinating barry insulting him

“what? that was an accident!” “an ‘accident’ exactly like his. which he created subconsciously to grant the wish of a lonely little boy who wanted to be just like him. and he continued to subconsciously transfer energy to you. he was the power source that enabled you to…” “stop it! i hate this! you’re saying he was a monster!”

annual #8 - kid flash!wally and barry have one of their adventures together

'he looks so angry…does he know i chickened out?' “that was very brave of you, kid flash! i’ll handle it from here.” 'right. brave.'

the flash: rebirth

#3 - barry goes into the speedforce and wally runs after him

“it’s still hard to look wally in the eyes. the last time i really spent time with him, he was a good four inches shorter. his shoulders weren’t as broad. and he wasn’t wearing the uniform. it fits him though. i knew it would.”

dc universe: rebirth / flash: rebirth

#1 - barry remembering wally brings him back into the continuity; these are essentially the same comic but flash: rebirth is obv more focused on the flashes.

“…i’m so sorry, wally. my god…how could i ever forget you?”

titans 2016

annual #1 - mentor team-up with the titans

“stop a second. so far today you’ve been called my protege and my boy. i’m sorry. the justice league aren’t really used to you titans being grown-up.” “nah, forget it.” “no, it’s important. i don’t see it that way. i’m a flash. you’re a flash. you’ve got nothing to prove in my eyes. you’re not my protege.” “but i am your legacy.”

the flash 2016

#9 - barry gets possessed and starts insulting wally

“and you…you think you have what it takes to fill my boots? i have no legacy! i’m the flash! do you understand me, punk?! i’m the flash!” “the flash i know would never talk to anyone this way…unless something was wrong with him.”

#46 - prelude to flash war

“so you tell me…what do you want to do?” “…i just want to run.” “that i can help with.”

#48-51 - flash war arc; wally attempts to bring his kids back into existence via another flashpoint

“barry…i’ve been angry with you for so long. i know i said it wasn’t your fault, but…i did blame you. the reason i was so mad is that you mean everything to me.”

#64-65 - heroes in crisis aftermath

“what happened to the barry allen who was always hopeful and optimistic?” “he did along with wally west. you act like you have all the answers, but you’re just as clueless and playing it by ear as the rest of us. the greatest trick the batman ever pulled was making people think he always has a plan.”

#768 - wally tries to retire, gets thrown across time instead

“this shouldn’t have happened. none of it. he would be here…if we just forgave him. after what happened with—it didn’t seem to matter that he saved the universe. everyone looked at him like some sort of pariah. of course he wanted to stop being a hero. in your eyes he stopped being one the minute roy died. and now…he’s gone…tell me you wouldn’t do anything to get roy back, ollie? even if it meant putting your life on the line.”

#793 - one minute war arc; wally talks barry out of his grief

“you don’t know! you have your family. you have your kids. what do i have?” “me! us…in case you have forgotten, iris was my family, too. and believe it or not, i’ve been where you are right now. so low you can’t even lift your head. but, barry…look at me…it’s not over until it’s over. it never is.”

the flash secret files:

a run of luck - origin recap.

"wally west wanted to die. he was the fastest boy alive. and he couldn’t even put one foot in front of the other. he’d lost all direction."

speed force 1997:

burning secrets - barry asks wally if he (barry) is human.

“wally? are you…laughing at me…?” “oh no! no, sir! not at you! it’s just…your question…it’s funny! c’mon! look…i don’t know why we can run so fast! i’m not that smart! i’ll believe whatever you tell me! but i know you, uncle barry. you eat hot dogs. you like jazz. you have a crew cut. you put yourself at risk to save a busload of kids. no matter where your speed comes from, barry…you’re the most human guy i know.”

knight terrors: the flash

#1 + 2 - barry's fearscape involves wally dying and him being unable to rescue him despite multiple attempted flashpoints.