Something I've been on and off thinking about for a few days is how similarly 2012 Raph and April are handled as characters within the show (At least, in the context of Donnie and Casey respectively-)?

I'm sure there are some people who might disagree with this take, since I definitely used to see people saying they, "Didn't understand why people were always comparing Raph and April as characters in 2012 when they're nothing alike-" (Something that, to this day, I disagree with personally-). But I can't help but feel like, the more you focus on it, the harder it is to unsee it??

Not that this is necessarily a 2012 Raphril post, but coming up with new ideas for potential Raphril art had me thinking about the two and how that act / react to romantic situations (Because you all know I love making my content around these characters as authentic as possible-), and I started to wonder how Raph might've reacted or behaved had he been in a similar predicament as April in the show- Like, If he had two people constantly trying to get his attention (Platonic or romantic-), what would that have looked like? And my honest response to that hypothetical question was, "Wouldn't he have just done the same things April did?"- Something that was really interesting to me because obviously you have to ask why you would think that, you know? But wouldn't Raph be completely dismissive-?? Wouldn't he side-eye any romantic insinuations or unfiltered expressions of possession / affection? Wouldn't he too be very hot and cold, communicating with them when he felt like it and ignore them when he didn't?

Which not only presents this sort of double standard when April does it, because I'm sure a lot of people would be like, "Oh, that's just Raph's personality-" (Which puts a glaring spotlight on the inherent sexism in the show's writing and "character development". It also doesn't help that the creators never settled on a definitive personality for 2012 April either, which makes the "personality" argument a lot tougher to use for her in my opinion-), but it also brings up one of my favorite things to talk about with April- Their shared emotional turbulence. I think both of these two as characters had a really difficult time actually processing their emotions in healthy (Or rather healthier-) ways, and how they interact with others is a huge part of that-

But to not get too distracted from what this post was actually supposed to be about, I got a few examples from the show that I feel really reinforced this idea that Raph and April are handled in sort of eerily similar ways with the people that they were meant to be the closest with during 2012 !

That being Raph with his friendship with Casey, and April with her friendship / future potential relationship with Donnie.

When both respective pairings (So to speak-) meet and to some extent interact with one another for the first time, it's incredibly negative. April is undeniably afraid of Donnie when she meets him for the very first time and is noticeably surprised when he comes back to save her later in Part 2 of the same episode. On the other side of things, Casey is not very receptive to Raph and his attempts to deescalate the situation with the Purple Dragons, thus a fight ensues between them. I feel like you could also argue that Casey was afraid of Raph to some degree also.

Despite these rocky introductions between them though, both of their respective episodes end with the show implying that these two characters have formed a meaningful connection- April giving Donnie that wide-eyed smile of appreciation for his support, implying a new sense of trust in him at the end of S1 EP 2, "Rise of the Turtles (Part 2) + Raph and Casey sharing a mutual goal of stopping crime while mutually head-butting, symbolizing their newly established friendship at the end of S2 EP 8, "The Good, the Bad, and Casey Jones". It's incredibly interesting to me, because you would think after this episode their relationships would be better established and reaffirmed throughout the rest of the show- LMAO

I think these two particular episodes (S2 EP 1, "The Mutation Situation", S2 EP 13, "The Manhattan Project (Part 1)") set a weird precedent for the rest of the show in regards to these two pairings-?? I'm sure you could argue that S2 EP 10, "Fungus Humongous" technically started the weird relationship with Raph and Casey via the writers, but I can't help but feel like, "The Manhattan Project" specifically started this "trend" of Raph getting in Casey's face and expressing his concern through yelling at him- Something I want to put in air quotes, but it's not that I entirely hate that take? Like most things in the show, I just wish the writers would actually commit to that approach instead of that having to be put on these types of interactions by the fans. If we got more contextual evidence to show that this was what Raph's thought process was towards Casey in these particular kinds of moments, I would've been like, "Yeah- He just cares about him and struggles expressing that properly. Cool writing. 👍✨". But from where it stands in the show, I don't get that impression. Casey already doesn't get a lot of screen time in the show, and it feels like a majority of his more focused moments with Raph from this point forward are just an amalgamation of him either yelling at Casey, being aggravated by him, or being very dismissive of his presence entirely.(i.e. "Newtralized!", "Plan 10" / That was a provoked slap, he still slapped Casey in this episode so-, "Buried Secrets", "Race with the Demon", "Eyes of the Chimera", "Return to New York", "Casey Jones vs. The Underworld", "Attack of the Mega Shredder", "The Evil of Dregg", and "Tale of Tigerclaw"- Additional Note: There's a lack of episode examples for me to give here because even when they're in the same episode, the writers will just refuse to have them interact. Not in any way that's meaningful enough for me to bring it up, you know? Additionally, while I acknowledge that there are moments of Casey returning this sort of "cruel teasing" towards Raph like in, "The Moons of Thalos 3" when he teases him about having feelings for Y'gthba, these don't feel comparable- To me, using that specific example, that reads is Casey just being very immature and not that same cutthroat unprovoked criticism that Raph is used to sending his way.)

And while April doesn't have a lot of moments that I find her yelling at Donnie (Specifically in the same way that Raph does-), there are numerous occasions of April being very snippy or short with Donnie (i.e. "Target: April O'Neil" / Which for the record, I'm only including this because it technically is- I do feel like April's shortness with Donnie in this particular episode made sense considering the situation for the most part-, "The Kraang Conspiracy", "Mazes & Mutants", "The Lonely Mutation of Baxter Stockman", "Plan 10" / Also for a pretty valid reason in regards to her and Casey getting mind swapped specifically-, "A China Town Ghost Story", "Bat in the Belfry", and "The Power Inside Her"- || Additional Note: A majority of Seasons 3-4 lack these moments because Donnie and April interacted way less, so there weren't many instances to bring up. I'm also including her Aeon Crystal Arc moments because regardless of whether she was being controlled by Za-Naron / Something that I personally disagree with to the extent that a lot of people describe- /, it says a lot that her behavior towards Donnie during this situation raised no red flags to anyone. Almost like this type of behavior from her, especially towards Donnie, isn't uncommon for her-), and she too can have an incredibly noticeable dismissive attitude towards Donnie's presence in general.

Another thing that feels extremely comparable between these two pairings within the show is the way that Donnie and Casey appear to do more of the leg work in those relationships-?? (Canonically speaking- 🖐️) Using the examples of S2 examples of, "Newtralized!" and, "Target: April O'Neil", both of Casey and Donnie's persistence led to the rekindling of their friendships by the end of these episodes. Casey clearly was trying his best throughout his episode despite being a little clumsy here and there (Something we all know April was guilty of when she was starting joining them on missions, but I guess Casey doesn't get that same sort of pass- 💀 Lmao), resulting in Raph having to save him and of course he gets very upset about that. My stance on Raph in this moment is very 50/50, because while I can understand that that was probably terrifying for him since Casey could have died (I 100% get that-), for his thought process to be pushing Casey away and insulting him? Don't really get that part. But regardless, Casey had every right to walk away and feel upset about their argument. Does Raph apologize to Casey at the end? Admit he could've kept a few of those thoughts to himself? No. Casey comes back, despite being viscerally disrespected by somebody that he hopes is his new best friend, and makes up with Raph for the both of them. Donnie's a little more complicated for this specific example, because he was crossing boundaries that April had clearly placed, but if it had not been for his unshaken persistence in trying to maintain any type of connection with April she might not have made it through her dilemma with Karai. Which is extremely literal, considering that Donnie was the first person April called when things were getting really bad. Something that is honestly a little crazy in hindsight-? Like, establishing this boundary with Donnie and wanting him to leave her be for good, but then April expecting him to be there in 10 seconds flat if she needs his help / is in danger? (Okay. Lmao) Point being, in the end, it was Donnie's actions specifically that caused April to come back and apologize for what had happened in the first episode of this Season.

It feels like whenever things are tumultuous between April & Donnie or Raph & Casey, the obligation to mend the relationship falls on Casey and Donnie's shoulders rather than April and Raph's-? It's extremely difficult to find examples for Raph & Casey given their lack of content overall and Casey's absence for a majority of the series, but a straw I feel like I can grasp potentially is the Wyrm situation. Casey putting the guys through hell (Justified imo. I said what I said- 🖐️) and genuinely "taking Wyrm's side" would have definitely had Raph feeling betrayed by his best friend, something I'm sure Casey knows considering Raph's previous closest friendship (Spike / Slash). Obviously this was all part of his plan, but had Raph (Along with everyone else-) not forgotten about the events that just transpired, I'm sure Casey would've constantly had to reassure Raph that that was his plan the entire time- Raph constantly questioning "if he can trust him after that". With Donnie, as much as loathe this episode, "A Foot Too Big" is a good example of this. Despite April sending mixed signals and having small moments of encouraging Donnie's affection, a lot of the problems of Donnie and April's romantic ambiguity falls on Donnie and he ends up apologizing for it by the end of the episode. Simply because he experienced something that might've been akin to his affections for April (Which, again, was not the same thing. Donnie being romantically harassed by an adult woman is not the same thing as April being harassed by someone a year younger than her that has an intense infatuation with her- 💀). Does April mutually apologize for being a bit confusing? No. Does April ever apologize for her outburst in his lab over the Aeon crystal in, "Bat in the Belfry"? No. Donnie just has to take it on the chin like he does with everything else with her. I think one of the biggest instances of Donnie doing the legwork in this friendship / relationship (Which is simultaneously egregious writing-) is the way he so wholeheartedly forgives her in, "The Power Inside Her". He had every right to go through the emotions that he needed to after being molecularly scattered (Not entirely saying that needs to be anger- But like- LMAO), but he doesn't. Their relationship is still intact after the situation because of him. You see what I mean? I am so serious, if Casey and Raph had a similarly intense scenario, I'm 1000% sure Casey would be the reason why they still had a relationship after that.

This also isn't to say that these two pairings cannot have good moments with each other, but that also ties into one of my biggest gripes with both of these two pairings and their relationships. Everything that felt the most authentic happened at the end. It's difficult to know why outside of the writing being, you know, bad. Which I'm considering Season 4-5 being, "the end". Yes, there are moments where Raph and April do stick up for Donnie and Casey / support them in some way, but it does feel few and in between leading up to more ideal examples like in Seasons 4-5. If these relationships were meant to be gradual progressions, then that should have been the impression we got from the beginning. Not, "Oh shit. It's the last Season. Let's fix all the relationships we had 4 Seasons worth of content and opportunity to fix and cram it into this significantly shorter Season ! 👍". If Donnie & April and Raph & Casey were meant to be the sort of staple (Or "iconic"-) relationships of the 2012 series, why not dedicate more time to them? Give Raph and Casey more centered episodes or more meaningful connections within episodes that they're in together? Same with April and Donnie?

Okay friends. Rubs my hands together evilly. I love 2012 Splinter and Shredder. Like, they are by FAR the most fascinating iteration of both characters—raised as brothers, both completely unaware that Saki is a member of an enemy clan, a clan that the Hamato categorically DESTROYED. It leaves Shredder with a very sympathetic story, and portrays the Hamato as, at BEST, incredibly morally grey. And I think that is so fun! It makes the Foot/Hamato conflict in the main story much richer to me, as it’s a very PERSONAL story. The Hamato and Foot have been in conflict for centuries, but it rarely feels like that is the catalyst for their interactions in present, y’know?

a rant / analysis

1.4k words; unedited

under cut

So as you can already tell, this is going to be a long ass novel from me talking about Casey within the context of 2012's poor excuse for a "love triangle" between himself, April, and Donnie- ✌️ Lmao

Maybe I'm just biased because I enjoy 2012 Casey a lot, I won't deny that possibility, but personally? When I truly dissect the, "love triangle" and who had the most problematic behavior within it (canonically speaking-), I get something like this:

Let me elaborate on why I view Casey's portion the way I do-

Part A: Walking through Casey's Perspective

So imagine you're Casey Jones at the start of Season 2, right. LMAO || You meet this girl (April) in the hallway, who you practically beg to tutor you because you don't want to get kicked off the hockey team. She's pretty average all around (Meaning Casey wouldn't have suspected her involvement in anything fantastical-). You guys maybe have some romantic chemistry together that she's not entertaining (At the moment-), suddenly get startled by a mutant "creature" (Who was just poor Timothy,, 😔), find out she knows a thing or two about fighting. Pretty cool so far- You start hanging out with her more after that (Since we can assume they were spending time together during school hours / during the in-between episode of, "Mikey Gets Shell-acne" before Casey makes his second appearance-). It gets to the point where you're the person she turns to when she's lonely, which transitions into a heartfelt conversation about things "being out of your control". A second bizarre event happens (The Foot Soldiers ambushing them at the ice rink-), she leaves for an undetermined amount of time, but comes back for you and practically runs / falls into your arms out of relief of knowing you're alright. It feels pretty apparent that something's going on between you guys at this point-

You confide in her when you have your second run in with a mutant (Raphael-), she vouches for you when you discover her friends / allies for the first time (The Turtles and Splinter). You hang out alone together pretty frequently (i.e. Casey and April at the beginning of, "Fungus Humongous", Casey and April during, "Of Rats and Men" & "Wrath of Tigerclaw" despite Irma technically third wheeling, etc.). She's very openly flirtatious with you. You offer to teach her how to ice skate (As someone who plays Hockey-) and have spoken about your Dad to her multiple times (Since Irma makes a comment about it in, "A Chinatown Ghost Story"-). So clearly you're opening up to this girl.

This is purely speculative on my part, but it doesn't seem like a wild take that April and Casey could've been dating on the low or testing out a relationship without making it official during this time in S2- It would explain Casey's concern about whether or not April talks about him during the Season 2 finale and why April reacted to strongly to Casey specifically showing up safe at her apartment in that same finale. My personal theory is that April called things off either after, "A Chinatown Ghost Story" or during "Into Dimension X!", as she felt things were too complicated (Most likely because of Donnie-). Maybe she thought it would help their bickering? I don't know-

Back to Casey's perspective: Things go really really south in NYC and you end up fleeing to her family's Farmhouse in upstate New York for refuge. She's been acting super distant lately, so you ask her about it, which causes her to blow up at you a bit, so you decide to back off. The next time you two truly talk is when her Mother comes back unexpectedly and she's venting to you like she used to. Because she trusts you to receive her feelings as her friend (And potentially ex boyfriend??). After that Mother disaster, you sit beside her and ask her how she's doing right now, which of course she's not doing great. You guys spend more quality time together while the Turtles go into the woods for training purposes. She's clearly a lot livelier and easygoing around you then she is around Donnie (Not trying to shit on Donnie, but canonically speaking this feels very true- 💀).

During an Invasion of new aliens (The Triceratons-), you end up getting captured. She tells you she'll come back for you, and she does just that. You flee to Outer Space and get into shenanigans during your space travels (Mainly referring to, "Beyond the Known Universe"-). She wants to save an entire race of aliens, you support her in that effort. After Space, she gets her official kunoichi title from Master Splinter, you're proud of her for that and show your support by attending the ceremony. When she starts behaving strangely due to her Aeon Crystal and molecularly scatters your mutual friend / teammate (Donnie), you show her empathy and try to reach her as best as you can. You take on Super Shredder together, twice ! Sure, you weren't perfect and had your moments of annoying her, but for the most part, the two of you felt pretty close.

I say all of this to say, if I were Casey, I would be beyond confused at her ending up with Donnie somehow (Which feels confirmed basically, considering Donnie and April's interactions in Season 5 + The Ice Cream Kitty Music Video. 💀 Lmao)- Because from his perspective, things were really cool between them (With them even potentially dating or attempting a relationship during Season 2 if my theory holds up, which I feel it does-), you know what I mean? Not saying any of that has to mean April "should've" chosen him or ended up with him instead, but you can kind of understand why it's confusing-? || Which directly leads me into my next talking point !

Part B: Casey in relation to April (As well as his problematic interactions with / towards her-)

I know there are a lot of people who feel Casey has been just as egregious as Donnie when it came to April and how he behaved around her, but I sort of agree sort of disagree-??

I promise I'm not saying this to be biased or to give Casey a pass where I wouldn't give Donnie one for similar reasons, but I find it hard to take Casey's problematic instances with April "as seriously" given how the writers handled his character. A lot of Casey's poorer moments with April feel like acts of sabotage on his character rather than them being more organic flaws of his character as a whole-

For example, the episode, "Plan 10" when April and Casey switched minds and Casey was being incredibly creepy about being in April's body. Was that disgusting and weird? Absolutely. But I would've accepted it more as a genuine character flaw of his if we had seen him be weird towards or around other girls outside of April prior to this scene. If that makes sense?? Instead of the writers simply having him behave this way as "a joke" or because he's a teenage boy and "of course he would do that". It also doesn't sit right with me because we've seen Casey be relatively normal with and around April prior to this scene, not to mention the fact that Casey has a younger sister (Though obviously we don't know how much younger she is-). Things like this make it difficult for me to view these moments between Casey and April as completely problematic, since it feels pretty clear that writers wanted to paint Casey as the lesser romance option compared to "poor innocent Donnie". It constantly felt as though they were wanting to play into that trope of, "Donnie being the one to 'save' the girl he's super into (April) from her loser 'boyfriend' who's terrible / talks to much / is loud / is stupid / etc. (Casey) because she deserves a 'nice guy' like Donnie"- 💀

So for these reasons, I approach Casey's problematic instances with April a bit differently. Was he being authentically problematic, or were the show writers wanting us as the audience to think lesser of him for their own agendas (Because we can't forget that Casey's character feels sabotaged outside of the love triangle sub plot too-)? Time to bring up some of these moments though ! I'm mainly going to bring up ones I've seen people talk about the most and give my personal take on them-

• Moment #1: The hallway scene from Season 2 Episode 4, "Mutagen Man Unleashed"

I've seen people bring up this moment a few times, and I gotta be real, I don't get it. In a very literal sense, I understand that April's a girl and Casey's a boy and boys / men need to be more mindful of how the interact with girls / women. I understand that. But to me, this felt like something Casey would do regardless of the person?? I honestly felt like this was just his pushy / direct / in your face personally shining through here rather than him intentionally trying to be creepy or "tower over April", etc. At this point, he'd just met her, and while he does flirt with her a bit later in the episode, I didn't get the impression that he was behaving that way because he was attracted to her. Again, if we had seen him act this way outside of April, I would lean more towards this being a problematic instance with April due to her being a group and the being how Casey interacts with most girls he meets. But because that hasn't / doesn't happen (Until I guess later on with Karai in Season 3, but I don't really know how much that one counts as far as one to one comparison-), this doesn't come off that bad to me-

I find him guilty of just having an eccentric personality here (As well as April being uncomfortable mainly because she just met him. Like yeah, that's a weird first impression all around-). Lmao

• Moment #2: The Kraathatrogon scene from Season 2 Episode 13-14, "The Manhattan Project (Parts 1 & 2) / Wormquake!"

This scene is not only disgusting, but one of those instances where I would've found it more believable if we had seen this kind of behavior from Casey prior. I can't help but feel like the constant scapegoat here is "Casey's a teenage boy, so obviously he's gonna do shit like this". 💀 || It shouldn't be expected or "the norm" for boy / girl dynamics to be like this. It's harmful on both sides (Though, I would argue more harmful for girls personally-). But that rant aside, this doesn't feel like an organic flaw from Casey as a person / character, this just feels like something the writers chose to do because they're weird and creepy towards April 90% of the time. It also doesn't help that if this scene was set up different and April was in the middle with Casey and Donnie on both sides of her, Casey would still get accused rather than Donnie. I assure you he would have. Which is also upsetting because I genuinely believe canon 2012 Donnie is WAY creepier than canon 2012 Casey- I'm not saying Donnie would do that April, but I'm not saying I have evidence that he wouldn't either (That also reminds me of how uncomfortable I am with Donnie's Robo design / Which is technically Metalhead 2.0- / in the Mutant Apocalypse Arc has April's ass sticker out where his "heart" is. That gives me the biggest ick, I'm sorry-). 💀

So my verdict for this scene is that Casey was not guilty (Especially since he literally didn't do it- LMAO), him and April were just victims of a really creepy and unnecessary scene- 😔👍

• Moment #3: The mind swap scene from Season 2 Episode 21, "Plan 10"

Again, another instance that (to me) reeks of "he's a teenage boy" scapegoating as a way to "push this potential pairing" or some shit (Because why else would that have April mind swap with Casey specifically- 🙄). Again, I would've found this flaw more believable / authentic if Casey had exhibited these kinds of behaviors in the past. But another thing that kind of sticks out to me here as well is putting this under the context of them potentially dating by this point-?? This obviously wouldn't justify anything Casey did here, but it's sort of interesting to look at some of these moments between them under that lens. Not to give the writers any "benefit of the doubt" whatsoever, but imagine Casey behaving in these ways because he "thought it would be okay" since they were basically dating at this point (Again, hypothetically / theoretically-)? Not that it would be any less problematic under that context, but at least to me it would come off less predatory and something Casey did to purposefully make her uncomfortable-? Possibly? With April reacting so strongly because A. That was genuinely a weird and inappropriate thing to do of course and B. She was super embarrassed that her (hypothetical / theoretical) boyfriend was being so immature about this right now- It gives me the vibes of teenage couples in shows where the girlfriend is constantly getting upset with the boyfriend, etc. etc. You could kind of see it right? Lmao

My verdict is that Casey was incredibly creepy here but it's hard for me to see it as just "Casey being Casey" because I'm positive the creepy ass writers were projecting here. 💀👍

• Moment #4: The "peace hug" from Season 2 Episode 23, "A Chinatown Ghost Story"

Continuing my theory with this moment here, but also using some canonical evidence like April being flirtatious with Casey in episodes like, "The Manhattan Project" were she does allow him to get physically close with her and how in, "Target: April O'Neil" April practically runs into his arms and doesn't seem that bothered by it, I don't necessarily think Casey meant any harm here-?? I wouldn't be surprised if Casey was under the impression that April was okay with physical contact on occasion (Especially with him-), so it would make sense for him to unknowingly / unintentionally overstep this boundary to me. It also doesn't help that April's incredibly hard to read most of the time due to her acting one way in one instance and a completely different way in another for no explained reason (Aside from bad writing-). If Casey was theoretically / hypothetically her somewhat boyfriend at this time, it would kind of make sense her him to hug her unprompted-?? Again, April's allowed to have boundaries and I'm not denying that, but it really doesn't help that she's a poor communicator when it comes to those boundaries. :/

I also want to point out that Casey mainly hugged her here to get under Donnie's skin in that moment, which isn't cool to do either since he's not taking April into consideration by doing that, but it also communicates (to me anyway) that he wasn't trying to be malicious with April specifically. You know what I mean?

My verdict is that, at worst, Casey mistakenly overstepped a boundary here.

• Moment #5: The ninja retreat discussion scene from Season 3 Episode 8, "Vision Quest"

I don't know if this is super talked about? But I don't find this moment to be all that weird personally.

If anything, I think he's just being a little extra or "funny" in his own way with April. But I admit, I'm probably being biased once again- Since in the context of my theory that they were a romantic item behind the scenes in Season 2, I would imagine that their relationship was either put on hiatus or completely called off at this point in the narrative, and Casey's comment here could be read as him making an inside joke between them. He knows nothing's going to happen between them, but he can't help but push those buttons anyway (Which would be a call back to Season 2, where April acknowledges this about him-). The face she makes also kind of reinforces this take for me too a little bit. But again, that could be my biases talking here. I also find the comments harmless as well considering Casey respects her boundaries / listens to her more than he doesn't (Compared to Donnie- 🙄) and April is capable of kicking his ass by this point if she needed to-

There are other smaller moments from this Arc that also influence the harmlessness I feel about this particular moment, like them having a heart to heart about her mother in Season 3 Episode 3, "Buried Secrets, with April choosing to talk to Casey over Leo / Raph / and potentially Donnie (Since it's unclear when her and Casey started talking before Raph came out get house-) at that time.

So verdict is that this is kind of nothing burger moment to me. Lmao

• Moment #6 & 7: The astro suits scene as well as the group hug scene from Season 4 Episode 1, "Beyond the Known Universe"

The first moment is one of worst scenes to me, I hate this scene with a passion. I don't have any kind of explanation for Casey's behavior here outside of the writers wanting this to happen, just like most of his uncomfortable / sexualizing esque (??) moments with April.

So my verdict with this scene is that this is 100% problematic from Casey's end, especially given April voicing her discomfort shortly afterwards.

As for the group hug at the end of the same episode, I'll say it's 50/50 for me. Again, I don't think Casey means any harm by his physical affection (Especially since he's very physical with the others as well-), but I do acknowledge that April mentioned she spoke to both of them before about group hugs. So I can understand why that's him once again crossing a boundary she placed, one that she has actually vocalized before-

//

So all in all, I don't think Casey was that bad with April at all. I do think a lot of that can be contributed to the fact that he doesn't get much screentime in general, because I feel like if he did, we possibly could've had more to talk about if that were the case- But as far as canonical moments, 2012 Casey wasn't very problematic towards April in my eyes. We can see those two having a really good relationship outside of these specific instances, and that one of the biggest reasons why I'm a 2012 platonic Capril enthusiast ! If you'd like to hear more from me about these two specifically, I have a post about it under the hashtag #platonic 2012 capril ! ✨

So that's one part of the triangle-

Now for the other part !

Part C: Casey in relation to Donnie (As well as his "problematic interactions" with / towards him-)

I'm gonna say it right now, 9 times out of 10 Donnie deserved it. Hear me out- LMAO

With how obsessed Donnie is towards April, you're really gonna sit here and tell me who would be just as obsessed with Casey but in a completely negative way? Like, bro. Donnie witnessed Casey being close with April in 3 separate times before actually meeting him in Season 2 Episode 8, "The Good, the Bad, and Casey Jones". He saw Casey twice with April in, "Mutagen Man Unleashed", and again at the end of, "Target: April O'Neil".

So he knows who he is for sure. I wouldn't be surprised if Donnie knew his full legal name, his SSN, his home address, his medical history, all kinds of shit. You cannot convince me otherwise- And what an Oscar performance these writers had him put on when April introduced Casey to them, because there's no way Donnie didn't know him already. Someone that close to April?? Please.

But because of how indifferent he came across during their initial meeting, it would make sense for Casey to be blindsided by Donnie switching up "out of nowhere" (Because to Casey, it would be-) and suddenly hating his guts. Casey had no idea Donnie even existed before, "The Good, the Bad, and Casey Jones", so of course he's not going to understand why Donnie feels as though he's "infringing on him and April''. A girl who doesn't "belong to him" and is allowed to have friends. 💀

So to me, a lot of Casey's arguing with Donnie stems from him returning the kind of behavior Donnie's been giving him since they met. Because real talk, I'd be like, "Okay, screw you too-" as well. LMAO || But the biggest reason why I claim that this is more Donnie's provocation than Casey's is because we've seen Casey be genuine with Casey or put their "rivalry" aside more than Donnie has. When Donnie says Casey's name in a very bothered way despite him simply standing there in, "Of Rats and Men". When Casey genuinely reaches out to the guys for help when April's in danger in episodes like, "Fungus Humongous" / "A Chinatown Ghost Story" and Donnie's got to response is the yell at him + Casey's entire disposition while researching Ho Chan was very neutral / wasn't exuding any malice towards Donnie whatsoever. Casey never blaming Donnie when something happens to April the same way Donnie blames Casey (i.e. When April got taken by Baxter Stockman + when Donnie failed to catch April before she fell into the mutagen in, "The Lonely Mutation of Baxter Stockman". Casey didn't say shit about that- Lmao). The many instances that Casey would protect Donnie or have his back during a fight (As well as everyone else's-). The fact that Casey was able to genuinely apologize to Donnie and sincerely ask from his help during, "Race with the Demon", not to mention their name calling banter in that same episode- A lot of that friendship growth was initiated by Casey, not Donnie. Between the two of them, Casey definitely handles their dynamic more maturely in my honest opinion.

So I don't really feel bad for Donnie when Casey's mean to him back or when Casey has his little moments of poking at him. Donnie's the one that primarily draws out this negative dynamic between them mainly because he had a challenging time not being territorial over April (Not to forget that April also stretched out that issue as well, given her mixed signs in the writing-). So I can't view Casey's behavior towards Donnie as super problematic here (Maybe just a little immature-). Which, I'm fighting the urge to go on a Jonatello rant right now given all these little moments, I gotta be honest- LMAO

As far as him being in competition with Donnie over April, I kind of get that-?? Which goes back to when I was doing a small play by play of Casey's perspective. If he already had something pretty clear going on with April (Even a potential boyfriend / girlfriend relationship-), it would make sense that he would get defensive about it. Why should he just sit there and be okay with some other person thinking they have a chance with April? Egos are definitely at play here, but taking in all of the context surrounding Casey's relationship with April (Platonically and romantically-), I can understand why Casey reacted that way. Which honestly I'm surprised they even made 2012 Apritello canon / endgame, to be honest?? Not that I thought either paring with April was going to be confirmed, but between the two options, Casey made more sense to me personality and dynamic wise (canonically speaking)?? I don't know- 😭👍

Here's Part two of my analysis on Oroku Saki and Hamato Yoshi within the 2012 series ! 👍✨

Are Hamato unreliable narrators within the story? Or the Foot Clan / Oroku?

This is kind of a yes and no thing for me personally. I feel like both sides have had their fair share of spreading misinformation or just not fully understanding certain events that occurred / painting them a particular way upon their recollection of them. My whole take on Hamato Uta and the centuries long Foot Clan / Hamato Clan fued shows this.

We already see this a lot with Shredder throughout the series as well, as he claims over and over again that Yoshi was the one who took Tang Shen's life even though the truth is that it was him all along. Telling himself this so much that he truly ends up believing it by the end of the series. He also blames Splinter for Karai's mutation, even though that was a tragedy of his own making since he's the one that put Karai in that position in the first place, not to mention the fact that he was the one that broke the chain that was suspending Karai over the mutagen vat himself.

However, I feel like we see this with Splinter during his recollection of past events as well.

When he's having his conversation with Karai during, "Vengeance is Mine" in Season 2, we are shown this shot which implies that Saki knowingly and deliberately attacked Yoshi AND Tang Shen during his fit of rage all those years ago. He also proceeds to claim that Saki deliberately burns their house down afterwards.

However, we know this isn't the case at all, since TOTY explicitly shows the chain of events that led to Tang Shen's death and you can see that this wasn't a deliberate action from Saki but rather a horrible circumstance. Both Yoshi and Saki witnessed Tang Shen walk away before they started their battle, so neither of them were expecting her to be there whatsoever. This is further reinforced by their shared shock at her death. We also see throughout their fight that the fire is caused directly from that altercation. Candles that were lit inside were being knocked over by them, which is what actually caused the fire that burned down Yoshi and Tang Shen's home.

I'm not saying Splinter necessarily lied to Karai or that the trauma of it all couldn't have caused Splinter to recall things poorly, since it's entirely plausible. It's also EXACTLY what Saki is doing / experiencing throughout the series. Cough cough. 🙃

And although I've already talked about it kind of extensively in the first part of this analysis, I feel like his relationship with Saki is another instance of him recalling things differently than how they actually were / happened. Which is how I want to pivot into talking about Splinter right now, since I'd like to give some attention to his "perception issue".

Hamato Yoshi / Master Splinter and his relationships with those around him:

I want to make it extensively clear that I personally really enjoy 2012 Splinter as a person and a character. I'm not saying that others can't dislike him or be critical of him or pick apart his character, because obviously you can and I would be super hypocritical for saying you can't considering that's what I do on a daily basis ! I'm also a firm believer of someone being critical of a character or a character's writing and that not necessarily meaning that they think the character is dogshit or an awful person necessarily. Sometimes being critical or analytical of something is how we express our love or interest for it (Like me with this entire decade old series- LMAO) ! But I just wanted to put that out there, since I'm not necessarily going to agree with any negativity or hate comments directed at 2012 Splinter as a character. I just blatantly disagree with most of them, and I think it's okay to agree to disagree if you feel that way. I'm sure a lot of people feel that way about my takes on 2012 April and how I'm pretty overly critical of her and don't really think the best of her canonically. 👍✨

With that out of the way, I really really like talking about Splinter's perspective and how different it feels from perspectivea of the people in his life that he specifically claims to love and care about very much ! It was such a perfect opportunity to really delve into his character and how his relationships, specifically his relationship with his brother Saki, plays such a big role in the overarching plot line that is the 2012 series !

From TOTY, we see the two most important relationships that he currently has in his life (Not discounting his daughter Miwa, but she's still an infant at this point so it's not like they've had many deep conversations- Lmao). Two relationships that, from his perspective, are relatively strong and healthy and wouldn't collapse in the near future whatsoever. I think it's safe to assume that prior to the events of TOTY, before all these issues started flaring up, that this was his mindset completely. I feel like this is also reflected in his mannerisms, and how he comes across so airy and carefree when talking to Saki during their conversation about Yokai with their Father. To Saki, he's being condescending and undermining his opinions / experiences yet again, but to Yoshi he's just shooting the shit with him and having a friendly brotherly interaction. Yoshi's disposition only shifts when Saki pushes further about never listening to others and of course when he brings Tang Shen into the equation. Something similar happens with Tang Shen as well. Yoshi's content and happy being with her and their daughter on their late night stroll, and it's not until Tang Shen brings up wanting to move away that Yoshi shifts once again.

Which leads me to wonder why in his eyes things are completely copesthetic until these problems come up? In both these instances, it seems as though Yoshi just expects them to "understand" rather than meeting them in the middle and actually having a conversation about these things. He wants his Brother to understand that he's always been there for him, despite Saki expressing the opposite which stems from lived experience it seems, and he wants his Wife to understand that he has responsibilities to this Clan and that he can't abandon them. Not that this is an excuse, because I absolutely don't think it is, but part of me feels like this is just a reflection of how he was raised by their Father, Hamato Uta. Where Yoshi was constantly forced to "just understand" when he was burdened with something or forced to bear something, like being the next head of the Clan. That he was "meant to understand" when his Father wouldn't give him the time of day because he was a busy man. Etc.

Through this, you can definitely draw a parallel between Yoshi / Splinter and Leo. Always feeling this need to be perfect, to maintain the vision that your Father has for you, to bear the burden of something that you didn't ask for and not expect any grace or understanding from others in return (Something Splinter expressed to Leo in, "New Girl in Town"-). To sacrifice your wants for what is needed of you, like your individualism and freedom to live your life outside of these responsibilities. I feel like this can be tied to Yoshi very well actually, since we don't exactly get a lot of insight on his feelings and opinions about being the next head of the Hamato Clan,, We honestly don't even know if that's something that he really even wanted. Not that it makes the scene any different, but it's interesting to view his exasperation with Tang Shen's asking to leave from that particular lens. How even if he does feel the same way she does and agrees with her completely, he doesn't believe he's allowed to say that. He doesn't feel like he's allowed to have any dreams or wants outside of this Clan, because those in it depend on him. Yoshi also brings up how this Clan is the last of its kind and that being a big reason why it must endure, which also adds a whole other level of stress,,

Like I said earlier, I don't think this excuses his poor management of his relationships with his Brother and his Wife, but I think it does give a little more insight (Or potential insight-) as to why that was. It also speaks volumes to the way Saki is so gentle and open-minded it seems compared to Yoshi, who comes off cold and emotionally unavailable, during this time (Primarily in his interactions with Tang Shen during TOTY-). In this way, I truly feel like Saki and Raph paralleled one another. I wouldn't be surprised if Saki was actually surprisingly in tune with nature and very respectful of the earth and the universe. That he felt much harder than most people, like Raph, which is why he was so emotionally reactive. That he was actually a lot more receptive than we ever got to know.

This moment from Season 2 ("Vengeance is Mine") always stuck out to me with Saki / Shredder for that very reason. When he's pleading with Karai and expressing how he doesn't want to lock her away (Even though he currently is- 💀 Lmao). Up until this point in the series, this had been the gentlest we had ever seen him. Like a part of his old self was really shining through in this moment,,

But circling back to Yoshi / Splinter, part of me wonders if he was somewhat aware of the state that his relationships were in-? Maybe he was already stressed enough that he just couldn't bring himself to address it without falling apart or feeling like the ground is caving underneath him. So to the detriment of his Brother and his Wife, he maintained this almost aloof attitude towards their concerns as a means of holding himself together. Maybe he didn't feel like he was strong enough to face these problems at the time. This issue clearly wasn't resolved by the time we reach the beginning of the events of the series either, since we can still see this very present in Splinter and how he behaves with his Sons. Regardless of my opinions about April's position here during this conversation (Lmao), I think her questioning of Splinter during the Season 1 finale is a great example of this. His tone and body language truly reflects something almost akin to escapism in my opinion. The way Leo had to pester him constantly for him to open up about Karai being his daughter. The way Splinter seemingly shut down after Karai got recaptured after she finally learned the truth and it seemed like she was within reach for the first time in ages, and Leo was constantly talking about how worried he was about their Father's mental well-being. How Splinter also became kind of closed off yet again after Karai's mutation (And if we're being entirely honest, I wouldn't be surprised if Splinter was a little upset with Leo during this time, which also contributed to his lack of communicating with him-) + a majority of Season 3 due to Karai's new situation. Like I brought up earlier about his upbringing, it seems like Splinter has a hard time really communicating about anything emotionally charged and would rather maintain this composed disposition than to actually confront these things and, quite honestly, cry...

He's eluded to having temperamental tendencies in the past (Like when he was trying to verbally express a lesson to Raph about managing anger in, "Turtle Temper"-), and I wouldn't be surprised if this is something that he's learned to suppress over time. Especially with the "guidance" (so to speak) of their Father, since that most likely contradicted with what he wanted for Yoshi if he were meant to be the next head of the Clan. But Yoshi's not a robot and he shouldn't have been treated like one (If any of my theory were to actually hold up-).

Reasons like this are exactly why I feel like this should have been Splinter's whole Character Arc throughout the 2012 series. How building his relationship with Saki once again would be both a literal battle and a mental / emotional battle. Shedding light on how difficult it can be to overcome emotional pain and mending relationships that you had a lot of fault in, even if you didn't mean it,,

This Character Development Arc absolutely should have started with his Sons (And Daughter, but given the events of the show, I think it would be more feasible to start with his Sons- Lmao) first and foremost. I think having some kind of epiphany through them about his relationships with those he cares about should have been the catalyst for him viewing this entire situation with Saki a completely different way. I think giving the Turtles an opportunity to be more openly honest about how they view him as a Father and how they feel he views them as his Sons would have been the best way to go about that. For Splinter to have a moment where he realizes that maybe the people that he loves and cares about in his life don't always know that he does. Maybe it's obvious to him, since it's his perspective and his actions, but it's not always obvious to them and he needs to consider that more. This should definitely cause him to make connections to his past with Tang Shen and Saki,, Realizing that there actually was some truth to Saki claiming that he doesn't care for anyone but himself. Understanding now why Tang Shen worried about whether or not he would've been a good Father to Miwa, especially in relation to his role in the Hamato Clan. This, of course, wasn't something that he wanted or meant to do, but it still happened,, And he has to face that now.

I also love how having this moment with his Sons would helped break some stigma around masculinity and the relationships that Fathers can have with their Sons. They should be allowed to be emotional together. They should be allowed to have meaningful conversations about their relationships,,

I also feel like this would have been a great way to have more of a discussion about Splinter's position as a Father, and the toll losing his first daughter and abruptly gaining four Sons had on him. I don't think anybody could cope with that very well, and I feel like that should have been reflected in his parenting and how he tackled this new family dynamic. That's honestly why I kind of enjoy the fact that Splinter isn't this "perfect Father", because why would he be? That would make no sense- He has as much growing to do as everybody else in the show- LMAO 😔👍

I think it would have been super interesting to see Yoshi and Saki interact with each other very differently throughout the series in small increments. In Season 1, during the finale, we can see Splinter try to converse with Shredder (Saki) rather than immediately jumping into combat. Again, I'm not saying this couldn't have just been a stall tactic on his end, but I like to think that maybe that was his attempt at trying to be more civil despite everything that's happened. Saki's the one hunting him down, not the other way around, you know? I would have liked to see way more interactions with Splinter and Saki where Splinter truly is just trying to talk to him and reach some kind of understanding. Naturally, this wouldn't yield any results since he hasn't done any reflecting about their positions and their past yet, so his approach would be ineffective. But after Splinter realizes the part that he's played in where they both are right now in their lives, I think he would get through to Saki a lot more. Being more willing to apologize. To understand why Saki is so upset, as opposed to before where he behaved as though he didn't understand why Saki was doing this. To admit that he didn't know about his post and Saki's Father, and he how should've tried harder to make him feel seen (Which I want to add that it would have been absolutely chef's kiss for us to see Splinter actively do more research into the Foot Caln and Hamato Clan past before approaching Saki and trying to fix things- It would truly show how much Splinter means what he's saying and that he actually cares-!) . To reaffirm to Saki that he's a human being just as much as he is, and that Saki has a right to exist without being labeled (Referring to his Foot Clan heritage-). Since Saki's predicament truly feels like the epitome of, "They labeled me a monster, so I became one.", you know?

I also think it would have been interesting for Splinter to grow to view his predicament in a positive way-! Like, if what had happened between him and Saki hadn't happened, he never would have been free from becoming the head of the Hamato Clan and he would have had to wear those metaphorical shackles for the rest of his life. In a way, Saki kind of saved him from that timeline, you know? Which obviously would be bittersweet considering the position that Saki is in currently and the fact that Tang Shen is gone now, but you know- 😭 Lmao

And from Saki's side, it would have been interesting to see him slowly give in to these attempts from Splinter to make amends and fix their relationship. Sparing him more and more despite how often he's threatening Splinter. There being a lot of hesitance in some of Saki's actions. During Season 3, when Splinter was mentally absent and reduced at a rat in the most literal sense ("Return to New York", where the second picture comes from-), what if Shredder had felt guilt and sorrow for him-? To see him in such a state was more painful than it was gratifying, you know? Imagine he took care of Splinter in secret during that time, as to avoid having a confusing and complicated conversation with his followers- It's small details like that that I think would have made all the difference.

This also makes me wish this particular moment from S4 went differently for Yoshi and Saki. For Yoshi to want to help his brother now more than ever, seeing how far he's plunged into this darkness. Saki needed someone . He needed help . He needed support and understanding and a real family .

This would've been such a great parallel to Karai as well, since she too needed help and genuine support,,

I just can't help but think about how great it would have been if Saki was allowed to change and heal alongside Yoshi. So they could be Brothers again. So Yoshi's children didn't have to be subjected to this pain and suffering through their situation anymore. They could all learn to be better from this fucked up situation, you know?

Instead of having one child, Saki can have five (As their Uncle, of course-) ! He can share so many things with them, things that he wanted to as a Father (Figure) but never could properly with Karai (Miwa) for the longest time. The Turtles and Karai can see how human Saki truly is, with Karai going through the motions alongside him given she walked his path the most and I'm sure she has her own set of insecurities that come with that. For Raph to feel the most seen by Karai and Saki in particular. To acknowledge just how much Saki's interactions with Yoshi had paralleled (And somewhat continue to parallel-) his own with Leo. For them find better ways of dealing with their emotional "sensitivity" (so to speak) but also not feel ashamed for being so emotionally intuitive either. For Saki to genuinely laugh for the first time in nearly a decade and a half because of Mikey. I bet Saki would have no problem openly gloating about Mikey's raw potential as a ninja / martial artist, perhaps being super eager to be a mentor for him ! For Donnie to have an Uncle that supports his efforts through giving him access to a top tier lab set up and genuinely showing how impressed he is at Donnie's abilities. For Donnie to have yeah another parental figure that shares in love of love / romance- I'm sure Saki would have many fond stories to share about Tang Shen,, For Yoshi and Saki to both encourage Karai and Leo's individuality and to make strong efforts to unteach any thoughts about barring burdens and heading clans (Which would apply to themselves just as much-). For Karai to have her Father and her Uncle in her life again and it not be for negative reasons. For all of them to visit Tang Shen's grave monthly,,

LIKE, HOW CAN YOU NOT WANT THIS FOR THEM?? 🗣️🗣️

I still intend on doing some art related to 2012 Shredder (Especially in the context of a Redemption Arc and him being the Uncle he should've been in Karai + the Turtles lives- 😔🫶), but I have so much to say outside of art that I thought I'd talk about him too !

Just like all my overanalyzing with 2012, I completely understand and respect the opinion that all of these points I make could be the result of poor writing + a contradicting narrative, and that there wasn't meant to be some deeper meaning to it necessarily. I just enjoy that not being the case- Lmao 👍

Oroku Saki is a complex character / villain, and that's something the writers completely squander for the sake of having a "simple and reliable" villain.

Just as the header of this portion says, the writers of 2012 completely dismiss the complexity of Saki as character and miss many opportunities to highlight how Saki isn't a "black and white" type of antagonist whatsoever. I'm not entirely sure if they had intended for Shredder to fall into such a grey area as a villain-? Which could absolutely explain why they decided not to explore his character in this way. But whether they meant to or not, that doesn't really matter to me, since I'm still going to talk about it- LMAO

I feel 2012 wanted us as the audience to think, "Shredder = Evil" and simply not read into it after that, you know? Which, if that truly was their "goal" (so to speak), they never should've given us backstory episodes like, "Tale of the Yokai" since that not only puts more focus on Shredder's motives as the main villain but also sort of has the opposite effect on people like me (lmao)-

A lot of the major events that affected Saki's life either don't get utilized very well in Saki's overall character / character writing, things that I feel would make him very "relatable" villain to the audience (In the sense that if you were in his shoes, you could understand how he got to this point in his life-), or they're used to push this "evil guy" narrative despite him being very blatantly a victim of said event in my eyes-?? Which is why I say the writers wanted him to be this "simple" and "reliable" villain for their story. This feels a lot more glaring towards the later Seasons of 2012 for me, and how despite this man very clearly being mentally ill, it felt as though the writers would rather paint that mental illness as "he's just evil". It felt especially frustrating during S4 episodes like, "The Super Shredder" (EP 20) where we see Saki trail off while saying, "He saw it..." (Referring to Tang Shen's death and him still believing it was Splinter's doing and not his own-). In this same episode, we also get Splinter acknowledging the fact that Saki isn't well and that he can help him (Which, given this show, was more likely meant as a stall tactic from Splinter but I'd like to believe he was being genuine-), as well as Saki (In his own way, I guess-) opening up to Splinter about seeing his scornful face in his nightmares,, These could have been great segways into having this kind of conversation with Saki's character in 2012, even if it was this late into the series, but of course that didn't happen because we can never have nice things with this version. 😭 /hj

Let's get into more of my analysis now !

The portrayal of Oroku Saki's life in the 2012 series:

Throughout Season 1, the most we know about Saki is his role / connection to Yoshi, which primarily revolved around the death of his wife Tang Shen and the (presumed) loss of his only daughter Miwa. In most cases where Yoshi would bring up Saki during this time, he would only focus on those particular details and nothing that really pertained to Saki's past outside of his wife and daughter. He also refers to Saki as his "old friend" rather than his (adoptive) Brother- But I don't necessarily fault the show for doing this, because I feel like that definitely would have been a lot of information very early on the story. It wasn't until the Season 1 finale that Yoshi not only learned that his daughter Miwa was alive, but also that she had been raised by Saki all this time under the name Karai instead.

During Season 2 is when Yoshi opens up a lot more about Saki and his connections to him and their past. In S2 EP 3, "Follow the Leader", Splinter finally reveals to Leo what he learned at the end of Season 1 (That Karai is his long lost daughter and that Saki took her from him all those years ago-), something that he didn't reveal to the rest of his sons for another 10 episodes ( EP 13-14, "The Manhattan Project (Parts 1 & 2) / Wormquake!"-). Then eight episodes after that, during EP 22, "Vengeance is Mine", Splinter divulges way more information than we (as the audience) have ever been given about Saki / "Shredder" during his conversation with Karai. In this episode, we learned that the Hamato Clan and Foot Clan have I've been through a centuries long feud with one another, and that Saki was adopted into the Hamato Clan as a byproduct of that feud. From that point on, him and Saki were raised alongside one another as brothers. However, when Tang Shen came into the picture, things changed between them. According to Splinter, their natural sibling rivalry festered into jealousy for Saki, and this jealousy was amplified after Saki learned of his true origins and decided to rebuild the Foot Clan and get vengeance. Splinter also claimed that after blaming him for Tang Shen's death, Saki deliberately burned their home to the ground and took Miwa (Karai) away from him.

The last time we receive a lot of context from the series in relation to Saki's past is during Season 3, specifically EP 20, "Tale of the Yokai". This episode is very different because it allows the Turtles (As well as the audience-) to witness these events first hand rather than it being told through various backstories (Which have mainly been through Splinter up until this point-). This also canonically establishes that the Turtles had a lot to do with this incredibly pivotal event in Yoshi / Saki / Tang Shen / and Miwa's lives, since they were apparently the reason why Yoshi even survived that night after their home burned down. But I digress- We get to see how Yoshi and Saki interacted with each other before the events of the series, we get to see Tang Shen alive and well for the first time (Instead of only pictures of her-), we witness Saki's dramatic change in character + when he decided he was going to rebuild the Foot Clan and get his vengeance on the Hamato Clan, and we get to see Yoshi's and Saki's altercation that resulted in Tang Shen's death. After this episode, we don't get any further context with Saki as a character, nor do we get any other important backstory elements revolving around him and his identity as The Shredder (Not even any proper flashbacks of him raising Karai and what that was like- 🫠).

Now, I was very purposefully trying to point out how that was Yoshi / Splinter's perspective when I said things like, "according to Splinter" and "Splinter claims" during his recollection to Karai in Season 2- Because in my opinion, a lot what he says here feels blatantly contradicted by, "Tale of the Yokai". I also explained the events of said episode very vaguely because in my opinion, this is how 2012 presents it. These events weren't necessarily "meant" to be dissected, especially not by our main cast of characters, the Turtles and their allies (But specifically the Turtles, given they were the only ones present for these events specifically-).

So let's break down, "Tale of the Yokai", and the various contradictions that I can see when it comes to what actually happens in this episode (As well as Saki's origins-) and the way it's recalled by Splinter in the previous Season to Karai.

Comparing "Tale of The Yokai" to Splinter's recollections throughout 2012:

• Yoshi and Saki's relationship

This is something that I don't feel was necessarily a contradiction from Yoshi's perspective. He describes them growing up alongside one another and being relatively close (Which I feel these story board flashbacks depict that better than his words do-), and to an extent, I feel like this is something Saki can agree with. Prior to Tang Shen coming into both their lives (But particularly Saki's-), it seems as though Yoshi was the only person Saki talked to more openly / freely in his life (In the sense that rank or position within the clan didn't affect their conversations. I feel like this is reflected in a lot of Saki's conversations with his allies, pre and post the events of the series-).

We can even see this potential closeness through pictures of them from the past (Specifically the image on the left, which implies that him and Yoshi served in the military together at some point-). However, where this feels contradicted during TOTY is during Yoshi's and Saki's argument while sparring after Saki protects Tang Shen from the Turtles in the woods. Saki openly calls out Splinter's devotion to the Clan, potentially to himself, and how that affects his relationship with Tang Shen. Yoshi's response to this is that that isn't true and that he's "always been there for him (Saki)". This moment is so interesting to me, for multiple reasons. First off, Saki primarily was making Tang Shen the focus of this argument, but somehow Yoshi manages to pivot the conversation it being about Saki and their relationship as Brothers. Almost like Yoshi caught on to some kind of underlying tone from Saki. Secondly, I really truly love the sincerity that comes out of Yoshi when he tells Saki he's always been there for him. Because it truly adds a lot of complexity to their relationship, as well as a lot of relationships that revolve around Yoshi / Splinter (Something I'll get into later-). Despite this sincerity though, we can tell from Saki's reaction that he disagrees with this and believes it's untrue. Which paints an entirely different picture when looking at these story boards flashbacks + the old photo of them when serving in the military. In this way, I feel like they can truly be compared to Raph and Leo. Sure, you can find a lot of moments where Raph is on good terms with Leo and laughing alongside him, but there are also a lot moments where Raph blatantly accuses Leo of not supporting him the way he supports others (Usually their Brothers-) and feeling looked down upon by Leo with his condescending / high and mighty attitude. It wouldn't be far fetched to me to believe that Yoshi and Saki had a very similar dynamic growing up. Where Saki wanted to be close with Yoshi and wanted to let him in more, but one wrong sentence or action from him would close him up again. This also could've been a glaring reminder to Saki of how different they truly are / how they were perceived by others. That Saki was always the "problem child" or the Foot Clan adoptee while Splinter was the son of the head of the Hamato Clan / destined to takeover and was a role model for their fellow ninja. This reminder would always get in the way of their relationship for Saki, since it directly affected him. Negatively. This affected Yoshi too, but more positively, which would naturally cause it to go unnoticed or dismissed by him.

There's another line from TOTY that was incredibly interesting to me, and I don't see a lot of people talking about it when discussing not only this episode but Saki and Yoshi's relationship with each other. Before those two have their pivotal fight that results in Tang Shen's death, after she leaves the premises is when Saki says something that is very interesting to me. He says, "How can one love and hate someone so fiercely?", and then he proceeds to get into his fighting stance. I can't help but feel like he was blatantly talking about Yoshi in this moment. Some could argue that he was talking about Tang Shen, since it could be possible that his view of her was shifting after she made her decision to choose Yoshi over him- But I personally don't agree (I don't think Tang Shen's passing would've affected him so deeply if that was the case- I don't even fully believe Saki could even view Tang Shen with any malice either-). This feels supported by the fact that Yoshi even responds to Saki afterwards, saying, "If your wish is to fall by my hand, Brother, then so be it-". This is another instance that I feel can be used to reflect not only Saki's relationship with Yoshi, but a reoccurring issue with Yoshi. The fact that Yoshi barely even acknowledges what Saki said here speaks to his character to me. Saki has so openly stated how he loves his brother just as much as he's grown to hate him, and yet, Yoshi doesn't even bat an eye at this. I already have the impression that Saki so rarely expresses any kind of love for anyone (Familial, platonic, or romantic-), so this naturally can be assumed to be a rare moment from him. I doubt Saki has said this to Yoshi very often, if at all. But still, there's a lack of reaction from Yoshi.

This could be explained by the situation, considering that things were very tense in that moment and of course this led to their massive fight. Maybe Yoshi it was preoccupied bracing himself for the events to come that it just slipped his mind. But this falls in line with what I was saying earlier about Yoshi / Splinter having this reoccurring behavior(s) when in comes to those he loves and cherishes in his life and how he reacts to them and their perspectives (More on this later-).

• Saki and Tang Shen's relationship

This is one of the big things Splinter sheds light on throughout the series (Specifically S1-S2) that I personally feel was very contradicted by TOTY.

For starters, from Splinter's point of view (Or narration-), he implies that him and Saki both met and fell in love with Tang Shen at relatively the same point in time. But I don't believe this to be true for a few reasons. For starters, when we see Saki and Tang Shen interact after Saki "saved her" from the Turtles, it's incredibly obvious given their conversation that they've been in a relationship before. Saki even starts the conversation of their relationship by pleading with Tang Shen to "take him back". He talks about how he's changed and grown a lot since they've been apart, which also implies that he most likely was the reason why their relationship ended or why Tang Shen made the difficult decision (probably) to end their relationship. My other reason for thinking that this isn't true is that throughout the various times that Splinter has brought up their rivalry for Tang Shen's heart, he's never once mentioned the fact that Saki was in a relationship with Tang Shen before he was. Splinter always painted this picture as though they were competing for her at the same time and that he ultimately "won" and Tang Shen stayed with him indefinitely- Which just seems blatantly false given this conversation that we see between Tang Shen and Saki in TOTY.

This leads me to believe that Saki actually met Tang Shen first. A significant amount of time before Yoshi even knew of her existence. I also wouldn't be surprised if their relationship either took place discreetly or Yoshi never truly acknowledged it in the first place. I can see Tang Shen's relationship with Saki happening privately given Saki's lack of having relatively anything to himself. His clan was taken from him when he was an infant, he was raised by the Hamato Clan without having any say in that decision either, Yoshi gained the favoritism with their Father and practically the entire clan simply for being Hamato Uta's biological son and heir to the Clan- Saki has nothing that has truly been his own at this point. So it would make sense for him to want to cherish his relationship with Tang Shen in private so that that too cannot be something that is taken from him by the Hamato Clan. Which is incredibly sad and ironic considering that that practically is what happens anyway (If this is the case-),, || However, looking at the other side of things where Saki didn't keep his relationship with Tang Shen a secret and instead was very open about their relationship, I wouldn't be surprised Yoshi didn't even acknowledge it at the time. Perhaps he didn't even truly meet Tang Shen until after their relationship had already fallen out. Hence this perspective of those two competing for Tang Shen during the same timeframe. Yoshi as a new potential partner and Saki as an ex looking for redemption and reconciliation. But that begs the question- Why would Yoshi / Splinter omit the fact that Saki had a relationship with Tang Shen prior to himself? Was it because of their scarred relationship in the present? And due to his pride, Splinter chose not to bring it up? Or does this circle back to Yoshi / Splinter's relationships with others and this proving Saki's point about Yoshi being self centered or only truly recalling information that pertains to his view point?

Regardless though, this is a huge contradiction from what Splinter had explained to Karai in Season 2 (Which made it seem as though Saki had no real relationship with Tang Shen whatsoever and was just jealous of Splinter's-), and regardless of whether that relationship was hidden or out in the open it doesn't change the fact that Tang Shen felt like another thing the Hamato Clan stole from him.

Something else that I love to talk about with Tang Shen and Saki is during her conversation with the Turtles in TOTY. The Turtles are doing their absolute best to convince Tang Shen that Saki is evil, Yoshi is good, and that her decision between Yoshi and Saki has world changing stakes. However, despite how the Turtles are talking about Saki and their potential standing with Tang Shen under the context of being Kappa (Something would reasonably sway any opinions Tang Shen has of him-), Tang Shen stands firmly in his defense. Claiming that Saki is a good man. I know we didn't get to know Tang Shen very well in this version, but from the little that we did get I have no reason to doubt that she has a good judge of character. I don't think Tang Shen was deceived by Saki or that she was in denial about him in the face of what the Turtles were telling her. I think Saki truly was a genuine person up until this point in the narrative. A genuine person who was pushed to the edge and never managed to recover,,

There's also the fact that Saki told Tang Shen that he was willing to give up the Clan lifestyle and move to New York City like she wanted to. To leave all of this behind if she would allow him to be a part of her life once again. Maybe this is just my perspective, but I don't believe Saki was being manipulative or deceitful when he said these things to her. I think he really was being honest and genuine in that moment. And not that this was Tang Shen's fault nor was it her responsibility, but I wouldn't be surprised if Tang Shen choosing Saki could have prevented such a tragedy,, Prevented Saki from becoming the Shredder and devoting his life to rebuilding the Foot Clan and gaining vengeance against the Hamato Clan.

The Turtles expressed concern and carried a sense of urgency throughout TOTY due to their friends (Casey and April-) seemingly vanishing from their lives via a photograph, presuming that this meant their timeline was altering for the worse at the notion of Tang Shen choosing Saki over Yoshi. But at the end of the day, all that was was a presumption. They didn't know for sure that that necessarily meant they were falling into a "doomed timeline" (So to speak-). If anything, I'd argue that this timeline would just make their existence null and void. If Tang Shen didn't choose Yoshi, then Yoshi and Saki wouldn't have lost her. Yoshi wouldn't have fled to New York City in his grief (And most likely longing to be close to her again in some capacity, since it was the one thing she said she wanted to do before she passed-), he wouldn't have run into the Kraang, and the Turtles wouldn't have been born. Instead, Yoshi would have most likely stayed in Japan and fulfilled his role as the new head of the Hamato Clan, while Tang Shen / Saki / and Miwa (Karai) made a new life for themselves in New York City. Leaving that chapter of their lives behind for good. If Tang Shen hadn't died by Saki's hand (unintentionally), if Saki hadn't been pushed to the edge by this entire situation, then he wouldn't have become the Shredder in the first place. He wouldn't have become so mentally ill that he literally started destroying himself. Just to get some validation for his pain and suffering,,

• Saki's Origins

Comparing the recollection that Splinter shared Karai in Season 2 to the events of TOTY shows that a lot of things seem to be omitted from the narrative by Splinter. However, I'm not entirely sure if this was done intentionally by Splinter, since I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't privy to the entire story in the same way that Saki wasn't and had to seek out said information on his own. So this potentially isn't a case of Splinter lying or hiding things, but rather him just genuinely not knowing.

From Splinter's knowledge, the Hamato Clan and the Foot Clan have had a centuries long feud between them. I personally feel the obvious implication here is that the Hamato Clan ("The Good") has been in an everlasting battle with the Foot Clan ("The Bad / Evil"), given house Splinter talks about it anyway. But-?? We don't have a lot of context on this centuries long feud to begin with. We have no idea how it started, no idea whether the Foot Clan has consistently been in the wrong in said feud either. I personally think it would be more reasonable to believe that the "bad / evil" one has been passed from side to side over the centuries. It also wouldn't surprise me if this were a situation where the feud has lasted so long that neither side can truly remember why it even began in the first place. Once again begging the question of whether or not there was ever actually truly any wrong or evil side to begin with.

There's also been many situations of morally gray "justice", where despite one group of people claiming to be good people and their actions typically reflecting that, that doesn't exempt them from doing things that sort of teeter the line of their supposed morals. I feel like this can be reflected in the Hamato Clan very clearly, to be honest. Splinter always preaches about mercy, how "in times of war to never forget compassion" (A quote from him in, "Never Say Xever"-). I truly believe that this is a value that Splinter holds, especially after the horrors he experienced with Tang Shen and the loss of his daughter. I don't believe that Splinter ever seeks death, which also felt reflected in the way he handled the situation with Saki throughout the series. However, I cannot say the same for their Father, Hamato Uta. We see from the storyboard flashbacks that they quite literally took out the entire Foot Clan, which doesn't really align with Splinter's values about showing mercy and sparing others. How can you claim to be on the right side of the situation if you're so willing to take out an entire group of people? We as the audience have no context or insight on the Foot Clan during this specific time either, so how are we to trust so blindly that they "deserved this" or that "there was no other option for them"? It's also made incredibly clear that they only spared Saki given he was an infant child, but I wouldn't be surprised if his heritage also played a part in the decision. Since we wouldn't find out until TOTY that Saki's Father was Oroku Keiji, the Head of the Foot Clan during that time (Not that that couldn't be reasonably inferred before this point, but I still wanted to bring it up timeline wise-).

This most definitely influenced a lot of his relationships and interactions within the Hamato Clan, I'm sure. Like I said in my doodle post of Saki and Tang Shen a while back, I genuinely would not be surprised if he was given "Naruto Uzumaki treatment" by most people in the Clan. But instead of not allowing that to break him and taking it on the chin the way Naruto did, he responded the opposite way which feels just as valid to me. Lmao

When Saki makes this revelation during TOTY to his supporters, they express surprise and shock at this information. Which leads me to assume that Yoshi didn't know about this at all, if other (ninja) members of the Hamato Clan didn't. I wouldn't be surprised if their Father purposely kept this information from them. I mean, why else would Saki have to seek it out on his own? His anger feels valid in this moment, I gotta to be honest. It also doesn't hold up to me that they kept this from Saki as a means of "preventing him from going down that path", since why would having that knowledge sway him a particular way? Unless Uta couldn't justify it. Unless he couldn't reasonably explain the situation. Maybe there wasn't a valid reason for the tragedy and they both knew that.

It starts to make sense why Saki is so angry at this point in the story. To be taken from his family / Clan as a infant, raised by his enemy in ignorance (A claim Saki directly makes in TOTY-), to have everything be taken from him by this enemy (Which includes Tang Shen at this point-), and for Saki to feel as though everything he did technically have came with metaphorical strings attached ("Not to bite the hand that feeds you despite you never asking for that hand specifically to feed you" type of situation-). This is why I claim that he's a relatable villain, because if you were in his shoes, you probably would be just as infuriated as he was. As pushed to the limit as he was. So the cause and effect we are taking place with Saki during TOTY truly isn't "coming from nowhere" in my eyes.

I also really appreciated the way Mikey was the only Brother out of the Turtles that even entertained the idea that Saki wasn't necessarily the guy they thought he was or that they've grown to know in the present. As always, he was shut down immediately by everyone else (🙄), but was he really wrong for that statement?? Which is kind of a rhetorical question, since 2012 Mikey's right about a lot of things very often in this series and that constantly goes overlooked and underappreciated. I'm getting a little off topic with this, but I would have really loved to see Mikey interact with Saki in some way in this episode, since he already has the kind of personality that likes to understand both sides before making any strong judgments. It would have been really interesting to see Mikey be a "devil's advocate" of sorts after getting to know Saki a little bit better. Maybe even agreeing with Tang Shen later on when she claims that Saki isn't an evil person. This also goes hand in hand with my want for Saki to have a Redemption Arc in the main storyline, and how I absolutely believe Mikey would be the most open this new relationship and dynamic of the Turtles at first. With Mikey coming from a place of sincerity towards Saki, you know? 😭