#tmnt colorcoded

It took me 2 whole years but I've finally finished this (I started in 2022 and then never worked on it again until now).

COLORCODED TMNT ITERATION

The idea was that Splinter had nicknames for his kids based on flowers. Mikey is "Little Kinmokusei", Leo is "Little Asagao", Meets is "Little Momo", Donnie is "Little Sumire" and Raph is "Little Akaibara"

I hope you guys like it, closeups under the cut !

colorcoded au by @camilieroart

im so sorry, it doesn’t really look like him, but I tried 😭. I chose a skating pose, but it took me wayy too long to realize that none of the official drawings of Casey have him in skates, so i just followed those. I also tried to combine his normal clothes with his battle outfit bc i just couldn’t decide which one to draw him in

I literally have SO much to say about this Casey! this little rant is probably gonna go on for way too long lol (feel free not to read)

props to @camilieroart for writing this amazing au bc ive been obsessed ever since i saw it in passing on instagram.

Casey has always been my favorite tmnt character. Ever. Hands down. There was something about him that I just adored. As a kid and even now. That being said, finding a version of Casey that was so much like me was like an early Christmas. I was already sucked in to the AU since like, last year when I found it for the first time. But I only recently read through Casey’s backstory and found out that he was korean, which only made me double down on how much I loved his character in Colorcoded.

(I really hope this next part doesn’t come off as narcissistic, its really just me full of admiration for this character and AU)

It was incredible to see a version of my favorite character like EVER (not even joking) that looked a lot like me and came from a background a lot like mine. Beyond just his skin tone being dark and matching mine (which I think I commented about already) this Casey seriously feels like looking into a mirror of myself from a few years ago. Both visually and mentally. It’s refreshing to see Korean characters that aren’t reduced to the asian standards of beauty, but still look like their ethnicity, because we absolutely DO exist. From my darker skin color to even my wide nose shape which I share with this Casey, I was told constantly as a kid (by other koreans mind you) that I didn’t ‘look korean enough’. So it’s nice to see those features that made me so insecure growing up presented in someone I admired during that same period of time. Even Casey’s hair looks so much like the cut I had/was forced to get (lol) growing up, down to the M shaped bangs. Though I wasn’t allowed to grow out my hair like Casey has in the back, it was something I always wanted to do as a kid. I even got into ice skating BECAUSE of Casey, like, I adore him so so much.

Though I’m lucky enough to have a family much healthier than Casey’s, I still found myself relating a lot to him in terms of his Korean-American identity. Growing up, my parents wanted me to learn as much English as possible as opposed to Korean, but they switched mindsets when it came to my younger sister (Yeah! i’ve also got a younger sister too, and by just EXTREME coincidence, she also has a similar sounding name Hae-in 해인) so she speaks a lot more Korean than I do. I still struggle a little bit when speaking conversational Korean, even though it’s technically my ‘first’ language lol. My family even calls me by my english name and my sister by her Korean name. I’m not sharing my legal name online, but i’ve got the same deal as Casey where I’ve got an English legal name, but also an unofficial korean name which was REALLY surprising to read, because literally none of my korean friends have the same name situation. Beyond little nit-picky things (that don’t even count as mistakes, really) in his conversations with his sister, you got the Korean conversations down really well (like, the cadence and grammar and stuff, idk how to explain it, but it really sounds like a conversation i might’ve had with my little cousins, just translated)

TLDR: i absolutely ADORE this Casey and I see just SO much of myself in him. He is wonderfully written as a character and you nailed his korean-american identity to a T (according to me and my personal experiences at least)

SORRY FOR THE RANT

colorcoded = @camilieroart

colorcoded summary: not provided

the great skittle heist summary: a 2003 fast forward AU where the dark turtles' cloning process is interrupted and they come out as babies, which the turtles then adopt and start raising as their own. they have to go home at some point, though.

tmnt colorcoded - @camilieroart

Hello governor! :D

This post is going to be explaining the difference between the different types of AUs, original iterations and original mythologies. I am going to try to provide three examples of each type of everything up here. But first i'm going to explain to the best of my ability the differences. Basically the difference between an iteration and an AU is that an AU is an alternate universe of an already existing iteration, like all the different AUs of 2012 and Rise, while an original iteration is primarily its own universe, maybe taking some elements from other iterations but mostly it's trying to be its own thing, calling an iteration an AU is like saying 87 is an AU of the Mirage comics or 2003 is an AU of 87 or 2012 is an AU of 2003, you get it, those are all original iterations not AUs, but the way the term AU is getting used online and has been getting used online for years makes it seem like that's what it is, but it's not.

There are three types of AUs. 1. AUs where something is slightly different possibly an alternate timeline, 2. AUs that take place after that particular iteration is already ended, so potentially they're like alternate futures, Mutant Apocalypse was essentially an official AU, 3. AUs that actually feel like alternate universes or something is way different, like the world itself is built different.

I will now try to find three examples of each of these types of worlds starting with one.

Alternate timeline AUs examples.

TMNT shards of memory AU by FiveFootOh on deviantART. This AU it's basically just 2012 but instead of being raised by Splinter, they are raised by Shard who is Tang Shen mutated into a Cat. Basically it's an alternate timeline where instead of Shen dieing in the house fire after being clawed by Shredder it was Yoshi, so Shen came to America after assuming her daughter died and bought the turtles and got mutated and went through the same thing that Splinter went through, of course the story probably played out differently because it's Shen instead of Yoshi but I don't know I haven't read the full Tale of this AU.

Any of the separated AUs, there's quite a few of them but basically after their initial mutation they all got split up or only one or two of them got separated depending on the AU. This is clearly just an alternate timeline cuz the origin of the world and the initial buildup before the difference happened is still the same, it only started to differentiate from the main iteration when they all get mutated and then separated that's where the difference began, other than that it's literally the same world just an alternate timeline.

Any of the Foot Clan AUs. Just about every iteration has at least a few of these to my knowledge, it's basically the Turtles got raised by the Foot Clan instead of Splinter so they grow up kind of dark and evil, but it's still the same world basically it's just they end up getting picked up by Shredder instead of Splinter somehow.

Examples of Alternate future AUs.

TMNT 2014 apocalypse AU. I can't remember who made it. It's basically the 2014 universe but with an apocalyptic future.

2….. Okay I'm having a hard time coming up with three examples for each, so I'm just going to come up with however many examples I can come up with for each type and right now I'm drawing a blank for alternate future timelines, but I will say that Mutant Apocalypse and Same As It Never Was are basically official AUs. If anyone knows any fan-made ones that I am unaware of or I'm drawing a blank on right now let me know and I might update this and maybe add them to this. Or if you the one reading this, if you have an AU tell me about it and I'll add it to the list.

Now examples of alternate universes that are actually alternate universes not just alternate timelines.

The TMNT Killers AU, it's not the same as the Shards Of Memories AU, sure they had a mom there too, but the world itself in Shard of memory was still basically the same world as 2012, here in The Killers AU the world is very different and thus the Turtles grew up very differently, the world of The Killers AU is basically a hell hole, not exactly apocalyptic more like everywhere is the bad part of town where all the crime is, so the Turtles and the lizard mother who raised them had to do what they had to do to survive they became killers.

Here's another example. This is not a particular AU just an idea I came up with to use as an example, a TMNT 2012 Medieval AU, the Turtles still have the same personalities as they did in 2012 and they still look the same, but the world they exist in is different. It's still in the medieval times and the Turtles are rescuing princesses from Dragons and Donnie's probably a wizard Maybe.

Another example of different worlds is World merging with other franchises, my last writers guide was about merging TMNT with Minecraft. I have seen TMNT merged with Steven Universie, either just having them just exist in the same universe together and having crossovers, or literally turning the Turtles into the Crystal Gems. I've also seen TMNT merge with MLP, both them existing in the same world as The Equestria Girls Human versions of MLP, and I've seen the Turtles be ponyified. I've seen TMNT and FNAF as well. One of my friends on Facebook is doing her own RotTMNT Legend of Zelda AU.

Keeping the world mostly the same but changing characters personalities around is also an example that falls under this, because that's not quite an alternate timeline you can develop slightly differently in an alternate timeline depending on how you're raised, but if you grew up in mostly the same scenario, but you're still different for some reason then that's not an alternate timeline that's a alternate universe where your brain was wired differently so you develop differently because if it's the exact same circumstance why would you turn out differently?. I've seen a few personality swap AUs.

TMNT Reverse who the original Creator is unknown exactly who they are, is an AU where the Hamato Clan was the evil one and the Foot Clan was the good one and therefore Splinter and the Turtles are evil and all their personalities are swapped, that's a little bit different than an alternate timeline.

Changing their species but keeping the world mostly the same also counts as actual AU, because just like the personalities you can't just be born a different species in an alternate timeline, unless maybe reincarnation but to keep it simple any Rise AU where their species are swapped that counts, or any AU where they are Sea Turtles that counts.

Honorable mention to The Street Punks AU by SirConCon, don't quite know where to fit this one in because it's the same world basically maybe it feels slightly different slightly darker than the world of 2012 but it's still mostly the world of 2012 except the Turtles themselves don't exist in it instead we have the Street Punks, which initially I thought was just the Turtles if they grew up as Punk instead of Heroes, but my friend who introduced me to the Street Punks insisted that they are not the Turtles they are different characters and after looking into it myself and studying their characters I now say yes those are not Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, & Michelangelo those are different people that just so happened to be Turtles and there are some worlds where both The Street Punks and the Ninja Turtles exist in the same world together so they are definitely not the same characters, unless it's some kind of character splitting, but The Street Punks AU is different enough to be its own original IP, it doesn't even need to be connected to TMNT, but it still is because it still looks like a TMNT AU, if something official like a comic book, show, or movie gets made with The Street Punks in it and they get popular enough in the mainstream they could get their own spin-off series and become a spin-off franchise like The Muppets did, how they are just they spin off franchise of Sesame Street, or like the Rabbits from Rayman. The Venom movie takes a character from Spider-Man and places them in a world were Spider-Man doesn't exist and instead Venom is the main focus, that's basically what the original Street Punks AU is, and I think they could exist as their own franchise splitting off from TMNT and existing in Worlds by themselves without the Turtles existing.

Now here's some examples of original iterations, not AU but often times they get referred to as such. Now I'm going to be talking about lore here so if you don't understand what I mean Go back to my post on what a mythology is.

TMNT Behind The Darkness. This is a fan-made iteration underneath the 2012 lore, it is not fully going off of the 2012 Cannon though because in the story The Turtles are now 18 and Shredder is still alive and is not Super Shredder, Master Splinter still alive too, and Karai is still on The Foot Clan's side. Now this iteration was made early on in 2012 so you can't blame them for not following the story, the story wasn't fully out yet, they kind of took the general idea of 2012 and did their own alternate take of it.

Mutant Ninja Turtles Gaiden, also known as MNT Gaiden or MNTG for short, is a long-running fan webcomic written and illustrated by Tigerfog. It has been running since 2004, and still updates intermittently. At over 800 pages, MNT Gaiden already rivals entire volumes of official TMNT comics in sheer story length. It looks like the 2003 show but it's going off of the Volume Three/Image Comics/Urban Legends so it's underneath the Mirage lore, but it's kind of making its own Canon by mixing things together kind of like 2012 and IDW did.

TMNT Heart. Don't know a whole lot about it but from what I can tell it's inventing its own lore, it doesn't appear to be underneath any one particular lore, so it might be new lore entirely, but then again I haven't seen enough so I could be completely wrong about it, it might be underneath the Mirage lore.

All three of those despite two of them being somewhat based on the 2012 show, and the 2003 and volume 3 comics, they are different enough to be more than just AUs art style wise and storytelling wise, they kind of make their own stories while having little bits and pieces of previous iterations, instead of being mostly the same iteration with a slight tweak. Like Behind The Darkness you can tell it's inspired off of the 2012 designs, but it's in its own unique enough art style that it's its own thing instead of just being 2012, and the story takes such a different turn that it's kind of like the Adventure Comics from Archie how they were supposed to just be an offshoot of the 87, but diverse far enough that it became their own Standalone thing, their own Canon instead of just another continuity. Now there are fan-made iterations that aren't AUs but are not their own cannons either, they follow too close to the particular iteration they are off of and are just basically another continuity under the same Cannon, if they just follow what the show is doing and don't do their own thing at all then they are a separate continuity not another Canon. Now moving on to fan-made iterations that are different enough to be their own mythologies.

Examples of original iterations different enough to count as their own Mythos.

TMNT Colorcoded by @camilieroart . Unfortunately their blog appears to have gotten deleted for some reason, hopefully it gets put back up or they make another account, but until then I guess that might be the last I see of Colorcoded :( although you can still find all the images online if you search hard enough, but that just saddens me that they're gone…. Anyway the reason why it's different enough to count as its own Mythos is because it's not an AU of any particular version, it doesn't appear to be based on one particular iteration over the other so it's not another iteration under an already established Canon or lore, and because of the Turtles's personalities being different it doesn't feel like the same Mythos so it's not a new lore under the original Mythos either, that means it's its own Mythos, and I did plan on doing a writers guide for it in the future, but now that they got their blog deleted I'm a little bit concerned that it's not coming back, so I might wait on that one. But yeah similar to my Unbounded Mythos Splinter was actually kind of a villain, a bad person, but grew remorseful and turned good over time, that's definitely different. And from what I've seen of Leo and Raph in Colorcoded their personalities do not match the original Mythos meaning that this is a different mythology, and Donatello has a slightly different weapon so that's another reason. And they actually have a fifth member to the team which changes up the Dynamics as well, that's another thing that makes it count as it's own Mythos, that fifth member being Metalhead or Meet for short. It appears that they took some elements from 2012 and Rise and mix them together, but it feels like more than just that, it feels distinct enough that it's its own thing.

TMNT Once Human by @jadethest0ne . I have wrote a writers guide for this one, go check it out. Now the biggest reason why this is its own Mythos is in the title, what I wrote in my how to make a mythos post, and I think I also said it in my normal TMNT writers guide if I didn't I probably should have, might need to go back and add it in if I didn't, I'll go check later, but the Turtles must always start out as normal Turtles because that's one of the things that made them special, changing that automatically makes it a different Mythos because then it doesn't feel the same. But besides the title this just feels different enough and has even been stated by Jade herself that it's not an AU of any one particular version, It's kind of its own universe that just takes some elements from past iterations, like Once Human Donnie and Rise Donnie are very similar, and the fact that Raphael is huge is also something from Rise, and Baron Draxum is one of the main antagonists, so if this were to be an AU I would say it's an AU of Rise, but it's distinct enough to be more than just an AU and even distinct enough to be more than just another iteration, it is its own mythology.

TMNT Redline by @0ddbugs & @coffinpal . And more information can be found at @tmntredline . This is without any shadow of a doubt it's own Mythos and more than just an iteration because it's not an AU of one particular version, and it doesn't even merge elements really like Colorcoded did, for the most part. And it changes the character's personalities, and even changes who Splinter is, and even gender swaps and race swaps a few characters. So I would say it is definitely its own Mythos. Splinter is now their mother she is Tang Shen, Hun is now a woman, April is Black like she was in Rise, and the Turtles are different species like they were in Rise. Now what I said about not taking any elements for the most part, what I mean is they want Ben Schwartz to be the voice of their Leo like in Rise, but this Leo's personality isn't one-to-one with Rise Leo it's just the same voice actor, same thing with Mikey they want 2012 Mikey but I'm pretty sure the personality isn't completely one to one it's just the same voice actor. And the last element is they added Clunk from The Mirage lore instead of Ice Cream Kitty from 2012 or inventing a new cat character, but other than those three things this is Holy original. I did plan on writing a writers guide for this and I got permission from one of the two creators, but they said I should wait till episode 10 or 11 before I write it because not enough info is going to be out before then, so that's what I'm going to do, I'm going to wait until episode 10 or 11 comes out. Although from what I do know about their Raphael I'm going to use that in my next Mythos. Because in my next Mythos all the Turtles are chaotic and he would fit perfectly, there although instead of being played by Danny DeVito like they want, Raphael in my Mayhem Mythos is going to be played by Bruce Willis. XD

And before I end off this post I have one last important thing to say. If you were making an AU then you can do things like give them a different parent and other things that should never be changed, but if you're making an original iteration they must have a Splinter not someone else, changing something like that should never be outside of an AU, Did Redline change Splinter into a Cat and call her Shard? No they just made her a female Splinter, and Redline is an original Iteration, it's own mythos even. Now shards of memories did change her to a Cat named Shard and why is that okay? Because it's not an original iteration, it's an AU of 2012. So AUs can change things like that while iterations cannot. Another thing I suggested never to change when creating an iteration or a Mythos is never change the character's core traits cuz once you do then they are not the same character anymore, which is basically what happened with The Street Punks which is okay because it's an AU, you can get away with that stuff in an AU, and besides The Street Punks are awesome, they're good characters on their own Merit.

Another honorable mention, to the MetalTs, another AU that's like the Street Punks. And The Swag Turtles, which is an AU different enough to not only be an original iteration, but be its own Mythos. The Four Horsemen of TMNT deviantART AUs, The Street Punks, The Swags, Metal Ts, and TMNT Apocalypse. XD

Raph is having a moment