#tmnt rambles

Also 2012 Splinter:

The Creeping Doom

"Your antidote actually worked!"

"It did? I mean-of course it did!"

This. This smirk means everything to me. He is so damn proud of Mikey and you can see it in his face! I think this is the moment Donnie gained a deeper respect for Mikey, and for good reason cause what Mikey does in this episode is pretty amazing.

We know that Mikey is capable of some pretty awesome scientific breakthroughs, as seen in S1ep23 when he finishes the antidote for the mutant wasp venom, and when he upgrades Donnie's retromutagen in S3ep12. But as Leo tried to explain when Mikey brings up him saving them from the mutant wasp, "this is a whole other thing." In the case of the wasp Mikey was following instructions that Donnie left for him before he got fully infected by the venom, so he wasn't creating something new. And in the case of him upgrading the retromutagen it seemed like he was more playing around with ingredients to be like Donnie, rather than consciously adding things for scientific reasons like Donnie does. Which I feel is justified by the fact that he couldn't remember what he did, since he was just throwing things he felt like into the solution.

But in this episode, I feel like Mikey truly showed his scientific capabilities by creating an antidote based on what Donnie's solution originally was, by himself. When he starts the experiment his first question is, "Now what did Donnie do?", and I'm going to assume while Donnie is screaming about the snow cats stealing the power of his brain, Mikey is spending that time experimenting with a purpose and basically reverse engineering Donnie's solution. I am not a scientist so I'm not sure if this is actually how it works, but it seems like Mikey actually remembers what Donnie had in the solution and how the chemicals worked together from listening to him when he hangs out in the lab. And I am basing that on his comment "I know you guys think Donnie is the only one who knows sciency stuff, but I pay attention." And after he mixes all the other chemicals together, he adds his special Mikey flair with a pepperoni thrown in the mix that ends up being part of the reason it works. (Confirmed by Donnie) And that smirk Donnie gives him when he compliments Mikey's antidote shows just how proud he is of Mikey for figuring it out.

We see throughout the series that Donnie adores Mikey (I'm going to do a post on this later), but I think this is the moment Donnie truly sees Mikey in a different light and sees how smart he really is. He recognizes what Mikey did, and he doesn't downplay or brush it off like they usually do when Mikey saves the other three. When they are back at the lair he says he owes Mikey big time, which is the most recognition Mikey has ever gotten for his scientific breakthroughs. And the fact that he brings up the pepperoni adding to the formula shows he understands that Mikey being himself is what saved him. Donnie sees what his brother is capable of, which is even more than he may have originally thought, and knows he can fully trust Mikey with his life, both body and mind.

And now to highlight some moments of Mikey taking care of Donnie this episode:

- Mikey offers to help clean up the trashed lab even though he knows he didn't do it.

- When Donnie says he has a bad headache Mikey immediately brings him a chair to rest in.

- When Leo orders them all to go back to the shellraiser, Mikey throws Donnie from the building roof across an alleyway to the escape ladders on the adjacent building.

- When they are running towards the Shellraiser Mikey keeps a hand on Donnie's back and stays right next to him.

- Mikey is the one who takes Donnie to a hiding place to keep him safe while they trap the villains.

- Mikey takes responsibility for making Donnie loose his intelligence, and takes the initiative to find an antidote when nobody else tried. April suggested if they knew what was in the brain worm solution they might be able to find a cure, and then Mikey was the only one who decided to actually figure that out. Like I know Leo and Raph were occupied chasing Donnie around the lair to get their masks back but come on guys

In the ep the plot mainly follows Mikeys first solo mission and a little more of the relationship he has with Raph, as well as his desire to be taken more seriously by his brothers. But underneath it there’s some GENIUS foreshadowing that’s hidden in the ep.

But first I wanna point out that in the same episode Cassandra (Casey) also goes on her own solo mission, where she’s told by the foot dudes (yup I’m calling them dudes) “to retrieve a mysterious artifacts that was said to be in the possession of action film star Lou Jitsu.” Only later to find out what Cassandra got was in fact not the artifact.

NOW by the end of the ep, we see Mikey at home after completing his first solo mission playing the game with a big grin on his face and after commenting on the graphics Splinter exclaims excitedly how he hasn’t played the game in ages.

However! What caught my attention was the SOUND that subtly played while he was pouring his tea!

BECAUSE GUESS WHAT SOUND PLAYS IN THE FINAL EP OF SEASON ONE!!

THATS RIGHT! THE TEAPOT!! THE FINAL PIECE OF THE DARK ARMOR THAT HAS BEEN HINTED TO US SINCE EP 21

One thing from the tmnt Bayverse that really made me wonder for a second, was the fact that each turtle had actual tattoos on their arms.

On the left, you got Mikey's, in the middle you got Raph's, and on the right you got Leo's. I'm not sure if Donnie has any though...It's been so long since I actually watched the movies.

But regardless, it just strongly implies that at least one of the brothers KNOWS how to give tattoos for some reason and I'm betting it's either Mikey or Leo.

these turtles are all deconstructions of their traditional characterization to some extent. leo's the leader, so he has a hero complex, an intense case of eldest daughter syndrome, and a bunch of fantasies that'll go unfulfilled. raph's strong, so he kinda doesn't give a shit about anything that doesn't involve fighting. he's incredibly emotional and doesn't think things through unless he's forced to, hell, i honestly feel like he was deliberately written to have toxic masculinity. don's smart, so he feels pressured by everyone around him to fix everything, and feels alienated from his bros as a result, when he's a lot more similar to them then he realizes.

and yeah, even mikey deconstructs the whole funny guy thing by making him obsessed with improv, and playing more into his mirage characterization. like, i want you to look at any other version of tmnt and ask yourself, besides being funny and sorta silly, what is mikey's most defining trait? this includes traits that were added to make him funny. (being kinda stupid in 2012, being kinda aggressive in rise, being more of a troll in 2003, etc.) is it being a little childish? is it being the youngest? is it that raph's protective of him?

that's kinda my point. without being funny, mikey is just the baby. the fourth one. the one who doesn't do anything special. so like. yeah! mm/tales mikey isn't supposed to be funny! he's not meant to be the comic relief. he's meant to be more down to earth, he's meant to be kinda the only sane man who tries to keep everyone on track. he's kinda obsessive with his bros roles if him telling rod them is any indication, and it's kinda a clear cut sign that he really doesn't know who he is, so he just gave himself a role.

Painting turtle shells is really bad for turtle due to their porous shells. When their shells are painted, Turtles absorb all the toxins from the paint, are unable to properly sunbathe and regulate body temperature, and it can cause respiratory issues and the feeling of suffocating. All of that plus it can stunt a turtle’s growth.

So i have a little head cannon that Michelangelo paints his own shell because it looks super cool- and then he’s always so sick afterwards and has no idea why he’s constantly getting worse and sicker and sicker after painting the sistine chapel on himself. (That’s also why he’s short lmao) But i feel like even if he did find out painting his shell was bad for him he wouldn’t stop. He gets attention finally because he’s halfway dead and he’s like “its called going out in style” but I’m pretty sure it counts as a form of SH, Mikey.

infact im 100 percent sure he wouldn’t give a damn if painting his shell killed him, i bet he would love that because he has no self preservation instinct.

Michelangelo’s lack of self preservation is seriously concerning. Like during his second fight with Kluh he just lets himself get beat the fuck up until Kluh threatens to kill Michelangelo’s family. Like he basically goes limp and let’s Kluh break him into itty bitty pieces. He knew Kluh wanted to kill him, and he was seriously just gonna let that happen while his entire family watched, and that’s pretty sick and twisted. Like it’s great he cares about his family or whatever but he was stupid, masochistic, and sewerslidal during that fight or something. Maybe he was like “yeah, everyone’s right, they’ve always been right. It was luck that i won, I’m not a real champion. I’m nothing. Guess i’ll die.”

And nobody in his family is like “hey dude why did you take like half an hour and wait for all of your bones to be broken until you actually started to fight back?”

I don’t know if I ever said this before? But here we go again I guess if I have!

Usually when making an oc x canon I start by thinking “who?” And “what’s something about them?” I’ll use Nico and Leo for example. Leo shows interest in magicians and thus I’d say likes magic, so I decided a witch oc would be a cool idea as I saw people do that with Donnie a lot. You could do a lot with this. Someone who’s good with emotions (aka, someone working to being a therapist) and Donnie! Mikey and a witch…? Please…??? Or Leo and a unicorn Yokai

Another idea, dynamics.

Like use Nico and Leo again! Leo is outwardly very cocky, he’s boastful, he’s loud, he’s there! Nico is shy, timid, stutters terribly to strangers, she hides…

Or Donnie and a medic, Mikey with someone who looks up to him, stuff like that!!! You can also play on insecurities of theirs and test smth out from there