I Genuinely Believe That Yuichi Would Find Leos Jokes Absolutely Hilarious

I genuinely believe that Yuichi would find Leo’s jokes absolutely hilarious  

I had a few days off last week so I made this little animatic for fun! Many thank yous to my animation pals for lending their voices. I was going to just have text instead, but being able to add sounds effects and voices was really fun! I hope all of my fellow Rise fans are doing okay this week, I know times are tough but there is always hope! Love to you all.

My favorite part of rottmnt as compared to other versions is that in every other version the turtles were created more or less by accident, but in Rise they’re intentionally created by the first major villain of the show for world domination, so even though they are rescued and become good guys, they are all still just a little tiny bit evil and it’s so much fun

There’s a really cool reference to the original TMNT in Rise

Splinter: You will be remade into the image of your ancestors 

Splinter gives the Turtles ‘traditional Hamato clothing’ & they all start wearing red masks which is a reference to how the original TMNT all wore red masks giving another meaning to the ‘image of your ancestors’ line

But there’s another reference to the original TMNT in the fact that they show Leo in the new red mask first before showing the rest of his brothers

And the reason for that is because the original TMNT Turtles were all supposed to be Red Eared Sliders 

The reason that the original TMNT Turtles all wore red masks was actually supposed to be a reference to the fact that they were supposed to be Red Eared Slider Turtles.

So when Splinter ‘remakes the turtles in the image of their ancestors’ & gives them red masks as a nod to the original TMNT turtles, Leo is shown first because he’s a Red Eared Slider just like the original TMNT Turtles

Rise is really good with how they handle the character’s relationships even in the smallest moments

Raph: Dad!?

Mikey: Draxum!?

Donnie: April!?

Leo:…Foot Recruit? 

In Battle Nexus New York when Splinter, Draxum, April & Cassandra break free of the orb each Turtle yells out a different name & the name they call out actually has a lot behind it (at least for Raph, Mikey & Donnie)

Raph’s relationship with Splinter is a little complicated, as the eldest son Splinter put a lot of responsibility on Raph but Raph constantly wants to make Splinter proud. Raph’s shown to worry about making Splinter disappointed & was the one who convinced his brothers to take the Hamato training seriously for Splinter’s sake. He’s also the one who learned the most about Splinter’s past being the one who saw the memory of Splinter loosing his mother.

Mikey is the one closest to Draxum, the boy practically carried Draxum’s redemption on his back. Mikey was the first one who acknowledged Draxum’s place in the family as the boys creator & is the one who pushes Draxum to make connections with the other members of the family as well.

Donnie & April are best friends, Donnie trusts April enough to be vulnerable with her about his insecurities & April believes in Donnie to the point where he’s one of the first people she goes to for help as seen when she calls him for help when the Albearto at her work place breaks down. There have been a few Donnie & April solo episode together which really show how much they trust & believe in each other as well as how comfortable they are around each other as well.

Leo calling out Foot Recruit I think is just the writers having a bit of fun over the fact that before Karai appeared & Foot Recruit was revealed to be the Rise version of Casey, so many people thought that Foot Recruit was going to end up being the Rise version of Karai so whenever writers did Q&A’s on twitter a near constant question that was asked was when would Leo & Foot Recruit interact or if they would have an episode together ect so I think Leo calling out Foot Recruit was the writers doing a little nod to the people who kept on asking for Leo & Foot Recruit interaction.

Though Leo did end up being the sensei to Cassandra’s kid so they must have ended up friends at some point

I have a theory that fighting Hypno is what ended up getting Leo interested in stage magic.

Something I’ve wondered about is that even though Leo is shown to be a huge fan of stage magic in ‘The Clothes Don’t Make the Turtle’ is that he wasn’t shown to be excited about fighting a magician when Hypno is first introduced, Leo loves stage magic he should have been fanboying over fighting a magician like Mikey does with Meat Sweats or Raph does with Ghost Bear but Leo treats Hypno like any other enemy

 In the Rise comics that are set in the Turtle’s early adventures Leo isn’t even impressed when Hypno does magic in front of him.

The closest we get to Leo being impressed by Hypno in Hypno’s first appearances is Leo being impressed by his outfit not his magic

Hypno: Feel the power!

Leo: That is one well dressed evil mutant hipo

Before Hypno mutated he was prominent enough that his disappearance was featured on the news

But Leo has no reaction to him even though he gets excited about other magicians in The Clothes Don’t Make the Turtle

Leo: Sir John! Huge fan! Can I get a quick selfie?

Leo: What are you doing!? That was Venus de Magic! The Queen of quick change!

And it’s not that Leo has decided to put his love of magic on back burner when fighting Hypno or he’s just not impressed by Hypno specifically because in Hypno’s later appearances Leo does enjoy Hypno’s magic. 

Leo: Another secret door!

So why is Leo impressed by Hypno’s magic in later appearances but not in earlier ones? I think it’s because Leo wasn’t into stage magic /yet/ & Rise even shows the episode where Leo’s love for stage magic starts.

In the episode Hypno! Part Deux we see Raph & Leo watching magicians on (probably Donnie’s) laptop & Leo is shown for the first time to be excited by stage magic & that excitement continues throughout the episode

Leo: It’s so amazing! The school was there one second and poof now it’s gone!

April: We can’t leave Hypno is gonna make the school disappear.

Leo: Another school is gonna disappear? These magicians are out of control!

Raph: Hypno! Welcome to another edition of Raph-de-piece theatre! Tonights episode… punches!

Leo: But first how do you make a school disappear? Wait don’t tell me! Okay tell me!

I think Leo wasn’t a fan of stage magic until after he had already fought Hypno for the first time, the fact that Leo is watching video’s of magicians with Raph in ‘Hypno! Part Deux’ is a sign that Raph might have actually inadvertently got Leo into stage magic.

My theory is that Raph probably wanted him & Leo to research stage magic for the team because one of their enemies was a magician & it ended up with Leo getting really into stage magic.