TMNT TALK
We need to talk about the episode Wanted: Bebop & Rocksteady and just how well it conveys how disorganised and lost the four brothers are through their dialogue, environment, and body language.
Let's start with Mikey, shall we? When I was initially looking back on this episode, I couldn't think of a passion or role on the team that Mikey would lack once ever present danger was taken out of the picture for him. But in Mikey's case, his problem is not that he is now lacking something, but instead, he now has an over-abundance of something.
It's painfully obvious by his groaning and flat expression, that Mikey... isn't enjoying watching TV.
The guy who said the TV was the most important thing when the space gremlins were chewing up the ship in Season 4, the guy who was always obsessing over a new cartoon and having cartoon marathons, the guy who threw a fit when he couldn't find the TV remote... I could go on. It's not unknown to anyone who watches 2012 that Mikey has an undying love for cartoons and television in general.
It's horribly unlike him to be this way.
But it's not a surprise.
Beforehand, watching cartoons, playing card or board games, reading comics — it was all a privilege to Mikey then. It was his relief from stress, his downtime. He and his brothers were constantly facing something deadly, so moments where they just got to wind down and do whatever they wanted were cherished.
TV, now instead of being the positive break, has become a dull constant. Mikey now has too much free time on his hands, has been watching too much TV, and it's just not appreciated in the same way it once was.
Then we move on to Donnie, who is loudly blasting music in his lab.
To my knowledge (?) There has not been a scene of Donnie playing music in his lab before. It depends on the person, but generally, if you're playing music, especially loud music? You're probably not going to be very focused or properly taking in any of the work you're doing.
It could also show his boredom again – how he is trying to add a little bit something extra to his day with some music, trying to feel something with it.
A Kraangdroid body lies on the table, something that once instilled so much joy and so many ideas in Donnie. He was so eager to work with Kraang technology in Season One, Episode Six, 'Metalhead'.
But he's used Kraang technology so much now. It's not inspirational. It's not new or exciting. It shows the stark contrast to how he once was, from Season One to now Season Five.
He's made an anti-gravity calzone maker. It isn't the most useful invention, which Donnie acknowledges that.
'Anti-gravity calzone maker may not be the most practical invention... maybe a new robo–training dummy that Raph can't destroy within five minutes?'
When Donnie is inventing now, it's not about a genuine passion to create. It's about being occupied and trying to keep himself out of a state of boredom. He isn't impressed with what he just made, but it killed some time.
He also speaks of Raph's struggles in that line, Raph doesn't have any real outlet, and he's getting frustrated with what's on offer. He's presented with the same formula again and again by Donnie, something to fight but not something satisfactory, and that brings forth Raph's boredom.
I think that line about Raph tells us some unspoken things, too.
If you'd recall, Donnie made Metalhead to be a kind of training tool, and all of his brothers, including Raph, were essentially floored by Metalhead. The second time Metalhead was put against them in Metalhead Rewired, they still struggled.
So, if Donnie can create training robots very capable of holding Raph off, why is Raph now easily breaking them like toys?
I think this could imply either two things.
Implied scenario A is that Donnie has started to put less effort or passion into these robot training dummies. He is not making them as strong or defensible as Metalhead was. He's just making them quicker with less quality, less love, his robots are now just half-assed, poor attempts to solve his own boredom, and Raph's boredom.
Implied scenario B is that Raph has spent so much time with these training dummies (that are still perhaps Metalhead quality), that he's learned their weaknesses and how to take them down quickly. Even if you struggle with something (like he struggled with Metalhead), if you're faced with it enough times, you'll slowly learn how to work around the obstacles it presents.
Raph is forced to vent his anger on inanimate things, like the robots Donnie keeps pumping out for him like a factory or mercilessly pummelling the punching bag in the main room.
Donnie's movements are frustrated, quick, and exasperated. He throws his wrench, he shoves himself away from his desk, and he throws the clipboard over his shoulder. He gets up, slams his hands down, twiddles with the arm of a Kraangdroid, and throws that too before banging a fist down again.
He's carelessly making his laboratory a cluttered mass, and this can say a lot since your physical space often represents your mental one. Cluttered mind, most likely a cluttered room.
Donnie, mindlessly moving about the Kraangdroid arm, also speaks volumes to me, especially the concept of half-formed thoughts. You know what I mean, right? When you have a bunch of ideas, but none of them are entirely complete, just a bunch of sludge that weighs your head down.
I feel this when I'm bored in class and I want to doodle. I don't end up drawing any coherent thing, vague shapes that go nowhere, aimless scribbling. That's what I feel like applies to Donnie in that scene as he holds that robot arm: ideas, but none are solid.
Donnie also says something else out of character –
'Forget it. Without any weekly, crazy threat, there's just no point.'
If you remember, Donnie, in early Season One, made an advanced music player and was ecstatic about it, ecstatic to share it with his brothers. It wasn't a secret weapon or anything big in size, just music. And Donnie enjoyed making it.
Donnie has created things before that were not intended for battle purposes, but now Donnie seems to have the mindset that all his inventions should be hinged on battle, on strategy, on disguise or transport, and if they aren't, then there's no point in making anything else. The thought of making fun things like a music player doesn't cross Donnie's mind anymore.
Donnie doesn't rush out of his lab or call his brothers to see his new invention of the anti-gravity calzone maker like he has done for every other thing he made in the series, because the truth is, for maybe the first time, Donnie is embarrassed by something he has made.
It could also be that he's under the assumption that none of his brothers would enjoy or compliment him for it, so thinks there is no reward for showcasing it to them – a lot of Donnie's praise and reassurance was received after he would present his brothers something they enjoyed or found cool – which compliments would be something Donnie is now unfortunately lacking if he isn't inventing like he used to.
Donnie doesn't even think if this is something Mikey would like to see. Out of anyone, Mikey probably would've been hyped about an anti-gravity calzone maker.
But Donnie just gives up.
We go on to Leo, who is trying to meditate, but seemingly can't.
Much like Donnie, we can see his frustration in his movements, as he groans and throws himself back to lay splayed out on the floor.
Leo was always capable of going into deep meditation, so it's frustrating him that he now can't. Leo was always stressed out. There was always so much craziness to deal with that to just forget everything for a moment and slip away into nothingness was easy for him because he needed it.
He needed that escape.
But now, there is no craziness. He can't escape into peace (meditation) because he's surrounded by it already.
'I never thought peace could be so... dull.'
It circles back to similar feelings that reside within Mikey. Peace is not appreciated, and peace is boring when you have it all the time.
It's kind of bittersweet, in a way. The TMNT always seemed excited at the prospect of having their forever calm, excited about finally wrapping up conflicts, and now, when they finally have it, they don't like it.
He also says this–
'I don't get it, Master Splinter. I've been meditating for weeks, and I still don't feel any enlightenment or higher plane or anything...'
Leo feels like his place as leader is becoming a bit meaningless without danger, he's lacking that role so he's trying to move on to the next thing, he's trying to focus on a new goal but he's having trouble reaching it. He's painfully stuck.
He then turns his head to look at a photo of his brothers and himself as kids, Splinter standing with them.
Maybe Leo feels like he's failed Splinter for not being able to reach this enlightenment.
There's a scene not too long after where Leo joins Mikey and Raph in the main room, Raph says that he's dying for some action, to which Leo then agrees with the sentiment and says...
'The Foot are gone, Shredder is dead, I never thought I'd miss the Kraang.'
I don't think anybody acknowledges that this line is sort of, dare I say, insensitive for Leo to say.
When danger is around, it's innocent people's problem, too. Others are put in danger. The Kraang successfully mutated New York and turned them into slaves. The Triceratons sucked Earth into a black hole.
April also had a lot of stuff to deal with regarding the Kraang. They did awful things to her and the rest of her family tree, I'm sure April would be less than happy to have them back around.
Now, I'm not saying Leo is a bad person for this line, and I'm certainly not trying to make it sound like Leo doesn't care about other lives that are at stake. He and his brothers most certainly do, for when people are involved they jump through many hoops to restore order.
They stormed Dimension X with the help of the Mutanimals to change an entire Technodrome's fuel to retromutagen, transform every person from New York back to a human, and bring everyone back via teleportation. They went on a crazy space chase collecting the Black Hole generator fragments for six months to bring Earth back.
Onto scenarios specifically focused on Leo. He once prevented a human couple from being mutated by Kraangdroids and was offended when the pair ran away screaming from him.
When Chloe (the little girl Leo had tea with in the episode Slash and Destroy, if you didn't know her name!) took the mutagen from a sale on the street, he persisted in trying to get the canister back, risking himself being seen several times, and eventually willingly revealed himself to Chloe to ensure she wasn't mutated.
So no, I'm not saying Leo doesn't care. He clearly does, I mean, he's had years of training and lectures about not being seen, and he broke a rule that had been basically engrained into him by his father for Chloe.
It's selfish and insensitive to say because Leo wishes for something dangerous to occur because he wants his bad case of boredom to be cured and his sense of purpose to be rekindled, without considering the destruction or injury that could come to others should things like that return.
Leo's feelings were just worded poorly, however.
No, I don't think Leo genuinely wants the man who killed his father and put him in a coma back so that he's not a little bored. No, I don't think Leo genuinely wants the aliens that he sacrificed himself for, that the whole planet was mutated at the hands of, and that caused a close friend of his so much pain back so that he's not a little bored.
That'd be ridiculous.
The situations that gave them purpose just so happened to unfortunately have pain attached to them. They can not find their passions in other forms because they're mutants, and that limits them all.
As humans, we can apply our personality traits to lots of different opportunities.
Comparing the 2012 brothers to Mutant Mayhem / Tales of the TMNT, we'll soon notice some things.
In Season Two of Tales, it's revealed to us through dialogue that Leo is a hall monitor at school, which would notably include enforcing rules and being direct with people, which are leadership traits.
Tales of the TMNT Donnie is naturally assigned things to work on for robotics class, this Donnie is not lost, not trying to come up with new ideas all the time by himself. He gets prompted, and he gets praised by other people, like his peers and teachers, not just his brothers.
Tales Raph partakes in wrestling, real people he can relate to, and genuinely fight with. It's satisfactory. When 2012 Raph doesn't have bad guys to fight, all he can do is fall back on training dummies and punching bags.
Tales of the TMNT Mikey gets to fire his jokes in a place where his jokes are actually appreciated, and 2012 Mikey's jokes were often based on his environment or things happening in the moment. Being stuck in the lair all the time doesn't make much opportunity for that. 2012 Mikey would've found entertainment and fulfilment in something like improv class.
Say Tales Leo got his role as a hall monitor taken away, and he'd complain about it because a feeling of purpose in a position of authority has been lost.
2012 Leo has lost life or death missions, so he complains about the absence of those because his role as the leader of a team is lost.
2012 Leo's is ultimately worded in a worse and insensitive way because he doesn't have anything tame to wish for the return of.
But at the end of the day, both characters want the same purpose back.
Leo's true and simpler unspoken message when he said that was 'I want my purpose back'. It just came out awfully and made him sound uncaring.
OVERALL
Say what you will about 2012's writing, but you can't deny they got a lot of messages across on several occasions. The change in attitudes from the beginning compared to the end was incredibly well shown.