The bleak roleswap of what was thought awaited them.
Adressing the season 5 apocalypse.
No K12 fan is stranger to their dynamic. And the perception their father has of them, whether you love Splinter or hate his rat guts, is unignorable.
Beyond perception, what is true to Leo is that he's responsibility driven, a self doubting leader, noble, brave, determined, cool headed. Atleast he appears to be and is reluctant to admit when he's not. What you'd call paternal, caring, attent. With dreams of heroism and actions mirroring the ambition.
Raph knows who he is. Centered on strenght and efficiency, prone to ignore the bigger picture, hot tempered, quick to act first, stubborn, bordering aggressive. He acts his age, he gets frustrated, he's likely to get physical.
Now, what's the difference between stubborn and determined? Stubborness comes from pride the refusal of being metaphorically moved at the end it will be used as a negative adjective.
Determined is seen in a more positive light, because by definition it is. It doesn't come from pride, it comes from resilience in the search of a certain goal.
There's a thin line between the two, like there's a thin line between a lot of aspects of Leonardo and Raphael's personalities. Ask anyone to assign determined and stubborn, they'll give stubborn to Raph and determined to Leo. Which is as true as it is interchangeable. Because aren't they both stubborn and determined at times?
Leo can be stubborn. Leo is stubborn about believing in Karai no matter how many times she pits his brothers in danger and how obvious it was that she (atleast then) had no plans of being better, Leo is stubborn about not communicating his needs (Ex; "Panic in The Sewers", every episode Karai appeared in since New Girl in Town despite every advice from Raph).
Now that Raph is mentioned again, he was oddly reasonable through all of those episodes. And determined can apply to him too as much as stubborn can apply to Leo. Raph is determined to keep the team in shape during the farmhouse arc when Leo cant, Raph is determined to protect Casey to not let him end up hurt like Slash before him and Zog after.
— Let's talk efficiency now.
They both want efficience in their own way, and both interpret efficiency in an imperfect way that again, in BOTH cases stems from situations that makes it understandable to think of it that way. Out of frustration or hurt. Or both.
In "Follow the leader" Leo has to learn that a successful team is made of different elements working in harmony. In "Slash and destroy", Raph learns having a LITERAL no nonsense, no team or rest crap crime partner without as much heart as brain and muscles, isn't sustainable. Both centered around their own views of efficience.
Leo's frustration with the team comes from the failed, or atleast failed in his way of rating, exercise. And his brothers undermining him and writing on his katana.
Raph's comes from Donnie's dangerous mistake almost hurting Spike, the time they take fooling around and the "you're a unity" feel of Splinter's order to clean uo the mess.
Back to Splinter's perception. I think he sees Leo as his mini him, maybe not conciously, but there's this empathy he has for him he's never had for Raph.
In "Fungus Homoungous" he's understanding on Leo's fear of losing the team, it's a noble fear, a selfless feeling. To be approved but reassured. In "Turtle temper", Raph's similarity to him is motive of punishment. And even the reassurememt at the end was a scolding, there's this gentleness he's more prone to have with Leo than Raph any day.
One could argue Leo's problem was internal and Raph's was inconviniencing the team, but there's always this harshness or pettiness that he treats Raph with that no one else gets to that extent.
Raph is the first to be handled roughly in "Panic in The Sewers" when Splinter's paranoid. Mind you, only for half a protest on why they were prepared. He gets his arm forcibly pushed behind his back.
In "Turtle temper" he's shot by plastic arrows by Splinter's command, no idea how that helps his anger management. Maybe to prove a point, but it seemed more like punishing him for struggling with something Splinter already knew he had.
There's this implied bitterness Splinter has for Raph being the way he is, he sees him like this little murdering machine that has to be taught otherwise. It's a reasonable implication to me atleast, that he reminds him of Saki before he became Shredder. This temperamental, aggressive, bitter of his brother monster.
Leo is his mini me, with perfect fears and appropiately tempered ego. This just right. And that'a not good either, holding this 16 yr old to standards he, master savvy in his 50s, holds himself to. Donnie and Mikey dont get this kind of attention
Just putting it out there, he came up with an explanation onto why everyone was getting the weapon they were getting EXCEPT Mikey. And he calls him dumb left and right, his brothers are 16 and his brothers. In my opinion a father shouldn't quietly encourage the rest of his sons to call their brother stupid.
"Any of your brothers could've been leader."
If we were using Carrie from Stephen King as an analogy, I wouldn't make him Margaret White. I'd make him Miss Desjardin. She doesn't hate Carrie and she doesn't want her to suffer, but she thinks of Carrie the same way everyone else thinks about her. Just not as loudly.
"Mikey gets shellacne", he'll say Mikey should like himself because he is enough. But he wont treat him as such even if he himself knows and has confirmed he has potential.
And Donnie.. Donnie's just there. He gets told off about April, then comforted she'll come back, it zigzags between forget about her and she'll come back from Splinter's advice. He was gentle about the 'not enough retromutagen' situation but they have nothing that lasts long.
Back to Leo he shows he'll be a perfect successor to Splinter. He already holds as a good replacement paternal figure, blue is for control and regalcy. Red is for anger and evil. Red will be taught away, blue will be enriched and perfected.
If he doesn't intervene, red will grow like the old murderous, blood red before him and blue wont reach it's full potential, because of priding itself in it's ease and demmanding gratitude.
And he cant have that, can he?
Raph could grow up a villain, a ball of anger, of envy, a tyrant ruthless in his rule. Like who would've been his uncle. But he will be taught away of the possibility. He has to be.
Leo will be leader of the Hamato clan, just and controlled. Paternal in a way, he'll be expected to be less child than the rest of his brothers but that, his father knows he can handle.
Those paralells make sense. It explains the behavior he has towards the two.
And "New friend, old enemy" would've been an amazing opportunity to let us know the show knows what it's implying and confirm it from the start.
When Bradford shows Mikey "The Death Dragon" move and Mikey runs to show it to his brothers, the post big reveal that Bradford is Shredder's pupil.
Splinter finds him practicing it and..
This flashback, where they turn into him and Saki in the past, it always got my attention. Because you'd expect of Raph to be the one reminding him of Saki's ways of moving and smugness. You'd expect Leo to be in the place he was.
It would've been good foreshadowing, it would've reinforced a very logical theory, everything to do with his treatment of the two. Almost a missed opportunity in my eyes. But then you get to the end of season 5 and this turns into amazing foreshadowing.
He lost everything that made him himself. He forgot what their family used to be and the concept of family itself. Even his new name is an exaggerated title. He was disfigured in the place of the one that was supposed to be hurt, even if this time it was intentional. He wears this intimidating piece as a mask, he's a ruthless leader in every sense of the word. Who only knows conquer and anger, and even when he recovers his thought, he has no problem leaving his arena and his followers to go off to paradise with his brothers.
This rough looking paternal figure looking to bring the family back together, helping the weak and bringing them alone with him in conditions you'd expect no one to be kind in. Even when Leo is a deranged warlord who he didn't even know was Leo, Raph is focused on keeping Mira safe and getting to paradise with what is left of his family. Anger was left behind long ago.
He's the one who holds most of what's left of Splinter. Not physically, we aren't shown where he was buried. Not literally, we dont see any of his items with him. Even when Donnie has April's old [insert name] and Raph has Casey's skull. But he is what Splinter represents in the show.
Raph is what Leo was expected to be, Leo is what Splinter feared Raph could be.
And of course this tragedy starts with Leo sacrificing himself again, leaving himself to die till the very end. And another thing I want to point out about Maximus Kong, it's so odd that even while forgetting everything about himself, face and what he used to be. He still became a leader for another group in a whole new set of circumstances. But with this eccentric and fear inspiring grandeur. A whole arena, his way of moving through the ruins in his giant killer car with his bloodthirsty lackeys trailing along.
My theory is that Leo's core desires and needs stayed through his second mutation. He's a leader, not a follower. With no bigger authority than himself, he's power drunk in no time, he has the people and the resources to be worshipped, to be feared like it was always meant to be.
I think subconciously he had these thoughts, these not quite present, not quite absent memories of how his leadership used to be so often questioned, if he's so widely feared yet so widely followed, I can bet this was a normal irritation to him, it goaded him to enforce himself even more. Keep them fearing and entertained, he'll rule till these ruins fall down.
This is where I get self indulgent to try and give everything an explanation: To me it would make sense if Leo liked violence as a concept besides righteous, logical violence. But if he has his cake, it has to be palatable in some way. It has to be righteous. His "humanity" stops him from going through it, his mercy, in "Never say Xever" he is ready to pummel the purple dragons into free nose jobs, but the other leader's terrified face is what stops him. He smiles at the thought of beating a stubborn villains a lot of times, he is excited at the Death Dragon like all of his brothers, he has fun beating Donnie and Mikey into losing during the "A team, B team" drama. That explains the arena, there is no guilt if there is no shame, just wants and fulfillment of every one. With the arena he fulfills the little urge to see and feel action, in later season when the city stops needing protection it even frustrates him
Donnie: "You shouldn't take risks like that Leo."
Leo: "What risks? The city doesn't need us anymore."
It's not irrational to think of it that way, atleast to me. It's an outlet for the overresponsible, laughed-at-for-being-so-goody big brother to be able to beat and cut up bad guys without consequences. Since any other outlet to his frustration would be out of character for him in the eyes of his Sensei and his brothers. He'd be acting in a way that is uncontrolled, acting like Raph, acting in a way Splinter has punished before, and made Leo a part of. ("Turtle temper", Raph is shoot with rubber arrows and insulted until he's so frustrated he falls to the ground.)
And back to their sibling relationship, it would be a good subtextual addition to it. Like I said, more alike then they think. Maybe make it less hostile in some episodes or make it even more conflictive. Leo is a little bit like Raph but was happy to take part in his punishment and is always quick to call him out on his temper. Leo is a little bit like Raph but manages to still be the favorite and hides those traits down below because he doesn't want to be seen like Raph is seen, Raph could see this as Leo thinking of him as less than. And by Splinter's influence, while aware or not, maybe Leo sometimes does.
Special mention to "Slash and destroy" when Raph tries to get violent about Mikey when he stained his old magazine collection and was scolded by Leo for it because "they're just things" but in "Parasitica" Leo gets violent about Mikey using his comic as toilet paper, even if Mikey did it for a good reason that was to snap him out of his obsession with his egg.
Back to assumptions made with canon contents:
I'm betting his goons in the apocalypse act by his values, violent values corrupted by the double mutation. He has this raw control he never had before, this need to be obeyed and praised (praise he so desperately wanted from Splinter) that is so satisfied in these circumstances there is no way he will let Red Stripe, a newcomer with no name he can recall shakes the fundations lf his arena. He's the irrationally angry one now.
Master Splinter must be rolling in his grave. And Saki laughing at him down from hell, 3 of his children were him or his at some point.
