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The Episode Leonardo Lightens Up from the 87 tmnt never really explains whether the Leo altered by the personality ray is Leo as he would be with his sense of responsibility switched off, a sort of anti-Leo, or just a random alternate personality.
But.
Well.
I do have to wonder if the Rise producers looked at this episode for inspiration on what a Leo who shies away from responsibility instead of embracing it would be like.
It's the body language.
Leonardo is usually inclined to stand firm and square up to things, he's the bulwark of the team (especially in the version with the least fighty Raph). As a contrast this personality switched Leonardo has very light body language.
He turns backflips down the hall immediately after being hit with the personality altering ray. He does handstands on skateboards. He almost never stops moving.
It's very Rise!Leo body language and I wonder if this is the inspiration or whether it came from the same place of contrast with a "regular" Leo.
The evolution of the wild one.
Edit: I forgot to add 2007 Mikey in the tags lmao. 😆
Turtle mix and match; part 1, team one - 2003 Leonardo, 2018 Raphael, 1987 Donatello, 2014 Michelangelo, 2012 April.
The first of a short fic called Turtle Mix and Match! The turtles and April’s of five different worlds are mixed up, and chaos ensues!
Leonardo woke up, except it wasn’t like waking at all. It was like the blink of an eye, and the dojo of his sewer home changed into a building on the surface, old and haunted by the smell of mildew and cobweb. A building without any sign of life, vines creeping through shattered windows and the air still enough to send a chill up his shell.
He felt almost numb with astonishment as he took a step and the old rotted floor nearly gave way beneath his heavy form. He jumped out of the way before it could take him down with it, catching himself in a roll that sent him tumbling out into open air. He was on earth— or at least somewhere similar— but everything around him seemed almost apocalyptic in its isolation. Every building (the ones he could see that is) were the same as the one he had found himself in; old, overgrown, and dead. Dead in the sense that there were no humans, but in their place plants and weeds grew through the cracked asphalts and forgotten walkways, making a new world out of the stone. Beautiful, in a way, like something out of a fairy tale.
“This has the Shredder written all over it...”
“HELLO!”
The voice was distant, but it was something. Something living, something to break the silence. Something other than himself that was trapped just as he was. He ran toward the shout, pressing on through the tangled vines and getting himself snagged on thorns more than once; by the time he made it through to the other side, small beads of blood speckled his green skin, but the scratches were nothing to him.
“Hey! HEY!”
He saw their silhouettes from afar, two of them, but as he started to close the distance between them, both he and the other team stopped dead in their tracks. One silhouette was massive, even larger than Raphael, with a broad shell in clear view even against the suns blinding light. The second figure was small, his head just barely reaching the larger ones chest, a weapon in his hand. A bo staff in his hand...
“Donnie... Raph?”
“Eh. Not quite.” The smaller turtle said as he and his companion continued to approach until Leonardo could make out the details of their appearance.
“MIKEY?! Oh... oh wow, you really are... Donnie... and Mikey? Holy shell.”
“Don’t go passing out on us, now.” The monstrous excuse for a Michelangelo said. “Man, is everyone else here gonna be shorties? Gotta admit, kinda digging being the bigger brother for once.
“Do you remember me?” Donatello asked.
“Oh my god...” Leonardo laughed and let out a heavy sigh. He remembered four tiny turtles invading his world almost a year prior. He rubbed his face to bring himself back to reality, “yo— you’re—“
“Listen, we’re just as confused as you.” The Donatello said.
“Yeah! I didn’t even get to finish my pizza!” The Michelangelo said, and then quickly pouted, “and it was a good one too.”
“I remember you.” Leonardo Said, pointing to Donatello. “I do! I— I do remember!”
“And I remember you; this guy is from a third timeline.”
“There’s three?!”
“Technically, there should be infinite worlds, but there’s no telling how many of us are here right now.”
“Where exactly is here?” Michelangelo asked, to which both Leonardo and Donatello shrugged.
“No clue.” Donatello said.
“All I know is one second I was training with my brothers in the dojo and the next I’m in some wasteland! This has to have been Shredder— or the Damiyo’s son, he did this once before.”
“Who?” Mikey inquired.
“Listen, We’re all in the same boat here!” Donatello got in between the orange and blue turtles, barely half their size but standing strong eight way, “You wanna find your brothers and we wanna find ours— the easiest way to do that is to work together—“
The speech was interrupted by a powerful crash rippling through the air and making all three mutants nearly jump out of their shells in shock.
“Well... that sounds like a place to start?” The Michelangelo suggested with a shrug.
“Come on.” Leonardo almost immediately shook away the panic growing in him so it could be replaced with a determined curiosity. “Let’s go.”
~~~
He was alone. That was all he knew; he was alone and he was scared and he had no idea where he was, but he was surrounded by enemies. The shadows in the corners of his eyes, gone in a flash when he turned to look, fading away to be replaced with more monsters. Monsters monsters monsters. Monsters that wanted to peel him out of his shell and eat him whole. Danger. Dangerous monsters that would kill him if he didn’t kill them first.
Kill... kill... smash... smash them to pieces!
He had to crush them, but he could never move fast enough and each blow came crashing down on something else— on trees and bushes and anything in his path that could be hiding a monster.
“Raph?!”
~~~
The giant, lumbering beast turned to face them. His mouth hung open and foam dripped out over his chin, a yellowed snag tooth protruding out over his bottom lip and glistening with his slobber. When he spoke, his voice was slow and slurred like a drunk person, his white eyes glistening back to color.
“Brothers?” The spiked Raphael said.
“Finally!” Michelangelo groaned, motioning toward the Raphael, “Someone else with clothes on!”
“BROTHERS!”
The seven foot mutant charged them and Leonardo reached for his katana, pulling the blade into a defensive position. The snapper skidded to a stop, a hurt look spreading across his face as he gave a pout.
“Leo...?” He shook his head, and his voice changed, “Leo? You’re... not Leo...”
“Take it easy.” Donatello held his hands up in a peaceful surrender.
“You’re not Donnie... you’re not Mikey...”
“We are!” Donatello said, “Technicslly. Just not the ones you’re used to.”
“Oh...”
“Do you remember what you were doing before you were teleported here?” Leonardo asked, keeping his weapon ready in case the Raphael went savage again; he could see the destruction left in the wake of the massive beast and could only imagine what would happen if that was turned on a human— or a mutant.
“Yeah, I was in the middle of a Lou jitsu marathon!”
Donatello stroked his chin curiously, “Do you have any enemies who might’ve... had it out for you?”
“There’s Big Mama.” He suggested.
“And I have Kraang. Maybe... maybe our enemies are working together? I can’t see why any one enemy would want to go against all of us— especially those they’ve never even met! Unless it was some type of mistake...” Donatello trailed off into his own thoughts.
Leonardo took a deep breath. “The best thing we can do is look for anything that might tell us what happened, to us or our brothers, and work from there.”
“Good thinking, Leo!” Raphael seemed far too accepting of the situation, “Okay Mad Dogs, follow me!”
Nobody moved.
Raphael looked between the turtles and gave an awkward hand signal.
“Follow me...?” He repeated slower.
“Why?” Leonardo asked slowly.
“Why?” Raphael looked around and gave an awkward laugh, “c... cause I’m the leader?”
Silence was all the statement begot, followed soon after by a howling laughter from the other three mutants.
“What’s so funny?” The Raphael huffed.
“Wait— you—“ Michelangelo fought for his breath through the laughter, “you’re serious?”
“Yeah, obviously!”
That only brought more laughter.
“Is there something I should know about?!” Raphael put his hand on his hip. “Or are y’all just laughing for no reason?”
“Uh, yeah. We have a reason.” Leo gave a last chuckle. “I’m the leader.”
Raphael was taken aback by that. “No... I am...”
“Nuh uh. Me. Always been be.” Leonardo insisted.
“That— that can’t be! That’s impossible!”
“Here we go.” Michelangelo covered his ears.
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?” Leonardo shot back.
“Oh no...” Donatello hid behind Michelangelo.
“Because we both can’t be leader! Or wait... maybe...” Raphael’s eyes met Leonardo’s, “we... co-lead...?”
I am climbing the wall about 1987 tmnt season one. Because even though I am enjoying later seasons quite a bit they settle into formula. Season one has an ARC it has CHARACTERISATION. Every following version drew at least partly on 87 and it still has stuff none of those versions did anything with.
Turtles that remember the petstore! Raphael responds to April threatening to expose them by saying he won't go back to the glass bowl. Maybe a fear of government experimentation would be too much for the timeslot, but there is something about Raphael's fear that humans would only see him as a very big pet that requires a very big bowl.
The fact that April does threaten to expose them! Her character arc as she goes from willing to bribe/blackmail them to get her story to threatening her BOSS so that she's able to tell the TURTLES' story and let people know they saved the world. April's intrepid journalism being key to getting the turtles the credit that lets them start to be accepted.
The turtles starting off with a mission to help Splinter become human again, which is the only reason they go along with April, only for Splinter to give up that chance to save THEM from being returned to regular pet turtles.
It's five episodes of incredibly low budget animation and it has all this stuff in it.
The 1987 turtles seem to have more memory from before their mutation than any other turtles. Instead of being hatchlings mutated into children, which Splinter then raised, episode one shows them mutating straight into teenagers.
As a result, they seem more distrustful and resentful of humans. Not because of how humans treat mutants, but because of how humans treat turtles. They remember the petshop and the glass bowl they were kept in. All of them, but Raph especially, seem to fear retromutagen as much because being regular turtles might return them to the petshop or the glass bowl as because it would take their sapience.
I love 87 Leatherhead because he's a wily old alligator who's spent his life evading hunters and now he's a wily old talking, tool-using alligator. No regrets. No questions. Just the realisation he can be the one setting traps now.
He's still quintessentially a big reptile who wants an easy life and large, unsuspecting meals.
The 87 tmnt episode Take Me To Your Leader is like. Oh. Turns out even the cutest and most cartoony Leonardo has massive self-esteem issues and a tendency to assume that either he's actively needed by his family or he's holding them all back and doesn't have a place with them.
