This might be unpopular, but I don’t like those Rise/2012 crossover fics where the Rise Turtles go around brutally murdering the 2012 Kraang
Basically, I think it’s fucked up how so many fics portray the Rise Turtles as these super-violent assholes who go around brutally murdering other-universes’ Krang/Kraang/Utroms, especially since they’re typically portrayed as like “misunderstood heroes” in those fics. This is for a number of reasons, including:
1. I personally don’t like when mindless mass-murder is portrayed heroically like this, including when it’s done to sapient/selfaware nonhuman species(like the Kraang/Utroms). I just think it’s fucked-up, especially when it’s done because they are their group/species rather than because of any actions they might have done. I’m not opposed to murder in fiction, and even find it cathartic when it’s awful people being murdered for the fucked-up shit that they’ve done; I just don’t like when murder is done because the person is a certain group(or in this case species), especially when the murderer is portrayed as sympathetic and/or heroic for it(which also reminds me too much of shit i went through in another fandom).
2. It also makes the Turtles look bad, even if you don’t care about the Kraang or the morality of fictional murder. They act like violent monsters in some of these fics, especially the ones where they don’t even have specific Kraang they’re targeting(eg. 2012 Krang Prime or Kraang Subprime) and instead they’re just butchering the whole species. They are literally acting like villains, like straight-up they’re treating the Kraang exactly like Draxum tried to treat Humanity before his redemption arc and like Newtralizer actually did treat the Kraang/Utroms! The Turtles are supposed to be heroes in most of these fics(though i will acknowledge that some of them are AUs where the Turtles were at least partially raised by Draxum, and are thus more violent and warlike, but even in those they’re still basically considered ‘misunderstood traumatized heroes’)!
3. I do have Rise Krang alters, and they are nice and aren’t evil like their source characters, and so they don’t like seeing their kind be so evil or have such fucked-up things done to them. Call me biased, but it’s true. However, I also have alters of the Turtles, and they don’t like seeing themselves being portrayed as violent assholes either, even if they do get why the fictional turtles have the trauma they do.
4. I find it interesting that there aren’t any Rise/2003 crossover fics where the Rise Turtles attack the 2003 Utroms the way they do the 2012 Kraang in these fics, and are called out for it. I also noticed that none of the Rise/2012 fics really bring up the 2012 Utroms and how most of the 2012 Kraang are literally being mind-controlled by 2012 Kraang Prime(and are thus not in control of their actions!). Obviously it’s because they want the Turtles to look better, so they only have them go all Punisher on the villainous Kraang/Krang/Utroms; but even knowing that, it still annoys me that they make these fics and the AU Rise Turtles are never truly called out on it narratively(if they get called out, it’s by characters who are meant to be assholes and/or misunderstanding things, and it is done to make the AU Rise Turtles into the victims and misunderstood heroes)