I know some people (rightfully) criticize 2k3 Karai for openly recognizing the evil actions of her father and choosing to stick by his side even as an adult, but I feel like I haven't seen enough discussion surrounding why she never chooses to leave and how big of a deal that would be if she did choose to leave.
Maybe it's because I've been developing my own character's backstory and using it as a foil to Karai's (OC in question is Bishop's daughter/ward) , but I feel like her leaving the Shredder behind and moving on with her life is an absolutely enormous ask even with a well meaning outsider like Leo offering his help.
So first let's get the context down: in the 2k3 series Saki finds and adopts Karai when she's quite young and has been abandoned by her parents for some undisclosed reason. I can't recall whether she stated her age, but she looks in the show to be no older than 10.
Saki takes her in, trains her as his one and only pupil. She basically becomes his adopted daughter. Skip forward a couple decades and she's now in her 20s fully running the Japanese chapter of the Foot Clan on her own while he resides mainly within NYC. She is also the only person he trusts to know his Utrom secret. He speaks more openly with her when in private and entrusts very secretive knowledge to her and her alone. She is his right hand, essentially his second in command.
The amount of respect and trust that Karai has in her adoptive father is clear to see and clashes with her acknowledgement of his objectively horrific actions but this is a level of cognitive dissonance that seems very indicative of an abuse victim. While we never see more than a couple flashbacks of Karai's childhood, I have no doubt that life under someone like the Shredder was emotionally neglectful and abusive in countless ways. Even if he never struck her out of anger (which seems unlikely), he is certainly not the type to practice unconditional love. Therefore, Karai likely grew up believing that any sort of care or validation was something she had to earn. She had to earn everything he gave her, including his affection and trust.
And earn his trust, she absolutely did. Saki would not trust just anyone who has shown him unconditional loyalty. Take Hun for example: Hun has spent years under the Shredder serving him without question and is shown throughout the first few seasons to be almost desperate in his attempts to prove his loyalty and earn Karai's place as Shredder's second. But Shredder knows better than to entrust Hun with his most valuable secret. Why? Because he did not raise Hun from childhood and have decades to indoctrinate him with certain beliefs like he did Karai.
The level of implicit trust Shredder has in his adopted daughter should show more than anything else the level of indoctrination Karai must have gone through at his hand when she was growing up.
If you need a more explicit example of that when she's an adult, take the scene in 'Exodus' when she momentarily stops Leo and pleads with him to let her father leave the planet. When Leo refuses and says that he knows her father is only leaving to go and kill the other Utroms, Karai responds with a level of disturbing flippancy at the fact that Leo just accused her father of wanting to commit a geocide, citing that the other Utroms are "heartless monsters" who have been "hunting her father all his life." This might seem a shocking contrast to her previous interactions with Leo where she appears to possess a level of moral integrity that her father distinctly lacks. But I would argue that while it is contradictory, it is a sign of that earlier stated cognitive dissonance which is indicative of her being quite isolated from others and having a close relationship with only her father for most of her life.
It's also worth noting that while Saki is clearly a billionaire and likely affords Karai a good amount of luxuries like private transport, good clothes and food, beautiful residencies, etc., it is highly unlikely that Karai has her own funds that only she can individually access. Meaning that if Karai were to take Leo's advice and leave her father, she would also be leaving behind everything else in her life. Her job, her home, her finances, her ability to survive all depend upon staying in the good graces of her adoptive father.
I remind you: when Saki found her as a kid, she was inside a fairly rundown house, presumably her childhood home, which indicates to me that her parents were likely poor (and maybe could not afford to feed and care for her). Until Saki came into her life like a guardian angel, she only knew a life of poverty and abandonment. So having a life now where she does not have to worry over her survival is something that would likely be terrifying to let go of.
She very likely has no other job experience outside of her father's company. Meaning she would have an extremely difficult time finding a way to support herself after she left. (And she certainly can't use her father as a reference to get a decent job). Not to mention the fact that Shredder would likely try to hunt her down and drag her back if she ever did decide to run. Somehow, I feel like Saki would feel extremely shortchanged if his biggest time investment decided to up and abandon him.
With all these combined factors, it's really no wonder that she chooses to stay put where she is rather than throw away her life, livelihood, and relationship with the one person in her life she feels has shown her love.
I love Leo for seeing the best in her and wanting to help, but I truly don't believe he understands the gravity of what he's asking of her. He's asking her to give up not just her relationship with the one person who took her in, raised her and gave her a home when she needed it most, but also to leave behind every sense of stability she's ever known.
Leo and his brothers face an incredible amount of obstacles and hardships, but a heartless father is not one of them. Which is why he can't understand her position.
This does not mean she's immune from criticism of course, but I wanted to explore this concept a bit in depth because her character is so interesting to me.
I know Mikey is your fav. But I was curious how do you feel about Raph in both 12 and 03?
Yes Mikey is my favorite but Raphael is a very close second! 2003 is also my favorite series so 2003 Raphael is my favorite of the two. But anyways, I really enjoy Raphael’s character.
2012 Raph is very volatile and is probably the most like his comic book counterpart because he’s genuinely more violent than many of his other cartoon iterations. He’s cruel, and his rivalry with Leo is interesting, I love how their dynamic mimics the relationship between Master Splinter and Shredder either way you look at it. His phobia of bugs is played as a laugh despite the fact he had a catatonic panic attack induced by said fear. Despite his anger he does have some depth to him- he obviously cates about his brothers and cares alot about Casey. He and Casey are really similar emotionally so that’s probably why they get along so well- they probably only have eachother to relate to, which really plays into 2012 Raphael feeling “misunderstood” constantly. Also his pet turtle mutated and turned into a conscious being who almost killed his entire family and he has to live with Leo who loves to sacrifice himself so he definitely has alot of issues and genuine trauma that isn’t looked into. But I really enjoy him.
2003 Raphael is still violent but his anger and energy is alot more controlled. He and Leo are competitive but their rivalry is super weak- mostly cause 03 Splinter is actually a good dad who dosnt pit his kids against eachother or make them feel overlooked- they don’t have to compete for praise or approval from Splinter so Raph and Leo get along alot more in 2003 and I think that’s pretty sweet. Raphael is very outwardly protective and loving of his family and friends- and outright strangers sometimes. He panics when his family is in danger and is fully willing to die by their side as long as they all go down together. Nobody dies alone, not on his watch. I like that 2003 Raph is very extroverted and talks with human people more than any other mutant- he went after Casey and tried to give him a therapy lesson, he helped some random kid- and he became best friends with this old blind cat lady (I forgot her name) and her pet kitty cat and helped her have enough money to stay in her house. I live for him having tea with his new grandma. Anyway, he’s honestly pretty selfless- and while he can get cruel he obviously cares way lot more than he hates.
Now, it’s been a while since I’ve seen Season 4. But I’m starting to have an idea why Karai wanted to improve the foot clan.
In City at War, Karai states that the foot clan was an honorable clan before Shredder took it over and corrupted it with his influence and hatred. Now, where have I heard that before. Something pure and innocent, being ruined and corrupted by Shredder. Karai sees the foot clan as a reflection of herself.
More than anything, Karai wants to improve and bring honor back to the foot clan. Because if the foot clan can have honor and be good despite its past with Shredder, then so can she. Both the foot and Karai were twisted into tools of revenge by Shredder. So if she can untwist the foot clan, then there’s a chance that she can untwist herself too. That she can stop being centered on revenge. That she can be free from this cycle of violence and hatred and anger.
Fixing the foot clan was not an act of revenge by Karai. It was an act of self love. If the foot clan can get a second chance, then so can she.
As much as I love and adore the writing and angst potential there is of having F!Leo direct his own anger and resentment of himself for causing the apocalypse on Little Leo, I genuinely don’t think he hated himself anymore at the end. Do I think he hated himself for a really long time? Yes, absolutely. But, the thing is, he was in the apocalypse for 26 years. That’s a lot of time to think.
And here’s the thing, when the apocalypse started he was 14. He thought he and his brothers were untouchable, that nothing wrong could ever happen to them because they beat The Shredder, the seemingly unbeatable enemy. He was still a kid. He wasn’t acting overconfident to play up his incompetence as a leader to get Raph to take the title back, he was like that because he truly thought he was invincible.
And that overconfidence caused the world to end.
And there is no way his brothers let him hang onto that self-hatred for 26 years. (And apologies in advance, I’m gonna use my own experience with self-hate to help get my point across here.)
Now, here’s the thing. I completely understand what it means to hate a younger version of yourself, because for a long time I despised young me. I thought I was the scum of the Earth, deserving of every bad thing that ever happened to me.
And then my therapist got me to take a step back and actually look at 11 year old me.
And I realized how alone I was. How small I was. Tiny, scared, alone, and hurting. Little me was going through hell and here I was blaming them for something out of their control entirely. And when I realized that, I’d never wanted to hold and apologize to someone as much as I did in that moment.
F!Leo is 39 when he and F!Mikey send Casey back in time. I can’t imagine he would spend 26 years hating himself and blaming everything on a 14 year old kid just to say “It’s not about me” with a smile at the end. He forgave himself a long time ago.
Now that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be fighting the urge to body little him for being the most annoying motherfucker this side of New York. There just wouldn’t be any genuine hate or animosity. He’d tell little him to stfu and then a stranger would say the same thing and he’d immediately threaten the stranger with his katana for saying that.
I’m all for him having the realization he doesn’t hate Little Leo while interacting with him but I just personally think he realized that in canon a very long time ago.
… that and Mikey would never let him hate himself for very long.
Something I really like about the '03 series is how they went about having personal villains that are more relevant to certain characters than the other members of the cast.
The easiest example is the Shredder (and Karai for a time) being a more personal villain for Leo. He represents the opposite of everything Leo values, and Leo is the one Saki seeks out personally when making first contact. He sees Leo's skill and potential and wants to take advantage before Leo rebuffs his offer after Splinter tells him the truth.
Hun is a personal villain in Casey's story and in a way serves as a more personal antagonist for Raph as well. He's got similar qualities to both of them like a hot tempered nature, physical strength, etc but has chosen to use his strength to harm others weaker than him and serve under someone who instructs and encourages that harm. Raph and Casey choose to use their skills to protect those who can't protect themselves, and despite how much Raph butts heads with Leo, Raph will always follow his older brother's lead because they both know they have the same goal: help others and protect their family.
I really wanted to see stuff like this explored more in the show.
Like imagine if Bishop was made into a more personal villain for Donnie. He already is in Leatherhead's story but that isn't explored much outside of Leatherhead having PTSD nightmares from what Bishop did to him.
I would have loved to see Bishop and Donnie have some kind of conversation about the dual sides of scientific work, how it can be a world of endless possibilities for a dreamer like Don who wants to make the impossible possible as well as a tool of torture and persecution for a monster like Bishop who only wants to use it to hurt people he sees as 'other'. Yeah this reading is present in the subtext of the show but it would have been so cool to see Donnie and Bishop go head to head over something like this.
I would have loved to see Mikey have a more personal villain as well. Maybe someone who challenges his carefree nature by being careless towards others, not caring if they harm them or not. Mikey is deeply empathetic and emotionally intelligent. A villain who also holds that level of emotional intelligence and uses it to manipulate and hurt others for their own gain would have been so great.
Moments where Bishop's character more subtly shows how much of a 200 year old white man he is exhibit #52828383929:
The fact that the only time he bothered trying to negotiate/team up with an actual alien was when said alien was a white guy (or at least looked like one)
The white guy in question ^^^^^^
Granted yes this was an alliance made under dire circumstances and yes the Triceratons were the aggressors in the attacks made on Earth but I think it was very telling that the alliance Bishop made was with an alien who resembled what he was familiar with.
And what's more, the fact that Bishop later refers to the Triceratons as "savages" (in his little presentation to Splinter in s3 ep24) really adds more evidence to this mindset.
That particular word choice highlights his not at all dead colonizer perspective.
"Savages" was a term a lot of European settlers used to refer to the native people of the Americas. It's a term used often by colonizers to justify violence made against another group of people who they aim to paint as less than human.
Bishop was born just after the dawn of the American Revolution (estimating here since he was canonically old enough to serve in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 so at the earliest was likely born in like 1785) and after his abduction fought to create the EPF with Pres. Grant in 1865 and has been serving and protecting the American government/military's interests ever since. During that time the word "savage" may have fluctuated in and out of style but the violence and injustice done against the tribes of North America was consistent and that particular word and other terms like it were used to garner public support for said violence.
Now again yes I am aware that the Triceratons were the aggressors in this situation and Bishop does have every reason outside of his prejudices to hate them given how they came and absolutely tore apart the planet (quite literally).
But the fact that Bishop was the one character to use that particular term to refer to them is SO on point and deliberate on behalf of the writers. I'm not sure that word is used by any other character in the show to describe someone else (could be wrong about this, fact check me please). But of course that term would be well integrated into Bishop's vocabulary! He's spent over a century absorbing that kind of dehumanizing language in reference to those he and/or his government finds to be a threat to their interests.
Interesting, and by interesting I mean deeply hypocritical and disturbing, to think that Bishop has been alive for most of the nation's existence and by the time of his introduction in the 2k3 show has spent the past two centuries essentially trying to prevent the possibility of aliens doing to the US what the US government and colonizers did to the indigenous people of North America
He was carrying out horrific acts against aliens in service of this objective under the same government that not only carried out similar acts of violence against the native people but he was also doing this DURING the most pivotal moments of violent colonial US history against the native people like the time of Manifest Destiny, the implementation of residential schools, etc etc
This is not a critique of his character writing, by the way. It's actually pretty in character to have him do all this while actively protecting and serving under a government doing the same sort of violent dehumanizing colonizer shit he's terrified of experiencing for a second time (after his abduction experience).
A lot of his actions in the series tend to make more sense when you consider the fact that this guy is canonically a colonizer/participant in settler colonialism and has enjoyed a seat of nearly unchecked power for decades. Like yeah a white guy who's had systemic power over kidnapping and experimenting on alien sentient beings with impunity would in fact be this unhinged and sure of his actions no matter how extreme or unreasonable. A guy who has headed a military ops group (a group based upon his xenophobic paranoia that stemmed from a bizarre traumatic event, mind you) and has likely never had his authority challenged would indeed think he had probable cause and authority to storm a billionaire citizen's private property and expect to receive no consequences (and is furious when he does lol) despite the fact that witnesses were present and plentiful
Part of why I appreciate this character is because when you consider how long he's been alive, what events he's actually lived through, and put his actions against the backdrop of actual American history, you get more layers to him that simultaneously make him more three dimensional and deliciously hateable
TMNT Character analysis: Raphael, a look into his character, and how the fandom treats him.
So. Let's address the elephant in the fandom. And please, before you scroll away just hear me out because I have some serious things to talk about regarding Raph as a character and how some of the fandom treats him. (Specifically, his 2012 incarnation.)
Before we go into this, I want to make clear that I'm not calling anyone specific out, and this is not meant to throw hate or shade at anyone. Instead, I'm hoping I can get people thinking, and maybe even reevaluate how they treat characters that fit into Raphael's character type overall. Please do not harass anyone over this post.
Also, I am very aware that there are a lot of people who don't do this, but I've seen one too many people do this and I feel I should say something.
I'm going to tackle this by first analyzing Raph's character, and then looking at how the fandom has interpreted him.
Still here? Thank you, now let's get into it.
To start, we're going to have to take a look at where Raphael's character started and how he's evolved over time. I won't be covering all of his incarnations, as there are many, but I will cover the most important and popular ones. A forewarning, this is going to get long.
To begin, we'll look at the very first Raphel ever made: Mirage.
Mirage Raphael is the earliest and very first incarnation of him, and one that doesn't hesitate to kill if necessary. But to be fair, his brothers and father don't hesitate either. Unlike most of his other incarnations, M!Raph was raised to be a killer alongside his brothers. Here, he is shown to be incredibly aggressive due to his constant anger, almost to an uncontrollable point. Apparently, he nearly shatters M!Mikey's skull during a sparring match, but he also openly says that just the thought of his baby brother being fatally wounded sends him into a blind rage. Mikey is the brother he's closest too and is friendly to him the most out of all his brothers, apparently indulging him in his more emotional tendencies. He also defends him ferociously in battle, I'd like to note.
What I want to highlight here is his bond with Michelangelo, which was stressed enough to feature in the character summary on his Turtlepedia wiki page. He loves his baby brother a lot, to a terrifying degree. He's calmer around him, more laid back and caring when it comes to him. Keep this in mind, it's an important aspect of his character.
As his character develops, he learns to deal with his anger. He becomes calmer, less likely to blow a fuse, actually starts listening to Leonardo, and more playful. This is so important to his character, that there's a backup comic focusing on it. I would like to share a panel from it here.
Raphel, as a character, is famous for his temperament. But what a lot of people seem to forget is how much he hates this, he wants to get better, he wants to stop being angry all the time. And, a lot of the time, he doesn't know how to properly express how he's feeling about something so he defaults to his most familiar emotion: Anger.
When he's worried, he's angry. When he's scared, he's angry. When he shows affection, he does it in the form of playful punches and shoves. Instead of hugging he noogies his brothers (most of the time). And when he's too angry, he gets it out by punching something. This often results in him going out, beating up criminals or taking up the training room to beat up dummies or spar with one of his brothers.
He doesn't know how to deal with all his anger, but he tries.
He doesn't like how angry he can get sometimes, and it scares him. As someone who struggles with anger issues, not to the extent that Raph does, it's terrifying being that angry. Because sometimes all you want to do is lash out at something, and that could be someone nearby. Someone you love. You might say things you don't mean, say things that can destroy a relationship, and that guilt is crushing. Even if it doesn't happen, it's still a terrifying thought. Raphael has to live with that fear, which is why he tries so hard to control his anger.
The next incarnation of Raphael we'll be taking a look at, is his 1987 version.
Unlike the other incarnations, 87!Raph is the second most calm and level-headed Raphael we know. However, he still has his infamous rage moments. He may not go into rampages like his other versions, but when he gets angry he's loud about it. For the most part, he's just rude.
However, he's not outright nasty. Rude? Blunt? To the point? Yes, yes and yes. But nasty? No, not unless its deserved. He still loves his brothers, cares about them to a great degree, and it is, again, a very important aspect of his character. I don't have much to say about this version, as I haven't watched the series, but I know enough.
His 2003 version is similar, in that he's not as aggressive as his Mirage counterpart. He still has his temper, just more control over it, and more sarcastic and grumpier. At one point, when he nearly hurt Mikey in a rage, Leo stepped in and stopped him and Raph felt guilty and horrified with himself once he calmed. He nearly hurt his baby brother, and would have if Leo hadn't stepped in.
That is a very, very terrifying thing to nearly do.
He still loves his brothers very, very much, just like his previous incarnations. He's the first to react when they're in danger or he thinks they might be, protesting against plans that might put his brothers in mortal danger, and jumping in front of a hit meant for his brothers to block it or kicking even Shredder away from them.
And now... we move on to the 2012 version.
2012 Raphael is the most unpredictable of his incarnations, incredibly volatile and aggressive. He's angry most of the time and yells a lot, getting into physical altercations with his brothers quite a bit. He's rude, insensitive at times, and very much hard to get along with.
HOWEVER.
It has been shown, time and time again, that out of all the turtles Raphael is the most protective of his family and cares very deeply about them, going to many lengths to keep them safe. When he had to pick between his former beloved pet Spike who was his best friend and confidant turned mutant Slash and his brothers, he was indecisive at first, because he missed his buddy Spike, but he loved his brothers. When Slash, freshly mutated and grappling with the aggressiveness that came with it, nearly killed Mikey to force Raph to choose him (Slash), Raphael immediately took Slash down to protect his baby brother. It wasn't easy to do, but when it came down to it, he chose his brothers. He could've easily let Slash kill or seriously harm Mikey, but he didn't. He could never. Would never, as shown again and again.
When Mikey was presumed dead after a blast from Newtralizer, Raph retaliated by doing this. Raph was ready to kill Newtralizer for killing his little brother. He was ready to kill someone.
Raph, without fail, has shown time and again what he's willing to do to protect his family. To protect Mikey.
Has he made mistakes? Put his brothers in danger? Drove them away? Has this happened to Mikey more often than not?
Yes, he has. But...
There have been way more moments where he's protected his little brother, showing his soft side and comforting him when he needs it.
Raphael is a character who loves his brothers fiercely, going to great lengths to keep them safe, even neglecting his own needs to do so.
When Leo was injured to the point he was in a coma for three months, Raph was the one keeping a constant vigil over him, rarely ever leaving his side.
Hell, the Bay movies version of Raph outright says he's hard on his brothers because he wants them to be the best versions of themselves.
And the 2018 Raph throws all that away and makes him a giant teddy bear. He's even the leader. His brothers trust him to protect them, and trust him to come up with a plan to get them out of trouble. And he struggles with it, because he's always terrified of letting them down and one of his decisions getting his little brothers killed. And this part of Rise!Raph's character is true for all his incarnations.
So, my question now is this: Why does the fandom like to ignore this aspect of his character?
I've noticed that this has always been an issue in this fandom, where people put more emphasis on Raph's anger and tough-guy act. It's weird, to me at least, knowing that even Raph's earliest incarnation acknowledged his anger issues and did his best to control it and his descendants followed suit. In fact, it was such an important aspect that his later incarnations were more mellowed out, falling into the smart-Alec character type more often than not.
And yet, with 2012's introduction to the character, people seem to make him... overly aggressive.
While it's always been a problem, with the newer fans coming in because of the Rise movie it's gotten much bigger and much worse. Specifically, towards the 2012 incarnation.
Before, they just exaggerated his grumpiness and anger issues. Now, they're making him always angry and constantly hitting his brothers and or verbally berating them for the smallest things. (They do similar things to 12!Leo and 12!Don, but we're focusing on 12!Raph here.) Most of the time Mikey is the one depicted as being on the receiving end of it. Sometimes, he's even depicted as not taking Mikey seriously for something and getting pissy with him because of it.
Which is upsetting for a variety of reasons, one being that in the show 12!Raph is seen indulging Mikey's antics and while he does tease him if it's something genuinely distressing his little brother he'll try to help him with it, even if he does it in a blunt way.
Two, the fandom uses this warped view to depict the Rise brothers as heroic saviors getting 12!Mikey out of a quote on quote "abusive situation". Which is insulting to both 12!Mikey, his brothers and the 2018 brothers. 12!Mikey is older than the 18!turtles, has tried running away before after a particularly bad fight with his brothers (he accidentally trashed the living room and had to clean it up, and Raph said some undeserved comments about his integrity as a ninja but later apologized and was forgiven) and regretted it after some thinking. While 2k12 Michelangelo is indeed incredibly childish, he is still an 18 year old ninja trained since to fight since he could walk. Treating him like a helpless child in need of saving is feeding into the toxic trope of infantilizing an adult character that has a happy-go-lucky or carefree attitude.
Three, the people who feed into this mischaracterization of Raphael, unknowingly or not, have grossly misinterpreted his character as a whole and do him a disservice when they boil him down to a schoolyard bully that does it for the thrill.
Four, most of the people who treat 12!Raphael like this have only seen out-of-context clips that seem much worse than they are on their own. They see only the moments Raph has reached his limit and lashed out, and have never actually watched the episodes. And if they have watched all the episodes, they're just ignoring all the moments Raph has shown his soft side for the people around him and when his brothers have crossed some lines with him as well. Not to mention them not hesitating to mess with him, because they know he won't hurt them for it outside of the normal roughhousing that all siblings do.
There's something that Rise!Leonardo said in the movie, something I think can be applied to 2k12 Raphael and his Leo. And I think, really, it's a line many people don't truly grasp the depth of. I think it isn't just Rise!Leo speaking to his Raph, I think... it's all the Leo's speaking, in a way.
"I always figured you were mad because you didn't like the way I did things. But when I see what's happening to you, and what's happening to them... I realized it wasn't about me. You didn't yell because you were mad, you yelled because you were scared. It's scary to be responsible for the lives you protect. Your team, your family... but we do it anyway because that's what it means to be a hero. If this is it, I want you to know that I finally understand, and I'm sorry."
