2012 Raph ramble cuz why not
Hamato Raphael, he's the 2nd oldest (and probably 12!Leo's twin tbh) in the family and is seen as the protector, or the warrior, basically, he's seen as the muscle, the one who stands between his family and danger when splinter was assigning weapons to them, he said this abt raph's
"The twin sai, for a fierce warrior that will do anything to protect his family"
he also has a temper, pretty common for him to be overwhelmed with anger after witnessing something horrifying (s2 finale, anyone), his brothers get him back to his senses, about his brothers, he's got this 'tough guy' persona that he plays around em and is pretty harsh, to mikey specifically (bro these two fight a lot and half the time raph is usally hitting mike in the head) but he loves them, this is probably out of fear tho since liek, idk js a hunch, he probably has anger issues and is yet to learn how to properly manage it (splinter, teach your son how to manage his anger properly instead of trying to prove a point PLEASE I BEG OF YOU-)
also a huge animal guy, probably snow white of new york or some shit bc this guy is the pigeon whisperer (he's so nice to em liek whuhh) and is also taking care of chompy picasso (BABYY AA) n has a soft spot for lil critters
he's basically the 'angry tough guy, muscle of the team' but he's also really caring deep down despite how harsh he may seem n is ready to beat up anyone who hurts his brothers also pretty critical when it comes to allies n stuff, again he sees himself as the protector so he's pretty harsh when it comes to trusting people willy-nilly, he didn't trust karai at all when she said she believed them abt smth, in the end he was right in that ep actually, anyway, this guy does not trust easily when it comes to enemies and actually sees how ridiculous something is and therefore doesn't trust it, it's actually a quality he shares with donnie
he's also real stubborn, he's the one who gets into the most fights with leo and is usually the one that opposes leo the most when it comes to plans bc well, the thing i mentioned earlier bc a lotta shit, not the best leader under pressure tho, but he's a good 2nd voice to the team
splinter's advice for him during the uhmm vision quest ep was to sharpen his anger into something he can actually use for combat instead of making the fire unformed and not really accurate, showing how yes, raph is explosive and powerful, but if he doesn't control that, it can hurt people and can be a weakness rather than a strength
or smth like that, i haven't fully rewatched the show n i'm so far only on s3ep22
pls do give ur thoughts in the comments or reblogs cuz reading other people's perspectives on characters is quite fun
