Talk:Leonardo (Rise of the TMNT)/@comment-5246403-20180813062414

Quote I know a lot of people are upset because how dare rottmnt mess with the formula after all these years and Leo’s always been the oldest and the leader  and if aint broke don’t fix it.

Okay, I get it but hear me out.

Throughout nearly all his incarnation Leo has walked around like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. And in some way he has. He had to be the responsible one. He had to be the authority figure. He had to keep his brothers out of harm’s way. He had to work to be the most skilled. He couldn’t let Splinter down, He had to be strict, he had to be stern, he had to be the leader. But not here, not in this version because both Raph and Donnie are older than him. And that is such an amazing thing for his character. It not only opens up a new way to see his journey to becoming the Leader but it always creates a whole new way for him to interact with his brothers and that is immediately displayed  in his relationship with Raph.

Leo in almost all his incarnations is displayed as the quintessential stern, no nonsense leader and the responsible older sibling and that colored the relationships he had with his brothers but most especially Raph. His and Raph’s relationship has always been one marked by competition. Raph is usually portrayed as the second oldest and the complete opposite to Leo in every way. He’s the red to Leo’s blue. The angry rashness to Leo’s mild caution. They are always played as oil and vinegar with a relationship that matches.

They, out of all the turtles are the ones that fight the most, the ones that butt heads, the ones that just don’t really get along. Because in Raph’s mind, Leo is just a little bit older than him so what right does he have to give him orders and tell him what to do and act like’s he’s so much better and their relationship is so strained in so many incarnations because of this. Raph rebels and Leo cracks down on him and Raph rebels harder and Leo cracks down harder and it’s such an endless cycle of Animosity, But in rottmnt Leo doesn’t have to keep Raph ‘s anger in check. (because Raph in this version is not an angry ball or rage which is something I’ll touch on later). And that allows a whole new blessed dynamic between the two.

It also helps that Raph’s stance on Leadership is more of a learn as you go approach and they are all starting out and feeling out their roles and what works. So we dont see that bitterness, and competition and anger between them that we’ve seen so many times before. Do you know how long I have waited for that?And it’s not just Raph and Leo’s relationship that gets an overhaul but all of Leo’s relationships with his siblings. In this version Donnie and Leo are the same age so that opens up a whole new closer bond for them as well. Also Leo doesn’t have to curb Mikey’s more childish tendencies because he has those exact same tendencies and he’s the younger sibling just like Mikey  but he’s still older, so he can be a role model to Mikey while also engaging in his shenanigans and  I am so eager and excited to see their particular interactions in the future!

Finally, we get a Leo who gets to be a teenager. Who gets to goof off and make quips and not have to be the responsible one all the time. This is the most relaxed version of Leo we’ve ever had, and I am living for it because it reveals an aspect of his character that for years has been buried under the guise of leadership and responsibility. He doesn’t have to be serious all the time. He doesn’t have to be Splinter lite. He doesn’t have to be detached. He doesn’t have to keep his brothers in check. He can just BE a teenager and have fun and not be the most skilled and he can make mistakes and not dwell on them and crack jokes and just be such a precious child.

But also it presents a whole new way to watch his development as a leader. We get to see it from a completely different angle. It’s not something that’s promised to him. It’s not a role that he and his brothers expect him to take because he’s not the oldest. Because Leo is not first in line to be leader. Hell, he’s not even 2nd, that’s Donnie so not only do we get to see a unique journey for Leo to be the leader, we also get to see how Raph and Donnie transition into letting their younger brother take the reigns and call the shots. And that’s gonna be such an interesting arc just from what we can see of Raph and Donnie’s characters.

We’ll also get to see an entirely new take on Leo’s  leadership because already his qualities as a leader are being shown but in a completely different way than previous incarnations. We see this in the paper thieves episode when they get beaten rather soundly by them and Raph, Donnie and Mikey are feeling discouraged by it. The previous Leos would have taken the stern approach to get them back on their game as quickly as possible because that’s how he lead. He was the oldest, he had to lead by example and he would have been concerned with the getting them back on their game quickly to achieve the end goal for the mission rather than waste time letting them wallow. Not this Leo. This Leo is not concerned so much with completing the mission as he was making his brothers feel better about their loss.

This Leo does not have the weight of being the oldest, so he takes a different approach and initially tries to encourage them by listing out their strengths and when that doesn’t work, he immediately comes up with a plan and rallies his brothers behind him to give it another go. And in the end even though it was not the most graceful win Leo still highlights everything they did right instead of what they did wrong. Do you know how refreshing that is?

I get that some people don’t like change and after so many years it’s hard to see Leo not be the oldest when that’s how it’s been for so long but the new Dynamic of rottmnt opens up so many new and wonderful interactions for all of them and a brand-new way to explore Leo’s character and I am down for this ride.

unquote.