Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1255374-20160326211319/@comment-995426-20160511215128

KunokitaxD4: Yes, that was the good Raph. He was such a well-developed character, and you had a really good idea where his anger and cattiness actually came from. I've given the two Raphaels tentative nicknames:
 * The earlier Raph is "bitch Raph" or "gay Raph." He's a bitch&mdash;and we loved him for it. :) And a lot of people may still not realize this, but he was also one of about five different characters who repeatedly tripped gay viewers' gaydar.  Both these kinds of Raph moments used to flow like wine, but they rapidly dried up to practically nonexistent in season 3.
 * The later Raph is "jackass Raph." Instead of being endearingly snarky and catty, he was just plain hurtful, and most of his dialogue was painfully wooden.  He also became dumber, making stupid mistakes the old Raph would have seen a mile away.  And then by Dinosaur Seen in Sewer!, he became so unsympathetic that I agreed with Zog's entire rejection speech...except for his conclusion that the Earth needed to be destroyed.  That was Raph's worst episode, with his character development at its lowest point.  And so, when his character most needed a good injection of well-written genuine character development, the writers gave us...season 4, where he got much, much worse.