Raphael (2012 TV series)

"Raphael's got the most attitude on the team!"

- 2012 TV series Theme song

Raphael or Raph is the "hot-headed muscle" of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He often lets his impulsiveness get in the way instead of using rational thinking. He has a soft side, but only really reveals it to his pet turtle Spike (however, he occasionally does so to his brothers and Splinter). His weapon of choice is, like in every other variation, twin Sai. He is voiced by Sean Astin.

Personality
Always acting before he thinks things through, he is the muscle of the team. He is sarcastic, tough, and at times, mean; but he is known to have a soft side when caring for his pet turtle. It is also shown that he loves his brothers very much, and shows his nurturing side at times, mostly to Michelangelo, as Mikey is the youngest. However, he often feels that his family doesn't understand him so he doesn't usually open up to them. As seen in New Girl in Town, Leonardo Raphael begin to argue. When this happens, Leonardo decides that Raphael should lead the team, if he can do better, to which Raphael agrees. During this, they battled Snakeweed, and Mikey ended up injured. Raphael said he 'froze up seeing Michelangelo like that'. He told Splinter he needs Leonardo. He also said, "I don't mind risking my own life, but risking my brothers'..." This shows us how much he cares about his brothers.

Abilities
Raphael is the strongest and toughest of his brothers, being able to take on much larger opponents quicker and more easily. If used correctly, his temper can boost up his strength and make him even stronger. Like his brothers, Raphael is stealthy, can hide in the shadows, sneak around without being detected, and use hand-to-hand combat, or Taijutsu. This may be partially due to the fact that he does not mind risking himself in battle (this is also shown by his appearance - his mask is very tattered and worn, and he has several chips and scratches on his shell and body) He is also seen to be quite intelligent when he thinks clearly, and often takes the role of second-in-command. He has also demonstrated the ability to take control of, or influence animals (mainly pigeons) to help out. The extent of this ability has not yet been fully explored and it is unknown whether or not it will be shown again. It is also shown in Slash and Destroy that Raphael is able to use the famous Pressure Point technique which he uses to defeat Slash.

Weapons
During most of the series, Raphael wields twin Sai, with which, like his brothers and their chosen weapons, he is highly skilled. In Pulverizer Returns, Master Splinter says that the boys are relying too heavily on their own weapons and makes them swap. After this process, Raph is left with Mikey's Nunchucks. His sai are given to Donatello. During a more difficult fight, the Turtles become uncooperative with their new weapons and swap back. When Splinter finds out, he confiscates all weapons, stating that anything can be useful. When he and his brothers are trying to save Timothy, Raphael uses two planks of wood, holding and fighting with them in a style similar to his sai. In The Gauntlet, he used a Yumi bow and like his other brothers wields Shurikens. In Booyaka-Showdown, Part 1, Raphael armed himself with Kama scythes, Shuriken, Kunai, Tonfa and Brass Knuckles.

Biography
While down in the sewers, Raphael beat Donatello and then he fought Leonardo, (who beat Michelangelo in a fight before) and then won the training tournament by throwing Leonardo with his Sai. However, when Splinter congratulated them, Raphael bragged about his win, which caused Splinter to hit a pressure point on his neck and forced him to compliment his brothers. The Turtles are later seen eating a dish Michelangelo prepared called "Algae and Worms." After the meal, Splinter relays the story of how they were transformed (which is fairly different from the other origin stories told in the other series).

Fifteen years before the Rise of the Turtles, Part 1, the benevolent Hamato Yoshi purchased the four turtles. Yoshi came into contact with a rat and had to fight against a couple of Kraang. The aliens dropped their mutagen, causing the mutation of Yoshi and the Turtles. Yoshi raised the Turtles as his own children and continues to train them in ninjutsu. Splinter agrees after some begging to let the Turtles go to the surface. It is here that Raphael scares a Pizza delivery guy who speeds away on his motorcycle. The four of them, curious, open the box, and, after Michelangelo tries it, eat (and very much enjoy) the pizza.

Raphael's character design was updated, giving him green eyes as well as a small, lightning shaped chip cut out of his plastron across his left shoulder. His shell shows distinct battle damage, and the tails of his mask are tattered and worn. On the new ninjaturtles.com, Raphael says that he usually uses his sai as a pair of pizza forks.

Family

 * Leonardo - Raphael's older brother. He and Leonardo tend to fight about who would be a better leader of the Turtles, but Leonardo always comes first, making Raphael jealous. They seem to fight the most out of all their brothers, but they still care about each other. The two are shown to trust each other more in the family as they are often discussing things privately away from the others such as Leonardo's relationship with Karai. Raphael often expresses annoyance at Leo's constant attempts at 'hero speak'.


 * Donatello - Raphael's second-youngest brother. He fights with Donatello the least, in physical terms, but in verbal terms, he makes fun of Donatello's intelligence and his huge crush on April a whole lot and tends to bully Donatello. However, they have compassion and have each other's backs during each fight.


 * Michelangelo - Raphael's youngest brother. He hates the fact that Michelangelo always makes fun of his hotheadedness, and so in return, Raphael tries beating him up to let out his anger, but when other people start beating up Michelangelo, Raphael gets defensive and stands up for his little brother. Raphael seems to be the most protective of Michelangelo. It may be possible that Raphael deeply cares about him.


 * Splinter - Raphael's surrogate father. He tends to show a lot of stubbornness towards Splinter's advice, but he still listens to his sensei and trains well under him.

Allies

 * April O'Neil - Raphael's first human friend. He and April don't interact that much. He got a little defensive when the Purple Dragons tried to mug her, but he also laughed at her when she was attacked by a giant pigeon. However, he was impressed that she escaped Karai. He and April are good friends.


 * Leatherhead - Raphael never interacted with Leatherhead, but he did disagree with Michelangelo about befriending him.


 * Pulverizer - Raphael finds him plain annoying and didn't really care about his safety, but he did try to help save him in The Pulverizer Returns!.
 * Casey Jones - Raphael initially fought Casey the first time they met, and then became close friends and rivals, having a lot in common.

Enemies

 * Shredder - Due to Shredder being Splinter's archnemesis, Raphael hates the Shredder as well.
 * The Kraang - Raphael dislikes the Kraang, and will do anything he can to stop their invasion plots. The Kraang also hate the Turtles due to them being the only force powerful enough to stop them. This rivalry is far more personal to the Turtles than their rivalry with the Foot Clan.
 * Spider Bytez - Raphael and Spider Bytez really hated each other from the moment they first met. Raphael despises him because he insulted him, while Spider Bytez, as Vic, took pleasure in tormenting and insulting Raphael. When he caught the Turtles on tape, Raphael wanted to really break his face. Vic hates them, because he and his brothers broke his phone and satellite dish. Vic also blames Raphael and his brothers for turning him into a mutant spider, and attempted to kill Raph's brothers, but Raph managed to control his temper and defeat him. For some reason, Spider Bytez calls them "kung-fu frogs". Spider Bytez is one of the three villains that Raphael hates the most; The others are Chong and Fishface.
 * Baxter Stockman - Raphael dislikes him, and takes pleasure in throwing him in the trash.
 * Fishface - One of Raphael's archenemies. He fights him every chance he gets, and the two seem evenly matched, as they were the most powerful fighters in their groups (besides their masters). However, unlike Spider Bytez and Chong, Raphael and Fishface share a mutual respect for each other, and share many similarities. In Baxter's Gambit, they work together really well, and seem to be alike due to their aggression and willingness to fight until the end. Fishface even tells Raphael about his past. Raphael and Fishface also saved each other once during this episode and later Raphael was able to detect an attack on Leonardo from Fishface before it caused any damage. Despite them being alike in many ways, Raphael and Fishface are fierce enemies.
 * Rahzar - One of Raphael's enemies. He dislikes him, but their rivalry is far less aggressive than that of Raphael and Fishface.
 * Spy-roach - Due to his fear of cockroaches, Raphael both hates and fears Chong. Chong also hates Raphael because Raphael tried to kill him when he was a normal cockroach. During the whole episode Cockroach Terminator, Chong stopped at nothing to kill Raphael using Raphael's fear of him to his advantage, along with his mutation. Raphael spent the whole episode trying to get away from him, but was forced to confront his fear when Chong kidnapped Michelangelo. Raphael managed to save Michelangelo with the Stealth Bike and faced his fear, fighting the mutant roach, and flattened his face with the Stealth Bike wheel. Chong came back for round two, but Raphael beat him in hand to hand combat and destroyed him with the Kraang's drill, though he doesn't know about the eggs Chong had laid with the mutant cockroaches, shortly after Chong was defeated.
 * Snakeweed - He made his debut in the first episode of the series Rise of the Turtles, Part 1, before he mutates into a mutated weed, he was a henchman for the Kraang. His name was previously Snake, so Michelangelo renamed him Snakeweed after his mutation.
 * Rat King - Raphael really hates the Rat King, but his rivalry with him isn't as big compared to most of his other enemies.
 * Newtralizer - Another of Raphael's enemies.
 * Spike/Slash - Originally Raphael's beloved pet turtle Spike, who he cared deeply for, and told all of his deepest secrets to, actually also developing some kind of oddly soft side around. However, Spike mutates into a large mutant turtle and renames himself Slash in the episode Slash and Destroy. At first Slash and Raphael decide to work together and become a team, free from the bonds of the other turtles, but Raphael soon discovers Slash's personal vendetta against Raphael's brothers. While trying to defend his brothers from his offensive and violent former pet, Raphael and Slash become enemies.

Quotes
See: Raphael (2012 TV series) / Quotes 

Gallery
''See: Raphael (2012 TV series)/Gallery

Trivia

 * Raphael's name is Hebrew, meaning "God has Healed". Given the fact that he was adopted by Hamato Yoshi/Splinter, Raphael's full name would be "Hamato Raphael".
 * In Katakana, Raphael's name is spelled: ラファエル (Rafaeru).
 * He is the only turtle to not have an o sound at the end of his name.
 * Raphael is the second oldest of his brothers; Leonardo, Donatello & Michelangelo.
 * Raphael has a bolt-shaped gap at the upper, left side of his plastron.
 * Raphael is often called "meat-head" by Donatello.
 * In Cockroach Terminator, Raphael is (irrationally) revealed to have katsaridaphobia, (fear of cockroaches), and is terrified of Donatello's pet SpyRoach. The origins of his katsaridaphobia has yet to be explored, but apparently Raphael was able to keep it quiet, as his brothers never knew of his phobia until that episode.
 * It is revealed in Parasitica that Raphael gets nausea after seeing body parts from bugs.
 * Raphael had a pet turtle named Spike, who later turns into Slash.
 * He is shown to care a lot about his youngest brother Michelangelo as he didn't know what to do anymore when he got hurt. But he also cares about his other brothers as he said: "I don't mind risking my own life, but my brothers'..."
 * It is seen in New Girl in Town, when Raphael gets under so much pressure being the leader for a short time, that he froze up with anxiety.
 * Raphael's the third tallest/second shortest of the turtles.
 * In the first season of the show he has three big rivals - Fishface, Spider Bytez and Spy - Roach.