Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1255374-20150613052057/@comment-995426-20150803210126

Ghidorafour:

Well, you know, fanon isn't necessarily always wild ideas. Sometimes it's a matter of good faith perception. I think the mind actively seeks out a greater order in a set of incomplete facts. You know&mdash;1 + 2 = 3, because we can see 1 and 2, so obviously there must be a 3. (Or so we think.) It feels good to feel like we understand the story we like. And if the gaps we fill in are gaps we're already used to filling in subconsciously, we may never have realized the gaps existed in the first place, and may never realize we have created a fanon.

Of course, different people can come to completely different honest conclusions, which may only become obvious in an even wider discussion and comparison. And even still, sometimes none of those different conclusions may be what the writer was going for. Or sometimes, details that were there are thrown away (retcon) or forgotten/overlooked (plothole) by another writer. Or, as yet another possibility, maybe what we saw was accentuated by the storyboarders or animators for whatever reason&mdash;perhaps just to tease us.

As for Raph: To be honest, I would love for Mona Lisa to be something like a Samus Aran type, hunting down the Newtralizer to bring him to justice. Although it's not easy to imagine 2K12 Raph dating a woman, sometimes I see his sister-like camaraderie with April, or his cat-fighting with Karai, and think that he and Mona Lisa could have an entertaining dynamic of competing warrior egos. Maybe Raph could be a "lesbian," but I doubt it&mdash;he knows way too much about what a woman wants out of a man, is way too indifferent to women's presence, and is way too attracted to his reflection in the mirror. He can paint a turtle woman on the side of a van, but then, so could all the gay Italian Renaissance artists Raph's brothers were named after. (Having known many artists, I know you don't have to find a person attractive to be able to paint them attractively.) I know it's possible Raph's personality could end up being retooled, perhaps with an ingenious explanation, or perhaps very awkwardly. But 2K12 Raph has qualities that are so unique and special compared to the other Raphaels, and I want to see more of this interesting badass-tomboy-woman-in-a-man's-body character, and not just a rehash of other Raphaels we've already seen repeatedly before. 1987 Raph had Mona Lisa. Archie Raph had Ninjara. IDW Raph has Alopex. Just let 2K12 Raph have his man. XD

I will agree that season 3 has been weak compared to season 1 and 2, but for me it's because some of the characters I came to love and thought I understood so much in earlier seasons, now seem like totally different people&mdash;strangers. I don't know Mikey at all anymore. It makes me sad. :(