Fun Sketches Below!

Fun sketches below!

I've been drawing so much TMNT. I want to share some of the stuff I've been working on. I'm almost done watching 87 and 03 and just wow!!! I love these turtle boys so much. I noticed in 03 now that I've finished fast-forward and I'm starting on back to the sewers that Raphael got so unfairly tall compared to his big bro I just HAD to draw Leo realizing it.

I also am writing a fun idea that involves turtles and tots. There will be much found family goodness to come. You'll see. ;)

I finished the 87 series as a whole (except the European vacay season like I can't find it anywhere) and want to cry!!! My boys!!! I can't believe it's done!!!

What an awesome show. I might have to rewatch it just to write down more notes and thoughts. ;)

Anyways here's some headcanons about my sweet 87 boys and some show observations:

Hopefully with this people might give the show a chance. It's so delightful and charming. You won't be disappointed.

🐢🧡🐢💜🐢♥️🐢💙

The turtles are all basically 3-4 years old. They make tons of comments about living half their lives in a fish bowl and when Yoshi comes across them they're still babies. When they're shown mutating, they go from baby turtles to the older bipedal forms we know them by.

They're all identical sans their voices. (In the 87 show not only does April have trouble telling them apart at the beginning but so do the animators in every episode)

They all seem to possess super strength and some levels of invulnerability. Donatello in particular had a multiple story brick building dropped on him, which he just walked off. They've all shown varying skills such as bending metal with their bare hands. Raphael as a practical joke in one episode picks up a couch and hurls it at Donatello just to be smartass. Leonardo cuts metal like tinfoil.

They still think of themselves as turtles first and foremost, so they don't refer to each other as brothers. (despite the fact they're totally brothers) and simply address each other as friends. (They're brothers tho we all know the truth 💕)

Something not explained in the opening of the 3rd season, the turtles as babies, before they mutate, are shown with different shell patterns. While it's not obvious which turtle is which it is neat the artists went out of their way to animate each turtle with a unique pattern.

When you watch the show the amount of people and mutants that dislike the turtles is shocking. For a fun kids show made in the late 80's to mid 90's, it's basically a huge allegory to the civil rights movements and you can even take relevance to human rights movements of today.

Despite being so lovable they have only a small circle of friends. Most of those friends at some point have betrayed them too.

The boys have seen two different futures of themselves. (not counting their shared apocalypse nightmares) The first future is where they get old together in a mansion and they're heralded as heroes and everyone likes them. The second future doesn't show them but in the second future it's stated being a mutant is a crime punishable by death and all mutants are criminals regardless of deeds. This is before the red skies studio era of writing. That's before it's supposed to get edgy.

They all are highly intelligent. They can each pilot every vehicle ever present in the show despite none of them having a formal education, license, or understanding of the rules of the road. Michelangelo in particular seems to have a knack for US fighter jets.

In season 7 episode 11, titled "Dirk Savage: Mutant Hunter!" We meet two new mutants named Rahzar and Tokka. They're a gay couple. You don't believe me? Go watch the episode. I'm not pulling your leg. I swear. I promise. It's a good episode go watch it.

Master Splinter calls them his sons. He also calls Carter, his newest student, son occasionally too. It's his term of endearment.

The turtles in this version are known to get sick pretty regularly. (probably because of their still developing immune systems). They always get sick as a group and they totally soak up the pampering.

They in the first season share a 4 stack bunk bed and then after the bunk is destroyed in the season 1 finale they each get their own alcoves which they treat as their own rooms.

I didn't remember which Punk Frog said it, but one of them called Leonard and Michelangelo his Bubba which is a term of endearment for brother. The punk frogs call each other bubba too. So unlike the turtles they were either all frog brothers who mutated together or after mutating they just decided they're brothers and they also adopted the turtles as their brothers too.

Mondo Gecko seems older in this series because of his appearance but he's the same age as the turtles and actually mutated from the same ooze as them on the same day at the same time so he in 87 is like a mix of their brother and cousin? He's related regardless. (We all know the truth in our hearts)

Shredder and Krang act like a married couple who've been married too long and are on the cusp of a divorce but they've been together too long so they just keep tolerating eachother.

They all love the unhinged gross unholy pizza combos. Michaelangelo's stated combos are actually tame compared to some of the things they've eaten. One episode the boys committed to the bit so hard they ate lit candles just to mess with Michelangelo. They get pregnant sardine fudge pizza cravings at midnight. They put cereal on regular pizza for breakfast. They hate vegetables though. They literally gag when Splinter eats sushi. They refuse to eat bugs despite their turtle origins (interesting enough the Punk Frogs don't even like pizza at all first unlike them) but like they will eat out of the garbage. But not fresh handmade sushi.

They're so casual about being in public. Like they have disguises but sometimes they just go out in public as themselves. They also have so many elaborate disguises. In the first episode their first instinct to blend in was to throw on bright neon shoes, various bomber jackets, and start publicly beatboxing and breakdancing.

The turtles get called slurs by Shredder, Bebop, and Rocksteady. The slur in question is "Shellback" . When Donatello makes an evil clone the first thing the clone does is call him that slur. It's so funny like that's yourself. Donatello basically called himself ugly. Why is that so funny.

Shredders go to threat in the show and many other villains go to insult is to straight up threaten to eat them. Like, do none of the villains care about getting salmonella? Why do all the villains want to eat them?

Something I've noticed, they refuse to use nicknames. They only use each other's full names. It makes me wonder why? I theorize it's probably to do with the fact Master Splinter gave them their names and that's the first thing they received? It's not like they're not playful enough to use nicknames.

Despite his fatherly role in their lives, the turtle boys don't call Splinter their father and this is more than likely to do with the fact they see themselves as turtles and know they have turtle parents. (Again we know the truth)

April in this show is an adrenaline junky. She's also a child endangerer. She's helped save the day a lot but she would much rather the world burn so she can film it as her next big scoop.

The boys treat April like their mom in this show. April herself doesn't really get that. In one episode she got poison flowers and thought it was from the boys and went to "let them down gently" because she thought they romantically liked her.

April on multiple occasions reads bed time stories to them. She in one episode read the same bedtime story 4 times just because they liked it that much. She was going to read it a 5th time just for Leonardo.

When Zack, the 5th turtle, was in danger instead of helping him April shouted "What a scoop!" and filmed a child in a death trap.

Splinter believes in wholesome gaslighting in this show. He once cured three of them of permanent balloon-itis with moth balls but made up a story about how it was an ancient mythical legendary cure. Then after they were better he said it was moth balls.

April actually got fired from her job because she wouldn't badmouth the turtles on live television (also for other reasons). She focused on freelance while helping the boys on the side.

April is really bamf. She's actually saved the turtles just as much as they save her.

I just want everyone to know I love these little guys. The turtles are pure little snookie pookie baby bookies. No one knows the amount of space these silly little fictional turtles take up in my heart.

I hope maybe with more word out people might give the 1987 tmnt show a chance. It's really cute and funny. A super enjoyable time. It doesn't deserve the ragging it gets from other shows and fanbases. They're just goobers.

Thanks for reading my ramble list. :)

Also! if there's any fanfic recs please let me know I'm making a list and checking it twice ;)

THIS IS SO COOL!!!! OMG AND IT'S GOT A FIC TOO? NOW I KNOW WHAT IM READING THIS WEEKEND

Immaculate, good food, a visual feast. I ate well tonight.

I just, LOVE their eyes so MUCH. Sorry to be feral about this but I'm invested.

I realized that I never posted all of these as a set, so here you go! I think they look so good together!

Also, if you're wondering, I am apparently not done with my writer's block, so you might have to wait a little for the next chapter :/

Someone help them their tiny turtle hearts aren’t built to take this much pressure.

I am curious besides rise what’s your opinion other on the other iterations of Raph? Since he’s my fav

87 Raphael is my favourite turtle of all, but it's hard to know where to start describing him. I just want to hold him out to people like "see?"

He's an outlier among Raphaels so people who usually like Raphaels don't always like him. He's the wise guy of the group and would always rather say something clever than something useful, but when he does say something useful it's usually a suggestion they don't run headlong into danger. He's verbally prickly, but physically affectionate, and although he's not the protector like some Raphs he does get latched onto by Donatello and Michelangelo sometimes just because he doesn't push people off. Michelangelo jumps into his arms when scared a few times and Raphael just stands there holding him for the rest of the scene.

I think Raphael vs the Volcano is a good episode for getting to know him. Raphael thinking he's dying due to a silly misunderstanding is a standard 90s TV plot, but the show takes it unexpectedly seriously once the set up is done. We see his cynicism as he tries to convince himself that the world is good and his life has been worth living only to fail due to New York's typical disregard for a loitering pedestrian. We see how his cynicism doesn't stop him wanting to save people when he decides that the world is terrible but he's at least going to make it better before he goes. We see his tendency to run from things, in this case from the emotional scene saying goodbye would be, since the misunderstanding continues due to him leaving notes instead of using his turtle comm. He's a little guy, he cares a lot, he's scared of a lot and doing his best anyway. Like other Raphaels he has more emotions than he knows how to handle.

03 Raphael is so nice. He wouldn't understand me saying that, which breaks my heart, but he is honestly such a sweet, polite teenager. He spends an episode doing chores for an old lady and is suprised and touched when she wants to see him again. When we see his worst nightmare it's his own face being behind Shredder's helmet. More than any Raph he seems to genuinely think he's bad. His temper is a lot for him to control and the part where he nearly hit Mikey with a pipe came off as if it might be a dissociative episode but he gets very little help with it. Despite his prickly reputation he's more often acting as emotional support for the others, especially when Leo's in an anxiety spiral.

He does have fun though! He's a Raph who really enjoys a fight and his "irritation" with Mikey is just a game.

My favourite bit of the Christmas episode was him and Angel pranking Casey with mistletoe because it's not often he really gets to act his age.

2012 Raph is maybe the prickliest Raph of all, combining 03's aggression with 87's sarcasm. He still manages to have the biggest, saddest green eyes when his brothers are upset and he can't do anything about it, though.

He comes off like an asshole in season one when he genuinely does seem to not like the other characters very much. Later this mellows a lot, to the point when I'm told he still regularly threatens to quit the team and storms off I'm not sure I believe it. Especially when it's never happened on screen before.

I don't think I have much to say about the movie Raphs. 90s Raph is good. 07 Raph needed to apologise to Donatello and not to Splinter, but that is a plot problem more than a problem with him. Batman Raph should not get to lecture Batman about being open with his family. I swear, of all the turtles XD

TMNTposting, Michelangelo edition:

I still have favs, but I would love nothing more than to talk about the boy in orange. Michelangelo is such an interesting character, development-wise in the series. While Leos and Donnie's usually end up developing more negatively (like the emo breakdowns and all that) Michelangelo and Raph seem to always be the ones that make positive growth. And I love it. We love to see that here.

All Michelangelo's are pretty silly and goofy. They're the most laid back of all the turtles, mostly due to the "youngest brother" dynamic he has with the rest of the turtles, Rise being the most obvious one of all. With 87 Michelangelo, he's more of a chill party dude with an unyeilding optimism despite the circumstances in the later "Red Sky" seasons of TMNT 87. He's the only one of the turtles who genuinely still saw the good in things, and tried to revisit the old dynamic they had even though there was a massive hate campaign against them, and getting double mutated...among many other things. This dude, this little guy, was able to keep a steady girlfriend through all this which is insane (and adorable).

Some of the other cute things I remember about him is:

-he remembers their time being regular turtles.

-he normally sides with Leonardo whenever theres an argument (usually started by Donatello)

-the little alien star child in season 7 could have destroyed the planet but he still decided to be nice and comfort him anyways.

Also random fun factoid about the memory of being a regular turtle. Both he and Donatello or Raphael have mentioned before they spent half their life at the bottom of a glass bowl, in the pet shop. Which either implies they lived in a tiny fishbowl for a really long time, or they were really young when they mutated. The implication seems to lean more towards the latter, and the turtles mutated straight into being teenagers. It's entirely likely the 87 turtles are technically young kids stuck in the bodies of teenagers. Enjoy the nightmares thinking about that.

Now for 03 Mikey. I want to chefs kiss the writers because this series was when they started the "kinda annoying younger brother" trope for him, but somehow still managed to handle his development with absolute grace. The Battle Nexus arcs are some of my favorites in TMNT 03, personally. Both because I'm a sucker for 03 Leosagi, but also because they showed everyone just how smart Mikey can be, and that he is perfectly capable of handling a fight on his own. He's been named Battle Nexus champion, not once, but twice. The first time was more circumstance, but don't let that distract you from the fact he outsmarted Raph in a fight and still won the tournament.

And the second time? That time, he was cursed so any injury he sustained couldn't be healed and he still won! The second time was entirely on his skill and fighting alone and he won.

Despite rubbing it in his brothers faces, he genuinely didn't believe he was capable of winning the Battle Nexus tournament and I LOVE the writers for giving me that. 03 Mikey is a loveable menace.

fun things I love about 03 Mikey:

-he literally saves Klunk because he liked her vibes. on Christmas. good for him.

-despite how often they bicker, he's Raph's best friend.

-the whole thing about him (and his brothers) helping the homeless people in the Garbageman episode.

I don't really have much to say about 2012 Mikey tbh. He sure is a guy who exists. It is cool he survived in Dimension X for a few months on his own though. Good for him.

And finally, I'll leave the Rise ramblings to the other TMNT blogs out there. Because everything I say is something someone else definitely has before. And I mostly want to make these posts for the people out there who never watched the older TMNT series.