I Think Leo Would Know How Best To Tie A Tie, Because He Seems Most Likely To Dress Up! Donnie Knows

The IDW Ninja Turtles comic has a fantastic introduction. It gives you everything you want in a TMNT story: The Turtles fight street gangs, a lot of fun banter, and a very good understanding of the character traits of each of the boys that makes them recognizable. It's the third time I reread this first issue and I just can't get enough of it!

Please stay

I want you, I need you, oh God

Don't take

These beautiful things that I've got

since i've already shattered

A Character First, A Love Interest Second: RaMona Did It Right!

((A TMNT 2012 RaMona Analysis))

Something I feel we as a fandom don’t give Raph enough credit for is how he’s the only brother to NOT have a “love at first sight” trope with his love interest Mona Lisa, and I feel that says a lot about his character and relationship with her, not only that, but it saves Mona’s character.

How you may ask? A lot of people don’t seem to realize this, but I love how when Mona Lisa is first introduced she’s not immediately established to be a love interest unlike the other girls. Mona is given some time to be her own character and show off a bit of her personality. For the other girls, there introduction is through the Turtles POV, established as a love interest FIRST then her own character/personality is shown later. This is made clear just from each Turtles reaction when first meeting their love interest. We are introduced to the female character through the “love at first sight” moment!

Donnie

Leo (I hate that I’m using this as an example this but this help prove my point)

Mikey

I wanna clarify before people start assuming, no, I’m NOT saying that the other 2012 girls have no personality. They do, it just bothers me how they were introduced. Them being the love interest seemed more important to establish to the writers then her own character first.

Meanwhile for Mona Lisa; she’s introduced to the audience NOT the Turtles. This gives her a chance to establish her character/personality first then show her as a love interest later!

We learn just from her introduction scene and even her moment when confronting the Turtles that she is: strong willed, prideful (she’s proud of being the warrior she is and takes her battle’s seriously), stubborn (fight first, ask questions NEVER, like Raph), honorable, loyal (we learn she’s a lieutenant and respects and highly looks to her Commander), and even a bit short tempered (again, like Raph).

Her and Raph even get to speak to each other and have a little banter of threats before romance between them starts to blossom. There is no love at first sight. Unlike the other Turtles who immediately fall in love with the girl just from looking at her and thinking she’s pretty. Their feelings for each other took more time.

Raph did not fall for her looks like his brothers, he fell in love with the person Mona is. Physical attraction (I believe) is very important in a relationship and Raph does show and admits he does in fact find Mona attractive (Ex: calling her a beautiful work of art) but her looks is not what caught his attention. It was her personality, her spirit and capabilities as a warrior! I saw someone mentions this in another post once, but on rare occasions do we get to hear the other Turtles explain exactly WHY they like their love interests other then that they found the girl pretty (Yes, Donnie admits he thinks April is “cool” and Leo says Karai’s “fun” but that’s not enough!), meanwhile for Raph from the very beginning he has his list of reasons ready as to WHY he likes Mona! And he has no shame to admit it proudly!

And throughout the rest of their relationship, we see more of those reasons unfold. We see Raph and even Mona show more reasons as to why they love each other so much. And unlike the others ships, we actually get to see them act and be a couple! They flirt with each other, embrace and hold hands, make out, write love letters to each other, etc. The reason they worked so well is because as I said we get to see them be a couple, but also because Mona got to established herself as a character first before being Raph’s girlfriend.

Many of us can agree that TMNT 2012 failed greatly in the romance department, but they at least did one couple right with the relationship of Raphael and Mona Lisa. So I thank them for that <3

TURTLES DOODLEEESSSSSS 🥳🥳🥳 I love the 2k12 version sooooooo yeah

I made these designs but I haven't seen how they turned out yet, I hope my order arrives 🥺

expression practice on my favorite lil cutie blue boy

TMNTember DAY 21/22: Favorite Alien, Mighty Mutanimals

Was this an excuse to draw my favorite space lizard warrior princess in camaraderie with this chaotic bunch of boys?

Yes.

Was this also an over commitment to draw NINE mutants all crowded into close quarters for a strategy sesh?

Absolutely.

But I wanted to at least make a little messy sketch of these crazy kids all together. This was one of many arcs I wish we would’ve gotten to see more of, I think Mona outside the bounds of dutiful Salamandrian squabbles would’ve been a lot like Cassandra in Rise (who coincidentally shares the same voice actress).

Favorite parts of this: Rockwell tormenting D, Leatherhead making cookies, Mikey and Mondo bonding time, Raph can’t keep his eyes off Mona 😭

@12yearsoftmnt2012

“We don’t talk about Pigeon Pete”😇 (i was gonna draw him AND April AND Casey in here too but I’m not an insane person I need to sleep)

Day 3 - Shinigami and Kara from TMNT 2012

Reunion - ao3

TMNTEMBER DAY 11

Who wants tmnt 2012 emotes? Feel free to download and use on Discord and other apps, I will share the link to the tmnt 2012 emotes and pfps server soon