#god i cant remember the exact quote but when the creators said it disturbed them when people boiled leo's entire personality down to

[gaygollum]

im rewatching rottmnt because i got a cold and laying around watching tmnt is the best way to live while you feel like your brain is pouring out of your nose but I DIGRESS because im talking about leo!!!

i love rise!leo i love him so much because he is such a breath of fresh air. we’ve seen cocky asshole leo (im thinking mainly of the 2007 movie) and we’ve seen traumatized under the pressure of being the leader leo (2003 series) but in these two iterations we never really see leo be happy. i love 2003!leo because i can project onto him but it’s genuinely so heartbreaking to watch him suffer. you can see glimpses of rise!leo beneath the surface--namely the stupid puns he makes like “have a seat!” *throws a couch*--but he can never be as carefree as his rise counterpart because he has taken it upon himself to protect his brothers (as mikey very articulately points out in season 4–that they are all free to be who they want “all cuz leo is busy being responsible for all of us”). it is an admirable quality but 2003!leo’s canonical greatest fear is failure, a direct result of the pressure he feels, and we watch him beat himself up every single time he thinks he has failed. 2003!leo pushes himself to be the best so that he feels like he is good enough to be the leader.

rise!leo, on the other hand, keeps 2007 movie’s cockiness and 2003′s (questionable) sense of humor but when not given the mantle of the leader, he is not concerned with being the best fighter. in the FIRST EPISODE he even says “you guys have been training?” which is such a stark contrast to other iterations of leo who have always been more disciplined and trained harder than all of his brothers. but there’s no pressure for him in rise to be “better” than his brothers, no pressure to have to be the responsible one, and so he honestly kind of sucks at fighting at the beginning. it’s played for laughs, that they all kind of suck and can’t work well together as a team, but it is so nice to see no rivalry between the turtles (especially between raph and leo), and leo getting to be a huge dork and to be able to mess around for once. 

(also rise!leo wears a fanny pack what is there not to love?)

#mine #side note the arc raph got in the rottmnt finale is everything i ever wished for 2003!leo i love that boy so much #god i cant remember the exact quote but when the creators said it disturbed them when people boiled leo's entire personality down to #just being 'the leader' and they said that LEADER isn't a personality trait and to showcase this we're just going to take the mantle #away from leo and let him be himself i <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 #literally some galaxy brained stuff i love this show so much!!!! #also the fact that leo isnt leader in rise but still encourages them and helps raph out all the time 🥺🥺 #IM EXCITED FOR THIS MOVIE NETFLIX GIVE ME A TRAILER #tmnt #tmnt 07 #tmnt 2k3 #teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt 2003 #tmnt 2007 #leonardo tmnt #sorry for not mentioning 2012 i simply have not seen it since i was 13 so i remember nothing #he liked space heroes and was in love with his sister idk idk #for real i do like that 2012 made him a nerd <3 <3 <3 #because i love when leo is a dork #leo