#look this could just honestly be me fed up with the typical ‘Leo’s the oldest then Raph Donnie and Mikey’ lineup

[thejadecount]

I’ve seen people’s take on the ages of the MM turtles (Leo’s the oldest, Mikey’s the oldest, Raph and Mikey are twins, etc) and here’s MY TAKE:

They’re quadruplets

Look I don’t know about you guys but for once in my time in the fandom I’ve truly felt they’re the same age (or relatively on the maturity level). It could be the teenager/pre-teen VAs, but I don’t get the same ‘they’re different ages’ energy from the MM boys.

Like although Leo’s the anxious one I don’t get the feeling he’s the most anxious because he’s the oldest and the leader and blah blah blah. He’s just a teen full of anxiety.

And Mikey doesn’t feel like the youngest to me (because the scene he had with talking about the watermelon being like his head) but not like the oldest either (because he’s equally fooling around with Raph and Donnie). He’s isn’t some young goofball baby of the family but not a cool oldest sibling either.

And same thing with Raph and Donnie. Donnie for more obvious reasons mostly because the VA I’m gonna be honest but just his general demeanor. He feels like a teenager who happens to be smart, not someone who’s smart but happens to be a teenager.

And Raph doesn’t give me ‘edgy wishes to be leader roughy guy’ he’s just a jock teen who wants to do sports. He doesn’t give off the same ‘second oldest’ energy all the other Raphs (minus Rise Raph) have.

TL;DR: It could just be the VAs and the fact we only got a few scenes in the trailer, but I don’t feel like the MM boys have like ‘youngest to oldest’ energies like most TMMT incarnations do. When I compare them side-by-side they all just feel like quadruplets with different personalities.

#look this could just honestly be me fed up with the typical ‘Leo’s the oldest then Raph Donnie and Mikey’ lineup #but I do feel like they’re all the same age/maturity relatively speaking #look I CAN accept the idea that they’re different ages/ranges of maturity #but ONLY if Raph and Donnie are considered twins #like yeah I can see Mikey and Raph being twins but I’m sorry the whole brawn & brain dynamic #plus the fact Donnie was just recording Raph about to throw a shuriken at Mikey without interveneing #they just give me bigger twin vibes #and if not I feel like Leo and Mikey being twins would actually be an interesting dynamic as well #so yeah that’s my take on this #don’t take this as actual analysis or anything i just wanted to say this #ANYWAYS IM EXCITED FOR THE MOVIE ARE YOU GUYS?! #WOOO! #being honest when I saw the trailer and I saw the whole ‘ooze’ scene I was like #this is it. they’re quadruplets. we’ve finally reached it. peak sibling. #tmnt mutant mayhem #tmnt #tmnt headcanons #mm leo #mm mikey #mm donnie #mm raph #I love them and I would die AND kill for them #also side note love it how one trailer afterwards and we all decided to adopt them no questions asked

[nerves-nebula]

oo I was wondering if maybe the brothers in your AU would have different levels of food anxiety? Honestly I was thinking mostly Raph, considering he's the oldest, largest (at least body weight wise it seems?) and probably expends the most energy taking care of his brothers and doing most of the chores when he was younger.

Probably especially bad that Leo could bully food from any one else and get away with it, and sounds like he might've picked on Raph most in that regard, or if Leo took Donnie or Mikey's food Raph was more willing to split or even give his portions away.

That's assuming Splinter even fed them, which considering the "timeout corner" they might have had to forage for food more than once.

Because like I was thinking about the dynamic between Raph and Casey and how Raph's food anxiety could be what helped drive him to make sure Casey had at least some food (he knows how much it sucks and doesn't want someone else to be stuck like that) and how Casey could have a big impact on Raph if he helped Raph to have a more stable source of food/ate enough.

<- also kinda related thoughts. Raph might be smaller in your version because he didn't get all the nutrition he needed growing up so his height/size is stunted? Also maybe why Leo is the tallest (favourite child privileges?). Hunger might have also helped drive Raph to try running away?

<- I could definitely see Mikey and/or Donnie having food anxiety too, with either food hoarding or getting aggressive when they think someone will steal their food? Or fast eating.

<- Basically I am ROTATING THEM IN MY HEAD!!

OHHHH this is an ask i have so much personal investment in because here’s a Not Super Secret fact about me, I’ve got Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder! And (partially because of that) I starved a lot as a kid! BASICALLY me and all my siblings have weird relationships to food so I am FULLY committed to making these guys relationships with food weird as well.

Splinter DOES feed them, in that there is FOOD in the HOUSE which is EDIBLE. He doesn’t really cook for them, though. Raph’s been cooking for them since he was old enough to take on that job, though he mostly made easy stuff at first like sandwiches/soup/noodles/uncooked vegetables.

So lets go through each turtle and look at how things turned out, why dont we?

Leo: Leo has the least food issues of them all. To him, it’s more like a status thing. If he wants something, he’ll take it. It doesn’t matter if there’s only enough soup for them to each have one bowl, he’ll have two if he feels like it. He does it because he knows he can get away with it, and because it’s been normalized. It doesn’t feel like a huge issue/violation to him.

Mikey: Mikey binges/eats food as fast as possible. He doesn’t wanna give anyone the chance to take it from him. He’s the least discerning and will eat stuff even if it’s kind of rotten/stale. He doesn’t have the self restraint to hoard food, he’d just eat it all immediately. Mikey gets reasonably aggressive about his food, but wouldn’t actually hurt his brothers (except maybe Leo) to get it back. then again his brothers (except leo) typically wouldn't take it from him anyway.

Donnie: Donnie has a ton of texture issues and because of that he’s a picky eater, he’s starved the most second only to Raph, because even when there IS food he can’t always get himself to eat it. he’s more used to the pain of starvation than the disgust of eating something with a Bad Texture

(shoutout to MYSELF. I was really out here dying as a 12 year old, huh? Fully eating 1 sandwich a day and crying about it cause the bread felt gross and dry in my mouth.)

Donnie is prone to hoarding food, but keeps it hidden in various places because if Leo thought Donnie had more food than him, he’d try to steal it. So Donnie keeps his stashes secret, but will share food if he thinks the others REALLY need it. Because Donnie can only eat specific kinds of food, he’s very aggressive about protecting his food from others. But he can’t beat Leo in a fight, so he usually resorts to hiding the food.

Donnie has slight cannibalistic urges because of all that (and cause he’s a softshell lol), but it’s not a huge issue and he’d never act on them cause the idea/texture of eating another PERSON is repulsive. He’ll often just chew on something (even himself) to tide himself over. 

Raph: poor, beautiful Raph. Raphael, my darling boy. SO FIRST OF ALL Raph starved the most. If Leo took more than his fair share, Raph would split his portion for his little brothers, because to him taking care of them is his whole reason for being alive.

he has cannibalistic urges too, cause he starves the most (and cause he's a snapping turtle). and that makes him feel like a terrible person. Donnie and Mikey get these urges too, but they never starved quite as bad as Raph did because he’d always split his food with them.

I like the idea that Raph is stunted because of nutritional issues, so yknow what? I'm adopting that. it's canon now.

as for Raph and Casey,,, I think they would definitely share food. In fact, I think Raph would leave Casey food/snacks as gifts when he was trying to befriend him. Casey eventually bringing along food from above ground would be a GAME CHANGER for the turtles, too.

one correction: Donnie is actually the tallest! He just slouches a lot (and I've mostly drawn them as kids, before his growth spurt)

Man, sidenote, but writing this really got me thinking about my childhood more. If we didn't get enough to eat, mom would get mad at us like “why didn’t you eat??” IDK I’m 11 and you’ve been gone all day!! She’d check in with the older kids and ask them (and eventually me, cause at a certain point I was the oldest one home) if the other kids had eaten. And sometimes i’d say i did just to get her off my back. God what a shithole. Anyway, this was a fun ask hah.

#nnstuff #ask #tmnt #disordered eating #food tw #tmnt au #teenage mutant neglected turtles #child neglect tw #child abuse tw #long post