Why Leo was a Jerk in the ROTTMNT Movie | Leo Character Analysis

I feel like I have to say this before I start the video but Major Spoilers for both the rise of the TMNT show and movie okay bye you know what I love about rise of the TMNT the way that it's able to use the traits and quirks of its characters is a joke in one scene but spin those into a serious topic or character flaw in the next let's take Raph for example Raph is very overprotective of his brothers he's constantly looking out for them and stresses about them doing things on their own while being productive isn't necessarily A Bad Thing Raph tends to go a bit overboard sometimes let's take hot soup the game for example raps overprotectiveness over mikeyan's episode is somewhat played up for a joke serving as the perfect parallel for the foot Clan's feelings that Casey can't complete a mission on her own RAF learns at the end of this episode that he needs to start trusting his brothers to do work by themselves sometimes the finale of season 2 also teaches him the same lesson but in a much more serious light while the season 2 finale isn't a purely rap centered Arc him finally learning to trust his family to protect him is an integral part in them being able to defeat the shredder in fact it's him finally learning that he doesn't need to carry the weight of keeping his family safe all on his own that unlocks the Mystic abilities the turtles were previously unable to access the lesson Raph learns in both of these episodes is the same he can trust his family and doesn't need to take full responsibility for them all of the time but the way these episodes treat that character flaw is completely different this same argument can be made for Leo in the rise movie let's list off some things we know about Leo as a character Leo and Rise of the TMNT is the typically laid-back funny self-proclaimed face man who has an over-inflated ego that's typically played out for Laughs he's clever sure and does have a lot of good ideas but he seems to assume that he's automatically correct in many situations he's to put it plainly a teenage boy I know at least five guys at my school who acts like this and yes they all give me gender Envy Ben Schwartz's Turtle Sona is not the exception so how did Leo act in the rise movie in the beginning of the movie frustrating he was very frustrating he was lazy overconfident and refused to listen to his sibling's input even in life or death situations if he was cocky in the show that inherent belief that he's right seems to be pushed to the max here but is it he's just acting the same as he always does he's arrogant makes jokes at inappropriate times Rush is ahead of the group it's the same guy it's just that while in the show these traits are typically played out for Laughs or a joke at his expense in the movie he is shown in a much more serious setting which is frustrating to the viewer who knows what's coming as a result of his actions it's also important to note what we don't see on screen as well there's a two-year time skip between the season 2 finale and the movie and Leo has likely had a rough time adjusting to being leader especially since it was dropped on him seemingly out of nowhere so I want to take the time to break down some of Leo's character traits that he displays in the show and explain how I think these are expressed in the unlikable Behavior he shows in the movie I also want to talk talk a bit about other things that might have caused the shift from the generally goofy guy to a jerk who won't take his team's feelings into account Leo is typically portrayed as a more lazy laid-back character while he's a competent planner and fighter he prefers to leave most things up to his brothers this is most easily seen in the season 2 episode pizza puffs where Leo and his brothers eat poisoned pizza puffs made by meat sweats Raph decides that instead of fixing the situation for his brothers like he usually does to instead let them deal with the situation on their own and take responsibility for their actions well none of the brothers want to deal with the situation on their own Leo is the one most often saying that rap will take care of the problem rather than trying to find a solution for himself Leo has also been shown to have an adverse reaction to the idea of training in fact why would he feel the need to train at all in the finale of season 2 Leo and his brothers were able to defeat a being so powerful that he was previously thought to be unbeatable just by using their Mystic powers are you telling me that if you are granted the ability to snap your fingers and instantly teleport yourself anywhere in the world that you'd ever take a plan again most of the other villains the Mad Dogs fight and Rise while powerful in their own right were nothing compared to the shredder during the two years between the show and the movie they were probably only fighting these villains and were easily able to take them down with their Mystic Powers so why would Leo want to put any work into training his other abilities this is a serious issue that affects Leo throughout the movie unless properly motivated Leo would rather goof off than put much work into things so what does motivate Leo many things actually but mainly his ego Leo's egotistical nature is very prominent in the series he is constantly trying to prove himself to the others and will do almost anything in order to prove that his ego is Justified such as in the episode Minotaur maze where Leo brings his brothers into a dangerous situation just to get his name on the wall of Champions a lot of Leo's choices seem to be influenced by his ego or black thereof and while it's definitely not a bad thing to have confidence that confidence often gets himself and his brothers into dangerous situations something that goes hand in hand with Leo's ego is his pride and stubbornness Leo is a very prideful person and struggles to admit when he's in the wrong two examples of this are in the episodes the gumbus where Leo and Mikey nearly die before Leo can admit that he might be wrong in a situation and in fleshed but never forgotten where Leo doubles down on trying to hide losing their pet goldfish rather than admit the truth to splinter Leo shows off this combo a lot in the movie he tries to take on Hypno and worn all by himself being fully confident that he doesn't need help from his brothers and after he accidentally causes them to lose the portal key he doubles down on his decisions and refuses to admit that he made a mistake it takes Casey telling him the truth about what happens to his brothers in the future for him to realize that he can't figure out everything on his own and he needs to listen to his team rather than write them off something else that I think is important to Leo's character is the way he deals with stressful or emotionally challenging situations that is of course by not daring with him at all Leo's main way to deal with difficult situations is by deflection he even States this in the first episode what I can't make a joke in the middle of the craziest thing ever that's how I cope he doesn't really like to face his problems head on and is constantly trying to lighten the mood this trait is expressed in his humor as he's constantly making funny quips at inappropriate times because he doesn't really want to admit the stress that he's under deflection is what I feel like Leo expressed the most during his fight with RAF if you watch his face during the scene you can clearly see that he's feeling regret for his actions but his stubbornness to admit he's wrong mixes with his number one way to avoid an emotional conversation causing him to say insulting things to Raph as an attempt at humor this provokes wrath into attacking him and while Leo didn't avoid conflict entirely he was able to shift the conversation away from the problem he doesn't want to deal with another thing that I only touched on briefly while talking about Leo's ego is that it's not always very present while a lot of the time Leo is a very confident character sometimes this is just bravado it's him putting on an act of confidence usually because of the stubbornness thing in order to feel in control of a situation another contributing factor to this is his fear both of the situation itself and the thought that the others will no longer trust him to lead gaining the trust of his siblings is something that Leo has to work to overcome in the series this is expressed in a rare serious moment for him in many unhappy returns how come nobody trusts me none of you guys have any faith in me why he worked so hard to convince the others that he knows what he's doing so when his confidence takes a hit when Raph is captured by the crane I think a lot of the attitude he displays afterwards is actually faked in order to convince his brothers that he knows what he's doing and that they can trust him of course after the stunt he pulls at the end of the movie they are never trusting him to be by himself ever again the final major thing I want to touch on is one of the things that fuels Leo to work past his laziness and this is his brothers being in danger when his brothers are captured or hurt Leo is willing to throw himself into dangerous situations without much thought of a plan or Consequences two of my favorite episodes of Rise are both ones that show this trait very clearly in the first really plot heavy episode of season 1 Bug Busters after his brothers are captured by Big Mama Leo immediately throws himself into a half-baked rescue plan in order to save them not fearing any potential consequences of his actions his main objective is to get his brothers and get out for the second episode I'm going to describe a scenario to you Leo does something with full confidence ends up failing this task and losing his brothers in the process and then jumps right into a rescue plan without care for his companions worries or complaints about the mission I'm describing both the first half of the rise movie and my favorite episode from season 1 portal jacked in this episode Leo makes a portal to take his brothers to the Mystic Pizza place but his brothers don't come out on the other side of his portal he immediately runs to weso and after finding out about the concept of portal jacking a situation where Hidden City Pirates will hijack a portal and steal the contents he drags weso to the Hidden City to help him find them not paying attention to hueso's repeated sentiment of not wanting to go into the city due to being a wanted criminal this situation is very similar to the first failed rescue mission to find wrath Leo drags his brothers and Casey down to the subway system in order to find a path into the building where the crown are keeping wrath ignoring Donny's concerns about an escape plan if the mission goes wrong both of these situations end up putting his companions in serious danger while Leo is focused on a lot in Rise I feel like he's much more of a comedic relief character in the show while he's shown to be extremely clever and an excellent strategist with the capabilities to be leader if he wanted to he's hardly ever given serious plots in the series that don't also involve his siblings RAF Donnie and Mikey while being less focused on on the series do Express serious emotions and are emotionally vulnerable throughout the show with Raph having a serious case of older sister syndrome Donnie constantly seeking adult approval and struggling with his relationship with Splinter and Mikey trying his hardest to bring draxum and Splinter together taking on the weight of trying to fix a broken relationship Leo hardly has these moments of emotional vulnerability with really the only instance I can think of being in many happy returns and when Karai dies during the season 2 finale the movie did a great job of having Leo actually face his problems rather than continue to deflect and avoid them anyways that's all I really had to say on this matter risely was actually my favorite character out of all the TMNT iterations I've seen though that list is very short as I'm kind of new to the TMNT fandom so that may change I didn't mean to make it seem like I dislike him in any way because I most certainly do not but I wanted to shine light on his more negative attributes that I feel like contributed to his actions in the movie I feel like the writers weren't trying to make him seem out of character and that they were actually just exploring his behavior in a way they weren't able to in the show itself in conclusion Netflix if you don't give us season 3 I'll throw you out of a window thank you oh uh and note here uh I originally posted this whole thing on Tumblr so if it seems familiar I promise I did not steal it I just wanted to turn it into a video um so yeah thank you for watching bye

Channel: chatterbuck

Views: 62,175

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Id: WdepE0z4ePo

Length: 10min 55sec (655 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 04 2022