WILLIAM DIXON

Nikelodeon has certainly been putting their new turtles through some hoops in terms of building their character. The strongest two in my eyes are Donatello and Raphael, most likely because their issues are more apparent and relatable, and they seem to get the spotlight more than Mikey or Leo.

The turtle I think Nikelodeon has the most trouble with is our leader in blue. Leo proves to be in a tough spot; we can’t overly compromise his place as leader in front of the other turtles anymore than we already have.

As the episode Fungus Humongous establishes, Leo’s biggest fear is letting down his brothers. While this helps to flesh out Leo, that kind of character flaw is hard to communicate on a regular basis, especially during a particularly rigorous fight sequence. It’s great that Nikelodeon brought that into the picture for us and stripped Leo down so we could see it, but bringing it up again and again would not only annoy us, it would also make Leo really angsty. It would also justify Raph’s claims that Leo isn’t a great leader, especially if Leo is stopping every fight to question himself. And while Raph seems to be content with Leo’s place in the team at this time, I would not put it past him to try and usurp him if Leo started flaking out.

The only other interesting character trait Leo had was back in season one, and it was quite effectively removed, that trait was dancing around Karai. It took Leo a long time to finally cut off his feelings for Karai, and when he did, the fun banter he used to have was gone. What I liked most about his interactions with Karai was how he wants to be with Karai but really has no way of doing so because he’s too much of a goody two-shoes. He would also have no idea what to with her if she accepted him. And It was fascinating to watch him try and convince Karai to be good, because most of his reasoning was just, “because sensei said so.”

And while the shift the show took in making Karai hate Leo works out better on the whole, I still would’ve liked to see Leo grow and make better arguments for why Karai should be on their side.

A big missed opportunity was in the episode Enemy of my Enemy, namely when Leo decides to take up on Raph’s ambush idea. Leo makes a stunningly quick turn around, one second he’s against going behind Karai’s back, and the next he’s on board. I feel like there’s a missing scene, maybe Leo had a moment with Splinter to finalize the decision, or perhaps Leo meditated. I don’t know, but he changed his mind too quickly for my tastes.

Something the show has done for Mikey, Donnie, and Raph that has helped speak about them in their private time, was to let us into their rooms. While we haven’t officially seen Donnie’s room, I’m betting he spends 90 per cent of his nights in his lab. Letting us observe their rooms helps to further establish their tastes and habits. Raph’s room has a drum set and street signs, whereas Mikey has pizza boxes, vintage action figures, and even manages to have dirty underwear hanging around. And all of that manages to tell us more about the kinds of things they do when they’re alone, and they don’t even have to vocalize it. It’s a real shame that we haven’t seen Leo’s room.

Pretty much the only thing Leo still has left to him is Space Heroes, and its replacement has no importance to building or reflecting on their characters, it just serves as a parallel for their lives. Space Heroes provided a lot more insight for Leo than it may have initially seemed. Captain Ryan was his role model (aside from Splinter) and provided useful motivation and confidence for Leo. When Space Heroes ended in the season one finale, it represented Leo’s need to be able to stand as a leader on his own. And as powerful as that is, it’s nowhere near recognized enough to be a big character moment for Leo.

Right now I’m just waiting on seeing Leo’s room and having Karai side with them. It would make for an incredibly intense internal conflict for Leo. He would most likely unearth his feelings for her, but at the same time, that’s Splinter’s daughter, and I’m not sure if Leo would cross that line.