Well then let's continue with my top five episodes of our resident hot-head.
5. When World's collide
What I love about Raphael and Mona Lisa is that the roles are reversed, Raph is the girlfriend in that relationship, I picked this double episode because it shows how different each relationship of the turtles with their respective girlfriend is. Donnie and April just enjoy each other's company, Leo and Karai display affection with their blades and their equally sharp banter and Mikey and Renet is just the most innocent puppy love you can imagine. But I also chose this episode because it shows Raph taking control and coming up with a plan to get lord Dregg to leave earth, a STUPID plan but a plan regardless. Plus him decapitating Bishop was so satisfying to see.
4. New Girl in town.
This episode was one which showed some major changes in Raphael's personality as he realizes that leadership is about more than just barking orders. He freezes as the realization hits him how heavy the burden of leadership truly is, the moment where he stands there completely out of options after Mikey is struck down is such a powerful moment. Subsequent episodes show him with a new respect for Leo but it still has Raph bicker with him over Karai and the former's affinity toward her.
3. Turtle Temper
When the turtles got mutated, they got their human side from either Splinter or the clerk of the pet shop where they were bought, either way from humans who touched them beforehand. But when Master Splinter told Raph about the showdown between him and Shredder, it left no doubt that Splinter's DNA manifested itself in Raph's explosive personality, which was confirmed in "Tales of the Yokai." The bonding moment between Raph and Splinter is such a cool moment. I already pointed out that with Mona Lisa, Raph is pretty much the girl, the training scene in this episode already shows glimpses of that: as the others are shooting arrows at him while also shooting insults at him; Raph goes off like a 13 year old girl throwing a tantrum. And what's not to love about that declaration that Raph has Mikey say
2. Carmageddon
Oh boy, that episode was glorious, I still think that ending the show with the Mutant apocalypse special was a mistake, certainly since it kept so much loose ends left untied. But that fight between Raph and Leo was just so epic, and look at how Raph had developed, this "Old man Logan" version of Raph was just so cool.
1. Slash and destroy
Do I really need to explain this one? The emotions of Donnie as he feels so bad for nearly blowing up Spike, the pleading eyes of Mikey when he's so worried about Donnie gone missing and that look of reassurance that Raph gives Mikey "It's okay, we'll find him, don't worry." And then that look of sheer horror when Slash bashes Mikey with his morning star. The whole fight between Raph and Slash revolves around the fact that Raph always vented his frustrations about his brothers to Spike and that now has given Slash a reason to take the other turtles out. Raph learns to be very careful of what he says and to whom he says it to. And finally, that look of loss when we see Raph holding that final leaf of lettuce that Spike was eating before the mutation happened, he misses his buddy.
Honorable mention: The Pulverizer.
Well truth to be said, this was a Donnie centric episode but it contains some of the funniest Raphael moments from the entire series. The way he reacts when the Shellraiser arrives, his conspiracy voice when he explains to the Pulverizer who the Kraang are and the whole scene of him hallucinating after Fishface bit him. "Yeah I'm fine, I love you."