Todd Capybara is secretly the Spine-Breaker Bandit

[victory_angel]

Todd Capybara appears for all intents of and purposes a very congenial guy.

He's friendly to everyone...even villains,

He runs a puppy farm

His mutant ability is the power of friendship

and the three times we have seen his character he's been an all around nice guy.

However, there have been some recent appearances that suggest the "Nice Guy" persona is actually a facade that hides something rather sociopathic.


For example, when Todd arrives at the hotel boardroom where Draxum was meeting with Meatsweats, Hypnopotimus, the Sandobrothers, Repomantis, and Warren Stone. He comes in bearing a tray of lemonade and is happily talking to everyone as though he doesn't know who to be friends with first. When Draxum asks Huginn and Muninn about why someone like him was considered a villain. Huginn replies by saying "trust me, he's as bad as they come."

And in this recent episode "Nothing but Truffle" There is a moment where Mikey makes pork chops for the two of them. But Todd eats the pork chops on both of their plates and there is sinister sounding music when that happens.


Now, early on in the series, we learned there was a name drop of someone named the Spine-Breaker Bandit. This was a character was first mentioned in "Origami Tsunami". They were named again in "Repomantis" when Donnie mentions that he had run a profile on Todd and says he's a 98% match for the "Spine-Breaking Bandit"

And when Todd does come out of his RV for the first time in the show, he comes out Teeth first. Which does make him appear rather scary until he is actually introduced and we find out he's the rodent equivalent of Ned Flanders.

In shows when character name is dropped they usually don't have a significance aside from being a reference to something or it's just a name to fill space.

If the name is dropped more than once, then they would have a part to play in the story, or at the very least have an appearance.

So far the Spine-Breaker Bandit has only been mentioned in the second and fourth episodes of this series. The Turtles certainly have a lot more things to worry about with Big Mama, Draxum, and the Foot Clan. On top of their origins of who they were mutated by and why they were mutated, to begin with, are coming into light. Along with a host of minor villains that are only really there to annoy everyone (turtles and audience included). So naturally, the Spine-Breaker Bandit would be dropped to the bottom of the shuffle of threats to the city.

But maybe Donnie was actually correct in his probability that Todd was the Spine Breaker Bandit. After all, take the Ned Flander's comparison.

In the Tree House of Horror specials, it's revealed that Ned is secretly the devil. And in the special where that was revealed Ned responds by saying "It's always the one you least expect". The Tree House of Horror Specials, aren't canon to the Simpon's in general, but nothing in the Simpson's in canon anymore, so it may as well be a canon fact.

And Todd does have some textbook traits that do suggest he is a sociopath.

1. He acts charming and friendly- Many people who fall in the spectrum of sociopathy appear charming and nice on the surface. Which is actually just a mask for the monster underneath

2. He's manipulative- When Donnie and Mikey inform him they are there to repossess the RV. Todd responds by giving them a sob story about how him and the puppies would have to sleep outside in the rain from now on since their home is being taken away from them. Prompting Donnie to say they would build new and improved puppy park for them to live in.

3. Unlawful-Donnie mentions in his speculations about how Todd was a match for the Spine Breaker bandit that he doesn't pay his bills. Todd runs a puppy farm with an illegal amount of dogs. Animal shelters can only take in so many animals at one time. In a place like a city, a person can only own about 2-3 dogs at most. In more rural areas such as the middle of nowhere, how many dogs you own is up to you, just so long as they aren't a problem. He appears to have at least twenty free roaming puppies which would be unhealthy for the dogs, and he doesn't seem to be adopting them out. Which means he's hoarding them. He also doesn't seem to have any means of providing for them or himself outside of cartoon logic.

4. He's antisocial- He lives in the middle of nowhere, and rarely interacts with other people aside from his puppies.

[Leonardo2003]

Not sure if he will end up being the bandit, but I am sure he will show his evil at some point.
Maybe he looks at his mutation as a second chance, so he put all the evil he did behind him and started his puppy farm and charity work.

[victory_angel]

Originally Posted by Leonardo2003

Not sure if he will end up being the bandit, but I am sure he will show his evil at some point.
Maybe he looks at his mutation as a second chance, so he put all the evil he did behind him and started his puppy farm and charity work.

Perhaps, or he could be playing a harmless congenial guy so the turtles don't suspect him of anything. After all, both sociopaths and psychopaths can appear nice and keep to themselves. Which is why whenever a heinous act performed by that person is featured on the news, when the news interviews the neighbors of that person. There is often someone who says "It's surprising, every time I've seen him he's always appeared to be so nice (or quiet). It's hard to believe he'd do something like this."

[Vicky82]

There was also a moment from Nothing but Truffle that could possible be foreshadowing.

Mikey said "I guess being mutated can turn anybody nasty"



So yeah Todd could possibly be the spine breaker bandit.

[oldmanwinters]

Although, I like Todd as-is, I think this sort of twist is not just possible, but likely. Nice theory in the first post!

[miru]

Is it possible that his form is nothing more than a disguise? Does he perhaps have a battle form?

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

Although, I like Todd as-is, I think this sort of twist is not just possible, but likely. Nice theory in the first post!

I think some people are taking this show too seriously. It's really just an "anything goes" type of toon and you'd think they'd know this by now.

[IndigoErth]

It would be a fun twist, but only issue with the theory is that when Meat Sweats absorbed Todd's "powers," it kind of proved Todd's power is niceness, as Mikey puts it. I thought maybe being the Spine Breaking Bandit could have been his past and mutation turned him good, but it was recent news when the Turtles read about the bandit, so... if he was being deceptive now and the niceness was fake then when Meat Sweats absorbed his true nature, were it actually being hidden, it probably should have given Todd away.

Which actually might have been the perfect time and cool way to throw such a twist in there, with Meat Sweats absorbing something unexpected bad from Todd instead.

I dunno, maybe Todd's real "power" is deception. Though a villain like Meat Sweats hardly needs anyone else's help for that; pulling off believable niceness on the other hand...



Though a serial criminal lurking around that the news dubs as the Spine Breaking Bandit turning into a capybara of all things is super random. Esp as Todd had clearly been busy with the puppy thing for quite a while and probably should have turned into a dog... Um.

[miru]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

It would be a fun twist, but only issue with the theory is that when Meat Sweats absorbed Todd's "powers," it kind of proved Todd's power is niceness, as Mikey puts it. I thought maybe being the Spine Breaking Bandit could have been his past and mutation turned him good, but it was recent news when the Turtles read about the bandit, so... if he was being deceptive now and the niceness was fake then when Meat Sweats absorbed his true nature, were it actually being hidden, it probably should have given Todd away.

Which actually might have been the perfect time and cool way to throw such a twist in there, with Meat Sweats absorbing something unexpected bad from Todd instead.

I dunno, maybe Todd's real "power" is deception. Though a villain like Meat Sweats hardly needs anyone else's help for that; pulling off believable niceness on the other hand...



Though a serial criminal lurking around that the news dubs as the Spine Breaking Bandit turning into a capybara of all things is super random. Esp as Todd had clearly been busy with the puppy thing for quite a while and probably should have turned into a dog... Um.

I thought Todd used to be a regular capybara, right?

[IndigoErth]

Don't recall if that's been mentioned, I figured he'd been human, but good point. If he was, was he a zoo escapee? lol

[miru]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

Don't recall if that's been mentioned, I figured he'd been human, but good point. If he was, was he a zoo escapee? lol

Maybe he used to be in a petting zoo, which explains his friendly nature?

[victory_angel]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

It would be a fun twist, but only issue with the theory is that when Meat Sweats absorbed Todd's "powers," it kind of proved Todd's power is niceness, as Mikey puts it. I thought maybe being the Spine Breaking Bandit could have been his past and mutation turned him good, but it was recent news when the Turtles read about the bandit, so... if he was being deceptive now and the niceness was fake then when Meat Sweats absorbed his true nature, were it actually being hidden, it probably should have given Todd away.

Which actually might have been the perfect time and cool way to throw such a twist in there, with Meat Sweats absorbing something unexpected bad from Todd instead.

I dunno, maybe Todd's real "power" is deception. Though a villain like Meat Sweats hardly needs anyone else's help for that; pulling off believable niceness on the other hand...



Though a serial criminal lurking around that the news dubs as the Spine Breaking Bandit turning into a capybara of all things is super random. Esp as Todd had clearly been busy with the puppy thing for quite a while and probably should have turned into a dog... Um.

Or maybe his facade of niceness actually is so good that Meatsweats isn't able to show it. We know Meatsweats is able to gain control of another mutant's powers and abilities temporarily. But it's never clear how long it lasts, for example in Donnie's gifts I guess you can estimate that he would have the ability for about an hour after all his mini-selves had grabbed Donnie and pulled him back into Meatsweat's lair. But they also would have had to wrangle and restrain him. And D did look like he had been tied to that stake for some time when the Minimeats reform into Meatsweats.

And we see Todd's powers appear to wane after what looks like it might be a span of 20 minutes. This could mean Todd didn't have much power so Meatsweats was only able to retain the niceness for that long, or maybe Meatsweats seeming to return to himself is really Todd's darker nature starting to come through.