Why would sending Leo into a jungle would make him a better leader?
 

Shouldn't he be spending more time with people and try to understand them because he needs to lead them? Being alone in the forest, probably learning survival skills but he won't actually learn anything about leadership.

Anyone think 2k7 Splinter is just ridiculous? :-?

Actually no. Leo chose to live in the jungles after his training was over. Living in the jungle wasn't the training. If you are interested in tie ins and expanding the movie universe the prequel comics has Splinter traveling around the world training and one of the task was to train under the ancient one from 2k3 series. The video game expanded less on that area by having Leo training in the jungle or at least part of his training in the jungle in some ancient temple.

Yeah I've assumed it was more about the training than leadership. Though increased and enhanced skills a different environment might bring might help strengthen him in terms of tactics and therefor might translate into a stronger leader? But that's based on seeing that movie only twice at this point, so just my two cents.

Leo's a tool for most of the film anyway.

Actually, I believe the training was meant to improve his self-reliance, resilience, and strength, as well as teach him endurance and resourcefulness. The environment and isolation meant that he'd have to be completely self-sufficient, which would make him more capable of dealing with unexpected situations. Thus, improving his ability to lead.

I'll just leave this here...

Makes sense to me, let's go with that.

Training in seclusion can make him reach enlightenment?... Or something? I don't know, I'm sure the screen writer thought people would understand but failed to convey it properly.

They should have done a better job of explaining it but the overall idea was that he wasn't even supposed to be gone that long. Leo even tells April that the reason he was gone that long is because he got caught up in his own world and when he realized it he was ashamed to come back to Splinter a failure. That's also why I suspect Splinter was rip **** after he realized the turtles went against his orders. I'd be pissed off too if I sent him to train and he was gone for so long and learned nothing (one of my favorite moments is that when Splinter is yelling at Leo you can see Raph smiling lol ).

Every time I watch this film I wonder if the Leonardo story line is the result of extremely good, nuanced writing, with subtext and character parallels, a la the Cain and Abel archetype, or really, really bad writing, where no-one noticed that small details when put together made the Leonardo character seem like a giant, hypocritical, petulant arse who didn't learn a thing even after all that pre-plot training and 90 minute plot time.

I don't think I'll ever know. Just one of the many paradoxes about this film.

They had a 2007 prequel comic? What's it called?

If I recall correctly they had one for each Turtle and April. I have them I just haven't looked at them in a while. They're in storage, if I recall. Pretty much just showed a little of what everyone had been doing in the "recent past" before the movie's events.

Other than setting up the Raphael/Nightwatcher story, I don't recall them being very necessary. I remember feeling like they a textbook example of "Let's squeeze a few bucks out of the super-fans who buy everything". I don't think they expanded on anything from the movie much at all. I could be wrong, though, it's been a couple years since I read 'em.

There's a whole variety of very real reasons why sending him to a South American jungle could make Leonardo a better leader (or, more importantly, a stronger "man")... but I feel like the reality is something more akin to, "Eh, sounds cool!"

Hypocritical is right...that always bothered me about established vigilantes...they feel so completely justified in their actions, and yet cannot accept the fact that others can follow in their footsteps for reasons of their own. I love Leo, but he was wrong chastising Raph for the whole Nightwatcher-thing.

The issue was Raph as the Nightcrawler made himself more and more known to the public. He deliberately walked around fully seen by people.

I know every time I visited the jungle I came back a better follower, not leader.. I thought I was a rebellious leader until my parents put me out and then I realized just how much I wanted to follow their rules after 2 nights in that damn jungle.. but that's just me. Leo is his own individual. :lol:

Almost certainly this.

Yup. They didn't even bother to make the Raphael/Nightwatcher story consistent with the backstory given in the film novelisation. A lack of such continuity can only point to milking the merchandise machine....

Beats me.

All I can think of is it giving a reason for Raph to get pissyy at Leo.

...Did you just self-censor the word "pissy"? I don't even.

Well excuse me then.

No need to get pissy.:P