Theory: Blind Foot Soldier in "Return to NY"
 

Just something that occurs to me re-reading a lot of my Mirage collection. In Tales of the TMNT Vol.2 Issue #5, there's a story called "Blind Faith" where Leonardo battles a blind Foot Soldier that's after revenge on Leo for taking away his eyesight. This leads to a whole Tales of Leonardo: Blind Sight miniseries dealing with the aftermath.

They present this guy as any one of the hundreds of Foot Ninja the Turtles have battled over the years and not anybody specific. But, back in Vol. 1 Issue #20 (Return to NY: Part 2). There's a page where a Turtle who could just as easily be Leo as any of the others, gouging a Foot Soldier's eyes with his fingers.

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I haven't read all of Tales Vol. 2 or everything the Mirage crew have said, so I don't know if there's anything that contradicts that idea (I doubt the connection's even intentional). But, until I hear otherwise, it's my "headcanon" that this is the origin of that Foot Ninja's blindness.

Anyone, agree/disagree?

As you mentioned, they never mention the Foot as being any specific soldier, they present him as one in the hundreds they've fought. So there's nothing that would contradict your idea.

In my opinion, I prefer the soldier to remain anonymous. If they were to present him as a specific guy they fought in a specific issue, I feel like that would take away an important part of the story, similarly to Having Leo not remember the soldier and having the soldier remember very well who the guy who blinded him was adds to the story, but if the Foot were to be called out as so-and-so, would take away that element from the story.

Yeah, that's a good point. Although, it's more important that Leo never knows who the blind Foot Soldier is than that we never know. But, it's still probably better if it's never confirmed or denied to keep the mystery alive.

But, this is really more of a "headcanon" thing, and in my mind that's the guy unless somebody convinces me otherwise.

That's a dope link you've made there. Works for me unless otherwise proven false, though it is likely a coincidence.

Man, that page scan is brutal! I didn't even remember how graphic that was even without the sight of blood and gore.

I think you've got a winner of an idea, TD!

Hey, that's a good catch. I could totally buy that, yeah.

But as Destron pointed out, pinpointing the individual would subtract from the narrative of the story a bit, so it's better NOT to know, etc.

That said, it's something that hadn't ever crossed my mind, and I always loved the layout of that page.

Hey guys, my memory of this Tales issue isn't very good, but when the Foot soldier adresses Leo, does he say that he blinded him many years ago, or did he say it was a recent thing?
That would be the only thing keeping the soldier from (possibly) being the same from City at War, that I could think of.

Woah, I haven't read this one yet. I didn't know turtle fingers could be so strong.

He doesn't really specify a time period, but he does expect Leo to remember blinding him as if it wasn't some stray shuriken or anything but Leo deliberately doing something awful to his eyes.

Either way, it highlights just how brutal the Turtle/Foot war really is.