Discussion about Raphael

[aliena]

I'm new here, but I've been reading for a while. I'm a turtle lifer and I just binged watched the Nick series in July, even missed the fourth to watch the show. I'm completely addicted now. Anyway, I have some thoughts about Raph and was hoping some others on here would like to discuss him.

Leo has always been my favorite, but Raph is now my favorite because of this show. I only wish that they would give him better storylines. I know Donnie and Leo get most of the good ones because Donnie has the Apritello thing going and Leo had the Karai story and he's the leader.

But Raph seems to have nowhere to go. When he had Spike he at least had that to make him standout, but now that Spike is Slash, that's gone the wayside. Then he got Casey, which was great, but even now that has sort of faded away since Casey is friends with them all and is fighting with Donnie over April. I know there is a pretty big episode coming up for Raph in season three, but up until then he needs a lot more to do.

I love that Raph has reasoned that his brothers shouldn't pursue girls since they have no chance with them. He has completely accepted the fact that he will never have anyone for himself, so he turns to other things to take the place of a girl. This reason alone is why I would love to see him get a love interest. It would give him something to actually have episodes about.

I can already hear groans about this idea, but it would give him more episodes and see how he deals with the idea of liking a girl. Mona Lisa comes to mind, but I don't know if they will ever give him a love interest. There has been some speculation that Raph is gay, which makes sense too, but they would never do that. I still believe that he is a realist and knows he has little chance of getting a girl so he stays out of it.

Another thing about Raph is how much he cares for his brothers. One minute he's telling Donnie to forget April and the next he helps him because he wants Donnie to have her so he can be happy. It's also a similar element with Leo and Karai. He pulled the Bros before Hoes line with him because I think it scared him to think Leo could have a girlfriend. He doesn't want them to get hurt physically, or emotionally, which shows that he has a huge heart.

Then there's Mikey. I think he's close to Mikey because he's the youngest, and wants to protect him, but he could be his best friend too. The scene where he sits in Mikey's room hanging out with him when they are supposed to be finding the Squirrelanoids shows a quiet moment between them when they don't have to really say or do anything and love to just hang out. Then when Mikey was able to single handedly calm him down in the finale moved me to tears.

One thing that I think could give Raph more episodes is if he were the one who builds the machines and not always Donnie. As of now, Donnie is the scientist, the mechanic, the doctor, the inventor, the computer geek and the lover? If I can go that far. Spreading some of that out among the others would be better for everyone. I could totally see Raph all greasy after having worked on some car or bike or something.

Another thing that makes Raph special is his unique connection to animals. First we see it in Spike, then in the way that he can communicate with the pigeons. I know Mikey likes animals and has ICK, but I still think they should explore Raph's connection in a much bigger way.

Well, I think I've gone on far too long, but Raphael has so much more to add. I'd just like to see him get more episodes where he's tough and fights tough. One of my favorite episodes, if not my favorite episode, is Slash and Destroy. They just need to give him an element other than anger to create episodes for him. Not that I'm knocking the powers that be, they are doing a phenomenal job with what most of my friends and family call "Just a kids cartoon for small children" Wrongo.