Leo vs Raph - Outcome

[jenna]

Originally Posted by The Shelf

Oh, come on man. I thought it had already been decided here that Leo said that line intentionally to aggravate Raph knowing that it was the only way to get Raph to work off his anger. .

There have been some really fascinating arguments in this thread as to what made Leo say "I'm better than you," and I'm not inclined to say that there is any one answer set in stone. My own thoughts are that despite being the eldest, despite being the leader, Leonardo is only 17(ish) and is still so young. He has always been shown to be torn between his two roles in the world 1. Leonardo the leader and 2. Leonardo the teenager. I love the line in Film 1 where he knee skids up to Master Splinter saying, bursting with excitement: "We have had our first battle. they were many, but we kicked their... [collects himself] we fought well." This to me sums up Leonardo's conflict. He has been entrusted with a responsibility which is too young for. I don't know about you guys but when I was 17 no amount of Bushido, meditation or wise teaching would have kept me from getting into petty arguments and being a normal troublemaking teenager. Hats off to Leo for doing his job as well as he does.

Neither the novelisation nor the movie explain what Leonardo was specifically doing on his training in South America, but I expect that Splinter wanted him to return more mature with more life experience. Whilst he makes every effort, Raphael has the knack for winding him up and in the same way Leo said "You act like a jerk sometimes" in film 1, he just can't help himself but to bite back occassionally.