The New TMNT: Raphael
May. 19th, 2013 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkSo I already had a post dedicated entirely to Donatello; now it's Raph's turn.
You'd think that it would be pretty easy to write Raphael consistently. I mean, how many different ways can you spin "guy who is angry all the time and has a temper problem and likes to beat things up"? As it turns out, though, there can be quite a bit of nuance involved.
When I began to watch TMNT 2012, my first impression was that Raph was funnier, but also somewhat meaner in this incarnation. In TMNT 2003, Raph tended to blow up for specific reasons, and he generally didn't get mad at his brothers unless there was a reason. He was somewhat sarcastic, but while he made fun of his brothers, he wasn't unnecessarily rude or mean to them. The TMNT 2012 Raph is a whole lot snarkier, but also puts down his brothers extremely frequently for not much reason. He constantly rags on Leo's love of Space Heroes--and yes, it is kind of dorky, but (from personal experience) it can be pretty cruel to make fun of something someone likes. He's also constantly beating up Mikey and belittling Donnie's intelligence.
2003 Raph, in contrast, may be sarcastic toward his brothers, but he's almost always the first to jump in when they're in trouble. Which isn't to say 2012 Raph flat-out doesn't care about his bros, but it's usually only revealed in specific scenes (off the top of my head: ep. 14 when he freaks out over Mikey getting beaten unconscious, and ep. 15 when he's trying to convince Leo that Karai is bad news); other times he acts pretty callously toward them, and towards others as well. 2003 Raph had a couple of episodes in which it's shown that he's perfectly civil towards regular strangers, and he can even be quite caring towards those he just met. For example: S1E04 ("Meet Casey Jones"): Raph hands a lady's purse back to her like a complete gentleman. S1E24 ("Lone Raph and Cub"): Raph takes a liking to a kid he defends from mobsters. S3E09 ("Touch and Go"): Raph helps a blind woman and eventually gives her a briefcase full of cash to save her from being kicked out of her home.
Beyond his brothers, 2012 Raph can sometimes sound scarily sociopathic: he blackmailed a man for information in ep. 2 by threatening to mutate him with the Kraang's ooze (which became even more horrific in hindsight after it's revealed that the ooze can turn people into a blob with organs, literally), and he became mad at Leo for not mercilessly pummeling a helpless man into a pulp in ep. 8.
It's somewhat bizarre. 2003 Raph is just as belligerent and hotheaded as 2012 Raph, but it seems more targeted, rather than generalized and socially oblivious. And because of that, 2003 Raph is a fairly nuanced character: a rebellious hothead who loves to fight, but beneath his abrasive exterior, he's fiercely loyal to his family and a genuinely nice person--er, turtle. 2012 Raph's characterization, in comparison, comes off as much more ham-handed and reduced to a snarky, Gotta Beat 'Em All Up All The Time kind of constant attitude.
You'd think that it would be pretty easy to write Raphael consistently. I mean, how many different ways can you spin "guy who is angry all the time and has a temper problem and likes to beat things up"? As it turns out, though, there can be quite a bit of nuance involved.
When I began to watch TMNT 2012, my first impression was that Raph was funnier, but also somewhat meaner in this incarnation. In TMNT 2003, Raph tended to blow up for specific reasons, and he generally didn't get mad at his brothers unless there was a reason. He was somewhat sarcastic, but while he made fun of his brothers, he wasn't unnecessarily rude or mean to them. The TMNT 2012 Raph is a whole lot snarkier, but also puts down his brothers extremely frequently for not much reason. He constantly rags on Leo's love of Space Heroes--and yes, it is kind of dorky, but (from personal experience) it can be pretty cruel to make fun of something someone likes. He's also constantly beating up Mikey and belittling Donnie's intelligence.
2003 Raph, in contrast, may be sarcastic toward his brothers, but he's almost always the first to jump in when they're in trouble. Which isn't to say 2012 Raph flat-out doesn't care about his bros, but it's usually only revealed in specific scenes (off the top of my head: ep. 14 when he freaks out over Mikey getting beaten unconscious, and ep. 15 when he's trying to convince Leo that Karai is bad news); other times he acts pretty callously toward them, and towards others as well. 2003 Raph had a couple of episodes in which it's shown that he's perfectly civil towards regular strangers, and he can even be quite caring towards those he just met. For example: S1E04 ("Meet Casey Jones"): Raph hands a lady's purse back to her like a complete gentleman. S1E24 ("Lone Raph and Cub"): Raph takes a liking to a kid he defends from mobsters. S3E09 ("Touch and Go"): Raph helps a blind woman and eventually gives her a briefcase full of cash to save her from being kicked out of her home.
Beyond his brothers, 2012 Raph can sometimes sound scarily sociopathic: he blackmailed a man for information in ep. 2 by threatening to mutate him with the Kraang's ooze (which became even more horrific in hindsight after it's revealed that the ooze can turn people into a blob with organs, literally), and he became mad at Leo for not mercilessly pummeling a helpless man into a pulp in ep. 8.
It's somewhat bizarre. 2003 Raph is just as belligerent and hotheaded as 2012 Raph, but it seems more targeted, rather than generalized and socially oblivious. And because of that, 2003 Raph is a fairly nuanced character: a rebellious hothead who loves to fight, but beneath his abrasive exterior, he's fiercely loyal to his family and a genuinely nice person--er, turtle. 2012 Raph's characterization, in comparison, comes off as much more ham-handed and reduced to a snarky, Gotta Beat 'Em All Up All The Time kind of constant attitude.
