Leo Looks So Haunted By That Nightmare. Each Of His Brothers Died And He Couldn’t Beat The The Demon

Leo's Mom Moments™ counter in Turtle Temper:

Shushes and lightly scolds Raph and Mikey to be quiet on missions

Stops them again with a, "Alright, enough," when Raph is forcing praises out of the youngest.

Grabs Raph's arm, stopping him from pulling out his sai and attacking human Spiderbytez and says, "Let's go."

Gets mockingly called Mommy by the dude right afterwards.

Is the first one to reach forth and hold Raph back when his brother's weapon was called Salad Tongs and Raph tried to attack. (Donnie and Mikey join later.)

Elbows his brother so he would say, "Please"

"Okay okay. Thankyou, Raphael, I will take over." (Manages to make him mellow out with just an upset pout like a child)

Worries about Raph walking away from the fight all of a sudden and gets distracted enough to be downed temporarily.

Disappointed Mom Lecture ™

Going, "Not now, Donnie," when in lecture mode.

"Hey." Stops Donnie and Mikey from beating each other up when they're pulling their silly shenanigans and then shushes them with a glare.

Shushes human Spiderbytez

"Don't worry. The four of us can handle it." (Tries to reassure)

This proud smile:

"Well, you've been punished long enough. Come join us." (If this isn't a Mom dialogue, I don't know what is.)

Gives a proud compliment at the end.

.........

Also, just seeing Raph listening to Leo throughout the episode (when he wasn't too angry that is) like a duckling following it's mother. Like, he mellowed down with an angry pout so many times!

Counting all these moments, it makes sixteen in total, in a single episode! Imagine how much could there be collectively throughout the series and in-universe comics and the Half-Shell Heroes movie.

I think I should do Leo's Mom Moments counter for every episode I rewatch now. See how high it actually is throughout the series.

I've finally formed a thought that's been bugging me since the spoilers came out.

And that is the Eyes of Afo.

We can responsibly assume, based on Dr. Garaki's words, that Afo has some real (his own) eyes (and voice and smiling face).

And now we can assume that the current eyes - without color and pupil - are not his real eyes.

Earlier I had assumed that they were, of course, a quirk. For disguise, for a more appropriate image of the Demon King. But also don't forget that the Eyes are the mirror of the soul. And the most likely thing is that Afo wouldn't want anyone to look into his soul and know what's going on there. And the role of the Demon King does not imply the presence of a soul.

But then how and when did it happen? Surely we have met these eyes before in chapter 193, the anime version gave us the “red” eye color characteristic of the Villain.

I would like to say that in the early years Afo had a normal human eye with a pupil, but in profile, unfortunately, we can't see whether there is a pupil or not. But since Afo, as the composition then shows us, is among humans - it is logical to assume that the eyes would be pupilless - soulless eyes. Or maybe not; maybe there is a pupil here, but it just merges with the shadow, like Izuku's here, for example.

And based on that, we can already conclude that Afo's familiar eyes are a quirk. And perhaps the sight of real eyes was only available to a select few - Yoichi as his brother, and Doctor Garaki as his personal doctor.

But from the Doctor's words about Afo's real appearance, we can also conclude that Afo hasn't taken his real appearance for a long time. A very long time.

And I daresay that this switch to “permanent villain eyes” was at or about the time of Yoichi's death.

The composition is constructed so that Afo looks up at the Second, and we cannot see whether there is a pupil in his eyes.

However, we are further accentuated precisely by the eye, and we can see irregularities around the edge of the iris - as if the iris ring is subject to some kind of interference. And the eye becomes what we see in Afo's restored face and when Afo takes control of Tomura's consciousness.

And as a result: On the day that Afo is confronted with the Second's death - defying audacity, which is like saying that Afo will never win and get what he wants, (maybe Yoichi had just died before that point - covering his friend from a fatal blow, for example, or Afo realized that OFA's quirk with Yoichi's vestige had already been passed on to another person - which means his last chance to get his brother back was disappearing right before his eyes), Afo and lost the self he was with Yoichi, locked the real him deep in his soul, and he's been smiling ever since. And the smile doesn't reach his eyes.

The girls are fighting!

Here is one, the name of the girl is Chloe and this fanfic is one of my favorites and the most sweet.

I like the headcanon that 2012! Leonardo is good with children being that he is the older brother of the turtles and also that canonically he is sweet with Mickey (consoling him, letting him hug him, take care of him or laughing at his jokes).

The dudes having teatime!!

(Art is not mine- it’s from an official comic)

bros being bros

IDGAF (I draw giant ass fish)

Prints

Lol, that is why Leo 2012 is my fave.

The show just goes on and on, filling the poor guy with so much angst and not stopping haha lol

So was no one gonna tell me 2012 Leo was supposed to canonically have psychosis before the show got canceled or I was just supposed to find this out myself 🤨

YOUR RIGHT!!!

Fuck, so that is why when I was younger I was (am) a Leo stan. Lol that explains a lot haha

Rewatching tmnt 2012 has been so wild because I remember when I was a kid, Donnie was my favorite so I thought I’d just revert back to that right?? But obviously my life changed drastically in 10 years, and I’m watching it now like “wow why does Leo appeal to me so much? Why is this obviously anxious eldest child with crushing responsibilities and niche interests that nobody else cares about so relatable??” Like OH WAIT THAT’S ME LMAO

I cried reading this. Dude, even Uraraka dehumanized Izuku and dismissed his safety and well-being over the war, I can understand but that doesn't make it hurt less.

Bakugou slowly takes the role of Izuku's protector and I love to see it.

During the Tartarus escapees arc, Izuku has been dehumanized so much, it's insane. When I say dehumanized, I'm talking about how many people treat him like the vessel of One for All and not like a 16yo boy or a human being with feelings anymore.

"Nomu", "Number nine"

Meanwhile, Bakugou calls him by his name..

"You're the key to all of this. We can't have you dying on us."

like "If you die it's gonna be bad bc nobody can fight AFO anymore" and not "you don't deserve to die plz take care"

"please let him rest so he can fight properly"

and not "because he suffers so much and deserves rest"

I could make a long list of that but my point is, the more we go into the story and the more people prioritize saving the world over Izuku's well being, treating him like a robot to repair like they're just willing to sacrifice Izuku ('s mental health/life) and bakugou is having none of it.

Ever since he learned about OFA and AFO, he started to help Izuku training out of worry.

While the others want Izuku to be stronger so he can beat AFO, bakugou wants him to be stronger so he can survive. He's worried about losing izuku the most. As simple as that. A lot care about Izuku as well of course, but most still think beating AFO is more important than giving a kid a healthy happy long life.

Bakugou totally noticed it and it makes him mad. He yelled at All Might, his idol and the man he respect the most, for hiding something about the fourth user to Izuku when Bakugou knew secrets might be harmful to Izuku physically or psychologically since even though everyone noticed that Izuku was mentally drowning under pressure, they didn't really do anything worth noting to support him (until class 1A brought him back to UA)

Bakugou never mentioned AFO when he talked about bringing Izuku back because it's not his priority at all.

He's literally just dead worried for his friend.

Please, the first thing he asked him after being separated for weeks, with a war and a coma in between, was if Izuku was able to smile.

He genuinely cares so much about Izuku's safety and mental health it makes me want to cry. Bakugou went from being the boy's bully to his legit protector, so dare tell me otherwise.

During the battle with Shigaraki, he constantly had his eyes fixed on Izuku to be sure he wouldn't do anything risky and the moment Izuku really left his side to attack, Bakugou was pissed.

and he ended up saving Izuku, almost sacrificing for him. Not for a strategic purpose to keep OFA. His body literally moved on its own and all he could think about was everything Izuku and him went through. He wanted to save his childhood friend.

Honestly at this point I can confidently say that if Deku's death was the only solution to defeat/kill AFO then bakugou would prefer not to win. The guy who's obsessed with victory would totally prefer to lose than to have Izuku killed, that's a fact.

Now despite the apology, I dont think Izuku really understands how dedicated Bakugou is to protect him yet. I can't wait to see how their relationship will evolve.

Of course Bakugou isn't the only one who cares more about Izuku's life than OFA (class 1A, All Might, etc) but Bakugou's character development still has me crying.