I Think One Of The Worst Things About Wanting To Find Period Clothing From Other Cultures, Is Trying

I want to talk about THIS scene from the episode "The Forgotten Element" in Season 4

This was the scene that spawned many Evil Kai AU fanfictions.

(And like... I get it)

As a kid, I was always jaw dropped by this scene, but I didn't understand this scene too much.

Like, what was the point of this Evil Kai AU if it was for a minute and it was resolved so quickly?

They were building this up the entire episode and even before it, so was that all for nothing? Did it not mean anything? What was the point of this anyway?

And then it clicked with me WHY that was.

The problem was that I was only focusing on what's present in the moment and not all around it.

In the moment itself, Kai is holding the staff, it holds too much power, it corrupts him and spills all of is bottled up negative emotions about destiny and the Green Ninja, how he feels about it all being wrong, that he was somehow 'not good enough' compared to a child, and how he should've been the one with all the power all the glory and all the abilities in is veins.

"You had all the power, now it's my turn!"

"Nothing that I don't already feel!"

"I should've been the Green Ninja!"

That's straight up TELLING.

And it makes sense. Kai wanted to be the Green Ninja more than anyone ever since he heard of that prophecy. Ever since he was told he was the Master of Fire by Wu he went from 'do everything for Nya and be a parent' to 'I can be special and worthy in a way I couldn't ever see in myself'. And then it all turned out to be for nothing, Kai being 'special' was all a lie, and the prophecy went to this bratty kid that Kai was tasked to babysit. Then Lloyd would proceed to be very well recognized and Kai was just... the forgotten member that nobody understands the motives of. 'You wanted to take the place of someone who did something sacrificially heroic? How dare you. SELFISH.'

BUT WE ALL KNOW THAT.

This all sounds like a villain origin story that would happen in the season, right?

The build up is all there. The bottled up emotions. Skylor's influence. Chen taunting him in this episode about it and getting into his head about his parents, something that is VERY PERSONAL to Kai.

So if it ended up being just ONE MOMENT and that's it, then this was all for nothing, right?

NO.

Why? Because that's not what this aspect of the episode is about at all.

This was all NOT build up to Kai becoming a villain.

This was about Kai REJECTING that villainous side of him.

He's been 'on the villain's side' at the start of the episode when Chen decided not to enslave him.

Another motif of this episode is what gets said over and over again in the B plot of the episode, that being the prison escape from the Noodle Factory. "The power of positive thinking"

Kai is learning this as well, but it's his own personal battle to come to that. Part of being positive is being positive about yourself.

He's been scolded for being selfish constantly. Again, how dare he want to take someone's place, someone who was better than him in every way and they all knew it. These people are oblivious, they can't read his mind, they're misinterpreting his words, and for some reason nobody apologizes for that.

We've seen him be insecure of his own abilities. When he feels like he can't do something, he goes 'If only I had this ability'. An example being the Digiverse.

Part of the lesson there was that he had to allow himself to have the power he needed to get out of a tight spot. As an old fashion and a devoted brother, makes sense why he'd struggle with this.

And then when Chen gets in his head Kai, it's the same thing again, he's selfish and he wants the power and that's all he cares about.

Everyone is saying you're selfish, therefore it must be true.

And this is the first time Kai ever actually CALLS THE PERSON OUT for accusing him of being one dimensionally selfish.

Yes he falters back when Chen mentions his parents, but that's still a notable step. (And he would continue to call out their accusations in Possession)

The episode consists of Kai being on the villain's side and playing the role of the deceiver. Him being smart by playing the emotions of Chen and Skylor rather than be a logical thinker. (WOW. An episode that doesn't make Kai dumb and instead makes him smart in a way that fits his character. That is sad how rare that's shown anymore.)

And to do that he had to convince everyone that he was on the villain's side and that he has turned.

So THIS moment is not build up to Kai becoming a villain truly, it's a test on this own side of him that he must acknowledge exists. How this way of thinking isn't healthy, it's petty, it's not worth it, and he shouldn't be lingering on something when he himself is capable of so much.

And then NO ONE EVER TALKS ABOUT HOW KAI WAS THE ONE WHO BROKE THE STAFF AND I DON'T UNDERSTAND THAT.

He could just grab the staff again and be corrupted again, and that's it. But HERE, there is no one paying attention to him to tell him what to do.

Which means this is all Kai's choice.

This is Kai CHOOSING to REJECT that villain inside him, and instead proceed to a more positive outlook, one that would benefit everyone.

That's countering all the selfish accusations more than anything else.

As a kid I was confused as to why there wasn't a scene where Kai acknowledged what happened when he was corrupted and how you go from that to 'Kai wants to protect Lloyd'

Him breaking the staff IS that scene. (It's just so fast that it's hard to see on a first couple viewings) He NEVER wants to see himself as that corrupted figure again, and is willingly choosing what role he wants to play now. That's the transition there from that Kai to Possession Kai. (Possession Kai = Best Kai)

This is one of my favorite episodes of the show because of how much justice was done here in so many ways.

animated mikey's ballet skills combined with his fighting style, hehe

Big brother Cole content spotted

Big bro🤎

2012 Splinter seems like the kind of dad to just mess with his kids

Like how some dads will look at their kids and think, "What if I just fucked with these guys, just a little bit"

But he's Splinter so he wouldn't be too obvious or mean about it. He kind of already does this in the show, though I think he frames them as lessons because maybe he's not entirely sure how to turn off 'Teacher Mode' and just be 'dad'

Like when he hooks his finger under Raph's jaw when he gets too cocky, or when he straight up just licked Raph's head to throw him off during training.

Or when Donnie wanted to upgrade his weapon from a six foot staff and Splinter was like,

"Hmm, a SEVEN foot staff."

"No, I mean like with technology."

"Ah, a solar powered staff."

"I'm being serious."

"I know :) "

Do y'all think he ever played with the boys when they were young?

Something tells me that they used to run circles around him and try to climb on him and either to take them off or catch them when they fell, he'd use his tail as like a third arm

I think carrying the boys (toddlers) to bed, he'd carry Donnie and Raph in each arm, Mikey with his tail because he could sleep through being draped or dangled, and Leo would walk next to him holding onto his kimono

Also a random thought that's not related to the post, but what if there was a human au where Splinter raised the human boys alongside his wife, and they and Karai (Miwa) grew up together in Japan, or moved from Japan to New York

Next chapter of Miwa AU is out!

Miwa AU update

Panic in the Sewers is out! And I gotta say, that one was pretty fun to write XD

(For those of you who don't know, the Miwa AU is my rewrite of the 2012 series as a human AU, and with Miwa and Karai as two separate characters.)

Smith family

Characters' handwriting in rise (in episode order)!

"Mystic mayhem". Splinter's handwriting is very unique and cool! Love how angular it is, his "o"s are more like triangles

"Origami Tsunami". It's not shown who wrote these signs (multiple turtles?). We see mikey put the "paper on sale" sign up but we don't see him write it. However, after gathering all the samples of the turtles' handwriting, i couldn't find one of leo's and this sloppiness doesn't quite match donnie's, raph's or mikey's, so i'm inclined to say this is leo's handwriting

"Shell in a Cell". Donnie's signature. Donnie writes in cursive in "origami tsunami" too

"Stuck on you". Raph's consistently shown to write in all caps. Also he wrote this on his right palm. Is raph left handed? But! In "pizza puffs" raph writes with his right hand. Maybe raph's ambidextrous orrrrr the artists just forgot

"Pizza Pit". Mikey's handwriting. His letters are offset. How interesting! Mikey writes in all caps in "bullhop" but a bit neater

"Warren & hypno, sitting in a tree". I LOVE that we can see this evolution of april's handwriting through the years, or at least her signature, from elementary school to highschool. I also love that we see her without her jacket

This list of shown handwriting is far from comprehensive, unfortunately, but handwriting is a great opportunity for characterization that i think's often overlooked. Idk if the crew sat down and chose unique handwriting styles for each character but that'd be cool if they did! I noticed most of the handwriting in rise is all caps across characters

Know what I’m salty about?

In all my art classes, I was never taught HOW to use the various tools of art.

Like yes, form, and shape and space and color theory and figure drawing is important, but so is KNOWING what different tools do.

I’m 29 and I JUST learned this past month that India Ink is fucking waterproof when it dries. Why is this important? Because I can line something in India Ink and then go over it with watercolors. And that has CHANGED the ENTIRE way I art and the ease I can create with.

tldr: Art Teachers: teach your students what different tools do. PLEASE.

I give you Disaster Triplets/Cool Color Trio.