I personally liked Leo the most out of all of them. He was a good team leader, and just my sort of ninja turtle.
You’re right, they only sneak around, fight a war with another ninja clan… oh, no, wait, that is ninja stuff.
In the cartoon, though, I’ll concede that point, but in the cartoon, Leo is an arrogant ass, so I still don’t like him.
I see you sunscribe to the Real Ultimate Power School of Ninjas. Stealth isn’t exclusive to Ninjas and fighting other Ninjas in a war doesn’t define a Ninja (which is also sort of using the word in the definition).
No, I subscribe to the historical definition of ninja; stealthy spies and assassins, often physicians, who existed outside Japan’s class system and were made up of three primary tiers of their own. The four Ninja Turtles would be low class ninja; foot assassins, warriors used to take out large numbers of soldiers through ambushes and traps, as well as spies and informants.
Ninja clan wars indeed did not define ninja, but they still happened often enough to be of note. In any large scale battle, there were almost never two large ninja clans on the same side, and the ninja clans would long outlast the Lords they fought for, as would the grudge between the clans. The Hanzo clan, for example, had many enemies in its early years, and battled them back for many years, until the few other ninja clans of its time united against it in a rare show of force. The Hanzo clan ended up changing their name and going into hiding under new leaders (since most of the old oes had been killed, mainly) and trained a new generation to get vengeance. Sound anything like Master Splinter, a new leader, training four ninja turtles for vengeance, hidden in the sewers?
Stealth in wars, in Japan, and even China, was an art mostly practiced by those of the disciplines that later became ninjitsu and ninpo. Stealthy fighting and psychological warfare, both ninja hallmarks (both also practiced by the three ninja turtles), were often considered dishonourable, psychological warfare less so, and highly uncommon among non-ninja until the coming of Miyamoto Musashi, who brought their teaching into his version of Bushido philosophy; it is more dishonourable not to use trickery when you are able to, for that slights your opponent by not showing them your full potential, and thus dishonours and even insults them, or so was the common reasoning behind this idea, which itself is attributed to multiple men, making an actual citation on it quite difficult. Anyway, Miyamoto’s battle plans almost always involved an ambush (take his first famous battle, whre he springs from the bath with sword in hand, for an example), except a single duel, to which he arrived two hours late and fought with a bo staff rather than katana, both to trick and ‘psyche out’ his opponent. Musashi’s methods were still considered dishonourable for many years, and he was even considered a criminal for part of his life.
So, while stealth wasn’t exclusive to ninja, stealth combined with clan wars basically was. Most of the other stealthy fighty styles and philosophies common in Japan were among ascetic monks who abhorred the idea of a clan war, except for a few exceptions.
Still, if you want further reasoning behind the TMNT actually acting as ninja, take the fighting styles they use. Raph, Michael, and Don are frequently seen using Ninjitsu Taijutsu techniques, and in the very first issue, Raphael uses a common technique of Shinobi-iri. Leonardo utilizes Ninpo, primarily, as represents his more meditative and ascetic personality. I would say it stands as obvious that the use of Ninjitsu and Ninpo are both fairly ‘Ninja-centric,’ disciplines.
Now, let’s look at their two methods for killing the shredder. The first time, all four of them end up ganging up on him. This is not the Samurai way to fight an arranged duel. Nor is using the clever deception orchestrated by Raph, Leo, and Don in a triple-feint attack. The Shredder’s second defeat was caused by Raphael’s intervention from outside the duel between Saki (the Shredder) and Leonardo; firing a rocket launcher into a toxic chemical vat killing all the foot ninja battling the don and Mike, but also giving Leo (albeit not-so-intentionally) the chance he needed to retake the battle he was losing. Ninja frequently used the surrounding environments in martial purposes, such as causing rockslides.
In the second Mirage series, the Turtles’ entire adventure is sneaking into, and, if caught, battling their way out of, a top-secret government facility. This series showcases the Turtles’ use of Shinobi-iri even more than the first.
Also, as par ninjitsu, Raph, Don, and Mike’s weapons are all multi-purpose. Raph can use his to disarm opponents, rather than just stab them, Don can use his bo staff for acrobatics and increased reach, and Mike’s nunchaku are useful for hooking around distant objects with greater force and equal accuracy to Raph’s sai, making them better for non-martial throwing, and they are also fightening when swung rapidly, for psychological warfare.
When I get home, I can cite my multiple sources on all of this (I don’t memorize the title and author of books on ninja for arguments such as this, sorry), if you so desire. They are all written by Japanese physicians or historians, and all support one-another, except in statements of opinions, in which they disagree (a couple authors in their introduction state that they found the ninja fascinating Robin-Hood-Esque figures, another stated that they were despicable assassins who brought about the fall of the Samurai, and the last never gave his opinion)
Too long of a post for such a simple question.
Leonardo was my favorite when I first saw the movies cause he was the one that went to attack Shredder first and he had the two swords.
Though he didn’t count as an official turtle, I liked Slash the most.
Right…Lighten up man, it was mostly just a joke.
P.S. I didn’t read a word of the post since it was so long.
Sorry. I’m prone to hair-trigger rants, my bad.
Raphael for the sheer reason that in the comic books he is absolutely fucking insane.
It was close, since I love the smartassness of Raphael, but…
Donatello’s the brains of the outfit, and as the smart kid in school I identified with him when I was younger. Go stick-wielding Turtle.
Full-black nightsuit. Schwing!
Yeah Slash kicked ass. I gotta find some pictures of him.
Damn I can never remember which name belonged to which turtle, so Im going with the goofy one.Hes just awsome.
edit:im finally back…it fucking sucks not having a computer -_-…yay
That would be Michelangelo.
Mikey isn’t getting much love…
Damn pizza eating hippy.