So I decided to start my character reviews with none other than the Bad Boy himself- Raphael. At this point I feel I have an obligation to admit to my dear readers that I had a serious crush on him when I first started watching the series, back when he was voiced by Rob Paulson. I think every girl has a thing for Bad Boys, whatever age they may be, and no matter what they may say. Now, obviously, girls outgrow the stage when they swoon over their every flirty wink and smirk (or if they don't, they should, because speaking from experience, Bad Boys are nothing but trouble), but they still admire it. And it's still that way with Raphael for me. Of course, now that I'm old enough to realize that he has serious anger-management issues, he's lost a lot of the charm, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate him.
Sean Austin does an AMAZING job with Raph. And I'll be honest, I was surprised because after movies like "Rudy" and "The Goonies" and "Lord of the Rings" where he played sweet, nice guys, I was not expecting him to pull out this bad-ass, tough guy persona so easily. But he is good at it. Really good. He doesn't have the Brooklyn accent that was in the live action movies or the 2007 movie (that did disappoint me a little) but seriously, he was a fantastic choice. Whoever picked him needs a medal.
Now, like I said in my last post, I never watched the 2003 TMNT series, but from what I've heard, he was pretty angsty and frustrated with a lot of stuff. From what I recall of the 1987 series, he was mostly just sarcastic and possessing a light mean streak. In the movies he was violent, impatient, and angsty. It wasn't an overly attractive combo in my book. In this series, he seems mostly violent and sarcastic. Now this particular mix I can deal with. He does have a little angst thrown in there too, but it's not so much that it ever seems to completely make him seem unapproachable or just unreasonable. And every time he seems to get on the verge of being overbearing, he does something that makes me go "Awww..." like the time when (SPOILER WARNING) in Episode Four, after Mikey's 'friend' betrays him, Raph goes over to him and tells Mikey he's a great guy and deserves better.
Overall, he's overconfident, cocky, aggressive and has leadership issues, but he's also unfailingly loyal, protective, honest (sometimes brutally), and puts his family before himself. I find these things to make him the perfect flawed killing-machine.
As far as future expectations go, I really looking forward to what they do with him. I think, based on what I've seen so far, that there's a lot of reason to expect great things. Of course there's only been 21 episodes and there's going to be at least 3 seasons, but so far it looks very promising in regards to him.
I do hope that they bring Mona Lisa back into it though. I think, from what I remember, that she was only in one or two episodes, but from what I recall it was total fireworks between her and Raph. They might not, of course, since she was indeed only in two episodes and lots of people might not like it if he suddenly became a mush-ball around a girl, but I think that her character and her history were interesting enough to at least merit her a try.
Not that I think that they'd make romance the sudden core of Raph. Not only would it not work with his personality, but it'd be a stupid move on the part of the writers. But it'd be hysterical to see him fumbling around a girl, or maybe becoming a gentleman and shocking everyone at his sudden transformation. I don't mind some romance for characters because it brings out a new side of them that they usually either haven't dealt with before, or haven't in a while.
As far as his current design goes... I really like the look of it. I love the little lightning shape crack in his shell that they put in there. I can't find a good picture of it right now, but maybe in the future I'll be able to.
So overall, I'd give the Raphael Design team two thumbs up, and a high five to Sean Austin for bringing him to life. I'm excited to see where they'll go with him in the future. Should be pretty good. There's at least 2 more seasons to go after this one, and if I had to bet, I'd say they'll make several more after that.
I'm seriously looking forward to it! We'll see what happens as it goes along!
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