Leonardo

**Leonardo** (レオナルド, *Reonarudo*), often referred to as "**Leo**" (レオ, *Reo*), is both the fictional character and protagonists of the *Marvel* series. He is a mutant Red-Eared Slider turtle, the leader and oldest of the four brothers, who all share a home in the underground sewers of Manhattan, New York City. As the leader of the team, he is the adoptive son and best pupil of Master Splinter; who serves as the Turtles' adoptive father and sensei, is very skilled in Ninjutsu compared to three other mutant turtles who are his younger ninjitsu birth brothers: Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo, and also takes Splinter's advises more into consideration. He is also the younger adoptive brother (and love interest) of Karai (who is also Splinter's long-lost birth daughter).

Leonardo seems to be more experienced and still perfecting his fighting skills and leadership abilities to make more solid decisions and gain more trust from his three younger brothers. He devises tactics and gives orders. He regularly watches an animated science fiction show called Space Heroes (a parody of Star Trek: The Animated Series) and uses it as a guide for his leadership skills, often attempting to quote from the show in an attempt to sound intimidating and heroic, even if most of his attempts fall flat due to him sounding overly cliché.

Due to his persevering dedication towards ninjutsu, as well as his level-headed discipline, (and partly because he asked for it), Splinter chose Leonardo to be the leader of the Turtles. Leo is an enthusiastic ninjutsu prodigy, who wears a royal blue headband, and fights with (and wields) two twin katana swords called Niten Ryu. He leads the various missions of the Turtles.

Being the eldest and most mature of the four, he is the fearless leader of the Ninja Turtles. In the aftermath of Splinter's passing, he reluctantly stepped up to the increasingly difficult role as sensei, which adds an even more stressful burden on his shoulders. Since the episode "The Deadly Venom", he is the only Ninja Turtle who is capable of using the spiritual, healing abilities of "the healing hands" technique to heal himself and others which enshrouds his body in a white aura by chanting the mantra and the right hand seals.

"*Leonardo's the leader in blue, does anything it takes to get his ninjas through!*"

—Mikey's rap, referring about Leonardo.

## Appearance & Biography

*Voice Actor*: Jason Biggs (English), Not Known (Japanese), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (German), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (French), Not Known (Latin American Spanish)

### Appearance

Leo is an emerald green colored anthropomorphic mutant turtle ninja warrior. His eyes have sapphire blue irises with black pupils, but like his brothers when they are shown fighting or being stealthy, they disappear, leaving his eyes white. He wears a royal blue bandana mask where the tails length range between Donnie and Mikey's. Like Raph, Leo is one of the two strongest fighters, and he doesn't have much changes to his physical appearance, except for the fact that his green skin is slightly darker than the others. His height ranges between Raph and Donnie's. His ninja gear includes brown knee pads, brown elbowpads, and beige rolled bandages wrapped around his wrists, ankles and fingers. However, unlike previous incarnations, Leo's hands have two fingers and a thumb (like his brothers).

* Hair Color: N/A
* Skin Color: Emerald Green
* Eye Color: Royal Blue, White (when fighting and stealthy)
* Age: 16
* Birthday: September 29
* Height: 5 ft. 1 in.
* Weight: Not Known

## Personality

The theme song states that he "does everything it takes to get his ninjas through". In other words, he makes the commands which sometimes bothers his brothers especially Raphael. During an interview, Jason Biggs described Leo as "the glue who holds his brothers together and tries to keep them in line, saying things like *'Come on, guys! Focus and concentrate!'* since he's a born leader who is very protective of his family."

The leader of the Turtles, Leonardo aspires to be a brave, decisive, perfect hero. Unfortunately, he's an inexperienced teen (for the moment at least) with three smart-aleck brothers. It's the gap between his aspiration and current situation that is the greatest source of frustration in Leo's life. He's the most driven of the four Turtles, training and studying relentlessly. He tends to be hard on himself, but his diligence does not go unnoticed; he is the favored student of Splinter, whose approval he very much craves.

An adventurous, courageous, responsible, hardworking, protective, self-serving, honorable, rightepus, respectful, level-headed, prudent and enthusiastic ninjitsu prodigy with a "can-do" attitude, Leonardo is the most serious, disciplined, cool-headed mature and focused of the team. Being the designated leader of the group, Leonardo is very enthusiastic about his role. He is also a big science-fiction fan (or *"nerd"* as referred to by his brother Raphael). His favorite series is *Space Heroes,* while his favorite character from the show is Captain Ryan. Leonardo has a habit of memorizing Captain Ryan's best lines from the show and sometimes repeating them during battle. Leonardo is so caught up with *Space Heroes* that he relies on Ryan's character traits more than on his own intuition, which often causes his brothers (especially Raphael) to question his leadership.

For the most part, he tries to be the mature and responsible sibling, but there are occasional times where he can be as childish as his brothers, such as teasing Donatello for losing to a mutant monkey and trying to be like an unrealistic TV character, although Leonardo often tries to comfort his brothers when they are scared or upset, mostly Michelangelo. His attempts to appear strong can also backfire as he makes rather cliché or ridiculous statements while trying to intimidate his enemies, such as introducing the team as the 'Mighty Mutants' or 'Turtles of Justice', while trying to appear heroic, or telling a scientist experimenting on a monkey that they'd had enough of him 'monkeying around'. Raphael often expresses his lack of patience for these quips.

He (along with the help of Donnie) comes up with most of the team's plans and strategies, while he and his brothers are fighting bad guys or training in the Lair, but while these strategies have proven to be effective, his lack of practical experience has prompted his brothers - particularly Raphael - to become frustrated with his approaches, and they try to do things their own way instead. Sometimes, due to his oppressive burden as leader, Leonardo faces the fear of losing his brothers, though he is often calmed down by Splinter, who claims that the fear is held by almost all leaders.

He has a lot of responsibility on his hands, which can sometimes overwhelm him. He watches a T.V. Show called "Space Heroes" and wants to be just like the captain he sees on T.V. Overall, Leo acts as a big brother to the turtles and as a teacher's pet to Master Splinter. He was chosen to be the leader because of his willingness not by his skill. Leo is the most mature out of all his brothers, aside from Donnie, always acting like a guide and sometimes even a parent to his brothers. He is very protective of his siblings and is willing to do anything for them. Unlike all his incarnations, Leo is somewhat a sci-fi geek, aside from Donnie. Though Donnie is more of a techy geek. Leo loves "Space Heroes" and tends to try to be like the hero on there, much to the annoyance of his brothers. He also tries too hard to act like a hero and says cheesy lines, which annoy Mikey, Donnie and Raph. He is the wisest, most experienced and balanced of the team and demonstrates many important qualities needed in a leader. Leo does his best to lead the team, but he sometimes second-guesses himself and his constant sibling rivalry with Raphael can cause problems for the team and puts a strain on his relationship with Raph. He often tries to compare himself to the main character of "Space Heroes", Captain Ryan, which annoys his brothers. Like other incarnations, Leo is a perfectionist.

Leonardo is shown to be openly selfless, courageous, and self-serving, and shows it when it counts. In the Season 1 Finale, this is especially shown in *Showdown, Part 1* and *Part 2*, where he almost sacrifices himself twice to save his brothers and the entire world. In the Season 2 Finale, *The Invasion, Part 1* and *Part 2*, Leonardo leads the Kraang away from his brothers and finds himself facing off against the entire Foot Clan alone. Knowing the dangers they'd face, he doesn't contact his brothers for help.

## Relationships

### Family

* Splinter Hamato (adoptive father/sensei)
* Raphael (1st younger brother)
* Donatello (2nd younger brother)
* Michelangelo (3rd younger brother)
* Miwa Hamato/Karai Oroku (older adoptive sister)

## Abilities and Powers

Leonardo is the most stern, serious, focused, disciplined, responsible and among his brothers, being able to take on much larger opponents quicker and more easily in addition to coping with hectic stress.

### Abilities

* **Leadership**: Leonardo's bravery, determination, and willpower make him a great leader. In the beginning his only flaws as a leader was due to his lack of experience (mostly due to his teenager status) causing him to occasionally make impulsive decisions that might make the situation worse, as well as his brothers sometimes not obeying his orders, and a desire to be a hero that results in him making rather poor taunts in battle. His greatest fear is to let the team down and fail as their leader. However, as he and his brothers continued to fight against the Shredder and his forces, Leonardo becomes more focused and disciplined as a leader, even becoming willing to sacrifice his own life for the sake of others. He's also been able to make difficult choices whenever the situation came down to it. A note to make is that Splinter believed that Leo was destined to become the leader of his brothers ever since he was a small boy.
* **Kenjutsu**: He is an extremely skilled martial artist and master swordsman. Like his brothers, he is a master ninja and is very agile, able to leap over rooftops and avoid attacks from enemies, including gunfire, weapons, and punches and kicks. Leonardo was trained by Splinter in Japanese sword fighting. As his signature weapons are his twin katana, he is highly skilled in the sword fighting style of the Niten Ichi-ryū,(二天一, "two heavens as one"), also known as Niten Ryu for short, making him an excellent swordsman. He makes use of his katana swords for skilled offense and defense, allowing him slice through the metal of the Kraangs' robot bodies, fight against powerful and skilled members of the Foot Clan including Shredder, Tiger Claw and (until she discovered the truth about her life) Karai.
* **Tantōjutsu**: Aside from his swordsmanship Leonardo is also skilled with a tantō. Whenever he finds himself without his either of his katana, Leo can take the tantō from the handle of one of them and use it for self-defense.
* **Kyūjutsu**: Leonardo also possesses aptitude in archery and uses a yumi and arrows to fight long-ranged.
* **Shurikenjutsu**: Leonardo can throw shiruken with remarkable accuracy.
* **Enhanced Strength**: Leonardo is technically the second-strongest of the turtles, as he was beaten by Raphael during their training session as seen in Rise of the Turtles: Part 1. However, he is still a strong, powerful fighter when shown battling enemies and is able to lift average-built people (and heavy objects, such as a dumpster) over his head in addition to battle larger opponents of greater strength such as Slash and Super Shredder. In the Season 2 finale, Leo mustered up such great strength and courage that he stood his ground, choosing to bravely fight alone and single-handedly back against Shredder and his henchmen's overwhelming enemy force rather than surrender, being able to single-handedly slash a hoard of Footbots, as well as valiantly beat-down Fishface, Dogpound, even Tiger Claw before being battered and scratched unconscious by Shredder. In the Season 4 finale, Leonardo mustered up such powerful courage, that *he* was able to single-handedly slay and behead the Super Shredder for good. Leo is pretty strong when it comes to defense and counter attacks and he is mainly a well balanced ninja. Since an actual turtle can pull 5x its body weight, he and his brothers have been mutated and trained for 15 years as master martial artists by Master Splinter, so their strength has been amplified as a result.
* **Enhanced Speed**:Leonardo is able to move at great speed, able to free run on rooftops without losing momentum. He also possesses great reaction speed, allowing him to dodge projectiles such as lasers the Kraang's blasters, and enemy attacks. He can also spin swing twin katana at incredible speed as well. Despite being a turtle, he is not slow. He can run fast enough to avoid laser fire from a Kraang weapon. He can also move things at enhanced speeds too, like twirling his katana blades.
* **Stealth**: Being taught by Splinter, Leonardo, as well as his brothers, are able to be one with darkness and hide and move within the shadows without being noticed. Like his brothers, he is stealthy, can hide in the shadows, sneak around without being detected, and use hand to hand combat like a real ninja.
* **Retractable limbs into Shell**: Though rarely (if ever) depicted, he has retractable limbs and the normal ability of a turtle to retract his head and limbs into the safety of his shell.
* **The Healing Hand/Healing Factor**: In the events of *The Deadly Venom*, Splinter taught Leonardo a unique ancient secret art ad healing technique known as the Healing Hand. With the technique, Leonardo is able to heal himself and others, and even remove Karai's venom from his body despite there being no cure for it. According to Splinter, he shows great gifts as a healer, and that being at the edge of his life had given him "a power that few martial artists can tap." His healing factor seem to work while in water, where he woke up after the villainous fight 3 months later but the fight left him very injured.
* **Intelligence**: He has a good line of defense, and is the best at planning strategies.
* **Stamina and Endurance**: He shown off his high stamina in The Invasion, he was able to handle and stay much alive while the long Foot-Bot challenge, he was also able to defeat all of Shredder's henchmen, but all that work worn him out giving Shredder the chance to finish him off.

### Weapons

* **Katana Swords**: His signature weapons of choice here are purely dual katanas, which he uses in the Niten Ryu style of kenjutsu, making him a skilled and excellent swordsman. However, it is implied that Leonardo has multiple identical katana swords stashed at the lair, such as when he is shown returning to the Turtles' underground lair after a fight with only one katana (having lost the other katana during the brawl) but is later shown with two katana swords sheathed on his scabbards.

## External links

* Leonardo *Wikipedia*
* Leonardo *TMNTPedia*