Leonardo (Rise of TMNT)

**Leonardo** is a red-eared slider who was mutated to become part human. He is one of the main protagonists of *Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* and the current leader of the Mad Dogs. He wielded a portal-generating mystic ōdachi until it was destroyed and replaced by his katana.

## Leonardo

### Relatives

membersHamato Yoshi (human mutation father)Baron Draxum (creator, father)Raphael (human mutation brother through Yoshi)Donatello (human mutation brother through Yoshi)Michelangelo (human mutation brother through Yoshi)Piebald (adoptive sister through Yoshi)April O'Neil (surrogate sister, fellow Hamato Clan)Hamato Atsuko (human mutation grandmother through Yoshi)Hamato Sho (human mutation great-grandfather through Atsuko)Mystic Aura (human mutation ancestor through Sho)Hamato Karai (human mutation ancestor through Sho)Oroku Saki (human mutation ancestor through Karai)

### Affiliation

Hamato ClanMad DogsThe Daves (formerly)The Knights (briefly)

## Physical appearance

Leonardo is a mutant red-eared slider with lime green skin, a mustard yellow plastron, and a green-blue carapace with a teal pattern. He has two red crescent-like stripes over his eyes, yellow stripes on his upper arms and thighs, black eyes, three fingers on each hand, and two toes on each foot. He wears a blue bandana with long bandana tails, bluish grey fingerless gloves with blue trim that extend nearly to his elbows, and matching knee-high toeless footwear. He also wears a blue belt with a strap that goes over his right shoulder. Attached to his belt are a pair of blue pouches (one on the side and one on the back) and the Turtle emblem placed on the left.

## Personality

Leo is cheerful, prone to making jokes—sometimes at inappropriate times—and uttering quips he believes "fire up the team" as expressed in “Donnie's Gifts”. His persistently carefree nature causes him to possess an airy quality and he enjoys spontaneity. It's also said in the first episode of the series that humor is how he manages to cope.

Leo has confidence that usually turns into arrogance and his brothers are often annoyed by his lack of humility, making him difficult to play games with such as in "Lair Games".

Leo is known to be a compulsive liar as seen in "Flushed, but Never Forgotten". He doesn't like being in trouble so he makes his brothers promise not to tell Splinter about Piebald’s fate, even willing to hurt Michelangelo if he tries to tell the truth to Splinter. Leo can be disingenuous as it is not unusual for his charisma to take the form of false flattery just to get into someone’s good graces as seen in “Todd Scouts” and “Bad Hair Day”. His family is aware of this and as such occasionally disbelieves Leo’s compliments.

Leo is at times rational and skeptical, denying the existence of things like ghosts and wanting to search for a logical answer as opposed to accrediting it to unexplainable phenomena. Despite this, he is delighted by magic and mystic powers as seen in “Hypno! Part Deux”. He also seems to be the least naïve out of the Mad Dogs as his brothers trust Big Mama almost instantly, though Leo has his doubts about her intentions. However, Leo's tendency to be easily impressed and incessant need for attention can hamper his caution.

Leo often prioritizes his own entertainment over disrupting the plans of villains as seen in his interactions with Hypno-Potamus in “Hypno! Part Deux”. Among the Mad Dogs, he isn’t the most altruistic and can be reluctant to help strangers, especially if he knows no gratitude will be shown towards him or his family such as in “The Mutant Menace” when Leo expressed he doesn’t find doing kind acts for the citizens of New York to be worth the hassle or when he doesn’t combat the evil Albeartos in “Al Be Back” due to them terrorizing Albearto Land attendees, but because they are ruining him and his brothers’ band debut.

Leo tends to be lazy and would rather play games and values downtime. Consequently, he highly values convenience, suggesting that instead of focusing on their training they should acquire more powerful mystic weapons in “The Evil League of Mutants”. However, because of this Leo can be clever, finding quick, unconventional ways to solve problems, but this can also be detrimental as he can adopt or encourage dangerous or unhelpful manners of problem-solving such as in “Air Turtle” where he is nonchalant about turning the Daves into demons in order to initiate a winning streak for them.

Though sometimes clever in a pinch, Leo isn’t very bright nor interested when it comes to academic disciplines and rarely reads educational content as shown in “Flushed, but Never Forgotten”.

While Leo has merit, his utilization of his skills often needs to be spurred by a dire situation or a lack of options as opposed to Leo trying his best when he can. When he does decide to be serious and sensible, as in the events of "Origami Tsunami", he uses his charisma and relaxed, flexible nature to sway his brothers into listening to him.

Leo is irresponsible and known to be generally unreliable among his family due to how flippant he can be even in grave situations and finds it very difficult to take responsibility for his actions while also being boastful about his positive or impressive actions. Although he has been shown to try to reconcile his mistakes and be sympathetic towards others’ plights such as in “Bullhop” by inviting Bullhop to live with his family and trying to gather the Mad Dogs' continued support for him despite their own reservations for accidentally causing his mutation.

Leo demonstrates forte in analytical thinking as shown in “Many Unhappy Returns”, able to plan several steps ahead of Big Mama, but he can be so determined to successfully execute his plans while also having glory that he uses his allies instead of working with them and is comfortable misleading his allies and opponents alike to his achieve goals such as in “Air Turtle”.

Upon the *Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie*, Leo's character flaws are put to the test where his overall immaturity allows the Foot Clan to steal the Mystic Key and unleash the Krang. This leads him to be berated by Raph for his senselessness and his student-from-the-future, Casey Jones II for failing to be the responsible master he always looked up to. Leo finally accepts his own faults with humility when he confronts a zombified Raph and acknowledges the true meaning of teamwork, responsibility of a leader, and family, even willing to sacrifice himself if it means his family and the world are safe.

It is also revealed in *Rise of the TMNT: The Movie* that this arrogant personality may be a façade to hide Leo's deeper insecurities. This was lightly foreshadowed in "Portal Jacked!", where he states that he is nothing without his brothers, "Minotaur Maze", where he calls himself useless, and when he asks Splinter why no one seems to trust him.

## History

Leo began life as a juvenile turtle in Baron Draxum's laboratory. Wishing to create a mutant army with formidable combat capabilities, Draxum used Lou Jitsu's DNA paired with his ooze to turn Leo from an ordinary turtle into a mutant. He and his brothers were then stolen from Draxum's laboratory by Lou Jitsu promptly after their mutation and Leo went on to be raised in the sewers of New York City alongside his brothers by Splinter. Eventually, Leo and his brothers met a human girl named April and forged a strong bond with her through the years.

## Biography

Leo is intelligent and quick-witted. He uses his sharp skills to beat opponents, find shortcuts around obstacles, and always knows the perfect time to land one of his many one-liners.

### Paramount Consumer Products biography

Leonardo is intelligent, quick-witted and clever. He can easily assess any situation and use his sharp skills to best his opponent, find a shortcut around an obstacle or spot the perfect time to land one of his many one-liners. Leo likes to think of himself as the "cool guy" on the team - a rascal with a wink in his eye and a sly grin. He's got a rebel's heart and isn't afraid to break the rules when he thinks he's right. He could be a strong leader, but he'd rather go for the hi-jinx than the high road.

## Abilities

* **Kenjutsu:** Leo is trained in wielding katana and the ōdachi. He makes use of his ōdachi for skilled offense and defense, allowing him to slice through sturdy material.
* **Power Portal Jutsu:** Leo wields a mystic ōdachi that can create portals when its blade is swiped through the air to teleport people/objects from one location to another.
* **Ōdachi Bomb:** A technique where Leo falls from a portal of his creation at a high elevation to attack an opponent from above, using his momentum to knock them to the ground.
* **Ninjutsu:** Leo is skilled in basic ninjutsu, but due to Splinter’s reluctance to advance their training and the Turtles’ own lack of focus on learning the art, he and his brothers’ skills aren’t honed.
	+ **Stealth:** As a practitioner of ninjutsu, Leo can slip in and out of areas undetected. These skills significantly improved after additional instruction in "The Ancient Art of Ninja Hide and Seek", Leo now being capable of blending in with his environment to the point where he can seamlessly pose as objects.
	+ **Speed:** Leo possesses a great amount of speed, capable of moving in bursts faster than the eye can follow.
	+ **Agility:** Leo's agility allows him to successfully dodge attacks and perform sharp twists and flips.
	+ **Strength:** Leo possesses strength greater than the average human.
		- **Hamato Ninpō:** As a member of the Hamato Clan, Leo is capable of tapping into his clan's energy to unleash his own mystic might.
			* **Weapon generation:** Leo can use random objects to form weaponry, namely katana.
			* **Blade teleportation:** Using his sword as a point of focus, Leo can teleport himself or anyone holding one of his swords to the location of the other. This teleportation ability is restricted to relatively short distances, especially as compared to Mikey's Hamato Ninpō time gateway creation ability which is powerful enough to span through all of time and space.
* **Ninja Mind Meld:** Leo is capable of telepathically exchanging strategies with Raph, heightening team coordination.
* **Strategy adaptation:** Leo is able to formulate plans that take into account his opponent's disposition and weaknesses as well as his allies', incorporating potential trickery and vulnerability from his opponents ahead of time in his strategies to bypass them or use them to his advantage.
* **Durability:** Due to his mutation, Leo's body can experience a higher threshold of physical trauma without lasting repercussions than the average human.
* **Shell retraction:** Leo is able to fully retreat into his shell.
* **Cooking:** Leo's culinary skills are rough as he is seen creating quality dishes while also being unable to make unburnt toast in "You Got Served".
* **Skateboarding:** Leo is a seasoned skateboarder and enjoys it as one of his hobbies.