Raphael

**Raphael** (ラファエル, *Rafaeru*), often referred to as "**Raph**" (ラフ, *Rafu*), is both the fictional character and protagonists of the *Marvel* series. He is a mutant Red-Eared Slider turtle, the hot-headed muscle and second oldest of the four brothers.

As the muscles of the team, he has anger issues, lacks in patience, and is the most violent of his brothers, which are all qualities that affect his Ninjutsu skills. Even though those qualities concern his brothers, Splinter, and his loved-ones, he also has a soft side for his loved-ones and his pets, such as Spike and Chompy.

Like all his other appearances in the past, Raphael's signature weapon of choice is his two twin Sais called Okinawan Kobudō. He wears a a red bandanna mask that represents his anger and strength. Known for his rage, he commonly takes it out on Mikey, and on occasions, to Leo and Donnie, due to their occasional feud (Raph's sibling rivalry, jealousy and power hunger that Leo is the team leader while Donnie is the team' scientist, mechanist and inventor). Raphael sports a chip in the bottom of his shell as a result of Splinter's earlier encounters with the Kraang that were after him.

"*Time to take out the trash.*"

—Raph about the Foot Soldiers.

## Appearance & Biography

*Voice actor:* Sean Astin (English), Not Known (Japanese), Not Known (French), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (German), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Poland), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish) Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin Spanish)

### Appearance

Raphael's character design was updated, giving him green eyes as well as a small, lightning shaped chip cut out of his plastron across his left shoulder. His shell shows distinct battle damage, and the tails of his mask are tattered and worn. On the new ninjaturtles.com, Raphael says that he usually uses his Sai as a pair of pizza forks.

* Hair Color: N/A
* Skin Color: Green
* Eye Color: Emerald Green
* Age: 16
* Birthday: Not Known
* Height: 6'2"
* Weight: 150lbs.

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* April O'Neil
* Kirby O' Neil
* Casey Jones
* Jack J. Kurtzman
* Mighty Mutanimals
	+ Leatherhead
* Fugitoid
* Utroms
* Rebel Foot Clan
	+ Karai
	+ Shinigami
* Salamandrian Air Fleet
* Punk Frogs
* Bigfoot
* The Finger
* Dr. Cluckingsworth M.D.
* Aeons
* Sal Commander
* Mona Lisa
* Hiidrala
* Daagons
* Tokka
* Alopex
* Mr. Murakami
* Usagi Miyamoto
* Kintaro
* Akemi
* Sumo Kuma
* Tanuki
* Bernie
* Renet Tilley
* Lord Simultaneous
* Esmeralda
* Dr. Frankenstein
* Frankenstein's Monster
* Igor
* Metalhead
* Wingnut
* Screwloose
* Vrax Belebome
* Sir Malachi
* Zog
* Zeno

### Family

* Splinter Hamato (adoptive father/sensei)
* Leonardo (older brother)
* Donatello (younger brother)
* Michelangelo (youngest brother)
* Miwa Hamato/Karai Oroku (older adoptive sister)
* Klunk
* Chompy
* Hachiko

### Neutral

* Pulverizer/Mutagen Man
* Earth Protection Force

### Rivals

* Leonardo (brotherly)
* Rocksteady
* Werewolf

### Enemies

* Foot Clan
	+ Shredder
	+ Hattori Tatsu
	+ Baxter Stockman
	+ Fishface
	+ Dogpound/Rahzar
* Purple Dragons
* Kraang Hive Mind
* Snakeweed
	+ Son of Snakeweed
* Spider Bytez
* Rat King
* Justin
* Speed Demon
* Chimera
* Triceraton Empire
* Insectoids
* Dream Beavers
* Armaggon
* Astro Zombies
* The Creep
* Mom-Thing
* Newtralizer
* Creepweed
* Lord Vringath Dregg
* Demon Bats
* Jei
* Joroguma
* Ho Chan
* General Griffen
* Italian Mafia
* Kavaxas
* Fungus Humungous
* Pizza Face
* Parasiticas
* Ice Dragons
* Overmind
* Savanti's Monster Army
	+ Savanti Romero
	+ Dracula
	+ Mummies
		- The Pharaoh
* Skeevix Virus
* Spasmosaur
* Sheldon
* Mushroom Men
* Spy-Roach
* Squirrelanoids
* Wyrm
* Za-Naron

## Powers and Abilities

### Abilities

* **Anger**: As seen multiple times through the series, Raphael's greatest weakness has been his anger. However, when properly focused, his temper can be used as his greatest strength, increasing his fighting abilities.
* **Okinawan Kobudō (Sai)**: Raphael was trained by Splinter in the use of sais. Although Raph can use his sais for their intentional purpose of trapping his enemies weapons within their prongs, he also uses them in the same manner a daggers, stabbing and piercing his opponents. He can also twirl sais in a similar manner to Donnie's bo-staff twirling abilities. When holding them in a reverse grip between his fingers, Raph can use the pommel of his sais to increase the effect of his punches.
* **Shurikenjutsu**: Raphael can throw shiruken with remarkable accuracy.
* **Tegaki Profiency**: In "Vision Quest", Raphael forged his own custom-made Tegaki, which resembled a pair of Tekkō-kagi but with only two blades. He wielded them as though they were gauntlets.
* **Immense Strength**: Raphael is the strongest of the turtles, even stronger than Leonardo. Because of this, he is the first to face off against large and more powerful opponents such as Slash, Triceriton soldiers, and even Hun. He can also carry his three younger brothers (especially Leo) at will.
* **Speed**: Raphael 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 his sais at incredible speed.
* **Stealth**: Being taught by Splinter, as well as his brothers, are able to be one with darkness and hide and move within the shadows without being noticed.
* **Pressure Point Intuition**: As shown in "Slash and Destroy", Raphael is able to use the famous Pressure Point technique which he uses to defeat Slash.
* **Retractable limbs into shell**: Though rarely (if ever) depicted, he has the normal ability of a turtle to retract his limbs into the safety of his shell.
* **Artistry**: "Return to New York" showed that Raphael has some skill as a painter, from when he painted a "Venus de Milo" artwork on the side of the Party Wagon. One of the walls of his bedroom is also covered with splotches of different colors of paint, but without any clear illustration

### Weapons

During most of the series, Raphael wields a pair of dual twin Sai as his signature weapon (as per tradition), with which, like his brothers and their chosen weapons, he is highly skilled. In fact, 2012 Raphael is the first to use it as intended, as a grappling/disarming weapon, rather then as a stabbing dagger.

In "*The Pulverizer Returns!*", Master Splinter says that the boys are relying too heavily on their own weapons and makes them swap. After this process, Raphael is left with Michelangelo's nunchucks. His Sai are given to Donatello. Despite their best efforts, none of them are particularly successful (mostly Donatello, who manages to prick himself with the Sai) however, Raphael only hits himself twice with the nunchucks, meaning he is at least somewhat competent with them (most likely because they are of a similar design, ie: two, small handheld weapons).

However, during a more difficult fight, the turtles are still uncooperative with their new weapons and swap back. When Splinter finds out, he confiscates all weapons, stating that anything can be useful. When he and his brothers are trying to save Timothy, Raphael uses two planks of wood, holding and fighting with them in a style similar to his Sai. In "*The Gauntlet*", he used a Yumi bow and like his other brothers wielded Shuriken (throwing stars). In "*Showdown, Part 1*", Raphael armed himself with Kama scythes, Shuriken, Kunai, Tonfa and Brass Knuckles.

During Season 2, when the Turtles try to relax by playing a live action fantasy role-playing gane, he begrudgingly complies to join in on the fun. He primarily used an axe as his fighting weapon, along with his "Drawf Barbarian" costune (which he found to be "stupid"). He once again retains this costume during Season 3's "Tale of the Yokai".

During his time in outer space, Raphael used laser sais and a laser blaster created by Fugitoid as his main weapons. He reverts back to his regular sais for the remainder of seasons.

## History

### Past

Raphael and his brothers were bought by a young boy from a pet store. Shortly after, a blind man was walking across the street without noticing a nearby approaching truck. A teenager ran to save the blind man, while inadvertently pushing the boy, who dropped the turtles. As the truck swerved, a canister of mutagen fell out and went down the sewers along with the turtles. The container broke and spilled mutagen on them. Splinter then saw the turtles and decided to keep them, and take care of them. After waking up, Splinter sees the change and decides to train them in ninjitsu. Raphael and the other three turtles trained with Splinter.

## External links

* Raphael *Wikipedia*
* Raphael *TMNTPedia*

## Notes & Trivia

* Raphael is named for the famous Renaissance master, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino.
	+ Raphael's name is Hebrew, meaning "God has Healed". Raphael is also the only brother to have a Hebrew name, whilst all three of his brothers' names are Italian. He is the only turtle to not have an *o* sound at the end of his name. These things are because the Turtles were named after the common English names for the four Renaissance artists, and unlike the others, the artist Raphael is not usually called by his Italian name Raffaello.
	+ Given the fact that he was adopted by Yoshi's pet rat Splinter, Raphael's full name would be "Raphael Hamato".
* His mastery of Ninjutsu includes: Taijustu, Qigong, Shurikenjustu, Kobudō, Kayajustu, Shinobi-iri, Boyaku, Sui-ren, Archery, and Intonjustu.
* Raphael is the second oldest of his brothers; Leonardo being the oldest while he's older than Donatello & Michelangelo.
* Raphael has a bolt-shaped chip missing at the upper left side of his plastron. His shell and body in general are by far the most scarred of his brothers'.
* His mask has the longest tails, and by far the most tattered.
* Raphael is shown to care a lot about his brothers as he said: "I don't mind risking my own life, but my brothers'...", like when he didn't know what to do anymore when his youngest brother, Michelangelo, got hurt.
* In the first season of the show he has three big rivals Fishface, Spider Bytez and the Spy-Roach.
* Raphael's personality has traits of a Tsundere, in Japan a tsundere is a person that acts hostile and cold towards others but has a much more softer side to them that they reveal over time.
* It is revealed in "*Lone Rat and Cubs*" that Raph got the scar on his plastron when he was run over by a shopping cart as a child.
* He hates sour cream.
* He is right-handed.