My Take on the Ninja Turtles

Michaelangelo

Weapons: Nunchuku, bare hands, one of those police truncheon stick things

Color: red, yellowish-orange, orangish-yellow

Role in Family: Cheer the place up a bit

Hobbies: Pranks, cooking, jokes, trying to meet new people, writer

Other Information: Apparently he's a writer, a great cook, imaginative, sensitive...he's the perfect guy!

Michaelangelo, the one turtle everyone misspells sometime in their stories. Just call him Mike. I find him one of the harder characters to write, except for Donatello, simply because he's so mercurial. He has the ability to be whatever he wants. He can be child-like when he's happy, and he's the one who seems to be a real teenager. He never sulks as much as Raph, he's not as technologically dependent as Don, he's not as fanatical as Leonardo, he's just a regular kid who happens to be a turtle.

Of course, this doesn't mean he's any less lethal, although for some reason he is the one turtle who can't seem to keep any one weapon for very long. He started out with nunchucks, but through the years he's gone through a grappling hook, a police-like bataan, and sometimes no weapon at all. Why? I dunno, these aren't any less dangerous than swords, a staff or sais. Maybe he just seems too cheerful to be so violent.

I know that Image has revealed him to be an author, but to be honest, I didn't get to read that issue. Therefore, I think he'd probably be more of a poet, writing either anthologies or "stream-of-consciousness" stories. He also has be shown to be the family cook, able to create something edible out of the most outlandish combinations. Sometimes I think we just haven't seen the results of what he cooks, because we see that his brothers don't often partake in his more extravagant feasts. For this reason I think he's the most well-fed, probably slightly over weight, while everyone else looks lean and mean.

On the downside, I think he is the most lonesome turtle in the bunch. He wants desperately to be accepted and surrounded by other people, and instead he's stuck down in the sewers with a fanatic leader, a sulky loner, a techie hermit and a master who's always meditating. Is it any wonder he worships the television? I think if he was able to be accepted by the rest of the world, he wouldn't live so vicariously, but instead he has to watch from afar. It's sad, really. The happiest turtle is also the one who is the most easily depressed. Because of this, he is also probably the closest to committing suicide, not for honor, but for the usual reasons of oppressive solitude.

His brothers aren't much help. Raphael is too gloomy for him, Don rarely comes out of his lab, and Leo probably doesn't know how to help, since he cut off his emotions pretty early. Splinter might be the only one who can offer some empathetic aid, but the occasional conversations can't help everything. What Mike needs is a good friend, the closest to which he's found is April and Shadow.

I also think that Mike is the most intuitive. He can figure things out and understand the way people act better than his brothers can, even Leonardo, who usually just sees things in terms of battle tactics. Mike sees things in relationships and understandings, perceiving how people act as a direct result of their character and beliefs. No one can keep a secret from him for long. I think he's also rather curious, but more accepting of things he doesn't understand, so he isn't as driven as Donatello can get.

Future Projections: I believe that once Splinter has died, he take many more risks than he does now in finding new friends, and I think he's so personable that he won't have any problem. I think he will enjoy life to the fullest, immersing himself in his writing, relationships, and maybe even a family life. The only thing that could hurt him them is the loss of communication between him and Leonardo, and the animosity between Leo and Raphael, but I also think that he's so eager to keep in touch that he would manage to keep contact with his eldest brother, no matter what.