Application!
Mun
Name: Katt
Livejournal Username: katt30
E-mail: katt30x@gmail.com
AIM/MSN: AIM: katt30x
Character
Name: Hamato Leonardo
Fandom: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003)
Gender: Male
Age: 19
Time Period: Near the end of season 4
Wing Color: Navy blue at the base, and fading to sky blue at the tips.
History: He was born one of your average, run of the mill pet shop turtles, and sold in a small shop in the heart of New York City. He was bought, along with three other baby turtles, by a young boy. But they never made it to the boy’s home. On the trek home, the boy was witness to an accident, where a blind man was nearly hit by a large truck. The blind man was saved by another man, but the boy bumped by the savior, and in turn dropped the glass jar that held the four turtles.
By the time the boy tried to rescue them, it was too late. The four turtles had slid down into the sewer drain, and out of sight. Not far behind, a canister of strange glowing green ooze, landed in the same gutter, and dropped into the sewer, crashing down, and breaking open, covering the baby turtles in the goop. Luck seemed to be on the baby turtle’s side, as a kind rat, which lived in the sewers, just happened to be nearby, and he gathered them up, getting some of the goop on himself as well, and took them to his borough.
The next day much to the rat’s astonishment, the four baby turtles had doubled in size over night, as well as him. Over the next sixteen years, the rat would raise the four turtles as his own sons. He trained them in ninjutsu, and the ways of the warrior. He also gave them each names, based on a book of renaissance art he had found in the gutter. They became Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo.
The wise rat trained the four in ninjutsu. During the training, Splinter saw traits in Leonardo, that but him above the other three. Splinter gave Leonardo extra training in preparation for the day that he would be leading his brothers in combat. As he grew up, Leonardo grew into the role, becoming more serious than his brothers, and studying the ways of combat, and tactics.
It would be many years before they would have contact with the outside world beyond their sewer home. It came in the form of helping a damsel in distress, who got attacked by her ex boss, Baxter Stockman. Baxter had sent his mouser robots against her, the same robots that had destroyed their original lair. The woman, April O'Neil, got to hear the story of how they came to be, and she and the turtles would work together to stop the scientists plans. Miss O'Neil would be one of the first people they met, but she would be far from the last.
They worked as the cities silent helpers, helping those who were in need, dealing with the street gangs that the human cops rarely messed with. They would fight many battles, and many different enemies, but none deadlier then Oroku Saki. Leonardo got a message from an unknown man, for a meeting, and when he went, he met the man, Oroku Saki, who tried to convince him to join his side. Leonardo was almost convinced by the story. However, hearing that Saki, the Shredder, had killed Splinter's Master, Hamato Yoshi, his mind was changed. Leonardo rejected the offer, and while they managed to fight the Shredder, and, as they believed at the time, killed him. The man came back, angrier than ever.
Leonardo would learn firsthand just how angry the man was. He was out on a training run, when he was ambushed by the Foot, who wore him down to where only determination was keeping him going. He was defeated, and badly injured by the Shredder's Elite guard, and thrown through the living room window of April's apartment, where they had been staying at the time. They managed to escape, and leave the city, going to North Hampton. They stayed at a farm owned by Casey, where, with his families help, Leonardo recovered, both mentally and physically, from his injuries. They returned to New York to take down the Shredder once and for all.
But the Shredder was not an easy man to kill off. He came back once again, with the intent to destroy the utroms, and the turtles and Splinter with them. However, it did not work out and the Shredder seemingly was blown up instead. This event would set off an event the turtles, and Splinter, never could have imagined. It sent the factions of the Foot, Purple Dragons and the Mob into a war over the control of his empire. Even though it was not his fault, Leonardo felt responsible for the city being at way, and was going to try to fix it with, or without his families help. In the end, it took him, his brothers Casey, and a new Ally, Karai, to bring the war to an end.
The Shredder appears once again with a plan to build a space ship, and get off the planets. The turtles and Splinter were determined to stop him at all cost, and it nearly did cost them everything. In the end, badly beaten and in no condition to fight any more they were forced to use their last resort. Overload the power core of the ship and blow themselves, and the Shredder, up with it. They were saved the last minute by the Utroms who transported them all to the Utrom home world. The Shredder was exiled for eternity on an asteroid, and the turtles, wounds still healing, were sent back to earth to recover.
Despite the victory Leonardo saw it more as a failure. This drove him to have an almost Raphael like personality. In his own words he became his own worst enemy. Everything that was done that would have been enough in the past was not good enough now, little seemed to make him happy anymore. He pushed himself, and his brothers, to be better. They tried to get him to talk, but only two people could get him to open. April and the Samurai Usagi, but somehow something always came up before they could get the whole story and then it was forgotten.
This all came to a head when, during a katana lesson with Splinter, Leonardo finally lost control and nearly scalped their Sensei. He was sent to Japan where. It was hoped, that the Ancient One, who was the Sensei to Splinter's Sensei Hamato Yoshi, would be able to help him find what he was looking for and be himself once again. He spent two plus months with the Ancient one finding his inner peace once again. The Ancient One sent him back home telling him that his family was in grave danger. Leonardo returned home to New York but was too late. He found their lair completely destroyed, with little sign of his family. After getting attacked by a Shred-naught and interrogating its driver he found out it was the Foot who had done it.
Through a new technique that he had learned from the Ancient One he tracked down his brothers, and Sensei, and brought them to a safe location under central park. Once he was sure that they were safe he left, and headed for Foot headquarters where he confronted Karai, who had taken on the mantel of the Shredder to get revenge on the turtles. He quickly defeated her, but he did not kill her. Instead he gave her one last chance, and a stern warning, in the form of chopping the head off the statue of Oroku Saki, to stay away from his family.
Things after that took a strange turn. Mutant creatures started appearing all over the city threatening the citizens. The turtles took it upon themselves to try to control, and contain, the monster population until something could be done. A more worry some event came up in the mean time. Donatello was sick, and getting sicker with a cold that lasted for months. This turned out to not be any ordinary cold as one night when he was left with April and Casey, as the others went out to fight monsters, Donatello turned into one as well. He had gotten infected by one monster through a gash in his leg. Despite the help of Leatherhead they weren't finding a cure for their brother, and time was running out to get the Donatello they knew back as the 'outbreak' mutagen was reacting violently to the Utrom mutagen in his blood stream.
They tracked down the man responsible, Agent Bishop, who agreed to cure Donatello if they retrieved an item from Karai. They infiltrated the Foot building, and retrieved the artifact. Meantime, back at Bishop's base, Leatherhead had managed to work with Stockman to find the cure. The turtles returned with the artifact, and the cure was administered to Donatello who reverted to his old self. With Donatello in hand they retreated to New York. An air borne version of the cure was used to fix the monsters that were in the city and things seemed to return to Normal.
For weeks the turtles took it easy, setting things up in their new lair and giving Donatello time to rest and recover. After Donatello complained about how much they were making him rest Leo, and the other three, headed out for a training run for fresh air. They would never be returning home, however, as they were attacked by a group of strange wooden ninjas. Leonardo was taken down first, with a hit to the head, and his last memory before Luceti is blacking out on the rooftop.
Personality: Of the four turtles Leonardo is the closest to his Mirage original in personality. He's Raphael's twin. Flip side of the same coin. One runs hot (Raph). The other runs cold (Leo). Out of the two, Leonardo is the more dangerous of them. With Raphael you have a little forewarning, while on the contrary with Leonardo you will have little to no warning before he's angry, and coming at you. Leonardo's response to his frustrations is to ignore them, to get rid of the emotions. He does this for as long as he can, but even he can't last forever. They build up to the point that he just explodes, to the point that he simply can't keep the frustrations inside anymore. He’s also been shown to take responsibility for things that might not necessarily be his fault, like the whole thing with the city being at war after the Shredder was destroyed for the third time. At the right, or perhaps wrong, times, he can have a temper as bad if not worse than Raphael’s especially if something has happened, or it’s an enemy that he hates.
Another thing about him is that he takes his failures, and sometimes the team’s failures, very hard. He looks for ways that he could improve the next time to make sure it goes their way. This, and the point above, is seen especially in the first half of season four. Despite the defeat of the Shredder being a win for them, and the Utroms, he sees it as a failure since to defeat him they had to almost blow themselves up and were only saved because of the Utroms arriving in time. It builds up to the point that he starts verbally taking it out on his brothers. One good example of this was the episode ‘Dragons Rising’. They had managed to stop the Purple Dragons from getting away with half of their convoy, but he wasn’t happy with it. In his own words:
“When are you guys going to wise up and realize this isn’t a game?”
He literally stole Raph’s thunder to the point that hot-head was cooling down, and actually calling Leo a hot head. He took it out worse on Master Splinter, however, when he got frustrated about a simple katana lesson, and nearly scalped him. An important thing to remember as well is that he is a ninja, trained as one since Splinter determined they were old enough to be taught. He can be deadly when he wants to be, and more often than not, is. Leo is also the most paranoid of the turtles, and doesn’t trust easily. You have to prove yourself trustworthy to him. On the flip side if you lost that trust, you’ll have a very hard time getting it back as with Karai in seasons four and five.
Leonardo strives to be better, and to improve himself all of the time, to be a better leader. He’s a pillar of strength and guidance to them. They respect him for his leadership, and would follow him to hell and back. He often carries a large burden on his shoulders, but it’s because he put it there. He wants the responsibility, and the burden, and the other turtles know about what Leo puts himself through.
His relationship with his brothers is good. He’s closest to Don, and depends on him. He and Don are almost like twins, with Don being the milder one. If Leo doesn’t get the strategy needed then Don comes up with it. Or one will start a strategy while the other finishes it. Why is Raph second in command then? It's more than likely because Don doesn’t have the personality for it and Leo wanted some fire to his ice.
Raph and Leo can and do get along, as well. But their competitive nature often puts them at ends of each other. The two of them have a close bond, as should be noted considering Raph actually cried when Leo was badly injured by the Shredder and it was Raph who helped to rehab Leo by making new swords with him while the others were content to let him resolve it on his own. They fit each other well, and can be one hell of a pair in battle when it comes right down to it.
Mikey? He’s the one that keeps the mood from dropping too low. He’s the morale booster, and Leo wants to see him stay that way long as possible. That’s not to say that he doesn’t see that he can be serious, because he does, and often uses the ideas that Mikey comes up with, long as they don’t have to do with comic books or TV. Leo is often trying to motivate their ‘younger’ brother into doing better, and take more things seriously, like when he helped Mikey to train in the Grudge Match episode.
“In this life we only have each other. If one of us goes down, we all go down. So focus.”
This gave Mikey the motivation to defeat Kluh, even though the larger opponent had him pretty well beaten. Mind you this was when he was in his angrier stage as well.
Leonardo’s relationship with Splinter is as a son, and a student, to a father and a Sensei. Splinter’s the one Leo sees as the one to be listened to, because more often than not he’s right about what he says. Splinter’s the one Leo often look to for guidance, and a bit of support, much like his brothers look to him for the same thing. Splinter understands that Leo pushes himself to be better, to be a leader, and this can often be seen when the two are together at home.
There is another side to him, however. That outside of the leadership parts of him he is just a kid like the other three. He can crack stupid jokes, like the time about Mikey having eaten a bean burrito for lunch, or getting Mikey some new deodorant after a strenuous work out. He likes to relax as well, often shown enjoying watching movies, going out for ice cream or getting a pizza. When he’s not practicing, or thinking of strategies, he has been shown to enjoy reading a good book, and likes to listen to music. He’s also been shown to just enjoy just letting out a bit of energy, by wheeling through the sewers, with his brothers on his scooter.
Strengths:
Physical: He’s strong. He has to be considering he carries around, and uses a pair of katana which can weigh up to over a hundred pounds. His shell can give him a bit of extra armor in a fight, even though it is possible to get past the armor, like the time he was stabbed by Karai during the final fight with the Shredder. Thanks to his numerous runs over the rooftops of NYC, training and the fights, his physical stamina is pretty high as well. He’s an excellent, and skillful, swordsman in that he knows what the weapons is, and definitely knows how to use them.
Mental: Leonardo is probably the best at the mental stuff. From blind fighting and sensing his opponents like when he was ambushed by the Foot, to fighting in the astral plane and knowing what had to be done there with only a bit of guidance from Splinter when the Mystic ninjas attacked them. He’s also an excellent strategist, and knows his tactics. He often comes up with the strategies that he, and his brothers, often uses in battle.
Emotional: He’s the best at hiding his emotions when he needs to. He can go from being happy, to almost stone-faced serious when there’s something big time wrong. Most of the time at home, with his family, he can act like the teenager he is, and actually be happy. He’s also been known to laugh.
Weaknesses:
Physical: The biggest thing is that due to being a turtle, and thus cold blooded, too much exposure to the cold can do him harm, and potentially kill him. It can also slow his senses, and his reaction time in battle leaving him more vulnerable to attack. Also the wound on his shell, and the shoulder that he was stabbed in, can still give him issues on occasion, though they aren’t as bad they were in the beginning. They are still sensitive to things like change in the weather. The shell wound can be painful to more than light touches, but his shoulder is usually nothing more than a dull ache.
Mental: He likely gives himself tension headaches often. He’s high-strung, and keeps it in control. But the stress, paranoia, perfectionism can take a toll on him mentally. He also has a lot of self doubt, mentally going over what happened, and how he can fix it or what could have been done better.
Emotional: He tends to take his failures, the teams failures, personally, and in the end they can make him frustrated. His frustrations he’ll keep to himself. He’ll bottle it up until something gives, and it’s usually only in battle where he can relieve this frustration.