My Headcanon About Leo - Which Is Also Shared By Half Of The RiseFandom - Is That He Has ADHD. I Believe

My headcanon about Leo - which is also shared by half of the RiseFandom - is that he has ADHD. I believe that he actually plans for every situation his family encounters faster than anyone else, but the only reason his plans don't come to fruition is because instead of speaking out loud and providing an actual explanation, he believes that his brothers can read his actions and mind as well as he can read theirs. This leads to frustration when things don't go as planned.

The thing is, his struggles with communication are partly, if not completely, due to his ADHD. Things can be very clear in his mind, but when he tries to explain them to others, his system malfunctions, and he is left with nothing but useless rambling or jokes that lead nowhere. Leo has the brain to make plans and be a great leader for the team - a thing that only Splinter has been able to see. It is for this reason that in the movie, Leo is doing his best to force the leader role onto Raph again. My man is in denial; he is scared, and for me, the script going on in his head is "No one has ever understood me before. My plans always end in disaster for my brothers, and I've never been able to explain them to others. How am I supposed to be a leader if I can't guide?"

I say this because something that happens a lot to people with ADHD or autism is that they have been misunderstood all their lives. So, when it comes to explaining things, we tend to over-explain a "simple" topic to the point where it is both confusing and useless. Leo is scared of failing his family in every sense. He feels like nothing without them, and he has said this before to Hueso in season one.

I know everyone is obsessed with the "It wasn't about me" line from the movie, but it's not in the Leo-centric way that everyone likes so much. It's about his brothers and how the pressure of being a leader for the team and the lack of trust from his brothers is scaring Leo so much. In the movie, when Leo makes Raph-Kraang hear him and then his brothers fight the Kraangs, it's also him showing how much of a leader he can be when he is left with no options but to throw his fears away and get in the first line.

This is also why Future Leo was the greatest ninja. He didn't have any more options than to keep on trying and leading not just his siblings but the whole resistance. Leo has trapped himself with his insecurities in the back of his brain and fights every day to be better. Excuse me, but that's what a leader does.

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I apologize if I'm a disaster at explaining things. I hope my point was clear enough. I really love them and wanted to share this with other people who could appreciate it.

... I like hurting myself tho.

Context: The Resistance explained what Christmas is and who Santa is, even how he works, but slightly changed because they can't actually give gifts. Casey Jr. is 12 years old, Donnie just left for a mission he won't come back from, and Leo and Mikey are getting the lair decorated while the children write their letters to Santa.

"Dear Santha - Santa, Robbie is helping me write this. He writes pretty well, so Chelsey and I asked for his help. I wanted Mom or Master Leonardo to help, but they said they're busy keeping the bad monsters away. 

Chelsey said she wanted to ask for a book about horses. She told me that they were huge animals before the war, huge and beautiful that could run faster than Kraangs. She said she wanted one, but Robbie told us that they were on a trip far away from us, so instead she asked for a book. 

I don't really know what to ask for. There's so much stuff I want to see, but Uncle Tello told me that gifts were something important and I had to be wizhe - wise about choosing one. So I want Master Raphael back. Uncle Mikey told us that he was the strongest, that he was bigger than Master Leonardo and he always knew what to do. He protected everyone and everything was easier when he was around. I don't really remember him, but it would make my family happy. So please bring Master Raphael back, Santa.

 With love, Casey Jones."

Robbie finished reading the letters and smiled at the little ones around him, dismissing them to their dorms or to play in another room. He couldn't give that letter to either Leonardo or Mikey, let alone Donnie. They could get affected by it, and everyone around needed them too much. Robbie was only 16, but he knew for sure he wouldn't give Casey's letter to them. So instead, he did what seemed logical and ran to Commander O'Neil.

April felt shocked and out of place. She felt like she was 28 again and Leo was screaming for help through the radio, "Raph is hurt, please hurry! Someone! We need help!" The building had collapsed while they were fighting some infected people. Leo didn't notice, and Raph protected him with his body. They could never get his body out of the debris, and they had to leave him alone in Kraang territory. Donnie dragged a very injured Leo out of the place and back to their base. She still hadn't been able to tell Commander O'Neil. Leo was only 26, and they had just found Casey in a trash can two years ago. Mikey... Oh, God. Mikey was crying so bad he couldn't speak for two months afterward, blaming himself for not being able to move the debris with his ninpo. Donnie trapped himself in his lab and ignored everyone for weeks before Todd and Draxum managed to take him out. They almost lost Leo too. It wasn't just the blood loss; the lack of his arm made Leo give up. He didn't move, he didn't eat, and he didn't even try to sleep. He was just there, lying on the bed waiting for his death.

It took a Kraang attack against the children's dorms for him to move again. Casey was the one who saved him. The little kid didn't separate from Leo from that day, calling him dad and sharing meals. Then Leo recovered just enough to take the leader role and keep his brothers up, and the rest of the resistance.

April felt her cheeks being wet and simply put the letter in her pocket. She would give Casey one of Raph's old plushies and explain that he wouldn't come back with some cute history. It was the best she could do.

I have so many people in ao3 that i want to tag cause they need this but have no idea if they even have tumblr

*Lay down and cry silently*

I made it

Weirdo behind the steering wheel

its good to know the extremely apt name for this subculture i guess

You know that the traumas conversations between these two at 3AM are going to be hilarious, and Willow and Amity are just going to be there next to them thinking: 'We got ourselves into this, so no complaining.'

I continue to be...speechless. I'm just so in awe of this show. These siblings will have a lot to talk about

I'm a menace for my school work, but yeah.

So, you all see how everyone is convinced that Mikey - mainly Rise version but it could fit with the 2012 version too - is a soft babe with a little bit of a gremlin attitude but no more no less? Well, I'm pretty sure he's more of a gremlin than a babe. Man, he is 13 at the start of the series. You can't even begin to imagine how much of a pain in the ass I was when 13 hit me.

I used to do so much bullshit. My friends/family literally had to keep an eye on me every time we went out because I have these magic hands that managed to break everything I touched, no matter how damn hard they were.

My point is that Mikey is a natural disaster. Figures. But if he and his family were wearing tennis, boots or whatever shoes you like to put them on, and for script convenience they happened to be white, Mikey would get out of the blue, full speed to his siblings - yep, April is in the middle too - and stomp on their shoes as hard and fast as he can, screaming for his brothers not to do the same to him, even when he obviously deserves it.

Gosh, Mikey will be a hell of a nightmare. Imagine Leo just got his new pair of white super cool tennis shoes. He is super excited and is taking as much care of them as he can, rambling about how comfy and awesome they are to a so-done Donnie when out of nowhere he senses The Danger, The Imbalance in Force. Donnie feels it too and gets out of the room in a matter of seconds. Through the whole lair, a battle scream is heard. And out of the corner: BOOM; Savage Mikey Is On The Game, Babe!

We can tell that was the end of Leo's perfect, awesome, cool white shoes, and the start of one grand fight of Leo chasing Mikey, who is doing his best to hide behind Raph while laughing at full force as Raph tries to get Leo to not kill Mikey.

It could even be part of the lair games: "Last one with the cleanest shoes wins!" And even if Mikey doesn't win, he does get his brothers running all around trying to stay away from him and failing miserably.

If you didn't chase your friends to stomp on their new clean shoes, did you even have a childhood?