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Ernie Reyes Jr.

Ernie Reyes Jr still got the eye of the tiger 🐯

Sunday

06.18.2023

L.George

it reached 90°F in the house today and netflix put all three of the 90s TMNT movies on (plus 2007)

this is absolutely referencing a scene from one of them

83c

Jake Stone is getting martial arts training from THE Monkey King?!?

Casey Jones and Keno Reyes

So… since my tiny little fill in the space sketches of Casey and Keno left… a lot to be desired (at least for me and my standards), I decided to go more in depth on their designs first.

Casey is in his early to mid 20s… probably 23 or 24, younger than 2k3 but older than 2k12 or Rise. You probably noticed he looks quite different in this version and that is because he’s older and lives in a different time and place in Los Reyes. 

From a design perspective, I wanted to make him an ideal for the ‘California Myth’: the romanization of California- specifically southern CA- as a place where hot people surf all day and the sun shines all year round without a care in the world. He’s got the strong inverted triangle shape with defined muscles, facial hair, long hair pulled into a messy bun, and that one tank top (if you know you know). He’d probably be a gym rat and drink pizza port or modelo at a Board and Brew and go surfing or skating before work.

I wanted to pull in hints to his past (and more canon Casey) so I decided he’s done his own piercing (not the eyebrow or tongue that you can’t see), he has tattoos from his hockey team and a portrait of baby Angel with wings on his chest. He’s probably got some small diy ones on his fingers and a larger unfinished one on his back. He’s got a wallet chain and a prominent scar on his knee. 

While his silhouette isn’t very Casey, his color scheme has much more influence with 2k3’s complexion, dark blue/gray shorts, and a red tank top. As The Penalizer, his clothing is much more monochromatic.

Keno is, despite what most believe, older than Casey at roughly 28. Honestly, I don’t know much about Keno. As of designing him, I haven’t seen The Next Mutation but wanted to include another human character and he was a good fit with a lot for me to work with. He also fits the ‘carefree Californian’ stereotype at first glance in his style but most of the inspiration just came from what felt right for him. 

I wanted Keno to appear as a stable and staple figure in their little community by giving him square shapes. He wears a California hoodie because the red and white color scheme matched his original windbreaker (he probably owns this windbreaker but doesn’t need to wear it much). The Santa patterned pj pants is a personal anecdote as my family will get matching pjs every year and they’re the only pairs I own. His hair fluffing up around his headphones is also something that happens to me that I wanted to represent here.

His complexion is the same as in TNM with his jacket being predominantly white and gray with red stripes since he and Casey have the same color palette in their clothes, and since I gave him more focus on red, I wanted to emphasize blue with Keno. His pj pants are blue.

I still think about this moment often

Keno, the teenage human martial artist pizza delivery guy (TMNT movie)

Keno was a character created specifically for Ernie Reyes Jr. And this is the story of how it happened and the basics of who Keno was.

WATCHLIST 2022: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze

My boy made good.

My time away has been really good for me so I doubt I’ll ever be as active as I was. I’ll still pop in occasionally to answer messages or see what my mutuals are up to, but if I write, it’ll be posted to ao3. I hope you all are well and happy.

In other news, I’m incredibly excited that I get to hang out with Ernie Reyes, Jr next week! 90’s Donatello and Keno! 💜 Life is good!

Ernie Reyes & Ernie Reyes, Jr., Kickin' Jeans ad (Century, 1983)

tagged by @ruby-red-inky-blue (thank you! i love movies :D)

rules: post 10 of your favourite comfort movies then tag 10 people

Robin Hood: Men in Tights — there were countless summers I spent with my brothers and we all sat together and we all enjoyed this ridiculous movie. we didn’t truly understand all of the jokes and 1990s pop culture reference, but boy did we laugh out loud the whole time.

2. Pride & Prejudice — this one just hits all the right chords for me. i still love and am Mr. Darcy.

3. Howl’s Moving Castle — I remember gravitating towards this movie when it first released because I saw Christian Bale was listed as a voice actor. And then I just made this ghibli movie part of my personality and you all have to deal with it.

4. The Nightmare Before Christmas — another movie from my childhood. It was released on VHS (vhs!!!!) on my birthday, but my mom bought it as a gift for my older brother’s b-day two-weeks later. It’s safe to say I enjoyed it more than he did. I feel a little cringe admitting how much this movie comforts me but I’m trying to get over that.

5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze — we’re not getting away from my childhood just yet. Another movie my brothers and I loved immensely. Also filipino Ernie Reyes Jr?!? Someone who looked more like us than any other actor we bothered to recognize as kids? We all wanted to be like Ernie in this movie.

6. Kung Fu Hustle — also enjoyed the crap out of this one with my brothers. See this trend here? I talk about this in therapy. But, it’s got two things I love: martial arts and comedy. So good

7. Tangled — after swearing I’d never enjoy another animated musical again for some weird reason, this movie came out and i watched it again and again and again.

8. Alice in Wonderland — during a really hard part of my young adult life, I watched/listened to this movie a lot because something about it made me feel comfortable.

9. 101 Dalmatians — another movie I had on repeat that I also watched a lot as a kid. I still want a house full of dalmatians.

10. Little Women — the most recent of the bunch. i watched this for Saoirse Ronan, and then all of these old memories I had of watching the Winona Ryder version came up and I just. I can sit and watch these and for a 90-120 minutes I forget about my real life troubles and I’m just calm.

of course, share only if you’d like: @ladytharen @scoundrels-in-love @allatariel @jedi-bird @freebooter4ever @gretamaya @freshgratednutmeg and anyone else that would like to be tagged :D

For the ask thing - 1 and 7! :]

Get ready for a short read, lol. I did my best to not go on a tangent.

1. How did you get into tmnt? It was actually about a year ago (only a couple weeks away to the day, actually), that I got into Rise. I had been falling off of my Sonic re-fixation and had seen some artists I was following make some art for it and share around gifs and videos and such. I remember seeing the movie Krang fight animatic in particular and my animation-loving brain went "oh, now I need to check this out." I needed something to jump start my creativity at the time, and I knew I would have some free time after the Thanksgiving holiday (USA America), so I planned to watch it then. I binged that shit on Netflix. I would later learn that the episodes weren't quite in the right order, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I think I got halfway through season two when things started to click in terms of why I liked Donnie so much: I related to him a lot, and I hadn't seen an animated character that I resonated with so much mentally. Sure, I'd seen characters in other shows that had similar traits to him, but this one hit me over the head, and I started to understand myself a bit more. That made a pretty lasting connection for me. BUT before this becomes a Donnie rant, I'll continue: after watching all of Rise, I began watching the other series/movies, though a bit haphazardly (I haven't finished 87 or 03 yet lol). I read all the IDW comics through my library and read a few issues of the other runs (I've started collecting IDW and Saturday Morning Adventures when I can). I also started down the rabbit hole of merch… I have a fair few plush and plastic turtles in my room, hehe. Anywho, it's been a non-stop obsession ever since, and it's rekindled my love for animation that kind of… "died" is a strong word, but it went away a little a few years ago. My inner child reawakened, so to speak lol. I didn't go into Rise/TMNT in general expecting to love it as much as I do, but it makes me really happy. I'm so glad I found it and gave it a chance (even if I was late to it, like I am with many things, lol). I've discovered a lot of nice ppl and projects online through tmnt as well, which I'm grateful for. Dump over!! haha

7. Favorite really obscure character? Really obscure? Hmm., idk how obscure he is, but Keno from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II (1991)! Those movies give me a lot of joy for many reasons, and Keno is one of them. He's a silly lil guy, and I wish he got to be in more TMNT iterations. To my knowledge, the character was made for the actor (Ernie Reyes Jr., who was also the martial arts stunt double for Donnie in the first movie!!). I recommend reading some of Reyes' interviews if you can, interesting stuff. Also he has a mullet :]

So I finally got around to watching The Librarians ...

After I finished the second half of the latest season of Leverage (aka Leverage: Redemption), I felt the urge to watch something else with the same energy. And what has the same energy of Leverage? Well, The Librarians ... duh.

Now, to be fair. I've tried to get into The Librarians in the past, but I could never make it past the first 3 episodes. Seriously, I've tried to start this series no less than 3 times, and I just kept giving up on it.

Why? Because I found most of the characters too annoying to enjoy it. Mainly Ezekiel, Cassandra and Flynn. And although I know that it takes time for actors to settle into their characters, and begin the journey of growth and change that comes with a solid character arc, I couldn't bring myself to keep watching.

So what changed my mind this time?

Easy. I didn't bother watching the first 3 episodes. 😉 Since I already knew who the characters were, and vaguely recalled how everyone got together, I thought I would just dive in and see how it would go from there.

And it worked! Most of the cast still got on my nerves for the first half of the first season, but it wasn't too long before they started to grow on me -- especially Jenkins.

In true "me" fashion, my favorite character easily became Jenkins / Sir Galahad, and most of my favorite scenes and episodes involve him. But more on him later.

Anyway, that's not to say their aren't plenty of other things I love about the show now. I'm not sure if there is common denominator among my favorite episodes, but here they are and a wee reason about why they're one of my favorite episodes:

... And the Fatal Separation (s3, ep9) Why? -- Three words: Ernie. Reyes. Jr. That's it. That's the reason this episode is on my list. And it's enough. Granted, I don't believe that Christian Kane could last more than 10 seconds in a real fight with Ernie, but the fact that he was the main guest star and was clearly having a great time made me really love this episode. Plus, how hot were Cassandra and Ezekiel posing as black market traders? Their hair and clothes made me want to see them in those roles again in the future.

... And the Reunion of Evil (s3, ep3) Why? -- I pretty much loved this entire episode from start to finish. I loved the conflict, the "creatures of the week," and the development it gave for Jake and Cassie's relationship. It did a wonderful job of balancing humor and drama, and of course, it was just really well executed because ... Jonathan Frakes directed it.

... And the Silver Screen (s4, ep4) Why? -- I know we're meant to love the whole film noir schtick involving Flynn and Baird, but I actually adored this episode for 2 reasons: 1) the rest of the team moving from film genre to film genre in order to help their teammates was funny as hell, and 2) Jenkins working with guest star Gloria Reuben to solve the real mystery on their end. I thought they had great chemistry together, and it made me want to see them interact with each other again in the future. I know that's not possible, but John Larroquette is just so great at creating chemistry with pretty much anyone.

... And the Christmas Thief (s4, ep3) Why? -- Wait. We get Ezekiel backstory *and* Steven Weber as an over-the-top villain of the week? Of course this episode is making my list of favorites! Granted, I'm not a big fan of the Christmas holiday personally, so it also gelled with me in that respect (aka steering clear of how "great" the holiday is), but more so I'm a huge fan of Steven Weber and I think he's an incredibly under-appreciated actor. (Plus, have you ever heard him sing? Check out the remake/spoof of Reefer Madness with Kristen Bell when you get a chance. You will not be disappointed.) And that speech that Ezekiel delivers to his mother about why he stole and how he's an artist, so he didn't care about keeping any of the stuff he stole. ::chef's kiss::

... And the Hidden Sanctuary (s4, ep8) Why? -- I think what I love most about this episode is the idea of Cassandra working alongside the little boy to solve the mystery as to why the town never has any accidents and seems so perfect. Usually it's Cassandra who would be the first to notice something is off, but it took the little boy to bring it to her attention. Which in a way reveals how the curiosity of youth is still as valuable as any other form of intelligence. Adding to that, a part of me wanted the town's councilman to get what was coming to him for trapping a fae. If you know absolutely nothing about the occult, witchcraft or ancient faiths, know one thing: Don't f*ck with the fae. I was ready for her to get her revenge, and I can't say that I blamed her at all. Seriously, kids. DFWTF.

... And the Happily Ever Afters (s2, ep9) Why? -- OK. I don't know what I love about this one. It's the precursor to the season finale, but I kind of wish they had stayed in this alternate reality for a little while longer. It was just so cute to see how each team member was living their idealized lives, but also working together as a team without even questioning it. Yeah, yeah, I wanted them to stop Prospero too, but I also wanted to see them go about these AU lives for a little while longer. Plus, I really liked David S. Lee's Moriarty. So much so that I was actually rooting for him and "Duchess" to stay together instead of her being in a relationship with Flynn. I thought Rebecca and David had more chemistry than Rebecca and Noah, frankly. But either way, I really liked this episode for pretty shallow reasons. I thought the resolution was a little too cheesy (the part about claiming your other/real life to the totem pole), but overall, it didn't take away from what I liked the most. Also, Christian Kane runs kinda funny. :-P

... And Some Dude Named Jeff (s4, ep10) Why? -- This is my absolute favorite episode of the entire series, and it bugs me that it's the 3rd to last episode of the entire series. It's like the writers gave me what I wanted most -- a Jenkins-focused episode -- and then said, "That's a wrap!" Sure, all good things must ... you know the rest. Then, I found out that Lindy Booth directed this episode, and now I love it even more. It really was perfection from start to finish, and we got to see John Larroquette do what he does best: Steal. The. Mother. F*ckin'. Show. He was hilarious at just the right moments; angsty and forlorn in just the right measure; and sincere and charming in just the right way. Granted, the villain seemed more scary in absentia than he did when he finally appeared on screen, but who cares? This was all about Jenkins ... and some dude named Jeff.

OK. I think that's all I have for this post. It's already hella-long. I thought I was going to share my top 10 favorite episodes, but it turns out the other 3 were really just ones I liked in terms of quality and execution, but I don't think I'll re-watch them over and over again like I would these 7 episodes I listed above. That, or I really just like those other 3 faves because of the scenes with Jenkins.

Alright, I'll leave dear readers be. But don't be surprised if I suddenly start reblogging a lot of old memes and posts about the show, especially ones that focused on Jenkins/Sir Galahad.

And probably an entire post gushing over Jenkins and John Larroquette in general. So yeah, watch this space.