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#yeeaaah id be my own biggest fan too
turtleblogatlast · 5 months
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Fun little silly thought I had about the Lair Games and specifically Leo deliberately losing is all the reasons he could have for doing so.
My favorite headcanon for his main motivation is that Splinter wasn’t proud of him anymore.
I imagine that, in the beginning, winning the Lair Games was Leo’s opportunity to shine. He wasn’t artistic or the baby of the family like Mikey, wasn’t a tech genius who created amazing inventions like Donnie, wasn’t the eldest who was insanely strong and dependable like Raph. So he had to shine somewhere else- anywhere else- and what better way to get attention than to be a winner? A champion?
And then he won too much. And it wasn’t special anymore. He got too big headed, too cocky, he knew this was his element and he ran with it.
Splinter’s words of congratulations slowly petered out. Suddenly, there was no real reason to win.
Winning feels empty when the only one cheering you on is yourself.
So- Leo schemed. And he’s a great schemer, fooling his whole family (and Donnie did deserve a win- people were way happier when he won.)
He even gave up his prized possession! His room!
Though he knows his brothers probably think it’s a bad prize. A terrible one, even.
Leo doesn’t sleep much as is, though. So Dad’s snores were more comforting than anything. It was reassuring to hear him so clearly alive and close by.
Even if the distance between them was larger than Leo’d like.
He’d just have to find something else, something more to show his dad that Leo was someone to trust, to be proud of, to love.
He gets his chance soon after, when he needs to pull off a plan against Big Mama at his dad’s side. Leo can only hope this victory is one that has a lasting effect when his father looks at him with pride once more.
Victory, for Leo, is a pretty loaded term.
#rottmnt#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles#rottmnt leo#rottmnt headcanons#rise leo#everything Leos do almost always ties back to Splinter send tweet#anyway imo if I was Leo winning every lair game I would be bored as hell#and add on to my own dad joining in with my brothers on being disappointed when I do well?#yeeaaah id be my own biggest fan too#tbh Leo’s big brain plays both in Lair Games and Many Unhappy Returns are his real victories#I will say I was proud of Donnie for doing so well!#he deserves a win definitely#but looking at this from Leo’s perspective and realizing this is JUST before the ‘why don’t any of you trust me’ line hurts#wanna make this hurt more?#how about Leo purposefully wanting to lose…but he was a bit miffed that DONNIE out of anyone won#why?#because Leo makes jokes all the time but Splinter says DONNIE is the funny one#because althroughout Many Unhappy Returns Splinter says how he’d prefer if DONNIE were there instead of Leo#makes me wonder y’know? if there’s any scratchy feelings there#nothing that Leo has against Donnie so much as the assumption that Splinter would prefer him over Leo#which if I was Leo…I’d definitely think so even if Splinter absolutely loves his sons equally#just as Donnie probably assumes the opposite as well#splinter bro plz talk to your sons#but yeah victory for Leo imo is equivalent to acknowledgement#just *seeing* him#so he very easily gets wrapped up in the obsession for being the champion#*lou jitsu* always wins and Splinter wants them more like Lou Jitsu so LEO has to always win or…#or…
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