Raphael (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Raphael is one of the four main protagonists in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.

Raphael is the adoptive son of Master Splinter (Hamato Yoshi) and the younger adoptive brother of Karai (Hamato Miwa), as well as the younger birth brother of Leonardo, older birth brother of Donatello and Michelangelo, and pet owner of Slash.

Known for his rage, he commonly takes it out on Mikey, and on occasions, to Leo and Donnie, due to their occasional feud (Raph's sibling rivalry, jealousy and power hunger that Leo is the team leader while Donnie is the team' scientist, mechanist and inventor). Raphael sports a chip in the bottom of his shell as a result of Splinter's earlier encounters with the Kraang that were after him.

Personality
Raphael is the muscular hothead of the ninja turtle quartet. However in this incarnation Raph is brave, daring, free spirited, stubborn, highly intelligent, wilful, explosive, aggressive, and while Michelangelo is the comedian and the funniest of the turtle quartet, Raphael is the most sardonic and sarcastic. He is also the most relentless of the turtles, his relentless ferocity makes him a deadly fighter.

Raph loves to fight, wrestle and trash the place. If there’s a brawl, Raphael would love to join in the fight whenever you like it or not. Because of his passion for fighting, he would fight first and reflect and ask questions later.

He doesn’t tolerate offensive teasing from anyone. When people and or even his brothers mocks him, he would put up a fight. When Mikey is in his mischievious ways and annoys Raph, Raphael would either yell at him or beat him up.

Hypocritically, he mocks and taunts his family, friends, and his enemies, often coming up with sassy jokes and rude remarks. Raph is not afraid to make light of very dark situations. He would make jokes about dejected and morose people who are miserable.

However Raph can be unpredicable, you never know what would trigger Raph. Raph‘s temper can sometimes scare enemies even his brothers. He would use intimidation and violence as a means to solve problems, even with his family and friends, and does so very ruthlessly and brutally. Sometimes at training Raph can get hostile and he would do anything he can to beat his brothers in sparring matches. When he feels misunderstood or irritated, he would erupt at any given moment. At times he gets so infuriated he would walk out of the team. This type of situation happened 27 times. When he‘s calm, he goes back to rejoin the team.

In addition to this incarnation Raph and Leo’s relationship is a half love, half hate relationship. Raph hates the fact that Leo is chosen to be leader. Sometimes Raph is willing to follow suit and cooperate with Leo and other times he’ll instigate. When Raph does instigate, he would either talk back or even try to take over as leader. In two episodes during this incarnation Raph has successfully took over Leo’s lead after Leo gives which is New Girl in Town and Follow The Leader.

Raph’s rebellious behavior gets in the way of thinking before going into the situation. Sometimes Raph would go down and think before going into situations and other times he will rebel because his behavior is inconsistent.

Despite all this, Raph does have a soft side with his pets Spike (which turned into Slash), and then in Season 4 Chompy, whom he adores both so much. His pets always calm him down. Sometimes he shows his soft side to his family and friends. He would do anything to protect them, but he would never admit it in order to stay "hardcore" and to protect his pride. On rare occasions he even has a soft side towards Mikey, as seen in "New Friend, Old Enemy" and "New Girl in Town." And also in "The Wrath of Tiger Claw." he even hugs Mikey, considering he is the youngest, and therefore his baby brother.

Abilities

 * Anger: As seen multiple times through the series, Raphael's greatest weakness has been his anger. However, when properly focused, his temper can be used as his greatest strength, increasing his fighting abilities.
 * Okinawan Kobudō (Sai) : Raphael was trained by Splinter in the use of sais. Although Raph can use his sais for their intentional purpose of trapping his enemies weapons within their prongs, he also uses them in a manner akin to daggers, stabbing and piercing his opponents. He can also twirl sais in a similar manner to Donnie's bo-staff twirling abilities, allowing him to deflect shuriken and lasers. When holding them in a reverse grip between his fingers, Raph can use the pommel of his sais to increase the effect of his punches.
 * Shurikenjutsu: Raphael can throw shuriken with remarkable accuracy.
 * Tegaki Profiency: In "Vision Quest", Raphael forged his own custom-made Tegaki, which resembled a pair of Tekkō-kagi but with only two blades. He wielded them as though they were gauntlets.
 * Enhanced Strength: Raphael is the physically strongest of the turtles, even stronger than Leonardo, but is still able to be beaten by them. Because of this, he is the first to face off against large and more powerful opponents such as Slash, Triceriton soldiers, and even Super Shredder. He can also carry his three younger brothers (especially Leo) at will.
 * Enhanced Speed: Raphael is able to move at great speed, able to free run on rooftops without losing momentum. He also possesses great reaction speed, allowing him to dodge projectiles such as lasers the Kraang's blasters, and enemy attacks. He can also spin his sais at incredible speed.
 * Stealth: Being taught by Splinter, Leonardo, as well as his brothers, are able to be one with darkness and hide and move within the shadows without being noticed.
 * Pressure Point Intuition: As shown in "Slash and Destroy", Raphael is able to use the famous Pressure Point technique which he uses to defeat Slash.
 * Retractable limbs into shell: Though rarely (if ever) depicted, he has the normal ability of a turtle to retract his limbs into the saftey of his shell.
 * Artistry: "Return to New York" showed that Raphael has some skill as a painter, from when he painted a "Venus de Milo" artwork on the side of the Party Wagon. One of the walls of his bedroom is also covered with splotches of different colors of paint, but without any clear illustration.

Weapons
During most of the series, Raphael wields a pair of dual twin Sai as his signature weapon (as per tradition), with which, like his brothers and their chosen weapons, he is highly skilled. In fact, 2012 Raphael is the first to use it as intended, as a grappling/disarming weapon, rather then as a stabbing dagger.

In "The Pulverizer Returns!", Master Splinter says that the boys are relying too heavily on their own weapons and makes them swap. After this process, Raphael is left with Michelangelo's nunchucks. His Sai are given to Donatello. Despite their best efforts, none of them are particularly successful (mostly Donatello, who manages to prick himself with the Sai) however, Raphael only hits himself twice with the nunchucks, meaning he is at least somewhat competent with them (most likely because they are of a similar design, ie: two, small handheld weapons).

However, during a more difficult fight, the turtles are still uncooperative with their new weapons and swap back. When Splinter finds out, he confiscates all weapons, stating that anything can be useful. When he and his brothers are trying to save Timothy, Raphael uses two planks of wood, holding and fighting with them in a style similar to his Sai. In "The Gauntlet", he used a Yumi bow and like his other brothers wielded Shuriken (throwing stars). In "Showdown, Part 1", Raphael armed himself with Kama scythes, Shuriken, Kunai, Tonfa and Brass Knuckles.

During Season 2, when the Turtles try to relax by playing a live action fantasy role-playing gane, he begrudgingly complies to join in on the fun. He primarily used an axe as his fighting weapon, along with his "Drawf Barbarian" costune (which he found to be "stupid"). He once again retains this costume during Season 3's "Tale of the Yokai".

During his time in outer space throughout the first half of Season 4, Raphael used laser sais and a laser blaster created by Fugitoid as his main weapons. He reverts back to his regular sais for the remainder of Season 4, and throughout the fifth and final season.

Trivia

 * Raphael is named for the famous Renaissance master, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino.
 * Raphael's name is Hebrew, meaning "God has Healed". Raphael is also the only brother to have a Hebrew name, whilst all three of his brothers' names are Italian. He is the only turtle to not have an o sound at the end of his name. These things are because the Turtles were named after the common English names for the four Renaissance artists, and unlike the others, the artist Raphael is not usually called by his Italian name Raffaello.
 * In Katakana, Raphael's name is spelled: (Rafaeru).
 * Given the fact that he was adopted by Hamato Yoshi/Splinter, Raphael's full name would be "Hamato Raphael", or "Raphael Hamato" in Western naming order.
 * His mastery of Ninjutsu includes: Taijustu, Qigong, Shurikenjustu, Kobudō, Kayajustu, Shinobi-iri, Boyaku, Sui-ren, Archery, and Intonjustu.
 * Raphael is the second oldest of his brothers; Leonardo being the oldest while he's older than Donatello & Michelangelo.
 * Raphael has a bolt-shaped chip missing at the upper left side of his plastron. His shell and body in general are by far the most scarred of his brothers'.
 * His mask has the longest tails, and by far the most tattered.
 * Raphael is often called "meat-head" by Donatello.
 * It was revealed in "Cockroach Terminator" that Raphael has katsaridaphobia (irrational fear of cockroaches), and is terrified of Donatello's pet SpyRoach (or called "Chong"). The origins of his katsaridaphobia has yet to be explored, but apparently Raphael was able to keep it quiet, as his brothers never knew of his phobia until that episode.
 * He eventually conquers his bug fear in "The Insecta Trifecta".
 * It is revealed in "Parasitica" that Raphael gets nausea after seeing body parts from bugs.
 * Raphael had a pet turtle named Spike, who later turned into Slash.
 * Raphael is shown to care a lot about his youngest brother Michelangelo, as he didn't know what to do anymore when Michelangelo got hurt.
 * Raphael also cares about his other brothers as he said: "I don't mind risking my own life, but my brothers'..."
 * It is seen in "New Girl in Town", when Raphael gets under so much pressure being the leader for a short time, he freezes up with anxiety.
 * Though he is the second oldest, Raphael is the shortest of the turtles.
 * In the first season of the show he has three big rivals Fishface, Spider Bytez and the Spy-roach.
 * Raphael is the second Turtle to hide completely in his shell as seen in "The Good, The Bad and Casey Jones".
 * Raphael's personality has traits of a Tsundere, in Japan a tsundere is a person that acts hostile and cold towards others but has a much more softer side to them that they reveal over time.
 * It is revealed in "Lone Rat and Cubs" that Raph got the scar on his plastron when he was run over by a shopping cart as a child.
 * It is revealed in "Wanted: Bebop and Rocksteady" that he hates sour cream.
 * He is right-handed.
 * He is first seen without his mask in "The Creeping Doom".
 * It is a blink-and-miss, a maskless Raph, and then Leo, are seen chasing Donnie, who has their masks, around the Lair.
 * Raph is also the fourth turtle seen maskless.