So I was watching Man vs. Sewer again (surprise surprise) and I realized the goof at the beginning was actually foreshadowing.
The frame-by-frames in this show are pure gold but jiminy crimbus, Raph, that sure is a facial expression you’ve got there.
One of the reasons people like Rise is because the brothers don’t smack each other (especially Mikey) around nearly as often as in 2k3 or 2k12, so that Raph yote the phone hard enough to knock Mikey over was noteworthy, especially after we got this tidbit from Raph’s voice actor:
This scene is also noteworthy in that Raph is only afraid for himself in this situation, unusual for a character who is the oldest, the leader, and a big ol’ softie. When his brothers showed up, he didn’t say anything like “Is everyone okay?” or “I was worried about you guys!”. Instead, he became defensive and pointed out that the others know he “gets weird”, lowkey placing the blame on their shoulders.
“You know Raph gets weird when I’m left alone.” I stg I’m half-considering going back through the series and analyzing when Raph uses the third person/talks to himself/his speech deteriorates, because it seems significant.
This also foreshadows Leo’s concern, since he’s the one who tells Raph to relax and then changes the subject to something less stressful.
Anyway the pattern this establishes is: Raph starts freaking out because he’s alone -> someone scares/threatens him -> this provokes an aggressive response.
The first iteration is minor: Raph starts freaking out because his brothers are five minutes late -> Mikey scares him by shouting -> Raph yeets the phone at Mikey.
The second iteration is serious: Raph starts freaking out because he’s lost and alone -> the Sando brothers appear and threaten to eat him -> Savage Raph switches in and wipes the floor with them.
The Rule of Three is a near-universal storytelling tool, so we can be sure this will happen again, but even worse. :) And then we’ll get some answers about this whole situation.