Before we get to the turtles, we have to take 2 minutes to understand the root of the Ninja Turtles’ personalities and the archetypal formula that is used — and has been used — many, many times before.

The Four Humors:

Back in the day, a bunch of old greek guys came up with the idea that the balance of fluids in the body had something to do with your personality and behavior. I’m not going to tell you about Alcmaeon of Croton, no, you can look that up for yourself if you want.

It might sound ridiculous at first, but it’s not that crazy if you just swap out the word “fluids” for “hormones.”

Of course, the old greek guys didn’t articulate it that way, but I digress.

Here’s the breakdown of the 4 main “humors” and the temperaments with which they supposedly correspond:

Blood: Enthusiasm, intensity, social.
Yellow Bile: Aggression and anger.
Black Bile: Melancholy.
Phlegm: Apathy.

Later on, Aristophanes (another old greek guy), started using these 4 different humors in dramatic theatre. Today, these are known as “The Comedy of Humors” and have been replicated again and again.

While we can confidently say that your balance of blood doesn’t change that much, and the amount of phlegm in your sinus doesn’t really alter you personality — we do know that hormones can dramatically impact human behavior and biology.

Here are some somewhat modern examples where you may have seen these archetypes already:

Sex and the City
Seinfeld
Scooby-Doo
The Fantastic Four
The 4 Houses in Harry Potter

Personality

But what about the ninja turtles?

Although personality is a very complex concept, an assessment that is commonly used is called the DISC. DISC is an acronym for the four personality categories it measures.

Dominance. Influence. Steadiness. Conscientiousness.

Let’s place our turtles into the four DISC categories and see why they landed there.

Raphael

DISC Type: D

Raphael is a classic D in the DISC assessment. He is primarily motivated by anger, which isn’t always a bad thing. It charges him up and prepares him to face challenges with intensity. It also means that Raphael is the most straightforward, blunt, and confident.

Of course, this doesn’t win him any friends, but it does make him an effective voice of reason (on occasion) since he can focus on the bottom line.

Raphael is focused more on the outcome of the situation than how he got there — which is where he needs help from his brothers. Even though he’s fighting for good, he can rub people the wrong way with his consistently bad attitude. This means he relies on his brothers to recruit allies.

Raphael picking a fight in a trench coat from the 1990 live-action TMNT movie.

On the flip side, Raphael struggles with managing his anger. Anger is one of his primary motivators for fighting and improving, but he does not always effectively channel it. When he makes mistakes, Raphael turns his anger inward, causing him to separate himself from his brothers making him vulnerable to self-doubt, self-criticism, and external threats. He and Donatello seem to be the introverts of the bunch. In the 1990 live-action movie, Raphael makes a mistake in the turtles’ first fight. Instead of reconciling this with his brothers, he impulsively walks out on his own and gets into trouble with Casey Jones.

Our society worships this personality type. It’s believed that the challenger is the most desirable. For men, especially, the emotion of anger is the most socially accepted and normalized of all the emotions. Our society sometimes misconstrues kindness as weakness and values strength over all other traits.

“Raphael is cool, but rude.”

The lesson here is that while anger can be a useful emotion, we can also easily lose our grip. We can lash out at others and we can beat ourselves up. Raphael reminds us to manage our anger and benevolently channel it. If you follow the Harry Potter universe, Raphael is likely a Slytherin — likely due to his decisions to do whatever it takes to complete the mission.

Mikey

DISC Type: I

Michelangelo is seen as a goofball, but his role in the team is critical. He doesn’t like conflict in general since he’d rather just be having fun, but sometimes a well-placed gag can diffuse stressful situations. Mikey is also typically the first of the four to win over new allies. Since he values relationships he prefers to use social influence to achieve collaboration instead of hard-hitting assertions like Raphael.

Sketch of Mikey hitting a punching bag in the 1990 live-action TMNT movie.

In contrast to Raphael, Mikey channels his anger effectively. When discussing the thought of losing their sensei, Splinter, in the 1990s live-action film, Mikey avoids the conversation and hits a punching bag. In fact, for nearly the entire retreat at the farm, Mikey is silent.

It’s slightly unknown but somewhat important that Mikey is also a master of one of the toughest weapons in ninjitsu; the nunchaku. It’s an illustration of his ability to make something extremely difficult look easy when he dedicates his attention. If you didn’t already know this about nunchaku, this detail would likely slip right by — just like the value of the friendships and relationships, he creates with the world outside the sewer.

“Michelangelo is a party dude.”

On the flip side, Mikey’s biggest weakness is that his interest in fun and pizza can mean a lack of interest in what’s important for the mission. This sometimes gets the team in trouble — but his brothers can’t help but forgive him when he delivers comedic relief. By Hogwarts standards, Mikey is a Hufflepuff.

Leonardo

DISC type: S

Leo has a difficult role. He is his brothers’ peer, but he is also their leader. Raphael sometimes resents that Splinter chose him to lead, but this is because Leo is the most loyal and focused of the four.

Sketch of Leo from the 1990 live-action TMNT movie.

Leo is driven by ambition, honor, and loyalty. In this sketch from the original 1990 live-action turtles movie, April O’Neil’s character depicts Leo waiting faithfully over his injured brother, Raphael.

His commitment to his family and mission also makes him arguably the most skilled of his brothers. When faced with free time, Leonardo chooses to spar with Raphael while Mikey and Donny split for some fun.

It’s important for a leader to be calm, focused, and dependable. Leo takes his job very seriously. He gathers information, usually from Donny, and makes sound decisions that benefit the team as a whole — not just his own self-interest. It’s this characteristic that earns Leo respect with his brothers. Despite the occasional eye-roll, Leo is sincere in his pursuit of justice. This, and his ability to mediate disagreements mean his team can confidently go into battle together.

We love watching leaders like Leo in movies. Calm, collected, steadfast, they give us a sense of stability during chaotic and uncertain challenges. Leo is totally a Gryffindor.

Donatello

DISC type: C

Smart, creative, and thoughtful, Donny is the philosopher of the bunch. He’s usually tied up in a challenging technical project, meticulously improving existing tools or inventing something new (like the time scepter in TMNT III). Donny cares about accuracy and likes to think things through before making a decision. In fact, without Leo, Donny might have a hard time making things happen fast.

Sketch of Donny from the 1990 live-action TMNT movie.

Since Donny is usually wrapped up in his own projects, he can sometimes have similar avoidance behavior like Mikey. He’d just rather be building or evaluating something than arguing with Raphael. He also prefers to talk or think things through and tends to use violence as a last resort.

Donny is inspired by knowledge and deep expertise.

Though Leo is the most serious about their mission, it’s Donny who sets the standards, evaluates performance, and provides the quality assurance that Leo and the turtles need to continuously level up. If Donny were placed under the sorting hat, he’d absolutely land in Ravenclaw.

5 Life Lessons From The Ninja Turtles

Now that we’ve covered all the personality profiles of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, let’s highlight some main takeaways from their interactions as a team.

1. Teamwork requires the diverse skills/talents/input of everyone.

You don’t all have to agree on what to do as a team, but you do have to align on what you’re going to do.

Just look at the fractured United States and its response to the COVID-19 pandemic as a great example. We don’t all have to agree on the protocol, but we do need to align with one and start acting like a team.

“Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines.
Raphael is cool, but rude. Michelangelo is a party dude.”

2. Make strategic allies.

It’s tempting to want to do everything yourself and there’s a small, small chance that maybe you could — but a more feasible approach is to put people around you who supplement your weaknesses. The turtles, living in the sewer for many years, had no platform to speak out against crime or to show the world that they were the good guys. By creating allegiances with characters like Casey Jones and April O’Neill at Channel 4 News, they afforded themselves the ability to have influence and get new information to which they might not have had access.

3. Have mentors.

We haven’t talked much about Master Splinter. A mentor is someone who has experience in the domain you’re in and can help guide you strategically and tactically. A coach serves a different purpose. A coach asks good questions and can help you work through problems, but they might not have domain expertise. Get a mentor. Get a coach.

4. Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince was the voice of Shredder.

I’m not sure there’s a really great lesson to be learned but I felt it was worth noting how ridiculous this fact is. James Avery, the actor who played Uncle Phil on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air also played the voice of Shredder on the original 1990s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.

That’s it.

What did I miss? What’s a life lesson you learned?

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