Any fan can easily recite the weapons each Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle uses, with Leonardo and Raphael famously wielding twin katana and sai, respectively. Considering the real world history of both their chosen arms, however, the brothers could potentially represent their personalities better if they were to switch their blades.
It's not an overstatement to say that each Ninja Turtle's weapon is as integral to their iconography as the colored bandanas they wear—and any time a Turtle has changed his color it's been a big deal. But their weaponry predates those colors and for the most part has remained far more consistent as a match to each turtle's temperament. Observational Donatello keeps enemies at a distance with his bō staff, while frenetic Michelangelo uses nunchaku to fluster and confuse opponents. But things get slightly murky when it comes to Leo and Raph, which could be due to long-held pop cultural conceptions about the function of sai and katana to begin with.
Long before Marvel's Elektra brought the sai to Hell's Kitchen, it appeared in 15th-century Okinawa—believed to have been modeled after the Indian trisula and Chinese chabang. It soon found use in the hands of Okinawan policemen the same way their modern counterparts would use a baton: for crowd control. Its thick iron constitution made it ideal for striking, while the two side prongs assisted in trapping and potentially breaking an opponent's weapon. The katana is famously the curved steel blade of the samurai, and while it has defensive capability, it is largely known for being one of the most efficient cutting tools known to man.
At first glance it makes sense why Leo and Raph got the weapons they did. The katana's roots in ancient samurai warfare give it an honorific air, so bestowing it to the team leader indicates a high level of maturity and skill. The sai requires its to close the distance against their opponent, delivering quick strikes in rapid succession, which might fit Raph's in-your-face energy. But considering the practicality of battle, wouldn't tactical Leonardo want a versatile weapon he can utilize in either offense or defense based on the situation? And might hotheaded Raphael only see defense as a secondary reflex, preferring instead to immediately put his opponents at the blade's edge?
Leo and Raph have come to blows many times before, and their perpetual rivalry is one of the driving dynamics in the team. They are the only Turtles to wield blades, yet given the typical ratings of their media, they seldom ever truly use them in a fatal capacity anyway. Splinter chose Leonardo as leader because he knew he was the most capable and levelheaded of his brothers, but charged him with a weapon that is most truly expressed when it's slicing through whatever stands before it. Perhaps he knew Raphael wouldn't be able to restrain himself if given reign over that kind of fatality, and ultimately father knows best. Even so, there are some intriguing possibilities behind the idea of Leonardo and Raphael trading their blades that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles creators would do well to explore.
