What would you have done with the characters?
 

I know a lot of people believe the characters were poorly handled, so what were things you would have liked done with them?

Not make Donnie a weakling who's good for nothing except his brain.

Not make Mikey an autistic spaz who's oh so incredibly "funny!"

Not mutate so many just for the sake of mutating.

Tough one...
One of the things I really dug about the series was how both the "Teenage" and "Ninja" aspects of the Turtles were handled. They behaved like teen boys who give each other a hard time, which is what teens do.

Leonardo.
- I probably would have made him a little less a Trekkie, the first season in particular could have done without his "Hero introductions." During the second part of the second season after Karai mutated we see him change into a very gloomy "How am I ever going to get this right again?" character, well yeah, losing your love interest in such a way is devastating but the episodes never showed how all consuming it can be and how people who go through it tend to want nobody around, so they should have shown him looking for her on his own.

Donatello
- I wish the show's writers hadn't abandoned the Pulverizer plot, there was potential for something very good here: Splinter told him that by training him, he was responsible for anything what could happen and as we all know the worst happened. Donnie never got to redeem himself here.

Raphael
- What I loved about him was although he's very much a manly man, he also had a feminine side and when Mona Lisa came around, he pretty much was the "Girlfriend" in that relationship. There could have been more hints to his softer side in the early seasons.

Michelangelo
- I'll state it right here and now: Greg Cipes was THE man for the job, perfect casting. With Mikey I'd bring out his uncertain, angsty side that he had more. There have been plenty of episodes in which he's confronted with the fact that BECAUSE he acts like a goofball, people don't take him seriously. I would have more of his serious side.

Splinter
- There was too little about what happened after Shredder murdered Tang Shen and took away baby Miwa. They should have made an episode where him leaving Japan and arriving in New York was being shown, the closing of a chapter. Perhaps with the Foot Ninjas going through the remains of the house and finding Tang Shen's body but not Yoshi's and telling Shredder about it.

Shredder
- I would have made him a more three dimensional character, showing that there was more to him than just revenge and vendetta. There should have been an episode which shows him raising Karai, what kind of parent was he to her? Likewise, there should have been an episode which shows Saki training Chris Bradford, how did those two meet, how long did Shredder train him and what was Bradford taught?

Karai
- There should have been more of the "There's no honor in this." side of her personality, perhaps showing her in a more intimate setting, what was her living quarters at the Foot Clan base like, we were never shown. Also, there should have been episodes which show her training with Tatsu in japan and how she and Shinigami became friends, were they trained together, we don't know.

April O'Neil, Baxter Stockman, Fishface, Irma, Karai, Kirby, Pulverizer = Keep them 100 % Human all the time. Only mutate Dogpound once.

Make the Neutrinos humanoid, not microscopic.

Not making Wingnut and Screwloose comic book characters coming alive.

I don't know about Donnie being a weakling. He is strong in his own way, particularly when his brothers are not there to witness it. However, he is a different sort of fighter than the rest of his brothers which is where the main problem lies. Because he seems to fight that part of himself believing it would give his brothers a reason to reject him, so his weakness is more out a product of trying to be something he's not.

In the interactive comic book on the Nick Site, the Turtles are undergoing a Ninja Trial to earn the right to call themselves Ninja. Leo is the first to pass his trial, and his trial is obvious because it was just a lesson where he needed to learn to respect and use his brother's strengths.

Donnie is the second Turtle to pass his Ninja Trial. The flashback he has in his part of the trial, all the Turtles are going through an obstacle course. During the wall climb portion, all of the Turtles except Donnie are able to get to the top of the wall. Donnie then proceeds to get frustrated which causes Splinter to come up and ask if it was really the obstacle that was causing him such distress. Donnie then admits that he feels no matter how much he trains he can't keep up with his brothers. Splinter then anecdotally tells him, that just because his brothers do things one way doesn't mean that he needs to do the same.

In many ways, Donnie is what I call a Three C's characters.

His skills compliment Leo. Both of them are strong and capable on their own but are near unbeatable when they act in tandem.

Donnie is a counterpoint to Raph enabling the red-masked turtle to see that running blindly into a situation is not always the best solution. And Donnie to learn that stopping to think and plot out a solution is not always helpful in the thick of things.

And with Mikey, he is a contrast because Mikey is more spontaneous and spur of the moment. While Donnie is more prepare for what is ahead.

Mikey is the same as a compliment to Raph and a counterpoint to Leo.

I agree it was a shame the Pulverizer story couldn't be finished. Because there are off and on hints that Donnie's character was a pacifist, but for whatever reason didn't like that aspect of himself.

However, everything he creates is never with the intention of causing harm to his brothers or anyone. Even the weapons he builds killing isn't the intent. Disabling, hindering, or incapacitating, maybe but not killing.

With the Pulverizer story, he only offered to train the foolish boy because he was able to assess that what they told him didn't matter, he was going to put himself in danger no matter what. So he felt by training him in basic moves he would have more of a fighting chance at surviving against the Purple Dragons or whoever.

That is the approach a pacifist would have taken, regardless of how foolish the act would have been. And the episodes where Donnie is dealing with the Pulverizer start to bring the pacifists aspect to the surface.

What would have been a good add on to this is maybe having Donnie overhear Raph making a comment about he's glad none of them turned out to be pacifists because he would be ashamed to be related to such a useless person. In Raph's mind at least as far as season one and two, he sees pacifism and cowardice as pretty much the same thing because they are people who don't like to fight or be involved in battle.

In Donnie's mind, however, that would be like saying that if he was to reveal his pacifist nature to his brothers he would be seen as useless and not welcome on their team.

Season five implied Leo was aware his Second Brother may be a pacifist as he does yell "Donnie, don't lose sight of who you are!" in "Heart of Evil" And I wouldn't put it past him to have always known about this aspect in Donnie's personality, but just didn't realize it until they met Honeycutt. That could be one of the reasons Leo is as protective as he is when it comes to Donatello, there is even a vocal tone that he doesn't even use with Raph or Mikey it's always used whenever Donnie is in potential danger. Particularly when that potential danger is caused by one of his brothers.

On a Nickelodeon cartoon? Well what I would want to do with them would have to be filtered through that prism.

My whole premise would probably be akin to Palladium's "After the Bomb" universe. Ish. It's a few decades in the future and they're old (or they're a result of the bomb and young), there's lots of mutants for a very good reason, and we could get Game of Thrones-style (in a kids way) into all the hierarchies of mutants out there and the different politics therein. Like, there's a kingdom of knightly beavers in Oregon or something, who knows.

Otherwise on a TMNT kids show it has to be "w-w-we need to find a way to get mutagen out there everywhere, lots of mutants! Toys!" and they have to find hackneyed ways of doing that. I guess it's mosquitoes in the new show? I have no idea.

Oh it's way too late for a mirage comics adaption dude.

Who on earth would expect that in a cartoon for little kids?

An animated mini-series on Netflix maybe? I've heard good things about the Castlevania one. That's the best we Mirage fan could desire these days.

Seeing as how DARK the 2012 series got, I doubt that it was made for "Little kids" in the first place.

No Happy-go-lucky-Frank-Wolf-Turtles here...

Some episodes were extremely silly (toy commercials? :)), but many of those darker you mentioned (not only seasons 4 and 5) were awesome!

With less censors around than the 80s, there's obviously going to be more violence in the 2012 show, but in the end, its still made for little kids.

But at the end, the Nickelodeon series was replaced with Rise of the TMNT. Was that because of parents again complaining over the Nickelodeon series being too violent?

I have not heard any complaints myself. I assume that the Nick show's declining popularity and the higher ups at Nick seeing a lighter show as more profitable as key factors.

Don was never portrayed as weak in the show.

I think there could have been more action figures based on season 5. For example, all Fred Wolf characters who appeared in the 2016 and 2017 Fred Wolf crossovers could have been released. And the Fred Wolf Technodrome.

You're right. He was definetly not as good as Leonardo and Raphael, but still wasn't a bad fighter by any means.

Within some years, almost everything new will be released directly to online streaming services.

What would I change in the characters so far as them suiting this show goes? Not that much.
Maybe a little less mutations as mentioned already, there were few fully human people remaining, though Stockman ended up human again (even though he didn't want it, Fishface in the other hand would likely have)

Casey I might have adjusted to be less full of himself, found him annoying at times. Outside of that there were only one or 2 I didn't care for or had no feelings really either way.

Hun could have been used better, make the character a bit more challenging or involved. Especially if you are putting Bruce Lee's face on him but it isn't something I left being bothered by.

The turtle's personalities combined together well, they were supposed to be teens starting out as well as being trained ninjas who developed along the way. Besides comments from some about particular ones not being used more I wouldn't really change too much about the actual characters. Even though Leo said some painful lines to start it was part of his inexperienced excitement and it quickly went away while he was growing with the seriousness of what they were doing. Over all he was my favourite and I'm happy with how he was portrayed here.