[victory_angel]

I guess Splinter's reasons for giving Donnie the Bo Staff is a good explanation to Leo yelling "Donnie, don't lose sight of who you are!" Back in "Heart of Evil"

I admit the weapons origin wasn't what I expected, but I do like how it was done. Particularly with Donnie graciously accepting his bo staff, but still saying "Oh man, it's just a stick." in disappointment. While we don't see Donnie using or interacting with the staff like we see the others do with their weapons, we do see Splinter use a broom stick as a bo staff and Splinter does call Donatello "Smart one" after he plugs in that lamp but has no pet names for the others.

Originally in one of the first fics I did of this series I had described the weapons origin as Donnie being brought out of the Dojo feeling disappointed that the only weapon to choose him was a giant stick. Raph sees it and immediately starts teasing his brother about how he got the most useless weapon ever. Splinter then demonstrates what the Bo Staff was capable of, which impresses Leo, Raph, and Mikey. But Raph still points out that Donnie isn't the most effective fighter which causes Donatello to go running in the direction of the dorms in tears.

A year or so ago a person on FF.Net emailed me about that scene and said they had come up with part of a fic expanding on that moment and they wanted to see what I would do with it. So I looked it over and I came up with how I believed the Weapons Origin could have gone. In that fic I wrote that the Turtles were about 10 years old when they received their weapons. Splinter summons each Turtle one at a time into the Dojo starting with Leo, Raph, and Mikey. Their weapons are found almost instantaneously because they knew which ones called them. Donnie on the other hand was wanting a cool weapon because his brothers often tease him about being a weaker fighter, so he was wanting something to show he was just as capable as everyone else. When he's called into the Dojo, much like April's weapon search he tries several weapons and doesn't find one that wants him. After a bit, Splinter then says "Perhaps you are looking at the wrong sort of weapons, my son." Before picking up the Bo Staff and suggesting that he try it out. Donnie tries it out with some reluctance, and when he sees it's responding to him he tries to figure think of ways to prove it wasn't such as messing up on purpose. But ultimately accepts that this is the one that felt was meant to be his.