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Old 01-18-2019, 01:33 AM   #6
victory_angel
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Join Date: Jul 2013
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy View Post
Not make Donnie a weakling who's good for nothing except his brain.
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.
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Last edited by victory_angel; 01-18-2019 at 10:17 PM.
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