Do you like the way Donnie acts around April this series?
 

Rumors had it that Donnie had a crush on April in the 4Kids series, if that's the case than I thought the way did things with his crush was handled well, I couldn't even tell :-?

This series I feel they over due it, I like his character best when his crush on April isn't involved at all, I think they do things better with him in episodes like those. I know some girls in fandom's love shippings and all but that's what the power of imagination is for, I noticed a lot of fans shipped this pairing or Leo x Karai pairing back in the 4Kids series too without it being so forced. If we have a topic on this already forgive me, I wanted to bring up again for season two is almost over.

I was hoping Donnie would have moved on by now, doesn't look like that's happened though yet :(

How do you feel on this?

Well, I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. My feelings are a bit mixed. I think it is kind of cute that he has a crush on her, but at the same time I like the fact that he seems to value his friendship with her more than his actual crush on...unless it's my misinterpretation. I got that impression after that Fungus Humungous episode and Mutagen Man Unleashed (there he was telling Timothy how he missed April's friendship with him and the others).

That aside, imo anyway, I feel that it's eased up a a lot compared to season 1...which is why I don't "hate" it.

Hm, I also like how goofy he acts, sometimes, like when he's tongue-tied or embarrasses himself...something I'm sure pretty much everyone can relate to at some point...acting shy or unintentionally embarrassing yourself around a crush.

I guess I'm indifferent to it.

There are things I enjoy about it (ie, different facet of Donnie that we haven't seen before, and who here doesn't relate to acting like a doofus over a crush) and things that bother me about it (stalkery Nice Guy stuff) - so I guess I'd have to say conflicted.

Love it. :tlove:

Sometimes indifferent cause I'm used to it, that's how he responds to April. I accept it, no problem. :tcool:

Because they didn't. They just had a brother/sister relationship. It's just people who defend the Don+April relationship of the current series that are saying that.

But anyway, like I said before, I have no problem with Don having a crush on April. However the way he acts towards her can be highly annoying. It really gets in the way of him staying focused while something happens to April. It's understandable since he cares for her but he needs to make sure he gets his priorities straight. If Splinter made him leader, it would be a huge mistake on his part since Don believed that it was more important to save April than the world. This is probably the only thing that I have against this version of Don. Other than that, he's just fine as a character.

Actually there were hints if a crush. Mostly it was just mutual appreciation so nothing really comes of it.

Donnie: Guys, could you be quiet? April and I are trying to concentrate.

Mikey: (Teasingly) Ooo it's April and I, is it?


As for the naysayers about Donnie's relationship with April, I personally don't find it creepy. I mean yeah I understand where people would see it as creepy, but I'm able to forgive Donnie's behavior simply because April is the first girl he has ever encountered.

Donatello is a mutant turtle who has grown up for 15 years with his father and his brothers. The closest thing to a female he has ever seen are more then likely female characters he's seen on TV. So his first encounter with a girl is going to be awkward.

But he also pays attention to her reactions as well, and adjust his behavior so hes not comic across as too pushy or needy. And I do agree with ssjup81, as much as he loves her and wishes she would love him in return. He rather be a friend to her and let her decide if she wishes to be with him or not.

The one down side is that Donnie is easily distracted by April, particularly when she is in mortal danger. And that distraction has caused him to do uncharacteristic things as abandoning his brothers to rescue her, and putting himself and his brothers at risk in his desires to rescue her. Raph had to go rescue April at one point just so Donnie would be able to focus on his task with the reassurance that someone was coming to her aid.

This is all stuff Leo has to report to Splinter like it or not. So if they do have an episode where the Turtle's are advanced to the rank of Chunin, that maybe Donnie isn't allowed to advance because of the infractions.

That's Mikey interpreting it that way and giving his brother a hard time. :ohwell:

In another scene April his Donnie and says she could kiss him.heresponds with a very hopeful "really"?

Which episode was this?

One of the Worlds Collide episodes I think? I came up on it during my rewatch.

Honestly, I can't say it wasn't intentional ship tease [as much as Peter Laird doesn't want it to be, the writers snuck some in there anyway LMAO] but for what it's worth, when I first saw that scene, I legitimately interpreted it as Donnie being happy that she cared about him enough to do that. A platonic thing. It's never anything I found to be a big deal as far as scenes go, anyway, and it's pretty harmless.

I like it. It adds a new layer that's not something we've had before in TMNT.

I'm just wondering what the arc here is going to be. Will April eventually fall in love with Don? Will Don find someone else to fall in love with that will actually return his feelings? Do they have a plan for all of this?

Donnie will find an abandoned puppy and decide to take her in, then he'll [platonically] fall in love with her instead and decide that he wants to do nothing but raise puppies for the rest of his life and become an actual decent character.

These will always happen at the same time, no exceptions.

I love it as it gives a new facet to Donnie that we haven't seen before. Sure, he had a subtle crush on her in 2K3, but not to this extent. It's mostly played for laughs with how embarrassed and awkward he gets around her at times, so I'm okay with it. Yeah, he can be creepy at times with how he shadows her, but I chalk it up to the fact that he doesn't know how to act around her regarding the crush.

I don't like the way Donnie NOR Casey act around April.


I'm all for April ditching them both and running away with Karai! :P

You. Sit down and think about what you did.

Because it's fabulous and I love it.

And then, as they're running, Irma pulls up with a convertible, and the three of them drive off into the sunset to fight crime...or commit crime.

I'm not really picky.

There is also this little moment:

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mejl4dOPwC1qaa1jw.jpg

I also think it was smart for Nick to add this new element to the show because you can tell a big difference in the amount of female fans TMNT has this time around.

TMNT has always had some great female fans, obviously even some of the more well-known and loyal fans in the community are female and date back to the very early days of TMNT. But I feel like this iteration of TMNT has drawn in more female fans than the past, and I think the whole Don/April thing has been a factor in that.

This seems a little late to make this question.

Donnie has toned it down quite a bit since the start of Season 2.

If you asked this question after say Fungus Humungous, then I would understand.

The real question should be "Do you like the way April acts around Donnie this series?"

Please don't tell me you are going to "Its fault of her for leading him on" direction <_< Since that is type of bullcrap that exists too much in society.

Yes. Yes I do. Because she's acting like a friend.
Donnie, is acting like a creeper.

Umm no. :ohwell:

Cause I seem to be one of very few that exist in our society that approves of what's happening...

I'm simply pointing out the timing, because the Donnie/April stuff in the show is a fraction of what it was say 5 months ago.

Ah, ok, good, phew... I was scared there for a second ^_^;

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here.

It's kind of hard to tell what her motive is at this point, and what I think jth was going for is that April doesn't really seem to have much of an opinion about this. She seems more like an object for Don and Casey to flex their own egos over, while the writers don't do much to let her express her own feelings. Kissing Don, I'd say, is either leading him on or an expression of genuine affection. It might be possible in some cases to kiss someone and mean it completely platonicly, but when you remember April is very much aware of his crush, via such things as Metalhead, it seems like there's no way she would expect him to take it as platonic. Unless the writers are also now suggesting April is stupid. Who knows.

Not really. Don should be smarter than this, he should be the turtle that is aware of their situation more than the rest. This would fall better in any of the other turtles. But Leo has Karai, Mike has mental problems, and i guess Raph is too rough so... one can see why he was chosen.

okay I gotta admit that part made me laugh a bit

Eh I guess love is blind and makes people do stupid, irrational stuff to try to get the attention of someone, even particularly smart ones.

Though she has no responsibility to do so, April should prob just be gently up front with him at some point about this whole thing since the infatuation seems to be clouding his judgement.

Intelligence and emotion are two different things. You can't help how you feel as emotions aren't always logical.

Mike btw may have his issues but they aren't mental.

Mike has WHAT? :tlol:

And Raph already has Casey, so he's settled. :P

As I said before, if it was innocent flirting it would be one thing, but Donnie is reaching stalkerish/creepy depths by devising every such plan to be with her and using possessive statements like "my April" or "my princess". It may be cute in the cartoon world, but I can assure you that in the real world it would be very creepy. This type of stalkerish behavior wouldn't be tolerated if Donnie looked like Slash. That's why I'm stating unless Casey are Donnie are delusional, Nick April must be somehow inadvertently leading them on (though I see absolutely no sign of it) for those two to think they have a chance with her for such a long time. It may be a cartoon, but this crush triangle is showing its age by lasting for nearly 2 seasons so far.

Isn't it sad though that the only character depth, or at least the most talked about, around these Turtles seem to revolve around shipping? **Sigh** I mean already a portion of the fandom wants to ship Irma. This is typically why I don't like fervent shipping because typically when it's used, it's overdone, it seems to be the only noticeable feature of the character(s) (Turtles). In which apparently, the most prominent thing that concerns these Turtles (you know, despite worrying about being publicly exposed/tarnished, avoiding in getting killed, their unique existence in their world, and the strain upon their brotherhood relationships) is who's gonna love them and who are they going to love. ...Uh huh :roll:

It may add a "new layer" to these characters, but more often than not, it unfortunately becomes the most prominent layer to these characters and that's not why I tune in to watch TMNT. I'm not against shipping or romance since I watch and enjoy shows like Nashville and Scandal that have romantic themes carefully weaved in within their shows (that have female-driven main characters and female creators by the way), but when I watch TMNT I'm not expecting to tune into a shipping-fest of Tales of the Young & Scaly.

In my opinion, the action/adventure of the show and the relationships of family and friends should mostly be in the forefront of the show before the romance themes. But that's just me...

^^ These.

http://media0.giphy.com/media/Ryyo1Iqk1mmSQ/giphy.gif

Besides, it's obvious that there's some major foe-yay going on between Karai and April. ;)

Kinda consider romance as part of the relationships between family and friends. Still I agree. Action, adventure, mutants and ninja stuff first. Family and romance stuff in the background.

But the romance is in the background for the most part and mostly comes into play when April's around. When she's not around, that stuff isn't even mentioned that much and it's all focused on the action.

People will only complain when they feel it's done wrong, whether they're right or not is moot.

But Operation: Breakout proved that this crush can produce great stories, if it's written the right way.

Hell, that episode completely focused on it, and I remember a lot of people who didn't even like the Donnie/April stuff in Season 1 say they thought that episode was very exciting and excellent.

I guess I should elaborate on the romance part. It's just frustrating that when immediately a new female shows up on screen (whether it's TMNT or not), immediately it becomes shipping fodder possibilities rather than an interest on the female's backstory and life direction before doing so. In TMNT, I'm more interested in seeing the strain and stretching of the father-son, brother-brother, friend-friend relationships through the extraordinary trials they are enduring rather than portraying these Turtles as having some form of romantic desperation (by overdoing the shipping aspect) on the top of their minds most of the time (i.e. Donnie's stalker-crush on April). Those family/friend bonding moments seem heavily obscured by the whole Donnie-April-Casey crush triangle. (On the other end, if I was only concerned about the action/adventure and fighting, at the detriment of not expanding the family/friend relationships of the superheroes, then I'm sure there would be an overabundance of other superheroes to gravitate my interest away from TMNT to satisfy that narrow perspective of storytelling then.) I'm not against romance, but it's not like this kids' show is going to go into serious contemplation about the dynamics of a romantic relationship. :lol:

That is true, mostly as you stated above, but the most noticeable example of shipping/romance being "overdone" is that the first thing most people think about with Nick Donnie is his crush on April, which short-changes Donnie's character depth in my eyes though. It was a relief in Season 1 when Leo got over his crush on Karai after realizing it wasn't going anywhere, and that it was even detrimental, but... that was during Season 1 and well... Season 2's overall writing has been disappointing to say the least. Now it seems that the writers wrote themselves in a corner because with Karai being Leo's sister, it's going to be a subtle bizarre situation whenever Leo shows interest in saving Karai (even Nick Raph mentioned Karai as being Leo's "girlfriend" in The Wrath of TigerClaw when he got upset with Leo taking her to their lair), especially since she's turning away from Shredder.

Let me ask a question from you:

Would that episode have been worse without romance parts at all? Did they contribute anything to that episode?

And second question, if writers are bad at romance and write a lot more frustrating moments than genuinely good stuff, isn't it better to just cut romance completely if it has 1:10 good to bad ratio?

That's still problem because it gives the impression that April as being nothing more than just a love interest and not her own person.

That might be the case if there weren't episodes that give April a backstory and character quirks that have nothing to do with Donatello.