Are Leo and Donnie more in tune to their human side than Mikey and Raph?
 

I was just wondering. But, is it just coincidence that it seems like Leo and Donnie tend to have the rapports with the humans, and not with animals, where as Mikey and Raph are the opposite, rapport with animals more than humans. Donnie is obviously friends with April, but he also took on the responsibility to deal with Timothy. Leo became friends with Karai, and tolerated the little girl in Slash and Destroy fairly well. But neither seemed to have any pets, and even sometimes have problems with mutants that lean more towards animals than humans.

Mikey and Raph though, have struck rapports with Spike, Icecream Kitty and Leatherhead, and Raph has that weird talking to pigeons thing, just makes me wonder if Raph and Mikey lean more towards their animal side of their DNA gene while Leo and Donnie took on the more human qualities. Or is this all just coincidence.

I have a feeling it's all coincidence.

Hmm.. I wasn't sure but...
That's a good point and a lot of evidence.

Genetic thing... eh, maybe, or imo also could be that Leo and Donnie simply have personalities that give them more drive to want to try to fit in with humans, while maybe Raph and Mikey on the other hand approach it more from a standpoint of a fear of knowing they already don't.

Nick Leo after all also wishes to emulate a human character in his favorite cartoon series. And Donnie in various versions would also gladly associate with great human scientific minds if able. As I just mentioned of people in another thread, perhaps the same can be said of the Turtles - maybe two see their humanity in themselves first, and two don't as much/as quickly.

I think it's more of a fact that Ciro wants those characters to be more relatable to fans to increase Leo and Donnie's popularity to the new fanbase, since people have stated on numerous occasions that Mikey and Raph have no depth in character, and yet look at all the fans of those characters for this show.

Most fans of a show's favorite character is based on how they relate to them, and with Donnie being a super genius and Leo being a leader that many rely on, for most fans there's little to no relation to those characters so they don't catch as much to fans. Where as Mikey's a goofball and Raph wears his emotions on his sleeve and acts rough; many more people can attest to that. Donnie and Leo, not so much.

Giving Leo and Donnie more human components and emotion can make a fan watch the show and go "Hey, that's just like me. I know what that character is going through." or "I can relate to him." and thus, you gain fandom for those characters.

Which is why I have always supported this stuff. Trying to help a character's popularity is never a bad thing.

Have to agree with JTH on this one. After all, Ciro did say that Don needed the crush aspect, and I think it's worked because I actually like Donnie in this series whereas in other incarnations he's always been my least favorite Turtle.

Wellllll, I wouldn't say he NEEDS it. But I'm okay with the crush thing overall.

If anything, I think Rob Paulsen's performance as Donnie has helped a lot in making him a popular character in this series.

Yes, I agree with that as well. Rob does a great job as Donnie.

Or maybe, the fact that the main producer/creator of the show just so happens to claim Donnie as his favorite? I'm just saying.

Maybe. But I still believe Rob plays as a major factor. It's because of his performance that this is my favorite version of Donnie, mostly.

They're more human than animal now, so it kinda doesn't count anymore. Mikey liking a kitty doesn't make him any more animal than any of us owning a pet does make us more of an animal.

Really (and not to step on any creationist toes) I suppose they're turtles sorta in the same way that we're apes. (They just took a shortcut.) Sure it's your biological origin, but beyond that...meh. lol No one goes around thinking about it all the time.

But what about Mikey able to get through to Leatherhead, and Raph being able to communicate to pigeons?

I don't think so. I always saw Mikey as an animal lover though.

Can someone find me where it says these turtles are actually part human?

I believe that Michelangelo is most in tuned with his human side. He acts most like his age and is into the same things humans are and gets along with them the easiest in any incarnation.

Donatello on the otherhand seems to be more distant to humans and acts towards his turtle side. He may be into all the science discoveries but he wanted to leave Earth behind to join a community of turtles. He also seems least trusting of the humans whereas Mike is the most trusting. Don also was the first to decide Titanus had a point when he offered the turtles an alliance. Its also Donatello who is upset to learn they were nothing more than an accident following a mistake by humans in Secret of The Ooze. That being said I think your looking at it from solely the Nickelodeon cartoon and as far as Don is concerned just the crush on April thing that Nick added only as a means to flesh out Donatello and make the young audience find him more likeable for this version alone. No matter the version I believe Mike relates most to humans where as Don relates the least.

Mikey must be listening to rap music, because he's saying things like, "Dawg," "homie," and other words associated with the genre.

so................

2014 dude. He's always been hip.

Cowabunga and Rad don't cut it anymore :D

Not quite right...http://assets.diylol.com/hfs/824/f68...all-009a2e.jpg

honestly, booyakasha is a lot better than cowabunga....