Which character(s) do you think have been handled the worst throughout history?
 

At this point, plenty of TMNT characters have several different incarnations and interpretations. Some quite different from others. You might think that one or tow of them often get the short end of the stick more often than others.

Bear with me that I haven't watched/read/wtv. every single TMNT thing ever, so take my post with a grain of salt:

As far as the actual Turtles go, Michelangelo has been handled the worst throughout history, imo. I mean, from a marketing POV it's probably the total opposite. He's usually the very first Turtle the general audience thinks of when they hear "Ninja Turtles" and the word "Cowabunga!".

I guess you could say that Mike becoming the most immature member and the face of the quartet Turtle was sorta inevitable. Leonardo is the leader, meaning he has to be more serious than his brothers. Raphael is supposed to be the most anti-social of the bunch, so he gets the angry guy or the wise guy roles, and Donatello the one engineer and science man, so he gets the nerd label. So yeah, Michelangelo had to be the party animal and the Turtle kids identify with the most.

Sadly, Michelangelo tends to be the most annoying of the Turtles to me. Why does it seem like the writers like to make Michelangelo act like a moron so often? It's one thing to be more human and sensitive and caring or even friendly, but make him a moron is a bit too much, imo. Honestly, Michelangelo's fame as the "Cowabunga, Pizza and Booyakasha!" Turtle came with a very large price. I feel like he pretty much became a character that's only meant to appeal to people under the age of 12.

What about you? Which character(s) do you think have been handled the worst throughout the history of the TMNT property?

Probably Mikey, I guess. Like you, I haven't seen everything, but for me, personally, that character hasn't been tolerable since somewhere around 1992. Which is a shame.

Michelangelo is pretty much the prime example of how TMNT is a property that the powers-that-be and society can only accept as being a thing for people who are in 6th grade and below.

Baxter Stockman
 

Baxter Stockman has always been a good character, but mutated, mutilated or left Earth too often. Keep him Human, and he can come up with far more dangerous inventions than many mad scientist of the week .

I think Donatello is handled a bit poorly at times such as in the Original Cartoon. What I mean is that his technological feats are insane for a teenage turtle living in the sewers, and the team was so dependent on them that you sometime question why Donatello, and Leonardo is not the leader of the team.

In terms of cartoons, I only think Michelangelo was poorly handled in 2003, and Nick to a much lesser extent. Even though the Original Cartoon did make him a party dude, he wasn't annoying for me and was more of a fun/loving character as opposed to a jokester who got on others' nerves.

Donatello is quite a genius in the OT, but don't forget his inventions often failed by blowing up in the Turtles' faces :lol:

I'd say Donatello feeling more like a leader than Leonardo says more about OT Leo than OT Don, though. OT Leonardo was rather dry. Usually Leonardo's character is well written but in the OT he didn't seem like that great of a leader.

Yeah, Mikey was my immediate pick too. (Maybe followed by Raph seeing how some of his fans seem tired of the grumpy guy routine when back in the day he was just more or less sarcastic and tough, not just a hothead.)

It's kind of odd what happened with Mikey though. While maybe making him a fun loving goof has resulted in him being one of the favorites, esp among kids (and kids at heart), the fact that he was technically the first Turtle to exist on paper you'd think that might have garnered him a least a little bit more respectable treatment and development over the years. Guess not.


And it's a shame now that 'Rise' tried to actually dial it back it instead went and decided that everyone is now "the funny one" so now he's just kind of there.

Michelangelo, with Donatello a close second.

Blame that on most of the episodes playing on science fiction plots (like Star Trek).

I will agree with most, Mikey being treated the worst. Though the Nick toon eventually dialed back on it, his childishness and over the top immaturaty and outright idiocy were the worst part of that version for me. I hated it. And for the first (maybe only) time, he was, instead of my fave, my LEAST fave. Otherwise, I think Leo tends to get the short stick. As though being leader is the ONLY thing he's good for, or that defines him. I wish they could give him more to do, or more personality than just that- and I DON'T mean like the Rise series seems to have done.

Thing is with Leo though is that while there is often a lot more to him, and I'm sure many who love him most can see it, it tends to be a lot more subtle. Esp in contrast to one like Mikey who wears his bright, colorful personalty on his sleeve.

I kind of like and prefer the subtlety, vs trying to be in your face the way 'Rise' has tried to by changing him... but I'd never mind if the guy got new hobbies and whatnot that suited him. Besides just training and meditating...he's always been kind of a book worm, so maybe use it. Not just a reader of novels, but with his sense of strategy and interest in history, etc, show him studying and researching more, and sometimes using it to collaborate with Donnie on plans, problem solving or piecing together the answers to something, or help Donnie with some of his own work. Leo could be good at that for sure.

And I still think an artistic outlet, such as once previously mentioned ink wash painting, would be a beautiful idea. And let him suck at it at first and improve later on with practice. As a good strategist he's got a problem solver kind of mind, which means he's likely also got a creative mind, but being so focused on other priorities he probably just hasn't really found any outlets or interests to put that to use the way Mikey does. At best, he seems to view his training like an art form.

He would quickly send the Technodrome back to Dimension X, but his new pizza making-machine would usually explode.

going to cheat a little by choosing a specific version of a character-

Super shredder. awesome concept yet all we've gotten is a glimpse in TMNT2, a terrible incarnation with 2k12, and a couple boss battles in arcade games

such a waste

Super Shredder is an horrible concept that sucks, and a forced product dated back to Secret of the Ooze.

As a rule then give Donatello something really complex and he's just fine with it, give him something easier to do and it's his most difficult task. :ohwell::lol:

Yeah, I agree. It made a cool final boss in Turtles in Time, though.

I think something could be done with it...

I would prefer a boss fight against Shredder in the Technodrome level where he uses an ordinary Japanese sword, and throws shuriken.

I personally think that April has probably been handled the worst. It just seems that the writers can never figure out anything for her to do, and as a result she always ends up bland and fading into the background. She's doing that IDW right now. Although, even in the source material, she suffered the same problem. Even Laird couldn't figure out how to make her interesting, and he made her a magic doodle baby as a result. I actually think the Nick series was an exception to this, but looking over the site I appear to be in the minority on that opinion.

After April would be Casey. IDW notwithstanding, most writers never seem to be able to get the balance of book dumb and competance, and he usually ends up dumb as bricks and annoying.

As much as I like Leo, I have to agree with this. On top of his persona sometimes being too focused around the other turtles, I don't think any of the others come as close to the amount of times I have disliked him; episode from the 1987 show that is entirely based around Leo whining at everybody for no reason and he doesn't change by the end; mid-2003 show angst phase where he is cold and aggressive out of guilt, which I personally think didn't work because in Mirage it was Raph instead; and 2007 where his logic straight up doesn't make sense. He is an excellent character when done well and the worst when played too stiff. Mikey can be annoying in his post-90's depictions but he has always been somewhat likeable. I guess Leo is unfortunate in his definition as a leader, wherein he will always have that risk of sometimes not being written as a completely different individual over the straight man who is just there to keep his brothers in check. As for Don I don't think he has ever been handled poorly but I am biased.