Who did the "going to the dark side" thing better?
 

https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca88...FKKI7ZPprMyDi0

Or

https://www.gonintendo.com/wp-content/photos/mrl.jpg

Dark Leo was a big joke, so the latter by default.

Dark Leo is evil, but is not allowed to do anything so it's a waste of time. Brainwashing is always a lazy writing. This means they have chance to be saved. There is no real character development.

What's even more ridiculous is that In the ninja magic training arc, the writers told us Dark Leo is actually Leo's real dark side, and Kitsune just awakens it. It's like they're trying to tell us that Shredder and Kitsune never brainwashing Leo.

Well said. Couldn't agree more

Another major problem with this character is that Dark Leo acts like a completely different character in every different storylines.

In City Fall arc, he basiclly look like he's been brainwashed, this may not even his true dark side. In magic training arc, I kind of believed this one is Leo's true dark side because this Dark Leo actually didn't trust Shredder and said Leo can't protect the family becuase he trust their enemies. However, why is he still wear that foot ninja suit? At least, the emblem should be changed to Splinter Clan emblem? In Armageddon Game, Leo switch to Dark Leo and called Shredder "Master".

This was, like the biggest reason I quit IDW. Not because it was a bad idea, it was a great idea. There just wasn't any consequences or blood on his hands or anything. And if it wasn't coming in this, then clearly it wasn't coming at all because here was the grandest opportunity for real consequence and remorse and growth and maybe kicking things up to the next level.

Then came all the Fred Wolf stuff that they seemed way more interested in. I saw the tide. I love those guys involved in this at that time and still do, I just can't get aboard that direction.

Shredder even tell Leo that he should "control" his dark side. So now, in Armageddon Game arc, Leo can use ninja magic to conjure his dark self when needed. Idk, but it feel like he never really faced his dark self and just use him as tool. He never tried to understand him and find a compromise bewteen two of them.

I always thought of "Dark Leo" as lazy writing. He's a painfully obvious choice to go "dark," but beyond that, his agency of darkness is taken away from him by brainwashing, etc.

It would have been much more interesting if Donatello was truly turned to the dark side, or, even at this point in the IDW juncture, Michelangelo. It would have been a perfect relationship building block for Raphael and Leonardo, to counter the subtle darkness of the other less abrasive turtles.

IDW just missed the mark for me after Krang War. After they "killed" Donatello, I stopped supporting the series. Shock writing at its finest.

All that happened was his shell was cracked.

That would kill a turtle though. Had the crew come back an hour later, he'd be dead and beyond saving.

Not necessarily. There's plenty of stuff with people 3D printing shells for injured turtles and such.

But how long will a turtle survive without it's shell?

It was no different than Don's shell being smashed in Image, but that paralyzed him.

That's what also turned me off. Donatello's always the one targeted in these campaigns to drastically change one of the Turtles. Hell, even in Mirage, Pete chose to shrink him down so that he had to build a robot Turtle body. I thought that was weird considering I thought Pete didn't like what Image did to Donatello, turning him into a cyborg. I wasn't a fan of that in the 90s, and I'm not a fan of it now.

This plot is very pointless. He never tried to get revenge on Bebop and Rocksteady. I'm not say he have to kill them, but at least he can leave them with an indelible lesson. When the protagonist becomes a coward, the villain remains brutal and even becomes worse. No one like to see this.