Mikey's ADHD/ADD

[senpai]

Mikey just likes to have fun--that's all. At times his campy side comes off as dimwitted, but isn't that part of the fun? Being able to laugh at yourself and not take yourself so seriously?

[ImmaAxolotl]

For me, I miss the Mikey who not only was funny and annoying (because I know how fun it is to drive my own siblings crazy), but understood people as well. Remember how he befriended Leatherhead and cooled down Raph during the second season finale? I want more of THAT Mikey.

[Amaranthus]

In Buried Secrets, Mikey didn't trust Mom-Thing, and attacked her.
That was the major flaw in this episode.
Mom-Thing did nothing to cause Mikey not to trust her. So when he attacked her, he could have been attacking April's real mom.
So to me it looks like he really doesn't overthink his actions.

[BubblyShell22]

Yes, but he had a sense that something was off about her, and it turned out he was right because it wasn't April's mom but a clone of her. If it was her real mom, Mikey probably wouldn't have had that sense. He definitely is intuitive at times and goes with his gut on things.

[Amaranthus]

Originally Posted by BubblyShell22

Yes, but he had a sense that something was off about her, and it turned out he was right because it wasn't April's mom but a clone of her. If it was her real mom, Mikey probably wouldn't have had that sense. He definitely is intuitive at times and goes with his gut on things.

That's exactly the problem. It would've been fine if the clone acted suspicious, but she didn't do so until after he attacked her.
Are you really not seeing the problem here?

[BubblyShell22]

No because he had a bad vibe about her and acted on it. I get bad vibes myself, and most of the time, my vibes are correct. It's one of the reasons I didn't see the 2014 TMNT movie. When I saw a preview, I got a bad feeling in my gut that it would be bad, and I was right.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Originally Posted by Keroscene

Mikey has traits of ADHD. But then a lot of people do. Labels like that generally shouldn't be applied to people who don't have a medical diagnosis, because it gives the impression that everyone with any of the traits has the disorder. Not everyone who is hyper or unfocused needs to have a diagnosis to explain why. It's hard for me to believe that Mikey has any kind of disorder, because it's not like he's struggling to cope with the world at all.

But yeah, he definitely has the traits. I don't really feel it matters. He's an entertaining character and the reasoning as to why he behaves one way or another isn't really important to me.

People will keep complaining that he's "dumb" though (even though the theme of every Mikey-centric episode is him providing he isn't) because they can't handle the fact that his character is depicted differently than in other incarnations. They'd probably rather have the bland, uninteresting barely-counts-as-a-major-character version of Mikey from the Mirage/IDW comics.

Y'know, aside from Nick (and possibly an episode or two in 4Kids), none of this has ever been true. Mikey's original character was never intended to be hyper or act "dumb" by any means. He is the dreamer, the slacker, and the creative, compassionate jokester. In the past, he wasn't obnoxious or constantly annoying his brothers, and he wasn't hyper or spastic, either (I can only think of one or two times in either the OT or 4Kids where he was really over-excited about anything.) The lack of focus was never due to being ADD, it was mostly due to lack of interest. In other words, he'd rather be playing video games than training! Simple as that. And that has ALWAYS been the case, until now.

Nick's taken everything "bad" or flawed about the character, and turned it up to 11, then slapped the ADHD label onto it as an excuse. He's been noted as being able to play games for HOURS, but the minute it comes to training time, he'll try to get out of it or just space out. A person with ADD wouldn't do that, they'd be unable to focus on anything for long, even the game! Yet even in Nick, we've seen him competing with Leo or Raph for the high score on their pinball game, a feat which can take hours. And he has no problems focusing on THAT. So that pretty much negates the ADD excuse.

And Mirage and IDW Mikey are neither bland nor boring. They are by far the most realistic versions of him, making him a well-developed character who does more than just provide humor. In IDW, he was the one to first befriend Slash, to go off on Raph about causing problems while Leo was missing, he was the one to get the info on the Foot meeting that led to Leo's rescue, and the one who rescued Princess Trib in Dimension X. In Mirage, he was a writer, kept a pet, and was the one who kept the others from sinking into despair more often than not.

[Amaranthus]

Originally Posted by BubblyShell22

No because he had a bad vibe about her and acted on it. I get bad vibes myself, and most of the time, my vibes are correct. It's one of the reasons I didn't see the 2014 TMNT movie. When I saw a preview, I got a bad feeling in my gut that it would be bad, and I was right.

Yes, because the preview looked bad. While the clone acted completely normal.
I don't understand how you fail to see the issue. Unless Mikey's a psychic him attacking the clone was uncalled for.

[yellowmario27]

Originally Posted by MsMarvelDuckie

Nick's taken everything "bad" or flawed about the character, and turned it up to 11, then slapped the ADHD label onto it as an excuse. He's been noted as being able to play games for HOURS, but the minute it comes to training time, he'll try to get out of it or just space out. A person with ADD wouldn't do that, they'd be unable to focus on anything for long, even the game! Yet even in Nick, we've seen him competing with Leo or Raph for the high score on their pinball game, a feat which can take hours. And he has no problems focusing on THAT. So that pretty much negates the ADD excuse.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying except this, people with ADD CAN focus on things that interest them for hours at a time. It's the things that they don't find interesting that they have trouble with. I know this because I learned about it, and also a quick google search confirmed

Myth #2: Kids with ADD/ADHD can never pay attention.
Fact: Children with ADD/ADHD are often able to concentrate on activities they enjoy. But no matter how hard they try, they have trouble maintaining focus when the task at hand is boring or repetitive.

Also, I think we can all agree that in this incarnation they wanted to turtles to be younger versions of themselves, who will mature into the characters that they're supposed to be. He's just playing the role of childlike younger brother.

[Luckyday]

Originally Posted by Amaranthus

Yes, because the preview looked bad. While the clone acted completely normal.
I don't understand how you fail to see the issue. Unless Mikey's a psychic him attacking the clone was uncalled for.

Agreed. It's bad and lazy writing when a writer can't show or even explain why a character would know something out of the blue. It's same as character suddenly hated another character without any explanation other then that he's the bad guy of the show.

This show tends to disconnect with its audience in either explaining why/how character knows something or gives too much exposition on something that the audience can figure out by themselves.

There is also sometimes a bigger disconnect with what they trying to convey in certain scenes verse what the audience see on screen.

The big two that comes to mind is the huge cluster **** that was in the end of A Foot To Big and pretty much everything that Shredder does as a leader.

[Gunstar_Red]

I agree with Bubbly. Mikey definitely goes with his gut and feel vibes. I didn't see anything wrong with him distrusting clone-mom right off the bat, because if I was him, I wouldn't trust her either. While others ignored the warning signs and accepted that April got her mother back, Mikey knew something was off about her. Not to mention, when there's an animal (Ice Cream Kitty) in a movie, book, cartoon, etc and if that said animal doesn't like a certain character, you know that character must be hiding something.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Originally Posted by yellowmario27

I agree with a lot of what you're saying except this, people with ADD CAN focus on things that interest them for hours at a time. It's the things that they don't find interesting that they have trouble with. I know this because I learned about it, and also a quick google search confirmed.

Also, I think we can all agree that in this incarnation they wanted to turtles to be younger versions of themselves, who will mature into the characters that they're supposed to be. He's just playing the role of childlike younger brother.

The problem with that argument is that it can apply to almost ANYONE. Anyone can focus on things they like while basically zoning out on things that are boring or repetitive, so that's not even really exclusively an ADD trait in the first place. Ask any kid in school who has to complete an assignment of 50 math problems, and they will tell you they get bored and their mind will start to wander. That has nothing to do with having ADHD, it's just part of human nature to want to do something else when confronted with a task that holds no interest or is repetitive and boring. Honestly, I think a lot of ADD diagnosis is really just boredom being misdiagnosed as a disorder.

[Vicky82]

I do feel that Mikey's bad vibes is going to happen again. Maybe when Raph turns due to having the mind serum, I bet Mikey will feel there something wrong with Raph.

[Keroscene]

Originally Posted by MsMarvelDuckie

Y'know, aside from Nick (and possibly an episode or two in 4Kids), none of this has ever been true. Mikey's original character was never intended to be hyper or act "dumb" by any means.

You are mis-remembering the old toon MASSIVELY here. Mikey in the old toon would get enthusiastic about absolutely any old crap - magic, April being on TV, pizza, random TV shows, surfing, skating, toys, fuzzy dice... And he frequently did things that led both his brothers and the entire audience to mischaracterise him as "dumb," just as they do with 2k12 Mikey. Seriously, about 25% of Raph's jokes in the old toon are about Mikey being "the dumb one."

It's hilarious how people are talking about 2k12 Mike as if the character's never been called "dumb" before.

Nick's taken everything "bad" or flawed about the character, and turned it up to 11, then slapped the ADHD label onto it as an excuse."

I'm not sure Nick have slapped a label on him here, I think some idiot writing publicity materials has done it. It doesn't count as canon just because some intern makes a remark about ADHD in promo stuff. If they'd thought it through, they would have realised that slapping a label like that on a character in a kids TV show isn't a good idea. Nonetheless, hyperactivity and lack of focus can be seen as ADHD traits, whether they're consistent or not.

For me, Nick have taken all the BEST stuff and turned it up to 11. I don't see any problem with hyperactivity, or extreme naivety, or being unconventional or not paying attention to everything that's said. These things make him entertaining and cartoons exist to provide entertainment.

And Mirage and IDW Mikey are neither bland nor boring. They are by far the most realistic versions of him, making him a well-developed character who does more than just provide humor.

They are BORING. Mikey is an after-thought in Mirage and IDW. The focus on Mirage was always on Raph and Leo and occasionally on Don. Mikey's personality in the comics was always driven by "oh we better give him something to do." He had hardly any role compared to the others.

In IDW, he was the one to first befriend Slash, to go off on Raph about causing problems while Leo was missing, he was the one to get the info on the Foot meeting that led to Leo's rescue, and the one who rescued Princess Trib in Dimension X.

You are not naming interesting character traits here, you are naming plot developments. And in all of these plot developments, the same role could have been easily adopted by any of the other Turtles. It could have just as easily been Raph doing all those things. Again, this was about "giving Mikey something to do."

In Mirage, he was a writer, kept a pet, and was the one who kept the others from sinking into despair more often than not.

He wrote one story in one issue and the reason people have made it into a significant character-trait is because they're scratching around for ANYTHING in the comics which suggests an actual personality. Keeping a pet is not a "trait" especially when your relationship with that pet is boring and cliched.

As for keeping the others from "sinking into despair." Look over the years, fandom has taken traits that were hardly ever evident from the comics and turned them into a big deal. It does this because admitting that Mikey isn't really a main character in the comics is unappealing. And unfortunately, fandom has been telling itself this is true for so long that they've bought into it. But Mikey does hardly anything compared to the other Turtles, who all have big arcs and comparatively complex arcs.

What the cartoons have done is to provide an actual personality in lieu of the almost-blank template presented by Mirage And it says a lot that the character became the most iconic of the four as a result.

[Powder]

Literally everything you said is off the mark. I'm impressed.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Powder

Literally everything you said is off the mark. I'm impressed.

HAH! True story.

[Keroscene]

Originally Posted by Powder

Literally everything you said is off the mark. I'm impressed.

Literally everything you say is completely asinine.
Mikey having a much smaller role in the Mirage series isn't a controversial fan theory I just pulled out of my ass. You'd have to be reading with your eyes shut not to notice.

[Amaranthus]

Guys, I'm having a déja vu.

[Leo656]

I swear you just said that a little while ago.

[Amaranthus]

Fat people. Amirite guise?