The turtles reliance on Don

[Avatar Yuffie]

Originally Posted by Hermano Dyvas

I don't, and they still relied on Don for a lot of things. When he got mutated in season 4 the 2K3 team was seriously crippled.

Not to mention SAINW. Don not there = end of the world. Seriously.

[Uki]

Nah, his knack for tech and inventing is a nifty trait. They're all best at something.

[ssjup81]

Originally Posted by Hermano Dyvas

Umm, not so sure I agree about Mikey. He was getting himself and Raph lost in the city untill the impossible-to-miss-ray came out of that skyscraper. Then his tactic to beat the robot guarding the building completely failed...

Raph really didn't want to be a leader, he attempted to pass his mantle more then once before he actually did, I think that sais enough about his leadership capabilities.
Not exactly epic leadership.

I never said he was a great leader, just that he wasn't too bad in the sense that he actually tried. Raph didn't even do that. That aside, both have shown that they can lead and stuff. That ep where they were stuck in Dimension X with the Neutrinos, April, Irma, and Vernon kinda showed that.

[Jelly Bean]

I notice when it comes to the 80's toon people are kind of reluctant to give Raph and Mikey there due. Don and Leo are always getting praise, why not the two less serious turtles.

[Killer Moth]

Originally Posted by Herald7

As far as the OT, I didn't really find their reliance on Donatello annoying. I liked that while the other turtles were fighting the bad guys, Don had his own special job to perform. It gave the overall group more depth, rather than just having all of them fighting every time.

I don't think "annoying" is the right word. Now it could certainly get "ridiculous" at times, which is why it was fun when they joked about it on the show! Lol. But that was the purpose of the show, to satirize action cartoons.

Given the series' archetypes and plot formulas, Don fulfilled his purpose as the brain rather well. And there were enough episodes to allow the others to shine, as noted by others. There are some episodes, where, like "Night of the Dark Turtle," Don was really the only one to solve the problem or the only one who could have, on short notice. One very interesting aspect in the Red Sky fare is how Don become even more useful to the plot with his techno-savvy (or savvy ness?), though without the absurdity and parody.

Besides, given the snark the other Turtles gave about Don's inventions in Season 3 and onward, both ends were covered. Since they didn't do the whole Star Trek route and explain the science too much, then everything was fine. Or have they, and I don't know it or failing to remember it? (The closest that I could think of, immediately offhand, would be his explanation of the Niagara Falls power set-up in "Return of the Technodrome.") I haven't watched the middle of the series in depth or as an adult, so my memory will be quite spotty. Feel free to correct me or refresh my memory.

[TurtleManiac]

I do remember a lot of episodes of the OT in which Leonardo and Michaelangelo get captured, and it is up to Donatello and Raphael to rescue them.

[NameGoesHere1066]

I loved Don and his hatred for the human race saved him from a being a Mary Sue, but I really wished the other turtles could have been more independent of him than they were.

I mean the turtles are really crippled when Don is not around and to a lesser extent Leo. But the guys are never crippled if say Raph or Mike were missing.

Look at the episode where Splinter split the turtles into teams of two with Leo+Don vs. Raph+Mike. Leo and Don were butt raping Raph and Mike.

[Baxter Stockmen]

Yeah. Sometimes it got to be too much. Just like a lot of video games now. Hey there is a problem opening this door or accessing the computer files. Our expert techy will fix that no problem no matter what it is.

[shezcrafti]

I was just talking about this on Twitter the other day. I've always thought Donatello's skills were way too convenient to the plots, and I've never understood how he could know so much about everything given the Turtles' living situation...

Um, hi btw. I'm new here.

[Baxter Stockmen]

Originally Posted by shezcrafti

I was just talking about this on Twitter the other day. I've always thought Donatello's skills were way too convenient to the plots, and I've never understood how he could know so much about everything given the Turtles' living situation...

Um, hi btw. I'm new here.

welcome to the drome!

[Sage Ninja]

Originally Posted by NameGoesHere1066

Look at the episode where Splinter split the turtles into teams of two with Leo+Don vs. Raph+Mike. Leo and Don were butt raping Raph and Mike.

Didn't Michelangelo furiously destroy Donatello's machine that was flinging garbage at them with one strike and then nocked an armed Leonardo flat on his back with his bare hands, then captured their tower winning the game? And wasn't it Raphael who in the same episode came up with the plan to defeat the bad guys? And it wasn't some wimpy, slap-stick, gimmicky, resolution to the problem either. Raphael's plan was designed to kill the Rat King and Leatherhead, it doesn't matter that they survived. That proves how effective those two were so they were hardly passive memebers of the team.

[TurtleManiac]

I think it was in "Attack of the 50 Foot Irma" Donatello saves and says to the other 3 turtles "I sometimes wonder what you guys would do without me" so he knows