Classic toon Donatello

[Sage Ninja]

You know we have many discuassions on which turtle gets the most spot light or which is the best fighter in most TMNT mediums, and I've noticed that Donatello in most universes seem to come up short as being the turtle that most fans think gets the least amount of attention and is the weakest fighter (persoanlly I don't agree with that), but most fans have made points to back their arguments up to support this.

Well I admit that Donatello seems be the most "obscure" turtle of the four, but since the dvds for the classic cartoon have been coming out and I have been re-visting my favorite cartoon. i've been watching Donatello and seriously he's not that obscure at all! In fact he was given plenty of spot light in the orginal series and actually had quite a bit of depth which made him stand out. He had allot of stand alone episodes and was given plenty of spot light. Actually i think out of all them Raphael got the least amount of stand alone epsides . And even though in most mediums he has the reputation of being a poor fighter I don't think that is the case in the orgianal series. He was actaully quit compentent and skilled from what I could see (when the turtles still fought seriuously).

So lets talk about classic toon Doantello's fighting prowess, i think that after Leonardo he was the second best fighter in the group.

I always saw Don as second to Leo in both age and fighting skills in the original series. That boy has some mean skills.

Infact, here's the order...

Leo is the oldest and the most skilled, which is constant in all TMNT universes.

Don is the second oldest and seems to be the second skilled fighter.
Sure, he spent time building stuff (which were always very impressive machines in the original series), but he also seemed to put alot of attention and precision in his training.

Raph is the third oldest and seems to be the third skilled fighter, which kinda makes sense givin the fact that he spent alot of his time watching TV or having fun with Mikey.

Mikey is the yongest and seems to be the least skilled fighter. In the first season when Mikey was sparring with Leo and gets tossed into a wall, Don, Raph, and Splinter rag on Mikey to try to stay sharp and focused.

Interesting enough, that's the order that they're introduced in the TMNT theme song.


Though, ofcourse, compared to just about every other character to ever appear in the original series, all four of them were generally the better fighters.

[blue_angel99]

Don is a very skilled fighter but not at heart. He'd rather exercise his mind and ponder the mystries of the universe than fight. The new toon does a great job to show the true Donatello- a quiet thinker and pacifist. No offense but .... the old toon Don was whinney, annoying and a little high on himself

[Sage Ninja]

Don is a very skilled fighter but not at heart. He'd rather exercise his mind and ponder the mystries of the universe than fight. The new toon does a great job to show the true Donatello- a quiet thinker and pacifist. No offense but .... the old toon Don was whinney, annoying and a little high on himself

I rather like Old toons represation of Donatello. He was out spoken and and edgier than any version i've seen him in, and i liked the fact that he was more millitant and grey and this version instead of a pacifist. The fact that he had the edge of not taking crap was cool in him. And i didn't find him whinny at all, despite his geeky voice, you could tell Doantello was not some one to screw with. His depth was that he latent dark side, which was cool. Old toon Doantello owns!

Originally Posted by Ryona

I always saw Don as second to Leo in both age and fighting skills in the original series. That boy has some mean skills.

Infact, here's the order...

Leo is the oldest and the most skilled, which is constant in all TMNT universes.

Don is the second oldest and seems to be the second skilled fighter.
Sure, he spent time building stuff (which were always very impressive machines in the original series), but he also seemed to put alot of attention and precision in his training.

Raph is the third oldest and seems to be the third skilled fighter, which kinda makes sense givin the fact that he spent alot of his time watching TV or having fun with Mikey.

Mikey is the yongest and seems to be the least skilled fighter.

Interesting enough, that's the order that they're introduced in the TMNT theme song.

Though, ofcourse, compared to just about every other character to ever appear in the original series, all four of them were generally the better fighters.

yeah, you see thats why I wanted to call it to every ones attention about classic toon Donatello and his fighting prowess, and how freakin' good he was in that medium. Since in other mediums he is genreally the most un-skilled of the turtles. I tottally thought that he was second to Leonardo in fighting skills in the classic toon.

He is just as active in contributating in battle as Leonardo is, and even bested all the turtles once in a sparring session (even Leonardo) in one episode (can't rember off the top of my head) and in the episode Splinter No more when Shredder's brain buster had the turtles against each other, he had Raphael on the ground before the thing wore off on them. And in Doantello's duplicant when he cloned himself he manged to best all the turtles at once!

In the first season when Mikey was sparring with Leo and gets tossed into a wall, Don, Raph, and Splinter rag on Mikey to try to stay sharp and focused

actually I don't agree with that. Michaelangelo was holding up very well with Leonardo until he lost his temper. And in the Splinter no More episode when the brain buster had the turtles turn on each other, Michaelangelo was holding his own very well against Leonardo. I think he is equal to Raphael.

[Coola Yagami]

dude, that was Donnie's clone that kicked all the TMNT's shells, no the real Don, and it's been confirmed that the clone was stronger and more skilled than the original.

[Space Lieutenant Josh]

Actually, most people I've run into and talked to about the turtles say their favorite was "the one with the stick." I'd say old toon Donnie has plenty of fans.

[CyberCubed]

Donatello certainly did have a large role in the old show. In several episodes he's even giving Leo orders!

Raph and Mike would usually have their lines, but Don and Leo led the old cartoon.

[Leonardo_]

Originally Posted by Sage Ninja

He is just as active in contributating in battle as Leonardo is, and even bested all the turtles once in a sparring session (even Leonardo) in one episode (can't rember off the top of my head)

.

I think I know what episode you mean, but I dont know how the title is called in english. And in it it was not his clone. That was another ep.

[Spitfire]

I always see Don as almost the leader figure in the old series. He saves the TMNT every episode almost or gets himself out of a jam. It's not often he's the one in peril. And he did most of the fighting as well*Which in the old show was someone getting hit once and staying down for good*

In the new series and the comic it's not really like that.

[Leonardo_]

I myself see Don as the leader figure even in the first eps of the new toon. Leonardo is more in the background.

[Sage Ninja]

Donatello in the old toon was more like the un-official leader of the TMNT. He wasn't actively the leader just the sultions guy. Although if Leoanrdo wasn't around, Donatello would definatly be the leader and be a good one too. (Screw Take Me to your Leader I hate that episode , I thought it was way off!).

What I liked about old toon Doantello is that he can he doesn't quite so bothered by the whole honar bit like Leonardo is. I thought that was cool, he seemed to have a very "the ends justifies the means" kind of attitude. I think it was in the episode Bye Bye Fly, but Donatello tortures a human like computer to get information out of it. Yeah I know that it was just a computer but it could feel pain, and he did it any way .

I also thought it was interesting that Doantello seemed really emotionally/romantically supressed. Notice that Donatello never gets a love interest?

[Cure]

Originally Posted by Ryona

Leo is the oldest and the most skilled, which is constant in all TMNT universes.

Ok, I don't remember too much about the old show (I was young) so Leo MAY have been the oldest. But as for other universes, it's not official. This is from the FAQ on the official site.

"What are the Turtles' ages in chronological order? What are their birth dates?

Like their bloodline, their actual birthdays and ages have never been officially defined by Mirage Studios and thus are unknown."

[Space Lieutenant Josh]

Originally Posted by Cure4AIDS

Ok, I don't remember too much about the old show (I was young) so Leo MAY have been the oldest. But as for other universes, it's not official. This is from the FAQ on the official site.

"What are the Turtles' ages in chronological order? What are their birth dates?

Like their bloodline, their actual birthdays and ages have never been officially defined by Mirage Studios and thus are unknown."

Yikes, I dunno about getting into this thing again... maybe it's better not to argue about the ages?

[Shredder]

Originally Posted by Space Lieutenant Josh

Yikes, I dunno about getting into this thing again... maybe it's better not to argue about the ages?

I don't know of the official "Mirage" ages, but according to the cards that came with the original action figures, Leonardo was 16, Michaelangelo was 15 1/2, and Raphael and Donatello were both 15. Strange because Michaelangelo does seem like he should be the youngest...

Oh and Shredder was 32.

[Cascadia]

I think that it has always been very difficult to determine the ages of the TMNT. To me, I think that Leo is the oldest and Mikey might be the youngest. This would make Donnie and Raph the middle children. But who knows?

[Sage Ninja]

Originally Posted by Cure4AIDS

Ok, I don't remember too much about the old show (I was young) so Leo MAY have been the oldest. But as for other universes, it's not official. This is from the FAQ on the official site.

"What are the Turtles' ages in chronological order? What are their birth dates?

Like their bloodline, their actual birthdays and ages have never been officially defined by Mirage Studios and thus are unknown."

well, in most universes it seems the boys don't have a definate age. In fact I think their only point of refrence is how long ago the canister accident occurred, which by Splinter was fifteen years ago. And the turtles where all just hatchlings when they where mutated so they are all roughly 15 years old (although they act and look like they are in their late teens or early twenties).

In fact I don't think the boys even have birthdays, (or keep tract of how old they are) in the mirage universe or even in the new toon universe. In the classic toon I think the turtles are all about the same age and Splinter just designated all of them a specfic birth date so they can have a day of their own and feel special, (since their is no way of knowing when they where actually born). Michaelangelo and Raphael seem to have birthdays in the old toon that are seprete from each other.