im yellin about my history with the IP of teenage mutant ninja turtles 
(EDIT: ramblin about donnie in FM at the end)
IT ALL STARTED WITH THE 80s/90s MONEY GRAB CARTOON BASED OFF THE ARCHIE COMICS
the cartoon started airing in '87 and baby egg GREW UP EATING THAT SHIT
she LOVED mikey
like, as in, was convinced she was going to marry michelangelo the ninja turtle. and they would be happy together and party all day and night
when she walked past sewer grates and manhole covers she would yell down them "MIKEY WHERE ARE YOU I'M HERE" and embarrass and delight her exhausted mother in equal measure
when i was six for christmas i got a raphael doll, but because he wasn't my favorite and he WAS my little sister's favorite (she was almost four at the time) i apparently gave it to her when she yelled his name after i unwrapped it
the next year for my birthday, my aunt bought me the mikey doll because she was so impressed that i was selfless (honestly i just was not that taken with raph and so it just didn't seem like a big deal to me)
i still have him!!!!! i get pic
omg... baby egg...
oh my god. I remember these dolls. core memory unlocked
THEY WERE ALL OVER but my fam wasnt that flush with cash so we couldn't just get toys for no reason so when i got him for my bday i was FUCKINGGGG STOKED
omg hes so angee
he used to have a belt.....lmao that bitch is LOST to the ravages of time
he's in better condition than my sister's raphael (which she still has) but yeah
a perfect child
anyway. obsessed with turtles, obsessed with mikey
the live action movies also had me in a fucking chokehold; i thought the designs were CUTE even though i know a lot of ppl thought they were kinda uncanny valley
(i STILL think they're cute)
like, look at him
they're more uncanny valley in stills i think, in motion they retain charm
how is that not adorable
i even played live action mikey in an LJ game like twenty years later for a hot minute
BACK TO CHILDHOOD
our parents were uhhhh sticklers about some stuff so when they FINALLY let us watch the live action turtles movies and we heard raph yelling DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN all loud and over and over me and my sisters were like WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
i wore the VHS's out on those things
i LOVED it
(i wrote whump fanfic in my head without realizing it was whump)
mikey remained my favorite; donnie was second fav but like....so distantly
it wasn't even a contest
(we do not talk about the live action TV show. or the....musical tour................)
(but i did indeed watch them)
played the arcade games, got the NES games
went through that WHOLE thing
grew out of it...a little bit (a VERY little bit) and then went right back in when the 2003 cartoon came out
BACK TO OBSESSED
i wanted to like mikey the most and i guess i did but his voice was so annoying, sorry wayne. i have never liked your voice for mike
i liked the character trope of "could be the most lethal killing machine ever if he wanted, is in fact too busy chillin' to do that tho" and mikey fit in there PERFECTLY
the last few seasons of that show were
bad
objectively bad
don't get me wrong they had a couple highlights but like. largely, so very bad
the 2007 movie came out
it was....interesting, but it nerfed and sidelined by boys (mike and don) so hard that i was only halfway interested, and honestly leo came off as more self-absorbed in an annoying way
raph was awesome, he's hands down my fav from the 2007 movie. i was rooting for him to beat leo's ass and then he did
also that was fucked up and the fight was GOOOOD
it was sad that it was wrapped up so quick but legit it was supposed to be a standalone. honestly i feel like they maybe overshot themselves trying to do that hugeass plot but it was alright as far as TMNT fare goes
i would take that movie over other installments for SURE
i should note, i never really read the comics because a. there wasn't a great place for me to get them growing up and b. i'm gonna be shallow here.......i hate the art LMAO
(to be shallow again, did not like the designs in the 2007 movie. too skinty. was used to my turtles being chunky)
that being said, i played leo from 2007 at ms-elegante so what does THAT say to you
HE WAS INTERESTING OK i looked at him and went "i can fix him. i can make him worse" and then i did LMAO
the 2k12 series........WHAT A POLARIZING INSTALLMENT...................................
it was something new so i gobbled up the first couple of seasons but
as it progressed i ended up disliking it a little more with each episode
mikey was too annoying...the jokes were too lame....donnie was too creepy about april......the uwu anime style got too overloaded.........
but MOST of all
they were MEAN to each other
i don't mean like they bickered or teased or fought with each other or anything like that, that's normal, that's brothers and siblings and absolutely should be included but like. no
they so rarely seemed to actually genuinely like each other
it was sad
and the problem is that it wasn't on purpose; it wasn't to like, have them grow apart and then come back together or anything like that (SAINW im looking at you my beloved)
they just didn't include very many moments where the guys liked being around one another or loved each other that didn't feel very weird or forced, ESPECIALLY compared to how often they were pointedly NASTY to each other
that comes down to awkward writing and bad directing, tho
anyway raph was my fav design from that and honestly from the whole show, probably my fav period. he was definitely the one with the most dimension as a character. (leo wasn't bad but leo is always the target of REALLY WEIRD writing choices since he's the default "main" according to studio execs)
i played him at tu shanshu and had MUCHO fun
being able to write sibling dynamics ESPECIALLY conflict is so make or break w tmnt i feel that 
i have thought about throwing him at the TDM at folkmore even if i would never app him bc i just kind of want him to see dani's raph and have a meltdown about BIG DUDE and OLDEST????
2k12 raph survive rise cast challenge
comatoseroses: it's like the point of the show so if they suck at it, it's REALLY obvious
god you made it further in 2k12 than I ever did. I don't think I even finished the first season
anyway 2k12 had some interesting points but legit i got bored after a while. the cool fight choreo and interesting designs can only carry so far
plus the plot got so obsessed with every other character EXCEPT the turtles and it was like. what are you doing here
why am i watching this show about other people where the turtles sometimes show up
plus the donnie and april thing was REALLY gross after a while, like donnie was so CREEPY ueghghe eugh
yugh
spacemoth: i have a hard time of letting go ,-_- if the potential is there it can string me along way longer than i should let it tbh
a collective No to the michael bay TMNT movies
me sticking it out thru back to the sewers season
that nasty motherfucker did what he does best: take an IP about non-human characters and make it A. all about the human characters, B. turn the titular characters into tropes and C. make it fucking unwatchable with all the nasty fanservies and stupid jokes and garbage writing
the first movie is disgusting and i hate it, ugh i hate it hate it SO much. the turtles designs are SO FUCKING UGLY
"they're supposed to be scary and grotesque they're mutants" NO. I DIDN'T SAY SCARY AND GROTESQUE. I SAID UGLY
there were some sorta fun moments in the second movie (legit it's because it made fun of itself and i support bebop and rocksteady's mutant marriage) but overall, also trash
i pirated them to watch them, and now i don't know where they are
on a USB somewhere maybe
SO
NOW
coming up to ROTTMNT
ive never seen the michael bay ones but i saw they made casey a cop and i recoiled from my screen
WHY THE FUCK A COP
GOD
I KNOW I SAW THAT AND I WAS LIKE WHAT???? LMAO
every decision about those movies was terrible
the ONLY thing i'll say is that they actually did better with the brother dynamic than 2k12, BARELY, which is horrifying but true
BUT ROTTMNT. i am ashamed to say i hated it on (stupid) principle when it first came out
i was like EW THOSE DESIGNS (in my defense........the initial art was ugly)
same
i didn't like how meme-y it seemed, and i didn't like that it seemed like it was going to lean SO HEAVY on the mystic stuff. i was like oh great here we go again fuckin season 5 2k3........haven't we suffered enough
i didn't like that the episodes were only 10-15 minutes
so many shows were coming out in that format and the vast majority of them were meme-y dogshit
so i didn't bother
but then after a while i was like "whatever" and watched a few eps and i was like "THIS.........THIS ONE GETS IT"
it's still too comedic for my tastes; i would like more stakes and drama than what we were given
but they NAILED the family dynamic
they fucking A C E D IT
also the humor is actually pretty good!!! it's my brand at any rate
splinter threw me off really hard at first, but i have come to REALLY like him
he's interesting!!! he's NUANCED
also the fact that he's so blatantly and openly affectionate with the boys helped a lot
MY BABIES this and MY SONS that, and even when they don't get along it's in SUCH a "loving parents and children" sort of way that i couldn't help but be enamored with it
my biggest complaint about the show is the same complaint that i'm pretty sure everybody else had: IT NEEDED TO BE LONGER. the episodes. the seasons. the runtime
nickelodeon shot this horse the second it left the gate and then pointed and said "look see, why bother funding when it was never gonna win anyway"
anyway, up there with 2k3 and the 90s live action movies in terms of A. what i like the most and B. best portrayal of character and family dynamics
obv donnie is my fav but raph is a really close second and i really like leo and mikey also. they are all so Fun
rise is an iteration that can be so important.. so Fun. so Shaped. there'll never be another them
i remember being barely aware of its existence at all and then space and egg were posting gifs and rad fanart of the movie on tumblr and im over here like hey??? the fuck is this?? this looks really intense?
the whiplash of starting episode 1
THE MOVIE............
the movie is like one end of the spectrum i wanted and the show is another.....if only they could have a perfect baby of drama/horror and comedy and then make 10 seasons of that
i could finally be happy
my fondest memories are still sitting on your couch watching wrestling episode and me sighing and grabbing my laptop to make a leo journal
rise is STILL the first series I've ever like. gotten leo at all
the first 90s movie almost had me but raph was still my focus
but rise was like sitting me down and shaking me by the shoulders until I went "OH. oh. okay. I get him now."
the first 90s movie almost had me but raph was still my focus
but rise was like sitting me down and shaking me by the shoulders until I went "OH. oh. okay. I get him now."
LMAO
rise was like look.......space look at this /waggles a scrunkly little egomaniac with INTENSE inferiority and co-dependency issues in you
the facets revealed 
rise: look space it's like keith if he went funny instead of brooding
lmao
space LOOK he's so CAPABLE and smart but he thinks he's NOTHING if he doesn't have something to succeed for (leo: family)
called out
reading all this lore and nodding along
especially that rise shouldve been longer and more but nick is like, the most bonkers studio when it comes to new shows or anything that's got more edge than spongebob
love to shoot a show in the legs (staring at atla and lok)
yeah knowing that nick went to the writers and went "ok the end of 2k12 was too dark, you HAVE to focus on comedy only" just kinda
hmmmMMMM
hmmmMMMM
its kind of tragically hilarious how protective they are of a series they absolutely refuse to either sell or continue. i downloaded the 1st season today and INSTANTLY got a forwarded warning from viacom like HOW DARE YOU PIRACY like fuck off i would buy if i COULD
literally sell it to me
take my money
HONESTLY
I HAVE SO MUCH MONEY I COULD GIVE YOU GUYS, JUST. give me something to BUY
like, suck a nut; maybe if you actually supported your series' and made decent merch and sold physical media
the merch is so egregious
we have to make our own shit because the garbage you commission is HIDEOUS
dude if they made official blurays of the series + movie I would buy it in a heartbeat
right... ive searched several times, they just released the first dvd... useless
i want to own it not rent a piece of data lmao
yeah
theyd probably never do the movie bc netflix, but at lEAST the series, good grief
i just
i would love the IP holders to be like hey..............we are celebrating our 30th anniversary of this shit..........
perhaps
there are fans that are 30 and older...........who have been fans for decades and grew up on this......................who have disposable income
and would PERHAPS.....enjoy their favorite nostalgia thing...in a way that 30 YEAR OLDS AND OLDER may enjoy it
sighs
unfortunately ...........................while in production hell, they are working on that
unfortunately ...........................while in production hell, they are working on that
tell me more
live action last ronin adaptation
imo mutant mayhem was NOT that
spacemoth: MMMMMMMMMMMMMM
I DUNNO
i'll reserve judgment
i meant more like
merch and shit
god most of that side of things has been these ugly ass shoe collabs LMAO
UGLY ASS SHOE COLLABS......
i guess we should be grateful they never tried to do NFTs
a collab with adidas that was like. green lowtops with a single turtle mask on the laces like "that's it??"
and puma just released some that are somehow uglier
and puma just released some that are somehow uglier
green burger king
NO
did you mean based off mirage b/c archie came after
also green burger king was a TRAVESTY
I see we both share the same opinions on 2012 /holds it up with a pair of tweezesr
was the show based off mirage????? i thought it was archie bc of the colors/silliness/etc
oh shit youre right the comics started in 88
yeah the archie was a comic tie-in that came after.
oh man mirage fans must have been PISSSSSED OFF
anyway yeah specifically my TMNT journey began with silly low stakes cartoon and not.............not mirage
LMAO fortunately I found the carton before I found mirage because they sold the first graphic novles in kmart and I picked them up going 8DDDD ...WAIT WHY ARE THEY ALL WEARING RED WHY SO SRS
mirage fans are still pissed off
i don't know how to tell mirage fans this but
look for the most of its run the mirage artwork was terrible because Jim Lawson was Peter Laird's bestest friend and did all the "a five year old child drew this wtih his left hand" stuff
april fucked a cockroach and had babies and died
mirage fans will not shut the fuck up about how they're still pissed off
mirage fans can go sit in a corner
don't get me wrong i really like some of the mirage stuff but like
if it wasn't for the OG cartoon the IP would never have had staying power and the Mirage comic would haev finished sooner, which may have been a mercy
it's just as Not Good as a lot of the other Not Good tmnt shit
YEAH HONESTLY LMAO
yeah look I. really liked I think up to the first six graphic novel runs? which encompasses most of the stuff they folded into 03 tbh
03 was so solid for a good long while
i mean it's dated bc it's 03 but like
that shit holds up fr
I've been tryign to rewatch 03 here and there, and there are. definitely some things I could do without but it's okay for the most part
yeah
03 was really excellent until 4Kids took a closer look and screamed and went WHAT ARE YOU DOING and made them go the more comedic route
look 03 hit some very important markers for me are you ready here they are
1: toitles are chonky
2. sainw arc
2: toitles are Short
YES 2 SAINW
3: toitles are Short
4: toitles get along and love each other
5: april and casey are like "these are OUR new weird little family members thanks they're adopted we're going to city hall right now"
there's just something special when a TMNT iteration gets that right
the best thing I can say about mirage is I watched leo getting thrown through a window after having the most badass fight through new york and went "hmm this better not awaken anything in me"
JUST you????
/looks at all the iterations where leo is defenestrated
JUST you????
LMAO
and then 03 served it up as best they could with like. censorship constraints. and I was in love
it awakened many, many whump fans okay
LMFAO
look
me at 14: relationship with April kidnappings has ended! I now want to see turtles covered in blood
i know leo going through a window is a time-honored tradition
i kind of like seeing it getting passed around though; leo gets the most, i acknowledge this as he is the progenitor
but
look these days I just laugh when it happens again
live action 90s movies....raph gets thrown through a skylight
tradition
i enjoyed
where is my mikey window....where is the donnie window..................i would like this also
OKAY THIS IS SO NITPICKY BUT I JUST REMINDED MYSELF
egg I know you love raph but I gotta say little me was so pissed with that choice b/c back then raph was the most popular amongst all the cartoon watchers so they took leo's time honoured tradition and gave it to him instead lmfao
mikey and don deserve their moment of window destruction
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
all that being said, as a leo fan I wish he would get. less attention. because while he is my fave I watch them as an ensemble
I would not be interested in a Leo Show
I want brothers
okay but
look
and that means they should have all have an equal share of the spotlight
Something Awoke within me when leo SAT WATCH OVER RAPH for DAYS without hardly moving
that was when i was like 
BROTHERS
BROTHERS
THIS IS IT FOR ME, FAM
OKAY ALRIGHT AND NOW THAT I'M REMEMBERING IT, I GET SO ANNOYED BC SOMETIMES PPL LAUGH ABOUT RAPH BEING IN A BATHTUB FOR DAYS
LIKE
HE'S A FUCKING TURTLE
OF COURSE HE'S IN THE TUB
LMAO
well the target audience was probably too young to understand that. I remember the cinema breaking into laughter the, uh. entire seven times I watched it in there.
g o d
i was so mad
even as a wee bab i was like HE'S A TURTLE???? TURTLES NEED TO BE WET????????????
cinema usherette: you literally just walked out of that cinema and you're going back in again r u okay child
me: shut up and take my money
me: shut up and take my money
HE IS GETTING CARE??? THE CARE HE NEEDS??? LAUGHING WHY
oh my god KJ
SEVEN TIMES bless u
I remember at the time like
"oh the tub is the only place big enough he can be comfortable in that farmhouse that makes sense"
"oh the tub is the only place big enough he can be comfortable in that farmhouse that makes sense"
you and me 🤝 wearin out that vhs video
it's still in my house somewhere
that tape got BRUTALIZED in my house 
i have the movies on dvd, i should rewatch them
do it
i will 
ok but as someone in her thirties who watched it within the last month i genuinely, GENUINELY have to say that the hilarity of them having a very serious talk about raph's status, all sad and solemn, like hes on the brink of death
I still remember like. my thoughts on this poor guy who was trying to date me at the time and knew I'd gone to the cinema to watch a movie so was waiting when I came out and asked if I wanted to go grab a bite to eat and I was like "i have abetter idea"
and dragged him in to watch TMNT III the worst of them all
and then the movie fucking jump cutting to raph in the bathtub with limbs all haphazardly splayed like they threw him in there and walked off
is very fucking comical
yeah it's actually teh jumpcut and the haphazard nature that makes people laugh
they do make it clear when april comes in to run water on him that it's important he's there but the visual
the visual is BUCK WILD
i guess so; maybe it's the nostalgia or remembering being solemn when i first saw it but i didn't think the visual was funny
it just made sense to me
how old were you at the time?
turtles go in the water, he's too big to just be laid in there normal
uhhhh
when did it come out?? hol up
1990
i watched it probably the year after it came out
so i was probably 8 or 9
oh wait no
NO yeah 8 or 9, it must've been a little later bc i would've only been 5 in 91 and my parents didn't want us to watch it bc raph cursed
so it was a few years after
yeah I was gonna say "wait when is egg that much older than me" 
I was 3-4 when it came out in 1990
lmao because raph cursed. never mind the violence or the chaining up and beating of a rat, that one 'damn!' is a no no
me, knowing we are basically the same age, trying to do finger math
oh my god I'm old
Kayjayyy: i mean. baptists
lkjdfa OKAY
Kayjayyy: wise crone 
she appears
she appears
LMAO that's wise cringe crone tyvm
the cringe is implied
tell us about the seven watchings of the turtles with your confused lover, wise crone of cringe 
oh no he wasn't there for those he was unfortunate to rock up when I was watching the TMNT going to 1603 Japan or whenever it was
THAT ONE
look that movie is objectively fucking trash
i love it so much
SAME
because it has so much mikey in it
tbh I liked it better at the time than Secret of the Ooze?
I DON'T AGREE BUT HONESTLY THEY'RE TIED FOR ME
but I tried to watch it recently and was like "oh man I made some 27 year old guy watch this and he did without complaint he must have been in love"
UH OR HE RECOGNIZED MASTER CINEMA????
LMAO
MAYBE
if he thought it was bad then he deserved to get dumped that's all im saying
I think..................
lmfao we never actually dated in the end but he tried so hard (but didn't get very far) (and it really didnt' matter)
hm....
he was a good friend tho
I think.......... tmnt iii is the reason I love time travel stories actually... now that I think about it...
I actually do like the plot of the movie still I think it's the ... really cheap costumes and the humour that feels more forced that has aged poorly
hmmm...... 
maybe..... we should talk more about this terrible movie
maybe..... we should talk more about this terrible movie
look the costumes? trash
BUT
ON THE OTHER HAND
i liked it
the costumes really were trash tho
OH MY GOD OK BUT
LEO DOING RESCUE CPR ETC ON THAT KID............................................................SO AWKWARD
it so was
that kid waking up to a nightmare face
UTTERLY NIGHTMARISH
even when I first watched it I was liek "scarred for life"
his entire muppet mouth swallowing that poor child actor's face
like are you telling me APRIL doesn't know rescue breathing
LMAO
april didn't seem to know much in those last two movies tbh
>_>
that's true
at least she wasn't as useless as movie 2 tho....was she even in movie 2
oh yeah she was the keeper of the apartment
they didn't know what to do with her in 2 and they just went "damsel" in 3
YEAH THAT WAS IT
i was so mad
damsel....but SASSY damsel
and missed judith hoag
who lies to old racist guys
HONESTLY THO
MOVIE 1 APRIL IS SUPERIOR as far as the live action movies go
heck yeah
I sort of laugh b/c they went off the rails with her a bit in archie too they literally ran a story line where it turns out she was actually descended from some kind of evil goddess type and that was why when splinter started teaching her ninjutsu she got better than the guys*
*for this one story arc
was that when she turned into a cockroach and Fucked
EGG I HAVE TO TELL YOU I DO NOT REMEMBER THAT PART
maybe I was traumatised and blocked it out
that was in archie tho not mirage
in mirage they went "actually she never existed she's a drawing brought to life by the magical pencil of jack kirby" and I was like wat
I KNOW FOR A FUCKING FACT
OH SHIT I THINK THAT WAS THEN
THE KIRBY PENCIL ARC
I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT AT SOME POINT
APRIL BECAME A COCKROACH, AND FUCKED ANOTHER COCKROACH, AND MADE COCKROACH BABIES AND THEN DIED
THAT SHIT IS BURNT INTO MY BRAIN
oh my god
/googled it tho
OK IM RIGHT THO RIGHT??? I SWEAR TO GOD IF I FEVER DREAMED THAT I'M LOGGING OFF
you are
whew
I mean I had to findo ut by finding a bunch of reddit bros whining about the "april was originally black" myth but they discuss it there
tbf when volume 4 came out i was barely paying attentoin because it was so bad.
but I was a die hard TMNT fan and I would faithfully keep buyin git
fortunately at some point I got really broke and couldn't afford to anymore
that was the universe stopping you
could've done it another way if we are being honest......
low blow, universe............but still
good universe
achieved
I read IDW for a while but just like it got boring real quick, not my thing
was offside immediately with the creation myth they used rofl
we need to start crowdsourcing the good comics
cass needs all our money
crowdsource the Here There Be Turtles comic
who's that other person putting out that god-tier quality comic
THAT ONE
crowdsource cass
I'd crowdsource kat's comic as well because that's fun and badass
...not so sure about others tho
which one is that
Replica
replicaaaa
...........OH that one
cass is doing OG work no more turtles anymore
i thought that was the one where uhhhhh only raph got rescued and the other boys went elsewhere
she is alas
oh nope!
that's the one in which donnie dies but FORTUNATELY!!! he has an AI with his personality ready to stand in for him
but there's al ot of the comic told before raph and donnie die
yeah its been super good
april watching donnie's last video feed of him blowing himself up in captivity in an attempt to take prime with him 
i think i had casey's folk backstory be a fusion of cass apoc and replica bc they were both so good, eg. he had The Sickness but he went out with a bang instead
also That One Animatic
(which might have been replica based now that i think about it?? or maybe just coincidence idk)
THE ANIMATIC...................
THE ANIMATIC.....
The Animatic of all time
I come in very late to go ‘damn this is a good plurk’
Love me some teetle meta
TEETLES........ one of the cornerstones of egg development 
egg infected with teetle from youth
shakes hands with you about 2012 series and 2003 series opinions
I love 2003 series deeply, absolutely loathe 2012 after trying to watch it
the thing is that i don't hate everything about 2k12; there were parts/aspects that i genuinely liked, but
it was just. lame
It had interesting elements, but it just... squandered it
I actually bothered to get through like 50-60% of it
yeah i think around the time leo began crushing hard on his dad's daughter i was like "this isn't even that bad but I'm out........" BORED
also every time april said KEW-NO-EECH i about drowned myself
It just kinda kept whiplashing between trying to be an action comedy, an incredibly painful teen romance and April's Show
Look, I don't mind them changing stuff to experiment with the formula, but this was too much that there was just no flavor
THAAAT THAT THAT.
This was a flavor that cancelled itself out and left you going 'what the fuck was that'
honestly tho
anything that was good in it was immediately negated by the sucky stuff
Usagi Yojimbo special episode being cool/stylish was immediately flattened by the comedy and weird choices the writers made
its like one of the best examples since they genuinely were trying
coming back here bc i think i've watched this before but my adhd ass does NOT remember
but i LOVE this video analyzing whether or not donnie is well-written autistic representation:
alright, let's talk about donnie | analyzing rise of...
alright, let's talk about donnie | analyzing rise of...
also
i got a bunch of baller screens from it bc the video quality so good
GOD AND I GOTTA REDO DONNIE'S ICONS WHERE HIM TEETH SHOWING
i might also color one of his eyes black B| maybe a future development.....doing all of that might kill me
i also want to ramble about playing donnie with this in mind (friends on the spectrum please feel free to chime in if i say stupid shit and/or just want to contribute thoughts) as someone who isn't autistic
keeping donnie as "low empathy/difficulty processing emotion" brand is both very fun to write and kind of challenging
challenging in that him having difficulty processing emotion means conditions have to be JUST RIGHT in a thread/CR for him to actually change/grow/learn stuff, which either puts the burden on the other person or just makes it so a thread has to be meticulously planned
I AM BLESSED bc all his close CR is played by VERY GOOD WRITERS who play off that, but it does also mean his casual CR doesn't see much traction since donnie.........does not make effort to grow closer to someone
that can be solved by shoving people together unwillingly, but then donnie is usually a little insufferable in the thread (because he's agitated about new things or because he's just not outwardly very empathetic to someone else's struggles) which can be awkward to write
egg did u want an assist with the teeth thing bc i have the tablet, like
HONESTLY I WOULD KISS YOU AND/OR PAY YOU
WE CAN DO BOTH
i have mspaint and a track pad
pay me in beautiful tags 
/goes to tag u back first
do you have a pref for teeth, eyes, one eye, w/e
bc tablet makes it easier
i'm just gonna do the teeth for now since i only mentioned those in his threads coming back
aight. i work tomorrow but after that i got 2 days off i can poke around and see what it looks like
SORRY NOT TO INTERRUPT carry on
and honestly i was gonna get cartoony w/ it; like, remove the straight lines and make pointy VVVV line instead
which works bc the boy a cartoon LMAO
ill play around and do a couple variants and see what you like
I LOVE YOU
(also before i get back into it, it's so nice to play sorey off casey and i should tag more of his things with sorey)
(everybody gets cute casey icons but me because donatello is a psycho meanboy)
anyway back to it; low empathy/difficulty processing emotion
I THINK
i play donnie with those things in mind....but they are unrelated to him also just not being very concerned with common ethical rules. i've been playing it that donnie has his OWN ethical standards that are EXTREMELY strict
and at the core of those standards is the safety and wellbeing of his family
anything he does to further enhance or protect that is considered "good" even if by other standards it is not (like stealing, abandoning other people/endeavors to protect family first, etc)
i don't think donnie is an inherently 'bad' person, but i also don't think he has that same drive to help the people in front of him. that part IS bc of low empathy. he loves his family! he loves people he knows and cares about! he....finds it difficult (or even nonsensical) to care about people he neither knows nor likes
all the people he kidnapped that he DIDN'T know, when he's being gentle and reassuring them, he's just kind of pretending that he's sympathizing as a way to make things go smoother. "yes of course please tell me if you are in pain" because the pain isn't the point, might skew results, AND would result in complications later
but he doesn't feel BAD about it, necessarily, especially if it's for their own good (which in his mind, interdimensional travel IS for their own good)
it's kind of like, would you be angry with your dentist if your teeth cleaning hurt? would you be mad at your surgeon if your stitches ached?
some people might say yes or that they can't help it and donnie would find it kind of ludicrous. why? it was a necessary procedure and you WILL recover/be fine. (he also views their captivity sort of in this light)
at the same time, donnie understands on an intellectual level that kidnapping people and doing these scans is a crime in most societies because it's a violation of someone's personal agency. so he knows it's "wrong." the ones he was most worried about were peter, power, and casey because he knew the social blowback would be much more severe
it's kind of like how a rich person is find parking their car wrong and getting a ticket bc like, the fine is nothing to them. "financial punitive measures just make crime legal for the rich" etc etc
donnie doesn't care if strangers hate him or think badly of him because he didn't care about them in the first place.
another curl to this tho is that donnie ABSOLUTELY thought this would work. obviously he knew there was a chance it wouldn't because nothing IS absolute, but he was like, no, this is it
i also borrowed a lot from the Myth role, especially this description:
Myths are vulnerable to isolating relationships and becoming hyperfocused on goals that they become emotionally unavailable and lose sight of their own morals.
by all rights, power, peter, and casey should've been exempt from the kidnappings. only rue and leo were passed over as that was too far even for donnie currently locked in obsession, but if he hadn't been in that deep he would've left them alone too. (if he wasn't that deep he probably wouldn't have been kidnapping folks tho)
coming out of it on the other side now, i'm mulling over how to have donnie move forward after this
he's not going to be able to use Lore per the mods until he manages to articulate to lavender (visiting him in his dreams) what he TRULY wants
i'm still trying to suss that out, AND suss out how donnie would come to that conclusion
so he's going to be without any way to support himself, and i'm also going to have his ninpo be uhhhh 'sore' i guess is a good way to put it. very weak creations, if any at all.
part of that is the overtaxing, but a LARGE part of it is bc he broke the trust of his family and he has nothing to show for it
regardless of how THEY feel about what he did, he knows he's disappointed them (the reasons for that are varied and may or may not be correct) and he feels distant from them because of his own actions
he DEFINITELY need therapy
rolling back over into the autistic rep tho, i'm not sure how to approach donnie actually opening up and talking about feelings, and how to continue with accurate low-empathy writing without making donnie come off as a bastard in his post i'm gonna make for him
i think
he will probably be the most apologetic about not having something to show for it
kind of like, uh, "i disrupted your lives and your peace for this purpose and that purpose failed. and for that i'm very sorry" like that definitely feels right for him
but any questions about whether or not he feels bad that he did it in the first place would probably get a very typical donnie answer of "if it had worked then probably not really" WHICH I FEEL LIKE WILL GET HIS ASS KICKED/KILLED......again i do not have a problem with that
but i also don't want to put the burden of having to react to that to his CR
(maybe someday he can get cute icons again. but i love him and sorey they should be frands)
it sounds like a pickle
TL;DR i am researching and thinking and working out how to keep donnie true to his character and as a decent rep for low-empathy because. the last thing i want to do is do that like. LOOK A MELTDOWN but also, meltdowns happen, BUT ALSO, we are not doing the "oh poor donnie he has AUTISM" but also he doesn't communicate the same way BECAUSE of that
it is indeed a pickle
at least with the lore thing he knows some hella rich people who can buy him whatever he needs
on a more IC level, it just doesn't sound like donnie to be like "um ahem excuse me....i am autistic" and i also personally hate ham-fisted stuff like that in my own writing
fontech: HONESTLY i'm not worried about him like starving to death. and he's gonna be very lax on the science stuff for a while anyhow. he needs to take a break so this is a good excuse. SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS ONLY FOR YOU, YOUNG MAN
(also sorey and casey are already frands, sorey knows casey circled around to let him look and he's charmed by it)
(in another world without mikleo or hunter i would have shipped it)
you can probably get around it somewhat by not using the word itself but like... hmmmm maybe he could have someone help him write up a thing to explain better in a less donnie-way? like april or w/e
(wheeze they would be cute adventurey boys)
i was thinking about that; he's probably going to do a video post so people can see his face, but he might like, talk to april or someone and figure out what he should include. he'd want to be honest about it tho
i dunno yet, i'll bother KJ about this later 
if there is any way i can help with whatever i will do so 
donnie... buddy.... holds him
HE'S MESSED UP
Man, this boy got so much trauma in him
/slaps roof of that 5-head
/KICKS THE DOOR DOWN
april would absolutely be happy to help out
our hero
but also fair heads up she is probably going to mention "I want you to go to therapy >:|" in this exact crack-of-the-bed conversation they're having at some point
APRIL DOING THE HEAVY LIFTING IN THE WAKE OF THIS
she's like where's mikey.....that kid is nuts but at least he's got that high EQ.........i'm exhuasted
LMAO pretty much but look
she knows dee, if he actually wants to address people he's gonna bounce off them wrong and run into issues himself probably just let her HeLP plZ
donnie, going to april to tell her what he's doing to make things right: i am going to make a post apologizing
april: ok good start
donnie: for NOT achieving my goals
april: pause. not a good turn
april: ok good start
donnie: for NOT achieving my goals
april: pause. not a good turn
DSFLKSDF
donnie's that youtuber making an apology video going "i'm sorry you felt like i disrespected you by kidnapping you"
will he have a ukulele
and april is his good person friend who might have to stop mentioning she knows him in her streams
donnie: /pulls out a ukelele/
LMFAO
look she already quit her job b/c of maximum awkward but donnie comes first
SWEET OF HER.............never quit ur job for a man
get back in that coffee shop
look all she can remember is that one time donnie demanded she quit to spend more time with him ok
yeah and he was wrong bc how would that have helped
don't listen to him listen to me
the person writing everything he does
LMFSDF I mean also Kate messaged her while Donnie was dead to say HE'S BANNED FROM MY STORE FOREVER so
she's like "I actually really like my boss as a person but right now I might actually punch her but also she got kidnapped and deserves to feel that way hey you know what works here avoidance"
kate: he's banned from my store forever
april: he's dead tho
kate: ok good now i don't have to get signs made
april: he's dead tho
kate: ok good now i don't have to get signs made
HAHAHA
april, after dealing with helping donnie make his apology and getting him to go to therapy: ok im good to restart my job where my boss fucking hates donatello because same
fksdlf NO