Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25614818-20150410170303/@comment-26337057-20150423061141

"Well, I can say that I've never heard of any uncles and nephews who sleep together spooned or look at the other with cartoon heart eyes, except for the really inappropriate kind, and this certainly isn't Law & Order: SVU. XD To be honest, I find the whole uncle-nephew interpretation rather creepy, precisely because of how romantic they are together. "

When exactly did Mikey and Leatherhead spoon? Hugging is NOT the same as spooning. Also, I don't remember Mikey or Leatherhead looking into each eyes with cartoon hearts. Furthermore, keep in mind that Mikey and Leatherhead are NOT human. So out standards to what is appropriate would not be exactly the same as theirs. When you see two reptiles cuddling that is not an indication of sexual or romantic interest. Sorry, but I still find the implication of a romance between Leatherhead and Mikey to be creepy.

"No, Mikey and Leatherhead always struck me as social equals during their times together, with their size difference being just an artifact of their respective builds. Leatherhead always did seem child-like to me, in that he seemed genuinely socially inexperienced and had a great deal of trouble controlling his emotions."

You do just realize that you just described Bruce Banner right? He also has great deal of trouble controlling his emotions but his still an adult at the end of the day.

"It's just, unlike the relatively playful and enthusiastic Mikey with his relatively happy family life, Leatherhead seems like a tortured, traumatized child torn from a once-loving family who now has deep emotional scars, and Mikey helped him open up and learn to love life again. He did noticeably mature after his timeskip in Dimension X though—he always used to lose control of his rage, but afterwards he is never seen losing control, and speaks more often from the heart. If he had no one but himself during that timeskip, I'd say he owes a great deal of that to Mikey's influence taking root. In this sense, he actually reminds me of Vash the Stampede from Trigun, who gleans most of his moral lessons from the memories of happy younger days with a loved one he last saw alive many decades before, giving his personality a strange bittersweet mixture of playful child and life-worn old man. When Leatherhead speaks level-headedly about the heart and being a good person, he reminds me (in a more sober fashion) of Mikey when he talks about "real squishy emotions" and the "corazon" and hugging Raph to calm his grief. This really is one of my favorite versions of Leatherhead so far. "

Leatherhead is tortured and traumatized but he was NOT a tortured and traumatized child. He always came across as an adult not as an equal to the Turtles. I also didn't see much of Mikey influence as the root in his change in character during his time in Dimension X. Leatherhead was trapped there for years so of course there is going to be a change in character. Not to mention that the fact that he was already an adult before the "timeskip". I think you might be confusing Leatherhead's gentleness with child-like playfulness. There is nothing about Leatherhead that even remotely reminds me of Vash the Stampede from Trigun. Again the character that Leatherhead is most like is Bruce Banner/Hulk. Leatherhead even yells "SMASH" during the "Battle For New York" episode.

"As for Donnie acting like he's the most desirable man in the universe, the key word is acting. :) Especially after Casey entered the picture, he dialed up his efforts to impress April in increasingly ridiculous ways. Donnie's showboating rooftop stunt in A Chinatown Ghost Story is a perfect example of this kind of comedic pretentiousness. He isn't really that perfect of desirable, of course, but seems to think he can win April with feigned aggressive confidence. Donnie did seem to dial this back a bit after A Foot Too Big, though. "

Yes, I understand what acting means. What I'm saying is that Donnie never even acted he like was the most desirable guy in the universe. I don't know where you're getting this pretentiousness from. Both Donnie and Casey made desperate attempts to impress April that doesn't necessarily communicate confidence. Bending over backwards to impress a girl isn't what makes someone pretentious. It's makes them rather desperate but not pretentious. If anyone that should be accused of acting cocky and pretentious it's Casey. His thousands times more aggressively confident then Donnie will ever be.

"And yes, I've extensively read Mirage, Image, etc. I'm well into my 30s. My other big TMNT fan friends are mostly my age or older. I'm very much aware of Michelangelo's (mis)adventures in romance. :) Mirage/Image Mikey actually reminds me more of 2K12 Donnie in his awkward try-hard approach to romance, with the difference being that Mirage/Image Mikey only overthinks romance after he impulsively acts (like when he wrote A Rose Among the Thorns), whereas 2K12 Donnie overthinks romance before he chooses to act (that Big Bang Theory-esque romantic flow chart). "

I don't remember being either awkward or "try-hard" in either incarnation. If giving girl flowers is awkward and "try-hard" then any romantic gesture would fall under that category. Also, Mikey writing A Rose Among Thorns is not reflection of overthinking. It's reflection of maturity since you're supposed to reflect on your actions, and it's even better when you can use your experiences as source of creativity. As for Donnie, sure he can overthink sometimes before he acts. However, part of the reason his the smartest of the Turtles is because he thinks before he acts.