Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-4682609-20140210041658/@comment-24577520-20140222052643

First of all, I greatly enjoyed this episode, like some of you. However, I am surprised by the amount of aggression most of YOU are showing towards one another, not Donatello or even Raphael. Breathe, guys; I know how much you all love the turtles, because I adore them just as much as some of you. But guys, at the end of the day, it is just a television show, and nothing needing to get so worked up over and calling each other names. As well done as these characters are, as much as we want them to be real, THEY. ARE. NOT. Now that that’s out of the way, here are my thoughts on the main components of this episode that everyone seems to be so split up about, the Fears and Donatello:

Firstly, for those of you that think their fears should have been much deeper than they were, such as Leo’s fear of failing his family: I think that the ideas of Mikey’s Zits, Raph’s fear of letting his anger get the better of him, etc. are all WONDERFULLY creative ideas. All of them would have been awesome, except for one tiny little thing. None of you are thinking like an animator. I can almost absolutely assure you that the creators of this show bounced ALL of your ideas around, maybe even more, about the fears that should be shown. That’s their job; however, they also had to think of all the technical obstacles they had to face when animating these fears as well, and also the type of mood and tone they wanted to set for the episode. For example, we never would have had that scene when Raph and Mikey were fighting with eachother as a squirrelnoid and cockroach, or that hilarious scene when Mikey hugged Raph as a cockroach which had me on the floor. Same goes for Donnie’s fear of April hating him; as silly as they all seemed, they were realistic fears because we all know how they responded in situations similar to these when they had to face their fears. Because these were much more advanced in terms of intensity for the characters, these scenes had the perfect blend of edginess AND hilarity for the viewers. Also, you guys are not thinking very creatively in terms of what the creators gave us; when thinking about the mushroom toxin, one could argue that the toxin was not strong enough to penetrate very deep into their inner psyche, so only their IMMEDIATE fears could be detected and brought to life so aggressively. That could explain why that although minor, these fears were only lying on the surface. We all know the turtle’s much deeper fears, but if the turtles aren’t fully aware of those and are at times unable to overcome the minor ones, why go to all that trouble when the deeper fears need to be further explored?

Now on to Donnie. We’ve all seen the many sides of Donnie’s persona: We all know how intelligent he is, we all know about his sarcasm and occasional backlashes, we all know about his major crush on April, we all know he has a good heart with good intentions, we all know he has a lot to learn like the rest of them, and we also know that he is COMPLETELY aware about his lesser strengths in ninjitsu when compared to his brothers which causes him to be made fun of easily by them. (which in turn greatly lowers his self-esteem.) When you really think about his actions in the past, all you need to do is lay out every single one of his traits, and therefore the behaviors can be much more easily connected to certain psychological causes. For instance, although his crush on April may seem to be getting out of hand and “creepy” or stalkerish, just take a look at the facts: Donnie obviously has spent his whole life solving problems and making inventions, and now his biggest challenge is to find the key to April’s heart, which in this case is curing her father. He is hell-bent on achieving this, but because it’s taking a while he wants so desperately to show April that he can and will protect her no matter what, even if she’s getting annoyed herself by him trying to save her all the time. (And seriously; are you guys telling me you have NEVER stalked a crush somehow in your life? The only reason his stalking seems more severe is because, well, he’s a freaking NINJA in a CARTOON!!)

Also, when you think about it, his crush isn’t shoved in your face every waking minute; they’re only addressing it more often in scenes when they call for it because the fans like the idea, and it’s different. I think they want to show it’s NOT just comic relief anymore, that he truly cares for her very deeply, whether he should or not. (I don't think she is the nicest person, honestly. If anything, i wish the creators gave her something more for Donnie to admire besides her looks and fragility. But they're getting there, she's getting a bit more interesting in the new season which I'm liking.) Also, for those of you calling him a jerk, allow me to refer to you my favorite Harry Potter quote: "There are lights and darks within us all, the world is not split into good wizards and Death eaters, Harry." Like every character, Donnie is complex, with both light and dark inside him. It's not right to deem somebody a jerk because of a few dark spots they have inside them. In fact, I don't think Nick is ruining him at all; he is much more fleshed out. His frustration and aggression lately comes from the fact that he wants to prove he is not only a geek, and that he can also assert his dominance and power like anybody else in his family. He can be dangerous,but I think the fans like how head-over-heels he is with April because that is his vulnerability. being a mutant doesn't help him feel better either, might I add. In other words, give the guy a break, will ya?



Thank you to those who bothered to hear me out, i quite enjoy creative discussion but I do NOT think this is a place for name calling and rude comments. We all love the same thing, but WE are not going to think the same. For those of you who wondered why my comment was so long, (I apologize) I am currently studying animation and psychology at school so I could write for hours about this stuff.