Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-174.126.39.102-20130623181457/@comment-995426-20150923115725

Jadepalacetrainee wrote: You my friend are very good at thinking in depth, I've never been forced to think so hard about a cartoon character before in my life. Perhaps I should look into past episodes more and study Mikey's personality to see if what you say about him appears to be true. Just now, or in general? :) I admit I'm never just satisfied with mere action-comedy. I like depth and character development.  This show used to have some of that, which is what got me watching in the first place.  And now...not so much at all anymore.  My friends who stopped watching this series tell me, "Oh, just read some IDW and enjoy that for its depth."  And yes, it's good, and its has depth of its own.  But it doesn't change that I came to love these TMNT 2K12 characters for who they were.

I always thought Mikey had a lot more potential than just comic relief, and the show gave glimmers of that. I mean, I can see four sides of him: A well-written Mikey story really should maintain aspects of all these sides, and let them show when the time is right. Unfortunately, when the writing gets really dumbed down, only side #1 ever shows, and everything else ceases to exist.
 * 1) He's an overgrown child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
 * 2) He's a sensitive romantic and philosopher, exceptionally wise beyond his years.
 * 3) He's an idiot savant.  Book-dumb, but skill-smart, and many skills (ninjutsu, cooking, cell phone triangulation, puzzles) come with little or no thought at all.
 * 4) He's also still a teenager after all, and all that that implies:  Angsts, hormones, etc.

By the way... If Showdown happened two years before Annihilation Earth, then I call BS on Mikey still being 15 years old. He and his brothers should be almost 18. When they made sure the characters wouldn't age normally, they took away the possibility of coming-of-age stories, like some other versions of TMNT have had. Can you imagine how interesting this Mikey could have been if he were allowed to age into adulthood like any other teenager? (Of course, it depends on whether you're measuring adulthood by American or Japanese standards&mdash;Americans are adults at 18, and Japanese are adults at 20, and undocumented mutant turtles are adults whenever the hell Splinter decides they're adults. XD)