Dropping This Here,,, There We Go...

Work In Progress

There's so much green left 😭

Facts lol! Gotta love the comments <3

"i don't comment on ao3 because i don't wanna be annoying or weird" skill issue + you greatly underestimate the power dynamic here, writing multi paragraph comments is like feeding a bunch of deeply insane and possibly starved ducks at the park and watch them go completely mad over having received a piece of bread

is it me, or does leo look kind of evil with his mask off, if you know what I mean?

○○○○ LOL! Hmmm 🤔 Let's see...

Maaybbee...though I think it's more that every time we see him without his mask he's sleepy and a little unhinged. 😅

However, as for these scenes..

....these scenes are the ones that read me as "Evil Leo."

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Smart Leo is a supervillain.

Chapter 3 of the Crescent’s Ascent is out 👀

I have this weird contradiction where I love Leo sm but also love to torture him in fanfiction hehe 😅

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63911992/chapters/163921498

*sobs*

In Defense of Donnie's Gifts

I'm ngl I sorta think the shock collar was still just an odd writing decision but as far as PREMISE:

It CANNOT be a coincidence that this is the first time (and one of VERY few times) that Donnie's soft shell is referenced. Once, when Raph is hesitating to tell Donnie his gifts suck ass, and he uses the soft shell metaphor, and after that with Meat Sweats and his paprika, describing it as not just soft, but delicate. Weird, but he is a cannibal, so. (Side note, Meat Sweats never removed his battle shell? How does he know? Or did he take it off and replace it after the pound of butter? Is he using it to facilitate steaming and tenderness? Is it broken? I feel like it should have something in there that could break him out of the sausage links)

Then in that last little scene- "Forget it. You guys are great the way you are!" - we get the shot of Donnie from behind pre group hug, with his brothers facing the camera. (Idk if I'm making shit up, but I feel like this is a staple for Donnie episodes? It def happens in the Purple Game, maybe Smart Lair.) The framing draws attention to his battle shell. The battle shell even kinda matches the gifts, compared to the rest of their gear and even Donnie's tech, color coded and way more streamlined than stuff like the tech bo.

Donnie's soft shell is an innate, unchangeable part of him, a feature of his species, that he treats as a handicap. Probably MORE unchangeable than the character traits he sees as holding his brothers back, which they do sorta... not mature out of, but refine, rather, over the course of the show. Donnie's shell can't experience a character arc, but he sees it as holding him back. So he FIXES it.

The Mad Dogs don't really have a motivation for beating stuff up besides "Hero Time!!!" at this point. That's why it's so interesting how EARLY this happens, unlike with Mind Meld, he isn't trying to change his brothers to make them better at a task that he actually CARES about. Donnie in particular never gets a super intense moral compass besides stuff that threatens people he already cares about, and he doesn't have any grudges (no Purple Dragons) at this point in the series. Hero Goals are largely devices for him to hang out with his dum dum brothers. I'm not diagnosed or anything but my vibes are certainly... Spectrum-Adjacent, I definitely have trouble with literal thinking and reading people. One thing that happens sometimes is people will be using "task" as "reason to hang," and I will get a lot more fixated on completing said task than I really should, to the point of annoying people. I confuse "Successful Task Completion" with "Successful Social Interaction." It makes me come across as bossy and controlling without realizing it.

So, we got a Donnie who thinks Arbitrary Goals are essential to Hero Bonding, who has been treating his life like an mmorpg - armor upgrades, skill trees, grinding, sometimes fighting through random dungeons to hang out with his bros. He's probably even slightly better at Fighting Stuff than his brothers atp, he isn't dealing with a mystic learning curve and his special interest has been Weapons of Mild Destruction for years already. His brothers want to level up, take harder missions, he tries to get them there with his access to High Level Loot.

Of course, his brothers are all min-maxing, not trying to multiclass their purple ass out of squishy glass cannon town. So, it doesn't go well. Unfortunately, the lesson Donnie learns (besides brotherly affection) is that his brothers don't NEED fixing like he does. Mind Meld and Donnie vs. Witch Town sorta finish this arc out as best as the series can.

Where I would have liked to see this go:

A S2 Donnie's Gifts or Mind Meld style episode (Donnie tries to improve his brothers, to their dismay) where the motivator isn't goal completion, but protectiveness. We see a bit of the fear in Purple Game, a bit of the contingency planning with the escape pods in the movie. Maybe a more upfront "training montage" type scenario, a high tech robo dojo to develop their mad skills, or just a tense moment after a skin of their teeth Genius Built rescue.

The brothers confront Donnie eventually-- not just the passive conflict resolution of Donnie's Gifts. They get mad. Push Donnie to the point he's at in Turtle-Dega Nights. They get a rant about not wanting them to get hurt, of course, but also that he's already done so much to FIX himself, make sure he's not a LIABILITY, why can't they at least try to stay SAFE? The dangers are real now, and as far as Donnie knows he REALLY can't do anything about threats like the Shredder. His tech did nothing the first time. His brothers are the ones with the mystic mojo, and they don't even realize how SERIOUS things could get.

Anyway. Protective Donatello my Beloved. Let my boy go apeshit.

//I REALLY Like the 2003 episode where Leo is hurt and Donnie is fucking PISSED at Usagi. All Donnies should be allowed to enter a feral protective rage, as a treat.

//If anyone knows of any Purple Game Aftermath fics lmk. Like, going home, getting donnie out of the evil gamer chair, guilt, whatever. or just good Purple Dragons being Assholes content.

Echidna warriors are inclined to let the youngsters in their tribe win small battles to encourage confidence. They are also inclined to humble those who boast too much confidence lol.

Inspired request by @/niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian

When people comment on my fanfic that it’s getting a pretty angsty but I as the author know it gets worse 👇

Donatello's Inspirations

Rise Ramblings #91

So, I’ve noticed that Donatello has a habit of being inspired by what he sees and adopting those aspects into himself.

This system of integration is most prevalent when it comes to the people he loves or admires.

Take one of his favorite stims, for instance.  

You don’t have to look too far to find that phrase's source.

He admires and loves his Papa, thus one of his dad’s favorite sayings is one of his favorites as well.

This aspect of incorporation also extends to his beloved heroes.

One of my favorite examples are his signature eyebrows.

He didn’t have them, then he did. We know that he started drawing them on nine years ago (with a sharpie, lol) but I wonder where he got the idea for the eyebrows in the first place…

Before he knew that Lou Jitsu was his father, Donnie had already incorporated the man’s eyebrows into his mask. Therefore, one can argue that the adoption of Lou’s well-coiffed brows was not due to a simple familial bond. Instead, Donnie just wanted to be more like his hero, Lou Jitsu (and thought the brows were cool, lol.)

However, that’s not the only hero Donatello took inspiration from.