#I enjoy watching 2k12 TMNT and I'm not ashamed to say it

[strawberryvanillablast]

So there's something that I've been thinking regarding some things about the TMNT fear episodes.

Most specifically, I'm talking about both TMNT 2k3 and 2k12 episodes.

Now, before I say anything further about this topic, please note that this is my own opinion about this subject. My opinion may not agree with yours and that's fine. I'm just putting this out there to clear my own head and air out my own feelings about the topic.

To start, the TMNT episodes that deal with the fear are:

- TMNT 2K3: The darkness within

- TMNT 2K12: Fungus Humungous

So there have been people who like to pinpoint Fungus Humungous as a showcase of showing how 2k12 Donnie's fear is inferior to 2k3 Don's. They state that 2k12 Donnie is shallow and just superficial because his fear is about April flat out rejecting him.

Don, in the meantime, has his fear of seeing Angel die right before his eyes.

...Yeah.

So, yeah, on the surface, it does seem shallow and superficial. But taking in previous episodes into account (as well as a bit of dialogue), I feel that there is absolutely more than meets the eye.

Let's take into account the human girls that Donnie himself has encountered up until this episode.

Only two.

And one of them is Karai who, up until this point, is the Shredder's daughter.

The other one is April, who's one of the only humans to actually be his friend. Sure, there was a bit of a love at first sight going, but eh. Whatcha gonna do?

And April, up until the Season 2 opener, has been nothing but nice to him. Him. A mutant turtle. In a world where the people would just reject him at first sight.

She took the time to befriend him.

She took the time to be nice to him.

And I bet that up until that point, the only love that he's felt came from his brothers and father, which is nice and all. But it doesn't facilitate human contact the way that April does.

So him latching onto her makes more sense to me because she is the first person, the first girl to treat him as an equal.

And she doesn't exactly push him away. She's kind to him and doesn't treat him as if he's an evil monster or vile creature.

...And then the Season 2 opener happens.

After that happens, in her grief, she angrily cuts them (him) down and rejects them for her dad's mutation. But in that scene, she looks at Donnie specifically. As if she wanted him to feel most, if not all, of that hurt.

Donnie is basically rejected, even though it's not because of his mutation. He's rejected by a girl who, up until now, treated him like he was a human being.

And now, that's thrown away.

During that time of hurt, guilt, and sadness, he suddenly sees someone else come into her life and basically cheer up when he can't.

More specifically, when he's not allowed to.

At first, Donnie might feel jealous of Casey because of his crush on April. But I also feel that he's envious of Casey comforting her when he himself can't...because Casey offers her something that, deep down inside, he knows he can't give her. He doesn't have the grounded normalcy that Casey gives as a human friend.

Compounding into that, there is a big tell that Donnie may not be fearing from rejection from April alone, but the possibility of rejection itself. From someone who was the first person to not turn him away because of his status as a mutated turtle.

What's the biggest tell of this sequence that a lot of people miss, you may ask?

When she turns Godzilla/Voice of the Legion at Donnie during his hallucination, she says that she'll never forgive him for mutating her father.

It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it line, but there is a massive possibility that Donnie, even after he's made up with April, still feels incredibly guilty at what happened. And considering he has those feelings for April, this guilt is magnified tenfold under the effects of the mushroom.

Of course, everyone focuses mostly on how Donnie has a crush on April.

So, in order to explain it the best way possible, picture yourself as Donnie.

You've lived your life away from people to the point where you don't know what a friendship or even platonic acquaintance relationship is like. Suddenly, you meet someone who is not bad-looking on the eyes. It's love at first sight, but then they treat you as an equal when most others would treat you with fear and suspicion.

Then, something happens and you enter a period where it's rough and you don't know whether this relationship can be savaged. It doesn't help that someone else is there to be your superior in some way, shape or form. But as the days go by and you work hard to fix your mistake, you also might wonder if you can fix it or if you will be forgiven at all.

When that forgiveness does happen, your mistake lingers in the back of your mind.

And now you're hallucinating your biggest insecurities and those words replaying in your head and hurting your heart.

Some of you might say, "Oh, I wouldn't let a crush become my greatest fear." And yeah, you might not. But I know that's there some of you that might have the same fear of rejection and loneliness.

TL;DR: 2k12 Donnie's fear is not just based on a crush rejecting him, but guilt and fear of crippling loneliness brought on by rejection of someone he likes who treated him nicely in the past because of years of not interacting with any human since birth.

#tmnt 2k12 #tmnt 2003 #though that one is briefly mentioned #i'll add more in the morning #but right now I'm tired #and salty #this is just my opinion so take this with a grain of salt #but the hate for 2k12 TMNT gets tiring to deal with #2k12 TMNT is a good show with flaws #like any other TMNT cartoon #I enjoy watching 2k12 TMNT and I'm not ashamed to say it