#and that the conflict starts with donnie feeling like they don't fully understand him.

[aromacaque]

you want to analyze a cartoon that is something children can watch? ok here's the first and most important lesson ever.

have you ever heard of "suspension of disbelief?"

ok. next step. do you know what an unreliable narrator is and can you separate the character's perspective and opinions from the writers? because i promise you that the beliefs of the main character do not always reflect the writers and the point of analyzing media is to dissect that.

#like guys sometimes the silly jokes in the cartoon are JUST silly jokes you gotta let them be silly jokes #sometimes the shenanigans are super outlandish because it's a FICTIONAL CARTOON where sentient AIs and magic exist #i promise you. I PROMISE YOU that rottmnt's mind meld was not some elaborate problematic take on eugenics of all things #<- an actual thing i read with my own eyes #like i promise you that is literally not what the episode was doing #'they kept saying they made his brothers smarter which is incredibly ableist because it implies they weren't smart before' #ahem. it was donnie's idea of smarter #you know donnie. the one who constantly puts his intelligence on a pedestal to boost his ego #it was HIS definition of smarter and that is not the narratives definition #i think the series makes that abundantly clear with how much they make fun of donnie for whatever superiority complex he's got going on #and (in the nicest way possible) if you watch the episode it's not actually that they're getting 'smarter' what is actually happening #is that they are beginning to act more and more like donnie personality wise #and that the conflict starts with donnie feeling like they don't fully understand him. #and since donnie is a flawed character his way of coping with that is by being like 'well clearly they're inferior to my intelligence!' #(which .. if you really dissect his character is not actually what he means he just doesn't know how to constructively word his feelings)