#i need to talk more about raph ty headcanons for taking me away into this beautiful world😇

[m3eper]

OMG YES ALL THIS YES Donnie doesn't like to take charge he likes relying on his brothers more and in the episode, Donnie's gifts, it seems like he is the one taking charge and trying to make them a better team but when you look closer he even let them try what ever goofy stuff they were trying to do to fix the problem and then he GIVES GIFTS to specifically what they need so they can work as a team and lead (aka so he doesn't have to), like literally Raph gets a planning helmet, and yeah I think it's really cool to see well written thought out Donnie in charge stuff because it shows that he has had character development and is trying to help his brothers and his team in any way he can and that's just super cool

And with the head cannon stuff that's so real actually I agree because I mean why would you need to give a lot of attention to a child that's running your electricity, obviously he seems fine on his own and he won't get into a lot of trouble because he's just so smart, but that's where Donnie feels that loss of attention from and tries to make up for it in gifts, trying to please his dad but in the end it reassures splinter that his son is just so smart and doesn't need any more aid or attention than what he has now. Obviously don't get it wrong splinter loves all his children I mean he was set on letting the world be destroyed than let his kids go hurt, he has so much love for his kids he just gets so excited when he gets to teach them things but he has 4 of them and it's hard to handle he actually does deal with it well and tries his best to raise them obviously he's gonna give the youngest attention because he was younger than the rest and needed it and it just kinda kept going throughout that years because he's splinters little orange always and then Leo loves to get in trouble so he needs a lot of attention to divert his evil schemes and Raphs y'know the oldest he should be able to take care of his brothers and himself and not need as much help from his dad. It was easier to just let the oldest handle problems he was too tired to even try to look at so sometimes when it came to emotional problems with Raph he doesn't go to his dad because he's supposed to be strong and reliable so it puts so much pressure on him and splinter really sees it later in the show and realizes his mistakes.

Then theres the episode Mama's train that I think is really cool where you see Donnie get to fight more on his own without his tech and for some time without his brothers, you get to see him plan and what his ideas were, one thing that's prominent is he uses a lot of brute force with strategic planning like I thought it was funny when he just picks up a weight and throw it at the foot goons. I really thought the episode was going to be Donnie being amazing at the cool tech in the train like you could teleport anywhere on the cars but I actually was pleasantly surprised when it was more focused on his fighting. I don't remember some of the episode but I do know that Raph is the one to find the way to the front you could see that Donnie wasn't really trying to find it I don't think he really even looked at the button wall I don't think Idk actually I just don't remember him trying to get into all the stuff because he was distracting and fighting instead of his usually staying back and figuring out the train which is how it's kinda flipped they were all supposed to focus on different weaknesses and I think Donnie just had a lot of fun being able to learn on his own and not rely completely on his tech and brothers

Happy holidays!

It’s hard to say how Donnie would react in every circumstance, especially an AU, which ya know, is where I kinda live lol. But even with my EW Donnie growing up with different experiences, there are moments where i actively want him to be different, but moments i have to sit and think about how he’s still the same lovable purple guy.

Canon Donnie is such a people pleaser. Donnie’s love language is clearly acts of service/gift giving, creating inventions to make the family’s lives easier…and when they don’t, Donnie tends to either go into a denial mode, refusing any criticism, or fix it mode.

He can’t handle the idea of just dropping a project—not until he has no other choice. When Shelldon literally destroyed the lair and nearly killed them all, Donnie insisted he could improve him. When he saw the billboard for Purple Game 2, he was still 100% invested in getting that game, despite knowing full well how much damage his obsession caused, and that it was a ploy created by the Purple Dragons. When April went to Witch Town, instead of him, he took that as the highest insult to his talents. If Donnie’s got a worm in his brain for something, he’s not going to let anything stop him—sometimes even, to the detriment of his family’s health.

He loves them, obviously, but he can still be very self involved, and it often blinds him to how he’s hurting them. I personally think this comes from having Raph and Leo always there to be his safety net/older siblings. If something goes awry, they’ll take care of it, Donnie is the results guy, not the plan guy. I see a lot of fanon Donnie taking on everything— taking charge in a emergency—and I’m not ragging, I even enjoy seeing that trope of Donnie working himself to death, doing it all, when it’s written very well—but in canon, Donnie relies a lot on Raph and Leo as team leaders for support and guidance. I think if something were to happen to both of them, he’d need some time to panic and pull himself together. He trusts their judgment (only ever pushing back with a few follow up questions) and backs them up. They come up with the plan, and he figures out how to implement it, or just follows along until his intelligence (or sarcasm) is needed. The times we do see Donnie take charge, he has zero patience for it lol (see Mind Meld). He will stand back, if he doesn’t have much to do and snark about what’s going wrong.

If it’s a fight situation, Donnie’s usually not the one to charge in headfirst. In both Shredder fights (and a few others), he allows the others to go in swinging before he takes a go, and then right off the bat, he pulls out some pretty big final moves (whether they worked as final moves, well 😬) so I think Donnie tends to leave the super physical stuff to the other three, unless it’s a one vs one, or if he can see they need help. He IS a great fighter, that’s for damn sure, but I think if he can go last, and make it into a big show, he has more fun with it.

There is the attention seeking, seeing as he’s a middle child. This is where I get into heavy head canon territory…

We can maybe, safely assume from canon, that Splinter gives Donnie the least amount of attention. I do think the Splinter attention goes-> Mikey, Leo (tho most of that attention is negative from being reprimanded lol), Raph, then Donnie. And while Leo tells himself the negative attention he gets from being a little shit is the same as any attention, I think Donnie desperately needs positive attention, and someone to validate all his creations.

I hope any of that made sense. I’m not the best at writing down my thoughts on a character’s motivations and personality lol. I’m mostly going off vibes when I write.