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mistressoftherant-blog · 5 months ago

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Fandom Whataboutism

Well, it's been a fair bit since I've written a rant, but this one has been growing inside of me for a while, so I'm going to get this off my chest. To flag, this is an issue I've mainly been seeing on TikTok, but it is starting to creep into other fandom spaces, and I'm more comfortable posting on Tumblr, so here we go.

For anyone unfamiliar with how the term 'whataboutism' is currently being used on TikTok, it essentially boils down to people in comments bringing up random things in regard to someone making content to either discredit them or to make the original post about themselves (e.g. the infamous bean soup idea where someone has a recipe for bean soup and someone in the comments says that they don't like beans so how can they make it, or someone saying that they like dogs and immediately get hit with a 'so you hate cats?').

From what I've seen, the phrase has essentially expanded to encompass a growing behavioural trend where people seem to think that everything they see should be specifically catered to their personal taste and that, if it isn't, they need to speak up about it instead of using critical thinking or realising that they can move past content that doesn't apply to them.

And that is something that has also been rife in multiple fandom spaces that I've been in.

One general issue I have seen is people commenting on art/vids/fics and demanding that people recreate them with their fave character, or make something of their fave character/ship/fandom. This just seems rude to me. People are not obligated to create content for your favourite things. If they've created something, it is usually because they wanted to put their passion into it and share it with people who also like the same things as them. They don't owe you anything, so if their content isn't of your fave, it's best too move along as you will.likely be able to find similar content that's more to your preference elsewhere or, if you want to see your own fave reflected in it, maybe reach out and ask if you can do a version with credit to the original.

Now on to some specifics.

I'm going to use some examples here to illustrate my point, but I already know that some people may get heated if they see this post so, general disclaimer, I am not bashing anyone for having any of these characters/ships as their favourites.

I just want to highlight a certain type of behaviour, and these are some of the examples I have personally been seeing lately.

First is the TMNT fandom, which will surprise absolutely no one familiar with this account. I may be going over old ground here but, if you see content for a version of the TMNT you don't like, you don't have to engage! And swooping in with a comment about how much better your preferred version is is annoying. Why would you feel the need to say something snide about one version to big up your fave? Rise fans are especially notable for doing this, but they definitely aren't the only culprits.

Last Ronin fans are another large example of this. When someone is comparing the strengths of the turtles in a particular version, jumping in to say that Mikey is the strongest because he is the Last Ronin is irritating as all hell. Last Ronin is an entirely separate thing (and Mikey living longest is more due to luck/coincidence than him being so much better than his brothers anyway, but that's a rant for another day). And making these comments on a post about a specific turtle is a whole spit in the face. There was a cool edit of Donnie in 2012 in some of his angry moments, and so many comments were about how either Mikey or Leo were so much better than him when angry. To be blunt, if you do this, you're an asshole. There is no need to be so incessantly vocal about your personal fave on a post that is entirely unrelated to them, except to be self centred and you come across as an antagonising prick.

And then there is the Bat-fam fans who are notorious for using fanon to try and make everything about their faves. I saw a post the other day that was an animation of Dick Grayson interacting with the JL, particularly Wonder Woman that had in the description that it was about Dick Grayson. The way it was drawn and the behaviour of everyone in the vid clearly pointed to it being Dick. Yet there were a flood of Jason fans saying that it must be him because of how much he loved Wonder Woman, which is fanon? It got to the point where the poster had to update the description to say they supposed it could be Jason because his fans were being so aggressive.

Or the amount of people who try to say that the Teen Titans cartoon Robin or first season Young Justice Robin are Tim rather than Dick, despite ample evidence otherwise? And then they say that they are characterised more like Tim, as if the two don't share traits? As if Dick can't be angry, or snarky, or good with tech, so if he is, then it must be Tim instead? I've also seen people saying Teen Titans Robin is Damian, even though Damian wasn't even properly in the comics then? It doesn't hurt to do a little research, yet I've seen people try and blatantly argue against canon facts, or the words of the people creating the fan content, to try and make everything about their fave.

Last up is Shadow the Hedgehog. This bit will discuss the wider fandom, but will have some spoilers for the third movie, so please skip to the conclusion or turn back here if you don't want to risk spoilers.

It is not hard to see that Shadow is a popular character, and I can understand why he is. He's cool and he has an interesting back story and interesting powers. But some (key word, some, definitely not all) of his fans take it too far. I watched a great edit of Knuckles from the SCU and, when I opened the comment section, one of the first comments I saw was someone typing in all caps asking why no one was talking about Shadow dying. This was an edit entirely of Knuckles, yet someone was still screaming about Shadow, as if A). the majority of the fandom aren't constantly talking about him, B). Shadow wasn't completely irrelevant to this post and C). Shadow wasn't actually dead.

Likewise, there was an edit of SCU Tails, Sonic and Knuckles to Brother by Kodaline, and people in the comments were asking why Shadow wasn't included. As if Shadow hadn't been an antagonist to them for most of the film. As if Shadow had had a genuine conversation with any of them bar Sonic. Honestly, how did they think he was going to be included in a sweet montage around brotherhood when the only current clips of him are of him fighting/scaring/being a dick to them, with the Robotniks and/or Stone, and then one nice scene with Sonic and a fight montage before he sacrifices himself? He's not their brother. Frankly, I don't think it would make much sense for him to be adopted by the Wachowskis as he's always been his own separate thing, and is more likely to end up with Team Dark if they are introduced rather than having another bed crammed into the attic like he would be crammed into the Team Sonic dynamic.

Or whenever someone talks about how strong Knuckles is, and you get the 'erm actually' bros out in force to talk about how Shadow is the most powerful as he is the Ultimate Lifeform and yadda yadda yadda. And it's just, like, give it a rest already. I'm on a Knuckles post to talk about Knuckles. If you want to hype up Shadow, you genuinely have no shortage of spaces to do so.

There's also the whole matter of shipping. I feel I need to reiterate this, but I don't mind people shipping whatever they like. But I also would like to see that same courtesy extended to others.

For example, there was a post talking about canon Sonic love interests, and half the comments were saying 'what about Sonadow?' I was genuinely concerned that these people didn't understand what the term 'canon' means.

It's the same with any Sonknux or Knuxouge posts, there is always an influx of comments under them saying that they prefer Rouge or Sonic with Shadow. And I'm stuck thinking, that's great, but why don't you use some of that love you have for them to interact with posts about them, rather than engaging with content you don't like, which will inevitably end up with you seeing more of this and upset the people who do like it, especially the creator who worked hard to make something that you feel the need to shit on because it's not exactly to your tastes?

Another issue that I've seen, that isn't related to a specific fandom, is the rise of 'oh, that's just like my OC!' (And this is done with canon characters as well tbh). Although OCs aren't usually my cup of tea, I have enjoyed many stories that have OCs, and I am obviously happy for people creating content about their own characters outside of fandom spaces as well. And I have no issue with people saying that songs/memes/character dynamics etc remind them of their OC.

It is when people jump on a post of someone talking about their personal issues, or an issue that is harming people, to associate it with their OC, that it becomes insensitive. I saw a post the other day about a person who had been affected negatively by a very real issue, and one of the comments was about how this reminded someone of their OC because their OC had experienced trauma in their past. Like, do you not see how this maybe isn't the right place to bring up your fictional character?

I get that some people project their own trauma onto characters, but a post where someone is describing something that is still having a massive effect on their life because of how horrible it was for them to live through is a terrible place to bring up a character, and shows a disturbing lack of empathy or understanding of etiquette. If someone posts about something traumatic and your first thought is about a character if any kind, that's fine, but if you then hop into the comments to type about a character, you need to understand that this is how you sound: 'oh, your horrific experience and daily struggles remind me of a very not real person. Sucks to be you, but my character got awesome powers out of this situation, and the thing that scarred you physically/mentally makes for a great tragic bakstory for them. Doesn't my character sound cool guys? Let's speak more about my character and not the very real person whose story I am completely talking over in order to make everything about things I like to talk about.'

There is a time and a place to talk about your OCs, and when people are trying to educate on a topic or find a community of people who understand them, that is not your place to interject. If you are giving your character these issues in order to raise awareness/education, make a separate post.

There is definitely more I could say on this topic, both in general and in fandom terms, but this is already a pretty long post, so I am going to call it here for now.

Thanks to anyone who stuck around until the end!

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mistressoftherant-blog · 11 months ago

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TUA Finale

Spoilers below for the Umbrella Academy final and my not so positive opinion of it.

Why did anyone on the writers team think it was a good idea to have Lila and Five do that?!

I already didn't like Lila for the stunt she pulled with the kid, making Diego get attached to a boy he would never see again and then dropping the bombshell that she was pregnant. I was already a little mad that Five ruined Diego's breakout plan from the asylum, getting him stuck with a needle, put in a straitjacket and locked in a padded cell.

I never appreciated the fact that both of them call Diego dumb constantly (nor the fact that the show has dumbed him down significantly since season 1). The body shaming from Lila was also uncomfortable.

But this... this was a whole new level of awful. And because it was the end of the season and they were all dying, Diego just had to accept it and move on?? Like this was shoved in at the end for a bit of cheap drama.

Cheating is not the answer to feeling unhappy in marriage, especially not with your husband's brother. Especially not when you have three young kids. I really wish Lila could have just been a friend to them rather than in a relationship with any of them. It always bothered me how the writers basically erased Patch and then had Diego move on with Lila like what they had had was nothing, when her death was such a massive moment.

And it was despicable behaviour from Five, especially the way he acted towards Diego in his in-laws home (Or his own home, I wasn't quite clear on that). He's always been condescending and arrogant, and treated Diego in particular in a pretty shitty way, but I always accepted that he was a well-written character. This move destroyed that.

Plus, there is no getting around how weird it was age wise. Five is a man in his 60s mentally (actually, would he be in his 70s seeing as he said he was 62/3 in the beginning of the show and then they spend 7 years trapped?) and a teenager physically. It's creepy. Majorly creepy. Expecially as the writers basically threw this in because they decided everyone needed at least one love story. Which is not true. Platonic stories are just as important narrative wise, and in real life. Also odd vibes that Five's actor would have pretty much just turned 18 when they filmed all of that.

Also, did they just forget that Digeo has a stutter?? I thought for sure that he was going to stutter when confronting Lila and Five as that was a big emotional moment which tends to bring his stutter on or make it worse. But, nope, no stutter at all. (I also feel like Lila was quite patronising when Diego was stuttering last season, though that may just be me reading too much into it as I never liked her character.)

They also seemed to forget Lila's abilities. They made her stupid powerful, (and yes, call me petty, but it pissed me off that they introduced someone who could steal all of their powers and who was basically an extreme, overpowered, not like other girls character), but didn't keep it consistent. Why could she use Viktor's powers in the final fight, but no one else's? Couldn't she have just teleported them into the building instead of needing to dig the knife in deeper for Diego by saying how much she needed Five?

This season was a hot mess, and I have so many gripes with it. There were some good points, like Jean and Gene were fun antagonists, and the Diego and Luther brotherly relationship was great, but none of that can redeem just how awful it was overall.

#tua season 4 #tua s4 #tua s4 spoilers #tua spoilers #the umbrella academy #The umbrella academy spoilers #diego hargreeves #lila pitts #five hargreeves #luther hargreeves #Five Hargreaves slander #Lila pitts slander #Five hargreeves salt #Lila pitts salt

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mistressoftherant-blog · 2 years ago

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Hey, apologies for not responding to this sooner, I don't get on this account a lot, and I kinda suck at using Tumblr (I'm not great with tech 😅), but as you took the time to write out your response, I thought it only made sense for me to reply to you.

Unfortunately, I feel like most of what I'm going to say is going to have to come down to a respectful agree to disagree.

Firstly, around Bayverse. Now, I actually enjoyed the Bayverse films, and disregarding the weirdness with April, I don't mind Mikey's character all that much. And you're right, people have called.him out for that weirdness before. I was simply saying that, in comparison to 12 Donnie, people focus on it way less. I have read countless crossovers that include Bayverse in which 12 Donnie is repeatedly shamed/chastised/made fun of by other iterations for his behaviour towards April, yet they very rarely address Bay!Mikey. They tend to just ignore that aspect of Bay!Mikey entirely, immediately having him seeing April as an older sister.

And regarding 12 Leo... Look, again. I acknowledge that people do mention Leo's crush on Karai being weird, but it also is never really treated as maliciously as the way people tend to react to 12 Donnie in my opinion. Maybe I over exaggerated because I'm so used to seeing people dump on 12 Donnie, but it always seems to me like people who bring Leo and Karai up in fics will have a brief, 'it's kinda gross that you had a crush on your sister' moment, and then not bring it up again, whereas characters will harp on about Donnie and April for ages, and how weird it is because they view their Aprils as sisters.

I also agree that the relationship between 12 Leo and Karai is complicated, but you also cannot deny that some of their behaviour still comes across as flirty even after they find our that they're siblings (and, even before that reveal, they were still cousins, and Leo still flirts with her even after finding out that bombshell as well). I know you said that you guess some of it comes across as flirty, but I feel like it definitely still is. I don't see Leo as acting like a little brother to her at all. I think he respects and admires her, but I don't see him really treating her as family, (even when he tries to make it out like he cares about her because she is Splinter's daughter, it still comes across weirdly to me).

And I agree to some degree about Leo seeing the good in people in most iterations. But in 03 and 12, they definitely have a fixation on Karai being honourable. Yes, this pays off for them, but it always came across strangely to me, like he was a little too obsessed with this (more so in 12 than 03). And, he doesn't always see the good in people right away (he was still bitter towards Slash when the turtles met up with him again, and he doesn't particularly show much desire towards reforming other villains, unless I've missed something, feel free to correct me if you find other examples of Leo telling a villain that 'this isn't you').

In regards to him being less trusting towards her, this is also true to some extent. But he still puts himself and his team in danger trying to help her (both wittingly and unwittingly). It also kinda pisses me off as a Donnie fan that Leo never apologised to Donnie onscreen (or even, to my knoweledge, off screen) for what happened when Donnie got exploded, or during Fourfold trap. Instead, the situation all become about Karai again. These are mostly honest mistakes, and it's understandable that Leo will make them as he is a teenager. But he is also one of the ones who gets most annoyed when Donnie let's his crush get in the way of the team/family, but then when it comes to Karai, Leo does the same thing. I am not saying that Leo doesn't get to make mistakes, only that he makes similar mistakes to Donnie when it comes to their respective crushes.

I also don't boil their relationship down to just the crush but, again, I also don't really ever see them acting as siblings. I wish that Karai had become more integrated with the team as a whole, getting to interact with them all on a deeper level, rather than only ever seemingly interacting with Leo though. That way, I feel like they could have really made her feel like their sister, and then the crush could have more easily been dismantled.

I'm not trying to throw Leo under the bus, as I believe that this relationship, like the Capritello love triangle, were all victims of soom poor writing choices. But it's also hard to write a comparison of how the fandom treats different characters/relationships, without bringing up other relationships lol.

I like 12 Leo as a character, for the most part, but I also have many issues with him, as I am sure you probably do with Donnie, but I didn't bring these up in the post as I was focusing more on the hypocrisy of the fandom than on the character.

Truthfully, I see fans constantly slandering 12 Donnie for his behaviour, and reducing his character down to nothing more than his stalkerish behaviour (which I've highlighted before, I also don't like), which annoys me greatly, so I intentionally focus most of my posts around how the fandom treats/interprets characters, rather than just listing out things that I don't like about the characters themselves.

However, you asked me what Leo did to me, and even though I overall like Leo as a character, I do have some gripes with him. For example, how he sometimes treats Donnie as if he needs to have answers to everything immediately, putting huge pressure on him, never really apolgises, and has a bit of an ego, is a bit of a hypocrite etc. None of these flaws are damning, he's a teenage boy under a lot of pressure, but they are flaws nonetheless. These don't make dislike him, if he had no flaws at all he'd be bland and intolerable. Instead, as you said, he is a complex character, and these falws add to that.

Of course, on the same coin, I can also point out that my fave Donnie can be a know it all who speaks down to his brothers, loses his temper easily, is incredibly obnoxious about his crush on April, also has a bit of an ego sometimes, can endanger his family via his stubbornness, etc.

I am not a hypocrite, I am fully willing to admit to Donnie's flaws whilst loving him at the same time. Just because I used Leo as a comparator here does not mean that I'm trashing his entire character lol. He's loyal, and usually always has good intentions. He want to be a good leader, and he truly cares for his brother. The post I originally made wasn't on his character, rather the fandom's treatment of certain relationships.

Now onto MM Leo. I agree that Leo deserves some healthy love interests if he is going to keep getting them (I personally don't feel like TMNT should have romances at all really, and prefer the way 03 doesn't really give the turtles any love interests). However, I do wish they'd move away from using April as a love interest again. I went into MM willing to give this romance a chance, even though I, as just mentioned, don't particularly enjoy most of the canon love interests in TMNT, and also don't really like any of the turtles being shipped with April. I'll read it for 12, but I would have much preferred if if April and Donnie were just best buds as they usually are in some of the other cartoons.

And I'm sorry to say this, but I still feel like MM Leo acts very similarly to 12 Donnie. The scene on the rooftop where he first sees her is basically the exact same (as well as the way his brothers tease him), the whole perfect mouth line, the stuttering over words, the trying to seem cool in front of her, the way he acts when MM Donnie gets her number, the 'it's a date' line, the who's got rizz now bit, it all reads pretty much in a similar way to me.

Granted, he hasn't gone quite as far as 12 Donnie did, but we also have a few seasons of 12 and only one Mayhem film at the moment. Maybe they'll tone down the crush a notch (I pray), or maybe they'll take it in a completely different direction to how they handled 12 Donnie, but they just come across as very similarly to me at the minute.

Moreover, I'm going to put this rather bluntly so apologies, comparing characters is not always throwing them under the bus. My whole post was about hypocrisy, and I couldn't have made it without comparing characters. Writing a post just defending Donnie without comparators would have made it much weaker. A lot of literary criticism requires comparison.

But, as you noted that I didn't seem to be offering either Leo the same defender that I did Donnie, I will say now that much of my defense of Donnie can be applied to the other two to some degree. Karai is the second human girl Leo meets, and she is a strong fighter which is somethinh he admires. He also has little social interaction (though he has more than Donnie did when he first met April, and more exposure to the world outside of TV), so some oc his begaviour makes sense. Also, you could bring up that he didn't originally know that they were related (which loses water slightly in later episodes, but which could stand in the earlier ones).

For MM Leo, although he has more exposure to the world outside of the lair than 12 Donnie did, this is also the first time he has interacted with a girl, and so some of his awkwardness/cringiness can be explained away due to this, as well as the fact that he seemingly has a rather anxious disposition in general.

When I made the original post, I wasn't saying that neither of the Leos had reasons to act the way they do, I was saying that the fandom waves off their behaviour far more easily than they do Donnies. But this wasn't some call from me to go and attack other characters, but was instead me saying to give Donnie the same leeway that they've been given. And again, it's hard to make a comparison without actually comparing characters. I could have made a post just noting the flanderisation of 12 Donnie, but my intent was to highlight the unfair way that the fandom interprets or portrays these characters/relationships differently.

(I also find it a little funny that you're annoyed at me for 'throwing Leo under the bus' because he is your fave, but then say it would be fine for me to do so to Bay Mikey as you don't think the fandom defends him that much, and you don't really seem to like him. Does that in itself not sound hypocrical to you? Don't compare Donnie to Leo because it's unfair to drag another character into your analysis, but you're fine to do so if it's a character I don't particularly care about 🤣)

I would say that I wasn't being particularly hypocritical in my post, as although the other issues are talked about, I see far more hate for 12 Donnie or people poking fun at his character/reducing his character down to his crush than I do for either Leo, or Mikey, or anyone else in the TMNT franchise. I also see plenty of people who gloss over other crushes or behaviour, or even try to say that 12 Leo's crush was just gender envy (I'm chill with the headcanon of 12 Leo being trans, but this idea never really made sense to me, as it's very clear that Leo does in fact have feelings for Karai).

I also feel like it's a bit harsh of you to say my post is bad because you disagree with it. If you had just politely stated your case, I would have been fine, but this seems a bit mean spirited. I get that my views aren't everyone else's, but you can't just denounce my thoughts as bad because you disagree lol. I'm happy to hear that you like some of my posts, and I can understand why you might not like others. That's fine with me, and if you want to have a respectful debate with me about any of my opinions, I am open to that. I must say, I am unlikely to change my opinion on most of them. I can argue till the cows come home about most of my thoughts, particularly the one you highlighted about responsibility.

However, you may come up with a point that will surprise me enough to change my mind, and I am open to hearing other thoughts on the topic. But, if you are going to debate with me more, maybe leave out the whole, labelling my entire post as bad thing 🤣

Again, none of my posts have had the intention of turning people on the Leos, but I do still strongly feel that this is a matter that the fandom can be particularly hypocritical on. I also didn't just point out the Leos, I also brought up 12 Mikey as well, Bayverse Mikey, the 90s films, and even 03. This wasn't some smear campaign against Leo, and I in no way said that Leo was a bad character, I just pointed out that his flirting is also bad and that he sometimes puts his brothers in danger due to his crush (and I also pointed out some of Donnie's behaviour that I also don't like).

I get incredibly tired of the bad takes that I see on the Donnies all the time as well. Moreover, as I stated at the end of the original post, I want to see people either addressing all of them, or no longer throwing 12 Donnie's crush in our faces as I have seen so many stories that will either ignore aforementioned behaviour from other characters, whilst completely raking Donnie over the coals, or there will be a throwaway joke/line that points out the others and then moves on. Plus, again, it always seems as of people are far more mean spirited when discussing 12 Donnie than they are about the others.

To conclude, as I said near the start of this, I think this will be an agree to disagree situation. I didn't intend the original post to be an attack on Leo (and I still don't particularly see it to be one), but I apologise if it upset you anyway. Again, if you do want to open a dialogue on any of my other posts, or in response to this, feel free to do so. However, I'd prefer it if you didnt end it with, 'this is a bad post and a bad take'. I'd like to think that the fandom is at a point were we can see something we don't agree with, without feeling the need to openly label it as a bad post. Different schools of thoughts can co-exist, and just because you disagree with this post doesn't make it bad. I put effort into making my point and comparing with examples, and claiming that it is overall bad because you personally disagree, would be a bit like me claiming that, for instance, all food made with fish is bad, just because I don't particularly like eating fish. That's why I don't say that all fish dishes are bad, I simply say they aren't for me. You've also said that this post, and some of my others, aren't for you, which is completely fair and understandable. But saying that it is a bad post, because it isn't to your tastes, is not. Anyways, none of this is meant to be any sort of personal attack, on either Leo or yourself. I understand that seeing anyone seemingly talking badly about your favourite character can suck, and can make you get pretty riled up and defensive (there have been many times when I've seen a take that I don't like, or someone fully hating on a character that I love and wanted to scream!!), but as I've stated, this wasn't an attack on Leo.

I hope thay you have a lovely day/afternoon/evening/night!

Hypocrisy in the TMNT Fandom

I may come back to this topic at a later date, but I feel like I need to address the hypocrisy in the TMNT fandom when it comes to how 12 Donnie is treated for his crush on April, compared to other characters such as Bayverse Mikey and Mutant Mayhem Leo, or I might explode. Do I condone everything that 12 Donnie does in the name of his crush on April? No. Do I sometimes find the cringiness of his actions unbearable (keeping in mind that he is my favourite character in 12)? Absolutely. But is there context behind his actions that often gets ignored? Yes. Do the fandom vilify or make fun of behaviour from him that they let slide in other characters? 100% yes.

People love to bash 12 Donnie for his actions, without even considering the reasons behind them (poor choices from the show writers aside). April is the first human his age that Donnie really sees and gets to interact with. He's a deeply insecure character, who feels out of place even amongst his family and, as people have pointed out before me, April represents a wider level of acceptance to Donnie. If a pretty human girl can love him, maybe there is hope for him gaining wider acceptance from humanity. I do think he has genuine feelings for her, but I also believe that part of his obsessiveness is a desire to be more human, or at least be accepted by humans, and he subconsciously views gaining the love of a human to be a part of this. 12 Donnie (like most Donatellos), is keenly aware that he will never get what he wants, or deserves.

He is a genius, and that will never be acknowledged by the world. He will never get everything a human genius would get. He doesn't get go to school, or go shopping for new resources, or make friends who share his interests. He risks his life saving the world over and over again, only to be seen as a villain for the way he looks.

That's part of why he sees 12 Casey as such a threat, Casey is human and doesn't need the same level of acceptance that Donatello does. He already has everything that Donnie wants (he can go to school, make other friends etc), but yet he still wants to be with April. The first human to show Donnie any acceptance. One of the only people to even tentatively seem interested in Donnie's science. If April chooses Casey over Donnie, then that truly does mean that Donnie, as a mutant, and a nerdy outcast mutant to boot, can never find love or acceptance, (again, this would be Donnie's perspective, and it is not April's duty to validate Donnie's self worth by getting in a relationship with him - that being said, the mixed signals she sent definitely didn't help matters).

Also, his stalking is creepy, but this is a kid who grew up with no social interaction besides his brothers, watching shows that provably had dubious ideas of romance. All of his ideas of romance are influenced by media, which isn't exactly a healthy way to gain an understanding of how to express those feelings. And when he knows the exact distance to her apartment, I always thought that he was just insanely good at estimating distances? He's shown to be able to make advanced calculations around distances and things in seconds on the show, so this never really seemed that bad to me, even if the show itself deemed it creepy?

Moreover, for the most part, he does genuinely follow April when he believes she is in danger, or when she is distancing herself from them (again, absolutely not a healthy thought process, but he misses her and wants her safe, and thinks is the best way to handle it). Is it still wrong? Yes. But should Donnie as a character be completely dragged for this for eternity? Not really. Also, can we please move past reducing Donnie's character to nothing more than his failures at flirting?

There is also the fact that April definitely did flirt back with him on numerous occasions. Whether or not this was done consciously, or to manipulate him, or whatever, is a rant for another day, but 12 Donnie definitely does have reasons to believe that April could want a relationship with him. She kisses him, on the mouth, right after he had told her that he was going to stop with his behaviour.

People also genuinely forgive 12 Leo flirting with his sister more than they do Donnie calling April his sweet chinchilla (and yes, Leo and Karai are still flirty even after the reveal that they are siblings, though it is thankfully toned down later on, and though I've seen people jumping through hoops trying to deny it). And Leo's flirting with Karai (even before the reveal), is equally as cringy as Donnie's. He's the poster boy for the 'I can fix them' mentality, even when the person he was trying to fix was actively trying to destroy everyone he cared about. 12 Leo also puts his brothers in danger due to his obsession with Karai, hurting them both physically and mentally, but a lot of people sweep this under the rug and only focus on times that 12 Donnie puts the others in danger due to his crush on April, or see this as a positive thing, showing how Leo never gives up on the people he cares about.

Moving on, 12 Donnie can be possessive of April (again, not great behaviour, and not something I particularly enjoy or condone), but 12 Mikey is the same way about Renet, and no one mentions it? Donnie hugs her (or says he could hug her, I can't quite remember the exact context), and Mikey gets all pissy about it? He's known Renet for barely any length of time, and they have no relationship at this point, but he gets annoyed at Donnie having a friendly interaction with her, as if it hasnt been well established that Donnie is only interested in April? Why is this more acceptable than when Donnie gets annoyed at Casey (a confirmed love rival), shows off about being close to April?

Additionally, why are Bayverse Mikey and Mayhem Leo hardly ever given the same treatment as 12 Donnie? I see countless crossovers where 12 Donnie is given endless shit for his bad flirting, especially as it's towards someone who the other counterparts see as a sister figure, with hardly any of them ignoring how unfair it is to criticise 12 Dee for seeing April differently to the others when their circumstances are different, or bringing up anyone else's behaviour.

Bayverse Mikey is just as bad! In fact, some of the things that he says are far worse than anything 12 Donnie has said, and it just gets brushed over? Even in crossover fics where 12 Dee gets slaughtered for his crush, no one brings up the downright crude things Bay Mikey says?

He constantly calls her a babe (I think 90s Mikey also makes similar comments), and even says 'she's so hot I can feel my shell tightening' which is hella gross tbh. Sure, 'sweet chinchilla' is weird, but it's far less demeaning than babe? And Mikey keeps this attitude up throughout both films? Why is this treated as being more acceptable than 12 Donnie's behaviour? This is even worse as Bay April is clearly an adult compared to the teenage turtles, and is clearly depicted as an older sister figure. At least in 12 there is only a year age gap, and neither April nor her father had anything to do with them when they were babies.

Hell, a few chaarcters (I think 03 Mikey and either 90s Raph or Mikey) make a joke about getting to 'keep her' when they bring an unconscious April back to the lair, and no one bats an eye?? It's played off as a joke, but even so, it's still freaky, and I've never seen anyone mention it before. They don't even get admonished for it!

Also, Mayhem Leo is absolutely just as much of a cringefail flirt as 12 Don, but everyone is acting like he comes across as so much better?! We've only had one movie with him so far, but his behaviour so far isn't all that different to 12 Don's?

They basically act the same way upon their first meeting. The rooftop scene when he first sees her is almost exactly the same as the scene in 12. And the comment about her beautiful, perfect mouth? If 12 Donnie said that he'd be slaughtered, but because it was Mayhem Leo, it's considered cute? When 12 Donnie gets super excited about getting April's number even though they already have it on the fridge it's embarrassing, but when Mayhem Leo tries to get Mayhem Donnie's phone to swipe her number it's endearing? Both ramble and get nervous around her, but people think this is sweet from Mayhem Leo but annoying from 12 Don.

Plus, Mayhem Leo has far more experience with humans than 12 Donnie. He has been going outside of the lair for a while, he has definitely seen other girls before. In 12, Donnie had never left the lair before the night he saw April, she's genuinely the first girl he's ever seen in person.

This point may also be a little unfair as we only have the Mayhem movie at the moment, compared to entire seasons of the 12 TV show, but it's also irritating me a bit how many people are acting like Mayhem Leo has far more of a chance with April than 12 Donnie did, purely because she agreed to go to prom with him, ignoring her line about how it was just as friends, and the many instances in 12 where April reciprocated Donnie's flirtation (again, April kissed him on the lips in the cartoon. It is canon that she did so).

Why are there so many double standards around the turtles having crushes? Either address all of their behaviour, or stop throwing 12 Donnie's flirting in our faces. It's exhausting seeing people openly bashing 12 Donnie, ignoring all of his great characteristics due to his crush, and then turning around and glorifying 12 Leo, Bay Mikey, or Mayhem Leo, or just ignoring their behaviour. It's grating to see almost every chat fic (even ones I thoroughly enjoy!!), have a seemingly obligatory bash 12 Donnie's crush and flirting chapter, yet hardly ever address the way any of the others behave.

#tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt 2k12 #tmnt 2012 #tmnt donatello #tmnt donnie #tmnt leonardo #tmnt leo #tmnt mikey #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt bayverse #tmnt mm #mutant mayhem leo #mutant mayhem

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mistressoftherant-blog · 2 years ago

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Hypocrisy in the TMNT Fandom

#tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2k12 #tmnt donatello #tmnt donnie #tmnt mikey #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt leo #tmnt leonardo #mutant mayhem spoilers #mutant mayhem leo #teenage mutant ninja turtles #mutant mayhem #tmnt 2012 donnie #tmnt 2012 donatello #tmnt 2012 leo #tmnt 2012 mikey #tmnt 2012 michelangelo #tmnt 2014 #tmnt 2016

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mistressoftherant-blog · 2 years ago

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You're so right about people hating on other gens and trying to stop people supporting Mayhem because of Rise. It's such a vicious cycle in the TMNT fandom were people decide that they won't accept anything new, and it's such a harmful mindset to the franchise. If you don't want to watch anything besides Rise it's all well and good, but don't be petty and try and spoil all the other versions.

And yeah, I can't stand Leosagi. It's gotten to the point were I'm starting to hate the poor rabbit purely because I'm sick of seeing bland romance fics of him in a series where he doesn't even exist (which is sad because he doesn't seem like a bad character in his Canon appearances). Why is most of the archive focused on a character who doesn't even make an appearance? Why can't we just have some nice brother focs without everything needing to be about Leosagi?

TMNT Fanfic Complaints

As this blog is mostly a space to vent, and I am currently obsessed with pretty much every iteration of the TMNT, I thought I'd throw together a list of things that make me close a fanfic instantly. If you like any of these things, then that's totally fine, but for the most part, any of these things will have me dropping a fic in minutes. A few of these are aligned with posts I've made in the past, but I am noting them down anyway as this is a way of me getting out a lot of my major complaints at once 😅

No.1 Having all the brothers be abusive (particularly towards Mikey), with bonus points for any crossover that will then have one version of the turtles chastising the others for the way they treat their brothers. It just doesn't work, every set have very specific dynamics, but none of them are abusive.

No. 2 Crossover fics that make it impossible to tell who is who. This can occur in a few different ways. One of which is that the authors completely fail to differentiate different universes, making every single version of the turtles talk and act in the same way. Another is when a fic gets flooded with nicknames/pronouns/usernames, without a decent key. If you have a crossover fic with even just 3 or 4 universes, but every single turtle has multiple sets of pronouns, multiple nicknames, and multiple usernames, you really need a way to make it clear who is who.

No.3 The 'poor baby Blue' phenomenon in which every version of the turtles seemingly forgets all of the horror they have suffered because of what the Rise boys have gone through, particularly Leo. I honestly hate it when I am reading a crossover fic and all of the trauma from every series is disregarded in the face of the Rise Shredder and Rise Krang, which brings me on to my next point...

No.4 Essentially an extension of No.3, but can we all finally drop the idea that the Rise Boys had the scariest villains? Sure, their Shredder and Krang were intense, but for the most part, their villains are all pretty much played for comic relief. Either 03 or 12 had the scariest villains. And before anyone comes at me like 'Oh, Rise Shredder was a demon, the Rise Krang managed to take over the world, etc', may I remind everyone that 03 also had a demon Shredder who took over the world (and multiple others including the one who took over in SAINW), and the 12 Triceratons straight up destroyed the Earth with a black hole?

No.5 Fics that give away traits from one turtle to another e.g. making any of the other turtles better at science/math/tech etc than Donnie. Each of the turtles has their own thing, and Donnie will always be the smartest academics wise. It annoys me to no end when people try and make any if the others, usually Rise Leo or 12 Mikey, out to be a genius like him. I actually once read a fic where Rise Donnie asked Leo to help someone with a chemistry question that he couldn't handle. It's ridiculous, and usually carries over from the headcanon that Rise Leo is the medic (is there genuinely any evidence for this in the show besides Leo having a pouch? Because the only time I can recall anything medical related being brought up was when Donnie mentioned Raph's allergies). I have also seen people talk about Rise Leo loving to dance more than Donnie, even when the show explicitly states on multiple occasions how much Bootyyyshaker9000 loves to dance (also making Leo a massive theatre kid when Donnie breaks into songs and dance numbers on multiple occasions.) Or when 12 fans make Mikey the artist when it is actually Raph.

No. 6 (people will probably be mad at this one) Stop making everything about Leosagi, please! He doesn't even exist in the Rise verse, yet the entire fandom is absolutely swamped with Leosagi content. It's annoying when you are reading a Rise fic, and then out of nowhere it all becomes about Leo's relationship with Usagi. These fics also tend to make Usagi the most bland character in existence, with his two defining traits being samurai and Leo's boyfriend. They even do this to Bayverse!! Or bizarre crossover ships that start taking over everything (Why is Mikey being shipped with pretty much all of the spiderman iterations now??(

No. 7 Any fic that has all of the Donnies despise each other. I don't know if this is bias, but I feel like most of the Donnies would enjoy having people on their level to discussbthings with, people who would respect their boundaries and listen to each other's rants. And before anyone brings up their egos, most of the Donnies are shown to be able to and even enjoy working with others who are around their level (Aprils, Leatherhead in 03, Fugitoids etc). I actually think that, aside from the Mikeys, the Donnies would probably get on the best.

No. 8 One of my biggest pet peeves (that I have complained about before) is acting as if any version of the turtles is far superior to the others in terms of intelligence, fighting skills, etc. The Rise boys do not solo every verse. If they had had more training, then yeah, they would be probably some of the strongest characters. But they haven't had the training of the other verses, and mystic powers cannot compensate for everything (considering the fact that they got absolutely bodied by their Krang, you think more people would realise this). The other iterations pretty much all have more formal training, more experience fighting a variety of opponents (Bayverse and the 90s are perhaps an exception to the greater variety of opponents here, but as Bayverse Raph alone can yeet a shipping container singlehandedly with no powers, I think they're good). In no universe should the Rise boys be giving any of the other characters fighting tips.

I will probably write more of these at some point, this was pretty cathartic 😅 I also promise that I do not hate Rise, I just have more issues with the wider Rise fandom than most of the other shows.

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mistressoftherant-blog · 2 years ago

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TMNT Fandom Issues

I think I've already mentioned this before, but I've been seeing it happen more and more lately, and it's infuriated me enough to make another post about it. Can people please stop dragging other turtles and other 'verses in where they have no relevance?

I was watching some Donnie vids on TikTok and, without fail, almost every video had someone in the comments going, "Oh, but Mikey solos", "Oh, but Leo solos", etc, etc.

No one cares. Genuinely, wholeheartedly, someone making a post showing cool clips of Donnie fighting or being angry, is not inviting a bunch of people to come whining in the comments about how much cooler their fave is.

I see this the most with Mikey fans who refuse to shut up about The Last Ronin or Rise!Mikey and will shove them into everything, even posts that they have absolutely no connection to.

I was mostly watching videos of 12!Donnie, and whenever I looked in the comments, there'd be someone mentioning how one of the other turtles solo. And whenever anyone would be like, "well, Mikey doesn't actually solo', The Last Ronin would be wheeled out as an argument.

The Last Ronin has no bearing on any other iterations. Just because Mikey is the last one standing, and is incredibly strong, in that version does not mean that he's the strongest in every version. If any other turtle was the last one standing, they'd probably end up just as strong as The Last Ronin. Even so, stop drawing Last Ronin into conversations that aren't about him. If I'm discussing 03!Donnie for example, I do not want to hear about how amazing Last Ronin supposedly is. The character and plot do not interest me at all, and every time it's thrust into my view by someone clumsily trying to take attention away from another character or 'verse, it makes me even less inclined to ever give it a go.

And before anyone comes at me with the whole "Mikey has the most potential canonically", I would like to highlight that having the most potential and being the strongest are not the same thing. If he put more effort in, sure, maybe he'd be the strongest in every 'verse. But as it stands, the strongest is usually Raph, and the best fighter is usually Leo and/or Raph. (No, I am not counting Rise!Mikey as the strongest turtle to ever exist because most of his physical strength is reliant on his mystic powers. The Bayverse boys can straight up yeet storage containers with no powers).

Also, just because Donnie is usually one of the weaker fighters (I would argue that he is one of the strongest in 87 and Rise, though Rise weirdly tries to nerf him after the Draxum fight), doesn't mean that he can't keep up with his brothers. He is not weak. They all work with heavy machinery, train daily, and are great with strategy for the most part.

Deliberately going onto posts/vids/fics only to diss the character that they are about and try to shove your own fave down people's throats is not going to win you any friends. It's insufferable. Why don't I start going on any posts about Mikey or Leo and say how dumb they are compared to Donnie? It would be an unfair comparison as Donnie is made to be the smart one, but that's what Leo and Mikey stans keep doing to Donnie content. Donnie isn't meant to be the strongest or the best fighter, which I've accepted, but that doesn't mean he isn't a BAMF in his own right, with some pretty cool fight scenes.

If content does not contain your fave character, do not shoehorn them in, and/or degrade the character it's actually about. It's rude, annoying, and it's part of the reason that certain parts of the fandom (*cough* Rise *cough*), get such a bad reputation. All you are doing is making people hate your favourite characters and series, which means less chance of getting content including them.

Also, Rise!Fans, stop trying to make Mayhem posts about Risem I saw a video saying that the fight scenes in Mayhem are awesome (which they are, the animation I'd beautiful and the flow of the fights scenes is handled incredibly well), and one of the first comments was about how "I've not watched the movie yet, bit I doubt that they can beat the Rise first scenes." Firstly, if you havent watched the movie, shut up. You cant compare something you haven't seen with something that you already watched. Secondly, it is entirely possible to say that the fight scenes in both are great. Here, I'll do out right now, I think every iteration of TMNT have some great fight scenes, and Rise and Mayhem bitj definitely have something beautifully animated and choreographed scenes.

Honestly, the fandom has started making me hate most versions of Mikey on principle because they constantly force incorrect characterisations of him down my throat (he's the strongest/wisest/best at feelings, but he's also a sweet abuse little uwu bean that can do no wrong. He's incredibly smart but also mega innocent. He's amazing at reading people, but he also.just wants to believe the best of everyone. It's all so contradictory, and pretty much none of it ever actually fits Mikey).

It's the same with Rise Leo. Most of the fandom seems to make him into someone he's not, siphoning personality traits from other characters and iterations (like making him team medic, making him the one that likes to dance and sing, or the one that gets on my nerves the most, making him as smart as Donnie. That isn't his role, and none of the turtles are ever as smart as Donnie. Don't even try and fight me on that. Leos may be more strategic, but in outright booksmart intelligence, every Donnie takes the cake).

I feel like I'm probably going to get a lot of complaints about this seeing how popular Mikey and Rise!Leo are, but I am just so sick of trying to enjoy content for Donnie when every other comment section is being flooded by people dragging him to try and make their fave appear superior. If you want to gush about Mikey or Leo, go to content made about them where your input will be appreciated, rather than deliberately pissing other people off.

This may possible be my longest rant yet 😅 Congratulations to anyone who made it this far down!!

#tmnt donatello #tmnt donnie #tmnt raph #tmnt raphael #tmnt leonardo #tmnt leo #tmnt mikey #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2k12 #tmnt 2003 #rottmnt #tmnt 2k18 #tmnt 2014 #tmnt 2016 #tmnt 2018 #tmnt 1987 #tmnt 2k3 #tmnt 2k7

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mistressoftherant-blog · 2 years ago

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TMNT Fanon

Hey all, it's me, back to (kinda?) rant about the TMNT fandom again. This isn't really a complete rant though, more just me pointing out what is popular fanon rather than canon. I've seen people getting angry at fan authors/artists who depict characters in ways that don't match popular fanon, but everyone is free to depict the characters how they want, and we don't all have to subscribe to popular fanon ideas. So I've listed out a couple of popular fanons or things that I see happen in a lot of stories below, some of which really annoy me (please let me know if any of these have actually been confirmed and I've missed it!)

1. Having the boys be different ages in series were they are confirmed to be the same age. In at least 12 and 03 they are all confirmed to be the same age, so why do so many fics insist on making Mikey a year or so younger than his siblings? It ties in to my previous rant about people babying Mikey, they conveniently forget that quadruplets are a thing so that they can make Mikey younger than the rest, really playing up the whole innocent little brother thing, which actually just completely unbalance all of their relationships (it's even worse when they make him years younger, particularly in human aus), so all the other brothers are in their mid to late teens and then Mikey is like anywhere from a toddler to 10 years old.

2. Unfortunately, for the most part, their sexualities and gender identities are just headcanons. Whenever they are canonically shown to have an interest in someone, it is a girl, and for the most part they are all shown to identify as male only. Now, I am all for giving the turtles different sexualities (I headcanon most Donnie's pretty much anywhere in the LGBTQA), but you cannot tell someone that they're wrong just because they don't headcanon them the same way as you (Rise and 12 Leo fans can be particularly rabid about this, I saw one Rise Leo fan telling someone that they can't ship Rise Leo with their female OC because he's gay, which is not canon)

3. How long 12 Mikey and Rise Leo spent in the prison dimension. They did not canonically spend years there. Quite frankly, I don't believe Rise Leo would have survived more than a few minutes in his Dimension x. And at most I would say Mikey was in Dimension x for a few days/weeks. His brothers did not take that long to follow him in, and I'm pretty sure time in dimension x isn't that screwy. I'm also pretty sure that he would have had some sort of scarring if he'd been in there for year. You can make as many headcanons as you want, but they are not canon. It especially doesn't work for Rise Leo.

4. Rise Leo being the medic. I have moaned about this before, so I won't completely rehash the same argument, but there is no canon proof that Rise Leo is the medic. There is also no canon proof that Rise Leo is an imnosiac. (It's also fanon that he is fluent in Spanish. Does he know some words in Spanish? Definitely. Is he fluent? No canon proof.)

5. Giving any Donnie apart from Bayverse, Rise, or Mayhem glasses. We... we see the Donnies as tots, and none of them except the aforementioned three have glasses. None of them have glasses as teens either (and no, goggles do not count). So why does pretty much every human au have Donatello wearing glasses? I know that TMNT is bringing back the 'only nerds wear glasses stereotypes', but we don't need to perpetuate it. And if you're not just doing it because of the stereotype, why not give one of the other turtles glasses? I don't think I've seen a single human au were any of the other brothers have glasses.

So, that's me done for today 🤣 Some of these annoy me more than others, and in some it's more the conduct of the fandom (aka when it comes to gender/sexuality fanon) that irritates me. Everyone is welcome to write the turtles however they want, and fanon ideas can become pretty popular to the point were people do act as if they are canon, but not everyone has to agree with them, or like them, and getting angry at someone for not conforming to the most popular ideas is not really beneficial to anybody.

#rottmnt #tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2k12 #tmnt donatello #tmnt donnie #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt mikey #tmnt raphael #tmnt 2003 #tmnt 2k18 #tmnt leo #tmnt leonardo #tmnt 2014 #tmnt 2016 #tmnt 2018 #tmnt raph

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mistressoftherant-blog · 2 years ago

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Oh, don't get me started on height rants 🤣 No one ever keeps them consistent, and it always funny to read a fic and be like, why are they just the completely wrong height? People do this a lot with their appearances in general though, blending characteristics across variations, which can get incredibly confusing!

And yeah, it is annoying when there's a fic (usually 12 x Rise crossovers) that completely removes any of 12 Leo's characteristics beyond serious leader. He can be a massive goofball, and making him into a boring cardboard cut out just isn't fair.

I'm also glad that you agree with me on the last point. There is so much suffering across every iteration that just gets completely disregarded by Rise fans, and it annoys me so much. Yes, they suffered. Are they the only ones to suffer? No. Have they, objectively, suffered more than some of the other verses? Not by a long shot.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts 😊 it's always good to see other perspectives!!

TMNT Fanfic Complaints

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mistressoftherant-blog · 2 years ago

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Sorry if this reply is a little late, I am hopeless at using Tumblr! I am also kinda hopeless at remembering different names across different platforms (😅)

But genuinely, I love your fics so much! I am currently absolutely adoring your fic with Donnie being turned into a tot in a variety of different ways (he's such a cute tot, and seeing all of the others react to him is so much fun). The bit when they are trapped by the villains and Leo is trying to protect a recently deaged Donnie is *chef's kiss*. Every time that I see it get updated, I get so excited!!

And, your writing is definitely not average to me. I love pretty much all of your stories and drabbles. You write 12 so well!!

Once again, I completely agree with you! I am always willing to hear out other people's opinions on the different iterations or characters, but not if you are just coming to straight up bash them to my face. I think 12 and 03 are probably my fave versions overall, and relentlessly seeing 12 torn down to try and make any of the other verses look better can get tiring. So many members of the fandom will not give other verses a chance, and will instead just say that they must be worse than their fave. It's gotten to the point where I saw someone say something nice about Bayverse the other day, and I was so overwhelmed because I actually enjoyed the Bayverse films, but pretty much only ever see people ripping into them.

No version of the TMNT will ever be perfect, and different people will appreciate different things about them. It would be nice if more people could accept that.

TMNT Fanfic Complaints

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mistressoftherant-blog · 2 years ago

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I have to admit the fact that I am fangirling a little bit right now because not only have you commented on one of my posts, but you have also responded to this one, and I only realised that you are one of my favourite fic writers when I clicked your blog!

I am so glad that you agree with me, and getting to hear your thoughts as well is great!! I love the way you phrased the whole being author enough to point out faults in their own iterations if they are going to do the same to others.

I think that's one of the things that irk me the most, when criticism is completely unbalanced. None of there verses or characters are perfect, but that makes them so much more interesting!

Thank you again for responding to my post and sharing your own thoughts 😊

TMNT Fanfic Complaints

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mistressoftherant-blog · 2 years ago

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Separating TMNT Verses and Characters

This is just a quick one, because I've been seeing this happen a lot recently and need to vent, but I really just want to say that it is so annoying when fans won't stop mentioning a TMNT series or character when a post, video, fic, pictures, etc, has absolutely nothing to do with them (this is annoying in other fandoms as well tbh).

If someone makes a post about, say, the relationship between Donnie and Raph in the 03 series, why do people immediately feel the need to start comparing it to other series, or start dragging other characters in? Or, as another example, if someone makes a post about how physically strong the Bayverse boys are, why is there always at least one person who has to jump in and be like, 'well, actually, thanks to his mystic powers, Rise Mikey is actually the strongest turtle in the TMNT franchise, and he can solo anyone'. Like, who asked? If the post is clearly discussing physical strength, and doesn't even mention other iterations, why do you think they'd care about you trying to prove that Mikey is the strongest due to his mystic abilities?

Or if you're reading a post/fanfic, or watching a video that is clearly about one character, and half of the comments are going on about someone else, or just annoying copy pasted phrases (this is worse on TikTok than tumblr though honestly, why does every TMNT post, even ones that aren't about certain characters, need several iterations of comments like 'transfem Leo solos', 'Mikey solos 'I am Rise Leos girlfriend' etc)? I probably am coming across as a bit of an ass here, or I am misunderstanding something, but I just can't see what value these comments bring to a video. Sure, people are free to say whatever they want, but if you are commenting on a video about one character, and the comment is solely a phrase like the ones mentioned above which have no relation to the topic of the video, I just don't understand the point.

When you're in a fandom with many different iterations of the source material, you need to learn that not all of the content is going to be geared towards your particular favourite, or your particular favourite character, and trying to interject them into everything is just going to engender bitterness towards parts of the franchise, certain characters, and even amongst the fandom. I think we've all seen posts that are annoyed at Rise fans constantly trying to take over posts, fics, polls, etc that have nothing to do with Rise, or trying to tell people that their characterisation is off because they are writing/talking about a different version, and some Rise fans don't always seem to realise that the dynamics are very different in other versions. Though I do tend to see this happening more with people who are primarily Rise fans, other parts of the fandom do the same thing, which can get pretty tiring.

I honestly think the fandom would all get along a lot better if everyone could take a step back and remember that not everyone is coming into the fandom for the same things. My favourite character across every iteration I've checked out, (and I have watched/read and enjoyed quite a few iterations at this point so I have experiences across most of the fandom), is Donatello, which is probably obvious from my previous posts, and if I was paid every time I've seen someone jump in on a post about, say 12 Donnie with a comment like 'Rise Donnie would be laughing right now, Rise Donnie would be cringing, Rise Donnie would never', I'd be rich enough to buy the rights of the TMNT myself. Obviously all of the Donnies wouldn't do the exact same things or react in the same ways to everything. They all have the same core, but they are also different characters in different universes with different experiences. Of my post is specifically about one version of Donnie, I don't want a bunch of people comparing him to other iterations or characters, or just generally shitting all over him.

Or a post about something traumatic that Donnie went through, and then someone leaps in with a 'yeah but the Leos obviously have it worse, they've gone through this, and this, and this.' Alright, but this is about Donnie so again, why should I care? If I wanted to discuss Leo's trauma, I'd have mentioned this in the post, or made another post about it.

I think that one of the most egregious repeating examples of this that I have seen is usually attached to the phrase, 'what about x character'. If someone creates something about one character, and you immediately hop in with a 'what about x' it kinda makes me want to scream. Say I made a post talking about how 12 Donnie actually makes a pretty good leader in some episodes, someone jumping in to say'well what about Raph or Mikey in these particular eps' would infuruate me. Or if I say, '03 Donnie really suffered in SAINW, someone jumping in to say, 'well what about Mikey, he suffered too' is more annoying than anything.

We all have to curate our own online fandom experiences, but part of this should also involve the realisation that other people are also trying to curate their experience, one that might be fundamentally differeny from what you want, and that, by trying to interject things about other characters and iterations where they arent wanted, you are probabky just going to make people annoyed.

Some people (maybe not all, but definitely some) will not want you to hop on their post and make it all about a character or series that isn't relevant to what they are talking about, and if you do so, you may face some kind of backlash. I have seen countless people grow bitter towards certain parts of the franchise/fandom and characters because of things like this (I know that I can grow irritable when half of the content that I consume ends up being buried in comments about things that are completely irrelevant). And this isn't just fans of one particular iteration or series, even though some fans have more of a reputation for doing this than others.

I guess my main point is to just have some consideration for others, and reflect on whether or not you'd be annoyed if someone commented on something that you'd worked on talking about a character you don't particularly like, and making everything about them. It can really suck, and I've seen people become discouraged when an excellent fic, character study, post, vid, etc of their favourite character gets flooded by comments of, 'this is more like x character, imagine x character in this scenario, but what about x'. Obviously this isn't the same for everyone, and some people actually do invite people to discuss other versions and characters on their posts, but I still think people need to consider whether or not the comment that they are posting is just going to end in an argument where no one comes away happy.

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mistressoftherant-blog · 2 years ago

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TMNT Fanfic Complaints

#rottmnt #tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2k12 #tmnt donatello #tmnt donnie #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt mikey #tmnt raphael #tmnt 2003 #tmnt leo #tmnt leonardo #tmnt 1987 #tmnt 2014 #tmnt 2016 #bayverse donatello #bayverse donnie #tmnt raph #tmnt 90s

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mistressoftherant-blog · 2 years ago

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Stop Babying Mikey 2k23

This is partially a follow on from my post about how 12 Mikey isn't abused by his brothers, but I want to focus in on how much people across the tmnt fandom (I've seen fics in nearly every verse that do this), completely and utterly baby Mikey, and how it doesn't make sense.

For a start, in every verse but Rise (and possibly 87), it is implied or outright stated that the boys are all the same age. Especially 12 which starts on their joint 15th birthday. I feel like a lot of fans who get into the franchise via Rise decide that they can't all be the same age, and therefore decide to make Donnie and Raph a year younger than Leo, and then Mikey a year younger than that, or an even more weird age gap.

I see this a lot in human aus especially, as if people seem to forget that quadruplets are a very real thing.

It seems to me that people just want an excuse to baby Mikey, and so they decide to make him even younger, even when this directly contradicts canon.

Even in Rise, Mikey is only 1 year younger than the twins.

So why do people treat him like he's far younger than the others? It's especially irking in the Rise fandom when there is a whole episode dedicated to Mikey being fed up of being babied by his siblings (mostly Raph), though a few of the other Mikey's also get annoyed when treated as a baby.

Sure, for the most part, Mikey's are far more childish than their siblings, and tend to act far less responsibly.

But they aren't innocent, precious, angels who radiate positive energy, know nothing of the world or, horror of horrors, about sex, who can do no wrong.

They can be naive about a lot of things, and their brothers definitely try to protect them from the worst of aspects of their lives when possible, but some people take this to the absolute extreme in the most ridiculous ways.

I've seen so many fics about 12 in which Mikey knows nothing about sex, despite the fact that he canonically makes a sex joke (not that kind of sub) within the show. He's also a teenage boy, and despite their social isolation for most of their lives, they have access to enough books, shows, comics, and the Internet in some series, that it is incredibly unrealistic that they wouldnt have even the vaguest ideas around sex.

Or when fics have all the brother swearing, but they won't let Mikey say any bad words, ever.

There is also a pervading idea that 'Mikey gets punished all the time by his brothers for no reason, how could they be so cruel, he's only trying to help', despite the fact that Mikey spends so much of the shows (mainly 12 and 03) deliberately ignoring any boundaries his siblings set in place.

In 12, he constantly antagonises or stresses out both Raph and Donnie (he even riles up April's dad during the Krang invasion, and pokes fun at numerous other characters), and yet they are the ones seen as bad guys for when they inevitably lash out at him.

He also openly plays around with chemicals that are rare and/or expensive, not to mention dangerous, during times of crisis, and yet Donnie is seen as the bad guy for yelling at him or not wanting him in his lab. Purely for his own entertainment, Mikey risks the lives of himself, his brothers, his friends, and everyone that Donnie is trying to save via retromuatgen, multiple times. This also shows an incredible level of disrespect to all of the work that Donnie puts into his experiments and machines.

And don't even get me started on the 12 Croaking episode. Oh sure, Mikey completely destroys the place multiple times, even though it doesnt belong to him, and then decides to run away rather than helping to clean up his mistake purely because he actually got called out for his actions, but then somehow everyone else is in the wrong for being frustrated with him?

I think part of this mentality in the fandom is because, like I said in my previous post, Mikey is hardly ever punished by the narrative. In 12, his mistakes get him a cool new pet, he is somehow able to cure Donnie in Creeping Doom by basically pure luck and is then praised for this (as if it wanst his fault in the first place that Donnie almost permanently lost his mind!!), and then later on when he plays with mutagen during the invasion, he somehow manages to stabilise it, and Donnie gets told off by Splinter for being mad at him messing around with the dangerous solution that he has been working hard over and neglecting his health to complete for months.

Even in 03 Mikey is rarely punished by the narrative, and he also pesters Raph just as mich as 12 Mikey does.

In an ep in Fast Forward, even though he tries to cut in line for a new game, and is only interested in stopping a bunch of dangerous thieves so that he can get a copy, (behaviour which, in a kid's cartoon especially, should not be rewarded), he is still given a copy of the game at the end of the episode.

And then, one of the instances that really ticks me off, is when Raph gets powers via the superhero Cape in in that Back to the Sewers ep. Mikey spends the entire episode throwing a tantrum, to the point where he almost gets both himself and Raph killed, almost let's the bad guy win because he is too busy trying to physically wrestle the Cape away from his brother whilst they are being actively attacked by a dangerous enemy, almost lets said enemy get his hands on the cape and its powers, and then damages the Cape by trying to snatch it from Raph, only for him be allowed to use the Cape later on, giving him the chance to experience superpowers like he dreamed of.

Surely it would have been much more narratiely satisfying for Mikey to have taken a step back at some point in the episode and realised that Raph deserved to be a superhero using the cape's powers, and then maybe have him step in to support Raph, proving that he could still be a hero, even without powers? If they had handled it that way, it would have been far less annoying if Mikey was allowed to use the Cape at the end of the episode as a reward for doing the right thing. Instead, he spends and entire episode whining and pouting like an entitled brat, before almost getting himself and Raph (who had been using the Cape's powers to help save people), and then is still rewarded by getting a chance to use the powers anyway??

It's endlessly frustrating when other characters within these shows receive far more severe narrative consequences for either similar, or far less selfish actions than Mikey's.

I think this happens slightly less in Rise, but the fandom baby Mikey even harder. I genuinely don't think people grasp how small the age difference is between the twins and Mikey. I see comics of the twins walking around and talking in full sentences and looking to be around 5 years of age, but Mikey is a tiny baby swaddled up, unable to do anything at all. The age gap is not that large, he is not that far behind them developmentally.

My sister is just about 2 years older than me, and for most of our childhood people who didn't know us would mistake us for twins. There is no way that Mikey (again, only a year younger than the twins), would be so far behind the twins developmentally.

By the time they're toddling, he should at the very least be crawling.

To conclude yet another TMNT rant, I am just so sick of people completely and utterly infantilising the Mikeys. I see story upon story of Mikey being oh so sweet and innocent, unable to cope with seeing his siblings hurt in anyway (I have legit seen stories in which on of his brothers is severely hurt either physically or emotionally, and yet far more attention is given to Mikey who will be having an absolute breakdown, leaving the injured party to pretty much bleed out in the background whilst Mikey is coddled), or who could never say a bad word about anyone (even though he insults or winds his brothers up on the daily), acting as a therapist for the team (he does do this to some degree, particularly in Rise, but he is also just as likely to capitalise on someone's fears as he is to do anything about them).

It's also really annoying to have people act as if the Mikeys are far younger than their siblings when they are the same age, except for Rise, but even then the age gap is basically negligible.

He isn't a poor little uwu bean that gets unfairly picked on by his brothers. He's a little menace that is hardly ever punished for his actions.

#rottmnt #tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2k12 #tmnt donatello #tmnt donnie #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt mikey #tmnt raphael #tmnt 2003 #tmnt leo #tmnt leonardo #tmnt 2k3 #tmnt 2k18 #tmnt #Teenage mutant ninja turtles

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mistressoftherant-blog · 2 years ago

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TMNT and Responsibility

I've posted a couple of TMNT thoughts on here recently that have been surprisingly well received, but I think this might be my most divisive so far 😅 I want to take a look at responsibility in relation to Leo and Donnie. This crosses most iterations, though I have made notes where there are exceptions.

A lot of people (both within the shows and within the fandom) tend to put quite a bit of emphasis on the weight that Leonardo is under as leader of the team (this is a little trickier in Rise due to Raph initially being the leader as well as being the oldest, but even in the Rise fandom there is a lot of focus on the pressure that is unexpectedly put onto Leo).

Now, I want to make a distinction here between the responsibilities of being the eldest brother, and the responsibilities of being the team leader, because they are not the same thing. Every Leo (barring Rise) is the oldest son for their entire lives (obviously😅). As the oldest, they are held to certain standards and expects to watch over their younger brothers. However, their brothers aren't that much younger than them even in Rise (and even though the fandom loves to baby all of the Mikeys, though that's a rant for another day), and so the responsibility is more along the lines of setting an example and helping Splinter out a bit more.

He is also usually more dedicated in his training than the others, though he enjoys training so this is also seen as a hobby until things get serious.

They only really become team leader when they are in their teens (I'm pretty sure every show has a moment where we see the teenage Leo accepting or asking for the responsibility of being in charge, though I'm not too sure about 03). This is an immense burden, putting the lives of their friends and family directly into their hands and forcing them to make tough choices. However, as mentioned, this burden is placed on them when they are teenagers. I am not dimishing that it is awful to expect a teenager to make plans that may include sacrificing themselves, their family, and/or their friends for the greater good, but up until their mid teens, when they start going to the surface and fighting enemies, their responsibilities are primarily more geared towards being older siblings (providing comfort, discipline, etc)

Now, this is the part where I am expecting some people to get angry with me. Unlike with the Leos who get the majority of their burdens acknowledged by the shows and the fandoms, Donatellos', for the most part, seem to be ignored, and even when the pressure they are under is acknowledged, it tends to be brushed off later on or is given a one episode focus that doesn't end up alleviating any of his duties (in 12, Leo never apologised for what he said in Fourfold Trap and I am still furious)

As the second youngest, Donatellos are still seen as needing to protect the youngest sibling, and also receives far less protection/leeway than Mikey does (that isn't to say that his brothers never protect him or show him any younger brother privileges, but Mikey tends to get away with far more than Donnie ever would, as I mentioned in a previous post, Mikey generally gets far fewer consequences for his actions within the narrative of multiple iterations).

Don also has the most responsibilities out of the entire team (this is again a little bit harder to say for certain in Rise as no team medic is confirmed, though I personally believe that Rise Donnie is the medic seeing as he is the one who brings up Raph's allergy, and having Leo be the medic when he was also going to be made into the leader doesn’t make sense to me).

He keeps everything up and running, the electricity, probably their clean water, their vehicles, their phones, their recreational tech, their security, etc. He's usually an emotional sounding board for the team (especially Mikey). As stated before, he also tends to be the team medic, and usually serves as a second in command to Leo, helping him brainstorm/finalise plans, and also often taking over as leader in Leo's stead when Leo is unable to lead, or when the mission relates to one of his specialities. Poor 07 even has a job on top of his usual responsibilities whilst trying to be leader.

And the Donnies have probably been handling most of this since they were pretty young (though, like Leo, their responsibilities do ramp up when they are teens) When their responsibilities increase, their brothers' lives are constantly placed into their hands. If their vehicles don't work, they can't make an escape. If their security fails, they might not be prepared for an attack. If they can't figure out a solution to a number of issues on the fly in the middle of some seriously stressful situation, the mission fails and the people that they care about could suffer for it. If they can't figure out how to patch them up, they die.

It just annoys me a little when people go on and on about how Leo has been martyred his entire life, sacrificing his entire childhood when, for the most part, his childhood was the same as his brothers up until they were teens, and Donnie probably had more responsibility as an actual child.

Although they would have had some responsibilities as the oldest, it was probably nowhere near as much stress as the fandom likes to portray. Rise Raph is a bit of an exception to this as their Splinter seemed to be a lot more neglectful due to his depression, and so Raph probably had more responsibility in raising his siblings.

So, as a sort of conclusion to this long rambling post, I just wanted to acknowledge that, although most of the time Leo is viewed as the brother under the most pressure, I fully believe that Donnie is a strong contendor for the title of brother with the most responsibility. An awful lot of their day to day life and their missions depend on Donnie being able to fix things or whip up a miracle. Also, like Leo, Donnie is often put on the spot, forced to make split second decisions that could tip the balance either for or against them.

#rottmnt #tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2k12 #tmnt donatello #tmnt donnie #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt mikey #tmnt raphael #Tmnt raph #tmnt leo #tmnt leonardo #tmnt 2003 #tmnt 2k18 #tmnt 2007 #tmnt 2k14 #tmnt 2k7 #tmnt 2k16 #Tmnt 2k18

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mistressoftherant-blog · 2 years ago

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I totally agree with you!

It can get kinda infuriating to see over and over again that the Rise boys would decimate all of the others purely because of their powers or the fact that they were created to be weapons.

The key word here is created. They weren't trained or raised to be weapons. Until their mid-teens the Rise boys never trained seriously. Pretty much every iteration showed the kids training seriously with their weapons etc since childhood (I know both 03 and 12 had childhood training flashbacks).

And they've fought and won against opponents with powers before? Both 12 and 03 at the very least have fought against an array of aliens and/or empowered villains/mutants.

Do I think it would be easy to defeat the Rise boys? No. They are insanely powerful. But they are also nowhere near the same level of sheer experience and training of the others (03 also had a variety of different teachers, not just Splinter, as well as their own mystic power arc).

Each iteration (and each turtle) all have their own strengths and weaknesses. Rise doesn't somehow trump all of them in every way, and acting as if their trauma is far beyond anything that the others have experienced shows either an annoying level of bias, or a complete lack of knowledge of what actually happens in the shows.

TMNT Crossover Fics and Trauma

Something I find really weird about some writers in the TMNT fandom is the absolute insistence that if a bunch of different iterations met up, they would all be horrified at what happened in Rise, being shocked that they've gone through such terrible things at their age, and then would coddle the living daylights out of the 18 boys after learning about their Krang/Shredder. Warning, spoilers ahead.

Don't get me wrong, the Rise boys do go through a lot of traumatising incidents at a young age, and if you consider the other turtles to be older than them when they meet they probably would try to help out. It's just, every iteration of the turtles goes through a lot of traumatising events at a young age, and most crossover fics just seem to sweep these under the rug to prioritise Rise.

I guess this is fine if Rise is your fave version and that's all you want to look at, but it always comes across as weird to me when you have characters from 12 for instance being like oh no, 'one of you got possessed and forced to fight the others, one of you got melded with a piece of tech, one of you almost got locked in a prison dimension, and your city was invaded by Krang, etc, I can't even imagine the suffering you have been through', when all of these things have happened to the 12 boys before, some even multiple times.

They've all been possessed/mind controlled and used against their brothers, Donnie merged with the Speed Demon, the Krang have invaded their city, their entire world was destroyed! Same with 03, they've been possessed/mind controlled, their city was taken over by the Demon Shredder (and Don saw the SAINW Shredder controlled world), they had to fight at least five Shredders, one of whom was also a demon, etc etc Also, as most of the other series ran for longer than Rise (trust me, I am also annoyed that we didn't get more of the 18 boys as 18 was the first show to properly get me into TMNT and I do love it), they also went through more traumatic events than the 18 boys.

Again, I am not trying to say that what the 18 boys went through isn't traumatic, because they definitely had a lot of bad stuff happen to them. But it does feel so weird to dimish everything that the other turtles went through when they were pretty much the same age as the Rise boys.

Take, Donnie: In 03 he's double mutated at least twice, tortured by an invasive mind probe that also electrocuted him, lost a friend to another dimension, got sent to an alternative future and learns that another of his friend and his father are dead before he watched his brothers get killed in front of him, believed himself to be responsible for the loss of his father and went through his own mini depression arc trying to cope with thlle guikt whilst working to bring him back, and that's all off the top of my head.

Poor 12 Donnie... he has died multiple times one of which was beinh literally torn apart on a molecular level by a possessed version of the girl he loves, has also been double mutated and/or possessed multiple times (not sure whether being turned into a vampire counts more as death or mutation), has immense guilt over a variety of things that aren't actually his fault (Leo's coma, when they thought Splinter died during the first invasion, everything that happened with Pulverizer), has also been tortured via electrocution to the head, spent an episode being beaten up by his mind controlled brothers only for them to be snapped out of it pizza, is constantly pressured to be able to fix/solve everything and is frequently told he isnt good enough etc etc

Again, these are examples for just 03 and 12 Donnie that come from the top of my head. Looking at other iterations and characters would make this post even longer than it already is, but I think the Donnie examples alone are enough to prove my point.

In conclusion, if you are writing a crossover fic with Rise as the central point of focus, that is completely fine! If you want to mainly prioritise looking at their trauma because the others are older than that is valid. I just wanted to point out that it can come across a little weirdly if you have some of the characters being completely horrified by the events of Rise, and acting like they could never even begin to understand what they have been through when they've all had similar trauma in their own pasts. Or when you have a bunch of characters being like, 'Oh you almost died, you are turning my scales grey', when they have all almost or actually died multiple times.

It's just a little funny to me for example to have any of the 12 sibling act like, 'I can't even imagine how much you must have suffered when you thought Leo was lost in the prison dimension' when their Donnie has legitimately been killed in a horrific way in front of them, their dad has been 'killed' in front of them multiple times, their own Leo pulls self sacrificial stunts, their entire world was destroyed in front of them, etc

This may just be me coming across as a little bitter but, if you are doing a crossover, it doesn't make sense to me why you would just ignore all the events of the other shows completely in order to make it sound like Rise had it the absolute worst. It seems like it would make more sense to have the characters relating to one another around shared or similar traumas 🤷‍♀️

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mistressoftherant-blog · 2 years ago

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TMNT Crossover Fics and Trauma

#rottmnt #Tmnt #tmnt 2018 #tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2003 #tmnt 2007 #tmnt 2k18 #tmnt 2k12 #Tmnt2k03 #tmnt donatello #tmnt donnie #tmnt leonardo #Tmnt Leo #tmnt raphael #Tmnt raph #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt mikey

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mistressoftherant-blog · 2 years ago

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The 2012 Boys and Mikey

I have seen so many posts and fics claiming that most of the '12 boys are abusive towards Mikey, as well as saying that 12 Mikey would be treated so much better by the Rise boys, and I just wanted to take a minute to explain why I don't really agree with this take, why I think it is painting the other 12 boys in a particularly unfair light, and why I can't really see the Rise Donnie treating 12 Mikey in a different way than 12 Donnie.

Firstly, and an argument that probably everyone has heard before, is that whenever Mikey is slapped or is made fun of, this is a normal things for siblings. And I 100% agree with this. I myself only have an older sister, so I can't quite say that I know what having brothers is like, but from my own experiences (and what I've seen/heard from family members and friends), most siblings, especially brothers, will be at each ohers throats both physically and verbally one minute, and the next will be laughing and joking together. Because you know your sibling doesn't really mean it, and most of the time you're giving as good as you get. Which brings me on to my next point, which is that Mikey absolutely gives back as much crap as he gets.

Throughout the series, Mikey is consistently shown to be a stereotypical, annoying little brother. He will constantly poke and prod at his brothers, despite being well aware of their tempers and how they will respond to his taunting (he does this to both Raph and Donnie's tempers, and also messes with them when they are stressed out/scared). He is also very willing to insult his brothers, as they do to him. He's not some innocent baby getting assaulted whenever the mood strikes his siblings, he instigates all the time.

Another thing that irks me is when fanfics portray 12 Donnie as being a worse brother than Rise Donnie for not wanting his Mikey in his lab. This is completely unjustified seeing as both Mikey's are pretty different characters who react to things differently, which in turn influences how their Donnie's treat them. Rise Mikey seems to come across as more mature in many ways than his counterpart. Sure, he still likes to fool around, and he can still be clumsy, but for the most part he seems to be (for lack of a better word) a bit more respectful towards his brothers' boundaries. 12 Mikey, on the other hand, is often shown to be messing around in Donnie's lab/with dangerous things, causing a bunch of accidents and endangering others numerous times. Of course 12 Donnie wouldn't want him anywhere near his lab, Mikey could get hurt, could get someone else hurt, or could destroy a bunch of research/equipment which would mean wasting a bunch of Donnie's time/effort, as well as a need to replace items which are already hard to come by when you are a mutant living in a literal sewer.

I also believe that Rise Donnie would refuse to let 12 Mikey anywhere near his lab after seeing the carnage he regularly causes. No little brother from an alternative dimension privilege would stop Rise Donnie's homicidal tendencies one his lab gets blown up for the nth time after 12 Mikey touches something he was warned to stay away from. His own brothers barely get a pass. Also, the Rise brothers are also shown to hit each other when someone is being too annoying etc (of the top of my head, I know Raph smacks Donnie with a sandal during The clothes don't make the turtle)

This is in no way me bashing 12 Mikey, he doesn't set out to hurt anyone most of the time (again, he does set out to rile his brothers up a lot though), but I'm rather frustrated with people acting like he gets treated absolutely awfully in the show, when half the time he doesn't even get held accountable for his own actions (his negligence mutated ice cream kitty, he gets a cool pet out of it. His actions almost get Donnie's mind destroyed, he somehow manages to create the cure and faces basically no punishment for it. Other characters are punished in similar scenarios, for example, Raph loses Spike due to his mistake with the mutagen, and also almost gets himself and his brothers killed, even when Slash becomes good, it still isn't the same.) It's also unfair to act as if Raph and Donnie are abusive. Sure, they aren't always perfect, and they could probably stand to shout at him and slap him less, bit I think their reactions are mostly justified, and again, fairly standard when it comes to siblings.

12 Splinter also seems to get on Raph and Donnie's cases more for teasing/taunting their brothers, whereas I can't really recall Mikey being told of for doing the same thing (please let me know if I am wrong on that), though that is a whole different kettle of fish, looking at how Splinter definitely favours Leo, and to an extent Mikey, over Donnie and Raph.

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