#best autism rep Donnie

[echonvoid]

Tired, Sensory Overloaded Autism Squad

I apparently also fell in love with drawing desi Iida, and decided him and Donnie would definitely hang out cuz one is fucking amoral as hell, and the other has tried to commit murder as a form of vengeance at least once. Like, they definitely are far more similar in their chaos then they are different.

And Iida would get roped into all the chaos that mei and Donnie would cause in the support course workshop, very much against his will

I’m gonna try translating my horrifying handwriting for y’all: (starting at top left, I guess)

(Iida) gets LASIK (maybe ?)so he doesn’t have to worry bout it in the field (mostly I just was not wanting to deal with glasses atm)

(Iida) Confused, can’t see a damn thing (clearly no LASIK in the collapse of society rn); high (? Maybe ?) empathy autistic

D: can see fine, is just a judgmental bitch; confused, low empathy autistic

So, there’s more to translate, and I wanna get better with id description thingies, and I’m tired as hell and getting over Covid. So I’m gonna just publish this now and update when I’m feeling better

[dontron-9000]

VOTE VOTE VOTE for the ourple king!!!

➡️ @autismswagsummit ⬅️

14 hours to go! Our boy is in the lead, but Kris could still catch up!

HOLD. THE. LINE.

[thejadecount]

I love it how in the past few weeks there’s been a noticeable surplus of videos with people going “WAIT RISE TMNT IS ACTUALLY GOOD FUCK” and I don’t know if I should laugh or cry.

Sunfur - My descent into Rise of the TMNT madness

heybuwan - alright let’s talk about donnie | analyzing rise of the tmnt’s autistic coding

heybuwan - rise of the tmnt is great you guys are just mean | how nostalgia destroyed innovation

CellSpex - Rise of the TMNT is Great Actually

[dysfunctional-doodle]

too many turtles made me headcanon mutant mayhem mikey as having dyscalculia :]

do you have any neurodivergence headcanons for the turtles you want to share? (can be about what they have or what they do)

I hc mutant mayhem Donnie and Mikey as austistic (they literally had the autism rep stickers in the concept art for both of them so it’s kinda canon to me), and so are most of the Donatellos in some way, some higher on the spectrum than others because…it’s Donatello. Just like how I hc that most Michelangelos have ADHD or ADD, I see it not as a trait that defines their character but a trait that has helped build their personality in the best way possible :)

Also, mutant mayhem leo I hc as having an anxiety disorder that, like some anxiety disorders often do unfortunately, worsens as he grows more mature. And I hc that 2003 Leo suffered from depression in season 4 and still has episodes that his brothers help with. I actually have included this aspect in my future design of him - he has his brothers’ mask tails woven with his own to remind him that he is not alone and will always be supported by them.

And finally, Raphael. I hc that 2003 Raphael also has autism, hence his struggles with controlling his emotions and frustrations at change (for example, he was very uncomfortable in Fast Forward, when they travelled to the future).

Obviously no one has to agree with these, I only really hc them to aid me in writing their characters rather than draw attention/label any of the bros in Too Many Turtles just by these neurodivergencies

Feel free to discuss your own hcs, or disagree with mine! I am sorry if I offend anyone with any of these, I am very eager for some reeducation if I have accidentally offended anyone :)

[remedyturtles]

Hi Rem!

Just wanted to say that the way you write Donnie’s autism hits a bit too close to home, sometimes. I often go back and read your fics that focus on that, and seeing the representation feels quite fulfilling.

I wanted to ask: are there any fics that come to your mind that feature Austic™️ Donnie? Doesn't have to be the main plot, just the ones you enjoyed reading :>

(I even read your autistic Technoblade fanfics bc you often write autism well, and I didn't even watch dsmp or anything-)

haaallo!!! thank u :D

autistic donnie is literally the most important thing in the world actually. i was tempted into the rise fandom bc i was told there was good autistic rep, which i am always looking for myself.

for fic recs, off the top of my head:

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy by ToshiChan

clandestineClairvoyant (audioEidolon)'s Little Scraps of Wisdom series, thinking of in particular, Best Interest

tangledinink's I'm Sorry Teenage Mutant What Now series, with a special shoutout to the side fic, Starving (Not Hungry)

A Brain So Big That You Get Lost In It by Sevimkiz (Rainjer)

salvageable by bobtheacorn

cheers mate :D

[starry-skies-116]

ROTTMNT HEADCANONS BECAUSE I WATCHED AND LOVE THIS SHOW AND AM HYPERFIXATING AGGRESSIVELY ON IT NOW:

They keep the surnames of “Hamato” despite abandoning the strictly traditional practices of the Hamato clan whilst also taking more eclectic inspiration from their arts to their own.

They all brumate btw. Pry this from my cold dead hands. Every time brumation season comes, the Disaster Twins Inc. hog the couch.

Donnie, because he’s autistic and is a softshell turtle, has sensory issues and is very picky about what food he eats and which clothes he wears, as well as what surfaces he touches. He secretly has a casual list catalogued about what sensory things he loves versus what he hates, and there’s a small area in his lab that’s sensory heaven for him.

All the turtles have different eye colours. Leo has natural heterochromia, one eye being cobalt blue and another eye being bright amber. Post-movie Raph has heterochromia from being turned into a Krang zombie for a short amount of time- one eye is emerald green, and another is a bright magenta purple. Donnie has warm brown eyes, and Mikey has baby/cornflower blue-ish grey eyes. April has hazel green eyes.

Teenage Mutant Intersex Turtles, anyone?? They’re all different variations of intersex on the intersex spectrum. Leo was presumed to be a guy and does have some male traits, but is biologically female- he’s both intersex and a trans dude (and I’m all here for it).

Raph is an aroace bigender (both transfem and demiboy), Mikey is genderfluid and greyaroace pansexual and panromantic, Donnie is nonbinary, asexual and greyromantic biromantic, and Leo is FTM trans, demisexual and gay (did I mention they are all intersex).

Yes I do headcanon disaster twins, and that Donatello was taller than Leonardo when they were younger but Leo is 3 and a half minutes older than Donnie and takes every damn opportunity to brag about it.

“We need CaCa and Maggie~!” “JUST SAY CALCIUM AND MAGNESIUM GODDAMNIT-”

In the future, all of the turtles have cloaking brooches and stable jobs that earn them great income. They also have apartments close to the sewers that is their home.

Okay, we all know Donnie’s canonically autistic. But what if all the turtles are on differing parts of the spectrum. More at 5.

Donnie in addition to being autistic has insomnia, BPD and misophonia and does have sight issues and is prone to migraines due to staring at screens and not getting enough sleep, Raph has panic disorder, dyslexia, OSDD-1a and GAD, Leo has ADHD-I, autism, GAD and is bipolar, and Mikey has ADHD-HI, dyscalculia and autism. All of them have some form of PTSD post-movie.

Leo does know how to play chess please and thank you. He just does it for fun and doesn’t really practice.

Splinter has PTSD, is autistic and is bisexual (the most unrealistic thing is young Lou Jitsu/Hamato Yoshi in his 20’s NOT kissing men and enby hoes in addition to women). He’s not a bad father, he just passed some of that generational trauma of everything that’s happened to him, as well as his regrets and grief, down to his kids without even knowing and feels terrible about it once he realizes. He may have made so many mistakes as a father, but he deeply loves his sons beyond what they could ever comprehend, and he’d send anyone to the shadow realm if they laid a finger on his beloved turtle children.

Donnie and Leo (mostly Donnie) bite each other for no reason at all- not enough to hurt or draw blood, but enough for the bitten to yelp and want an apology from the one who did the biting.

April O’Neil is an also autistic lesbian polyamorous demigirl. She’s saving up enough money by working at The Foot shoestore partially for her top surgery. Sunita is her best friend soon-to-be girlfriend. They’re gay disasters your honor.

Cassandra Jones is MTF trans. Fight me on this one.

Sunita, despite being a teenage slime yokai, does celebrate and participate in Indian culture and does consider herself Indian (let me have my rep I’m starved of please). She’s also a lesbian demigirl, and is asexual and autistic. She also has the ability of superhuman bodily elasticity, even in human form (though it is restricted somewhat in human form). Sunita WILL call pilaf ‘biryani that needs therapy’ okay, she’ll fight you if you say they are the same thing.

Queerplatonic/non-romantic Apritello where they have a super close relationship greater than best friends but cringe at the idea of being in a romantic relationship together wya <3

April’s African American, we all know, but what about her being of Afro-Iranian Jewish descent and her mother’s Shakshuka and Latkes and Rugelach and Sufganiyot being her absolute favorite among all the stuff she makes. She gets MAJOR hyped by the time Hanukah comes around and tells the Turtle boys and Splinter about it.

And there’s more, but I’ll tell y’all about that later, or we’ll be here all day.

[antispopausandstuff]

What's your opinion on Entrapta and Entrapdak ? I personally think she deserves better tbh 😔

i don't think entrapdak works. but i'll get into that in a minute.

as for entrapta, she definitely deserved better. more so than just in writing in general, but as well just how she was treated as an autistic individual.

for starters, i want to comment on her design. she does not look like the age she's apparently supposed to be ( according to nate, entrapta is in her late 20s, early 30s ). a lot of people who have discovered this have commented something to the extent of:

"she's 30?! i thought she was 16-18!"

now, if i didn't know her age or personality, i'd assume she was 19-20. but considering that i do know her personality, i'm not surprised that people thought she was younger. her big pigtails, being short, and the top side of her overalls being out of place all are designed in a way that makes her look younger.

the reason why this is an issue is because, with her design and personality, this is infantilizing. especially because every other adult character looks their age, or at least has obvious implications of looking older ( such as wrinkles under their eyes, wearing makeup, etc. ). entrapta does not.

throughout the entire show, entrapta is extremely oblivious, forgetful, honestly rather careless, and generally is treated more like a robotic nuisance rather than a human being that deserves support and care.

she's practically ostracized by the other princesses, is pulled by them, is leashed by them, talked down to by them, etc. she is not actually treated as someone who is wanted, but rather only someone who might be needed.

this video actually discusses low empathy, how to write it correctly, and how SPOP did a complete disservice to entrapta and the autistic community by their piss-poor portrayal of low empathy and autistic people in general:

as for entrapdak...

i personally feel like nate made entrapta 30-smth yrs old, so entrapdak would be less weird. i could talk about how hordak is essentially a bum instead of a Big Bad, like he's supposed to be, but that's for another day.

the primary issue i have with entrapdak is that it paints entrapta in a really bad light, more than people might think.

many people seem to label entrapta as morally grey/chaotic neutral ( i'm p sure you can look up the spop wiki and see that ), but i strongly disagree with this label, due to how it is written and how it further pushes a bigoted idea of autistic people.

and no, entrapta being written by an autistic person ( tbh, i highly doubt that ) does not mean she's suddenly even decent autistic rep.

entrapta is perceived as "morally grey" purely because of her low empathy. they use it to demonize and infantilize her, instead of respecting it as a part of her identity.

having low empathy does not make anyone a bad person, or even a morally grey person. donnie, from ROTTMNT, has low empathy, but you can tell he deeply loves his family and tries his best to keep people safe.

entrapta's low empathy is represented as her not caring about the lives at stake, only caring about people unless it involves technology, or only doing things because of technology, and is generally either treated like a lost child or like she's a demon.

SPOP's portrayal of autism and low empathy in quite a few autistic people is harmful and gives the same message that neurodivergent in general have been given for years:

"something is wrong with you."

her being involved with hordak, a literal imperialist, someone who does not care for anyone ( except for entrapta, i guess? ), and is willing to sacrifice anything and anyone for the sake of his goals, in any other way but in an antagonistic dynamic is, at best, offensive and stereotypical, and at worst, dangerous.

if you are not autistic, and you want to write autistic people, you need to do it with respect. genuine respect.

you cannot treat autistic people as if they don't know what they're doing.

you cannot treat autistic people as if they don't care about anyone but themselves.

you cannot treat autistic people as if something is wrong with them.

you cannot treat autistic people as if they have to change to be accepted by anybody.

we are not your props for representation. we are people.

all in all, if you want to write autistic characters, do not do what the SPOP writers did. just don't.

and honestly, hordak is really weak in this show, i-

[purple-tello]

OP when you use the trigger warning Meltdown, what are you referring to? Are you talking about an actual autistic meltdown or a severe panic attack?

Autistic meltdown. Obviously we all know Donnie is somewhere on the spectrum, and I like to explore that trait of his as a character a lot. I love the Autism rep and love that's been happening a lot as of late, but I often see that it's watered down to "sarcastic, ambitions, relatable, moody and low-empathy," and while these are traits of Autism, there's not a lot of positive representation for the wider parts of the spectrum, including lower functioning emotional control and meltdowns.

I'm employed in a school district where I've worked with both autistic children and adults. I've been trained to recognize traits of Intellectual Disorders (furthermore called I.D.'s in this post) including autism and the more extreme symptoms of them. One of these is the meltdowns I reference in the tags.

Donnie in TTATC has canonically had two major meltdowns. One where he was overwhelmed by the glitches in his tech - and the resulting injury Venus sustained - as well as this recent one where he got turned into a bunny and the hair sent him into a spiral. I classify these as meltdowns and not panic attacks because Donnie does not show any control of himself in these situations. He shouts at people he loves, he hits and kicks, and on occasion, will hit or bite himself as a way of letting out the overwhelming energy.

Working with autistic adults and children, most of the traits I give to Donnie come directly from my students with the same mentality I portray Donnie with. The first major meltdown on TTATC was referenced by both Leo and Venus, and the methods which they used to calm Donnie down are some of the ones I apply in real world situations with my students. They're helpful to reassure someone that they're perfectly safe, to keep them grounded and calm, and more importantly they humanize and meet the needs of someone who's struggling so hard they lose all control of themselves.

Leo is written as Donnie's go to person because, well, they're twins and I'm a sucker for that dynamic. It's also because due to the fanon of Leo being medic, I'd imagine he'd be the best suited for recognizing a meltdown or a lead up to one, and finding a solution to bring Donnie back to Earth. He is the face man after all, and you have to have that sort of skill when it comes to major meltdowns. Leo knows how to respond to Donnie when he's nonverbal, hurting himself, or just straight up crying because he knows people, and he knows his twin. So they have an established system of tools that they work with when Donnie is struggling.

Donnie is a cool and strong character, and I love how loved he is by the fandom! Getting to portray autism in a positive manner with him is amazing. I've received more than one comment saying that making Donnie have meltdowns is immature or stereotypical, but I think it's just real. That the way Donnie is canonically portrayed is a hundred percent a personality of someone with an I.D., but there is always room to expand on canon and this is my way of doing it.

Tl:Dr - TTATC Donnie canonically has meltdowns. Not panic attacks - though those will happen I assure you - but meltdowns, because he is autistic, and navigating the world with autism when the world you live in is not always user friendly kinda sucks sometimes, but that doesn't make it bad or childish to lose control

[lemon-criminal]

Donnie in ROTTMNT is some of the best autism rep. we’ve ever gotten. Kudos to the chef.

[curiouscornfieldcryptid]

wAIT WAIT WAIT. my sister has this weird habit of trying to humiliate me for liking media by locating my favorite male character and claiming the only reason I watch The Thing���️ is bc I’m attracted to him.

& yeah if she’s like “hey do you think mulder is hot”, I’m not going to deny that he’s an attractive guy, but that’s mostly personality based tbh. I came for the aliens and stayed for the compelling characters baby!!

but watching her try to pull off that tactic with a literal teenaged turtle is hilarious.

“if Donnie was human, do you think he’d be hot?”

no, no, dear child, you misunderstand! he is blorbo from the turtle show. he’s some of the best autism rep I’ve ever seen. he’s my heathen little brother. I will feed him the best pizza I can afford. I support his unhinged science plans. I’m gonna give him an affectionate pat atop the head. I’m beating him senseless. I’m giving him the recommended dose of flintstones vitamins every day and if he asked to borrow my phone charger I’d say no. hope this helps. <3

[echonvoid]

The bois. Autism/ADHD alliance

I don’t really have a whole lot to add at the moment

Og Ref photo: