2012 Donnie knowing exactly how far April's apartment was from them was NOT weird and anyone who acts shocked and freaks out about that scene is completely blind to how Donnie's character had been portrayed up until that point.
Donnie gets a lot of shit in this fandom for being a creep, and I always see people go crazy over this scene like it proves he's a stalker.
And to that, I say – no? 😭 Have we been watching 2012 with our eyes closed and ears blocked?
Okay, the scene I'm talking about for a refresher is the very beginning of S2E1, 'The Mutation Situation'. The turtles are skateboarding around and being loud and still on high spirits over the fact they stopped the end of the world, at a point they're going over rooftops, to which Donnie then suddenly halts and says –
'Hey, are we gonna stop by April's? We are 1.3 blocks and 6 – no, no, – seven metres away from her apartment.'
First of all, all of the TMNT know where April's apartment is. 😭 Mikey, Leo, and Raph also probably all knew they were in April's area at that moment, just not exactly how far. Because they're not Donnie.
Guys, Donnie has always been extremely accurate and specific. It's a major part of his character. Literally one of his most popular clips is him correcting Raph on a SOUND.
'It actually makes things go — zweee, schoooo, pop! ... It's important to be accurate.'
The dude also knew how far they went back in time based on the Earth's relative position to the sun when Fugitoid took them back in time to reverse the destruction of Earth.
If Donnie was only this specific when it came to April, I could understand saying how it's a bit weird – but it's not just an April exclusive thing. He's like that with everything. Whether he's saying a distance or anything else, Donnie is always going to be exact instead of saying something broad.
If you're celebrating, why would you not wanna go and include your friend who you know lives nearby? 💔
This is what Donnie basically said – 'Hey guys, aren't we gonna go and see April? She lives around here.'
I bet if Donnie had said that instead, nobody would lose their minds about it — but poor Donnie says it in his stupid, nerdy, and hyper-specific phrasing, and he gets called a stalker and a creep.
Not to mention the fact that this is an on-the-spot estimate, made obvious by the fact he says a number, then says no and changes his mind to a different one. He doesn't even know her distance off by heart. He's making a guess right then and there.
Finally someone fucking points this out. Talking to the fandom is like a brick wall at this point from how much they love shoving their “uwu mischaracterizations” and “headcanons you have to take AS canon or else you’re ableist, ageist, and (every insult under the sun)” up EVERYBODY’S ass 😭
Like, sorry the 2012 Turtles have actual flaws and little things to their character like this like REAL FUCKING TEENAGERS instead of being borderline one-dimensional characters or just resolving issues in a season and acting like it never happened. ( cough, Rise’s writing, cough ) Even if these things were an issue, it’s not like the other Turtles pointed out LARGELY that “hey dude, that’s kind of weird, maybe DONT say that?” and stuff. Yeah, Raph said it was “creepy”, but like…Raph, you grew up with this guy, if anything you SHOULD KNOW that’s how he thinks, lmao. It was probably just Raph being Raph.
I think a large part of the fandom’s problems is that they always ASSUME something, and when they don’t actually do research or rewatch the episodes to get a better understanding, they just go on a campaign slandering the writing and teetering on the edge of harassing the writers. Which, yeah, they could’ve done better on some things, like making April have more fighting moments where she wasn’t ‘helpless’, or other things that didn’t add up. But I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again— You can’t always pin something on bad writing. You can’t just screech it at the top of your lungs to justify something you don’t understand at first. You really just need to find some way to understand it yourself or fill in the gaps in your own way, without grossly making the show lose all its character development and potential.
TL;DR: JUST LEAVE BOTH MY DAUGHTERS APRIL AND DONNIE ALLLOOOOONNNE 🫠🫠🫠
