The New TMNT & Anti-Intellectualism
May. 5th, 2013 11:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkThis is a slightly more fleshed-out version of the last TMNT post I made.
As I previously mentioned, Donnie's character in TMNT 2012 is one of the ones I have most of an issue with (the other being Mikey, but more for personal reasons; I rather like the new Leo and Raph is pretty consistent). But what bothers me more is the underlying strain of anti-intellectualism in the show due to Donnie's status as the Butt Monkey.
Let's talk about Donnie from TMNT 2k3 first. I don't have a single favorite turtle from 2k3, but Donnie is probably the one that I identify with most. He's a pretty nuanced character in 2k3: mostly peaceful, kind, pensive, somewhat introverted, but also pretty quirky, playful, and snarky at certain moments. The fact that he's both a science geek and one of the most empathetic of the Turtles is very important, because it breaks the common stereotype that science geeks are all socially awkward and can't relate to others.
Donnie is also the Turtle who's probably consistently on the best of terms with the rest of his brothers. From the very first episode, it's clear that although they sometimes make fun of him and his technobabble, they immensely respect his scientific prowess (and they're extremely distressed whenever he's in danger), and he's invaluable to their many schemes. While he does seem to get kidnapped/otherwise put out of commission somewhat often compared to the others, and he's not the strongest Turtle, he's also fairly capable of taking down enemies and defending himself. His choice of weapon, the bo staff, is interesting because staffs are usually more defensive weapons (compared to a bladed weapon), which matches his generally pacifistic temperament.
Now, 2k12's Donnie is very different. As I mentioned in my previous post, he's more of a stereotypical geek in both appearance and behavior than 2k3's Donnie. As in the 2k3 series, 2k12's Donnie's inventions and scientific knowledge are often crucial to the team's success (and he even single-handedly mixes an antidote to an unknown venom to save Raph in episode 18)...and yet his brothers and the narrative itself typically treat him with very little respect.
When he's introduced in episode 1, he's being beaten up by Raph with his own weapon, which isn't a very positive way to introduce a character. In episode 5, Raph openly shows contempt for Donnie's inventions; in episode 12, Donnie is continuously being shoved into the water, electrocuted, or grabbed by the face, until his status as the Woobie of that episode reaches almost epic proportions. There's also the episode in which Don is unhappy with his bo staff, which seemed incredibly out of character to me, considering what the bo staff is supposed to symbolize with his character (and I was under the impression that the Turtles specifically chose their weapons, anyway?). It also only further established Don as a combatively weak character. Even episode 11, in which Leo and Raph admit that Don is helpful, heavily favors Leo and Raph over Donnie and Mikey (who have to be bailed out, because the plan they come up with fails).
Donnie is constantly providing scientifically accurate information to his brothers, but it's typically played for laughs rather than taken seriously (such as the running gag in episode 3 of him repeatedly explaining to his brothers that videos are stored as flash memory rather than on a tape, and his brothers' ensuing annoyance). His constant spouting of technobabble doesn't serve to make him seem way more advanced than his brothers (which is how I interpreted it in the 2k3 series), but rather to show how geeky and therefore wacky he is.
And this is kind of problematic. When we show intelligence as something that should be laughed at, it's almost like we're minimizing something that we would normally feel threatened by. This is why the geek stereotype exists in the first place as something that's "not cool" to be.
If memory serves me correctly, in the first episode, Donnie doesn't even contribute his intelligence to any of their plans; in the second, he only points out power conduits to get the Turtles where they need to go and then ineffectively tries to pick a lock (which Raph has to help him out with by stabbing the thing). He does rescue April, but that has nothing to do with his smarts and is just playing up the fact that he has a crush on her.
Contrast this with Donatello's introduction in the 2k3 series. After the Turtles are separated from Splinter, he's the one who has the map and figures out their route. He's also the one who saves Raph from imprisonment in the van by taking apart an electronic lock, and he's the one who engineers the Turtles' escape from the Foot ninja by carjacking said van. In the first episode alone, he's established as intelligent and valuable because of his intelligence.
All this is just to say that it's unfortunate that the 2k12 series plays up the "brains" of the team as a stock geek Butt Monkey and a character to be laughed at, both considering previous incarnations of Donnie and the fact that the geek stereotype is not beneficial at best and downright harmful at worst.
As I previously mentioned, Donnie's character in TMNT 2012 is one of the ones I have most of an issue with (the other being Mikey, but more for personal reasons; I rather like the new Leo and Raph is pretty consistent). But what bothers me more is the underlying strain of anti-intellectualism in the show due to Donnie's status as the Butt Monkey.
Let's talk about Donnie from TMNT 2k3 first. I don't have a single favorite turtle from 2k3, but Donnie is probably the one that I identify with most. He's a pretty nuanced character in 2k3: mostly peaceful, kind, pensive, somewhat introverted, but also pretty quirky, playful, and snarky at certain moments. The fact that he's both a science geek and one of the most empathetic of the Turtles is very important, because it breaks the common stereotype that science geeks are all socially awkward and can't relate to others.
Donnie is also the Turtle who's probably consistently on the best of terms with the rest of his brothers. From the very first episode, it's clear that although they sometimes make fun of him and his technobabble, they immensely respect his scientific prowess (and they're extremely distressed whenever he's in danger), and he's invaluable to their many schemes. While he does seem to get kidnapped/otherwise put out of commission somewhat often compared to the others, and he's not the strongest Turtle, he's also fairly capable of taking down enemies and defending himself. His choice of weapon, the bo staff, is interesting because staffs are usually more defensive weapons (compared to a bladed weapon), which matches his generally pacifistic temperament.
Now, 2k12's Donnie is very different. As I mentioned in my previous post, he's more of a stereotypical geek in both appearance and behavior than 2k3's Donnie. As in the 2k3 series, 2k12's Donnie's inventions and scientific knowledge are often crucial to the team's success (and he even single-handedly mixes an antidote to an unknown venom to save Raph in episode 18)...and yet his brothers and the narrative itself typically treat him with very little respect.
When he's introduced in episode 1, he's being beaten up by Raph with his own weapon, which isn't a very positive way to introduce a character. In episode 5, Raph openly shows contempt for Donnie's inventions; in episode 12, Donnie is continuously being shoved into the water, electrocuted, or grabbed by the face, until his status as the Woobie of that episode reaches almost epic proportions. There's also the episode in which Don is unhappy with his bo staff, which seemed incredibly out of character to me, considering what the bo staff is supposed to symbolize with his character (and I was under the impression that the Turtles specifically chose their weapons, anyway?). It also only further established Don as a combatively weak character. Even episode 11, in which Leo and Raph admit that Don is helpful, heavily favors Leo and Raph over Donnie and Mikey (who have to be bailed out, because the plan they come up with fails).
Donnie is constantly providing scientifically accurate information to his brothers, but it's typically played for laughs rather than taken seriously (such as the running gag in episode 3 of him repeatedly explaining to his brothers that videos are stored as flash memory rather than on a tape, and his brothers' ensuing annoyance). His constant spouting of technobabble doesn't serve to make him seem way more advanced than his brothers (which is how I interpreted it in the 2k3 series), but rather to show how geeky and therefore wacky he is.
And this is kind of problematic. When we show intelligence as something that should be laughed at, it's almost like we're minimizing something that we would normally feel threatened by. This is why the geek stereotype exists in the first place as something that's "not cool" to be.
If memory serves me correctly, in the first episode, Donnie doesn't even contribute his intelligence to any of their plans; in the second, he only points out power conduits to get the Turtles where they need to go and then ineffectively tries to pick a lock (which Raph has to help him out with by stabbing the thing). He does rescue April, but that has nothing to do with his smarts and is just playing up the fact that he has a crush on her.
Contrast this with Donatello's introduction in the 2k3 series. After the Turtles are separated from Splinter, he's the one who has the map and figures out their route. He's also the one who saves Raph from imprisonment in the van by taking apart an electronic lock, and he's the one who engineers the Turtles' escape from the Foot ninja by carjacking said van. In the first episode alone, he's established as intelligent and valuable because of his intelligence.
All this is just to say that it's unfortunate that the 2k12 series plays up the "brains" of the team as a stock geek Butt Monkey and a character to be laughed at, both considering previous incarnations of Donnie and the fact that the geek stereotype is not beneficial at best and downright harmful at worst.
