i've seen a few people talking about this in the comments and ig i probably should've mentioned it in the video: High empathy is probably equally as common as low empathy in autistic people (that's based off of me meeting autistic people, not off of any studies btw). Basically, from my understanding, it's feeling so much empathy to the point where it can be physically painful in some situations. Autism has a lot of symptoms like that where people will either have some kind of deficit or a surplus. For example, some autistic people have heightened sensitivity to smell, while others (like me) barely register/process different smells around them. Some autistic people might have sensitive eyes (ex. fluroesent lights, being outside without sunglasses at all even when it's cloudy, and lots of things going on at once visually overstimulate me) OR it's the polar opposite. Same for other senses. Hypersensitivity - extreme sensitivity in any of the senses, which usually causes someone to actively get rid of senses (ie noise cancelling headphones, sunglasses) Hyposensitivity - being undersensitive to stimuli, which usually causes someone to stimulate themselves more (tight-fit clothing, pressure therapy, seeking out specific textures to stimulate themself)
Thank you for this add on! I'm autistic, and while watching this video I was going 'guess I'm in the half that doesn't'. I always knew low empathy was a stereotype, though had never really had it explained out before like in this video. But I hadn't known that High empathy was a thing at all! I have that! I'm glad I have a name for it now, kinda sad that It took being in my late 20s to learn about it.
I am so glad you added this! I'm autistic with high empathy, and while I didn't know it was possible for some people with autism to have that (mainly because I've been raised with people who just say "You just didn't get the low empathy, you're not autistic *enough* to have it." which is, for the record, *so wrong),* I did know that the low empathy stereotype was harmful to *everyone* with autism. Like, I know my dad is low empathy (thanks for being where I inherited it from, pops), and we clash a lot over it, but the stereotype hurts the both of us. People would just assume I couldn't feel emotions, they'd assume my dad was the same, and that was it. Didn't help that his low empathy became an *excuse* for being a butt (I know now it's because of how he was raised, but still). It messes us up in so many different ways, and can be very different experiences for high empathy peeps on the spectrum like myself and low empathy peeps.
woah, I never new this, thanks for telling! I have autism, and I never realized there was something called high empathy, but I'm pretty sure I have high empathy. so thanks for this!!!
I'm hypersensitive to touch and it's awful I'm really picky with clothing materials because they feel acky on my skin and i just hate being touched in general 😐
I saw a sticker on ticktock that says that autism isnt a processing error, its just a diferent systom and i agree with it. Were bot broken, just diferent enough that information dosnt process the way other people woumd expect
I loved that part so much too, the Rise turtles might be my favorite interpretation the more I rewatch the show. All the characters are great and I love the brothers relationships so mcuh!
Yessss!!!!! That was so wonderful for me to see! I’ve been a childcare worker for a long time now (7 8 years? I dunno COVID kinda fucked with all that; but I’m still very much a childcare worker at heart) and learning to let kids have bodily autonomy and that they can absolutely refuse hugs and shit was an important early milestone for me. And to see Raph reassure his brother like that while rescuing is huge, especially on the autonomy side of things. The whole movie and show is a fucking master piece and I’m so glad I found it
Yes, exactly. You don't have to have empathy to know that someone else's feelings are important to them. Hell, you don't even need to necessarily know what someone is feeling or why to know that you still have to respect whatever it is that they are feeling. It's why characters like Sheldon come across as "assholes". He often seem aware of other people's feelings and chooses to treat them as unimportant because *he* doesn't view them as important. Even when he's explicitly told that he's upset someone. Whereas most autistic people I've personally met make social blunders that are more along the lines of not understanding or realizing someone is feeling a certain emotion or being too focused on their own perception of events. And will try to make amends if you explicitly tell them what is wrong, because JFC that's literally just what most people in general will do. IMO, it's the difference between someone actually being an asshole and someone just being socially awkward/lacking social awareness.
@@HeyLeFay I don't know.Empathy is still important.I read that from mental health sites.Maybe people with low empathy need help in improving empathy in order to understand others.I'm so sorry If I have offended anyone.
@@ahmadhadi177 Yeah totally, you just have to understand that empathy is harder for some people. But yeah I think empathy is really important and it can be learned to an extent.
@@eatingtheleaf4659 Is it because of genetics or lack of experience with empathy?I read somewhere in the comment section that low empathy doesn't always associate itself with autism.
9:45 Say it with me: there is a difference between empathy and compassion. This is a paraphrased quote I once heard from another autistic creator: Empathy is when you feel the emotions of others. Compassion is when you want to help people because of their emotions. For example, if my friend hurt her knee while hiking, my low empathy would prevent me from panicking but I would still want to help because of my compassion.
This is perfectly said. I'm a parent with a low empathy child. She is profoundly compassionate and, to my mind, more so than most Allistics. She'd give a flat-toned, "that's tough buddy" after hearing about a friend's break-up, but she'd also be making a mountain of their favorite snacks, gathering up comfy blankets and pillows, putting together a youtube playlist and nesting with them on the couch for the next 5 hours. There are plenty of people who can empathize and still not actually care about the person, let alone bother to connect. She absolutely cares and connects, but she doesn't absorb other people's feelings and carry them around. I honestly LOVE that for her.
no, you can feel empathy and not panic. empathy is more complex tha that, it let's you understand what other are feeling or going trhough on a deeper, more personal level. which is why i feel bad for low empathy people, and their partners (if they have one). Family memebers and friends can deal with it alright though.
I think it has its pros and cons, and thats one of the pros. I'll mention the cons of my hyperempathy - I soak up others emotions like an utter sponge, leading to very quick emotional burnout and since I wanna avoid that, it gives me anxiety around talking to people who need help and can often hinder my compassion. However, I've gotten a LOT LOT better at this during the past few years because I've gotten better at emotional regulation - but I do need to be careful. @@emilyarter2773
fr! I felt ashamed for a long time abt having low empathy but I feel like society puts so much emphasis on higher levels of empathy instead of learning to be more compassionate with each other
The negative stereotypes of autism are also so inconsistent like one second we can’t experience emotion and the next second we’re having constant breakdowns and need to be babysat because we’re experiencing too much emotion. It’s like they’re so close to understanding we’re all different but still want to make it a bad thing.
As someone with high functioning autism, I completely understand this feeling! I hate that I have a hard time understanding people's emotions and then breaking down because they seem to not understand my own emotions! I mostly hate that my dad wants me to smile 24/7 because he can't even see that my resting face, which I will admit looks a little grumpy, doesn't mean that I am not happy. I hate that some people can't understand that I am TRYING to show how I feel, but sometimes I actually WANT to be sad and Angery, so I am at a lost here... Am I doing something wrong?
@@Checkmarked963 You're not. You're absolutely allowed to feel sad and angry sometimes. There's a concept called "toxic positivity" you could look into, it sounds like that might be what you're dealing with. If you were assigned female at birth or presenting as a woman that could be it as well. I'm FTM and also autistic, and before I transitioned men would feel comfortable telling me their opinions on my life _to my face,_ and being told to smile is a VERY common thing too.
@@forgenorman3025 I don't get what my gender has to do with this, but I am a Pan Poly Demigirl that uses she/her and He/him, but I only told my dad about the Pan part since he wasn't as supportive as I thought he would be when I came out as Pan...
@@Checkmarked963 I did explain that. Men are far too often raised and conditioned into thinking that they can tell any woman what to do with their face or what to eat or not eat, or how to dress based on _his_ preferences. The most common way this comes up is a guy telling a woman to smile regardless of her actual mood or what she might be dealing with. It was just another possible explanation for why people don't let you express your sadness and anger, because women and femmes are often raised to believe that they must always be nice and pleasant no matter what so showing emotions like anger is disapproved of.
@@forgenorman3025 That is very true... But he did go through a divorce from my mom, but even then my mom understands me more than him... Besides, I have been, well, tried to be taught, how to control my emotions, but it was mostly my dad that tried to teach me that... OML ur right...
I'm actually kind of okay with Donnie not being overtly stated as on the autism spectrum as it sometimes gets undiagnosed for ages, sometimes for a person's whole life, and I'm not sure if the TMNT really has the means to be diagnosed sooooo I give it a pass
To be a bit meta, I dislike when a show explicitly states a character has a disorder because it feels like an oversimplification of their character at best and comes off as pandering at worst
@Domino 64 I agree, it’s important for series to show and not tell. In real life, you don’t have people explaining away their every action with full-on professional diagnoses that can narrow down your perception of that person using symptoms in a medical article. It’s more realistic when the character exhibits those traits but doesn’t stay in a linear line of autism when it comes to personality by labeling everything.
You can also have low empathy and not have autism. People overly misuse autism. There's other characteristics of it that are not simply 'they lack empathy' it's also they lack the ability to read body language, understand how people feel, and other important factors. Literally not giving a fuck isn't autism.
yeah how would a mutant go about getting diagnosed??? like my ma didn't get diagnosed with ADHD until her late 40's, I can't imagine the struggle unless there's some kind of yokai or mutant therapy/psychology division lol. Like despite me throwing literal tantrums if my socks felt weird as a kid it wasn't even considered I have autism until I was over 20. not to mention you have a lot of shows that just go "haha I'm autistic [insert horribly portrayed stereotypes here]" "yeah they're autistic [insert abelist remark here]" because they don't actually know how to write an autistic character... which.. .eugh at all that. and idk how well they'd go about it being super blatantly stated, especially again considering, not all humans are accepting of the yokai and mutants and what not. like would it be cool to have a great to have donnie openly in the show be stated as autistic?? yeah but considering the actual show my only gripe is I wish they'd give one or maybe a few scenes to him actually talking about it with his family, even if there isn't a name given to it. I think that'd be nice. It's not necessarily *needed* I just think it'd be neat and give us a bit of a closer look into everything ya know?
(minor spoilers for the rise movie) i think it’s also very cool that donnie is also possibly depicted as physically disabled. he’s a soft shell turtle and wears a self made battle-shell most of the time to protect him, because of the aforementioned soft shell. (this is where the minor spoilers come in!!) in the movie towards the end, his battle shell breaks and he is left vulnerable. mikey is immediately worried about him because of this but he doesn’t make him out to be weak, hes just worried about his brothers safety. i’m not physically disabled myself but i think it’s nice how none of the characters ever treat donnie like he’s made of glass or that he’s not as skilled as the other turtles because of his soft shell (his disability metaphor). anyways yea sorry for the rant i love this video :)
Okay got it. Smart socially awkward character is retconned in modern alterations of the show as autistic but also now physically disabled. Remember, every smart character has to be socially awkward and if they’re socially awkward they have to autistic guys! Representation is so nice! /s Also I’m autistic so don’t even go there 😂 rant: you can’t represent a group if everyone in that group is different, so stop conflating everyone in that group under a stereotype in order to represent them. I’m Autistic yet have no social anxiety or sensory overload problems, or communication issues. On the other hand, I know someone who is autistic who only suffers from communication complications. Then I know someone who only has problems expressing emotions and then I know someone who is overly expressive of their emotions but has social anxiety. They’re not even the only differences, even with all that none of us act the same or has the same interests. Yet videos like this imply we’re all the same enough to represent us, HOW!? “Us” are all different and aren’t similar. I’m very similar to my uncle who doesn’t have autism but nothing like my other family members who do have it. Same with people outside my family. How the shit are you gonna represent all of us? You can’t. Same problem with race and with gender. You literally cannot represent it. If you make a character whose autistic just make them a friend you know who has autism and leave it at that. Don’t call it representation bc it’s not, as someone else with autism may be drastically different to your friend and for the love of god don’t make their autism a trait. Rant over. Que the angry 13 year olds saying “akchually I’m autistic and you’re wrong bc I disagree”
ALSO !! Donnie canonically needs to wear glasses in the rise!version !!((But I reckon he uses contacts as it is more practical in battle))so to top off being a soft shell and needing glasses, this version of donnie is in fact -- canonically disabled !!
I love how they depicted him as not really liking receiving physical affection. My favorite moment in the movie was Raph's line of "This isn't a hug, it's a rescue".
Although i have to add that not all autistic people are like that, i myself like hugging people, hell, from the stories my mom told me i used to hug literally everyone we met along the way and that my mom had to tell me not to do it
@@variant7816 I don't like when people kiss me, I usually tend to get away when people try, the most people get is a handshake or a hug. Thankfully my family seems to kinda understand, even if they don't understand why. So they tend to respect it.
I really liked how you used your thought process in an actual event when talking about low empathy, it's always nice when someone gives examples beyond "they will insult you for expressing emotions"
Guy: "I had to watch my dog get euthanized." Me: "Damn, that sucks man. Terrible thing to go through." My brain: *Yo, remember the truth gas song from Helluva Boss? Imma play it on repeat.*
in my case i have empathy but am terrible at displaying sad emotion, like, i can be told sad things and i'll get their sadness, but i can't stand being next to a person crying their heart out and just want the crying to stop haha. (And also tend to get bad moments of morbidly bad jokes at bad times when i understand its a sad moment).
For me, it wasn't a lack of empathy. In fact, I may have been overly-sensitive as a kid. But it was things like avoiding eye contact, hyper-focusing, and just kind of seemingly ignoring people while trying to figure out what to say. Also not knowing how to be anything but brutally honest. Like, I just could NOT put things in a way that didn't sound judgmental or mean-spirited. Yeah, having Asperger's is amazing. And that WAS sarcasm.
@@Nanashi20 dude I’m the exact opposite. I can’t really cry in public, but alone i cry really easily, especially if it’s because someone else is sad. However, i always struggle to smile ‘right’ or express when I’m feeling content or passively happy, most people think i look absolutely miserable or pissed most of the time ahah
@@AnEmu404 oh i cannot cry either, like, ive been met with negative feedback over me crying that i just naturally hold it back and at most just tear up or so, but never really start crying at all. not even when alone.
"don't worry I just have to follow Raph's GPS to find him" "did you put GPS on all of us??" "NoOOoooo... " he was prepared in case one of them got lost😭😭😭 i really love this version of him!
I like how this show is representing autism because it isn’t pushing a message with it or trying to demonize it it’s just there to be a character trait and that’s all it should be
9:16 this is what really solidified it to me. I'm autistic, and there is nothing, NOTHING more frustrating to me when something is apparently super easy for some people, taking less then a few seconds, while I just struggle to even complete it. LIke, I know it's not their fault, but it is beyond maddening. I completely felt donnie here
Yeah, I know that feeling. When something is so easy that most people understand it almost instantly But for you it takes a lot longer. And internally you're like. What the heck? Why is this so easy for them
Yeah, I feel that way with talking about things I like. Unless its a video game or movie or something like that, I just shut down whenever I'm asked to talk about myself, and even when I get to talking about that stuff, it's only with a close friend and ESPECIALLY not in public where someone can hear us. I value my privacy, but appreciate the people around me.
I'm so glad you called out Entrapta's writing. I adored her but always felt like she was in some way did wrong by being reduced to a childish asset on the team who was COMPLETELY unaware of what's going on around her, and her whole character began to fall flat after that point
I don't know, I'm a 31 year old woman with autism and I guess Entrapta's portrayal made sense to me. Like, the immaturity thing got to me because it's something I have struggled with lately. Well, I don't think I'm immature, but a lot of people see it that way
I really liked a lot about her portrayal but I can understand why those things would be gripes for other people, I hope that we continue to get more positive representation so that there's less disappointment when one goes wrong because there'll be so many great examples to choose from.
I related to the lack of awareness on a technical level, but in actual execution....it was a no for me. There's a difference between not reading social ques/not realizing that something may be hurtful vs. not realizing that someone could F*CKING DIE. Also, isn't she one of the oldest of the princesses? I feel like she could've been portrayed as playful and slightly "childish", but it also would have felt good to see her be "childish" while simultaniously actually acting her age. Because I would relate to that: getting really excited and passionate about certain things and having difficulties with socializing, but also being legitmately mature in most other areas, or at least a lot more mature than the younger characters.
@@rosesweetcharlotte I feel she was overly simplified, being autistic too I couldn't really relate a lot to her, especially in comparison to other characters, there was no real depth with her, despite being a tech genius she seemed overly oblivious and stupid, which isn't good rep
Donnie’s inventions are the most heartwarming part of the series for me. The show itself lightly draws attention to it, but every single thing he creates is so perfectly and particularly catered to his family. Size and color are part of it, obviously, but he so frequently takes the time to create four of everything, add in features he knows they’ll like, etc. A subtle aspect that doesn’t really get called out is that he also doesn’t do much inventing on the fly-the show strongly implies he spends most of his free time working on things to either share with his brothers (his gifts, the tank, the drill) or have on deck to keep them safe (the tracker implants, the escape pods). He’s constantly, *constantly* showing affection through his tech.
I found myself tearing up as I watched this, seeing Donny's "quirks" in a whole new light. The tears really settled in, though, when I realized that, through your explanations of autism, I was beginning to understand my son, and our relationship made a lot more sense to me. Thanks for making this! Came for some lols, left with some feels.
people don't understand autism because its different and we think differently and express ourselves differently but I think people just need to listen and you'll get an answer. Its like people tell us that this is autism, a set of rules and traits that don't change but its alot of things. I believe that autism is mostly* a communication disorder and we think similarly and we want similar things but we're just a bean in an all legume world
there's a moment in that pizza maze episode where donnie takes raph's "if i die in this maze, i will haunt you for the rest of your life" threat literally, so he starts going off about how that's not possible. but instead of raph telling donnie he's stupid or that he needs to shut up, raph just tells him he's "not helping." idk it's such a small moment but it really stood out to me
Ralph is just great overall. There’s this line in the movie where he grabs Donnie and Mikey mid air yelling “Don’t worry Donnie this is not a hug it’s a rescue”
Another time in the Flushed episode (idk how to spell the fish's name) Donnie says, "I know we're brothers, but sometimes it feels like we are just room mates." Raph doesn't say "quit it with your autistic nonsense", he instead says middle child nonsense.
My girlfriend has autism, and she's my world. Videos like these help me understand her better and show her affection in a way that works for her. There were multiple moments in this video where I went "Ohhh so THAT'S why she does that!". Thank you for making this, it's very informative.
Bro ur girlfriend is so lucky that you are working hard to help her. It’s a bare minimum to understand who your with but very rarely do people actually do it. I wish you both well in your relationship & that you can stay healthy
@@RemiStarz26 It makes me sad that you think she's lucky. In my eyes what I'm doing should be expected of anyone. How can you claim to love your partner if you don't understand them. Also, I don't so much see it as helping her, moreso just being a good friend. She's perfect the way she is, she doesn't need help
@@ellie8272 Yeah, people tend to suck at understanding the people they love, and don’t put a lot of work into it ☹️ Also, I bet she’s amazing, and I sincerely hope you two are happy together
When you mentioned Donnie not liking physical touch unless he initiates it instantly made me think of my younger brother who has Autism (he cannot speak at all). Sometimes he lashes out when my mother hugs him and he doesn't want it. But he does show affection, he only likes it if he initiates it. He'll go up to my parents, my brother and I, or any other family member he likes and trusts, and will either reach out for their hand or kiss them on the cheek. He's very much capable of showing love when he's comfortable with it. My heart just turned into mush and just reinforced my love towards him. Dominic, my younger brother, is my everything and the reason why our family is still together, he's a blessing.
I have a similar problem and people think I’m weird or contradictory for it. If I move something or hug someone else, it’s okay. But if someone moves something in my room without me permitting them to, or hugs me without me initiating it, I get extremely upset. I can’t really explain why, either, so I can’t find a way to make it stop :(
@@luxill0s I'm sorry that happens to you. I have ADHD, and I hate being touched, too. It's not an all the time thing, I love my friends and family, but I can read physical cues really well when people touch me. Really really well. Too well. I've been able to tell when people are pregnant or dying and they haven't wanted to tell anyone yet. I don't like knowing people's secrets, that puts me in an awkward position. My friends learn pretty quickly that I don't respond well to being touched. I do not like hugs. I can't come out and say "Don't hug me, I don't want to know too much about you." I just say "I'm not a hugger. It's nothing personal."
@@therealopaartist SAME. My mom dad and sister will all try and hug me or kiss me and I usually do not like it. However I do show a lot of love and affection towards my dog, usually with hugs and kisses. I thought I was the only one who was like this.
@@kittykittybangbang9367 I’m fine with physical touch if IM the one to initiate it. Otherwise it gives me an icky crawling feeling. I also have a big thing about personal space and feel overwhelmed when I think people are too close.
No lie: this is the stuff that saves lives. I'm over 30, and it was in my third decade that I realized I am autistic. The amount of things that finally made sense and felt safer because they had a name is overwhelming. Simple stuff like this great little video make things feel okay. First watch and I'm subbed. Thanks so much for this.
I feel this so much. I was diagnosed with PDD NOS when I was four, and my mom didn't hide it from me and did her absolute best to support me and get me the help I needed. It still took until I was 18 to actually really accept that I was autistic (I grew up feeling like I had "grown out of it" like a phase, really I just learned to mask so well I even fooled myself). Understanding things like low-empathy, hypersensitivity and sensory overload, RSD, etc as common experiences for people with autism rather than personal faults that I have to cover up has been so freeing, and it's because of people like this, autistic creators sharing their own experiences and thoughts. And because it's a common experience, it means we can help each other work through it and with it rather than hide it and pretend it isn't there
Honestly, my absolute favorite part about Donnie isn’t actually any part of him being autistic. It’s the way everyone around him treats him. They all just go “yeah that’s Donnie” and for the most part they don’t get mad at him for anything related to his personality or the way his autism functions. Obviously not alll the time, since they all bicker with each other, but thats something they all do to each other and they don’t single Donnie out, unless he goes too far with something
the only thing is when it is actually getting in the way they help him get through it or just wait for him to get himself through it, his autism does get in the way sometimes, it is treated as a somewhat bad thing, but a somewhat bad thing on the same level as any other set of things someone can be bad at, it's not treated as a positive thing or even a completely neutral thing in tmnt, it's treated as a thing that has issues, but that's fine, he can work to get past them when the issues pop up because of his brothers and their support
10:53 this is genuinely one of my favorite donnie scenes cause he looks almost surprised he was crying, like he wasnt expecing this to hurt that much, like he isnt acostumed to feeling this hard and is kinda confused as to what he is feeling
same, also it comes with the extra emotional value and this singular scene adds so much to his character and their family dynamic. i also relate hard to that one moment because I never react when i get revelations like those in the movie and seeing him cry was like a punch in a gut.
I'm not on the autism spectrum, but I do have ADHD, and lordy, the lack of empathy that Donnie has is very relatable. I have a tendency to panic when other people (who I'm not extremely close to) show emotions, and by panic, I mean internally freak out and then quickly walk away with a straight face. I don't know how to deal with that, and when some of my friends cry in front of me, I try my best to comfort them but then end up making them cry more. Either that, or I end up just putting my hand on their shoulder and just sit there. It sucks, because I _want_ to help, and I can come across as rude so often that I've been called a jerk. I don't wanna be seen like that. Donnie struggling with things like that is kind of comforting in a way, it lets me know that I'm not the only one who struggles with that. Opening up takes a lot.
hey. i, obviously, can't speak for any of the people you know here... but, well, i know for me, at least, having someone put their hand on my shoulder and just sit there is really all i want sometimes. just knowing someone else out there cares about me and what i'm going through means the world. i also think it's worth mentioning that i'm also terrible at comforting people, and usually have absolutely no idea what to say, even a little. i don't think it's because of low empathy in my case, but reading your description of how it works for you, it seems the end result is pretty similar. so, uh... i hope this message made you feel better, too. edit: forgot to mention, i Also have ADHD! adhd moment.
YOOOOO THAT IS COOLIO BUDYYYYYYYY😭😭💕💕💕💕💕💕💕 some of my mom’s friend’s children have adhd and I am even friends with some of them!!!💕💕💕 YOU ARE LOVELY MYA HFJFJJF😭🌱🌱💕💕💕💕💕ILOVEYOUOFNFJ😭😭💕💕💕💕
As a fellow person with adhd, I just strait up say that I'm not the best to be comforting them. I mostly just just sit there and ask a question or two if appropriate, and if they know you well enough, they will accept it as you caring. being there and just listening to what someone has to say is usually enough.
There are 3 types of empathy: cognitive, that means knowing other people's feelings and thoughts, emotional, that means physically feeling other person's feelings, and compassionate, that means willingness to help. many of us autistics struggle with cognitive empathy, but most of us have often very high emotional and compassionate empathy. good cognitive empathy skills are fine, but they don't always mean a good-hearted person. for example, there are people who have good cognitive empathy but use it to hurt and manipulate others.
@Aquarium Gravel I was just using the words that the other person used to explain myself, but really psycopathy as a diagnosis doesn't exist, it's called Antisocial Spectrum Disorder
@@hasher9360 did you know you don't have to throw other neurodivergents (ppl w aspd, where the term psychopath came from) under the bus 👍👍no disorder inherently makes you a bad, evil or harmful person
@@violetbitch9492 it can be said either way, but it's a spectrum disorder and I thought that was important for the conversation Edit: and also since what we call psycopathy doesn't present as many of the personality traits but that's a whole thing that I don't understand well enough to talk about it ^^'
As someone on the spectrum, it’s kinda nice that this representation was… subtle. It was just well done, not overly emphasized, and doesn’t take away from his character, in fact it’s apart of it. He’s just himself, and isn’t made into one bloody siloed thing. I appreciate that a lot. And, he is my favorite TMNT, so seeing this in the latest iteration is really sick. :)
This is honestly an amazing analysis of Donnie as an Autistic character! As an Autistic person myself, I heavily relate to him as a character! So seeing him be confirmed as Autistic makes me so happy! I especially love how his brothers accommodate and let Donnie be his Autistic self! Like in the movie when Leo just let Donnie use his algorithm to Raph telling Donnie that he is grabbing him to save him and not to hug him. I love that! Anyways, this is absolutely amazing! #SaveRiseoftheTMNT ❤️🐢💙🐢💜🐢🧡🐢
@@thirdwheel9938 Definitely! Makes me happy that he gives off the impression that he respects Donnie’s boundaries. It means his brothers are aware of his sensitivity to touch! Like how Mikey knew Donnie’s worst nightmare is touching all that slimy mess in the spaceship due to his sensory issues. Makes me happy how supportive they are of each other!
As an autistic person I really do love how well Donnatello is represented. I heard about how he was confirmed to be before, and then I watched it and I went "Oh yeah he definitely is" the constant monotone voice, being bad with being touched (unless he initiates it) and trouble telling emotions really did make me happy too because those are symptoms I face too Also I struggled to describe my low empathy but that fits perfectly! It's like I have emotions but they're kind of muffled and I can't notice them half the time even when something that SHOULD make me feel more emotion does happen. It admittedly feels a bit weird because I am a writer so I have to stop and think "How would someone with more empathy feel in this situation"
Also looking at this through Donnie having Autism, something that really did stick out to me as an example of him showing he cares in different ways is his gifts to his brothers. He saw what they were doing wrong and genuinely wanted to try and help them (Raph needs to think more to be sure he doesn't make a fatal decision in his "No think more punch" moments, he was worried Mikey might hurt himself with his acrobatics, and Leo making one liners taking his focus off the battle) he just failed to realize that's how his brothers WANT to be because he viewed everything through a logical lens and not an emotional one
We really need to get this show back. I slept on it when it first came out, assuming it was similar to the Teen Titans GO of TMNT but when the Krang movie came out, my little brother convinced me to watch it and I realized how amazing the writing was. The voice acting is phenomenal and the animation simply speaks for itself. I was shocked to hear it was canceled or on hiatus (I'm not sure) in the middle of the season but I've been trying to find a way to reach Nickelodean and spread the word. This show deserves so much more.
I know you don't like Entrapta being in a leash, but goddammit that whole sequence was way to relatable to me. Sometimes I tend to "dissappear" (this is said by the people close to me) so my friends and family usually have to keep an extra eye on me or I will not appear for a few minutes because my autistic brain got too fascinated or overwhelmed by something.
Yeah I was really happy with how entrapta was represented because I felt like it really felt like me, always disappearing, constantly moving and struggling to listen unless im interested, literally only talking about my interests on certain days when thats all I can think about, like idk it really resonated with me. I know it wasn't the best rep in the world but I don't believe it was harmful outside of people who would take it the wrong way (which lets be honest if it was "perfect rep" theyd still take the wrong way). Entrapta is and always will be my fav character
Same here LMAO, one time I was at a fair with friends and one of them had to grab my hand and pull me to where they were going cause I was so focused on looking at everything
@@goblinteehee it is harmful because autistic and disabled people are commonly physically restrained and abused this way, so no, it's not the same as someone literally keeping an eye on you or holding your hand 😒
Ngl I didn’t see him as autistic coded and just saw him as “relatable” and somehow completely forgot I’m autistic too 😂, I dunno how this yeeted over my mind but now I can see it 😂😂😂💀
I may not have autism but as someone with ADHD I love Donnie’s character. Also when you started talking about how Donnie doesn’t feel the need to mask in front of his family cause they understand him it made me really happy. I don’t get that much from my family cause I’m the only one with a mental disability but it made me think of the way I feel with my girlfriend and that honestly makes me wanna cry.
I watched the 2012 tmnt and when I said I was obsessed I meant OBSESSED with tmnt for wayy too long. my room was a 7 year old boy’s dream room for a good 4 years, when I saw how different the new tmnt looked I immediately judged it and never considered giving it a chance, now that im into animated series again I’ll def give it a shot. donnie was my favorite bc I related to him being so…nerdy :D anyway might have to hold off watching this video essay until im done with the series bc spoilers
definitely give it a shot! it's really good. i've never watched the other ones but i've seen a lot of people who were fans of the older versions really like the new changes they made
This. I loved tmnt younger and as soon as I saw the new look of Rise I judged it, but I think I'll give it a shot now since I've heard multiple good things about it.
Honestly the show was before it’s time and came out as soon as the 2012 tmnt ended. I didn’t watch it until 2021 because I put it off as some stupid reboot, but then you watch it and it’s funny, relatable, and beautifully animated. It’s an amazing show and I wish I watched it sooner.
you definitely should I also was unhealthily obsessed and watched every series and movie. I was hesitant until my boyfriend wanted to watch it now it’s our favorite series to watch we’ve seen the movie 3 times
@@skulltrot I'd very much so recommend the 2003 and 2012 version. 2012 is a good mix of humor and seriousness. 2003 is serious with humorous moments. It treats Donnie in a way I've always liked. He's NOT just a tech nerd. He can help with medical emergencies, and is a capable fighter. When it counts he is the first of his brothers to be knocked out of a fighting tournament. Mikey beating Raph just by sheer annoyance tactics was incredible lol
Thank you. I have a high degree of empathy and my 9 year old daughter, who is autistic, does not. I have trouble connecting with her sometimes as a result. This video may have given me a little insight on how she thinks. I hope that will help me meet her halfway. I don't want to "fix" her, only love her as she is, and be there for her.
Actually the idea that Autistics lack empathy is a based on a double empathy standard. Basically when neurodivergent people struggle to understand or empathize with neurotypical people it's seen as a "lack of empathy", yet when neurotypicals struggle to understand neurodivergents it isn't seen as a lack of empathy. Like imagine you were the only neurotypical person in world of autistics, you whould be seen as the one lacking empathy. Autistics are capable of showing empathy to fellow Autistics, just as Neurotypicals are capable of showing empathy to fellow Neurotypicals.
that is wonderful for you to think about your daughter. As a daughter MYSELF, my mother is known for constantly telling me and my sister "to be better" or "fix ourselves" in a way that is so... demanding and degrading it created several confidence and self-worth issues. Children who are treated badly by their parents often blame themselves, WHİCH I FİND HİLLARİOUSLY İRONİC. So yea good for you for even acknowledging something. I wish you both luck, the truth is as long as you show her you love her, everything after that are minor issues.
I always felt Donnie voicing his “scoff” “laugh” “groan” are a choice of vocal stim or he has had tics in the past that sounded like those noises and when people kept responding to them he was like “you know what I will just tell you when I intend what social noises I want to convey.” In the same vein of “I know it sounds sarcastic but I am not.” Like a logical genuine belief it helps. Which honestly I do for my important people when they get so low energy they have a harder time with empathy so when we are interacting and stuff I will use my fun “emotional captions”. It makes my wife giggle instead of the frowning ‘was that a serious laugh or a sarcastic laugh’ I will instead be like “cue joyful laughter” before giggling. Or “scoffing at this guy”. It makes them smile and that is most important. Idk it made me smile and go ‘I do that’ when Donnie did it. By far- these turtles are my favorite version of the turtles. All of them bounce off one another so nicely. My favorite scene will always be the library rap. Leo beat boxing for him and how excited he gets. His brothers love him your honor. But I also have to agree for the Low empathy- he reminded me of my sister (who I am not sure has alexithymia but maybe) but low empathy with recognition in emotions- all the while having very big emotions and passions. Usually only shown in comfortable places but my sister goes through wildest things and be like “I am fine it happened? Why do I have to have an emotion about it?” Then bring her to animals and she is very emotional and excited. She feels so deeply and has a connection with animals that is honestly astounding and amazing. But outside of that cool as a cucumber following logic until something pushed her to using emotions (which was never great it made her so uncomfortable).
I think ppl overlook the importance of Entrapta because she’s one of the few actual grown independent human women of color on the autism spectrum which spoke volumes to myself and I saw so much of myself in her. It’s a spectrum after all, I don’t expect ASD characters to be all written the same.
To be honest I think the video is a bit unfair to Entrapta, considering that a huge core of her arc was showing empathy to Hordak and Wrong Hordak when no one else would
@@erttheking Yoo, I relate to entrapta so badly. I'm not autistic or adhd or something (probably), but I do struggle with communication at times and entrapta is such a good example of a character who is empathic but also dense af. I myself can be pretty good at supporting close friends, but I am very dense and if someone is not clear with how they feel I will not realize. One reason why I hate people masking so much. I tend to get along with blunt people who are open with honest communication. Don't tell me "I'll think about it" in order to not seem rude because I will think that you're actually considering it and I'll be expecting an answer. TELL me that you don't want that, be clear, I don't get offended. She IS capable of comforting a person, but she struggles with understanding how people behave and stuff and her viewpoints on how she looks at the world are so relatable and her being an energetic tech nerd Being dense doesn't mean someone is incapable of high empathy. In fact, based on my experience, many neurodivergent folk seem to display higher morality and empathy than neurotypical people. Many neurotypicals will see an injured person and run to help, but never to an injured animal, because running to help a person is what is the social norm. No, a neurodivergent person would run to help both, because a neurodivergent person doesn't follow the fact that society deems certain animals as inferior. No, they believe that the animal is deserving of equal treatment. Neurodivergent people are often much wiser too, because them being outcasts has made them do better self reflection. They are child-like old souls. Curiosity of a child, mind of a grown up. Again, this is just my experience, because I've talked with many neurodivergent people and I have friends with adhd too. I am not implying that everyone is like that.
@@erttheking Yeah, I think so too. It seems like the problem with Entrapta is less her and more about how her friends treat her. One of the biggest arcs for her relationships was the fact that the other princesses had to learn how to accept her for who she was and recognize that she cares deeply for them in her own way. It’s frustrating to see how she’s treated by others in the show, but that’s not really her fault. Obviously, I don’t think she’s perfect rep by any means, but she is a deeply relatable character and one of the better pieces of rep I’ve seen for someone on the spectrum.
I think one of my favorite examples of his family understanding and respecting his needs was in the movie when Raph says “Donnie, this isn’t a hug, it’s a rescue.” Raph made it very clear that he wasn’t trying to cross a boundary but was just trying to keep them safe. As an autistic person, that was very touching to see.
I love when shows like this and the Owl House show neurodivergences in an accurate manner. I do really wish I could find a show that has a character with narcolespy, I was recently diagnosed with it and I've been struggling with it a lot.
The Mysterious Benedict Society has a character with narcolepsy! Both the books and the show have it but the books featured it a bit more, especially in "The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict" Highly recommend the whole book series, it's fantastic!!
@@unlikebee I remember loving that book series! It was great at showing the vastly different ways the characters go about solving problems. I'll have to reread to be sure, but I'm pretty sure Mr. Benedict (who has narcolepsy) isn't the only neurodivergent character, but one of many portrayed positively.
I don't have low empathy, but I could still be classed as alexithymic. If someone's pet died, I'd be upset about it, but unable to express this upset the way I want to. This is why I tend to empathize with people who have low to no empathy; They and I end up in the same situations for different reasons, and I feel the genuine pain of being in a situation like this over internal processes the person can't control.
This ! I think the stereotype that all autistic people lack empathy is largely a misconception due to the fact that we express it in atypical manners that usually fail to be recognized for what they really are. What a lot of people don’t know is that there are different forms of empathy. I’m autistic myself and my *affective* empathy is through the roof. I actually feel and care so much that I’m always overwhelmed by others’ emotions, which makes me particularly prone to anxiety and depression. Ironically, I’ve often come across as emotionally distant, partly because I don’t have an expressive face and too much eye contact distracts me from what’s being said, but mostly because I have low *cognitive* empathy, which is the ability to properly identify emotions and the appropriate way to respond to them. I can usually tell when somebody’s in pain and I really feel for them, but I tend to freeze and be mostly useless, either because the stress from the unpredictable situation causes me to shutdown, or because I’m aware that my needs differ considerably from the majority’s, so I’m at a complete loss as to what I’m expected to do and how to avoid accidentally making the person feel worse. (For instance, my natural reflex when I’m hurt is to isolate myself, so that I can save my limited mental energy and get a chance to think my problems through. So by my own logic, the considerate thing to do would be leaving a sad friend alone until they’re ready to reach out… except I’ve learned from bitter experience that most people do *not* want to grieve alone, so they’d most likely fail to see my good intentions and misinterpret my actions as cold indifference.) Constantly trying to anticipate people’s reactions and to figure out what they really want (that they won’t say) is a very taxing mental effort that some of us just don’t have the energy to maintain.
I like the fact his brothers aren't really harsh on him, but they don't infantilize him either, he's just y'know, their brother. And that's just great to see, I like how he has his moments too, stuff just gets to him and it's not something incredible like he's suddenly ''fixed'' of this whatever it is
Honestly, I love the little extra detail of having a color as a comfort color and special interest, I love this because the color blue has literally become part of my personality, and I'm glad that's portrayed through him.
Just wanna say, "the logistics of sympathy" is a description I've never heard before, but perfectly describes what that is so well! Thanks for the communication epiphany.
I'm not autistic myself, but it is absolutely incredible how they made Donnie in the ROTTMNT show. Like, I literally cannot explain it. And the creator of the video has made me understood autism a whole lot more then I've known beforehand (which wasn't a whole lot). Watched the entire video and it is really outstanding.
As someone with Autism, it is nice seeing positive representation in media for it. Mostly because I don't know what an outside perspective looks like for people not on the spectrum. It always confuses me when people think I am being cold or sarcastic but in my head I am just thinking "did I not sound sincere or happy?" It is also nice seeing an autistic character who is not just "the guy in the chair." For the longest time I did not want to accept who I was because I felt like Autism was a negative thing to have. Especially with characters like Sheldon who make Autistic people seem like uncaring pricks. But the more I have learned about the disorder, the more that I realize that it is just something that is a part of who I am, and I am happy with that.
I am not autistic myself, but I have problems with low empathy. Thanks for making this video. Yeah, low empathy can make people jerks but that's not our intention. In our best interest is to have people like us so we feel good having friends, so being mean to them would harm us instead. Any asshole'ish situations come from us are not intentional if we like that person.
@@koshmareq depends and usually i open my mouth without thinking so i do have a gut feeling i’m saying something wrong but i talk too fast to acknowledge it
I have autism, and I have higher empathy, too. There are just times where I have a little trouble grappling onto some situations on an emotional standpoint, but I always try my best not to look or seem like a jerk.
@@emilyannthevioletghost715 Same. I have high empathy but sometimes I am almost uninterested or have difficulty empathizing with others because I have no idea what I'm supposed to do in certain social situations or I misunderstand situations and take things too literally.
I think you might be feeling “validation”. The kind of warm fuzzy feeling you get when it feels like everyone finally acknowledges your presence and sees you as worthy of respect ;w;
@@prettyrat. I can confirm that it's one of the most amazing feelings we might ever feel. I have autism, and Donnie and I here have a lot of common traits between us, and seeing this representation done SO WELL makes me feel like I'm more included and like I'm finally not alone in the world.
I haven't even watched this show yet your description of Donnie is so validating and important to me. I can relate to a lot of these traits and I bet many do, as well. Shout-out to the writers who understand how autism works! (also left this comment to appease the algorithm because you deserve to be unleashed on as many people as possible, go forth, bless people with your content)
I didn’t realize how common adhd and autistic experiences are. I have adhd, and I related to quite a few things brought up as evidence of Donnie’s autism in this video. This including, being blunt, taking things literally, being less empathetic(though I don’t do it much, it’s just hard for me to put myself in someone elses shoes to try and help them get though that emotion, or understand them), saying sound effects while doing things(I don’t say scoff or sigh, I will say “swoop” or “OM-“ like saying sound effects.), I think logically, and I talk in a very different grammatical sense. With my grammar, I will switch it up to fit in. I’m not saying that they are the same. I’m just saying I related a lot to these things. I don’t relate to the not liking to be touched though, I’m a very touchy person. I know that Autistic people go through a lot worse experiences than ADHD people. They’re also treated badly a lot. Again, I’m just saying I related to this a lot.
@@bbludacious Donnie's just an awkward nerd pinning for April. Which isn't bad on it's own but as King Leonidas said, it's just not as interesting as in Rise. I'll remember Rise Donnie for a lot longer than I did the previous incarnations of Donnie.
@@bbludacious 2012 was just more whiny and didn’t even feel like a ninja to me for most of the show. He’s not a bad character but it felt like he would’ve done better in the background.
1. I love the new character designs because they all have different body types, skin tones, and other little quirks about them (like Raph’s snaggle tooth) 2. I love seeing his brothers accepting his autism and personality AND it’s nice seeing a character that has a hard time expressing and figuring out emotions but also really cares about others. As an autistic person, I’ve sent too much time trying to figure out what I feel AND also caring too much about others and what they think.
I went to get diagnosed with Autism after I finished watching the movie. Turns out I'm autistic with low empathy. I literally got an appointment after finishing the movie because of how insanely similar I am to him. It was amazing! I finally understood why I always got in trouble for not feeling as empathetic or sympathetic to others, obviously to a degree. I can understand logically why things happen. I have never felt so seen. I genuinely love this Donnie more than the others.
I've often wondered if I'm autistic. I hyperfocus on specific fandoms for a long time, I always need to be doing something with my hands, and I often misinterpret how people want me to emotionally react in a situation (i.e. trying to predict what they want me to do, when it ends up that they often want the exact opposite and getting super nervous about it). Donnie was always my favorite Turtle, too (though I haven't seen any series since the original live action series, any recs?), which seems fitting.
That's why its a spectrum, not an absolute. Of course there's a lot of crossover and the only way to truly know is to get a formal diagnosis. Otherwise, just do what you can to cope
Same, I've also been wondering this for nearly a year now and woa that thing about not knowing how people want you to emotionally react and getting it twisted, big relate there, it's a thing I struggle a lot with as well
The hyperfocus thing seems like the biggest indicator of autism. Like, there are many traits that are associated with autism, but none seem quite so common as a tendency to latch onto subjects, whether that’s a general interest, specific thoughts, conversation topics, etc. That said, non-autistic people can reach the same levels of interest/focus. Though it usually takes more effort.
Hyperfocus is a symptom of several things, including ADHD, as are needing stuff to do with your hands and problems in social settings. So while those might be indicators, you might want to seek a professional diagnosis. Of course, ADHD and ASD have numerous overlaps and can be comorbid, so...yeah.
As an autistic person I love seeing more representation. I just wish I had this/knew of this when I was younger. I felt so alone back then. I’m 19 now, but the lack of representation ten years ago just makes me appreciate the representation we have now more
I have autism, too, and I'm 24. I don't like that I didn't stumble across this version of Donnie till over a month ago. For almost my whole life, I felt very alone, too. Seeing this representation done so well means the whole world to me. It makes me feel more.....validated. and it's one of the most wonderful feelings I've experienced.
I like that Donnie’s meltdown is due to emotional and psychological stress. It shows that it’s not just overstimulation and sensory overload that causes meltdowns.
I'm also autistic, but I don't struggle with low empathy. If anything, I'm the exact opposite. It's very apparent to those who spend even just a little bit of time with me that I'm a very emotional and empathic person. My family is very much aware that this sometimes causes me struggles as jokes they make at my expense can often deeply offend me and I tend to take everything way too seriously. No, they're not mean or anything like that. My family just likes to joke around and will poke fun at each other when appropriate. Unfortunately, because I am far more sensitive than the rest of my family, they sometimes forget to filter themselves and say something that ends up hurting my feelings. Sometimes they'll be annoyed or upset by how much I took what they said to heart, but will for the most part apologize when they see just how truly upset I am by what they said. I do honestly hate the common representation of people with autism having low empathy to the point that they are just horrible people. It's actually one of the many reasons why I HATE the show Big Bang Theory as the character Sheldon just fills me with unbridle rage and I take too much pleasure in seeing awful things happening to him because he's such a terrible person. In reality, I've never met someone with such low empathy that they are at all like this, and I've met and worked with a lot of people with autism. For the most part, the autistic people I've met don't have low empathy. The few I have met aren't horrible people. They just struggle to express themselves and understand certain situations but are still quite supportive and kind. So it really angers me when so many depictions of autistic characters are these low empathy jerks who you just wanna hate on. That isn't at all what we're like and I'm so sick and tired of that depiction to the point that people who don't know much about autism think that that's what we're all like. I have met so many people who are stunned to learn that I'm autistic to the point that they deny this and accuse me of lying about it. I'm the type of autistic who you'd honestly have a hard time identifying as being autistic unless you knew the signs of autism and were actively looking for them in me or if someone straight up told you from the start about my autism. When they do learn that I'm autistic and actually learn a thing or two about autism, they tend to give a "Oh, that actually explains a lot" kind of response. As for the Entrapta thing, I kinda have to disagree with your opinion on the matter. I find Entrapta to be a great form of representation. You seem to focus solely on the fact that people only view her as the tech person, but that isn't true. Entrapta has, on several occasions, been the emotional heart and she actually goes through quite the character development. When we first meet Entrapta, yes, she's just the tech person who doesn't think twice about dissecting Adora to figure out how she works. However, take this into account. From what we've seen just in the background of her introduction episode, Entrapta doesn't seem to have much human communication. Everyone seems afraid of her and her tech, something that brings her a lot of joy and that she understands. We even see a portrait of what looks like Entrapta was raised by robot parents instead human parents. As for why that is, we currently don't know. However, it does say a lot about her. From just that portrait alone, it's pretty clear that Entrapta didn't get to have a lot of practice communicating with human beings and thus stunted her ability to understand people. She even attends Princess Prom as an opportunity to study and observe behaviors of others instead of actually engaging with others because she doesn't understand how to do that. It's more of a circumstance of how one grew up than how her autism actually effects her. Then, finally, she meets Hoardak. For the first time in her life, she meets someone who shares her love and passion for science and isn't afraid of her or her tech. They bond over their shared interests and build a genuinely sweet friendship that slowly develops into something more. Upon finally making an actually connection to someone who isn't a robot, we see just how much she truly cares for others. She isn't even bothered when she learns that Hoardak is a clone from space and openly accepts him, going so far as to help him feel stronger by in body and sense of self-worth. When she learns of the dangers in opening a portal, Entrapta is genuinely concerned about the safety of the planet and others and has faith that Hoardak will stop the portal from being opened if she tells him the truth. When Adora, Bow and Swiftwind go to rescue Entrapta from Beast Island, Entrapta reveals a more vulnerable side of herself, sharing her fears and worries that no one will ever accept her and that everyone hates her. This happens once again when she risks her life to get a signal when working with the princesses again, admitting that she's sorry for her past mistakes and is willing to die to save her friends, knowing how important it is that they find out what Hoard Prime is planning. Yes, we do have that situation from Beast Island when Adora and Bow are only able to snap her out of her trance by mentioning they have a First Ones ship, but she later thanks Bow for showing her so much care. When Entrapta helps invade Hoard Prime's ship, Entrapta is actively hoping to find Hoardak and make sure he's okay. Even when they find Wrong Hoardak instead, Entrapta shows so much sympathy for him and decides to help him because she's genuinely concerned for him. Entrapta continues to grow as she interact more with others and finally begins to understand emotions and people. Again, I don't believe this is a case of Entrapta exactly having low empathy, but rather having her growth on an emotion level stunted because of her upbringing and how others viewed her. By the end of the series, Entrapta gives a heartfelt speech about the strength of humanity and the heart to Hoard Prime, giving Hoardak the strength he needed to overcome Hoard Prime's mind control and embrace his own sense of worth and care for others. It amazes me how Entrapta went from this scientist who thought nothing of dissecting a living person to giving a heartfelt speech to the big bad of the series and redeeming a villain who had grown to love because of her. Sorry for the long winded topic of Entrapta when this is a Donnie video, but I just felt like I had to clear up that misconception about Entrapta since you had pointed her out several times as bad rep for an autistic character. In all clarity, I don't believe Entrapta's flaws have anything to do with her autism itself, but instead how she grew up and others treated her. Maybe this new perspective of her character will help you see her in a new light. If not and I just upset you with my view of the character, I apologize for going about it so much. I just felt the need to clear up some things and thought this might help you better understand her character.
@El Mero Mero Okay, yes. There are some real parasites on the internet. I've dealt with my fair share of them whom I wish to never deal with ever again. But I've met far more people who are genuinely kind and supportive. I've actually been able to help others with my work on the internet, and others have greatly help me by communicating to me through the internet. As careful as we should be on the internet, there are times when you can really make a positive difference with on the internet.
I feel like the issue with those kinds of characters is the writers don’t understand the difference between "I don’t get it." And "I don’t get it!😡" because to them these are the same things
I'm also one with what I'd consider for my own well-being to be too much empathy. But like.. specifically with animals and fictional characters generally. I feel sympathy for those around me.. but I generally find people's emotions and opinions about things hard to really truly grasp.
Haven't seen the series, so I watched this more on a whim, and now I'm going to add this to my list. The part where Donnie was equating his worth as a person of the group with his contributions in tech literally made me tear up. *holy shit* And something that I've been using to describe empathy is that it's like a mirror. Those who have it see and reflect the emotions of the people in front of them. Yet compassion is another metric entirely, how much worth you see in the people around you and want them to have good lives. But since people use empathy as the gauge for compassion, instead of taking note of people who help others, we have this mess
Jesus Christ, no wonder Donnie is my favourite turtle in this show. Life makes so much more sense now. I never could pinpoint why I liked him so much compared to the other turtles but now that you've said it, it feels like it should've been obvious. Thank you.
This was god tier analysis. Honestly all the turtles are Neurodivergent Coded, Leo being clearly ADHD. Which is why I love seeing their communications with Donnie because it makes me an ADHD Autistic so happy to see them playing off each other!
i really liked this video, and as an autistic person who loves Donnie's character, it's great to finally see him as a autistic (or at least autistic-coded) character, and seeing him being accepted by the people he cares about without having to mask or hide parts of himself to be accepted. it's wonderful to see him- and ofc the other characters- get to just... be teenagers sometimes! and do this cool stuff without constantly being at each other's throats and all serious all the time!
I'm really glad you made this video as someone with Autism. I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome when I was around 5 or 6 (which that term has been medically disregarded and is simply now just a form of Autism.) I lean on the higher empathy end, but I totally understand what being low empathy is like. When I was younger, I actually used to be lower empathy. I didn't know how to read facial expressions when I was around 8! Over time though, I got therapy to help me learn a lot of how to properly cope with autism and learn these skills that I was lacking, and I'm very thankful for that. This wasn't anything that was forcing me to change or anything bad like that. But even at the point where I am now, there's still a lot of things I see about myself in Donnie. What's so important about Donnie in this series for me is how he learns to overcome his shortcomings without the writers just tossing away what made Donnie... well, Donnie! It's still very possible to learn more about how to cope and communicate with your Autism instead of being forced to "be normal". And I was diagnosed with ADHD about two years ago, so I got a lot to learn about myself still! Whenever we get someone with Autism that turns out to be a bad person, it's not because their evil or mean, it's because they didn't get the care they needed in life. I'm really glad that we are starting to move away from the cliche of Autism being an emotionless robot.
Hi, sorry if I am bothering you, but when I was younger I too was diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome. My mother confirmed it to me a few years back, and even told me stories of how she suspected I had symptoms before I was confirmed. I have gotten speecg therapy because I legit couldn't/refused to talk during my younger elementary years. My family has treated me well during the years, but always told me I had Aspergers. I never knew that was disregarded and just another form of autism. So in a weird way, this is me thanking you for teaching me something new. I must ask though, why is it disregarded? Can you send links so I can read about it?
@@twistynight2568 I'll be honest, I don't know why. I just know of it because that's what I was told when I went to go get diagnosed for ADHD. My guess is that the symptoms are just too similar to the point of it being redundant. But that's just a guess
As someone who’s only recently been officially diagnosed to be on the autistic spectrum (about a month or so ago), I’ve been trying to find media that has well-written autistic characters, mostly to learn more about what it’s like for other people on the spectrum, and to see if some of my childhood experiences make more sense when viewed through that lens. These types of videos greatly help in trying to understand what people’s experiences are like, as well as just encouraging autistic people to be happy with themselves. When I first heard I had autism, I thought I was stuck like this, that I couldn’t “fix my issues”. I realize I was looking at the subject all wrong. I don’t need to “fix” how I subconsciously act and how I live. And Donnie seems like such good representation of that, as well as sounding like a generally well-written character. Will definitely check out this series. Thank you.
I actually had a personal experience with a peer who I connect with over our shared status of being autistic where she shared with me the fact that she had stopped watching a specific show (won't state which to avoid spoilers) in part because an autistic-coded character appeared to have been written in such a way that pushed the stereotype that autistic people are inherently dangerous (a trauma button for her); she was SO relieved when I told her that instead the character's story was written to showcase that autistic people are vulnerable to the manipulations of those with nefarious intentions. Something you discussed in your Owl House video in the Gus section; the autistic person is not wrong or dangerous for being manipulated but rather the blame falls on the person doing the manipulation.
I just started watching watching rottmnt and all of a sudden this comes up in my recommended! I’m super excited to watch this especially since Donnie’s my favourite
Holy fuck. I had no idea alexithymia was a thing until I watched your video. My mother once said that I'm probably a sociopath or a psychopath because of my lack of empathy in certain situations. And for a while there, she had me pretty convinced. I'm not a psychopath, I might just be autistic. Granted, it's very likely, seeing as how I was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age. But this... I want to thank you. You have no idea what you have done for me. I am truly, truly thankful.
It is very likely. You might want to research more about autism and maybe take a few online quizzes. From what I understand a lot of autistic people have ADHD. I am not sure how many do though.
Oh that explains why I love Rise Donnie so much. I was offically diagnosed right before covid hit and I avoided this show at first because I was like a lot of the fans who was reluctant to give the show a chance because of all of the changes. But now it's one of my all time favorite TMNT iterations and I'm heartbroken that it ended so soon😭
Donatello has been my favorite in many versions ever since the 90s, and I am neurodivergent as well. “Rise” is one version I never got to see much of, but this video makes me very excited. Been watching clips for awhile and I really want to explore this show now.
Donnie being autistic and having ODC are still technically fannons, but I can totally see these being confirmed. If he did have autism in the cartoon then they did a damn good job at representing it, but still its not exactly canonical?
in my opinion, something being stated outside of the show doesn’t mean it cant be canon if its the writers or important people on the crew saying it and if it was their intend while writing the character. Maybe someday they can mention it in the show too.
@@owl9130 The confirmation is at the beginning of this video actually! The video actually shows Ron confirming Donnie being Autistic. It was confirmed in two tweets. Mikey is also confirmed at the same time for being ADHD.
I don't believe I'm autistic but I am ADHD and I've always identified with Donnie and Donnie in this show was extremely relatable and I genuinely enjoyed the movie I may have low empathy and i just have a lack of awareness with things like humor or vocabulary it's mildly stressful honestly but this is such a relatable and wonderful character study!
Dear Skulltrot, I have no idea if you are going to read this, but I just want to say thank you. I remember watching Rise first come out and I was like “Oh, it’ll be like Teen Titans GO! There is no way this will affect my life in major way” I did watch some shorts of previous series, but that was it. Until I saw this video. Curiosity took over and I didn’t realize how big that decision was. It awoken something in me that I never thought I needed. After seeing this, I started watching the series and it became a big part of my life. That would not have happened with you. And for the video itself, it is amazing! As a person on the autistic spectrum myself, I face things differently than what would be considered “The Norm.” However, I was able to find community and guess what? Turns out there is a lot more autistic people than you think. I absolutely love Donnie, the characters, plot, and all of Rise as a whole. You helped introduce me to that, to this joy, and I just want to say thank, thank you so much! I can’t waited to see your next videos! As a fello over analysis, these things full my very being. Thank you Until next time, “Hot Soup” and “We do we, baby!”
Man, I would have loved to grow up seeing a character like Donnie on TV. I got diagnosed with autism around age 17 (though my mom suspected it was the case earlier), and up until that point I just thought there was something wrong with me for not being able to function in most social situations. Even now I’m still figuring out new things that are part of being autistic and not personal character flaws. Before I saw this video, I didn’t know that low empathy was a normal thing and thought that I was just a heartless POS. This video helped a lot with stuff like that.
Same here! I'm Autistic but have trouble figuring out what my symptoms are and what's not just weird habits of mine or caused by something else. The description of Low Empathy though really did hammer it in though that i'm not just weird for having to ask myself what another person would feel in a situation
Ah! A Rise analysis! And a Donnie one too?! Woah! I've been really into Rise at the moment and I know this'll be good!! [EDIT] WOAH TYSM FOR 19 LIKES- this is so many!! Tysm!!! [EDIT 2] OMG WOAH THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 130 LIKES- WOAH-
I didn’t realize how amazing brothers the others are to donnie. I have an autistic sister but it is really truly difficult to connect with her no matter how much I want to or how hard I try. It makes me feel like I’m an awful sister- awful person, even- and it doesn’t help that I constantly hear my mom try to change her. She’s trying to make her quote end quote normal. And I think the way she does that gets in my head and I do it too. It’s especially hard to share my emotions with her when I’m upset. She went through my sketch book a couple of times and copied my drawings and I was angry. I as calmly as I could told her I was upset and didn’t want her to do that again, but she wasn’t listening (it seemed) and was just saying how I went through her sketch book and did that stuff, too. (I didn’t, btw) so I did one little “UGH- hmmmmmph…” and it went off the rails. I couldn’t get her to stop yelling and running around the room and my mom came in and started yelling at her and I felt like it was somehow my fault and… anyways, this is a long way of saying I wish I was as wonderful as Mikey, Raph, and Leo.
This is why I liked rottmnt donnie more than other donnies The other donnies are just "Oh im smart blah blah blah" this one actually has (MORE) personality
That’s why I like him too! Also he was a whiny jerk like in the 2012 version. This version I think gives the characters a different take instead of the same recycled personalities.
yES. THIS. okay don't get me wrong I love 2012 Donnie and he def felt autistic, too, but Rise is one of the few times I've seen a cartoon write an autistic genius character _relatably._ 2012 Donnie was like: -large vocabulary -maps out social situations like charts (which is fair, mood) -incredibly skilled at math and science -trouble knowing when to start and stop talking but Rise went a step further and did: -sensory issues -aversion to touch -low empathy -_precise_ vocabulary that's a mix of casual and formal (relate relate relate aaaaggghh) -incredibly skilled at math and science but like, more mad scientist vibes?? -is just shown on his phone at random and possibly not socially appropriate times like, 2012 comes off as autistic coding as a not-totally-inaccurate stereotype, but a stereotype nonetheless (though I've heard he was supposed to be OCD in 2012 so I can see that being maybe more heavily shown). but Rise is like, "ah, you have met autistic people or at least seen a lot of our memes."
I can relate somewhat to the low empathy. I do feel sad when I see others sad, but I myself don't know how to comfort them except saying "Hey, you wanna talk more, or sit in a comfortable silence, or watch a movie, or exercise?" Then ask if they want a hug for however long they need. My normal responses to someone having something bad to them is to analyze how and why it happened, then to my way of comforting them-
3:30 YES, IT'S LITTERALY IN THE BEGINING OF THE EPISODE *ATTACHED* _& ALSO, THAT EPISODES REAFIRMS HOW GOOD HIS FAMILY UNDERSTANDS HIM WHEN LEO SAYS WHILE DONALD SMIRKS:_ *"DONNIE, THESE ARE AMAZING! & I KNOW THAT I SOUNDED SARCASTIC BUT I'M BEING GENUINE, this time"*
Absolutely awesome analysis! My younger sister has low empathy too, and after watching this not only do i see it clear in Donnie but now i think i understand my sister more. Thanks for educating me and opening my ignorant eyes!
Donnie is so similar to me it makes me actually cry with happiness like man, he talks like I do, the vocabulary, where his voice has inflections etc. the fact, he doesn't like physical touch, the fact his special interest is tech related, the fact his intelligence is (*probably more than mine*) like mine. The fact he gets upset when he can't understand something when he's so used to understanding everything His stims, esp. the way he vocalises his actions, BECAUSE THATS SOMETHING I DO!!! it makes me feel so happy to be able to fully relate to this character.
the sheer joy i felt seeing this come up on my recommended page is unparalleled. this series has been my hyperfixation for the past 3 months and i have absolutely no one to talk to about it, and to see you discuss my favorite character and the one i relate most to is just so amazing!!
ok ok, so is it weird that even though i have adhd and am not autistic i relate waay too much to the concept of low empathy and donnie as a character. I've always known "oh im supposed to feel xx emotion when told xx thing," but i've always kind of just reacted with trained responses i've heard from other people. Its difficult to self reflect and instead of thinking of how i feel going through something its more a root of the problem thing. idk is that weird?
a lot of people get only diagnosed as adhd but are actually autistic also. it's a thing. there's certainly overlap in symptoms, but what you're describing sounds a lot more like autism. you might wanna look into it more.
I also find the idea that he's a soft shell Turtle rather interesting. He has a literal sensitive shell that he has to wear Armour over to protect himself, you could almost consider him to be a form of disabled rep in that aspect too.
Its nice to know people see donnies personality and quirks this way cuz i heavily relate to him, all ive seen is people saying he has toxic masculinity cuz he can come off as rude sometimes??? Idk its just nice to see people reading his character like this instead of an ass
this! this videos puts into words what i go through every day, i constantly feel like Zuko saying "that's rough buddy" and i try to make it clear that while i don't feel as strongly about it as you do i do care immensely, this video, is me, and this video is awesome, thank you.
I don't know if I am autistic (probably not, it's mostly likely just my cptsd) but I feel like this often. The whole "low empathy" part. A simple fix that has worked for me is to act more empathetic than you actually feel. Normally I feel "Huh" or "Dang" when my friends tell me something upsetting happened to them. But I SAY "Oh my gosh, thats awful! Im so sorry that happened. Do you want a hug? Or do you want to talk about it? I can listen too." Obviously I don't WANT my friends to have bad things happen to them. I want them to have happy and peaceful lives! And I AM willing to listen and give them hugs and talk about it and stuff. Always. But when they tell me "my dog died!" The most empathy that gets scraped up can be summed up with: "Ouch" **stares at them to see if they are gonna say something else** **goes back to playing on my phone** But since that would be rude and incorrectly express how much I care about them, I act over the top so there is NO DOUBT how much I really do care
I had a really strange collection of moments occuring when watching Dead End: Paranormal Park since I reacted to most of the show the same way Norma did and could relate a lot to her. Felt really strange to have something so recognizable.
I’ve actually been marathoning the series these past days with my friends and it’s such an amazing watch, then I suddenly saw your thumbnail in my feed and was like “yup that makes sense”, it honestly makes me really happy when characters with ASD (or are coded) are fan favorites, Donnie is so awesome and honestly my favorite version of the character so far! I’m glad to have him has ASD representation. (Also your owl house videos are really good too, keep up the great work)
He’s great 10/10 he’s an evil genius with tons of flair and adorkability. I’ve never been a tmnt fan really, but Rise has captured me in it’s incredibly innovative take. Each character is amazing, and Donnie is no exception. He’s a bit of jerk, but I love that. The scene in the movie, when he’s crying, and he raises his hands to his face, I just… feel that. I have never fallen in love with a show faster than I have with ROTTMNT
GOD i relate to that. It’s so hard to show I care when the world expects me to be a certain way and I can’t. I try to empathize with words and strategies, taking time to come up with what I think will be helpful for whoever is suffering, and it’s thrown out the window bc I don’t coddle them just the way they want me to. So much for communication. But thanks for the video essay! I’m so glad kids have characters they can look up to and be like, “Hey! That guy is like me, and he’s cool!”
I'm in my early 30's. I grew up with TMNT being one of my favorite things, specifically Donnie. I never understood why my friends/cousins never chose him as their favorite. I guess this justifies it! I haven't seen it, so I had no idea this ran this deep on the show. I'd heard about the coding, but because of She-Ra, had kind of written it off. Thank you for making this. I cried!
I'm going through the long process of unmasking, and figuring out what and who I am under the mask, and the way they depicted Donnie's low empathy helped me come to terms with my own. It's hard enough to accept certain parts of yourself, but when those parts are only shown as something bad in others, it's even harder. Having it shown in such a realistic and neutral way though, makes it easier to recognize and accept.
Never saw the show but clips. But I always had this fascination with tmnt but kept it at a distance. But I love your videos so I’m excited to see this one. And out of all of the brothers donnie was my favorite, he was always the sassy nerd and I loved him for that.
This was very informative. I had no idea that Donnie might count as on the spectrum, probably because they did such a good job of making us love him for all he is and his traits. I definitely agree despite being more aloof than the others he definitely cares and I never had to question that. It is insanely sweet how he always includes his brothers in the stuff he makes and honestly I feel like he’s had way more emotional moments like in Mind Meld where he admitted that he missed his brothers, NOT that he simply couldnt stand being the smartest anymore. He was more put off by them not spending time with him like they used to than how smart they were and that’s really subtle hut says so much.
@@birboii It would be useful to share what the misinformation is rather than just simply state that it exists. I'm not overly familiar with Rise of the TMNT myself, so perhaps I'm not seeing something here that you do. If you're talking about whether Donnie is autistic, show-writer Ron Corcillo said he thinks that that Donnie is on the spectrum, so this isn't just an assumption. TH-cam won't let me post links, but there's a link to in the references of Donnie's TMNTPedia page.
In some small way, I'd like to defend the Entrapta interactions as highlighting the stigmas you've mentioned specifically by having them primarily perpetrated by Perfuma. With the more technological, scientific elements in that story usually being tied to the villains, it seems safe to assume that Entrapta's autism is something that hasn't been looked into as much as it has in real life. Add to that Perfuma's more holistic upbringing, and everything she's doing interacting with Entrapta, despite being the "empathic" teammate, sits wrong even to those of us considered neurotypical.
i've seen a few people talking about this in the comments and ig i probably should've mentioned it in the video:
High empathy is probably equally as common as low empathy in autistic people (that's based off of me meeting autistic people, not off of any studies btw). Basically, from my understanding, it's feeling so much empathy to the point where it can be physically painful in some situations.
Autism has a lot of symptoms like that where people will either have some kind of deficit or a surplus.
For example, some autistic people have heightened sensitivity to smell, while others (like me) barely register/process different smells around them. Some autistic people might have sensitive eyes (ex. fluroesent lights, being outside without sunglasses at all even when it's cloudy, and lots of things going on at once visually overstimulate me) OR it's the polar opposite. Same for other senses.
Hypersensitivity - extreme sensitivity in any of the senses, which usually causes someone to actively get rid of senses (ie noise cancelling headphones, sunglasses)
Hyposensitivity - being undersensitive to stimuli, which usually causes someone to stimulate themselves more (tight-fit clothing, pressure therapy, seeking out specific textures to stimulate themself)
Thank you for this add on! I'm autistic, and while watching this video I was going 'guess I'm in the half that doesn't'. I always knew low empathy was a stereotype, though had never really had it explained out before like in this video. But I hadn't known that High empathy was a thing at all! I have that! I'm glad I have a name for it now, kinda sad that It took being in my late 20s to learn about it.
I am so glad you added this! I'm autistic with high empathy, and while I didn't know it was possible for some people with autism to have that (mainly because I've been raised with people who just say "You just didn't get the low empathy, you're not autistic *enough* to have it." which is, for the record, *so wrong),* I did know that the low empathy stereotype was harmful to *everyone* with autism. Like, I know my dad is low empathy (thanks for being where I inherited it from, pops), and we clash a lot over it, but the stereotype hurts the both of us. People would just assume I couldn't feel emotions, they'd assume my dad was the same, and that was it. Didn't help that his low empathy became an *excuse* for being a butt (I know now it's because of how he was raised, but still). It messes us up in so many different ways, and can be very different experiences for high empathy peeps on the spectrum like myself and low empathy peeps.
woah, I never new this, thanks for telling! I have autism, and I never realized there was something called high empathy, but I'm pretty sure I have high empathy. so thanks for this!!!
I'm hypersensitive to touch and it's awful
I'm really picky with clothing materials because they feel acky on my skin and i just hate being touched in general 😐
I saw a sticker on ticktock that says that autism isnt a processing error, its just a diferent systom and i agree with it. Were bot broken, just diferent enough that information dosnt process the way other people woumd expect
My favorite line showing his family understands him is Ralph saying “Donnie this isn’t a hug, it’s a rescue”
I loved that part so much too, the Rise turtles might be my favorite interpretation the more I rewatch the show. All the characters are great and I love the brothers relationships so mcuh!
Yessss!!!!! That was so wonderful for me to see! I’ve been a childcare worker for a long time now (7 8 years? I dunno COVID kinda fucked with all that; but I’m still very much a childcare worker at heart) and learning to let kids have bodily autonomy and that they can absolutely refuse hugs and shit was an important early milestone for me. And to see Raph reassure his brother like that while rescuing is huge, especially on the autonomy side of things. The whole movie and show is a fucking master piece and I’m so glad I found it
@@mouses_HK Wh-where can I watch the shoooow????
@@canarysilvertail7706 Netflix, Amazon Video, and Paramount +.
I support abortion because I believe that it is morally good to abort autistic babies
Usually when a character is written as "low empathy" they are basically written as no-empathy instead.
Yes, exactly. You don't have to have empathy to know that someone else's feelings are important to them. Hell, you don't even need to necessarily know what someone is feeling or why to know that you still have to respect whatever it is that they are feeling.
It's why characters like Sheldon come across as "assholes". He often seem aware of other people's feelings and chooses to treat them as unimportant because *he* doesn't view them as important. Even when he's explicitly told that he's upset someone.
Whereas most autistic people I've personally met make social blunders that are more along the lines of not understanding or realizing someone is feeling a certain emotion or being too focused on their own perception of events. And will try to make amends if you explicitly tell them what is wrong, because JFC that's literally just what most people in general will do.
IMO, it's the difference between someone actually being an asshole and someone just being socially awkward/lacking social awareness.
@@HeyLeFay And that right there is why I can’t respect writers who create characters like Sheldon
@@HeyLeFay I don't know.Empathy is still important.I read that from mental health sites.Maybe people with low empathy need help in improving empathy in order to understand others.I'm so sorry If I have offended anyone.
@@ahmadhadi177 Yeah totally, you just have to understand that empathy is harder for some people. But yeah I think empathy is really important and it can be learned to an extent.
@@eatingtheleaf4659 Is it because of genetics or lack of experience with empathy?I read somewhere in the comment section that low empathy doesn't always associate itself with autism.
9:45 Say it with me: there is a difference between empathy and compassion. This is a paraphrased quote I once heard from another autistic creator: Empathy is when you feel the emotions of others. Compassion is when you want to help people because of their emotions. For example, if my friend hurt her knee while hiking, my low empathy would prevent me from panicking but I would still want to help because of my compassion.
This is perfectly said. I'm a parent with a low empathy child. She is profoundly compassionate and, to my mind, more so than most Allistics. She'd give a flat-toned, "that's tough buddy" after hearing about a friend's break-up, but she'd also be making a mountain of their favorite snacks, gathering up comfy blankets and pillows, putting together a youtube playlist and nesting with them on the couch for the next 5 hours. There are plenty of people who can empathize and still not actually care about the person, let alone bother to connect. She absolutely cares and connects, but she doesn't absorb other people's feelings and carry them around. I honestly LOVE that for her.
@@emilyarter2773 This. I have autism, so I struggle with feelings, but I’ll help whenever you need it.
no, you can feel empathy and not panic. empathy is more complex tha that, it let's you understand what other are feeling or going trhough on a deeper, more personal level. which is why i feel bad for low empathy people, and their partners (if they have one). Family memebers and friends can deal with it alright though.
I think it has its pros and cons, and thats one of the pros. I'll mention the cons of my hyperempathy - I soak up others emotions like an utter sponge, leading to very quick emotional burnout and since I wanna avoid that, it gives me anxiety around talking to people who need help and can often hinder my compassion. However, I've gotten a LOT LOT better at this during the past few years because I've gotten better at emotional regulation - but I do need to be careful. @@emilyarter2773
fr! I felt ashamed for a long time abt having low empathy but I feel like society puts so much emphasis on higher levels of empathy instead of learning to be more compassionate with each other
The negative stereotypes of autism are also so inconsistent like one second we can’t experience emotion and the next second we’re having constant breakdowns and need to be babysat because we’re experiencing too much emotion. It’s like they’re so close to understanding we’re all different but still want to make it a bad thing.
As someone with high functioning autism, I completely understand this feeling! I hate that I have a hard time understanding people's emotions and then breaking down because they seem to not understand my own emotions! I mostly hate that my dad wants me to smile 24/7 because he can't even see that my resting face, which I will admit looks a little grumpy, doesn't mean that I am not happy. I hate that some people can't understand that I am TRYING to show how I feel, but sometimes I actually WANT to be sad and Angery, so I am at a lost here...
Am I doing something wrong?
@@Checkmarked963 You're not. You're absolutely allowed to feel sad and angry sometimes. There's a concept called "toxic positivity" you could look into, it sounds like that might be what you're dealing with. If you were assigned female at birth or presenting as a woman that could be it as well. I'm FTM and also autistic, and before I transitioned men would feel comfortable telling me their opinions on my life _to my face,_ and being told to smile is a VERY common thing too.
@@forgenorman3025 I don't get what my gender has to do with this, but I am a Pan Poly Demigirl that uses she/her and He/him, but I only told my dad about the Pan part since he wasn't as supportive as I thought he would be when I came out as Pan...
@@Checkmarked963 I did explain that. Men are far too often raised and conditioned into thinking that they can tell any woman what to do with their face or what to eat or not eat, or how to dress based on _his_ preferences. The most common way this comes up is a guy telling a woman to smile regardless of her actual mood or what she might be dealing with. It was just another possible explanation for why people don't let you express your sadness and anger, because women and femmes are often raised to believe that they must always be nice and pleasant no matter what so showing emotions like anger is disapproved of.
@@forgenorman3025 That is very true...
But he did go through a divorce from my mom, but even then my mom understands me more than him...
Besides, I have been, well, tried to be taught, how to control my emotions, but it was mostly my dad that tried to teach me that...
OML ur right...
I'm actually kind of okay with Donnie not being overtly stated as on the autism spectrum as it sometimes gets undiagnosed for ages, sometimes for a person's whole life, and I'm not sure if the TMNT really has the means to be diagnosed sooooo I give it a pass
To be a bit meta, I dislike when a show explicitly states a character has a disorder because it feels like an oversimplification of their character at best and comes off as pandering at worst
@Domino 64 I agree, it’s important for series to show and not tell. In real life, you don’t have people explaining away their every action with full-on professional diagnoses that can narrow down your perception of that person using symptoms in a medical article. It’s more realistic when the character exhibits those traits but doesn’t stay in a linear line of autism when it comes to personality by labeling everything.
@@domino6490 I’m fine with them saying they have autism if they play it well.
You can also have low empathy and not have autism. People overly misuse autism. There's other characteristics of it that are not simply 'they lack empathy' it's also they lack the ability to read body language, understand how people feel, and other important factors. Literally not giving a fuck isn't autism.
yeah how would a mutant go about getting diagnosed??? like my ma didn't get diagnosed with ADHD until her late 40's, I can't imagine the struggle unless there's some kind of yokai or mutant therapy/psychology division lol. Like despite me throwing literal tantrums if my socks felt weird as a kid it wasn't even considered I have autism until I was over 20.
not to mention you have a lot of shows that just go "haha I'm autistic [insert horribly portrayed stereotypes here]" "yeah they're autistic [insert abelist remark here]" because they don't actually know how to write an autistic character... which.. .eugh at all that. and idk how well they'd go about it being super blatantly stated, especially again considering, not all humans are accepting of the yokai and mutants and what not.
like would it be cool to have a great to have donnie openly in the show be stated as autistic?? yeah but considering the actual show my only gripe is I wish they'd give one or maybe a few scenes to him actually talking about it with his family, even if there isn't a name given to it. I think that'd be nice. It's not necessarily *needed* I just think it'd be neat and give us a bit of a closer look into everything ya know?
(minor spoilers for the rise movie) i think it’s also very cool that donnie is also possibly depicted as physically disabled. he’s a soft shell turtle and wears a self made battle-shell most of the time to protect him, because of the aforementioned soft shell. (this is where the minor spoilers come in!!) in the movie towards the end, his battle shell breaks and he is left vulnerable. mikey is immediately worried about him because of this but he doesn’t make him out to be weak, hes just worried about his brothers safety. i’m not physically disabled myself but i think it’s nice how none of the characters ever treat donnie like he’s made of glass or that he’s not as skilled as the other turtles because of his soft shell (his disability metaphor). anyways yea sorry for the rant i love this video :)
YES!!! YES THIS!!!
I appreciate that, in some instances, Donnie is depicted as being the most competent member of the team. His autism doesn't debilitate him.
Okay got it. Smart socially awkward character is retconned in modern alterations of the show as autistic but also now physically disabled. Remember, every smart character has to be socially awkward and if they’re socially awkward they have to autistic guys! Representation is so nice! /s
Also I’m autistic so don’t even go there 😂
rant:
you can’t represent a group if everyone in that group is different, so stop conflating everyone in that group under a stereotype in order to represent them. I’m Autistic yet have no social anxiety or sensory overload problems, or communication issues. On the other hand, I know someone who is autistic who only suffers from communication complications. Then I know someone who only has problems expressing emotions and then I know someone who is overly expressive of their emotions but has social anxiety. They’re not even the only differences, even with all that none of us act the same or has the same interests. Yet videos like this imply we’re all the same enough to represent us, HOW!? “Us” are all different and aren’t similar. I’m very similar to my uncle who doesn’t have autism but nothing like my other family members who do have it. Same with people outside my family. How the shit are you gonna represent all of us? You can’t. Same problem with race and with gender. You literally cannot represent it. If you make a character whose autistic just make them a friend you know who has autism and leave it at that. Don’t call it representation bc it’s not, as someone else with autism may be drastically different to your friend and for the love of god don’t make their autism a trait.
Rant over.
Que the angry 13 year olds saying “akchually I’m autistic and you’re wrong bc I disagree”
The inhuman cat crying scream I just made hearing this!!! ;w; ♥
ALSO !! Donnie canonically needs to wear glasses in the rise!version !!((But I reckon he uses contacts as it is more practical in battle))so to top off being a soft shell and needing glasses, this version of donnie is in fact -- canonically disabled !!
I love how they depicted him as not really liking receiving physical affection. My favorite moment in the movie was Raph's line of "This isn't a hug, it's a rescue".
That was my favorite line too
Yess!
Although i have to add that not all autistic people are like that, i myself like hugging people, hell, from the stories my mom told me i used to hug literally everyone we met along the way and that my mom had to tell me not to do it
@@nintendoman12111 I know all don't hate physical touch , but I personally related to it 😊
@@variant7816 I don't like when people kiss me, I usually tend to get away when people try, the most people get is a handshake or a hug. Thankfully my family seems to kinda understand, even if they don't understand why. So they tend to respect it.
I really liked how you used your thought process in an actual event when talking about low empathy, it's always nice when someone gives examples beyond "they will insult you for expressing emotions"
Guy: "I had to watch my dog get euthanized."
Me: "Damn, that sucks man. Terrible thing to go through."
My brain: *Yo, remember the truth gas song from Helluva Boss? Imma play it on repeat.*
in my case i have empathy but am terrible at displaying sad emotion, like, i can be told sad things and i'll get their sadness, but i can't stand being next to a person crying their heart out and just want the crying to stop haha. (And also tend to get bad moments of morbidly bad jokes at bad times when i understand its a sad moment).
For me, it wasn't a lack of empathy. In fact, I may have been overly-sensitive as a kid. But it was things like avoiding eye contact, hyper-focusing, and just kind of seemingly ignoring people while trying to figure out what to say. Also not knowing how to be anything but brutally honest. Like, I just could NOT put things in a way that didn't sound judgmental or mean-spirited.
Yeah, having Asperger's is amazing. And that WAS sarcasm.
@@Nanashi20 dude I’m the exact opposite. I can’t really cry in public, but alone i cry really easily, especially if it’s because someone else is sad. However, i always struggle to smile ‘right’ or express when I’m feeling content or passively happy, most people think i look absolutely miserable or pissed most of the time ahah
@@AnEmu404 oh i cannot cry either, like, ive been met with negative feedback over me crying that i just naturally hold it back and at most just tear up or so, but never really start crying at all. not even when alone.
"don't worry I just have to follow Raph's GPS to find him"
"did you put GPS on all of us??"
"NoOOoooo... "
he was prepared in case one of them got lost😭😭😭 i really love this version of him!
People who read “like father like son”: **hysterically sobs**
Dont remind me of that pain *sob* (iloveittho)
@@gigikju9934 OMG YOU DID NOT-
I like how this show is representing autism because it isn’t pushing a message with it or trying to demonize it it’s just there to be a character trait and that’s all it should be
Indeed, is better just putting it out there than making some sort of spectacle out of it, since that would just cheapen the character.
@@illseeyaonthedarksideofthemoon by far the best way to do representation
Couldn't have said it better
Yesss
Its something that deeply affects people's lives and even their human rights so I personally think it's wrong to write it off as "a character trait"
9:16 this is what really solidified it to me. I'm autistic, and there is nothing, NOTHING more frustrating to me when something is apparently super easy for some people, taking less then a few seconds, while I just struggle to even complete it. LIke, I know it's not their fault, but it is beyond maddening. I completely felt donnie here
Correction you have autism
That line was amazing man
Yeah, I know that feeling. When something is so easy that most people understand it almost instantly But for you it takes a lot longer. And internally you're like. What the heck? Why is this so easy for them
Yeah, I feel that way with talking about things I like. Unless its a video game or movie or something like that, I just shut down whenever I'm asked to talk about myself, and even when I get to talking about that stuff, it's only with a close friend and ESPECIALLY not in public where someone can hear us. I value my privacy, but appreciate the people around me.
Bro what Don says there hits a little too close it got me wondering about myself too
I'm so glad you called out Entrapta's writing. I adored her but always felt like she was in some way did wrong by being reduced to a childish asset on the team who was COMPLETELY unaware of what's going on around her, and her whole character began to fall flat after that point
I don't know, I'm a 31 year old woman with autism and I guess Entrapta's portrayal made sense to me. Like, the immaturity thing got to me because it's something I have struggled with lately. Well, I don't think I'm immature, but a lot of people see it that way
I have adhd and I have trouble remembering people's faces and I have a attention problem along with bottling up certain emotions
I really liked a lot about her portrayal but I can understand why those things would be gripes for other people, I hope that we continue to get more positive representation so that there's less disappointment when one goes wrong because there'll be so many great examples to choose from.
I related to the lack of awareness on a technical level, but in actual execution....it was a no for me. There's a difference between not reading social ques/not realizing that something may be hurtful vs. not realizing that someone could F*CKING DIE.
Also, isn't she one of the oldest of the princesses? I feel like she could've been portrayed as playful and slightly "childish", but it also would have felt good to see her be "childish" while simultaniously actually acting her age. Because I would relate to that: getting really excited and passionate about certain things and having difficulties with socializing, but also being legitmately mature in most other areas, or at least a lot more mature than the younger characters.
@@rosesweetcharlotte I feel she was overly simplified, being autistic too I couldn't really relate a lot to her, especially in comparison to other characters, there was no real depth with her, despite being a tech genius she seemed overly oblivious and stupid, which isn't good rep
Donnie’s inventions are the most heartwarming part of the series for me. The show itself lightly draws attention to it, but every single thing he creates is so perfectly and particularly catered to his family. Size and color are part of it, obviously, but he so frequently takes the time to create four of everything, add in features he knows they’ll like, etc. A subtle aspect that doesn’t really get called out is that he also doesn’t do much inventing on the fly-the show strongly implies he spends most of his free time working on things to either share with his brothers (his gifts, the tank, the drill) or have on deck to keep them safe (the tracker implants, the escape pods). He’s constantly, *constantly* showing affection through his tech.
It’s like inventing things for his family members is his “love language” (in the thoughtful “gifts” &/or “service” categories).
I found myself tearing up as I watched this, seeing Donny's "quirks" in a whole new light. The tears really settled in, though, when I realized that, through your explanations of autism, I was beginning to understand my son, and our relationship made a lot more sense to me. Thanks for making this! Came for some lols, left with some feels.
Donnie isn't even autistic
people don't understand autism because its different and we think differently and express ourselves differently but I think people just need to listen and you'll get an answer. Its like people tell us that this is autism, a set of rules and traits that don't change but its alot of things. I believe that autism is mostly* a communication disorder and we think similarly and we want similar things but we're just a bean in an all legume world
cardlin! big fan have fun on vacation
Holy Cardlin im actually shocked to see you here hi
there's a moment in that pizza maze episode where donnie takes raph's "if i die in this maze, i will haunt you for the rest of your life" threat literally, so he starts going off about how that's not possible. but instead of raph telling donnie he's stupid or that he needs to shut up, raph just tells him he's "not helping." idk it's such a small moment but it really stood out to me
Ralph is just great overall.
There’s this line in the movie where he grabs Donnie and Mikey mid air yelling “Don’t worry Donnie this is not a hug it’s a rescue”
Another time in the Flushed episode (idk how to spell the fish's name) Donnie says, "I know we're brothers, but sometimes it feels like we are just room mates." Raph doesn't say "quit it with your autistic nonsense", he instead says middle child nonsense.
@baconator_x4098
I’m convinced if the show was rated differently, Raph would have said, “middle child bullshit”
@@d4-v1d22 My campaign for if season 3 ever gets the greenlight to resume: Let Raph Swear. At least once. Just one is all I ask for.
The movie got a nono word give Raph a nono word 😭
My girlfriend has autism, and she's my world. Videos like these help me understand her better and show her affection in a way that works for her. There were multiple moments in this video where I went "Ohhh so THAT'S why she does that!". Thank you for making this, it's very informative.
Bro ur girlfriend is so lucky that you are working hard to help her. It’s a bare minimum to understand who your with but very rarely do people actually do it.
I wish you both well in your relationship & that you can stay healthy
@@RemiStarz26 It makes me sad that you think she's lucky. In my eyes what I'm doing should be expected of anyone. How can you claim to love your partner if you don't understand them. Also, I don't so much see it as helping her, moreso just being a good friend. She's perfect the way she is, she doesn't need help
@@ellie8272
Yeah, people tend to suck at understanding the people they love, and don’t put a lot of work into it ☹️
Also, I bet she’s amazing, and I sincerely hope you two are happy together
@@RemiStarz26 She is, and I am 😊
@@ellie8272 You're being considerate of her.That's good.😊
When you mentioned Donnie not liking physical touch unless he initiates it instantly made me think of my younger brother who has Autism (he cannot speak at all). Sometimes he lashes out when my mother hugs him and he doesn't want it. But he does show affection, he only likes it if he initiates it. He'll go up to my parents, my brother and I, or any other family member he likes and trusts, and will either reach out for their hand or kiss them on the cheek. He's very much capable of showing love when he's comfortable with it. My heart just turned into mush and just reinforced my love towards him. Dominic, my younger brother, is my everything and the reason why our family is still together, he's a blessing.
I have a similar problem and people think I’m weird or contradictory for it. If I move something or hug someone else, it’s okay. But if someone moves something in my room without me permitting them to, or hugs me without me initiating it, I get extremely upset. I can’t really explain why, either, so I can’t find a way to make it stop :(
@@luxill0s I'm sorry that happens to you. I have ADHD, and I hate being touched, too. It's not an all the time thing, I love my friends and family, but I can read physical cues really well when people touch me. Really really well. Too well. I've been able to tell when people are pregnant or dying and they haven't wanted to tell anyone yet. I don't like knowing people's secrets, that puts me in an awkward position. My friends learn pretty quickly that I don't respond well to being touched. I do not like hugs. I can't come out and say "Don't hug me, I don't want to know too much about you." I just say "I'm not a hugger. It's nothing personal."
WAIT THATS SOMETHING OTHERS EXPERIENCE I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST ME?!
@@therealopaartist SAME. My mom dad and sister will all try and hug me or kiss me and I usually do not like it. However I do show a lot of love and affection towards my dog, usually with hugs and kisses. I thought I was the only one who was like this.
@@kittykittybangbang9367 I’m fine with physical touch if IM the one to initiate it. Otherwise it gives me an icky crawling feeling. I also have a big thing about personal space and feel overwhelmed when I think people are too close.
No lie: this is the stuff that saves lives.
I'm over 30, and it was in my third decade that I realized I am autistic.
The amount of things that finally made sense and felt safer because they had a name is overwhelming.
Simple stuff like this great little video make things feel okay.
First watch and I'm subbed.
Thanks so much for this.
I feel this so much. I was diagnosed with PDD NOS when I was four, and my mom didn't hide it from me and did her absolute best to support me and get me the help I needed. It still took until I was 18 to actually really accept that I was autistic (I grew up feeling like I had "grown out of it" like a phase, really I just learned to mask so well I even fooled myself). Understanding things like low-empathy, hypersensitivity and sensory overload, RSD, etc as common experiences for people with autism rather than personal faults that I have to cover up has been so freeing, and it's because of people like this, autistic creators sharing their own experiences and thoughts. And because it's a common experience, it means we can help each other work through it and with it rather than hide it and pretend it isn't there
30??? Jesus Christ man, at least have the decency to keep the age to yourself...
@@illseeyaonthedarksideofthemoon what?
@@illseeyaonthedarksideofthemoon your acting like being 30 is a bad thing ppl age lmao and 30 is still very young
@Paristheninjanerd He should play the no-breathing game to "stop ageing", maybe you should join him too.
Honestly, my absolute favorite part about Donnie isn’t actually any part of him being autistic. It’s the way everyone around him treats him. They all just go “yeah that’s Donnie” and for the most part they don’t get mad at him for anything related to his personality or the way his autism functions. Obviously not alll the time, since they all bicker with each other, but thats something they all do to each other and they don’t single Donnie out, unless he goes too far with something
If they are all weirdos, what's wrong with one of them being a different type of weird? Best way to represent
most people dont give a crap .
EXACTLY! It’s OK to have characters bust each other’s balls so long as it’s done equally and fairly!
the only thing is when it is actually getting in the way they help him get through it or just wait for him to get himself through it, his autism does get in the way sometimes, it is treated as a somewhat bad thing, but a somewhat bad thing on the same level as any other set of things someone can be bad at, it's not treated as a positive thing or even a completely neutral thing in tmnt, it's treated as a thing that has issues, but that's fine, he can work to get past them when the issues pop up because of his brothers and their support
that's just how normal people act
Donnie canonically has OCD, I’m surprised no one brings this up
he does?? i thouht they confirmed he was somewhere in the spectrum
@@miriama3887 That part was is kinda vague but him having OCD is 100% canon
@@Riaah_love well if it wasn't officially confirmed then it's a fannon. Not saying it's a bad one though, I totally see Donny having OCD or somthn.
@@owl9130 Donny having OCD is canon, him being autistic is pretty vague
But that's Donnie from 2012 TMNT, not Rise Donnie I think
10:53 this is genuinely one of my favorite donnie scenes cause he looks almost surprised he was crying, like he wasnt expecing this to hurt that much, like he isnt acostumed to feeling this hard and is kinda confused as to what he is feeling
same, also it comes with the extra emotional value and this singular scene adds so much to his character and their family dynamic. i also relate hard to that one moment because I never react when i get revelations like those in the movie and seeing him cry was like a punch in a gut.
I'm not on the autism spectrum, but I do have ADHD, and lordy, the lack of empathy that Donnie has is very relatable. I have a tendency to panic when other people (who I'm not extremely close to) show emotions, and by panic, I mean internally freak out and then quickly walk away with a straight face. I don't know how to deal with that, and when some of my friends cry in front of me, I try my best to comfort them but then end up making them cry more. Either that, or I end up just putting my hand on their shoulder and just sit there. It sucks, because I _want_ to help, and I can come across as rude so often that I've been called a jerk. I don't wanna be seen like that. Donnie struggling with things like that is kind of comforting in a way, it lets me know that I'm not the only one who struggles with that. Opening up takes a lot.
hey. i, obviously, can't speak for any of the people you know here... but, well, i know for me, at least, having someone put their hand on my shoulder and just sit there is really all i want sometimes. just knowing someone else out there cares about me and what i'm going through means the world.
i also think it's worth mentioning that i'm also terrible at comforting people, and usually have absolutely no idea what to say, even a little. i don't think it's because of low empathy in my case, but reading your description of how it works for you, it seems the end result is pretty similar. so, uh... i hope this message made you feel better, too.
edit: forgot to mention, i Also have ADHD! adhd moment.
YOOOOO THAT IS COOLIO BUDYYYYYYYY😭😭💕💕💕💕💕💕💕 some of my mom’s friend’s children have adhd and I am even friends with some of them!!!💕💕💕 YOU ARE LOVELY MYA HFJFJJF😭🌱🌱💕💕💕💕💕ILOVEYOUOFNFJ😭😭💕💕💕💕
As a fellow person with adhd, I just strait up say that I'm not the best to be comforting them. I mostly just just sit there and ask a question or two if appropriate, and if they know you well enough, they will accept it as you caring. being there and just listening to what someone has to say is usually enough.
i literally don't know how to comfort people or just react. i just wish i didn't have to encounter these situations. i feel awkward and out of place.
@@lopil HI LOPIL HIIIIIII THANK YIU YOU ARE YOO
There are 3 types of empathy: cognitive, that means knowing other people's feelings and thoughts, emotional, that means physically feeling other person's feelings, and compassionate, that means willingness to help. many of us autistics struggle with cognitive empathy, but most of us have often very high emotional and compassionate empathy. good cognitive empathy skills are fine, but they don't always mean a good-hearted person. for example, there are people who have good cognitive empathy but use it to hurt and manipulate others.
@@hasher9360 psychopaths don't necessarily harm people, being a psychopath doesn't make you a bad person
@Aquarium Gravel I was just using the words that the other person used to explain myself, but really psycopathy as a diagnosis doesn't exist, it's called Antisocial Spectrum Disorder
@@1kaz1 isn't it antisocial personality disorder?
@@hasher9360 did you know you don't have to throw other neurodivergents (ppl w aspd, where the term psychopath came from) under the bus 👍👍no disorder inherently makes you a bad, evil or harmful person
@@violetbitch9492 it can be said either way, but it's a spectrum disorder and I thought that was important for the conversation
Edit: and also since what we call psycopathy doesn't present as many of the personality traits but that's a whole thing that I don't understand well enough to talk about it ^^'
As someone on the spectrum, it’s kinda nice that this representation was… subtle. It was just well done, not overly emphasized, and doesn’t take away from his character, in fact it’s apart of it. He’s just himself, and isn’t made into one bloody siloed thing. I appreciate that a lot.
And, he is my favorite TMNT, so seeing this in the latest iteration is really sick. :)
Subtle is really the keyword for it YES
This is honestly an amazing analysis of Donnie as an Autistic character! As an Autistic person myself, I heavily relate to him as a character! So seeing him be confirmed as Autistic makes me so happy! I especially love how his brothers accommodate and let Donnie be his Autistic self! Like in the movie when Leo just let Donnie use his algorithm to Raph telling Donnie that he is grabbing him to save him and not to hug him. I love that! Anyways, this is absolutely amazing! #SaveRiseoftheTMNT ❤️🐢💙🐢💜🐢🧡🐢
I heavily relate to this aswell im very much a Donnie kinnie and I find myself acting similar to him aswell
I love how that implies raph knows donnie isn't very fond of touch so he definitely tries his best to respect donnie's boundaries. I love that
@@raelinthewolf7524 That’s awesome!!😁
@@thirdwheel9938 Definitely! Makes me happy that he gives off the impression that he respects Donnie’s boundaries. It means his brothers are aware of his sensitivity to touch! Like how Mikey knew Donnie’s worst nightmare is touching all that slimy mess in the spaceship due to his sensory issues. Makes me happy how supportive they are of each other!
Same
As an autistic person I really do love how well Donnatello is represented. I heard about how he was confirmed to be before, and then I watched it and I went "Oh yeah he definitely is" the constant monotone voice, being bad with being touched (unless he initiates it) and trouble telling emotions really did make me happy too because those are symptoms I face too
Also I struggled to describe my low empathy but that fits perfectly! It's like I have emotions but they're kind of muffled and I can't notice them half the time even when something that SHOULD make me feel more emotion does happen. It admittedly feels a bit weird because I am a writer so I have to stop and think "How would someone with more empathy feel in this situation"
Also looking at this through Donnie having Autism, something that really did stick out to me as an example of him showing he cares in different ways is his gifts to his brothers. He saw what they were doing wrong and genuinely wanted to try and help them (Raph needs to think more to be sure he doesn't make a fatal decision in his "No think more punch" moments, he was worried Mikey might hurt himself with his acrobatics, and Leo making one liners taking his focus off the battle) he just failed to realize that's how his brothers WANT to be because he viewed everything through a logical lens and not an emotional one
We really need to get this show back. I slept on it when it first came out, assuming it was similar to the Teen Titans GO of TMNT but when the Krang movie came out, my little brother convinced me to watch it and I realized how amazing the writing was. The voice acting is phenomenal and the animation simply speaks for itself.
I was shocked to hear it was canceled or on hiatus (I'm not sure) in the middle of the season but I've been trying to find a way to reach Nickelodean and spread the word. This show deserves so much more.
It definitely took me awhile to get used to since I started watching tmnt 2012 when I was a kid but once I did I loved it so much.
Keep doing what you’re doing man, a lot if us want to see the show again and we are still campaigning for it :)
I know you don't like Entrapta being in a leash, but goddammit that whole sequence was way to relatable to me. Sometimes I tend to "dissappear" (this is said by the people close to me) so my friends and family usually have to keep an extra eye on me or I will not appear for a few minutes because my autistic brain got too fascinated or overwhelmed by something.
A goth with a Snufkin PFP? Username does not quite check out.
(But it does in regards to your remark about disappearing, haha.)
Yeah I was really happy with how entrapta was represented because I felt like it really felt like me, always disappearing, constantly moving and struggling to listen unless im interested, literally only talking about my interests on certain days when thats all I can think about, like idk it really resonated with me. I know it wasn't the best rep in the world but I don't believe it was harmful outside of people who would take it the wrong way (which lets be honest if it was "perfect rep" theyd still take the wrong way). Entrapta is and always will be my fav character
Same here LMAO, one time I was at a fair with friends and one of them had to grab my hand and pull me to where they were going cause I was so focused on looking at everything
@@goblinteehee it is harmful because autistic and disabled people are commonly physically restrained and abused this way, so no, it's not the same as someone literally keeping an eye on you or holding your hand 😒
Same here, at this point its a recurring joke between my friends 😂
Ngl I didn’t see him as autistic coded and just saw him as “relatable” and somehow completely forgot I’m autistic too 😂, I dunno how this yeeted over my mind but now I can see it 😂😂😂💀
Same! I have adhd and I just thought "I relate to you quite a bit and I want to be your friend c:" And then I found this vid lol
Maybe because you mentioned you were diagnosed
I may not have autism but as someone with ADHD I love Donnie’s character. Also when you started talking about how Donnie doesn’t feel the need to mask in front of his family cause they understand him it made me really happy. I don’t get that much from my family cause I’m the only one with a mental disability but it made me think of the way I feel with my girlfriend and that honestly makes me wanna cry.
Either Donnie has to stop being so relatable or I have to go get a diagnosis
Me too brotha
felt that
In some states you get healthcare for having autism, just sayin. Not all states of course
Haha literally same
Probably both.
I watched the 2012 tmnt and when I said I was obsessed I meant OBSESSED with tmnt for wayy too long. my room was a 7 year old boy’s dream room for a good 4 years, when I saw how different the new tmnt looked I immediately judged it and never considered giving it a chance, now that im into animated series again I’ll def give it a shot. donnie was my favorite bc I related to him being so…nerdy :D anyway might have to hold off watching this video essay until im done with the series bc spoilers
definitely give it a shot! it's really good. i've never watched the other ones but i've seen a lot of people who were fans of the older versions really like the new changes they made
This. I loved tmnt younger and as soon as I saw the new look of Rise I judged it, but I think I'll give it a shot now since I've heard multiple good things about it.
Honestly the show was before it’s time and came out as soon as the 2012 tmnt ended. I didn’t watch it until 2021 because I put it off as some stupid reboot, but then you watch it and it’s funny, relatable, and beautifully animated. It’s an amazing show and I wish I watched it sooner.
you definitely should I also was unhealthily obsessed and watched every series and movie. I was hesitant until my boyfriend wanted to watch it now it’s our favorite series to watch we’ve seen the movie 3 times
@@skulltrot I'd very much so recommend the 2003 and 2012 version. 2012 is a good mix of humor and seriousness. 2003 is serious with humorous moments. It treats Donnie in a way I've always liked. He's NOT just a tech nerd. He can help with medical emergencies, and is a capable fighter. When it counts he is the first of his brothers to be knocked out of a fighting tournament. Mikey beating Raph just by sheer annoyance tactics was incredible lol
Thank you. I have a high degree of empathy and my 9 year old daughter, who is autistic, does not. I have trouble connecting with her sometimes as a result. This video may have given me a little insight on how she thinks. I hope that will help me meet her halfway. I don't want to "fix" her, only love her as she is, and be there for her.
Thank you for being such a wonderful parent
Actually the idea that Autistics lack empathy is a based on a double empathy standard. Basically when neurodivergent people struggle to understand or empathize with neurotypical people it's seen as a "lack of empathy", yet when neurotypicals struggle to understand neurodivergents it isn't seen as a lack of empathy. Like imagine you were the only neurotypical person in world of autistics, you whould be seen as the one lacking empathy. Autistics are capable of showing empathy to fellow Autistics, just as Neurotypicals are capable of showing empathy to fellow Neurotypicals.
You should have an award in fact all good parents do
that is wonderful for you to think about your daughter. As a daughter MYSELF, my mother is known for constantly telling me and my sister "to be better" or "fix ourselves" in a way that is so... demanding and degrading it created several confidence and self-worth issues. Children who are treated badly by their parents often blame themselves, WHİCH I FİND HİLLARİOUSLY İRONİC. So yea good for you for even acknowledging something.
I wish you both luck, the truth is as long as you show her you love her, everything after that are minor issues.
I always felt Donnie voicing his “scoff” “laugh” “groan” are a choice of vocal stim or he has had tics in the past that sounded like those noises and when people kept responding to them he was like “you know what I will just tell you when I intend what social noises I want to convey.” In the same vein of “I know it sounds sarcastic but I am not.” Like a logical genuine belief it helps. Which honestly I do for my important people when they get so low energy they have a harder time with empathy so when we are interacting and stuff I will use my fun “emotional captions”. It makes my wife giggle instead of the frowning ‘was that a serious laugh or a sarcastic laugh’ I will instead be like “cue joyful laughter” before giggling. Or “scoffing at this guy”. It makes them smile and that is most important. Idk it made me smile and go ‘I do that’ when Donnie did it.
By far- these turtles are my favorite version of the turtles. All of them bounce off one another so nicely.
My favorite scene will always be the library rap. Leo beat boxing for him and how excited he gets. His brothers love him your honor.
But I also have to agree for the Low empathy- he reminded me of my sister (who I am not sure has alexithymia but maybe) but low empathy with recognition in emotions- all the while having very big emotions and passions. Usually only shown in comfortable places but my sister goes through wildest things and be like “I am fine it happened? Why do I have to have an emotion about it?” Then bring her to animals and she is very emotional and excited. She feels so deeply and has a connection with animals that is honestly astounding and amazing. But outside of that cool as a cucumber following logic until something pushed her to using emotions (which was never great it made her so uncomfortable).
I think ppl overlook the importance of Entrapta because she’s one of the few actual grown independent human women of color on the autism spectrum which spoke volumes to myself and I saw so much of myself in her. It’s a spectrum after all, I don’t expect ASD characters to be all written the same.
Yeah that's why I love Entrapta. She's a grown ass woman and isn't childish and is allowed to express her own sexuality
To be honest I think the video is a bit unfair to Entrapta, considering that a huge core of her arc was showing empathy to Hordak and Wrong Hordak when no one else would
@@erttheking I completely agree.
@@erttheking Yoo, I relate to entrapta so badly. I'm not autistic or adhd or something (probably), but I do struggle with communication at times and entrapta is such a good example of a character who is empathic but also dense af.
I myself can be pretty good at supporting close friends, but I am very dense and if someone is not clear with how they feel I will not realize. One reason why I hate people masking so much. I tend to get along with blunt people who are open with honest communication. Don't tell me "I'll think about it" in order to not seem rude because I will think that you're actually considering it and I'll be expecting an answer. TELL me that you don't want that, be clear, I don't get offended.
She IS capable of comforting a person, but she struggles with understanding how people behave and stuff and her viewpoints on how she looks at the world are so relatable and her being an energetic tech nerd
Being dense doesn't mean someone is incapable of high empathy. In fact, based on my experience, many neurodivergent folk seem to display higher morality and empathy than neurotypical people. Many neurotypicals will see an injured person and run to help, but never to an injured animal, because running to help a person is what is the social norm. No, a neurodivergent person would run to help both, because a neurodivergent person doesn't follow the fact that society deems certain animals as inferior. No, they believe that the animal is deserving of equal treatment. Neurodivergent people are often much wiser too, because them being outcasts has made them do better self reflection. They are child-like old souls. Curiosity of a child, mind of a grown up. Again, this is just my experience, because I've talked with many neurodivergent people and I have friends with adhd too. I am not implying that everyone is like that.
@@erttheking Yeah, I think so too. It seems like the problem with Entrapta is less her and more about how her friends treat her. One of the biggest arcs for her relationships was the fact that the other princesses had to learn how to accept her for who she was and recognize that she cares deeply for them in her own way. It’s frustrating to see how she’s treated by others in the show, but that’s not really her fault.
Obviously, I don’t think she’s perfect rep by any means, but she is a deeply relatable character and one of the better pieces of rep I’ve seen for someone on the spectrum.
I think one of my favorite examples of his family understanding and respecting his needs was in the movie when Raph says “Donnie, this isn’t a hug, it’s a rescue.” Raph made it very clear that he wasn’t trying to cross a boundary but was just trying to keep them safe. As an autistic person, that was very touching to see.
I love when shows like this and the Owl House show neurodivergences in an accurate manner. I do really wish I could find a show that has a character with narcolespy, I was recently diagnosed with it and I've been struggling with it a lot.
I believe the dragon prince has a pirate with narcolepsy
The Mysterious Benedict Society has a character with narcolepsy! Both the books and the show have it but the books featured it a bit more, especially in "The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict" Highly recommend the whole book series, it's fantastic!!
@@unlikebee this example is likely better, the example I shared only has the character in question with little screen time
@@unlikebee was just about to mention this book
@@unlikebee I remember loving that book series! It was great at showing the vastly different ways the characters go about solving problems. I'll have to reread to be sure, but I'm pretty sure Mr. Benedict (who has narcolepsy) isn't the only neurodivergent character, but one of many portrayed positively.
I don't have low empathy, but I could still be classed as alexithymic. If someone's pet died, I'd be upset about it, but unable to express this upset the way I want to. This is why I tend to empathize with people who have low to no empathy; They and I end up in the same situations for different reasons, and I feel the genuine pain of being in a situation like this over internal processes the person can't control.
This ! I think the stereotype that all autistic people lack empathy is largely a misconception due to the fact that we express it in atypical manners that usually fail to be recognized for what they really are. What a lot of people don’t know is that there are different forms of empathy. I’m autistic myself and my *affective* empathy is through the roof. I actually feel and care so much that I’m always overwhelmed by others’ emotions, which makes me particularly prone to anxiety and depression. Ironically, I’ve often come across as emotionally distant, partly because I don’t have an expressive face and too much eye contact distracts me from what’s being said, but mostly because I have low *cognitive* empathy, which is the ability to properly identify emotions and the appropriate way to respond to them. I can usually tell when somebody’s in pain and I really feel for them, but I tend to freeze and be mostly useless, either because the stress from the unpredictable situation causes me to shutdown, or because I’m aware that my needs differ considerably from the majority’s, so I’m at a complete loss as to what I’m expected to do and how to avoid accidentally making the person feel worse.
(For instance, my natural reflex when I’m hurt is to isolate myself, so that I can save my limited mental energy and get a chance to think my problems through. So by my own logic, the considerate thing to do would be leaving a sad friend alone until they’re ready to reach out… except I’ve learned from bitter experience that most people do *not* want to grieve alone, so they’d most likely fail to see my good intentions and misinterpret my actions as cold indifference.)
Constantly trying to anticipate people’s reactions and to figure out what they really want (that they won’t say) is a very taxing mental effort that some of us just don’t have the energy to maintain.
I like the fact his brothers aren't really harsh on him, but they don't infantilize him either, he's just y'know, their brother. And that's just great to see, I like how he has his moments too, stuff just gets to him and it's not something incredible like he's suddenly ''fixed'' of this whatever it is
Honestly, I love the little extra detail of having a color as a comfort color and special interest, I love this because the color blue has literally become part of my personality, and I'm glad that's portrayed through him.
Lmao same haha
Same for me but with moss green. 😁
Just wanna say, "the logistics of sympathy" is a description I've never heard before, but perfectly describes what that is so well! Thanks for the communication epiphany.
I'm not autistic myself, but it is absolutely incredible how they made Donnie in the ROTTMNT show. Like, I literally cannot explain it. And the creator of the video has made me understood autism a whole lot more then I've known beforehand (which wasn't a whole lot). Watched the entire video and it is really outstanding.
As someone with Autism, it is nice seeing positive representation in media for it. Mostly because I don't know what an outside perspective looks like for people not on the spectrum. It always confuses me when people think I am being cold or sarcastic but in my head I am just thinking "did I not sound sincere or happy?" It is also nice seeing an autistic character who is not just "the guy in the chair." For the longest time I did not want to accept who I was because I felt like Autism was a negative thing to have. Especially with characters like Sheldon who make Autistic people seem like uncaring pricks. But the more I have learned about the disorder, the more that I realize that it is just something that is a part of who I am, and I am happy with that.
U a goat
I am not autistic myself, but I have problems with low empathy. Thanks for making this video.
Yeah, low empathy can make people jerks but that's not our intention. In our best interest is to have people like us so we feel good having friends, so being mean to them would harm us instead. Any asshole'ish situations come from us are not intentional if we like that person.
How do you figure out if you have low empathy or high empathy? I find it really hard to figure out some of my personality traits
@@spiritsofwolves this one is noticed by others, but:
are you sad when other people are sad
can you predict how your words will affect others
@@koshmareq depends and usually i open my mouth without thinking so i do have a gut feeling i’m saying something wrong but i talk too fast to acknowledge it
@@spiritsofwolves that might not be it, quick mouth and lack of empathy. You can ask your friends and family if they suspect it from you
My brother and I have autism and we’re both very empathetic. Though we’re pretty sensitive and have difficulty understanding situations around us.
I have autism, and I have higher empathy, too. There are just times where I have a little trouble grappling onto some situations on an emotional standpoint, but I always try my best not to look or seem like a jerk.
@@emilyannthevioletghost715 Same. I have high empathy but sometimes I am almost uninterested or have difficulty empathizing with others because I have no idea what I'm supposed to do in certain social situations or I misunderstand situations and take things too literally.
I have autism, and I love well-written characters that represent autism, it makes me feel more special than what I usually feel, which is.. weird :(
Average Engineer main
I think you might be feeling “validation”. The kind of warm fuzzy feeling you get when it feels like everyone finally acknowledges your presence and sees you as worthy of respect ;w;
@@prettyrat. I can confirm that it's one of the most amazing feelings we might ever feel. I have autism, and Donnie and I here have a lot of common traits between us, and seeing this representation done SO WELL makes me feel like I'm more included and like I'm finally not alone in the world.
That's because only in fiction autism can be view as something good.
I haven't even watched this show yet your description of Donnie is so validating and important to me. I can relate to a lot of these traits and I bet many do, as well. Shout-out to the writers who understand how autism works! (also left this comment to appease the algorithm because you deserve to be unleashed on as many people as possible, go forth, bless people with your content)
I didn’t realize how common adhd and autistic experiences are. I have adhd, and I related to quite a few things brought up as evidence of Donnie’s autism in this video. This including, being blunt, taking things literally, being less empathetic(though I don’t do it much, it’s just hard for me to put myself in someone elses shoes to try and help them get though that emotion, or understand them), saying sound effects while doing things(I don’t say scoff or sigh, I will say “swoop” or “OM-“ like saying sound effects.), I think logically, and I talk in a very different grammatical sense. With my grammar, I will switch it up to fit in. I’m not saying that they are the same. I’m just saying I related a lot to these things. I don’t relate to the not liking to be touched though, I’m a very touchy person. I know that Autistic people go through a lot worse experiences than ADHD people. They’re also treated badly a lot. Again, I’m just saying I related to this a lot.
Is not really that common, is more like people with similar interest or characteristics then to attract each other.
I just really love how they made Donnie in Rise. They could’ve easily done what the 2012 show did but they made him so confident and interesting.
Kinda curious, what did the 2012 version do vs Rise?
Same. Iirc he was unconfident and dorky but still competent
@@bbludacious Donnie's just an awkward nerd pinning for April. Which isn't bad on it's own but as King Leonidas said, it's just not as interesting as in Rise. I'll remember Rise Donnie for a lot longer than I did the previous incarnations of Donnie.
@@vaginalarthritis1753 Mmm, I see what you mean. Thanks for your reply!
@@bbludacious 2012 was just more whiny and didn’t even feel like a ninja to me for most of the show. He’s not a bad character but it felt like he would’ve done better in the background.
1. I love the new character designs because they all have different body types, skin tones, and other little quirks about them (like Raph’s snaggle tooth)
2. I love seeing his brothers accepting his autism and personality AND it’s nice seeing a character that has a hard time expressing and figuring out emotions but also really cares about others. As an autistic person, I’ve sent too much time trying to figure out what I feel AND also caring too much about others and what they think.
I went to get diagnosed with Autism after I finished watching the movie. Turns out I'm autistic with low empathy. I literally got an appointment after finishing the movie because of how insanely similar I am to him. It was amazing! I finally understood why I always got in trouble for not feeling as empathetic or sympathetic to others, obviously to a degree. I can understand logically why things happen. I have never felt so seen. I genuinely love this Donnie more than the others.
I've often wondered if I'm autistic. I hyperfocus on specific fandoms for a long time, I always need to be doing something with my hands, and I often misinterpret how people want me to emotionally react in a situation (i.e. trying to predict what they want me to do, when it ends up that they often want the exact opposite and getting super nervous about it).
Donnie was always my favorite Turtle, too (though I haven't seen any series since the original live action series, any recs?), which seems fitting.
That's why its a spectrum, not an absolute. Of course there's a lot of crossover and the only way to truly know is to get a formal diagnosis. Otherwise, just do what you can to cope
Same, I've also been wondering this for nearly a year now and woa that thing about not knowing how people want you to emotionally react and getting it twisted, big relate there, it's a thing I struggle a lot with as well
The hyperfocus thing seems like the biggest indicator of autism. Like, there are many traits that are associated with autism, but none seem quite so common as a tendency to latch onto subjects, whether that’s a general interest, specific thoughts, conversation topics, etc.
That said, non-autistic people can reach the same levels of interest/focus. Though it usually takes more effort.
Hyperfocus is a symptom of several things, including ADHD, as are needing stuff to do with your hands and problems in social settings. So while those might be indicators, you might want to seek a professional diagnosis. Of course, ADHD and ASD have numerous overlaps and can be comorbid, so...yeah.
11:40 "the mutant turtle is more humanized than actual human autistic characters"
This says a lot about society
As an autistic person I love seeing more representation. I just wish I had this/knew of this when I was younger. I felt so alone back then. I’m 19 now, but the lack of representation ten years ago just makes me appreciate the representation we have now more
I have autism, too, and I'm 24. I don't like that I didn't stumble across this version of Donnie till over a month ago. For almost my whole life, I felt very alone, too. Seeing this representation done so well means the whole world to me. It makes me feel more.....validated. and it's one of the most wonderful feelings I've experienced.
@@emilyannthevioletghost715 I totally agree!
NO MATTER WHAT IS INSIDE OF DONNIE'S HEAD
*HE REALLY HAS A GOOD HEART*
I like that Donnie’s meltdown is due to emotional and psychological stress. It shows that it’s not just overstimulation and sensory overload that causes meltdowns.
so glad people are getting into rottmnt!!
Me too! :)
ikrr
Could not be happier
i mean took them long enough!
Same! It brings me so much joy seeing new fans fall in love with the series!
I'm also autistic, but I don't struggle with low empathy. If anything, I'm the exact opposite. It's very apparent to those who spend even just a little bit of time with me that I'm a very emotional and empathic person. My family is very much aware that this sometimes causes me struggles as jokes they make at my expense can often deeply offend me and I tend to take everything way too seriously. No, they're not mean or anything like that. My family just likes to joke around and will poke fun at each other when appropriate. Unfortunately, because I am far more sensitive than the rest of my family, they sometimes forget to filter themselves and say something that ends up hurting my feelings. Sometimes they'll be annoyed or upset by how much I took what they said to heart, but will for the most part apologize when they see just how truly upset I am by what they said.
I do honestly hate the common representation of people with autism having low empathy to the point that they are just horrible people. It's actually one of the many reasons why I HATE the show Big Bang Theory as the character Sheldon just fills me with unbridle rage and I take too much pleasure in seeing awful things happening to him because he's such a terrible person. In reality, I've never met someone with such low empathy that they are at all like this, and I've met and worked with a lot of people with autism. For the most part, the autistic people I've met don't have low empathy. The few I have met aren't horrible people. They just struggle to express themselves and understand certain situations but are still quite supportive and kind. So it really angers me when so many depictions of autistic characters are these low empathy jerks who you just wanna hate on. That isn't at all what we're like and I'm so sick and tired of that depiction to the point that people who don't know much about autism think that that's what we're all like. I have met so many people who are stunned to learn that I'm autistic to the point that they deny this and accuse me of lying about it. I'm the type of autistic who you'd honestly have a hard time identifying as being autistic unless you knew the signs of autism and were actively looking for them in me or if someone straight up told you from the start about my autism. When they do learn that I'm autistic and actually learn a thing or two about autism, they tend to give a "Oh, that actually explains a lot" kind of response.
As for the Entrapta thing, I kinda have to disagree with your opinion on the matter. I find Entrapta to be a great form of representation. You seem to focus solely on the fact that people only view her as the tech person, but that isn't true. Entrapta has, on several occasions, been the emotional heart and she actually goes through quite the character development. When we first meet Entrapta, yes, she's just the tech person who doesn't think twice about dissecting Adora to figure out how she works. However, take this into account. From what we've seen just in the background of her introduction episode, Entrapta doesn't seem to have much human communication. Everyone seems afraid of her and her tech, something that brings her a lot of joy and that she understands. We even see a portrait of what looks like Entrapta was raised by robot parents instead human parents. As for why that is, we currently don't know. However, it does say a lot about her. From just that portrait alone, it's pretty clear that Entrapta didn't get to have a lot of practice communicating with human beings and thus stunted her ability to understand people. She even attends Princess Prom as an opportunity to study and observe behaviors of others instead of actually engaging with others because she doesn't understand how to do that. It's more of a circumstance of how one grew up than how her autism actually effects her. Then, finally, she meets Hoardak. For the first time in her life, she meets someone who shares her love and passion for science and isn't afraid of her or her tech. They bond over their shared interests and build a genuinely sweet friendship that slowly develops into something more. Upon finally making an actually connection to someone who isn't a robot, we see just how much she truly cares for others. She isn't even bothered when she learns that Hoardak is a clone from space and openly accepts him, going so far as to help him feel stronger by in body and sense of self-worth. When she learns of the dangers in opening a portal, Entrapta is genuinely concerned about the safety of the planet and others and has faith that Hoardak will stop the portal from being opened if she tells him the truth. When Adora, Bow and Swiftwind go to rescue Entrapta from Beast Island, Entrapta reveals a more vulnerable side of herself, sharing her fears and worries that no one will ever accept her and that everyone hates her. This happens once again when she risks her life to get a signal when working with the princesses again, admitting that she's sorry for her past mistakes and is willing to die to save her friends, knowing how important it is that they find out what Hoard Prime is planning. Yes, we do have that situation from Beast Island when Adora and Bow are only able to snap her out of her trance by mentioning they have a First Ones ship, but she later thanks Bow for showing her so much care. When Entrapta helps invade Hoard Prime's ship, Entrapta is actively hoping to find Hoardak and make sure he's okay. Even when they find Wrong Hoardak instead, Entrapta shows so much sympathy for him and decides to help him because she's genuinely concerned for him. Entrapta continues to grow as she interact more with others and finally begins to understand emotions and people. Again, I don't believe this is a case of Entrapta exactly having low empathy, but rather having her growth on an emotion level stunted because of her upbringing and how others viewed her. By the end of the series, Entrapta gives a heartfelt speech about the strength of humanity and the heart to Hoard Prime, giving Hoardak the strength he needed to overcome Hoard Prime's mind control and embrace his own sense of worth and care for others. It amazes me how Entrapta went from this scientist who thought nothing of dissecting a living person to giving a heartfelt speech to the big bad of the series and redeeming a villain who had grown to love because of her.
Sorry for the long winded topic of Entrapta when this is a Donnie video, but I just felt like I had to clear up that misconception about Entrapta since you had pointed her out several times as bad rep for an autistic character. In all clarity, I don't believe Entrapta's flaws have anything to do with her autism itself, but instead how she grew up and others treated her. Maybe this new perspective of her character will help you see her in a new light. If not and I just upset you with my view of the character, I apologize for going about it so much. I just felt the need to clear up some things and thought this might help you better understand her character.
@El Mero Mero Okay, yes. There are some real parasites on the internet. I've dealt with my fair share of them whom I wish to never deal with ever again. But I've met far more people who are genuinely kind and supportive. I've actually been able to help others with my work on the internet, and others have greatly help me by communicating to me through the internet. As careful as we should be on the internet, there are times when you can really make a positive difference with on the internet.
I feel like the issue with those kinds of characters is the writers don’t understand the difference between "I don’t get it." And "I don’t get it!😡" because to them these are the same things
Read the whole comment, don't know who Entrapta is but Doesn't mean I couldn't read about it.
@@SnekyEXE She's a character from the reboot show She-Ra Princesses Of Power
I'm also one with what I'd consider for my own well-being to be too much empathy.
But like.. specifically with animals and fictional characters generally.
I feel sympathy for those around me.. but I generally find people's emotions and opinions about things hard to really truly grasp.
As someone who's NOT autistic but is low empathic, and who can't really read emotions well, I really like how you described it
Haven't seen the series, so I watched this more on a whim, and now I'm going to add this to my list. The part where Donnie was equating his worth as a person of the group with his contributions in tech literally made me tear up. *holy shit*
And something that I've been using to describe empathy is that it's like a mirror. Those who have it see and reflect the emotions of the people in front of them. Yet compassion is another metric entirely, how much worth you see in the people around you and want them to have good lives. But since people use empathy as the gauge for compassion, instead of taking note of people who help others, we have this mess
Jesus Christ, no wonder Donnie is my favourite turtle in this show. Life makes so much more sense now. I never could pinpoint why I liked him so much compared to the other turtles but now that you've said it, it feels like it should've been obvious.
Thank you.
This was god tier analysis. Honestly all the turtles are Neurodivergent Coded, Leo being clearly ADHD. Which is why I love seeing their communications with Donnie because it makes me an ADHD Autistic so happy to see them playing off each other!
i really liked this video, and as an autistic person who loves Donnie's character, it's great to finally see him as a autistic (or at least autistic-coded) character, and seeing him being accepted by the people he cares about without having to mask or hide parts of himself to be accepted.
it's wonderful to see him- and ofc the other characters- get to just... be teenagers sometimes! and do this cool stuff without constantly being at each other's throats and all serious all the time!
Undertale has similar "autistic coded character who doesn't mask and is loved by his peers" with Papyrus
@@starbutterfly9036 Papyrus is a cool guy
@@starbutterfly9036 but sadly he is not in a TV show
I'm really glad you made this video as someone with Autism. I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome when I was around 5 or 6 (which that term has been medically disregarded and is simply now just a form of Autism.) I lean on the higher empathy end, but I totally understand what being low empathy is like. When I was younger, I actually used to be lower empathy. I didn't know how to read facial expressions when I was around 8! Over time though, I got therapy to help me learn a lot of how to properly cope with autism and learn these skills that I was lacking, and I'm very thankful for that. This wasn't anything that was forcing me to change or anything bad like that. But even at the point where I am now, there's still a lot of things I see about myself in Donnie. What's so important about Donnie in this series for me is how he learns to overcome his shortcomings without the writers just tossing away what made Donnie... well, Donnie! It's still very possible to learn more about how to cope and communicate with your Autism instead of being forced to "be normal". And I was diagnosed with ADHD about two years ago, so I got a lot to learn about myself still! Whenever we get someone with Autism that turns out to be a bad person, it's not because their evil or mean, it's because they didn't get the care they needed in life. I'm really glad that we are starting to move away from the cliche of Autism being an emotionless robot.
Hi, sorry if I am bothering you, but when I was younger I too was diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome. My mother confirmed it to me a few years back, and even told me stories of how she suspected I had symptoms before I was confirmed. I have gotten speecg therapy because I legit couldn't/refused to talk during my younger elementary years. My family has treated me well during the years, but always told me I had Aspergers.
I never knew that was disregarded and just another form of autism. So in a weird way, this is me thanking you for teaching me something new. I must ask though, why is it disregarded? Can you send links so I can read about it?
@@twistynight2568 I'll be honest, I don't know why. I just know of it because that's what I was told when I went to go get diagnosed for ADHD. My guess is that the symptoms are just too similar to the point of it being redundant. But that's just a guess
Clearly everyone who watches his channel has it and it shows
Assburgers syndrome lol
Could be Asperger was a nazi
Probably just it was totally replaced by the term autism spectrum disorder
As someone who’s only recently been officially diagnosed to be on the autistic spectrum (about a month or so ago), I’ve been trying to find media that has well-written autistic characters, mostly to learn more about what it’s like for other people on the spectrum, and to see if some of my childhood experiences make more sense when viewed through that lens. These types of videos greatly help in trying to understand what people’s experiences are like, as well as just encouraging autistic people to be happy with themselves.
When I first heard I had autism, I thought I was stuck like this, that I couldn’t “fix my issues”. I realize I was looking at the subject all wrong. I don’t need to “fix” how I subconsciously act and how I live. And Donnie seems like such good representation of that, as well as sounding like a generally well-written character.
Will definitely check out this series. Thank you.
I actually had a personal experience with a peer who I connect with over our shared status of being autistic where she shared with me the fact that she had stopped watching a specific show (won't state which to avoid spoilers) in part because an autistic-coded character appeared to have been written in such a way that pushed the stereotype that autistic people are inherently dangerous (a trauma button for her); she was SO relieved when I told her that instead the character's story was written to showcase that autistic people are vulnerable to the manipulations of those with nefarious intentions. Something you discussed in your Owl House video in the Gus section; the autistic person is not wrong or dangerous for being manipulated but rather the blame falls on the person doing the manipulation.
I just started watching watching rottmnt and all of a sudden this comes up in my recommended! I’m super excited to watch this especially since Donnie’s my favourite
Same
Holy fuck. I had no idea alexithymia was a thing until I watched your video. My mother once said that I'm probably a sociopath or a psychopath because of my lack of empathy in certain situations. And for a while there, she had me pretty convinced. I'm not a psychopath, I might just be autistic. Granted, it's very likely, seeing as how I was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age. But this... I want to thank you. You have no idea what you have done for me. I am truly, truly thankful.
It is very likely. You might want to research more about autism and maybe take a few online quizzes. From what I understand a lot of autistic people have ADHD. I am not sure how many do though.
Oh that explains why I love Rise Donnie so much. I was offically diagnosed right before covid hit and I avoided this show at first because I was like a lot of the fans who was reluctant to give the show a chance because of all of the changes.
But now it's one of my all time favorite TMNT iterations and I'm heartbroken that it ended so soon😭
For a long time, Donnie was my favorite because he was purple. Now he’s my favorite because I personally relate to him.
Donatello has been my favorite in many versions ever since the 90s, and I am neurodivergent as well. “Rise” is one version I never got to see much of, but this video makes me very excited. Been watching clips for awhile and I really want to explore this show now.
Update: I have since watched the first season, pieces of the second and the movie! Man should not have judged a book by its cover in 2018
Donnie being autistic and having ODC are still technically fannons, but I can totally see these being confirmed. If he did have autism in the cartoon then they did a damn good job at representing it, but still its not exactly canonical?
Donnie being Autistic is actually canon and was just recently confirmed by Ron. So him being Autistic is canon!
@@arabellasterwerf7980 Oooo nice, got the link? I wanna see too
in my opinion, something being stated outside of the show doesn’t mean it cant be canon if its the writers or important people on the crew saying it and if it was their intend while writing the character. Maybe someday they can mention it in the show too.
@@owl9130 The confirmation is at the beginning of this video actually! The video actually shows Ron confirming Donnie being Autistic. It was confirmed in two tweets. Mikey is also confirmed at the same time for being ADHD.
@@arabellasterwerf7980 I already read that, no confirmation just vague and cryptic answers.
I don't believe I'm autistic but I am ADHD and I've always identified with Donnie and Donnie in this show was extremely relatable and I genuinely enjoyed the movie
I may have low empathy and i just have a lack of awareness with things like humor or vocabulary it's mildly stressful honestly but this is such a relatable and wonderful character study!
Adhd and Autism has some overlap in symptoms, so it’s not strange if you relate to Donnie!
Dear Skulltrot,
I have no idea if you are going to read this, but I just want to say thank you.
I remember watching Rise first come out and I was like “Oh, it’ll be like Teen Titans GO! There is no way this will affect my life in major way” I did watch some shorts of previous series, but that was it.
Until I saw this video. Curiosity took over and I didn’t realize how big that decision was. It awoken something in me that I never thought I needed. After seeing this, I started watching the series and it became a big part of my life. That would not have happened with you.
And for the video itself, it is amazing! As a person on the autistic spectrum myself, I face things differently than what would be considered “The Norm.” However, I was able to find community and guess what? Turns out there is a lot more autistic people than you think. I absolutely love Donnie, the characters, plot, and all of Rise as a whole. You helped introduce me to that, to this joy, and I just want to say thank, thank you so much!
I can’t waited to see your next videos! As a fello over analysis, these things full my very being. Thank you
Until next time, “Hot Soup” and “We do we, baby!”
Man, I would have loved to grow up seeing a character like Donnie on TV.
I got diagnosed with autism around age 17 (though my mom suspected it was the case earlier), and up until that point I just thought there was something wrong with me for not being able to function in most social situations.
Even now I’m still figuring out new things that are part of being autistic and not personal character flaws. Before I saw this video, I didn’t know that low empathy was a normal thing and thought that I was just a heartless POS. This video helped a lot with stuff like that.
Same here! I'm Autistic but have trouble figuring out what my symptoms are and what's not just weird habits of mine or caused by something else. The description of Low Empathy though really did hammer it in though that i'm not just weird for having to ask myself what another person would feel in a situation
Ah! A Rise analysis! And a Donnie one too?! Woah! I've been really into Rise at the moment and I know this'll be good!!
[EDIT] WOAH TYSM FOR 19 LIKES- this is so many!! Tysm!!!
[EDIT 2] OMG WOAH THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 130 LIKES- WOAH-
rise is living rent free in my brain rn and i only just watched it for the first time 2 weeks ago lmao help
@@skulltrot omg same though- I started watching it, I think, a week or two weeks ago? It's just so good-
I didn’t realize how amazing brothers the others are to donnie. I have an autistic sister but it is really truly difficult to connect with her no matter how much I want to or how hard I try. It makes me feel like I’m an awful sister- awful person, even- and it doesn’t help that I constantly hear my mom try to change her. She’s trying to make her quote end quote normal. And I think the way she does that gets in my head and I do it too. It’s especially hard to share my emotions with her when I’m upset. She went through my sketch book a couple of times and copied my drawings and I was angry. I as calmly as I could told her I was upset and didn’t want her to do that again, but she wasn’t listening (it seemed) and was just saying how I went through her sketch book and did that stuff, too. (I didn’t, btw) so I did one little “UGH- hmmmmmph…” and it went off the rails. I couldn’t get her to stop yelling and running around the room and my mom came in and started yelling at her and I felt like it was somehow my fault and… anyways, this is a long way of saying I wish I was as wonderful as Mikey, Raph, and Leo.
This is why I liked rottmnt donnie more than other donnies
The other donnies are just "Oh im smart blah blah blah" this one actually has (MORE) personality
That’s why I like him too! Also he was a whiny jerk like in the 2012 version. This version I think gives the characters a different take instead of the same recycled personalities.
yES. THIS. okay don't get me wrong I love 2012 Donnie and he def felt autistic, too, but Rise is one of the few times I've seen a cartoon write an autistic genius character _relatably._ 2012 Donnie was like:
-large vocabulary
-maps out social situations like charts (which is fair, mood)
-incredibly skilled at math and science
-trouble knowing when to start and stop talking
but Rise went a step further and did:
-sensory issues
-aversion to touch
-low empathy
-_precise_ vocabulary that's a mix of casual and formal (relate relate relate aaaaggghh)
-incredibly skilled at math and science but like, more mad scientist vibes??
-is just shown on his phone at random and possibly not socially appropriate times
like, 2012 comes off as autistic coding as a not-totally-inaccurate stereotype, but a stereotype nonetheless (though I've heard he was supposed to be OCD in 2012 so I can see that being maybe more heavily shown). but Rise is like, "ah, you have met autistic people or at least seen a lot of our memes."
You know that 2012 donnie felt very different from 2003 donnie and 1987 donnie
He had a character
@@kpopfan246 03 Donnie eas more a sweetheart I miss that dude
I can relate somewhat to the low empathy. I do feel sad when I see others sad, but I myself don't know how to comfort them except saying "Hey, you wanna talk more, or sit in a comfortable silence, or watch a movie, or exercise?" Then ask if they want a hug for however long they need. My normal responses to someone having something bad to them is to analyze how and why it happened, then to my way of comforting them-
3:30 YES, IT'S LITTERALY IN THE BEGINING OF THE EPISODE *ATTACHED*
_& ALSO, THAT EPISODES REAFIRMS HOW GOOD HIS FAMILY UNDERSTANDS HIM WHEN LEO SAYS WHILE DONALD SMIRKS:_
*"DONNIE, THESE ARE AMAZING! & I KNOW THAT I SOUNDED SARCASTIC BUT I'M BEING GENUINE, this time"*
Absolutely awesome analysis! My younger sister has low empathy too, and after watching this not only do i see it clear in Donnie but now i think i understand my sister more. Thanks for educating me and opening my ignorant eyes!
I’m so excited for this, donnie is my favorite character from rottmnt and I myself found him very relatable. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts
yeah same lol
Donnie is so similar to me it makes me actually cry with happiness like man, he talks like I do, the vocabulary, where his voice has inflections etc. the fact, he doesn't like physical touch, the fact his special interest is tech related, the fact his intelligence is (*probably more than mine*) like mine. The fact he gets upset when he can't understand something when he's so used to understanding everything His stims, esp. the way he vocalises his actions, BECAUSE THATS SOMETHING I DO!!! it makes me feel so happy to be able to fully relate to this character.
the sheer joy i felt seeing this come up on my recommended page is unparalleled. this series has been my hyperfixation for the past 3 months and i have absolutely no one to talk to about it, and to see you discuss my favorite character and the one i relate most to is just so amazing!!
ok ok, so is it weird that even though i have adhd and am not autistic i relate waay too much to the concept of low empathy and donnie as a character. I've always known "oh im supposed to feel xx emotion when told xx thing," but i've always kind of just reacted with trained responses i've heard from other people. Its difficult to self reflect and instead of thinking of how i feel going through something its more a root of the problem thing. idk is that weird?
A lot of symptoms of autism and adhd overlap actually! So no, not weird.
a lot of people get only diagnosed as adhd but are actually autistic also. it's a thing. there's certainly overlap in symptoms, but what you're describing sounds a lot more like autism. you might wanna look into it more.
@@lanturn3239 actually, alexithymia is co occurring with adhd too, so this person totally could just have just adhd lol
@@wubbnuts ah ok. thanks for the correction
I also find the idea that he's a soft shell Turtle rather interesting. He has a literal sensitive shell that he has to wear Armour over to protect himself, you could almost consider him to be a form of disabled rep in that aspect too.
Its nice to know people see donnies personality and quirks this way cuz i heavily relate to him, all ive seen is people saying he has toxic masculinity cuz he can come off as rude sometimes??? Idk its just nice to see people reading his character like this instead of an ass
@@VictoriousJia yeah i was super confused on that take lmao
I love Donnie in ROTMNT, cause he isn’t just portrayed as “the Smart Turtle” in the Party, but he’s portrayed more as “the smart guy”.
this! this videos puts into words what i go through every day, i constantly feel like Zuko saying "that's rough buddy" and i try to make it clear that while i don't feel as strongly about it as you do i do care immensely, this video, is me, and this video is awesome, thank you.
I don't know if I am autistic (probably not, it's mostly likely just my cptsd) but I feel like this often. The whole "low empathy" part. A simple fix that has worked for me is to act more empathetic than you actually feel. Normally I feel "Huh" or "Dang" when my friends tell me something upsetting happened to them. But I SAY "Oh my gosh, thats awful! Im so sorry that happened. Do you want a hug? Or do you want to talk about it? I can listen too."
Obviously I don't WANT my friends to have bad things happen to them. I want them to have happy and peaceful lives! And I AM willing to listen and give them hugs and talk about it and stuff. Always. But when they tell me "my dog died!" The most empathy that gets scraped up can be summed up with:
"Ouch"
**stares at them to see if they are gonna say something else**
**goes back to playing on my phone**
But since that would be rude and incorrectly express how much I care about them, I act over the top so there is NO DOUBT how much I really do care
I had a really strange collection of moments occuring when watching Dead End: Paranormal Park since I reacted to most of the show the same way Norma did and could relate a lot to her. Felt really strange to have something so recognizable.
@Mom It's pretty good. I may not be a super big fan of one of the main characters, Barney, but other than that I'd recommend it, ye!
I’ve actually been marathoning the series these past days with my friends and it’s such an amazing watch, then I suddenly saw your thumbnail in my feed and was like “yup that makes sense”, it honestly makes me really happy when characters with ASD (or are coded) are fan favorites, Donnie is so awesome and honestly my favorite version of the character so far! I’m glad to have him has ASD representation. (Also your owl house videos are really good too, keep up the great work)
He’s great 10/10 he’s an evil genius with tons of flair and adorkability. I’ve never been a tmnt fan really, but Rise has captured me in it’s incredibly innovative take. Each character is amazing, and Donnie is no exception. He’s a bit of jerk, but I love that. The scene in the movie, when he’s crying, and he raises his hands to his face, I just… feel that. I have never fallen in love with a show faster than I have with ROTTMNT
GOD i relate to that. It’s so hard to show I care when the world expects me to be a certain way and I can’t. I try to empathize with words and strategies, taking time to come up with what I think will be helpful for whoever is suffering, and it’s thrown out the window bc I don’t coddle them just the way they want me to. So much for communication. But thanks for the video essay! I’m so glad kids have characters they can look up to and be like, “Hey! That guy is like me, and he’s cool!”
I'm in my early 30's. I grew up with TMNT being one of my favorite things, specifically Donnie. I never understood why my friends/cousins never chose him as their favorite. I guess this justifies it!
I haven't seen it, so I had no idea this ran this deep on the show. I'd heard about the coding, but because of She-Ra, had kind of written it off. Thank you for making this. I cried!
I'm going through the long process of unmasking, and figuring out what and who I am under the mask, and the way they depicted Donnie's low empathy helped me come to terms with my own.
It's hard enough to accept certain parts of yourself, but when those parts are only shown as something bad in others, it's even harder.
Having it shown in such a realistic and neutral way though, makes it easier to recognize and accept.
Never saw the show but clips. But I always had this fascination with tmnt but kept it at a distance. But I love your videos so I’m excited to see this one. And out of all of the brothers donnie was my favorite, he was always the sassy nerd and I loved him for that.
This was very informative. I had no idea that Donnie might count as on the spectrum, probably because they did such a good job of making us love him for all he is and his traits. I definitely agree despite being more aloof than the others he definitely cares and I never had to question that. It is insanely sweet how he always includes his brothers in the stuff he makes and honestly I feel like he’s had way more emotional moments like in Mind Meld where he admitted that he missed his brothers, NOT that he simply couldnt stand being the smartest anymore. He was more put off by them not spending time with him like they used to than how smart they were and that’s really subtle hut says so much.
Finally, a channel that does subtitles for the videos. Rare, but appreciated.
this video is full of misinformation
@@birboii It would be useful to share what the misinformation is rather than just simply state that it exists. I'm not overly familiar with Rise of the TMNT myself, so perhaps I'm not seeing something here that you do.
If you're talking about whether Donnie is autistic, show-writer Ron Corcillo said he thinks that that Donnie is on the spectrum, so this isn't just an assumption. TH-cam won't let me post links, but there's a link to in the references of Donnie's TMNTPedia page.
In some small way, I'd like to defend the Entrapta interactions as highlighting the stigmas you've mentioned specifically by having them primarily perpetrated by Perfuma. With the more technological, scientific elements in that story usually being tied to the villains, it seems safe to assume that Entrapta's autism is something that hasn't been looked into as much as it has in real life. Add to that Perfuma's more holistic upbringing, and everything she's doing interacting with Entrapta, despite being the "empathic" teammate, sits wrong even to those of us considered neurotypical.