Donatello

Donatello Hamato (a.k.a. Don, Donnie, Donald, Dee, Tello, Dontron, Donathan, Dona-chan)

Donatello is a spiny softshell turtle and the brains of the family.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Physical Features

Donnie appears as a humanoid spiny softshell turtle. Like his brothers he stands upright like a human and has three digits on his hands and feet. His hands and feet in particular are also webbed. His body is wrapped in a pale white carapace with a leathery, dark olive shell on his back. He is covered in small dark freckles. He has a slightly longer beak than his bothers and a tooth gap.

Apparel & Accessories

Donnie is the turtle in the purple mask, as well as being the color of his belt and knee guards. His mask tails are burn along the edges from catching fire during experiments. He has white wrapping on his wrists and ankles. He has a pair of goggles he wears all the time.
When going out on missions, he has a leather and metal shell armor that protects his otherwise vulnerable soft shell. He'll also often take a duffle bag of gear and gadgets with him over his shoulder.
When Donnie wears human clothes he prefers comfy things like sweaters and cotton shirts, anything that feels nice on his skin. His favorite color is purple so most of his clothes are purple.

Human Form

When wearing a Cloaking Brooch Donnie's human form appears as a scrawny Japanese teenager, with dark hair that is pulled into a short ponytail. He retains his amber eyes and tooth gap, but gains thick eyebrows and an ache problem.
His clothes consist of a plaid dress shirt unter a purple hooded sweater, some dark violet cotton pants, and a pair of sandals. He also wears a pair of large, thick rimmed glasses (whether he needs them or not.)

Specialized Equipment

Donatello's primary weapon is the Bo-staff. He starts off carrying a wooden one, but soon replaces it with a sturdier Yokai Weapon which appears as a bo staff with metal tips and geometric lines. It's has the ability to extend and shrink in length.
He also carries with him an assortment of different gadgets that he has built and/or invented inside his tool belt. These are often things like multi-tools, his phones, mini-drone, laser cutter, smoke bombs, etc.

Special Abilities

His mutation makes him stronger and a faster healer than humans, but also his mutation accelerated his brain's development, making him much smarter than not just a turtle, but a normal 14 year old human. He's softshell DNA also allows him to swim more efficiently and breathe underwater.
Donnie develops the ability to use the Godai element of water, often associated with thought, defensiveness, adaptability, flexibility, suppleness, and magnetism. Given the right circumstances, it will allow Don to manipulate water, however due to it being heavily influenced by emotion, he struggles to understand it outside of dire situations.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Donatello, like his brothers, started out as a normal baby softshell turtle until he was exposed to Mutagen in the river he was born in. A broken canister has pinned him against a rock in the rushing river water, where he would have drowned if not rescued by Hamato Yoshi. He spent the next two weeks kept in Yoshi's bathtub as he and the other turtles he rescued mutated into humanoid turtle babies. Once Yoshi had mutated himself and confirmed the turtles were in fact behaving like human children, he adopted them and raised them as his sons under the name Splinter.
Donatello had shown his brilliance at a young age, such as completing a rubix cube at 3 years old, reading from the dictionary at for, and building his own toys at 5. It as clear he was far smarter than not only his brothers, but other children his age, however he did not develop socially as easily, being the last one to start talking.
He started training in ninjutsu with his brothers at age 7, where he quickly found out the drawback of his vulnerable shell when it was injured during practice. That's when he designed his first shell armor with Splinter.

Education

Donatello was homeschooled with his brothers and never went to a human school. Everything Donatello knows he read in books or found on the internet.

Intellectual Characteristics

Donatello is incredibly intelligent, far more than the average teen his age, which is likely a result of his mutation. He can learn new things very quickly and can process things faster than his brothers. Thanks to his hyperfixations and special interests, he is skilled with engineering, computer coding, biology, and chemistry.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

Splinter taught the boys ninjitsu as a means of protecting themselves and others. While Donatello enjoys practicing, he's not particularly motivated by the idea of being a hero. Rather he wants to fight for his right to live in human society so he can go to school and carve out a name for himself in the world.

Likes & Dislikes

________	Likes	Dislikes
Color	Purple
Food	Pizza, Sushi, Fish	Things with weird textures.
Music	Synthpop, EDM, electronic rock, classic rock, classical	Modern pop
Activities	Studying, tinkering, inventing, photography.	Social gatherings, parties.
Book	Cosmos - Carl Sagan
Game	Drawf Fortress	Just Dance

Virtues & Personality perks

Donatello's genius often get's the his team out of a pinch. He will always prefer thinking his way out of a situation rather than using brute force, and is good at coming up with creative solutions for even the trickiest scenarios. He's good at planning ahead for any situation, and usually has just the right gadget on him at any time.

Vices & Personality flaws

Donatello is not a very open person when it comes to his mental health. He has issues expressing empathy or emotions, and tends to avoid talking about the issues in his life. He has trouble relating to his brothers and sees himself as smarter than them, often to the point of not trusting their intelligence for some situations. He prefers to handle certain tasks solo, and he often obsesses with projects to the point of not eating or sleeping.

Social

Family Ties

Donnie only really knows his own family well, thus is very close to them and will do anything for them. But also he tends to be the one who can be the most distant. He's not open with his family about everything that goes on his life, partly to not bother them, and partly to avoid them fussing over him. Because he's a softshell, his brothers tend to be overly protective of him, a sentiment he finds demeaning and a little condescending. He'd rather toughen out a situation on his own to prove he is as strong as everyone else.

Mannerisms

Donatello has autism, which makes it hard for him to pick up on social queues as well as his brothers, which is exacerbated by his social isolation from people. He tends be very blunt and analytical when he speaks. He has a tendency to fidget and stim when his emotions are high; like chewing on the edge of his mask tail, for example. He also deals with selective mutism, where he will go non-verbal and have to communicate through gestures and sign language.
Donnie holds himself more elegantly than his brothers, probably due to his longer, taller proportions.

Relationships

Leonardo

Brother

Towards Donatello

5

Honest

---

Donatello

Brother

Towards Leonardo

5

Honest

---

History

Leo grew close to Donnie when they were young as they were both the quieter ones, while Raph and Mikey would often wrestle for fun. Donnie found Leo much easier to be around than his louder brothers, and Leo wasn't as overwhelming when they played. When Donnie was 7 and Leo was 8, they were training with wooden weapons when Leo's sword struck Donnie's shell and he bled. This began Leo's fear of hurting his siblings and his interest in learning first aid.
As they got older, Donnie went to Leo often to talk about safety measures around the house, about the mutants in the area, and about strategies. Donnie trusts in Leo as his older brother, and Leo relies often on Donnie's intellect.

Relationship Reasoning

Donnie and Leo are very close and enjoy talking to each other about things like history, strategy, their own biology, ideas for home defense and managing the mutants inside the fence. Leo likes to settle down next to Donnie and listen to him infodump about anything and everything Donnie will talk about.

Michelangelo

Brother

Towards Donatello

5

---

Donatello

Brother

Towards Michelangelo

5

---

History

Mikey and Donatello grew up together and formed a bond being the two youngest siblings who had to work harder to catch up with their older brothers. Calling themselves Team B, the made a little brother pact that they wouldn't see each other as rivals like Leo and Raph did.
Donatello gave Mikey a space in his work shop for his painting and often would let him paint or come up with cosmetic designs for his inventions.

Relationship Reasoning

Despite being complete opposites, Don and Mikey are quite close with each other, both sharing the burden of the younger brothers that have to compete with Leo and Raph. They don't see eye to eye on many issues but avoid having blow up fights with each other neurodivergent solidarity. If they do fight it's usually in a mildly teasing manner, and they know better than to call out each others weakness.
Their differences make them a stronger team cause where one lacks, the other makes up for.

Commonalities & Shared Interests

Mikey and Donnie have very little in common, but they do enjoy making things together, and if they need to relax, Donnie is usually the one to join him in a video game.

Raphael

Brother

Towards Donatello

5

---

Donatello

Brother

Towards Raphael

5

---

History

Raph and Donnie grew up together. They bonded over being the middle children, while Leo got attention for being the perfect eldest child, and Mikey was the cute youngest, Don and Raph stayed in the background with each other. Raph never really understood Donnie's nerdier interests, but was always impressed by how smart he was, and Donnie was always the one to help him understand things when he was struggling with their homeschooling.
Donnie eventually got Raph interested in reading by showing him some of the fiction books he liked.

Relationship Reasoning

Donnie is probably the brother he get's along with the most, in the sense that he rarely has an issue with him. This is likely cause both of them tend to keep to themselves, not sharing a lot in common. Raph will often tease Donnie for being a nerd, but its also the one who gets the most excited about his inventions, being more impressed by his brains than he'd admit out loud.

Commonalities & Shared Interests

They don't have a lot in common on the surface. Donnie is someone Raph will hang out with when he needs someone to just vibe and chill out with. He makes a decent reading buddy, even if Donnie is reading about quantum mechanics while Raph is reading about an elven war with orcs.

Casey Jones

Friend

Towards Donatello

4

---

Donatello

Friend

Towards Casey Jones

4

---

History

Casey's first introduction to Donnie was getting caught in one of his traps while she was sneaking through the forest. He was quick to get her down and explain everything, but she still was irritated at him for putting her in such an embarrassing situation. She would quickly get over it when she learned more about the turtles, as well as the situation they were dealing with earlier that morning.
When she found out their belongings were being stolen by Stockgen, she immediately agreed to help them get their stuff back. After helping them all break into Stockgen and defending them from Purple Dragons, Casey quickly befriended all the turtles.

Relationship Reasoning

Casey and Donnie talk whenever she visits, but they have the least amount in common. Donnie often wants to talk about his inventions and science stuff that goes right over Casey's head, and she'll usually retort by calling him a nerd.
However once they are working on cars, it become a different story. Working on Casey's van is the one time they can really bond, as they both have extensive knowledge about cars and how they work. The two genuinely have a lot of fun working on vehicles together.

Donatello

Friend

Towards April O'Neil

4

---

April O'Neil

Friend

Towards Donatello

4

---

History

Donnie met April when he and his brothers fought off a mutant that was attacking her. They were all suspicous of her at first as they had never met a human before and Splinter has always warned them about how dangerous the were, but April was friendly and kind, and even offered them candy as a peace offering.
Donnie was rather intrigued to meet a human and ask her all sorts of questions about the city and human life. April would end up showing him her computer and teaching him some of the coding stuff she knew.
After they became friends, April would give the boys their first phones to keep in touch, as well as help Donnie dig up an old laptop for him to fix up and use.

Relationship Reasoning

April and Donnie talk a lot and have a lot in common. They are both very smart kids, and Don can appreciate being able to talk to someone that can keep up with his mind. They both have a lot the are able to teach each other and can talk for hours about nerdy stuff like tech and coding.
April is Donnie's go to if he ever needs a back up to run tech stuff while he's in the middle to the fighting, which is saying something cause he doesn't ever trust anyone else to touch his stuff.

Leatherhead

Friend

Towards Donatello

4

---

Donatello

Friend

Towards Leatherhead

4

---

History

Leatherhead didn't start off on a good foot with the Turtles. He was always enraged when he first emerged from the water on a beach they were hanging out on, and as soon as they drew their weapons in defense, he attacked them. It was only after Mikey had managed to calm him down that he was able to explain himself.
Donatello was the most excited to meet another mutant like them. Sure they had Splinter, but Leatherhead was once an animal like they were. They immediately hit it off when they began talking about computers, and once everything and settled down, Donatello was the first to help him set up a place to stay on the beach.
Donnie and Leatherhead would go searching for computer parts to help Leatherhead set up in an old beach house, all the while sharing their theories about mutagen and mutant biology. They would also fix up the boats outside together.

Nicknames & Petnames

Pepino - to Donnie.

Relationship Reasoning

Donatello looks up to Leatherhead almost like an uncle figure. It's not often he can talk to a fellow mutant of the same caliber of intelligence as him, so it gives him someone other than his immediate family he can talk to and relate to. Leatherhead is also more mature than say, April, so he acts as another adult he can go to for advice. Leatherhead is more then happy to hang out with Donatello, and finds him to be a good kid with the potential to do great things in the world.
Story Spoilers

When Donnie develops Mutagen Poisoning from an Oozequito bite and starts double mutating, Leatherhead is the first person he actually tells about the situation, as he doesn't trust his own family to help without freaking out.

Species

Mutant

Mutant type

Spiny Softshell Turtle

Year of Birth

2008 14 Years old

Circumstances of Birth

Mutation

Family

Hamato Clan

Parents (Adopting)

Splinter

Spouses

Siblings

Leonardo (Brother)

Michelangelo (Brother)

Raphael (Brother)

Gender

Male

Eyes

Amber

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Olive

Height

5'8

Owned Vehicles

• Battlebago

Known Languages

English

Japanese

Related Historical Events

• 2009
  Turtle's and Splinters Mutation
• 2008
  Donnie Hatches

Friends

April O'Neil

Casey Jones

Leatherhead

Gallery