Thefrenchiestfry1616 - TheFrenchiestFry1616

Please reblog if you have an active TMNT Tumblr and don't post hate towards any of the versions/incarnations! I would love to spread some Ninja Turtles positivity and love right now!

Donatello's Inspirations

Rise Ramblings #91

So, I’ve noticed that Donatello has a habit of being inspired by what he sees and adopting those aspects into himself.

This system of integration is most prevalent when it comes to the people he loves or admires.

Take one of his favorite stims, for instance.  

You don’t have to look too far to find that phrase's source.

He admires and loves his Papa, thus one of his dad’s favorite sayings is one of his favorites as well.

This aspect of incorporation also extends to his beloved heroes.

One of my favorite examples are his signature eyebrows.

He didn’t have them, then he did. We know that he started drawing them on nine years ago (with a sharpie, lol) but I wonder where he got the idea for the eyebrows in the first place…

Before he knew that Lou Jitsu was his father, Donnie had already incorporated the man’s eyebrows into his mask. Therefore, one can argue that the adoption of Lou’s well-coiffed brows was not due to a simple familial bond. Instead, Donnie just wanted to be more like his hero, Lou Jitsu (and thought the brows were cool, lol.)

However, that’s not the only hero Donatello took inspiration from.

Things I like about this decal on a restaurant window: -the insane orange waiter -that he’s carrying his plates in the air like a strongman -the couple looks like this isn’t the first time he’s done this, but it’s easier to just let it happen at this point. -the sign says PASTA as if he’s screaming it like a frankenstein -but he’s holding a plate of an entire chicken and a plate of wine glasses -there’s three wine glasses -one’s for him.

People often say LOTR is a story about hope. (I'm reminded of it because someone said it in the notes of my Faramir post.) And that's true, but it's not the whole picture: LOTR is in large part a story about having to go on in the absence of hope.

Frodo has lost hope, as well as the ability to access any positive emotion, by Return. He is already losing it in Towers: he keeps going through duty and determination and of course Sam's constant help.

For most of the story, Sam is fueled by hope, which is why it's such a huge moment when he finally lets go of the hope of surviving and returning home, and focuses on making it to the Mountain. To speed their way and lighten the load, he throws his beloved pots and pans into a pit, accepting that he will never cook, or eat, again.

When Eowyn kills the Witch King, she's beyond hope and seeking for a glorious death in battle. It's possible that in addition to her love and loyalty for Théoden, she's strengthened by her hopelessness, the fear of the Nazgúl cannot touch someone who's already past despair.

Faramir is his father's son, he doesn't have any more hope of Gondor's victory or survival than Denethor does, he says as much to Frodo. What hope have we? It is long since we had any hope. ... We are a failing people, a springless autumn. He knows he's fighting a losing war and it's killing him. When he rejects the ring, he doesn't do it in the hope that his people can survive without it, he has good reason to believe they cannot. He acts correctly in the absence of hope.

Of course LOTR has a (mostly) happy ending, all the unlikely hopes come true, the characters who have lost hope gain what they didn't even hope for, and everyone is rewarded for their bravery and goodness, so on some level the message is that hope was justified. But the book never chastises characters who lost hope, it was completely reasonable of them to do so. Despair pushed Théoden and Denethor into inaction, pushed Saruman into collaboration, but the characters who despaired and held up under the weight of despair are Tolkien's real heroes.

(In an early draft of Return, Frodo and Sam receive honorary titles in Noldorin: Endurance beyond Hope and Hope Unquenchable, respectively. Then he cut it, probably because it was stating the themes of the entire book way too obviously, because this is what Tolkien cared about, really: enduring beyond hope. Without hope.)

Also, people who know more than me about the concept of estel, feel free to @ me.

I GOT 10 MINUTES LEFT OF BEING A TEENAGER I GOTTA DO SOMETHING REBELLIOUS UH

As a child my options were:

archeologist, detective, writer, ballerina, teacher, pirate, superhero (plant powers), cat (just straight up become a cat), and ninja. I had to narrow it down a bit when I got older.

if we lived in a world where u had to do the career u were first interested in as a child what would u be doing, id be a firefighter

This was so good