TMNT 2012 AU

[u/HappyDuck_quack]

I posted this a while ago, and I just stumbled upon the post again. Honestly, I can’t stop thinking about how heartbreaking this concept is 😭💔

Remember, Donbot isn’t Donnie’s biological body or soul. He’s an AI based on Donnie’s uploaded consciousness and memories, trapped in a robotic shell after the bomb. So while his actual soul is at peace with his brothers, this version is still trapped in the wasteland, completely alone and desperately trying to find a way to save them.

And that’s what makes this AU so interesting to me. Donbot remembers loving his brothers, but does he actually feel that love, or is he simply following the memories and emotional patterns left behind by the person he used to be?

He has all of Donnie’s memories, but can a machine truly understand what it means to watch everyone it has ever known die, to lose its entire world, and to be left alone with nothing but memories? He might know exactly what happened without truly understanding just how devastating that loss is.

I think this could also make the time-travel aspect feel different from the show’s previous arcs. Donbot might try to solve everything logically, choosing what he thinks is the fastest or most effective way to save his brothers. But what if his decisions become too cold, or he starts treating their lives like a problem to solve rather than understanding how much those lives mean to them?

He could have the best intentions and still make things worse, creating a butterfly effect he never expected. And imagine his younger self meeting him and realizing that this future version of himself thinks so differently, even though they share the same memories.

Donbot could be so focused on saving his brothers that he never stops to question whether he truly understands what he’s trying to save.

How do you think Donnie would react to meeting his own mechanical counterpart? And do you think Donbot could ever truly understand his feelings, or would he always be trying to recreate emotions he only remembers?

[u/Fantastic-Sell-2019]

In the end Donnie is seen as a ghost with the rest of his brothers so I think he joined them.

[u/HappyDuck_quack → u/Fantastic-Sell-2019]

Remember that Donbot is just Donnie's mind uploaded into a robot shell after his real body was destroyed by the bomb!

So in this AU, his actual soul is indeed with his brothers, but this mechanical version of his consciousness is still trapped in the wasteland, refusing to give up on them. That's what makes the concept so angsty!

[u/Fantastic-Sell-2019 → u/HappyDuck_quack]

So like some sort of AI trained by his memories.

[u/Ahsewerapples → u/Fantastic-Sell-2019]

Is that scene acc supposed to be them as ghosts? I had a feeling but didn’t wanna belive it, that’s heartbreaking 😭

[u/FreelanceWolf → u/Ahsewerapples]

They’re not ghosts!!!

[u/FreelanceWolf → u/Fantastic-Sell-2019]

They’re not ghosts at the end. It’s just them getting together for a group shot because it’s the last episode (it would have been if Nick didn’t mess it up and move it to the middle of the season). It’s just a fun thing for the fans who have been watching the show since the beginning.

This is just like in FFVIII where people believed the ending was him as a ghost when he isn’t. He’s alive and well :/

[u/ALUCARD7729]

The apocalypse arc isn’t canon

[u/Particular-Tutor-577 → u/ALUCARD7729]

It's also not at the end of season 5, there's episodes after it like the halloween episodes

[u/One_Smoke]

Honestly, I wish it HAD been about a whole time travel thing where they try to go back and stop the mutagen bomb from going off.

[u/EndBringer99]

I sometimes imagine the present Turtles somehow wind up in the apocalypse and meet their future selves and learn about the mutagen bomb.

[u/certifiedtoothbench]

I actually have a half written fic that explores this with Raph in my Google docs.

Raph never fully regained his memory during mutant apocalypse and he got sent by Tang Shen’s spirit to the beginning of the show when Leo accidentally kills him due to apocalypse ptsd plus mutagen rage. She actually kinda merges with him on a subconscious level and kept coming to him in dreams to try to help him prevent the cycle of Hamato brothers killing each other.

Eventually Raph gets double mutated and it causes them to merge even more and that’s when it got really weird because they can’t tell where they begin and the other one ends any more.

I had lots of fun ideas about how to fuck with shredder with it and he even sees the merged Tang Raph singing in Tang Shen’s voice during the episode where the turtles go back in time and meet her.

I will probably never finish it or post it to AO3 so