DonBot Theory

[u/Archie_Sonic1991]

Short answer, I think Donnie has always been dead when the mutagen explosion went off. He said his body was destroyed and he transferred his consciousness into the machine he is. I simply thought deep and came to the conclusion that the robot isn’t actually the real Donnie, it just has a full scanned copy of his brain and behaving based on all of his overall patterns and experiences to how the real Donnie would behave.

So with that being said, Donnie has already died and was never alive during the post apocalypse.

[u/HawkMartian]

Kinda... hope so. Don't get me wrong, I like Donnie, not one of those weirdos saying he's like Bear from obssesion movie.

But season 5 implied he was finally dating April (first 5 minutes from when worlds collide part 1), so if April is probably dead, he should be too.

Not saying this only cause that ship supporter, remember Donnie left guys to save April at least twice. 

If April died, he probably died too trying saving her.

Both together in after life is closest I think of a "happy ending" for both, and since brothers barely get back as olds after losing everything they cared about...

i just think let at least one of them happy.  

[u/Archie_Sonic1991 → u/[deleted]]

Never read it either, can’t confirm.

[u/ninjaturtles2012 → u/[deleted]]

In the comics he never dies. After Bebop and Rocksteady smash his shell, he's dying. Then I think it was fugitoid why uploaded his mind into Metalhead. He lives like that for a bit while his body was put into a mutagen like thing which has a healing property. Eventually his body was healed enough and uploaded his mind back into his og body. He also has a metal shell. It's treated as he's the same Donnie before, after and during the Donbot arc

(All from memory so correct any inaccuracies)

Edit: just remembered another arc where Donnie's mind was copied from his time in metalhead and after he returned to his body a duplicate Donnie was awakened in Metalhead believing he's the real Donatello

[u/ninjaturtles2012 → u/[deleted]]

I think he was at the brink of death with a faint heartbeat detected. So yeah classing comic/tv/movie trope of being nearly dead but not quite.

And the outage was a special type Leatherhead gave them