Spectral Spinach

(aka the good genes collection)

fics i've read regarding donatello's second mutation arc set both before and during, plus its aftermath in the 2003 cartoon bc i am so insanely normal about it

you're welcome to add any gems you've read that's not on this list!

The Afterward by @halogalopaghost

Donnie's family have managed to get a cure for his double-mutation brought on by Bishop's outbreak virus, but he isn't out of the woods yet. The detransformation process is stalling, and now it's all the boys can do to keep Donatello alive long enough to figure out why.

Desperate Measures by SuperKat

Donatello spoke angrily under two circumstances: major setbacks to his projects or prolonged periods of intense work without rest. They were guessing the latter this time…

And Call Me in the Morning by @slipstreamborne / ffnet

It’s not like Don is doing this for fun, he reminds himself as the olive-skinned turtle makes up four fresh syringes and starts measuring out doses. He’s his doctor and his brother, he only has Mikey’s best interest at— He blinks, eyes suddenly fixed on the band of cloth fixed tight to Don’s upper thigh. “Dude, what’s wrong with your leg?”

The Silence by @dawntreaderflynne / ffnet

Donatello's brothers and Leatherhead have cured his mutation and rescued him from Bishop. Even though Don is safe at home, he's used to having all the answers...but all he has are questions.

Within This Nightmare by @usami-chan13 / ao3

The virus has been cured, but his nightmare isn't over yet. And Donatello has a disturbing feeling that he won't make it to morning.

Dinosaurs, PTSD and Museum Visiting Hours by nightwalker3

Donnie never did get to see the dinosaur display.

The Abyss Gazes Back by T33la by @punctuated-equilibrium-t33la

The turtles wake up one misty morning 66 million years ago to find that Donatello is missing. In the chaos of mud where his footprints end, those of a monster begin.

Chain of Events by @13runningsomething

The Foot Mystics revealed how they were set free, and Donnie’s been struggling ever since, specifically with the insecurities that he’s tried so hard to ignore.

Fika by @redstringraven

You may as well have called the first sneeze an alarm bell. The instant it echoed through the reservoir station, each and every one of them in range perked up, heads swiveling like a bunch of prairie dogs. Raph seeks out Don first. He scans the open first-level of the reservoir station until he catches Don’s eye--a second after Mikey does. Don glances between them, his expression at first wide. Then his lips curl downward, and he huffs. “—that wasn’t me.” [aka a leo sick-fic, set post good genes]

Hard Reset by @side-shuffling-hyperfixations

Don's immune system still has a ways to go to decompress from the stress of the double mutation. His brothers were there for him through one of his worst trials; they'll be there for him in the achy aftermath too.

Red Eyes (Staring Back at Me) by Multifandom_damnation

After the mysterious events that Donnie has no recollection of but his brothers secretly allude to being very bad and April and Casey still apparently have nightmares about, he begins to discover all the changes that afflict him, which includes but is not limited to his newly red and glowing eyes.

What Dreams May Come by Princess Tyler Briefs

Raph confronts Don as to why he didn't tell them what was going on when he was ill, and learns more about his younger brother than he ever wanted to.

Countergambit by @meercacchi

Chess has filled countless sleepless nights between the kindred pair, slowing down their racing anxiety-laden thoughts and granting them space to just talk—just the two of them, just like this.    Leo is almost scared to believe it’s true—that he’s really sitting here with his brother in the far-too-early hours of the morning, playing chess like usual, like nothing at all had happened.    Five days ago, Leo didn’t think he’d get to share these sacred moments with Donny ever again.

An Upward Spiral by Amicitia Revenant

How do you recover from a sickness you can't remember? A post-"Good Genes" fic in thirteen fragments.

Irrational by Mendeia / ffnet

one-sided LH/Don. Leatherhead muses on the events of the "Good Genes" plotline and its impact on his heart. And on the turtle to whom he has lost himself...

The Monsters Come at Night by @donnys-boy

Leo dreams of monsters at night. But unlike in horror films, his monsters are all too real.

Those Nights by devirnis

With Donny a monster, and the prospect of getting him back slim, Mikey can't help but think about those nights when they really bonded.

sickly sweet by @watergatorr

Donnie didn’t necessarily need to be given the full round guilt trip here to let his siblings sit him down in a pile of blankets and a fresh bowl of his favourite soup with a good dinosaur documentary on the Discovery channel. But he allows it nonetheless. “Ten minutes,” he tells Leo, much like he’d done with Mikey. “I really do need to sort that code out.”

asyndeton by @returnofahsoka

after his secondary mutation, donnie's recovering. everyone's unsteady and on edge, home is not home, and raph... he's handling it, okay?

I Want to Wake Up by Fool_of_Gold

Donnie is still recovering from turning into a monster, and it's proving to be more complicated than anyone initially thought.

Good Genes, Bad Dreams by DeeMG

After they return home from Area 51 with Donatello, the brothers still have things to learn about each other, and about the ways that they help each other survive. Short, brotherly-fluff one-shot! 2K3-verse

Aftermath by @bluepeachstudios

The turtles return home after Donatello is cured from the infection that mutated him into a giant monster. He's confused, still a little sick, and dealing with his brothers being really fussy over him.

In the Shelter of Each Other by @hamsterandturtlesoup

Raphael and Donatello are forced to seek shelter from a sudden storm. Platonic one-shot set shortly after S4 Outbreak.

Best Medicine by @punctuated-equilibrium-t33la

Mikey and Donnie play ‘monster’. This is an extension of an opening scene from the episode immediately following "Good Genes".

is this the conversation you wanna have? by @love-killed-the-superstar

“...We don’t know anything,” Raphael finally says, voice small and resigned. “Shell, I can’t wrap my head around any of it. You tripled in size. You had glowing eyes. You were drooling and roaring and trying to eat Mikey’s freakin’ leg.”

we'll eat you up, we love you so! by @tacit-semantics

“Right,” Mikey snorts, and then gestures down towards his setup, all but beaming with pride. “So we’ll ease into it! Instead of tryin’ to like, skydive right to the meat of the, uh, bare bones-“ “Mixing metaphors. Cross-contamination,” Donnie says. He is actually factually correct, and also actually factually ignored. “-I’ll draw you a picture! You get a little distance, Leo doesn‘t get mad at me ‘cause I let you watch the giant monster Don video, and also I get to show off a bit, which. Never hurt a guy, y’know?”

Never Been Great at First Impressions by @redstringraven

It was the first time in weeks that his brothers had let him shadow them top-side. So, naturally, this had to happen. Turtle luck running true to form, as Raph might say.

Down Time by Sparrow1000

Leo does some late night thinking a few days after Don is cured of the Outbreak Virus.

TMNTober 4th: Bones by secreterces5

Technically, Donnie and April are both in the “made into a monster against their will by a freak accident” club. And growing massive and then shrinking again afterwards has consequences.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Chevy Nova

Faced with the uncertainty of Donatello's future, Raphael calls upon the memory of time when he was able to protect his little brother from the monsters that lurked in the darkness. The fear of a young child haunts him, yet remains his only source of comfort against the horrors he must now face.

Chapter 4 of Great Expectations by @dawntreaderflynne / ffnet

chapter picks up right at the end of "Good Genes, Part 2" "Have you ever heard the proverb 'man plans and God laughs?" "God must have a pretty warped sense of humor.”

Chapter 8 of Sewer Stories by @paperlifted

We, Monsters

"Please tell me I'm wrong" by @angstsplatter

Donnie had been over the numbers. His models and predictions. And there was only one answer, staring him in the face, no matter how many times he crunched the data. It was bad, bad news. For lack of anything else to do, he ran the numbers again.

if donny's double mutation had kicked in while the gang was stuck in the cretaceous period would that be fucked up or what lol by @teetle-time

In an instant, five shapes vanished from the American Museum of Natural History. In that same instant, four shapes appeared in an allegedly-abandoned reservoir in the nearby park. If April hadn't already been standing up, she would have scrambled to her feet at the sight of three of the guys in caveman gear and some kind of honest-to-God sharp-toothed gargantuan dinosaur with them. "Wh-guys?!"

BONUS (set in other universes)

Metamorphose by @blackbogmire

2012 After April is plagued by nightmares, she pays visit to deliver Donatello a warning—one that is too late. Now they must race to discover a cure before time runs out.

Good Genes by by @happyfoxx-art

Raph and Casey friendship usually, in the classic sense, starts out with a sort of 'hey i finally found someone as wild as me. this guy gets it' and it builds on mutual willingness to call each other out (typically starting with Raph calling Casey out)

And then Casey comes over to enjoy wild times with his new mutant friend, and they've already been discussing family who wants them to calm down and be safe, and there's Donnie in the kitchen building a nuclear reactor

And. Donnie consistently reacts to Casey with an attitude of 'oh yeah that's Raph's weird crazy friend. they're doing something off the wall like arm wrestling. wanna see my anti gravity helmet?'

And Raph's just like 'yea that's my normal brother Don, he builds teleporters and stuff'

Warning: fast multicolored lights

This is definitely one of the biggest TMNT mysteries (at least for me).

In TMNT 2003, in Donnie’s SAINW episode—where the hell did that version of him go?! People don’t just vanish into thin air without any kind of explanation.

I’ve always wanted to know what happened to him, and to this day, I don’t think anyone actually knows.

Donatello literally finished his own series without ever finding out where that version of himself ended up.

Drawings used without effects:

Donatello travels to the possible future and is later pulled back home. The family, he included, tell each other about their adventures across time and space. Later, on a normal day of non-interest, they can’t find Don. They look and search but find nothing. Don’s tale of the future he visited comes to mind but they push it aside, surely this isn’t that. Surely Don just fell asleep in the sewers somewhere and his phone is turned off.

But soon they’re running away as their father gives his life for their continued survival. Soon the sky turns black with pollution and the earth is covered in bones. The sky filled with utroms in weaponized mech suits. Soon Mikey screams out as he looses his arm. Soon Raph’s follow as goop that once was his eye flow down his face. Soon Leo trades his bandana for a pair of sunglasses.

And without notice, Michelangelo is in his late fourties’ staring at his 16-year old brother as he asks what happened to his arm. Later, as the three brothers gather together to talk in private, one brings up a dusty memory from thirty years ago. Of a 16-year old Donatello on the living room couch describing a mirror of each of them. Of how Mikey yelled out for him as he died. Of how Leo once again turned his back to the enemy. Of how Raph fueled by rage fizzled out on top of his brother. Surely they can prevent this. They know what the Other Them did not.

But as Mikey is surrounded by Karai Legionnaires, he calls out to his missing brother thirty years too young. As he falls he realizes, he did exactly as what was described thirty years ago. As Leo feels a burning pain at his back, in his shell, he turns around to look at Karai one last time. And as he falls he is reminded of a conversation thirty years ago. As Raph crawls along the floor, pain across his plastorn, he reaches for his brother laid out on the floor before him. Collapsing onto his brother, name on his lips, he is reminded of a haunted tale from thirty years past.

As they die they come to know. This has happened before. They were told of it. And as it happened then and now, it will happen again. Who knows how many times this has happened and will continue to happen. Maybe this Donatello, this 16-year old version of their brother, the only one they can ever know, will survive. Maybe this one stays and they won’t die on the cold hard ground of the Shredder’s throne room. This again is a mirror of thoughts created hundreds of times before.

He just stood there, in the dark. Contemplating. He was contemplating the hundreds of colorful lights illuminating the entirely new—and yet familiar—city. The city he once knew. The sounds of extraordinarily advanced, flying vehicles of all shapes and sizes soaring through the air in intersecting directions on a beautiful night were muffled by a giant, thick wall of glass. So thick it was nearly suffocating. Although he wasn't entirely sure the wall itself was to blame for it. To think that the day had started out like any other. Training, tinkering, a futile fight over the remote. And next thing he knew, they were here—in this strange new place. The future.

I've noticed since I started getting a bit more active on Tumblr again that I've gotten quite a few new followers, so I just wanted to once again advertise the TMNT 2003-focused Discord server that I run (although everyone is welcome to join regardless of their preferred iteration.) A couple of things to be aware of:

Although we're a SFW community, everyone who joins MUST be at least 18 years or older. We have nothing against minors; this is just for safety and comfort.

No turtlecest/incest ships, adult/minor pairings, or AI-generated art and writing.

This server has truly become my baby since I created it back in July of 2024 and while we've had our hiccups and rough patches, myself and the mod team are always doing our best to try and make it the best community it can possibly be. Monthly Watch Parties, cozy Turtle Piles, very OC-friendly, and we make sure to run any major updates and/or changes by the community before we implement them; mods may have the final say on what does and doesn't happen, but we want to ensure whatever we decide to do is of benefit to our members rather than harm.

Invite link is below for anyone who is interested. We'll see you there!

tmnt03 injury spreadsheet (s1-s4)

these questions are answered on the sheet's first tab, but for clarity's sake i'll include them here as well. 'disclaimers' tab also includes some information on how i approached this thing, should you want it.

what is this? a list of injuries the turtles sustained throughout seasons 1-4 of the 2003 animated series, inspired by @/lichcrow’s list for the malevolent podcast. why only s1-s4? i started this as a personal project for my own use, and “my canon” for the series stops at good genes pt 2 then diverges into my own stories. since i don’t take ninja tribunal, seasons 5-7, nor turtles forever as "my canon", i won’t be including them.

to give you an idea of what you're clicking into, and how the sheet's formatted, there's a preview screenshot of don's tab below the cut!

if any links aren't working, or perhaps you have insight i don't, you're more than welcome to let me know. enjoy!(?)

Donatello's intelligence

While there is a tag that says he's not a genius, that he is instead a 'hard worker', is that really all to his mind?

At first, as we read from Donatello's view, we can see he portrays himself as the most intelligent of his brothers, though he clearly recognizes that he has a certain advantage--

Because according to the wiki, the exact heights of the turtles in FF/BttS are 5'5" for Leo, 5'7" for Raph, 5'6" for Don, and 5'4" for Mikey, yet I've never found an actual source for those heights. Did it come from the packaging of the toys? Was it something mentioned by Peter Laird and/or one of the show producers? Were there online profiles that have since been lost to the ravages of time? The only thing we know for sure based on what's actually in the show is that A) The turtles are significantly taller than they were in the first five seasons and B) The height order from tallest to shortest is Raph -> Don -> Leo -> Mikey.

Update: @/redstringraven did a quick google search and the heights listed on the wiki are indeed incorrect. The actual packaging for the Fast Forward toy line lists the turtles' heights (and weights) for the season as follows

Raphael: 5'5", 197lbs,

Leonardo and Donatello: 5'4", 192lb (Leo) and 184 lbs (Don)