>>9440207Well, in my opinion, it's his resourcefulness. I'm going to talk broadly here, not just in the 80s cartoon show, but like, Raph is the moody muscle, Mikey is the jokey dudebro, Leo is the guy with a stick up his butt doing his best to keep everyone alive, and then Donnie is the guy who's coming through for the team with a solution every time. He's the guy with the gadget or the ability to hack the doomsday device or whatever. Everyone is the ninja plus leader/comic/tough warrior quirk, while Donnie is unique in that he's the ninja plus modern scientist combo. He keeps up with three other ninjas using actual weapons with a freaking stick.
He made turtle radios/cellphones, and built* the party wagon AND metalhead in a sewer with a fucking box of scraps. Like, he's a mechanical genius whose talents are hindered by the fact he's learning from trial and error and using garbage as his primary construction material. I mean, his name should have been Leo in hindsight because of the inventor thing, but I suppose Splinter didn't predict their personalities.
*depending on version, he also stole and reprogrammed metalhead and or started with an existing van, but still.
