Curate, connect, and discover
I actually kinda wanna talk about a common trope I've seen a lot in tmnt 2012 + rise crossovers involving interactions between the two Donnies, specifically about 12 Donnie's romantic feelings and stalkerish tendencies towards his April, because I do think there's actually room for analysis in there about how rise Donnie would feel about it. I personally don't think it would be the "lol ew you're weird" that I typically see in these kinds of crossovers (I know it's supposed to be a joke most of the time but still).
đź”˝Here we gođź”˝
(Tumblr only allows one video per post, so all the necessary clips used to make my point will be compiled into this video that I will be referencing back to)
To begin, let's start with the fact that rise Donnie is no stranger to keeping tabs on his bothers without them knowing.
He admits that he "records everything" in The Clothes Don't Make the Turtle, and that he at some point before the events of the movie put subcutaneous tracking devices in his brothers (and possibly even Casey too despite not knowing him for that long), and in both of those scenes, none of them seem to have known about it up until those points.
So he's perfectly fine with spying on people, but unlike 12 Donnie, he seems to keep tabs on his family and friends through more indirect means like trackers and recording them instead of just straight up stalking them. You could argue that using more isolated methods instead could be a way for him to justify it, since tracking devices and recordings that you don't particularly have to be present for are a few steps removed from physically following someone around, but given how Donnie seems perfectly willing to resort to violence and murder in many instances I genuinely don't think it's an issue of morality for him. I think he just believes spying with his tech is simply more effective and time saving
So he's fine with spying on his brothers, but we don't exactly know if he'd do the exact same thing in romantic relationships. I do think it's likely, since him placing trackers on them is most likely a way for him to ensure their safety without being upfront about it, so if he cares about someone romantically he'd probably do the same thing too.
Rise as a series doesn't have too much romance in general but there are at least two hints in the show about Donnie and how he feels about romance, particularly in War and Pizza and Mascot Melee.
He calls Cherry Tomato "cute and mean" and asks himself why he always goes for her type, and calls Atomic Lass his childhood idle before asking her if she was single after their dance fight. He's clearly capable of having romantic feelings for certain people, but these examples aren't real people in-universe, so it's entirely possible that he only experience romantic attraction to fictional characters. That's also another degree of separation since April in 2012 is a real person whereas Cheery and Atomic Lass are not.
So I think that's it for rise Donnie. On to 2012
One other thing I've seen that's pretty common with this trope is people making 12 Donnie act all...proud for how he acts around April? Where he admits to stalking her like it's some casual thing? Which...he absolutely would not do.
In Mutagen Man Unleashed, he looked embarrassed—almost ashamed even—to admit here that he was following her before hand, meaning he knows it's wrong and quite possibly wishes he hadn't done it in the first place. I would say it's probably likely he feels guilty because he got caught, but given the fact that he voluntarily admitted that he knew April was at the park with Casey, I personally doubt it.
Since it's very likely Donnie's feelings towards April potentially stem from his self-hatred of being a mutant, I honestly don't think he'd be that proud of the fact that he's stalked her in the past.
This crossover trope ESPECIALLY wouldn't work after season 3 episode 2.
A Foot Too Big's entire overarching plot revolves around Donnie's feelings towards April, and him being confronted with the truth of how he's been acting around her.
(Now in my opinion this episode didn't even do a good job of that anyway considering that Donnie never followed her around LITERALLY all the time or grabbed her or kissed her without consent, which—by the way—is considered sexual assault, but this isn't the point I'm trying to make here. Maybe for a future analysis)
Point is, at that point Donnie has already learned his lesson, so it would make justifying the whole "12 Donnie would lovingly talk about stalking April as if it's normal" even harder to justify.
Tl;dr: I honestly doubt rise Donnie would care about 12 Donnie's behavior towards April, especially considering the fact that 12 Donnie is not proud of it and has learned from it. In all honesty I can see the most likely outcome of them meeting being 12 Donnie nervously admitting that he used to follow her around only for rise Donnie to tell him that if he's really worried that much he should just put a tracker on her, and that it'll save him half the effort.
Anyway that's all, take care :3