The series Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is part of the long and beloved franchise of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Year-long fans of the media have or been delighted at the series, or stayed stuck in their old ways, thinking it was crap. But for some, and especially the neurodivergent community, it has been an absolute blast, and that for several reasons.
Mikey's ADHD
One point that has been mentioned several times before, is how Mikey is depicted in this series.
Mikey is the youngest of the brothers and is often acting in a more childish way, to the point of becoming the comic relief of the series he's in, or at least much more than his brothers. Several times in the previous iterations (2012 for sure, maybe also 2003) he receives slaps from his brother when not acting like he should/as expected of him or for thinking/doing stuff out of the ordinary or not in relation to what is happening.
In 2012, the writers made clear changes as to the way he acted, such as being bored easily, copying characters from shows/movies/etc, not having a sense of time but also what I mentioned above and more from the show.
For non-ADHDers, all those put together can be considered symptoms of ADHD.
But, in this same show, he is often punished, slapped or yelled at for those behaviours and only rarely is congratulated about it.
In 2018 (or Rise, or RotTMNT), he has those symptoms and more, such as his lack of sense of danger (Man vs Sewers when he sees the broken bridge but directly tries to make it swing) or how he's easily anxious (same episode, the scene right after), but most importantly, he's not being slapped or yelled at for acting as an ADHDer.
Rise gives us not only (at least) the third iteration where he seems to be hypoglycemic, but also an iteration where Mikey is beloved by his entire family, considered the baby only because he is the youngest and shown actually having ADHD and not being used as comic relief (at least not more than the rest of his family).
This iteration is the product of years of waiting and asking on the fan's part. Despite the demand being answered in 2012, 2018 finally came and nailed it.
Donnie's ASD (autism)
Donnie has always been the tech guy and continues to be.
In 2003, he was mostly here for that, but in 2012 he became more diversified, even if some parts of the narrative were crap.
Donnie's interest in science and the amount of work can be read as a special interest. The fact that he was also used as a comic relief several times in 2012 leads back to Mikey and the use of neurodiverse characters being used only or at least mostly as such.
In 2018, however, the tides change. Donnie is still the tech guy, but here with more flavour and on the spectrum.
This has not only been confirmed by one of the writers, it can also be noticed in the show.
The main part of the special interest being science in general and tech in particular is here again, but this time we also have more details, such as in Origami Tsunami when Leo says "Or is it?", to which Donnie answers truthfully, taking the question literally instead of the rhetorical tone of it.
Other instances of the symptoms can be: asking Sheldon for "flavourless juice", not liking being touched out of nowhere, having a low empathy, rocking back and forth when in distress, shutting down in distasteful/stressful situations, choosing disguises for comfort as the first reason, the monotony of his tone or even stimming such as his little victory stim in Lair Games or his movements in Clothes Don't Make the Turtle.
Once more, the depiction of a neurodiverse character, and especially autistic ones, show someone being compared to a robot, an alien or just plain weird. It can also go to the side of being an idiot except for a specific area which will be the area of expertise or other more hurtful depictions, especially for characters like Rise!Donnie who has low empathy.
But Rise nailed the character, leading to many fans being pleased with this iteration. Despite having low empathy, he is not depicted as heartless or a total jerk. We see him caring about his family and we can also see him once (or even twice) tearing up in End Game ("I don't normally feel things but that one got through").
A more complete video about it would be Donnie (Rise of the TMNT) | Autism Representation in Media by Skulltrot
Splinter's PTSD
Splinter isn't usually talked about much since he is often not the point of the series and his past is used to explain details of the story. In 2003, he was a rat who witnessed his master die before being flushed down the sewers, in 2012, he was a human who witnessed the death of his family and was betrayed by his best friend before being mutated into a rat.
But on both occasions, we do not dwell any further on his trauma.
In Rise, this aspect changes somewhat. Gone is the sensei and only a struggling father is left. Not much is known about him for at least half of the first season, and when finally we receive more information, it is through a literal PTSD flashback (Shadow of Evil).
More than that, we can see later on that his way of dealing with trauma is to shut it off and run away from it. He only takes it upon himself to deal with the Shredder situation once he can no longer ignore it and that it threatens his life with his sons.
Furthermore, his lack of qualifications in parenting can be explained by the trauma of his mutation as he himself stated that being reminded every day that he isn't a human with fame anymore but a rat living in the sewers. This pain, and possibly also depression, dull his affection for his sons when it hits and leads to some abandonment, difficulties remembering their names, lack of energy and sometimes acting more for his benefit than his son's in reach for some taste of his better past.
Raph's DID
DID, like PTSD, is a trauma-induced neurodivergence. In very short, the trauma the child is facing leads to their brain having to process it with the very few tools it has at the moment, resulting in the best decision it can make to protect the host: splitting identities. Splitting the identities leads to each of them being able to deal with specific situations and switching when another is needed to answer properly to the said situation with the purpose of protecting the host. (This is a very very short explanation of DID and I unfortunately don't have a more detailed post about it)
In Rise, a few details here and there leads us to see Raph as a system, and maybe also having autism.
One important episode depicting it is Man VS. Sewers, where we open on Raph alone in the sewers and panicking about where his brothers might be, despite having been told they were looking for tubes and he was alone for five minutes.
Roughly two minutes into the episode we are met with Lace Face, the football, which is considered by Raph as part of the family. Two minutes later and we witness him talking to the tire the same way he is talking to Lace Face. The empathy towards an object and giving it a name is on the list of ASD symptoms, telling us that Raph might also have it.
By seven minutes, Raph switches for Savage Raph and attacks two crab mutants. It takes some effort from his brother to make Raph come back fronting again and when he does, he doesn't have any recollection of what happened, which is another symptom of DID, as some memories can be accessed only to some alters and not others. (another way for the brain to protect the host)
More than one time throughout the series he talks about himself in the third person, saying Raph instead of I. This particularity can be explained through autism, of which it is a known symptom, but could also be explained through DID as a way to let the others know which alter is fronting at the moment, as witnessed in Man vs Sewers when Savage Raph is fronting.
[Enters my own reading of Raph and my HCs]
So now, for obvious reasons, a system is created through trauma, and from what little we know about the boys, we might think that they do not have trauma. But also from what we know, we can figure out how Raph can be traumatised while his brothers aren't.
One big point on that is the fact that he's the oldest and two years older than Mikey. Mikey who we can see crawling as a child, putting him at at least 7 months old, but mostly 10 to 12 considering his behaviour. It means that Raph is 3 years old, not quite an age that he will remember, but one with several important milestones such as having a slight sense of self, which got messed up due to the mutation. Having an understanding of yourself be changed so abruptly at such an age can be traumatising and make the brain try to find a solution to process that.
Another point is to consider Splinter's own depression and PTSD and most likely his lack of parenting knowledge. Living in a sewer with a rat whose mood can change really easily and who forgets about your existence or doesn't pay much attention to you while you're the eldest of three very young brothers, will add more difficulties to your already traumatised brain. Adding on top the presence of Savage Raph and the fact he fronts when he's alone and lost, it tells us that Raph got lost alone in the sewers for a long period of time, and probably not just once but several times in order for the split to happen.
[End of my own reading of Raph and my HCs]
Leo's ADHD
And here comes Leo.
At first, you might think that everything's fine in this young lad, but by going through the symptoms of ADHD for Mikey, you can only stop and notice that he does fit in a bunch of them.
From different points of the series, we see that he has difficulties falling asleep (and has insomnia (in Purple Jacket he's drinking coffee in the middle of the night)), his almost constant talking, his little sense of danger, his difficulty to convey his plans to others, his lack of object permanence (in Portal Jacked! when he notices his sword is gone only when Hueso tells him) and his impulsivity.
In previous iterations of the turtles, we see him only as a leader and only having a special interest in 2012. In Rise, having him display some ADHD symptoms in continuation to his family's neurodiversity is a nice touch that complete's the set.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we can see that the crew in charge of Rise did not only gave the fans what they were talking about for a while but also pushed further in order to write the characters properly and not give in to the stereotypes and clichés neurodivergent people face all the time.
We have here a diverse family who went through difficult times and who each are unique in their own way, something we never really had before. They're here for each other (and April, I just didn't know how to fit her in all that) and they accept that they all think differently and palliate to it in a healthy way (or at least as healthy as teens can be).
Addendum
My knowledge of some neurodivergences isn't that good, which means that any addition you might have for me is more than welcome (especially for Raph). Also, I'm planning to turn that into a video so I can input the mentioned parts of the series in it, so if there are parts you think are really important, don't hesitate to tell me about it.
You can find me on Tumblr under hrshlandturtles for any TMNT stuff.