Is Donatello the worst Ninja Turtle?

- An exploration into Bo Staffs… and if a turtle could use one to beat his brother turtles.

“My kids watch it,” he clarified.

According to Michael Hodge the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles “is an awesome show about pizza-eating turtles that do martial arts to save the city from bad guys.”

While Hodge may not be an expert on the show, he is an expert on bo staffs. Hodge is a 3rd degree karate black belt as well as a bojutsu instructor and founder of a recognized bojutsu style called “Ultimate Bo”.

“Bo Staff is an anglicized word… repeating the same thing twice, like saying Staff Staff,” Hodge prefaced.

Hodge has been teaching as a bojutsu instructor for over 10 years, but it’s a slightly greener staff wielder that popularized the weapon when he first debuted in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic in 1984.

Distinguishable by his purple mask, the ninja turtle Donatello is maybe even more recognizable for his iconic bo. But considering that his brothers use swords, sais and nunchucks, can Donatello really keep up with a wooden stick?

“I would admit that Leonardo’s ninjatos are more powerful and would be the weapon of choice,” Hodge conceded. “But I would take a bo over a pair of sais or nunchakus.”

Further humoring the question, Hodge, who has experience in both weapons, explained why he believes the bo would be more effective than nunchakus.

“If equally matched practitioners are fighting — staff versus nunchakus — the bo practitioners has a major advantage. The reach and blunt force impact that is generated with the size of the weapon is formidable.”

Understandably, Hodge has a predisposition towards the bo but Raab Rashi, a sword instructor at Sword Class NYC, also affirms his conclusions.

“It’s hard to not kill someone if you’re using a sword,” Rashi explained.

Despite being a student of the sword since 2002, Rashi also has some staff training. And while he doesn’t practice the same type of staff as Donatello, it’s clear that his own staff training has given him some appreciation of the turtle’s craft.

When asked if he thought Donatello wouldn’t be able to keep up with his turtle brothers, Rashi said,“ I disagree. I think any weapon master is just as effective as any other.”

“If we’re talking about realism in the turtles Michelangelo and Leonardo both … don’t represent the realistic approach… you would never use two swords of the same lengths or two sets of nunchakus.”

So no. Donatello isn’t the worst. It’s probably Michelangelo.