Donita Donata

Wild Kratts has always been famous for its villains. While the brothers' other shows have had animals that seem scary, or predators that threaten to eat the focus animal, we have never had truly evil people until the show came out in 2011.

Gourmand is willing to cook endangered species, Donita likes to make clothes and accessories with live animals, and Zach will use species as components in his inventions and schemes.

The villains, in contrast to the protagonists, are not just proud and greedy, but immature and petty.

In Gourmand's debut episode, it was established he doesn't believe he was at fault for cooking endangered animals despite it being illegal, with not even having his chef's license revoked causing him to reflect on his actions and consider the possibility he did something wrong.

Donita was willing to chase Monarch Butterflies across the country, and she threw a fit about them dying because she specifically wanted living butterflies to turn in jewelry.

Zach of course, has always been the most outwardly childish, with him throwing a tantrum over not being allowed to clean his building, to even threatening to throw an actual child's trophy into the lake, with him then challenging said child to a fishing contest, and then cheating, just so he could win.

In short, my point is that the villains have always been immature and childish, but while they had their childish moments, what made them dangerous is the lengths they would go to for their petty grievances.

The villains have no qualms about hurting others to get what they want. Gourmand has left the brothers to stung by a swarm of bees, Donita is willing to take feathers and silk from birds and spiders, and Zach has tried to drown the brothers, as well as half a herd of walruses, just for a pearl.

While I understand the show was originally for a slightly older audience than PBS' usual demographic, and that as the show became popular, they would want to water things down. 6-year old me got intimidated by some of the things the villains did back in 2011, so I can understand why the brothers and/or the network would want the villains to be a little less intense.

Still, it feels like the villains are barely threatening anymore.

Gourmand has only appeared twice in Season 7 and neither appearance was he that much of a threat. Donita's only prominent role was in the Camel episode, and while she did leave the brothers and Aviva stranded, she didn't feel too intimidating.

Zach and Paisley both had more intimidating moments and felt like threats, but Paisley got redeemed, and Zach...

Zach's schemes in this season have felt very hit-or-miss.

Forcing a chimpanzee to be his personal servant felt like a solid plan for Zach, but turning a bunch of bumblebees into a drone, which feels like a more convoluted idea from the writers rather than Zach himself. And Zach seemed more pissy than usual about shapes during the latest episode on Armadillos.

Worse, I feel like the villains' presence actually took away time from focusing on the animals.

What are all of your thoughts?

In your opinion, which episode or special showed the villains being almost close to victory in their schemes? And if you want to make an alternate ending of them succeeding, what would you do?

I really love these villains, and I can’t wait to see your opinions & ideas.

In one of the past threads I made, I’ve noted that there were some people who expressed interest in seeing Donita Donata and Gourmand team up for catching an animal. I believe the thread in question was the one where I expressed interest in seeing a Wild Kratts episode about saltwater crocodiles.

I never mentioned this before, but I too am interested in seeing Gourmand and Donita team up for something. After all, both Gourmand & Donita teamed up with Zach Varmitech, and all three villains teamed up for something, but I’m surprised we never got a team up venture between Donita & Gourmand. Of course, it was a little difficult to figure out what animal would be perfect for the occasion, and I didn’t think saltwater crocodiles were the right choice.

But, then it hit me.

What if Donita and Gourmand teamed up specifically to capture a species of Mantis Shrimp? And what species would be the perfect choice for it?

In retrospect, I don’t think there was an episode featuring Donita trying to capture a species of snake for a new fashion scheme, and I wouldn’t mind there being one depicting exactly that in the future.

The only question is…what species of snake would Donita want to use? And what would be the perfect fashion choice for one?

While their snow mobiles got stuck in ice glaciers, Martin discover a shed skin made by a Ribbon seal and wondering if other animals can shed their skin and grow into a new one. But Donita Wants to use the seal's fur as a new line of fur coated seals.

In one of my latest polls, I asked what villain people would like to see Aviva alone get captured by in a future episode, just like how Martin & Chris alone would occasionally be captured. More votes were cast for Zach Varmitech to be the villain because of the rivalry between him and Aviva, but I figured I’d go ahead and reveal what villain I’m personally interested in seeing Aviva held captive by & why:

Personally, even though it already happened in Birds of a Feather, I’ve been more interested in seeing Aviva get captured by Donita Donata again. I can’t exactly explain it, but whenever Aviva & Donita interacted and shared scenes, I’d find myself deeply enjoying the chemistry that’d ensue between them. Heck, even their most brief interactions were fun to watch.

At one point, I even came up with this idea where, after Aviva stumbles onto another one of Donita’s fashion-based schemes, Donita herself uses a new weapon that shoots pink ribbon at Aviva and ties her up! It first shoots ribbon at Aviva and gets tied around her ankles, then later shoots a larger strand that ties itself all around Aviva’s upper body, with only the tips of her fingers poking out at the bottom.

What do you guys think?