Any reasons April didn't have physical Utrom traits?

[neatoman]

You know, tentacles, fangs, weird pupils, that sort of thing. Is there a reason she had none of them even though she was a human-utrom hybrid? And I'm talking in-universe reasons, not real world factors, she obviously had to pass for human early on in the series and I doubt marketing liked the idea of her sprouting tentacles later on. Still, is there a logical reason her only Utrom trait is the ESP?`

Alternative side-question, how would you have felt if she was the subject of the more typical Utrom twist? I.e. simply just an Utrom with the human appearance just being a facade in the form android body?

[Coola Yagami]

It would be like when Irma was revealed and the fanbase was insistent that some upcoming episode would reveal what happened to 'the real Irma' but multipled by twenty.

People would have liked that about as much as they liked the idea of her being a drawing, which is not at all.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

It would be like when Irma was revealed and the fanbase was insistent that some upcoming episode would reveal what happened to 'the real Irma' but multipled by twenty.

Well there was a "real" Irma of sorts... Who was another Utrom... You think that was meant to be a middle finger to anyone who went on about that?

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

It really would have been a more interesting twist if she'd increasingly developed alien traits as time went on. (You know, like those countless movies where some teenage girl finds out she's part mermaid and apparently a part of puberty means becoming one. lol)

That's a new one to me, the closest I can think of Shadow over Innsmouth.

[CyberCubed]

Because both her parents were humans? Why would she get any Utrom traits? Whatever experiments they did on her mother gave her those telepathic powers the Kraang had, and that was basically the extent of it. If April's parents were both humans how could she get Utrom tentacles?

Also unless I'm remembering wrong, this also all happened before April was born so her mother was pregnant at the time.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Because both her parents were humans? Why would she get any Utrom traits? Whatever experiments they did on her mother gave her those telepathic powers the Kraang had, and that was basically the extent of it. If April's parents were both humans how could she get Utrom tentacles?

Also unless I'm remembering wrong, this also all happened before April was born so her mother was pregnant at the time.

Analysis of April's DNA revealed she was a human-utrom hybrid, the speculation around this made it seem like she was no different from any other mutant in the series, most of who had clear, physically manifested hybrid traits.

[Zog The Magnificent]

I always assumed it was because she wasn't a true "hybrid," in the sense of having half of her DNA come from a human and the other half come from an Utrom. She had two human parents, and was for the most part a "normal" human. Her being "half utrom" would be more accurately stated as "has utrom DNA." The utroms experimented with her, and messed around with her DNA to give to essentially give her the psychic powers without any outward physical traits. Most of the Utrom characteristics would be internal, and because TMNT has always operated under the principle of lego genetics, such a thing is actually feasable in this universe, while it would not be in the real world.

And, let's be honest, the Doyalist reason is because it served as a vehicle to give her psychic powers, and messing with character's signature looks almost never goes over well. Since it would ultimately be cosmetic, and people wouldn't like the change, there's really no reason to do it.

And I imagine making her an actual Utrom would probably go over about as well as it did when 2003 Shredder was first revealed to be an Utrom, even if people are ultimately okay with that now.

[IndigoErth]

It really would have been a more interesting twist if she'd increasingly developed alien traits as time went on. (You know, like those countless movies where some teenage girl finds out she's part mermaid and apparently a part of puberty means becoming one. lol)

But lets be honest... the entertainment industry tends to be picky about how women are represented. The one that's not pretty or less pretty is usually only the annoying, often nerdy friend or side character. Even in other franchises, human-like aliens are more often than not still going to be pretty and often even more human-looking than their male counterparts. Same reason even anthro female chracters are given human traits. Slowly turning April more grotesque... well that's just gonna go too far past that mold, isn't it. lol But it would have been interesting to see.

April being an Utrom/Kraang the way that version of Irma was? I suppose they could have done it, but it would have fundamentally changed the entire arc.


Edit: And now I can't get the horrifying image out of my mind of the top of April's head splitting open and out comes that "Mohawk" of... whatever those antenna/tentacle things are that come out of the Kraang heads. Though that show did like its share of body horror, it might have suited it.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by neatoman

You know, tentacles, fangs, weird pupils, that sort of thing. Is there a reason she had none of them even though she was a human-utrom hybrid? And I'm talking in-universe reasons, not real world factors, she obviously had to pass for human early on in the series and I doubt marketing liked the idea of her sprouting tentacles later on. Still, is there a logical reason her only Utrom trait is the ESP?

The whole thing never really made much sense and they dropped it altogether once they were happy with just letting her be a psychic and decided they were done with the Kraang.

The most frustrating thing is that Kirby had to have known way more than he ever revealed, but the writers probably never put enough thought into what his dialogue on the subject would have been anyway.

To the best of my memory, April’s parents had her naturally. I guess her mom had enough residual Kraang DNA after the experiments that April got some too? Maybe she would have started changing later in life?

Alternative side-question, how would you have felt if she was the subject of the more typical Utrom twist? I.e. simply just an Utrom with the human appearance just being a facade in the form android body?

That would have sucked.

[Antoniocafe]

I remember the episode where she was obsessed with the pen. I was certain that she was going to turn out to be a drawing brought to life.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by Antoniocafe

I remember the episode where she was obsessed with the pen. I was certain that she was going to turn out to be a drawing brought to life.

And they named her dad Kirby ffs. Really seemed like they were going to streamline the Mirage stuff.