Did the show go out of it's way to ignore Casey and April's families?

[neatoman]

You'd that, being teenagers in this version, Casey And April's families would play a larger part. And yet they didn't.

April's father is made absent for the vast majority of the series, through rather contrived methods to be honest. Eventually they just ignored him, didn't even bother explaining why he showed up so rarely. Her aunt, Casey's father and sister are all mentioned but never show up. And the less we say about the tease of April's mom and Auman's statement, the better.

So, what's the deal?

[IndigoErth]

Don't know that I'd agree they went out of their way, per se, but I have always found it strange that they never touched on Casey's family other than him once mentioning his father and sister.

Also always been disappointed that nothing more came of the whereabouts of April's mom. I still think it would have been cool for the Turtles to cross paths with her during the space arc and bring her home.

And that April's aunt never actually made an appearance, esp given that she was April's guardian until her dad was rescued for gods sake. Dad (either aunt's brother or brother-in-law) is kidnapped and missing, April was nearly kidnapped and spends a lot of time "missing" with the Turtles...INCLUDING when Splinter insisted she stay at the lair with them, even missing school for a time. No report of April missing? No trying to call her phone? Yeah, that's a real concerned aunt she has there. What the hell.

[CyberCubed]

They probably just didn't want to make the CG models for them. April's real mother is also confirmed dead by Ciro.

[IndigoErth]

Is it weird that all the moms in this are dead or can be presumed to be... Missed opportunity between the Turtles, April, and Casey alike in shared empathy in the no mom dept. Also missed opportunity between Splinter, April's dad, and Casey's dad being able to know each other better, or at all, and the bond of single fatherhood, esp of teens.

[Utrommaniac]

I'm...not going to go on another "too many dead/absent moms" tirade for now...and instead say...

Yes. Yes, "single dad hangouts" would have been a nice thing to have if we're really going to fridge all the mothers.

[CyberCubed]

Also keep in mind middle age parents aren't exactly exciting to the target audience, 6-12 year old kids who watched the show. April's father was probably far more entertaining to kids as a mutant bat or whatever than some bald middle age man, that's probably why the writers kept mutating him over and over.

[newfan]

I wonder if April's father was mutated a lot to get him out of the way too, she'd have had less freedom with watching over her?
Hmmmm Casey's dad must have sucked, he'd be out throughout the night a lot of the time.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

They probably just didn't want to make the CG models for them. April's real mother is also confirmed dead by Ciro.

1. Is it too hard to modify random bystander characters or have a voice on a phone?
2. I thought it was Auman. Regardless, they still teased that she was still around in the actual show. I'm pretty much convinced he only said that because they forgot to give it any real conclusion.

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Also keep in mind middle age parents aren't exactly exciting to the target audience, 6-12 year old kids who watched the show. April's father was probably far more entertaining to kids as a mutant bat or whatever than some bald middle age man, that's probably why the writers kept mutating him over and over.

Then why not just keep him as a mutant bat?

[newfan]

I don't know about forgetting to conclude April's mom's story rather than just choosing not to actually confirm it, I always assumed she'd died in the experiments even though they finished taking about the possibility if her being out there. I suppose there was no real conclusion for April in this case, even though she could pretty much guess her mom is likely dead.

Yeah they could have drawn in back ground characters or give family members a once off appearance but maybe they just didn't see the need to include them in the eps. I thought they could have been taking his sister trick or treating in the monster arc but then she would have gotten caught up in all the monster stuff with them and seen the turtles.

22 minutes to squeeze the stories in, pay the VA's etc, maybe they just didn't care to put them in rather than it be a deliberate thing where they especially didn't want them? I don't know.

I was watching Scooby Doo mystery inc with my children the other day, their parents were in this show but it made me realise, they never have parents in the shows/movies, I mean we know they would as they are teens but there was no need to show them I suppose.

[victory_angel]

Casey’s mom was confirmed to be devorced not dead by Auman. Tang Shen we know she’s dead because she died on screen. April’s mom is indeed disappointing because it felt like there should have been some closure there. Instead of April speculating or coming to the conclusion of her Mother likely being gone and Leo then saying “Never give up hope, trust me on that.” As a way of implying she could still be out there.

I don’t think April’s mom needed to be in the Space Arc. Instead they could have made her a mutant who couldn’t bare her daughter seeing the hidious creature she had made into.

Pat Musick the original voice of Monalisa is Mae Witman’s mother. So if the original voice of April could have been brought back for one episode to be Mom Thing, couldn’t Pat have come back to be April’s missing mom.

As for April’s aunt. April just says her Aunt said she can stay there as long as she wants. But she never spacificly said she was living with her aunt at all. As far as we know April was still living in the Brownstone Apartment she lives in with her father, and her Aunt was sending her money every month to help cover rent and expenses. And April just has check in calls once a week to let her aunt know that she is alright.

When I was around April’s age there were times my Mother would be taking classes at Pacifica Graduate Institute for a weekends, and then once a sememester she would be gone a whole week. She at first was reluctant to let me stay by myself. Not because she feared I would invite boys or friends over and have wild parties while she was gone. It was actually because she was worried I would binge watch Anime and she would have to try and get back to reality. So she would have people from the church we went to let me stay with them. But I managed to convince her I would be okay on my own.

So when April is living with the Turtles, it only would have taken Donnie a few minutes to hack into Kirby’s email and send word to the school that she would be joining her father on a trip to lets say “Ireland” for the rest of the school year. While April could just call her aunt and say she’s staying with friends.

For April’s dad, they sort of forget about him after he is returned to human. And April is essentially living with the Turtles once she becomes a Kunoichi. Legally she would be an adult so if April wanted to live in the Sewers with the Turtles that was her choice. But there could have been so much potential with Kirby becoming an antagonistic character who only wants to protect his daughter. And feels that her involvment with the Turtles puts her in danger since weird things show up or happen whenever they are around.

Kinda like how Bern Thompson would hate on the Turtles and say they are a menace. Simply because such and such expensive equipment was barrowed by the Turtles, stolen by the antagonist, or unintentionally lost or damaged because of the Turtles in their attempts to save the city. When at the crux of it, it’s because the Turtles unintentionally caused his girlfriend Tiffany to break up with him in the first season. Never mind that we see Bern and Tiffy do still have a relationship in following seasons.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by neatoman

[LIST=1]
[*]I thought it was Auman. Regardless, they still teased that she was still around in the actual show. I'm pretty much convinced he only said that because they forgot to give it any real conclusion.

No, they said she died when they cloned her. In the show they never even say she's still alive, April's last line in the ep was, "Maybe she's still out there...somewhere" and left it at that. It's just fans who came up with fanfiction theories.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

No, they said she died when they cloned her. In the show they never even say she's still alive, April's last line in the ep was, "Maybe she's still out there...somewhere" and left it at that. It's just fans who came up with fanfiction theories.

And it's re-enforced by the characters around her saying "You can't give up, you'll find her someday", which is still a tease. If they never had any intention to bring it up again, they wouldn't have written those lines in the first place.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by neatoman

And it's re-enforced by the characters around her saying "You can't give up, you'll find her someday", which is still a tease. If they never had any intention to bring it up again, they wouldn't have written those lines in the first place.

It's to give hope. They weren't going to say, "Your mother is dead, April, and this one was a mutant monster, too bad."

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

It's to give hope. They weren't going to say, "Your mother is dead, April, and this one was a mutant monster, too bad."

Wouldn't that be false hope?

Anyway, you don't even have to say she's dead, you could just leave it at clarifying the monster wasn't the real deal.

[CyberCubed]

The only thing the writers really seemed to change their minds on was demutating Mutagen Man. In the first two seasons they did seem like the plan was to change him back to normal.

Then at one of the season finale's Don says, "Maybe the world will be a better place in the future," to Timmy. I wonder if the writers already knew at the time they would make a post-apoctalypse future ala Mad Maxx and have Mutagen Man dead on the bottom of a ditch in the fighting arena. I guess they figured it was better to leave him as a tragic character, and Timmy wasn't popular anyway. Not everyone gets happy endings in kids cartoons.

[victory_angel]

We also hear from Alopex that Tigerclaw killed their parents. We do have one moment where he tries to explain his reasons for it, but she is too angry to hear it. And it ends sort of hinting that Alopex might possibly return, but it never happens.

[Dejablue]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

Don't know that I'd agree they went out of their way, per se, but I have always found it strange that they never touched on Casey's family other than him once mentioning his father and sister.

Also always been disappointed that nothing more came of the whereabouts of April's mom. I still think it would have been cool for the Turtles to cross paths with her during the space arc and bring her home.

And that April's aunt never actually made an appearance, esp given that she was April's guardian until her dad was rescued for gods sake. Dad (either aunt's brother or brother-in-law) is kidnapped and missing, April was nearly kidnapped and spends a lot of time "missing" with the Turtles...INCLUDING when Splinter insisted she stay at the lair with them, even missing school for a time. No report of April missing? No trying to call her phone? Yeah, that's a real concerned aunt she has there. What the hell.

This is why I don't like April as a minor. Adult April for the win. Too many narrative 'wtfs' and hand waves to make it so that she can spend time with the turtles. You can make the excuse that Casey is a delinquent child that his (foster) parents don't give a crap about. He can be gone for days at a time. But this doesn't work with happy, well adjusted, A student April O'Neil. People would miss her.

[newfan]

Originally Posted by Dejablue

This is why I don't like April as a minor. Adult April for the win. Too many narrative 'wtfs' and hand waves to make it so that she can spend time with the turtles. You can make the excuse that Casey is a delinquent child that his (foster) parents don't give a crap about. He can be gone for days at a time. But this doesn't work with happy, well adjusted, A student April O'Neil. People would miss her.

Casey lives with his dad and sister... I believe.

[plastroncafe]

It is often interesting that for a show with a Family theme it certainly does seem to want to avoid exploring April or Casey's family.

[Utrommaniac]

Oh man, my thoughts exactly. Pretty much the only family TMNT focuses on is between the turtles and Splinter. And that's with a broad stroke.


I think that could have been improved a lot across all boards. I'm not going to go on another tirade about having more mothers and sisters in IDW. I feel like the villains having families to some capacity will give some rounding to their characters (Shredder only seemed to have biological family in Mirage and OT). Among other things, I like to think that 2003 Shredder could have been vastly improved in terms of character depth if he loved Karai as much as Splinter loved the turtles. It would fit into Karai's reluctance to betray him and maybe provide a lesson for Leo in his constant badgering for her to do so.