Why do people act like Turtles having a crush on April has never been done before?
 

In the first two movies, Michaelangelo had a huge crush on April. In the second movie when Don is calling from their new lair, Michaelangelo grabs the phone away from him and blows kisses to April through the phone. This is during the, "Gimmie the phone" grabbing sequence when they're moving to their new lair.

In the first movie when they're watching April on TV in the news, they refer to her as a, "babe."

Its only in the cartoons and I believe the comics that the Turtles never had a crush on April, but it was quite blatant in the first two live-action movies. So the Nick show doing this with Donatello is nothing new.

You could also argue that Donatello was crushing on April in 2k3, but that was never really emphasized all that much.

I don't quite understand why many are acting this way myself. But my guess is most people just don't like the idea of the two together in a romantic relationship. Or maybe it's because the company came out and blatantly stated that Don was going to have a crush on her. I am not sure.:ohwell:

I personally don't have a problem with Don having feelings for April, so as long as they don't get over the top mushy with it.:tcool:

Probably because they outright stated a relationship (or at least, a one-sided interest on Don's part) was going to happen.

I hope it doesn't get mushy either, though I highly doubt that will happen. The focus of TMNT isn't romance, after all...

Selective memory...

Actually they said a relationship would never happen, they're just playing Don's crush on her for comic relief.

Heck...there's a whole scene of the 1st movie dedicated to the Turtles ribbing Raph for blushing when April mentions him on air...

And, of course, in the original cut, it was gonna be a little bit more intense than that!

Still... April has never been a contemporary of the TMNT age-wise until this Nick project. I think the teen-mance angle may be what's making most folks nervous.

So in everything but two movies then. It may not be a new idea but it's most certainly a horrible one.

April: You're impossibly fast. And strong. Your skin is... dark green, and scaly. Your eyes change color... and sometimes you speak like - like you're from a different world. You don't go into the sunlight. I know what you are.
Donatello: Say it... out loud. Say it.
April: Mutant Turtle.
Donatello: Are you afraid?
April: [turns to face him] ... no.

What?

you had to take it there huh jester.

When Adam mentioned "Teen-mance" it was the first thing that came to mind.

Thank you IMDB for the quote that I modified.

Thank God. If it's comic relief or only shown through subtext, I'll be content.

I think it's the fact that Don and April will be the same age that has everyone on edge. But if it's a subtle type of crush like he had in 2K3, I won't mind it.

Bad Jester, bad!

I thought they also crushed on her in the OT, at least in early episodes they'd fight and get jealous if April specifically mentioned one of the turtles when she was reporting right? Plus the movies and Don/April in 2k3, hell even the arcade game had some turtles/april moments. I mean it was never a huge part of the plot or anything of the like but it was there.

I think it's just because there's 4 guys and 1 girl in the group. They might not be in love, but don't tell me you don't try to impress a girl(or used to if you're older) when you're with friends. I know they're turtles, but they act like real teenage guys.

Yea I remember in the game when you save april. She walks up gives your turtle a kiss and they blush and a heart pops up above there head.

I can't remember the episode of the OT but in one when she is reporting the guys start arguing over who she winked at, then she says, "If you must know I was winking at Splinter." So the Turtles crushing on her isn't anything new.

Heck in the episode where April shows up in 2k3 Don says "Leave me and April alone Mikey we're trying to work." To which he replies sarcasticly, "So it's me and Apri now is it?"

I agree with what a guy said about it in an interview I read; the main reason is probably that most people were still kids when it last happened. When you think about it, most fans of these shows are going to be at the age where they think all romance is gross, but they aren't sexually mature enough to find interspecies romance uniquely objectionable. Also because of the young age demographic, there's going to be a limit to how far they will go. It's not like they can show Donatello having sex with April.

Then again...

I wouldnt mind April falling for one of the Turtles if it were written right. Remember Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run? When he made Swampie's relationship with his love interest public? Something like that would make for engaging comics.

I confess I've never read Swamp Thing. Still, it's worth noting that a world containing mutants who are arguably more human than animal would probably have somewhat different ideas of what is or isn't beastial. This world thinks it's gross because no other animal looks or thinks that much like humans. If they did, though, I could definitely see how they could fall in love, despite being different species.

However, I think they should steer away from any extensive plots about how an engaged interspecies couple has to deal with the standards of a society that frowns upon such things. It could make a great SciFi story, but it seems like it would detract from the action, adventure, comedy, and other virutes TMNT is valued for, and it's probably too deep for kids.

Yeah, a storyline like that would probably be handled better in the comics.

I take it you never watched Gargoyles...

I don't think it's a good idea. Myself I'm not into the whole beastiality bit finding it's way into the TMNT storyline. As "harmless" as they might try to make it in my opinion it has no place.

Gargoyles is a good example of how it could be done well, but I'm not sure this show will want the kind of storytelling that Gargoyles had. That show was pretty much a primetime drama in animated form.

I think this show is probably skewing a bit younger than Gargoyles did, and Gargoyles also has the benefit of being it's own entity. TMNT is the sort of franchise that will always judged by how well it fills the shoes of past incarnations. With the large amount of different past incarnations, it certainly has a number of options, but it always has to live up to at least one of them, and many would like it to live up to more.

TMNT and April should never go beyond friendship. Anything beyond that would just be horrifying.

You knew someone would. I was thinking "Twilight" myself.

I don't see anything wrong with the Turtles having a crush on April. Odds are the writers aren't going to take it too far, and since the Turtles display so many emotions, I can buy that they would have feelings for April if she was around them all the time, even if it was implausible due to species differences. I think everyone can remember back when they were a teenager, and had a crush on someone that you never had a chance with. Well this would be a really strange version of that. :)

Fifty bucks says you'd like it if it were handled correctly. The fear of the unknown is a lot worse.

I think you'll see it happen one day, in the comics or on tv because It's one of the only dramatic touchstones left to tell with the characters, I don't think they can be billed as "teenagers" and NOT go through something a lot of teenagers reasonably go through. April also needs more dimension, hooking up with Casey is nice, but it seems too obvious, we don't know what it'd be like with a Turtle, hell the people who say it's horrific or disgusting usually make for good antagonists in fiction.

Marrisa Faireborn spent a whole TF series kissing Optimus Prime, Jessica Rabbit fell for Roger, nothing in fiction says "this cannot happen". All things, good, bad, and ugly, eventually find a way to manifest themselves.

I used to be in the same boat as everyone else "Eww, it's disgusting, eww it's just stupid", but the more I think about it, the more I dabble in the many forms of a love story (which don't have to neccersarily be about sex), the more sense it makes for characters to experiment.

Also, speaking of bad and ugly things manifesting, I'd much rather a turtle fall for April than some crappy fancharacter like Venus. (Because let's face it; that's effectively what she is.). April has been the fanservice character since the 1987 series, and in the 2003 series she and Donatello definitely hit it off.

I also have no problem pairing Mikey with Kala, Raphael with Mona Lisa, and Leo with Karai, and so far Donatello has never really had a romantic interest. I'm not bothered by the possible subversion of her getting with Casey either; differences are what make new adaptations worth watching. I liked seeing Kid Flash get with Jinx in the Teen Titans cartoon or Superboy get with Ms. Martian in the Young Justice cartoon. They're flawed shows and rather inacurate to the comics, but I like them a lot better than the dreary route the comics have taken recently.

But here's an important thing to ask yourself: Would you be saying the same thing if it was Casey Jones crushing on April? Were you annoyed that it was reciprocal in the 2003 show, and they eventually married? If you answer no to any of these questions, then the only logical reason is that Donatello isn't human.

Contrary to what you say, their young age is not a factor in making it taboo, because they're both minors and minors do fall in love in real life. True; it often doesn't last in that form, but that doesn't mean it's one-sided while it does. Opposition to the idea of a human/mutant relationship strikes me as very akin to homophobia. No offense to people who express such opposition, but many times this expression is in the form of "Ew; gross." You can think an atypical romance is gross all you want, but that doesn't make it any less real.

So while I don't want Nick to make such a romance a huge part of their show, having it be there at all could teach young viewers to be tolerant of people who lead lives with aspects they might find distasteful. I've heard that one of the turtle's actors from the Old Toon is gay. I bet, however; that kids who saw him as one of their heroes wouldn't stop seeing him as such upon learning that, even if they had homophobic prejudice; instead they would likely rethink their prejudice. Yet his homosexuality was never really publicized. Here they could go further.

I didn't know that Casey and April married in the 2k3 series. I've never seen it. Like I've said on other parts of the board, the series seemed to sneak under the radar for me. That aside, April and Casey hooking up is no biggie at all to me, since that's how it was for the comics. I also thought that it was obvious that that's probably another factor why people wouldn't want Donny to crush on April or have it open and set in stone that he will...because he isn't human. I don't see how you can really compare a homosexual relationship to a cross-species one. There's nothing wrong with homosexuality...going with another species, is a bit odd to me. I don't mind the crush thing, but for it to go beyond that is iffy to me....but yes, I am a bit of a hypocrite as I loved Raphael x Ninjara in the Archie comics.

Oh, as for the minor thing, I only said it'd be easier for them to have the opportunity to fall for her because she'd be on their level as opposed to a sisterly figure or a motherly one, like in previous versions and mediums where she was an adult doing her own thing and living out her adult life. As their peer, she'd probably hang around with them more. You can do that without romance, you know. You can teach that we should be tolerant and respectful of all people in a general sense, not just for romance reasons. People would have to learn that about the Turtles way before romance stuff. That aside, I would hate for the show to have a lot of romance in it, unless it dealt with minor characters. Romance, in an action-based series, seems to drag the series down when involving main characters unless it's a main character with a minor character. Cam Clarke is the gay one who voiced Leonardo and I personally loved his voicing of Leonardo (especially early Leonardo where he sounded really heroic). I kinda disagree with all you said up there, though. Maybe back then where it was rare to see or hear about gay people in a general sense, yeah, but not now. People are more open to it now and also have more exposure to it and knowledge of it. As for myself, I wouldn't have cared one way or the other. I didn't find out about Cam until I was an adult.

I don't see what the big deal is. It's not like there going to explore a sexual relationship between the two.

Well, darn. :P

April's hot, the tmnt are similar to humans, and turtles have sexual needs. Why is it a surprise they would want to bone April? What else should they be attracted to, non mutant female turtles?

This just reaffirms my earlier arguements: You can't just apply our world's logic to that of the TMNT. It doesn't work because the line between humans and non-human animals is just too thick in our world, hence we call interspecies romance beastiality, but things aren't that cut-and-dried in a world where it seems all chemically-induced motivation produces creatures who are in essence, close to human. Certainly, the mutant turtles have much more in common with athletic humans than normal, slow-moving turtles.

Exactly, especially since they are really emphasizing the teenage aspect of the series, with the turtles and April being like 13 or 14. If she did have a relationship with one of the turtles I don't think we'd see anything past the occasional holding hands and phone call. I wouldn't mind seeing a Leo and Karai have kind of a Spidey-Black Cat thing dialed down a bit to a 13-14 year old level say in season 3 or so after she has been introduced into the mythos. I don't want any bestial stuff or anything. But I think it can be handled well just as it was in Gargoyles and even as its tackled with Brian dated women in Family Guy.