[ssjup81]

Originally Posted by Konchadunga

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.