What is it about April?

[aliena]

I just do not care for her. I may be the only one, but after seeing Renet I'm now convinced I just don't like April. When I first saw Karai I loved her. I loved everything about her. I get emotional over everything she's going through. Now that I've seen Renet, I love her too. But I never felt that way with April and I'm not entirely sure what it is about her.

I really can't single out one particular thing, I think it's the whole package. She's arrogant, snooty, b*tchy and rude. I loathe the way she treats Donnie. She is horrible to him, even being nasty to him when he doesn't save her good enough. I even recall instinctively rooting for Karai to kick her rear when she was after her in the past.

I know she has a lot of reasons to be snooty or rude, especially after everything her father has been through, but that's just not enough to even her out. It could possibly be that I know April only as an adult and now the teen version is too jarring.

I don't mind that she's training, but I don't like her alien abilities. Sadly, the only version of her I do like is in artwork created by fans of the show. There she seems more relaxed and kind, even loving.

I may be speaking too soon, she could come through in tomorrow's episode.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Originally Posted by aliena

I just do not care for her. I may be the only one, but after seeing Renet I'm now convinced I just don't like April. When I first saw Karai I loved her. I loved everything about her. I get emotional over everything she's going through. Now that I've seen Renet, I love her too. But I never felt that way with April and I'm not entirely sure what it is about her.

I really can't single out one particular thing, I think it's the whole package. She's arrogant, snooty, b*tchy and rude. I loathe the way she treats Donnie. She is horrible to him, even being nasty to him when he doesn't save her good enough. I even recall instinctively rooting for Karai to kick her rear when she was after her in the past.

I know she has a lot of reasons to be snooty or rude, especially after everything her father has been through, but that's just not enough to even her out. It could possibly be that I know April only as an adult and now the teen version is too jarring.

I don't mind that she's training, but I don't like her alien abilities. Sadly, the only version of her I do like is in artwork created by fans of the show. There she seems more relaxed and kind, even loving.

I may be speaking too soon, she could come through in tomorrow's episode.

I feel the same way on Nick April. Ugh.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Let me ask this, what do you think of April as a teenager? And do you like the concept?

[IndigoErth]

She's okay, but I'm mostly "meh" on her at this point. She's too major of a character imo; less of a friend and sidekick and more the human equivalent of a Venus butting in on the bros and making it one too many characters trying to be in the spotlight. I mean when she's had more development than some of the Turtles... yeah.

And, as you suggested, her personality leaves a fair amount to be desired. Not that it's wrong for her to be portrayed with the personality she has, female characters should not all be made out to be sweet, caring little things, so it's great that their scarce number of female characters have different personalities, but it's only natural to find her sort of personalty a little hard to like at times; as with any real life girl with a similar attitude.

[ssjup81]

I'm pretty neutral about April...but I'm like that with all of the characters outside of the turtles themselves. I neither like nor dislike her, but I don't hate her. I just don't favor her. It's super difficult for me to outright dislike a character and my list of disliked characters is relatively short.

[BabyTurtles]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

And, as you suggested, her personality leaves a fair amount to be desired. Not that it's wrong for her to be portrayed with the personality she has, female characters should not all be made out to be sweet, caring little things, so it's great that their scarce number of female characters have different personalities, but it's only natural to find her sort of personalty a little hard to like at times; as with any real life girl with a similar attitude.

I'm not sure if her if that's the problem...

I mean I can stand girls with sass and even girls that are bratty I usually love those girls....but April is just...inconsistent...she's not too mean...but not too nice...but not too girly....but not too tomboyish....but not too loud....but not too quiet......

she's just kinda blahhhh.....if she was meant to be bratty then she should own it.

Ally owns it (girl in purple) She's always being sarcastic and sassy, but that makes her likable XD


or she could be motherly and slightly bossy like Katara.

[Metalwolf]

Originally Posted by aliena

I don't mind that she's training, but I don't like her alien abilities. Sadly, the only version of her I do like is in artwork created by fans of the show. There she seems more relaxed and kind, even loving.

I may be speaking too soon, she could come through in tomorrow's episode.

I think the alien abilities are the main thing that make me not like her. She's not 'ordinary,' the abilities she has make her almost like a Sue with how they are described, with her 'barely tapping into her powers bla bla bla' sort of thing.

I hope they have an episode one day that removes her abilities, she is far too super-human to be around the Turtles, it hard to even like her because of it.

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by BabyTurtles

I'm not sure if her if that's the problem...

I mean I can stand girls with sass and even girls that are bratty I usually love those girls....but April is just...inconsistent...she's not too mean...but not too nice...but not too girly....but not too tomboyish....but not too loud....but not too quiet......

she's just kinda blahhhh.....if she was meant to be bratty then she should own it.

True, maybe she's just emotionally unstable. Perhaps the Kraang genes are messing with her brain. lol

If they're going to give her so much development and make her part alien with the powers (definitely agree about the Sue thing), maybe it would be more interesting if it starts going wrong and the alien DNA is affecting her mind, progressively worsening. Nick likes to throw in new twists sometimes... save Karai and make April an enemy for a while. (And Donnie would finally understand Leo's grief.)

[BabyTurtles]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

True, maybe she's just emotionally unstable. Perhaps the Kraang genes are messing with her brain. lol

If they're going to give her so much development and make her part alien with the powers (definitely agree about the Sue thing), maybe it would be more interesting if it starts going wrong and the alien DNA is affecting her mind, progressively worsening. Nick likes to throw in new twists sometimes... save Karai and make April an enemy for a while. (And Donnie would finally understand Leo's grief.)

or-or! April and Kirby decide to take a long vacation to Hawaii and a new girl comes in! maybe Renet can take her place....Maybe anyone else!!
....no too drastic?

[drgon78]

I find her to be the best incarnation of April so far, also love the alien abilities. Just wish they made her ether half-Neutrino or this show's version of a Neutrino.

[neatoman]

I'm not quite as bothered by her personality or reduced age, I'm more bothered by her powers. It's true that she can be unlikable and that making her a teenager is weird considering how she's always been an adult before but both are understandable, her background has some tragedy and her age was revised to make her friendship with the Turtles seem less weird. So I get those, the powers on the other hand are a really strange change.

So despite having been revealed early on in season 1, they really haven't been used a lot which is weird. If it didn't at least serve one point, hinting that the Kraang were after her because whe was their experiment, it would have come across like they did it just because they think it's cool. Granted they do show her powers growing and what not, they just don't seem that important.

Now I've seen some people here saying "oh yeah they're totally hinting that she will be a reporter one day", I don't see it, I'm not seeing her getting a normal job at all. With these powers and all other crazy crap in her life, I'm seeing her going down a darker path, maybe she becomes a supervillain or something.

Originally Posted by drgon78

I find her to be the best incarnation of April so far, also love the alien abilities. Just wish they made her ether half-Neutrino or this show's version of a Neutrino.

I don't like the alien stuff, as I just described it's been presented in a kind of pointless way and the only compelling direction for the powers as I see it is a rather dark direction.

As for the Neutrino thing, why do you want that? I've pretty much only heard negative opinions about their original depiction and the heavily revised version of them IDW uses are really just there so they wouldn't have to depict the Federation or Triceratons as good guys.

[ssjup81]

Nothing wrong with the 80s Neutrinos, other than their coming across as beatniks and using 50s slang, but it was the 80s...seems 1950s throwbacks in general were common. Look at Muppet Babies. lol I guess it was because of the ages of those working on these series at the time finding 1950s stuff nostalgic. I guess it's similar to how the Nick show make references to 70s/80s stuff.

[JTH]

She's a true New Yorker, every trait you said about her feels real about living in downtown Manhattan. It's true NY moxy.

If she wasn't any of that stuff, I would dare say she'd be out of character. That's always been the one problem I've always had with April is that she doesn't feel she is part of that NY life-style. Just a random person thrown in to this environment.

For this new age, of a teen living in NYC, this is what this generation would 99% come off as.

It feels in-character and real. I love it.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

I forgot to ask this in my previous post but for those of you who prefer 87 April, what do you think she has over this one? I'm only asking this because the argument against 87 version is that she's just a damsel in distress.

[Luckyday]

Most negative feelings that I have towards her is her friendship/relationship with Donnie. Just something about it feels really unhealthy to me. However that is entirely on the writers, but it's weird that other female characters come across fine to awesome.

I think there is more to April underneath but maybe that just my overactive imagination. Honestly, in the show she is more then less a generic sassy action girl that says one liners which is fine if she's a small recurring side character, but she is not and that's the problem. She is almost dead center of alien conspiracy for nearly two seasons, but she is so underdeveloped, and so "just there in the background say one liners." that it makes me not care what happens to her.

Everything with Karai are the things missing in April. Goal, desires, outlook on the world and maybe some ****ing thoughts/feelings about certain people. Maybe it's because April was written to be subtle but then are times when she out spoken. I just don't get her and none of the writers are able to get a solid grasp of her character either.

[Bombshell]

The one thing that irks me more about April than anything else is the fact that she's downright cruel to Donnie. I can understand her awkwardness towards the situation but she leads the poor guy on just to crush his encouragement, and then turns around and leads him on again. If she had any sort of decency she'd sit him down for a talk. If she actually felt icky and awkward with the situation, she wouldn't lead him on. The whole jewelry box thing was cruel. She was obviously uncomfortable with the whole thing and when Donnie tries to talk to her about it and how he understands now, she turns around and gives him a kiss.

Come to think of it, I'm not a great big fan of Kirby either. He cowers on a couch during the invasion and freaks out about "his poor April" instead of acting like any adult and doing something about the situation. That whole family tree rubs me the wrong way.

Her powers make me like her a lot less. It seems too much for a character so underdeveloped as her. She found the turtles, has epic adventures with them, contains alien dna and is training...does she really need untapped super natural powers too?

Wow, I'm a whole bucket of negativity in this post.

[aliena]

All of you have really good points. I think it is because she doesn't have a goal or something to strive for. She's just there. I always think she's hiding what she's really thinking and feeling. Could be that she'd make a great villain at some point.

Oh and whoever said she could be replaced by Renet, yes please! I'd love that. Maybe Renet can accidentally send her off to another time in the future and take her place for half a season or so...

Y'know, eventually, once we meet Mona Lisa, and Karai is restored to normal, all the girlfriends could be together and have one episode to themselves. Can you imagine all of them trying to work together to save the guys? I am partly joking there.

[Splinter the boss]

Originally Posted by ssjup81

I'm pretty neutral about April...but I'm like that with all of the characters outside of the turtles themselves. I neither like nor dislike her, but I don't hate her. I just don't favor her. It's super difficult for me to outright dislike a character and my list of disliked characters is relatively short.

Same here, even though sometimes she is ungrateful to the turtles. As long as they don't overuse her abilities, I'm fine with it.

[Splinter the boss]

Originally Posted by Metalwolf

she is far too super-human to be around the Turtles, it hard to even like her because of it.

What do you mean ? The turtles could take her out if they wanted to.

[ssjup81]

Originally Posted by Splinter the boss

Same here, even though sometimes she is ungrateful to the turtles. As long as they don't overuse her abilities, I'm fine with it.

Yeah, this is why I don't have a problem with the powers thing because they're not overused and that there's an obvious, consistent pattern to them.