Would Next Mutation have been better received if there simply was no Venus?

[sdp]

Venus is is used as the scapegoat for TNM, everyone generalizes the hate for the show as if it was her fault and it is unfounded. You might not like the idea of a female turtle but besides that she was ironically the most interesting turtle in the show and unlike other people may have you believe she wasn't shoved down our throats outside her introductory episode(s) and we didn't really see any romance in the show outside a line or two in the first episode.

I know exactly why the show isn't like though, this is 1997 most of the turtle generation are in their early/mid teens and were in the process or had grown out of the turtles by that time so the first reaction when you see a kids show when you're a teenager "oh it sucks now". There are other factors of course, it had already been years since the peak of the turtles fad, and this really wasn't seen as a revival as much as it was the turtles keep trying to stay relevant. It wasn't something new. The fact that the show had a lot of slapstick noises during fights and the villains would act way too goofy turned off a lot of fans and all the blame is put on Venus.

Now as kids not liking it well I'm guessing most kids only saw it as more toys from that old show that wasn't from their generation. Personally I was still a kid when TNM came out and I thought it looked amazing, I loved the designs, the idea of another turtle was awesome and I loved the Dragonlord and the toys. I sadly never got to watch the show outside of random previews but if I had seen it as a kid I would have loved it. I did research like two years ago and apparently the only reason it was cancelled was because of licensing/money issues not ratings since those were fine. You have to remember it aired on a block with Beetleborgs a much sillier show than TNM and that was well liked and had great ratings, only got cancelled since they ran out of footage. This was also the time were Saban wanted to start their own Toku show so they needed money to invest in it while TNM required licensing fee's like Power Rangers did and PRs was his so he wasn't going to cancel that.

So in conclussion, no, I don't think TNM would be seen differently if it had no Venus, it wouldn't be as hated since there was no posterchild to hate but the show would have been the same and remembered as this shortlived show that wasn't great.