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

[Lisardo]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

I guess another thing that helps with the fangirls is that the Turtles are actually cute in the cartoons. Understandably so, since most heroes or main characters have to be somewhat attractive (unless the show's main thing is, hey, we're different, we got a fat ugly dude as the hero).

We all know real life mutated reptiles that walk and talk wouldn't look attractive. They'd either look like Tokka, or like they do in Out of the Shadows. But that's not how they look like in the cartoons, so yeah, fangirls fall for them.

That is very true about fan girls. The turtles aren't babes, but they are sorta cute, in a weird way. The more realistic turtles look like Kerma and Tokka. Oddly enough tho, I noticed the turtles on that OT ep, "Planet of the Turtles", have the rounded faces like the TMNT do. Hmm....

[Lisardo]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I'm kinda half-hoping April starts to like Casey leading to Don getting all jealous and a character arc between him and Casey. If this thing leads to something story-wise, fine, but if it's just puppy love with no point or resolution, I'm not a fan of it going long-term.

For some reason, I was never huge on the whole April/Casey relationship. It's sorta cute I guess, the whole opposites attract. But I dunno....seems 'forced' in every version it's in (minus OT as that relationship really never happened). Personality-wise, I think April and Don have more in common, in both 2k3 and 2k12. Hopeless romantic I am, admittedly. Tho I agree with others here that the whole Don crushing on April in 2k12 may be a bit much.

[Captain PunchYouHard]

If you ask me, Nick is smart enough to try to appeal to both genders (or all preferences, if you want to be strictly accurate). I don't think the TMNT2012 turtles being cute is a coincidence. I think they're following the example of anime/manga series like Bleach or Hellsing that have something for everyone.

[Shark_Blade]

Looks like they're inspired by Teen Titans to me. Which is a good thing.

Anyway, those "people" are not everyone. Who cares, they're probably the minority. There's lots of cross-breed interspieces relationship I.e. Mass Effect, Twilight, Shrek, etc.

[Konchadunga]

Originally Posted by ElectricN

i honestly think people are over reacting. Yes donnies crush on april is a recurring reference in this show. if they actually date it on-coming seasons great? but this april has not just been shown as a love interest. Can we recall that shes the center of an invasion. Or when she snuck into a kraang lab. or spied on shredder. shes training to be a kunoichi. she fought karai. donnies love for her isnt taking away anything from her character.
As for interacting with others, shes been shown training alone with splinter multiple times, she had a talk with leo about karai. Yeah she talks to donnie more than anyone, but its only the first season, theres plenty of time for other interaction.
And how is her supposedly only being donnies love interest any different from her being caseys in 2k3? she was more of just a love interest for casey tin 2k3 then she has been so far for donnie in this series, as in shes actually shown without donnie.
People complaining about how they cant like this april because of donnies crush gets really annoying since its just them trying to see it that way, and trying to find fault in this relatively small change in the series

and please quit saying april has no personality yet. she does. shes stubborn, brave, tries to get by in school, devoted to her family and is motivated by her father. donnies crush takes away more from him then it does from her. plus with irma and casey coming, well get to see her people interaction develop, and thats in the second season, so just wait

Not to sound like a broken record, but I think the issue is filler episodes. Yes; April is the center of the story arc...which is one of two story arcs...both of which sometimes have no big part in an episode. Developing a character like April is hard in their current modus operandi. It's easy to give the Turtles fun personality quirks, since they'll always be in the episode, and they'll get their quips in even during a fight. Stick April in the fight with them every time a new villain poses a threat, though,and there's the following risks:
1) She gets in serious trouble, or at least gets in the way, because she's not tough enough.
2) She is tough enough, and as such garners criticism for getting too tough too fast.

I would prefer an arc, where April had a lot of development, they get to some sort of conclusion for the whole crush thing, and the Kraang conspiracy is a consistent threat. Yet obviously that isn't what they chose.

[Gwydion]

Originally Posted by ElectricN

i honestly think people are over reacting. Yes donnies crush on april is a recurring reference in this show. if they actually date it on-coming seasons great? but this april has not just been shown as a love interest. Can we recall that shes the center of an invasion. Or when she snuck into a kraang lab. or spied on shredder. shes training to be a kunoichi. she fought karai. donnies love for her isnt taking away anything from her character.
As for interacting with others, shes been shown training alone with splinter multiple times, she had a talk with leo about karai. Yeah she talks to donnie more than anyone, but its only the first season, theres plenty of time for other interaction.
And how is her supposedly only being donnies love interest any different from her being caseys in 2k3? she was more of just a love interest for casey tin 2k3 then she has been so far for donnie in this series, as in shes actually shown without donnie.
People complaining about how they cant like this april because of donnies crush gets really annoying since its just them trying to see it that way, and trying to find fault in this relatively small change in the series

and please quit saying april has no personality yet. she does. shes stubborn, brave, tries to get by in school, devoted to her family and is motivated by her father. donnies crush takes away more from him then it does from her. plus with irma and casey coming, well get to see her people interaction develop, and thats in the second season, so just wait

Have to disagree with you on the bolded part. Am I a big fan of the idea of romance in a TMNT show? No, I'll admit that, but I'm not against it when done well. Had the change of having Donnie crush on April been handled better, I wouldn't have cared. I am not "trying" to see it that way, I'm not going out of my way to find faults with it, that's just how I see it. It's my opinion. It's not better or worse than yours - it's just an opinion, and one I'm going to stand behind.

And while "no personality" may be a bit of an overstatement, the one she has is pretty vague. I don't expect her to be as well fleshed out as the Turtles, but she's still pretty 1 dimensional at this point. I hope this changes as I really want to like this April.

Also, not trying to pick a fight, but why should we have to wait until season 2? Seems sad to introduce her so early only to hold off showing more of her personality until 26 episodes in, especially when there were already a lot of opportunities.

[BubblyShell22]

Honestly, I believe the crush is played for laughs on Don's part since April certainly hasn't returned his advances. But maybe she's not doing that because she knows it wouldn't work, and she doesn't want to hurt him. Either that, or she's thinking about breaking it to him gently, but she can't work out how to tell him. That's the way I see it anyway.

As for development, I agree that she hasn't had much within the last few episodes, but plenty of earlier episodes show that she's more than just Don's love interest. She's the one the Kraang want, she's headstrong and stubborn, and she's even willing to risk her life to not only rescue her father but to help the Turtles find out what Shredder's plan is in "Panic in the Sewers." Heck, she even wanted to hitch a ride with Dogpound and the Foot.

[JTH]

For people saying that it's not well written, if this was just 1 writer for the show, I'd understand. But you have to remember this first season had about 6-7 writers writing episodes (And they're not in back to back order to boot) Different writers have different opinions, like and don't like different things.

Look at Jeremy Shipp, how many episodes did April even appear in on Shipp's episodes? 2 is all I remember (Panic in the Sewers & New Girl in town *NGiT Which was also for only about 30 seconds*)

Writers wrote their own style in Season 1 which made some episodes seem more off kilter than they should. Some of the writers wrote April's development very well, others didn't do any period. And per result, I think Season 2 the group is going to have a much collective arc for each story.

[Raphaeline]

I don't see the problem with cross-species relationship.

These turtles are not animals, they are intelligent, like aliens could be.

Maybe it's because I'm a big fan of Star Wars, where humans go out with people from other species (humanoid of course but not humans) and it seems very natural. I'm very open-minded about that.

Do you have problems seeing a human with an elf in the Lord of the Rings? or a human and a twi'lek in Star Wars? that kind of couples are very popular. (And fanboys are heavily crushing on twi'leks girls even if they're red/blue/green and have tentacles on their head!)

So why not a mutant turtle. They cannot be handsome the way a human can be handsome, but your criterias change totally when you know that it's a different race I guess. They're still humanoid after all, they're not Krangs!

[Konchadunga]

I don't remember any major interspecies romance in any Star Wars movie (though to be fair, I quit the prequels after the first), and I don't count the expanded universe. The one thing of that nature I recall is Princess Leia saying "I'd sooner kiss a wookee (than Han Solo)", which implies that some interspecies romance is considered to be gross in that universe.

Still, I don't mind it in a TMNT show, but what I really mean is I wouldn't mind it because it's interspecies. Rather, I'd mind it if it dominated a series that should be about beating up baddies. April kissing Donatello for going through a lot of action to rescue her, and deciding she does return his feelings for her, is fine, because that would be it implemented in a way that doesn't hamper the action. A whole episode based on the ramifications of an interspecies romance would just be annoying, though.

[CyberCubed]

I hope all those 12 year old shippers on tumblr have heart attacks when they see April falling for Casey next season. I bet some of them will even quit watching the show over it.

Shippers are crazy.

[Avatar Yuffie]

And it's not as if interspecies romance is new in TMNT. Mirage!Leo and Mikey had relationships (human and alien respectively), TMNTA had Raph and Ninjara (and later Mezcaal, which he married though he still pined for his first flame which I really didn't like). Heck, the OT even had Mikey crushing on an alien and another human... and if you count Irma hitting on Don while he hilariously say no, that too.

I ship 2k12 Don/April but as far as canon is concerned, it's one-sided. Even his brothers all say it out loud. And I don't believe it's getting anywhere.

[Shark_Blade]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I hope all those 12 year old shippers on tumblr have heart attacks when they see April falling for Casey next season. I bet some of them will even quit watching the show over it.

Shippers are crazy.

Some even threaten Nickelodeon that they would quit watching the show should April choose Casey and leave Donnie.

It's madness on tumblr.

[BubblyShell22]

I wouldn't quit the show if April fell for Casey, but I don't think it's going to happen right away if at all.

[Raphaeline]

Originally Posted by Konchadunga

I don't remember any major interspecies romance in any Star Wars movie (though to be fair, I quit the prequels after the first), and I don't count the expanded universe.

It's because you don't count the expanded universe, which is HUGE, and full of interspecies romances.

But even in the movies, the twi'leks are the official "slaves prostitues" of the galaxy, you see them in the new trilogy as well, at the arm of non-twi'leks males, flirting with humans, etc. You can even see Boba Fett in the first trilogy flirting with alien women at Jabba's place.


And I don't even count all the inter-species romances in popular games like Mass Effect, Dragon age 2, SWTOR, etc.


I don't think that inter-species romances are only for an adult public, you can see that also as a naive love between two teenagers (like Donnie) who don't care about the species. It doesn't seem to be chocking any kids to see Donnie in love with April or Leo with Karai.

[Electric]

Originally Posted by Gwydion

Also, not trying to pick a fight, but why should we have to wait until season 2? Seems sad to introduce her so early only to hold off showing more of her personality until 26 episodes in, especially when there were already a lot of opportunities.

Because the show isn't about her? She's a main character yes, but the show is focused on the four turtles, so naturally the first season should focus more on them and their development, while including some other character development where they can. So April not fully being developed until season 2 should be no issue at all

The show is called "teenage mutant ninja turtles", not "human alien hybrid April"

[drgon78]

"Human Alien Hybrid April", I would watch that show.

[Raphaeline]

Yeah I can totally imagine her in the opening syaing "I love being an Hybrid!"

[drgon78]

It would be better then "The Adventures of Normal April" as she does battle with her most hated foe, the decimal system, and her famous battle cry "I hate Math".

[Konchadunga]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I hope all those 12 year old shippers on tumblr have heart attacks when they see April falling for Casey next season. I bet some of them will even quit watching the show over it.

Shippers are crazy.

Now that's just cruel. People die from heart attacks, and Don/April shippers are a welcome relief after I've been exposed to Turtlecest.

Also, I don't think Nickelodeon would go to such lengths promoting this romance if they were just going to break it down hard.

The issue is that maybe they've written themselves into a corner they'll need to fight to get out of. If there's a love-triangle with Casey, if April just goes with him and Don just breaks down in tears, if Don and April get together; either way, there's a big risk of some angsty, plodding dull plots along the lines of the "Emo Leo" episodes of the 4Kids show, or worse, Mutant Ninja Turtle Gaiden. It's true that Donatello's silly crush is getting old, but at least it just bogs down one character; not the whole plot.