Official Episode Discussion: S2 #6 "Target: April O'Neil"

[MrTMNT2012]

Exactly my thoughts. Near-perfect episode of TMNT!

Casey's dialogue with April was one of my favourite scenes as it's really one of the few touching stories that's very resonating, and the added drama element makes me look forward to the rest of Season 2 even more!

If that wasn't enough..... SLASH NEXT WEEK! OMG, From the preview it looks to be the greatest Raphael Episode ever.

[BabyTurtles]

Originally Posted by MrTMNT2012

If that wasn't enough..... SLASH NEXT WEEK! OMG, From the preview it looks to be the greatest Raphael Episode ever.

looong overdue for a great Raph episode!

[TurtleTitan97]

Originally Posted by MrTMNT2012

Exactly my thoughts. Near-perfect episode of TMNT!

Fixed it for ya.

But yeah, looking forward to Slash!

[snake]

That was an awesome review. I love that he does it weekly.

[JTH]

I'm beginning to wonder if Casey's character design was intentionally done to be almost like a human version of Donatello.

Cause if so, it would make sense that April would be torn between them, because she sees a lot of Donnie in Casey and a lot of Casey in Donatello.

The fact that they're both the height (Around 5'8'') Brown eyes, gap in their teeth, bandana, use a wooden weapon, and shared the same moral with April.

And it seems she likes Donnie for he uses his brains over Casey's brawn, but then alas she likes Casey more simply because he's human.

If that was always the plan, I must say that was pretty clever as to why April would be conflicted between them.

[cryan]

really dig the scene where one of the Robo foot soldiers is about to do in Casey then April throws one of those hatchets though one of the foot soldier's head.

[NinjaMan]

Originally Posted by jth

I'm beginning to wonder if Casey's character design was intentionally done to be almost like a human version of Donatello.

Cause if so, it would make sense that April would be torn between them, because she sees a lot of Donnie in Casey and a lot of Casey in Donatello.

The fact that they're both the height (Around 5'8'') Brown eyes, gap in their teeth, bandana, use a wooden weapon, and shared the same moral with April.

And it seems she likes Donnie for he uses his brains over Casey's brawn, but then alas she likes Casey more simply because he's human.

If that was always the plan, I must say that was pretty clever as to why April would be conflicted between them.

Nice observation. Though Casey is 5'8 and Donnie is 5'6 Ciro confirmed the turtles heights a few months back.

[Davetello]

Originally Posted by jth

I'm beginning to wonder if Casey's character design was intentionally done to be almost like a human version of Donatello.

Cause if so, it would make sense that April would be torn between them, because she sees a lot of Donnie in Casey and a lot of Casey in Donatello.

The fact that they're both the height (Around 5'8'') Brown eyes, gap in their teeth, bandana, use a wooden weapon, and shared the same moral with April.

And it seems she likes Donnie for he uses his brains over Casey's brawn, but then alas she likes Casey more simply because he's human.

If that was always the plan, I must say that was pretty clever as to why April would be conflicted between them.

Good post. Lowering the tone somewhat, 'wooden weapons' is a bit of sexual innuendo, so I googled 'Apritello' and came across this belter - what is wrong with kids today?

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9599687...s-of-Apritello

[victory_angel]

Originally Posted by jth

I'm beginning to wonder if Casey's character design was intentionally done to be almost like a human version of Donatello.

Cause if so, it would make sense that April would be torn between them, because she sees a lot of Donnie in Casey and a lot of Casey in Donatello.

The fact that they're both the height (Around 5'8'') Brown eyes, gap in their teeth, bandana, use a wooden weapon, and shared the same moral with April.

And it seems she likes Donnie for he uses his brains over Casey's brawn, but then alas she likes Casey more simply because he's human.

If that was always the plan, I must say that was pretty clever as to why April would be conflicted between them.

It would make sense the two of them would be two halves of the same whole in April's eyes. She can't choose one because she needs both of them in her life.

[Shark_Blade]

If it's true, then the young Apritello fans aren't that far off on that theory after all.

Originally Posted by Shark_Blade

D'aaw, reading the young Apritello fans discussion just made my heart turn to jello lmao How cute.

http://www.nick.com/mynick/messagebo...16010&offset=0

Originally Posted by Powder

"Both have tooth gaps, both have brownish redish eyes, both like April, and Target:April O'Neal proved that they seem to have similar mindsets.
Chances are if she falls for Casey, she will realize that the reason she likes everything that she likes about Casey is because of Donnie."

Whoa. Interesting!

Ahh, young mind. Reminds me of what Master Yoda said to the young jedis in Attack of the Clones. "Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is. "

[Refractive Reflections]

The episode was meh... okay. If the "Mikey Gets Shellacne" episode heavily undermined "The Pulverizer Returns!" episode, then this episode weakens the developments of "Follow The Leader" somewhat. It's not as intense as "Mikey Get Shellacne", but this Nick series has a tendency of not keeping up with its characters and subplots.


The reason I say this is because I felt that whole shocking revelation of Splinter revealing that Karai is his daughter is ignored somewhat ("Follow The Leader"). One would think that the conversation would be brought up again when they were fighting Karai (either during or after, especially with Splinter in the ending scene), or that Leo would remind Karai of his anger in her attacking others and not strictly with him. Umm....Turtles (especially Leo) don't you think it would be a bit important to inform Splinter about it? To be fair, I'm sure the episode didn't have time to expand on it, BUT the show can't just drop a bombshell (Karai is Splinter's daughter) and have the characters seemingly ignore or forget about all that. It undermines the cliffhanger drama of that particular ending scene in "Follow The Leader". Ugh... again, maybe I have to wait a few more episodes, but this show has disappointed me before.

Another area this show is being painfully neglectful, is the subplot about April trying to find a normal life. While Nick did pay attention to the Kraang still needing April for some mysterious reason, it made absolutely no sense that April could reason she could get a normal life back especially after knowing the Kraang were still alive in "The Mutation Situation" and knowing that they still needed her. If April was at least the smallest bit fearful of being out in the open, it could have supported the experiences she had during the Season 1 finale, but that too was ignored. Ugh...

On top of all that this episode weakens the advancements of "Follow The Leader" with the fights this episode had. How can these Foot-bots constantly challenge the Turtles, yet were somehow still defeated by April (managing to run away) and Casey when they barely had any ninjitsu/fighting skills themselves? Considering the Foot-bots quick adaptability, it's a huge willing suspension of disbelief that April and Casey weren't killed earlier. This here is what I would call another vain attempt at the show using visual "bad ass" imagery, but the content behind it is just empty. I mean we (the audience) were supposed to believe these Foot-bots (in "Follow The Leader") were rivaling the Turtles' expertise fighting skills, even being fully aware of the Turtles' own unpredictable fighting moves, and now these Foot-bots can't even defeat two ordinary teenagers? Whatever...

As for Chromedome, and the reused Bradford armor? Meh, not the most original design (and I understand there are animation costs and limits in redesigning a whole new villain), but they could have made the robot's armor all the same silver/chrome color rather than making it too obvious. But if the kids won't mind or notice, why bother? They should have added some brighter lighting to the ice rink though, I mean the interior was just as dark as the exterior shots.


On a couple of positive notes, I am content that at least both sides (April and the Turtles) admitted their parts in Kirby's mutation rather than some fans wanting April to accept all the blame. I enjoyed the parallel scenes of "some things are out of our control" with Casey and Donnie, but after looking back on this series, I can't really expect this series to have those type of deep moments more often.

It's good also to see Casey Jones getting a bit of a backstory, and I'm finding myself interested in both his and Karai's characters. Psh... probably because they are the only significant human characters (besides Shredder) that haven't been mutated or plan to be mutated, where the audience can focus on their characters rather than a superficial mutation change.


Overall the show had a couple of good moments, in a generally plain, lackluster episode. One of the biggest flaws in this series, is its compartmentalization of the characters and subplots where they are NOT developed through the episodes and are conveniently brought up in whichever episode is needed, making the characters seemingly forget (or at least one would think that the characters should comment) about past developments for a long period of time. It's detrimentally affecting the series because these subplot developments aren't fluid throughout the series, and conversations one would think would be brought up are NOT, and therefore it questions the attentiveness of the show toward its characters.

I'm finding myself that I just have to accept whatever the show "spoon-feeds" me to consume with its episodes, in order to enjoy this series (at this point so far), rather than thinking them over, their characters, subplots, and the mutagen. ...At least I didn't have this dilemma, or wasn't so consciously aware of it, in enjoying the OT or 4Kids (even when I viewed them both as an adult).

[BubblyShell22]

I agree that many plots are ignored and only rehashed when an episode calls for it, but maybe they do that so it's not confusing for people who may not have seen the series yet and may only be looking at certain episodes. If plots are brought up each episode, people might be confused and say, "I don't get what's going on." So maybe Nick is doing this as a way to get people to watch the series and if they tune in late, they won't be as confused if they see a certain episode and won't wonder what's going on. That's my take on it anyway.

[Luckyday]

Spoiler:

Originally Posted by JYX

The episode was meh... okay. If the "Mikey Gets Shellacne" episode heavily undermined "The Pulverizer Returns!" episode, then this episode weakens the developments of "Follow The Leader" somewhat. It's not as intense as "Mikey Get Shellacne", but this Nick series has a tendency of not keeping up with its characters and subplots.


The reason I say this is because I felt that whole shocking revelation of Splinter revealing that Karai is his daughter is ignored somewhat ("Follow The Leader"). One would think that the conversation would be brought up again when they were fighting Karai (either during or after, especially with Splinter in the ending scene), or that Leo would remind Karai of his anger in her attacking others and not strictly with him. Umm....Turtles (especially Leo) don't you think it would be a bit important to inform Splinter about it? To be fair, I'm sure the episode didn't have time to expand on it, BUT the show can't just drop a bombshell (Karai is Splinter's daughter) and have the characters seemingly ignore or forget about all that. It undermines the cliffhanger drama of that particular ending scene in "Follow The Leader". Ugh... again, maybe I have to wait a few more episodes, but this show has disappointed me before.

Another area this show is being painfully neglectful, is the subplot about April trying to find a normal life. While Nick did pay attention to the Kraang still needing April for some mysterious reason, it made absolutely no sense that April could reason she could get a normal life back especially after knowing the Kraang were still alive in "The Mutation Situation" and knowing that they still needed her. If April was at least the smallest bit fearful of being out in the open, it could have supported the experiences she had during the Season 1 finale, but that too was ignored. Ugh...

On top of all that this episode weakens the advancements of "Follow The Leader" with the fights this episode had. How can these Foot-bots constantly challenge the Turtles, yet were somehow still defeated by April (managing to run away) and Casey when they barely had any ninjitsu/fighting skills themselves? Considering the Foot-bots quick adaptability, it's a huge willing suspension of disbelief that April and Casey weren't killed earlier. This here is what I would call another vain attempt at the show using visual "bad ass" imagery, but the content behind it is just empty. I mean we (the audience) were supposed to believe these Foot-bots (in "Follow The Leader") were rivaling the Turtles' expertise fighting skills, even being fully aware of the Turtles' own unpredictable fighting moves, and now these Foot-bots can't even defeat two ordinary teenagers? Whatever...

As for Chromedome, and the reused Bradford armor? Meh, not the most original design (and I understand there are animation costs and limits in redesigning a whole new villain), but they could have made the robot's armor all the same silver/chrome color rather than making it too obvious. But if the kids won't mind or notice, why bother? They should have added some brighter lighting to the ice rink though, I mean the interior was just as dark as the exterior shots.


On a couple of positive notes, I am content that at least both sides (April and the Turtles) admitted their parts in Kirby's mutation rather than some fans wanting April to accept all the blame. I enjoyed the parallel scenes of "some things are out of our control" with Casey and Donnie, but after looking back on this series, I can't really expect this series to have those type of deep moments more often.

It's good also to see Casey Jones getting a bit of a backstory, and I'm finding myself interested in both his and Karai's characters. Psh... probably because they are the only significant human characters (besides Shredder) that haven't been mutated or plan to be mutated, where the audience can focus on their characters rather than a superficial mutation change.


Overall the show had a couple of good moments, in a generally plain, lackluster episode. One of the biggest flaws in this series, is its compartmentalization of the characters and subplots where they are NOT developed through the episodes and are conveniently brought up in whichever episode is needed, making the characters seemingly forget (or at least one would think that the characters should comment) about past developments for a long period of time. It's detrimentally affecting the series because these subplot developments aren't fluid throughout the series, and conversations one would think would be brought up are NOT, and therefore it questions the attentiveness of the show toward its characters.

I'm finding myself that I just have to accept whatever the show "spoon-feeds" me to consume with its episodes, in order to enjoy this series (at this point so far), rather than thinking them over, their characters, subplots, and the mutagen. ...At least I didn't have this dilemma, or wasn't so consciously aware of it, in enjoying the OT or 4Kids (even when I viewed them both as an adult).

The problem with this series that it's afraid to be consistent with itself regarding information. It's done on purpose so that you can watch one episode randomly without having watch it in a certain order. This show already a lot of moments of willing suspension of disbelief with the Kraang fighting in the middle of street so I wasn't surprise that Casey came out unscathed. Although I wonder if that has to do with more the parental rating? I don't think it does since Adventure has the same parental rating and Finn gets hurt way more often with bruises and nasty cuts but no blood. (I think)

[Cure]

Adventure Time (or Adventure as you put it) is rated TV-PG. TMNT is TV-Y7.

[Luckyday]

Originally Posted by Cure

Adventure Time (or Adventure as you put it) is rated TV-PG. TMNT is TV-Y7.

Yup. That totally explains it. Man, they really have their hands tied.

[FoxZerro]

Originally Posted by JYX

The episode was meh... okay. [URL="http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showpost.php?p=1179786&postcount=176"]On top of all that this episode weakens the advancements of "Follow The Leader" with the fights this episode had. How can these Foot-bots constantly challenge the Turtles, yet were somehow still defeated by April (managing to run away) and Casey when they barely had any ninjitsu/fighting skills themselves? Considering the Foot-bots quick adaptability, it's a huge willing suspension of disbelief that April and Casey weren't killed earlier. This here is what I would call another vain attempt at the show using visual "bad ass" imagery, but the content behind it is just empty. I mean we (the audience) were supposed to believe these Foot-bots (in "Follow The Leader") were rivaling the Turtles' expertise fighting skills, even being fully aware of the Turtles' own unpredictable fighting moves, and now these Foot-bots can't even defeat two ordinary teenagers? Whatever...

The thing with two teenagers being able to defeat the footbots can be explained away by their fighting styles. April as a novice is more defensive driven so they wouldn't really have anything to adapt to, and even if they did since she is intent on defending herself not attacking it would be easier for her to adapt to their adaptations.

Casey is a bit more of a stretch, but having almost 18 years of Hockey under my own belt I can say that if you are in a fight and play hockey that you are mostly a brawler, which means to say you don't have any real style you just do what you can to do as much damage as possible while avoiding getting damaged yourself. In addition to being a fighting style which has no real structure it is also much more adaptive to the situation which again would be one of the better ways to fight the footbots based upon what we know about them up to this point.

The Turtles being meticulously trained have predictable ways of fighting so that the footbots would have an easier time learning and assimilating their style. While if they are fighting two individuals who are doing whatever it takes to survive the fight they are being offered such a large amount of data to input that rather they get caught up in the adaptation they would more than likely revert to the original objective which was to target April.

Even with that explanation one can make the argument that their programming was just to get April to the rendezvous with Chrome Dome and as such not to use lethal force. Which would also mean that since April and Casey are not held back by that same restriction they would most certainly have an edge.

[BubblyShell22]

Oh, man, I think my eyes just bled when I read part of that fan fic. Ugh.

[Darth Knuckles]

I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. April and Casey did a good job of fighting off the Foot Bot Soldiers. I'm loving the second appearance of Mirage Casey's "Goongala!" too. I thought Chrome Dome did look way too similar to Chris Bradford's Shredder impression from early in season one.

I also see a nice conflict brewing between Karai and The Kraang which The Shredder will undoubtedly deal with in the future. I also thought April would be angry with the turtles for a longer period of time but I guess this is meant to keep a younger audience occupied rather than a veteran TMNT audience. I loved the ending of "I love being a turtle!"

[Luzmagica]

AWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!

I it!!!

Thanks so much Nick Team for that adorable ending......!!!

I Enjoy a lot Donatello happy scenes after seeing lots of sad faces at begining!! (he was near to cry when April told him about never see him again!) even when he knows April will probably will be with Casey..at least he recovered is hope and enjoy the moment!!

This time I voted for last quote! "Some things are just beyong our control...."

also I enjoy a lot the detail about Karai telling April she was trained for years and April´s answer: "you talk too much..." It deserves in my opinion a quote too in this poll...after being a point long time discuss at forums....!
April is going to train again with Splinter, Yay!

[ObiWanFan4life]

Originally Posted by Luzmagica

AWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!

I it!!!

Thanks so much Nick Team for that adorable ending......!!!

I Enjoy a lot Donatello happy scenes after seeing lots of sad faces at begining!! (he was near to cry when April told him about never see him again!) even when he knows April will probably will be with Casey..at least he recovered is hope and enjoy the moment!!

This time I voted for last quote! "Some things are just beyong our control...."

also I enjoy a lor the detail about Karai telling April she was trained for years and April´s answer: "you talk to much..." It deserves in my opinion a quote too in this poll...after being a point long time discuss at forums....!
April is going to train again with Splinter, Yay!

I'm just glad we didn't have to put up with Emo Donnie.......Yet.