Official Episode Discussion: S2 #9 "The Kraang Conspiracy"

[TurtleTitan97]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

April is still human. She was just created with Kraang DNA.

I'm not even sure why they even said she was a mutant.

Because Donnie said she was half human/ half Kraang. So technically, she's not really all human, thus making her a mutant.

[TigerClaw]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

April is still human. She was just created with Kraang DNA.

I'm not even sure why they even said she was a mutant.

Cause of her being Half Alien, In there mind shes a Mutant to them.

[Shark_Blade]

Being half-human and half-alien is kinda mutant to me.

[Machias Banshee]

Aw, I missed Ciro... I do hope he stops in more often.

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Codename: Chameleon!

Haha, I was just thinking the same thing.

Give that man a cookie!

Considering the number of 'red shirt' humans we've had on this show, he could be an upcoming mutant-to-be. Or... it could be an inverse of Mortu and the Utroms; one good Kraang emerging from a Civilization of evil. Heck, he could be a real Splinter-Cell type like Bishop that we have no clue about...

Still, a little bit of sneak peeks at someone watching, even if it was just little split-second hints at the ends of the episodes... could have brought a little more intrigue to Kurtzman's introduction. I'm curious what else he's involved in, after seeing the Illuminati logo on his card....

[CyberCubed]

^ Do you think you can unlock the episode threads the night before it airs next week? I'm sure people won't spam the thread if told not to.

[Jester]

How could I forget Chameleon...

But seems to similar to Newtralizer.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by Jester

How could I forget Chameleon...

But seems to similar to Newtralizer.

Chameleon was only in two issues of Archie. It's easy to forget a forgettable character.

[Jester]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Chameleon was only in two issues of Archie. It's easy to forget a forgettable character.

And this book...which i have sitting right next to me...


Also, I'm sure that there'd be epic pre-episode spam if the thread was opened the night before...but then again in some cases people see it midnight Sunday because of iTunes and Amazon

[Shark_Blade]

Dammit I missed Ciro too!

But hey if you're reading, keep doing your thing Ciro, you're doing great!
I like your Casey, thanks for adding Irma!! And Slash was brutally awesome!

[NinjaMan]

Originally Posted by Machias Banshee

Aw, I missed Ciro... I do hope he stops in more often.



Give that man a cookie!

Considering the number of 'red shirt' humans we've had on this show, he could be an upcoming mutant-to-be. Or... it could be an inverse of Mortu and the Utroms; one good Kraang emerging from a Civilization of evil. Heck, he could be a real Splinter-Cell type like Bishop that we have no clue about...

Still, a little bit of sneak peeks at someone watching, even if it was just little split-second hints at the ends of the episodes... could have brought a little more intrigue to Kurtzman's introduction. I'm curious what else he's involved in, after seeing the Illuminati logo on his card....

I looked at his card again last night, says he investigates the supernatural, occult, and I believe alien stuff (I'm paraphrasing) interesting character. If you guys ever get a chance, watch a series called Kolchak the Night Stalker. It was a short series in the 70's and you can really see Kurtzman is inspired by the main character. I loved the series as a kid.

[bwrosas]

Originally Posted by TurtleTitan97

So, what? This isn't the first time April's been given a strange origin. In the mirage comics she was literally a living drawing, created thanks to the same type of crystal Kirby from the Donatello micro issue had.

ok, that i didn't know. But I still stick with the rest of what I said

[Electric]

i hope this isnt the first/only thread ciro read about his show, the one where the enjoyment varied from person to person. hope he went through threads like "the good, the bad, and casey jones" and "slash and destroy" so he could see how we, for the most part, love what he is doing.

if you see this, welcome back ciro! season 2 is even better than 1, which i didnt think would be possible!

[Refractive Reflections]

This episode was good as was the previous one "The Good, The Bad, and Casey Jones" because they advanced the characters of April (her telekinesis and telepathic powers), Casey (giving Raph a new friend to bond with after the Slash episode), and gave a deeper backstory with the Kraang and human history via Kurtzman's information. This type of depth and complexity was desperately needed in this series after the past episodes in this season appeared to be thinly-veiled to introduce more mutants (mutagen spread all over the city) or a "one-upping" of an already perilous situation (the Foot-bots being able to learn every move [replacing the human Foot Soldiers], and Dogpound transforming into a tougher version of himself in Rahzar), because it's advancing the entire set of characters and the comprehension of the still vague 2012 universe.

I wanna be excited again for this show, but I've been disappointed before with the arc amnesia of the show (April behaving oblivious again to the danger she was under when she casually re-entered school after "The Mutation Situation", dropping the "Karai is my daughter" bombshell in "Follow the Leader" with no developments even after Karai appeared in "Target: April O' Neil", Foot-bots that can seemingly learn everything in "Target: April O' Neil" yet the Turtles can still defeat them... even Casey Jones can , and Mikey's lack of learning after playing with the mutagen in "Mikey Gets Shellacne" despite seeing Timothy's horrifying mutation in "The Pulverizer Returns!").

This episode actually surprisingly developed April because we knew more about her in this one episode than throughout the entire previous episodes of this season. It was nice to see April's stubborn/spunky trait used to separate herself from the April clones, to underline that her personality is what makes her special rather than just her DNA and physical composition. I got a hilarious kick out of April Derp; just the fact that the mutant was able to get a whole series of reactions from the Turtles (aggression to fight whatever mutant it was, anxious seeing the big hand come out, off-guard seeing April Derp's attached head, and horror seeing the entirety of April Derp) within seconds was priceless, in addition to being threatening (knocking off the Kraang) and bizarrely affectionate (hugging Mikey). It was a little unbelievable that Donnie could be so willing to fight those April clones knowing how infatuated he was with her. I was sooo desperately hoping for Raph or Mikey to crack a joke about how they stumbled into one of Donnie's fantasies. Oh well... One thing that intrigued me was how the show was able to get away with slashing and, essentially killing, these April clones if they are exactly just that. Right...?

One significant disappointment was the revelation that Nick April was a hybrid human/alien, and is therefore a mutant. I think it completely deflates the whole "normal" human aspect of the TMNT premise that April brought, as if being a human isn't helpful or advantageous in anyway to the Turtles. It somewhat parallels to the twist in 2K3 when the Shredder was discovered to be Ch'rell and how the "human aspect" of the character was thrown aside, as if it was insignificant. Even though the ending reveal of Nick April being a mutant was somewhat expected, I guess I was kind of holding onto the hope that maybe something about her human DNA was special, through some infinitesimal odds of normal genetic recombination. With most of the allies being mutants/aliens now, it leaves Irma (barely made an appearance), Casey, and Kurtzman as the only humans now. I'm hoping they won't mutate them, but considering the track history of this show, won't surprise me if the show unfortunately does.

While I don't rank these last two episodes as high as "Follow The Leader", it thankfully brought a new perspective in seeing the characters (April and Casey) and the vague 2012 TMNT universe, and I have to give credit for that.

[bwrosas]

Originally Posted by Refractive Reflections

One significant disappointment was the revelation that Nick April was a hybrid human/alien, and is therefore a mutant. I think it completely deflates the whole "normal" human aspect of the TMNT premise that April brought, as if being a human isn't helpful or advantageous in anyway to the Turtles. It somewhat parallels to the twist in 2K3 when the Shredder was discovered to be Ch'rell and how the "human aspect" of the character was thrown aside, as if it was insignificant. Even though the ending reveal of Nick April being a mutant was somewhat expected, I guess I was kind of holding onto the hope that maybe something about her human DNA was special, through some infinitesimal odds of normal genetic recombination. With most of the allies being mutants/aliens now, it leaves Irma (barely made an appearance), Casey, and Kurtzman as the only humans now. I'm hoping they won't mutate them, but considering the track history of this show, won't surprise me if the show unfortunately does.

And as I pointed out (with the execpted orginal mairge April's orgin) every other April has never had a orgin like this, which is why many (some long-time) fans are on the fence about it. Because as I said before "

Sure she mutanted into a cat, bug, fish woman in the 80s-90s series, temporay into a female turtle in the Archie Comics, and in an opening dream seqeance in the IDW Micro-Series, and a yig-yang like monster in the 2003-2009 series (2009 BTTS Season), but out of all that, never once was it relevled that she was half mutant-Alien, never once.

"

and to quote two other things I said in the last page "

Well, it doesn't surprise me. I mean I said it just recently, with this creative staff, you never know what they will pull out of left field next. I mean, out of all the incrainations of April over the past 30 years, this is when they decide to go in this left field direction?

I can guanteee you, when animation histories look over the history of TMNT, let's in the next 25 years (if it's still around), the're going to look over all the different incranations of April in TMNT, and be like "WHAT THE ****!? WERE THESE WRITERS THINKING?" when they get to this one

"

So yeah it may have been a good episode to some, but like you and Ihave pointed out, I think those say it best.

[CyberCubed]

It doesn't really matter. She's still half human and looks human.

All she has now is telepathic powers.

[bwrosas]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

It doesn't really matter. She's still half human and looks human.

All she has now is telepathic powers.

True, but do you see why some are wondering why?

[Refractive Reflections]

Originally Posted by bwrosas

And as I pointed out (with the execpted orginal mairge April's orgin) every other April has never had a orgin like this, which is why many (some long-time) fans are on the fence about it. Because as I said before ""

and to quote two other things I said in the last page ""

So yeah it may have been a good episode to some, but like you and Ihave pointed out, I think those say it best.

With me, April always symbolized the human connection or liaison between the Turtles and humanity (to "bridge the gap" between the whole "us versus them" theme that resonates in TMNT) and was the tantalizing symbolic icon of normalcy that the Turtles will never truly experience. With this revelation of Nick April being a mutant (being a part of the "mutant family" now and is a "mutant freak"), all of this symbolic meaning goes out the window now. But it will be interesting to see if the Nick staff can redefine April's role to something more substantial possibly... but I'm not holding my breath or anything...

[JTH]

It's funny that I saw The LEGO Movie on Saturday,

Because LEGO Movie pulled a daring turn near the end of the movie, and it was a move that caught most people off guard and had the potential of losing people. But that turned out great and made the movie even better.

Then Turtles pulls a similar bold, daring turn. Good thing I saw that movie otherwise I'd probably be jumping all over this, but I will definitely let it play out and see what comes, it could turn out to be great in the long term.

[BabyTurtles]

Originally Posted by Refractive Reflections

With me, April always symbolized the human connection or liaison between the Turtles and humanity (to "bridge the gap" between the whole "us versus them" theme that resonates in TMNT) and was the tantalizing symbolic icon of normalcy that the Turtles will never truly experience. With this revelation of Nick April being a mutant (being a part of the "mutant family" now and is a "mutant freak"), all of this symbolic meaning goes out the window now. But it will be interesting to see if the Nick staff can redefine April's role to something more substantial possibly... but I'm not holding my breath or anything...

well I do agree that I also like April being the "human" for the turtles......

Casey can always be the human.

[victory_angel]

Originally Posted by Refractive Reflections

With me, April always symbolized the human connection or liaison between the Turtles and humanity (to "bridge the gap" between the whole "us versus them" theme that resonates in TMNT) and was the tantalizing symbolic icon of normalcy that the Turtles will never truly experience. With this revelation of Nick April being a mutant (being a part of the "mutant family" now and is a "mutant freak"), all of this symbolic meaning goes out the window now. But it will be interesting to see if the Nick staff can redefine April's role to something more substantial possibly... but I'm not holding my breath or anything...

I do agree with you that April is the bridge between the Turtles and the rest of the world. However April is human in appearance and that is not going away so even though she is essentially one of the "freaks". She is still able to go outside, have a life like a normal person would, so she is still a liaison between humans and humanity. But she is more like a representative from mutants towards humanity.