Is pure human April falling out of favor?

[Warhorse]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Nothing's worse than that "April was a magical drawing" BS though. From concept to execution, still the worst thing I've endured coming out of the TMNT franchise as a whole, and that's saying a lot.

Awe, so you don't like the idea that April could have been spawn out like we saw in the Ah- Ha music video, Take on me?

[Leo656]

The two are irrevocably linked in my mind, yes.

Although that song and video were neat. April's "secret origin" and time-travel roach humping... were not neat.

[Warhorse]

Originally Posted by Leo656

The two are irrevocably linked in my mind, yes.

Although that song and video were neat. April's "secret origin" and time-travel roach humping... were not neat.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I wonder though, that music video came out in 84, was that the inspiration of April coming from a drawing? Or was it purely coincidental?

[Leo656]

Whether it was 1984 or 2000-whatever year it was, I'd say it's a safe bet Peter Laird was heavily "medicated" when he decided on April's secret origin. The adult brownies were definitely flowing like wine in Northampton that day, to be sure... aaaaaand I just created a horrible mixed-metaphor.

[Jester]

Wanna know how linked:
Steve Barron directed this video.

[Powder]

Aww, you beat me to it!

[Jester]

Great minds, sir.

[Coola Yagami]

The thing about normal people is that in an action cartoon, when **** gets real, they have to either stay the hell out of the way, or become victims. You can't have it both ways. Can't have April be normal.... and then take ninja training. It's one of the other. Ninjitsu isn't also the kind of thing any random person can just up and start practicing either. She's lucky she wasn't horribly out of shape when she met the Turtles.

.I mean, one solution if having April be some kind of martial arts fighter before she met the turtles, but many would complain about the change. And it would also feel like TMNT and April, and the show is supposed to be about the turtles.

April sorta exists to introduce us to the turtles and give them an excuse to spill their origin story. After that, it's hard to find what else to do with her character.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

You mean besides having her act as either a sister/mother figure or a love interest? Or I dunno, maybe having her stress over the temptation to reveal them or not? Or maybe giving her a life OUTSIDE the TMNT that conflicts with her involvement with them? There's PLENTY that can be done with her. And I agree with Leo- the April-pic idea was just ridiculous.

And I think someone's been reading too much into Renet's comment. I don't think it referred to that at all. Probably had more to do with the SAINW future, or FF or something. Actually, my money would be on it being something FF-related.

[Luckyday]

I wonder if it be better in the long run to treat her as side character instead of a major character? Maybe it would be better for her to be just someone that met the turtles so that we have a way for us to feel introduce to them and then see her again like once per season.

[Coola Yagami]

The problem is, in an action show, the fighters are the main characters. The non-fighters are just supporting characters. Yes, she can be a mother figure or love interest or whatever, but unless she can go toe-to-toe with heavily trained Foot Ninja and mutant monsters, she will be stuck in a side-character role. Sure, we can focus on her life outside of the TMNT.... but who the hell buys a TMNT comic to read about that?

It's like asking Bulma to have a larger role than she already has. In the beginning of the Namek saga she had a big role in regards to making and flying the spaceship.... but once they arrived on Namek and the bad guys started coming in, her role got smaller and smaller. One Freeza decided to step up to the plate, Bulma was only in brief cameos every other episode just to remind us that she was still somewhere on the planet.

[Luckyday]

That still hasn't help the Nick version of April. Mutant and ninja-in-training, and still has less personality then Irma. She like Claire Oswald durning the Matt Smith's run.

[HotNunchuckFury]

I much prefer April being a plain old human. In a city full of mutants and aliens it's what makes her character unique! It also gives some grounding on reality (if that is possible!) to put the stories into context of being set in a predominantly human world despite the lack of human characters. Besides Casey, she is the only main character who is human and not a ninja or evil scientist, and I think that should be valued and utilised more as far as the story is concerned.

Personally I don't like seeing April suddenly acquiring a great level of skill in martial arts, it belittles the years of hard work and training the turtles have endured. And the whole connection with Kraang in Nick annoys me (2k12 April annoys me in general for lots of reasons to be honest). And I don't think that every character in a show/comic/film that is predominantly action-packed needs to be a competent fighter. As a female myself I have no problem with April being the weakest link physically and needing rescuing when things get crazy. Call it damsel in distress if you want but it just seems more realistic to me. As a girl growing up in the 80s within a happy but very traditional household, I was inspired by April as a confidently single, independent, ambitious and career driven young woman. She didn't have ninja skills or supernatural powers, but she certainly didn't come across as boring or weak to me.

Mainly, I always viewed April as the turtle's link to the world above the sewers and the female family member they never had. How is that not enough in itself?

[Refractive Reflections]

Originally Posted by HotNunchuckFury

I much prefer April being a plain old human. In a city full of mutants and aliens it's what makes her character unique! It also gives some grounding on reality (if that is possible!) to put the stories into context of being set in a predominantly human world despite the lack of human characters. Besides Casey, she is the only main character who is human and not a ninja or evil scientist, and I think that should be valued and utilised more as far as the story is concerned.

Personally I don't like seeing April suddenly acquiring a great level of skill in martial arts, it belittles the years of hard work and training the turtles have endured. And the whole connection with Kraang in Nick annoys me (2k12 April annoys me in general for lots of reasons to be honest). And I don't think that every character in a show/comic/film that is predominantly action-packed needs to be a competent fighter. As a female myself I have no problem with April being the weakest link physically and needing rescuing when things get crazy. Call it damsel in distress if you want but it just seems more realistic to me. As a girl growing up in the 80s within a happy but very traditional household, I was inspired by April as a confidently single, independent, ambitious and career driven young woman. She didn't have ninja skills or supernatural powers, but she certainly didn't come across as boring or weak to me.

Mainly, I always viewed April as the turtle's link to the world above the sewers and the female family member they never had. How is that not enough in itself?

I guess apparently with this increasingly attention-deficit television audience, if she (or any character) isn't kicking someone's butt in a fight, they aren't considered interesting enough. Especially for an action/adventure cartoon.

I don't like when they make April a highly-proficient ninja in a short amount of time either, where her skills come close to the Turtles, for the same reasons you pointed out earlier. It belittles the training and hard work the Turtles have put into training over many years.

Originally Posted by Luckyday

That still hasn't help the Nick version of April. Mutant and ninja-in-training, and still has less personality then Irma. She like Claire Oswald durning the Matt Smith's run.

The biggest problem is that a lot of these changes feel forced rather than organic just to include April on the team, plus we don't get to know her character by herself without all of the gimmicks of ninja fighting and being a mutant, which makes April's character hollow and dull. We simply don't know who she is behind all those gimmicks compared to say... Nick Karai, who has layers to her character outside of her fighting skills with the conflicted feelings she has between Splinter and Shredder.

I remember in the beginning how the production team told us that having a teenage April was going to add a new dynamic to the Nick series, but the most it's ever done, has only been to establish crushes and the love triangle. In my opinion, it's a fairly weak contribution since there could have been far more material in showing how teenagers could bond, without using the cliche device of teenage romance.

[Warhorse]

Originally Posted by Refractive Reflections

I guess apparently with this increasingly attention-deficit television audience, if she (or any character) isn't kicking someone's butt in a fight, they aren't considered interesting enough. Especially for an action/adventure cartoon.

I don't like when they make April a highly-proficient ninja in a short amount of time either, where her skills come close to the Turtles, for the same reasons you pointed out earlier. It belittles the training and hard work the Turtles have put into training over many years.


The biggest problem is that a lot of these changes feel forced rather than organic just to include April on the team, plus we don't get to know her character by herself without all of the gimmicks of ninja fighting and being a mutant, which makes April's character hollow and dull. We simply don't know who she is behind all those gimmicks compared to say... Nick Karai, who has layers to her character outside of her fighting skills with the conflicted feelings she has between Splinter and Shredder.

I remember in the beginning how the production team told us that having a teenage April was going to add a new dynamic to the Nick series, but the most it's ever done, has only been to establish crushes and the love triangle. In my opinion, it's a fairly weak contribution since there could have been far more material in showing how teenagers could bond, without using the cliche device of teenage romance.

This is why they need to have her interact with anyone but Donnie and Casey for an entire episode. I think anything that has her teamed up with either Leo, Mikey or Raph, could be used to bring out more of her character. The one time Leo stopped by her house to ask her questions about relationships, was adorable! We need more of that, and less of the tug a war April rope. Maybe she can be the one to start to help Leo heal mentally, maybe he can take her to the woods and teach her how to meditate, and in turn, we can learn more about her. Maybe she and Mikey go for a run, and come across an injured animal, and while caring for it, brings out some more character development. Maybe April wants to learn how to drive a stick shift, but she don't want either Donnie or Casey to teach her because she knows they'd be fighting the whole time, so she asks Raph to teach her, and in turn, gets some good character development time.

[Cryomancer]

2k3 April managed to stay helpful without being a heavy hitter in battle. 2007 movie april was at least slightly more believable as a ninja in training since there was some kind of time skip, other than being apparently equal to Karai. Both of those and Mirage had her doing her own thing semi often, usually a job or business. The 2007 business would actually work very good as a cover/excuse to have more "international" TMNT stories, I think. 2k3 April handled a lot of what would normally be "Donatello work", freeing him up to do more "battle thinking" and whatnot. April can also work well as a "well we need to do something in the human world for this mission" sort of thing, like that OT ep where they send Casey into the company to figure out what's happening. The new show talked about April organizing some kind of website and human information network like, maybe twice?, and hasn't really done anything with that. That seems like a perfectly viable storyline and character arc to me, dunno.