Is April kind of a loser?

[Rooish]

In many versions of TMNT, April has so little going on that she can accept four mutated turtles and a rat into her life, take them into her apartment, and hang out with them constantly, apparently with no one noticing. In Mirage she tries to break free from the madness in City at War, only to realize that there's not much for her in the human world and she might as well go back to the Turtles. She then proceeds to date and then marry a violent alcoholic (I know that there is absolutely no reason to believe he is ever violent to her) who is quite the loser in his own right. Seeing as she is endlessly smarter than Casey in all incarnations, it seems that their attraction is based on some sort of bond regarding the Turtles and the fact that they can never have normal lives after meeting the Turtles.

In the Nick cartoon she is pretty open about not fitting in and being a misfit, but I don't think it's acknowledged very much in other interpretations.

In the Fred Wolf cartoon she does have quite her own life outside of the Turtles and never bonds with them as intensely as in the other versions.

I just think it's interesting that the Turtles' main links to the human world are two people who are totally incompatible with it. We do get to hear April's opinions about this sometimes, but I think that the franchise as a whole does not really focus on the feelings of its main human character and the fact that she is a total misfit. Usually I think the image that the casual fan gets of April is that she is an attractive, spunky, happy person--somehow.

I don't mean that she's a loser in a judgmental way. Just saying it needs to be called as it is.

[CyberCubed]

This thread is anti-feminist and if it was posted on tumblr you'd get a 10 page rant from females saying how much of a positive role model she is.

[Rooish]

I am a feminist. My point is not that, because she is a loser, she should be ridiculed for that. I find her hugely sympathetic and think there should be more focus on what it's like to be in her shoes, as someone who literally can become BFF with four Turtles and a rat and no one in her life notices, because she hardly has anyone in her life. I think she could be a positive role model for girls, I just am surprised that she isn't considered more of a woman that misfit girls who have trouble making friends and go their own way can relate to.

[ToTheNines]

Yeah, I always wanted to see a version of April that was new to NYC and from a suburban/rural-ish area. She doesn't fit in or particularly like life in the big city, then boom: she meets the turtles.

She's never portrayed as antisocial, so it is pretty weird that she apparently has no friends or life outside work.

[CyberCubed]

I don't get it, wasn't Irma her friend in the OT? They went out to a lot of places together and also had dinner together in Irma's apartment in Season 2.

[ToTheNines]

April was a self-centered asshole in the OT.

[Rooish]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I don't get it, wasn't Irma her friend in the OT? They went out to a lot of places together and also had dinner together in Irma's apartment in Season 2.

In my first post I mentioned the OT was an exception. I don't think you actually read it.

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

She's never portrayed as antisocial, so it is pretty weird that she apparently has no friends or life outside work.

Yeah it's odd. This is why I guess she could be more of a role model for girls who have trouble making friends even when there's nothing "wrong" with them.

[CyberCubed]

In the IDW comics she did have a friend in College she was talking to before she met the TMNT. It's in the first couple of issues. She was also friends with Lindsey at Stocktronics.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by Rooish

Yeah it's odd. This is why I guess she could be more of a role model for girls who have trouble making friends even when there's nothing "wrong" with them.

I agree (and boys too, for that matter). Unfortunately most writers either can't or won't tell good stories focusing on her.

[Rooish]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

(and boys too, for that matter)

Yeah for sure. The only reason I didn't mention them was I assumed boys are usually socialized not to identify with female role models.

[GoldMutant]

I do feel the exploration of the human characters, especially April, to be rather underutilized. At least with Casey beginning in 2k3 has the Hun establishment (Hun even being his father in IDW). O'Neil on the other hand lacks a decent narrative most of the time, her backstory at times different especially.

If possible, a dynamic I thought that'd be nice is for Casey to be introduced to the Turtles first, not April like in most TMNT media. Outside that, it'd be interesting to have April either be graduating around the first season of a TMNT show or beginning college. Here, she could show she's got strong intelligence and work as Baxter's assistant as an intern. With crime running rampant, she could take an interest in photography/criminology. Combines both worlds together in terms of occupation.

Additionally, if later in a series, it'd also be worth having Shadow finally appear in animated form. Besides having the big sister angle with the Turtles, it could also increase bonds with other characters if Shadow were babysat by the Turtles and lead to interesting possibilities. Lastly, just give April a fun episode once in a while; Karai's Vendetta from the Nickelodeon series is a good example of April being handled decently as the solo focus, just depends on writer and story.

Granted, most of what I said is primarily wishful thinking but it'd be nice to expand the horizons more for not just April, but human characters, both male and female, altogether a bit more.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

April was a self-centered asshole in the OT.

Well, I think it was a realistic portrayal of journalists, actually. They do tend to be stubborn and always looking for stories, since it's their job.

Originally Posted by Rooish

Yeah for sure. The only reason I didn't mention them was I assumed boys are usually socialized not to identify with female role models.

I was like 5-6 years old when I first watched the FW series. I saw the TMNT as if they were cool older brothers and April more like as an adult who happened to be their friend. I didn't see her as a "girl". When you're a 5-6 year old boy you think girls have cootie but not grown women. That being said, obviously April wasn't my hero nor could I relate to her.

[plastroncafe]

I don't think Mirage April is a loser. I don't think there any arguing that she's lonely, but I don't think she's a loser.

When we meet her she's got a job with Stockman, and is arguably a grad student of some kind. She lives in what was once her now terminally ill father's building which houses his slowly circling the drain business. And she's the only one left to do all of this, because her sister is in California.

That's a lot of heavy stuff for one person to deal with with little to know support system.

Then the turtles show up and she's got a support system in them.
Then the turtles bring their own drama into her life and she loses everything she has and then goes into hiding.

I do wish more was done with her, because...that's the making of a really compelling story, but unfortunately when you're the token female of a property you don't get to be just any woman, you've got to be EVERY woman.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Mirage April was anything but a loser.

Mirage Casey? Total loser. Fun character, but in the real world, a broken useless loser.

[CyberCubed]

I hated April's hair in the Mirage comics. It was so hideous looking.

Thank god her hair changed to more natural looking hairstyles and colors in recent series. I also find it funny now April is always a redhead when originally she had curly black hair.

[***First of Two Latin Kings***]

Not really... Casey refuses to bail on a woman who is pregnant with another man's child, marries her, and them raises her child into a fairly well-adjusted adult after her mother dies. A lot of men in today's world don't even want to take responsibility for their own children.

Casey is rough around the edges and has a lot of deep-seeded emotional problems, but he has a big heart and is always trying to do the right thing. He's only violent towards men if the deserve it, and I can't recall him ever being physically or emotionally abusive towards a woman. He has no choice but to love them and try to save them because he desperately needs the validation.

[plastroncafe]

Sure, by the end of it yes. But when we're first introduced to Arnold Casey Jones he's a just a dude who becomes a street Thug vigilante because he watched way too much trashy television.

Meeting the turtles made his life better, where arguably meeting the turtles made April's life worse.

If we ignore the fact that if not for them she'd be dead.

[Cryomancer]

April's life was kind of screwed at the time anyway. Even if Stockman didn't kill her, she'd have end up losing her job at least, when he got busted eventually. Unless it can go on without him, but it kind of seemed like it wasn't exactly a huge business, and presumably all it's resources were going to something totally illegal anyway.

[Lisardo]

I'm not sure "loser"'s the right word. As others have said, "outcast" maybe. Or I dunno, maybe she's someone who's not super outgoing or has a huge social life, but yet finds a group of people to blend in with. I also have noticed she doesn't seem to have much of a life outside the turtles. Sure work/school (depending on the version), but she does hang out with them a lot.

[Rooish]

I didn't mean to put down April, y'all. I guess I meant that I could see her being viewed by some in society as a loser. Which adds an interesting dimension to her character.

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

Sure, by the end of it yes. But when we're first introduced to Arnold Casey Jones he's a just a dude who becomes a street Thug vigilante because he watched way too much trashy television.

Not to mention he drunkenly kills some kid by accident. You'd think that would be a bit of a red flag for April.

It was a definite sign of character growth for him to be there for a woman who was pregnant with a baby that wasn't his, and to care for said baby after her death. It could have just been a one night stand. This is definitely the part in the series where he transcended his loser-dom, if you will. I think he had more character growth than April ever did.

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I hated April's hair in the Mirage comics. It was so hideous looking.

It was the 80's. And TMNT artists have never been too good at drawing humans. Did you prefer Casey's mullet?