Current Events > TMNT Character Designer shows off April O'neil design. Twitter isn't happy.

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's funny, but despite all the changes to April over the years, the original cartoon one is still the most iconic and the one everyone goes back to.

You can't change perfection.

Don't worry, I know you're just working on your next suspension. You have fun with that.

Thats not the original April.

It's funny, but despite all the changes to April over the years, the original cartoon one is still the most iconic and the one everyone goes back to.

You can't change perfection.

It's funny, but despite all the changes to April over the years, the original cartoon one is still the most iconic and the one everyone goes back to.

You can't change perfection.

Is this Velma again

Tbh as someone who didn't grow up with it, 2003 and 2012 are always the designs that come to my mind for all the characters (and tbh I've never been a fan of many of the 87 designs, especially the turtles, tho the humans were fine)

They go back to that one because it's the most recognizable, to be fair, since that cartoon was when TMNT was at its peak popularity. It doesn't really go any deeper than that. If she was black and frumpy in that cartoon, they'd still go back to that design, too, because it would be recognizable due to when it aired.

It's been 20 years since the 2003 series but it doesn't generate much nostalgia for some reason. That's a whole generation, long enough to start appealing to their nostalgia. But the '87 series continues to take precedence. It was that iconic

Which is already widely regarded as the best TMNT story ever.

You think that what I've said in this topic so far is worthy of suspension?

Fair enough, that was when TMNT was a bona fide phenomenon. While it's still popular, it hasn't really reached those heights again.

It's funny, but despite all the changes to April over the years, the original cartoon one is still the most iconic and the one everyone goes back to.

You can't change perfection.

April is a news reporter. To my knowledge, news reporters are typically conventionally attractive.

she was only a news reporter in that cartoon and the live action films

she was not a a news reporter in the comics

You always do this. You tiptoe around racist/bigoted stuff

Only because he has a fairly consistent costume. Shredder himself, underneath the costume, has been changed a lot of times, too.

Same with Baxter Stockman.

Personally I feel that every version should change things. I liked the 87 series but I don't want it every single time. I prefer the 2003 series but wouldn't want any new version to copy it either. I have no problem with April sometimes being Caucasian and sometimes being black. Different universe after all. She also doesn't always have to be attractive.

Multiverse stuff is super trendy these days.

But I think it would be cool if people started coming up with new ideas, instead of taking the same characters and simply doing gender/ethnicity/sexuality swaps of them. It's lazy.

Write NEW material.

I often like to think of all those amazing scripts just sitting on some producer's desk......stuff that would blow Harry Potter out of the water. Stuff that would make Lord of the Rings look like childsplay. But no one wants to take a risk because it isn't a known IP.

Though when they do make a new character to fit that minority role they also tend to hated.

oh god imagine if for the sequel they dont use oroku saki as shredder but rather karai

imagine the melt down these ppl would have

Can you please give me an example?

I don't recall any new minority characters being hated.

I have definitely seen racists go REEEE when preexisting white characters are made minorities. I am not denying that that exists, and it's shameful.

But totally new and unique black characters being hated?

If anything, they simply aren't 'popular'...so they don't 'sell'. And that's a big distinction to make.

Are they unpopular BECAUSE they are minorities....or because they are UNKNOWN?

TMNT 3: Karai is the Shredder

Miles Morales. Like, point blank.

He was never presented as "We turned Peter black." Likewise, he was never presented as "We're replacing Peter and not looking back." Miles was ALWAYS portrayed as a character who was trying to fill in the "Spiderman" role, while respecting Peter Parker and what he brought to it. Yet, despite that, certain types of people had an absolute fit over it, and still do, to this day.

you have no idea who karai is do you

The vast majority of people liked (movie) Miles tho. We cant use the criteria of do some people dislike it.

...You do realize movie Miles came literally 12 years after Miles first existed, right? And yes, certain people did still complain about Spiderverse, anyway.

Can you please give me an example?

I don't recall any new minority characters being hated.

I have definitely seen racists go REEEE when preexisting white characters are made minorities. I am not denying that that exists, and it's shameful.

But totally new and unique black characters being hated?

If anything, they simply aren't 'popular'...so they don't 'sell'. And that's a big distinction to make.

Are they unpopular BECAUSE they are minorities....or because they are UNKNOWN?

The average person knows Miles from the movie. Hence, why I specified movie.

Like, what is your criteria for well-recieved? Minority characters will by default get hate by bigots. No shit. Thats not the question tho.

New black characters can be well received. Its not like replacing a pre-existing character with a black one mitigates hate. If anything, it amplifies it.

Can you please give me an example?

I don't recall any new minority characters being hated.

I have definitely seen racists go REEEE when preexisting white characters are made minorities. I am not denying that that exists, and it's shameful.

But totally new and unique black characters being hated?

If anything, they simply aren't 'popular'...so they don't 'sell'. And that's a big distinction to make.

Are they unpopular BECAUSE they are minorities....or because they are UNKNOWN?

Why make her fat? I feel like thats the thing people are annoyed with more than anything race related.

Because they decided to go with the "frumpy teenager" look, since it fit the theme of the characters in the movie, as far as it being... Teenagers coming into their own.

Why make her fat? I feel like thats the thing people are annoyed with more than anything race related.

April isn't "replacing a pre-existing character with a black one," though. She's been black more than once before. If anything, pale white, red-headed April was the replacement. Thus, I'm not sure where this argument is even going. Suddenly, it's only a "problem" NOW, though. And there's a very apparent reason why.

New black characters can be well received. Its not like replacing a pre-existing character with a black one mitigates hate. If anything, it amplifies it.

Youre doing the thing where you go Nick Fury is technically a race swap character!

The general public doesnt give a shit about her origins or other appearances or whatever. April is most recognizable as the yellow jumpsuit reporter from the cartoons.

Its why nobody realizes her looking techy is actually good. Because apparently shes typically a tech type.

Shes most recognizable as white. Thus the general public views it as a race swap.

I don't think there are consistent rules for this. In the case of Miles Morales, I think it was absolutely the right choice to create a new character rather than to reimagine Peter Parker as a Black youth. In the case of MJ, I'd rather the movies had the courage to call Zendaya's character Mary Jane Watson rather than "Michelle." In the case of Nick Fury, I think most (non-bigoted) people will agree that Samuel L. Jackson is an improvement over the cigar-smoking, eye-patch wearing White guy with the perma-stubble.

Miles Morales. Like, point blank.

He was never presented as "We turned Peter black."

It's a good thing we don't cater to the ignorance of the general public then.

I admit defeat as I don't have an example.