When it come to these three characters I honestly see criticism of all three of them specifically when it comes to the love triangle situation but by far the character that has the most criticism is April. And there is nothing wrong with not liking April as a character she is extremely flawed in the way she is written she does lead Donnie and Casey into a certain degree, and never fully communicating her feelings or establishing what kind of relationship she want with each of them. But April is still by far an overhated character, especially to the way that Donnie and Casey behavior are excused. April biggest "crime" is leading them on and their biggest crime is herassment, and although sometimes the extent of how bad this situation was is over exaggerated.
Donnie still stalked April at the start of season 2 and Casey has harassed April both physically and verbally.
Yet for some reason I rarely see that same level of hatred aimed at those two compared to April (in the love triangle situation) it speak a lot towards the underlying misogyny in the fandom that the victim of harassment is more hated than the two aggressors. And again the situation is poorly written but not as bad as people make it out to be and it's perfectly valid to dislike any of these characters behavior. However I will always find strange if someone hate April so much but love Donnie and Casey I say what I think.
Romance is really bad in the tmnt series tbh
As someone (In middle school at the time-) who used to unfairly blame April for a majority of the love triangle + romantic situation with Donnie, I can 100% confirm that this bias is true for a lot of fans- Which really does highlight a lot of the misogyny within this franchise / fan base as a whole.
While I do have my own issues with 2012 April as a character (Both because of the poor writing and outside of that, because let's be real, I don't think it's "completely unrealistic" for girls with personalities like 2012 April's to exist-), the love triangle has become some such a small agitation rather than the foundation of my disgruntlement with her character as a whole- I think people who cite the poorly executed love triangle trope as their biggest piece of evidence for why "2012 April sucks" either need to broaden their perspectives on the roles they each played in that situation and nuances of women / girls navigating romantic scenarios with men / boys (Like I did-!) or might honestly just be misogynistic-? Or even internalized misogyny they aren't addressing in some way-
Like you mentioned, April isn't completely off the hook since she did have moments of expressing interest in both boys that couldn't have been misinterpreted as anything other than that (Some examples more than others-). But I find the lack of grilling towards Donnie (And Casey, but I'll get to him in a second-) in this way to be kind of jarring in its own right. That's honestly why I enjoy drawing April calling him out in my art these days, because he genuinely was a nuisance of a guy, dude. Lmao || Similarly to how I wholeheartedly believe Donnie's writing towards April was overseen by an incel of some form, I think there are a lot of people who can subconsciously relate to Donnie over her unrequited (At least, it should've been imo-) pinning of April in the show- Hence, the unwavering defense of his actions from many fans of various genders. But I also find the defense of his actions within the series linked to a lack of maturity over romantic situations and overall relationships with other people, just like how I mentioned I was pretty young when I held that same viewpoint. Not that that's an excuse of any kind, simply an explanation I personally find reasonable-! Feeling unwanted, undesirable, a "freak", etc. "How could April be so cruel? He's been trapped in the sewers for 15 years, he doesn't know how to talk to girls / regulate romantic feelings!" Yet, his siblings in the series seem to be doing just fine in similar scenarios (Minus Leo, his doesn't count to me. 🤢 Lmao). For the amount of time he'd been exposed to April, combined with the amount of times his own family attempted to call his behavior, one would think he'd get the message mid Season 2 at the very least.
Granted, this is where the water gets murky, since the series does have April kiss Donnie in Season 3 just as he's finally understanding the role he's played in April's life thus far (Which, again, a grown ass woman romantically harassing a teenage boy is not the same thing- 💀). This is kind of why I personally find April and Donnie to harbor a majority of the "blame" or whatever you'd like to refer to it as for the love triangle situation, you know? Yes, Donnie was oppressive with his affections towards April. Nothing the show presents to us gives me the impression or idea that Donnie is infatuated with April for any other reason than her being "a pretty girl", and he barely makes an effort to know who April O'Neil even is outside of things merely connected to her (i.e. How he thinks April will like him "so much" just because her Father's a scientist- Which the show later clarifies that he's a psychologist as opposed to a scientist in the way we see with Donnie's character, but I digress-). He denies her autonomy, such as not respecting April's boundaries when she asks the Turtles to stay out of her life post her Father's accidental mutation (Something the show has April APOLOGIZE TO DONNIE FOR- Like?? Which, it's funny how upsetting that is for me, because I did find her abrupt distancing in S2 honestly really dumb? but still.) or how Donnie openly acknowledges April's feelings towards Casey in Season 3 ("Within The Woods") yet ignores the fact that she can make her own decisions on who she's interested / spends her time with. But it's also true that April encourages this dynamic to some extent. Donnie's the only member of the brothers she gives cheek kisses too, she openly gives Donnie physical affection or seeks out his physical presence when she's emotionally upset knowing his feelings towards her (I'm sorry, but you can't tell me she's oblivious in Season 1 either. She heard the things he was babbling about through Metalhead in the episode, "Metalhead"- 💀). The only complaint she's made about physical closeness with Donnie and Casey is when they do it simultaneously (The "group hug" comments she makes in Seasons 2 and 4-), and when she has a lack of control with it. Which part of me understands, your physical contact with other people should be on your own terms ! But in certain ways, it comes off as though their relationship progression only happens on April's terms-? Like April's feelings are the only ones that truly really matter in both of these relationship dynamics (Or in a less romantic sense, it comes off like someone only acknowledging you're friends with them when they "feel like it" or it's convenient for them-).
She also kissed Donnie on the lips in Season 3 (While ignoring the hell out of him the following episode-), and the show continues to give this uncertain standing on where April is at with Donnie into Season 4 (Like their moment together in the Space Market or when April gave Donnie yet another cheek kiss after recovering from his alien bee sting in the Dregg episode-).
They're both very toxic to me canonically, and not in a way I find enjoyable or as a good character study (Let me have my toxic Jonatello bias- 🗣️💜🖤 LMAO /j). As far as my favorite boy in the whole show Casey Jones is concerned, I'm also super biased. On one hand, I'm not going to debate or invalidate someone's criticisms of Casey and his actions towards April in this entire "love triangle". He unarguably did some dumb shit, like the graffiti he made of himself and April in the Season 2 finale for example (What was that, bro? 💀). But a big reason why it's difficult for me to criticize Casey and his behavior towards April personally is based on the writer's (imo) intentional hatred of him- LMAO / Similar to 2012 Mikey in this series, he's frequently disenfranchised by the writers and their choices to portray in a specific way. Continuing with the Mikey comparison, there were many opportunities Mikey had to be given a more serious focus and yet the writers refused to do so because it would conflict with the perception of Mikey they wanted the audience to have of him + his character. He's the "loveable goofball / comic relief", so he isn't allowed to be respected by his teammates regardless of whether or not it's deserved (Pretty much even centric Mikey episode we get in 2012-) nor is he allowed to have any meaningful commentary about the world around him (My favorite example of this is in S2 ! When Mikey gives a very thought provoking speech to his brothers about their sister Karai and how they're challenging everything she's grown up to believe is truth, so they need to give her the proper space to process everything she's been through- But apparently "no one understood him" because he had his mouth full of pizza gyoza. 💀). I have a lot of reason to believe they took the same approach with Casey, and while I'm always in the mood to get into that on a much broader spectrum I'll keep this post centered around the love triangle thing-! Lmao
Not everything of course, because like I said earlier I wouldn't fight someone on their perspective of Casey in the love triangle, but I do feel a lot of his distasteful actions with April stem from the writers wanting us as the audience to dislike him. For us to truly feel as though Donnie was the "better choice" for April, because look at how "crude and insensitive and Neanderthal-esque" Casey is compared to Donnie who's "a sensitive hopeless romantic, looking for a human girl to give a mutant a chance at love- 🥺". You see what I mean? It's also laughable to me, because like I've mentioned in previous posts, I think Casey and April have much more organic chemistry together than Donnie and April get to have together. We don't get anything close to that type of relationship with them until damn near the end of S4 + S5 (Which is atrocious to me personally and I don't really consider a lot of that Season canon-?? That's my personal beef though, so take it with a grain of salt-! Lmao), and that's so late into the series.
This feels like a strange comparison, but it kind of reminds of that, "Fred" series? How Fred was super infatuated with the girl next door Judy (This is already starting to sound familiar- Lmao), but uh oh ! Kevin is such a jerk and always ruining his chances to talk to Judy ! If only Judy would see how funny and charming and sweet he was- Then she'd stop hanging out with Kevin, who's a total jerk ! ...Like, come on- This is why I can't take the defamation of Casey's character in the love triangle seriously. 💀 (Granted, Kevin was a bully character or something, but it was obvious that that was the intention from the beginning- You know what I mean? He's the guy girls "shouldn't pick but do anyway", even though the guy we're supposedly meant to "root for" isn't a great choice for the girl in question either. Yet, they writers want you to defend them as if they are- Lmao)
Like I said, I'm super biased about Casey, so maybe there's more to be criticized with him- I won't deny that. But from where I'm standing, Donnie and April were the worst offenders in their own right. Not that this ridiculous love triangle warrants such disdain for 2012 April in the first place. I feel like there are other arguments to be made about her character outside of the love triangle- 😔👍
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