Eh, You Wanna Come Kiss It Better?

Alright, family, grab your favorite slices of pizza and sit down because we need to talk about some real, unfiltered fandom auditory garbage. Specifically, we need to talk about how the TMNT 2012 fandom—and certain toxic commentary channels cough Generation Defenders cough—weaponize deep-seated misogyny against April O'Neil.It is time to dismantle this whole "April is the worst" narrative once and for all. Let's spill the tea. 🍵

1. The "Lead-On" Myth (The Math Is Not Mathing)

The biggest, loudest complaint from these channels is that April "played with Donnie and Casey’s feelings," led Donnie on, and "used his tech.

"Let’s unpack how deeply transactional and toxic that logic is. This argument assumes that if a male character does something nice for a female character, he is automatically owed romantic or sexual access to her. Receiving help or tech from a friend during a literal mutant apocalypse is not a contract for a relationship! April is a friend. Friendship is not a vending machine where you put in "nice guy tokens" and expect a girlfriend to pop out.

2. Donnie’s Entitlement vs. Casey’s Trophy Hunting

Let's look at how these boys actually act. Donnie treats April like a prize to be won. He frequently invades her personal space, brushes past her boundaries, and literal tracks her location without her consent. That isn't "sweet, starry-eyed devotion," it's alarming behavior!

Meanwhile, Casey treats her like a trophy to flirt with. Fandom culture completely romanticizes Donnie’s toxic entitlement and excuses Casey’s superficial behavior as "boys being boys." They treat April as an object of desire, rather than a human being with her own agency.

3. The Absolute Erasure of Female Trauma

April is a sixteen-year-old girl. Her father was mutated into a giant bat, her home was physically destroyed, her entire reality was upended, and she is fighting for survival. She explicitly states multiple times that she just "wants things to go back to normal" and that she needs friends, not suitors.

Yet, the fandom has a massive blind spot for her trauma. She is fighting for her sanity, but viewers reduce her entire existence down to: "But which teenage boy is she gonna kiss though?" The lack of empathy is staggering.

4. The Emotional Caretaker Trap

Why on earth is the burden placed on a traumatized teenage girl to gently manage the feelings of boys who cannot respect her platonic boundaries?

This frames young women as emotional caretakers for men. Society conditions us to believe a woman's primary job is to soothe male egos and let them down soft enough to keep them happy. If a boy cannot handle a platonic boundary, it is his responsibility to mature, not her responsibility to coddle him.

5. The "Mary Sue" Double Standard

Then come the attacks on her psychic abilities. Critics love to call it a cheap plot device that makes her an unearned, overpowered "Mary Sue."

Let's do some basic media literacy, shall we? April’s psychic powers are biologically tied to Kraang experimentation on her mother. It is deeply woven into the central sci-fi lore of the entire show, not some random shit thrown in last minute!

But let's look at the boys:

Four teenage turtles master elite ninjutsu in a sewer. (Fandom: Incredible! Masterpieces!)

Casey Jones fights mutant armies with a hockey stick and zero formal training. (Fandom: Iconic! Badass!)

April develops a unique, lore-accurate psychic power tied to alien DNA. (Fandom: Wow, unearned, what a Mary Sue.)

The double standard is shouting. Fandom accepts peak male physical feats instantly, but the second a female character holds real power, she is heavily scrutinized and labeled "unearned." They don't want an active hero; they want a helpless damsel in distress.

6. The Mae Whitman Cinematic Universe (April 🤝 Katara)

We have to connect 2012 April directly to Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Fun fact: they share the exact same voice actress, the brilliant Mae Whitman. And unfortunately, they share the exact same toxic fan backlash.

Why? Because patriarchal media consumer culture demands that female characters remain pleasant, supportive, submissive background cheerleaders for the male protagonists. The absolute moment they vocalize anger, set hard boundaries, or have a human breakdown, they are instantly demonized and vilified. Mae Whitman's voice has inadvertently become the soundtrack for female characters who hold up a mirror to the fandom’s internal biases.

7. The Hypocrisy: Karai vs. April

Oh, let's discuss this shit right here! Generation Defenders and the wider fandom adore the fuck out of Karai while crucifying April like she’s Satan’s daughter!

Why does Karai get a pass? Because Karai fits the hyper-sexualized, edgy, dangerous "femme fatale" archetype. She serves the patriarchal fantasy of the "cool, bad girl." Because she appeals to the male gaze and aesthetic preferences, fans excuse her active compliance with Shredder, her violent betrayals, and her actual, literal crimes!

Meanwhile, April represents a realistic, stressed, plain-clothed civilian girl dealing with intense mental health strain and PTSD. Because she isn't an idealized fantasy, the audience has zero empathy for her trauma. This completely proves that these fans value aesthetics over actual moral behavior.

Final Thoughts From the Shell 💥

Look, criticizing writing flaws is fine. Media critique is healthy. But using sexist rhetoric like "bitch" and completely erasing a character's structural trauma isn't a critique. It's a lazy, disrespectful, pathetic emotional temper tantrum from viewers who lack basic emotional intelligence.

Toxic commentary channels like Generation Defenders think they are just doing "fandom reviews," but they are inadvertently alienating young, queer, and female viewers (like myself!) by reinforcing rigid patriarchal standards. They push out the exact demographics who actually understand the emotional nuances of these characters, keeping media commentary stale, biased, and deeply patriarchal.

April O'Neil deserved a safe space, a therapist, and a real apology from this fandom. Period.

Donnie should not track April's location, call her weird pet names, and bicker with Casey to try and earn her love over him. But he's 15, has been trapped in the sewers all those years, and doesn't know how to interact with people who aren't family let alone someone he's interested in romantically, and he grows! I mean he and Casey never stop bickering but he's less creepy and weird to April as time passes.

Casey shouldn't objectify April, touch her and flirt with her when she's uncomfortable, and the same point as with Donnie. I don't have an excuse for Casey other than yeah he's young but he wasn't sheltered the way Donnie was. He does definitely get better as well though.

April shouldn't have kissed D after he said he was moving on and flirting with both of them, but she's also 15 or 16! If we're going to let Casey get away with being gross because he's a teenager, then we can let April enjoy the attention she gets from the two of them. Plus, we've seen that touch is not April's romantic love language. Leo hugs and holds her, after the Speed Demon episode she leans on Raph's shoulder, etc etc.

back then i made a bunch of these but by now i lost the pic and dont know how to find the original post anymore

so anyway here is the diagram for anyone else who is interested!!

this requires pretty big carboard pieces, if you have a really big box or something you can make it from one piece, but if you don't, you can also just make each of the pieces individually and then tape them together

and then in the end you put it together like this!!

and then when you make a bunch you can put them all next to each other and stack your books like crazy