Pomegranate Garden

Keep forgetting to post on my other social medias, but here is this✨

Still feel like the background kinda drowns out the rest of the art tho, but its been growing on me. Also this is a redraw of one of the tmnt sticker I have💚

Because the fandom is too harsh on this lonely teenage girl who is humanely flawed and not all knowing.

An oversexualized, lonely teen girl who doesn't know how to single handedly manage and stop the love triangle she's been thrown into consisting...of 2 of her only 5 friends? Oh my.

The "leading them on" argument.

My honest reaction.

The underlying sexism of this argument is astonishing. Because yeah, the girl of the situation should be responsible of ending a problem consisting of 3 people. Donnie can be creepy for 4 seasons ongoing, Casey can take the opportunity of her not being able to control her own body to feel her up (Episode "Plan 10"). But the fandom assumes she is the one with more responsibility, obviously. She's the one they want, she's the object of desire, therefore guilty of all that happened in between. The temptress. Leading them on with cheek kisses and accepting hugs. Calling Donnie "her mutant" or matching Casey's banter. What a tease. That's what you all sound like.

She's a teenage girl like any other, not a savvy, not a superheroine, atleast not at that time.

Did she play around a bit? Yes. But not nearly as bad as Donnie's stalking. Or Casey's constant touchy feelyness. A woman's worst sin is to tempt. To smile and bat her eyelashes without the intention of taking it further. That train of thought is unbelievable to me.

"Oh, but Donnie was going to leave her alone, she made it go on again" April felt bad. She was clearly weirded out by the music box, she was clearly uncomfortable with his behavior, she was annoyed and rightfully so when he was following her after she specifically told him and the rest of the turtles that she didn't want to see them again. She is better than me, I would've been terrified. She felt bad that Donnie was demeaning himself and felt like he was some burden to her and comforted him the first way she thought how.

How could he be sad if she knows he's always dumbstruck or smiling like a dumbass when she hugs or kisses or compliments him? Simple logic. Her train of thought. She comforted him in her own way. Wrong? Maybe. But she is 16 like him. Like everyone else. She doesn't know the correct way to deal with emotionally complicated situations with 5 seconds to respond. Sometimes our hearts are in the right place, and our actions aren't.

And I need to add how out of character that kiss was. No, season 1 and 2 April would have NOT kissed Donnie so unhesitantly and walked away with a smile and her hands behind her back. How do you look at April's character and go...yeah, she would smooch a dude casually and never mention it again. NO??

Also, Donnie's apology wasn't even well articulated. He said "I get it now. Donnie is to April what Big Foot is to Donnie. I'm just some mutant". He expressed she must not want him because of what he is. Not for what he does. He didn't apologize for following her without her consent, obsessing over her, taking surprise photos of her for the wallpaper of his laptop. He apologized for being some "ugwy mutant inlove with a buwtiful gurl like her :(". He didn't understand shit.

And as for Casey, I play flirt with my friends. It's called banter. It doesn't mean I want to date them, and yes I know it was supposed to be hinted April x Casey to play around with the love triangle. But she has a right to not accept any further advances. That scene alone where he hugs her tight and she doesn't even reciprocate, just stands stiff with her eyes widened, looking like the mist uncomfortable person in that roof, absolutely convinced me nothing she did gave them the right to expect anything of her.

Of course she doesn't speak up and immediately end it, she's confused about her feelings for both. Besides them being 2 of her 5 friends, I want to make that very clear because it is important. She doesn't want to upset the few people that are always with her, risk losing them. The typical thing every girl has worried about atleast once, will things change or feel awkard to be around eachother if he knows I know he likes me and I say no? Because from all the incidents, she clearly knows. But neither has to acknowledge it if Donnie doesn't confess.

There's not an easy exit if he does and forces them both to acknowledge it.

Or if that's not it. How much is it going to hurt him? When Donnie wanted to confess to her while she bandaged his arm, she tightened it on purpose to make him stop talking before he confessed fully.

"You should stop talking, Donnie. It makes it hurt more."

I died. Right then and there. I know with context he's supposed to be able to interpret it both as literal and emotional so he wont know for sure, but my god.

I hate when they make the only girl of the group the "supposed to be reaponsible to put an end to whatever dumb thing it's happening" women aren't natural moms and shouldn't have to be over their friends.

"Her father's mutation was an accident, she reacted too strongly"

Her only parent was mutated. She had to go back home and probably make excuses to her aunt onto why her father was gone, she had to go to school, keep good grades, tutor her friend and act normally while her father was a mutant bat flying around NYC and eating trash.

Her only friend before the turtles and Casey was Irma. And she was a Kraang in disguise.

The turtles turned her father into a monster, be it accident or not, it was still their fault. They still trusted too much in themselves, they were careless, that's the whole theme of the episode.

The whole thing of her finding out it was the turtles was an accident. Because Mikey happened to let it slip out and his brothers glared at him. That added to it. What was the alternative then? Were they going to keep it a secret? Let her blame herself for telling him to come out of the house? Her crash out was valid.

And even she acknowledged it was an accident and forgave them but she's allowed to be mad. Also, she was mad at them for like 5 eps, that's a couple weeks or less at most for her only parent dissapearing and turning into a garbage eating monster. She's canonically afraid of him eating her, in "Fungus Humongous" he is literally her biggest fear.

"She's a Mary Sue"

I disagree.

★ She became a kunoichi slowly thorough the seasons. First not being able to do a thing, getting her shit rocked by Karai, then getting better enough for her to be able to hold her own against foot bots as a partner in combat with Casey and not dead weight. And even after reaching a level near to the turtles, Shinigami still gives her a hard time in battle.

★ She wasn't half kraang and had mental powers separately like some special power list. Those two things went together. The kraang had experimented with her family for generations, also she also learns to control them slowly. When she went blind for a whole day, when she couldn't see what the cards infront of her told her, she didn't even know what it was.

★ When she did become OP is because she was POSSESED. BY A CRYSTAL THAT SHE HAPPENED TO WEAR HERSELF. That wasn't on her, it was a foreign object.

I think she's appropiately powered for a girl in her situation. Also no, she couldn't hear the far away quicker and better than Splinter bcs she was magically better, we were explained that was part of the mind powers she had because of the Kraang genes. She was born with it, ofc Splinter needed more time than her at her age, he had to earn it.

It wouldn't feel so elaboratedly Mary Sue if the writers did more to what she is and not add new things and enemies every episode. If we cut it down in conversation, she clearly isn't a Mary Sue, it's just so lazily written it looks like a power list.

— I also need to adress why I think she is way too persued, because my god. —

This scene alone explains it.

Donnie has a crush on her.

Casey has a crush on her.

Timothy had a weird attachment to her and slobbered on her picture even if he had never personally met her and only knew Donnie's stories of her. Then went to try and kidnap her.

Xever flirted with her and held her while she recoiled.

Mondo flirted with her the second they met and smiled at her with his tongue out.

The position Stockman tied her in.

LET THAT POOR GIRL GO.

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LOOK AT HER. HOW CAN YOU HATE HER??

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THX FOR READING YAY. I hope I articulated it well enough.