Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-36015352-20190331022041/@comment-995426-20190408005402

The original Karai (debuting in Mirage TMNT's City at War story arc) was not romantic with Leonardo, though later on she did appear to be flirting with Casey (a married man) at a time when he was especially vulnerable. When she was introduced, she was the global leader of the Foot Clan, answering to no one, and was her subordinate, not specifically related to her, who rebelled in New York City and stopped obeying her. Also, in her first appearance, she was also at least old enough to already have a teenage daughter of her own. Her age is actually a strange issue, as it's implied from the beginning that she may be a decade or two older than April or Casey, and yet she continues to look young even almost two decades after her first appearance. She even wore a swimsuit during one of those later scenes.

I think it's possible that later incarnations of Karai (such as in the 2003 and 2012 series) borrowed some aspects of Lotus Blossom's character template, but the original Karai was pretty different from her, really. The most obvious thing they had in common was that both were skinny, young-looking Asian ninja women.