Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25684889-20150822230425/@comment-995426-20150824013359

You see, Mona Lisa might have worked in the 1987 series. But 2K12 Raph is such a different character.At one point I actually wondered if Raph is female, considering that most species of turtles have no secondary sexual characteristics whatsoever, so he would look the same whether he's male or female. But as tomboyish feminine as he can be, I think he's still a guy. And he was highly visible to gaydar even before Slash and Destroy.

I know a lot of 1987 series fans want their old favorites to be carried over, but you don't derail what's already there just to make it work. I was actually looking forward to Mona Lisa as a new take on the character, who could perhaps be like some kind of kindred warrior sister to Raph. I think back on how IDW TMNT reintroduced the Neutrinos, but this time Kala was a no-nonsense badass soldier whom Mikey didn't give any special attention to&mdash;she wasn't any kind of designated romance, but it was nice to see her again in an entirely new way. So recycling a decades-old plot with very different versions of the characters and shoehorning it to the new versions of the characters? It has to be done right, or not at all. Mona Lisa and 2K12 Raph might work as warrior sisters, but it's really hard for me to see Raph with any kind of girlfriend at all. The only way I could see it working, is if Raph has a "lesbian" side to him. Who knows? They might be able to keep Raph's gurl side and make this work. But considering the precipitous decline in quality of plot and character development in season 3, if they are going to shoehorn Raph and Mona Lisa into an abrupt romance, I don't have high hopes for that or any of season 4 to be any better.