Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25115701-20140629045455/@comment-995426-20141228083856

MonaLizard: No, an improvised nickname used on IRC and wikis. I chose "Gilgamesh" after the character from Final Fantasy V, and added -kun when I found it already registered. I'm simply "Gilgamesh" on Wikipedia.

Anyway, I've mentioned this before, but I think April is more complicated because of her Kraang empathy. It has to be remarkably isolating for her to so easily sense certain people's minds when the reverse is not true. She can't sense everyone's intentions (Irma was opaque to her and Karai was able to lie to her), but it seems she can read both Donnie and Casey's feelings and intentions like a book. And knowing she's an empath, it's almost certain that Donnie also suspects this. People learn to be polite and don't always say what they notice of each other, and it just happens that April can sense even more than most people. And if she were to actually say what she senses, it could potentially be very humiliating to Donnie and Casey, and potentially permanently alter or damage their friendship.

This is why I think April is always being so ambiguous.

I think Casey is far more open about his feelings and keeps trying to shoehorn their time together into a date, and April politely humors him. Now that they're all actually friends, I think this is normal for April and Casey, and that it's simply easier to keep humoring him than to express her disinterest.

Donnie always tries (and largely fails) to be more subtle, and is far more reluctant to liken his time together with April as dating, even if there is genuine UST involved. Problem is, Donnie overthinks and overattempts everything, and comes across as very high-strung and awkward. But the way he feels about April has never been a mystery to her...or anyone else, really&mdash;you don't have to be an empath to read him.

While Casey boldly keeps trying to claim a relationship with her (that's actually pretty rude and rather comically unattractive of him), Donnie is actually trying harder to earn her, and actually became most attractive to her when he expressed personal vulnerability while expressing respect for her wishes. It's not that I think April wants Donnie to be weaker to her&mdash;April already knows how he really feels. But she wants Donnie to be most straightforward honest with her, since they have already long since formed a psychological bond. I think April wants to see more of that side of Donnie&mdash;that is "her mutant" whom she can feel closest to, and not the try-hard Donnie who keeps trying to impress her with showy achievements.

I think, even in the Mirage continuity, if Donatello had actually wanted April (which he never expressed), and Casey had never had his own opportunities to mature and mellow during the City at War arc, it would probably have been Donnie who ended up with April. From the first time April and Donnie met, they were always the most mentally compatible. Though, of course, Donnie was always Peter Laird's favorite turtle, and PL personally disliked interspecies relationships on principle, though later allowed other Mirage staff to canonically write the human Radical as Leo's lover and soul mate, and the Styracodon Seri as Mikey's one-night stand (and she even laid his eggs afterward). But Donnie was PL's, and as long as PL had final creative control, nothing happened to Donnie that PL didn't like. And since there were no other non-family turtles Donnie could become involved with, Mirage Donatello was permanently single. But...Peter Laird doesn't have creative control anymore, does he now? :) He sold his rights. And Donatello's character development is finally being explored in more complex ways than the strictly limited formula PL had allowed.