Talk:The Big Blow-Out!/@comment-4783859-20171115205000/@comment-33635114-20171118034254

Werdelet, the whole point of fridging is female characters get written off and/or killed off either because they are "in the way" or to give an emotional boost to a male character, not because it makes sense to their actual arcs as characters. Both April and Karai were major characters with major arcs. April was there from Episode 1 and had an arc about learning her true powers and training to become a kunochi, as well as her becoming part of Clan Hamato and like a daughter to Splinter to replace Miwa. Karai joined a bit later but had an arc about learning her true heritage, dealing with her desire for revenge, and them becoming a leader in her own right. In no way, does dying offscreen in some random way and then being barely or not mentioned at all (in Karai's case) bring any sort of closure to their arc, or make any sort of narrative sense. This isn't to say killing them would be off the table, of course. There are plenty of ways they could have died which could have made sense in their arcs. But having them disappear with barely a trace and a mention is the very definition of fridging. Compare this to Splinter, also a main secondary character who isn't a turtle. Can you imagine him disappearing in the same way in a finale? Of course not, there would have been a riot. When he was killed, it made narrative sense for his arc. It had been built up for four seasons, and was the end result of many actions, ultimately really though of his own anger at Saki, as he described to Raph in Season 1. It wasn't just some random offscreen death that happened and no one mentioned. So why is that good enough for the female members of the family, including Splinter's daughter and essentially his adopted daughter? After they have spent years living as a family, fighting together, risking their lives together, it's just like, oh well, April and Karai who? And while we are at it, did no one else think it was odd that Leo woke up with no memory after 50 years and didn't ask immediately about Karai AT ALL?

Think about watching this as a female fan, especially a young one, and you identify with Karai or April. What does it say to you to be suddenly erased from the story like this? It certainly doesn't make you feel valued, that's for sure. It certainly makes you feel like the writers consider you as disposable and nonessential.

I doubt this was meant to be intentional. I'm sure somewhere there was indeed talk about just focusing on the turtles. But, the issue is, when you don't have female writers to say, hey, wait a minute, hold on, this is what ensues. It has been a chronic issue frankly with April with her being treated as "other" to some degree where her motivations and feelings re:Donnie have been frustratingly opaque and variable according to the plot. It is easy to write out female characters when you don't identify with them. They would never write out Splinter because they think of him like themselves, much like they think of the turtles like themselves. But the female characters are "other."