i would never want to imply that 87 doesn't have issues writing women, cuz it really does (there's diet jokes, there's misogynistic dialogue, and one uncomfortable ...harem...thing...) but what surprises me most is how actually nicely the women can be written into stories when they show up? like case in point: mona lisa.
first of all, when i looked her up before watching this episode for the first time i had seen one picture and was so nervous to get to this episode like "god a girl turtle so she has hair and a pink scarf, and raphael has to comfort her? great its gonna be cringe" but it turned out i was super wrong. its a one off episode for her, but she captures your attention because raphael has fallen into her story (the same way the turtles as a whole in this series fell into april's story)
she uses raphael as a way to get into a party via hanging off his arm and pretending they're a couple, and then leaves him. the camera doesn't ogle on her, they don't make him infatuated with her, they just have him clearly confused by why a girl took his arm kissed his cheek and then left. and then he sees her acting suspicious so he follows her, sees her hijacking the ship and assumes she's up to no good, cuz this is a turtles episode damn it, shes probably the bad guy!
she doesn't take his shit and tries to tell him to leave cuz he doesn't know what hes getting into and thinks he'll get hurt (she doesn't realize he is a real ninja turtle) before the villain shows up. we get her back story, where we learn she's a physics student who was kidnapped by the villain and forced to work for him, to which she plays along with because she's clever, and she found a way to stop him from the inside. this gets her mutated in the process. raphael realizes hes messed up and assumed this was his story to figure out but it wasn't, he's interrupted her story. raph realizes hes made a mistake and has to help her fix it.
at no point do they actually write this as a romance (despite it being possible to read some dialogue as flirtation, it isn't overt) they're writing mona lisa as someone who isn't taking raphael's sass and is dishing it right back at him and us the audience. the fact its called "raphael meets his match" is so fitting because she's just as much of a character as he is, and the reason it became a ship is on the merit of the way she is written to be a character with her own story and her own personality first, and then as a companion to raphael second
and its kind of sad when i think about 12 mona lisa because, yeah shes this huge alien warrior who fights well, shes not a pretty character, but we don't get to know much about her before her new role in this story is to be the object of raphael's affection. in the end i think its a matter of the (male) writers thinking "well the original mona lisa is too cute and wears pink and she gets helped by the turtles so if we make her a COOL ALIEN WHO FIGHTS GOOD that will make her a stronger character" which is not how that works!
unlike 87, she gets multiple episodes where she shows up, but each time her role is the same. she's raph's girlfriend first and foremost. there's moments of inner turmoil in her, but it always comes down to her fighting for her people vs staying true to raphael. and since this show is about the turtles it puts her place in the story as being about him.
so to me, given the choice between a mona who's story raphael falls into, vs one where she's forced into his, give me the cute pink one any day. that's the stronger character between the two.
annaxmalina
jacobvanloon
janainaart
stormborns
germansingergirl
