Rise Characterizations Pt. 6!!!!!!
After the turtles and Splinter, here we have the girl Ever. She's pretty spunky, I had fun analyzing her for writing.
April O'Neil Character Notes
Language Habits:
Uses bae/aave, something she could have passed on down to Raph and Mikey as they also use bae/aave
Most notably uses "mm-kay" in place of "okay"
Uses a lot of filler language, interjections, or onomatopoeia. Think "mhm", "uh huh, uh huh!", "oh yeah!"
"Ah nuts" is her go-to disappointed phrase
Grits and or strains her teeth when she's frustrated
Uses her own name (the full "April O'Neil!!!!") as a battle cry, or brings her name as a motivator i.e. "the one and only April O'Neil will solve this case!"
The more worked up she the louder she tends to be, this extends to stronger emotions such as passion or panic
Over text uses emoticons
Refers to splinter as "splints"
Refers to the turtles as "the fam"
Refers to villains/antagonists through insults rather than their names
Personality:
Adrenaline junkie, as she's often the first to jump into a fight. She also laughs in the face of danger, and was seen maniacally laughing and smiling the entirety of the gumbus episode
Jack of all trades. April has a lot of skills she's picked up from various jobs or personal adventures she's seeked out (like canoeing through the sewers in a hazmat suit and earning a crane license)
Wild and blunt. April is Loud, and rarely ever afraid to share her opinion. This can either make people draw back from her bluntness or be drawn in by her excitableness
Self-conscious. Despite her strong sense of self-esteem, April is still often motivated to impress the popular kids at school or at least fit in. She doesn't want to be seen as the weird kid, or associated with the weird kids
Persistent. April is always quick on her feet to hit back whatever comes at her. She has a good set of problem-solving skills that she's gained from all the skills she's picked up
Loyal. She's always willing to back up the turtles, and goes out of her way to keep Splinter happy with her company. Once she finds a friend it's hard to pry her away
Unlucky. Mostly in absurd or mundane ways. She has that whole curse with her birthday, but things don't often tend to go right for April O'Neil, which contributes to the disasters that cause her to get fired all the time
Miscellaneous:
Code-named "yellow submarine" by raph
Tends to have information on wifi passwords, secret exists, and access to keys from all the jobs she's been hired and fired from
Has a preference for blunt objects as weapons (most commonly bats, clubs, pipes)
Uses the environment in a fight in general
She's been part of the "warren stone fanclub" since 2010, and keeps all her ids in her wallet
Likes unicorns and cats (as seen through her brief texts with sunita and her pajamas)
Loves laser tag
Can beat Donnie at video games (if he didn't use cheat codes)
"sherlock_corn" is her handle online
Lives in an apartment/flat with her mom (showed onscreen briefly), that has its own bathroom
Has a subtly mentioned interest in fantasy, as noted by Donnie she tends to download fantasy rpgs and freaks out over cosplay wizards
Just an end note to all of you who aren't black, some offensive tropes I would stray from is making April the angry black girl. This is one of the most common stereotypes of black women in media. I wouldn't mistake April's passion or loudness for aggression. It would be a disservice to dilute her lively character into familiar but ultimately harmful tropes in media.
I am in no way saying you cannot portray April as angry, this is a powerful emotion and it should be explored with black characters, but I am saying that should not be the base of her character. Because well that's not even April's base. She's centered around fun and thrill-seeking.
Wikipedia (yes I know, But they have proven to be more dependable these past years) has a good article on the angry black woman stereotype, so that would a good place to start research on what to Avoid. In my splinter post I also provided some links on doing research on writing poc.
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Anyway!!! We've ended our analysis trip of the main cast in s1. Next I'm thinking of picking apart our antagonists :]. Gonna take a break to work on my own fic, but stay tuned if you found any of my other posts helpful! It's been a fun ride with you all <3
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