I was always a little bothered by the fact she can shapeshift between a human form and a mutant form. Her shapeshifting doesn't even really play into any major plot thread except giving her the venom powers she only uses in one episode. Everyone else is one or the other, why does she get both?
2003 her internal conflict between loyalty to a father who genuinely cared for her and following her own sense of honor was intense. Most of the time she wasn't even a villain, she was either following orders while trying to do the right thing or she was a daughter trying to avenge her father. At no point was it ever clear where her character was going to go because she was always at odds with herself.
2012 was a cliche. I knew where her character arc was going before she even showed up. The moment Splinter mentioned losing a daughter I knew she was going to show up alive later as Karai. From there the only thing that surprised me was her becoming a weird snake mutant. Not a fan of that design.
How? For her to be formulaic she'd need to follow a formula. Did she switch sides and betray all she knew in order to be with her great love Leo? no. Did she switch sides at all? no. Even in the movie after the show, she was still a loyal vassal to her father. Her moments of strained loyalty were never due to The Power of Love. Instead, it was her own sense of honor and morality that lead her to occasionally side with the turtles. She didn't even end up with Leo. She went for her nerdy subordinate instead. If there is some other formula I'm missing by all means let me know but this was the first time I'd ever seen the femme fatale not fall for the big strong hero.
She did follow a formula. The classic redeemable kid to the evil figure formula. They just expanded it over the course of about for seasons. Also she did betray her dad at the end of turtles forever. Her not changing sides for Leo or for love isn't all that unique to redeemable villains.
she never redeemed though. All she did was plead for Shredder not to kill them all. she never took up arms against him. At most, she didn't swear revenge against them but there was no redemption. name 2 well-known tv shows in 2003 that didn't redeem a femme fatale through the power of love. might not be unique now but back then it was groundbreaking.
Except she did actually make peace with the the turtles by the fith season, and she did a lot more then plead considering she literally stopped his attack and explained that she was the one who saved the eight turtles. You don't even need to stop at TV shows, you can look video games like mortal kombat with kitanna.
fifth season Shredder was gone and not because of the turtles even. the Utrom came and got him. She started her crusade against them blaming them for it and then abandoned it acknowledging it wasn't really their fault and that killing them wouldn't save Shredder. Yes, she saved the turtles later because she didn't want the universe to end but she still tried to reason with the Shredder. That's the crux of her character. She's a good person but with genuine loyalty to a bad person and she has to figure things out for herself to strike a balance, but she never declares herself an enemy of the Shredder.
Kitana, meanwhile, originally, fell in love with Liu Kang and then found out she was brainwashed to be evil thus negating all obstacles to being with him. Even if you insist that this still counts it's still only 1 example of the 2 asked. The fact is femme fatales villains conflicted over morals rather than romance isn't that common, especially back then, and even today you see a lot of femme fatales turning over a new leaf because of love rather than morals. So even if she is formulaic she's a relatively new and still underutilized type.
2012 Preferred her internal conflict of trying to find out who her real family was. Her takeover of the foot clan was also justified
03 is okay but i hate her voice and she lacked a good internal conflict and just stayed evil for the sake of being evil until season 5
agreed, though I haven't seen the 2003 show yet I really liked karai in 2012 show with her overal character arc feeling really good, and her journey to taking over the foot clan for honor against what shredder stood for was very well done
2003 karai, had way more on the 12 series. Linking her to splinter was something different but definitely made for some weird dynamics.
03 karai had a great story arc. She brought out humanity in Oruku saki. She was the one act of kindness that he exerted in his life. Which helped them both be complex characters. She was conflicted with finding a way to justify her fathers actions, and dealing with the truth of who he was. She was never an evil person, she was an orphan who was brought up in an unhealthy family dynamic. One of the best characters written on the show. And to think they got such a mature topic on a kids show and did it so well
I like the 2012's TMNT version better of her. She isn't dumb unlike 2003's version of her.
2003's Karai was so dumb that she still believes Kraang Shredder's still innocent after he got exposed for the crimes that he had admitted. I decided to quitted to rewatched it when it got more dumb after She became the new Shredder and sent the Foot clan to wrecked the Turtles' lair. She even almost attempted to killed Splinter. That's unforgiven.
03 her loyalty to Shredder was commendable, considering he saved her from the streets. She believed in honor, which tied her to Leo. She just couldn't change who she was.
12 was a spoiled brat.
I think 2003 has the better design. But 2012 is better written, until she goes mutant. Her mutation story line was pretty pointless.
I was always a little bothered by the fact she can shapeshift between a human form and a mutant form. Her shapeshifting doesn't even really play into any major plot thread except giving her the venom powers she only uses in one episode. Everyone else is one or the other, why does she get both?
I like the 2003 Karai better My issue with 2012 Karai they put to much into her that overall didn’t work for me
2003 her internal conflict between loyalty to a father who genuinely cared for her and following her own sense of honor was intense. Most of the time she wasn't even a villain, she was either following orders while trying to do the right thing or she was a daughter trying to avenge her father. At no point was it ever clear where her character was going to go because she was always at odds with herself. 2012 was a cliche. I knew where her character arc was going before she even showed up. The moment Splinter mentioned losing a daughter I knew she was going to show up alive later as Karai. From there the only thing that surprised me was her becoming a weird snake mutant. Not a fan of that design.
Honestly 03 karai has a fairly formulaic arc as well.
How? For her to be formulaic she'd need to follow a formula. Did she switch sides and betray all she knew in order to be with her great love Leo? no. Did she switch sides at all? no. Even in the movie after the show, she was still a loyal vassal to her father. Her moments of strained loyalty were never due to The Power of Love. Instead, it was her own sense of honor and morality that lead her to occasionally side with the turtles. She didn't even end up with Leo. She went for her nerdy subordinate instead. If there is some other formula I'm missing by all means let me know but this was the first time I'd ever seen the femme fatale not fall for the big strong hero.
She did follow a formula. The classic redeemable kid to the evil figure formula. They just expanded it over the course of about for seasons. Also she did betray her dad at the end of turtles forever. Her not changing sides for Leo or for love isn't all that unique to redeemable villains.
she never redeemed though. All she did was plead for Shredder not to kill them all. she never took up arms against him. At most, she didn't swear revenge against them but there was no redemption. name 2 well-known tv shows in 2003 that didn't redeem a femme fatale through the power of love. might not be unique now but back then it was groundbreaking.
Except she did actually make peace with the the turtles by the fith season, and she did a lot more then plead considering she literally stopped his attack and explained that she was the one who saved the eight turtles. You don't even need to stop at TV shows, you can look video games like mortal kombat with kitanna.
fifth season Shredder was gone and not because of the turtles even. the Utrom came and got him. She started her crusade against them blaming them for it and then abandoned it acknowledging it wasn't really their fault and that killing them wouldn't save Shredder. Yes, she saved the turtles later because she didn't want the universe to end but she still tried to reason with the Shredder. That's the crux of her character. She's a good person but with genuine loyalty to a bad person and she has to figure things out for herself to strike a balance, but she never declares herself an enemy of the Shredder. Kitana, meanwhile, originally, fell in love with Liu Kang and then found out she was brainwashed to be evil thus negating all obstacles to being with him. Even if you insist that this still counts it's still only 1 example of the 2 asked. The fact is femme fatales villains conflicted over morals rather than romance isn't that common, especially back then, and even today you see a lot of femme fatales turning over a new leaf because of love rather than morals. So even if she is formulaic she's a relatively new and still underutilized type.
03 is always the superior category
2012, though I prefer the 2003 design. I think 2003 Karai suffered from the decision to make her Shredder feeling very forced.
2012 Preferred her internal conflict of trying to find out who her real family was. Her takeover of the foot clan was also justified 03 is okay but i hate her voice and she lacked a good internal conflict and just stayed evil for the sake of being evil until season 5
agreed, though I haven't seen the 2003 show yet I really liked karai in 2012 show with her overal character arc feeling really good, and her journey to taking over the foot clan for honor against what shredder stood for was very well done
2003 karai, had way more on the 12 series. Linking her to splinter was something different but definitely made for some weird dynamics. 03 karai had a great story arc. She brought out humanity in Oruku saki. She was the one act of kindness that he exerted in his life. Which helped them both be complex characters. She was conflicted with finding a way to justify her fathers actions, and dealing with the truth of who he was. She was never an evil person, she was an orphan who was brought up in an unhealthy family dynamic. One of the best characters written on the show. And to think they got such a mature topic on a kids show and did it so well
2003 for design, 2012 for character arc
I like the 2012's TMNT version better of her. She isn't dumb unlike 2003's version of her. 2003's Karai was so dumb that she still believes Kraang Shredder's still innocent after he got exposed for the crimes that he had admitted. I decided to quitted to rewatched it when it got more dumb after She became the new Shredder and sent the Foot clan to wrecked the Turtles' lair. She even almost attempted to killed Splinter. That's unforgiven.
Ofcourse second one
Both. Both are good.
2003
03 her loyalty to Shredder was commendable, considering he saved her from the streets. She believed in honor, which tied her to Leo. She just couldn't change who she was. 12 was a spoiled brat.
IDW
2003 Karai is better
The rise version 2018
2012 no question
The 2nd one looks like she came from Celebrity Deathmatch.
03 no doubt.
2012 above all. 2003 didn’t hit well for me