Venus (TMNT)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Venus or Venus de Milo is a fictional character in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe, a female mutant turtle. She only appeared in the television series Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation on Fox and guest starred with the rest of the Turtles on an episode of Power Rangers in Space.
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[edit] Origins
Venus was one of five turtles that were exposed to mutagen in the sewers. When Splinter gathered up all the turtles he missed Venus and she wandered off. Somehow making her way to China Town, she was discovered by a shinobi magician called Chung I. Chung I took the turtle with him to Japan where he raised her as a daughter and named her Mei Pieh Chi. He also trained the turtle in the art of Shinobi.
Apparently, Chung I would on occasion travel the realm of dreams where he would encounter Splinter. Both of them swapped stories of their turtles but chose to keep this a secret from the turtles themselves until the time was right. Chung I also had in his possession a glass mirror, within which were trapped humanoid Dragons. It was Chung I's purpose to make sure that the Dragons could never escape the mirror. The dragons eventually crossed over into the realm of dreams, attacking Chung I and kidnapping Splinter's spirit. On his deathbed, Chung I revealed to the female turtle her true origin and told her that her place was in New York.
[edit] New York
The female turtle travelled to New York, where she encountered the four Ninja Turtles watching over the body of their Master, whose spirit was trapped in the realm of dreams. After helping the turtles put an end to the Shredder and the Foot Clan, she then led them on a dream walk to rescue their Master's spirit. Unbeknownst to her, the Dragons used this opportunity to enter the physical world.
To celebrate their seeming victory, five turtles and Splinter went for a picnic in the park but were attacked by Dragons. In the struggle, a statue of a woman is damaged with her arms broken off. After the turtles win the battle, the female turtle takes the statue with her to the lair, earning her the nickname of Venus de Milo, after the famous statue (see Venus de Milo) mimicking the other Turtles' artist namesakes.
Venus seemed to have lived a sheltered life in Japan. During the show, Venus was portrayed as blissfully ignorant of some parts of Western life and culture and at times, equally ignorant of life in general. While proficient in fighting techniques, Venus was not trained in Ninjitsu like her brothers; in battle, she would use mystical orbs to various different effects. It seems that the writers mistakenly thought that Shinobi was a mystical art of its own instead of essentially another word for Ninja.
[edit] Fans' reactions
It was established early on in the series that while the four turtles were raised as brothers, none of them (including Venus) were biologically related. This was done by the writers so as not to eliminate the possibility of a romantic relationship between Venus and one of the four male turtles (with hints leading primarily to the rebellious, quick tempered Raphael and/or the stalwart, even-keeled leader Leonardo).
Reaction to Venus among the fanbase was generally poor, at the time of the show's initial broadcast it was accepted among fans that the character was forced on the show against the wishes of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. While Peter Laird has publicly disavowed the character, it is now rumored that Venus was the brainchild of Kevin Eastman. He simply didn't want his hand in her creation to become publicly known as it broke a long standing "no girl turtle" rule within the Ninja Turtles franchise.
The introduction of a female turtle may have been intended to win over a wider audience, though in the process it helped alienate some of the franchise's long standing fans. An issue of the original comic involved April O'Neil's realization that the four brothers were the last of their species, but the existence of others (especially females) renders this concept void.
Some fans, however think that the addition female turtle could have been a good way to explore and redefine the turtles as individual characters, a team, and a species had the idea been presented in a more mature format and with a better female turtle than Venus.
Despite the negativity surrounding the character from the fanbase, there are still a minority of loyal fans that enjoyed both the Next Mutation series and the character Venus de Milo. There are also an exceptionally few others that believe that she was the only good thing to come from the show, and wished she had gotten another chance on the new cartoon show. While those fans may agree with the masses that the Next Mutation may have been a virtual train-wreck, they pine for the day she is reintroduced more in the form of her website counterpart.
[edit] Life from 1997 to 2000
After the cancellation of the show, Venus' adventures with the TMNT continued for several years. On the official website a "second season" of sorts was formed in the letters section. Starting in 1996 the Turtles would keep journal entries about their adventures in a shared universe with characters from Mirage continuity, Archie comics, and the cartoons all together. On October of 1997 "Venus' Venerations" were added to the website, coupled with four tremendously excited Ninja Turtles each expressing their feelings on the new member of their team. Although she only wrote a little more than a dozen letters she co-existed with Mirage, Archie, cartoon, and Next Mutation characters until the year 2000. In 2001 she just vanished, and the current storyline continued without any explanation or acknowledgement to her prior existence.
She shared many adventures with her brothers while it lasted, such as the time they defeated Bonesteel and got him arrested. Then there were two trips to China; the first was to get the rest of Venus' belongings, and the second was to answer the threat of the Dragon Lord. And so on March 1999 the Turtles had finally ended the Dragon Lord's reign of terror, unfortunately because of Venus' mind trick on the Shredder he was now a greater threat than ever. Before they could face old tin-grin though they had to deal with a mutated flu virus, everyone except Raph was bedridden for weeks. Shredder, now reunited with his inner self, attempted to lure Raphael to the dark side, to no avail, and became even more determined to achieve his vengeance. Krang however, offered to help the TMNT put Shredder away for good because he blamed him for all the failings they've had over the years. While the Turtles didn't trust Krang any further then they could toss the Technodrome, they agreed and secretly planned to end up trapping them both.
After all the major villains were "defeated forever" for the moment, they decided to help their friends the Mighty Mutanimals defeat Murk Mariner. Venus planned to get captured and defeat the pirates from the inside, but Leo and Don especially hated the idea. It reopened just how important she was to them and their species, and caused great tension. However they were eventually forced to carry the plan out and thankfully no one was hurt, except the pirates that is. In the last adventure she had with them Rat King had broken their truce and his minions had eaten or destroyed nearly everything in their lair. After a grueling battle the TMNT were finding it hard to deal with their losses when suddenly...
She retroactively ceased to exist, the Rat King had still destroyed their lair, but suddenly there were only four turtles again. No canonical explanation was ever given. After Kevin Eastman sold his half of TMNT to Peter Laird, Venus' letters were removed from the website, and he promised never to mention her again. The rest of the Turtles' letters from those dates remain and still mention her, however.
[edit] External links
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles |
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| The TMNT Franchise |
| Comics: Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | Tales of the TMNT | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures | Daily comic strip TV series: 1987 cartoon (episode list) | The Next Mutation | 2003 cartoon (episode list) Films: TMNT (1990) | TMNT II | TMNT III | TMNT (2007) Games: Role-playing games | Video games Other related articles: Food tie-ins | Action figures |
| The TMNT Universe |
| Characters: Leonardo | Michelangelo | Donatello | Raphael | Splinter | April O'Neil | The Shredder | List of characters Races and organisations: Foot Clan | Utrom | List of races and organisations Objects and places: Battle Nexus | Dimension X | Magical objects | Planets | Robots | Technodrome |
