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| “ | Now, I came here to discuss a matter with you. And discuss it we shall, with or without your leader. It is your choice. | „ |
| ~ Karai to the Turtles and Casey Jones. |
Karai is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Hun) of the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series. She is the Utrom Shredder's disciple, adopted daughter, and a high-ranking member of the Foot Clan. A woman torn between honor and family, she appears both as an ally and enemy to the Turtles, a dichotomy that plays a part in most of her appearances.
During Season 4, she also briefly takes the mantle of Shredder.
She was voiced by Karen Neil.
Appearance[]
Karai is a young, beautiful woman with black hair with a red bandana, green eyes and pink lipstick. She wears a black tight shirt with a grey vest and the Foot symbol on her chests, has silver metal bracers on her arms and legs, and two katanas on her back.
Personality[]
A major plot arc that starts with Karai during Season 2 is that she is loyal to her father, despite his dishonorable ways. After Ch'rell's exile at the end of Season 3, Karai spends all of Seasons 4 and 5 hating the Turtles and possibly after Season 5 making a truce the with Turtles. When she appears in "Wedding Bells and Bytes" as a guest of April and Casey's wedding, it is assumed that her vendetta with the Turtles was over, but Turtles Forever indicates that with Ch'rell's return, her loyalty to him does not exceed her truce with the Turtles. However at the end of the film, she finally betrays the Utrom Shredder once she sees his true nature and becomes a friend with Turtles once again.
History[]
Childhood[]
As a child, Karai was found and adopted by the Utrom Shredder after her parents abandoned her at a young age. He took her in and raised her as his own, teaching her ninjutsu. An aspiring practitioner of Bushido, she became his most trusted follower, even trusted to his true identity as Ch'rell and told her that the Utroms were savagely hunting him (and in his mind they were). When the Utroms fled for New York, Karai remained in charge of the Japanese Foot Clan. Karai first appears as one of the highest-ranking members of the Foot Clan, similar in status to Hun (who holds a grudge against her for unknown reasons); eventually, she becomes the clan's leader.
Facing the Turtles[]
When the Purple Dragons, the Mafia, and the Foot are fighting for control of New York City after the Shredder's reported demise, Karai arrives in the city after hearing the news of the gang war taking place and quickly enlists the aid of the Turtles to stop it, promising an end to the Foot’s vendetta against them in exchange for their assistance. Leonardo, believing that Karai is honorable despite her legacy, convinces Donatello and Michelangelo to aid her. Raphael initially refuses, although he later recants. Together, Karai and the Turtles eventually retake control of the New York Foot and consequently its underworld. However, at the end of the story, it is revealed that Karai has been manipulating the Turtles (much to her dismay), and working with the not-dead Shredder all along. At the same time, she shows sadness when the Ch'rell vows to get revenge on the Turtles after she has made a truce with them. Her disappointment is one of many signs that she is the honorable person she says she is.
After being fully healed, Ch'rell retakes control of the Foot. As his first order of business, he deploys a killer robot (disguised as Splinter) to eliminate the turtles. Realizing that their agreement with the Foot has been recanted, the Turtles decide to face the Foot again in their temporary HQ—a ship stationed at the docks. Leonardo, Raphael, and Splinter are taken hostage during their encounter, and Karai is forced to fight Leonardo. Despite Leonardo's lack of resistance, she proves unwilling to kill him.
Karai's internal conflict – her loyalty to the Turtles as fellow Bushido-practitioners vs. her loyalty to Ch'rell – continues, as she is pulled from both directions to take a side during their various encounters, even working together with the Turtles at times. Karai manages to stay in the graces of both sides until the Turtles face the Shredder again in the season's finale. As the Turtles are chasing Ch'rell, Karai tries to reason with Leonardo, pleading him to let her father leave. When Leonardo refuses to let Shredder go, Karai fights alongside with Ch'rell and accidentally stabs Leonardo in the shoulder with his own sword, damaging his carapace, although she later prevents Ch'rell from killing the Turtles while they are unconscious. Despite her efforts, however, in the end, Shredder is taken prisoner and exiled by the Utroms, while Karai and the young Foot Tech Division Head Dr. Chaplin are also captured and sent back to Earth and placed in a prison. Before disappearing with Dr. Chaplin, Karai cries out to Leonardo: "This is not what I wanted!". Leonardo and the rest of the Turtles, however, remain unfazed both out of disgust for Karai's involvement and they do not know that she stabbed Leo by accident.
Revenge against the Turtles[]
With Ch'rell gone and dead in the eyes of the world, Karai takes over the Foot as well as the mantle of the Shredder (in a deleted scene she even says that Karai "no longer exists", completely replaced by the Shredder) sometime after she and Dr. Chaplin got out of prison. This new Shredder "would retain the traditional iconic elements, but have a different treatment". Furious at what she saw as a betrayal by the Turtles, Karai plots her revenge against them, first attacking them on the psychic plane via Foot Mystics, and later coordinating and leading an assault against them at their lair, which she believes successful. She later once again duels Leonardo (who was not at the lair at the time of the assault), who defeats her but then departs with the warning to leave his family alone and giving her one last chance for redemption.
Ninja Tribunal[]
Unknown to the Turtles or Agent Bishop who initially charges them with retrieving the artifact, the Heart of Tengu is a mystical artifact that allows the Foot to control its Elemental Mystics, who are in reality the heralds for a man-demon that had centuries ago terrorized Japan as The Shredder. The destruction of the clammer unleashes a chain of events that resulted in the demon Shredder’s resurrection. His first target is Karai, who has "usurped" the Shredder's name. The Tengu Shredder and his heralds make their way to Foot HQ. Karai had the Foot prepared for this, having developed mystic-based technology to combat the supernatural, but despite her efforts and those of the Turtles, who believe her the key to stopping him, the Shredder bests Karai in battle, seriously injuring her. Karai is rescued by the Turtles and taken back to April O'Neil's apartment, where she is tended to. Dr. Chaplin followed her trail, and is brought to her after being caught snooping around the building. Karai heals and, recognizing the threat the demon Shredder posed and her inability to stop it by herself, Karai agrees to a "temporary" alliance with her enemies. It is soon learned that because she shared The Shredder's mantle, Karai has the latent psychic ability to lower Shredder's defenses through a shared link. This is accomplished by absorbing the majority of the Demon Shredder's power into herself, a power that she presumably keeps. This gives the Turtles an advantage in their final conflict with the demon. Karai helps pave the way for her namesake's destruction, and Dr. Chaplin helps the Turtles co-ordinate their battles against the demon. After the battle, Karai, touched by Chaplin's devotion to her, promises him that she is going to worry more about the immediate future, and they depart the battlefield hand-in-hand.
Back to The Sewers[]
Karai appeared in the season finale, "Wedding Bells and Bytes", having been invited to attend the wedding of April O'Neil and Casey Jones. It appeared as if she and the Turtles had resolved their difficulties off-camera, and she arrived at the ceremony with Doctor Chaplin by her side. She and Chaplin later assisted the Turtles in fending off the sudden onslaught of the Cyber Shredder and The Foot Clan. Though she had no lines, it was apparent that she had moved on with her life and was no longer involved with the Foot.
Turtles Forever[]
After finding out Ch'rell's position on her monitor screen had vanished from Mor Gal Tal to the Technodrome, Karai frees him from the clutches of the 1987 Shredder, Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady. She aids the Utrom Shredder in modifying the Technodrome with Utrom technology. The Utrom Shredder, consumed with rage for revenge on the Turtles, wants to destroy every dimension where Ninja Turtles exists, even though such an action would most likely destroy himself. Karai begins to have doubts about the whole affair and secretly intervenes rescuing the classic Turtles, 1987 Shredder, Krang, and 2003 Splinter as the Utrom Shredder is prepared to destroy both the 1987 and 2003 Turtles. In the end, at the Turtles Prime dimension, Karai fights alongside the Mirage, 1987, and 2003 Turtles as well as the 1987 Shredder and Krang and 2003 Splinter, to stop the Shredder from destroying Turtles Prime. In the end, after Ch'rell was defeated, she comments that the Shredder would always return.
Trivia[]
- While it's odd that Karai seemingly sided with Utrom Shredder despite the latter's track records in Turtles Forever, it must be noted that she intended to make sure something terrible wasn't being done to/by him as stressed in Director's Cut. Despite being presented with opportunities and resources to free Ch'rell herself, she wisely chose to ensure him remain trapped at Mor Gal Tal in the end hence only made her move as soon as 1987 Shredder and Krang removed him. Not to mention opposing Cyber Shredder despite recognizing him as digital clone of the Utrom Shredder in the event of the latter's departure.
- Being genuinely overcome by finally seeing her true father once again greatly helped Karai's ruse as she weighted her options against Utrom Shredder unknown to the latter. While seeing Utrom Shredder stoop lower than he already did served as the reminder of resolve to not involve herself with him anymore, it also made her realized she need all the help she could get to stop him.
External Links[]
- Karai on the Heroes Wiki.
- Karai on the TMNT Wiki.
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 Villains (2003 Cartoon)
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Foot Clan | ||