He was not on board with the idea of a fifth turtle at all. Neither was Eastman for a long time until he changed his mind. Laird only reluctantly agreed to include her in order to keep the franchise alive. And this disagreement between Eastman and Laird (and the subsequent failure of this show) was what ultimately drove the two creators apart. Laird was never fond of the idea of adding another turtle due to the "if four turtles = cool, then five turtles = cooler" logic. In fact, the one time he agreed to include a fifth Turtle (Kirby), he made it clear that it had to be done in a way that it made sense, instead of clumsily retconning another Turtle in the established origin story ("Oh there was a fifth Turtle in the jar, Splinter just missed it!")
So he chose money over integrity. Still, Laird could have just said "No, my franchise is not a bargaining chip." But instead, he decided to include a female and then got pissed about it. Like seriously, Laird, own up to your stupid choices.
Laird was not the sole owner of the franchise at that point. Eastman and Laird were both equal owners. Eastman changes his mind and convinces Laird they should add the girl Turtle, Laird reluctantly agrees. How is this Laird's fault? It was not his choice and it wasn't until 2001 that Eastman sold his share of the ownership to Laird and only from that point onwards, Laird could say "No, my franchise is not a bargaining chip." Heck, Eastman (who supported the idea) still thinks Venus is a good idea, as you can see in the Trivia page. Eastman and Laird were equal owners of the franchise, Eastman convinced Laird to include Venus, Laird reluctantly agreed. Not Laird's fault. Laird doesn't like the idea, Eastman still does.
He reluctantly agreed. Meaning that he compromised his principles and his integrity. He's whiny jerk who reminds me of Sally Brown going off on Linus in the Great Pumpkin movie even though nobody twisted her arm to get her to stay with him, and miss out on trick-or-treating.
Laird could have just said "no" and maybe it wouldn't have happened.
You are making an incorrect assumption here. You seem to be under the impression that Laird was the sole owner and sole creator of the Ninja Turtles, which is not true at all. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were both the co-owners of TMNT. They both had enough power to do whatever they wanted with the franchise and Eastman agreed with this idea that the network pitched to them. Apparently Saban/Fox Kids said that they won't produce a series without a fifth turtle and while Laird did disagree, Eastman decided it was a good idea. So your assessment here that "nobody twisted [Laird's] arm" is not entirely correct.
Eastman has also gone on record and said that he likes Venus as a character has even included her in the IDW comics.
Now, if you really want details about why Laird reluctantly agreed, there are many videos, blogs and other stuff out there you can check out that examine the full history and making of and the failure of this show. I am still not sure why you think Laird is somehow responsible and he should own up to "his own mistake" (despite evidences being present that shows he was never on board with the idea). But that's fine we all have our complaints about our favorite franchises and stuff.
Edited by HissingAurora94
Well, thing is, there are plenty of people who will pull crap like that when they agreed to something. Seen it happen to people way too many times. Maybe Laird didn't do that, but honestly, I really don't understand people who were told exactly what was required of them and then whined when they had to do what they agreed to do.
Like when a family was renting a house my mom owned and worked out an agreement that her husband would do some work to pay rent, and still she complained about rent and about other stuff like just normal upkeep that she needed to do. And she was not the only renter who did stupid crap like that. She got so mad at my mom, called her a 'controller' and stuff, even when my mom did nice things like buying food for her family when she claimed they had no food.
And I also don't understand why, in the Great Pumpkin movie, Sally got so mad at Linus when it was SHE who decided to stay with him. Linus didn't force her. Always thought that was so dumb.
Why is Laird so ticked off at Venus when he could've just stipulated that Saban couldn't add a female turtle? I mean he could have just NOT signed the contract. He was long since old enough to know what he was getting into. Laird needs to cool it about Venus and stop throwing tantrums about something that's his own fault.
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