| “ | Mutant monsters and robot ninjas are taking over my city. How long before those freaks hurt somebody close to me like my Dad, my little sister, April? I'm not waiting around to find out. All my life, I knew I was meant for something greater. This is my calling, my destiny. A true warrior has gotta be prepared. Huh? Who do you think you are, a ninja? Bring it, punk! Scum-sucking, mutated freaks of the world, prepare to meet Casey Jones. | „ |
| ~ Casey Jones |
Certified wild card with a hockey stick, y'all.
Heyo. I have a candidate here that I'am personally not sure if he qualifies or not. Well, let's give him a shot.
What's The Work?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012 is an animated TV series produced by Nickelodeon. Just like every TMNT series, it centers around 4 Ninja turtles trainted by Master Splinter to protect New York City from a variety of threats, with the most prominent of them being Shredder and the Kraang.
Who's the Character
Casey Jones is one of the deuteragonists of the series. He is a human viglante who fights crime in NYC using hockey stick and baseball bat, while wearing a hockey goalie mask to conceal his identity. He first encounters the Turtles through his friendship with April, which sometimes places him in conflict with Donatello, who also harbors feelings for her. Despite this, he is fiercely loyal and protective to his friends, even Donnie, shown when he risks his life to protect them on many occasions.
What Makes him Close to Pure Good?
Season 2
- Defended April at the ice rink by fighting off Footbots and urging her to escape to safety.
- Became part of the Turtles’ team after assisting Raphael in taking down Footbots.
- Returned to the fight against Newtralizer, saving the team despite being discouraged by Raphael’s earlier harsh words.
- Drove the Party Wagon straight into Kraang Prime and helped the team escape from the latter.
- Participated in the rescue of April from Stockman-Fly and assisted using retromutagen to cure her father.
- Evacuated the team and safely transported them back to their base and then to the farmhouse during the Kraang invasion.
- Partnered with Donatello to free their mind-controlled brothers and release April and Irma from Ho Chan’s spiritual trap.
- Risked his life fighting Tiger Claw, managing to alert Raphael and Michelangelo about him even while wounded.
- Drove the team to April's farm house and saved them from being captured by the Kraang
Season 3
- Trained with the Turtles and April for three months and helpied to maintain the team's strength while Leo recovered.
- Attempted to save both Raphael and April after being captured by the Creep despite being endangered himself.
- Made amends with Bigfoot after unintentionally upsetting her.
- Rescued the Punk Frogs by knocking out Attila and carrying him to safety, saving them from their burning home.
- Awakened the Turtles from their dreams and saved them from the Beavers when they were suffering a FWTD.
- Defeated the Speed Demon in a race and savied Donatello and stopped the mutated car.
- Took a stand against the Purple Dragons' robbery attempt, despite being beaten by Hun.
- Spied on Don Vizioso and Shredder and gathered info and warned the Turtles about Shredder’s chemical scheme.
- Ingeniously used a hockey shot to sabotage Shredder’s mind-control formula, disrupting his plan by scoring the chemical into the wrong mixture.
Season 4
- Battled Dregg’s Vreen aboard the Ulixes, taking one down with a photon puck to defend the team.
- Sacrificed his photon pucks to fend off Ice Dragons and protect his team on a frozen moon.
- Defeated Wyrm by using a wish to reverse the destruction caused, saving the team and restoring the devastated planets.
- Helped protect the Daagons’ leader during Dregg’s attack and contributed to securing the second piece of the Heart of Darkness.
- Chose mercy when Sal Commander and Mona, under duress, betrayed them, freeing them and later joining to fight Dregg.
- Safeguarded baby Chompy from Tokka.
- Helped subdue the magically transformed Wingnut and Screwloose so April could reverse their monstrous condition.
- Urged April to resist the Za-Naron mind control, helping her break free from its grip in the process.
- Assisted Mikey and the team in preventing Tokka from unintentionally causing Earth’s destruction, even while kidnapped.
Season 5
- Continued working to protect civilians from rogue Foot Clan members and stray mutants in the aftermath of Shredder’s defeat.
- Supported Karai in maintaining control of her Foot Ninja and resisting Hattori Tatsu’s attempted takeover.
- Used Mikey’s gear and his own hockey weapons to fight the spectral invasion unleashed by Kavaxas, defending both civilians and his teammates from them.
Admirable standards
While the majority of his deeds were shared or even ''generic'', I guess he stands out easily for undoing Wyrm's destruction over the plaents the latter destroyed, and thwarting Shredder's minding control plan in the episode ''Casey Jones vs The Underworld'', which stopped Shredder from using the chemicals for controling The Turtles, and even potentially New York City. He also has done some other good things on his own as well, such as saving the Turtles when they were outmatched by the Newtralizer.
What Prevents him from being Pure Good
- He acted recklessly at times, causing trouble and even endangering lives on occasion, such as when he ignored the team’s warning not to touch Wyrm’s prison cube, resulting in Wyrm’s release. This led to the devastation of many planets and left the team trapped, though these events were ultimately undone.
- He also has some jerk moments:
- When Mikey tries to use the Aeon crystal, Casey fights with him over it, calling him irresponsible or dumb for messing with it.
- He clashed with Raphael in the episode "Newtralized" arguing with him and temporarily leaving the team.
- He was in constant bickering with Donnie over April, like when he trips Donnie with his hockey stick after Donnie gloats about April in "The Lonely Mutation of Baxter Stockman." He frequently mocks Donnie’s detailed scientific explanations as well.
- While his arrogance was significantly subverted by the end of the series, he bragged about himself and displayed pride in many moments, such as in his first interaction with Raph, he aimed to intimidate him and impress with his own bravado, and framing himself as the only one capable of freeing the city when he said “My city is infested. A boil, a festering sore. It stinks with pure evil only Casey Jones can face”’, and declaring himself as “mystical” when he said “Trust me, I may not have ninja training but I have achieved a level of awesomeness attainable only to Casey Jones. It’s mystical!” in “Newtralized”. Though as mentioned, he largely grew out of his cocky behavior by the end of the series.
- In ''Plan 10'', he has shown a pervert moment when he swapped bodies with April and kept checking himself out in front of her, even the latter called him out for it. However, this is an extremely minor prevention since it's a one-off moment that was played for humour and it was never shown for him to have any perverted moments afterwards.
Final Verdict
Weak yes to this guy I believe.