Karai

Karai

Species	Human/Mutant White Horned Viper
Family	Hamato Yuuta (Deceased Grandfather) Tang Shen (Deceased Mother) Master Splinter (Deceased Father), Leonardo (Adoptive Brother), Raphael (Adoptive Brother), Donatello (Adoptive Brother), and Michelangelo (Adoptive Brother), Shredder (Uncle, later Adoptive Father) Ice Cream Kitty (Pet)
Hair Color	Natural Black (dyed blonde in the back) (Human) None (Mutant)
Eye Color	Light Brown and Gold, Jade Green (Mutant)
Weapon	Daggers and Tanto (sword) Fangs, Serpent head hands, Blinding powder, throwing stars, Blinding venom, Tail and head for surprise attacks, Gauntlets, Spiked shoes
Team	Ninja Turtles
Alias	Hamato Miwa (original name), Oroku Karai (adoptive name), Harmony
Age	16
Voiced by	Kelly Hu
First Appearance	New Girl In Town (Human) Vengeance is Mine (Mutant)

Oroku Karai (born Hamato Miwa) is an antagonist-turned-protagonist in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She was originally the biological daughter of Splinter. Now, she is a 16-year-old master Kunoichi, adopted into The Foot Clan by Shredder as his daughter until her discovery of her true heritage in The Hamato Clan and the Ninja Turtles. She made her debut in the episode New Girl In Town. She was mutated into a serpent in Vengeance is Mine. She was successfully turned back into a human but was brainwashed to be loyal to the Foot Clan in The Deadly Venom. She threw up the brain worm in The Fourfold Trap.

The Turtle's Untrustworthy and Sisterly Snake

Official Description

"I am Karai, daughter of Shredder and only Kunoichi of the Foot Clan. For my entire life I was taught to hate Splinter, the being responsible for my mother's death...or so I thought. Now things are not what they seem and I can't tell from friend or foe. Well, so much has changed since I found out that Shredder deceived me and took me from Splinter, my real father. Shredder kidnapped me, but I was saved by the turtles and taken home. Being reunited with my real family wasn't enough-I have to have my revenge...deadly revenge. Now things will never be the same."

- Karai

History

Born in 1996 to Hamato Yoshi and Tang Shen, Hamato Miwa and her family once lived in complete harmony until Yoshi's adoptive brother Oroku Saki made an attack on their home in the middle of the night and sought to battle Yoshi to the death. Some flaming candles were struck with a clawed-weapon and the fight caused a fire to break out, killing Tang Shen in the process. Yoshi had thought Miwa had died in the fire as well, but unbeknownst to him, for revenge purposes, Saki had kidnapped her, feeling he should take something from his former friend since hetook something from him; the love of Tang Shen. Since then, Saki, renamed in his birth clan as the Shredder, had renamed her Karai, raised her as his very own daughter, trained her in the ways of Ninjutsu, and fed her tons of lies about what happened to Tang Shen. Presumably, one of these lies was that he and Tang Shen were the ones together and that it was Splinter who caused the immense fire. However, as the love interest of Leonardo, she discovered her true heritage in the Hamato Clan and got mutated into a serpent while facing Shredder alone.

Appearance

As a human: Karai is Donatello's height (approximately) and is quite slender. She has short, dark black hair with a large portion of it dyed blond in the back. She wears bright red eyeliner over the tips of her eyebrows, and often wears a distinctive black and silver armored ninja outfit. When she chose not to wear her ordinary outfit, however, she instead wore a brown biker jacket with metal studs all over it. She also wore blue jeans.

As a mutant: She is a snake armed white serpent with green eyes, snake heads that replace her hands, and armor that has become infused with her skin.

Personality

Unlike her previous incarnations, Karai is portrayed as a rebellious teenager. She always seems to enjoy having the freedom to make her own mistakes and cause trouble. Karai can be serious when needed to be and occasionally desires to know what is going on in her surroundings before making a move that she herself or her former clan could later regret. This can be noted numerous times, such as when she encountered the Kraang and decided to work briefly alongside the Turtles to slay several of the robots.

She has now discovered the truth about her real family and she has apparently "changed sides".

Karai also seems to have a soft spot for people that have lost their mother, as seen in "Karai's Vendetta", where she hesitated to harm April when the latter leaked that she lost her own mother.

Even when she believed Shredder was her father, she rarely wanted to harm anyone; she was simply Shredder's puppet, but she had no clue.

Karai/Miwa seems to be strong, rebellious and fearless, but she is actually quite kind and compassionate and likable.

After being turned into a mutant snake, Karai becomes feral and predatory, but retains enough of her personality to briefly recognize Splinter and not only call him "Father", but at Season 2's end, save him from drowning after he is thrown down the sewer by the Shredder. As a sign of their connection, she also managed to fight her instincts enough to not only recognize and call Leo by his name, but also beg him to help her. Despite this, Karai also feels that she is becoming dangerous and wants to stay away from the turtles. When under the influence of the brain worm, she reverted back to her old personality until she was freed from the brain worm in "The Fourfold Trap". She is now currently an ally of the turtles and their friends and wants to start her own foot clan into a more honorable one.

Abilities, Skills, Powers and Weaponry

Ninjutsu: Her skills as a Kunoichi are very formidable, as she is easily able to take on Leonardo one-on-one or all four of the turtles at once, which can be seen in Enemy of My Enemy. Her primary weapon of choice was a Tanto, which is a short and sharp Japanese blade.

Acrobatics: Though she being human showed some strength against her enemies. Having great acrobatics to compare to an athlete person.

Snake Form

Venom Spit: She also have the power to spit blinding venom whenever she is angered. She can also use her tongue in a pitch fork like action.

Retractable Teeth: It's also shown that her sharp teeth are retractable.

Vlcsnap-2015-07-17-12h17m59s178 — Between Forms

Second Mouth: In the back of her head, there is actually a second mouth. When she shows it, her metal scalp and the area under that will split apart. This second mouth has a snake tongue and teeth, just like her actual mouth. However, it is never shown to have four main fangs in the front like the latter. It is unknown if she can use this to eat/drink or use vocal cords, but this mouth has tremendous grip strength as she bit down on a Kraangdroid's arm with it then ripped the arm free just by pulling.

Enhanced Strength: She has incredibly fast reflexes, an amazingly strong tail that can be used for whipping, constricting or a able to smothering.

Aquatic: Like most snakes she can swim for long periods of time as she was traveling to another location from the West Side of New York.

Weaponry: Her weaponry is notably sharp teeth and long tail.

Metamorphosis: She is also shown to be able to morph between her human and mutant form but even as a "human", a few of her snake features can still be noticed. In "The Fourfold Trap", it's revealed that she can actually revert to her human form that she had before she was mutated that has no serpentine characteristics.

Intelligence and Communication: She shown to have her intelligence as human but loses a bit of it from becoming more bestial mentally while in mutant form. She can still hiss while talking, but that has some difficulties. Though her mind is fixed by "The Deadly Venom."

Healing Power: She also has the ability to heal her skin wounds (such as severe burns), she just has to shedd her skin to her mutant form and when it goes back to human, the wounds completely disappear.

Interactions With Other Characters

Karai (Character Interactions)

Episodes Appeared In

Season 1

Season 2

The Mutation Situation (cameo, non-speaking)
Follow The Leader
Mikey Gets Shellacne
Target: April O'Neil
The Good, The Bad, And Casey Jones (mentioned)
Wormquake!
The Wrath of Tiger Claw
The Legend of the Kuro Kabuto (cameo, non-speaking)
Vengeance is Mine (mutates in this episode)
A Chinatown Ghost Story (mentioned)
The Invasion (cameo, non-speaking)

Season 3

Return to New York (as a picture)
Serpent Hunt
The Pig and the Rhino
Casey Jones vs The Underworld (cameo, non-speaking)
The Noxious Avenger (cameo, non-speaking)
Clash of the Mutanimals (cameo, non-speaking)
The Deadly Venom (Controlled By Shredder)
Turtles In Time (mentioned)
Tale Of The Yokai (as a baby)
Attack of the Mega Shredder (cameo, non-speaking)
The Fourfold Trap ( Controlled by Shredder, but freed by Splinter at the end.)
Annihilation Earth (mentioned)

Season 4

Season 5

Gallery

See Karai/Gallery

Quotes

(to Leo) "You're adorable. Stupid but adorable."
"This is fun."
"I like your brother, Leo -- he's almost as entertaining as you."
Karai: "What happens when I do this?" Raph: "NO!" Leo: "Don't do that!" Kraang: "A highly undesirable outcome." Karai: "Well now I've gotta."
Leo: "I trusted you!" Karai: "I know! That's messed up, right?!?"
Raph: "She's bad news!" Leo: "No she's not!" Karai: "Yeah. I am."
(After being told that the Kraang are quite dangerous) "I like 'em already."
"Booyakasha?? What does that even mean?"
(referring to the Shredder) "He drives me crazy, because he's my father!"
(wanting to know facts about the Kraang invasion) "Aw come on, let me in on the fun!"
"Not bad."
"Sayonara."
"I trusted you, Leo - I thought you were my friend! I thought you were better than this! How could you betray me? You're just as short-sided and obsessed as Shredder!"
"You really know how to make a girl feel welcome."
(to April directly) "A Tessen...Beautiful, unassuming, but surprisingly powerful...In the right hands."
"So this April O'Neil is at the center of everything?"
"My name's Harmony."
"Guess I struck a nerve?"
"This should be entertaining."
"I understand...father."
(referring to the Kraang) "They don't talk much outside their little houses."
(to April) "What makes you so special? You are the center of an alien conspiracy, protected by Mutants, and currently being trained by a great ninja master. Why?"
Karai: "That's all he talks about; Revenge, revenge, revenge. Vendetta. Vendetta" Leo: "SO - I take it you don't approve?" Karai: "No, I'm fine with it, I'm just saying - he needs a hobby."
(to April) "Hey there, princess. Miss me?"
"I believe you Leonardo, I believe that Splinter is my true father"
"Father....What have I done??"
"Tell me the truth! Splinter is my father! Isn't he?! (Long Silence) Shredder: "Yes, Hamato Yoshi is your true father."
(To Fishface) "Well if it isn't the sushi I ordered."
"This isn't over, Tiger Claw!"
(About the Shellraiser) "Is this all this thing's got? Balls of trash?"
(While watching the turtles train) "Is this how training always goes?"
"Father?"
"Leo..........Help me pleasssssse!"
"No, too dangerous"
"Comet.........Comet!"
(To Baxter Stockman) "Stockman! If you don't let me go, I'll tear your wings off and stuff them down BOTH your mouths!"
(To April) "Lies! The only thing better than watching the Turtles demise is to watch Splinter bear witness to it, right before I finish him off!"
"You have no choice!"
"Tell your master I'm taking the city back, Tiger Claw. Piece by piece."
(To Splinter about Donatello's health) "I'm sorry, father. I'm glad Donatello is alright."
(To Baxter Stockman) "Of all the freaks Shredder would send to take me down, he sends his only bug."
(To Shredder about his new mutant form) "Father is right. Your transformation into a monster is complete"
(To Shredder begging him to do not kill Leonardo) "STOP! Don't do THIS! You can do something good for once, Saki. Something without malace. Something without the need for revenge."
"You were never my father!"
(To Leo) "Leo... Give Shredder a couple of hits from me."
(To Leo) "There's nothing to be sorry about, I just wanted to thank you for finishing what no one else could."
(To Tatsu before battling him) "Hattori Tatsu. You stole my Foot Soldiers"
(after interrupting Donnie and Leo's discussion) "Vizioso's is a miner inconvenient compared to Kavaxas. How do we stop that monster?"
[To April, Donnie and Leo of Newtralizer's arrival) Um...Guys. He's here.
(Threatning a Vreen) When I get out of here, I'm gonna open up a can of bug spray!"

Trivia

The name "Karai" is the same name as the Japanese adjective karai that generally translates into "spicy" (for describing foods), but also covers less common meanings like "severe" or "harsh". It also resembles words like kurai meaning "dark", and kerai, a word for retainers who serve under a lord or clan.
Like Shredder, Karai was raised by the opposing clan. Karai was born into the Hamato Clan but taken by Shredder and raised by the Foot Clan. This is mirroring Shredder's story how he was born into the Foot Clan but raised by the Hamato Clan.