Line #47 Fridge/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012


1	'''As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff as per policy.]] Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''
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7	* The show features a return to the emphasis of the Turtles' fun side, like the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 1987 series]], whilst maintaining the DarkerAndEdgier elements of the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 2003 series]]. In other words, it's the perfect follow-up to ''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever'' having both sets of Turtles meet.
8	** The balance between silly and serious could also be seen as a great way to show the reality of the Turtles' situation. While they may be facing serious obstacles, in the end they are still teenagers.
9	* Splinter's origins (and, by extension, those of the Turtles themselves) is a DarkerAndEdgier "update" of the 1987 series, essentially going for "more realism", just like in the 2003 series. As in the 1987 series, Splinter and Hamato Yoshi are one and the same -- avoiding the rather hokey "Splinter was Yoshi's pet rat" angle from the comics/2003 series. At the same time, it avoids the 1987 series’s equally hokey backstory of "Yoshi was kicked out of his clan, moved to New York, and wound up living in the sewers there". Instead, Yoshi was living a perfectly normal life in New York -- until he encountered the Kraang and the mutagen. The realization that neither he, nor his new sons, will be able to be accepted amongst humans forced them into the sewers due to lack of any choice.
10	* The Turtles develop their TrademarkFavoriteFood because it's the first thing they've ever eaten that isn't algae, worms and other garbage. This makes more sense for a family that are living hidden away from all humankind, but it also makes sense that it ''would'' be the first time they've eaten something like that:
11	** They mutated from ordinary turtles; Splinter would have had no idea that they ''could'' eat human food without getting sick.
12	** Worms and algae are natural food sources for common pet turtles; naturally, Splinter would bring them up on the stuff, since it's what they'd be eating if they were still pets.
13	** Worms and algae are also fairly easy to come by in storm drains and sewers and the like, which is essential for people with neither money, contact to the upper world, or desire to be exposed to humans.
14	** Even if Splinter knew they could eat human food, he's still training them as ninja warriors. Pizza is, to put it bluntly, junk food; the last thing he'd do as a responsible father/sensei is let them live on something so unhealthy.
15	*** This also fuels fridge brilliance as to why they are seen eating other sorts of food in various episodes, like omelets and ramen; now that Splinter knows they can safely eat human food, he's happy to let them do so, but he expects them to try and maintain some semblance of a healthy diet. Pizza is their favorite food, but it's a treat, not the be-all, end-all of their food supply.
16	* The number 5 on April's shirt? It's a nod to this being the fifth incarnation of the Turtles - The previous four being the 1987 animated series, the live action film series, the 2003 animated series, and the CGI movie. In the eyes of both the creators of the Turtles and the majority of the fandom, [[FanonDiscontinuity there was no]] [[Series/NinjaTurtlesTheNextMutation live action series]] and besides, April wasn't in it anyway.
17	** Plus the more obvious meaning is that April is always the "fifth Turtle." Especially with Splinter giving her ninja training.
18	*** Even more significant when April's name means "month of the goddess ''Venus''".
19	* An obvious one is Splinter's [[OverlyLongGag multiple (mundane) warnings]] [[PapaWolf before he let the Turtles go topside]]. It makes sense that he would be worried since he's already had his family broken up once before.
20	* The Kraang's speech patterns and less than variational disguises can probably be used to indicate that they don't care to learn anything about the humans other than looking like them.
21	** When translating most languages into English, it's not uncommon for the results to sound stilted because English has more nouns than most other languages. It's possible that the Kraang deal with science on a multi-dimensional scale that they have more words for describing specific "places" in relation to space and other dimensions that just don't have an English counterpart, which would explain why "this place" is one of their most frequently used phrases.
22	** Turns out the speech patterns are a result of the true origins of the Kraang once being a peaceful race before the Ultron who would become Kraang Prime experimented with mutagen and brainwashed most of their race into a HiveMind.
23	* Why isn't Snake a little bit weirded out upon seeing the Turtles? Because he's been working with the Kraang and probably used to seeing strange things!
24	* Splinter's decision to have Leo as the leader makes sense considering the fact that he was the first to ask for the position, and the others followed suit after he made a move. In other words, he led his brothers.
25	* Look at the way Donnie's desktop is cluttered with folders. He purposely arranged them so they'd cover Leo and Mikey's faces, leaving April uncovered.
26	* In “New Friend, Old Enemy”, Shredder's minion Chris Bradford refers to Hamato Yoshi as "Splinter" despite not having seen him in his rat form yet. But consider that Oroku Saki himself bears the name "Shredder", and it becomes obvious Yoshi himself had a nickname/codename, and that it was Splinter, the name he still carries now.
27	* Why does Chris tell Michelangelo not to show his Death Dragon Kata to anyone else? It would tip off enemies of the Foot Clan.
28	* Just a general thing this troper just realized: Raph's weapon is the only one with minimal lethal uses. Sai in general are meant to be used to disarm. Look at everyone else's: Leo's katana/wakizashi (obviously lethal); Mikey's nunchaku which turn into kusarigama; and Donnie's bo-staff has a blade hidden in it. In other words, Splinter gave the most dangerous and angry turtle the hardest weapon to kill with. Good judge of character, that man/rat.
29	** The sai is actually a perfectly lethal weapon if wielded with the intent to kill. Not only is the central shaft more than enough to pierce deep into the body and reach vital organs, but the pommel can crack or even punch through the skull. The appeal of the sai is that it's so versatile to begin with, and Raph ''certainly'' wields it in a lethal manner (if he were attacking humans and not robots, that is).
30	*** Still, Splinter probably trained him to use them properly.
31	*** [[FridgeLogic Which would mean that he trained him to use them lethally.]]
32	*** Look at them in a screenshot, though, and you can see that the points aren't sharp at all. So that means that Raphael has the only non-bladed weapon (Mikey and Donnie's are hidden, and Leo's are exposed at all times).
33	*** Sais do not have bladed central shafts, ever. They are either rounded or octagonal so as to minimize chipping/breakage while using the sai. Anyway, just because a weapon doesn't incorporate a blade doesn't make it less deadly. In fact, considering Raph tends to charge into fights first, he probably has the most "kills" in the series so far.
34	** There might be another reason Splinter gave Raph this particular weapon. Sai were used by members of law enforcement - in other words, people whose job it was to protect the innocent. Splinter might have given Raph the sai because of his ''protective'' streak.
35	* Why is New York so empty at night? Well, given all the disappearances and the sightings of strange creatures, it's not unlikely that people would be avoiding going out into the streets at night.
36	* The word "gauntlet" in “The Gauntlet” possesses a few meanings, one being "Go through an intimidating or dangerous crowd, place, or experience in order to reach a goal", which the Turtles go through, in saving the city at the cost of being able to save Kirby O' Neil... but then another meaning of "gauntlet" shows up, as in the phrase "throw down the gauntlet" or to issue a direct challenge, with the arrival of The Shredder (who, for bonus points, wears ''actual'' gauntlets).
37	** Also in the episode, Raph's comment about him being ''a'' Shredder double as a MythologyGag to the fact that the 2003 series had multiple Shredders.
38	* In a way, Xever's mutation is a punishment for his ways. It was mentioned that Shredder found him in a prison and got him out. Now, thanks to his mutation, he must stay in water or he'll die, meaning he's now imprisoned in water. During his fights with the Turtles, he favored using his legs and kicking. After his mutation, he had no legs.
39	* Why did Mikey scream at the cat DNA in "The Alien Agenda"? Remember what happened the [[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S1E4NewFriendOldEnemy last time]] he encountered a cat?
40	* Baxter Stockman's Mousers have digitized cat sound effects. Once you remember or know the intended purpose of the Mousers in previous incarnations[[note]]Mousers were originally meant to hunt mice. They just happened to be very good at thievery.[[/note]], this makes much more sense.
41	* The Rat King doesn't go into battle due to the fact that he's ''burned and emaciated'', which is why he relies upon his rats to do his work.
42	* In the opening theme, when Splinter is giving the turtles their masks, we only see Raphael's mask, but it then cuts to the Turtles. Then, the Pulverizer was wearing a red mask. Sounds like nothing, right? Wrong. Not many people know that the multicolored masks originated in the 1987 series. Before that, the Turtles were all wearing ''red''.
43	* In "Enemy of My Enemy", when fighting The Shredder, he seems to be for once ''on defense''. He was just caught off-guard by the Turtles, and he's fighting them in an enclosed space, something that will make his bladed weapons more difficult to utilize as they might get caught on to the walls.
44	* Notice how Timothy's mutation was nothing like Splinter, Snakeweed, Spider-Bytes, Bradford, or Xever's? It's because unlike them, Timothy had no previous contact (that we saw) with animal DNA for the mutagen to combine with his own. With nothing else to work with, it mutated his human DNA more than previous mutants had.
45	** Hence the name "Mutagen Man".
46	* The Foot Clan's numbers are said to be dwindling in "The Pulverizer Returns", and what's left aren't really worth keeping. The dwindling numbers, if not due to death or being intimidated by the Turtles, is probably how out and out ''scared'' the members are due to how they're being treated by their own [[BadBoss higher ups]], especially since their bosses are monstrous mutants now.
47	* Splinter's lesson in "The Pulverizer Returns" and how the Turtles learned it. Switching weapons meant they would have to completely change their fighting styles. But, with random objects that could be used in a similar way to their regular weapons, they would have better luck.
48	* Raphael frequently insults his brothers, even when it's uncalled for. But look at his brothers - Leonardo's the leader and most proficient fighter, Donatello's the smartest and Michelangelo's the funny one. Take away Raph's insults, and you're left with someone who's not a leader, not as skilled a fighter as Leo, not as smart as Donny, and not as funny as Mikey. Raph insults his brothers because of his own insecurities over his brothers having a clear role in the team.
49	** Raph is the stereotypical brawn of the team. Also, while not exactly intelligent, he has some level of common sense like calling Leo out for letting a Fong go after attacking Murakami and showing some feelings for Karai despite the fact that she's '''in the Foot Clan''' and unlike Donnie, he refrains from talking about things that are mostly irrelevant to the situation at hand.
50	*** Which actually reinforces the original point - He's the strongest physically, but not the strongest ''fighter''; He has more common sense than his brothers, but he's neither TheSmartGuy or TheLeader; and he's sarcastic, but not the funny one.
51	** The same could be said about how Mikey is so defensive of his role as TheNicknamer. Being the funny one doesn't exactly help in a fight. Notice how the trailers for the show and the opening consistently refer to Leo, Donnie, and Raph as the leader, brains, and brawn, respectively. Whereas Mikey is labeled as something a little less specific, like "the wild one" or "one-of-a-kind". Mikey probably dislikes it when someone other than him comes up with the names (Rat King or Newtralizer) because he feels that is what he contributes, so he's not just thought of as TheDitz.
52	* One line from the opening theme is "can't stop these ''radical'' dudes". "Radical" is a slang term from the 1980's. You're all smart enough to figure it out from there.
53	* Shredder's burnt and decrepit body symbolize the poisonous nature of a life only sustained by hatred and revenge.
54	* "[[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S1E21KaraisVendetta Karai's Vendetta]]" seems to be a case of NeverTrustATitle since it features Karai but doesn't show her having any vendetta at all, that is at first glance. The episode heavily implies that Karai has a MissingMom. Come the season 1 finale and it's revealed that not only is this implication true but Karai does have a vendetta against Splinter for killing her mother based on the lie told by Shredder. Based on this, [[JustifiedTitle the title]] of the episode actually does show Karai having a vendetta. It's just more of a {{foreshadowing}} sort of revelation rather than an actual and most likely presumed episode wherein Karai goes after the Turtles for the events that transpired in the previous episode, "[[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S1E20EnemyOfMyEnemy Enemy of My Enemy]]".
55	* The Kraang were a lot tougher for the Turtles to beat in the first episode. BadassDecay? ConservationOfNinjitsu? Nope. The turtles thought they were human during their first fight. ''They were holding back.''
56	* Karai having a lot of similarities between the Turtles makes perfect sense when you realize she is Splinter's daughter; making her the older sister of the Turtles. It is a common thing that the younger siblings take after the older sibling.
57	* Why did Slash/Spike go after Donnie first when he was hunting down Raph's brothers? Because earlier in the episode Donnie almost blew up Spike so it was more personal revenge for Slash since he views the other brothers merely as obstacles that need to be removed for Raphael's sake.
58	** Not to mention, when he hits Leo, he said he had ''really'' been looking forward to that. [[RedOniBlueOni Hmmmmm...now why would the turtle Raph was always venting to be looking forward to hitting Leo?]]
59	* There's an interesting symbolic mirroring of the introduction of Slash and Casey joining the Hamato Clan. Essentially, the episodes serve as a counterpart to each other. Slash was all of Raph's negative traits taken up to eleven. Casey is Raph's counterpart. So in a way, these two episodes were about Raph being reminded of who he should be rather than becoming his worst parts.
60	* Corey Feldman auditioned to play Raphael in this series, but didn't get the part. So who did he play? [[ShadowArchetype The essential personification of all of Raphael's negative traits]]: Slash.
61	* The spores in "Fungus Humongous" weren't making everyone see their greatest fears, just the fears that were closest to their minds at the time. Leo was leading a mission while it happened, Donnie was with April, and everyone else started seeing things that could be found in the sewers. I mean, are we really supposed to believe Mikey's single greatest fear is a bunch of random mutant squirrels they fought one time?
62	* Karai is 16-years-old when the series came out in 2012, making her year of birth 1996. It was actually a ''very'' clever hint that she was Splinter's daughter because in the Chinese zodiac, that was the '''year of the rat'''.
63	* Why did Karai (after her mutation into a snake) only spit acid at Raph? Raph is the only one who truly hates her. While Mikey and Donnie dislike her for her actions in "The Alien Agenda" and treat her like any other enemy, they don't outright hate her the same way Raph does.
64	** I wouldn't go so far as to say Raph ''hates'' her (he did say he was on-board with the rescue mission at the start of the episode, after all) but he obviously doesn't trust her at all.
65	* This one might well be unintentional, but that "Spear of Destiny" that Zeck steals from Steranko is commonly known as a boar spear, so named because it was the kind favored for hunting wild boar. Considering who Zeck mutates into...
66	* Concerning the random {{Squick}} pizza Mikey bakes in "Pizza Face", [[http://i.imgur.com/27oedz5.jpg look carefully at the toppings (if you dare).]] As TheHeart of the group, it makes sense that Mikey [[VisualPun literally gives a rat's ass.]] [[RunningGag (No offense Splinter.)]]
67	* It may be odd that Rocksteady appears larger than Bebop in their new designs when they were of equal stature in the 1987 series, but rhinos are actually bigger than warthogs in real life.
68	* Irma's remark that the cold doesn't bother her in the finale. Is it because she's a Goth? Or is it because she's a robot body housing a Kraang inside of her?
69	* As much as I hated the Irma twist, it's actually brilliant: who's the last person the audience would suspect of being an undercover Kraang? A beloved longtime character of the franchise!
70	* Take the Irma twist into consideration. Then go back and [[RewatchBonus re-watch season 1]] with that knowledge in your mind. In episode eighteen, there was a FunnyBackgroundEvent where a Kraangdroid is bragging about the success of his gluten-free diet. Now, only one other character in the show is explicitly mentioned to adhere to a gluten-free diet, and who is that? Irma. Now, let the realization set in: this cartoon has been telling you exactly who TheMole is going to be, and you never realized it because you were too busy laughing at the idea that a Kraangdroid might want to lose weight. Brilliant indeed.
71	** It's also a neat MythologyGag to the 2003 series, where Shredder received this treatment.
72	** In the same episode, Irma said she was more of a rat person. What do the moles do usually? Rat out the people they're spying to their superiors.
73	** Also from the same episode, when Irma was told to help free the prisoners, she fumbled about with the Rat King's tech, doing nothing to contribute to freeing anyone and only turning on a great huge fan that made the fight more difficult for the turtles. While originally chalked up to "teenage girl has no idea what she's doing" looking back and knowing she's an infiltrator... could she have been ''trying'' to make the fight more difficult for the Turtles?
74	* When Xever[=/=]Fishface brings Karai a bowl of rice in her cell, she calls him "the sushi I ordered". Sushi is typically ''fish with rice.''
75	* This version of mutagen seems to be able to affect a far wider range of changes than in previous incarnations of the TMNT franchise. But this actually makes sense when you consider just what the Kraang actually want to use it for. It's for making Earth like Dimension X. And Dimension X has different laws of physics. The Ooze doesn't just alter genetics, it warps reality!
76	* The fact the Kraang don't seem to suffer much in the way of setbacks no matter what the Turtles do makes a lot of sense once you know time flows faster in Dimension X. The Kraang have more time to recover and plan than the Turtles do. Even if a setback takes years to recover from, the Kraang can recover in almost no time on Earth.
77	* The Party Wagon's array of weapons are erupting soda bottles and stink bombs, which don't seem very dangerous as weapons. Except that these are most likely deliberately designed to avoid killing any innocent targets.
78	* In "Vision Quest", all of the Turtles' vision enemies made sense (Leo's determined to fight Shredder, Raph's been Xever's rival since season 1, and same with Mikey and Chris) except for one: Donnie and Tiger Claw. That is when the Fridge Brilliance comes in: these two in particular are fighting because both of them use more technology than their respective allies: Donnie with all the inventions and Tiger Claw with the two ray guns and jetpack.
79	* At first it seems a bit random to have a Soviet stereotype and a Music/MichealJackson {{expy}} as the new Bebop and Rocksteady, until you remember that those two were big things back in the mid-1980's, when the originals were introduced.
80	** While we didn't learn much about human Bebop and Rocksteady from the '87 show, the 2012 versions take personality ques from their clothing. Bebop's purple mohawk and visor were things you would find in punk rock bands, and Rocksteady wore military style clothing.
81	* Why does Kraang Sub Prime speak perfect English? Well, Bishop reveals that Kraang Sub Prime used to be an Utrom, a rogue Kraang faction that split off from the HiveMind.
82	** More specifically, the Utrom were the original race before one of their members, Kraang, enhanced themselves with the mutagen and brainwashed most of the race into being a HiveMind SlaveRace. Kraang Sub-Prime used to be Knight, the Utrom's greatest hero.
83	** It also explains why the Kraang speak the way they do: their own identities have been pretty much crushed and under the slavery of Kraang. Their strange and robotic way of speaking is one of the side effects of the horrendous fate that happened on them.
84	* When Mikey cut off Mega-Shredders tongue/brain thing, it took a few seconds before it died. When the head is severed from the body, it takes 4-7 seconds for the brain to realize it and dies.
85	* The reason is Lord Dregg is a bug in this series is probably because his minions were all bugs in the last one, it would make more sense if he was the same in this one.
86	* “Earth's Land Stand”: With the younger Fugitoid taking the turtles, past Casey and April into the stars, we're not sure why... but considering that they did change the past, it is most likely a StableTimeLoop.
87	* Splinter says in Annihilation Earth that Karai is "alive, but vanished from the city". Come City At War, she has brought Shinigami over from Japan, which explains why she left.
88	* Shredder's actions in “[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S3E2526AnnihilationEarth Annihilation Earth]]” seem like a pretty big RevengeBeforeReason -slash- IdiotBall moment. Namely, Shredder literally stabs Splinter in the back before Splinter can shut down the Black Hole Generator, killing both himself and the entire planet Earth. But: as has been pointed out in-show, Shredder's big revenge fetish is a major case of AndThenWhat. Once Shredder kills Splinter, he'll have nothing, not even Karai's love. And so, he does the logical thing.
89	* The Triceratons demanding Professor Honeycutt to build weapons for them only to attack his lab and kill him when he refused seems like DisproportionateRetribution, until it was revealed that he was the one who built the BHG and gave in to Kraang Sub Prime's bribery. The Triceratons probably thought it was unfair that the professor sold a weapon to the Kraang, but not them.
90	* Donnie's behaviour towards April in the early seasons is annoying and downright StalkerWithACrush at times, but consider this: Donnie is a teenage boy and, like most boys his age, he has no idea how to talk to a girl. Added to that, he's been living in the sewers most of his life, away from any social interaction outside of his family, and has never met a girl before her. Taking all that into consideration, it's a miracle his behaviour towards her isn't ''worse''.
91	** With all that in mind, his CharacterDevelopment over the series when it comes to April also makes sense. In season 1 his behaviour wasn't as bad, but still awkward. He hasn't known her for very long, and is still trying to get a grip on his feelings for her. Come season 2, his behaviour gets worse...because Casey, a romantic rival, is in the picture. Then from season 3 onwards he learns a lesson so calms his behaviour towards her, and lets her do her own thing. He's come to understand his feelings and hers too, and is content to love her from afar. Ironically enough, this later behaviour may not have gone unnoticed, as it's around this time when April seems to start returning his feelings...
92	** His earlier behaviour also makes sense with his character. Splinter has told Donnie many times that he thinks too much; he overthinks everything. That's what he was doing with April. He was obsessing over her and thinking too much about how to win her, but never took the action to actually try.
93	** A supporting argument for this idea is also ''Mikey'', who displayed similar StalkerWithACrush tendencies towards Chris Bradford when Mikey thought they were friends. Yes, there was some celebrity-worship going on too, but even if Bradford ''hadn't'' been a psychotic killer working for Shredder, had he been a regular guy or even a regular celebrity, Mikey's behaviour would have still been extremely overbearing. Because Mikey didn't know how to have friends yet. He was only just starting to know April, and apart from her, only knew his family (and honestly, even within his family, Mikey's love language tends to be "get up in their faces all the time"). Later on, Mikey becomes closer with April, and makes other genuine friends, and learns how to be more balanced. But both Mikey and Donnie, at earlier points in the series, had no idea how to gradually build relationships.
94	* When Leatherhead makes his debut, he has a violent temper that's easily triggered despite being an ally of the turtles. Yet he surprisingly likes Mikey's cooking despite Mikey's questionable skills. Similar to the above entry about how pizza is the first thing the turtles ate that wasn't worms and algae and end up getting hooked on it, Leatherhead was a prisoner of the Kraang and probably didn't give him anything to eat or if they did, it wasn't much and the Kraang probably didn't care about the nutrition or taste of what they fed him. Mikey's cooking was the first thing he ate.
95	* Karai’s [[AdaptationPersonalityChange personality is very different]] from her previous incarnations; [[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage All]] [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 the]] [[{{WesternAnimation/TMNT}} previous]] [[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIDW Karais]] were very stoic and serious, while this Karai is a mischievous DeadpanSnarker; this makes sense when you consider that she isn’t really Karai, she’s actually Hamato Miwa, a different character.
96	* The entire idea of Mikey being TheHeart. It's the sort of thing that's easy to overlook, and the other characters often ''do'' overlook it, but so much of what Mikey does is focused on keeping home and family together. It's particularly noticeable during the farmhouse arc while Leo is laid up - April describes Mikey as "mostly goofing off, but also doing a ton of chores... but mostly goofing off." Mikey is already the team cook, he was apparently doing a lot of other chores and housework too, but the "goofing off"... this was at a time when Raph was barely leaving Leo's side and Donnie was spending his days trying to create medicine for Leo. Mikey was the one making sure they ate, he was the one gathering everyone up to watch TV at night, he was the one focused on not letting his brothers burn out and on maintaining ways for them to keep talking and spending time together ''while'' they in turn focused on caring for Leo. What Mikey was doing was absolutely essential for them to keep going, even if it did look like "goofing off."
97	* Leo's final spiel to Shredder in "Owari" is this:
98
99	--> '''Leonardo:''' You killed him! He was your brother, and you killed him!! He was your brother, Saki! Your best friend!! How could you do that!?
100
101	** I put a spiel about this on the CMOH page as well, but to take a slightly different tack here on the same topic. What makes this brilliant is that for the entire series up to this point, Shredder has been the Turtles' enemy - but mostly because Shredder has been ''their father's'' enemy. And even this battle had initially been framed as avenging Splinter. But by invoking ''brother'', Leo is marking Shredder as ''his'' opposite and enemy because Shredder is capable of hating and killing his ''brother'', whereas Leo has essentially structured his entire life around loving and protecting his brothers. Leo is a brother before anything else. He's not saying, "You killed my father and that makes you a CompleteMonster and now I'm going to kill you." He's saying, "You killed ''your brother'', and I ''know'' that makes you a CompleteMonster, and I feel morally justified in killing you, because I know what it means to be someone's brother and I know there is nothing redeemable left in you if that's something you can do." He was truly defining Shredder here not as an enemy he "inherited" from his father, but as his own personal antithesis, before finally killing him.
102	* Raph hugging Leo at the end of 'Owari' is also more than just a cute celebratory moment: Raph and Leo's SiblingRivalry and relationship in general has often been compared to Saki's and Yoshi's relationship, with Raph generally on the "Saki" end of it. Beyond that, Saki and Yoshi's rift was portrayed as the latest of generations of feuds in the Hamato clan. In the episode where Leo kills Shredder (Saki) with the help of his brothers, it's particularly poignant to show Raph hugging his brother and ''not'' falling into the same kind of rift. Donnie and Mikey showing up a moment later, and even the friendly presence of Karai, seals the deal - the Hamato curse has ended, the Hamato clan is united, and the Hamato brothers (siblings, including Karai) will not be divided or turned against each other.
103	* Already referenced below under FridgeLogic, the RunningGag of Donnie's staff breaking peters out as the series goes on - because Donnie becomes a more skilled fighter. In a number of early episodes, he shows proficiency with his staff during training, but in actual fights tends to swing it around like a baseball bat, which is... not the correct way to use a bo staff. As Donnie becomes more skilled, however, he tends to use his staff more for jabbing or blocking (i.e. correctly!), thus no longer finds himself snapping his staff in two from putting too much lengthwise force on it.
104	* Why does Bebop hate his name? Bebop is a dancer, and Bebop music was created to not be danced to.
105	* Why didn't Shredder want Karai attacking the Turtles while he was away in Japan? Well, considering how he told Splinter the truth and Splinter subsequently escaped from Karai, Splinter likely would've told the Turtles as well by now. Therefore, if she attacked the Turtles during his absence and was told the truth, even if she didn't believe them, she'd be open to the idea of turning on Shredder.
106	** Also, why didn't he want Karai making any deals with the Kraang during his absence? Well, it wasn't just because they lost his mutagen supply, but because they could take the chance to sabotage the Foot's resources, hence why he cut off Karai's report of the Kraang making improvements to the Footbots.
107	[[/folder]]
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109	[[folder:Fridge Horror]]
110	* Press releases have stated that The Shredder has an adopted daughter, Oroku Miwa. "Rise of the Turtles, Part 3" reveals that Hamato Yoshi's daughter's name is Miwa. The implication being that Shredder's adopted daughter is actually Yoshi's daughter and that he's raised her as his own. A key thing to note is that when Splinter is telling Leonardo about how the Shredder destroyed his life, Splinter explicitly states that ''his wife'' was killed and makes the clear distinction that his daughter "was taken from [him]".
111	** It gets worse when you realize that she is pretty obviously meant to be a way for Shredder to get revenge on Splinter. Shredder could have renamed Miwa after he took her away from Hamato Yoshi, but he didn't. Why? So that Splinter could be 100% sure that Miwa (who probably will try to kill him at some point or at least endanger the Turtles) is his daughter. Shredder is one sick bastard.
112	*** From the looks of things, Shredder ''has'' renamed her... Karai.
113	* So... Just what does Spider Bytez eat? Well, remember that regular spiders eat insects smaller than themselves, and Spider Bytez is a giant mutant spider. In New York, a city with [[ImAHumanitarian one of the largest populations in America]]...
114	* Turtles are notoriously long-lived (sometimes pets even end up outliving their ''owners''), this means that barring death in battle or illness (unlikely, since they're the heroes after all) the Turtles will most likely end up outliving everyone they know, April, Master Splinter, even Shredder. A day will most likely come that everyone they knew and care about is gone.
115	** Inversely, dogs don't usually live longer than 15 years (even shorter for larger breeds who average out to ''ten''), and Chris Bradford was a full grown adult when he was transformed into Dogpound. Whilst the exact properties of his transformation are unknown, he could only have a few years left to live before dying of old age.
116	** Fish don't live very long either, a few years at the longest. Xever might already be on borrowed time...
117	*** However, Splinter was mutated into a rat, a creature that lives for an average of 2-3 years, fifteen years ago and is doing pretty fine today.
118	*** In the comics, Splinter didn't live very long at all, maybe 25 years (2-3 as a normal rat plus 18-21 as a mutant) if that before dying of heart failure.
119	** The Turtles have it bad either way. Either they have human-style metabolisms and lifespan (supported by the 2003 series) and got a huge chunk of their lifespans lopped off in exchange for an arguably richer existence, or they keep the turtle-level lifespan and see above.
120	*** This actually happened in a TimeTravel arc of the Archie comics when future versions of Don and Raph came back from 100 years in the future and were only middle-aged and still active fighters. In that sense, they could live for ''centuries'' barring disease or violent death. And who's to say the Mutagen doesn't ''enhance'' life spans as a side effect?
121	*** This series also gives evidence that the Turtles have human-like endothermic metabolisms. When Leonardo is fighting Tiger Claw and the horde of Footbots in "The Invasion", he gets dumped into the cold water. When he gets out, steam rises from his body from the heat of his efforts. Normal turtles are ectotherms and would not do that.
122	* When Bradford broke the mutagen bomb, who knows how many things got covered in it when it spilled over the side of the building, as we've seen even plants, food, and machines can be mutated.
123	* Depending on the sewer system being used, The Shredder could have caused the deaths of millions or even deprivation of water if he were to use the chlorosulfonic acid.
124	* The Rat King took a good, long look inside Splinter's mind. What if he meets The Shredder?
125	** Are you suggesting VillainTeamUp, because I think Shredder would just find Rat King a nuisance and kick his ass.
126	* In "New Girl in Town", Snakeweed hits Raph, Donnie and Mikey with a yellow substance (presumably pollen) and uses it kind of like a tracking device, which explains how he found Raph (and by extension, Leo and Karai). Since Snakeweed also tagged Donnie and Mikey who had been in the lair, Snakeweed could potentially find their lair.
127	** The pollen Snakeweed tagged Raph with dissipated right after he found him. The same thing probably happened with Donnie and Mikey. And Donnie had plenty of time in the lair with unconscious Mikey to notice it and get rid of it himself.
128	* How old do you guess is Leatherhead? If you take the hypothesis that mutated animals age at human pace and that the Kraang took him when he was a baby alligator, it means that, or he is an adult that has being a prisoner for too long, or that he hasn't been with the Kraang that much and is still a ''child''. A tortured, disturbed child that ended up fighting in another dimension with Traag all alone.
129	** Alternatively, time might move faster in Dimension X. When the Kraang first took Leatherhead over there he was a baby. He could have aged at the normal rate while they experimented on him. Meaning that they tortured him for basically his ''entire life''.
130	*** The time differential is confirmed in "Into Dimension X". The extent of it is not certain, as Mikey is unsure whether he has been there for months or several hours in the 15 Earth seconds that passed between his and his brothers' arrival. Even the conservative estimate of 15 seconds = 3-6 hours stacks up really fast. A single day could be, at minimum, almost two ''years''. [[note]]Math: 1 Earth day = 24 hours = 1,440 minutes = 86,400 seconds. 86,400 / 15 = 5,760 periods. If 1 period = 3 hours, then 5,760 periods = 17,280 hours = 1.97 years.[[/note]]
131	* This is more of a fridge terror thing, but Shredder is constantly wearing something like 30 pounds of armor. He is constantly seen fighting, moving, and training with it, even being capable of insanely high jumps and acrobatic moves similar to the Turtles (someone had to teach Bradford the Death Dragon Kata). How much faster, how much more dangerous, is Shredder without his enormous armor slowing him down?
132	** Shredder pulling a [[{{Anime/Naruto}} Rock Lee]]. Now ''that'' is disturbing.
133	* Surely, Timothy must have some family wondering where he is now.
134	** Or worse, he ''doesn't''.
135	* It's been explained that the Kraang can't breathe on Earth. So when they run out of their suits wheezing? Yeah, they're suffocating.
136	** And yet they seem to last a very long time after being separated from their suits, which adds some FridgeLogic.
137	* In "Parasitica", Leo knows that Mikey used his comic book as toilet paper even though he was at the time being controlled by the wasp. Unless Donnie or Raph squealed on Mikey, that means Leo was aware of everything that happened when he was brainwashed.
138	** AndIMustScream ''indeed''.
139	* Splinter's story in “Rise of the Turtles, Part 1” presents that the Kraang were around 15 years ago (maybe longer). Imagine everything they've been doing all this time without the Turtles to stop them.
140	** Also, at the end of the second episode, the Kraang said the Turtles were a threat to "what they were doing in this place and other places", which means that either Earth is not the first foreign planet they've been to, or they're operating in other places on Earth, or both. Either way, the quote is a bit chilling to think about.
141	** Even worse, it is said that they have being in Earth far long as Ancient Egypt. Just think about ''how many'' living creatures must have suffered at their hands over the years.
142	** “The Invasion” one ups the situation when Kraang Prime reveals that they created the human race.
143	-->'''Kraang Prime''': It was Kraang who found your planet millions of years ago! It was Kraang who used mutagen on the monkeys, turning them into lowly humans.
144	* Mikey's explanation telling the others about the Kraang in the first episode ("That guy, he...had a brain!") could be ''very'' easily misinterpreted as a traumatized delivery of "that guy's head was busted and I could see his brain". So easily that, out of context, ''it's hard to imagine the quote meaning anything else''. Censorship aside, [[WhatTheHellHero the others didn't seem to care]].
145	** Heck, it is surprising the others didn't assume from Mikey's words that he accidentally killed the man by bashing his head open.
146	* Shredder ''has'' been feeding that Kraang prisoner, right?
147	** Never mind that, there were 2 Kraangs in the ship from “Enemy of my Enemy”, but Shredder only captured 1.
148	* It's been stated that the Kraang have been kidnapping scientists, yet the only one who's ever been rescued or even seen is April's dad and even then, it was only because the Kraang let the Turtles rescue him.
149	* In "TCRI", why the Kraang didn't leave the Turtles in the elevator with the toxic air to perish? That would actually saved them a trouble, but instead the Kraang took them and locked them up in a cage where they could breathe fine. It doesn't make sense, until you remember that the Kraang are constantly making experiments with mutated creatures, and they need them alive.
150	* It has been implied that Shredder falls into AbusiveParents category in regards to Karai and that she is the daughter of Splinter, his sworn enemy, imagine what is was like for Karai/Miwa growing up with Shredder? She may be used as Shredder's "weapon" against Splinter, but she's also the physical reminder of Tang-Shen and Splinter. It wouldn't be a big surprise if Shredder emotionally or physically abused Karai/Miwa.
151	** On the subject of Shredder being an {{Abusive Parent\|s}}, he tests the Foot Ninja robots' fighting skill and lethal potential by siccing three of them on Karai. Granted, he stops them from delivering a killing blow, but when she asks if he'd ever ''really'' let them hurt her...he doesn't say no. He dodges the question entirely. [[FridgeHorror Uh oh...]]
152	* When Bradford/Dogpound fell into the vat of mutagen in "Mikey Gets Shellacne", he comes back as Rahzar. Take a closer look at his look as this terrifying undead werewolf. Had he stayed there any longer, he most certainly would have died the most painful death in the entire series.
153	* When Casey is writing in his journal and admits he's worried about his loved ones getting hurt, he mentions his dad, sister, and April, but not his mother. This either means that [[MissingMom Casey's mom passed away]] or [[AbusiveParents he (and possibly the rest of his family) and his mother are not on good terms.]]
154	** Additionally, his mother may have taken his father's place in being killed by the Purple Dragons.
155	* The Kraang tried to extract April's DNA with a giant and incredibly painful looking needle. We don't see it used on her, but all those April clones around seem to imply it was already used on her (just not to the lethal extent they attempted later) and we just didn't see it.
156	** [[FridgeBrilliance ...Unless they just made them from the saliva sample she unknowingly sent them in "The Alien Agenda".]]
157	* When the Kraang grabbed April she was in her normal clothes, when we next see her she's in a completely different outfit. Think about that for a minute.
158	* A parasitic wasp was among the captured mutants in "Metalhead Rewired". This either implies that the Kraang remade it or that the wasp planted more eggs all over the city.
159	** After the episode, all those mutants are back to freely roaming the streets of New York City, with nothing keeping them under control anymore. Most of them were villains in their previous appearances. New York City might have been safer with the mutant prison in operation.
160	** But then again, with the mind-control devices, the Kraang were free to do whatever they felt like doing with the mutants. It could very well have been a better idea to have them able to cause trouble on their own terms, rather than the Kraang's terms.
161	* Notice who was oddly ''not'' in the Kraang's mutant prison and thus did not escape with all the others? Leatherhead.
162	* Stockman's duck mutant may have been a nice cameo for the first cartoon's fans, but in-universe, what exactly did Shredder do with it? It's clear that Shredder's not above killing...
163	** To be fair, Baxter refers to Ace Duck in the present tense, so it is possible that Shredder didn't kill him...yet.
164	* When Tiger Claw tells of how he fought his way out of the worm and back to the 2012 universe, it shows him fighting the 1987 Turtles. And it looked like he was winning.
165	* In "The Alien Agenda", the Turtles enter April's school, and since schools have security cameras, what are the odds that at least one of the cameras has footage of them?
166	* After he mutated into a fly in "The Lonely Mutation of Baxter Stockman", Baxter was still capable of human speech. Come "The Legend of the Kuro Kabuto", however, and he is apparently only able to communicate by buzzing. Is Stockman's fly mutation causing him to degenerate into a mindless beast?
167	** As of "Vengeance is Mine", he can talk again.
168	* Exactly how long has Kraang Sub-Prime been spying on April in the guise of Irma? Irma's photo was shown in April's phone in a brief cameo in season one, implying that the two have been acquainted for some time...and April is important enough in the Kraang master plan to have a permanent spy watching their every move, perhaps even from childhood...
169	** Even worse is the question of whether Irma Langenstein was ever a real person, or if the Kraang created her for the express purpose of infiltrating Earth. Three possibilities show up:
170	*** If Irma ''did'' exist before the Kraang assumed that identity, the simple conclusion is that the Kraang ''killed'' Irma and assumed her identity, and whatever family or friends Irma had never knew she was dead.
171	*** If they found some way to get rid of the character without killing her, April could always find out from Irma's family and friends that Irma was supposed to be living somewhere else, and yet still managed to stay in New York at the same time. So, either the Kraang killed Irma's family and friends to clear up the loose ends, they lied to her parents so that they never realized their daughter was gone, or Irma never had any close friends or family in the first place. All three options here are fairly depressing.
172	*** If Irma was just a Kraang creation from the outset, everything about the character is completely false. Birth records, family, medical history, social security number, ''everything'' is fake. April is smart, and Donnie is even smarter and paranoid enough to run background checks on anyone April spends time with. Neither of them would be fooled by someone who has somehow appeared out of thin air, so every falsified document has to be flawless. This displays a rather alarming understanding and control of the American bureaucracy by the Kraang, making one wonder just how completely the Kraang dictate human society without humans realizing.
173	* The amount of human skeletons in the Chimera's nest....in a small community like North Hampton, that must amount for a lot of the population.
174	* In "The Creeping Doom", Mikey accidentally makes Donnie even dumber then himself and as such, Donnie does various stupid things. The most noticeable one was standing in front of the Shellraiser when April is trying to ram it into the Creep. At the end, Donnie mentions he's embarrassed about what he did indicating he was aware of all the stupid things he did, but couldn't help it.
175	* In "The Fourfold Trap", the Foot lure Mikey with pizza gyoza and a Murakami hologram in Murakami's restaurant, which raises the question of what happened to the real Murakami.
176	* After being freed of the Hypercube, Wyrm states that space is too "dirty," and decides to a cleaning, by blowing up stars and planets. Just think, what if Wyrm actually blew up inhabited planets, killing many people.
177	** Fortunately, it's all reversed when Casey wishes that they never found Wyrm's Hypercube, undoing the Wyrm's release and all the stars and planets that he blew up are all back.
178	* So Casey defeats Wyrm by using his new found intelligence to ask for an extra wish and reset everything, yet since this also erased their knowledge of Wyrm and left his hypercube in the space wreckage, who's to say other space travelers won't come across Wyrm?
179	* Professor Honeycutt destroys the BHG by having the Triceratons attack his ship while the fusion core in his body is exposed effectively destroying the BHG, his ship, his body (except for his head) and the Triceraton Fleet, which raises the question as to what happened to Zeno?
180	* In "Darkest Plight", when we see The Rat King's corpse, he's been reduced to a skeleton, despite the fact that there's no possible way that enough time has passed for his body to be in that level of decay. [[FedToTheBeast Then you remember the swarm of rats present in the caves.]]
181	* In "Owari", Mikey uses retro-mutagen to turn Baxter Stockman into his normal human self again. Then he knocks him out, and he's last seen inside Shredder's fortress. Towards the end of the episode, Shredder sets the entire building on fire. At no point do we see Stockman get out, nor do we see anyone carry him out.
182	* The end of Yojimbo has the Turtles and Usagi ride their horses off a cliff, and when they hit the ground in Osoroshi No Tabi, the horses aren't seen. Note the horses were seen when they were falling, but just dissappear.
183	* Way back in season 1's "The Gauntlet," the Turtles discover that the Kraang plan on setting off a mutagen bomb in the middle of New York. The series finale, "Raphael: Mutant Apocalypse," we see what may very well have happened to the Earth had the bomb successfully gone off then; a barren, desert-like wasteland where [[HumanitysWake all of humanity has either been mutated or killed]].
184	* So, uh, in "Tokka vs The World", Mikey gets within a hair's breadth of getting vivisected, which is actually something the Turtles have been raised specifically to fear, and it only didn't happen because Bishop did an extremely sudden HeelFaceTurn. And the plot moves on and apparently no one even knew about it except for Casey.
185	* After getting attacked by Mega Shredder in "Attack of the Mega Shredder!" Joan Grody never appeared again for the rest of the series. Was she killed?
186	* In "Journey to the Centre of Mikey's Mind", we see personifications of different parts of his personality. The largest of them all is Anger, but how many times do we see Mikey actually ''angry''? Has he been carrying around a large amount of repressed anger all this time?
187	[[/folder]]

Context Fridge / TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012