These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.
Made even more hilarious by the fact that he's the only turtle without an official Love Interest.
Actually, it's been implied that Irma does canonically have a bit of crush on Donatello in several episodes such as "Sky Turtles" and "Invasion Of The Turtle Snatchers", which means that he's really shy, or Oblivious to Love, unless he's actually Robosexual.
Adaptation Displacement: This is the version most people remember when they think about the Turtles (or at least most people of around age 20 and up).
Big Lipped Alligator Moment: Splinter looks extremely pissed in the opening scene of "Leonardo, Renaissance Turtle" for no apparent reason.
Bizarro Episode: "Vacation in Europe' which was 13 Bizarro episodes in a row.
Broken Base: Were the "Red Sky seasons" (8, 9, and 10) any good?
Similar issues come up with the "Vacation in Europe" Story Arc.
Season 4 was either the funniest season or full of pointless Filler.
Canon Sue: Carter has a level of fighting skill on par with the Turtles, a strategic mind similar to Leonardo, scientific knowledge that it's implied is even greater than that of Donatello, and April even seems attracted to him in his first couple of appearances. (This is probably the reason why he's not very well liked.)
Leonardo in a lot of episodes. It's even lampshaded.
The German version, even though it was released as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles.
The piece of music that plays when the Technodrome's on screen.
The Italian theme song. It sounds absolutely nothing like the original, but it's nice and surprisingly catchy.
Designated Villain: Baxter Stockman's worst crime (before turning into a fly) was helping out Shredder, but the way the Turtles treat him you'd think he killed their mom or something.
Thanks to Baxter and his rat-catcher Shredder nearly succeeded in killing Splinter and Baxter also pulled off a Dog Bites Back move where he easily defeated the Turtles and likely would have done so to Shredder as well if not for him not knowing the Eye of Sarnath's one weakness. Shredder may have easily been the more eviler of the two, but he definitely wasn't an innocent victim.
Draco in Leather Pants: Shredder. Doesn't help that he's sometimes more entertaining to watch than the good guys.
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, heroes in a half shell, Turtle Power!"
Ensemble Darkhorse: Main villains Shredder, Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady along with the Rat King.
Mona Lisa only appeared in one episode, but she has a huge fan base as a result.
Mondo Gecko. Only appeared in around two episodes (though he had a slightly bigger role in the Archie comic books) but he has a ton of fan-art, and quite a few fangirls.
Shredder's mother.
This incarnation of Raphael became beloved by the fanbase due to being a Deadpan Snarker.
Irma. Cute as a button, and it also helps that the rest of her Channel 6 co-workers (save for April) are annoying Scrappies.
So much so, that it seems that Nickelodeon has caught on to this, as some recent Fore Shadowing in an episode of the 2012 series reveals a bespectacled caller by the name of Irma.
Mutagen Man is apparently this to the 2012 show's writers according to this article, stating that they want to utilize him in some way.
Though Turtles Forever was meant to highlight the differences between the 2003 series and this one, so including the more serious seasons would largely defeat the purpose.
"Funny Aneurysm" Moment: One of the first episodes featured an entire building flooding out and spilling a massive amount of water in the city when said building explodes from the pressure. Though copious on its own merits already, it can hit way too close to home for those involved in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, especially since the setting for the cartoon is New York City.
Growing the Beard: Season Three, arguably, when compared to the somewhat lackluster Season Two. It wasn't consistently good, but contains the most fan favourites.
Season Seven, the last "normal" season, is considered to be the best of all, due to some surprisingly well-written and enjoyable episodes. "Night of The Dark Turtle" and "Legend of Koji" are believed to be the best episodes in the entire series.
Harsher in Hindsight: "Enter The Fly!" has Baxter and Shredder plotting evil on top of the Twin Towers. Yikes.
Hate Dumb: Of the "OMG IT'S NOT EXACTLY LIKE THE COMICS" and "OMG IT'S NOT SERIOUS" variety.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Lotus Blossom was introduced in the cartoon before Karai in the comics.
Ho Yay: You have to admit, the way Shredder and Krang would bicker throughout the series made them look like an old married couple. May also count as No Yay.
Bebop and Rocksteady very rarely leave each other's side. If Rocksteady didn't have his gigantic crush on April there would be a lot more Ho Yay going on from the fans' point of view.
Baxter Stockman and his gender-neutral (but still male-sounding) alien computer, Zee. Watch an episode with them in it and see for yourself.
Idiot Plot: The episode "Zach And The Alien Invaders" is easily the biggest offender of this in the entire series, considering that the whole premise is about Zach convincing the turtes that he's seen aliens, and robots, and other dangerous things that ended up being harmless, and getting in trouble for it. Because it's not like the turtles have ever fought aliens or robots before, except you know like every episode where Krang and Shredder attack the turtles with the Foot Soldier robots which happens on a regular basis! Later on Zach does see aliens that are trying to take over the world, and helps the turtles stop them, but despite him being right about the attempted alien invasion, the episode ends with a horriblyBroken Aesop of "That's okay, Who listens to kids anyway?", which is why despite featuring the one and only apperances of Wingnut and Screwloose, this is easily still regarded as one of the absolute worst episodes in the entire series.
The episode "Leonardo Is Missing" also falls under this, which is lampshaded by Splinter at the end, but unlike the first example, this episode is actually still fun to watch.
Splinter: Next time you leave Leonardo, make sure to leave a note.
Moe: Irma. A good portion of the fanbase thinks she's cute as a button.
Moral Event Horizon: Shredder crosses this in the first episode of season 8 when he actually destroys the Channel 6 building which takes it out of commission for the rest of the series.
In the same episode, it is stated by Bezerko that Krang commited genocide against his people, because he had not further use for him.
Seymour Gutz falling apart in a vat of mutagen in "Enter: Mutagen Man".
Replacement Scrappy: Dregg wasn't really a bad villain by his own terms, but the mere fact that he wasn't Shredder ensured he never became popular. It didn't help that Shredder had become genuinely threatening again during his last season before being replaced by Dregg. Not even being voiced by Tony Jay could save Dregg from the Scrappy Heap.
Carter, considering he sort of replaced April in season nine (though she would take the role back in season ten).
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: However, Zach did have his share of valuable moments like when he saved April's life in "Bebop And Rocksteady Conquer The Universe" and the turtles' lives in "Night Of The Rogues", which both earned him a good amount of fans.
Carter has a few fans, but most of them agree that he doesn't really belong on a show like TMNT.
Burne and Vernon aren't well liked either. Especially for being huge selfish jerks and constantly bad mouthing the turtles, even when they saved their lives.
Though they were intended as ineffectual antagonists, so it would be more weird if people actively liked them.
Most Filler Villains, due to being unoriginal (almost all of them are gangsters or mad scientists), and the fact that they just aren't as interesting as Shredder or Krang.
Seasonal Rot: A lot of people agree that this happened during Season Eight, when the sky was permanently red, and everything was trying too hard to be darker and edgier as opposed to the light-hearted show people grew to love over the years.
Having said that, Season Eight isn't entirely without its fans; a few consider it to have struck a good balance between the show's original tone and that of the comic book. In addition, Shredder became a serious threat again for the first time since the very beginning of the show. However, far fewer people are willing to defend Seasons Nine and Ten, when Lord Dregg replaced Shredder and Krang, and the Executive Meddling started to get out of control.
So Bad, It's Good: Even the worst episodes are strangely enjoyable. This is probably the show's greatest strength.
So Cool It's Awesome: Generally agreed to be the best mainstream American cartoon of the eighties, and has a devoted fanbase.
So Okay, It's Average: Season Two is widely considered this: not as good as the short first season preceding it or the long third season following it, but perfectly watchable regardless. The "Eye of Sarnath" Story Arc and "Enter The Fly' are considered its highlights. Most fans' problems with it seem to be the clunky animation, awkward continuity, and story elements that never went anywhere.
How a lot of fans feel about Season Five, though it did give us the fantastic "My Brother, The Bad Guy".
Squick: Those goddamn pizza toppings. This may be why the Red Sky seasons did away with them completely.
Baxter's mutation into a fly.
The turtles' mutation in season 9.
The sewers.
Tear Jerker: Though much more lighthearted than the 2003 version this show still has its moments of this. One of the most memorable is the episode "Turtles, Turtles Everywhere." Shredder and Krang reprogram a network of robotic garbage trucks and order them to capture "the turtles." With no knowledge of the TMNT, the trucks start rounding up every turtle in the city, and eventually what is said to be the last surviving member of an endangered sea turtle species, just as she was about to lay her eggs. One of the reasons it's such a great episode is that, unique among shows in The Eighties, it's actually a Green Aesopdone right. Unlike Captain Planet villains and much more similar to real-world polluters, Shredder and Krang aren't actually intending to damage the environment as its own end; they're just greedy and don't care if it's a side-effect. At the end of the episode, they put a stop to the plan and return the sea turtle to the beach to finish laying her eggs and the resident joker Michelangelo starts sobbing as she swims off saying that she reminds him of his mother. Also, while they attempt to end the episode on a humorous note after that bit, it actually becomes sadder when rewatching it as an adult, when you can think about it enough to worry that even though the sea turtle got to lay her eggs afterall, based on April's claim that she was the last surviving member of her species, the eggs might not have been fertilized. So she could still be the last of her kind, ever.
In the episode "Splinter No More", it's pretty hard to see Splinter lamenting his loss of his humanity to the point of shedding tears. This becomes much Harsher in Hindsight when you remember that Splinter destroyed Shredder's Retro Mutagen Ray in order to save the turtles, but also destroying the one thing that could return him to his human form in the process.
Also in the episode "Hot Rodding Teenagers", it's tough to see Kala break down as she explains that the only reason that she and the other Neutrinos are on the run is because that they are kids who would like to have fun instead of fighting in Dimension X's infinite war, and are being hunted down for it.
Kala: "You don't know what it's like.... living in a place where everyone wants to do you in....just for the crime of being young." (She starts to cry.)
The beginning of "Splinter Vanishes".
The penultimate example for most fans of the original series is in the opening episode "Get Shredder" where Shredder actually destroys the Channel 6 building which takes it out of commission for the rest of the series.
The Woobie: Michaelangelo has his moment of this when he thinks everyone forgot his birthday in "Michaelangelo's Birthday", which makes it even worse when he runs into Shredder.
Also Splinter in "Splinter No More".
Donatello in "Donatello's Duplicate" easily counts for this.
Leonardo in "Take Me To Your Leader". Even this Leonardo-neutral fangirl wanted to hug him.
Raphael in the beginning of "Raphael: Turtle Of A Thousand Faces".
Baxter Stockman, even when he was a Jerk Ass. Some scenes where he's abused and mistreated are actually pretty uncomfortable to watch.
Krang sort of was one in "Hot-Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X". It's the sadness in his voice when he tells General Traag how he lost his body when they "banished him to this miserable mud-ball" as well as how upset he was about Traag and Granitor seeing him without his body.
The Neutrinos also count considering they're just kids in a war filled world like Dimension X, and are hunted down because they don't want to join in on the fighting. Especially Kala.
Kala: "You don't know what it's like.... living in a place where everyone wants to do you in....just for the crime of being young." (She starts to cry.)
They Just Didn't Care and Off Model: The animation in some mid-series episodes looks downright HIDEOUS (especially almost half of season 4).
Howie, despite being The Scrappy, had some cute scenes with Irma, and the idea of her having a steady boyfriend is admittely interesting. Too bad everything else about him was so annoying.
Lotus Blossom. Her second and final appearance is considered Fanon Discontinuity due to being such a disappointing farewell to her.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: "Night Of The Living Rogues". Fed up with Bebop and Rocksteady's incompetence, Shredder gathers a large group of the Turtle's previous enemies to defeat them once and for all. The Turtles are completely helpless against the assembled baddies. So will this cause the the Turtles to call on all of their allies, like The Mutant Frogs, Usagi, Mondo Gecko and Mona Lisa leading to a huge brawl between the groups? Nnnnnope. Instead, the Turtles just call on Casey Jones and Zach the "fifth turtle" for back up, and the villains run away at the end when it's pointed out that they're outnumbered. Keep in mind that one of those people is a kid, and the other two are April and Irma.
The subplot of "Krangenstein Lives!!" Shredder loses his memory. Pretty interesting right? You'd think they'd go for something different but... he's still evil, he just can't remember his name. There are so many different ways that could have gone.
The seventh season had an episode called "Dirk Savage: Mutant Hunter", where an eccentric billionaire who is secretly a mutant slug plotting to take over the city named A. J. Howard hires bounty hunter Dirk Savage to capture all the mutants in New York. Considering the episode's focus on mutants and the large number of mutants the show had, you'd expect fan favorites like Mona Lisa or Muckman to return, but this was not the case. While Mondo Gecko and the Punk Frogs Napoleon Bonafrog and Genghis Frog returned in this episode, the only other mutants that appear in the episode are Tokka and Rahzar from the second movie and a bunch of unnamed mutants created solely for this episode. It's still a good episode, just an example of how good things could have been better.
Fans who dislike Bebop and Rocksteady often wish Baxter stayed The Dragon to Shredder in Season Two.
Ugly Cute: Baxter's half-fly form. D'awww. Strange, considering he was an apparently middle aged man beforehand.
Some actually find his human self to be adorable, strangely enough.
The Shredder as a fly. His voice is freaking adorable.
Krang himself, if you think about how he would look in real life.
His first appearance in "Enter The Shredder", where he's slimy and pulsating.
Some of the Red Sky-era villains/mutants. One of the most memorable is Doomquest, a giant-like conqueror of worlds with very small eyes.
The turtles' mutant forms in Season 9.
The rubber face-masks the turtles use for some of their disguises.
Unfortunate Implications: The Broken Aesop of "Zach And The Alien Invaders" which basically states that's okay to ignore kids, even if their right about something serious is a pretty terrible lesson to teach children. This becomes much Harsher in Hindsight when you remember that children are the main audience of the show, and hearing about their words being degraded solely because of their youth.
The stereotypical Chinese restaurant in "Were-Cat of Channel Six".
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Baxter Stockman seemed to be more concerned with becoming human again than being genuinely evil.
