Nick's TMNT

A better phrase may be Psychopathic Manchild.

I'll say this for the Shredder: you can't trick him. When he screws over everyone, whether for the Kraang or the Triceratops, he knows exactly what's going to happen to himself. He's just enough of an asshole to do it anyway.

It's kind of like Ch'rell, actually. Only Ch'rell was badass enough to build and operate the doomsday device himself.

And at least Ch'rell took a few seconds to think about it before he decided to wreck the multiverse.

And Shredder was actually helping out before he screwed everyone. You couldn't wait five seconds until after Splinter pushed the "don't explode" button, Saki?

Where Ch'rell passes him in evil, Shredder beats him in pettiness.

Just watched the finale. It definitely trumps the previous finales in scale. Never thought I'd see a Turtles cartoon go through with actually offing the sensei.

Random thoughts:

• I really like how the Triceratons were presented here. They feel much more intimidating than they did in the 03 series.

• Roadkill Rodnies? Holy crap, I never expected those to show up.

• They seemed to play up Casey and April's relationship more during the finale. There were a lot of "PAY ATTENTION TO THIS" moments between the two. I know they're trying to dance around the idea of whether or not it'll be April x Casey again, but it kind of feels certain after these episodes. Granted, I also didn't expect Yoshi to die, so maybe my expectations will be subverted once again.

• I don't think I mentioned it, but I really like the Technodrome's design in this series.

• So they worked out a way to bring the Utroms into the series. Bravo. Bishop rocked, and so far I like this incarnation more than the previous one.

• I liked how the team up between Splinter/April and Shredder's minions felt genuine, on the part of everyone but Shredder (yeah I could tell Saki was plotting something the whole time, but that was probably the point). Even Tiger calls Shredder out, not that Saki cares. Sheesh, talk about a one-track mind.

• That said, I can kind of see why Shredder would kill Yoshi before the machine is stopped. In his mind, Yoshi stole everything away from him, and for all he knows, Karai is dead^note Which could be true in a way. I don't think Karai...no, Miwa, would ever forgive Saki for everything he's done to her, if she returned to confront him. So really, Saki would be losing "his daughter"; she's dead to him if she returns to Yoshi's side.; he'll never believe Yoshi's word that she's alive. His revenge always took higher precedence than anything else, including Karai. In all honesty, this Shredder seems like the type who would kill Yoshi, and then, probably kill himself afterwards, since it's pretty clear that revenge was the main thing keeping Saki going.

• People are hating on Casey's last words before the fade, which is understandable, but I don't think it was that bad. Casey's either compensating for his grief, or the gravity of the situation hasn't truly hit him yet (I can totally see him acting like an uncaring jerk because he's confused and terrified at thinking about the destruction of nearly everything he's ever known. I expect him to at least have some heavy feelings to sort out later). We'll know what the show was going for when it returns for the next season; I'm fully expecting April to chew him out.

• Ah, Honeycutt. A reminder of the time I stopped watching the 03 series because of the military, only catching random episodes from then on. Going by his words, it seems he may be aware of a way to help the turtles "save" Earth.

• On that note, I fully expect time travel shenanigans now. Which means that Renet's introduction was probably even less of a random occurrence than it seemed. I'm fine with this, particularly because I really like this show's incarnation of the character, so I'll be happy to see her again.

• I'm kind of amused at how many sci-fi genre analogues my brothers and I came up with during the finale.^note Specifically: Sin and Punishment, Star Trek, Independence Day, and Star Fox. Probably a few others I forgot too.

• I don't know if this was mentioned in his debut episode, but I kind of feel like that Gilbert Gottfried had something in his contract stating that he shouldn't talk like the rest of the Kraang, but that's just me guessing (I don't know how the voice acting process works anyways).

That's about it. When's the next new episode supposed to air anyway?

edited 29th Sep '15 6:47:04 PM by Customer

Perfectly rational. My problem is is that I'm not sure I have faith in the writers playing it that way.

Especially since the writers keep changing every season, from stuff I've read.

If true, the turnover on the show's writers is noticeable. The past season really didn't accomplish anything:

-Last season ended with the Turtles, April and Casey having to leave NYC, believing Splinter dead and Karai was MIA. This season kicks off the same way. Just substitute "going to the country" with "going to space".

-Shredder's mind control plot amounted to nothing.

-Timothy subplot: no change

-Cure Splinter subplot: no change

-Karai subplot: she can control her mutation now (solved off-screen)

-April subplot: no change, still can't control Kraang powers, no visible improvement in ninja training since previous season.

-April x Donnie romance subplot: no change despite the events at the farmhouse and was taken out of the spotlight.

You can tell the writers of this season were either unable or unwilling to build on previous story beats and carry the threads forward and were forced to return to the same status quo. They can't/wont set any overarching story goals themselves if they know they wont be around next season to develop them and don't trust successive writers wont carry threads either.

I predict that there's an third alien faction at play here...Something that hates both the Triceratons and the Kranng.

There is a name spoken in the darkest corners of the cosmos in low whispers. Something ancient, evil. They call it...'Mister Ogg'.

Confirmed Season 5

I still don't get how they just forgot about Timmy. Shouldn't at least one of the writers have said "Hey, what about Timmy"? Even if they do bring him back, I'm not sure how they can justify Don not using any retromutagen on him.

Something I just realized. The show's version of Irma is a villain, while this shows version of Bishop is a straight up hero.

Can you say irony?

Is it weird that I was more sad about Bishop's death than Splinter's?

I don't think he died.

I mean when the planet blew up.

Can you imagine if Bishop the Utrom was the adoptive Action Dad for a while?

edited 30th Sep '15 4:09:36 PM by JBC31187

I don't think he died either. I don't remember seeing him in the "every important character gets caught in the black hole" montage before the Earth is destroyed and I actually suspect that he's the reason Honeycutt randomly shows up to grab the turtles and co before they all die. I need to rewatch the episode to be sure, but I don't remember Bishop showing up again after he loses his robot body; he just kind of disappears.

On another note, I never noticed all the lingering subplots that weren't mentioned/resolved in this season until now.

I just figured he wasn't important enough to show, considering that major characters like Splinter and Shredder and secondary characters like Slash and Leatherhead all bite the big one.

It would have been better if Splinter were impaled and Shredder stopped the bomb through him. Honestly that's what I thought happened for a split second.

edited 3rd Oct '15 7:40:39 PM by terlwyth

That would be the sensible option, wouldn't it? But then, Shredder wouldn't do that.

Shredder's the kind of guy who, if you asked to help move a piano, would piss and moan for ten minutes before agreeing. He'd help you carry the piano up all ten flights of stairs. And then when you both reach the top, he'd smash that damn piano, just to see the look on your face.

And then you'd both die, because he somehow managed to take out a support beam when he broke your piano.

Based on what I've read in the Season 1 finale, Splinter calls Shredder out by pointing that if Shredder does succeed in killing him, he would be nothing but a shell of a man. It's the downside of revenge and it is possible that the Shredder might have realized the truth in Splinter's words. If he had killed Splinter after deactivating the bomb, he would have nothing to gain other than satisfying his revenge. The only other thing that he cares about other than killing Splinter is his adopted daughter, Karai, who would most likely hate him for making her entire life a complete lie as well as killing Splinter.

It comes down the the fact that if Shredder had let Splinter shut down the device and save the world, he'd be forced to admit Hamato Yoshi was the better man. This is a Shredder who's refused to face reality any time it contradicted his narrative, such as when he caused Karai's mutation (and blamed it on Splinter) or when Tang Shen was possibly going to leave Japan (and blamed it on Yoshi despite it being her idea) or when the fire he started killed her and scarred his face (and again blamed Yoshi).

Splinter saving the world was the one thing he couldn't reconcile with his revenge quest and with no way he could spin it to make Splinter not the hero, that's likely what made Shredder snap in this instance and override common sense.

The thing about all consuming revenge is that, when you've finally had it, well, you kind of don't have a lot left. Look at Kratos, AKA the angriest man in video games. He spends all of the first God Of War screaming about how he's going to kill Aries and killing absolutely everything that he comes across in his quest to do so, then when he finally kills Aries he jumps off a cliff because his life has no meaning. He does the same thing at the end of God Of War III. He spends two games screaming about revenge, but then when he gets it he jumps off the same cliff.

So once Shredder got what he wanted, he killed himself. And everyone else on the planet, because how could anyone top that? That actually makes sense.

A very nice point indeed.

Also Tiger Claw became my favorite member of the Foot Clan. If he returns, I think he should make a Heel–Face Turn.

edited 4th Oct '15 12:58:39 PM by Piando