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grimtrespasser · 2 years ago

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TMNT: Redux Masterpost!

As promised, the repository of my excessive world lore :D✨Starting with a quick round of links:

Redux playlist

Original design post

Turtle species

Raph's eye ft. Leo (angst, blood and injury cw)

Allies doodle/design dump

April lore

Antagonist doodle/design dump

Karai and Draxum lore

Bebop & Rocksteady

Valentine's post

Mock-cartoon poster

Now, onto the new stuff!

Note: This post is mostly character information that establishes my ideas for the main roster, for more info on the ongoing plans for the plot, check the final paragraph.

Major Protagonists

Hamato Leonardo (he/him) - The oldest of the turtles (by precisely 1 hour and 35 minutes) and he will never let Raph forget it. At his best, he's honorable, determined, thoughtful, and clever. At his worst, he's vain, narrow-sighted, selfish, and argumentative. As the oldest, he places a lot of pressure on himself to set an example for his brothers and look out for them. Especially since Splinter could never keep up with raising the four of them all on his own, Leo put it on himself to pick up the slack. It's largely self-inflicted, though, considering his family wants to support him just as much as he supports them. Within the team, he always refers to himself as the leader, and Raph never fights him on it, but if we're being honest, she plays that role nearly as frequently as Leo does. Leo often bites off more than he can chew in handling necessary responsibilities and he struggles to let others do things for him. But he's only one person who can't possibly do everything at once and that perceived failure weighs on him.

Hamato Raphael (he/she) - Second tied for oldest (twins means they're the same age one extra hour doesn't count Leo-), Raph straddles the line between responsible helicopter brother and reckless dumbass and straddles it hard. At her best, she can be gentle, patient, confident, and steadfast. At her worst, she can be careless, impulsive, temperamental, and bitter. He's acutely aware that out of all his family, he's the strongest and most prone to the collateral damage that comes with it. There's nothing he fears more than losing control and hurting someone he loves and he's aware of the role his anger issues play in that. It actually means that out of necessity she's developed better self-control than any of the others. Raph is a sweetheart deep down, but he struggles to balance his softer tendencies with his tank-like nature, short fuse, and desire to be something stronger and unmoving for her brothers. She also feels like she really failed as a big brother when they were little, back when her temper was a big issue and she didn't have a handle on her bite. He holds himself to impossibly high standards as a result.

Hamato Donatello (he/him) - Donnie is firmly the middle child and absolutely acts the part. At his best, he's sharp-witted, adaptable, inquisitive, and level-headed. At his worst, he's waspish, arrogant, isolationist, and insecure. His confidence is heavily dependent on the approval of others, and he deals with highs and lows influenced by that approval. Donnie knows he's smart, and he knows logically that his family values him, not just for his work, but for who he is as a person. He just struggles to believe it sometimes. He's highly independent by nature and often spends days at a time holed away working, which only makes it easier for his needs to go unnoticed, and he's terrible at talking about his feelings on top of that. Despite his issues with self-worth, Donnie is extremely prideful, and he tends to get a big head about himself. There's nothing he loves more than bragging about his latest project. He's not very expressive but he is very excitable when it comes to his interests.

Hamato Michelangelo (he/they/xe) - The family baby and master at exploiting his status as such. At their best, Mikey is compassionate, creative, observant, and bold. At his worst, he can be immature, tactless, short-sighted, and naive. Ultimately, xe wants to see the best in people no matter the circumstances, and xe refuses to believe that not everyone is deserving of xer forgiveness and patience. They always hold out hope that things get better, and they make it a point to bring kindness to every new person they meet. He's got a painfully big heart, constantly worrying about his friends and family, and while it's rooted in good intentions, it sometimes means he sidelines his own problems to help others. They want to be seen as equal to their brothers, rather than being coddled or looked after, but they're still a kid (they all are) and they can't help acting like it. Even then, xe's the most emotionally intelligent of all of them, and any time anything goes wrong xe's often the first to bridge the gap and bring everybody back together.

Hamato Yoshi/Master Splinter (he/him) - Splinter was not the best dad the first time around, and there's nothing he regrets more. In that way, the turtles were something of a blessing. When he was at his lowest he was granted a second chance and this time he was determined not to waste it. All things considered, he's done a much better job the second time around. Even then, there's only so much a single, newly mutated father can do when raising four unpredictable mutant children. Between the turtles, his job at the local mystically-owned pizza place, keeping tabs on his many many enemies, and training his kids to make sure they aren't left vulnerable in case any aforementioned enemies resurface, he's got his hands full. That being said, he wouldn't have it any other way. He prefers a busy home to an empty house. He's had enough of those in his lifetime.

April O'Neil (flux) - April's known the turtles since they were still too small to reach the snacks without climbing the countertops. By now she's a frequent face in even the most preternatural circles, despite her own lack of mystical inclination or heritage. Her parents are virtually never around, with big jobs that require a lot of travel, and while she loves them, it's the Hamatos that really gave her a home. The turtles are practically her little brothers and Splinter's been a mentor to her since she was 12. When she was lost and alone and didn't have anyone around to support her, they gave her a place to belong. She's determined to pay it forward and nothing, not alien invaders or possessed armor or corrupt government agencies, is going to stop her.

Casey Jones (he/him) - Casey is a relatively new addition to the family. He's a belligerent foster kid who has problems with authority and absolutely lives to bash bad guys. When he stumbled across the turtles (might've been April's fault, might've been Donnie's, no one present seems to agree) he was just happy to meet people who didn't treat him like a freak. Since then, he's become best friends with Raph, both thrilled to have a sparring partner who doesn't hold back. He has a habit of going against the grain at times, sometimes just to be contrary and sometimes because he's never sure if he can take someone else's word at face value. He's still learning to navigate this very different world that he's been entirely unaware of nearly his whole life. But he's got the right energy, and he's not one to let go of a good thing easily.

Major Antagonists

Shredder - Centuries ago, ancient mystics sealed away a powerful demon within inert material, believing that this would prevent the demon from ever returning to our world. However, they did not bank on the worshippers of this demon stealing the demon's vessel and using it to forge a powerful set of armor. The armor, when worn, would consume the wearer's soul and grant the demon a mortal body. Or at least that's how the stories go, It's not uncommon for things this old to get muddied along the way. Exact truths become lost to time and leave unanswered questions. It's the not knowing that's dangerous. Oroku Saki, in his quest for truths, paid as dearly as any one man could.

The Krang - Never let it be said that the Krang lack determination. Conquering planets is a long and difficult process, much less attempting to push conquest beyond one's own dimension. I suppose belonging to a hivemind implies single-mindedness. Regardless, when at first you don't succeed, try try again. And this time they'll get it right.

Baron Draxum - Humans have a talent for killing each other. No one understands this better than Draxum. Having lived in New York City (or rather, its mystic underbelly) for close to two hundred years now, he's watched the extent of human brutality firsthand. Never mind that it was humans that drove him out of his home and into the Americas in the first place. Hopelessness turned to hate turned to resolve, and now there's little he'll stop at to end humanity's destruction. One cannot afford to be gentle when the choice is either that or survival. Violence is humanity's language, Draxum is simply playing by their rules.

Agent Bishop - Much has to be sacrificed in the pursuit of peace. When you're balancing the needs of an entire planet against the threat of an entire galaxy, sacrifices aren't taken lightly. Track, capture, dissect, understand, and repel. Perform duty by any means necessary. Even if it means taking dubious allies. Much has to be sacrificed in the pursuit of peace, and John Bishop does not take peace lightly.

Hamato Oroku Karai - Karai loves her parents, even if she struggles to remember their faces. She remembers her mother's gentle hands and her father's proud shoulders and her uncle's joyous laughter. She remembers a home where she was loved, and the ashes left in the wake of her father's madness. The screams of her people and the flames licking her skin and her uncle guiding her to safety in the wake of losing everything. Karai loves her parents and hates her father. She trusts her uncle but she isn't sure he's still the man she remembers anymore. She longs for the way things were and she's angry to her core knowing there's no going back. The best she can have now is revenge.

Secondary Characters/Morally Ambiguous/Misc

(This section is subject to editing and additions, listed in no particular order, individual descriptions omitted for time and also my sanity, for more info on the following characters/groups hit up my askbox)

Bebop & Rocksteady

Baxter Stockman

The Purple Dragons

Mona Lisa

"Agent Bishop"

Miyamoto Usagi

Big Mama

Leatherhead

Locations

(similarly subject to change and open to suggestions of places I've missed)

The Lair

The Battle Nexus

Casey's high school

April's college

April's apartment

Wren's Otherworldly Pizza

Dimension X

Aaaand that's it for now!

I don't have a concrete plot/timeline so for now the story's mostly different floaty ideas that I'm still working on fleshing out. I'm not planning on writing any sort of fic for this, at least not anytime soon, but I have tons of little scenes and ideas I'm currently chewing on. I'll probably stick with small comic strips for the time being.

There are still tons of characters to adapt and I don't know nearly enough about a good half of em to attempt em right now, so I'll keep updating the character roster as it expands. If there's a character I haven't established yet that you wanna see (or one I have that you wanna see more of) feel free to send an ask my way :D My inbox is always open to anyone who has questions, ideas, or requests regarding the plot and characters!

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wow-its-me · 1 year ago

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Alright Mutant Mayhem post, I just got back from the movies so these takes are are all of my first un unfiltered thoughts

SPOILERS AHEAD

First off the animation style : Absolutely Amazing,

Very claymation like, and although I see the comparison to Spiderverse, I think it’s completely unique,

If anything it reminds me of The Mitchell’s Vs The Machines

Next the cast : Absolutely Amazing

The way the characters had so much energy and just bounced off of each other. The kids that voiced the turtles really did great, everything they said felt very natural, and like teenagers actually talk. It was A LOT of pop culture references, but while a little cringey, none of them felt forced.

I absolutely LOVED this version of April and she’s currently fighting IDW April for the “best april” spot in my head. Again Ayo did a great job and I can’t imagine anyone else in the role. A fresh take while still being true to the character

And of course Splinter carried the movie. Jackie Chan was incredible as always, and this is splinter is truly the best dad. He was really just looking out for his sons, and doing anything and everything he could to make them both safe and happy.

I’m never going to get over Paul Rudd as Mondo Gecko

And Natasia Demetriou was perfect (hearing her definitely through me off guard though, just cause I’m a wwdits fan, and I though her being the bat was very silly)

Overall thoughts :

If anything I found myself a bit distracted through the movie. Getting caught up comparing things to the TMNT I already know. Learning to accept that while, similar this one’s different, a new take on a beloved series.

I wasn’t comparing it as “worse or better” but seeing the similarities to certain comic issues and runs, and assuming that I knew what was going to happen based off of those. Super fly is just like Hob, Cynthia Utrom is Bishop, ect.

And while those comparisons are both interesting and fun, I was getting too into it, and overlooking what THIS movie was trying to do and say (which is a problem that I think a lot of comics fans run into)

OK critiques : I tend to be nit-picky but I only have a few this time

The Mutanimals,,,, (that what I’m calling them here y’know who I mean) their were ALOT OF THEM and I feel like they all weren’t utilized in the film, and used to cast stars who would only have a couple lines, and probably sell more toys (which, let’s be honest, is the biggest reason TMNT exists now)

Bebop and Rocksteady didn’t really do anything, I swear Leatherhead had two lines, I completely forgot about Ghengis Frog, Rey Fillet was literally just Post, and the only ones who felt like real characters were Mondo Gecko and Wingnut (and I might be bias cause I love them) and slug lady???

The way they almost immediately turned on superfly, their older brother, who was clearly like a father to them, with no hesitation?? One second their down for mass murder, and the next their helping the turtles???

Their actors and designs were cool, but the movie was only 1:35 or something, I feel like a bit more character development for them could’ve been put in

The timeline? Also a bit confusing, and implies that every mutant other than Splinter, Slug Lady, and Superfly is 15. Which I don’t think is true.

But all of the Mutanimals were shows to be babies/toddlers in the 15 year flashback?? And they all seemed like infants in Stockmans lab (other than superfly whose a couple years older) and older slug lady would’ve been tiny anyway

But I just got a little confused

And lastly the ENDING :

I really didn’t think they’d actually make it to highschool!! This is honesty super interesting and opens up the story for a lot of new plots and takes, doing things that the turtles could never do in previous iterations. It makes me very excited for what could come next for them

Their in the real world

People know them

They could have actual futures

(I’m very curious to how taxes and stuff work for splinter now, but I doubt it’ll ever get into that)

AND THE SHREDDER TEASE

Very hyped for what’s coming next, left the theater ranting to my sister about how I hope Karai will be in the next one too.

And with the backstory loosing that tie to the Foot, I’m really wondering how things will go down

And worried for how underprepared they are for someone like shredder

#tmnt #tmntmm #mutant mayhem #tmnt mutant mayhem #mutant mayhem spoilers #tmnt spoilers

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transmogrified-in-the-void · 1 year ago

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Saw a post earlier talking abt rottmnt disliking the more humanoid designs and them looking more like the people they mutated with and I just want to explain why I, someone who is a lover of the movies and is good friends with someone who watched and read every piece of tmnt media, dislike that one point. They aren't supposed to mutate from people (unless you're bebop and rocksteady from the Bay movies). They are mutated turtles and nothing more, which is probably why people have an issue with it.

Rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles has three main issues that I dislike. One, they jumped the wrong shark by giving the turtles powers (which imo removes some of the point of them). They are jumping the shark in premise, ots why they can become dinosaurs and go to the future or fudual Japan. The magic happens to them because they already are so strange as a concept. Everything else is trying to one up that.

Two, the art style no longer gives them a united look as a team. Other movies and shows have been able to have similar shape nut distinct body differences to differentiate the turtles. 80s shoe was the letters, 2003 was the color of their skin, and often they have different colored bandanas and weapons (the comics had them all wearing red!!).

And three, the show deviated too far from the turtles as characters and turned them into caricatures. Raph and Splinter are the most egregious of these, since splinter is a martial arts master and cares deeply for his sons and raph is not just a dopey muscle man. There is a difference between remaining how something so old works and completely redesigning FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTER TRAITS

Also the ONLY show to have a more rounded art style was the 80s sitcom cartoon style one? 2003 was more gritty, 2012 has cheap CGI but was going for younger turtles anyways, and even then their shredder was more intense than the 80s shredder. Not to mention the movies which were full body puppets that needed to do stunt work a lot for the first three live action ones, 2007 TMNT isn't rounded and cartoonish at all and in fact proves that raph isn't supposed to be big and muscular just literally built different, batman vs TMNT is the LEAST cartoonish the cartoons get, and the Bay movies are just transformers turtles. Not to mention the latest movie is an actual reimagined turtles movie that still has the important aspects there.

So my tldr is that rottmnt is a show that would be really good if it wasn't a tmnt show because it simply ignores the foundations of tmnt. Thank you

#also it fails my last ronan test. which is 'if the lasr ronan happened in this universe could i tell who survived easily?'

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turtlethon · 2 years ago

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“Get Shredder!”

Season 8, Episode 1 First US Airdate: September 17, 1994

The Turtles continue to hunt down a defeated Shredder while also dealing with a new enemy from Krang’s past.

“Get Shredder!” is the first episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles season eight. David Wise is the credited writer for this adventure.

vimeo

We get a new title sequence to mark the beginning of this final era of the show, its “Red Sky” period, and it’s... not good? For reasons we’ll get into later, no original animation appears here, instead we get quick-fire clips of the Turtles and other characters sourced from this season’s episodes. Sprinkled between these are shots from the first live-action TMNT movie, as if to try and borrow some of the credibility and acclaim it had accrued. Accompanying all this is a quasi-reworking of the original theme song. This is probably the best element of this ill-advised opening: I must admit it’s sorta catchy, but let’s not kid ourselves, this – all of this – is a massive downgrade.

Season seven was a testing of the waters for a more mature version of the series, subtly emphasising the action and sci-fi elements of TMNT while downplaying its reliance on wacky humour. This culminated in a big finale, “Shredder Triumphant!”, in which the titular villain was finally able to take over the city alongside Krang, the Turtles briefly banished to Dimension X. Upon their return, our heroes worked alongside their friends from Channel 6 and Splinter to finally deal Shreds a definitive defeat, the Technodrome itself being sent to Dimension X. That adventure closed with Shredder, Krang, Rocksteady and Bebop driving off into the sunset in an old pick-up truck having lost everything, their fortress, the Foot Soldiers, Rock Soldiers and the rest of their resources all gone; even Krang’s android body was badly damaged during the battle and won’t be in service moving forward.

Today’s adventure follows on directly from those events. It seems that the Turtles went down into the sewers after defeating Shredder as boys and emerged the next day as men; perpetually angry, snarling, glowering men. As if to rub it in, the opening shot of this episode has Michaelangelo – always the most light-hearted and affable of the Turtles – emerge from a manhole, warily looking around with shifty eyes. The team sneak into a nearby alley, where Leonardo explains that they need to capitalise on Shredder’s run of misfortune, hunting down him and the rest of the now ex-Technodrome Crew while they have the advantage.

Now drawn to be more intimidating than before, the Turtles meet up with April, who has also received a makeover, her facial features tweaked and her familiar banana yellow jumpsuit traded in for more grounded clothing. (She even gets to wear a coat while standing around outside at night, it’s a whole new world!) April points the team in the direction of a warehouse where a gang of crooks are hiding out; they had recently stolen vehicles from a used car dealership with the help of an advanced laser beam, suggesting a possible connection to Shredder. The Turtles smash their way into the hideout and capture the crooks; after grilling them, it becomes clear that they have no connection to Shreds, their laser generator made in Taiwan rather than the Technodrome.

The Turtles return to the Lair – which is now more moodily-lit than before – and seek advice from Splinter, whose design is curiously unchanged. He suggests to his pupils that Shredder won’t play by the rules in attempting to acquire new resources. Soon the team pick up on a radio transmission in Donatello’s workshop involving a gunfight in a research facility and a man in a metal mask, and so they rush off to investigate.

A laser gun shoot-out takes place in the research facility, with Bebop and Rocksteady using their blaster weapons – now running low on energy – to hold off the police as Shredder (now voiced by Bill Martin) steals chemicals. Mixing a concoction in a barrel, he hurls this in the direction of the cops, escaping with The Boys moments before the upper reaches of the building explode. Bebop remarks that Shredder “sure bluffed [his] way out of that one”, leading Shredder to respond that he never bluffs, a seemingly innocuous line that will prove to have some significance later.

The trio meet up with Krang in the remnants of a demolished electronics store nearby. The alien brain has found an unconventional solution to their problems in the shape of a dog-eared brochure from the 1964 World’s Fair. A pavilion in the Hall of Science has been left untouched for almost thirty years, and might contain the equipment the villains need to get out of their current predicament. Personally, I find it hard to believe that there could possibly be anything of value to Krang in human technology from the mid-sixties, but let’s just go with it.

Arriving on the scene of the warehouse fire caused by Shredder, the Turtles are about to sneak in and look for clues when they spot that the boarded-up electronics store nearby has its lights on, the front door wide open. Inside, they find footprints from Krang’s bubble walker – those are a thing now, apparently – and the abandoned World’s Fair brochure. Figuring this is where the villains are headed, the Turtles head off to confront them.

Shredder, Krang and The Boys arrive outside the remains of the Hall of Science. Before they can even enter, the Turtles roll up in their van. A battle between the two sides kicks off – with Bebop unable to put up a fight, his gun now entirely drained of power – but everyone involved is forced to take cover as a brightly-coloured villain named Berserko shoots blasts of energy at them from the top of the building, concluding the first act.

Act two opens with the villains attempting to escape, but Donatello is briefly able to restrain Krang, yanking him out of his bubble walker. Identifying the alien brain by name, Berserko immediately orders his robotic drones to capture him. A blast from Berserko’s roof-mounted gun brings down a nearby building, which topples in Raphael’s direction; what happens next is a truly baffling moment, as rather than showing the bricks bury Raph the scene hurriedly dissolves to a shot of the Turtle Van, the other members of the team lugging him inside. The Turtles try to rush an unconscious Raphael back to the Lair, but Berserko fires upon their van. Badly damaged, the vehicle is left on its side after crashing, our heroes forced to escape on-foot.

Shredder meets up with Rocksteady and Bebop, the group noting that Krang has gone missing. Rocksteady mentions he last saw Donatello restraining him, and so the trio assume the Turtles are now holding him hostage, and begin plotting to strike back. Back in the Lair, a still-recovering Raphael refuses to rest, removing his bandages and insisting they continue with their mission of hunting down Shredder.

Berserko removes his helmet to reveal his true identity to Krang. Once known as Drakus, he was the alien brain’s weapons engineer and helped co-design the Technodrome before being double-crossed; Krang even went as far as destroying Drakus’s home world to spite his old collaborator, as a means of making sure no-one connected to him got involved in their feud.

Krang is shown Berserko’s latest innovation: a huge vehicle called The Annihilator, said to outclass even the Technodrome in terms of firepower. Berserko requests his old partner assist him in making the final modifications required to the drive system, but Krang refuses. The alien brain is placed under a heat ray within a domed booth in the Hall of Science, with Berserko pledging to finish off his Annihilator on his own.

We briefly check in with Shredder, who carries out a raid on a chemical supplies warehouse with Rocksteady and Bebop, before returning to Krang. Feeling the pressure from the heat ray, the alien warlord provides the needed details on how to fix the drive system. Having now acquired the information he needs, Berserko has Krang tied up, a group of robotic drones ordered to monitor him.

Returning to the surface, Donatello begins performing repairs on the Turtle Van. Meanwhile the other Turtles check in with April, still intent on getting a lead on Shredder’s activities. A radio transmission reveals that Shredder and his henchmen have been spotted breaking into a building while carrying explosive devices; to the horror of April and Irma, it soon dawns on them that the address mentioned is that of the Channel 6 building itself, Rocksteady and Bebop emerging to confront them.

The familiar Channel 6 players – April, Irma, Burne and Vernon – are locked in a room together as the villains carry out their plan. Vernon reveals that he saw the trio carrying the explosives down to the basement, and when questioned by Burne as to why he didn’t intervene responds that “a good reporter isn’t supposed to get involved with the story”.

Shredder reaches our heroes via a Turtlecom transmission, addressing them in his new charmless monotone voice; out of all the changes that the show has seen in these later years, somehow the departure of James Avery continues to be one of the most damaging. He tells the team that he’s placed “a very large explosive device” at Channel 6, demanding that Krang be handed over within the next thirty minutes; if the green teens don’t comply, he’ll blow the building up, with April, Irma and everyone else inside it. Splinter overhears this incoming transmission from Donatello’s workshop and decides to intervene on his own. Meanwhile the Turtles are perplexed as to why Shredder thinks they have Krang. Determining that Berserko must have kidnapped the alien brain, the rest of the group rush back to the Hall of Science to confront him, while Donatello continues fixing up the van.

While Splinter infiltrates the locked-down Channel 6 building the Turtles do the same at Berserko’s makeshift headquarters. Genuine attempts are being made by the animation team to up the standards of the fight sequences here within the constraints placed upon them; Leonardo deflecting the laser blasts of a drone robot with his katana before destroying it is a particularly polished sequence, the kind of thing it’s hard to imagine seeing in the show during its middle seasons. Leo and Raph find the still-restrained Krang, and on the way out reunite with Mikey, who has learned of the construction of The Annihilator; with the clock against them the team put that issue aside for the moment.

Now with Krang in tow, the three Turtles return to their van as Donatello makes the final repairs required. Drones open fire upon them, but the group nevertheless escape. Berserko emerges to watch the Turtle Van drive away, still confident that the completion of the Annihilator will assure his victory. Meanwhile, Splinter finds the room with the Channel 6 regulars inside; only a minute remains until the explosives go off, and so he resorts to using a well-placed chop to shatter the metal bar holding the handles in place.

vimeo

Shredder stands in front of the Channel 6 building, flanked by Rocksteady and Bebop, as the Turtle Van arrives. Before the team can hand over Krang, he announces that it took them thirty-one minutes, failing to meet his demands within the agreed timeframe. The Turtles – used to always saving the day in the nick of time, and to the arch-villain invariably fumbling his way to a humiliating defeat – note that the station premises are still intact, and that clearly he was bluffing the whole time. Shredder responds with three words that will forever alter the direction of the series: “I... never... bluff.”

In easily the most shocking moment of the show’s history, the Channel 6 building is obliterated in a massive explosion, only a pile of rubble left behind. Unsure of the fate of their friends, the furious Turtles attack the villains. The battle that follows again sees the production crew pushing to up the quality of the fight choreography beyond what we’re used to, but climaxes in the comical sight of a scowling Michaelangelo lording it over a defeated Shredder, shaking his fist in the villain’s face and inexplicably declaring “Cowabunga, dude.”

The Turtles have the upper hand over their enemies, but are distracted by the arrival of Berserko’s Annihilator. Using their extensive experience of breaking into the Technodrome, the group work their way into the enormous vehicle and confront Krang’s old collaborator. Along the way the controls for the tank-like contraption are damaged, and so the group are forced to escape with the now-restrained villain as it rolls downhill into a nearby river.

Returning to the rubble of the Channel 6 building with a now tied-up Berserko, the Turtles lament the assumed demises of their friends April and Irma - “and even Vernon”. All three soon emerge, alongside Splinter, Burne and the rest of the station employees (which seem to consist of a weirdly slimmed-down Stan and one other guy.) Furious at the loss of his station, Burne launches into a full-on tirade, blaming the Turtles for everything that has transpired and pledging that, when Channel 6 gets back on its feet, he’ll make it his mission to expose the threat they pose to the city. The Turtles counter that Shredder is the true threat, but unable to get through to April’s boss they soon use their ninja skills to vanish when his back is turned. April goes on to give a stirring speech of her own, sticking up for her friends. “No matter what you say, they’ll keep on fighting to save this city from the forces of evil! Especially Shredder.”

Wow. I think it’s fair to say this episode is... a lot. What we’re witnessing here is something almost akin to a soft reboot, doing away with so much of the bread and butter of what the show was from its inception through season seven. The brightly-coloured environments, the appealing and friendly character designs, the zany humour, even the endless pizza talk... all of that is gone now. It’s evident that the gradual maturation that we saw last season was thought to be still not enough to keep the Turtles relevant in the marketplace, and so now things have escalated considerably. Beyond even where they were in the first season, the team and the world they inhabit are now grim, perpetually aggressive, almost downright miserable. In adopting this new attitude, the Red Sky Turtles, incredibly, come across as less welcoming and friendly than even their counterparts from the 2003 4Kids animated show, who were positioned as tougher than the Fred Wolf Turtles but could still crack a joke now and again. In all this, there’s a sense that while David Wise was probably happy to make small tweaks to the vibe of the show through season seven, this new round of changes was likely the result of executive meddling, all of it feeling like a step too far.

After eight years, it’s clear that somebody – within Fred Wolf’s camp, at CBS, in the Mirage / Surge Licensing camp or mostly likely a combination of the aforementioned – had decided that certain elements that had been long present within the series were now a millstone around its neck. Turtles has always been centred around three principal locales: the Lair, the Technodrome and the Channel 6 building. With the Technodrome written out of the series last season, and the Lair the most dangerous of the three to meddle with given its proximity to the main characters, that leaves April’s workplace the most obvious place to make further changes. The destruction of the station building – where so many zany stories and comedic B-plots have taken place - is a symbolic gesture, a statement of intent informing viewers that whatever they thought Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was in the past is gone now, with no means of turning back.

The transition to this new era is jarring, but “Get Shredder!” isn’t the disaster I feared. As with season seven, there’s a sense that everyone involved in the production is working hard to try and save the show, perhaps even more so now, and from that we get some solid action sequences and landmark moments. Burne’s fury at the loss of his station and vow to get back at the Turtles is the most authentic moment of characterisation he’s ever received, his anger here based in something real rather than his usual empty bluster, and it’s exciting to see these characters who have been going through the motions for so many years now forced to move on. There is the prospect in here of a new, more mature TMNT that could be good, and over the final three months of Turtlethon we’ll explore how that plays out.

SAY HELLO TO THE PLOW KING: A MIGHTY MORPHIN’ INTERLUDE

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I trust that everyone reading this is familiar with “Mr .Plow”, a season four episode of The Simpsons. In the unlikely event that this one passed you by or you’re too young to know of it, the premise involves Homer being convinced by a salesman to buy a pickup truck with a snow plow mounted to it, on the basis that the vehicle will pay for itself if he uses it to clear driveways in Springfield during winters. This works out well for a while, as Homer adopts the moniker of Mr. Plow and is celebrated by the townspeople for his help with their snow-related problems, but along the way he ends up inspiring his friend Barney to show some initiative himself. Declaring himself to be the Plow King, Barney purchases an even bigger vehicle and immediately makes his intent clear by using a gun to blow out the tyres on Homer’s truck. His operation is bigger and better than Homer’s, effectively rendering Mr. Plow an irrelevance overnight.

The reason I bring all this up is that I often use “Plow King” as shorthand to describe a situation where a formerly successful venture – typically a business, brand or TV show – is destroyed almost immediately by an emerging competitor that’s able to take everything the established entity did and one-up it. Nintendo (with help from the 1983 video game crash) Plow Kinged Atari. Blackberry was Plow Kinged by the introduction of the iPhone. And in our space, within the realm of comics, toys and animation discussed in this project, The Real Ghostbusters was Plow Kinged, irrefutably, by the ascending Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles around 1989 or so. Everything that Ghostbusters had pioneered in terms of its marketing and positioning as a series that blended comedy and action, alongside a toy line that incorporated gross-out elements which alarmed parents, was built upon by MWS and Playmates so effectively in TMNT that their counterparts at DiC and Kenner were hopelessly outgunned. I say this as someone who loved Ghostbusters obsessively as a child, but nevertheless, objectively the Turtles were positioned to be cooler, to connect with children in a more relatable and direct way. They weren’t grown men running a business, they were simply teenagers hanging out and getting into adventures, with a sort of renegade appeal that Peter, Ray, Egon and Winston could never have.

To borrow a line from another cartoon, as Megatron tells Starscream at the conclusion of the original Transformers mini-series, “if you dispose of me, there will always be someone waiting to dispose of you”. Half a decade on from the Ninja Turtles supplanting the Ghostbusters at the top of the kidvid action hero hierarchy, there’s no doubt that as we kick off season eight, the Turtles have been Plow Kinged by Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. To accomplish this, Saban took existing footage from the Japanese series Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger and wrapped it in elements of previous series that had been popular in terms of marketing, positioning and presentation – a drop of TMNT, a dash of Transformers, and even a smidge of Saved by the Bell-style teenage high school fluff, which was performing well on Saturday mornings at the time – and again this approach of building upon what the market leader had done paid dividends. Power Rangers made its debut on Fox a few weeks prior to season seven of TMNT commencing over on CBS, which regular Turtlethon readers may recall was hampered by spending almost two months on the dire European Vacation arc before the new episodes originally intended for broadcast in 1993 got underway. By now – a year on – MMPR has become a phenomenon that poses an existential threat to the Turtles, in much the same way that the green teens outperformed every competitor in the space back in 1990.

None of this happens in isolation, of course. The rise of Power Rangers followed on from the arrival of Batman: The Animated Series and X-Men, both debuting in 1992, two hugely successful and influential shows that shifted a lot of units in the action figure space, making the Turtles look safe and perhaps antiquated by comparison. All of this was also happening during a boom in gritty, excessively violent comic books and the increasing popularity of fighting games such as Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. Hit from all sides, Turtles as a brand is faced with only two viable routes for survival: either go down the route of being even campier, zanier, and sillier than before to win back the very young end of its target audience lost to Power Rangers, or make a concerted effort to keep pace with the teenage boys who grew up with the property during the prior seven seasons, giving them the edgy, brooding, violent Turtles that they want – or at least, that they think they want. For now, and for the remainder of the Fred Wolf era, TMNT will be taking the latter route.

As the barebones new intro suggests, this reinvention of the Turtles is taking place on an incredibly small budget. In the Turtlethon entry for “Shredder Triumphant!” we touched upon the idea that episode may have been intended to work at least as a possible finale. It seems the thriftiness ongoing at CBS, in an ironic twist, might have been what led to the continuation of their Saturday morning cartoons: the significant loss of broadcasting rights to the NFL to Fox reportedly freed up resources to keep long-running shows such as TMNT and stablemate Garfield and Friends on the air for a little longer.

Turtles, then, continues to just about survive in late 1994, if only on name value, an almost mortally-wounded property granted a reprieve and a last-ditch chance to reinvent itself for the second half of the nineties. There are a mere seven episodes to follow in this season, the next marking the final appearance of one of the show’s most enduring second-string villains, in “Wrath of the Rat King".

#Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #tmnt #TMNT 1987 #1994 #Get Shredder!#Get Shredder #Ninja Turtles #Turtlethon

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remmushound · 4 years ago

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Part 7 of my Rise/bay crossover! Special thanks to @brightlotusmoon for the help with this chapter!! @errorfreak88

It took only a few minutes for Donnie to set the computer to work.

“It… it’s working to isolate any mutagenic pathogens around the globe— if it works right there should be seven down here and two in ADX Florence— that’s Bebop and Rocksteady. Any other strays would hopefully be our other turtles and dear old rat.”

“What about their April?”

“I— I can’t really track her using this, but with any luck she’s with one of them. It’ll take a few minutes since it… searching such a wide range.”

“That’s okay. At least we have a start.” Leo tried to smile but he was sure Donnie could see right through it. “Why don’t you go bring our uh… friend in there some food and water? Sure he’d appreciate it. And try to ask him more about his world if you can. So we know what to expect.”

When Donnie didn't immediately move, Leo gave him an encouraging shove toward the kitchen. Donnie stumbled off, looking back and making a ‘really bro?’ motion toward Leo. He scooped up the other-Donnie’s battle shell on the way over. Entering the kitchen brought him into what was almost like a whole other world— a loud one at that!

“Oh mi gOSH IS THAT A TATTOO?!” It was almost whiplashing hearing a voice so ectatic and yet so sarcastic-sounding at the same time. Donatello’s eyes were like stars as he looked at Mikey’s tattoo. “Ohhhhh! I soooo want one!”

Mikey was all too happy to flex his arm and show off the faded markings, “Oh you’d look so cool with a tattoo! Yeah, like maybe an airplane or like cat or something cool like that.” Mikey said quickly.

“Yeah, but Raph would kill me!” Donatello couldn’t help but poke at the tattoos, tracing his finger gently across the mark to get a better feel of the design. “Ohhhh that’s so cool!”

Donnie cleared his throat finally.

“Oh. Sah Donnie?” Mikey did a peace sign.

Donnie cleared and jiggled the battle shell he held pointedly.

Donatello gasped and shoved Mikey aside to run, arms outstretched, to his counterpart. “MY BABY!” He snatched the battle shell from Donnie’s hands and kissed it repeatedly. “Oh I’ll never let you go again— ack! Ew! Sewer taste!” He started to try and wipe the taste off his tongue, “Ohhhh nooo that just made it worse!”

“Ohhh I totally know how you feel! This one time, when we were going down the pipe, the water like totally went in my mouth.” Mikey waddled over to Donatello and leaned over the shorter turtle's shoulder, standing almost close enough to rest his chin on the softshell’s head.

Donatello didn't seem to notice nor care about the box turtle’s proximity as he flipped open one of the many pouches contained in his armor and pulled out a small device that looked almost like bottle caps, one blue and labeled L and one white and labeled R. Mikey watched curiously as Donatello popped the case open and gasped loudly when the turtle took one of the clear lenses on his finger and started the process of cleaning it. When Donatello pulled apart his eyelids to apply the contacts, however, Mikey recoiled, climbing on the counter to get further away and immediately starting to whine.

“Ewww! Ew ew ew ew, he’s touching his eye—“

“Mikey!” Donnie snapped, but Mikey didn't stop.

“Eww his eye’s gonna pop out dude I’m telling you it’s gonna pop out and fall on the floor and get all dirty and he’s gonna have to pick it up and put it back in!”

Donatello was unperturbed by the complaints and applied his contacts quickly. “Yes, yes. Gasp in your repugnance all you want. Alas, ‘tis all the better to see you with, dear Michael!” Donatello waved a hand as he turned to face Mikey. “Heyyy, you got freckles! Nice.”

Mikey’s disgust was almost immediately forgotten by curiosity as he crawled across the counter to get closer to Donatello, and then fell off. He got back up, shaking off the fall and strutting as if it never happened.

“Do they hurt?” Mikey gasped.

“Where did you get contact lenses anyway?” Donnie was just as in Donatello’s face as Mikey was. “I got glasses, but that was just by dumb luck.”

“Yeah!” Mikey started to poke at Donatello curiously, “And even then they’re always falling off and stuff. Super inconvenient!”

“Mikey, quit poking him!”

“I saw you poking him!” Mikey nudged the bridge of his shell against Donnie.

“Ow— that was just an exam!”

Donatello leaned against the wall and watched the altercation with the slightest grin. He let himself watch a moment longer before starting to put his battle shell back on, and at the click of the buckle Mikey perked up like a dog at a whistle. He shoved Donnie away and hurried to the softshell.

“Wanna hear more about my tattoos?”

Donatello gave the excitable box turtle a genuine smile. “I wanna hear about everything you want to tell me. Just give me a mo~”

Donatello walked confidently over to Donnie, took the mask and glasses off in a single motion and walked away before Donnie could stop him. It took the mutant another second to process the audacity before he ran after.

“Wha— hey— heyheyhey— that’s my stuff!” Donnie tried to take his things back, but Donatello’s spider arm held him back.

Donatello rooted through the drawers for a long moment before coming out with a pair of scissors.

“Hey— what are you doing with those?!” Donnie tried to stop him once more, growling as he tried to overpower the titanium arms.

Mikey twirled over to Donatello, the titanium arms letting him past while still restraining Donnie. Mikey landed with his palms down on the counter flexing his tattoo proudly.

“Okay, so like, that turtle in the middle is our family crest right? And I totally designed it— original Michelangelo art right here, first hand. I know, I’m amazing!”

Donatello continued his work through Mikey’s rant, nodding along to the enthusiasm.

“The inking was done by Donnie there in the purple, you already met him though so eh. And this is supposed to be the Brooklynn bridge— New York pride and everything.”

Though Donatello’s expression didn't change in the slightest, one of his spider arms made a fist and bounced over to Mikey for a fist bump, which the box turtle obliged.

“And this is supposed to be the knots are our masks, connects to the bridge— super cool. And these are just some spaceships cause spaceships are awesome. And this is a bat, cause bats are rad, and it’s on fire cause that’s also rad.”

“Mm. Very nice. Love the thought and detail. Ha! There!” Donatello finished his work and retracted his titanium arms so suddenly that Donnie stumbled and almost fell. Donatello un-creased the mask to the best of his ability and rolled it back onto Donnie’s head, fixing it comfortably for the other mutant before backing up with a smug smirk.

The only difference in the mask that had been taken and the mask that was returned were the glasses now fitted carefully into the eye holes; the handles went in between the cloth of the mask to hold the glasses securely in place.

“Now you won’t have to worry about dropping them.” Donatello said calmly, crossing his arms and nodded. “You’re welcome.”

Donnie touched his hand to the frames a moment in awe before laughing his snorting-laugh. “Oh my god— this is— this is genius!” He hurried over to look at his reflection in the fridge. “How did I never think about this?”

Donatello simply tapped his head in response and turned to return to Mikey before Donnie ran and grabbed his arm to stop him.

“Wait!” Donnie said quickly, “I have so many questions!”

#Donnie tech #donatello and Mikey bonding #tattoos!!#kajin #Tmnt #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt #tmnt au #donatello #donnie #tmnt bayverse

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whitehotharlots · 6 years ago

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Handicapping the 2020 Dem primary

Tier Four

The Tom Vilsack Memorial “No Chance in Hell” Tier

These are the candidates whose family members won’t even vote for them. They will drop out either before or immediately after Iowa. Some of them will be working specifically to plant the seeds of a 2024 run, while others are auditioning for an MSNBC gig.

Joe Kennedy

Any person who is simultaneously old enough and illiterate enough to have any fondness for the Kennedys is 100% in the Trump camp. Joe has zero appeal outside of this voting bloc, which literally does not exist. He won’t even win Massachusetts--won’t even be in the top five in Massachusetts.

Michael Avenatti

My man ain’t even announced his run and he’s already facing domestic assault charges. A potential Avenatti run had a mystical WWF vibe to it. I will admit, I was excited, the same as I’d be excited to finally pull alongside the accident that caused the pile up. No one has any idea what his policies are, because neither does he. He might honestly beat Trump in the general, as he is far and away the most likely candidate to physically assault Trump if the two ever share a stage (any Dem who punches Trump will be automatically 100% guaranteed to win the election). But he probably won’t even run.

Mitch Landrieu

Mitch will appeal to that small demographic of erstwhile independent voters who were drawn to Trump solely because he is an openly corrupt grifter. By May he will be a panel participant on a new MSNBC show that’s like Shark Tank but but all the contestants are trying to get the panel to fund their medical gofundme’s.

Eric Holder

Like every other member of the Obama administration, his faults are glaring and the relatively good stuff he did takes way too much context for most voters to understand. Under his leadership, the DoJ began began to litigate hate crimes, which had been almost completely neglected under Bush. That’s good. Also, under his leadership, the DoJ stalwartly refused to prosecute the war criminals who lied us into Iraq or the bankers who tanked the world economy. That’s bad. Politically, he has the platform of a Republican circa 1992. Personally, he has the charisma of a very dry snail.

Steve Bullock

He looks and sounds like the dumb guy sidekick of an old cartoon villain. He is therefore the Bebop/Rocksteady of the field. His policies are indistinguishable from any other civil moderate/fiscal conservative candidate, and his moistness will drive away both donors and media . (NOTE: With Bullock, the Avenatti Rule applies: if he threatens to physically assault Trump or any member of Trump’s family--especially including Baron--he will rocket to the top of the pack. If he actually assaults them, he will win the general election and usher in a glorious Centrist Utopia)

Kristen Gillibrand

She was once considered a front-runner for the same reason Corey Booker kinda sorta still is a frontrunner--because she looks similar to a previous Dem nominee, and many liberal strategists and commentators cannot conceive of a politics beyond identity markers. Trouble is, unlike Booker, Gillibrand pissed off her donor base by leading the the charge against Al Franken. I don’t for a second think that Gillibrand’s efforts had anything to do with principles. She just leaned into the wrong direction of the skid of cynicism: if there’s one thing Democrat donors hate, it’s a candidate who appears to adhere to any kind of moral framework. And Gillibrand is not the sort of candidate who stands a chance without full institutional support.

Tier Three

The “Gormless Dweebs” Tier

These people might stick around until late in the game for the same reason they’d stay at a house party until well after they were no longer welcome. Each also possesses a very particular strain of weirdness that might resonate with voters in New Hampshire enough that they’d finish in the top 3, but none has a realistic chance to live past Super Tuesday.

Martin O’Malley

O’Malley is the Democrat John Kasich. He’s mostly running because he wants to have people to talk to. Several New Hampshire people will nod at him and that will be it.

Terry McAuliffe

Imagine if Joe Lieberman were a governor and slightly less physically repulsive. He is still a very moist man, and his only moments of attention will come when he criticizes one of the more left-leaning candidates after they point out that the Iraq war didn’t go so good. (Let me ask Senator Sanders a question. We he says that global warming is the biggest threat we face... has he ever heard of ISLAM?” *Tufts University crowd goes wild*) Terry might come in top 3 in Virginia, and he also might stick around if a frontrunner is facing some kind of big scandal. But his main effect on this debate will be that of a zebra mussel on the side of a leaky rowboat, hoping it fills with just enough water that he’ll be able to slither aboard for the last few minutes before it sinks.

Elizabeth Warren

Warren is one of small handful of Dem candidates whose economic politics fall to the left of Margaret Thatcher. That doesn’t really work for her, though, because it’s hard for a quiet dweeb to project any sense of populism. She’d be a significantly less horrible president than most on this list, probably. But there’s no way she would beat Trump head to head. He can bait her with literally any claim and her response will always be “golly gee I will refute this man with logic and evidence and then those who repeated his taunts will surely see the error of their ways.” By August, it would get to the point where she’d be sending out topless pics to prove she really doesn’t have several teats and therefore is not a pregnant dog, as Trump suggested. But thankfully she will have flamed out long before that.

Tier 2

The “Viable Candidates Who Are Gonna Get Rat Fucked Really Hard” Tier

Sherrod Brown

Same general platform as Bernie, only without the voting record, name recognition, or widespread appeal. We are also living in an age where crudity is now taken for a sign of sincerity, and while he does kinda give off a “disheveled history teacher” vibe, that’s not enough to really combat Trump. Trump can only really be beaten by a platform, not a personality, so Brown might have a chance. But he’ll also almost certainly bow out before Super Tuesday. My guess he won’t be able to take the heat nearly as well as Bernie and he’s gone before Iowa.

Bernie

Bernie will win New Hampshire. He will win for the same reason he won it in 2016: he’s well-known there, he will be the only believable candidate running on a civil libertarian platform. He will win it by a bigger margin, because the Establishment field will be more split. He will win Iowa for the same reasons: much more name recognition now. Pledged delegates-wise, he will be far and away the frontrunner after the first two contests, although on-screen graphics will continue to present him as a longshot, due to superdelegates. He will then square off in a contest between 1-2 of the following candidates, whom the establishment will rally behind. He could win the nomination, but you and I literally cannot imagine the absurdity of the smears he will face. If he wins the nomination he wins the general Reagan vs. Mondale-style, and we might narrowly avoid civilization collapse. There’s only about a 25% of that happening, though.

Tier 1

The “If the Establishment Unites Behind Any One of These People They Will Beat Bernie for the Nom Then Get Stomped by Trump” Tier

None of these candidates would have a realistic chance against Trump, but each of them is well positioned to take advantage of the unique corruption of the Democratic Party. Our only real hope--as a society and a species--is that they manage to split the vote between themselves.

Kamela Harris

Did you watch HBO’s The Jinx? It’s about a weird, repulsive millionaire serial killer who keeps evading justice. She was the prosecutor who tried to convict him. To stress: she could not convict Robert Derst. She’s running in the right direction, though, (disingenuously) espousing some populist positions while hoovering up donor cash. She could very well wait this thing out and then see the donors line up behind her enough so that he "victory” is called by the AP right before the California primary.

Beto

Centrism couldn’t win in Texas, even with a candidate who was immensely more appealing than his opponent. That’s exactly what Centrism is designed to do, and it didn’t do it. It failed. It will always fail. Still, Beto is very handsome and very shameless and not Republican-level evil, which means he will make some money and also sway some idiots. But he’s not nearly connected enough, yet, to win the nom. He will come close however, and bow out at the right time so as to not burn any bridges. Beto will be the nominee in 2024, when he will narrowly win the popular vote but lose the electoral college to Immortum Joe.

Corey Booker

Laugh if you must, but Booker appeals strongly to the exact strain of idiocy that controls the strategy within the Democratic Party: He is a black male... like Obama! That means he will win, since Obama did. Yes, anyone who spends a few minutes studying Booker will realize he lacks Obama’s intelligence, wit, and oratorical ability. But that’s not how the Democratic establishment understands politics: they believe, genuinely, that the way to win is to raise the most money while being in possession of the correct identity markers. Should a candidate do this and lose, as Hillary did, it was the inevitable result of machinations outside of their control. Ergo, we must appoint the anointed one and see if he pleases the gods. Plus, if you mute the TV and squint, Booker totally looks like Obama!

Hillary

The main benefits of wokeness--why it has so many adherents, so far as I can tell--is that it allows certain people to skirt all responsibility for everything they say and do, even as it forces others to attempt to adhere to literally impossible programmatics of speech and comportment. And so Hillary’s recent nativist turn will be forgiven (it will most likely go unmentioned), while Bernie’s wardrobe and posture will be used as evidence of his sexism. She can continue making jokes about Colored People Time, while any of her competitors will be crucified for not using the exact right terms in describing whatever happen to be the Woke Cause of the Day. This insulation from criticism is Hillary’s biggest strength with the Democrat electorate, while her fiscal conservatism will continue to help her with donors. She will get beaten horribly in the general, but still stands a strong chance in the primary.

Joe Biden

I have no idea how this man is leading in some polls other than name recognition. Which--don’t get me wrong, name recognition is huge, especially in early goings within a crowded primary field. But what does Biden bring to the table, policy-wise or personality-wise? I realize the people who bleat about how they don’t want any more OLD. WHITE. MALES. running for president are just trying to make their cruel centrist politics appear radical--but could they be shameless enough to actually throw their support to Biden? Biden, the dude who most certainly would have been MeToo’d were he still in a position of power? Biden, the pro-war economic conservative who repeatedly says that young people just need to stop whining? That’s the guy you’re gonna run against Trump? Probably. I would take a 50/50 bet on him winning the nomination.

Final odds:

Biden: 1:1

Hillary 1.5:1

Bernie 4:1

Booker 8:1

Beto 10:1

Harris 12:1

Field (including only aforementioned candidates): 30:1

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brendancorris · 6 years ago

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Rise of the TMNT initial review

I gave my first thoughts on the visuals, creative choices, and general backlash from the community for Rise of the TMNT, the latest cartoon for the Heroes in a Half Shell back when they were first unveiled. As some may remember, I generally was positive and supportive of the new direction. There were some changes I was a bit unsure about, but generally I was fine with it.

Now, five episodes have been released to the public, and I’ve watched a bit. So, I feel, since I’ve been a hardcore TMNT fan for about 29 years, it only makes sense that I share my thoughts for any who may care.

Before I get to my overall opinion of the show, though, I would like to go over each aspect individually. Let’s start with one of the most controversial topics - the art style and animation. I feel the need to once again highlight that they’re different things, as people always seem to forget this when talking about these topics. Animation is the movement exclusively. So, as for the art style, I like it. It’s very sharp, loud, and energetic. There is so much expression in the faces and bodies of every character. The action poses are wonderful. I especially love the expressions of Don. His eyebrows really add to his look, and his cocky, judgmental expressions add a lot of comedy to the character.

The designs are certainly different. Raph is ginormous, Leo has a fannypack, and so on. Honestly, I got over the designs very quickly. Again, the designs of the four turtles are extremely expressive, and it is nice to see so much variety between them for a change. As for other returning characters, Splinter will take some getting used to. Maybe if he didn’t look so much like a hamster I’d be fine with his design. I don’t really have a problem with his build, I just think that Splinter’s identifying long snout should have been in the design. But April, holy crap, I love this April design. She is so adorable. I was on the fence about her design originally, but once I saw her in action, it quickly became my favorite Rise design, only tied with Don’s.

As for the new characters, I have mixed feelings. A handful of the mutants have really cool designs, like Repo Mantis (my favorite), Hypnopotomus, and Meat Sweats. But then there’s other new characters like the lead villain, voiced by John Cena, who I just feel has a very generic modern cartoon villain design. He looks like a throw away villain in a comedy sketch parodying Saturday morning cartoons. I’m also not a fan of that catdog thingy April has. It looks like a Pokemon. Doesn’t belong in TMNT in my opinion.

But the animation is pretty gorgeous. It does get very choppy sometimes, which I honestly do find a bit disorienting since at other times, the animation is beautifully fluent and alive. I do wish the animation almost always stayed that fluent, but I understand how extremely time consuming animation can be, especially when working with such highly detailed characters, and considering that when the animation is fluent, it’s REALLY good, so I cut them a break. The action scenes are truly amazing to watch. The backgrounds are also very stylish, colorful, and just nice to look at.

While I do think the 2012 show was an amazing TMNT series, I did always find it a bit visually lacking. So I’m glad to see this one do the visuals so well.

Now, I guess I’ll talk about the writing, plot, and characters. As all of you likely know by now, we do not see the origin of the turtles or how they met April. While I can definitely understand why they would leave this out from a marketing standpoint (no reason to make a new TMNT show with limited episodes for preview and just go through the same story we’ve seen 100 times and give us nothing new to look forward to) I do hope we see it eventually. It is a pivotal part of the TMNT world, and is especially necessary now that this is a brand new TMNT for a whole new generation, and is reinventing the lore in many ways.

The show, obviously, is geared more towards smaller children, which I’m totally cool with. Not only did TMNT bring me a lot of happiness at that age, but I also like to see more franchises for kids. There seems to be a big push for cartoons to be more “adult” these days, but I still feel lots of them should be for kids. We live in an age where toys and cartoons are being primarily made for adults. Kids need media too, and TMNT has proved extremely popular with little kids for 30 years. The show still manages to be legitimately funny more than I expected, and, honestly, has a lot of wit and sarcasm that will likely only tickle the older audiences.

The story-telling is a bit all over the place and ultra-fast-paced, but it’s pretty good, again, with the child’s perspective in mind. It has a lot more action than I think most of us thought, and that is done really well. The characters, however, seem to be another huge point of controversy among the fans. My personal favorites so far are Don and April (yes, same two favorites as physical designs). Don’s such a smug brainiac and April’s so feisty and spunky, it’s adorable. But many things like Raph being the leader, Leo being the cool hot shot, and Splinter being seemingly a lazy couch potato, have a lot of fans in a frenzy. I will admit, Leo being a hot shot smart ass is still taking me time to warm up to, and Raph does feel odd as a leader. There doesn’t really seem to be any reason for the Turtles to have him as the leader other than the fact that he’s the biggest.

However, it does seem obvious that they are working up to something. The turtles, quite amusingly, are terrible ninja at the start of the show. They’re clumsy, inexperienced, and just horrible at making plans. There does seem to be a running theme of Raph’s plans being awful and Leo’s working. It does in fact seem like they are starting off more fresh, then evolving towards a more familiar setup. Even the presence of Foot soldiers implies the coming of Shredder possibly. And that brings me to my only real concern.

While I know this show is not being made for 87 shellheads like myself, I do kind of wish there was more TMNT material in the show. It seems to be trying as hard as it can to stray from traditional TMNT series that it could end up straying too far to the point of it being irrelevant to the franchise. I’m all for changes, all for new art direction, all for new characters, all for character re-imaginings, and so on, but it would be nice to see some returning aspects, like Shredder, Baxter Stockman, Rat King, Casey Jones, the Technodrome or some of the Turtles’ famous vehicles. I would absolutely love to see how Rocksteady and Bebop would look in this style too.

I’m a bit iffy about the episodes. I don’t think they’re bad, but the pacing in some is a bit all over the place, and one episode in particular seemed like a tired premise. The episode I’m referring to has the Turtles in a Chuck E. Cheese’s type locale with an evil animatronic bear coming to life and battling them. If this sounds familiar, you’ve either played Five Nights at Freddy’s, or, more specifically for my argument here, have seen the episode of Gravity Falls, “Soos and the Real Girl”. It was one of the most popular and funny episodes of the Disney XD cartoon, but it seems to be a premise that is continually done in modern cartoons. Just last year, the 2017 Duck Tales (which, although pretty good, I feel pulls a little too much inspiration from Gravity Falls) did a story involving a Chuck E. Cheese setting, and now Rise is doing it as well, with pretty much the same twist Gravity Falls did. While it is a funny premise, I do wish cartoonists would avoid doing it so often as it’s already been done successfully before.

So let’s get to the bottom of this. How do I feel all around? I think it’s pretty good. Like I said, it’s not my turtles, but my turtles had the entire late 80s and early to mid 90s already. It had its time, made me and thousands of other kids happy beyond reason, and made the franchise as big as it is today. It did everything it needed to do. I’m happy to see new generations get their own new forms of TMNT. I’m just glad that my favorite franchise ever is not only still relevant, but still a quality product, too. Simply put - I support Rise of the TMNT.

Still hoping we see some more classic characters and tech show up, though.

And pretty soon, yes, I’ll address a certain Netflix reboot of a series near and dear to me that has been making A LOT of noise on the internet lately. Until then, check out the available episodes of Rise if you haven’t already and decide how you feel about it.

#tmnt #Brendan Corris #BrendanCorris #Rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #teenage mutant ninja turtles #nickelodeon #review

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jaydraw209 · 6 years ago

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Rampage Designs from my deleted blog. Part of an AU of the movie.

George lived in Africa with his family. then one day, poachers attack them and killed his mother, would have been killed if Davis wouldn't have come and he save his ass. He got sprayed by a thing, that fell out of the sky, his anger increased is dramatic. He starts to destroy shit.

Ralph was treated like shit by his own pack, all changed when something fell from the sky. He went to investigate and it sprayed something on him, his anger grew and he killed his tribe. The next day He killed mercenaries, who tried to kill him. He started to destroy shit.

Lizzie always got what she wanted, a large lake, the biggest prey and the best sand banks. For many years Lizzie ruled over her lake with fear and ferocity until one night a strange object struck in her territory. She went to investigate and found it was just perfect for a midnight snack. Her anger started to grow to the point, she had to leave her home. Later, She started to destroy shit along George and Ralph.

Larry's a victim of Endless torture, so when some human sprayed him with some green gas, his anger grew and he started killing these people, who put him in so much pain. Somehow Larry survived the explosion, but he didn't want to destroy shit then and there, He was like "SLEEP FIRST, DESTROY SHIT LATER."

Harley is the laidback guy, you would think that doesn’t care about life, he seems to be the chill boy, but inside he hates himself. Unlike everyone here, he was one of test subjects for Scum Labs, He was taken from his home and tested on by Scum labs and his rage grew very quickly.

Ruby was Scavenger, seems rare for someone like her, she’s one the more quiet one, she doesn’t bother with anyone around her, then a something strange crashed near her home, she checked if it was something she need, it spray some green gas on her, she’s started grow more and more, she get attacked more and that didn’t well for the attackers.

Boris had a great territory and found a perfect mate and instead of leaving her he decided to stay with her and help her raise their newborn son. One day he found something strange to him and it spread some green gas at him but he chose to ignore it. But, When his family was killed....... You can tell he would pissed off..... He went out to destroy everything in sight, not before he found the poachers and killed them.

Curtis grew up in group where they changelle each other to be the ruler, so far he had scars from fights, he’s basically a punching bag for the group. something fell out of the sky, it sprayed him with a strange gas. His rage grew when one the group members tried to beat him, but he beat the shit out the guy. The Ruler decides to challenge Curtis, in the end Curtis won the fight and he was declared the King of the Rats.

Beezleborg is a robot created to be a guard for Scumlabs and will goes as far as killing the subject to keep everyone else safe.(Also, she doesn't know how Gijinkas works)

Myukus was sent to kill the humans because genetic engineers stole technology from his people and He got his ass caught by human.

Vern is an Abomination, he was in the space station and his containment pod crashes to Earth. He survived the crash and his insanity grows as much as his malevolent nature is shown.

- I kinda based Wrecking Crew on Both their game and movie forms

- Lizzie is based off different version of Swamp Witch

- Ralph is based off Wolfman

- George is semi-based off tribal chiefs

- Larry is more like a asylum patient

-I was watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I literally based Harley's human design of Bebop and Curtis's design Semi-based off the Rat King

- Nothing new with Boris.(Was based off Rocksteady? Yes.)

- Ruby outfit is based of the Skarlet

#How the fuck is 2018 Rampage underrated #I'll remake some these designs later #alternate universe

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dustinweaver · 7 years ago

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Bebop & Rocksteady: Destroy Everything!

Here’s a look at the back matter in the Bebop & Rocksteady: Destroy Everything! TPB. It’s loaded with concept art, preliminary layouts, and designs by artists like Ben Bates, Sophie Campbell, Giannis Milonogiannis, Damien Couceiro, Ryan Browne, Pablo Tunica, Nick Pitarra, Benjsmin Tiesma, and me (Dustin Weaver).

Collaborating with so many creators meant communicating a lot of ideas and it generated a lot of concept and design sketches.

#bebop and rocksteady #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt #Ben Bates #Dustin Weaver #sophie campbell #Giannis Milonogiannis #damien couceiro #ryan browne #pablo tunica #nick pitarra #benjamin tiesma

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hamsterandturtlesoup · 6 years ago

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Okay, so, I’m home!

More importantly, I watched Rise of the TMNT and . . .

I kinda loved it @_@

I tag everything I reblog in relation to this show rise of the tmnt and will not be tagging specifically for spoilers right now (because it’s ALL new to everyone!), so please block with your tumblr extension of choice if you want to!

Initial observations under the cut:

- I really like how they’ve taken a leaf out of the Steven Universe book and started in media res and not attempted to explain too much yet. This is particularly important when it comes to April just BEING there from the start as part of the team/family and I love it. When you’re rolling with shorter eps it makes a big difference, too. No lengthy exposition to get going. Just introducing us via the characters and their relationships/interactions.

- That said, the overarching tone is obviously comedy so I’m not holding out high hopes for any incredibly deep and meaningful plot arcs or anything. SU managed it though . . . Prove me wrong!

- Voice cast is wonderful.

- Already love the new designs. The main cast are all really distinct and expressive.

- I admit I was worried the animation was gonna feel like a cheap Flash cartoon and not live up to the quality of the opening. But it’s fast-paced, snappy, dynamic and colourful and I’m sorry I ever doubted it.

- Villain line up is still looking like a sausagefest. Boooo. The Baron is admittedly very pretty though.

- Leo was the character I had the most reservations about, and he certainly feels the most dramatically different from his usual self, but he’s a) already backseat leading (I’ve long suspected ‘Raph is the leader’ would just be the starting status quo and get changed up to the traditional model at some point), and b) a giant dork, all of which doesn’t stray too far from canon I guess!

While I wouldn’t ever have described him as ‘laid back’, he has always been the calmer and cooler-headed bro so I’m choosing to interpret this as his pre-responsiblity laid back self (and hope to watch him wrestle with and develop beneath the weight of said responsibility when it eventually slams down on his shoulders, ‘cause I’m mean that way ;D)

- Raphael is large and good and pure and a giant softie and I would die for him.

- Donnie is just perfect okay.

- Mikey is Mikey so no complaints here.

- April is fun, sassy and brave and has immediately joined my adopted daughter ranks.

- The only negative I have is that I have no idea where they’re going with Splinter. Referring to him as ‘Pops’ obviously indicates a familial relationship with the turts, but so far he just seems like a lazy slob asshole kinda? So I’m hoping this is sleight of hand for when he finally does . . . something . . ? Please, I miss Good Dad Splinter from 2k3!

- I’m enjoying some of the fresh interpretations and design callbacks/clues (like the Bebop/Rocksteady misdirection, the way they’re going with the Foot . . .)

- The whole thing just feels really fresh and fun and new and honestly as much as I love the ‘traditional’ turtles, that story and those characters have been told so many times, this new entry is only diversifying the turtleverse - so far in a good way. I’m here for it.

#i'm back #and so are my idiot sons #you'll pry Large Raphael from my cold dead fingers #rise of the tmnt #tmnt 2018

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boneswriteswords · 7 years ago

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Dating Rocksteady and Bepop Would Include (SFW):

- Rocksteady and Bebop were together before they met you but when they did, it was explosive on their parts.

- Like holy fucking heart eyes Batman could you be any more attractive? Holy shit you're a giant sweetheart too? Oh my fucking god you are also a total badass that can do so many things? Sign them tf up.

- FUCKING UP LITERALLY EVERY ATTEMPT TO GET YOU TO NOTICE THEM! OMG they are hopeless. Like they tried to get you flowers but the bouquet ended up wilting and on fire before they got it to you. Rock tried to write you a love note. It sounded threatening. Bepop tried to look deeply in your eyes so you could see how he loved you but it was so intense and blank that it scared you. Every single attempt was a disaster and you ended up having to ask why they wanted to fight you.

(Brunette guy was Bepop)

- They would hang around your job as much as possible but it got to be a problem so you make them wait for you at a designated meeting point.

- Date nights always consist of all three or none at all. You do not see a reason to have separate date nights since you all end up pining for the missing link the entire time anyway so unless one person is away (usually you for work purposes), all three are together.

- You are in the middle almost always. You walk in between them. You sit between them. You eat between them. They need to keep an eye on you to make sure you are safe and the no one can get to you without having to face one of them.

- You are the designated shopper. Rock and Bepop have no idea what to do in a grocery store, a mall, or any kind of civilized person institution.

- Rock does the cooking. He has a knack for making things taste good and if you bring him ingredients, he will put delicious meals together.

- Their mutations affected you most. You remained human and fragile. They went from being the ones who protected you from everything to being the things that were most likely to hurt you. Physically anyway. Because they are huge, a little clumsy in their new bodies, and have actual stabby things on their faces.

- And there was the fact that you didn't know about the mutations so when you saw them barreling down at you, you ran. Which, you know, did quite a number on Rock and Bepop's emotions.

- Like their biggest fear in the universe is you not wanting them anymore. They never want to scare you so when they saw you high tail it AWAY from them, they got so upset. Like why are you running? Do you not love them anymore? Did they do something wrong to you? Its not until later on, when they've gotten sufficiently drunk in grief, that they realize that you had no fucking idea who they were because the last time you saw them, they were human. You had no idea about the transformation so you probably thought you were in danger when you saw a big ass rhino and a big ass warthog approaching you. They spend the rest of their night blowing up your phone.

- Bepop made it clear that he and Rock would learn to work around their new bodies because they didn't want you to leave.

-You used to sleep between them but after the mutation, you didn't fit on the bed. Yeah it was a huge bed and if there was room, another mattress would have sufficed but the space just wasn't big enough. Rock and Bepop may have had emotional break downs when you moved out of the bed. Yeah you sleep on a smaller mattress in the room but it just isn't the same as far as they are concerned. The only thing that kept them quiet was 'Well, I'm still in the room aren't I? I could have moved to a whole other bedroom."

- And no Rock, I can't just sleep on one of you. You both move in your sleep like crazy. I will end up stabbed or squished.

- Lowkey contemplating on asking Karai if there is any mutagen left so you can get on their level but dismissing it.

- They learn to read you as well as they read each other and it scares you sometimes.

- Be ready to deal with the grossest things ever. They have no filter or manners. They will burp and belch and fart and shart and curse. You are in charge of making sure they have a handle on it at least some of the time.

- Ok so speaking of gross things, the first time you fart in front of them - the tiniest little poot they have ever heard in their lives-, they sew (yes they know how to sew) the date onto their leather jackets. Why? Because that is the day you basically became their wife because farting in front of your partner is a big thing and means you are in it for the long haul...according to them at least)

- You lowkey got that date etched into a bracelet charm. They called you their wife and that is special af.

This conversation:

Y/N: *is having a shitty time at work*

Bepop: Is there anything we can do to help?

Rocksteady: Yeah?

Y/N: Kill my boss and coworkers.

R&B: …...*starts walking to the door*

Y/N: No, come back. I didn't mean it. Stop right there and turn around.

R&B: *Turns back around* Bepop: That seemed counterproductive.

#tmnt #tmnt fluff #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt 2014 #tmnt 2016 #fluff #sfw #rocksteady #bebop #bobsteady #dating rocksteady and bebop would include #violent bois #would include #dating rocksteady and bebop part 1 #mine

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brightlotusmoon · 7 years ago

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TMNT and Teen Titans part 1?

I had a very, very involved dream and decided to write down as much dialogue as I could, because if I play it right it could become a new AU fic. It would have the same “Mikey is naturally spiritual with ESP” theme that runs through all my stuff, but this time there are five superheroes who are totally up for turning him into Shiny Mikey whether his brothers are ready or not. Plus, Starfire would just adore him and squish him haaah.

In my dream, The Titans were a blend of Original and Go!, since some of the Go! episodes really are funny and silly and insightful. It’s a trash fire show. But it has moments. I’m hooked on Pretty Pretty Pegasus, okay. The Night Begins To Shine is a new autistic interest by itself. This is what I could scrounge up, very free floating, no real context, but there is definitely room for world building. I’ll need title recommendations. I loved the design of 2D animated 2012 kids during the first crossover with 1987 so I pictured them like that rather than CGI, not just in Jump City but in their own New York.

TMNT Meets Teen Titans (working title)

Scene (?)

“Mikey is…” Leo paused. He shrugged. “Mikey is friendly. He wants to make everyone happy. It makes him happy. There’s not much else, I mean, he doesn’t have hidden layers. He’s a happy-go-lucky fun-loving optimist who uses humor to diffuse tension. What you see is what you get.”

“Yeah, I doubt that,” Robin smirked, draping over the back of the couch with his coffee.

Leo glared. “Scuse me?”

“Everyone has layers,” Cyborg said. “Even the ones where you just see surface stuff. Take Beast Boy. He’s pretty much the same as Mike, right? Except he’s got a surprisingly huge amount of dark depth and intensity.”

Leo stammered, blushing. “W-well, yeah, but…that’s what I meant, like, I know Mikey gets sad, he gets depressed and dark sometimes, like everybody, but–”

“Sounds like you don’t know your youngest brother as well as you should,” Beast Boy smirked wider from the floor.

“Shut up, you little goblin…”

“Aww, is Leo pulling a me?” And Raph sauntered in with Starfire, both sweating after a training session. “Man, she’s like Master Splinter, she keeps going. Leo, you should train with her!” “Raph, they’re insisting there’s a dark side of Mikey that we never see,” Leo said in an odd, wheedling tone.

Raphael frowned. “Dark? Michelangelo? Nahh. Well…maybe. If push came to shove. Like, when I got bit by Fishface, he stayed with me and you should’ve seen how mad he got when Bebop and Rocksteady came near us, took them down like it was nothing. But that’s just ninja skill and athletics, Mikey was always the fastest and most acrobatic. Dark, though, no way. He’s too…sunny.”

“Cheerful,” came Donatello’s, voice, as he finally emerged from Cyborg’s work station, tapping away on a tablet, eyes alight. “Organically optimistic. Anger makes him feel physically sick, although he seems to store a great deal of it – did we tell you about that adventure we had going into his mind?”

“Donnie, can you look at people when you talk to them?” Leo snapped. Donnie sighed and sat on the couch and put the tablet on his lap.

Robin suddenly whirled toward the hall leading to the bedrooms. Raven walked out, Mikey gripping her hand in his and swinging them, a wild grin lighting up his face.

“You smell like incense,” Raph noted.

“We were in the astral plane!” Mikey chirped. The three brothers froze. “Raven says I’m one of the strongest spiritual minds she’s ever seen. See? Sensei was right, wasn’t he, Leo?”

“Wait, you meditated willingly?”

“You reached the astral plane by yourself?”

“You can’t be stronger than me!”

Cyborg and Robin exchanged a long, quirked glance.

Raven flushed, carefully eased her hand away, and smiled a tiny smile. “Well…yes. He’s strong. His aura is very…encompassing. Cuddly. Strong. Bright.” She looked up. “Dangerous.”

“Is not! You just said cuddly.”

“I meant that it could overwhelm, Mike. You…you hold on to things. People. You love too much. You don’t want to let go. You might not know how. Your emotions are your strength and your kindness is your weapon. Your aura was pulling my aura in like a hurricane. You wanted to connect badly and you relied on your natural charm, but you didn’t have any discipline or specific focus.” She smiled a little wider at him, as his eyes were widening and looking watery.

“Let’s put it this way. If you were like me, you could envelope an entire city in your aura and no one would even know. You could project nothing but calm and happiness and it would still be a problem because nobody would know anything else.”

“Ya mean…brainwashing?” Mike’s lower lip trembled.

“In less harsh words, sort of. Look.” She took his hands and faced him. “Remember what we talked about once I pulled us back out in there? I’m willing to teach you how to manifest and control these abilities, but that means delving deep into your soul and unlocking all the parts we need.”

“What unlocked parts?” Raph asked. “Mikey’s an open book!” Leo nodded emphatically.

They didn’t notice the very hurt look Mikey shot him. The Titans and Donnie did.

“Mikey,” Don said carefully, “I know you hide everything behind the jokes and the pranks and being loud. After Sensei’s death, your cheerfulness was almost out of hand.” Mikey flinched so hard that Raven tightened her grip. “But you know you can tell us anything. You can tell me anything.”

“But I can’t!” Mike exploded, and his brothers winced in shock. “You expected me to be the goof, so I’m the goof, so I don’t even bother to show you when it hurts!”

“Uhhh…” Beast Boy stood up slowly. “Maybe this should be a private family thing.”

“No,” and Robin folded his arms. “If we’re all going to work as a team to protect both our worlds and our cities, we’re going to get all of this out in the open. Especially as Raven just revealed some incredibly useful and powerful information.”

“Not just that,” Raven said, “What about that time he got electrokinetic abilities after being shredded out of existence? He could still have them, even after nearly a year.”

“When did you tell her about…never mind.” Don bit his lip. “Look, Agent Bishop’s dampener cannon took those powers away because they were overloading him and they were going to burn him out.”

“You sure he was telling the whole truth?” Cyborg asked. “Electrokinesis can be controlled easily enough. Besides, that cannon might not have gotten all the ability, there could be just enough of a spark deep in his central nervous nervous system to ignite and bring at least a portion back. Not enough to be nearly as strong as he was back then, but–”

“COOL,” Mikey cut in, eyes the size of dinner plates.

“Well, Bishop is kind of a lying liar who lies,” Raphael grumbled.

“If I supplied Raven’s powers with an electromagnetic charge,” Cyborg mused, “I bet she could find the part of his brain that still holds the memory of that power and tweak it until it released the ability to call back that specific electrical power…”

“Yes please!” Michelangelo squeaked, bouncing so hard he moved from Raven to Cyborg in a blink, arms wrapped around the metal waist, eyes shining and puppy-begging.

“Plus,” Raven added, “I sensed a strong potential for extrasensory perception, which would make sense, since he’s connected to Dimension X via the mutagen’s affects on his particular brain pattern and wiring.”

“Are we sure it’s a good idea, rooting around in Mikey’s brain?” Leo asked. “It could hurt his brain.”

“Who would know the difference?” Don said automatically, old sibling teasing snapping into place. Every head turned to him. So, their brand of sibling humor was not going to fly here.

“It…it was a joke,” he murmured.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mikey’s wide, lamp-like eyes full of tears. Mike whispered to Cyborg, who ground his teeth and looked ready to punch the other three turtles in the mouths.

Starfire rose higher into the air, eyes glowing. “Am I hearing this correctly? Are you all so accustomed to mocking Michelangelo’s preferred forms of intelligence, expression, input, sensory process, that you would naturally assume he is utterly incapable of being the great warrior he clearly is inside? Has this been happening all your life together?”

Michelangelo shifted, throat clearing. “When…when Sensei gave us our weapons when we were really little, he gave me my nunchucks because he thought they were perfect for me but he never explained why, or who I was, like with the others. So I made them perfect for me. I don’t think anyone ever believed in me. So I pushed all the sadness down until it got buried.”

There was a slight silence.

Starfire erupted in rage, and in a flash, she had grabbed Mikey and was hovering, cradling him like a child, energy flashing and hissing around her. “This is unacceptable! None of you are allowed to speak poorly of him! He is now under my protection as Princess of Tamaran! Shame on you!”

Mikey just stared at her, mouth open.

“From this point onward, Raven and I will take Michelangelo under the wing, and his natural abilities will be allowed to flourish. If any of you say anything mocking his brain, I will threaten to force feed you zorka berries until you choke!”

Leo, Raph, and Don had shrunk back, while Raven and Cyborg were holding back laughter.

“Well,” Raven smiled, “this will be fun.”

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