#carter tmnt

[transk0vsky]

I keep getting random bursts of energy to make these posts someone save me

[camarilla-arts]

a mostly Frida centric sketch dump of my TMNT iteration. technically the second drawing is just my design for Frida/Big Mama's assistant in Rise!

Iteration thoughts under the cut cause they got long....

So it might be odd to make a seperation AU and like draw it before I have even gotten really anything out for the first au itself but lmao I don't control this car we're just along for the ride. Some of the below is spoilers for my au 'canon' i guess, kinda?

Shadow, Kirby, and Carter are the only ones TRULY bad off in this i think, Shitty family business that gets violent, a beaten-into-shape foot soldier who still wants nothing more than to be a hero, and an alien lab rat to a villainous alien.

Not to say the others are doing Well either, Big Mama and Kitsune love their daughters in their own ways, but power is still prized above all for both women. Slash had a rougher start but hes a part of an mutant rights group that's willing to work dirty. he pretends to not like the silly name they've picked up around town. :)

Splinters the worst off tho, I didnt draw her but like she is Vastly worse off in a separated au.

I'm so interested in specifically what Big Mama and Frida's relationship would've been like in Rise so it's a decently sized chunk of my outline for this au so far. I'm really gonna trim it down so the project could actually get finished but i know that'll be a big arc even after I shorten it. I love BM as a character and like,,,, yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, spins her in my mind on loop.

[turtlethon]

“Dregg of the Earth”

Season 9, Episode 2 First US Airdate: September 23, 1995

Dregg uses a new base of operations to further his plans of taking over the world.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles continues its ninth season with “Dregg of the Earth”. This episode was written by David Wise from a story by Mark Edens.

We kick off today’s proceedings with Lord Dregg’s TechnoGang attempting to steal a proton accelerator device from a scientific facility. The Turtles are on the scene and ready to stop them but have Carter tagging along, who insists on deviating from Leonardo’s agreed plan of action and comes out swinging against the aliens. As Dregg’s men make their escape, pursued by the Turtles, Carter finds himself pinned down under wreckage created during the battle, leading him to change into his mutant form.

Mikey notes the arrival of “that weirdo again” as Carter bursts through the wall a la the Kool-Aid Man, demonstrating himself to be impervious to a blast from one of the enemy’s weapons before snapping it in two. The TechnoGang escape to their ship which is used to target the facility, the Turtles escaping seconds before it blows up. For the second episode in a row the team assume that Carter must have perished only for him to show up unscathed. As they did after the encounter aboard Dregg’s ship, the Turtles find Carter’s explanation for how he survived unconvincing, and scold him for botching the mission by not being a team player. The newbie doesn’t take this well, and rides off on his bike in a huff.

I guess Dregg has taken over the role of explaining the Scheme of the Day now that Krang isn’t around. He explains that his molecular converter device was damaged while escaping from the Galactic Patrol, but the stolen proton accelerator will allow him to repair it. A test of the machine demonstrates its ability to successfully purify polluted water. Satisfied, the warlord plans a trip to Earth.

In the Lair’s workshop, the Turtles note the arrival of a huge spaceship in town – the Dreggnaught – while at the same time April relays the news that the mayor and members of the city council have agreed to meet with Lord Dregg. Donatello has an additional concern, as the beaker of left-over mutagen from their transformation continues to become more unstable, but that will have to wait, the group leaving to learn what their new foe is up to.

A crowd of onlookers assemble in a park to watch as the Dreggnaught descends. An unusually chipper-looking Dregg emerges on a platform, telling a story of how his own world was destroyed “by greed and war”, and that his mission involves saving Earth from facing a similar fate. He offers up the molecular converter as a means of eradicating water pollution, a goodwill gesture that wins over the crowd. Unimpressed are the Turtles, watching from a nearby alley, and Carter, viewing the event on his own.

At this point we learn April is now an “independent field correspondent”, her ties to Channel 6 severed. This feels like it should be a bigger deal given the station’s prominence in the show over the years but winds up being a glossed-over detail as she brings us up to speed following a time-skip. Evidently Dregg’s PR initiative worked, the city taking a shine to him and renaming its newest skyscraper “Dregg Tower” in his honour, a site that he intends to turn “into a citadel of science for the good of mankind”. The Turtles watch this report and remain suspicious, deciding to investigate what the alien is up to. Gaining entry via a hatch connected to the sewer system, the team soon find themselves confronted by a group of armed drones.

After disarming the drones, the Turtles ride them through the building, eventually coming face-to-face with a “neural net” energy grid. A hatch in the roof provides a means of escape, but leads them back onto the city streets. The Turtles discuss trying to find another means of gaining entry as Carter – who remains on the outs with the team – listens in from nearby.

Improbably, Carter uses his super computer skills to initiate a Skype call with Lord Dregg. He tells the warlord he can identify a winning side when he sees one, and that he has information that may be of use. A meeting is arranged behind Dregg Tower in which the youth is surrounded by a group of TechnoGang troopers. After defeating them in battle, Carter is told by Dregg that he successfully made it through his initiation, and is taken to the executive suite. In the meeting that follows, the estranged ally of the Turtles agrees to lure them into a trap.

Splinter encourages the Turtles to patch things up with Carter moments before the teen contacts our heroes via Turtlecom. He arranges a meeting with them at an armoury, insistent he can get them into Dregg’s building. April is informed of this, and drives to the location to watch events unfold. It doesn’t take long before HiTech and the Technogang emerge, and the Turtles determine that Carter has double-crossed them.

The Turtles find themselves outnumbered and are marched out of the armoury by the Technogang, an event watched from nearby by April. She follows the departing ship, leaping out of her car and dangling behind the spacecraft as it returns to Dregg Tower. After the ship reaches its location, the reporter loses her grip, and instead winds up clutching a cable in an elevator shaft.

Dregg tells the captured Turtles that Carter was eager to sell them out, and encourages them to do the same. “You’re mutants, freaks, outcasts of society. You have no loyalty to those... humans.” After refusing this offer, the team are told they’ll be eliminated, the neural net they encountered earlier now lowering from the roof. Following Dregg’s departure Leonardo struggles to reach a lever that looks like a means of escape. As he continues to writhe, his hand becomes veiny and clawed, as does Raphael’s. This passes, and moments later Carter emerges to free the team. After the group escape Carter reveals his betrayal was a ruse, and that he’s learned of Dregg’s true intentions, the entire tower set to be refitted into an armed fortress.

April apparently lowered herself into the basement, and takes this opportunity to radio the team, informing them that the location contains an enormous arsenal of weapons. It doesn’t take long for the Turtles to head there and begin plotting to set off a chain reaction that will destroy the supplies. Before they can do so Dregg emerges, accompanied by his TechnoGang. In the ensuing battle Carter transforms into his mutant form, to the astonishment of the Turtles. This helps turn the tide of battle, the Turtles soon goading Dregg into fighting them near the weapons supplies. The warlord shoots energy beams from his eyes that accidentally hit a stack of missiles, the resulting damage threatening the structure of the tower. As Dregg and his men escape April is separated from her camera, the only evidence of the villain’s true intentions, but there’s no time to worry about that: the Turtles, April and the mutated Carter are forced to evacuate. Seconds later, the entire tower explodes.

In the Lair, Carter explains the circumstances leading to his transformation, which the Turtles speculate may provide a link to the signs that their own mutations are becoming unstable. It’s pointed out to Splinter that this may affect him too, and the group agree to face whatever will come as a team.

“Dregg of the Earth” is easily the most insubstantial episode of TMNT I’ve watched in quite a while. I get the feeling that season nine has been structured in such a way that each show is intended to serve as a chapter in one larger, ongoing story, rather than as self-contained adventures. It’s a world away from the heyday of the series, where continuity was almost a dirty word, the demands of producing a near-endless supply of new Turtles episodes for syndication meaning that each tale had to be confined to one twenty-two-minute outing in case things aired out of sequence. With season nine comprising only eight episodes to air across as many weeks, here we get drip-fed an ongoing tale that incentivises viewers to keep coming back. In theory that’s a good thing, but today’s story feels like we’re spinning our wheels a little, with the promise that maybe next time there’ll be a pay-off to this unstable mutation bit as Carter and Dregg both go through largely the same motions as in “The Unknown Ninja”.

There are, at least, some signs of potential here. The idea of Dregg positioning himself as an altruistic figure versus the renegade Turtles could salvage the idea of Channel 6 turning public sentiment against the team from season eight, something that was cut short before it could be fully explored. Somewhat related is the revelation that April no longer works for the station, and we can only speculate as to whether she left (having perhaps had enough of Burne’s vitriol), was fired, or if the accumulated misfortunes that the broadcaster faced proved to be too much – perhaps Milton Frobish II finally stepped in and pulled the plug. This is one of those situations where events happening off-screen are more intriguing – at least, to me – than what’s made it into the show thus far this season.

So far season nine’s been underwhelming. We’ll see if the writers can turn things around next time as we encounter “The Wrath of Medusa”.

[t00nified]

I wanna see Carter in season 3

[tmntismdoodls]

some long forgotten red sky art

[imauthicktic]

Also I’m making a prompt where the reader says to whoever “I’m tired of men having slutty little waists” cause I think this is funny to imagine their reactions

[minor-dot-inconvenience]

Side/minor characters my literal beloveds

[shinigami-striker]

Bumper Robinson | Wednesday, 06.19.24

Same voice actor, featuring Bumper Robinson!

Happy 50th birthday! 🎂

1995

Carter (TMNT) - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 TV Series; Seasons 9-10) (1995-1996)

2007

Bumblebee/Blitzwing - Transformers: Animated (TV series/video games) (2007-2009)

2012

Rook Blonko - Ben 10: Omniverse (TV series/video games)

[jadethest0ne]

What do you like about the Red Sky 87 TMNT episodes?

The Unstable Mutation arc!

(oh and I like the character, Carter, too)

Not sure if that's an official name for it, but I'm a sucker for the story concept of slowly devolving into a monstrous being out of your control. Like, if y'all liked the "Good Genes" arc from TMNT 2003 or the whole "Savage Raph" thing from Rise of the TMNT, then this arc is like those, but on steroids!

I hope y'all are ready for me to ramble about one of my favorite parts of TMNT 1987, cuz that's what I'm gonna do! Thank you anon, for giving me that excuse reason! Heavy spoilers for TMNT 1987 below the cut!

Before I get into the arc, first let's have a quick overview of the "Red Sky seasons" of TMNT 1987. "Red Sky" is a fan-made name for the final 3 seasons of TMNT 1987.

For whatever reason, during those seasons the background artists started coloring the sky red. Those seasons also got a bit more plotty and dark, and had more over-arching storylines instead of being episodic. So they are referred to as the "Red Sky seasons" due to them being both figuratively AND literally more ominous!

For comparison, the Red Sky seasons are to TMNT 1987 what the Rise of the TMNT movie is to the rest of the series, or what the "Leo being thrown through a window" incident is to most other TMNT series.

And while my main critique of these seasons is that they were kind of still figuring out how to do chronological storytelling, so parts of it are a bit awkward (particularly in season 10), and there is also a severe lack of April O'Neil, it had some really cool concepts.

It introduced a pretty neat character, named Carter, who joins the turtles in fighting the bad guys:

And it had the Unstable Mutation arc (spoilers below)...

As the name suggests, the basic plotline of the arc involves the turtles' mutations becoming unstable, causing them to slowly transform into much more monstrous mutants, giving them a boost in abilities and physical prowess, but at a cost of intelligence and morality. In short, they get big and feral.

What I love about this arc is that it is actually paced rather well. They hint at it later on in season 8, follows through a slowly progressing destabilization throughout season 9, and then finally concludes in season 10 (the final season of the series).

It starts with them transforming suddenly, and very briefly at first, affording them a boost in strength and endurance, before they change back to their usual selves. However, another side-effect of the transformation is that it tires them out. Their first transformation literally knocks them out afterwards. As the story goes on, the transformations stay longer and of course often happen at very unfortunate moments, and it begins to effect their mental stability. As it progresses throughout the season, the unstable mutation threatens to become permanent as they lose themselves to the transformations.

Spreading the arc out in this way manages to keep up the tension really well!

Another cool aspect about the transformations themselves is that it's the first time that the turtles really look different from each other. For instance Leonardo gets some metallic-looking bits on his plastron and Donnie gets a cyborg eye. And I honestly wonder if "Rise of the TMNT" took some prompts from Raphael's unstable mutation design, because he's much spikier than the others.

The whole arc comes to a head when Donatello manages to find a way to stabilize their mutation, but due to some villainous shenanigans, Leonardo's transformation gets WORSE and they have to deal with that for a couple episodes.

The consequences of the arc even ties into the villain's main plot in the end, so it actually fits together quite nicely as a whole. The character Carter, that I mentioned earlier, also has a major plot to play in the whole arc, too, and he deals with similar mutation issues throughout. There's just so much going on in these seasons and it's epic and angsty and great!

If I had to choose, I'd still say season 1 of TMNT 1987 is my fave overall, but Season 9 (where most of this arc takes place) is a very close second, and it's largely because I think the whole "unstable mutation" idea was really well-executed!

Thank you again, for the ask, anon! I feel not enough people talk about this part of 1987, and this gave me the opportunity to talk about it!

[planetmarxshmellow]

Underrated characters but redesigned (The last one is unfinished)

[pixiatn]

Praying Seth brings back other human allies the turtles have in the future sequel and tv series cause I'll actually die if it's just Casey and April for the 10 billionth time🙏🏽

[camarilla-arts]

Hamato family, a photo taken late into the story, but before the ending.

Tag for this iteration

[turtlethon]

“The Unknown Ninja”

Season 9, Episode 1 First US Airdate: September 16, 1995

The Turtles encounter an alien warlord and are monitored by a mysterious stranger.

“The Unknown Ninja” is the first episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles season nine. Mark Edens – a contributor to the series going all the way back to “Camera Bugged” - returns after a six-year absence for this collaboration with the debuting Bob Forward. This is the first episode of the show not written by David Wise since season seven’s “White Belt, Black Heart”.

Season eight marked a dramatic reinvention of TMNT and much of that is carried over to this year, including its clumsy, half-hearted title sequence. However, the art style used for the 1994 episodes may have met with a negative reception as the look of the Turtles has now changed again, the team now drawn in a simpler, wide-eyed style that seems to be trying to strike a balance between their look in the classic era of the show with their initial edgy Red Sky makeovers. We open with the green teens reviewing footage of a prior battle against a group of the same ninjas who worked for Megavolt in “State of Shock”. Donatello documented this encounter using a head-mounted camera, unimaginatively dubbed the “Turtle-Cam”. Raphael notes that in the background of the footage an onlooker riding a motorbike can be seen nearby, a stranger that he had spotted during their last few missions, and the group begin to wonder if there’s something to this.

Above the planet, a portal opens. From it emerges a large spaceship containing Lord Dregg (Tony Jay), who has arrived in our corner of the universe while attempting to evade being captured by the Galactic Patrol. His insect-like underling HiTech informs him that Earth contains supplies of the gold that they require, and so the villain orders that his TechnoGang are tasked with retrieving it. A smaller ship emerges from Dregg’s, ready to commence the mission.

The Turtle Blimp makes an unexpected return to the series after an extended absence as the team survey the area, attempting to track down whoever was watching them (a hell of a task given that there were 7.3 million people in New York in 1995, and as that the stranger was wearing a bike helmet they don’t even know what he looks like). Along the way, the Turtles spot someone blowing up the entrance to the Federal Reserve vault, and swoop in to intervene. A group of Dregg’s bug troopers, the TechnoGang, emerge and shoot down the glider, forcing the Turtles to leap onto a nearby rooftop.

Watching again is the mystery biker, who rides in and prevents the Turtles from being hit by a laser weapon mounted atop the TechnoGang's ship. The stranger continues to meddle in the affairs of our heroes, kicking Donatello to the ground as he does battle with one of the invaders. Ultimately the TechnoGang retreat in their ship without the gold, the biker also escaping.

Back in the Lair’s workshop we kick off a new sub-plot, as Donatello examines a beaker containing some of the mutagen which caused both the Turtles and Splinter to take on their current forms. Years on, the ooze is now beginning to become unstable, something that Donnie warns suggests the team could continue to transform. The Lair’s warning systems alert our heroes to the impending arrival of an intruder: It’s the biker again, riding around in the sewers.

After being cornered by the Turtles, the mystery man is forced to remove his helmet and reveal himself. The team are introduced to Carter, the new character being introduced in a desperate attempt to boost low ratings. Half Joe Camel and a third Fonzarelli, he’s one outrageous dude who’s totally in your face. From the outset he’s presented as having outsmarted the Turtles, tracing them back to their Lair despite their best efforts to remain unseen (something Shredder and Krang were unable to do despite eight whole seasons of trying). Carter asks to meet Hamato Yoshi, having determined that the fighting technique used by the Turtles could only have been taught to them by him. The Turtles remain hostile until Splinter intervenes, revealing to the youth his former identity. Splinter agrees to teach Carter the ways of the Foot, and just like that the series has found its Scrappy Doo.

Aboard his ship Dregg is informed by HiTech of the failure of the TechnoGang's mission due to the intervention of the Turtles. Seeking a way to rebound, he looks in on a boardroom at a firm called CopCore, where two robots are being unveiled. What follows is a beat-for-beat recreation of the scene from Robocop where ED-209 was introduced (albeit with a far less gruesome conclusion) as a man announces the rollout of The Intimidators, “the future of law enforcement”. There’s a hint of Minority Report thrown in here too – perhaps a nod to the original novella, but certainly not to the movie, which was still several years away – as we’re told the robots use neurological sensors to “detect criminal intentions and actually prevent the criminal from committing the crime.” Everyone in attendance has a good laugh when the robots begin issuing warnings, thinking it’s all a big show, but the bots soon begin to warn that the group have five seconds to comply, opening fire with their in-built weapons and blowing a hole in the wall.

Sitting in on this meeting is April, who like the Turtles has received a makeover for the second year in a row. There really wasn’t anything wrong with her season eight design but this revision is disastrous, her facial features now simplified and oddly doughy, coupled with a new limp hairdo that I assume was intended to keep her looking contemporary heading into the second half of the nineties but it absolutely does not work. Sneaking out of the room, she uses her Turtlecom to reach Donatello, and the team rush to her aid in the van. Carter is keen to join the Turtles but is told to stay behind and watch how things play out via the Turtle-Cam. Already he’s pissing and moaning, frustrated at being denied a piece of the action.

The Turtles do battle with the robots and are forced to take refuge in an elevator shaft, where the Turtle-Cam – worn during this mission by Michaelangelo – is soon destroyed. Fearing that the team are in trouble, Carter ignores their earlier instructions and rushes to their aid, accidentally splashing some of the contents of the mutagen beaker on his hand on the way out. Upon arriving at the building, he manages to unwittingly lead the Intimidators to the Turtles.

A bigger problem arrives as Lord Dregg emerges from his ship, announcing himself as the “Supreme Warlord of the Seven Galaxies”, intent on conquering the Earth. The Turtles turn their enemies against each other, diving out of the way to have Dregg’s ship open fire upon the Intimidators. The team then work to wear down both the law enforcement robots and the ship, but find themselves overwhelmed. Carter steps in, riding a rolling office desk to topple the Intimidators. Meanwhile Dregg, seeing the threat posed by the green teens, uses his ship’s equipment to revitalise the two robots, before taking Carter hostage and escaping.

Left to fight the robot duo on their own, the Turtles watch as one of the Intimidators self-destructs – a nasty going-away present for anyone capable of defeating them. Seeing an opportunity, Donatello connects a Turtlecom to the remaining robot, connecting it to his workshop’s computer. This grants the team with control of the bot and they use it as a makeshift vehicle, flying out of the building in pursuit of Dregg’s ship.

Aboard Dregg’s spacecraft, Carter remains caught in a giant claw. He writhes and struggles as he attempts to free himself, grunting about how he’s “gotta be strong” until he begins to mutate, a visual of the beaker from earlier superimposed over this sequence as apparently the show doesn’t trust us to understand what’s going on even after eight full years of watching assorted people and animals undergo this process. His new form is what I can only assume is the result of what market research and focus groups told the producers that mid-nineties kids would want from a new Turtles character: a mish-mash of Liu Kang, Vega and... I don’t know, a big yellow chicken.

Dregg again attempts to steal the gold, explaining to nobody in particular that he needs it to repair the weapons systems of his mothership, the Dreggnaught, ahead of his eventual conquest of Earth. An unexpected complication arrives in the shape of the Turtles, utilising the Intimidator to attack the smaller ship. As Carter uses his new martial arts cyborg form to break free, the Turtles confront the warlord. The giant mutant – whose real identity the Turtles remain unaware of – shoves them out of the ship moments before the detonator function of the Intimidator causes the craft to explode. Dregg escapes in a smaller vehicle, returning to his mothership in orbit above the Earth. 

The Turtles, having been separated from the giant mutant who saved them, return to their Lair, lamenting that Carter appeared to have perished in the ship’s explosion. Now back in his normal form he returns to greet them, evasive in his explanation of how he escaped. Splinter remarks that “any young man who could survive such overwhelming odds surely has unusual powers”. Carter responds that he’s ready to begin his training under the team’s sensei, and now receives a warm welcome from the Turtles.

You might be able to sense my hostility in today’s entry towards the changes to the show’s dynamics being introduced here. While season seven saw a natural evolution and a necessary maturation for TMNT to keep pace with its now older viewership, season eight felt like a desperate roll of the dice to ensure the survival of the series, and while some aspects of this reinvention felt like an over-correction, I was surprised by how solid it was. We now find ourselves in a situation where somehow even this was felt to not be enough. There’s an insecurity on display here, the show second-guessing itself by redesigning the Turtles and April for a second time. The culmination of these changes has resulted in the series losing everything that made it visually appealing, looking instead like so much of the cookie-cutter animated dreck of the era (see the Double Dragon cartoon as an example of the glut of action shows which arrived following the success of Batman and X-Men, typically produced on a fraction of the budget with none of the craftmanship or charm, almost all of them long-forgotten). This occurs at the same time as yet another shift of animation studio, Dai Won being replaced by Shanghai Morning Sun Animation, who around this time were working on the similarly mundane American cartoon adaptation of Street Fighter. TMNT has certainly looked worse – there's nothing in here near the lows of the MW Dublin episodes – but much of the heart of the classic era is now gone.

Turtles has never been short of Scrappy Doos and Poochies – kid characters and/or super cool dudes who are supposed to be relatable to the audience and expand the appeal of the property beyond that of the main team. Zach and Mondo Gecko are obvious examples of this in the 1987 continuity, Keno serving a similar role in the live-action movies. Carter comes across as an attempt to find the sweet spot in a Venn diagram between all three. He reminds me of the common occurrence in long-running sitcoms where once the original child actors grow older a new, younger kid would be introduced to the show to recapture the magic of the early years. From the outset it’s clear that he’ll have an uphill battle winning over viewers who have gotten used to the dynamic of the Turtles as a quartet over eight years. He’s an interloper here, effectively inheriting the poisoned chalice of the “Fifth Turtle”, and based on my memories of seeing these episodes the first time around I have little faith in his ability to win me over in the short amount of time the show has left.

Similarly, Lord Dregg has big shoes to fill given that he replaces Shredder as the show’s main villain immediately following Oroku Saki’s reinvention as a competent character in season eight: how could any new guy come in this late in the day and possibly top the shocking destruction of the Channel 6 building? Tony Jay is no slouch as voice actors go, but so far Dregg is missing something. The Turtles have run into too many alien invaders over the years for this gimmick to be a novelty, and nothing in this episode elevates this warlord to the point where he feels like a significant threat to them, a challenge to our heroes big enough to justify him taking over from Shreds.

The evolution of TMNT in the Red Sky era continues, with further steps taken here towards long-form storytelling, teasing viewers with hints of events still to come such as the potentially-unstable mutations of the Turtles. We’ll see the continuation of that in the next episode, “Dregg of the Earth”.

[duckdodger]

MIKEYY 💔

[tmntismdoodls]

hug your friends!!!

[imauthicktic]

I NEED MORE CRACK FIC SCENARIOS AUUGGHHHHFGHGFB