#inuwashi gunjin

[violetvulpini]

Screenshot spoof commission for @spacemeta! Really happy with how this came out!!

If you're interested in a commission, please don't hesitate to send me a DM :)

[tmntkiseki]

I heard you liek Dark Turtles.

Bonus under the Read More: Good lord, how many designs did they go through until they settled on the ones we actually got?

[heroes-in-green]

3, 5, 7, & 28 :)

Whew, this took tooooo long to write. Here we go!!

3: What Is the Lair Like? The Lair is below a quieter part of the city, built around rotting sewers from centuries ago. It has 2 Entry Ways and 3 Escape Exits, all leading horizontal from the surface, tucked behind an alleyway. Minimal natural lighting but very, very warm and damp (good for cold-blooded turtles!); candles & lanterns make good lighting when the electricity fuzzes out, but be cautious of flammables.

2 Bathrooms at different ends of the Lair. Sewage areas in the living space are covered up by boards and carpets.

1.5 Bedrooms. Sometimes the turtles will rearrange whose bed goes where & end up sleeping over in each other’s spaces; Dontallo claims a loft for extra work space, but Leo is free to stay. Raph and Leo always take the darkest corners of the bedroom. Mikey will literally sleep wherever, whenever, bedroom or not. Splinter has his own room but it’s honestly more like a closet with sheets on the floor (he claims he doesn’t need a lot of space).

5: What Is the Origin of the Mutagen? Mutagen is essentially just real-world radioactive pollution gone viciously potent. It’s commonly in thick liquid form, glowing green and slow-moving, but can be found as gases and solids. After heavy periods of fuel harvest by The Foot, Mutagen is present in fog and/or rain. A large majority of scholars and theists alike in NYC (those who have access to much older texts, at least) believe there was some influence in the Mutagen by Utroms (see below).

.

7: Are There Aliens? TL;DR, not tangibly! By 5584, science, fiction, and religion has mixed beyond distinction. Scholars and theists alike have pieced together a sort of nature religion with cosmic entities. The most commonly known deities are the Utroms and Kra(a)ng.

The most universally accepted pantheon includes the Utrom-Krang, Triceratons/ Styracodons, Rock/Stone Soldiers, and the Inuwashi Gunjin. Some subscribers have attempted to connect the deities to the four elements and/or four temperaments despite several factors in every deity’s mythos overlapping in elements; they are not seperate from nature and instead are of nature, all possessing both positive and negative characteristics.

The Foot (or leading Ōshiro family, at least) are heavily invested in and lead by in the Utrom-Krang mythos. Closest thing I can relate them to is Zhar & Lloigor of the Cthulu Mythos. If Krang are a devastating storm, then Utroms are the agricultural growth in its aftermath.

.

28: Is There a Mona Lisa? Y’know what? Why not. She’s not a huge part of the overarching story but probably appears in a side mission or two. Mona Lisa is a (formerly-)human physicist working for the Filch, a powerful group of nomadic pirates who have mostly settled on the waters. Her seaside village was destroyed and Mona was tasked to develop Filch’s submarines while also working with the crew’s cartographers. Over 2+ years, she was affected by animal Mutagen and grew painful scales around her body. Mona Lisa appears more human than animal, however.

[bluepeachstudios]

Alright so I came across this blog because I only just discovered the new series of tmntff series and your perspective and analysis really hits the mark when it comes to headcannons .

Cody is living in a rich yet poor environment . I mean his ancestors have worked hard and contributed way more effort because of their adventures in inter-dimensional areas and founded O Neil Tech . You can see the fruits of this company has made in 2105 . But Cody's uncle is a real piece of work, like a literal psychopath . Who the hell would brainwash an underage kid just to keep in control of the company . I mean most of the people would take kids to the outside world to explore more so they can grow up and be mature . It's literally common sense .

And also the dark turtles should live with the turtles sooner so they could live a decent life . It's literal slavery or like disposble bioweaponry after they got their job done. I mean what would the fatso could give them after completing their task ? A lavish life ? No. He would definitely getting rid of the evidence because they evolved with his shady business besides of business trading with the Triceratons on the incident at 114th floor . Moreover , they seemed like mature adults and dangerous people but the truth is they are a couple months old living beings who don't have enough life experience . In summary , they are just literally kids. KIDS . Also I suspect that Darius Dunn hired the Inuwashi Gunjin from the black market or underground business , then how else would he get those rare species , by using his hands to catch ? But seriously , that living poison needs to go . The most odd thing about this series is , where did the rest of the development go ?

Fast Forward was supposed to have a second season that wrapped up Darius and the Dark Turtles' stories, but of course, producers went and cancelled it in favor of Back to the Sewer.

[ahc-au]

Hello , this is my first time sending this ask , and sorry to hear what happened before the ask box had to go hiatus because of certain difficulties. Hope you guys are doing well and keep the story going :) I have a couple of questions regarding to the Taking Pawns chapter.

1. By the interactions between the bishop and Darius, why would Darius assume that Bishop would kill him after stating the thought experiment? What does this indicate about his situation , like demonstrating his power or something? 2. Regarding Bishop handling the case which is offering guardianship for basically five underage kids due to Darius' underground business has came to light prior to the arrest . Judging by Bishop’s working experience , has he faced any specific case related to this one before ? Would Darius’ spying system discovered in his office ? 

(Or would there be any possibilities that the archives of Darius’ “recruitment’ of private soldiers including both Inuwashi Gunjin and Dark Turtles along with the dealership with ShO’kanabo as well?) 

3. During the trial , why would Darius said to Cody that Bishop cannot be trusted , what kind of reason made a narcissist like him suddenly concerned ? 4. How are relations between Bishop and Dr.Stockman going , like there are no past grudges or unfinished business between them ?

5. Also would the Dark Turtles face discrimination due to their origins considering either they are clones or their bodies contain genes from one of the universe’s most hazardous species as Kanabo hybrids or both? Then how would the authorities handle this ? Would Darius or his other business partners use this as a form of blackmailing along with similar methods using against Cody? As they are basically the same (being involvement of Darius), how do they go through the past-trauma he caused?

6. If in any case that Darius suddenly “broke free” and have certain possibilities of meeting Cody again , what would happen and how will he confront this situation ?

I hope these questions are not too difficult for both of you and as always , looking forward to see how the story goes .

Hello again, thanks for the questions!

1. Dunn knows how these things work. If you have a leak, you get rid of it. It's what he'd do, after all. He's a clever man, he's quickly getting a read on what kind of person Bishop is now that the mask has been dropped. Hopefully that comes through in the prose haha.

2. I assume you mean if Bishop has ever had cases that pointed to Dunn's involvement before? In which case, yes. Dunn's secret stashes and rooms have all been discovered, they may come up at a later time!

3. In Dunn's eyes, Cody belongs to him, so there is some distress for him at the thought of someone else taking guardianship of him. He thinks Bishop's trying to use him for control of O'Niel Tech the same way he was. Also, he's just scared of the guy.

4. Spoilers!

5. The Kanabo aren't exactly front and center in the public consciousness, so no, they don't face any discrimination, at least not in a place as bustling with alien races from all across the galaxy as NNYC. Any ostracization they might face is a result of their not being socialized. They don't know the social rules of politeness and all that bs, so they tend to accidentally come across as rude (or purposefully, frankly loL)

6. Dunn will not be breaking free, don't worry!

--Adelram

[klunk2003]

Line: “What are you gonna do now, Tweety?”

Speaker: Michelangelo to one of the Inuwashi Gunjin

Context: The Inuwashi Gunjin kidnap Cody and the turtles go after him. In the fight, Mikey grabs onto one of the Inuwashi Gunjin’s legs to prevent him from flying away and he shouts the above line.

Media origin: Tweety is a yellow canary part of the animated franchise Looney Tunes. Tweety originally appeared in the animated short A Tale of Two Kitties in 1942.

Season & episode: S6E02 “Obsolete”

Episode’s original airdate: August 5, 2006

[theunicorncomic-blog]

Same deal with 2003, and it’s why Leo is my fave. I don’t necessarily agree with the idea that he would stoop to his enemy’s level when he chooses violence, though. He’s a steadfast believer in Bushido and honor. Instead of sinking to his enemy’s level, he will beat you both physically and morally. Then, unless you are the Shredder, he will offer his hand in friendship.

It’s almost a running joke in the fandom how many second chances he gives Karai, and this version is NOT his sister. She’s the daughter of his sworn enemy but he still wants to see the good in her. Even after she destroyed his home and nearly killed his family, he still spared her. Before the Shredder Strikes, he wanted to see the good in Oroku Saki too. I mentioned the idea Oroku giving him a sword being a metaphorical selling of his soul, but the weapon wasn’t what made him almost join the Shredder. No, it was that he was told that this was all a misunderstanding and that the Foot were on the side of good. Was it naive? Yeah, a bit, but he’s fifteen, hasn’t interacted with many people, and Splinter had kept the story of Master Yoshi’s death to himself. He wanted to believe that there was good in the Shredder.

But they’re not the only ones. Quarry and Traximus became their friends because he went out of his way to save them even when they were trying to kill him and his brothers. When Bishop first appeared with soldiers, he had his brothers stay their hands until the soldiers pulled their guns on them.

The Ultimate Ninja has a grudge against him specifically that almost got him and his family killed several times, but he still gave him an out the first time, tried to save him the second, and when the Ultimate Ninja became a child, he agreed to be his friend. And this is in Grudge Match, a season 4 episode at the height of his dark and brooding ptsd arc. Even when he was at his lowest and most paranoid for the safety of his family, he still found it in his heart to give someone who hurt him a second chance and let him call Leo a friend.

And that’s not even getting into the chances he gave his dark counterpart or the inuwashi gunjin in Fast Forward.

So, it takes a lot to make him choose violence and follow through. The Shredder had to kill his grandfather, chase them out of their homes, burn down April’s house, beat him into a coma, and almost kill the rest of his family for Leo to come after him in retaliation. God help you if you’ve pissed him off enough for him to decide to kill you himself

I just saw something that said Leo chooses violence and I’ve never saw something so true bro-

You really have to mess with Leo so much that he CHOOSES WILLINGLY to beat your ass 😭

Like in the 2012 version when he was FED TF UP about Shredder killing Splinter? Leo was on demon time not messing around.

He doesn’t think on impulse like Raph, or go through every possibility like Donnie- no- he carefully thinks about his decision and comes up with the solution of ass beating in his head to be the best method of action.

So, you really have to push every single button for Leo to FUCK YOU UP.

he will not show mercy, he won't regret what he did, because this mf is always telling his brothers to think before they do something, so this means that if he has a whole thought process about whether or not he should whoop your ass, and he STILL whoops your ass, yeah., Justified 1000000%.

no bc if THIS Leo beats your ass, you really messed up.

If poised pinky tea time Leo chooses to fight you and really do some damage, you're fucked.

Shredder really did some damage on his mind, and that's why he got sent TO THE GUILLOTINE

OFF WITH HIS HEAD SIR LEONARDO

I would hate for you to get molly-wopped by 2012 leo, he really just be out there tryna be a good leader

now if THIS Leo chooses violence, you will never see the light of day again fr fr

does not gaf how low he has to go to match your level, he WILL gladly give you that work. He does not mess around, he's not stopping until he feels you got what you deserve.

If it came to it, i'd rather get dragged by this Leo, ya know, "come to daddy" Leo. Yeah, that one.

bc look at this thing

I can't imagine a more beautiful thing

[laziarteest]

Ellie Rants About TMNT 2003 (Part 2): Fast Forward and Back to the Sewer

Looking for Part 1? Looking for Part 3? Well now that I’ve already talked about the part of the show that I liked, I guess it’s time to talk about the part that I didn’t. I actually took a two week break between watching Season 5 and Season 6 because I’d read about how people consider there to be a decline in quality. In fact, I considered not even watching the final two seasons at all. Once again, I’ll try to keep things written in a way that makes sense. I’m not really planning anything out, this is all stream of consciousness. I have a lot more to complain about this time, but I’ll still try to avoid major spoilers (if you can considering anything from these seasons a spoiler.......).

So the first 5 seasons are relatively well known, at least among those I’ve spoken to about it, for having a darker tone for a kids’ show. While I can’t speak for how faithful of an adaptation they are, several episodes and story lines are adapted directly from the Mirage Comics. Notably, the 6th season has a lighter tone and a more bright and colorful art style to match. So the turtles went from generally appearing like this:

To looking more like this:

And this wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if the animation in general didn’t feel cheaper. This is also when the show starts to veer a bit more into feeling like it desperately needs to sell more toys. It hasn’t quite gotten as bad as it will, but it’s starting to get there. So if you happen to like these seasons, I’m glad you can appreciate them while I can’t, but...

Fast Forward: So this season isn’t ALL bad. There are a couple of gems scattered in that could have worked if the stories surrounding them had been handled better. The biggest problem here is that it’s either boring or annoying. I thought the first episode seemed pretty promising. I went in expecting an unwatchable mess, but aside from a few weird choices, the episode is decently solid. They’re transported to their new setting pretty early on in a manner that seems plausible enough considering the shenanigans they’ve gotten up to in the past. The turtles and Splinter find themselves in future New York City and wander around until they’re found by Cody Jones and his robot Serling that take them home and explain what happened. The whole point of this season seems to be that they’re stuck in the year 2105 and just want to find a way home. In practice though, they’re just sort of goofing off most of the time. While previous seasons tended to be fairly serialized to the point where missing an episode could mean an entire story later on would be confusing, Fast Forward is instead episodic to the point where it feels like nothing ever happens. There’s really only two attempts at an over arching plot. Sh’Okanabo (who I had to look up because I could never tell what they were saying) and his plan to take over Earth, and Darius’ plan to... I don’t know, kill Cody so he can keep doing what he was already doing, I guess? Supposedly there was supposed to be a second season of Fast Forward that would have wrapped up any loose plot threads, but that never happened, so instead we’re left with the mess we got. And boy is it a mess. In addition to Cody, Sterling, Sh’Okanabo, and Darius, this season also added Starlee Hambrath, Constable Biggles, Viral, Torbin Zixx, dark turtle clones, Jammerhead, Triple Threat, the Inuwashi Gunjin... Most of these characters don’t do much. Cody isn’t as bad as I had vague memories of from when I was younger. I feel like he wound up being a damsel in distress a little too often for my tastes, but he did actually  improve a bit towards the end. Sterling is another story however. I’m sure they intended him to be endearing with his sarcasm, but I just can’t stand him. He’s no fun and until the last few episodes of the season is really only around to be upset that the turtles are still living with him. Darius had some potential if only his evil ambition made any sense. Starlee could pretty much have been cut entirely and nothing would change. Constable Biggles was just another robot that gets annoyed at the turtles. Jammerhead is just weird?? The Inuwashi Gunjin show up like three times and I remember nothing about any of them. I didn’t even know Triple Threat had a name. Torbin Zixx was interesting in the very few episodes he actually appeared in. If only because you couldn’t trust anything he said and it was a little funny to see how many betrayals he could pull off in one go. Sh’Okanabo and Viral feel both like they had the most thought put into them, but also no thought. Their goal is the Day of Awakening that basically replaces all life on earth with Sh’Okanabo’s alien race and they will live there until the planet is completely sucked dry of resources before moving on to the next planet. This is also where the characters with the most untapped potential came from..... The dark turtles, which were created from tissue samples of the TMNT, are probably the biggest missed opportunity. And I’ll get into that a little more later. Something I really hate about this season is the number of episodes that only seem to happen because Mikey or Raph did something stupid. Which sort of sucks, because as I mentioned in the previous post, Mikey is already my least favorite turtle in the show, and his behavior here was making me borderline dislike him. The two episodes that stood out to me as actually enjoyable were episodes 22 and 23. Episode 22, Head of State, involves the turtles trying to stop a threat that’s trying to kill the reformed Bishop, now President Bishop. The one behind it turns out to be another old villain from their past and they come to an amicable resolution where the villain trying to get revenge actually feels welcome in the current time and has a chance at happiness. In episode 23, DNA is Thicker Than Water, the dark turtles who are living in the TMNT’s old lair and working for Darius are tasked with killing their counterparts. This is by far the strongest episode in the entire season. It was the only one where I was invested the entire time, and even though I saw the twist coming a mile away, I was excited to see how things would be resolved. Until I saw that this was episode 23 of 26 and realized it would, in fact, NOT be resolved. I guess I can always dream that the dark turtles are redeemed off screen. Overall, this season is not worth your time. If I had to pick a few episodes that are passable enough to watch, they’d be episodes 1, 2, 3, 6, 18, 22, 23, and 26. The rest I would consider to be skippable unless you just really want to be bored and irritated. 

After Fast Forward came Back to the Sewer. And with Back to the Sewer came yet another change to the art style.

Which manages to look even cheaper. And maybe it’s just me, but the visible eyes don’t really add anything and somehow make them seem LESS expressive instead of more. At least the intro song is catchy.

Back to the Sewer: I’m not even really sure to start with this one. I suppose, if nothing else, it was mercifully short. At only 13 episodes (14 if you count Mayhem from Mutant Island), this is the second shortest season in the series. If you were hoping for a good first episode or a good finale, I have some bad news. Because you won’t be getting that. I suppose the best this season has to offer is April and Casey finally getting some more development in their relationship, and Mikey got a couple funny moments. The season, confusingly enough, opens with the Fast Forward intro. I assume this is because they’re technically still in the future. Through some between seasons magic, Cody has finally fixed the machine that lets them go home, but uh oh! Looks like a certain villain named Viral is somehow still around and messes things up. So through an unfunny series of events, that involves revisiting some eras the turtles have already visited before, the turtles and Serling (great...) return to the correct time period and oops looks like Viral got into the Internet and now Shredder is back. Again. For some reason. I know that Shredder is basically the most well known villain in the franchise, but we already had Shredder 3 times, can we have someone else now? I guess sort of, since basically the only new baddie is Khan, but he works for Shredder. Khan basically just feels like early Hun copy-pasted onto a different character design. He’s blindly loyal to the Shredder and isn’t really intimidating after the first episode he appears in. Speaking of Hun, he appears too. He’s just running the Purple Dragons this time. Not doing anything special really. You know who appears alongside Hun in one episode though? Baxter Stockman. And this drives me nuts. A year may have passed in the universe of the show, but it’s been confirmed at other points in earlier seasons that this shouldn’t be possible. And this isn’t the last we hear from him being in a place he probably shouldn’t be... And that’s basically  everyone. So I hope you weren’t a fan of Rat King, Dr Chaplin, Karai, or any other villains. Because you won’t see them outside of a small cameo. Aside from having a disappointingly small cast, this is also when they double down on needing to sell toys. The first three episodes introduce new vehicles or costumes so kids have an excuse to beg their parents for the new toys. I suppose the cyber armor is okay looking, but it just sort of looks like Tron cosplay. I’m sure that was probably a major inspiration based on how the vehicles inside cyberspace work. Oh yeah did I mention that the plot of this season is that Splinter is scattered inside cyber space and they have to go inside the Internet to put him back together and also that’s where Shredder is. Because that’s the plot. I appreciate that there was an attempt at character by making Donatello feel guilty for the first few episodes, but it doesn’t really feel genuine. It seems very forced. Donatello isn’t even in two of the episodes this season, the excuse being that he’s just chilling at home looking for pieces of Splinter. So rip to me, since Donatello is my second favorite. The only other turtle to not be in an episode this season is Leonardo. So double rip. Shockingly, there was one episode that I thought almost could have been good. At best it’s mediocre, but it had potential. Episode 4, The Engagement Ring, is about Casey finally deciding he wants to propose to April, so Raphael goes with him to help pick an engagement ring. Through a series of strange events, they wind up getting a ring imbued with evil power that transforms the wearer and can only be removed by the person who placed the ring on the finger in the first place. This leads to April having outbursts before eventually becoming destructive and turning into a monster. Eventually Casey gets the ring off, things go back to normal, and they get a regular ring instead. This felt like the sort of episode that could have appeared in an earlier season as something that starts as an incidental moment that becomes relevant half a season later. If this had been in season 3, for example, I could see them going to the shop for the ring and giving it to April. Then over the course of several episodes, April occasionally seems to be behaving strangely. Then it would culminate in an episode where they have to figure out how to get the ring off of her. Instead it gets squished into 22 minutes and any lasting impact is gone. I could keep rambling on and on about each individual episode, but I think this is getting long enough. Would I recommend watching ANY of Back to the Sewer? Uh. Not really. Check out the intro song? There aren’t any episodes strong enough to say I enjoyed them. I actually started falling asleep at one point. If you just desperately want to see an episode anyway, episodes 4 and 13 are the least bad if you’re interested in April and Casey’s relationship?

So are Fast Forward and Back to the Sewer as bad as I’d heard? Kind of. I can remember when these seasons of the show were first airing. I only ever caught one or two episodes of Fast Forward, and I didn’t even like them at the time. For reference, I was 12 or 13 at the oldest. Even as a child I knew these episodes just weren’t that watchable. If you’re a hardcore TMNT fan with some major nostalgia for these seasons, I could maybe see you enjoying yourself if only to relive those moments from childhood, but I can’t recommend that anyone else sit through these. The continuity and worldbuilding just becomes too inconsistent, the characters are retreading lessons they’ve already learned at least once, and it eventually just devolved into a toy commercial with some decent voice acting. I still have Turtles Forever to sit through, and I can only hope it serves as a better send off.

[turningofthegrs1]

Thought I’d make a list of all my RP Accounts for ya’ll.

@rolltothesky (Transformers Rescue Bots OC | On Hiatus)

@jxpxnese-txrtle (TMNT OC | On Hiatus)

@sassandsmarts (TMNT 2k12 Kraang OC | On Hiatus)

@themonstersunderground (TMNT 2k3 Quarry, Stonebiter, and Razorfist | On Hiatus)

@goldeneaglesage (TMNT FastForward Inuwashi Gunjin | On Hiatus)

@askendermanwinters (Minecraft Enderman OC | On Hiatus)

@askthescarredender (Minecraft Enderman OC | On Hiatus)

@haz-the-d (Mystery Skulls Animated OC of ??? | Semi-Hiatus)

@not-a-virtue  (Mystery Skulls Animated OC | Semi-Hiatus)

@the-djinn-family (Mystery Skulls Animated OC Multi-Muse | Semi-Hiatus)

@the-mystery-kids (Mystery Skulls Animated OC Next Gen | Semi-Hiatus)

@lance-o-lot (Mystery Skulls Animated Lance and OC Kia | Semi-Hiatus)

@knight-on-fire (Mystery Skulls Animated Vengeful Ghost!Lance| Semi-Hiatus)

@peppers-of-paradiso (Mystery Skulls Animated Mr. and Mrs. Pepper | Semi-Hiatus)

@spectrum-skull (Mystery Skulls Animated Rainbow!Lewis | Semi-Hiatus)

@royaldingaling (Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Ling | On Hiatus)

@synnaholic (Marvel MCU OC Synn | On Hiatus)

@axking-the-avxngxrs (MCU Multi-Muse Ask Account | On Hiatus)

@askcrystalgemjet (Steven Universe Gem OC | On Hiatus)

...I never realized how much of these I had. LORD.

[tmntkiseki]

I call this the "Doodles that I didn't consider good enough to post but liked too much to leave rotting on my hard drive" sketch dump.

[ahc-au]

If you put Darius' victims into the same room , what would they mostly talk about

Cody , Serling , Master Splinter and Splintersons , Dark turtles and Inuwashi Gunjin

"fuck Darius Dunn all my homies hate Darius Dunn"

[ loud cheering from everybody in the room ]

-- Trauma

Except for Cody. Cody feels kind of bad. That's his uncle. His uncle, who has employed numerous people to try and kill Cody, and in the end, tried to kill Cody himself. His uncle, one of the two people who were constants in Cody's life for fifteen years.

It's hard to cheer about proving that his uncle turned out to be an abusive piece of crap.

[skeleton-hellflame]

Heee, got a little inspired to draw my Gunjin Vesra with his pygmy keitza Risto.

Tall dude is looking tall.

And skinny.

[tmntkiseki]

Season 06, Episode 02: "Obsolete"

[tmntkiseki]

A bunch of Fast Forward model sheets, including

Cody

Serling

Darius Dunn

Jammerhead

Sh'Okanabo

Triple Threat

Viral

Once again, I apologize that some of these aren't the best quality.

Bonuses under the Read More: Early pencil drafts and designs of Cody, Starlee, Torbin Zixx, Constable Biggles, Viral, and the Inuwashi Gunjin

[tmntkiseki]

I find it kind of funny that when it comes the Fast Forward characters TMNT fans hope make a comeback in other iterations, it's almost always the Dark Turtles that get brought up, but I personally ended up latching onto the Inuwashi Gunjin.

Like when comparing the Gunjin to the Dark Turtles purely from a writing standpoint, I get why the Gunjin get very little, if any, love from the fanbase despite appearing in just as many episodes. The overwhelming problem with the Gunjin is that although there are four of them, it feels as though they're only one character. The only one with a substantial amount of dialogue and thus characterization is the Gold Gunjin; the Red Gunjin gets a couple of lines in, but the Silver and Orange Gunjin never even speak outside generic grunts/cries in all of their appearances. As a consequence, the other three Gunjin don't really feel like their own characters, but merely extensions of the Gold Gunjin and thus aren't particularly interesting as individuals or as a group. In contrast, the Dark Turtles do have individual personalities and are thus inherently more interesting by that alone, never mind that their final appearance teased the possibility that that they were going to end up switching sides and joining the Good Guys(tm) (which would have happened had the second season of Fast Forward not been cancelled in favor of Back to the Sewer. Damn you, Back to the Sewer.)

However, I think the reason I like the Inuwashi Gunjin so much is because, to me, they are so profoundly tragic. The Gunjin are a proud race of warriors with a strong code of honor, and are clearly not bad people whatsoever. Unfortunately, because the wars they fought in ended and all they're seemingly good for is fighting, they were rendered obsolete--we have no idea what happened to the rest of the Inuwashi Gunjin but by the time of Fast Forward, the four we see in the series are seemingly the only ones left. When we first meet them in the second episode of the season, they are bound to stasis generators by Darius, which he uses to torture them and keep them under control "like dogs," as the Leader puts it, a situation that they spend their first two appearances trying to get out of. While they are eventually able to walk free, because they are the last of their kind, their final episode appearance had a collector of rare aliens capture them in order to put on them on display like trading cards. Knowing how much time they already spent in stasis thanks Darius, it's a pretty messed up situation to be in and goes to show how they're considered more of a unique novelty now than actual people.

Beyond that, I do believe that had more effort been put into their individual characterizations, the Inuwashi Gunjin would have been yet another interesting four group ensemble to contrast the turtles; however, whereas the Dark Turtles are their "evil" counterparts with the potential to be good, the Inuwashi Gunjin would have been older, more worldly versions of themselves to learn and take notes from. It is a fact that, thanks to advertising for a cancelled set of figures, we know that the Gunjin do have names; the gold Gunjin is "Leader" while his brothers (note: we don't know if they're actually related or if it's just short for "brothers in arms") are Hothead, Sage, and Joker. And the Leader Gunjin's characterization does genuinely make me think of Leonardo, albeit more mature and a bit wiser. Because of this, I can easily see Hothead as being Raphael but with more control over his anger, Sage as Donatello but not as hard on himself when he fails others, and Joker as Michelangelo but more focused and thus able to better apply his natural talents. All of this is just speculation, mind you, but it still would have been interesting had it actually happened in the show.

Overall, yeah, the Inuwashi Gunjin are a bit on the boring side and I get that, but like a lot of stuff from Fast Forward, they do have some great untapped potential and fandom is all about doing what canon would not, so let me have my fun with the metallic birb men, damn it.

[tmntkiseki]

Reasons I'm mad: There is exactly one model sheet of the Inuwashi Gunjin--specifically the Leader Gunjin--and it's this.

BIRD

ASS