#the name just sounds really silly

[s10127470]

The Forgotten TMNT Villain

In the world of action heroes, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have undoubtedly one of the most iconic rogue's gallery.

And one of the coolest things about it is that in contrast to the rogue's gallery of most other heroes that originated from comics, the Turtles' are always growing thanks to their multitude of adaptations, which have often created new villains for their specific series, comics or movies.

The 1987 cartoon gave us Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady, Lord Dregg, Metalhead, Slash, and Don Turtelli.

The 90s films gave us Tatsu, Tokka and Rahzar.

The 2003 cartoon gave us Hun, Agent Bishop, Drako, and Darius Dunn.

The 2012 cartoon gave us Tiger Claw, Dogpound, Fishface, and Don Vizioso.

And Rise pretty much went all out as just about every villain in that show was wholly original.

But in spite of all that, just about every iterations still uses the villains introduced in the original Mirage comics including The Foot Clan, Baxter Stockman, Karai, The Purple Dragons, Leatherhead, The Rat King, The Triceratons, and of course, The Shredder.

However, there is one villain that is generally seen as the black sheep of the TMNT rogue's gallery (despite how big of a part he played in his debut) and most you probably forgot he even existed!

But before we get to the villain, first we need to talk about the piece of media he originated.

That piece of media is none other than....

Yep. This film.

Fun fact: Next month, this film will officially turn 10 years old (and I'm pretty sure by just saying that, I gave about half of you a mini existential crisis).

But even after all this time, what do I think about the movie?

It's whatever.

It's not the worst thing ever, and certainly not the worst thing in this franchise.

The film does have some merit.

The effects and CGI are really good, the fights are well choreographed, and the Turtles themselves are actually the highlight of the movie.

Although their kinda lacking in depth, they do get the characterizations of the Turtles down to a T.

But that's as much praise as I can give.

The biggest problem with this film is that it doesn't really feel like Ninja Turtles.

It feels like the most generic Michael Bay (which I know he produced this film, but as everyone else pointed out, this film has so much of his style in it, he might've well been the director) film you can think but with a Ninja Turtles coat on it.

You can just tell that the people behind this film didn't exactly understand or had the best knowledge of the franchise.

Hell, it almost feels like an attempt at a more gritty and edgy version of the Turtles.

Which is kinda redundant since they were already like that from the very beginning.

And even then, the film doesn't match the style of grittiness and edge of the Mirage comics at all.

This is shown even more when you look at the rest of the cast.

As apart from the Turtles, everybody else is pretty flat.

April has none of the confidence, charm or badassery of her other iterations, which can be largely thanks to her being played by Megan Fox of all people. Plus, just like any Bay project starting Megan, they objectify her. And not helping her case is that fact that we spend more time with her than the actual titular protagonists.

Vern Fanwick was such a wasted character, especially when he was played by Will Arnett! Like, how do you not make Will Arnett entertaining?!

Splinter was pretty bland. Like, I keep forgetting he was even in the movie.

But the worst of the characters can be seen with the villains.

Like most iterations of the Turtles, the main villainous force is The Foot Clan.

And hoo boy! Were they bastardized!

In fact, this brings me back to my previous point about how the people behind this film didn't really seem to understand Ninja Turtles.

And one of the biggest contributors to that is the notable lack of "ninja".

Everybody's already talked about the designs of the Turtles. From how uncanny they look, to the unnecessary amount of clothing they have.

But one of the biggest complaints against them was their size.

Like, these dudes are 7-feet tall!

It's hard to believe that the Turtles here are teenagers (and their voices don't do them any favors) or ninjas because of how huge they are.

We see them picking up shipping containers and using them like baseball bats.

They have bullets bounce off their chests.

And whenever they land, they always shake the ground.

As GodzillaMendoza pointed out in his review on the film, it's kinda like seeing The Incredible Hulk trying to be stealthy and fighting off enemies with weapons rather than his fists.

But they're not the only ones!

In this film, The Foot Clan are portrayed as a group of gun-wielding terrorists rather than an organization of skilled ninja warriors.

I have no clue.

I guess because they weren't cool or epic enough for Bay's style?

They're also led by Karai, who typically is an important character in most Ninja Turtles story, usually having some personal connection with The Shredder.

But here, she's just....there.

Hell, I don't think they even say her name out loud.

Speaking of which, let's talk about the film's big bad himself, Shredder!

Out of all the iterations of the character, this is undoubtedly the weakest.

For starters, he's not in the movie for a whole lot of time.

In this out of this 1-hour and 41-minute movie, I think he has only like barely over 10-minutes of screen time.

Which isn't exactly an ample amount of time for your main villain.

In addition to that, we barely get to know this Shredder.

We know he's ruthless like most of his other iterations.

But we're never given anything on his past, how he became part of The Foot Clan, or the reason for the ridiculous evil plan of this film.

Another drawback is his dialogue....or lack there of.

Apart from his out of suit scenes and the fight between him and Splinter (which I'll touch more on later), Shredder barely talks.

Like, in the final battle, I don't recall him speaking like...once!

What is he? Prince Phillip?

It's kind weird how the main villain of the film doesn't have much of a presence while the secondary villain does.

Oh yeah....talk about him!

Ladies and gentleman! Children of all ages! Let me reintroduce you to Eric Sacks!

It's kinda funny how forgettable Sacks was despite that fact the we see more of HIM (like 4-times more) than The Shredder himself.

Along with that, he contributes more to moving the plot along than Shredder.

He's the one with all the plans.

And reveals to our heroes The Foot Clan's scheme in general!

Although he's an incredibly generic (and once again, forgettable) villain, he weirdly comes off as being more of the main villain than the actual main villain!

And there's a reason for that.....he was suppose to be the main villain.

Time for a little history lesson.

The 2014 TMNT film started production all the way back in 2010, shortly after Viacom purchased the rights to TMNT franchise from Turtles co-creator Peter Laird.

And when it was first announced a few months later, expectations were not exactly high, largely thanks to the reveal that Bay was gonna to be involved in the project.

But things only got worse when in 2012, a script for the film was leaked.

This script was lambasted to Hell and back, and there were two major reasons for that.

First and more infamous reason was that the Turtles themselves were going to be aliens from another planet and not mutated turtles.

Yes, you heard me right.

The second reason was in the case of The Shredder. In this script, Shredder was a white, American military officer named "Colonel Schraeder" (whose armor would've been cybernetic), with The Foot Clan depicted as a black-ops military unit.

This did not sit well with anyone.

The obvious reason being the inherent scuminess of casting a white man to take the role of a Japanese character.

But worse part about all of this was the white Shredder's new name: Eric Sacks.

While this name may sound kinda dumb, when you translate it into Japanese, it'll show the results of a familiar name.

That name being....OROKU SAKI.

The Shredder's real name!

Yeah. This was blatant whitewashing.

The fact that they made Shredder in to a white American man would've been bad enough. But the fact that they went as far as to Anglicized his name was just the icing on this shit sundae.

This would be like casting a white actor to play the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle and changing his name to James Ray.

The fact that the people behind this movie thought this kind of thing was still okay as late as 2012 is just pathetic.

And given that this was produced by Nickelodeon Movies, you think after hearing this, they would've had the crew change that in an instant.

Given that they already have experience with this kind of issue.

But apparently not as if you look at the final film, you can definitely tell that the change to make Sacks and Shredder separate characters was done somewhat last minute.

For starters, let's look at the history of the project.

Principal photography for the film began on March 22, 2013, and wrapped up in August of that year.

However, additional filming was done in January and April of 2014, just 7-4 months before the film's intended release.

This was most likely used to film the new scenes with the man who may or may not be Oroku Saki (along with some changes to the already filmed scenes in order erase any remnants of Sacks being The Shredder).

But when looking at the final film, it's pretty apparent that these changes were done fairly late into production.

There's the aforementioned scenes with possibly Oroku Saki.

But they're in a dimly-lit room, and Saki himself is always shrouded in shadow (making his face barely visible)

Whereas Sacks has light reflecting off him where we can actually see his face.

Also, whenever Sacks and Shredder are acknowledged as separate characters, whoever says it is always offscreen at the moment and it's always done in ADR.

You never see anyone acknowledge the two characters as separate onscreen.

There's also plenty of shots of Sacks looking at The Shredder armor, as if he's planning to put it on.

There's also the aforementioned Shredder barely talking while in the suit, and even when he does, it's an ADR voiceover.

Plus, we never get to see anyone in armor as well.

Nor any scenes of Saki putting on the armor (because there wasn't).

Sacks also walks around dressed in a black undershirt that just screams Tony Stark's clothes under the armor.

And perhaps the biggest of them all, in lot of the official tie-in material, especially the Nintendo 3DS game, Sacks is The Shredder.

Mostly likely because a lot of that stuff started production right before the additional filming was done.

But one last detail towards Sacks being The Shredder comes during the fight between Splinter and....well, Shredder.

For some reason, Splinter acts like as if he personally knows Shredder, when in this continuity, he shouldn't.

Which is already weird to mention since in just about every iteration, Splinter and Shredder have always had some kind of connection to each other.

Seeing them so disconnected from each other just doesn't feel right.

And once again, Splinter having personal beef with Shredder in this continuity wouldn't make any sense as given from what we've seen, these two have no history with each other.

However, if it was Sacks that was The Shredder, then that would make sense.

Since in this continuity, Splinter and the Turtles were originally the test subjects of Dr. O'Neil (April's father), who was also the partner of Sacks.

But after O'Neil found out about Sacks' true plans, he burned all the research they've done.

But while April and the subjects were able to escape, Dr. O'Neil wasn't so lucky as he got shot by Sacks.

With all that being considered, the personal beef would've made much more sense if Sacks was kept as The Shredder.

However, the funniest thing about Sacks is when we look at the far better sequel of this film, Out of the Shadows.

From the get-go, we learn about what happened to most of the villains since the first film.

Keyword: most.

Shredder was arrested and sent to prison, and The Foot Clan have been operating without him.

But strangely enough, despite how present he was in the first movie and how much he moved the plot along, Sacks doesn't appear nor does he even get a mention!

The last time we saw him, he got knocked out by Vern!

Like, they could've easily explained what happened to him in the span of a few seconds.

But no, they don't!

It's almost as if the filmmakers just forgot he even existed like most of us did.

All in all, given how generic and unremarkable Sacks was, top that off with the massive controversy that stemmed from the character, I don't think we'll ever see him again.

I know there are plenty of TMNT villains that have yet to be adapted into other iterations (specifically the 2012 and Rise ones), but they're most likely gonna get that chance in the near future.

Sacks on the other hand, I highly doubt that.

If we're lucky, Sacks would come back in a new iteration....but he would be a total joke villain like The Amoeba Boys, The Toiletnator, and The Box Ghost.

He'll probably be some weirdo who obsesses over Shredder and even wants to be him, as a jab at the fact he was originally going to be Shredder.

Though maybe they could do something cool with that concept and gradually have Sacks go from a total laughing stock, to an actual legitimate threat.

Maybe he starts to built his own Foot Clan, starts to learn in the ways of ninjutsu, and even creates his own Shredder armor.

He would be kinda like a mix between Syndrome and Ludo.

Not to mention, this could also lead to Turtles and Shredder having to work together to take Sacks down.

Which now that I think about it, outside of the comics, we've never really seen that happen.

So that would be cool to see!

Anyway, that's all I wanted to talk about.

See ya!

[bucephaly]

It's kinda shocking to me how few people seem to know how prevalent the 'my great grandmother was cherokee' myth is and how it's almost never actually true, especially when it comes with things like 'never signed up' or 'fell off the trail' or 'courthouse burned down destorying the documentation' etc etc.

People just don't even seem to know the history like.. when the Trail happened. My great great great grandfather was 2 years old during Removal in 1838, so peoples 'my great grandmother hid in the mountains!' is so clearly wrong. And we have rolls. From before and after removal, rolls done by cherokee nation and others by the government, rolls that were not stored in one random flammable courthouse. It's not difficult to find the actual evidence of ancestry.

And just.. there are lots of ways those family stories get started. It was a practice during the confederacy to claim cherokee ancestry to show one's family had 'deep roots in the south' that they were there before the cherokee were removed. Many people pretended to be cherokee and applied for the Guion-Miller payout just to try to steal money meant for cherokees - 2/3rds of the applicants were denied for having 0 proof of actual cherokee ancestry. [We even see lawyers advertising signing up for the Miller roll just to try to get free money.] And the myth even started in some families in the cherokee land lotteries, where the land stolen from us was raffled off, including the house and everything that was left behind when the cherokees were removed. We have seen people whose families just take these things stolen from the cherokee family and adopt them into their own family story, saying that they were cherokee themselves.

If you had some family story about being cherokee and you wanna have proof one way or the other, check out this Facebook group run by expert cherokee genealogists that do research for free. Just please read the rules fully and respect the researchers. They run thousands of people's ancestries a year and their average is only around 0.7% of lines they run actually end up having true cherokee ancestry.

[feroluce]

Thinking tonight about Caelus, and the nature of his loss and his grief after the Everything that went down in Penacony during 2.0.

Because Acheron, Black Swan, and Misha kind of knew of Firefly, they at least met her, but they didn't like really know her, and Caelus never even got the chance to introduce her to the rest of the Astral Express Crew. The only person who would have talked to her much was Sparkle, who is. Probably not really someone Caelus is interested in grieving with skznmsks

Anyway, all this to say, I like thinking about how alone poor Caelus is in his grief, because he was the only one who knew Firefly. He's the only one really mourning her. There's no one to talk about her with. There's no stories to trade or memories to reminisce with anyone over. It's not as though he knew her for long, but still. No one else knew her at all.

And I love the thought of all of this coming bubbling up, hot and acidic and bitter, during a conversation with Sampo, who Caelus just so happens to run into in the Golden Hour. Poor Sampo is kinda blindsided, he knew shit was going down in Penacony, but yeesh. And he just. Isn't quite sure what to say about it all, because he's never really encountered this before. His feelings about the Masked Fools are...a mixed bag, but he's been a part of them for a very long time, and when you're with a close organization like that, it's hard to feel alone, in grief or otherwise.

So Sampo sits there on their little bench that the two of them have occupied, and he thinks of his old friend April, how she'd died in his arms cackling and spitting her own blood after a heist gone wrong, and how after he'd dragged himself back to the World's End Tavern they'd all held a Fool's Funeral- which is basically just a big party where everyone gets really really drunk and reminisces and toasts the dead and celebrates their life.

He still thinks about her a lot, and he remembers how the time he'd most keenly felt her absence was on Jarilo-VI, the one place where he couldn't talk about her because he couldn't say anything to give himself away as an alien. The Fools still tell stories about her every time he goes back to the Tavern. His first toast of the night is always in her name. Even now, all these years after she'd died, Sampo is still learning new things about her. He's never had to grieve her alone.

Caelus doesn't have any of that.

He might never have that. As they speak, Caelus has no proof that Firefly was even her real name, or if she dreamt with her true appearance. He might not ever find out who she even was.

And just imagining that kind of loneliness hollows out a strange little pit, right behind his sternum, deep between his ribs.

So Sampo claps Caelus' shoulder and offers him a deal. Come find him outside of the dream. He knows a guy who can get them a lot of beer for really cheap-

("Is that guy you and your five finger discounts?" "Whatever do you mean, dear friend, I don't even know the meaning of the phrase, hehee.")

-and they can hole up in a bar or a hotel room or something, and get completely shitcanned. Tell him all about Firefly, tell him everything, and he'll tell Caelus about April and everyone else he's ever lost. Sampo will carry Caelus' memories of Firefly with him, and at least this way, Caelus will be a little less alone in remembering her. And the next time they cross paths, Sampo will be the one to bring her up, and to tell her stories, and Caelus can get to be the one listening. He won't have to be the only person to talk about her anymore.

Caelus rolls his eyes when Sampo avoids another remark about sticky fingers, but...ok, yeah. That sounds good. Nice, even. Thank you. Caelus bumps his shoulder against Sampo's. Sampo bumps back.

(They find each other again the next day, and true to their word, get themselves completely and utterly shitcanned. Caelus talks more than Sampo has ever heard him; every minute detail, every word choice, Firefly's every odd little mannerism and habit. Because Caelus wants to make sure this will outlive him, that even if the Stellaron dwelling within him finally burns him to a crisp and he really does up and kick the bucket, or even, godforbid, if he forgets, he wants to make sure someone remembers her. She deserved that.)

((And it takes quite a while, after that. Caelus doesn't see Sampo again until after everything has settled down. On his last day in Penacony, he finds the guy slinking out of a seedy back alley and all but runs right into him. Sampo happily leads him to some dive bar in an even seedier back alley that Caelus has never even heard of, and Sampo raises his glass. "To Firefly! Who sounds like she probably would have hated me at first, but I would have liked to have met her anyway."

And Caelus stares at him, almost looking startled, long enough that Sampo worries that he's read him wrong and brought this up too soon. He's halfway into planning how to talk himself out of this situation when Caelus finally throws back his head back and laughs, tells him that yeah, Firefly would have politely called him out on every lie he told, and all their conversations would take twice as long with the way Sampo is so full of shit.

And he can see it, the same way he watches and sees through everyone, that Caelus' eyes have a tightness to them, his knuckles are nearly white around the handle of his mug. But he smiles. He hits his glass against Sampo's far too hard and throws it back and gets foam everywhere like he does every time they drink because the guy's about as elegant as a raging bull, but those things don't lessen the genuineness of his smile.

The grief is there, but so is the elation, and those emotions aren't a sliding scale between one or the other. It is all of both and both at once, and that's what contents Sampo enough to throw his own mug back when Caelus makes a toast of his own, "to April!!".))

[theblankest123]

Ah lads it's happening again

(I've been slowly getting into TMA and i can feel the hyperfixation starting to develop)

[ironwarriorsdawn]

More oc posts!! 🧙‍♂️🪄✨️

[rudycrowley]

I'm saying this as a polish speaking person but I find it really funny that Elias Bouchard and Jonah Magnus are very smug bastard sounding names in english, but the moment you change them to their polish equivalents they are the most pussy sounding names imaginable (at least in my opinion). Like, I'm sorry but if your name is Eliasz or Jonasz there is no way I'm not gonna laugh at you.

[ask-the-totally-real-peppino]

huh, you seems lonely, why not have a fake version of you, mod?

(Wha, I'm not lonely! There's no need for- Wait, who is that...?

YEEEEEOOOOOWWWWUUUHHHHHH!!!!!!!

HHHHHHUUUWWWWOOOOOEEEEEY!!!!!!!

[mellohiizz]

I think Jumper and Minute is actually called Timejump which is SUCH A COOL NAME. Hopduo is Jumper and Kab too

Then you get. Ashswag’s car duo.

yeah, i've seen the timejump name around, i think it's soo cool sounding.

[chibishortdeath]

Started playing Fear and Hunger recently and this guy is pretty silly. I like that he likes bugs, that’s a green flag in my book, bugs are great.

Nothing in this post in particular is mature, but the game itself is, it’s a pretty dark horror game, so I’ll be putting some content warnings in the tags so any talk about the game on my account can be filtered out easier!

Some thoughts about the game under a cut :3

I haven’t played as Enki tho, I picked Cahara because he’s easier and it’s my first playthrough, and he’s pretty cool too. I really love the character and monster designs in this game. The art is super cool :3. I’ve had the worst luck this run tho oh my god; I started the game took like two steps and immediately got blindsighted by three dogs. All the enemies in the first left entrance area spawned in the first room. Two elite guards spawned in the room past the prisons instead of the usual one. Moonless would not spawn for like a solid few reloads and then ended up on the bottom of the map instead of the top where they usually are. I talked to Nosramus (love them, they’re great, they were off screen the whole conversation tho whoops) and immediately afterwards got the crow mauler text and had to leave the room. Got D’arce and promptly ran into a yellow mage and lost my arm! It’s been wild and I’m even just playing on easy mode 💀💀💀!!! My computer also kinda sucks and lags sometimes, but yeah! The game is fun!!!!! I have no idea how far I am in it, but I’m almost to where Le’garde is captured. My whole strategy has been fuck around and find out and it’s working XD!!! I kinda expected it to be scarier, but that might be because I’m a little used to horror as a genre in general, but it’s a nice balance of spooky atmosphere and usual RPG action stuff in a way that comes off sincere and not like edgy for the sake of being edgy if that makes sense. It’s cool :3

Anyway there’s a lot of games I’ve started recently and haven’t finished so I guess I’ll be playing those for a while. I still need to beat CV64, I’m just currently stuck on the uh gear platforming section with the bomb. If you know, you know 💀💀💀. It’s hard. I also have to beat Curse of Darkness, but I’m really close to the end in that one I’m just getting all the random side rooms and stuff. Raising more innocent devils besides my main team just to be able to open a door is a little tedious tbh, but eh it’s an excuse to play the game for longer so I’ll take it. But yeah, hopefully life actually lets me beat all these games so I can talk about them more (TwT ;).

[sysig]

Jersey Boy (Patreon)

[basilpaste]

[airenyah]

i gotta say one of my fave things about language is when you add random syllables to words or add nonsense words that rhyme

like for example, our girl cat is called minou but sometimes i'll call her "minoutschi". and then instead of saying "minou, du" i'll say "minoutschi dutschi". and when i'm feeling extra silly or loving i'll add a nonsense word, so i'll sweep her off the ground and pet her and say "minoutschi dutschi wutschi"

or sometimes she'll meow outside in the hallway, then wander in my room and start purring loudly while rolling around the ground (she does that when she gets clingy and really wants affection). and so i'll start petting her and she'll be purring and i'll say "du schnurrli wurli" (schnurrli/schnurli is a very common cat name based on the word "schnurren" which means "to pur". which is why it's my affectionate nickname for her when she's purring lol)

[alagaisia]

I’m reminded of that post about how goths and people who wear only lots of pink are actually the same because “wearing only one color” is a specific choice in opposition to just looking Normal

I’m flying to a friend’s wedding today, and I recently acquired from my neighborhood free page a very pretty vintage suitcase in like a brocade upholstery texture in all of my good colors, so of course I needed a coordinated airport outfit à la Midge Maisel. You guys don’t know me, but I usually dress very put together, in what my sister calls Outfits, with a capital O to distinguish it from just wearing clothes. And since getting a full time job I’ve been slowly adding to my collection of vintage and 50’s-vibes clothes, because I just really like that aesthetic (my bridesmaid dress for the wedding is a vintage tea dress I got from Etsy. The fabric is in great condition but I had to reinforce pretty much every seam with my sewing machine, because the structural integrity of the original thread was breaking down, so that was an interesting learning experience).

All of which is to say that I Dressed Up for the airport in a vintage-y outfit that coordinates perfectly with some of the colors of my suitcase, and my hair is curled, and I have a vintage leather purse that my grandma gave me that matches her watch that I’m wearing and the shoes she bought me last summer at the same vintage store that my skirt came from, and a teenage-ish girl with whatever you call the 2023 teenage equivalent of emo/punk vibes, like the dark maroon mullet and not a lot of makeup and dark comfy clothes but like, very on purpose, told me I look cool when I walked past on the way to security

And like, she Gets It! We have different fashion goals but I think we put a similar degree of intention into the way we look compared to just wearing regular clothes. Which is cool! It’s validating. Not that I really need validation, but it’s always nice to get compliments, of course. And the way I dress is really not terribly distinctive most of the time, other than being Outfits and a little dressier than maybe the norm is, like I think most people who see me one time in passing would see that I look Nice but not necessarily see it as a cultivated Look. But punk mullet girl gets it.

[bumblingbabooshka]

St Voyager - Ex Post Facto “Maybe I kill myself slowly because I don’t have the courage to do it all at once.”

[electricpurrs]

terrible result of me being kinda unhappy with my name and wanting to choose a new name is that now anytime i see a person or a character with a slightly cool name i have to fight the impulse to want to name myself that. what if i named myself juice