>the nefarious scheme of our evil blade-bedecked ninja master is... a low-level protection racket

What were Eastman and Laird thinking?

That being out to work as spies and bodyguards is probably the most direct application to skills for ninjas in the 20th century

I always though that part of turtles was always more interesting than all the scifi shit. Turtles should fight criminal organizations and gangs kinda like punisher or daredevil.
Also it should always take place in 80s bevause it was last decade where mafia had any real control and influence.

>>149379828
Interestingly Laird has said he never envisioned or saw the Turtles as superheroes or vigilantes, Mike even laments being the neighborhood watch in City at War, and Leo also said they were never intended to be the guardians of society. I can kind of see it, in Mirage they always felt more like they were figuring out their own existence than predominantly pursuing the common good.

>>149379513 (OP)
What the fuck else was a ninja going to accomplish in 1986?

>>149379513 (OP)
Realism?

>>149379869
Yeah

Their number one concern was keeping themselves hidden and that was followed by keeping their friends safe.

>>149379513 (OP)
>>149379535
There really wasn't enough ninja media exported to the US to give a good impression of what their function was supposed to be or could be based on 70s and 80s movies. They were mostly just depicted as really cool sneaky martial artists that may or may not have a couple weird magic skills too.

Even then their whole shtick is distilled down to demon lord followers, or demon lord in disguise, or personal bodyguard to a rich CEO that functions like a noble in the modern day. It would still make the big named ninja guy a henchman of some kind.

>>149379513 (OP)
I don't think it was ever a protection racket. Shreedder was trying to have a legit bodyguard business for rich guys.

>>149380349
Corporate espionage and Wall Street information brokerage

>>149380383
The Turtles usually have a vague Bushido code, real Ninjas were spies and occasionally assassins, not really honorable warriors

>>149379513 (OP)
Shedder being an alien is fucking retarded.
Ruined 2003 TMNT for me.

>>149382356
2003 probably is the best of the tv series but Zillenials need to get off its dick, utrom Shredder + magic ghost Shredder at the end to somehow rectify it were both retarded decisions

He also did gun running, drug smuggling, all the other underground stuff. Stuff you can be stealthy with.

>>149382417
In Mirage???

>>149382479

Yeah. He just happened to be muscling some guys for protection in that issue.

>>149382542
today Boco you were not a faggot

>>149379513 (OP)
real villainy is not big, obvious schemes of world domination
it's destroying society from the bottom

>>149382405
Naw man it was cool. it was a fun spin on what was otherwise very close to the comics
my only real gripe is what a dumbass they made mikey. Michelangelo is supposed to be an Egoraptor type. bright, but very lazy as a result. Because his brain gets bored from dumb shit like training, and always wants to be fed more interesting shit. He jokes around because life being boring is torture for him

besides, we ended up getting all of our cakes and eating them too
>human oroku saki, part of a group of good shredders
>demon shredder, possesses him. gets sealed away
>alien warlord, takes his name and organization
>sentient computer program shredder, possesses a different program
>demon comes back
>alien comes back this time crossing into a fucking magic dimension
I liked it. Good variety.

>>149382405
Absolutely nothing that 2003 did with Shredder is dumber than what the comics did with him.

So despite the he and the show's goofiness, Fred Wolf Shredder is actually a better version of the character from the original comics?

>>149384080
Which comics are you referring to exactly to make that claim?

>>149384241
Mirage

>>149384260
Shredder being a clone made of sentient worm clusters was absolutely batshit but at least the basic premise of the character being a ninja master called Orokou Saki with an antagonism with Splinter and Hamato Yoshi was still there, making him a Utrom reject named Chell who was piloting a Shredder mech and simply stole the identity from someone from feudal Japan who happened to be a demon etc

>>149384347
Wasn't April a drawing bought to life in the originl comics?
Surprised that despite how neutered it was and stuff like Leatherhead being an evil cajun asshole instead of a total bro for the turtles like other versions, the Fred Wolf show actually fixed some dumb shit from the comics.

>>149379513 (OP)
>What were Eastman and Laird thinking?
They were just winging it and flying by the seats of their pants, with no idea at all this was ever going to get a second issue, let alone catch on the way it did.

>>149384347
I asked this in a previous Shred-Thread, but did Eastman or Laird ever talk about Shredder's return just being a worm clone thing? It's a twist revealed in the Return to New York arc from about a year after the cartoon started, and their dislike of the cartoon does raise the question of whether this really was always their plan, or if it was a contrarian reaction against the cartoon making Shredder the main recurring villain.

>>149384638
In the continuity of the original Mirage comics, yes, but that insane plot is from volume 4 in the 2000s, years after the original cartoon ended.

You're right that cartoon Cajun Leatherhead was the best version of him though.

>>149384726
I think the whole thing came about because Eastman simply got fascinated by some documentary where worms ate other 'trained' worms and inherited their memories and wanted to bring back Shredder that way

>>149379513 (OP)
That's pretty legit. Shredder just wanted to pull some shadow-yakuza shit over here in America as well as in Japan. Shredder never wanted to take over the world except in the goofy 87 cartoon. ALL children's cartoon bad guys want to take over the world.

>>149383955
Based nooticer. Checked.

>>149384347
>basic premise of the character being a ninja master called Orokou Saki
but Ch'rell was Orokou Saki, he lived with that Identity for 400 years and considered himself the Shredder above all else

>>149382356
Looking back on that storyline as a whole, yeah it was dumb. But watching it unfold when it first aired was alot of fun at the beginning.

>>149379513 (OP)
I like the original Michael Bay Shredder idea, he is a douchy yuppie business man called Eric Sacks who's stupid rich and dons a mech made of knives

>>149385651

>>149379513 (OP)
Yes? That’s how you finance things.

>>149379513 (OP)
And drug trafficking.
And assassination.
AKA things listed in the first Mirage issue.
But that doesn't help your shitty "le funny" meme thread, does it?

Oh, my bad. I forgot arms trafficking as well.

>>149379513 (OP)
I don't know, I've never read or watched this.