How would your life be different if the TMNT had never been created?

[Davetello]

This time I won't write a lengthy OP detailing my question, I will simply leave it for you to reply in any general manner you wish. This topic is sorta linked to my last thread about why the turtles are important to us, but this is more about what you'd have lost if they had never been created, or what other interests or influences may have taken their place.

Feel free to tell stories about how the turtles have helped you through difficult events in your life - people sometimes post those & they are always appreciated.

[CyberCubed]

As a kid from the mid 80's and early 90's, I probably would have been more of a Batman fan had TMNT never existed.

The 1989 Batman movie was huge, and given B:TAS came out not too long after, I probably would have gotten into the Batman comics and been posting on some Batman forum right now if that were the case. I love Batman but I never got into the comics since the series was always "secondary" to TMNT for me.

In the 90's I also briefly got into Power Rangers but dropped it, and then became a huge Pokemon fan towards the end of that decade. Although had TMNT never been around, Batman would have been my #1 fandom.

[DarkFell]

I might not be drawing as much fanart from any cartoon or video game series as I do.
The TMNT craze 'sealed the deal' and now I draw lots of fanart to this day.

[Davetello]

As a kid from the mid 80's and early 90's, I probably would have been more of a Batman fan had TMNT never existed.

The 1989 Batman movie was huge, and given B:TAS came out not too long after, I probably would have gotten into the Batman comics and been posting on some Batman forum right now if that were the case. I love Batman but I never got into the comics since the series was always "secondary" to TMNT for me.

In the 90's I also briefly got into Power Rangers but dropped it, and then became a huge Pokemon fan towards the end of that decade. Although had TMNT never been around, Batman would have been my #1 fandom.

Yes, I thought you might say that. It's clear that Batman has had a big effect on you. I would certainly recommend you taking some time to read some Batman novels, as I think you'd enjoy them.

I might not be drawing as much fanart as I do.
The TMNT craze 'sealed the deal' and now I draw lots of fanart to this day.

I get ya. In a sense the aesthetically pleasing nature of the TMNT and their distinctive look has inculcated a permanent love of art and drawing in you. It's fantastic that the franchise has influenced you in such a manner. And, by the same token, you will probably influence younger people who you know. That's what life seems to be - a domino effect of imparted knowledge and a hotbed of ideas.

[MrPliggins]

I'd probably not have my career if it weren't for TMNT, because they are what got me started with drawing in the first place, back when I was 9 or so. I used to fill entire sketchbooks with drawings of them.

[Icebot]

I'd probably be a lot more obsessed with sports.

I probably wouldn't have done as good as I did in high school. The red sky episodes from the mid 90's were a big part of my life and high school years. The turtles helped me learn teamwork.

[Davetello]

I'd probably not have my career if it weren't for TMNT, because they are what got me started with drawing in the first place, back when I was 9 or so. I used to fill entire sketchbooks with drawings of them.

Similar situation to Dark Fell.

I'd probably be a lot more obsessed with sports.

I probably wouldn't have done as good as I did in high school. The red sky episodes from the mid 90's were a big part of my life and high school years. The turtles helped me learn teamwork.

Yes, sports would have filled that gap for you. And interesting point that the turtles helped to teach you teamwork, that's something which many may overlook about the boys.

Going offline now but hopefully the thread develops further while I'm gone.

[Mona_Lisa]

when I was a kid I was dreadfully sick all the time, I was the gross kid who was hardly ever at school but when she was... she was vomiting anywhere and everywhere. Very gross, So the ninja turtles were the closest tings to "friends" I had until the doctors figured out what was wrong with me. (very enlarged tonsils and adenoids) :D but by that point I was totally obsessed and never quit loving the turtles:twink:

I guess idk what I would have done without them. I'm sure I would have managed though.

[IndigoErth]

I suppose it would be hard to miss what you never had. As a depressed young teen I suppose I wouldn't have had my TMNT escape. Without them, would something else have taken that position? I imagine probably, though there wasn't much else around at the time I was into nearly as much.

When I was made to give them up, I still thrived. But there wasn't really anything else I was ever into quit to the same degree.

In hindsight though I think the biggest loss after giving them up, and had they not existed, is losing one who's very much a fictional kindred spirit. No life is complete without finding one of those, I don't care how corny that might sound to some. :P And while I've kind of liked other characters in various media over the years, in hindsight I can see that only Mr. Leo has ever held that title, even before I knew there was one.

Without TMNT existing I suppose maybe no one would fill that role. I'm sure I'd still be ok, as I said... hard to miss what you never had. But life would be lesser without. As well as being a role model for aspects I wish I could improve on.

Kinda sad I'd put TMNT aside for so long, but the feeling of having regained something important is pretty damn good.

[blindturtle02]

Wow, no Turtles? Like Cubed, I probably would have had a tun of money to buy more Batman animated series toys with. Although I did have a very big Batman TAS fig and vehicle collection. I guess I would have also bought a tun of the 90's G.I. Jo vehicles. All my parents' money went towards TMNT and Power Rangers stuff, mostly. If I had never gotten into Turtles, I wonder if I would have gotten to know some of my best friends from grade school. I wonder if that bond would have been as strong.

We all hung out in this massive group of twenty-five to thirty-five or so boys and girls. Turtles brought us together every morning before school started. We'd seen the movies and the show, and I remember everyone talking about how close they were as a family. We all strove to imitate that. We'd invite kids who were sitting by themselves to play. That group tried including everybody. I moved to Arkansas in third grade, so I have no idea how long this fellowship lasted after I left, but I'll always cherish these memories. I'd get there at 7 or so because we could play for about an hour before class started if we got there early enough.

They made me come up with stories to play out. I remember that distinctly. Sort of like a short primer to start off the morning. "MACC is back, and Baxter Fly wants to capture him so he can build some kind of turtle crushing vehicle with his parts." Stuff like that. We gave everybody else equal amounts of opertunities to come up with new story material. Some kids would laugh and refuse to play because a few in our group didn't necessarily look like they were all that well to do, according to one little killjoy. He also said that Turtles weren't for girls, which never failed to tick me off because they were the ones who came up with the best stories. And they seriously got into the character roles.

We'd have four different kids being the turtles each morning because I remember us wanting everyone to have a chance to play different characters. Yes, girls definitely got to play the roles of the turtles. Some wanted to come up with original female turtle characters, and we just rolled with it. Some kids would be part of Bebop and Rocksteady's old gang. Some wanted to be foot soldiers. One girl liked playing Irma so she could chase boys. The Mona Lisa episode was out by then, so some girl always wanted to be her. We had more than one girl Shredder. I remember this one girl who came up with the idea of a female Shredder and totally loving that bit. This was around 91, and I hadn't even heard of the comics in those days, so we all liked the female Shredder concept and thought it was original. I think she might have made one Shredder turn out to be Lotus. Been ages ago though, so I won't swear to it.

I highly doubt my early grade school years would have been nearly as magical and joyous without the Turtles. They taught all of us to see our peers as family. They also taught us that we all matter, and never mind how different we might look or what walks of life we come from. None of that stuff ever crossed my mind. Still doesn't. I hope the old gang never forgot this lesson. I know I never will.

[CyberCubed]

Thinking about it there were a lot of popular shows/kids cartoon out around the same time as TMNT, and had it never existed we already had lots of alternatives:

- Batman: TAS started in 1992

- Spiderman and X-men had cartoons in the 90's

- Power Rangers started in 1992

- Pokemon hit the U.S. by 1998


And most of us were already fans of these other series anyway.

[Prowler]

Mario and Nintendo in general would probably be my number one fandom. That's pretty much it.

[snake]

I'd probably spend more time on Star Wars stuff.

[blindturtle02]

I'd probably spend more time on Star Wars stuff.

Yeah, when my stepdad sold all my Turtles stuff, my mom was actually the one who got me into Star Wars. She loved the movies long before I did. This was around 96 when the final season of the OT was airing. So my stepdad got even more pissed because she found more plastic for me to buy. Well, that's what he gets for selling my stuff. ha!

[TurtleTitan97]

Probably not by much. I'd still have Marvel and DC stuff to look at.

[IndigoErth]

We all hung out in this massive group of twenty-five to thirty-five or so boys and girls. Turtles brought us together every morning before school started. We'd seen the movies and the show, and I remember everyone talking about how close they were as a family. We all strove to imitate that. We'd invite kids who were sitting by themselves to play. That group tried including everybody.
That's so awesome... Kids can be such wicked little buggers sometimes, always nice to hear proof that there are sometimes still a few pockets of hope for humanity.

[Warhorse]

I'm not sure. I got into the show because it was just coming on during the afternoons when I was coming home from school. It was right at the perfect moment when I had my snack, could relax a while before tackling on homework or playing with my friends. I would assume, if something else had come on it it's spot, maybe that would have been the thing I got into the most. Doubtful. Maybe I would have been a more hard core Star Wars freak. Or maybe X-Men.

[Shark_Blade]

I'd probably be doing a lot of Sonic and Tomb Raider stuff.

[Jester]

That's some "It's a Wonderful Life" style questioning there, boy-o.

[THGhost]

I dunno... Transformers? :P

- Spiderman and X-men had cartoons in the 90's

1994 and 1992 respectively I believe. ;)

[IndigoErth]

That's some "It's a Wonderful Life" style questioning there, boy-o.
That it is. And I suppose in that way even the Turtles could apply it to themselves - what if the fans never existed. [insert your very fitting signature expressions]

[neatoman]

A little more Spider-Man maybe?

[OrangeNinja1987]

If TMNT never existed, I'd probably be a way bigger fan of Avatar: the Last Airbender and Pokémon, as there was no TMNT there to take the number one spot. But, besides that, I bet my life would be so different.
I'm not a long-time fan and it was the premiere of the TMNT 2012 episode "Never Say Xever" that got me into it. It was like a lightbulb turning on. I immersed myself in everything TMNT - the OT, the movies, the 2003 shows, video games, a few comic books (I'm going to read the Mirage #1 for the first time in a few days) very quickly. I guess I made up for all those years I'd missed where I could have been watching the 2003 show. It sort of feels like I've been a fan much longer than I really have.
Even though I've been a fan for only about two years, TMNT has really influenced my life. I've always loved martial arts, but I think it was TMNT that really pushed me to start learning them (not that I expect to be an awesome ninja in a few months like April, and, besides, I'm learning kung fu - not ninjutsu). And TMNT really helps me develop my artistic abilities. They are so fun to draw. :D

[Jephael]

I'd probably take more interest in the DC universe.

[ProactiveMan]

What a depressing thought. I'd have spent many a lonely weekend reading Phantom comics I guess.

[Slade]

If the turtles never existed, then that's it. I don't think it would have affected me. It's not my #1 thing. It might not even be #2. Obviously whatever money I spent on turtle stuff would be spent on something else. More Superman no doubt.

[Davetello]

Thanks for all of your comments. I've enjoyed reading them and some have pulled on my heart strings.

[CyberCubed]

Hm, forgot about Star Wars. I dunno, I first watched the original films in the mid 90's and I collected some of the toys back then.

Without TMNT, I think Star Wars might have been a big thing too. Pretty glad I didn't as all the comics from back then are non-canon now, lol.

[Refractive Reflections]

This thread is kind of similar to the If TMNT never existed, what would be your #1 fandom? (http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=48019) thread that CyberCubed posted earlier.

And the reply below was for that thread (in terms of personal interests), but as for how my own life would be different... I probably would have to think about that a bit, and maybe come back later to this thread.

I wasn't a big action/adventure cartoon watcher (watched the Mario Bros. show if that counts :lol:) when I was young, and even the ones I did watch were not as favored as the comedic cartoons I watched like Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, Garfield, and Recess. I don't know if TMNT is my #1 fandom since it can change on my mood, what tone I'm looking for, and how far I want to lean to my childhood or adult interests/hobbies, but it's on my top 4 for sure in terms of franchises/cartoons.

A couple of the reasons why I enjoyed the OT than compared to other action/adventure cartoons was because it was able to effectively balance the comedy and action/adventure (but as we know in the middle seasons, the show did go too far on the slapstick comedy at times), plus the Turtles had a unique camaraderie charisma between them which was lighter and appealing, unlike the looser bonds and contentiousness of X-Men, or the solitary aloof adventures of Superman, Batman, and Spiderman.

But if we're talking about this very moment of what I would be enjoying and being a fan of, it would be more "grownup" drama TV shows like Nashville, Scandal, Law and Order:SVU, etc. With me, I have a low threshold for extreme sci-fi or fantasy TV shows and movies; the only notable exception has been TMNT of course. :P

------

That's some "It's a Wonderful Life" style questioning there, boy-o.
Knowing how much OT Raphael influenced you Jester, I really do wonder how your personality would have been different without TMNT. :P:lol:

[Gunpowder]

Damn. Quite the question, isn't it?

Well, I lived without them for over 18 years, and I've been a fan for almost 1 year now. And in that less-than-a-year span, I've had more creativity flowing through me than ever. So I'd say that, without the Turtles, I'd have to try a LOT harder to find things that trigger my imagination - if that makes sense.

[jestermon]

I would have watched collected something else.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Good question. I think if it hadn't come along, I'd be a very different person now. See, I was one of those quiet, shy, and kind of nerdy kids that were always picked on while growing up, until I discovered them when the first film came out. Went to see it with my two best (and pretty much ONLY) friends, and it changed my entire outlook. You might say it brought me out of my "shell" so to speak. I became more confident (thanks to a determination not to be a doormat anymore) learned to stand up for myself and others, and opened up and became more outgoing and interested in people around me. It even inspired me to write my first-ever novel/fan-fic!

Without the TMNT, I might never have found the courage to take those steps. Sounds corny, but it's true. Twice in my life, a movie (and in this case the cartoons as well, which I later discovered) has literally changed my entire way of looking at life. The second was the Craft, (It's what first introduced me to the concept of witches as nature-worshippers, which is what led me to become a Wiccan after several years of seeking some spiritual ideal that truly spoke to me.) but TMNT and all its various incarnations will always be first. It really DID change my entire life in ways that I never imagined.

[Hannurdock]

Instead of being shown a cartoon about TMNT on a Saturday morning by my friend Mark who lived in the same street as me at eleven years of age, I guess he would have shown me something else he was passionate about. Maybe Jason and the Wheeled Warriors? I doubt it would have peaked my interest like the turtles did.

Instead of playing turtles on the street for years with my two male friends who also lived on the street as me, we would have probably been playing X-Men instead. One of the boys, Matthew, had a huge obsession with the X-Men and we would have been playing that instead.

I would still have been bullied, but without having TMNT as something to take me away from harsh reality. Granted, I might not have learned to fantasise excessively to escape real life (something that I still do, and yeah, mostly about turtles still!) but I think I would have needed something to put my heart and soul into. Maybe the X-Men would have been my thing? I like them a lot, I'm just not REALLY into them.

I don't think I'd be as creative; probably seeking to conform to everyone else and not see a different path. I would probably be like everyone else; I think turtles made me see that being different isn't a problem. It's something to be cherished and to expand upon.