Oroku Saki not being Shredder?
 

Do you think it's necessary to always have Oroku Saki being the Shredder role? Or can you imagine a TMNT universe where he never uses his bladed armour or that nickname?

I can do that, as long as he still practices some Japanese martial arts and njutsu and uses some Japanese weapons, and probably also having the same backstory. Oroku Saki is a cool name and sounds much more threatening. With TMNT starting as a parody, the whole Shredder thing is probably just a comic cliche where both heroes and villains have nicknames.

Generally or an absolute MUST he be Shredder? I like Shredder being Saki, but that isn't what you asked, re-reading it, you mean Saki is still the bad guy with the Yoshi history but doesn't become Shredder and wear the armour?.... I still like him being Shredder, it's what he became, but while he is Shredder, I also like having his background and that he is referred to as Saki sometimes, rather than just be a bladed bad guy.

I don't think he strictly needs to be a human named Oroku Saki but he should be connected to Saki somehow (for e.g. Saki being one of Ch'rell's personas in the 2003 personas and Demon Shredder having possessed the actual Saki).

If you want to do a TMNT universe that doesn't care about what's actually the TMNT? Well, I guess you can do whatever you want, really.

Though I'm kind of OK with divergent TMNT universes making themselves as divergent as possible so as not to pollute the actual core.

If we're only talking the name and Saki is still the guy, then...it's just a nickname, so I suppose he doesn't necessarily have to use it, or just leave it to a nickname that is known but not used much. Oroku "The Shredder" Saki kind of thing.

Like, say, it's a nickname he'd come by back in Japan and it is mentioned to only "loosely translate" as The Shredder, but he doesn't really care to use or be called by the less accurate English translation. (Heck, maybe he never really used it himself, he was only called that by a particular circle.)


Or... alternately, turn it into a nickname the Turtles came up with as a joke; is heard, by only on occasion.

Today is your day to have The Prize.

Yes. Oroku Saki has to be the Shredder.

At least the definitive version, I don't mind too much if the identity gets passed on to others or even if they play it like it's a mantle that has gotten passed down to him.

I'd go further than that; it's not all that important that he is called Oroku Saki, after all that isn't even real Japanese name. I'd prefer that to stay out of sense of tradition and why would someone bother to change it at this point however the important part is that he is the leader of the Foot and has a personal blood feud with Hamato Yoshi-like character.

That was a lot of peoples beef with the first Platinum Dunes movie. The fact that they were taking one of the few Japanese characters in pop culture and replacing him with a white guy was a bad move in itself but the important part was that fans could see a mile away Eric Sachs was a complete remake that threw away all the important aspects of the character.

Same could be said for both of his replacements. The sequel supposedly has an easter egg that lists Shredder's real name as Oriku Saki but his important backstory is completely gone and they didn't even come up with a new one. He was villain with no reason and the turtles fought him for no reason.

Considering that Raphael was the Shredder once and Shredder was an utrom once, I would say no. As long as Oroku Saki was the Shredder at one point in time, and someone else is taking up the mantle, then I see no problem with Oroku Saki not being Shredder.

I consider it important for the main villain to have a human side so I voted yes.

I feel that it doesn't always have to be Saki, but due to the already established history I feel that it could be a different person but there has to have some sort of connection. (Wasn't there a point in the earlier comics where Raph was Shredder for a while?)