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Originally Posted by Konchadunga
I share that sentiment, but for me the 4Kids show (not just limiting it to Ch'rel) had another big problem; it spun the Shredder as a concept into flat-out Mary-Sue territory. Worse even than Venus De Milo, I'd argue, because at least the damage she caused was fixed, but we're still living with what 4Kids Shredder inflicted. The problem wasn't just Alien Shredder; it was Karai Shredder, Demon Shredder, Cyber Shredder (Barf!) and they'd have probably kept adding more if the show kept going. Ch'rel was ultimately a Deus Ex machinca to make it so Shredder could keep coming back, and even when he was finally defeated, some other version of Shredder came in to take his place. A more Mirage-accurate cartoon with wide distribution should have been the perfect place to prove (or at least, try to prove) that a TMNT series can sustain itself without Shredder as the perpetual Big Bad, and they failed to do so, which means by extension, probably every new incarnation to come after, short of a highly unlikely one that tries to be even more Mirage-accurate, will remain haunted by that failure.
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There are a lot of things that could have made Ch'rell a better antagonist. The idea of him works in theory, but not in practice, especially when we didn't learn his origin story. An Utrom who took on the role of Shredder could work, but it went about all wrong.
Heck, a non-Krang Utrom as a "major antagonist" could work beautifully considering how intimately tied the Utroms are to the turtles origin.
Maybe Ch'rell was driving the truck with the mutagen was trying to create a PR Nightmare by causing major injuries and expose TCRI for what it really was. Likely out of spite, and having a thought as to how humans would respond to aliens in their midst - and in a post-9/11 world at that. And when that didn't work out, he zips off away from the other Utroms, assassinates Oroku Saki and takes his place...for reasons???
Following that, he goes after Hamato Yoshi, as he had been the leader of the Utrom Guardians and thought there would be vulnerable with his absence, and ends up in such a great heat of the moment that he forgets he'd have a successor. He might be smart, but his hastiness would drag him down.
Afterwards, he discovers Karai and empathizes with her being abandoned at a young age, as had been his fate.
My thinking cap isn't totally on, so some of those ideas might be rusty.
There's a lot of things in there that could be fixed.