For how long did Shredder have the Technodrome?

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Leo656

But they DIDN'T think of it. Just like the people writing the He-Man cartoon didn't bother to think of any explanation for where Snake Mountain came from, or why Skeletor hung out there in the first place.

There was a "series bible" for writers, but not everything made it to the cartoon.

http://mysteriesofgreyskull.tripod.c.../MOTUbible.htm

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Originally Posted by Leo656

But they DIDN'T think of it.

Well, atleast not until season 8 when we learn that Drakus built the technodrome for Krang.

I would agree with you that the show wasn't meant to be taken super seriously, and I actually think that its a good thing not to take entertainment so seriously as many people do nowadays.

At its core however, the original tmnt series still had a relatively consistent timeline and internal world logic, with past events and characters continuosly being mentioned and referenced.

Its not like Tom and Jerry where every episode shows a new origin for Nibbles, a different house and a different owner for the duo.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by FredWolfLeonardo

Its not like Tom and Jerry where every episode shows a new origin for Nibbles, a different house and a different owner for the duo.

Who cares, owners sell their pets all the time?

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by Leo656

It's not an indictment of any of those shows, it's simply a statement of fact: They weren't creating "high art", they NEVER expected people to still be talking about and over-analyzing these children's cartoons three or four decades later, they were creating a children's product and under an obligation to churn out dozens of scripts in as little time as humanly possible. "Don't think: WRITE" was the order of the day. That's why the shows themselves, while thoroughly entertaining, are also thoroughly inconsistent with regards to their own internal lore and logic. No, they weren't "trying to create plot holes"; but "plot holes" weren't even a THING in TV back then. The idea of ANY television show remaining internally consistent for its entire run is a relatively new, mid-1990s phenomenon; before that, most shows - even live-action ones aimed at adults, like most of the popular sitcoms of the era - were completely made up on the fly, resulting in characters' entire backstories being different, completely different personalities for the same character depending on what episode you were watching, a character having an entirely different job or even last name than the one they had two episodes previously... it was a mess. But nobody cared! You HAVE to remember that people didn't take TV so seriously a couple of decades ago, and that literally everything was being made up with no regard at all to what happened last week, or what kind of questions these inconsistencies might raise.

So we should never discuss the series because it was for kids and to sell toys. Well why didn't you just quote neatoman then?

Originally Posted by Leo656

People simply didn't watch TV back then to think, especially not kids' cartoons. The writers never came up with any explanation for the Technodrome because they quite reasonably and realistically assumed that their target audience wasn't going to care one bit. Frankly, I don't think it hurt anyone's enjoyment of the show, so they were correct. It would have been NICE to get some kind of explanation, but they were right in assuming that no explanation was ultimately necessary. What first-grade kid was gonna care?

What's hilarious about your logic is that the FW series demographic is kids and teens as does other every other TMNT cartoon series. The Mirage Volume 1 comics targeted teens so in that case you're saying we shouldn't talk about any iteration of TMNT that is aimed at kids. That's pretty big snobbish BS to me, a very hypocritical stance to take.

Originally Posted by FredWolfLeonardo

At its core however, the original tmnt series still had a relatively consistent timeline and internal world logic, with past events and characters continuosly being mentioned and referenced.

I would add it was also a relatively new timeline. It takes years in comics for some things we take for granted to be developed for superheroes for instance.

[snake]

The FW cartoon was a product that existed in a world before products were more carefully disguised. Future incarnations aimed at kids provide more continuity explanations because more nerds on the internet care about that.

Basically, it didn’t matter to the writers because storytelling and worldbuilding in cartoons was different than it is now.

I can’t believe this has to even be said.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by snake

The FW cartoon was a product that existed in a world before products were more carefully disguised. Future incarnations aimed at kids provide more continuity explanations because more nerds on the internet care about that.

Basically, it didn’t matter to the writers because storytelling and worldbuilding in cartoons was different than it is now.

I can’t believe this has to even be said.

Yeah, as a kid I already wondered how Shredder and Krang met, but it's not like it ruined my enjoyment of the series.

[Wesley]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Yeah, as a kid I already wondered how Shredder and Krang met, but it's not like it ruined my enjoyment of the series.

I never wondered how Shredder and Krang met tbh. Rte Two placing season 1 in between S3 and S4 probably didn’t help.

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by snake

The FW cartoon was a product that existed in a world before products were more carefully disguised. Future incarnations aimed at kids provide more continuity explanations because more nerds on the internet care about that.

Basically, it didn’t matter to the writers because storytelling and worldbuilding in cartoons was different than it is now.

Everything is more seralised now so the obvious effect is the need for more complex writing. This is why episodic TV in general has almost disappeared. There are also less long syndicated cartoon shows which obviously had to have a toy line hence the episodic storytelling. Apart from that TMNT is marketed exactly the same way as it was back then. Unlike some TMNT fans it doesn't really bother me when I look back at how the show was written and marketed.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Originally Posted by pferreira

Unlike some TMNT fans it doesn't really bother me when I look back at how the show was written and marketed.

I find it funny how fans of the show are lambasted for "taking the show too seriously", but isn't that precisely what critcs are doing when they express how the writing and marketing of the show bothers them?

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by FredWolfLeonardo

I find it funny how fans of the show are lambasted for "taking the show too seriously", but isn't that precisely what critcs are doing when they express how the writing and marketing of the show bothers them?

Yes it's hypocritical. The whole "I've grown out of the FW series" line is also hilariously contradictory when you take into account TMNT has always been written, marketed to kids and teens, so far at least.

[Mr Salk]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Yeah, as a kid I already wondered how Shredder and Krang met, but it's not like it ruined my enjoyment of the series.

I figured they were just drawn to each other through the criminal underground. Ok, I think that NOW. Never crossed my mind before.