Your honest thoughts on Fred Wolf's Shredder

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Originally Posted by Utrommaniac

It would be nice to see what they could have been without having to go full IDW.

The answer to that is somewhere along the lines of season 1, 2 and 7 of the OT where Shredder was at his most competent (not counting the Red Sky seasons).

Anyways, I absolutely love this incarnation and I am adamant in my belief that this is the best Shredder of all time, for one simple reason: He is super entertaining and fun for the vast majority of the Original Cartoon's run.

Sure, many of the other Shredders are entertaining too for their great fighting skill and menacing demeanor, but that only works up to a point.

The Shredder is an incredibly cool concept, a ninja wearing samurai armour who leads the Foot Clan and has incredible martial arts skills, but in order to make a character who is more than novelty and lasts for more than a few issues, you have to give the character personality traits that will stick in people's heads.

That is precisely what this Shredder is, very memorable because of his personality that always saw him either bickering with Krang, insulting Bebop and Rocksteady and interacting with other characters in ways that always left a smile on my face for more than 100 episodes.

Sure, it cost him a lot of his competence in battle, but its a trade-off that I'm willing to endure if it means that the character himself doesn't get boring after a while.

I can imagine this Shredder doing a lot of everyday human stuff because of how his personality just comes off so naturally, whereas I just find it too ridiculous to imagine for the other Shredders.
Like for instance:

Can I imagine this Shredder going to the bar and having a good time? Of course!
Can I imagine him hosting his own television show and becoming popular? Without a doubt!
Can I imagine him enjoying his meal? Well, I think he might be the only Shredder not to look stone-faced while having his meal.

Other people have mentioned other good things about this Shredder such as his design and voice performance with James Avery which I will not repeat, but I do think there is one thing that makes him stand out that much more:
the stakes.

Think about it.
If this Shredder got his way, what would happen?
The world would be an absolute disaster, as the technodrome would literally decimate anything in its path with Shredder likely ruling alongside Krang, if he doesn't betray him like in Shredderville.

Other Shredder's have had ferocious inventions, but can any of them lay claim to having a death machine that can span a threat across multiple dimensions?
I don't think so.

Now, someone will eventually make the arguement that the technodrome was in-effective for most of the show's run, and you would be absolutely right about that.
However, that's precisely what made it all the more threatening when it did get rolling a handful of times.

Same with Fred Wolf Shredder's fighting skills, he may have been getting his arse kicked by the turtles a lot, but that made his competent moments all the more awesome, when he gave out his fair share of beatings to them on occassion (such as beating all four turtles in The Incredible Shrinking Turtles and Shredder Triumphant).

Also, who could forget the 7 episodes involving Shredder in the Red Sky seasons?
They had him doing all sorts of stuff that was not the norm, such as blowing up the Channel Six building and showing a tenderness and caring side towards Krang.
It would've become old if it went on for too long, but what we got of Shredder in seasons 8 and 10 was a different and interesting take on an established character that we had grown to love.

That is all for now.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Utrommaniac

I feel like the greatest pitfall to this Shredder was simply that he was a product of the 80's. He had all the right pieces to be a pretty great villain, but because of the "uwu no extreme violence for the kiddies winners don't do drugs uwu" attitude of the time, he was defanged into a bumbling hooligan.

The same goes for Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady.



It would be nice to see what they could have been without having to go full IDW.

Haha yeah

Originally Posted by FredWolfLeonardo

The answer to that is somewhere along the lines of season 1, 2 and 7 of the OT where Shredder was at his most competent (not counting the Red Sky seasons).

Anyways, I absolutely love this incarnation and I am adamant in my belief that this is the best Shredder of all time, for one simple reason: He is super entertaining and fun for the vast majority of the Original Cartoon's run.

Sure, many of the other Shredders are entertaining too for their great fighting skill and menacing demeanor, but that only works up to a point.

The Shredder is an incredibly cool concept, a ninja wearing samurai armour who leads the Foot Clan and has incredible martial arts skills, but in order to make a character who is more than novelty and lasts for more than a few issues, you have to give the character personality traits that will stick in people's heads.

That is precisely what this Shredder is, very memorable because of his personality that always saw him either bickering with Krang, insulting Bebop and Rocksteady and interacting with other characters in ways that always left a smile on my face for more than 100 episodes.

Sure, it cost him a lot of his competence in battle, but its a trade-off that I'm willing to endure if it means that the character himself doesn't get boring after a while.

I can imagine this Shredder doing a lot of everyday human stuff because of how his personality just comes off so naturally, whereas I just find it too ridiculous to imagine for the other Shredders.
Like for instance:

Can I imagine this Shredder going to the bar and having a good time? Of course!
Can I imagine him hosting his own television show and becoming popular? Without a doubt!
Can I imagine him enjoying his meal? Well, I think he might be the only Shredder not to look stone-faced while having his meal.

Other people have mentioned other good things about this Shredder such as his design and voice performance with James Avery which I will not repeat, but I do think there is one thing that makes him stand out that much more:
the stakes.

Think about it.
If this Shredder got his way, what would happen?
The world would be an absolute disaster, as the technodrome would literally decimate anything in its path with Shredder likely ruling alongside Krang, if he doesn't betray him like in Shredderville.

Other Shredder's have had ferocious inventions, but can any of them lay claim to having a death machine that can span a threat across multiple dimensions?
I don't think so.

Now, someone will eventually make the arguement that the technodrome was in-effective for most of the show's run, and you would be absolutely right about that.
However, that's precisely what made it all the more threatening when it did get rolling a handful of times.

Same with Fred Wolf Shredder's fighting skills, he may have been getting his arse kicked by the turtles a lot, but that made his competent moments all the more awesome, when he gave out his fair share of beatings to them on occassion (such as beating all four turtles in The Incredible Shrinking Turtles and Shredder Triumphant).

Also, who could forget the 7 episodes involving Shredder in the Red Sky seasons?
They had him doing all sorts of stuff that was not the norm, such as blowing up the Channel Six building and showing a tenderness and caring side towards Krang.
It would've become old if it went on for too long, but what we got of Shredder in seasons 8 and 10 was a different and interesting take on an established character that we had grown to love.

That is all for now.

Great post, indeed.

Tbh, if Shredder ended up taking over the world or USA, he'd have made a pretty charismatic dictator. One that people would remember forever for better or for worse.

James Avery was very talented and seemed to really get into the role. I have no idea how he felt about his role as Shredder after all those years, but I'm willing to bet he loved doing it. He'll forever be Uncle Phil AND Shredder to me.

[Utrommaniac]

I mean yeah, those are more things that have gone to waste to make him a whiny bungler.

He was very charismatic. He would be the life of a party. While in normal "Oroku Saki" clothes, he'd be a really cool dude. Enough so that a "secret reveal" might be a betrayal to the humans he made friends with.
And that's what sets him apart from other Shredders the most. He's not a grumpy jerk who monologues about revenge and taking over.

He's a charismatic jerk who monologues about revenge in and take him over. Someone who people who don't know better would WANT to be around.

[CyberCubed]

BTW, what ep is this pic from? Is it from the episode the Earth's temperature was heating up?



This pic illustrates why people like him. Shredder is sweating in this pic, so what does he do? He takes a washcloth to wipe his "metal helmet" instead of putting it on his skin. So in other words he's not even wiping his sweat off his skin...he's wiping...his metal mask. Which of course....accomplishes nothing to relieve yourself of heat.

[The Great Saiyaman]

It's funny but when you think about it, the Shredder who is most similar to the FW series Shedder is THIS Shredder.


The 2012 series had plenty of schemes which could be in a FW episode, such as:
- The mutation of Anton Zeck and Ivan Steranko into Bebop and Rocksteady. In that scene Shredder is at his most sarcastic, the way he refers to Steranko as "My old friend." before having the mutation take place as if it was an execution. It isn't really all that different from how FW episodes had Shredder deal with anybody who got in his way.

- When handing Karai to the Turtles after they returned his stolen helmet to him. Only to reveal that it was a mannequin stuffed with explosives. As the Turtles take off with that explosive "gift" we can almost see him grinning behind that face mask. Not too difficult hearing Avery's voice going "You gullible fools, do you REALLY think I'd give you Karai in exchange for my helmet?" when watching that scene.

- Speaking of Karai, that scene in "Vengeance is mine" where he hangs her above that vat of mutagen laced with snake DNA in order to lure the turtles there and mutating them into mindless snakes who would attack and eat Splinter. Come on, that's as FW as it gets, that's a scheme straight out of the 1987 series. The only difference being that he would have used April as bait.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

BTW, what ep is this pic from? Is it from the episode the Earth's temperature was heating up?

Wasn't that scene in the Technodrome?

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

Wasn't that scene in the Technodrome?

The Technodrome didn't even have AC? Such a technologically advanced alien invention and yet no one remembered to build an AC or a cooling room temperature system?

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

BTW, what ep is this pic from? Is it from the episode the Earth's temperature was heating up?

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...26/194/bd8.jpg

This pic illustrates why people like him. Shredder is sweating in this pic, so what does he do? He takes a washcloth to wipe his "metal helmet" instead of putting it on his skin. So in other words he's not even wiping his sweat off his skin...he's wiping...his metal mask. Which of course....accomplishes nothing to relieve yourself of heat.

Its from "Turtles on Trial".

While doing that, Shredder says "cool down!" to Krang, who then gets even angrier because they're under the earth's core, and Bebop and Rocksteady failed to steal the refrigeration units that they needed.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Prowler

The Technodrome didn't even have AC? Such a technologically advanced alien invention and yet no one remembered to build an AC or a cooling room temperature system?

The Technodrome is on the Volcanic Asteroid and not on Earth in Shredder's Mom, so it can't be that episode.

[Hamato Yoshi]

Shredder & Krang was like Elvis and col Parker (they accepted each others flaws), they had to make the best out of the situation

(but Mirage Shredder prolly wouldve sliced Krang to pieces

[Coola Yagami]

I kinda felt Shredder was as dangerous as he was allowed to be given he was in a kids' cartoon. Similar to Raph, Shredder would also sometimes raise his brow at the silliness he had to endure. Given his super ridiculous fake pizzeria trap plan that one time, most of his things were played mostly straight but ruined due to Bebop and Rocksteady's incompetence. Status Quo kept them from flat out firing them or killing them off, but many villains at the time had the bumbling henchmen that would constantly fail and yet the main villain would only complain about them but never actually get rid of them.

Shredder wanted power and control. There's no reason or backstory behind it, but even in the past he saw a way to get rid of Yoshi and he took it. He's mostly using Krang and putting up with him for the technology and the technodrome. There's been times when he saw an out where he could get rid of the turtles and Krang, but obviously things would backfire and we'd return to status quo.

It was a different time and I think the original 4 villains were endearing to the fanbase. I could see kids literally hate Shredder if come Lord Dregg, after so many seasons, he would abandon Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady and join Dregg for the rest of the series showing he never really cared for any of them.

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by Wesley

I love his response to Vernon in the episode Attack of the Neutrinos when Vernon said he didn’t know anything and Shredder replied “That’s never stopped you from talking before”.

Exactly! Various iterations of TMNT went to great lengths to show how powerful Shredder was but never found that balance with showing a more sociable, more three-dimensional character. It was important for the FW series to do that as well considering the wacky, unrealistic stuff that happened to him.

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

In the context of cartoons, Fred Wolf Shredder is probably the greatest comedic bumbling villain in the history of the medium.

Oooo I don't think I can agree there. He may have been bumbling at times but not outwardly comedic.

Originally Posted by FredWolfLeonardo

Sure, many of the other Shredders are entertaining too for their great fighting skill and menacing demeanor, but that only works up to a point.

The Shredder is an incredibly cool concept, a ninja wearing samurai armour who leads the Foot Clan and has incredible martial arts skills, but in order to make a character who is more than novelty and lasts for more than a few issues, you have to give the character personality traits that will stick in people's heads.

You said it perfectly, thank you!

Originally Posted by Prowler

James Avery was very talented and seemed to really get into the role. I have no idea how he felt about his role as Shredder after all those years, but I'm willing to bet he loved doing it. He'll forever be Uncle Phil AND Shredder to me.

He loved doing it. Apparently according to this interview he auditioned for Shredder in the 2003 series but didn't get the role.