03-05-2018, 03:49 PM | #1 |
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Why was one of the Punk Frogs named Rasputin?
As you recall, the Punk Frogs were named after Attila, Napoleon, Genghis and... Rasputin. Which one of these things is not like the others? Rasputin doesn't fit with the rest. He wasn't a conqueror nor a warmongerer. What happened here? Did the writers run out of historic conquerors and warmongers to name the Punk Frogs after? Did they end the meeting with "well, obviously this being a kids cartoon, we can't just name the remaining frog after Hitler or even Stalin, so does anyone got a name in mind for the remaining frog?"?
Seems so strange. Why not name one after Alexander the Great? Hannibal? Julius Caeser? |
03-05-2018, 04:15 PM | #2 | |
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I think maybe its because popular culture depicts Alexander and Caesar as "good" guys while Rasputin, being Russian, would fit as a villanous name during a time when The Soviet Union and The Cold War were still active.
Would've been funnier though in my opinion (albeit extremely controversial, especially in Europe where turtles was already under scrutiny) , if the frogs were named after Hitler's generals, with Shredder being the Fuhrer.
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03-05-2018, 04:20 PM | #3 | |
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No way that episode would have seen the light of the day if they were named after SS officers . Also, if you think the UK censored the Turtles a lot for Europe already all because of Michelangelo's nunchuks and the word "ninja", imagine if the Punk Frogs had been named after nazis |
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03-05-2018, 05:27 PM | #4 |
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You know its kinda shame that the writers didn't know much about Japanese history because there was a huge missed opportunity for one of the toads to be named Nobunaga
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03-05-2018, 05:33 PM | #5 |
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They probably knew as much as laird and Eastman did, tbh. No one really knew enough or bothered to research Japanese history and culture well enough in the series. Also, every single Japanese character in the series asides from Shredder had a stereotypical accent. And the writers made Japanese food look gross. Donatello saying things like "Forget it. Not even on pizza!". Man, hard to believe sushi was once viewed as this bizarre raw fish thing the Japanese ate. Nowadays, pretty much everyone outside Japan has tried sushi at least once. There are sushi places all over Europe, for example, even if many/most aren't run by Japanese people. Sushi is as almost as common as pizza and hamburgers these days in the West. Not really viewed as exotic anymore.
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03-05-2018, 05:47 PM | #6 |
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Thats a shame because Japanese cuisine has some of my favorite dishes and the fact the writers tried to make it look as gross as possible kinda bums me out.
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03-05-2018, 05:50 PM | #7 | |
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I guess nowadays the show would not have gotten away with depicting sushi as being gross. It'd have caught fire for being "racist" or something. |
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03-05-2018, 05:51 PM | #8 |
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It was 1987, sushi wasn't "cool" in the U.S. yet. TMNT pre-dated the anime fad by about 10 years. All the Japanese stuff people love today was still relatively unknown to the general public in 1987.
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03-05-2018, 05:52 PM | #9 |
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Yep, true. back then, the Japanese and Asian culture things people were familiar with were with martial arts movies from the 70s and such.
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03-05-2018, 09:45 PM | #10 | |
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http://www.history.com/news/hungry-h...shi-in-america
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03-06-2018, 01:38 PM | #11 | |
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I think sushi places didn't really become a thing in the European continent until the current century. |
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03-06-2018, 02:12 PM | #12 | |
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03-06-2018, 02:14 PM | #13 |
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09-04-2018, 11:54 AM | #14 |
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Montezuma sounds like a good choice too. And also, this got me to thinking that maybe the extra Punk Frogs seen in the Nick series have names like these. Frogtoadzuma?
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09-04-2018, 12:12 PM | #15 |
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Caligula and Nero weren't really great conquerors though.
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09-04-2018, 01:14 PM | #16 |
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This kinda goes along the lines of the writers not knowing a lot about japanese culture but its ironic that the Punk Frogs aren't ninjas
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09-04-2018, 01:31 PM | #17 |
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Of name him after a Russian pre-1917 emperor, like Ivan or Peter.
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09-04-2018, 11:00 PM | #18 |
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Wasn't Rasputin considered insane or something? And he was so feared people were in denial that he was actually died? Or is that someone else? I mean even Shredder called him Rasputin the Mad Frog.
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09-04-2018, 11:30 PM | #19 |
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Rasputin was a real piece of work. And he was likely considered "mad" because he had syphilis.
We might not think he looked that great, but the man had some GAME.
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09-05-2018, 12:46 AM | #20 |
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Rasputin is a name in Russian that means the "Debotched one" Since the punk frogs were meant to be alternates of the Turtles under Shredder's control in their first outing, Rasputin was meant to be Donatello's alternate. Rasputin in history was a mystical adviser and became involved in the Czar's court because of his prophetic visions and healing abilities.
One of the last prophecies was of the fall of Tsar Nicolas II and his family, which came true 15 months after his murder at the hands of Count Yusupov. One of the myths surrounding Rasputin was that he was a secret puppet master controlling the Tsar and the Tsarina from the shadows. And another myth said he supposedly had an affair with the Tsarina. |
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