Did you like Carter?

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Title says all.

To me, he kinda felt like what a regular (and normal) Casey Jones would've been like in the Original series. Rebellious and naive, but good hearted and a skilled ally to the turtles.

He isn't my favourite character of all time, but I still enjoyed him for what he is, just like all the other elements of the Red Sky seasons of the Classic Toon which I'm a huge fan of.

Carter's biggest strength in my opinion is that he's simple, no complicated and tragic backstory, just someone who wants to be good at Ninjitsu and has a good heart, so he has an easier time fitting in with the turtles from the get go rather than turning the show into Teenage Mutant Ninja Carter. Like that guy in College who you don't know much about and isn't popular, but is generally cool and he will have your back if you need it. I also think having another regular human ally other than April was nice during the Red Sky seasons when pretty much the rest of humanity hated the turtles.

However, his biggest strength I think could also be his greatest weakness since he doesn't leave much of a lasting impression like other major character due to how simple and normal he is. I guess his mutation was supposed to make him more memorable and stand out, but even with that factored I'll admit I found other characters like FW's own version of Casey and Leatherhead far more memorable despite them appearing ALOT less.

What are your thoughts?

[Powder]

Relative indifference was my stance. Didn't love or hate him, just accepted him. Would've preferred him being Keno, rather than a character likely inspired by him, but whatever.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Originally Posted by Powder

Relative indifference was my stance. Didn't love or hate him, just accepted him. Would've preferred him being Keno, rather than a character likely inspired by him, but whatever.

Strange that Carter bore a resemblance to Keno, since it seems like "Secret of the Ooze" would be the last place that the Red Sky seasons would draw inspiration from.

[Candy Kappa]

I found him boring, and was just wasted ink for the animators.

[neatoman]

"Engineering and martial arts prodigy, motorcycle riding college kid, hulk-like mutant with dreads that turn into a mohawk".

All that and no defined personality, no wonder he wasn't received well.

[ssjup81]

I neither liked nor disliked him. He was just there for me. Hated his mutation, though.

[DestronMirage22]

He was alright. Nothing to make me like or hate him. He was just another addition to try to get kids back into watching the show.

[Wesley]

I agree with most of what FredWolfLeonardo said. I found Carter to be a bit annoying and bland, but I still liked him, despite his flaws. He at least got some backstory in the episode "The Showdown" (his rivalry with Jet).

[Vegita-San]

No.

i wound up liking dregg more than carter.

Carter was too confused. didn't know what he wanted to do and always was angry at stuff.

it worked so much better when he was gone at the end.

totally useless character.

[Yabuturtle]

During the red sky seasons they say season 9 was the worst, which I never thought it was. I thought it'd be season 4 or 5 due to how unbelievably silly it was. Yeah they did have the silly 2nd stage mutations, which I thought was unnecessary but they weren't in all of the season 9 episodes. I feel like Carter should have been the only one to mutate, as that would have set him apart from the others.

I don't really understand why people disliked Carter. He wasn't as entertaining as Casey Jones, but he had some interesting moments. Started off kind of rocky, since he wasn't much of a team player and he started to mature a little more. He started to work with the team then had difficulty with his mutant form and doubted himself, and then started to wonder if he should he keep his mutated form or go back to a normal life. It took him a while to make up his mind, but he's a frigign college kid, of course he's going to be mixed up about some things. Wouldn't you if you had mutant powers and you wanted a normal life, but you wanted to keep them in case a threat came around? He was never really annoying or anything so I don't know why people bashed him or Dregg for that matter. He had more personality than Casey, or at least this version of Casey, even if Casey was funny and entertaining.

But the "purists" just bash anything that's different, even if it's good. Dregg was one of the most interesting villains. Season 9 was pretty good and would have been really good if it wasn't for the 2nd stage mutations, which really should have been reduced to just one episode. "Carter sucks, because he's new" or "Dregg sucks because he's new and he was the final villain whaaa"

I can't stand those that can't handle any change. The Red Sky seasons were pretty good, much better than they give it credit for. Season 9 was the first time the Turtles were pretty much rejected from all of society instead of just have mixed opinions of them and Dregg was the only villain that pretended to be good and people bought it until April exposed him. It was interesting to have a villain that had the entire city on his side. In fact, a lot of the red sky villains were interesting and had decent backgrounds, i.e. Beserko Kronos, Megavolt ect. but never showed up for more than one episode, other than Titanus.

Carter was not really a bad addition. He didn't have an obnoxious personality, annoying catch phrases or anything so I don't what their problem is with him.

[sdp]

The first season he appears he's horribly written and boring, all that I had read about him was true.

His second season he is a much better character and how he should've always been written.

Never saw the Keno connection.

This is how I saw the Dregg seasons though, the first season is really mediocre while the second one they fix things by having competent writing.

Originally Posted by FredWolfLeonardo

Strange that Carter bore a resemblance to Keno, since it seems like "Secret of the Ooze" would be the last place that the Red Sky seasons would draw inspiration from.

Didn't the red sky episodes feature Tokka and Razzar?

[Wesley]

I thought Carter was alright, but I can see why some people didn't like him. He was introduced abruptly in season 9 along with other changes and it was odd that he knew about Hamato Yoshi.

[IndigoErth]

Currently watching the eps he's in, so from a refreshed perspective... Ehhh... Likewise, indifference. Don't hate him, but wouldn't care if he was went away. His mutation kind of annoys me though.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by neatoman

"Engineering and martial arts prodigy, motorcycle riding college kid, hulk-like mutant with dreads that turn into a mohawk".

All that and no defined personality, no wonder he wasn't received well.

His personality was to be "cool and hip" like Poochy from The Simpsons. "Whenever a show adds a new main character it's to make up for low ratings."

Carter was the "too cool for school" X-men type black College student who rode a motorcycle.

[neatoman]

You know, if he was made today and had the same lackluster reception, you could bet your ass someone on tumblr would blindly say the problem was racism and that Carter was important for "representation".

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by neatoman

You know, if he was made today and had the same lackluster reception, you could bet your ass someone on tumblr would blindly say the problem was racism and that Carter was important for "representation".

Yep, there was barely an internet back in 1995-1996 when he was on the show.

[ABrown]

Pretty much as others have said, I'm kind of "meh" when it comes to Carter. I could take him or leave him. As with many of the "red sky" era characters, he should've gotten a toy.

[Rooish]

I kind of thought his portrayal was nice and not racist?

That said I was completely indifferent to him as a child.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by neatoman

You know, if he was made today and had the same lackluster reception, you could bet your ass someone on tumblr would blindly say the problem was racism and that Carter was important for "representation".

Don't forget about the plants. There would have been FW plants praising Carter to the high heavens and being absolutely nasty to anyone saying otherwise.

I felt he was just there. He was just one of those things to accept in the 'new show' along with the slightly different designs, the red sky and mutations. Hated Carter's mutation, but then again I hated everyone else's. It should have been a one episode thing. And why didn't it affect Splinter, Bebop and Rocksteady? Hell, that would have been an excuse to bring back S+K sooner, to look for a cure for B+R's mutations.

The thing that bothered me the most was the jarring art shift with them. They looked so odd and out of place, and they literally looked like the regular TMNT artist stepped back and let another guy draw the mutations.

And yes it was weird that Carter (and that other guy from that one episode) somehow knew of Hamato Yoshi and that he was in New York. I mean, after all those years and noone ever having seen him (this was the 8th or so season already), I assume everyone back in Osaka assumed he died. In fact, it was pretty late in the game to bring in someone looking for Yoshi. Carter should have been some martial arts dude that just happened to be in an area where the Turtles fought Dregg's minions, and he followed them to prefect his skills until he becomes one of the gang.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Yabuturtle

During the red sky seasons they say season 9 was the worst, which I never thought it was.

It's in general considered the worst among the three last seasons, yes. Not the worst of the entire series.