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View Poll Results: 2012 Slash
Good Interpretation 19 76.00%
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Meh Overall 6 24.00%
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Old 08-24-2020, 02:43 PM   #1
Torterra
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2012 Slash

What's your opinion on the 2012's Slash and how would you have done him better if you weren't a big fan of him in the series?
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Old 08-24-2020, 03:20 PM   #2
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I thought it was a cool take - but you can break that take down into a few constituent elements.

The story direction was cool. Bringing him in and giving him an evolution into a good guy leading the MM was character development. It was neat.
The character direction was fine. I didn't jump up and down in happiness in a Slash appearance, but it was a cool character that fit the thesis of the show.
The art direction was.... eh. The small head thing, the "Dan Connor" dad-bod. eh.

Overall I liked the character and it was aided by the fact that he was embedded into a show that I thought was great overall.

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Old 08-24-2020, 04:00 PM   #3
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Design wise... eh. But overall it was decent.

A little predictable that Raph's pet was going to become Slash, but in a good "I knew it!" kind of way.

However...I think they should have taken Spike's design a little more into consideration when designing Slash. I would have liked to see the color tones and shell design at least remain similar enough, at least a little, that you can look at these two characters and see just enough remaining resemblance to understand that they are the one and the same. Because there is nothing in Slash's design that would ever make someone even guess that they were. That's probably my biggest complaint about it.
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Old 08-24-2020, 06:59 PM   #4
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As I pointed out before, the mutation ratio in the 2012 series isn't a straight fifty-fifty, the turtles themselves are 80% human and 20% turtle and Splinter is 80% rat and 20% human.

So when Spike mutated into Slash he got his human side from Raphael who himself isn't 100% human, nor is he 100% turtle.

Making Slash the only mutant in the series who IS fifty-fifty.

Slash still has the body proportions of a normal turtle, shorter legs, a far more protruding carapace compared to the other turtles, he also lacks the agility that the other turtles have but makes up for it with brute strength.

And looks-wise Slash has way more in common with Eastman and Laird's original sketches of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
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Old 08-24-2020, 08:53 PM   #5
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Let's recap what's going on with Slash:
  1. He starts out as a pet Turtle named Spike (a sign of the show clearly making up stuff as it goes along, if it was always the intention to turn him into Slash he would have just been named Slash from the start). As Spike he ate leaves, that's about it. He was little more than a visual joke about the TMNT's origin story.
  2. When he's initially mutated, he's a psychopath and clearly set-up as a villain.
  3. Slash then shows up in a lab.
  4. When he comes back again, he makes amends and goes off on his own.
  5. He becomes the leader of the Mutanimals and excuses his previous bad behaviour on the mutagen (even though that typically isn't a problem).
  6. Everything else he does for the rest of the series is as part of the Mutanimals, which amounts to little more than action scenes.
This version of Slash is, like most characters in this show, kind of simplistic and a sign of the writers' tendency to do whatever they want regardless of wheter or not it makes sense. Like I said, it's obvious that Spike was only ever intended to be a joke about a mutated pet turtle owning a pet turtle, he was likely never meant to become Slash. Likewise, the fact that we only got one episode of him being a villain before his redemption episode is a bit weak and what we get afterwards is not that interesting. While you can't plan every single moment of a show from the start, a little bit of planning could have improved this character. In this case, make a few villain Slash episodes that have him gradually turn good and actually show him meeting the Mutanimals members before they show up, as well as use the Mutanimals a little more after their introduction. That would be a lot better than waste episodes on Squirrelanoids, Pizza Face, Mutagen Zits, Larping, Chinese Ghosts, Bigfoot, Punk Frogs or any of the other idiotic episodes they actually made.

It's not actually bad, at least for what you can reasonably expect this show to do, it's just that it could still be done better. The show just isn't well written enough in general for me to think they would have tried more, the more I think about it the more shallow I realise this show is.
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Old 08-24-2020, 11:37 PM   #6
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i liked how this version of slash... is actually quite a good leader of the mutanimals. It was nice to see Slash be a good guy on screen. The show was great at remixing old characters and giving them a new breath of life.

I see TMNT 2012 as some of the best characters with fresh takes on old ideas.
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Old 08-25-2020, 12:00 PM   #7
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Overall I like 2012 Slash, though I wasn't really a big fan of his design especially him gaining green "lips" with no explanation. When I first saw him as Spike I was already thinking that either they were going to turn him into Slash, Tokka or even as a joke Venus. Like the whole time Raph thought Spike was a boy but actually was a girl. But I do feel that he was wasted in the series I would have like to see him take Raphael's offer and join up with the turtles for awhile and flush him out more as character. Then when the Kraang invasion started just like Splinter he get's separated from the turtles, April and Casey, and we get an episode in between the farmhouse arc where we see Slash meeting Leatherhead, Rockwell and started the Mutanimals to protect NY till the turtles come back. That way he see the MM form and would explain how characters like Don Vizioso knew who the Mutanimals were in episode Mutant Gangland.
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Old 08-25-2020, 12:15 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Great Saiyaman View Post
As I pointed out before, the mutation ratio in the 2012 series isn't a straight fifty-fifty, the turtles themselves are 80% human and 20% turtle and Splinter is 80% rat and 20% human.

So when Spike mutated into Slash he got his human side from Raphael who himself isn't 100% human, nor is he 100% turtle.
]
Does it state that anywhere or is it something you estimate going on how they look? Just curious.

I haven't come across Slash in another version yet so can't really have an opinion so far as comparing. So far as seeing him here... he was okay.. didn't like him at first when he was beating the crap out of the turtles but I had no strong feelings either way afterwards, he worked I guess. Of the Mutanimals I liked Leatherhead.

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Old 08-25-2020, 12:35 PM   #9
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Does it state that anywhere or is it something you estimate going on how they look? Just curious.

I haven't come across Slash in another version yet so can't really have an opinion so far as comparing. So far as seeing him here... okay.. didn't take to him at first when he was beating the crap out of the turtles but I had no strong feelings either way afterwards. Of the Mutanimals I liked Leatherhead.
He's pulling estimates out his ass, the show itself says nothing. Keep in mind that this show pretty much mutates anything into whatever, such as a car into a demon or a man into pile of trash, it's almost without rules.
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Old 08-25-2020, 01:28 PM   #10
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He's pulling estimates out his ass, the show itself says nothing. Keep in mind that this show pretty much mutates anything into whatever, such as a car into a demon or a man into pile of trash, it's almost without rules.
Oh, I meant info from something like discussion outside of the show or description maybe.
So far as mutating generally it's last thing or recent thing touched, stretching to non-living things was a bit much but fortunately that wasn't done much.

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Old 08-25-2020, 06:01 PM   #11
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Originally Posted by The Great Saiyaman View Post
As I pointed out before, the mutation ratio in the 2012 series isn't a straight fifty-fifty, the turtles themselves are 80% human and 20% turtle and Splinter is 80% rat and 20% human.

So when Spike mutated into Slash he got his human side from Raphael who himself isn't 100% human, nor is he 100% turtle.

Making Slash the only mutant in the series who IS fifty-fifty.
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He's pulling estimates out his ass
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Old 08-25-2020, 06:23 PM   #12
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Well, the idea that someone is 80% whatever and causing something else to become 50% something because someone else is 20% something, and that's why Slash looks the way he does... It's just a bunch of nonsense that was never stated anywhere.

It would be more honest to just say the mutagen is arbitrary, which in this show it totally is, and just admit that Slash's mutation scene just had it working like the Mirage mutagen because that's what was required.
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Old 08-25-2020, 07:19 PM   #13
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I could buy a theory of Slash's more bestial nature being because the human aspect for him coming by way of Raph is more watered down and a lot less since it didn't come directly from a human being, making him less human than the TMNT are. That would make sense.

Those percentages though... ehhh...

I'm among those who tend to think of the Turtles as having become partly human, not just humanoid, particularly as it helps to explain some things about them (development of teeth, the ability to sweat, etc), but I don't consider them as being as much as half. Maybe around a quarter, give or take. Just the best human physical (and mental) traits. But that's just my own theory.



edit: Add in the fact that Raph also originated from a different species and a turtle, while Spike is probably a tortoise, so I guess Slash got some mutated turtle DNA from Raph as well. So the influence of three species. No wonder he went bonkers.

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Old 08-25-2020, 07:24 PM   #14
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I really like what they did with the character. Not so much the design, but I got past that quickly, it was only really his head that I took issue with.
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Old 08-25-2020, 07:28 PM   #15
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It would be more honest to just say the mutagen is arbitrary, which in this show it totally is, and just admit that Slash's mutation scene just had it working like the Mirage mutagen because that's what was required.
"Mutagen is Just Plan Magical" was probably one of the biggest reasons I couldn't get into the Nick show. There were a LOT of reasons, all connected to the show's underlying "This idea sounds intriguing on paper but is actually dumb in execution" problem, which ended up being the case with... well, everything they did, really. But that's a big one. "It's literally just MAGIC!" Ehhhh.

Like it was a show so obviously written specifically for only people with an under-10 age, thought process, and attention span, that I just couldn't get into it. Sure, little kids wouldn't care that the Mutagen makes no sense, but it's kind of important and should kind of have rules. I can't "shut my brain off" and therefore I can't enjoy things that basically force you to do that just to get through them. And that show was all about that. Not to the level of "certain shows since", but... it definitely did require you to do that. And I can't. I simply cannot do that.

It's part of why I can barely watch the FW cartoon anymore, either. I just can't "not think".
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Old 08-25-2020, 07:58 PM   #16
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Well 'Rise' did rename it and I guess associated with it the magical city and mutating characters with powers? Or so someone tried to tell me.

TMNT: Friendship is the Magic of Mutagen


You want an evil car as a friend?? Just dump this stuff on it and voila! (Why did it even turn evil? Why didn't it become the sports car version of Herbie? Also, omg Herbie is a mutant.)
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Old 08-25-2020, 08:05 PM   #17
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Well 'Rise' did rename it and I guess associated with it the magical city and mutating characters with powers? Or so someone tried to tell me.

TMNT: Friendship is the Magic of Mutagen


You want an evil car as a friend?? Just dump this stuff on it and voila! (Why did it even turn evil? Why didn't it become the sports car version of Herbie? Also, omg Herbie is a mutant.)
In the final episode of Rise it turns out that no, it's not magic, it's the Utroms yet again. While the name Utrom is never said it is very obviously leaking from a crashed Utrom ship with the cadaver of an Utrom still in it. The armor Shredder wore is also of Utrom origin.
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Old 08-25-2020, 08:28 PM   #18
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TMNT: Friendship is the Magic of Mutagen
Alright, alright. Let's not besmirch the good name of My Little Pony by forcing a mental association with shows that are nowhere near as sharply-written. Not even in jest.
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Old 08-26-2020, 04:50 AM   #19
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He's pulling estimates out his ass, the show itself says nothing. Keep in mind that this show pretty much mutates anything into whatever, such as a car into a demon or a man into pile of trash, it's almost without rules.
Actually you're wrong, the show and all its previous incarnations gave PLENTY of clues.

So how can THIS...

...become THIS?


Well for those who are familiar with the story: The turtles came to be mutated when they came in contact with Mutagen which was lost by the Utroms (The Kraang in the 2012 series)
So what does mutagen do?

It splices the DNA of the original host and combines it with the DNA of the last organism it has been in contact with. But the ratio with how it does isn't fifty-fifty, it's more 20% of the original and 80% of the guest DNA. The turtles themselves were touched by humans before they were mutated, either by Splinter or by an employee of the pet store where Splinter bought them.

The turtles as infants in the 2012 series just after they mutated.

So what traits of the turtles are human and what still is turtle?

Turtle traits:
- Their back and front shells remain integral part of their skeletal structure, they can't step out of their shells. The 2012 series also shows the fact that as with actual turtles there's actually a side armor too, whereas on the 1987 design, the back and front shells look like armor plating covering only their chests and backs.
- As with real turtles, the Turtles are amphibious, they are excellent swimmers and can hold their breath for a long time.
- The Turtles still retain the ability to do THIS!


Human traits
- Well as the pictures of the turtles as infants already shows: their body proportions became that of a human, their arms and legs much longer in proportion to their torsos as they were when they were still regular turtles. This also accounts for how they are able to walk upright since a real turtle doesn't have the strength in its hind legs to support the weight of its body.
- They have the ability to speak and understand human language, which means that their lungs and tongues are human, a real turtle makes noises by pushing air through their throats, they cannot make vowels to turn into words.

- Their stomachs can digest human food, every pet store owner will tell you that you shouldn't feed turtles human food, since they can't stomach it.
- They don't have scaly skins, you can see it in close ups of their faces in the cartoons and the comics, their skin is smooth as a human's. Which also happens to help out with their mouths becoming flexible so they can speak.
- Although they retain their back and front shells, they are much more bendable, having the rigidity and flexibility of a human spine and chest casing, that accounts for how they can practice martial arts.
- They have human eyes.
- They can be attracted and fall in love with and, as was hinted in several panels in the comics, be sexually compatible with human girls.
- AND... Now this is where it gets interesting, I doubt that Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were consciously aware of it but they gave some very big clues in their original comics about this:

* Donatello and April O'Neil working side by side to disable Baxter Stockman's Mousers with the both of them sweating bullets.
* Leonardo fighting the Foot Soldiers as the snow is falling all around him, his breath clearly visible in the freezing air
Which means that the Turtles are warm blooded, which also explains how Splinter could keep them underground without them dying. Real turtles because of them being reptiles have to warm up in the sun if they want to become active, which is also why if you buy pet turtles at a store, you have to have a lamp in their enclosure so they can warm up.

So the turtles became 80% human but when a human mutates they lose 80% of their humanity. Case in point:

Although with these two with both sets of DNA being mammalian, they retain all of the mammal traits


Karai however is a different story.

When Karai got mutated with the DNA of a horned viper, she became 80% Snake. As such the ratio of what is human and what is snake is different from what is human and what is turtle with the turtles.

Karai's human traits

- She does retain her torso and hip structure which still makes her look feminine. Heck she retains her breasts but as a reptile, they aren't of much use.
- Likewise, she also retains the shoulders and arms but her hands change into snake heads.
- She can still speak somewhat and she can still recognize the ones close to her.

Karai's snake traits
- She becomes very feral, moves on instinct alone, which makes her very dangerous and unpredictable.
- Her bite is venomous
- She becomes a stellar swimmer, able to remain submerged for a long time.
- The fact that she has to go overground and warm up in the sun reveals that she's coldblooded.
- She DOES get scaly skin, even when she goes into her "in-between" state, the scales all over her face become visible.
- Likewise she sheds her skin, an ability which she uses later in the series to heal pretty significant injuries to her face.
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Old 08-26-2020, 03:43 PM   #20
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Really though, where do the percentages come from other than personal theory...?
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