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Old 08-12-2018, 10:50 PM   #1
MothraLeo
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How were the later seasons of this show?

I fell off somewhere in the middle...I think it was a Northhampton arc if I remember right. How did this show progress over time? I didn't mean to stop, I just sort of accidentally didn't go on (I was buying the dvds to watch).

I am a TMNT purist. Early Mirage is number one, and the 2003 4kids show is the best animated in my opinion, for probably obvious reasons. I like the IDW run too, but I fell off that around issue 55 or so.

So how did this show turn out?

Cheers!
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Old 08-13-2018, 03:04 AM   #2
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Originally Posted by MothraLeo View Post
I fell off somewhere in the middle...I think it was a Northhampton arc if I remember right. How did this show progress over time? I didn't mean to stop, I just sort of accidentally didn't go on (I was buying the dvds to watch).

I am a TMNT purist. Early Mirage is number one, and the 2003 4kids show is the best animated in my opinion, for probably obvious reasons. I like the IDW run too, but I fell off that around issue 55 or so.

So how did this show turn out?

Cheers!
The series became even darker sometimes. If you have the DVD releases, watch!
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Old 08-13-2018, 03:31 AM   #3
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While you can get a general idea it's still all the opinions of others which will always be mixed, best just to watch and decide for yourself. You know what you like so you'll soon be able to decide if you want to bother finishing or not.
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Old 08-13-2018, 04:50 AM   #4
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Well, I always though the actual plot of this show is rather dumb and goes in really... Fillery directions. So I'm not exactly too worried about spoiling anything, but I'll still put the sensitive info under spoiler tags.

The short answer, the show is always remained pretty goofy. As it goes on, it just kind of pretends it earned high level of drama, it comes across as really awkward. An oddity is that the first arc of season five is treated rather seriously but the thing that ultimately saves the world is bubblegum. There are still some gems there and if you like the show just doing whatever, you'll get that too. A somewhat confusing aspect is the ending, there are two different three parters, one the creators claim is the finale and one that the producers claim is. I don't think either is a good ending but I'm gonna go with the one the creators claim is the ending, since that one puts the spotlight on the actual main characters.

So, in more from the ending of the Northampton arc:
Spoiler:
The way the Northampton arc ends is with another asset blender. Basically, the Turtles train against illusions of their enemies in order to prepare for their return to NYC. It's not bad but it kind of deals with the Turtles relearning the same lessons, it kind of makes much of the arc a little unecessary. And in case you're wondering, the Creep is the only character introduced in the arc that actually returns. You can (if you want) watch episode 53 and skip to episode 60.

When they return to New York they reunite with Splinter, who has gone rabid and it's fixed almost right away, it's basically an excuse to dedicate an entire episode to them meeting up with him. What happens right after is that Bebop and Rocksteady are fully introduced. As humans, they capture Karai with the intent of returning her to Shredder, which is successful but then the Turtles show up and she escapes. Because they tracked down and captured Karai, Shredder mutates them as punishment. The strange thing is that the first thing they're told to do after being mutated, is track down and capture Karai, the very same thing they were just punished for doing and probably would have done willingly without the punishment. The whole thing just felt like a flimsy excuse to have Bebop and Rocksteady in the show. Regardless, they capture her and succssfully brings her to Shredder.

After that, the Turtles save New York using a one time weapon, convenienty created in a lab accident they don't know how to replicate...
Aside from resetting the status quo, the only that comes out of it is establishing the Muatanimals. It's really just an excuse to turn some of the mutants into regular allies but they don't do much aside from help out in battles from now on.

There's a bunch of standalone episodes after that. Hun is introduced in one of them but he never becomes even remotely important. Mondo Gecko is introduced as keeps coming back but he's kind of the Jar Jar Binks of this show. Muckman is another but he's such a useless piece of trash, it's almost not worth it. The only ones of these episodes I can say are that good, are the Mirage issue 8 adaptation and the one right after, where we get to see the love triangle in full.

In the middle of all this, Shredder has developed mind control worms. At first it's hinted that this might lead to him trying to control the city, but all he does is make sure Karai is loyal to him. When her mind control is undone (with a healing mantra) she returns midway through season 4, basically being the same as she was right before mutating, only with some snake powers.

What happens right after Karai being saved from the mind control however, is that the Triceratons show up and blow up the earth and we find out from an Utrom version of Bishop that the Kraang are just a mind controlled faction of Utroms. Right before that, Splinter is killed by Shredder and Honeycutt shows up to save the Turtles, Casey and April. They go back in time to prevent the earth from blowing up. This is how season 3 ends and season 4 starts.

The first 13 episodes of season 4 are dedicated to the Turtles finding pieces of the weapon the Tricaratons used to destroy earth. They meet up with a couple Salamander warriors, fight a more buglike version of Dregg, meet up with Wyrm (who is a genie for some reason), fight against evil robots, April gets a magic crystal, an adaptation of the Arena battle from Mirage (which is is far more similar to the one from 4Kids), another asset blender, some Utroms, meet Tokka who is a giant and steal it's baby.

The odd thing is that Dregg turns out to be a robot but it's never adressed how or why, he's just treated like a bug before and after. There's also a crossover the Fred Wolf turtles, have you seen Turtles Forever? It's basically a more awkward version of Turtles Forever.

Anyway, the get all the pieces and the Triceratons steal them and go to earth. The destruction is stopped, Splinter is warned about his demise and nerve pinches Shredder. The Turtles in the Past go with Honeycutt to (presumably) live out the previously mentioned adventures.

Appearently, the nerve pinches were so bad, Shredder had to remain in a hospital bed. He spends the next couple of episodes getting pumped with mutagen until he becomes Super Shredder. What happens in the meantime doesn't add up to much, just more mutants we never see again.

Super Shredder turns out to be unstable and needs more treatment. We get a pretty OK adaptation of Splinter being taught by the Rat King from CAW.

After that April's crystal turned out to host an evil alien and so she got rid of it. Tokka shows up again in a Gamera homage. We get a backstory for Tiger Claw involving Alopex, she never returns despite a cliffhanger.

Super Shredder returns and kills Splinter, in retalliation the Turtles infiltrate his lair and kill him. This is more or less the end of the main story. The first arc of season 5 is about Tiger Claw summoning a demon to resurrect Shredder but that's it. Anything else connects to side stories.

Season 5 mostly consists of standalone multiparters that don't really connect to each other.

The first I already mentioned. The second is Dregg returning to take over earth. The third is an Usagi crossover. There is one standalone episode that elaborates on what happened to Splinter right after he got mutated. The fourth is Savanti Romero recruiting monsters to take over the world.

What's interesting about the first episode of the Usagi arc and the Splinter arc, is that they were allegedly written by Stan Sakai and Kevin Eastman respectively. While I have no problem believing Stan wrote the Usagi one, the Splinter one does not feel like Kevin's writing, which makes me wonder if it was partially ghost written.

The final two is where the whole ending debacle comes in. One is a Mad Max homage, depicting the Turtles in a post apocalyptic future. The other is another crossover with the Fred Wolf show. The FW one is the official ending according to Nick but it's so lazy and unimaginative, I honestly prefer the ending where the world went to ****. At least that one doesn't put the spotlight on the wrong incarnation.


That's my attempt to recap 64 episodes and don't feel like checking it for errors and unclarities, just ask me if you have any questions.
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Old 08-13-2018, 05:51 AM   #5
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I think, if you're looking for something that hues closely to the feeling of the mirage comic, the later seasons did that well. it was probably the closest so far, although it also took many liberties with the source.

I think Rise has a better handle on Don and mike personality wise.
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Old 08-13-2018, 03:29 PM   #6
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THanks for the responses, all. While I didn't share the show's apparent appreciation of the Fred Wolfe toon it was still pretty entertaining, so I might as well give it a shot. Thanks!

I think I will avoid the spoilers just in case...it probably wouldn't bother me but once you see something it cannot be unseen haha

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I think, if you're looking for something that hues closely to the feeling of the mirage comic, the later seasons did that well. it was probably the closest so far, although it also took many liberties with the source.

I think Rise has a better handle on Don and mike personality wise.
Rise did not look good to me. Maybe I'm a crusty old purist now but the changes were a bit much for me. Is it good?
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Old 08-13-2018, 05:20 PM   #7
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The series is very much worth finishing. The space arc in season 4 has some lulls but there are Mirage references in there that you'd like. All in all, you've missed a lot of really good stuff. At times it is exceptionally dark/bold, some great characters were created or brought back from turtles past, there are crossovers, genuine stakes, thrilling visuals, & so forth. Get to it!

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Rise did not look good to me. Maybe I'm a crusty old purist now but the changes were a bit much for me. Is it good?
Rise is really fun if you can take it for what it is, something that is consciously comedy driven, tradition breaking, and chock full of change. If you go into it with biased expectations, it probably won't land for you, but it's trying to stand apart & deserves a fair shake for that. The animation & style are really nice, very visually striking. I like the show a lot, personally.

If you're mostly just a fan of serious/adult takes on TMNT, it probably won't be for you at all. But if you can appreciate wacky stuff like The Next Mutation or the old turtles anime, it's a very unique interpretation.

To its credit, it's doing a great job of breaking the TMNT out of the unsavory stereotypes they've been stuck with. The idea that Raph is callous, Mikey is a hyper idiot, Leo is boring, etc. Here, putting aside the exaggerated reactionary humor, Raph has a soft heart, Mike's calm & pleasant, Leo has a sense of humor. So that's nice. But you can definitely pick up on how it's catered to a younger demo with a shorter attention span.
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Old 08-13-2018, 05:26 PM   #8
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I am a TMNT purist. Early Mirage is number one
I think we'll get along just fine.
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Old 08-24-2018, 09:47 AM   #9
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The Northampton arc was absolutely unbearable. And then season four started off with an outer space arc that was just as bad. But if you can survive, and get to the second half of season four, I found the rest of the series to be very entertaining.
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Old 08-24-2018, 12:49 PM   #10
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Steer clear. You already saw the best the show has to offer. It fell off the deep end big time after Season 2 imo (after already falling off the deep end after Season 1). If you have to see more, though, the second half of Season 4 (everything after the space arc) I thought was pretty okay, and it concludes the Shredder/Splinter story so go for it if you're so inclined.

But really, I wouldn't bother with much else. S3-5 have their moments, but it's not worth sitting through hours of mediocrity (and shocking moments! wow we cut someone's hand off, we're very dark!) when you can skip over all that.
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Old 08-24-2018, 12:57 PM   #11
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The show started strong, but never really surpassed that initial WOW factor of the first season.

I will say this though, I loved the final season of Tales.
So if you enjoyed the first season, check out the last one.
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Old 08-24-2018, 03:10 PM   #12
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Seasons 1-2 and 4-5 are the best. Season 3 had a weak start and some good eps in the middle and end, but was clearly the weakest season.
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Old 08-26-2018, 04:12 PM   #13
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Pretty much what everyone else has said. Seasons 3 and 4 both had a weaker first half that dragged a lot but a stronger second half (especially the for season 4).

Season 5 is pretty strong for the most part but the final arc really divided people. Like REALLY divided people. To the extent where some ignore it and go with Nickelodeon's line of the FW crossover being the ending and others even go with season 4 (or maybe first arc of season 5) as the end of the story. Watch it, make up your own mind, just be aware your milage may vary!
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Old 08-26-2018, 07:57 PM   #14
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S3 worst - S4 best - Best episode in the whole series is the final episode (Mutant Apocalypse)
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Old 09-02-2018, 02:11 PM   #15
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I think the responses are divided enough that I'm intrigued. I'll check it out.

Was season 3 the Northhampton arc? I think that is where I left off.

Thank you for all the responses!
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Old 09-03-2018, 08:36 PM   #16
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I think the responses are divided enough that I'm intrigued. I'll check it out.

Was season 3 the Northhampton arc? I think that is where I left off.

Thank you for all the responses!
Early season 3, yep. And I guess I'm in the minority, but I think season 3 is my favorite season - followed closely by season 5.
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Old 09-04-2018, 12:37 PM   #17
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I thoroughly enjoyed most of the show all the way through. Sure, it had its ups and downs but I think managed to improve with each season for the most part, at least up until season 4. Season 3 is definitely the weakest season, but when I watched through it again the second time on DVD, it didn't bother me nearly as much. As TMNT 2012 served as my reintroduction to the turtles, I wasn't familiar with a lot of other turtle lore. I caught up on it during the later seasons, and that's why season 3, especially the Northampton arc, felt right. I understood that it was supposed to be a bunch of one off stories, just like the original Mirage storyline. As for the space arc, I've always liked the space arc, and I loved how serialized it was and with an awesome character arc for Fugitoid. I may not like the ultimate ending of the show, but I feel as though the later seasons were not only worth it, but some of the better turtle stories in the greater turtle canon.
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Old 09-04-2018, 01:24 PM   #18
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Eh with the exception of 6 episodes youre better off not watching, plot points barely get expanded on, horrible padding issues(to this day I have no idea why the writers thought having over 5 episodes of the farm and space arcs were a good idea, Casey degradation of a character, Aprils character, and etc.
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Old 09-04-2018, 02:21 PM   #19
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Season 4 (especially the last half), and 5 have some of the best episodes of the series, so yes it's mostly worth watching. The space arc has many great eps too besides a few.
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