When should the adventures of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles take place?

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

When do you think the adventures of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles should take place?

I'm talking of their main adventures as teenagers. Turtle Tot flashbacks and future timelines are not included.

[neatoman]

Why are you including time periods before the mid-1980's?

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by neatoman

Why are you including time periods before the mid-1980's?

Because some people may think it be interesting to see the turtles living in another era than the ones we're usually exposed to.

[Mad Dog McMutt]

I prefer to see them in the 90's.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

Because some people may think it be interesting to see the turtles living in another era than the ones we're usually exposed to.

OK, well that does make this question a bit complicated to answer.

For the majority of stories featuring these characters, having the time period be "now" in the same way Marvel or DC does it is probably the most broadly acceptable scenario. TMNT was in fact inspired by Marvel and DC franchises, so I don't think anyone objects to this model of the timeline on basis of tradition. It does bring in some problems, like how Marvel had retcon most instances of the Vietnam war being important to the characters as being some made up conflict about a made up country instead, or how Spider-Man had to cross the Berlin wall that one time even though the official story now is that he became Spider-Man at least twenty years after it fell. But if you keep the mentions of real world events to a minimum, you should be fine.

Keeping the characters in the 80's and 90's can work but I get the feeling that might be best reserved for whenever someone feels like making an accurate adaptation of the Mirage studios comics. Partially because that would keep up the accuracy, but also because you would avoid questions like "why don't they just use the internet?" without breaking the integrity of the story. It's not that you can't use this period for brand new stories, it could actually make for very good ones, it's just that someone might not think it makes that much sense to have these types of characters in the past. I'm not personally against it by any means, it's just that the approach may not be entirely popular.

As for setting it in a time period far removed from the others, that is to say decades if not centuries before the 1980's or so far into the future the audience may not live to see it themselves. That sort of approach might work out for limited alternate reality stories or time travel, but the idea of it being the main setting? Doesn't really seem right to me.

[CyberCubed]

Mid-80's through the 90's, and early 2000's is fine. Anything after that, like 2010 onward just feels weird.

[sdp]

the turtles (and basically most superheroes) just don't make sense with a readily available internet , so yeah 80s/90s is like the last decade most vigilante's make sense. I could even forgive early 2000's but not after smartphones.

[IndigoErth]

If they have to keep drastically trying to do "new" things, then screw it, I want Victorian era Turtles in top hats, etc (when going in disguise to blend in) dammit, just for laughs.

Really though, I prefer them existing in the present era an iteration takes place in... but without cringy bull*** that is trying too hard to make sure you know it's "relevant" to present time. So... smartphones, ect, but no TikTok crap and 14-year-old memes that will die before a show/movie with it even premiers.

Safer just to let us have adult Turtles (beyond comics) now and then.

[shihe]

Anything 1990's and BEFORE.

I want a break from the pop-culture overdose and tiktok culture in TMNT already.

Also, seems that in the age of mobile phones, its just easier to write them being public figures, rather than stealthy ninjas. (Haven't read the comics, but I'm sure it's the exception)

[Andrew NDB]

A) Mentally some unspoken, unspecified time between 1987-1995 that never really goes past 1995 in terms of technology or modern aesthetics. If we're talking about Fred Wolf and maybe the Archie stuff.

B) A constantly rolling "present day"? i.e., it's always "now." Even if it was written in 2004, if this year is 2024 then it's set in 2024. This would be something like IDW TMNT, I'd reckon.

C) Landlocked by years? That'd really only be Mirage TMNT. It begins in 1984 and goes almost in real-time into the 2000s between Vols. 1-4. The mistake of some of the Tales V2 writers was to try and make the Mirage universe retroactively like B, when that really isn't possible. Like, suddenly they have iPods during what's supposed to be like 1985 or make pop culture references that only existed in the last few years, etc..

Also, not that we ever would, but if we did get a "true sequel" to TMNT 1990, it'd probably have to fall into C as well. They could always do some mental gymnastics to make it work, ala Superman Returns (which was a failure), but it'd be pretty difficult to pretend that TMNT 1990 was set any time but when it was filmed. Which is actually 1989.

[oldmanwinters]

Heh, what a weird poll!

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

I want to see them before the 2010's. I'm not a big fan how in fiction set today, the plot is centered around the smartphone (usually to market a specific model in movies).

The Turtlecoms can be technology the Turtles revieved from the Utroms, or stole from Krang or the Kraang when breaking into the Technodrome.

[shredder orokusaki]

The turtles didnt exist in the very old years like in feudal Japan that i lived or in other countries than USSA because the accident with the mutagen and them happend in new york . Since 1984 it si happening jn many different dimensions. But the utroms never used turtles as experiement or mutagen on earth before that time. That why there are not mutant turtles in ancient times. The oldest is 1984. Since then more and more turtles are getting mutated in other dimensions . But only me is that i lived centuries ago like when i was a Utrom(2003) or when Kitsune gave me some Utrom medicine to keep me alive foe centuries(IDW).

[biganimefan]

Long before I knew fanfiction was a thing (and basically when Turtles was the show I cared about the most), I had different generations of Turtles going back to World War 1.

Never did get beyond vague concept phase in my 8 year old brain though.

More than 30 years later, any of those era settings could be interesting to me if done right.

[ResidentEvil7]

I think since the Turtles are ninjas, they should be in feudal Japan where the ninjas, samurais and where Hamoto Yoshi's ancestries came from. They can even team up with Usagi Yojimbo and Lotus Blossom and fight feudal Shredder.