Shredder Elite

[Ninjinister]

As I was working on a project that involved me going over the issues with the Shredder Elite with a fine tuned comb (In other words, spriting them for my fangame), I began to wonder just what the origins of said entities. Saki goes over the part that they were made from the colony worms just as he is, but prior to reading that issue, I had assumed that all four of them were made from colony worms that had fed on Saki's remains, but upon further review, it turns out that only the worms that made up the body of the new Saki ate the flesh of the original Shredder. So, whose remains were the other three fed, why are they dressed like The Shredder, and why were they so horribly mutated?

Furthermore, their origins are even more of a mystery in the 2003 series. Don refers to them as clones, but as we later learn, Shredder is actually the Utrom Ch'rell, and thus is an unlikely candidate for being cloned into those monsters. The synopsis for the episode, on ninjaturtles.com, also confirms that they are not clones, and only refers to them as such out of convenience.

[oldmanwinters]

As I was working on a project that involved me going over the issues with the Shredder Elite with a fine tuned comb (In other words, spriting them for my fangame), I began to wonder just what the origins of said entities. Saki goes over the part that they were made from the colony worms just as he is, but prior to reading that issue, I had assumed that all four of them were made from colony worms that had fed on Saki's remains, but upon further review, it turns out that only the worms that made up the body of the new Saki ate the flesh of the original Shredder. So, whose remains were the other three fed, why are they dressed like The Shredder, and why were they so horribly mutated?

Furthermore, their origins are even more of a mystery in the 2003 series. Don refers to them as clones, but as we later learn, Shredder is actually the Utrom Ch'rell, and thus is an unlikely candidate for being cloned into those monsters. The synopsis for the episode, on ninjaturtles.com, also confirms that they are not clones, and only refers to them as such out of convenience.

I'm not sure which episodes you have in mind. For the sake of claification, do you mean the Shredder Elite who first appeared in Leonardo #1 and "Shredder Strikes Back"?:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56/slimer2erasmus/TMNT/tmnt_wk23-05.jpg

Or the Shredder Clones who first appeared in "Return to New York Part II"?:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56/slimer2erasmus/TMNT/2423266905_f88640684d.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56/slimer2erasmus/TMNT/tmnt_wk25-01a-1.jpg

[Ninjinister]

Shredder Elite = Mutated Shredder Clones
Foot Elite/Elite Guard = Hat wearing Foot Ninja of promoted status

At least that's what I thought... why would they call both Shredder Elite?

[oldmanwinters]

Shredder Elite = Mutated Shredder Clones
Foot Elite/Elite Guard = Hat wearing Foot Ninja of promoted status

At least that's what I thought... why would they call both Shredder Elite?

Yeah, good point. I always knew the "Foot Elite" as "Shredder's Elite Guard." You might be right though.

EDIT: "Foot Elite" is also the name of the official action figure:
http://www.ninjaturtles.com/toys/2003/foot/elitemoc.html

[Ninjinister]

Well, I see the term "Shredder Elite" used to describe both on ninjaturtles.com... ugh.

404, Logic Not Found

[Galactus]

I've always taken the term of Shredder Elite to desribe Shredder's most fiercest warriors. So that would encompass both the guards and the monsters made up from worms.

In "Return to New York" Shredder did say that the monsters they fought were an earlier experiment with the worms and that the final time they had worms feed on him and basicaly put his body back together.

Fans just kinda jumped on the idea that all four were worm "clones" when nothing was ever stated like that. It's clear from the the story that they really wanted to sell it that Saki had legitimately been resurrected. Of course in "Worms of Madness" the Mystic refutes that by saying that it wasn't really Saki. I guess that could just be his opinion, the creature from that story obviously thought he was Saki.

As for what the monsters are made up from, well in "Worms of Madness" the worms fed on a Shark an Octopuss and other creatures as well as presumebly using what was left of Saki to make up the creature it became. It wouldn't be too much of an intuitive leap to think the Shredder Elite monsters were made up of different creatures hence why they they look horribly mutated.

The 2k3 cartoon is easy to rationalise. Don simply assumed wrongly that the creatures were geneticaly altered clones. We know they have worms in 2k3 as we saw them putting Ch'rell back together.