What If......

[ABrown]

Ok, so hear me out on this. Please keep an open mind. We all know that in the 2003 TMNT cartoon, the Shredder was revealed in season two to have been an utrom. Well I'm gonna put a different spin on things. To start off with, everything in the first season stays the same until the third episode of "Return To New York." However in my version, a human Shredder stays dead after having his head cut off by Leonardo. Everything about the following eight episodes remains the same.

Then we arrive at "Secret Origins." In this story we learn that the human Shredder was a former guardian, and basically had the role of Yukio Mashimi in "Tale Of Master Yoshi." Saki became a member of the Foot, same as Mashimi, and eventually became leader of the Foot. In my version, the TCRI building is still destroyed by an utrom's implosion device. However, the utroms eliminate the building themselves for their own safety and to keep the Earthlings from using utrom technology for military purposes.

Continuing through season two, we make our way to "City At War." Rather than having an utrom Shredder regenerated by the worms, the worms recreate the human Shredder. Basically the Shredder's story remains the same up until "Exodus." In Exodus, the Shredder is still having a dinner at his place. However, the dinner is simply just to honor the Shredder for all that he has done for New York. For whatever reason, it still ends up being the final battle between the Shredder and the turtles. The Shredder still defeats all four turtles in battle, only to have Master Splinter kill the Shredder in battle.

Season four remains pretty much exactly the same. Leo still goes through his struggles about not being able to defeat the Shredder in battle. We still get the “Tale Of Master Yoshi” episode in which we learn about Tang Shen. Bishop still has the story with the fake aliens and all. And the turtles still go and steal the pendant from Karai. And we move on to season five.

In season five the turtles are still recruited by the Ninja Tribunal to fight against the original Shredder. The only difference is that this original Shredder was not Oroku Saki. This original Shredder still has basically the exact same story as before. However, this Shredder founded the Foot. And every leader of the Foot since then has been given the mantle of the Shredder, thus establishing the connection that Karai had that allowed her to weaken the Shredder.

Thus concludes my version of the Shredder. What was my point in all of this? Basically all that I did was make just a few small changes, and the 2003 TMNT cartoon features a human Shredder rather than an utrom Shredder. So why did the creators even bother to make the Shredder an utrom? It didn’t add anything to the character, it didn’t make the character more appealing. If not for just a few select episodes, the Shredder basically was a human. The audience wouldn’t have even known that the Shredder was secretly an utrom. So, any thoughts/opinions?

[TheSkeletonMan939]

I likethe general idea of this, but a few things caught my eye:

1) Leonardo was mainly upset with himself in Season 4 because the choice was letting Shredder get away or sacrifincing themselves to stop him. We would have to have a similar situation if Leonardo were to be upset with himself.

2) You didn't explain how the Utroms came to Earth. Maybe Ch'Rell could REMAIN as a character and still have caused the crash, and be put into Utrom custody at the TCRI building. He would be regenerated with the Shredder by the worms and would work with Shredder and Baxter Stockman to create new unstoppable weapons for the Turtles to face later.

3) The idea of a human Shredder then and now would be a tad confusing. What if the Necro Monster from "The Darkness Within" came during the Ninja Tribunal's golden age in feudal Japan, and Saki would be given eternal life by it - same Saki then and now.

Hey, number three's a pretty good idea! I can think of all sorts of storylines that can spring from that. For instance, if the Turtles were to completely wipe out the Necro Monster (not just get rid of it for a while like they did in the series), Saki would realize he would die if he didn't do anything drastic before he died in twenty or so years. So he would create the Foot Mystics and curse his armor so that, when he died, he could be resurrected by the Foot Mystics by joining the armor. But, still fearing death, he attacks Area 51 and tries to find out how he's lived so long. Shredder is killed in the ensuing battle. But Karai, who he used only in foreign Foot operations, would become the new Shredder (as she did in the series) to continue her father's legacy. When Shredder returns in Season 5, he considers Karai expendable because he can control the world without her maintaining order in foreign areas. Things play out as they do originally.

Although, this means that Same as it Never Was would be more complicated, and Cyber Shredder probably wouldn't exist.

And for what it's worth, I LIKE the idea of Ch'Rell being Shredder. They just didn't use that as a plot device enough.