How has TMNT affected your life?

[Bossk]

Through watching or reading the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, has your life been affected in any way? As a kid Leonardo was a role model for me, being a leader, caring for his brothers/friends, honorable, ect. I also used to be pretty scared of Shredder, yet I thought he was really cool, very comparable to how I viewed Darth Vader.

How has it affected you?

[pannoni1]

It has in many ways, especially if you study all of the references associated with the franchise. For instance, the Turtles' love of pizza has helped me enjoy that food, though the episode "Cowabunga, Shredhead" proves that you shouldn't each pizza all the time. Certain characters also can help you find your path. Donatello can make you a geek/nerd, Raphael a urbanite/fighter, Michelangelo helps me enjoy some fun activities and festivals, Leonardo inspired me to do karate for a couple years, April made me enjoy journalism, the media, and even look into other damsels in distress. Burne Thompson and Charles Pennington give us models about what you should expect from your boss at work. Finally, master Splinter helps me be a good religious and spiritual person.

[Coro]

When I was growing up Donatello was always my favorite turtle. He had the best reach in the original NES game and could cheat to kill bosses with him, in Turtles arcade game he had the longest reach again and had the best special move. He was also kind of geeky, and I was a geeky outsider kid. I now manage a large IT department, in charge of about 20 people at Boeing and have been working in IT for the past 15 years...

I was in the Marine Corps for 5 years, and I developed a bit of a reputation as being an a$$ hole. This translated after I got out and was working for a few defense contractors as well, and the rep I got stuck with was a guy that doesn't pull any punches or mince words, but will tell you the 100% truth. I really have no tact. Many people asked me why I got out, cause I was clearly good at it.

You might not see any Mikey in that, but I wont talk about my high school experiences haha

Nope, didn't influence me at all!

[Mr.Turtle]

it makes me more violent....

[ZariusTwo]

It's the only franchise which I try to write consistent fanfiction for, so it's helped me out a lot as a writer.

[CyberCubed]

it makes me more violent....

Don't tell your parents.

[Mr.Turtle]

It's the only franchise which I try to write consistent fanfiction for, so it's helped me out a lot as a writer.

that's what turtle power does.

[Bossk]

It's the only franchise which I try to write consistent fanfiction for, so it's helped me out a lot as a writer.

That's really cool, I usually feel odd about writing fanfiction because I don't want to insult the franchise, but every now and then I write some Dragon Age fanfiction. I feel as if it's the one I do okay enough so I'm not insulting the franchise and I'm enjoying what I'm writing and reading.

[Jephael]

The TMNT have really helped bring out my creative side over the years and gotten me interested in so many different genres.

[Mr.Turtle]

^ thats really good, man, thats really good....

[Logan]

Creatively speaking, I think the Turtles franchise helped me in later years to be willing to look at absurd concepts that could still maintain a serious tone and tell interesting stories. And it contributed to rediscovering and re-enjoying my childhood TV shows.

[Hero]

Influenced me to be a little more adventurous.

[Mr.Turtle]

it makes me wanna get my own pet turtles sometimes but i don't kno how to train them to be ninja.

[Hero]

Good luck with that...

[Mr.Turtle]

^its worthy it.

[mysterycolor]

its worthy it.
say what???

[Hero]

Men in white coats on standby...

[SS_Turtle]

The turtles have affected me in a way that the inner child in me is always there and everyone who knows me knows that!

[Mr.Turtle]

^ ur inner child in u is always with u.

[Icebot]

Ninja Turtles has affected me in many ways. I used to think of it as just a kids' show until the Red Sky episodes came. They aired around the time I was in high school so watching the Red Sky episodes instead of Seasons 1 to 7 kept me interested and made it easy for me to keep up with my teenage years.

I used to fantasize about actually going inside the Technodrome and exploring it. Of course it's impossible but it's something I always wanted to do.

All those quotes from Splinter such as "Stormy seas grow calm when the wind stops blowing. Calm your mind, and you will find the answer." helps me think positive.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

The TMNT have really helped bring out my creative side over the years and gotten me interested in so many different genres.

And, I've said it before, probably turned you into one of the world's most famous TMNT fans. At least some years ago.

[Mr.Turtle]

how abt me? am i famous?

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

how abt me? am i famous?

I don't know anything. Jephael had a TMNT fansite for years.

[Mr.Turtle]

^it's Jephael...

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

^it's Jephael...

But do you have some TMNT fansite? Jephael started his years before the blog became common.

[Mr.Turtle]

^ u mean became popular?

[mysterycolor]

the TMNT have brought me into a wacky action community, and helped me establish a cool little business as well ♥

[BubblyShell22]

The TMNT have helped me to really establish myself as a writer and to put my writing out there for others to see. I like using them to express my creativity.

[Bossk]

Some of the things I'm hearing are really awesome, mainly with bringing out creativity. One thing that I never mentioned was that it helped me find my inner self and allowed me to be who I am today. What I mean by that is because of the turtles I now wear Mass Effect shirts, Star Wars key chains, and Ninja Turtle lanyards. I'm no longer afraid to show people who I really am and I'll do whatever I want no matter the public opinion. Now in highschool I'm known and respected by some for being self-confident and having no fear in expressing myself while the other preppy kids and such obviously hate me for not following the crowd. Some people even come up to tell me that I'm cool, or they respect or whatever because I don't let society tell me what to do. Not that I'm a rebel or anything, but I guess simply wearing nerdy shirts inspires others to not follow the public opinion regardless to theirs'.

[Mr.Turtle]

hmm, i think the the most important thing is it teaches me to live with honor.

[Leo656]

Definitely made me eat way more pizza than necessary as a youth; actually grown kind of bored with it as an adult. Too much of a good thing; especially the few years my Dad worked at a pizza place and we had it for dinner almost every single night, not as fun as it sounds, dudes! :P

I hadn't thought about it but I guess April being a reporter might have subconsciously nudged me to work on the school paper, but I could just as easily thank Superman/Clark Kent for that since he worked on an actual newspaper and she was a completely different kind of journalist. But whatever.

As a collector, TMNT toys, comics, and memorabilia has been a primary focus of my collecting since I was very young. I have more TMNT stuff than probably anything besides Superman and Batman.

Only fanfiction I ever wrote (other than when I was like 5) was TMNT stuff, and ever since I was a kid TMNT has been a primary focus of my drawing efforts.

I'unno, for whatever reason TMNT is never far from my conscious thoughts, it's always around in some way, either I'm drawing something or watching something or playing one of the games or reading about TMNT. I'm a "fan" of a lot of things but for some reason TMNT is one of the things that's always "there". I thought the show was stupid the very first time I watched it, too... that lasted about 5 minutes, thankfully.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Definitely made me eat way more pizza than necessary as a youth; actually grown kind of bored with it as an adult. Too much of a good thing; especially the few years my Dad worked at a pizza place and we had it for dinner almost every single night, not as fun as it sounds, dudes! :P

I hadn't thought about it but I guess April being a reporter might have subconsciously nudged me to work on the school paper, but I could just as easily thank Superman/Clark Kent for that since he worked on an actual newspaper and she was a completely different kind of journalist. But whatever.

As a collector, TMNT toys, comics, and memorabilia has been a primary focus of my collecting since I was very young. I have more TMNT stuff than probably anything besides Superman and Batman.

Only fanfiction I ever wrote (other than when I was like 5) was TMNT stuff, and ever since I was a kid TMNT has been a primary focus of my drawing efforts.

I'unno, for whatever reason TMNT is never far from my conscious thoughts, it's always around in some way, either I'm drawing something or watching something or playing one of the games or reading about TMNT. I'm a "fan" of a lot of things but for some reason TMNT is one of the things that's always "there". I thought the show was stupid the very first time I watched it, too... that lasted about 5 minutes, thankfully.

What was your TMNT fanfiction stories about?

[Leo656]

Wow, nobody's asked about those in years. They might still be around someplace, I'unno. GreenWillow has 'em, I know that. My computer crashed a long time ago taking all my files with it, and I know GW's site also went down a long time ago, but I know she has everything I've ever written saved.

-"Legacy of the Ring" was my first effort, waaaaay back like 9-10 years ago; it had a TMNT universe that combined bits of the movie, Archie, Mirage and OT turtles, and a story that crossed over with various Sonic and DC characters. Really, really long, 20 chapters, kind of a cluster as I just kind of went in going "I want to tell a story with this specific character set", and then just wrote it out a chapter at a time with no notes or rough draft.
Specifically, Shredder (who died in an earlier, unwritten story) comes back with the help of someone who may or may not be The Devil, and tries to use Chaos Emeralds and a new, Death Star-style Technodrome to take over more or less everything, while Leo, the main character, struggles with strange side effects after being exposed to Chaos energy, and the revelation he may or may not be a clone of the "real" Leonardo, who may or may not have been killed years earlier in battle. A lot of action, especially in the very beginning and end, and a lot of psychological stuff about relationships, coping with a lifetime of war and violence and wanting to step away from it when suddenly all your old enemies seem to come back for One Last Battle, and coping with personal demons. It's also established in the beginning that Leo has a girlfriend going back several years, and she plays a big part in the story, an idea that began when I realized how much it bugged me that the guys almost never had girlfriends. Very Hard "R" rating for violence, drugs, lots of language, and a few non-graphic sexual references. It won a few FanFic Awards a few years back.

-"Lonely Road Of Faith: Danielle's Story" is/was a prequel in progress that told how Leo and his girlfriend Danielle met, her abusive past, and how he rescued her from it. Hard "R" again for violence, drugs, language etc. Less action and more drama, but was also turning out to be pretty long, I think I had 11 chapters sent to GreenWillow before computer problems led me to scrap it temporarily. I still intend to finish it, just not sure when, and the hunger for fanfic doesn't seem to be there like it was 10 years ago. It was easy for me to write when people were actively encouraging me to finish stuff, without a little nudge I get distracted easily.

-In between those two stories I wrote a one-chapter Leo/Superman encounter called "Heroes", which was to be the beginning of a four-chapter cross-character piece where each of the four TMNT would interact with and play off of a different DC character (My TMNT universe took place in a somewhat-loose version of the DCU). Chapter two was to be Raphael and Batman, and I wrote about half of it before a virus trashed it; I also couldn't figure out who Don and Mike would play off of, so I just haven't gone back to it.

One thing I made reference to a lot in my fics was that, in that universe, the movies, cartoons, etc. all actually happened, once the TMNT were exposed to the public. So much has been done with the "underground" side of TMNT, I wanted to have a little fun and play with them being "rock stars" (In some cases literally, "Coming Out Of Their Shells" Tour "really" happened in my fanfic universe, in one chapter there's a scene where Leo protests to their agent about how crappy the songs are and how stupid the entire thing was). I essentially tried to add in a wink to every version of TMNT that existed up to that point, which would have been about 2003-4.

If you're interested in reading 'em, and I'd honestly be happy to hear what you think, email GreenWillow or private message her asking to send them to you (I don't think they are currently online anywhere, sadly). If she doesn't get back to you I'll poke her and make sure she does.

You write stuff too? What about?

[Mr.Turtle]

What was your TMNT fanfiction stories about?



You write stuff too? What about?

this!:lol:

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Wow, nobody's asked about those in years. They might still be around someplace, I'unno. GreenWillow has 'em, I know that. My computer crashed a long time ago taking all my files with it, and I know GW's site also went down a long time ago, but I know she has everything I've ever written saved.

-"Legacy of the Ring" was my first effort, waaaaay back like 9-10 years ago; it had a TMNT universe that combined bits of the movie, Archie, Mirage and OT turtles, and a story that crossed over with various Sonic and DC characters. Really, really long, 20 chapters, kind of a cluster as I just kind of went in going "I want to tell a story with this specific character set", and then just wrote it out a chapter at a time with no notes or rough draft.
Specifically, Shredder (who died in an earlier, unwritten story) comes back with the help of someone who may or may not be The Devil, and tries to use Chaos Emeralds and a new, Death Star-style Technodrome to take over more or less everything, while Leo, the main character, struggles with strange side effects after being exposed to Chaos energy, and the revelation he may or may not be a clone of the "real" Leonardo, who may or may not have been killed years earlier in battle. A lot of action, especially in the very beginning and end, and a lot of psychological stuff about relationships, coping with a lifetime of war and violence and wanting to step away from it when suddenly all your old enemies seem to come back for One Last Battle, and coping with personal demons. It's also established in the beginning that Leo has a girlfriend going back several years, and she plays a big part in the story, an idea that began when I realized how much it bugged me that the guys almost never had girlfriends. Very Hard "R" rating for violence, drugs, lots of language, and a few non-graphic sexual references. It won a few FanFic Awards a few years back.

-"Lonely Road Of Faith: Danielle's Story" is/was a prequel in progress that told how Leo and his girlfriend Danielle met, her abusive past, and how he rescued her from it. Hard "R" again for violence, drugs, language etc. Less action and more drama, but was also turning out to be pretty long, I think I had 11 chapters sent to GreenWillow before computer problems led me to scrap it temporarily. I still intend to finish it, just not sure when, and the hunger for fanfic doesn't seem to be there like it was 10 years ago. It was easy for me to write when people were actively encouraging me to finish stuff, without a little nudge I get distracted easily.

-In between those two stories I wrote a one-chapter Leo/Superman encounter called "Heroes", which was to be the beginning of a four-chapter cross-character piece where each of the four TMNT would interact with and play off of a different DC character (My TMNT universe took place in a somewhat-loose version of the DCU). Chapter two was to be Raphael and Batman, and I wrote about half of it before a virus trashed it; I also couldn't figure out who Don and Mike would play off of, so I just haven't gone back to it.

One thing I made reference to a lot in my fics was that, in that universe, the movies, cartoons, etc. all actually happened, once the TMNT were exposed to the public. So much has been done with the "underground" side of TMNT, I wanted to have a little fun and play with them being "rock stars" (In some cases literally, "Coming Out Of Their Shells" Tour "really" happened in my fanfic universe, in one chapter there's a scene where Leo protests to their agent about how crappy the songs are and how stupid the entire thing was). I essentially tried to add in a wink to every version of TMNT that existed up to that point, which would have been about 2003-4.

If you're interested in reading 'em, and I'd honestly be happy to hear what you think, email GreenWillow or private message her asking to send them to you (I don't think they are currently online anywhere, sadly). If she doesn't get back to you I'll poke her and make sure she does.

You write stuff too? What about?

Why not publish them on Fanfiction Net.

[ZariusTwo]

Ah FF.Net, the home of unconstructive ass-kisser reviews, endless 'shipper stories and incomplete deadfics.

[Genesis]

It's the only franchise which I try to write consistent fanfiction for, so it's helped me out a lot as a writer.Exactly the same here. It's hard to really detail how the Turtles have affected my Life without delivering an autobiography. They've always been such a big deal to me, a big part of my bond to my little brother, and inspirational figures for my own literary aspirations, that to go over it all right here could be a bit much.

Suffice it to say that Splinter is a better father figure than reality had ever given me, while I was growing up.

Completely on a side note but semi-related in my twisted head, I just got a jungle carpet python. I named him Zog.

[Mr.Turtle]

my bro's used to be afraid of rats when he was lil. but i'd say " let's go save master splinter!" when we saw a rat running by, n he'd forget abt his fear to rats all of a sudden. it's funny. i'm so proud of myself, taking care of my lil bro when i was lil too. although frm some point, i just can't stand his chicken scream...

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Ah FF.Net, the home of unconstructive ass-kisser reviews, endless 'shipper stories and incomplete deadfics.

There are some good stories there too.

[Leo656]

Just never bothered at the time, wasn't a huge priority. When I first started writing "Legacy" in 2000 I had no computer or internet, just felt like writing something me and my girlfriend could read for a lark. That's all anything I wrote was to be initially, some stuff that made it in was definitely only done at the time because I knew it would get a laugh from a very specific person/audience, it wasn't written to be read and I never really bothered editing it. I only put them online at others' request once I found out other people actually did the same thing. I didn't know there was such a thing as the "fanfic community"; but then again at one point I literally thought the internet was only for porn pics and wrestling rumors.

I'unno GW might send them back to me, if enough people care I might put them up on FF.net, if for no other reason than in case I ever lose them again.

[Mr.Turtle]

There are some good stories there too.
only a few of... depends on ppls tastes.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

only a few of... depends on ppls tastes.

I prefer 1987 show-based. Sadly, they aren't many yet.

[Mr.Turtle]

no there ain't much .

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

The TMNT have helped me to really establish myself as a writer and to put my writing out there for others to see. I like using them to express my creativity.

The best with TMNT is how you can bring them on so many different adventures, action, adventure, science fiction, fantasy or whatever you want.

[Leo656]

Yeah, that's why I get a little annoyed when people cling too tight to "their" version of what TMNT is supposed to be. There's a set of general rules, sure, but the concept is very open to interpretation and adaptation. It can be funny, dark, violent, childish, disturbing... whatever the author wants it to be. Part of what I love about TMNT is that its been done so many totally different ways, and they all work equally well in their own idiom.

Also called "fiction", which I think some people forget completely eliminates any semblance of "rules" of tone or storytelling in the first place... Specifically, people who are like "Well TMNT is like this, and it has to be this way to work right, and if it's like this it's not good"... I'm like bitch, someone made that sh*t up, relax! :lol:

[Mr.Turtle]

^disturbing....???

[BAXTER STOCKMAN 19]

In 2004 I with a friend of mine made a Shredder costume! Then one weekend we dressed as Shredders (1987 Shredder) and we went out for a walk in my city. We had lot of fun! We were also planing to make our own Foot Clan but unfortunately we didnt find enough people to join us. If we were succesful then now evryone would have been talking about the REAL SHREDDER and his Foot Clan!. But we failed.

[Mr.Turtle]

^ i used to make shredders outfit with hard papers with my bro when we were lil too. he did most of the design work tho n i just put things together for him... i hate taking his order but my bro's really smart n talented... i gotta admit. it's so much fun to build things with someone u trust.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Yeah, that's why I get a little annoyed when people cling too tight to "their" version of what TMNT is supposed to be. There's a set of general rules, sure, but the concept is very open to interpretation and adaptation. It can be funny, dark, violent, childish, disturbing... whatever the author wants it to be. Part of what I love about TMNT is that its been done so many totally different ways, and they all work equally well in their own idiom.

Also called "fiction", which I think some people forget completely eliminates any semblance of "rules" of tone or storytelling in the first place... Specifically, people who are like "Well TMNT is like this, and it has to be this way to work right, and if it's like this it's not good"... I'm like bitch, someone made that sh*t up, relax! :lol:

Most people just know the 1987 show (and maybe also some Archie Comics), as you probably know.

[the_minimizer]

My car was stuck in the snow in 2004-2005 after a major snowstorm. I burned up the transmission trying to get out of the snow. It reminded me of the technodrome being stuck at the North Pole.

[Mr.Turtle]

^ wished they d come to the rescue?

[Jephael]

My car was stuck in the snow in 2004-2005 after a major snowstorm. I burned up the transmission trying to get out of the snow. It reminded me of the technodrome being stuck at the North Pole.

^ wished they d come to the rescue?

LOL, I could just see Raphael and Donatello helping out someone in a bind like that!

[CyberCubed]

Its actually kept me out of becoming a bigger fan of other things.

I think had TMNT never existed, I'd probably be a hardcore Batman fan right now, and more of a Star Wars fan. TMNT has ironically kept my interest in other series lower than it would be otherwise.

[Mr.Turtle]

LOL, I could just see Raphael and Donatello helping out someone in a bind like that!

seriously? i cant believe u...

[zkarlette]

seriously? i cant believe u...

Why? Because they don't wear snow boots?