Is Karai Shredder's daughter (in Mirage)?
 

Something I've been eaning to ask and it's a pretty straight forward question.

In the Mirage continuity, is Karai related to Oroku Saki?

She mentions nothing of her relationship with Saki during City at War and speaks about him on only a business level. She says nothing about him in Vol. 4, either. In the Image series (which was canon with Mirage at the time), Shredder's daughter was Pimiko.

So I just wanted to ask, is she only related to Shredder in the 2k3 continuity?

Cartoons and scope often lead to the evolution of characters to make their characteristics relevant to the audience, it made more sense to introduce Karia's ambigious side by making her loyalty to Shredder a maternal one.

I don't think she was related to him when the comic began, but that's what happens when you build a mythology over time, you don't know where there taking the character. Heck, the Street Fighter games are the best example of that. Ryu won the forst tournament, Chun-Li is the canonical winner of II, and Bison is killed by Akuma in the canonical version, how long did THAT take to happen?

Karai is not related to Shredder in Mirage as far as we know.

2k3 Karai is something of an amalgamation of Mirage Karai and Pimiko/Lady Shredder. Call it character evolution, like Zarius2 already said.

If they'd be anything, Karai might be his sister or mother, but I seriously doubt it.

Karai in Volume 3 was the Lady Shredder.

I don't think she was...The Lady Shredder was never revealed because the Image series was ended before they could reveal who it was. It may have been, but there is no proof. Unless I missed something!

You know what I'm saying Andrew NDB?

I know what yourr saying loud and clear because it was never stated that karai was the lady shredder.
The only time Karai was brought up was when they said she was presumed to be dead.:|

I've spoken to Gary Carlson many, many times over the years and even interviewed him. Karai was always going to be revealed as the Lady Shredder.

I have heard as well that Vol. 3 was going to have Karai as the Lady Shredder. Obviously, they never got that far, but it's what they were leading up to.

welp it didn't happen in the comic so it didn't happen for me.
He can say what he wants but honestly as long as it's not printed I don't accept it as an actual part of the storyline because it some what becomes fanfiction reguardless of who wrote it.

It can't be fanfiction since, by definition, Gary Carlson is the writer, not a fan.

Anyone curious and want to hear it from the horse's mouth, just stop by his Big Bang Comics site and shoot him off an E-mail. He'll generally respond and is a very nice guy, loves his fans.

Apparently you didn't read what I wrote. I know who he is...;)
It's not in printed drawn out form so it's not cannon to me.
I mean hell I'm dismissing one thing that's not been printed at least I'm not as bad as Peter Laird and completely blow off the entire series all together not to mention countless other things.:roll:

Fair enough.

She's not biologically related to him. Whether they grew up together is another story.

Karai is roughly about the same age as Saki. In Vol. 1 #1 Shredder is 34 years old, and by the time we see Karai (about 3 years after that) we see Karai has a daughter that is about 18-20 years old. I'm thinking she's either about the same age as Saki or a little older than him, also being as how she's in charge of the entire Foot Clan -- not just the New York branch -- and I doubt they're in the habit of electing youngun leaders.

Wasn't Saki an assassin for the Foot before going after Yoshi and taking control of the NY branch?

Yep. Pretty much all the Foot are.

http://www.ninjaturtles.com/comics/mirage/one/pg14.jpg

Stuff like this makes you wonder who the real number 1 of the Foot is if Shredder was selected to only lead the US branch. I know Karai was leading the Japanese branch during City at War, but she was too young to be leading it at the time that Saki went to start the US branch.

Quite right.

http://www.ninjaturtlesempire.com/page105.jpg

Well, maybe this doesn't tell us much... but we know the person was known as "The Faceless One." You get a glimpse of him in the panel where they give Saki the New York assignment in Vol. 1 #1.

But there was only seven in that picture, not eight lol. Also, it's interesting that they switched the name around in this book. I mean I know Oruku is his last name, but it's interesting to read it that way.

That's pretty interesting. It's possible that the reason there's only 7 pictured is because the Faceless One was not there (since he's the bigwig and all that).

A shame they never went anywhere with that. By Vol. 4, according to Karai, every member of the Foot clan save for the ones under her instruction had been killed. So I guess that means the Faceless one and the 7 elders as well.

Could make an interesting issue or two of Tales.

Actually, Oroku has always been his last name, Saki his first. Same with Hamato Yoshi, Hamato being his last name and Yoshi his first.

About the Council of Eight, it's funny, too, that in Volume 3 the Image guys mention that it's now a "Council of Six" or so... their membership apparently fluctuates.

Maybe the other two were on vacation...?

I know Oroku has always been his last name, but it's always been Oroku Saki in the traditional Japanese way of stating names. I was saying it's interesting that they switched it around to to the American way of stating names.

Just for consistency's sake, I suppose.

If vol 3 can be considered cannon anymore.

I know, but it seemed worth pointing out.

It's kinda weird actually how 2k3 always got Hamato Yoshi right (as far as the proper Japanese family name, given name goes) but kept messing up Oroku Saki. For example the Big Brawl correctly refers to Hamato Splinter, but they keep calling Karai, Miss Saki, when she should be Miss Oroku.

And I think the original cartoon had a brother of Saki's that was Officer Saki or something.

All apocryphal, really.

Easiest way to figure out what the family name (how I figured it out before I took Japanese class):

Oroku Saki
Oroku Nagi
(Oroku Yoshi?)

Thus, Oroku is the family name. So then, Hamato Yoshi's family name is Hamato, which is why in 2K3 Splinter is referred to as "Hamato Splinter".

Now I want to know why the heck the Turtles are referred to as "-------- Splinterson"....