Would you want a serious Shredder to have some comedic and mundane moments
 

For me at least I always like the idea of serious characters/villians doing things that are mundane or somewhat comedic it makes them more human imo. It shows that these are people, horrible people mind you but people none the less.

For example I thought this clip was pretty funny

Definitely.

I think inserting some comedy into otherwise serious series and serious characters is a good thing. It allows characters to show more sides and, also, can discharge some tensions, when appropriate.

Yeah, I think that could potentially be wonderful in execution but it must be delicately handled, otherwise Shredder would end up being written as completely over the top (like his 80s version) or as serious till the point where he is humourless.

Not especially.

Unless it's like, evil funny, like a Joe Pesci in Goodfellas sorta thing, where he's not necessarily being funny but you laugh at just how bad of a person he can be, how he takes joy in the bad things he does, treating atrocities as if they are mundane tasks, etc.

In my mind, Saki is on some Yakuza sh*t, so he should handle most things in a cold, unfeeling way, & for the most part only find humor in the weakness of others.

I agree that Shredder is a pretty serious dude who doesn't laugh or even smile that often, but I think some great comedic moment could still be had with him.

For example in IDW I really wish we could've seen some of his adjustment to the new day and age he found himself in, being amazed by cars and planes, computers, phones, the internet, all of that. It's not that he would have reacted to anything in a particularly funny way, I just think him seeing all of this new technology and saying to himself "ah yes, this will be most useful in my plans to take control of this territory" in such a pragmatic, matter-of-fact way would have been funny.

If the mundane moment somehow served the overall plot I’d be for it.

Sure, so long as the comedy doesn't undercut his ability to be a convincing threat.

I would have loved to have seen Shredder tell Kitsune to help update him on what's happened to the world in his absence. I would also have loved to have seen Shredder visit Japan for the sake of him. I mean, evil or not, he should curious about what happened to his homeland.

That's a hard part of portraying a villain realistically. Most of the time, what makes a villain cartoonish is that they seem to have no sense of humanity. Everything else in life has been cast aside for the sake of being evil. Shredder can't just be sitting on his damn throne 24/7 with the concessional evil laugh here and there, waiting around until it's either time to order his goons around, or waiting for them to return and report.

One of things that irked me about 2k3 Shredder(s), is the fact that he was nothing, but perpetually angry evil dude. There was no moments of levity and as a result, Shredder came up as an one-dimensional character.

Adding some comedy is not the only way to add some character development, of course. But I think it's one of the best ones.

Exactly. I don't see him having the patience to train a young Karai or to throw hinself a going away party, forcing him to mingle with humans.

I wouldn't risk it, personally. Comedic moments involving Shredder should be handled by the outside looking it; I don't see him having a sense of humour.

This.

Also, Alex Mallari Jr. would be a kick-ass Oroku Saki.

That seemed more a problem of character background and motivation than anything else. Ch'rell just... wants to destroy the universe? Or rule it? Or something? Why? For what purpose? Just because he's "EEEEVIL"? It's meaningless and dumb.

In Mirage, I think about young Saki screaming, pounding on the side of his older brother's coffin (he must have really loved his brother, idolized him), then read about him becoming the youngest member of the Foot ever to lead a branch being sent to New York to do so... clearly he was super motivated. At the soonest opportunity, he creates "The Shredder" persona and avenges his brother in full regalia, possibly the first time he's ever worn it. This tells me enough about where he's coming from as a character.

He's not a bad guy. He was born into the Foot, basically, the same as Yoshi was (hell, if Yoshi hadn't murdered Nagi, for all we know Yoshi would have been the one sent to begin/lead the New York Foot). He didn't just pick Yoshi and Shen as some random victims... in his mind he was finally avenging the death of his brother and righting that wrong. He doesn't even hate the Turtles... he just became the target of them avenging Yoshi and Shen, and they were even screwing with his day job (ruining his protection racket meetings). If not for this, and Saki had somehow learned that Yoshi's pet rat and four turtles had mutated into living creatures in the sewer, he probably wouldn't have even cared as long as they left him and his business alone.

I was wondering about that...
Part of me just thinks it would just be a great big "What's this" sequence, but without the Christmas and skeleton.


And oh god, 2003 Shredder really, really needs more personality. I could see him (or prefer to see him) on a similar level to Scar from Full Metal Alchemist...but with political power.

Or at the very least a little obvious that he would have a lot of patience with small children to make it seem more credible that he'd spend more time with Karai. Maybe we could have seen things scattered around the manor that suggested the nature of that time of their lives.

It would make him a little more dimension if, for all the violence he's committed, that he genuinely loved Karai. Not just "as if" she was his own child, but he does consider her his own child...even if it is just in a legal sense. Maybe there's implications he had a biological child that he lost.


Someone considered a retelling where Ch'rell was a rebel leader and it's way more interesting than anything given in the actual show.

But, 4Kids wasn't capable of thinking in shades of gray morality, so that never happened.


Ch'rell just doesn't seem like someone who people would be keeling over from screaming their loyalty to the heavens for.

Yeah, I’d like to see a serious Shredder to be a bit humorous sometimes. Some of my favourite villains are the ones who have a sense of humor.

Shredder was evil in 2k3, but Scottie Ray his voice actor completely sold the character. And we did see him in Season 3 work as a businessman with NYC to repair it after the Triceraton invasion, work with the mayor, etc. We got to see the business side of him.

Nick Shredder seemingly sat in his throne room all day and night.

The very idea of Oroku Saki having a throne room at all is dumb. When his daily business affairs are done I'd imagine he would return to his penthouse, take off his business suit and enjoy the best cuisine his aides can find. I don't think he'd even put on the Shredder armor at all except for "special occasions," i.e., motivational speeches to the Foot or actual ops that would require his presence (which would be rare).

That was one thing 4Kids did pretty well... I think that's the most any TMNT incarnation has ever shown Saki outside of the bladed suit.

This is pretty much my ideal cinematic Shredder interpretation. Essentially a Yakuza mob boss. Maybe he even has a known love for tradition and history, hence the armor.

With Mirage TMNT, it just happened to be every time we saw Saki, it was either the TMNT challenging him to a battle to the death or him fighting said battle(s) to the death. And in the second and last battle to the death, the first thing he did was actually take OFF all the armor. Before the Turtles were even f***ing with him, he was just handling his business in a business suit with clients.

Everyone wants to romanticize him in the armor, as if that's what he's all about. It wasn't. It isn't. Stop making it that way.

Yeah, exactly. Not sitting in a damn throne room just brooding over Yoshi or "Oooohhh, I can't wait to catch those TURR-TALS!" or whatever.

But as to humor? I would imagine. From what we got in #1 and his monologueing in #21, though, I'd suspect he'd have a very dry humor, and super sparing. And if he were to make any actual jokes, it'd be pretty dark humor.

Do you think he killed time watching soap operas or something?

Not even FW Shredder had a throne. Sure, he had a really fancy tech chair in his first appearance, but it doesn't even count.


It really only makes sense for Ch'rell Shredder...given his flare for making things over dramatic.

The closest thing he got to a joke was mocking Stockman when he was reduced to his brain and spine. "You seem to be having an out of body experience."

Or something like that.

I think he'd be more into Romantic Comedies.

He had a throne room of sorts in early drafts of the 1990 Barron movie.

And a great big majestic cape/cloak that dragged behind him like one of those royal wedding dresses. Mirage Shredder had a cape once ever, just when there was blizzard snowfall in the Leonardo special. We never saw it again.

On paper I don't mind Shredder having a cape but it's just not practical. He's got blades everywhere. That's going to snag like a bitch.

A black and silver zebra striped royal wedding dress, haha. He only wore it during the ceremonial thing. For that, I'm down.

I'd love to see Shredder's day off or something and comedic moments happens. As others have mentioned IDW Shredder coping with today's technology and society, or Saki is in a cafe or a bistro and meets someone in a romcom situation.

Or a version of Saki where he runs a legit company as a cover for his crime-lord activities have to have something delivered to the bank and his assistant is sick or something and he decides it's on his way home, he can do it personally and while he's at the bank a robbery happens which puts him in a "heroic" situation. It's not really a funny situation in-world but it's funny for the audience with a heist going wrong due to one of the hostages is a deadly ninja.

OMG that would make an amazing double-length one-shot, "A Funny Thing Happened on Oroku Saki's Way to the Bank" :lol:. I can totally see Saki going through a whole thought process, first being mad that he's having to perform a task that he had delegated to an underling (we could even set this story during the City Fall era and say that the underling who was supposed to make the drop at the bank was killed in an act of gang violence by one of Saki's rivals, the Cost Nostra or the Ghost Boys or something), then he thinks it's good for him to keep some semblance of humility and do what must be done to advance his plans.

Then he gets to the bank and when somebody pulls a gun on the tellers he first thinks, "why should I get involved?" but he reasons that there's a small chance that this small-time bank robber might get something of value from one of Saki's personal lockboxes, so he decides to intercede and easily takes down the armed robbers with his ninja skills.

Then the police are all amazed and applauding him and he's just so unperturbed while news crews want to interview him for being such an outstanding citizen and he's just like "I'm a very busy man, good day!" This could be a hilarious yet insightful story; I'd love to see something like it illustrated by Santolouco

I really don't get where most of you want Oroku Saki to be some standup pratfall comedian.

I'd much rather be able to take my villains seriously.

The best humor I think that can be logically hoped for in Shredder is in the league of "dad jokes".

That's the thing, I don't want him cracking jokes, far from it. I find that when you put such a self-serious character like the Shredder in a ridiculous situation the comedy will flow naturally, because humor is derived from subverted expectations. If anybody tried to write Shredder as a character with a sense of humor it would totally fall flat because it wouldn't ring true, but there can be humor in his actions all the same, regardless of his intentions.

I always wanted to see a running gag where Bebop and Rocksteady are their usual dumb selves but while everyone else calls them idiots Shredder recognize them as great warriors. For example in the IDW comic Koya and Bludgeon calls B&R idiots for watching cartoons and eating pizza before the final battle with the turtles, I could see Shredder calling K&B simpletons for not understanding that B&R know they might die and are spending their final moments enjoying themselves

That sounds horrible.

Precisely.

The problem is, I think, is that none out of TMNT incarnations specifically made any exploration of Shredder character. I haven't read IDW stuff, so maybe they had something like this, but from what I have heard here he is just a dude who want to conquer anything.

As a result the most explored Shredder is the one from OT, just because there was so much of him in the series.

There was that conflict with Slashuur from Battlenexus 2. But it was never expanded and it seems it's not canon to the series anyway.

I would be very interested in that approach to the shred-head.

Fine by me.

I also want to see Shredder eating non-Japanese food at least once.

So like Vader?

http://tmntentity.blogspot.se/2013/0...ot-clan-1.html (Follow the whole mini-series through the end).
http://tmntentity.blogspot.se/2013/1...-shredder.html
http://tmntentity.blogspot.se/2015/10/tmnt-idw-50.html

In case you don't care about spoilers:


Technically? I can't say it's the least bit compelling though. He's just a buffoon bickering with an Utrom there.

About humor, I would make a parallel with Batman:

The guy is stoic, almost no reaction with his face most of the time.

What I consider funny with that kind of people, it's their (no) reaction when people around are throwing jokes or doing funny stuff; only that look "Shut up or I'm going to kill you"

I think it's important for any character to show humour as it adds to their character. I never liked the 4Kids Shredder because he just felt one dimensional in his seriousness all the time.

How do you know he didn't smother people to death with it? :D