Question about Ninja Tribunal artefacts
 

I have been watching the Ninja Tribunal season for the very first time, and there is one plot point that either went over my head or actually wasn't explained correctly.

At the start of the arc the NJ tell the TMNT that there are three artefacts. One they hold at the Lap of the Gods, but the other two were stolen from them, and that the mystics were going to use them to resurrect the Shredder. Unless I missed something, it sounded like the artefacts had been stolen by the mystics.
However, in the next couple of episodes we see the NJ locate the artefacts and recover them - and in the river instance, before the Kappa Tengu can get to them and give them to the mystics.

So, if the mystics sent the Kappa to recover the artefacts, who stole them to begin with, if it wasn't them?!

(I also have to wonder about the timing of the NJ suddenly "locating" the artefacts. Surely they didn't need the acolytes to recover them?)

Am I missing something here? Maybe I got distracted at a key moment and missed some dialogue. Lol.

You're watching the Ninja Tribunal season for the first time? Believe me, when you're done watching all 12 episodes, you're gonna have a shell of a bunch more questions trying to figure out all of the plot holes/inconsistencies.

Edit: After they air the season finale, I'll try to remember the questions that I had. As it's been at least a few years since I've seen the episodes.

I watched a few more episodes today. Overall not too many questions, actually. Still the one that bothers me the most is the one I originally posted about. Although, today in the ones I watched, there was a brief moment when the TMNT sounded surprised that the Shredder was resurrected. Um, wasn't that the whole point? But other than that, good so far!

As far as I know, the other artifacts weren't stolen, but put there by the NJ so that all of them won't be on the same location. The kappa were there to stop anyone from taking the artifact. So they wanted to go retrieve the other two to ensure they wouldn't be taken.

Oh really? What are they?

No they were stolen it was said so multiple times.

I just got to Fathers and Sons today, and we find out that Splinter knew about the Utrom Shredder. From my recollection there isn't anything previously to really suggest he didn't know, but it does seem odd that he never mentioned it. I think that one is a pretty big oversight for me.

Yeah, I remember there being a huge continuity issue with Splinter going as much as he did. Unfortunately I wasn't able to rewatch most of the episodes when Nick Toons aired them. Though I do own the episodes to watch whenever I want. I remember discussing the issue years ago either on these Forums or on another site.