Thoughts on Season 5 (Ninja Tribunal) and Fast Forward (SPOILERS)
 

Ninja Tribunal (Season 5)

I purchased Season 5 fairly cheap online (about $20 US including shipping), when it finally arrived I watched all of the episodes over a 2 day span. I wasn't that impressed.

Here is what I liked;

1) Baxter Stockmans Holographic body

2) Agent Bishop (as always)

3) The "original" Shredder being a human, and not an Utrom (although they did combine him with a demon very quickly, which is just as bad as the Utrom concept in my opinion).

Here is what I didn't like;

1) The Turtles turning into dragons...........this was really stupid/the worst part of the season. Dragons are NOT cool, neither is the concept. Oddly enough this made me feel like I was watching a childrens cartoon (I know it is generally meant for kids, but up until this point it hasn't felt that way)

2) The acolytes/avatars and the Ninja Tribunal coming back in the final two episodes after being killed off earlier in the season........why can't they just leave characters dead!

3) Master Yoshi killing Demon Shredder

4) Over emphasis on "magic"


Fast Forward (season 6)

Once I finished season 5, I finally opened my season 6 future shelshock dvd and viewed the first two episodes (I had held off on seeing this series in case it continued from season 5).

So far, I DO not like the animation change. The first thing I noticed is how Splinter now looks like a character from that older anime Medabots. I did like the content of the episodes though (in the two I have seen so far). I also find the serling character entertaining. I will have to watch the remaining 11 episodes before I can give you a more detailed opinion.

Master Yoshi finishing the Shredder was really cool, even though they were never enemies it was cool. And yea, they should have kept the acolytes dead for sure.

UTROM

I loved the dragons! It was a new concept and fun to watch. I can't think of another way they could have possibly took down shredder. But yeah I can see how you would dislike it, it was a bit far fetched, but then again, so are talking turtles

don't know what an avatar is but the acolytes come back to fight, and I agree, it was a bad idea to bring them back

I seems like the general consensus that most people don't like the new animation but it's nice to see that someone who didn't completely dismiss the whole season simply due to this.

^ Yeah not sure I understood the whole avatar thing. What was that?

Depends on opinion, as it IS as bad as people have presented it to be in my view.

As for FF - I still think the first couple episodes were rushed and therefore turned out pretty badly. The season has since got better (with some exceptions like the recent Jammerhead ep). Maybe this is due to them seeing the reaction to the beginning episodes and making some changes. Who knows. At least the episode now are alot better than the earlier ones. They still are not as good as any single period in the old 2k3 toon though.

Ever see the first Power Rangers movie? That's how I kind of saw it. Just animal spirits that had the same kind of characteristics as the person. I also kind of predicted the animals that were picked. Pretty easy I thought.

Agreed, I just wish they had aired Season 5 before FF so it did fall into place correctly.

I just watched the last ep of the lost season DVD box set today, and overall I thought it was an ok season.
Shredders "I will relieve you of your pathetic lives" banter was really tiresome, and should have been held back a bit.
He was a bit like a bond villain delivering his "I'm about to kill 007 speech" every time he encountered the Turtles.
That really began to grate on my nerves.

I think dragons are cool, and the avatar element didn't bother me too much, but the disregard for the buildings of New York city that the turtles had in the final battle, particularly Leo, who pushed shredder and himself through several high risers, was out of character and silly.

I haven't seen Fast Forward, and was debating weather to order the DVD or not, would someone recommend it?

It has lazy writing from the get go, has a hopelessy overrated story based on fabrications about the past, and really is'nt the best example of the writers finally becoming comfortable with the show. I'd watch much later episodes, which are at least a small sign of improvment.

Yeah, so far, the Lost Season is pretty mixed. It parallels FF in many ways. Silly costumes, check. Getting new super power weapons, check. The story is at least much more interesting, so that's something it has over FF. Although certain parts of the plot is predictable as hell. At the same time, it feels almost as silly as FF with the super dragons and wacky super powers. God, I hate the dragon fights. The actual hand to hand fights weren't all the impressive either -- with them turning into spinning power projectiles and crap.

Spoiler-ness, but you're here, so you probably know that..

I marathonned the whole Tribunal arc over the last three days, via YouTube... WOW. I would pay money to own those... *nudges 4Kids* My animator-ness was not happy over the low quality of the video, and demands DVDs. :p I may be looking at Australia or South America... :goofygri:

That was quite the finale. It was a satisfying end to the series (though I'm a little disappointed Karai is still rather cold to the Turtles... I really thought she'd forgive them... but I haven't liked the direction she's gone since Season 4, so was more wishful thinking than anything). Speaking of her, I'm terribly glad I read some spoilers for the last ep before watching these, or I would have (for a little while, anyway) completely freaked out at Karai being apparently killed. I was rather shocked when they killed off the other four acolytes... and rather "huh??" when they came back again later (heh, I did the same with Ch'rell Shredder losing his head earlier in the second season... "They did NOT just do that!" turns to "Oh. They DID not just do that." :p) The Tribunal returning was not so much a shock, given their nature.

Some puzzlings: it bothered me that they repeatedly left the other acolytes out of the fights with the Shredder (I know the show is about the Turtles, but hello, they have help...), and they didn't give them the nice glowy designs. And... didn't they make it clear that the Shredder and his artifacts could not be destroyed, and had to be hidden? And then the Turtles proceed to destroy the gauntlet and the helmet... http://www.geocities.com/jafarnut/blink.gif There was some other stuff, but I can't remember at the moment..

As someone pointed out when "A Tale of Master Yoshi" aired... they've changed the continuity a bit since the second season. I distinctly remember Splinter being just as shocked at the Shredder appearing in the fourteenth century as the Turtles were, and equally shocked that he was an Utrom. Boo. :ohwell:

Hun... apparently had a replacement voice actor? He sounded odd.

I may finish my Karai fanfic, now that I have the bigger picture.. :) And you may or may not be encouraged to know that I've got more ideas for the Venus Project after watching this rather mystically-oriented story arc.. ;)

Trivia: I'd known about the character Chikara, but not what role she played. When I first saw the Tribunal (well, their shadowy silhouettes, anyway), I suspected she was the female member, and it turns out she was, yay :) Anyway, there was a post on the Argh! Forums, where several of the artistic team for 2K3 hang out... there was a... questionably dressed... drawing of Chikara there from Adrian Barrios, the character designer, and some comments about who she was on the second page of the thread. I'm still kinda nervous about posting the link, since they seemed a bit nervous about posting the picture in the first place, but if you go to the forums and do a search on "Chikara", you'll find it (among several other questionably-dressed female characters, but that's the whole point to the thread, I suppose. Blah). The colors are off, but the character designer is not necessarily the one who decides on the final colors, so that's understandable.

EDIT: I've been behind on my Fast Forward episodes, and I watched "The Journal" this morning... and I must say I'm glad I saw the Tribunal arc first, or I'd be beside myself with "Who, where, what???" And it ruins the surprise of the Tribunal revealing themselves.. :ohwell: That's the second time continuity has gone flying out the window because of hyperness over possibly disturbing imagery... but I'm not going to start ranting about that, I'm sure many people have already. :goofygri:

I wish they would have made the other acolytes glow with special color stripes. (Convenient that each turtle's chi power is the same color as his bandana) But it's strange that the human acolytes have no glowing chi power. Hmmmm, oh well the show's not about them so no big deal.

I did not understand why Leo was not given a special weapon. Unfair :cry:

And I thought it was funny to see Raph putting on a nice guy face for a girl.:roll:

I see it 2 ways;

Practical Reason (aka why they did it) - So he could be given one when the other Acolytes died making that moment more powerful

Continuity Reason (aka what nicely fits with the series even though it was probably never intended) - Leo didn't need a special weapon because he was a weapon. Think back to Season 1 where Leo was the one who learnt that the weapon wasn't important, what was important was the warrior who used it. This can be seen in "More Worlds Than One" where the other TMNT use their new weapons to fight the rat tengus but it is Leo, using his inner strength and no weapon, that defeats them all. That's the way I see it, I don't think it was planned but if it was then I'm very impressed by the writers.

I'd go more with the first reason. Leonardo was himself a weapon? That's no surprise, all the turtles have fought well weaponless on several ocassions, and not just on the physical plane, but on the spiritual plane too (remember Bad Day, when they all meditated together to defeat the Foot Mystics). And all four of them got the glory of using their chi to summon the dragon. True, Leonardo's dragon did show first in MWTO, but the transformation didn't actually occur until New World Order 1, and all the turtles did so at the same time.

i noticed that in ff the turtles are very pointy...wierd