Anyone find it interesting all the mutants so far have been human ----> animal?
 

With the exception of the Turtles, all the mutants in the show have been human to animal, rather than just animals becoming intelligent.

Snakeweed, Spiderbites, Dogpound and Fishface were all normal humans before being mutated. I find this interesting that we've never had a regular animal just become intelligent yet.

My guess is Leatherhead will be the first of that, the next normal animal mutated into a gator like the Turtles. There is a very small possibility they'd go with the Jess Harley origin, but I seriously doubt it.

Yes, I guess because it would take someone to straighten-up and raise them right. You know, so they learn basic language, among other things.

I saw this coming given Nick's Fred Wolf inspirations to this series. Typically, incarnations with a human Splinter origin favor human to animal mutations. It does it make it more interesting in that each mutant has the potential to either demutate to an animal or return to a human, which I feel that Nick should do since there was never a moment in Fred Wolf where an human turned mutant that was around in multiple episodes never permanently returned to normal, and I can find this to be a very resolving plot. It also allows comparisons between their human and mutated incarnations, whether they become stronger, dumber, or wiser. It also could mean that April and Casey are once again fair game for human---> animal mutations (I'd love to see a mutated Casey for an episode).

Snakeweed is a plant :P

I will be a little sad if this Leatherhead is another gator and not a croc.

Why?
As far as I can tell he was an exotic pet originally, an alligator is typically kept rather than crocodiles

Speaking of Spidebites, I thought it was so strange that this

Crocodiles look cooler. That's seriously my only reason.

And Berzerker, you are certainly not alone, there, but perhaps he gained - dare I say it - the proportionate strength, speed and agility of a spider. Dunno about his amazing aim with his venom-vomit. Spiders have pretty crappy vision, so I have no idea how he's doing all that.

The mutants so far seem totally cool with the whole thing, past the five seconds of, "Look what you did to me!"

The guys spider sense must have been kicking in.

What I wonder is why Splinter and the Turtles became relatively normal looking when they mutated while everyone else we've seen mutate so far became one step away from an eldritch abomination?

Yeah I guess that's just one of the quirks of the TMNT universe. Splinter is the only one who reacted like a normal person would.

Because bad guys

Ah yes, the old "what measure is a non cute" thing. Gotcha.

Yeah and there's this whole idea that the TMNT became popular because they were turtles (since turtles are cute and likeable and not scary) and would have been a flop if they were lizards or snakes or something.

And the Rat King is gross and scary because he's a human that lives like a rat, whereas Splinter is OK because he's a rat that lives like a human. All kinds of preconceptions we have about animals come into play in the TMNT world.

Don't want to derail the thread though.

Considering we're only 3 episodes in so far I don't really think this is setting the precedent quite yet.

2 things. 1st, Snakeweed is a plant, not an animal. And second, we're only 3 episodes in the series, or 2 if you count rise of the turtles as one episode.

There was a fifteen year gap between when Splinter and the Turtles mutated and the present. Maybe the newer batches of mutagen are adjusted to make more powerful mutants?

We may only be 3 episodes in, but guys! GUYS! We know of 2 other humans to mutants that WILL happen! So...there's 5 out of 9 of the shows mutants! EGAD!

I guess it's because they consider such mutations more compelling to the narrative. It also makes for more tragic situations.

As for the more grotesque creations of mutagen, the chemical composition is probably different but it just points out another potential inconsistency with how the mutagen works.

And we're not even sure what the Kraang intend to do with the mutagen. They carry it around a lot and there's surely a reason why they usually have it on hand and keep so much of it in their facilities. We also don't know why they kidnapped the scientists. Maybe some experiments are in the works.

I like how the people turn into living things and not necessarily just animals as evidenced by Snakeweed. It makes the show seem different yet similar to the OT.

Maybe Nick mutagen works like the Super Soldier Serum in Captain America, because they are evil, their mutations are more gross...so in essence the "Because, Bad Guys" argument from earlier.