What if Shredder never took off his helmet?
 

You don't see many 80's cartoons where the mask villain show his real face to the audience. Heck, Dr. Claw's face/real name was never revealed. I like how in the old toon, we get to see Shredder's face and learn his real name. If they wanted to, they could had Shredder remove his helmet and his face would be covered in shadow. I'm glad they didn't.

Unless you had the action figure. :ohwell:

But you make a good point. The Shredder's reveal is very anti-climactic and isn't even stretched out very far. We see his face by first season's end. It should have at least taken a little while longer before we see Saki's visage, even if there's nothing particularly distinct about it.

Speaking of his real face....
One thing is strange in the TMNT 2 nes game was when you hit the hologram Shredder, his helmet comes off. Wouldn't it made more sense for the real shredder's helmet to only come off and not the holograms? That way, you can tell it was the real Shredder fighting you.

Don't we see his face on the first episode as he's remarking to himself about "Hamato Yoshi's Turtles?"

It would get pretty stinky in there then.

That's true actually. They just kind of get it out of the way, which I like. That way, it doesn't become some rule that Shredder can never show his face. It's curious that you point that out OP, that among other faceless baddies, he shows his face.

With characters like Claw, of course it's to preserve the mystery of the character, but it's also because he's more of a persona than a character; that's all the audience needs to see. Other 'faceless' characters like Ms. Bellum from PPG allow the audience to imagine for themselves how beautiful she is simply by what they CAN see (and hear). There's a purpose for their facelessness.

But when I think about it, it adds some dimension to the character; when he takes off his helmet, we can see he's an ordinary man. A pretty dastardly guy, and ambitious as all get out, but a human nonetheless. Aside from the obvious reason of comfort, it shows he doesn't have to be the Shredder persona all the time. Only when it's most important for him to be it. Which is, like, 90% of his screen-time anyway.

I might not be necessary, per say, but it allows the writers some leg room with what they can do with the character. Wow, methinks I over-thought.

Humans
 

It has been discussed here some days ago, what made the show fun was much how they all acted like ordinary people, Earth humans, mutants and all those who were from other planets than Earth (jokes, social situations and other things).

In the very first Mirage story, Shredder wears ordinary clothes until he is about to fight the Turtles, then he puts on his trademark armor, and when he is defeated in battle his helmet is knocked off. Also, in the original TMNT arcade game, when his helmet is knocked off during the fight with him, he is not far from being killed.

Except for 4kids, the idea of Shredder not having his helmet off until deep into a series just has never taken off, as both IDW and Nick first show Shredder without his helmet on. To me, if Shredder never took off his helmet, it would imply that Shredder may not be human (Utrom Shredder from 4kids). That series had a big build up until the shocking reveal at the end of Season 3 when the Turtles were stunned that Shredder wasn't human. A human Shredder also makes Splinter's personality more important to guide the Turtles to defeat him since it reveals his true enemy and it just feels more real and passionate when Shredder is human.

He's basically the animated Darth Vader sort of speak and i'm sure he has a bad haircut, LOL.

I loved his design in Season 2 during the Punk Frogs debut ep, especially his casual clothes.

Beat me to it. :tsmile:

When it comes to TMNT character attire, I just thought about April. Her closet must be blindingly yellow, since she apparently almost never bought any other type of outfit.

Hey now in the Red Sky issues she wore a brown leather jacket to mix it up :trazz:

Umm, sorry to burst your bubble but Saki was shown without his shredder helmet or anything else of the outfit at the end of the very first episode.