What was the point of putting Mutagen Man in Suspended Animation?
 

Note: If this question has been asked before, delete it.

I understand that the writers didn't just want to kill Timothy/Mutagen Man, but why didn't they just find some other way of writing him out of the show? They could have had a side plot about Donnie trying to cure him, but after Mutagen Man's episode in Season 2, the writers pretty much forgot about him. What are your thoughts?

The writers probably didn't have the time or money to focus on Timothy, and instead focused on homages to the TMNT lore.

Than why not just write him out of the show after that episode?

I wish we could just forget him for good...

If i recall correctly he does appear in one of the Season 3 episodes in the background of Donnie's lair, but certainly he hasn't been mentioned.

I guess the easiest reason is that they've left it as a thread they can pick up for a future filler episode at a later date 'if' they need it.

As he's frozen and unlikely to randomly thaw, and given all the other things that are going on, he's not a tremendously high priority - though it would be nice for Don especially to just mention him now and again.

With everything that's going to be coming in the show, he'll likely be forgotten.

A shame. He was built up as this tragic character, and now he's just a background ornament. It's actually pretty damn depressing the more you think about it. :tconfuse:

I don't think there is a point. I think they needed a noninvasive way to get rid of the character and since killing a character is frowned upon in kid shows, they brewed up some crazy way to dispose of Timothy without exactly scrubbing him out.

Timothy wouldn't be a good mutant to allow loose in the city. He was far too exposed and didn't mind chasing after people. If they didn't suspend him somehow then some type of authority would have had to take him.

I have a feeling that he'll show up in the "humans vs mutants" arc. Still pissed that he's been pretty much forgotten though.

Here's an idea: (Hear me out) Find a way to fuse him with the next version of Metalhead. I want both of these characters back.

I'm a bit disappointed as well at the lack of mentioning him. Sure, Mutagen Man/Timothy isn't really my favorite character, but he was a tragic character and I still couldn't help but feel sorry for him in a way. He made a big mistake, and he payed dearly for it.


What I especially liked was how it made Donatello grow as a character. Donatello felt responsible, he cared for him, he felt loyalty towards him and called him his friend even after everything Timothy/Mutagen man had done.

"Mutagen Man Unleashed" cemented Donatello as one of my favorite characters. It showed how kind-hearted he really is, determined to help Timothy while his brothers had given up on him.


And that's why it kind of hurts he isn't mentioned anymore. But as stated in this thread, he likely be saved for a filler episode when there's some room. Or perhaps even for a specific storyline later on.

I hope that they bring him back to do something with the character, like maybe have him join the Mutanimals or have some episode about him becoming unstable.

Pretty much my thoughts on the matter.

Yeah, Timothy was intentionally written as a dumbf*ck you kind of wished would get a clue and when he didn't, you knew he was asking for it then and there. But even as an unpopular/annoying character, I found myself shocked and almost unnerved by his fate first-time watching Pulverizer Returns. Like I said, you almost wanted the guy to get some comeuppance for his eagerness to get into something he didn't fully understand as being a bad thing, but yeesh, that comeuppance was pretty severe, idiot or no.

And yes, that episode was one of the few that also made me appreciate 2012 Donnie for showing off his other characteristics and didn't involve or revolve around his crush. He's the only one who bothers to care about Timothy as person and managing to get past all and any annoyance the guy has given him in order to so. That image of him putting his hand against MM's containment tube from MM's perspective with him promising that he will do whatever he can to help him...it's sweet in an unfortunate way, I'll admit. Like I want to believe him and want him to succeed. So consider me dissapointed when it's become one of the several dangling plot threads that this series may-or-may-not resolve soon after it had such an impact on one of the major characters.

Well, at least Muckman mentioned the Pulverizer! So it seems the writers haven't TOTALLY forgotten him. When I heard that reference, it gave me a tiny bit of hope that maybe he'll come back in the future.

I'm sure he'll come back, but by that point, what can he do that will have any bearing on the main story?

He might have some actual importance as character development. It feels that every time he appears as a character he sort of pulls out Donnie's pacifist aspect.

First off it was strongly stated that by training him at all he is responsible for whatever happens to him or because of him as a result.


Pulverizer: Donnie offers to train the Pulverizer in some basics, because he knows this guy is going to go confront the Purple Dragons no matter what he says to the contrary. So by knowing at least a few defensive moves he would be able to get out less scathed then he would without them.

Leo would have just sent the guy home

Raph also would have sent the guy home and told him to leave the fighting to the professionals.

And if the Pulverizer confronted the PD's and died because of it, they would have felt bad yes. But they also would have brushed it off as the guys fault because he didn't listen to reason.

Mikey would also have sent him home, but he would have wondered if more could have been done.

Pulverizer returns:

Due to the Donnie's refusal to continue training him as a student, the Pulverizer goes to a Bradford Dojo and joins the Foot Clan. Donnie wants to get him out because he knows he's in mortal danger...that and he knows the Turtles so he could be used as bait for them.

The other turtles didn't seem to know that Donnie had taken him as a student. Instead they were likely brushing off Donnie's actions simply as compassion.

And in the end I was left with the impression that something in Donnie's personality had shifted.

Mutagen Man Unleashed:

Donnie spent the whole episode defending Timothy to his brothers. Even though his brothers were pointing out he's too dangerous to have around. And in the end Donnie is the one who has to betray Timothy to get him to stop. This is was an action he didn't want to have to do, but he had to cause harm to one person he cared about to prevent him from harming another person he cares about. So he doesn't take his efforts as a victory.

And in the end I got the impression that something in Donnie had certainly cracked.

Due to Timothy's current state he is constantly put on the back burner for other things.

some of the reasons were Priorities. Donnie as a child had likely promised himself that if he ever found a way to reverse mutations, he would use it to restore Splinter's humanity. As they didn't have mutagen he didn't know how to come up with a cure. When Timothy is mutated Donnie vows to restore him one day. And when Dr. O'Neil is mutated the need for retromutagen becomes more urgent. However up until Worm Quake, Donnie had been assuming the Mutagen was chemically based. After worm quake he knows the Mutagen is organic so he is able to have better luck establishing the Retromutagen.

In Lonely Mutation, Donnie says he has only enough retromutagen for two batches. One for Splinter, and one for Kirby. If things had gone as planned and Splinter had refused Donnie's offer to restore his humanity, the second vile would have gone to Timothy.

And with saving the citizens of New York, and saving Karai, Timothy has been put more and more on the back burner. So odds are they likely setting things up to be a bad end. For Timothy there are two ways they could go about it. Donnie can reluctantly choose to kill Timothy to save his family (having it be an implied death.) Or have Donnie use the retromutagen on Timothy to restore him to human...however the retromutagen has a negative reaction with Timothy's mutagenic body and again death is implied.

We don't even need to see his death, just something what will tie up that thread.

Doubt we've seen the last of him. They spent like three episodes setting him up. You don't do that for a filler character.

No point. Just like the point of his character and his life in general. Utter pointless.

Should've let him sleep and never wakeup.