About Carter, the kid from seasons 9 and 10
 

So I decided to marathon seasons 9 and 10 because they were rather short and I had some time on my hands.

So a lot about Carter raised some questions. I had never watched those two seasons in order or even all of it before, so when I got to see things happpen in the correct order I got a bit confused about Carter, how did the Turtles feel about him?

It seems rather unclear as their opinion of him keeps changing constantly. Sometimes they think he's arrogant, sometimes they think he's pretty cool, sometimes they think he's a liability, sometimes they think he's a great asset and so on and so forth. I wouldn't mind it so much if there was a constant change in one direction, like if they hated him at the start of season 9 and then grew to like him but it really does seem like they just get back to thinking negatively of him the episode right after they got along with him, it's pretty bizarre.

Another thing is mutation, aside from the clothes morphing alongside his body, there's some weirdness on how he relates to it. Again, they really go back and forth on this. At first it's simple, he just wants a cure like the turtles, but after he cures the mutation he regrets it even right after when he proved himself useful without it (seriously, he saved a bus and immedietly whines about how useless he is without the mutant powers). Later on he discovered that he wasn't cured but rather gained the ability to transform at will... At which point he decides he wants to be cured again despite having spent sereval episodes regretting the decision to get cured...

So yeah, it's not very hard to see why people didn't react well to this character. It's not necessarily that he's a super-genius and self-taught ninja mutant who wants to be the very like no one ever was, it's probably the inconsistancies that ticks people off the most.

Eh, it's the OT. Just because it changes its tone doesn't mean its writing gets any better.

Plus, a large contributor may be that David Wise wrote every episode of Season 9. But he left when the show was renewed for a tenth season, which was then written by people that, most likely, didn't get Wise's original concept for the character.

David Wise still ghost-wrote Season 10. Jeffery Scott said David Wise helped him on the scripts and gave him a general direction.

As for Carter, he was probably introduced as the angsty older character (he said he was in College), and probably to give the show an X-men like mutant character. Remember TMNT was heavily competing against Fox Kids X-men at the time.

It's quite funny how Carter is so forgotten and less defined than most secondary characters on the show, despite him being in like 13 episodes where he was pretty much one of the main characters alongside the Turtles.

I mean, the Turtles didn't really need another human ally. April did that job well, despite not being able to fight like Carter did, but it's not like he was useless, though. His mutation actually helped him and the Turtles in several occasions, while the new Turtles mutations only held them back.

Does seem odd in retrospect that FW TMNT made changes to compete with X-Men? It almost sounds like 3rd Rock from the Sun making changes to compete with Star Trek Deep Space 9, it doesn't really seem like they would have the same audience.

This is the mid-90's, the original cartoon was losing ratings to darker action cartoons airing at the same time like Batman: TAS, Gargoyles, and then Spiderman and X-men TAS. Between that and the Power Ranger fad, its obviously what caused them to try to revamp the original cartoon to make it darker.

Also at that point episodic cartoons were going out of style, the original cartoon was basically a product of its time during the 80's and early 90's before Batman: TAS revolutionized what a kids cartoon could be like.

Well the FW series was a huge cash cow. It was, at some point, the most popular cartoon series in the whole world, so they had to milk the cow until it ran completely dry. Not to mention it was a show about Ninjas and martial arts, so it made sense for there to be action, but instead of proper ninja action, they just gave us more explosions ,lasers and aliens. It is also odd that the show was renewed for three 8 episode seasons, though. 8 had a finale but the last couple of seasons should have just been one season.

Heh 3rd Rock From the Sun. I remember that show. Good times. But it's not exactly a good comparison, since that show wasn't an action series, but solely a comedy. The FW series was both a comedy and action series. And for the time it came out, it was probably considered fairly violent, I'm guessing. Otherwise they wouldn't have had to tone down on the weapon usage.

Haha, I've always liked this picture that I found online years ago:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...mcequation.jpg

Carter's attitude can be best explained in the first three episodes of Season 9.

The Unknown Ninja: he started out like Zach: trying to help but getting in the way, then eventually helping them succeed after of course touching the unstable mutagen.

Dregg of the Earth: he had trouble adjusting to being part of a team but eventually got it together after his plan kinda backfired and he learned he should've informed the Turtles first.

The Wrath of Medusa: his mutation is out of control and only after training with Splinter in the first place is he able to gain control.

It just got better from there. Everyone has their character flaws that appear and disappear. It could be from sloppy writing like in HAVOC In The Streets or whatever!!

Carter was an X-men mutant. Instead of mutating into an animal, he mutated into some weird mohawk man, and he reverted back to his human form. He was clearly an attempt to capitalize on X-men's popularity in the mid-90's.

Hmm
 

I hear ya, but i'll raise a differen't point. I'll counter and say that, that is the most realistic personification of the situation at hand. You can very well like someone one day and not like them the next. If someone does something nice to/for you, and then doesn't something bad, do you not feel a little salty towards them? It's life man. Would you rather the cookie cutter, we're enemies and now we're friends, or would you want some real ****, like idk if i can trust this dude, alright he's cool, oh wait now he's f***ing up again, you know? It's real.

Agreed. I thought Carter was a bit annoying at times, but he wasn't as bad as other OT characters like Zach. He got some backstory and character development in The Showdown. He could've been introduced better in season 9, though.

He shows up late, during season 9, when TMNT popularity began to decline.

The reason both Dregg and Carter get a negative reception and less than stellar writting from the man who inovated TMNT was because they were created in an executive meeting in 1994 and forced to be used with instructions to David Wise. If Wise was not force feed them and kept the direction of season 8 and perhaps used Dregg as anothwr major villian similar to how Titanus was used the season before it could have been better executed. As for Carter, Wise should have just been told to create a human ally and let him run with it able to instill with tbe character something of his own deaign to ensure consistency. Just my two cents.

I didn't like Carter much at first, either. But he grew on me once he got past his impulsive behavior. He was a mix of Raph and Don, imo. He had Raph's temper and cockiness, and Don's science knowledge and computer skills.

Zach was annoying as hell in the first episode, but got better in the later ones. Not to mention his episodes were all pretty decent. But ye, he could have been less annoying. A shame Rob Paulsen was wasted on him. Mr. Ogg and one of the Neutrinos. When Paulsen cant make a character likable, you know there's something wrong with said character. :lol:

True. Red Sky characters have faded into obscurity and I doubt we will ever see them again. A shame since Carter, with better writing, could be a solid character. And Dregg was pretty good in season 10.

Didn't know those details. Thanks for sharing.

Btw, anyone knows why the Red Sky characters didn't get any toys?

Well, Dregg will return, that much we know.

I'm not following any of the newer Turtles stuff, so I didn't know that.

Well to be fair it does seem to be a rather loose interpretation of Dregg, so it might as well be a new character.

You've never watched the Nick cartoon in the 3 years its been airing so far? Really?

I watched like 3 episodes of it, and sadly we get the dubbed version here. And this is one show that I don't feel like pirating it. As for DVDs, I've had other priorities in the last few years. I'll watch it fully someday, but dunno when.

As for the IDW comics, I've never seen a single issue in any store here, and likewise, cba to order them online either. Same for the Mirage comics. Also, money doesn't grow on trees.