Shifting power levels
 

Does anyone notice this like in the 1987 cartoon? I noticed that sometimes the villains will be very competent in some episodes and at other times, they end being push overs. I remember Shredder usually running away and fighting sometimes. Sometimes he would hold his own or get pushed aside or he would actually defeat them in combat, like in the episode The Incredible Shrinking Turtles. He actually defeated all 4 of them and rather easily. I remember Krang fighting both Don and Mike and doing quite well, tossing them aside, until both Turtles pushed themselves harder and eventually defeated him and in other episodes like Super Irma, he gets taken down by Leo with little effort.

Even with Bebop and Rocksteady, there were episodes were they were actually a threat and other times, they are just push overs, even being physically defeated in direct hand to hand combat. Although I heard Shredder is supposed to be more talented than the turtles and that only Splinter is on par with Shredder in most series.

I just find it weird on how these battles can be so inconsistent where one minute they are a serious threat and they are push overs in the next episode. xD

Yup thats why I enjoyed sesaon 2 when shredder was pretty much left for his own the entire season.

There's a trope for that...

I think he's talking more along the lines of this one.

Hey, remember that episode where Mikey became human? When he became human he lost his ability to fight, seemingly ignoring that his ability to fight comes from training and not being a mutant turtle. Not sure how well this relates to the topic but I might as well point it out.

Mikey also seemed to have lost a lot of strength as he didn't look physically fit either so he couldn't pull of the moves without being in good shape.

Tmnt will never have consistant power levels lol. Maybe IDW but certainly none of the tv shows.

Shredder, Krang, and General Tragg were the biggest violators of this. There eas also the seven villains who could have teamed with Shredder and Krang and could have defeated the Turtles and Splinter for good. How effective would Zach, April, and Irma be? No more than two hits will take each out. The reason for the inconsistency? The need to cater to a plot in a long running series.

In Night of the Rogues, all 7 were more than a match for the Turtles. Imagine if Bebop, Rocksteady, Shredder and Krang joined in. That would be tough for Turtles and they wouldn't stand a chance.

Unless they got help from Lotus, Mondo Gecko, The Punk Frogs, Casey Jones, Splinter and Usagi. I'm sure all of them could defeat Krang and company for sure if they all teamed up.

Touche! :tcool:

But, ironically, two TMNT cartoons lead off the board for the Western Animation section of Villain Decay!
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...sternAnimation

The original cartoon had like 10+ different writers. That along with the fact that a lot of episodes were more slapstick than real fighting...it makes it obvious why the Turtles struggle to beat Shredder in one episode and then in the next beat him by throwing a slice of pizza in his face.

Try 50+, 52 to be exact.

1. David Wise
2. Patti Howeth
3. Christy Marx
4. Larry Parr
5. Michael Reaves
6. Martin Pasko
7. Douglas Booth
8. Brynne Stephens
9. Richard Merwin
10. Reed Shelly
11. Bruce Shelly
12. Duane Capizzi
13. Steve Roberts
14. Francis Moss
15. Rowby Goren
16. Michael Edens
17. Mark Edens
18. Buzz Dixon
19. Bill Wolf
20. Gordon Bressack
21. Bob Schooley
22. Mark McCorkle
23. Doug Molitor
24. David Carren
25. Larry Carroll
26. Eliot Daro
27. Doug Molitor
28. James A. Davis
29. Misty Taggart
30. Ted Pedersen
31. Antonio Ortiz
32. Carmela Ortiz
33. George Shea
34. Martin Pasko
35. Dennis Marks
36. Jack Mendelsohn
37. Charles M. Howell IV
38. Dan DiStefano
39. Sean Roche
40. Dennis O'Flaherty
41. Michael Maurer
42. Gary Greenfield
43. Carole Mendelsohn
44. Marc Handler
45. Steve Granat
46. Cydne Clark
47. Matt Uitz
48. Lee Schneider
49. Matthew Malach
50. John Fox
51. Bob Forward
52. Jeffrey Scott

You actually bothered to look that up, my god. A lot of those writers only wrote 1 or 2 episodes though.

But it goes to prove why the original cartoon was so inconsistent. You had all these writers doing their own thing and having no clue what the other writers were doing. So some writers were more silly or created plotholes.

David Wise tried to keep the show on track the best he could. The OT probably would have turned out better if he was given complete control over it like showrunners of cartoons do today.

Yep, I first noticed this when watching the show as a kid.

She didn't write anything. This was confirmed by Wise.

I have to admit from Season 4 - 6 Shredder and Krang felt like they were phoning it in but they got a lot better in Season 7 onwards.

Well too bad that I don't trust Wise's word, nor should you or anyone else for that matter.

There was also the episode Krangenstein Lives, where Krang's robot body fights the Turtles. And the robot body actually defeated all 4 Turtles rather easily, yet all the times when Krang controlled the robot, he always had a harder time. That's what I find weird.

Night Of The Rogues was easily the biggest violation by far, and also one of the biggest blown opportunities for an epic episode ever.

A close second is Chrome Dome.

Why would you not trust what Wise says about his own scripts? :roll: