TMNT #91 Preview and Discussion
 

Preview here.

Bludgeon sleeping in the tub is surprisingly cute.

Living sword of hate, huh? That'll end well.

And in hindsight, I shouldn't have been surprised to see a certain someone involving herself with these proceedings. Excellent.

Not really that surprising that Kitsune kept Karai in her back pocket all this time as a secondary route to Saki's head. This is exactly the sort of story any given series can only tell after dozens and dozens of installments, and I'm loving every page of it.

I wonder if Karai could hold the spirit of the Dragon herself? Hmm...

Excellent, my predictions are coming to fruition. I told you all that Karai would end up being the Dragon's vessel.

I think I did anyway. But I predicted it in my head, and that's the part that matters, so I'm going to pretend I said it so I get bragging rights.

Anyway, I pretty much knew the Pantheon would get involved with this, it isn't a real shocker, but I'm surprised by how honorably Karai's been handling it. Same for Splinter, in all honestly, I'm happy to see the mutual respect they seem to be showing each other. So excited to see how this'll go to ****.

So it's been discussed that Karai could be the new Dragon Lord. So what if Oroku Saki comes back but ends up being a vessel for good? He joins the TMNT and Splinter to fight against the Pantheon, Kitsune, and Karai. The Pantheon, Karai, and Kitsune are defeated but Splinter perishes in the fight and Saki becomes the father figure/sensei of the TMNT at the request of Splinter.

That would be awkward considering he beheaded them in their past life but he was the embodiment of Tatsuo, possibly possessed and by this time maybe Saki has redeemed himself completely.

I don't know. It's just a wild thought.

Holy crap, man, that's wild. Seems like a long shot, but it'd be awesome to see Saki become the new tutor / father figure to the Turtles.

I love wild thoughts! :tsmile:

Yes, Turtles could receive ‘unexpected help’ from Saki. Maybe even experience some emotional/spiritual growth like never seen before. Maybe process grief or something. Turtles trust of Saki would be like in a grey area. I picture an airplane pilot with a deathwish. Hopefully you get to your destination before the plane does what it does.:teek:

I had a similar thought a couple of weeks back but never voiced it here, as I often do(n't). It would certainly be a radical change to the status quo, and something that no other iteration of TMNT has ever attempted before, not to mention how much it brings to mind that brief period when Magneto was the leader of the X-Men... I love it! Please make it happen, IDW!

If you need more to fuel this theory, look no further than Shredder in Hell #1.

More proof that Karai might become the vessel for the Dragon Lord lies in the fact that she is Kitsune's grand-daughter, after all. Wiiiiiild theory incoming, but maybe Kitsune hooking up with Saki was never about her making him the Dragon Warrior, but about her CREATING the Dragon Warrior, one who'd come from a line of the greatest mortal warrior she had ever encountered and leader of Foot Clan, as well as being a God. At the end of the day, the blood of the Dragon doesn't run through Saki, it runs through Karai.

Wow, that would really make Saki the Stannis to Kitsune's Melisandre...

The one thing I don't like about these theories, though, is how they take (even more) agency away from the Turtles by making it all about Saki's bloodline and his role in the Pantheon's schemes. It's almost like Clan Hamato are merely caught in the crossfire in their own comic.

Other than that, everything sounds great. So maybe Leo could be the one to channel the Dreamer? I dunno.

Karai being the vessel for the Dragon is a good theory but I'm not sure that will happen. Shredder in Hell # 1 made it clear that the Dragon's soul is basically trapped in Saki/ Tatsuo's spirit. I'm thinking there is still more to that than what has been revealed. Like, why would the Dragon's spirit be trapped in Saki's soul? I also wonder if Kitsune knew this whole time if that was the case. Maybe when the Dragon died, part of his spirit got reincarnated as Tatsuo? Splinter said that Saki never knew an existance without the Dragon basically being a part of him. This is probably the main reason Saki was chosen to be the vessel of the Dragon, becasue he is already carrying his soul, which the panthan might not be aware of other than Kitsune. I think the connection with Saki and the Dragon could be a very interesting story point.

Karai potentially be the vessel of the Dragon if his soul's gets cleansed from Saki's soul and merges with Karai. The fact she has the Dragon's DNA is interesting.Who knows?! This is shaping up to me a great journey to issue 100.

And let's not forget about that other dangling plot thread regarding DNA, souls and resurrections... This could tie it all together.

Honestly, the whole caught-in-the-crossfire thing I think would be VERY fitting for the whole City at War narrative. The entire world is falling apart around them with Gods fighting to take over and they're over here with a bunch of pointy stuff trying to save the day from an evil they helped create. I'd find it really compelling if these heroes, who're in WAY over their heads, found a way to take the battle into their own hands and helped save themselves instead of letting these Godlike entities decide their destinies.

Ah'ight, I'm sold!

Barring the lame route like Kitsune brainwashing Karai (after we had to deal with her doing it with Alopex and so many others), I really wonder what causes Karai to turn on Splinter and the Turtles so violently in the upcoming issues. She seems so peaceful in this issue, I don't know what would trigger the change

We're all, of course, discounting the very real possibility that Bishop might decide to interfere in the proceedings.

It's about time for this!

And...for it to be acknowledged that Karai is Kitsune's granddaughter too (wouldn't that make her a demigod?)


Gotta love Koya trying to do airplanes with the kiddo, and Karai's first instinct was thinking she was going to eat him.

Can one even be a demigod in the TMNT universe? I mean, can someone be, like, quarter-God? Or half-God? Maybe if you're one part God, then you're all parts God, if you get me? Probably not that likely but I'm making every guess imaginable over here so I get bragging rights if I get something right.

In Karai's case, it would be watered down quite a bit. Four or five generations, probably.