Shredder's main goal
 

When it comes to Shredder what exactly should be he's main goal ? Cause I've seen different versions of him and they go from him wanting to take over the world to just taking over New York or just wanting revenge on Hamato. What exactly would you want his main goal in the series to be?

I would assume most versions either want to take over the city or are actually already running the city before the Turtles get involved. Then everything becomes an obsession about killing the Turtles afterwards.

It does depend on the version. I just see him as a highly trained ninja master who wants to use his ninja clan to build an organized criminal empire and probably take over NY.

I think the higher his ambition, the more exposed he becomes and exposure is the last thing a ninja should really want, so it's kind of a dichotomy. no?

He wants power which requires some amount of exposure, but also, as natural for a ninja, desires anonymity and clandestine operations.

I don't think his ambition is or should be more than just controlling New York or even just controlling NY's underworld.

Obviously depends on the version of the character. If you're talking about the Fred Wolf incarnation in particular, it is indeed hard to tell what he wants to accomplish, as it seems to shift between wanting to rule the world and destroying it.

As for what his goal should be, that depends too. There's not anything wrong with the original depiction of him just avenging his brother and then running a crime syndicate. The problem is just that if you're gonna insist on making him the main villain, it's just kind of weird to have some glorified drug dealer be the big bad in a world of alien invaders and time travelling wizards.

It's really no surprise then that most versions of the Shredder since 2003 have changed him from being a normal human with a hate boner to, amongst other things, an alien or a demon. If the guy is to be the main problem, he has to quantifiably be a bigger problem than the Triceratons or whatever else is putting the world in danger.

That's kind of the thing though, in the comics, he wasn't the big bad. He was running the city before turtles challenged him to a duel and killed him. If anything the specter of his clan wanting revenge was 'the big bad', not because they were bigger than the Triceratons, but because they were the ones that came after the Turtles the most often.

Didn't he take over the world in one of the original series episodes? I f I remember rightly it made him miserable! So maybe his goal is a normal life?

I agree that Shredder's goal was to take over the city, and he succeeded pretty much until April and the Turtles got involved. But since all his weapons and robotic soldiers came from Krang, how long do you think Krang would have let him keep the charade up even if the Turtles had never gotten involved? We know the Mirage Turtles had one mission to terminate the Shredder with extreme prejudice, but our Turtles were interested in big leagues yet.

Not only New York City, but all of Earth.

I meant initially. Krang's overall plan was to rule the Earth, while Shredder didn't want to do that just yet. It wasn't until Season 2 (and the Archie comic) until Shredder realized that he and Krang were stronger together rather than apart.

Less "running the city" and more being content running protection rackets across parts of it. Gun-running and accepting contracts for assassinations and the like on the side, too. We can surmise at least some interest in the occult/science with what we see later on with the Mystics, Mashima, and the worms and all.

That's a good point! I don't think the Shredder, as he was originally conceived, would have much of a desire for a whole lot more than that!

Shredder's main goal was to turn the turtles into turtle soup. :lol:

That's why the episodes where Shredder wanted to destroy the Earth didn't make sense. Like is he content just living in the Technodrome the rest of his life? It seems he hates Dimension X as a home.

Poontang.

/thread

The best villains are the ones who either want destruction or have a cause they are fighting.

It's always very low lever fare when you have the "world domination" villain. Unless you are talking a "Zod" caliber of power.

Now that I think about it: in season 2, Krang allowed Shredder to return to Earth without any of the tech Krang had supplied to him. Shredder spent the whole season trying to prove himself and eventually gained that desire to go beyond the city and conquer the world. Once they were back together, he was all in; even as "Krang's stooge".