human TMNT interpretations
 

While with the turtles being anthropomorphic they already have some "human traits" compared to other mutant characters like Slash (who are more beast-like) and there have been some examples of them in "human form" like "The Gang's All Here" from the fred wolf series where Michelangelo turned human and the Pizza Friday short from 2016

How do you interpret the turtle's "human forms"?

do you think their human forms would look different depending on the iteration?

do you see their human forms as temporary like in the two examples I gave
or can you see it as an alternate universe (with alternate universes being established in Turtles Forever)
or do you think the turtles used to be human? (via the reincarnation storyline)

I don't want human forms, ever, of any kind. That's like the ultimate TMNT no-no to me, & super cringey when fans do it. Defeats the entire point.

Uh, I can appreciate a good piece of fan art that depicts them as human and I can accept the idea of them using holograms or something to disguise themselves as human. The idea of them actually transforming into humans or starting out as humans (as in directly transforming from human to mutant turtles, not reincarnated as regular turtles first) is an idea I hate and hope never goes beyond that one episode of Fred Wolf.

Speaking of that episode, was the writer under the assumption that the Turtles used to be human? I know the episode is dumb in general and the writer clearly didn't put much thought into the script, as it treats their ninja skills as being inherently tied to them being mutant turtles rather than something they learned and even explicitly states that they can't be ninjas as human being (even though I'm pretty damn sure all ninjas in the real world were human), but it still states Mike ingested "anti-mutagen" which would imply it undoes mutations.

And even if we just assume he turns into a human being because he got human DNA from Hamato Yoshi and the episode simply worded the dialogue really poorly, why does he... Uh... Well... Not look much like Hamato Yoshi, if you know what I mean?...

Yeah like in the punk frog episode when Shredder made his hologram form.

it's been a long time since I watched the Gangs all here episode so I can't remember the details, another one that comes to mind is Splinter No More when he temporarily turned back into Hamato Yoshi.

as for the Turtles being humans, that would be more of a disguise or AU! thing, in most of the TMNT continuity I see the turtles as well mutant turtles, (unless it's specified that they're reincarnations in a specific piece of tmnt media).

Yeah that... Uhm, yeah... That's a really weird one too. It's not like he even tries to disguise himself as a different person, it's literally just a projection of casual clothing. I thought that maybe the writer was just ignorant of what Shredder looked like and assumed he was an alien or something, but considering he makes reference to human conquerors in the episode, I doubt that's the case.

And as a side note, the episode confirms my suspicion that the Fred Wolf writers thought mastery of martial arts could be achieved in a matter of hours...

What basically happens is that the Turtles are given cookies laced with anti-mutagen which Donatello analyses and explicitly states will turn them human. Splinter says it is a bad idea to eat these cookies because they will lose their ninja skills if they become human (which again, I have no idea why that would be the case) but Mike eats one anyway and does indeed lose his ninja skills (and turning human also magically gives him shoes somehow). And then it is stated that turning human will eventually make him explode, as if becoming weak and unskilled wasn't enough of a problem to overcome.

Splinter No More isn't really that weird beyond the contrivances that lead to Splinter concluding he shouldn't really bother trying to become human. I have several problems with Splinter starting out as human but I think that when you make it clear that it can be reversed, it pretty much speaks for itself. If it can be reversed (especially if it's permanent), why would he ever want to stay a rat? It's pretty obvious in the 2012 cartoon, he could very easily reverted back to human at any point after the rough halfway point of season 2 and he never did or even tried.

That is correct.

yeah, I think he spends so much time in that technodrome, I wonder if he has a wardrobe in there, maybe his hologram ability was just more convenient for him? he looks quite blasian in the Fred wolf series which is kinda fitting, having his James avery voice actor, not sure if it was intentional for him to look like that but I like how he aesthetically looks.

However I do think 2003 and 2012 Shredder are more fitting for him as a character, putting more emphasis on him being a threatening villain instead of an occasionally goofy villain.

it's interesting because people on Twitter are going on about "how the turtles are supposed to look when depicted as human in fanart" (either that or they're complaining about how they look in the pizza Friday short) yet when I ask the question on here, I find out that "turtles being human" is a concept a lot of people hate or don't want to think about, which I understand, the "disguises" work just fine and I like the turtles being who they are.

there are a lot of references in various TMNT media of them talking about "living in a glass bowl, being at a petshop, being an egg" which confirms that they are turtles first in most tmnt media (except the ones with reincarnation storylines).

However, I don't mind the idea of TMNT being human in fanart, I like how interpretative the characters are, their ethnicity could be anything but they'd still be the same turtles but one thing I think is consistent with the turtle's nationality is that they're American, New York City is their home, we don't know much about what happened to them before they got taken in by Splinter, Michelangelo mentions a "mother" in the Fred Wolf series but we don't much about her origins.

basically, my answer is in one of Robot Chicken sketches where at the end Mikey and Leo are confused on if they are Asian or Italian and Splinter just says "you're turtles!"

I think the best human interpretation of Michelangelo is the one in the summer short “Pizza Friday”. It’s just…perfect. Probably because Kevin Eastman produced that short, lol.

I actually just watched The Gangs All Here a few days days ago. It was interesting, because when the turtles were contemplating eating the cookies, Master Splinter said something like they would "lose their ninja skills" if they became human. That statement really didnt make a whole lot of sense. What he said in Splinter No More made a lot more sense. In that episode when he was contemplating becoming human himself, he said something like "as a rat he had abilities he wouldn't have had otherwise".

Lots of little details here and there.

I like in the Splinter episode, even for a silly cartoon, there was a brief scene where the Turtles doubted if Splinter would ever come back, now that he was a human. Obviously you overlook how difficult it would be to get a job and a place to live and whatnot, but from the Turtles point of view, if Splinter was human permanently there was always the chance he'd leave and never come back.

As for the sillier episode, yeah, there is no reason why Mikey would lose not only his ninja skills but all his musculature as a human. The 80's turtles might look silly and kinda pudgy but they were pretty muscular and Mikey just turned into a human wimpy kid.

The part that got me the most was when the Turtles, while looking for Mikey, find a random kid and think it's him. Like, none of them ever saw the moment Mikey turned human and left the lair. They would have zero idea what a 'human Mikey' would even look like.

how do you interpret mikey to look like as a human? (aside from that episode's design)

Ahahahaha, love that, very fitting, I want that shirt now :lol:

Would Donatello still be, "the black Turtle?"

Does that include when they're in disguise like in that "Pizza Friday" short by Kevin Eastman?

Beat me to it.

If it wasn't for the Gangs All Here episode, I'd not even ever thought about it at all. Clearly, that's not something I'm interested in and I fisl to see what the point of "human turtles" would be.

The "point" is, fangirls can fap to their favorite and feel marginally less weird about it. That's literally It. It's dumb.

MLP did the same thing with Equestria Girls and it was for the exact same reason - "We know people fap; now you can fap guilt-free!" - and it was stupid. Didn't help that the character designs were horrible.

I dunno if that's such a common fear. Just browse deviantart or read some TMNT fanfics and you'll see a lot of fangirls drooling over the guys without making them humans LMAO.

Yeah but some people NEED that inherent plausible deniability. "Look, it's not 'weird'! It's not 'zoophilia', they're humans now!"

Playing Devil's Advocate, if some people weren't so quick to scream "Bestiality!" over people fapping to cartoon characters in the first place, the idea of "human versions" of those characters would never even come up much. But, that's what people do, and so the people who fap to those cartoons will in turn defensively come up with "human" versions of them so as to not be called so many names.

It's pretty dumb on multiple levels, frankly.

I mean, the Nick Toon had Don crushing on April throughout the series. I'm pretty sure she even kissed him at some point.

I think that would only embolden such fangirls even more.

I couldn't care less if fangirls want to have sex with the Ninja Turtles. LOTS of One Piece fans want to smash Wanda and Carrot. Do you think anyone gives them flack for it? No. At least not the majority of the fan base. Then again, anime fans tend to be more tolerant of less conventional fetishes :lol: