How to improve the Northampton arc...

*GoldMutant* · 05-09-2015, 10:10 AM

(My apologizes everyone for writing an essay on this, but I wanted to summarize my thoughts on this.)

Northampton/the farmhouse is always a main story arc within the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. Following the near death of Leonardo (Raphael in the 90's movie) from a fight against the Foot Clan with the Shredder back from the dead, April, Casey, the Turtles, and Splinter are forced to retreat from New York City. We've seen four times at this point: the aforementioned 90's movie, the Mirage Comics, the story arc The Shredder Strikes Back from the 2003 series, and the recent IDW comics. It always deals with emotional burden on the team, leading them to get stronger to return home and take back New York. Frankly, you can't have Ninja Turtles story development without it.

So far, it seemed with The Invasion, it would lead to this with how the Kraang's invasion when down. Splinter suffered near death at the hands of Shredder, Leo's valiant fight against the Foot Clan (AMAZING FIGHT TOO), and the takeover of New York into a new Dimension X. Our main six/seven protagonists all suffered in some way during the two-parter while giving us some of the best moments of the Nick T.V. show. It seemed all was falling together like the pieces of a puzzle to give us major weight on everyone and make the defeat of the Kraang and Shredder much more satisfying in the end.

However, it didn't go this way. We've had 8 episodes at the farmhouse (9 if you count Return to New York) out of a possible 13 visits. (Is that confirmed by the way?) Instead of giving development, which was very little and very far between, we got plenty of homages to horror movies such as Friday the 13th, The Shining, and Nightmare on Elm Street. I have nothing against these homages at all, but felt they could have been used to benefit the characters.

Now, many people have argued on different threads on if these episodes were excellent like past episodes or held the series back this season. Needless to say, it's been extremely mixed with reception. We all have our different perspectives on what makes a good Ninja Turtles arc, and it seemed that a lot of missed potential wasn't realized at the end.

The Northampton story had a lot of flaws even with being fun, light-hearted filler. That brings the question similar to me asking what your ideas were for the show, how would YOU, the fans, improve this story arc? It doesn't mean stretch the story to half the season before Battle for New York, far from it in fact. Rather, what would it have take to make interest stay and give the season much more weight?

Episode lineup (minus the Foot Clan except for Return to New York):
1. Within the Woods
2. A Foot Too Big
3. Buried Secrets
4. The Croaking
5. In Dreams
6. Race with the Demon
7. Eyes of the Chimera
8. Vision Quest
9? Return to New York
10-11. Battle for New York

05-09-2015, 10:10 AM	#1
GoldMutant Control Your Narrative Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: New England Posts: 1,763	How to improve the Northampton arc... (My apologizes everyone for writing an essay on this, but I wanted to summarize my thoughts on this.) Northampton/the farmhouse is always a main story arc within the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. Following the near death of Leonardo (Raphael in the 90's movie) from a fight against the Foot Clan with the Shredder back from the dead, April, Casey, the Turtles, and Splinter are forced to retreat from New York City. We've seen four times at this point: the aforementioned 90's movie, the Mirage Comics, the story arc The Shredder Strikes Back from the 2003 series, and the recent IDW comics. It always deals with emotional burden on the team, leading them to get stronger to return home and take back New York. Frankly, you can't have Ninja Turtles story development without it. So far, it seemed with The Invasion, it would lead to this with how the Kraang's invasion when down. Splinter suffered near death at the hands of Shredder, Leo's valiant fight against the Foot Clan (AMAZING FIGHT TOO), and the takeover of New York into a new Dimension X. Our main six/seven protagonists all suffered in some way during the two-parter while giving us some of the best moments of the Nick T.V. show. It seemed all was falling together like the pieces of a puzzle to give us major weight on everyone and make the defeat of the Kraang and Shredder much more satisfying in the end. However, it didn't go this way. We've had 8 episodes at the farmhouse (9 if you count Return to New York) out of a possible 13 visits. (Is that confirmed by the way?) Instead of giving development, which was very little and very far between, we got plenty of homages to horror movies such as Friday the 13th, The Shining, and Nightmare on Elm Street. I have nothing against these homages at all, but felt they could have been used to benefit the characters. Now, many people have argued on different threads on if these episodes were excellent like past episodes or held the series back this season. Needless to say, it's been extremely mixed with reception. We all have our different perspectives on what makes a good Ninja Turtles arc, and it seemed that a lot of missed potential wasn't realized at the end. The Northampton story had a lot of flaws even with being fun, light-hearted filler. That brings the question similar to me asking what your ideas were for the show, how would YOU, the fans, improve this story arc? It doesn't mean stretch the story to half the season before Battle for New York, far from it in fact. Rather, what would it have take to make interest stay and give the season much more weight? Episode lineup (minus the Foot Clan except for Return to New York): 1. Within the Woods 2. A Foot Too Big 3. Buried Secrets 4. The Croaking 5. In Dreams 6. Race with the Demon 7. Eyes of the Chimera 8. Vision Quest 9? Return to New York 10-11. Battle for New York __________________