Why the Technodrome is a bad plot element

[neatoman]

Ever wondered why the Technodrome was always broken or trapped? Because that is the only way it could be forced to remain relevant.

Setting aside problems like the terrible design or questionable origin, which are easy to fix and have been in subsequent iterations, there remains a massive problem with this thing. The Technodrome render the villains far too powerful and neither the status quo of the setting or the main characters would really allow it to be used in any signifigant way. Let's say the Technodrome is used to destroy New York City, then what? Sure, the Turtles could move to another city but I'm not sure that is a welcome change to the status quo. And that is just a minor demonstration of what this thing could be capable of, what if it's used to destroy America or all of earth? If that happened the show would be over, unless you're fine with it taking place on another planet I guess. So obviously the Technodrome has to be stopped everytime it's put into action, the problem here is that if the Technodrome really was the marvel of engineering we're meant to think it is, the Turtles would need weapons that are of equal or greater ability. Of course, if the Turtles were in possession of tech that rivals the engineering of the Technodrome in some sense, then much of the "Ninjas hiding in the sewers" gimmick would be lost, suddenly they would be something else or weirdly limiting themselves to a gimmick they don't need. So the result is that Technodrome has to be taken down with relatively simple methods.

So parodoxically, in order to make sure the Technodrome is always relevant, it has to both be a frightening war machine and a total piece of junk at the same time. If it should be used, then it can only really be used in a convincing manner once and then never be important ever again. It's a wonder it wasn't written out of the show until season 8.