Official Episode Discussion S2 Finale: The Invasion

[evan2000]

I went ahead and created more comparison shots with the Leo one-shot comic, in color! I also included all those posted by Vicky82 earlier.

[evan2000]

[ssjup81]

Originally Posted by Vicky82

Got this from Tumblr

Comparing shots of The Invasion with Mirage Leo 1

https://33.media.tumblr.com/db924e8c...lbgso5_500.jpg

https://33.media.tumblr.com/00ef6efe...lbgso2_500.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/a8d0b618...lbgso3_500.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/2d1a5ce6...lbgso4_500.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/8f229cff...lbgso7_500.jpg

https://33.media.tumblr.com/6d08026b...bgso10_500.jpg

https://33.media.tumblr.com/63a3942e...lbgso8_500.jpg

https://33.media.tumblr.com/fab6c86e...lbgso9_500.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/afdbe350...lbgso6_500.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/77224821...lbgso1_500.jpg

This is beyond awesome!

[The Big Bad]

Originally Posted by Kilowog

Wait i thought they always said the mutagen didnt work the exact same way it does in Dimension X and that they were always working to tweak it.

Yes. My point is that if it always worked in Dimension X, it makes no sense to test it in Dimension X and then claim it now works. It's like growing a potato on Earth and then claiming you can now do it on Mars.

Also i naturally assumed in the back of my head that capturing April and using her magic fairy dust or whatever was Plan A. That if they succeded in capturing her, it didn't matter if they fixed the mutagen or even invaded with a full army, they would instantly win.

Except they have captured her--several times. And they've mentioned several times that capturing her is less about using her powers and more about perfecting the dang mutagen.

With finally perfecting the Mutagen and invading with actual troops being Plan B. Hence why Irma didnt just snatch April the first time they were alone. After millennia of just... waiting for this perfect DNA person or whatever, they got complacent and expected an easy win. So once theu got thwarted once they finally decided to not continue with the same plan. Maybe it's just me but i liked that, showed the kraang at least marginally capable of planning things ahead of time.

I'm not sure I follow. Given how long they've been at the perfecting mutagen business and how random the process seems to be--we don't see the dang thing becoming more stable over time--there's no way succeeding isn't, essentially, a random occurrence. No matter how many times they failed at getting April, getting her was always going to be more cost-effective than more random trying—especially since a) they can easily do both at the same time, and b) the more they wait to catch April, the higher the chance that she'll just eventually end up dying, meaning they'd have to wait more millennia for their perfect match. It makes no sense that they'd have an asset like Irma and not use her to, as you say, kidnap her when she's alone.

I just kind of naturally inferred this, chalking it up to the writers not wanting to bluntly state EVERYTHING.

This isn't EVERYTHING, though—it's a change in what has been one of the more consistent bits of series lore. What's more, the weird thing isn't that April turned out to be not as important as advertised, but that what should have been treated as a game-changer goes completely unremarked. Even April-obsessed Donatello apparently has nothing to say about the fact that kidnapping April was apparently optional.

[OrangeNinja1987]

I loved the finale! I just was disappointed about Irma being fake (and for the life of me, I cannot stop thinking of Iago from Aladdin whenever that stupid Kraang speaks! His voice is too distinctive.)
Maybe there is a real Irma and the Kraang replaced her with a robot after season 1's finale to spy on April? Maybe the real Irma is a test subject for the Kraang or something. I know this is unlikely but I really liked Irma in this series, until she turned into a backwards Utrom-Shredder thing and her head chased the turtles around the Lair.
I'm watching the 2003 series and I'm on episode 10 of season 2, so I don't know who this Bishop everyone is mentioning is, but I hope he turns up. This show is rich with awesome references to the comics and 1987, but 2003 is a major TMNT iteration as well and deserves it fair share of references. If this TMNT wants to reference other versions, it should spread them out to all TMNT, not just two versions.
I absolutely loved the Shredder/Splinter fight. It was touching to see Karai saved her father. There's still a little bit of her left, enough to recognize him.
I'm hoping Casey's sister is Angel. Just 'cuz.
My favorite part is when Mikey hugged Raphael. My runner-up would be Leonardo's fight, but I wish it got a bit more focus and that Shredder actually gave Leo the huge beat down rather than one fatal slice. Just a nitpick, though.
Overall, I'd give this a 9/10. I've seen better episodes but this is up there in the greats. Shows like Legend of Korra and TMNT are beautiful anomalies for Nick.

[Machias Banshee]

Well, I tried Zane's suggestion for the video, but I still can't get it. Friday's a looong ways away...

But... looking at the comments in this thread, I can't wait to see them in Northampton!

For those that don't know, Northampton is a medium sized town in western Massachusetts with a lot of wilderness around it (kinda like Dover, here). The boys are gonna have all sorts of places to wander around. There's multiple state parks and reservoirs, a lot of forested areas...

[Foombamaroom]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I don't know if this show can pull off Bishop, but if they can I will love them forever.

After this finale, Bishop wouldn't be the most unusual character to bring into the show. Bishop was hands down my favorite villain of the 2003 series, so I'm hoping they bring him in. Once they said "Earth Defense Force" I took it as a homage to Bishop.

Originally Posted by Luckyday

Maybe he'll bring the big guns? Anybody up for a City at War arc?

I'm hoping we get something among those lines, but not like what went on in the comics. I'm hoping for an original way for them to get Splinter back.

[ssjup81]

Originally Posted by OrangeNinja1987

I loved the finale! I just was disappointed about Irma being fake (and for the life of me, I cannot stop thinking of Iago from Aladdin whenever that stupid Kraang speaks! His voice is too distinctive.)
Maybe there is a real Irma and the Kraang replaced her with a robot after season 1's finale to spy on April? Maybe the real Irma is a test subject for the Kraang or something. I know this is unlikely but I really liked Irma in this series, until she turned into a backwards Utrom-Shredder thing and her head chased the turtles around the Lair.
I'm watching the 2003 series and I'm on episode 10 of season 2, so I don't know who this Bishop everyone is mentioning is, but I hope he turns up. This show is rich with awesome references to the comics and 1987, but 2003 is a major TMNT iteration as well and deserves it fair share of references. If this TMNT wants to reference other versions, it should spread them out to all TMNT, not just two versions.
I absolutely loved the Shredder/Splinter fight. It was touching to see Karai saved her father. There's still a little bit of her left, enough to recognize him.
I'm hoping Casey's sister is Angel. Just 'cuz.
My favorite part is when Mikey hugged Raphael. My runner-up would be Leonardo's fight, but I wish it got a bit more focus and that Shredder actually gave Leo the huge beat down rather than one fatal slice. Just a nitpick, though.
Overall, I'd give this a 9/10. I've seen better episodes but this is up there in the greats. Shows like Legend of Korra and TMNT are beautiful anomalies for Nick.

I kinda want Irma to be real as well, but if she was replaced, I think it would've been the time right before Irma started asking about April's secret friends. I'm just not convinced that Irma in that Rat King ep was a Kraang...but I know I could be wrong. We'll see.

Originally Posted by JTH

Perhaps, to me the only possible recourse to why April stopped him on the positive aspect, is she doesn't want him to reveal something that should bring happiness and light to them in a time of darkness and chaos, thus never being able to cherish it the same.

But I think the line when April says, "You shouldn't talk, it just makes things hurt more." is a telling sign.

Since both April and Donnie pinned the invasion on themselves during the duration of the episode, maybe they will still bond eventually for both know what the other is going through playing the self-blame game and will both want to be there for each other. But obviously still too soon to tell.

This is an interesting interpretation.

Originally Posted by Warhorse

I don't know why, but maybe the creators are trying to give us hints into the minds of Casey and Donnie and how they view her via artwork. In Donnie's illustration, he views April as one of them in terms of fighting and team work. In Casey's graffiti, Casey seems to view April as more of a, damsel in distress (his pic was actually similar to the original cover of Star Wars ANH!)

Good catch. So I guess you could say that Casey views April as someone who needs protecting while Donnie maybe sees her as someone capable of handling herself.

[Donatello19]

Am I the only one who's disappointed about Irma? I actually really liked this new version of her...I was hoping that the robot was a decoy Irma and the the Kraang had kidnapped the real one or something.

Leo was so frickin' awesome in this episode! His fight scenes were just epic. Same with the Shredder and Splinter fights, and Leatherhead too!

I can't believe they lost Kirby AGAIN. April didn't even seem to really care this time...

[Powder]

Originally Posted by evan2000

http://i.imgur.com/hNVc6Rq.png

http://i.imgur.com/dGIkbiO.png

http://i.imgur.com/zsttQVf.png

http://i.imgur.com/JeFDxSx.png

http://i.imgur.com/ElwNrtg.png

http://i.imgur.com/MSSvgCg.png

http://i.imgur.com/HrqzjSl.png

http://i.imgur.com/LT9W6ty.png

http://i.imgur.com/7s1BkAJ.png

Why the HELL are their masks not red? Did IDW seriously print this? Holy sh*t.

[ssjup81]

Originally Posted by Donatello19

Am I the only one who's disappointed about Irma? I actually really liked this new version of her...I was hoping that the robot was a decoy Irma and the the Kraang had kidnapped the real one or something.

No, just read through, quite a few are.

Personally, when first watching, I was like, "I wonder where the real Irma is." I feel that she was probably replaced the time right before she started asking about April's secret friends.

Irma was around prior to "the invasion known as the invasion" in season 1. She tried calling April in that Mousers ep. They could've gotten her back then much easier and if Irma was around specifically to spy on April, seems she would've been around after that first TCRI ep when April sent in her DNA, not before...unless I'm mixing up the episode order.

[Gorilla Grodd]

Just watched the episode. MAN. So many feels. I loved this episode to pieces. The Leo one-shot scenes. The Splinter/Shredder battle. Leatherhead. The Mikey/Raph bro-hug. Just from top to bottom it's probably my favorite episode of the entire series. Although maybe I'm just still kind of buzzing from the 40 minute geek out I was having while watching it.

[blindturtle02]

Originally Posted by ssjup81

No, just read through, quite a few are.

Personally, when first watching, I was like, "I wonder where the real Irma is." I feel that she was probably replaced the time right before she started asking about April's secret friends.

Irma was around prior to "the invasion known as the invasion" in season 1. She tried calling April in that Mousers ep. They could've gotten her back then much easier and if Irma was around specifically to spy on April, seems she would've been around after that first TCRI ep when April sent in her DNA, not before...unless I'm mixing up the episode order.

I hope there's a real Irma out there too. I think my family is still freaked out! haha I loved that twist, but great to have my memory refreshed concerning the phone call. I'd miss a tun of visual stuff if it weren't for everyone in the drome. I wonder if actual Irma is imprisoned with April's mom somewhere. They might have been keeping her around so Kraang subprime could check in on her from time to time in order to get her mannerisms down. I refuse to believe there was never an Irma until someone on board the Nick show confirms it. With my luck, they'll be like,"Oh there was, but then she met the Kraang!" Anyone else flash back to the 90's Spider-Man cartoon while watching this? You know what I'm talking about if you did.

[Bry]

So that was pretty freakin' great. This season was a bit uneven at points, but it ended really strong.

This finale had huge stakes, great action (and both the larger-than-life stuff and the more "grounded" ninja battles), solid humour, actual character development, and lots of emotion and pathos. A certain movie producer should be taking notes.

Originally Posted by Vicky82

Got this from Tumblr

Comparing shots of The Invasion with Mirage Leo 1

https://33.media.tumblr.com/db924e8c...lbgso5_500.jpg

https://33.media.tumblr.com/00ef6efe...lbgso2_500.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/a8d0b618...lbgso3_500.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/2d1a5ce6...lbgso4_500.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/8f229cff...lbgso7_500.jpg

https://33.media.tumblr.com/6d08026b...bgso10_500.jpg

https://33.media.tumblr.com/63a3942e...lbgso8_500.jpg

https://33.media.tumblr.com/fab6c86e...lbgso9_500.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/afdbe350...lbgso6_500.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/77224821...lbgso1_500.jpg

Originally Posted by evan2000

I went ahead and created more comparison shots with the Leo one-shot comic, in color! I also included all those posted by Vicky82 earlier.

http://i.imgur.com/HcRiY3E.png

http://i.imgur.com/zWj7e6s.png

http://i.imgur.com/Yohm95n.png

http://i.imgur.com/SgNlabi.png

http://i.imgur.com/HeMhT6M.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/UMCfkBW.png

http://i.imgur.com/8M4tgNJ.png

http://i.imgur.com/OQKyYxw.png

http://i.imgur.com/3Xad81u.png

Originally Posted by evan2000

http://i.imgur.com/hNVc6Rq.png

http://i.imgur.com/dGIkbiO.png

http://i.imgur.com/zsttQVf.png

http://i.imgur.com/JeFDxSx.png

http://i.imgur.com/ElwNrtg.png

http://i.imgur.com/MSSvgCg.png

http://i.imgur.com/HrqzjSl.png

http://i.imgur.com/LT9W6ty.png

http://i.imgur.com/7s1BkAJ.png

SO GOOD. Just... wow. I like how Ciro and his team are folding in elements from the entire history of the franchise (like the Earth Protection Force - the 2003 series isn't forgotten!) while maintaining a really strong respect/reverence for the original comics. I was just stunned watching all of those individual panels come to life. This is a show basically custom-made for me to love.

Originally Posted by Powder

Why the HELL are their masks not red? Did IDW seriously print this? Holy sh*t.

Also this. I haven't been following their colour reprints (as I have the old First Publishing collections) but I thought they were preserving the red bandanas?

Originally Posted by Donatello19

Am I the only one who's disappointed about Irma? I actually really liked this new version of her...I was hoping that the robot was a decoy Irma and the the Kraang had kidnapped the real one or something.

I kind of loved that. It was totally unexpected. My wife was very upset about it. Always possible there's a "real Irma" still out there, maybe?

And I love how they're casting celebrities with famously annoying voices to be higher-level Kraang. Next season: Fran Drescher?

Originally Posted by Donatello19

I can't believe they lost Kirby AGAIN. April didn't even seem to really care this time...

Well, there was a lot going on. I'm sure they'll follow up with how she's feeling more next season. It's a time of crisis, so having to put her emotions aside in order to get through it makes sense.

And I thought Kirby's Kraang-related PTSD was a nice touch. He's been through a ton, and this sort of thing is still well outside of his "world", so that made a lot of sense.

[Metalwolf]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I'm not even sure what Shredder is going to do now that the Kraang took over NYC.

I think he'll be waiting on the Kraang to demutate Karai. I think that is the only thing he cares about at this point, as everything else is expendable.

I think the Foot will start to fracture at this point, since the main drive was Splinter and the Turtles, and without them, tempers will flare. We'll hopefully also see who still has their humanity, especially once the full effect of what the Kraang are doing sinks in.

Originally Posted by blindturtle02

Hippie Kirby... Yeah he's gonna need to be heavily medicated one way or another if they keep mutating him into all sorts of things. Poor guy! I wonder if these Kraang mutants keep their intelligence. Someone needs to hook them up with translators.

You mentioned the government covering stuff up, Wolf. I'm wondering if Kurtzman is going to join Earth Protection Force if he's not a part of it already.

I think the Kraang mutants are almost mindless, they don't seem to be all that intelligent.

It's possible Kurtzman might do that, but I'm still hoping that he's a good-guy Kraang. It would be cool if he is one that opposed the invasion.

[Bry]

Originally Posted by Metalwolf

It's possible Kurtzman might do that, but I'm still hoping that he's a good-guy Kraang. It would be cool if he is one that opposed the invasion.

Or... an Utrom? I know I've said this before, but I love the idea of the Kraang being an extremist cult banished to Dimension X by the benevolent Utrom race. We could have it both ways!

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by evan2000

http://i.imgur.com/hNVc6Rq.png

http://i.imgur.com/dGIkbiO.png

http://i.imgur.com/zsttQVf.png

http://i.imgur.com/JeFDxSx.png

http://i.imgur.com/ElwNrtg.png

http://i.imgur.com/MSSvgCg.png

http://i.imgur.com/HrqzjSl.png

http://i.imgur.com/LT9W6ty.png

http://i.imgur.com/7s1BkAJ.png

Is that official IDW color reprints? When did they start coloring the masks... and why?

[CyberCubed]

That's not IDW. All the Mirage reprints keep their red bandana's.

[Gorilla Grodd]

At one point the comic scanners were editing the early issues of the IDW book to replace the red with blue, orange, and purple when appropriate. It's possible those images were taken from those edits.

[Kilowog]

Originally Posted by The Big Bad

Yes. My point is that if it always worked in Dimension X, it makes no sense to test it in Dimension X and then claim it now works. It's like growing a potato on Earth and then claiming you can now do it on Mars.

I'm sure that in that testing room they used the horse **** principle to make it earth like through the dangerous bull **** process with buffalo **** as an important catalyst in the process [/speculating about made up science]

Except they have captured her--several times. And they've mentioned several times that capturing her is less about using her powers and more about perfecting the dang mutagen.


I'm not sure I follow. Given how long they've been at the perfecting mutagen business and how random the process seems to be--we don't see the dang thing becoming more stable over time--there's no way succeeding isn't, essentially, a random occurrence. No matter how many times they failed at getting April, getting her was always going to be more cost-effective than more random trying—especially since a) they can easily do both at the same time, and b) the more they wait to catch April, the higher the chance that she'll just eventually end up dying, meaning they'd have to wait more millennia for their perfect match. It makes no sense that they'd have an asset like Irma and not use her to, as you say, kidnap her when she's alone.

I dunno, I just got the vibe that after waiting FOREVER for what they saw as a no effort win they decided to not do the exact same thing?

Sort of like just flipping the checkers board over when you get King Me'd

Originally Posted by Donatello19

Am I the only one who's disappointed about Irma?

NOPE!

I can't believe they lost Kirby AGAIN. April didn't even seem to really care this time...

I kind of chuckled at her exasperated "NOT AGAIN"

Originally Posted by Powder

Why the HELL are their masks not red? Did IDW seriously print this? Holy sh*t.

Color Classics issue I have has red bandana for leo. So either A). they changed this for The Works (which seems straight up illogical even for IDW), B). this is from mirage's recoloring from right before the buy out (never read those but I've heard almost as many complaints as I have for IDW's Classics TPB reprints) or C). this is some kind of fan recoloring

Whichever you think fits better into your world view