Official Ep Discussion: S3 Ep16: "Clash of the Mutanimals"

[Ramboraph4life aka Matt]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

So if Raphael remained mind controlled for 5 episodes, would it make any difference? Most likely Raph would remain Shredder's bland clone obeying his every whim, and the outcome would have been the same as this episode with Leo snapping him out of it. It just would have been dragged out over 5 episodes instead of one.

Well, you could have:

*Raph getting flashes of his family, some of the good times he's had with them, and trying to fight the mind control...showing Raph some of his inner strength

*Show how much his family really need him/depend on him (what it SHOULD BE is that all four depend on each other...as it is now, the family only depends on Don and Leo...and Casey & April...not really on Mikey & Raph. Although, even Mikey helped stopped the invasion, so Mikey has that). Show what Raph means to each Turtle.

*Show how much Mikey misses Raph, needs to play jokes on/goof off with/have fun with.

*Leo reflecting on Raph helping him out when he was rehabbing his body (the Only thing Raph has gotten to do this season)

*Giving Mikey an actual, serious moment where he helps Raph out of it...making Mikey the True Hero of the Episode.

*Raph hurting one of his brothers, and showing in the next couple of episodes that he feels guilty about it, that he doesn't want to be angry anymore, doing everything in his power to be a 'happy go lucky' guy, and ultimately his family realizing that while it's nice that Raph is doing that, the family still needs Raph to at least have PART of that rage.

You can do LOTS, Cybercubed...only those with Little to No Imagination says that there's 'Nothing' you can do with it.

[THGhost]

Originally Posted by OrangeNinja1987

It was an okay episode. The pros definitely outweighed the cons.
Good things:
1. the animation (it keeps getting better and better)
2. The fighting
3. The humor
4. The scene with Raph and the worm (that scream!)

The thing that left a bad taste in my mouth and made me hate the episode for 10 minutes or so afterwards was the stupid Dark Raph!
I know, I know, it was overhyped on the forums. But even for someone who didn't read all the hype online, I still think it would seem very disappointing to see that story potential squandered in 10 minutes.
But the mind control is still being developed, so there could be another dark turtle, who would be harder to turn back. If the mind control isn't improved, dark Karai won't be anything new.
Sigh. I was SO disappointed with this episode afterwards that I even considered if tuning in next week is even worth it. But then I remembered that I love this show and if it falls badly, I'll still watch it to the end. It's the show that got me into TMNT, and now I regret not getting into it years before.
Meh. I guess I can live without Dark Raph. But I still want to see a major Raphael story. Let's just hope the backstory on his shell crack won't be crushed by hype as well. Fingers crossed.

These forums overhyped the whole "Dark Raph" thing way too much. I'm not familiar with that story arc, but I'm assuming that it has nothing to do with what was depicted in this episode. It was just another scheme of Shredder's to control the Turtles' minds, nothing special.

[Sabacooza]

Originally Posted by THGhost

These forums overhyped the whole "Dark Raph" thing way too much. I'm not familiar with that story arc, but I'm assuming that it has nothing to do with what was depicted in this episode. It was just another scheme of Shredder's to control the Turtles' minds, nothing special.

That's about the gist of it.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by THGhost

These forums overhyped the whole "Dark Raph" thing way too much..

It was indeed the forums fault, and they took it out on the episode/writers for no reason.

[Ramboraph4life aka Matt]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

It was indeed the forums fault, and they took it out on the episode/writers for no reason.

I gave reasons. You just ignore them.

Dark Raph had a lot of potential. Just like the Raph/Slash rivalry had a lot of potential. Or giving a callback to Mikey calming Raph down in the Season 2 finale, so you can make Mikey the True Hero by bringing Raph back...only to have something that was so useless, so inconsequential, so bland, and didn't do anything for the characters that it might has well just not been in there at all.

Dropping the ball on all of that instead of going for broke I guess = Good Writing these Days. And I guess Not letting Raph or Mikey have any actual arcs or on-going stories (and to just let the others like Don, Leo, April, and even Casey) = Good Writing These Days.

But yeah. That's 'no reason'.

[Meliwen]

It wasn't just this forum that expected something more than the typical done-in-one episode sort of plot. Tumblr was really excited and expecting more from it as well. Any turtle turning 'dark' is a popular plot, especially since there was a well done Dark Leo in the comics to compare it to, so it's not surprising.

[Papenbrook]

CyberCubed, why are you telling Raph fans to leave just because they want the writers to balance screentime/development for the characters? Not everyone has the same opinions as you do.

[MCLeo28]

Originally Posted by Sabacooza

They could've done so much more with this for reasons other people stated. Stop being so close-minded.

The same could be said for you considering you stated the story was terrible because the "Dark Raph" episode didn't end the way you expected it to.

[drgon78]

Good episode, really liked the part were Mikey noticed that the show is always related to what was going on in there lives.

[Werecat]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

... Ciro said Raph would turn evil for an episode...

Where did Ciro say that? I only remember him saying ''loosely based off of City Fall...But with Dark Raph'' its paraphrased but its closer to what the person stated earlier.


The whole mind control worm is freaky and I doubt that episode will be the last one. We still have yet to be shown how Raph got the crack on his shell. They may present it with the superior mind control worm or another way. Who knows.

[Shark_Blade]

Good Raph episode. I don't care about Dark Raph for long episodes. We had Dark Leo before, so it's been done, no need to recycle and drag it too much. So how they treat this is nice and to the point. Moving on.

- Mutanimals are cool. I love the chemistry among their teammates.
- The enemies dragging Slash's unconscious body with their car. Short but I love brutal treatment like this on the heroes, shows how much evil the villains are. The more violent, the better.
- Mutanimals coming to the lair. We finally have guests, which is a rarity!! I love how the friends can just pop in anytime.
- Raph experimentation scene. The worm was gross! I wish they show it crawling into Raph eye sockets or into his mouth at least, and him screaming in pain. A bit of horror just for the thrill.
- Pigeon Pete rules in this show and IDW! So funny and his girl-fight-ala-slapping with Baxter cracked me up
- Cool fight scenes!
- Slash apologizing to Splinter. Somehow this sadden me to see him like that, such a different side to him I've never seen before. Good stuff.
- Raph hugging Leo. Umm..... kinda awkward, more awkward than that time he went bear hug on Mikey (The Croaking episode). But heh boys will be boys. Despite his ego, he's secretly a hugger, huh? I still love ya Raph.


The poll states Mondo Gecko but I didn't see him anywhere? Was there a lizard in the lab or something?

[Wildcat]

Mondo Gecko was shown in the preview for next weeks episode.

This episode was ok for me. Really liked the fight scene at the end.

The mind control isn't a big deal to me. Had no idea it was hyped up either. Dark characters are nothing new and they fixed them as typical as you'd expect with the "snap out of it" thing.

[Ramboraph4life aka Matt]

Plus it's not even a good Raph episode on its' own...it just reflects poorly on Raph (yet again...just like the episode where he was turned into a plant).

He got himself mind controlled, and he didn't even break out of it himself. Leo had to come in and save the day to snap him out of it. It just reflects poorly on Raph (even Mikey's episode, with the Punk Frogs, had him doing stuff like Save Raph...which helps the character and makes him appear useful and ultimately Worth A Crap).

This, on the other hand, is another edition of Raph needing someone to save him like he's a Damsel in Distress...once again. Even though I Thought he was supposed to be the 'Protector' of the group, but it's definitely not the case during Season 3.

[Cure]

This episode was a club banger. The fight scenes were mad exciting.

[GiveMeBackMyRaphXLeo]

yes! more dark raph! Leonardo comes to the rescue! go! bromance go!

[darthwahl56]

Actually, I just saw this as a failed attempt on Shredder's part to use mind control. It was like a Beta testing. It could be done again, only with devastating results for the heroes. That is of course if the writers of the show went that way.

Pigeon Pete and Baxter fighting cracked me up. I need a gif of that.

[Ashwolf]

Originally Posted by darthwahl56

Actually, I just saw this as a failed attempt on Shredder's part to use mind control. It was like a Beta testing. It could be done again, only with devastating results for the heroes. That is of course if the writers of the show went that way.

Exactly, which it also y I said it was a teaser 4 the dark raph arc as a way of possibly throwing ppl off

[neatoman]

Given how this show is structured, it's not really surprising that the anticipated "Dark Raph arc" was more the "Dark Raph about a quarter of an episode". Nickelodeon isn't on the same level as IDW, who could tell this type of story for five issues and give it some aftershocks.

That said, even for a kid's show it's kind of lame to have it be the last five minutes of an episode. At least make it two episodes.

Spoiler:

Oh wait I forgot, then they would have to cut one of the episodes that introduced a character we probably won't see again, how silly of me...

[Vicky82]

It's such a shame that this episode which had a lot of amazing moments is being overshadowed by people complaining about how long Dark Raph lasted.

I am a tad dissapointed (and I do appologize for overhyping this) that Dark Raph didn't last longer but i'm not taking this too personally like some people here.

The mind control arc is not over yet and I reckon this episode is just foreshadowing it, so it could happen again in the final but on a bigger scale.

It does seems that Shredder is making 2 types of Mind Control, he wants one for Karai (and maybe use it on other mutants) which Baxter is making and other one is being made in the Auman factory, which Hun is dealing with so they can mind control humans.

So it's not over yet and we still got to see how The Deadly Venom turns out yet as it seems Baxter makes the Mind Control Serum stronger for Karai, so this episode was just a testing stage.

[Sabacooza]

Sadly, It ammounted to nothing more than a Raph bashing episode but I'm not surprised.