Official Ep Discussion: S3 Ep23: "The Fourfold Trap"

[Papenbrook]

Honestly, I am really worried. What if the show starts to flanderize Splinter? Before season two, Splinter never showed stereotypical rat traits at all. After season two, however, it started to show...forcefully. It seems like the writers are doing this to both lighten the show and meet Nickelodeon's standards of what is deemed acceptable for entertainment. Again, I am worried.

[Luckyday]

Originally Posted by Purple Kraken

Honestly, I am really worried. What if the show starts to flanderize Splinter? Before season two, Splinter never showed stereotypical rat traits at all. After season two, however, it started to show...forcefully. It seems like the writers are doing this to both lighten the show and meet Nickelodeon's standards of what is deemed acceptable for entertainment. Again, I am worried.

Well maybe that's him poking fun at himself. Remember how he joke that he likes a good maze?

Comedy is the best way through tragedy...I guess?

[Metalwolf]

Originally Posted by Luckyday

We're talking about a guy who has a cheese phone and eats frozen cheese as a treat.

Maybe. But it's kinda jarring actually, in that it's coming off as heavily cartoonish from a guy who is supposed to be mostly serious. I can believe him mourning his humanity. I can believe him acting like a rat when he went crazy or the Rat King has heavy control of his mind. They both fit together. But when he's missing being human, missing his daughter, we see him with Tang Shen and his baby daughter in the time travel episode, and then we see him acting like a cartoon rat with a cheese phone, giant hamster wheel, eating frozen cheese, I can't take his character seriously anymore. Plus it kind of validates Shredder's scorn whenever he comments on Splinter being nothing but a rat anymore, it is supposed to be a degrading and dehumanizing insult, not something that gets validated and confirmed instead.

Originally Posted by Purple Kraken

Honestly, I am really worried. What if the show starts to flanderize Splinter? Before season two, Splinter never showed stereotypical rat traits at all. After season two, however, it started to show...forcefully. It seems like the writers are doing this to both lighten the show and meet Nickelodeon's standards of what is deemed acceptable for entertainment. Again, I am worried.

You're not the only one. It's part of the reason i have been slowly giving up on this show, it's because they've been slowly making the mutant characters act like cartoonish animals instead of people trapped in mutated bodies. It's why I always thought the Rat King episodes and Crazy!Splinter packed a powerful deep punch, it showed him being influenced by his mutation but not in a cartoonish way. And it's the same with the rest. When you see mutated people struggling to keep what's left of their humanity, it's pretty deep. From Bradford not wanting to be called 'dog' to Baxter crying as he watches the mutagen drip down his body, and then seeing the show treat Anton and Ivan's impending mutation almost as if it was an execution, gosh is all of that thought provoking. Not so when they act like cartoon animals and it contradicts the serious way they were portrayed prior. And you are right, the cartoonishness is forceful. It doesn't fit, at least not with this Splinter. Maybe if he had been an ordinary rat before mutation and the show didn't have as many serious elements like it does, it could work. Instead the goofiness is creepy instead of funny, and jarring because it's not him joking around or poking fun at himself, but him acting like a cartoon rat in a 100% 'serious' manner.

[Powder]

I think the animal callbacks are perfectly in the spirit of TMNT despite being unique to this universe. For me, it feels right, & I think it's a great/harmless way to get laughs & lighten things up in order to skirt by with the dark material.

[CyberCubed]

Are people seriously complaining about the hamster wheel? For god sakes its a JOKE. Its a humor gag like the cheese phone. And people are complaining about Splinter being "flanderized?" WTF?

Some of you have become a parody of yourself. Enjoy the damn show and its "sight gags" and stop taking everything so seriously. For god sakes.

[Wildcat]

I enjoyed this episode but it furthered my previous complaint that so many storylines are directly based on something else...here being the SAW movies. Which would have fit better with Baxter Stockman.

I too thought the giant wheel was ridiculous. In a bad way. It was funny but for the wrong reason. It's like NOW they wanna stick in this gag? The cheese phone wasn't even clever. Just a phone. No pun or funny shape.

It was cool seeing that toilet thing from the old toy line. Which was actually always pretty gross cause like you know...ooze is probably not the first thing Shredder or the mutants would wanna do to the turtles trapped under a toilet.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Some of you have become a parody of yourself.

I can't even....

[Luckyday]

Originally Posted by Metalwolf

Maybe. But it's kinda jarring actually, in that it's coming off as heavily cartoonish from a guy who is supposed to be mostly serious. I can believe him mourning his humanity. I can believe him acting like a rat when he went crazy or the Rat King has heavy control of his mind. They both fit together. But when he's missing being human, missing his daughter, we see him with Tang Shen and his baby daughter in the time travel episode, and then we see him acting like a cartoon rat with a cheese phone, giant hamster wheel, eating frozen cheese, I can't take his character seriously anymore. Plus it kind of validates Shredder's scorn whenever he comments on Splinter being nothing but a rat anymore, it is supposed to be a degrading and dehumanizing insult, not something that gets validated and confirmed instead.

It's getting harder to take Shredder seriously. If taking away the voice actor, he's a one dimensional saturday morning cartoon villain. His motivation to kill Splinter is paper thin and grossly delusional to a point of insanity. He's idea of running a organization is to growl orders and beat his henchmen up until something works rather then him coming with a plan to do them. He's more a intimidating enforcer then a ruler that runs a tight ship. Sure he wants things but he'll knows jack **** on how to keep them in line.

He's like a toddler that whines of wanting a puppy and then gets bored with after a month.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Luckyday

It's getting harder to take Shredder seriously. If taking away the voice actor, he's a one dimensional saturday morning cartoon villain. His motivation to kill Splinter is paper thin and grossly delusional to a point of insanity. He's idea of running a organization is to growl orders and beat his henchmen up until something works rather then him coming with a plan to do them. He's more a intimidating enforcer then a ruler that runs a tight ship. Sure he wants things but he'll knows jack **** on how to keep them in line.

He's like a toddler that whines of wanting a puppy and then gets bored with after a month.

In my opinion, Shredder hasn't had a multi-dimensional personality since the Fred Wolf series. Sure, he was the quintessential Saturday morning cartoon villain there too, but at least he enjoyed some of life's little pleasures like porcelain collecting and chillaxing in fine hotel suites on somebody else's expense.

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

but at least he enjoyed some of life's little pleasures like porcelain collecting and chillaxing in fine hotel suites on somebody else's expense.

Which is a shame for this one, because isn't he sort of some rich guy or was? When we first saw him in this series he looked like he's sitting in some expensive highrise office and was like, "Ready my jet, I'm going to NYC."

He could have rubbed that in Splinter's face by living it up while in NYC, while Splinter is stuck in the sewers, and having more than one bad guy thing going for him.

[JH24]

It was an interesting episode with some nice developments. Of course Healing Hands had to be the solution again but I guess it was okay. I would have preferred Donnie finding a solution though.

It was nice seeing Splinter in action again. The episode was alright, but not one of my favorites.

One thing I found somewhat disturbing is that Karai seriously has a cruel streak inside of her. Something she showed earlier at times in the series. Those traps were pure torture and she enjoyed every moment of it. I don't think the brain worm can be blamed for that part of her behavior.

I mean, if you want to lure Splinter to your hideout, tying and/or locking the turtles up would have been convincing enough for Splinter to fight her, but she had to go that extra mile.

[Ninturtle]

Originally Posted by Purple Kraken

Honestly, I am really worried. What if the show starts to flanderize Splinter? Before season two, Splinter never showed stereotypical rat traits at all. After season two, however, it started to show...forcefully. It seems like the writers are doing this to both lighten the show and meet Nickelodeon's standards of what is deemed acceptable for entertainment. Again, I am worried.

There's like one short scene where he's using that wheel compared to countless other scenes where his human traits are present, I wouldn't be worried.

[Powder]

Originally Posted by Purple Kraken

Honestly, I am really worried. What if the show starts to flanderize Splinter? Before season two, Splinter never showed stereotypical rat traits at all. After season two, however, it started to show...forcefully. It seems like the writers are doing this to both lighten the show and meet Nickelodeon's standards of what is deemed acceptable for entertainment. Again, I am worried.

Are you also worried about the sky falling?