Wasted Potential

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by Aaronardo

Yes! I don't know why I keep forgetting to include that when I talk about this show, but I feel the exact same way. The whole show has just become like a fanfiction written by a huge fan of the OT. Why else would we get one-off characters like Mondo Gecko or Muckman that aren't interesting and amount to nothing in the overall plot? I mean, look at their debut episodes. They're garbage. Their only purposes are "ooh, look at this new character!! He's cool right?? He's from the original show you know!!"
.

Muckman's episode was great, what was wrong with it? Mondo Gecko's episode was a bit meh for me (didn't care for the whole underground skateboard arena with all of Shredder's henchman watching), but it wasn't bad.

Also they were both in the Season 3 finale and joined the Mutanimals so we'll likely be seeing more of them.

[GoldMutant]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Muckman's episode was great, what was wrong with it? Mondo Gecko's episode was a bit meh for me (didn't care for the whole underground skateboard arena with all of Shredder's henchman watching), but it wasn't bad.

Also they were both in the Season 3 finale and joined the Mutanimals so we'll likely be seeing more of them.

I'll bite on liking Meet Mondo Gecko, it's honestly a guilty pleasure episode from season 3. However, The Noxious Avenger in my opinion wasn't very impressive. Heck, if Muckman didn't appear at all in Annihilation: Earth! it'd probably be the worst episode from season 3 for me, though it's at the bottom regardless. In my opinion, the problem I had was that it felt too much like a rehash of Muckman Messes Up from the OT. There were differences, primarily Grody and Joe Eyeball this time around, but it's primarily the same episode. It's kind of lazy, heck I even pointed it out on Turtlepedia of the many similarities.

Though it was brought up at Comic Con last year, I don't see Muckman being with the Mutanimals, but Mondo yes I can see. Regardless, both episodes do go towards the weaker aspects of a rather mediocre season. I got no problem with you liking the show Cubed if you gave reasons, otherwise it's kind of difficult to really discuss with you popping up.

[Powder]

It wasn't lazy, it was an homage.

[Aaronardo]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Also they were both in the Season 3 finale and joined the Mutanimals so we'll likely be seeing more of them.

Fair point, but then again they got slapped around back-to-back the only time we saw them in combat.

Originally Posted by Powder

It wasn't lazy, it was an homage.

I mean, don't get me wrong. Sometimes there are homages in the show and they're clever enough. But if Mondo Gecko, who got a 22-minute episode revolving around him, is a homage, then this show isn't very good at subtlety.

[Powder]

No, I meant Muckman's episode, the plot seemed like somewhat of an homage to his original animated appearance.

[GoldMutant]

Originally Posted by Powder

No, I meant Muckman's episode, the plot seemed like somewhat of an homage to his original animated appearance.

Personally for me, it feels more like a remake than an homage. It was certainly more of an homage to The Toxic Crusader given the title and how Muckman goes on, but it just doesn't do much for me. Would've preferred more of a new origin for Muckman given how the Nick series does reimagine several characters but maintains the core elements. We can debate all day but hey what can you do? Either way, agree to disagree my friend.

[Powder]

Sometimes Homages come in the form of partial remakes. But yeah it was a blend of Toxie & the OT. I dunno that he's a character that would really benefit from a wildly different origin. There's only so much you can do with trash.

[Sumac]

Definitely.
First season was really interesting and it felt like it was a good medium between old cartoon and 2k3.
Starting with season 2, story regressed to be more simplistic and characters dynamic was lost on me. Also, occasional foray into disgusting / disturbing stuff didn't help.

[Allio]

nah, nothhing is wrong with body horror...though, not having a good story to go with it makes it feel like shock horror.

[victory_angel]

Looking back over the Turtles in Space Arc, the premise of having a time limit to acquire a device to prevent Earth's destruction reminded me of an old classic anime that was featured in the 1970-80's.

The title of this Anime was called Space BattleShip Yamato or Star Blazers as it was called here in the US. There has been a recent live action version of this series as well.

The premise of the first season is that Earth has been attacked by a nazi-like humanoid-alien race called the Gamilons. The radiation from the gamalonian bombs have turned Earth into a poisonous wasteland and all surviving humans have been forced to live underground. But only gives all humanity the span of a year left. Fortunately, the Earth receives a message from the Queen of a planet that is a 148,000 light years away called Iscandar who tells them she has a device to neutralize the radiation that threatens the Earth. A group of people from Earth have to go all the way to Iscandar in order to retrieve the device.

She also gives them plans to wave motion engine to help them aid them in getting to her planet. The people of Earth then find the remains of the Yamato, and make a spaceship out of it sending it into space to save Earth and defeat the Gamilons

In a way the space arc could have been better if it was done in a similar way.

[Skinrash]

Annihilation Earth hinted at what could become an interesting character arch for Tiger Claw; his tolerance for Shredder's madness finally reaches a breaking point and he decides to work for someone else or himself.

[victory_angel]

Originally Posted by Skinrash

Annihilation Earth hinted at what could become an interesting character arch for Tiger Claw; his tolerance for Shredder's madness finally reaches a breaking point and he decides to work for someone else or himself.

That is true and it could prove interesting in how he finally decides to leave the shredder. There is a likelihood that the humans vs. Mutants arc could be a factor in that.

First off we see Tiger Claw in Mikey's Imagination.

Mikey, as we have seen, has a child-like imagination. And many of the characters we see in his mind are characters from shows he liked, people he sees as friends and former enemies who he has a friendly relationship with.

But Tiger Claw at this time fits in none of these categories which indicates that Mikey has seen some possible good in him and that could help influence TC away from the Foot Clan.

However, there are also lots of hints that Donnie could be important in Tiger Claw's reformation as well.

Donnie is the only one of the four turtles that Tiger Claw never encountered in his debut episode.

in the vision quest, Donnie is put against Tiger Claw. And of them, Donnie is the only one who doesn't really kill his enemy. Yes, he sends TC falling off a cliff which would be fatal, but remember TC has a jet pack and cat-like agility so there is still an open possibility that he would have survived this defeat.

And in Mikey's imagination, Donnie comes riding into the fray on Tiger Claw's back.

[TMNTInsighter]

Originally Posted by Skinrash

Annihilation Earth hinted at what could become an interesting character arch for Tiger Claw; his tolerance for Shredder's madness finally reaches a breaking point and he decides to work for someone else or himself.

I've been on this for a while too. There have even been hints of it at the beginning of "The Invasion" and his first scene in "Return to New York" where he was uneasy with Shredder's choices. Not to mention some nice character moments in "Vengeance is Mine" (during when they set up Karai as the bait) and when he rescued April and Casey in "Annihilation: Earth!" (proving he's a good team player if nothing else).

I also thought his appearance in "...Mikey's Mind" was a foreshadow and that was one of the things that made ELS a disappointment and I don't know why they went that route. Now I don't see how they can go the route I thought they would unless they sped up and cheated with how they "developed" Slash. In fact, when you stop and notice how TC (current 2nd in command) and Karai (former 2nd in command) are so similar in their uneasy loyalties towards the Shredder, it's true that TC may end up going Karai's route but they may just do the opposite in order to show the importance of choice in this series--and thus establishing the main difference between the two of them.

[Splinter the boss]

In what circumstances did TC rescue April and Casey? It's not coming to mind right now?

[TMNTInsighter]

Originally Posted by Splinter the boss

In what circumstances did TC rescue April and Casey? It's not coming to mind right now?

Just before Splinter's death scene.

[Danetello]

The worst episodes for me by far were the Northampton ones, especially the Chimera one. Other than that, I tend to really enjoy nearly every episode of this series.

[FlawedCoil82]

Originally Posted by ssjup81

I'm pretty neutral on the space eps, but they did have their moments. The only ep of the space arc that I legitimately didn't like, was the Wyrm ep. Too obnoxious.

And oddly enough, that was one of the few Space arc episodes that did not bore me. In fact, apart from "Trans-Dimensional Turtles", "The Weird World Of Wyrm" was my 2nd favorite episode while they were in Space.

[TMNTInsighter]

"The Cosmic Ocean" is definitely underrated! It's the best episode of the space arc in my book.