Official Episode Discussion S4 Ep 20: Super Shredder

[Powder]

Absolutely amazing episode. I wanna give a special shout out to the storyboard artists & whoever else is involved in the cinematography or whatever, there were some insanely cool shots! Like when Shredder gave a walloping kick which transitioned into a train barreling down the tracks. In general, I think that entire train sequence was hands-down the best fight scene of the entire series. It was super exciting for me, personally. So much went into making this feel like an action movie, & it really, really paid off. The humor, while very brief, was great. I loved Donnie saying "Down boy!" at Rahzar, & that 'ole Furbag Bradford was reminiscing about his cartoon days.

& I've said it before, but Super Shredder's design is really sick.

Originally Posted by ObiWanFan4life

Seriously, this might go down as one of my favorite episodes of the show. The stakes were personal, the action was intense and brutal, and it ends on a cliffhanger.

You've summed it up perfectly.

Originally Posted by Aaronardo

Auman tends to write his best episodes when the episode is a lot more action-oriented than dialogue-oriented. This is one of those action-oriented episodes.

Definitely, I guess he's the Eastman to Ciro's Laird!

Originally Posted by VaughnMichael

Really great episode and I recognized the area right away that Splinter last faced the Ratking.
I was half way expecting him to pop up and mess things up for Splinter.
Unless of course they do bring him in like they did in the mirage comics and Splinter sees him the same way he did there as a ghost.
I think that would be really fantastic.

I was expecting the same. It can't be a coincidence that they took cues from City At War & then put Splinter in danger at the site of his last encounter with The Rat King. Perhaps at the bottom of that city lies a realm that connects them to the spiritual plane or something. You've gotta figure there's a connection here with season 5's spiritual theme. Perhaps Rat King will play a role not dissimilar to that of his IDW counterpart.

Originally Posted by neatoman

So I just started watching the episode, and less than a minute in, Shredder tells Stockman he'd rip his limbs off until only the head remains... Huh... I get the reference, it's just that I'd never thought I would hear something like that in this show...

Dunno if it was intended to be, but it definitely does work as a reference to that. In general I was surprised by some of the (safe for kids-tier) brutality. Heads getting smashed into concrete, Leo wanting to ram Shredder with the van, characters getting hit/ran over by trains, pretty intense!

Originally Posted by Rukitron

For a second I thought Shredder was having boneinitis when his arm started acting up.

Also anyone else getting tired of seeing Splinter get incapacitated on a regular basis?

Loved that part. Body horror might be my favorite aspect of this series.

As for your question, no, I'm cool. He's aging, after all. It's probably meant to show that the turtles are getting stronger & he's... well, not. Besides, nobody could face Super Shredder in a 1 on 1 fight & walk away from it unscathed, mane. I imagine he'll kick at least one more ass before the shows close, though.

[Vegita-San]

Originally Posted by PApagreg

One of the lines that stood out to me was when Karai said to Shredder "You become what you hated a mutant", so apparently Shredder hates mutants despite his top enforcers being mutants and wanting a mutant army, alright.

you expect this show to make sense and pay attention to detail?

the problem with bringing in super shredder, is that just like in the 4 kids series, the NORMAL shredder never NOT felt like a push over. he was ALWAYS a threat. that, and the turtles hardly ever went head to head with him IIRC, so we never really got to see them fight much.

Bringing him in now seems too over the top.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

you expect this show to make sense and pay attention to detail?

Bringing him in now seems too over the top.

Do you ever stop complaining? You're whining about Super Shredder being "too over the top" now?

You're right that the Turtles have never beaten Shredder in a fight, but Super Shredder is bound to only last till the season finale at most. He'll probably be de-mutated by the end.

[kaptainmyke]

oh my God my favorite line in the whole episode "I want to see what you look like when I tear your shell off"..."You wanna see me naked?!"

[Redworld96]

Is there a IGN review of this episode?

[CyberCubed]

The guy who did the IGN reviews quit IGN earlier this year and got a job at CBS or something.

[tmntfanuk]

Oh wow! Great episode!! Really enjoyed this one!

[lonewarrior20]

i really enjoyed it. strangly enough one of my favorite little scenes was karai using her tail to pick her lock.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Great episode! It feels refreshing to watch new episodes once again after the hiatus.

Super Shredder looks really menancing in his new form and it really does reflect what a monster he has become from the inside. I wonder if his mutation will be temporary or permanent, I can see him being killed off either in his super form by the main characters, the instability of his mutation, or being de-mutated sometime later in the series.

[Vicky82]

I did notice that Mikey was by Splinters side a lot in this episode, also when Mikey was climbing up the ladder he stopped and looked back down, I assume he was keeping an eye on Splinter. I wonder if it was because Mikey was worried about Splinter after hearing the dream he had.

I wonder in the next episode, Mikey asks Leo if he could go help find Splinter with Donnie because In that trailer we see Donnie and Mikey are the only 2 wearing that new grappling gear so it looks like they will be searching for Splinter while the others fight Super Shredder and the henchmen.

[BubblyShell22]

This episode had my heart pounding the entire time. Love Super Shredder's design and am amazed at the lengths he will go to achieve his goal of destroying his enemies. The pictures that were hung up were surreal to say the least and I loved the train fight the best as it was action packed and kept my attention. I know they survived, but seeing Splinter fall and hearing his words that he will die with Saki just sent chills down my spine. I did miss a little bit of it as I had to help my sis adjust my dad's pillow and I think that was part of the fight with Shredder and Splinter in the middle that I missed. Overall, a great and intense episode. Bring on part two!

[ToTheNines]

What Powder said, mostly.

I will be a downer and say it was lame how the Elite got jobbed by April. Other than that, truly the highlight of the series.

[Mini-Turtle]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Do you ever stop complaining? You're whining about Super Shredder being "too over the top" now?

You're right that the Turtles have never beaten Shredder in a fight, but Super Shredder is bound to only last till the season finale at most. He'll probably be de-mutated by the end.

Or meet a horrific end due to the instability of the Mutagen. Can see something happening like what happened to 2k3 Baxter's new body, but at a MUCH faster rate as the Mutagen goes completely out of control.

[PApagreg]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

I will be a downer and say it was lame how the Elite got jobbed by April. Other than that, truly the highlight of the series.

They got jobbed by pretty much everyone, I remember in Broken Foot where Karai's sword barely scratched one of them but now the turtles are cutting them up like tissue paper

[Aaronardo]

Originally Posted by GoldMutant

I miss certain stuff from Nick TMNT that was done before, but it certainly bothers me to a degree. Just wish there was more outside the typical "BANG! CRASH! BOOM!", which in this episode bears its ugly head badly.

Agreed. That was the only lull of the episode for me, this focused a lot more on "ooh, look Shredder! What's he gonna destroy next?! Stay tuned to find out!" than anything else. To be fair, there was a lot of dialogue concerning the Yoshi/Saki feud, but a lot of that just kinda feels done to death.

But nevertheless, I still did like the dialogue, I actually personally like Super Shredder's design (although I'm just a fan of new takes on classic characters pretty much all the time), the action was really good, and if this were earlier in the show, (or if they didn't just kill Splinter every season) that ending would've hit pretty hard for me. Still my favorite of Season 4 so far.

[Jester]

When I read on Brandon Auman's FB that this was technically a 2 parter I was hoping for both parts this week...I guess I was too greedy.

[CyberCubed]

Poor Bebop wasn't in this episode. I wonder if he'll be in next weeks.

[Ninjinister]

Man, I have often said Lee had the best performance of the series, but that final line from Splinter today actually made my spine go cold.

Originally Posted by Powder

Loved that part. Body horror might be my favorite aspect of this series.

Too right! April Derp is my favorite design for any character, ever, and the likes of Mega Shredder, Scumbug, and Super Shredder are right up there too.

[NikitaZhukov]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Poor Bebop wasn't in this episode. I wonder if he'll be in next weeks.

He appeared in last few seconds standing with Rocksteady and elite footbots, so, technically, he was in this episode.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by NikitaZhukov

He appeared in last few seconds standing with Rocksteady and elite footbots, so, technically, he was in this episode.

Was he there? I know Rocksteady was but I didn't see Bebop. Anyone have a screencap?