The Turtles being friends instead of brothers in the FW series

[Prowler]

It always annoyed me. It's just so strange to hear, for example, Leonardo say "we're here to find our friend" in that episode where Raphael does stand up comedy and disappears/gets abducted in the middle of his act.

I've always felt the Turtles were brothers, even if the FW series was my introduction to the property. I mean, they all lived together, came from the same aquarium and looked the same. Therefore they were brothers. Seemed perfectly logical to me!

Anyone else has an issue with this?

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Part of it might be because the FW turtles mutated as adults rather than children so they never grew up as kids together.

That being said, they still care for each other and Splinter does still does call them his sons in the FW series so its not like there's no familial bond.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by FredWolfLeonardo

Part of it might be because the FW turtles mutated as adults rather than children so they never grew up as kids together.

How can we know that? All we saw was a flashback scene.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

How can we know that? All we saw was a flashback scene.

And the flashback showed the Turtles mutating to their current form instantly, just as Yoshi turned into Splinter and any other mutant in the show.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by FredWolfLeonardo

Part of it might be because the FW turtles mutated as adults rather than children so they never grew up as kids together.

That being said, they still care for each other and Splinter does still does call them his sons in the FW series so its not like there's no familial bond.

Splinter mostly refers to them as "my students" and "my pupils" in the series, though. And the Turtles never refer to him as a father figure in it. Just as "master" or "sensei".

Originally Posted by neatoman

If I had to guess, it was likely some weird mandate made by someone who was against depicting them as a family unit for some reason. It kind of has to be some weird thing like that and not a mistake made by the writers, because Splinter calls them his sons on page ten of the very first issue and Raphael straight up calls the other ones his brothers on page nineteen, so they were always officially considered a family unit before this show. Maybe some marketing research indicated kids liked friends better than siblings or something?

Anyway, no, I don't like it. It seems bizarre to me to claim they're anything but brothers.

That doesn't convince me. Plenty of main cartoon characters have a sibling or two.

Anyway, the fact that I've always viewed the Turtles as brothers even when I was 5-6 and only knew about FW really shows how their bond was clearly deeper than friendship. Plus, they looked a like and came in the same bowl. So pretending they're not brothers is pretty ridiculous by the writers of the FW series.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Splinter mostly refers to them as "my students" and "my pupils" in the series, though. And the Turtles never refer to him as a father figure in it. Just as "master" or "sensei".

I can remember only one time he calls them "my sons" in Enter the Shredder when they're looking for the technodrome.

"Head upward my sons, find some way around all this!"

Does anyone remember any other time he calls them his sons?

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

The real kicker is, why are there fans who really think that either the Turtles would be different ages or that they would be actively celebrating different birthdays for themselves?

Because the turtles having different birthdays is in FW series which is the only thing that many fans care about.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by FredWolfLeonardo

Part of it might be because the FW turtles mutated as adults rather than children so they never grew up as kids together.

The real kicker is, why are there fans who really think that either the Turtles would be different ages or that they would be actively celebrating different birthdays for themselves?

[neatoman]

If I had to guess, it was likely some weird mandate made by someone who was against depicting them as a family unit for some reason. It kind of has to be some weird thing like that and not a mistake made by the writers, because Splinter calls them his sons on page ten of the very first issue and Raphael straight up calls the other ones his brothers on page nineteen, so they were always officially considered a family unit before this show. Maybe some marketing research indicated kids liked friends better than siblings or something?

Anyway, no, I don't like it. It seems bizarre to me to claim they're anything but brothers.

[Anarchistguy]

Originally Posted by Prowler

It always annoyed me. It's just so strange to hear, for example, Leonardo say "we're here to find our friend" in that episode where Raphael does stand up comedy and disappears/gets abducted in the middle of his act.

I've always felt the Turtles were brothers, even if the FW series was my introduction to the property. I mean, they all lived together, came from the same aquarium and looked the same. Therefore they were brothers. Seemed perfectly logical to me!

Anyone else has an issue with this?

The fact that they never called each other by their nicknames didn't help either. It sounded so cold...

The weird thing about this to me is that in the Archie comics, which were based on the FW series, the TMNT were very clearly portrayed as brothers.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by Anarchistguy

The fact that they never called each other by their nicknames didn't help either. It sounded so cold...

The weird thing about this to me is that in the Archie comics, which were based on the FW series, the TMNT were very clearly portrayed as brothers.

Steve Murphy from Mirage wrote those comics, so when someone who actually can write these characters got his hands on them it wasn't exactly a surprise it was better.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Anarchistguy

The fact that they never called each other by their nicknames didn't help either. It sounded so cold...

The weird thing about this to me is that in the Archie comics, which were based on the FW series, the TMNT were very clearly portrayed as brothers.

It was weird. The live action movies were for me, and I'm sure several other FW fans, the first time I saw that the Turtles were calling themselves by their nicknames and also treating each other as brothers just felt natural and didn't seem weird.

But for some reason, it wasn't weird for me in the cartoon cause back in the 80's I had zero Mirage comics language. I just took it was those were their names and they just never used nicknames. It would be like watching several Justice League cartoons and finding out that in the comics, and only in the comics were Batman and Superman calling each other Batsy and Supes.

[Andrew NDB]

I've always attributed this to -- and I think this was backed up by old David Wise interviews from a lifetime ago -- just Fred Wolf writers/staffers not knowing/not being told by anybody and/or not caring that the TMNT were intended as brothers and nothing really any deeper than that.

The only exception to this, of course, was in NT:TNM. Where they made a very deliberate attempt to paint them as not siblings for the purposes of having sexual tension with Venus. One super awkward scene in NT:TNM was dedicated to illustrating this. "We're not brothers! We're just pet shop turtles!" Leonardo told the audien -- er, Venus while flirting with her. Yeah, sure. Baby turtles, at exactly the same age and size in the same bowl from the same shop.

[Roseangelo]

When the first 5 episodes of the TMNT cartoon aired in 1987, only 12 issues of the comic book had been published. Nevermind however many fewer were published as the series was being developed. Eastman and Laird barely knew who the characters were. The Fred Wolf people basically did everything independently.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by Roseangelo

When the first 5 episodes of the TMNT cartoon aired in 1987, only 12 issues of the comic book had been published. Nevermind however many fewer were published as the series was being developed. Eastman and Laird barely knew who the characters were. The Fred Wolf people basically did everything independently.

[Anarchistguy]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

It was weird. The live action movies were for me, and I'm sure several other FW fans, the first time I saw that the Turtles were calling themselves by their nicknames and also treating each other as brothers just felt natural and didn't seem weird.

But for some reason, it wasn't weird for me in the cartoon cause back in the 80's I had zero Mirage comics language. I just took it was those were their names and they just never used nicknames. It would be like watching several Justice League cartoons and finding out that in the comics, and only in the comics were Batman and Superman calling each other Batsy and Supes.

Even the action figures used their nicknames, which made the whole thing even weirder

[triplexxx]

Originally Posted by Anarchistguy

The fact that they never called each other by their nicknames didn't help either. It sounded so cold..

Considering it was the first television iteration of the franchise, they probably wanted to make sure the little kids watching familiarized themselves with the full names of the characters, hence almost always saying full name. Once the franchise was a hit and everyone was well-acquainted with it, for every iteration after that, they could go lax on that rule.