1990 Saki: thoughts on his backstory?

[ToTheNines]

Alright, everyone put your fanfic hats on. I just got back from a Flashback Cinema screening, had a great time. Haven’t watched this one in like 5 years and it was amazing to see on the big screen for the first time.

Anyway: What does everyone think was going on with Shredder?

The main thing that stuck out to me was that while the Foot was successful as a gang of theives, they didn’t seem like particularly skilled fighters, other than Tatsu. I never got the sense that anyone was fighting to kill until Shredder came out. I guess they did beat Raph into a coma, but no one was able to slit his throat while he was incapacitated? (Obviously there was a limit to how violent they could go, but bear with me).

What else is interesting, is there appears to be very few Japanese Foot soliders. Most of them are American, at least the new recruits. Also judging from April’s report at the beginning, they just started operating in NYC recently.

So what did Saki do for 15 years? Was he disgraced and ran out of Japan for some reason? Was he sent by the Foot to kill Yoshi for abandoning the Foot or was that a condemned action? He didn’t seem to have any resources from the Japanese Foot, why else recruit young kids off the street?

Obviously it was left mysterious on purpose. I don’t know if they would have got into this if there was ever a true sequel to 1990, but it’s fun to think about.

[Drose18]

Probably was in New York purely (conicidentally?) for expansion of the Foot beyond Asia.

Hubris caused him to order a second assault on the Turtles (it worked the first time at April's place) without calling for additional (higher skilled) back up Foot Ninja from Japan branch.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by Drose18

Probably was in New York purely (conicidentally?) for expansion of the Foot beyond Asia.

Hubris caused him to order a second assault on the Turtles (it worked the first time at April's place) without calling for additional (higher skilled) back up Foot Ninja from Japan branch.

Well he visited NYC 15 years prior to kill Yoshi and Shen. It can be assumed that he didn’t stay and went back to Japan immediately.

Was he top dog of the Japanese Foot, or did he have people to answer to. Seems weird that just he and Tatsu would come to America and build a ninja clan from scratch.

[neatoman]

What struck me as weird is that Shredder does not seem to be establishing a branch of the Foot in America, it seems more like he starts a gang all by himself. Like that's weird, right? Maybe the actual Foot Clan does exist but the fact that he recruits a bunch of random teenagers with barely (if any) pre-existing followers seems odd to me. Like if they continued to adapt arcs and reached CAW, how would they do that story if the Foot is just some gang the Shredder made and he's not just leading his own branch of it?

Anyway, I'm one of these people who will say the Backstory loses something by combining him with Oroku Nagi, even Mashimi as a stand-in for Nagi seemed like a better compromise to me than literally making Nagi and Saki the same character.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by neatoman

Like if they continued to adapt arcs and reached CAW, how would they do that story if the Foot is just some gang the Shredder made and he's not just leading his own branch of it?

Theoretically the Shredder-loyalists could all be in Japan or elsewhere. Even in Mirage, I don’t think we ever see the Elite until RTNY. Maybe like 1 or 2 in Leonardo #1.

Anyway, I'm one of these people who will say the Backstory loses something by combining him with Oroku Nagi, even the Mashimi as a stand.in for Nagi seemed like a better compromise to me than literally making Nagi and Saki the same character.

I agree, especially in the versions where Splinter is a rat and not a mutated Yoshi. It makes Shredder a simp/cuck when you remove Nagi.