Scale of 1-10: How Dark is this series?

[JTH]

When I first heard about the new Nick Turtles show, I expected it to be a CG version of the 87' turtles, story wise. Comedy driven and a lot of cheesiness.

While that stuff is there, I must say some of the stories are quite dark for a Nick show, closer to the 03' Turtles than the 87' Turtles from that aspect of it. Which is a big surprise to me.

Scale of 1-10, I'd say about a 6.

Thoughts?

[CyberCubed]

There's really nothing on the level of the 4kids series yet. Characters haven't been impaled, stabbed, or died whatsoever. In the 4kids series Mikey pulled a pin on a grenade and LAUGHED as the Triceraton was blown up off-screen.

There were also characters shooting realistic hand guns at each other which is something we haven't seen in Nick yet.

[The Stryker]

.....Who cares?

Unless you mean literally then I give it a 7.

[TheCanadiandrome]

i'd say about a 6.5

[LH]

I would say somewhere around 6 or 7 is accurate... I mean we've got:

-The murder of Tang Shen.

-Snakeweed mutating to the point where his bones and heart are exposed, and then being violently destroyed twice.

-Leatherhead being tortured and experimented on his whole life, escaping, and then going back to Dimension X to save his friends.

-Dr.Rockwell being turned into a mutant monkey, and then having psychic fluids painfully removed from his brain.

-The Rat King being horribly burned and scarred, forced to spend the rest of his life in the sewer among rats.

-Karai being threatened by Shredder with his blade.

-The fact that the Kraang are planning genocide on the human race.

-That very intense beating April recieved in the last episode.

[Martin]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

There's really nothing on the level of the 4kids series yet. Characters haven't been impaled, stabbed, or died whatsoever. In the 4kids series Mikey pulled a pin on a grenade and LAUGHED as the Triceraton was blown up off-screen.

There were also characters shooting realistic hand guns at each other which is something we haven't seen in Nick yet.

Ahh the good old times...

I'd give this series a 5 in terms of darkness. It had it's moments (both fights against shredder come to mind especially the first one), but when compared to the levels of darkness/violence of the 2k3 run, it really doesn't come anywhere near it.

[Andrew NDB]

1 being Fred Wolf and 10 being, like, Ninja Assassin? Like a 2, 2 1/2 at best.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

3? It's a lighthearted, fun series. It's not supposed to be 100% serious.

[Drose18]

Not even 4

[NinjaPug]

I'd give it a 3.

[Shark_Blade]

Originally Posted by Leatherhead (2012)

I would say somewhere around 6 or 7 is accurate... I mean we've got:

-The murder of Tang Shen.

-Snakeweed mutating to the point where his bones and heart are exposed, and then being violently destroyed twice.

-Leatherhead being tortured and experimented on his whole life, escaping, and then going back to Dimension X to save his friends.

-Dr.Rockwell being turned into a mutant monkey, and then having psychic fluids painfully removed from his brain.

-The Rat King being horribly burned and scarred, forced to spend the rest of his life in the sewer among rats.

-Karai being threatened by Shredder with his blade.

-The fact that the Kraang are planning genocide on the human race.

-That very intense beating April recieved in the last episode.

Agree with this but I'll give it an 8.

If they include blood and shirt rip, it'll be higher.

[BabyTurtles]

Originally Posted by Shark_Blade

Agree with this but I'll give it an 8.

If they include blood and shirt rip, it'll be higher.

what about that time Leo sliced, Spyroaches saw arm and black ooze spewed out XD......

[Martin]

I think this thread needs a poll. It'd be a nice round up of everyone's opinions on the matter.

[Leofan26]

I'm giving it a 7 myself, I'd say 4Kids version was the darkest of the TMNT series, this has some moments like Karai arc hitting that level sort of.

[Jester]

I give it a 9.95...

()

[Candy Kappa]

When it wants to go dark, it goes to a solid 7.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Candy Kappa

When it wants to go dark, it goes to a solid 7.

I wonder... is the darkest material you've ever seen, like, Harry Potter or something?

[Jester]

Depends on how you gauge the scale, Andrew.

I'm assuming (I know, that's a risky endeavor) the 1-10 scale is for children's action oriented cartoons.

If the scale included R rated flicks, than the scale would scale accordingly.

[zkarlette]

I give it a 3 and that is when Xever was around.

[Candy Kappa]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I wonder... is the darkest material you've ever seen, like, Harry Potter or something?

This is all considered that it is a superhero-world action cartoon.

We have had dismemberment of Snakeweed, hes been blown to bits and had it not been for his healing factor he'd be dead by now. we saw his heart stop beating.

Flashback Yoshi holding a dead Tang Shen.

Shredder's motives are to kill and he nearly succeeded had it not been for Xever and Bradford's distraction.

Didn't Foot Ninja get thrown off the building in The Gauntlet?

Leatherhead is implied tortured, same with the captured Kraang in karai's Vendetta.

Karai's senseless beating of April in same episode, had it not been for bringing her in alive April would have been dead.

The Turtles aren't always up to save people, if it isn't their business they don't without reason go all Hero out. That is why April had to go Solo in a previous episode to find out what the Kraang was up to. Had it not been for Donnie April would also have been taken with her father.

The moral of teh show is a lot more realistic then the average children's cartoon:
Do no harm, unless you mean to do harm. Then do lots of harm.
It's about winning not fairness.
Use the element of surprise.
don't let the enemy get the better of you.

Leo's swords do connect hits, fighting the sea monster you can see Leo's swords cut the beast, as well as Raph's sai stab it. Mikey cut open a Kraang Droid when he thought it was human.

The show have the characters intention to kill and not "Take them!" it is (of course limits of being a children's cartoon) as dark as the average superhero comic book goes, as well as the Mirage TMNT books.

The show may never go bodycount on us, but that's a good thing. bodycount is not dark or gritty in story telling sense. it's just Hilarius bloodsplatter fest and is really pointless. nor will we most likely ever see Leo skewer Shredder or behead him, Raph stab a Foot to death and etc. But there are other ways of telling a dark story. Often, not seeing the bad stuff is worse, making us imagine it ourselves.

The show also gives us some authentic Ninja bits here and there and not just popculture crap like most ninja show and movies like Ninja Assassin gives us. Which was about time some research was done for the TMNT franchise.