Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-995426-20150510123525



Recently I've been trying to better understand the layout of the Turtle Lair (2012 TV series). We know it was originally a subway relay station, but there are other curiosities that have percolated on my mind. I don't expect answers to any of them (and some of them are almost certainly cartoon plot holes that will never be explained), but they're fun to think about. :) I'm encouraging anyone


 * What could have been the practical purpose of the lair's layout when it functioned as a subway relay station? Also considering that many features of the lair could have been modifications made by Splinter and/or Donatello over the years.
 * Was the subway relay station ever actually completed and in service? It occurs to me that it could have been a public construction project that was axed and abandoned before it was done.  Some of the features seem like they could have been a little posh for a typical subway station.  Of course, nothing much about the lair seems typical. :)
 * Were the and  (which face each other) two components of diner?  Kitchen and dining room, maybe?  Perhaps the "moat" surrounding the dojo was meant to be a decorative water feature with fountains, etc.  I'm thinking the pizza oven in the kitchen might have already been there before they moved in, or else how would the turtles genuinely not know what pizza was until they were 15 years old?
 * What are the holes above the center of the and above the tree in the dojo, which bring in sunlight during the day?  Where on the surface would this sunlight filter in?  Might the holes have been for staircases/escalators?  Perhaps they were just skylights?  But if they were skylights, how did commuters enter or exit the station besides through the turnstiles?
 * What was the 's function? I can imagine maybe the garage door's connection with the tunnel was added later, perhaps by Donatello.  Perhaps the room was meant to function as business space?
 * What was the function of the four turtle bedrooms and bathroom? Men's room?  Ladies' room?  Janitor's closet?  Office?  I've noticed  (at least) has a water fixture that may have been used to connect sinks, toilets, etc.
 * Could the station have additional rooms either not connected to the lair, or merely not shown on the show? Maybe some of the doors to never-seen rooms (like the bathroom) are actually doors to other hallways further inside.
 * The kitchen seems to partially vertically overlap with the subway tracks. So is the kitchen above or below the subway tunnel?  Or maybe it's located in a magical hammer space. :)
 * What exactly is that chandelier/staircase in the living room? The one that fell down and almost killed Kraang Subprime.  It doesn't look like the kind of thing that would have been built as part of the subway station.  It doesn't seem practical enough to be a staircase.  It actually looks like...a piece of sculpture art, or something.  Maybe it's something Donatello built, especially considering it's repaired and hanging back up after they return to reclaim the lair in season 3.
 * Where does the "moat" water come from? How clean is it?  Especially considering that characters have been directly in and out of the water.
 * Is it clean water from the city pipes that merely drains into the sewer? This could help keep the moat clean of bacteria and algae, but a continuous flow might get noticed by the city waterworks.  Maybe it's a really slow flow?
 * Is it raw sewage? This seems highly unlikely both in a subway station and in their home, because the strong smells and gases of the raw sewage could make it unlivable.  Reportedly, most big city sewage actually doesn't smell that bad, because it's full of detergents and other cleaning agents.  But these are still toxic and give off toxic gases.
 * Is it grey water? Not especially suitable for drinking, but not really a health hazard?  Could it be runoff from an underground stream or drainage from a pond or something?  Still, that has the potential to bring in a lot of sediment, and with it pond scum, algae, etc., even if the water is not sewage.
 * Is it seawater? Maybe it's connected to the East River somehow.  ...but depending on the cleanliness of the water, that may not necessarily be any better than raw sewage. XD
 * Is it recycled water? If the moat was originally constructed as a decorative water feature, it might have even been empty and dry when Splinter moved in.  It could even have a filter keeping it clean, much like a pool, hot tub or aquarium.  They should probably know better not to try to chlorinate the water, because the lair may not be ventilated well enough to deal with that much chlorine gas.  It's possible it doesn't actually always drain into the sewer at all, but merely provides travel access to the sewers.
 * How does the lair do its laundry? Sure the turtles don't wear much clothes, but Splinter does, and there's also cleaning the masks, bed sheets, blankets, etc.  I haven't seen a washer or dryer, or know where they could fit one.
 * How does the lair protect against storm surges and other kinds of flooding? I know this is a recurring problem for all of New York City in general, but even the best-maintained underground spaces are vulnerable to occasional flooding.  The grate in the center of the living room floor (the one Mikey and Leatherhead were romantically spooning on) looks like it can handle incidental drainage, but it would be overwhelmed if the entire chamber were flooding, because the chambers below would be no less flooded by that point.  Or maybe this version of New York City never has hurricanes and never floods. :P
 * I wonder whose idea it was to make the algae grow lights green. The ones over the algae tanks in the garage, I mean.  Green light is wasted in a grow light&mdash;green algae and plants just reflect it (and thus appear green to our eyes).  That's why most grow lights emit magenta light.
 * For that matter, if we know how they farmed the algae, how did they farm the worms? Since the turtles weren't even allowed to leave the lair until they were 15, I doubt they foraged the tunnels for them.  I doubt Splinter foraged the tunnels either.  They almost certainly had to have farmed the worms for a reliable food source.
 * I can see how the turtles were introduced to pizza and other food and snacks after they first explored the surface. But how do they obtain it?  Or even so much as Spike's lettuce leaves, which he was seen eating as early as the second episode?  The North Hampton episodes were relatively methodical in explaining how April and Casey shopped for groceries and the turtles stayed out of sight.  (Though with no explanation of how they earned the money to pay for the groceries, utilities, etc., or who kept the chickens fed and alive while no one was living there. :P)  The lair under Manhattan has no equivalent explanation, and food just magically appears as needed.  (There's a reason this is called "fridge logic." :P)  Maybe Raphael farmed Spike's lettuce under another grow light somewhere?  Or maybe...the leaves were from the tree in the dojo and are not actually lettuce at all?  Come to think of it, do Spike's leaves and the tree leaves look at all similar?  (Hmm, they don't seem to.  Spike's leaves really look quite lettucy.)
 * Why is so bare and desolate?  It has the Cheese Phone, a bare mat of tatami to sleep on...but not even a futon, or anything resembling a place to store clothing.  Maybe he washes the same identical kimono and underwear over and over and over again and doesn't have anywhere else to store it? XD
 * We have yet to see much of anything of or .  We know that, facing from the lair's entrance, they're both on the left-hand side of the four bedrooms.  We know that, on the right-hand side, Mikey's room is closer, and Raph's room is further, but whose room is whose on the left side?  And I keep wondering what their rooms look like, and if Leo's room in particular is always ultra-tidy. 