Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1255374-20151111163045/@comment-995426-20160312001230

Okay, this discussion appears to be going in circles, which is what usually happens when Yoshimickster and I post back-and-forth. I'll try to put my central argument more simply, and it's a fairly personal one.

I came to appreciate the 2012 TV series for its dramatic elements, its subtlety, its continuity, and how characters could still be sincere when they needed to be. Even Michelangelo originally had a lot more sincere moments than he has now. I wanted the story to continue on that path, and maintain a central integrity I could respect. Since season 3, it has felt like that's been thrown out the window in favor of an ever younger audience, an ever more transparently merchandise-driven formula, more fanwank for an older cartoon I found irritating, and the willingness to drastically reformulate characters relying on the fleeting TV demographic rule so many viewers will either not remember or not care.

Adult comics, on the other hand, tend to be more about continuity in-universe. Readers tend to expect more continuity, because they remember more details for longer. If that continuity starts feeling broken, it can feel so jarring. The 2012 TV series initially very obviously tapped into that adult comic-reading niche audience, riddling episodes with very recognizable comics-related easter eggs. But now all premise of continuity and attention to detail has dramatically thinned since season 3. It can frustrate the detail-conscious viewer to no end.

I know this can happen when a story answers more to a toyetic market than it does to a central authority of continuity. The reason many 2003 TV series viewers considered Fast Forward a cardinal sin against the series, was its drastic shift from respecting a consistent myth arc towards something more pliable to Playmates' sales-driven demands. And given the fact that the 1987 TV series audience was so fundamentally different and far less serious than what Mirage or 2003 cultivated, it should be no surprise when the demands of now-adult 1987 TV series fans are regarded by more Mirage- and 2003-oriented fans with such distaste.

From what I've gleaned of my Mirage fan friends, the central complaint is that the 1987 TV series cultivated a fan base whose tastes in TMNT never seem willing to grow up or take anything seriously. And the central complaint from the 1987 TV series fans about Mirage and 2003? "It's not like the 80s cartoon." Of course not&mdash;they're very, very different works with very different writers, very different audiences and very different expectations, and they might as well not even share the same title or franchise with each other. The 2012 TV series did start out with something my Mirage fan friends and I could at least respect. And now...we can't respect it anymore. It's abandoned too much of what we've come to expect from it. That jars us, makes us feel betrayed, alienated. That is a pain that lasts.

...Okay, I guess I still don't know how to make myself brief. But my fundamental grievances should be simple to understand, shouldn't they? Ultimately, what I want is to feel respected as an audience, so I can keep enjoying what I've initially chosen to read or watch. I have enough friends of similar interests to know I was never alone in what I liked, and we've all come to feel thoroughly alienated by this show.