Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-995426-20150915071159/@comment-995426-20150915112948

Okay, I've given this a bit more thought.

There is something interesting about Raph and Zog's interaction here that sets them apart from other versions of TMNT. In Mirage and 2K3, Zog died without ever regaining his sanity. But this time, Zog did regain his sanity, and the episode actually showed the grave consequences of that. Zog turned on Raph, and against the entire Earth, and died rather than let Raph save him.

I think this episode ended up casting Raph in a very, very bad light. See, that scene of Raph trying to save Zog by reaching for his hand, reminded me so much of the end of Slash and Destroy when he tried to do the same thing for Slash. That was truly heartbreaking to watch, and Raph grieved a lost companion, and Splinter actually compared him to losing his companion. And Raph still worried and angsted over Slash, though mainly acted with discretion in the company of others. But this episode had Raph barely even acknowledging Slash's existence, even when Slash was hurt. Remember what happened last time Slash was apparently hurt?



A scene so visually rich, emotional and tender that I added it to my special Blips gallery.

But this episode's interaction between Raph and Slash created the impression of Raph not giving enough of a damn. He was a cold fish. And so when he willfully manipulates and deceives Zog, his offer of friendship to a now-hostile Zog seemed shallow at best. Zog was right to be furious and distrustful after what happened. Maybe not justified in wanting to destroy the Earth just to prevent the Kraang from conquering and strategically controlling it. But Raph was petty to Zog, and if the Earth is destroyed as a consequence, part of that is on Raph.

For that matter, I remember Zog blaming the turtles (and Earth by extension) for letting the Kraang roam free on their planet. And, it's not like the turtles haven't tried hard to stop the Kraang. But it reminded me of something one of my friends pointed out as recently as the previous episode: These four turtles are inept, or at least increasingly more inept than they used to be. When Splinter saved the day in his badass way in The Fourfold Trap, it was awesome to see him taking control, but it also had the effect of making his sons look incompetent. Indeed, especially in this season, they make increasingly stupid mistakes that make you think, "Ninja, I know you know better. Stop being an idiot!" The Creeping Doom was a notable example of the turtles' stupidity driving the plot. (And I don't mean Donnie getting really Mikey-level stupid. Even before that, he should have known better not to put so many dangerous items on a fragile shelf just begging for his little brother to wreck moments later.  And there was also Raph's schmuck bait moment in that episode, and so forth.)  I mean, showing the turtles making mistakes can help for good character development, but there's a difference between being flawed and using serial poor judgment. So, even if Zog could not personally witness those other moments, there's a ring of truth in his assessment of the turtles' ineptness.