Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26489974-20160315055507/@comment-11362412-20171012202230

Ok. Now that i’ve Actually watched a couple episodes of 2003 TMNT, I have a new biggest problem. It’s the same as every other action cartoon of that time. It’s the same as Teen Titans, The Batman, Spectacular Spider-Man. Heck, as bad as that show was, it’s even the same as Loonatics Unleashed. All of these shows that people have similar problems, they take themselves too seriously. Even if they have a somewhat goofey premis, they still have to be all “We’re dark and serious and we kick massive but!” Honestly though, just as people who grew up in the 2000s or later don’t really understand why people love 80s cartoons. I just can’t understand it. I was born in 1999, but I was not allowed to watch any TV above preschool tv until 2008, at the earliest. And even then my interests were very limited. So my tastes were forged in the 2010s. This decade is more about blending serious character development with comedy. Look at what’s popular (that’s actually good), Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, Star vs. The Forces Of Evil. And you see similar stuff. Which, i’ll Admit, is fodder for the “they’re all the same” argument as well. But the difference for me is, I grew up with these shows, so I like the style of show they are. I didn’t grow up with 2000s action shows, so I don’t like the style cartoon they are. Same thing with 80s or 90s cartoons.

And as for the “excessive” callbacks to the 80s cartoon in 2012. Honestly, those are some of the better episodes. Because the writers loved what they were calling back to and took the time and effort to do something new and interesting with it for modern audiences, and for the sake of not being redundant. The same way they lovingly recreated the Mirage comics stories in 2003. The exception is “Meet Mondo Gecko”, you can tell that they just wanted to get Mondo Gecko into the show so he could be a Mighty Mutanimal and they could ditch Pigeon Pete. They could have just released his introduction as a short on youtube or something and it would have been the same. To me, the WORSt episodes of 2012 are ones like “A Foot Too Big”, “Meet Mondo Gecko”, and the whole Savanti Romero monsters arc. They just feel worse to me. Like no one cared about what they were writing.

As for Mutagen Man, yes I wish he had come back. But honestly, he just was never the biggest thing the turtles should be focusing on. A Kraang and Triceraton invasion, Super Shredder. Mutagen Man ranks pretty low. Plus Donnie said he won’t thaw for a couple decades. Meaning that the amount of heat needed to thaw him now would probably kill him in the process. (In all seriousness though, I think Roger Craig Smith just got busy).

And I have LITERALLY no idea what you mean by “soft reboots”, and I think a lot of the Turtles and April got some real character development later. Especially during the Super Shredder arc.