Thread:The S/@comment-995426-20180619005933/@comment-995426-20180620005912

Really? I've also preferred "antagonists" all this time.

And that's part of my point&mdash;neither friends nor allies are all-encompassing concepts. But maybe that's okay. These aren't simplistic cartoon characters with black and white morals for young children, but complex personalities with just as complex interpersonal relationships. Many shades of grey there.

That's part of why, when I moved the MNT Gaiden pages to their own wiki, I did away with all such categorical distinctions. For example, is categorized: Characters | Hamato-Jones Family | Ninja | Scientists | Mutants | Turtles | Male | Cursed. That's it.

And it's true that IDW and Mirage aren't quite as brutal as MNTG, but IDW has done a great job unfolding characters like Hob and Splinter as believably complicated, baggage-laden individuals who periodically do very wrong things, casting instability on their bonds and alliances.

And the Pantheon members are very ancient in age, which is a lot of time to accumulate baggage, deeply jaundiced worldviews, and a clear sense of boundaries. You meet characters like Aka and Manmoth, and it's clear that very few of these questions are new to them, and though many of their arrangements are the most ideal, it is sheer hard-lived experience has brought them to their positions. They are immortal, and their siblings are the only siblings they have, and one way or another they will always have to deal with each other. In this context, it becomes easier to understand why Manmoth finds it relatively easy to befriend, but far more difficult to become involved in conflicts that will affect his siblings. Aka chose to involve herself, but even that was a reluctant decision with deep long-term repercussions.

It just feels...inappropriate to pigeonhole these characters as friends, enemies, allies or antagonists of four specific mortal mutant brothers still on the cusp of maturity. If I were to categorize these unstable acquaintances as anything, it would be as Wild Cards.