Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-31255465-20170923034221/@comment-33336503-20180213025635

Fishface405 wrote: Not to critcize your opinion or anything but why do you like this arc? It's nothing but an hour-long turd of depression. I believe I stated my reasons elsewhere on this page but I'll do them again b/c you're not like Easol or Asfaloth. Regarding what you just said, it's not as depressing an episode as a lot of people point it out to be mostly because it has just as much a campy tone as it does a postapocalyptic gloom and doom feel. Hair on turtles is one thing (the Transformers franchise is guilty of that a lot too which is one of the many reasons I can't take that franchise seriously either), but the campiness of the villains, the Mad Max tone mixed with the Mirage vibe, and that final Space Hereos TNG episode are several more things too. About that Mirage vibe though, I definitely think this is one of those kind of stories that Eastman and Laird would've written back in their days at that place (as if that final Mirage based picture at the end wasn't a final indicator that this episode may as well have been a love letter to them and what/where they started) which is another reason both to find something to enjoy in it as well as to not take it as seriously as others want me to; indeed, from the beginning this franchise has had to balance the serious and the non serious whether on paper or on screen and for the most part it was successful as I believe that was the case here. I also have a soft spot for characters who have lost everything and go on this search to either find redemption, salvation, and/or the things they've lost which is what the case was in the end, and that's also why I believe the search for Oasis was (or was supposed to be interpreted as) more a symbolic journey than a literal one to find the family they had lost which has been a major theme for not only this series but pretty much the franchise since its inception. I also don't mind the mystery behind the mutagen bomb since I believe the culprit and their motives behind it don't really matter when you've got the search for everyone and the theme of family as the main focus and driving force of the story, and I don't mind the time jump either since the leap forward in years allowed for a reset that gave the story slight permission to refocus on a whole new story that didn't have room for those not directly involved with it. The animation was also really good, I don't think the character designs were as bad as everyone says they are (I can make Mikey an exception but I can't let something as trivial as character designs cloud my judgement of the episode itself), and Leo's turn as a villain was actually the most interesting part of the story to me since he mirrored his worst enemy all the way down to his motivation: the loss of the person he loved and the disentegration of his relationship with the only family he had ever known. The mutagen bomb may have affected Leo some but I believe the loss of those he cared for drove him into being the way Saki ended up and it took the reunion of those he cared for to bring him back to himself. I believe the stuff I mentioned here is more than enough to compensate for any shortcomings the script has.

Now would I put it in my top 10? No. While I like this arc on its own terms (save for the raunchy humor in the middle entry for sure), long term I don't think this had to be the last episode either, and from the fan reactions I don't think the creators took that into account when they made this, which is something you have to do because to me, the finale IS everything! It may seem unfair but it's a lot like the Super Bowl game in the NFL, that being it's the only one that matters. Now that's just a nit as compared to my second reason and it's that this arc proved what made the later seasons, most of all this one, so disappointing in the fact that it seemed the creators took more effort into referencing stuff (even though even the issues of TMNT old are guilty of that too) and bringing in other characters from this franchise (in this case the Scale Tale clan) than fulfilling established storylines and wrapping up loose ends. That's why I can't overall stand S5 save for the Usagi trilogy. Still, like I said, the first one is more of a nit than my second reason is. So what I'm saying is that while MA isn't top 10 for me, it's certainly Best of the Rest. Thanks for your interest Fishface and thanks for reading.