Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25684889-20150822230425/@comment-995426-20150825012759

Sorry, had to take a nap. This debate was too mentally exhausting and frustrating. The explanation I've supplied has been the same explanation I've been giving for quite a while now. But I don't think I've ever encountered this much pushback from one person. It doesn't help that I'm very bad at walking away from debates, even when I start to detect mental gymnastics in the counterarguments. I don't need to offer any mental gymnastics&mdash;I describe that which, through my prior discussions with friends, we agreed is the most obvious and logical conclusion. But somewhere along the way, I must have gotten pulled into an argument that bordered dangerously close to "stop thinking what I don't think," and I really should know better by now that that is exactly what many fans will do if they feel their headcanons challenged.

When it comes down to it, this is a show with a soft canon. The writers change and play around with...seemingly pretty much whatever they want, as long as enough time has elapsed. Plots and developments come and go, and can be quietly retconned and retooled. The fact that we're already seeing season 1 plots partially recycled in season 3 is pretty telling. I mean, today, this show generally has two major audiences&mdash;children 4 to 7 (the TV-Y7 rating notwithstanding), and manchildren a quarter of a century older. Very young viewers don't always have the best memory, making it possible to recycle plots every two years or so. But the fans of the 1987 series increasingly demand their favorite elements of that show be carried over into the new show&mdash;not even the stuff that would have seasoned and matured over time, but more specifically the stuff they liked when they were 4 to 7. Problem is, I'm neither a tween nor a man-tween. At best, I'm a man-young-adult. I liked the 2K12 series when it seemed to be a pretty good teen drama (angst, hormones, comedy of errors, meaningful personal growth, all that) in addition to being an action comedy. Responsible-but-awkward Leo, moody tomboy Raph, geek-in-love Donnie and adorkable late-bloomer Mikey were entirely congruent to that genre. But this series hasn't been a teen drama for almost a whole season now. Maybe Nick decided they simply couldn't attract or make a profit with that kind of audience anymore. But whatever reason it was, I'm still disappointed.