User blog:SonofSamhain/There may be more to Eric Sachs than just a Caucasian Shredder

This is a post I am making about the upcoming 2014 film. In spite of all the flack the film has recieved because of the Turtles' new designs and the fact that Michael Bay is one of the producers and Megan Fox is playing April O'Neil, I am still interested in seeing it.

I am not bothered by the trailer implying that the Ninja Turtles are created intentionally because it was the first trailer and movie trailers have been known to be misleading.

As we know, there has been a lot of fuss regarding the Shredder now being a Caucasian man named Eric Sachs instead of a Japanese man named Oroku Saki. I was furious because of this change at first, but then I noticed that the name Eric Sachs was an Anglicized version of Oroku Saki and that it was at least a better name than Colonel Schrader.

My mellowing out to the liberties taken with the upcoming new film increased significantly when I remembered that just about every adaptation made their own creative liberties to the TMNT mythos, so it would only be fair that the movie makes its own controversial changes as well:

1. The 1987 cartoon gave the Turtles individual bandanna colors and a fondness for pizza, both of which would stick in all subsequent incarnations of the teenage terrapins. Other notable changes included Hamato Yoshi becoming Splinter instead of Splinter being his pet rat who mutated after Yoshi was killed, April being a news reporter with no connection to Baxter Stockman, and the Turtles being fully grown the instant they mutated.

2. The Archie Comics series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures was loosely based on the 1987 cartoon and its earlier issues were even adaptations of the first seven episodes, but legal issues resulted in the comics deviating from the cartoon's canon and making its own storylines and characters. They even retconned the origin so that Hamato Yoshi was kicked out of the Foot Clan because he was framed for an actual murder instead of attempted murder and that the Turtles were still babies after they mutated and grew up like normal people, the latter being the case in all other versions of the Turtles.

3. The live-action movies were for the most part more faithful to the original Mirage comics, but marginal elements from the first cartoon were carried over and there were even some changes made to the established origin, such as Oroku Saki replacing his brother Nagi as Tang Shen's lover, Saki and Splinter fighting resulting in a scarred face and a lost ear respectively, and the mutagen being a man-made creation rather than a byproduct of the alien Utroms' efforts in returning to their homeworld.

The 2007 CGI film was obviously meant as a sequel to the live-action films, but Splinter having both ears intact as well as it being seen as a separate reality from the original movies in Turtles Forever suggests that it was meant to be a different continuity and more of a spiritual successor instead of a direct sequel.

4. The much-reviled live-action show Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation was loosely based on the live-action films, but it made its own changes as well, the most notorious change being the inclusion of the fifth female turtle Venus de Milo, who even today has a following despite the immense hatred she has earned from co-creator Peter Laird and the majority of the TMNT fandom.

5. The 2003 cartoon was more or less a faithful adaptation of the original Mirage comics with a few subtle nods to the 1987 cartoon and the live-action films, but not even this adaptation was free from creative license. The Shredder turned out to be an Utrom criminal named Ch'rell, the Utroms were stranded on Earth for a thousand years rather than a couple of decades, and Tang Shen was murdered long before Hamato Yoshi met his end.

And don't get me started on the fact that Casey and April had a happier ending when compared to their Mirage counterparts.

6. The IDW Publishing comic book is heavily influenced by both the 1987 cartoon and the Mirage books with the creative twist that Splinter and the Turtles are the reincarnations of Hamato Yoshi and his four biological sons, who were killed by Oroku Saki in Feudal Japan.

7. The CGI Nickelodeon cartoon is also heavily influenced by the 1987 and Mirage incarnations, with Splinter once again being a mutated Hamato Yoshi. The most notable original change in this incarnation is that Karai is now the flesh and blood daughter of Hamato Yoshi who was raised to hate her real father by the Shredder. That is very cold!

And then there were fans who complained about the Turtles having three toes on each foot and Mikey and Donnie's weapons having retractable blades.

As you can see, every incarnation of TMNT made their deliberately creative touches to the mythos, which is just one reason why we shouldn't assume the new film will be terrible because the Shredder now goes by Eric Sachs.

The other piece of evidence I've found is that Karai is in the movie and is played by Minae Noji, who is obviously of Japanese descent. I am aware of rumors that the Shredder in this movie will turn out to be Krang, but rumors are not always true. I have also heard speculation that Eric Sachs is an impostor and that Oroku Saki is still the one true Shredder.

I have also heard some flack because people are angry that Casey Jones and Bebop and Rocksteady won't be in it. I would have liked those guys to be in the movie, too, but I am not mad because it is the first movie and they might be saved for the sequel. Not every important character has to be in the first installment.

It is likely they are meant to be saved for sequels because Casey Jones is a very important character to the franchise and has been in nearly every incarnation (he is mentioned briefly in the Archie series and he would have appeared with April on Next Mutation had the second season saw the light of day) and Bebop and Rocksteady are obviously fan favorites.

Getting back to the subject, I must say that while making the Shredder a Caucasian dude may be a risky change, it is very likely that we are jumping to conclusions by saying that the decision is a terrible idea. Whatever the real story behind Eric Sachs is, we'll find out August 8, 2014.