Ninja Turtles Fandom Overview
Updated on July 1st, 2008.
ETA:
Character profiles on Baxter Stockman, Agent Bishop, Oyuki Mamisha.
Movie summary for TMNT IV
Storylines for Seasons 4-6
Hi! I'm nightwalker and I'll be driving one of the small fandom vans this month - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Good God, you're saying right now, someone actually wants to rec for the Ninja Turtles? Does that series even have a fandom?
"Anybody want to tell me how we're going to do this?"
"Like we always do. Together."
~Michelangelo and Leonardo
Kick-butt action, ongoing storylines, plot, intriguing cast and guest characters, tight writing, well-written and realistically depicted relationships, slash and het romance potential and four brothers who would die for each other. What more could you ask for of a fandom? Of course there are giant turtles, but you have to take the good with the moderately ludicrous.
The basic premise is probably familar to you: Four baby turtles are exposed to some sort of mutagenic agent. A sewer rat is moved to pity and gathers them in an old coffee can, thus getting the mutagen on himself. Overnight the five experience a sudden growth and heightened intelligence. The rat, named Splinter, realizes that the mutagen has turned them all into something more than animals, and raises the four turtles as his sons. They live alone and unmolested in the sewers of NYC, largely unnoticed by the world above. Until they happen across a young woman in danger, and make the decision to step out of the shadows.
The Origin Story
It was 1983 when two part-time comic artists accidentally came up with the idea of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They were hanging out, watching TV, and Kevin sketched a picture of a turtle walking on two legs. He drew in some nunchukus and called it a "ninja turtle." Peter tagged on the "teenage mutant" part and they both liked the idea enough to continue it. Little did they know.
Mirage has the entire first issue of TMNT posted on the official site. It takes a while to load if you have dial-up, but if you've never seen the original series, you should check it out.
Characters:
"These guys friends of yours?"
"Brothers, actually."
"I can see the family resemblance."
"I'm the pretty one!"
~Casey, Raphael and Michelangelo
Leonardo: Leo's the leader and he never lets you forget it. In his defense, he never lets himself forget it either, always painfully aware that his actions could at any time lead one or more of his brothers to their deaths. He takes responsibility seriously, never blows off his commitments and is almost fanatical at times in the pursuit of his training. Of the four, Leo is the best ninja although not necessarily the best fighter. He looks up to and admires Splinter with a reverence his brothers don't always share. Leo's the most likely to have a crisis of faith as well as being prone to self-doubt. All of which, unfortunately, adds up to a character a bit prone to angst. When he's not stressed out about being in charge, which is rarely, I admit, Leo's a pretty cool guy. Being the eldest, he sees his brothers as his responsibility and he can be protective, often times at the risk of his own safety. Ever want to see Leo lose his cool? Threaten one of the others. Then run, because you're about to be dead. Fights with double katana.
Donatello: Quieter than Mike, more patient than Leo and calmer than Raphael (not that this is a feat, by any means), Donatello is the peacemaker of the team. He'd rather read a book than kick your butt, and if you don't push him, that's exactly what he'll do. It's not overstating the case to say that Donatello is the brains of the group. Don shows as much interest in the human world as Raphael and Michelangelo, but while their interest translates into a desire to live and explore and be accepted, Don just might be happy if we gave him unlimited access to the Library of Congress. His intelligence goes beyond his gadgets - Donatello has demonstrated an ability to learn languages quickly, and perform complex mathematical equations in his head. Compared to his brothers, he is probably the weakest fighter - in fact, in the 2003 cartoon series, he's most often the one who needs assistance in a fight - but that doesn't mean you should underestimate his abilities. Compared to most of their adversaries, Donnie can still kick serious butt. Gets on best with Mike, probably because of their years dealing with the rivalry between Raph and Leo. Fights with bo staff.
Raphael: Raphael has, shall we say, anger management issues. Fans of the original cartoon may remember Raphael as the sarcastic punster of the group, but that was a heavily watered down version of the character. Pick a word to describe Raph and you find yourself debating the merits of "homicidal" versus "pissed." Nonetheless, he can be very protective and not just of his family. Tends to get outraged easily for all his cynical behavior, and really, really, really hates looking bad in front of an audience. This includes losing fights, being shown up by Donnie or making mistakes. Also, anything involving Leo just might send him into a wall-punching tirade. But he's working on that, honest. Raph may not be the best ninja of the team, but he's definitely the best warrior. Despite their constant bickering and one-upmanship, Raph and Leo are very tight, and understand each other in a way that their less intense brothers never will. Fights with sai.
"That really ticks me off!"
"Raph, everything ticks you off."
"Not everything! … All right. Everything."
~Raphael and Donatello
Michelangelo: The world's not a stage; it's a video game, and not only does Michelangelo have a pocket full of quarters, he also downloaded the walk-through off the internet. And if the walk-through turns out to be wrong, he's the king of button mashers. Mike just tends to be generally happier than his brothers, but he also tends not to look at the world too closely. He avoids upsetting topics, deals with fear and frustration by ignoring it whenever possible and making light of it when it's not. Mike's the only artistic one in the group, often sketching or working on a story when he's supposed to be doing something else. In several continuities, Mike ends up a published writer. Fights with nunchuku.
Splinter: "A little 90-pound weapon of mass destruction we like to call 'Dear Old Dad'." Well, I wouldn't call Splinter "little" or "old" but that's only because I'd be afraid he might ground me. Splinter is their father, teacher and occasionally parole officer. He' a constant source of wisdom and a nearly indefatigable font of patience. Splinter isn't perfect, though. Originally Splinter was more than a little hung up on vengeance against the Foot Clan. His expectations are occasionally shown to be hard for the guys to live up to - especially Raph.
Splinter was originally a rat, the pet of Hamato Yoshi and he learned ninjitsu by mimicking his master's movements from his cage. I think we'll all agree this is pretty impressive. Hamato Yoshi was murdered by the Shredder, and Splinter was injured in the fight. He escaped into the sewers, where he crawled through the ooze to rescue four baby turtles, and found himself gaining human intelligence and features.
Hamato Yoshi: In the FHE cartoon series, Hamato Yoshi was mutated into a rat, and began calling himself Splinter. In all other continuities, Hamato Yoshi was one of the greatest warriors of the Foot Clan. He fell in love with a beautiful woman named Tang Shen. Unfortunately, Yoshi's greatest rival was Oroku Nagi, who also loved Tang Shen. She denied him, and in a fit of fury, he beat her. Yoshi interrupted and killed Nagi, an extremely dishonorable act, as no Foot Clan warrior should ever kill another, although apparently it's perfectly all right for them to beat each other's wives. Rather than committing suicide and hoping for his honor to be restored, Yoshi and Tang Shen fled to America, taking Yoshi's pet rat, Splinter, with him. They lived there for many years, until Nagi's brother Oroku Saki became the head of the New York Foot Clan.
April O'Neil: A computer science geek who worked as an assistant to Doctor Baxter Stockman. April found herself fired (and fleeing attempted murder) when she discovered her boss had built the Mousers to rob banks and terrorize the city. She was rescued from the Mousers by the Turtles, which is a really funny sentence, when you think about it. At the time April would have been hard pressed to say which was worse, her attackers or her rescuers. The guys helped her take Stockman down, and she ended up one of their strongest and most loyal allies.
For the FHE cartoon, April was revised as a TV news reporter, presumably because it made it easier to explain why she was running around getting into the middle of all the fighting and excitement. The movies and the Archie Comics timeline kept the TV angle, and made her an investigative reporter. The new cartoon series has returned April to her original roots.
April has a delightfully complicated relationship with Casey Jones in most continuities (see Pairings, below) except the Archie timeline.
Casey Jones: What do you do with a crazed vigilante who likes to run around the city beating up gang members with sporting equipment? Well, apparently you make him one of the family. Casey and Raph started out on rocky terms (they tried to beat the crap out of each other), but eventually Casey worked his way into their hearts - or at least into their fridge. Casey and Raph are best friends and Casey fell hard for April, who most of the time seems to feel the same way. Casey and April are married in the Mirage continuity. (see pairings below). Casey appears in every continuity except the Archie series.
Shredder/Oroku Saki: The Big Bad of the TMNT universe. Oroku Saki was a shadow warrior of the Foot Clan who pushed himself to perfection in order to avenge the murder of his brother, Nagi - don't feel too much sympathy, though, Nagi was a real jerk. Saki eventually became the head of the Foot Clan in New York City, turned the Clan into a criminal enterprise and used his position to hunt down and murder Hamato Yoshi, the man who had killed his brother. In killing Yoshi, Saki destroyed the cage holding Yoshi's pet rat, an act he would later come to regret, believe it or not. Saki began calling himself The Shredder and his influence over the criminal element of New York became nearly absolute.
In the Funimation cartoon, Oroku Saki was revealed to be an Utrom in human disguise.
Karai: A Foot soldier sent to stop the increasing chaos in New York as the Foot Clan begins to self-destruct after the Shredder's death. Karai makes a pact with the Turtles: help her restore order, and she gives her word that the Foot Clan will leave the Turtles in peace.
In the Funimation universe, Karai is the foster-daughter of the Shredder, and his second in command of the Foot. She's kind of wishy-washy and spends a lot of time being upset because she has to do things she doesn't want to do.
Doctor Baxter Stockman: Stockman appeared in the Mirage, Classic Toon and 2003 Toom universes. In the Classic Toon version, he was a bumbling scientist who worked for Shredder and ended up mutated into a flyman (inspiring such wonderful episode titles as Son of Return of the Fly). In Mirage and the 2003 series he was a brilliant but damaged man who worked for Shredder and was eventually tortured into insanity. He's made several appearances in the 2003 series where he was recently rehabilitated (well, in the year 2105, so there's plenty of time for him to still cause trouble till then).
Agent Bishop: In the 2003 series, he's the leader of the Earth Defense Force, a government agency dedicated to protecting Earth from alien threats. Bishop - who may have been a soldier during the Civil War - is a genetically enhanced human who has his consciousness transplanted into freshly cloned bodies on a regular basis. It's uncertain how many of his accomplishments are his own creation or the product of those who work for him. He's also a madman with a streak of viciousness and cruelty. He's not above killing and torturing innocent aliens to learn more about them, and he's been dissecting mutants in order to build a super-soldier. Capture at his hands is one of the few things the guys have shown to genuinely fear. Bishop also created the Rat King.
Oyuki Mamisha: In the Archie Continuity, Oyuki was a homeless girl who was kidnapped by crazy people who wanted to sacrifice her to wake a demon called Noi Tai Dar. The Turtles rescued her and Oyuki ended up becoming April's roommate. She spent a lot of time complaining about April making her climb onto the fire escape to catch a smoke, but they got along well. When April went freelance, Oyuki became her cameraman and eventually became a reporter in her own right.
Pimiko: The Shredder's daughter in the Image universe. So very nearly kicked Raph's tail, but ended up helping the Turtles against an outside foe. Had more or less been adopted into the extended Turtle family by the end of the series.
Renet: Originally the apprentice to Lord Simultaneous, the Time Master, Renet has since become the Time Mistress. I hate to call her a deus ex machina but that's pretty much what she is. She's a lot of fun, though.
Fugitoid: A brilliant professor now trapped in the body of a robot. He's fleeing the military forces of two rival planets when he stumbles across the Turtles.
Shadow Jones: Casey Jones' adopted step-daughter. It's a long story and yes, he did name her himself.
Klunk: Michelangelo's kitten. First appears in The Christmas Aliens Special. Mentioned here mainly because a lot of fics will mention "Klunk was..." and if you don't know who he is, it gets annoying.
Manx: Archie Comics. Manx first appeared as the Shredder's newest ally, Verminator X, a cat-mutant-cyborg with an axe to grind for no apparent reason. The Future Shark Trilogy revealed him to be from the future. He and Donatello were friends and business partners until Manx lost a fair portion of his sanity and turned himself into a cyborg. Manx is a bottom-less well of fanfic possibilities: How did he and the Turtles first cross paths? Where did he start to go evil? Was he, or was he not, Donatello's One True Love? How the hell did he survive the 2095 arc? Sadly, he is largely ignored by fandom.
Ninjara: Raphael's girlfriend in the Archie comics. She's a member of a race of fox people from Japan (her real name is Umeko) who started out as their enemy. She eventually came around to their side and hooked up with Raph. They were cute in a dysfunctional way for a very long time, but she eventually left him for an Alaskan wolf-man in the Mooneyes Trilogy. Ninjara was a strong fighter, a pretty cool character, and she put up with a lot of crap from Raph in the course of their believably unstable relationship. Unfortunately her exit from the series could have been handled better - she ended up looking more passive-aggressive than anything else.
Mezcaal: Raphael's wife in the 2095 arc. We don't know much about her, except that she seems to be another fox-girl (Geez, Raph) and that she's amazingly patient with all the crap going on around her. When the guys went up against Manx, she went with them and more than held her own. She refers to Leo's students as "our kids" and seems to get on well with all four Turtles. Events at the end of the arc led to Raphael's estrangement from his brothers, but Mezcaal didn't hesitate to back him, even though he was occupying a moral grey area. Very loyal. An extremely kickass character, and one I would have loved to see more of.
Utroms: Remember Krang? The creepy brain guy who lived in the stomach of a giant robot? Yeah. Krang was an Utrom. More appropriately, Krang was a nod to the real Utroms, a race of benevolent and highly advanced beings who crash-landed on Earth some time back. The Utroms were responsible for creating the "ooze" which caused the Turtles and Splinter to be mutated. Exactly how much time the Utroms have spent on Earth varies.
Triceratons: Think giant, bipedal, terminally pissed-off Triceratops with laser blasters.
Purple Dragons: The streeg gang Shredder uses to help him keep control of the city.
Hun: Leader of the Purple Dragons. So loyal to Shredder that it's kind of sad.
The Mighty Mutanimals: A team of mutants, including Mondo Gecko and Slash the Turtle, who team up to fight bad guys. Good friends of the TMNT, they were all killed during the Terracide storyline.
Continuities
There are several different timelines and continuities (although not as bad as some Marvel or DC fandoms - dear god) so I'm just going to give a quick rundown.
Mirage: The original and largely considered the best. Mirage is darker, more violent and not terribly kid-friendly. In this version the Turtles didn't pull their punches and killed their opponents when necessary. The mirage timeline consists of four volumes. The first being, well the first. The second volume is set in the same timeline and follows the first volume with only a minor loss of time. The third volume is actually the Image Series.
The fourth volume disregards the events of the Image series completely and picks up where Volume 2 left off.
The fourth volume skips a fair amount of time, picking up in the modern day. The Turtles are in their 30s, April and Casey have married, Shadow in - god help us all - a teenager. This volume splits the guys up for a fair length of time and does it believably.
1980s cartoon (Family Home Entertainment): Pizza jokes, a castrated Raphael, and robot foot soldiers to help head off accusations of unnecessary violence. I love it, but it's the weakest of the various timelines. It did have a lot going for it, including on-going plotlines, a serious attempt at continuity and some pretty original characters.
Movies: The original was close to the Mirage way of things, but from there they veered sharply into a separate continuity. The movies will be forever loved amongst fangirls for giving us Elias Koteas as Casey Jones - aka "sex on legs".
TMNT: The CGI movie released in March 2007 made most fans very happy, though the critics seemed confused by the idea of a relatively serious TMNT movie (they obviously never saw the first one). The movie is set after the defeat of the Shredder and was deliberately written to be ambiguous as far as continuity went, fitting it into the live-action movie timeline as well as the 2003 series and Mirage. Leonardo returns from a two-year training trip to find his brothers barely speaking to each other and the family on the verge of splintering. He barely has time to figure out what's going on when a series of strange monster attacks spread throughout the city. The Foot Clan return, under the leadership of Karai, working as thieves for hire and a mysterious billionaire turns out to be an immortal warrior who may or may not be about to destroy the world. It's worth pointing out that while they got some big-name stars to do the voice acting, all four of the Turtles were virtual unknowns - and they got second billing. Ouch. (Rumors of a sequel have not yet been substantiated.)
Archie Comics Series: Originally the Archie series was just a comic version of the FHE cartoon episodes, but eventually they began writing original stories. Archie slowly gave its audience a more mature storyline, and touched on subjects the cartoon never would have (Raphael in a long term relationship, Michelangelo being blinded and tortured by government scientists, and who can forget Donatello's Jean Grey impression?)
Image: Fans either love it, or they really, really, really hate it. The Image team didn't pull their punches and weren't afraid to inflict permanent damage or changes on the Turtles. Raphael was disfigured, and eventually started to lead the Foot Clan (long story). Donatello became a sort-of evil cyborg (also a long story), Splinter turned into a bat/rat thing (more long story) and Leo lost a hand (not a long story at all). Image did give us Pimiko, the Shredder's daughter, who challenged Raphael for the right to lead the Foot. The Image series didn't last very long, ending after the 23rd issue.
The Next Mutation: A live-action series that ran from 1997-1998 and containing only 26 episodes, TNM is the bastard step-child of the TMNT fandom. It is perhaps most famous for bringing Venus de Milo into the world, the only character to ever be banned from canon by Eastman and Laird. Venus was a fifth mutant turtle who had been raised as a shinobi in the East, and kept a secret from the other turtles. She has cool psychic powers and the ability to turn even Leo into a condescending jerk. The guys spend so much time fawning over her that they lose the ability to win a fight. It was pretty sad. The theme song wasn't very good, either. (I confess I'm not a fan of this series. Could you tell?).
2003 cartoons (Funimation): The newest continuity, and currently my favorite. Fans are divided on this one, some claiming that the animation style is too "anime" or that the storylines are too violent. Others don't like that while this series has returned to its Mirage-timeline roots, it has added some twists and turns of its own. The series has good writing and an ongoing plotline, and even most of the filler episodes tend to be relevant later on. I personally love it for pretty much all the reasons stated above.
Also included in this continuity is the Dreamwave comic book series, which ran from June-December, 2003.
Super Turtles: This is the anime. There are no words to describe it. But you can download clips if you have Quicktime.
Story Arcs
Detailing all the different plots and story arcs wouldn't be impossible, but it would take forever. Here's just a few of the highlights.
Shredder Strikes (Mirage, Movies and Funimation): Shredder makes his move against the Turtles by waiting till he catches one of them alone, then sending hordes of Foot Clan ninja after him. The Foot Clan and Shredder beat Leo down pretty spectacularly using sheer numbers to overwhelm him, then pitch his body through the window of April's apartment. This arc is one of the best in storytelling and character-driven scenes, and serves to set the Shredder up as a genuine threat to their safety. The Turtles are forced to run, and the sense that they're at loose ends is portrayed very clearly.
In the Movie-verse, the Foot Clan cornered Raphael, and not Leo.
City at War (Mirage and Funimation): Shredder's gone and that's a good thing - except that now every criminal organization in the city is trying to take over the turf the Foot Clan once ruled. At the top of the heap is Karai who is willing to do almost anything to see the Foot restored to glory - even making a deal with the Turtles. Karai's loyalty to everyone is suspect, the Foot are bitter, the Elite are crazy, the Turtles are suspicious, the street gangs are screaming for blood, moral boundaries are crossed, and no one walked away from the fight unscathed. This arc was just good.
Fugitoid (Mirage and Funimation): *deep breath* The Turtles get teleported into outer space by accident while trying to "rescue" Splinter from the Utroms. They run afoul of Federation Troops who are pursuing the Fugitoid, desperate to get the scientific knowledge in his head. The Fugitoid reveals himself to the Turtles as Professor Honeycut, a person trapped in a robot body through a long series of events. While fleeing Federation forces, they were captured by the Triceratons, who used the Turtles as leverage to force the Fugitoid to do their bidding. The Turtles broke free, attempted to escape, and then vanished in a beam of light as the Utroms beamed them back to Earth just in the nick of time.
Return of the Ultimate Ninja (Funimation): This is the five-episode story arc that got everyone writing fic, if only because fangirls suffer from Schadenfreude. Bad guys Draco and the Daimyo's Son, who is obviously just bitter that he's not cool enough to have a name, show up with the Time Sceptor and freeze the Turtles in their tracks. They decide that instead of just killing them while they're helpless (obviously they haven't read the Supervillain's Handbook), they will send the Turtles across time and space. Mikey gets sent to an alternate universe where everyone is a superhero, Raph to another planet where everyone is a motocross fiend, Leo gets sent to the homeworld of his closest friend and Don to an apocalyptic future where everyone is angsty and dead. Doesn't seem fair, does it?
Shredder's Final Countdown: Shredder decides Earth sucks, so he builds a giant spaceship and tries to go off and conquer someplace cooler. The Turtles try to stop him, but fail and - badly injured - make the decision to destroy the ship with Shredder and themselves on it. They'd have all died if the Utrom didn't arrive for a last minute rescue. Shredder is banished to a prison satellite from which he will, presumably, one day return. Karai, who was shown incontrovertible proof of her father's evil, stops being wishy-washy and turns on the Turtles with a vengeance. Leo spends the rest of the season freaking out about the fact that he basically led his entire family to their deaths.
Adventures in Turtle-Sitting: Season four is largely about the Outbreak - a sudden and inexplicable rash of mutations flooding through New York City. Donatello was exposed and the secondary mutation he underwent caused him to become a mindless beast. Leo and the guys struck a deal with Bishop, agreeing to steal an amulet from Karai in exchange for a cure for Donatello. They carried through on their end of the deal, but Bishop had no cure. Ultimately Leatherhead saved Donatello. And the amulet? Yeah. Check the next storyline.
The Ninja Tribunal: Set a few months after the end of season four, this is the "Lost" fifth season that got bumped in favor of Fast Forward (see below). The guys are chosen, along with four humans, to be warriors against the coming of the Shredder. Not the usual Shredder, though. The original Shredder. The demon Oroku Saki took his name from. This season was hit or miss with fans - it was serious and a bit dark in places, but the mysticism and shape-shifting that occurred in later episodes threw some people off. This season ended with a truce between Karai and the Turtles. It remains to be seen how long it will last.
Fast Forward: Yeah. Ratings were down, so instead of focusing on storytelling, they decided to focus on action figures. Fast Forward, the title for all of season six, is set in the year 2105 and is basically about the guys having wacky adventures with April and Casey's great-grandson, Cody Jones. There were some good episodes, but this season basically failed to deliver.
Back to the Sewers: The upcoming seventh season. Little is known except that they've changed the art style to be a bit more like the CGI movie. From the title, I'm going to assume that they go back to the sewers at some point. That's just a guess, though.
Black Hole Trilogy (Archie): One of my favorite story arcs, and not just because it centers on Donatello. The guys have been pulled into an interstellar war, and narrowly escaped death. Things are looking up for about five whole minutes. Then Donatello gets abducted by different aliens. The aliens are the Sons of Silence and they're acting as the caretakers/slaves of the Turnstone. The Turnstone is, to put it mildly, really freaking powerful and it wants someone it can control to unleash its strength.
Gosei Arc (Mirage): I don't know if Mirage actually called it that or not, but the Gosei Arc centers around a young man named Hattori, who is the last of the Gosei. Someone is mucking about with history, threatening his clan's past. The Turtles, with the help of Renet, travel back in time to try and stop the chaos.
Mooneyes Saga (Archie): Raph and Ninjara break up when she meets a sexy but emotionally rebounding Alaskan wolf-man and realizes that Raph's kind of a jerk. Wonder what took her so long? And Lord, this arc sounds a lot more like a soap opera than it actually was.
Dreamland/2095 Arc (Archie): This was actually called the Cyber Samurai Mutant Ninja Turtles, but I can't say that with a straight face, and I bet you can't either. This arc focuses on the brothers living in the year 2095. There is time travel, Manx, Hitler, Manx. Michelangelo dying, Manx, creepy aliens, Manx, and the end of the world as we know it. Also, Manx. This arc managed to impress me for the ending, where Raphael deliberately takes a course of action that he knows will alienate him from his brothers.
Other great storylines include anything with Cherubae (mostly Mirage, some Archie), anything involving Null, the Animagus War/Terracide/Blindsight arcs from Archie, anything with Pimiko *grins* and the current Mirage storyline.
Pairings
"Can we keep her?"
~Michelangelo
How, exactly, would mutants with no visible genitals, tails, shells and carapaces, get it on, exactly? The mechanics are probably far more complicated than any of us care to think about, honestly, but the few times I've found TMNT porn (of course it exists - it's the Internet. Were you really surprised?) I've been more outraged by the poorly thought-out mechanics of it than anything else. But then, I'm odd like that.
There's also a strong OC presence in the fandom, but I'll stick to canon characters for this part.
April/Casey: The canon pairing! April and Casey had a great relationship. It went like this: Fight, bicker, flirt, bicker, fight, break-up and try to start over, give up, return to New York (with baby, in Casey's case) bicker, get married. Writing about them is always fun because their personalities just clash wonderfully.
April/Turtle: Actually, the pairing of April/Turtle is fairly popular amongst the romance/smut fans which probably shouldn't surprise anyone. She was really the first female of any species the guys met, and the only one who stuck by them for the entire time. I see her as more an older sister to them, but obviously there's a strong romance following. April/Raph is the most popular from what I've seen. April/Don seems to be based on a shared love of techno gadgets. April/Mikey baffles me, but has a loyal following. April/Leo isn't nearly as popular, probably because that's just too damn much responsibility and maturity in any relationship.
Leo/Karai: These two are so fucked up they practically deserve each other. I'd support the pairing whole-heartedly if I didn't suffer from the lingering conviction that Karai is secretly plotting the TMNTs' downfall. That said, if I had to pick a pairing that could practically be canon, I'd say this was it.
Leo/Renet: She's the vivacious mistress of time itself, and he's the leader of a band of sewer-dwelling mutants. What do you mean they have nothing in common? ;)
Nope. No subtext here. Move along.
Raph/Casey: These two are just begging to be slashed, swear to God. They run around being temperamental and violent and sweaty and just generally Bad Boys all the time. Also, in the new cartoon series, they are prone to random bouts of wrestling. There's a lot of anger wrapped up in this pairing, which appeals to some fans. Also, at the risk of over-analyzing, Casey's acceptance means a lot to Raph, while Raph's friendship means just as much to Casey. So there are some fun issues that could be written about.
Casey/Don: This pairing has is based almost entirely on the scene where Don and Casey fix an old truck while calling each other stupid names. Well, that and the "You're a claustrophobe!" "Hey, I never even looked at another guy!" exchange, which makes me giggle like a naughty girl to this day. For variety, some writers like to reference a scene in the comics where Casey gets stinking drunk and decides to take it out on Donnie for being smarter than he is. In the comics these two really don't get along well, though that could be fun if done right.
Raph/Leo: Hands down, the most popular slash pairing in the entire fandom. You've got the rival-slash, the incest-slash, the violent sex, the borderline non-con - Raph and Leo aren't roses and sunshine, let's just put it that way.
General Fandom
On the whole, TMNT fandom is pretty friendly and easy-going. Pairing wars are few and far between and we almost never end up on fanficrants or Fandom Wank. Even the slashers and het fans agree to disagree most of the time. The only hot spots for the fandom are the occasional grudge match over which continuity is better, and whether or not people who write brother-slash are going straight to hell.
There does seem to be a gap between long-time fans, brought in by the original cartoon and/or the Mirage and Archie comics, and the newer fans who joined the fandom after the Funimation series began airing, but it's not a hostile one, and there's remarkably little of the elitism that you can find in other fandoms.
In short, we're friendly and we only bite if you ask nicely. ^_^
TMNT Trivia!
-Mikey was technically the first Ninja Turtle created - the sketches Peter and Kevin drew that night featured a nunchuku-weilding terrapin, and the nunchuku is Mike's weapon of choice.
-The Turtles were named after Rennaissance artists because Kevin and Peter didn't think Japanese names would go over well with an American audience.
-Michelangelo's name was originally written as "Michaelangelo" - a mistake that lasted for nearly two decades. Why? Because Kevin and Peter missed the mistake during proofreading of the first issue. Ah, spellcheck. The spelling was corrected with the launch of the newest series in 2003.
-When it ended, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the longest running cartoon in history. However, the record was taken away by The Simpsons shortly after.
-Ernie Reyes Jr., the actor who played Keno in TMNTII, was also Donatello's stunt double.
-Raphael started the Foot Clan. In Issue 47 of the Mirage series the Turtles end up back in time as part of the Gosei arc. Raph kills time practicing with two Ronin, who later decide to learn more of the way of the Ninja. "In time, others will join us and we will become a force to be reckoned with. So just as every journey begins with a single step... we shall call ourselves The Foot." How's that for irony?
Links
Official Sites
Mirage's Official TMNT Page - Featuring overviews of the various continuities and timelines, character bios, summaries and explanations of different story arcs, the TMNT comic strip from the 1990s, lists of merchandise, items for sale, and commentary from various individuals involved in the series, the Mirage site is one of the best resources for background info. Also contains desktops, avatars, icons and graphics and an on-going art contest.
4Kids Official Site - the official site for 4Kids entertainment, the station that airs the new cartoon series.
Fan Sites
The TMNT Fanfic Archive - there's a lot of fic in one place, but a lack of summaries makes browsing pretty hit or miss. Hasn't been updated in about three years, like many archives for the fandom.
The Green Underground - Created to give TMNT writers someplace besides FF.net to post. TGU has a small selection at the moment, but some good stories.
Behind the Masks - a combined fansite featuring the works of several different writers. Also contains Harry Potter and Willow.
Mikey's TMNT - billed as the ultimate fansite, Mikey's contains forums, fanworks, events listings, merchandise, etc. Has a great links page.
The Technodrome - Forums, fanfic, artwork, links, and info.
FF.Net's TMNT section - featuring 2100+ TMNT fics. Beware of Mary Sue. Note: TMNT fic can also be found on AFF.Net, if you're brave enough to try it.
Stealthy Stories - Stealthy Stories was created as an alternative to FF.net. Hosts fanfic, discussion boards, and a plot bunny farm.
LJ Communities
tmnt - the main TMNT community on LJ. Mostly for discussion, doesn't appear to welcome fanfic, prefers that adult and/or slash content be limitted. Good for getting updates on new projects or if you just want to talk about the show.
tmnt_adult - created so fans looking for adult TMNT discussions and fic would have a place to hang out. Low-traffic, but fairly amicable.
tmnt_icons - pretty self-explanatory. ^_^
ETA:
Character profiles on Baxter Stockman, Agent Bishop, Oyuki Mamisha.
Movie summary for TMNT IV
Storylines for Seasons 4-6
Hi! I'm nightwalker and I'll be driving one of the small fandom vans this month - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Good God, you're saying right now, someone actually wants to rec for the Ninja Turtles? Does that series even have a fandom?
"Anybody want to tell me how we're going to do this?"
"Like we always do. Together."
~Michelangelo and Leonardo
Kick-butt action, ongoing storylines, plot, intriguing cast and guest characters, tight writing, well-written and realistically depicted relationships, slash and het romance potential and four brothers who would die for each other. What more could you ask for of a fandom? Of course there are giant turtles, but you have to take the good with the moderately ludicrous.
The basic premise is probably familar to you: Four baby turtles are exposed to some sort of mutagenic agent. A sewer rat is moved to pity and gathers them in an old coffee can, thus getting the mutagen on himself. Overnight the five experience a sudden growth and heightened intelligence. The rat, named Splinter, realizes that the mutagen has turned them all into something more than animals, and raises the four turtles as his sons. They live alone and unmolested in the sewers of NYC, largely unnoticed by the world above. Until they happen across a young woman in danger, and make the decision to step out of the shadows.
The Origin Story
It was 1983 when two part-time comic artists accidentally came up with the idea of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They were hanging out, watching TV, and Kevin sketched a picture of a turtle walking on two legs. He drew in some nunchukus and called it a "ninja turtle." Peter tagged on the "teenage mutant" part and they both liked the idea enough to continue it. Little did they know.
Mirage has the entire first issue of TMNT posted on the official site. It takes a while to load if you have dial-up, but if you've never seen the original series, you should check it out.
Characters:
"These guys friends of yours?"
"Brothers, actually."
"I can see the family resemblance."
"I'm the pretty one!"
~Casey, Raphael and Michelangelo
Leonardo: Leo's the leader and he never lets you forget it. In his defense, he never lets himself forget it either, always painfully aware that his actions could at any time lead one or more of his brothers to their deaths. He takes responsibility seriously, never blows off his commitments and is almost fanatical at times in the pursuit of his training. Of the four, Leo is the best ninja although not necessarily the best fighter. He looks up to and admires Splinter with a reverence his brothers don't always share. Leo's the most likely to have a crisis of faith as well as being prone to self-doubt. All of which, unfortunately, adds up to a character a bit prone to angst. When he's not stressed out about being in charge, which is rarely, I admit, Leo's a pretty cool guy. Being the eldest, he sees his brothers as his responsibility and he can be protective, often times at the risk of his own safety. Ever want to see Leo lose his cool? Threaten one of the others. Then run, because you're about to be dead. Fights with double katana.
Donatello: Quieter than Mike, more patient than Leo and calmer than Raphael (not that this is a feat, by any means), Donatello is the peacemaker of the team. He'd rather read a book than kick your butt, and if you don't push him, that's exactly what he'll do. It's not overstating the case to say that Donatello is the brains of the group. Don shows as much interest in the human world as Raphael and Michelangelo, but while their interest translates into a desire to live and explore and be accepted, Don just might be happy if we gave him unlimited access to the Library of Congress. His intelligence goes beyond his gadgets - Donatello has demonstrated an ability to learn languages quickly, and perform complex mathematical equations in his head. Compared to his brothers, he is probably the weakest fighter - in fact, in the 2003 cartoon series, he's most often the one who needs assistance in a fight - but that doesn't mean you should underestimate his abilities. Compared to most of their adversaries, Donnie can still kick serious butt. Gets on best with Mike, probably because of their years dealing with the rivalry between Raph and Leo. Fights with bo staff.
Raphael: Raphael has, shall we say, anger management issues. Fans of the original cartoon may remember Raphael as the sarcastic punster of the group, but that was a heavily watered down version of the character. Pick a word to describe Raph and you find yourself debating the merits of "homicidal" versus "pissed." Nonetheless, he can be very protective and not just of his family. Tends to get outraged easily for all his cynical behavior, and really, really, really hates looking bad in front of an audience. This includes losing fights, being shown up by Donnie or making mistakes. Also, anything involving Leo just might send him into a wall-punching tirade. But he's working on that, honest. Raph may not be the best ninja of the team, but he's definitely the best warrior. Despite their constant bickering and one-upmanship, Raph and Leo are very tight, and understand each other in a way that their less intense brothers never will. Fights with sai.
"That really ticks me off!"
"Raph, everything ticks you off."
"Not everything! … All right. Everything."
~Raphael and Donatello
Michelangelo: The world's not a stage; it's a video game, and not only does Michelangelo have a pocket full of quarters, he also downloaded the walk-through off the internet. And if the walk-through turns out to be wrong, he's the king of button mashers. Mike just tends to be generally happier than his brothers, but he also tends not to look at the world too closely. He avoids upsetting topics, deals with fear and frustration by ignoring it whenever possible and making light of it when it's not. Mike's the only artistic one in the group, often sketching or working on a story when he's supposed to be doing something else. In several continuities, Mike ends up a published writer. Fights with nunchuku.
Splinter: "A little 90-pound weapon of mass destruction we like to call 'Dear Old Dad'." Well, I wouldn't call Splinter "little" or "old" but that's only because I'd be afraid he might ground me. Splinter is their father, teacher and occasionally parole officer. He' a constant source of wisdom and a nearly indefatigable font of patience. Splinter isn't perfect, though. Originally Splinter was more than a little hung up on vengeance against the Foot Clan. His expectations are occasionally shown to be hard for the guys to live up to - especially Raph.
Splinter was originally a rat, the pet of Hamato Yoshi and he learned ninjitsu by mimicking his master's movements from his cage. I think we'll all agree this is pretty impressive. Hamato Yoshi was murdered by the Shredder, and Splinter was injured in the fight. He escaped into the sewers, where he crawled through the ooze to rescue four baby turtles, and found himself gaining human intelligence and features.
Hamato Yoshi: In the FHE cartoon series, Hamato Yoshi was mutated into a rat, and began calling himself Splinter. In all other continuities, Hamato Yoshi was one of the greatest warriors of the Foot Clan. He fell in love with a beautiful woman named Tang Shen. Unfortunately, Yoshi's greatest rival was Oroku Nagi, who also loved Tang Shen. She denied him, and in a fit of fury, he beat her. Yoshi interrupted and killed Nagi, an extremely dishonorable act, as no Foot Clan warrior should ever kill another, although apparently it's perfectly all right for them to beat each other's wives. Rather than committing suicide and hoping for his honor to be restored, Yoshi and Tang Shen fled to America, taking Yoshi's pet rat, Splinter, with him. They lived there for many years, until Nagi's brother Oroku Saki became the head of the New York Foot Clan.
April O'Neil: A computer science geek who worked as an assistant to Doctor Baxter Stockman. April found herself fired (and fleeing attempted murder) when she discovered her boss had built the Mousers to rob banks and terrorize the city. She was rescued from the Mousers by the Turtles, which is a really funny sentence, when you think about it. At the time April would have been hard pressed to say which was worse, her attackers or her rescuers. The guys helped her take Stockman down, and she ended up one of their strongest and most loyal allies.
For the FHE cartoon, April was revised as a TV news reporter, presumably because it made it easier to explain why she was running around getting into the middle of all the fighting and excitement. The movies and the Archie Comics timeline kept the TV angle, and made her an investigative reporter. The new cartoon series has returned April to her original roots.
April has a delightfully complicated relationship with Casey Jones in most continuities (see Pairings, below) except the Archie timeline.
Casey Jones: What do you do with a crazed vigilante who likes to run around the city beating up gang members with sporting equipment? Well, apparently you make him one of the family. Casey and Raph started out on rocky terms (they tried to beat the crap out of each other), but eventually Casey worked his way into their hearts - or at least into their fridge. Casey and Raph are best friends and Casey fell hard for April, who most of the time seems to feel the same way. Casey and April are married in the Mirage continuity. (see pairings below). Casey appears in every continuity except the Archie series.
Shredder/Oroku Saki: The Big Bad of the TMNT universe. Oroku Saki was a shadow warrior of the Foot Clan who pushed himself to perfection in order to avenge the murder of his brother, Nagi - don't feel too much sympathy, though, Nagi was a real jerk. Saki eventually became the head of the Foot Clan in New York City, turned the Clan into a criminal enterprise and used his position to hunt down and murder Hamato Yoshi, the man who had killed his brother. In killing Yoshi, Saki destroyed the cage holding Yoshi's pet rat, an act he would later come to regret, believe it or not. Saki began calling himself The Shredder and his influence over the criminal element of New York became nearly absolute.
In the Funimation cartoon, Oroku Saki was revealed to be an Utrom in human disguise.
Karai: A Foot soldier sent to stop the increasing chaos in New York as the Foot Clan begins to self-destruct after the Shredder's death. Karai makes a pact with the Turtles: help her restore order, and she gives her word that the Foot Clan will leave the Turtles in peace.
In the Funimation universe, Karai is the foster-daughter of the Shredder, and his second in command of the Foot. She's kind of wishy-washy and spends a lot of time being upset because she has to do things she doesn't want to do.
Doctor Baxter Stockman: Stockman appeared in the Mirage, Classic Toon and 2003 Toom universes. In the Classic Toon version, he was a bumbling scientist who worked for Shredder and ended up mutated into a flyman (inspiring such wonderful episode titles as Son of Return of the Fly). In Mirage and the 2003 series he was a brilliant but damaged man who worked for Shredder and was eventually tortured into insanity. He's made several appearances in the 2003 series where he was recently rehabilitated (well, in the year 2105, so there's plenty of time for him to still cause trouble till then).
Agent Bishop: In the 2003 series, he's the leader of the Earth Defense Force, a government agency dedicated to protecting Earth from alien threats. Bishop - who may have been a soldier during the Civil War - is a genetically enhanced human who has his consciousness transplanted into freshly cloned bodies on a regular basis. It's uncertain how many of his accomplishments are his own creation or the product of those who work for him. He's also a madman with a streak of viciousness and cruelty. He's not above killing and torturing innocent aliens to learn more about them, and he's been dissecting mutants in order to build a super-soldier. Capture at his hands is one of the few things the guys have shown to genuinely fear. Bishop also created the Rat King.
Oyuki Mamisha: In the Archie Continuity, Oyuki was a homeless girl who was kidnapped by crazy people who wanted to sacrifice her to wake a demon called Noi Tai Dar. The Turtles rescued her and Oyuki ended up becoming April's roommate. She spent a lot of time complaining about April making her climb onto the fire escape to catch a smoke, but they got along well. When April went freelance, Oyuki became her cameraman and eventually became a reporter in her own right.
Pimiko: The Shredder's daughter in the Image universe. So very nearly kicked Raph's tail, but ended up helping the Turtles against an outside foe. Had more or less been adopted into the extended Turtle family by the end of the series.
Renet: Originally the apprentice to Lord Simultaneous, the Time Master, Renet has since become the Time Mistress. I hate to call her a deus ex machina but that's pretty much what she is. She's a lot of fun, though.
Fugitoid: A brilliant professor now trapped in the body of a robot. He's fleeing the military forces of two rival planets when he stumbles across the Turtles.
Shadow Jones: Casey Jones' adopted step-daughter. It's a long story and yes, he did name her himself.
Klunk: Michelangelo's kitten. First appears in The Christmas Aliens Special. Mentioned here mainly because a lot of fics will mention "Klunk was..." and if you don't know who he is, it gets annoying.
Manx: Archie Comics. Manx first appeared as the Shredder's newest ally, Verminator X, a cat-mutant-cyborg with an axe to grind for no apparent reason. The Future Shark Trilogy revealed him to be from the future. He and Donatello were friends and business partners until Manx lost a fair portion of his sanity and turned himself into a cyborg. Manx is a bottom-less well of fanfic possibilities: How did he and the Turtles first cross paths? Where did he start to go evil? Was he, or was he not, Donatello's One True Love? How the hell did he survive the 2095 arc? Sadly, he is largely ignored by fandom.
Ninjara: Raphael's girlfriend in the Archie comics. She's a member of a race of fox people from Japan (her real name is Umeko) who started out as their enemy. She eventually came around to their side and hooked up with Raph. They were cute in a dysfunctional way for a very long time, but she eventually left him for an Alaskan wolf-man in the Mooneyes Trilogy. Ninjara was a strong fighter, a pretty cool character, and she put up with a lot of crap from Raph in the course of their believably unstable relationship. Unfortunately her exit from the series could have been handled better - she ended up looking more passive-aggressive than anything else.
Mezcaal: Raphael's wife in the 2095 arc. We don't know much about her, except that she seems to be another fox-girl (Geez, Raph) and that she's amazingly patient with all the crap going on around her. When the guys went up against Manx, she went with them and more than held her own. She refers to Leo's students as "our kids" and seems to get on well with all four Turtles. Events at the end of the arc led to Raphael's estrangement from his brothers, but Mezcaal didn't hesitate to back him, even though he was occupying a moral grey area. Very loyal. An extremely kickass character, and one I would have loved to see more of.
Utroms: Remember Krang? The creepy brain guy who lived in the stomach of a giant robot? Yeah. Krang was an Utrom. More appropriately, Krang was a nod to the real Utroms, a race of benevolent and highly advanced beings who crash-landed on Earth some time back. The Utroms were responsible for creating the "ooze" which caused the Turtles and Splinter to be mutated. Exactly how much time the Utroms have spent on Earth varies.
Triceratons: Think giant, bipedal, terminally pissed-off Triceratops with laser blasters.
Purple Dragons: The streeg gang Shredder uses to help him keep control of the city.
Hun: Leader of the Purple Dragons. So loyal to Shredder that it's kind of sad.
The Mighty Mutanimals: A team of mutants, including Mondo Gecko and Slash the Turtle, who team up to fight bad guys. Good friends of the TMNT, they were all killed during the Terracide storyline.
Continuities
There are several different timelines and continuities (although not as bad as some Marvel or DC fandoms - dear god) so I'm just going to give a quick rundown.
Mirage: The original and largely considered the best. Mirage is darker, more violent and not terribly kid-friendly. In this version the Turtles didn't pull their punches and killed their opponents when necessary. The mirage timeline consists of four volumes. The first being, well the first. The second volume is set in the same timeline and follows the first volume with only a minor loss of time. The third volume is actually the Image Series.
The fourth volume disregards the events of the Image series completely and picks up where Volume 2 left off.
The fourth volume skips a fair amount of time, picking up in the modern day. The Turtles are in their 30s, April and Casey have married, Shadow in - god help us all - a teenager. This volume splits the guys up for a fair length of time and does it believably.
1980s cartoon (Family Home Entertainment): Pizza jokes, a castrated Raphael, and robot foot soldiers to help head off accusations of unnecessary violence. I love it, but it's the weakest of the various timelines. It did have a lot going for it, including on-going plotlines, a serious attempt at continuity and some pretty original characters.
Movies: The original was close to the Mirage way of things, but from there they veered sharply into a separate continuity. The movies will be forever loved amongst fangirls for giving us Elias Koteas as Casey Jones - aka "sex on legs".
TMNT: The CGI movie released in March 2007 made most fans very happy, though the critics seemed confused by the idea of a relatively serious TMNT movie (they obviously never saw the first one). The movie is set after the defeat of the Shredder and was deliberately written to be ambiguous as far as continuity went, fitting it into the live-action movie timeline as well as the 2003 series and Mirage. Leonardo returns from a two-year training trip to find his brothers barely speaking to each other and the family on the verge of splintering. He barely has time to figure out what's going on when a series of strange monster attacks spread throughout the city. The Foot Clan return, under the leadership of Karai, working as thieves for hire and a mysterious billionaire turns out to be an immortal warrior who may or may not be about to destroy the world. It's worth pointing out that while they got some big-name stars to do the voice acting, all four of the Turtles were virtual unknowns - and they got second billing. Ouch. (Rumors of a sequel have not yet been substantiated.)
Archie Comics Series: Originally the Archie series was just a comic version of the FHE cartoon episodes, but eventually they began writing original stories. Archie slowly gave its audience a more mature storyline, and touched on subjects the cartoon never would have (Raphael in a long term relationship, Michelangelo being blinded and tortured by government scientists, and who can forget Donatello's Jean Grey impression?)
Image: Fans either love it, or they really, really, really hate it. The Image team didn't pull their punches and weren't afraid to inflict permanent damage or changes on the Turtles. Raphael was disfigured, and eventually started to lead the Foot Clan (long story). Donatello became a sort-of evil cyborg (also a long story), Splinter turned into a bat/rat thing (more long story) and Leo lost a hand (not a long story at all). Image did give us Pimiko, the Shredder's daughter, who challenged Raphael for the right to lead the Foot. The Image series didn't last very long, ending after the 23rd issue.
The Next Mutation: A live-action series that ran from 1997-1998 and containing only 26 episodes, TNM is the bastard step-child of the TMNT fandom. It is perhaps most famous for bringing Venus de Milo into the world, the only character to ever be banned from canon by Eastman and Laird. Venus was a fifth mutant turtle who had been raised as a shinobi in the East, and kept a secret from the other turtles. She has cool psychic powers and the ability to turn even Leo into a condescending jerk. The guys spend so much time fawning over her that they lose the ability to win a fight. It was pretty sad. The theme song wasn't very good, either. (I confess I'm not a fan of this series. Could you tell?).
2003 cartoons (Funimation): The newest continuity, and currently my favorite. Fans are divided on this one, some claiming that the animation style is too "anime" or that the storylines are too violent. Others don't like that while this series has returned to its Mirage-timeline roots, it has added some twists and turns of its own. The series has good writing and an ongoing plotline, and even most of the filler episodes tend to be relevant later on. I personally love it for pretty much all the reasons stated above.
Also included in this continuity is the Dreamwave comic book series, which ran from June-December, 2003.
Super Turtles: This is the anime. There are no words to describe it. But you can download clips if you have Quicktime.
Story Arcs
Detailing all the different plots and story arcs wouldn't be impossible, but it would take forever. Here's just a few of the highlights.
Shredder Strikes (Mirage, Movies and Funimation): Shredder makes his move against the Turtles by waiting till he catches one of them alone, then sending hordes of Foot Clan ninja after him. The Foot Clan and Shredder beat Leo down pretty spectacularly using sheer numbers to overwhelm him, then pitch his body through the window of April's apartment. This arc is one of the best in storytelling and character-driven scenes, and serves to set the Shredder up as a genuine threat to their safety. The Turtles are forced to run, and the sense that they're at loose ends is portrayed very clearly.
In the Movie-verse, the Foot Clan cornered Raphael, and not Leo.
City at War (Mirage and Funimation): Shredder's gone and that's a good thing - except that now every criminal organization in the city is trying to take over the turf the Foot Clan once ruled. At the top of the heap is Karai who is willing to do almost anything to see the Foot restored to glory - even making a deal with the Turtles. Karai's loyalty to everyone is suspect, the Foot are bitter, the Elite are crazy, the Turtles are suspicious, the street gangs are screaming for blood, moral boundaries are crossed, and no one walked away from the fight unscathed. This arc was just good.
Fugitoid (Mirage and Funimation): *deep breath* The Turtles get teleported into outer space by accident while trying to "rescue" Splinter from the Utroms. They run afoul of Federation Troops who are pursuing the Fugitoid, desperate to get the scientific knowledge in his head. The Fugitoid reveals himself to the Turtles as Professor Honeycut, a person trapped in a robot body through a long series of events. While fleeing Federation forces, they were captured by the Triceratons, who used the Turtles as leverage to force the Fugitoid to do their bidding. The Turtles broke free, attempted to escape, and then vanished in a beam of light as the Utroms beamed them back to Earth just in the nick of time.
Return of the Ultimate Ninja (Funimation): This is the five-episode story arc that got everyone writing fic, if only because fangirls suffer from Schadenfreude. Bad guys Draco and the Daimyo's Son, who is obviously just bitter that he's not cool enough to have a name, show up with the Time Sceptor and freeze the Turtles in their tracks. They decide that instead of just killing them while they're helpless (obviously they haven't read the Supervillain's Handbook), they will send the Turtles across time and space. Mikey gets sent to an alternate universe where everyone is a superhero, Raph to another planet where everyone is a motocross fiend, Leo gets sent to the homeworld of his closest friend and Don to an apocalyptic future where everyone is angsty and dead. Doesn't seem fair, does it?
Shredder's Final Countdown: Shredder decides Earth sucks, so he builds a giant spaceship and tries to go off and conquer someplace cooler. The Turtles try to stop him, but fail and - badly injured - make the decision to destroy the ship with Shredder and themselves on it. They'd have all died if the Utrom didn't arrive for a last minute rescue. Shredder is banished to a prison satellite from which he will, presumably, one day return. Karai, who was shown incontrovertible proof of her father's evil, stops being wishy-washy and turns on the Turtles with a vengeance. Leo spends the rest of the season freaking out about the fact that he basically led his entire family to their deaths.
Adventures in Turtle-Sitting: Season four is largely about the Outbreak - a sudden and inexplicable rash of mutations flooding through New York City. Donatello was exposed and the secondary mutation he underwent caused him to become a mindless beast. Leo and the guys struck a deal with Bishop, agreeing to steal an amulet from Karai in exchange for a cure for Donatello. They carried through on their end of the deal, but Bishop had no cure. Ultimately Leatherhead saved Donatello. And the amulet? Yeah. Check the next storyline.
The Ninja Tribunal: Set a few months after the end of season four, this is the "Lost" fifth season that got bumped in favor of Fast Forward (see below). The guys are chosen, along with four humans, to be warriors against the coming of the Shredder. Not the usual Shredder, though. The original Shredder. The demon Oroku Saki took his name from. This season was hit or miss with fans - it was serious and a bit dark in places, but the mysticism and shape-shifting that occurred in later episodes threw some people off. This season ended with a truce between Karai and the Turtles. It remains to be seen how long it will last.
Fast Forward: Yeah. Ratings were down, so instead of focusing on storytelling, they decided to focus on action figures. Fast Forward, the title for all of season six, is set in the year 2105 and is basically about the guys having wacky adventures with April and Casey's great-grandson, Cody Jones. There were some good episodes, but this season basically failed to deliver.
Back to the Sewers: The upcoming seventh season. Little is known except that they've changed the art style to be a bit more like the CGI movie. From the title, I'm going to assume that they go back to the sewers at some point. That's just a guess, though.
Black Hole Trilogy (Archie): One of my favorite story arcs, and not just because it centers on Donatello. The guys have been pulled into an interstellar war, and narrowly escaped death. Things are looking up for about five whole minutes. Then Donatello gets abducted by different aliens. The aliens are the Sons of Silence and they're acting as the caretakers/slaves of the Turnstone. The Turnstone is, to put it mildly, really freaking powerful and it wants someone it can control to unleash its strength.
Gosei Arc (Mirage): I don't know if Mirage actually called it that or not, but the Gosei Arc centers around a young man named Hattori, who is the last of the Gosei. Someone is mucking about with history, threatening his clan's past. The Turtles, with the help of Renet, travel back in time to try and stop the chaos.
Mooneyes Saga (Archie): Raph and Ninjara break up when she meets a sexy but emotionally rebounding Alaskan wolf-man and realizes that Raph's kind of a jerk. Wonder what took her so long? And Lord, this arc sounds a lot more like a soap opera than it actually was.
Dreamland/2095 Arc (Archie): This was actually called the Cyber Samurai Mutant Ninja Turtles, but I can't say that with a straight face, and I bet you can't either. This arc focuses on the brothers living in the year 2095. There is time travel, Manx, Hitler, Manx. Michelangelo dying, Manx, creepy aliens, Manx, and the end of the world as we know it. Also, Manx. This arc managed to impress me for the ending, where Raphael deliberately takes a course of action that he knows will alienate him from his brothers.
Other great storylines include anything with Cherubae (mostly Mirage, some Archie), anything involving Null, the Animagus War/Terracide/Blindsight arcs from Archie, anything with Pimiko *grins* and the current Mirage storyline.
Pairings
"Can we keep her?"
~Michelangelo
How, exactly, would mutants with no visible genitals, tails, shells and carapaces, get it on, exactly? The mechanics are probably far more complicated than any of us care to think about, honestly, but the few times I've found TMNT porn (of course it exists - it's the Internet. Were you really surprised?) I've been more outraged by the poorly thought-out mechanics of it than anything else. But then, I'm odd like that.
There's also a strong OC presence in the fandom, but I'll stick to canon characters for this part.
April/Casey: The canon pairing! April and Casey had a great relationship. It went like this: Fight, bicker, flirt, bicker, fight, break-up and try to start over, give up, return to New York (with baby, in Casey's case) bicker, get married. Writing about them is always fun because their personalities just clash wonderfully.
April/Turtle: Actually, the pairing of April/Turtle is fairly popular amongst the romance/smut fans which probably shouldn't surprise anyone. She was really the first female of any species the guys met, and the only one who stuck by them for the entire time. I see her as more an older sister to them, but obviously there's a strong romance following. April/Raph is the most popular from what I've seen. April/Don seems to be based on a shared love of techno gadgets. April/Mikey baffles me, but has a loyal following. April/Leo isn't nearly as popular, probably because that's just too damn much responsibility and maturity in any relationship.
Leo/Karai: These two are so fucked up they practically deserve each other. I'd support the pairing whole-heartedly if I didn't suffer from the lingering conviction that Karai is secretly plotting the TMNTs' downfall. That said, if I had to pick a pairing that could practically be canon, I'd say this was it.
Leo/Renet: She's the vivacious mistress of time itself, and he's the leader of a band of sewer-dwelling mutants. What do you mean they have nothing in common? ;)
Nope. No subtext here. Move along.
Raph/Casey: These two are just begging to be slashed, swear to God. They run around being temperamental and violent and sweaty and just generally Bad Boys all the time. Also, in the new cartoon series, they are prone to random bouts of wrestling. There's a lot of anger wrapped up in this pairing, which appeals to some fans. Also, at the risk of over-analyzing, Casey's acceptance means a lot to Raph, while Raph's friendship means just as much to Casey. So there are some fun issues that could be written about.
Casey/Don: This pairing has is based almost entirely on the scene where Don and Casey fix an old truck while calling each other stupid names. Well, that and the "You're a claustrophobe!" "Hey, I never even looked at another guy!" exchange, which makes me giggle like a naughty girl to this day. For variety, some writers like to reference a scene in the comics where Casey gets stinking drunk and decides to take it out on Donnie for being smarter than he is. In the comics these two really don't get along well, though that could be fun if done right.
Raph/Leo: Hands down, the most popular slash pairing in the entire fandom. You've got the rival-slash, the incest-slash, the violent sex, the borderline non-con - Raph and Leo aren't roses and sunshine, let's just put it that way.
General Fandom
On the whole, TMNT fandom is pretty friendly and easy-going. Pairing wars are few and far between and we almost never end up on fanficrants or Fandom Wank. Even the slashers and het fans agree to disagree most of the time. The only hot spots for the fandom are the occasional grudge match over which continuity is better, and whether or not people who write brother-slash are going straight to hell.
There does seem to be a gap between long-time fans, brought in by the original cartoon and/or the Mirage and Archie comics, and the newer fans who joined the fandom after the Funimation series began airing, but it's not a hostile one, and there's remarkably little of the elitism that you can find in other fandoms.
In short, we're friendly and we only bite if you ask nicely. ^_^
TMNT Trivia!
-Mikey was technically the first Ninja Turtle created - the sketches Peter and Kevin drew that night featured a nunchuku-weilding terrapin, and the nunchuku is Mike's weapon of choice.
-The Turtles were named after Rennaissance artists because Kevin and Peter didn't think Japanese names would go over well with an American audience.
-Michelangelo's name was originally written as "Michaelangelo" - a mistake that lasted for nearly two decades. Why? Because Kevin and Peter missed the mistake during proofreading of the first issue. Ah, spellcheck. The spelling was corrected with the launch of the newest series in 2003.
-When it ended, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the longest running cartoon in history. However, the record was taken away by The Simpsons shortly after.
-Ernie Reyes Jr., the actor who played Keno in TMNTII, was also Donatello's stunt double.
-Raphael started the Foot Clan. In Issue 47 of the Mirage series the Turtles end up back in time as part of the Gosei arc. Raph kills time practicing with two Ronin, who later decide to learn more of the way of the Ninja. "In time, others will join us and we will become a force to be reckoned with. So just as every journey begins with a single step... we shall call ourselves The Foot." How's that for irony?
Links
Official Sites
Mirage's Official TMNT Page - Featuring overviews of the various continuities and timelines, character bios, summaries and explanations of different story arcs, the TMNT comic strip from the 1990s, lists of merchandise, items for sale, and commentary from various individuals involved in the series, the Mirage site is one of the best resources for background info. Also contains desktops, avatars, icons and graphics and an on-going art contest.
4Kids Official Site - the official site for 4Kids entertainment, the station that airs the new cartoon series.
Fan Sites
The TMNT Fanfic Archive - there's a lot of fic in one place, but a lack of summaries makes browsing pretty hit or miss. Hasn't been updated in about three years, like many archives for the fandom.
The Green Underground - Created to give TMNT writers someplace besides FF.net to post. TGU has a small selection at the moment, but some good stories.
Behind the Masks - a combined fansite featuring the works of several different writers. Also contains Harry Potter and Willow.
Mikey's TMNT - billed as the ultimate fansite, Mikey's contains forums, fanworks, events listings, merchandise, etc. Has a great links page.
The Technodrome - Forums, fanfic, artwork, links, and info.
FF.Net's TMNT section - featuring 2100+ TMNT fics. Beware of Mary Sue. Note: TMNT fic can also be found on AFF.Net, if you're brave enough to try it.
Stealthy Stories - Stealthy Stories was created as an alternative to FF.net. Hosts fanfic, discussion boards, and a plot bunny farm.
LJ Communities
tmnt - the main TMNT community on LJ. Mostly for discussion, doesn't appear to welcome fanfic, prefers that adult and/or slash content be limitted. Good for getting updates on new projects or if you just want to talk about the show.
tmnt_adult - created so fans looking for adult TMNT discussions and fic would have a place to hang out. Low-traffic, but fairly amicable.
tmnt_icons - pretty self-explanatory. ^_^