TMNT: Family Issues/Tropes


 * Adorkable: Mei / Diana is just a cute littke dork.
 * Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Mei is shown grieving her father and trying to find a new family in the turtles, two missing things from her original version.
 * Adaptation Name Change: Or nickname. This version of Mei Peih Chi is nickamed "Diana" instead of "Venus de Milo", due to the Unfortunate Implications of naming a female character after an object.
 * Adaptation Personality Change: Mei goes from a non-nonsense Team Mom to an excitable dork akin to Starfire from Teen Titans (2003).
 * Adult Fear: In this version, Splinter didn't just "missed" Mei, he lost her. As a baby.
 * Audience Surrogate: Mei serves as this for audiences unfamiliar with the franchise, being a new individual unaware of the Turtles' allies, enemies, personalitues, abd experiences, much like how first-time viewers who are being intrudiced to the franchise througth this show are most likely unaware of TMNT mythology and lore beyond the basics.
 * Author's Saving Throw:
 * The series noticeably fixes many errors found in Mei's debut show, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation:
 * Mei is given a far more memorable personality and a stronger, less romance-focused, character arc that fits within the franchise's themes of family bonds. She is also potrayed in equal footing with the rest of the Turtles.
 * Fans complained over Mei having no idea of western pop culture as a Dead Horse Trope. This series goes the opposite way by having Mei learning English by watching TV and her adoptive father translating the shows for her.
 * April and Mei appear together on this series, aliveniating complains of Mei being a Replacement Scrappy for April.
 * Many fans felt Splinter "missing" Mei was an Ass Pull. This series provides a better explication for her absence: She fell off into the sewers' waters and Splinter failed to find her after days of searching.
 * The Shredder is the series main antagonist, fixing a big sore spot TMNT fans had with The Next Mutation.
 * Fans also decried her having boobs to distinguish her as female, which this series thankfully avoids by having her design be based on real-life female turtles.
 * While generally well-received, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles received a few complains for having Raphael to be less angry than usual. This series goes back to his angry potrayal while still showing him to be openly affectionate of his family. Same goes for Splinter, who is once again potrayed in his traditional personality while also being as much of a father to the team as a sensei.
 * After having two series in a row with Splinter as Hamato Yoshi, this series goes back to potraying him as Yoshi's pet, much to the rejoice of fans who were getting tired of him and Yoshi being the same.
 * Awesome Moments: The series starts with the Turtles having fought the Foot Ckan for three years and it shows! They are skilled enough that they are already a match for the Shredder!
 * Mei herself isn't too far behind. She admitedly hasn't been in many group fights and still has enough skills to survive her first fight with Shredder.
 * A villanous example: The Turtles may be skilled enough to fight him, but the Shredder is still a very credible threat.
 * Big Bad Duumvirate: Shredder and Krang.
 * Composite Character:
 * Leatherhead is potrayed as a scientist like his 2003 counterpart but is Michaelangelo's best friend like his 2012 self.
 * Shredder's design combines elements of the 2003 show's Cyber-Shredder with his 2012 design, while also having red clothings like his Mirage Comics counterpart.
 * Establishing Character Moments: The firdt episode sees Splinter leading a training season with the Turtles, which he ends by asking who wants to watch a movie, establishing this Splinter as a responsible sensei and a relaxed father to the team.
 * Foreshadowing: One of the names in April's phone is "Casey".
 * Funny Moments: The sheer contrast between tge Turtles eating oizza and Mei eating her ramen. Like day and night.
 * Gratuitous Japanese: Mei generally talks English, but she does slip back to Japanese (her first language) when extremely emotional.
 * Heartwarming Moments:
 * A flashback narrated by Mei has her adoptive father training her. The moment is cute, and you can tell why Mei loved him so much.
 * The fact that, througth the series, the Turtles make an effort to accept Mei abd try to make her feel welcome. Is really nice to have the Turtles do their best to accept her as part of the family, instead of treating her poorly as one would expect from these type of stories.
 * While Raph still has his anger issues and can be a bit of a jerk at times, the moment he sees he made a mistake he geniunely tries to make up for it.
 * Following the footsteps of ROTTMNT, Splinter in this version is more than happy to spent time with the Turtles doing father-children activities such as watching movies instead of just training them.
 * The season one finale has Mei exclaiming the iconic phrase "I love being a turtle" while fighting alongside her new family. To contextualize, the TMNT are always refered by everybody as "the turtles". This is Mei exclaiming that she loves being a part of her new family.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: As usual, Raphael takes this one. Througth there's a bit more enphasis on the "Heart of Gold" part than the "Jerk" part.
 * Mythology Gag:
 * Mei in this version uses tonfas as weapons, a nod to Mikey using them in her debut series.
 * Mei learned English from her father translating shows in English to her. In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987), the Turtles learned from the outside world througth TV.
 * Mei's arrival on New York is similar to Leonardo's return in TMNT.
 * The Turtles' first scene is reminiscent of the "Hashi" sequence from the 2014 film.
 * Before starting a battle, Leonardo shouts "Turtles! Fight with honor!", his catchphrase from the 1987 series.
 * While fighting the Shredder, Michaelangelo shouts "Cowabunga Shredhead", the title of an episode of the 1987 series.
 * Instead of mutating into a fly, Baxter Stockman wears a fly-like suit of armor, similar to an early opening for Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie.
 * Raphael often uses his sai to eat pizza slices, similar to the intro for the 1980s show. He also exclaims at one point "Give me a break", which he used to say in the intro for that show.
 * The turtles' lair is below Laird district at the East side of NYC, a nod to TMNT creators Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman.
 * April in this version is shown to have a degree in science; in the original Mirage comics, April was Stockman's lab assistant.
 * One of Donnie's books is titled "The Legend of Yaotl".
 * During a fight with the Foot Clan, Mikey spins Donnie while he is on the ground in a similar manner to the fight in April's department in the 1990 film.
 * One episode sees Krang disgusing himself as the Shredder to set up a trap for the Turtles, as a nod to C'hrell from the 2003 series.
 * During the series' first fight, Shredder briefly attempts to kill Leonardo in a manner reminiscent of how he almost killed him in the 1990 film.
 * The Rat King's appearance is reminiscent of his 2012 self.
 * Nightmare Fuel:
 * The Shredder full stop. His ruthless personality and horrifyimg design almost makes him look like a horror movie villain.
 * The first battle has the Shredder and Leonardo fighting each other with the same skill, but Shredder eventually gets the upperhand and almost beheads Leonardo had not Mei intervened, making clear to audiences that these Turtles may be more at Shredder's level, but he is still someome you don't wanna as your enemy.
 * What follows is the Shredder attacking Mei. While her skills allow Mei to survive, that is by an inch. One wrong move, and she is Turtle soup.
 * Mei finding out the Shredder exists can be considered one. Imagine hearing from your dad about a boogeyman few have survived fighting against. Now imagine discovering that boogeyman is real and not only is as dangerous as you've heard, but has been targeting your family for years. And now, just for being a part of the family, will also target you.
 * This version explains with more details how Mei was seprated from the Turtles: She wandered off and fell into the sewers' water. Splinter spent days searching for her and didn't found her. An all too real fear for any parent.
 * Leatherhead's Unstoppable Rages are still terrifying. His anger issues mean he can change from a mellow fellow to an unstoppable death machine unable to tell friend from foe and who, unless calmed down, might kill you.
 * This version of the Rat King is... not pretty to look at. Even the 2012 version had enough human-like appearamce (and time onscreen before being disfigured) that could tell you he is human. This version looks like a zombie.
 * The entire final scene for season 1 is enough to elicit a Mass "Oh Crap" for TMNT fans: The Shredder, the Turtles' archenemy, and Krang, the TMNT's most technologically-advanced foe, join forces with the Rat King, the one villain that can easily harm the Turtles where it hurts...
 * Production Posee: The Owl House showrunner Dana Terrace hired a few cast members from that series into this one, such as Zeno Robinson as Leonardo and Mae Whitman reprising her role from the 2012 show as April O'Neil.
 * Rescued From the Scrappy Heap: Mei / Venus was easily one of the most controversial TMNT characters ever, with many feeling she was nothing more than a poor Replacement Scrappy for April. This series won a few fans over by recpntextualizing her as an Adorkable badass girl who just wants to fit in with her newly-discovered brothers, as well as by adfing further depth to her character by showing her grieving for her adopted father's passing and how the Turtles are everything she has left.
 * Role Reprise:
 * From Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
 * Mae Whitman as April
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Shredder
 * Greg Cipes as Michaelangelo
 * Phil LaMarr as Baxter Stockman
 * From Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
 * Eric Bauza as Splinter
 * Jim Pirri as Krang
 * Nolan North reprises his role from the 2007 animated film TMNT as Raphael.
 * Sequel Hook: The first season ends with the Rat King proposing to Shredder and Krang an alliance.
 * Shout-Out: Mei meeting the Turtles plays similarly to Della Duck reuniting with her family in DuckTales (2017).
 * Tearjerker: After Raphael commends Diana on her fighting skills with her tonfas, she reveals her father trained her. The scene then changes to a flashback of the two lovingly training together. When the scene returns to the present. Mei is left in tears.
 * Truer to Text: This version of Karai is depicted as an anti-heroic leader of a faction of the Foot Clan with no relation to the Shredder, which is more akin to her original potrayal.
 * Urban Legend: According to Mei, the Shredder and the Foot are generally deemed a myth througth Japan.... because few fought him and lived to tell it.