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.
 * Author's Saving Throw:
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Big Bad Duumvirate: Shredder and Krang.
 * 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".
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: As usual, Raphael takes this one.
 * 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.
 * 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 if armor, similar to an early opening for Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie.
 * The turtles' lair is below Laird district at the East side of NYC, a nod to TMNT creators Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman.
 * 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 Shredder 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.