#you know for a fact that this woman would throw shredder in the garbage and press the damn button

[deadtiredghost]

we deserved more of 2018 Casey

[spectrumscribe]

pour another glass, and keep ‘em coming.

a commissioned TMNT 2012 fic for Donnie and Karai having some bonding time about not being fully appreciated by their families, both current and prior.

Karai isn’t sure what she’s expecting as she throws on a housecoat over her tank top and sweats, marching out of her private quarters and towards the main greeting room for Foot allies. Why any of her brothers would come calling at this hour of the morning- nearly completely light out, hours before any of them would dare rising to the surface- is beyond her. All she knows is that she’s three kinds of annoyed and five kinds of pissed off, because like them, she is very nearly nocturnal and she’d been sleeping, dammnit.

Karai all but kicks open the door into the lounge, and storms inside to turn her scathing glare on-

-Donatello. Donnie. Who hardly seems to leave that lab of his, and tends to keep to his own lane unless it’s necessary. They’ve gotten closer lately, yes, but not so close he’s entitled to interrupting her downtime like this.

“Explain yourself,” Karai snaps, and Donnie gives a tired shrug.

“My family are a bunch of assholes,” He says in a flat tone, and hefts a crate. “I brought beer. Can I stay the day?”

Karai nearly snaps again, and then hesitates. She eyes the crate, which has tall bottles sticking out of it as well as cans.

“Is that red wine?” She asks.

“It is if you’ll drink it with me.”

“Give it here,” Karai commands, and takes the bottle her brother hands her.

One room swap and two glasses later, Karai is lounging on her favorite loveseat while Donnie continues to brood in silence; draining his third beer and exchanging it for the glass of red wine he’s still nursing.

“You shouldn’t mix like that,” Karai comments as he downs the last half of it. “It ruins the taste of both. A chugging everything doubly ruins it.”

“I’m here to feel sorry for myself and possibly get very tipsy, not be pretentious about how I drink,” Donnie snidely replies, and seemingly to spite her, reaches for another beer can. Karai clicks her tongue in disgust and sips her glass.

Karai waits for further explanation, but gets none. Donnie just slouches in his seat, glaring aimlessly around Karai’s private living room, and honestly, only one of her siblings is allowed to pull that act at a time. And last she checked, Raph hasn’t taken to smiling unless under duress.

“Spill,” Karai says, drawing a narrow look towards herself. She gestures around them. “You’re camping out in my secret base, so the decent thing would be to tell me why.”

“I gave you wine, that’s payment enough,” Donnie says irritably.

Karai rolls her eyes. “Come on, Donnie. We both know you wouldn’t risk going aboveground this time of morning unless it was important. Tell me if I should be worried about some impending disaster while you drink yourself into a coma.”

“I’m a mutant, I don’t know if I can actually do that with my metabolism,” He says factually. Karai raises one eyebrow, fixing a glare on him. Donnie meets it for a long moment, and then flops his head backwards with an almighty sigh.

“Fine. I had a fight. With my brothers. And now I’m not speaking to any of them because they’re all unappreciative little shits who don’t understand half of what I’ve done for them over the years. Raph accused me of having it easy. Easy, he said. Easy how? Just because I wasn’t getting myself punished all the time for starting fights didn’t mean things were easy for me.”

He stops to take a drink of his beer. Karai takes the pause as a chance to pour more wine for herself; she can already feel this turning into a lengthy conversation.

“So… you had a fight. And that’s new how?” Karai is familiar with how much her half-siblings bicker and quarrel amongst themselves. If they’re not working together like a well-oiled machine, they’re stuttering along like a broken jalopy. There’s no in between for them.

“It’s not, that’s the problem!” Donnie says empathetically, gesturing sharply. “We always fight about the same things and we never get anywhere. Just keep going in circles trying to- to one up each other, or shut someone down, or just can’t. Can’t something. I don’t know.” He takes a long sip of his beer, glaring at the wall. “They don’t respect me.”

“No?” Karai asks, because from the outside perspective she doesn’t see why they wouldn’t. She’s seen some of the toys Donnie produces in that lab of his, many of them incredible and highly dangerous.

Karai’s own weaponry department still can’t hold a candle to her brother’s accomplishments, much to her occasional chagrin. The tech her brother scrapes together out of literal garbage is nothing short of miraculous, and underestimating that tech has usually backfired spectacularly on their enemies.

“Nope,” Donnie drawls angrily. “and I know I deserve it. Maybe I’m not the leader, or- or a natural fighter, but I work hard, dammnit. I don’t have to be a genius to know that without my inventions and medical knowledge, one or all of us would be dead right now.” He slouches further into the chair, curling up on himself. He looks less angry, more sadly frustrated. “I’m not asking for much, but would it kill them to just… thank me? Admit I do more than tinker all day? Sometimes… sometimes it just feels like they only give a shit when I’m doing something for them, and then… they just forget to say thanks, or even acknowledge I did anything. It pisses me off.”

Karai watches Donnie as he sits and feels miserable for himself, idly taking sips from her wine. Then she sighs.

“You know, I used to feel the same way. About the Shredder,” Karai admits, and she feels palpable surprise from her brother. She looks at him. “What, you think he was father of the year? He started training me in ninjutsu soon as I had the mental capability for it. I was already being groomed as heir by the time I was five.” She tilts her head; giving a wry, somewhat bitter smile. “The Shredder wasn’t the sort of teacher who accepted anything less than the best, you see. So I couldn’t ever be anything but that.”

Donnie is quiet for a moment, giving Karai an unreadable contemplative look. Then he leans forwards in his seat, setting his can on the coffee table between them.

“What was it like?” He asks, tone cautious. “Being raised by… the Shredder.”

Karai looks down into her red wine, which is about the same color as the blood she’s seen spilled over the years. Most of it by her own hands, or her adoptive father.

“It wasn’t all bad,” She distantly hears herself saying. “But… not always good.”

Donnie silently listens to her, and Karai, probably because of the alcohol in her system, finds herself talking about things she never really has before.

“I usually enjoyed it. Winning tends to make you feel like you do. The few times I trained with other apprentices and students, I was top of the class. Better than anyone my age, and usually better than anyone years older. Though it’s not like anyone tried particularly hard against me; I was the Shredder’s daughter. No one wanted to risk crossing him. That way laid discreet disappearance if you were lucky, or being made an example of if you were not.”

“I’m not bad at ninjutsu, but I just never managed to be great compared to my brothers? I think too much, or think not enough of the right stuff? I mean- I built half our kitchen and living room and bathroom appliances from scratch, and I still didn’t get as much praise from our father. It wasn’t ninjutsu, so I guess it wasn’t as impressive to him. Would’ve liked to see how he coped without the modified hairdryers I gave him; maybe then Splinter would’ve felt more appreciative of my inventions.”

“I don’t remember if I wanted to do it or not. All I remember is that he wanted me to, and expected me to, and so did everyone else. And if I hadn’t… I don’t know. He never physically punished me, but I suspect if I hadn’t executed that woman, I wouldn’t have been allowed back home for at least half a year. Isolation was usually how he opted for reprimands. No contact with my few friends deemed worthy, and no admittance to the main base. No contact with him, either.”

“Either I bend over backwards to solve all our problems at once, or I’m not doing anything useful. Maybe my experiments look like I’m sitting in one spot for days in a row, but that level of mathematics and science takes concentration! It’s not as flashy as fancy katas, but it’s just as valuable in the long run. More so, in fact! My brothers don’t get that. They’ve never gotten that. If it doesn’t go boom, then it’s garbage, right? Never mind half of the work I do is just keeping us safe from humans. It took me months to finish a program that would delete only footage of us from the city’s CCTV system, and they never even said thanks.”

“Admittedly, and don’t you dare ever tell anyone this, I used to actually be… quite anxious. It got easier the older I got, but also worse, sometimes. The Foot Clan is highly prestigious, even with the damage Shredder did to it in his later years. Before all that… we were a powerhouse. Indomitable. I couldn’t ever slip up in front of allies or enemies, or I’d risk embarrassing us all. An heir can’t look incapable, and he never, ever let me forget that. Imagine being a scrawny preteen, and never being allowed to make a mistake under any circumstances.”

“If I screwed up, usually it meant someone might die. They never say so much as thank you, but in the moment they certainly put on the pressure. If our getaway vehicles choked, we were fucked. If a smoke bomb didn’t have the right balance of ingredients, it wouldn’t go off correctly and we’d be fucked. If any of the mechanical gear I’ve made over the years quit working right mid-battle, we were fucked. And if by some miracle we lived through the disaster, they’d blame me.”

“Honestly, I think he stopped hugging me around ten. Maybe nine. About the time he started giving me exclusively weapons for gifts and praise only when I fucking killed someone.”

“I don’t remember the last time my father hugged me, actually. Or the last time he paid attention to my work instead of how distracted I was during training. Hard to be focused when I haven’t slept in three days, you know?”

“I loved him, sort of, but it turned into respect for his authority after a while. He couldn’t even manage real familial love as a father in the end. Bastard.”

“I loved him, yeah, but I don’t think he ever really… liked me for who I am? We never really connected like that, honestly.”

“I was his favorite, but only because I was the best, and the last piece of my mother’s legacy. Likely for nothing else.”

“I wasn’t his favorite, and I don’t know how I feel about that, even now. Wish he’d at least tried to show interest in what I loved.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You shouldn’t have had to deal with that.”

“You deserved better than that.”

“We both did.”

Somehow, they end up on the couch together, slumped on either end of it and feeling… better, actually. Mutual complaining about their imperfect families/family, as it turns out, is quite cathartic.

Wine and beer helps, too.

Karai sets down her glass on the coffee table a final time. She’s not drinking any more, not today. She might be more than human now, but the tipsiness is really starting to get to her. Donnie seems to be done as well; holding a glass of his own that’s been empty for ten minutes now.

“…you can’t ever tell anyone what I said today,” Karai says quietly, but firmly. “If you do, I’ll-”

“Have my shell for it?” Donnie rolls his eyes. “You used that phrase enough times when you were still trying to kill us.”

“Tch. How you four wiggled out of that every time, I’ll never understand.”

“Honestly, neither will I.”

Karai laughs, the morbid humor of their former relationships actually funny with the wine sloshing around in her. She leans drowsily on her palm, smiling to herself.

“You know, I’m glad I didn’t,” She says absently. “Things would’ve been a lot different if I’d shuc-succeeded.”

Donnie snorts at her slip of tongue. “Well, same to you. I wasn’t exactly holding back, either. Woulda sucked if I killed you ‘fore we figured this- blood feud stuff. Yeesh.”

Karai turns an eye on her brother, and raises an invisible glass at him. “Cheers to having not accidentally on purpose killed each other because of our fath-father’s fighting.”

“Cheers,” Donnie replies, raising his actual glass at the empty air of Karai’s. His fingers slip around it and it falls, hitting the carpet with a dull thud. Karai doesn’t even care; she’s too wrung out and she can always buy more anyway, if it broke.

“You know what?” Donnie says suddenly. Karai raises an eyebrow, too tired to do much else. “You’re… not as bad as I used to think you were.”

“No?” Karai chuckles, because similarly, her opinion of Donnie has improved with time as well.

“Nah. I mean, you’re still kinda a- a bitch to people-”

“Oh really, now-”

“-but yeah. Coulda done worse for a sister.”

Karai shakes her head. “I used to try to murder you,” She says dryly, though his words make a softly warm spot in her chest. She’d never had any family besides the Shredder, growing up.

Donnie shrugs. “In this family? Still could’ve been worse.”

“Well, then I’d like to say I could have done worse for a brother,” Karai says seriously, blaming the alcohol for her sentimentality.

“Given your pool of choices here,” Donnie says with a smirk. “I’d pick me, simply ‘cause I manage to be the most polite half the time, and always bring alcohol to the party.”

Karai snorts in an undignified fashion and kicks his shin. He kicks her back, slurring snark at her as she does at him.

They keep talking, even though they nearly fall asleep mid-conversation. It’s the horribly familial kind of setting Karai never got to experience as a lone clan heir, and even though her sleep schedule is ruined and she’ll likely have a hangover, she finds it’s a weird touchy-feely experience she wouldn’t mind repeating.

Commission info & Kofi link.

[generalthirstclub]

I Don’t Need Your Help (squip x reader; part 2 of ??)

A/N: SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT IVE HAD THIS FINISHED SITTING IN MY DRAFTS FOR AGES BECAUSE THE ORIGINAL DRAFT I ACCIDENTALLY DELETED AND CRIED OVER IT FOR HOURS OOPS AND I DIDNT LIKE HOW THE SECOND RESULT TURNED OUT AT ALL BUT HERE TAKE THIS STEAMING PILE OF HOT GARBAGE EW EW EW

—

I was startled awake by a scream.

I jolt up off the ground, gasping and groaning as my body immediately reacted with an intense soreness in every muscle. Where was I? It was cold- the floor beneath me was hard….

“Oh my god- what- what happened in here?”

A panicked voice makes me wince, eyes opening slowly. Bright. I was….

In the bathroom. In the bathroom at the mall.

“Miss- Hey- Miss- get up-”

A hand reaches out to grab my arm, yanking me up off my behind. God, it felt like someone had put me through a document shredder. Twice. Why did everything hurt so bad??

“Hey! Are- are you okay??”

I was sucked back into reality by the voice of the short woman in front of me- she was probably a sophomore, clad in the mall worker’s uniform. She looked like she’d seen a ghost….

“W-What?”

I feel myself say. It takes effort, and my own voice seems distant. It almost feels like I’d just had the worst acid trip of my life…. God, I hope that wasn’t what had actually happened.

But what had happened back there??

“You- it’s closing time, miss- how- how long have you been in here?”

The short girl questions, worry showing clear on her face. Great. Closing time. Midnight. But how was it so late? I’d only headed into Spencer’s to get……

To get the SQUIP.

‘God, it’s about time you got up.’

My body immediately freezes in place. No. No, no no-

“Miss?”

I whip my head around to look at the girl. I have to get home. Now.

“I-I have to go-”

I stutter out quickly, ripping my arm away from her and stumbling away. I ignore her protests. I have bigger things to worry about now.

Sprinting through the mall, I pray to anyone who is listening that I make it out of here with my sanity and dignity in tact. A part of me is in denial. This couldn’t possibly be real- the stupid pill- it was just….

But I knew. What else was I expecting?? It was like I was hoping that the six hundred dollars I’d just pissed away were a waste- which wasn’t too far from accurate. But now everything was different. Now everything was new. And I was terrifed.

'Take a left. The bus arrives in fifteen minutes, wouldn’t want to be late or you’re walking home. Would be rather unfortunate for the both of us, really.’

The voice chimes into my thoughts and I gasp, stumbling a bit as I run. It was there, it was real, and it was inside of my head-

'The sooner you get back home, the sooner I get to fix this mess you’ve made of yourself.’

A groan erupts from my throat and I feel an uncharacteristic wave of anger boil in the pit of my stomach. So maybe the SQUIP was a real thing. And maybe I’d just thrown away enough money to buy at least a thousand ice cream cones. But by no means could this stupid computer just barge his way into my thoughts and boss me around-

“Actually, I can.”

Suddenly the voice is real. Suddenly the voice is there, and instead of in my head it’s right in front of me, and I can’t breathe-

And it’s smiling at me.

He- or it looks like a he- has to at least be 6'3, towering above my smaller stature with a Cheshire grin. And God, does it make me the most uncomfortable I’ve ever been. Clad in an almost buisness-like inky black tailcoat paired with an oddly-bright shade of cyan undershirt and black slacks, he is literally intimidating to the point that I can’t feel myself breathe anymore.

My eyes quickly flicker up to his face and the only thing my brain begins to comprehend is how his eyes match the cyan of his undershirt- bold and wide and full of something between irritation and amusement. The world is moving around me but I can’t feel it; my mind, my eyes are too caught up in admiring the terrifying beast in front of me, how his tousled black hair frames his face perfectly and how the smirk plastered on his face pairs so well with the slight five o’ clock shadow and-

“Wake up. We don’t want to attract any more attention. You’ve gone and screwed it up enough as it is.”

I’m literally pulled out of my trance when he grabs my hand and actually drags me down the hall, an indignant squeak the only noise allowed to escape my lips. Who is this guy- how did he just- I heard him in my head-

“God, are you that dense?”

He drops my hand and I stumble a little, unable to find my voice. His grin has disappeared, and for a moment I’m relieved- until I spy the frustration written across his features.

“Follow me. Don’t say a word. People will think you’re insane, talking to yourself, and you don’t need anything else hindering your ability to be……. not whatever this is.”

He motions toward me and grimaces as he speaks, and a part of me is offended- who is this man to judge me?? We’d never even-

It clicks.

'It’s supposed to make you popular.’

'Tells you how to be cool.’

'Helps to fix everything wrong with you- it’ll make your life perfect!’

“You’re my SQUIP.”

The words escape my lips and I am breathless, frozen. He isn’t real. He’s just in my mind- but it feels so real. He hears my thoughts, he knows, he-

“If it’s taken you this long to figure out that one fact alone, I can already say that this is going to take a while.”

The SQUIP grumbles out, and he’s walking again. But this time it’s different. I know now, I know he’s not real, and I recognize how his dress shoes make no sound against the cold tile of the mall floor.

It pulls me out of my thoughts, realizing that this was exactly what I’d paid for. I stumble and hurry to catch up, still reeling, but the feeling is fading. It’s no longer fear that consumes me, but oddly enough-

Curiosity.

We exit the mall a few minutes later, into the darkness of a chilly autumn night. For a moment I almost lose him in the darkness due to his outfit- but there’s something about him. A surreal aura, almost like a glow that surrounds him and keeps him in my sight. I don’t have time to question it before he raises a hand and swipes at the air, making me blink as something akin to a computer interface appears in front of him. It glows the same color as his eyes, and my mind makes the connection that 'hey, maybe cyan’s his color’ as I hurry along behind him. He’s typing and scrolling vigorously, and a part of me is in awe. It was like a movie. Kind of scary and alien, but charmingly futuristic….

A smile graces my face and I shove my hands into my pockets, observing him silently as I do my best to keep up with him. The only noises in their air are the sound of my own footsteps and the occasional car whizzing by on the road, and for a moment it’s peaceful.

The peace doesn’t last very long.

Within seconds my brain is reminding me how awful this is, and my smile is eradicated immediately. How this machine is the very same that dragged away one of my best friends, and I was suddenly just cool with following it?? Watching it?? Listening to its instructions, obeying like some dog to its master?? This computer would not be my master- and would get no treatment as such. I was in control of my own brain, my own body-

But bloody hell, was he the most handsome thing I’d ever laid my eyes on.

The moment the thought pops into my head I regret it. Regret everything. Regret even being born- and my desire to throw myself out into moving traffic increases by at least two hundred percent when the SQUIP freezes in its tracks, obviously affected by my train of thought. It’s the first time he’s acknowledged my presence since we left, and it just had the be my stupid brain that did the trick. Oh god, this is awful, I want to die, my face is flushing and I don’t even need to see it to know because god I’m sweating so much and this is so uncomfortable and I think my heart stopped beating at some point and it’s so hard to breathe-

My internal rambling halts immediately when I feel his hand close around my wrist, tugging me forward beside him as we continue walking. I open my mouth to speak (like a fool, might I add) but close it again once my eyes catch the look on his face. It’s not anger. Or sadness, or irritation.

He’s embarrassed.

I only see it for a moment before he speeds up, the bus stop coming into view as I fall behind him. But no, I got all the time I needed to witness what I had-

The ride home may have been silent, but the grin on my face spoke novels of its own.

So maybe I could get myself out of this.

[satireknight]

TMNT S01E05 - Shredder and Splintered

Well, here we are: the season finale. Yup, the first season is just five interlocked episodes long, which is a little mind-blowing when you consider how long the series went on for. And after the narrative black-hole of the Neutrinos, it can only be an improvement.

Fun fact: this entire season apparently takes place in under a week!

And it turns out that all the running around the Turtles have done has caused them to be seen by regular humans. Maybe at that fucking arcade? Anyway, people have seen them and know about them now, and Leonardo is pouting about it.

The Turtles get kinda pissed because people are assuming the worst about them, and April is pissed because... she didn’t tell the world about them first. This woman would sell her grandmother’s kidneys for a breaking news report.

They’ve decided that they’re taking down Shredder once and for all... or once and for eight seasons of repeated takedowns. So Donatello gives April a shell-themed communicator that they all use so she can contact them, since this was before cell phones were actually any good. 

They’ve barely gotten rid of April before their TV suddenly shows Shredder, who informs them that he has a retromutagen ray that can turn mutants back to what they originally were. How long before he tries to use it on the Turtles? I’m setting my nonexistent watch!

The Turtles are rarin’ to go get it, but Splinter vetoes them with the obvious: if Shredder uses it on them, they’ll be nothing but little pet terrapins. So Splinter is going to get it himself, despite his last trip to the Technodrome going a little bit horribly.

They also apparently have the flying car the Neutrinos left behind... for some reason... and they just parked it in a giant hole in the street. Weren’t they concerned someone would notice?

But the vehicle breaks down instantly. As in, seconds after takeoff.

It’s out of fuel, and since Donatello thinks it takes plutonium, they’re completely out of luck. So instead he heads back to Baxter’s lab in order to get... something working. I wonder if it will be a merchandising tie-in.

During all this, the trained ninjas didn’t notice Bebop and Rocksteady sneaking up on them and grabbing them by the throat... even though Donatello was looking straight at them from a distance. Oops.

Again, compared to the goofballs they would later become, they’re actually kind of intimidating here. As in, Bebop is straight-up about to strangle Splinter at one point, and picks up a car to actually fling it at them. There’s some slapstick, but they are actually credible threats despite their idiocy. 

So the Turtles bury them in garbage and coat them in cement... which would take quite some time to harden, and thus wouldn’t stop them from getting up and continuing the fight. 

Krang uses this as more ammo to continue whining about getting his new body, which Shredder has finally finished. I can see why Krang is pissed, though; remember, this takes place just a day or so after the last episode, and Shredder has already whipped up the body. Apparently it’s no real trouble for him, but he was dragging his feet.

You know, the point of latex gloves is completely lost if you cut big holes in them.

“It’s a homage! IT’S A HOMAGE!”

Apparently the Technodrome hasn’t moved in the last day, because the Splinter and the Turtles are able to instantly find it and get inside. So Shredder sends a battalion of Foot Soldiers and a friggin’ tank to kill them.

Splinter heads inside during the fight in order to find the retromutagen ray, while the Turtles literally hang from their fingertips. You could show a little bit of concern, you know. They jump down and start fighting the robots, and Raphael has the brilliant idea to unleash... raw sewage. 

They defeated their enemies with a river of shit. I feel like I ought to be able to make a quip, but nothing’s coming to me.

April’s douchebag boss is busy talking to his girlfriend when she comes in, and he seems outraged that she even exists. He’s even more outraged when she says that she’s been hanging out with the Turtles for the last week. But after he tries to fire her, she threatens to blow up his office with her communicator, and he reluctantly gives her authorization for a news crew. 

There’s also a funny little scene where a cleaning lady comes into Baxter’s lab while Donatello is working, and refuses to take his unsubtle hints to go away. I’m just wondering where he got lab gloves with three fingers.

Meanwhile, Krang wakes up in his robot body, which looks like a thick-bodied, bald guy with giant arms and red underpants. I guess he went for function over form...

Splinter sorta-finds the ray, but it turns out to just be a trap where Shredder and a bunch of holographic duplicates circle around him. Of course, Shredder gives himself away by saying, “I could be anywhere, even right behind you!” Well, of course he’s going to assume that’s where you are, idiot.

Krang calls the Rock Soldiers in Dimension X to prepare to invade Earth. The Turtles fortunately have figured out what he’s planning, and intervene... only for Krang to grow incredibly large and chase them out of the room. He must be glad he made vaulted ceilings and giant doors.

I’m going to just dodge the whole issue of Krang growing huge, because honestly that’s just comic-book science.

And Krang seems kind of high right now, because instead of killing the Turtles, he just smashes the cavern ceiling and hops up into the street to punch buildings. And instead of bringing his Rock Warriors through, he just... leaves them there. 

But then Donatello shows up with a patterned blimp with the word “Turtles” printed on the side, which is exactly what you’d expect a ninja to be driving. What could be more unobtrusive and secret?

Then he and Leonardo decide to get inside Krang’s body, and I’m pretty sure that phrase inspired some filthy fan-art. Krang is busy trying to swat the Turtle Blimp’s glider out of the air, apparently not noticing that two tiny people are crawling into his shoulder and trying to chop out the chip that lets him grow or shrink. Leonardo spends what seems like five minutes hacking at the side of the chip, and then Donatello just breaks it in one move.

Of course, they have to get out before they’re squished, although I’d expect that being shrunk down would be a possibility.

“I am Krang the all-powerful! I have never been defeated!” Then how did you get banished?

And to further put the lie to that statement, he immediately boohoos to Shredder about how he needs his help. Shredder has been fighting Splinter all this time, and he runs out with the biting final comment, “you wouldn’t have won anyway!” And those grapes were sour.

I gotta say, the Technodrome isn’t so impressive when you realize that an electric cage can be deactivated by throwing a single SCREW.

Shredder runs up with the retromutagen ray, and is about to use it on the Turtles when Splinter runs up and smashes it with his walking stick. It doesn’t just break, it fucking evaporates. The Turtles are saddened because it was Splinter’s only chance to become human again, and Splinter just says that he had to do it to save them.

I really like this scene. It’s short and no-frills, but it really highlights the relationship between Splinter and the Turtles, and the way they care for each other’s well-being first and foremost. The expressions convey a lot as well.

They head back down to the Technodrome, where Krang has just opened the dimensional portal and Rock Soldiers are coming through. Donatello does some tinkering and the portal suddenly begins sucking everything into Dimension X, including the whole Technodrome. Fortunately it stops after that, and the heroes don’t end up in Dimension X too.

Shredder promptly throws a temper tantrum because he doesn’t want to be in Dimension X, but conquering Earth. Krang doesn’t give a shit and effectively says so.

And as the final note, the Turtles watch April’s report about them, which is more favorable and highlights that opinions on them are now pretty evenly split between “they’re great” and “kill them with fire.” 

VERDICT:

I’m really glad that this series got back into form with this episode, because it’s really got all the strengths of the preceding four episodes. You’ve got a pretty complex plot (well, for 20 minutes), some important character work, really dynamic action scenes and even some funny comedy. The animation was also quite good here, aside from a few flub-ups; it had that detailed, realistically fluid style that came up during fight scenes.

To be fair, Krang had his idiot ball in hand during some scenes, such as when he decided to not only grow giant but go scampering up to the surface. But you can probably excuse that away with his arrogance, and still being kinda high after getting the body he’s been demanding all season.

I also really liked the way Splinter was handled in this episode. Despite my snark, you really get the feeling that he left the Turtles to get the retromutagen ray partly for their sake, not just for his own. And his final acceptance of rathood as being unimportant compared to the Turtles was a lovely little moment that highlighted how they all felt about each other.

What happened to Rocksteady and Bebop, though? Are they still in the garbage and cement pile?

Grade: A