You are in for a treat watching the journey of the characters.
I was always a bit puzzled about the TMNT being trained in ninjitsu when Hachiman explained they were villains.
Although having said that in a comic I read a couple years ago, although it was the IDW comic universe and not any of the animated or movie series, it explained that in feudal Japan The Foot Clan were a bit corrupt and got worse when Oroko Saki took over as leader but Hamato Yoshi left the clan so that would explain why he was trained in ninjitsu and taught the turtles to use it for good. If you notice I said feudal Japan because in the IDW comic Oroko Saki (Shredder) Kills Yoshiās (Splinter) wife then track down Yoshi and his four sons (the turtles) and executes them but Yoshi says something to Saki and as fate would have it Yoshi and his sons are reincarnated and battle the Shredder, who has been kept alive in an isolation tank thing and gains possession of his descendantās body, in present day New York.
That comic version sounds like quite a deviation from the standard form of the story . . . :o
Well, thatās the Meadowhall walk done for the 50th time this year already! I should be able to notch up at least another 20 in the remaining weeks, Iād like to make it another 30.
And my body clock is just about back to normal after the last few disturbed nights.
With a bit of luck, I might get back on with the Visionaries story tomorrow. I think part of the reason I went back to it was because I was getting stuck on the song, and it helped keep me in the right frame of mind. Now, the question is, will continuing with it again now prove unhealthy? It shouldnāt do, because I originally started it in 2011, during an emotionally neutral time. Just because recent events might add a touch of realism to certain moments, I should be OK, after all, everything is already plotted down to the last detail.
Yes it is a new take on the story, but for the most part the 5 volumes I read of it were very good. In some ways I would have liked to have kept reading it as I heard following events in volume 6 and 7 they leave NY and head out to the Hamptons or a New England town just like they did in the original Mirage comics and briefly in the first live action movie.
I was counting up how many miles I walked on Friday. I walked at least 4 miles every day over the summer holidays but a lot of the days I did 8, sometimes even more. I calculated it to be about at least 350 miles.
I have been watching a lot more DOTE to finish the series. I have started learning German again and while I am writing I put episodes on and I can watch and listen to most of it while I study. Well not so much started learning I was pretty fluent at a time but that was over ten years ago. I still knew bits that I could get by with but now I am re-learning bits I forgot and learning even more that I didnāt learn/understand at the time.
My body clock has also been a bit mixed up lately with not getting to sleep until late then being awoke by neighbours partying and causing other neighboursā dogs to start barking.
I need to start my training again on the cross trainer rising at 6-7am and exercising first thing.
I am also hoping at some point this week of getting the character design for a character in one of my next paintings completed.
Although I do have a rather fun piece I also want to start work on.
Well, adding up the miles, that 15-mile walk 50 times this year is 750 miles just for that.
Thatās not factoring other times Iāve just walked into town (about 2-3 miles each way), or Broomhill/Crookes (probably a 9-10 mile round trip, itās harder to measure), or Firth Park (about 4 miles each way).
I usually swim 40-50 lengths on a wednesday, the pool is just over 20m long, so thatās 800-1000m a time (which Iāll be putting on hold when my toenails are done).
Once youāve finished DotE, you might be in more of a position to make suggestions on the continuity front.
One thing I want to do, now that Iām living in the house, is watch Visionaries again, this time on the big TV that mum had. I was doing that with DotE earlier this year, and I really should do it with Thundercats as well.
All those miles walking and swimming is good going.
I donāt know if there is really much I could help with continuity wise as yours seems to be pretty spot on as it is. But I will do my best to help you out with the continuity.
Watched the DOTE episode Proof Highway. Considering only one of the four main characters has a small part in this episodes and it mainly focuses on Rick, Jedda and LJ, and their is no Ming or any other bad guy a such, I really enjoyed this episode. I think they way they dealt with alcohol abuse and pear pressure was very well done and interesting.
Exactly. Mandrake is the only grown-up in the episode, and even then heās only in one scene, equally Kshin only has a small part, the episode is entirely to do with the problem of teenage temptation and focuses on Rick, LJ and Jedda.
Itās probably the strangest episode of the series, and so difficult to review fairly.
Obviously all the main elements of what make the show so great are completely absent. I donāt have any memories of seeing this one as a kid, but I donāt know if thatās because I actually didnāt, or whether I just found the episode dull back then. Without any real hero v villain action, I would probably have found it a bit boring as a child.
Its standout feature is its complete lack of standout features!
That said, itās done quite well. Iām not going to go and pan it just like that. Itās perfectly watchable. Bunch and Coleās work again, they wrote a few of the weirder ones. Iāll give it three stars.
That said, I think the same message was done better (apart from Kshinās He-Man-esque break of the fourth wall at the end) on the matter of drugs in āThe Deadliest Battleā.
Although, it has just occurred to me, I think it might have made more sense in character terms if they had swapped Rick and Jedda around in these two episodes. Iād have thought Jedda was more likely brought up to understand about the dangers of alcohol from an early age by being given it in moderation, but also within the Bandar community, drugs would probably be completely unfamiliar to her.
Conversely, Rick should on paper be too smart to ever be tempted by illegal substances, but after the death of his mother, and a huge supply of alcohol within easy reach in Mandrakeās wine cellar, itās more plausible.
Avatar episode 14 - not sure about that one. Too much to groan about.
I think it really fleshed out the characters of Rick, LJ and Jeddaā¦and even Kshin. It was a nice change of pace just showing them at school, Mandrakeās house and the house where the party was. It would definitely help people relate to them a lot more.
I also donāt recall seeing this on TV when I was younger. Like you I doubt back then I would have found it overly appealing.
Episode 14 of Avatar is definitely not the best. I personally think it is one of the weakest (if not the weakest) episodes in season one.
Itās the only episode that didnāt ring any bells whatsoever. But like I said, because itās so devoid of the features that made the show really memorable, I might have still seen it and been completely underwhelmed. Itās possible. Unlikely with my memory, but still possible under the circumstances.
Thereās one or two episodes of Thundercats that didnāt ring any bells when I got the DVD. I may or may not have seen them as a kid. I know when I saw Prince Valiant on youtube that I had never seen at all about the last 10-15 episodes. And even in a small show like Visionaries, there were episodes I knew I had never seen as a kid.
I only had five episodes of Visionaries on tapes and vague memories two so I when I got the DVD there was 8 episodes that were new to me.
Also with Inhumanoids I had only seen one episode so when I got the series there was 12 episodes I had never seen.
As much as I loved Bravestarr I didnāt see a vast lot of it. Of the 65 episodes I only seen about 20 episodes and the movie. I still have to finish watching all of it.
I also have to finish watching M.A.S.K. which I believe I am around half way through.
There were four episodes I didnāt see as a kid. Someone gave me a video that happened to include two of the others when I was 19.
Itās harder to say with Pole Position - there were about six or seven episodes I had vivid memories of watching on Going Live, others where I remembered seeing the last few minutes on channel 4, and at least two that I had definitely never seen a single frame of before in my life.
Also with Inhumanoids I had only seen one episode so when I got the series there was 12 episodes I had never seen.
A bit like me with Spiral Zone then - the show must have embedded itself sufficiently in your memory to look it up.
As much as I loved Bravestarr I didnāt see a vast lot of it. Of the 65 episodes I only seen about 20 episodes and the movie. I still have to finish watching all of it.
I think Iām probably about the same.
I also have to finish watching M.A.S.K. which I believe I am around half way through.
Iām not quite sure how many episodes of C.O.P.S. Iāve not seen yet. I watched a curious one last night, āThe Case Of The Lowest Crimeā - in which we learn that even Big Boss has some standards, and that deep down he really does care about his nephew, Berserko. And these two factors combined lead him to lend our heroes the services of his henchmen to help bring down a really nasty piece of work. Of all the āteam upā episodes that existed in 80s cartoons, this is in some way the most surprising. Even though you can see quite quickly that itās obviously going to happen. Itās actually quite well done. Especially the ending, which leaves everything and nothing to the imagination at once!
Well I had an episode of Inhumanoids on a tape along with Transformers and G.I. Joe and when the DVD came out it was pretty cheap so I got it.
From what I have seen of Pole Position (the intro and part of one episode back in the 80ās) it never really grabbed my attention but it seems a bit similar to M.A.S.K.
I got the TMNT complete DVD box set when it came out. It cost Ā£90 but what a smart investment. I sold it late last year on EBay and made quite a profit. It sold for nearly Ā£200.
Pole Position was nothing special as cartoons go, but it does have one of the best theme songs. As a musician myself, I can say itās a fraction more complex than the average theme song. I was still able to learn it by ear, but itās got a bit more to it than most. A couple of unexpected chord changes . . . lovely.
And of course, I have mentioned the curiosity factor in the show based on the Alfred Hitcchock connection, most of the episode titles are plays on words of the titles of his films (some more obvious than others), and thereās plenty of other little touches within the episodes themselves. Itās more interesting the more you know about Hitchās films, I suppose. Although itās never going to hold its head up as high as Thundercats or DotE.
Would Proof Highway be before or after the Deadliest Battle? I am thinking maybe after as you said, with all the stress regarding Dale and fighting Ming maybe the pressure just got a bit much for Rick. So when he seen Jedda being drawn into a similar situation he warned her against it and didnāt want her to make a similar mistake.
This is the biggest continuity question mark in the whole series. And itās nothing to do with Jedda, itās the opposing attitudes of Rick and Kshin, each tempted by one addiction but very alert of the dangers of the other.
Yes I see what you mean. That does pose a problem. Still, if we where to have āDeadliest Battle firstā we could put Kshinās attitude to being young and easily led.
Like Rick made a bad mistake with drugs and Kshin knew how bad drugs are and the bad effect they have on people.
But in āProof Highwayā the more Rick is smart and old enough to know how bad drink is, Kshin being younger probably doesnāt realise how addictive and bad a drug alcohol can be. He seen one of the coolest kids in school and his friends doing it. And Mandrake even drinks and has it in the house so it canāt be that bad.
A lot of people donāt realise that alcohol is one of the most addictive and destroying drugs even compared to class A drugs.
Taking what I have said into account I think we could get way with putting Deadliest battle first.
BTW Mandrake had a very laid back and relaxed way of dealing with Kshin going to take a drink of alcohol.
Possibly. Itās tempting to talk about Kshinās origins here, he may have seen the damage that drugs such as opium can do (although I may be a little out of date here!).
Overall, I think youāve got it the right way round, especially with Kshin living in a house with a huge wine cellar. Meaning Iāll have to adjust my continuity order accordingly. Remembering that āThe Deadliest Battleā comes after āSuspended Sabotageā of course, due to Flashās comments about Rick in that episode.
Also, I made a point about ā100 Proof Highwayā and āThe Necklace Of Orosā a while back, concerning Jeddaās age. āThe Necklace Of Orosā starts on her 17th birthday, and I remembered a line from ā100 Proof Highwayā referencing Jedda as being 17, but when I saw that episode again, I found that Eric is probably just referring to himself when he says ābeing 17 and out there is . . .ā - thereās no reference to Jeddaās specific age. Mind you, if weāre putting this episode after āThe Deadliest Battleā, then thereās a good chance āThe Necklace Of Orosā is before it anyway.
You are in for a treat watching the journey of the characters.