TMNT: Family Issues/Tropes

* Actor Allusion: This is the second time Diamond White voices a young teenage superhero genius in an animated series based on a comic book.
*Adorkable: Mei is just a cute little 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. Her taking Leo's place dyring the "Silent Partner" storyline and the Northampton amd Return to New York storylines only furthers this.
** Splinter shows more doubts of his parental skills than previous versions due to losing Mei as a child.
* Adaptation Distillation: Season 2 loosely adapts the Enemies Old, Enemies New and City Falls story arcs from the IDW comics, while its finale is a near direct adaptation of "Silent Night". Season 3 is an adaptation of the Return to New York arc, with elements of the IDW comics' North Hampton arc. According to the writers, they choose to combine the storylines in hopes of avoiding similarities with the 2012 series, which also adapted the latter two stories as the season 2 finale and the first half of season 3.
* 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). She also constantly uses metaphors wereas her original version was Literal-Minded.
**Raph in this version is more paranoid and overprotective of his brothers, to the point of his anger being born out of worry for them.
**Ace Duck here is a cocky and suave pilot who neverthless has good intentions.
*Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: April in the series works alongside the Utroms as a scientist (and a paid one at that), which never happened in prior incarnations.
*Adaptational Whimp: In The Next Mutation, Mei was able to defeat the Shredder by herself. A huge contrast with this version, whose first fight with Saki plays almost like a horror film.
* Adult Fear: In this version, Splinter didn't just "missed" Mei, he lost her. As a baby.
* Ascended Extra:
** Not that he was a extra, being part of the titular team and all, but Mikey plays a bigger role than previous entries, where he was a more secondary character.
** The Rat King in previoys potrayals was more of a secondary foe to the Turtles with spodaric appearances. Whereas this show potrays him as one of the main villains for seasons 2 and 3.
*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. And, to further avoid any romantic story wuth her, Diana explicitly says early in the series that she is aromantic.
*** 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 a promenient antagonist, fixing a big sore spot TMNT fans had with The Next Mutation. And, while his role as main antagonist is hijacked by the Rat King in season 3, he neverthless remains a big part of the show. To not to mention, the Rat King is a preestablished fan-favorite villain who is intended to be far less silly than the Dragon Lord and whose long-term control over Splinter at least justifies him being a major antagonist and gives the Turtles more emotional stakes. 
*** The series as a whole is far more rooted in the TMNT mythos than The Next Mutation, with fan-favorite characters such as April, Krang, Baxter Stockman, Bebop, Rocksteady, and the Rat King all appearing througth the series, as well as adapting other characters from the franchise such as the Utroms and Nobody, and tge series adapting multiple stories from TMNT comics. 
***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.
***Fans also felt Mei was a Creator's Pet, defeating the Shredder and the entire Foot Clan single handedly in one fight when none of the Turtles could after years of war, and geberally being the Only Sane Woman in the group. This version is not only given a flaw in the form of her low social skills, but she goes througth some serious emotional drama due to grieving her father and later Splinter being possesed. The fact that she is the one who is beaten by the Shredder and left in a coma instead of Leonardo further avoids this.
***The second biggest problem people found in The Next Mutation is how tge Turtles' treatment of Venus and overrall personslities make them rather unlikeable, specially Mikey. Here, while Raph is apprehensive of her (at first) and Donatello is somewhat distant in general, the four are much more likeable, with Mikey in particular being the polar opposite of his Next Mutation self. The four also take their ninja duties much more seriously this time around.
***People also noted the cultural inaccurency in Mei's character, seeing as she called herself a "shinobi" and not a ninja when shinobis are ninjas (and "shinobi" is a male word) and that she was raised in China, where there are no ninjas. This version is very explicitly not a ninja, and instead practices Li Gar kung fu. The series also accuretly refers to the rest of the Turtles and Splinter as shinobis.
**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.
**Fans were admitedly confused at Leo mistrusting vigilantes due to them being vigilantes themselves. This series has Leo state he does not trust Nobody not due to her vigilantism, but because he knows nothing about her, which comes off as more reasonable.
**A complaint of the 2012 and 2003 crossovers with 1980s series is how the 80s Turtles were given the Adaptational Wimp treatment by Flanderizing the show's Campy nature. When it was this show's turn, however, the 80s Turtles were given more respect by treating them more seriously, while the show's more lighthearted nature is treated as a positive as it helps Mei get out of her depression.
*Awesome Moments: The series starts with the Turtles having fought the Foot Clan 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.
**The Turtles' first scene gives us an idea of the wonders two years of experience did. Not only do the Turtles manage to hide themselves from the Purple Dragons until they decide to reveal themselves, but also from the audience bar some blink-and-you'll-miss-it shots.
* Big Bad Duumvirate: Shredder and Krang. The Rat King joins them in season 2.
* Breaking Old Trends: Whereas Leonardo and Raphael are usually the main Turtles in orevious adaptations, the series instead puts more focus on Mei Peih Chi from The Next Mutation and Michaelangelo.
* Casting Gag: Brian Tochi voices Splinter, after voicing Leonardo in the 90s films.
* Celebrity Voice Actor:
** Michael Keaton as the Rat King.
** Jeremy Renner as Casey Jones.
**Martin Freeman as Agent Bishop
**Miles Teller as Ace Duck
*Central Theme: Grief. Mei spends part of the show grieving the death of her adoptive father Chung I, while Splinter helps her move on due to having exoerienced grief himself when his pre-mutation owner Hamato Yoshi and his wife Tang Shen were murdered. Shredder himself, meanwhile, took on a villanous path after failing to grief properly his brother Oroku Nagi's death.
*Company Cross-References: While goofing around with Krang's name, Mei comments ot "sounds like a Star Trek baddie", before imitating Captain Kirk's "KHAN!" scream.
*Composite Character:
**Mikey in this show combines his easy-going actitude from most media since the 1980s series with his potrayal from the Mirage comics as a kind and smart turtle.
**Leatherhead is potrayed as a scientist like his 2003 counterpart but is Michaelangelo's best friend like his 2012 self.
**Shredder in this version wears a full-body mechanical armor much like Ch'rell and the Bay-produced films, albeit much more slender and with gauntlets and a mask much more similar to his 2012 self. Futhermore, the armor has the purple colors of his 1987 self and is made of Utrom technology, bringing to mind both Ch'rell and his Rise of the Teenage Mitant Ninja Turtles counterpart he shares vlice actors with. Shredder also shares his Mirage self's backstory and holds an obsession with killing the Turtles similar to 2012 Shredder's obsession with killing Splinter.
**Krang's personality is generally in line with Krang One from Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie, but he retains his backstory as an exiled warlord and association with the Shredder from the 1980s cartoon. His obsession with destroying the Utroms also makes him similar to Chr'ell from the 2003 series. He also held the rank of "General", much like the IDW comics.
**The Turtle Van in this series features weapinry and equipment much more akin to the 2012 series' Shellraiser.
**Karai in this version is one of the Foot Clan leaders from Japan and is an ally of the Turtles from the beginning with no relation to the Shredder, just like the Mirage version, but she is a mutant snake like her 2012 self.
**Splinter takes on both the sensei persona of his 2003 self and his more fatherly potrayal in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, in addition to having the same backstory as his Mirage self. Furthermore, his role as the Shredder's brainwashed soldier is based on that of Leo in the IDW comics' City Falls arc.
**Bishop is a human goverment agent as in 2003, but keeps the good intentions of his 2012 self.
**Mei takes Leo's place in the "Silent Partner" and Return to New York arcs as the one who is left in a come by the Foot and is unsure about returning to the city to stop Shredder and his allies.
**Chung I takes Tang-Shen's role from the North Hampton arc from the IDW incarnation.
*Darker And Edgier: In comparation to The Next Mutation, the show where Mei came from. Themes of grief are stronger, the villains are geniuenely intimidating, and the character go througth some serious tragedy. Even the integration of Mei to the team is featured in a more dramatic light, with the Turtles slowly coming to accept and embrace her, whereas in The Next Mutation they accepted her from the get-go.
*Deconstructed Character Archetype: Mei is a deconstruction of the Cousin Oliver trope, as her arrival to the Turtles' home shows not only how would the arrival of a new family member impact a household, but how difficult it truly is to move to a new house and live with people you just met.
*Deconstruction: One could see this show as a deconstruction of The Next Mutation. Whereas in that show Mei/Venus' arrival was an event the Turtles got over quickly, with her being accepted and quickly adjusting to her new life, this show not only highlights how the Turtles and Splinter now have to get used to a permanent 5th roommate after 17 years of living by themselves and the occasional guest, but also how Mei has to get used to live in a different household from another culture and learn to live with siblings, but also has a lot of catch up to do regarding her new siblings' lives, and all that while in grief. Y'know, because her adoptive father just died.
* Disabled in the Adaptation:
** While Leo in most versions has showed multiple degrees of insecurity, this version explicitly has generalized anxiety disorder.
** Mei has ADHD, which her original and IDW selves didn't had.
*Does This Remind You of Anything?: Mei's struggles with fittimg within the Turtles is meant to evoke that of an adopted child and her new family. Which is ironic, since the Turtles are technically her "biological" family.
*Dramatic Irony: During her first dinner with the Turtles, Mei lightheartedly mocks the Turtles "believing" in the Shredder. Whom the other four already faced, unknowbest to her.
* Enforced Method Acting: Haley Tju recorded her lines individually with the other Turtles' actors voiced their cgaracterd together, in order to further establish Mei's isolation from the team.
* Establishing Character Moments: The first 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".
** In the first episode, when Mikey mentions the Turtles have been trying to get Leo to assist therapy for his generalized anxiety disorder. While a throaway line, it did seemed nonsensical. How could the Turtles even get therapy? As it turns out, this was foreshadowing for the presence of the Utroms, who are even shown to provide therapy services.
*Fridge Brilliance: Donnie in tje series centers more on engineering than other types of science. This makes sense when you realize that (and medical science) were probably were the only ones he thougth he would need to study before the Turtles began their vigiante careers 2 years before the show's events.
*Funny Moments:
**In episode 1, Diana / Mei exclaims she will search the city for her brothers even if it means spending her entire life looking for them in a dramatic speech.... before hearing them in a rooftop nearby.
**Later, after an emotional moment where she ponders whether toapproach the Turtkes or not, she knocks the door. Rapgael opens ot and finds... Mei barely staring at his eyes due to being nervous.
**The sheer contrast between the Turtles eating pizza and Mei eating her ramen. Like day and night.
**Upon learning of Krang, Mei points put how weird his name sounds, before getting distracted by goofing around with his name.
**When Nobody meets Mei, her reaction is not that of fear, but instead of scientific curiosity. As in, she invades her personal space and asks her a billion questions while scanning her.
*Gratuitous Chinese: Mei generally talks English, but she does slip back to Chinese (her first language) when extremely emotional.
*Harsher In Hindsight: The 2003 series featured a flashback where Donnie as a child fell to the sewers and was swept by the water, only for Leo to save him. This shpw woukd establish Venus de Milo as a baby got lost the same way.
* 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 1 finale, where we see Mikey inspiring the Turtles to stick together, inckuding Mei. Leonardo may be the leader, but Michaelangelo is undoubtedly The Heart of the team.
*** Also, seeing Mei preparing with the team as an instrumental version of the 80s theme song play, symbolizing her geniyenely beco,ing part of the family.
** During the season one finale, Mei saves Mikey from falling to his death while calling him "little brother".
*** Their relationship from the start is rather sweet. Mei never treats Mikey bad, loves to spent time with him, finds his antic geniuenely funny instead of annoying, and even trusts her own life on him. Mikey, on the other hand, is easily the most eager to accept Mei into the family.
***When Mikey is consumed by self-doubt and how people see him as a goofball, Mei tells him he is not a goofball to her and that he has a lot of talent as a ninja.
***Whenever Mikey suffers any sort of injury, Mei is the first one to go help him.
**In one episode, when Mei asks Raph to be careful with her Tonfas, he realizes her father gave them, and empathically vows to take care of them.
**After Splinter talks to Mei about his Master Yoshi's death and is left crying, Mei hugs in comfort his new adoptive father. This underlines the uniqueness of Splinter's relationship with Mei not only within the series, but across most TMNT incarnations. As either Hamato Yoshi or a mutated rat, Splinter ended up losing what he held dear the most forever, and he had to deal with that alone, for none he met lost as much or for that long. Here, however, has a daughter who knows exactly wjat he has gone througth.
**The relationship between Mei snd her late father is touching. He never cared that she was adopted or a mutant. As far as he was concerned, Mei was his daughter.
**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.
**By season 2, Mei feels comfortable enough with Splinter that she nonchatantly calls him dad.
*Hilarious In Hindsight: As a brief Take That! towards Venus, the 2012 show had Mikey panickibg at the idea of becoming a female turtle. Come this show, he is the first one to bond with her.
*Improperly Paranoid: Raph initially dosen't trust Mei and even susoevts her to be some sort of spy. Unusually for this trope, his paranoia is seen as understandable, if still wrong. As Mei acknowledges, he has every right to distrust.
*It's Personal: Mei develops a personal grudge towards the Rat King after he brainwashes Splinter.
* 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.
* Jerkass Has a Point: 
** While Mei is sad that Raph dosen't trust her, she understands him. After all, a stranger claiming to be your sister showing up out of nowhere is suspicious.
** Raph is also right when he tekls Mikey he can't hge Shredder's existance from Mei forever if she plans to stay with them.
* "King Kong" Climb: Rahzar does this after taking Mikey hostage.
* Mythology Gag:
** Mei is depicted as being from a different type of turtle than the rest, similar to how each Turtle came from a different species in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
** Leonardo is a fan of American Football. This was intended as a reference to the 80s "Sewer Sports All-Star" toyline.
**Donnie's survailance equipment is similar to the one in the Michael Bay films
**The first episode is titled "East Meets West", the same title as the fifth-part pilot for Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation. Mei at one point wears a hoodie similar to the one she wore during the pilot. The opening narration also features the line "four green turtles. Changed to mutants by an ooze", the first lyrics from the show's theme song.
**Mei in this version uses tonfas as weapons, a nod to Mikey using them in her debut series. She also has a white bandana, just like April when she was mutated into a Turtle in the Archie comics. Her love for mysticism also nods towards her Next Mutation counterpart's mystical powers.
** 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.
**The Turtles' first scene has them facing off against the Purple Dragons. The scene is intended as an homage to the early issues from the Mirage and IDW comics (througth in the former, the fight was against Old Hob and his gang).
**A Freeze-Frame Bonus shows the day Splinter and the Turtles were mutated was May 5, the day and month the first TMNT comic was published.
**According to the sign in front of the building, the TCRI started operations in 1984, the same year the original comic first came out.
**Much like during their meeting in The Next Mutation, Mei mistakes Donnie calling her a mutant for an insult.
**Mei uses roller-skates with stickers. One of them says "Bonnie", which was her name in the IDW comics, while another one says "Movie stars", the name used by the toyline for the 90s films to distinguish them from the toys for the 80 series.
**Before starting battles, Leonardo shouts "Turtles! Fight with honor!", a line from the 1987 series.
**April says she met the Turtles after they saved her from a group of Mousers, much like in the Mirage comics and the 2003 series.
**Donnie in this version creates his inventions by combining Utrom technology with trash. One of these is a portal gun with a cow head for shotgun, in reference to Cudley from the Archie comics.
**The sewer lair features an arcade, much like in Rise of the Tednage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as well as a sign saying "Sewer, Sweet Sewer", much like in the 2003 show.
***One of the games in the arcade is Soda Jerks, a videogame featured in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures comics, while another one resembles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters.
***A trench-coat can also be seen in the lair.
**The battle cry Diana comes up with? Turtle Power!
**Before attacking Mei, Shredder proclaims "she's not living this place... alive", a nod to C'hrell's catchphrase in the 2003 series. He also says "prepare to find out why they call me the Shredder", a line from the 2012 series' episode "Enemy of My Enemy".
**Mei and Karai face Baxter Stockman in a construction site, which serves as an homage to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time.
**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. The area is established as being within Hell's Kitchen, which, while a real-life part of New York, is also Daredevil's turf in Marvel Comics. The Turtles were originally conceived as a parody of comics like Daredevil.
**April in this version is shown to have a degree in science; in the original Mirage comics, April was Stockman's lab assistant.
**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.
**A flashback has a young Mei practicing flips while counting. In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, Splinter punished the Turtles by having them do exactly that.
**Mei's turtle tot design is inspired by the Turtles' infant selves in the 2003 series.
**The seaspn 1 finale is near-similar to the climax of the Mutants in Manhattan videogame, albeit with the Turtles fighting a Mega Shredder instead of a Mega Krang.
**The season 3 finale has Mei saving Splinter from captivity in a spiritual realm, just as in The Next Mutation.
**Before their fight in the spirit realm, Mei and Rat King say "Rat King! I am here!" and "Come! Come and face your doom!", both being nods to the original Mirage comic.
* Nightmare Fuel:
** The Shredder full stop. His ruthless personality and horrifyimg design almost makes him look like a horror movie villain.
*** His first scene is pretty damn terrifying. He is caught entering a building. A guard orders him to put his hands up. He merely responds "Alright", followed by a shot of his gauntlet. We then cut to black, with only the sound of his blades activating being the only audible thing. This gets even worse when you realize we never find out if the guard died or not. If he didn't, then what happened to him?
***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. The whole scene feels like something out of a slasher film. And, 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.
***There's also a strong difference between him and most Shredders when he fights: He dosen't sounded determimed to kill his opponents, but glee at the chance of doing so.
***Shredder's murder of Hamato Yoshi and Teng Shen in "Father Figures". While the gorier aspects are omitted, this version was just as bad as the 2003 version, with him making dure it was painful. And worst of all? Splinter had to watch it, unable to do anything. There's also the eerie realism from the scene, which feels more in line with a crime drama than a TMNT series.
** 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.
**Apparentky, mutations by themselves are harmless. The results? Not so much. One of the mutants Krang created went from a redbird to what can be described as if H.R. Lovecraft made Jurassic Park.
**Rahzar. The Secret of the Ooze claimed that a being as powerful as him was less dangerous with the mind of a baby. This show proves that wrong, and points out that such power controlled by someone with zero emotional or psychological intelligence can result dangerous thanks to a temper tantrum (just ask the Hulk). Add in some animal instincts, and we got a very terrifying mutant.
**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. And then there is his voice, which comes from the same man who played one of the most scary superheroes of all time...
*** The revelation that his control in this version is by taking his victims' souls captive in the spirit realm while their bodies become part of a hive mind while retaining their skills makes him even worse.
** 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...
** Splinter under the Rat King's control. We've seen this a thousand times before. However, the fact that Splinter literally isn't inside there while his bodies still has his skills makes it far more terrifying, because the Turtles can't get him to snap out of it.
*Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Averted. Donnie us an expert on mechanicsl sciemce abd emgineering, while April is an expert on biological and chemical science. Wird of God is that they felt this was the only way to incorporate elemebts of April's Mirage backstory as a lab assistant without making Donnie or April seem unnecessary.
*Promoted Fanboy: Executuve producer Steven Spielberg was a fan of the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film.
*Reffited for the Sequel: The udea of govermwnt agents chasing the Turtles was conceoved for Season 2 of The Next Mutation, but the show was ultimately cancelled. This series ends up somewhat using the idea.
*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.
**Ace Duck is the one character all TMNT fans hate, deeming him as superflous and his personality being uninteresting. This version wound up changing those opinions, with many liking him for being a Jerk Woth a Beart of Gold and an Awesome Ego and how this version feels less useless by being an expert pilot who dosen't serve as the Turtles' personal pilot, instead simply using a jet as his main mode of transportation.
* Role Reprise:
** From Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
*** Greg Cipes as Michaelangelo
*** Phil LaMarr as Baxter Stockman
** From Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
*** Jim Pirri as Krang
*** Hun Lee as Shredder
*Rule of Symbolism: The turtles are once again potrayed with near identical physuques execept for some details to make them easier to tell apart, whereas Mei has a much more different design, representing her as the odd one out in the group.
*Running Gag: Karai shedding off her skin, which leads to some hilarious prob,rms regarding both skins.
*Self-Made Adaptation: Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Turtles, worked as a writer and executive-producer on the show.
*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).
**The scene where the Mega-Shredder raises from the ocean near the end of season 1 is reminiscent of the arrival of the mothership in Independence Day.
**Mei saving Mikey is reminiscent of when Miles Morales saved Gwen Stacy in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
**The way Keatherhead mindlessly fights the Foot-Bots while escaping from the Foot Clan is an homage to the television special Werewolf by Night.
*Shown Their Work: In order to better differentiate Mei from the Turtles, animators studied dofferences between male and female turtlesand incorporated them to her design. This involves a lighter skin, being taller than the turtles, and a flatter plastron.
*Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
**The TMNT may be ninjas, but they are still 4 giant turtles that go around New York City every night in an era promenient in both security technology and social media. As a result, many sightings of the group have made their way online, resulting in the team becoming an Urban Legend.
**A promenient aspect of the series is Mei having issues while adapting to live with the Turtles. Seeing how they grew up not just in differemt cultures but with different lifestyles, this was to be expected.
*** More specifically, Mei struggles with sleeping with the sound of the subway, while the other turtles not. She has moved there a few days ago and has been sleeping under different circumstances than the Turtles, who have been slepping that way since childhood.
** One episode has Diana worried over Leo and Raph fighting. At first, it seems it have a "families always fight" message. But as it turns out, she already knew this, for she and her father often had argumebts between each other. In real life, even the most perfect families are likely to have arguments. What worried Mei was the frequency of the arguments, which is morre worrying in real life too.
* Tearjerker:
** In episode 2, Mei tries to leave the lair to get some coffee, only for the Turtles to remind her New Yorkers can't see her. Her reaction to going from living in a town where she could walk freely to living in hiding, while brief, is heartbreaking.
** The ending of season 2. Mei is in coma. Splinter is controlled by the Rat King. And Shredder's allies are at their maximum power. The whole thing is just depressing.
* Tempting Fate: Mei mentions at the start of episode 1 that she used to have nightmares of the Shredder coming to kill her that she dismisses as ridiculous.
*Truer to Text: 
**The series itself is this compared to the one it draws its main concept from, The Next Mutation, with the turtles having more acvurate and traditional personalities, as well as being more rooted in characters and lore from previous media. To draw a comparation, The Next Mutation neglected to feature preexisting characters outside the Turtles, Splinter, and Shredder. This show, on the other hand, goes as far as including elements from even the IDW comics and even characters who are rarely adapted, if ever. Seasons 2 and 3 take it to the next level by adapting arcs from the Mirage and IDW comics.
**Splinter and the Shredder's backstory was adapted much closer to the comics than any previous version, down to including Saki's brother Oroku Naga.
**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.
**The Foot Clan as a whole is potrayed more accuretly to the comics than even the 2003 version, with Shredder being the renegate head of the Foot's New York branch and Karai being one of the Foot's heads as part of the "Council of Five" in Japan.
**And, ironically, Mei's pitrayal is a case of tjis compared to her IDW counterpart, sticking to what was established in The Next Mutation instead of turning her into a mutant frog turned into a Turtle via Frankenstein-esque experiments as in the IDW comics.
*Vitrolic Best Buds: Raphael's relationship with Leonardo. They bicker and argue many times but, in the end, they truly care for each other.
*Unexpected Character:
** The mere idea of another series starring a version of Venus de Milo, one of the most infamous TMNT characters ever, sounds really unexpected.
**Fans were surprised to see Keno from The Secret of the Ooze appearing in the trailer as the turtles' frecuent pizza delivery boy, seeing as how he never appeared in another TMNT mefia following his debut.
**Considering hw never appeared in any TMNT continuity outside the Mirage comucs aside from the comic book adaptation of the 1990 film, no one expected Oroku Nagi to appear in the show.
**Surprising everybody, not only does Angel from the 2003 series debutes in season 2, but she does it taking cues from her IDW incarnation. That's right, fans, Nobody is back on TV.
*Urban Legend: According to Mei, the Shredder and the Foot are generally deemed a myth througth China.... because few fought him and lived to tell it.