I was gone almost the whole day yesterday, with riding my horse then visiting Aig's to see the Toon, and doing sword pratice, and watching some Olympics....
I agree with some of the comments, but on others, this episode was something I *really* enjoyed.
And maybe being a Leo fan biases me. (Hey, Raph! Can I try a halo here???)
Hmf.
Anyway...I can't wait until this is on DVD so I can watch it again!
So my thoughts on thoughts brought up by others, as well as my own.
Yes, the foot prints in the sand from Don were a "duh" kind of thing. Don't need to be Aragorn to track that. But the footprints would have vanished at some point past the sand, anyway....so...<shrug>. Cartoonism.
And yes, Leo did not kill Karai, but it's a Saturday morning cartoon! How many beheadings can they get away with? Leo actually KILLING Karai in anyway with his blades?? There's that "unwritten rule" in Saturday fare you can't have the heroes killing their enemies, no matter how bad they are. If the villains don't take themselves out, you get stuck into a writing corner without a lot of good story ways out.
"If this had been a Mirage comic, Leo would have taken her head," I said. But, taking off the head off the Oroku Saki statue was a very satisfying alternative. I cheered! The unsaid thing there was, "next time it'll be your head flying". ooh so subtle and twisted for a cartoon....
No matter how much the older/more mature viewers may want the stories to go, this isn't like anime from Japan geared for more mature audiences, where Leo could have beheaded her or slain Karai in justification for her actions, or Karai might have killed herself after losing to Leo. This isn't a movie with a PG-13 rating. We have to accept some of the dorkisms that will be forced upon the writers to be able to air on tv. I still am always in amazement what they DO get away with, or that they are willing to make the effort to write good stuff. It's easy to write up all the build up stuff, the escalation of hostilities, the fight, but the aftermath? Always the trickiest part to get a good ending that isn't lame or smarmy.
In this case, if they had gone with a huggy-touchy "oh we make up" type of ending with Karai, I'd have been totally disgusted. So I was satisfied with the result, to have utterly defeated Karai, and left her in shame.
Battle not long enough? Not for me.
It was as long as it needed to be. It's not the length they can drag a battle out to, which is often just "filler" and not character development. Instead of writing a story, it's "insert 10 minutes of fighting here". I am pleased they opted for character development over an overly long and dragged out fight.
Leo surprised Karai, he had the tactical advantage, he knew her thoughts, and he was completely focused and in control of himself. There were no distractions for Leo, so the battle should be over quickly, because his opponent was distracted, surprised, and as pointed out, emotional.
As for the angsty Leo being over, I am glad. It was a good story arc for a Saturday toon to tackle, and made sense to me, I liked it a lot! But, yeah, time to wrap it up. And as for it being over in three episodes, I have no problem with it because at the beginning of this episode, they said two months had gone by. I thought this episode showed the change in a very good way.
But I most definitely agree, I would love to see some focus now go to Don, Raph, and Mike. And Splinter and April and Casey, too.
Don did get some focus in the People's Choice. April got more focus with Don in Sons of the Silent Age. Mikey got more focus in the episode he had to defend his title as Battle Nexus Champion (which reminds me, seeing him salvage the pieces of his trophy and try to rebuild that would be amusing).
But it would be fun to have an arc that focuses more on one of them now.
