The Shredder
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Shredder is the main villain of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He is a ninjitsu master called Oroko Saki and swears to finish off Splinter and the Turtles.
The Shredder wears some kind of Japanese Ninja armor. The armors consists of coverings over his two shoulders, his forearms, and his shins. The coverings over these parts have blades sticking out of them. Also, he has something over his left hand that has two long blades. His helmet is made of metal that has a bent trident-shaped structure on it. Also, he has a metal mask that covers his face to only show his eyes. However, in the 1987 cartoon, this mask is shown as cloth that wraps around his face like a bandit's mask, which can be seen in an episodes where the Shredder welds a powerful crystal onto his helmet, and the helmet later gets stolen.
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Comic Books
(A picture of Shredder from the first TMNT comic. (http://www.ninjaturtles.com/comics/mirage/one/pg27.jpg))
According to the original comic stories by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird he became evil trying to avenge his big brother Oroku Nagi, who was murdered by Hamato Yoshi in a bitter love triangle, over the heart of Tang Shen. He murdered Splinter's master Hamato Yoshi and his wife Tang Shen. After killing Yoshi, the Shredder came to New York to start a new branch of the Foot. Then, he later encounters the turtles. In the rooftop fight, the Shredder was killed when a bomb blew him up as he fell off the building. However, he was later recreated through a cloning technique and was finally finished off by Leonardo by decapitation. With the Shredder gone, Raphael tries to impersonate Shredder by wearing his armor. He tries to make a peace pact, but ultimately fails. Suddenly, a mysterious Lady Shredder appears to challenge Raphael. Not much is known after this, since the comic was discontinued.
1987 Cartoon
Shredder.jpg
In the 1987 TMNT cartoon show, which aired in the late 1980's and early 1990's, the Shredder wears a razor sharp armor and controls an army of robots called Foot Soldiers. In an attempt to counter the turtles' mutation, Shredder created Bebop and Rocksteady, two of a gang of punks working for him.
Throughout the cartoon series, Shredder lives in the Technodrome and works with Krang to implement elaborate schemes to destroy the turtles. He was depicted as evil but some times humorous in the 1987 cartoon show rather than a scary and lethal ninja, as he was depicted in the comics, movies, and the 2003 cartoon show. However, this fits with the light-hearted tone of the show. He was voice-acted by James L. Avery, Sr. (credited as James Avery), who is most notable as Uncle Phil on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, in the 1987-1994 seasons. In the 1995-1997 seasons, he was voice-acted by William Martin.
Shredder continued to be a regular villain on the show for seven years. After 1994, he, along with Krang, was removed from the show, a move considered by fans to be the point where the show jumped the shark. However, they briefly reappeared during the last season of the show.
In the 1980's Shredder toyline, the Shredder is stated to have an IQ of 675 on the back of an action figure blister card.
Movies
(A picture of Shredder from the first TMNT movie. (http://www.ninjaturtles.com/mov1pix/mov40.jpg))
In the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, the Shredder is somewhat of a cult leader. He enlists troubled youths to join his Foot clan and make them part of a "family". His name is Oroko Saki and has a history with Splinter. Before becoming the Shredder, Oroko Saki was a bitter rival to Hamato Yoshi, Splinter's owner. Saki and Yoshi loved a woman named Tang Shen, but Tang Shen only loved Yoshi. Rather than fight Saki, Yoshi followed Shen's plan to leave for America. However Saki followed them to America. Then, Oroko Saki killed Hamato Yoshi and his wife. During the fight, Splinter's cage was opened. After seeing the death of his master, Splinter jumped on Saki's face and scratched him. But in the process had one of his ears sliced off. In New York, the Shredder takes troubled teens from the streets and teach them steal. April O'Neil reports on this crime wave with the possibility of the Foot behind it all. The Shredder orders his Foot clan to kill April, but the turtles always interfere when they do. Eventually, the Shredder goes to stop the turtles himself. On the rooftop battle, the Shredder almost kills Leonardo but Splinter intervenes. At the end of the first movie, Splinter reveals to the Shredder about their past. After realizing who Splinter is, the Shredder tries to spear Splinter. Splinter uses Michaelangelo's nunchaku to grab the spear and flip the Shredder to the side of the building. With the spear stuck in the nunchaku, the Shredder throws a knife at Splinter, but Splinter catches it. This causes Splinter to let go of the nunchaku and Shredder falls off the roof of the building and into a garbage truck. The actor who played the Shredder is James Saito and his voice was David McCharen.
In the 1991 movie "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze", Shredder recreates his foot clan and vows vengeance to the turtles who dishonored him. Shredder learns of the mutagen that created the turtles and uses it to create his own mutants, namely Tokka and Rahzar. However, Tokka and Rahzar still have the thinking of children and not teenagers. However, their strength makes up for what they lack in intelligence. The Shredder acts like a father to them, like he does with his foot clan. Which is, poisoning their minds to get what he desires. Once the turtles, end up defeating Tokka and Rahzar, the Shredder uses the mutagen on himself. The turtles lose trying to take down Super Shredder. But during the fight, Super Shredder knocks down the support beams of a pier and the pier collapses on him, which eventually kills him. The actor that plays Shredder is François Chau and Super Shredder is played by wrestler Kevin Nash. As with the first movie David McCharen provides Shredder's voice.
2003 Cartoon
(A picture of Shredder from the 2003 cartoon. (http://www.ninjaturtles.com/cartoon/2003/screenshots/theme/19.jpg))
In the 2003 TMNT cartoon show, the Shredder is part of an alien race called the Utroms, as well as a serious, scary, and lethal ninja. The Shredder is an insane criminal Utrom who was being held in custody while the Utrom ship was travelling in space. The spaceship ran into trouble and the Shredder sabotaged the ship, which landed on Earth near feudal Japan. The Utroms developed technology similar to Krang's exosuit and the Shredder stole the original protoype. Once adept with the exosuit, the Shredder initiates war with members of his own race, especially Mr. Mortu, and begins to take over ancient Japan. Later on, he moved into New York and has built a huge empire. The Shredder was voiced-acted by Scottie Ray in the revived series. Before finding out the Shredder was an Utrom, the turtles fought the Shredder mostly on rooftops. In the first rooftop battle with Shredder, there was a huge fire that caused the whole building to collapse. In the second rooftop battle, Splinter tricks Shredder into cutting down a water tower. This causes a flood of water to wash Shredder down the side of the building with the wooden tower falling on Shredder. On the third rooftop battle, Leonardo beheads Shredder. Mysteriously after the Turtles have left, Shredder's body picks up his head and walks off into the distance.
After the Turtles discovered Shredder's true form as an Utrom, they thought about how influential Shredder was to their creation. In the episode "Reflections", Donatello explains that without the Shredder's sabotage of the Utrom spaceship none of them would have existed. The turtles were uncertain about the status of Shredder after the Utrom building exploded, but knew that if Shredder survived they will always be ready. Consequently, in a later episode, Shredder is shown recuperating with the aid of Karai. In his next encounter with the turtles, Shredder ends up losing and was seen rescued by Karai in a helicopter.
The Shredder (as Oroku Saki) has been acting as New York City's "savior" after the Triceraton invasion. He has been funding reconstruction projects to find alien technology that fell to the ground. In "New Blood," it is revealed that Saki distracted the Turtles to retrieve some sort of Triceraton device.
In the two part season finale "Exodus", The Shredder has just completed constructing a space ship, which he plans to use to invade the Utrom homeworld. However, due to some interference from unexpected visitors The Shredder had to launch the ship early leaving most of his army on Earth. While in space, The Shredder had to continue fighting the turtles who had stowed away when the ship launched. After the turtles had been defeated by the Shredder, Agent Bishop's missile attack began disabling the ship. This gave the turtles the opportunity to overload Shredder's ship in order to prevent him from reaching the Utrom homeworld. However, Mr. Mortu had received Professor Honeycutt's distress call and intercepted the ship a few seconds after the energy core began to explode. Mr. Mortu ordered a stasis field on the ship and transmatted everyone off the ship before the stasis field collapsed.
On the Utrom homeworld, all the occupants of the ship were participants in a tribunal. The intergalactic crimes committed by the Shredder were presented to everyone, which exposed his lies to Karai and Chaplain. The Shredder was found guilty and sentenced to eternal exile on the ice asteroid belt of Mor Tal.
Video Games
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In the NES and SNES action video games, the Shredder follows a general pattern in his plots. In the games, April O'Neil and Splinter are captured and the Turtles have to rescue them. The Shredder is always the last boss in the games. He is equipped with a samurai sword and has various other abilities such as being able to demutate the Turtles back into ordinary turtles.. After the success of the first Turtles movie, the video games began including the mutated version of Shredder called Super Shredder.
External Links
Shredder profile on Official TMNT Web site (http://www.ninjaturtles.com/html/profile7.htm)nl:Shredder (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)