Time to Discuss Race: The White Washing of The Shredder

[Broseph44]

Is it?


There's little doubt to most that the intention was Sachs being Shredder in a line of them.


Changing that at the last minute doesn't alter that especially as it seems they missed the point of why fans wanted Oroku Saki or a character like him in the first place. They may as well have left it as it was.

From what I am seeing it is pretty clear they "changed" it. To the point that Shredder is barely a character and the plot dances around him to the point that he was a late addition. Apparently doesn't resemble the Shredder of lore at all either.

Bottom line is this whole thread was about him being white washed because everyone went nuts about Sachs being Shredder. Well how did that work out? Exactly. Regardless if you feel it was changed or not. It wasn't what everyone assumed (and not just assumed but worried, cried, *****ed and moaned about) leading up to the film. As is typical with people on these forums to overreact and assume things before seeing the final product. Its sad.

Wow, there is nothing wrong with being wrong. Trying to justify THE TITLE OF THE TOPIC is ridiculous. They did not white wash Shredder and the character is the same heartless scumbag, who happens to be Asian, in this movie as he ever was. It's just the dynamic of Shredder and Splinter that changed.

So no, the white washing of The Shredder did not occur and this topic did indeed fail.

Thank you sir for saying exactly what I was just saying with my comments. For which people still question haha. Crazy.

 

[scifiwolf]

Bottom line, what was on screen was a Japanese Shredder. Say what you will about intent, but what we got on screen should be considered canon for this movieverse, which was not a whitewashed Shredder.

The filmmakers made a mistake. Well, they made a lot, but this is one they actually fixed because of us. We need to be celebrating this small victory instead of the petty bickering that's still going on.

 

[NinjaTurtleFan]

While this thread is useless still being opened because us fans were fearful that they were going to whitewash Shredder, you still have a character with an Anglicized-version of Oroku Saki who gets more screentime than the Shredder and while the intention was to have Fichtner be the Shredder when this began, it was later changed to not piss off fans. It's a victory yes, but from the sound of things, Shredder only says a few lines and has a big fight at the end.

With the rewrites and reshoots, they could've connected him back to the Turtles and Splinter, changed Fichtner's character's name to something else, and had Shredder be a Ras Al Ghul or Mandarin-like villain where every underling or other villain onscreen fears him most of all and Eric knows that if he and Baxter screw up, he'll come looking for them and shred the living crap out of them. Shredder could've easily been saved for a sequel and Karai and maybe the Mousers or Baxter in a robotic suit or as a fly could've been the starter villains for this movie. It would've allowed a lot more breathing room and time to honor the character and do him properly onscreen despite the new origin. Hell, Karai could've been the one in the robotic Shredder suit for this movie and after proving herself unworthy to wear it and dies, Oroku Saki vows vengeance for her death, dons his traditional suit, and then we have a "City At War" kind of sequel.

They could've explained that before Splinter was brought in as a test subject that he was raised by a man named Hamato Yosi, still told the backstory of the jealous rage Oroku Saki had for Hamato and Tang-Shen, both get murdered, Splinter claws Oroku's face, and before Oroku Saki can kill Splinter, he scampers off into the night, gets picked up by someone working for Sachs' company or the local animal control, they bring in Splinter for testing, and the rest is history.

 

[warhorse78]

I'm just going to say, someone in my audience noted how all of the minorities in this movie were bad guys. If they had stuck in Yamato Yoshi in like all of the other incarnations have, then at least we would have had a good minority character, whether he be Splinter's master or Splinter himself. But since they decided to scrap Yoshi altogether for the effed origin they came up with, they really don't have a leg to stand on. If there is a sequel, they should consider making Casey Jones into a minority.

 

[scifiwolf]

The room is still there for the reincarnation story. The happiest accident in this script is changes via omission. Not having Saki or Yoshi ever referred to by name leaves that door open. I would love for that to be explored in the sequel.

 

[DigificWriter]

There would have honestly been nothing wrong with actually following through on their original intent and using Fitchner as the Shredder, and it's silly and stupid that a bunch of whining may have influenced them to awkwardly shift things around at the last moment (and yes, I'm a TMNT fan, having grown up on the 1980s/'90s cartoon, the accompanying toy line, and the original film trilogy).

 

[LaughingMage]

The room is still there for the reincarnation story. The happiest accident in this script is changes via omission. Not having Saki or Yoshi ever referred to by name leaves that door open. I would love for that to be explored in the sequel.

urgh no, the reincarnation angle is the most ******ed idea ever to enter Turtles fandom... okay the second most ******ed. The number one spot still goes to Utrom Shredder.

 

[Marvin]

I'm just going to say, someone in my audience noted how all of the minorities in this movie were bad guys. If they had stuck in Yamato Yoshi in like all of the other incarnations have, then at least we would have had a good minority character, whether he be Splinter's master or Splinter himself. But since they decided to scrap Yoshi altogether for the effed origin they came up with, they really don't have a leg to stand on. If there is a sequel, they should consider making Casey Jones into a minority.

Well it's always something.
Anyways, so this confirms that Whoopie was indeed a villain(bad guy), I figured there was some kinda twist involved with her.

I heard this film passed the brenchel test. Maybe the few this summer if only.

 

[Kal-El.9859]

well since Shredder wasn't white washed I think it's time to put this thread to bed...

 

[the_ultimate_evil]

I seen something in a review that i never thought of, eric sacks plays both the role of shredders adopted child and the main evil scientist

so technically he is basically Karai and baxter merged in to one and race flipped lol


and as for the change its pretty obvious that the original intention was sacks to be the shredder before the outcry and reshoots, hell even the 3ds official game has him as shredder

 

[ShadowBoxer]

Say what you will about shredder personality in the movie but he was pretty threatening during the fight scenes. I mean he pretty much kicked the turtles butts the entire movie as well as splinter.

 

[Blade X]

The room is still there for the reincarnation story. The happiest accident in this script is changes via omission. Not having Saki or Yoshi ever referred to by name leaves that door open. I would love for that to be explored in the sequel.

You beat me to it. The reincarnation origin (which I really like) is the most logical and best solution to tie Splinter and the Turtles origins together with the Shredder.

 

[scifiwolf]

You beat me to it. The reincarnation origin (which I really like) is the most logical and best solution to tie Splinter and the Turtles origins together with the Shredder.

I've been thinking that it's the reason he was drawn to the ninjitsu book, and how he picked it up with such high levels of skill.

 

[Loki882]

It really does feel like Sachs was supposed to be the Shredder. But then they changed their minds for some reason, perhaps the fan complaints, and quickly rewrote the script/shot new scenes with the "Shredder" at the last minute. He feels really shoehorned in. Sachs had more of a connection to the Turtles than the actual Shredder did, he was just some guy in a mech suit, nothing more. Heck if they'd gone with the reincarnation angle, then I could have accepted Fichtner as the Shredder, and it'd have been a lot more interesting than what we got instead.

 

[The Guard]

People didn't want interesting, though. They wanted Shredder to be Japanese.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

This Shredder was freaking badass. Just hope they tone it down a bit on his armour in the next one. Justify it by him wanting to be more agile or something.

 

[Loki882]

That wouldn't work. The Turtles themselves are like eight feet tall and have super-strength. He'd need the giant Mech armor just to stand up to them at all. They kind of boxed himself into a corner by making the Turtles so freaking massive. Normal Shredder would get squashed in like five seconds.

 

[Loki882]

People didn't want interesting, though. They wanted Shredder to be Japanese.

And there's nothing wrong with that, considering that that's supposed to be a HUGE part of his character. Unfortunately, he's essentially "generic bad guy in a mech suit" in this movie, so the filmmakers weren't exactly "creative" either.

 

[dark_b]

Bottom line, what was on screen was a Japanese Shredder. Say what you will about intent, but what we got on screen should be considered canon for this movieverse, which was not a whitewashed Shredder.

The filmmakers made a mistake. Well, they made a lot, but this is one they actually fixed because of us. We need to be celebrating this small victory instead of the petty bickering that's still going on.

if they would leave Sacks as Shredder we would got a better real Shredder in the sequel. i think the plan was that in the first movie Sacks is the Shredder. at the end we find out that he just used the suit and Foot Clan. and that the real Shredder is still in Japan and is coming to the US.

the celebration is like with Terminator Salvation. i hated the original ending with a passion. where John Connor who leads the resistance dies and Marcus puts on his face . that was to extreme for me. but because of my/our complaining they rewrotte the movie during filming and we got the Terminator Salvation mess. it was a better Connor story but a bad movie in general.

the same here. this movie had 2 bad villains. Sacks is a bad villain and Shredder is boring. someone could say now that in the sequel they will fix everything. yes they will. BUT this movie this week had bad villains.

this is not victory. t:

 

[Kal-El.9859]

This Shredder was freaking badass. Just hope they tone it down a bit on his armour in the next one. Justify it by him wanting to be more agile or something.

He looked pretty damn agile to me

 

[bullets]

Bottom line, what was on screen was a Japanese Shredder. Say what you will about intent, but what we got on screen should be considered canon for this movieverse, which was not a whitewashed Shredder.

The filmmakers made a mistake. Well, they made a lot, but this is one they actually fixed because of us. We need to be celebrating this small victory instead of the petty bickering that's still going on.

This

April's retort to Vern about the turtles being aliens by calling it stupid was to show they did acknowledge fans complaining.

At the end of the day Sachs will never be Shredder and probably won't be in the sequel. That's a good thing because they'll bring back Shredder and flesh him out a bit more.

 

[FrostBite]

I'm just going to say, someone in my audience noted how all of the minorities in this movie were bad guys. If they had stuck in Yamato Yoshi in like all of the other incarnations have, then at least we would have had a good minority character, whether he be Splinter's master or Splinter himself. But since they decided to scrap Yoshi altogether for the effed origin they came up with, they really don't have a leg to stand on. If there is a sequel, they should consider making Casey Jones into a minority.

Women aren't minorities now?

 

[Asteroid-Man]

He looked pretty damn agile to me

The word "more" is a comparative adjective - so more agile than he already was.

 

[Marvin]

if they would leave Sacks as Shredder we would got a better real Shredder in the sequel. i think the plan was that in the first movie Sacks is the Shredder. at the end we find out that he just used the suit and Foot Clan. and that the real Shredder is still in Japan and is coming to the US.

Only to be met with then 'this movie rips off IM3'.
People will first find something, then say something. Just the way it goes.

 

[Kal-El.9859]

The word "more" is a comparative adjective - so more agile than he already was.

I would think the mech suit would make him MORE agile...able to do things a person wouldn't be able to do without it