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Beating plowshares into swords
Apr. 26th, 2009 10:35 pmSo I've been rewatching the TMNT cartoon all week, and it's a lot of fun, really, but I think I need to ratchet my suspension of disbelief up a little higher. I'm sitting here watching these emotional scenes where Leo's all depressed because he got beat up and lost his swords, and Raphael's going, well, hey, I bet you'd feel better if we made new ones, bro, and they do and it is all very triumphant and brotherly. Or it would be if I could turn off the part of my brain going, yeah, you're going to make a really good sword--two really good swords--out of scrap metal that has been rusting in a barn for who knows how long. With the extensive sword-smithing skills that you presumably learned living in a sewer. Where I am totally sure you had a forge to practice with! It's not the most improbable thing in TMNT by a long way, even discounting the bipedal ninja turtle thing, but for some reason I really notice this one. I mean, the damn things even shine when he's done with them. Maybe it's an extra ninja power.
(Also I am kind of amused at the idea of the exchanges this would probably lead to later on.
RANDOM WARRIOR: My family has carried this sword for generations on generations, since it was first forged by the hand of the most famous of swordmakers, and in all that time it has never known dishonor or defeat. Face my steel, turtle!
LEONARDO: Well, I made my sword myself a couple of months ago. Out of farming equipment. So you might be a little embarrassed when I beat you with it. Fair warning.)
And of course this just raises the question of where the weapons came from in the first place. Which might have been handled somewhere in canon, but I can't think of it offhand, and okay, bo staffs and nunchuks are presumably homemakable if you can lay hands on the raw materials and some tools, but sai? Katanas? (Okay, I hear they're not actually katanas, but that's what Leo always calls them and whatever they actually are is probably not any easier to make.) Do they actually have a forge down there? Does Splinter have some sort of discreet understanding with a weapons shop? Or just an Ebay account? "My son, I present you with these swords. Bear them proudly and care for them well--I had to win a most vicious bidding war to get them."
...okay, yeah, that's probably not it. Probably.
(Also I am kind of amused at the idea of the exchanges this would probably lead to later on.
RANDOM WARRIOR: My family has carried this sword for generations on generations, since it was first forged by the hand of the most famous of swordmakers, and in all that time it has never known dishonor or defeat. Face my steel, turtle!
LEONARDO: Well, I made my sword myself a couple of months ago. Out of farming equipment. So you might be a little embarrassed when I beat you with it. Fair warning.)
And of course this just raises the question of where the weapons came from in the first place. Which might have been handled somewhere in canon, but I can't think of it offhand, and okay, bo staffs and nunchuks are presumably homemakable if you can lay hands on the raw materials and some tools, but sai? Katanas? (Okay, I hear they're not actually katanas, but that's what Leo always calls them and whatever they actually are is probably not any easier to make.) Do they actually have a forge down there? Does Splinter have some sort of discreet understanding with a weapons shop? Or just an Ebay account? "My son, I present you with these swords. Bear them proudly and care for them well--I had to win a most vicious bidding war to get them."
...okay, yeah, that's probably not it. Probably.
