I'm old TMNT. Not the oldest. But definitely one of the older.
1. I'd love to talk. I'm Kyabetsu. I fell in love with TMNT back in 1987 as a kid. I found online TMNT fandom in 2001. I have TMNT friends who were writing TMNT fic in 1990. (That friend is a grandmother now!)
2. Back when the internet was new(er) & small(er), it was more likely that us turtles fans would meet up at one of the big forums (a website message board), one of the big mailing lists (an email chain), the web rings of personal TMNT websites (public), or on a fanfic archive (public). There were fewer silos of little ponds of fandom: private discords, or blocklisted-twitters, or private Facebook groups or dedicated hashtags. Just because of the old structure of the old internet and the options available to us, we were more likely to meet more different kinds of turtle fans.
Bad:: Fewer privacy and filter options. Less ways to use your phone easily. More "we all *HAVE* to get along here because we are all sharing a public space."
Good:: You met more people! It was inevitable that you would be sharing space with folks into different aspects of the larger TMNT canon. You were gonna meet people of different ages, talents, and experiences. You would get more info (whether you were looking or not) about facets of TMNT that you didn't even know existed. All because we were in the same pot of soup together, and you just got exposed to new things... which, I think was pretty cool, and I kinda miss about our new app-centric internet communities.
3. My point, which may be off-topic of fanon vs canon, but is at least tangentially related (I'll pull it together in part 4). Is that my experience in fandom has been one of multi-generational community. It was a gift I treasured as a young person. It is a gift I feel like I should share with younger fans now that I'm not that young person anymore. There are traditions! And creators who have passed! Websites that have disappeared! And cool turtle facts!
And it would be a crime if all that turtle joy ended with me and other olds.
4. So. If you *are* interested in talking turtle stuff with older people (me or other people) that's awesome! But lemme tell ya... generally speaking... Old-fandom people generally do not give a toot about policing how fans enjoy turtles.
Your Kink Is Not My Kink And That's Okay
It's Okay To Not Like Things (Just Don't Be A Dick About it.)
These are great rules for fandom life!!
Because if you know that no one is gonna be mean to you, you feel safer sharing your own cringe AU. You feel more secure sharing your bonkers headcanons. You are happier releasing your OCs, your plot twists, your self inserts. If there's a 'No Bullying' policy built into the fandom, it's easier to be yourself.
5. Kya... for real? "Built into the Fandom?" No way. There's thousands of us. Surely, if this was THE TMNT RULE, we'd all know that?
Haha, *this* is one of those traditions I desperately want to pass down.
WE'RE TMNT FANS, DARLINGS!! MULTI-VERSE IS CANON!! THERE IS NO WRONG WAY TO TURTLE!!
The very first TMNT Comics were drawn and written by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. They founded a publishing company called Mirage Comics in 1984 for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1. They would go on to publish 62 TMNT comics issues in that first series of comic books. All in black and white. All featuring our boys in green.
BUT EASTMAN AND LAIRD DIDN'T WRITE OR DRAW THEM ALL!
In that first set of 62 comics, they had TONS of guest artists and writers! Those creators made up their own turtle designs, their own turtle continuities, their own turtle mini-series and one shots!
YES. There is a 'Mirage Turtles' house style and some famous story arcs. But DOUBLE YES. Even in the original comics, alternate universes and timelines were *part of the fabric of the source material.*
Michelangelo is horribly injured and Splinter prays to animal gods to revive him? Canon.
Mini-alien-vampires kidnap Raphael and a cow while the other boys sleep in one big cartoon bed at the farm? Canon.
Leonardo is ambushed and nearly killed by The Foot? Of course, canon.
But so is the time a leech sucked out all of Raph's mutagen, turned him into a meeping baby turtle, and went on a rampage. And the time Donatello became a shaman. And the adventure when the boys weren't quite as intelligent as humans and couldn't speak, but Splinter commanded them in battle.
All this exists in the source material right next to the stories and characters that became the backbone of so many of the spin off cartoons.
We have had permission from the start. Multi-verse is canon. Anything goes. There's no rules. There's no need to 'measure up' to anyone else's ideas of what the turtles *should be.*
There's room for all of us here.
It's late. So I've gone on too long. But I'm around if y'all like talking turtles and all that.
Hope your winter is treating you kindly.