#z tmnt

[catonamatchbox]

I think it’s finally time to unleash the bee movie Baxter and z au me and my bestie 7thQStreet made on this site

[doctormurasakipop]

I’ve been wondering this for awhile but since you’re one of the big 1987 Baxter connoisseurs do you have any distinct feelings on Z (The alien computer introduced in Son of Return of the Fly II. Idk if he even has a canon name but I typically hear him be referred to as Z)? I believe I've heard you say that you liked the episode, but I don't think I've seen you talk about the character of Z himself.

Thanks for the question, moodooivy!

Yep, Z doesn't have a canon name, just referred to as the alien computer or pandimensional space computer. No one seems to know where the fanon name originated, only that it stuck, especially since "Z" is much less of a mouthful than "pandimensional space computer". So I just call him Z, too.

I actually don't feel strongly about him one way or another. I like him well enough, but he doesn't register in my favorites list the way Mona or the Neutrinos or even the News Channel 6 crew do (it's pretty obvious where I stand with Baxter, haha).

Son of the Return of the Fly II is one of my favorite episodes, though not necessarily because it's a Baxter episode (as odd as that may sound). It's really for the writing on various levels. David Wise felt like he was firing on all cylinders when he wrote this. It's one of the few times I genuinely laughed with the 1987 show because the humor was so on point for me. The scene where Baxter drags Vernon out a second time with Vernon's sarcastic pose and quip "I should've stayed in radio"? Pure chef's kiss from me. Not to mention the general banter between the Ch. 6 crew and the other characters overall, even the poignant, almost prophetic scene where the salesman tries to convince Burne to buy computers to replace his staff and he strongly considers it. I could go on about the news crew, but I'll save that for another post.

But back to Z. For the character himself, there isn't any particular reason why he doesn't rank higher on my list. He's pretty solid and enjoyable to watch whenever he's featured, as he's sassy, sharp-witted and is a credible threat in his own right. I wasn't sold on Donatello just one-shotting him in Revenge of the Fly; it felt sloppy and too easy of a win. I can't see him not creating some kind of copy or backup of himself while he controlled the Technodrome, and it was a real shame we didn't get more episodes featuring him.

I also enjoy seeing how he seems to genuinely care about Baxter, even if he has slightly unclear motives. If Baxter dropped the revenge act, would Z comply and no longer scheme ways to achieve it, or does he genuinely have his own goals for world domination for computers? That part never felt fully clear to me and I think it just wasn't given much thought, honestly.

Now, for the possible elephant in the room question: do I ship Baxter and Z?

I know this is an unpopular take, but I don't. I'm not much of a romantic shipper in general. I see Baxter and Z as friends, definitely, with Z even viewing himself as Baxter's caretaker. And I can even see Z being possessive of Baxter since he was the only one who cared about him when no one else did. But the romance angle just doesn't click for me. I go bonkers for exploring deep platonic relationships of all kinds, though.

However, that doesn't mean I don't enjoy specific stories that include the ship. Buzzing Nightmare by CatOnAMatchbox is one of my favorite Baxter stories because I love the great care and detail she writes into Baxter's perspective for what should've been his final moments and how Z helps him process it all. Excellent story for anyone looking for a fic recommendation!

[catonamatchbox]

I have wanted to draw this since yesterday

[catonamatchbox]

I wanted to draw something for pride month so i digitalized some of my baxter and z drawings <3

its been over a year now and these two still have a chokehold on my mind

also baxter is trans because i say so

[catonamatchbox]

I have so many dozens of drawings of Baxter and Z that I haven’t shared so imma change that

(Also Z’s name is Vincent in some of them based off a fic I used to read)

[catonamatchbox]

Looking thru my computerbug drawings and realizing there’s quite a few I haven’t shared with the class but now that I’m over my fear of posting sketches here’s some sillies!

These are my first ever drawings of baxter and z!!!!!!!! Ancient artifacts

I genuinely don’t remember if I posted these comics or not but if so oh well

Fun fact I drew the coming out of our shells tour baxter as a hyena just cuz his crazy laugh

I like to make weird alternate Z designs

Gender swap Baxter and Z!!!!

Ok that’s all I brought for show and tell :)

[catonamatchbox]

I keep wondering. How did Z get his name? Cuz like. That’s not his name. OR IS IT

OK SO!!! We often refer to this character as Z, but like. Why? His name is never said in the show. Neither Bye Bye Fly, Son of Return of the Fly II, or Revenge of The Fly say his name. He’s always just referred to as the alien computer or Baxters computer

But like the name Z is very synonymous with him, like, it’s his name. So I thought oh someone just gave him a headcanon name and it stuck. And that’s what I THOUGHT I FOUND OUT!! EMPHASIS ON THOUGHT!!

I went to his fandom wiki page and went back as far as the history of edits would allow. When the page was made no mention of “Z” was said. Up until a certain point, this edit.

January 2014 Thanos6!! You are the culprit for solidifying your silly headcanon name as canon fact! Ok whatever case closed but NOOOO NOHOHOOOHHH!!! I dug a little moooooreee

Thanos6 has edited Z’s wiki page before this, and only added “Z” as his name here. When you edit something on fandom wiki you often have to state why you did it. And Thanos6 did so!

NOW THIS. IS INTERESTING. They link a website!!! I checked it out. It’s an old tmnt website, that actually existed during the 90s! And it gave episode descriptions. And in it’s description for Son Of Return Of The Fly II it lists “Z” as the name of the computer

MY GOODNESS!!! Z SPOTTED BEFORE EVEN THE 2000S?! MARVELOUS! But I was skeptical. Actually nah I just thought this was a fan website buuuut

Internet archive provides a timeline for websites from when the first screencap was taken up until the most recent. So I clicked one of the most recent. And you know where it brought me to?

THE CURRENT NICK WEBSITE!! So I have reason to believe that Z is the real name of this character!

But When the 80s series was airing, it didn’t belong to Nick. So why would it lead here? Well this website wasn’t originally the Nick website it was just a tmnt website. And I’m assuming after Nick bought it, they made a section on their website dedicated to tmnt, and it was the same as the old one

Idk how websites work, so maybe the 90s site was a fan site, the site got taken down and Nick stole the url? Idk! But this was a fun rabbit hole to go down

[catonamatchbox]

Sorry /j