In the book of Screenwriting, there is a Theory called “Ninja Turtles”. There, it says “The greatest team in all visual narrative is Ninja Turtles. If you achieve to create a band chemistry like this cartoon, you’ll probably succeed.”
Let’s expand this topic a little bit.
We have 4 members in this band, and supplementary characters of course, but we’ll talk about it later.
Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Every one of them his unique character, but how they share the tasks and characters are important.
Leonardo is the oldest of them all, more spiritual and grown-up. Splinter’s best student, well-disciplined. These make him the leader who sets the goals, the visionary of the team.
Donatello is the smart one. He studies scientific stuff, he comes after Leonardo. Inventor and more into technical details. He is the analytic turtle.
Raphael as you know from his red mask, he is the aggressive one. The Berserker. Gets mad and gets into action. The operator.
And Michelangelo, the funny one, joker, he keeps up the spirits and holds the team together. Integrative one.
Finally, as a supplementary character, Splinter, the mentor, the teacher, the thinker.
We can add the other characters such as April O’Neill, the intelligent officer. But basically, the group stands in 4+1 formation.
After having heard of this theory, I started to watch some of my series from a different perspective. Although the team changed over the years, we can examine Mad Men generally with that perspective;
Don Draper, the creative guy, selling dreams is his job. At the center of the story, we always watch his visions about the business and life. Similar role with Leonardo, the visionary.
Roger Sterling always straight, clear and to the point. He judges clients with how much money they have. Analytical.
Lane was analytical too, but opposite of Sterling, he was not very brave, so he committed suicide.
Pete Campbell, remember in the first season when he nearly went mad? He looked like that he is gonna be a failure.
Anyhow, after a while, as he got experienced, he started to control his temper and succeed. Aggressive isn't’ he?
Joan Harris always been the integrator. Always kind to people, she is the emotional supporter.
And finally Bert Cooper, the owner, the mentor, the wise guy who walks into the office without shoes. Does not show up much, but we know he holds all the strings.
If that made sense to you, you can try this on other Series. Sex and the City or Halt and Catch Fire maybe.
And can we apply the theory to 4 elements? Let’s try.
First, the easy one: aggressiveness goes to fire. And visions to? The air of course.
Being clear should be related to water. And the last one, integrator, relationships and roots, of course is related to earth.
So you may ask what about Game of Thrones or Lost?
In these series, there are a lot of characters in the middle. There is another method for these called: Enneagram. I am not learned about that but you can check it on the internet every time.
