Objectively, it should not have worked as well as it did for a group of four mutant turtles named after important Renaissance artists, who learned ninjutsu from a rat-sensei, adore pizza, live in a sewer, and constantly invent crazy slang.
However, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have had such an impact on pop culture that Cowabunga is now a part of some of our everyday vocabulary. The childhoods of two generations of kids throughout the world have been influenced by Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello, but their legacy extends beyond only their peculiar lives.
A hero is only as good as their antagonist, and these four turtle brothers have had plenty of both. Except for this individual, no one has been able to defy the brothers’ outstanding ninjutsu skills and raw Turtle Power, not even the villainous Foot Clan leader Shredder or the intergalactic warlord Krang.
Traag is not the most intelligent or ambitious TMNT foe. The only thing the Turtles have occasionally been unable to defeat is him since he is a walking wall of lava and death. Who is this massive being? What was his origin? Why does he despise Leatherhead and the Turtles? Those are all the questions we are here to address; this is Traag’s Origins – Explored.
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General Traag Origins
Traag is a distinctive character because he was not created for the comics. General Traag was created specifically for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series in 1987, but he ended up connecting with fans so well that he was incorporated into later Turtle lore. We will start at the beginning because there are three separate versions of his character in the various mediums in which he is depicted.
TMNT 1987
Traag, or General Traag, as he was known upon his debut, was created as a loyalist henchman of the evil brain-monster Krang, who had allied himself with Shredder after being banished to planet Earth. Krang is actually integral to the entire TMNT-verse because, at least in the 1987 animated show, it was revealed that the turtles and Master Splinter’s mutation was triggered because of one of his creations.
That’s right, folks. That pesky Mutagen was concocted by none other than the warlord of Dimension X. So it only makes sense that he would use it for his own purposes as well, right? Before he became a brain with baby tendrils, Krang was a mighty despot and the ruler of Dimension X, which can be thought of as both a parallel dimension and a galaxy far, far away. Under his tyrannical rule, that entire star system was consumed by a never-ending cycle of violence and war.
It’s how Krang stayed on top whilst ensuring that he was the only person capable of ending things, thanks to his massive array of advanced technology and the gigantic Technodrome. But every king needs an army that is dedicated to protecting him and his interests with their lives; and when Krang realised that his ambitions wouldn’t particularly inspire loyalty in his subjects, he decided to create his own standing force with a little help from his gooey creation.
Krang sprinkled rocks from Dimension X with the Mutagen and created his personal force of Stone Soldiers that would serve him without questioning his authority too much. This is impressive for 2 reasons: 1) this is the first instance of the Mutagen giving sentience to inorganic objects and 2) Krang really said if I can’t make them join me, I’ll just make me some soldiers from solid rock. That’s badass, no matter how you cut it; which, incidentally, you cannot do to a Stone Soldier.
After all, their skin is made of stone! Anyway, getting back to the point, Krang was a shrewd fellow who realised that even though his creations were dim-witted when compared to other forms of sentient life, they could one day rise up against him. So he indoctrinated them heavily with military dogma and made their society revolve directly around their rankings; the higher your military rank, the more prestige you had amongst your fellow stone men.
As you might have guessed by now, Traag was the head honcho of the Stone Soldiers, having risen to the rank of General through his loyal service and his unquestioning devotion to Krang’s cause. Traag was a living weapon – literally – who recognized that warfare was his sole purpose in life, which made him probably the most-dedicated acolyte of Krang the Conqueror to make an appearance across all forms of media.
Eventually, Traag rose to the position of becoming Krang’s Deputy Commander, and it is in this capacity that we first see him on our screens. In season 1 episode 4, Hot-Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X, we see Shredder and Krang get into an argument about their respective plans for dominance.
Shredder had promised the intergalactic warlord that he will restore his body when the time was right, but so far, he had proven that his watch must be broken or something; because Krang was still a brain, the Turtles were still alive, and he was nowhere near to achieving his goal of world domination! Shredder decides to help Krang after he’s done mining for more advanced tech from Dimension X, and so he opens up a portal to that place from inside the Technodrome. To his horror, two hovering cars pop out from the other side and start creating all sorts of ruckus.
Behind them are 2 hulking figures made all of stone, wielding laser guns and screaming obscenities at the teenagers who had just trespassed into another galaxy. Any guesses as to which one of them is Traag? We’ll give you a hint; he’s got a medal on him! Over the course of the episode, General Traag and his fellow officer Granitor chased down the meddlesome and fun-loving Neutrinos through the streets of New York City and were foiled time and again by your favourite sewer-dwelling turtles.
Traag got so frustrated with the hunt that he decided to chuck a weather-destabilizing device into NYC’s atmosphere as a cover-up measure and got ready to get back to his master; such was his impatience and overall apathy! The Turtles and the Neutrinos are able to lure him and his stone-headed accomplice back to Dimension X by tricking them with some lube – don’t ask – and making them slip into the Trans-Dimensional Portal head-first.
Despite being banished back to his own realm, this wouldn’t be the last we’d hear of General Traag of the Stone Soldiers. Traag would re-surface occasionally throughout the series to give the Turtles hell whenever his master needed him to. His most notable appearance besides this one of course has to be in the Rock around the Block episode, where he gets his beloved Rockolizer that can turn rocks, stones and minerals into his sentient servants.
Unfortunately, General Traag is never successful in fulfilling his ultimate mission of helping Krang retake Dimension X, as by the time the Technodrome becomes practically useless in Season 8, Traag and Co. are not heard from in a long, long time. For 8 years, General Traag clashed heads with the Shaolin Turts, as I like to call them, and though he did maintain the upper hand physically, his subservient nature and tactless approach to battle would ultimately lead to him fading into obscurity. The next time we’d see him in a TMNT cartoon would be well over a decade later, and this time, he’d emerge as an enigma.
TMNT 2003
In the 2003 re-boot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, Traag was nowhere to be seen. In fact, his entire faction just kind of disappeared from existence, as this iteration tried to stick to the source material down to a T. Even Krang, Traag’s supposed creator, is absent from the series save for an obscure reference to him in the episode Secret Origins Part 3, where one of the Utroms – a species from the original TMNT comics that inspired the 1987 TMNT series’ version of Krang – remarks that he hates “walking on his tentacles”, to which his fellow Utrom replies, “Oh, shut up, Krang!”, revealing Krang’s existence and referring to it for the first and only time throughout the series. The next time we’d see Traag would be towards the beginning of the next decade i.e., 2012.
TMNT 2012
The 2012 version of the TMNT animated franchise might be our favourite by far, and that’s not just because of its animation style. This re-boot managed to take the Turtles back to their roots whilst adapting their modus operandi to the modernizing world, giving us the most-nuanced portrayal of the TMNT-verse till date. In this version, Traag does exist, but he’s unlike anything you might expect. And Krang does order him around, but… well, why don’t we just tell you instead?
Most of the backstory of the turtles remains the same; they are 4 ordinary turtle brothers who one day fall into a pool of ooze aka Mutagen, turn humanoid, learn ninjutsu and develop an intense love for eating pizza and saying things like Cowabunga and Booyakasha.
What is different from what we’ve told you so far is the backstory of their adversaries; especially Krang, because you see, Krang isn’t one ugly brain-alien in this iteration; he has an entire hive mind of his own species at his disposal, making him far more sinister than the goofier 80’s version of the character. Krang is instead called Krang Prime – the alpha-mind of the hive that controls all others and directs their goals towards world domination.
The Krang attempt to takeover Dimension X with their superior technology, but when that fails, they turn their eyes towards Planet Earth. Using the Techno Cosmic Research Institute as a cover, they infiltrate New York City and work on creating a Trans-Dimensional Portal that would allow them to invade Earth directly from its epicentre. Thanks to their greed and malice that mutants like the Turtles and Master Splinter exist in the first place, but we’re getting too far ahead of ourselves. Let’s talk about Traag, and how he is different from his previous incarnations.
So far, Traag has been portrayed as a loyal Stone Soldier who is the right-hand man of Krang and does anything his master asks of him. In the 2012 TMNT series, Traag is a cosmic force of destruction; and this is not just us saying it. The Fugitoid reveals to the Turtles that the Universe has 6 great Cosmic Monsters who were scattered all across it, each with a unique form but with a united purpose.
These Cosmic Monsters – inspired by the works of HP Lovecraft and the Godzilla Monsterverse – were the guardians of dangerous Black Hole Generators, which in the wrong hands could end up destroying entire galaxies. The Turtles go on a journey to collect these Generators before the Triceratons can get their hands on them, and do a good job initially. They are able to defeat the monstrous Cthugga and the kaiju-esque Tokka to recover 2 Black Hole Generators, but they seemingly have no answer for the Ultimate Guardian of The Krang himself: Traag.
Previous versions of Traag have always depicted him as being a vaguely humanoid stone man who was bulky and disturbingly brown. The 2012 version decided to switch his portrayal and power scaling up entirely because, as we said before, Traag is a cosmic force of destruction in this world and can literally spit out “lava barf” to burn his enemies to ashes. Traag is the first being that crosses over into Earth from Dimension X when The Krang get their Portal up and running.
In his first encounter with the Turtles, he wipes the floor with them, breaking one of Leo’s favourite katanas with his bear skin. If it wasn’t for a rampaging Leatherhead, whose actions ended up taking Traag back to where he came from, the latter would have burnt through the TCRI building without a second thought. Thereafter he serves as the Guardian of the Portal, making sure that those damned Turtles don’t try to use it for their own gains.
In Booyaka-Showdown, Part 1, Traag sacrifices his arms and legs trying to keep the portal secure from the Turtles. He teams up with Granitor to take them down, but they are both taken out by Michelangelo. Traag is last seen invading planet Earth when Shredder and The Krang open the Portal and allow the latter’s forces to cross over into Earth in full force. The Krang’s Guard shows up with their full strength, including all their Stone Soldiers and Traag himself.
It ends up taking the entire might of the Turtles from the 2012 version of the series and the 1987 version of the series to take him down, that’s how powerful Traag becomes towards the end. Unlike his original incarnation, which is presented as an unquestioning lackey, Traag is far more mysterious – thanks to the fact that he has negligible dialogue – and has far cooler character traits to engage and intrigue the viewers with.
Captain Traag from IDW Comics
Given the fact that this version of the character came into existence shortly after the animated series started making waves, there aren’t a lot of differences between the way they are portrayed across both forms of media. Traag is still the deputy commander of Krang’s army, but his backstory has been changed to adapt it to the comic book continuity; and we think that that was for the better.
This version of Traag wasn’t created by Krang with Mutagen; in fact, he was already an adult by the time he met his future master. Traag was a servant of the evil cyborg Traxus who was the tyrannical ruler of Dimension X before Krang. How did he end up in Krang’s service? Let’s just say there was a trial-by-combat type sitch and Traag ended up as Krang’s spoil of war.
When he killed Traxus in single combat, Krang gained Traag and Granitor’s undying loyalty, and that’s about the only difference in his characterization. Well, that and the fact that he looks like Korg’s younger and smoother brother in IDW’s artwork. Oh, and because Krang is a general in this continuity, Traag’s official rank is the captain. Thanks to Baxter Stockman’s inhumane experimentation, Traag is among the first people to be transformed into a Stone Soldier, and he is one of the biggest driving forces behind Krang’s evil machinations to achieve complete domination.
Traag was a key player in Krang’s invasion of the planet of the Neutrinos, and he was Krang’s chief bodyguard during his time on Earth. Traag kept him well-protected from the deadly assassins of the Foot Clan and the buffoonery of the Turtle Brothers whilst ensuring that his master’s plans were executed in the fashion he intended for them.
Another great example of Traag’s undying loyalty to Krang and his sheer durability is the fact that he was one of the few people who was able to survive the terraforming effects of the Technodrome that turned Burnow Island into a mini Dimension X in essence. Yet again, it was Leatherhead who ended up taking Traag out of action, and isn’t that a beautiful full-circle moment for all parties involved?
What Makes Him So Powerful?
The 2012 version of Traag is truly a cosmic force of eradication, on par in terms of scaling with MCU’s Destroyer; and we’re not talking size, either. Traag is a 20-feet tall sentient Stone Soldier that looks like the sleekest megazord of all time. Oh, and before we forget; this megazord is powered by the fiery lashes of molten lava. That’s right, every exposed crack and crevice on his humongous body is sizzling with lava that will more than likely burn your hand off before you can manage to land a hit on him.
And even if you do, you’re going to have to power your punches with a goddamn rocket or something, because this dude is rock solid, pun very much intended. When Leonardo first went up against Traag, he broke his katana. Let that sink in. Leo isn’t the kind of guy who slacks on sword upkeep, neither, that’s Raphael’s job. So, this instantly places him in the top 3 most-durable villains in the TMNT-verse.
Now, top that off with the fact that he legit ate a point-blank explosion for breakfast, and you can see why anyone should be crapping their pants going up against this guy. Traag has also shown that his resilience extends beyond his physical frame, as even if he somehow gets injured, he just pulls himself together and keeps fighting. Perhaps his most-important asset is the fact that he inspires sheer terror on the battlefield.
Traag, unlike his 1987 counterpart, does not speak. Instead, he simply bellows out harsh, ancient war cries like a mad titan, and that itself is enough to put the fear of God into anyone going up against him. And then there’s his lava barf, of course, which means that even if you don’t get close enough to turn crispy, he can do it for you by spewing bone-melting lava at you if you’re within spitting-range. He also seems to have a special rivalry with Leatherhead, given the fact that the two went absolutely berserk on each other when they had their inevitable showdown, but don’t let that fool you into thinking he can be beaten so easily.
Heck, it took all of Donatello’s wits and genius to come up with something powerful enough to damage him, and even that wasn’t executed in clean fashion. All this to say, in a straight-up fight, Traag could trample anyone to death with ease, as befits his status as one of the 6 Cosmic Monsters. He is massive, insanely durable, extremely powerful, and all-obedient, which makes him the best weapon for his side; and the worst nightmare for his enemies.
Marvelous Verdict
Traag is one of the more obscure TMNT villains for sure. He’s nowhere on the level of Shredder or even his overlord Krang in terms of relevancy and overall popularity. But he is one of the more underrated villains to go up against the Shaolin Turtle Brothers, and that is all down to his unique physiology. He is an example of the perfect unassuming second-in-command; he doesn’t ask too many questions, he ensures that he follows orders, and he always comes through for his boy Krang, no matter where his intellectual prowess sits in the writer’s mind on the day they’re writing the story.
In a day and age where we are too used to seeing backstabbing second-in-commands and plots-within-plots ruining the overarching story-telling, Traag is a reminder of the simple-yet-effective formula; make a character that is so stoic and OP that he doesn’t need to be shady to connect with an audience, and that’s exactly what Traag does. Whether it is as comic relief of cosmic destruction, Traag always connects with the audience, and that’s what makes him one of the best and most effective TMNT villains of all time.