Turtle Power! rebooted film series.

Everyone knows the story of the Ninja Turtles -- four pet turtles and a rat (or man, depending on the version) are covered in an alien mutagen that transforms them into humanoid creatures. Named for famous Renaissance painters, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael learn Ninjutsu from their Master Splinter and defend New York City from the villainous Foot Clan, alien invaders, and other mutants out to harm innocent people. The TMNT have faced off against a number of enemies throughout their history, and we here at Screen Rant want to set the record straight and seek out out the best of the best. Here is Every Major TMNT Villain, Ranked Worst to Best.

Note: In order to count as a “major” villain, the character must be a recurring character in two or more forms of TMNT media, or be a primary antagonist in one of the TMNT films or series.

20. Walker

“Did you really think I'd make it that easy, you nasty little reptiles?”

The worst TMNT villain naturally comes from the worst TMNT movie. After the successes of the first two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films and the twilight of the 1980s cartoon, New Line Cinema wanted to cash in on the Ninja Turtles one last time. With the Shredder and the Foot Clan having met their demise at the end of Secret of the Oooze, fans ran rampant with speculation about who the Turtles would face in the third movie; could it be Krang? The Triceratons? One of the dozens of mutant enemies created over the course of the TV show? Nope. Instead, fans got Walker.

After being transported back to feudal Japan via a magic scepter in an effort to save April, the Turtles get caught up in a rebellion against a local warlord. This warlord is being armed with men and weapons by Walker, a British trader who has a tendency to dress up like a cowboy for some reason. Walker is just the worst. He has no powers, weapons that are no more advanced than a flintlock pistol or canon, and poses no real threat to the Turtles other than threatening April or innocent villagers. Not to mention he’s insufferable. His snarky, smarter-than-you attitude gets old very quickly over the course of the hour and a half film. It’s only fitting that the worst TMNT villain gets a lame death; Walker only fails to escape the Turtles because he forgot his pet canary and has to return for it rather than making his getaway. And then he gets knocked off a high wall by a catapult. Walker is the worst villain in TMNT history, and he deserves every single ounce of criticism he gets.

19. Tokka and Razhar

“Master say have FUN!”

Debuting in TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze, Tokka and Razhar are two blockheaded mutants who use their brute strength to terrorize the Turtles. Serving as henchmen to the Foot Clan, these monstrosities were created by the Shredder when he doused a wolf and a snapping turtle with ooze in order to create his own team of super powered mutants. Only one problem -- in the words of the Shredder, “BABIES! They’re babies!”

Much like Bebop and Rocksteady in the cartoon, Tokka and Razhar act as the comic foils to stoic and evil Oroku Saki. The infantile nature of the mutants makes them act out in hilarious ways, including bonking each other over the head with a steel pipe to be funny or completely destroying cars for fun. Make no mistake, though, Tokka and Razhar are major threats to the Heroes in a Half Shell; their pure brute strength and size alone makes them formidable foes. Of course, they are also defeated by ingesting fire extinguisher spray and are easily tricked into eating poisoned donuts, so yeah…

18. Eric Sachs

“Inside those turtles is the most precious compound on earth - mutagen. I want you to drain every ounce of their blood, even if it kills them!”

Just read that line again. Read it closely. Kind of redundant, don’t you think? Now you can see one of the major problems from 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- the writing was kind of awful. Eric Sachs, the primary villain of the film, took a huge hit from the abysmal writing. Nearly everything he says sounds like something a fourteen year old would come up with when asked to give an evil monologue.

Eric Sachs (portrayed by William Fichtner) was the primary antagonist in the TMNT reboot. Sachs is portrayed as a brilliant scientist and partner to Dr. O’Neil (April’s father) whose experiments led to the creation of both the ooze and the Turtles themselves. When Dr. O’Neil found out that Sachs was working for Shredder, he destroyed their lab and advised April to set the test subjects (the Turtles and Splinter) free. Rumor has it that Eric Sachs was originally intended to be the Shredder, but the director changed his mind when many cried foul at the whitewashing of a traditionally Japanese character. It makes sense. In the final version of the movie, Eric Sachs doesn’t really do anything significant; instead, he mostly monologues about how evil he and Shredder are. The only real bit of action the character gets is when, at the film’s climax, he tries to kill April and Vern as they attempt to steal the mutagen from his lab.

17. Dragon Lord

“I promise you this, human... for every minute that my people were wrongfully imprisoned by your Shinobi Shaman, you shall spend 10,000 years in torment.”

There are a lot of people who claim the 2014 TMNT movie or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III are the worst incarnations of the beloved heroes. Perhaps they simply forgot about 1997’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, the series where a fifth turtle with mystical psychic powers was added to the team? Also, the series where the Shredder only makes a small appearance, April is nowhere to be found, and the turtle costumes make TMNT III’s look like the gold standard? Maybe people just push it out of their minds. Perhaps the only saving grace of The Next Mutation was its cool looking villain, Dragon Lord.

Dragon Lord is the leader of the Rank, a clan of ancient humanoid dragons who ruled the universe until their defeat and subsequent imprisonment in the “enchanted glass.” During the time of the TV series, the Rank were released from their imprisonment and swore to reclaim their stolen kingdom. Dragon Lord doesn’t have much going for him other than his looks; throughout the show’s only season, he never takes up arms or uses any mystical powers. Instead, he has his henchmen do all the dirty work while he sits around and plots. The villain desires the same ooze that transformed the Turtles in order to become all powerful in his quest to rule the world. However, there's no way to gauge his powers, so we can't really say how powerful he is. Dragon Lord may look awesome, but he’s no more threatening than any regular human foe the Ninja Turtles face.

16. Tatsu

“Ninja, VANISH!”

Tatsu is the character from the TMNT movies that everyone knows, but nobody re his name. That’s understandable, as his name was only mentioned once throughout the entire series. Tatsu plays a large role in the Foot Clan as Shredder’s second in command and recruiter. This character’s backstory is unclear -- all that is known is that he came to New York around the same time as Oroku Saki.

The master martial artist looms over his students and opponents like a shadow, commanding the utmost respect from his pupils. He also inspires fear; the brutal martial artist almost kills one of his students during a rage-fueled punishment. Tatsu rarely speaks, but when he does, he uses his powerful rhetoric to inspire New York’s teenagers (including Sam Rockwell!)to swear their allegiance to the Foot.

The ninja master has gone up against both the Turtles and Casey Jones in the past, though both instances resulted in his embarrassing defeat. Maybe Tatsu should just stick to recruiting…

15. Lord Dregg

“I am Lord Vringath Dregg, ruler of Planet Sectoid, lord of all insect life in the universe, and bringer of your deaths!”

Lord Dregg originally appeared in the second-to-last season of the ‘80s cartoon as a replacement to primary antagonists Shredder and Krang. The wicked alien warlord would continue to be used as the series’ main villain until its cancelation in 1996. Dregg came to Earth as part of his mission of galactic conquest, where he was thwarted by the Turtles over and over. As the commander of the vessel Dreggnought, he commanded a bug-like race of creatures called the Technogang and was able to fool the world into thinking he was the hero and that the Turtles were out to conquer the planet.

Dregg was a much more serious villain than the heroes had faced in earlier seasons, making him a perfect fit for the original show’s “red sky” episodes (in which the sky was always a dark red and the subject matter was darker). In the 2012 animated series, Lord Dregg was introduced as the ruler of Planet Sectoid. Unlike the original Dregg ,this version appeared to me more insect-like, with four arms, the ability to fly, and the power to shoot webs out of his hands.

14. Max Winters/Yaotl

“Arise my brothers. Arise dear sister. The Stars of Kicaan align. All ye generals wake from your stone slumber!”

As the leader of an ancient brotherhood, Yaotl and his band were well on their way to ruling the world. Over 10,000 years ago, he learned of a mystical constellation that would only occur when the stars aligned every 3,000 years. This knowledge gave him the power of immortality, but it also transformed his best generals into stone and unleashed thirteen monsters on the world. These monsters completely destroyed his army, leaving Yaotl broken and alone. In modern times, the ancient general goes by the name of Max Winters.

Winters is the primary villain of the 2007 film TMNT. He is so far down this list because, although a villain, his master plan isn’t that villainous: he wishes to atone for all of his sins by bringing his generals back to life and returning the thirteen monsters back to their home world. Unfortunately, this plan involved hiring the evil Foot Clan, as well as bringing to the monsters to the most populous city in the country, undoubtedly creating chaos. To make matters worse, his revived generals don’t share the same goal. They want to instead use their powers of immortality along with an army of monsters to finish what they started and conquer the world. Winters isn’t the worst villain in TMNT history, but he certainly doesn’t fit among the likes of the top. Instead, this overlooked baddie deserves to be placed in the middle of the road where he belongs, mediocre and forgettable.

13. General Traag and the Rock Soldiers

“They hate war. They refuse to armies.”

Dimension X is always depicted as being in a perpetual state of war; only the radical teenage Neutrinos are outside the conflict. One of the forces in this conflict are the rock soldiers. Although they were initially created solely for the ‘80s cartoon, the rock solider army and their leader, General Traag, quickly became staples in the TMNT lore. As their name implies, Krang’s legions are formed entirely of mutated stone (it makes sense, trust us), which makes them a powerful force to be reckoned with. Throughout the entire original cartoon, Krang and Shredder attempted on multiple occasions to open a portal to Dimension X so that Traag and his minions could cross over and conquer Earth (every attempt was thwarted by the Turtles). Despite repeated failures, Traag appeared in eleven episodes of the original cartoon, three episodes of the current series, and numerous issues of comic books both new and old.

The rock soldiers have been depicted in radically different ways in different mediums; they were no-nonsense buffoons in the ‘80s series, stone cold soldiers with a realistic design in the IDW comics, and lava-spewing giants in the current cartoon. No matter how they are portrayed, Traag and his rock soldiers have given the TMNT fits throughout the years.

12. Slash

“There's room for only one boss turtle -- me!”

As his appearance suggests, Slash is an evil mutated turtle created by Peter Laird himself. He's named “Slash” because of his tendency to leave a trail of broken and shredded debris in the wake of his rampage. Slash’s origins vary depending on which series he appears in -- in both the ‘80s and current cartoon, he starts off as a pet turtle. In the IDW comics, Slash is a lab animal at Stockgen (Baxter Stockman’s laboratories) who becomes mutated and crazy from the morbid experiments he is subjected to. There is also a third origin, based on Archie Comics, where Slash is an alien hailing from a tropical planet. He has a brutish personality and is shown to have an obsession with palm trees.

In the original TV show, the turtle is owned by Rocksteady and transformed via mutagen by Bebop when the lazy warthog wants someone else to run their errands for them. For some reason or another, the mutagen doesn’t give Slash human intellect like it did the Heroes in a Half Shell; instead, he has an infantile and extremely temperamental personality. He later reappears in an episode where he is granted super intelligence by an alien species.

In the 2012 series, the character starts off as Raphael’s pet, Spike. Spike has grown a disliking to the other turtles because he constantly hears his owner complain about them. Once he is mutated, Spike renames himself “Slash” and tries to take out Michelangelo, Donatello, and Leonardo. He is only stopped when Raphael calls him a freak. Defeated and humiliated, Slash retreats. He shows up again later, reformed and part of the mutant hero team the Mighty Mutanimals.

11. Agent Bishop

“You have no idea what you’re up against.”

Special Agent John Bishop is a character created for the 2003 TV series. As the head of the Earth Protection Force, he takes a special interest in the Turtle’s extraterrestrial adventures. In their first encounter, Bishop wished to dissect our heroes because he thought they were aliens themselves. Not much is known about Agent Bishop’s past -- the only concrete part of his story is that he is over two hundred years old and that his longevity was a result of being experimented on by aliens.

Bishop is cold, calculated, and manipulative, and he'll stop at nothing to get what he wants. He’s made deals with the Triceratons, blackmailed the Shredder, and experimented on the Turtles’ mutant allies countless times. Even though his methods are unethical and can sometimes cause mass casualties, the agent swears that everything he does is in the best interest of the Earth. In the short-lived 2003-series spinoff TMNT: Fast Forward, the Turtles are transported one hundred years into the future, where they discover that John Bishop has been elected as President of the Pan-Galactic Alliance (essentially the UN of the future). The character would show up again in the IDW comics as well as the 2012 series, although his personality and origins were radically changed.