Tengu Shredder

"Now you shall taste the terrible beauty of true power, and you shall be... DESTROYED!!!"

- Tengu Shredder, to the Ninja Tribunal, moments before he becomes his dragon creature form.

The Tengu Shredder is the original incarnation of the Shredder and the main antagonist of the fifth season (Ninja Tribunal Arc) of the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. Like Utrom Shredder and Cyber Shredder, he was voiced by Scottie Ray.

Past
In the 300’s, a tengu demon known as the Shredder ravaged Japan and had further plans to conquer the world. The Japanese Emperor summoned the greatest warriors of the country, Kon, Juto, Chikara, Hisomi, and Oroku Saki, the most skilled of them all. Each was armed with mystical armor and battled the Shredder, emerging victorious after Saki managed to bring him down. However the tengu contacted him on the astral plane before he could finish the Shredder off and made him an offer, in exchange for his soul, he could have power and conquest. Saki’s darker half made him accept, taking the tengu’s soul into his own and finishing off his lifeless husk. The five went back to the Emperor, who named them the Five Dragons and gave them the symbol of “Three-Toed Sign of the Dragon”. However Saki took on the identity of the Shredder, taking over Japan and adopting the symbol himself.

The other Dragons went around the world to learn new skills from mystical masters and returned, having become far more than mortals. In a mystical battle, the four fought the Tengu Shredder and manifested their worldly avatars to defeat him. However he could not be destroyed and was sealed into a coffin by the Dragons, who hid away his helmet and gauntlet, which would bring the Tengu Shredder back if they were ever reunited. To get help to make sure he never returned, the Dragons formed the Ninja Tribunal, which taught their secret arts to worthy and good warriors. Seven centuries later, the evil Utrom criminal, Ch’rell, took on the persona of Shredder, using the legend surrounding it to get respect.

TMNT (2003)
In the 21st century, the Foot Mystics sent a demon, hidden by the power of an amulet, to find the Lap of the Gods, so as to bring back the Shredder. However the Ninja Turtles were able to bring an end to the demon by destroying the amulet. Later on, the Foot Mystics left Karai, seeking to bring back their master, displeased that she took up his persona. They managed to get the gauntlet and helmet, defeating the Ninja Tribunal, and brought them to New York, where they revived Tengu Shredder. He decided to get his revenge on Karai for taking his identity and hunted her down in the Oroku Saki Memorial Library. She was able to fight him off with magic-based weaponry Dr. Chaplin had made, but his helmet was knocked off and his face resembled that of Ch’rell’s android suit. This distracted Karai enough for Tengu Shredder to catch her off guard and transformed the sword she’d stabbed him with into a snake monster, which he sent to destroy her. Eventually the snake had Karai wrapped up against a pillar and it and Tengu Shredder both attacked her, but he accidentally beheaded the snake.

Angered, the demon warrior used his magic to pin Karai against a wall and stripped her of the Shredder armor. The Tengu Shredder considered letting her live as a slave, but the Ninja Turtles interfered, allowing Karai to break free. He summoned his army of demons and the undead he had amassed over the years, transforming the tower they were in into a graveyard. While his minions held Karai in place, Tengu Shredder prepared to finish her off, but Chaplain tried to protect her. Seeing he was in love, the demon warlord decided it time was to end this and managed to wound Karai. But the Turtles summoned their Dragon Avatars to fight the Tengu Shredder, making him and the Foot Mystics retreat and, looking upon the new modern world, he planned to reshape it and make it his own. The Tengu Shredder took control of the Mayor’s office, transforming it into his citadel and New York into a world of monsters. Since he needed more energy to complete the transformation, the Foot Mystics had made the city officials created keystones in a triangular shape for amplification. The Turtles tried to stop the spell, but the Tengu Shredder found out, getting angry that he wasn’t told by the Foot Mystics. He stopped their plan so the transformation was successfully strengthened. The Turtles gathered together their allies and enemies to fight the Tengu Shredder and Karai had a means of draining his energy so they could take his gauntlet and helmet. This worked and Tengu Shredder was rendered unconscious, but Hun kicked him to ensure he was done, waking him up.

He blasted Hun away then transported Splinter, the Ancient One, and the Ninja Turtles outside and mounted a demonic horse to take them down. After bringing down the Turtles, the Tengu Shredder attacked Splinter when Hamato Yoshi appeared from the Turtles’ medallions. Taking the Shredder’s trident from him, he drove it into the demon warlord’s armor, making him lose power. To restore himself, Tengu Shredder turned New York back to normal and transformed into a dragon, with the Turtles doing the same. They continued to battle and the Tengu Shredder proved too strong, however Karai began draining his energy again. He tried to destroy her, but the Turtles got in his way and started fighting back. Eventually the Tengu Shredder got so weak, he returned to human form and desperately launched one last charge, but was knocked around so that he lost his helmet and gauntlet. Michelangelo snapped the gauntlet in half and Leonardo stomped on his helmet, rendering both useless. As the Turtles regained their humanoid forms, the Tengu Shredder was slashed in half by Yoshi, ending him.

Back To The Sewer
At some point in the future, the Tengu Shredder was seen engaged in a fight with Utrom Shredder and Cyber Shredder. At the same time, Foot Ninjas allied with the Utrom and Cyber Shredders battled each other (it is never explained how the Tengu Shredder returned or why none of his undead Foot Ninjas were present).

Powers and Abilities
The Tengu Shredder is a powerful warrior and thanks to his being bonded with the soul of Tengu Shredder.

He can use dark magic, which allows him to alter reality on a planetary scale, and upon doing so his power increases with every passing second. (However he was only able to do so by tapping into three mystical "Keystones" which greatly amped his power) He possesses telekinesis and has superhuman strength to such a degree that he can casually dismiss the likes of Silver Sentry in only his base form, who's strength is enough to throw giant robots into the sun.

The Tengu Shredder’s weapon of choice is his blade gauntlet, but he can summon other weapons and is impervious to most forms of attack. He can regenerate almost instantly, and thanks to his immense dark magic he is practically immortal and near-invulnerable. The Tengu Shredder can also use his magic to change the form of objects, which can be seen when he turns a sword into a demon snake.

He has also demonstrated the ability to transform into an enormous dragon form in which his strength and power increases immensely. The Tengu Shredder also has the ability to grow in size, though he has never really used this power in battle.

Perhaps due to his mystical powers, anyone who take Shredder mantle, officially or not, would gained mystical connection with him. This explained how Ch'rell, whom taking Shredder mantle to gained respect, spiritually influenced by Tengu Shredder that his human disguise looks identical with Oroku Saki's original human self and (possibly) explained why 1987 incarnation of Shredder found Ch'rell instead of Tengu Shredder or Karai whom briefly took the mantle as well as how Karai, whom took the mantle before Tengu Shredder's resurrection, able to tap on his magical powers. This mystical also serves as one of his weaknesses, as those whom took/share the Shredder mantle can drain Tengu Shredder's powers and weakened him.

Trivia

 * The Tengu Shredder is technically made of two different entities, the original tengu demon known as the Shredder, which emerged from some foul pit in 300 A.D. in Hamoto, and Oroku Saki.
 * This is one of few incarnations of Oroku Saki starting off as a hero and end up being villain.
 * The Tengu Shredder has appeared in two of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles videogames, The Shredder Reborn and Double Damage.
 * Tengu Shredder is the actual 2003 incarnation of Oroku Saki, he is not the first main antagonist like most incarnations and that Ch'rell is the main antagonist of most of the seasons and is the first antagonist who fights the turtles. When his 1987 incarnation set out to find his 2003 counterpart in TMNT 2003 realm to recruit him as his ally, he instead found Ch'rell the Utrom Shredder instead of Tengu Shredder. Reason why he found Ch'rell instead of Tengu Shredder or Cyber Shredder was due to both Shredders are already dead and Ch'rell, being the most major of the Shredder in TMNT 2003 realm, is the current living wielder of Shredder mantle at that time.
 * Tengu Shredder is a member of the Three shredders in the TMNT 2003 Dimension.
 * Even though the Tengu Shredder is described as the "Greatest evil the world has ever known", the Utrom Shredder is often considered more evil due to him commenting acts of evil through out the universe while the Tengu Shredder only terrorized the Earth.
 * Tengu Shredder is the second TMNT 2003 Villains to be Pure Evil, the first is Utrom Shredder.