The Shredder, in TMNT and the Shredder in TMNT 2, has two different personalities. The original Shredder has a calm personality, while his younger counterpart is more aggressive. The Shredder is a master of chaos; he has absolutely no control over the chaos he causes and he frequently causes destruction wherever he goes. This is one of the reasons why he has enemies.
In the first film, The Shredder only uses his Cheese Grater on Splinter because he was afraid that Splinter might take it from him. He gave the pizza crust away, but it did not escape his grasp. The second film goes back to his theme of chaos. With the Turtles, he is able to fully utilize his Cheese Grater, as well as the power of chaos, in order to cause a scene.
The Shredder’s power has been much in demand as of late, thanks to the huge buzz around the movies and his appearance in the cartoon series. Some have accused him of making the TMNT villains too cool for school. The Shredder is also accused of making them too cookie cutter so that they feel like a stereotype of a villain.
In the first film, the Shredder’s intelligence is questioned when a listener from a radio show argues that he is actually an old man that shouldn’t be the one to watch the Turtles and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The listener also makes fun of how scared the Turtles are around him, even though the Shredder is clearly the smartest individual in the whole movie. His confidence in his power is truly astounding.
In the second film, however, Shredder gets a chance to test his cunning when the Turtles and Splinter get into a battle with an army of the vampiric ninja. When they enter their fight arenas, the Shredder confidently calls out the names of his graters to play against them. He is basically a one-man show that doesn’t have to communicate with the rest of the team to do his bidding. However, when he is aware that there is a visitor at the restaurant where he and the Turtles are fighting, he remembers that he had forgotten his Cheese Grater and the two fight each other without any verbal communication.
Even though they do not understand what is going on, the Turtles realize that the Shredder is crazy when he drops a large amount of debris onto the dining area. It is difficult to explain how much this disturbs the Turtles because the Shredder is actually the only individual in the restaurant who knows that he is not a threat. If he had let on that he actually could destroy the restaurant, he would have gotten the Turtles killed.
Both the Shredder and the Ninja Turtles have their similarities and differences. The Shredder seems to be a smarter character, but they are both far from being an intelligent genius. The Shredder simply has an immense amount of power and is given the ability to cause chaos and havoc because of his ability to manipulate Chaos.
The Ninja Turtles, on the other hand, are more intelligent and maybe more educated in the art of Ninjitsu. The Ninja Turtles are more skilled, and the techniques they use are much more advanced. Therefore, the Ninja Turtles seems to be the better fighters. However, the Shredder seems to have more focus on his power, and actually throws down and engages the Ninja Turtles rather than trying to distract them.