Thread:Yoshimickster/@comment-995426-20151104041829/@comment-995426-20151104182905

Well, I think Raph and Slash were more complicated than a story of unrequited love. As early as Rise of the Turtles, Part 2, Raph had that very conspicuously gay-looking scene where he spoke words of love to another guy, only for that guy to be revealed as Spike. My impression was, the only people Raph knew up to that point were his father and three brothers, and Raph seemed to crave someone who was emotionally more like a boyfriend, but of course could only get so much out of a pet. In Slash and Destroy, I'd noticed just how eager Raph was to accept Slash's offer that they become partners living for each other. By the end of that episode, it was clear that Raph loved Slash even after everything that had happened. And by Newtralized!, it was clear that Slash still loved (and hated) Raph, and Raph had a lot of unresolved feelings for Slash, and really wanted him to come back home to him. When it was Slash's turn to say he couldn't come back, you could see Raph's heart breaking all over again. Then in The Invasion, Part 2, Raph revealed that his one most cherished possession was Spike/Slash's photograph. In season 3, I kept expecting more of that. All we really got was that scene in Clash of the Mutanimals when Raph frantically comes to Slash's aid, caresses his face, and their body language told the rest. The fangirls on deviantART tended to love that scene most of all. But it was an outlier in season 3, surrounded by scenes of them looking indifferent to each other. Their arc was enormously tantalizing from a gay perspective. The problem with season 3 wasn't just that they dropped the ball on this arc, but they dropped the ball on most of the season's character development altogether. With extremely isolated exceptions, Raph and Slash were far blander as individual characters that season than they'd ever been. Raph lost some central personality traits he had in earlier seasons, and even his angry moments seemed more and more fake. The writing overall had become far less consistent for all the characters.

Well, it's possible Lindsey's luck could change, since Jillian was clearly all wrong for her. Near the end of the Mutanimals miniseries, she bonded a little more with Sally Pride. Considering that character was modeled on (who was gay), it's possible the story is setting them up.