Thread:Sonicisawesome2448/@comment-995426-20160128044156/@comment-995426-20160128062306

Thank you. :) It's good to cultivate constructive understanding.

You do seem new to this particular topic. I know a lot of people were oblivious of this aspect of the show, so react with surprise upon hearing about it, and so I don't blame you for that.

As a longtime TMNT fan, and I pay attention to things, discuss them with others, we compare our findings, etc. I've also made over 1000 animated GIFs from the 2K12 series for the wiki (most such GIFs on the wiki are mine), in part because it's been so fun to provide accessible visual documentation of sight gags, subtler body language, etc.

And as a matter of documentation, Leatherhead, Michelangelo, Raphael, Slash, Steranko and Zeck have all tripped some varying degrees of gaydar in the series, and no other TMNT TV show in history has had this many recognized gaydar trippings. (Among TMNT comics, that's a different matter though.)
 * It's not as much in dispute that Slash is probably gay, especially since he was a total yandere, a trope that intersects romantic obsession with ax-craziness.
 * Zeck started out as a blatant expy of Hollywood Montrose from the Mannequin films, and even gives Steranko little pet names like "baby Ivan", though Zeck himself claims to (also) like the ladies. Steranko is far more subtle, but Yoshimickster opined that he's probably gay considering all his belligerent sexual tension with Zeck.  But I concede the "hold me close, comrade" scene in Annihilation Earth! was one of his least subtle gaydar blips.  Of course, there's already an established tradition of  and  tripping heavy gaydar, especially considering their very memorable Archie TMNT versions who decided to peacefully settle down on an Eden world to live out their lives alone together completely naked.
 * Mikey isn't "gay," per se, but rings all the right bells for a pansexual (someone who is attracted to people but not specific genders), and the way he and Leatherhead treat each other has not been at all subtle. Even my 72-year-old dad thought they were a couple.
 * Leo and Donnie do not trip gaydar, and Splinter does not appear to have any obvious attraction to anyone since the death of his wife. I've heard at least one fan theory that Donnie obsessed over April just to try to convince himself he's straight, but I don't buy that&mdash;he always seemed far too sincere in his infatuation, and doesn't trip my gaydar in other ways either.
 * I should also add that Raph and Casey...do not appear to have any believable chemistry as best friends, and I'm not the only one on the wiki who has said this. Casey was mainly introduced because of fans' demands, but the story put him together with a Raphael who was already very different from any other version.  Casey ended up functioning better as Donnie's foil and as Mikey's entourage.
 * If anything, Raph functioned more (and was written better) as a de facto sister figure along with April, and was actually most similar in personality to Karai. These characteristics were strongest in season 1, still fairly nominal in season 2, but started to fade hard in season 3.  The last of Raph's "sister" moments I could find was in A Foot Too Big, after which his character development drastically weakened.  So Raph already started to trip gaydar even long before Slash mutated&mdash;the romantic angst and tension they shared just seemed to flow naturally for them, and brought the deepest character development out of Raph to date.

Do you have any questions? :)