Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25614818-20150529185748/@comment-995426-20150529200612

I remember suggesting Mikey might be bi, mainly echoing one of my TMNT fan friends who said he might be bi, simply if an attraction to Renet is an option. (I'm not sure if I'd say "lots of people" have said this, mainly because I'm not running a poll, and because I try to avoid the kind of people who blow a gasket at the slightest hint of that sort of thing.) Before this suggestion, we were mainly observing him to be gay. Nick has no problem with it, and most viewers in 2015 have no problem with it, but I think they've been trying to tread a little lightly. Though, with more recent episodes, much less lightly, given that what constitutes "lightly" has noticeably eased.

My main running theory is that Mikey and Leatherhead started out having chemistry. They have a size difference, but I didn't get the impression they're of significantly different ages, especially given that Leatherhead had no opportunities for social development between his mutation and meeting the turtles. So, chemistry turned into affection and young love.

I find this scene particularly meaningful because of the composition and the placement of the teddy bear:



There's this surprisingly intimate "cleansing breaths" scene:



This happened sometime between the events of It Came From The Depths and TCRI:



This position is called "spooning", and when people are past puberty, it is almost exclusively associated with intimacy in a romantic relationship.

Then there was this gem in the episode TCRI when Mikey first spotted LH:



He also gave heart-eyes to 's Facerange profile. So far, he's given heart-eyes to two different characters, and they have both been guys. That would suggest he's gay. But if he does the same to Renet, that suggests instead he's bi.

Anyway, there's also been this:



And these within the space of a single day during Battle for New York, Part 1 and Part 2:



In the third embrace scene, Mikey even calls LH his "big green buddy", which is interesting because LH hasn't been green since he aged decades trapped in Dimension X. He's ash-grey now, and not really green at all. But this implied that Mikey still sees the green guy he originally knew and loved.

And this in Clash of the Mutanimals:



"Adorable yet tortured gator face"? That scene was not subtle at all. :P

I'll confess that I'm actually a little concerned how the writers will handle Mikey with Renet. Because (most of) the audience is not stupid, and they see Mikey and LH behaving the same way they see gay couples behave IRL&mdash;family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, classmates. This is not being snuck past the radar anymore, more importantly because it's no longer actually taboo. So if the audience understands Mikey and LH to be an item, what will they think if the writers suddenly try to give Mikey a girlfriend? If Mikey is to get a new girlfriend, they should at least give his relationship with his boyfriend a well-handled send-off. It would be appropriately sensitive to the audience.