Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-995426-20150603174047

Forking from the Mikey and Leatherhead thread.

Mikey and LH aren't the only relationship my friends and I have been paying close attention to. You see, one of the great things about this show (compared to previous 2D animated shows) is its rich attention to subtle details, including body language. And in CGI, the animators have virtually total control over body language, allowing them to show whatever they please. And occasionally, there are gems like these:



They only say:

However, that's only a small fraction of what they're saying, if you pay attention to their faces and Raph's hands. A breakdown:


 * Raph says "Slash, are you okay?" while immediately rushing to check on Slash. Raph gently places his left hand on Slash's right cheek and holds it there.  This is a very old (some would say clich&eacute;) cinematic affection trope used to convey romantic tenderness.
 * Now look at Raph's face and eyes. So much is written on his face.  From the looks of it, I'd say fear, worry, concern, and perhaps need.  "I need you to be okay.  I don't know what I'll do if you're not okay."  He's also making direct eye contact with Slash, not breaking it for even a moment.
 * And then there's Slash. He's obviously thrashed and exhausted.  He could just look into space&mdash;in his condition, anyone could understand.  Or, he could just look up a little to identify a familiar presence and let that be enough.  But no&mdash;he glues his eyes to Raph's, and does not break eye contact either.  When he speaks, he arches his eyebrows, giving emphasis when he says Raphael's name.  This is a look of great personal trust, but also what seems to be a mixture of fear and relief.
 * After Slash speaks, Raph's face changes. Much of the tension eases, and is replaced by a look of caring, as if to say, "It's okay.  I'll take care of you now."

This entire brief exchange is strikingly emotional and intimate, but very easily overlooked if you're not paying attention to the screen. What it says to me is that Raph and Slash's emotional relationship isn't that far removed from the one Raph and Spike had. Very loving, very tender, full of little nonverbal displays of affection. But whereas Spike was Raph's "little guy", Slash seems to be Raph's "big guy" now.



See, Raph always used to treat Spike like he was a person, telling him his innermost emotions, and wishing Spike was listening and was emotionally validating him. Raph also preferred to be discreet in this, only opening up to Spike this way when he was alone, or in emotionally-charged situations, considering how he became incredibly embarrassed and angry when Mikey so much as glimpsed one of these moments.



When Spike mutated in Slash and Destroy, Raph was mentally thrown off-balance at first, but then easily accepted Slash's transition into a fully communicative sentient person, as though it's what Raph had always wanted to happen. It had to have been enormously gratifying to contemplate forming a new two-man team with his favorite person.



But Slash went yandere, Raph had to balance his competing loyalty to his brothers, and their dreams quickly went south. But the one thing my friends and I found most striking in this episode was how quickly a mood of mutual antagonism turned into such raw emotional desperation when Raph feared Slash might fall off the building rooftop and die.



Again with the body language&mdash;Raph's face didn't just show fear, but a royal bucketload of primal horror, like the worst thing imaginable was happening in front of his eyes. Slash survived, but later Raph was clutching and brooding over Spike's leaf as if it were a precious token of love.



Splinter immediately recognized Raph's love, appearing to liken Raph's loss of Slash to his own loss of Tang Shen. We know Splinter has a certain degree of empathy (honed from many years of spiritual training), so I think Splinter understood exactly the kind of loss Raph was feeling, and gave it the appropriate romantic comparison to his beloved wife Tang Shen.

And so I considered this: What if Raph hadn't just wanted a friend? What if he wanted...a romantic companion? Just someone with whom he'd feel ultimate trust and belonging&mdash;his other half, so to say. With (until then) only four mutant turtles known to exist (Raph and his three brothers), and no other contact with sentient beings before April, etc., it seems to me like Raph wished for something more out of Spike, which is why he always treated him like a person. Of course, you can only get so much emotionally out of a pet. But with Slash, Raph was thrilled, because suddenly the sky was the limit. Raph and Slash loved each other more like one would a significant other, and I think Splinter knew this.

The next thing that really caught my attention was in Newtralized!, when Slash confronted Raph for the first time since they saw each other in Metalhead Rewired. Slash's choice of words was very interesting when compared to what he later admitted he was feeling&mdash;hurt that Raph had betrayed him, and even an oblique sympathy for Casey that Raph might someday betray him too. But that's not what Slash said at first. He confronted Raph, and said "It's good to see you again, Raphael. Did you miss me?" Very interesting priorities, making it seem that Slash was both mocking Raph while venting his own exposed emotional vulnerabilities. What he really seemed to be saying was, "I wish I could be happy to see you again because I really did love you, but you broke my heart and I don't trust you anymore."



At the end of that episode after Raph saved Slash's life and they seemed to bury the hatchet, Slash's decision not to come home brought another interesting moment: Not just the obvious where Raph looked crushingly disappointed that his favorite person wasn't coming back home with him. But also what seemed to be implied by Slash's decision to remain alone, as if to say, "I still care about you, Raphael, and I'd like to trust you again, but I'm not ready. I have a lot to think about on my own."

Then The Invasion came, and Raph and Slash each quickly found their hands full with matters of survival and resistance. By their reunion in Battle for New York, Part 1, Slash seemed to have not only sorted out most of his baggage, but was a much more independent person&mdash;something he had to have done for himself and the good of everyone, and not just for Raph. So, at this point, they were happy to see each other again, but there was no clear certainty that things would ever be the same between them again.

Then that gem from Clash of the Mutanimals. Slash had been programmed as a sleeper agent at the time, but more importantly he hadn't been activated yet (that happened later in the lair the moment Splinter said "water"). So at this moment, Slash was still Slash, and the things he was expressing were sincere. And later in this episode, after Slash's programming was activated, Raph's choice of words when confronting the now-hostile Slash was interesting. It wasn't "What are you doing, Slash?" but "How could you, Slash?" "How could you" carries an air of greater personal vulnerability, as if to say, "I trusted you." It told me that they did already have their trust back, and now it was Raph who was feeling personally betrayed. But blah blah blah mind control worms blah blah blah, and everything turned out all right again for both of them. What this tells me is that, even if they are somehow not currently romantically involved, all the same love, chemistry and rapport between them has long since roared back to life. Slash has new responsibilities now, of course, but that doesn't necessarily mean he has to live like a monk.

The question is, what kind of relationship do Raph and Slash have now? Do the two of them even know? What I do know is, just like in Rise of the Turtles, Part 2, Raph is extremely unlikely to show too much affection with Slash while his brothers are around, especially Mikey. So if they are sharing affection, I'm going to guess that the vast majority of it is off-screen, in privacy, just like Raph and Spike used to do. However, the really observant people (the empaths and/or psychics&mdash;Splinter, April and Rockwell) are probably at least intuitively aware of whatever's going on between them.

I could also go into my theories about why Splinter seems to be so comfortable with not just one but two of his sons having male love interests. But that could end up being yet another topic segue. 