Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1255374-20150613052057/@comment-995426-20150807160040

My friends and I thought he was bisexual&mdash;that he was attracted to both males and females. The idea that they are mutually exclusive is a fallacy called &mdash;read up on it. Anyway, we expected him to be attracted to Renet. We also hoped for something that wasn't so badly written, which is part of the main complaint here.

And, as I recall, he did show scenes of attraction to both Chris Bradford and to Leatherhead. His interest in Chris Bradford was like that of an enamored fanboy. (File:Chris Bradford's on here.gif) But his attraction to Leatherhead was initially one of sympathy. (File:He's not a monster.gif) But developed more mentally and emotionally. (File:Yeah I get that a lot.gif) Then Mikey was literally hanging off his arm. (File:Leatherhead drops the pot.gif) Then they became very sensual, with no personal space distance. (File:Cleansing Breaths.gif) Then we saw Leatherhead was into it too, opening himself to Mikey's words instead of letting them antagonize him. (File:I trusted you and you freak out.gif) Then Mikey's eyes noticeably dilated while talking, which is a sign of emotional longing. (File:I thought we were friends.gif) Then this happened sometime inbetween. This was the scene that even had my dad convinced these characters were romantically attached. (File:LFSplinter2938.PNG) Then when they met again later, Mikey's reaction was instantly amorous. (File:Aw look how cute.gif) Then the scene of separation anxiety and tender recollection long after Leatherhead had been gone. (File:Michelangelo's memories.gif) This was actually the scene that had one of my closest friends convinced, because he saw it as Mikey determined to save his guy. (File:Not this time buddy.gif) And the three scenes where the first thing Mikey did was run into his arms. (File:Michelangelo Leatherhead hug 1.gif File:Michelangelo Leatherhead hug 2.gif File:Michelangelo Leatherhead hug 3.gif) And this scene when both Mikey and Leatherhead are seen expressing separation anxiety at parting. (File:Leatherhead wait hold up 1.gif File:Leatherhead wait hold up 2.gif File:Leatherhead wait hold up 3.gif) And when Leatherhead came to the lair in a later episode, the first thing Mikey did was run to him and cradle his head. (File:Adorable yet tortured gator face.gif)

My TMNT fan friends all saw it. (They are mostly gay, but still.) My dad also saw it. (And he's not gay.) If you cannot see it, then you cannot see it&mdash;fine&mdash;there are plenty of people who do not have the sense for these kinds of things, and it's often because of preconditioned  (the idle assumption that hetero happens naturally and gay does not). I've always been serious about these observations, and I cannot just dismiss it all out of hand. For whatever reasons the scenes happened, I saw them because they were there. The complaint here is the bad writing in this latest episode, which had the effect of treading so indelicately on character developments in earlier episodes.

You may have said "no offense", but when you went on to dismiss my observations as some kind of ulterior motive of projection or presumed prurient desire, what you said was not just insensitive ("nothing happens unless I can perceive it"), but offensive to LGBT people ("if they see things I can't perceive, it must mean they're pushing something"). It's an assumption of bad faith, and it's inappropriate.