#shinangelo

i feel like one thing every 2012 ship has a problem with is pacing

yes i mean every ship

it’s clear that the 2012 writers don’t rlly know how to commit to romantic subplots so they either go the “they are super into each other right off the bat so there’s little build up” angle or the “will they won’t they,, but we’ll never show them actually get together” angle

i’m not saying these are atrociously bad or anything but it can be really annoying in the long run

apritello is the entire reason i got into 2012 when i was 11 lmao so it got stale for me when the show focuses less and less on their development since they didn’t want to commit to an actual subplot after the bigfoot fiasco. they both grow, sure, but it’s pushed to the background and we never see them talk about it. instead we get a kiss in a non-canon music video ://

dw apritello i still love you

with ramona, while it’s incredibly sweet how in love they are, the pacing of their first episode was ,,,, bad lol. the first time i watched it i was so underwhelmed i was like,,, this gets better?? right?? and it did but yeah i think that first episode for sure needed tweaking.

and more mona would’ve been great too. she needed some character exploration outside of her relationship with raph,, like having her talk more with the other characters her age (i would kill for april and mona content). i’m not saying she doesn’t have depth. she does. but a lot of it gets pushed to the background for her dynamic with raph.

they just didn’t even try with mikey and renet i’ll be real. they threw renet in there as a love interest and then kept making her and mikey kinda go in circles with their interest in each other. they’ll be cute and close in some scenes and then renet will act like she’s just humoring him while mikey kinda forgets about her when shini shows up.

i think renetangelo is cute to some extent (tho i do dislike 2012 mikey a bit so that doesn’t help) but time travel romances are automatically rlly hard to write well and since 2012’s romance writing is already messy, they weren’t going to do well. and renet herself is automatically more interesting when she’s not interacting with mikey. like her platonic dynamic with leo?? adorable. my favorite renet is 2003 and she’s not a love interest and she’s so charming!! renet is just a fun quirky friend of the turtles.

y’all know i love a lot of tmnt love interests so the fact that i prefer renet as a friend prolly says a lot about how she should be written gjdkdk

i don’t wanna talk about leo/rai much, but other than the glaringly bad i/ncest issue (both siblings and cousins), they just weren’t very good as a romantic dynamic either?

like yeah i’m biased bc lotus is the only leo love interest i will ever accept (and also leo/rai is gross lol)

but like ,,, with karai, leo saw her as an escape from being a leader so he can explore his rebellious streak. which is interesting! but unlike with lotus, leo was willing to betray her behind her back, and karai was willing to manipulate him to do what she wanted him to. but okay that’s getting off topic. back to the pacing,,

season 1 gets a pass for me since i actually love the pacing of season 1 alone (like honestly, after the cousin reveal, there wasn’t any romance up until season 2 from my memory,, and even before that after karai betrayed leo and the other brothers found out, leo wasn’t into her,, it was his brothers who were making fun of him), but afterwards, season 2 onward,the timing of leo/rai moments were always a slap in the face bc they were always. ALWAYS. right after they acknowledged her as family THRJEKSJDJDKSK

but yeah i think pacing is the worst problem of 2012 ships :p