#shiniangelo

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

Y’all keep saying it’s completely out of character for Mikey to do that, and it is, but it’s not even something he does. Mikey and Renet never officially get together. Her agreeing to go out with Mikey “someday” isn’t the equivalent of “okay we’re dating now.” And even after that, in the next episode when Mikey asks her if they’ll ever see each other again, her response is legit, “Maybe someday.” And again that is not the equivalent “yes we are dating from this point forward.”

Agreeing to one date (with no real confirmation cuz “maybe someday” isn’t rlly a yes) does not equal dating.

While I definitely agree Mikey later having a crush on Shinigami was dumb and rlly useless, it’s not cheating, like at all. Teenagers go through multiple crushes. It happens. Also, Renet is from the future, her having a relationship with Mikey isn’t rlly practical when you really think about it. Don’t get me wrong, I love Mikey and Renet’s dynamic but I also don’t see a real scenario of them being able to date because of the future aspect of Renet’s character, I’m pretty sure that would mess up the flow of the timeline, but that isn’t my point. My point is that it’s possible Mikey looked at Shini as a more practical chance and that’s part of why he yearns after her. That’s all speculation though because the show never gives an actual in canon reason for Mikey having feelings for Shini despite him previous liking Renet.

Then upon entering season 5, any attraction Mikey had for Shini is shown in like one episode and then it’s gone for the rest of the season. Once Renet comes back, ya Mikey’s whole crush resurfaces and the writers act like they didn’t give Mikey a whole other love interest but that’s bad on the writers part, not Mikey. Mikey isn’t a real thinking, breathing person, he cannot really control his actions because he just does whatever the writers want him to do. That’s the only reason this whole situation plays out like this, because the writers handled it poorly.

Whether Mikey and Renet get together after the Halloween arc is up for interpretation though. When Worlds Collide, which is the next episode after the Halloween Arc according to production codes, has Mikey and Renet talking through a communication device she gave him and he asks her if they’re in a long distance relationship but we never get to hear a response from Renet afterwards. So it’s left ambiguous. If you wanna headcanon they’re dating, then they are, if wanna headcanon they’re just friends and Mikey was just playfully flirting, then that’s what happened. It’s still not concrete evidence that they’re dating.

Renet, returning in season 5:

I don't mind Renetangelo fics, I just wish she and Mikey weren't stereotyped as a silly eternally bouncy dumbass couple with one brain cell between them (derogatory). And since I'm poly I'd want Shiniangelo anyway.

I felt like fans were too quick to make Mikey and Renet solidly guaranteed, like the Apriltello discourse with slightly less bullying between fans.

Then again, in my 20+ years of fanfiction, I've learned that I'm not that invested in ships. I don't understand love triangle drama. It could be the demisexuality.