Tinchel

Tinchel is the femslash ship between Rachel Berry and Tina Cohen-Chang from the Glee fandom.

Season One
Rachel and Tina are both original members of the New Directions, introduced in the "Pilot". Their first notable interaction occurs when the glee club sings "You're the One That I Want" from Grease. Rachel, as Sandy, gets incredibly into the performance, including sliding her hands across the bodies and faces of the other glee club members. Her hands are seen very clearly pressed against Tina's chest, and Tina appears to be smiling or laughing at the interaction.

A few episodes later, Tina is given her first solo, "Tonight", with the glee club. Rachel, however, is upset because she insists that any songs from "West Side Story" should go to her. Tina is later seen practicing, and when she doesn't give a perfect performance she tries to return the solo to Rachel. Mr. Schue intervenes, however, and encourages Tina to stick with it.

Rachel and Tina are seen walking the hallways together in "Mash-Up", trying to avoid being slushied. They discuss their respective boy problems -- Rachel with Jesse, and Tina with Artie -- in "The Power of Madonna". Then they, along with the rest of the female glee club members, perform "Express Yourself".

Season Two
In the season two premiere "Audition", Tina is seen calling Rachel an "ambitious little freak who'll do anything to hold onto her power". This occurs after it is revealed that Rachel sent Sunshine Corazon to a crackhouse because she was jealous of her talents. In "Furt", Tina is one of the girls that Rachel asks to help stop Kurt from being bullied. In "Special Education", Rachel insists that Mercedes and Tina share a duet to celebrate their win at Sectionals.

In "Comeback", Rachel decides that she wants to become more popular. To do so, she tries to pay Brittany to dress like her. The plan backfires, however, when everyone starts hailing Brittany as the fashion icon. Tina is seen later in the episode in a carousel horse sweater and a plaid skirt. When Rachel insists that Brittany got the style from her, Tina calls Rachel a bad liar.

Season Three
In "Props", Tina announces that she is sick of being a background player in glee club. The seniors remind her that soon they'll graduate and it will be her time to shine, but Tina says it's not good enough. She storms out of the choir room, and Mike follows her. He tells Tina that Rachel is a star and so they have to let her shine. Tina is incredibly upset by this, and storms off. Later, while at the mall buying fabric for Nationals costumes, Tina trips and falls into a fountain. She hits her head, and has a dream where everyone in New Directions switches bodies. In her dream, Tina is in the body of Rachel.

Fanon
Tinchel is considered to be a rarepair in the Glee fandom. It is often overshadowed by more popular ships for Rachel, such as Finchel and Faberry, and Tina, such as Tike and Quinntina. Rachel has also never been known to treat Tina particularly well, which may detract from the ship. However, for fans they may enjoy this dynamic and want to see Rachel grow as a person in her relationship with Tina. The ship gained popularity with the episode "Props" and the idea that Tina would take over us the "New Rachel" in season four, but when this did not pan out and Tina had a rather abrupt personality change the ship lost steam.

Tinchel currently has over 10 works on AO3.

Fandom
FANFICTION



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