< Teen Titans (animation)

Teen Titans (animation)/YMMV


  • Adaptation Displacement: For many younger watchers (or those who just don't read comics).
  • Adaptation Distillation: Adapts and distills many elements from the Wolfman and Perez age of the comics.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: This video for the DC Nation block of Cartoon Network shows scenes of chibi version of the The Titans. Extra rejoicing as it's in the same style of the show and most likely have the same voices.
    • And what's better? It's becoming an actual show.
  • Angst? What Angst?: It's revealed in the tie-in comic that Starfire's parents died after she was sent away as a slave by Blackfire to the Gordanians. This isn't brought up at all in the episode she returned to Tamaran. Granted, the comic came out after the episode aired, but watching it again, it becomes particularly jarring considering that Starfire displays no form of grief. Blackfire's lack of grief is justified.
  • Base Breaker: Terra, chiefly due to the Misaimed Fandom.
  • Complete Monster Trigon, in all senses of the phrase. He's an Omnicidal Maniac, abusive father (to the point that he tries to kill his own daughter), and the incarnation of evil itself. Raven decides to refer to him as her creator instead of her father, on the basis that fathers are kind are just.
  • Copy Cat Sue: There are increasing numbers of Terra/Raven clones in fanfiction.
  • Creepy Awesome: Raven and Slade. Raven gets less creepy as the show goes on, Slade gets more creepy as the show goes on.
  • Crossover Ship:
    • It's not uncommon to find Teen Titans crossover pairings, especially ones with Raven. Some the most popular Teen Titans crossovers are Terra×Ben10, Raven×Danny Phantom, Raven×Zuko, Raven×Ben10, Hercules Megara×Speedy.
      • The Ben 10 and Raven ones are especially strange when you consider that the original, young Ben was also voiced by Tara Strong, the voice of Raven.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome:
    • Mumbo's "Master of Your Fate". It's also an Ear Worm.
    • Terra's theme.
    • Pretty much everything from the "Aftershock" and "The End" multiparters.
    • Here's one that doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny: When there's trouble you know what to dooooo... CALL CYBORG! He can shoot a rocket from his shooooe... CAUSE HE'S CYBORG! Nananana, something like that! Doodadoodah, BIG FLUFFY CAT! (That's right!)
    • The climax of the episode Haunted is perfectly spine chilling.
    • Blink and you'll miss it, but when the Titans make a comeback during the big fight in the Grand Finale Titans Together, a badass remix of the main theme song plays, slower-paced and instrumental-only.
  • Die for Our Ship: Terra is not hated for her betrayal as much as she is hated for getting in between Beast Boy and Raven. Even though, you know, there was nothing there, except for a bucket full of Relationship Writing Fumble.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The episode "The Beast Within" seems to resemble a PSA about steroid abuse, especially in the scenes with Beast Boy going into an animalistic rage in the gym. However it has nothing to do with steroids whatsoever.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Slade.
  • Ear Worm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZlkjyFGjZY
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Blackfire, Larry, Red X, Más Y Menos, anybody from the H.I.V.E, Kid Flash, and Malchior are extremely popular with fans despite their limited appearances.
    • With Red X's considerable fanbase being especially impressive, considering we never learn anything of his background, nor even his identity or real face, he's a character original to the animated series, and he only appears in two episodes, in only one of which is he a headlining villain.
    • Jinx is incredibly popular. Actually, many of the H.I.V.E. are quite popular despite the limited appearances.
  • Evil Is Cool: Slade. He's a detestable person, but so awesome at being bad that it gets him a big fanbase.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Blackfire.
    • Some found Terra to be sexy when she turned evil. Heck, even Slade has a reasonably large fangirl following, too!
  • Fan Dumb: A number of viewers insisted (and still insist) that Slade is in fact Batman and everything he did was merely to train Robin into becoming his own man. Even ignoring how largely out-of-character it would be for Batman to try to murder the Titans, beat Robin to the point of abuse, and make a Deal with the Devil, Slade was actually based on Slade Wilson, a.k.a. Deathstroke the Terminator, a villain from the original comics.
    • Out of character for most Batmen, yes. Not so much for The GODDAMN Batman. In any case, there was some teasing that it might have been Batman in the earlier episodes, despite how little sense that would make.
    • Many fans of the show have never even heard of the Teen Titans before, and had no clue that the cartoon was based on a comic book with nearly forty years of continuity behind it. This lead to many fans to make remarkably ignorant statements regarding the writers of the comic book "stealing" ideas from the cartoon...
  • Fanon Discontinuity:
    • Many fans choose to ignore Season 5, either entirely or up until the Ambiguous Downer Ending. It's also possible that this was the intention of the writers in the first place and Season 5 is a Post Script Season. Season 4 is based on the most famous (and re-attempted) arcs from the comics, it is the last season to focus on the Titans (Season 5 mostly dealt with minor members and B-class heroes and villains), and the Season 4 finale is actually called The End. This is a heavily debated topic amongst the fans.
    • 'Deep Six' is also an episode that gets this.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple:
    • Hooo, boy. Beast Boy/Raven. It's the most popular couple on Fan Fiction.net and probably in the whole Fandom. Many fans seem to prefer Robin/Raven to Robin/Starfire, but the latter still has the largest following of the two, coming in second position, after Beast Boy/Raven. The third one is Robin/Raven, as previously deducted. Cyborg/Bumblebee are often paired in Beast Boy/Raven-Robin/Starfire fics, and a small portion of the fanbase prefers Cyborg/Jinx to Official Couple Jinx and Kid Flash.
    • Fan Shipping even occurs in-universe in the episode For Real. Apparently one fanboy ships Starfire/Beast Boy, while another ships Bumblebee/Aqualad.
  • Follow the Leader: Try to find an American kids' action cartoon made in the past few years that does not take any cues from this series' success. It's not easy. Teen Titans solidified the trend of Animesque action-comedy kids' shows that run on Rule of Cool.
  • Fridge Brilliance: When Raven is not actively controlling her powers, they almost immediately become destructive. None of the other characters' powers really behave this way, suggesting that her abilities' default purpose is to obliterate everything in the general vicinity. This makes perfect sense... considering that her father is essentially DC Comics' version of the Devil.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment:

Raven: Remember me?
Dr. Light: [appears terrified] I'd like to go to jail now, please.

  • Genius Bonus:
    • In "Haunted", when Raven goes through Robin's memories, the very last one is a circus. Should give you a hint as to which Robin he is.
    • Also when 'Larry' shows up he gives his real name. It's backward but when the marquee wraps around behind him we see it front ways.
  • Growing the Beard: For most, during late into the first season with the episode "Masks".
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Iron Woobie:
    • Cyborg, almost literally.
    • And Red Star.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Slade by Season 4.
  • Memetic Molester: Slade
  • Mentor Ship: Slade/Terra. The guilty pleasure ship of the fandom, owing to several key factors and a big age difference. Considerably rare for something that was canon in the original comics.
  • Misaimed Fandom: Terra. Some see her as an iredeemable psycho while others see her as a blameless martyr. Seriously, is the fact that she's a gray-shaded character that hard to accept?
  • Moe Moe: Starfire, hot alien babe and considering her age, is very cute!
  • Moral Event Horizon: Slade: "If you disobey even the smallest request, I will annihilate them, Robin. And I'll make you watch."
    • His actions in the Season 2 finale pushes him further over the line. He has Terra, Cinderblock, Plasmus, Overload, and an army of robots completely dominate the city so that he can rule it as his first criminal empire base, one which he states is only the first of many to come. When Terra fails to eliminate the Titans, he physically abuses her repeatedly and then turns on a function in her super suit that forces her body and power to obey his commands - namely, to kill his enemies.
      • What he does to Terra and Raven throughout seasons 2 and 4 respectively is bad enough, but he didn't have to sound like he enjoyed it so much.
    • The Titans believe Terra crossed it when she pulled a Redemption Rejection in her fight with Robin. However, she proves to be not so far gone after all...
    • Blackfire crosses it in her second appearance when she tries to straight up murder her own sister and her father figure without any conflicting feelings about it whatsoever.
    • Malchior convinces Raven to break his curse using classic sexual predator technique; preying on her despair and loneliness.
    • Brother Blood crossed it when he literally tore Cyborg apart limb from limb and then tried to hack inside of him to find the secret to his power over his Mind Control. Beforehand he'd already touched upon the line by preparing to give Titans East cybernetic surgery to turn them into cyborgs, suggesting that some might not even survive the procedure.
    • Trigon lives far on the other side of this, but he demonstrated this clearly by sacrificing his own daughter as a means for him to enter the world and bring ruination upon it.
    • The Brain's plan to freeze an entire generation of young superheroes alive certainly counts as this.
  • Nausea Fuel:
    • Starfire eating Silky's cocoon and really liking the taste of it.
    • Kitten and her boyfriend Fang, whose head is a giant spider, making out. Though it does show that out of all things Kitten is, she at least isn't shallow.
  • Opposites Attract: Most of the fan preferred couples invoke this. Especially Beast Boy/Raven.
  • Relationship Writing Fumble: Beast Boy/Raven is noticeable in bits of season three.
  • The Scrappy:
    • Kitten takes a lot of heat from the fans, but alot of it's rather undeserved, as it's not for her unpleasant personality (which is detestable, even in-show) so much as the fact that she forced Robin to date her. Even though the real goal behind that was to regain Fang's attention after he broke up with her.
    • Gizmo.
  • Shipping: Lots and lots of it.
  • Squick: Kitty and Fang's kiss in Date With Destiny.
  • Tear Jerker:
    • Aftershock part two. Especially the ending. "You're the best friend I've ever had."
      • Made even worse when you go back and listen to her theme song.
    • Apprentice, part two is incredibly sad as well. When Starfire has caught up with Robin (who is Slade's apprentice due to blackmail), she threatens him with a starbolt for a while, and eventually we get the following speech:

Starfire: Robin... you are my best friend. I cannot be in a world where we must fight. If you are truly evil then go ahead... do what you must.

      • And then she just floats there, not even trying to defend herself. She's basically saying, "I can't live without you. Go ahead and kill me", only engineered so that it gets past the censors. Robin can't bring himself to do it, until Slade himself starts attacking them with his nanoprobes.
    • Things Change
    • How Long Is Forever?
    • Snowblind
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • Immortus has a very cool character concept -- that they did nothing with.
    • Blackfire only appeared in two episodes and we never find out why she's so antagonistic in the first place!
    • On a more basic level, Starfire has a deep backstory, yet she never got a season devoted to her own growth the way the other four did (with Robin and Beast Boy getting two in that they tied in to Raven and Terra's growth respectively), while the most growth we got from Starfire was her relationship with Robin.
  • Tomato Surprise: The season 1 finale had a fight scene between Robin and the other Titans. Robin is being forced to be a villain by Slade, who has made him steal something from a tech company, and the Titans catch him as he escapes. After he beats them, the camera pulls back to reveal the building was a Wayne Enterprises one, meaning it was owned by his adopted father Bruce Wayne, aka Batman. Not only does Slade make him have to fight his friends, but he had to steal from and assault employees of his own father, using the techniques that same father taught him.
  • Toy Ship: Beast Boy and Terra. OK, so they're not kids, but they're still two of the youngest characters in the show.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Subverted on "Troq".
  • Ugly Cute:
    • Silkie might as well be the mascot.
    • There's also those little egg-headed aliens that worshiped Raven.
    • And Monster!Starfire from the episode Trasnformation.
    • Blackfire and Glgrdsklechhh's babies in The New Teen Titans.
  • Villain Decay:
    • Brother Blood. Even though his power level actually seemed to go up with each appearance, his personality became increasingly hammy, petulant, and single-mindedly obsessed with Cyborg, which noticeably hurt his overall effectiveness as a villain.
    • Also very observable with the HIVE kids. In their first couple of appearances, they're the Evil Counterpart team to the Titans and can fight them evenly (and even beat them without too much trouble if they play their cards right), but as time goes on they become complete jokes to the point that Jinx, who remained the most competent, finally jumped ship and became a hero.
  • What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: To an extent. On the whole, the series is pretty kid-friendly, but there are certain episodes that are very dark. "Haunted" stands out in particular, as well as the entire season 4 arc.
  • What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: Any episode with Mad Mod and Employee of the Month, where the Villain of the Week was a cube of alien tofu that was stealing cows to fuel his starship and wanted to blow up Earth after he had enough cows.
  • The Woobie: Often Starfire. Beast Boy gets little bits of Woobification throughout the series, but season five really sticks it to the guy, especially when he finds Terra.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Terra and Raven. There are plenty of times where you just want to give them a great big hug. Raven is also an incredibly literal case of the trope name, as the reason for her birth is to let Trigon onto Earth and destroy it, something which eventually happens in the fourth season. Things get better, naturally.
  1. ↑ If anyone could explain what the second half is, please do.
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