Titan Legends

"Starting the jokes early, my dear creator?"
—Noel, snarking at Legend Maker during a No Fourth Wall moment.

Some fanfics are good. Some fanfics are bad. And some fanfics are written so well they are fanfic in name (and copyright law) only. Titan Legends falls into that category. The plot... is basically taking every stupid, Sueish "omg my character joins the titans!" fanfic and doing it right. The characters can drift into Sueishness, but are easily redeemed by good writing and some truly fascinating plot twists. Your Mileage May Vary, but for most this is a truly enjoyable series. And slightly addictive...

It can be found here.

The series also includes most of the tropes found in Teen Titans, so this page will mostly consist of ones unique to the original characters or original story lines.

There's also a WMG page and a CMOA page.

Tropes used in Titan Legends include:

This series provides general examples of:

  • Age-Appropriate Angst: Done with most characters at least once.
  • Anachronic Order : Due to three or more different authors, the troubles that all of them have with updating, and some stories being written before the story they're supposed to be sequels to, the timeline goes all over the place.
  • Arch Enemy: More than a few.
  • Backstory: There's a detailed one for pretty much every character, OC and CC, in the stories, but many have yet to be revealed.
  • Big Bad: There's always one for each of the stories.
  • Boring Invincible Villain: Arguable with the Lord of the Night.
  • Character Development: Occurs with some characters, but not all.
  • Crossover: Danny's Inferno, a crossover with Danny Phantom.
    • Also the Boogeymen series, which is a crossover with just about every significant (and many obscure and forgotten) horror movie and game that exists.
    • And Sins of Youth, a crossover with The Incredibles, though sadly it seems to be Dead Fic.
  • Darker and Edgier: As with the Sueishness, this fanfic actually does it well.
  • Depending on the Writer: This usually happens between Legend Maker and Bobcat over Savior and Gauntlet.
  • Deus Ex Machina: Several, including the literal Personal Deus Ex Machinas, created by a lazy god-being known as Pangloss.
  • Did Not Do the Research: While the authors usually do their best to avoid plot holes, a few have shown up, the most egregious being that due to misreading part of the official website during the first season, the Titan Legends Jump City is set in Florida instead of California. Which means Titans East makes no sense. The characters are usually aware of this...
  • Dramatic Ellipsis: Used mostly by Noel, but also whenever there happens to be a dramatic moment.
  • Homage/Parody/Plagiarism: Legend Maker sometimes likes to borrow snippets or segments of other material. The difference is if asked, he will admit that fact up front: as he puts it, he is "passing the words on" to a potentially new audience, and never takes credit for said words, including sometimes in the story itself (see Crisis Point below). Hence, his borrowing doesn't exactly fit precisely into any of the three categories: it's more of a mix of the three. But as the saying goes "The good borrow from the best, the great steal outright."
    • Plus considering it's a fanfiction world, he's technically stealing 80 percent of his material anyway.
  • Jerkass Stu: Noel sometimes, though it's often quickly roped back in or subverted. In a particular subversion, he is not thanked for it. Other characters inform him bluntly that he's being an asshole when he does this.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Oh, Noel.
  • Lotus Eater Machine: Due to a patchwork completion of various stories up and down the fanon's timeline (see Anachronic Order above), mixed with delays of various sorts, it has been suggested that many of the stories might just be happening in Noel's head.
  • Nakama: Very few of the Titans have actual family, and are glad to have their teammates. Of course, since they're teenagers/young adults this doesn't keep some of them from fighting like cats and dogs, but the feeling's there.
  • No Fourth Wall: Not for Robert, anyway.
  • Noodle Incident: A few references to adventures not shown on screen. This troper's personal favorite is the imagery brought up by this line.

Robin: Look, those two caught in the mall were just very dedicated cosplayers, okay?

  • Powers That Be: Several mythical pantheons, the authors, and God. We're still not sure who controls what, or the various levels of power between them. They don't seem to acknowledge each others' existance, though the authors seem more like reality-warpers than actual gods.
  • Rouge Angles of Satin: In particular, then/than confusion.
  • Running Gag: Noel and getting thrown through windows. Robert's terrible luck getting a girlfriend. Mortimer the sludge monster showing up and fighting the Titans every time they get a new member (implied, since it's only been shown to happen twice).
    • Three as of Flashing Lights and Sounds, though Nigel's battle with Mortimer was never shown. Also, the entire team preventing themselves from cursing in front of Starfire and her failure at doing it correctly when she does.

Starfire: Oh, trucking skit...

  • Shout-Out: Quite a lot, including some you'd never expect, like Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol run.
    • This troper's favorite, for sheer strangeness, was when a story actually referenced the infamous exploitation film I Spit On Your Grave.
  • Theme Naming: Savior, Gauntlet, and Metatron all have the same middle name: Alexander.
    • It also seems that ALL villains and heroes that introduce themselves MUST have a codename... this includes any possible pairs or groups of heroes/villains when they team up, EVERY time they team up.
  • There Are No Therapists: Subverted, in that there are obviously plenty of therapists, the main characters just have too many secrets or other issues to visit them.
    • Now completely subverted with the appearances by Dr. Sidlakus as a psychiatrist/counselor for a few Titans when they seek him out.

Specific storywise examples include:

Black And White

  • Le Beau Geste: Done twice by Noel, first by spending hours on a Valentine's Day card for Raven (which gets shot down), then by impaling himself with a sword in an effort to peform a spell to save Raven from Trigon.
  • Big Bad: The Lord of the Night
  • Catch a Falling Star: Subverted when Noel is thrown through Not So Soft Glass (and is promptly shredded), and despite Starfire and Raven's attempts to catch him, lands on the T-Car... several stories down.
    • This is the only instance where the Soft Glass trope is subverted. The rest of the fanfics play it straight. Considering it ultimately became a running gag that Noel gets constantly THROWN THROUGH WINDOWS, it's probably best.
  • Day in the Life: There's one chapter dedicated to this near the beginning.
  • Death Is Dramatic: The Lord of the Night's death.
    • Some have argued that he's Not Quite Dead since there was no body left behind, and that He's Just Hiding, especially with his appearances in noncanon stories dated after his death and he's done this stunt before.
  • Erotic Dream: Noel has one... which promptly turns into a nightmare when Demon Raven tries to kill him.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Noel's Operation Market Garden.
  • Harmless Villain: The Welder.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: In the Trigon arc, it turns out the only way to use a weapon from Etrigan to kill Trigon is to stab it through your heart.
    • Noel steps up to the plate when he realizes it's the only way to save Raven.
  • In the Blood: Raven's powers from her father come into play in theTrigon arc.
  • Journey to the Center of the Mind: Raven and Noel do this via Raven's mirror. There's some issues in both of their minds though.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: The Lord of the Night, who is never indicated to be Asian or has any affinity for Asian arts, culture, or philosophy, fights with a katana.
  • Last-Second Word Swap: While several male Titans are hanging out, they decide to talk about sex. In order to avoid offending any females that pass by, they switch their words at the exact second they come into hearing range. After a while they realize it's too risky and switch topics.
  • Love At First Sight: Noel gets dumbstruck when he sees Raven... and to keep it from being Sueish, Raven just keeps shooting him down throughout the entire story.
    • Also lampshaded by Noel when he mentally berates himself for it.
  • Psycho for Hire: Killjoy.
  • Psycho Supporter: Sizzle.
  • Subordinate Excuse: Murdercrow.
    • Though when she finally confesses, The Lord of the Night rejects her and kills her.
  • You Are Too Late: The Titans rush to the top of the T-Tower to stop The Lord of the Night from finishing his evil plot, they banter back and forth, the Titans finally declare they'll stop him... and he reveals he had finished 12 minutes prior to their appearance.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Lord killing Murdercrow and Shadowmaster.

Wings Of The Eagles

  • Alternate Universe: The many seen during Time and Time Again.
    • Heck, due to the nature of the Legendsverse, some fans choose to view it as a really obscure Alternate Universe of DC Comics as opposed to a fanfic, even if the company (likely) has no idea is exists.
    • They've even noted the numbers for the Legendsverse and it's AU spinoffs.
  • Anachronic Order: This fanfic is the one with the most confusing timeline; it connects between 2 arcs posted separately and The Epic Of Gauntlet.
  • A Nazi by Any Other Name: The Anglo Saxon Patrol in the White and Black arc.
  • Bedlam House: Somewhat averted with Edge City Asylum. There are some genuinely good doctors and orderlies there, concerned with helping the patients. There's also the unfortunately arrogant Doctor Phale and two rather sadistic orderlies. The latter get thrown out after trying to kill Noel.
  • Big Bad: Though s/he hasn't been revealed yet.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The ending of the Eye of the Beholder arc.
  • Blondes Are Evil: Subverted with Terra, who in this storyline doesn't betray the Titans.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Noel lives to do this to Maxwell, and he has good reason to. Unfortunately, when he finally does do it goes... badly.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Evil John.
  • Children Are Innocent: Subverted by the Zap Pack.
  • Dedication: The Eye of the Beholder arc was dedicated to one of Legend Maker's undisclosed friends.
  • Driven to Suicide: Attempted, but failed by Eyesore after she realizes what she's done.
    • Though the end result is hardly any better.
  • Evil Twin: Christmas is an Evil Savior in one of the Alternate Universe worlds explored in the Time And Time Again arc.
  • Executive Suite Fight: Noel's showdown against Maxwell, then the Titans.
  • Hero for a Day: Andrew Benjamin in the H.E.R.O. arc gets to do this.
  • Heroic BSOD: After Slade's plot in an arc, Noel suffers a complete mental breakdown and ends up in a lunatic asylum.
  • Insane Equals Violent: Eyesore, at least when Marissa isn't in control.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Noel started out as a relatively decent person: this story is where he started becoming one of these.
    • Specifically after The Epic of Gauntlet, see below.
  • Kid Appeal Character: The Zap Pack.
  • Man of Wealth and Taste: Maxwell Collins.
  • Master of Illusion: Eyesore has a helmet that not only causes hallucinations, but convinces your brain and body to react accordingly.
  • Mind Rape: As literally as possible, except without sex. anyway, Noel does this to His Father, and Beast Boy then Raven does it to Slade
  • More Than Mind Control: During the Sins of the Fathers arc trickery and manipulation is used to drive Noel insane and have him turn on the Titans.
  • No Medication for Me: Noel in the Model Citizen Interlude for Wings of the Eagles.
  • Sins of Our Fathers: The similarly named arc in Wings of the Eagles centers around Slade's plot to force Savior to kill his his father (thus destroying his own life as a hero) as Revenge for Savior's role in the time muckery of the Time and Time Again arc, which resulted in the death of his son, Grant Wilson.
  • Teens Are Monsters: Noel comes across this in the first chapter when he finds 3 very inebriated teenagers trying to light a hobo on fire out of boredom.
  • Xanatos Roulette: Mad Mod's INCREDIBLY complicated plan in the Youth of the Nation arc. It's lampshaded within the plot saying that smart villains hate needless complications and that a brain tumor is destroying his rationality and caused him to think up a plan that's so incredibly convoluted.

The Epic Of Gauntlet

  • Arch Enemy: Peregrine and Gauntlet have this in about as classic a sense as you can get.
  • Big Bad: Slade
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Gauntlet at times, though he did get Bored with Insanity when he was put in isolation for observation by the Titans and instead began reciting the Illiad.
  • Crazy Enough to Work: When the Titans need fire to combat Mortimer the sludge creature in The Epic of Gauntlet, Robert solves the problem by having the Titans create a fire tornado... with fire extinguisher fluid.

Savior: I can't believe that worked. How in the hell did THAT work!?
Gauntlet: Simple, old bean. The carbon dioxide from the extinguisher, when mixed with the high octane fuel that most men who are 'small' put in their over-compensatory vehicles, done burns good.
Savior: No! It doesn't! It's a basic fact of chemistry! Carbon Dioxide is the end result of burning! It doesn't burn! That's why it's in fire extinguishers.

  • Dumb Muscle: Brick. (It's his name for a reason.)
  • Go-Karting with Bowser: Gauntlet and pretty much all of his villains (save Kurai).
  • Honor Before Reason: This is basically Kurai's driving force in life. Anything, apparently up to and including Robert's very existance, can offend his honor.
  • Jerkass: Noel started acting this way in this story.
  • Love At First Punch: Gauntlet develops a crush on Starfire and asks her out... after she beats the crap out of him for sneaking into the T-Tower unannounced.
  • Weirdness Magnet: The entire city of Uberton is one big one for inexplicable reasons, and living there has turned a good portion of the residents into metahumans.

Flashing Lights And Sounds

  • Alien Blood: Blacktrinians' blood is essentially liquid napalm.
  • Ax Crazy: The White Hole
  • Big Bad: The Sorceress
  • Bishonen: We never really learn the name of one extremely pretty male disciple, so Noel simply dubs him 'Bish' for bishounen. He's also blonde.
  • Law of Inverse Fertility: Warning: MAJOR spoilers below. (Also quite sad.)
    • First, Robin finds out Starfire is pregnant, and neither intended for it to happen, Robin tries to go back in time to prevent the whole thing with the Chronoton Destabilizer.
    • Then, once he accepts the prospect of fatherhood, despite whatever damage it may do to their reputation, Starfire gets badly injured by White Hole and the baby is killed.
    • Finally, after Robin's been blaming Nigel and trying to hunt him down, Noel finds out that the DNA was incompatible and Starfire would have eventually miscarried anyway.
  • Malaproper: Nigel.
  • Martyr Without a Cause: Nigel. Dear GOD, Nigel. Fortunately, he's getting better.
  • Ten-Minute Retirement: Tim.

Boogeymen

Billy Recording: These tests will show just how much you are willing to sacrifice to make it out of here alive. So Titans. Would you sacrifice your blood? A limb? How about a teammate? You'll have to answer for your choices, Titans. Be prepared.

    • It's immediately presented that the Titans had tests to pass... they never thought that the "choices" they'd have to make about teammates could be unrelated.
    • Also, Noel's jacket in Boogeymen IV.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Used quite a few times in these stories. (Spoilers ahead.)
    • The Orb of Archetypal.
    • Gizmo's Intrinsic Field Remover in Boogeymen II.
    • The crowbar Flay severed in Boogeymen II.
    • The empty elevator in Boogeymen IV.
    • Cyborg's stolen favorite taser.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: In Boogeymen IV, it's Marissa Mori, who had been written off as dead even though we never actually saw her die.
  • Closing Credits: Usually the only fanfics to include them.
  • Crossover: Each Boogeymen story crosses over with at least 1 other movie or video game.
    • Boogeymen: Nightmare on Elm Street series, Friday the 13th series, Halloween, Leprechaun, Candyman, Child's Play, Scream, Jack Frost, and I Know What You Did Last Summer.
    • Boogeymen II: Jeepers Creepers, The Ring, Ringu, Sleepaway Camp, Silent Hill, Species, The Burning, Silent Night Deadly Night, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Phantasm, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with Halloween and Friday the 13th making a return.
    • Boogeymen III: Just about everything, led by Freddy Krueger.
    • Boogeymen IV: The Saw series.
  • Deus Ex Machina: The usual method of causing the mayhem is the Orb of Archetypal.
  • Dropped a Bridget On Him: Nightwalker being revealed as a girl in Boogeymen II.
  • Dramatic Gun Cock: In BMIV, Noel does this after deciding to go through with the test and reloading the gun.

Tape: It's time for you to make a choice Noel.
(click-clack)
Tape: Live or die by it.

  • Foreign Language Title: Dolorum Ipsum Quia roughly means "sorrow for it's own sake" in Latin.
  • Foreshadowing: The opening scene of Boogeymen IV: Dolorum Ipsum Quia.
    • Also, the first letters of the chapters in Boogeymen IV spell out "Day of the Dead".
    • Again in Boogeymen IV, Robin notes that "it's always different on the other end" just like he does in every Boogeymen story. Since we've already had a story with the Titans going through this, there had to be something different... which turned out to be that it wasn't at all like the past occurrences, and instead was The Lord of the Night orchestrating it to seem like it was.
    • In Boogeymen IV, Robin keeps bringing up the Japanese association of death with the number 4.
    • Also in Booegymen IV, Beast Boy notes that Kramer isn't against lying in his traps, and even that he does it as a part of a grand scheme, not for petty purposes or just to make things difficult.
  • Four Is Death: Outright mentioned in Boogeymen IV, and things keep happening in fours throughout the story. Perhaps unsurprisingly, everyone ends up dead. They get better.
  • Heroic BSOD: Subverted and lampshaded by Gauntlet in Boogeymen IV.
  • Heroic Willpower: Robin manages to do utilize this when he realizes the "atmosphere" that comes with the events every Halloween is manipulating him into trying to kill Noel.
  • High-Pressure Blood: Played straight and lampshaded due to the atmosphere, especially in Boogeymen IV: Dolorum Ipsum Quia.
  • Human Shield: Starfire inverts this by using her own body to block Noel's gun so Robin can get away.
  • The Infiltration: Noel goes undercover into the HIVE in Boogeymen II: Teenage Wasteland... and gets sucked into the madness by accident.
  • Kill'Em All: Subverted at the last second in Boogeymen II: Teenage Wasteland when the "heroes" (AKA the villains) manage to reverse the whole thing just before the Samara/Sadako merged monster kills them all.
    • Subverted in Boogeymen IV: Dolorum Ipsum Quia when it turns out Raven's alive and she manages to get the Spectre to reverse all the death.
  • The Law of Conservation of Detail: Used quite thoroughly in Boogeymen IV, which led quite a few to think they were Asspulls, at least until some of those readers had Fridge Brilliance moments. (spoilers)
    • In all of the previous stories, whenever the atmosphere is mentioned, it is simply acknowledged as such, not the "darkness".
      • A related one is Zia seeing her "final motivation" for surviving her trap in the darkness of the tar.
    • John's self-awareness is similar to Krueger's in Boogeymen III, since they both know they had been brought to life... but Krueger specifically took the Orb of Archetypal to prevent a reversal, while Kramer did no such thing. If he was aware of what was going on, he'd be aware that the deaths would be reversed, so the traps would be pointless... unless it wasn't the atmosphere.
    • All of the Boogeymen stories' chapters spell out a phrase with the first letters, and each of them had 13 chapters, the last being posted on Halloween (Oct. 31). However, Boogeymen IV was explictly said to have only 12 chapters... which spelled out "Day of the Dead" (Nov. 1).
      • It turns out that there was a surprise ending and chapter 12's ending was a ruse all along.
    • If the Titan's powers were blocked by the Orb of Archtypal (like they assumed), then Noel shouldn't have had any painful effects when trying to access the Shimmer simply because it had blocked his powers. His nerve system should be normal, so its response should be just like anyone else's: without pain. The fact that it wasn't pointed to the reality that the Orb of Archetypal was not in play.
    • Gauntlet kept bringing up the fact that it was All Saints Day (AKA The Day of the Dead), and not Halloween, even though all of the previous stories occurred on the night before Halloween (so midnight was Halloween and the night was Mischief Night).
    • The fact that Noel's trap didn't have a tape, which would always be left in plain view... implying that the tape was somewhere else so it could easily be found... like Noel's jacket, which he decided to search out of anyone's sight at the very beginning of the story.
      • Also, when Noel gives the jacket to Starfire, he says, "It still has armor. Hopefully enough, if someone decides to shoot through the door or...something." Why would he assume someone would shoot through the door when there's been only bladed weapons so far... unless he's seen (or even has) one?
    • This particular subtle example from chapter 4:

"Noel was no Macgyver, but he and the Titans had received some (and in a few of their cases more then some) training about using their surroundings to their advantage. Surely Jigsaw knew that. ... Well, maybe he hadn't. ... ...because if Jigsaw had considered what he was doing...then just what was Savior doing? Was EVERYTHING he had picked to do worked out beforehand? Before Savior could work himself into a full-on state of nervous paralysis though, he came to the fourth door, and carefully began to open it."

  • Loads and Loads of Characters: Specifically Boogeymen III, which features or will feature just about every horror movie character there was, including one scene where the protagonists are attacked by no less then 100 "slashers" from nearly as many movies. You know the drill.
  • Love Makes You Evil: Savior's motive for betrayal in Boogeymen IV: Dolorum Ipsum Quia.
  • Normally I Would Be Dead Now: Used several times in Boogeymen IV: Dolorum Ipsum Quia... though the Titans would have probably been better off had it not been.
  • Oh, No, Not Again: Done by Noel in Boogeymen II: Teenage Wasteland when horror movies are brought to life, and he's stuck in the mayhem again.
    • Also by Nightwalker in Boogeymen III: House of 1000 Cliches .
  • Please Wake Up: Noel does this to Raven in Boogeymen IV: Dolorum Ipsum Quia.
  • Psycho Supporter: In BMIV, Marissa makes her first appearance as The Lord's latest follower. She still has some madness the readers expected, but Zia made no appearance at the end of the story.
  • Red Herring: Used in some of the stories. (spoilers)
    • Nightwalker as a suspect for Noel's identity while he snuck into the HIVE in Boogeymen II.
    • The flashlights in Boogeymen IV; anyone looking for a Chekhov's Gun would be fooled into thinking they'll have some use and forget about other ones.
  • Reset Button Ending: Destroying a core aspect of the evil force that forms the horror movie villains reverses everything they've done, including death.
    • Which is in turn cruelly subverted in Boogeymen IV when there is no reset button, hence forcing Raven to look...elsewhere...
  • Revolvers Are Just Better: Subverted and lampshaded in Boogeymen IV: Dolorum Ipsum Quia when Gauntlet finds a gun and thinks it's a revolver... then realizes it's a semi-automatic handgun instead.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Noel slips into this in Boogeymen IV: Dolorum Ipsum Quia once he finds that yes, it was all a lie.
    • Also, it's subverted when he collapses from all the damage his body's suffered before he get gets near John.
  • Word Salad Title: Boogeymen II is named for one of the horror movie titles of a character brought to life in it.

Boogeymen Gaiden

  • Came Back Wrong: This BM differs in that it's the Titans fighting off the Black Lanterns, which are Type 3.
  • Doppelganger: Gauntlet is off fighting Lanterns out for revenge on his father separately from the Titans with the help of a new masked friend/foe, Cipactli. It isn't until the end of the story that he manages to get her real name: Zia Mori
    • To be clear, at the very same time those two are fighting, Marissa Mori is present the entire time with the Lord. This brings up a lot of Epileptic Trees.
  • Emotion Bomb: The Lord's plot hinges on one of these to overload the Lanterns' rings, which could make them vulnerable to attack.
  • Enemy Mine: The Titans have to team up with quite a few enemies of theirs: The Lord of the Night, Marissa Mori, Elijah Versaw (now Intertia, not Cauterize),Empyrean, and Myth.
  • Heroic BSOD: Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Savior all do one of these, with the latter being the worst, when they realize that the ones that came back from the dead include their parents.
    • Although the villain counterpart is the Villainous Breakdown, Elijah and Marissa both have reactions similar to the heroes rather than going insane.
  • Horror Hunger: While it was first touched on in Silent Night, we get a straightforward confirmation that The Lord drains and feeds off darkness in people, including their emotions.
    • You'd think this wasn't all that bad, since the person would feel relieved afterwards, but he not only pushed the Titans to utterly slaughter the Lanterns that took on their loved ones' forms after they've been hit by the Emotion Bomb just to get an extra boost, but he even flaunts doing it to his new and willing subordinate (Marissa) right in front of Raven.
  • I Have You Now, My Pretty: Extremely disturbing when done by the resurrected Mitch Mori. Alhough it's likely a ploy by the ring to get as much of a rise out of Marissa as possible before killing her and turning her into one, let's make go over just how freaking disgusting it is: it's the rotted corpse of a father who raped his daughter after her mother's dead and drove her off the deep end into massacring students at her school before offing herself, and it's chasing her down while discussing how much he's going to enjoy doing it again.
  • More Than Mind Control: Heavily implied to have been involved with why Marissa works for the Lord willingly, even so far as for her to say she knows what he's done already. It's unclear if she really knows everything or if he didn't outright Mind Rape her, particularly when Raven tells Dr. Sidlakus that many pieces of her mental self were missing, particularly those related to Zia.
  • Named Weapons: The Lord named not only the weapon he gave to Nightwalker, previously the Lightscourge, now the Nightscourge, but also named a shapechanging sword Tezcatlipoca.

Christmas Stories

  • An Asskicking Christmas: Adeste Fidelis has elements of such, while Silent Night uses it in both its first and third acts. At least one of the worlds shown in It's A Wonderful Life (which is being told on Christmas) also features heavy action.
  • Bad Santa: In Adeste Fidelis, Santa from Santa's Slay is brought to life (by accident) and tries to kill the Titans.
  • Big Bad: In God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, it was Leopold Magozzi.
    • In Silent Night it's The Lord again.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Más Y Menos' lines, which are all in Spanish.
  • Yet Another Christmas Carol: Subverted when Gauntlet leads an attempt to do this to Savior in Adeste Fidelis, but is stopped immediately when the sheet flies off of Terra (who's playing the ghost of Christmas Past). Considering Noel's childhood, maybe it's better that they were stopped.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Lampshaded by Gauntlet when Met steals the title from him in Silent Night.
  • Covered in Gunge: Speedy continuously tries to get back at Gauntlet for his pranks in Adeste Fidelis, but gets Savior by accident.
  • Dating Catwoman: Cyborg and Jinx, in both stories.
  • Drugs Are Bad: Mas Y Menos say it outright. Though considering they're battling an out of control villain who's fueled by nanomachine-infested cocaine, it's apt.
    • Strangely, according to Bumblebee this is the only English phrase they know.
  • Flashback Cut: Used whenever one of Cyborgs Specially Modified Cannons is brought up.
  • Sexy Santa Dress: Used by several Titan females in Adeste Fidelis (in private of course).
    • Jinx wore one in God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen too.
  • Let There Be Snow: Gauntlet and others use the Weather Wizard's wand to cause snow to fall for Christmas in God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.
    • Done again in Adeste Fidelis.
    • In Silent Night, the Weather Wizard wand zaps a bunch of snow into the Evidence Room when Terra picks it up.
  • Mall Santa: Lampshaded when Starfire, who is determined to find the real Santa in all of the Christmas specials, keeps checking all of the Mall Santas in Jump City to see if one's real.
    • Played straight when Killjoy is dressed as a Santa collecting donations at a street corner.
      • Which in a sense is also a subversion considering Killjoy is a sociopathic hitman.
        • Or maybe not since he only does that when he shoots a thief who had stolen the pot of donations.
  • Mistaken for Cheating: Noel gets roped into taking risque pictures of several Titans for their significant others (since he volunteered to do all the busywork) in Adeste Fidelis. Unfortunately, Raven catches him. Twice.
    • This happens to Noel again in Silent Night after rumors spread concerning an offhand compliment he gives to Batgirl concerning her skills in martial arts. The rumor spreads quickly and leads to a lot of dumping on Noel by angered allies.
  • Take That: There's a brief one in Silent Night against the Twilight series.

Metatron: Oh god, who wrote your lines, Stephanie Meyers?

The Cutting Edge

  • Alone with the Psycho: Detective Chesbro goes to Elijah's house to check his suspicions of him while the Titans find a series of connections tying Elijah to all of the victims and involved parties.
  • Anti-Villain: Though Cauterize clearly means well, his actions and methods show that despite the suffering that's been inflicted on him, he's learned the wrong lessons from it. Perhaps most tragic is the fact though he clearly loathed his abusive stepfather, said abuse has made him into a twisted mirror image of his abusive stepfather.
  • Asshole Victim: Mayor Tercero is a corrupt, greedy bastard... and he's the one who called the Titans for help.
  • Beleaguered Assistant: Roman Fernandez.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Light City is saved, but at what cost? Then it turns out Elijah isn't dead after all.
  • Catch a Falling Star: Cauterize runs up a skyscraper into the air, dragging Mayor Tercero, lets him go, and runs back down to watch.
    • Result: Subverted as the Mayor goes SPLAT.
  • Da Chief: Garry Turnquist becomes this after his former chief was dealt with by Cauterize.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: During the story, Terra and Beast Boy are awkwardly avoiding each other/trying to get together. Terra does a strut through the main room of the hotel they're staying at while Beast Boy is playing a videogame against Scalpel.

Scalpel: You appear to be losing Gar.
Beast Boy: Yeah.
Scalpel: In fact you just lost, I crossed the finish line.
Beast Boy: Good for you.
Scalpel: I just broke your high score you worked on for three months to achieve.
Beast Boy: Great.
Scalpel: You know, I ate someone today.
Beast Boy: Sounds like fun.
Scalpel: (flicks Beast Boy with his metal fingers)
Beast Boy: OW!
Scalpel: Ah, he lives.

  • Everyone Is a Suspect: Several people are presented as possibly being Cauterize.
  • Guilt by Coincidence: Detective Chesbro and Roman Fernendez.
  • The Killer Becomes the Killed: Subverted, since Toby's death was an elaborate ruse to make everyone think Toby had been Cauterize and that Cauterize was now dead.
  • Trick Dialogue: Terra overhears Beast Boy screaming at someone that he hates him/her, and assumes it's her (since she's been awkwardly avoiding him while trying to get back together with him)... then realizes he was yelling at himself in the mirror for not just telling Terra he loves her.
    • What makes this funny is that she actually bursts in and yells at him for kissing Kory (which she did to learn English) after he mentioned it in his discussion with himself.
  • Turn in Your Badge: Turnquist does this to Chesbro (to protect him from Pierce) after Pierce blackmails Turnquist to ensure none of his "business" is uncovered while he's under the Titan's protection.
  • Sympathetic Murderer: Cauterize.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Several; the biggest might be Toby Garigen.

Crisis Point

  • Alternate Universe: Specifically the alternate near future of an alternate universe in and of itself. Confused yet?
  • Awful Truth: At one point during the battle, Wonder Woman manages to get her vaunted Lasso of Truth on The Lord. It ends very, VERY badly.
  • Big Bad: Alexander Luthor and Superboy-Prime. Later, The Lord.
  • Bilingual Bonus: The Lord of the Night's chat with a time lost Roman warrior, which includes several exchanged lines in Latin.
  • Crisis Crossover: A re-imagining of one, to be precisely.
  • Depending on the Writer: While it started out as a straight re-imagining, later chapters and the story's section on the website comment on DC's editorial decisions since the original miniseries was published.
  • Rousing Speech: When Robin asks Noel to pull one of his motivational speeches out of his ass, Noel gives a speech comparing the Titans' situation of defending Metropolis from an oncoming army of supervillain escapees to the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE.
    • A speech which was shamelessly swiped, and even stated so:

Robin: Very nice.
Savior: Don’t thank me, thank Frank Miller. I mostly stole it from him.

  • Evil Versus Evil: The Lord of the Night versus Superboy-Prime and Alexander Luthor.
  • Power Levels: Played straight as minor anti-villain Peregrine has a device later in the story that gives a 'rudimentary combat numerical reading' of various characters AND Lampshaded/Homaged as it leads directly into an 'Over 9000' joke which several of the background characters openly laugh at.
  • Shout-Out: A handful throughout the story, but one really sticks out as awesome.

Lord of the Night: I hear them...I hear them...and so... To you, world of mine. From one magnificent bastard's tongue to another. HERE. COME. THE DRUMS!

Danny's Inferno

  • Back from the Dead: Danny, he returns to the living world TWICE! He even had a small talk with DC's version of the Grim Reaper.
  • Battle Aura: A few.
  • Big Bad: Sizzle/Flammadea
  • Catch a Falling Star: Occurs several times actually.
    • Cyborg gets ejected from a jet, and his parachute malfunctions... but Raven manages to save him just in the nick of time.
    • Danny and Maddie both fall from a burning helicopter (with said burning helicopter close behind) and nearly get turned into pancakes before Starfire swoops in and saves them.
    • Subverted when Noel is falling from several hundred feet and no one saves him.
      • He survives of course... after spinning through a flaming ferris wheel and wrapped in a cocoon made from the Shimmer. He's out of commission for a bit though.
  • Heroic RROD: Danny, who, at the end of his fight against Flammadea, is so worn out that he dies. For a bit
  • Jerkass: Noel decides Danny's Just a Kid and even goes so far as to tell him to back off completely and just let the Titans handle it. (Or more specifically, let Noel handle it.)
  • Large Ham: Filled with these, most of them coming from Sizzle/Flammadea.
  • Nigh Invulnerability: The F.U.M.B.L.E.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: Again Sizzle, and later Danny.
  • Second Law of Metafictional Thermodynamics: After the first giant fight between Danny/The Titans and Sizzle, pretty much all of Amityville packs up its bags and leaves town It is suggested this might be a subconscious effect of the deeper powers Danny is suggested to be linked to in the story.. End result? The second, final fight pretty much leaves the town a smoking crater. It gets better.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Sizzle/Flammadea.

Miscellaneous

  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Zap Pack. The villain built them to act like heroes as closely as possible, while maintaining a master control device to ensure they followed his orders. Guess what happened when push came to shove.
    • Also the F.U.M.B.L.E helicopter AI in Danny's Inferno: after suffering more damage than it can handle, the AI shorts out and starts babbling random nonsense and immensely obscure pop-culture references.
  • A God Am I: The aptly-named Lord of the Night, as well as Sizzle/Flammadea in Danny’s Inferno, and also Danny when he briefly becomes The Primmortal...but also subverted with...
  • Almighty Janitor: Pangloss is, in terms of power, a literal GOD... But he's so lazy that'd he rather live on a couch and watch soap operas as opposed to saving/ruling the world. And he does. Hey, would YOU argue with him?
  • Author Avatar: Done literally during the No Fourth Wall moments. Legend Maker, the creator of the series, is shown as a pink elf. No, really.
    • Bobcat's avatar is a golden, floating typewriter.
  • Bizarre Alien Biology: Used quite a lot with Tamaraneans and Blacktrinians.
    • Often used for laughs when the Titans are just hanging out in the Tower.
  • Blunt Metaphors Trauma: Starfire and Scalpel.
  • Brains and Brawn: Peregrine and Brick, respectively, in The Epic of Gauntlet.
    • Also Myth and Charm, aka Sword and Shield, in Flashing Lights and Sounds.
  • Defector From Decadence: Sophie, Noel, and Metatron are all this to some extent.
  • Evil Twin: Legend Maker, Bobcat, and Jedi-And have all created Evil Twins for their respective original characters (but only Noel's has been revealed: Christmas, in one of Time and Time Again's alternate universes.)
  • Exiled to the Couch: In the fanfic Hand In Hand, Noel and Rob get their hands magically glued together. After Robert is incapacitated by Zorkaberries, Noel and Raven decide to be a little daring... and much to their horror, find that Rob has woken up and is taking notes. Noel and Rob are promptly exiled from Raven's room.
    • Note: Noel is still naked when she does this.
  • Fatal Flaw: One for every character usually. Some notable ones below.
    • Robin: Pride. It becomes a major factor in Flashing Lights and Sounds.
    • Savior: The shimmer's weakness to blades or anything similarly sharp.
    • Scalpel: His race has evolved to be terrified of swimming, and they are especially susceptible to damage from guns.
      • Also the White Hole.
    • The Lord of the Night's vampire-esque weakness to sunlight.
  • Fiery Redhead: Scorcher.
  • First-Name Basis: Subverted by Noel a lot. He constantly reminds his teammates not to use his real name in the field.
    • Of course, even if they did say his name, he looks completely different since gaining his powers, so anything he's trying to hide would be lost with that anyway.
    • Then again, Slade did use that to his advantage when he found out.
  • Freudian Excuse: Used for most villains.
    • Lord of the Night: Indicated he suffered horrific torture (it was so bad, he repressed it so deep that, while he could find out just what happened, he refuses to: he doesn't want to know).
      • The Lord's abuse was so bad that he actually manages to weaponize it as a thought bomb in his fight against Superman in Crisis Point.
    • Sizzle: Did suffer horrific torture, particularly of the sexual variety.
    • Eyesore: See above.
    • Jackal: Was apparently abandoned by his parents and had a terrible life afterward: not many details were provided.
  • Generation Xerox: Subverted. Here Comes Tomorrow and some parts of Time and Time Again and Crisis Point do show the next generation, however some are completely unrelated to the Titans and those who are have their own personalities and issues.
  • Genki Girl: Zippy, somewhat justified due to her lightning powers.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: The Lord of the Night's horribly burned and shredded face is a clear indication that he is not good. On the other hand, Nigel and Noel have easily-concealed scars on their chests from being run through with swords in the name of justice.
  • Grudging Thank You: Whenever Noel has to thank Robert. Or compliment him.
    • Also Noel with Danny at the end of Danny's Inferno.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Raven is a human/demon hybrid. Mary is half-Blacktrinian.
  • Hobbes Was Right: The Lord's personal bible, mixed in with Nietzsche Wannabe and Put Them All Out of My Misery.
  • Love Martyr: Poor Murdercrow.
    • Various other characters have their moments of this, including Noel challenging a demon lord for a chance to date Raven, or Starfire purposefully getting herself shot in Boogeymen IV: Ipsum Dolorum Quia.
    • From what we've seen of her, Empyrean also appears to be one. Love Makes You Crazy, indeed.
  • Mama Bear: Starfire's teammates are her family. You do NOT mess with a Tameranian's family.
    • Also, Scorcher for the Elementals, who not only sees one of her teammates as a surrogate daughter, but is working for the HIVE solely to bring back her dead boyfriend.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Slade pulls this off several times against most of the OC's.
  • Meaningful Titles: The Lord of the Night. Who claims to be a god. Who learns to create life in one of the AU's in Time and Time Again. The blasphemy is hard to ignore.
  • Morality Chain: Played with a bit. Crystal Collins is arguably one as she kept Noel from being corrupted by his father, but it is her death that ultimately causes him to become a hero.
  • Motive Rant: Done rather ruthlessly (and tragically) by Eyesore first to one of her teachers then again in a later chapter to a mob outside the school after she's forced several dozen students and administrators to kill themselves in Wings of the Eagles. The end of her rant is just below.

Eyesore: YOU DID NOTHING! YOU ALL KNEW AND YOU DID NOTHING! You just stood by and watched! None of you wanting to get involved! None of you wanting the trouble that would result when the rotten wound was laid bare! You just stood by and watched! And your pity was bad enough, BUT YOU DIDN'T STOP THERE! Eventually, you stopped feeling sorry and you...you dared...YOU LOOKED AT ME LIKE I WAS SOME KIND OF ABOMINATION! LIKE WHAT WAS BEING INFLICTED ON ME WAS SOMEHOW A CHOICE OF MINE, WORTHY OF SCORN, WORTHY OF DISGUST! IT WAS BAD ENOUGH WHEN YOU LOOKED UPON ME AS A VICTIM, BUT THEN YOU STARTED LOOKING AT ME LIKE I WAS SOME MUTATION YOU WANTED OUT OF YOUR PRETTY LITTLE WORLDS! SUCH AN UGLY THING HAPPENING TO ME, AND YOU LOOK AT ME LIKE I'M THE UGLY ONE!

    • Cauterize aka Elijah Versaw also gives a very lengthy one when he's uncovered at the end of Cutting Edge.
  • Musical Episode: Legend Maker makes a 6 part musical as a Parody Episode of the Buffy episode One More, With Feeling.
  • Nietzsche Wannabe: Played straight with the Lord of the Night, who (like Nietszche) is more pessimistic than nihilistic, and thinks he has the answer to making the world better.
    • The Well-Intentioned Extremist part of him decides it's by killing all of the "useless" people, hence the "wannabe" part.
    • Also a possible Ubermensch, since he realizes no one else thinks his method is the solution.
  • Nigh-Psychotic Genocidal Misanthropist Cat Lover: The Lord, who has a hidden room of kittens in Boogeymen III and a small black cat he defends from the Black Lanterns in Boogeymen Gaiden (said cat also appears in Hearts of Darkness.)
  • Not Himself: Done by Noel several times, most notably in Black and White when he is suspected of strangling women due to his initial rejection by Raven.
    • Also by Robin in the 9:45 a.m. arc in Flashing Lights and Sounds.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: Several. Main OC villain The Lord is the one mostly used: his second appearance, as mentioned above, has him casting an ancient magical spell that turns him into a 'god of shadows' whose very loosely-defined powers let him raze half of Jump City to the ground and, in a fight in the Sahara Desert, briefly summon a black hole that burns a hundred mile crater of glass in the landscape. And then with Crisis Point, he's able to go toe to toe with Physical God villain Superboy-Prime and win, and then, albeit with a Deus Ex Machina or two, kill his way across half of DC's 'lesser-knowns' and battle Superman and several other equally powered characters to a standstill. There's also Danny's Inferno's Sizzle/Flammadea, who uses her own magic spell to absorb the souls of every woman in a hundred mile radius and turn herself into a literal fire goddess: she succeeded in doing the Lord one better and COMPLETELY razing a city, not to mention was stated to potentially have the power to 'blow most of the Eastern Seaboard off the map.'
    • Raven as well, sometimes. The holiday story Twilight's Last Gleaning has her going toe to toe with a ancient god of destruction. End result? After said god seemingly smacks her around with ease, Raven throws open the throttle and kicks it's ass.
  • Plucky Comic Relief: Gauntlet and Beast Boy.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: Nigel is probably the only Blacktrinian who ISN'T one of these. Kurai also fits the personality, though the rest of his family appears more sane.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Noel at times, but not usually.
    • Also Beaker of the future Titans.
    • Sometimes Starfire as well, played for comedy: her 'inexperienced mastery'\x9D of English is sometimes represented by her replacing common words with incredibly obscure synonyms.
  • Smurfing: Used as a censor in Villain Cafe (a noncanon humor story) for a while.
    • Also lampshaded by the Lord of the Night, the owner of the cafe, who then changes the censor to nonsense words.

Sizzle: YOU KILLED US YOU SMURF'N SMURF SMURF!
Lord of the Night: You know that smurf thing has run its course. Changing the censors. (snaps his fingers) Anyway, yes?
Sizzle: You made us all kinds of promises! And then you leave us to rot! Fuchu! You sock-sucking son of a witch!

  • Sound Effect Bleep: In Adeste Fidelis, all curses are censored with BLEEP.
    • Also subverted in Boogeymen III: House of 1000 Cliches.

Handyman: THEN WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GET THAT !$#$#$! HUMAN SKIN?
White Hole: From the body I would be continuing to do unpleasant by most terms things if that guy hadn't fallen over and started shooting at me... wait, why was THAT curse censored? Asshole. Fuck. Shit. Cocksucker. Okay really, why did that happen?

  • Squirrel Girl: The Lord learns there are no exceptions to her rule.
  • Talking to Themself: Done by Eyesore, first in Wings of the Eagles for dramatic effect, then in Villain Cafe for laughs.
  • The Reveal: The ending of the Zap Pack arc of Wings of the Eagles. Also Cauterize’s identity in Cutting Edge.
  • What Is Evil?: Done by the Lord of the Night to the Titans in Black and White, as well as Alexander Luthor in Crisis Point.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Noel's sudden freak out at the beginning of Wings of the Eagles.
    • Actually used to get him momentarily away from the team, since Wings of the Eagles is focused on the other Titans.
    • Noel gets called on his treatment of Sam and Danny in Danny's Inferno.
    • And AGAIN with Noel in Boogeymen IV. Noel's that kind of person.
    • Who called who out?
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy: Played with with Noel, who actually has pure white hair, in that he is annoyingly cunning, but also one of the heroes of the series. Playing straight with his father, Maxwell, who has silver hair.
  • Xanatos Gambit: Lots of them.
    • Slade's plot for revenge against Noel in Wings of the Eagles.
    • Cauterize's schemes in Cutting Edge.
    • Alexander Luthor's plans in Crisis Point, though 1) It borders, if not crosses into Xanatos Roulette, and 2) It was actually conceived of by DC Comics itself. More benefiting the entry might be The Lord utilizing said plans to launch a plan of his own and try and wrest victory away from Luthor and for himself.
    • The Lord's plan in Silent Night, a complicated interlocking series of events and deeds which were essentially done so the Lord could gather intel for FUTURE plans. Considering how effectively he modified it to counter for all the Titans' unexpected guests, it could also count as Xanatos Speed Chess.
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