Teen Titans 2003
One of my favorite childhood shows and I still watch it for fun and nostalgia. But what did I love about it and how does it hold up in regards to the things I’ve been watching lately?
-Jubilee
I loved this show growing up and I’ve seen all the seasons many times. Since my newfound love of anime I’ve revisited the show and asked myself if it still holds up as a quality cartoon series. Long story short–I believe it does. Though I’m able to see the ways in which the show that made a great saturday morning cartoon for a certain age group, could have been a timeless show for all ages if it had taken a few different directions and expanded its world.
Why I liked the characters:
I enjoyed this show growing up because it had five main characters of all differing personalities who were friends/superheroes and lived together in opposition to a city full of villains who were always striving to cause chaos.
The main characters are a brooding leader who’s Batman’s ex sidekick (Robin) and is always trying to shoulder the team's responsiblites.
There’s a warrior alien princess (Starfire) who's a much more likable person than her comic book counterpart.
A gothic half human half demon girl who’s more powerful than all of them but maintains self control and stoicism for the sake of the lives around her (Raven), my favorite character.
Beast boy, the jokester who can change into any animal.
Cyborg–Beast boy’s best friend– the ex football star who got in an accident and had to have his limbs replaced with metal substitutes.
All these characters have episodes that focus on them and their individual journeys, friendships, and goals. Each one is the center focus for a season in which an antagonist that is specifically tailored to them is the threat. Every season has fillers but for the most part there are episodes that build up to the finale and the main villain is continually referenced. I appreciated how even though none of the main characters are related or explicitly romantic cough* save Robin and Starfire, they're friends in a close and at times familial way. There’s an episode where the Titans meet a character in outer space and they all think he’s the coolest thing ever till Starfire tells them he’s been calling her a name racist to her kind. The Titans immediately back her and stop thinking favorably of the new character. They have a family-like loyalty to each other as a team and they’re all given episodes to show it. I could write more on my favorite character Raven but since that's an article all together, it suffices to say she brings the weight and dramatic focus to the show that at times is very light hearted.
The intensity despite comic releif:
The show does its best to be funny and silly quite often–but it’s usually never overwhelming. When serious things are happening characters are stern faced and the show manages to go to dark places for a children’s show.
There’s a season in which Beast Boy is the focus point and he develops a crush on a girl Terra–who the show's primary villain Slade has his sights on. In comics Slade and Terra have an abusive relationship, but in the show they leave everything vague and simply show Slade wants to manipulate and use her against the Teen Titans. Terra is still an abuse victim in the show who is afraid of being judged or hated so she flees from healthy personal connections and goes to the villain who treats her poorly but promises great things for her. Terra betrays the Teen Titans and Beast boy (who had attempted to date her), to help the villain. When she finally realizes her wrongdoing and that Slade truly only wishes her harm, she dies to save the Teen Titans. The story arc is frustrating and rough, but it touches on a lot of personal struggles of trying to save someone who doesn't want help. As well as how an individual cannot be the one to save someone as far gone as Terra, no matter how good their intentions.
Raven is the daughter of a human woman and a villain from comics who’s basically a devil figure. She’s his portal through which hh (Trigon) plans to enter and destroy the world. This is a plot being built up over the course of seasons. Raven’s powers are frequently shown to be dangerous, uncontrolled, and her emotions to be like a remote control over her dark powers that can work for her or against her. We’re frequently shown how hard Raven must try to keep herself in check while the rest of the team could be flying off the handles, because though she’s the most taciturn character she’s also the most dangerous. This culminates in a season finale when Trigon does invade the human world and turn it into a hellish place which the Titans must overcome.
I can’t even begin to go over how evil the primary villain Slade is and how the character adds intensity to any episode that might otherwise be light hearted. What I appreciate about the way this villain is presented is that there are no jokes or quips when he’s invovled. I’m tired of the recent Marvel trope where quips are required every two seconds. In this show if the plot has Slade, typically Robin is flying off the handle with worry and plotting like mad to stop him. The only one telling jokes will be Beast Boy and even he is pushed over the edge when Slade manipulates Terra to his side. Slade goes from being a terrible person who wants to destroy the Titans (particularly Robin), to manipulating Terra in order to seize power in the city, then dying and returning as a servant of Trigon.
The show takes themes of evil, darkness, redemption and friendship seriously and I appreciate that in the storylines. It was a perfect balance for me in childhood and as a teen/young adult because it was dark enough for me to take it seriously, but funny enough for me to watch it as a fun cartoon.
The things about the show which haven’t aged as well:
After discovering anime, I’ve seen that cartoon shows don’t have to be written like a saturday morning cartoon. This isn't to say all anime is appropriate for the same age group as Teen Titans, but the aspects in anime that I think Titans could have learned from is not the adult themes or raunchy comedy. The things I’m referring to are world expansion, development, character growth etc.
Because it's a saturday morning cartoon the fights have to be finished for convenient reasons and in two minutes. Unlike anime in which the moves, training, and rules of a fight actually affect the outcome–in most American superhero cartoons fights end when they need to because the heroes have to win.
Characters don’t really progress into new scenarios. They encounter new challenges and events will happen with growth per season, but stakes don’t really change. The five characters are a team of friends when it starts and they stay the exact same way by the last season, no relationships have developed and the setting hasn’t changed. The characters don’t get older and we never address or even talk about what life will be like when they’re no longer teenagers. You get the impression from the show that they’ll be a team forever and always be the same age.
The show develops individual personalities but not the story as a whole. The show has the whole world of DC to work with but aside from Titans East, they don’t really branch out and focus on different arcs.
Now all of these things aren't necessarily a point against the show as a saturday morning cartoon, but it does mean I don’t watch it as religiously as I do more detailed shows like the anime I watch now. Because as a writer, I look for more in entertainment than good characters, and a decent plot. I’m looking for long plot threads, twists, redemption arcs, shocking reveals, all kinds of things that while I still love Teen Titans for what it is, it didn't really have those things. Every season was roughly 13 episodes and in each season there were at least 3 or 4 filler episodes, and in a show that has so little time it could have been better if every episode contributed to the “big bad” to coin a phrase from Buffy the Vampire slayer–instead of filling up the the little time they had with plots that lowered tension and detracted from the main thing. Episodes like that kind of show me how seriously I can take the development of the show, and that it is in fact largely for a younger age group. I still watch the episodes I loved that connect to the bigger plot, and I do love the characters. But I don’t have to think as much watching Teen Titans as I do a show like My Hero Academia. And yet, the latter show is a teen superhero cartoon. But the characters are far more intricate with backstory, twists, and ongoing development we watch in borderline real time and seeing it play out is like a lesson in how to create diverse intriguing characters. I did learn a great deal from Teen Titans in terms of characters interactions, how to create antagonists and how to have high stakes while keeping within a rating that works for younger viewers. But the shows I’ve been watching lately are just so much more expansive that I look at the format for other shows in which everything is solved in a 2 part finale, or a 20 minute time span and can’t help but think it’s a little simplistic. It’s great for what it does, and I still think there’s plenty of quality there which I’ll always have a soft spot for. But the show lacks the complexity which I search for in my forms of entertainment now.