I, like many of you who clicked on this video, have very fond memories of Teen Titans.
It was right up there with my favourites back when I was a kid, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Spongebob.
However, it was also one of those series that I never saw through to completion.
I just managed to catch snippets here and there, as I never bought the DVDs or recorded these bad boys on VHS.
So I figured, considering that the Teen Titans Go! to the movies movie just made its way into theaters
and that it looks like there's a decent chance that the older style of Teen Titans may actually be returning,
it's about time that I talked about this series and it's also time to watch through the whole thing for the first time.
So the basic question here is quite obvious
Is Teen Titans actually any good
or is this one of those cases where my younger self liked something really bad and I just never went back to doublecheck what I was into?
Because I can't trust my younger self.
When I was a kid, I went to see Thomas and the Magic Railroad five times while it was in theaters, so yeah,
I don't know if I'll ever be able to fully trust myself after something like that.
Unfortunately, we will need to start with the bad stuff.
Because season one starts off - well, let's just say subpar for now.
But that's actually a little bit too nice.
It's pretty terrible at the start.
First off, I had always assumed as a kid that I just missed the first episodes of this series,
that I missed the part where the whole gang was introduced and came together.
But that isn't the case. They're all together in the first episode and it actually begins with a fight scene.
While some may have the context of the comics, I'm willing to bet that most kids went into this show blind,
that they didn't know all that much about Robin and that they really didn't know about Beast Boy, Raven, Starfire, or Cyborg.
I was the same and, beyond the experiences I remember with this show as a kid, I still am the same.
I don't know these characters and they definitely needed some introduction.
That's not to say that we needed an origin story for all of them or anything like that,
but some context before they get thrown into a fight would have been a bit nice,
especially considering that this fight is going to result in an argument amongst team members.
This conflict is particularly difficult to get invested in for the first episode of a TV series because, well, we don't know anything about them.
We don't know how close they are already, never mind information about them individually.
So when Cyborg and Robin get into a huge argument over the fact that they messed up and let a criminal escape,
I was left wondering whether they are prone to fighting all the time, or if they usually get along well, or what exactly their relationship is like?
Frankly, I think it was really silly to start off with this type of conflict.
A decent way to get around needing to introduce us individually to each of these characters through origin stories or something like that
would have been to have the conflict of the first episode solely focus on an outside problem,
so we could see the positive versions of their relationships at their best and how they can successfully fight together, too.
First impressions are important, and clumsy and bratty are the first terms that come to mind when I think of Robin and Cyborg after seeing this episode.
The rest of the team?
Well, after the first episode, it's hard to make any judgement call about them at all because we don't see too much of them.
But the problems here aren't just with the concept.
If it was just that--if the directing, action, and dialogue were all good--there wouldn't be anything so bad about this.
But, in this first episode, these things just aren't good. They're really bad.
Especially the way the action is directed. It's all so . . . awkward.
The pacing is entirely off. I'm pretty certain that if you watch the first fight scene from this show over again, you'll see what I mean.
There's no rhythm or weight to the action. The camera angles are all bland and samey.
The animation is just OK at best.
They use these blurry backgrounds that are often used in anime type stuff to define action and get around needing to draw the whole background,
but they just use them all the time and none of the moments they use them then have any real punch to them.
Nothing stands out, at least not in a positive manner, and Teen Titans definitely doesn't put its best foot forward.
However, it does quickly improve.
Although episode two still has a noticeable number of awkward decisions as far as pacing is concerned, the dialogue and characterization are much better.
The concept is better, too.
Where the first episode was almost entirely focused on an internal conflict within the group, and the villain of that episode, Cinderblock,
just served as the catalyst for that separation and the reason that they got back together,
the second episode introduces a more interesting character to fill Cinderblock's roll--Blackfire, Starfire's sister.
And she doesn't just appear in action scenes. She has a significant number of spoken lines and we get a good sense of her personality.
We see how obnoxious she is to Starfire and we see how the other group members enjoy her presence, which upsets Starfire.
So it is kind of another internal spat within the group that's occurring, but it's also consistently brought back to something external causing issues.
This means that we get to see a bit more of the group operating at what I assume is their normal way of acting
Another aspect of the concept behind this episode that makes it stronger than the first is the fact that it's focusing primarily on Starfire,
with a bit more of an emphasis on her relationship with Robin than on her relationship with the other group members; although that's sprinkled in there, too.
Robin and Cyborg actually have more subtle personalities and less in-your-face quirks and mannerisms than the other three members,
And Starfire has likely the most extreme and obvious personality of any of the titans.
Plus, it's easy to get attached to her, because her stilted manner of speaking is both humourous and endearing.
Since we didn't get any real time to establish the characters' personalities and relationships,
it's better to spend an episode entirely focused on an extreme character like this towards the start,
than on a less extreme character like Robin or Cyborg.
That way we're immediately invested in her issues because she's easy to understand
and we can slowly come to understand the other characters that surround her.
But what's probably more important is that other things improve, too.
The animation, cinematography, music.
And all of these things keep improving across episodes
and none of these aspects of the show are ever as weak as they were in episode one.
Episode one really is an anomaly, in terms of quality, when it comes to this series, which is a real shame.
Now, episode three is quite similar to the first two, in that it focuses on the titans battling with another group,
not doing so well at first, but then improving and banning together and doing a good job.
While it's not a bad episode by any means, there isn't all that much to say about it
It focuses on pretty similar ideas as the first two episodes, but just tackles them in a more interesting way,
and with a more professional look, than the first episode did.
The only real problem is this little guy, Gizmo.
He's just incredibly annoying, even when I try to take a step back and view this as though I was younger.
And he's the only one of the three villains in this episode that have a personality I can really remember at all,
even after just viewing it, so, yeah, some bad villains in this one.
That's definitely one thing I think the first season could have done to improve quickly:
just cut out some of these extras and focus more on the Robin-Slade dynamic,
which is going to be what many of the later episodes of this season will focus on,
so why not put more emphasis on it here by having them meet earlier instead of showing us these bland people?
I mean, I realize that they return later and thus are at least somewhat important,
but this is one of those cases where a returning character gets introduced earlier into the story,
but with the unfortunate affect of undermining some of the show's overall structure.
Considering how these characters act in this episode, it wasn't a worthy trade-off.
The next episode after this is a big improvement over the other episodes so far in terms of how it looks and how its pacing works.
This one focuses the most on the Beast Boy-Starfire dynamic with extra focus on Beast Boy,
but the problem with this arc is just that . . . it's so cheesy and weak.
See, Beast Boy makes the mistake of accidentally playing a practical joke on Starfire when he meant to play it on Cyborg,
so they get in an argument about that and Starfire acts all upset and Beast Boy is all sorry and, yeah, it's just hard to care.
There's no reason that this argument couldn't have been spurned on by something worse than a prank,
and it actually would have worked well, considering that this show tries to compare and contrast Beast Boy's actions with the villains' of this episode.
The difference between their actions, though, is just way too large to feel like a fair or interesting comparison to draw.
Beast Boy played a stupid prank.
These guys are destroying people's cars, putting them in mortal danger,
and possibly giving the audience a seizure because holy guacamole is there a lot of flashing lights in this episode I think I might die!
Actually, overall, these first four episodes needed higher stakes.
Sure, episode three involved the Titans losing something important to them,
but the only real thing at stake there is their reputation and pride and, at that point, we didn't know anything much about their reputation.
Sure, in episode 5, we'll see that the Titans have fans, but up until then?
Not a word on the subject.
Which is part of a much larger problem that plagues this first season all the way through:
The world is just lifeless. There's never any sense of where the characters are, at least when they exit their tower;
backgrounds are barren and bland; the construction of some areas just doesn't make sense;
I don't know really know where the characters are.
There's an overall lack of proper establishing shots to let us know where these characters are in relation to the rest of the city;
it's rare to see other people doing all that much in this place. I could go on, but I think you get the point.
This certainly makes the show's world-building exceptionally weak, however, it also makes Slade a weaker villain.
I mean, what is this place? What's going on here?
The places where characters primarily reside should show us something about them, should give us some idea of who they are and what they do.
This abstract cluster of madness doesn't do that at all.
Maybe it shows us that he's mysterious, but that seems like a weak way to justify just blandness and a lack of personality.
Later on, there's one case in particular where the show manages to do a fantastic job of using setting to show more about them
or just to confirm some other things about them.
But that moment is a big outlier in season one, although we will be getting to it later.
OK, so, back to episode four.
While the stakes between the titans aren't all that high, they do get a lot higher as far as the villain's plan here is concerned,
where he wants to use Thunder and Lightning's abilities to create this gaint fire monster that's going to burn everyone's homes down.
Yeah, it's pretty odd, but it works well enough since it has a sense of permancy to it.
If the titans lose, this will have huge, long-lasting effects not only on themselves, but also on other people around them.
Unfortunately, the primary lesson of this episode--the lesson that a joke isn't necessarily just a joke and that it can hurt people--
rings hollow and typical to my older ears.
But I can appreciate that it might have had an affect on a young child that liked to terrorize their parents by throwing water balloons at them or something.
So, yeah, I won't dig into it for that too much, even though it would have been better to show a more nuanced and interesting version of this lesson.
Now, episode five does something that should have happened in episode one, but, either way, I'm happy that it happened:
we see the titans having fun and actually acting like teenagers.
Just goofing around and throwing a ball, and the best part of it all is that they're using their abilities, too.
So we get to see that they like to use their abilities to have fun.
It's also the first time we see that the titans have any fans, so, overall, this manages to feel like the first peek into their normal lives,
into the moments when there isn't any trouble.
Again, this is good because it's important to establish the baseline of our characters' relationships before throwing it all out of whack.
This episode also features another decent conflict, where Fixit finds Cyborg and wants to make him entirely robotic.
The potential permanency of this conflict is what makes it stand out;
if Cyborg is made completely robot, there is the chance that he will never be able to regain his human parts.
Of course, it's obvious that the show probably isn't going to go that route, but having the possibility open allows for a certain amount of tension.
However, there is one thing in particular that confuses me about this episode:
The whole reason Cyborg gets captured by Fixit is because he's being stubborn and is unwilling to accept that, because of his robot half,
he'll sometimes need to charge up and not be involved in the action.
This establishes Cyborg's robot half as something that he dislikes a lot, as something he may want to get rid of.
But the conflict of the episode is that Fixit wants to make him completely robotic and Cyborg also doesn't want that?
That doesn't really show us much about his character.
I mean, wouldn't it make more sense to start off with Cyborg being upset with his human parts for some reason,
and wishing he could get rid of those, only to encounter someone who can give that to him and realizing what a terrible thing it would be to lose that part of himself?
Or maybe he could encounter someone that is going to remove all his robotic parts, and he realizes that that would take away part of what makes him special.
Either one of those would have worked, but this doesn't.
The show establishes a problem and then follows through with it in a really odd way,
without really developing Cyborg's character in any meaningful manner.
I know, I know. You're probably tired of hearing me complaining about this show that you really enjoyed or maybe that you still really enjoy.
Or maybe you aren't. Either response is fair.
But now it's time to talk about what is easily my favourite episode of season one: Nevermore.
In this episode, Raven essentially becomes the ultimate edgelord, and a lot about herself and the other characters is revealed or accentuated.
First, there's Robin, whose most likable character trait is emphasized here:
If Raven wants to be alone, he's going to let her be alone.
This is similar to how he went to talk with Starfire when she was acting upset in episode two.
If there's nothing bad going on, he's a very conscientious person, and willing to trust his friends and do as they ask
or to pay a lot of attention to how they're feeling.
Starfire, meanwhile, is incredibly nice but in an aggressive way;
she can hardly be held back when she wants to check if Raven is OK.
Beast Boy and Cyborg, meanwhile, are pretty nosy when it comes down to it, and end up in perusing Raven's room.
When I said that there's one moment in particular where the show uses its setting to show us something about its characters, I was talking about this.
Because her room is just perfect for her. Honestly, it looks like a demonic wonderland, and I love it.
But these are really just the surface elements of this episode.
What makes it genuinely great is its exploration of Raven's psyche,
where we see that the inside of her mind is a decimated black space with cracked rocks floating about.
However, when someone wants to walk across them, they form together into a path that the characters can walk along, if they dare to get to know her better.
Here, we see somtehing that is going to be more obviously shown later: Raven wants people to know who she is;
she's even willing to set up a path for them to do so.
But she's also constantly afraid of what will happen if people know her, if people see the other sides of her that she keeps in check.
As such, these creepy birds attack Beast Boy and Cyborg and tell them in weird, childish voices to "turn back."
And as a kid I probably would've pooped my pants.
Then we get to see the various Ravens, all of them differing in colour scheme and personality from the real Raven.
First off, the fact that her colour palette can be completely changed
and that she can still be recognizable and look appealing is a testament to how great and simple her design is
Second, this is the best way to show us her character while getting around her personality;
after all, if she were to sit down and tell the other characters, "Sometimes I feel these feelings," it would just be weird;
that's not how she is or how she acts.
So the writers chose to have characters go inside her head and discover her that way.
Which is also more interesting regardless of her personality.
What I mean is that I'd rather have creative character development of this sort even with a character like Beast Boy,
who is likely to say what he's feeling. Because this is showing us, not telling us. We're seeing who she is. We're seeing that she's complex.
My favourite part of this episode is when Beast Boy and Cyborg get trapped in a maze within Raven's mind, and a sad version of Raven appears, and says,
"I can show you the way, but when we reach the end you won't like me anymore."
Basically, getting to know Raven is like a maze, and here we see all of her fear that people will dislike her once they've gone through the trouble of getting to know her
and reached the end of that maze.
This really connected with me and I wasn't expecting that after reactions to the previous episodes that ranged from, "This is OK," to "I'm not a big fan of this at all."
Of course, the episode culminates with Beast Boy and Cyborg helping Raven conquer one of her inner demons--her rage--
and, while the message is simple, I love how it is shown to us:
Sometimes, we need help from those who care for us to combat ourselves. Sometimes, the problems we have are too much for us to handle on our own.
And holy crap this video is longer than I thought it would be.
I didn't think I'd have all that much to say about this cartoon I used to like when I was a kid,
but I guess I was wrong, and I'd rather not rush it, so I'm going to continue this in part two.
If you enjoyed this, remember to like the video and let me know what your own thoughts on these episodes were in the comments below.
I really love interacted with you fine people down there, so it's always awesome to see what you have to say.
On a slightly different note, I also want to thank all the wonderful people on patreon who support me in the creation of videos like this one.
It's really great and generous of them to do that so I always want to show how thankful I am and it's hard to sometimes.
But I am very thankful. Thank you.
Regardless though, I hope you all have the best day you can have today, and I hope that everything's going good. Bye, bye.
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