Teen Titans (animation)/YMMV

YMMVs for the animated series:
"Raven: Remember me? Dr. Light: [appears terrified] I'd like to go to jail now, please."
 * 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.
 * Slade, however, seemed to be the first villain in the series to truly fit this trope. Particularly during the "Apprentice" arc of the first season. However, Trigon proved to be Eviler Than Thou.
 * Blackfire became one in the Titans Go! tie-in comic series.
 * 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:
 * Robin to Mother Mae-Eye: "Lady, you are not my mother."
 * Also, the use of Dr. Light in the series, if you know the things he did... elsewhere... Also counts as a Continuity Nod Because
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: Dr. Light appears, and Raven Mind Rapes him. Irony is beautiful, no?


 * Genius Bonus:
 * In "Haunted", when Raven goes through Robin's memories, the very last one is . 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:
 * Epileptic Trees identifying Red X's Secret Identity as Jason Todd, in light of the appearance of Jason coming Back From the Dead in the comics and in the DC Universe Original Animated Movies as the Red Hood.
 * Más Y Menos slogan "Si, podremos!" (Yes, we can!)
 * 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.
 * 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.

"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."
 * 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.
 * Ship Sinking: Beast Boy and Raven and
 * Ship Tease: Beast Boy/Raven, Robin/Raven and Robin/Starfire (the only one of the fandom's three main couples who ended up together).
 * Ship-to-Ship Combat: Beast Boy/Raven vs. Beast Boy/Terra. Two smaller battles in the fandom, but big enough, are going on between Robin/Starfire vs. Robin/Raven and Beast Boy/Raven vs. Robin/Raven as well.
 * Even exists in-universe, as witnessed in "For Real".
 * Ship Mates: Robin/Starfire - Beast Boy/Raven is the most common example. There is also Beast Boy/Terra - Robin/Raven or Robin/Raven - Beast Boy/Starfire, and Robin/Starfire - Beast Boy/Terra also exists, though probably to a lesser extent. Kid Flash/Jinx is very commonly shipped alongside any of these combinations. Cyborg usually gets paired with Bumblebee, though he is occasionally paired with Jinx, creating another (much, much smaller) battle between Cyborg/Jinx and the (far more popular) Kid Flash/Jinx. For a while, Robin/Starfire - Beast Boy/Terra - Cyborg/Raven fics were very common.
 * Squick: Kitty and Fang's kiss in Date With Destiny.
 * Tear Jerker:
 * Aftershock part two. Especially the ending.
 * 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:


 * 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!
 * She does give us a reason - she does it for kicks.
 * 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
 * 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,.
 * 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

YMMVs for the comic books:

 * And the Fandom Rejoiced:
 * The announcement of Static joining the roster in 2008.
 * The announcement that JT Krul would be replacing Felicia Henderson.
 * Roy Harper getting his other arm back, and the implication that Cry for Justice is being retconned out.
 * Of course that disappeared when it was announced that Lian Harper will no longer exist, and chances are Roy won't be known for abusing heroin. Which, at this point only leaves him with the rejected sidekick and anti-hero angles of his character.
 * Base Breaker: Fandom is split between Cheshire and whether or not she's an assassin who loves her children, or a total sociopath who loves them so long as it's useful to her. Word of God from Gail Simone has it that she is indeed a Complete Monster due to the bombing of Qurac, though some fans point to her characterization not handled by Simone as the true Cheshire. Though the Qurac bombing was written in the early 1980s long before Gail Simone ever used her, which essentially means Cheshire has been a Complete Monster since then.
 * Complete Monster:
 * Trigon, obviously.
 * Chesire once nuked an entire country, laughing all the way. And despite a measure of genuine love for her children, she didn't hesitate before conceiving a replacement for her daughter Lian, when Lian's life was used to ensure her participation in the Secret Six.
 * Creator's Pet:
 * Danny Chase. No other character in Titans history has been so despised by the fans and beloved of the writer. He was smart-mouthed, ignorant and obnoxious, yet was always shown to be right, and often effectively handled villains.
 * Cassie, aka Wonder Girl, has officially picked up the reigns of being the series' Creator's Pet. The common complaint against her is that there are too many writers on board who want to give their own interpretation of her character.
 * Die for Our Ship: Beast Boy (Changeling)/Raven vs. Beast Boy/Terra (or Terra II). Fans of the former hated there being a second Terra so much that they actively wished death on the character (they got their wish). Fans of the latter still cling to the hope that Raven will be deep-sixed for even the third Terra, citing that she would make "more sense".
 * Dork Age: A couple of eras qualify. Particularly the Atom-led new team of H'sann Natall hybrid teenagers. And the late 90s version. And the late 2000s version.
 * None have been yet so reviled as Deathstroke's team of mercenaries, under Eric Wallace and Fabrizio Fiorentino. Compared to the levels of Wangst and Gorn any previous book may have had, Wallace somehow managed to turn it Up to Eleven.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse:
 * Beast Boy, Kid Devil, Miss Martian and Ravager, especially in the 2000s books.
 * Bunker is slowly but surely becoming this for the reboot Titans.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Cinder of Deathstroke's team dies in order to destroy the Methuselah Device. Subverted in that she was already suicidal but couldn't die because of her power to turn into molten magma, and that she destroyed the device because given the option to bring her dead family back, she'd rather they stayed dead because she believed the world is a horrible place. It's hard to feel that sorry for her, or awed by her, when she'd been portrayed as such an utterly flat character, the circumstances of her powers revealed a month before she died, and the reminder that she burned off a man's reproductive organs using her own.
 * Idiot Ball: Is handled by Cyborg and Dick Grayson in Rise of Arsenal. In Cyborg's case, designing a hideously gaudy removable prosthetic that in fact increases the pain Roy already felt in his arm, and is aware of that flaw. Notwithstanding his engineering capabilities, did giving something like that to a man who had just recently learned his daughter was dead seem like a good idea? Wouldn't it have made more sense to wait, or at least give him a more standard strap-on prosthetic made from wood or plastic? Did a grieving father honestly need the pain in his missing limb amplified at that time? Cyborg even states that Roy is "good as new" once he's outfitted with it, and then quickly apologizes for said statement.
 * And in Dick's case, having Roy admitted to Virgil House, which meant strapping him to a bed in a locked room, completely alone. From the way Roy had been acting, Dick should've had the sense to realize that being alone was the last thing he needed at the moment. But of course, since he's Batman, he obviously knew what he was doing because Batman never makes mistakes. Ever.
 * Internet Backdraft:
 * The controversial "Titans: Villains For Hire" one-shot has been the subject of a great deal of (mostly negative) attention over it's ending, where Ryan Choi, one of DC's few Asian superheroes, is violently slaughtered by the new team of Titans. It has even prompted a number of debates and editorials across the web over DC's handling of non-white superheroes.
 * On that same note, the removal of all of the minorities from the Teen Titans (including the fan-favorites Static and Blue Beetle) by incoming writer JT Krul has also prompted a sizable amount of discussion on message boards, and was even mentioned by Racialicious.com, a website which deals with racially-charged issues in politics and pop culture.
 * Since it's inception back in 2003, there has been a small but vocal number of fans who have stated their hatred for the current Teen Titans book, as the cult-classic series Young Justice was cancelled so that it's characters could be "graduated" to Titan status.
 * There have also been a small but vocal number of fans who dislike the current book because the Young Justice characters were added and developed at the expense of older established Titans.
 * Rise of Arsenal. Enough said.
 * Bunker has caused some minor fuss. Many critics (gay and straight alike) consider him to be a little too gay.
 * It Was His Sled: Terra being The Mole, and her general sociopathic nature. That arc is one of the most well-remembered arcs in the comics run, one of the most influential arcs in comic book history, and it helped make the series so popular in the 80s. When a kids comic spoils this in the characters first appearance, you know that its his sled. The cartoon adaptation helped renew this spoiler, thanks to Terra's popularity (though that Terra was vastly different from the original Terra.)
 * My Real Daddy: It's widely agreed that Devin Grayson is the only writer in recent years who ever really understood not just Roy's character, but Lian's as well.
 * Relationship Sue: Terry Long, who looked a fair bit like Marv Wolfman, and was the helpless but kind older man who was sleeping with the gorgeous Donna Troy.
 * Jerkass Woobie: Yes, Harper murdered a supervillain, turned his back on his friends, went back on heroin, and joined Deathstroke's mercenary team for the chance to kill Deathstroke. But considering that his right arm had been hacked off, was given a prosthetic which actually causes more pain and impairs his abilities as an archer, and his daughter, Lian, died, it's hard not to feel sorry for him. This is magnified by how out-of-character his friends and family acted during Rise of Arsenal, and by how his joining Deathstroke's Titans was mainly due to Cheshire, Lian's mother, guilt tripping him into joining by saying that he "owed" her for Lian's death.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Heroes: Roy Harper's descent into anti-heroism can be attributed to how out-of-character his family and friends acted during Rise of Arsenal. Bare in mind, this man's right arm was hacked off and his daughter was killed. He's an archer, and he was a good father towards Lian. Individually:
 * Black Canary, the closest thing to a mother he ever had and the woman who helped him beat his addiction the first time, pretty much washed her hands of him and considered him a lost cause. She should've known that being alone was not helping matters. It was with her support that Roy beat his addiction the first time. And when she had the opportunity to fully give that support again after Roy had been pushing her away, she chose not to.
 * Cyborg designed him a prosthetic arm that wasn't a "proper" prosthetic because Roy's arm is still infected. The arm is removable, but increases the pain in his stump, greatly hinders his ability as an archer, and he can't wear normal clothes over it.
 * Doctor Mid-Nite was completely oblivious to the fact that Roy had been taking pain killers from his supply of medication, never mind how easily Roy was able to take them.
 * Donna Troy, Wally West, and Dick Grayson, supposedly his closest friends, did nothing to help. Granted, Roy called Donna a whore and said she was a bad mother, but if Donna truly understood the pain Roy was in as she claimed, she'd know people say things that don't mean when they've lost a loved one (and have suffered a horrible injury). She might have wound up the same way he did after her son died, only she had the support of her friends and family. Dick was the one who came up with the idea of having Roy temporarily committed at Virgil House, as if strapping him down in a room alone would've made things better instead of bringing him to his friends for support. This isn't helped by how coldly he knocked Roy out claiming "I'm your friend". And Wally, he did absolutely nothing at all.
 * Ruined FOREVER: The status of Roy and Lian Harper. His arm was cut off and she was killed all to make Roy more "interesting" by turning him into a drug-fueled anti-hero, who was later emotionally blackmailed into joining Deathstroke's Titans by Cheshire in an attempt to kill Slade. Fans were looking towards the reboot in the hopes that Lian would be alive. Then it was announced that Roy would be too young to have children, so Lian will have never existed, leaving Roy as "Green Arrow's rejected sidekick, Arsenal", a soldier for hire in a group of anti-heroes containing Jason Todd and Starfire.
 * Mind you, this hasn't stopped a number of devoted fans in the "Bring Back Lian Harper" fan group, on Facebook and Deviantart, from trying to get the father-daughter duo fixed since 2010.
 * DC retconning "The New Titans" from existence in the recent New52 reboot.
 * The Scrappy:
 * The Team Titans and other characters from the '90s are mostly considered to be Scrappies, though Flamebird and the female Hawk are other notable examples. Huge portions of the team have been this at various times, though Baby Wildebeest is a big stand-out. When you're an infant and they graphically murder you on-panel, you know the fans hate you.
 * Is that an example of The Scrappy or of a Writer on Board?
 * Cassie and Bombshell basically fall under this trope for Felicia Henderson's run, though it doesn't help that Henderson has VERY different ideas for all of the characters personalities, even if they're not "in character".
 * Fringe of Dan Jurgens' Teen Titans is one of the most unpopular Titans ever created. Even Minion, an equally ignored Titan, has been depicted in more convention sketches than Fringe has.
 * They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Titans becoming a villain-driven book about a team of mercenaries led by Deathstroke. The reviews for the series before the change had already been poor, but after Eric Wallace and Fabrizio Fiorentino took over, the book found its way on many "Worst Comics of 2010" lists. Two common complaints are the death of Ryan Choi and the continuation of Roy Harper's character derailment.
 * Unfortunate Implications: Krul's run slimmed down the team to get a more focused lineup. "Slimming down the team" consisted of removing all the minority characters.
 * In the older series, whenever the characters called out Kid Flash for his hatred of Russians, he claimed it was because of his "Midwestern conservative values," rather awkwardly conflating conservatism and the Midwest with bigotry.
 * Wangst: A staple since the eighties.
 * The Woobie: Kid Devil of the current generation. He has the most pathetic back story prior to joining the team, and ends up getting the worst treatment after.