Fridge / Teen Titans (2003)

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Fridge Brilliance

• Tamaraneans have to kiss people in order to learn their language. We know that when Starfire kissed Robin, she learned English. In Trouble in Tokyo, she learned Japanese by kissing a random guy walking down the street. Blackfire's English is more natural than Starfire, which implies that she probably kissed several guys. Plus, she flirts with Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy when they first met.
  • Also, while kissing is pragmatic language transfer for Starfire, she has to be mildly aware of the potential romantic perception, because we only ever see her use that technique with young men her own age. Never someone substantially older or younger, and never a female character.
• A minor case, but Cyborg's spectacularly unhealthy diet makes sense considering his body is primarily made up of cybernetics with a few organic components. He doesn't need to worry about nutrients, he just needs carbs to make energy for his biological parts.
• "Titan Rising" features the first reappearance of Ensemble Dark Horse Terra since a Cliffhanger in her story arc, where her allegiance to the Titan's and Slade is left unclear. She's introduced cutting in on the Titans playing volleyball, by asking 'which team am I on?'. It seems a rather innocuous line at first, perhaps to hint Terra is still friendly towards the Titans. Then you realize the music dipped into Drone of Dread territory for a split second... just as she asks the question. Then you get the episode appropriately titled "Betrayal". Perhaps Terra was referencing the volleyball teams, but the clever writers certainly were not. To top it off, the episode ends with Terra reflecting upon trust she's earned from the Titans with a hint of disbelief, as her hair uncharacteristically covers one of her eyes, the same eye Slade covers.
• "Every Dog Has His Day" features Beast Boy being imprisoned in a collar that adjust to his shape, regardless of what animal he turns into. Later, he manages to escape without explanation. However, the next season features the episode "Crash", where-in Beast Boy is shown to be able to turn into an amoeba, which is likely how he was able to escape.
• In "Aftershock, Part One" it seems miraculous that the Titans survive their near-death experiences caused by Terra, especially Raven drowning in mud. But then since they had to separate to jail Plasmus, Cinderblock and Overload while planning talk down Terra, who's on the loose and murderous, they probably took necessary precautions after encountering her in the street.
  • Robin was trained by Batman, even while offering Terra a second chance. Plasmus and Cinderblock have been employed by Slade before, and Terra has already tried to kill them once. Thus it would be like him to keep tabs on all his team members as they're separated, knowing if they need help.
  • Terra buries Cyborg and Beast Boy alive. Beast Boy can change into an earthworm or a mole, an animal that doesn't need much oxygen and can dig himself and Cyborg out. Terra, you Didn't Think This Through.
  • Raven survives drowning because she's still needed for the prophecy to bring Trigon to Earth. Probably helps that she's part-demon.
  • Robin was next to Starfire when Terra's boulder knocked her into the ocean. The camera cuts away after he screams her name, but knowing Robin, he dived in after her and applied CPR to the best of his ability. It helps that Starfire can breathe in outer-space and thus is less likely to drown.
  • Note also that Robin confronted Terra in early evening, probably hours after she incapacitated the rest of his team. He was probably saving Starfire, as well as checking up on how the rest of his team did.
• "Things Change". Season 5's big idea is that Beast Boy has to learn to grow up. We all thought the Brotherhood of Evil, his old nemeses, would do it. We thought his early days with the Doom Patrol would handle it. Nope, by the end of the Doom Patrol cameo, we learned his first name. By the time the Brotherhood was beaten, he made a brain freeze joke (all the Titans groaned at that one). No, the point of the last episode wasn't to sink ships. It wasn't a desperate attempt to write off Terra. It was there to remind you there are more things than heroes and villains out there. Terra lost her powers and she was glad for it; she couldn't handle being a hero or villain. In the last scene, Beast Boy finally gets it through his head that there is more than Black or White morals out there and is finally ready to move onto the next stage of his life. The ep is quite a bit of Cerebus Syndrome from normal (and I expected a Batman cameo based on the title), but here we are.
• Another example for me is the much-maligned episode "Troq", usually accused of being anvilicious about how racism is bad. And it really is, but there are two subtler, much braver aesops hidden within it. One is that racism isn't always confined to Card Carrying Villains. Val-Yor's presented as a genuine hero who really is (all Alternate Character Interpretations about the Locrix being innocent victims aside) trying to save the galaxy. At one point, he even orders Starfire to leave him behind and save herself - and yet he's also a racist bastard toward Starfire. Now usually, in a television show where an otherwise sympathetic character is a racist, he'll learn his lesson by the end of the episode, which leads to the Broken Aesop that it's somehow up to the victim to win over racists. But Val-Yor doesn't change, and the Titans instead accept that there will always be people like him, and simply refuse to tolerate his behavior and tell him he has to leave. This is actually a much more subdued and realistic aesop than the usual message that either only complete monsters can be racists, or that any racist who's not a complete monster can always be redeemed by the victim working hard enough to prove herself.
  • Speaking of "Troq," I knew many people who thought of, when asked if he faced prejudice, Cyborg saying that he was "half robot" as a cop-out from saying that he was black. However, when thinking about it, race isn't the only source of discrimination as what Cyborg could've been referencing is that the handicapped (physically disabled people, amputees), which he's technically a part of, are often discriminated against as well. So it wasn't Cyborg copping out of referencing himself as part of the more-expected minority group rather than referencing a more-overlooked one.
  • Good call, in one episode he even plays rugby (football in America) with a kid who has a prosthetic hand.
  • Given that the DC-verse has aliens, robots, cyborgs and interdimensional beings and combinations of the above running around, how much of a "thing" is old-fashioned human racism, aside from the most hopelessly retrograde? Maybe black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green (or orange as the case may be).
    • Thinking about it, though, if you saw someone like Cyborg in real life walking towards you, what would you first notice? That he's a ROBOT...eek, Terminator, RUN! You'd be far more scared and suspicious because of him being half-robot. The human/black part of him probably gets far less prejudice than the Big Scary Robot part because of that. The awful logic of the existence of a setting where "normals" coexist with more fantastical beings is that Fantastic Racism will probably take priority over regular racism. Not push it aside entirely, but let's face it, most people can agree with picking on the 9ft-tall grey spiky-skinned monster over picking on a little black boy, even if both of them are only six years old.
  • That, and the fact that, considering how little she knows about Earth's culture, customs, and even very language, Starfire probably wouldn't know what "being black" is, not to mention know anything about racism towards blacks, but she'd be much more likely to understand the idea of being handicapped or part robot, and Cyborg realized that.
  • Considering how down on himself Cyborg often is for being part machine, it's possible he gets double prejudice for being black and for being a cyborg. He just uses the latter for explanation when talking to Star because he'd really rather not get into the whole sordid history of race-relations among humans with someone who'd be almost totally ignorant on the subject. Better to focus on what's more obvious.
  • Or the easiest answer, Cyborg grew up in a big city, was a star football player, is the son of a top rated scientist and lives as a hero alone with his friends all the time, and is a teen who grew up as a kid in the 90s, maybe simply he hasn't suffered not nearly as much prejudice as older generations of black people if any, and very little people have actually been racist towards him. In his environment he would be so much more self aware from being part robot than black, especially considering how down to earth Cyborg is he probably wouldn't care about the bitter history of racism but rather how he's treated now.
    • It's also possibly just because Cyborg sees his robotic parts as the 'problem' that he himself wasn't even considering his skin-colour as a 'problem'
  • A major reason why Cyborg would highlight his being a cyborg over being African-American is because the former would legitimately be more of a source of prejudice. As an Afro-American, he had a people to belong to. As Cyborg, people who once would have stood with him in solidarity on basis of their shared skin color will now fear and reject him as an inhuman monster just as much as white people would.
  • Something else that's odd is that the sort of casual dismissive racism displayed by Val-Yor is usually applied to disadvantaged groups, or at least those behind the power curve. The Tamaraneans are a powerful people that other should want on their side.
    • While physically powerful, they've been overwhelmed in military conflict, haven't shown too much in terms of technological capabilities. Individually Tamaraneans are powerful, but their incapability towards diplomacy or large-scale military conflict does dampen their reputation. At best, they'll be see like Krogan, at worst, merely mindless muscle.
  • In addition, the next episode after "Troq", "The Prophecy" also dealt with prejudice (that of Raven's heritage being revealed and how they would react). Fortunately, they don't hate Raven for who she is.
• Raven sees Mumbo’s stage type magic as fake, smoke and mirrors. Being a mage, Raven has studied traditional sorcery her whole life so she likely never considered the possibility theatric magic could be real.
• When you stop to think about it, the episode "Stranded", despite being a (very fun and cute) filler episode, has this incredibly well done subtle theme of miscommunication and breakdown in communication running all throughout it. The Titans are in space because a satellite space station stopped broadcasting. The Monster of the Week's power is a sonically disruptive scream that breaks up radio waves (among other things), directly leading to the Titans mistakenly separating and being scattered on the alien planet, out of contact from each other. All three conflicts of the episode involve mixed signals regarding communication - Starfire and Robin's misunderstanding of their feelings and the nature of their relationship, Cyborg's feeble attempts to instruct the mechanically inept Beast Boy on how to fix the T-ship, Raven's inability to convey her annoyance to the miniature egg-people following her. The symbolism is particularly noticeable when Robin and Starfire are discussing the definition of 'girlfriend'; not only does obscuring fog spring up concealing the two from each other, but then they discover a wide chasm has appeared between them. It's pretty freaking brilliant.
• Woah. At the start of Trouble In Tokyo, when Saikotech kicks open the sprinkler systems and just vanishes right in front of Robin, Beast Boy's joking and immediately dismissed possibility for his disappearance is that Saikotech "just wasn't waterproof". As we learn later, he's made out of paint, so he really wasn't! BB was right!
  • Think about it further. Saikotech is technically Japanese. Turning on the sprinkler system while being an ink drawing is like suicide. What did samurai do when they get captured by the enemy/fail their master? They commit seppuku, a form of suicide special only in Japan. Saikotech failed Brushogun. Yeah.
    • Actually, he did just as he was ordered.
    • He did, but being captured is almost unanimously considered a failure, regardless of if their mission was completed.
• In "Snowblind", the team meets the radioactive hero Red Star. The character who spends the most time with Red Star and forms the greatest bond with Red Star is Starfire. Random choice? Probably not. See, Red Star is the hero's second identity. His original hero name in the comics, from his first stint in the Teen Titans comic was Starfire.
• Also, this is probably a coincidence, but 5 in Japanese is "Go". The theme song says One, Two, Three, Four, Go! Teen Titans!
  • And who sings the theme song? A pair of Japanese pop stars.
  • This is the exact same pun Speed Racer used in Japanese. The reason it's the Mach 5 is because 5 is Go! in Japanese. It would make sense if the writers of the theme knew this.
• In the episode "Overdrive", this troper initially considered the ending where Cyborg and the rest of the Titans to use a series of incredibly realistic holograms to beat the villain Billy Numerous a bit of a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment that came out of freakin' nowhere. Then he realized two things: first off, Robin had used a hologram in "Masks", so that technology is not beyond the Titans. Secondly, the way the Titans beat Billy Numerous is the same way Billy had managed to keep the upper hand on a supercharged Cyborg throughout the episode: by tricking him into overtaxing his abilities. After Cyborg spent most of an episode convinced that he was a One-Man Army and nearly killing himself in the process, this final battle was about him stepping back and letting Billy exhaust himself. It fits nicely with the episode's theme of realizing you're an individual and can only do so much in a day. Teen Titans has some pretty damn good writing.
  • Even more so, Billy's power is based on dividing like a cell. Remember when he couldn't divide anymore? He hit the Hayflick limit.
• At the start of Season 5, the Brotherhood of Evil inducts into their ranks most of the villains the Teen Titans had fought up to that point in time, including a couple who had actually died in their earlier appearances. This seems like a Plot Hole until you remember: at the end of Season 4, Slade broke open the gates to Hell. When that happened, we saw several beams of light shoot out of the gateway; one of these went into Slade's body, restoring the flesh that he lost when he became undead, but we never saw where the other beams went. If we assume those were the souls of dead villains escaping from Hell, it all makes a lot more sense.
  • Speaking of Slade and The Brotherhood of Evil, some fans were complaining how the newly resurrected Slade wasn’t in the Brotherhood, but his butler Wintergreen was. This could’ve been done for the sake of a cameo and cramming as many villains as they could into the Brotherhood, but there’s also that Jericho, one of the Titans being hunted down, is Slade’s son in the comics. Perhaps Slade sent Wintergreen to save his son from the Brotherhood when he couldn’t for whatever reasons; also in his very, very few appearances, Wintergreen's solely been Slade's assistant and never directly fought the Titans until Season 5.
    • Wouldn't that be more at home on the Wild Mass Guessing page for Teen Titans? I figured that the reason Slade wasn't in the Brotherhood was because he's just too arrogant. He probably considers himself above them, and wouldn't want to take orders from the Brain (orders from Trigon were acceptable...because, c'mon, he's a frickin' demon). Wintergreen was in the Brotherhood because he'd broken away from Slade's service (we hadn't seen him with Slade since his first appearance as his butler).
    • Speaking of characters coming back to life possibly from Trigon's defeat, this led me to an interesting theory. Remember that everyone on Earth save for the Titans were turned to stone, and were changed back with Trigon's defeat. Well, I think that's how Terra was restored to life. Somehow, her petrification was undone by a completely unrelated spell being broken (probably Slade getting his flesh and blood back and releasing other people's as well). Of course, I never read the comic series that tied in, so I wouldn't know if there was a more clear explanation. o
    • Depends on what, exactly, Raven did after defeating Trigon. If it was a mass stone-to-flesh spell (alongside other spells to fix the damage Trigon did) then it could have easily restored Terra. If, on the other hand, Raven merely counterspelled Trigon's magic then Terra should have been unaffected, as she was turned to stone by her own powers, not by Trigon.
• During the theme song, when the lyrics say "when the world needs heroes on patrol," it shows Beast Boy on screen, an ex-member of the Doom Patrol.
  • Also, when the lyrics say "With their superpowers they unite," it shows Starfire on screen, who is the reason the Teen Titans formed.
  • And when it says "Never met a villain that they liked," it shows Cyborg, who had a crush on Jinx in Season Three, foreshadowing her Heel–Face Turn in Season Five.
  • When Raven shows up, the lyrics say "When there's evil on the attack, you can rest knowing they got your back". This foreshadows Trigon's coming to Earth, and how she gives her friends some of her powers, to protect them from his spell.
  • For Robin, "They've got the bad guys on the run, they never stop until the job is done" is sung. The latter part hints at the lengths to which Robin will go, particularly against Slade.
  • It's debatable, but there's also one for Terra, since her powers are earth-based, and she severely lacks control over them. "'Cuz when the world is losing all control..."
• In Season 2 Slade emotionally manipulates, uses, abuses, and betrays Terra. Come Season 4, what does Trigon do? The exact same to him. It's karma! Oh how Terra would laugh her ass off if she knew...
  • And while he was not totally expecting it, Slade anticipated that Trigon might screw with him somehow because he knows how an evil mind works, like his own. Which is why he was prepared with the Ring of Azar just in case.
• Raven's fate in "How Long Is Forever?", becoming withdrawn and mentally disturbed, makes a lot more sense when you consider what happened in "The End". Based on the fact that Starfire's broken necklace is still on the floor twenty years later, the team presumably broke up very soon after Starfire disappeared. Consequently, Raven would have lost the only friends she ever had, and become isolated from the rest of the world. Thus, when Trigon came to Earth, Raven would not have been able to draw on The Power of Friendship to destroy Trigon, and so in order to defeat him, she would have had to use all of her mental and physical energy, which would have saved Earth but left her emotionally dead afterwards, hence why she's so isolated in the future!
  • The Reason Robin/Nightwing is seemingly normal compared to the other Titans. His origin involved him dealing with tragedy before and he learned to cope with it. Starfire's disappearance for 20 years, while sad didn't stop him from fighting crime.
• Raven's frostiness toward Terra is extremely saddening when you realize that the reason for it is that at least partially because Raven, The Empath senses all of Terra's issues and sees a part of herself in Terra. Terra's out of control powers kind of demonstrate the danger Raven could be if she doesn't meditate and it scares her. This is made worse by the fact that with dangerous powers that are really hard to control, Raven could have been exactly what Terra needed to mature into a real hero and the best possible one to teach her to control her abilities.
  • To throw in a bit of Fridge Horror, it's likely that if Raven hadn't been raised by monks who were able to teach her to control her power, she'd have ended up just like Terra—lost, confused, unable to control powerfully destructive abilities at all, and easy prey for serious temptation the first time it presents itself.
• In season two, when the Titans first meet Terra, they're quick to offer her a place on their team, but in later seasons they never do anything more than make allies honorary Titans by giving them communicators (Titans East don't count as new members- they're an allied team, not a branch of the same team). Why aren't they recruiting new core members? After what went down with Terra, they don't want to get burned again.
  • Honestly I chalk this more up to the fact that Terra was a wandering loner with no responsibilities, and they wanted to give her a home. The other heroes were already committed to their local communities.
• Slade made Robin steal from Wayne Industries. Question is, was it a coincidence? Did he know about Robin's secret identity and use it to twist the knife? Was his plan to get Robin as his apprentice part of a longer game to beat Batman with his own son, which would give him a serious morale advantage?
  • Alternatively, it could be Slade's version of Bullying a Dragon. Batman would know that Robin wouldn't steal from him without a good reason, and would be livid to hear what Slade has done to his adoptive son. It's probably for the best, for Slade at least, that the Titans confronted him instead . ..
  • It could also have been because Robin would've been able to get into a Wayne building without even needing his costume. Tim Drake / Dick Grayson (whichever he happens to be in this version) has probably been seen with Bruce Wayne enough that he can walk right in the front door.
• Control Freak's defeat at the end of "Episode 297-494"; When he seems unstoppable, Beast Boy reveals that his new powers can be shut down by a really weird dance. Deus Ex Machina? Maybe, but remember, they're fighting in the universe of an in-universe cheesy sci-fi show. Such Plot devices would only be a matter of course.
• No small amount of ado was made over Cyborg using Heroic Willpower to overcome his "built in limitations" and go 160%, despite the fact that that's flying in the face of physical reality: a machine can literally only give 100% of what it is capable of giving. However, it was quite possible that the limits aren't in "maximum output" but "maximum SAFE output"; when Cyborg goes to 160% there's visual damage not just to the display but his parts sound like they're about to tear themselves apart. Because they are. Cyborg just had to realize the difference himself, and push past what his robotic body was telling him was his max out of self-preservation.
• Slade is obsessive in his desire for a loyal and dedicated apprentice. The level of possessiveness and rage over perceived betrayals always seemed so personal. And it is. Slade has a son, Jericho, that we don't see until the end of the series. He's found by Beast Boy in an isolated mountain top, as far from Jump City as possible. Now, if Slade already had a son, why didn't he train him as his apprentice? Because just like in the comics, Jericho rejected him and ran off to join the Good Guys. In all likelihood, this both hurt and infuriated Slade. He spends the rest of the series trying to replace him, to no avail. Both Robin and Terra rebel, much like Jericho, and is the reason why Slade takes measures to ensure the next apprentice can't do the same.
• How did Kid Flash smash a floor hard enough to cause shockwaves? Physics! He's vibrating at just the right speed to cause Aeroelastic flutter. Being that he just gave a speech about vibrating his molecules to go through things, he probably knows enough to abuse that.
• In "Lightspeed", Jinx rather aggressively (she pretty much shoved See-More out of her way after he mentioned it) denies—twice—that the Egyptian necklace she was trying to steal from the museum brings good luck. Why? Because she secretly hoped that it did, and that was partly why she was stealing it.
• In the episode Beast Within, Beast Boy's change in behavior caused by that chemical makes him seem like a jerk. However, as I was reading up about animal behavior, it clicked into place. He was acting like an Alpha Male would.
• When Mumbo turned all the Titans into animals, he turned Starfire into a cat. While seemingly an arbitrary choice it actually makes sense once you remember that Tamaranians are descended from felines instead of primates.
  • Further evidenced by the fact that Robin, Badass Normal, became a monkey.
• The episode "Betrayal" in season 2. Now, if you've watched it, you've probably made the notion of how it's named after Terra's betrayal to the titans, when, in fact, it's also the other way around. Throughout the entire episode, Terra looked as if she was regretting her actions on betraying the Titans, and after taking Beast Boy out on a date to get him away from Slade's attack, she asks him a very important question. If she did something horrible, would Beast Boy still be her friend? Beast Boy answers this question yes and when Slade shows up and lets Beast Boy in on the whole thing, he turns his back on Terra. Terra betrayed the Titans, yes, but Beast Boy betrayed her as well. Had he kept his promise, things might've turned out incredibly differently.
  • Really, there wasn't any good way of handling that situation. To expect Beast Boy to forgive Terra for selling out him and his friends to their Arch-Enemy, spying on them, and setting up events that nearly got them killed is expecting an almost saintlike level of goodness from him, promise to Terra or no promise (and whatever dirty secret he thought Terra was hiding, I doubt "I work for Slade" was it). But by the same token, it's clear that Terra was very deeply hurt by Beast Boy's words, to the point that she displays more malice in her next fight with the Titans than at any other point in her arc. Honestly, I blame Slade for setting the whole situation up and very deliberately playing Terra and Beast Boy off each other during that whole episode.
• In Lightspeed, Kid Flash questions why the Hive Five are called such with six members. The villains couldn't think of an answer, even though it was standing right next to them. Billy Numerous is never just one person, physically or mentally. Their numbers are constantly being shifted between six to six hundred. So he's considered a variable rather than a core aspect.
  • I always thought it was a subtle way of pointing out that Jinx doesn't really belong there, and foreshadowing her eventual Heel–Face Turn, since that's basically what the whole episode is about anyway.
  • Furthermore, why is it Kid Flash that manages to reason with Jinx and convince her that she has other options? In the comics, The Flash family (Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West, Bart Allen) are friendly, good natured guys who are just as likely to talk down their Rogues Gallery than fight them, and even convinces at least one to make a Heel–Face Turn. As a result, most of their enemies have a great deal of respect for whoever takes up the mantle. It may not occur to most of the Titans to just have a talk with their enemies (VERY Justified in Robin's case, seeing what Batman deals with), but it's standard practice with The Flash.
• In Go, Starfire doesn't fly until after her shackles are removed. This seems odd until you remember that a Tamaranian's flight is powered by joy. It's likely that until Robin removed her shackles, she couldn't muster any joy while being reminded that she was a slave to the Gordanians.
• Beast Boy is the one most at ease with the sillier villains like Control Freak, The Amazing Mumbo, and the Source, even beating Robin who comes from the same city as The Joker and the Creeper (so silly Joker called him a lunatic). Seems strange... Until you realize he comes from the Doom Patrol. Before being kicked out, he faced foes who, like The Codpiece, made the Creeper seem downright well-adjusted.
  • That would also explain why the Doom Patrol is so fanatic: between the Brotherhood of Evil and the silly villains, their sanity took quite a toll.
• The Brain and Monsieur Mallah were gay lovers in the comics. While their sexuality and relationship isn't brought up in the cartoon, they are both played by openly gay actor Glenn Shadix. Well played.
• The Titans are a bunch of teens living alone with no adult supersupervision. It can be assumed one of them us over eighteen, which keeps them a teenager but also let's them be guardians for minors. That still doesn't explain why no one goes to school or has paying jobs though.
  • Easy: Cyborg's dad could likely be giving them some money. I don't know if Batman would be given his ward some money here and there, but Cyborg has a scientist dad. Plus they could easily do things like advertising and the like. Plus with the school thing; Robin was likely homeschooled by Batman, Beast Boy was the same with the Doom Patrol, Starfire was given an education by her tutors when she was still a princess and Raven could have taken lessons with the monks of Azarath. Cyborg is likely the eldest of the team, so he could have already graduated.
• Robin is never called by his real name, Dick Grayson. He always wears his mask, to the point where said mask is the trope picture for Expressive Mask. Deep down, he may have more issues than his guardian/mentor, and may be a Lighter and Softer version of a certain other Badass Normal vigilante that wears a black and white mask.
• Beast Boy brilliance: Why are his prehistoric forms so inaccurate? Because his shifting relies on him having a good idea of what the animal he's shifting into looks like. Since it's unlikely that he's ever seen a real dinosaur (not counting birds), he would have to base dinosaur/pterosaur shifting off of any portrayal he has actually seen. And since he's a nerdy movie buff, chances are those portrayals aren't from books or documentaries.
• Most of the central heroes and villains, in a consistent running theme, are based on either teenage archetypes, or adult archetypes from a teenage point of view. Let's break them down:
  • Robin is a "modern jock", a skateboarder/daredevil kind of alpha male teen (though without the moral apathy).
  • Starfire seems to be a foreign exchange student.
  • Beast Boy is a traditional class clown who tries too hard to be likable, but still just makes it work.
  • Raven is a goth.
  • Cyborg is actually a two-for-one: he's simultaneously an athletic class jock, and a computer nerd.
  • Jinx is a cheerleader/bitchy popular girl.
  • Gizmo, as pointed out in the DVD special features, is meant to represent an annoying, arrogant little kind who got pushed ahead several years.
  • Mammoth is a big, dumb jock who follows the others around.
  • Both Slade and Trigon are evil father figures.
  • Both Brother Blood and Mad Mod are evil teachers.
• The above-mention that Jinx is like a popular girl/cheerleader feels fitting when one takes into account her episode in "Lightspeed". She does the things she does because (A) she's inspired by Madame Rouge and (B)she secretly resents her bad-luck powers. This is comparable to a mean popular girl who acts the way she does out of insecurity and looking up to the wrong people.
• In "Transformation", Starfire's fear that her zit (and other changes) will alienate her from the Titans seems exaggerated, given her friends are too loyal to abandon her over something as petty as appearances. But a lightbulb goes off when one realizes: this is comparable to how most teenagers feel when going through puberty. Sometimes, teenagers let their adolescent fears and vulnerabilities get the best of them, magnifying the smallest of flaws to feel unacceptable. Even if Transformation only happens to Tameraneans, Starfire isn't alone in her situation.
• In "Betrothed", for all intents and purposes, Blackfire and Glgrdsklechhh do have a solid deal (at least by Tameranean standards) and aren't doing anything illegal. So even though the whole thing is a fraud, Starfire breaking her engagement to Glgrdsklechhh does count as treason. However, this turns into Fridge Awesome when you take their duel into consideration. By breaking the Jewel of Charta, Starfire didn't just destroy Blackfire's only advantage over her: she rendered the deal null. No jewel, no engagement. In other words, she took a hold of her own destiny.
• In "The End", Slade tells the remnant Titans that only one of them is allowed to accompany him to find Raven, and the other three have to hold Trigon's attention because his mind can be anywhere, at any time. Slade has shown time and time again that he is well-informed, smart, and ruthlessly self-interested. He knows that Trigon could be nearby at that very moment, listening to him explain the plan, so he knows that Trigon won't be distracted and he doesn't mention that his goal is to regain his body. Instead, he manipulates exactly one Titan into going with him: enough to provide a believable cover story for his real mission, but not so many that they could prevent his escape (should one become necessary) and protect Raven at the same time.
• Blackfire didn't join the Brotherhood of Evil, but when you think about it there are hints she has met them—and declined their offer:
  • Killer Moth and Kitten show up with an army of mutated larvae that have become larger and in adult form, something that is triggered by Zorkaberries, a Tamaranian food.
  • In the Teen Titans Go! comics, Madame Rouge takes Wildfire's (Starfire and Blackfire's younger brother) looks to infiltrate Titan's Tower. As Starfire points out, only Blackfire could have revealed to her what Wildfire looked like.
  • When Starfire confronts her sister about the incident above, Blackfire denies having helped her while also admitting she knew Madame Rouge (and describing her as a "shifty shapeshifter"). Considering that, once caught, Blackfire stops lying about her schemes and starts gloating, they must have met when the Brotherhood tried to recruit Blackfire and failed—and Madame Rouge, a much more experienced manipulator than Blackfire, still got some useful information.
    • Fridge Horror: The above incident led to Starfire disowning Blackfire as a sister... The one time she was innocent.
  • Why did Blackfire not join the Brotherhood? Two reasons: first, she wouldn't have been in charge, something she wasn't willing to tolerate (whenever she appears as part of a group she's their leader); second, it was the Brotherhood of Evil, and Blackfire's standards are too good to join such Card Carrying Villains.
  • Blackfire not joining the Brotherhood also explains how Starfire escaped Killer Moth and Kitten and why she was willing to trust her sister again when she returned in the tie-in comic and claimed to have reformed: Killer Moth and Kitten stole the Zorkaberries, and the furious Blackfire happened to track them down offscreen right as they were overpowering Starfire.
• In the fifth season Johnny Rancid got back his demonic superpowers seemingly out of the blue. Thing is, another member of the Brotherhood is Psimon, who, in the comic, is a follower of Trigon, the local Satan equivalent. Guess who could have restored his abilities?
  • Fridge Horror: In the tie-in comic Johnny Rancid shows up again as an agent of what appears to be the devil. Considering his previous affiliation with a follower of Trigon, Trigon is still around and somehow active.
• In "Winner Take All" Speedy tells Wildebeest "may the best man win" before changing to "may the champion win" when Wildebeest seems to take offense at being called a man. The implication in the episode is that he isn't a man because he isn't human, but issue #16 of the tie in comic shows he isn't a man because he is actually a small child.
• Also from "Winner Take All", Gizmo is probably included so that on a rewatch you don't question why Terra is in the tournament of heroines.
• In "Revolution", Mad Mod cited the phrase "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" to a British author. The phrase was actually a reference to the words of George Santayana, an American author. Mistake or just Mad Mod refusing to acknowledge something as American?
• Jericho has the ability to possess anyone he makes eye contact with. So in the episode "Titans Together" when Beast Boy asks the just-made-up team of him, Pantha, Más, Jericho and Herald about their powers, Jericho was really signaling to his eyes and not making the peace sign.
• Granted the episode was ambiguously handled, a look at the Stranger in a Familiar Land page has put "Things Change" into perspective. Terra acts as though her hero life isn't for her, to the point where she's in denial of her heroic past or even her super powers. But then, one realizes that Terra spent the better part of four seasons trapped in stone, whereas Beast Boy had time (not counting the Doom Patrol) to grow adjusted to hero life. Terra's a Shadow Archetype of what Beast Boy would've been if he had decided to throw in the towel and quit being a superhero. Not only that, but audience members may have it the other way around: it's not just Terra who's changed her mind about being a superhero, it's Beast Boy who has changed into a hero.
• In "Deception", Cyborg's alias in the HIVE Academy as 'Stone' is a play off his real name, Victor Stone.
• In "Betrothed", Blackfire has gotten her hands on the Jewel of Charta, an artifact that makes her invincible. She also claimed that she "always was the better fighter" in "Sisters", and while Starfire has been spending her time engaging in battles, Blackfire likely has too, because she's basically an intergalactic wanted criminal who's escaped captivity multiple times. So why does Starfire still hold her own and then manage to be fast enough to destroy the jewel and gain the upper hand, and then instantly curb-stomp Blackfire? "Transformation" reveals that when Blackfire went through Tamaranean puberty, she just turned purple for two days; when Starfire goes through it, she has all manner of Body Horror happen to her and then gets enclosed in a chrysalis before returning to her normal appearance and gaining her eyebolts. This is evidently an incredibly rare phenomenon, and the chrysalis formed is enticing enough that an entire species exists that preys on them. Most likely, Tamaraneans that form a chrysalis come out of it stronger than the ones who don't, as their body has to undergo more painful changes to get there, so while Blackfire may be the more cunning sister, Starfire grew up to be the more powerful one.
  • Alternatively, when Starfire stole the jewel Blackfire was shocked and confused... And since Tamaranian powers are fueled by their emotions, she suddenly lost them, as it happened to Starfire in "Stranded", right as Starfire threw a barrage of Starbolts. Good thing she was wearing armor...
  • The above aren't mutually exclusive: Starfire's chrysalis may have given her greater powers, so Blackfire compensated by acquiring the Jewel of Charta... And when Starfire grabbed it in their fight Blackfire was without power-up against an opponent she knew was more powerful, and that would at least shatter the "boundless confidence" that fuels her super strength.
• Raven’s dislike of/allergy to chickens could also be a reference to the fact that in many cultures, chickens are seen as symbols of goodness and resurrection, with their presence being able to ward away demons. So it’d make sense why a half-demon like Raven wouldn’t be a fan of them.
• Starfire was showing resistance to Mother Mae-Eye's mind-control pies even before she explicitly got knocked over the head during a fight, and she has a conspicuous lack of Mind-Control Eyes in scenes like the one where Mother Mae-Eye dresses the team to go out on that mission. Of course she was less susceptible—having nine stomachs, as is shown later in the episode, does make it easier for her to just pull out the pie with her prehensile tongue, but it also means she has a more complex digestive system, and therefore requires a lot more pies for the mind control to take effect the way it did on her teammates.
• A transitional shot right before we enter Nightwing's HQ in "How Long Is Forever" has several rotating cogs and pistons...much like the machinery in Slade's lair where they fought the final battle in "Apprentice, Part 2". Robin's whole arc in that season was about his parallels with Slade, and the future of "How Long Is Forever" serves to prove them. When his friendships break apart, he simply throws himself into work and isolates himself emotionally, to the detriment of himself and his loved ones.
• In "Masks", it’s entirely possible that Slade never actually wanted the chips for anything, and that the conflict within the team throughout the episode was all part of his plan to psychologically break Robin and push him into becoming his apprentice.
• In "Cyborg The Barbarian", the witch clearly granted wishes with malicious compliance. Krall wished for the power to defeat Cyborg so once Cyborg was removed from the time period, technically he was defeated. Therefore, it would stand to reason Krall would lose his powers as a by-product, thus allowing the village to overthrow him.
• In "X", Beast Boy's suggestion that Robin could be a robotic double so he could pose as Red X again wasn't just his love for comics slipping in, but because they've seen Slade pull such a stunt before. After all, since Robin isn't exactly the most trusting individual at times, it's understandable that Beast Boy would think that Robin's stooped to Slade's level again. That, and the team obviously couldn't take any chances of betraying them again.
• One could blame the constant Aesop Amnesia the main characters are suffering from on the episodic nature of the show and lack of Mythology Arc that requires to keep that character development, but honestly, is just makes them more realistic and palpable. Character development is not linear in real life as it is in fiction, you don't just learn your lesson or grow out of some flaws that you will never manifest them again. Most people are prone to suffer from Aesop Amnesia when same insecurities and problems rise again.
• I am not sure how many people noticed this, but the fact that Season One ends with Robin recognizing he and Slade having similarities, with both being focused, serious and determined, but he has something his nemesis will never have, his friends. Fast forward to Season Two and first episode is about the team getting disbanded after Starfire travels 20 years in the future by accident. What happens to Robin without his friends? As Slade predicted, Robin became exactly like him as an adult, albeit still remaining a good guy. He is a loner lurking into shadows, obsessed with his job and having his lair resembling Slade's. Heck, he probably even turned one of Slade's former hideouts into his lair.
• Beast Boy’s lackluster knowledge of American history in “Revolution” is Played for Laughs, but it makes sense when his backstory is taken into account. He grew up with his parents in the jungle, and was then taken in by the Doom Patrol, so it’s likely he had no formal schooling at all. What he knows about history likely comes from Pop-Cultural Osmosis alone.

Fridge Horror

• WHERE THE HELL ARE THE ADULTS!??! These kids are facing Trigon, Slade, and the Brotherhood of Evil, and regularly getting destroyed by them - no-one on the Justice League thought it might have been a good idea to step in at any point?
  • Batman probably stopped them so Robin could grow up.
  • Adults Are Useless.
  • Clearly the Justice League thinks the Titans are more than capable of dealing with their own problems. The only situation that they would really need to be called on was Trigon and everyone but the Titans were turned to stone during that battle, including the Justice League.
    • How? If I recall, they have an HQ in space. surely not everyone was on earth at the exact same moment. And what about the Green Lantern corps? I know that this part of the universe has its own Green Lantern, but surely they knew that a world ending deity had just emerged from earth and had already incapacitated one GL if that were that case. Shouldn't they have at least closed it off so the demons couldn't escape, since they weren't going to help earth? That's the problem with universes like Marvel and DC. Why doesn't the Justice League help the Titans? Why does Spiderman have to save the world on his own if the Avengers AND the Fantastic Four are literally just a block away? etc.
    • Nitpicking: among the various superheroes who can somehow hurt Trigon (either through power or through tricks), Superman, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Zatanna, Flash (Barry Allen, at the time), the original Green Lantern, Captain Marvel and Batman are usually on Earth, and would have been turned to stone. Among the guys with sufficient firepower to hit Trigon and more likely to not be in the way were the Green Lanterns... Who most likely called Oa, New Genesis, Apokolyps, and Sinestro and Lobo's speedcalls for reinforcements. Simply Trigon was dealt with before the assembled reinforcements could jump Trigon (incidentally leading to Darkseid staying the hell out of the way until he finds out how it happened for fear that whoever defeated Trigon comes for him).
    • Superman stays out of Jump City.
    • So far, much of the events prior to the Titans meeting one and other, such as Cyborg's accident, Beast Boy being out of the Doom Patrol and Starfire being sold to slavery have somewhat mirrored the comics. Odds are Raven much like her comic book counterpart, went to the JLA for help and was refused at Zatanna's urging. Hence her apprehension when The Titans accept her into the group in this version. It's not that they didn't want to, they refused to believe her.
• For the animated series, the Mind Rape-drug that Slade used on Robin to trigger the events of "Haunted" is bad enough on its lonesome, but if you stop to think about where it came from, you'll realize that Robin only ever captured one intact Slade mask (in "Masks", appropriately enough- Slade lost masks in "Apprentice" and "Aftershock" as well, but the former was completely shattered and the latter was melted in lava). Now that was back when the Slade/Robin enmity was just starting to get personal, so Slade had prepped that trap for someone he barely knew. Now, he probably intended to use it much later, since it had to be remotely activated, but still- it really hits home just how cold blooded and cruel this guy is.
  • That chemical agent manifested the specific vision of Slade (that was capable of manipulation, self-justification, and fake plan exposition), caused Robin to hurt himself without realizing that he was doing it, and contained a remote trigger mechanism. Something like that isn't simple or capable of being made in one go. The programming, trial-and-error, and testing phases of this agent would have had to go through a lot of incarnations in order to reliably recreate the effects that it does. This means that Slade must have used this on potentially dozens or hundreds of people before setting it on Robin. Since we know that if the drug had run its course it would have killed Robin, it seems to imply that there was a long list of people psychologically tortured and driven to a slow, brutal, unintentional suicide. Vile villain indeed.
  • And of course, Robin's suspicion that Slade could still be alive because they Never Found the Body makes sense when you realize that, as Batman's former sidekick, he has more experience with Joker Immunity than most, having fought the trope namer.
• In Blackfire’s debut episode, it’s mentioned by Raven that the poetry Blackfire shares at a depressing cafe is “surprisingly dark”. Well, this may have simply been a ploy to get into Raven’s good graces and mess with her sister, but if Blackfire’s childhood here was half as miserable as it was in the comics then it’s little wonder she’d have poetry like that.
• In Teen Titans, Plasmus, Overload, and Cinderblock combining is far more horrifying when you remember that this version of Plasmus is a person who unwillingly becomes a Blob Monster whenever he's awake.
  • Hell, Plasmus in general. He is in stasis the majority of his time. Occasionally, a Big Bad will bust him out of stasis, point him in the direction of the Titans, and get out of the way. And he's only himself during the three or so seconds before he transforms into a half-liquid acid-spewing monstrosity and tries to kill everything in sight, with just enough intelligence to try and do it cleverly. This is his life. All there is to it. Ever. Whoever he was before whatever happened to him, that person only exists for a few seconds of panic at the fact that he's awake and so destruction is about to ensue. No, he doesn't get cured.
    • Plasmus can be summed up as "Hey, let's make the Hulk even more horrifying!"
• Let's not forget the confrontation between Slade and Raven in the episode "Birthmark" when Slade first returns. He had a penchant for suddenly grabbing her throughout the episode, and each time he touched her, some of her clothes would disappear (by the end of the episode, her leotard is reduced to a ragged looking bikini). Not to mention the one scene where he suddenly disappears, causing Raven to look around herself in fear, and back up, only for Slade to appear behind her and grab her roughly in his arms, which noticeably causes her pain. She falls to the ground and Slade reaches out in a threatening manner to touch her again, only for Raven to use her powers to trap him momentarily in some rock slabs. He later tackles her, rips her cloak, and holds her immobilized as her hair grows and her face contorts in pain, later showing her a vision of The End of the World as We Know It at her own hands before tossing her unconscious from a roof. Sure, it was essentially Mind Rape, but it damn near looked like Slade was trying to rape her in the physical sense as well.
  • Not to mention all the analogies for the aftermath of rape, such as becoming an adult (forcefully losing her innocence), cutting her hair, and the markings (despite it being Trigon's, it could be seen as Slade "leaving his mark").
    • The same can be said between Slade and Terra during "Aftershock".
  • Note that, in all the time Slade's mentally and almost physically raping Raven, he's doing so as a proxy of Trigon. Her biological father put him up to that, and might even have been mystically tapping into Slade's psyche while he's doing it.
  • In the next episode of that arc, we see that Raven's marks can in fact be seen through her clothes. The implication? Slade stripped her for fun.
  • OR, perhaps the glowing is stronger than before. It could've been an indicator of Trigon's arrival, or that the glowing intensifies around Trigon-related sources of power. Slade was one guy, but when the marks shone through her sleeves, they were at a temple devoted to her antler-faced father...
  • The subtext of rape is disturbing in of itself, but remember that in the comics Raven was conceived by Trigon basically raping her mother on the altar. While it hasn't been said that applies in the show, remember that a)Trigon is still completely and utterly evil as in the comics and b)they already got away with a lot of subtext. Considering that, the above subtext becomes even creepier.
• Speaking about Terra, Slade had a sexual relationship with her in the comics. Knowing how parallel (or even accurate) the cartoon adaptation is to the original, the same could be so for this Terra. However due to the differences between the two, it makes you wonder whether or not it was a consensual one.
  • Moments after the reveal of Terra's Face–Heel Turn to join Slade, Beast Boy asks why she betrayed him(Beast Boy), to which Slade replies. Because you could never give her what she needs, the what in that sentence never being specified. Knowing the source material's depiction of Slade and Terra, just... EUGH.
• Raven sucking Doctor Light under her cloak using magic shadows; when he's pulled out at the last second, his face is ash white and all he can do is curl in a ball and say, "So dark. Make it stop. Please, make it stop." The fact that in a later episode, all she had to do was snarl at him and he immediately went into Terrified Surrender Mode doesn't ease the imagination of what might have happened under that cloak.
  • Raven was gripping him with tentacles. Think about that.
  • And don't forget, any appearance of Doctor Light is now incredibly creepy after he was revealed in comics to be a psychotic rapist who was mind-whammied into the dopey, harmless Light we're more familiar with. And remember that he recovered from the mind-whammy in the comics...
  • Horrific Realization: Raven might have seen the damage to Doctor Light's mind and the reason for his partial lobotomy when she was Mind Raping him.
  • Given how maligned the rapist retcon was, Doctor Light in the Teen Titans cartoon is probably a great deal less squicky than his comics counterpart. Which makes what he endured here even worse.
• In "Birthmark", pretty much the entire city, frozen in time mind you, becomes Raven's weapon. She used two buildings and numerous cars to try to crush Slade, who had superpowers at the time and survived unscathed. All the cars came from the middle of the street and presumably had people inside them.
  • The amount of collateral property damage (if not the number of actual people hurt) is quite staggering for a children's show. At the episode "The End - Part 1", Cyborg uses huge building to hit Plasmus through more buildings, knocking him out... for a few seconds.
• And then there's the episode where spores from Slade's mask causes Robin to have night terrors that actually harm him as if it were real. Can you imagine what would have happened if no one had been around to help him? Nightmare Fuel indeed.
• Slade laser-injects nanobots into the Titans in season one. Think about it. Thousands of nigh invisible robots floating around in your body, possibly for decades. And what Slade wanted to use them for is a whole other can of Nightmare Fuel.
• Did anyone mention that Raven is actually reincarnated several times, and she isn't a teenager but a grown woman who just so happens to look like a teenaged girl? According to that other wiki, but still...
  • Pretty sure that's comics-only (where all the Titans are at least somewhat older). I don't think there's any indication that Raven in the show is anything but the teenager she appears to be (or whatever the teen-equivalent for quasi-divine half-demons is).
• In the episode "Employee of the Month", the Titans face an evil alien tofu overlord. Beast Boy threatens to eat the tofu creature as part of an interrogation, then saunters off to save the day. At the end of the episode Robin asks Beast Boy where he left the alien, and he says "in the fridge". This is right after Cyborg had announced that he was going to get something to eat. The team then has a moment of literal Fridge Horror.
• In the last episode, Slade talks to Beast Boy through a robot about the girl that resembles/is Terra. Based on information that's established, Slade is never far behind from Terra.
• Mother Mae-Eye, straight out. She plans on baking the Teen Titans into a pie. But they've been eating pies the whole episode, so does that mean they've been eating people? It would explain how she got them, but it also means that no one's figured out she's the one killing the people she bakes! I'm seeing Hansel and Gretel parallels, here.
  • I think she had different kinds of pies- there was the one she was trapped in at the beginning, the ones she fed to the Titans which were laced with the magical equivalent of will-suppressing drugs, and finally the big pie she wanted to bake the Titans into and presumably eat herself. I got the impression that the pies the Titans ate were fairly normal, apart from the evil magic.
  • At the end of the episode, the Titans just hand the pie over to H.I.V.E. The Titans only survived because Starfire was lucky enough to get hit on the head. Doesn't it seem odd that the heroes are perfectly willing to feed their enemies to the Monster of the Week?
    • Wait until they're docile, then save them and give the HIVE pie to the cops. There.
    • Or of course they might go through the same events the Titans went through.
• Val-Yor's usage of the word "Crixies" to refer to the Locrix. Much is made of him referring to Starfire as "Troq," but no one ever calls him on "Crixies," even though he uses it in the way an old World War II soldier (or any particularly insensitive or prejudiced person) might use "Kraut" or "Jap." Shouldn't it matter that he whitewashes an entire race of people with a derogatory word? Oh, but they're not people, they're robots...so what does that make Cyborg? And yeah, the Teen Titans basically help destroy all of the Locrix in one fell swoop, all at the word of Val-Yor, whose obvious bias toward other species makes him a tremendously Unreliable Narrator when it comes to interplanetary diplomatic relations. The other Titans don't even stop to consider his motivations for killing off the "Crixies" when they learn what he's been calling Starfire this entire time...and Starfire never thinks about it herself! There is a blatant and terrible Inferred Holocaust at the end of this episode, and the Teen Titans didn't bother to stop it even though they were the only ones that could. Sleep well, dearies.
  • Oh yeah, before leaving in a huff, Val-Yor declared that the Earthlings are just as bad as the Tamaraneans. Not only did they didn't end Val-Yor's prejudice, but it may in fact, just increased it! Nice Job Breaking It Titans!
• A rather interesting one involves Slade. The character is a disturbingly effective manipulator, who can make you think he has your best interests at heart, before turning on you like the monster he is. The Fridge Horror is the fact that he kind of does this to the audience of the show. Think about it: When he first shows up, Slade is just the creepy Chess Master, hidden in the shadows. He's actually a pretty cool character, especially for those who enjoy mysterious villains. His costume looks pretty cool, he's impressive in a fight, and his voice is chilling. He's a very cool villian. You start to wonder what his goals are, he's really like. And then you find out. Obsessive. Stalkerish. Controlling. Manipulative. ABUSIVE. Murderous. He goes from being the creepy guy in the shadows, to the guy obsessed with controlling the hero, to a near pedophiliac character who beats defenseless children, and who WILL NOT DIE. Terrifying.
  • And not only, but the audience still cheers up for him anyway.
• More like "Fridge Sadness" but despite being best friends they apparently don't know each others names.
• Unlike most superheroes they don't seem to have civilian identities. They're superheroes 24/7, which is made even more uncomfortable by the fact they're so young. It's unlikely they interact with non-Titans much either.
• In the episode Transformation, Starfire has no idea that her species can turn into a Chrysalis during Transformation. Perhaps it's unheard of because all of the Tamaranians who have gone through a transformation such has hers have been eaten by the Chrysalis Eater.
• In the episode 'Haunted', you could say the gas that made Robin think Slade was there was Scarecrow's fear gas.
• In 'Apprentice Part 1', in Robin's dream with Slade, you can see around the rock formations on the cliff look a lot like Robin's head, which would make sense because Slade has been messing with his head the entire season.
• In 'Spellbound', when Raven first reads the story, it's said that the wizard Malchior was the one to cast the curse, but when Raven starts speaking to the book, Malchior claims the dragon Rorek was the one who cast the curse... the first clue that there's something incorrect about the story we've been told.
• In 'Betrothed' Starfire was expecting her father as the Grand Ruler, only to find Blackfire who took over apparently for kicks, with their parents nowhere to be seen. Considering that in the same episode Starfire takes over Tamaran by defeating Blackfire in a duel, Blackfire must have done the same with their father except she killed him.
• It appears that Mad Mod's default form is that of an old man, his first appearance having him hiding behind holograms and his second requiring him to steal Robin's youth (and reverted to being old at the end). He reappears in season 5 all young again, so which poor sap's youth did he steal this time?
• In "Betrayal", the way Slade bullies Beast Boy by mocking his relationship with Terra is often interpreted as Slade being jealous. However, remember that Slade had Terra give him information on the Titans' weaknesses, including their emotional weaknesses. Similar to how Terra learned Raven's weakness is anger, she may have also told Slade what Beast Boy's weakness is: insecurity. She picked up on his emotional attachment for her and his low self-esteem, and Slade was using that to get to Beast Boy. Although it only makes Beast Boy more of a threat, this ends up being what severs his friendship with Terra, as he is too hurt by the betrayal.
• Robin and Cyborg's argument at the beginning of 'Titans East (Part 2)' becomes a lot sadder when you realize there's a good chance Robin engaged in a similar argument before—only in Cyborg's position, with Batman in his. If that's the case and Robin expressed similar sentiments at the time ("I don't care what you say, I don't care what you do, and right now I don't care if I ever see you again."), then that could explain why the Dark Knight never visits even after Robin's theft at Wayne Enterprises. On the other hand, since Robin is notably similar to Batman in personality and attitude, his attempt to accept Cyborg's decision afterward could imply a comparable response from Batman (which is bolstered by Starfire articulating concern about it in a very Alfred-esque manner).
• In the Bad Future seen in "How Long is Forever" the Blorthog necklaces Starfire dropped at the beginning of the episode are still there, untouched. It's possible that the Titans left Starfire's possessions untouched as a way of honoring her memory, but it also paints the much more horrifying picture that the Titans fell apart immediately after Starfire's disappearance and thus there was no point cleaning up the mess in the tower.
• While Raven was raised in Azarath to keep her safe from Trigon, in the long run it seems that Raven's presence is what kept Azarath safe, not the other way around. It's made clear in "The Prophecy" that Trigon needs Raven alive to be his portal, so he stayed away from Azarath while Raven was there. Once she made it to Earth, he was free to burn Azarath to extinction.

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