Raven is evil; that's what the Monks of Azarath tell her. Born to a demon father with the wrong heritage; and she's trapped here. Until she sneaks aboard a Gallifreyan Time Ship; not for a better life, but just to be left alone. Unfortunately the pilot loves to walk into trouble, and she always has to help him. "You're not evil." The Doctor insists. But Raven doesn't believe him.
The Lost Child of Azarath
is a crossover between Teen Titans (2003) and Doctor Who in which Raven details her adventures with the Doctor, which largely shaped her moral compass and led her to becoming a hero.
The work contains examples of:
- And I Must Scream: The Mistress of the Land of Fiction's ultimate fate at Raven's hands. Raven admits it was rather harsh even for someone so despicable, but can't quite bring herself to Mercy Kill her.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Raven expresses a desire not to have emotions, as it would prevent Trigon's entry into the universe. She soon encounters the Cybermen, which try very hard to grant her wish. She finds them terrifying.
- Been There, Shaped History:
- Raven and a trio of vampires unintentionally inspired Dracula, and Raven also healed Bram Stoker’s childhood illness.
- The Titanic breaking in two when it sank? That was Raven’s doing. It was accidental, but she later found out it saved the life of a man who would otherwise have died, which helps her see her powers as not being a curse.
- Berserk Button:
- For Raven: A Holier Than Thou attitude used as an excuse to hurt others. Also, people who care more about appearing to be good than actually being good. She runs into no shortage of either.
- Also, messing with The Doctor. More than one opponent has learned this lesson the hard way.
- Character Development: The central premise of the story is Raven’s development from an antisocial recluse with an underdeveloped moral compass to the more unambiguously heroic cartoon incarnation.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: A platonic variant. Raven sees the Doctor as a Parental Substitute, and she gets extremely jealous when she thinks someone wants to take him away from her.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Raven takes a while to open up to people.
- Driven to Suicide: Kasey/Kasterborous. Raven almost talks him down, but in the end, his memories of a war (implied to be the Time War) are painful enough that the incarnation who fought in it forces Kasey not to regenerate.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Exploited by Raven against the Mistress of the Land of Fiction. If the Mistress can predict her actions, she can effectively turn Raven into a fiction and control her. Fortunately, Raven has in-universe Medium Awareness and can avoid doing anything the Mistress predicts. It’s helpful that the Mistress doesn’t understand Raven and predicts she’ll do things like hiding from a mob.
- Freudian Excuse: Raven isn’t evil, but she is at this point Good Is Not Soft almost to the point of Disproportionate Retribution against people who push her Berserk Button. There are three reasons for this.
- On Azarath, she was a social pariah all her life, which wouldn’t be so bad if not for many of her peers ostracizing her for social brownie points.
- Additionally, Kasey was also a victim of the same thing during his seventh incarnation, where his employers framed him for sexual misconduct in order to fire him because he gave people a “bad feeling.” This played a significant part in his suicide, leading him to believe he couldn’t move on from the war and that nobody would accept him.
- Third, Raven’s greatest regret is wiping out a species of (non-sapient) creature she had considered “evil” during her first TARDIS outing, and enjoying it. After her My God, What Have I Done? moment, she came to realize just how easy it is to become worse than the “evil” you fight.
- Humanity Ensues: Certain characters in the Land of Fiction, including Captain Hook, Alice, and Barriss Offee have developed sentience. The Doctor finds this fascinating. Unfortunately, this gives Alice the ability to turn traitor.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: One of the monks refers to Raven as "it" to the Doctor when consulting him on how to deal with her.
- It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Raven wanted to invite a boy she liked to travel with her and the Doctor. However, she ends up not doing so because she believes it would be too dangerous. Probably for the best, as her next adventure involved Daleks.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Many in the Land of Fiction. Not because of copyright, but because Raven didn’t actually know who most of them were at the time and thought of them based on how she would describe them rather than their names.
- Power Incontinence: Raven resolves not to use her powers after the Land of Fiction. It doesn’t work out so well.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: In the Land of Fiction arc, Raven thinks that Barriss Offee is The Mole because she was a traitor in her source material (and also because she was afraid the Doctor would replace her with Barriss). Nope. It’s Alice.
