From Left: Raven, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Robin, Starfire
"When there's trouble, you know who to call..."
"Titans, go!"
Based on the classic DC comic (mostly the 1980s incarnation by Marv Wolfman and George Perez), with a generous dose of anime influence thrown in, Teen Titans features the adventures of five young superheroes:Robin, the gruff, strait-laced leader; Starfire, an alien from the planet Tamaran whose role varies from the ditz to an action girl, sometimes in the same episode; Cyborg, the second-in-command token minority and techno wizard who can also hold his own in a fight with his body's built-in weaponry; Raven, the quiet one, a moody sorceress with a few secrets of her own; and Beast Boy, the shape-shiftingplucky comic relief.While their adventures are primarily episodic, each season includes an arc that follows the most famous arcs of the comic book with some fidelity. Furthermore, in the last season, its arc not only introduces the majority of the classic characters from the comic but also the members and enemies of the allied superhero team, The Doom Patrol.The show has drawn some flak for its frequently less-than-serious tone, and the many differences between the heroes in the comics and their cartoon incarnations (like animated Raven's exaggerated Gothiness, and animated Starfire being less aggressive and more naive than in the comics). In addition, the physical appearance of the characters in the animated series is profoundly different than that of the original comic book series which, despite its title, depicted the Titans as being in their 20s (at one point the comic series even dropped the Teen from the title as it had become apparent they weren't anymore), with Starfire and Raven being arguably the two characters most noticably "kiddified" for the animated series. Of course, taking a hard left on the Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness might have gotten the show more fans than it lost, and consequently, it also has a fairly large and devoted fan base.It had a made for TV movie called Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, and its own comics series,Teen Titans Go!.It was originally pitched as a Young Justice series, and the two are very similar in tone. Oddly enough, when Young Justice itself got a series, many noted it to be closer to Teen Titans.Reruns are now airing every weekday on Boomerang at 11 pm through midnight. The show is also returning in the form of chibi-fied shorts for Cartoon Network's new DC Nation block, called, appropriately enough, The New Teen Titans. If these reruns and shorts receive good ratings, there is hope for a 6th season! There's also a petition you can sign to help.This series has a character sheet and a recap. Now has a Best Episode Crowner.
20% More Awesome: Subverted in the episode "Only Human". Since Cyborg is, well, a cyborg, the machine part of him can measure how much effort he's actually putting in.
In his first appearance, Mad Mod (voiced by Malcolm McDowell) claims that "nothing teaches discipline and respect like a brain-erasing trance." Well, the line from the movie is "brain-erasing drugs," but it is a kids' show. He even uses mechanical chairs to hold his victims' eyes open.
The quote "You're just jealous cuz I sound like a rock star." is a nod to Greg Cipes' actual career as a reggae-ska rock singer.
On top of that, Cipes has lived on a vegan diet since age 8, and actually is a professional surfer, so he fits with Beast Boy's lingo.
Adaptational Badass: Killer Moth. In the comics, he's the most ineffectual of the Ineffectual Sympathetic Villains, with a completely ridiculous, ill-fitting costume that looks like it was put together by a colorblind man. Here, he's still kind of a schmuck, but he has an army of genetically modified bugs at his command and he has a cool half-man, half moth hybrid look.
Aesop Amnesia: Most of Cyborg's episodes revolve around him accepting, again and again, that he's human.
Well Cyborg switches, depending on the episode, from angsting over being human and angsting over being robot. He just can't win. (Though over all he's pretty happy.)
Affectionate Gesture to the Head: In "Call All Titans", Jericho reaches down and pats an exhausted Beast Boy on the head after he climbs all the way to the top of the mountain to give Jericho a communicator.
In the movie, when visiting Japan, Starfire grabs a random guy and kisses him in order to learn Japanese.
Whilst Starfire averts this in "Go!", where she speaks Tamaranian until she learns English, it's unexplained how the entire planet of Tamaran seems to speak it, or how the Chrysalis Eater in "Transformation" spoke it, or how the Gordanians- well, you get the picture.
The Tamaranians might have just learned it from Blackfire.
Anti-Hero: Robin. He may be the leader of a team of superheroes, but he even admits to himself that he doesn't always know right from wrong, and has done some outright villainous things.
Bad Future: Starfire accidentally get sent to one where Cyborg is too rundown to leave Titan's Tower anymore, Beast Boy is a fat, bald circus performer, and Raven appears to have gone insane from loneliness. But Robin/Nightwing is relatively fine. He's become just like Batman, a loner with nobody to talk to. Thankfully, Starfire returning to her own time seems to fix it.
Jinx. This trope is subverted with Jinx's Heel Face Turn in one of the final episodes. If anything it seems that she became bad specifically because she thought she had to follow this trope.
Raven, having demonic powers, defies this trope, until season 4.
Badass Normal: Robin, full stop. Notable that although he's the only member of his team without superpowers, he's also the only one who can take on every member of his own team at the same time.
Batman: Never actually appearing in the show, or mentioned by name, but alluded to several times. In an episode that explains how the team met, Robin stops a criminal in a very Batman-like manner.
Criminal You! aren't you supposed to be with... Robin I work alone now.
Another episode with Slade attempting to lure Robin to the dark side goes like this...
Slade: Who knows, I may be like a father to you. Robin: I already have a father. (bats emerge from the darkness and fly up into the night sky)
Then there was this one time, where Raven was reading Robin's mind, there is clearly a silhouette of Batman in the Batcave.
Gotham City is mentioned once, and in the season 1 finale, there's also a battle atop a Wayne Enterprises building.
Robin doesn't react well to being compared with Slade.
Become good friends with Beast Boy, betray him, then try to kill him. Or hurt his friends. Then he will rip you a new one. He even scares Slade when his button is pushed.
Beware the Silly Ones: Beast Boy usually plays the role of the plucky comic relief with shades of the butt monkey, but in "Titans Together" he proves himself an incredibly capable leader and powerful fighter. When he meets Terra again after nearly being killed by her and seeing how she's trashed the city, he has no qualms about fighting her even when they were basically an official couple.
Big Entrance: "Birthmark" starts off with Dr. Light fighting the Titans. At first he seems to be holding his own, until Raven makes her entrance. She mimics the last time the two of them encountered each other, with scaling up her size a fair bit, Glowing Eyes of Doom, and tentacles made of shadow.
Raven: Remember me? Dr. Light: (Goes Blue with Shock, turns and raises hands) I'd like to go to jail now, please.
For those who understand Spanish. At least you know what the bloody hell Más Y Menos are talking about. (No English subtitles are provided.) Their catchphrase, "Más y Menos, sí podemos!' literally means "Plus and Minus, yes we can!" Not only is it a straightforward Spanish rhyme, but it is also a pun on the saying "más o menos" ("more or less.") They're also guilty of Getting Crap Past the Radar, shouting at least one curse word in Spanish! The Latin American Spanish dub had to modify this, naturally.
The Movie has a Japanese bonus. People who don't know Japanese have never been on the internet wouldn't catch the joke when a cute girl calls Beast Boy a geek (otaku) and he thought she called him cute, for example. The Cat Girl keeps talking to him during their fight also, which just frustrates him because he has no idea what she ever says.
Bit Part Bad Guys: Mumbo, Control Freak, and Dr. Light started out like this before moving up to better things. Same can't be said for that poor giant scorpion Terra crushed during her Batman Cold Open.
"Blind Idiot" Translation: Cyborg pulls one when talking to Mas Y Menos for the first time. What he said translates to "Hello! My friends I am name The Cyborgo!"
Beast Boy: Hey, check it out! (flash-freezes The Brain)Brain freeze!
Brainwashed: Happens to all the Titans (main, East, and a few reserves) at least once. Beast Boy seems to get it a lot after the team's first run-in with Mad Mod. In "Revolution", also featuring Mad Mod, the entire population of Jump City.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: "Larry" counts. While he is just Batmite, or Robinmite rather, his fifth dimensional tricks break the fourth wall just fine. He's from beyond it, after all.
Calling the Old Man Out: Raven did this to her demonic dad in the season 4 finale. While blasting him to oblivion, too.
Raven: Fathers are kind! Fathers protect you! Fathers raise you! I was protected by the monks of Azarath. I was raised by my friends! They are my family. This is my home. And you are not welcome here!
Calling Your Attacks: Cyborg and Beast Boy (and Robin, when it happened) had a habit of nicknaming their teamup moves. In "The Quest", Robin has someone else call his attacks for him.
Captive Date: Killer Moth threatens the city with destruction unless Robin takes Killer Moth's Bratty Teenage Daughter, Kitten, to the prom. Robin complies, much to his chagrin.
Cardboard Prison: Usually they do not even bother mentioning an escape. Recurring villains who where caught and jailed simply reappear in later episodes, regardless of how ineffectual or silly they are.
Kitten. Not in literal sense, but her name and mannerisms says it all. And the odd thing is, her dad is a moth-man. And her boyfriend has a giant spider for a head.
Starfire is turned into a cat in the episode "Bunny Raven", but she can speak and still wears her clothes.
And a literal cat girl in the movie made of magic ink.
Chaste Toons: Averted by Blackfire in The New Teen Titans, who got married to Glgrdsklechhh some time after "Betrothed" and had babies with him.
Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys: Occurs in the episode "Don't Touch That Dial", when Beast Boy and Control Freak crash into a French cooking show, the chef immediately produces a white flag and leaves the set.
Chronically Crashed Car: Cyborg's car gets destroyed in pretty much every episode it makes an appearance in.
Clingy Costume: Terra's final costume was an armored suit that Slade had fused with her nervous system. With Clothing Damage, it's clear that she wears bandages where the suit's parts don't go — an aversion of Stripperific, which without the bandages is what the suit would be.
In "Birthmark", Slade rips off over 85% of Raven's outfit while mind raping her... or perhaps the OTHER kind. Watch closely, her top is being held on by thin shoulder straps. There's absolutely no back.
Rule 34: A surprisingly high quality animation by ZONE-sama does exactly that. And with minimal changes to the original episode's audio track, disturbingly enough.
Terra's outfit in "Aftershock Part 2"; see above.
Robin's outfit got quite a bit torn up in "Haunted" when he was fighting with what he thought was Slade.
Beast Boy's suit near the end of "The Beast Within" gets pretty ripped up... Which raises a lot of questions about how it got ripped up, or where it goes when he changes...
Cold Open: Nearly every episode features a scene before the opening theme.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each of the characters who had some form of energy manipulation powers had a distinct color associated with them, observable when they used their powers and also when their eyes glowed. The major ones:
Black with white edges for Raven (red edges for her Superpowered Evil Side and pure white for her "White Raven" form)
Green for Starfire
Yellow for Terra
Bright red for Brother Blood
Fiery red-orange for Trigon (and Slade when empowered by Trigon)
Dark purple for Blackfire
Pale pinkish-purple for Jinx
Collapsing Lair: Slade gets this twice in the first two season finales, Brother Blood gets it twice in the third, and the movie starts off with an attack on Titans Tower.
Comic Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: A non-film example: "Deathstroke the Terminator" is simply Slade here. Averted with every other character, though.
Continuity Nod: Also, Dr. Light's instant surrender when he came face to face with Raven, as he recalled the Mook Horror Show she'd subjected him to before. Guess he was still scared of the dark...
Another is in Can I Keep Him where one of the "foods" Starfire offers to Silky is mustard, which she was drinking in The Sum of His Parts
Convection Schmonvection: In "The End", Badass Normals Robin and Slade run around on rocks floating in lava. Later, Cyborg's face is held about a few inches above a lava lake and he's totally fine.
YMMV on Cyborg, while the parts of him that are still human would certainly burn, it's within possibility that his mechanical parts could be heat resistant.
Composite Character: Robin is Dick Grayson, has the temper of Jason Todd, and looks like Tim Drake.
Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Season 4 episode "Overdrive". Especially if you decide to delete parts of it yourself...
Dance Battler: Jinx will sometimes look like she's dancing ballet while dodging attacks in battle.
Dark Action Girl: Jinx fits this trope to a T (heh heh heh). She's also the leader of the H.I.V.E F.I.V.E, all male, and the only one with ambition. Her Heel Face Turn was partly triggered by high ranking villains initially dismissing her as useless. She has yet to do real heroics, her motivations seem to be simple revenge (and a crush on Kid Flash). Of course, the phrase "Dark Action Girl" really brings Raven to mind... though she's more an example of another trope.
Dark Is Not Evil: Many thought Raven will make a great villain because of her very dark past. She isn't. In the case of Jinx, she IS a villain at first, but her relationship with Kid Flash convinced her to do a heel face turn.
You are dark, and darkness is often misunderstood. —Malchior
Darker and Edgier: Season 4: Trigon's Plot is TO FORCE RAVEN TO FULFILL HER DESTINY AS THE ANTICHRIST AND DESTROY THE WORLD! Birthmark alone has a scene where Slade brands Raven in a scene that is uncomfortably creepy. This after the series was sometimes accused of being too kiddie.
When Raven pulled Dr. Light into some sort of dark vortex within her cloak, and when he came out he was curled up in the fetal position muttering, "S-so dark. Make it stop. Please make it stop."
The episode "Haunted" also ranks up there as one of the creepiest pieces of Western Animation targeted towards kids. They took Slade, a villain who's already creepy in his own right, and left the audience constantly unsure whether he was Back from the Dead and torturing Robin, or whether Robin had gone insane and was mutilating himself. The truth is somewhere in between.
Defiant to the End: Standard for each of the Titans to be Defiant to the End, which makes Robin begging for Slade to stop in "Haunted" more disturbing.
The Ditz: Starfire, though she's just naive and unfamiliar with her new environment as opposed to being legitimately stupid. She's demonstrated her intelligence on more than one occasion.
Raven!Starfire: Okay. How do you fly this thing? Starfire!Raven: You must feelflight. Raven!Starfire:What. Starfire!Raven: When you feel the unbridled joy of flight, you will fly.
Downer Ending: Beast Boy suffers this in "Things Change", not so much to the fact that his real name is Garfield.
Drop What You Are Doing: Terra drops the T-communicator when Robin announces her big secret: that she can't control her powers. She thinks Beast Boy lied to her and told, but Robin once worked for the world's greatest detective and figured it all out on his own, unaware it was a secret.
Eloquent In My Native Tongue: Starfire is a little better at English than most online translators. But not by much.
Emotionless Girl: Subverted by Raven, who actually has emotions, but is forced to keep them in check by the nature of her powers. ("Fear Itself" provides a pretty good example of what happens when her emotions become too much for her to handle.)
Robin in "Apprentice", though he did not do a face heel turn like his teammates thought he would.
Terra in Aftershock, who wears nothing but a breast plate and underwear, with the rest of her body covered in bandages.
Evil Counterpart: Blackfire. And later, Red-X served as sort of a 'morally ambiguous' counterpart to Robin. Jinx was designed to be a sort of evil counterpart to Raven, both magic users with a "dark" colour theme.
Because PINK is the new black!
Slade acts like a sort of Evil Counterpart to Batman (as he was intended to be in the original comics, complete with Wintergreen, his own Anti-Alfred). So it's no wonder he and Robin are so similar, since Robin takes after his mentor.
Executive Meddling: Because of the Never Say "Die" trope, Deathstroke was forced to be called by his first name, Slade (except in foreign dubs). It may have been a good idea, as it is often considered more enigmatic and badass than his original name.
Robin's mask basically emotes as if it were his eyes, and he never takes it off (except once in the movie, and then he was wearing sunglasses).
Slade's mask also counts, even if there's only one eye.
Red X actually counts, too; in "Revved Up", his reaction to landing on the bus only to discover Raven and Starfire in it is nothing short of hilarious.
Exposition Cut: Probably not the only example of this in the series, but used in the episode "The Beast Within" after the team found Raven in the maw of a feral Beast Boy.
Starfire: Rest. You are safe. He can no longer harm you.
Raven: He didn't hurt me, he saved me.
Starfire: From what? (cue scene transition)
The Faceless: Slade. Even when his mask gets knocked off in "The End" and his undead face is just a skull. Though at that point in the show, he had been reanimated by Trigon, but not resurrected. Apparently, this means he can't regrow his skin.
The episode Forces OF Nature has Slade disguised as an old man, though this functions as a bit of a Mythology Gag, as his disguise is somewhat similar to his original comics appearance.
Red X fits this as well, considering we only ever see his mask.
And, to a lesser extent, Robin, due to the fact that his eyes are never shown, but this would fit better into The Eyeless trope.
False Innocence Trick: Raven befriends a knight hero in a book by the name of Malchoir. He tells her stories of how an evil dragon trapped him there. He teaches her powerful magic and things seem awesome. Until the spells are dark magic that cause more chaos than good, but before Raven realizes she sets Malchoir free only to find out "Malchoir" is the name of the evil dragon, not the knight.
Fandom Nod: "For Real" One fan forum began to suspect writers visited their site due to the near verbatim lines in regards to Titan's East.
Fandom Specific Plot: There are many fanfics where Terra being a local school girl in one episode is explained. Usually it is that Terra had amnesia after being frozen in lava and started going to school in the city. There is always a Raven/Beast Boy/Terra love triangle. Another extremely common plot is to put them in a High School AU.
Your Mileage May Vary on that though. The Raven/Beast Boy thing is never really looked at in this version of the Titans.
Fantastic Racist: Val Yor. Now we know that "Troq" is the intergalactic equivalent of the N-word. Lampshaded by Cyborg when he tells Starfire that being part robot has caused him problems, too.
Fastball Special: Multiple variants. Of particular note is the "Beast Boy Blitz", where Beast Boy turns into an armadillo and rolls into a ball so that Cyborg can throw him. And then turns into a rhino mid-flight.
Female Gaze: The camera does tend to focus on Robin's butt an awful lot…
The Fifties: The Fifties Fifties version, in a Show Within a Show which Beast Boy lands in for a short while before an eight-foot robot smashes into the suburban paradise home like some demented manifestation of Chandler's Law.
Final Solution: Our heroes go on a trip with Val-Yor and commit genocide one an race of allegedly hostile robots.
Forced to Watch: Robin has been subject to this at least twice, and Raven once.
Forgot About His Powers Well, her powers at least. Raven has so many one-off powers she magically forgets about that it get's silly.
For the Evulz: In the first season, Slade's apparent goal is to destroy the city for no reason at all. Subverted in the finale, the destruction of the city turned out to be a diversion and his true goal was to blackmail Robin into becoming his apprentice.
For the Lulz: This is Red X's reason for stealing the suit in the first place, and then using it to commit theft. He's not really a "villain" so much as he finds crime more entertaining than heroics — although he's not adverse to heroics when he feels like it, as he does have a streak of actual decency that tends to kick in if people are going to die or someone's done him a favour.
Robin: Why did you steal the suit? What are you planning to do? Red X: Whatever I want. Not everyone wants to play the big villain, kid.
Genre Busting: It's a superhero action cartoon whose animation is often more inspired by Tex Avery or the weirder side ofAnime than anything in U.S. Comic Books, yet often has very dark, dramatic storylines and, on a few occasions, will have an episode focus almost entirely on character interactions, with the obligatory supervillain battle relegated to a minor B-plot.
God Guise: In one episode, Raven crash-lands on a planet inhabited by tiny aliens, and is worshiped as a God simply for being more than three inches tall.
Good Costume Switch: Although a Dark Is Not Evil example, Raven has had a dark cloak to white cloak switch at least three separate times in the series, accompanied by a Big Damn Heroes moment. Never lasts long, though.
However, although the early episodes portray Raven as straight-up Goth, her personality begins fluctuating later and she is revealed to be more calculating, introverted and antisocial than generically Goth.
Argent, introduced in the third-to-last episode.
Jinx fills the goth villainess role.
Granola Girl: Starfire portrays this physically and verbally. She's a hippie chick from outerspace.
Except for Season 5, where all but three episodes (the origin story episode, the Go Karting with Bowser episode, and the final episode) are in some way connected to the fight against the Brotherhood of Evil. And even the final episode mentions how the Titans have just come back from defeating them.
Half-Human Hybrid: Raven is half-demon. A case could be made for Cyborg as a half-robot.
In "Snowblind: Red Star. A supercharged supersoldier from Russia, he willingly locked himself up in a old power plant for years to keep from hurting other people due to his body discharging radiation every few hours and at the end of the episode has Starfire take him into the stratosphere when he goes supernova due to an overload from battle. He returns in the second-to-last episode with no particular explanation.
Robin nearly pulls one of these in the Season 1 finale by blasting himself with the same deadly nanites that were killing the rest of the Titans, gambling on Slade being more willing to let them all live than to let Robin die. He was right, too.
Hot Mom: After seeing Arella in "The End" arc, it's quite obvious who Raven takes after.
Hotter and Sexier: Notably averted and a source of some criticism from those hoping for a more direct adaptation of the comic book. The character designs for the Titans were made more awkward and teen-like than their Comic Book counterparts. Although this can be said for virtually all the characters, Starfire is the obvious poster child for this particular aversion.
Human Outside, Alien Inside: Pops up for Starfire from time to time, such things as her allergy to metallic-chromium and strange recipes. Also when she attempts to "bathe" her pet, Silky, by licking it like a mother cat. With a two-foot-long tongue. Apparently, she also has nine stomachs. And let's not get started on her transformation....
Humorless Aliens: Starfire has some trouble understanding why, exactly, Beast Boy's jokes are supposed to be funny. When exposed to "Why are ducks so funny? Because they're always quacking jokes!", she said something like, "Oh, I get it! It is humorous because ducks lack the large brains necessary for the telling of jokes!"
I Cant Take It Anymore: Not word for word, but Beast Boy delivers one of these to Raven in "The Beast Within". To be fair, he actually makes a good point at the start, however due to the Implied Death Threat he's drawn as the bad guy.
Beast Boy: Y'know Raven, I've been a really nice guy for a really long time. I've put up with your insults and your attitude, and I've had it. Consider this a warning: As of last night, Mr. Nice Guy has left the building.
I Shall Taunt You: One of Gizmo's usual battle strategies . . . it rarely actually works, though.
Idiot Ball: Robin gets hit with a big one in the fifth season.
If It Swims, It Flies: The T-Sub quickly became the T-Ship capable of deep space travel. Lampshaded in that Cyborg was quite adamant about it being built for deep-sea, not deep-space.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Cyborg, Raven, and Terra. Notable in that Terra's subsequent retirement was permanent, and implied as being for the better...
In the Blood: Raven's demonic heritage and power, which she resists.
Ingesting Knowledge: In one episode a mage teaches Raven an ability to absorb (not literally) many books at the same time, as it's faster than reading them.
Innocent Aliens: Starfire. Innocent, but a far cry from helpless.
Innocently Insensitive: Cyborg in "Troq" when he calls Starfire "Troqqy" not knowing it's offensive.
Terra: My name is Terra. I have done horrible things. And I have absolutely no regrets.
Irritation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: Inverted, though for a moment everyone who was imitating Robin was afraid it might hold. Robin actually was flattered... It's a good thing the True Master taught him not to take himself so freaking seriously.
Robin: You know, Robins, the mask makes me feel cool, too.
It Came from the Fridge: "Final Exam". Later played with, as Mammoth has absolutely no problem scarfing the entire fridge.
I Was Just Passing Through: Completely averted by Red X. In "X", Red X tracks Robin down to Professor Chang's lair just in time to snatch Robin out of mid-air before Robin can fall into Chang's disintegrator cannon. When Robin comments on this, Red X doesn't try to claim that he acted for his own reasons.
(after Red X saves Robin's life) Robin: I thought you didn't like to play the hero. Red X: Doesn't mean I don't know how.
Jobber: Dr Light ends most of his appearances in short order as the unfortunate target of Raven's Superpowered Evil Side. After getting one episode where he actually was a threat in season 5, the Grand Finale ended with his attempted bank robbery being responded to by the entire extended Titans team.
Knight of Cerebus: If Slade or Trigon is in an episode, it's pretty much a guarantee it won't be humorous (except for the first few Season One eps with Slade, but even then he wasn't played for laughs, though he also wasn't as creepy as he'd become later on).
Kuudere: Raven — although BeastBoy occasionally manages to push Raven over into using the more aggressive Tsundere tactics.
In the Trapped in TV Land episode "Don't Touch That Dial" Cyborg recognizes the episode of the show they're in as being episode 1 of the fourth season. Feel free to guess what episode and season "Don't Touch That Dial" is.
The same episode (also known as "Episode 257-494", its production number) also has Robin grabbing the camera, declaring that watching television while Control Freak was inside will liquefy your brain. For added comedic value, the show they were interrupting during the scene featured a doctor who had discovered the secret to world peace and was going to share it with the viewers.
It also has a mugshot of Control Freak on a news bulletin, with him holding up a number: 257-325—the production number of "Fear Itself", Control Freak's first appearance.
And to really nail down the ways this episode mutilates the fourth wall, it even goes after the in-show version of it - at the very end of the episode, Cyborg and the red-clad woman from the soap-opera scene are hugging.
Lethal Chef: Raven's pancakes — burned like charcoal on the outside, still runny on the inside. Starfire may be a perfectly competent cook by Tamaranian standards but... well, it's called pudding of sadness and is produced by someone who treats mustard as a beverage...
To be fair, it is stated that the whole point of the Pudding of Sadness is to be so disgusting that it takes your mind off whatever bad thing you're thinking about. Also, part of Terra's introduction features her trying some weird green gelatinous substance with pink things floating in it that Starfire offers her. She adopts a thoughtful look, announcing that it tastes "like sushi mixed with ice cream" (complete with visual equation, no less). Then she eagerly asks if there's any more.
Starfire: Wonderful!! I shall go cultivate the fungus!
Lighter and Softer: The 80's comic had a much darker tone than you might expect.
Limited Wardrobe: The team even sleeps in their costumes, though understandable as they live in a giant letter on an island near the city, tower assaults at night are always a possibility.
This trope is repeatedly demonstrated for every character (except Cyborg, who doesn't wear clothes).
Robin's closet is revealed to contain only multiple sets of his costume, complete with gadgets for each one. When the other members of the team decide to try them on, Hilarity Ensues.
Starfire is shown carrying dozens of copies of her uniform out of her room when she goes to get married.
Marshmallow Heaven: In "Forces of Nature", Starfire hugs Beast Boy (as a cat) after forgiving him for the motor oil balloon prank, but if you look carefully, Beastie is rubbing his face ON HER BOOBS. Hey, he's a teenage boy, what did you expect?
Happens to none other than RAVEN, after getting back into their bodies at the end of switched Starfire hugs Raven and for split second we can see her head at... a questionable place
Martial Arts Do Not Work That Way: Season 1 Robin being the most frequent offender; fortunately he does clean up his act, and his fights that don't invoke this trope more than make up for the ones that do.
May-December Romance: Between Raven (teen) and Malchior (easily a few centuries, if not millenia).
The Mean Brit: Mad Mod, who's mean, but also wacky and entertaining — and appears to be motivated by a need to correct young people's education and grammar.... And also has an aversion to America in general; hence Jump City's makeover in "Revolution" to look more like a mish-mash of English cities.
In a similar vein, Cyborg's cover identity when he infiltrates the HIVE Academy: Stone. This is more of a nod towards Cyborg's real name Victor Stone. The fake power more likely came about because of the name, not the other way around.
Robin in the episode "Haunted" suffers one big Mind Rape.
Missing Episode: "The Lost Episode". It featured a villain named Punk Rocket who used a weaponized guitar. Punk Rocket would later show up in a very minor role near the end of the 5th season as part of the Brotherhood of Evil.
Mood Whiplash: The show basically had three kinds of episodes: dark and serious ones with occasional comedy, largely serious plotlines but with plenty of wacky hijinks on the side, and completely insane goofy ones. Apart from the multiparters (which were pretty much all the first type) all bets were off as to what the next episode would be like, and it wasn't at all uncommon for something serious to be followed up immediately by something bizarre (or vice-versa).
Raven(In regard to the latter): "Cool! I-I mean, oops."
"The Sum of His Parts" goes back and forth between two storylines. The main one features Cyborg being held prisoner by Fixit, who wants to remove his human parts and turn him into a full robot, and almost having his memories erased in a scene that could rival "Birthmark" for Mind Rape factor. The subplot features the rest of the Titans in their efforts to catch Mumbo Jumbo, who they think is responsible for Cyborg's disappearance, in a chase scene over-the-top with silliness and visual gags.
More Dakka: Cyborg when Slade's army starts marching to Titan's Tower (The End (Part 1)). Arm cannons? Try two giant arm cannons, MMM-grade missile launchers in the chest and shoulders, a giant cannon on his shoulder, and draining the Tower's power to feed it all. Of course, Slade is left standing, his army rises out of the ground, and Cyborg is completely drained afterwards.
Most Common Superpower: Raven is... very well... "developed", compared to the other female characters. Starfire is a very (emphasis on very) close second, with poor Terra as dead last.
A very unfunny version. In the episode "Haunted", Robin accidentally inhales an unnamed hallucinogen from an old mask of Slade's. Unlike most examples, however, this Mushroom Samba leads to one of the darkest episode of the series - Robin hallucinates that Slade is everywhere and goes on a rampage trying to stop him, even going so far as physically hurting Starfire (his best friend and love interest) and threatening to "take down" his team if they try restraining him. The drug manifests every blow on his body as though he really is battling someone, and so before he realizes that bright light disperses the visions, he's nearly beaten to death... by himself.
Cyborg gets his turn when Beast Boy accidentally gives him a computer virus. He runs around crazily and eats everything in sight, while having strange food-related hallucinations.
In one episode Red X, an alter-ego Robin used, returns, and it's definitely not Robin. On BB's board-o'-theories, a careful viewer can notice "Jason Todd" and Nightwing.
Larry's real name: "Nosyarg Kcid" in "Fractured", Beast Boy being referred to as a "changeling" in Winner Take All. (The first Robin's real name backwards and the name Beast Boy used upon joining the Titans in the comics, respectively.)
When Cyborg infiltrates HIVE, he uses the alias "Stone"; in the comics, his civilian identity is Victor Stone.
In the same episode, Beast Boy shuts up Robot!Cyborg by turning into a stafish and clamping over his face, in a manner very reminiscent of classic DC villain Starro the Conqueror.
A lot of the lines from Terra's episodes are slightly changed from The Judas Contract, such as Terra referring to Raven as a "witch" (she referred to her as that a lot in the comics). Terra being turned to stone and the monologue is also very reminiscent of Terra's burial statue and the monologue during her death.
Beast Boy's infinite movie and T.V. show knowledge. Possibly a reference to the fact that he was at one point a television actor in the comics.
In "Mother Mae-Eye", the titular villain character combs Robin's hair in the style that the original Dick Grayson version of the character wore (y'know, the one without pants), which he eventually shakes out
When Beast Boy dresses up in Robin's costume, he jumps through a screen held by Starfire that proclaims him "The Sensational Character Find of 1965". This is an homage to the title page of Robin's first-ever appearance in Detective Comics, and the date of Beast Boy's first appearance (Robin himself was "The Sensational Character Find of 1940").
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Terra could have probably been persuaded from Slade's influence earlier if it wasn't for the fact that Beast Boy pushes her off the edge when he declines her friendship at the very end of "Betrayal". Way to go, hero.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Thanks to Terra going ridiculously overboard in trying to destroy the Titans and the city, and generally prove herself a villain, the Titans manage to put aside any past feelings toward her and kick her butt easily the next time she confronts them by herself.
New Powers as the Plot Demands: Raven. There are possible justifications for it, such as just using new spells or perhaps being afraid to go all out due to her demon nature.
Each of the Titans are capable of giving a good one when they really cut loose. Usually that requires either Heroic Resolve or a Berserk Button to be pushed, however.
No Sell: Occurs semi-regularly, but a notable example is in "Wavelength" when Cyborg hits Brother Blood with a (small) missile and there isn't even any Clothing Damage when the smoke clears.
Not Just A Tournament: In "Winner Take All", a number of teen superbeings are teleported to an unknown location, where the Master of Games invites them to take part in a Tournament of Heroes that will determine which of them is the greatest young hero on Earth. What the competitors don't know is that when they lose, they're trapped within the Master's jewel so he can use their powers.
Not so Different: The basis of Slade's We Can Rule Together crusade towards Robin. The team even calls Robin out on it a few times, after he does something dickish.
Demonstrated terrifyingly effectively in the season 4 finale, when Slade and Robin fight off an army of Trigon's lava monsters, using the exact same moves. As Robin points out though, there is one major fundamental difference between them:
Beast Boy. Not only he knows his sci-fi knowledge, he's a manga worshipper. Curiously, despite being one, BB doesn't actually seem to know what it means.
And Control Freak. Can't forget him.
Office Sports: Stankball, using a ball made from unwashed socks.
Official Couple: Robin and Starfire, Kid Flash and Jinx. For a while, Beast Boy and Terra, Cyborg and Sarasim, Raven and Malchior/Rorek.
Plot-Induced Stupidity: Raven has a very diverse set of magical powers...that she mainly uses to throw things at people. There's also Cyborg's seldom used detachable limbs and grappling hook hand.
In the episode "Kole" the entire Titans team ends up falling through a huge hole into a prehistoric world. Despite Beast Boy being able to turn into flying animals, Cyborg's above mentioned grapple hook and Robin owning every swinging rope gadget imaginable. Starfire and Raven on the other hand somehow completely forget they can fly.
Starfire's forgetfulness is particularly bad. One minute she's lifting tons over her head and flying faster than light, and the next she's struggling against badass normals.
Robin: Do NOT separate! I repeat! DO NOT SEPARATE! Robin, as heard on the ship's communication:(static) separate! I repeat! (static) SEPARATE! Starfire: As you wish. (The ship separates. Cue the Titans being stranded on an alien planet.)
Pragmatic Adaptation: Given Terra's past as a mercenary and having a relationship with Slade, despite being only fifteen, it's little wonder they made the changes they made to her.
Cyborg: So let me get this straight: We're [Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy and Cyborg] inside Mumbo's Hat and Raven's inside Mumbo's Hat INSIDE Mumbo's Hat?!"
Mad Mod turned the sky into a huge Union Jack... somehow. To say nothing of all the other unexplained weirdness that happens whenever he shows up. Though Mad Mod is probably more a Master of Illusion than a Reality Warper.
Remembered I Could Fly: Seemingly played straight when Beast Boy wants a moped and Robin reminds him he doesn't need one, because he can fly. Then averted when Beast Boy says he already knew that, but complains that his arms get tired.
Scary Shiny Glasses: The first clue that "Bob" in "Employee of the Month" is a little off.
Screaming Warrior: Everyone gets a turn, often when making their first move in any given battle.
Robin. Every time he moves.
Screw Destiny: Raven's ongoing fight against a prophecy that she will aid her demon father in destroying the world. Which she loses, but then kicks on the nuts.
Starfire had one of these moments at the end of How Long Is Forever?
Script Wank: Lampshaded! After defeating Control Freak, Robin states that the lesson this week was to not watch too much TV... until he's reminded that they only won because Beast Boy watches too much TV, thereby deliberately smashing the Aesop into tiny little pieces.
Also Season 4's mainly dead end way of preoccupying the remaining three protagonists while Robin can play the hero and Slade can set up his anti-villain/hero moment. Additionally a pretty effective way of providing tidbits of backstory and moonlights from one particular previous season.
Shaped Like What It Sells: The balcony of the pizzeria is shaped like a slice of pizza when seen from above. The floor is the cheese and the tables are the pepperoni.
Starfire is staggering in an evening dress and Opera Gloves
Robin looks very nice in a tuxedo.
"She's Not My Girlfriend!": Robin in "Stranded", leading to Starfire being so upset that she is unable to use her powers. He chalks it up to her not understanding what a girlfriend is. She demonstrates that she understands perfectly.
They had ridden a Ferris Wheel together as she ate cotton candy (season 1), and she called him "my boy" in the boyfriend sense while angry in "Date With Destiny" (2x06). Stranded is in Season 4. No wonder Starfire considered them to be in a sort of relationship.
Shonen Hair: Robin, probably to invoke an "anime" look more than anything.
65-Episode Cartoon: More of a subversion, though. The series was expected to end with 52 episodes. Season 5 was just as much a surprise to production as it was to fans.
Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness: The whole show dances a jig up and down this. Take, for example, season three, where you've got an episode that's basically one of the most brutal, drawn out mind rapes ever put to Western Animation, very close in production order to an absurd story about Cyborg accidentally downloading a virus and trying to eat every inanimate object in sight.
Smelly Skunk: Beast Boy uses this as an attack once, unlike most examples in this trope there isn't an actual gas cloud shown, but there is a fart sound effect.
Something Person: Beast Boy, Aqualad, Gill Girl in the tie-in comics.
Left the Background Music On: In the episode where Mad Mod tries to put all the Titans in detention, an Ear Worm-y song is played during their attempted escape. Right before the "exit" is discovered, Robin turns a switch on a bust of Mad Mod, ending the song.
For reference, the song is K 2 G, by Puffy Ami Yumi.
One-shot villain Fang, who has a spider for a head!
Spinoff Babies: A similar case to X-Men: Evolution: the original comicbook began with a team of teenagers, but most of the team members in the TV series first appeared as adults.
Steven Ulysses Perhero: Slade's name is a pretty interesting case. His comic-book name, Deathstroke the Terminator is rejected by the bigwigs at Cartoon Network because saying death is a big no-no and the fact that "Terminator" is still copyright from Governor Arnie. As a result, the producers picked his actual name, Slade Wilson. And the weirdest thing is that it works. Deathstroke sounds like a hitman's name, which works in the original comics because he's a mercenary.
Still Wearing The Old Colors: Beast Boy still wears the outfit of his old group. He ditches the goggles after Raven calls them dorky, but that's about it.
Stolen Good, Returned Better: The Hive takes over the Titans' (filthy) Tower. By the time the Titans retake it, the Hive have cleaned it up and alphabetized their CDs. The Titans are appalled, since now they can't find anything and they were saving that blue mold.
Super Hero Origin: Oddly, not featured until the fourth-to-last episode of the series.
Superpower Lottery: Raven, Brother Blood, and Slade while working for Trigon all seem to develop five or six new abilities in every alternate scene. Their typical powers are also pretty damn out-there. It's probably a sign when quite a few of Raven's episodes ("Switched", "Fear Itself", "Bunny Raven", "The End") feature her losing her powers in some way.
Jinx's powers seem to let her do anything as long as its considered "bad luck" for the target, anything. This can be as simple as causing small explosions or electronic mishaps, to telekinetically dismantling the chair they are sitting on, to causing the ground itself to break apart so water mains can just so happen to burst out right into the person's face. Her powers definitely made her stand out among her comrades, who were just a Super Strong Guy and a Techno Wizard.
Surrounded by Idiots: In the episode "Lightspeed", Jinx remarks "I don't know why I hang around with you nitwits." By the end of the episode, she's done hanging around with those nitwits.
Swarm of Rats: Occurs as Starfire's "demise" in the episode "Fear Itself".
Swiss Army Weapon: Robin with his discs and Speedy with his arrows. See-More's eye can change into many different kinds of weapons or tools, from a heat laser to bludgeoning projectiles, to x-ray vision and even a blimp . . . unclear if See-more is more of a case of a weapon or a body part though.
The Chew Toy: I'll give you a hint, he has pointy ears and green skin like an Orc or a Goblin, eats tofu, is an idiot jokester, and is the official Plucky Comic Relief of the entire series.
Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors: In The End pt.II, Starfire, Beast Boy and Cyborg cannot beat their respective clones. So they switch and face eachother's clones instead.Needless to say, they win.
Taken for Granite: Terra in "Aftershock Part 2" and the entire world in "The End".
Taking the Bullet: How Terra takes out Starfire-with a boulder aimed at Robin.
Talking To Themself: Billy Numerous has a habit of holding conversations his clones.
Theme Tune: "When there's trouble you know who to call, TEEN TITANS! From their tower they can see it all...!" Cyborg sang his own variation at one point. ("When there's trouble you know what to dooooooooooooooo! CALL CYBORG! He can shoot a rocket from his shooooooooooooe! 'CAUSE HE'S CYBORG! Dodadadodo, somethin' like that! Nananana, BIG FLUFFY CAT! That's right!")
The tune was also used as a cue. If Puffy Ami Yumi sing in Japanese, you're getting one of the wacky, goofy episodes. If they sing in English, it's a normal episode. The only exception to this rule was the first Raven-centric episode, "Nevermore".
In the Movie, not only is a translated to Japanese and back to English version sung by Beast Boy during a Karaoke scene, but also in the credits of said Movie, each of the five main characters sing (or in Raven's case, deadpans in a way that you KNOW she must be trying to look away from everyone) at least two lines.
There Are No Therapists: One wonders how society is okay with a group of teenagers with no parental figures involving themselves in horrific violence every day without any support, except from each other. Also, each Titan has an extremely dark past which quite obviously still affects them and even interferes with their work sometimes, yet they don't try to seek help in any way, and in the case of most of them, simply try to bottle it all up.
Token Minority: Cyborg the black guy, Starfire the alien, Raven the demonic hybrid... Add Beast Boy in there, and that's most of the main cast. Considering that they have a habit of meeting minority villains and allies, it's pretty well averted.
In the original comics, this is reversed. Starfire's Proud Warrior Race is played up a lot more, with her constantly wanting to hang out with the boys and solve everything through violence. Raven, on the other hand, is The Empath, and is a demure pacifist who cries during nearly every single fight.
Dr. Light, of all people, takes one in "Kole", by virtue of having a better plan then usual, and having veryloose limits on what can be done with "light-based" powers. He loses the level with his inevitable defeat by episode's end, however.
Control Freak takes a level in TV badass (not that it makes him any less dorky in the script) in Don't Touch That Dial, and tops it off with "I Know Karate".
Totally Radical: Beast Boy, Cyborg, and especially Gizmo were the worst offenders.
Robin's attache case in "All Revved Up". Also, whether the schoolgirl was really Terra in the series finale, and if so, how she lost her memory...or if she really did lose it at all.
Also, anytime Slade's mask gets knocked off something happens to make sure we don't see his face (in Apprentice II he managed to cover it with his hand before more than a silhouette could be seen, and in The End II his face was just an undead skull).
In Final Exam, we only hear the final sentence of Robin and Starfire's conversation as they enter the living room:
Starfire: ...and that is the secret to traveling faster than light!
Raven's backstory gets one is "Switched" when she and Starfire have to know about each other's powers.
Raven: I was born in a place called Azarath...
In Trouble in Tokyo, when Robin needs to ditch his superhero persona because he was framed for a crime, you think you will finally see his eyes, but nope, now he's got big 'ol shades.
Actually, we DO get to see his eyes for a second, when Robin and Star's moment gets interrupted by the rest of the team. Of course, they're only specks because the animation goes haywire, but still.
Red X's identity and how he knew about the suit in the first place.
Unusual Euphemism: Gizmo works in these like other people work in oils or clay. What the hairball?!
'Starfire:(putting a flower on Robin's lapel) I believe on such occasions, it is customary to wear a dead plant?
Vague Age: It goes with the series lack of showing anything of the heroes personal lives.
Values Dissonance: In-universe example. In "Betrothed", Robin is appalled by the idea of Starfire having an arranged marriage, but Raven responds by asking if the Titans have any right to question Tamaranian culture. The issue's rendered moot anyway, since it turns out Starfire was lied to and she didn't have to marry anyone at all. Besides, Robin was complaining for other reasons.
Kitten demands that Robin take her to the prom, or she'll unleash mutant insects on the city. Robin is not happy. Neither is Starfire.
Blackfire also flirts heavily with Robin in her debut appearance; however, this seems to be more about making Starfire angry than an indication of real interest on her part, as she doesn't even interact with Robin at all when she shows up again.
Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The show always got darker whenever Trigon showed up, and the same could almost always be said of Slade.
Voices Are Mental: In "Switched", when Raven and Starfire switch bodies, they still have their original voices.
Wasn't That Fun?: One episode has Raven forced to take three little kids who are potential superheroes to a safe place to stop them from being kidnapped by the Brotherhood of Evil. At one point, she and the kids are trying to escape from Monsieur Mallah by riding in a cable-car, and the wire snaps. They go plummeting down the mountain in the car, which eventually crashes, but the kids land harmlessly in the snow. The two who can talk both promptly sit up and scream, "Again! Again!" Raven's reply? "NO AGAIN."
Wave Motion Gun: In The End: Part 1. As a last resort, Cyborg hooks himself up to the Tower's electricity supply and proceeds to arm a truckload of hidden equipment. This culminates in double blasts from two massive sonic cannons, spiriting several hundred fire demons back to Hell. Probably bumped up the episode's HSQ considerably.
Also, "Apprentice" in season 1 shocked people with how dark it was, back when the show was new and hadn't established itself yet as a serious show.
What Happened to the Mouse?: At the end of the Trapped in TV Land episode Cyborg has brought a soap opera star back to reality with him. What happens to her is never explained. Then again, how she got there is never explained, either...
Easy. It's shown that stuff from TV Land can be brought back to reality via Control Freak's lightsabers in the final episode. However, the Canned Laughter at the end also shows that they may have still been in TV land anyways.
Or maybe they just walked back over to a news station set and looked for an EXIT sign
In Season 5, what happened to the Doom Patrol in the finale? Their leader was shown to be obsessed with taking down the Brain, you'd think they'd know when the Brain made a move as big as capturing the Titans en masse and they'd do something about it.
Wondergirl appears on the Wheel in Titans Together, but never appears in the episode (either speaking or not). What is the in-series reason she's not with the other Titans?
Probably the police: the poor soul sent to kidnap him had no chanche in hell, and could have been Finger Poke of Doom-ed to death in full public view.
Pay close attention to Slade's butler in the pilot, for he is never seen again. (He does make a brief appearance in the comic as a victim of Ravager, but his relationship to Slade is never elaborated on.)
When She Smiles: Raven. Occasionally, this is a sign that something's horribly, horribly wrong...
White-Haired Pretty Boy: Malchior from the episode Spellbound. Of course, it turns out that the Malchior is the dragon that has borrowed the look from Rorek.
World Limited to the Plot: With a couple episodes being exceptions, used with full force until Season 5. A good example of this is that despite Robin, Aqualad, Speedy, and Kid Flash being characters, we never even hear the names of their adult counterparts. We also never hear Robin's name, though it's implied a couple of times to be Dick Grayson.
Wrench Wench: Raven, of all people, though its easy to miss. Terra has this aesthetic, but isn't.
Xtreme Kool Letterz: Kyd Wykkyd seems to have a serious aversion to the letter I.
Yank the Dog's Chain: Terra's now an official Teen Titan, made friends with her teammates and even had a little romance with Beast Boy. You thought she's going to be a permanant character, right? WRONG. As it turns out, after the debut appearance, she seeks Slade's help, and even give out vital information to him into order for Slade to send his robot minions to attack Titans Tower. For once, we should have actually believed Raven's instincts.
You Didn't Ask: The True Master when Robin asks why she didn't say who she really was.
You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry: Raven is easily the most powerful Titan, but makes it clear that she has to avoid strong emotions or risk losing control of her powers. She proves this by administering a couple good Curb Stomp Battles through the series (see Dr. Light in "Nevermore" and Slade in "Prophecy") when sufficiently angered. Typically this terrifies the crap out of everybody, including herself.
A Continuity Nod in the beginning of "Birthmark" illustrates just how scary Raven was from "Nevermore". Just watch Dr. Light's reaction to seeing Raven for ostensibly only the second time here @ 1:30. She must be pretty scary....
Beast Boy, of all people, is the runner-up in sheer scariness. In "Betrayal", he gets serious and nearly kills Slade while protecting Terra, relenting only after Slade Mind Screws them both. Then there's "The Beast Within," where mystery chemicals and fits of anger turn him into a ridiculously fast and powerful man-beast, showing what can happen when he stops being the Plucky Comic Relief and how much damage he's really capable of doing. In season four's finale, he even manages this transformation willingly. In "Things Change", he beats the living daylights out of Slade for suggesting that Terra wants to forget her past. Of course, it turns out to be Actually a Doombot, but considering the damage taken by Slade...
Your Mind Makes It Real: "Haunted". And "Fear Itself", though in this case, it's just Raven's mind for everyone.
Yuppie Pet: Silkie, who is also pretty much the personification of Ugly Cute.
Zerg Rush: About the only thing Billy Numerous can do. There's also Slade's attack with an army of fire-demons in the fourth season finale.
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