Teen Titans Go!

The cartoon, not the comic.

My opinion of Teen Titans Go! is pretty simple: I hate a lot of things about it but still find some episodes that are moderately enjoyable. If it became cancelled tomorrow I wouldn't shed any tears over it but I find it's usually bearable and sometimes amuses me. It helps that at least the voice actors seem to be having a good time even if the show is kinda crap. Yes, the characters have all been ruined and act very little like how they should, yes Beast Boy, Cyborg and Robin in particular get it the worst, and yes they all have episodes where I hate their guts and make me wish for cancellation.

That said, there is one thing about the show that I absolutely loathe: the freaking titles. "Breakfast Cheese", "Money Grandma", "Smile Bones", etc., all are really terrible! "Breakfast Cheese" I can't even figure out, the title has nothing to do with the episode's plot except for one little throwaway lyric at the end. It doesn't make sense! "Money Grandma" and "Smile Bones" are just made of stupid since they're ignorant phrases Beast Boy (and Cyborg) use instead of the real name/word (George Washington and teeth, respectively) because I guess the writers think it's funny that BB is ignorant.

Not all the titles are bad, I just remember those in particular because they just didn't make sense to me. The latter two just play into the problem of the show as a whole. It's not just a problem of the characters being stupid, it goes beyond that. The show feels very anti-intellectual, with characters reveling in their ignorance. Not to mention all the other horrible messages, which generally get shackled onto Beast Boy and Cyborg. Robin fairs better only when they're busy being the episode's idiots, otherwise it's a safe bet he'll fall into that role. Raven and Starfire generally make it out better in the episodes, but they can be infuriating as well.

There is potential in the show, though yeah that should be obvious since Teen Titans was mega popular a decade ago. The writers/directors/creators/network are just too busy trying to... I honestly don't know what they're trying to do, maybe be funny? The problems are just too big to be mistakes, they are intentional and they get repeated, as though something tells them that this is the right thing to do. The characters are generally too ignorant and mean to like, only occasionally doing something right and making something genuinely amusing.

I'll end this post by listing an episode or two I think work: "Starliar" and "Lady Legasus" are pretty entertaining. Starfire and Raven episodes generally do fair better, I don't know why but maybe because they're girls and the writers are afraid of making unlikable women? Anyway, in both episodes the antagonist is a Titan, but not because they are being too mean. Starfire in the former learns how to lie from Beast Boy in an attempt to spare the other Titan's feelings when she gets invited a party they don't, She does more damage with this action but she thought she would be doing something good. In the latter, Cyborg has donned Raven's cloak and the darkness within it corrupts him into a crabby, mean-spirited person who eventually attacks his friends. His actions weren't his own doing though, he was being influenced by an outside force.

Those episodes do something right by keeping the antagonists sympathetic. Instead of BB and Cyborg being huge jerks like in SOME episodes, Starfire and Cyborg are kept likable because their motivations are understandable. That is how you do this right, by not altering the personality drastically.

Finally, a thought about something in this show that has been in my mind for awhile. In one episode where Robin challenges his friends to go a day without using their powers, they end up doing better than he thought and so he decides to try to cheat to win. He ties a robot of himself to a bomb and puts it at the end of an obstacle course, hoping they'll use their powers and disqualify themselves. None of them do, and they don't make it in time. My problem with this episode came with that resolution. NONE OF THE TITANS WOULD RISK A BET FOR THE LIFE OF THEIR FRIEND! Not one of them even tried using their powers to get to Robin in time, they were going to let him die! That's why the episode fell apart for me. It made Robin go from the most unlikable person in the episode to the most sympathetic. The guy who tried to cheat his way through a bet and lied to his friends, pretending to be dead, is more sympathetic than any of the others. The episode had an easy way of keeping the tone of the show and making it a much better episode.

They should have used their powers and lost the bet. Robin cheats, he wins, his friends are mad at him and he's unlikable like the episode wanted to portray. This is in keeping with the tone of the episode and the overall portrayal of the Titans in this show. Instead the writers tried to outdo themselves in how mean-spirited they could be and everyone in the episode was unlikable. Good going, guys.

Oh wow, okay this turned out way longer than I thought it was going to. I've been bottling up my thoughts about the show for awhile now, it was good to get them out.

-Subtle