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File:Teen Titans 9609.jpg

From Left: Raven, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Robin, Starfire

Cquote1

"When there's trouble, you know who to call..."

Cquote2


Cquote1

"Titans, go!"

Cquote2


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 who behaved like an Action Girl Funny Foreigner; 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-shifting Plucky 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 noticeably "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 in tone to the original Teen Titans.

Reruns are now[when?] 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[when?] 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.

Not to be confused with the 2018 live-action TV series, nor with its own alternate continuity/sequel Teen Titans Go! (although they had a Intercontinuity Crossover TV movie with the latter).


Tropes used in Teen Titans (animation) include:
  • 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.
  • Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Present in "The Beast Within."
  • Academy of Evil: H.I.V.E.
  • Acid Trip Dimension: Where Herald lives.
  • Action Girl: Most of the female characters in the series. Starfire, Raven, Terra, and Bumblebee in particular.
  • Actor Allusion:
    • 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.
    • He's still the series' Butt Monkey when it's revealed that his teenage daughter is really the one who wears the pants in their household. Guy can't catch a break.
  • Adorkable: Beast Boy.
  • An Aesop
  • 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 "Calling 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.
  • Affectionate Parody: "Employee Of The Month" appears to be a nod towards Invader Zim, with some FLCL thrown in too.
  • Age Without Youth: General Immortus of the Brotherhood of Evil.
  • Agony Beam: Doctor Light uses one of these on Robin in season 5. It's powered by the Aurora Borealis.
  • Aliens Speaking English: Tamaraneans have the ability to absorb other people's language through mouth-to-mouth contact (ahem). As a result of kissing Robin, Starfire's English is fine, though she slips up from time to time and doesn't always "get" wordplay or innuendo. She also speaks very formally, rarely using contractions.
    • Blackfire, on the other hand, speaks English very well and frequently uses slang. Which implies that she had kissed several men.
    • 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.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Final Exam, third episode in production, first to air.
    • Also "Betrayal" and "The End Pt. 1" (though in the latter case, the attackers never made it inside the Tower).
      • Also the beginning of the movie.
    • And Brother Blood assaults and takes control of the Titans East tower in the third season finale.
  • All There in the Manual: While never stated in the series proper, the tie-in comic, Teen Titans Go! gave the city that the Titans lived the name "Jump City." Fandom took this and ran with it.
  • All Your Powers Combined: The Master of Games
    • Also how Raven beat Trigon in "Nevermore".
  • Amusing Alien: Starfire
  • And I Must Scream: Parodied in "Fractured".
  • And Your Little Dog, Too: Raven invokes this trope by name when the Titans take on Johnny Rancid's Robot Dog Rex.
  • Animated Series
  • Anti-Hero: Robin. He may be the leader of a team of superheroes, but he even admits to himself that he is too dogged in his pursuit of villains, and is not above lying to his friends if it helps his plan.
  • Animesque: Like you. Wouldn't. Believe.
  • Apocalypse How: The Season 4 Finale. Planetary/Total Extinction. The world obviously got better.
    • And we could technically put the-Larry incited Apocalypse as a Class Z. It's just a filler episode though, so no worries.
  • Apocalypse Maiden: Raven.
  • Arm Cannon: Cyborg's main weapon.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Killer Moth threatens to destroy the City unless the following three demands are met:
Cquote1

"The city will declare me ruler, the Teen Titans will surrender and Robin... will take this lovely young lady to her junior prom."

Cquote2
  • Art Evolution: Most notable are the chibis, which became more refined as the episodes went on.
  • Attack Pattern Alpha: The H.I.V.E. and "Gamma Formation!"
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: Robin gets two with Red X and SLADE, of all people! It Makes Sense in Context.
  • 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.
  • Bad Powers, Bad People
    • 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.
  • Badly-Battered Babysitter: Raven is at one point tasked with protecting 3 annoying young children who might have superpowers. It goes about as well as you'd think until her kids are threatened.
  • 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.
Cquote1

Criminal You! aren't you supposed to be with...
Robin I work alone now.

Cquote2
    • Another episode with Slade attempting to lure Robin to the dark side goes like this...
Cquote1

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)

Cquote2
    • When Raven read 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.
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space: But Robin can't.
    • But Starfire can.
  • Battle Couple: Robin and Starfire. Eventually.
  • Battle in the Center of the Mind
    • "Nevermore", Raven against her inner demon.
    • And to some extent, "Haunted."
  • Battle Royale With Cheese: The fifth season's ending.
  • Because Destiny Says So Raven's reason for allowing her father Trigon to invade Earth and destroy it.
  • Berserk Button
    • 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.
  • Berserker Tears: About everyone once.
  • 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 Bad
    • Slade in seasons 1 and 2 (with Terra as his right-hand girl in season 2).
    • Brother Blood in season 3.
    • Trigon for season 4 (with Slade as his right-hand man).
    • The Brain in season 5. (Not that Brain, amusing as that would have been.)
  • Big Eater: Cyborg and Terra, and Starfire when among her native people. Cyborg also had an Extreme Omnivore episode in "Crash" when a computer virus caused him to hallucinate that everything around him was delicious food.
  • 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.
Cquote1

Raven: Remember me?
Dr. Light: (Goes Blue with Shock, turns and raises hands) I'd like to go to jail now, please.

Cquote2
  • Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Beast Boy can turn into one. Of course in a universe with aliens, half-demons, and cyborgs, maybe Bigfoots and Yetis aren't the the greatest Willing Suspension of Disbelief we're expected to accept.
    • According to canon, Beast Boy can transform into any creature so long as he has seen a picture of it and/or can visualize what it would look like. Basically, his powers run on imagination.
  • Bilingual Bonus
    • 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 Catch Phrase, "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 Catgirl keeps talking to him during their fight also, which just frustrates him because he has no idea what she ever says.
  • Bit Part Badguys: 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.
  • Bittersweet Ending: "Things Change"
  • Blush Sticker
  • 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!"
  • Book Dumb: Beast Boy.
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Beast Boy: Now I know how George Washington felt when Napoleon beat him at Pearl Harbor.

Cquote2
    • Earlier in that episode he practically admitted to learning history from the back of a cereal box when Raven asked.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Speedy. Also, just how many arrows can he fit in that quiver? During the Season 3 finale, he's firing them off nonstop three at a time but always with plenty to spare for the next scene.
  • Brain Freeze:
Cquote1

Beast Boy: Hey, check it out! (flash-freezes The Brain) Brain freeze!

Cquote2
  • 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.
    • This was Brother Blood's greatest power, and the fact that it didn't work on Cyborg was the reason for his obsession with the boy.
  • 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.
  • Breather Episode: Usually before a rather dark Season Finale.
  • Butt Monkey: Poor Doctor Light…
  • Canon Foreigner: A lot, including most villains of the week and minor characters.
  • Canon Immigrant: Más y Menos, Billy Numerous, and Cinderblock have appeared in the DC comics.
    • The series' version of Gizmo was also adapted into the Comics, as the son of the Dwarfish original.
  • Cain and Abel: Starfire and her sister, Blackfire.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Raven did this to her demonic dad in the season 4 finale. While blasting him to oblivion, too.
Cquote1

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!

Cquote2
  • 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.
  • Calvin Ball: Stankball and later variant Extreme Stankball.
  • 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.
  • Card-Carrying Villain
  • 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.
  • Catch Phrase: Each character has one.
    • Robin: "Titans! GO!"
    • Starfire: "Glorious!"
    • Cyborg: "Booyah!"
    • Raven: "AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!"
    • Beast Boy: "Dude!"
    • Mas Y Menos: "MAS Y MENOS SI PODEMOS!"
  • Cat Fight
  • Catgirl
    • 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.
  • Catapult Nightmare: Robin wakes up from one in "Apprentice Part 1".
  • Cerebus Rollercoaster: A prime example. Sometimes the show's mood shifted within the individual episode.
  • Character Focus: Results in a surprising degree of Character Development, given the mostly-episodic nature of the series.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Robin, of course, as he's the apprentice/sidekick of Batman.
  • 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.
  • Clothing Damage
    • 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 Super-Powered 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.
  • Combat Tentacles: The Centauri police-robots in "Sister".
  • Comic Book Adaptation: Teen Titans Go! A Recursive Adaptation, in that the show was derived from a Comic Book in the first place.
  • 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.
  • Crap Saccharine World: Mother Mae-Eye's oh so cutesy wootzy fantasy world.
  • Crazy Cultural Comparison: Starfire has a few strange Tamaranian customs, such as The Pudding Of Sadness and The Poem of Gratitude.
  • Cuffs Off, Rub Wrists: Cyborg of all people does this, in the second part of "Titans East".
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Oh. So. Often. Any given Slade vs. Robin fight will be like this.
  • Custom Uniform of Sexy: Pick a girl, any girl.
  • 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.
  • Dark Magical Girl
    • Raven. "AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!" Exactly.
    • Applies to Jinx as well.
  • Dark-Skinned Redhead: Starfire. Kid Flash may also count.
  • Darkest Hour
  • Dating Catwoman: Happened between Kid Flash and Jinx. As a result, Jinx became one of the good guys.
  • A Day at the Bizarro/Deranged Animation: At least once per season.
  • Day in The Limelight/Hostile Show Takeover: "We're the Hive Five. This is our show now!"
  • Deadpan Snarker
    • Raven, the most mature of the Five-Man Band.
    • Red X.
    • Cyborg has several moments, too.
Cquote1

Robin: I have to find out if she's a threat.
Cyborg: More like find out if she'll give him another kiss...

Cquote2
Cquote1

Raven!Starfire: Okay. How do you fly this thing?
Starfire!Raven: You must feel Flight.
Raven!Starfire: What.
Starfire!Raven: When you feel the unbridled joy of flight, you will fly.

Cquote2
Cquote1

Starfire: Oh, yes, I am second in line for the throne... perhaps I forgot to mention?

Cquote2
  • Everytown, America: Jump City, California & Steel City, New York.
    • The latter is especially ironic for those aware that "The Steel City" is a nickname for Pittsburgh, PA.
  • Evil Costume Switch
    • 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.
  • Evil Minions: Various catspaws of Slade's.
  • 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.
  • Expanded Universe: The tie-in comic, Teen Titans Go!
  • Exposed to the Elements: Starfire in the episode "Kole" is in the arctic wearing her usual Bare Your Midriff/Mini Dress Of Power costume, while everyone else around her is dressed in thick winter attire. Handwaved due to the fact she's an alien.
  • Expressive Mask
    • 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.
  • Eye Lights Out: When Cyborg is severely damaged, his glowing eye fades, along with the blue lights on his arm and leg circuits.
  • 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.
Cquote1

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)

Cquote2
  • 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.
  • Face Palm of Doom: "Pantha's Claw"
  • Fake Brit
    • In-episode example: In "Revolution", Beast Boy ends up talking like he's from Liverpool and sports neat hair.
    • Also averted, since Mad Mod was voiced by Malcolm McDowell.
  • 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.
  • False Camera Effects: The later episodes and TV movie played with false Jittercam and Whip Pan effects.
  • 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…
    • And Aqualad. All. The. Time.
    • Beast Boy too, to a certain extent.
  • Femme Fatale: Blackfire.
  • Ferris Wheel Date Moment: Twice. Robin and Starfire have one in the episode "Sisters", and Beast Boy and Terra have one in "Betrayal".
  • Feud Episode: Robin and Cyborg have an early episode like this.
  • Flying Firepower: Starfire most of the time.
  • 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.
  • Finishing Move
    • The Sonic Boom, which was unfortunately only used once.
    • A number of other one-off named Finishing Moves exist, like the "T-Rex Takedown".
    • Many of these involve Cyborg and Beast Boy pulling off numerous variations of a Fastball Special.
  • Fish Out of Water: Starfire — due to being an easy bit and the series' hinge on humour, her adaption was pretty back and forth but never complete.
  • Fish People: Triton and Aqualad's friend Tramm.
  • Five-Man Band:
  • Five-Bad Band: The (more than five) members of the HIVE Five.
  • Flat What: Connected to the Fantastic Racism example above, and definitely not Played for Laughs.
  • Fluffy the Terrible
    • Silky, the Ugly Cute mutant moth-larva. Who still retains the potential to metamorphose again.
    • The blackbirds in Raven's mind... when we first meet them, anyway...
  • Flying Brick: Starfire, plus energy blasts and Bizarre Alien Biology.
  • 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.
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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.

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Robin: So... "Nightwing" huh?

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Beast Boy (about Robin): Right. Check him for batteries.

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  • Glowing Eyes of Doom
    • Starfire gets these when using her powers.
    • Raven also does this whenever she's using magic.
      • Her Demon form has it basically all the time, as does her father, Trigon.
    • Terra also has this at times when using her geokinesis, though it is inconsistent
  • Go Mad From the Isolation: Happens to Raven in the Bad Future episode "How Long is Forever". She gets better, though.
  • 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.
  • Goomba Stomp / Goomba Springboard: Robin uses this several times against mooks.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck
    • Gizmo. His harmless swear words are so creative they actually sound dirty.
    • Starfire too, in fact she's probably the Titan with the foulest mouth. She's just polite enough to limit herself to Tamaranian swears.
  • Goth
    • Raven, the ultimate gothic superheroine.
      • 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.
  • Gratuitous Japanese: Trouble In Tokyo is full of this one. The biggest standout is Brushogun, whose name would be "Shogun" in their language.
  • Great Gazoo: Larry the Titan, from "Fractured", an explicit parody of Batman Gazoo Bat-Mite.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Starfire during "Date with Destiny". The kicker? She really has green eyes.
  • Green Lantern Ring
    • Raven's powers, even more so in Go! where they start allowing her to make objects out of energy.
    • Argent's powers seem to work this way as well.
  • Grenade Tag: Robin.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: Kole
    • Pantha gets a few of these scenes, only the body she's doing grievous harm with isn't usually a willing participant.
  • Grumpy Bear: Doom Patrol. Poor Doom Patrol.
  • Harmless Villain: Mostly the one-shots.
  • Half Arc Season
    • 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.
  • Heel Face Turn: Jinx
  • Heroes Unlimited: Season 5
  • Heroes Want Redheads: Starfire is a common target for boys, in the show and in Real Life.
  • Heroic Sacrifice
    • In "Aftershock Part 2": Terra
    • 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-Blooded: Robin and Cyborg. Oh so very much.
  • Hotblooded Sideburns: Control Freak has a long pair of them.
  • 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....
  • Human Resources: "Employee of the Month".
  • 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 Can't 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.
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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.

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Terra: My name is Terra. I have done horrible things. And I have absolutely no regrets.

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Robin: You know, Robins, the mask makes me feel cool, too.

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  • 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.
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(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.

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  • I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Slade uses this threat to make Robin his apprentice. It works... for a short period of time.
  • Jobber: Dr Light ends most of his appearances in short order as the unfortunate target of Raven's Super-Powered 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.
  • Just a Machine
  • Keet: Beast Boy, of course. To the next level.
  • Kid Hero
  • 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 Beast Boy occasionally manages to push Raven over into using the more aggressive Tsundere tactics.
  • Large Ham: Brother Blood, before Aquaman comes to mind.
  • Last-Minute Hookup: Robin and Starfire are ship teased throughout the whole series. They finally kiss in the last few minutes of Trouble in Tokyo.
  • Laughably Evil: A few villians, with Control Freak being one of the most apparent.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall
    • 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.
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Starfire: Wonderful!! I shall go cultivate the fungus!

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  • Let's Get Dangerous: Beast Boy has these moments quite a bit.
  • Leotard of Power: Raven, though averted with Starfire (whose costume in the comics defines Stripperiffic).
  • 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.
  • Literal Ass Kissing: Beast Boy does this to himself in "Wavelength."
  • Little No: Raven, in "Birthmark."
  • Loners Are Freaks: Raven
  • Loss of Identity: Cyborg's greatest fear.
  • Lost the TV Remote: "Final Exam"
  • Love At First Punch: Robin & Starfire when they first met.
  • Love Can Make You Gonk: Starfire has been known to do this when coming across something too cute for words.
  • Made of Iron: Everybody. Repeatedly blown through walls, or fall from great heights. Especially notable when it comes to Badass Normal Robin.
    • He shouldn't have been able to survive any of his fights with Slade.
    • Even mentioned by Cyborg at one point during "Haunted":
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Raven: His heart rate is off the charts.
Cyborg: Blood pressure, neurokinetics - most people can't survive that kind of stress!

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  • Magicians Are Wizards: The Amazing Mumbo.
  • Magic Kiss: Starfire learns languages this way; see Aliens Speaking English above.
  • Magic Skirt:
    • Starfire has a really short skirt that magically sticks to her somehow.
    • Elasti-Girl of the Doom Patrol does as well, despite being 30 feet high.
  • Mailer Daemon: Malchior
  • Male Gaze: The camera seems to suffer from this, but it's subtle enough you don't notice unless you look.
  • Malfunction Malady
    • Starfire is allergic to metallic chromium. It causes her to sneeze starbolts. Explosively.
    • Don't forget Beast Boy's cold-caused sneeze trigger transformations.
  • Mama Bear: Raven, of all people. It just goes to show, you never can tell. "Nobody messes with my kids!"
  • Marked Change: Raven
  • 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?
  • 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.
  • Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Raven and Beast Boy.
  • Masked Luchador: Pantha, a rare female example.
  • 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.
  • Meaningful Name
    • Terra. Guess what her powers are.
    • 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.
  • Mecha-Mooks: Slade's minions.
  • Me's a Crowd: Billy Numerous.
  • Metaphorgotten: "Run run run as fast as you can, you can't catch me... catch you, uh... I'm Billy Numerous!"
  • Military Mashup Machine: Submarine + rockets = spacesub!
  • Mind Control Eyes
    • The Teen Titans have pink eyes in the episode "Mother Mae-Eye", when they are under the titular character's spell.
    • Brother Blood's victims have glowing red eyes when he's directly controlling their actions, but normal one's when they're just being influenced.
    • Beast Boy, along with the citizens of Jump City, have the stereotypical spirals when under Mad Mod's hypnosis.
  • Mind Rape
    • Slade's attack on Raven.
    • Raven's first battle with Dr. Light.
    • Cyborg almost suffers this at the hands of Fixit.
    • 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.
  • The Mole: Terra
  • 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).
    • "Fractured" goes from Larry's Cartoony Crayon World to Rancid's Gothtastic Reality.
      • 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.
  • More Teeth Than the Osmond Family: The monster from "Wicked Scary" (Fear Itself).
  • More Than Mind Control: Terra
  • 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.
  • The Movie: Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Starfire and Raven seem to be nearly neck-and-neck here.
  • Mud Wrestling: The infamous fight between Raven and Terra.
  • Mushroom Samba
    • 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.
  • Must Make Her Laugh: Beast Boy tries to make Raven laugh throughout the series, after seeing her laugh in the prequel episode, succeeding twice, once in the Journey to the Center of the Mind and again when a cold has caused him to randomly transform.
  • Mythology Gag
    • 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").
  • Never Say "Die": Sometimes played straight, sometimes averted. This is the reason why Deathstroke the Terminator goes simply by "Slade", for one.
  • Never Split the Party: As explained by Beast Boy.
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Beast Boy: When you split up, the monster hunts you down one at a time, starting with the good-looking funny relief guy — ME!

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    • He doesn't die, but he's the first to go down.
  • 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.
  • No Ending: The last episode, verging on Mind Screw territory.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Pretty much the entirety of "Haunted".
    • 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 One Could Survive That
  • "No Respect" Guy: Who else? Beast Boy.
  • Won't Work On Me: 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.
  • The Notable Numeral: The Hive Five
  • 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:
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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.)

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Robin: "He doesn't have any friends."

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Starfire: I am sorry to disappoint you... but I am stronger than I look.
Beast Boy: I'm not a man... I'm an animal!
Robin: Lady, you are not my mother.

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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?!"

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Starfire: Awww! You look so cute!
Bunny!Raven: (Death Glare)

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Beast Boy: Look, this may not be the perfect team, but it's all we've got. We're the Teen Titans now! If we work together, we can accomplish anything.

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  • Running Gag
    • Starfire's bad english and unaccustomed to earth culture
    • Robin is short and wears a lot of hairgel.
  • Ruritania
    • [Eastern] Zandia; only mentioned in "Crash".
    • Also Terra's home country, Markovia, which was revealed in the comics.
  • Sad Clown: Beast Boy in the future. More like Beast Boy in general.
  • Samus Is a Girl: Sarasim
  • Sassy Black Woman: Bumblebee is immune to mind control because "Ain't no man tell me what to do".
  • Scaled Up: Malchior
  • 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.
  • Second-Person Attack: Frequent. Cyborg does it in the title sequence.
  • Self-Deprecation: Robin's "This Show Will Rot Your Brain" rant in "Don't Touch That Dial" could be taken as against the cartoon itself!
  • Shadow Archetype
    • Slade and Red X to Robin
    • Terra and Jinx to Raven
    • Blackfire to Starfire
    • Gizmo to Cyborg
    • 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.
  • Shapeshifter Showdown: Beast Boy vs. his evil copy.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely
    • 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.
  • Shoo the Dog: Starfire with Silkie.
  • Shout-Out: So many, they've been moved to their own page.
  • Shut UP, Hannibal: The exchange between Slade and Robin in "Masks".
  • "Shut Up" Kiss: How Starfire "learned" her English.
    • Also somewhat a a subtle Smooch of Victory as she kisses after Robin frees her from her restraints.
  • Sidekick Glass Ceiling
    • Though not a sidekick, Beast Boy.
    • Also denied — Comicdom's best-known sidekick leads the team.
  • Signature Device: Their communicators which were specifically designed by both Robin and Cyborg.
    • Later the devices served as a plot point.
  • Sixth Ranger Traitor: Terra
  • Sixty-Five-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.
  • Smart People Play Chess: Raven and Cyborg, the two smartest Titans, play chess with each other in one episode; the Brain and Monsieur Mallah also appear fond of the game.
  • 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.
  • Sorry I Left the BGM 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.
  • Spider Limbs
    • Gizmo
    • 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.
  • Sssssnaketalk: The snake guardian in The Quest.
  • Status Quo Is God
  • Stealth Pun:
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Robin: Cardiac, you're under arrest!

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  • 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.
  • Strong as They Need to Be: The show is fairly notorious for this.
  • 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.
  • Story Arc
  • Stylish Protection Gear: The team has protection outfits that still look good.
  • Sugary Malice: Mother May-Eye.
  • Super-Deformed: Mostly as sight gags. And would Larry count?
  • Superhero: Hmm, I wonder.
  • 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 Appendage: Cyborg's arms (and possibly most of his body) qualifies.
  • Swiss Army Hero: Beast Boy.
  • 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.
  • The Sweat Drop
  • 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.
  • Team Shot
  • Team Title
  • Techno Babble: Usually Cyborg, but even Robin gets some moments.
    • And we can't forget Beast Boy's 'knowledge' when it comes to all things Sci-Fi.
  • Techno Wizard: Cyborg and Gizmo
  • 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!")
    • See it here and laugh.
    • The tune was also used as a cue. If Puffy AmiYumi 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.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "YOU! RUINED! MY! DRESS!"
  • Throat Light: Raven in "Spellbound".
  • 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.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Raven the gothish Tomboy and Starfire the adorably cute girly girl. Though Starfire, being from a proud warrior race, was well capable of Let's Get Dangerous moments.
    • 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.
  • Took a Level in Badass
    • Dr. Light, of all people, takes one in "Kole", by virtue of having a better plan then usual, and having very loose 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.
  • Traitor Shot: Guess.
  • Trapped in TV Land: Season 4, episode 1. Positively Troperiffic.
  • Trojan Prisoner
  • True Companions
  • TV Never Lies
  • Two Aliases, One Character: Robin and Red X. Although, another person did adopt the Red X persona in a later episode.
  • The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Trigon and Raven, as well as Kitten and Killer Moth.
  • Unflinching Walk: Robin has a "cool guys don't look at explosions" moment, even though there's no explosion and he crouches instead of walks.
  • The Un-Reveal
    • 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:
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Starfire: ...and that is the secret to traveling faster than light!

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    • Raven's backstory gets one is "Switched" when she and Starfire have to know about each other's powers.
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Raven: I was born in a place called Azarath...

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    • 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?!
  • Unusual Dysphemism:
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'Starfire: (putting a flower on Robin's lapel) I believe on such occasions, it is customary to wear a dead plant?

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  • 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.
  • Variable Terminal Velocity
  • Very Special Episode: "Troq" (racism) and "Overdrive" (addiction).
  • Villainesses Want Heroes
    • 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.
  • Villain Takes an Interest: Slade and Robin, Brother Blood and Cyborg, Slade and Terra.
  • Villain Teleportation
  • 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.
  • Weak-Willed
    • Beast Boy, a real hazard whenever Mad Mod rolls around.
    • Also Terra until Beast Boy tells her that she doesn't have to let Slade control her.
    • Averted hard with Bumblebee and Cyborg against Brother Blood; old guy never stood a chance.
  • Weird Moon: A rather large one that's full for two night's straight for the Werewolf-esque episode "The Beast Within".
  • Weld the Lock: Starfire does this in the third episode.
  • Wham! Episode
    • For good writing, "Aftershock".
    • For something more epic, "The End".
    • 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.)
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Whether or not you think the episode "Troq" is a Broken Aesop hinges on whether you consider robots to be sentient creatures.
  • 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.
  • White-Haired Pretty Girl: The mysteriously waifish Chrysalis Eater, who is portrayed as Wise Beyond Her Years.
  • White Void Room: Raven's chamber in "How Long Is Forever?"
  • Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises
  • Will They or Won't They?: Robin and Starfire.
  • Witch with a Capital B: Very memorably used by Terra against Raven.
  • Wolverine Claws: Cheshire from Season 5's finale sports these.
  • Word Salad Lyrics: The Japanese theme song. It's not a translation of the theme song, to put it simple.
  • World-Healing Wave: At the end of Season 4.
  • 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.
  • Yes but What Does Zataproximetacine DO: In the Trapped in TV Land episode. The product is Zinthos, from the makers of Azarath and Metrion, and it gives you what you need, when you need it.
  • You Are Already Dead: Robin does the Diagonal Cut version on an animated cardboard samurai monster in "Fear Itself".
  • 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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