Be Mine
I thought I was done with Valentines Day, but... no... I wasn't. Teen Titans Go! is the biggest slap in the face that I've received as a fan of the original series, and now there's a Valentines Day special for it. Two of my least favorite things coming together. I just need to face the music and watch this.
Something that I didn't mention in my initial review of the show is the lazy animations. Characters don't really move around and the active ones are probably floating or flying or only using their arms. The most impressive animation is the theme song. I can't blame them, they are on a budget, but the least you can do is plan your stories around it.
I think that this show is following a similar pattern to most anime featuring action sequences. Most of the budget has been put into the action scenes and the other scenes somewhat suffer for it, and this isn't an action TV show, which is the really distressing thing to me. On a TV show that isn't viewed for its action, what action there is is allowed to be unimpressive. They're using Flash for God's sake!
In fact, why even have action sequences? This show could easily be a Lab Rats rip off, and wouldn't be good either, but if it happened people would walk around. They're using Flash, freaking Flash!
But enough about that, let's talk about the story!
To my knowledge, this is the only episode of Teen Titans Go! to feature the character Tara. For the uninitiated, Tara was a character introduced in the second season of the original show who was a member of the teen titans for the last several episodes of season 3 before being manipulated by Slade (the bad guy) to turn evil and wreck stuff. Tara had a relationship with Beast Boy which turned into a very interesting psychological conflict before she died and exited the show.
The relationship between Tara and Beast Boy in this episode stops being Romeo and Juliet and instead turns into The Merry Wives of Windsor. Instead of being legitimate lovers separated by the values they've gained, Tara is instead already evil and Beast Boy is lusting after her. This makes Beast Boy look stupid and Tara's plan confusing. This isn't funny on 3 levels and provides nothing to the plot that it should be (more on that later).
I'm pretty sure that Teen Titans Go! has officially departed from the original Teen Titans cannon, but I honestly still don't know. It wouldn't be particularly confusing to me if somebody actually said so one way or the other, but this episode features a non-canonical event that probably could have happened in cannon. It's an elseworld story, or it's non-cannon, I don't know which.
But then we get to Raven, who at the end of the episode confesses her love for Beast Boy...
What...?
WHAT!?!
OK, wait, wait... stop. This is wrong on so many levels. Yes, I know Raven and Beast Boy might have had something going but according to the original RAVEN AND BEAST BOY ARE NOT A THING. Why would be a thing? That doesn't make sense! Raven gets too irritated with Beast Boy to like him, right? Crap! I don't even know! What am I supposed to say to that?
Oh, I know what I'm supposed to say to that...
I CAN'T ACCEPT THIS AS
CANNON INFORMATION!
And you know what, this works against this episode from a literary standpoint, because it should be Raven's story. I know that it's more comical to follow Beast Boy around, but a funnier thing (at least to me) would be Raven following Beast Boy around and commenting on how stupid he's being.
This episode should have been a love triangle story. They are a staple of comedy and one could have been much funnier than what we actually got.
I need to get this show under my belt... forget that, I need to get it off of my belt entirely, but this episode offended me as an animation fan, a Teen Titans fan, a writer, a comedy fan, and a self appointed media analyst. I thoroughly did not enjoy that, and I am willing to call this one of the worst TV show episodes I've watched, if not the worst.
Something that I didn't mention in my initial review of the show is the lazy animations. Characters don't really move around and the active ones are probably floating or flying or only using their arms. The most impressive animation is the theme song. I can't blame them, they are on a budget, but the least you can do is plan your stories around it.
I think that this show is following a similar pattern to most anime featuring action sequences. Most of the budget has been put into the action scenes and the other scenes somewhat suffer for it, and this isn't an action TV show, which is the really distressing thing to me. On a TV show that isn't viewed for its action, what action there is is allowed to be unimpressive. They're using Flash for God's sake!
In fact, why even have action sequences? This show could easily be a Lab Rats rip off, and wouldn't be good either, but if it happened people would walk around. They're using Flash, freaking Flash!
But enough about that, let's talk about the story!
To my knowledge, this is the only episode of Teen Titans Go! to feature the character Tara. For the uninitiated, Tara was a character introduced in the second season of the original show who was a member of the teen titans for the last several episodes of season 3 before being manipulated by Slade (the bad guy) to turn evil and wreck stuff. Tara had a relationship with Beast Boy which turned into a very interesting psychological conflict before she died and exited the show.
The relationship between Tara and Beast Boy in this episode stops being Romeo and Juliet and instead turns into The Merry Wives of Windsor. Instead of being legitimate lovers separated by the values they've gained, Tara is instead already evil and Beast Boy is lusting after her. This makes Beast Boy look stupid and Tara's plan confusing. This isn't funny on 3 levels and provides nothing to the plot that it should be (more on that later).
I'm pretty sure that Teen Titans Go! has officially departed from the original Teen Titans cannon, but I honestly still don't know. It wouldn't be particularly confusing to me if somebody actually said so one way or the other, but this episode features a non-canonical event that probably could have happened in cannon. It's an elseworld story, or it's non-cannon, I don't know which.
But then we get to Raven, who at the end of the episode confesses her love for Beast Boy...
What...?
WHAT!?!
OK, wait, wait... stop. This is wrong on so many levels. Yes, I know Raven and Beast Boy might have had something going but according to the original RAVEN AND BEAST BOY ARE NOT A THING. Why would be a thing? That doesn't make sense! Raven gets too irritated with Beast Boy to like him, right? Crap! I don't even know! What am I supposed to say to that?
Oh, I know what I'm supposed to say to that...
I CAN'T ACCEPT THIS AS
CANNON INFORMATION!
And you know what, this works against this episode from a literary standpoint, because it should be Raven's story. I know that it's more comical to follow Beast Boy around, but a funnier thing (at least to me) would be Raven following Beast Boy around and commenting on how stupid he's being.
This episode should have been a love triangle story. They are a staple of comedy and one could have been much funnier than what we actually got.
I need to get this show under my belt... forget that, I need to get it off of my belt entirely, but this episode offended me as an animation fan, a Teen Titans fan, a writer, a comedy fan, and a self appointed media analyst. I thoroughly did not enjoy that, and I am willing to call this one of the worst TV show episodes I've watched, if not the worst.