Teen Titans, Season 3, Episodes 12-13: Titans East
This two-parter is probably going to be remembered as one of the more disappointing episodes in Teen Titans, doubly so because it's a season finale. And compared to the emotionally charged, tear-jerking finales of the previous two seasons, or the big epic demon showdown in the next season, this was just a letdown. And the big problem is Brother Blood. He tries so hard to be a poor man's Slade, trying to be creepy and invasive to Cyborg... but he just fails to be interesting at all. He just wants to dominate people, he's transformed himself into a half-machine thing in his continued obsession with Cyborg... but they don't do anything interesting with Brother Blood's status as the headmaster of a school of supervillains, and while he did get a couple of cool fight scenes with Cyborg eventually he was defeated with the most contrived deus ex machina as Cyborg... randomly has magical powers that can regenerate all his broken robot parts?
The spirit of the first part of the two-parter was cool enough. Let's bring in three of the previous guest stars -- Speedy, Aqualad and Bumblebee -- and have them and Cyborg, plus newcomer Mas y Menos, start up an official branch of the Teen Titans. Unlike most people I actually have no problem with episodes focusing on only one Titan or, hell, none of the main characters as long as there are characters we care about. And I do like Speedy, Aqualad and Bumblebee enough... but, wow, they are utterly insufferable together. I get why they're showing it, how they're worse than the main Titans group from the first season... but did we have to sit through Aqualad and Speedy arguing so much? They lacked chemistry, is all I'm saying. Mas y Menos in particular... I find them somewhat cute, but the fact that I have no idea what they're saying and the show seems intent on featuring them for a fair amount... makes me hard to like them when better time could've been spent on featuring one of the other East Titans.
Cyborg's honestly the only real good thing in all this, though even then he's not immune to criticism either. Yeah, he wants to be his own man (and Robin of all people should understand that) but he feels like he's being utterly immature and selfish... what's the difference between him hanging out with either team? They're both gunning for Blood.
Oh, and then the whole point of setting Titans East up in the first part ends up being utterly undone as Blood mindwipes the Titans East team, and then it being completely just the Cyborg and Blood show. There are some cool visuals with Aqualad's waterbending abilities, and I respect the show trying to forge a new direction both by setting up potential spinoffs, and by being more serious instead of more zany... but they've done serious pretty well before without being bland. This is just bland.
Where was the promised supervillain student army? That would be helluva lot more interesting than a bunch of second-rate Cyborg rejects. There was the pretty cool Steamroller fight at the beginning, but that's only one among the many HIVE students that were foreshadowed earlier this season. What, they can't bring back the HIVE Five as threats against the Titans East? Oh and why does Bumblebee succumb to Blood's brainwashing this time around when she was able to resist while being a deep cover agent? Makes no sense.
Oh well. That's a bit of a disappointing note to end the third season on. It's not bad, it's just trying to fit so many things that don't mesh well with each other -- the Cyborg-is-his-own-man plot, the Titans East being formed, the Titans East being brainwashed, the Cyborg/Blood confrontation, the Cyborg/Robin conflict... would it be better if Titans East being founded happened earlier in the season and the big confrontation happening as a standalone episode? I dunno. What we got was kind of blah, though.
The spirit of the first part of the two-parter was cool enough. Let's bring in three of the previous guest stars -- Speedy, Aqualad and Bumblebee -- and have them and Cyborg, plus newcomer Mas y Menos, start up an official branch of the Teen Titans. Unlike most people I actually have no problem with episodes focusing on only one Titan or, hell, none of the main characters as long as there are characters we care about. And I do like Speedy, Aqualad and Bumblebee enough... but, wow, they are utterly insufferable together. I get why they're showing it, how they're worse than the main Titans group from the first season... but did we have to sit through Aqualad and Speedy arguing so much? They lacked chemistry, is all I'm saying. Mas y Menos in particular... I find them somewhat cute, but the fact that I have no idea what they're saying and the show seems intent on featuring them for a fair amount... makes me hard to like them when better time could've been spent on featuring one of the other East Titans.
Cyborg's honestly the only real good thing in all this, though even then he's not immune to criticism either. Yeah, he wants to be his own man (and Robin of all people should understand that) but he feels like he's being utterly immature and selfish... what's the difference between him hanging out with either team? They're both gunning for Blood.
Oh, and then the whole point of setting Titans East up in the first part ends up being utterly undone as Blood mindwipes the Titans East team, and then it being completely just the Cyborg and Blood show. There are some cool visuals with Aqualad's waterbending abilities, and I respect the show trying to forge a new direction both by setting up potential spinoffs, and by being more serious instead of more zany... but they've done serious pretty well before without being bland. This is just bland.
Where was the promised supervillain student army? That would be helluva lot more interesting than a bunch of second-rate Cyborg rejects. There was the pretty cool Steamroller fight at the beginning, but that's only one among the many HIVE students that were foreshadowed earlier this season. What, they can't bring back the HIVE Five as threats against the Titans East? Oh and why does Bumblebee succumb to Blood's brainwashing this time around when she was able to resist while being a deep cover agent? Makes no sense.
Oh well. That's a bit of a disappointing note to end the third season on. It's not bad, it's just trying to fit so many things that don't mesh well with each other -- the Cyborg-is-his-own-man plot, the Titans East being formed, the Titans East being brainwashed, the Cyborg/Blood confrontation, the Cyborg/Robin conflict... would it be better if Titans East being founded happened earlier in the season and the big confrontation happening as a standalone episode? I dunno. What we got was kind of blah, though.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Titans East is based off Titans West, a group of lesser Teen Titans that spun off the main group. 'Titans East' would later be introduced to the comics as a villainous future version of the group, before being introduced as a different Teen Titans splinter group.
- Mas y Menos is a character original to the series, though he was one of the few characters original to Teen Titans to be adapted into the mainstream DC comics. Steamroller is also a character original to the series.
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