Lady Appreciation Post: Raven
This month, I vow to be more on schedule with these.
Like seriously.
Anyway, going back once again to the animated Teen Titans...
"Maybe you haven't noticed, but my emotions are dangerous. I can't afford to feel anything."
-- Raven, Season One, "Nevermore"
I'll say this for Teen Titans: it did not lack for amazing, well-developed female characters. I've already covered Starfire and Terra, but there's a third main lady that deserves some love. And that would be the lovely and mysterious Raven.
Early in the series, Raven was defined by her emotional distance. She was prickly. She liked stereotypical gothic things. She made dry, deadpan quips. She was basically the Tomboy to Starfire's Girly Girl (though still quite feminine).
This girl was perpetually unamused.
But as the series went on, Raven opened up to both us and the other Titans, and we got to see much, much more of her character.
The half-demon daughter of Trigon, lord of all darkness and basically the DC universe's stand-in for Satan, Raven was born for a single purpose: to become the portal that would let Trigon into the world to destroy it. And the reason she can't show too much emotion? She'll trigger the demonic nature inside her and unleash hell. So she has to meditate every day to keep her powers under control. The monks of Azarath, in an alternate dimension, sheltered Raven as a child, trained her, cared for her, taught her to control her emotions, and warned her of the fate that awaited her. Imagine growing up knowing that you were destined to destroy a planet, to be used and thrown away by the incarnation of evil itself, who would calmly just take over all of reality because of you. That's a hell of a lot of pressure to put on a single, emotionally fragile girl.
Naturally, Raven did not at all like the idea of becoming the tool that her father would use to destroy the universe. Raven fled to Earth to try and escape her fate. There, she met the Titans, and became a hero to try and make up for the horrible thing she was destined to do. Raven fights evil to atone for her own evil, present and future.
And she is of course awesome while doing so.
Because Raven knows what kind of ominous fate looms over her, she tends to keep herself guarded. She's a very quiet, private person, more comfortable reading a book than going out. She's vigorously protective of her own secrets, and feels uncomfortable prying into the secrets of others. But even though Raven puts up walls and tries to keep people at a distance, there's no denying that she really, really cares about her friends, comes to love them and has the desire to protect them and keep them safe-even from herself. She never wants to involve the Titans in things she considers "her problems", and she hates herself whenever she inadvertently puts any of them in danger.
In "Nevermore", she desperately tries to deal with Rage (one of her emoticlones and the personification of her demonic nature) by herself, and even when she's short with Cyborg and Beast Boy it comes from a place of concern, because she doesn't want them getting trapped inside her mind. In "Birthmark", she tells a weak and injured Robin, "I shouldn't have dragged you into this, any of you." And in "The End Part One", the thing Trigon tells her that makes her give herself up peacefully to Slade is that it's her who's causing the Titans to suffer by not accepting her fate. Raven's greatest insecurity is being the cause of her friends' pain.
Another of her weaknesses is just how emotionally vulnerable she is underneath that shell. "Spellbound" finds her desperately lonely and longing for companionship, someone that understands her. She's easily taken advantage of by Malchior, who manipulates her feelings and her desire to be wanted in order to break him out of the book he's sealed in.
The bastard made Raven cry!
And the thing that hurt most about Terra's betrayal is that Raven honestly trusted Terra and believed she was her friend.
Despite her misgivings when it comes to opening up and getting her feelings all over everything, Raven manages to get over her apprehension and really bonds with each of the Titans. She and Starfire spend an episode in each other's bodies, and after that are nearly inseparable as friends, even with how different their personalities are, how opposite they are from each other. After initially giving Terra a hard time for seemingly magically getting control over her powers, Raven eventually warms up to her too, dismissing her suspicions. She comes to understand Cyborg's attachment to his car. She encourages Beast Boy when he's angsting about having a monster inside him, something she knows about all too well. And she has a close companionable rapport with Robin, full of mutual respect for each other's boundaries. He's the first one Raven eventually confesses her past to, after a rather harrowing ordeal with a newly-alive Slade.
Yeah, this was not a good season for her.
Speaking of Slade, one of Raven's most awesome moments is when she gets to telekinetically beat the shit out of him. Oh yeah. It's pretty badass.
Welp, he's screwed.
Raven's arc in Season Four is all about the fulfillment of her destiny. Raven's run from it, and tried to avoid it for so long, and for a while she does vow to actively fight against it. But later she submits to the inevitable. It's almost hard to listen to Raven sometimes during this arc, because she is just so without hope and full of despair and I don't know how much of it is because she hates herself for what she's going to do and how much of it might be because she's scared to die. Whatever reason she does it, Raven gives up fighting her fate, goes to the old library, and lets herself become the portal.
*sniffle!*
But before she does, she places a portion of her powers inside each of the Titans, which protects them from Trigon's assault, in the vague, faint hope that they can fight him. Because even in her lowest, darkest moment, Raven still hopes. And her hope survives her body's destruction as she becomes the portal, and is reborn.
Into the most ADORABLE PRECIOUS LITTLE THING EVER.
Raven's new child form initially still despairs that all hope is lost, but upon seeing that a purified spark of her powers remain, she gets a grip, snaps herself back to full grown form, and then proceeds to epically call Trigon out for the horrible father he is while laying the smackdown on him, banishing him from the world and restoring Earth to normal in one fell white light swoop.
Raven Ex Machina!
I ridiculously adore her speech here. "You may have created me," she tells Trigon, "but you were never my father. Fathers are kind! Fathers protect you! Fathers raise you!" Raven's last bit, that she was "raised by [her] friends" is telling. The Titans became like a family to her, gave her the love and affection she needed and desperately wanted. And she'll be darned if anyone hurts them.
No seriously, you screw with Raven's friends, and you're pretty much doomed.
The last season finds Raven a little more serene, able to be a bit more expressive, continuing to show her softer side, though still keeping that wonderful sarcastic edge that we love so much.
I love Raven mostly because of her personality-her dry wit and snark, her hilarious sarcasm and teasing quips, and her general malaise towards everything. I love that in spite of her gruff exterior she really does love her friends and wants to make them happy, wants to be around them. They've taken her in, made her their sister. And it's wonderful.
Raven is badass and hilarious and she's a welcome addition to varied cast of amazing ladies that make up Teen Titans.
When Raven smiles, it is always heartwarming.
Like seriously.
Anyway, going back once again to the animated Teen Titans...
"Maybe you haven't noticed, but my emotions are dangerous. I can't afford to feel anything."
-- Raven, Season One, "Nevermore"
I'll say this for Teen Titans: it did not lack for amazing, well-developed female characters. I've already covered Starfire and Terra, but there's a third main lady that deserves some love. And that would be the lovely and mysterious Raven.
Early in the series, Raven was defined by her emotional distance. She was prickly. She liked stereotypical gothic things. She made dry, deadpan quips. She was basically the Tomboy to Starfire's Girly Girl (though still quite feminine).
This girl was perpetually unamused.
But as the series went on, Raven opened up to both us and the other Titans, and we got to see much, much more of her character.
The half-demon daughter of Trigon, lord of all darkness and basically the DC universe's stand-in for Satan, Raven was born for a single purpose: to become the portal that would let Trigon into the world to destroy it. And the reason she can't show too much emotion? She'll trigger the demonic nature inside her and unleash hell. So she has to meditate every day to keep her powers under control. The monks of Azarath, in an alternate dimension, sheltered Raven as a child, trained her, cared for her, taught her to control her emotions, and warned her of the fate that awaited her. Imagine growing up knowing that you were destined to destroy a planet, to be used and thrown away by the incarnation of evil itself, who would calmly just take over all of reality because of you. That's a hell of a lot of pressure to put on a single, emotionally fragile girl.
Naturally, Raven did not at all like the idea of becoming the tool that her father would use to destroy the universe. Raven fled to Earth to try and escape her fate. There, she met the Titans, and became a hero to try and make up for the horrible thing she was destined to do. Raven fights evil to atone for her own evil, present and future.
And she is of course awesome while doing so.
Because Raven knows what kind of ominous fate looms over her, she tends to keep herself guarded. She's a very quiet, private person, more comfortable reading a book than going out. She's vigorously protective of her own secrets, and feels uncomfortable prying into the secrets of others. But even though Raven puts up walls and tries to keep people at a distance, there's no denying that she really, really cares about her friends, comes to love them and has the desire to protect them and keep them safe-even from herself. She never wants to involve the Titans in things she considers "her problems", and she hates herself whenever she inadvertently puts any of them in danger.
In "Nevermore", she desperately tries to deal with Rage (one of her emoticlones and the personification of her demonic nature) by herself, and even when she's short with Cyborg and Beast Boy it comes from a place of concern, because she doesn't want them getting trapped inside her mind. In "Birthmark", she tells a weak and injured Robin, "I shouldn't have dragged you into this, any of you." And in "The End Part One", the thing Trigon tells her that makes her give herself up peacefully to Slade is that it's her who's causing the Titans to suffer by not accepting her fate. Raven's greatest insecurity is being the cause of her friends' pain.
Another of her weaknesses is just how emotionally vulnerable she is underneath that shell. "Spellbound" finds her desperately lonely and longing for companionship, someone that understands her. She's easily taken advantage of by Malchior, who manipulates her feelings and her desire to be wanted in order to break him out of the book he's sealed in.
The bastard made Raven cry!
And the thing that hurt most about Terra's betrayal is that Raven honestly trusted Terra and believed she was her friend.
Despite her misgivings when it comes to opening up and getting her feelings all over everything, Raven manages to get over her apprehension and really bonds with each of the Titans. She and Starfire spend an episode in each other's bodies, and after that are nearly inseparable as friends, even with how different their personalities are, how opposite they are from each other. After initially giving Terra a hard time for seemingly magically getting control over her powers, Raven eventually warms up to her too, dismissing her suspicions. She comes to understand Cyborg's attachment to his car. She encourages Beast Boy when he's angsting about having a monster inside him, something she knows about all too well. And she has a close companionable rapport with Robin, full of mutual respect for each other's boundaries. He's the first one Raven eventually confesses her past to, after a rather harrowing ordeal with a newly-alive Slade.
Yeah, this was not a good season for her.
Speaking of Slade, one of Raven's most awesome moments is when she gets to telekinetically beat the shit out of him. Oh yeah. It's pretty badass.
Welp, he's screwed.
Raven's arc in Season Four is all about the fulfillment of her destiny. Raven's run from it, and tried to avoid it for so long, and for a while she does vow to actively fight against it. But later she submits to the inevitable. It's almost hard to listen to Raven sometimes during this arc, because she is just so without hope and full of despair and I don't know how much of it is because she hates herself for what she's going to do and how much of it might be because she's scared to die. Whatever reason she does it, Raven gives up fighting her fate, goes to the old library, and lets herself become the portal.
*sniffle!*
But before she does, she places a portion of her powers inside each of the Titans, which protects them from Trigon's assault, in the vague, faint hope that they can fight him. Because even in her lowest, darkest moment, Raven still hopes. And her hope survives her body's destruction as she becomes the portal, and is reborn.
Into the most ADORABLE PRECIOUS LITTLE THING EVER.
Raven's new child form initially still despairs that all hope is lost, but upon seeing that a purified spark of her powers remain, she gets a grip, snaps herself back to full grown form, and then proceeds to epically call Trigon out for the horrible father he is while laying the smackdown on him, banishing him from the world and restoring Earth to normal in one fell white light swoop.
Raven Ex Machina!
I ridiculously adore her speech here. "You may have created me," she tells Trigon, "but you were never my father. Fathers are kind! Fathers protect you! Fathers raise you!" Raven's last bit, that she was "raised by [her] friends" is telling. The Titans became like a family to her, gave her the love and affection she needed and desperately wanted. And she'll be darned if anyone hurts them.
No seriously, you screw with Raven's friends, and you're pretty much doomed.
The last season finds Raven a little more serene, able to be a bit more expressive, continuing to show her softer side, though still keeping that wonderful sarcastic edge that we love so much.
I love Raven mostly because of her personality-her dry wit and snark, her hilarious sarcasm and teasing quips, and her general malaise towards everything. I love that in spite of her gruff exterior she really does love her friends and wants to make them happy, wants to be around them. They've taken her in, made her their sister. And it's wonderful.
Raven is badass and hilarious and she's a welcome addition to varied cast of amazing ladies that make up Teen Titans.
When Raven smiles, it is always heartwarming.