how did raven defeat Trigon?

General Discussion
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@DeSade_Acolyte

Maybe Dick did throw his costume into the flames, but why in the world wouldn’t they show it. That would have been a powerful moment, and it certainly isn’t like this show is edited so tightly there was no room for it.

I can see what you are saying about the cycle of self-loathing. My problem with it is that it didn’t feel like Dick was taking steps to get out of that cycle. I realize in real life that people can spend their entire lives in destructive cycles, but it doesn’t make for exciting television. (Minor spoilers for Arrow) It reminds me of Captain Lance’s recurring relapse into alcoholism for the first five or so seasons of Arrow. Eventually, you are like, “Again!?!” It felt as if the story just continued the same beats over and over until this final episode where Dick suddenly gets over it. I didn’t see what growth he had made to earn the turning of a new page.

I don’t really see how Raven learned that Trigon has no real control or how she came to understand her powers or how Beast Boy had already faced his worse fears when others hadn’t. Maybe I’ve forgotten stuff or missed a bunch, but it feels like the story you describe is better than the one we actually received.

I’m hoping you are right about this season being a season of growth. It certainly looks like they are going for a tone shift from the trailers and the end of the first episode of season two.

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-I feel like Dick did take steps outside of that cycle, although I can understand why the execution might seem a bit clumsy. Raven was the biggest example of that, he explicitly compared his relationship with her to Bruce’s relationship with him, but he also built ties to other people throughout the first season, people he ultimately stopped feeling he had to keep as many secrets from.
-Most of the first season was driven by people trying to either control or kill Raven because she was the key to bringing Trigon into this dimension. She literally reached through a portal and drew him into this world. I don’t think it strains credulity that she’d realize that he needs her more than she needs him. Also, I felt that Raven saving Dick was the symbolic victory that helped her accept that these were her abilities, not her father’s, and that she could use them to help people.
-I don’t think that Beast Boy faced his demons, so much as he’d been beaten to a pulp, so Trigon kind of just discounted him as no threat to him. Hardly the first time something like that’s happened in fiction.

2 Likes
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Deus ex machina