My problem with Titans ( RANT )

General Discussion
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Titans wasn’t a train wreck as I thought it would be and I am looking forward to season 2, but I thought it was an alright DC TV show, and a horrible Titans show.

The biggest issue is the lack of confidence in the main characters. Look at Doom Patrol. Its undoubtedly a Doom Patrol show. Every episode focuses on the team, and the writers are clearly interested in those characters more than the side ones. DP writers are clearly fans of their source material and every episode feels like so much passion is behind it.

The writers bent over backwards to avoid the Titans nearly every episode. A flashback episode to non-team members who have nothing to do with the main plot. A freaking Batman vs Joker elseworlds

Titans was… Grayson: Brave and the Bold basically. Its pretty much another Gotham/Batwoman/Pennyworth Batman Easter Eggs: the TV show. I didn’t watch Gotham for Batman Easter eggs, I wanted a god damn team!

Doom Patrol focuses on its own mythos. Mr. Nobody, the Brotherhood of Evil, the Brain, the underground, Danny Street, everyone’s backstories, etc. Titans doesn’t focus on their mythos. Because the writers clearly don’t care about anyone on the team. No name drops to Mr. Twister, Brother Blood, the Fearsome Five, etc. By the end of the season, I was surprised Tamaran was even name dropped. I wasn’t surprised we saw the Joker, since the show won’t shut up about him.

Then there’s a host of other issues. Besides Robin, the other three main characters have thrift story level costumes. Again, more effort is put into Hawk/Dove/Jason than the team members. Starfire and Raven in particular need serious course correcting. Their clown wigs are awful and at some points, look like they’re about to fall off. Kory’s amnesia arc is lazy and underdeveloped. Raven is just a plot device and got demoted to cliche possessed horror movie kid possessed by the monster, with most of her other dimensional backstory/magic origins cut for some cheap haunted house gimmick. Ryan Potter as Beast Boy is pretty great though and fairly spot on for his comic version, same with Donna Troy. Dick/Kory/Rachel are too focused on them being psychopaths (all three have their murdery moments in the comics, but the show focuses too much on that and less other elements.)

TLDR: Sorry for the rant, needed to get that off my chest, basically the show is watchable but feels like it wants to be a DC Showcase show more than a Titans show, and as someone who watched the show for my favorite Superhero team, not for Batman nods, I’m let down.

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Hmm interesting, the problems you had with the show were my favorite parts. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d see a Titans show that also had a whole stand alone episode devoted to Hawk and Dove. Also if you ask me the elseworlds Evil Batman episode was the best episode produced by a DC television show ever. I don’t think Batman has ever been portrayed better on screen and he was only on screen for what? 30 seconds tops. That’s an incredible feat if you think about it

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Also I hear what you are saying about their costumes but within the narrative of the show Robin is the only character who is a self proclaimed superhero so it makes sense that the other characters aren’t wearing uniforms. The production crew did their best to make their street clothes look as close to the comics aesthetics as possible.

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RagdollRebel, As I said, I didn’t watch Titans to see Batman though. Even if he only had 30 seconds of screentime, he overshadowed the show. People wouldn’t shut up about him, Batman mythos were prioritized over Titans. I don’t want to have a Batman vs Joker episode in a Titans show. Especially not as a season finale. Especially when none of the main characters are fleshed out.

Again, one of the reasons why Doom Patrol is so great, is its focus on Doom Patrol. Titans isn’t a Titans show. And that annoys me because I watched the show for the team, not to for writers to not be able to get over their Batman boner.

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And Hawk and Dove were nothing like their comic version anyway tbh.

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I get where you are coming from but at the end of the day tv shows and movies are just adaptations, they aren’t meant to be live action shot for shot faithful retellings of their comic book counter parts. Comparing comic books to on screen interpretations is like comparing apples and oranges, I would love for an orange to taste like the best apple I had that one time when I was kid but it doesn’t because it’s an orange lol.
I do agree with you that the Characters could have been more fleshed out, Dick was the only character I cared about by the end

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But that’s probably just my Batman boner talking :joy::joy::joy:

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Starfires wig falling off? wth were you watching? Are you a hair dresser? I have watched the entire season many times and never felt like her wig was gonna fall off lol. What kinda production you think DC is running here? I loved Starfire. I didn’t think her story arc was lazy I thought it was a great way to showcase starfire because lets face it Starfire can be a little dumb witted for sure, so to me, her kinda not knowing what was going on and not having answers in this show because of amnesia is far better than her acting like that because she literally doesn’t know crap, but she can kickass. To me that is every interpretation of Starfire I have always gotten.

BUT!..I agree with the Bat-Boner

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I didn’t know Starfire was wearing a wig?

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argelisjiminian1.21536 watch the third to last episode when Dick confronted Kory outside her warehouse before they find her ship and she pulled her hair back. You can literally see the cap in the wig, its terrible. And I wasn’t fond of the amnesia arc at all. It just felt like the writers running away from the alien aspects of her character. That’s the problem with amnesia arcs, it just takes character away. Nightwing has amnesia in the comics right now, give the same arc to Green Arrow, or any of the other Robins, and the story would be the same.

And Kory’s amnesia opened up a boat ton of plot holes. Why did “Detective” Grayson not probe her backstory? Why did he immediately believe her story? Amnesia is basically “the” bullshit story no cop would ever believe. Plus it made everyone dumb to trust Kory since she was stalking Rachel, had a bunch of conspiracy evidence of why Rachel is evil and could destroy planets. It was pretty obvious Kory wasn’t sent to safeguard a ticking time bomb. Yet everyone is surprised when Kory betrays Rachel. He even let her back into the car after Kory got her memories back and reiterated Raven needed to die. (unless Dick also decided to kill Raven offscreen, that’s a really dumb move on his part)

IMO the only faithful Starfire adaptation is probably the N52 animated movies. Balanced out the naive bits with the badass bits better than the anime cheerleader version in 2003 cartoon and this show’s Jason Bourne take.

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I have to disagree about comic vs adaptation being a apples to oranges. A adaptation when compared to the source material should be a apples to apples comparison. Then when you factor in Titans is being made for the DC Universe which doesn’t have to cater to a general audience (or at least as much as network tv) there should be very little excuse why it isn’t the closest adaptation possible.

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LPCustom76 I don’t think an adaption always needs to be a 100% faithful thing, though I dunno if this show is faithful enough, or focused on the Titans enough to be a Titans show. Again, its more of a DC showcase show about random stuff every other week than a New Teen Titans show

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Grayson need to get a leg over. “Not beholden to the bat, trying to cut the strings, you had a messed up childhood with someone who was emotionally unavailable (get in line with the rest us)

I’ve never taken Starfire as dumb. I miss her wonder and seeing beauty in the world around her.

A slightly less totally whelmed Wonder Girl would make her more intriguing.

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I agree a adaptation doesn’t have to be 100% faithful especially when you’re adapting something like the Teen Titans/Titans where you have some version of the team going back to the 60’s and multiple very popular versions of the classic line up. Also I totally understand changes are going to be made to fit a budget. Look at Doom Patrol I don’t know if a $150m budget movie could do better than what we’re getting right now. And I’m reading the comics for the first time while watching the show and I’m like that was changed but it totally works.

I’m not saying people shouldn’t like Titans at all. I love Smallville but you can’t even begin to deny that show changed things but I still wish that show would have done some things differently.

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Montyotho, you had to know being Robin was a major character in the series, we would eventually get Batman in some form. And Dick’s storyline fed off of the abuse he received being turned into the Bat’s partner. There had to be a moment for the Bat to appear so Dick could face that problem head on. And they came up with a creative way to do it, while also being connected to Raven’s storyline.
Now concerning the costumes. Dick is the only established “hero” so far in the group. Rachel/Raven has been avoiding her abilities at all cost. Kori has been working undercover to locate Rachel. And Gar has tagged along from Doom Manor. Nobody has embraced their alter egos yet. I think that will be established in season two.

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Oh! And the storyline so far has been about Dick finding his true course. He has been under the wing of the Bat so long, he has picked up his violent traits. Something he wants to get away from. And it scares him seeing Jason, because that’s what he was becoming before he left.
Kori is literally going through a “who am I?” Storyline. It wasn’t until one of the last episodes she got her memory back. So her character is still being formed.
And yes, Rachel/Raven is a plot device. But she was in the comics too early on. She doesn’t step forward as a major character until after they defeat Trigon.