TV My thoughts on the Teen Titans Go episode: "The Return of Slade" [Pretty Old Draft I Made]

[KeybladeLordCheeseCurd 1,542]

The episode "The Return of Slade" is a Bait and Switch worse than Raiden being the protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2. The episode starts with Robin alerting the team that Slade has returned, so they go out to face him, but they don't show the battle on screen! Instead of showing the battle, the episode focuses on Beast-Boy and Cyborg on wanting a clown.

 

As if that wasn't enough of a middle finger to the fanbase, the "moral" of the episode makes it even worse. The plot is that a clown shows up, but he's not as cool as Cyborg and Beast Boy remember because "clowns are for kids." So, they change him to be the clown awesome like they remember, while Raven tells them "they need to let go of their love for clowns because they're for kids and they need stop paying attention to something they should have outgrown.” The entire episode is one f**k you to fans who say the original show was better, justifying that they only like the "old awesome" show because of the nostalgia filter and they should have outgrown cartoons by now.

 

What really irks me is the combination of these two complaints. If they wanted to do episode about letting go of your childhood and not seeing things through nostalgia goggles, that would be fine. If they wanted to do a bait and switch joke about Slade as a jab at the fans of the old show, that would be fine too. But when you put it together one after the other, you end up creating a situation where you purposely baited fans of the old show to watch the episode just to be sure that you get as many of them as possible watching as you mock them. This bait is what made clown plot turn from a standard story into a middle finger shown to people - they knew fans of old cartoon will sit in front of the tv screen, some of them excited for Slade, some terrified how will the show handle him and some just curious and open minded. And then they went to tell every single one of these people they're idiots for liking things made for kids.

[Isamu Kuno 2,512]

The entire point of TTG is to mock the original. That is literally the only reason it was made. I thought we all knew this?

[KeybladeLordCheeseCurd 1,542]

The entire point of TTG is to mock the original. That is literally the only reason it was made. I thought we all knew this?

Its original purpose was to just be a comedy reboot, and then it started adding little jabs at fans of the original show, and then they made this episode, which was deliberately made to mock and laugh at the old fans and say,"Your favorite show is gone, WATCH THIS ONE AND DEAL WITH IT YOU IDIOTS."

[Hero of Light XIV 2,381]

...WOW. I mean, wow. I never really thought that much of the show. Yeah, I know everybody hated it, but I never felt like getting tied into that kind of bandwagon, mostly because my first instinct isn't to hate something right off the bat. I gave this show a chance the first few times around, and I found that I had mixed feelings about it. Some of the jokes and gags they did were funny, and some actually felt like nice little insights to some characters (well, at least I can say Raven's a brony now. I knew I liked you for some reason Rae X3"). But there came a point when I felt that there wasn't much love thrown into the show as there was just the simplest most minimal amount of effort, a lot of the scenarios didn't really make sense in a lot of ways, at one point when I was reading a text synopsis of an episode it almost felt like I was reading fan fiction (not even kidding, it was surreal), and half the time there inconsistencies with little facts that the show is supposed to rely on (Beast Boy is a vegetarian...or maybe the better term is vegan. But in several episodes he is seen eating a hot dog with friends. Nothing is ever shown to imply or suggest that this isn't  a meat-based hot dog, it's suggested to be the same as everyone else's). But the worst of it would be the seeming lack of empathy it has towards the older fans. At first it felt like small things that I thought were too insignificant to worry about, things that I felt were interpreted negatively without any intention of being seen that way (their altered personalities, the lack of seriousness in the show, the scenarios that would never happen in the original show's setting, etc.), but then I started noticing more things that could very well be interpreted as intentionally jabbing. The most subtle one was during an episode where the boys are doing something stupid (not specific enough, I know) that involved Beast Boy manning a helicopter, and while he was on standby he was reading a comic book to pass the time. And that comic was none other than Yong Justice, the canceled show who's time slot Go inherited. It could have been a coincidence, but I realized that they could have drawn in ANY DC comic they wanted, but for some reason they wanted to throw in the comic of the show they replaced, and I felt a little burned for seeing that. Then there's any episode with Beast Boy trying to pursue Terra. The whole subplots involving Raven being jealous doesn't bother me in the slightest (mostly because Raven and BB's romance is like the one service to the fans that I see in this series), but what bugged me as well as everyone else is how Terra is portrayed as a straight up villain every time she shows up and she's purely antagonistic each time. The altered personalities of everyone else where one thing, at least they all resembled exaggerated versions of themselves to a degree, but Terra's personality wasn't accurately shown at all, it was a phase of her life that she went through, and now it's being treated 1-dimensionally. This was the most character-specific complaint out of the series from fans since she was such a fan favorite in the original series, one that the creators really cared about making sure that you cared about what happened to her at the end. And then the crowing indirectly-direct attack towards the original fans who were watching the show for any reason, the example you just brought up. Yeah, there's no excuse around it, it was pretty antagonistic. Alone both scenarios would have been fine, but the pure combination of them really feels like the show is trying to shame about half of their audience. First off, you don't do that with a show. You're supposed to try to INCREASE the number of people watching, not discourage them of ever watching it anymore. By sending that kind of message, you're also discouraging them from watching ANY cartoon anywhere that was originally targeted towards kids, so that would effectively mess up Cartoon Network's viewership ratings as a whole. That's like steering the Titanic towards the iceberg on purpose saying "Well you shouldn't have even gone near the icebergs in the first place!", you're not proving a point, you're increasing the problem. The other thing is that most people complain about the show insulting the audience's intelligence (but that would largely depend on who it's made for. My cousins seem to like it and think it's fine mindless fun, even while I think it's a bit too wacky for my tastes), but this instance is where the show is directly insulting an entire demographic. It doesn't even try to explain that it's alright to indulge in nostalgia every once in a while, it's flat out saying that "YOU NEED TO GROW UP AND STOP WATCHING KID THINGS YA BUNCH OF CRYBABY BUMS!!" There's no compromise to it, and that's what makes it so venomous. I don't quite know who's behind a lot of what's wrong with Teen Titans Go!, but I will say that whatever mindset they have going into this project has the potential to seriously hurt and damage Cartoon Network's reputation, as well as the reputation of cartoons as a whole, especially comedic spin-offs or satire. How Cartoon Network could continue to endorse something so damaging to itself and NOT continue several Craig McCraken shows or revive Codename: Kids Next Door, things that made them popular in the first place, is beyond me. It seems to be like they're accepting anything that is "different" in their eyes, which results in nice shows like Steven Universe and Adventure Time, but it also results in shows like Uncle Grandpa and Teen Titans GO!. Here's hoping that everybody can get their acts together before things start getting REALLY bad.

 

Sorry for the rant, my mind basically exploded with opinions when I read this. ^_^""

[Minato arisato 253]

Yeah it was a diss episode and Mysterious Mr Enter did a video awhile ago on it 

[Nero Kunivas 3,046]

...Firetruck TTG.

 

Seriously, the previous Teen Titans is FAR better, I want to watch that instead over this shit. There's a difference between a light-hearted: "Take that, Audience!" and a Heavy-Handed "FIRETRUCK YOU, OUR SHOW IS BETTER!".

 

Also, they disrespected Slade/Deathstroke as well as any indulgence in Nostalgia.....

 

 

Welp, that definitely scratches this show off of my backlog.

[Tails 6,690]

...WOW. I mean, wow. I never really thought that much of the show. Yeah, I know everybody hated it, but I never felt like getting tied into that kind of bandwagon, mostly because my first instinct isn't to hate something right off the bat. I gave this show a chance the first few times around, and I found that I had mixed feelings about it. Some of the jokes and gags they did were funny, and some actually felt like nice little insights to some characters (well, at least I can say Raven's a brony now. I knew I liked you for some reason Rae X3"). But there came a point when I felt that there wasn't much love thrown into the show as there was just the simplest most minimal amount of effort, a lot of the scenarios didn't really make sense in a lot of ways, at one point when I was reading a text synopsis of an episode it almost felt like I was reading fan fiction (not even kidding, it was surreal), and half the time there inconsistencies with little facts that the show is supposed to rely on (Beast Boy is a vegetarian...or maybe the better term is vegan. But in several episodes he is seen eating a hot dog with friends. Nothing is ever shown to imply or suggest that this isn't  a meat-based hot dog, it's suggested to be the same as everyone else's). But the worst of it would be the seeming lack of empathy it has towards the older fans. At first it felt like small things that I thought were too insignificant to worry about, things that I felt were interpreted negatively without any intention of being seen that way (their altered personalities, the lack of seriousness in the show, the scenarios that would never happen in the original show's setting, etc.), but then I started noticing more things that could very well be interpreted as intentionally jabbing. The most subtle one was during an episode where the boys are doing something stupid (not specific enough, I know) that involved Beast Boy manning a helicopter, and while he was on standby he was reading a comic book to pass the time. And that comic was none other than Yong Justice, the canceled show who's time slot Go inherited. It could have been a coincidence, but I realized that they could have drawn in ANY DC comic they wanted, but for some reason they wanted to throw in the comic of the show they replaced, and I felt a little burned for seeing that. Then there's any episode with Beast Boy trying to pursue Terra. The whole subplots involving Raven being jealous doesn't bother me in the slightest (mostly because Raven and BB's romance is like the one service to the fans that I see in this series), but what bugged me as well as everyone else is how Terra is portrayed as a straight up villain every time she shows up and she's purely antagonistic each time. The altered personalities of everyone else where one thing, at least they all resembled exaggerated versions of themselves to a degree, but Terra's personality wasn't accurately shown at all, it was a phase of her life that she went through, and now it's being treated 1-dimensionally. This was the most character-specific complaint out of the series from fans since she was such a fan favorite in the original series, one that the creators really cared about making sure that you cared about what happened to her at the end. And then the crowing indirectly-direct attack towards the original fans who were watching the show for any reason, the example you just brought up. Yeah, there's no excuse around it, it was pretty antagonistic. Alone both scenarios would have been fine, but the pure combination of them really feels like the show is trying to shame about half of their audience. First off, you don't do that with a show. You're supposed to try to INCREASE the number of people watching, not discourage them of ever watching it anymore. By sending that kind of message, you're also discouraging them from watching ANY cartoon anywhere that was originally targeted towards kids, so that would effectively mess up Cartoon Network's viewership ratings as a whole. That's like steering the Titanic towards the iceberg on purpose saying "Well you shouldn't have even gone near the icebergs in the first place!", you're not proving a point, you're increasing the problem. The other thing is that most people complain about the show insulting the audience's intelligence (but that would largely depend on who it's made for. My cousins seem to like it and think it's fine mindless fun, even while I think it's a bit too wacky for my tastes), but this instance is where the show is directly insulting an entire demographic. It doesn't even try to explain that it's alright to indulge in nostalgia every once in a while, it's flat out saying that "YOU NEED TO GROW UP AND STOP WATCHING KID THINGS YA BUNCH OF CRYBABY BUMS!!" There's no compromise to it, and that's what makes it so venomous. I don't quite know who's behind a lot of what's wrong with Teen Titans Go!, but I will say that whatever mindset they have going into this project has the potential to seriously hurt and damage Cartoon Network's reputation, as well as the reputation of cartoons as a whole, especially comedic spin-offs or satire. How Cartoon Network could continue to endorse something so damaging to itself and NOT continue several Craig McCraken shows or revive Codename: Kids Next Door, things that made them popular in the first place, is beyond me. It seems to be like they're accepting anything that is "different" in their eyes, which results in nice shows like Steven Universe and Adventure Time, but it also results in shows like Uncle Grandpa and Teen Titans GO!. Here's hoping that everybody can get their acts together before things start getting REALLY bad.

 

Sorry for the rant, my mind basically exploded with opinions when I read this. ^_^""

THIS! THIS SO MUCH! Teen Titans Go! has really been insulting the older fans lately and that's something you shouldn't do with your show. That's like making a KND comedic spin-off series and insulting the older fans of the original AKND Aby throwaing insaultsa t them in a "comedic" way. You just don't do that. You sir, deserve a thousand likes for this post.

[Smithee 326]

...Firetruck TTG.

 

Seriously, the previous Teen Titans is FAR better, I want to watch that instead over this shit. There's a difference between a light-hearted: "Take that, Audience!" and a Heavy-Handed "FIRETRUCK YOU, OUR SHOW IS BETTER!".

 

Also, they disrespected Slade/Deathstroke as well as any indulgence in Nostalgia.....

 

 

Welp, that definitely scratches this show off of my backlog.

 

To be fair, Ron Perlman is beyond too good for this "show."

Edited September 12, 2015 by Alan Smithee

[VisitJoan 2,713]

[Hero of Light XIV 2,381]

THIS! THIS SO MUCH! Teen Titans Go! has really been insulting the older fans lately and that's something you shouldn't do with your show. That's like making a KND comedic spin-off series and insulting the older fans of the original AKND Aby throwaing insaultsa t them in a "comedic" way. You just don't do that. You sir, deserve a thousand likes for this post.

Oh, oh my. Teh flatters, they are too real. =/3="

[EskimoSquirrel 60]

Besides this episode there are many easter eggs in the show that would only be caught by people who watched the original that are not dissingn it. Yeah that episode in particular was a jab, but that is mainly because of the way the fans reacted and I am sure they were tired of hearing it. I believe it was more of a "this is our show and this is what we want to do with it" rather than a "f you old fans."

[KeybladeLordCheeseCurd 1,542]

Besides this episode there are many easter eggs in the show that would only be caught by people who watched the original that are not dissingn it. Yeah that episode in particular was a jab, but that is mainly because of the way the fans reacted and I am sure they were tired of hearing it. I believe it was more of a "this is our show and this is what we want to do with it" rather than a "f you old fans."

It's basically both. And it's why you should not reboot a series with people who have not watched the original as the writers.