Raven (Teen Titans)

Raven is one of the main characters from the Teen Titans animated series.

Raven is a human-demon hybrid, originating from the parallel dimension of Azarath, and is one of five founding members of the Teen Titans.

Appearance
Raven's appearance is seen as dark and mysterious throughout the series. Her superhero outfit is mostly made up of her favorite color, Dark Blue. She usually wears a dark blue cloak with a hood, with matching dark blue ruffled ankle-boots with blackish-gray soles, with a leotard-like long-sleeved shirt that is bluish-black with cuffs at her wrists of the same dark blue of her cloak. On her cloak, she has a circular black/red jewel set in a gold plate that attaches the whole thing together; it covers her T-communicator and it's fixed to beep/glow when there is trouble as seen in some episodes. The jewel also sometimes has a raven head shape in the jewel. Around her waist, she has a red and gold belt with the same jewels around it, while her legs are exposed. The belt ties at the back like a cord. Her hair and eyes are violet, and as seen in the episode "Birthmark," Raven cuts off the extra hair that she had grown. In "Switched," Raven despises Starfire's long hair, which may conclude why she likes to keep it short. She has a red gem that is outlined in black inlaid on her forehead that she has always had, and in the episode "Sisters", Blackfire says to Raven, "I like that gemstone on your Ajna chakra." She has very pale, almost gray, skin which makes her appearance somewhat demonic.

Raven, being half-demon, has used her demonic appearances on several occasions, though often the use of her demon form causes her to lose control. Raven's demonic form has proven effective in getting results, such as bringing about Doctor Light's swift surrender (twice), and scaring Gizmo in "Crash" to get him to repair a virus-contaminated Cyborg.

When Raven temporarily wears Robin's uniform in "The Quest", she fits it just fine as she and Robin are the same height and she is the closest to Robin's build. When Mother Mae-Eye infiltrates the Tower and puts the Titans under her control, she turns Raven's dark blue cloak into a yellow Shirley Temple dress with matching bows in her hair, but her boots remain dark blue in color. Mother Mae-Eye then says "Just because you're evil on the inside doesn't mean you can't look pretty on the outside." This outfit puts her at a disadvantage fighting Jinx, contributing to the team's defeat by the H.I.V.E. When Raven is in her 'demonic' state, a second pair of eyes appear where her eyebrows are.

Personality
Raven is one of the most mysterious characters throughout the series. She is quiet, troubled, grim, brooding, seemingly emotionless, intelligent, studious, and sarcastic. She can always come up with a smart remark, specifically in reply to most of the Teen Titans' antics and attempts at humor. Her appearance and attitude appear to be that of a typical modern goth female. However, as much as she may seem slightly distant and anti-social, producer Sam Register describes her as a "...dark character, but a character everyone can relate to. She's a recluse and sort of to herself. We thought that would be a good dynamic with the rest of the team. She does have a dark background in the comic." Robin also said that she is "the most hopeful person he has ever known."

Raven is often portrayed as the most mature member of the group, often giving her own advice to the the others about various subjects, and generally staying cool and calm, even in desperate situations. She is, however, also the most emotionally-restrained of the Titans, appearing secretive and distant; she initially does not allow any of her fellow Titans into her room and spends most of her time by herself, usually meditating or reading one of her numerous books. Even though she is serious and cautious about her emotions, just like she was trying to tell Doctor Light saying, "Don't come any closer." The reason for her emotional restraint is due to the adverse effects her emotions have on her powers. If her emotions become out of control, her powers can become erratic and spontaneous, becoming active without her will. In the course of the series, however, she gradually, if only slightly, seems to warm up to her teammates. As shown through her quick suspicion of Terra, it is difficult for Raven to build trust for anyone, and even more difficult to truly forgive if that trust was to be broken. Eventually, she was able to forgive Terra.

In several instances throughout the show, contrary to her usual behavior, she does show more emotion such as making "heart eyes" along with Starfire at the appearance of Aqualad in "Deep Six" (though this is mostly used for comedic effect). She also does ease up to have some fun on a few occasions, such as forcing Cyborg to go through 'initiation' again with Beast Boy and Robin in the episode "Deception". Furthermore, Raven is known to sometimes be shocked at trivial things. One occasion in which this occurs is in "Overdrive", when Cyborg defeats Raven in a game of chess after installing the Maximum 7 in his brain. At this occasion, her entire face and outfit turn white (also probably for comedic effect). In "Revved Up", she is also shocked at the sudden drop-in of Red X on the bus she is driving but quickly regains her monotone and determined stature when she realizes who it is. Another instance is when Raven, while playing a game of cards, comically gasps at the impressive sets of cards the rest of the Titans have at their disposal during "Winner Take All". She can lose her temper easily, and most of the time with Beast Boy.

Raven is often shown to make sarcastic remarks about almost everything and can be seen as rather rude at times, but there is a slight chance this personality wasn't always who she was. When the Titans first met, Raven appeared to be more innocent and insecure. She declined Beast Boy's offer to get pizza, probably because she's afraid that he wouldn't like her, and because of him, feels as if she does not fit in with the others. Both Cyborg and Robin were not hesitant to accept her as a friend, even when she wasn't so sure herself. She was the first one to verbally recognize the others as friends, and even openly admits to Beast Boy being funny, which no sooner than a moment later, seems to regret making that statement. Her pessimistic and sarcastic attitude is then likely derived from having to put up with Beast Boy's constant corny jokes and immaturity.

Despite her seemingly unfriendly attitude, Raven does indeed care greatly about the people she is attached to, as prominently displayed when she is put in charge of three children. Initially having little or no patience with Melvin, Timmy Tantrum, and Teether, Raven grows to love (or at least, enjoy) them, risking her own life to protect them from the Brotherhood of Evil, even calling them her kids. She also comes to regard the rest of the Titans as her closest friends and family. When the day she is destined to end the world finally came, she wanted nothing more than to ensure her friends' last day on Earth was perfect. This shows that despite everything that has ever happened, she truly cares about her friends and their interests. Finally, there are many instances where Raven is portrayed as the most understanding friend among the Titans. While seemingly uninterested towards Cyborg's T-Car, Raven is ultimately the only one who approaches and comforts him, even going as far as to assist in rebuilding the destroyed car. Overall, Raven is not cold-hearted, merely introverted, caring deeply about those close to her. While Raven seems to not care one bit about their hobbies and personalities, she does show her friends that she does care about them and values their friendship when it matters most.

Raven is often portrayed as the most pessimistic and insensitive member of the Titans, and she generally regards everything in a "black and white" manner. For example, when Beast Boy desperately asks Raven for words of comfort after their crushing defeat against the members of the H.I.V.E Academy, Raven tersely states that the Titans have to accept the situation, no matter how grave it is. She also reacts to Cyborg's leaving of the Titans with little to no resentment, stating that people come and go by. When Raven surrenders herself in to her demonic father Trigon in order to fulfill the prophecy that she thought she had no way to prevent, however, Raven also appeared to still have retained hope to a certain degree that the lord of evil could be stopped, as she forcibly injected each of her friends with a portion of her own power to shield them and give them one last chance to save the world. It is then ironic that it was what had motivated her to surrender nearly all hope that ultimately destroyed Trigon.

After banishing away Trigon from her soul and the Earth, Raven's personality seems to change for the better, as she grows to be less pessimistic and less anti-social. However, she still despises Beast Boy's corny jokes and enjoys reading in solitude, implying that her personality was not significantly affected by her semi-demonic origin.

Abilities
Raven is undeniably the most powerful Titan in the series. As the daughter of a supremely powerful and dangerous inter-dimensional demon, Raven has a host of unique abilities that are tied to her feelings and emotions, and as such, she has trained herself to calm all strong feelings to contain them. Her power is extremely difficult to keep in check, but she has achieved control through daily meditation, mantra and utilizing chakra. She also uses a special mirror, described as "a personal meditation tool used as a portal into the multidimensional world of [her] mind". Total suppression of her emotions, though, can result in her powers subconsciously manifesting - as such, she constantly struggles to express herself while still maintaining control. Raven often uses the incantation "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" as a focal point for her exceptionally strong telekinetic powers. Though Raven has been shown to be rendered powerless when unable to complete this incantation, she has also been shown at certain times being able to access her powers through sheer willpower. Raven's power fluctuates throughout the series; she has been shown gaining incredibly in strength, like when she was tutored by Malchior or when she was empowered by her positive emotions during the battle against Trigon, as well as being stripped of her power completely, as when she was regressed to the form of a child following the opening of Trigon's portal. She has also portrayed hidden abilities like stopping time.

When Raven's anger gets the best of her, she can transform into her half-demon self, usually with four glowing red eyes (a trait inherited from her demon father, Trigon) and sprouting black tentacles from under her cloak. She has little control over her actions in this state, shown when she was attacking a terrified Doctor Light even after he was begging for mercy.

She has also temporarily swapped bodies with Starfire in one episode and swapped powers with Robin in the comics based on the TV series.
 * Darkness/Shadows Control: Raven has the power to create and control the element of pure darkness and shadows and bend it to her will; often using it in conjunction with her telekinesis.


 * Soul-Self/Astral Projection: The basis of almost all of Raven's powers are derived from her soul-self. She is able to project her own spirit from her body into a ghostly form, using it to interact with the physical world, affect others mentally, and to traverse through time-space. Her soul-self takes the form of a double of her own body, or more commonly, a large black raven. She is capable of changing its shape and mass at will, and can alter her own appearance with her soul-self, like increasing her size or making her face hideous. She is able to project her soul-self into the minds of others to communicate, facilitate calm or to force people into submission with a devastating mental attack. Though normally composed of energy that is colored black, Raven's soul-self can change color depending on her emotional state, manifesting as red or white.


 * Advanced Telekinesis: Raven can merge a small part of her soul-self into objects in order to take control of them, with the object essentially becoming an extension of her soul-self; this may be the reason why she prefers to take control of inanimate objects rather than people. The limit to how much matter she is able to control is unknown, though it ranges well into hundreds of tons, allowing her to hurl city buses, mounds of rubble or even uprooting whole slabs of pavement. Whenever she takes control of something, it is covered in the same dark energy that composes her soul-self.


 * Telekinetic Constructs: With her soul-self able to be molded into any shape, Raven often creates simple domes or walls that act as barriers against attack. She can project solid bolts to be used as projectiles, or a steady stream of solid force. She has been shown making razor-sharp blades to cut through obstacles, claws that can restrain foes, and floating platforms to ride on.
 * Telekinetic Force-Fields: She can erect unusually strong shields of sheer telekinetic and dark energy around herself and others for protection.
 * Telekinetic Teleportation: In conjunction with her telekinesis, Raven's soul-self is able to envelop her (along with a max of four other people) and travel to other dimensions, primarily Azarath. She can use this technique to travel vast distances on Earth or to teleport by momentarily displacing herself and then re-appearing in another location. She can pass through walls and obstacles by simply teleporting past them, giving the illusion of intangibility. At times, Raven has been shown creating portals with her dark energy in order to travel, rather than utilizing her soul-self.
 * Empathy: The psionic ability to sense the emotions of others, allowing her to gain insight into their thoughts and intentions, and even experience their own feelings. This also enables her to sense the mental state of others, as she has stated that she would know if someone's mind had been tampered with. Raven can absorb the pain of others into her own body in order to induce rapid healing for them, and can heal herself by going into a trance of emotional calm. She can receive precognitive flashes of the future when exposed to extreme emotion. By using her empathy to guide her, she can track others with her soul-self. At one point, she had used this ability to empathically enter Robin's subconscious mind; therefore giving the two an unusually strong psychic link afterward.


 * Levitation: Raven can levitate off the ground and hover, without visible projection of her dark energy as is shown when she utilizes telekinesis. Her power is also sufficient to enable her to counter the gravitational pull of other planets.

Other Skills

 * Superhuman Condition: Though not the most physically talented of the quintet, Raven is nonetheless a fairly skilled and proficient hand-to-hand combatant, having received at least some degree of physical training. She has been shown briefly overcoming the peak-human Speedy, engaging Jinx in hand-to-hand combat and also quickly delivering flying kicks to Monsieur Mallah in an attempt to protect Melvin, Timmy Tantrum, and Teether.
 * Multilingualism: Raven is a skilled polyglot, capable of fluently speaking English, German, Latin, Romanian, Ancient Sumerian, and Sanskrit. She can even speak the language of her own people, Azaranian.


 * Magic: Though only occasionally used, Raven has displayed a wide arcane knowledge, possessing a vast library of mystic tomes, spell books and ancient scrolls. She has been shown making potions, using mystical objects like charms and talismans, and has performed elaborate magical rituals.
 * Spell-casting: The high-level spells she casts are usually spoken out loud; though she does have some practice in casting nonverbal spells to give herself more of an advantage over her opponents.
 * Healing: Though she is rarely seen using this talent, this is one of her most controllable and easiest skill to use. The first time it is acknowledged is in the episode "Final Exam", when Beast Boy gets a leg injury, and Raven doesn't hesitate to heal it. This is probably the first time she used her healing powers in front of her team or at least Beast Boy, since he remarks: "Who knew we had a doctor in the house?" And then he thanks her. Her healing powers have an apparent tendency to function by themselves when Raven is hurt, placing her in a coma-like state and speeding up her recovery, as seen in the episode "The Beast Within", when Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Starfire are worried about her. Robin sees her posture and guessing that she is "healing herself," which was correct.

Trivia

 * Azarath is the dimension in which Raven was born and raised, and where she learned to concentrate her powers from the monks' help. Apparently, it serves as at least one source of her power, as implied when David Slack commented: "Whenever Raven was in trouble, she called on the power of Azarath; so when Raven is in the greatest trouble of her life, it seemed like we should take her to Azarath."[31] The words "Metrion" and "Zinthos" were created by Glen Murakami for the spell, and do not have any meaning. These words also serve as her mantra for her daily meditations, which she performs to keep her emotions in check so they do not clash with her conscious self-control.
 * Raven, along with Starfire, had a crush on Aqualad.
 * Raven is also attracted to Aqualad in the spin-off parody Teen Titans Go!. The two even dated.
 * Raven has affectionately called Melvin, Timmy Tantrum, and Teether her "kids".
 * She enjoys waffles, according to a sarcastic remark in "Crash", more than life itself.
 * Raven is shown to be the only Titan who cannot cook. This is shown in the episode "The End - Part 1," when Raven attempts but fails at making pancakes. All four other Titans are shown to have made successful meals at some point in the show. Starfire has made numerous Tamaranean dishes, Beast Boy has made tofu eggs, Cyborg has made spaghetti and other dishes, and Robin has made eggs and a ham.
 * Raven's and Starfire's eyes both glow when using their powers (white and green, respectively).
 * Beast Boy has used Raven's cloak, on some occasions, as a place to hide, such as in "Date With Destiny".
 * Raven is by far the most powerful character in the series, even exceeding that of her father Trigon. Her powers may be extremely difficult to control but still remain unmatched by any other character.
 * Raven's sarcasm was sometimes taken too literally, as seen when she stated "I'd really rather just stay here and drown", where Beast Boy simply shrugged and left her.
 * Although Beast Boy is usually the comedic relief of the team, it is Raven who had said what was possibly the funniest and most famous line in Teen Titans history: "Evil beware. We have waffles."
 * When Raven is in demonic form, her eyes begin to glow red and a second pair of eyes appear where her eyebrows are.
 * Raven's demonic form can somewhat be compared to the "Avatar State" from Avatar: The Last Airbender in the sense that it is where she is the most powerful, but also the most vulnerable, as showcased in her fight with Terra in "Aftershock - Part 1".
 * In the original series, Raven's hair and eyes are violet, but in the spin-off series, Teen Titans Go! her hair and eyes are black, which could possibly serve as a reference to Dark Raven's design in the Titans Tomorrow comic book storyline.
 * Raven appears to hate wearing a dress, revealed in the episode "Mother Mae-Eye" (which is ironic considering her comic book costume was a dress).
 * Even though she does not allow anyone in her room, by the end of the series, all four Titans have entered her room at least once and Jinx and Slade's robots have also been in there.
 * Raven's pale skin tone may be explained with her ethnicity being half-demon.
 * Raven dislikes chickens, as she considers them a mere annoyance. However, she was once gifted a giant chicken doll from Beast Boy, who won the prize for her. The reason for this is because she is allergic to their feathers.
 * Raven is the only character to have her birthday celebrated or mentioned in the series.
 * Raven is the only Titan whose mother and father make an appearance on the show (excluding Robin's parent's silhouettes in "Haunted").
 * Raven despises when her hair is long, as revealed in "Switched". Whenever it grew long, she would cut it short again.
 * Beast Boy and Raven were intentionally written by David Slack, the Titans head writer, as a "married couple", hence the relationship was one of deep loyalty and affection, but also laced with conflicting personality clashes.
 * Many fans seem to believe that Raven and Beast Boy have romantic feelings for each other, but there is no substantial evidence in the series aside from some affectionate moments. The spinoff/continuation comic Teen Titans Go! had some clear ship teasing between the two but those moments could've been just simple nods to their relationship in the mainstream comics at the time or maybe actual hints to a future relationship. Ultimately, due to the TTG comics never going past the ship teasing, the status of Raven and Beast Boy having hidden romantic feelings for each other in this Titans continuity remains debatable.
 * Most of the time when Raven is upset about something, Beast Boy was ultimately the only one who successfully made her feel better. He was also the first to be hugged by Raven out of comfort.
 * Raven has lost her boot just like Starfire. Both of the reasons why they lost one of their boots is because of Beast Boy.
 * Despite Raven's sarcasm and her nearly emotionless state, she treats all the other four members as friends and never intends to harm them emotionally.
 * Backing this up is that Raven said they "raised" her, referring to their helping her grow emotionally.
 * When Raven was transformed into a bunny by Mumbo, her powers are ineffective inside of Mumbo's hat. Only able to do cheap magic tricks like making flowers appear.
 * When Raven stopped time, her powers briefly became blue-and-black instead of the usual black-and-white.
 * Multiple of Raven's traits and practices to focus seem to be slightly altered and drawn from Hinduism (such as meditation, as well as the chakra gem inlaid on her forehead) (Wikipedia: Hinduism)
 * Raven's powers have changed colors from black-and-white to bright-green to blue-and-black and to glowing white.
 * In "Birthmark", Slade "burnt" off parts of Raven's with the red symbols appearing under them, on her skin, but in "The Prophecy", the symbols appeared on her clothes.
 * Raven is the only Titan who still had a living parent, her father Trigon (up until "The End - Part 3"), in the series. Robin's, Starfire's, Cyborg's, and Beast Boy's parents were deceased at the beginning of the series.


 * In "Winner Take All", Raven is seen knitting.
 * In the DC Comics books, Raven and Beast Boy have a romantic relationship, though the characters were at a somewhat later point in their lives than they are portrayed in the cartoon.
 * Her real name is Raven, but, in the comics, she temporarily creates the alias, Rachel Roth. However, this alias is never used or mentioned in the Teen Titans animated TV series.
 * Raven actually does find Beast Boy funny, despite her countless claims against it, as stated in "Nevermore", and "Go!". Although it is likely she finds his behavior funny, rather than his jokes.
 * In Teen Titans Go! issue #42, Jericho and Raven are seen coming from the movies with Robin and Starfire, the four of them appeared to be on a double date.
 * In the movie Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, it is revealed Raven can read in English, German, Latin, Romanian, Ancient Sumerian, and Sanskrit.
 * Raven's height is 5`4 (165cm).
 * Raven was turned into a little girl in "The End" by Trigon.
 * In "Final Exam," Jinx said "You fight like a boy," to Raven during hand-to-hand combat.
 * Raven's the only member of the Teen Titans whose name is in the title of an episode.
 * This version of her influences her appearance and attitude in recent comics and other media.
 * Raven does not identify Trigon as her father, rather just her creator. This is revealed in the final standoff between Raven and Trigon. As she defeats him she describes that a father is kind, protective and raise one. She tells Trigon that she was protected by the monks of Azarath and raised by her friends, and that he was never her father. Although this is Raven's ideology, it may have been a message to send to the viewer about parental figures, since Teen Titans is a comedy show but it also has messages that are meant for the young audience to apply to their own lives.