Starfire (Teen Titans)

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

Starfire, sometimes "Star" (real name, Princess Koriand'r) is an alien princess from the distant world of Tamaran, and one of the five founding members of the Teen Titans. She is also Robin's main love interest and finally becomes his girlfriend in the series finale movie.

Appearance
Starfire is shown to be incredibly beautiful and stunning. Her eyes, nose, lips, mouth, hair, skin, and outfit view her as colorful in comparison to other girls such as Raven. Her growing long fiery-red hair is down to her waist and straight with bangs. She has small eyebrows, and green eyes with light-green scleras (or in other words, the whites of her eyes are colored light-green). She is tall, with bright orange skin, (or it seems to have a yellowish skin tone in the comic strip above), and her outfit is mostly violet with a glowing belt, her neck corn collar and gauntlets being silver with green jewels compared to Blackfire's black outfit. She also wears a silver armband on her right arm. She wears a sleeveless crop top showing her midriff, a stem stalk mini-skirt, and thigh-high boots all in violet, and her tight-high boots have white stockings. As a Tamaranean, she has alien physiology which includes a long violet tongue and nine stomachs, probably for storing food during meager times. She also seems to resemble some Japanese girls, inheriting similar eyebrows and very shiny hair.

Personality
Starfire is very cheerful and sweet, yet somewhat naive and considerably insecure, but her naivete is not to be mistaken for stupidity. An alien and an outsider, she is still rather new to Earth and its customs. (For example, she did not understand what a boy meant when he asked if she was "diggin' the scene" when she was at a party, and stated, confused, "I did not know we were supposed to bring shovels.") This leads to much confusion for her and others, such as the awkwardness in casually drinking mustard as a beverage, and thinking cotton candy and cotton balls are the same thing. Presumably, because English is not her first language, Starfire speaks without contractions and misuses idioms (e.g. "Kick the butt!" as opposed to "Kick butt!" or "The mall of shopping" instead of "shopping mall" as well as "lobstery" instead of "crabby"). Additionally, she uses several Tamaranean nouns, such as "bumgorf" (term of endearment towards one's own child), "K'norfka" (parent or guardian), "clorbag varblernelk" (insulting term), "G'lufnog" (bless you; said after one sneezes), and "shlorvak" (dream). She also insists on sharing her own customs with other members of the team (such as providing a crown of raw meat to be worn on one's birthday), but Starfire doesn't generally take offense when they don't understand or refuse her. In one instance, she lies about a holiday celebrated by destroying drapery and blows up a window to explain an accidentally torn curtain; an act that barely registers as odd behavior by the others.

She takes friendship very seriously, and is easily distressed when others, especially her friends, argue or fight. She is arguably the most social of the Titans, regularly meditating with Raven, or lifting weights with Cyborg. She can also be particularly indignant to the point of snubbing her teammates when she believes they do not care for her friendship or company. Above all, Starfire wishes to be friends with everyone she meets, and for everyone to get along. This is in part probably, as before coming to Earth, Starfire didn't have real friends apart of her adoptive father, as she mentioned in Go! to Robin that "nice" is not a common word in her planet and that no one had been so nice with her apart of him and her own guardian.

Her personality changed dramatically from her first meeting with the Titans in Go!. She demonstrated her power and strength as she escaped from the Gordanian ship. While the others saw rampant destruction without a cause, Raven saw her trying to free herself from her handcuffs. As mentioned above, Tamaraneans learn language through lip contact, and having gotten what she wanted from Robin, she leaves him with a warning to leave her alone, she flies away knowing full well that the Gordanians were still hot on her trail. As she fought against the Gordanians with the four other young heroes, her personality calmed dramatically, and she eventually apologized for the destruction she had caused during her escape. This change in behavior suggests truly was, at heart, a somewhat friendly, kindhearted person. The reckless behavior seen in the beginning of the episode might lend some credence to why Tamaraneans are so feared throughout the galaxy: their strength is not easily matched. It also proves that Starfire, when the time is right, is not afraid to "kick the butt".

While naive, Starfire is extremely perceptive. As shown in "Apprentice - Part 2", while knowing Robin and Sladehad similar personalities, she refused to believe he had gone to be Slade's apprentice of his own accord, spending hours looking for him. Later, she states that she "cannot live in a world where they must fight," showing that she values her friends more than anything. Starfire has also shown that she has a lot of wisdom, most notably in "Snowblind", when she got Red Star to embrace his powers. She has also taught lessons to both Cyborg and Beast Boy in the episodes "Forces of Nature" and "Deception".

She cares about each of her friends, but there is one person whom she cares more than anyone on Earth: Robin. Since the day they met, both her and Robin have had romantic feelings for each other, which are obvious to everyone including a few villains. There have been multiple hints throughout the show showing how much they care about one another (as evidenced in "Sisters", "Date with Destiny", "Betrothed", "Stranded", "Go!" and finallyin Trouble in Tokyo); but Robin and Starfire didn't admit their strong romantic feelings for each other until the series finale movie Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo. At that time, they share a few scenes with each other and have attempted to kiss twice. By the end of the movie, Robin and Starfire finally reveal their feelings for each other, and they finally share a real romantic kiss. They are seen the next day holding each other's hands, confirming that they have finally become a couple.

Abilities
Tamaranean Physiology: All of Starfire's superpowers are native to her extraterrestrial species of the Tamaraeans. Though outwardly humanoid in appearance, she has several biological differences, like having nine stomachs, reddish hair and eyebrows, and very pale orange skin. All of her abilities are tied to her emotional state, and generally can only be triggered when a specific emotion is focused on; because of this, her powers can be weakened or compromised when she is in emotional turmoil, like when she lost her ability to fly due to depression.

Ultraviolet Energy Projection: As a result of being experimented on, Starfire can project incredibly powerful bright green-colored energy from her hands, activated by righteous fury. Her energy attacks produce both thermal energy and highly explosive results on contact. She can augment the effectiveness of her punches by surrounding her hands in energy, and she can also use this method to weld or carefully burn through obstacles with contact from her hands. A chiming sound is heard when using her stabolts.
 * Starbolts: Starfire mainly discharges circular bolts of pure radioactive energy, which are usually launched as thrown circular projectiles.
 * Starbolt Waves: She has also been shown to shoot this energy in the form of waves from her hands.
 * Starbolt Shields: She can erect a strong defensive energy barrier and force-field around herself; as seen in The End, Part 1 and "Can I Keep Him?"
 * Starblasts: Starfire is also able to shoot her energy in the form of powerful and large blasts from her hands.
 * Laser-Eye Beams: After going through the Tamaranean version of puberty (a process referred to as "the Transformation"), Starfire gained the highly useful ability to emit beams of her bright green energy from her eyes. Though not as destructive as her regular starbolts, these beams can be fired continuously in a steady stream, are more precise in direction, and also give her the element of surprise for when her hands are restrained. They seem to be sightly larger than Blackfire's eye-beams.


 * FTL Flight: By feeling unbridled joy, Starfire can achieve wingless flight under her own willpower faster than light itself. In space, she can travel at nearly light speed, and her superhuman strength is not diminished when airborne.
 * Superhuman Strength: She is immensely strong. While the true extent is unknown, she is shown over four times stronger than Cyborg himself; in "Overdrive", she was seen effortlessly lifting with a single hand twice as much as what Cyborg struggled to with both hands. According to herself, is able to use her enhanced strength by using a feeling called boundless confidence.
 * Superhuman Agility & Superhuman Reflexes: Starfire possesses highly advanced agility and reflexes. Her natural fighting skills are much greater when in conjunction with her superhuman reflexes, durability, and agility. She is able to remain awake and battle endlessly for several hours.
 * Superhuman Stamina: Starfire can remain awake for long days at a time before tiring out.
 * Superhuman Endurance: She has supreme physical endurance; capable of surviving the most severe of snowstorms, but eventually wears down her endurance.
 * Semi-Invulnerability: Like all of her kind, she is immune to most physical harm; capable of surviving a massively powerful explosion without taking much damage; as such she has bulletproof skin.
 * Radiation Immunity: Starfire is naturally immune to high levels of radiation, as stated in "Snowblind".
 * Space Survival Skills: Starfire can survive in the endless vacuum of outer space without the need of a spacesuit, as she can breathe and move normally in space.


 * Language Assimilation: As a Tamaranean, Starfire can replicate all the acquired spoken knowledge of languages from other life-forms via lip contact; a process known as "the transfer of knowledge". To which, she gains as much fluency in the dialect and idioms as the target, but she still retains her natural accent grammar. Her current known languages are Tamaranean, English, and Japanese.

Other Skills

 * Warrior Skills: Due to the war-like nature of her home world, Starfire is well trained in the martial arts of hand-to-hand combat and unarmed combat.
 * Hand-to-hand Combat: Although she is not as skillful as her older sister, Starfire is an expert in high-levels of Tamaranean martial arts, being skilled enough to take down numerous Gordanian soldiers while her upper body was bound. She is also skilled in various fighting styles of hand-to-hand combat, such as kickboxing.
 * Archery Skills: She is also versed in some weaponry, using a short bow and arrow at one point with little effort.

Weaknesses
Starfire, like many Tamaraneans, is allergic to metallic chromium. It gives her flu-like symptoms, and when she sneezes, she unleashes explosive starbolts out of her nose and mouth. Also, her powers are largely affected by how she feels, as Robin learns; if she is feeling down or confused, her abilities become severely diminished.

Like all Tamaraneans, she is not immune to her own energy blasts. Using her self-sustenance and resistance to extreme temperatures takes a lot of energy so she can't survive forever in space. She also does need to breathe though her self-sustenance can delay that for a while.

Because she is so naive, it is easy for several people to take advantage of or betray Starfire, as seen in the episode Transformation, where is lured into a trap and almost eaten by a hungry alien. Although few have exploited it, Starfire's relationship with Robin can be counted sometimes as a weakness. Once, it was inadvertently exploited by Killer Moth when he wanted Robin to take Kitten to prom, which angered beyond rational thought other than to protect Robin.

Like all Tamaraneans, Starfire's powers are controlled by emotion. If she has certain feelings, she can't use her powers. For example, when she was mad at Robin in "Stranded", she was unable to fly temporarily. Also, as Raven in "Switched", she was unable to use starbolts or fly for a while because she couldn't feel the joy or anger needed to use them.

Trivia

 * Like Raven, Starfire technically goes by her real name instead of a superhero alias like the males on the team. Since ”Koriand'r” is just her Tamaranean name in English.
 * Evidently, Starfire is not only similar to Kal El/Superman of DC Comics, but also Son Goku from the Dragon Ball Series in terms of personality, powers and abilities, and origin stories, even though they have evil counterparts and doppelgängers.


 * Starfire appears in a total of sixty-three episodes of the series; one of which she has no spoken lines. In addition, she appears in the series finale, Trouble in Tokyo, and all video games based on the series.
 * Mother Mae-Eye's nickname for Starfie is "Twinkle Star", a reference to the poem/song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".
 * Her real name (Koriand'r) is said by Galfore in the episode "Betrothed" when they are yelling at each other in Tamaranean, although it can be hard to catch if you're not specifically listening for it.
 * Of all the main characters, Starfire's personality has probably undergone the most dramatic change from her original incarnation. In the comics, she is much more arrogant, aggressive, and hot-tempered, a sharp contrast from her naive and modest portrayal in the show.
 * Her outfit is fairly different from her comic counterpart, being much less revealing in consideration of the younger audience. It is changed to a purple two-piece attire instead of a strap brassiere.
 * In all her appearances, Starfire is animated without a navel, even though her animation sheet shows her with one.
 * Her height is 5'6".
 * She is 156 years old-in Tamaran years.
 * She is the most gullible out of the Teen Titans.
 * She is the only Titan in the series to not have a season's story arc specifically for her. Season 1's story arc focused on Robin and his obsession with Slade, Season 2 showcased Terra's arrival, return, betrayal and redemption, Season 3 displays Cyborg's growth and rivalry with Brother Blood, Season 4 explores Raven's past and destiny, and Season 5 explained Beast Boy's past with the Doom Patrol and his fight with the Brotherhood of Evil. Had there been a Season 6, it is more than likely her backstory would have been explored, and it is possible her younger brother would have been introduced.
 * Although she was freed from the clutches of the Gordanians and the Citadel, her memories of her imprisonment still haunt her: upon seeing The Creature from Jones Lake, she screams in terror—possibly due to its resemblance to a Citadelian.
 * Starfire's powers, like Raven's, are fueled by her emotions. As such, her power is determined by her emotional state. But the difference is that freely expresses herself to gain the power, while Raven needs to keep her emotions in check without completely suppressing them.
 * In the comics, Tamaraneans could learn language through any physical contact (not just the lips), but had a personal preference for kissing. However, in Teen Titans, she can only do so via oral contact.
 * In the early comics, her race were descendants of cats. This was briefly shown when she cleaned silks with her tongue.
 * Starfire is allergic to metallic chromium, (allergies to chromium are very common in Tamaran). It could be possible that Blackfire is allergic to it as well.
 * In the episode "Mother Mae-Eye", Starfire stated she has 9 stomachs, which may explain why she eats so much.
 * Like all other Tamaraneans, Starfire is decent from cats.
 * She and Cyborg are the only Titans that Slade never taunted.
 * There have been times where Starfire uses her lack of understanding Earth customs and strange habits to her advantage. For example, in "Can I Keep Him?", when Starfire was hiding Silkie, Cyborg and Raven came to call her, Raven saw that one of Starfire's curtains was torn. When Raven asked about it, Starfire lied and said it was her people's festival of berating drapery and proceeded to destroy the rest of her curtains. Later in that same episode, Starfire was looking for Silkie and ran into Robin, who asked her if she had seen the sofa, which had been eaten by Silkie. Fortunately for Starfire, she was able to act like she didn't know what a sofa was and left.
 * She created a poem of gratitude that consists of 6000 verses.
 * According to Starfire, Tamaran's folk song consists mostly screaming, which annoys Cyborg to no ends.