Raven is a member of the Teen Titans and one of the five main protagonists of Teen Titans Go!. Her magical, psionic and demonic-inherited powers from her father, Trigon, are a significant asset to the team, but when not in combat, she generally prefers to keep to herself.
Tara Strong, who voiced Raven in the original series Teen Titans, reprises her role as the character.
History
Conceived through the relations between a human and the demonic entity Trigon the Terrible, Raven had harbored ghastly evilness within her soul from birth.[1] Expected to follow in her father's footsteps, she left the infernal dimension of Azarath to enslave the people of Earth.
While Raven was terrorizing Jump City in the episode "Flashback", a young sidekick named Robin took notice of her immense demonic powers. He figured that she would be perfect for his new team... so long as she was on the good side. Although her destiny was to enslave the Earth, Raven had grown tired of listening to her annoying dad. She agreed to a tryout for the superhero squad, but after showing uncontrollable wrath and rage, Raven and some other losers were thrown off the team. However, the group of rejects actually made a decent underdog team, with Robin as their leader (who was also ironically booted). With the help of her new friends, Raven eventually fought her way up to the top and earned a spot on the Teen Titans.
Now a hero for justice (although not too enthusiastic about it), Raven fights the forces of evil in Jump City, and occasionally the forces of evil still inside her.
Personality
"Raven is the sarcastic, deadpan demon girl who'd rather be left alone."[2]
With the safety of the world in mind, Raven chooses to keep her feelings and emotions to herself. She often has little to say on a given subject, and when Raven does speak more than one word, it is usually in a dull, monotone voice. The other Titans often consider her a bummer on the team, but it is revealed in the episode "Legs" that her cloak is one of the main sources behind her sullen mood.
Unlike the rest of the Titans; Raven appears to be more serious, calm, apathetic, observed, quiet, reserved, calculative, and has a strange personality. Her personality is complex, and her teammates even point this out in the episode "Colors of Raven".
Raven's four teammates constantly push her to the breaking point. They often regret it, though, when she unleashes the full might of the demonic side within her. For example, at the beginning of "Boys vs Girls", Raven smashes Beast Boy with a meteor just for singing. When Robin peeks into her cloak in "Legs", he is instantly slammed into the wall. Sometimes Raven even consumes souls just for slight annoyances...
At times, she enjoys reveling in the misfortune of others, by deliberately inflicting agony on Robin, or smiling when when he falls down from the Titan Robot.
Despite her usually gloomy state of mind, Raven is also shown to have a fun side, especially as the series has progressed, becoming an anti-heroine. She loves watching the ultra-girly cartoon Pretty Pretty Pegasus, a direct opposite of her typical aura. Also, "Justice League's Next Top Talent Idol Star" depicts Raven's love of dancing. A few episodes such as "Be Mine" have even shown her experiencing romantic feelings for Beast Boy. Even though she prefers to keep a low profile, occasionally she will enjoy a good time with the Titans, or at least try to.
Physical Appearance
To complement her shadowy and dark mood, Raven dons an indigo-colored cloak, rarely revealing any of her body besides the lower portion of her face. Beneath the overlying garment, Raven wears a black, long-sleeved one-piece suit, complete with red gems near her hips. She sports a pair of indigo shoes with skull prints on the soles, and her legs are completely bare. A red jewel-encrusted clasp keeps Raven's body locked away from Beast Boy's salacious eyes, and her hood is usually drawn over her head. Whenever Raven does lower her shroud, she shows off her pale-white skin and short black hair. She is depicted as being sexy, as shown in "Legs". She also has a red, diamond-shaped chakra on her forehead. When Raven descends into a demonic fury, the chakra bursts into flames, her hair turns a ghastly white, her skin turns blood red, and all four of her horrific yellow eyes open up, making her resemble Trigon.
Starting with Season 5, her eyes are oval-shaped, her skin is slightly darker, and her cloak is more of a dark blue.
Outfits
For the various outfits worn by Raven throughout the series, click here.
Powers and Abilities
Inherited from her atrocious father Trigon, Raven's demonic abilities make her an extremely powerful member of the Titans, but also an unstable one. By saying the incantation "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" or snapping her fingers, she can do almost anything imaginable as in "Real Boy Adventures", it took her four DAYS to list all of her magical powers! However, as stated in the episode "Magic Man", Raven can only use her powers if she has her spell book intact. It was actually noted that Raven's abilities are almost infinite, thus only her main ones are listed below. To see a full list, click here.
Cambion Physiological Abilities
- Soul-Self: Raven can form an astral projection of herself in the shape of a raven (hence her name), as seen in "Caramel Apples".
- Telekinesis: Various objects can be levitated and controlled via her demonic background.
- Telekinetic Construction: Building upon the previous ability (literally), Raven can construct items from nothing. A few things she has created in the past are:
- a cannon ("Party, Party!")
- a giant fist (many episodes)
- multiple hers ("The HIVE Five")
- a zipper ("Misadventures in Babysitting")
- an umbrella ("Hot Garbage")
- some trash cans ("Croissant")
- a bucket of fried chicken ("Think About Your Future")
- a dance dress ("Justice League's Next Top Talent Idol Star")
- a pair of scissors (Teen Titans Go! to the Movies)
- shields and domes (many episodes)
- a hairbrush ("Dignity of Teeth")
- Perfectly crack open walnuts ("Real Boy Adventures")
- Magiportation: Whether through portals or instant apparition, Raven can transport herself or other people/things instantly to a different location via Dark Magic.
- Flight: Raven can fly/float, so she floats most of the time instead of walking.
- Power Absorption: In a multiverse situation, any Raven can absorb her counterparts so that all the powers are absorbed to transform into an Omni-powerful dragon demon. This creature can go toe to toe with two Trigons combined.
Skills
- Leg Strength: In "Legs", "Leg Day" and "Arms Race with Legs", Raven is shown to have tremendous leg fitness. Her extremely-toned appendages can even break through stones, and of course, other people's legs.
- Dancing: Throughout the series, Raven has demonstrated her dancing talents many times.
- Martial Arts: Like the rest of the team, she has been trained in Ninjutsu (忍術) and karate, as seen in "The Art of Ninjutsu" and "Them Soviet Boys".
- Agility: While she does not utilize this in combat often, Raven is considerably flexible, able to do splits and headstands without a struggle.
- Knowledge: Raven displays impressive amounts of wisdom in the appropriately titled episode "Knowledge", in the episode "Boys vs Girls" in the 2nd competition, and she also retains info of Schrödinger's cat experiment.
- Music: As seen in "How's This for a Special? Spaaaace", Raven has managed to learn how to play the double-neck guitar fairly quickly. She also knows how to play the drums, the turntables, the tambourine and the banjo as revealed in “Starliar”, "Cool School", “Teen Titans Go! vs Teen Titans” and "Slapping Butts and Celebrating for No Reason" respectively.
- Rollerblading: As shown in "Jam", Raven is skillful in rollerblading, specifically when she is synchronized with Starfire.
Alternate Forms
Throughout the series, Raven has occasionally taken on different superhero/villain identities and alternate versions. Although only her most notable forms are highlighted below, a full list can be found by following this link.
Photo | Name | Appearances |
"Some of Their Parts" | ||
"Leg Day" "Arms Race with Legs" | ||
"I See You" | ||
"Quantum Fun" "Had to Be There" | ||
"The Day the Night Stopped Beginning to Shine and Became Dark Even Though it Was the Day"" "Justice League's Next Top Talent Idol Star: Second Greatest Team Edition" | ||
"Riding the Dragon" "Justice League's Next Top Talent Idol Star" | ||
"Teen Titans Go! vs Teen Titans | ||
Miscellaneous
To see more in-depth info on Raven, click on one of these subpages:
- Episodes Focusing on Raven
- Songs Sung by Raven
- Relationships
- Quotes
- Death Experiences
- Voices In Other Languages
Trivia
- Raven is the only left-handed Titan, as seen in many episodes.
- Nevertheless, in some episodes, notably earlier ones, she is shown to also use her right hand, which may be a continuity error or she is also ambidextrous.
- Raven is shown to be the leader and the problem solver of the Girls Night Out Crew, since she knows to get out of sticky situations in episodes such as "Operation Dude Rescue" and "Girls Night In".
- Raven is a featured character on Death Battle in the episode Raven Vs. Twilight Sparkle, but in reality, both would actually become allies even though both of them meeting each other defeats the purpose of being canon.
- A Nephilim (not to be confused with Nephalems which are half-demon and half-angel) is the direct opposite of a Cambion. While there is no known character in Teen Titans Go! who's technically a Nephilim, Elaine Belloc (who had become a truly omnipotent being once The Presence had transferred his powers over onto her) is a Nephilim of godly power, while Raven is a Cambion that is very powerful but not to the point of being omnipotent.
- According to folklore, Cambions are normally born when a Succubus or Incubus (which are a Demon subspecies) rapes a Human/Homo Sapien, though that is not always the case, as other Demons are capable of doing so as they so wish. Trigon is an accurate example of this.
- The first time Raven ever appeared was in DC Comics Presents #26, from October 1980. Official DC Comics bio, https://www.dccomics.com/characters/raven.
- Tara Strong, the voice actor for Raven in Teen Titans Go!, Teen Titans and DC Superhero Girls, also voiced her in Injustice: Gods Among Us. Her voice is much more mature and demonic-sounding in the video game.[3]
- Several other popular cartoon characters are voiced by Tara, including Timmy Turner from The Fairly Oddparents, Dil in Rugrats, Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls, Barbara Gordon in various TV shows and movies, and many more.
- She was also the original voice of Ben Tennyson from the classic Ben 10 series, and the voice of Terrence from Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends. She even voiced Plum on Bravest Warriors, and Toot and Princess Clara from Drawn Together.
- Pretty Pretty Pegasus, a cartoon within Teen Titans Go!, parodies My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, a show in which Tara Strong also voices one of the main characters, Twilight Sparkle.
- Twilight Sparkle, herself, is parodied in the series.
- Raven is given a golden pony figure for Christmas, similar to the real toys.
- Twilight Sparkle, herself, is parodied in the series.
- Several other popular cartoon characters are voiced by Tara, including Timmy Turner from The Fairly Oddparents, Dil in Rugrats, Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls, Barbara Gordon in various TV shows and movies, and many more.
- Not counting Butterbean and Sparkleface, Raven is the first character to appear and speak in the series.
- In the early episodes, Raven is often gloomy, and whenever someone annoys her, she attacks them. Such instances have lessened, although her temper outbursts still occur occasionally.
- In "Legendary Sandwich" and "Nose Mouth", there is a running gag in which was Raven plays with Silkie, pretending he is a princess named "Princess Silkiesoft", then Silkie vomits on her toys. However, that running gag has become less frequent.
- Very little detail has been revealed about Raven's background in Teen Titans Go!, likely because depicting sexual relations between a human and an incubus is a little too graphic for a kids' show.
- A theory, however, one can assume based on Raven's single-parent background, is that her mother is long deceased.
- Although she is the most intelligent Titan, the crew has dumbed her down in more recent episodes, starting with "Real Boy Adventures".
- Also, Raven has become more silly, sociable, and happier as the series has progressed.
- This was brought up by Robin in "Let’s Get Serious".
- There are several differences in characteristics between the 2003 series Raven and the 2013 series Raven:
- Now shorter than Robin, Raven is the second shortest on the team (beating Beast Boy by inches).
- Her hair is now black, not purple, making her appearance more faithful to the comics.
- The crew actually played with her hair design and even ultimately looked through her vintage comic counterpart's design. They even admitted that they considered her having black hair as "cute".
- According to Eric J Pringle, such changes in her hair were done after doing some focus tests with the audience. [4]
- A bit lazier in Teen Titans Go!, Raven prefers levitating than walking.
- Her skin appears to be a lighter shade of gray.
- However, starting from Season 5, her gray skin is slightly darker.
- She seems to be more powerful, especially with her teleportation abilities.
- Raven wears her hood up on a regular basis rather than primarily being worn only in battle. She only rarely wears her cloak without her hood, and her full face is shown primarily whenever she wears a different outfit. Her full face has been seen 6 times in Season 1, 15 times in Season 2, 29 times in Season 3, 28 times in Season 4, 21 times in Season 5, 25 times in Season 6 and 23 times in Season 7.
- In "Road Trip", Raven is shown to get massively carsick while reading.
- Rachel Roth is merely an alias temporarily used by Raven while on Earth. Her real name is Raven, making her the only Titan to use her actual name.[5]
- Although Raven's cloak curses the wearer with a dark, expressionless personality (as seen in "Legs"), Starfire and Beast Boy were unaffected by it in "Laundry Day" and "Meatball Party", respectively.
- Also, as seen in later episodes, Raven's happiness and playfulness are no longer hindered by the effects of the cloak itself.
- Raven got a Pretty Pretty Pegasus tattoo on her arm in "Beast Man".
- In "The Cruel Giggling Ghoul", it is revealed that Raven wears contacts (or glasses if she loses them).
- In "Caramel Apples", it is revealed that Raven destroyed a universe when she was only 3 years old.
- As revealed in "Thanksgiving" and "Crazy Day", Robin is her least favorite teammate.
- She also denies Robin's leadership position in Ask The Titans.
- As evidenced in earlier seasons, Raven hasn't had the most pleasant experiences with vacuum cleaners.
- She got entirely sucked up by one in Tower Power and she got her mouth sucked up by Starfire's one in Dignity of Teeth.
- Raven can be seen reading a book that resembles The Journals from Gravity Falls in one episode.
- Raven's power can be used against her (revealed in "Birds" when the Orange Mockingbird deflects it back).
- Some of the things Raven likes throughout the series are:
- dentistry ("Career Day")
- Dancing (many episodes)
- Comedies ("Colors of Raven")
- Eating teeth ("Dignity of Teeth")
- Pretty Pretty Pegasus (many episodes)
- Coconut cream pie ("Island Adventures")
- Pranks ("Batman v Teen Titans: Dark Injustice")
- Gingerbread ("The True Meaning of Christmas")
- Shrimps and prime rib ("The Power of Shrimps")
- Cookies made by rangers and packed in green boxes ("Business Ethics Wink Wink")
- Bodybuilding ("Oil Drums")
- Malted chocolate balls ("Kabooms")
- Baked beans ("Teen Titans Save Christmas")
- Cats ("Snuggle-Time")
- Money (many episodes)
- Old people ("Salty Codgers")
- Books (In almost every episode she is seen reading a book)
- It is obvious that Raven hates MANY things, such as:
- The sound of children laughing ("Tower Renovation")
- Going to the dentist ("Meatball Party")
- Horror movies (Gray Raven only) ("Colors of Raven")
- Telling stories ("Campfire Stories")
- The smell of celery ("The Left Leg")
- Girly things ("Girl's Night Out")
- The sun ("Thanksgetting")
- Her hood being removed without her permission ("Pirates")
- Farts ("I Used to Be a Peoples")
- The show often depicts a romantic relationship between Raven and Beast Boy, very similar to their storylines in DC Comics.
- Raven is often seen standing next to Beast Boy, and the two will often make cameos in scenes focusing on the other character.
- As seen in "Girl's Night Out", Raven holds a criminal record for destroying buildings and escaping jail.
- Raven becomes White Raven for the first time in Teen Titans Go! during "Breakfast Cheese".
- Chains, candles, skulls, and other spooky stuff in Raven's room accentuates her Goth-like persona.
- Throughout the series, Raven is shown to be skilled in motor-sport; she has operated vehicles without hands in "Driver's Ed" and "Bro-Pocalypse", and has a vast knowledge of cars in "A Farce".
- There is a small error in "La Larva de Amor" where Raven is missing the top portion of her shoes.
- In "Grandma Voice", Raven alludes to her grandmother being a succubus (a female demon who seduces men).
- Out of all the Titans, Raven has sung the least amount of songs in the show.
- For some odd reason, the word "knife" can be heard when she uses some of her powers.
- Raven seems susceptible to "puppy dog eyes", succumbing to them in "Girl's Night Out" and "Matched".
- Raven is the only Titan who has not celebrated a birthday in the series.
- However, her birthday was celebrated in the comic issues "Disappearing Act" and "Power Brokers".
- Her birthday was actually celebrated in the series for the first time in "BBRAEBDAY".
- Apparently, Raven went to the prom with a guy who resembles the Pizza Deliverer (seen in a photo in "Caramel Apples").
- In Toon Cup 2019, Raven is an unlockable character.
- Raven apparently likes using a sai to pop bubble wraps, as seen in "The Art of Ninjutsu".
- Raven is ticklish as seen in "Tamaranian Vacation".
- Her subconscious mind is revealed to be a dark realm where a vault that stores the dangerous powers of her gemstone, as seen in Teen Titans Go! vs Teen Titans. When it is fractured, she will lose control over herself and her demonic self will be unleashed consequently. It is unknown whether this subconscious mind of hers has changed after she amended with her inner self.
- Although she is a cambion, Raven knows nothing about witches, as shown in "Witches Brew".
- She has a pocket of chocolate eggs as shown in "Egg Hunt" in case of Easter.
- Starting with Season 5, her cloak changes color slightly from purple to dark blue. However, it remains as purple in the Title Theme.
- Ask The Titans revealed some facts about her:
- She loves pineapples, dark leafy green vegetables and ghost peppers as pizza toppings.
- She wants Wonder Woman to be her sidekick.
- Her magic requires a ton of animators (this is more of a joke, to be frank).
- She does not have a specific dance move, but her favorite dance partner is the Boogeyman.
- The voice cast and crew consider her the most powerful Titan.
- One of her weakness, as revealed in "Kryptonite", is package peanuts.
- This may or may not be a reference to the 2008 film Bolt.
- For the first day of Hanukkah on 2020, Cartoon Network shared this tweet of a few characters including Raven celebrating the holiday. This could imply Raven is Jewish or is a reference to how her voice actor, Tara Strong, and co-creator, Marv Wolfman, are Jewish. Raven is related to succubi and incubi, which originate from Jewish folklore, and her heritage is a big part of her character.
- In fact, Raven is Jewish in the DC Bombshells continuity.
- When Raven's original comic book counterpart was still being conceptualized, the co-creator of Raven, Marv Wolfman, was thinking of having two superheroes that were black on the team. One being Cyborg and the other being Raven. Lots of black superheroes being made at the time had "black" in their name and Marv felt a black character named Raven would have been to obvious and stereotypical and only kept Cyborg as black.[5]
- Even earlier in Raven's creation, initially, Marv Wolfman thought of two separate characters. One was a mysterious type character and the other a sorceress. Eventually these two character concepts fused into Raven.
- Raven has been absent in more episodes than any other Titan, as she was absent in “That's What's Up!”, “Crab Shenanigans”, “Brobots”, “Brain Flip”, “Various Modes of Transportation”, “A Doom Patrol Thanksgiving”, “A Holiday Story”, “Winning a Golf Tournament Is The Solution to All Of Life's Money Problems”, “Our House”, “Beard Hunter”, “Elasti-Bot”, “New Chum”, “Ship”, “Catpin Freak”, “50% Crew”, “Five Bucks” and “Wild Card”.
- She and her teammates only appeared during the beginning of "A Sticky Situation" and didn't reappear until the end of said episode. They were also absent in Part 1 of "The Brain of the Family".
- "BBRAEBDAY" revealed that her demon side ages differently than her human side and hence a longer lifespan, which technically makes her have a hard-to-determined actual age despite still being a teenager herself.
- Raven is the third Titan to have a miniseries focused on her, after Beast Boy and Starfire had their own.
Gallery
The image gallery for Raven may be viewed here. |
References
- ↑ Official DC Comics bio, https://www.dccomics.com/characters/raven
- ↑ Official CARTOON NETWORK bio, https://www.cartoonnetwork.com/shows/teen-titans-go/characters/index.html
- ↑ Wikipedia bio, Tara Strong
- ↑ https://twitter.com/EricJPringle1/status/1252355896090320899
- ↑ DC Database bio, Raven (New Earth)