Staff Meeting

"Staff Meeting" is the twentieth episode of the first season of Teen Titans Go!, and the twentieth overall episode of the series.

Synopsis[]

When Robin’s beloved staff is broken by the other Titans, Robin becomes so devastated that he goes on a perilous quest to the ancient Universe Tree to find a new magic staff to replace it.

Plot[]

Robin calls a "staff meeting", and begins striking the other Titans with his staff. He finally begins the actual meeting, and announces some statistics showing that vigilance and justice has gone down

Staff Meeting Image2 — Robin Teaching vigilance and justice.

lately, yet horseplay has gone up. He turns and sees Beast Boy as a horse playing with Cyborg. He then says that they should be more like his staff, which annoys the Titans that he treats the staff like a person, especially since he talks to it. Starfire initially comes to Robin's defense in saying that on Tamaran, many people talk to lumps of

wood, but then says that those people are banished from the city and fed to a creature called the Dorpnug.

Then the Titans make the mistake of calling his staff a stick, "offending" the staff and Robin. They keep calling it a stick and the staff (or more likely Robin)

Staff Meeting Image18 — He Hurts the titans.

snaps and attacks the Titans, beating them into submission. During that, Robin even calls the staff his best friend and the best sidekick ever.

He then leaves to go hang out with his staff.

The next day, the Titans are having breakfast, when Beast Boy comes in and asks for a plunger. Starfire suggests using Robin's staff and he does, and it does the job very well. Beast Boy admits how awesome it really was and the rest of the Titans start to use it. Raven uses it to fight the Demon back into its portal again. Starfire uses it for limbo with Silkie. Beast Boy uses it again, but this time to hit a piñata shaped like Batman. Cyborg uses it to turn on the TV from a distance. They all want to use it and fight over it, but Beast Boy has a better idea. He breaks it into four so they can all use it, but then realizes that was a mistake because he broke Robin's staff. Raven tries to fix it with a magic spell, but only ends up knocking down Cyborg in the process.

The next morning, the Titans are trying to glue and tape the staff back together when Robin walks in. He asks for his staff but all the Titans try to hide it from him. Then Starfire breaks and admits what they've done. Robin is at first enraged but Cyborg calms him down telling him it will all be okay. Robin tries to make it seem ok, but after a failed fight with Doctor Light where his staff failed to do anything, he starts getting very upset. He starts crying hysterically and Raven suggests

Staff Meeting Image55 — The Universe Tree.

to the other Titans to give Robin alone time with his broken staff and they agree. After a fight with Cinderblock, where Robin is too sad to take him down, the Titans decide that he needs a new staff.

Raven tells Robin of the Universe Tree where he can go get a new one. Robin at first declines, but then Raven tells him it would be magic, so he accepts. Robin starts the long and dangerous journey and quickly finds a root on the side of a mountain to use as a staff to help him with the journey, using it to vault over things and assist him in acrobatic jumps. He gets to the Universe Tree and it tells him that the journey has already given him a staff, in the form of that root, but Robin doesn't want it because it's just some dirty root with bird dookie on it. He chops down the Universe Tree to get a new staff. He takes the Universe Tree's nose for a staff and he still talks through that staff.

The Universe Tree and Robin turn out to be a great team, with the Universe Tree able to talk out loud, bite, and move itself, as well as being an effective thing for Robin to hit people with. Robin calls another staff meeting and the Universe Tree smacks the Titans himself.

Staff Meeting Image72 — BB Uses it as a plunger.

Robin seems to accept his new staff, but then Cyborg gives him his old staff back, completely repaired; Raven had found a spell that repaired it properly. Robin quickly forgets the Universe Tree and throws him in the trash and goes on to hang out with his old staff again, which the other Titans are really glad to see. The annoyed Universe Tree asks what he can do now, and the episode ends with Beast Boy using the Universe Tree as a plunger.

Characters[]

Robin
Raven
Beast Boy
Starfire
Cyborg
Silkie
Doctor Light (debut, cameo)
Cinderblock (debut, cameo)
Universe Staff (debut)
Magical Tree Custodians (debut & only appearance)
Demon (cameo)
Mr. Freeze (on ice cream tub.)

Trivia[]

This is Doctor Light and Cinderblock's first appearance in the show.
- Doctor Light was first seen in the app game Drive-By Meatball Party before making his official debut.
This episode clearly shows that Robin cares more about his staff than his friends.
This was Michael Ryan's first and only episode as a writer.

Continuity[]

At the start, Robin is once again shown commandeering the other Titans with an iron fist, similar to how he did so in "Gorilla".
The '80s nostalgia theme from "Tower Power" plays when Beast Boy asks the Titans as an elephant where he could find a plunger.
Raven is still attempting to banish the Demon that appeared in "Driver's Ed", in which she succeeds this time.
Starfire being unable to lie is consistent with "Starliar", where Cyborg stated she never lied.
The special suit made by the old people in "Hey Pizza!" is shown hung in Robin's closet.
The Mr. Freeze ice cream container from "Double Trouble" and the Riddler on a question mark from "Parasite" both return in this episode.
When Raven tells the sobbing Robin that he can get a new staff from the Universe Tree, the receptionist theme from "You're Fired!" plays.
When Raven summons and reads the Ancient Legends book, she's in the exact same pose as she was when reading it in "Legendary Sandwich".
This is the second episode to be based off of an ancient legend. The first was "Legendary Sandwich".
When the Universe Tree comes alive to Robin, music previously heard in "Legendary Sandwich" and "Starliar" plays.
When Robin is reunited with his old repaired staff, the music previously heard in "The Date" and "Laundry Day" plays.
Robin's fragile mental state is shown for the second time. The first was "The Date".

References[]

While Robin sleeps, he wears a hat similar to Noddy's, a character of a children's show and book by Enid Blyton.
Beast Boy uses the staff to hit a Batman pinata.
The words "For three thousand lives of men, I've bestowed wisdom and knowledge", said by the Universe Staff, are a reference to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, where the wizard Gandalf the White uses a similar phrase.
The Universe Tree looks identical to the Great Deku Tree from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, in both the N64 and 3DS versions. They both even have some sort of mustache.
The Tree is also similar to Whispy Woods, a recurring boss in the Kirby Series
The way Robin acts towards his staff, even going crazy when it's broken, may be a reference to the creature Gollum, from both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and his obsession with the One Ring.

Errors[]

The suit that the old people made Robin is seen in his room, even though he threw it away in the episode it debuted in. It's possible that he was just trying to hide it from Starfire.
While Raven whacks the demon with Robin’s staff, her legs are plumper then usual.

Running Gags[]

Robin continuously being sad that his staff was broken (at the end, he was perfectly fine).
- Also including Robin's Cry face symbol transition.
All the other Titans (beside Robin) fighting for the staff.
Any time “Staff Meeting!” is heard.