What Does The End of Teen Titans Mean?

Going to the other end of the spectrum from yesterday's post where we discussed one of the best endings of all time, now let's talk about what a lot of people refer to one of the worst endings of all time, Teen Titans. For the record I am a big fan of the original Teen Titans cartoon, I grew up watching it and I still think the series holds up pretty damn well today (Except for season 3, what the fuck was going on there?) But the one thing that most fans hate is the ending of the series.

(Spoilers Ahead)

In the final episode titled "Things Change" the Titans return home and find that their old town has started to change, their favourite hangout places are shutting down, new stores are showing up, they even have a brand new villain in town, all of this to emphasise the fact that well...things change. But among all this chaos, Beast Boy sees Terra in a nearby school. This being a big surprise as Terra was killed off in the second season, so when Beast Boy goes to greet her, she claims that she has no idea who he is. And this is pretty much what goes on for the rest of the episode, Beast Boy tries to convince Terra of who she is but she straight up denies it, the episode ends Beast Boy finally letting Terra go and going back to join the Titans in fighting crime.

So let's delve deeper into this ending and try to see if it's a good ending or not. First of all, let's take a look back at the theme of this episode, change. Beast Boy has always been madly in love with Terra, and one of his biggest regrets was not being able to save her. In this episode, it is never actually confirmed if Terra actually does know who she is, it is entirely possible she genuinely thinks she's a different person, or even more so she could be an entirely different person. Fact is, throughout the whole episode, no one interacts with her except for Beast Boy, for all we know she might not even exist, this could all be in his head and be just one giant metaphor that things change, people change, we can't stop it and we have to accept it, and that is exactly what Beast Boy does, he accepts it. On one hand this is a fantastic ending, especially for a kids show it is really deep and makes you think and delivers a good message...

...But on the other hand this is total shit. First off, the theory of it being in his head does seem strong if it wasn't for the fact that he visits her grave in the episode and she is gone, someone wanna explain that? And also this wasn't wear the show was supposed to end, the creators were hoping for another season but the show was cancelled (god knows why, because everybody loved this show) so this entire plot could have easily been one giant cliffhanger hoping to engage audiences enough to get the show renewed for another season...but it didn't work...fuck. Also while this theme works great as a metaphor for the show, from a story stand point it doesn't work, you just potentially brought back a major character from the dead, you can't go ahead and leave something like that open ended, especially when you delve into the mystery even deeper by having Beast Boy investigate Terra's grave. If that one scene was removed then I would be okay with that, if it was just a metaphor, but the fact that they try to turn it into a mystery is what ruins it, you can't have an open ended mystery plot, those two things don't together!

So overall, is the ending to Teen Titans any good? Well, originally I, like most people, hated this ending, but overtime it really has grown on me, and I think it was a very deep and very mature ending for the series and it didn't treat us like little kids, because like the title says, things change. Oh and Teen Titans Go! Can Teen Titans go fuck itself.

-Danny