Episode 6: Nevermore

OMG!! It's our very first Raven-centric episode!! WOO HOO!!! I am so excited for this episode! Why? CAUSE RAVEN IS AWESOME, if not a little bit overpowered. I remember that she was, hands down, my favorite Titan growing up. Her snarkiness was hilarious to no end, even in lesser episodes, and when she was serious, the show got serious. Personally some of her episodes were some of my favorites as a kid, I can't remember if this one of them, but I'm pumped! ONWARD!

We open with a fight from another small villain, Doctor Light. His powers and weapons are kicking the Titan's butts. Stunning them and shocking them into submission with a storm of light-based puns, and his weapons of course. Of course after he's beaten down Robin, Beast Boy, Starfire, and Cyborg, there's no one left to deal with this imbecile and stop his puns but Raven, whose's powers always have been dark. (Which is kind of funny, seeing as how normally dark is evil and light is good, but it's reversed for this fight.)

"Soon you will all see the LIGHT and enjoy my jokes!"
(Me: oh god, someone kill him..)

Unfortunately for him, Raven is NOT in the mood for him and warns him to stay back. He continues to taunt her, and then suddenly...She...

...That's...normal...
....Right...?

Apparently you don't want to get on her bad side. Before something seriously nasty happens, Robin snaps her back to her senses, leaving the heroes to comfort the trembling wreck of a villain curled up on the ground as they prepare to take him to jail. Raven quickly decides to disappear, still obviously upset by something.

(Me: That's what you GET for making those lame puns!)
"*Whimper*"

Opening Credits time~ And even better! This is the first appearance of the Japanese version of the theme song! This version of the opening usually appears in episodes that are most definitely not connected to the main story arc of that season. Usually they're funny and wacky, but seeing as Raven's our main character this time around, and judging by the opening to this episode I doubt it'll be as cheery as it usually is.

The next morning, when Raven comes down for breakfast most of the team takes the cue to tread softly and not set off their friend with freaky powers who quite possibly scared a super villain for life. Beast Boy, however acts as he usually does, causing Raven to make breakfast explode.

Even though Raven is having some kind of super-powered PMS, and she DID kind of blow up breakfast, Robin suggests that Beast Boy go apologize to her. Beast Boy is upset that Raven is always secretive and moody, and that if they don't understand her, how are they supposed to trust her?!

"She's our friend, what more do we need to know?"
Who else finds this line hilarious after season 4?
Or almost any Raven-themed episode for that matter?

Robin obviously trusts her at least, and makes Beast Boy go apologize. He reluctantly loiters outside her room and tries to get out of it. Cyborg, seemed to think this would happen and is trying to make sure he actually gets around to apologizing to Raven. Cyborg's knocking, knocks down Raven's door to reveal that she isn't there. Curious, Beast Boy enters her room, where nobody should EVER go. As we've previously been told by Raven.
Her room is filled with strange objects and is dark and generally creepy looking. Beast Boy picks up a mirror laying on a table, after a moment  of looking at it, four red eyes appear and a hand reaches out and sucks him into the mirror. When Cyborg tries to pull him out, he gets sucked in along with Beast Boy. A strange sort of portal dumps them on a rock in the middle of nowhere.

Literally. Cyborg's censors think they're inside the tower though, not helpful... Luckily as they argue about what to do next, rocks shift to from a pathway leading somewhere, unable to do anything else, they decide to follow it.

Somewhere nearby, a raven, (as in the bird, not the character) with four red eyes watches them. They speculate as to where they are: Raven's home possibly? (Nope. Guess again.) Before long, they find a group of cute...yet creepy little ravens who are chirping in monotone childish voices to "turn back" more of them appear and they all chirp in unison.

Aww...aren't they the cutest little-

-KILL IT!! KILL IT!! GET THEM AWAY!!

After a few seconds they morph into demonic four-eyed ravens and chase Beast Boy and Cyborg around. Cyborg accidentally  blasts the floor they're standing on and they end up hanging from a ledge when suddenly-

Raven is wearing pink.
And smiling.
Sanity has OFFICIALLY left the building.

At this point it's only fair to warn you that nonsense will ensue until the end of this episode. Not really actually, it's just cryptic until the end, and all of this is hilarious in hindsight. PinkRaven is really nice and cheery, unlike how she normally is. She tells them that the only way out is a forbidden door at the end of the path, as they walk down the path they enter...

....What.

A really cheerful place that comes right out of nowhere.

Meanwhile, at the hall of justice!
Err...Titans Tower (had to make fun of it at least once!)
Robin and Starfire come to tell Raven that the door to her room has been knocked down, she bursts out laughing for a second, before standing up and saying that she needs to be alone. Starfire and Robin are freaked out at her bizarre reaction. Raven finds the mirror laying on the ground.

Meanwhile, back at the plot!

Sad Raven is Sad.
(Also, notice the raven reflected on her jewel? That's always been there, you just never notice it.)

Raven has apparently ditched BB and Cyborg, and the world goes back to the dark void it was when they first entered wherever they are. There, they meet a sad-looking Raven wearing grey robes. As Cyborg sees the gate PinkRaven mentioned he starts to run toward it. As soon as he does, the three of them are trapped in maze, which GreyRaven offers to lead them through. "But when we reach the end...you won't like me anymore ..he already doesn't like me." Cyborg and Beast Boy are baffled at her complete change in demeanor. After a scene change, where it is implied that GreyRaven has spent their entire time walking through the maze apologizing for every little thing she's done to them, they reach the end.

Of course something weird happens and a statue near the exit of the maze turns into some sort of monster with swords and two heads and attacks them. GreyRaven whimpers that she knew they wouldn't like her anymore and vanishes.

Starfire wonders if they should go check on Raven, but Robin doesn't think they should.

Cyborg and Beast Boy start trying to fight it, but it's easily stronger than them. We are quickly introduced to another Raven, who is wearing dark green, and is really awesome at fighting! Not only is she good at it, she even seems to enjoy it (she is visibly smirking as she dodges the stone monster thing). She quickly deals with it and slices it in half...somehow. Apparently she's a ninja in her mind.

Times Raven has fought hand-to-hand:
2
(Seriously, just use your powers! They're made of complete AWESOME for a reason!)

Oh yeah, they finally figured out where they are by the way! Cyborg figures out that all the different Raven's are different sides of her personality, meaning they're inside her mind. Raven herself arrives, and is not happy to say the least.

Some of these reaction pics are just too perfect.

Raven: "I'm surrounded by idiots."

Before more can be explained, some ravens fly off and Raven quickly tells them to leave. Beast Boy demands more of an explanation, but before that can happen a HUGE monster thing comes out of nowhere. It declares that "Hatred shall rule!" Raven explains "I have issues with my father."

...Oh yeah, I can totally see the resemblance

.....Now since we're in her head...The question can be raised "Is this how Raven's MIND portrays her father, or is this how he looks?" The answer to these thrilling questions will be revealed....in season 4. For those who know: How did we miss that!? They told us the answer and then...use it as a some sort of HUGE SECRET later on? (Well, since we don't know who or what he is at this point, he's not even named, it is a sort of revelation.)

He starts blasting and attacking Raven, Cyborg and Beast Boy, who run toward the exit. She protects them and tells them to run (in the middle of this Starfire asks to see if Raven's doing alright for a second.). They refuse to let her fight the huge monster by herself, and Raven tells them that if she loses, they'll be stuck in her mind forever. Dang. Raven's father blasts through her shield completely and she looks totally awesome for a moment as the smoke clears. (the image is later used in countless AMVs, you know it's cool.) However it's less awesome if you can't see the smoke moving so I won't post it. Also this post is pretty pic-heavy right now. Her father blasts her again, and for a moment it looks like he's won, he has Raven right in the palm of his hand (literally). Then, Beast Boy and Cyborg attack, saving Raven.

Ladies and Gentlemen:
THE most popular couple on Fanfiction.net
(Of course, I'm weird and don't actually ship them, just like Star/Robin, sue me
RAVEN/ROBIN FOREVER)

She seems kind of confused as to why they'd save her (which is weird, aren't they all BFFs? Ehh, it IS early on in the series...Maybe they haven't known each other for that long yet.) Raven and Beast Boy have bonding moment.

Unfortunately, bonding will have to wait, as Raven's father isn't finished yet. They're attacks just can't seem to actually do more than knock him off balance slightly.

Starfire really wants to go see if Raven is feeling better.

They can't beat him like this, even with Cyborg and Beast Boy's help she can't win. Cyborg suggests that she call her other personalities, but she knows from experience that none of them can beat her father. Beast Boy points out that while they can't defeat him alone, together she might win. After all, all of them make up who she is. The boys distract him, while Raven calls her other sides.

Color-coded for your convince:
Red Eyes: Awesomely scary is about to happen
White cloak: AWESOMELY EPIC is about to happen

They combine and form a super powerful Raven with a white cloak (which we will see more of in the future!)  She actually restrains her father and then, it's a battle of wills between them. Raven wins and the monster is shrunk down to a very small red-cloaked, four-eyed raven. Raven absorbs it and turns back to her usual self. She faints, but Cyborg and Beast Boy are there to catch her. They all share a cute moment together.

Starfire finally can't take it anymore and is standing at Raven's door to see if she's okay. Raven, Cyborg and Beast Boy appear, when asked where they've all been they reply that they were "just getting to know each other." Since it's obvious Raven and Beast Boy aren't mad at each other anymore, Starfire wants to celebrate with more breakfast! Raven agrees that breakfast sounds nice, and Cyborg and Beast Boy race to the kitchen.

YAY!! I seriously love this episode, mostly because Raven is awesome and stuff, but it also definitely hints at darker sides to Raven...which will be explored in detail later. She attacked Dr. Light viciously in the opening and her inner rage was certainly quite powerful in her mind. However, it also hints that she is a lighter person on the inside, with her pink personality, and that she's more like the others than she lets one, with the green(brave/confident) and orange(rude/sloppy) personalities.

As to why I don't ship BB/Rae: Yes, I know the logic behind that ship is that 'opposites attract' but in most of the fanfics of them, they just seem really OOC to me. Some opposites attract, but I think they're personalities would clash too much to make a relationship work.

ANYWAY...I didn't come here to discuss fanfiction. This episode was well done, nicely set up, nicely animated, and the story was interesting and helped develop Raven quite well. (As a testament to the really cool animation, in almost any given AMV that's about Raven, or the Titans as a whole, you will see bits and pics of most of the fight scenes from this very episode!)

Oh yeah, and now that I'm older I finally understand the title of this episode! It's the very first Raven-centric episode and what's it called? Nevermore. Ha! Quoth the Raven "Nevermore." That has to be some kind of bonus for older audiences, seven-year-olds aren't going to get the reference. ANOTHER reason to rewatch this show! BOO-YA!