Revisiting the OG Teen Titans: When Robin-Starfire's cartoon romance had more stakes than modern shows today

There’s always one episode of Teen Titans that stands out as darker and eerier than the rest, even more so than the three-part arc about the end of the world. In this episode, the boy wonder, Robin, lets his dangerous obsession with his enemy Slade spiral, taking a toll on his mental health. It’s almost jarring to watch a 13-year-old literally battling his own demons amid thunderstorms, while the rest of the anxious team — Starfire, Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Raven — look on.

Furious that the others had ‘let’ Slade get away, he yells at Starfire, who nervously says, “But Robin…there was no one here.”

The episode was called Haunted, and it lived up to its name. Unpleasant, eerie, and delving into the mind’s worst fears, it outshone all the other episodes, which as engaging as they were, wouldn’t leave such an impact on a 13-year-old at the time. But that was the glory of the Teen Titans days, adapted from the comics that had even more twisted and contorted tales that no soap opera could rival. For good reason, the animated series couldn’t use all the storylines as they weren’t the best for children, but, somehow the stakes still remained high, the enemies as vibrant, with storytelling just as complex.

but, somehow the stakes still remained high, the enemies as vibrant, with storytelling just as complex.

It didn’t preach, nor did it fully explore the darker, adult zones of morality, even though Haunted skirted the edges. Instead, it presented the story for teenagers — simple, nuanced, and accessible. A prime example is the story of Terra.

Terra’s arc is a sad one. The team meets a girl with the power to control rocks and earth, a gift she struggles to master. While Beast Boy forms a bond with her and wants her to join the Titans, the others remain wary of her instability. Eventually, she becomes part of the team, only to betray them to Slade, who promises to help her harness her powers.

As a child, you detest Terra for her choices. You see how ruthlessly she eliminates the Titans, without any vestiges of guilt, only to be confronted by them later. The enormity of her choices sink in: And she pleads to Beast Boy, that she doesn’t have a choice.

In a rare explosive scene for a cartoon, Beast Boy snaps back, “You always had a choice. You chose to betray us. You chose to work with Slade.”

At the last, Terra comes through, and sacrifices herself to save the Titans. The whole Terra arc showed the seesawing between succumbing to the darkest parts of yourself, as well as finally, realising that sometimes, it’s your choices that seal your fate.

Similarly, Robin was previously at moral crossroads,  and he was the one who was compelled to work with Slade, in order to save his friends from being killed. Yet, while this was a heroic cause, Robin later admits to Starfire, “There was a part of me that believed that I was like him.” Heroic acts, the show suggests, are rarely simple; they are layered, messy, and human.

Ah, for us teenagers, Teen Titans offered all the drama in the way we could digest it. It was the first time that most of us probably understood what ‘shipping’ meant, because the dynamic between Robin and lovable alien Starfire was just a lot of fun to watch. Every few episodes, we would get a few nods to the relationship that had coloured many comics. One of the most melodramatic episodes, was when a panicked Robin, unable to handle the group’s teasing, snaps, “Starfire is not my girlfriend!”

To which she asks plaintively, “I am not your friend? Or am I not a girl?”

It takes an entire awkward discussion on their situation-ship on a planet ridden with monsters to really understand whether they’re really friends or not. Of course, there are ‘almost-wedding’ moments too, along with prom nights that just flavoured the show with delightfully absurd moments.

While Robin and Starfire were clearly the central couple, it was also the friendship dynamics between the rest that added to the fun factor of the show. Each character usually had an episode to thrash out their issues with the other: Raven and Starfire had a full switcheroo in one, Robin being Raven’s close guide during the end of the world disaster, and on a lighter note, Beastboy realising that his practical joke had backfire on Starfire.

The brilliance of the original Teen Titans lay in its balance: thrilling adventures, complex moral lessons, and relatable teenage interactions. References to the comics — Robin’s Batman lineage and his evolution into Nightwing — rewarded attentive viewers.

Contrast this with Teen Titans Go!, which leans heavily on slapstick and absurdity. While entertaining, it lacks the emotional weight, moral tension, and nuanced storytelling that made the original series resonate deeply.

Looking back, Teen Titans wasn’t just a cartoon. It taught lessons about choices, consequences, and navigating adolescence. It mixed comedy with tragedy, romance with heroics, and left a lasting impact on the viewers who first watched Robin, Terra, and the rest of the Titans face challenges both epic and personal. Even decades later, episodes like Haunted remind us why the original series is more than nostalgia — it’s storytelling that still hits hard.