How to teamwork... with the Teen Titans

Varianta în limba română, aici: http://bit.ly/tineriititanilucruinechiparo

When there’s trouble you know who to call,

TEEN TITANS!

From our tower, we can see it all,

TEEN TITANS!

If I were in trouble and I would have to call some superheroes, I’m pretty sure I would call Teen Titans. And you know why? BECAUSE THEY ARE A REAL TEAM!

First, some theory.

For a group of people to work as a team, they need to go through some stages.

1. Forming - they meet, they start to know each other a little bit and they decide they could work together

2. Storming - they start getting on each other’s nerves, everyone wants something, people argue (most teams break up at this point)

3. Norming - they understand each other and their limits, they start finding where each of the members fits in the team

4. Performing - the team is functional and ready to work as one

5. Adjourning - all good things must come to an end (this is the only part that doesn’t really appear in the show)

The show follows these steps in an amazing way. From the very first episode, we see that if two members are not getting along (Cyborg and Robin) things don’t work as planned. They are superheroes, the entire city depends on them. The team continues to storm until they gain a clear understanding of each other (and so does the audience) and their importance when Starfire time-travels by mistake. Also, I must mention that the Teen Titans were a gender-balanced team before gender-balance was cool!

I think the character that has the hardest time norming is Raven. We see Beast Boy and Cyborg discovering what is going on in her mind. We see Starfire learning to control Raven’s powers when they swap bodies. At the same time, Raven learns to live with Beast Boy’s bad jokes and Starfire’s over-energetic moments.

The storming - norming - performing stages, along with the importance of leadership is briefly tackled when Cyborg goes to help Titans East set up their tower. They are just a bunch of teens, with no official leader, who has no idea how to work together as a team. Cyborg helps them through norming to figure out how to cooperate, use each other’s powers together and then names Bumblebee as the new leader of the team.

Leadership is also explored a lot through the series. Robin is the leader of the Teen Titans, but he needs to learn to let others lead when he is overwhelmed by the situation. In the beginning, his leadership skills are extremely questionable, but he becomes a better leader as the show goes on. In the last season, we meet the Doom Patrol and, compared to Robin, their leader is bossy, he doesn’t care about the other members of his team, he shames Beast Boy when he can’t control his powers while the Teen Titans encourage and support him.

I think this is the overall message of this show: support helps you grow. Beast Boy’s development is really subtle but important: in the first two seasons his animal choices are not always the best, but later he learns to transform mid-air from a bird to an elephant. And then there’s Terra. When the Titans discover her she has absolutely no control of her powers, but they are willing to offer her support and patience, help her discover herself.

Anyway, the most complex development process is Raven’s. She should be considered a symbol of all teens suffering from depression. She gets angry easily, she’s a hater with everyone, and often slams the door in front of anyone who tries to get in her life (literally). However, we get to understand why Raven is Raven. She needs to learn to accept who she is and overcome the severe trauma caused by her father and all this process is facilitated by her friends who learn to accept her without judging her. But weren’t we all more or less like Raven when we were teenagers? I certainly was.

Generally, the Teen Titans are just teens, going through teen problems. Cyborg and Starfire can’t find their place because they’re different. Raven is an introvert and Beast Boy is extremely extroverted. Robin is developing his leadership competencies while exploring his feelings for Starfire. Watching the show as a teen myself I could easily relate to the situations they’re going through. There is always one character that says exactly what you’re thinking.

If you think ‘kids’ shows’ are for kids… you’re probably wrong. Just because they’re on Cartoon Network, Disney or Nickelodeon, it doesn’t mean there’s nothing to learn from them now.

Next on my watch list is Xiaolin Showdown.

All pictures are screenshots from the show.