Author: Lizard-man
Date Added: August 3, 2006

Why BB/Rae Works for Me

 

Note: The opinions expressed here are soley those of the author of this article.

I'll be the first to admit I am so not comfortable with a lot of things. Particularly the touchy political subjects. Because I consider myself politically neutral I find the common ground with a lot of things. I refuse to vote because every single candidate on the ballot only cares about their own issues and not others. People can be really split between opinion, so much so that the debates can turn into nothing more then mindless arguing where we try to bully the opposition into proving our point right and everyone else wrong. A logical person would tell you that's not how democracy works, we have to come up with a compromise a common ground, something we can all agree on. The same is true for the shipping community. We don't need to continuously bash other couples to prove our point, all we need is to get our point out there. That's how we get people to listen. If we bully them into joining our side then were not really that good debaters. Therefore in the interest of democracy I will explain why I, Lizard-Man, am more comfortable with the Beast Boy and Raven pairing then others in the Teen Titans pairing fandom.

Let me first explain what kind of shipper I am. I am not obsessive. Sure I like the couple but I'm not a total freak who goes around trying to hatchet off people's heads simply because they don't agree. They're free to ship whatever the hell they want. Same with me. Now most of you should probably know by now that I've said some rather nasty things to one ship in general. I'll get to that in a second, but let me explain that just because I don't agree with a certain ship or pairing, it does not mean I cannot be friends with that person who likes it and ships it. A person's opinions should not force you to hate someone, its how they act and what they do and how they express those their opinions that should be the true influence of what you perceive them as. So therefore I am not a n00b, although I will admit I used to be one. I was particularly angered by the fact that some people believed Misty (Pokemon) was a Blonde Lesbian. Yes I know she had red hair I don't know where that blonde part came from at all. But in the end I realised, why should I get angry at weird comments like this? The character isn't even real. So what if some people have strange fantasies about it all? I don't care. Its their opinion, let them live in their fairy land for all I care. What they say, no matter how much I disagree, will not affect me at all.

The easiest way to explain why I became a BB/Rae shipper was the opposing couples. There are a lot concerning Beast Boy and Raven so lets just go through the first two, first Beast Boy and Terra. BB/T has always been the direct rival towards our ship. Mature and more sophisticated shippers write off Terra as a mere distraction that served as nothing more then moot point in our history. This is something I agree with, mostly because of the comic that the show was based on. Beast Boy and Terra did date, yes. But in the  omics as soon as Terra revealed herself as a spy working for Slade everything went downhill for their relationship. Mainly because Terra then tried to kill all the Titans, Beast Boy included. Yeah, attempting to kill your former boyfriend and his friends doesn't bode well for a resurgence of your relationship. Then Terra's rage killed herself. She was brought back to life as Terra II, but many question whether or not this is the first Terra. In either case Beast Boy never rekindled the relationship and neither did she. As for Beast Boy, after Terra died Slade revealed to him that Terra was a horrible person all along. Meaning she never really loved him. Therefore Beast Boy eventually moved on from Terra and the relationship between them has been dead in th  comics ever since.

So what of the TV series, well considering that it is based off the original 80's comics we need to factor in a few minor details about their relationship. One: Terra wasn't pure evil this time and Two: This Beast Boy did have an obvious crush on her. (Let's not try to deny this) However the series creators did something called a "Love/Hate" flip up for the series. This effectively makes fans either hate or love Terra depending on how they view each episode. So in one episode they could go for Terra being good and in another they could go for her being bad. Throw in the fact that it looked like they gave a stick figure flesh and you have the traditional superhero turned bad, turned good, turned bad, turned good, story. Now its not that I hated Terra its just that her story could have been told better. (That and I never really did feel right about Beast Boy having a crush on her. Its one of the reasons I never liked the ship.)

Thanks to Muramaki taking this route and making Terra more sympathetic, he successfully revived the BB/T ship from its long slumber. Then he murdered it horribly in the last episode of the series when Terra refused to go back to Beast Boy and the Titans. She instead chose to remain a civilian. Beast Boy was forced to move on and accept that things needed to change. That's really the most positive thing I can say about that episode, I deny the existence of "Things Change" otherwise. I feel it would have been so much better if they just killed off the ship so much earlier. Just like the comics. Then we would've had far better character development for Beast Boy, who truly deserves more credit then he usually gets. My personal view on the BB/T ship however is that its effectively dead. There are hardly any fan fiction stories for it, the sites are all but abandoned and people who still like it are treated as laughing stocks. More and more BB/T shippers are pairing Beast Boy up with someone else. As far as I'm concerned I no longer feel the need to even think about BB/T because of how dead it truly is now.

How did it happen? How and why was it killed? Cause despite the criticisms against the show from many comic fans, Muramaki realized that the ship could never be fully brought back. The lesson of Beast Boy moving on from Terra in both comic in TV forms needed to be done. They needed to get Beast Boy to grow up and get over her. Its an important message that everyone needs to learn once in awhile. And since this cartoon was meant for kids, well...you get the picture. Besides most ships never are finally resolved or acknowledged in the canon for TV shows. Otherwise many fans of opposing views would stop watching. Its a business practice. Although Muramaki must of felt safe with letting Robin and Starfire have a more open relationship because of all the Star/Rob shippers from the old comics era. Really popular ships are lucky that way.

Speaking of Boy Blunder, oh sorry I mean "Wonder." I never understood why they called him that. Anyway the second rival of our ship is Rob/Rae. As many of you know, if you saw my Retaliation against the April Fools day joke post that was soundly deleted by Sparky for its n00b-iness, (Still not laughing at the April Fools joke guys. I'm going to get you back I swear) I feel strongly uneasy around Rob/Rae. This isn't because I'm a big Rob/Star shipper as well as a BB/Rae supporter, no. The reason is because whenever I look at it, the entire ship and its evidence and reasoning, it just feels... wrong. To me of course because there are plenty of people who like it. This is not an attack against them but more an attack against the idea of Robin and Raven as a couple. For this ship I'll examine the three main reasons people like this couple. Which are that Rob/Rae fans are either big fans of Robin, they hate Starfire irrationally or they probably think the two are so alike they belong with each other. They also apparently share some kind of bond thanks to the "Haunted" episode where Raven went in his mind. I don't know how Raven could create some sort of bond with him by watching a couple of seconds of memory footage, but its not for me to decide. So anyway Robin and Raven apparently have a lot in common.

They both: Have bird names (This is rather bland and sad reasoning)
Are moody and depressing (Not so much with Robin but we'll get to that)
Are determined and strong willed (True but so are a lot of heroes)
Have dark pasts and attitudes (How this makes Robin cool I don't know, but we'll get to that)

When I think about it I don't really see that much of bond between them as mentioned. Sure they're close, but I never considered them as boyfriend and girlfriend. That and I never believed Robin was actually in love with her or Raven him simply because of a few vague and somewhat unimportant similarities. And besides that brief trip into Robin's mind how can Raven say Robin knows her better then anyone when I haven't seen one bonding episode between them before season 4? I blame this on the rushed nature of most of the arc that could have been better explored. (Many people agree with me on the fact that they could have done the arc so much better then what we got. It was decent for sure but it could have been better.)

Many Rob/Rae fans will point to the fact that their ship did happen in the comics. Raven and Dick Grayson (Or more popular known as Nightwing) did kiss and seemed to be developing feelings for one another, they even kissed at one point. However whenever showing us scans of the pages of their favourite issue of Teen Titans, most Rob/Rae fans will leave out the fact that Raven was confused about her newfound emotions and was attracted to Nightwing/Dick Grayson out of mere confusion as well as unintentionally manipulating his emotions. Soon afterwards the love affair between the two was killed off when Starfire explained to Raven that there were different kinds of love. This is important for the mythology of the series. The lesson of Raven coming to grips with her emotions and realising that her love for Dick is an over reaction of a more platonic love was this, that most of our crushes aren't really true love. They are fantasies and that's that. They can never be anything more.

As for what Rob/Rae fans may find as a sign of the Apocalypse its the "Evil Raven" arc. Where Raven became an evil incarnation of herself and broke up Starfire and Dick's wedding. She viciously attacked Starfire and implanted the seed of her good self in her former friend. This event has effected the relationship between Dick and Raven even after her resurrection in the newest comic series. In all essence the ship has been dead almost as long as BB/T in the comics. Also Nightwing and Starfire still have a thing for each other in the comics, however he did propose to Barbara Gordon. (After sleeping with Starfire I might add) He hasn't even attempted to become friends with Raven again, at this point you can pretty much guess he never really did love Raven. (And there is more then one reason his name is Dick) Raven in the meantime had fallen in love with several other boys afterwards (Jericho for example) and of course as we all know began a romantic relationship with Beast Boy just a few issues before Infinite Crisis and OYL began. It seemed that Raven broke up with him during OYL when it was revealed she had left the team and split up with Garfield, but she recently commented (In a security tape Cyborg watched) that she was leaving because she felt something was wrong with the new Team members and Gar (Beast Boy) was not related to the matter at all, but was merely being used as a cover story. As for Garfield himself, Raven commented that he was reminding her of Nightwing then of the green elf she knew and, as she said, "That's NOT Gar." This means she is no longer attracted to Dick Grayson and likes the old, less stressed, Beast Boy better. More or less, the ship for the comics is now dead for good.

The TV series is a completely different story altogether. Despite the obsessive attention Muramaki and his staff gave to Rob and Star's relationship the ship continues to thrive. Much of the thanks goes to the season 4 arc. I will not endeavour to explain all of their evidence because I find it trivial and mundane as many people who do not ship Rob/Rae believe as well. With the Trigon arc however each shipper, whether a Rob/Rae or BB/Rae fan, has their own moment for each episode. "Birthmark" has Beast Boy trying to make Raven celebrate her birthday and Robin rescuing of a stripped down Raven from falling. "Prophecy" has Robin's confrontation on the stairs with Raven and Beast Boy has his arm around her at the end of the episode. The End pt 1 has Beast Boy's penny being held onto by Raven till the bitter end (Everyone loves that penny) and there is a hand holding scene near the end of the episode between Raven and Robin of course. The End pt 2 has Beast Boy commenting about how Raven saved them in a quiet and sad voice as well as Robin going down to save her from the pits of hell. And of course The End pt 3 has those two hugs at the end, one for each
shipper. All of Robin's scenes however seem, at least to me and others, as somewhat forced or if its not seen as that, they're trivial. All I can think about when I look at it all is just how rushed most of the bonding seems. With Beast Boy and Raven, the relationship was taken slow and respectfully. They never rushed anything and had great character development. When they had Raven and Robin bonding in the fourth season it seems at times rushed if not made up on the fly. Robin hardly says a word during the birthday scene in "Birthmark" and the second Raven goes ballistic, she storms out the door and he follows, for some strange and unexplained reason. In fact it was Beast Boy who made her react that way. It would have been more in line with Robin's character if he asked Beast Boy to go apologize to her. Perhaps he thought she needed some else to talk to, but it still isn't very well explained. If we look past the fact that Robin's bonding in the "Trigon Arc" seems rushed, because they had yet to make a bonding episode between them, we still come back to the fact that Robin is the team leader. He's suppose to be concerned. As for the stuff he is doing for Raven, it seems less romantic and more brotherly in a sense. Since she's also a team member I can only see the actions Robin is doing as mere concern for a team mate. How would you react if your best friend was being chased by a pedophile terrorist brought back from the dead? You'd want to help her wouldn't you? So I come back to the reasoning that Robin is merely helping Raven because he feels its his responsibility as team leader.

This is true of course at least to BB/Rae fans. Rob/Rae fans view it completely differently and this is fine. Problem is Robin and Raven doesn't really work out too well in the practical business sense. If Muramaki takes more liberty with the canon of the original source then he should then he might as well forget getting anymore advice from the original creators of the series. And in truth, are they really going to bother putting a Starfire and Robin episode like "Stranded" in season four if their intention was to make Robin fall in love with Raven? And what about Raven, did they intend for her to get a crush Robin? Who knows, but that doesn't change the fact that the ship for the original canon of the comics has been dead for years and Muramaki would at least have to stay faithful to the plotline of the original comics, no matter how geared towards kids the series was. Raven would break off any relationship just as quickly as it would start. Any chance of Robin and Raven getting together can only be left up to the imagination. It can never truly become canon. Not now at least.

Also liking Rob/Rae just because Robin is somewhat like her is misinformed. Its basically a huge mistake to think that the Robin of this show has glaring similarities with Raven. Sure he is somewhat of a moody and dark person but in the comics he has no reason to be at that young an age. Robin was more fun loving and cheerful, more in tune with Starfire at times. He at times exhibits this more frequently with his friends in the animated series as well because he remains active and social with them throughout the series run. Its only when he becomes unhealthy obsessed does he exhibit Raven's similarities and even then its only her reclusive ness. Raven for the most part is secluded in both Comic and TV series, but now and again someone brings her into the group. Usually Starfire or Beast Boy, never Robin who mainly ignores her until his sudden concern in season four. You'd think if he was more attracted to her we'd see him trying to get Raven to be more social with her friends. So you can see why it seems rushed to some people. Especially me.

Now liking the Rob/Rae ship because the two are alike is a reasonable argument. (Even though I presented a fairly understandable counter-argument) The two other reasons however for liking it are not. One of those reasons is hating Starfire and wanting to see her die and have Robin fall in love with Raven. If you only like Rob/Rae just because you hate Starfire then you are nothing more then a character basher. The same goes for any ship. Hating a character is not a logical nor practical reason for supporting a couple. This does not go for all Rob/Rae shippers. Most of them like the couple and don't hate Starfire. In fact many of them support the Star/BB ship. The ones who outright hate Starfire are Militant Rob/Rae shippers who hate Starfire because of her innocent face or alien tongue or because of her undeniable crush on Robin interferes with their ship. I think all these militants consider Val Yor their hero simply because he hates Starfire for no good reason like they do. I do not feel angry at them, only sad for them. Because they really aren't thinking rationally or using common sense, they're empty headed and close-minded. Also to use Starfire's tongue, they are Chlorbags. I don't know if that's spelled right cause I don't speak Tamaranian, but it fits a character basher appropriately. I do not hate characters just because they get in the way of ships, I only find that I like some better then others.

People also ship the relationship because they are really big fans of Robin and Raven is usually their second favourite character. Raven's character is popular with a great many people, as is Robin. This usually leads to people wanting to ship their two favourite characters together. Now I'm not out to pick on Robin, but he is way over hyped at times. He isn't a bad hero of course but he isn't a great one either. Robin is considered cool by many people's standards because his attitude fits perfectly with the "All-American Lover Boy" personality. Which many people have a problem with. And even in the series when he seems to act more like Raven he isn't. Instead he shows more similarities to Batman. Giving off the appearance that he is a Batman-clone, which further makes him less sympathetic to people cause he's copying the superhero he was raised by, which is the biggest side-kick turned hero stereotype you can create and probably a cardinal sin in comic books. I don't hate Robin at all, its his attitude on the series that I hate. He more then often acts like the stereotypical "No one understands me" person who I cannot identify with. If he was done in the style of the Robin of the comic books I would have liked him more. I would have liked type fun loving, boy scout, not obsessed with catching bad guys Robin far better. But thanks to his cool guy attitude and his Batman-clone exterior I can only think of him as my least favourite of the Titans. (My most hated character of course would be Kitten, because she's a whinny piece of white suburb trash that is spoiled rotten beyond all belief and I was so glad to see her carted away in a paddy wagon at the end of her first appearance. Next to her would be the puppet king because he wasn't well thought out and could of used some fine tuning.) Robin is merely my least favourite of the Titans and he in no way effects my choice to support BB/Rae. Neither does the fact that Beast Boy is my favourite Titan along with Raven. These facts are minor and do not play into the larger scheme of things of why I ship them together. Just because I like two characters does not mean I ship them together, to do so is somewhat childish.

Finally, with the two conventional ships out of the way we can get to final part of the argument. Slash. I have a major distaste for slash. Mainly because if a character who is not revealed as homosexual in the canon is made that way in Fanfiction then it is nothing but a crude excuse for justifying OOC fanfics. Canon Slash couples like Willow and Tara from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" are fine but if the slash has no basis in fact or canonical reasoning then it is nothing more then a shoddy piece of an "Out Of Character" story which acts more like a porno film script then anything else and is unrealistic. A more realistic stories (which are extremely rare) have the characters struggling with their new found emotions and not leaping on each other for some stupid reason or another, even so they still destroy the canon because there is no proof that the characters are gay. Most of the time the stories usually play into gay or lesbian stereotypes which is even worse then messing with the canon. The reason for this is probably because most people who write Slash are heterosexual females who find it appealing and erotic to see gay men have sex with each other. The same way most men feel Lesbian sex is erotic. Me? I don't find Lesbian activities erotic and if I was a women I'd feel the same way about Homosexual activities. Gays and Lesbians in the real world are fine, they're just normal people who love each other and I've never found a reason to speak out against them because they don't effect me. Because of this I don't see anything erotic or extreme, just something different that I must accept. I'm only against slash because of its shameless outright abolition of the canon. Some slash promoters will of course say that I can't really make a decision on whether a character is gay, bisexual or straight simply because of the facts of the canon. If that is true then it is impossible to also say that Willow from "Buffy" is a lesbian and is attracted to Tara. It is also impossible to say that based on the canon, and the canon of her book, that Lesbian Batwoman is a lesbian simply based on the facts of the canon. Therefore, if you believe the argument that a person's sexual orientation cannot be decided on simply because of what the canon states then you cannot rationally think that any characters are gay! Even when they admit it!

What does this have to do with BB/Rae? Simple, one slash ship in particular. Star/Rae is something I CANNOT tolerate because of how blatantly it ignores the facts of the canon. As if it assumes that because Raven and Starfire hang out together they must be lesbians! Forget the fact that Raven was attracted to Malchior and Starfire has an obvious crush on Robin and they both went girlie eye at Aqualad, they must be gay because...well...the slashers don't give a reason! I maintain that this ship was started by horny teenage boys and it spread through the slash culture like wildfire. There is no other logical explanation. If heterosexual women make gay fanfiction, then its possible that heterosexual, porno watching, sick little men write Lesbian fanfiction. And I am real sick of people thinking straight shippers are gay bashers. Ex: One supporter (Who shall remain nameless) of Star/Rae says that the rest of us are close minded simply because we don't like this pairing and drew a picture of Starfire and Raven in chains latched on to Beast Boy and Robin respectively. So if we don't want to seem close minded we have to like this pairing? Isn't that a contradiction of your own statement of being close minded if we we have to like something or else? Guess what? We don't have to like I  and you can't make us if we don't want to! So deal with that.

So what does this mean for me? Why do I like Beast Boy and Raven so much? Why do I feel more comfortable with it then others? I guess in truth its because of my personality. Because I like it when the underdog gets the girl. I like it when opposites attract. I like slow, well-thought out, easy progressing romances that draw the characters closer and closer through trials and tribulations. I like it because I think Beast Boy and Raven deserve each other after all they have been through and can make each other better people. I don't like it just because its popular or some other crap like some people would assume. I like it...well...just because I do. But the reason we all like the pairing varies from person to person. Its those reasons that matter in the end and are the basis for your argument. So ship what you want, I won't care. But for goodness sake do not try and force others to like your pairing because you think you can. It demeans us all. My advice, stop being noobs and start acting rationally, then make up your own minds. Perhaps then we can finally stop the shipping wars all together. I also want to apologize if I said anything in this article to offend you for some reason. If you like the Rob/Rae ship or Slash ships or if you're still hanging on to the BB/T ship, that is your opinion and I realize that I can't really force you to come over to my side. But think about this the next time you want to go to a Shipper shrine you disagree with or a Romance fiction that
you hate because of the pairing it has and bash it. You shouldn't hate people for their opinions, cause in truth its how they express them that counts not what they believe. A respectful shipper is a good shipper. Otherwise, you're just a noob and nobody likes a noob.