The Written Podcast: The Differences Between “Titans”, and “Teen Titans Go!”

I have no problem with there being different versions of shows. If done correctly, you can use the same characters but within completely different types of show entirely. There have been so many instances where shows have been rebooted with different tones, remade with different styles. Two examples of tonal difference come to mind: Sabrina the Teenage Witch – a light-hearted, child-friendly, comedy – and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina – a dark, adult orientated, drama. I picked these two shows because one is child-friendly, and the other is adult orientated (not because I’m writing this article straight after the article where I talk about those two shows….) Those two shows prove it is possible to do a complete tonal shift with the same characters, but no tonal shift can ever compare with that of “Titans” and “Teen Titans Go!”

One is bloody, violent, swearing – very much dark and aimed solely at adults, not children. The other is aimed at children, full of puns, moral lessons, and in many ways diverts very far from the source material. Just don’t get the mixed up. I wouldn’t recommend you child watching Titans, and I’m sure many adults are tolerating Teen Titans Go! because it keeps the children quiet for half an hour.

I recently found Teen Titans Go! readily available on Amazon Prime, and I’ve heard it’s somewhat decent, but that’s not why I watched the first two episodes. I had just finished watching the first three episodes of Titans, a new adaptation on the characters, and side by side, they do look very different. Almost unrecognisable – almost parallel universes different from one another.

I fully understand why they have made these two shows, to give the characters as much attention as they deserve across all demographics. It isn’t as if a child who likes Teen Titans Go! is going to watch Titans, and vice versa. They’re world apart from one another. But for someone who is old enough to flit between the two shows, it’s a wild shift.

When watching Teen Titans Go!, I cannot help but imagine those version of the characters doing the same as what they do in Titans. It gets weirder still when imagining the version of the characters in Titans singing about Pie. They’re so incredibly different from one another, it’s practically impossible to collaborate them both in the same article.

Of course, I prefer Titans over the other. But there’s nothing inherently wrong with Teen Titans Go!. The latter made me chuckle here and there, and groan with mental pain occasionally when it pulled off some over-the-top pun. The latest episode I saw involved Robin wanting to ask Starfire out on a date, but Speedy gets there before. Robin ties Speedy up, takes his clothes and goes as Speedy. However, throughout the episode, his conscience has been speaking to him, narrating how Robin feels. The plot twist at the end of the episode sees the disembodied voice within Robins head going on a date with Starfire. That twist almost angers me with how much that hurts – because it’s something I absolutely did not predict. Believe it or not, but the child-friendly cartoon version of Teen Titans Go! is something the parents wouldn’t mind watching along with their children. No one would have predicted that twist – keeping not only the child’s mind active, but also the parent’s mind, too.

Both ends of the demographic can enjoy watching their favourite superheroes on screen, but it has to be weird when the child is tucked up in bed after having watched an episode of Teen Titans Go! with you, and you come downstairs and switch over to Titans; the drastic tonal shift must be difficult to adapt to instantly. One minute their singing about pie and the next the same characters are slicing people apart. In Titans, Raven is a depressed, powerful daughter of a demon, not in control of the magic – it’s heavy in some areas, brutal in others, with only a few selected scenes of rest before going straight back. Turning that on its head and portraying the same character as comical is tremendous.

If you were to describe each show to me before saying they both have the same characters within, I would say those are brilliant shows, but wonder why you would be using the same characters. One of those would make those characters appear, well, uncharacteristic, and I wouldn’t know which one. Yet, if you were to present the first episode of each show to me, I wouldn’t worry which one is uncharacteristic, or why they’re so different from one another, I would enjoy them both – one above the other, I dare say, but nevertheless find them entertaining for further watching. I would at first say it would be an outlandish idea that wouldn’t hold much traction, but then again, most outlandish ideas seem to be the ones that have earned the most following.

Other than the previously mentioned two shows, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, I cannot think of two shows where they’ve had such drastic format changes they’re completely different characters, yet paradoxically the same characters. Well, now that I think about it, other than Batman – The Dark Knight Trilogy sitting next to The Lego Batman Movie, for example. And each new regeneration in Doctor Who – although technically that doesn’t count as an example because it’s only one show, not two… But Torchwood can marginally count, as it’s within the same universe, but definitely a tonal shift from Doctor Who. And Arrow sitting next door to Legends of Tomorrow; a dark violent show sitting next to one that doesn’t take itself seriously in such a serious way, almost parodying the universe it’s sharing with Arrow… OK, so maybe it has been done a few times before, but it certainly isn’t common, because taking the same characters and making completely different shows is a high gamble. All those examples have worked, and are a big hit among fans.

If done correctly, tonal shifts with the same characters is doable, but it seems that the only way to make tonal shifts work properly is making both pieces of content on complete opposite ends of the spectrum – maybe if they’re too similar to one another, it wouldn’t work. That makes sense as to how both Titans and Teen Titans Go! are big hits, and the other aforementioned shows and films – they’re so different, so incomparable, you can’t criticise one in favour of the other, but only highlight its strengths and weaknesses only within the confines of the show.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)