S02.E01: Trigon

[MarkHB]

Quote

With Rachel’s father, Trigon having successfully turned Dick dark, he sets out to win the others over to his side by embracing their inner darkness. With everyone under Trigon’s control, Rachel and Gar find themselves fighting what seems like a hopeless battle against the powers of Trigon.

[Jenniferbug]

I just finished watching it, and I really liked it! Having said that, they really should have left this as the season finale of season 1. It feels like a season finale and not an opener. I don't think it was quite as jarring for me since I finished my season 1 rewatch right before starting this episode, but it does not have the tone of a premiere.

I do like what they're setting up for this season, and am anxious to see some flashbacks of the original Titans and what went down. Curious if Drew Von Acker's character will be in the present day or flashback only. 

I'm surprised how much I am loving Gar and Ryan Potter. Beast Boy in the cartoons has always driven me nuts, but here he is so sweet and sincere and I just adore him! 

And this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I'm liking Jason Todd a lot too. Not that I'm rooting for him necessarily because he is an obnoxiously cocky little twit, but I think last season he was a necessary contrast to Dick as Robin, and I'm interested to see where they go with him this season. I think the actor is trying to give the character more layers and is doing a pretty good job with a tricky character. 

I don't have strong opinions on Iain Glen's Bruce, so I'll leave that for others. I thought he was a believable Bruce, but something seemed a little bit off at the same time? I'm not sure what it is. 

[Sakura12]

As another that just finished season one, I agree that they probably should've kept this episode as the finale. It felt like the end cap to season 1 with the new Teen Titan's coming together with Dick as their leader. 

Did like seeing Wonder Girl in her costume. From the trailers it looks like Donna and Kory stuck together to fight crime in New York. Which I like, rather then seeing who could win a fight. 

Don't know how I feel about Captain Friendzone being Batman. I guess I can see him as Bruce Wayne. Although I'm pretty sure we will mostly see him as Bruce since DC won't let Batman be on the small screen for than 5 minutes. 

Trigon was beaten a little easy though since they spent all that time setting him up only for Rachel to send him back without much work. 

[Jenniferbug]

1 hour ago, Sakura12 said:

Trigon was beaten a little easy though since they spent all that time setting him up only for Rachel to send him back without much work. 

Yeah this was probably my biggest gripe with the episode. All that set up, and he's dispatched with pretty easily and it didn't look like Rachel did anything different or new to stop him. I also didnt really get why she insisted on "saving" Dick before facing Trigon. He was literally no help and would have been cured like all the others when she succeeded. But dramatic moments were needed, I guess. 

[phoenics]

I hope this episode finally ends the Dick and Rachel show.  I was bored to tears most of the episode and after 11 episodes of build up, to have Rachel suddenly be in control of her powers enough to send Trigon off to wherever and it have NOTHING to do with the jewel in her head, etc... pitiful.

What a colossal letdown.  I honestly don't know what the writers were thinking.  And Rachel's dialogue while she was doing it was just corny and bad.  The actress portraying her isn't great either - sorry not sorry.

Way too much Rachel and Dick focus.  The only saving grace for me through that was Gar - sweet Gar.  He still isn't given enough screen time or focus but he was the redeeming part of this episode.  It made me so sad to see him get beatdown by all the titans.  But that speech of his to get through to Rachel - awwwwww.

They wasted more screen time showing Rachel "saving" Dick - especially given that he was no help to her against Trigon.  I still don't know 1) what she did and 2) how she knew to do it.

I did enjoy Kory and Donna's banter and that might be fun to keep up.

I'm glad it's over and I hope we get more focus on Kory and Gar.  And I too like Jason Todd - I think he's gonna become endearing and it will probably hurt when he cracks and becomes you know who eventually.  But he's entertaining and not dull.

I'm not buying GOT guy as Bruce Wayne.  He's okay though - I don't mind him.

I'm looking forward to episode 2 - it has to be better than this.  The last 14 minutes of the episode were more interesting than the first part.

One last thing - where is Connor (Superboy)?

[Sakura12]

Not only was Rachel snapping Dick out of his mind control unnecessary. Why did Rachel get into Hank and Dawn's mind to get Jason Todd? What purpose did him being there serve? He didn't do anything. I thought maybe he would be the one person that didn't fall for Trigon's mind trick. But nope he got sucked in too. 

This episode felt like they just realized they couldn't afford to have Trigon so they cut out all the super hero action and had Rachel magically know how to defeat him. 

Hopefully the next episode is better now that they ended everything that happened in the first season. I also hope the rest of the characters get some more story, like Gar, Kory and Donna. 

Edited September 7, 2019 by Sakura12

[Primal Slayer]

It's nice to finally have s1 over with. I see that they still cut a lot of s1 scenes in the episode to get us up to speed with where they want to go in s2.

But with them trying to get S2 started so fast, Jason randomly being on the media being all "The Titans are back bitches!" didn't make sense since the Titans didn't even remotely become a "thing" until they got back to the Titans tower. 

[crazymadness]

That was pretty dumb.  No one positively effected the outcome till Rachel deus ex machina'd all over the ending and defeated her ultimate enemy by smirking at him.  The whole thing was pointless.  Gar was pretty much the only good note and he mostly just didn't get beaten to death.  

[MarkHB]

My gut feeling is that the original version of this episode was a more drawn out version of what we saw, ending with the two vehicles going their separate ways in the woods and without the TV bit.  Maybe Raven saved all of them individually; maybe Jason did do something.

I enjoyed it. I hoped that the Tower would be the classic George Perez Tshape, but you can't have everything.

[Sakura12]

Sir Friendzone would've made a good Alfred. They needed someone that looks more formidable to be Batman. Especially since the guy they got for Deathstroke is older but still looks like he's a threat. Friendzone doesn't look like he's been fighting crime all these years. 

[Jenniferbug]

13 hours ago, MarkHB said:

My gut feeling is that the original version of this episode was a more drawn out version of what we saw, ending with the two vehicles going their separate ways in the woods and without the TV bit.  Maybe Raven saved all of them individually; maybe Jason did do something.

I enjoyed it. I hoped that the Tower would be the classic George Perez Tshape, but you can't have everything.

This. I feel like there was originally supposed to be more to the end. I honestly thought they needed Jason there because he was going to be invulnerable to turning dark, like "nah bro, I'm dark enough" and then he and Gar would snap Rachel out of it and somehow save the others while she dealt with Trigon. I wonder if they got notes about moving along that story and getting more to the team aspects. 

4 hours ago, Sakura12 said:

Sir Friendzone would've made a good Alfred. They needed someone that looks more formidable to be Batman. Especially since the guy they got for Deathstroke is older but still looks like he's a threat. Friendzone doesn't look like he's been fighting crime all these years. 

I think this is honestly why he seemed just slightly off as Bruce to me. It's like my brain kept trying to see him as Alfred even though I knew he was Bruce. 

[Sakura12]

2 hours ago, Jenniferbug said:

I think this is honestly why he seemed just slightly off as Bruce to me. It's like my brain kept trying to see him as Alfred even though I knew he was Bruce. 

I know he was speaking with an American accent but I kept hearing his British accent from GoT.  I guess they wanted a name actor to play Bruce, but sometimes that will backfire especially since GoT just ended and was one of the biggest cultural phenomenons this decade so it's too soon to try to see him as someone else.  On top of the fact that talked and showed clips from Game of Thrones on the show. If Rachel meets Bruce I would expect her to say, how come you look like Jorah Mormont? Or him to call Dawn Khalessi like Rachel did. 

And I know even if we see Batman, he will probably be played by a much bigger stunt double with Iain Glen's voice dubbed over like they do for Doom Patrol. It's still going to be hard for me to imagine it's that actor in the suit, which is what they need me to think. 

Edited September 7, 2019 by Sakura12

[Primal Slayer]

I assume Bruce is around the same age as the actor who is pushing what? 60? And just adopted another Robin whose a teen and if they follow comics still has at least 1 more Robin to go? He's really pushing it. I would've expected him to be in his early 40s.

I wonder how old Clark is in this universe. 50s? 

[phoenics]

10 hours ago, Sakura12 said:

Sir Friendzone would've made a good Alfred. They needed someone that looks more formidable to be Batman. Especially since the guy they got for Deathstroke is older but still looks like he's a threat. Friendzone doesn't look like he's been fighting crime all these years. 

When I saw the trailer, I thought he was Alfred. I hadn’t seen the cast updates. I was really surprised that they cast him as Bruce Wayne. 

[Sakura12]

1 hour ago, Primal Slayer said:

I assume Bruce is around the same age as the actor who is pushing what? 60? And just adopted another Robin whose a teen and if they follow comics still has at least 1 more Robin to go? He's really pushing it. I would've expected him to be in his early 40s.

I wonder how old Clark is in this universe. 50s? 

Isn't Dick in his 30's or at least late twenties, if we go by the actors age. Brenton Thwaites is 30. So Bruce would be older. Clark can probably go with being an Alien and aging slower. 

[Primal Slayer]

4 minutes ago, Sakura12 said:

Isn't Dick in his 30's or at least late twenties, if we go by the actors age. Brenton Thwaites is 30. So Bruce would be older. Clark can probably go with being an Alien and aging slower. 

I'd think Dick is 25-30? I'd probably go with a 10-15 age gap between him/Bruce as ideal.

[Sakura12]

Dick's parents died 15 years ago when he was 12. I don't think a 22 year old Bruce would've taken in an orphan. So I think there more of a 20 year age difference. I suppose they can pass Iain Glen off as 55. 

There will most likely be a younger stunt double in the Bat suit if we ever see him anyway. So it doesn't much matter how old Bruce is. 

[Lyanna19]

Srsly? That's who they pick for Bruce Wayne? A balding Bruce Wayne? He would have made a much better Alfred! That's disappointing to say the least. 

I want the T shape tower. 

Jason Todd, I like him, I think he's an awesome Robin, and we will really cry when he's gone

They all gave in to their dark side? That was um disappointing to say the least, at least Gar didn't, I love him, he's as adorable as in the comics. 

I love Dick Grayson 

[Cigale]

Gar:  “Real life horror movie!  Real life horror movie!”

[Notseriously]

Although there's certainly room for the criticisms above, I have to say that the ending scene in San Francisco was exhilarating.  It's kind of cool to see these characters coming to life.  The actors are generally doing a great job in adding depth to them.  I feel like I'm enjoying the character moments over the action sequences for now.

Edited January 12, 2020 by Notseriously
Grammatically edited.

[blackwing]

Just got into this series so I am seriously late to the party.  But I thought the casting of Iain Glen was terrible.  They wanted a “name” but he’s not even that big of a name.   He’s a character actor who happened to get lucky to get cast in GOT and is now better known.  I had never heard of him before GOT. 

On 9/6/2019 at 11:53 AM, Jenniferbug said:

I don't have strong opinions on Iain Glen's Bruce, so I'll leave that for others. I thought he was a believable Bruce, but something seemed a little bit off at the same time? I'm not sure what it is. 

Everything about him seemed off.  He looks like a grandpa.  He’s blond.  He looks frail.  Voice doesn’t have any gravitas or edge to it.   But worst of all, the accent.  He’s clearly trying to do his American accent and it’s like he learned an American accent from watching Three Stooges films.  It’s terrible!  Brenton Thwaites is Australian and his American accent is great.

Will see how this plays out but I guess I’ve never liked this actor, not even when he was on GOT.  He was a complete tool on Downton Abbey.

[Hanahope]

I thought Trigon was defeated pretty easily.  Didn't Donna or Kori say something about how she needed to train for 300 days to defeat him?

 

[Ottis]

On 9/18/2019 at 9:56 PM, Lyanna19 said:

Srsly? That's who they pick for Bruce Wayne? A balding Bruce Wayne? He would have made a much better Alfred! That's disappointing to say the least. 

I want the T shape tower. 

Jason Todd, I like him, I think he's an awesome Robin, and we will really cry when he's gone

They all gave in to their dark side? That was um disappointing to say the least, at least Gar didn't, I love him, he's as adorable as in the comics. 

I love Dick Grayson 

I’m not sure what balding has to do with it. He just seemed too frail to me in terms of his size and movements.