Post by Don on Sept 13, 2006 1:30:45 GMT -5
Appearance
In the Teen Titans animated series (2003-2006), Raven (voiced by Tara Strong) appears much younger than in the comic book variants (as do all the other characters), though her costume is relatively unchanged. Her skirt was, however, changed to a leotard by the animators to avoid several animation complications; she wears a chain belt around her waist as well. Raven is also depicted with light grey skin and short, violet hair.
Personality
Raven's personality is more child-like and emotional, and slightly more gothic. She is straightforward, moody, sarcastic, and has a dry sense of humor. Despite this, she shows signs that she cares very much for her friends.
Raven often worries that her fellow Titans don't like her, possibly because she is the daughter of a demon and has a complex lifestyle that her friends don't understand too well. Her room inside Titans Tower is decorated with things from her past, as well as statues and pictures abound of the peculiarities her powers like to conjure up. Not surprisingly, she becomes highly offended when anyone sets foot in it against her will.
-----------
Powers
[glow=white,2,300]Empathy[/glow]
Raven has the psionic ability of empathy, the power to absorb emotions, enabling her to feel the feelings of others. She can also use her empathy to steal emotions from others, rendering them emotionally "numb". She can absorb the pain of injured people to ease their suffering, and induce rapid healing.
[glow=white,2,300]Soul-Self[/glow]
Raven can manifest her "Soul-Self" through astral projection. It normally takes the form of either her human shape or a giant raven. Through the use of her soul-self, Raven can project her consciousness into the mind, for therapeutic purposes (to aid in her own meditation, or to help calm an agitated ally), or for offensive attacks, rendering her enemies unconscious. It also serves as a way to travel into other dimensions. Using her soul-self, she can teleport herself and others over vast distances.
[glow=white,2,300]Soul-Self Metamorphosis (Animated)[/glow]
When the animated Raven is highly upset, her soul-self can also transform her body's appearance to a variety of demonic forms and sizes. Worst of all, when she can't control her anger, she transforms into a demonic Raven, usually with four glowing, red eyes and sprouting black tentacles from under her cloak. The four eyes seem to symbolize her demon father, Trigon — when Cyborg was infected with a virus, she threatened Gizmo into helping by lifting and then pulling down her hood. The face was not shown, but it appeared to be a dragon's head with tentacles.
[glow=white,2,300]Psychokinesis (Animated)[/glow]
In addition to an affinity for magic and spell casting, the animated Raven possesses powerful psychokinetic abilities which manifest in the form of Dark Energy, serving as her primary means of attack and defense. She can use her abilities to levitate objects (and also herself), project concussive blasts, and form simple shapes like grappling hands and razor sharp plates to use as barriers and/or restricting binds. Raven can use her Dark Energy to create portals to phase through solid barriers like floors and wall. In episode "Car Trouble", after Cyborg's newly built T-Car was stolen, and he's lamenting about how the loss hurts him emotionally as he had put his own circuits into it, Raven admits she sympathizes: "When I use my powers, I have to put a little of my soul into whatever I'm moving. I become a part of it, and it becomes a part of me".
[glow=white,2,300]Mantra (Animated)[/glow]
The animated version of Raven often says the phrase "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" to help her focus her powers. She even uses this as her attack phrase as well. These words are her mantra. As previously mentioned, Azarath is the dimension in which she was born and raised, and where she learned her powers from the monks. The words "Metrion" and "Zinthos" were created by Glen Murakami for the spell, and have no assigned meaning yet.
One theory holds that since Azarath is a sanctuary, that it's inclusion in a mantra intended to focus her thoughts implies that the remaining words refer to a principle relating to the followers of Azar--much like a Bhuddist mantra. A related theory suggests that the words have a "Subject Object Verb" grammatical order--the command-like and finalizing nature of "Zinthos" being the cheif reason for this assumption (not to mention that the Japanese language has the same word order). From this, two theoritical possibilities are derived:
"Metrion" is a word refering to "calm", "peace", or a some particular but unspecified order of thought or thinking; followed by a copula, "Zinthos".
"Metrion" refers to her own "state of mind" in the generic sense regardless of her present mood, with "Zinthos" being a commanding verb which with reference to "Azarath" sets her own mind to recollect her earlier teachings.
If this theory is true, or rather if it could be assumed (since Glen Murakami never made any defining statements or references), then this would be similar to the Litany Against Fear, depicted in Frank Herbert's Dune (novel).
Raven sometimes uses the mantra to aid her in her daily meditations, which she performs to keep her emotions in check so they do not clash with her conscious self control.
[glow=white,2,300]Other Powers (Animated)[/glow]
The animated version of Raven also posseses a large number of limited powers used only under special circumstances. These include teleportation (both of people and objects), time manipulation, precognition, rapid healing, extremely powerful magic spells and the (unwilling) creation of various monsters.
-----------