"Spellbound" is the sixth episode of season three and the overall 32nd episode of the Teen Titans series.
Synopsis
Feeling as if no one truly understands her, Raven starts to isolate herself from the team and wishes she could find someone who does understand her. Until she comes across Malchior, an incredibly powerful sorcerer trapped within one of her spellbooks. Claiming that only she can release him, Malchior starts to teach Raven the strongest of spells that will liberate him into the real world and soon Raven starts to fall in love with him. But Malchior is not everything he claims to be.
Plot
Raven reads the story of Malchior's titanic battle with the evil dragon Rorek. The story captivates Raven so much that she brooks no interruption, may it be due to an emergency (such as Kardiak trying to kidnap children from a playing ground) or her teammates trying to make her ease up. A remark by Beast Boy about her being "creepy" stings her, though, and she wishes that she could meet someone who could truly understand her and someone she could talk with. And to her immense surprise, the book responds.
"Go away!"
The book introduces itself as Malchior the wizard, imprisoned within his own spell book by Rorek the dragon's last evil curse just as he was being defeated himself. He proclaims to understand Raven and thus touches her heart. She tries to get him out of the spell book, but with the magic she knows so far it proves impossible. After she goes to sleep for the night, Beast Boy later goes to her room to say sorry for calling her creepy, but she and Malchior ignore him. He hears Raven say Malchior's name, and he becomes suspicious. During a special ceremony, Malchior teaches her his immense knowledge of magic, and step by step Raven manages to get the curse broken. At first she succeeds in giving Malchior a corporeal form of sorts with the pages of the spell book as a "body." But in order to be truly free, she has to greatly increase her own magic all the more. As time passes, Raven begins to grow closer to Malchior than to anyone else before.
After a week, Raven finally comes out of her room wearing a white cloak, and seeming much happier than usual, humming to herself. Thanks to Beast Boy's snooping (mostly out of worry), the other Titans learn about Malchior's existence. She also gains the power to transform Beast Boy. Before they can ask more, Kardiak strikes again. Raven attempts to stop him once again, but she uses her new magical powers, which promptly go out of control, threatening to consume both Kardiak and his latest victim, a little girl; and just in time, Beast Boy manages to prevent worse. Outraged, Raven teleports and confronts Malchior for having taught her dark magic, but again Malchior touches her heart by asking her whether she wants to be misunderstood and thus lonely once again.
Malchior's true self
Raven performs the final ceremony which fully releases Malchior from the spell book, but as Malchior is about to be released, Raven realizes -- to her shock and pain -- that he has deceived and double-crossed her: having swapped their names in the book, it turns out that Malchior is, in fact, not the wizard, but the dragon. Before she can reverse the ritual, Malchior breaks free and flies out of Titans Tower.
Raven finding comfort with Beast Boy
The Titans try to stop him but fail against his might. Furious about this betrayal, Raven engages Malchior in one-on-one combat and manages to banish him back into the book with the curse, which she locks away; never to read again. The desolation in her heart is soon alleviated by Beast Boy, who makes her realize that she is not alone after all. She walks out of her room, and for the first time, embraces Beast Boy with heartfelt emotions. After Cyborg throws the stankball at Beast Boy, ruining their touching moment, Raven retaliates by throwing it back at him.
Characters
Main Characters
Supporting Characters
Villains
Others
Credits
- Written by:
- Directed by:
- Starring:
- Greg Cipes as Beast Boy
- Scott Menville as Robin
- Khary Payton as Cyborg
- Tara Strong as Raven
- Hynden Walch as Starfire
- Also featuring:
- Greg Ellis as Malchior (first appearance), Rorek (first appearance)
- Dee Bradley Baker as Kardiak (first appearance)
Trivia
- As Cyborg and Beast Boy try to invite Raven into a game of Stank Ball, the background turns into two panels that resemble a typical home shopping channel.
- The text in the yellow box states part of the theme song.
- The words "Item 257-486" reference the production code of this episode.
- Two icons to the right resemble the logos of Visa and Mastercard.
- There are Japanese text in the speech balloon which translates to "This guy talks!"
- As the book flips through the pages by itself for the first time, the text appeared to be similar on all pages.
- When Beast Boy is hit with the Stank Ball, it sounds as if a fart was let loose.
- Cyborg once again ruins a tender moment, further emphasizing his role as the third wheel.
- Malchior/Rorek was created for the animated series, but the comic books did present a similar story in which Raven had a romance with a soul vampire, Eric Forrester, whom Jericho overpowered before Forrester affected Raven in pursuit of her powers. Raven shut out her teammates and was devastated when she realized that Forrester was using her.
- The way Raven's cloak changes back to indigo from white suggests that it changes color based on her mood. As she bonded with "Malchior/Rorek" her cloak got lighter until it reached white. At the end of the episode, because she is mourning and is feeling sad and angry, it changes back to indigo.
- This is the first episode to properly acknowledge Beast Boy and Raven having feelings for each other, it is also the first episode where Beast Boy and Raven hug each other.
- During the running gag of the other Titans interrupting Raven's reading, Raven is notably more gentle when Robin interrupts her. Unlike the other two instances, Robin was concerned about Raven and was not interrupting over a personal matter like Starfire, Cyborg and Beast Boy.
- Malchior seducing and using Raven as a pawn for his own plans bears resemblance to how Trigon seduced Raven's mother Arella in the comics. While it varies depending on the version, Arella, then known as Angela Roth, either was a ward of the state, or lived on the streets ever since she was abandoned by her family. A cult of Trigon then took her in and offered her to Trigon as a bride, and Arella, desperate for a family that loved her, accepted, only to deeply regret what she had done when she learned what Trigon truly was.
- Beast Boy showing concern about Raven and urging her not to kill Kardiak, along with him being the one to comfort Raven at the end of the episode is a reference to the comics as Beast Boy was usually one of the few people who could keep Raven from losing it, as unlike in the cartoon, Raven's comic counterpart had a bad habit either of getting possessed by Trigon or using her demonic powers too much. Even before they became romantically involved, Beast Boy was one of the few people who actually managed to make Raven show actual emotion in the comics and let the mask she usually wore fall.
- This episode is a good way to show that Malchior is a symbolic villain on the grounds that, according to the show's writers, the episode that he first appears in and does the most in, 'Spellbound", was meant to be a subtle warning to teenagers (the show's main audience) about the dangers of Internet chatrooms. Indeed, many of the ways that Malchior manipulates Raven are extremely similar to the ways that Internet predators manipulate potential victims, such as him early on leading her to believe that he's the only one who "understands" her, as well as of course him lying to her about who (and in this case, what) he truly was.
Cultural references
- In this episode, the 'Bank of China Tower' from Hong Kong could be seen in the Jump City skyline.
- Kardiak's design shares similarities with the Dark Heart from the show Justice League Unlimited. Both also utilize nanoscopic technology.
- The little girl that was being held hostage by Kardiak resembles a younger version of Clover from Totally Spies!.
- Coincidentally, both shows aired on Cartoon Network at the time.
Goofs
- When Beast Boy was struck by the Stank Ball, it appeared through Raven's head instead of offscreen.
- As Raven boards the T-car, the vehicle was missing its roof.
- After the fireworks scene, the screen dissolves to Titans Tower in daytime. However, the next shot would show the Titans' ops room at night.
- A minor one, but as Raven is eating an apple, her hair appears to be frozen at a somewhat upwards angle, only to return to its normal position when her friends appear.
- When Malchior wipes Raven’s tear away his hand goes under her mouth rather than over.
- Before Raven hugs Beast boy, her eyes are black but after they return to purple.
- At the end of the episode, when Raven hugs Beast Boy, they are shown to be the same height. Throughout the series, it is shown that Raven is usually slightly taller than Beast Boy.
Gallery
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Transcript
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