Introducing: Raven
Since people seemed to like my New Genesis & Apokolips post, I figure I should make another comic-book lore post. This time about my personal favorite character from comic books, Raven of the Teen Titans, or more specifically Raven of the New Teen Titans. See, I really prefer the original version. I say that not to be a hipster 'oh the original comic version is so much better' etc. but because in each reimagining Raven seems to lose some of the things that make me like her. So, without further ado allow me to introduce—
Raven
Like all good origin stories, Raven's story begins well before Raven does, on the distant and far off planet of Earth. See, to really understand Raven's origins you must understand her father's origins. It's easy to say, 'Trigon is a demon' and that's what most modern interpretations do, but that's... I mean, it solves a lot to do that, but his actual story is way more convoluted than that and gives him a lot more depth as a character. To understand Trigon's story, you must understand Azar's story.
Azar is the sorceress/prophetess/Bodhavista who founds Azararth the extra-dimensional plane in which Raven is born and raised, but she's from Earth. Back during Earth's non-descript magical past (I place it sometime around the roman empire given Azarath's general fashion & architectural choices.) Azar was a sorceress going around preaching this revolutionary new thing called pacifism. According to Azar if everyone just agreed to not kill anybody, nobody would get killed. She also advocated your standard 'be nice to each other' fair, charity, chastity, kindness, humility, diligence, and patience (not so much on the temperance but more on that later.)
Azar's cult gathered a bit of a following as they were basically people going around trying to do good works for the sake of making the world a better place, but they did have this one rather glaring fault. You see, the Cult of Azar believe in reincarnation (and in fact Azar gets reincarnated a couple of times, she's very Buddha/Dalai lama), and they believe it's better to die a saint than live a sinner. Which given their belief in pacifism, means they don't believe you should act violently even to save your own life. Consequently, they have a nasty habit of getting super-murdered every time they run into a group that doesn't like them.
To solve this problem Azar uses magic, because Azar is THE lesson in why you shouldn't use magic to solve every problem. Azar opens a portal to a nothing-dimension and leads her people in exodus through it. Basically, they leave everyone who doesn't think like them behind on Earth and peace out to make their own society, without strippers or blackjack. They call this new reality, Azarath, or occasionally, the Land of Azar.
This works out well. Everyone who doesn't practice pacifism unto death is left behind on Earth living out history, while on Azarath Azar and her cult are practicing sorcery and philosophy and presumably science. They do stuff like create a giant dimensional doorway through which they can view/visit other worlds and start gathering knowledge in a philosophical sense. Essentially everyone on Azarath is seeking enlightenment, so it ends up a pretty philosophy driven society. This becomes something of a problem when some guy points out that Azarath isn't technically a society without evil, because, even though they suppress it, each of the citizens of Azarath still has the urge toward/potential for evil. Azar hears this problem and uses magic to fix it.
See, one of the things the people of Azarath have gotten good at is astral projecting, because it allows them to visit other worlds without physically endangering themselves or interfering with the locals. So, Azar has all the people of Azarath gather together and project all their 'evil' out through the dimensional doorway and into the void of nothingness. This works, and Azarath is cleansed of evil. Unfortunately, while the 'evil' was supposed to just be expelled out into the void and then die there, it had other plans.
There's not really any good numbers on Azarath's population, but I presume it to be roughly equivalent to Earth given its people had several thousands of years to propagate without war or famine or disease, so we're talking the 'evil' of roughly a billion-people floating around in the void. We'll call this proto-Trigon.
Proto-Trigon spends an undefined amount of time just kind of coming to terms with the fact that it is, A: sentient, B: pure evil, and C: without a physical body. Proto-Trigon then decides to fix the third one. Somewhere in some other dimension some aliens are having some issues and pray to any power that may be listening for salvation. Proto-Trigon happens to be listening and happens to be all kinds of powerful. Proto-Trigon possesses a pregnant alien's infant and is born into the physical world again. This is where Trigon begins.
Now to understand Trigon's motivations you must understand what Proto-Trigon is. In this comic's sense 'evil' is capital-S-Sin, as in the big seven: Wrath, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Envy, Pride, and Lust, often summed up as 'desire.' Wrath being the desire to do harm. Greed being the desire for wealth. Gluttony, the desire for food beyond what is necessary. Lust, the desire for sex, etc. So, Trigon is filled with the desires of a billion+ souls, and here's the part that I think makes him, almost sympathetic and that gets totally lost if you just cop out and call him 'a demon.' Trigon is filled with desire for things but does not get satisfaction from things. Trigon's desires aren't sated by any of his actions. He'll kill you, loot your world, demand worship from your people, but because he wants not because he gets enjoyment out of it. Trigon doesn't laugh maniacally; his actions are just a means to an end he can never achieve.
https://imgur.com/Y1rSf11
Even when he's doing truly evil stuff like executing children, you get the sense that he's just going through the motions. "I'm trying to have a nice day out with my daughter, and now I've got to kill this kid. Can't I have just one day where it's all about me?"
I think it makes him kind of sympathetic. Imagine having all this power, the ability to take whatever you want, but never being able to gain any satisfaction from it because no matter how much you have you always want more. Raven is Trigon's daughter by Angela Roth. Angela's backstory is, sketchy. It's never heavily touched upon, so I'll just let her tell you:
https://imgur.com/bEfzQ42 It's worth noting that the original New Teen Titan comics were heavily pro-Christian, (as you might have noticed what with the 'eastern' religion accidentally birthing basically-Satan, and 'evil' being the Christian Sins) but they were published in 1980. The retellings of this particular point tend to take a more 'I was looking for someplace to belong' stance on Angela's motivation more than 'I got into the occult and now my baby-daddy is basically-Satan.'
Anyway, after the whole 'bride of Satan' ritual Angela goes about trying to convince people she's carrying Satan's baby, which goes about as well as you'd expect until the Cult of Azar clue on her and straight up alien-abduct her back to Azarath where she renames herself Arella. Now, the thing that makes Angela & Raven special is that Trigon's brides have this habit of killing themselves soon after discovering they're pregnant, or killing the baby soon after it's born, or sometimes just being killed by Trigon's infinite number of enemies who don't like the idea of Trigon Jr.
The Cult of Azar however are pacifists, so nobody is killing anyone on Azarath. Raven is born and pretty much immediately taken away to be raised by Azar.
The concern is that if Raven ever learns to feel emotions, like wanting or love, then Trigon could use those emotions to manipulate her, by making her want to rule the universe, or to love killing things. So clearly the answer is to teach little-baby-Raven that feel anything ever is bad.
This works for a decent amount of time. Raven grows up to be a cold emotionless rationality-driven being who views feeling one way or another as irrelevant to the greater good. She understands emotions on a textbook level. She understands what love and anger are, but she doesn't really understand how they feel. This is important to her behavior/powers because she draws emotions into herself. So, if she weren't in absolute control of her own feelings, she'd fly into a rage whenever she's around someone who's angry. She can also expel emotions, much like how Azarath cast out their evil and birthed Trigon, only on a much smaller scale.
The issue arises when Raven discovers that Trigon is trying to take over Earth. It's unclear why exactly he wants to take over Earth. He's got his own dimension completely under his thumb, and I guess Earth is just a nice place to be? Maybe some part of him 'remembers' that he's originally from Earth, or maybe it's just the next dimension over. The point is it's there and he wants it.
Azarath has put up a mystical fence to try and keep Trigon out, and honestly, it's kind of impressive that they even did that much, but Trigon doesn't respect fences mystical or otherwise so he's coming in anyway. Azar and Azarath are sending their thoughts and prayers but Raven thinks a more practical approach might yield better results. So, she contacts the Justice League of America.
It doesn't go well, but here's the thing about Raven. She doesn't just try one thing and then call it a day. Raven keeps going until she has accomplished her goal, even if she must do some morally gray things to do it. The Justice League won't help? Well then Raven will just kidnap and brainwash their children to help.
Okay, she only actually brainwashes one of them, although it's implied that she's been giving Dick dreams about her for months prior to her teleporting into his bedroom and watching him change clothes.
Either he sleeps with those scaly panties under his pajamas or Dick is way too comfortable undressing in front of strange women. Also, that page pretty much sums up a lot of the Titan's attitudes toward their mentors throughout the comics. "Oh hey, you're in your costume, want a hand?" "Fuck off old man! I don't need your help!"
Anyway, Raven brainwashes Kid Flash into being in love with her so he'll help the Titans and have her back when she asks the Titans to do things. Because here's the thing. Raven is still a pacifist. She doesn't fight, at all. Even as a member of the Titans Raven's primary role is to detect trouble via her long-range empathy and teleport the Titans to it. Then she teleports away and shows up again after the fight is over.
This leads to some questionable relationships with the others, including Cyborg referring to her as 'the witch' for the first dozen or so comics. The cartoon touched upon this with their 'how can we trust her if we don't know anything about her?' episode, but in the comics the question of 'who is Raven' lingers right up until Trigon shows up to kill everyone and she's forced to come clean.
Then the Titans beat Trigon, sealing him away in a pocket dimension locked in eternal combat with Arella (who took Raven's place) and that's that. Raven's story arc becomes more about learning to be a real girl than her demonic patronage. She even enrolls in college
Protip: never call on the girl from an extra-dimensional cult in philosophy class.
The problem arises when exactly what Azar was afraid of happens. Raven learning to be a real girl means that her father's influence over her gets stronger. It's worth noting that 'her father's influence' isn't really 'her father influencing her' so much as 'what she inherited from her father.' Trigon is a being composed of the evil of a billion+ souls, Raven inherited a chunk of that evil when she was born. In some tellings Trigon's desire for children is his way of trying to sate his billion+ desires. If he can have a billion+ kids, the evil that formed him can be properly diffused.
So, when Raven goes full demon it's not that she's been corrupted by some outside force but really that she's just fully embodying what she is to begin with. This makes fixing her a little more complicated.
Or you could just kill her. (The girl in pink suspenders is Lilith Clay she's... eh. Kind of a Jean Gray rip off)
And that's it. Raven's dead as a doornail killed by the evil-possessed Teen Titans. Roll credits. Of course, that's not the end. This is comics. Although this time they have a pretty good reason to bring the character back to life. See, separation of the body and soul is Raven's whole thing. So, when Trigon's power overtook her she left her meat-suit behind, and then when it died all that was left inside to kill was Trigon's influence. As a bonus, because Trigon killed all Azarath the second he got free, all the souls of Azarath are now free to jump into Raven's empty/dead vessel and strike back at Trigon. Remember that Proto-Trigon is the evil part of Azarath's souls, so really what happens is that the Good part of Azarath and the Evil part of Azarath (Trigon) reunite and Trigon dissolves as he's defused back into a billion+ souls. (There's some trouble later when said souls go "Hey, how about getting us some bodies?" and are a little pushy about it but that's its own adventure.) Although Raven's body is still Dead. So, that's an issue. She appears 'ascending to heaven' but she's only gone for like 20 issues and then comes back as White Raven. This is where stuff starts getting really cute. Raven is back but she's feeling for the first time. So, she has all kinds of adorable little issues like realizing she loves Dick like a brother and not like Circe Lannister loves her brother.
https://imgur.com/lQxPgsQ Of course, that's not the end. This is comics. Although this time they have a pretty good reason to bring the character back to life. See, separation of the body and soul is Raven's whole thing. So, when Trigon's power overtook her she left her meat-suit behind, and then when it died all that was left inside to kill was Trigon's influence. As a bonus, because Trigon killed all Azarath the second he got free, all the souls of Azarath are now free to jump into Raven's empty/dead vessel and strike back at Trigon.
Remember that Proto-Trigon is the evil part of Azarath's souls, so really what happens is that the Good part of Azarath and the Evil part of Azarath (Trigon) reunite and Trigon dissolves as he's defused back into a billion+ souls. (There's some trouble later when said souls go "Hey, how about getting us some bodies?" and are a little pushy about it but that's its own adventure.)
Although Raven's body is still Dead. So, that's an issue. She appears 'ascending to heaven' but she's only gone for like 20 issues and then comes back as White Raven. This is where stuff starts getting really cute. Raven is back but she's feeling for the first time. So, she has all kinds of adorable little issues like realizing she loves Dick like a brother and not like Circe Lannister loves her brother.
That doesn't stop her from messing with his head, after she works it out with Kori. (The possibility of at threeway is very strong.)
Though when the Souls of Azarath show back up possessing on-again-off-again Titans ally Jericho Wilson, stuff goes from bad to worse. Long story short, Raven gets possessed by the souls and goes red again and the Titans must put her down for super-realises this time. It all feels very familiar, almost to the point that I'd call it bad writing, but I think they put everyone in enough of a different place in their lives that this sort of 'return of an old threat' has new meaning. Plus Raven gets to crash Kori and Dick's wedding.
So that's always a plus.
Long story short, they kill Raven super-dead this time by Kori just obliterating her, but it's okay 'cause Raven cloistered her goodness away in Koriand'r. So, Raven goes off to rule the sky with compassion and lunar goodness.
This time she stays pretty damn dead up until the cartoon airs roughly a decade later and catapults her into Waifu status for goth-loving nerds everywhere.
