There’s something really subtle in this scene that gets to me every time. This is the first and (if I remember correctly) the only point in the series where, when Raven says for Beast Boy to leave he actually does. — Without her having to force him to, or threaten him. — In this scene, he listens. He does what she asks without hesitation or resisting, because in this singular moment Beast Boy understands Raven more than any other person in the world. He genuinely does. As a friend, and as a person. He gets it. Beast Boy gets it. Beast Boy may have had issues with not understanding his boundaries with Raven (as well as just not understanding certain things about Raven in general), but he understood this. He understood better than anyone else what she was going through.
Not only that, but this is the only time in the series where Raven asks Beast Boy to leave her room instead of just ordering him to:
This is a very unique and special moment between them, and not exclusively in terms of shipping. This moment shows you how, deep down, Beast Boy and Raven truly are very close friends. There is a genuine friendship and connection between them and it’s clear that Beast Boy truly does care.
It’s one of those rare moments whentheir usual dynamic isn’t present. In this scene, they’re not 'the prankster/comic relief' and/or ‘the introvert/deadpan snarker’. Those aspects were stripped away by everything that had just happened during the episode.
Instead, in this scene they’re just people. No jokes, no archetypes. Real people and true friends. This interaction proves that there’s more depth to their friendship than we hardly ever got to see. Beast Boy approached Raven during her most vulnerable moment because he chose to — he wanted to. He wanted to be there, regardless of whether or not there was anything he could’ve actually done to help her. He wanted to be there for her anyway.
This could’ve also been the moment that led Raven to realize that Beast Boy’s recent invasive behavior over the course of the episode wasn’t
fueled by compulsive intrusiveness or disrespect towards her. It was due to something more meaningful. Now of course, Beast Boy is still Beast Boy (and I’m not denying that spying on someone and invading their privacy isn’t something that should be encouraged). He did invade her privacy and he behaved rather inappropriately at certain points throughout the episode. Something she would’ve had every right in the world to be upset about.
Even still, it isn’t brought up. Raven lets it go. She lets it go. Beast Boy went as far as to sneak into Raven’s room and spy on her, but Raven lets it go — because she gets it. She would obviously never condone that kind of behavior in general but again we see the example of just how much their friendship has grown over time.
Now of course, shortly after this, there’s the famous 'Spellbound Hug' which also carries a lot of meaning and undertone with it that I won’t get into right now. What I will say though is that I’ve always felt like the interaction between them in this scene could have been part of what led to Raven hugging him later.
Anyway, this is just something from Spellbound that I haven’t seen come up in discussions all that much. (Though, this might be because what follows almost immediately after this scene is the scene with Beast Boy’s Apology/Raven’s Hug. Which was also both very touching and very significant character-wise.)
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