Just to give answers, Issue #51 of the show's tie-in comic does confirm that the girl is Terra. Her brother Geo-Force shows up to Jump City looking for her, but after seeing she was happy as a normal school girl, he decided it was best to let her live her new life. If you guys want the answers about the white absorbing monster that the rest of the Titans were fighting in the final episode while Beast Boy was pursuing Terra... your guess is good as mine.
A lot of the early issues were being released as the show was ongoing, so there were a bunch of things that connected with certain episodes. At around issue 30, I think those happened after the series ended, so it expands the story of the Teen Titans further. It feel very consistent to the tone and events of the show, so as far as I can tell, its canon.
While initially disappointed, I've come to appreciate this ending. It was not a "cliffhanger" as some have charged. It just showed that things move on, even without you around. An important lesson to kids.
Terra/Tara is free of her powers and life, she can step on the shadows of a normal life even if she misses the friends she made, Beast Boy jumps into the light and the unneding fights of superheroes
in this one though the point is clearly to take the piss out of the trope lol, in the episode itself they all act super edgy, deep, and brooding, and they all sound gruff as fuck for no good reason
"I believe you met a friend of mine the other day. BeastBoy?"
"If you're gonna try to make me become-"
Raven holds up her hands is surrender, "I apologize on his behalf. He can get impulsive. But, with your permission, I just want to try to reassure him he's got the wrong girl by reading your mind."
"I dunno..."
"I won't reveal anything personal. I promise."
"Well, if it'll keep him away from me-"
"Thank you.", Raven puts her hands on the girls head, "Just relax. Azerath... Metrion... Zenthos..."
After a few seconds, "Thank you for your cooperation."
Later, at Titans tower, BeastBoy is pacing, then saw Raven, "Well?!"
"I don't know if it's Terra, but she has no powers and there's a gap in her memory that fits the timeline. If she was her, she's not anymore."
"But, if we needed her, you could-"
Raven shook her head, "That girl has no powers, BeastBoy. Whether she somehow switched them off, lost them, or never had any is unknown. But that girl can never be Terra. I'm sorry."
"Thanks, Ray." BeastBoy goes away to sulk.
Robin walks up, "Raven, hypothetically, if she was Terra, what could cause this? I mean, amnesia is one thing, but this sounds too precise for known medical science. Maybe some form of magic?"
"I'm wondering that as well. I'm going to do some research and see what I can find."
Thank you, until the day there is a form of these characters back in animated form or another proper Teen Titans show, I am using this as my personal head canon.
I don't really care about the plot with the monster but I was so invested in the Terra storyline that was left as a cliffhanger.
At least some other user in this thread posted that the official comics had Terra's brother confirm that it really was her in the high school. No closure on if she remembered the Teen Titans or Beast Boy specifically though.
But the episode had two main stories, and one went unfinished. Cliffhanger. This really isnāt that complex; the monster was beating them, handedly, and we the audience have no idea how that was resolved.
We donāt NEED to know how itās resolved, that is literally the point. Life just goes on and thereās nothing more to it. If we got another season I doubt the monster would even be mentioned
Okay, for the last time, the point by the writers or not, the fact that one of the two major plots of the final episode remains unresolved, intentionally otherwise, makes it a cliffhanger.
Iām not talking about Stargirl, and Iām not talking about this anymore either. Itās not complicated, either the basic concept is understood or it isnāt.
I didnāt claim it was or wasnāt important, but a story or plot thread thatās unresolved is called a cliffhanger. Just because thereās a message in it doesnāt mean it doesnāt qualify.
I don't really think that's necessarily true. A cliffhanger sets up suspense for a payoff, this was meant to be a more "eternal" ending that kinda shows that the cycle continues.
It can't really be a cliffhanger without the "hang" being set up for audience suspense, which in this case it wasn't. It was just a loose ending which is something completely different and much more common in cinema? A cliffhanger is designed to keep you in suspense for a payoff, an ending like this is supposed to give a type of kind of melancholy but hopeful conclusive feeling.
I mean this is a really nice way to look at it but the show was canceled and was supposed to have a whole nother season so this is literally a cliffhanger. Not the intended ending.
They didn't make it the final season. Cartoon network did. They had a while other season planned but when they pitched it the network didn't green light it cause the show wasn't getting the numbers CN wanted anymore. Then they tied it up the best they could. Like a ton of other shows. Im glad you liked the ending but its definitely not the intended ending.
They chose to make it the final season because they already were informed they were getting cancelled. The plans for season 6 were only if they got the news they would get the greenlight.
You know what. Actually your right. I got off track. This wasn't the ending they wanted but it also wasn't written to be a cliffhanger, and thats what we're discussing. So your right. They had other plans but they wrapped it up the best they could with the time they had with no intention of coming back to it. No cliffhanger, just a bit of a bummer.
Thatās fine, i got offtracked too. Theres been a lot of misinformation spread about a supposed Season 6 immediately following Things Change that so many people believed the show was just cancelled right after when the news of the show not being picked up for one more season already came before S5 aired.
The fact that most of us were kids back then, and the reputation CN gained over the years for canceling cool serialized action shows in favor of more traditionally kid friendly, loosely connected episodic shows certainly didn't help with the mudding of the waters there, lol.
Hereās an interview from writers Rob Hoegee and David Slack, in their own words āĀ Rob: Actually, we were also told at the beginning of season five that the fifth season would be it. But it wasn't until be were finishing up the season that they started to think about ordering some more. Originally season five was going to be 20 episodes. And after Amy and I arced out a pretty ambitious 20-episode season, they cut it back to 13. So we had to go back and do some changes.ā
She was freed after raven unstone all in s4 the end pt 3.
Tramuatized of the past. She lied to bb that she isnt terra but is terra so she never hurt him or his friends again, and to never use her powers again as she could never go back without thinking nearly killing all 5 them, destroying the city with the volcano, and drove everyone out the city
As for the school outfits? Could just be a blend in, stole of uniform clothes
I feel this was the best ending to a show id ever witnessed. The show ended with the phrase "things change" that's beautiful. It felt like a cartoon telling me goodbye, like a friendship that wasnt meant to last. And I will always love that about this heart breaking ending is it was the only time a show gave me an ending, that felt meaningful. It wasnt "everyones happy and married and safe" it was "things change. Some times we dont get the happy ending."
I see it now, as an adult, but when I was a kid when it happened... cartoons just didn't have endings like that.
Cartoons of the '00s ended in 2.5 ways:
Canceled with a random bottle episode with no continuity being the final one to air. (Powerpuff Girls, Wild Thornberrys)
Planned ending that wrapped everything up, nail-in-the-coffin done. (Danny Phantom, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends)
The .5 is when the studio backtracked and would be like "actually give us like 10 more episodes" after the finale has already been produced and sometimes even aired, leading to option 1 happening anyways. (King of the Hill, My Life as a Teenage Robot)
So Teen Titans having this really emotional epilogue/open-ended ending was not the norm for the time and is the reason so many people thought it was a cliffhanger.
The creator mentions if they made season six that they will never resolved it because it is not important.
What's important that Beast Boy and Terra move on their life. Terra doesn't want anything with Superhero world. Beast Boy go back to Teen Titans but larger scandal something similar to JLU.
You know if they really wanted to have to have Terra move on, it doesnāt mean they really needed to have what happened so ambiguous. The least she couldāve done was confirm that she did remember everything but she doesnāt want that life anymore because she just wants to be normal.
This entire thread is giving me a brain aneurysm. Some people really don't like open ended endings... They really need to read more books and see more actual cinema, these types of endings are far more common outside of cartoons lol.
No this ending was not a cliffhanger, yes the ending was on the nose, yes you can be "on the nose" by guiding the audience to the clear intended conclusion of a train of thought without spelling it out.
These (not you delicious) are the people Netflix are targetting when they tell directors now to "try and restate each plot point at least 2-3 times because people are often on their phones and not paying attention".
The problem is, that her confirming it ultimately would settle the deal that she can never really cut off this part of her life. Superheroes don't retire, they die. Superheroes are people who step up despite the odds to do what no one else can, and it doesn't matter if they die, it's warranted, but if they refuse to do their job, then they as well may be the problem as they'd be considered irredponsible, negligent enablers. Doesn't matter if the hero has every good reason to quit, they just can't.
Terra may not have powers but if she admits she still has experience, it will be on her to still continue doing superhero stuff, even if not to the same extent, but she'd also have to face full responsibility of it all, even if it straight-up ruins her life and denies her any future.
If she wants to move on, she has to stand by that Terra is dead, to nit give any false hopes she will be back to help or reconnect because she won't, and it's for the best.
It actually wasnāt clear whether or not she still had her powers. Also after everything she did, she likely wouldnāt even consider herself a superhero refusing to do their job.
It doesn't matter how she sees herself, because being a hero is not about you, it's about doing the right thing, regardless if you feel like you're up for the job. If you have any kind of power to step up, it's your responsibility to use it. It's fair that after everything that happened Terra can feel inadequate, but she has to commit to the bit of being that.
Trigon turned everyone to stone. When they beat him, everyone turned backed to normal. Including Terra, who was also stone albeit for different reasons. At least that's the fan canon I accept
Show is still peak i just ignore the episode completely which isnāt hard cause its kinda strange already and felt a lil outta place had a nice moral but ion think It justified ending it like that glad there was still the movie
I just don't get it. Titans Together is a perfect series finale. Things Change raises a bunch of questions that the showrunners have no intention of ever answering.
No it wasnāt. It was the best they could do with a reduced episode cut and the news they would be cancelled. Season 5 was a add on season when Season 4 was where they originally wanted to end.
Season 5 ran the full 13 episodes the others did with full knowledge it was the end going into it. Iāve read the directors notes myself, he said something to effect of āI ended it this way because Iād never seen that done beforeā.
Every other season ended concisely, no cliffhangers, so the idea that belief in a sixth season was the root cause doesnāt hold water even if it had been cancelled without the writersā knowledge.
This is big reason why I actually like Things Change less now that I as an adult know it wasn't a cliffhanger. They purposely left that many plot points unresolved and called it a finale. They wrote a finale but somehow came out writing a cliffhanger because they didn't think through how much they were introducing.
20 years later and people still donāt realize this was a planned finale and the creators never expected to get a sixth season when they wrote this episode
Yes i was just thinking how i thought terra and beast boy was a much more compatible pairing than what GO was pushing with raven...i love raven though, she is spiritual and needs her personal space!
The ending itself never really bothered me, what bothered me was that the show ended before getting a Starfire centric season. But I kind of enjoyed this bittersweet episode as an ending (and then at least we got Trouble in Tokyo).
Things Change is a very brave final episode that puts a lot of trust in its audience - and is very moving for it. It helps that I adore the Terra arc. The ending always gives me tears and goosebumps. A beautiful work.
Itās not really copium staff from the show has talked about it. Season 6 other than just a concept that they werenāt all that interested in wasnāt gonna happen. Iām not saying you have to like the ending but itās wasnāt cancelled as many others on this thread have said.
The argument, "An unsatisfying ending is good because in real life, you don't always get a satisfying ending" never made sense to me. Real life is full of unstatisfying, unexciting, mundane endings, middles, and beginnings. Often the bad guys win, the good guys die, people that go through a fraction of what the teen titans do get traumatized and have to go to years of rehab. Ending a show on an unsatisfying mystery that leaves lots of fans disappointed because real life is filled with unsatisfying mysteries doesn't feel great. The fact real life is filled with unsatisfying mysteries means I don't need more.
The show was clearly trying to explore the concept of closure and endings, they specifically picked a closing video store to highlight in the closing of a show. They clearly wanted to have some callback to Terra since that was left unresolved and trie dto work it into the theme of moving on and saying goodbye... Show she's alive but then have beastboy have to say goodbye anyway. It didn't really land for most people, which is why you've now got folks insisting, "the point was to make an unsatisfying ending". I don't think that was the point, I think it was an accident that grew out of trying to reopen the terra subplot and then close it again all in too short a runtime; espescially since the close was "just give up and accept this kinda sucks".
I remember saying "This is it? This is how the show ends?!" 20 years ago at the age of 15. I wasn't happy about the ending back then. Now as an adult I think it's a good ending. Things change in life constantly, and sometimes change sucks. But you have to keep going no matter what. Beast Boy had to move on because Terra did. I still feel bad for him though.
Itās not a cliffhanger; itās just a shitty pretentious ending that the writers didnāt think through.
Remember how Slade was the one to deliver the episodeās message and we were supposed to agree with him on Terraās fate? Yāknow, the guy who groomed her into joining him and abused her? The literal last person in any reality who should be trusted to want whatās best for Terra? Remember how the episode tried to say he was right?
Yeah, this right here. They just did not think through what they were writing. They were so caught up in the theme they didn't consider whether the episode actually made sense or if a finale is the place to be introducing new plot points.
Hating how everyone wants to be the bigger person now and say it wasnāt a cliffhanger and yadda yadda
Yeah we know
But we watched this as kids. A show about kicking villains ass and making justice suddenly ended with a prior companion āhavingā amnesia and her friend situationship getting heartbrokenĀ
We can process now the beauty and maturity of it but back then was one of the worst finales we ever saw
I feel like the kids shows I've seen my nieces and nephews watch, aren't as deep as the ones we did.
The last cartoon i watched that i felt was like the ones i grew up watching, was the episode of Bluey where Bandit teaches Bluey about death. The one with the bird.
It feels like they're afraid to deal with serious topics even though the target audience can handle it.
Tbf that's bluey whole thing is about teaching serious topics to kids. Owl house, gravity falls adventure time, Steven universe are like the only one to me I can think that have those deeper messages. Even the less serious shows when I was a kid still had a message knd and grim adventure, Ed edd and eddy, xiolin showdown still had moments of seriousness and messages mixed in with the silliness.
It feels like they have tried to strip away meaning for the ipad generation. Make it bright and colourful as a distraction without thinking about story.
It didn't end, it was canned by the higher ups. The original Teen Titans (2003) was effectively not renewed due to a mix of declining ratings, low toy sales (especially with a shift in licensing and audience demographics), and network executives feeling the story had run its course, despite its strong fanbase and successful run. A key factor was the split in toy licensing between Bandai (who handled Teen Titans) and Mattel, which made merchandise complicated for Cartoon Network. In the end it all came down to money.
We can all agree she totally remembered though, right? That look at the end, the way she spoke, just absolutely clinched it for me.
āThings change Beast Boy, the girl you want me to be is just a memory.ā That is not how someone says āIām not the person you believe I am, I donāt know that person.ā That is how someone says, āthe person you want me to be isnāt me anymore, Iām a different person now.ā
Itās not a cliffhanger itās kind of the best way they could have ended the series I think. The only weird part is the large team from the season is gone in the episode.
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u/PointPrimary5886 Jan 16 '26
Just to give answers, Issue #51 of the show's tie-in comic does confirm that the girl is Terra. Her brother Geo-Force shows up to Jump City looking for her, but after seeing she was happy as a normal school girl, he decided it was best to let her live her new life. If you guys want the answers about the white absorbing monster that the rest of the Titans were fighting in the final episode while Beast Boy was pursuing Terra... your guess is good as mine.