Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Teen Titans: Who's to blame

I saw this mentioned and thought I'd add my two cents. SPOILERS in the link and in my response.
While I believe Damian holds A LOT of responsibility for what happened and deserves to be punished for it, I agree that he's getting too much of the blame. Of those present with the Titans only Jakeem Thunder is wholly innocent of the horrors committed by the Teen Titans. Sure some weren't as guilty as others but they still screwed up on some level.

While Roundhouse had nothing to do with the prison and was against the brainwashing he played along like he was. When he did lash out he put lives at risk (freeing the prisoners) and accidently imprisoned Djinn. I think Djinn forgiving him makes sense as it was an accident and he did make the efforts to fix his mistake.

Crush wasn't aware of the prison until the prison break but seems to have no problem with Damian's ideas of mind wipe or punishments for criminals afterward. Otherwise I'm not aware anything she personally did that's wrong. Lobo controlling her doesn't really count.

Kid Flash, yeah I agree that for a supposed moral compass Wallace hasn't really done much. Sure he protested the prison when he found out but he goes along with the mindwipes even if he questioned if they were right. In this case his lack of actions were, in my opinion, just as bad. You know that phrase about evil triumphing if good men doing nothing? That was pretty apt here.

I thought Djinn saying Damian used her meant that he saw her as nothing but a means to control others. But yeah, like the OP said she wasn't innocent, the mindwiping wouldn't be possible without her and she already admitted it was her own fault. Even back when the issues were released I saw the irony of her agreeing to take away someone else's will. She was angry at Damian while she did it but she still did it all the same. Unless he ordered her with the ring (they've always been clear that he didn't do that unless he had her consent) she has no right to blame him.

Red Arrow knew about the prison since the beginning, killed Deathstroke and doesn't really protest what Damian does.

Yes, Damian is guilty of a great many things but he didn't force anyone to do anything against their will. Nor is he capable of controlling others via their emotions. I'll remind you that this is the kid that was too shocked to move when it looked like Djinn was going to kiss him. That (as a commenter pointed out) said he forgave Roundhouse when he was already emotionally compromised and furious with Damian. Simply put Damian doesn't understand how others work (on an emotional level at least) enough to manipulate them.

Sure, punish Damian but don't forget to do the same with the others that either let it happen or helped him.

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