Staring at the Future (Teen Titans Go!)

Staring at the Future (Teen Titans Go!)
Let's not stare into this future.
Air Date: October 30, 2013 Writer: John Loy Director: Scott O'Brien Previous episode: Power Moves Next episode: No Power

"Staring at the Future" is the thirty-first episode of the first season of Teen Titans Go!, and the thirty-first overall episode of the series.

Summary

Cyborg and Beast Boy have a staring contest that lasts for thirty years, bringing them face-to-face with a future of adulthood and responsibility... and they hate it.

Why This Is the Future That Nobody Would Ever Stare At

1. The whole episode is an insulting parody and the opposite version of the beloved Teen Titans episode "How Long Is Forever?" except instead of Starfire finding her friends living in a bad future and striving to fix the past, Beast Boy and Cyborg find out that their friends are living better lives and make them worse because they can't hang out anymore.
2. This episode portrays Cyborg and Beast Boy as even more immature, yet reactionary jerks than they are usually depicted from previous episodes. For a long while, it was the main episode that detractors pointed to when saying that the Go! Titans are unlikable.
   • There are multiple examples of them being obnoxious, such as at the beginning, where the two cause havoc by doing rodeo indoors.
   • While this is the second time Beast Boy is at his absolute worst, Cyborg is also at his absolute worst in this episode.
3. Speaking of time travel, they do that by staring at an increasingly old and moldy pizza slice, and they don't even age until they realize they're in the future after one of them loses the staring contest.
4. The animation is somehow worse than usual.
5. Loads of major and noticeable plot holes:
   1. If Beast Boy is a vegetarian, then why would he even care about a pepperoni pizza (when pepperoni is made from dry sausage, which is meat), let alone eat it?
   2. When the pair finish their staring contest, the pizza is obviously rotten, but Cyborg tries to eat it anyway.
   3. Why weren't Beast Boy and Cyborg kicked out of the restaurant?
   4. In real life, Cyborg and Beast Boy would have died because thirty years is a long time without necessities such as food, water, sleep, blinking, and using the bathroom. Cyborg would additionally need to recharge himself due to being part machine, and his parts would have long since worn out or rusted without proper care.
   5. Beast Boy and Cyborg didn't age when they stare at the pizza while their friends do, but when they eat the pizza, it's reversed.
6. To "save" their friends' futures, they go back in time, change one little thing, and ruin their friends' futures simply because they thought they had become lame. Why are these two heroes again? They acted more like villains who ruined and destroyed everything.
7. The moral seems to be "avoid responsibility at all costs and ruin your friends' lives if you don't like how they're living it and be jealous that your friends are better than you"!
8. One of the things in the future is Nightwing having children. Now, remember that Beast Boy and Cyborg undid the future because they didn't like responsibilities. They prevented new and wonderful babies from being born, and on top of that, Beast Boy even outright states that Robin's family is horrible and kicks the picture of his family away. How selfish, narcissistic, and apathetic are they?
9. To add salt to the wound, Cyborg and Beast Boy get away with ruining their friend's futures, which makes them a Karma Houdini. Just what we needed.
10. Terrible ending: Their plan works and now Jump City is destroyed thanks to the robots, along with undoing Robin, Starfire and Raven's futures. And Cyborg and Beast Boy don't even care. Remember, these are our heroes.
11. Overall, it feels like the writers try hard to feel sorry to Beast Boy and Cyborg in a rather pointless episode.

Redeeming Qualities

1. For the first time, Robin was right.
2. Robin, Starfire, and Raven are all likable characters.
3. This episode also unironically portrays the adult Robin (Nightwing), adult Starfire, and adult Raven as developed matured characters, somewhat like their original 2003 counterparts, while being unfortunately mocked at the same time.
4. Batgirl makes a cameo as Nightwing's wife, referencing the time in the comics when Dick and Barbara dated. It's also a surprisingly good subversion of expectations since the girl of Robin's affections in this show is usually Starfire.

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