The True Meaning of Christmas (Teen Titans Go!)

The True Meaning of Christmas (Teen Titans Go!)
Probably the worst Christmas episode in existence.
Air Date: November 27, 2015 (Online) December 3, 2015 (Television) Writer: Ben Gruber Director: Peter Rida Michail Previous episode: Two Parter Next episode: Squash & Stretch

The True Meaning of Christmas is the 19th episode of the 3rd season of Teen Titans Go!.

Synopsis

Fed up from never getting presents from Santa, the Titans head to the North Pole to take themselves off the Naughty List, by "any means necessary".

Why It Doesn’t Deserve Any Presents

1. This episode was heavily panned by critics and viewers alike due to its dark and sadistic undertones and bad lesson at the end. Details will be explained below.
2. The beginning, although good on paper, is poorly executed because it was explicitly stated that the Titans have not gotten Christmas presents in 3 years yet they look the same, the Titans show no signs of aging despite being teenagers. (Though this could be due to cartoon logic) It would’ve been more believable if they showed the Titans as children getting no presents then in their current age at the 3rd year.
3. Robin concludes the reason why the Titans are getting no presents is because they’re on Santa’s naughty list, but it brings up more questions than answers:
   • Why would the Titans perpetually be on Santa’s naughty list if they got Christmas presents in the last Christmas special, Second Christmas?
   • If the Titans are really on the naughty list, they would be getting coal not nothing? They messed that part of the Santa Claus lore.
   • Also, that could be a jab at the Teen Titans Go! haters as a common criticism of the show is that the Titans act more like villains than superheroes. The Titans even state “But we’re superheroes.”
4. The Titans arguing over who put the team on the naughty list is annoying.
5. Robin then insists the Titans go to the North Pole to get their names off the naughty list. The episode falls apart from there and gets incredibly dark, here’s their heinous actions since they got there:
   • They beat up some elves and knock them unconscious to disguise themselves as elves to get into Santa’s workshop.
   • Beast Boy makes fun of Rudolph, which causes him to drive away.
   • Cyborg asks a bunch of elves where the naughty and nice lists are, despite the elves telling him about the strong “no talking” rule. The head elf comes and Cyborg blames an elf on his talking.
   • Starfire and Raven eat an entire sentient gingerbread man, his gingerbread cat, and gingerbread house. It’s very horrifying and the music plays over it makes it seem like an innocent thing. IT WAS NOT!
   • Finally, Robin BLOWS UP SANTA’S WORKSHOP, presumably killing all the elves inside it.
6. If those things weren’t enough, this would likely keep the Titans a permanent resident of the naughty list.
7. During all those things, there’s a scene where Robin tries to take the Titans’ names off the naughty list and all his attempts fail because of Santa magic. It’s very tiresome to watch.
8. Bad lesson/Insulting Ending: Santa proclaims that presents is the true meaning of Christmas and gives all the supervillains presents. This lesson is worse than the lesson of the Christmas movie, The Christmas Tree.

The Only Redeeming Quality

1. After this, the writers play on the “Evil Santa” trope, maybe Santa is evil because the Titans sabotaged his home. It starts to make more rational sense as you think about it.

Comments

Loading comments...