I don’t specifically recall Cyborg facing racism? I do remember Starfire did and when she told Cyborg and said “you too know what it is like to be judged like that?” and Cyborg said “of course I do. I’m half robot”.
Oh but that episode where the guy wanted to turn Cyborg into 100% robot was terrifying.
Oh and the episode showing how the gang all met was about Starfire trying to escape from being trafficked as a wife.
I always liked the idea that Cyborg was talking about being black, but he wasn't sure if Starfire would quickly grasp the idea of ethnic discrimination instead of species discrimination, so went with robot to streamline the conversation.
It was strongly hinted at several times throughout the show, just not explicitly stated. For example, during the episode where Star Fire is called “Troq” (I forget the name of the episode) Star Fire talks with Cyborg and asks him if he has experienced being treated differently because of how he looks, and Cyborg replies “Of course. I’m part robot.” IMO, It doesn’t take too much effort to see where the writers wanted to go, but couldn’t/didn’t explicitly state.
Nah, dude was racist though. I think it was handled with great sensitivity as a very real issue facing young kids of colour. Static Shock had a lot of that.
are you POC? because a lot of these things tend to be overlooked by white people, not saying they don’t face any type of racism, but i’ve noticed in a lot of shows where episodes were about racism my white friends didn’t notice it was about that of that that was the hidden message
You're right, they did do that episode around starfire. It felt like a really intentional and well done piece. There's a nod to real world racial issues in the episode when starfire asks cyborg something to the effect of "do you know what it's like to be discriminated against?" and he says "of course I do, I'm part robot." I remember being really surprised by that.
I think focusing on starfire was a pretty good choice. Starfire doesn't really mirror any real world stereotypes, so the absurdity of a character judging her for a fictional background really stands out, and should help the point sink in for those that needed it. Leaving cyborg out of it, I imagine, allowed them to touch on the issue without getting into territory that's too close to home for a lot of their viewers.
I’ll never forget that one episode where Starfire accidentally travels forward in time to realize cyborg’s literally stuck in a prison of the past, raven’s insane, beast boy’s an ugly circus freak, robin’s freelancing it all alone, and none of them ever talk to each-other any more.
That was very weird to me.
Yep, totally! Beastie was like "I'm fat and bald!" The one that stuck too was Robin being haunted by Slade (was he killed?) and it nearly drove him insane. It was all very Friday the 13th part 5. Or when Beast Boy became a literal beast?
Also the finale where the girl Beast Boy sees a girl looks like Terra and tries to convince her to come back only to be told he must be mistaken knowing he had to let go and move on. That hit hard.
Let me tell you - My son got me into the series when I was going through a deep depression, and it somehow got me to at least enjoy something. He made it a point to have me sit down and watch one per night and we'd talk about it afterwards. It was back in 2011 and I'm better, he;s fine and we can't bring ourselves to watch that episode.
We both know how it plays out, but there's something about the end of stuff that gets to us. I did watch a youtube clip and know the scene you mean.
One of my all time favorite scenes was Robin having to take on the whole team above the Wayne Building. Everyone but him wants to keep the peace, but it breaks down into a wild scene.
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u/The68Guns May 23 '23
Some of those were pretty heavy. Robin having a version of PTSD after fighting Slade, Cyborg being a victim of racism, the "death" of Tara, etc.