[7.4/10] This one gets credit for its toybox sensibilities. I wll 100% cop to staging fighting tournaments with my various superhero action figures, and even imagining some powerful force kidnapping them from their various locales and universes to make them cohabitate and compete. (I want to say I stole the idea from a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode called “Allegiance”)
SUffice it to say, it’s fun to see our (conspicuously amle) heroes rounded up and randomly set against one another in an ultimate fighting tournament. I’ll confess that the premise wears thin after a little while, but it provides a good excuse for Teen Titans rampant fight scenes. The fights themselves are nothing to write home about, but at least have creative stagings and “levels”, and even a few creative means of opponents dispatching one another.
I enjoy the predictable wrinkle that the “Master of Games” has an ulterior motive here, and is really just using this as an excuse to steal all the competitors’ powers. I also like that SPeedy is a similarly-situated counterpart to Robin, who’s resourceful and competitive, with a friendly rivalry that reflects the one between Batman and Green Arrow.
I’m less enamored with the “Winning isn’t the most important thing; it’s the only thing” throughline that Robin needs to get over. It’s back to the very simple morals that the show trafficked in early in its run. BUt it at least provides some character arc for Robin here, as he defaults to the power of friendship (sorry, “fighting for my friends’) rather than fighting with the single-minded pursuit of winning.
Overall, this is a fun lark of an episode that makes most of its bones on the premise, but does its best to have something to say beyond that playtime sensibility.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-07-13T22:34:11Z
[7.4/10] This one gets credit for its toybox sensibilities. I wll 100% cop to staging fighting tournaments with my various superhero action figures, and even imagining some powerful force kidnapping them from their various locales and universes to make them cohabitate and compete. (I want to say I stole the idea from a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode called “Allegiance”)
SUffice it to say, it’s fun to see our (conspicuously amle) heroes rounded up and randomly set against one another in an ultimate fighting tournament. I’ll confess that the premise wears thin after a little while, but it provides a good excuse for Teen Titans rampant fight scenes. The fights themselves are nothing to write home about, but at least have creative stagings and “levels”, and even a few creative means of opponents dispatching one another.
I enjoy the predictable wrinkle that the “Master of Games” has an ulterior motive here, and is really just using this as an excuse to steal all the competitors’ powers. I also like that SPeedy is a similarly-situated counterpart to Robin, who’s resourceful and competitive, with a friendly rivalry that reflects the one between Batman and Green Arrow.
I’m less enamored with the “Winning isn’t the most important thing; it’s the only thing” throughline that Robin needs to get over. It’s back to the very simple morals that the show trafficked in early in its run. BUt it at least provides some character arc for Robin here, as he defaults to the power of friendship (sorry, “fighting for my friends’) rather than fighting with the single-minded pursuit of winning.
Overall, this is a fun lark of an episode that makes most of its bones on the premise, but does its best to have something to say beyond that playtime sensibility.