Teen Titans (Robin | Raven | Starfire | Cyborg | Beast Boy | Terra) | Supporting Characters
Enemies (Slade) (HIVE Academy) (One-shot Villains)
Terra / Tara Markov
Voiced by: Ashley Johnson Other voice actors
Powers/Abilities: Geokinesis. As Slade's apprentice, wore a special suit that created a telepathic link with him and enhanced her powers (but also allowed him to remotely control her).
"You boys ready to rock?"
"I don't believe it. They actually trust me..."
Terra was envisioned as a Lighter and Softer adaptation of the infamous "Judas Contract Arc" character, who was a stone-cold psycho hired by Slade from the beginning to infiltrate the Teen Titans and managed to creep him out. The animated Terra, on the other hand, was envisioned as a more sympathetic, confused character — Word of God describes her as no longer caring about good or evil, just wanting to no longer be hurt.
According to the Teen Titans Go! (2003) comics, Terra was born Tara Markov, a princess to a small country called Markovia, and whose royal scientists experimented on her and her brother to imbue them with geokinesis (the psychic ability to manipulate earthen materials) as part of a project to create metahuman defenders. Terra escaped and abandoned her country, but, perhaps as a result of this, her ability to control her powers was limited — Slade mentions, in her debut episode, a history of having attempted to settle down and do good, but causing disaster when her powers invariably went out of control and everyone turning against her for it. When she first met the Teen Titans, the possibility of her finally finding a home arose... but her paranoia meant that she would destroy this chance, and her friendship with them.
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- Abled in the Adaptation: Terra in the cartoon has mental issues that are unspecified while Terra in the comics was explicitly psychopathic in The Judas Contract comic arc. Later retcons, however, say that Terra was either drugged by Deathstroke or she was coerced into being how she was rather than being mentally ill.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: She trades in her "normal girl" looks for a cuter design. She also lost her buck teeth.
- Adaptational Hairstyle Change: In the comics she has messy short hair, but here she has long straight hair.
- Adaptational Heroism: Unlike her comic counterpart, Terra from the cartoon does come to regret betraying the Teen Titans and sacrifices herself to save the city from a volcano eruption in a last-minute redemption.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Terra in the comics calls her "friends" names and is always hounding on Beast Boy. It initially seemed to be playful with a bit of being a jerk, however her reveal as The Mole shows that she just genuinely disliked the Titans. In the cartoon, Terra is genuinely friendly and upbeat prior to her teaming up with Slade.
- Adaptational Skimpiness: She wears a midriff-baring shirt and shorts, when her comic costume's only revealing aspect was leaving her legs bare.
- Adaptational Slimness: In the comics, Terra is depicted having an hourglass shape and quite voluptuous for a 15-16 year old girl, whereas here she is slender with almost no curves at all.
- Adaptational Sympathy: Terra is portrayed far more sympathetically in the animated series than in the comics. In the comics, she was already working against the Titans from the moment they met and was an irredeemable psychopath with dwindling sanity. She also had a lustful relationship with Slade. In the cartoon, she's instead genuinely interested in being a hero... But was too vulnerable to emotional manipulation and paranoid, so she ultimately sabotages herself by playing right into Slade's hands.
- Adaptation Personality Change: Her 1980s iteration in the comics was a sadistic and manipulative sociopath, while here she is a shy and insecure teenager.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
- In the comics, Terra never had genuine feelings for Beast Boy, and slept with Deathstroke behind his back. Here, she had genuine feelings for Beast Boy before joining Slade.
- Her relationship with Slade is changed from secret villainous lovers with disturbing pedophilic implications to a toxic and manipulative father-daughter relationship.
- Afraid of Their Own Strength: "Don't lose control, Don't lose control."
- All There in the Manual: Her backstory is further fleshed out in the Teen Titans Go! (2003) tie-in comics.
- Ambiguous Situation: As of "Things Change." Does Terra really have amnesia, like Beast Boy assumes? Is "Terra" really just a random schoolgirl who resembles her, as she keeps insisting? Or is Terra simply faking amnesia because she just wants a normal life, like some of her dialogue implies? By the end of the episode, all that's really determined is that it doesn't matter. Regardless, she wants nothing to do with Beast Boy, the Titans or Terra's life, and all he can do is accept it, let her go and move on.
- Animal Motifs: Butterflies. She owns a silver butterfly-shaped hairpin and Starfire and Beast compare her journey and transformation as a person to a butterfly getting out of its cocoon in the tie-comics.
- Anti-Villain: It's not so much that Terra wants to be bad, as she's fallen into bad company and has serious issues.
- Arc Welding: Terra's expanded backstory in Teen Titans Go! (2003) shows a silhouetted General Immortus overseeing the experiments that gave her her powers.
- Back from the Dead: Maybe. In "Things Change", Beast Boy runs into an ordinary schoolgirl who resembles Terra, and the statue the real Terra turned into has mysteriously disappeared — but whether or not this schoolgirl really is Terra, or even if she's still alive, is never confirmed.
- Back for the Finale: In "Things Change", Terra-but-not-Terra appears for the last (only?) time in the Grand Finale.
- Badass Adorable: A pretty woobie with catastrophic Geokinesis.
- Becoming the Mask: Despite her betrayal, she really felt at home with the team.
- Beyond Redemption: In the Season 2 finale, the Titans try to get Terra to stop working for Slade, but she refuses. After she defeats them and goes on to cause untold destruction and death upon the entire city off-screen, the Titans decide that they're done trying to talk to her and effortlessly wipe the floor with her, forcing Terra to retreat back to Slade.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Terra is a cute, big-eyed teenager who likes joking and goofing around. She can also be extremely violent and a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds when provoked.
- Big Eater: She can beat Cyborg in eating competitions. It's subtly implied to stem from her long period as a harassed drifter.
- Battle Couple: Briefly with Beast Boy.
- Break the Cutie: She started out cracked due to a terrible past and then Slade finished the job.
- Broken Bird: Terra has a Dark and Troubled Past involving human experimentation, inadvertently causing disasters due to suffering from Power Incontinence, and being persecuted by people for causing disasters. Add in Slade's typical machinations, and she's an emotional mess.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": Her second outfit when she return to the Titans, has a T on the chest.
- Butterfly of Transformation: Terra owns a butterfly clip. In Issue 51, Beast Boy tells Brion that Starfire believes Terra's journey was akin to the one of a butterfly.
- By the Hair: During her mud fight with Raven, Terra briefly subdues Raven by grabbing her by the hair.
- The Chosen Zero: Terra was chosen to be imbued with geokinetic powers, but ultimately she did not utilize them to live up to the hero she was forced to be.
- Clingy Costume: The armored suit Slade had fused with Terra's nervous system, making it impossible for her to remove.
- Clothing Damage: Slade beats up Terra so badly that he tears off part of her Clingy Costume.
- Color-Coded Characters: Yellow. Yellow being the color of her hair, outfit, and energy aura whenever she uses her powers.
- Composite Character: Before Deathstroke's daughter Ravager appeared in the tie-in comics, Terra's character combined elements of Rose Wilson and Tara Markov, particularly the abusive relationship the comic version of Wilson had with her father, and the long, blonde hair of Wilson's that fell over one eye, creating a visual comparison with Slade.
- Corrupt the Cutie: Terra's introduced as a character so likable, it doesn't take the Titans more than an episode to invite her into joining the team. However, she's persuaded by Slade into joining him, so she can gain full control over her powers. She becomes so captivated in trying to do so, while also holding a grudge against the Titans (hammered in by Slade no less) that she goes as far as repeatedly attempting to kill the Titans. Because of this, she's possibly the most polarizing character in the series.
- Covered in Mud: During her and Raven's fight. Terra uses her powers to clean herself off mid-fight as a way of taunting Raven.
- Cursed with Awesome: Terra had awesome geokinetic abilities... but no real ability to control them, which led to a vicious cycle of her being driven away by angry people after she lost control of her powers and caused disasters. Lampshaded by Beast Boy after her demise.Beast Boy: Her name was Terra. She was gifted with tremendous power and cursed with it as well.
- Cute Bruiser: Her geokinetic powers make her one of the more offense-orientated members of the team, and her blue eyed blonde appearance makes her very cute.
- Cute and Psycho: The show's depiction of Terra is Lighter and Softer compared to the comic version but still qualifies. She seems friendly, funny, and kind, although her Dark and Troubled Past has saddled her with destructive tendencies that can, and if helped along by Slade, will, manifest as homicidal psychopathy. Her switch from a cool gal-pal to Slade's Apocalypse Maiden was astoundingly dark and quick to happen, given the show's track record at the time.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Terra was put through experiments that gave her the geokinesis by her own family. She was incapable to use her powers so she ran away.
- Dark Action Girl: She manages to hold her own against the Titans after her Face–Heel Turn, and, at the end, is the one to kill Slade.
- Dark Secret: Only in her mind really. Terra saw her inability to control her powers as some horrible crime, and swore Beast Boy to secrecy when he found out — much to his confusion, as he didn't really care much. We later learn that Terra's out-of-control powers have caused disasters in the past, which led to her being driven out.
- Deadpan Snarker: She likes to make friendly quips.
- Deal with the Devil: Episode "Aftershock Part One" begins with Terra swearing to serve Slade and by his side forever in exchange for teaching her to control her powers.
- Death Glare: She gives an absolutely chilling glare in Beast Boy's direction as she departs in the shadows with Slade.
- Destructive Savior: Implied as part of her backstory; Terra's been trying to do good, but her lack of control over her abilities has been revealed to do a lot more harm.
- Did You Actually Believe...?: Terra mocks Raven for befriending and trusting her in their battle.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: Terra was turned to stone, not crushed to death as in the "The Judas Contract" comic story.
- Dishing Out Dirt: She has control over all the earth and stone around her.
- The Ditherer: Of the Insecure/Submissive type; she is so weak willed that she cannot make her own decisions, nor take responsibility for her own doings, turning her into easy prey for Slade.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: A lot of Terra's behavior (fear of intimacy, inability to settle down, paranoia, self-destructive tendencies, exaggerated startle response, desperate yearning for approval from a mentor figure that she knows will hurt her) are all very reminiscent of children who grew up in abusive households. Somewhat justifiable, given that she has been continually driven away by mobs of people for causing geological disasters, and the comic tie-ins revealed her own parents let their country's scientists use her as a guinea pig to induce metahuman powers.
- The Dog Bites Back: At the climax of Season 2's final episode, Terra breaks free of Slade's control, attacks him, and knocks him into a pit of lava. Although she frames it as her realizing that the Titans were her real friends all along, it's quite obvious that Slade's berating her for her cowardice, beating her up for failing him, and revealing he always considered her nothing more than just a tool he could use to his own ends, complete with bodyjacking her in order to force her to fight when she instead wants to run, are major motivations for her aggressive betrayal of her former master.
- Doom Magnet: The reason Terra never stayed in a single place, is that whenever she tried to help people, she ended up doing more harm, like mudslides and avalanches.
- The Dragon: Acts as this to Slade in "Aftershock Part 1" and "Aftershock Part 2" until she pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: She breaks free of Slade's control and turns herself to stone to prevent him using her to destroy the whole city.
- Empowered Badass Normal: The comics reveal that she was a normal person before going through the experiments that gave her powers. Deconstructed, in that she couldn't control her powers after receiving them.
- Evil Costume Switch: When she openly becomes Slade's apprentice, she switches from her "Titan outfit" to a new suit that looks like a mixture of bandage wrapping and body armor.
- Evil Former Friend: Terra joined forces with Slade after feeling betrayed by Beast Boy twice. Next time she returns, she considers all the Titans her enemies.
- Expy Coexistence: Terra is a Composite Character of her comic self and Rose Wilson, Slade's daughter, but while she and Rose never meet in the show simply because the latter appears only in the tie-in comics, they both exist within the same continuity.
- Extreme Omnivore: The only one able to stomach Starfire's alien food and like it! Like her Big Eater status, it most likely comes from her long time on the run, where she would have learned to eat anything that was available or else starve.
- Failure Hero: Hinted at it when Slade starts to deconstruct her past in front of her. Terra constantly tried to do good, help people, but because she could not control her powers, she was always doomed to make things worse and provoke natural disasters like avalanches and mudslides, angering the very people she was trying to save. Little wonder that they turned against her. She tried again with the Titans, but Slade's words poisoned her mind too much and she turned against them twice. Her only win is killing Slade, but she ends up killing herself too. The final episode implies that she somehow came back to life, but she has abandoned any pretention of being a hero and choses to be an ordinary person.
- Faking Amnesia: A possible explanation of the last episode — the schoolgirl is Terra, and she does remember Beast Boy, but pretends she doesn't because she's abandoned that part of her life. Several pieces of dialogue imply this, but it's not confirmed. Teen Titans Go! Issue 51 also indicates this — but still doesn't confirm it — when she spots Terra's brother Brion leaving the grounds of the Murakami School and gives a wistful smile.
- Fallen Hero: Terra starts off as a good-natured girl with unstable powers, but her fall comes from being seduced by Slade's promises of helping her control her powers in exchange of becoming apprentice, leading to her betraying the Titans and becoming a villain.
- Falling-in-Love Montage: Beast Boy has his own montage with Terra falling in love on their first date at a fair. They take photos, have fun on roller coasters and eat pancakes together. Everything takes a darker turn when is revealed she was Slade's spy all along.
- Fatal Flaw: Terra has a tendency to run when a situation gets bad, instead of confronting her problems or asking for help.
- Faustian Rebellion: Slade taught Terra to control her powers in exchange for becoming his apprentice. She latter rebels against him and sends him into molten lava.
- Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: When Robin asks Terra why she hates the Titans so much, her answer is 'You were born'.
- Ferris Wheel Date Moment: Not the only one in the show, but Beast Boy and Terra's stands out because Slade was with them in the cabin the whole time and they had no idea. And he interrupts them when the two love birds were about to have their First Kiss.
- Foil:
- Raven and Terra have a unique dynamic going on if you take the entire series into account. Both are young female teen superheroes with Power Incontinence issues and public image problems — Raven due to her half-demon nature making her come off as Creepy Good and her prophesied role to end the world, Terra due to the massive damage she leaves in her wake. However, their reactions to this issue are mirror images of each other. Raven accepts her flaws and works to overcome them; she works tirelessly to bring her powers under control and strives to be a hero in hopes of making up for the evil in her blood. Terra, on the other hand, runs away from her problems, both literally and metaphorically, by blaming others, making excuses for herself, and wallowing in self-pity. Whereas Raven constantly meditates and represses herself to establish her control, Terra fell in with Slade because he promised a quick and easy way for her to get the control she always wanted. Raven is incredibly loyal to her teammates, who she is implies to view as a surrogate family, whilst Terra happily betrayed the Titans to Slade in exchange for his "help". The end of their respective character arcs further highlights this — assuming the schoolgirl in the final episode really is Terra, then both girls hit the Despair Event Horizon, but Raven clawed her way back from it, with a little encouragement from her friends, and continues fighting crime, whilst Terra literally declares That Man Is Dead and turns her back on her powers so she can enjoy a normal life.
- To Starfire —according to the comics, at least. They are both princesses that had to leave their homes, and are gifted with tremendous powers. Starfire was born with her powers in a loving environment, before being sold to the Gordanians by her villainous sister and escaped to Earth where she met the Titans for the first time. Despite being strangers, she ultimately trusted them to chase the Gordonians away. Terra was born on Earth without powers to manipulative parents, who used both of their children for experiments, leading to Terra gaining her geokinesis. Both have older siblings, but Blackfire is a sociopath who is ready to sell out both her sister and her planet, while Geoforce defended his country, was always protective of Terra, and was heartbroken when she left Markovia. As for their powers and personalities, Starfire is a confident young woman who uses her powers at their fullest potential, whereas Terra is an insecure Stepford Smiler with powers she couldn't control. Terra and Starfire are both princesses dating non-royalty, but Terra's romance with Beast Boy is ill-fated and never comes to fruition, whereas Starfire becomes an Official Couple with Robin in Trouble in Tokyo. In Terra's case, it's her who is the Love-Interest Traitor working for Slade, while in Starfire's case, it was Robin. Starfire is a very feminine young woman, while Terra is a Tomboy Princess.
- To Robin. Their arcs as characters are very similar, a thing Robin himself points out to her to convince her to turn her back on Slade whilst she still can. Both Terra and Robin became apprentices to Slade, but where Slade had to blackmail Robin and threaten to kill his friends, Terra willingly went to Slade after being seduced by his promises of teaching her "how to shine". Both of them had quite complex parental relationship with Slade; Robin always tried to defy Slade no matter how many times he got beaten for it, whereas Terra willingly did all the dirty jobs Slade gave her and saw his true face only after being abused by him. Robin never quite defeated Slade, whereas Terra was the one to finally put an end to the madman, killing herself in the process. Robin is serious, brooding, obsessive and confident in his abilities and never felt inferior to his friends for being The Team Normal. Terra on the other had, is a shy insecure girl who only puts up a confident appearance to hide how desperate she is to conceal her Power Incontinence from other people. Robin is the leader of the Teen Titans, while Terra became the Sixth Ranger. And lastly, she may or may not have chosen the life of a normal person and refused Beast Boy's ReCall to Adventure and any change to rekindle her relationship with him. Robin cannot see himself leading a normal life outside of being a hero, to him is in-conceivable to put anything else above his war with crime. He almost made same choice as Terra with Beast Boy regarding Starfire, but in the end, he realizes he can both fight crime as much as he wants and be in a relationship.
- For Doom the Bell Tolls: In "Aftershock, part II," a bell can be heard during the initial Mook Horror Show. Not only do the Titans want her dead, but she sacrifices herself to stop a volcanic eruption at the end of the episode. She maybe comes back in a later season, but even if it is her, she's not at all the same Terra the Titans once knew.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: When Terra is being controlled by Slade and moans that she has no choice, Beast Boy tells her that she always had a choice.
- That's a lie! You've always had a choice! It's all been your choice! You chose to work for Slade, chose to betray us, and now you've chosen to give him control! Slade isn't doing this, Terra! You are!
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Terra goes from a shy and insecure girl to a villain capable of destroying a city.
- Gratuitous Princess: Her original comics counterpart is an illegitimate child of the king of Markovia. The comic tie-ins to the show, on the other hand, reveal that she is the legitimate daughter of the king and queen, making her explicitly a princess.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Terra's eyes glow yellow when she uses her geokinesis.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Played with; she's introduced as a sweet, friendly blonde Nice Girl who gets along really well with the Titans, until she runs off at the end of her debut episode. She then returns several episodes later and joins the team, only to be revealed as The Mole with a subsequent Face–Heel Turn. But by the end of the season, she's bounced back to the side of good via a Taken for Granite Heroic Sacrifice.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: In the episode, "Betrayal", she is on the edge between Heel and Face, having doubts and regrets about what she's done. When Slade reveals the truth, she reaches out to Beast Boy hoping he'll understand. Instead, he says "you don't have any friends" and she goes completely over to Slade.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: She started off good, had a Face–Heel Turn when she went to Slade and became his mole, had a semi Heel–Face Turn that got slammed in her face when she tried to coax Beast Boy to join her instead of being destroyed with the rest of the Titans only for Beast Boy to chew her out for being a traitor, had an even bigger Face–Heel Turn as a response by gleefully hunting down and trying to kill the Titans at Slade's behest afterwards, and finally made a permanent Heel–Face Turn when she realized Slade was using her all along and she turned on him... at the cost of her life. Or so it seemed...
- Heel Realization: While she had some doubts, and the Titans going all out on trying to kill her makes her feel the same fear, it's Slade viciously beating her for running from a losing battle that makes her realize he never cared....while him using her body like a puppet is when it really sinks in that she betrayed her friends for nothing. Even then it's being forced to choose between hurting Beast Boy (the one person who still sees good in her despite everything) and continuing to believe it's not her fault that she finally makes the right choice.
- Hero of Another Story: As Terra says in her own words when the Titans meet her for the first time: "I go where the wind takes me. You know? I get to see new places, meet new people, stop a few bad guys here and there". Subverted when it's revealed several of her heroics got her in hot water and she's been chased out of several locales.
- Heroic Sacrifice: She stops a volcano from erupting at the cost of being petrified.
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- Icy Blue Eyes: After becoming Slade's apprentice, Terra's blue eyes have a vicious expression it them.
- Iconic Sequel Character: Terra is introduced in the third episode of Season 2.
- The Ingenue: At the beginning Terra is pretty much an innocent young girl, and so naive that she took the word of an evil man despite being warned about his evil deeds.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: The schoolgirl in the last episode, who may or may not be Terra, is happy to be a schoolgirl instead of a hero in "Things Change." She'd much rather tackle homework than super villains.
- I'm Not a Hero, I'm...:"...not out to save the world. I'm just a girl with a geometry test next period and I haven't studied."
- I Regret Nothing: Terra's opening monologue in "Aftershock Part Two." It's pretty obvious she's trying to convince herself though.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Already heavily influenced by Slade, she'd hoped to run away with Beast Boy after betraying the rest of the Titans to him. As might be expected, this didn't go well.
- Lean and Mean: She is a scrawny teenager by comparison with the busty Starfire and Raven.
- Leitmotif: She's one of the few major characters to have her own theme song, a jazzy European-sounding track that plays when she's using her power (either wrecking up an obstacle course or beating down Sladebots). It's surprisingly catchy
. - Loss of Identity: The comics reveal that as a child Terra was always confused about her own identity, and was never allowed to decide anything for herself.
- Love-Interest Traitor: To Beast Boy. When he finally asks her out on a date, she accepts, but then he discovers Terra betrayed the team by selling them out to their biggest enemy Slade and she agreed to the date so at least Beast Boy would be spared the night Slade's forces attack the tower. Although he was obviously angry at the reveal, Beast Boy still has feelings for Terra after her betrayal and still tries reaching out to her despite everything she's done.
- Love Makes You Evil: Terra is so desperate to control her power and become more than a broken disaster in the public’s eye that she accepts Slade’s mentorship. Although she infiltrates the Titans on his orders, she becomes closer and closer to Beast Boy to the point that she brings him on a date after deactivating the team’s security, not caring if everyone else dies as long as he stays safe. When he rejects her after finding out about this, she fully gives into Slade’s influence and tries to wipe out the team wholesale. Ultimately, Love Redeems and she sacrifices herself to save Beast Boy and her other former teammates from Slade.
- Love Redeems: It's eventually love and Beast Boy's Rousing Speech that gives her the Heroic Willpower to fight off Slade's control of her body via the suit he made for her. It's also this love that convinces her to pull a Heroic Sacrifice to save Jump City from a tectonic shift that would have flooded it with lava.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Terra is a Tomboy Princess who is not afraid of horror themed parks and has a lot of emotional baggage to deal with, while Beast Boy is not in fond of them, is more easy going and relaxed than her.
- Meaningful Name: "Terra" means "earth" and she is, in many ways, literally defined by her geokinesis.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: She leaves the Titans for Slade when she assumes Beast Boy betrayed her trust by telling the team she lacked control over her powers when he'd promised not to. Subverted in that Beast Boy didn't do that, Robin found out on his own but Terra had run away before he could explain.
- The Mole: From her second appearance on she's reporting to Slade on the Titans' activity.
- More than Mind Control: Slade played on her paranoia and burned heroics.
- Motifs: Reflections and butterfly imagery play a large role in episodes and comics featuring Terra, symbolizing her ever-shifting sense of identity and self-image, and her eventual maturation into a confident, independent, happy young woman — hopefully.
- Mud Wrestling: Her and Raven's one on one fight involved both of them getting covered in mud. Both combatants take advantage of this, Terra with her geokinesis and Raven with her telekinesis.
- Never My Fault:
- Played for Drama. Terra's paranoia that others will blame her for disasters that aren't her fault, as they have in the past, leads to her refusing to accept responsibility for disasters that actually are her fault. Indeed, this is the ultimate root of her entire villainous arc; she chooses to go to Slade after believing Beast Boy betrayed her (Robin just figured out her secret and didn't know it was supposed to be a secret) and then chooses of her own free will to repay her debt to Slade by infiltrating and betraying the Teen Titans. She even notes in the opening voiceover for "Aftershock Part 2" that she feels no guilt for betraying or seemingly murdering her former friends... and then gets upset when they return and treat her as a serious supervillain.
- Averted when Terra finally takes responsibility for her mistakes in "Aftershock Part 2" after Beast Boy calls her out on it, where she stops a catastrophic tectonic shift triggered by her powers, turning herself into stone in the process.
- Newcomer Saves the Day: Yeah, especially when is engineered to look like Terra is there to save the day by Slade, whose actual plan was to stage an attack that would let Terra show off her skills to the Teen Titans, and earn herself a place on their team.
- Nice Girl: When the Titans first met her, Terra was a friendly girl. This changes as she undergoes Sanity Slippage from Slade's manipulation.
- Nightmare Hands: Terra creates some of these out of mud to try to drown Raven in a pool.
- "Not So Different" Remark: To Raven. Episodes featuring the two highlight their many similarities and grudging friendship. It's Raven who points out Terra's possible aspirations to normalcy in "Things Change".Raven: Maybe she didn't want to be found.
- Not Good with Rejection: When Terra reveals to Beast Boy how she was working for Slade she begs him to say that despite that he'll still be her friend. Beast Boy says coldly "Slade was right, you don't have any friends." In response she gets a horrified look on her face before retreating into the shadows and putting on a expression made of Tranquil Fury.
- Not Quite Flight: She flies by standing on rocks and levitating them.
- Not Wearing Tights: When the Titans first meet her, Terra wears normal clothes instead of a costume like them. After running away and returning to the team, Terra wears an uniform with the letter "T" over her chest.
- Meta Twist: Unlike most versions, she is not a the bastard child of the Markovian King, and neither a redeemless sociopath.
- Out of Focus: After Season 2, where she allegedly dies.
- People Puppets: The battle suit Slade gave Terra was designed to control Terra's powers and give him control of her body should she rebel. She manages to override it and finish him off.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Even before being trained by Slade she was capable of unwillingly destroying a huge stone quarry.Slade: You lack control, Terra. And when you lose control, you are more dangerous than anything I've ever seen.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Physically she's a skinny and tiny girl, but can create earthquakes and throw giant boulders.
- Power Incontinence: Why she's broken and paranoid; she can't control her powers, and people have always lashed out at her when they realise that she is the one (inadvertently) causing the disasters.
- Pretty Princess Powerhouse: She is one of the most powerful meta-humans In-Universe, and the comics reveal that she's a princess to boot. Even though the Titans held back, the fact that she took down the entire team one by one and than over the entire city should make Terra a force to be reckon with.
- Pride Before a Fall: Terra gets into a bout of Evil Gloating in her inner monologue about how she's taken over Jump City and defeated the Teen Titans... Moments before they all jump her at once and prove that when fighting together she doesn't stand a chance.
- Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Terra was not exactly on the evil side until Beast Boy rejected her, which turned her over to Slade's side completely. After, she becomes hellbent on killing him and his friends.
- Rebellious Princess: The comic tie-ins reveal that she was a runaway princess, whose older brother is looking for her.
- Redemption Equals Death: Turning against Slade and fixing the mess she made leads to her petrification.
- Regretful Traitor: When Terra sets up Titan Tower to be attacked, she gets enough cold feet to try to save Beast Boy and eventually breaks down apologizing to him when he finds out.
- Related Differently in the Adaptation: In the comics she is just a bastard child of the King, but the tie-in comics made her a legitimate child and a full-blood sister to Brion.
- Repressed Memories: Slade implies that Terra chose to not remember anything that happened after being revived by unknown means since she felt the damage she had done after betraying the team would have caused more pain for her.
- Retired Badass: A possible explanation for the last episode — Terra has given up her failed superhero life for a happier and more fulfilling life as a high schooler.
- Riches to Rags: According to the comic ties in, Terra was actually a princess who used to live in a castle. When the Titans first met her, she was a vagabond who slept on the ground.
- Riddle for the Ages: Terra's ultimate fate. Did she really come back from the dead? If so, does she really have amnesia, or is she just faking it? Each of the Titans has a different answer, and the series ends without resolving the issue.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Downplayed. While she is both a princess and superhero, she doesn't pick up the latter until she runs away and becomes a vagabond. While she's a princess the whole time, it comes up less often than Starfire — in fact, it's only mentioned in the tie-in comics, which are of dubious continuity anyway.
- The Runaway: According to the comics, she fled her country due to the experiments they were doing on her. Now she walks the earth endlessly.
- Ruritania: The comics reveal she is from Markovia.
- Secret Legacy: Not so much as hinted at in the actual show, but the tie-in comics reveal that she was formerly Princess Tara of Markovia.
- Selective Obliviousness: Played for drama; her paranoia is so bad that, in her first episode, she immediately leaps to the conclusion that Beast Boy betrayed her by breaking his promise and telling Robin about her Power Incontinence... despite both Robin's detective skills as Batman's sidekick being well known and the fact she had a pretty obvious bout of Power Incontinence right in front of the whole team.
- Sixth Ranger Traitor: She joined the core team a long time after they had formed a team, and eventually betrayed them.
- Sky Surfing: Terra learns to simulate flight through a levitating boulder.
- Slasher Smile: Cracks a few after becoming Slade's Dragon.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: With Beast Boy due to eventually being turned to stone, and after that, apparently depowered and stripped of her memories.
- Starting a New Life: As Beast Boy points out to Brion, if Terra is still alive, than she chose to start a new life away from everyone who was part of her old one. In present she is just a mere student girl.
- Status Quo Is God: This Terra was never really allowed to feel like part of the team. The episode immediately after she joins has her conspicuously absent save a non-speaking cameo at the end and the following episode has her betraying the team.
- Stepford Smiler: Before her Face–Heel Turn she acts friendly and nice because she doesn't want people to see her nerves.
- Stepford Snarker: After her Face–Heel Turn, she replaces smile with snark. Robin doesn't buy into it, giving her a Kirk Summation that shakes her to her core in one episode and a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech in a later one.
- Super-Power Meltdown: Every time she loses control of her powers.
- Super-Toughness: Although initially considered a Glass Cannon, Terra is highly resistant to damage; this becomes evident when the Titans take turns attacking her brutally, as she withstands, for instance, Cyborg's super-powered punches and blasts, Starfire's energy beams, and even the impact of a bus hurled by Raven.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: In the opening voiceover to the Season 2 finale, "Aftershock Part 2": "I have done horrible things, and I have absolutely no regrets."
- Tamer and Chaster: This Terra was made specifically to be kid-friendly. Her sexual affair with Slade from the comics was turned into a twisted daughter-father relationship.
- Taken for Granite: The strain of using her powers to stop an impending volcanic eruption causes a backlash that turns her into stone. By the end of Season 5, she may have reverted to normal, presumably depowered, and is now living a civilian life — unless it's really just a civilian who somewhat looks like her.
- Take Over the City: With Slade's assistance, she almost conquers Jump City with implied casualties among the civilians.
- Tears of Fear: Terra sheds tears when Slade begins controlling her body through the special suit she was wearing.
- That Man Is Dead: If you believe that the schoolgirl in the last episode really was Terra, then her last line comes off like this:Terra: You're the Teen Titan — that's who you are. That's not me. I'm not a hero. I'm not out to save the world. I'm just a girl with a geometry test next period, and I haven't studied.
- Their Own Worst Enemy: It was her own desperation and feeling like a fraud that made Terra susceptible to Slade's manipulations. Had she not suffered from such psychological issues and not assumed Beast Boy betrayed her by telling Robin about her lack of control over her powers (Beast Boy didn't tell him, Robin figured it out on his own) she has hard times controlling her powers, her fall from grace could have been avoided.
- Token Evil Teammate: The only major Titan to fully become evil. She ultimately got better — just in time to pull of a Heroic Sacrifice (maybe).
- Tomboy Princess: A consequence of constantly traveling on her own. A princess (as revealed by the comics) without an entourage will do a lot of dirty work.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She is definitely a tomboy — a Tomboy Princess, even, according to the comics — but she enjoys romantic things like dating.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Zig-Zagged. Once she receives a Heel–Face Door-Slam, Terra is enraged, alternately sadly reminiscing of her time together with her friends in one moment and lashing out at them the next, culminating in her begging Beast Boy to "destroy" her.
- Town Girls: The Butch to Raven's Neither and Starfire's Femme. She's rather tomboyish.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Pizza.
- Tragic Villain: Terra was just a troubled girl who didn't know better and just used as a tool by a psychopathic terrorist.
- Tyke-Bomb: The comics reveal that she was made into one to defend Markovia and left before her powers could be stabilized. Later, Slade hones her abilities and preys on her insecurities to make her into a more effective one.
- Unexplained Recovery: Discussed and Played for Drama. None of the Titans have any idea how Terra came back to life — or even if she is alive — nor does the show offer an explanation.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Terra in a nutshell and deconstructed in her case. As Slade points out, there are tragic consequences when an insecure and untrained person with incredible powers tries to interfere. People will turn against them out of fear if more harm is done than good.
- Unstable Powered Woman: Terra's inability to control her powers resulted in causing multiple natural disasters and her becoming a runaway in order to avoid hurting others, eventually turning to Slade when he promises to be able to give the control she so desperately wants.
- Villain Override: Slade created Terra's suit to assist her in battles when she has troubles. But he takes control of Terra after she refused to fight the Titans again when her rematch with them went poorly. It's effective at first, but then Terra manages to fight back.
- Villainous Princess: Is not obvious immediately, because her backstory as princess of Markovia is revealed only in the comics, but she becomes this once she joins forces with Slade and becomes a revengeful young woman with a hate boner for the Titans.
- Villains Want Mercy: In the Season 2 finale, Terra had ambushed each of the Titans and took them out one by one with an almost sadistic glee. By the beginning of the following episode, they come back with a vengeance and attack her, catching Terra off guard. She even had the nerve to beg Beast Boy not to attack her despite her attempts on their lives the previous episode.
- Villain Protagonist: Is the Arc Hero of Season 2, and even her time as a villain is primarily from her point of view.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Raven. After several disagreements they finally come to understand each other. Too bad that Terra was already The Mole for Slade by the time it happened.
- Walking the Earth: The comics reveal that she is from Markovia, a fictional country that exists in Europe, which means she travelled quite the distance from one continent to another.
- We Used to Be Friends: After her Heel–Face Turn, she becomes this to the original Titans, who mourn her loss to an extent but temper that sorrow with acceptance of how much she endangered them.
- Weak-Willed: She is so lost and confused that she desperately needs someone else to set her life's course for her. Only at the end does she finally find the strength to choose for herself.
- Witch with a Capital "B": She calls Raven a "witch" during their Mud Wrestling.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Her powers cause earthquakes because she can't control them. She manages to control them, but only because she fell in with a horrible parental influence that turned her evil.
- Yellow Earth, Green Earth: The blonde Terra emits a golden light when she does her geokinesis.
"You were the best friend I ever had."