A Reflective Essay on the TV series: Teen Titans Go! I chose this TV series because it is fun and wacky. A way different experience from the original series which dark and full of action. The characters and their drawings are more cartoony, and their story doesn’t really focus on the action, rather, it is on the comedic side of their lives. The episode title is “Dude, Relax!” The story is about Robin being Robin. Always looking for action at any given moment as his gestures tell. The problem is, he wakes up to a peaceful and relaxed day. He checks his communicator for any news or criminal activity. It literally showed up on his comm that it is all good. He asks his team if there was any crime going on but their demeanor tells him that nothing is happening and that they are all enjoying the beautiful day on the couch together. The rest of the team tells him to take the day off and they all started doing their own thing. He tries to join them in whatever they are doing. Robin joined them one by one, but each time he tried to help, he only made things worse because he would always go overboard with his actions. This led to his team putting a collar on him that would shock him if ever there were any real trouble. After putting the collar on him, there was an emergency. A monster appeared in their city. He tried to go out, but the collar shocked him every time and was left alone at the base and the rest of the team went off to fight the monster. Robin tried to communicate with everyone but each time he did, he was doing more harm than good. That’s why the team cut off their communication while they were fighting the monster. Beast boy came back and told Robin that they got it, and that Robin should get some rest and relax. Finally, Robin decides to relax and trust his teammates. He sat down on the couch and closed his eyes. He was then suddenly eaten by the couch. He was in a different world and the dust cloud governed the place. Robin was being haunted by his actions; multiple comms was flying to get to him. He escaped it and saw a flashback memory of him as a baby boy. He finds out why he was always paranoid because as a child, he was bullied by the animals he was with. He realizes that there should be nothing to worry about. It was only a traumatic experience as a child and that he should not hold on to it. He finally let go and he was teleported back to the couch. He relaxed and accepted that there should always be a time for him to calm down. As he was relaxing, his communicator went off. It was his teammates calling him. He dropped the call and went off to sleep, not knowing that the team needed his help. All the members got caught and they could use his help in defeating the monster. The show ends when Robin lays back on the couch and the team is doomed. Since this is a cartoon, more effort was placed on non-verbal communication. It is hard enough on the voice actors to portray their emotions with just their voices, but the show really needed to add the non-verbal cues to make the watcher understand what was happening. It was a bit difficult to understand because the show was on mute, and I had to rely on what their actions were because lip reading was not going to work. The actions of each individual character helped a lot and knowing their personalities added more to better understand what was going on. It also didn’t help that the show was on mute and that the background music in the house was playing loudly. Everything turned out okay as I was able to make out what the show was about and that their non-verbal communication was effective. Having experienced this, I have a better appreciation for non-verbal communication. It paints a picture of what is being said we, as the listeners, imagine it and see it how the story teller saw it.
