Teen Titans (2003 TV series) Episode: Switched

**Switched** is an episode of season 1 of Teen Titans. It premiered on September 6, 2003.

## Appearing in "Switched"

**Featured Characters:**

* Teen Titans
	+ Beast Boy
	+ Cyborg
	+ Raven
	+ Robin
	+ Starfire

**Antagonists:**

* Puppet King ***(First appearance)***

**Locations:**

* Jump City
	+ Titans Tower

## Synopsis for "Switched

The Puppet King sends the Titans a cardboard box of five puppets resembling the Titans, which they take a liking to.

During that night, while the Titans were asleep, the Puppet King emerges from his hiding place in the box and activates his controller, which has the ability to transfer the soul of a person into a puppet. This causes Robin, Cyborg and Beast Boy to have their souls trapped in their puppets. However when the Puppet King tries this on Raven and Starfire, Raven uses her powers to stop the process, although their souls get switched and placed in each other's bodies by accident. They escape Titans Tower, with the Puppet King-controlled Titans in pursuit.

Raven and Starfire have problems using each other's powers, as Raven cannot fly or fire starbolts in Starfire's body and Starfire cannot levitate or use telekinesis in Raven's body. As they were being chased by the possessed Titans, Raven (in Starfire's body) struggled to focus on flying like she used to, and asked Starfire to do the same. She briefly succeeded, before falling into a pile of trash. They narrowly missed capture by a mind-controlled Beast Boy, who was summoned by the Puppet King along with the other possessed Titans to hold their pursuit, in order to expedite a ritual to destroy the Titans' souls for good.

Starfire attempted to follow the Puppet King, however Raven holds her back, citing that they would not be able to save the Titans without adapting to each other's powers. While Starfire berates Raven for not bothering to focus on her powers, the latter reminded Starfire that her powers are dangerous and that Starfire does not know anything about Raven. With Starfire in agreement, they share with each other stories about their life and learn about each other as a person, in the hopes of understanding their respective powers.

After Raven and Starfire fully understand each other they rush to an abandoned theater, where they witness the Puppet King about to burn the puppets with the souls of the boys still inside. Starfire prevent this from happening just in time as she uses Raven's power to telegrab the puppets off the Puppet King's hands. The Puppet King sets the mind-controlled Titans at the girls, attacking them ruthlessly. When they are overwhelmed and the puppets reclaimed by the Puppet King, who is about to burn them, there seems to be no hope left until Starfire uses Raven's telekinesis ability to counter the brainwashed Titans. This distracts the King long enough for Raven to fire a starbolt, which knocks the controller out of the Puppet King's hand, landing in the fire which was originally intended to burn the puppets. With the controller destroyed the King loses the magic force keeping him alive and returns back to a puppet and the Titans have their souls returned to their bodies. The next day, while Raven is meditating, Starfire asks if she can meditate with her. Raven says yes and they begin their meditation. Together, they peacefully relax and meditate after a day's work. Raven then asks Starfire if they want to go to the mall together afterwards, just the two of them.

## Trivia

* It is noticed in this episode that Cyborg, Raven and Starfire have different colored souls than their actual colors in the opening theme while Robin and Beast Boy have matching colors: Robin is Red and Beast Boy is Green. The colors of their souls from Puppet King's Magic puppet control is seen again in "Mother Mae-Eye" when the Titans are escaping from her killer gingerbread henchmen.
	+ Cyborg is White in this episode; whereas in the opening theme, his actual color is Blue.
	+ Raven is Blue in this episode; whereas in the opening theme, her actual color is Violet.
	+ Starfire is Yellow in this episode; whereas in the opening theme, her actual color is Orange.
	+ Ironically, neither Beast Boy nor Cyborg have Black as their color, despite their appearance. Beast Boy wears a black skintight outfit, completed with a metal belt, violet shoes and a matching fill color. Cyborg is black as he is naturally African-American.
* Even though no actual changes were made to the appearances of Starfire and Raven, the two look different when their bodies are switched. Raven suddenly appears weak and helpless, while Starfire seems older, more mature and looks more like Blackfire.
	+ Beast Boy's Utahraptor form has no head feathers (also seen in "The Sum of His Parts"). The later episodes show his Utahraptor form has head feathers.
* When Raven screams, her hair goes into the shape of a raven.
* Starfire may have subtly revealed that she does not like the way Raven looks (though it may be that she does not mind Raven's appearance, just not on herself).
* This episode was one of the few times we see Starfire angry, when she calls out Raven's rude and pessimistic attitude. However, she quickly calms down and understands why Raven is always so down to earth cold.

### Title

* The title represents the fact that Robin, Cyborg and Beast Boy's souls were switched into dolls, while Raven and Starfire's souls were switched into each other's bodies hence the episode title.

### Continuity

* It appears that Starfire kept her puppet, since it appeared in "The Quest," while the puppets of the other Titans make an appearance on the wall in the evidence room in "Fear Itself," along with the Puppet King's controller (even though it was destroyed).

### Cultural references

* The roars of Beast Boy's Utahraptor form are similar to the T-Rex from Jurassic Park.

### Goofs

* The crate which was sent to the Titans was labelled "To: Teen Titans, Titan Tower". Later when Robin examines the label, the words "Titan Tower" was amended to "Titans Tower".
* Even though Robin says the person who made the puppets got every detail right, his puppet has a lowercase "r" on its costume instead of an uppercase one like his real costume.
	+ In addition, Raven's puppet wears blue gloves, whereas she does not.
* When zombie Cyborg gets back up, his left ear is human instead of metal.

* Starfire (with Raven's soul/conscience) was shown to have a navel when she says "And what?" This could possibly be an animation error.
* Right after Beast Boy says "You go, girls!", Starfire's eyebrows are out of place for a second. In addition, Beast Boy's right Arm is shrouded in fur when he’s fist pumping.