The Puppet King is in command.
- ―Puppet King[src]
The Puppet King is essentially a large-sized puppet who had come to life by magical means. He debuted in "Switched".
Character history[]
Wishing to control Jump City, he poured his magic into a puppet control-shaped controller, which he imbued with the power to transfer the souls of humanoid beings into puppets and vice-versa. Then he crafted life-like puppet versions of the Titans and had them sent to Titans Tower, smuggling himself inside hidden in the puppet's crate.

The effect of the Puppet King's insidious magic.
The same night, the Puppet King emerged and began to carry out his plan. He managed to trap the souls of Robin, Cyborg and Beast Boy inside their respective puppets as they slept, putting their minds, bodies and powers under his control. Raven and Starfire, who had been woken up by the King's traipsing around the Tower, were taken by surprise. But just when the Puppet King initiated the transfer, Raven managed to use her magic to knock the control from his hand. This disrupted the transfer process, but with the unwelcome side effect that Starfire and Raven's souls were transferred into each other's bodies. Unable to utilize their new bodies' powers at first, they were forced to escape into the city streets. After evading their pursuers, Starfire and Raven took their time to teach each other about the proper usage of their respective abilities, and arrived at the Puppet King's headquarters (an abandoned theater) just in time to prevent a dreadful ceremony: The Puppet King was preparing to incinerate the Titan puppets, obliterating the souls trapped within and thereby putting their bodies under his permanent control. Using Starfire's starbolts, Raven made the Puppet King lose his control, which fell into the fire bowl he had prepared for the ceremony. The controller was incinerated, and its destruction restored the Titans to their rightful bodies, while the Puppet King was reverted to a lifeless puppet, which the gang kept as evidence.

Lifeless puppet
Later, however, the Puppet King was somehow brought back to life and recruited into the Brotherhood of Evil. He appeared in the race initiated by Ding Dong Daddy for Robin's most secret possession as one of its villainous contestants, but was taken out in a mass crash triggered by Red X. When the Brotherhood executed its plan to eliminate young superheroes around the world, the Puppet King assisted Control Freak in capturing Honorary Titan Killowat. During the subsequent assault of Beast Boy's team on the Brotherhood's base, the Puppet King confronted Más, who slammed him right into a wall, knocking him out for the rest of the battle. Subsequently, when the Titans united for their final fight, the Puppet King joined his fellow villains in defeat. However, he was shown standing among the heroes at the end.
Powers and abilities[]
The Puppet King is a master of ritual magic, specializing in Soul Transferring, in which he uses his controller and his own hand-crafted puppets as foci; the bodies of his victims, deprived of their souls, then become mindless minions the Puppet King can command. He is also a skilled puppet craftsman and puppeteer.
The Puppet King seems to be somewhat strong physically despite being a mere doll. An example of his strength is shown in "Calling All Titans!" when he assaulted Killowat. Killowat struggled to pull himself up as the Puppet King pinned him down to the ground. This shows that he is stronger than he looks, whereas if he had a regular lifeless doll's strength, a normal human would have no trouble pulling him/herself up. However, his strength seems to be different at times. Shown in "Titans Together", he was easily defeated with one punch by a twelve year old.
Appearances[]
Teen Titans[]
Season 1[]
Season 2[]
- "Fear Itself" (Cameo)
Season 4[]
- "Mother Mae-Eye" (Cameo)
Season 5[]
- "Homecoming - Part 2" (Cameo)
- "Revved Up"
- "Calling All Titans!"
- "Titans Together"
Teen Titans Go![]
- "My Crummy Valentine"
- "Magic & Misdirection" (Cameo)
- "If You Can't Beat 'Em" (Cameo)
- "When Chibis Attack" (Cameo)
- "The Strangest Sports Story Ever Told"
- "Bad Girls" (Cameo)
Gallery[]
Click here to view the gallery.
Trivia[]
- At the end of "Titans Together", the Puppet King stands among the Titans as Robin tosses the Brain to Beast Boy. This is likely due to a writing error, one of several occurring in this episode. When he was not seen frozen, viewers assumed he, like Jinx, defected. See XL Terrestrial for more examples.
- As seen in "Switched", the Puppet King's life was sucked out, and in "Fear Itself", he is shown in the Titans' evidence room, locked in a glass box, lifeless. Despite this, he somehow came back to life and joined the Brotherhood of Evil.

Puppet King in his mistake appearance in Titans Together (he is standing next to Herald and Jericho is above him.)
- In the episode "Mother Mae-Eye" when Mae-Eye is telling the Titans about their origins, a flashback shows a puppet on the wall that looks very much like Puppet King. This may be hinting that Mother Mae-Eye brought Puppet King to life, but this is not likely.
- He is based off another Titans villain called "The Puppeteer".
- Puppet King's way of talking and creepy persona was based off the actor Peter Lorre. Similar examples are Maggot from Corpse Bride, Doctor N. Gin from Crash Bandicoot, and Ren from Ren and Stimpy.