Transformation

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Transformation is episode 20 of Teen Titans series and the seventh episode of season 2.

Plot

One morning Starfire finds out she has gained a large lump on her forehead. She is worried at what the others will think so she keeps her lump a secret, but as each day passes she keeps getting more transformations. Eventually once her secret is out Starfire goes into space to find a new home that will accept her new appearance.

Synopsis

Starfire's happy life suddenly takes an abrupt turn for the worse when a large lump pops up on her forehead ... and that is just the beginning. Starfire asks Raven, who dismisses the lump as a zit. As the days pass, her body begins to develop new mutations, making her feel horrible because she fears that she is turning into a monster. She more and more shies away from her friends and hides her new deformities under heavy clothing.

Starfire in shame

Then the Titans quickly receive an emergency call about Plasmus, who is ripping up a stadium in search of a nourishing sewer pipe. When the Titans engage him, they get defeated one by one, until Starfire reduces the sludge monster to human form. Then, Plasmus grows back to a sludge monster with green eyes and the ability to spit acid. The acid washes Starfire's extra clothing off and shows the mutations. Everybody in Jump City laughs at

Plasmus and Titans moments before noticing and laughing at Starfire's mutations.

Starfire, even Plasmus, and the other Titans. More people laugh as Starfire appears on TV. Ashamed and humiliated, Starfire leaves Earth in tears. Thinking that she now has no home to return to, she attempts to find aliens whose mutations match her own, but in each attempt she is met with fear and revulsion.

As Starfire flies through an asteroid belt, a Cironielian Chrysalis Eater follows her, knowing the mutations are signs that the Tamaranean will become a chrysalis, the Chrysalis Eater's delicacy. Finally, Starfire lands on a seemingly uninhabited planet. She meets a carnivorous plant that eats her and spits her out in disgust. Back on Earth, the other Titans, worried about her and realizing they should've taken better care of her, modify the T-Ship for space travel and set off after her, tracing her route through the alien planets she has visited. Meanwhile, behind the bushes, a Cironielian Chrysalis Eater, possibly the same one that followed Starfire in the asteroid belt, spots Starfire. The eater turns into its humanoid form and floats over the lake towards Starfire. She explains the Transformation to Starfire, who replies that Blackfire merely turned purple for two days. The Eater says that each Tamaranean has a different form of Transformation. Starfire was one of the few that would become a chrysalis.

Soon, a chrysalis forms around her. When the chrysalis has almost completely formed, the Cironeilian Chrysalis Eater reveals its true form. As the chrysalis is about to complete, the eater tells Starfire to scream as it whets the eater's appetite.

Starfire in dire straits, when the Eater tells Starfire to scream, so that the eater will be more eager to eat Starfire.

But before for the Chrysalis Eater to be able to devour Starfire, the other Titans arrive and interfere. Robin frees Starfire from her cocoon and shows her that she has reverted to her former appearance, though with one improvement: she can now fire eyeblasts. With this new ability, she blasts the Chrysalis Eater back to the lake, where it is chased away by the flesh-eating plant Starfire had met earlier. With the reassurance that the other Titans will always be her friends, no matter how much she changes on the outside, Starfire returns home, happy once again, until Beast Boy suffered chickenpox.

Credits

• Written by:
  • Rob Hoegee

• Directed by:
  • Alex Soto

• Starring:
  • Greg Cipes as Beast Boy
  • Scott Menville as Robin
  • Khary Payton as Cyborg
  • Tara Strong as Raven
  • Hynden Walch as Starfire

• Also featuring:
  • Dee Bradley Baker as Plasmus
  • Catherine Cavadini as Cironielian Chrysalis Eater (only appearance; credited as Alien Woman)
  • Tony Jay as Narrator

Cultural references

• This episode's story is a version of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Ugly Duckling.
• The scene in which the T-Ship escapes a beast that appeared to be a planet references Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
• Starfire's large hairy feet are a reference to the Hobbits from The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

Trivia

• The episode is actually narrated in third-person limited in a few scenes. The late Tony Jay told the story from a book and zooms in on Starfire.
• List of Starfire's conditions of puberty:
  • Large forehead lump (later it changes to a horn)
  • Tusks on her neck.
  • Elongated zebra-coloured fingernails.
  • Weird craving for unusual food.
  • Pointed ears.
  • Scaly skin.
  • Enlarged hairy feet.
• It is revealed that Blackfire once turned purple for two days during her transformation.
• This episodes unites Catherine Cavadini and Tara Strong who have previously voiced Blossom and Bubbles in The Powerpuff Girls.
• Goof: After Starfire changed back into her normal self, her boots are fixed which is odd since they were destroyed when her feet became too big.
• Goof: When the Chrysalis Eater was about to eat Starfire you can hear Beast Boy and Cyborg gasping but in the same scene it looks like Robin is calling out to her but we don't hear his voice.
• When Cyborg modifies the T-Ship, he attaches two solid rocket boosters, making the ship resembling a space shuttle.

Memorable Dialogue

• Narrator: Long ago on a small blue planet called Earth, there was a young alien girl who lived in a T.
• Starfire: My friends must not see how hideous I have become or they will surely think I am turning into some sort of horrible monster. I must never allow anyone to see me... ever again.
• Robin: I don't know what's more disgusting, Plasmus: The way you look, or the stuff you eat.
• Beast Boy: Orange-flavored bad guy? Gross! Yet... strangely refreshing.
• Robin: Cyborg, how long until we can launch?

Cyborg: Oh, about five minutes after you QUIT ASKING ME THAT!

• Narrator: So the happy, young girl returned home with her friends, and they all lived happily ever after. That is… until Beast Boy got the chicken pox.
• Beastboy: Starefire hurry up!  You've been in there for 20 minutes and I'm not paper trained.