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Why Titans Season 3 Retcons Season 2's Secret Origin Cliffhanger

Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Titans season 3, episode 12, "Prodigal."

The penultimate episode of Titans season 3, "Prodigal," changed the details of how Komand'r (AKA Blackfire) came to Earth in Titans' season 2 cliffhanger finale. This is notable given that Titans' season 3 had already retconned a considerable amount of Blackfire's backstory in a bid to make her into a more sympathetic character. However, it also makes it seem as if the series' writers might have forgotten their own plotline between seasons.

In the original New Teen Titans comics, Komand'r was the older sister of Koriand'r (AKA Starfire) and destined to be the Grand Ruler of the planet Tamaran. Unfortunately, Komand'r was born without the natural ability most Tamaraneans had to absorb ultraviolet light and harness it to fly. This was a mark of great shame to the royal family, and the privileges that should have gone to Blackfire as the firstborn child were instead given to Starfire. This instilled a murderous jealousy in Blackfire, which would eventually lead her to betray her family as part of a bid to take back what she felt was hers. The first two seasons of Titans recreated this story, though the birth order of the sisters was changed so that Blackfire was the younger sister and Starfire was the firstborn. The final scene of Titans season 2 depicted Blackfire's arrival on Earth, as she used Tamaranean technology to remotely take over the body of a young mother in a supermarket parking lot, abandoning the woman's two children and punching a random man before walking off.

Related: Titans' New Beast Boy Transformation Recreates A Classic Batman Villain

Most of this was retconned over the course of Titans season 3. Blackfire's plans to murder her sister and ensure her rule of Tamaran went unopposed were thwarted off-camera, after Blackfire was captured and became the prisoner of an unidentified American government agency. After being rescued by Starfire and Beast Boy, Blackfire mellowed considerably, joined the Titans and began a romantic relationship with Conner the Superboy, apparently forgetting her fratricidal reasons for coming to Earth. However, Blackfire showed little loyalty to the Titans and, after being attacked by the GCPD while trying to surrender themselves, decided to go after the government scientist who tortured her and get her revenge. This led to the revelation, as Blackfire confronted the scientist in the episode "Prodigal," that he had her spaceship and could help her to go back to Tamaran.

The idea that Blackfire had come to Earth in a ship rather than remotely possessing a human body flew in the face of everything that had been shown in Titans' season 2 finale. This retcon regarding how Blackfire came to Earth was one of several involving Blackfire's character and motivations. Several episodes earlier, the show also introduced a new subplot revealing that, in Titans' reality, it was Starfire who was born without powers and that her parents had stripped Blackfire of her abilities so that their firstborn daughter would be perfect.

There is no rhyme or reason for why the writers of Titans elected to make all these changes over the course of Titans season 3, other than the idea that the season couldn't support more than two villains. With the focus of Titans season 3's action on the Red Hood and Scarecrow and their attack on Gotham City, there was no time to fully examine the conflict between Starfire and Blackfire that was a core part of the characters in the comics. More, it made the cliffhanger of Titans' season 2 seem completely pointless and confusing, with the show trying to make the murderous monarch of an alien world who possessed an innocent woman's body and left her children for dead into a hero.

More: Titans Finally Explains A Season 1 Beast Boy Problem



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