Tainted Love (Malchior/Raven)
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ship_manifestoTitle: Tainted Love
Author: last_haven
Word Count: 4000-
Fandom: Teen Titans (Animated)
Pairing: Raven/Malchior
Spoilers: For Season Three's episode, Spellbound, and some for Season Six
Notes: Has a lot of images, mostly hidden behind links though. All screencaps are my own, the banner at the top as well. Also, some swearing. For some reason two of the videos start on their own--if you hear music coming out of nowhere, it's that. Sorry.
Tainted Love
The Raven/Malchior Manifesto
~¤~ My Beloved Monster ~¤~
Teen Titans is on the surface a cartoon for young kids, and on most accounts, that’s not inaccurate. But while it was a kid’s show, it wasn’t just for kids—I was already in high school when I first watched the “first” episode (the third episode was released before the first episode in continuity) with my fifty plus year old father right beside me. My brothers, one older, one slightly younger, soon joined us. I generally enjoyed the show, equally amused and entertained, until I fell into love with it with the episode “Masks” where Robin betrays his friends with his obsession to capturing a villain. It was dark and interesting for a supposed kid’s show because at the end everything wasn’t fixed. The Titans were still upset and Robin was left realizing just how badly he messed up. After that, a new character came in, Terra, a girl desperate for control, willing to betray her new friends for a chance of control. Teen Titans wasn’t afraid to “go dark”, and willingly pushed the envelope with the company backing it.
In the third season, one of my favorite characters, Raven, was explored, showing her isolation from her perkier friends. In this episode, she and her teammates clash in their ideas of fun and wishes for someone who could just understand and accept her, and not see her as creepy but different, “Someone more like me”. And like a dream come true, Malchior caught Raven’s and mine’s attention by saying, most alluringly to a lonely girl like Raven, that “There is”.
Malchior quickly explains—he’s a wizard, trapped in the book she’s been reading for most of the beginning of the episode. Long ago, he was trapped there by his enemy, the dragon Rorek, while the two fought, then adds that he’s been waiting for Raven to free him while he quickly flips his pages to show a picture of her in her magical glory. How this picture came to be there is unexplained; some have pondered if she was supposed to get the book, to release him. I happen to think that Malchior himself most likely put it there, to try and entice her more.
Desperate for an understanding friend to talk to, she tries to free him but fails. She apologizes, but he quickly assures her that he knows she couldn’t free him yet but “perhaps we could just talk?” From there, we see hours have passed and they’ve been having a great time together, laughing and connecting like two ordinary teenagers.
From here, we see them growing closer. He tells her of a spell that could release him into a temporary form and she eagerly performs it. The spell works while he flirts a little, and soon he joins her outside of the book. However, he can’t go far from the book. Raven begs for him to teach her the spells to free him completely and he agrees, telling her that she’ll have to learn everything he knows, quite a lot since all he’s had to do for the last thousand years is read other books.
We see Raven and Malchior grow closer while Raven learns. Eventually, she has to leave to take care of another villain only to find her power out of control. She returns to demand the truth from Malchior but he quickly appeases her, working on her fear of being alone again to distract her.
When she frees him, she is horrified to find he has been lying to her—he is in fact the dragon from the story, and he quickly abandons her. The rest of the Titans fail to subdue him and in the end Raven manages to seal him back away, not before he cruelly mocks her pain. In the end, she is left heartbroken but warmed when Beast Boy reaches out and reminds her that though they may not understand her, with the rest of her friends around she’ll never be alone.
I was left staring a little dumbfounded as the credits rolled; usually I view shows in a detached manner. This time, however, I realized that I had been there the entire way with Raven—how could I not feel her pain and rejection when her friends failed to understand her, or the irritation she feels from them pestering as she tried to read? I was just as glad as Raven when Malchior showed up, like a shining knight come to rescue the proverbial maiden from her loneliness. Here was someone who actually did understand her. But I felt just as horrified and heartbroken when Raven discovered his lie. I realized as the credits came up that I had just gone on an emotional journey with Raven that I really didn’t with any other character or show did.
Part of me mourned the failed romance and sought out something to soothe that pain when I turned to fandom. There wasn’t a whole lot there—Malchior was pretty despised for the cruelty he dealt Raven. It wasn’t just the romance that drew me into the Malchior/Raven part of the fandom, something about Malchior was irresistible. Perhaps it was like the saying “Girls like Bad Boys”, maybe it was because he was honestly just pretty, or that he was a dragon, or that he was just that much of an asshole, but I wanted to see more of him.
So into fandom I went, to ease my addiction. As you can guess, that didn’t work.
~¤~Angel of Darkness~¤~
Raven
“Raven is—complicated.” — Starfire, “Nevermore”
Raven is the magical muscle of the Teen Titans, a group of adolescents who fight crime in Jump City and around the world in later seasons. Raven is the mystic, the loner, and the “goth girl” in the group. She’s dressed constantly in dark colors, and is emotionally repressed as she has to suppress her feelings or else they’ll overpower her control and send her powers out of control as well, which usually amounts to some massive property damage. Once she lost her temper with a villain and almost managed to destroy him mentally, leaving a literally pale husk, whimpering and terrified. We found out in the fourth season about her past; she’s the daughter of a human woman and a demon, Trigon, the living embodiment of evil and cruelty. Since her birth, she’s known that she will one day become his way into her world, meaning the death and destruction of Earth as we know it.
It’s no wonder why she’s hesitant to make friends and make attachments. She’s alone and desperately lonely, although after Malchior she opens up to her friends more. In the team, she’s essentially the mother of the group—Beast Boy and Starfire often go to her for advice. Raven’s wise and at times sarcastically biting, but she loves them all as her true family. Raven trusts them to not hurt her and is wary of opening up to others, like Terra. Which is why her relationship to Malchior is so interesting—he arrives at the perfect moment for her and she instantly attaches to him, at first almost reflexively as a hero to rescue and free him, then quickly as a friend and then as romantic opportunity.
Raven is that part of us that tries to put up a strong front but is really deeply insecure at heart. She is like other teenagers, lonely and unsure, thinking that no one can understand her and her quirks. Raven grows during the show, especially after the fourth season. She gets a new sense of freedom and she allows herself to open up more, eventually becoming a surrogate mother to a young group of kids with superpowers.
~¤~Beautiful Liar~¤~
Malchior
“I know it hurts, but you'll just have to accept the truth. It's over. I got what I wanted, and I don't need you anymore.” — Malchior, Spellbound
Note, there is some debate among fans if Malchior actually is a) the dragon or b) the real villain. We don’t even know 100% what IS his true form. Popular theories among some writers is that Rorek was sealed in the book with Malchior and actually was the one to come out at the end (I personally disagree with this one) or that he can take human shape to make a dark haired/dark eyed version of Rorek—if the figure in the book really is Rorek. Yes, we Malchior fans get a lot of mileage and fun with him. For this essay, we’ll go with the “Malchior actually is the dragon who shows up at the end and makes an asshole of himself” theory.
Malchior is, in the word of the creators, “the first bad boyfriend”. He’s a metaphor for a member in a forum that someone could talk to that will take advantage of you to get what he wants. In the show, it’s unexplained if “Malchior” and “Rorek” were actual people or merely creations that the dragon made to entice someone to free him. Malchior is at least the dragon; whether he could also look like the wizard if he could somehow take human form (he knows magic, is a magical creature—the possibilities are really endless) is also up to debate. Malchior is charismatic and charming, flirting shamelessly and seems to take pleasure from constantly touching Raven; he’s portrayed as holding her, her hand, and invading her personal space without reproach. While he might seem loving, he is certainly devious and smart, making excellent plans to use Raven until the very end and playing her like a fiddle all the while. He’s well read and knows many spells that Raven’s never even heard of. He’s also arrogant; this proving to be his downfall as Raven uses the same spell Rorek presumably did to capture him.
Malchior is pretty much a blank slate; besides being an utter ass with a sadistic streak a mile wide, little is known about him. This makes him terribly fun to work with; plenty of people like making him more sympathetic but as I’ve gotten older, I find myself thinking that I love him and his faults now. Malchior is a dark, dark creature and not just because he’s a dragon. He’s a wicked, cruel being—he connects to Raven and her isolation but he still manipulates her. He adds the finishing touch in their fight when he bluntly tells her that now he has what he wants and that he doesn’t need her anymore. Malchior disappears until the last season where he cameos as a villain in a worldwide organization of villain without an explanation of how he got out or who freed him. More fodder for the fandom to play with.
~¤~Almost Lover~¤~
The Evidence
Spellbound is pretty obvious that Raven is attracted to Malchior. Whether he is to her is ambiguous at best, but still there is plenty of evidence to the pairing.
As said earlier, Malchior enters Raven’s life when she is feeling isolated and misunderstood and he’s quick to soothe her, telling exactly what she wanted to hear. Before he first talks to her, the episode starts with Malchior and Rorek battling before revealing it’s a book Raven is reading, setting up a gag where Raven is constantly interrupted. This finally prompts a fight where Beast Boy snaps and calls her creepy, causing Raven to lament and wish for an understanding ear . She can hardly contain her surprise when her own book answers her, introducing us to one of the greatest jerks in Teen Titans. Malchior for the rest of this episode plays on her insecurities for his own advantage, probably grinning like a smug bastard through out too.
Malchior quickly tells her that he’s been waiting for her, revealing the picture of her to help convince her. She blushes (a rare event indeed) and quickly tries to help but failing at that, spends most of the day and night talking with him. She talks about her friends, telling him lots of things that should probably not leave the Tower. Malchior charms her, making her laugh and smile, flirting blatantly with her. She worries for a bit that he might think she’s creepy as well, but he quickly corrects her, saying kind words and adding that he feels he understands her, which she agrees. It’s late however, but he promises her he’ll still be there in the morning, creating a paper rose to comfort her. She takes the book and curls up with in bed, like a beloved teddy bear. Already we can see her start to fall for him with his kind charms and acceptance.
Beast Boy tries to apologize in the morning for calling her creepy but then overhears her talking to Malchior. Malchior and Raven seem as thick as thieves now, even slightly bashing her (admittedly annoying but well meaning) friends. When Beast Boy asks if she’s okay, she assures him she is and adds “Way better than okay.” For such a gloomy girl, Malchior prompts tremendous change in her.
Next we see that she is working a spell, making a sort of potion to free Malchior. She mentions she’s never heard of the spell and he entices her when he mentions he learned it in a book that she apparently longs to read, in awe that he’s read it. A glimpse of foreshadowing shows up here—Malchior uses a page to reach out and slash a lock of her hair, saying that he needs “a lock of hair from a beautiful girl”. She is obviously flattered and surprised to be called beautiful. He tells her he is truly grateful and she eagerly performs the spell, freeing him into a temporary form made from the pages of the book.
She is just as pleased as him when he finally steps out of the book. He walks to her and they reach to each other, but his hand falls apart to her dismay. Nonchalantly, he makes light of this and adds that he forgot he is still not free. She declares she wants to learn and help him and he agrees, using his powers to manifest hundreds of books for her to read and learn from. While he shows her the books, pointing out special tomes, he has his arm around her shoulder something that usually prompts a glare if someone else tries this.
He immediately begins to teach her, proving to be a patient teacher, never scolding and encouraging her when he can. As she learns, she laughs at his antics, becomes an eager student, and they grow steadily closer. At one point, we see her trying out a spell. She tries to form a ball of magic as he encourages only to have it explode, lighting his head on fire. He remains unruffled and she worriedly pats the fire out; for a moment her face falls as she looks for damage before realizing he’s fine and that she’s leaning up against him, making her turn and smile, blushing lightly while he watches her. After a bit she once again tries the ball of magic spell, this time succeeding, prompting a magical fireworks display over the Tower. When it zooms back to Raven’s room, Malchior hugs her from behind, watching the lights, obviously proud. Unlike the other time, she remains close, instead wrapping her hands around his arms, closing her eyes and smiling, obviously at ease with him.
In the next scene, Raven has left her room for the first time in presumably awhile, in a new all white outfit, with an unusually chipper attitude. She also uses magic more, floating over instead of walking to the fridge and using her powers to grab an apple instead of getting it by hand. The others confront her, worried since she’s been in her room a lot lately and apparently changed. They talk together for a bit, but then the alarm goes off and they leave, but not before Beast Boy has to remind the blissful Raven to get going.
Raven shows up late to the fight and uses her power on the villain. Her power quickly overflows, lost beyond her control and threatening the young girl who has been kidnapped by the villain. Beast Boy has to slam into Raven as a ram to stop her while the others save the girl and stop the villain. Shaken, Raven returns to confront Malchior.
She accuses him of teaching her dark magic as she flies into her room and back to his side. Next we suddenly see how much sway over her he has when he quickly convinces her that she’s overreacting, that the spells are only called dark because they are feared just as she is but that they are different and can control it and that if they want to be together that she has to learn those spellings or else he’ll never be free. He takes her hand and leads her over to the book, reminding her that while he is trapped in the book, she will still be alone. “Is that what you want, Raven? To be alone?”
Lip quivering, eyes tearing, she admits, “No.”
He wipes her tears away and announces that’s it’s time to free him, adding the endearment of “my sweet Raven”. They quickly set up for the spell, Malchior reminding her to do it “just as we practiced”. With an incantation, Raven releases her new magic while Malchior’s paper body peels apart joining the swirling paper and magic around him. Raven cries out in surprise and before her eyes, in the book a picture of the figure we have thought to be Malchior suddenly, and painfully, transforms into a dragon. Raven gasps surprised, perhaps even worried about him, and is tossed aside by a burst of magic. She grabs a piece of paper showing a wizard and a dragon fighting, the names above the two figures swapping, Malchior becoming Rorek and Rorek becoming Malchior. The truth dawns on her as she says, “You switched the names! Malchior wasn’t the wizard, he was-!”
With a cry, she tries to stop the spell but too late. The spell is over and he is free, crashing through the ceiling of her room as a dragon, blasting her. He quickly flees up to the roof as her friends burst in and find her safe but shaken. The others hurry to stop him while she takes a moment asking a worried Beast Boy to “please. Just get out of my room.” He lied to her, using her, and now she’s even lonelier than ever, truly heartbroken at the deception.
Outside, Malchior reveals his prowess without magic—he bats away the Titans, even the powerhouse Starfire who is the strongest Titan by far. Interestingly, he abandons using magic at this point, perhaps unable to use magic in his dragon form which begs the question why he knows magic at all if he doesn’t use it (it is also likely that he just wanted to fry them all and toss them around bodily, but that seems a waste after all they set up they had about him having powerful magic). Instead he takes an almost humanoid pose and fights, standing on his rear legs and batting them aside. Raven regroups and hurries to join the fray, trying to defeat him. He eventually overpowers her, taunting that he has what he wanted and that “I don’t need you anymore!”
Furious, Raven summons the book he’s been trapped in and manages to recapture him. Having won the fight, but lost something more important, Raven collapses onto the roof looking lost while her friends come to her side. At the end of the episode, Raven tucks Malchior into a chest looking still lost and heartbroken, locking the book away.
When Malchior next appears, he’s only really a cameo appearance at the end of Homecoming Part Two, where he appears in paper man form during a panning group shot of the new members of the Brotherhood of Evil. Next he appears in Titans Together, which he again appears as the paper form but quickly transforms into his dragon shape. He attacks the youngest Titans, the children Raven had become a surrogate mother too. He’s quickly defeated by Herald who blasts him into another dimension, leaving his fate in question. Questions abound about how such a powerful character—one who successfully fended off four of the main Titans and nearly managed to best Raven—was defeated so easily and also how the hell he got out in the first place. Questions that are usually mentioned in fanfics at least.
~¤~I Will Possess Your Heart~¤~
Part I: Reasons Why
Why do I ship this pairing when it is quite obviously sunk? I’ve wondered that myself—perhaps the romantic in me likes to think that he would come crawling back.More likely Maybe the sadist in me just likes seeing how cruel he can be to her. At heart though, I just find their interaction fascinating. Raven had never responded so favorably to another person; she accepted his touches, forgave him any hurt, and quickly succumbed to his charms. Malchior was a charismatic sadist who delighted in twisting the knife in after he had broken his promise to give her her deepest desire—acceptance and unconditional love.
What would have happened had Malchior kept the charade going longer, pretending to be human after his release? Could he just as cruelly abandoned her, or would a genuine feeling have cultivated by then? If given the right scenario, could Raven forgive him? Would he want to be forgiven? Moreover, could he ever deserve the chance of forgiveness? Far more importantly—could there actually BE a chance for a relationship while keeping both characters in character?
Like all of my favorite pairings, Raven/Malchior is brimming with potential. So much could be done with the pairing! There’s at heart of every story for them a story of regret and past betrayal. If a story is romantic, it could be one of forgiveness and genuine human emotions. If tragic, the story could be filled with angst or burning hatred. The effects Malchior has on Raven are interesting to explore, and with the right hands the potential can make something beautiful.
The potential for character exploration is my favorite reason to ship any characters—I don’t tend to read the main canon relationships because I’ve already seen it play out before me in canon. And with Malchior and Raven, you can do lots of interesting ideas.
Part II: Others’ Reasons Why
Pixie10111: “I like Malchior and Raven because they seem to actually go together. … I like Mal because he actually has things in common with Raven, more so if you look at it as "they're both trapped"-- Raven with her emotions and Malchior in that book. I don't know how he would act, according the writers of the series, with Raven when Mal was being himself. We can only speculate. But I believe they'd be good together.”
~¤~Light My Candle~¤~
Art
http://gandalfia.deviantart.com/art/TT-Completely-Spellbound-41472865
http://aimlessshadow.deviantart.com/art/What-might-of-happened-24559258
http://silverfyre.deviantart.com/art/TT-Let-It-Snow-27813929
http://afroditeohki.deviantart.com/art/My-Sweet-Raven-32029329
http://fallenrose24.deviantart.com/art/Through-Fantasy-and-Reality-20408805
http://nylak.deviantart.com/art/Raven-and-Malchior-Sketch-19919534
Writing
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2090166/1/The_Paper_Rose
Burning a paper rose should be just as easy as throwing away the memory of Malchior, but Raven can't let go without some answers. Will she gain the ability to finally forget him or find something else? MalchiorRaven COMPLETED
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2608078/1/An_Enchantment_of_Pleasure_and_Pain
Through the affects of an enchantment Malchior cast, Raven becomes spellbound to him...and perhaps he to her as well.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3295088/1/Hobby
He doesn’t have an obsession, just a hobby that’s become a vice.' Rated for voyeurism, stalking, [implied] masturbation, and other content that may not be suitable to all viewers. [not quite] MalchiorRaven --Yes, this is my own story. I feel silly listing it.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4349716/1/Deconstructed
After the city is destroyed, Raven ends up with some unlikely companions as she tries to find her teammates and discover a way to save the city. Surving in the decimated city is dangerous and Raven will need all the help she can get to survive. --Another of mine. Not finished yet
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2815950/1/When_It_Rains_It_Pours
ratedforstronglanguage It started with a heist gone all wrong and from there it just escelated to something too great for neither of the players on the field to handle, the point being is when something bad goes down it goes down hard and fast
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4096069/1/Book
An unfortunate man is given a job entirely beyond his means, and a dragon learns what it is to feel grief. Or to feel and deny grief. But he never really learned how to feel, anyway. RaeMal.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2097498/1/Spellbinder
Set after ‘Spellbound’ She’d learned to move on, that is until the ‘real’ Rorek somehow appeared before the Titans. Now Raven’s finding it hard to deal with the past, especially when Malchior begins to haunt her. Ror,Rae,Mal --A very popular fic, along with its sequel, in this part of the fandom. There's spelling and grammar errors, but I probably would have been strangled for skipping it.
Music Videos
Websites/Forums/C2s/Communities
http://www.fanfiction.net/forum/Romanticide/4171/
http://www.fanfiction.net/community/Every_Rose_Has_Its_Thorns/8337/99/0/1/
Author: last_haven
Word Count: 4000-
Fandom: Teen Titans (Animated)
Pairing: Raven/Malchior
Spoilers: For Season Three's episode, Spellbound, and some for Season Six
Notes: Has a lot of images, mostly hidden behind links though. All screencaps are my own, the banner at the top as well. Also, some swearing. For some reason two of the videos start on their own--if you hear music coming out of nowhere, it's that. Sorry.
The Raven/Malchior Manifesto
Teen Titans is on the surface a cartoon for young kids, and on most accounts, that’s not inaccurate. But while it was a kid’s show, it wasn’t just for kids—I was already in high school when I first watched the “first” episode (the third episode was released before the first episode in continuity) with my fifty plus year old father right beside me. My brothers, one older, one slightly younger, soon joined us. I generally enjoyed the show, equally amused and entertained, until I fell into love with it with the episode “Masks” where Robin betrays his friends with his obsession to capturing a villain. It was dark and interesting for a supposed kid’s show because at the end everything wasn’t fixed. The Titans were still upset and Robin was left realizing just how badly he messed up. After that, a new character came in, Terra, a girl desperate for control, willing to betray her new friends for a chance of control. Teen Titans wasn’t afraid to “go dark”, and willingly pushed the envelope with the company backing it.
In the third season, one of my favorite characters, Raven, was explored, showing her isolation from her perkier friends. In this episode, she and her teammates clash in their ideas of fun and wishes for someone who could just understand and accept her, and not see her as creepy but different, “Someone more like me”. And like a dream come true, Malchior caught Raven’s and mine’s attention by saying, most alluringly to a lonely girl like Raven, that “There is”.
Malchior quickly explains—he’s a wizard, trapped in the book she’s been reading for most of the beginning of the episode. Long ago, he was trapped there by his enemy, the dragon Rorek, while the two fought, then adds that he’s been waiting for Raven to free him while he quickly flips his pages to show a picture of her in her magical glory. How this picture came to be there is unexplained; some have pondered if she was supposed to get the book, to release him. I happen to think that Malchior himself most likely put it there, to try and entice her more.
Desperate for an understanding friend to talk to, she tries to free him but fails. She apologizes, but he quickly assures her that he knows she couldn’t free him yet but “perhaps we could just talk?” From there, we see hours have passed and they’ve been having a great time together, laughing and connecting like two ordinary teenagers.
From here, we see them growing closer. He tells her of a spell that could release him into a temporary form and she eagerly performs it. The spell works while he flirts a little, and soon he joins her outside of the book. However, he can’t go far from the book. Raven begs for him to teach her the spells to free him completely and he agrees, telling her that she’ll have to learn everything he knows, quite a lot since all he’s had to do for the last thousand years is read other books.
We see Raven and Malchior grow closer while Raven learns. Eventually, she has to leave to take care of another villain only to find her power out of control. She returns to demand the truth from Malchior but he quickly appeases her, working on her fear of being alone again to distract her.
When she frees him, she is horrified to find he has been lying to her—he is in fact the dragon from the story, and he quickly abandons her. The rest of the Titans fail to subdue him and in the end Raven manages to seal him back away, not before he cruelly mocks her pain. In the end, she is left heartbroken but warmed when Beast Boy reaches out and reminds her that though they may not understand her, with the rest of her friends around she’ll never be alone.
I was left staring a little dumbfounded as the credits rolled; usually I view shows in a detached manner. This time, however, I realized that I had been there the entire way with Raven—how could I not feel her pain and rejection when her friends failed to understand her, or the irritation she feels from them pestering as she tried to read? I was just as glad as Raven when Malchior showed up, like a shining knight come to rescue the proverbial maiden from her loneliness. Here was someone who actually did understand her. But I felt just as horrified and heartbroken when Raven discovered his lie. I realized as the credits came up that I had just gone on an emotional journey with Raven that I really didn’t with any other character or show did.
Part of me mourned the failed romance and sought out something to soothe that pain when I turned to fandom. There wasn’t a whole lot there—Malchior was pretty despised for the cruelty he dealt Raven. It wasn’t just the romance that drew me into the Malchior/Raven part of the fandom, something about Malchior was irresistible. Perhaps it was like the saying “Girls like Bad Boys”, maybe it was because he was honestly just pretty, or that he was a dragon, or that he was just that much of an asshole, but I wanted to see more of him.
So into fandom I went, to ease my addiction. As you can guess, that didn’t work.
Raven
“Raven is—complicated.” — Starfire, “Nevermore”
Raven is the magical muscle of the Teen Titans, a group of adolescents who fight crime in Jump City and around the world in later seasons. Raven is the mystic, the loner, and the “goth girl” in the group. She’s dressed constantly in dark colors, and is emotionally repressed as she has to suppress her feelings or else they’ll overpower her control and send her powers out of control as well, which usually amounts to some massive property damage. Once she lost her temper with a villain and almost managed to destroy him mentally, leaving a literally pale husk, whimpering and terrified. We found out in the fourth season about her past; she’s the daughter of a human woman and a demon, Trigon, the living embodiment of evil and cruelty. Since her birth, she’s known that she will one day become his way into her world, meaning the death and destruction of Earth as we know it.
It’s no wonder why she’s hesitant to make friends and make attachments. She’s alone and desperately lonely, although after Malchior she opens up to her friends more. In the team, she’s essentially the mother of the group—Beast Boy and Starfire often go to her for advice. Raven’s wise and at times sarcastically biting, but she loves them all as her true family. Raven trusts them to not hurt her and is wary of opening up to others, like Terra. Which is why her relationship to Malchior is so interesting—he arrives at the perfect moment for her and she instantly attaches to him, at first almost reflexively as a hero to rescue and free him, then quickly as a friend and then as romantic opportunity.
Raven is that part of us that tries to put up a strong front but is really deeply insecure at heart. She is like other teenagers, lonely and unsure, thinking that no one can understand her and her quirks. Raven grows during the show, especially after the fourth season. She gets a new sense of freedom and she allows herself to open up more, eventually becoming a surrogate mother to a young group of kids with superpowers.
Malchior
“I know it hurts, but you'll just have to accept the truth. It's over. I got what I wanted, and I don't need you anymore.” — Malchior, Spellbound
Note, there is some debate among fans if Malchior actually is a) the dragon or b) the real villain. We don’t even know 100% what IS his true form. Popular theories among some writers is that Rorek was sealed in the book with Malchior and actually was the one to come out at the end (I personally disagree with this one) or that he can take human shape to make a dark haired/dark eyed version of Rorek—if the figure in the book really is Rorek. Yes, we Malchior fans get a lot of mileage and fun with him. For this essay, we’ll go with the “Malchior actually is the dragon who shows up at the end and makes an asshole of himself” theory.
Malchior is, in the word of the creators, “the first bad boyfriend”. He’s a metaphor for a member in a forum that someone could talk to that will take advantage of you to get what he wants. In the show, it’s unexplained if “Malchior” and “Rorek” were actual people or merely creations that the dragon made to entice someone to free him. Malchior is at least the dragon; whether he could also look like the wizard if he could somehow take human form (he knows magic, is a magical creature—the possibilities are really endless) is also up to debate. Malchior is charismatic and charming, flirting shamelessly and seems to take pleasure from constantly touching Raven; he’s portrayed as holding her, her hand, and invading her personal space without reproach. While he might seem loving, he is certainly devious and smart, making excellent plans to use Raven until the very end and playing her like a fiddle all the while. He’s well read and knows many spells that Raven’s never even heard of. He’s also arrogant; this proving to be his downfall as Raven uses the same spell Rorek presumably did to capture him.
Malchior is pretty much a blank slate; besides being an utter ass with a sadistic streak a mile wide, little is known about him. This makes him terribly fun to work with; plenty of people like making him more sympathetic but as I’ve gotten older, I find myself thinking that I love him and his faults now. Malchior is a dark, dark creature and not just because he’s a dragon. He’s a wicked, cruel being—he connects to Raven and her isolation but he still manipulates her. He adds the finishing touch in their fight when he bluntly tells her that now he has what he wants and that he doesn’t need her anymore. Malchior disappears until the last season where he cameos as a villain in a worldwide organization of villain without an explanation of how he got out or who freed him. More fodder for the fandom to play with.
The Evidence
Spellbound is pretty obvious that Raven is attracted to Malchior. Whether he is to her is ambiguous at best, but still there is plenty of evidence to the pairing.
As said earlier, Malchior enters Raven’s life when she is feeling isolated and misunderstood and he’s quick to soothe her, telling exactly what she wanted to hear. Before he first talks to her, the episode starts with Malchior and Rorek battling before revealing it’s a book Raven is reading, setting up a gag where Raven is constantly interrupted. This finally prompts a fight where Beast Boy snaps and calls her creepy, causing Raven to lament and wish for an understanding ear . She can hardly contain her surprise when her own book answers her, introducing us to one of the greatest jerks in Teen Titans. Malchior for the rest of this episode plays on her insecurities for his own advantage, probably grinning like a smug bastard through out too.
Malchior quickly tells her that he’s been waiting for her, revealing the picture of her to help convince her. She blushes (a rare event indeed) and quickly tries to help but failing at that, spends most of the day and night talking with him. She talks about her friends, telling him lots of things that should probably not leave the Tower. Malchior charms her, making her laugh and smile, flirting blatantly with her. She worries for a bit that he might think she’s creepy as well, but he quickly corrects her, saying kind words and adding that he feels he understands her, which she agrees. It’s late however, but he promises her he’ll still be there in the morning, creating a paper rose to comfort her. She takes the book and curls up with in bed, like a beloved teddy bear. Already we can see her start to fall for him with his kind charms and acceptance.
Beast Boy tries to apologize in the morning for calling her creepy but then overhears her talking to Malchior. Malchior and Raven seem as thick as thieves now, even slightly bashing her (admittedly annoying but well meaning) friends. When Beast Boy asks if she’s okay, she assures him she is and adds “Way better than okay.” For such a gloomy girl, Malchior prompts tremendous change in her.
Next we see that she is working a spell, making a sort of potion to free Malchior. She mentions she’s never heard of the spell and he entices her when he mentions he learned it in a book that she apparently longs to read, in awe that he’s read it. A glimpse of foreshadowing shows up here—Malchior uses a page to reach out and slash a lock of her hair, saying that he needs “a lock of hair from a beautiful girl”. She is obviously flattered and surprised to be called beautiful. He tells her he is truly grateful and she eagerly performs the spell, freeing him into a temporary form made from the pages of the book.
She is just as pleased as him when he finally steps out of the book. He walks to her and they reach to each other, but his hand falls apart to her dismay. Nonchalantly, he makes light of this and adds that he forgot he is still not free. She declares she wants to learn and help him and he agrees, using his powers to manifest hundreds of books for her to read and learn from. While he shows her the books, pointing out special tomes, he has his arm around her shoulder something that usually prompts a glare if someone else tries this.
He immediately begins to teach her, proving to be a patient teacher, never scolding and encouraging her when he can. As she learns, she laughs at his antics, becomes an eager student, and they grow steadily closer. At one point, we see her trying out a spell. She tries to form a ball of magic as he encourages only to have it explode, lighting his head on fire. He remains unruffled and she worriedly pats the fire out; for a moment her face falls as she looks for damage before realizing he’s fine and that she’s leaning up against him, making her turn and smile, blushing lightly while he watches her. After a bit she once again tries the ball of magic spell, this time succeeding, prompting a magical fireworks display over the Tower. When it zooms back to Raven’s room, Malchior hugs her from behind, watching the lights, obviously proud. Unlike the other time, she remains close, instead wrapping her hands around his arms, closing her eyes and smiling, obviously at ease with him.
In the next scene, Raven has left her room for the first time in presumably awhile, in a new all white outfit, with an unusually chipper attitude. She also uses magic more, floating over instead of walking to the fridge and using her powers to grab an apple instead of getting it by hand. The others confront her, worried since she’s been in her room a lot lately and apparently changed. They talk together for a bit, but then the alarm goes off and they leave, but not before Beast Boy has to remind the blissful Raven to get going.
Raven shows up late to the fight and uses her power on the villain. Her power quickly overflows, lost beyond her control and threatening the young girl who has been kidnapped by the villain. Beast Boy has to slam into Raven as a ram to stop her while the others save the girl and stop the villain. Shaken, Raven returns to confront Malchior.
She accuses him of teaching her dark magic as she flies into her room and back to his side. Next we suddenly see how much sway over her he has when he quickly convinces her that she’s overreacting, that the spells are only called dark because they are feared just as she is but that they are different and can control it and that if they want to be together that she has to learn those spellings or else he’ll never be free. He takes her hand and leads her over to the book, reminding her that while he is trapped in the book, she will still be alone. “Is that what you want, Raven? To be alone?”
Lip quivering, eyes tearing, she admits, “No.”
He wipes her tears away and announces that’s it’s time to free him, adding the endearment of “my sweet Raven”. They quickly set up for the spell, Malchior reminding her to do it “just as we practiced”. With an incantation, Raven releases her new magic while Malchior’s paper body peels apart joining the swirling paper and magic around him. Raven cries out in surprise and before her eyes, in the book a picture of the figure we have thought to be Malchior suddenly, and painfully, transforms into a dragon. Raven gasps surprised, perhaps even worried about him, and is tossed aside by a burst of magic. She grabs a piece of paper showing a wizard and a dragon fighting, the names above the two figures swapping, Malchior becoming Rorek and Rorek becoming Malchior. The truth dawns on her as she says, “You switched the names! Malchior wasn’t the wizard, he was-!”
With a cry, she tries to stop the spell but too late. The spell is over and he is free, crashing through the ceiling of her room as a dragon, blasting her. He quickly flees up to the roof as her friends burst in and find her safe but shaken. The others hurry to stop him while she takes a moment asking a worried Beast Boy to “please. Just get out of my room.” He lied to her, using her, and now she’s even lonelier than ever, truly heartbroken at the deception.
Outside, Malchior reveals his prowess without magic—he bats away the Titans, even the powerhouse Starfire who is the strongest Titan by far. Interestingly, he abandons using magic at this point, perhaps unable to use magic in his dragon form which begs the question why he knows magic at all if he doesn’t use it (it is also likely that he just wanted to fry them all and toss them around bodily, but that seems a waste after all they set up they had about him having powerful magic). Instead he takes an almost humanoid pose and fights, standing on his rear legs and batting them aside. Raven regroups and hurries to join the fray, trying to defeat him. He eventually overpowers her, taunting that he has what he wanted and that “I don’t need you anymore!”
Furious, Raven summons the book he’s been trapped in and manages to recapture him. Having won the fight, but lost something more important, Raven collapses onto the roof looking lost while her friends come to her side. At the end of the episode, Raven tucks Malchior into a chest looking still lost and heartbroken, locking the book away.
When Malchior next appears, he’s only really a cameo appearance at the end of Homecoming Part Two, where he appears in paper man form during a panning group shot of the new members of the Brotherhood of Evil. Next he appears in Titans Together, which he again appears as the paper form but quickly transforms into his dragon shape. He attacks the youngest Titans, the children Raven had become a surrogate mother too. He’s quickly defeated by Herald who blasts him into another dimension, leaving his fate in question. Questions abound about how such a powerful character—one who successfully fended off four of the main Titans and nearly managed to best Raven—was defeated so easily and also how the hell he got out in the first place. Questions that are usually mentioned in fanfics at least.
Part I: Reasons Why
Why do I ship this pairing when it is quite obviously sunk? I’ve wondered that myself—perhaps the romantic in me likes to think that he would come crawling back.
What would have happened had Malchior kept the charade going longer, pretending to be human after his release? Could he just as cruelly abandoned her, or would a genuine feeling have cultivated by then? If given the right scenario, could Raven forgive him? Would he want to be forgiven? Moreover, could he ever deserve the chance of forgiveness? Far more importantly—could there actually BE a chance for a relationship while keeping both characters in character?
Like all of my favorite pairings, Raven/Malchior is brimming with potential. So much could be done with the pairing! There’s at heart of every story for them a story of regret and past betrayal. If a story is romantic, it could be one of forgiveness and genuine human emotions. If tragic, the story could be filled with angst or burning hatred. The effects Malchior has on Raven are interesting to explore, and with the right hands the potential can make something beautiful.
The potential for character exploration is my favorite reason to ship any characters—I don’t tend to read the main canon relationships because I’ve already seen it play out before me in canon. And with Malchior and Raven, you can do lots of interesting ideas.
Pixie10111: “I like Malchior and Raven because they seem to actually go together. … I like Mal because he actually has things in common with Raven, more so if you look at it as "they're both trapped"-- Raven with her emotions and Malchior in that book. I don't know how he would act, according the writers of the series, with Raven when Mal was being himself. We can only speculate. But I believe they'd be good together.”
Art
http://gandalfia.deviantart.com/art/TT-Completely-Spellbound-41472865
http://aimlessshadow.deviantart.com/art/What-might-of-happened-24559258
http://silverfyre.deviantart.com/art/TT-Let-It-Snow-27813929
http://afroditeohki.deviantart.com/art/My-Sweet-Raven-32029329
http://fallenrose24.deviantart.com/art/Through-Fantasy-and-Reality-20408805
http://nylak.deviantart.com/art/Raven-and-Malchior-Sketch-19919534
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2090166/1/The_Paper_Rose
Burning a paper rose should be just as easy as throwing away the memory of Malchior, but Raven can't let go without some answers. Will she gain the ability to finally forget him or find something else? MalchiorRaven COMPLETED
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2608078/1/An_Enchantment_of_Pleasure_and_Pain
Through the affects of an enchantment Malchior cast, Raven becomes spellbound to him...and perhaps he to her as well.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3295088/1/Hobby
He doesn’t have an obsession, just a hobby that’s become a vice.' Rated for voyeurism, stalking, [implied] masturbation, and other content that may not be suitable to all viewers. [not quite] MalchiorRaven --Yes, this is my own story. I feel silly listing it.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4349716/1/Deconstructed
After the city is destroyed, Raven ends up with some unlikely companions as she tries to find her teammates and discover a way to save the city. Surving in the decimated city is dangerous and Raven will need all the help she can get to survive. --Another of mine. Not finished yet
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2815950/1/When_It_Rains_It_Pours
ratedforstronglanguage It started with a heist gone all wrong and from there it just escelated to something too great for neither of the players on the field to handle, the point being is when something bad goes down it goes down hard and fast
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4096069/1/Book
An unfortunate man is given a job entirely beyond his means, and a dragon learns what it is to feel grief. Or to feel and deny grief. But he never really learned how to feel, anyway. RaeMal.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2097498/1/Spellbinder
Set after ‘Spellbound’ She’d learned to move on, that is until the ‘real’ Rorek somehow appeared before the Titans. Now Raven’s finding it hard to deal with the past, especially when Malchior begins to haunt her. Ror,Rae,Mal --A very popular fic, along with its sequel, in this part of the fandom. There's spelling and grammar errors, but I probably would have been strangled for skipping it.
http://www.fanfiction.net/forum/Romanticide/4171/
http://www.fanfiction.net/community/Every_Rose_Has_Its_Thorns/8337/99/0/1/
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-26 01:34 am (UTC)The sadist in me likes the pairing because I like to think that just because Raven is so vulnerable, it will be her that will keep going back to him, even though he keeps screwing around with her. And then maybe, by the time he realizes how wrong he was she finds someone else, hahaha.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-26 02:40 am (UTC)I'm trying to remember if I ever saw a fic with that premise--because, let's face it, I would love it into itty bitty pieces--and I'm sad to think that I have yet to see it. D: The irony would be enough for me. (Siblings in sadism? This pairing's like watching a house going up in flames but hoping the firefighters can salvage the building anyway. That probably made no sense and goes to show I shouldn't stay up late.)
no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 01:01 am (UTC)Tangent ahoy
Date: 2009-09-27 03:31 am (UTC)That's certainly who I could imagine a bitter and reflective Raven might think back on it years down the line. :P By the end of the show, I always imagined she'd be too hurt to take him back unless something big, and I mean BIG, happened.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-26 12:44 pm (UTC)I'm a Robin/Raven fan, but this episode always will be my favourite! <3
And thanks for the recommendations! ^^
no subject
Date: 2009-09-26 01:27 pm (UTC):P I would have posted sooner but formatting all the images took forever, and it still isn't good as I'd hope. But, ah, well, c'est le vie.
Spellbound was a very interesting episode for Raven--it showed us what Raven can be like in love and that she can feel lonely and stressed out like a lot of people can. That aside, I can never any good Ro/Ra fics! Any recommendations?
Also, glad to be of service--it was hard picking out which stories/art/AMVs/places to add.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-27 06:07 am (UTC)I'm mostly slash/femslash pairings, but I do have favourite het pairings *lol*
Spellbound is one of the best TT episdoes and the most interesting. I love character exploring, and everything Raven related is just great, becasue Raven is just incredible, her personality, her powers, her feelings... she always will be my favourite Teen Titan ^^ Most of the poeple I know like her becasue of her looks, though.
Lately I haven't read any good RoRa fics... it's hard to find them. Most of those I find are silly, crack and totally unbelievable. I really don't like it. But lately I've read three fics that made me feel better, even if they're not perfect: Honesty (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2318958/1/Honesty), Broken Identity (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2179007/1/Broken_Identity) and Finally Figured It Out (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1879516/1/Finally_Figured_it_Out)
What are your favourites?
And my favourite AMV: Say That You Love Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej0IRXteCSQ&feature=related) ^^
no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 06:33 pm (UTC)It's definitely not a pairing that you can get instant fluff out of it, unless set inside the episode itself, and even then it's really not fluffy when you realize that Malchior'd still be faking it. It's certainly not the happiest ship in the world, what with Raven's being (very justified!) hestitant to forgive betrayers. Look at Terra--Raven insisted that she knew Terra couldn't be trusted all along (O RLY?) and finally blew her gasket when Terra really rubbed salt into the wound. Terra was Raven's friend and teammate--imagine how awful Raven must to have had to feel when Malchior, who was not only a colleauge, friend, mentor, but a romantic intrest as well, betrayed taking utter delight in rubbing it in. ("I got what I want. And I don't need you anymore!") Working off of this, I love trying to find realistic ways for the pairing to still work. It's not easy work, let me tell you, but it's very fun.
Oh, Malchior in fic? I do love reading everyone else's opinions.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-30 04:36 pm (UTC)Instant fluff isn't always my objective in a ship, and I certainly wouldn't try to approach this on from that angle. As to that old fic of mine, it doesn't portray Malchior in a good light or even suggest that Raven would end up with him in the end, but your manifesto does make me want to work with that more.
Honestly, the fic is ancient and needs to be completely overhauled before I'll be happy with it again.no subject
Date: 2009-09-30 05:39 pm (UTC)I've tried to revamp my old stories but I can never actually do it--it's too hard for me to completely rewrite so the stories that could really use...well, they stay that way unfortunately. So, I must tip my hat to you--good luck reworking it!
no subject
Date: 2009-10-01 02:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-07 03:15 pm (UTC)I'm a Beast Boy/Raven shipper at heart, but there is absolutely no denying Raven's feelings for Malchior as well as what the relationship did for her as a character. Kudos to you and I'm excited for the recs.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-07 03:52 pm (UTC)BB/R was the ship that sailed away before I realized it was even boarding, I'm afraid, but I'm glad you enjoyed this. Just the same, I think anyone who tries to write Raven (or any of the other Titans at that!) shouldn't just ignore the importance that the team holds to her. Malchior/Raven stories (or really, Raven/Villian) where she blows off their concerns as nothing rub me the wrong way. If it's a short story, I can see not showing their reactions, but the team just isn't her friends, they're her FAMILY in the ways it matters. And I must stop now, or I'll really start blathering on.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-17 07:53 pm (UTC)Tainted love are the worst — and the best sauce to any romance
Date: 2022-10-03 03:54 am (UTC)