The Return of Slade (Teen Titans Go!)

The Return of Slade is the fiftieth episode of the second season of Teen Titans Go!, and the one-hundred-second overall episode of the series.

Plot
After defeating Slade again, the Titans decide to host a party to celebrate. Beast Boy and Cyborg try to make a clown meet their standards, not realizing they're not kids anymore.

Why Slade Didn't Return

 * 1) Misleading title: Despite the episode's title, Slade does not actually appear in this episode at all. Rather, Slade's return starts the episode. Only his mask is shown.
 * 2) The whole episode is supposed to be an "It's made for kids" excuse. It also states that you're stupid for thinking kids' shows should have intelligence, challenge, and substance in it, and that if you make kids' show that appeals to both kids and adults, then it'll suck, and that you should only give them age-appropriate stuff (none of which are true in the slightest, as many adults love cartoons like SpongeBob SquarePants, The Loud House, Adventure Time, Regular Show, Steven Universe, and Thomas and Friends, as well as many Golden Age-era theatrical cartoons such as Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Tex Avery MGM cartoons, amongst others. There are also cartoons aimed at adults such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Bob’s Burgers, amongst others, nor preschool shows that teaches audiences in the unique way for educational.
 * 3) Raven is a massive hypocrite in this episode, as she kept yelling out that clowns are for kids even though she watches Pretty Pretty Pegasus (a parody of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) which is a kids' show.
 * 4) *Even Cyborg brings this up.
 * 5) Much like the episode "Let's Get Serious," this was intentionally made to lash back at the negative reviews the show had, proving that the writers don't take kindly to even the slightest form of criticism.
 * 6) Its plot is stupid and childish. Why would Beast Boy and Cyborg, two teens, hire a clown that is meant for kids for their celebration party of Slade’s defeat?
 * 7) *Speaking of clowns, this episode outright claims that clowns are strictly only for kids. But in real life, some clowns are actually able to entertain both kids and adults rather than just kids in circuses and/or outdoor busker festivals, which is what makes this episode even more insulting.
 * 8) Starfire’s Coulrophobia gag is a bit annoying.
 * 9) There's a message about forgetting your childhood, which is not only a direct insult to the fans of the original series, but a terrible lesson to be teaching kids, who watched cartoons and preschool shows.
 * 10) While this episode tries to be about growing up, it feels more like you can't enjoy stuff as an adult that you enjoyed as a kid. Hell the moral itself is basically pulling another middle finger at the original fans of the shows.
 * 11) According to the Teen Titans Go! Wiki, there were some TTG fans who wanted to see the Titans fight Slade. To say that they were unhappy would be an understatement. Even multiple toxic anonymous users were pestering about this on the comments section of the first old wiki on FANDOM (which is now the Emer Prevost Wiki) that they all hated this episode and how they all wanted to start riots at the crew of TTG for this episode.
 * 12) Nonsensical ending. Somehow Starfire gets over her coulrophobia by defeating the mutated clown unconscious and saying "I will never trust the clowns."
 * 13) *However, several episodes after this episode reveal Starfire still has her coulrophobia meaning the ending is useless anyways.
 * 14) Overall, this episode is basically a horrid combination of the misleading title/false advertising tactics used in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Shuffleboarding" and all the hater episodes of Teen Titans Go! (all which none of them are even good to begin with), but only with all their worst qualities exaggerated to extremes.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) It was thankfully made up for when we finally got to see Slade in the Teen Titans Go! feature film Teen Titans Go! To the Movies.
 * 2) There are a couple of funny moments here and there.
 * 3) Robin is the only tolerable Titan in this episode.
 * 4) The mutated clown somehow makes a good antagonist, his ability to turn kiddie stuff evil is also cool.

Reception
The Return of Slade was universally panned by critics, fans of the 2003 series, and even fans of Teen Titans Go! alike and is considered to be the absolute worst episode in the show's history. Many people believe that the writers used false advertising to bring back fans of the original series, in this case, Slade's appearance. Nevertheless, this episode caused the series to lose a surprisingly huge amount of fans in older age groups, Some fans decided to stop watching the series after this one episode and many had switched to the haters’ side as they deemed the message it conveyed as offensive and disrespectful.

It has a 2.5 out of 10 rating on IMDb and a 1.7 out of 10 rating on TV.com, making it the lowest-rated TTG episode on both sites.

Video
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