...
It's one thing for Raven to accidentally blow up Mumbo's hand. Stuff happens, she didn't expect the wand would explode. It was a bit worse when she instinctively used metahuman-grade force on a bunch of bank robbers and paralyzed one, but there was a real threat to her life if she didn't act quickly.
Here, Raven apparently premeditated the de facto murder of Dr. Light, who she probably could have trivially captured (nonlethally) *before* her Ascension, and cares even less about that than she did about her unintentional cripplings. She can barely manage an "Oops?" when it turns out her murder has thoroughly interfered with their attempts at stopping crime.
Are we sure Rage didn't win? Because even with how quickly she's been sliding from Batman to Punisher, that drop at the end was fast.
On a related note, how the heck is Raven's criminal record clean after all of that? Are there just not laws against superheroes using excessive force? Are they enforced even worse for superheroes than real-world cops? Ugh.

I want to make a joke about how Raven's going to be a bad influence on the HIVE Three, but...I'm just sad. I was enjoying the parts of the story that were about basically anything except Raven's descent into ultraviolence, and this is the note it ends on? Accidentally suggesting that Starfire's right, because how the hell does Raven just not care about killing a guy without abandoning her humanity?

It's neat that this fic has a sequel. I'm not interested in it unless Raven starts caring at least a bit about the people she hurts...or maybe if it's from the POV of the other Titans trying to bring in their corrupted ex-friend?

I like the idea behind this moment of character growth. I also wish that enough self-reflection had been onscreen that it didn't feel like an entire character arc was cut down to fit into half a chapter.

For once, a short comment: It's a bit awkward to exposit reasons why the characters were concerned about something while they're making up about it. The stuff about demons and witches and whatnot is neat, but poorly-placed.

And now Raven's into enhanced—sorry, *ruthless* interrogation? And still showing basically no remorse over crippling someone? Yeah, I think working for the US government would be a better gig for Raven than heroics.

I hope this is the last time the intra-Titanic conflict is focused on, because every time Raven tries to defend herself, I lose a little more respect for her.

Also, completely unrelated, but the blonde teenaged metahuman girl being named Lisa keeps reminding me of a blonde teenaged parahuman girl being named Lisa, even though the two act basically nothing alike. Which just makes the confusion worse somehow? Brains are weird.

Imagine if this series never got another chapter, just a spin-off set in Tokyo that didn't mention the resurrected elephant in the room. That would be embarrassing.

Unfair jokes aside, this chapter was interesting. A surprising amount of plot development for a chapter that is focused on Raven meeting the HIVE...Three?

Re: Author's note: Yeah. Jinx, relationship status is not consent. I'm starting to question whether Jinx is actually good for Raven...I mean, she seems like she's trying to help her, but she's really bad at respecting/recognizing her boundaries. It's one thing to get someone out of their shell, it's another thing to smash it with a mallet.

Hopefully she figures it out or Raven learns to speak up *before* lashing out, without anyone getting cursed or maimed or destroying a city block in the process.

Also, oh no cliffhanger I guess?

I'm worried about Raven. Forget Jinx, she needs Jessica Yamada. And I don't just mean because of the self-loathing and isolation (though those would be enough, and are entwined into everything else), I mean because she threatened to kill Beast Boy if he tattled. And considering her lack of remorse over crippling Mumbo Jumbo, I believe she meant it. Yikes. BB's a manchild, but he doesn't deserve that, especially if he just thinks Raven sleeping with the enemy is a threat to the team.

Right, let's do this WITHOUT accidentally posting halfway through. Stupid phone, stupid can't edit reviews.

If you blah blah weirdo who writes them (trust me, I'm him), etc. This chapter barely touched on them and is a critical point in the relationship between Jinx and Raven (the primary plot of the bits I mention liking). Hence, you can probably guess that I like this chapter.

And I do! Starting with Raven worrying about how Jinx will feel about her behavior and ending with worrying about what she feels about Jinx's is a good arc for the chapter, and it was paced well. The two bonding over their shared trauma was sweet. Raven's reaction to suddenly being kissed feels in-character and heightens the tension well.

Speaking of which, I do have one criticism. The author's note clarifying that yes, they'll get together. I mean, I know they will (I came here from TV Tropes, I saw the sequel, and it's the obvious dramatic route for an action-romance like this), but having the author explicitly say so in what barely can be considered paratext kills the tension more effectively than outside sources pointing out to my conscious mind that they're going to get together.

It also feels unneeded, and not just because of that obvious-route thing (or because assuaging the audience's concerns about a controversial plot element is alien to my authorial sensibilities). I was blindsided by the idea that some people would freak out about Raven not eventually dating Jinx, enough that I reread the end of the chapter a couple times to make sure I didn't miss an assertion of hetero/asexuality or a rebuke or something.
I don't read/watch many romance-centric stories, so apologies if this is a stupid question, but...is it a genre convention that first kisses not being immediately followed by a declaration of love are a sign of the relationship falling apart? Because that's the only reason I can think of for why someone might come to that conclusion that they're not going to get together from the end of the chapter.
Like I said, Raven's reaction feels natural for someone who received a surprise kiss from someone they're just getting comfortable with liking as a friend (let alone a recent enemy and criminal, especially for someone as "tough on crime" as Raven), or when they are sufficiently emotionally-repressed that they don't know their own sexual/romantic orientation (especially when it's severe enough that her emotions are literally separate people), let alone both, let alone the legitimate concerns with her team (and primary support network). I wouldn't have batted an eye if Raven overtly shut down Jinx's affections, or even said she didn't want to see Jinx again. (Emotional intimacy is not consent, y'know?) Besides, this is a romance-centric story; a setback like this would be soluble in a quick romantic subplot, let alone one which the story is focused on!

Wow, that's wordy. Sorry about that. Anyways, great chapter aside from that, good chapter even with it, hopefully I won't be so verbose in the future.

If you've paid attention to both my previous reviews and the username of the weirdo who writes them, you've probably realized that this guy likes most of the parts that aren't about fights or the Mumbo argument. This chapter barely touched on them and is a crituc

The conflict amongst the Titans is...getting more confusing.

A surprisingly large part of that comes from the labels applied to the two sides; Robin, Starfire, and Beast Boy are "pacifists," while Raven and Cyborg are "realists". I guess I should let the biased nature of these labels, especially the latter, slide since the narration is sort of Raven's perspective, but I feel obligated to comment on it because it's also sort of not.
Anyways. "Pacifist." There's a whole range of definitions and interpretations of pacifism; from the (mostly strawman) position that no violence is ever okay to varying degrees of some violence being okay in some circumstances. There's always a focus on nonviolent resolution of conflicts, however, and I don't see that on Robin's side of the aisle.
Since Cyborg already informed Raven that the others thought she INTENDED to blow up Mumbo's hand, and because (as per the ultimate source of this conflict) she doesn't intend to tell them until they specifically ask about it, she should know that their criticism comes not from the fact that Raven used violence but from the fact that she crippled a guy and didn't show any remorse afterwards. If she thinks that only a pacifist would object to that, that implies a dangerous comfort with severely injuring "bad guys".

... anyways, the interactions between Raven and Jinx continue to be nice. I just wish that the Titanic conflict behind them didn't paint Raven in such an unsympathetic light.

I agree with your muse, this chapter was a good idea. A sedate definitely-not-a-date is a nice change of pace after the fight scene and emotional breakdown preceding it, the character development was nice, and...well, too much fanfic leaves out the important little bits and focuses on plot and big setpieces.

Unrelated, but apparently TV Tropes exists in the DCU and Jinx is a regular visitor. I wonder if any of the tropese stood out to people who aren't.

I'm not sure how well trying to mimic the cartoon's fight scene tone really works for this story. For one thing, animation is a far better medium for combat slapstick than literature, especially given your style of prose. (Dry precision is good for some jokes and bad for others.) Second, and probably more importantly, maintaining levity during fight scenes directly conflicts with your explicit intent to make violence more consequential.

I understand why you made this creative choice; maintaining the tone of the original is the natural thing to do when writing fanfic. I'm just not sure it was the right choice.

I'm conflicted about the Mumbo situation. Don't get me wrong, Robin's in the wrong and Raven just made a mistake in the heat of battle, but...she should care about the victim, yeah? At least in a "That sucks, wish I hadn't taken off his hand" kind of way.
And the reasoning she gives for "I didn't do anything wrong" doesn't really bring up the accident part, implying that Raven thinks it would have been fine if she had *tried* to blow up his hand, because...whatever gets the job done, I guess. That rhetoric sits uncomfortably in me, since there are people making basically the same arguments to justify police brutality and war crimes.
Sometimes, shit happens, and that sucks. But the proper attitude towards that isn't "Oh well, they're just bad guys," it's "Can I avoid this in the future?"
I'm worried that this plot point foreshadows Raven and Jinx becoming a Punisher-esque vigilante duo, but with more magic and lesbian subtext. (Or possibly text.) I don't think I could enjoy that, which is a shame because I've enjoyed this story otherwise.

Also, boilerplate comment about Jinx betraying Raven's trust and playing with fire.

Yor disclaimer for this chapter is a little wrong.

Remember the book dragon that Raven was falling for? She was mad crushing on him. I think it was the first time we saw a white Raven as well.

I don't know much about this timeline in DC but I am a big fan of Greek myths and personally think that that Achilles or Theseus Initiative would work better 10/10 though