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darkspellmaster · 5 years

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Young Justice Theory: Terra and Deathstroke’s relationship

Fair bit of warning, this is going to get a bit squicky, so a heads up for anyone easily upset by a comic nearly 30 years old that has some rather...nasty...implications.

That being said in my other theory post I was covering the likely hood of the Judas Contract coming into play. One of the bigger parts of that story line is the relationship between Tera Markov and Slade Wilson and how it affects them and her brother Brion later in the story.

As I said in my other post, I think that Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke, is in charge of the LoA and probably sitting with the Light now. I also surmised that Tara is probably working with him out of a sense of loyalty or possibly infatuation, one that was born probably on a savior complex that she has thanks to the treatment she’s been put through due to her uncle.

Now while I don’t know exactly how this relationship will play out I do think it’s going to be darker than other versions that have been put to animation. However due to the factor that there’s some...less than ideal implications in this post, you’ve been warned once more about the history of these two characters and their relationship.

Exactly what is the relationship of Terra and Slade at this point?

This is not going to be an easy area to talk about because of the nature of the relationship in the comics. Tara and Slade have very complex issues both born out of desires and needs. Though with Tera’s we were never given the full story because she wasn’t supposed to have one, persay. We were supposed to like her and feel, much like the Teen Titan’s, betrayed by her, as her character was supposed to be a dark mirror to one Kitty Pryde of X-men fame, and a subversion of the bubbly teen girl that joins the older cast of characters.

However because Tera’s story and the complex emotions that this tale wrought with fans of the 80s, it’s been adapted several times over and in a lot of cases we got to see More of Terra’s story and how different forms affect her.

So in Teen Titans, Terra was given a more “I need you to love me as a dad” type story with Slade, which for the most part sticks with most cartoon adaptations of the story. However, with the recent movie adaptation of the Judas contract we get a Terra that is a bit more interested in Slade.

In this version Slade rejects her off and pushes her away, showing that he has a greater sense of morality and noting his other children in the story.

It’s important to understand where Slade is coming from in this tale, as his connection to the Titans runs deep, as it seems to run the same way with the core team in Young Justice. In comics Slade’s eldest son Grant became the Ravenger who worked for H.I.V.E, a group of assassins that worked for the H.I.V.E. Mistress who was Queen Bee (and later Adeline Wilson, Slade’s ex wife) and took on high profile contracts for murder and terrorism.

Grant, who was a fan of Deathstroke, not knowing that was his father, became the Ravenger after his apartment was destroyed when the Titans were trying to save Starfire. As Ravenger he intended to take out the Titan’s team and allowed for them to give him powers like his father. However, unlike Deathstroke who also was experimented on -and who wound up in a coma because of it but somehow that helped him, Grant’s powers were unstable and killing him. Slade warned him not to go after the Titans in his condition, but Grant did not listen. During a fight with the team his powers burned out and killed him. He died in his father’s arms, leading to Slade swearing revenge upon the Titans.

We know that Slade has been in the series since season 1, though his extent was limited there. It was only during the Season 2 time jump that we began to see a difference in the character and his expressing wanting to join the Light and sit at the table. (A small theory here though is that Slade maybe doing this in order to get revenge on everyone that ended up killing Grant, including Queen Bee, and YJ.)

The importance though here is that Slade has been shown to be a caring father, one that even when facing his son and daughter in battle has been willing to protect them from others even as he’s trying to defeat them. These two being Joseph and Rose Wilson (Jericho and Ravenger II respectively). If indeed Grant died in the in between of the seasons, than it becomes a clear cut case on what the hell Slade is up to. However we don’t know that for sure at this point.

Slade’s desire for revenge tends to override most of his own moral code, though in a lot of cases we’ve seen him show a desire to keep the kids out of it.

Regarding Terra though, in most cases the writers mostly ignored or changed over the relationship between these two, leaving it more along the lines of the movie where Slade doesn’t try things with her at all even as Terra throws herself at him.

Yet…given that Greg has said they are going darker, and given the ambitious nature of this Slade over his various counterparts, I wouldn’t hesitate to think for a moment that he would be willing to have a sexual affair with this young girl.

Yes, you heard right, Slade and Terra were having a intimate relationship while she was either 14 to 16 years of age. He was basically allowing her to have him physically as a reward for her work with the TT.

From what we know at least when Terra was first created by Marv and George the idea was to create the Anti Kitty Pryde who was a big deal at the time in the X-men. Terra held the charming sweet girl look around the Teen Titan’s and wound up getting close to Beast Boy.

However around Slade she was a rather different person.

(Of note in a specific scene where she is talking with Slade she specifically mentions camera contact lenses, and who on the YJ crew has been using those recently. If you said Dick Grayson, you are correct. On top of that the image of Terra that we see in Black Spider’s introduction has red eyes, making me wonder if it’s night goggles, her powers being used, or the contact lenses she mentions here.)

Anyway, Tera in the Teen Titans here came off as someone much older than her own age. She drank, smoked and talked like someone in her thirties. Or at least she was attempting to. We know at this point in time Slade and Tera were in some sort of relationship. Though Slade’s own feelings for the girl is a mixed bag.

Various writers tend to skirt their relationship, but in some cases they pretty much lay out what was going on. Tera appealing to Slade’s loneliness, though in a number of cases it seems like she’s the one pulling the string in the relationship.

On the one hand we can at least, due to some writers, know that Deathstroke may have not been at all comfortable with sleeping with an under aged girl at the time. However his own desire to make the Titan’s pay for the death of Grant over rides this in most written adaptations, or, more frequently having it become a case where he regrets his choices with Tera and connects it to his own issues and at least doesn’t exactly brush it off. Though a lot of writers seem to skip over this, and play it out as Slade just manipulating her.

The bigger question becomes, at least with this version of the story, given that YJ is allowed to show death and blood now, will they be allowed to cover this aspect of the Judas contract?

(Using TJC movie version here for reference)

Tera, as far as we know, hasn’t been fleshed out as of yet. We only have Brion’s word about wanting to find her. We know that she’s probably with Slade, and, let’s be honest here there may be some issues in regard to Tera seeing him as a savior figure. On top of that Slade kinda looks a bit like her dad, or an older version of Gregor in this version of the show.

So there may be more going on in her mind in regard to her feelings for this man over what we see in the comics. We know that, given what Sensei says, there’s the implication that Tera was unhappy at home and that Brion wasn’t helping matters in being off in his own world rather than realizing her issues before him. There’s also the added issue that, as we see with Terra later in the story, she has a mental break down when she’s betrayed by who she thinks is the man that she loves. (Namely this isn’t Slade it’s actually Jericho using his powers of possession to take over his father’s mind.)

The problem right now is how to actually show how they are around one another. As I said before most versions play it more either as a father/daughter like relationship now. Or if they do have the implications of her wanting him, Slade tends to push her away as he has in other media, outright telling her to get off, or put on clothing.

Yet we know that the show is going to get darker as the story goes on, and if Tera has chosen to be with Slade, there needs to be shown exactly why and what is keeping her there. A full on relationship with him would certainly be something, especially if it’s going to be used to counter the growing relationships in the show, such as Brion with Halo, or M’ggan and Conner. By using them as two very lost people using one another to fill holes in their lives, it does give us a look into how broken Brion’s family has become by this point and why it’s going to be hard for him to go back.

Likely too, if Tera did feel that she was being ignored and not loved, Slade’s romance with her may be filling a need that she has and allowing her to feel more secure. Again, if I’m right about her being “saved” by him she may feel that he’s the only person that understands her or truly loves her. This could come down to (since we don’t have Jericho in the show…yet) Brion and Slade vying for her attention to stay on their side. Brion begging his sister to come back and Slade offering the path to the possibly desired world that she wants. This could lead her to choosing her own death and having it were Brion can’t save his sister, and leading him to want revenge on Slade for her death.

Given how Brion tried to kill Slade in Final Crisis itself, leading to him to slit his own throat so that he wouldn’t be taken over by Slade, we can assume that Greg would not at the very least have a fight between these two men over his sister’s death. (Regarding this Geoforce chooses to do this in the very alley way that caused the near death of Joseph Wilson, and rendered him mute from a partial throat slitting from a villain that was after Deathstroke for his activity as an assassin.) Not only that, but one thing that isn’t discussed a lot is what Slade tells Brion about Tera and how close he was to her. Slade realized that Tera has a psychosis, something that pushes her to become irrational later and attack others when she feels betrayed.

During that time Terra pulls apart everything to kill Slade, the Titans and herself, not out of a feeling of guilt but because she felt like she was used and the fact remains that at least in the comics she was already insane.

Tera’s clear over confidence is something that can be seen in her brother as well, since he’s willing to go to Infinity Island with just a two others to save his sister. I have a hunch that M’ggan will be taking up the role that Raven had in this story at the very least, given that Deathstroke has had a run in with Megan before and knows of her and her ways of dealing with things.

It’s interesting to note that at least in the comic Tera always seemed to overestimate the Titans, and I have a feeling that this Tera is going to do the same for YJ, though exactly how or why remains a mystery to me. I can assume that she may do her trick for the Outsiders that we have formed here, with the ramifications leading to Brion to wonder if he’s going to be unstable like her due to the work that Dr. Jace did on him.

I’m also guessing that Tera probably will have to come to some realization over just being simply betrayed here by Deathstroke given how his personality is in this story.

How this all works out…

In the end there is no doubt in my mind that we’re going to see Brion taking more of Beast Boy’s role in this story. Changing it more to a found family aspect vs. how your real family is. I have a feeling that with that, we’re going to see Tera used as a counter to the love that Brion is getting from the other friends that he’s made, and how she treats him.

I’m also going to guess that, without Jericho to take over his father, and given how Deathstroke was in the last two seasons, we’re going to see him pretty much turn his back on Terra after he points out that she’s useless now to him causing her to cave in the LoA, but not before Slade escapes leading to probably the big fight between Slade and Brion later in Part two with the two clashing over Brion feeling that Slade helped murder his sister and probably hurting his new found friends.

I also feel like Tera will be the one that will fight against Halo and probably push her to the limit of her powers. I honestly think that there’s going to be a clash of wills, ideals, and psychology in this story. And I would not be surprised if we see a teen Joseph, and a young Rose, at some point to show that Slade is more than just a killing machine.

We know that there’s going to be a match between Slade and the others as we see Forager coming after him in the trailer.

Only question now is when will we get to see this, and will Tera join the team and if so…how long before she turns against them. Because she will, it’s just a matter of when and why.

Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if word got back to Slade after the attack on Infinity Island that Brion is looking for his sister and he hatches a plan to use her to get to Team babysitter’s club. Betting also that between season 2 and 3 Grant was killed by YJ at some point, or at least their actions lead to his death and that may be what is driving Slade to make all the choices he’s making right now.

This should be a very interesting test to see how well Greg and Brandon handle this level of dark in the show.

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