#also BBTerra and WallyxArtemis are the same

[ask-whitebag]

Hello, since you spent a lot of time roleplaying / thinking about BBTerra I was wondering, do you have any opinions on the relationship in general you can share, or like how you'd imagine them interaction / their relationship post cartoon? I'm the hugest teen titans fan and I love your beast boy art, by the way.

Beast Boy is one of my favorite DCU characters, and I am indeed a huge BBTerra shipper. They're one of my favorite DCU pairings for sure (I'm talking about the 2003's cartoon versions of course). I think it's adorable how quickly they clicked together, and their friendship was super adorable. They were both weird goofballs with tragic backstories, and I think their friendship was exactly what they needed in their life. With their mutual support, they could have grown to become better people. There was a lot of room for development.

But I like BBTerra mostly for the same reason I like Jinx and Ekko, or for the same reason I like Orpheus and Eurydice. I think the tragedy element is integral to their story, and it's the thing that appeals to me the most here.

There is no BBTerra relationship post-canon. The only way BBTerra could have a happy ending was if Terra came clean a little earlier, and if Beast Boy stuck to his word and was her friend no matter what. But that's not what ended up happening, because they were insecure, troubled kids, and when it mattered the most, their feelings were just too difficult, too complicated.

And yes, while I wrote a conclusion to BBTerra's storyline, I felt it would be disrespectful to ignore that tragedy element. Which is why I give them both a closure, but I don't… make them end up with each other. There is no fixing the past, but there is making peace with it. Writing that ending was bittersweet, but it felt more right than taking the easy way of making them a couple.

BBTerra always makes me wonder "what if". It's seeing them for what they could be. It's the yearning. It's wanting to have something you can't have. It's what always keeps me invested when it comes to shipping.