Slade

"It's been a long time, hasn't it, Titans? A month, a year, a millennium? Far too long for my tastes anyway. I was beginning to think I would never see your smiling faces again!"

- Slade

Slade is the most prominent archenemy of the Titans in the Teen Titans animated series. He is based on the DC Comics character of Deathstroke the Terminator. This article specifically covers the animated version of the character. He appeared in 17 episodes of the animated series, which makes him the most frequently appearing villain on the show.

Role
Slade plays a main role as one of the main villains in the animated series. His first appearance is Divide And Conquer and Final Exam where he first appears as a silhouetted figure. In Divide And Conquer, Slade sent Cinderblock to free Plasmus from jail as well as other criminals. After Cinderblock and Plasmus were defeated and sent back to jail, Slade then hired Gizmo, Jinx, and Mammoth to defeat the Teen Titans.

In Forces of Nature, Slade disguised himself as an old man and Thunder and Lightning formerly worked for him until the two brothers realized that their "fun" was harmful and wrong (thanks to Beast Boy teaching them a lesson). Robin fought the disguised Slade while his team took out the flame monster. After Robin kicked Slade's face, his real face was revealed, then vanished into thin air.

In the episodes Apprentice Part 1 & 2, he tricked Robin into being his apprentice, but Robin refused to work for him. Slade then threatened to destroy Robin's friends with nanobots within their bodies, but Robin defeated Slade by placing the same nanobots into his system, telling Slade that if he killed his friends he would also lose his current apprentice, Robin.

Slade returned in the 2nd season, where he discovered a girl named Terra, had tremendous power, and convinced her to be his apprentice. In the end Terra betrayed Slade, and Terra knocked Slade into a pit of lava, seemingly killing him.

Sometime after the final battle with Slade, he became a figment of Robin's imagination, haunting Robin's mind. After Robin was knocked out by Cinderblock, he saw that Slade returned, but every time Robin attacked him, Slade didn't have a scratch and couldn't even touch him. Robin's friends couldn't see Slade, especially Starfire, because only Robin can. Slade easily beaten up Robin badly, and Robin became even more angry. Back at the tower, Slade was still haunting Robin's mind, and got beaten up some more. There was only one weakness: the flickering lights made Slade disappear. Just as Slade was about to kill Robin, Robin believed in his friends and switched on the lights and Slade disappeared completely.

In the 4th season of the Teen Titans animated series, Slade surprisingly returned after Terra took him down after he was revived, thanks to Trigon, Raven's demonic father. Slade gained a new power, which was fire attacks and the crescent S on his head. He is after Raven this time.

After Raven sacrificed herself to release Trigon, Robin had no choice but to join Slade to look for Raven. Slade then came face to face with a demonic guard and stole his weapon. Slade betrayed Trigon and Trigon blasted Slade away. He was never seen again after this, although he made one final appearance in the episode, "Things Change" as a robot.

Powers
Slade doesn't seem to have any powers, but he is very agile, strong and a very skilled martial artist. He seems to possess some knowledge of ceremonial magic (as seen in the episode Forces of Nature). He appears to have access to extremely advanced technology and various secret hideouts, nearly unlimited resources, and a vast army of robot minions. However, Slade's most notable quality is that he is a master of manipulation and psychology, allowing him to get his foes to do almost anything he wants through shrewd manipulation. Like Robin and his mentor, Slade also uses many gadgets during his fights, including explosives.

When serving as Trigon's agent, he is empowered with vast pyrokinetic abilities, superhuman strength and durability, flight, regeneration, phasing, electricity generation, teleportation, and other supernatural powers making him far stronger than the Teen Titans (except for Raven. Moreover, as he was only a skeleton without a body at the time, he was able to sustain heavy damage and was near immortal.