#malven

Which is: making him a Titan.

Bear with me.

First of all, he's not the manipulative asshole he is in the canon episode. The plot twist never came. Let's actually play him straight - he's a powerful mage trapped in a book, a good guy screwed over by the dragon.

Also his name is actually Malchior because I like it more than Rorek. Call him Mal for short.

Since introducing a new major character needs to be done slowly, let's move his introduction to the beginning of the season. Space it out. Let the audience and the other characters learn about him a bit.

Raven clues in the other Titans two episodes after he is introduced, at first not really sure how to tell them that a book is talking to her.

Halfway through the season, he gets the paper body and can interact with the cast more easily. Turns out he's excellent at strategy, deduction, and extremely intelligent. He's actually an asset to the group and maybe helps identify some magic items or stuff?

He's also completely new to their world and technology, as well as curious to a FAULT. He and Star click instantly and she is delighted to be the one to explain to him various aspects of their daily life which, not that long ago, were new to her as well. Mal praises her intelligence and kindness and inquires about her home planet; I'm not sure if space travel was a thing in his world - probably not, so they spend a great deal of time just babbling excitedly at each other.

He'd probably treat her like an actual princess for a while.

He mistakes Cyborg's tech as magic at first, not really understanding what it is and how it works. Again, cue nerd-out and before long his paper form is covered in motor oil as he takes to tinkering with pretty much everything he can get his hands on in order to understand it better.

Since his paper form is too weak to stand going on missions, he mostly hangs around the base and learns.

Spacing his introduction out also allows his potential relationship with Raven to develop more naturally. Slow burn strangers to friends to lovers, you know.

He gets his real body back in the season finale, except the spell works out a little too well and frees other characters from the book, like the dragon and possibly a couple of other minor antagonists. Maybe some good guys to add to the secondary Titans roster?

Of course, the season wouldn't be centered around him; the Titans would have their adventures as normal, with maybe Mal serving as an Oracle-like figure, communicating with them from the base to supply critical info or stuff like that.

Fact: Mal has claustrophobia, possibly a side effect of being trapped in a book for so long? And very much dislikes silence. He and Beast Boy bond over music in between Mal ooooh-ing at his shapeshifting.

"marvellous! What other animals inhabit this world?" "[T-REX ROAR]"

As for Robin, they talk about tactics, Mal's world and stuff like that. Mal says Robin reminds him of a character he once knew (who is considered dead - slain by the dragon - but who may or may not appear later in the show) and stuff. Robin values Mal's advice and Mal admires Robin for being such an excellent leader.

Remember I said Mal is curious to a fault? Let's make it into a flaw. The dude would go to Hell just to see what it'd look like, accidentally trigger an overpowered device or artifact to understand how it works and, possibly? be tempted to the Dark Side by someone offering him that sweet sweet forbidden knowledge.

He doesn't know a lot of people aside from the Titans and thus has a bit of trouble forming new friendships, not knowing how to approach unfamiliar people when this whole world is still new to him. This could make him susceptible to manipulation. He's a smart guy, but socially clueless. Besides, he didn't get to be a master magician by being sociable; the dumbass could go a week without eating or sleeping if you didn't remind him that you kinda need these things to live. Another side effect of being in a book for so long?

Perhaps he could be kinda clumsy at first, not used to having a physical body?

Idk flesh the guy out.

Helping people is really important to him. As soon as he finds out about Terra, he attempts to find a spell to reverse the change to stone. He tries a manner of things, magic, alchemy, you name it, but nothing works. It frustrates him greatly, maybe even causes him to break down because he hates being helpless (like thst time he was trapped in a book and unable to do anything~), perhaps calling back on a piece of his backstory. Did he know someone who ended up petrified and, no matter what he did, the spell wouldn't break? Was it his fault? He feels terrible that he didn't even get to meet this girl. Had he been there, maybe he could have done something...

He hates being alone. Really, really does.

Alone with someone or listening to music? Okay. Alone in silence? Panic mode.

Aa for the villains brought out of the book, we have Rorek the Dragon, an order of corrupt knights wielding magical weapons that cancel out magic (including BBoy's shapeshifting, maybe?), a rival sorceress who later joins the Hive, and maybe a bunch of others?

Move Raven's Destiny plotline to the next season. I don't want it to collide with Mal's storyline. Let them enjoy each other, get the audience used to him before the clusterfuck goes down. I wonder if he would feel the power growing within her somehow, as a fellow magic user. I wonder how the story would have gone with him in it.

About his relationship with Raven, forget about the second half of the episode. This man has respect women juice flowing through his veins. Absolutely heads over heels for her to the point of maybe making either Robin or Starfire jealous of the schmoop and possibly urging them to work out their own relationship.

Raven: [exists]

Mal:

Oh man. Oohh man the ep where Rae outsmarts Mumbo at magic. Oooh man he'd LOVE THAT. (also I think he'd be turned into some kind of a bird. Raven? Dove flying out of a hat? Owl?)

They're not really physically affectionate, preferring to keep it chill (and I don't want their relationship to take over the goddamn show), and Raven appreciates that she can be herself around him, and that they can just sit and read in silence, comfortable in each other's company.

Although... He could be touch starved after all that time in the book~

Raven LOVES him and he LOVES her just as much if not more. An absolute old fashioned "flowers and moonlit walks" kind of romantic.

No manipulation, no isolation, just two magic nerds in love.

Mal thinks she's the smartest and greatest thing in the world. They both have different spells they're proficient in, and maybe some of Mal's magic could... not work in this world somehow? To not make him too op? So, say, he knows about this one topic more than anyone on Earth, but he needs Raven to explain this spell to him because she's better at this field of magic than he is.

Terra comes back because my city now, and he's kind of losing his mind because ELEMENTAL MANIPULATION TAKES DECADES OF DEDICATED STUDY AND YOU CAN JUST...... DO THAT? EARTH, TOO. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE IT DO WHAT YOU WANT. IT'S STUBBORN LIKE NOTHING ELSE. HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS???

He and Terra feel a bit like outsiders since the main 5 have known each other for so long while they're only recent arrivals maybe? Oh, he and Cyborg could whip up some magical stuff for her! Gauntlets or something that enhance her earth manipulation or let her light rocks on fire, idk.

Did I mention the fact that he Doesn't Sleep Ever? Too many books to read too much research to do too much KNOWLEDGE. This man runs on the blackest coffee you've ever seen. Beast Boy smelled it once and decided that even a sip would probably give him a heart attack, while Mal just downs it like it's hot cocoa, except not really because he doesn't like sweet things.

Beast Boy: hey Mal you're not looking too well. Do you need some updog?

Malchior, blissfully unaware of what that green fiend is about to do to him: hmm, what is an updog? I've never heard of it.

Look, I understand why the episode went Like That, and I understand the moral, but I just think that this would be a hell of an interesting AU.