Cyborg (Teen Titans 2003)

"I'm only gonna say this once... 'Booyah!'"

- Cyborg in Teen Titans origins episode "Go!"

Cyborg is one of the main protagonists of the 2003 animated series Teen Titans. He is a half-cybernetic half-human former athlete and one of the five founding members of the Teen Titans. He is the oldest and tallest of the group and Robin's second-in-command, to the point of taking over as the leader whenever Robin is absent. He was also briefly the leader of Titans East.

He is voiced by Khary Payton, who also voices Drebin and portrays Ezekiel.

Character History
Cyborg was a promising strong teenage athlete named Victor Stone before an accident that killed his mother and injured him so severely that his damaged body parts were replaced with cybernetics to keep him alive. But since these mechanical parts were not inconspicuous, he was shunned by his home environment and his friends, which frustrated him greatly.

One night, Cyborg took to the streets, where he ran into the new arrivals Robin and Beast Boy fighting a rather violent alien girl, who was actually a fugitive from a prisoner transport. Soon joined by the mystery girl Raven, the youngsters teamed up to defeat the girl's alien captors and formed a permanent team to combat villainy. Cyborg constructed the Titans Tower and its systems from a Gordanian landing ship, and the team moved into its new headquarters. From that point on Cyborg served as the team's chief technician, constructing their primary vehicles such as the T-Car and T-Ship.

In the series' third season, Cyborg used the alias of Stone and a pair of holographic rings to infiltrate the H.I.V.E. Academy, which was at that time administered and mind-controlled by Brother Blood.

The Titans exposed and foiled his scheme to utilize a new superweapon called the Ion Amplifier, but in the process Cyborg unknowingly had the construction plans for his cybernetics copied by Blood, who used them to build new superweapons. Outraged, Cyborg declared a personal vendetta on Blood and confronted him personally when he attempted to employ a gigantic sonic cannon from an undersea base. However, Blood's martial arts skills got the better of him, and he won only with Bumblebee's assistance, who was at that time infiltrating the H.I.V.E. with the help of Aqualad. In order to hunt down Blood and other supervillains more efficiently, Cyborg helped Bumblebee and Aqualad establish and outfit an Eastern branch of the Titans, with Speedy and Más y Menos joining the ranks. Soon they were attacked by Blood and an army of Cyborg-modeled robots, but apparently managed to repel them all. Met with a proposal to remain and become the leader of the Titans East, Cyborg decided to stay with his new team.

As it turned out, however, Blood had managed to capture and brainwash the Titans East into becoming his students, and also initiated his own transformation into a cyborg. When Cyborg discovered this, he barely managed to call his old teammates for help. In the end, Blood overpowered them all and confronted Cyborg, demanding to know what had enabled Cyborg to resist his psychic brainwashing. In his frustration, Blood linked his mind too closely with Cyborg's, who exerted his own willpower and not only managed to defeat Blood by breaking his cybernetics, but also to psychically restore the damage inflicted to him during the fight. Afterward, Cyborg found he could not renounce his commitment to his old teammates, so he quit the Titans East, although he remains at a good personal standing with them.

At one point, Cyborg attempted to upgrade himself by installing a super-processor chip called Maximum-7 (or Max-7) into his cybernetic brain. Initially it did work for his benefit, boosting his physical and mental processing speed well beyond his former capacities. But when the Titans first engaged Billy Numerous and were unable to catch him, a frustrated and obsessive Cyborg began shutting down his human personality in order to increase the Max-7's efficiency, which had the detrimental effect of making him more and more a robot, and eventually this conflict between human and cybernetic nature led to a short-circuit which nearly killed him. The other Titans managed to remove the chip before this could happen, and now restored to his true self, Cyborg devised a successful plan which brought down Numerous for good.

On another occasion, Cyborg was ripped 5,000 years into the past by a witch's spell and met a barbarian princess called Sarasim. Although he felt uncomfortable without proper technology (especially since his systems require periodic recharges) and he did not feel at home, he and Sarasim slowly fell in love. Subsequently, he learned that his competitor Krall was responsible for bringing him here, and he and Sarasim prepared to face him in battle. Before he could aid Sarasim in fighting Krall, Raven managed to pull him back into the present, but he was comforted when Raven told him that Sarasim had succeeded in defeating Krall.

Personality
Cyborg is a very outgoing, cool, and fun-loving character who likes to enjoy life, especially since he found friends who consider him a person, not a freak. He likes to enjoy playing video games, tinkering with technological gizmos and eating. He also tends to be stubborn at times and has had some serious arguments with Robin in the past, but he does make a capable second-in-command in Robin's absence. He also frequently bickers with Beast Boy, mostly about the latter's culinary taste and habit of misplacing all manners of personal items, though the two entertain a close friendship.

Cyborg often takes on the protective big brother role to Raven and Starfire, getting quite serious when they are upset and does whatever he can to make them feel better. He is never hesitant to put Beast Boy (his best friend) in his place when he thinks the younger Titan is being inconsiderate of Raven's or Starfire's feelings. Likewise, Raven and Starfire also do the same for him, as evident in Car Trouble and Deception.

Much like the other Titans, Cyborg does not take betrayal lightly. He hates losing battles, especially to seemingly insignificant opponents. Their first defeat from Terra made him extremely angry with himself, because he had a chance to take a shot but didn't. He has been known to display emotions of anger (which he often takes out on his friends), frustration, and becoming depressed. What emotions he feels he feels deeply and passionately, but he also has a mature head on his shoulders at times, shown partly in how quick he is to forgive Terra after her sacrifice.

One facet of personal vulnerability is Cyborg's great personal pride in his inventions and constructions. For this reason, he tends to foster an immense dislike for anyone abusing his technology for selfish reasons, especially Gizmo and Brother Blood, and to be overprotective of his most personal projects, like the T-Car.

He also possesses a tremendous appetite, and he will consume any edibles within his reach when hungry. His favorite food is barbecue and he also especially enjoys other meat, milkshakes, pizza, and waffles. The only food he would not voluntarily touch is Starfire's cooking and tofu (especially since Beast Boy goes to great lengths to try and make him eat it) although he once mistakenly ate the alien meat substitute.