Watched some more of season 3 today and got to thinking as to why that season doesn't feel the same as season 1 or 2. Was optimus that important a character? Maybe to many characters introduced all the time with little to no development of character? I can barely name the predacons or terror cons for example. Other opinions?

 

Urm...Optimus isn't in most of Season 3...

 

I hated the art deco pastel color schemes of the toys but liked them more when g2 came around with it's eye piercing neons...ugh. I remember thinking, as far as the cartoon, it felt like they weren't even trying anymore until powermasters (targetmasters? I can't remember).

 

There were a lot of animation issues, but other than that I liked it more than the other seasons. I thought the writing was a lot more ambitious and I enjoyed the more space opera approach to the series. Plus Rodimus Prime is my favorite G1 character, hands down.

 

Uhh,,,,thats what he's saying, dude......

he's asking did season 3 seem lackluster 'without' Prime.


Same as someone mentioned, my only problem was the animation, but I still love those episodes anyway. 5 Faces for example, Ive said before coulda been epic, well more epic, with say, Call of the Primitives or Money Is Everything animation....

I enjoyed the season immensely as a kid and still do now. Robots in space, more fun than robots stuck on earth with 'no gas' or whatever. Or like Earth is the most valuable planet in the galaxy....yea sure....

 

It's mainly just the animation issues (for me anyway). The first 2 seasons look like gold compared to s3. It's too bad, because the wrting wasn't that bad, just the animation was terrible, godawful.

 

I very much prefer the season three characters to the season one/two characters. But I don't know that I'd say that season three had the best stories. Personally, I think that the first season had the best writing/stories.

 

i dont have a season preferance really, however i felt during that season they were building up more on the transformers themselves, than on characters. namely expanding the universe, explaining their origin a little bit, etc. i found the ending to be a bit forced. cybertron returning to its golden age becuase the teamed up with "fleshlings". didnt seem right somehow. although i AM more of a fan of how the japanese did the headmasters making the energy problems solution being they need to reduce their size. but i digress.

season 3 was more about building up the universe that they lived in, not so much on character developement. though if rodimus DID come off a bit emo imho.

 

Actually seaso9n 3 had more character development then seasons 1 and 2 combined....thou not with every character.

 

This is just my opinion and I have nothing against anyone whose opinion is different, but personally I much prefer Seasons 1 and 2 to Season 3. I don't like most of the major new characters very much. Rodimus's nervousness about leadership is a very cool concept, but when I watch the episodes all I see is whining... and it seems to me that whining that much could actually be dangerous, given what the guy's job is.

I do like Cyclonus though. I'm a sucker for honorable baddies, and Cyc is definitely one of those. Plus, how can you not love that such a dignified and stately fellow... has rabbit ears. Hee hee. Yes, I am five.  

Then... there's... Galvatron.

*gnashing of teeth*

Feel free to not read on if you like, as I'm a Megatron fangirl and therefore horribly biased, but... yaaaaagh. THIS IS NOT HOW WE DO UPGRADES. Much as I like Nimoy, I found even Movie Galvy rather bland. Welker has a really unique presence/charisma that made Megatron sound awesome, despite the raspy and not "pretty" voice. To me there was always something about the way G1 Megatron carried himself that I loved, despite his ever more ridiculous schemes and constant retreating. And... again, no hate for Nimoy here, but Galvatron's voice didn't quite capture my imagination in the same way.

Then Galvatron went nuts, and that's where my issues really started. I appreciate the way S3 tried for more serious stories, especially after some of the absolute ridiculousness of S2. But as cracked-out as G1 is in general and as much ridiculous, unbelievable nonsense as I was able to cheerfully ignore in S1 and S2, much of it, yes, coming from my favorite character, I just... my mind drew the line at the leader of the Decepticons being omnicidally insane. I just can't hold "leader" and "that character" in my head at the same time, even "leader of the baddies."

I'd probably have very little against a Galvatron-like character, crazy and all, if he wasn't supposed to be the leader.

 

Season 3 had the worst writing, animation and voice acting of all 3 seasons.

 

Galvatron's voice alone made me want to flip the TV off.

 

I'll give you the animation,but voice acting being worse???

With the exception Rodimus,Blurr and Scourge, all the main cast voice actors for season 3 also did other characters in seasons 1 and 2.

 

Is this a Beast Wars thread? Optimus Primal did get pushed to the side yeah, but that's because he was overpowered and they needed to take him out of most episodes to add dramatic tension.

 

For all of season 3's issues I really liked the fact that most of it was off of Earth and at least attempted to show the cosmic nature of the Transformers war. The idea of a Transformers series that has a complex universe with various races(like Star Wars or Star Trek) is appealing to me.

 

I would have to agree on whoever said cyclonus was done well as the honorable bad guy, I think galvatron worked as crazy given the broken down decepticon army at the start. They would just follow anyone out of fear for they're own existence. Gues my issue was more with the autobot development, I feel I barely know more about any of them than I did at the end of the movie, whereas for the most part, season 1/2 autos had defined roles, even minor guys like gears, smokescreen etc

 

I agree that the voice acting was bad in season 3. Well, the *acting* part wasn't bad necessarily. But holy crap.... Listening to a conversation between Wheelie, Blurr, and Wreck-Gar was almost enough to make me turn off the show for good. Galvatron's voice was too irritating too. To me, anyway.

Season 3 standout voices for me were Sky Lynx and Cyclonus. They were outstanding.

As for animation, it was atrocious, with the exception of a couple episodes that were almost movie-quality.

A mixed bag for sure.

 

I think this is one of the reasons I like and dislike season 3 when contrasted to the previous seasons. Also, while it was cool in the 80s to have this "futuristic" timeline, it doesn't seem as timeless as the previous 2 seasons because of it dating itself so much. In regards to Optimus Prime, season 3 almost seems like it's gearing up for his return, the season ends, and then season 4 is so short-lived.

 

Some episodes really gave the bots nice texture. The animation was more inconsistent than it was straight up bad. Ultimate Weapon, RoOP, and Nightmare Planet, and Call of the Primitives were all gorgeous and, to me, surpassed anything from the first two seasons. You have episodes like Webworld and Dark Awakening in the middle, and at the bad end are eps like Carnage in C minor and Five Faces of Darkness.

 

I'm a season 3 disliker too. Aside from the obvious reasons (missing the old G1 favorites that were killed in the movie, horrible story lines, inept characterizations of the new replacement Transformers, worse than usual animation, etc.), I did notice something else while watching seasons 1-2 compared against season 3 episodes.

The music. Seasons 1-2 had an epic soundtrack for a cartoon series, with real classical instruments with the occasional guitar riff for that "futuristic/technological" vibe. I downloaded the score for the G1 show and it really does sound like the music from seasons 1-2 wouldn't be too far off from the old Star Wars and Conan common theme of orchestral pieces.

Season 3's music, on the other hand, was mostly rambling synthesized 80's noise that grated on the ears (and doesn't hold up well at all these days since it sounds so dated). Total turn off. It tried too hard to emulate the (I thought decent for its time) soundtrack from the 1986 movie but fails in a lot of places (the movie soundtrack worked for much the same reason Heavy Metal's did; trippy, gratuitous violence - violence that wouldn't fly in a normal syndicated kid's show). Total blah fest, and not nearly as iconic or epic sounding (epic as in classic struggle of good vs. evil) as some of the select pieces of background music from seasons 1-2.