Yeah, thats a good point...I really wanted Rodimus Prime to kick ass...you would think that would be the adult Hot Rod...sure of himself and tough. S3 definately has its good and bad, but I think that Wheelie is, well, in there somewhere what with his shreaking, high pitched voice and all.

 

I think that the general criticism of season 3 is over done

If you watch Transformers OBJECTIVELY you'll see that Season 1 is no different from Season 2 which is no different from Season 3

Adult fans tend to just over think

I mean of course I notice those things NOW as an adult.But HONESTLY did you REALLY care about it when you were however old you were when you saw it originally?

Besides what do you expect from a show that's a 30 minute toy commercial  

 

season 3

Season 3 was much more difficult to like. All our favorite characters were dead or just disapeared. And also the scenario changed from earth to the much more uncosy feeling of solitude that space is.

Ok, but many characters and many of the stories were much better than those of season 2 (A Dececon Raider (...), Hoist Goes to Hollywood, Kremzeek, City of Steel, etc...). And even Rodimus Prime could have become a much better (or equal better) leader than Optimus.

I guess that what ruined the show was the lousy animation. Not only the millions of animation errors through out most of the episodes, the bad quality of the animation too. Compare the Blaster Blues with Starscream Ghost!
If Season 3 had the season 2 kind of animation, it would live for much more episodes.
And if they would start putting more Season 2 old characters (those that were never clearly killed in the Movie like Smokescreen, Hound, Tracks, Powerglide, Beachcomber, Red Alert, etc...) Season 3 would be of much success.

So maybe Optimus Prime would never had to return...

 

Season 3 may not be my favorite, especially with the Quintessons being involved throughout the entire season. However, there was some characterization that I thought was pretty decent... Rodimus Prime, for instance. So what, he seems so depressed and wishy-washy, but look at it this way... he knows that he could never be Optimus, in fact he could never be as great as Optimus. I liked him in "The Burden Hardest to Bear."

It would have been nice if they had done things differently in season 3 to have made it just as appealing as seasons 1 and 2, but... that can't be helped, they did what they did.

 

I like season 3. The only downer for me is that the Autobots feel lacking overall compared to the first two seasons. They're just not nearly as interesting to watch. I do like Rodimus Prime though, he had a lot of character.

But I can't think of any Transformer I had more fun watching than Galvatron. He was pure entertainment.

 

Sorry, but I strongly beg to differ there. I've rewatched episodes from all three seasons and there's definitely a different, distinct feel to each one.

If you go back and rewatch Season 1, you'll notice that the science fiction aspect, seriousness, drama, maturity, and realism (or what passes for in a children's cartoon) is a lot more prevalent:

1. Explanations for new characters. When new Autobots and Decepticons appeared, the writers at least made a passing attempt to explain where they came from rather than just tossing them in and hoping no one would notice. Episodes in the spirit of "S.O.S. Dinobots", "Fire in the Sky", "A Plague of Insecticons" and "Heavy Metal War" (even though the origin of the Constructicons was later retconned) would only be seen sparsely in future seasons, though "The Key to Vector Sigma" and "Starscream's Brigade" were among the gems in Season 2.

I know this series is a vehicle for selling toys, but there would've been some semi-plausible, in-series explanations for this. Given how massive the Ark is and the damage the ship sustained when it crashed into Mount St. Hilary, it's possible that several Autobots and Decepticons in stasis lock were trapped under tons of rubble in other parts of the ship that were cut off from the main section where the Season 1 cast were and it simply wasn't practical to try and dig them out (for either faction) when the war first started up again. The escape pod idea used for the Insecticons would also have been a good excuse in a lot of cases, as would a mass emigration of Autobots and Decepticons from Cybertron during "The Ultimate Doom", where Megatron mentions in passing that Optimus Prime still has several allies on his home planet and asks if he's willing to condemn them all to death just to thwart his scheme to bring Cybertron into Earth's orbit.

2. Megatron's schemes were intelligent. In the first season, Megatron genuinely seemed dangerous. Compare the groundedness of his schemes from the first season (the creation of the Space Bridge, bringing Cybertron into Earth's orbit, the antimatter formula, etc.) with the sheer outlandishness and ridiculousness of his later ones (Kremzeek, the propaganda/disinformation war in "Megatron's Master Plan", creating an army of remote-controlled cars) and you'll see a definite shift in tone. He suffered the same fate (though to a lesser degree) as Cobra Commander, who, to paraphrase one writer, "went from being written like Adolf Hitler to being written like Yosemite Sam". Megatron only returned to full form in the movie, and, by then, people were so used to see him being a buffoon that they were shocked by his evil and menace.

3. The Autobots (and Decepticons) weren't dumbed down. We went from gladitorial combat to decide which faction would stay on Earth and which one left ("Heavy Metal War") and learning about Earth culture and history ("S.O.S. Dinobots") to Optimus Prime playing basketball and the Autobots playing football, watching soap operas on Teletraan 1, and participating in making movies by wearing giant Halloween masks. As amusing as the latter scenes were, it's still a huge step down from the original premise.

I hate sounding like I'm dumping on the series because I enjoy it and remember it fondly, but, in my opinion, the series actually began its decline in Season 2, when the mass marketing machine and attempt to create broad kid appeal resulted in more simplified and zany/childish plots. People just dump on Season 3 more because the drop in quality became accentuated and that much more noticeable with the loss of most of the previous two seasons' worth of characters and the crap AKOM animation.

 

Yeah! I think you're right...

I remember watching S2 episodes when I was a teenager and kinda thinking that the Transformers had so much potential for so great episodes and stories and were being wasted in ridiculous stories.

And about Megatron you're also right. He was getting dumber!

But when in S3 they put in a mad-anoying Galvatron that was it, the end of the Cartoon series for teenagers. He was just the prototype of the typical vilain in small children cartoons.

I guess everyone has some sympathy for the Decepticons, and watching their crazy-nonsense-obnoxious new leader Galvatron kicking their asses out more than those of the Autobots... and watching poor old Cyclonus trying to keep the team together... (and again, the poor quality of animation!!) people lost interest.

 

I love season 3, in part for Rodimus Prime, I had him in '86, and I always liked the character.

 

I agree with Lunar Archivist

 

Okay, I have a love/hate relationship with Season Three that I don't have with the other seasons. Season Three had a tad bit more character development in it, which was rather useless in the end. Rodimus suffered from a Shinji-like problem were his character could be built up, only to unexplainedly be lost by the next show, but it was interesting to see a new leader. Naturally I wish they'd done more. Also, the music was TERRIBLE, and the pitch of it nearly killed my eardrums. It was way too busy in the background and was always something that either sounded depressing, conflicting, or "TIME FOR WAR!" S1 and S2 seemed to be better paced in those terms.

But yeah, there were things to love and hate. I admit, at first, I HATED Galvatron. My hate for Galvatron was close to my hate of Carlos. In any case, after watching him in action a few hundred times, I don't know if my brain cells fried or what, but I fell in love with him. His constant screaming and threats and overall insanity kept me laughing the whole time. Also, another thing I loved was Cyclonous and Ultra Magnus. Some of my favorite moments were when they were when they interacted with each other. It was epic! Then again, it was probably because they had that whole "two halves of the same coin" dynamic going on.

Speaking of Ultra Magnus, I loved how he always seemed to be more important than Rodimus on occasion. But yeah, at first I disliked season 3, but it becomes an occasional favorite from time to time.... great. Now I feel like watching it! *points finger* I blame you! xD To the DVD player!