I'm guessing this will be a one-off, not permanent, but if I'm wrong, it seems a bit silly.

 

Honestly, I think this format works better, because they can actually spend more time building up the finale. With Season 1, we didn't have any hint toward the finale until 20 or so episodes in. With the second season/first half of the second season, we got something of a buildup. Not the greatest buildup, but at least it was something. With Season 3/Season 2 Part 2, we're getting buildup at what feels like a natural pace. They're establishing the Decepticon treasure hunters, and gradually revealing more about the Weaponizer Mini-Cons, taking an episode to develop each Decepticon (so far), and even gradually hint more and more towards the return of Starscream. I think this format is doing wonders in terms of following a story arc better.

 

More episodes gives a better chance to adapt a complex story with multiple arcs and characters have a better chance to be fully explored.

 

I like long storys but the curent team seams to strugle a bit with ongoin storys. So I gess it depends on who is working on future projects.

 

Well I don't consider the six episodes to be a full "season". It's just the final six episodes of season two.

 

I didn't realize this Scavangers/Starscream arc was six episodes.

Not sure how to feel about this?

 

Longer seasons usually means more (flexible) stories, which is always nice and, in my opinion, better. A 13 episode season can be nicely done if given enough time and money, but I still prefer 26 episodes long seasons.

 

no sir, I don't like it

 

I prefer longer seasons because I think it helps to tell a better story. With shorter seasons, you don't get alot of time to introduce or develop alot of new characters and aspects of said season's overall story can get dropped or shortened to such a degree that things just seemed rushed. On the flip side, I know that longer seasons can lead to more fluff too but I would prefer more filler episodes and a better told story than a possibly rushed one due to a shorter episode count.

 

Probably is that most of the overarching stories in this continuity don't really deliver.

The shows are at their best when its separate standalone stories.

 

The problem is that the episodes are only 20 mins long. The shows that can make 6 episodes work often are 30-40 mins of material. I think it is a poor choice and form for an animated show which wants a continuous plot.

Shows that would work with this format would be ones more akin to formulaic based stories where everything ends as it started (eg Phineas and Ferb), as the episodes barely interact with one another. For a show like Transformers, it seems a bit of a silly choice, as you can't build up the villains to actually feel threatening.

Even if I personally would prefer 26 episodes as normal, I can live with 13 episode seasons (seeing as TFP Beast Hunters was an acceptable length) but any below that just ends up being a bit pathetic.

 

I hope that "Season 3" is just the originally proposed TV movie sectioned off and that Season 4 with all its potential stories (Megatron/Starscream, more Team Prime, the return of Steeljaw, the council, Megatronus, etc) is back to the full size.

 

We know from the episode count we saw a while back that the TV movie is made of three episodes, and yesterday's episode is clearly the first of those.

So when Season 3 airs in the US, it'll be three episodes followed by a TV movie.

 

Given that S2E13 is such a clear ending point (plus a few other things like the Scorponok toy mould having a pretooled BW Scorponok head instead of a Paralon head), I'm almost certain that the episodes we're seeing now were commissioned at a later date than the original 13 season 2 episodes. I'm guessing maybe they decided they wanted more content to promote the toys for the second half of the year, but didn't want to stretch to another full set of 13 episodes.

It remains to be seen whether "Mighty Big Trouble"/"Mini-Con Madness"/"Worthy" will get aired separately or as a TV movie in the US, but personally I'd put money on the movie still happening, considering what a big deal they were making of it around Toy Fair.

 

I'm for 13 episode-per-season (EPS) format. I think that it allows for much tighter storytelling. With 26 EPS you're more likely to get the same amount of story-driving episodes as you get the filler episodes (that bring nothing to the overarching plot). Plus if we consider that there is one episode per week then a season of 13 episodes will have a runtime of 3 months, in 26 EPS format it will be half a year and that creates the risk you'll forget some of the plot details by the time the season's over.

A 13 EPS format does not mean we would get less episodes. Instead of 2 seasons of 26 episodes we could have 4 seasons of 13 episodes. And the small seasons' finales can be stepping stones toward the grand finale.

Besides, prior experience says that Transformers work much better in short format. Just compare the 2nd and 3rd season of Beast Wars to its 1st one. The whole Animated worked on 13 EPS format. The same thing can be said about Beast Machines. They did not have any problems with character development or story progress. (I'm still mad we did not get that 4th season of Animated!)

I think that it all comes down to quality writing. If the writers are good they can work with 13 EPS format, if they are not I don't think a larger episode count will help.

 

I think the reason they made the mini series is because they want to match up with the TFP mini series? Idk?

 

I don't mind it, as long as we do not have to wait too long for the next season. Prime was a lot harder to make and it was 26 episode for 2 seasons.

 

Would depend on whose doing the writing....

I guess the good thing is they really are forced to pick an idea and stick to it somewhat.