Transformers Season Three And The Three Part Series Finale

[ABrown]

So I finished watching Shout's release of the final 33 episodes of the original Transformers cartoon. In my opinion these episodes were much better than the season two episodes. There's a few reasons why I think I liked the third season more than the second season

1. Characters - I liked the season three characters so much more than the season 2 characters. The season three characters: Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime, Ultra Magnes, Kup, Springer, and Blurr were always some of my favorite characters. The season two characters were just so boring to me. There was characters like Beachcomber, Powerglide, Seaspray, Grapple, Hoist, Red Alert. I just had absolutely no interest in them. And many of the season two episodes were essentially toy commercials for those characters.

2. Stories - The majority of the season three episodes didn't really feel like toy commercials for the new characters. I mean there might've been a few episodes that focused on a particular character. But most episodes felt more story based than character based. Even the three part series finale seemed more story focused, than focusing on the new characters that were introduced.

3. Number Of Episodes - I think since the number of season three episodes was about half of the number of since two episodes, this actually worked in season three's favor. It just seemed like they threw out anything in season two to get to sixty five total episodes.

And you can't forget all that great cameos that season three offered. There was an appearance by Optimus Prime before he eventually came back to life. A couple of episodes featured Starscream. At least a couple of episodes featured Unicron. And quite possibly the greatest cameo of all:Cobra Commander! What wasn't there to like about season three?

[Toddman]

What wasn't there to like about season three?

Thirty out of 33 episodes featuring the worst animation in the series' history...:p


But I agree that story-wise, these were my favorite also.



Toddman

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Thirty out of 33 episodes featuring the worst animation in the series' history...:p



I didn't find this season to be worse than the USUAL animation quality in Transformers...make of that what you will. However, season 4 is pretty abysmal looking.

Hey ABrown, I told ya this season was the best one, story wise. ;)

That said, I still think season 2 wasn't as bad as some said it was. And I used to be one of them--until I got the DVDs for them and watched them again. Now I'm not so big on season 1.

[Philmister978]

I didn't find this season to be worse than the USUAL animation quality in Transformers...make of that what you will. However, season 4 is pretty abysmal looking.

Hey ABrown, I told ya this season was the best one, story wise. ;)

That said, I still think season 2 wasn't as bad as some said it was. And I used to be one of them--until I got the DVDs for them and watched them again. Now I'm not so big on season 1.

I must say that Akom did indeed try in a few eps (primarely Dark Awakening and some scenes in the Five Faces of Darkness 5 parter) But I do disagree on season four having abysmal animation. And if you say it did, it would defenately be better then Batman: TAS eps "Feat of Clay" and "The Cat and The Claw"

Also agreed on Season one. Outside of DBZ, Toei did some exceptionally poor work on the animation front. Thankfully Soundwave and Optimus Prime (as well as the constructicons) saved it from being horrible.

[sparkykandy]

I believe that season three is my favorite season. Part of this is due to the fact that it's a refreshing change from the monotony of seasons one and two. There's only so much of Megatron and other Decepticons try to steal/make energy/energon cubes and/or try kill the Autobots that one can take. Plus, the episodes in season three seemed to be a lot more serious at times than the episodes in seasons one and two. While I do like my cheese, there's only so much cheese I can take. :p

Plus, I like the Quintessons as villains. They were pretty interesting and did some pretty different stuff than what the Decepticons did. For example, The episode "The Quintesson Journal" where it's shown that the Quints are war profiteers. Plus, they seemed to be more evil than the Decepticons at times. I mean, they did bring Optimus Prime back from dead and try to use him to kill off the Autobots. Besdies that, I found nutty Galvatron a lot more fun to watch than Megatron. That, and "Webworld" is one of favorite episodes.

I also like quite a few characters that appeared in season three. Sky Lynx is one of my favorite characters, but that's more do to the fact that he's a giant dinobird/lynx griffin thing. Plus, I also prefer Rodimus Prime and Galvatron over Optimus Prime and Megatron. >_>

As for season four, can't say much about it. It's okay I guess. It's just that there's way too many new characters, and it seems awfully rushed. But, it's an ending, I guess.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

I believe that season three is my favorite season. Part of this is due to the fact that it's a refreshing change from the monotony of seasons one and two. There's only so much of Megatron and other Decepticons try to steal/make energy/energon cubes and/or try kill the Autobots that one can take. Plus, the episodes in season three seemed to be a lot more serious at times than the episodes in seasons one and two. While I do like my cheese, there's only so much cheese I can take. :p

Plus, I like the Quintessons as villains. They were pretty interesting and did some pretty different stuff than what the Decepticons did. For example, The episode "The Quintesson Journal" where it's shown that the Quints are war profiteers. Plus, they seemed to be more evil than the Decepticons at times. I mean, they did bring Optimus Prime back from dead and try to use him to kill off the Autobots. Besdies that, I found nutty Galvatron a lot more fun to watch than Megatron. That, and "Webworld" is one of favorite episodes.

I also like quite a few characters that appeared in season three. Sky Lynx is one of my favorite characters, but that's more do to the fact that he's a giant dinobird/lynx griffin thing. Plus, I also prefer Rodimus Prime and Galvatron over Optimus Prime and Megatron. >_>
.

Rodimus is a more complex character, I agree. But I do think Optimus Prime is a better "leader". He's like a father figure, which is why I understand why so many people wanted him back. And you just had to love the Return of Optimus Prime two-parter. Every time I watch it, I have a silly childish grin on my face.

[ABrown]

Thirty out of 33 episodes featuring the worst animation in the series' history...:p

Well, you're definitely not wrong. I shouldn't have made it sound so much like those were perfect episodes. But I truly did enjoy them though.


you just had to love the Return of Optimus Prime two-parter. Every time I watch it, I have a silly childish grin on my face.

Yeah, these episodes remind me of Kindergarden. For Christmas that year, I got Galvatron. And for my kindergarden graduation I got Ultra Magnes. I think I might've even watched the Return Of Optimus Prime on the day of my kindergarden graduation.

[sparkykandy]

Rodimus is a more complex character, I agree. But I do think Optimus Prime is a better "leader". He's like a father figure, which is why I understand why so many people wanted him back. And you just had to love the Return of Optimus Prime two-parter. Every time I watch it, I have a silly childish grin on my face.

>_> Actually, the Return of Optimus Prime didn't do much for me. Then again, that may have been because I was more mad at the fact that any sort of character development that Rodimus was getting came to a grinding halt when Optimus came back to life, and everything was thrown out the window. Also, I didn't grow up watching this series (I watched Beast Wars when I was little, but it's been such a long time that I barely remember what happened in that series.), so Optimus Prime didn't have the same impact on me as it might have done on somebody who grew watching Transformers or the what not.

[ABrown]

>_> Actually, the Return of Optimus Prime didn't do much for me.

Looking at it objectively, I think it never should've happened. It didn't make a whole lot of sense given that you saw Optimus's body get destroyed on screen in "Dark Awakening." And to be honest it wasn't a very good thing to be showing kids that someone that's dead could maybe come back to life.

In addition, they should've gone ahead with Duke's death in G.I.Joe:The Movie.

[cristeto1981]

Thirty out of 33 episodes featuring the worst animation in the series' history...:p


But I agree that story-wise, these were my favorite also.



Toddman
Yeah I agree. The animation wasn't that great but the story is really well written.

[Dinobolt]

Yes. Season 3 was, with the exception of season 2 (maybe), my favorite season of the original G1 series. It definitely had the best 80s Transformers episode ever: Dark Awakening. And while were talking about it, I'm happy that they brought Optimus back. We didn't actually see his body permanently destroyed, and I imagine that the doctors would have been able to fix him up after what happened. But that's just my opinion. Overall, I loved (or at the very least liked) all the episodes except for:

Surprise Party. That was awful. And Rebirth... I liked the concept of the Headmasters and all the other "gimmick" characters, but the execution here was not very good. Thank goodness for the Japanese Transformer series that completely purged the taste of Rebirth from of my mouth. But still, there are worse episodes of TF than Rebirth (The Girl Who Loved Powerglide, Megatron's Master Plan Parts 1 & 2, and the Beast Wars ep Changing of the Guard are my bottom 5 Transformers episodes).

Anyways, I'm surprised about how underrated the post-movie episodes of TF are.

[Knightmare]

Surprise Party. That was awful. And Rebirth... I liked the concept of the Headmasters and all the other "gimmick" characters, but the execution here was not very good. .


David Wise who wrote the "Rebirth" mini-series stated in an interview that was on the original Rhino DVD release of season 3 part 2 and Season 4, stated that originally "Rebirth" was supposed to have been a 5-part mini-series, but at the last moment Hasbro cut the funding and told Sunbrow to turn it into a 3-part mini-series instead. Mr. Wise also stated that a lot of character moments that were going to be used to help introduce the newer characters to the audience got cut out.

[ABrown]

We didn't actually see his body permanently destroyed, and I imagine that the doctors would have been able to fix him up after what happened.

It's not that the damage that his dead body took in Dark Awakening wasn't repairable. It's that in the first act of Return Of Optimus Prime, the damaged parts of his body were suddently 100% back intact.

Also, in the final scene of Dark Awakening, the ship that Optimus was piloting was under heavy fire from Quintesson defenses. In the opening scene of R.O.O.P., Jessica Morgan and the other guy were able to board Optimus's ship without having to fly through the same defenses.

Granted season three had a ridiculous amount of animation errors. So one could pass all this off as animation errors. However, it doesn't change that fact that we all know that they intentionally retroactively changed Optimus's fate for reasons other than animation errors.