I read that the execs thought season 2 was too dark and asked the writers to make the show more cartoony and kiddy. The story editors' influence diminished, and this more or less resulted in the entire season becoming a mess.
shareI don't know, they cancelled "Dark Glass," but there's still some pretty dark stuff in season 3.
shareI particularly disliked the way the resolution of the S2 cliffhanger was handled.
shareThe problem with season 3 was making Optimus a giant, it just removed all tension from the show and made him a lot less relatable as a character.
Also, go with the flow. F'ckin hell, they asked you to replace dark glass with something lighter...not a piece of gutter-trash.
The problem with season 3 was making Optimus a giant, it just removed all tension from the show
and made him a lot less relatable as a character.
growing a few feet taller and adding a car mode made him unrelateable? LOL.
I felt the real problem with Optimus becoming a "giant" was that after that they couldn't think of ways to utilize him without overshadowing the others, so he'd often have to sit episodes out or get punked, at least that's how I remember it (been a long time since I watched any BW).
shareWhat's wrong with season 3? I enjoy it. The finale is great and I love how it ties in with the original show. Watching it as a kid? It blew me away. I think the entire show is pretty consistent with season 2 being the high point
shareSeason 3 was kind of all over the place. The pacing was bad, several episodes were pretty filler-tier and slow, all the focus they put on the characters getting upgraded hurt the overall story. If this was a 26 episode season, this wouldn't have been so bad, but since they had to cram in all this stuff into 13 eps, it made things feel very rushed, especially towards the end.
Also, this made some of the upgrades and new characters feel insignificant: for example Blackarachnia's transformation into a Transmetal II is built up for several episodes, but when she finally gets upgraded, she's immediately pushed to the back because they now had to focus on Megatron, and the show was almost over by that point anyway. And lets not even mention Tigerhawk.
The comedy aspect got way overblown too -- I know the show has been zany and goofy since the start, but in season 3, all the cartoony gags really undermined a lot of the dramatic moments. And this goes hand in hand with how many characters, like Inferno or Quickstrike, were reduced to nothing more than overplayed comic relief characters.
It's not a bad season, and it's still very entertaining, but it was a huge downgrade compared to the second season, which managed to handle drama, comedy, characters and story way-way-way more elegantly.
Season 3 is rough to me. I agree with everything you said except for the last paragraph. But on top of all that, after the brilliance of season 2 it's just a big let down. It feels shallow and empty while season 2 felt beyond epic.
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