![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Unpopular Transformers Fandom Opinion
Feb. 4th, 2008 11:20 pmWatching the whole thing through from the beginning, it has come to my attention that I really enjoy Transformers Season Three. This shouldn't surprise me - I liked it just fine when I was a kid - but it gets so much bashing in fandom that I wasn't expect it to be as much fun as it is. It's not that I don't understand why some people hate it. Not only have has most of the cast from the first two seasons been thoughtlessly killed off to make way for new toys, the settings and stories are very different. I'm as pissed off as the next fangirl about the mass slaughter of beloved Autobots, but considered on its own merits these episodes have a lot going for them. Here are ten reasons that they rock:
1. The main problem with this season is that Ironhide, Wheeljack, Jazz and the like have been replaced with too many cookie-cutter Autobots who don't get a chance to develop properly as characters. Luckily, the Decepticons don't really have that problem. Almost all of the new bad guys get proper introductions and enough personality that you can tell them apart from each other. (The Terrorcons may be an exception, but I haven't got that far yet.) It's not until Season Four that fifty billion interchangeable Decepticons arrive on the scene all at once.
2. Many of the new or reformatted Decepticons are awesome. Don't get me wrong, I miss the hell out of Starscream when he's not possessing people, but I do love seeing more of the Combaticons, Scourge, Trypticon and most of all OCTANE.
3. Galvatron and Cyclonus get their own dot point, because while the Autobot change of leadership didn't really work in the show's favour - I have considerable affection for Rodimus, but replacing Optimus Prime was a ludicrous thing for the show to try - the Decepticons fare better. While they will never replace Megatron and Starscream in my heart, the dynamic between the crazy leader and his loyal, long-suffering, honourable second also fascinates me. Also, Galvatron is really funny.
6. Ultra Magnus has always been one of my favourite Autobots, and without the massive cast changes in Season Three, he would not exist!
5. I feel kind of bad about the way he pushed Ratchet and Wheeljack out of the spotlight and into the path of a laser gun, but I have loved Perceptor since I was tiny. Season Three has MOAR PERCEPTOR on average, so that's good. Also, Season Three has Skylynx! And Wreck-Gar!
6. There are more than zero female characters. Not many female characters, but if they weren't going to go with gender neutral alien robots - implausible after The Search For Alpha Trion - tokenism is better than nothing.
7. The stories and settings are a lot more varied. While Season Three does lose touch with the 'alien robots in disguise on Earth' concept at the heart of the show and turn into space opera, at least we don't get a dozen episodes about Megatron trying to beat the Autobots with magic crystals.
8. There are some truly excellent episodes in here - not just Starscream's Ghost and Ghost in the Machine, but Webworld and The Return of Optimus Prime. Others are cheesy fun to match anything in Season Two (well, maybe not City of Steel) like Thief in the Night and Carnage in C Minor. (I should add that Thief in the Night is also deeply offensive to Arabs and anyone else with half a brain, but it has Octane stealing world monuments, so it is still love.)
9. The Quintessons are a regular foe for the Autobots and Decepticons who make a nice change of pace and complicate things nicely. They're also the only successful attempt at portraying alien behavior the show ever managed - more successful than many aliens in more adult genre TV, for that matter. "Perhaps a quiet chuckle?" is one of my favourite lines in the whole series. With their presence, we also learn much more about the history of Cybertron.
10. The updated version of the themesong rox00rs.
So there are things I don't like about Season Three - Daniel, Wheelie, Grimlock devolving into an overgrown toddler, Carly having no personality, the lack of Optimus and Starscream - but over all I give it the thumbs up. I bet Season Four sucks just as much as I remember, though.
1. The main problem with this season is that Ironhide, Wheeljack, Jazz and the like have been replaced with too many cookie-cutter Autobots who don't get a chance to develop properly as characters. Luckily, the Decepticons don't really have that problem. Almost all of the new bad guys get proper introductions and enough personality that you can tell them apart from each other. (The Terrorcons may be an exception, but I haven't got that far yet.) It's not until Season Four that fifty billion interchangeable Decepticons arrive on the scene all at once.
2. Many of the new or reformatted Decepticons are awesome. Don't get me wrong, I miss the hell out of Starscream when he's not possessing people, but I do love seeing more of the Combaticons, Scourge, Trypticon and most of all OCTANE.
3. Galvatron and Cyclonus get their own dot point, because while the Autobot change of leadership didn't really work in the show's favour - I have considerable affection for Rodimus, but replacing Optimus Prime was a ludicrous thing for the show to try - the Decepticons fare better. While they will never replace Megatron and Starscream in my heart, the dynamic between the crazy leader and his loyal, long-suffering, honourable second also fascinates me. Also, Galvatron is really funny.
6. Ultra Magnus has always been one of my favourite Autobots, and without the massive cast changes in Season Three, he would not exist!
5. I feel kind of bad about the way he pushed Ratchet and Wheeljack out of the spotlight and into the path of a laser gun, but I have loved Perceptor since I was tiny. Season Three has MOAR PERCEPTOR on average, so that's good. Also, Season Three has Skylynx! And Wreck-Gar!
6. There are more than zero female characters. Not many female characters, but if they weren't going to go with gender neutral alien robots - implausible after The Search For Alpha Trion - tokenism is better than nothing.
7. The stories and settings are a lot more varied. While Season Three does lose touch with the 'alien robots in disguise on Earth' concept at the heart of the show and turn into space opera, at least we don't get a dozen episodes about Megatron trying to beat the Autobots with magic crystals.
8. There are some truly excellent episodes in here - not just Starscream's Ghost and Ghost in the Machine, but Webworld and The Return of Optimus Prime. Others are cheesy fun to match anything in Season Two (well, maybe not City of Steel) like Thief in the Night and Carnage in C Minor. (I should add that Thief in the Night is also deeply offensive to Arabs and anyone else with half a brain, but it has Octane stealing world monuments, so it is still love.)
9. The Quintessons are a regular foe for the Autobots and Decepticons who make a nice change of pace and complicate things nicely. They're also the only successful attempt at portraying alien behavior the show ever managed - more successful than many aliens in more adult genre TV, for that matter. "Perhaps a quiet chuckle?" is one of my favourite lines in the whole series. With their presence, we also learn much more about the history of Cybertron.
10. The updated version of the themesong rox00rs.
So there are things I don't like about Season Three - Daniel, Wheelie, Grimlock devolving into an overgrown toddler, Carly having no personality, the lack of Optimus and Starscream - but over all I give it the thumbs up. I bet Season Four sucks just as much as I remember, though.