"Screwing Around"
Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2013 9:21 am
Yeah, I’m mainly calling out Six on this one, and his repeated assertion that Season 3 of Animated somehow wasted too much time or had too much filler or what-have-you.
Season 3 of Animated was relatively short, being 13 episodes long, with three of those dedicated to a season-premier three-parter, and two of them for the series finale. So that’s five out of twelve that are majorly plot-relevant already. Almost all the others contribute and move the story along, or deal with hanging elements from earlier stories in some way. Episode by episode:
TransWarped:
The season premier, with a ton of stuff going on. Picks up right where the previous finale left off, showing what happened to Starscream and Megatron. It also deals with the revelation the Autobots got about Shockwave being Longarm, with Blurr getting snuffed out before he can deliver the news to anybody. Further, it gives the Headmaster one last hurrah, and contributes more to the Omega Supreme plotline.
Three’s a Crowd:
Probably the most filler-y episode the season has, this one mostly exists to deal with the Constructicons, killing them/kicking them out of plot-range by the end, though it does leave Scrapper alive for a later plot.
Where Is Thy Sting?:
Brings Wasp back into the plot after establishing him in the previous season. Also brings the Elite Guard back to Earth for the time, and quickly introduces Jetfire and Jetstorm (their origin occurring off-screen in the pack-in comic).
Five Servos of Doom:
Finally gives us our Prowl flashback episode, and also brings Lockdown back to tie up both their story arcs as relating to Yoketron. Gives Prowl his sidecar armor back, and rounds up Swindle and the loose Starscream clones for later.
Predacons Rising:
Brings Blackarachnia and Wasp back to wrap up their respective plots, and lets Sentinel give his own send-off to Blackarachnia/Elita.
Human Error:
Brings Soundwave back, along with pretty much all the other loose end/one-shot characters to give them one last hurrah. Otherwise, not terribly plot relevant for a dramatic two-part episode, though it is the first one with Sari in quite a while. Mostly exists for ‘Whatever happened to {x} character?’ value than anything else.
Decepticon Air:
Definitively finishes up the plot with Swindle and the Starscream clones, and expands on Optimus and Sentinel’s relationship.
This Is Why I Hate Machines:
Bigass finale setup episode, establishing Sentinel as the new Magnus, finally outing Shockwave, and bringing Jazz to Earth for the end to go down.
Endgame:
It’s the ending, what more do you want! Wraps up pretty much all the plots that the rest of the season hadn’t spent tying up, gives everything a big finish to go out on. Pretty much the only thing left hanging is the whole Sari/Protoform business, and that’s clearly because it was brought up in this finale as something they would’ve followed up on in Season 4, and there was no way for them to quickly wrap it up when they realized this was a series finale, not a season finale.
So yeah, Animated Season 3 is pretty efficient. Almost every hanging plot thread they’d set up gets resolved, the overarching plots of Sentinel working to become Magnus, Shockwave working behind the scenes, and Megatron trying to get back to Earth to use Omega Supreme in an attack are poked at until they hit full-boil for the finale, and aside from the aforementioned Sari business, everything wraps up rather nicely. I don’t know where you’re getting that the season screwed around or didn’t follow up on its plots or story ideas or whatever, almost every episode in the season has a point in being there.
Yes I know that was a whole lot of effort and text just to try to prove some stupid point to one guy but dammit it was bugging me!
Season 3 of Animated was relatively short, being 13 episodes long, with three of those dedicated to a season-premier three-parter, and two of them for the series finale. So that’s five out of twelve that are majorly plot-relevant already. Almost all the others contribute and move the story along, or deal with hanging elements from earlier stories in some way. Episode by episode:
TransWarped:
The season premier, with a ton of stuff going on. Picks up right where the previous finale left off, showing what happened to Starscream and Megatron. It also deals with the revelation the Autobots got about Shockwave being Longarm, with Blurr getting snuffed out before he can deliver the news to anybody. Further, it gives the Headmaster one last hurrah, and contributes more to the Omega Supreme plotline.
Three’s a Crowd:
Probably the most filler-y episode the season has, this one mostly exists to deal with the Constructicons, killing them/kicking them out of plot-range by the end, though it does leave Scrapper alive for a later plot.
Where Is Thy Sting?:
Brings Wasp back into the plot after establishing him in the previous season. Also brings the Elite Guard back to Earth for the time, and quickly introduces Jetfire and Jetstorm (their origin occurring off-screen in the pack-in comic).
Five Servos of Doom:
Finally gives us our Prowl flashback episode, and also brings Lockdown back to tie up both their story arcs as relating to Yoketron. Gives Prowl his sidecar armor back, and rounds up Swindle and the loose Starscream clones for later.
Predacons Rising:
Brings Blackarachnia and Wasp back to wrap up their respective plots, and lets Sentinel give his own send-off to Blackarachnia/Elita.
Human Error:
Brings Soundwave back, along with pretty much all the other loose end/one-shot characters to give them one last hurrah. Otherwise, not terribly plot relevant for a dramatic two-part episode, though it is the first one with Sari in quite a while. Mostly exists for ‘Whatever happened to {x} character?’ value than anything else.
Decepticon Air:
Definitively finishes up the plot with Swindle and the Starscream clones, and expands on Optimus and Sentinel’s relationship.
This Is Why I Hate Machines:
Bigass finale setup episode, establishing Sentinel as the new Magnus, finally outing Shockwave, and bringing Jazz to Earth for the end to go down.
Endgame:
It’s the ending, what more do you want! Wraps up pretty much all the plots that the rest of the season hadn’t spent tying up, gives everything a big finish to go out on. Pretty much the only thing left hanging is the whole Sari/Protoform business, and that’s clearly because it was brought up in this finale as something they would’ve followed up on in Season 4, and there was no way for them to quickly wrap it up when they realized this was a series finale, not a season finale.
So yeah, Animated Season 3 is pretty efficient. Almost every hanging plot thread they’d set up gets resolved, the overarching plots of Sentinel working to become Magnus, Shockwave working behind the scenes, and Megatron trying to get back to Earth to use Omega Supreme in an attack are poked at until they hit full-boil for the finale, and aside from the aforementioned Sari business, everything wraps up rather nicely. I don’t know where you’re getting that the season screwed around or didn’t follow up on its plots or story ideas or whatever, almost every episode in the season has a point in being there.
Yes I know that was a whole lot of effort and text just to try to prove some stupid point to one guy but dammit it was bugging me!