G1 season three thoughts

[138 Scourge]

Did the DVD set put Thief in the Night 'after' this one? Goddamn it. Thief In The Night happens before Starscream's Ghost, and explains exactly why Galvatron kicked Octane out.

Another case of "weird airing order". Thief in the Night happens first, but Starscream's Ghost aired first. Octane still explains why he's kicked out, though. He and Galvatron can see the future!

[andersonh1]

It's odd that we got two "back from the dead (sort of)" episodes in a row though.

Yes it is. *Why* are you watching Dark Awakening now when it's, like, the penultimate episode of the season? O_o

That's what I always thought. I remember seeing the episode right before "Return of Optimus Prime", and the narrator even trails the episode at the end of "Dark Awakening". Still have that one on tape from all those years ago. The DVD version doesn't have that ending. I'm guessing they edited the episode and ran it in multiple versions originally.

It's odd that we got two "back from the dead (sort of)" episodes in a row though.

Yes it is. *Why* are you watching Dark Awakening now when it's, like, the penultimate episode of the season? O_o

No it isn't! All DVD sets and the original airing order put it toward the beginning. Plus, the beginning of RoOP indicate that it's been a little bit since Prime was a zombie.

Yeah, I always got the impression that the two scientists had been in possession of Optimus Prime's body for some time after they recover it out in space. So they recover it, and while they return it to Earth and try to get him working again, the rest of season 3 is happening in the background.

Did the DVD set put Thief in the Night 'after' this one? Goddamn it. Thief In The Night happens before Starscream's Ghost, and explains exactly why Galvatron kicked Octane out.

I'm watching them in order as they appear on the DVD menu, though I need to write up "Chaos" which comes before "Dark Awakening". I'd never seen that one, and it was fun to see Blast Off get so much screen time.

[Gomess]

I remember seeing the episode right before "Return of Optimus Prime", and the narrator even trails the episode at the end of "Dark Awakening". Still have that one on tape from all those years ago. The DVD version doesn't have that ending. I'm guessing they edited the episode and ran it in multiple versions originally.

Exactly what I remember, and I'm from a different frickin' country to you! Presumably our respective broadcasters / VHS producers realised that Dark Awakening and RoOP were one of the few overarcing storylines in the TF cartoon and smushed them closer together than they were originally.

S3's choppy animation getting to you yet? It's shocking to me how much worse it is than the earlier two's.

[andersonh1]

I remember seeing the episode right before "Return of Optimus Prime", and the narrator even trails the episode at the end of "Dark Awakening". Still have that one on tape from all those years ago. The DVD version doesn't have that ending. I'm guessing they edited the episode and ran it in multiple versions originally.

Exactly what I remember, and I'm from a different frickin' country to you! Presumably our respective broadcasters / VHS producers realised that Dark Awakening and RoOP were one of the few overarcing storylines in the TF cartoon and smushed them closer together than they were originally.

S3's choppy animation getting to you yet? It's shocking to me how much worse it is than the earlier two's.

Yeah, some of it is pretty bad. It varies in quality widely too. There'll be a pretty decent episode, then a bad one, then a really bad one, then back to pretty good quality. I think the animation company changed from the first two seasons, didn't it? Cybertron certainly looks different, and not as good as it did before.

[Gomess]

Well, Cybertron was deliciously painted back in S2, full of depth and shading and little flashes of orange light. In S3 I distinctly seeing it drawn on a regular cel, looking like a messy grey circle covered in lines. Bleh!

Gotta love how they open FFoD with a clip from TFTM to really lull you into a false sense of security as regards the animation. X]

Let us know at what point you believe S3 jumps the shark, too. Probably Madman's Paradise for me. THE GOLDEN ONE!!

[andersonh1]

Chaos
This is another episode I'd never seen, and speaking of good animation, this episode is pretty high quality for season 3. I love how a random minor character like Blast Off gets to kick off the plot as he takes a weapon using "death crystals" from that crazy Skuxxoid that keeps turning up this season. The story largely focuses on Kup and a failure from his youth (and in the flashback we get to see the infamous IkYak mentioned in the movie!). The writing for this show is never deep, but I appreciate the efforts at characterization as we see how Kup is still haunted by his past experience with the Chaos creature, and how he is at first afraid to go back but finally overcomes his fears. Sky Lynx continues to be amusingly pompous, and the Predacons are nowhere near as lethal as they'd like to be. For a "super weapon of the week" episode, this one's not half bad.

[andersonh1]

Thief in the Night
I read that this episode caused Casey Kasem to quit. To be fair, we do get some stereotypical "mad middle east dictator" cliches here, but is the guy running Carbombya ( ) all that different from Khadaffi? Except maybe more sane than his real-world counterpart? Maybe the sign reading "population 4000 humans, 10,000 camels" was a bit too much.

Anyway, I'm guessing this incident is what actually gets Octane in trouble with Galvatron, so I see what some of you were saying about episodes being out of order. The plot is just absurd, though amusing, as Trypticon walks around the planet stealing landmarks and buildings and bringing them to Carbombya. Somehow none of these buildings are damage or even destroyed when he does this. Gotcha. And the new "super energon" gets some lip service but contributes very little to the plot, other than making Octane and Trypticon desperate to stay in Carbombya so they can keep guzzling the stuff. And is Trypticon the biggest guzzler or energon ever of what?

This is a very silly episode. That's the bottom line.

[Gomess]

This is a very silly episode.

When you find an episode that *isn't* silly, please let me know.

Honestly, Thief in the Night's plot isn't any more daft than Chaos or The Killing Jar, for my money. Not that that's exclusive to Season 3 by any means!

Mind you, I'm one of them who enjoyed Webworld.

[andersonh1]

Ok, it's sillier than most, if that's possible.

Mind you, I'm one of them who enjoyed Webworld.

Oh, I love "Webworld". Decepticons sending Galvatron to the psychiatrist? Awesome.

[Gomess]

Mind you, I'm one of them who enjoyed Webworld.

Oh, I love "Webworld". Decepticons sending Galvatron to the psychiatrist? Awesome.

Even as a kid I wasn't much for battle scenes. Wish there'd been more episodes like Webworld in the old show. Ah well! A fair few had potential, mostly I focused on the character-y ones. Ultimate Weapon was another S3 favourite of mine as a kid.