For a really long time, much like the Lord of the Rings films, I considered all three seasons of Beast Wars to be one large unit and never really thought about them in terms of favourites or anything like that. (Interesting, considering how obviously different they are in look and vibe and very major details.)

And also just like Lord of the Rings, as I’ve begun thinking about what might be my favourite, or if any of them are objectively better, I have a hard time deciding between liking the 1st and 2nd parts better, but part 3 really does seem like the obvious nominee for least good.

Season 1, like you said, has twice the episode count, which gives plenty of time for character development as well as fun filler episodes like, I dunno, Dark Voyage and Gorilla Warfare. Plus it’s got all the classic bodies that are a bit more timeless than the Transmetals, etc.

But season 2 has that more serious tone and many of the Transmetal designs are super awesome. The story really starts to pick up, and you get great plot lines like Dinobot grappling with the idea of free will and Silverbolt and Blackarachnia crossing faction lines. And while season 1 has the Starscream episode, season 2 finally starts to really dig into the show’s connection to the original cartoon.

Finally season 3 is just… weird. Not only were they forced to rush the end of the story when the show got cancelled, they didn’t have the time or the budget or whatever to do anything worthwhile with Tigerhawk. The few filler episodes we did get were just kind of bad between Cutting Edge and Go With the Flow. They were denied the chance to do Dark Glass which was pretty goddamn important. Still, you get great stuff like Blackarachnia finally becoming a Maximal, all the Transmetal II designs, Optimal Optimus and Depth Charge too. I love season 3, just like I love Return of the King, but they’re both just easily the least good in their respective series…

Anyway, I guess I should shut up and answer the question: so uhh, 2.