Season 4 and Season 7 don't have their own identity, they're just transitional seasons

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Two-Headed Starfish
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Season 4: The earlier episodes of the season feel like pre-movie episodes, "The Lost Matress", feels like a pre-movie episode. The tone of the first half of the season is mostly calm in it's atmosphere, it has an underwatery feel like the pre-movie episodes (Scenes with lack of background music, the underwater movement sound, and the more realistic sound effects). Early season 4 episodes also have humor that's similar to pre-movie. Later episodes, could easily pass as season 5 episodes.


In the first half of season 4, SpongeBob's design looks like a digitally enhanced version of season three:
Screenshot 2019-12-17 at 8.41.53 PM.png


But the animation in the later half of season 4 looks like a rough version of season five:
1576632999251.png


Season 7: Episodes in the earlier part of the season can easily be mistaken for season six episodes. With infamous episodes such as "One Coarse Meal", "Stuck in the Wringer", "A Pal for Gary", "One Coarse Meal". The later half of the season, feels exactly like season eight. I even get season 7 & 8 mixed up. Episodes like "Krusty Dogs", "The Play's the Thing". and "The Masterpiece" feel like they would belong in season eight because of the heavy usage krusty krab's location.

Spongebob's design in early-s7, is still very similar to season six:
Screenshot 2019-12-17 at 8.53.28 PM.png

SpongeBob's design in Late-s7 looks exactly like season 8:
Screenshot 2019-12-17 at 8.51.53 PM.png
 

Pugs4Thugs

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I always thought of Season 4 of a mixture and a transition from pre-movie to post-movie, though I never thought about Season 7 in this way. Now that you point it out, I have to agree. Between seasons 6, 7, and 8, the bad episodes get worse and worse, even though season 6 is the blandest season of them all. I often confuse these 3 seasons as well. It's just hard to tell which episodes come from which.
 

Yoh Manta

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Season 4 and 7 will always have an identity to me. Season 4 is transitional, but it will always stand out as the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. Season 7 will always stand out as a pinnacle for bad quality in the series that we will hopefully never return to. :D
 

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Season 4 and 7 will always have an identity to me. Season 4 is transitional, but it will always stand out as the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. Season 7 will always stand out as a pinnacle for bad quality in the series that we will hopefully never return to. :D


With season 7, I understand where you're coming from. But a lot of it's okay-ish episodes were found in the later half of season eight. Episodes like "Perfect Chemistry", "Buried in Time", "The Wreck of Mauna Loa", are seen as fan-favorites among the garbage that surrounds the rest of the season. And a majority of season 7's later episodes, match the episode quality of season 8. If anything, season 6 is regarded as the season of the show with the worst episodes. However, in season 4, the transition is so gradual that it catches me off guard, with season 7, it was a sudden transition, and after the legends of bikini bottom, the show's quality started to improve, "The Cent of Money", was also the last episode to have season 6-like animation, starting with the legends of bikni bottom, the animation's color scheme became duller, the animation became cardboard stiff, and it looked like season 8. I've noticed that when season 7 & 8 first came out, they were highly praised, and marked as the improvement of the show, but now they're regarded as Scumbob seasons. As for season 4, "Funny Pants" was the only episode that felt like it belonged in the second half of the season. "Good Neighbors", although a weaker episode, still had a pre-movie like atmosphere, especailly with the underwater sound effects, the more organic looking animation, and the pre-movie like pacing. Although SpongeBob and Patrick were extremely annoying in the episode, their personalities were still closer to their pre-movie selves. Patrick was still a comic relief like he was in the first three seasons, and not yet a brain dead ::dolphin noise::. As season 4 progressed, SpongeBob and Patrick slowly became dumber and more annoying. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but in bad post 2nd Movie episodes, SpongeBob and Patrick act just as dumb and annoying as they do in season 6.
 

SploderEnigma

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I agree with a lot of this. Early Season 4 episodes do a good job of capturing Season 3's feel. In contrast, the second half brought out SpongeBob's hyper side more and more, which came to define him in Season 6.
I actually do agree about Good Neighbors. I don't know how to describe it but it does have kind of a simple feel. This is a minor point but it happens to be the last episode to play Aloha until recently.
 

MASTER OF BIKINI BOTTOM XD

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I agree partially, Season 4 started as a total Season 3 imitator but then became a Season of its own, Early Season 6 feels like Season 5 and Season 8 feels exactly like the vast majority of Season 9a
 

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I agree partially, Season 4 started as a total Season 3 imitator but then became a Season of its own, Early Season 6 feels like Season 5 and Season 8 feels exactly like the vast majority of Season 9a

It's like season 3 of Regular Show, the early half feels like S1-S2, while the later episodes of the season feel like Modern Regular Show.
 

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Two-Headed Starfish
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Ego Trip of Dexter's Lab is one weird transitional phase between Tartokovsky and Savino's art styles.


Tartokovsky (Cel animation 1996-1998)
Screenshot 2019-12-21 at 10.49.22 PM.png


Ego Trip (Cel Animtion 1999)

Screenshot 2019-12-21 at 10.59.34 PM.png



Chris Savino (Digital Ink and Paint 2001-2003)

Screenshot 2019-12-21 at 10.53.19 PM.png


Ego Trip's animation is so weird, It uses Savino's designs, but it's still animated using cels, just like the first two seasons. it's such a weird transition between the two styles, it reminds me of an 8th Grader's voice during puberty, where it's deeper sounding than a little kid's but higher pitched than an adult, resulting in a weird medium pitched voice, with uneven splits and a lot of voice cracks.
 

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Two-Headed Starfish
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I actually consider Regular Show "Modern" from late Season 4 and on

I've noticed that a majority of long-running animated shows on tv have more modern episodes than classic ones. Adventure Time has more modern episodes than classic, same with Family Guy, South Park, Simpsons. Regular Show and Gumball also have more modern episodes than classics. Spongebob also has far more modern episodes than classics.
 

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I actually consider Regular Show "Modern" from late Season 4 and on


Nah, late-season 3 feels like Modern RS to me. Season 3, of Adventure Time is classic, but the animation changed in that season. The show's tone didn't change until season 5. As for season 4 of Adventure Time, the entire season was a weird hybrid between modern and classic Adventure Time.
 

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should of mentioned how spongebobs design looks like a box season 5 onwards till season 10
 

Bigsmoker

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Amazing analysis. Tbh I did not notice that and after reading this post I have to agree with it.
 

KalloFox34

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I have to say the same about Family Guy from Seasons 4 to 6. This is when the show was beginning to have raunchier writing and stiffer animation like Seasons 7 and beyond, but it was still very clever like Seasons 1-3.

Same for The Amazing World of Gumball; Seasons 2 and 3 feel like a transition period between Season 1 (which was a lot more relaxed and had a different artstyle) and Season 4 onwards (which has darker humor and is more bitingly satirical).

It's like season 3 of Regular Show, the early half feels like S1-S2, while the later episodes of the season feel like Modern Regular Show.
Yeah. I think it was because the whole romantic plot with Mordecai and Margaret was beginning to set in.
 

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I have to say the same about Family Guy from Seasons 4 to 6. This is when the show was beginning to have raunchier writing and stiffer animation like Seasons 7 and beyond, but it was still very clever like Seasons 1-3.

Same for The Amazing World of Gumball; Seasons 2 and 3 feel like a transition period between Season 1 (which was a lot more relaxed and had a different artstyle) and Season 4 onwards (which has darker humor and is more bitingly satirical).


Yeah. I think it was because the whole romantic plot with Mordecai and Margaret was beginning to set in.


Season 4 of Adventure Time was a transitional phase too. Season 3 was when the show's animation changed, but it still had the same tone as seasons 1/2, but the tone began to shift in season four.
 

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Two-Headed Starfish
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I have to say the same about Family Guy from Seasons 4 to 6. This is when the show was beginning to have raunchier writing and stiffer animation like Seasons 7 and beyond, but it was still very clever like Seasons 1-3.

Same for The Amazing World of Gumball; Seasons 2 and 3 feel like a transition period between Season 1 (which was a lot more relaxed and had a different artstyle) and Season 4 onwards (which has darker humor and is more bitingly satirical).


Yeah. I think it was because the whole romantic plot with Mordecai and Margaret was beginning to set in.

For gumball early season 2 is the tranistion, The Virus was the first modern gumball episode
 
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