>>130139718I have similar reservations. I don't know if it was the way the show was set up from the getgo, writer/crew fatigue, and/or executive meddling but season 3 is noticeably more inconsistent tonally, character writing, and joke quality-wise than the previous two seasons. Seasons 1 and 2 had a lot of gradual, consistent buildup like Anne winning over the Wartwood townies, Anne slowly unlearning the bad things she thought constituted friendship, Anne's fallout with Sasha and the repercussions extending even to when her and the Plantars met up with Marcy, the team slowly learning more about the Calamity Box/gems with an episode dedicated to each gem, etc. It all led up to a final moment where the stakes were REALLY raised with Marcy being fucking skewered and a war beginning.
Season 3, for being the "climax" of the story, completely halted the pacing with 3A and shifted the preestablished tonal difference between Amphibia and Earth for no good reason. Compared to the goofy slice of life yet casually extremely dangerous feel of Amphibia, LA was changed from a grounded and somber place to this wacky town with cartoonish villains. If you're looking at a graph of how all stories are set up, Amphibia essentially pounded on the brakes right before the peak of the climax, flatlined for a whole half season, then slammed on the gas in 3B. Many stories fall apart in the last arc because the writers didn't know what they were actually doing and I hope this isn't the case for Amphibia.
