PRIMAL SEASON 3 TOONAMI DISCUSSION

[OwlChemist81]

MIDNIGHT TONIGHT!!

[all times prehistoric]

[DangerMouse]

Time for a crazy quest to begin

[DangerMouse]

Oh boy...

[DangerMouse]

Our Zombie Guy is in full WTF mode.

[DangerMouse]

He's very confused but glimpses are starting to come to him, that brain is starting to fire.

Oh, you done fucked up now lol

[OwlChemist81]

Looks like he's missing half of it.

Not sure where any of this is going, but it's interesting.

[Jman]

Zombie Spear feels almost symbolic of the show.  Shambling, with no clear direction, motivated only by a hazy memory.

[OwlChemist81]

11 hours ago, Jman said:

Zombie Spear feels almost symbolic of the show.  Shambling, with no clear direction, motivated only by a hazy memory.

Almost symbolic of the United States as well these days.

Let's spend our 250th anniversary of independence nearly starting WW3, yay! 🫩

[PokeNirvash]

20 hours ago, OwlChemist81 said:

Almost symbolic of the United States as well these days.

Let's spend our 250th anniversary of independence nearly starting WW3, yay! 🫩

HEY.

Leave the politics in General Noise where they fucking belong. 

[OwlChemist81]

6 hours ago, PokeNirvash said:

HEY.

Leave the politics in General Noise where they fucking belong. 

Alright. My point is I wonder if this is the sort of point Genndy is trying to make with this new season, though.

[PokeNirvash]

4 hours ago, OwlChemist81 said:

Alright. My point is I wonder if this is the sort of point Genndy is trying to make with this new season, though.

It could be. Or he could be pissed that no one liked his animated adaptation of The Dog's Bollocks and is punishing us for it with Zombie Spear.

Personally, the only thing I mind about him is that exposed section of brain of his.

[Jman]

On 1/21/2026 at 5:17 PM, PokeNirvash said:

It could be. Or he could be pissed that no one liked his animated adaptation of The Dog's Bollocks and is punishing us for it with Zombie Spear.

Personally, the only thing I mind about him is that exposed section of brain of his.

As has been noted in this forum, repeatedly, Genndy is pissed the hell off a lot these days.  Like Jim Cornette levels of pissed off.  His projects don’t get greenlit and the ones that do bomb.  Western action animation is dying on the vine unless it’s based on a comic book and even there it’s mostly for adults as Da Kids have migrated to short form content and anime.  
 

This season of Primal is Genndy being pissed off.  Pissed off at Fixed flopping, Unicorn flopping, his original ideas going nowhere as the audience considers him washed.  And abandoning the anthology premise to have a zombie Spear shambling around with no direction or goal is basically him looking at those kids and going “Is this what you little shits want?  The same reheated nachos from now till the end of time?!”

Edited Thursday at 10:27 PM by Jman

[Top Gun]

20 hours ago, Jman said:

As has been noted in this forum, repeatedly, Genndy is pissed the hell off a lot these days.  Like Jim Cornette levels of pissed off.  His projects don’t get greenlit and the ones that do bomb.  Western action animation is dying on the vine unless it’s based on a comic book and even there it’s mostly for adults as Da Kids have migrated to short form content and anime.  
 

This season of Primal is Genndy being pissed off.  Pissed off at Fixed flopping, Unicorn flopping, his original ideas going nowhere as the audience considers him washed.  And abandoning the anthology premise to have a zombie Spear shambling around with no direction or goal is basically him looking at those kids and going “Is this what you little shits want?  The same reheated nachos from now till the end of time?!”

This feels like a massive amount of projection to me. Yes, I'm sure Genndy was upset when projects of his don't perform well, as any creative would be. Though from what I heard Unicorn started out strong ratings-wise at least, but maybe it didn't finish that way. Either way with how much of a dumpster fire WBD has been since...well, ever, that has to be a contributing factor too. And more broadly, of course he's angry about the state of action animation in the US, and he should be because I am too. It's been dire for a long time, with only a handful of notable success stories over the past decade or two. Hell, I originally got into anime over 20 years ago because it scratched an itch I didn't even know I had because there wasn't anything remotely comparable being produced in the US.

As far as tying all of that into Primal, that's a pretty big reach. I think it's far more likely that Genndy realized he still had some stories to tell with Spear, but obviously the ending of last season precluded that, so he came up with an idea for how to bring him back into the picture. I wasn't sure what to think when I read that he'd changed his mind from the anthology concept (which I thought was interesting but ultimately not very compelling), but after this first episode I'm digging it. Spear's character was always about the balance between humanity and a savage force of nature unleashed, and this new season is pushing that to the extreme.

[Jman]

10 hours ago, Top Gun said:

This feels like a massive amount of projection to me. Yes, I'm sure Genndy was upset when projects of his don't perform well, as any creative would be. Though from what I heard Unicorn started out strong ratings-wise at least, but maybe it didn't finish that way. Either way with how much of a dumpster fire WBD has been since...well, ever, that has to be a contributing factor too. And more broadly, of course he's angry about the state of action animation in the US, and he should be because I am too. It's been dire for a long time, with only a handful of notable success stories over the past decade or two. Hell, I originally got into anime over 20 years ago because it scratched an itch I didn't even know I had because there wasn't anything remotely comparable being produced in the US.

As far as tying all of that into Primal, that's a pretty big reach. I think it's far more likely that Genndy realized he still had some stories to tell with Spear, but obviously the ending of last season precluded that, so he came up with an idea for how to bring him back into the picture. I wasn't sure what to think when I read that he'd changed his mind from the anthology concept (which I thought was interesting but ultimately not very compelling), but after this first episode I'm digging it. Spear's character was always about the balance between humanity and a savage force of nature unleashed, and this new season is pushing that to the extreme.

I might be projecting a bit, but it's not like he's been hiding his disdain for Western animation and we're putting it together via crypitc remarks.  He's saying all this out loud in interviews, particularly after the Black Knight pitch leaked and he made his immense frustration with Sony not moving the project forward public, to Entertainment Weekly, no less.  He specifically cites the success of KPop Demon Hunters and Demon Slayer under Sony, while they left him out to dry after the dog nuts debacle.  

https://ew.com/genndy-tartakovsky-the-black-knight-origins-leaked-footage-exclusive-11827802

And he wouldn't be the first person to put his frustrations with his career on the screen or page:

The very last thing Jack Kirby drew for Marvel before bailing (the first time.  He would bounce between the Big Two over the years, until he finally got a job doing the Super Powers cartoon and toyline, which let him finally collect royalties on his creations).  The anger is palpable at Stan and the rest of Marvel.

Edited 1 hour ago by Jman