What Went Wrong with Young Justice Outsiders? - Part 1

Young Justice: Outsiders continues the good ol YJ show many years after it fell into a sad, sad abyss called "Cancellation." But yeah, it's back. Woohoo. I'm happy some people enjoyed it--in fact, a lot of people loved it--but for me, it was a disappointment.

Background music (in order of use):

1. Artemis Deep Cover (from YJ: Invasion)
2. Empire Seasons by Dan Henig
3. Night Music by Kevin MacLeod
4. Allegro by Emmit Fenn
5. Covert Op (from YJ Season 1)
6. Arrival of the League (from YJ Season 1)
7. Night Music by Kevin MacLeod (during Patron Thank You)

[galactic]

After the end of season 1 the entire philosophy of this show seemed to become "why SHOW character development when we can just say it happened off screen?"

[DonniedrakoE]

Outsiders to me is just too unfocused. Who is seriously the main character here? The og team? Outsiders? The new team? It kind of makes the season as complicated as the story makes it.

[Tiltigo]

I just wonder what this season's deal is with gruesomely killing Halo in every other episode.

[levongevorgyan]

The problem started with the second season. TOO MANY CHARACTERS.
They should have taken a leaf out of Teen Titan's book: Focus on the core cast of characters, and let side characters be side characters.
They are trying to make a show about the whole of the DC universe. They can't do that. The old DCAU didn't do that. They had a show about Batman, a show about Superman, and a show about the whole team, which tackled big ideas. But they did it piecemeal.

[jimmyhu]

It doesn’t have the same vibe as the first two seasons like the cast of the past 2 seasons are sidelined for these new characters which was kinda annoying cuase the cast was already big

[Joyoboyogomu]

Young justice season 1 will never be topped and it’s so sad.

[moviehermit]

The whole _Doom Patrol_ dream sequence was a big reference to _Teen Titans Go, _ even having the same voice cast as the show

[jaylan]

In an interview, the creators said they intended for the show to have a rotation of casts almost every season and to continue with the time jumps. The problem with this model is that when we get attached to characters from previous seasons, we'd be disappointed that we didn't get to see more of them or at least get a solid conclusion to their major arcs.

[httm]

the first and second half of this season felt completely separate shows

[benaffblack]

Totally agree.

Justice League Unlimited handled the prospect of a massive cast unbelievably well, by taking 1 or 2 core members and then having them team up with newer members and writing a majority of their episodes as standalone to feature different characters, but the leaving the uniting feature their character growth & development, and not rely on some mega massive arching plot to be the driving force of the story every single episode.

The biggest issue with the show is the whole "tell don't show" aspect it's been going for. I hate the time jumps for basically skipping massive changes to the roster and the characters as we know it and they barely acknowledge them. This is especially bad when a lot of the time skips basically follow the comics and the show is telling you "tough luck go read the books kid if you wanna know what happens." on top of trying to shoehorn in every comic book idea possible at the same time.

- Aquagirls death.
- A Death in the family and then trying to give us a hint of Jason Todd with the league of shadows after resurrection despite us never knowing him in the show
- Johnathan and Damien being born at the same time.
- The Killing Joke happening.
- Doom Patrol

Like how tf is Tean Batman already on to Nightwing, Red Robin, Spoiler, Orphan, Thirteen, Troia Arrowette, and Batwoman at the same time without any sort of explanation or depth into the characters that came to be....they're just there toot tickle the fancies of the comic reader yet even comic readers are confused as to why they are there with no explanation.

And while we are here, let's be honest with the character designs. They have gotten way worse and uninspired. Season 1, the original 5 looked dope and it was a breath of fresh air and everyone looked and felt unique. But now by season, 3 everyone looks like the animated version of the first x-men movie...just bland generic hi-tech and new age "leather" mission suits. There's no personality to half the designs especially in the base layer of the line-art. That was already an issue in season 1 as everyone outside of the main 5 looked uninspired, (Wonder Woman, Superman, Joker, etc....)

Also one of my biggest issues is that Halo is there for basically a signal for the creators of the show to be "OH WOWEE LOOK AT US WE'RE TOTALLY A MUCH MORE ADULT SHOW."

[PJ-jbbm]

Young justice seems to be suffering from the need to be “mature” Young justice was best when it was a simple show about kids leaving the shadows of their mentors. When they tried to add more complex story arcs, everything got messy.

[CordaroBlu]

Honestly, the season needed Static Shock. They need a cool, fun, relatable character similar to young Grayson that the audience can relate to to play off all the stiff, serious "just getting used to things here" characters. In season 1, you had kid flash and Robin, seasoned, light hearted and fun, serious Kaldur, angry and unsocialized Connor, new and foreign Miss Martian, and complex but still kind of light hearted Artemis. Now, it's serious Cyborg, serious Beast Boy, angry and foreign Brionne, sad and foreign Halo, confused and unsocialized Forager, and a bunch of sad, abandoned children. It's like Zach Snyder's Young Justice. Everything is sad and serious

[monkeydgaster]

Still really like the show, but you are 100% right about their problem with focusing on characters and it’s definitely the show biggest problem. They are clearly talented at making characters, plot, and the world just not focusing

[kangdide]

All I really remember from watching week to week was just constantly thinking "ok that's neat, but can I get a payoff yet"

[KingOfMadCows]

It feels like the show really needs some spin offs. It's like they're cramming 3 shows worth of plots and characters into one show.

[samkaranja]

Season 2 had a small issue that was ramped up to 11 in season 3: mainly streching ourselves thin by exploring the universe, introducing as many characters as possible and contiuning to develop our existing characters. While its wasn't as big an issue in season 2, in season 3, the new characters that we focus on aren't as interesting as the originals. A lot of interesting possibilities are lost, unexplored, not explored enough or happen off screen and everyone is speechifying. Almost Every line, especially in the latter half of the season, especially from Beast boy feels unnatural and exposition. I really don't care about whether or not the outsiders are trending. I don't care about Lightnings morale outrage. I don't care about markovia or Halo's search for an identity or the will they won't they of will and Artemis. Show me what is happening with Team anti-light, the actual emotional fallout of it. Don't tell me tim and cassie have problems, show me. In a show called young justice, . I expect to see the team developed.

[GiubileiFernando]

They need spinoffs pronto, they can't handle the whole DC universe inside a show about a single team.

[TheShockVox]

Hell, bigger budget is right. Despite Season 2’s problems, it at LEAST looked good and still had that toy deal money. The loss of the toy deal really seemed to degrade the visual aspects of the show. Not just lesser impressive animation and choreography, but even the art style has changed to be more like the DC Animated Movie Universe, which has its own problems. It’s a shame because the art style for YJ was a big part of what made me excited for it

[moviehermit]

The 2nd and 3rd seasons all felt like there was an entire season that was skipped in between with the big time jumps. It's kinda like if we see Spider-mans origin, then the next movie is a couple years later and we're just told that he met, then dated Gwen Stacy _and_ she died.

We're basically just told about some interesting stories that could have been seen, but instead we just her about them. I personally wish we could have seen
- The development of the new Young Justice Team
- Conners and M'ganns breakup
- Robin becoming Nightwing
- (Maybe) A development of Kaldurs sexuality
- Kaldur becoming Aquaman
- Zatana struggling with the loss of her father more, as well as Zataras perspective while inside the helmet
- etc

[NoElBatman]

YJ as a show was character-driven in the first season then in seasons 2 and 3 was more plot-driven. It basically when from a comic book solo story to a comic book team up story. In team books you don't learn everything about every character, that's what solos are for. YJ S2 and 3 feel like that.