Living up to your family’s name can be tough. Especially when you’re a white dude with a super white name who happens to be next in line (kind of) to take over as the head of a generations-old Samurai lineage. All of the best Samurai are in America, of course.
Yeah whatever, here’s Jayden.
The hero of most superhero stories is typically something of the idealized Tough Guy. They’re strong, confident, willing to take on any challenge that the day may bring them. Imagine if Superman had the opposite of those traits and it’s hard to picture them being the same character.
That character is probably closer to Clark Kent, pushing up his glasses, slouching and stuttering his way through everyday life. Poor disguise be damned, if I were an average Metropolis citizen and you asked me who I thought Superman really was, it sure wouldn’t be the meek reporter for the Daily Planet.
As Bulk and Skull would be the first to tell you, there’s no way in hell that geekazoid Billy Cranston is Angel Grove’s Superman. I wouldn’t believe it either. And that’s what’s so great about him.
Production of Power Rangers moved to New Zealand after the Disney buyout. As such, many of the actors they hired were natives faking an American accent. Some actors were better at it than others. Given the circumstances, one would assume they’d introduce a Kiwi Ranger at some point just to spice things up and eliminate any awkwardness that may come from trying to mask an accent.. Besides Katherine and Xander, foreign Rangers were basically non-existent, and it was surprising that the show had never truly taken advantage of its new filming location.
That was until we got Chase Randall: the Kiwi so Kiwi he had a Kiwi on his skateboard.
Those early 2000s seasons after the Disney buyout were somethin’ else, man. I believe I made it clear in my entry for Dustin that Ninja Storm was very much a product of its time. To some degree, that same attitude was reflected in Dino Thunder. You see, kids, in 2003, there was this popular Canadian rock singer named Avril Lavigne and with her came a slew of school-age girls trying to dress like her by wearing ties over their shirts and skirts over their jeans. These days she’s more well-known for marrying the dude from Nickelback and creating this… erm… love letter to Japan.
Anyways, Kira Ford was a reflection of the Avril phenomenon. Guitar and everything.
The late Disney era of Power Rangers is a strange beast (ba dum tish). They started out as 38-episode orders with Ninja Storm and by the end, they were down to 32 episodes with RPM. Most Sentai seasons tend to be in the ballpark of 50 episodes and one has to imagine it’s tough to pick and choose what to include in the American adaptation when you have a limited amount of screen time. As a result, some characters that get introduced “later” in the season only get a handful of episodes to leave an impression.
That being said, Dominic Hargan still managed to make his mark.
The Rookie Red trope gets its name from Power Rangers, and for obvious reasons. It’s not uncommon for the Red Ranger to be the unestablished one in the group, or inexperienced, or downright lacking any skills that one would attribute to a superhero, but wind up becoming the most prominent and powerful member of the team. Rangers dipped its feet in the water with Andros the Red Space Ranger, though he was very experienced as a Ranger, just not with that particular group.
When the show started “fresh” (sort of) by ending the colloquially-known Zordon Era with Lost Galaxy, they luckily had the budget to dive right into something new. In this sense, one could consider Leo Corbett – a dude who wasn’t even supposed to go to space, let alone become a superhero – the first true Rookie in Red.
I believe it was TJ Johnson of Power Rangers Turbo who said something to the effect of, “What kid wouldn’t wanna grow up to be a Power Ranger?” There’s probably some universal truth to this. Every kid thinks they want to be a Power Ranger. It seems like the coolest job in the world, right? But if you were to actually do it, you’d probably get your ass kicked in ways it’s never been kicked before, because they go up against some very mean monsters.
But when it’s the apocalypse and you have to protect a Morpher from falling into the wrong hands, you gotta do what you gotta do. And that very person is Ziggy Grover.
Team hierarchy rarely means jack squat in Power Rangers. The Red Ranger is always the leader (okay there’s a few mild exceptions but whatever) and everyone else is generally on the same level. There’s a few instances where one Ranger tends to become the de-facto leader when the actual head honcho isn’t around, such as Billy and Kim in the later seasons of Mighty Morphin. In most cases that just means that they’re the ones who get to yell the morphing call so it’s really not all that serious.
When you’re dealing with Rangers that also happen to be a police squad, though, the chain of command becomes a major focal point of the series. Never has this concept been more significant – and personal – than in the mind of Sky Tate. Continue reading
Hey, we haven’t seen a college student Ranger yet, right? They’ve all been high schoolers or presumed drop-outs. Does prep school count as college? I don’t think it does. I’ve never been. I actually just needed an opening blurb so here it is. And here’s Alyssa.
For the first few years of its run, the pink warriors of Power Rangers tended toward the more traditional “girly-girl” side of the spectrum. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, of course. The precedent for the graceful, feminine type was set by Kimberly and Katherine, and given Kimberly’s popularity, it was hard to imagine somebody breaking that mold anytime soon.
But then Cassie Chan showed up.
Children of Zordon 