Ok, bear w me for this one cause I've been rewatching Power Rangers, so of course it's time for a small rant on it (and my history of watching the show)
First off, to understand my love for this fandom let me say a little backstory. I started watching Power Rangers after I saw an ep of Samurai while I was on vacation when I was like 6ish. So when I got home I ended up watching the season on Netflix, but I wanted more so lil me decided to look up the full order of Power Rangers and I started at the very beginning w MMPR. Loved it so much, I ended up watching it all in order until Jungle Fury-ish within a year. Where afterward I lost interest, getting bored w the newer seasons (Also started to develop an immense hatred for Megaforce cause that's all I ever saw merch wise and to go along w it I had wanted to dress up as Kimberly for Halloween, but my mom got me the Pink Megaforce costume instead and I was very salty about it) (Also according to other people Megaforce is a bad show so I feel justified, but I try not to have an official opinion on something until I've watched it myself so there's that).
I picked it back up in middle school around the time I discovered fanfic so it was very interesting. I wrote some very interesting fanfiction on it, some of it good some of it cringey as to be expected of middle school fanfic.
Anyway, recently it's been dragging me back in where I'll watch a full season in no particular order. So yeah I most recently re-watched Lost Galaxy, Lightspeed, MMPR season 2, Time Force, and Wild Force and let me just say damn. I remembered liking Time Force, Lost Galaxy, and Wild Force but truly just damn they're good so let me just break it down a bit (good and bad) of the ones I've watched recently.
Lost Galaxy has revenge and character death (tho temporary mostly) left and right along w a low-key horror episode, a redemption arc (of sorts) for Karone (Astronema), possession (they didn't call it that but that's what it was) by a vengeful Ghost (revenge) in the form of Magnum Defender, two different main villian groups that tie well overall, death in the first episode that leads to a nice under lying plot w Leo for a bit (Revenge), the first official death of a ranger (Kendrix) which leads to the Rangers threatening this one dude in his home to track down her swords layabouts (it was actually a bad guy in disguise but still) (ReVeNgE), Trakeena getting a great villainess version of a "heroes journey" including a training sequence, a true morally grey sixth (kinda? It's possession, so Idk if I actually would call Magnum Defender a true sixth, but that's just me), and Leo killing Trakeena's father (brought along by deceit by Deviot) leading her to take on responsibilities earlier than she hoped and making her do something she wouldn't have done otherwise (REVENGE), Maya needing to save her village after it gets turned to stone in the first ep (did I mention Revenge already?), and a badass ending where everything is falling apart where just Leo & Trakeena have a personal-ish feeling ending confrontation. On the other hand some of the writing could be better cause there is a lot to jammed in this season, but with the season length we have it was good (for once I actually could've used a couple more filler episodes that flesh out relationships, how the heck Leo managed to stay on the ship without being detained, and since they had Bulk there use them a lil to help fluff it a bit). (In case you couldn't figure it out Lost Galaxy could be summed up in the word REVENGE!!)
Lightspeed was one that I didn't like as a kid. I think it's cause I didn't like the whole "manmade" Ranger aspect without somewhat living zords. Now I think it's ok and I can see why other people like it. Lightspeed has Demons vs the Government (which again didn't really resonate w me even now), the first US made Ranger (Ryan), the long lost sibling trope, the thing where "it turns out ur mentor is the mysterious hero who u've looked up too since u were little" thing, a semi-father figure Diabolico whose actually a Villian but does end helping the Rangers after he was betrayed, Dana trying to prove to her father that she's not a little girl anymore, a nice friendship between Kelsey and Chad that you could believable see growing into something more, then having experience with real life & not being teens, a good red Ranger that goes thru his own self doubt, a cute relationship that leads to a marriage between Joel and Angela Fairweather, and another good ending where u can feel the hopelessness of the situation as they are trapped in their base. There's probably more that I missed, but honestly one of the things that drove me crazy on the rewatch was Carter's insistence to keep trying to focus on dealing w the small things like fires and civilians when the Service vehicles clearly already had it covered BEFORE finishing off the monster like com'on take care of the main problem before you deal w the little ones man (I think a lot of people liked the part where the focused on the damage to the city and it would've been fine except there was still a big problem for the Rangers to handle first).
Moving on to MMPR season 2 (& parts of 3) and let me say just say it's a fucking train wreck White Light and forward. The only reason I even re-watched this was because I had finished watching Lightspeed and was like ok maybe lil me was a too quick to judge and I had forgotten most of White Ranger Tommy anyway. Honestly didn't watch all of it cause it's a ton of reused footage from the first season to fill in for Trini, Jason, and Zach's actors; I have a hatred for Katherine that cannot be rivaled; Tommy as White Ranger/leader feels weird and undeserved especially since he was named it while Jason was still there which is kind of a "Do I blame Zordon or do I blame what was going on w the production team?" kinda deal (which I tend to blame what was going on at the time and my head canon is that it happened after Jason left) (Not to say Zordon doesn't make other bad decisions, but this one I don't consider canon for him); it also didn't feel like they couldn't develop Rocky, Adam, and Aisha all that well in those seasons from what I watched like all of a sudden they were there & yeah they got a couple eps based on each of them but they still felt off; and the lack of actual purely cute Tomberly that didn't involve rescuing and such made me sad (they get the only on-screen kiss in the entirety of Power Rangers and Tomberly falls flat after White Light more or less). I liked certain parts like Rita's part was funny and interesting tho it did make Zedd less scary so kinda win/lose situation. I disliked the time travel cause I like to do history research on the side so it drove me batty (tho Tommy using the magic wand added to my "Rita taught Tommy magic" head canon so there's that).
Moving on, Time Force is really good and I think it is currently my favorite series on my rewatch so far. It's got someone dying in the beginning (then getting revived later but still), a revenge plot between Jen and Ransik, a little bit of body horror cause of Ransik's mutation (that I remember being terrified of as a child), a mixture of fun and serious episodes, all the characters have interesting back stories/character traits (tho I would say Katie has the weakest {hehe someone w super strength being weak is kinda funny} past cause it's mostly just about missing her parents tho we don't hear much about Trip's past but he has his whole trying to prove himself thing to make up for it), a adorable robot birb, Rangers as found family times 2, Wes explaining past things to the rangers, Jen's love life problems consisting of "the time I thought my fiance died so I went to the past to track down his killer only to fall in love w his 45th great grandfather that strangely looks exactly like him", a robot (Frax) that became a robot after being betrayed by Ransik after he healed him, a redemption for a "side" Villian in Nadira, a Zord made by Frax named Dragontron that rises from the ocean that fights the Quantasaurus Rex (This isn't really important, but I had to list this it's just too funny), a couple villains ending up not wanting to fight the Rangers cause they either have or develop a connection to them, the whole "you got everything handed too you while I had to build myself up on my own" between Eric and Wes, an interesting father-son relation for Wes, an entertaining relationship w Nadira & Ransik cause he's such a genuinely good Dad to her, Jen's fiance coming back and messing everything up before realizing he messed up and actually atoning for it by healing Wes's father, character development for Wes's dad, the Silver guardians which show a really great level to Ranger lore as a way for Civilians to be protected by more than just the Rangers, CEO taking advantage of a situation (for a while anyway), a tear jerking finale where Wes basically sacrifices himself for Jen and the others before they come back, Frax "dies" after showing his last sliver of humanity by trying to help Nadira w her moral dilemma before getting dragged away, Frax's origin w Ransik (he can also be freaky at times), Robots vs Mutants vs Humanity plus time travel, a sixth that never officially joins the team, a sad ending where the Rangers say goodbye & Jen and Wes don't get to live out their love story cause of Paradox situation (Tho they don't actually say that it's very much true and u can imply it very easily), and Ransik gives himself up after hurting his daughter. Which can seem a little jarring but still works out. Tho back to the ending for a moment cause screw the no cooties rule Jen and Wes deserved that kiss, producers suck 😠.
Finally Wild Force is also a gem that consists of: basically Tarzan but Power Rangers, a plethora of zords, a hippie princess, Toxica and Jindrax (my fav besties that would fight the world for each other) (also love their costumes), Cole's parents being killed by a jealous friend scientist of theirs that then becomes the main Villian, interesting Villian hierarchy (regulars, dukes, and generals), humanity sucks cause of pollution, a reborn god (of sorts) that takes away their powers when he sees that humanity sucks at keeping nature safe, sweet friendships w some major found family shit, an interesting 3 thousand year old relationship where Shayla and Merrick r definitely pining but refuse to actually give in cause of a "code" (complete bullshit if u ask me, like no one is gonna stop u Merrick but then again I think there's more to that in like Merrick needs to move on from Zen Aku first and they both have grown apart), another semi possessed sixth Ranger but it's the werewolf version to an ancient warrior in-prisoned in a tomb for thousands of years, getting out of an unhealthy relationship (Toxica and Jindrax), an weapon plus flute/ocarina-ish combo from Zen Aku (which I love his costume too), a great crossover ep w Time Force, an Air Force pilot turned Ranger (Taylor), a sweet florist that is probably the sweetest/purest Ranger ever (Danny), a good age variety on the Rangers, a truly evil main Villian that could've had redemption but didn't, Alyssa's Dad finding out she's a Ranger and being the most supportive parent in Ranger history, and another badass finale where all hope is lost & the Rangers fight without Morphers or anything to beat the bad guy. My one complaint is that the "Never give up" line was used WAY too much and the Rangers would give up and then that would be said and they would immediately not give up, would've been better to let some of those scenes simmer and for the line to be used more sparingly to really make it hit home in the finale, and the other thing I would change would be Merrick's Ranger costume, it's really bland for a sixth and compared to Zen Aku's outfit it made me very disappointed now and when I was little, I don't know how Super Sentai's version went tho so maybe there's a reason there but in general I didn't like that Ranger suit (also strangely enough I think these costumes could've pulled off the metal lips on the helmets but I kinda get why they stopped doing those)
On a different note, but is it just me or does Wild Force remind anyone of Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger (MMPR's counterpart)? I just started watching Super Sentai stuff like a year ago-ish, so maybe it's part of their formula but on my rewatch of Wild Force I kept comparing the two.
But yeah that's my semi rant on the shows I've watched (kinda) recently. Personally, I really like MMPR season 1 and the first part of 2 (pre-White Light) but as an actual show as a whole I would say the sweet spot for Power Rangers season/series is, in Space thru Wild Force. Not that the others can't be good too it's just I would say those are the best in my opinion, as they have more complex plots then some of the others based on my memory. I've re-watched Dino Thunder not too long ago and I'm debating on re-watching Zeo and Turbo cause I don't remember much tho I have re-watched the Turbo movie & King for a Day 1 & 2 and then possibly rewatching SPD cause it's my birth year.
I'm currently in the process of re-writing the behemoth of a fanfic series that I made in middle school that's a sorta re-write of Green w Evil, King for a Day, and Dino Thunder called the Evil Start, Evil End series as well as one that's one called "Time Turns Green" where Dino Thunder goes back in time to MMPR (I know it's both of those are so original, but I like the concept and at the time of writing the 1st versions there weren't as many of them in my defense). I should eventually post one of those. I just want them to be a little less eh discombobulated and for me to have more of an endgame before I go posting it.
But yeah, hope u liked my Ranger rant lol. I liked writing it all down, so I would like to hear other people's thoughts (I don't really have many people to talk to about this fandom around me so it would be appreciated lol). So yeah, thanks for reading and I say farewell to thee my fellow existences. May the power protect you!
