#prp 02

[kimberlyannharts]

sorry if I sound insane every time I bring up Night Mode but it. legit makes me insane. this wasn't "Lauren's suit before switching to Prime Red" or even "Jayden/Mr. Shiba uses it now because this is what Samurai Red looks like in this universe" NO ONE USED IT EVER. WHAT WERE YOU SUPPOSED TO BE

[kimberlyannharts]

Speaking of Prime Green, I listened to "Comics Unmasked" Podcast where Melissa Flores gave an interview and she confirmed that Rita was intended to be the Rita from 2016 comics, and this is a strange one... Rita/Janessa were going to be a thing if the comic continued a bit more.

if you laugh you go to hell if you laugh you go to hell

I guess this isn't too much of a surprise because as much as I went "welllll there's no confirmation that this is 2016 Rita!" there really were too many references to 2016's lore for it to not be the case. But at the same time it's very frustrating to get that confirmation because why was this extremely important foundation of her character reduced to vague references? Did Melissa not get permission to make it canon? Was it going to be revealed as a twist later on? (After over TWELVE ISSUES?) How did she get to this new universe; was it the result of the Grid shattering? How did we go from Rita being depressed and traumatized and giving up on everything to being let out and immediately going hehe haha time to attack and conquer!!!!

(And don't give me that "well it's been a long time, she changed!" nonsense, she says in Prime she was sealed away for a millennia, which is literally nothing in Power Rangers Alien Time)

Just kind of a waste of an actual arc tbh - to be let out with no purpose or goal but then shaken out of her ennui by getting caught up in the Rangers' adventures, rather than what we got, which was "I need Rangers for my plans that I'll never elaborate on but trust me I'm very complex in my morals"

I will mourn the loss of toxic yuri though, even if that's further confirmation to me that the endgame goal wouldn't be to oust the Eltarians if we're going to set up romances between two of them lmao

[kimberlyannharts]

Thinking about the proto-Valentina on Prime #2’s cover. Like who even is this

[kimberlyannharts]

Prime #2 notes -

= I'm going to be totally honest, I think I'd be way more into this if this was focusing on the actual (well, "actual" as in "alternate versions" i guess) MMPRs and not a cast of OCs. I know people love to say how PR needs to ~break away from MMPR~ but can you understand why having a book that's using a majority of MMPR concepts (Eltarians, Rita, Bulk, the armored T-Rex suit, the broken Triceratops coin in #3's previews) but not the actual characters I care about would bug me a bit? I'm sure there's probably ~a point~ being made there but still

= and yeah yeah yeah I know Lauren and Orion aren't OCs but I mean.......................they kind of are in spirit. Orion more than Lauren because at least she has more of her show characterization and story being applied here vs Orion being Orion because he mentioned being an Andresian refugee and liking fro-yos.

= Speaking of OCs in spirit we see the VR Troopers without their helmets for the first time and they do indeed seem to be Kaitlin and JB (based solely on their designs; they aren't named and only have one line each that give no indication of personality). We'll have to see how they go. Kind of hate Ryan already though whoops

= Speaking of hate i did ask for characterization for Valentina beyond "Ryan's girlfriend" and I got....."class traitor" ok. Obviously she'll get an arc where she grows out of this if she's going to be part of the team but it's hard to give her benefit of the doubt right now when she has no apparent reason for ratting out Jun beyond her being unable to exist without her fascist police boyfriend for five seconds

= Still don't really have a favorite character yet since again they haven't really gotten me invested but Jun is still the most interesting

= Lauren and Orion are definitely going to be a romance and I guess I'll just have to grit my teeth and deal with that

= Very obvious overarching theme of free will in this issue, which lines up with Melissa's style of each individual issue having its own theme, which is fine. Like the colonization of the Eltarians, it's just very on the nose

= I still hate Rita's design. Also tbh not a fan at how slimmed down Bulk was (and don't give me "well he's a trained soldier!!!!" nonsense, his Coinless counterpart was bigger and he literally lived in an APOCALYPSE)

[kimberlyannharts]

LAST TIME ON POWER RANGERS PRIME: We're in a new world where nothing is the same as we knew! Like for instance, Rita has been freed from the Space Dumpster and is about to attack Angel Grove with a monster. Wait what?

No wait, it's totally different, like look, Lauren's here, and she's a fugitive, and hiding out with Orion and some other guy, and then VR Troopers or something? And Eltarians? man, I don't know.

it's Power Rangers Prime #2!

= Gonna be honest here: still hate Rita's design. But I LOVE her tiny wand. It's so cute kdkjdkfj i want it as a phone charm

= Today On Power Rangers: our future Black Ranger says a slur (and gets off way too easily for it)

= As I said before I have no choice to accept that Lauren and Orion are most likely going to be a ship because how else am I supposed to take this. If a girl sees a guy's hot bare chest she automatically has to fall in love with him right

= oh yeah and Bulk's here. Honestly I thought she was going to transform him into this universe's Squatt but nah I can't be free from Bulk and/or Skull even in an alternate universe. Meanwhile Kim is nowhere to be seen IT'S NOT FAIR!!!!!!!!

= "I thought my roommate with the fascist police boyfriend would be okay with me harboring a fugitive, for some reason"

= died 2024 born 2024 welcome back Kiya/Trini toxic yuri. I'm tired of being nice after Darkest Hour they can frame Lauren and Valentina's respective het relationships as true love as hard as they want but I will FIGHT BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

= heyyyyy bestieeeeee sure hope you're not ratting us out to your fascist boyfriendddddd because you have little to no personality outside of being a girlfriendddddddd

= welp she ratted them out. Valentina I'll give you benefit of the doubt that you'll go through some kind of character development but you see what happens when your existence begins and ends with your love interest???????

= and yes as stated before that's most likely Kaitlin and JB. Is the talking dog going to show up too or what