I'm sure Prime probably doesn't want you to think much of the Ravager-corrupted Rangers beyond symbolism and "wow evil Ranger! cool!" and I don't really expect #16 to take too much time explaining the specifics, but these are just hard to wrap my head around because they're forms specifically stated to be given by the Ravager
And I'm just like. how. Unless there's some last-minute twist this isn't Dark Specter or Death Ranger, it's a worm. It's a worm that doesn't really seem to be sapient, much less have corrupting powers. Does it have any agency in all this except being a feral, hungry animal?? What exactly is it doing to infect these guys enough to change their powers??
LAST TIME ON POWER RANGERS PRIME - it's the second-to-last issue of this series, so everyone's coming in to prep for the curtain call. Jayden and Mr. Shiba are here! Jun's back from Eltar! And our surprise guest Trey of Triforia is here, with his giant worm friend! Oh yeah, did we mention that Trey of Triforia worships a big planet-destroying worm now? This universe is weird.
It's Power Rangers Prime #15!
= DIRECT ACTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
= Geez Mr. Shiba it's great you realized you're bisexual but you didn't have to join the worm cult just because it's run by a hot guy (that can split himself into three hot guys)
= First the Eltarians are fascists, now the Triforians are warmongers - even the Sirians held gladiator fights with prisoners. What's next? Mirinoi runs a galaxy-wide drug ring??????
= And yes, confirmation that the Ravagers destroyed Andresia in this universe, not the Armada. Vekar I am so sorry this spiky FRAUD is taking your accomplishments from you
= nononono Trey you don't understand you're not helping us fight the Eltarians the RIGHT way
= I am happy at least we're not totally abandoning the concept of Eltarians being assholes to make Trey look worse, since this supports an end where they actually leave Earth. I wish this was achieved via the Rangers actually standing against them but the giant space worm works too, i guess
= Yeah Mr. Shiba this is why you're probably gonna die but Jayden won't. ngl Mr. Shiba is acting a little too complacent in the face of very obviously evil but I guess the worm is corrupting him. or something. because I guess this is a thing the worm can do
= Like here, confirmation that this form is "Ravager Power," and Rita straight-up says the Ravager gave him an "upgrade." but it'll forever be Worm Power to me
= Okay "Teezee shut down after Jun left and Mark got too wrapped up in trying to fix him that he didn't make other Zords" is a little out of nowhere (you'd think Orion would care more if Teezee has been basically in a coma for six months??? they're kind of acting like robotics are Only Mark's thing now) but at the same time makes more sense than how earlier issues just made it seem like Mark was too busy upgrading Teezee to move on to other Zords. This probably would have been better established if there were more issues. So this would imply that yes, we're only ending on Teezee, BUT......
= ....like I said in my notes, despite the book making it seem like Mark hadn't made any more Zords, there's enough wiggle room here to imply that MAYBE he STARTED making others and they'll quickly finish them for the final battle. Or not. It really could go either way
= Anyway the important thing is Teezee shut down after being deprived of gay love and now he's back via the power of gay love. moving on
= Let's commit planetary destruction with papa (also where did he get another Samuraizer)
= While I've said in the past that the cut length did help improve things because they're forced to pick up the pace and not meander like the first arc did I think this issue is where I'm like okay now it's going a little TOO fast. Which I guess is to be expected because we're basically establishing and needing to defeat this new villain in the span of two issues. I still say ultimately this faster pacing is an improvement over the first arc but it ideally would have been like, six issues, not four or twelve.
= Case in point: still really have no idea what's going with Trey. Apparently ALL of Triforia follows these Ravagers? okay? they're worms. You guys are putting a lot of stock on these worms. Are they sapient??
= Also apparently Triforia is a planet of warmongers so damn how many more show-canon planets should we turn into fascists. Mirinoi you're up
= I'm glad Jayden's already setting up that he's going to turn on his dad and Trey but Mr. Shiba's a little too evil out of nowhere. I guess that could be explained that he's being corrupted by Worm Power though, since this issue does confirm Trey's new form is "Ravager power." I'm gonna keep calling it Worm Power though
= Teezee being reactivated with the power of gay love, happy early Pride. This probably means I was correct that the "first Prime Zord" will probably just be a new Teezee form but who knows, maybe there's enough wiggle room to pull off a last minute "oh no i did PARTIALLY build the other Zords, we just need to finish them now"
= Ultimately I have no big expectations for the final issue since clearly it'll primarily be the team coming together to defeat Trey and the Ravager with Teezee. There's really no big mystery or whatever we need to wrap up on except "so what's going to happen with the Eltarians," and to that end I'm pretty sure we're getting "Eltarians loosen their grip on Earth and let Rangers come back and mutants can live aboveground again." Which...I'll wait and see how it actually comes about before judging
Sorry for beating a dead horse here but I'm not crazy for thinking the "Teezee shut down after Jun left and Mark has been trying to fix him instead of making other Zords" thing came out of nowhere and contradicted the previous issues right. I guess it's not too much of a stretch to interpret some of these panels as "Mark talks to Teezee even if he can't respond" but at the same time Teezee is clearly awake and active in that last panel especially
This is the first issue in a long time where I really have nothing to say about it. At least when a whole bunch of nothing happened in DH I could go “wtf was that what about this plot thread” but here I’m just like. Okay
It's definitely the most Penultimate Issue of all time, an issue that is clearly going as fast as it can to line everything up for the finale. And while in some ways the faster pace of these few issues were a nice change compared to the meandering of the first arc, this is definitely where I felt the consequences of cutting short these plot threads for time, ESPECIALLY with the Mark/Jun scene.
You can tell this was intended as a Big Emotional Scene and probably would have hit in a longer, more fleshed out arc but it's hard to feel any catharsis from their reunion when from our perspective they were only separated for two issues, both of whom were barely in those two issues anyway. Teezee reactivating doesn't hit for the same reason, but also because the story hadn't established that Teezee had stopped working in the first place (like....maybe I missed something but I thought Mark was just obsessively improving him, not that Teezee had literally broken down and he was trying to get him working again. You'd think Orion would have been more concerned if that was the case.)
So as it is it's more like....okay, they're reunited? Teezee's here? cool 👍 now go fight the worm
