...'Cause if you've been paying attention, you've heard it before.
Y'know, it's not that the Disney seasons have ever been outright bad (well, the tail end of Wild Force was pretty icky, I suppose, and I had trouble watching Ninja Storm), it's just that they've never been super awesome.
By this point, I'm not even sure what to say anymore. Nothing I haven't said before, anyway.
Also, Venjix finally showed a personality. Yay!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Theory Two-Timeline Oddities
(In which Invid explains what a heck is up with the current timeline. )
Part One-Thrax
Thrax presents an interesting conundrum for the long-time Power Rangers fan, such as myself.
First, he's an immensely fun character. As the son of Zedd and Rita, he actually looks like he's related to Zedd and has Rita's vocal and physical mannerisms-a hilarious and well-executed combination.
Second, the episode in which he was involved was a very good nostalgia episode, featuring frequent references to older continuity and proving that the writers haven't completely forgotten the monolithic fifteen year history of the metafranchise.
However, the third point is a rather significant problem: Thrax remarked that he once battled the Sentinel Knight, who was dormant until modern times after the sealing of the Corona Aurora. The sealing of the Corona Aurora was clearly established as happening when all of Earth's continents were still merged as Pangaea (for the record, about 270 million years ago)!
And Thrax can't really be more than the chronological equivalent of a prepubescent child during his Operation Overdrive appearance. Yet he was supposedly sealed for ages in a very familiar sort of space dumpster, and had all the knowledge of a rather sophisticated, elder, experienced Power Rangers type villain.
You've probably already surmised just what my solution to the difficulties this creates is if you've read my other essay. (Thrax is a time traveller.) I just want to add a few notes:
First, Sentinel Knight must get his space dumpsters from the same supply store as Zordon, which might actually have been Zordon's supply store. (More on that at some other time.)
Second, Thrax could only have been born at one of two times in the series: Either during Turbo, where Zedd and Rita mysteriously (and rather conveniently) disappeared until the next season, or after Zedd and Rita were transformed into dancin' fools. (There is also the shorter gap between the beginning of Zeo and when they start showing up again in that season, but it was a rather brief one, so it's less likely. And there is also the outside possibility that Thrax was an illegitimate child that Zedd and Rita had hundreds of millions of years ago, but let's be realistic here.)
So the real question is, would it be "possible" for the "good" Zedd and Rita to have produced a twisted, sicko puppy child like Thrax?
My vote is, probably not. First off, what "decent" parent would name his or her child after a disease?
Second... Er, no second.
Anyway, so probably, Thrax was a child born under great secrecy, and hidden away (possibly in the past) in such a way that he was not affected by the Zordon Bomb. (Upon learning that Rito did not appear in the PRiS finale, my sister suggested that perhaps Rito was sent back with him as a caretaker. In-universe explanations for costume damage-related facts for the win.)
There is one other explanation, that being that, since Rita was selected to be the Empress of Good Magic of Mystic Force, Zedd was left bitter and alone (I sure didn't see him around, although the Master sounded a bit like him), and did a lousy job of raising the kid.
Or it could be that they were just normal sized in the back of the big magical cloudy palace thing, and nobody noticed them because the Empress was so darned big. (cough)
Not terribly likely, though, because of the whole Rita mannerism thing, unless that was actually genetic...
Part Two-The Near Future
SPD supposedly takes place about twenty years after the series itself airs. RPM, it appears, also takes place after it airs (at least four years later, depending on how one wants to interpret it).
The events of RPM (the extermination of humanity except for a handful who escape to shelters such as Corinth) kind of make things... iffy for SPD. RPM has to take place sometime before SPD because if the Space Patrol Delta organization exists, it's pretty much impossible for Venjix to pose a serious threat. (Venjix: "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave-wait, where did you get that giant cannon-shaped Megazord, Dave?") And if it takes place before, well... SPD's existence is threatened for a variety of reasons, most notably the fact that SPD's normal-sized populations couldn't exist after a catastrophe of that magnitude.
There's a related problem-Terra Venture. If you remember, in Lost Galaxy Earth had the technology and resources to build a huge space platform capable of long-distance space travel. How come this stuff isn't still around after two or three more seasons?
Well, let's start with Terra Venture. We don't know what happened to the Dark Fortress after PRiS. Let's presume, since it, like Terra Venture, is frakkin' huge, it was heavily salvaged for purposes of building Terra Venture, and its superstructure, which has vague similarities, was used as the core of Terra Venture's superstructure. (However, it should be noted that Terra Venture was way bigger than the Fortress-they probably bankrupted a few dozen countries building the darned thing. It is also possible that Terra Venture was in fact older, and had been salvaged from something else... I think the writers kinda forgot where they were sometimes. Look here for a bit more info on Terra Venture's... oddities. One intimation is that they actually lifted substantial portions of land from somewhere to use as the ground...)
Anyway, I would suppose that the disappearance of this various advanced technology over time (the post Lightspeed Rescue/Time Force era-these two seasons contrasted with later ones have a lot of disparity) may simply be related to economics. In effect, the companies that can make this sophisticated technology vanished in the intermediate time period because it's darned expensive to make it, and any returns thereof may be the result of their tech passing on to other companies. This is actually supported a bit by the fact that there are apparently warehouses out there which have old Power Rangers tech in them, and for that matter the Angel Grove junkyard must be a treasure trove, since it probably has Machine Empire monster and cog bits in it, and definitely has Zord parts (!) recycled by Billy at some point.
And this tech is apparently only useful for fighting invaders, so it can't be that profitable. Uh huh. Yep, perfectly logical.
So the big question that remains, then, is that of the population. But I think this one also solves itself, at least to some degree.
To wit: "Earth isn't the only place where humans live."
Earth may have been extensively repopulated by the "space colonies," including but not necessarily limited to KO-35 and Mirinoi/Terra Venture. (My sister remarks that "the guys in SPD were kinda weird," but I'm not sure that's valid evidence...) This theory would also explain why, a mere twenty or so years into the future, the population of Earth has such a high proportion of aliens-they were the space humans' neighbors, and followed them. (I mean they were figuratively neighbors. Trade partners, things like that. Not neighbors in the sense of that one guy from the Super Sentai GoGo V/Timeranger crossover movie, who looked just like Vexicon/Blaster Mad and claimed to be his identical neighbor [because there were a number of recycled costumes claiming to be relatives of the originals].) This idea is certainly not hurt any by the fact that KO-35, at least, was mentioned in an episode of SPD as the planet where an alien criminal had been previously imprisoned.
Obviously, this particular theory will either look better over time, or a lot worse.
It should also be noted that, counting this year, the year SPD aired, and the year Lost Galaxy aired, there have been three different years now since Power Rangers started where there isn't an existing Power Rangers team on Earth for the year (based on the assertion made many times that each series airs during the year it "occurs").
Part One-Thrax
Thrax presents an interesting conundrum for the long-time Power Rangers fan, such as myself.
First, he's an immensely fun character. As the son of Zedd and Rita, he actually looks like he's related to Zedd and has Rita's vocal and physical mannerisms-a hilarious and well-executed combination.
Second, the episode in which he was involved was a very good nostalgia episode, featuring frequent references to older continuity and proving that the writers haven't completely forgotten the monolithic fifteen year history of the metafranchise.
However, the third point is a rather significant problem: Thrax remarked that he once battled the Sentinel Knight, who was dormant until modern times after the sealing of the Corona Aurora. The sealing of the Corona Aurora was clearly established as happening when all of Earth's continents were still merged as Pangaea (for the record, about 270 million years ago)!
And Thrax can't really be more than the chronological equivalent of a prepubescent child during his Operation Overdrive appearance. Yet he was supposedly sealed for ages in a very familiar sort of space dumpster, and had all the knowledge of a rather sophisticated, elder, experienced Power Rangers type villain.
You've probably already surmised just what my solution to the difficulties this creates is if you've read my other essay. (Thrax is a time traveller.) I just want to add a few notes:
First, Sentinel Knight must get his space dumpsters from the same supply store as Zordon, which might actually have been Zordon's supply store. (More on that at some other time.)
Second, Thrax could only have been born at one of two times in the series: Either during Turbo, where Zedd and Rita mysteriously (and rather conveniently) disappeared until the next season, or after Zedd and Rita were transformed into dancin' fools. (There is also the shorter gap between the beginning of Zeo and when they start showing up again in that season, but it was a rather brief one, so it's less likely. And there is also the outside possibility that Thrax was an illegitimate child that Zedd and Rita had hundreds of millions of years ago, but let's be realistic here.)
So the real question is, would it be "possible" for the "good" Zedd and Rita to have produced a twisted, sicko puppy child like Thrax?
My vote is, probably not. First off, what "decent" parent would name his or her child after a disease?
Second... Er, no second.
Anyway, so probably, Thrax was a child born under great secrecy, and hidden away (possibly in the past) in such a way that he was not affected by the Zordon Bomb. (Upon learning that Rito did not appear in the PRiS finale, my sister suggested that perhaps Rito was sent back with him as a caretaker. In-universe explanations for costume damage-related facts for the win.)
There is one other explanation, that being that, since Rita was selected to be the Empress of Good Magic of Mystic Force, Zedd was left bitter and alone (I sure didn't see him around, although the Master sounded a bit like him), and did a lousy job of raising the kid.
Or it could be that they were just normal sized in the back of the big magical cloudy palace thing, and nobody noticed them because the Empress was so darned big. (cough)
Not terribly likely, though, because of the whole Rita mannerism thing, unless that was actually genetic...
Part Two-The Near Future
SPD supposedly takes place about twenty years after the series itself airs. RPM, it appears, also takes place after it airs (at least four years later, depending on how one wants to interpret it).
The events of RPM (the extermination of humanity except for a handful who escape to shelters such as Corinth) kind of make things... iffy for SPD. RPM has to take place sometime before SPD because if the Space Patrol Delta organization exists, it's pretty much impossible for Venjix to pose a serious threat. (Venjix: "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave-wait, where did you get that giant cannon-shaped Megazord, Dave?") And if it takes place before, well... SPD's existence is threatened for a variety of reasons, most notably the fact that SPD's normal-sized populations couldn't exist after a catastrophe of that magnitude.
There's a related problem-Terra Venture. If you remember, in Lost Galaxy Earth had the technology and resources to build a huge space platform capable of long-distance space travel. How come this stuff isn't still around after two or three more seasons?
Well, let's start with Terra Venture. We don't know what happened to the Dark Fortress after PRiS. Let's presume, since it, like Terra Venture, is frakkin' huge, it was heavily salvaged for purposes of building Terra Venture, and its superstructure, which has vague similarities, was used as the core of Terra Venture's superstructure. (However, it should be noted that Terra Venture was way bigger than the Fortress-they probably bankrupted a few dozen countries building the darned thing. It is also possible that Terra Venture was in fact older, and had been salvaged from something else... I think the writers kinda forgot where they were sometimes. Look here for a bit more info on Terra Venture's... oddities. One intimation is that they actually lifted substantial portions of land from somewhere to use as the ground...)
Anyway, I would suppose that the disappearance of this various advanced technology over time (the post Lightspeed Rescue/Time Force era-these two seasons contrasted with later ones have a lot of disparity) may simply be related to economics. In effect, the companies that can make this sophisticated technology vanished in the intermediate time period because it's darned expensive to make it, and any returns thereof may be the result of their tech passing on to other companies. This is actually supported a bit by the fact that there are apparently warehouses out there which have old Power Rangers tech in them, and for that matter the Angel Grove junkyard must be a treasure trove, since it probably has Machine Empire monster and cog bits in it, and definitely has Zord parts (!) recycled by Billy at some point.
And this tech is apparently only useful for fighting invaders, so it can't be that profitable. Uh huh. Yep, perfectly logical.
So the big question that remains, then, is that of the population. But I think this one also solves itself, at least to some degree.
To wit: "Earth isn't the only place where humans live."
Earth may have been extensively repopulated by the "space colonies," including but not necessarily limited to KO-35 and Mirinoi/Terra Venture. (My sister remarks that "the guys in SPD were kinda weird," but I'm not sure that's valid evidence...) This theory would also explain why, a mere twenty or so years into the future, the population of Earth has such a high proportion of aliens-they were the space humans' neighbors, and followed them. (I mean they were figuratively neighbors. Trade partners, things like that. Not neighbors in the sense of that one guy from the Super Sentai GoGo V/Timeranger crossover movie, who looked just like Vexicon/Blaster Mad and claimed to be his identical neighbor [because there were a number of recycled costumes claiming to be relatives of the originals].) This idea is certainly not hurt any by the fact that KO-35, at least, was mentioned in an episode of SPD as the planet where an alien criminal had been previously imprisoned.
Obviously, this particular theory will either look better over time, or a lot worse.
It should also be noted that, counting this year, the year SPD aired, and the year Lost Galaxy aired, there have been three different years now since Power Rangers started where there isn't an existing Power Rangers team on Earth for the year (based on the assertion made many times that each series airs during the year it "occurs").
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Weekly RPM Happy Rant
Still stupid. Still awesome.
In all seriousness, this is probably the best Power Rangers in terms of storytelling, mood, atmosphere, and so on ever. The only seasons that I can remember that approached it were PRiS and Time Force, pretty much the top two of my three favorite seasons (the other is SPD, mostly for the Zords and Rangers being super awesome, and the fact that the bad guys used naturally giant robots).
Ziggy is turning out to be a genuinely interesting character. I'm worrying that whatever it turns out he did is actually a noodle incident sort of thing, actually. Also, it's funny that they all think he's so pathetic, but he's still busting out all these crazy moves. (That spinny thing he did with his bag-wow.)
Also, Tenaya 7 is freaking awesome. They found a great-looking actress and gave her the most megalomaniacal "goon" personality ever, and then the Rangers lampshade it all over the place. It doesn't matter that she's as awesome as she is, Ziggy owned her. (My sister remarks that she sounds like a teeny bopper. Also, both of us agree that her costume looks kind of like a Cobra operative from GIJoe.)
Watching RPM is like watching an action movie, only more fun. The dialogue is much better than a lot of PR fare, the action is workable, and the characters and setup are (still) superb.
It occurred to me a bit later that if I were in the habit of swearing, I probably would have shouted "{expletive of your choice} yeah!" at least five or six times during the episode.
I'll try to step up the content a bit. I have been working on the blog, but they're fairly extensive things that will take time.
In all seriousness, this is probably the best Power Rangers in terms of storytelling, mood, atmosphere, and so on ever. The only seasons that I can remember that approached it were PRiS and Time Force, pretty much the top two of my three favorite seasons (the other is SPD, mostly for the Zords and Rangers being super awesome, and the fact that the bad guys used naturally giant robots).
Ziggy is turning out to be a genuinely interesting character. I'm worrying that whatever it turns out he did is actually a noodle incident sort of thing, actually. Also, it's funny that they all think he's so pathetic, but he's still busting out all these crazy moves. (That spinny thing he did with his bag-wow.)
Also, Tenaya 7 is freaking awesome. They found a great-looking actress and gave her the most megalomaniacal "goon" personality ever, and then the Rangers lampshade it all over the place. It doesn't matter that she's as awesome as she is, Ziggy owned her. (My sister remarks that she sounds like a teeny bopper. Also, both of us agree that her costume looks kind of like a Cobra operative from GIJoe.)
Watching RPM is like watching an action movie, only more fun. The dialogue is much better than a lot of PR fare, the action is workable, and the characters and setup are (still) superb.
It occurred to me a bit later that if I were in the habit of swearing, I probably would have shouted "{expletive of your choice} yeah!" at least five or six times during the episode.
I'll try to step up the content a bit. I have been working on the blog, but they're fairly extensive things that will take time.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Second Thoughts: Spoilery Hypothesis Time!
(Gark. This should have gone up last week, but apparently I never hit "publish." Darnit.)
(Er, it looks like that might have happened for some strange reason as a result of me editing the tags and forgetting to hit "publish" instead... Weird.)
I watched the latest episode of RPM. If you haven't yet for some reason, well, spoilers. Even if you have, well, my wild speculation may end up being spoilers anyway.
I call this "second thoughts" as a counterpoint to the "first impression" I had last week. It doesn't actually mean I'm completely reconsidering my view on RPM; it's still stupid awesome (although the proportion of stupid moments was a little higher, they were funny, so I'll allow it).
Anyway, I've got a few quick hypotheses about how this season is going to go, and I'll just throw them up here for posterity. (Note that these do come from discussing the episode in progress with my sister, fellow PR fan since the beginning, albeit considerably less nerdy about it.)
Hypothesis One: The person "Dillon" is trying to save is Tenaya 7; he has no clear memories because Venjix moidered his brain while trying to upgrade both of them into whatever Tenaya 7 is supposed to be. Sub-Hypothesis: They are siblings.
Probability: Fairly high.
Reasoning: It's nearly the exact same storyline as the Andros and Astronema storyline for a lot of the way.
Hypothesis Two: After Dr. K's big reveal (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you haven't watched the promo trailer, and probably shouldn't be reading this), we learn that the Zords look the way they do because she likes cutesy things.
Probability: Middling to low.
Reasoning: None. It's just funny.
Hypothesis Three: This is actually an alternate reality from MMPR through Jungle Fury.
Probability: Low.
Reasoning: It's gonna be hecka hard to explain how this fits in the timeline (although it can be done-in fact, I'm working on another fairly extensive essay which addresses this). However, I'm not betting on it for a few different reasons, the main one being simply the word "Venjix" being involved at all.
Hypothesis Four: There may be an actual reason for the choices of "Retrofire" Zords made by Bandai.
Probability: Uncertain.
Reasoning: Well, the Megazords from the Retrofire line are the "High Octane" (i.e. the RPM one) Megazord, the Wild Force Megazord, and the (Dino) Megazord. The lineup of animals for RPM are primarily modern animals, which is similar to Wild Force. However, the last set of Zords to show up, based on Go-Onger's "Ancient Enjins," are analogues to the (Dino) Megazord's components (particularly, Mastodon/Mammoth, Tyrannosaurus, and Triceratops). This could be mere coincidence of intent, or it could be that a connection will eventually be revealed between the Dinozords and the "PaleoMax Megazord" (name just obtained from an info site in the midst of typing).
Hypothesis Five: The midseason disconnect will be rough this year.
Probability: High.
Reasoning: Apparently they kicked out the executive producer credited with writing the first few episodes. I am sad. (Note: Every season has one of these midseason disconnects... Really. I may talk about it sometime.) This hypothesis is not directly linked, by the way, to watching this morning-I just added it while reading rumors about the season's production.
Hypothesis Six: Once "Dillon's" current character arc is over, they'll pretty much ignore how awesome he was during it.
Probability: Middling to high.
Reasoning: It's pretty unusual for a Ranger team to have an actively not nice character on the roster.
Hypothesis Seven: Corinth is small and crowded, so Dr. K made the Zords able to take on those tiny forms and teleport for purposes of avoiding city damage due to Zord stampedes.
Probability: Uncertain.
Reasoning: Even if this is never stated, it's a great explanation, at least in my opinion.
That's all for now.
(Er, it looks like that might have happened for some strange reason as a result of me editing the tags and forgetting to hit "publish" instead... Weird.)
I watched the latest episode of RPM. If you haven't yet for some reason, well, spoilers. Even if you have, well, my wild speculation may end up being spoilers anyway.
I call this "second thoughts" as a counterpoint to the "first impression" I had last week. It doesn't actually mean I'm completely reconsidering my view on RPM; it's still stupid awesome (although the proportion of stupid moments was a little higher, they were funny, so I'll allow it).
Anyway, I've got a few quick hypotheses about how this season is going to go, and I'll just throw them up here for posterity. (Note that these do come from discussing the episode in progress with my sister, fellow PR fan since the beginning, albeit considerably less nerdy about it.)
Hypothesis One: The person "Dillon" is trying to save is Tenaya 7; he has no clear memories because Venjix moidered his brain while trying to upgrade both of them into whatever Tenaya 7 is supposed to be. Sub-Hypothesis: They are siblings.
Probability: Fairly high.
Reasoning: It's nearly the exact same storyline as the Andros and Astronema storyline for a lot of the way.
Hypothesis Two: After Dr. K's big reveal (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you haven't watched the promo trailer, and probably shouldn't be reading this), we learn that the Zords look the way they do because she likes cutesy things.
Probability: Middling to low.
Reasoning: None. It's just funny.
Hypothesis Three: This is actually an alternate reality from MMPR through Jungle Fury.
Probability: Low.
Reasoning: It's gonna be hecka hard to explain how this fits in the timeline (although it can be done-in fact, I'm working on another fairly extensive essay which addresses this). However, I'm not betting on it for a few different reasons, the main one being simply the word "Venjix" being involved at all.
Hypothesis Four: There may be an actual reason for the choices of "Retrofire" Zords made by Bandai.
Probability: Uncertain.
Reasoning: Well, the Megazords from the Retrofire line are the "High Octane" (i.e. the RPM one) Megazord, the Wild Force Megazord, and the (Dino) Megazord. The lineup of animals for RPM are primarily modern animals, which is similar to Wild Force. However, the last set of Zords to show up, based on Go-Onger's "Ancient Enjins," are analogues to the (Dino) Megazord's components (particularly, Mastodon/Mammoth, Tyrannosaurus, and Triceratops). This could be mere coincidence of intent, or it could be that a connection will eventually be revealed between the Dinozords and the "PaleoMax Megazord" (name just obtained from an info site in the midst of typing).
Hypothesis Five: The midseason disconnect will be rough this year.
Probability: High.
Reasoning: Apparently they kicked out the executive producer credited with writing the first few episodes. I am sad. (Note: Every season has one of these midseason disconnects... Really. I may talk about it sometime.) This hypothesis is not directly linked, by the way, to watching this morning-I just added it while reading rumors about the season's production.
Hypothesis Six: Once "Dillon's" current character arc is over, they'll pretty much ignore how awesome he was during it.
Probability: Middling to high.
Reasoning: It's pretty unusual for a Ranger team to have an actively not nice character on the roster.
Hypothesis Seven: Corinth is small and crowded, so Dr. K made the Zords able to take on those tiny forms and teleport for purposes of avoiding city damage due to Zord stampedes.
Probability: Uncertain.
Reasoning: Even if this is never stated, it's a great explanation, at least in my opinion.
That's all for now.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Theory One-The Ultimate Power in the Universe
(In which Invid explains the greatest secrets of the greatest power source of the Power Rangers universe.)
In many seasons of Power Rangers, we are told that this or that is the most powerful energy source "IN THE UNIVERSE!" The Zeo Crystal, the Lights of Orion, the Corona Aurora. While the Lights of Orion were swiftly proven to be quite a bit less impressive than they were hyped as being, one would think that the Zeo Crystal or the Corona Aurora would prove unique. So why are there two?
One could say that this is simply Power Rangers storytelling, and a trope of the action genre. I choose not to accept that glib and simple explanation.
The Zeo Crystal was described as being the greatest power source in the universe, something essentially without parallel. I choose to embrace that idea, and embrace it strongly. However, the Zeo Rangers, who used the Crystal as their power source, were far from invincible. They frequently were brought to the edge of defeat or needed backup, and there was another Ranger-the Gold Ranger-from another planet who proved to have raw power that essentially exceeded theirs.
"But Invid!" you say. "They had to work with the footage of the Super Sentai and stuff! They couldn't just flout that!" My response is, no one told them they had to make the Zeo Crystal, established as the grand McGuffin everyone wants, the new power source. They could have just made something up like "these are the Techno Rangers. They fight the Techno Badguys to Techno Music." But they didn't. They chose to go with something that would enrich the series and give it extra layers. And it does give the series a most interesting layer.
If the Zeo Crystal was the most powerful object in the Power Rangers universe, why were the Zeo Rangers not invincible? Why was it possible to pose the slightest threat to them, and why could they not obliterate the entire Machine Empire with a single blast? Why did Zordon not use the power of the Crystal to protect Earth from every potential threat?
Did you catch that? "Why did Zordon not..." Hmm. Does that suggest anything to you? (Other than the fact that a stunt like blowing the Machine Empire away and building up giant Zord-based defense forces would be likely to start off something like what happened in the ancient past in the Gransazer series-a giant invasion of an alliance of every alien empire in the universe that results in the end of civilization.)
No?
How about I pose another question. Where the !#&% do all the new Power Ranger powers come from?
We are told in the second season at one point by Zordon that for Kimberly to attempt to use the Pink Power Coin alongside its past counterpart would cause an "overload of... Pink Ranger energy" (roughly paraphrased).
What does that mean? It might just mean that it could break the Morphin' Grid.
Yes, we should remember that it's possible to break the Morphin' Grid with enough energy. Rito and Thrax both have done so. Since that time in the second season, nothing's ever stopped large numbers of Rangers from working together if they wanted to. Hmm...
Perhaps the reason the Zeo Rangers were not infinitely powerful had nothing to do with a lack in their power source, and everything to do with what was really being done with that power source. While it is clear that the energies of the Zeo Crystal were providing the power needed to construct the Zeo Zords, power the Zeo Morphers, and the like, perhaps that wasn't all they were doing.
Perhaps, if it was the greatest power in all the universe, its power was being used to do lots of things.
Look at what happened at the start of season three. After the team of monsters led by Rito has considerably weakened the Rangers and the Zords, at a critical moment, Rito, by himself, with a single attack, severed the connection of the Power Coins to the Morphin' Grid and utterly destroyed the Zords. Ninjor fixed things, partly through what turned out to be the risky scheme of connecting the Rangers' life force to the Power Coins (a plot tool used to drum out Kimberly towards the end of the same season, when Amy Jo Johnson's contract was expiring), and Rito was never able to accomplish such an act again. For that matter, Master Vile couldn't, even though he was able to revert the ages of the entire population of Earth. And his monsters alone could break straight through the Rangers' Glitter Armor-er, their Metallic Armor.
Years later, when Thrax gathers the alliance of Operation: Overdrive villains, and utilizes their combined powers-the powers of the gyro-powered Fearcats, Kamdor and Miratrix, Flurious, Moltor, and his own son-of-Zedd-and-Rita self-he is able to knock out the Rangers' connection to the Morphin' Grid. But there isn't even enough excess energy to singe the Rangers themselves, this despite the fact that Andrew Hartford has far less energy and technology at his disposal than Zordon ever did (in the Command Center respect, not hardware such as Zords, which he obviously has quite a lot of). You could certainly argue that this is a poor comparison, that the OO Rangers are far more powerful than the MMPR, but I don't think so.
One would presume from his heritage that Thrax was at least as powerful as Lord Zedd, although he apparently had far fewer resources overall at his disposal (i.e., no Moon Palace, no Serpentera, etc.). Lord Zedd was clearly stronger than Rita or Rito, possibly (probably) both of them together. While the other members of the villainous cast of OO are less powerful-Moltor seems roughly as powerful as Rito to me, although obviously far smarter, Flurious seems to be at least somewhat more powerful, Kamdor and Miratrix are quite powerful (okay, mostly just Kamdor), and the Fearcats are ninja death tanks-combined, they are quite formidable, perhaps United Alliance of Evil strong (though obviously without the warfleets or armies at their disposal). They are, in fact, totally too much all taken together for the Power Rangers to fight. But it took all of them just to break the Morphin' Grid.
What does that suggest to you? I know what it suggests to me: That the Morphin' Grid is far more durable than it used to be. How could that happen?
Zeo Crystal, dawgs.
My firm and solid opinion is that Zordon didn't fritter away the energy of the Zeo Crystal sending out teenagers in spandex to stop the Machine Empire. Well, not only to stop the Machine Empire. See, the Machine Empire was a serious threat, but kind of a short-lived one. While Zedd and Rita needed to employ guerilla tactics against them, the Machine Empire was led by a bunch of pretty stupid and comparitively weak robots.
I mean, for crying out loud! King Mondo? More like King Moron. Or maybe King Mondo Fat.
These guys had this huge army of incredible size, tens or hundreds of thousands of Cogs, right? They had thousands of Quadrafighters, which would not have been threatened by Earth's military very much, and a hundred or so huge space battleships that had massive artillery and whatnot. So what do they do when they arrive on Earth? They send out a "scouting party" of maybe two or three dozen Cogs. The Rangers beat up the Cogs, and what do they do? They send a monster. The Rangers destroy it, and what do they do? They send another monster! Talk about falling into the same trap your predecessors did.
Anyhow, I digress. Lots. The Machine Empire was logistically a big threat, but they were just a flash in the pan compared to Zedd and Rita or even the whiny Master Vile. They just don't build 'em to last, do they? (Of course, this is ironic in light of the probable origin of R.P.M.'s villains. Note that I wrote the bulk of this essay back during Operation Overdrive.)
So it really would have been silly to let all the energies of the Zeo Crystal go to waste, wouldn't it? I suspect that Billy, Alpha 5, and Zordon were doing something behind the Rangers' backs that season.
They reinforced the Morphin' Grid, making it far harder to simply break the way it did at the beginning of season three.
They built up the reserves of the Command Center, setting up the resources they would later use to create the Turbo Zords. (I find it probable that at least some of the Command Center/Power Chamber endured the destruction at the end of Turbo. That was a darned durable building-they blew it up half a dozen times, or so it feels like, and it was still there. No wonder it was so rare to attack it directly.)
Zordon had a few dozen more Zords of various sorts built and hidden around the galaxy (and possibly the planet) for the Rangers to find, and these popped out of the woodworks during PRiS (and other later series).
I mean, come on, you don't really believe that "NASADA" built that space shuttle that could dock with the Astro Megaship and which formed the head of a Megazord, do you?
And it was awfully convenient, wasn't it, that there just happened to be a Megazord that could combine with that just kind of sitting out in space in the middle of nowhere (the Delta Megazord).
And it was awfully convenient that there was a team of more powerful Zords just waiting to be activated in a dire emergency. Literally waiting.
Another suspicious peculiarity-Trey of Triforia. During the scan that revealed him to them, they remarked that he had the same kind of energy they did (i.e., "Power Ranger energy"). While this could be a "generic" Morphin' Grid energy signature, it could suggest something else: That Zordon was a pathological liar about his acquaintances, and he knew exactly who Trey of Triforia was. Because he gave Trey the powers of the Gold Ranger, and he gave Trey the "Super Zeo Gems" to hand back at a convenient moment (Zordon: The Super Zeo Gems! They had been thought lost! Thanks for giving them to us, Trey! Trey: Wink, wink, nudge nudge!) so that Zordon would never need to explain just why he'd been holding out on the Rangers.
"But Invid!" you say. "Zordon would never lie to the Rangers! And why would he come up with such an outrageously silly plan and such? Where's your proof?"
I thought you might ask that question. So let me follow form and respond to your question with a question: Why did Billy need to scrounge up a few more components so that the Super Zeo Megazord could be utilized to its full extent, if the Gems had simply magically granted them the Super Zeo Zords?
I'll tell you why he needed to scrounge up the parts. It's because he and Alpha were building these Zords behind the Rangers' backs, and they had to launch them before they were 100% ready. Billy's resident genius veteran Ranger status apparently had some major security clearance perks.
I suspect that good ol' Trey was actually, for the most part, just a helpful plant by Zordon, so that he could send the Rangers new stuff without arousing suspicion over holding out on them. (This is reinforced by the fact that Zordon could apparently tell exactly who the Green Ranger was the first time they met, but "couldn't" figure out the Gold Ranger's identity. Look here at 117-GWE1, and then at 432-DIKY. Just because Trey talked all mysterious-like doesn't mean he was being honest, and the site notes a minor continuity error.)
I've got no freakin' idea at all where the heck Auric came from, though, and I'm just as eager as anyone to know what happened to the big lug. (Ninjor too, for that matter.)
The fact that Zordon left for Eltar at the beginning of Turbo also suggests to me that he was up to something.
I mean, come on. He was stuck in his Earth plasma tube for at least 10,000 years. Why was he homesick all of a sudden unless he wanted a bit of space from the Rangers? (For purposes of doing stuff without those pesky teenagers busting in every few minutes, that is. And it just hit me-Dimitria must be his secretary.)
Another thing arousing a little bit of suspicion: The Phantom Ranger.
At the time that the Phantom first appeared, Zordon had left for Eltar some time ago, and at the time, I might have suspected that the Phantom was actually Zordon in heavy duty disguise.
Very heavy duty.
After all, it was more or less established that the Phantom was actually Eltarian himself. They called him the "Eltarian Traveller," or rather, Dimitria did.
But that obviously couldn't be for two reasons. Reason one is that in PRiS, we see the two of them more or less in the same place at the same time.
Reason two is that the Phantom had a quasiromantic thing going on with Cassie, and Zordon doesn't seem like her type. (Heh heh heh.)
Even without the whole Eltarian thing, I suspect that the Phantom Ranger's gifts of Zords may actually have been sent by Zordon. I mean, on his page on the Writer's Guide describes him as "covert operative for Good and giver of Zords" (emphasis mine)!
Possibly the most peculiar and suspicious thing about all of this, though, is that the Zeo Powers were never destroyed or eliminated. They were simply forgotten, passed on for teh noo end coolar powahz wiff carz (i.e. the New Sentai Season Stuff).
My theory is, that crafty old so'n'so Zordon had the whole lot of them tucked away somewhere, ready for future use in a desperate crisis. I mean, that guy had a backup plan for everything. (The fact that it was implied in one episode of Zeo that Tommy's and Kat's grandkid was a Power Ranger, with the oldschool communicator and all, just supports this idea.)
When, despite the destruction of Darkonda and Dark Spectre, Astronema's forces are still closing in, threatening the destruction and subjugation of Earth and the entire galaxy, and Andros has infiltrated the Dark Fortress with the intent of trying to convince Karone that she's not a bad guy (fat chance of that, sucker), he finds Zordon, alive, well, and blurry-mouthed and bossy as ever, ordering him to take that ol' drill sword of his and stick it right in 'is eye!
Zordon: I have an urge to die!
Andros: No! Prime, you can't die!
Zordon: I will be gone, but others will live!
Andros: No! I can't do it!
etc.
(Sorry for the Transformers: The Movie [the '80s one] reference.)
And when Andros finally musters up the guts to do what all Rangers inevitably do (follow Zordon's orders) and smashes Zordon's plasma tube, all the bad guys that had allied under Dark Spectre are either turned to dust or purified.
Hmm, wonder where Zordon got the energy source to pull a stunt like that?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You might remember, if you're still reading, that I mentioned the Corona Aurora, oh, about an hour ago. If you don't, I mentioned it in the context of resolving the fact that it and the Zeo Crystal are both supposed to be the most powerful object in the universe.
I've got an answer for that too, and you might see it coming: The jewels of the Corona Aurora are actually the pieces of the Zeo Crystal.
"But Invid!" you say. "You've clearly lost all sense of reality! Both the Corona Aurora and the Zeo Crystal were locked away and inaccessible for a million billion years!"
Ah, but not so fast! Do you remember just how Zordon kept the Crystal out of Master Vile's hands?
He had the Rangers cut it into five pieces (hmm) and send them back in time (hmm).
If it worked once, why not again?
This time, Zordon would have had the shape of the Crystal's pieces altered extensively, making it utterly unlike its original form. And he obviously must have sent it a lot further back. I've seen no real evidence that the crown portion of the Corona Aurora has any kind of special powers (other than attracting huge numbers of villains), so I'm dismissing it out of hand. (Of course, since I first wrote this, Flurious uses it to help him find Jewel #5. So what? He was sticking another jewel into it! The sub-mythos of Operation Overdrive also simply suggests that these kinds of things "rub off" energy on each other, anyway.)
The Corona Aurora doesn't look like the Zeo Crystal, but it comes in five pieces like the Zeo Crystal, is the most powerful object in the universe like the Zeo Crystal, and is sought after by a powerful passel of villains like the Zeo Crystal. If it walks like a duck...
One last addendum to the facts of the Zeo Crystal, and its uses by Zordon: The Lights of Orion.
You thought I'd dismissed those, didn't you?
Well, I don't view them as having the power of the Zeo Crystal or the Corona Aurora, but I do view them as being connected to them.
Connected how?
Leo commented that the Lights were intended to be used for good. Where the heck did they come from, if they were intended to be good?
Maybe a floating head in a plasma/energy tube or a time warp had something to do with it...
And don't tell me that it was impossible because they were unlocked 3000 years ago or whatever. (I suppose I pulled that number out of the presence of the Lights at the battle Magna Defender fought in back then; they were floating around careless and fancy free at that point, let out of wherever they were contained by ol' MD himself.) You know just what my answer would be. (Time travel, in case I'm being more oblique than I think.)
In many seasons of Power Rangers, we are told that this or that is the most powerful energy source "IN THE UNIVERSE!" The Zeo Crystal, the Lights of Orion, the Corona Aurora. While the Lights of Orion were swiftly proven to be quite a bit less impressive than they were hyped as being, one would think that the Zeo Crystal or the Corona Aurora would prove unique. So why are there two?
One could say that this is simply Power Rangers storytelling, and a trope of the action genre. I choose not to accept that glib and simple explanation.
The Zeo Crystal was described as being the greatest power source in the universe, something essentially without parallel. I choose to embrace that idea, and embrace it strongly. However, the Zeo Rangers, who used the Crystal as their power source, were far from invincible. They frequently were brought to the edge of defeat or needed backup, and there was another Ranger-the Gold Ranger-from another planet who proved to have raw power that essentially exceeded theirs.
"But Invid!" you say. "They had to work with the footage of the Super Sentai and stuff! They couldn't just flout that!" My response is, no one told them they had to make the Zeo Crystal, established as the grand McGuffin everyone wants, the new power source. They could have just made something up like "these are the Techno Rangers. They fight the Techno Badguys to Techno Music." But they didn't. They chose to go with something that would enrich the series and give it extra layers. And it does give the series a most interesting layer.
If the Zeo Crystal was the most powerful object in the Power Rangers universe, why were the Zeo Rangers not invincible? Why was it possible to pose the slightest threat to them, and why could they not obliterate the entire Machine Empire with a single blast? Why did Zordon not use the power of the Crystal to protect Earth from every potential threat?
Did you catch that? "Why did Zordon not..." Hmm. Does that suggest anything to you? (Other than the fact that a stunt like blowing the Machine Empire away and building up giant Zord-based defense forces would be likely to start off something like what happened in the ancient past in the Gransazer series-a giant invasion of an alliance of every alien empire in the universe that results in the end of civilization.)
No?
How about I pose another question. Where the !#&% do all the new Power Ranger powers come from?
We are told in the second season at one point by Zordon that for Kimberly to attempt to use the Pink Power Coin alongside its past counterpart would cause an "overload of... Pink Ranger energy" (roughly paraphrased).
What does that mean? It might just mean that it could break the Morphin' Grid.
Yes, we should remember that it's possible to break the Morphin' Grid with enough energy. Rito and Thrax both have done so. Since that time in the second season, nothing's ever stopped large numbers of Rangers from working together if they wanted to. Hmm...
Perhaps the reason the Zeo Rangers were not infinitely powerful had nothing to do with a lack in their power source, and everything to do with what was really being done with that power source. While it is clear that the energies of the Zeo Crystal were providing the power needed to construct the Zeo Zords, power the Zeo Morphers, and the like, perhaps that wasn't all they were doing.
Perhaps, if it was the greatest power in all the universe, its power was being used to do lots of things.
Look at what happened at the start of season three. After the team of monsters led by Rito has considerably weakened the Rangers and the Zords, at a critical moment, Rito, by himself, with a single attack, severed the connection of the Power Coins to the Morphin' Grid and utterly destroyed the Zords. Ninjor fixed things, partly through what turned out to be the risky scheme of connecting the Rangers' life force to the Power Coins (a plot tool used to drum out Kimberly towards the end of the same season, when Amy Jo Johnson's contract was expiring), and Rito was never able to accomplish such an act again. For that matter, Master Vile couldn't, even though he was able to revert the ages of the entire population of Earth. And his monsters alone could break straight through the Rangers' Glitter Armor-er, their Metallic Armor.
Years later, when Thrax gathers the alliance of Operation: Overdrive villains, and utilizes their combined powers-the powers of the gyro-powered Fearcats, Kamdor and Miratrix, Flurious, Moltor, and his own son-of-Zedd-and-Rita self-he is able to knock out the Rangers' connection to the Morphin' Grid. But there isn't even enough excess energy to singe the Rangers themselves, this despite the fact that Andrew Hartford has far less energy and technology at his disposal than Zordon ever did (in the Command Center respect, not hardware such as Zords, which he obviously has quite a lot of). You could certainly argue that this is a poor comparison, that the OO Rangers are far more powerful than the MMPR, but I don't think so.
One would presume from his heritage that Thrax was at least as powerful as Lord Zedd, although he apparently had far fewer resources overall at his disposal (i.e., no Moon Palace, no Serpentera, etc.). Lord Zedd was clearly stronger than Rita or Rito, possibly (probably) both of them together. While the other members of the villainous cast of OO are less powerful-Moltor seems roughly as powerful as Rito to me, although obviously far smarter, Flurious seems to be at least somewhat more powerful, Kamdor and Miratrix are quite powerful (okay, mostly just Kamdor), and the Fearcats are ninja death tanks-combined, they are quite formidable, perhaps United Alliance of Evil strong (though obviously without the warfleets or armies at their disposal). They are, in fact, totally too much all taken together for the Power Rangers to fight. But it took all of them just to break the Morphin' Grid.
What does that suggest to you? I know what it suggests to me: That the Morphin' Grid is far more durable than it used to be. How could that happen?
Zeo Crystal, dawgs.
My firm and solid opinion is that Zordon didn't fritter away the energy of the Zeo Crystal sending out teenagers in spandex to stop the Machine Empire. Well, not only to stop the Machine Empire. See, the Machine Empire was a serious threat, but kind of a short-lived one. While Zedd and Rita needed to employ guerilla tactics against them, the Machine Empire was led by a bunch of pretty stupid and comparitively weak robots.
I mean, for crying out loud! King Mondo? More like King Moron. Or maybe King Mondo Fat.
These guys had this huge army of incredible size, tens or hundreds of thousands of Cogs, right? They had thousands of Quadrafighters, which would not have been threatened by Earth's military very much, and a hundred or so huge space battleships that had massive artillery and whatnot. So what do they do when they arrive on Earth? They send out a "scouting party" of maybe two or three dozen Cogs. The Rangers beat up the Cogs, and what do they do? They send a monster. The Rangers destroy it, and what do they do? They send another monster! Talk about falling into the same trap your predecessors did.
Anyhow, I digress. Lots. The Machine Empire was logistically a big threat, but they were just a flash in the pan compared to Zedd and Rita or even the whiny Master Vile. They just don't build 'em to last, do they? (Of course, this is ironic in light of the probable origin of R.P.M.'s villains. Note that I wrote the bulk of this essay back during Operation Overdrive.)
So it really would have been silly to let all the energies of the Zeo Crystal go to waste, wouldn't it? I suspect that Billy, Alpha 5, and Zordon were doing something behind the Rangers' backs that season.
They reinforced the Morphin' Grid, making it far harder to simply break the way it did at the beginning of season three.
They built up the reserves of the Command Center, setting up the resources they would later use to create the Turbo Zords. (I find it probable that at least some of the Command Center/Power Chamber endured the destruction at the end of Turbo. That was a darned durable building-they blew it up half a dozen times, or so it feels like, and it was still there. No wonder it was so rare to attack it directly.)
Zordon had a few dozen more Zords of various sorts built and hidden around the galaxy (and possibly the planet) for the Rangers to find, and these popped out of the woodworks during PRiS (and other later series).
I mean, come on, you don't really believe that "NASADA" built that space shuttle that could dock with the Astro Megaship and which formed the head of a Megazord, do you?
And it was awfully convenient, wasn't it, that there just happened to be a Megazord that could combine with that just kind of sitting out in space in the middle of nowhere (the Delta Megazord).
And it was awfully convenient that there was a team of more powerful Zords just waiting to be activated in a dire emergency. Literally waiting.
Another suspicious peculiarity-Trey of Triforia. During the scan that revealed him to them, they remarked that he had the same kind of energy they did (i.e., "Power Ranger energy"). While this could be a "generic" Morphin' Grid energy signature, it could suggest something else: That Zordon was a pathological liar about his acquaintances, and he knew exactly who Trey of Triforia was. Because he gave Trey the powers of the Gold Ranger, and he gave Trey the "Super Zeo Gems" to hand back at a convenient moment (Zordon: The Super Zeo Gems! They had been thought lost! Thanks for giving them to us, Trey! Trey: Wink, wink, nudge nudge!) so that Zordon would never need to explain just why he'd been holding out on the Rangers.
"But Invid!" you say. "Zordon would never lie to the Rangers! And why would he come up with such an outrageously silly plan and such? Where's your proof?"
I thought you might ask that question. So let me follow form and respond to your question with a question: Why did Billy need to scrounge up a few more components so that the Super Zeo Megazord could be utilized to its full extent, if the Gems had simply magically granted them the Super Zeo Zords?
I'll tell you why he needed to scrounge up the parts. It's because he and Alpha were building these Zords behind the Rangers' backs, and they had to launch them before they were 100% ready. Billy's resident genius veteran Ranger status apparently had some major security clearance perks.
I suspect that good ol' Trey was actually, for the most part, just a helpful plant by Zordon, so that he could send the Rangers new stuff without arousing suspicion over holding out on them. (This is reinforced by the fact that Zordon could apparently tell exactly who the Green Ranger was the first time they met, but "couldn't" figure out the Gold Ranger's identity. Look here at 117-GWE1, and then at 432-DIKY. Just because Trey talked all mysterious-like doesn't mean he was being honest, and the site notes a minor continuity error.)
I've got no freakin' idea at all where the heck Auric came from, though, and I'm just as eager as anyone to know what happened to the big lug. (Ninjor too, for that matter.)
The fact that Zordon left for Eltar at the beginning of Turbo also suggests to me that he was up to something.
I mean, come on. He was stuck in his Earth plasma tube for at least 10,000 years. Why was he homesick all of a sudden unless he wanted a bit of space from the Rangers? (For purposes of doing stuff without those pesky teenagers busting in every few minutes, that is. And it just hit me-Dimitria must be his secretary.)
Another thing arousing a little bit of suspicion: The Phantom Ranger.
At the time that the Phantom first appeared, Zordon had left for Eltar some time ago, and at the time, I might have suspected that the Phantom was actually Zordon in heavy duty disguise.
Very heavy duty.
After all, it was more or less established that the Phantom was actually Eltarian himself. They called him the "Eltarian Traveller," or rather, Dimitria did.
But that obviously couldn't be for two reasons. Reason one is that in PRiS, we see the two of them more or less in the same place at the same time.
Reason two is that the Phantom had a quasiromantic thing going on with Cassie, and Zordon doesn't seem like her type. (Heh heh heh.)
Even without the whole Eltarian thing, I suspect that the Phantom Ranger's gifts of Zords may actually have been sent by Zordon. I mean, on his page on the Writer's Guide describes him as "covert operative for Good and giver of Zords" (emphasis mine)!
Possibly the most peculiar and suspicious thing about all of this, though, is that the Zeo Powers were never destroyed or eliminated. They were simply forgotten, passed on for teh noo end coolar powahz wiff carz (i.e. the New Sentai Season Stuff).
My theory is, that crafty old so'n'so Zordon had the whole lot of them tucked away somewhere, ready for future use in a desperate crisis. I mean, that guy had a backup plan for everything. (The fact that it was implied in one episode of Zeo that Tommy's and Kat's grandkid was a Power Ranger, with the oldschool communicator and all, just supports this idea.)
When, despite the destruction of Darkonda and Dark Spectre, Astronema's forces are still closing in, threatening the destruction and subjugation of Earth and the entire galaxy, and Andros has infiltrated the Dark Fortress with the intent of trying to convince Karone that she's not a bad guy (fat chance of that, sucker), he finds Zordon, alive, well, and blurry-mouthed and bossy as ever, ordering him to take that ol' drill sword of his and stick it right in 'is eye!
Zordon: I have an urge to die!
Andros: No! Prime, you can't die!
Zordon: I will be gone, but others will live!
Andros: No! I can't do it!
etc.
(Sorry for the Transformers: The Movie [the '80s one] reference.)
And when Andros finally musters up the guts to do what all Rangers inevitably do (follow Zordon's orders) and smashes Zordon's plasma tube, all the bad guys that had allied under Dark Spectre are either turned to dust or purified.
Hmm, wonder where Zordon got the energy source to pull a stunt like that?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You might remember, if you're still reading, that I mentioned the Corona Aurora, oh, about an hour ago. If you don't, I mentioned it in the context of resolving the fact that it and the Zeo Crystal are both supposed to be the most powerful object in the universe.
I've got an answer for that too, and you might see it coming: The jewels of the Corona Aurora are actually the pieces of the Zeo Crystal.
"But Invid!" you say. "You've clearly lost all sense of reality! Both the Corona Aurora and the Zeo Crystal were locked away and inaccessible for a million billion years!"
Ah, but not so fast! Do you remember just how Zordon kept the Crystal out of Master Vile's hands?
He had the Rangers cut it into five pieces (hmm) and send them back in time (hmm).
If it worked once, why not again?
This time, Zordon would have had the shape of the Crystal's pieces altered extensively, making it utterly unlike its original form. And he obviously must have sent it a lot further back. I've seen no real evidence that the crown portion of the Corona Aurora has any kind of special powers (other than attracting huge numbers of villains), so I'm dismissing it out of hand. (Of course, since I first wrote this, Flurious uses it to help him find Jewel #5. So what? He was sticking another jewel into it! The sub-mythos of Operation Overdrive also simply suggests that these kinds of things "rub off" energy on each other, anyway.)
The Corona Aurora doesn't look like the Zeo Crystal, but it comes in five pieces like the Zeo Crystal, is the most powerful object in the universe like the Zeo Crystal, and is sought after by a powerful passel of villains like the Zeo Crystal. If it walks like a duck...
One last addendum to the facts of the Zeo Crystal, and its uses by Zordon: The Lights of Orion.
You thought I'd dismissed those, didn't you?
Well, I don't view them as having the power of the Zeo Crystal or the Corona Aurora, but I do view them as being connected to them.
Connected how?
Leo commented that the Lights were intended to be used for good. Where the heck did they come from, if they were intended to be good?
Maybe a floating head in a plasma/energy tube or a time warp had something to do with it...
And don't tell me that it was impossible because they were unlocked 3000 years ago or whatever. (I suppose I pulled that number out of the presence of the Lights at the battle Magna Defender fought in back then; they were floating around careless and fancy free at that point, let out of wherever they were contained by ol' MD himself.) You know just what my answer would be. (Time travel, in case I'm being more oblique than I think.)
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
A Quick Note
This week's Shinkenger excited me less than the last few. The monster's costume was, well, a mishmash, although it had interesting powers. The giant battle made up for it some-it was fun watching Shinken-Oh do that stuff with its limbs.
The real highlight of the episode was the preview for the next one, though.
Sure doesn't take 'em long to break out the ol' powerups anymore, does it?
Ah, well, at least it looks pretty decent.
The real highlight of the episode was the preview for the next one, though.
Sure doesn't take 'em long to break out the ol' powerups anymore, does it?
Ah, well, at least it looks pretty decent.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
First Impression: RPM
I don't see much about R.P.M.'s actual premiere yet. Does this mean I'm early?
Yeah, right.
Anyway, just saw R.P.M.'s first two episodes a couple of hours ago.
Two words: Stupid awesome.
We get this really repetitive thing at the beginning of the intro that basically talks about how all of humanity has retreated to the domed city of Corinth. Don't worry if you miss it-it appears more or less in full in both the first two episodes' intros and again at the actual beginning of the first episode. (You've heard a bit of it before if you've seen the promo.)
Then, well...
I suppose I should mention that I'll get very spoilery at times; while my other "first impressions" was spoiler-low, I could understand what these guys were saying. Fair warning.
Okay, the first thing that struck me was the guy in charge of the Corinth defenses (Colonel Truman, unless I'm mistaken); when a guy asked what he was supposed to do after the shields were going to be put up before any more survivors could arrive, he says casually "Go shoot something." Now that's leadership.
Then, a guy drives up in a schoolbus and drops off a little kid to a desperate mother (after throwing out half of a grunt robot, which had apparently been cut in half by the bus door). And he is really freakin' Scottish. He's so Scottish, if he disna get an opportunity to say "The engines, Captin! They canna take the strain!" I will be sad. And yes, he gets to be a Power Ranger. Awesome. (He also gets to say "crap," which is a little more cussy than I'd expect from Power Rangers.)
The pacing, by the way, is very good. After the initial fight followed by the forcefield activation, we get a little more exposition (Colonel Truman is the Red Ranger's father, by the way, and before he was the Red Ranger, he was Eagle Two... Eagle One, his brother, is "gone"), followed by a cutaway to "1 year later..."
Anyway, if any of you had doubts that a "gritty" Power Rangers series is actually possible, well, there sure was a lot of grit... in the toxic desert. (rimshot)
By the way, Corinth looks like it's somewhere on the northeastern shore of Australia. There was this radio transmission blaring out of Corinth at all times relating that it was at this and that latitude and longitude, although I can't remember it precisely, and Google Maps isn't being helpful. Anyway, that was a surprisingly nice touch. (Edit: It turns out that the coordinates, 75 degrees north and 25 degrees west, go through Greenland. Oh, my, things have certainly changed there.)
And so we see this guy driving around in a muscle car while some music referencing hot cars and women's long legs is playing (I kid you not), and we see that he likes flowers, because when he sees a single tiny flower in the middle of the huge desert, he comes to a stop and gives it a bit of his precious water. Then he gets ambushed by grunt-bots, but counter-ambushes them much harder, leaving one to stumble to its knees and then fall to the ground... without anything above the waist.
More grunt dismemberment. Awesome.
Anyway, he's drivin' round, looking for Corinth, when some guy comes up behind him and starts threatening him. This is Ziggy. Ziggy is funny. Especially since Ziggy was using a muffler and exhaust pipe as a faux weapon, and this guy could tell. ("Four and a half inch blah blah blah... Probably pulled off that wreck over there.")
Then he threatens to beat Ziggy up, but Ziggy offers to take him to Corinth. "If you knew where it was, you'd be there." "Ah, well, that's an interesting story-" Ziggy has a lot of interesting stories, but the mysterious guy isn't too interested. Ziggy doesn't have anything useful but a Corinth city ID to prove he's actually been there.
So he's heading to Corinth and Ziggy's really annoying him, and Ziggy asks his name. "I don't know." Ziggy asks what he means, and he says "I don't know my name." Orly. About half a minute later he says "You can call me Dillon." Whatever you say...
By the way, "Dillon" has a penchant for lollipops. Take that how you will.
I mention it because Dillon decides he'll run the Venjix barricade... in broad daylight. Oooooh.
Nobody's ever done that before! (This sounds a lot like a lot of the "Super Impressive Intro" things they do for teams like this.)
Anyway, the barricade looks pretty pathetic at first. Just some of the grunt-bots riding lasercycles (they have more than one model, too...), chasing them. Then, a set of hundred-plus foot tall wall turrets with thirty-foot long cannons mounted on them pop up around the city. Oh, snap!
Of course, hyperbolic as it is, it stands no chance against "Dillon's" fast driving and lollipop-eating skills; he uses a lollipop to stick a thermal charge to a motorcycle, blowing it up, and then just starts chucking the things like grenades, eventually blowing a hole in the cannon wall which has enough smooth ground in it to drive through. (Ahhhhh logic.)
They get into the city, pursued by grunt-bots and more because the shields take a while to fire up... and then the Power Rangers show up.
"Dillon": What's a Power Ranger?
Heh heh heh. It's so funny seeing that after all these seasons of "OMG! Powar Ranjars! AWSUMSAUCE I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A POWAR RANJAR!"
And that's the first episode.
Part two aired thirty seconds later, of course.
Part two has a prison fight scene. No, really. It also has Ziggy being "broken" by interrogators (in response to the click of a pen), which means he gives them his life story. Which is funnier than it sounds, because the guards/interrogators actually seemed to be having a good time. (Also, a lot of stuff is implied by what he says that they would not have been allowed to actually say.)
And then, when they decide mysterious awesomesauce man must become a Powar Ranjar, he says "Do I get to pick a color?" even though they've chained him up and are holding him at gunpoint. Awesome.
Anyway, I have to say this is the most fun I've had watching a season intro... well, ever. Whoever is writing this (something Guzelian... Guzelian the alien?) is in my happy book. He somehow made it Teh Serius Bizness while making it really fun at the same time.
It could be that my low expectations for the season are helping this along, but this was seriously like the best first two episodes of any Power Rangers series I can remember. (That little POWER RANGERS: RPM thing they did every couple minutes was awful pretentious and annoying, but I'll allow it. [It was a little bit funny, I'll admit-but it's gonna get old fast if they keep it up.])
So now my expectations are high for the season. Darnit. It'll be fun anyway.
Yeah, right.
Anyway, just saw R.P.M.'s first two episodes a couple of hours ago.
Two words: Stupid awesome.
We get this really repetitive thing at the beginning of the intro that basically talks about how all of humanity has retreated to the domed city of Corinth. Don't worry if you miss it-it appears more or less in full in both the first two episodes' intros and again at the actual beginning of the first episode. (You've heard a bit of it before if you've seen the promo.)
Then, well...
I suppose I should mention that I'll get very spoilery at times; while my other "first impressions" was spoiler-low, I could understand what these guys were saying. Fair warning.
Okay, the first thing that struck me was the guy in charge of the Corinth defenses (Colonel Truman, unless I'm mistaken); when a guy asked what he was supposed to do after the shields were going to be put up before any more survivors could arrive, he says casually "Go shoot something." Now that's leadership.
Then, a guy drives up in a schoolbus and drops off a little kid to a desperate mother (after throwing out half of a grunt robot, which had apparently been cut in half by the bus door). And he is really freakin' Scottish. He's so Scottish, if he disna get an opportunity to say "The engines, Captin! They canna take the strain!" I will be sad. And yes, he gets to be a Power Ranger. Awesome. (He also gets to say "crap," which is a little more cussy than I'd expect from Power Rangers.)
The pacing, by the way, is very good. After the initial fight followed by the forcefield activation, we get a little more exposition (Colonel Truman is the Red Ranger's father, by the way, and before he was the Red Ranger, he was Eagle Two... Eagle One, his brother, is "gone"), followed by a cutaway to "1 year later..."
Anyway, if any of you had doubts that a "gritty" Power Rangers series is actually possible, well, there sure was a lot of grit... in the toxic desert. (rimshot)
By the way, Corinth looks like it's somewhere on the northeastern shore of Australia. There was this radio transmission blaring out of Corinth at all times relating that it was at this and that latitude and longitude, although I can't remember it precisely, and Google Maps isn't being helpful. Anyway, that was a surprisingly nice touch. (Edit: It turns out that the coordinates, 75 degrees north and 25 degrees west, go through Greenland. Oh, my, things have certainly changed there.)
And so we see this guy driving around in a muscle car while some music referencing hot cars and women's long legs is playing (I kid you not), and we see that he likes flowers, because when he sees a single tiny flower in the middle of the huge desert, he comes to a stop and gives it a bit of his precious water. Then he gets ambushed by grunt-bots, but counter-ambushes them much harder, leaving one to stumble to its knees and then fall to the ground... without anything above the waist.
More grunt dismemberment. Awesome.
Anyway, he's drivin' round, looking for Corinth, when some guy comes up behind him and starts threatening him. This is Ziggy. Ziggy is funny. Especially since Ziggy was using a muffler and exhaust pipe as a faux weapon, and this guy could tell. ("Four and a half inch blah blah blah... Probably pulled off that wreck over there.")
Then he threatens to beat Ziggy up, but Ziggy offers to take him to Corinth. "If you knew where it was, you'd be there." "Ah, well, that's an interesting story-" Ziggy has a lot of interesting stories, but the mysterious guy isn't too interested. Ziggy doesn't have anything useful but a Corinth city ID to prove he's actually been there.
So he's heading to Corinth and Ziggy's really annoying him, and Ziggy asks his name. "I don't know." Ziggy asks what he means, and he says "I don't know my name." Orly. About half a minute later he says "You can call me Dillon." Whatever you say...
By the way, "Dillon" has a penchant for lollipops. Take that how you will.
I mention it because Dillon decides he'll run the Venjix barricade... in broad daylight. Oooooh.
Nobody's ever done that before! (This sounds a lot like a lot of the "Super Impressive Intro" things they do for teams like this.)
Anyway, the barricade looks pretty pathetic at first. Just some of the grunt-bots riding lasercycles (they have more than one model, too...), chasing them. Then, a set of hundred-plus foot tall wall turrets with thirty-foot long cannons mounted on them pop up around the city. Oh, snap!
Of course, hyperbolic as it is, it stands no chance against "Dillon's" fast driving and lollipop-eating skills; he uses a lollipop to stick a thermal charge to a motorcycle, blowing it up, and then just starts chucking the things like grenades, eventually blowing a hole in the cannon wall which has enough smooth ground in it to drive through. (Ahhhhh logic.)
They get into the city, pursued by grunt-bots and more because the shields take a while to fire up... and then the Power Rangers show up.
"Dillon": What's a Power Ranger?
Heh heh heh. It's so funny seeing that after all these seasons of "OMG! Powar Ranjars! AWSUMSAUCE I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A POWAR RANJAR!"
And that's the first episode.
Part two aired thirty seconds later, of course.
Part two has a prison fight scene. No, really. It also has Ziggy being "broken" by interrogators (in response to the click of a pen), which means he gives them his life story. Which is funnier than it sounds, because the guards/interrogators actually seemed to be having a good time. (Also, a lot of stuff is implied by what he says that they would not have been allowed to actually say.)
And then, when they decide mysterious awesomesauce man must become a Powar Ranjar, he says "Do I get to pick a color?" even though they've chained him up and are holding him at gunpoint. Awesome.
Anyway, I have to say this is the most fun I've had watching a season intro... well, ever. Whoever is writing this (something Guzelian... Guzelian the alien?) is in my happy book. He somehow made it Teh Serius Bizness while making it really fun at the same time.
It could be that my low expectations for the season are helping this along, but this was seriously like the best first two episodes of any Power Rangers series I can remember. (That little POWER RANGERS: RPM thing they did every couple minutes was awful pretentious and annoying, but I'll allow it. [It was a little bit funny, I'll admit-but it's gonna get old fast if they keep it up.])
So now my expectations are high for the season. Darnit. It'll be fun anyway.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Why, YouTube, Why?
Normally I would vent about this in my other blog, but it's affecting my blogging here, so I thought I'd post it here. (I've already got a post scheduled for the other anyway, and none for this one, and it's more directly relevant to this blog than that one, too...)
This is the closest I could get to a proper Power Rangers intro to embed. (I actually kinda like it, but I had wanted actual intros to embed...)
YouTube's been driving me nuts lately.
This is the closest I could get to a proper Power Rangers intro to embed. (I actually kinda like it, but I had wanted actual intros to embed...)
YouTube's been driving me nuts lately.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
First Impression: Shinkenger
Thus far, I've watched the first three episodes of Samurai Sentai Shinkenger on YouTube.
What do I think? It's a pretty good start.
Japanese storytelling is more likely to be clear and concise than its Western counterpart, and even though none of what I've watched was subtitled, that's not a big deal.
From what I've read, this is the most emphatically Japanese Super Sentai ever produced. While it's hardly the first to use heavily Japanese themes and mecha, I can't think of any remotely such intrusively Japanese elements as some of what has appeared in Shinkenger.
For instance, the good guy's leader, the Red Shinkenger, apparently is answerable directly to the Japanese Emperor, and is his vassal.
Just let that sink in for a moment.
The villains come very directly from Japanese folklore; more amusingly, their leader calms his rages by chugging sake from a dish.
Since the characters are apparently literally considered to be samurai, they are served by a large number of... servants, who are based on the stagehands of traditional Japanese theater. (And they are hilarious.)
And an integral part of the powers the characters use is the writing of kanji to morph, summon things (including horses, which cracks me up), and cause their teeny tiny, itty bitty magical pseudo-animal companions to turn into giant Zords. (I sense that the series is intended to encourage Japanese children to learn their writing.)
It makes me very curious about just how they'll adapt Shinkenger for an American audience, as the rampant... Japaneseness... is rather more overt.
Anyway, I like the look of the season. The costumes are really sharp thus far, and with the exception of that thing from the first episode with the faceskirt, the monster costumes are solid. (Even that thing was pretty good from the waist up.) I particularly like that short and fat Cthulhu guy. They seem to be going with a combination Japanese folklore/sea life theme.
One thing that does concern me is that they'll try to take out the "gattai gag" from the second episode.
(Er, if you saw the intro a second time here, sorry. Had some issues with YouTube there... It's fixed.)
Of course, it's not exactly like it's something that would be labeled as inappropriate in the United States, it's just something that would make me sad if it wasn't there.
And this year's mecha are the best since at least Boukenger/Operation Overdrive. Forget that nonsense from last year (or coming up in RPM), these are proper Sentai mecha designs. It's also nice that they made the stylistic choice of the animal mecha being puppets rather than CGI; it's a nice, refreshing change. (I really miss those old sequences.) In fact, the whole series feels like it's a '90s Sentai/Power Rangers, except with a little bit sharper effects. (Don't take this as a criticism of the modern series-they're often highly enjoyable. I was even enjoying watching some Go-Onger the other day, and I hadn't thought that was possible.)
Another refreshing facet is that the Red Shinkenger is not the same exact character as every other Red Ranger has been for the past however many years in Sentai. The typical Sentai Red Ranger's role (reckless guy leading the charge) has been taken by the Green Shinkenger, while Red is a cool, even-tempered, and calculating warrior.
Overall opinion so far? Refreshing and nostalgic, and rock-solid as Sentai go. Invid approves.
I really ought to get to work on the season summaries... Or maybe get that first essay straightened out.
Monday, March 2, 2009
For Future Reference...
I'm working on a series of "info posts" with general information on each series and the like. These posts, and any additional such I make in the future, will all be backdated to yesterday.
I'll be starting real content tomorrow, likely with commentary on this year's new Sentai.
(EDIT: Er, make that the day after tomorrow. Stupid combination of circumstances and a slow computer...)
I'll be starting real content tomorrow, likely with commentary on this year's new Sentai.
(EDIT: Er, make that the day after tomorrow. Stupid combination of circumstances and a slow computer...)
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