874 - MMPR In 3 Panels or Less Part 4

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Starring.
Beretta as The White Ranger.
Prima as The Black Ranger.
Dom Fury as The Pink Ranger.
Espio Manditori as The Blue Ranger.
Mya Margarita as The Yellow Ranger.
Erin O'Leary as The Red Ranger.
Bernie Sanders as Zordon.
AlphaOmegaSin as Alpha5.
Sammie Standin as Replacement Pink Ranger.
Ursula as Replacement Yellow Ranger.
BadLuckCrow as Rita Repulsa.
Kari as Lord Zedd.
CYOP as Goldar.
Anuro as Rito Revolto.
Swan as Master Vile.
Charlotte Ness as Dulcea.
Davkd Dodger as Ivan Ooze.
And Ariel as the Blue Globber Monster.

Crow, Beretta Swan are creations of
Kari belongs to :iconkariokami:
Anuro and Prima belong to
Ursula belongs to

Ariel is a co-creation between myself and

...... It's time to end this mini series. Before we begin. I do feel the Rangers got their asses kicked this year. I mean their movie bombed at the box office, their Vs Justice League comic was cancelled and that PS4/Xbone game was mediocre. Not a good time to be a Power Rangers fan is it?

But down to business.

MMPR: In 3 Panels or Less.

Season 3.

Coming off a movie (that is more miss than hit) the series was looking to bring things to a collective end this time around. Or more precisely, it was time to put the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to bed and get the stage ready for the Zeo Rangers.

The method of how they got the Ninja powers in the TV series is more to the point than the movie was. I refer you to Part 3 for more details since I'm not going over it again. The introduction of Rito Revolto gave Goldar someone to bounce some dialogue around with, almost creating the Rangers answer to Bebop and Rocksteady. Season 3 had more tension and serious themes but sadly Ninjor really detracts from any sort of seriousness they tried to implement.. I think it's mainly the fact he looks like a Ninja robot man, but talks like a cross between Kermit the Frog and Dudley Do-right.

While Ivan's method of stripping Rangers of their powers made little to no sense in the film, Season 3 doesn't make things any better. So the Zords blew up because they were outnumbered by monsters? Yet in the Wedding this exact same scenario happened and it was okay? This is what I was talking about last time, how the show had blatant continuity problems and errors in it's own logic. I can except Rito destroying the Zords, but a bunch of monsters that have proven to be inferior to the Thunderzords is baffling. Not to mention the fight with Cyclopsis had a similair result yet all it did was retreat the Zords to their hiding places.

Not to mention when either the Zords or the Command Center was destroyed, it never stripped the Rangers of their powers. So having them suddenly lose their powers is baffling. This also is regurgitating segments from how Season 2 began. "New Villain appears - Lose Old Powers - Get New Powers - Curb Stomp New Villain!" its what I refer to as "The Digimon Formula."

Look, I know the real reason was "We want to use the Kakuranger footage!" and I know you're saying "IT'S A KIDS SHOW!!!" but the in story reason is pure bullshit. So Kermit the NinjaDudley gives them new Zords (also available at your local Toys R Us) and we have a new goon for Rita and Zedd. Let's move into the actual episodes and what they bring to the narrative.

Taken from the the 1995 Movie, the Tengu Warriors are the new henchemen for the Season. I really didn't like the Tengus, primarily because these goons actually talk and tell jokes.... very unfunny jokes What's equally confusing is how Ninjor claims their new powers aren't related to their old ones.... Yet they morph into their old Zyuranger/Dairanger costumes. Again, I know Kakuranger only had 5 Rangers (Red, Black, White, Blue and Yellow) and they were missing their 6th Ranger, so they had to stick with the old outfits. I mean they could have wrote one of them out..... Oh funny I mention that. We said goodbye to another fan favourte character.

If you asked a lot of fans what their favorite aspect of the show (after Tommy) was? They'd probably say Amy Jo Johnson as Kimberly. She was basically every kid in the 90's first real crush. Not gonna lie, I really fancied the shit out of her as a kid (I admit it) and even today she's still attractive as hell. Even the new Kimberly, played by Naomi Scott, commented on her pretty she is. That's respect.

Yet all good things must come to an end. Amy decided to leave the show, breaking the hearts of teenage boys across the nation. Thankfully her departure was handled better than "Oh she's joining a peace confrence and we won't see her on screen as she leaves" but rather Season 3 became "The Kimberly Hart Show." Her replacement however, if we're being honest, couldn't hold a candle to Kim. That's not any form of disrespect intended to Catherine Sutherland who played Kat. But they could have got Lucy Lu, Melissa Joan Hart or even Sarah Michelle Gellar and it still couldn't measure up to Amy Jo.

Kathrine, as a character is okay I suppose, yet it does seem strange that a seasoned Ranger with a competant level of fighting experience is replaced by a rookie with little to no combat training or skills. She was a swimmer, but I don't think that'll help when fighting people.... Unless Zedd sends a monster out to sea. She improves towards the end of Season 3 and becomes a bigger character in Power Rangers Zeo, yet her humble beginings were a lot to adjust to.

The departure is when the show stoped screwing around and got serious. The tone shift surrounding Kimberly's departure and Kat's introduction harkend back to the Green with Evil Saga, with an Evil Ranger (let's be honest, you knew Kat was gonna become one) single handedly taking the Rangers down with zero resistance. Some silly moments began seeping through the cracks sadly. For instance, Tommy loses the Falconzord and declares "Lord Zedd has finally defeated the Power Rangers!"

Ummm... Let's get the score sheet out shall we?

He destroyed your Dinozords.
He destroyed the Green Ranger powers.
He defeated Tor the Shuttle Zord.
He and his wife destroyed the Thunderzords.
He stole Ninjor and the Falconzord.

I think he's defeated you a few times, actually. Mind you, Tommy has been known to be hammy as hell in this series - overtime he magically went from crazy badass to drama queen.

Another new addition (more accurately another idea from the movie) was a secondary form for the Rangers to morph into. The Ninja form granted them civillian powers. Granted they looked like they're walking bedsheets, it was a nice change of pace. It was brief when they used this form but it was nice to see something different instead of going straight into the Ranger forms for battles.

The next major introduction to Power Rangers was Rita's Father. Master Vile, and this is where I began to put my fist through the wall.

A problem I've had with "The Digimon Formula" is Power Rangers basically invented it. In the first season, Rita was called "The Empress of Evil" which logically should put her at the top of the food chain. Then in Season 2 we got Lord Zedd "The Emperor of Evil" which somehow outranks Rita. Now we have Master Vile who officially outranks them both. You can't keep pulling this trope out of your ass, guys. Stop establishing a supreme evil only to then give them a higher authority to answer to next season.

By the time Power Rangers in Space aired, we had Rita & Zedd, Master Vile, King Mondo, Divatox, Astromina and their own boss - Dark Spectre. While In Space hinted at this idea, I think it would have been better to introduce Dark Spectre as the head of the family at the very beginning. I'll come back to Master Vile in a bit, but let me explain myself:

The whole hierarchy of villains would have worked better with a Mafia/Yakuza stucture where each of the series' villains were the head of a particular house/family. For example, King Mondo would be the head of the Royal House of Gadgetry, or Astromina as the head of the Space Family, or Lord Zedd and his House of Zedd marrying into Rita's House of Vile, etc etc.. Run them like an organised syndicate then the shift between villians make more sense. Dark Spectre choses Lord Zedd to take over Earth to which Zedd sends down Rita since the Head of the Family/Emperor wouldn't get his hands dirty. Her constant failure would be seen as shame/disrepect upon his House until he opts to do the job himself. When he finds himself failing, Dark Spectre sends in Master Vile to do the job and so on.

Master Vile is a MUCH more competent force than even Rita or her dumbass brother, Rito. He pretty much accomplishes what it took Rita and Zedd half a season to do, in about 2 episodes. His arrival leads to the Rangers getting the most pointless upgrade to their powers.

Glitter.

Let's not speak of this again and move on.

On a technical standpoint, I officially got tired of the comic relief with the series. I found the meshing of the new Kakuranger footage clashing with the Bulk and Skull scenes, when the better thing would have been to give these two their own show. I love Bulk & Skull, but they really outgrew this series. Another tiresome aspect is the Zord summoning sequence near the begining of the season. It was a trend introduced in Season 2 with the Rangers dragging out the summon sequence when really Jason's shout of "Let's show em the power of Thunder!" would have been fine. Dragging the sequence out with naming both animals of their powers was bad that I was worried it would be dragged out by announcing all 3 animals. God, could you even imagine?

"MASTERDON-LION-FROG NINJAZORD POWER!!"

..... Kill me.

The Zord fights got shorter and shorter with each episode that I began to wonder what the point of it was. The Master Vile episodes were really the best you were going to get with the Zords. The show seemed to be more driven on the teen drama aspect than the actual Ranger fights themselves. I know they wanted to rely less on the stock footage, but I'd rather they relied on stock footage than giving me more time for Bulk, Skull, Rita, Zedd and even Master Vile to make the kind of awful jokes not even Amy Schumer would dare say outloud.

Finally, it's so weird to see a series end on such a sour note. If you count Alien Rangers as a new series or not, it's so weird to see a series end with the badguys winning. Granted its setting up Power Rangers Zeo but seeing the Mighty Morphin era close with the bad guys winning the day is such a buzzkill. Stay tuned for the Epilogue where it'll be time to "Can this bitch!"