#serpentera

[jurijurijurious]

I could have drawn a really cool fight picture between them but instead I offer a shitpost because Lord Zedd was so like this, no one can tell me otherwise.

I hope they've given Zedd back some dignity in the recent comics. There was a lot of wasted potential in that character.

[kimberlyannharts]

Serpentera my baby I am so sorry at how hard they nerfed you in every possible way like it's not even funny

[radroller]

You KNOW this man’s based on the jerkass dragon from Dairanger! I dont even have to look it up.

[thefinalboss387]

Lord Zedd Appreciation Post!

In 1994, season 2 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers premiered. And with it came the arrival of Lord Zedd, the show's new main villain. This character has been a large part of my life ever since.

I've always loved this character, but he also didn't have a whole lot of depth in those earlier seasons. To be fair, nobody in that period of the show had much depth. But decades later, he resurfaced in the Boom Studios comics and in recent seasons of the TV show. These new appearances gave the character some much-needed depth, backstory, and even finally gave us a final showdown.

These recent appearances took a character I already had a lot of love for, and catapulted him up into being one of my favorite characters of all time.

So here's the thing about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: It's a fun, cheesy spectacle, and a lot of people to this day will swear up and down that it's the best era of Power Rangers' 31-year history. I'm old enough to have grown up watching those old earlier episodes and I have a lot of love and nostalgia for them, buuuuut.... The writing and character work are really not that good? Later seasons do a much better job of giving its characters distinct personalities and arcs.

All of the Rangers in the Mighty Morphin era have personalities, but like barely. These "teenagers with attitude" are all upstanding, morally-righteous kids that do various activities for charity and teach classes at their youth center and juice bar...but that's about it. Billy was a genius, Zack was into music and dancing, Kimberly was good at gymnastics, etc, but they all used those skillsets for charity and all had pretty generic goody-good personalities.

The villains sit up in their castle on the moon, shouting about how much they want to destroy the Power Rangers and creating monsters for them to fight....but that's about it.

Rita Repulsa, honestly, was kind of a joke of a character at first. Her scenes were dubbed Sentai footage, limiting the writers on what they could do with her. Her scenes on the moon were surreal and barely coherent. She'd send down a monster, there'd be a bunch of random shots of her randomly laughing or cheering on her monster, she inevitably would make her monster grow for the Megazord battle, and then she'd rant about having a headache. Rinse, wash, repeat.

When Lord Zedd finally showed up in season 2, it was a breath of fresh air. Lord Zedd was not from the Sentai, so the show filmed entirely new scenes for him. The dubbing didn't have to do weird ad-libbing to make the footage make sense, they could film the footage around their writing for the character. And, to contrast Rita's goofy look and demeanor, Zedd was freaking terrifying. He immediately one-ups Rita, exiles her to the far reaches of space, and takes over her operation. He has Serpentera, an extremely powerful and humongous Zord capable of destroying entire planets.

Only, Zedd ended up just being Rita 2.0. He stayed in the moon palace, he would create monsters out of something precious to the Rangers (which was a fun new twist for Zedd), there'd be a bunch of random shots of him randomly laughing and gloating about his upcoming victory, he would inevitably make his monster grow for the Megazord battle, and he'd blame the failure on the incompetence of his minions. Rinse, wash, repeat.

A turning point came about midway through season 2, when Rita Repulsa came back from her exile (using a new actress, so she was no longer limited to weird dubbed-over Sentai footage) and used a love potion to make Zedd fall in love with her, and the two teamed up to take down the Power Rangers and rule the universe together. So begins a weird but magnificent era of the show where Rita and Zedd's story arc was still largely disconnected from the rest of the show, and they still sent down monsters and made them grow and stayed in their moon palace away from the rest of the action, but they did actually have their own story arc for the first time. Their scenes in isolation became this weird sitcom on the moon and I absolutely adored it.

In season 3, Rita's brother Rito showed up. Rito was a bumbling idiot, but also a competent fighter, which made for a fun dynamic. He'd go down to Earth and fight the Rangers and partner with Goldar, but then he'd go up to the sitcom on the moon and keep making Zedd mad by calling him "Ed". Then Rita and Rito's father, Master Vile, showed up. Apparently Master Vile is this big, ultra-evil dude that made even Lord Zedd feel inadequate in comparison, and Master Vile didn't approve Rita marrying Zedd. It's all completely wacky and I love it.

Even as Rita and Zedd became more fleshed out through these wacky family sitcom shenanigans on the moon, their role to the Rangers was still as these distant figures sending down monsters to do their bidding and very rarely actually interacting with the Rangers. Even as a child I desperately wanted to see them in action. What would a battle with Rita or Zedd even look like? How powerful are they? Rita would sometimes come down to Earth to issue orders to double-agent Kat or taunt the Rangers, but still never fought. There was implied to be a lot of history and bad blood between Zedd and the Rangers' mentor, Zordon, but it's never explored. What could their relationship have looked like?

Lord Zedd also became a little more present in season 3. There was an episode where he fought Tommy one-on-one, and he was winning, until Tommy broke his staff and forced him to retreat. He also introduced a team of Dark Rangers, corrupted teenagers he intended to use as his own brand of Power Rangers, but... well... they looked like this.

Because their costumes were so cheaply-made, there was never any actual fight with these Dark Rangers. Disappointing.

When Power Rangers Zeo began, new villains the Machine Empire chased Rita and Zedd out, and their sitcom on the moon became a universal road trip in a camper (yes, a camper). In Power Rangers in Space, they allied with a bunch of other villains and were ultimately turned good when Zordon sacrificed himself to eliminate all evil in the galaxy. Although he didn't appear again for many years, he's heralded both in canon and IRL as one of the most powerful, impactful villains of the franchise.

Overall, Zedd made an impact on me. I was introduced to the character in 1994 when I was 7 years old. In a show where all the characters were pretty shallow and static, Zedd and Rita were the ones driving the show forward and eventually even getting their own storylines with the wacky moon sitcom. I wonder to this day if this show was why I grew to love villains so much for the rest of my life. Rita and Zedd were damn entertaining and kind of became the main characters of the show in a sense? They also had a sense of mystery to them. What made them evil? What was their history with Zordon? There was also this eternal buildup to an inevitable final battle against Lord Zedd that just.... never happened. Where's the payoff?

Then, decades later, Zedd made a comeback in the Boom Studios comics as well as recent TV season Dino Fury and again as the main villain in Cosmic Fury. These new appearances ultimately gave me everything I'd been wanting for the character ever since I was a kid. After 30 years of buildup, we finally got payoff.

I'll start with the comics. Boom Studios' comics are kind of set between episodes of the original show, while also serving as something of a soft reboot? It's more modernized, the characters have cell phones and text each other, and it's aimed for older audiences, giving the comic room to give these characters depth, real demons and personality, etc.

THESE are the Dark Rangers Zedd makes in the comics. Instead of random corrupted teenagers with cheap suits, it's empowered, badass versions of the minions that have been around since the original show (and a shapeshifted Putty Rita, since the story was set during real Rita's exile).

Zedd's personality is much more harsh and terrifying. He's got the demeanor of a hardened warlord. He retains his quirk from the original show of turning objects the Rangers love into monsters, but it's explained that he does this not as a means of destroying the Rangers, but to corrupt and chip away one little thing that they love at a time until they're emotionally broken.

And OHHH BOY HIS BACKSTORY

We learn in the comics that Lord Zedd was once Zophram, Supreme Guardian of the Planet Eltar.... and Zordon's friend and mentor. He fought to save other planets from evil. He slowly grew disillusioned with the politics and bureaucracy of Eltar, and was highly manipulated by Zartus - another friend and mentee - into destroying himself and becoming a monster that Zartus could rally people against for his own political climb to power. Believing that it was Zordon who betrayed and manipulated him, Zophram became Lord Zedd and sought to destroy everything he stood for.

In the "present", Zartus becomes the main villain of the Eltarian War story arc as he begins a full-scale invasion on Earth. It comes out that Zartus was the true evil, and Zedd and Zordon team up to take down Zartus together. Though Zedd shows some remorse and hints of forgiveness toward Zordon, he is too far gone now and continues on the path he's on even after Zartus's defeat.

And THEN, in the Darkest Hour story arc, Zedd even gets a morpher of his own AND BECOMES A POWER RANGER!!!

The series ended after the Darkest Hour event. Zedd never really got too much to do as a main villain in the comics, the focus was more on showcasing other villains and storylines that the show couldn't, but Zedd was still given A LOT of depth as a character. There still was no big final battle or closure against him, and I wish they got to do more with Zedd's cool Ranger form and even his team of Dark Rangers, but he was still very cool and he was given a lot of much-needed character development and layers that still felt respectful of what came before in the show. Evil wasn't born, it was made, and by the time he realized Zartus's deception, he'd already gone too far and killed too many people to be able to take any of it back even if he wanted to.

So hey, all I really need now to satisfy my inner child is CLOSURE and a cool final battle. ENTER DINO FURY AND COSMIC FURY

Zedd gets resurrected. He's still a bit goofy, Power Rangers is a kids' show after all, and they keep his more sitcom-y elements and wit. He teams up with Bajillia Naire (haha pun), the CEO of a big evil interplanetary weapons organization, and seeks to take over the universe. Bajillia even gives him footsoldiers created in his image called Zentinals that are really cool.

In his style of corrupting innocent things, he brainwashes the Blue Dino Fury Ranger, Ollie, into his slave and lieutenant. And honestly? I liked their dynamic a LOT more than I was ever expecting to. He ends up becoming a kind of twisted father figure to Ollie, giving him advice and gifts and showing him compassion and understanding. Ollie seeks his approval and seems to actually have an emotional investment in serving Zedd, rather than doing it just because mwahahahaha.

His big universe takeover plot also leads him into invading and taking over Planet Eltar, Zordon's home planet (and his own, if you follow the comic continuity) and hey, that's a pretty fun development. He stations himself on Eltar and makes his base there, showing just how proud he is to have taken it over.

Annnnnd THEN COMES THE CLOSURE

Zedd's plan in Cosmic Fury is to essentially harness the energy of the Morphin Masters, ancient and all-powerful beings that basically created the Power Rangers (they've been mentioned on and off since the original Mighty Morphin days, so, yay continuity) and absorb all of their energy into himself, becoming the Morphin Master and the single most powerful being in the universe.

He does this. And he becomes a new form (pictured above), Master Zedd.

There is a short battle that follows. Zedd is blasting everything and completely overpowering the Rangers. There's no chance they can beat him. He's won.

......uuuuuuntil Bajillia Naire betrays him and sucks him into the device they'd been using to trap the Morphin Masters. Turns out her plan all along had been to kiss up to Zedd and get him the ultimate power he wanted, so that she could sacrifice him to unleash a wave of pure evil across the universe that will destroy all things good. This mirrors Zordon's sacrifice that erased all evil from the universe and caused Zedd's original defeat way back in Power Rangers in Space. Yay continuity.

Eventually, Bajillia is defeated and the Rangers talk Zedd into giving up his Morphin Master power to save his own life. This is done when Ollie, the Blue Ranger that he had previously brainwashed, connects with Zedd and reminds him of advice that Zedd had given him before. Even without the brainwashing spell, Ollie understands Zedd's mind and how he works and manages to talk him down. Zedd is trapped in an endless nightmare of being with Rita (which is a fun fate for him), and it's said he will be stuck there until he reforms, however long that takes.

And like.... okay. The big final battle with him was a bit different than I was expecting. But I really like it?? His big universe takeover plot had essentially worked, he won, and his defeat was a fun nod to his previous defeat from decades ago and even his relationship with Ollie had a payoff.

Cosmic Fury had finally given us closure to a villain that, for decades, had a ton of buildup and no real confrontation or battle against. They did it in a way that was true to who the character previously was, and even added some interesting new directions for the character. This, on top of all the depth and backstory he was given in the comics, has made him a surprisingly complex, complete character, and that's what I had always wanted for him ever since I was a kid.

[queenvernage]

i did just rewatch forever red (it's been so long) and my head is swimming with love and affection for early power rangers <3

some stray forever red thoughts:

when leo demorphs on the moon in the next frame he's morphed again, and in the frame after that he's CGI'd into the line up unmorphed). lol dead. i've seen this episode about 700 times and i don't recall ever noticing that.

carter: "at least his haircut is regulation" sir, that man's hair looks like a durian

aurico... my poor sweet alien son.... one day, you'll get the respect you deserve, but today is not that day

someone called serpentera "one ugly zord" and that's just so disrespectful.

[regaliasonata]

Conner: So tell me more about this Forever Red you speak of.

Tommy: *tells him about the event*

Conner: ....Alright so I'm all cool with meeting all of the reds but how does Serpentera get killed by a motorcycle.

Kira: Sounds stupid to me.

Conner: Yeah anyways are these rangers of yours in college or?

Trent: Please shut up.

Ethan: Honestly it's sad at this point.

Tommy: Fine how about I get you Eric's autograph.

Conner: And shirt~

Tommy: What?

Conner: Nothing

[augment-techs]

FINALLY finished Wild Force and, really, Disc 5 was the best disc.

I am honestly SO okay that Merrick got dumped by Shayla and ended up wandering the earth, hooking up with Zen-Aku as an end to their story. She's a professional virgin and he's a bisexual furry. This...fits. Even if Zen-Aku appearing doesn't make a lot of sense.

DANNY X MAX CONFIRMED GAY!! No way you travel the world, probably constantly riding coach, with "just a friend" at this age after saving the world. Also, the picture they took in robes was...kind of telling (the size difference is truly unreal).

Yaaay, Cole got a dog and Taylor got her Eagle Zord. A perfect peace out for these two if there ever was. And no heteronormative romance entanglements in sight!

Alyssa becoming a teacher of small children feels like a cop-out. But damn she fine.

Yes, I cheered for the death of Kite/Animus much like Bret Easton Ellis cheered for the death of J.D. Salinger. And I am not ashamed.

Forever Red!!! FOREVER RED. But especially seeing my favorite duo in the beginning of the episode with Tommy getting ROASTED at the end of it. No I do not care about the Machine Empire or Serpentera, just Reds interacting and trying to one-up other Reds. Still mad about no Rocky, but you can't have everything. *kisses T.J., Carter, Wes, Eric, and Leo on the head* babiiiiiies~

Jindrax being wholesome even while trying to be an actual Org was so endearing I think he's on par with a kitten. He did good deeds, he protected the princess, he slept in garbage, he actually paid for his fishing gear, he rolled off a hill after using another monster as bait, HE PRINCESS CARRIED TOXICA. Jindrax is valid and deserves rights.

Jindrax and Toxica helped the Rangers in the most badass way and they literally ended their character arc WALKING OFF INTO THE SUNSET TOGETHER. Best kind of redemption. I sincerely hope they happily settled down to watch Rangers further down the line just to endlessly be bitchy and heckle them.

There is so much to pick apart from this series, but mostly I am contented by three things: redeemed villain duo, weird bait and switch furry Enemies to Whatever, and Blue/Black Ranger besties that allows me to drag out wholesome tropes for future fic ideas.

[strangeduckpaper]

Power Rangers Rewrite: Mighty Morphin'

Season 1 & Background

Because the Boom Comics actually expounds on their backstories, Rita & Zedd have their comics backstories. Rita is specifically from a planet known as Bandora, which has a lot of magical practitioners, including an organized order of witches.

Bandorans are taller than humans, and to a human eye always look a little sickly.

The Power Coins used to belong to a multi planetary team (the Zyu Rangers) with explicitly Alien Zords resembling the 2017 movie. Rita killed the Green Ranger and took that Coin, thus control of the Dragonzord.

The 90’s Zyu Rangers interpreted the Zords on the Coins as artistic renditions of Earth animals, thus minorly reformatting the Zords when they’re finally brought to bear.

Jason actually beats Tommy during their fight like in Zyuranger.

Season 2

Grace Sterling gets introduced, and Zordon tells the story of the 1969 Rangers.

The Stone Canyon Trio are introduced, giving an outside perspective to the Rangers.

Zedd doesn’t arrive…yet. He does send messages to Rita in the form of nightmares.

No Thunderzords, the Zyu/Dino Megazord survives, since I wanna keep the Dairangers (Thunder Star Rangers) in my back pocket.

In the same vein, Tommy doesn’t get the White Tiger Power Coin after losing the Green Power Coin, instead he gets a White Brachiosaurus Power Coin that ties him to Titanus, which itself is reformatted to serve as armor and weaponry for the Zyu Megazord.

Tommy’s Ranger Suit is white and gold, with the MM sculpted mouth helmet and Dragon shield, but with elements of the Dino Thunder Black suit, while Saba is literally just a repainted Bracchio Staff.

Before Tommy comes back, Rita launches the Dark Ranger’s scheme from the comics, which comes to an end once Tommy arrives, destroying the Dark Ranger’s Power Source (A Dark Mockery of a Zeo Crystal?)

The Rita putty escapes, albeit heavily wounded, to fight another day.

Kiya comes to Earth following the Dark Rangers, chasing the power source used. She sticks around for a while.

The first half of the season ends with a final confrontation with Goldar when he attempts to throw Angel Grove into the Dark Dimension during Jason, Trini & Zack’s graduation, and is struck down by Tommy and Jason. The Stone Canyon Trio helps.

Jason, Trini and Zack decide to take a gap year, and are given the Omega Morphers to help Kiya hunt down the source of the knockoff Zeo Crystal, while the Stone Canyon Trio take their places.

Rito arrives afterwards, with some new mercenaries to give the Rangers trouble, including Dayne. Scorpina, meanwhile, leaves, vowing vengeance against the Rangers.

Their adventures include a crossover with the Masked Rider of Edenoi.

The season finale is Zedd’s arrival, Serpentera in tow, and challenges the Rangers to combat.

He destroys the Megazord with Serpentera, before taking them on 1-v-6, rendering the Power Coins useless one after the other, until only Tommy is left with his powers.

Tommy tries, but Zedd captures him, and brings him back to the Moon Castle, leaving the other Rangers to lick their wounds and wallow in their powerlessness.

Season 3

With the Power Coins useless, the Omega Rangers out of contact and Zordon unable to access back-up Ranger powers, Zordon sends the Rangers to Ninjor to create powers of their own.

In the meanwhile, he calls for reinforcements, the Rangers of Aquitar (known as the Doron Rangers), with more on the way.

Zedd sends more monsters to delay the Rangers, and gathers forces fromDark Spector, including Master Vile, to attempt and summon the dark god Lokar from the Talus Dimension.

The Rangers pass Ninjor’s trials and gain their Ninjetti Power Coins and Zords, with all new suits coming with them.

They have elements of the American Ninja Ranger uniforms, the Dairangers, with MM helmets remodeled to reflect their new Zords.

Meanwhile, Tommy is being held by the villains, where he strikes up a friendship with Finster, who eventually helps free him.

During this escape, he finds remnants of the tools used in the corruption of the Green Dragon Power Coin, and takes it.

The Rangers return to Earth and meet the Doron rangers. There’s some chafing, especially between Billy and Cestro, though that rivalry shifts into something more…amorous.

Tommy arrives, Finster by his side and arcane secrets in hand. Finster and Alpha duke it out at least once.

In the background, we’re introduced to new transfer students Tanya Sloan and Kat Hillard. Kat gets mind controlled but it gets broken.

Eventually, Finster, Alpha, Tideus and Delphine figure out how to reactivate the Dragonzord, dormant since the loss of the Green Power Coin, and Tommy uses the power of friendship to bring it back under control.

Master Vile attempts to interfere, but the Rangers strike him down with Ninjor’s help. 

Deciding to take advantage, the rangers attack the moon palace, reinforced by the Masked Rider and the Omega Rangers (Now with Yale replacing Kiya)

The Rangers win, destroying Serpentera, and wrecking the moon base, though Lokar is summoned.

In order to seal him, the Mighty Morphin Rangers sacrifice the Ninjetti Power Coins to do so, while Tommy’s powers once again become unstable.

In the aftermath, the rangers disperse. Kim goes off to pursue her gymnastics career, Billy leaves for Aquitar as a representative of Earth, NASADA, and Prometheus.

Aisha also leaves to join humanitarian aid.

Tommy, a bit adrift, decides to stay with Adam and Rocky, and possibly form a new team.

After all, while they did beat them up, they never saw Rita, Rito, or Zedd actually fall…

<-Prev/Next->

[mo-ok]

Living in constant fear that Cosmic Fury is gonna turn the Ryu Voyager (and by extention, RyuTeiOh) into Serpentera v2

Serpentwora, if you will

[infinitysgrace]

Rocky @ Jason and Tommy, probably: what do you mean you fought the machine empire and Serpentera without me?!

[sailorzeo]

Prismatic-bell said ‘a specific Power Rangers special episode was written and directed by a dude who basically reskinned one of his own old fanfics as canon’ and that you would know more and I’m just here like WHAT

That's not EXACTLY what happened...look up Forever Red, and Scorpion Rain. Amit Bhaumik was the showrunner for Power Rangers Wild Force, which had the episode Forever Red, where all the past Red Rangers banded together to stop the remnants of the Machine Empire (from Power Rangers Zeo) from digging up and "resurrecting" Serpentera, Lord Zedd's giant mech (MMPR season2).

From RangerWiki,

Prior to his work on the series, Bhaumik was a significant contributor to the Power Rangers fanbase, putting together a popular website known as the Power Rangers Online Archives, which served as a large depository database of Power Rangers characters, events, and episodes. He also collaborated on the Scorpion Rain hoax: established fans pretending that Australia had produced a cheap, five-minute Zeo/Turbo transition, involving Serpentera. (As an in-joke, he made nods to the film in "Forever Red")

So, that's that.

[jurijurijurious]

Lord Zedd ⚡🐉😤

[kimberlyannharts]

I will give the Kat Rangers this, they didn’t start up SPD ranking discourse again.

Though by show logic they only have their powers for an hour, which could be an interesting thing if you find a way to tie it into gameplay

I get what you're saying but also it's really really funny to imagine that the one-hour limit is legit a feature of the morpher and not a bug

[popculturebuffet]

Jason David Frank Tribute: Power Rangers Wild Force: Forever Red Review (patreon Sign ON Review for Brotoman.exe)

In Loving Memory of Jason David Frank: 1979-2022

"May the Power Protect Him"

Like many around my generation, I met Jason David Frank one afternoon as a Teenager with Attidue. While any chlid worth his salt loved power rangers, it had teenagers in bright colored outfits beating up monsters in stock footage, what's not to love?, it really kicked into gear when a new kid kicked his way into town: Tommy Oliver, a cool new kid who swept Kimberly off her feat, actually beat big beefy lead boy Jason inc ombat, and then got brainwashed because of both of those things, becoming the rangers greatest threat as Rita made her own.. and then once freed of his mind control becoming the greatest one of them. Across three classic seasons, multiple returns, and another season down the line as a mentor to a new generation, Jason David Frank was THE Power Ranger.

Thus it was tragic that we lost him. My relatoinship with the franchise may of been "I watched the first five seasons as a kid, then dropped off, saw an episode or two then watched history of power rangers as an adult", but Jason always seemed like a nice guy who genuinely loved the franchise and us the fans. He was never too ashamed to step into bright spandex and his sudden death a few days ago was a blow to us all.

So it was a sad serendepity that this long scheduled patreon sign on review for my new friend and patreon Brotoman happened to end up on this week and he was more than happy to make it into a tribute to jason. And given Tommy is the most prominent red ranger besides Wild Force's own ranger in this episode, it was perfectly approraite.

For those either only casually familar with Power Rangers or familliar with the Zordon era but not so much what came after and if so I HIGHLY recommend Linkara's exaustive History of Power Rangers series on Youtube, but for now stick with this one: Wild Force was an end of an era as it was the final Power Rangers series aired on Fox Kids, before moving to ABC Kids (the former one Saturday Morning), and an era ender.

As such this episode, which is thankfully a standalone heavy on fanservice, serves as a nice caper. To celerbate the 10th anniversary, they got back ALMOST every red ranger. Rocky, the second red morphin ranger was absent. Why? He missed a phone call. No really, they didn't have the right phone number for him and by the time it was sorted out it was too late. And the galling thing is he was supposed to be just a backup for Austin St. John… which strikes me as odd given the aquatar ranger is right there. Just replace him. Still despite this it's a huge gathering of franchise faviorites.

The special was a bit rag tag, basing itself on a similar sentai special but using mostly new footage. It was INTENDED to both be an hour long special and have a much snappier climax.. but both things were shot down by new owners Disney wondering "Why are you spending so much time to promote old toys"

But what we get is a fun, cheesy half hour ride through the franchises history up to that point. So come with me as we honor Jason David Frank and may the power protect us all as we look at Forever Red.

Forever Red opens on the Moon, where a bunch of robots from the Machine Empire dig up a giant robot dragon named serpentera entirely missing the moonlander colony Yup this is power rangers: cheesy as heck, but gloriously and unafraidly so. For those needing a refresher the Machine Empire were the main villians of season 2, a giant unstoaple machine army.. that translated to the usual "send a giant monster to get his ass kicked by teenagers" formula, but still were neat. So using a few spare suits from another bit of my childhood, whose title must be said in song as is in my contrast

Which was dope.. and far more insane than I remembered. Though the comic strip bit always bugs me anytime I listen to this. There.. two diffrent mediums guys. Their both some of my faviorite mediums, but come on.

They had some remnants of the empire surivive to ressurect serpentera, Lord Zed's giant murder dragon WMD who is on the moon because it was in the writer's fanfic.

Luckily for earth, Andros, the red space ranger, is there, in a cloak because he generally likes to cloak around when he's being sneaky even if it dosen't remotely work as camoflage here on a robot covered moon. He plans to go warn the others but accidently trips a rock and then gets CHASED ON HORSEBACK BY TWO OF THE MACHINE EMPIRE GUYS, whose names i'm not bothering to learn as they all have the same personality of

But let's not bury the lead; TWO ROBOTS ARE CHASING AS SPACEMAN ON HORSES. I now want a full graphic novel from boom detaling why the machine empire has horses, what these majestic space horses can do, and why we never saw them again after scenes. I also applaud whoever was on set, saw they could get horses and decided "fuck it i'm going to have these big bad beetle borgs chase Andros on horseback". That person deserves a nobel for their contributions to humanity.

So we go to Bulk's poolside hangout spot, probably built where Ernies used to be, where he's regaling Skull with tales.. tales he was there for because they got into all kinds of weird shit together and tails he'll undoubtly pass on to Skull's own child when he raises him for a year as a samurai because he saw some power rangers do it and thought it'd be badass.

They get a call for Tommy, whose identity some cut stuff confirms they DO know now and it does make sense: it'd be easy to connect the dots from the space rangers unmasking in the finale of that series, to the guys who directly mentored them. Probably. Look I just like the idea they and tommy were friends. Tommy also has some very pointy frosted tips because clearly Jason tried out for Zoolander and didn't get the part and hadn't been able to wash them out when they filmed it.

We cut to.. wherever Wild Force is where Cole Evans, this series red ranger is picked up by Carter Grayson, Lightspeed Red Ranger and certified badass. How Carter does it is hilarious.. he just comes up to him in a park, says "are you the red wildforce ranger" and flashes his morpher like a badge to assure he's not some creepy weirdo who figured it all out.

Cole is also a lot. He looks like this

He looks like he escaped from the set of Miami Connection and it is glorious. His actor.. less so. I'll comment on this so no one else brings it up: Cole's actor murdered a man with a replica conan the barbarian sword, pled guilty to it, and while he's served his sentence he's understandably not being invited back to any other series after he ran a man through with a sword. I brought it up to get it out of the way. Granted even if he hadn't commited murder, i'd still be making fun of this guy for his hammy acting, hilarously awesome bandanda, and sleeveless vest, all of which is both cheesily enjoyable and gloriously stupid, but the fact he ran a man through with a fully functional replica conan sword just makes it go down easier. I limited myself to one Jason David Frank's frosted Tips Joke since he just died and all, I gotta get my laughs where I can.

So Cole runs off with a stranger and alone

And they meet at a Nasada warehouse where most of the other previous rangers show up: TJ from Turbo and In Space, Wes and Eric from Time Force (Whose quantum ranger was also red), and of course the king of all rangers, Tommy Olvier, former green and white mighty morphin ranger, red turbo ranger before TJ, future Black Dino Ranger and for this special Red Zeo ranger. Three are missing with Leo Corbett being later shown grabbing his sword that turns him into a ranger back, and picking up the Aquitian ranger because they had the costume so why not.

Tommy, naturally taking point as a living legend among the others as he damn well should be, has Andros fill them in: Serpentera is on the moon, the machines need to be stopped from using it to wipe out earth as it's that powerful and they got a fresh pack of triple a batteries for it, and he united all the red rangers and not every ranger he could get for such a mission.. because it was all Disney could afford and it gave them a badass looking group theme regardless of how many diffrent teams are represented. They plan to blast off in a recreation of the astro megaship, but their one short…. until Jason, the old son of a bitch rides up on his motorcycle. I planned to make the joke that we were just one handclap shy of the "you son of a bitch" scene from predator.. only for him and Tommy to FUCKING do it. I love this gloriously stupid franchise, bless you writers for just going ahead and doing it.

So our heroes head to the moon, and meet up with the other two and we get a truly badass sequence of EVERY ranger present having some morphing time as we get EVERY morph sequence. I'm convinced a good chunk of the budget went into this and it. was. worth. it.

What follows is about 5 minutes of awesome fight scenes. We get Jason and Cole back to back and they get the most actual character interactoin: there was more planned but you know

With Jason chiding the rookie.. but also clearly mentoring him a bit: sure he's ribbing the guy a tad, but after saving his ass gladly lets him get some shots in and fights along side him. He may give the rookie crap as he's going through some things while his actor goes through some criminal charges, but their both rangers through and through and he knows that.

We also get cool swordfight with thankfully not coll, but TJ and Leo, as well as a fun gun fight with Carter and one of the time force rangers. It's a solid bit of power rangers action. We also got an unmorphed fight I almost forgot about earlier that just.. kinda happened so fair enough me. I saved the best for last though as Tommy kicks off the fight.. literally by SUPER KICKING ONE OF THE MACHINE EMPIRE SO HARD HE EXPLODES. If anything summed up Jasons glorious long tenure with the franchise, it's Tommy Oliver super kicking a robot to death. That or him kicking Goldar while scremaing "out of your mind!".. which I couldn't find a clip or gif of.

The finale.. is infamously stupid. Like I said they wanted to maybe break out some zords, the astromegazord.. something.. instead to promote a toy Cole flies into serperntera, gets a zenkai boost or somethinga nd blows the fucker up. It's hliariously dumb to see Beef McLargehuge do this.. but kind of an antic climax after some really good fight coregraphy that showed off the various rangers skill sets.

Still the ending is nice as Tommy literally walks off into the sunset, Cole rightfully calls him the greatest ranger ever, and we get a fun scene of the other rangers piping in all the insane shit they did caping off this episode.

Forever Red is a nicely paced anniversary showcase, throwing in everything from nasada, to the machine empire to serpentera. Even Alpha gets a cameo and my boy Richard Steve Horvitz gets a paycheck. It's a loveletter to power rangers and while cheesy as hell, it's in the best way possible. Wethere your familiar with the franchise or not, it's a fun, bonkers 20 minutes of action, heart, and tommy oliver being badass. If you can think of a better way to honor jason than watching him do a predator handclasp and super kick robots ont he moon.. there probably is , but this is certainly one of the best. May the power protect you jason…

[maswartz]

Here me out. My theory for Cosmic Fury is that Zedd rebuilds Serpentera in a new form and turns Ollie and Fern into his evil Cyan and Orange Rangers to help pilot it. When they're freed however they take it back to the Rangers with them to be piloted by Tarok or Heckyl.

[rangerchronicles]

Ranger Chronicles Episode 308:

Remnants of the Machine Empire have uncovered the powerful Serpentera on the moon. Against such a monumental threat, it will take the combined might off all Red Rangers (minus Rocky) to stop them!

Joining me for this episode are James (@MSSPod), and Ian (@DuneTurbo). Keep an eye on Ian’s twitter for news about the Power Rangers web comics he is producing, or just to have a positive chat about Power Rangers. James hosts or co-hosts numerous podcasts (Mostly Speakin’ Sentai, Formulaic: A Podcast In Script Writing, The MLM Podcast, Sweaty Time Pro Wrestling, The Height of Horror, & Hit It & Crit It), and he also has a new single dropping June 9, 2023. You can find his shows and music at linktr.ee/marshlandmonster