Mythology Gag / Power Rangers

For the Mythology Gags of Super Sentai go here.

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By series

• Power Rangers Beast Morphers
• Power Rangers Dino Charge
• Power Rangers Ninja Steel
• Power Rangers (2017)

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Other

• Power Rangers Zeo: The episode where Louie Kaboom shows up is called "Bomber in the Summer", a nod to his Ohranger name Bomber the Great.
• Power Rangers Turbo: During a monster tour, Bulk tries to interest the crowd by suggesting they may see Eye Guy, Pudgy Pig, or the Peckster, some of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers first season's more memorable monsters. Additionally, their stop is at a lake that was used very often in MMPR, which they even mention. Mechanizer from Zeo also gets a callback.
• Power Rangers in Space: Two of the team's Megazords retain their Sentai counterpart's names Mega Voyager and Mega Winger.
• Power Rangers Lost Galaxy
  • "Transmorphers" was the original planned name for the Power Morphers from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. (They were only named in the toyline, though.)
  • Like in Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, the Sixth Ranger turns out to be the Red Ranger's older brother.
  • At one point, Barbarax captures Terra Venture citizens using a barrel which appears to turn them into energy; it's rather similar to the MO of a MMPR season 1 monster, Samurai Fan Man.
• Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue
  • Combined with Freeze-Frame Bonus; if you look closely a few times in the Aquabase's Transport Bay (where the Rangers often head out to the Train Bay, or in the Rescue Rover), you'll see a small green robot standing around with the Lightspeed emblem for a face. This was Mint, from GoGoV; there he assisted the Rangers by analyzing things, or by piloting the Rail Rescues when they couldn't.
  • The Titanium Ranger's suit shares some similarities to the Turborangers' suits.
  • The Titanium Laser, meanwhile, is a gun that can turn into an axe — the inverse of the Power Axe from MMPR (an axe that coould also be used as a cannon).
• Power Rangers Time Force: Wes' Battlizer's finishing move is identical to the Lightspeed Megazord's.
• Power Rangers Wild Force
  • Taylor served at USAF Base Norquist, named for minor character General Norquist from Power Rangers in Space.
  • Alyssa is given the Kaplan Award - named for Angel Grove High's principal from Mighty Morphin' - Turbo.
  • The Rangers first confront the Mut-Orgs at Cranston Plaza - a nod to Billy Cranston, the original Blue Power Ranger.
• Power Rangers Ninja Storm
  • In "Thunder Strangers, Part 2", Tori's morpher is damaged and a monster tells her, "Guess it's not morphin' time after all, is it?"
  • In "Tongue and Cheek," Marah refers to the guys from Triforia as being three times as cute than those from other worlds.
  • Doubling as a Freeze-Frame Bonus, Shane's morphing sequence has a grid pattern around his helmet, a nod to the morphing sequences from Mighty Morphin' and Zeo.
• Power Rangers: Dino Thunder
  • Tommy is usually the culprit. He keeps Sentai logos and MMPR publicity pictures on file and before suiting up as the Black Brachio Ranger, the Rangers found him suspiciously familiar with how all this stuff works. He even said at one time "If there's something I've learned by being a Power Ranger is that everything is possible."
  • The biggest gag is probably when the Power Trio spent all of "Lost And Found In Translation" watching a dubbed episode of Abaranger (bad Hong Kong translations and all!)
  • And Conner says his twin brother went to the Wind Ninja Academy. It was really funny in context.
• Power Rangers S.P.D.
  • The A-Squad wears modified Power Rangers in Space helmets, while Sky's dad is shown to have worn an unmodified Time Force suit (okay, they stuck an S.P.D. logo on it). For the Super Sentai fans, occasional pictures of pre-PR teams appear in place of the picture of Sky and his dad on his desk. Blue Senturion from Power Rangers Turbo shows up as a video game character (fighting a Monster of the Week from Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, no less.)
  • Doggie apparently owns Andros' cloak and Spiral Saber now (and fans were not amused at what they thought to be the return of Andros proving to be Doggie cosplaying him for no discernible reason. Kalish says that the Spiral Saber wasn't the original prop, but an identical one.) Also, Z's necklace is the same style Z as Lord Zedd's staff.
  • On the note of Andros, one of the criminals escapes from a penal colony belonging to KO-35, Andros' home planet.
  • The Time Force suit caused even more of a stir than Andros' cloak and weapon, as when the flashback aired, people naturally assumed that meant Wes Collins was Sky's father, and that S.P.D. was an early iteration of Time Force. While that was never discussed, Jason Faunt himself disapproved of the use of the suit, as he felt the fans would make the obvious assumption, and be subsequently confused when they realized it wasn't him... which is precisely what happened.
  • Broodwing acquires the Dino Gems on Onyx - a planet featured on in Space and Lost Galaxy.
  • At one point, Kat notes she overhauled the Morphing Grid - that being the source of every Rangers' power in some form or another.
  • The idea that a giant brain is the Greater-Scope Villain and has been manipulating the other villains into working for him is oddly similar to the 1981 Super Sentai series Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan. Furthermore, the idea that the true villain was the ship all along is similar to the twist behind Zone and Vulgyre from Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman.
  • Both Omni and Mora/Morgana shares similarities as Abaranger villains Dezumozorlya and Rije/Rijewel.
• Power Rangers Mystic Force: The Phoenix Unizord resembles a non-evil Cyclopsis. Which is quite fitting, given that the Mystic Mother was Rita.
• Power Rangers Operation Overdrive
  • All of Boukenger's monsters were homages to previous seasons' Humongous Mecha. It doesn't fully translate to Operation Overdrive, between homages to seasons that never made it overseas and American-designed monsters that don't homage anything, but still.
  • The one with Mjolnir seems to have one involving actual mythology: One Norse tale has Thor crossdressing and posing as Freya to get Mjolnir back. Operation Overdrive has Ronny posing as Freya Spencer crossdressing and posing as Ronny-as-Freya to get Mjolnir back.
  • In the same episode we see Thor fighting the large, ice-themed Flurious. In Norse Mythology, Thor is well known for fighting frost giants.
  • During Mack and Bridge's battle with Flurious in "Once A Ranger", Bridge tosses his Delta Blasters to Mack. In the anniversary movie GoGo Sentai Boukenger vs. Super Sentai, AkaRed, the embodiment of the Red Sentai Spirit, does the same thing with Satoru by giving the D-Magnums, the Delta Blasters' Dekaranger counterpart.
  • From the same episode, we have characters saying "back to action" and "morphinominal".
• Power Rangers Jungle Fury
  • Not just the reference to the Morphin Grid. Let's see, we've got a White Ranger (well, Rhino Ranger, but he's in white) whose glove thingy has finger missiles (just like the Zord of a certain Green Ranger who became a White Ranger later.) Also, the Rhino Zord has Dominic riding on its back until he's ready to convert it to Warrior Mode (a term we're hearing for the first time since 1995-6, perhaps) by entering the cockpit and inserting the dagger that controls it into a slot. In other words, it pretty much is the White Tiger Thunderzord. Also, it uses the same kanji for its finisher as the White Tiger used in its main attack.
  • A Wolf Man whose human form has somewhat-long hair and a beard, who becomes the Wolf Ranger? R.J. is channeling some Merrick in this.
  • From "Arise the Crystal Eyes", Camille remarks to an archaeologist, "Dinosaurs are so yesterday," referencing the previous seasons.
• Power Rangers RPM
  • There's a Jungle Karma Pizzeria in Corinth, the wedding episode had the local idiot faceplant into a cake, and Flynn wanted to change the morph call to "Rangers to the Rescue" or "Ranger Justice Unleashed". Also, the Red Overdrive Ranger's helmet was seen in "Ancient History".
  • And there's some rare Sentai nods as well. Most blatant, obviously, is the GO-ONGER, and when discussing it Summer asks if it was built in 1975. Flynn also describes the Falcon Copter as a flying chicken, which it actually was in Go-Onger.
  • Scott's backstory is similar to that of Kaijou Tsuyoshi, the first-ever Sentai Red. Both are the younger brothers of military leaders who were killed in the villains' attack. Furthermore, the Trumans were both members of Eagle Squad, while Tsuyoshi and his brother were both members of the EAGLE organization.
  • The PaleoMax Megazord is an Expy of the original Megazord. Part of it is a mammoth with freezing powers. It's got a very familiar head design. The left foot is even a Triceratops, another distinguishing feature because of the prominent horns. Though Go-Onger and Zyuranger aren't related at all, the sentai creators are aware of Power Rangers, and it seems that they put in a sweet Homage by making what was to have been the last-ever Megazord look just like the first-ever Megazord.
  • And, in "Forever Red", there was a General Venjix in the Machine Empire. Fanficsplosion in 10... 9... 8...
  • Dillon's not the first Ranger to join the team as a condition of being released from prison.
  • The monsters are named more or less like they are in Go-Onger, just with "bot" instead of "banki."
• Power Rangers Samurai
  • Xandred regularly has a headache. And in "Deal With A Nighlok", the monster throws his staff into the ground in a particularly familiar fashion.
  • Similarly, "Day Off" has Bulk and Spike chowing down on cotton candy much like the clip used in the original's title sequence (from the first season episode "No Clowning Around").
  • The new Samurai Rangers do the classic Mighty Morphin' hand-stack thing, albeit with their "Rangers Together, Samurai Forever" in place of shouting "Power Rangers!"
  • The use of the phrase "Go Go Samurai" recalls the original theme song, which might make it the easiest morphing call to remember.
  • Not only does the whip-wielding Nighlok that can mind-control Ranger and Zord alike in "I've Got a Spell on Blue" parallel the Lion Tamer Org, but this episode also features the full-fledged debut of Ricardo Medina Jr., previously the Red Wild Force Ranger, as Deker.
  • The monster in #12 actually utters Tommy's "Aww man!"
  • The Megazord's battle helmets' idea originated from Zeo, although it's style is closer to that of of Jungle Fury's zord combinations.
  • Spike has a crush on the Pink Ranger. In Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Spike's dad had a crush on Kimberly, who was the first Pink Ranger ever.
  • Bulk uses a video camera to spy on the Rangers, though this time its to learn their moves rather than their identities.
  • While Mako's greatest fear was natto, Mia is afraid of frogs. She even kisses it, not on top like Madison did, but full on the mouth for the first liplock in Power Rangers since Tommy and Kimberly!
  • Mia's driving licence in "A Strange Case of the Munchies" reveals her last name as Watanabe - any chance she's related to Sensei and Cam?
  • Bulk strikes the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers' morphing pose with a handful of gumballs in "Stroke of Fate". IT'S CHEWING TIME!
  • In the Netherworld scenes, you can vaguely make out a few bars of Rita Repulsa's background music.
• Power Rangers Megaforce: Besides the many references to Mighty Morphin, the names "Gosei" and "Tensou" are taken from the original Sentai but used in a different context.
  • When the first Monster of the Week is summoned, his boasting ironically includes the words "Power like they've never seen before". This is extremely close to the first lyrics from the original "Go Go Power Rangers" theme song.
  • "It's Morphin' Time!" has returned as an additional Invocation before the official morphing call.
  • The local hang out owner is named Ernie, after a character with the same role from the first four seasons^note unfortunately, it is not the same Ernie of old, due to his actor, Richard Genelle, dying in 2008.
  • Likely unintentional, but still. Jake (the black ranger) has a crush on Gia (the yellow ranger), who in the source material...were siblings. Much like in how Lightspeed Rescue, Carter and Dana's sentai counterparts were related^note unlike in Lightspeed Rescue, however, this only happened because of the specific pairing - in Kyu Kyu Sentai Go Go V, the entire team was a family, meaning the only way to avoid this would have been to make Carter Grayson's Ship Tease be with someone who was not a ranger; had Jake been the blue or red ranger, or had Gia been the pink ranger, this would not have been an issue.
• Power Rangers Dino Fury
  • When Draknarok grows, Javi notes that "It's not like he was going to shrink," thus referencing Lothor's famous line.
  • When the Rangers teleport into the Megazord, Izzy asks if she can play music on her console, calling back to Kimberly's line about her Zord having a nice stereo in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
  • In "Stego Search", Javier manages to awaken his Zord with a flute, similar to how Tommy summoned his Dragonzord with the flutelike Dragon Dagger. For added emphasis, Javier's flute is partially green.
  • Mucus calls Void Knight "his heinous highness."
  • Mick reveals he has a harddrive with data on all previous Power Rangers, similar to the misting rock hidden in Hayley's juice bar in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder.