To kick off the History of Power Rangers series, Linkara starts at the very beginning of the franchise by looking at the three seasons of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
Tropes:
- Adapted Out: Discusses how fans were disappointed that in Season 2 the Rangers continue using the suits of Zyuranger, as opposed to the Gosei Sentai Dairanger suits. For the record, Linkara says he likes Dairanger suits aesthetically, but also thinks with Season 2 overhauling the Zords and the main villain, it was a good call by the show to not change the suits as well, as too much change to the status quo could have alienated existing viewers.
- Adults Are Useless: Linkara says that the teens of Angel Grove are the only people who do anything in this city in his Season 2 review, especially during his rant about the baby carriage chase.
- April Fools' Day: He posted a video about the "reversioned" version of the first season as a joke for April Fools in 2015.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Applauds the show's use of this in regards to Lord Zedd, pointing out that as the Emperor of Evil he shouldn't have to sully his own hands in combat, but when he does in Season 3 it shows Zedd is a legitimate threat which justifies why he is in charge. Even before that, Linkara notes that it's obvious Zedd is higher than Rita in the pecking order due to the sheer fact that Zedd can create monsters at will, whereas Rita had to evoke magic incantations or use her Mook Maker Finster to do it.
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Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: At one point in his original review of season 1, he points out how in the first episode, Alpha was… holding a teddy bear. In his remastered review, however, this is replaced with his reaction to the Rad Bug. - Breakout Character: At one point during his review of Season 2, he nonchalantly calls the show The Tommy Oliver Show (featuring the Power Rangers).
- Continuity Creep: Linkara discusses how this occurred over the course of the three seasons. The first season didn't really have much in the way of significant storylines, except for things like the Green Ranger arc, with many of the episodes just being filler Monster of the Week stories, sometimes even contradicting prior continuity from episode to episode. By contrast, the third season had a lot more multi-parters and multi-episode storylines.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: While he does note that Rita was just as happy being petty and trying to ruin the Rangers' day as she was actually trying to take over the world, Linkara does point out that she was a legitimate threat when she wanted to be, such as creating the Green Ranger, nearly stealing the powers back, and once even ransoming the Ranger's parents for their power coins. He also points out Lord Zedd was a lot more successful as an Evil Overlord once he married Rita.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The three-person windmill combination used to fend off the Putties in an early episode, among other weird plot points in early episodes.
- The Rad Bug, a flying car that Billy made.
- He thinks that the Flying Brick powers the Rangers got in the second season were really weird, not to mention redundant since the Rangers already could teleport.
- Fan-Preferred Couple: Linkara mentions how he likes Tommy and Kimberly together as a couple and likes to think they got back together in the end despite what later seasons would tell us.
- First Installment Wins:
- While he notes that the dialogue wasn't very good, "Green With Evil" is the standard by which he judges other Sixth Ranger storylines. The Green Ranger was an evil Ranger able to fight on-par with the team and command his own Zord to rival the Megazord, and this coupled with his infiltration of the Command Centre and the Megazord, built him up as a greater threat than the standard Monster of the Week.
- Up to In Space when it stopped occurring (since each season began to start over with a new team), storylines where Rangers leave the team and are replaced are compared to "A Different Shade of Pink", which wrote Kimberly off the show in a storyline that justified why the powers were being transferred, provided pay off to her character's personality and hobbies, and did a good job setting up Kat as a worthy replacement.
- He mentions that while many later Megazords are perfectly cool in their own right, the original is his favorite, a big bulky robot with horns, a chest plate, a Cool Sword, and its design is reminiscent of Optimus Prime.
- Growing the Beard: He raves at length about how great the "Green With Evil" 5-parter was and how it upped the stakes, giving the Rangers a more formidable enemy in an enemy Ranger instead of a random Monster of the Week, how the Green Ranger damaging the Command Center and Zords made the story more intense, and the simple fact that it was a five-part saga, something a lot of shows, especially kids shows, don't do. Additionally, the aftermath of the struggle introduced Tommy, who would become the focus of a running subplot concerning his powers and become the show's Breakout Character.
- Hidden Depths: He mentions during his review of the second season that despite being bullies previously, Bulk and Skull showed admirable traits, pointing out when Bulk immediately gave chase when he saw an out of control baby carriage on his own initiative, and when he and Skull, after having the Rangers foil some of their past attempts at revealing their identities, stood up to a monster to save the heroes.
- I Know Madden Kombat: Touched on when he discusses when Kat replaced Kimberly, for about an episode it was shown Katherine was clearly outside of her depth when it came to martial arts, but made up for it with her ballet training, giving her an interesting fighting style. Linkara laments this was only shown a couple of times before Kat suddenly started fighting as if she had known martial arts for as long as all the others.
- Knight of Cerebus: Discusses Zedd as having this effect — he's not only much more imposing than Rita, but is clearly more powerful when it comes to his spells, and is more intelligent and calculating, trying to split the Rangers up and using their day-to-day activities to inspire monster ideas, often transforming a personal item of theirs into a monster to give the Rangers an emotional stake in the battle.
- Let's See YOU Do Better!: Linkara scoffs at the ridiculous outfits of Zedd's Psycho Rangers (which were basically the Putties' outfits, only colored), stating that he could make a more convincing outfit. Indeed, those who watch the storyline portions of Atop the Fourth Wall know that he most certainly can make more convincing, better outfits, as exemplified by the costume he made for Lord Vyce.
- Magic Versus Science: Discussed and named as the main theme of the first few seasons — Rita and Zedd are magic-users who employ monsters with fantastical mystical appearances to fight the Rangers, who work from the high-tech futuristic Command Center and employ technological powers like the Morphers and Zords.
- Merchandise-Driven: Points out the reason the oft-mocked Metallic Armor (which was just the same Ranger Costumes using ill-fitting glitter fabric) were even added were to sell back stock of toys from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. He even says the toys looked better than the actual Metallic Armor in the show since the toys used metallic paint, as opposed to just glitter.
- Mistaken for Prostitute: During the Wild West two-parter, he's surprised that Kimberly doesn't have this happen to her because of her outfit... before he remembers that this is a kid's show.
- Mistaken for Racist: Points out the much-discussed fact that the Black Ranger was African-American and the Yellow Ranger was Asian, but also notes that the production team had gone on record as saying it was unintentional and they did not realize their mistake until several episodes into the first season.
- Mr. Fanservice: Considers Richie's inclusion in the second season (in addition to being a Red Herring for the White Ranger identity) to be just eye-candy for the female viewers, although he does say if this is true that it baffles him, since any one of the male Rangers had a physique any male model would die for.
- Narm: When talking about the Wild West two-parter, he mentions that while his suspension of disbelief can reconcile a few details that seem a bit off regarding continuity, the idea that they still have an "Ernie's Juice Saloon" strains a bit of credibility for him.
- Narm Charm: In his remaster of the review he talks about the incredibly goofy episode featuring the RadBug, a flying car Billy created out of nowhere. He points this out as probably the silliest thing the show has ever done... and also one of the most awesome, wondering why they never thought of using the flying car again in future episodes.
- Old Shame: Averted when he discusses Austin St. John, Thuy Trang, and Walter Emanuel Jones being fired partway through the second season when negotiations broke down regarding union rights. While they may have differing opinions regarding how they were paid or how production was handled, Linkara states he's heard none of the actors ever felt Power Rangers was a low point in their careers, and look back on it fondly. The fact Austin St. John came back three times lends credence to that fact.
- Power-Up Letdown:
- His opinion of both Jetting from Season 2 and the Metallic Armor from Season 3. Jetting was just giving the Rangers Flying Brick powers which were redundant since the Rangers could already Teleport, and the Metallic Armor was just a thick layer of glitter over their normal costumes that half the time he couldn't even tell if they were even using. Not only that but the fact that the Rangers barely ever used both these powers before forgetting about them completely made them feel even extra useless.
- He was also not a fan of the fact that after gaining the Ninja powers the Rangers morphed into their old costumes since they no longer had anything to do with their powers. At the very least he argues they should have given them new helmets to reflect their ninja animal spirits.
- Pragmatic Adaptation:
- Points out that when Saban ran out of the original Zyuranger footage, they called Toei to make original footage for them, known as Zyu2.
- Beginning in Season 2, Saban would use footage from the next two Sentai's after Zyuranger (Dairanger and Kakuranger), but keeping it limited (zord battles mainly). Linkara doesn't mind it however as it made the Zyuranger suits the more iconic features of Power Rangers, and the new zords introduced at the beginning of each season felt like actual upgrades compared to later seasons. That isn't to say that it came without problems, however. At the beginning of Season 2, they still had Zyu2 footage to use up, so the earlier Thunderzord battles had obvious cuts into the footage. Plus, the monster costumes from later seasons were limited to said Zord footage, or stand-alone footage from the Sentai if they couldn't get the costumes overseas.
- In the Season 3 remastered review, Linkara notes that in Kakuranger, the rangers started with the Shogun Zords first and then had the Ninja Zords later on while in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, it was the other way around. Linkara doesn't mind it, even stating that starting with the more humanoid Shogun Zords would have been a big departure from a show that had animal-based Zords by that point.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: As Bulk and Skull seek to discover the identities of the Rangers throughout Season 2, whenever they came close (video footage or plaster casts of their footprints) the Rangers would sabotage their findings. You can't blame them for wanting to keep their secret identities, but at this point they were becoming the bullies... in Linkara's mind anyway. Really the Rangers were just keeping Bulk and Skull from exposing their identities to EVERYONE. He admits he was being too hard on the Rangers with his re-release of the second season, although he still thinks it could have been handled better by them.
- Put on a Bus: Of course he discusses the departure of Jason, Trini, and Zack for the International Peace Conference. When he remastered his Second Season Review he even shares that the reason they left was due to their actors negotiating for union rights and negotiations breaking down.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: While he jokes that Zordon will occasionally make some questionable choices (and that the reason us Zordon is getting back at the Rangers for "breaking his stuff"), Linkara does point out, notably when Jason, Zack, and Trini leave the team, and then later when Kimberly wants to become an Olympic-level gymnast, that his intention for recruiting the teenagers with attitude was never to have them give up their lives, he still wants them to fulfill their own personal goals and dreams. This also gets brought up with much later reviews, as well, when talking about mentors who aren't anywhere near as reasonable.
- Red Herring: Points out in the updated review that Richie and Zack's cousin, Curtis, were only included in the second season as possible candidates for the identity of the new White Ranger. Linkara even mentions as a kid he really did think it was Richie who was going to be revealed as a Ranger, instead of it being Tommy.
- Ship-to-Ship Combat: Linkara is firmly on the Tommy/Kimberly ship as opposed to the Tommy/Kat ship.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Notes that Tommy had become this for a portion of the second season during the arc when Zedd focused on depleting his powers, with Tommy getting more development at the expense of the rest of the team.
- Strangled by the Red String: Feels that way about the writers forcing Tommy and Katherine's romance, not only because he prefers Tommy staying with Kimberly, but also he felt Adam and Rocky could have desperately benefited from being paired with Kat if only to give them some sort of development as characters.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- In his season 2 video, he says that a storyline of Bulk and Skull learning the Rangers' identities and having to cover for them would be great as the duo would get Character Development, having to clean up their messes when the rangers get the glory. A step further would be them finding themselves to be jerks and not doing anything worthwhile with their lives.
- Also notes this about the Dark Rangers, in addition to their stupid costumes,note we don't get to see them do anything and the teens that Zedd planned to turn into the Dark Rangers are never seen again.
- He laments the fact that they did not spend longer showing the growing pains of Kat suddenly taking over for Kimberly than they did.
- Took a Level in Badass: See Villain Decay.
- Villain Decay: He counters the complaints about Lord Zedd becoming ineffectual after marrying Rita by concisely explaining that Zedd had become no more dangerous than Rita, falling into the same rut of every plan. The only partial victory before he married Rita was draining the Green Ranger powers, but after the marriage, they destroyed the Thunder Zords, nearly killed Kimberly, disabled the Ninja Zords, destroyed the Ninja Coins, and even the Command Center.
- X Meets Y: On the look of Lord Zedd, "Just look at this guy—this is what H.R. Giger would create if he wanted to make a super-villain!"
- You Keep Using That Word: Doesn't like how the show keeps calling the stone monolith that Rita was trapped in a "Dumpster" since he says it's obviously more of a bin or barrel, or at best a garbage can.
