Despite being called History Of Power Rangers: Cosmic Fury, this long-awaited entry focuses on both the 30th Milestone Celebration entries of the franchise, Power Rangers Cosmic Fury and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always, thus, it is BIG.
Tropes Involved in this episode.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: He wonders if Amelia's plan to rescue Ollie from Zedd's fortress — and her willingness to go against Billy's advice to wait for backup — is entirely about getting the information they need about Zedd's endgame. Amelia's put on a brave face despite her boyfriend's mind control, but now the spell is broken and he's in immediate danger. He argues a moment to explore Amelia's feelings would have lent the story some dramatic weight.
- And This Is for...: He has Billy shout "And this is for the Abandoned Warehouse District, Rita!" when Billy stabs Robo-Rita with his spear.
- Angst? What Angst?: Cites this as a major thing holding back Cosmic Fury. Whether due to the ten-episode run time or Hasbro's Executive Meddling, characters don't get nearly enough time to sit with their feelings and create drama. He cites Javi's amputation, the fallout from Ollie's mind control, and Fern and Izzy's relationship troubles as examples.
- Ascended Meme: Linkara has a meltdown over how Once and Always quoted the "Too much pink energy" line.
- The Artifact: Because Hasbro decided to film ten episodes instead of the twenty Netflix offered, the Izzy-Fern subplot is not expanded as much as it should have been. Now Linkara does note a few episodes that show remnants of this subplot, but nothing much of it is shown in the final product.
- Author Appeal: He takes a few moments to discuss Typeface, a Monster of the Week from Ninja Steel with such a ridiculous gimmick and design that he can't help but love it.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: When he gets to the Cosmic Fury suits, he sarcastically imitates many fans who ragged on them before stating... he liked the suits. He felt like that the color and simplicity of the outfits compliment one another.
- Broken Aesop: He scoffs at Billy trying to teach Minh that "all-out destruction is rarely the most optimal strategy", because this is Power Rangers, where making the villain explode has solved nearly every problem since 1993 — including the problem of Snizzard abducting and shrinking the Rangers. Then to his surprise, the lesson pays off much more effectively in Cosmic Fury: instead of destroying Zedd, the Rangers get him to see reason about his forthcoming Meaningless Villain Victory, and he willingly gives up his power in order to keep on living.
- Call-Back: Linkara praises Bajillia's plan to create their own Evil version of the Z-Wave that destroyed all evil in the universe at the end of "Countdown to Destruction", viewing it as an excellent twisting of Zordon's noble sacrifice into a horrific parallel, as well as being a fitting ending scheme given the main villain isn't a noble wizard alien trying to save everyone with his sacrifice, but an evil alien CEO who's willing decimate everything for her own profits. It also might be a tongue-in cheek reference to Power Rangers' long standing issues with budget.
- Capitalism Is Bad: Linkara states how the final villain for the original continuity is capitalism.Linkara: I've said this for years, but now it really is true. The greatest villain of Power Rangers is money!
- Continuity Nod: Linkara continues his misnaming of "Buzz Blast".
- Death Is Cheap: Discussed. Linkara admits that one of the fears he had going into Cosmic Fury (even expanding towards the potential reboot) is reviving Zordon, as he felt that would cheapen his sacrifice at the end of In Space. Thankfully that doesn't happen, and Linkara is pleased of what they got instead: Zordon (maybe) helping the team by giving them guidance one last time to resolve the conflict with Lord Zedd through peaceful means.
- Executive Meddling: Linkara does note a couple of things that Hasbro did to influence Cosmic Fury:
- For one, Netflix offered to film twenty episodes for this season, but Hasbro declined and went for ten episodes instead.
- The subtle lack of drama of the darker moments on Cosmic Fury is because Hasbro insisted that things could not be too sad or bleak for the younger audience. Linkara points out how detrimental that could be, even using the first couple of seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation as an example of a lack of drama resulting in boring television. Fortunately, Cosmic Fury is able to compensate by having an interesting narrative (some subplots aside) that always had something happening to keep things from getting boring.
- Fanservice: Discussed in the beginning of the review. Over the previous years, Linkara noticed a trend of "children's media that also panders to the adult audience", adding in Call Backs and Continuity Nods that the older fans would recognize, but the younger audience will not (or even care about). While Linkara brings up how it can potentially alienate the younger audience, Cosmic Fury handled fanservice in the same respect Beast Morphers did by using previous events to fit into the story of the season.
- Fan-Preferred Couple: Linkara is still disappointed that Tommy and Kat still got together instead of Tommy and Kimberly.Linkara: (as a clip of Tommy and Kimberly kissing plays) LEMME HAVE MY SHIP, DAMN IT!
- Grand Finale: Kind of. Linkara states he isn't fond of reboots and HOPR was designed to look back at the original continuity that he grew up with, so there might not be a chance he will look at the reboot series when it comes out. However, given that HOPR is one of his fan-favorite projects, he may look at it if he decides to, especially since he loves Power Rangers. He also isn't afraid to admit HOPR is his most popular franchise and he does want to keep making money if the demand is still there.
- It's a Long Story: Linkara's explanation over what happened with Austin St. John and the Paycheck Protection Program.note
- Madness Mantra: As Linkara freaks out over how he's now made an Ascended Meme, he screams, "It's good that it didn't happen!"
- Money, Dear Boy: Linkara explains that based on rumors of the future of Power Rangers, that the series would be completely retiring its continuity after 30 years and having a hard reboot, that this may be the last episode of History of Power Rangers since he did not have much desire to follow the series into a completely new and unrelated canon. That being said, Linkara also said that opinion was not set in stone as he is well aware HOPR is his most popular project and that he 'likes money', so he may continue with the series for no other reason than the fans want him to. note
- My God, You Are Serious!: Linkara keeps going in denial when Javi loses his arm before he realizes that yes, Power Rangers did make Javi lose his arm.
- Non-Indicative Name: Linkara finds that the color scheme for Heckyl's Dark Ranger suit does not match the title for something called "dark", as he preferred an all black color scheme to match that title. At the very least, Linkara suggests that the suit could have been called the Talon Ranger based on the sound bytes from the Dino Charger Morpher when the Spino Charger is inserted.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: One detail Linkara praises about Once and Always in regards to the Putties is when Minh, after failing to morph, punches one and hurts her hand, demonstrating that while the Rangers can mow the Putties down in droves, even without having to use their powers, they are still a threat to ordinary people.
- The Other Darrin:
- Linkara notes that Fred Tatasciore has taken over voicing Lord Zedd after Andrew Laing stepped down due to fan backlash. He even takes time to criticize those fans for berating Laing on social media as he finds that unacceptable. He thinks Fred Tatasciore did alright, but that his voice sometimes ended up sliding into "generic gravely villain voice" at times, and for some reason it didn't have a proper filter to emulate Zedd's voice better.
- Because Cosmic Fury was filmed in a non-union situation compared to Once and Always, Susan Brady reprised voicing Rita on the show rather than Barbara Goodson. And while Linkara has never been a fan of Brady's voice work for Rita, he found her role here to be the best of the bunch.
- Plot Hole: Although a Cosmic Fury review, he does touch on the fact in the previous season it was firmly cemented Beast Morphers was part of the main universe. While Linkara accepts that (and no matter how much he wishes otherwise, he was wrong to assume it was its own universe gaining powers for the first time), he does point out several problems that come with that fact:
- He scratches his head as to why various Ranger teams would donate their tech/morphers to Grid Battleforce in the first place.
- The fact Jason, the original Red Ranger, needed a dimensional portal makes no sense as if he was on the same planet/in the same dimension he could have just teleported to Grid Battleforce. There was no reason for all the dimensional hoopla.
- As Grid Battleforce is never heard from again, it's assumed the free energy that was being produced by tapping into the Morphing Grid is just ... gone now? With the Big Bad of that series gone, Linkara points out there's no way the nations of the world would just give up a free, green energy grid so easily.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Brings this up regarding Hasbro's decision to only adapt the Zords from Kyuranger and not the suits. While Linkara enjoys the suits, he understands that adapting them would be difficult for three reasons:
- Twelve Rangers for a ten episode season would lead to less character development from a lot of the Rangers.
- The Non-Uniform Uniform of Kyuranger would cost more money to make as toys, instead of just having each Ranger share a similar base. Though ironically, Hasbro has yet to release any Cosmic Fury action figures.
- Power Rangers tries to find New Zealand-area matches for the Japanese sets seen in the Sentai footage. By cutting out any on-the-ground fight scenes, they save money on trying to recreate the Japanese sets.
- Role Reprise: Linkara is very happy that Barbara Goodson and Richard Steven Horvitz return to voice Rita Repulsa and Alpha respectively for Once and Always. Although he does note that, due to age, Horvitz's voice has a tinge of Invader Zim in his Alpha voice.
- Running Gag: In both the Once and Always and Cosmic Fury reviews, he sarcastically states the chances of Zedd being defeated through non-violence or by surrendering, which is how he's ultimately defeated.
- Sanity Slippage: Linkara starts having a mental breakdown over how Kat references "Too much pink energy is dangerous" due to him making it into a meme before it suddenly cuts to his We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties message.
- Serendipity Writes the Plot: Both Once and Always and Cosmic Fury have this in regards to their plots. Or as he calls it, "Art through Adversity":
- Once and Always: While Linkara note the obvious of Thuy Trang's passing in 2001 making it impossible for Trini to appear, he does explain why Jason, Kimberly, and Tommy do not appear out of costume due to their actors' decisions or legal issues. Still, Linkara likes how well written their absences were explained as it connects to the plot of the movie.
- Cosmic Fury: The reason that Ollie spent the majority of the season under Lord Zedd's control was that Kai Moya's schedule was booked compared to his cast mates and the production team decided to make Ollie evil as a work around. Linkara praises the team for doing it as he enjoyed that plot line.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Linkara is quite impressed with the decision to have Lord Zedd surrender after pointing out the pointlessness of having all the power in the world if he ends up being blown up to become the Evil Z-Wave in the process, defeating Zedd not with more explosions or a Deus ex Machina, but through pure logic and wisdom. The fact that it's strongly implied to be Zordon helping out one last time from beyond the grave, and also builds on Ollie's character by citing back Zedd's own beliefs on there being no peace for the strongest, only survival, also helps elevate the scene. It also hilariously references his earlier scoffing about Billy's line about blowing things up not being always the answer.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: A very downplayed case, but Linkara isn't a fan of the decision to remove the "Go Go Power Rangers" section in the Cosmic Fury theme song. While he does understand why people are fine with it, he notes that the issue is less simply because of the decision, but rather the timing and issues it causes for the song itself.
- Because Cosmic Fury is the 30th anniversary, quite possibly the last entry in the current 30 year long continuity, as well as having many returning Ranger alumni and story elements, having "Go Go Power Rangers" would actually be appropriate.
- The Cosmic Fury theme song is an evolution (revolution) of the Dino Fury theme song, which means that it's intended to build towards the "Go Go Power Rangers" section... that doesn't exist anymore. To him it's basically resulted in the song feeling like a lot of build-up, only with no climax and resolution.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: While Linkara doesn't mind that Javi lost his arm to unlock the Cosmic Fury Zords, he does note that the writing doesn't show the drama of him losing it and dealing with the fallout of the situation.
- Toyless Toyline Character: As of the video's release, Hasbro has yet to introduce any action figures based on the Cosmic Fury suits. He finds this doubly ironic because part of why the show decided to use original suits this season was because it would be easier to mass-produce toy versions of them than of Kyuranger's Non-Uniform Uniform.
- Values Dissonance: The episode starts with Linkara suggesting why Power Rangers is such a Long Runner: a slowly creeping and outright rejection of the idea that adults needing to toss away childish interest, a case of Technology Marches On with the advent of VCRs and the Internet and the idea that series can continue for a new generation by keeping its core ideas the same and changing certain other things.
- What Could Have Been:
- For Once and Always, Linkara reveals that one original pitch Simon Bennett had was a monster created from a toy that was locked in a time capsule and come to shoot nostalgia bombs at everything around it. Cute for a one-off episode, but not serious for a reunion special.
- Linkara notes that there were ideas to properly adapt Kyuranger into a season before Cosmic Fury came to be, even noting Jason Bischoff's pitch dubbed "Power Rangers Supernova".
- Had the season went the twenty episode limit like Netflix offered, the Izzy-Fern subplot would have been seen through to its fullest. It would have had Fern temporarily break up with Izzy after having enough of the latter's over protectiveness, but they would have gotten back together after she became the Orange Ranger.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Points out that when the Mighty Morphin' Rangers finally kill revived Rita Repulsa, they also destroy Alpha 8 (who's body Rita possessed) and no one even acknowledges it.
- WTH, Costuming Department?:
- Subverted with the actual Cosmic Fury suits. Linkara really likes them for their simplicity and focus on the individual Ranger color over aesthetic detail (one of his more common complaints for a while) and admits to genuinely not understanding the backlash from the fandom towards them.
- He finds Ollie's Evil Blue Ranger form a little over-designed, but doesn't dwell on it for long.
- He takes issue with Heckyl's Dark Ranger suit being Navy Blue, as opposed to being a more appropriate "dark" color, like Black. Linkara admits he would have had less issue with the costume had it not been specifically called "Dark Ranger" (suggesting instead the name "Talon Ranger").
- While minor, he does balk at the fact the Cosmic Fury Zenith Ranger color appears to be beige or champagne, which is not a color that elicits excitement as a Ranger color.
