Tear Jerker / Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

• The end of "The Green Candle", by the end the candle's already burned out despite everyone's best efforts and Zordon explains that the only way to prevent the Green Ranger power from being stolen is for Tommy to give the power to another Ranger. So Tommy chooses Jason, who gets the Dragon Dagger and shield. Tommy demorphs. Tommy puts on a brave face but you can tell the failure to protect his Ranger powers hit him pretty hard.
  • It's just as hard for Jason, who blames himself for not getting the candle when he had the chance. And it haunts him for a long time until "Missing Green". Adding to this is how legitimately torn Jason was between grabbing the candle and going to save Tommy since both boys' behavior implies that in that moment, Jason was choosing between Tommy having a life worth living or having a life at all.
  • Believe it or not, this is actually child's play compared to the Zyuranger version, in which Tommy's counterpart Burai is outright Killed Off for Real.
• At the start of "To Flea or Not to Flea", Ernie is depressed that the Youth Center is on the verge of closing down, and the Ranger teens try desperately to make enough money to keep it open. In the end, for his part in finding and taking care of a lost dog, he receives the reward: More than enough money to keep the Youth Center open and well-earned free pizza for the teens.
• From the "Green No More" two-parter, the scene when Goldar appears and then shows the already dejected Tommy footage of when he was the powerful Green Ranger (some of it being from when he was still evil, thanks Goldar).
• When Rito destroyed the Thunder Megazord in the Season Three episode "Ninja Quest", that was the last time we ever got to see the original Dinozords in action. Kimberly's Big "NO!" at the sight does NOT help. This is even more heartbreaking after reading the Boom! Studios comics, where she affectionately uses female pronouns when talking about the Pterodactyl zord, making it seem like Kim lost a beloved friend more than just a vehicle.
  • All the times that it appeared that the Zords had been destroyed. While Word of God has said that the "Mighty Morphin" Zords aren't sentient like their Japanese counterparts, those cries sure seemed to have a lot of emotion in them.
    • To make things worse, there are times where the Dinozords are referred to like they're sentient: Zordon calls Titanus an old friend in "Gung-Ho" and describes the Dragonzord as sleeping when Clone Tommy is trying to revive it in "Return of the Green Ranger" which suggests that not only are the Dinozords sentient but that the Thunder Megazord is sentient too. Unless the Dinozords' conversion into their thunder-forms essentially kills them every time.
• Speaking of "Return of the Green Ranger", there is the moment where Clone Tommy traps the Rangers. All of the team believe that they’re dealing with the real Tommy and that he’s turning evil again. The real kicker of the scene, of course, is Kimberly. While the others are basically shocked, she is stricken with heartbreak at the thought.
• In "The Spit Flower", Rita sends a group of Putties to smash up Kimberly's float model, making her cry. It's frankly one of the biggest examples of Evil Is Petty in nearly any type of entertainment you could name, considering how grand Rita's plans usually are. Sending out giant monsters is par for the course, but Rita doesn't want peace, nor even the smallest display of support for it, and hurting one of the Rangers, that just makes it sweeter to her. It's even more impactful the way one of the Putties focuses on smashing the display while the others keep the Rangers busy. They weren't even trying to beat them, just perform this one moment of pointless spite.
• In "Green With Evil", each part has its moments. The most heartbreaking one would have to be when Tommy damages the command center. Zordon, knowing well that Tommy is the Green Ranger, tries to talk him out of it, but to no avail.
  Zordon: Tommy, she (Rita) has you under an evil spell, let me help. I can save you.
  Tommy/Green Ranger: Worry about saving yourself, old man!!!
• The destruction of the Command Center. For three years, it'd been the Power Rangers home base, and in the space of five minutes, it's blown up with the Rangers utterly powerless to stop it and seemingly with Zordon and Alpha still inside. Sure, next season, it's rebuilt as the Power Chamber and Zordon and Alpha survive, but it still means that the series is ending on one of the biggest downer moments ever.

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