What An Idiot / Power Rangers

TV Asahi Sunday Morning | Super Sentai (Power Rangers) | Kamen Rider | Pretty Cure

• Power Rangers:
  • Especially in its first few seasons, the Rangers themselves were goody goods. Little to no negative behavior and all. But on occasion, Rita, Lord Zedd or the Machine Empire would place a spell on the team or some members to cause problems (such as Tommy debuting as an evil Power Ranger). This happened a good number of times.
    You'd Expect: That someone would attribute the odd behavior to a magic spell.
    Instead: The Rangers are dumbfounded by one of their own acting strange.
  • Also in the first few seasons, the enemies being able to make the monsters grow. In that case and only in that case, Rangers summon their Zords.
    You’d Expect: Them to only do it as a last resort, knowing that the Rangers will retaliate by summoning their Megazord.
    Instead: They frequently do it when the monster can still fight, or even when the monster is winning.
• When at the beginning of the episode, villains manage to capture a Ranger or make some Zords unusable.
  You'd Expect: The villains stop overthinking plans and just send any giant monster that the Rangers need their complete arsenal to defeat.
  Instead: Villains use captured ones as a bait, but the Rangers manage to free them.
• Any time the villains are about to win.
  You'd Expect: Rangers call for all possible weapons and allies.
  Instead: Mays villains' victories may have been prevented if Rangers called for every possible reinforcement.
• Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers:
  • "Day of the Dumpster": So, the heroes have just Refused the Call and you're free to take over the world and blow things up just like you were doing before.
    You'd Expect: Rita to ignore the teenagers and let them roam free in the desert while she conquers the Earth.
    Instead: She sends an army of putties against them, provoking them until they morph into the Power Rangers.
  • "Green with Evil": Let's get this straight: Rita has a Green Ranger that's completely capable of destroying a whole team singlehandedly, and the only way to stop him is if this one Evil Weapon (that he doesn't even need in the first place) is destroyed.
    You'd Expect: Rita to not give him the goddamn sword.
    Instead: She gives it to him, anyway.
    Furthermore: After the Rangers get their asses kicked, again and again and again, Rita never bothers to order her minions to finish the job, not even after their Zords are destroyed and they are rendered powerless. She goes further than that and specifically orders Goldar, Scorpina and Tommy to retreat every time she wins, just so she can go into the next episode declaring she'll destroy the Rangers once and for all instead of, you know, doing it when she had a chance.
  • "Calamity Kimberly": Rita creates the Samurai Fan Man, one of the most indestructible monsters she's ever created, who has a magic bottle that can suck people in and send them to a temporary dimension that will eventually disappear and kill anyone who stays inside for too long. Breaking the bottle will also destroy the dimension.
    You would expect: That she would target Zack, Billy, or Trini first, since without them both the Megazord and the Dragonzord battle mode would be out of commission. Or that she would capture both Tommy and Kim at the same time since they were alone together at the time of the attack and it would prevent the Rangers from using both the Dragonzord and the Megazord.
    Instead: She targets Kim alone because she's having a bad day and Rita thinks it would be fun to make it personal. Tommy gets injured during his encounter with the Fan Man but quickly recovers, and it turns out that the Dragonzord Battle Mode's drill staff was the one thing that was capable of safely freeing Kim, and with her free the Fan Man was no match for the Ultrazord.
    Furthermore: Zordon actually broke one of his own rules and suggested the Rangers use their zords to crush the Samurai Fan Man while he was still small. Why they didn't do this is unknown, as the giant Fan Man was giving their individual Zords and the Dragonzord Battle Mode an epic pounding. Had they not thought to use the finisher to break the rope holding the jar, they would have been toast (as we saw with the "samurai lance" battle that forced them to disengage the Dragonzord Battle Mode). Even after freeing Kimberly, the Megazord and Dragonzord did terribly, getting blown away by his giant fan and luckily stopped from being sent to a distant dimension by a nearby mountain they crashed into. Sure, Titanus showed up and the Ultrazord won, but still.
  • "The Green Candle": Rita has a candle that, when completely burnt out, will return the Green Ranger powers to her permanently. When Goldar captures Tommy, his presence causes it to burn faster. The Rangers set up a plan for Jason to hop through the portal. During the fight, a monster shows up and Tommy, not wanting to sit around, heads out in Dragonzord to confront it, but is quickly overpowered.
    You'd Expect: Jason needs a little more time - either have Zack, Billy and Trini aid Tommy and form the Dragonzord Battle Mode or have the rest of the rangers form the Megazord without him, or thirdly, send another Ranger in to speed things up and get the candle out.
    Instead: Zack goes in and forces Jason into a Friend-or-Idol Decision which haunts the guy for years to come.
  • In "A Different Shade of Pink" Rita and Zedd are sending monster attacks all over the city, causing Kimberly, who at this point in the series has lost her connection to her Power Coin, to pass out due to overexertion. In fact, she has a dizzy spell after the last fight in the episode, but she has to practice for the Pan Global gymnastics, so Tommy drives her to the Juice Bar at night.
    You'd Expect: Tommy would stay with Kimberly to spot her and make sure nothing bad happens to her. In fact, Tommy actually brings up this point, saying it's dangerous for Kimberly to be doing this alone.
    Instead: Kimberly tells Tommy that her coach will show up and he drives up. When Ernie tells her that her coach isn't going to make it, Kimberly does her routine on the balance beam anyway after everyone is gone, falling off, hitting her head, and winding up being hospitalized.
  • In Master Vile and the Metallic Armor, Master Vile steals the Zords, the Zeo Crystal, and turn them into a destruction weapon on a remote planet.
    You'd Expect: The Zords and the crystal to be guarded by the most powerful villains. Especially the energy stealer who defeated the Zords because Rangers can't destroy it without killing their friend Ninjor.
    Instead: The planet was… unguarded. Not even by mooks like most season 2 "bait and trap" episodes.
  • In "Rangers In Reverse" Master Vile sends Rito, Goldar, and Tengas down to plant the Orb Of Doom while sending more Tengas to the carnival to force the Rangers to split up, with Tommy, Rocky, and Kat focusing on preventing the Orb from being placed while Billy, Adam, and Aisha go after the Tengas at the carnival. When the Tengas begin to overpower Billy, Adam, and Aisha, they activate their metallic armor and quickly dispose of the Tengas at the carnival.
    You'd Expect: Tommy, Rocky, and Kat, being even more out-numbered trying to prevent Rito from planting the Orb, to call for the metallic armor themselves to even the odds and gain ahold of the Orb, and maybe Ninjor.
    Instead: They unsuccessfully attempt to fend off the forces, allowing Rito to correctly guess where the Orb is supposed to be planted, set it there, and cause the Rangers to all revert to being children who can't use their powers, thus setting up a 10-episode arc where they have to call Rangers from another planet and retrieve the Zeo Crystal to reverse the Orb's effects. Ninjor will only be mentioned again as unavailable.
• Power Rangers Zeo:
  • In Inner Spirit, the energy draining monster Main Drain feigns a surrender despite the fact that he was WINNING against the Zeo Megazord and even their powerful sword slashes were just doing Scratch Damage.
    You'd Expect: That the Rangers would instantly know something was up and that he could drain their power at any moment, realize it was a trap and take the opportunity to use the finishing strike on Main Drain, even though it probably wouldn't have finished him off based on the fact that it took TWO finishing blast barrages from the Red Battlezord to bring him down, it would have briefly stunned the monster, giving them time to escape before he could finish them off so they could go back, regroup, and find a way to win.
    Instead: The Rangers buy into the fake surrender, with only Kat realizing too late that it was a trap. By that time, Main Drain had burrowed a cable into the ground and drained all the Zeo Megazord's power, even breaking their sword in two (to that point a Megazord had never had its weapon broken), and it ended up draining the command center's energy in the process. If not for Alpha teleporting them out just in the nick of time, King Mondo would have won right then and there.
  • King Mondo actually had an air force much like the one in VR Troopers, but beyond the first few episodes, they were only used to finish off and harass the Rangers when they were losing.
    You'd Expect: Mondo to use the Quadrafighers more to attack the Rangers when small and help out the giant monsters when their Zords were turning the tide. The Rangers weren't equipped with a Skybase type of vehicle to deal with the Air Force like the VR Troopers were. Or send the Quadrafighters to attack one part of the city while the monster fights them in another part.
    Instead: Due to rarely using the air force, the Machine Empire quickly become like Rita and Zedd.
• Power Rangers Turbo:
  • The final battle is this trope personified. Goldgoyle, a monster that defeated both Megazords, was sent only to distract them so Divatox could launch an all out attack on Angel Grove.
    You'd Expect: A quick and hasty retreat once they realized they were getting their asses royally kicked, as the monster showed no indications of attacking Angel Grove or the power chamber. They'd ward off the attack by the Piranatrons while figuring out Goldgoyle's weakness, go back, and take care of business.
    Instead: They respond by self-destructing the Rescue Megazord, using a special superpowered version of the Turbo Megazord spinout (which does not finish off the monster), then suffer damage to where the Turbo Megazord is inoperable, losing both Megazords while giving Divatox time to attack. The events that were leading to the best season of all time, Power Rangers in Space, but still....
  • As if that wasn't already bad enough, Divatox and Elgar lead an army of Piranatrons to completely wreck the Power Chamber.
    You'd expect: On their way to try and aid Zordon and Eltar, Dimitria and the Blue Senturion could have at least taken the Rangers with them when they clearly were already exhausted from their bittersweet defeat of Goldgoyle and saw how badly that went down. And with that, they probably should have also just shut down the Command Center for good measure, take anything important out of there, and then just abandon it as they go out into space. Why? Well, with Zordon gone, it looked like the security of that place went down a notch. Also, Dimitria is not as powerful as he is. And besides, all of them will probably be seen teleporting out of the place so it's highly likely that the villains would have followed all of them on their way out to go to space anyway (and in turn, the Rangers would fight them off for bit on the way, which is enough to defend the Earth considering that Eltar had already fallen by then — meaning that Divatox and co. would probably get called on soon to help with the destruction of Eltar); also, with an abandoned Command Center/Power Chamber, it wouldn't matter if it got trashed and the Rangers — if they had just gone with Dimitria and the Blue Centurion, that is — would probably get to Zordon faster.
    Instead: Dimitria and the Blue Centurion just leave without them and the Rangers are left to fight a seemingly never-ending onslaught of Piranhatrons. They are also told to, once again, stay and defend the Earth. And the Power Chamber gets destroyed in an onslaught that they just didn't have the energy for...
  • On that note, in an earlier episode, General Havoc's special Zord, the Metallosaurus.
    You'd expect: The Turbo Megazord to jump out of the way of the sword-breaking tail slash and use the second, very powerful finisher used on Goldgoyle where it doesn't just spinout slash but launches itself through the monster, which would have undoubtedly defeated Metallosaurus with no problem.
    Instead: They let it break their sword and get their asses kicked.
  • In another episode, Divatox and Co. have stolen The Phantom Ranger's Phantom Ruby and now, he's close to death. The Rangers are at a loss until they decide to bring Divatox's Space Base down to Earth with a Giant Magnet. Their magnet successfully starts dragging the base. Divatox orders Porto to call up a Monster of the Week to deal with the problem.
    You'd Expect: Porto to send down a monster well-equipped to dealing with giant magnets.
    Instead: Porto summons a robot monster called Metal Mangler, who lasts all of five seconds before the magnet drags it to Earth. His second choice, Crosspatch, is not a robot, so he's much more successful.
• In one episode of Power Rangers in Space, Astronema has Ashley captured by Ecliptor while she impersonates her thanks to the titular Body Switcher.
  You’d Expect: Ecliptor to teleport out immediately.
  Instead: He stops long enough to gloat, giving her a chance to call out, almost disrupting the plan.
  For added stupidity points He doesn’t think to kill the real Ashley, instead holding her hostage and handing her over to the Body Switcher, who she promptly dupes into helping her escape.
• In the final episode of Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, Carter Grayson has just thrown Queen Bansheera into the tomb that she had attempted to use to bring the Demons from the Shadow World into the real world.
  You'd expect: For Carter to close the lid on the tomb, thus ensuring that she will never return.
  Instead: He neglects to close the tomb, turns around to give a thumbs up to Ryan, and it leads to Bansheera grabbing him, pulling him into the tomb and attempt to pull a Taking You with Me.
  Thankfully: Diabolico arrives in the nick of time to save Carter.
• Power Rangers Time Force:
  • Wes is forced into a 10-Minute Retirement by his Identical Descendant Alex, who takes over his position as Red Ranger. Prior to this, Alex watched all of the Ranger's battles in his Mission Control, so he knows what their weapons and zords can do. When Frax unleashes his new robot, Dragontron, the team brings out their Shadow Force Megazord and its BFG. They get a clear shot, and...
    You'd Expect: Shoot him now! Shoot him!
    Instead: Alex has the team hold their fire. This allows Frax to warn his robot, thus ruining the shot and resulting in a battle in which Frax and the robot clear out.
    For extra points: He yells at the rangers and blames them for failing the mission when they just followed his orders to the letter.
  • In the next battle with Dragontron, the Megazords get disabled by Frax's new Energy Siphon. To remedy this, the Rangers go after Frax and the Siphon. After clearing out Frax's Cyclobots, they corner the robot villain.
    You'd Expect: Alex would have a few Rangers pin down Frax while the rest disable the Siphon.
    Instead: Alex orders the Rangers to disregard Frax and go after the Siphon. While the Rangers question the logistics of this decision, Frax gets up and uses the Siphon on them. Left defenseless, the Rangers are saved by an unmorphed Wes, who takes out the Siphon by himself.
• In the episode of Power Rangers: Dino Thunder, "Strange Relations", Trent suggests to his adoptive father, Anton Mercer, of telling the Rangers about him being Mesogog. In fact, he believes they can help him.
  You'd Expect: For Mercer to agree with the suggestion. After all, they handled everything that comes in their way, so for once, he should put aside his inability to call others for help and starts contacting Tommy and the others about his problem in order to solve it once and for all.
  Instead: He refuses the offer, still believing he can handle Mesogog on his own.
  So Now You'd Expect: For Trent to tell the Rangers about the secret behind his back.
  Instead: He agrees to keep it as a secret. Later on, in "House of Cards", the secret is finally revealed and the Rangers aren't too happy of Trent keeping all that to himself.
• Power Rangers S.P.D. "Recognition", in a plot recycled wholesale from Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger: The Rangers have seized an alien criminal who wiped out at least 50 planets off-screen (a burglar in Dekaranger) and additionally can swap bodies with others - but can't speak English (or Japanese in Dekaranger) without a translation device. The commander wants him brought in for questioning.
  You'd Expect: When escorting a potentially dangerous criminal, multiple Rangers should be escorting the guy to his cell, just in case.
  Instead: The Blue Ranger does it alone and falls victim to the alien's body swapping, and when the alien destroys the translator, he is left in no position to stop him. The alien, in the Blue Ranger's body, takes control of the Delta Base and even authorizes the Ranger's execution.
• Power Rangers Jungle Fury has the Rangers trapped in a TV game show. Unfortunately, the show is being run by the bad guys who are saying Screw the Rules, I Make Them!, with half the Rangers being eliminated from the game for petty rules violations (and of course, if they lose, the villains will have free reign to eliminate mankind). The host offers the Rangers the chance to give up some of their winnings for a trip to Hawaii.
  You'd Expect: The Rangers remember that not only are cash prizes at stake, but also the fate of the human race, so they shut up and keep playing.
  Instead: Lily jumps at the chance, claiming she's always wanted to go to Hawaii. For that, she not only loses some cash from the pot, but she's thrown out of the game as well.
• Power Rangers Samurai: In the episode "Day Off", the villain Dreadhead gets giant-sized after Jayden's use of his new Beetle disc finally allows the Rangers to land a hit with their sword, and the Rangers activate their Samurai Megazord as a result. Jayden uses the orange disc to produce a Beetle Zord, which gets through Dreadhead's attacks and starts literally pulling his leg. Dreadhead summons some Mooks to take care of the buggy nuisance.
  You'd expect: He tells them to attack immediately so that maybe their laser arrows could have a chance of doing damage to the Beetle Zord.
  Instead: He has them attack on three. And proceeds to count. This gives the Beetle Zord time to attack his mooks, combine with the Megazord, and produce enough power to destroy Dreadhead.
• Power Rangers Ninja Steel: In the episode "Drive to Survive", Calvin reveals he is afraid of driving due to a car crash he experienced when he was little. Naturally, his friends decide this cannot be allowed to stand, and decide to teach him (and Brody, who has been a prisoner for the last 10 years) how to drive.
  You'd Expect: For them to go to an empty parking lot or something, where there's nothing and nobody for them to crash into.
  Instead: They do it in the middle of the street. Naturally, Calvin panics and careens through a nearby park before crashing into a garbage can. They're lucky nobody was seriously injured.
• Power Rangers (2017): Colt Wallace has it out for Billy. Jason stopped his bullying once, so he decides to break Billy's wrist when the former isn't around. Unfortunately for him, Billy's recently acquired Power Coin gives him Super-Toughness, so his efforts are for naught.
  You'd Expect: Stop and walk away.
  Instead: He immediately headbutts Billy and goes down for the count.