YMMV / Power Rangers Lost Galaxy

• Adorkable: "The Blue Crush" serves to take the most serious, straight-laced member of the team (Kai) - put him in charge of an excitable child, have him attempt to roller skate and suffer many pratfalls when he gets a crush. He becomes very endearing when he's a lovestruck dork.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Trakeena's behavior in the "Journey's End" finale as it's unknown how much of an effect Deviot fusing with Trakeena had on her mentallity.
• Angst? What Angst?: Maya doesn't seem particularly bothered by her people being turned to stone for most of the series.
• Anti-Climax Boss: After spending an arc as the Big Bad and proving himself just as evil as Trakeena had been the entire season, Captain Mutiny is anti-climatically killed off in a sucker punch by Trakeena the moment he enters the main galaxy.
• Ass Pull: Nearly all the Rangers' weapons and gear are given little to no explanations as to how they got them, though most of them have at least some explanation.
  • The Quasar Launchers take the cake, however; they simply appear out of nowhere with no background story provided (the Rangers casually summon them, as if they have done this before, even though this is the first time they appear). But, keep in mind, production was quite a mess to say the least. The script for the episode specified that they were to get them by holding up their Quasar Sabers and Transdaggers together and then see what happened. Clearly, they didn't film that.
  • The Lights of Orion are also quite an offender when it comes to this trope. In episode 6 we learn that Furio has suddenly switched his attention from trying to get the Quasar Sabers to trying to get the Lights of Orion, which are apparently on Terra Venture somehow. All we ever learn about them in the episodes that follow is that 3000 years ago Magna Defender released them (on Mirinoi, evidently, since he was trapped in the chasm immediately afterwards). How they ever got on Terra Venture or how Furio found out they were there remains unknown.
  • And let's not forget the battle axe that Torozord suddenly uses in the fights against Grunchor and Titanisaur instead of his usual lance. No explanation there as to where he got it from, and if he apparently had it all this time why he never used it before.^note In Gingaman, this axe is the Knight Axe that Black Knight gained in return for giving up his Earth Powers, and which both he himself and his mecha could use; he had to use it to shatter the jewel embedded in the torso of Captain Mutiny's counterpart, Zahab, that gave Zahab immortality..
• Awesome Music:
  • The Magna Defender theme^note The link is to a cover version; the original version is difficult to locate.
  • "TURN ON THE POWER! POWER RANGERS!" which must be one of the catchiest theme tunes in history.
• Best Known for the Fanservice:
  • For the straight men and lesbians, it's Nubile Savage Maya (whose actress went on to portray a character who spends all of her screentime in the nude), and to a lesser extent, Karone with her all-leather get-up, and the skimpily clad villainess Trakeena.
  • To the straight women and gay men, it's Leo—not only does his famous his Battle Strip Shirtless Scene end up in the opening credits, but it just happens to be Leo that keeps ending up injured and shirtless in sickbay (this happens in "The Lights of Orion" and again in "Shark Attack"—and then again in "Facing the Past").
• Bizarro Episode: The mid-season episode, "The Rescue Mission", plays more like a hard sci-fi action movie than it does a episode of Power Rangers. In fact, only two of the five Rangers appeared morphed and it is as the very end of the episode for less than 5 minutes. It's also one of only two Power Rangers episodes to not use a single drop of Stock Footage (excepting establishing shots of Terra Venture). Not just no footage from Super Sentai, but not even their own stock footage such as morphing. This wouldn't happen again for another sixteen years.
• Broken Base:
  • It used to be known as one of the best Power Rangers seasons at the time when it first aired but fans becoming more aware of its flaws and having more popular seasons since leaves Lost Galaxy in a strange middle ground, considered better than average but not well-liked enough to be a fan favorite. That said, it does still have many fans who consider it to be one of the best seasons of the show, likely due to it having a slightly darker tone than most of the subsequent iterations, and certain characters with their own followings in fandom.
  • Should this series be counted as a part of the Zordon Era? Proponents of the idea note that Alpha 6, DECA, and Karone being major supporting characters and Zordon being implied to be the one who planted Quasar Sabers results in the show being too linked to the prior seasons to truly be a fresh start, with this camp citing Power Rangers Light Speed Rescue as the first standalone season. Others however feel this season can't be part of the Zordon Era due to the initial team being brand new characters, with this series' Big Bad having no affiliation to the United Alliance of Evil and cite Zordon having been Killed Off for Real during In Space as strong enough reasons to not count this season under the same umbrella as the first six seasons.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Because of her design, love for her father, and Character Development training under Villamax, Trakeena is one of the season's most popular characters despite how ruthless and petty she can be even before absorbing Deviot's worst traits. Plenty of fans believe she isn't too evil and wish she'd been redeemed.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The first Magna Defender for being the first truly morally gray "hero" in the franchise's run.
  • Kendrix is among one of the most loved Pink Rangers due to her Heroic Sacrifice.
  • For a Monster of the Week, Chameliac gained a following for his unique (for Power Rangers) powerset compared to any other monster in the franchise.
  • Punch-Clock Villain and Badass Biker Villamax is pretty beloved.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Trakeena goes from a vain, spoiled princess to a deadly fighter and ruthless commander who is considered one of the greatest villains in Power Rangers history.
  • Much Like Darkonda before him, Deviot's cunning and manipulative acts make him one of the best examples of The Starscream in the franchise.
  • If you questioned the Psycho Rangers' awesomeness in the previous season, this one will eliminate any doubts given one of them causes the first on-screen death of a Power Ranger.
• Fan Nickname: The Ranger suits for this season (and thus, extended to Gingaman as well) has been nicknamed "The Charlie Brown Costumes" because of the signature squiggly, pointed black line across the torso and around the cuffs of the boots and gloves.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: While Karone joining the team as a replacement Pink Ranger was a development most fans liked, especially since it fulfilled the character's wish to become a Ranger, there are some who would have preferred to see how the original plan of Cassie joining the team instead panned out. Especially since she would be The Atoner for Kendrix's sacrifice which could have led to an emotionally gripping arc. Likewise having a veteran Ranger with more experience than the rest of the team could have led to some interesting shakeups to the established dynamics.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Look at Deviot - he's got a gigantic collar that looks as though he swiped it from a Shakespeare play, and has what appears to be robotic hair(?) trailing out over it from his head.
• Growing the Beard: The series starts off slow, but the Magna Defender arc and the resolution brought in the permanent Sixth Ranger and really started developing the characters both good and evil.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The episode "Double Duty" is about Kendrix filling in for a movie star she resembles after the latter fakes an ankle injury. Kendrix's leg is injured by the Monster of the Week and she struggles to get through certain scenes, with the lesson being to never give up when times get tough. It's eerily prophetic of how Valerie Vernon would receive a leukaemia diagnosis and have to be written out of the series - with Karone taking her place.
  • The final battle. Mooks as suicide bombers against innocents was a Moral Event Horizon at the time it aired, but now...
  • Even if you take the real world out of the equation, there's still Lord Zedd sarcastically asking Finster once if the monster he had this time could blow itself up. Funny jab at the Once an Episode conventions of the show the first time you watch it. Not so funny if you go back to said episode after watching the finale of Lost Galaxy.
  • The fact that the Magna Defender's late son is named Zika, which sounds eerily similar to the Zika virus, a deadly ailment that tends to target pregnant women or women who will become pregnant.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Kendrix being revived at the finale came out of nowhere until nearly twenty years later where Dino Fury implies that the Morphing Masters had a hand in reviving her.
• He's Just Hiding: Many fans hope Kegler survived the destruction of the Scorpion Stinger due to his likable nature and lack of on-screen death.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Also, in regards to the above scene with Trakeena and the wrench? The guy is Damon, whose actor later married Trakeena's actress. Also doubles as a Heartwarming in Hindsight moment.
  • In Power Rangers in Space, Karone, when she was still Astronema, kidnapped Ashley and impersonates her to destroy the Space Rangers from within. After that plan fails, she scornfully exclaims, "I wouldn't want to be a Power Ranger anyway!" This gets an equally hilarious Call-Back in Super Megaforce: "I love being a Power Ranger."
  • One of Trakeena's notable traits was that she loved her human beauty but her father wanted her to enter the cocoon and evolve into an Insectoid Alien like him, causing Trakeena to flee from him. Over two decades later, the Super Sentai-themed Love After World Domination debuts, featuring a nominal Dark Action Girl Desumi Magahara/Reaper Princess who's faced with a similar situation as the boss of the evil organization she's a part of wants to mutate her into a giant gorilla monster, much to her dismay. The only difference is that Trakeena fled out of vanity for her looks and wasn't given much choice whereas Desumi was given the right to turn down the transformation and ultimately did it out of love for her secret Red Ranger love interest.
• I Am Not Shazam: The team are called the Galaxy Rangers; the Lost Galaxy is a location they visit during a story arc.
• It Was His Sled: Kendrix dies in a Heroic Sacrifice with Karone taking her place as the Pink Ranger for the last third of the show.
• Iron Woobie:
  • Maya. Her home planet is turned to stone, along with everyone she grew up with and she's stranded on a space colony with people from a whole different planet and technology level. Apart from a few moments, this does not seem to bother her at all.
  • Karone qualifies too. As was revealed in Power Rangers in Space, she was kidnapped as a child, raised to be the cold-hearted Astronema responsible for countless evil acts, which she still regrets at the time of Lost Galaxy, but is generally portrayed as one of the more cheerful rangers of the team.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Trakeena when taken into account that turning into a monster that had to be destroyed wasn't of her own choice at all and she was dragged into it by Deviot.
  • Villamax and Kegler. Trakeena crosses the Moral Event Horizon and kills the former when he questions her actions; Kegler mourns him, but is threatened by Trakeena and most likely dies aboard the Scorpion Stinger when it crashes. Kegler himself rarely did anything evil at all— he was simply there because he and Villamax were friends and he simply tagged along, only to end up the last one standing aside from Trakeena.
• Les Yay: Maya has this with Kendrix and Karone.
• Love to Hate: Trakeena, Deviot and Villamax are all very well-liked by the fan base due to their interesting personalities and interactions as well as being some of the more complex villains in the franchise.
• Magnificent Bastard: See here.
• Moe: Many of the Rangers are endearing in a surprisingly soft way.
  • Leo, an idealistic Seeker Archetype with Friend to All Children moments and hero worship of both Andros and his brother.
  • Kendrix, due to being a Hot Librarian with a passion for science and logic that doesn't keep her from being occasional playful, even more protective of her peers than the average Ranger, and quick to reach out to help people.
  • Maya, due to being a Friend to All Living Things with some cute Culture Clash moments and a sunny nature that masks occasional bouts of deep pain about her lost culture.
  • Damon, due to his wisecracking nature, fondness for Grease Monkey work, and insecurity about his qualifications to be a Ranger.
  • Karone, due to her bubbly Good Feels Good excitement about her job, guilt about her previous Brainwashed and Crazy actions, and Friend to All Children moments that come across as a desire to get something back from her stolen childhood.
• Moral Event Horizon: See the page for examples.
• Narm:
  • Mike's death in the first episode is a very well done, emotional scene...until Damon starts shouting his name, looking just as distraught as the others, despite having no idea who Mike is.
  Linkara: Wait, I never even met Mike! Who the hell is he?
  • The Latin American dub gives Trakeena's first evolved form a high-pitched voice to play with the insect motif. It's very distracting and it ruins otherwise tense and emotional moments. Thankfully it disappears once she gains her final form.
• Narm Charm: Kendrix coming Back from the Dead with no explanation in the finale is dumb, but it's such a heartwarming scene that the acting and the directing make it work.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The opening of The Sunflower Search, an episode with a deceptively light sounding name that provides the reason the Magna Defender is so deadset on revenge. Specifically the fact that his son Zika was murdered by Scorpius directly in front of him. What's worse is it happens on-screen and is completely unambiguous as the death of a child.
  • The entirety of The Rescue Mission. The entire episode looks straight out of a horror movie, and you see real skeletons during the episode. There's little to no humor at all and one has to wonder how this nightmare of an episode got onto a kid's show.
  • The reveal of Trakeena's evolved form. Helped by the tense music, eerie lighting and occasional momentary appearances it has in the buildup and the fact that Leo is both unmorphed and alone when she finds him. The fact that the suit, an original costume made for Lost Galaxy, is genuinely unnerving to look at helps.
• Older Than They Think: Power Rangers (2017) featured a Ranger dying and then being revived later. This season had featured it happening to two characters - Mike, who died in the second episode and Kendrix, who gets revived in the finale.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Cerina Vincent would later become more famous for Not Another Teen Movie and Cabin Fever.
  • Kai's actor Archie Kao became better known for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Chicago P.D..
• She Really Can Act:
  • Valerie Vernon really brings it during Kendrix's death scene, which is doubly impressive when you realise she had to do it entirely through voiceover while suffering from leukaemia.
  • Patricia Ja Lee likewise in the same scene. You can practically feel the anguish as she repeatedly screams for Kendrix to "get out of there!"
• Slow-Paced Beginning: Like most Ranger series, early filler episodes may put off new viewers, but, when the Magna Defender shows up, the show gets really good, and, moreover, for the most part, it stays good.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • The magic spell used to turn Mirinoi's inhabitants to stone is an obvious Photoshop filter.
  • The rest of the CGI doesn't fare much better either. Most glaringly with the digital version of the Terra Venture that looks low-res and untextured compared to its model counterpart. Some of the ropey CGI, like those regarding the Zords, can be attributed to the original source material, as Gingaman was one of the first Sentai to use CGI extensively.
  • Additionally, the box that originally contained the Lights of Orion is a modern lockbox. Even more baffling is that it's initially located in a more ancient-looking treasure chest.
  • The compositing can look terrible at several points. This is most visible during "An Evil Game" when Leo manages to escape from Trakeena, where the insertion of the various elements look extra blurry and hard to make out. A similar issue occurs in "Journey's End, Part 2" with the blown-up Stratoforce Megazord and the flames and sand surrounding it having obvious fringing around the outlines, making it obvious the elements were shot outside during the day.
• Superlative Dubbing: Near-unanimously considered superior to its source material.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The Terra Venture should have gotten accidentally sent to the Lost Galaxy much earlier, and the rest of the series would involve them finding a way out. Which might have been the original intention (see Troubled Production in Trivia).
  • Trakeena getting sucked into the Lost Galaxy too and fighting against both the Rangers and Captain Mutiny could've been rather interesting to see.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: The Lost Galaxy Rangers are often referred to by fans as 'the Charlie Brown Rangers', due to the odd choice of coloring that makes them look like they're wearing stripey jumpers. (Again, you can blame the Sentai for this.)
• The Woobie: Just imagine how Cassie feels after the credits roll on "The Power of Pink". Attempting to help Kendrix resulted in the first time a Power Ranger ever died in combat. She was having her energy completely drained, and too near death to help as Kendrix sacrificed herself to save her.

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