History Series / PowerRangersRPM

** We also, once again, get the LongLostSibling [[Series/PowerRangersInSpace plot]] [[Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue point]] where one of them was made to be evil before making a HeelFaceTurn. It especially bears a striking resemblance to the Andros-Astronema/Karone dynamic.

* MobDebt: The Green Ranger, Ziggy, owes money to a mobster called Fresco Bob because he stole black market medicine from his Scorpion Cartel and gave it to an orphanage.

* AlternateContinuity: Original Executive Producer Eddie Guzelian and the season's Senior Story Editor for both production regimes, John Tellegen, have repeatedly stated that ''RPM'' is emphatically not set in the same universe as the preceding sixteen seasons.

* FamilyFriendlyFirearms: As usual, but in "Doctor K", two unidentified guards threatened Dr. K with real-looking handguns (which of course we never see fired.)

* MixAndMatch: "Franchise/PowerRangers" + Franchise/{{Terminator}}

''RPM'' would later have a team up with ''Samurai'' called ''Clash of the Red Rangers.'' Only Scott appears, and even then he doesn't demorph for the entire movie. The [[Series/PowerRangersMegaforce Super Mega Rangers]] visited Corinth in the second half of ''Super Megaforce,'' but it looked completely different due to using ''[[Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger Gokaiger]]'' footage. Eventually, ''RPM'' would have a more proper team-up in the ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaSteel'' [[MilestoneCelebration 25th Anniversary]] {{crossover}} episode "Dimensions in Danger," with Gemma making an appearance for the RPM Universe. It also received something of a SpiritualSuccessor in ''Series/PowerRangersBeastMorphers'' [[spoiler:though it turns out to actually be more of a StealthSequel after it's revealed that the latter show's BigBad is a reincarnation of RPM's Venjix.]]

** There's also a rare case of the Rangers' ''suits'' being used as weapons -- more specifically, the tire-shaped (for the core three; Ziggy and Dillion have gold gear-shaped bands, and Gem and Gemma have no such bands at all) arm and leg bands can be used to perform close-quarters "burnout" attacks.

** There's also the Paleomax Megazord to the [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers original Megazord]] (as the brute of the mecha fleet and the only one with a combined vehicle form, rather like the Megazord's tank mode). Heck, it's got ''the same horns'', and the Tricera foot's on the same leg as on the original Megazord. The only glaring difference is the Mammoth chest... though the Mammoth can blow freezing "steam" just like the Mastodon Dinozord (the Mastodon head was attached to the chest of the MEgazord, but only in tank mode). It ''has'' to be a deliberate shout-out on the part of the ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' designers.

* YouGotSpunk: Kilobyte to Tenaya in "The Dome Dolls"

[[caption-width-right:350: Because nothing says ''covert'' like bright, multicolored spandex. [[BerserkButton THAT IS]] '''''[[BerserkButton NOT]]''''' [[BerserkButton SPANDEX!]]]]

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: A former Air Force pilot; a WideEyedIdealist Scottish mechanic; a fallen former heiress; a bumbling ex-criminal cartel member; a [[HalfHumanHybrid half-human hybrid]] with [[LaserGuidedAmnesia no memory of either his past or his identity]]; and twin hyperactive [[ManChild man children]], are the world's only hope -- all led by an emotionally closed off scientist with NoSocialSkills and [[TearJerker one depressing backstory]].

** Wait, wouldn't that make it ''Film/MadMax'' [-WITH POWER RANGERS-]?

* AmbiguousDisorder: Dr. K, Gem, and Gemma are not well-adjusted people. We blame Alphabet Soup.

** Then there is "Attack Sequence Mustang", which is basically just the megazord holding up its shield. Even stranger is that in later episodes, they just say "raise front deflectors!" ([[FridgeLogic And shouldn't that be "Defense Sequence Mustang" anyway?]])

* BottleEpisode: "And... Action!"
** [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment Big Lipped Alligator Episode]]: In a relatively serious series overall, this is a relatively-lighthearted "Making Of" special that shows how the show is made (well, the parts that aren't just lifted from Sentai footage at least), with the show's characters all staying in character throughout.

* CrapsaccharineWorld: Bordering on CrapsackWorld at times, if you [[FridgeLogic think about it too much]].

** Not sure about that either, they were planning to blow up a Venjix labor camp...With the prisoners still inside, until someone else pointed out that fact. [[FridgeHorror When one realizes that Gem and Gemma have been out in the wastelands all on their own, blowing Venjix outposts up for years...]]

* FriendshipMoment: Granted there tend to be lot of these in ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', but special mention goes to Ziggy saving Dillon in ''Blitz''. This is a character who, at the start of the season, wouldn't help anyone if it involved any risk to himself. In this episode, Dillon is thrown from a building. Without a second's hesitation, [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Ziggy leaps off the building, morphs in midair, catches Dillon and teleports them down to the ground before they build up too much velocity.]]

** ...Someone REALLY needs to make a video of that.
*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h1r3q6v0UY&feature=channel_video_title Someone already has.]]

* SmallGirlBigGun: Dr. K and her [[Series/BigBadBeetleborgs Beetleborg]] [[PropRecycling Blaster]].

* SoundtrackDissonance: Dr. K plays an excerpt from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHrZAplckpI Paganini's Caprice No.24 in A Minor]]. This excerpt plays out [[http://youtu.be/GebSvFmNnAk?t=8m57s during a Megazord battle]] in the very next scene. ItMakesSenseInContext. This also falls under SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic.

* StepfordSmiler: Two of them, in Gem and Gemma. Probably Type Cs, as it's unlikely that even the most upbeat individuals would talk about something like being held captive as test subjects or enslaved for hard labor in a factory of horror without even the smallest crack in their mask. Of course, since they're like that when they first meet K, it's entirely possible that there were [[NightmareFuel even worse events that warped them even earlier on]].

** What makes it even funnier is that Dr. K doesn't get the sarcasm coming from the Rangers. She says, "No, no, I'm afraid it's true." All part of a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}}.

* WeaponOfChoice
** SwissArmyWeapon: Nitro Blaster/Sword (something of a NonIndicativeName, given that there's no actual cutting edge on the "blade"), as well as the Rail Saber (which can in turn combine with the Nitro Blaster to form the [[HandCannon Rail Blaster]])
** AnAxeToGrind: Ziggy's Turbo Axe
** {{BFS}}: Scott's Street Saber
** {{BFG}}: Flynn's Turbo Cannon
** ImprobableWeaponUser: Summer's Zip Charger (a remote control drone thing). Also the Wheel Blasters, which are the wheels the Rangers use in their Zord cockpits (while usually the blaster mode is reserved for performing the finishing move in the larger Megazord configurations, they were used in a ground battle at least once)
** HandCannon: Dillon's Rocket Blaster
** KnifeNut: Gem and Gemma's Cloud Hatchets, which can be combined with their Sky Shift Morphers to form the [[HandCannon Sky Shift Blazers]]

** CreatorProvincialism: Boston is the hometown of the season's first executive producer, Eddie Guzelian.
*** Corinth seems to be located in Cancun, Mexico. In "Rain", Dillon turns on the radio and the woman gives the exact coordinates of Cancun as Corinth's location. Reinforced because the shape of the coastline around Cancun is identical to the wire map location of Corinth in the show's intro.

* LampshadeHanging:
** MechaExpansionPack: The Wolf Cruiser and Tail Spinner were briefly played up as this to the High Octane Megazord, until the Croc Carrier debuted and the three could make their own Megazord formation.
** TransformingMecha: The Road Attack Zord

* MakeMyMonsterGrow: "Begin The Download", used by Venjix most of the time. The generals can call it in the field if need be. (Note that the ''Go-Onger'' method of the Attack Bots having modules of grow juice activate within their systems is still seen from time to time; presumably it's some sort of revitalization fuel here.)

* MechaMooks: Grinders.

** All the main cast are Kiwis putting on accents, and Eka Darville, Milo Cawthorne and Olivia Tennet are the most notable slippers; in "Ranger Green", when Dr K says of Ziggy "I can vouch for the incompetent part", she goes back into her New Zealand accent for the last two words.

** The bloopers from the episode "And . . . Action!" feature one with Olivia Tennet as Dr. K repeatedly flubbing her lines filled with SesquipedalianLoquaciousness. After another flub, she mutters, "So close!"--''in her Kiwi accent''.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: A former Air Force pilot; a WideEyedIdealist Scottish mechanic; a fallen former heiress; a bumbling ex-cartel member; a [[HalfHumanHybrid half-human hybrid]] with [[LaserGuidedAmnesia no memory of either his past or his identity]]; and twin hyperactive [[ManChild man children]], are the world's only hope--all led by an emotionally closed off scientist with NoSocialSkills and [[TearJerker one depressing backstory]].

%%*
%%** SwissArmyWeapon: Nitro Blaster/Sword
%%** {{BFS}}: Scott's Street Saber
%%** {{BFG}}: Flynn's Turbo Cannon
%%** ImprobableWeaponUser: Summer's Zip Charger (a remote control drone thing)
%%** HandCannon: Dillon's Rocket Blaster
%%** KnifeN ut: Gem and Gemma's Cloud Hatchets

** ByThePowerOfGreyskull: "RPM, Get In Gear!"

** CosyCatastrophe: Life inside Corinth looks just like life before Venjix. Except for the random KillerRobot attacks, of course. (So I guess we should say, it's just like any other ''Power Rangers'' series.)

** ArmedWithCanon: Also one of the producers of ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'' stated that should Saban need a character from ''RPM'' for ''Samurai'' or any season after, then the season would be pulled into continuity. However, the ''RPM''/''Samurai'' teamup confirmed that ''RPM'' is indeed set in an AlternateUniverse.

* BatmanGambit: Dr. K does one in the episode named "Doctor K" appropriately enough. [[spoiler: The rangers need another Flux Overthruster to combine the High Octane and [=ValveMax=] Megazords. The problem is they don't know how to make one. Dr. K brings a cloning device from the [=ReflexBot=] that attacked earlier into the laboratory predicting Tenaya would be inside and would by accident clone the Flux Overtruster just in time to save the Rangers by letting them make the Zenith Megazord. And she had her violin connected to giant fans to blow Tenaya out of the base.]]

* BerserkButton: Don't call the suits "spandex" in front of Dr. K. Not even schoolchildren are safe from her wrath. ("Tights" seems to be OK.) Also, never put a scratch on Scott's car, don't call Fresno Bob "Bobarino," and don't call Tenaya 7 either human or cute.

* BilingualBonus: Venjix's insignia (蛮) roughly translates to "barbaric" or "unreasonable."

** [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment Big Lipped Alligator Episode]]: In a relatively serious series overall, this is a relatively-ligthearted "Making Of" special that shows how the show is made (well, the parts that aren't just lifted from Sentai footage at least), with the show's characters all staying in character throughout.

* BrideAndSwitch: Pulled by the good guys after the bride realises that not only does she really not want to go through with her ArrangedMarriage but that she needs a diversion because the enemy has attacked the wedding.
* BrickJoke: Ziggy's shadow puppets, mentioned briefly at the beginning of the series, it doesn't pay off until episode 17, [[spoiler: when it help distract the guards while they try to scape the {{Mook}} factory ]]

* ButtMonkey: Poor Ziggy. It seems that barely an episode can go by without the Green Ranger totally embarrassing himself in some way. Best reflected by his first ever morph. Previous rangers, whether they JumpedAtTheCall, were [[FallingIntoTheCockpit thrown in the cockpit]] or even stole their powers, always morphed with a fair amount of dignity and grace the first time. What's Ziggy's first line upon realising what he has become?

* CanonForeigner: Three Paleozord-based Rangers in the toyline. Unlike in ''Jungle Fury'', they never made it on the show.

* {{Cyborg}}: Dillon. [[spoiler:And Tenaya. And half of Corinth...]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Go-Onger'' was a very silly show even for many ''Super Sentai'' standards, unlike ''RPM'' which is set in a post-apocayptic setting that doesn't holds back even for a kids show. Also applies to most if not all of the rest of ''Franchise/PowerRangers''.

* TheEndOrIsIt: The season finale. [[spoiler:The battle is won. Venjix is defeated. The Rangers turn in their morphers and move on with their lives. The world is starting to heal from Venjix's apocalypse. And then we see one of the Rangers' Morphers blinking with a red light, just like Venjix's all-seeing eye, as Dr. K closes the holding case...]]

* EscapedFromTheLab: Dr. K was raised in a military think tank called Alphabet Soup, where the government used her advanced mind to build new technology. While she was there, K met and befriended the genetically engenered twins Gem and Gemma. K would escape years later, as did Gem and Gemma.

** There's also Paleomax Megazord to the [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers original Megazord]] (as the brute of the mecha fleet and the only one with a combined vehicle form, rather like the Mega Tank). Heck, it's got ''the same horns,'' and the Tricera foot's on the same leg as on the original Megazord. The only glaring difference is the Mammoth chest... though the Mammoth can blow freezing 'steam' just like the Mastodon Dinozord. It ''has'' to be a deliberate shout-out on the part of the Franchise/SuperSentai designers.

** Right before discovering she's a Venjix infiltrator, a soldier gets what he thinks is a false reading on his scanner, saying that it's been getting false readings all week. [[spoiler:the finale reveals that Venjix has multiple [[ManchurianAgent sleeper agents]] in the city, meaning that those probably ''weren't'' false readings.]]

* FunWithAcronyms: Colonel Truman's van is named the Ground Outdoor Operational Network General-purpose Explorational Rover - that is, the [[Series/EngineSentaiGoOnger GO-ONGER]].

*** Always foil his plans? His defeat might have been a way to effectively let Earth get complacent while sneaking his way into the Morphing Grid. Need we mention the virus ploy. Insofar, it actually looks like ''everything went according to Venjix's plans.''

* GrandTheftPrototype: Dr. K's answer to Venjix's doomsday machine? Reprogram it with whale DNA - [[ArtisticLicenseBiology however that works]] - into a zord on Corinth's side.

* HilarityEnsues: Ziggy is a lovable coward, comic relief guy who accidentally becomes the Green Ranger. He proceeds to be...A lovable, slightly less cowardly, comic relief Power Ranger who bumbles his way through fights. And usually win.

*** "Handshake" has Venjix's generals snark at the spray nozzle robot and wonder why they never do a ZergRush while Corinth's shields are down, as well as asking "Are you going to make it grow now, or wait until the rangers defeat it? Oh, wait, I, uh -" (gets blasted)

* MoodDissonance: Some fans say this is inherent in the show, with the premise being the EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, but with all sorts of silly things like Talent shows cropping up in episodes.
* MoodWhiplash: The "Terminator meets Mad Max" theme of the show clashes rather badly with both the Power Ranger camp-factor in general (especially in the first episode) and with ''Go-Onger'''s ridiculous looking zords and generally silly monster designs. Then again, some find the campiness endearing, apocalyptic background or not. See PragmaticAdaptation below.

** The [=PaleoMax=] Megazord is an {{Expy}} of the original Megazord. Part of it is a mammoth with freezing powers. It's got a very familiar head design. The left foot is even a Triceratops, another distinguishing feature because of the prominent horns. Though Go-Onger and Zyuranger aren't related at all, the sentai creators ''are'' aware of Power Rangers, and it seems that they put in a sweet {{Homage}} by making what was to have been the last-ever Megazord look just like the first-ever Megazord.

** The monsters are named more or less like they are in Go-Onger, just with "bot" instead of "banki."

** Even earlier, they needed another energy-thingie, but there was only one ever built, and they can't build another one. Then, an attack bot that can make a duplicate of any object comes along, so Dr. K manages to manipulate events to get one in the base and get the enemy to accidentally make a copy of said energy-thingie. The villain even questions if she actually planned it all this way. *Cue violin attack*
** Kilobyte wanted to do something useful so he [[spoiler: activated a hybrid]] to attack the Colonel, not only did it fail but it tipped the Rangers off to what Venjix was planning.

* PyrrhicVictory: Congratulations, Rangers, you have defeated Venjix![[note]]For now.[[/note]] All it cost was 99% of life on earth, and the ecosystem will take millennia to recover, leaving life outside Corinth a living cancer-laden hell for generations. Have fun!

** Another Reveal in "Endgame", [[spoiler:half the city of Corinth is made of [[HalfHumanHybrid robotic hybrids]].]]

* RoboticReveal: [[spoiler:"End Game" reveals that appoximately half the population of Corinth City is infected with the dormant Venjix Virus.]]

* SamusIsAGirl: Attempted with Dr. K, but it didn't really work: the voice distortion didn't really hide her gender that well, and a leaked trailer spoiled it anyway. It was also spoiled by the title sequence as the opening intro is voiced by Dr K, and the voice distortion isn't used on it, not even in the episodes before the reveal. At least the voice distortion made her sound older, if not really a guy.

* TheSpeechless: Many of the Attack Bots are unable to speak - a first in the series.

* TookALevelInBadass: Ziggy forms an interesting gradual version of this. At the start of the series, he's ''clearly'' not a fighter. Every battle involves him making a mistake or doing something humourous. However, these moments were very subtly phased out. While he continued to be a comic character, by the midway point of the season, he was able to tear through Grinders just as well as any of the others.

* WhenSheSmiles: It's implied that Ziggy feels this way toward Dr K, as he puts immense effort into getting her to smile.

*** Not to mention, another ABC show- in this case, ''Series/{{Loving}}''- took place in Corinth, Pennsylvania.

** EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: The Paleozords ([[HonorableElephant Mammoth]], T. rex, and Triceratops)

%%** AnAxeToGrind: Ziggy's Turbo Axe

%%* WeaponOfChoice

[[caption-width-right:350: Because nothing says ''covert'' like bright, multicolored spande- [[BerserkButton THAT IS]] '''''[[BerserkButton NOT]]''''' [[BerserkButton SPANDEX!]]]]

* HumongousMecha: While this is standard in any ''Power Rangers'' series, the RPM Ultrazord is a ''twelve''-zord combination and twice as large as any grown attackbot. What do you expect when its components include a Whale-jet and a Mammoth-train with [[StockDinosaurs T-rex and Triceratops]] cars?

* EnemyEatsYourLunch: One of Dillon's {{Establishing Character Moment}}s. While a prison inmate is intimidating Ziggy, Dillon helps himself to lime Jell-O that the inmate had just stated was off-limits, and when confronted makes clear that he doesn't care about any threats they make. And then he wins the ensuing fight and starts to eat in peace.

* ActionGirl: Summer and Gemma.

* CityOfAdventure: Corinth

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: One of the most epic and thrilling ongoing battles in the series is Kiwi Actor versus Scottish Accent.

** NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Penny's mom in "Ranger Blue"

The 17th season of the ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' franchise, ''RPM'' used footage from ''Series/EngineSentaiGoOnger.'' In an alternate present to the main Rangerverse, the Venjix computer virus has taken over nearly all of the Earth's technological systems and built robotic forces to subjugate mankind. [[LastBastion Humanity's last stronghold is the city of Corinth]], which is protected by a force field dome, as well as its own elite team of Power Rangers that take down whatever raids make it through the shield. But Venjix technology is continually advancing, and without more forces even the Rangers may not be able to hold on for much longer...

* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: Colonel Mason Truman.