That's not the only time Carter showed this trope. He also in one episode, duel wielded his V-Lancer and the Rescue Bird, both BFGs, and fires them both at the monster at point-blank range!
To clarify: In "Curse of the Cobra", Ryan is getting trashed by a mirror duplicate of one of the monsters, and the other rangers are getting chased through an industrial area. Carter gets the drop on the lead monster, but can't kill him in cold blood (oh, and at that range would also kill himself). Carter actually lowers his guns and walks away, but Demonite attacks, forcing him to shoot. Given the usual formula, this is pretty heavy for Power Rangers.
It should be noted Matoi, Carter's GoGoV counterpart, actually didn't lower his guns and blasted Demonite anyway; there was nothing forcing Saban to keep this heavy scene. And yet they did (albeit likely to appease the censors) and rewrote its context a bit to make it even more badass, which paid off for Carter's cred.
Not to mention near the end of the show when Carter shoots a giant Diabolico and Olympius with just his sidearm! And this is RIGHT AFTER he and the others are beat up crawling out of the wreck of the Lightspeed Solarzord that the two giant demons had just handily trashed!
With the episode of History of Power Rangers focusing on Power Rangers Wild Force, it appears that Linkara is using Carter in the role of Memetic Badass, as when an unmorphed Cole (Red Wild Force Ranger) tries swinging at a monster like Tarzan & gets swatted away like a fly, Linkara laments it probably would have worked if Carter had tried it. That it's Carter being used as the example, and not Tommy (the ultimate Memetic Badass in Power Rangers) should tell you all you need to know.
The debut of the Supertrain Megazord. Not only does it form by launching the Rail Rescues into the sky, it towers over the monsters and hits each with a One-Hit Kill. It then one ups that by freezing an entire volcano in one shot.
Not just launching the Rail Rescues into the sky, but the entire Megazord is assembled mid-air, before making a suitably dramatic landing.
Also to note in Titanium Ranger history is the killing of the cobra in the tomb. This followed by defeating Diabolico and doing it with the new Lightspeed Solarzord absorbing the attack of none other than Diabolico himself and invoking a temporarily paused Attack Reflector, then throwing it right back at him with an Alpha Strike, pummeling him with so much energy it destroyed him!
Diabolico: (in shock at the Lightspeed Solarzord preparing to use his own energy against him) This can't be happening! Carter: Oh, sure it can, Diabolico! FIRE! (pulls trigger, energy barrage begins blasting Diabolico into next week)
Earlier, the debut of the Supertrain Megazord was amazing, from the complex rail-launching to the reveal that the entire thing was taller than two monsters entirely! Not even the previous Ultrazords seemed that much larger than the monsters.
Well, how about that time whan a Cyclops monster becomes the new student of Chad's master? He utterly destroy the rangers untill Chad arrives and kicks his ass while unmorphed. Then, he morphs and shows awesome moves with the V-Lancer. Mike Chat's skills are the icing on the cake.
Diabolico deserves a mention here for his actions toward Ryan. Unlike any of the other Big Bads of seasons past, Diabolico doesn't wait around for several episodes before coming up with a plan to deal with his former minion. Not a day after Ryan's become a Ranger, he's branded with a cursed cobra tattoo which will slowly and painfully kill Ryan if he morphs. And the scary part? It came damn close to succeeding. After several seasons of villains who'd either rant or storm off when their plans went to crap, having one who just threw Rangers tradition out the window is pretty impressive in of itself.
Ryan's response is pretty epic too. Cursed cobra tattoo? He tries ignoring it, until it becomes too serious. Then he goes and finds the cobra demon behind it, and kicks its ass.
And it should be noted even with the tattoo causing him serious pain, Ryan was able to destroy two of the strongest monsters the team had faced by himself.
A very small moment in "Lightspeed Teamwork". Joel had been a showboating jerk for most of the time, but as the Lightspeed Megazord is being formed, Magmavore attacks, and Joel gets a pretty good line in. "Don't mess with fire unless you want to get burned!" He then uses Aero Rescue Three's blaster cannons to deliver a barrage that knocks the monster back, giving them time to finish the assembly.
Kelsey's grandmother. She takes out grunts with a forklift, cackling wickedly! What does she do when knocked out of it? Jumps onto a mook, grabs its weapon, and proceeds to keep beating the crap out of them, clearly enjoying it the entire time. She doesn't stop until Kelsey warns her that the villain's doomsday device is about to go 'boom.' The best part? When she first busts in and sees Kelsey, she says "Kelsey?" in a surprised tone, meaning she didn't come with the intention of providing a little assistance to a Ranger who'd be doing the heavy lifting; she didn't know Kelsey would be there, and had come to forklift the hell out of some demons all by herself!Never Mess with Granny, indeed! Somebody get this lady a Ranger suit.
Olympius may have started out as a brat, but him escaping what amounts to Hell by having to defeat every other monster the Rangers have destroyed and absorb them shows if nothing else he's a determined demon.
The Fate of Lightspeed, when it's not being a Grand Finale, is one awesome moment after another. Let's run it down, shall we?:
Carter and Ryan are the only Rangers not trapped in the Lightspeed Aquabase, whilst the remaining Megazords are being piloted by Batlings. The Megazord-less Red & Titanium Rangers manage to do what literally hundreds of monsters before (and after) them have failed to do, and destroy a Megazord.
Speaking of, the siege of the Aquabase serves as a crowning moment of awesome for both the demons, for managing to get into the base despite their susceptibility to water, and the Rangers for how they manage to get out - using the submarine's torpedoes to destroy the Megazord that managed to turn the tide of the battle against two of Bansheera's generals in the prior episode.
The Rangers' actions in of themselves deserve special mention. With their initial attempts to escape the Aquabase failing, they were initially resigning to their fates, Joel even reacting hostilely to Ms. Fairweather's attempts to encourage him, until she states her intentions about a date after everything is over is sincere. Then they see the stolen Omega Megazord on a monitor terrorizing the city and react in horror. Joel, who had just been the most openly pessimistic about their chances of escape, has this to say;
"Guys, we got work to do."
Just as it looks like the Queen might be able to open the Tomb of Forever, a laser blast interrupts her.
Shortly after, Carter has kicked Bansheera into the Tomb of Forever (which she managed to open anyway), at the cost of being dragged along with her, barely hanging on above the writhing, angry Legions of Hell. What does he order his teammates to do?
Then there's the implication that the monsters from past seasons also get their hands on Queen Bansheera in the finale - we see monsters from several series going allll the way back to the beginning. Even your favorite past MOTWs like Eye Guy and Hatchasaurus had a hand in giving Bansheera the ending she deserves because Even Evil Has Standards.
The very last scene of the show. Just as they've returned their Rescue Morphers (and Ms. Fairweather is about to drive off with Joel in tow on their date), a fire truck drives by and a HUGE pillar of black smoke rises in the distance. What does the team do? Unhesitatingly, run off to help. While Joel does express frustration at the interruption of the date he'd been waiting for all year, he doesn't hesitate to go off with them either, leaving his hat with Ms. Fairweather and telling her he'll be back. Best part? THEY FORGOT TO GET THEIR MORPHERS BACK! They'll run off to help people, morphed or not.
Being one of their superior officers means Ms. Fairweather doesn't feel the least bit stood up (and is in fact proudly amused). One more reason she later married him.
In the context of the franchise, the Lightspeed Rangers were the first ranger team that, rather than sitting on the defense and eventually having the Big Bad come to them and get killed, went on the offensive and won, going so far as to pull a reverseAll Your Base Are Belong to Us by invading the enemy's sanctum and taking down Bansheera at the heart of her power.
Ms. Fairweather have definitely proven herself as one of, if not the, best brains of the franchise .During the course of the series, she created pretty much the entirety of the Lightspeed Rescue Rangers' equipment, with 17 Zords, six morphers and countless of weapons created by her. Take that, Billy!
