Headscratchers / Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue

• WTF was Lightspeed doing in the first place? The Demons LIVED THERE. America built on their freakin' holy site! Do they not have X-Men comics and Western history there or something?
  • Well, think of it this way: Yes, the city was built over the Demons' holy site, but unlike the Native Americans, they want to take over the world. If they just wanted their land back, the Rangers could probably have worked something out.
  • Question, how can Demons have a holy site anyway?...They're demons which are unholy by their very nature...Anyway, the fact is the Demons were mostly genocidal maniacs that wanted to wipe out humanity and conquer the earth. They were Sealed Evil in a Can for a good reason.
    • Perhaps they were a Religion of Evil?
    • Demons were there first, and they worshipped Queen Bansheera (possibly), just because they were evil doesn't mean they're automatically the bad guys. The only reason they were chosen to be the bad guys was "Demons are apparently evil", and hey, easy choice for a set of Villains. It has nothing to do with "Holiness" whatsoever. Likewise, wouldn't you feel bad if you built on a shrine of something?
    • "Just because they were evil doesn't mean they're automatically the bad guys." Actually yes, yes it does.
    • No it doesn't, you can't just attack people for holding a different set of values than you. If the demons didn't attack people then the Rangers would have no right to destroy them. It would be cold blooded murder. Humanity is shown to be able to co-exist with established evil creatures several times throughout the various series, as long as nobody decides to cause trouble.
    • Um... I would like to point out they want to Take Over the World... that's reason enough for having them be the bad guys...
    • Their actions make them villains. Not simply being demons.
    • Holy just means that something is of significant religious importance. What they consider holy would not necessarily be what anyone else considers holy.
• How did Diabolico manage to rescue and then raise Ryan to adulthood, when he was Sealed Evil in a Can at the time?
  • Astral projection. The seal may have weakened enough that he couldn't actually leave, but he could broadcast his image out and teleport something in. The seal was made to prevent escapees, not additions, after all.
  • It was a one-way seal things could get in but not out. Makes sense if you ever find out that you missed a demon or two.
  • I believe he used some kind of spell that let him project himself... but was unable to act unless some human ask him to do something; this explains why he offered the deal instead of just kidnapping Ryan anyway.
    • And we're to believe that Ryan was raised inside the demon pocket dimension?
    • I guess so... another thing is I'd like to mention is Diabolico said Capt. Mitchell would see his son on his 20th birthday. How was he able to know that he'd be freed from his Sealed Evil in a Can by then?!
• If you're going to assemble a team meant to fight demons using superpowers and giant robots, I can get why you'd hire a hero fire fighter, an extreme athlete, and an ace pilot... But why seek out a whale trainer?
  • Because they were limited by genre conventions, the highly specific team-oriented nature of the Morphing Grid, and possibly wrecked Turbozords to reverse-engineer (see Wild Mass Guessing) to requiring a Blue Ranger, and they couldn't think of anything else, so they picked water-based occupations out of a hat.
  • The base was underwater, and they wanted to be Crazy-Prepared in case of aquatic animal attack.
  • Just in case the demons turned out to be animalistic enough for animal empathy to be a feasible technique.
  • Poor writing.
  • Hey, is that a distraction over there?
  • Who's to say Chad was chosen specifically for being a whale trainer anyway? That was just his job. However he had also been studying martial arts for years. That sounds like the kind of guy I'd want as a Power Ranger.
  • In the unmorphed fight scene in the first episode he's clearly one of the best fighters (if not THE best) on the team. He was probably brought in to help train the others in martial arts and as long as he's there might as well make him a ranger.
  • Also, whale training requires a lot of skills that were useful, such as being agile enough to pull off tricks with them and being very good in the water. The base was underwater, in which case that would be quite handy. Also, the demons were weak against water, so he could probably be useful because he was actually the only one trained to work underwater by his career.
• When Ryan was given that snake tattoo to stop him from morphing, why didn't the team try having him swap morphers with one of the others? It was never stated that the cobra would move if Ryan morphed into the Green Ranger, or the Yellow Ranger. And even it did happen, why not give the Titanium Mopher to a new recruit? Sucks for Ryan maybe, but they need as many rangers as they can get.
  • Similarly, why did he take the Titanium Morpher with him when he journeyed out to the desert? I understand that it's not a safe place, but where would the Titanium powers be needed most? Back in Mariner Bay!
    • Firstly, they had enough trouble trying to get Carter to use it in the first place. I doubt Lightspeed would have been able to find another person easily. Secondly, weren't the rangers given Battle Boosters so as they could tap into the Titanium powerrs?
    • Well how was Ryan able to use the Titanium powers if he, or Diabolico hadn't found a way to perfect it?
    • There's a crazy theory I once heard that Ryan has become part-demon thanks to hanging around with Diabolico. The theory goes that that's how he was able to use the Titanium powers, he'd lost part of his humanity.
    • I'm guessing that using the Titanium Morpher could only be used by someone strong enough to handle it, and since Ryan had been trained by Diabolico for 10-someodd years, he's grown strong enough to use it as a result. But, hey, that's just a theory! As for the snake tattoo bit, I would guess that it is affected whenever Ryan morphs into ANY ranger. Diabolico's not THAT stupid...
  • Diabolico says "every time you morph, the cobra will move up your body" when he gives Ryan the cobra tattoo, no mention of a specific power, so I'd say it's likely the cobra was tied to the act of morphing, not the Titanium Powers specifically. I imagine the other Lightspeed Rangers just didn't want to have him morph unnecessarily and rapidly progress the cobra by giving him their powers to test, especially Dana; and I can't imagine Captain Mitchell would be on board with that kind of risk, either.
• The secretary in the Lost Galaxy crossover. 'Now dear, there's no such thing as monsters.' So what's destroying the downtown district week after week?
  • Lies to children I presume- by context it sounds like something being said to a young son or daughter. If she were honest, shed say "yes, there are monsters, powerful beasts invading week after week without end. Pray that the Rangers get here in time, and that we aren't part of the weekly property damage and unmentioned fatalities. Pray!", however, if she were to say that, the child would likely never sleep again, and the parent would get some sort of award for worst parenting ever.
  • Alternatively, its some sort of Clarke's Law thing, and after almost a decade, humanity has become savvy. "There's no such thing as monsters, just alien and inter-dimensional invaders. There's a perfectly rational explanation for them, so they're not really monsters, just enemy soldiers!", in which case again the parent would only say the first part for the sake of the child's peace of mind.
    • But the girl is coming to her saying that she's seen a monster take her mother! Monsters and kidnappings, these are things that should at least have a token investigation, right?
    • Not if its outside your jurisdiction and you know investigating will get you kidnapped or killed by enemy combatants, it isn't.
    • Then you say you'll call the police! Better yet, call the Power Rangers - this season, their identities were PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE. There's no excuse for the secretary just totally brushing her off.
    • Maybe she did call the Power Rangers- or at least some Lightspeed Rescue Monster Hotline, and didn't want to worry her?
    • The girl really saw the monster take her mother. The 'don't worry' ship had sailed. In fact, telling her that the Power Rangers were on the job would have been a relief.
  • Monsters don't exist. But demons do. It's all about semantics.
    • Yes, because there's such a distinction. In a town where you constantly have monsters (or demons) attacking, what you call them doesn't matter - it's the fact that they're THERE and KIDNAPPING people. And instead of taking any action, it's not just patting the kid and ignoring her, it's CHASTISING her for doing what she's supposed to, namely report what she's seen to an authority figure.
    • And to some people, it's the same exact difference. The term "monster" may just refer to some type of non-human that can talk.
  • From a more meta perspective, I get the feeling that this episode was actually conceived and written before the Lightspeed series itself and that it was handled by people who were not actually working on the show, and hence had no idea of how the series actually worked. This would explain why the crossover wound up focusing on a little girl as well, and ostensibly had no concept of the fact that secret identities weren't used in Lightspeed Rescue. However, this still doesn't excuse the inescapable fact that Lightspeed Rescue exists in the same continuity as Countdown To Destruction, when Earth was freaking invaded by monsters, even if the show itself likes to pretend that the series really is stand alone.
  • Let's just go with Linkara's answer...the old lady is Dumbest Person on Power Rangers Ever!!!
  • Maybe she wasn't native to where all these monster attacks took place? Still, doesn't explain Countdown to Destruction. She might just be Genre Blind to the extreme.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism, simple as that.
  • Since Trakeena was using the building for her evil plot, Maybe she was a mook in disguise and lying not to blow her cover. That is what this troper believes
• An actor-on-this-series thing that just bugs me (and I know that I'm not the only one who's bothered by this): Carter's portrayer is Sean Cw Johnson. Just how in the heck do you pronounce "Cw," anyway?
  • See-doubleyoo
    • They're his middle initials, but why they're written that way in particular is beyond me.
  • His full name is 'Sean Charles Wesley Robert Johnson'. The Cw thing is likely just personal preference.
• In the crossover with Lost Galaxy, why is it that instead of using the transformation sequence from that season, they used the henshin sequence for Gingaman?
  • Perhaps since Danny Slavin quit production part way through, it presented some kind of legal issue with using the his image in the original morphing sequence or something.
    • But if that was the case, why didn't they have any trouble using it for "Forever Red"?
    • Because this time, he didn't walk off set part way through. He showed up for all his scenes and the ADR sessions, so I guess this time it was legal to use his morphing sequence footage.
    • In Forever Red, they had errors as well. After Galaxy Red unmorphed, they showed him morphed in one of the scenes(before he morphed again). To say the least, sometimes laziness happens.(or just errors in general, etc.)
    • That was because Slavin didn't agree to do Forever Red until late in the episode's production. Originally they were going to have Leo stay morphed for the whole episode and dub him in with another actor, like Aurico. Once Slavin agreed to come in, they shot extra scenes and digitally inserted him into some of the already complete scenes. The moment where he appears morphed despite already demorphing was pretty much unavoidable.
• So, behind the scenes of Lightspeed Rescue, what was wrong with using Sieg's suit for a sixth ranger instead of making their own costume? Was it damaged? Was there some legal problem?
  • Well, there was a GoSilver planned in GoGoV, but budget problems decided for that plan to be scapped. The Americans, however, had enough money to make one. Besides, the Sieg costume wouldn't work well due to it really not looking like any of the other Ranger costumes.
    • The Magna Defender costume says hi.
    • The Magna Defender costume looks pretty frickin's awsome no matter what series it's in (Come one! It's like Taurus-inspired version of Batman!) while Seig's costume looks kind of silly. From a story standpoint it's just more dramatic to have the Lightspeed Rangers forced to fight another ranger (which is also another long-standing Power Rangers tradition) and the Seig costume simply didn't look rangery enough for the producers. OR they simply couldn't get ahold of the Seig suit for the american re-shoots nessecary to have him as a character (which would be a LOT since Seig only shows up for the movie).
  • First off, I'd like to say this... There was a Go Silver planed?! O.o Now, with that out of the way, Sieg only appeared in the GoGoV Movie, and was killed part-way through it and replaced by Sieg-Jeanne, who was a civilian ally initially in the series. Due to what little footage they had of Sieg, they couldn't have used him because they mainly use stock footage of the respective Sentai series for that Power Rangers Season.
    • But saying that, since the Sixth Ranger would have to be US-exclusive either way, why didn't PR just acquire (or reconstruct) the Sieg (or Sieg-Jeanne) costume?
    • Likely because the Titanium Ranger outfit would be cheaper to make and easier to do stunt work in.
    • Sieg is more akin to a Sentai Extra Hero than a ranger, and Power Rangers in general does not do Extra Heroes (the Magna Defender being an exception) - in all other cases where a Sentai had an Extra Hero, they either create an original ranger to take their place (The Blue Centurion being pretty much replaced by the Phantom Ranger, the Spirit Rangers being brought in for the majority of scenes that likely would've otherwise featured Jarrod and Camille), or they give them a reduced role and don't replace them (Ninjor not officially joining the rangers, Sentinel Knight acting as an advisor/battlizer).
• If Demons are hurt by water, why would they set up their palaces near the freakin' COAST in the first place?
  • All the prime evil-realty was already taken.
    • Who's to say they didn't set up away from the coast, and destroyed the land? (or continental shift...)
    • Why do some people built houses near fault lines, or volcanoes? It's not like they were intending to get up each morning and throw themselves in the ocean.
• The demons' palace and base of operations was on the West Coast of the United States. The prison they were unleashed from was in Egypt. HOW?
  • They warped. Or flew.
    • Yes, but how did they get imprisoned there in the first place? What were they doing in Egypt, to get sealed there?
    • Perhaps the warlock that sealed them chose Egypt because it was really, really far from where the demons were, it was a great place to store a tomb (everyone knows Egypt has the best tombs), and his sealing spell didn't have a limited range so it didn't matter where he set up shop. Alternatively, he was just from Egypt, or needed to go to Egypt for an essential component. And if you don't like the "unlimited range" theory, you can say the demons got wind of his plan and warped over to stop him, only to find out the spell was already prepared.
• How did Kelsey know who Leo was from his sword, precisely? And how did any of the Lightspeed Rangers know about Trakeena and Mirinoi?
  • Presumably the Terra Venture had equipment to communicate with Earth and relay events. Either they took it with them in the evacuation, or their last communication was enough for Earth to figure things out.
  • I don't know if this is fanon or something that was planned for the series which was cut, but I've heard a theory that Lightspeed was based a lot on the technology recovered from previous destroyed zords. In addition, during the Space/Galaxy team up, the Space Rangers make a number of references to a secret mission they have back on earth. I think the theory is that the Space Rangers had a hand in the creation of Lightspeed and it's technology. Since the Space Rangers had met the Galaxy Rangers, they probably passed on a lot of information about them to Lightspeed and the Lightspeed Rangers were probably ordered to read up on Ranger history as part of their training.
  • Most likely the same way Tommy explained it to the Dino Rangers... offscreen clip show! XD
  • That's not actually that far-fetched. Tommy could easily have made that video about the Power Rangers a long time ago and simply updated it each time a new team showed up. Maybe Lightspeed uses it in their instructional videos.
    • Actually, there is a way to explain this. There was an episode of Lost Galaxy where the rangers found a kid who stowed away on Terra Venture, and the episode ended with the rangers taking the kid back to Earth on the Astro Megaship. It's likely that the people of learn a bit about the Galaxy rangers when they brought back that kid.
• When Carter was getting dragged into the underworld in the finale, instead of futilely reaching for his hand, why didn't the other rangers just shoot Bansheera?
  • Has that ever worked? Especially on the Big Bad!
• How did Dana go from trying to get into med school in the episode In The Limelight to fully practicing doctor in the team-up with Time Force, less than a year later? (ten months, fifteen days, to be specific.)
  • The power of time skip moments used by a lot of authors, directors, writers, comic artists, etc.
  • It's like how the Dino Thunder Rangers had their high school reunion only one year after leaving High school. The theory that years in the power rangers universe are five times as long as our years isn't actually that crazy.
• Question about the Titanium Ranger: Since it was originally meant for Carter Grayson, shouldn't it be a Red costume?
  • I don't recall them saying they were originally meant for Carter, just that he was the one Ms. Fairweather was having to test to see if someone could handle it. Besides, maybe there was something involving the morphing grid that prevented them from making a second red outfit with their technology?
    • While the meme is "Too much pink energy is dangerous," the context when Zordon said it was that because Kimberly was using her own pink Power Coin, she couldn't empower anyone else in the Old West with the Pink Ranger powers. Under normal circumstances, the rule seems to be that you only get one color per team powered by the Morphing Grid, such as how Ninja Storm has the Red and CRIMSON Rangers, the Blue and NAVY Rangers, or Time Force have a Red and QUANTUM Ranger (whose uniform is still a different shade of red than the Red Ranger). Alternatively, the color of the Titanium powers could have been meant to be tuned to the user, and it was hoped to use it as an upgrade for all the Rangers, in the way of like the Battle Boosters, but with Carter not being able to take on the powers, it never got to that point in development.
• Why did the Glitz Girl plot happen at all? Dana finally joined up with Coco Cashmere, despite her reluctance, because Coco offered her enough money to get into her med school of choice, which had been something she was worried about. But... why?!? With the way Lightspeed is shown as being a government organization that's constantly coming up with brand new cutting-edge weapons projects, they have to have a Fiction500-level R&D budget. Are we really supposed to believe that there isn't money set aside in there to give the Rangers a decent salary and/or to cover scholarships for them?
  • Considering that they can't predict what the demons are going to hit them with next or how long the campaign against the demons will actually take, they probably prefer to focus on preparing for the next potentially imminent attack, and therefore can't afford to set money aside for something that relatively long-term (particularly since it's unlikely Dana would start training as a doctor until she doesn't have to deal with her Pink Ranger duties full-time).
  • Also, Dana didn't get enough spotlight episodes, compared to her brother and friends.
• Why do people hate Carter for using his guns? I remember seeing that as a kid and thinking "Woah. That's cool.", so what's the problem?
  • Mostly fans just disliked the fact that the Red Ranger, who was traditionally the best fighter on the team, had such limited hand-to-hand combat experience.
• Demons have a weakness to water, but in episode 17, we see Batlings swimming in water. Did the writers of that episode forget something?
  • If I'm remembering correctly, I think he WAS the only demon who could swim in water; there was a plotline where there was a demon who didn't have that weakness.
• Why would Diablolico try to kill Impus (a baby at the time) and think he could get away with it without facing her wrath? At that point, Diabolico was unaware that Bansheera doesn't care about her son(He was actually surprised when she laughs at Olympius being exiled to the Shadow World), so why would he think killing what he saw at the time as her Morality Pet was a good idea?
  • Well, considering she was still a disembodied spirit at that point, he probably wasn't too concerned about her. While he may not have been committed to full-blown treachery at that point, it may have crossed his mind to take over not just temporarily, but permanently. After all, he's been leading their army while she's been stuck in the spirit world or whatever, so why not take charge? He wouldn't have to try too hard to convince Loki and Vypra, and Impus is a baby so who cares what he thinks?

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