The Neo Saban Era draws to a close as the 25th season brings back Ninjas, Kelson Henderson, and bunch of previous Rangers for a crossover event. What kind of words does Linkara have for Power Rangers Ninja Steel?
Tropes:
- Alternate Character Interpretation:
- Linkara agrees with the general theory that Summer Cove High School isn't a public school and is more of a privately funded tech school, citing the rather expansive shop class, multiple science classes, the school's general indifference to seeing Redbot walking around and the fact that certain things like theater and the arts are kind of shoehorned in.
- He also theorizes that, because it's a privately funded school, Preston's ultra-rich father was able to buy his son's way in, since Preston is more interested in working with magic instead of technology. The same goes with Victor and (possibly) Monty, considering neither of them is on the same academic levels as the rest of the students there.
- He wonders if Calvin may have a learning disability, given that one of his character traits is that he is forgetful. He's more at home in his job as a mechanic than in school, and he clearly isn't lazy, he just doesn't know how to apply what he can do in a classroom setting.
- Linkara agrees with the general theory that Summer Cove High School isn't a public school and is more of a privately funded tech school, citing the rather expansive shop class, multiple science classes, the school's general indifference to seeing Redbot walking around and the fact that certain things like theater and the arts are kind of shoehorned in.
- An Ass-Kicking Christmas: Ninja Steel's two Christmas episodes are surprisingly action-packed. The first follows Sarah teaming up with Santa Claus and using Time Travel to go to various moments in the show's run to swipe the Power Stars and use them to save her friends in the present day (a setup he likens to a Christmas-themed Avengers: Endgame). The second has a dimension-displaced Preston teaming up with Koda and Santa Claus to defeat Sledge and rescue his team. He notes that their biggest weakness is their status as clip shows.
- The Bus Came Back: For all his problems with Dimensions in Danger, Linkara does like the number of representations of returning characters from different eras (Saban, Disney, and Neo-Saban) noting some specific people such as Megaforce's Gia as she was the coolest of the original five, RPM's Gemma for getting a chance to shine on her own without Gem, Dino Charge's Koda for having at least a ranger from that season meeting the Ninja Steel Rangers, and Rocky since he never got to appear in Forever Red explanation .
- Call-Back: With the Gold Ranger being cowboy-themed, Linkara brings us back to the Ancient Ninja Electric Guitar from Ninja Storm.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Dane Romero, Brody and Weston's long-lost father, returns in the season one finale, but only appears twice in the first and last episodes of season two. Linkara jokes that he was probably getting caught up on a decades' worth of TV, but feels that had Dane been given a greater presence in the show, it could have given his sons some more meaningful character development.
- Costume Porn: Linkara absolutely delights in how wacky and over-the-top Vincent's wardrobe gets when he seeks attention and recognition. He even states that Vincent doing this in one episode makes up for any Toilet Humor he had to sit through in a prior episode.
- Critical Backlash: In the beginnings of his final thoughts, Linkara notes that he heard from fans that Ninja Steel was another bad season, but he felt it was an okay season overall, even calling it the second-best Neo-Saban season he has watched (although given that it's ahead of Samurai and Megaforce, that's not much of an achievement).
- Disappeared Dad / Missing Mom: Five out of six Rangers are confirmed to come from single-parent households. Brody and Levi's father is missing for all of the first season and their mother is explicitly stated to be dead. Preston's mother also died at some point, and no mention is made of Hayley's mother or Sarah's father. Calvin's parents don't appear at all.
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- He takes liking to Victor Vincent as an egotistical preppie that reflects a more modern understanding of bullying and lends himself to many hilarious moments. Though this stance is weakened by his dissatisfaction with the series' fart jokes involving him and Monty.
- Kody immediately gets his love simply for being the first-ever Team Pet for a ranger team.
- The lively showman Cosmo Royale is his favorite villain in Ninja Steel, considering Galvanax and Madame Odius to be bland and underdeveloped.
- Flat Character: Takes issue with the fact that every single one of the Rangers basically has no character or growth during the entire series. We learn things about them and there may be plots centered around them, but in general, they are just a group of goodie-goods who don't develop as individuals. He does, however, point out this makes them feel very reminiscent of the first few seasons of Mighty Morphin.
- Foil: He compares Bulk and Skull to Vincent and Monty in how they differ as bullies. While Bulk and Skull were punks who went after the rangers because of how goody goody they were, Vincent is a prep-school egotist with a massive superiority complex and a nerd sidekick in Monty.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: His opinion of Galvanax, as he's yet another gravelly-voiced Big Bad that doesn't really do much outside of barking orders. He thinks it would have been more interesting if Cosmo Royale, Galaxy Warrior's show host, was the real Big Bad.
- Hand Wave: He's a little annoyed with how whenever new powers or plot elements are introduced, they are explained as being tied to the very vague "Legend of the Ninja Nexus Prism".Where is this legend written, exactly? Like, can we get the full text? Because I'm starting to suspect this is just a big instruction manual that someone accidentally threw out.
- Highly-Visible Ninja:
- Shows surprise that the Rangers actually have more traditional black ninja 'stealth suits' and they actually use them on some missions ... but then points out they use them during the middle of the day when they would be the most useless for stealth.
- Points out how ludicrous the "Galactic Ninjas" were since their monster suits were so big and bulky.
- Ho Yay: With how obsessed Monty is with Vincent, Linkara believes that he's Vincent's possible love interest.
- Inferred Holocaust: He points out that the original Earth from the Dino Charge universe doesn't emerge from the wormhole alongside Sledge's ship in "Echoes of Evil". This may mean it didn't survive the dimensional transfer, and thus billions of people died.
- Informed Wrongness: In the final episodes, he's critical of how they handle Calvin and Hayley's break-up. The episode plays it as though Hayley is just being indignant and unreasonable with him, but Calvin demonstrates some major shortcomings in the same episode that justify Hayley's anger with him.
- Interdimensional Travel Device: Linkara loves the fact that the rangers are given one by Wes, as it allows for future crossovers with other ranger teams without needing to worry about taking place in another part of the timeline or another dimension.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Some Fridge Logic kicks in with a line from Sarah in the first episode: "See? I told you that [the monster] wasn't just a guy in a costume!"
- The Mentor: Averted. He brings up how interesting it is that this is the first Neo-Saban season where the team doesn't have a mentor, with Mick being the closest, though he's more of an adviser.
- Official Couple: Linkara does like how Calvin and Hayley stay a couple throughout the season, and notes there was notable body language between the two that made it believable. Of course, he is disappointed that they do not get a proper kiss in the season aside from the occasional cheek kiss.
- Pinball Protagonist: He notes that Brody has a plot arc, but his character arc leaves something to be desired. The villains arranged his reunion with the false Aidan, and meeting Levi, restoring his memories, and saving his father all happened unintentionally. Likewise, he notes that Preston suddenly developing magic powers feels random.
- Prop Recycling: Linkara points out that the first two monsters shown as a Fear Cat and Venjix's first body. He also mentions how this season does this a lot, particularly in crowd shots for the Game Show, but explains there is no way he will point out every reused suit since it would take too long and require too much research.
- Real-Life Relative: He mentions that Preston's actor, Peter Sudarso, is the younger brother to Yoshi Sudarso, who played Koda in Dino Charge. He finds that bit of trivia cool as two blue rangers are technically brothers (and would explain why Koda made two appearances this season).
- Satellite Love Interest: He finds Hayley and Calvin's relationship charming, but wishes he knew more about the two of them as individuals. Calvin can be summed up by his job as a mechanic and his absent-minded streak, while Hayley is defined by her kindness, being a dog owner, and in two episodes, we see that she enjoys acting.
- Schizo Tech: The show is set ostensibly in the present day, but all sorts of strangely advanced technology show up from time to time - case in point, a seventeen-year-old has invented a hoverboard, a foodstuff-to-cookie conversion machine, and holographic clones of herself. This lends credence to the idea that Summer Cove High is actually a technical school working to teach future innovators.
- Sequel Hook: Absolutely adores how the show did this, with Wes giving the Ninja Steel rangers their own dimensional portal gun after the events of Dimensions in Danger, pointing out it sets up not only this season's rangers having a team-up episode next season, but potentially could set up every team-up episode to come in the future without having to always come up with convoluted plot reasons or having to scrap it if two seasons are just too incompatible (such as being set in different timelines or dimensions).
- So Okay, It's Average: How Linkara ultimately sees this season, specifically calling it "mediocre at worst, average at best." While he considers it better than Samurai and Megaforce, it is leagues below Dino Charge in terms of character development, plot, and story. While Ninja Steel has some glaring flaws, he ultimately sees it as a serviceable Power Rangers season; nothing groundbreaking, but nothing truly terrible.
- This also extends to Dimensions in Danger. A nice serviceable episode leagues above Legendary Battle and Once A Ranger, but there are a couple of flaws that keep it from being better than Forever Red or Reinforcements from the Future.
- Spiritual Successor: He makes the case that this is the season that reminds him the most of Mighty Morphin. It's a cheesy comedy about a group of likable but flat high school students with little character growth, it has more filler episodes that aim to teach lessons than continue a story arc, and the supporting cast includes a Robot Buddy and a pair of comic relief bullies.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: One of his biggest problems with "Dimensions in Danger" is how heavily it focuses on Tommy, at the expense of the many other Rangers assembled for the team-up.
- Team Pet: Shows an immediate love for Hayley's pet dog, Kody, for being the first animal companion for a ranger team, something that baffles him because such a companion has not happened in Power Rangers up until this point.
- Tempting Fate: Part 1 ends with Linkara remarking that since season 1 of Ninja Steel ended with Galvanax getting killed off the show will be able to restart with a brand new villain instead of an old one. Cue Sledge showing up.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: One of his biggest criticisms of the series is that it does not explore its many creative ideas to their fullest, like the game show aspect of the monsters, Mick's backstory, the Romero family dynamic, and what exactly is the legend of the Nexus Prism.
- Toilet Humor: What really hurt Vincent and Monty's antics was the flatulence humor that was typically associated with them. He states that this is likely because the franchise's main forms of humor are snark, puns, and humiliation, with gross-out humor (like fart jokes) not being something that Power Rangers has done, so it becomes awkward when so much of it is present.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Part of his case for the "Summer Cove is a private technical school" theory is that people are generally indifferent to all sorts of fantastical sci-fi elements, like Redbot walking through the halls of the school and a Teen Genius on a hoverboard of her own design.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: When Vincent and Monty turn on Madame Odius when she planned to destroy the rangers, he was actually a little disappointed since he loves how unapologetically smug and jerkish they are.
- What Could Have Been:
- Linkara brings up a planned plot point where Calvin and Hayley were to not only break up, but have Calvin start dating Sarah, which was shot down by their actors, stating it would not only have been a betrayal of friendships between the two, but it also would've sent a bad message to kids. Linkara only half agrees with this, as he says he has friends (most likely from Team Snob) who have openly dated more than one friend in their group.
- He also brings up the replacement of Chantz Simpson with Nico Greetham as the Yellow Ranger. While Linkara brings up the plausible theory that Chantz couldn't get a visa to work in New Zealand, he said the official reason has never been revealed.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: After watching the Rangers blast the Aiden bot without any questions, he jokes that they'd probably scrap Robo Knight on sight.
- Wolverine Publicity: How Linkara feels about Tommy at this point, especially with his role in Dimensions in Danger. He agrees with a good portion of the fanbase that Tommy is becoming overused in Power Rangers, noting that other characters are deserving of as much attention, pointing to Kendrix as a candidate due to the fact she has, so far, been the only ranger to be killed and revived. It also doesn't help that Tommy basically hijacks the episode away from the actual Ninja Steel rangers and the rest of the returning Rangers, taking away some of his enjoyment of the team-up.
- You Keep Using That Word: One complaint he had is that the metal material is called Ninja Steel for no specific reason, even pointing out that if the legend of said material was explored more, then it could make more sense.
